What does this Buchanan High grad have to do with the latest Lifetime thriller? Everything

There is always this bit of guerrilla marketing that happens with every movie Markus Bishop-Hill produces.

Just before the movie premiers, Bishop-Hill calls his mother in Fresno. He gives her a disclaimer if it’s something violent or scary, because “she doesn’t love that too much,” he says.

She always watches and supports.

She also spreads the word, making sure to tell friends and family.

“She tells the checkout woman at the Save Mart,” says Bishop-Hill, a Buchanan High School graduate whose producing credits include a string of made-for TV movies, including a dozen or so Christmas movies for the Hallmark Channel with stars like Candace Cameron Bure and Danica McKellar.

His latest project, “How I Met Your Murderer,” is a murder-mystery thriller that premiers at 8 p.m. Sunday on the Lifetime Channel.

The movie revolves around Mack Meyer (played by Rachele Schank), who has a popular murder podcast that goes super meta when she uncovers her husband was involved in the death of his high school sweetheart on prom night. In flashbacks scenes, the prom is decorated in Buchanan blue, a nod to Bishop-Hill’s own prom at Buchanan High in the early 2000s. He was prom king.

You can watch trailr for “How I Met Your Murderer” on Vimeo.

Constant multi-tasking

It’s the kind of thing you get to do as producer.

While actors and directors tend to get the bulk of attention for delivering on a movie’s vision, its’ the producers who are responsible for getting the actors and directors together with the screenwriters and camera operators and other crew members to make the film come together.

“The producers are really the ringleaders behind the scenes,” Bishop-Hill says.

“It’s kind of just like an A-Z position.”

That carries over into the post-production work and distribution.

“Anything you can do to engage and get viewers to watch,” he says. That includes coordinating live Tweets with the stars and fans when a movie premiers.

“The networks remember that.”

And that’s paid off for Bishop-Hill, who graduated from Cal Poly and gave serious consideration to moving back to Fresno to become a lawyer. He moved to L.A. instead and took an unpaid internship with the E! network. He got coffee and delivered the mail.

“I ended up falling in love with the city and all it had to offer,” he says.

New projects on the horizon

Over the past decade he’s been able to work freelance and is slowing moving on to bigger-budget projects including a big-name horror spin-off that he can’t quite talk about yet and the feature “Where Are You,” which stars Anthony Hopkins (just off an Academy Award win) and “Westworld” actress Angela Sarafyan.

“The best part of the job is getting to see your finished product,” Bishop-Hill says.

“Immortalizing something you did and having it live on forever, that is the coolest thing for me.”

This story was originally published April 26, 2021 at 2:00 PM.