California Dreams (2017) is the fifth film collaboration between Cory Zacharia and director Mike Ott.
There is a cameo in California Dreams by Mark Borchardt who is the main subject from American Movie (1999) which is one of director Mike Ott's favorite films.
The main characters from the film were found by the filmmakers having open casting calls where the auditions consisted of each person choosing and performing a monologue from their favorite film.