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You are listening to the IFH podcast
Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting

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podcasts, just go to ifahpodcastnetwork dot
com. Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast,

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episode number three fifty two. A
day without filmmaking probably wouldn't kill me,

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but I wouldn't risk it. Anonymous
broadcasting from a dark, windowless room

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in Hollywood when we really should be
working on that next draft. It's the

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Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you the
craft and business of screenwriting while teaching you

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how to make your screenplay bulletproof.
And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.

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Welcome, Welcome to another episode of
the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. I am your

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humble host Alex Ferrari. Now,
today's show is sponsored by Bulletproof Script Coverage.

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Now. Unlike other script coverage services, Bulletproof Script Coverage actually focuses on

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the kind of project you are in
the goals of the project you are,

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so we actually break it down by
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market, and studio film. There's
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one hundred thousand dollars and we wanted
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our readers have worked with Marvel Studios, CIA, w MEE, NBC,

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many many more. So if you
need your screenplay or TV script covered by

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professional readers, head on over to
covermiscreenplay dot Com. Now, Guys,

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today on the show, we have
a very interesting story of a DIY filmmaker

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who taught himself how to make films
doing skateboard videos, you know, really

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really low budget music videos and just
kind of like hacking away until he got

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a chance to not only work on
huge music videos, but now he's working

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and directing Hollywood studio features. His
name is Matt Stosky and Matt is the

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director of the new Blues Clues film
that just got released on Paramount Plus.

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And what he was able to do
with the budget he had is pretty remarkable,

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which makes sense being a DIY filmmaker. But we got into the weeds

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about how he came up, how
he kept going when everybody was saying no,

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all the challenges he had to overcome
to get to where he is,

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and so much more so, without
any further ado, please enjoy my conversation

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with Matt Stosky. I like to
welcome to the show Matt Stosky. Hey

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do, Matt good. Thanks for
having me as you to me ya,

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thank you for having Thank you for
coming on the show. Brother. I

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really appreciate it, you know,
I was. I get pitched on the

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show all the time for people to
come on. And I heard your story

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of the DIY beginning of your career, just kind of like hustling it out,

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grinding it, doing the these crazy
music videos to get started, and

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then all the way to uh where
you're now where you directed your first feature,

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first studio, The Blues Clues,
uh spider Man far from a Far

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from Home or yeah, no way
home version, which we'll get. I

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love the meme treatment. Oh my
god, there's people. The Internet is

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a great place sometimes, you know, you know, sometimes sometimes it's a

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beautiful place. Sometimes every once in
a while everyone as well. So my

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first question is how and why,
God Screen Earth did you want to get

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into this insanity that is the film
industry? Oh man, I wow,

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why did I want it? That's
that's a question. I've probably never been

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asked. I think I was just
I was into it because, like a

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lot of people, I was just
making stupid short films with my friends.

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You know when you're young, you
know, running around the woods making horror

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movies. Got what wasn't called The
Hacker. Was was like my first stupid

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horror movie. I made it my
friend Mark. And then another reason was

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because I just had access to equipment. You know, my high school was

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a cousin o in Warren, Michigan, and we had a radio station,

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TV station, and we would you
know, the second half of your day,

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you know, your fourth, fifth, and six hour, you just

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go to the radio station. It
was like this red place where there's like

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stickers on all the walls and like
my teacher had green hair, and we

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just got records from all the record
labels. They would send it to all

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the radio stations first, and we
were like a high school station. We

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weren't even a college station, but
we had access to all this red music.

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And that's where I learned how to
edit by doing like radio dramas.

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So I did a lot of like
audio editing, and I learned how to

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shoot local bands because we would be
able to rent out cameras and we would

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just go shoot bands. So that's
kind of how the music video things started,

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was at my local like radio TV
station. So I guess that's yeah,

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that's beginning. That's how you got
started in and put I gotta imagine

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that the second you decided to go
to be in a filmmaker, that all

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the money came in and you were
living large and life was good and it

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was everything was easy. You got
yets is all the time, right,

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Oh yeah, the I have to. I'm trying to sell my fifty yacht

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because you know, I gotta,
I gotta for THEA for tax resist for

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taxsess, I understand, I understand. I too sold my seventh yet last

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week. It's fantastic. Yeah,
it's sacky to have too many, you

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know, it's to have too many
exactly. But when you got started it,

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I got to imagine during those early
years, there was a lot of

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rejection and a lot of just like
not you know, you you're talking about

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doing music videos, which I'm assuming
a lot were free at the beginning,

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just to get reel up. What
did you do to keep going when that

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door just kept getting slammed in your
face? Yeah, that was I mean,

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I think when when you're young,
as long as like I had Final

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Cut Pro and I had my parents
computer, you know, and my friends

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and I we threw our money together. I mean, yeah, we borrow

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a gear from the school, you
know, to to shoot stuff. But

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we also bought like DX one thousands
and VX two thousands, like those skate

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video cameras. And as long as
we had a camera an editing gear,

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we were able to you know.
I mean, yeah, the band in

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the lay would be like, hey, we got five hundred bucks for a

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music video. I'm like cool,
that's the gas to get to New York,

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you know, And that happened multiple
times. But like you know,

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at the time, like I don't
know, everything was cheaper. We were

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all, I mean, high school, we're living at home, so don't

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have any bills to pay. But
when I got to college, you know,

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we were able to really stretch a
dollar, you know, so we

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would shoot tons of stuff on like
five hundred dollars one thousand dollars budgets.

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I remember we got like our seven
thousand dollars budget, and our mind was

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blown. For this video for this
band called Evergreen Terrace. They're like this

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hardcore band from Florida. I'm still
good friends with Josh James, who's in

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that band. He's actually getting into
videography now and I'm kind of helping him

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with that. But but we got
seven thousand bucks to shoot that in Detroit,

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and we used all the money to
get like a real Chapman Dolly and

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like sixteen milimeter you know, camera, good lenses, some real lights,

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and it was me and like two
other guys in a makeup person and we

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hauled it all up to the roof
to this rooftop like ten stores, like

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literally a Chatman Dolly a chat Yeah, we had We had like no no

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PA's or rips or electricians, aything. We just did it all ourselves.

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And so it was it was a
lot like up until the point where I

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was like actually doing music videos and
record labels, I was still like wrapping

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up all the chords and putting all
the lights away, you know, like

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everything you could do on a non
union shoot. We're just used to it,

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you know. So we had tons
of situations where even though we were

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we we you know, you write
a lot of treatments and you get rejected

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a lot, but those treatments,
those times we did get the opportunities,

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even if the label at five hundred
bucks. You know, like we just

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had to be creative, you know, we just had to learn how to

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shop in a fabric district and learn
how to go to a party supply store

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and get confetti poppers, you know, and just like weird things to add

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production value to a video when you
can't build sets, and and really like

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you know, the city of Detroit, like to scout the city and find

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the cool alleys to shoot in,
and find the picturesque areas and shoot when

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the lighting's good and all that stuff
that, you know, the gorilla filmmaking

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stuff. You just kind of learn
it on the fly. You know,

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I'll blow your mind because I'm a
bit older than you. So in the

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nineties. In the nineties, I
remember working on three hundred thousand dollars budget

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music videos with which was low and
third third string artist, not even the

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top that's not top level, that's
not the Taylor Swift of their day.

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It was third string. They were
the backup singers of the real people who

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were the label was trying to get
out. I remember specifically, and I'm

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like two, seriously, there was
so much money yeah in Miami. No,

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less in Miami, not even in
New York or LA. In Miami,

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yeah, where you don't have access
to like multiple rental houses and stuff.

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And that was I mean, I
would I think that was the biggest

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budget I ever. I mean I
did a commercial that was bigger, but

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music video wise, like the Disney
videos videos I did, like the Kid

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videos, those were that was the
budget and that was considered big. Like

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we're like, whoa, we could
shoot two days and set on one,

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you know. But but I mean, yeah, I got into the game

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right when it was just doing this. But a lot of the you know,

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I heard a lot of stories from
you know, a lot of eighties

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and and uh kind of electrics I
worked with, you know, being on

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the set like the Michael Jackson's jet
where he didn't show up and it was

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a forwardy shoot and everyone got paid
full rates and they just sat around that

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you know kind of thing. And
right now, so it's just so much

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money, It's so much money was
coming on it was insane. Well I

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mean also to be fair, I
mean everyone was still selling you know,

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twenty dollars CDs. Yeah, then
yeah, there was it was a whole

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other different business model back then and
now the checks where you get five cents

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you know, residuals on Spotify and
stuff. You know, so it cost

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it costs more to send the check
and the check is worse. Yeah.

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Yeah, so just sent me a
stand We'll be right back after a word

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00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:11.399
from our sponsor, and now back
to the show. Send me a free

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stamp, would you do that?
That'd be our value? Yeah. Yeah.

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So so when you were so you
did a bunch of stuff like,

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you know, like and I did
a bunch of that stuff too coming up

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as well, like doing these commercials
and stuff like that. I wasn't getting

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paid. But when you first had
a real client and there was a big

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budget, when you walked on set, you had a real crew, yeah,

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you know, and that was you're
not wrapping cable anymore. Yeah.

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What did that feel like like when
you were on the first time, you

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were on one hundred thousand dollars plus
budget, You're like, oh god,

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this is real, Like there's a
lot of pressure. How did you deal

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with how'd you feel on that day? Yeah, you know, I can

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remember it too. It was it
was like a follow up boy video in

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two thousand and eight that I did, and that one was I think like

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Pete Wentz was dating Ashley Simpson and
I remember there was like paparazzi on and

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like, you know, people doing
a back, like I think she had

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a reality TV show that was filming. There was like all these cameras and

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like I don't know, you know, there was the MTV people and the

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VH one people and then our cameras
and so it was. It was intimidating.

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But but I do remember like Pete
Wentz had my back, you know,

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he saw I did this Anthony Green
video that was really trippy with lots

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of animation, and that's the reason
I was able to be fallout boy,

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because he he vouched for me.
He's like, I want that. I

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want that weird trippy animation style.
And so you know, when the artist

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kind of you know, has your
back like that, all it takes is

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to sort of get a couple shots
in the can and show the band,

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you know, and like show them
what it's going to look like. And

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when they sort of like how it
looks, you just get that confidence boost

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and then like the artist is gonna
they act a little wackier on set,

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you know, and then they you
know, kind of give it their all

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and everyone sort of trusts you.
So it's just I think I think early

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on though, in that stage that
I'm not going to say fake it till

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you make it, but that sensibility
does make sense, like you may feel

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like you you know, there's some
poster syndrome for sure. I think the

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main thing about directing that that I've
realized, like in the last I mean,

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I don't know pretty recently, maybe
in the last five years, is

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you just have to be the person
in the room that knows the most about

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the thing you're doing. You know, if you're gonna, you know,

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make a music video about whatever Detroit, you just got to do your history

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and be able to tell all the
executives, all the you know, record

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label people, all the artists like, yo, Detroit, this is and

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this, these spots are great,
this is awesome. You know, you

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just have to you know, do
your research and know the most you know

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kind of the thing. So with
music videos, it was all about pre

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production, just having insane storyboards and
references and film clips and all this stuff.

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So when you're on set, you're
showing the artists all this stuff.

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You know, I guess we didn't
have iPads back then, but just flipping

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through it like your laptop computer and
just showing the record label like, Okay,

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this guy knows he's got a vision, and he thought about this a

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lot. You know, I hate
ed living. I think guy had nightmares

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about like coming up with shots on
the spot. You know. So yes,

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it's intimidating, but if you just
like have tons of references with you

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and like really tell all your department
heads exactly what you're going for, then

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it's been that confidence kind of you
know, swells inside you. It's funny

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though, like literally last week,
my daughters were listening to a song and

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they're like, what's this song?
And and and there's like I'm like that's

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that's Sea Little Green. And it's
just like I'm like, can we see

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the video. I'm like, I've
never actually seen the video this video.

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So I literally watched the Sea Little
Green video Forget You, like four or

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five days ago. Well, not
knowing that you directed it. Oh cool,

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not knowing that you directed it.
I just it just it was a

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happenstance. The universe just brought that
to it. So now it's like it's

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fresh in my mind. I just
saw it like litterally four days ago,

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and then as I'm doing research on
you, I'm like, son of a

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he directed the Yeah, was that
Celo Green? Because that was such a

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massive hit for Celo Green? I
mean so massive. Was that the thing

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that just took your career to another
level? It was for sure. I

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mean that that's the thing that got
me representation. It got me an agent

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and a manager. You know that. You know Eric Garfinkeel and Britain Rizzio,

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and they're the ones that taught me
the narrative industry of the film industry

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and got me reading scripts and all
that. So that that video was a

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big, a big help for me
for sure, and we didn't you know,

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it was the whole story behind That's
really interesting because I was working at

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Refuse TV, which is you know, this woman Kathy Pellow runs that.

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She also has a record label called
Sergeant House, and she's this like incredible

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just punk rock woman that knows everyone. She's like knows the New York party

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scene, and she hung around with
all these I think she was a model

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back in the day, and she
hung around with all these legends, and

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she knew people in the theater in
the Broadway World and she was a missioner

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for Atlantic Records as well. So
when that track was was kind of sent

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out, the song was called fuck
You, and a lot of big name

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directors passed on it, like I
don't quote me, but I think like

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Mark Romanic and Spike Jones and Chris
Cunningham like all passed on it. All

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they were trying that arts group,
you know, and and she was like,

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well, we got like a sixty
k budget and we got to do

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this in one day, and so
I got to like write on it,

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and I just wrote that like motown
Doopie treatment and he loved it. So,

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you know, enter enter sixteen hour
day, you know, try to

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shoot the thing. A catillact jacks
up in the valley and uh and that's

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what like kicked it all off.
So it was a really good like I

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have to thank Kathy Pellow for that
because you know, a lot of people

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I don't know, everyone's break is
always a weird story like that, Like

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it was right place at the right
time, you know, kind of a

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thing. Because she happened to be
the commissioner for that for that video,

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and a lot of people happened to
pass on it. Just because the song

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was obscene, you know, the
type at a time until they did Forget

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You, which they we need some
radio play guys. Yeah, yeah,

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and it just it had that viral
thing because it was like an obscene title,

248
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but it was such a happy going
do opposite like like you know,

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it sort of you know, made
f you this popular memi viral thing,

250
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you know, so it's it's I
always thought that was kind of fun.

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How that that that that whole thing
happened. It was, It was quite

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the quite interesting it was. It
was what year was that was that?

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I mean it was a two dozen
and exactly because it still had a vibe

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because I remember the nineties when you
had the mcg's of the world and the

255
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Michael bays of the world where they'
using the cross processing and it really vibrant

256
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colors. You had really vibrant colors
in that I remember. It wasn't gone

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like a McGee smash mouth video was
the end of the day. But it

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looked beautiful. And then you mixed
in this whole like musical aspect to it,

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which was like which is which was
the sign of like where you're going?

260
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Because this is what you love musicals? And we'll talk about the musical

261
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side of you in the minute.
But it was really it didn't look complex

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in the sense of the budget.
It wasn't. It was one location,

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essentially a few It wasn't that crazy. But it wasn't. It wasn't an

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expensive budget. It wasn't. It
wasn't. You did a lot with the

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money you had. It made it
look really good at one locate basically one

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big lookat or what's all look Yeah, And we just like it was one

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of those things where you just used
the look, you used the advantage of

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that location and neon lights and the
colorful walls, and we just like saturated

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all the lights. And there was
also something that happened to like that was

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the first job I ever did with
Lindsay and Craig, my choreographers, and

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they did the Blues movie too,
and every music video in between, and

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uh, we we sort of like
we had all the dance figured out with

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with the dancers, and that this
thing happened when we were playing the song

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on set and like people were like
snapping their fingers and bobbing their heads and

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we're like, yo, let's just
let's really lean into the little shop befores

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of it all, and even the
background you know, all the background actors

277
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that were sitting in the seats,
like they just like kept bobbing their heads

278
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almost like Betty Luke. You know, everyone's like moving to the beat,

279
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and they just added this like kind
of funny, nostalgic touch to the whole

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thing. And I think everyone just
loosened up and all the you know,

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all the people that were playing all
the roles in the film and the different

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selos, like we're just real loose. And I think people were just vibing

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because it was a good song.
You know, you don't always get like

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a good song to write. Times
you have to do you know, I've

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done every kind of video, but
that was just a great song and I

286
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ready loved it. So everyone was
just bobbing their head the whole time,

287
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and it just we capture that energy, you know, And how did the

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town treat you after that? After
that video, I booked, I booked

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a good you know, I kind
of stuffed up as far as music videos

290
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go, you know, and I
was able to book a lot of jobs,

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and I was really riding that momentum. I think if I could go

292
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back in time, you know,
I mean, I guess I I would.

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I can't say i'd like change anything
about my life, but I probably

294
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would try to use that momentum to
push myself more towards narrative earlier, you

295
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know, because I you know,
I'm thirty seven now, and and I

296
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probably could have gotten into the narrative
world a little bit earlier. But I

297
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just I just kept booking music videos
for years. And that's kind of why

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I stalled on the narrative thing,
because I was just working and like,

299
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yeah, exactly, and he got
five you got five yachts, brother,

300
00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:22.839
you got to I mean that's a
lot to support. Yeah, yeah,

301
00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:25.640
And after the second yeat, I
just had to keep doing the music videos

302
00:19:25.640 --> 00:19:30.359
because the budgets got by. Yeah
I'm talking like the paper ones he fold

303
00:19:30.440 --> 00:19:33.200
up, you know, obviously,
sir, But yeah, I was.

304
00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:36.720
I was booking some work after that, and it was cool. You know,

305
00:19:36.920 --> 00:19:38.680
it's a good feeling to do like
eight music videos a year. I

306
00:19:38.680 --> 00:19:41.920
mean, I know some people like
churn out twenty a year, but with

307
00:19:41.960 --> 00:19:45.400
all the post effects that I do, you know, I always was like

308
00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:48.200
editing my own stuff, so it
was like keeping me really busy. And

309
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and yeah, I was really busy
after that, for sure. That's awesome.

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Man. Now we all as directors, there's always that day on set.

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00:19:56.319 --> 00:20:03.319
We'll be right back after a word
from our sponsor and now back to

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00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:10.400
the show that the entire world's coming
crashing down around you and you don't think

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00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:11.640
you're gonna make it. You're not
gonna make it. And then and arguably

314
00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:17.759
that's every day, but there's generally
that one event that really stands out out

315
00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:19.279
of a project. If you don't
want to say the project, you don't

316
00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:22.240
have to say the project. But
if it's a project, you could say,

317
00:20:22.279 --> 00:20:25.200
say it and what was that event
and how did you overcome it?

318
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As a director, I have to
say that that's only happened. I mean,

319
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yeah, we have tough days,
and yeah we have to like you

320
00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:37.720
know, kill setups and weather happens
and things like that. But like the

321
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toughest day it was this video I
did for me for me the friend like

322
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Me. It was a Disney video. He was doing a cover of bo

323
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Ad and Song and it was just
one of those days where the setup for

324
00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:55.680
everything, we just didn't have enough
money and enough people to light this location

325
00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:00.480
and there was this big pool in
the middle of our location and it was

326
00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:03.160
so hard to move the camera around
there, and I really tried to,

327
00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:04.440
like, I mean, we we
at the end of the day, we

328
00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:07.880
pulled it off. But it was
one of those days where we really ran

329
00:21:07.960 --> 00:21:11.359
out of time and I had to
like kill half the shots, like literally

330
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half the shots. But they were
the narrative shots and something inter I mean,

331
00:21:18.680 --> 00:21:22.200
this is this is an interesting thing
that happened, and this legitimately happened.

332
00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:27.519
We shot we shot Nao against a
wall for the performance stuff, you

333
00:21:27.559 --> 00:21:30.759
know, let him pretty just put
like a blue color on the wall and

334
00:21:30.839 --> 00:21:36.240
lit them all orange and we shot
a wide beating close up and that was

335
00:21:36.319 --> 00:21:38.880
like the performance coverage. He's an
incredible performer, so it was like we

336
00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:45.680
had great stuff and all that footage
got corrupted in you know, the cards

337
00:21:45.759 --> 00:21:51.640
or whatever. So the insurance for
the production actually covered us. They have

338
00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:55.759
another day of shooting, so we
were able to get him on the stage

339
00:21:55.920 --> 00:21:57.799
and light him even better and get
even better performances on him, and no

340
00:21:57.799 --> 00:22:00.480
one was stressed out. So all
that time that we didn't you know,

341
00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:03.680
all the shots that we didn't get, we're able to get on the second

342
00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:07.839
day because a card was corrupted and
insurance actually covers that somehow, you know,

343
00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:11.319
I don't I don't know how that
all works. But we got another

344
00:22:11.400 --> 00:22:14.480
day. So that was the most
like, that was one of the days

345
00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:17.119
where I realized, like, wow, we're not going to get it,

346
00:22:17.160 --> 00:22:19.359
you know. And the video looks
cool. You know, his performance was

347
00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:22.720
incredible. It's all about him.
So but I've never had I mean,

348
00:22:22.759 --> 00:22:27.480
I've heard those stories you know from
you know, some some more like seasoned

349
00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:33.039
you know guys and gals that I've
worked with of you know, the hurricane

350
00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:37.079
comes through and blows the you know, the flags over and then he stands

351
00:22:37.079 --> 00:22:40.680
flying and somebody got injured, and
there's like, you know, like you

352
00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:42.759
know, people suing people and all
that. Like I've heard of that,

353
00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:47.880
you know before. I've never had
like a nightmare day like that. And

354
00:22:47.480 --> 00:22:49.680
I don't know, maybe it's it's
a little bit of lock and a little

355
00:22:49.799 --> 00:22:53.279
just being prepared kind of a thing, you know. But well, listen,

356
00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:56.839
when I was putting my demo reel
together, I shot thirty five and

357
00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:00.960
I sent it up to uh do
art because I'll say it out loud in

358
00:23:00.039 --> 00:23:04.200
New York, and uh they uh
the machine broke and burned out all my

359
00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:07.559
egg for two of my spots,
for two of my out of the three

360
00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:11.920
spots, I did two of my
spots, gone twenty five grand out of

361
00:23:11.960 --> 00:23:15.680
my pocket. And they're like,
well, do the new roles again for

362
00:23:15.720 --> 00:23:18.880
free. I'm like, oh really, And I was so young. I

363
00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:19.839
could have sued them. I should
have done. I mean, I could

364
00:23:19.880 --> 00:23:23.480
have got. I should have easily
gotten because come on, so I had

365
00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:26.799
to go back and that's why my
demo real cost fifty grand. But I

366
00:23:27.079 --> 00:23:30.440
lost and I was better. Actually
I got back. I got a better

367
00:23:30.599 --> 00:23:33.920
set of DPS. I did it
the same thing as you got to do

368
00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:37.759
it again, figured things out differently. It was an expensive lesson, but

369
00:23:37.799 --> 00:23:41.400
it was a lesson. Nevertheless,
imagine that. Yeah, yeah, I

370
00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:45.160
mean that's that's I mean I can
remember back times like heart, like like

371
00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:48.400
hard drives are going corrupted and things
like that. It turned out like whether

372
00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:52.359
my generation your generation we turned into
like command saved people, Like I'm always

373
00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:56.359
hitting command saved command say, making
double backups and triple backups, and like

374
00:23:56.880 --> 00:24:00.720
sending a hard drive to my parents
just so I know in Michigan there's a

375
00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:03.359
hard drive with the thing in case
my house burns down, you know.

376
00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:07.039
So it's uh, when that happens, you turn into a worry work for

377
00:24:07.079 --> 00:24:11.200
sure. Yeah, you know,
it's in I came up with when the

378
00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:15.079
first avage were coming up, and
those things crashed all the time. So

379
00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:18.960
I became an apple save apples of
applesde eppisode constantly. It's it's happened.

380
00:24:18.960 --> 00:24:22.119
Now I'm used to the new stuff
that just kind of saves in the background

381
00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:26.759
constantly and everything. It is a
whole different thing. So but oh my

382
00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:30.680
gosh, I still have all those
hard drives too. They just like every

383
00:24:30.680 --> 00:24:34.039
time, big creative stuff. And
it's like I don't even think that the

384
00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:37.680
power outlets work anymore, you know, Like but I don't know. I

385
00:24:38.839 --> 00:24:44.680
just I just moved from LA to
Austin last a year ago, and I

386
00:24:44.759 --> 00:24:48.519
did that. I had a box
of FireWire four hundreds yeah, yeah,

387
00:24:48.799 --> 00:24:51.599
yeah, and I and they all
worked, they all ribbed up, and

388
00:24:51.640 --> 00:24:56.279
I just downloaded them all into a
solid state drive and just started dumping them

389
00:24:56.279 --> 00:24:57.839
like I don't need this, I
don't need that, and then just put

390
00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:03.039
nice drills in holes. Yeah.
I just recycled them. Yeah. I

391
00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:07.599
threw on my home recently. My
like I had like some sixteens and thirty

392
00:25:07.640 --> 00:25:11.160
five. I can't get rid of
mine, and I can't get rid of

393
00:25:11.160 --> 00:25:15.039
mine. Yeah, having in my
closet right now, I can't get my

394
00:25:15.079 --> 00:25:18.519
thirty five. I got thirty five
sixteen super eight, and I can't get

395
00:25:18.759 --> 00:25:22.079
buckets of them, buckets of these
thirty five props. Someday you need it

396
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:23.559
to like, you know, well, the other day, the other day,

397
00:25:23.599 --> 00:25:27.680
I actually I just retransferred them all
to four K or to six K

398
00:25:27.799 --> 00:25:32.000
actually because I did overthing to standard
death before because I was like, you

399
00:25:32.079 --> 00:25:33.519
know what, let me go back
and take a look at some of that

400
00:25:33.559 --> 00:25:37.759
stuff, and I did I transfer. So but eventually I'm going to have

401
00:25:37.799 --> 00:25:41.680
to I'm gonna have to look.
Yeah, I mean because because you know,

402
00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:45.759
our mansions don't have the space for
him anymore, you know, obviously.

403
00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:48.799
Yeah, I mean we have to
get sat in my West Palm Beach.

404
00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:55.599
Yeah. Yeah. So another thing
a lot of people don't talk about,

405
00:25:56.480 --> 00:26:00.559
as fresh filmmakers don't understand is the
politics of a set and music video.

406
00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:07.200
I came up later in my life. I was I joined a music

407
00:26:07.240 --> 00:26:10.319
video crew, and I did a
lot of big music videos in the post

408
00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:12.519
side, and I was on set, and you know justin BIEB versus Snoop

409
00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:17.079
Dogg, you know, Ludacrous,
all these kind of people are coming up,

410
00:26:17.480 --> 00:26:22.960
and I saw the insanity. Yeah, it's insane, like insane on

411
00:26:23.079 --> 00:26:26.880
set with a music video set.
But when you started getting onto these other

412
00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:32.880
sets that weren't they were more professional
quote unquote, and you had these older

413
00:26:32.920 --> 00:26:37.240
crew members who saw this, kid, I gotta imagine you got some pushback.

414
00:26:37.359 --> 00:26:40.960
How did you do? How did
you deal with that? Yeah?

415
00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:49.000
I mean my personality is I'm very
passive, you know, I'm I'm I'm

416
00:26:49.119 --> 00:26:55.319
I can say i'm if, I'm
if I'm confrontational. It's as kind as

417
00:26:55.359 --> 00:26:57.839
I can possibly be. I know, I mean I had to. I

418
00:26:57.880 --> 00:27:00.160
always knew I was the young I
on the set, you know. And

419
00:27:00.200 --> 00:27:04.240
I think anyone's going to deal with
that if you're directing, because you know,

420
00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:07.319
you're always going to get crew guys
that are, you know, a

421
00:27:07.319 --> 00:27:12.519
little little older than you. But
you know, I can't think there's ever

422
00:27:12.559 --> 00:27:15.720
been any like Confett, Like I
know there were probably people. I mean,

423
00:27:15.759 --> 00:27:19.079
obviously we've had like our eighteen hour
days where you know, pushing people

424
00:27:19.079 --> 00:27:22.240
too hard and stuff. And I
learned from really good producers not to do

425
00:27:22.319 --> 00:27:26.160
that very early on because someone gets
an accident on the way home. That's

426
00:27:26.359 --> 00:27:30.680
you know, So I only had
I had a very short lived career as

427
00:27:30.680 --> 00:27:36.519
far as pushing people too hard and
having long days, and luckily I worked

428
00:27:36.559 --> 00:27:40.359
with some really good Like I worked
with this guy, Mark Russell. Chef

429
00:27:40.440 --> 00:27:41.640
is his nickname. I don't know
if you ever ran. He's an incredible

430
00:27:41.640 --> 00:27:45.400
a D. And he was big
in the music video team, like he

431
00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:48.640
worked with Hype Williams and Mark.
Yeah, he was like Hype Sky for

432
00:27:48.680 --> 00:27:53.119
a while. And when I got
to that like budget range bracket afford him,

433
00:27:53.400 --> 00:27:56.920
you know, he was my a
D and he had my back,

434
00:27:56.039 --> 00:27:59.440
and he was one of the you
know, like the best ads are the

435
00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:02.920
ones that can like you know,
kind of yell and get everyone to listen

436
00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:04.200
to him, but like kill you
with kindness at the same time, you

437
00:28:04.200 --> 00:28:07.319
know, like compliment that like when
it's time to get the shot, like

438
00:28:07.400 --> 00:28:14.079
let's go. He's that guy,
and he he sort of taught me a

439
00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:17.000
lot that I know, and he
always had my back on set and I

440
00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:19.920
think that helped a lot with those
situations because he was a veteran and so

441
00:28:21.160 --> 00:28:25.640
just like the Directing department being sort
of like supportive like that, like he

442
00:28:25.799 --> 00:28:30.000
was able to push back at any
of that, you know, like any

443
00:28:30.079 --> 00:28:33.160
credit smirks or anything that came from
some of the older people on set.

444
00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:37.680
And and I also, you know, like if you can remember someone's name

445
00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:41.240
and shake their hand and look them
in the eye and compliment them if some

446
00:28:42.119 --> 00:28:45.960
you know, some lighting looks incredible, it's not just the dbs, the

447
00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:48.839
gaffer, you know, it's like
so many it takes a village every time,

448
00:28:48.960 --> 00:28:53.759
and as long as you, you
know, really make sure everyone sees

449
00:28:53.799 --> 00:28:59.960
that their craft is seen and respected
and that they're doing a good job.

450
00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:03.440
I think that that's like the key, you know, to to to sort

451
00:29:03.480 --> 00:29:07.599
of getting that respect, even being
younger. But I don't know if there

452
00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:11.799
was anyone that was a little bit
better just because I was young, Like

453
00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:14.920
whatever, I don't care, you
know, I'm too focused on this insane

454
00:29:15.240 --> 00:29:18.039
where there's so many shots you got
to get and you have this amount of

455
00:29:18.119 --> 00:29:21.319
time, and the clients like looking
over your shoulder like there's too much other

456
00:29:21.319 --> 00:29:23.119
stuff to worry about, you know, So gotcha. Yeah, I mean,

457
00:29:23.359 --> 00:29:26.400
if you have a good if you
have a good first a d or

458
00:29:26.519 --> 00:29:30.480
deal good DP to to kind of
yeah, to help you with that stuff.

459
00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:34.279
That's helpful, but sometimes you I
mean I had guys who literally just

460
00:29:34.440 --> 00:29:38.920
like literally try to try to chut
my legs off underneath from underneath me while

461
00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:42.279
on set. So it's a different
certain things you just have to figure out.

462
00:29:42.319 --> 00:29:45.119
I Mean, at one point,
someone I walked on said thought that

463
00:29:45.119 --> 00:29:49.920
I thought it was a p A. Yeah, m hadn't met me yet,

464
00:29:51.079 --> 00:29:53.640
and they're like, all right,
you uh go get the gap service

465
00:29:53.680 --> 00:29:57.279
cod. I'm like, dude,
I'm the direct Yeah, that's happened to

466
00:29:57.319 --> 00:30:03.519
me recently actually, because like we'll
be right back after a word from our

467
00:30:03.559 --> 00:30:11.720
sponsor and now back to the show. I had a couple like like our

468
00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:17.160
second ad was like like because I
just black T shirt and jeans, because

469
00:30:17.160 --> 00:30:18.480
I'm there to work. You know, I'll be on my knees like I'll

470
00:30:18.519 --> 00:30:22.680
and I'll get my hands dirty and
I'll you know. It's like he's like

471
00:30:22.759 --> 00:30:26.000
normally the directors I work with like
show up like with a suit and a

472
00:30:26.119 --> 00:30:27.480
tie and makeup and their crazy hair
and all this, and I'm like,

473
00:30:27.559 --> 00:30:30.200
yeah, man, I'm just like
here to work. You know. It's

474
00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:33.079
it's the same mentality, like it
doesn't matter if if you're sitting like and

475
00:30:33.079 --> 00:30:36.720
I also like don't like to sit, like I'm always trying to stand because

476
00:30:36.759 --> 00:30:40.000
that was like in music video world. It was like you see a shot

477
00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:41.400
and you're gonna run over and talk
to somebody and then like you just can't

478
00:30:41.400 --> 00:30:45.480
be on your on your butt.
You know. I haven't had that luxury

479
00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:48.440
yet, you know, so maybe
in a commercial I sat because that's like

480
00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:52.759
the bottle. Oh yeah, it's
all about like four hours on live in

481
00:30:52.759 --> 00:30:56.319
the freaking bottle, I mean,
and the clients they're like and you're like,

482
00:30:56.400 --> 00:30:59.400
just just just do let me know
when you want me to el action.

483
00:31:00.039 --> 00:31:04.920
Yeah, but when you got like
a million setups in, you know,

484
00:31:06.160 --> 00:31:08.000
no time to do it, like
you're just you're running and I think

485
00:31:08.039 --> 00:31:11.160
as long as I mean, and
a lot of people see that too.

486
00:31:11.240 --> 00:31:15.799
They see how physical the job can
be too, so it's like expect from

487
00:31:15.799 --> 00:31:18.960
that too, you know. So
that's true. That that is true though,

488
00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:22.519
is if this cruises you bust an
ass. Yeah, they but if

489
00:31:22.559 --> 00:31:26.759
you're sitting on a on a recliner
with your caffee latte, yeah, you

490
00:31:26.759 --> 00:31:29.640
know, and and there, but
and they're like Hey, guys, I

491
00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:33.799
need you to lift that crane up
ten stories. I'll meet you up there.

492
00:31:33.319 --> 00:31:36.160
Not that you need to do it, but they just need to see

493
00:31:36.160 --> 00:31:40.079
that you're it's you're you're a general
man, You're a general running running a

494
00:31:40.200 --> 00:31:42.319
unit. And yeah, and they
got to see you moving and they got

495
00:31:42.359 --> 00:31:47.359
to see that you're into it.
But if if there's pretension, oh man,

496
00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:49.440
it's hard. You lose, you
lose your crew, you lose everything.

497
00:31:49.839 --> 00:31:52.920
Yeah. Yeah, and and and
that's like that was a big part.

498
00:31:53.000 --> 00:31:57.279
Feel like I never like I was
never like posing for photos or like

499
00:31:57.480 --> 00:32:00.400
you know, like yeah, you
know, doing the whole the whole thing,

500
00:32:00.480 --> 00:32:02.759
like look at this set we built, you know, like you know,

501
00:32:02.960 --> 00:32:06.920
like like no, you just like
you get a shot. You go

502
00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:08.680
you talk to the actors of ours
first, then you talk to your DP,

503
00:32:08.839 --> 00:32:12.599
then you talk to your AD and
then you you know, you make

504
00:32:12.599 --> 00:32:15.640
sure they know what to communicate to
their team and and you just you just

505
00:32:15.680 --> 00:32:19.559
go in order. And whenever the
you know, the record label's talking to

506
00:32:19.559 --> 00:32:22.960
you, everyone else needs to like
you know, there first obviously, but

507
00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:27.000
but yeah, it's just it's just
making sure if you communicate good, I

508
00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:30.039
think you get that respect like if
you're very clear and there's no like question

509
00:32:30.119 --> 00:32:34.079
marks or people that confuse as to
what they're doing, you know. And

510
00:32:34.079 --> 00:32:37.279
and even if people say you make
if they see you make decisions like you

511
00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:38.119
know what, we're runn out of
time. We got to cut this shot.

512
00:32:38.559 --> 00:32:42.000
Like if you do stuff like that
too, they're like, Okay,

513
00:32:42.160 --> 00:32:44.599
he's not going to like run us
into the ground, Like we're going to

514
00:32:44.680 --> 00:32:49.319
get through the day, you know. So yeah, So if there was

515
00:32:49.359 --> 00:32:51.640
the thing, man, if you
can go back in time and tell your

516
00:32:51.680 --> 00:32:54.039
younger self at the beginning of this
journey one thing, what would that one

517
00:32:54.039 --> 00:32:59.559
thing be, It would be shoot
a short film way earlier. Because my

518
00:33:00.319 --> 00:33:02.440
agent and manager like, we're always
telling me to shoot a short film,

519
00:33:02.519 --> 00:33:07.920
do a short film, you know
you need yeah, yeah, And and

520
00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:09.839
I was, I don't know,
I think I wasn't like cocky when I

521
00:33:09.839 --> 00:33:14.039
was younger, but I definitely was
like I can just go straight from music

522
00:33:14.079 --> 00:33:17.039
videos to features, you know,
like Venture did it? Yeah exactly,

523
00:33:17.119 --> 00:33:21.960
Yeah. And you know my first
short film I did was like you know,

524
00:33:22.039 --> 00:33:24.240
with with that looked good was like
twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, And

525
00:33:24.240 --> 00:33:29.559
I should have done that way earlier. Because and just like learning narrative,

526
00:33:29.599 --> 00:33:31.119
you know, like I think,
you know, I learned a great deal

527
00:33:31.160 --> 00:33:37.319
in school. I actually really liked
college, but you learn the most from

528
00:33:37.359 --> 00:33:39.880
just watching movies, just putting on
the Criterion channel and watching old shit,

529
00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.720
you know, like and that's and
that's sort of the best film school.

530
00:33:44.799 --> 00:33:47.039
So I think, I mean,
I do like to watch a lot now,

531
00:33:47.599 --> 00:33:51.039
and I did watch a lot in
college and stuff, but I think

532
00:33:51.079 --> 00:33:52.240
I would have I mean, I
have friends that, you know, four

533
00:33:52.279 --> 00:33:55.400
hundred they watch four hundred movies a
year. You know, it's like like

534
00:33:55.640 --> 00:34:00.839
every night they're watch a new movie. And I think that's the because that

535
00:34:00.319 --> 00:34:05.640
the influences from all those films is
gonna like consciously or subconsciously make its way

536
00:34:05.640 --> 00:34:09.639
into your film. And I think
taking taking your references and style from old

537
00:34:09.639 --> 00:34:13.320
stuff is the best way to go
because if you take it from new stuff,

538
00:34:13.519 --> 00:34:16.239
it's obvious like, oh, they're
ripping off euphoria, they're ripping off

539
00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:21.320
you know, you know, whatever
new you know, Tarantino movie or whatever.

540
00:34:21.320 --> 00:34:23.000
But if you take well, Tarantino
kicks from all the old so they're

541
00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:29.199
like that's a big circle. It's
a vicious it's a Vicious Circle. Yeah,

542
00:34:29.360 --> 00:34:30.559
no, you're absolutely You're absolutely right. That's why, like you know,

543
00:34:30.559 --> 00:34:36.880
pt Anderson stole a shot from Boogie
Nights from I Am Cuba. Then

544
00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:38.639
no one had ever heard of unless
you had a Criterion laser disc of it

545
00:34:39.159 --> 00:34:43.719
or your Mark Scorcees, your fresor
for Copla who produced it or released it.

546
00:34:43.760 --> 00:34:45.320
And everyone was like, this SHOT's
amazing, and I'm like, wait

547
00:34:45.320 --> 00:34:49.599
a minute, that's where I am
Cuba. Yeah, but it's it's it's

548
00:34:49.719 --> 00:34:52.719
such a great shot. It is
so beautiful. You know. I saw

549
00:34:52.760 --> 00:34:54.960
that for the first time just recently, because I'd never heard of it and

550
00:34:55.079 --> 00:35:00.239
I'm Cuba. Yeah, it's just
like I saw that one shot and I

551
00:35:00.280 --> 00:35:04.760
was just like, what is this? Like it just how how do they

552
00:35:04.800 --> 00:35:07.960
do it? Oh? Yeah No, And the thing that they did was

553
00:35:08.920 --> 00:35:16.559
how they did this stuff you're talking
about nineteen fifties Yeah technology these yeah,

554
00:35:16.760 --> 00:35:22.000
tank of thirty five millimeter cameras.
I mean, the tanks weighing a ton

555
00:35:22.679 --> 00:35:27.199
and they're flying them around like they're
like an iPhone on the gimbal like it's

556
00:35:27.920 --> 00:35:31.840
i mean just insane. And then
from the ceiling from a rooftop down an

557
00:35:31.840 --> 00:35:38.159
elevator, walking around into the water
like mind blowing, mind blowing. And

558
00:35:38.480 --> 00:35:43.800
that's why that's why the whole practical
way is always the best. Like and

559
00:35:43.840 --> 00:35:47.039
I think people, even people that
swear by CGI not seeing good for sure,

560
00:35:47.039 --> 00:35:51.960
and I like certain amounts, but
you subconsciously know it's not real,

561
00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:55.079
you know. But when you put
that real practical thing there or the camera

562
00:35:55.199 --> 00:35:59.360
really you know, like what in
your autube does and what they did in

563
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.280
What's the Good? Oh yeah,
even top them. Yeah. I saw

564
00:36:04.280 --> 00:36:06.280
that three times in the theat because
I was just like, I know,

565
00:36:06.360 --> 00:36:10.119
this is really happening, and my
mind and can you imagine if that would

566
00:36:10.159 --> 00:36:13.519
have been c G. Can you
imagine if that was it? It just

567
00:36:13.639 --> 00:36:16.159
it wouldn't have made the money.
It wouldn't people would be like, great,

568
00:36:16.280 --> 00:36:22.480
yeah, that's a really good example
of something that everyone's gonna hear before

569
00:36:22.480 --> 00:36:23.440
they see that that it was all
real. You know. So if there's

570
00:36:23.480 --> 00:36:28.199
like a good I think I think
films should definitely have campaigns behind them if

571
00:36:28.239 --> 00:36:31.320
they do pull off crazy practical things, you know, like like even was

572
00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:36.559
that film that came out to Victoria
The one shot was a film? You

573
00:36:36.599 --> 00:36:40.320
know, they said like, yes, this actually is a one shot film.

574
00:36:40.320 --> 00:36:44.760
It's not like a Pitchcock floorground pass
that we're doing, like we shot

575
00:36:44.800 --> 00:36:46.639
this. I think they did it
three times and the second time was the

576
00:36:46.639 --> 00:36:50.880
one they used or something like that. But that was a full They started

577
00:36:50.880 --> 00:36:54.360
at two am and or three am
and the film ended at five am.

578
00:36:54.480 --> 00:36:58.599
And it's an actual one shot thing. And I don't care who you are,

579
00:36:58.639 --> 00:37:00.039
if you know that information before see
the film, it's going to make

580
00:37:00.079 --> 00:37:05.039
the experience that like when the guy
plays the piano or he catches the thing,

581
00:37:05.159 --> 00:37:07.599
or they have the squibs and the
guy gets shot, like you just

582
00:37:07.719 --> 00:37:09.840
know, like wow, this was
all planned out, you know, and

583
00:37:09.880 --> 00:37:15.480
it's just like, yes, it's
another experience. Like seeing the the eighteen

584
00:37:15.480 --> 00:37:20.119
wheeler flip in dark Night. You're
just like yep, and you could tell

585
00:37:20.159 --> 00:37:22.440
that's real, Like that's there's no
seats, you can't see gi the way

586
00:37:22.559 --> 00:37:25.920
it looks, the motion, the
things that are cooking, it's just too

587
00:37:25.960 --> 00:37:30.599
complicated for it to look real the
way it is. Did they did they

588
00:37:30.639 --> 00:37:34.800
do a Jackie chan on that and
show the crep show it multiple times?

589
00:37:34.840 --> 00:37:36.960
I can't remember if it was like, oh, you mean like what,

590
00:37:37.119 --> 00:37:39.119
I'm sure they did. I'm sure
the edit was like that, but it

591
00:37:39.440 --> 00:37:44.679
once it left, it was there. And then I think they probably cheated

592
00:37:44.679 --> 00:37:46.760
a little bit as far as just
the edits, but that thing was and

593
00:37:46.760 --> 00:37:51.119
then I think boom boom boom,
like they probably amed the down like three

594
00:37:51.159 --> 00:37:54.599
times, like the Jackie Chance style. But you think, yeah, you

595
00:37:54.599 --> 00:37:57.880
think in the edit they were like, oh my god, we have eighteen

596
00:37:57.880 --> 00:38:00.400
incredible angles of this, but we
can always show like three, you know,

597
00:38:00.599 --> 00:38:05.280
like they probably I also heard.
I mean I can't remember this,

598
00:38:05.360 --> 00:38:07.639
but I thought I saw a viral
video where did they shoot that during the

599
00:38:07.719 --> 00:38:10.400
day and they just colored it to
be night? No, I think that

600
00:38:10.519 --> 00:38:14.280
was nice at least the behind the
scenes. At least the behind the scenes

601
00:38:14.280 --> 00:38:16.559
that I saw was not. So. Yeah, that would be too difficult,

602
00:38:16.559 --> 00:38:22.960
man to day for night is tough
in general, like to do something

603
00:38:22.039 --> 00:38:25.280
like that with the like no man. Maybe it's because like I remember seeing

604
00:38:25.280 --> 00:38:29.760
somebody filming it from their apartment and
it's like daytime. You know. Maybe

605
00:38:29.800 --> 00:38:31.840
it was the Preppers. I don't
know, because they have to you know,

606
00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:34.679
it wasn't. I don't think it
was a won er. I think

607
00:38:34.719 --> 00:38:37.480
they I think they could do it
more than once. But yes, but

608
00:38:37.559 --> 00:38:43.519
now we're getting Now we're getting into
some geeky film stuff. Yeah. So

609
00:38:44.480 --> 00:38:46.159
yeah, when two filmmakers get together, we started going down that road.

610
00:38:46.760 --> 00:38:52.480
I'm Cuba turns into Chris Nolan real
quick. Yeah, exactly. So.

611
00:38:52.840 --> 00:38:59.920
So your your features film debut is
the new film Blues Big Ced the Adventure.

612
00:39:00.400 --> 00:39:07.519
Yes, how did the guy who
directed Fuck You the Blues Clues?

613
00:39:07.400 --> 00:39:12.880
You know, you know, a
big paramount release. You know, how

614
00:39:12.920 --> 00:39:15.840
did that happen? How did you
get involved in this movie? Then I

615
00:39:15.880 --> 00:39:21.480
have to say it's it's I.
I worked with Brian Robbins back in twenty

616
00:39:21.559 --> 00:39:23.559
thirteen. Brian Robbins, Yes,
sure, he's now had a paramount you

617
00:39:23.559 --> 00:39:27.760
know, was head of Nickelodeon,
had Austin's TV. He when when he

618
00:39:27.840 --> 00:39:30.079
was at austin and TV, I
did like a sort of team musical thing

619
00:39:30.119 --> 00:39:34.400
with them called Side Effects, and
I just stayed in touch with him over

620
00:39:34.440 --> 00:39:38.000
the years. He then eventually got
me like an Aquaphene commercial, and then

621
00:39:38.039 --> 00:39:43.320
I did like a pilot for Nickelodeon
with him, and I think the script

622
00:39:43.400 --> 00:39:45.760
was kind of sitting around for a
while with Blues Clues, you know,

623
00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:49.480
like they had always wanted to do
it. And the timing was right because

624
00:39:49.599 --> 00:39:52.960
you know, Steve went viral last
year, and as far as the co

625
00:39:53.079 --> 00:39:58.239
viewing ship, a lot of the
adults that grew up with Steve now I

626
00:39:58.239 --> 00:40:01.880
have kids that are growing up with
Josh. We'll be right back after a

627
00:40:01.920 --> 00:40:12.079
word from our sponsor and now back
to the show. So I think from

628
00:40:12.159 --> 00:40:16.920
a just like promote, like a
free promotion standpoint, like like if the

629
00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:19.519
parents are going to watch, the
kids are going to watch it, the

630
00:40:19.559 --> 00:40:22.239
kids are gonna watch you know it
just it worked out, The timing worked

631
00:40:22.239 --> 00:40:24.360
out, and Brian just called me
and he was like, hey, man,

632
00:40:24.440 --> 00:40:28.199
like we got this thing and it's
a musical. And I was kind

633
00:40:28.199 --> 00:40:31.000
of in that musical because he gave
me a lot of creative freedom. Like

634
00:40:31.159 --> 00:40:35.119
obviously I don't forever want to be
in the kids' space. I don't want

635
00:40:35.119 --> 00:40:37.719
to be in the preschool space,
but I want to show like, hey,

636
00:40:37.800 --> 00:40:42.760
I can take something with a you
know, like an indie budget and

637
00:40:43.599 --> 00:40:45.880
stretch every dollar and make it look
like three to four times more than what

638
00:40:45.880 --> 00:40:47.880
we really had, because that's what
we had to do in the music video

639
00:40:47.960 --> 00:40:52.239
world. And you know, fingers
Crossed, I hope like, like I

640
00:40:52.320 --> 00:40:54.320
know that like our movie is coming
out the same day as Disenchanted, you

641
00:40:54.360 --> 00:40:57.840
know, the big Disney tent pole
whatever. You know, they probably a

642
00:40:57.920 --> 00:41:00.559
hundred million bucks on that. And
if we compete in the smallest degree with

643
00:41:00.679 --> 00:41:04.840
that on streaming, like the smallest
degree, if we put a dent in

644
00:41:04.840 --> 00:41:07.639
that, then that's cool because we
did have you know, yeah, it

645
00:41:07.679 --> 00:41:10.920
was it was like an any budget, but it was still a lot of

646
00:41:10.960 --> 00:41:16.840
the ways and the technique we used
were you know, ragtag DIY ways of

647
00:41:16.920 --> 00:41:22.079
doing things. And so I was
I was kind of like, I like

648
00:41:22.159 --> 00:41:24.880
the challenge of it. I knew
the brand was important and existed, and

649
00:41:25.639 --> 00:41:30.000
I just had this this, you
know, the fact that I was going

650
00:41:30.039 --> 00:41:32.559
to be able to make colorful,
beautiful musicals. And with the musical genre,

651
00:41:32.679 --> 00:41:36.559
it's fantasy, so you can break
so many rules into where you're going

652
00:41:36.599 --> 00:41:37.639
to do a lot of fun stuff. As far as the fantasy of it

653
00:41:37.679 --> 00:41:43.559
all, I was, I was
game and also like I'm not rich,

654
00:41:43.599 --> 00:41:46.079
so I'm gonna take every job I
can get, so like literally that's part

655
00:41:46.079 --> 00:41:50.480
of it too, Like I was, I've never been able to pick and

656
00:41:50.519 --> 00:41:52.199
choose my jobs, you know.
So it was on top of the fact

657
00:41:52.199 --> 00:41:58.239
that it's an incredible opportunity. Like
you got to keep working because in this

658
00:41:58.360 --> 00:42:00.760
industry, if you become irrelevant,
it's a hard path back. You always

659
00:42:00.760 --> 00:42:05.039
have to have something like cooking in
the oven. You know, there's four

660
00:42:05.119 --> 00:42:08.679
hundred there's four hundred guys or gals
right behind you waiting in the wings to

661
00:42:08.760 --> 00:42:14.039
tick over. Yeah, where you
left whatever you left behind? Oh no,

662
00:42:14.159 --> 00:42:16.960
boy, when you were coming up
is a little bit different. There

663
00:42:17.079 --> 00:42:20.880
wasn't as much competition. Definitely when
I was coming up, it wasn't as

664
00:42:20.920 --> 00:42:24.880
much competition. But now, yeah, yeah, because you can you I

665
00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:30.519
mean the you know, the this
camera looks incredible. Now you can even

666
00:42:30.519 --> 00:42:34.119
do that faked up the field thing
too, So it's like, man,

667
00:42:34.159 --> 00:42:37.519
it's insane. It's pretty Yeah.
Can you imagine if we had this gut

668
00:42:37.599 --> 00:42:42.519
technology when we were coming up as
kids? Man, especially in music videos

669
00:42:42.519 --> 00:42:46.599
too, you know, five hundred
that's an extravagant budget. Yeah, yeah,

670
00:42:46.639 --> 00:42:51.719
exactly. It's funny that this kind
of like this has been a problem

671
00:42:51.760 --> 00:42:58.840
sometimes because like my choreographers will film
dance and they they they're also directors too,

672
00:42:58.880 --> 00:43:01.559
and they like to kind of test
out what kind of camera moves could

673
00:43:01.559 --> 00:43:06.119
work with the dance, but they're
using this and when we get on set,

674
00:43:06.159 --> 00:43:07.360
I'm like, well, we can't
move that fast this this big steady

675
00:43:07.360 --> 00:43:09.800
camera. It's a dollar or you
know whatever. It's like a lot of

676
00:43:09.840 --> 00:43:13.800
times, you know, you have
to like slow down when you're when you're

677
00:43:13.840 --> 00:43:16.079
rehearsing things. But but yeah,
yeah, it was you know, it

678
00:43:16.159 --> 00:43:22.039
was also just like what a big
opportunity, and I just couldn't pass it

679
00:43:22.119 --> 00:43:24.239
up, you know. And I
love and I love Brian and Nickelodeon's great

680
00:43:24.280 --> 00:43:29.000
too. My my my partner,
Niki Lopez, works for Nickelodeon too.

681
00:43:29.039 --> 00:43:32.960
We just happened to both have projects
in Nickelodeon, so it's it's definitely a

682
00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:37.159
good family there for sure. Hey
listen, one of my first jobs was

683
00:43:37.199 --> 00:43:40.760
working in Orlando, Florida Nickelodeon studios. You were at the OG, I

684
00:43:40.880 --> 00:43:45.480
was the I used to saw Brian
many times walking behind on set. Yeah,

685
00:43:45.480 --> 00:43:47.800
because he was producing stuff back then
using all that and yeah, I

686
00:43:49.360 --> 00:43:53.119
to sort of for a a for
trivia that no one cares about. One

687
00:43:53.159 --> 00:43:58.880
of my first PA gigs was Global
Guts. Oh no, I was on

688
00:43:59.239 --> 00:44:04.239
I was a Spanish translator in Global
and Global Guts, so they would bring

689
00:44:04.280 --> 00:44:07.199
in, like the Spaniards and the
South American kids, and I would be

690
00:44:07.199 --> 00:44:09.320
the one translated for them, and
I was on set there and there's oh

691
00:44:09.400 --> 00:44:14.480
it was amazing. Yeah, I
go correct. The Global Guts was the

692
00:44:14.519 --> 00:44:16.480
glowing out right right right, yeah, yeah, it was. It was

693
00:44:16.519 --> 00:44:19.800
a little bit different. I never
did I never did guts. I did

694
00:44:19.920 --> 00:44:22.800
Global Guts. It was just always
the international kids coming in and man,

695
00:44:22.840 --> 00:44:27.199
it was so much fun. I
mean that was we're talking about ninety six.

696
00:44:27.719 --> 00:44:30.519
Yeah, yeah, in the in
the heyday. So I remember seeing

697
00:44:30.519 --> 00:44:31.760
Brian, and I remember seeing Brian, you know, on head of the

698
00:44:31.800 --> 00:44:36.119
class when he was yeah, back
back, back, back in the day.

699
00:44:36.840 --> 00:44:40.000
No, I've watched his career,
man, and he's pretty he's a

700
00:44:40.039 --> 00:44:44.880
pretty remarkable dude. Like he really
hustled up to the point where now he's

701
00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.599
running the studio. Gotta give it
to him. Yeah, No, and

702
00:44:49.599 --> 00:44:52.800
and and everything Nickelodeon did in the
nineties was so cool. I mean it's

703
00:44:52.840 --> 00:44:57.079
still it still is, like a
really cool like company that takes a lot

704
00:44:57.119 --> 00:45:00.280
of chances. But I was defined
by that, you know, this red

705
00:45:00.280 --> 00:45:04.239
and stimpy slime like Nick magazine like
all that. It was so different than

706
00:45:04.239 --> 00:45:06.119
Disney, you know, because there
was there was Disney, and there was

707
00:45:06.239 --> 00:45:08.719
Nick and us Nick kids grew up
a little weirder, you know, And

708
00:45:09.199 --> 00:45:12.760
I would agree with you on that. Red and Snippy would do that.

709
00:45:13.360 --> 00:45:17.320
Yeah yeah, yeah. So when
you this is something I've always like,

710
00:45:17.440 --> 00:45:22.440
I love asking the director who does
musical Man, I've never done a musical

711
00:45:22.440 --> 00:45:25.000
scene. I mean, I've done
music videos, but that's different. You're

712
00:45:25.039 --> 00:45:29.880
talking like a musical scene. Hey, I'm just gonna bust out into song.

713
00:45:30.360 --> 00:45:34.239
We're gonna start dancing in the middle
of Central Park. How the hell

714
00:45:34.280 --> 00:45:37.440
do you approach something like that?
And let alone would see g characters on

715
00:45:37.519 --> 00:45:42.800
top of it? Yeah yeah,
I mean, like the mentality of the

716
00:45:42.920 --> 00:45:46.119
music video is still there, you
know, like there is still but I

717
00:45:46.159 --> 00:45:52.320
think the most important thing that the
biggest difference is transitioning into it, you

718
00:45:52.360 --> 00:45:54.320
know, because you I mean,
obviously, in the old MGM musicals,

719
00:45:54.320 --> 00:45:58.320
they would just be talking then boom
and then they'd start singing. But I

720
00:45:58.360 --> 00:46:01.719
think like nowadays you kind of have
to justify, you know, Like the

721
00:46:01.840 --> 00:46:06.800
MGM musicals, it was always they're
putting on a show, you know,

722
00:46:06.920 --> 00:46:09.840
So that's where the musicals came from. And then you know, but some

723
00:46:10.039 --> 00:46:15.840
musicals, like like the Umbrellas of
was it Schubert, I can never say

724
00:46:15.880 --> 00:46:19.440
that word. They were just singing
the whole time, kind of for no

725
00:46:19.559 --> 00:46:22.159
reason. You know, it just
was a musical, you know. So

726
00:46:22.800 --> 00:46:27.800
this film was kind of that same
thing where Josh's auditioning Broadway as the flavor.

727
00:46:27.920 --> 00:46:30.880
But our justification of the musical was
always the sounds of New York,

728
00:46:30.960 --> 00:46:35.159
the things happening around you that sort
of create a soundtrack if you really listen.

729
00:46:35.639 --> 00:46:37.800
So the build up to all the
numbers was really important on this one.

730
00:46:37.840 --> 00:46:42.159
So that's why that transition into the
first musical number, He's like,

731
00:46:42.559 --> 00:46:45.639
it's all chaos, and there's cars
honking and people, you know, cars

732
00:46:45.639 --> 00:46:49.440
squealing and people yelling out hot dogs, pretzels and all this stuff. And

733
00:46:49.480 --> 00:46:52.880
then he kind of slows down and
closes his eyes and here's heartbeat and you

734
00:46:52.920 --> 00:46:55.000
start hearing like, oh, like
the taxi cabs are honking in rhythm,

735
00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.679
and the bucket drummers are playing in
rhythm. So using the sounds of New

736
00:46:59.760 --> 00:47:02.639
York, that was how we got
in and out of these musical numbers.

737
00:47:02.679 --> 00:47:07.119
And that was the thing, you
yeah, because you can't you know,

738
00:47:07.159 --> 00:47:08.840
if you just start singing and dance
like, that's fine, but it's so

739
00:47:09.000 --> 00:47:13.039
much cooler if you like kind of
transition into it and sort of justify what

740
00:47:13.079 --> 00:47:17.599
you're seeing on screen is a story
element. Yeah, yeah, exactly so.

741
00:47:19.199 --> 00:47:22.519
And the other the other difference is
kind of you know, when you

742
00:47:22.599 --> 00:47:25.280
kind of cut the dialogue too,
and and the timing of everything, you

743
00:47:25.280 --> 00:47:30.000
know, I mean it's that that's
an interesting thing too, because you have

744
00:47:30.039 --> 00:47:34.519
to like have a metronome going,
you know, and like practice the dialogue

745
00:47:34.559 --> 00:47:37.440
because if you're recording dialogue, like
you can't have playback going, so you

746
00:47:37.519 --> 00:47:42.840
have to really rehearse all the dialogue
that is in between two sections. And

747
00:47:42.880 --> 00:47:45.719
we were doing a lot like the
songs that we that we did play back

748
00:47:45.760 --> 00:47:49.880
on set are nothing like the songs
we ended up with. And I remember,

749
00:47:49.960 --> 00:47:54.000
like we we shot this one section
twice that Josh did, and we

750
00:47:54.119 --> 00:47:59.079
liked him so much we just doubled
up the chorus in post production and just

751
00:47:59.199 --> 00:48:01.639
like made it long because he danced
really good from these two different angles,

752
00:48:01.679 --> 00:48:06.519
you know. So there was a
lot of Frankensteining and posts two and that

753
00:48:06.679 --> 00:48:09.840
like drove you know, Steph think
my incredible. She produced all the music

754
00:48:09.880 --> 00:48:14.920
and wrote one of the songs,
Happiness is Magic, and I mean our

755
00:48:14.920 --> 00:48:16.920
post production was insane and I definitely
drove her crazy, but she was such

756
00:48:16.960 --> 00:48:21.159
a trooper and we changed the song
so many times after the fact. But

757
00:48:21.840 --> 00:48:24.119
you know, it's it's a lot
of you know, you fall in love

758
00:48:24.159 --> 00:48:27.320
with shots and you just got to
use them all, so you change the

759
00:48:27.360 --> 00:48:30.400
songs. I like using the vision, but yeah, I think the transitions

760
00:48:30.480 --> 00:48:34.760
is the biggest difference because in a
music video, just starting the song plays,

761
00:48:34.800 --> 00:48:37.440
you know what, I need to
share allong the less. So now,

762
00:48:37.480 --> 00:48:40.320
there was another aspect of this film
that was really interesting. It's the

763
00:48:40.440 --> 00:48:47.159
Spider Man No Way Home effect,
where all of the hosts from all generations

764
00:48:47.199 --> 00:48:52.679
came in through the multiverse. And
I'm joking, but all come in.

765
00:48:53.320 --> 00:49:00.960
That was probably a big of a
deal to Blues Clues fans as watching Spider

766
00:49:00.960 --> 00:49:04.079
Man No Way Home. For you
and I when we saw that were like,

767
00:49:04.360 --> 00:49:07.039
oh my god, that's Toby.
Yeah, like how that's Andrew and

768
00:49:07.079 --> 00:49:08.280
they're all together and like look,
I get chills. We want to talk

769
00:49:08.280 --> 00:49:13.239
about this because it's such a geek. Yeah, he's just like you know,

770
00:49:13.280 --> 00:49:15.239
you start like tearing up. You're
like, oh my god, I

771
00:49:15.280 --> 00:49:17.719
remember when I saw Toby a spider
Man. So I imagine the same thing

772
00:49:17.800 --> 00:49:22.119
happened with the Blues Clues. People
like I'm sure that the parents were like,

773
00:49:22.320 --> 00:49:24.440
oh my god, there is there's
Josh, and there's this. So

774
00:49:24.599 --> 00:49:29.119
how what was when you guys,
when you read the script and all that,

775
00:49:29.840 --> 00:49:31.880
How was that whole thing bringing that
hole together? As a director,

776
00:49:32.400 --> 00:49:35.440
I mean, I thought it was
cool when I first heard the script,

777
00:49:35.440 --> 00:49:37.119
but I didn't I didn't realize the
impact because I didn't grow up with Steve.

778
00:49:37.159 --> 00:49:39.400
I was you know, Steve came
out and I was a little bit

779
00:49:39.440 --> 00:49:45.079
too old. So it was more
like one of those things when after the

780
00:49:45.119 --> 00:49:46.400
fact, you know, like not
not after we were shooting, but after

781
00:49:46.440 --> 00:49:49.880
I got on the project and he
did the whole viral thing and talked to

782
00:49:49.920 --> 00:49:53.360
the camera, I realized, like, it actually makes sense. He was

783
00:49:53.440 --> 00:49:57.159
such a I mean, Blue Clue
was the first time, you know,

784
00:49:57.199 --> 00:50:00.920
the character looked at the camera,
We'll be right back after a word from

785
00:50:00.960 --> 00:50:09.360
our sponsor and now back to the
show, talked to It gave the kids

786
00:50:09.400 --> 00:50:13.920
time to react and talk back.
It was this interact to TV show being

787
00:50:13.920 --> 00:50:16.960
it was pretty revolutionary and he meant
a lot to a lot of kids,

788
00:50:17.079 --> 00:50:22.440
you know, and they're all twenty
five thirty now, and you know just

789
00:50:22.480 --> 00:50:25.360
what you look online and all the
comments when every post something, I mean,

790
00:50:25.400 --> 00:50:28.599
people were like, Yo, you
helped me get through this. You

791
00:50:28.679 --> 00:50:30.960
helped me do with anxiety. You
know, you just like you shape my

792
00:50:31.039 --> 00:50:34.880
life when I was like when I
was an outcast and I just went and

793
00:50:34.920 --> 00:50:37.840
watched Blues Clothes and felt like somebody
was listening to me, and it's I

794
00:50:38.119 --> 00:50:44.239
didn't realize how how much of you
a responsibility it was to both myself and

795
00:50:44.280 --> 00:50:46.840
even him performing in the movie.
You know how many people love that guy

796
00:50:46.880 --> 00:50:52.239
and putting them all together. I
mean, I by the time we were

797
00:50:52.239 --> 00:50:53.679
shooting, I was like, yeah, this is important because there's all the

798
00:50:53.760 --> 00:50:57.360
rules of Blues Clothes, you know, like you have to make sure you

799
00:50:57.360 --> 00:50:59.519
talk to the camera at I love, but you don't look down at a

800
00:50:59.599 --> 00:51:00.440
kid. You don't look up at
a kid. You know, you're talking

801
00:51:00.480 --> 00:51:04.159
on their level. And Steve was
teaching me a lot of that stuff too,

802
00:51:04.920 --> 00:51:06.920
you know before we were shooting,
because he directed a bunch of Blue

803
00:51:06.920 --> 00:51:12.840
Spooks as well, and you know, seeing them all together. It's it's

804
00:51:12.880 --> 00:51:15.000
it is that thing, you know, because I mean in the theater when

805
00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:17.119
Spider Man happened and people were throwing
popcorn in the it's like screaming. You

806
00:51:17.119 --> 00:51:21.440
couldn't even hear the scene because people
were screaming, you know, and everyone

807
00:51:21.480 --> 00:51:24.679
knew it was coming, right,
you know, it had to guy my

808
00:51:24.719 --> 00:51:28.000
girlfriend. I wanted Miles my house
to be in there somehow too. But

809
00:51:28.039 --> 00:51:30.280
maybe that'll happen next the next time, next time. Come we don't get

810
00:51:30.280 --> 00:51:34.719
greedy, don't get greedy. I
know, we got the spider it's a

811
00:51:34.719 --> 00:51:37.719
Spider verse o pay come on.
But but you know, like with this

812
00:51:37.760 --> 00:51:42.239
one too, you know it's coming. But we really paid attention to like

813
00:51:42.360 --> 00:51:45.280
building up their intros and when the
first time you see them, and even

814
00:51:45.320 --> 00:51:47.599
like the comedy because they're also they're
also different. Yeah, they all were

815
00:51:47.599 --> 00:51:51.800
hosts, but they're their sense of
humors and the fact that like, you

816
00:51:51.800 --> 00:51:53.920
know, Joe is still wearing a
stupid purple pink shirt, you know,

817
00:51:54.400 --> 00:51:57.719
and he runs a present store but
the rent is high and he makes a

818
00:51:57.800 --> 00:52:00.519
joke about that, you know,
And the fact that Steve is this bumbly

819
00:52:00.559 --> 00:52:05.280
detective that has this great heart,
but you know he needs a piece of

820
00:52:05.599 --> 00:52:07.519
a bar of soap to help him, you know, find clues and stuff

821
00:52:07.559 --> 00:52:14.559
like It's it's just so funny and
and ridiculous, you know, and it's

822
00:52:14.559 --> 00:52:17.239
so heartwarming. I mean, these
guys are incredible. The show is incredible,

823
00:52:17.360 --> 00:52:20.760
and it was great to be a
part of that and see it all

824
00:52:20.800 --> 00:52:22.679
happen. And again, it was
something where I read the script, I

825
00:52:22.679 --> 00:52:24.840
was like, this is cool.
But then once you sit down and work

826
00:52:24.840 --> 00:52:28.480
with them and see them all in
sat You're like, this is this is

827
00:52:28.519 --> 00:52:30.880
a big deal. It's like twenty
five years in the making. So I

828
00:52:30.920 --> 00:52:35.480
was glad to sort of lend you
know, my point of view, you

829
00:52:35.519 --> 00:52:37.360
know, to that whole process.
Now, when is it coming out and

830
00:52:37.360 --> 00:52:43.920
where can people see it? It's
November eighteenth on Paramount Plus. And you

831
00:52:43.960 --> 00:52:45.199
know, I don't know if there's
going to be rocky horror you know,

832
00:52:45.280 --> 00:52:50.400
midnight showings of it, but I
think a lot of fingers crossed that happens

833
00:52:50.440 --> 00:52:52.840
because there's a lot of silly stuff
in the movie that you could you could

834
00:52:52.840 --> 00:52:54.239
throw a pretzel at the screen,
or you could like you know, toss

835
00:52:54.320 --> 00:52:57.920
salt over your shoulder or whatever.
I feel like there's a lot of that

836
00:52:58.000 --> 00:53:02.960
fun stuff. But yeah, it's
it's November eighteenth, and I think internationally

837
00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:06.599
it's like November nineteenth, and then
it's going to come out of some other

838
00:53:06.800 --> 00:53:09.000
some other countries in December. But
yeah, paramount plus. I mean,

839
00:53:09.039 --> 00:53:12.679
if the whole thing goes to hell, man with your career, at least

840
00:53:12.679 --> 00:53:15.039
you know in twenty years you'll go
to a convention. Is just this will

841
00:53:15.039 --> 00:53:17.000
sign some autographs? Yeah yeah,
So I mean, I mean, you're

842
00:53:17.000 --> 00:53:21.239
good, you're sent bro, Yes, I will. I will get those

843
00:53:21.599 --> 00:53:24.480
residual autograph whatever you know, signing
a little funko doll that's deep game out

844
00:53:24.480 --> 00:53:29.760
with and exactly now I'm gonna ask
you, if I'm gonna ask you a

845
00:53:29.760 --> 00:53:31.159
few questions, I ask all my
guests, what advice would you give a

846
00:53:31.159 --> 00:53:36.920
filmmaker trying to break into the business
today, I'd say, right, and

847
00:53:37.239 --> 00:53:40.079
conceptualize what you know? You know, just if you if you're obsessed with

848
00:53:40.159 --> 00:53:45.599
Christmas, make a Christmas movie you
grew up in. If you grew up

849
00:53:45.599 --> 00:53:47.679
in Chicago, make a movie about
Chicago. If you know a certain neighborhood

850
00:53:47.679 --> 00:53:52.840
there right about that, if it's
your cultural background and you're and you're really

851
00:53:52.320 --> 00:53:54.800
invested in that. Just write what
you know, because when you pitch in

852
00:53:54.840 --> 00:53:59.519
a room and you know more than
the executives about something, you know,

853
00:54:00.199 --> 00:54:02.760
they will generally want to hear that
story. You know, if you make

854
00:54:02.800 --> 00:54:07.400
a movie about something you know about, you know, it shows you know.

855
00:54:07.440 --> 00:54:08.719
So if you know something from back, like you can be the guy.

856
00:54:08.760 --> 00:54:13.199
You have to be the only person
that can make that good. That's

857
00:54:13.239 --> 00:54:16.639
actually really good advice. What lesson
would what lesson took you the longest to

858
00:54:16.719 --> 00:54:22.079
learn, Whether in the film industry
or in life. Oh my gosh,

859
00:54:22.559 --> 00:54:29.320
we got more hours left on this
now. It's it's it's never worth it,

860
00:54:29.400 --> 00:54:30.440
I think. I think on set, it's never worth it to do

861
00:54:30.480 --> 00:54:34.679
anything that isn't safe. You know, there's always those opportunity, there's all

862
00:54:34.719 --> 00:54:37.719
the there's those moments where like obviously
an age, like there's so many people

863
00:54:37.760 --> 00:54:40.239
on set that don't want you to
do on safe stuff. But you can

864
00:54:40.280 --> 00:54:44.440
sense when you're pushing something a little
too much, When a crew member is

865
00:54:44.920 --> 00:54:46.719
pushed a little too much, when
an actor is pushed too much, it's

866
00:54:46.800 --> 00:54:52.199
just never worth it, Like find
a different solution because you don't want someone

867
00:54:52.239 --> 00:54:53.840
being too tired when the driving home. You don't want an actor to lose

868
00:54:53.880 --> 00:54:58.199
your respect. You don't want someone
getting hurt. It's like, it's just

869
00:54:58.360 --> 00:55:01.559
not worth it. Don't take chances
with Yeah, and I've had too many

870
00:55:01.559 --> 00:55:04.639
stunt guys come up to me.
I'm like, I could, I could

871
00:55:04.639 --> 00:55:07.239
be on fire. I'm like,
I don't need you fright. You need

872
00:55:07.239 --> 00:55:08.840
to, you need to, you
need to. Have you ever met a

873
00:55:08.840 --> 00:55:13.280
stunt guy who didn't do that?
All of them do it everything because it's

874
00:55:13.280 --> 00:55:15.639
like, hey, we're just suspending
this guy from wires, but they want

875
00:55:15.639 --> 00:55:17.920
the explosion, you know. So
it's always like I need you to jump

876
00:55:17.960 --> 00:55:22.360
ten feet. I could do it
sixty feet and I could be on fire

877
00:55:22.159 --> 00:55:24.480
while there's a tiger chasing me.
I'm like, dude, I don't need

878
00:55:24.480 --> 00:55:30.079
to know. You need to relax. Every single stunt guy I've ever met

879
00:55:30.639 --> 00:55:35.519
yet, oh, I guess I
love. Oh they're the They're the craziest.

880
00:55:35.599 --> 00:55:38.840
They are the craziest carnies in our
carnival. I mean they are nuts.

881
00:55:39.079 --> 00:55:45.159
They are and the best, wonderful, wonderful, loving way. They

882
00:55:45.199 --> 00:55:49.880
are absolutely nuts, and they make
our films so much better. And last

883
00:55:49.920 --> 00:55:52.840
question three of your favorite films of
all time. Okay, Number one is

884
00:55:52.840 --> 00:55:55.320
going to be eight and a half
Fellini. I'm obsessed with it. The

885
00:55:55.320 --> 00:55:59.639
whole thing feels like a dream,
and it feels like looking at my own

886
00:55:59.719 --> 00:56:04.559
child, even though it's totally different
culture. You know. Number two would

887
00:56:04.559 --> 00:56:07.280
be Natural Born Killers. That thing
just breaks so many rules and it's like

888
00:56:08.039 --> 00:56:12.480
all the all the formats they shot
on how they shot it, and it's

889
00:56:12.480 --> 00:56:16.760
this like awesome like bad Lands love
Story but updating in so nineties, and

890
00:56:16.840 --> 00:56:22.159
it's I love that movie. And
then man number three has got to be

891
00:56:22.239 --> 00:56:28.159
Clockwork Orange. It's just me.
I mean, I mean Kubrick, I

892
00:56:28.159 --> 00:56:30.880
mean, every one of those movies
can be in anyone's top ten. He

893
00:56:30.119 --> 00:56:34.880
was a director that made like the
best horror movie all time, the best

894
00:56:34.920 --> 00:56:37.480
war from of all time, I
mean argue, you know, the best

895
00:56:37.519 --> 00:56:40.159
drama of all time, the best
comedy. But Clockwork Orange is just I

896
00:56:40.159 --> 00:56:45.719
mean, it was my It has
roots in my punk rock like high school

897
00:56:45.800 --> 00:56:47.960
upbringing. And that's just the movie
we watched on repeated a million times.

898
00:56:49.239 --> 00:56:54.480
Can you imagine releasing the first twenty
minutes of Clockwork Orange in today's world?

899
00:56:55.199 --> 00:57:00.519
I mean, how wow? Could
they even do then, and I'm watching

900
00:57:00.519 --> 00:57:05.400
I just watched it recently again,
I'm like, this stuff is still so

901
00:57:05.639 --> 00:57:09.159
far gone, so far out.
Yeah, you could not release it.

902
00:57:10.239 --> 00:57:15.360
Can you imagine if a major studio
released this day. Yeah it's crazy too

903
00:57:15.440 --> 00:57:21.360
because everything that's like based off book
is really obscene and dirty and profane.

904
00:57:21.519 --> 00:57:23.719
You know, books are always the
dirtiest thing ever, you know, it

905
00:57:23.760 --> 00:57:27.119
doesn't matter how old it is,
Like you can like you read it all,

906
00:57:27.159 --> 00:57:29.920
Henry Miller, but you're like,
whoa, you know, But you

907
00:57:29.960 --> 00:57:31.119
know, that's where all the good
movies come from, is great books.

908
00:57:31.159 --> 00:57:35.800
You know a lot of them do. And so it's the the obscene will

909
00:57:35.840 --> 00:57:39.159
always be there, and let's hope
the studios keep releasing it because they're fun.

910
00:57:40.360 --> 00:57:43.960
Matt Man, it's been a pleasure
talking to man. Continued success and

911
00:57:44.000 --> 00:57:47.039
congratulations on all this is that you
had, and and thank you for bringing

912
00:57:47.079 --> 00:57:51.639
Blues Clues to the new generation and
bringing all of them together. Man,

913
00:57:51.639 --> 00:57:53.320
It's it's a lot of fun man. So I appreciate you, my friend,

914
00:57:53.599 --> 00:57:55.599
Thank you for having me. Nice
to meet you, Alex for sure.

915
00:57:55.639 --> 00:58:00.199
Man, I want to thank Matt
so much for coming on the show

916
00:58:00.239 --> 00:58:02.280
and dropping his knowledge bombs on the
tribe today. Thank you so much,

917
00:58:02.360 --> 00:58:05.599
Matt. If you want to get
links to anything we spoke about in this

918
00:58:05.679 --> 00:58:08.760
episode, head over to the show
notes at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv. Forward

919
00:58:08.840 --> 00:58:12.559
slash three fifty two. Thank you
so much for listening, guys, As

920
00:58:12.599 --> 00:58:15.079
always, keep on writing no matter
what. I'll talk to you soon.

921
00:58:15.519 --> 00:58:21.880
Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting
podcast at Bulletproofscreenwriting dot tv.