Speaker 1: Old you is boat It's show Die. People say good
Speaker 1: money to see this movie.
Speaker 2: When they go out to a theater.
Speaker 1: They want cloth, sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in
Speaker 1: the protection booths. Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring. Cut it off.
Speaker 2: Let's call we gotta school.
Speaker 3: The mornings two and eight North Meadows high schools have
Speaker 3: their school year cut short due to a tornado eighteen
Speaker 3: years later. Is that class we'll return home and finish
Speaker 3: high school?
Speaker 2: Yikes?
Speaker 1: Can you please just ignore two weeks? Then we're done,
Speaker 1: you graduate and we all go back to our normal lives.
Speaker 1: No drama. You cannot do this play. You have to.
Speaker 1: It's the roles, no drinking and plata.
Speaker 3: Okay, let me get one of you with to be.
Speaker 1: Everything has to be exactly the way it was in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight. Oh, who is this? Same classes?
Speaker 1: Same sports? Ok we can give this graduating class and
Speaker 1: a fresh started deserves. Baby, Why would I do killing
Speaker 1: at a cracker barrel? I love that place. You're one
Speaker 1: of the dumbest people I ever Next, I've changed people.
Speaker 1: Never change. If you don't these final exams, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to do the semester all over again, cool life.
Speaker 1: I'm already at my house today. My parents just died.
Speaker 1: Everyone's going to be there. Oh my god. The house
Speaker 1: is totally to ourselves and we're going to rage classic.
Speaker 2: In high school, I was sort of like some of
Speaker 2: them a bitch.
Speaker 1: I was rude and selfish, and I can remember at
Speaker 1: least two specific times that I called somebody fat ass.
Speaker 3: Hey, folks, welcome to a special episode of The Projection Booth.
Speaker 3: I'm your host Mike White. On this episode, I'm talking
Speaker 3: with editor Wit Conway all about the new film Never Change.
Speaker 2: I believe it just.
Speaker 3: Dropped on Hulu like the day before I'm recording this,
Speaker 3: so I had a great time talking with mister Conway.
Speaker 3: Hope you have a great time watching Never Change and
Speaker 3: have a great time listening to this interview.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much.
Speaker 3: Before we even start to talk about this latest project,
Speaker 3: I would love to tell a little bit more about you.
Speaker 3: You've done a little bit of a lot of stuff,
Speaker 3: and I'm so curious. Can you tell me how you
Speaker 3: even got your start and show business.
Speaker 1: Yes, I grew up in Chicago, and after college I
Speaker 1: landed back. I got a degree in film television production
Speaker 1: from Indiana University. But After college, I was back in
Speaker 1: Chicago doing production stuff postwork, mostly advertising, which is in Chicago,
Speaker 1: and I fell into Second City and iow comedy schools
Speaker 1: over there, so doing performing and writing and stuff. And
Speaker 1: then at night and on the weekends, I was asking
Speaker 1: all my comedy friends to say, like, hey, I've got
Speaker 1: equipment and I know production skills, and I was like
Speaker 1: dipping the toe into trying to learn about filmmaking through
Speaker 1: filmmaking and through making stuff with friends. And this is
Speaker 1: in like I graduated college in two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: so you know, in the advent of sort of a
Speaker 1: camera that's now affordable, that looks good, and Premiere Pro
Speaker 1: being suddenly you know, workable on a laptop. You know,
Speaker 1: I was spending my days at these post production facilities
Speaker 1: and where avids were, you know, thirty grand to be
Speaker 1: able to edit something and then suddenly you're able to
Speaker 1: do it at home. Obviously final cut was there, but
Speaker 1: I don't know why. In college I sort of never
Speaker 1: got into it. And then I spent about ten years
Speaker 1: doing that, working in advertising and production and in Chicago
Speaker 1: was working at these places where like you just did everything.
Speaker 1: It was that time of like, hey, we've got a client.
Speaker 1: Someone's got to go out. They've got to talk to
Speaker 1: the client. They've got to book the you know, the locations,
Speaker 1: they've got to hire the crew. They've got to go shoot,
Speaker 1: you know, with camera that's it's only going to be
Speaker 1: six to eight people maybe on on set, so you're
Speaker 1: sort of doing everything and then we would bring that
Speaker 1: footage back and then edit it, color correct it, do
Speaker 1: the motion graphics. So I sort of got this very
Speaker 1: well rounded start of being introduced to everything. And when
Speaker 1: I got out of school, I had seen a couple
Speaker 1: of people and you know, obviously like feature films were
Speaker 1: my they were my dream north Star, but I knew
Speaker 1: that I was not ready to like jump in. And
Speaker 1: I saw three or four friends make feature films and
Speaker 1: they it literally killed them to the point where they
Speaker 1: stopped doing it. And I was like, well, I'm not
Speaker 1: doing that. But I can work with my friends and
Speaker 1: make short films and try things out and go, hey,
Speaker 1: I've never shot anything handheld, Okay, what's that look like.
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to do this whole short just working
Speaker 1: on a tripod and I'm not ever going to put
Speaker 1: my hands on the camera. And then, you know, just
Speaker 1: sort of like trying things out over very very short,
Speaker 1: small projects over many years. I moved to New York
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen and learned that like most people don't
Speaker 1: do that, most people don't try and take more sort
Speaker 1: of responsibilities on There's much much more specialization. And so
Speaker 1: when I got to New York, I was just available
Speaker 1: for a lot of jobs and a lot of things,
Speaker 1: and for some people I became you know, when I
Speaker 1: started working for some people, I was a jack of
Speaker 1: all trades guy, and I could do the whole pipeline.
Speaker 1: For some people, I was just an editor or just
Speaker 1: a DP or just a director, and that led to
Speaker 1: just getting into I also, you know, used my connections
Speaker 1: in Chicago comedy to come to the New York comedy scene,
Speaker 1: and everybody that I was working with in Chicago sort
Speaker 1: of said, hey, hey, wits here. He's come to New
Speaker 1: York if you need anybody. And I got in with
Speaker 1: a bunch of people basically there in this movie, and
Speaker 1: the director, Marty Scausbow and I met through those connections
Speaker 1: and then we started working with each other and we
Speaker 1: cut three seasons of TV together for Joe Parra Talks
Speaker 1: with You. So I was editing there the first season
Speaker 1: of that led to me meeting someone and getting an
Speaker 1: opportunity to go to SNL and edit at SNL. And
Speaker 1: simultaneously I was dpeing stuff and I met a producer
Speaker 1: at the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and he hired
Speaker 1: me to start dpeing stuff at Colbert. So it was
Speaker 1: like spending my weekdays over at Colbert doing field shoots
Speaker 1: with with Jake Plunkett and then going to SNL on
Speaker 1: Friday and spending the weekend at SNL Friday and Saturday.
Speaker 1: And then I was also directing stuff, and I got
Speaker 1: an opportunity to direct. Jimmy Kimmel saw short that I
Speaker 1: made through a friend of ours and he invited me
Speaker 1: out to direct at his show, and that was sort
Speaker 1: of the entre into into directing. But you know, to
Speaker 1: your point about doing everything, that was sort of my
Speaker 1: goal from the get go is if I learn everything,
Speaker 1: all of these skills, then at least if I don't
Speaker 1: have someone to do this aspect, I could probably do it.
Speaker 1: I could probably stumble my way through it, and especially
Speaker 1: with YouTube now that everything is available education wise, but
Speaker 1: it really did help me work, you know, it helped
Speaker 1: me keep working and helped me allow myself to say
Speaker 1: yes to as many people and work with as many
Speaker 1: people as possible, which you know, the more relationships you have,
Speaker 1: the more people you can connect with. And you know
Speaker 1: the other side of that being like I try to
Speaker 1: be as warm and jovial and hard working as I
Speaker 1: possibly can so that I can get hired again, because
Speaker 1: I do think part of I worked with a great,
Speaker 1: great director at when I was producer director at Last
Speaker 1: Week Tonight. He directed the show's over there directs the
Speaker 1: shows over Their Name's Paul Penlino. He says, it's all
Speaker 1: about the good hang. If you're not a good hang,
Speaker 1: you're not going to be around. It was a really
Speaker 1: this well rounded education that I feel like now I
Speaker 1: do feel strong in all those and I can talk
Speaker 1: about all of the different disciplines with any department head
Speaker 1: that I get to hire. Production design and like sort
Speaker 1: of art is the one thing that I feel like
Speaker 1: I never had enough resources to really put towards that,
Speaker 1: and that's when I'm so excited to, like, you know,
Speaker 1: build a set or do anything with any large practical
Speaker 1: fabricated stuff. Though those are always the really fun things
Speaker 1: because that's the stuff that I feel like I never
Speaker 1: got to experience as a sort of jack of ball
Speaker 1: trades guy.
Speaker 3: So it helped me correct an image I have in
Speaker 3: my head, which is editing at Saturday Night Live, because
Speaker 3: I picture more like broadcast news where you're in the
Speaker 3: control booth and you've got the switches, camera one, camera three.
Speaker 3: What is actual editing on Saturday Night Live?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: So, I was a part of the film pre tape department,
Speaker 1: so all the sketches that get shot, which is, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a really extremely educational, intense, fun job to get.
Speaker 1: There is a sort of a cadre of editors that
Speaker 1: they keep at thirty Rock. As they start shooting stuff,
Speaker 1: they roll the footage right over to thirty Rock and
Speaker 1: the editors start working on it. So when they're doing
Speaker 1: their pre tapes, the editors are sort of working as
Speaker 1: stuff comes out of the camera. It goes from wherever
Speaker 1: set they are in New York City over to thirty Rock,
Speaker 1: and then the editors are you know, the assistant editors,
Speaker 1: and the editors are organizing all that footage, managing that footage,
Speaker 1: handing stuff off to an editor. There's usually three editors
Speaker 1: to a piece, with one point editor and then two
Speaker 1: sort of assistant editors, and you start on Friday. Those
Speaker 1: pre tape all the pre tapes are shot on Friday,
Speaker 1: the day before SML, and that's for a couple of reasons.
Speaker 1: So one, the scripts aren't chosen till Wednesday night. Then
Speaker 1: they need one full day really sort of thirty six
Speaker 1: hours to do all the pre tape prep work, which
Speaker 1: all the pre producing and what new locations, wardrobe, costume, animals,
Speaker 1: whatever they need to source within twenty four hours. And
Speaker 1: SML has an incredible rolodex of people and also people
Speaker 1: that they you know, they already have these crews on hold.
Speaker 1: And then so they do all that pre production on Thursday,
Speaker 1: and then on Friday everything starts shooting, and on Friday
Speaker 1: the editors also start, so they start organizing stuff as
Speaker 1: it comes out of the camera, and then you work
Speaker 1: overnight until about four or five in the morning. Usually,
Speaker 1: then they get you a hotel across the street, you
Speaker 1: go sleep for a couple hours, and then you come
Speaker 1: back and you work with the So that's all without
Speaker 1: the director. The director is still on set essentially, so
Speaker 1: you're sort of managing the footage and then doing the
Speaker 1: assembly and then at about nine to ten in the morning,
Speaker 1: you go back in. The director comes in and you
Speaker 1: work with the director at about ten to one ish
Speaker 1: twelve to one, depending on you know, I haven't been
Speaker 1: there in a bunch of years, but this is what
Speaker 1: it was when I was there. Then you one, the
Speaker 1: writers come in and the producers start coming in, and
Speaker 1: then that's that's the main thing thrush of the editors
Speaker 1: during that day. As an assistant editor, you're sort of
Speaker 1: sitting in the room watching and listening, building sound effects
Speaker 1: and doing the whole sound design pass because there's really
Speaker 1: no time for the sound mix to happen. The sound
Speaker 1: mix has to happen when it's locked, and it doesn't,
Speaker 1: you know, it gets locked and then unlocked because it
Speaker 1: goes to dress rehearsal and then comes back and has
Speaker 1: changes after dress rehearsal. So you make edits after nine
Speaker 1: thirty pm on Saturday night, and that means you have
Speaker 1: to make edits and you have to make visual effects changes,
Speaker 1: you have to make color changes, and so there it
Speaker 1: becomes this very very shrinking window and then you back
Speaker 1: time to what time your sketch is airing, so you
Speaker 1: know it's not eleven thirty five, it's done, It's okay.
Speaker 1: Now we're going till twelve oh seven because that's when
Speaker 1: it has to go on TV, and so that's the
Speaker 1: main thrush of it. And you work really, really furiously
Speaker 1: and hard, and there are really intense points. Then there
Speaker 1: are sort of lulls in the day, like getting it
Speaker 1: off to go to dress. Everything sort of calms down
Speaker 1: and you can go have dinner and stuff and then
Speaker 1: and then it airs on TV that night and you
Speaker 1: watch it, go out and play and however it airs.
Speaker 1: It is thrilling to see that sort of thirty six
Speaker 1: hours of work on TV right there. So it is
Speaker 1: really really exciting work. And it's also the best film
Speaker 1: school that I've ever experienced. That's the best people in
Speaker 1: New York working in that department and for those crews,
Speaker 1: and I learned the most there. I learned the most
Speaker 1: because I'm truly the best editors that I've ever been
Speaker 1: around are in that department, and they work so fast
Speaker 1: and they work that I learn everything about sound design
Speaker 1: from them because I came in knowing like I should
Speaker 1: be sound designing, not nearly to the level that they do,
Speaker 1: because they have to make it like a final pass
Speaker 1: on their first months. If you can't handle the stress
Speaker 1: and if you can't handle the pace, then you don't
Speaker 1: last very long. And that's probably better. It's not for everybody,
Speaker 1: that's for sure. It's not a place where you can
Speaker 1: just sit back. You know, there is a speed and
Speaker 1: an urgency at which you have to operate less yeah,
Speaker 1: you won't be back the next week.
Speaker 3: Iinitly sounds like you've been in the comedy world for
Speaker 3: a long damn time, and I'm curious have you edited
Speaker 3: any other type of things or worked on other type
Speaker 3: of things, because I imagine there's got to be a
Speaker 3: different style when you edit comedy.
Speaker 2: Versus the narrative.
Speaker 1: I would say, yeah, of course, I think in terms
Speaker 1: of like different than comedy, I would almost just say, like,
Speaker 1: what is the goal of the piece. I've done plenty
Speaker 1: of like corporate doc work. I used to do pharmaceutical
Speaker 1: interviews in Chicago, you know, like working and making trade
Speaker 1: show sizzle reels and stuff like that. So I've done
Speaker 1: all of that work. And I think for me, as
Speaker 1: an editor especially, it's what's the goal of the piece?
Speaker 1: And then how are we communicating that in terms of
Speaker 1: like comedy or drama. I really think and I believe
Speaker 1: like comedy taken seriously is when it's the most funny.
Speaker 1: I laughed the hardest at the characters who are not
Speaker 1: being funny. They are the way they are to me,
Speaker 1: it's like taking the world seriously. I wouldn't say it's
Speaker 1: narratively different. I've cut some more dramatic short films that
Speaker 1: maybe I've been asked to help out with or you know,
Speaker 1: but they've not really taken off the way. I feel
Speaker 1: like some of my comedic stuff as more of just
Speaker 1: because a dramatic short is really hard to stand out
Speaker 1: unless it's got some two people talking on an emotional
Speaker 1: arc is really nice and sweet. But for short content
Speaker 1: and short short narrative, you would definitely want to make
Speaker 1: something happen. I think. I think comedies generally, even if
Speaker 1: they're sort of slapstick and silly, they sort of have
Speaker 1: more of that. So I and I think also just
Speaker 1: being a part of the world of what you put out,
Speaker 1: as you know, I think people ask you for what
Speaker 1: you've already done. Hey, you did that thing, Can you
Speaker 1: do that again? For me? So I think that more
Speaker 1: than anything which is which is honestly the biggest lesson
Speaker 1: to learn. You know, if you start putting stuff out,
Speaker 1: people are going to see that and go When they
Speaker 1: react and respond, they're going to say, great, I want
Speaker 1: more of that. They are not necessarily going to say
Speaker 1: what else can you do? Or what else would you
Speaker 1: like to be doing? So, you know, something to keep
Speaker 1: in mind. I think, like I've and talk to a
Speaker 1: bunch of people throughout my career, they're like, I'm stuck
Speaker 1: in this corner. When I was young, that was reality.
Speaker 1: It was don't go into reality. If you go in,
Speaker 1: you'll never you'll never get out. And I had a
Speaker 1: couple of friends that like they fell in because they
Speaker 1: needed a job or whatever reason, and then they spent
Speaker 1: like five or six years and we're like, I gotta
Speaker 1: get out of here. It's toxic. So yeah, I don't really,
Speaker 1: I don't think I you know, I'll take never changes
Speaker 1: is a good example. Like we treat the characters in
Speaker 1: the world and the silliness of the world though it's
Speaker 1: as if it's serious. We really don't try and parse
Speaker 1: out when it's being irreverent and silly and when it's
Speaker 1: being serious, because I don't think we want to indicate
Speaker 1: that we want to make people believe that the world
Speaker 1: is existing in front of them sort of everything seriously.
Speaker 3: So obviously you probably had more than thirty six hours
Speaker 3: to work on Never Change. But when were you brought
Speaker 3: into the project? Was still in the writing phase? Was
Speaker 3: it already shooting? Where were you at?
Speaker 1: So Marty Scasbow the director, and John Renlll the writer
Speaker 1: and star, and Marty was the story writer as well
Speaker 1: on it. So they'd been working on the project for
Speaker 1: about five years. And Marty and I are very good friends.
Speaker 1: Like I said earlier, we cut a season, we cut
Speaker 1: three seasons of Joe Para Talks with You, an adult
Speaker 1: swim show together, and so you know, we've spent years
Speaker 1: and years in the editing room already, and he is
Speaker 1: the director and the editor of all of that whole series.
Speaker 1: And then also have Never Changed. So we just have
Speaker 1: a really good rapport and way of working. He really
Speaker 1: trusts me, obviously, and so I'd been talking to him
Speaker 1: about this project for a bunch of years because I
Speaker 1: was his friend and we were I was watching him
Speaker 1: go through the pitching process and they pitched it as
Speaker 1: a TV show. It didn't go. That was right before
Speaker 1: the strike, so it was sort of like nothing was happening.
Speaker 1: And then after the strike, they took it back out
Speaker 1: as a movie and Hulu green lit it, and then
Speaker 1: it took you know, I think even then it took
Speaker 1: almost a year and a half to like make all
Speaker 1: the deals and have everything happen and then get in
Speaker 1: the production slot at American High which was where it
Speaker 1: was shot up in Syracuse. There's a production company that
Speaker 1: has a high school that they use for filming movies
Speaker 1: and they have a deal with Hulu to do that.
Speaker 1: So it was sort of a lot of things that
Speaker 1: had to happen to like get it on the schedule.
Speaker 1: And I was talking to Marty through the whole thing,
Speaker 1: just because we're good buddies, and we're also sort of like, okay,
Speaker 1: what's you know, if this doesn't happen, what else are
Speaker 1: we working on? And what are you working on? And
Speaker 1: we keep each other a little bit accountable in that way,
Speaker 1: which is nice to have a buddy to do that with.
Speaker 1: And then when the movie actually started to happen and
Speaker 1: he's like prepping for going to do prep and be
Speaker 1: in Syracuse to shoot, I'm tasked with figuring out how
Speaker 1: the post is going to work and sort of giving
Speaker 1: him my best. You know, he trusts me a lot.
Speaker 1: In season three, Joe Para, we didn't want to go
Speaker 1: to a post house. We just found an apartment and
Speaker 1: I built us a server, and you know, we built
Speaker 1: out an apartment as if it was our space because
Speaker 1: we knew we were going to be there for almost
Speaker 1: a year. We wanted a really comfortable place. So in
Speaker 1: the same vein, it's figuring out all of the the
Speaker 1: who are the vendors and the places that we're keeping
Speaker 1: our footage ad and who are our post vendors going
Speaker 1: to be in terms of mix and color and v
Speaker 1: effects and all that is done through our post supervising
Speaker 1: team and the producers. And then as soon as they
Speaker 1: started shooting, I started cutting is on for a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks before the production and then production the union
Speaker 1: rules that you know, you start the day that like,
Speaker 1: you can't start for some reason before that, and so
Speaker 1: I started the day of production, and then I went
Speaker 1: throughout the whole production working and Marty and I had
Speaker 1: talked like our timeline was very short. You said more
Speaker 1: than thirty six hours. We did have more than thirty
Speaker 1: six hours, but it wasn't much more. This was shot
Speaker 1: September to October, end of October last year, so the
Speaker 1: last day of production was like right around Halloween and
Speaker 1: then it's on TV next week, which is a very
Speaker 1: very very fast turn for a full feature shelf. So
Speaker 1: we we knew we had to go very fast, and
Speaker 1: going very fast meant I had to work really fast
Speaker 1: in the prep to, you know, while I was alone,
Speaker 1: to just put everything up on its feet. And so
Speaker 1: a week after production wrapped, I had a full cut
Speaker 1: of the movie that was two hours and forty five minutes,
Speaker 1: and it was sort of everything that every scene and
Speaker 1: every even bit in every scene like an attempt. Okay,
Speaker 1: you guys improvised this on the day. I thought this
Speaker 1: was funny. I'm gonna include this in the scene just
Speaker 1: to see, Okay, we're gonna chop half of this out,
Speaker 1: you know, we we sort of know that. But what
Speaker 1: is going to tickle Marty and John as they watch
Speaker 1: it for the first time, even though those first watches
Speaker 1: for directors and writers are awful of getting over all
Speaker 1: of the production problems and that they see in every
Speaker 1: single frame, that all the compromises that you have to make,
Speaker 1: and then So then Marty and I worked through November
Speaker 1: and December, and the director's cut was like the end
Speaker 1: the you know, just at Christmas time, so really really
Speaker 1: short time. I think it was about six or seven
Speaker 1: weeks for them. And then we worked until the end
Speaker 1: of February to locke and then did score, BFCS, sound
Speaker 1: design and color between March April May and now and
Speaker 1: here we are, Oh, is.
Speaker 2: It working with a director who's also an editor.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's awesome. That's the other thing I think, Like
Speaker 1: I'm also a director. We can think about things and
Speaker 1: there's plenty of disagreements. There's plenty of And then John
Speaker 1: was also in the room with us, the writer and star,
Speaker 1: so we all are sitting in a room. At first,
Speaker 1: we actually we started remote. It took you know, Marty
Speaker 1: was remote just to go through all that footage. Takes
Speaker 1: about a month to rego through everything and sort of
Speaker 1: choose his versions of things, because while he is the director, he,
Speaker 1: like you said, he's also the editor, so he also
Speaker 1: wants cracks at things that I might have not done
Speaker 1: in the way that he was dreaming it or the
Speaker 1: way that they had planned it, just because you know,
Speaker 1: and you have grand ambitions to sort of talk regularly,
Speaker 1: and then production happens and things run behind, and you
Speaker 1: just you start to like lose that time between post
Speaker 1: and production. I think at least on something that's this ambitious,
Speaker 1: this and this short sort of turnaround, and then working
Speaker 1: with him as an editor is we're very very verse
Speaker 1: to it because we did, like I said, those three
Speaker 1: seasons of TV together and that was a lot, a lot,
Speaker 1: a lot of time. So I think that was you know,
Speaker 1: eleven episodes in the first season and fourteen episodes in
Speaker 1: the second, and then another ten and the third that
Speaker 1: we really three and a half four years of working together.
Speaker 1: We generally just like, make what are we doing today?
Speaker 1: Who's doing what? Who's gonna work? Are we gonna work separately?
Speaker 1: Are we going to work together? You know? Are there
Speaker 1: things that I need to get ahead on because we're
Speaker 1: sort of looking down at a great roll before next Friday,
Speaker 1: We've got to tackle this whole section. So maybe what
Speaker 1: you jump ahead and do that, and then I'm gonna
Speaker 1: work with John because writer, director and other editor they
Speaker 1: can make decisions that are like, Okay, what do we
Speaker 1: think is the funniest take here? And then I'm sort
Speaker 1: of advancing stuff. So it's a big sort of just
Speaker 1: a circular look at what you need to do and
Speaker 1: how much time you need to do it.
Speaker 3: How are you able to stay organized with all these
Speaker 3: moving pieces.
Speaker 1: We stay organized with our assistant editor, Christy Fariso, who
Speaker 1: is also an SNL editor. She's still at USNL. I left,
Speaker 1: you know, in twenty twenty, but she's been there since then.
Speaker 1: We met there and then she and I stole that
Speaker 1: organization and I use that we cut on premiere, so
Speaker 1: I organized through through premiere. We sort of Christy and
Speaker 1: I discuss how we want to organize the project at
Speaker 1: the very beginning, and then she is actually in charge
Speaker 1: of that, so she takes all the dailies and then
Speaker 1: cuts everything and organizes it. And then when I get it,
Speaker 1: it's really just the scene material, and that's organized by scene.
Speaker 1: We do these things called line by lines, which is
Speaker 1: basically we take every scene and we cut every performance
Speaker 1: of a single line and we sort of combine them
Speaker 1: all so that we can use our time later instead of, hey,
Speaker 1: we need all the whats from this response. I just
Speaker 1: want to see all the whats, like all fifteen of
Speaker 1: these instead of okay, great, I need to go cut
Speaker 1: all those together. We do that on the front end,
Speaker 1: and it takes Christy a really long time. I think
Speaker 1: it took her three full months to do the whole movie,
Speaker 1: but it saves so much time on the back end
Speaker 1: that we've really learned that, Like it's an essential part
Speaker 1: of how we like to work, because you're then, you know,
Speaker 1: you're up against a Locke later in February, and you're
Speaker 1: scrambling to go, oh, we've got to swap this, and
Speaker 1: we want to swap this, or you're just watching something
Speaker 1: and it just feels wrong. Suddenly I've watched this one
Speaker 1: hundred times and it's not making me laugh anymore, which
Speaker 1: is a nervous and dangerous impulse to indulge. But those
Speaker 1: line by lines really help us, and so she is
Speaker 1: really the first line of defense in terms of organization there.
Speaker 1: And then for me, as I added, it's daily revisions
Speaker 1: of the sequence and duplication in that way and naming
Speaker 1: like that, because we're constantly we are going, shit, no,
Speaker 1: we got that cut, We did that thing, and it
Speaker 1: was in this cut, and that was two weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and now we have to refer back to something. So
Speaker 1: that does happen a lot where you're sort of calling
Speaker 1: back to want to find something that you made before,
Speaker 1: and then like sound design, sound effects, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: I work in Adobe After Effects to like make previs
Speaker 1: visual effects for our visual effects artists, and I love
Speaker 1: doing that. We time everything out in our edit and together,
Speaker 1: so sort of not spending the dollars that we would
Speaker 1: with like maybe a previz artist. We do that together
Speaker 1: Marty and I and then we finalize the timing and
Speaker 1: the blocking of how we want things to look, and
Speaker 1: then we ship that off to our our visual effects artists,
Speaker 1: Dylan and so all that is just it's honestly just,
Speaker 1: it's like mostly diligence. It's mostly saying if I don't
Speaker 1: stay organized, I will be so mad at myself because
Speaker 1: you're just you're up against being like how do I
Speaker 1: need to find this thing? And I can't find it
Speaker 1: and that's unacceptable late in the game. As soon as
Speaker 1: you do that and it burns you, you will you
Speaker 1: remember to stay organized.
Speaker 3: I think with a picture that is this slight, are
Speaker 3: you able to do any sort of previews or get
Speaker 3: any sort of feedback from audiences just to.
Speaker 2: Make those final adjustments.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we it was so fast this timeline that we
Speaker 1: didn't really have time for a public preview. I think
Speaker 1: we would have all really welcomed it. There was a
Speaker 1: couple moments that I think we wish we had two
Speaker 1: or three more weeks. We would have really loved to
Speaker 1: iron out. And I love the movie and I love
Speaker 1: to where it got, but ultimately there are moments that
Speaker 1: just got cut out. Maybe for the duration. That helps
Speaker 1: the duration. It's not a long movie, but like people
Speaker 1: always say, faster, funnier and stuff. We did have one
Speaker 1: screening that we got to show sort of Friends and Family,
Speaker 1: and that happened, and we still had about a month
Speaker 1: of work left. I was just talking to one of
Speaker 1: the actors actually a couple of minutes ago, and we were
Speaker 1: both at the premiere and he was at the Friends
Speaker 1: and Family screening, and he was saying, oh my god,
Speaker 1: since that screening, everything looks and sounds so great, and sure,
Speaker 1: you see that is the It's the hard part of that,
Speaker 1: because you're not if you're still in the rough cut.
Speaker 1: There are just these pieces of the movie that don't
Speaker 1: feel right, and you know they're going to feel right,
Speaker 1: but there's an incredible graphic intro section that our guy
Speaker 1: Dylan did. I did the temp version of that, and
Speaker 1: it's solid, but it's not me spending two or three
Speaker 1: full weeks on just that sequence, and so it's a
Speaker 1: little bit rough around the edges, and so things feel
Speaker 1: just a little maybe less exciting. And the music all
Speaker 1: changed after we locked, so it's asking people to suspend
Speaker 1: that disbelief. And then while it was an informative screening,
Speaker 1: I think ultimately it did help solidify for us. Okay
Speaker 1: in the room, we just need to go with what
Speaker 1: we think is the funniest and try and make sure
Speaker 1: that we feel like we're servicing every storyline appropriately.
Speaker 3: Already, moments before you were at that premiere where you're
Speaker 3: just like, ah, should I change that?
Speaker 1: No? No, Actually, I was really surprised, and like pleasantly surprised.
Speaker 1: There's one moment that I don't like that that I
Speaker 1: don't know if you you know, if you remember it.
Speaker 1: But my voice is in it, my name is in it,
Speaker 1: So I say high, I'm Witt Conway in the movie.
Speaker 1: And we were in the mix a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and I was like, guys, like, if we could change this,
Speaker 1: like I would be okay with that, and so it's
Speaker 1: more of like a cringe of like the audience isn't
Speaker 1: gonna know who I am. But John was really laughing
Speaker 1: at that, like, no, people are gonna look your name
Speaker 1: up and then they're gonna laugh because they're gonna like
Speaker 1: he edited the movie like sort of a confusing joke.
Speaker 1: So that was really the only one. I was like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was anticipating with a little bit of anxiety, going
Speaker 1: like I don't know if this is going to play,
Speaker 1: but that moment plays really well, and so my name
Speaker 1: is sort of a footnote at in terms of where
Speaker 1: that moment comes up. And I actually I saw that
Speaker 1: I was reading a review yesterday and saw that that
Speaker 1: was called out specif of like this is how schools
Speaker 1: are now. That was really the only one. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was so fun after so many months of seeing it
Speaker 1: with three people or four people in a room, to
Speaker 1: see it with four hundred and fifty people laughing was
Speaker 1: so satisfying.
Speaker 2: Do you already have your next gig lined up?
Speaker 1: I've been writing some stuff and I'm trying to take
Speaker 1: something out to pitch to write, and I've got a
Speaker 1: movie that I am that I am trying to pitch
Speaker 1: a movie that I wrote and then a pilot that
Speaker 1: I wrote. So I am trying to do that thing
Speaker 1: of you know. Even at the premiere party, I was
Speaker 1: asked I was talking to one of the producers. He goes,
Speaker 1: what do you have next? I said, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: do the thing not of keeping people guessing, and show
Speaker 1: people a script I wrote. And that's something that you know,
Speaker 1: I've written for years and years and years, and I
Speaker 1: have put my own writing aside to work with other
Speaker 1: people that I admire for a really long time. So
Speaker 1: it's time now for me to trust myself and trust
Speaker 1: that I've got something to say and a way to
Speaker 1: say it. And so I'm excited about that aspect. So
Speaker 1: try and go take something out and then find some money,
Speaker 1: find someone who believes in it, and direct something. Is
Speaker 1: there a good.
Speaker 3: Place for people to keep up with you online?
Speaker 1: My Instagram handle is Whitney Christopher, which is mostly a
Speaker 1: social justice account and then partially never change account, and
Speaker 1: I do post what I'm working on there, but mostly
Speaker 1: it's me angry about what is happening in the world
Speaker 1: right now. And then my website is wit Conway dot com.
Speaker 1: If people can see what I've worked on there, and
Speaker 1: hopefully I'll have something to talk about here in the
Speaker 1: next couple months.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's the line. If you're not angry, you're not
Speaker 2: paying attention. That's exactly Mike.
Speaker 3: Mister Conway, thank you so much for your time. This
Speaker 3: is so great talking with you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Mike. I really appreciate it, and
Speaker 1: I hope everybody enjoys the movie Never Change. It'll be
Speaker 1: on Hulu on June seventeenth. We found your words.
Speaker 3: When you talk, you two care a lot.
Speaker 1: We've fin a peanut butter and yelling that you get
Speaker 1: on your road, but never eat. We spilled be and
Speaker 1: bottles and when.
Speaker 3: We played your graduation.
Speaker 1: Party we had falling comrades. We just rebuilt the team.
Speaker 3: Our friends are rich and we love him because it
Speaker 3: makes us look. Welcome to shit.
Speaker 1: I still got a stock kick going with a crack
Speaker 1: in the fucking three man. We were your favorite quotes.
Speaker 1: I'm the first person to know about these guys had
Speaker 1: pulled Ben. We dance to use to me by Bill
Speaker 1: Winners and a trunk and stilper until my hearing celt
Speaker 1: and go on the fuck home and kick us out.
Speaker 1: We make mistakes, we love, we hate him. We're not
Speaker 1: angry any more though, UD still still love you like
Speaker 1: a fluck hated sauce, and we're still your heroes.