What A Rebel!
Welcome to “What A Rebel!”, the podcast that delves into the spirited minds and fearless hearts of creative changemakers.
In each episode, I’ll sit down with a guest who embodies the essence of a rebel. We will talk about their lives, experiences, and the transformative work they’re doing. These conversations will leave listeners inspired and motivated to embrace the rebel within themselves!
“What A Rebel!” is a front-row seat into the world of artists, entrepreneurs and visionaries who make their own rules and have chosen the road less travelled.
What A Rebel!
Unleashing Creativity with Nanou Matteson: From Writing Retreats to Film Production
Nanou Matteson takes us on a journey through her evolution from literature and film student to becoming a writing coach, script writer and film producer extraordinaire.
Her unique approach has carved out spaces where creativity blooms, be it through her one-on-one coaching, her own script development and collaborations, or the bucolic charm of her writers' retreats that inspire attendees to push past their creative blocks and reach new levels of storytelling prowess.
Nanou delves into the heart of coaching writers and her techniques that inspire them across genres, and she shares how her embrace of virtual coaching has allowed her to connect with an even wider circle of creatives. Whether her clients are penning the next great American novel or scripting a gripping screenplay, her insights are the guiding star for navigating personal expression and technical finesse.
Switching gears, we're given a front-row seat to the behind-the-scenes magic of film and film production. Nanou discusses her hands-on experiences, from the emotional resonance in cinematic storytelling to the practical challenges she faces on set. The conversation wraps with a nod to human creativity amidst the advent of AI in filmmaking, the joys of showing a film to an actual live audience, and the importance of all-in collaboration that turn a script into an on-screen reality.
Join us for this fascinating conversation with Nanou and to find out more about her go to www.nanoumatteson.com
For more information about Lisa and to see her art and design, check out lisamazurstudio.com
Instagram: @lisamazur_art_design
Facebook: facebook.com/lisa.mazur.14
Hi, I'm Lisa Mazur and this is what a Rebel. So today I'm talking with Nanu Madison, who is a writing coach, script consultant and film producer, and she's a super busy lady and she's currently working on a range of different projects. And she's currently working on a range of different projects. There's a writer's retreat in June of this year in Provence, ongoing work coaching writers. She's also working on a few scripts, some Christmas stories and a thriller a la Jordan Peele looking at the issue of immigration, and that's a collaboration with two other creatives and they'll be shooting this in 2025. So welcome, nanu.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:I'm so happy to have you on and discuss what you're up to Do. You want to just tell us about how you got into all this filmmaking, writing and coaching writers and all of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely think a story has always been important to me, you know, as a little kid reading books and then studying in college I minored in film. I think being able to connect to people and their stories and, for me, stories about transformation. So I think just going on that journey and then foreign film was also really exciting to me. I studied Italian film and French film and German filmmaking and I got to study those languages too. So I think the opening up the world of geographically, but also the world of all different sorts of people, that was really exciting to me. I've always been a writer. Right out of college I was an editor on a newspaper and so meshing my writing with filmmaking as a screenwriter. That took years to develop but I finally got there as a screenwriter.
Speaker 1:That took years to develop, but I finally got there. So when you were in college you studied writing and then you transitioned to filmmaking.
Speaker 2:I studied. I had a minor in film, yeah, and then a literature major, oh amazing.
Speaker 1:I know you've been doing your writer's retreats in Provence for many years, so you have one coming up. So what was the idea behind starting that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, great question. So I have done a lot of different kinds of retreats. I started off doing screenwriting retreats with a professor from UCLA Kind of brought me on board Chetlick, wonderful guy, and um, we taught screenwriting in different places Italy, france, you know and then, um a pause while I started making my own movies. And then now my sister and I are offering these writing retreats she's also a writer, fabulous writer, elizabeth Stark and we write, we offer these together. And so the last year we did it in Provence and we're going right back to that same amazing place.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, I know I was looking at photos and it looks stunning, isn't it?
Speaker 2:I mean, it's just amazing, and it was what I I wanted to kind of test my theory that if people are away from their day-to-day chores and if they have enough support in the form of guidance from teachers, all amazing meals being prepared for them, being in a beautiful place, um, and community being in community of writers, how much work could they get done. Yeah, and it's phenomenal, how much all right done. I'm gonna an um, non-fiction book proposal from start to finish, a rewrite of a second draft of a novel, an entire screenplay in a week oh, wow, in a week, and it's just. You know, my theory is that anybody can be creative. They just need the right environment, and so it's really fun to think about what's an amazing environment for writers to thrive.
Speaker 1:Well, that sounds incredible. I would. I think, yeah, provence would inspire a lot of people. Yeah, and it's true, cause even like with painting, like visual arts, like getting away and having that time is just, it's such a different experience. I love going to retreats for that reason, cause it's it's really hard to carve that time out for yourself. It really is.
Speaker 2:It's hard. We're split in so many different directions. And what happens is, you know, with writers, they just feel bad about themselves because they're not writing enough. Yeah Right, rather than looking at what would be an amazing supportive environment in order to get to do the writing, you know, look at Virginia Wolfe's book many years ago A Room of One's Own. She posited many years ago, all you need is this, but not only all you need. You have to have something like that. You have to have whatever your baseline is for what you need. And Provence draws me because my mother used to have a music school that she did with her sister, oh, in the south of france oh my goodness I grew up going there in the summer that's really inspiring.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I find it interesting that you also coach so many different types of writers. Screen, you say it's filmmakers, there's novelists. I've always worked with writers of all sorts.
Speaker 2:Even in college I was editing a friend's work who was writing her PhD dissertation. I feel like it just have always and that wasn't my um milieu, but I was able to bring in a clarity to that. So I think there's lots of different levels of coaching. There's what does the writer need in terms of themselves, in terms of getting through blocks? You know our theme for our retreat this year is getting unstuck, and so you know how is a writer blocked, and so you know how is a writer blocked. I had a wonder. I was working with a wonderful writer who was a professor at Cal who, you know, published her parish. So she really had to get this book done and she had gotten about three quarters of the way through and then she just had this block about it. And so I was working with her, not about her subject matter. Clearly she was an expert in her subject matter and not even in the the form of her writing, like she was a really good writer. Just, I worked with her on how to get unstuck, how to get unblocked in her writing, and it was a very simple and easy and fun little fix which was set up a time, you know every, whenever she was going to her office and make it a beautiful place, do something that was that her mind associated with the treat, and so, on her way, she bought flowers for her office and she bought herself a hot chocolate and she got the rest of that book done in two weeks and she'd been in. It had been a six month backlog. So you know, I work on that level of what do you need, right, what do you need, you know?
Speaker 2:Um, very often, uh, people their first idea if something's not working is that they have to change, that they're doing something wrong. And um years ago my sister and I used to teach writing together and we read this book called Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgan Stern, and she was helping people organize their homes, and people approached that process with a very similar idea of doing something wrong. So she gave this wonderful example of a guy coming home from work and just dropping his briefcase and his coat at the door. And you know it was a mess, but that was the most he could do after a long day of work and what he felt he should do was to hang it up in the hall, closet down the hall. But it wasn't right there, it was down the hall. And so, you know, he gave himself a talking to. He was like I've really got to get on this. This is ridiculous, it's messy, I don't like it. And so for the first three days after work he'd force himself to go and hang up his coat in the hall closet. But then, a hard day at work, a late meeting, he comes home, bam, same process, coat on the floor and julie morgan stern said look at what you're already doing and see if you can transform that into something that will work for you and so for her.
Speaker 2:With working this guy, with this guy, put a coat rack there, don't make yourself change. See what can support you and how can you do, how can you be you even more. And so very often when I'm working with writers on the level of what do you need it's, they'll tell me their problem, they'll tell me what and within that is the solution really. And but most people go, you know to. Oh, you know I, really I, you know I. I tend to only work, you know, late. I start to write late at night and you know it doesn't really work for me. I should really set my alarm for 5 am and get up, then it's like no, you work at night. Yeah, what could make that work for you?
Speaker 1:so, um, it's very funny that I said you'll notice how many people think they need to change in order to do things better so much of that is like mindset shift and mindset coaching, right, that kind of filters, as you you said, into lots of different aspects of our lives. Do you find that a lot of your coaching centers around that?
Speaker 2:I'd say 10 to 20% of every person I see has some need for that. But that then we start to split into kind of writing technique, and then that's, you know, somebody is doing fiction, whether it's prose or screenwriting. Then story structure comes into play. And I really know a lot about story structure. I've taught that for many years and I really really love it. And then or it's, you know, nonfiction. Then I'm coming with my, just like my editor head.
Speaker 1:On the retreats you have people from all over the world come.
Speaker 2:Mostly all over the country America, I mean, we teach it in English. I've had, I've had people come from France and people come from Italy and England, but we teach in English.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to hear the results of that.
Speaker 2:Me too. I'm so excited and the community that's formed there that's another aspect of Retreat which I didn't mention is community. It's so amazing to have the support of writers. We do readings also and that's super fun. We did something last year which was new, which is since we had people from all different genres in screenwriting um workshops and retreats. Everybody takes a part of the story and they read a character, and in audiobooks they do that with prose, fiction, where they will take a character, and so we did that in our retreat with with prose, which was really fun oh, that's just sounds like a week of fun and beauty beauty is so key.
Speaker 2:yeah, who knew it's just so important? I'm doing a little book on writing retreats. I'm just writing up, kind of my our little experiments on how it works and what's important about it. And it's funny how often I go back to beauty and how important that is. The house where we are is just so gorgeous and the way the meals are presented. And then you know that European aesthetic I think that's a good thing, it's like getting out. You know, I think America tends to be very work oriented. I was like this is the most important thing and we cross over into Europe and then aesthetics become really important, and beauty and how we live our life that's funny.
Speaker 1:I was just listening to an audiobook. It's called 4,000 weeks and it was really highlighting the American, the thing that we do of feeling like we always have to work. But it was comparing that also to Europeans, where it's very different. It's like your life is not just all about work exactly, and I mean just, I mean for me.
Speaker 2:I grew up living both in France and in the United States. As soon as I step off the plane in, you know, charles de Gaulle, in Paris it's like ah, I get to live a different way.
Speaker 1:It's really, really wonderful. That's great. I'm so happy that you're doing that. Yeah, let's talk about coaching of writers on an ongoing basis. You coach, I have a lot of clients. Do you meet with them? Do you zoom?
Speaker 2:very, very often, because I have clients all over the country. So, uh, zoom has become the way. Before 2020, really, I mean, I was maybe 2019, we were starting with zoom, but before that it was in person, everything was in person. But but then, you know, during 2020, we really expanded and now I have clients in New York and Texas, philadelphia. It's wonderful, it's really great.
Speaker 1:Just the same zone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1:I feel like it's such a gift to be able to connect that way. And I mean, once you get used to the technology, it's like the easiest thing to do.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about your um the projects you're working on right now. You said two Christmas stories and then the thriller that you're collaborating with some other people on.
Speaker 2:I'm always working on a script. That is something that's really important to me. I try. I feel like it keeps me sharp as a writing teacher as well, not just as a writer, because I am aware of some of the aspects that my clients come up against and I'm not just, you know, spouting theories without practicing it. So I'm always working on and it's just good for me.
Speaker 2:And so I was listening to a podcast in I guess it was December, and the guy who was speaking said we always need Christmas movies. There's just a perennial need for Christmas movies. And I thought, oh my gosh, I think I can knock out a Christmas movie in a month. And I did. I just wrote it and it was really fun. It's called Christmas in Law and it's a bride's first Christmas with her husband's family and the family's trying to break them up. So you know, we got tension, we've got it's just, it's fun, it's sweet, it was so easy to write, it was just wonderful. And then I'm writing another one with an actress in mind who I worked with before, who's an Academy Award winning actress and I really like working with her, and I thought I'll just write another project for her. Oh, amazing, and that's set in New York and she's a fashion icon in her 90s and then she has her family come to stay and she doesn't want them to stay with her, with the little brats and the little you know.
Speaker 1:So you're working on these two scripts and then, so what do you do? Do you submit them to Producers?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, or agents who are interested in having that, and then I wait. Anyway, that's the fun, um. And then the third one that you mentioned, the kind of thriller, uh horror a la Jordan Peele we're looking at, um, the issue of immigration. Uh, one of One of the people I'm working with is from South America and has lived that immigration experience, and my mother was born in Belgium, so I really have that experience also of somebody who's not born in this country and how that works. I mean, it's such a silly story. But when I lived in Chicago we lived in these beautiful Romyce Vander Row buildings right across from Lake Michigan, and our first day there we were coming in the front door with this gorgeous glass and steel building it's just stunning. And my mother said, excuse me, where is the elevator? And they said, oh no, the maid, the help has to go around the back, like oh my god, I mean it's just you know how to not feel wanted.
Speaker 2:And we're going a step further. We're looking at agricultural exploitation, and you know what horror a la Jordan Peele can do is really look at a social issue and heighten it yes, and expose, you know, what's being done to the people who are marginalized, and so we felt like it was a good story to tell and an important one, and you know we, so the people I'm working with are also two writers and two producers as well. They're, they're and director, like we've all done about the same kind of stuff, and so we're just going to do a collaboration in writing, producing, directing One of them is an individual individual, so he'll be in it have you started um like casting and doing location?
Speaker 1:no, first.
Speaker 2:First is the script, always the story first. So we do this. I mean, in my, with the christmas movie, I just have this person in mind, and so I I always, I often have, um, an actor in mind, even if that actor doesn't come through, because it's nice to write to someone real and concrete. It's too easy to get completely lost in one's imagination. Yeah, so it gives us a grounding, and we'll be shooting in Sonoma County, so it's going to just be a blast.
Speaker 2:There's nothing like being on set at the during the filming of a movie. It is incredible. You know, it's almost like you know, uh, I don't know, I feel like the big bang here. It's like it's all these elements coming together that are disparate and suddenly they make a hole and you come out with a movie. Even in the process you know we're doing short bits of short scenes out of order and you just don't know what it's going to be. And then the editor makes it. And I learned when I was in school. My professor said once you've written the script, once you've shot the movie, your script now is the footage for the editing. So you're really making the movie three times when you're writing the script, when you're shooting the movie and when you're editing yeah, editing can um change things profoundly, right.
Speaker 1:I mean, you have to have the right editor that's on the same page as you, and yes, totally, and and or giving a different perspective which is also really more.
Speaker 2:You know, I think that's the great thing about collaboration is that you have people who speak the same language. In a sense, you know the language of film, the language of story and the language of character and then give a different perspective on it. You know actors can bring so much to a script, so we do a table read and we listen to what the actors bring. And then there are rewrites because, oh, the way they said that I saw this in a new way. It's, it's really exciting. I don't know if you saw the Academy.
Speaker 1:I did yes.
Speaker 2:But you know what Emma Stone was saying about this is a collaboration. It's just. You really can't do anything without everybody bringing their A-game.
Speaker 1:You know, if the props person forgets something, it's. You know I love the being open to different perspectives. If you're not open to that and you're sort of like digging your heels in, that's when it gets hard, and you know, things may not turn out as well.
Speaker 2:And at the same time, one has to know when to hold the line on a story point. I feel like in you know a couple of projects I saw myself not doing that and every time I see the movie I think oh.
Speaker 1:I should have said something.
Speaker 2:You know, and I think there's just a balance. It's a balance that's new every time and, I think, a balance in life, like where do you say no, I'm holding the line, and where do you say I really want your opinion and I, yes. Let's take that and change things.
Speaker 1:Your work is filmmaking. That's what your personal favorite thing to do is.
Speaker 2:I would say really writing. I like it, I really love it all and I think everything feeds everything and, um, I mean, I, I am a filmmaker, I am a screen writer, like that is that really informs my filmmaking and my filmmaking informs my screenwriting. And then I feel a strong commitment to helping people be creative, and so it really is all. It's all the same thing.
Speaker 1:I was wondering, as I'm exploring, like in visual art, different technologies for AI that's being, you know, developed and offered to for so many different creative professions. Have you thought about, I don't know, how that could change your, the way that you do things, or have you explored any of that technology yourself?
Speaker 2:I haven't personally, but a friend of mine is actually giving a talk, a workshop, on it on Saturday, and one of the three people that we're collaborating that I'm collaborating with on the horror film is going to go to that workshop and it's all about how to use AI for filmmaking. I don't know, I just don't know enough about it, and it's a really interesting question. I think it can be used for good and I think it also can ignore what humans can bring. So tricky balance there.
Speaker 1:For every creative, pretty much, well almost everybody, across every profession could have this, help you and also take away maybe some part of the job that you used to do. So how do we evolve with it? Embrace it.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Yeah, I am really curious, and you know I'm not a hater, I'm not ignoring, I'm not going to shun it entirely, and yet I really I wouldn't want the heart of something to be lost. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I do think, as things get easier to use AI, I do think in a lot of ways the human handmade, you know, sort of like that type of thing, is going to be even more valuable. That's what, personally, I think.
Speaker 2:Well, it'll certainly be different, won't it? And I think that's, and what makes a difference, is an interesting question also what makes a thing handmade different than?
Speaker 1:nailing. A lot to discuss there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know, I think I see in movies that people are very, you know, like the tentpole movies, the, you know, the big action movies, the Marvel movies, all of those. Some of them are very, very good and some of them rely on a formula to make them good. And sometimes, I don't know, to me there's story structure which is different than a formula. I don't know there's to me there's story structure which is different than a formula and I'm hoping maybe AI can give us, you know, help with the heart of something, rather than take it away.
Speaker 1:I wanted to ask you what are your favorite films? Oh my, gosh.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a good question and I never have a good answer for it. You know one I go to a lot because I think, because I think it came to me at an influential moment. There were a couple. One is the Bicycle Thief. It's an Italian neorealist movie and it was an early one that really focused on character and the emotions of someone. I mean, many, many, many movies have done that, but that was one that really struck me.
Speaker 2:And then, um, kind of in the more fantastical vein, another foreign movie is jean cocteau's beauty and the beast, and it's really spectacular what he did in the 40s with creating a fantastical world and, and I feel like the, the theme is a really beautiful theme in that one, um, because the, the beauty is in love with this man and the beast at the end turns into the man that she's in love with, and what I love about that is it really feels to me that you know, she was able to get her highest ideal of something not just kind of second best. Anyway, so yeah, it's a beautiful story. It's a beautiful story really, really well done filmically. I guess you know to take it to this year, my two favorite of the Academy Award nominees I'd say would be American Fiction. That was really really well done. The acting was superb and Past Lives I also really like.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen either one of those, but they are on my list. We're in the process of watching Poor Things, but yeah, that's an amazing film in itself. That's pretty, it's. I always love when films like that get made because they're so not ordinary. The story is strange, but really beautiful at the same time. Those are my favorite types of film.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm. I'm also executive producing a queer 90s road movie, so it's a period piece because it's the 90s, so long ago. You know the queer world at the time and a discovery, a journey like an emotional personal journey and a journey across the country to the Midwest, the heartland oh wow, that sounds great. Yeah, it's really, really fun. I worked with the writer. She wrote the novel and then she transformed it into a screenplay and I helped her with that process and just so fell in love with it. I said you know, come on as executive producer and try and help get funding. So, but we're in the help get funding stage, which can go on for a long time. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can imagine there's probably like ways that you go about getting funding.
Speaker 2:Is it like just connecting with people? You know it depends on the project, with some projects and the ideal ways that you get distribution. First somebody says you know, if you make this movie, I can distribute it and I can, you know, put it into these markets, and so that means that very likely you'll get about this much money back. And then, if somebody knows that they're happy to put that money in, yeah, so that's my favorite way. Yeah, yeah, because then it's kind of guaranteed. That's a really that's my favorite way. Yeah, yeah, because then it's kind of guaranteed. Jean Renoir, who was the son of the painter, he was a filmmaker and he used to pre-sell tickets. You know, in the I don't know, maybe he had, maybe he was in the 30s, 1930s He'd pre-sell tickets to his movies so that he could get, oh, it's so smart.
Speaker 1:It is smart, like, why don't we do that? Yeah, exactly, I guess the thing is you have to. I mean, a lot of the cost is getting it made right, so that's what you're funding Exactly.
Speaker 2:I mean he did it before he made it. Oh, I see he had a reputation. People knew he was going to make a good movie. Here's the 30 people are paying like $2 for whatever it costs, maybe 10 cents, and then he had enough money to make his movie.
Speaker 1:I think that's a great, great way. I was just thinking about in the Academy Awards, when the director of American Fiction I can't remember his, his name was talking about how, you know, I wish film studios would take on projects like this, that's, you know, like what did he say? Like for a $10 million film instead of a $40 million film? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:He said you know, what they put into these big blockbuster movies is 200 million.
Speaker 1:Yes, 200 million, and he's like how they put into these big blockbuster movies is 200 million.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly 200 million. And he's like how about? You know? How about 24 million? You know 54 million.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right, and we can do 20 of those instead of just.
Speaker 2:What I think he doesn't understand is that the way Hollywood accounting works is that they can lose a lot of money on a big project like that and then, when they make an enormous amount of money on another project, they can use the loss from one project to counterbalance. So they're willing to take big risks but not small ones. Yeah, that's, it's too bad. Yeah, but you know, I think that's, that's part of the whole game and that's okay.
Speaker 1:That's why I live in the independent film have you ever worked on a major motion picture like in a studio now? Hasn't been your, not your passion of?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's not my passion, it's not my world, you know they are.
Speaker 2:Now they're trying to open it up to a broader range of people who can work on those things, but it's been pretty, you know, old boys club yeah, there's a lot of industries are, so hopefully that will change as we go along and I think one of the things I really love about producing films I, you know, I graduated um from ucla with my master's in screenwriting and all my friends and I were, like you know, shopping our scripts and I had made a movie in UCLA and then I worked on another movie.
Speaker 2:I found out about a movie that was being made. I said, oh, I'm going to work on that movie and I got like school credit for it and I realized, like where it's happening is the making of the movies, not the shopping of the scripts Writing absolutely, but not shopping the scripts so much. And I said, and I feel like the digital talk about technology, the digital, the advent of digital filmmaking really opened the door wide to so many people who couldn't make movies before. They couldn't afford them, they didn't have the knowledge, they didn't have the skill. So, like it really, really, really made it to the much wider range of people could start making movies. And I said to a friend of mine here who she and I were in a screenwriting class together, I said I really think the goal here and the point is just make movies. We just need to be making our movies. And I said, do you want to produce with me.
Speaker 2:She's like oh my gosh, it's quite a thing. She said, yeah, I do. And she let me think about it for a day. And she did, and she said let's do it. Two days later, somebody called us up and asked us would you produce our short? You know, it just comes right to your feet. Everybody's always wanting you to produce a movie because it's a, it's a big project to produce them. I was just talking to my cousin who's a filmmaker, and I just agreed to produce his short.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, yeah, I mean it's really fun working with people. So when you, when you're a producer, what is, what's your role?
Speaker 2:so the producer has, you know, many. There are many different kinds of producers and there are different roles for each of them. Um, the, the producer produced by um pretty much takes something from an idea to completion and then beyond to sales. So the idea form is you work on helping develop the story and script. So somebody has an idea and they're writing it. And you read the script and you say you know, I think we could cut that whole character and I don't think it would change the story very much. And they think writing it, and you read the script and you say you know, I think we could cut that whole character and I don't think it would change the story very much. And they think about it and they're like, yeah, you're right, or they say no, I really think this is important and here's why you know, and that's the collaboration.
Speaker 2:And then you start to bring together the team that's going to make the movie and that's pre-production. And then you find locations and you fundraise, you make sure that you have the money and, um, you know, with shorts it's easier, it's it's easy to fund a short. There are a lot of ways to fund shorts. Um, unfortunately, with shorts you need to keep the budget really low, because you don't usually make money back on it. Where it's a feature, you can make your money back. So, hopefully, um and uh. So there's the fundraising, there's the gathering of the team, there's the locations, there's the. Then, when you're shooting the film, it's like you're running a mini company. You know everything has to happen every day. You, you have to make your day, you have to shoot the scenes you thought you were going to shoot, and then so, if the producer has done their job right, everything is kind of lined up and all you're dealing with are emergencies. But they come up almost every day.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm sure they do. So. We had a grip truck which has all the equipment in it, and we were unloading it, and we came out to get some more equipment and somebody had stolen the truck.
Speaker 2:Oh no, we lost half our equipment, and so I'm on the phone calling the other grip truck to come and get and we had to double the equipment, the payment on that, but then eventually insurance covered it was that. It was crazy. That's a day where you still have to shoot five scenes, yes, and you cannot make your day and you can't go over time, because then you're paying everybody. So so much more and you just want a good environment, but the other thing, so there's the stress of that and then, um, I've never really worked in an environment where everybody is so dedicated to doing their best. It's really incredible, because every department has their own pride about how they want to present it and they want to do their best and everybody doing their best is just an incredible, an incredible thing.
Speaker 2:There's a filmmaker who says the most important thing is are you making the same movie? So I'll make sure everybody is making the same movie, because some people are making a comedy, some people think they're making a horror. You know, get everybody. And then, um, there's making sure that the edits and the music and the sound all happen the way they need to happen. That's a um. I feel like that can be a doldrum kind of moment, post-production, because there's not the energy of the day and everybody's doing their tasks kind of on their own.
Speaker 2:So that's a harder. That's a harder phase for me. It's better if I'm in the edit room, but usually the editor likes to do their first pass and anyway. So I I just like collaborative process and it's harder for me to just and I don't like to push people to do things, so I'm not on the phone every day saying, hey, have you done? But that needs to happen. There's a role called post-production supervisor and I love when somebody else can do that. And then there's getting it into film festivals. Going to film festivals, that's again super fun.
Speaker 2:It's really, really amazing to see actors getting their dues, you know, getting awards, and filmmakers getting awards. It's just I love that. And then hearing what people have to say. And I think one of my favorite nights was we were for our premiere, we for one of our films.
Speaker 2:We were in San Joseose at cinequest and it was a very large theater like 1500, 2000 people, and our guest was rita moreno. She was the guest of honor and she was our star and um, and she just spoke so beautifully about her life and about making the movie and then we showed the movie afterwards and you know you're like, oh no. And to have 2000 people laughing at all the right places and sighing at all the right moments is just so exhilarating. It's really incredible. So sharing the movie with other people is just another amazing aspect of it. And then getting distribution and getting your, you know, getting all the platforms we have. I've had theatricals before. I don't know if I would do that again because I don't know where theatricals really are anymore, but whatever, what's that? What's theatrical? It's shown in a movie theater. Like you know, that's how it used to be.
Speaker 2:It was always movie theater first and people would see it, and there's nothing like seeing a movie with so many other people in the theater. Yeah, but now it's really so much more streaming. Yeah, so it's just. Then. It's a matter of getting it on the platforms, which is easier but less exciting. Yeah, like that's the role of the producer, and that is from beginning to end, about three years, it's not a good process.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. I, yeah. I guess I never really thought about all the different roles a producer plays.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're the manager of the project from start to finish, exactly yeah, and and it's very similar, I feel, to being a parent, because I'm just wanting everybody else to shine, I want them to do the best. I want everybody else, I want everybody to have the support they need to do their work.
Speaker 1:And if I'm doing my job well, they don't notice it. I'm like a parent, right? You're just sort of like standing, like looking over everybody and making sure they're doing the right thing.
Speaker 2:Exactly that everything goes smoothly. Yeah, it's a great, it's a wonderful experience, though I really, I really wish for everybody to have a creative life. I think everybody you know in whatever way are doing. I think everybody you know in whatever way are doing, and if they and they would like to, they just need to look at what do they need as opposed to what are they doing wrong.
Speaker 1:I absolutely agree with that. Everybody should have creativity in their life. That's what this podcast is about. Actually, that's what I wanted to focus on people who are creatives and are like spreading that amazement in the world.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's wonderful, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1:That's so great. I love that. Yeah Well, Nanu, thank you so much for this conversation. It's so great to hear all of the different things you do and I can't wait to hear all about the retreat, all the writing you're doing and the producing. So thank you so much. And why don't you share with everybody where they can find out more about you and contact you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, just on my website. It's nanumadisoncom and the spelling is N-A-N-O-U-M-A-T-T-E-S-O-N. N-a-n-o-u-m-a-t-t-e-s-o-n.
Speaker 1:Okay, I also put your information in the show notes when I published this episode. Thank you, lisa. This was so much fun talking to you, really, really fun. Thanks so much, my pleasure. Thank you for listening. This is what a Rebel Podcast. My name is Lisa Mazur. You can find me at lisamazurartcom and on Instagram at Lisa Mazur Art.