Speaker 1: Oh he is, folks, It's show die.
Speaker 2: People say good money to see this movie.
Speaker 3: When they go out to a theater, they want clod sodas, hop, popcorn,
Speaker 3: and no monsters. In the Projection Booth, everyone pretend podcasting
Speaker 3: isn't boring.
Speaker 4: Got it off?
Speaker 2: Hey, folks, Welcome to a special episode of The Projection Booth.
Speaker 2: I'm your host Mike White. On this episode, I'm talking
Speaker 2: with Chris Levetus and Zane Rubin all about their twenty
Speaker 2: twenty six documentary, doc Meets World. It is a documentary
Speaker 2: about Boy meets World, or more precisely, what the three
Speaker 2: leads of Boy Meets World are up to these days,
Speaker 2: and kind of looking back at what it was like
Speaker 2: being on a hit TV show. I definitely did not
Speaker 2: watch Boy Meets World other than a offhand reference in Hackers.
Speaker 2: I kind of don't even know the show that much,
Speaker 2: but it's perfect. This documentary actually takes me in and
Speaker 2: shows me around and lets me know why people still
Speaker 2: talk about Boy Meets World. So I hope you enjoy this,
Speaker 2: and I hope you enjoy the film. Track it down.
Speaker 2: It just played at Tribeca. Thanks so much, and enjoy
Speaker 2: this interview. Zane and Chris, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: your time today. I'm so curious. How do you guys
Speaker 2: know each other?
Speaker 4: We met ten years ago. Chris had seen some of
Speaker 4: the films that I had directed and he liked them
Speaker 4: and he wanted to collaborate together. And then he's produced
Speaker 4: a lot of things that I've directed, and edited a
Speaker 4: lot of things that I've directed, and we've also written
Speaker 4: a few scripts together. And then with this project, we
Speaker 4: directed one little short together. This kind of just very
Speaker 4: happened naturally in terms of something that we did together.
Speaker 4: It was just basically we went out and we started
Speaker 4: shooting stuff and we both had ideas and then yeah,
Speaker 4: we were in it together.
Speaker 2: How did Doc Mets World come together?
Speaker 3: I've known writer for about twenty years. We've collaborated on
Speaker 3: short films and scripts, music videos, and we always knew
Speaker 3: at some point we wanted to work on a feature together.
Speaker 3: And over that twenty year period, the one thing we
Speaker 3: really didn't talk about much was Boy Meets World were
Speaker 3: at all. It's not something that he seemed super excited
Speaker 3: to engage with. Enough for me, I didn't watch the
Speaker 3: show growing up. So when he decided to start a
Speaker 3: podcast about Boy meets World. It was obviously a dramatic term,
Speaker 3: and when it went on the road with it, it
Speaker 3: was just everything was happening very quickly, and writer Will
Speaker 3: and Danielle were like, we're having all these incredible interactions fans.
Speaker 3: We're not going to remember any of it because it's
Speaker 3: just so much of it happening. It really deserves to
Speaker 3: be documented. So writer asked Zaane and I if we'd
Speaker 3: be willing to go to New York and shoot some
Speaker 3: footage scene.
Speaker 2: Were you a fan of the show growing up?
Speaker 4: I was, Yeah. I when there was one year when
Speaker 4: I refused to go to seventh grade, which wasn't completely
Speaker 4: uncommon for me not going to school, and I think
Speaker 4: I spent that entire year watching all of The Boymi's
Speaker 4: World on TVO and just really plowed my way through.
Speaker 4: I did not think it was a productive time in
Speaker 4: my life, but it turned out to potentially be the
Speaker 4: most productive, So you never know, I was a fan.
Speaker 4: I didn't watch it probably again really after that, after
Speaker 4: like seventh grade, but I definitely seen all of it,
Speaker 4: like probably a couple times. And I think when you're
Speaker 4: really young, stuff like that, when the TV I watched
Speaker 4: when I was young. I really remember. I remember it
Speaker 4: far more deeply than I remember something than I probably
Speaker 4: watched a couple of weeks ago, to be quite frank.
Speaker 4: So it was still all there, all the information. I
Speaker 4: just wasn't actively accessing it. And then when we started
Speaker 4: doing this, we went to their live shows and stuff,
Speaker 4: which is filled with all these sketches and references. I'd
Speaker 4: be like, oh, I know that reference, Like I know
Speaker 4: what they're talking about. I get all this stuff, And
Speaker 4: so it was very easy for me to sink into
Speaker 4: the fandom and kind of catch up really quick because
Speaker 4: I actually already knew all the reference points.
Speaker 2: So maybe it's a good thing. Tell kids to skip
Speaker 2: school and binge watch, binge watch, never know what it'll
Speaker 2: come in Handy. Did you go to many of the
Speaker 2: shows before you guys decided to start shooting or was
Speaker 2: it pretty much first show we've got the cameras.
Speaker 4: We hadn't been to any shows when we started shooting,
Speaker 4: and it was sold to us as we just hang
Speaker 4: out and we were like okay, But we actually showed
Speaker 4: up in New York with our cameras planning to shoot
Speaker 4: the SHO show, and then when we got there we
Speaker 4: found out. In order to shoot the stage, you had
Speaker 4: to pay like twenty thousand dollars to the unions, So
Speaker 4: we were like, oh, okay, I guess we're not going
Speaker 4: to be doing that. And then we had to have
Speaker 4: Chris and I a little pow wow and be like, okay,
Speaker 4: what are we actually doing? But we're like, okay, well,
Speaker 4: we already have all these cameras, so let's just shoot
Speaker 4: everything we could possibly shoot, except for the stage, which
Speaker 4: was meet and greats several lunches to the point that
Speaker 4: they were like, please stop filming a seating and we
Speaker 4: were like, no, we're gonna do it, and we're going
Speaker 4: to dinner. Also behind the scenes in the green room
Speaker 4: walk and talks. At one point I was like, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna just run ount and talk to some fans if
Speaker 4: they're willing to talk to me. And now, honestly, that
Speaker 4: stuff all ended up being extremely interesting. And then by
Speaker 4: the time we got to the point where we were
Speaker 4: allowed to shoot the shows, which was like probably like
Speaker 4: a year later, and the show had actually gotten better
Speaker 4: and evolved born, so it ended up working out for
Speaker 4: the best.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that whole idea of hanging out that kind of
Speaker 2: sounded like what they were told that the pre show
Speaker 2: should be, but just that level of no, no, we
Speaker 2: have to write this, we have to rehearse this. I
Speaker 2: really appreciated that adherence to the craft.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was super surprising to us, and it was
Speaker 4: awesome to see them put together this whole show and
Speaker 4: see how much attention went into it because we didn't
Speaker 4: expect that. We were like, we're like, wait, what are
Speaker 4: you guys talking about. You're doing a sketch, Like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: we do some sketches. I was like, there's multiple sketches. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we do a few sketches, and there's like a dance.
Speaker 4: It's fine. I was like, Okay, that's a lot more
Speaker 4: involved than what I thought it was. I thought you
Speaker 4: guys were literally just gonna talk. Yeah, like we were
Speaker 4: sending a guy out to go get a wig. I
Speaker 4: was like, there's wigs involved. This is very exciting, like
Speaker 4: very fun like kid theater, but adults doing it. There's
Speaker 4: a very playfulness in the way that they put things together.
Speaker 4: And because they are talented people who grew up on
Speaker 4: screen and that muscles, they're very sharp in that way,
Speaker 4: and the must has been very worked. They are able
Speaker 4: to kind of just do things very quickly like that,
Speaker 4: and it's good. Whereas I'm sure if it was certain
Speaker 4: other people putting together what you're going to do that
Speaker 4: night two and a half hours beforehand, maybe wouldn't have
Speaker 4: gone so well. But I think because of their background
Speaker 4: and their training and how well they know each other,
Speaker 4: they're able to adapt really quickly.
Speaker 3: They really presented the whole live show as something they
Speaker 3: just made up on the fly and they just improvised
Speaker 3: on stage. But we discovered they're really into creating something.
Speaker 3: But for them, they never think of it as work.
Speaker 3: That's why they're like, oh no, we don't prepare it all,
Speaker 3: even though all day long they're preparing in a way
Speaker 3: that just amuses themselves. They just they're just like they're
Speaker 3: they're just like, oh, they're just they're just having fun.
Speaker 2: How many people are on your crew when you're doing this.
Speaker 4: Most of the two of us. A couple times, if
Speaker 4: it was if we were shooting a show or something,
Speaker 4: we had a sound person and a PA. It weren't
Speaker 4: shooting a show, it was just the two of us.
Speaker 2: And how is this working logistically? Because you guys are
Speaker 2: going all of these different places. How many shows did
Speaker 2: you actually attend.
Speaker 3: We actually only attended five shows and we were only
Speaker 3: allowed to shoot the last show in Salt Lake City,
Speaker 3: But that ended up being the blessing in some ways
Speaker 3: because Writer was saying, Oh, we did this show at
Speaker 3: iHeart that you guys can use, which was it was
Speaker 3: a proof of concept show, which we eventually at a
Speaker 3: certain point we looked at that and it was interesting
Speaker 3: and as far as it was the show that we
Speaker 3: were actually documenting, it had evolved so far. Their timing
Speaker 3: was so much better, they were so much more relaxed,
Speaker 3: and they had figured out just so many little bits
Speaker 3: that were that they had come back, and it called back.
Speaker 2: To how do you help engender that feeling of safety
Speaker 2: for them so that they're able to open up so
Speaker 2: much in front of these cameras.
Speaker 4: Chris is known Writer for like twenty years. I've known
Speaker 4: Writer for about ten. Obviously that builds a certain amount
Speaker 4: of trust. And then honestly he told the other two
Speaker 4: was like, they're cool, it's fine.
Speaker 3: And that's how Writer spoke with a really good friend
Speaker 3: of his, Todd Goldberg, who's an author and actually Writer
Speaker 3: met when he was a teacher. It was Writer's teacher
Speaker 3: and he and writer, they go deep immediately, So it
Speaker 3: was a real privilege to just be present for their
Speaker 3: conversation because Todd really gets in there and he gave
Speaker 3: us some just material that I think that even if
Speaker 3: Sane and I were talking with writer, that writer may
Speaker 3: not have necessarily gone that deep. But Todd was he
Speaker 3: really excavated a writer's soul.
Speaker 2: Thanks Todd, But yeah, I felt like a therapy session.
Speaker 4: It pretty much was. Afterwards, I was like, do you
Speaker 4: think I could get an hour with Todd?
Speaker 1: Would do I have to pay?
Speaker 4: Or I'm most like, honestly, it was like, I'd love
Speaker 4: to get ninety minutes with Todd. It seems pretty life changing.
Speaker 2: Has Ainy said, you watched the show? Christy said he
Speaker 2: didn't watch the show. I also didn't watch the show.
Speaker 2: So how much of a concern was that for you
Speaker 2: guys when you're putting this together, as far as making
Speaker 2: it something that an outsider like me can actually get
Speaker 2: in here and not have to know the inside baseball,
Speaker 2: not get the references that you're getting.
Speaker 4: Zane, Honestly, the combination of him never having seen it
Speaker 4: and me having seen all of it was probably a
Speaker 4: perfect combination. Now Furthermore, I think the whole time, we
Speaker 4: were trying to make it as accessible to people who
Speaker 4: really didn't know the show that well, because we knew
Speaker 4: fans are gonna like it, They're gonna watch it just
Speaker 4: because if you're a fan of something, you want more
Speaker 4: of that thing, and we knew we probably had those people,
Speaker 4: So trying to expand it to people who had mainly
Speaker 4: only heard of the show was something we were trying
Speaker 4: really hard to do. And if you knew how long
Speaker 4: that first seven minutes of the movie had been worked
Speaker 4: on to set things up more than any other part of.
Speaker 3: The movie, Contextualizing this so that people who aren't familiar
Speaker 3: with them or the show was probably the hardest thing.
Speaker 2: Who is doing the editing with you guys? Or is
Speaker 2: it just you two?
Speaker 4: It was mostly just Chris Alex. Obviously, our producer helped
Speaker 4: out a lot, but Chris edited the whole thing. We
Speaker 4: had an assistant editor who helped us technically, but yeah,
Speaker 4: it's mostly just Chris and I. He was in charge
Speaker 4: of the actual editing and I was in charge of
Speaker 4: basically all of the finding, all the archival stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, whenever we would get to a certain point where
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, I really need a shot of
Speaker 3: hopefully like writer opening or Sean opening a door, or
Speaker 3: will As with squirrels or some reference or was Danielle
Speaker 3: the inception of the dance where she's putting I would
Speaker 3: just ask zaying, what can we use here that's going
Speaker 3: to reflect what's actually happening in their life? Now that'll
Speaker 3: create we'll have a nice juxtaposition with something that happened
Speaker 3: on the show, and hopefully there's some interesting connective tissue there.
Speaker 4: It was really satisfying when you got one that matched up.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, But there was so much of I'd
Speaker 4: be like, I'd show Chris five clips and he'd be like,
Speaker 4: none of them are right, and I'd be like, damn it.
Speaker 3: There is something so magical about cutting to someone in
Speaker 3: their forties to them as a teenager. Every time you
Speaker 3: can have that sort of that that edit, there's just
Speaker 3: something really compelling about it.
Speaker 2: And how long did this project take overall? Once you
Speaker 2: got that phone call of hey, we're doing this thing
Speaker 2: to obviously you've got your premiere? Is it your premiere
Speaker 2: coming up at Tribeca?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was about three years.
Speaker 2: That's pretty intense to be able to craft this in
Speaker 2: three years.
Speaker 4: Do you think it should have taken longer?
Speaker 2: It feels like it took longer just with all of
Speaker 2: the information they have backed in here like.
Speaker 3: You, we'll click that.
Speaker 2: Have you had a chance to see this with smaller
Speaker 2: audiences yet? Did you test it out with people or
Speaker 2: fans or anything.
Speaker 4: We test it with friends for notes.
Speaker 3: That's it though, Yeah, very informative. I want to say
Speaker 3: our producer Alex hosted probably five screenings or so, and
Speaker 3: just being in the room and feeling the wall speak
Speaker 3: to you, you really get a much, very very helpful
Speaker 3: to figure out pacing issues and also of course just
Speaker 3: to make sure we're being clear in terms of our intent.
Speaker 3: So yeah, we did screen it a number of times,
Speaker 3: and after every one of those there would be fifty
Speaker 3: or sixty little notes that we would then go back
Speaker 3: in and reweave some things together and make some adjustment
Speaker 3: structurally or just basically. But again, it really came down
Speaker 3: to those first ten minutes, really trying to create a
Speaker 3: context so that everyone understands who these people are and
Speaker 3: why it's worth going on a journey with them.
Speaker 4: Every time it was like, wow, if these first ten
Speaker 4: minutes aren't perfect, it doesn't even matter if the rest
Speaker 4: of the movie's perfect, because it the way it sets
Speaker 4: the tone is it completely changes the person's viewing experience.
Speaker 4: So it was like the more we worked on those
Speaker 4: first ten minutes, the better those screenings got where things
Speaker 4: were set up properly and they went in with the
Speaker 4: proper mind, and then the screenings would go better as
Speaker 4: a whole.
Speaker 2: And I need touch about how you divied up the
Speaker 2: editing process. But when you guys are actually shooting, is
Speaker 2: there like I'm going to be always doing this and
Speaker 2: the other person's always going to be doing that or
Speaker 2: did you just jump in whenever you need it to.
Speaker 4: Chris is much better at on the fly camera operating,
Speaker 4: which is something we learned. It was more complicated if
Speaker 4: both of us were shooting at the same time for
Speaker 4: like walking talks, because then we would just be in
Speaker 4: each other's shot. So then at a certain point I
Speaker 4: was just like, you do that. And then for stuff
Speaker 4: like if we were at lunch or something, I would
Speaker 4: always be like I was just in charge of getting
Speaker 4: Danielle and Chris was usually going between the two guys.
Speaker 4: So those were like two things we knew innately.
Speaker 2: And then with the kind of personal interviews like Danielle
Speaker 2: with her Is that her mother that she's talking with?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Who's shooting those or is it just a combination.
Speaker 4: I was shooting Danielle and he was shooting her mom,
Speaker 4: and then we had a camera rolling that was unmanned.
Speaker 3: Anytime we were with writer Will and Danielle, they just
Speaker 3: talk and they just don't feel the camera at all.
Speaker 3: They're exactly how they are off camera as they are on.
Speaker 3: I don't I really don't think honestly, they don't even
Speaker 3: really take into account that the camera's rolling. But with
Speaker 3: people like Danielle's mom, who did not grow up on camera,
Speaker 3: it's a little different. So we probably have a solid
Speaker 3: forty five minutes of them playing Maltese gin before they
Speaker 3: actually get into the conversation, because we just needed Daniel's
Speaker 3: mom to acclimate and to forget that the camera was there,
Speaker 3: so that would take a bit more time.
Speaker 4: The three people that we used, Todd, Jen, Daniel's mom,
Speaker 4: and Andrea, none of them are actors. They were all great.
Speaker 4: We took it slow with them and we let them
Speaker 4: ease their way in. But honestly, they left all those
Speaker 4: and being like, oh my god, that went so well
Speaker 4: they're not actors, but they did very very well on camera.
Speaker 4: Because we've all had experience with people being on camera
Speaker 4: who were like that person's not comfortable being on camera,
Speaker 4: we were very lucky we did not have that at all.
Speaker 4: They were all awesome.
Speaker 2: I never would have guessed that, And yeah, everybody seems
Speaker 2: very very at ease, So bravo to you for especially
Speaker 2: putting Danielle's mom at ease.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she was great. She was so that we loved her,
Speaker 4: and she let us come to her house. She had
Speaker 4: a very beautiful home, very clean.
Speaker 2: Congratulations on doc Meets World. I'm super excited for you
Speaker 2: guys to be able to have your premiere and hopefully
Speaker 2: be able to take this around and show it to
Speaker 2: so many people because it is such a wonderful documentary.
Speaker 4: That's really also nice to hear from someone who's not
Speaker 4: even a fan of the show.
Speaker 3: That means a lot.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, y'all. I really appreciate your time today.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 4: S