Have you ever poured your heart into a diary, feeling the catharsis as your pen dances across the page? That's the raw authenticity we've embraced in our latest creative pursuits, and it's what we're unpacking in today's episode. Join us in a reflection on the art of content creation, where we divulge how shifting from structured arguments to heartfelt expression reshaped Matthew’s YouTube videos. It's a revelation that not only deepened his work but forged a more profound connection with his audience. Together, we'll explore how this approach, mirroring the Zen philosophy of repetition and refinement, can bring simplicity and consistency to the forefront of your creative process, making every piece of content an honest fragment of your life's diary.
Finally, we'll dissect the dynamics of creating a safe, respectful space for actors and crew alike, where clear communication and ego management are paramount. This isn't just about making movies—it's about the synergy of collaboration and the humbling acknowledgment that we're all part of something greater than ourselves. So, whether you're behind the camera or in front of the canvas, this episode is a tribute to the collective spirit of creation and the personal growth that comes with it. - Ai
Show Notes:
Rick Rubin Clip we’re referencing - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vNEH4RZwb_g
Jiro Dreams of Sushi - https://www.magpictures.com/jirodreamsofsushi/
Always Sunny in Philadelphia Meme - https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pepe-silvia
R1 Rabbit - https://www.rabbit.tech/
The video I made about Final Cut Pro - https://bit.ly/3SJc0GG
The Photographic Eye - https://bit.ly/3Iabzju
Tetragrammaton with Mark Andreessen - https://bit.ly/3OO3d4U
The Century of the Self - https://www.youtube.com/@justadamcurtis9178/videos
Camus - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Camus
In The Soup - https://letterboxd.com/film/in-the-soup/
Bradley Cooper & Spike Lee - https://bit.ly/49CvcMY
Eyes Wide Shut - https://letterboxd.com/film/eyes-wide-shut/
Maestro - https://www.netflix.com/title/81171868
The Ice Harvest - https://letterboxd.com/film/the-ice-harvest/
Alec Soth - https://alecsoth.com
If you enjoyed this episode, please consider giving us a rating and/or a review. We read and appreciate all of them. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode.
Links To Everything:
Video Version of The Podcast: https://geni.us/StudioSessionsYT
Matt’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/MatthewOBrienYT
Matt’s 2nd Channel: https://geni.us/PhotoVideosYT
Alex’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/AlexCarterYT
Matt’s Instagram: https://geni.us/MatthewIG
Alex’s Instagram: https://geni.us/AlexIG
Have you ever poured your heart into a diary, feeling the catharsis as your pen dances across the page? That's the raw authenticity we've embraced in our latest creative pursuits, and it's what we're unpacking in today's episode. Join us in a reflection on the art of content creation, where we divulge how shifting from structured arguments to heartfelt expression reshaped Matthew’s YouTube videos. It's a revelation that not only deepened his work but forged a more profound connection with his audience. Together, we'll explore how this approach, mirroring the Zen philosophy of repetition and refinement, can bring simplicity and consistency to the forefront of your creative process, making every piece of content an honest fragment of your life's diary.
Finally, we'll dissect the dynamics of creating a safe, respectful space for actors and crew alike, where clear communication and ego management are paramount. This isn't just about making movies—it's about the synergy of collaboration and the humbling acknowledgment that we're all part of something greater than ourselves. So, whether you're behind the camera or in front of the canvas, this episode is a tribute to the collective spirit of creation and the personal growth that comes with it. - Ai
Show Notes:
Rick Rubin Clip we’re referencing - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vNEH4RZwb_g
Jiro Dreams of Sushi - https://www.magpictures.com/jirodreamsofsushi/
Always Sunny in Philadelphia Meme - https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pepe-silvia
R1 Rabbit - https://www.rabbit.tech/
The video I made about Final Cut Pro - https://bit.ly/3SJc0GG
The Photographic Eye - https://bit.ly/3Iabzju
Tetragrammaton with Mark Andreessen - https://bit.ly/3OO3d4U
The Century of the Self - https://www.youtube.com/@justadamcurtis9178/videos
Camus - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Camus
In The Soup - https://letterboxd.com/film/in-the-soup/
Bradley Cooper & Spike Lee - https://bit.ly/49CvcMY
Eyes Wide Shut - https://letterboxd.com/film/eyes-wide-shut/
Maestro - https://www.netflix.com/title/81171868
The Ice Harvest - https://letterboxd.com/film/the-ice-harvest/
Alec Soth - https://alecsoth.com
If you enjoyed this episode, please consider giving us a rating and/or a review. We read and appreciate all of them. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode.
Links To Everything:
Video Version of The Podcast: https://geni.us/StudioSessionsYT
Matt’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/MatthewOBrienYT
Matt’s 2nd Channel: https://geni.us/PhotoVideosYT
Alex’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/AlexCarterYT
Matt’s Instagram: https://geni.us/MatthewIG
Alex’s Instagram: https://geni.us/AlexIG
It had been a golden afternoon and I remember having the familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.
Speaker 2:When you first brought up the whole diary thing, I understood it on multiple levels, but it took a combination of concepts, together with the diary thing, to really bring it home at a deeper emotional level. I'm going to now take what my understanding of this is and actually I'm going to work. My work is going to be different now because of this.
Speaker 2:There's a different approach, and so I think, in the context of art, it seems kind of corny or sort of a little dissonant to talk about the YouTube video I just released today, but I had written a draft of this and most of the drafts of my YouTube videos that are commentary are you know, I have a thesis in mind. I'm making a point. I'm showing you know these are my arguments that reinforce my point.
Speaker 2:It's not quite as boring as a language arts class five paragraph essay because I write it in my voice and all that stuff. And I sat on it for a while and I started rereading it and I'm like good, and I made some changes, adjustments, and then I'd listen you know all this Rick Rubin stuff and this clip in particular and it. I did another pass and it wasn't like I'm going to do another pass where this is my diary entry. It was like I don't know, just a just a perspective shift. And it wasn't a choice to write it differently. It just was obvious to it was it was. There was not a choice, it was it wasn't possible to do it any other way. And I did a pass where I rewrote it, where I'm like I'm not going to write it, thinking about how people are going to react to the points I'm making.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to write what I believe, like this is what I think about this subject and I'm going to just say what I feel and I did, and when I edited it, you know I didn't make any big changes. And again, this isn't photography, this isn't painting, this is a YouTube video about video editing software. But I still think you know part of what I enjoy about making that content is there is a obviously a strong component of creativity or, I don't know, academic thought.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it is but a point of view, a perspective like I. Something to say about this?
Speaker 3:There's almost a wonder to if it's like it's a form that's not very. I don't mean this in like a derogatory way, but it's not a very it's not very complex in terms of like.
Speaker 2:That's probably part of why I like it.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, but you just, you just talked about it in terms of like language arts.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I've always had the thought of like you know, just take that simple five paragraph essay and write 5000 of those and just stay true to that, Don't? Be, like, oh, I'm going to go and do the perspective shift.
Speaker 2:Or like the draft number Get fancy. Yeah, I just take the do and see how that evolves you know it's like the Zen, like do the same thing over and over. You know, jiro dreams you get to make rice for 10 years and then you can touch the fish.
Speaker 3:And you know, with you've almost, it is a very simple. You have an argument, you're going to make it pretty much.
Speaker 2:Oh, big chunk of ice.
Speaker 3:You pretty much know how to make the argument, how it's going to be structured, yeah, and that frees you up. You kind of have a full creative experience. You're not trying to figure out the no, because I've been collecting these ideas.
Speaker 2:That's what I love about it is because I collect these little thoughts like I wonder if Apple's doing this with final cut because of this. And it may seem kind of trivial to the listener, but this is something I really care about and I think about like I wonder if that and I connect these disparate elements. And I you know the bad example is that that meme from always sunny in Philadelphia where Charlie's like pointing at the board with everything all connected.
Speaker 2:But I come up with, you know, those little things I collect, then coalescent. I have something to say about this. I have a point of view that I want to offer. You know, it's like standing around after a movie and everybody's talking about the movie and you're just kind of like yeah, yeah, and then a couple of things happen and you're like oh yeah, and you're like wait a minute this.
Speaker 2:And it's just a moment like that. It's very simple and I really enjoy using my channel to communicate those ideas or predictions, or whatever you want to call it, versus what I think some channels do and I certainly haven't done it, but I'm at risk, for it is going. I think this idea about what's going on with this piece of software or this piece of technology is a good. It'd be like us talking about the R1, right, like deliberately saying we're going to talk about this AI device. That kind of had some shockwaves through the tech community because we know people want to hear about it, even though we haven't had time to really think about what we have to say or we haven't had a moment where like, oh, this is my, my hopefully unique point of view on this piece of tech and what the ramifications are or what the limitations are or whatever.
Speaker 2:And you know, just like we were talking about in the pre show. You know we're sort of working through it together but you know we both came in having watched it with ideas about what it means, how it might connect with our sensibilities, and you said some stuff like I hadn't thought about that Maybe.
Speaker 2:I said something where you're like oh yeah, I thought about that either and you know, in this video. Just to wrap up the point, this video is sort of the culmination of all that thinking about it and then going this is what I have to say. Here it is done. Move on to the next thing, and I'm already, you know, outlining what a next commentary video is based on these little ideas I've collected and they're coalescing into. Okay, here's my thesis.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go do it.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm interested in exploring the form thing a little bit. But while you were, while you were making the point of, like all these different ideas, I think it's interesting because a lot of the time viewers come at things from that maybe initial perspective. It's like you're like we're going to talk about this thing, idea whatever, and why it's good or bad, right, and it's like this, very like lazy binary, you know, simplistic approach to everything. Yeah, it's. The reason is because, yeah, you can get speed to market. I think there's a lot of benefits, you know, commercially, to that. But I think it almost be a better experience for a lot of people. Like you have a lot, a lot less people that get frustrated or like angry when they listen to things if they just approached it as like, oh, let's just go in and just play with these ideas to yes you know, if they came at it from more of a perspective of play rather than like a confirmation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, just oh.
Speaker 3:I'm going to come in and like oh that's interesting yeah. Yeah, I've thought about that before.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Or.
Speaker 2:I'm looking for a rigid outcome. Yeah, I want to come away from this. Black and white ones and zeros.
Speaker 3:Like it's. It's kind of like everybody tries to. Everybody tries to make sense of chaos, right yeah, put a bunch of objects on a table and the first thing a human is going to do when they sit down and start to put them together, yeah. In some structure. That makes sense to their vision of the world their metaphor of how they see things, and I think it might be a better you know, it might be a better experience to normalize that yeah, and I'm just like, oh, let's just play with yeah. Well, how does?
Speaker 2:this feel? What does this make me feel like? Yeah, and kind of going back to the diary example which I really that's really grown on me after, especially after watching that clip from Rick Rubin Lincoln, the show notes.
Speaker 3:He probably presented it a lot better than I did as well.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't see it, but I but I think, I don't know, I just feel like it was the Domino's falling.
Speaker 3:And that was the last Domino to fall for that concept. It's an idea that you have to sit with for a little bit too, and in a way of just not intellectually, but just you know. It's like we talked about the poetry thing maybe last week, where it's like you hear a piece of poetry, you're probably not going to understand most of it at first, right, but if you hear it early enough, you have the rest of your life to understand it.
Speaker 3:And you'll understand it more and more. It's probably falls into that category a little bit more Well in in like a diary right, a diary being something that I write.
Speaker 2:I'm in, you know, usually intended. You know you're intended to be the only person who's going to read it and that's why you don't lie right. So think, apply that concept to the work that you make right.
Speaker 2:I'm also trying to apply a similar concept because I've been thinking about this as well, Like what is my channel and like what I'm doing there, and the closest thing I can think of is if my photography is my diary and my channel is not the work, but it's something else I what I think it is is I think it's honestly it's like book, a book club, yeah, A place where like-minded people who share common interest reading books, Final Cut Pro photography can have a conversation about this thing that they care about and it's not finished work, but it's honest, open dialogue about what they think is going on in the story, in the movie, in the book, in the photo.
Speaker 2:I was watching a photography video last night from I think it's the photographic eye, and he was talking about William Eggleston's photo of the tricycle and sort of. It's like some people are like I don't get it, man, like what is this? Is art Okay? And other people are like, oh my God. They know the reaction that they have and the nature of the video is, you know, we're just in a community and, yeah, we're not sitting across from each other like you and I are, but we're just having a conversation. He puts out his thoughts on something. We respond in the comments. Same thing with my channel. Hey guys, this is what I thought of about Final Cut Pro. Here's my thesis, here's how I'm defending it. I want to know what you think. Tell me how I'm wrong in a constructive, nice, sharing, friendly way and in bring your ideas.
Speaker 2:So just like you did with the diary. They were like, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:I never thought about that. It's just like open public discourse.
Speaker 2:Yeah public discourse, but there's like, but you know, there's not a wall to the community, but you know, but there is sort of it's encapsulated a little bit. I mean you, you and that's what I like about your channel.
Speaker 3:The odd thing is interesting too, because you know, we talked about the Mark Andreessen, rick Rubin, he talked about Tetragrammatid. What was the? You know the? Was it Usenet? What was it? Oh gosh, like the, you know it was. Basically it's a forum board.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah In the 90s.
Speaker 3:This predates my internet time.
Speaker 2:Yeah and like, but probably a little bit of mine. I was yeah, I was like 95, 96 when I first got on.
Speaker 3:And this was like you know. But basically he said the network effect like the natural effect of the network effect is that it dumps down the community over time because, like the old joke is, I would never be a part of a club that would accept me as a member, right. But that becomes true because every time a new set of members comes in, the like the set of, I guess, like there's a reason, there's admission limits and things like this and that's not to be.
Speaker 3:some people utilize that as an elite thing and like, oh, we're better. But it's like for a lot of things it just it makes sense to have the structure that way.
Speaker 2:And I think it's almost a form of quality control, Quality control yeah, just hey.
Speaker 3:This is, there's a set of expectations. You have to understand this, at least this much to get the point of entry.
Speaker 2:Like prerequisite for a college course. Yeah, and prerequisites.
Speaker 3:So I was talking about like it's like a public discourse. I think public discourse would probably. The unfortunate thing is that you see this in a lot of a lot of little clubs or whatever. Yeah, like groups of people online where nobody can just come, and there's a way to. I guess what I'm trying to say. There's a way to handle somebody who's you don't have to be aggressive when somebody's like not at the same level of understanding, because I'm not at the same level of understanding as most people in the world at most things in the world, and there's a couple of things, though, that I'm at a higher level of understanding, but that's completely just up to the person in the experience, and so it's like I could just as easily talk to somebody and sound like completely I sound like completely talking about some of the things that I think.
Speaker 2:I know stuff about, so like just imagine.
Speaker 3:you know what I'm saying. There's a way to deal with that, though, and I think we'd probably be better off if every public interaction was approached from the sense of be respectful, but then, like you created this, everybody's gotta be right, and if somebody's trying to come in with something different, it's like no, you're wrong.
Speaker 3:this is about this or this is about you see this in movies and literature and photography, all the time where it's like it's not about that, it's about this, it's like I'm pretty sure it's not about any of those things, it's probably about all of those things, and but it's just this. It turns into this intellectual pissing contest, undeservedly, you know where. You have people that think they're elite because they happen to understand one thing that somebody else doesn't, and they use that and they hold that high because there's some kind of personality deficit that they're trying to fill.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it goes back to your documentary century of the self, like all that programming or whatever it is that makes us want to individualize so, so intensely that first of all we have to have come up with it first. We have to have, like the offbeat, unique perspective that nobody had thought of, but then all of our quote unquote followers go oh yeah, I see that. Oh, you're smart, we want to be led by you.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, you know and that's to me.
Speaker 2:then what does that all come back to? It comes back to ego, and we've talked about this numerous times. We've talked about surrender, we've talked about ego. I think, as this podcast progresses, we're going to and we talk about these ideas, we're going to be able to whether we recognize in the moment to do so or not we're going to trace it back to sort of the root the root cause or the root thing that's there.
Speaker 3:Root, I'm just kidding. Root, root us Midwest mentality.
Speaker 2:And I think, yeah and again, part of this podcast too for me is and had these conversations with you which have happened predate the podcast, conversations with anybody that I have a connection and ease with, and all that stuff is to understand that, to map it, to identify it myself, to recognize. I'm not going to eliminate these forces, I'm not going to always make my work a diary entry, but the more cognizant I am of these things, the more open, the more listening, the more surrender, the more all of that, the better the work will be.
Speaker 2:I mean just how I'm approaching the work I'm doing on my channel, the photography work on my channel. That's sort of like a little bit of a hybrid between the work and the public discourse, book club kind of thing, and like the stuff that I'm just collecting and I don't know what I'm going to do with it. But I took these photos for a reason, for a diary entry reason. I lost my train of thought, but the place that I've come from from before that now that should be the name of the podcast, as I lost my train of thought.
Speaker 3:I'm glad I got it back.
Speaker 2:We know where I've come from, From doing some of those things on a very like instinctive, impulsive level, but not understanding it. I don't know if that's a bad thing to like understand. I have myself mapped. I know why I did this. I know, rick Rubin told me it was a diary entry. Alex and I talked about it being surrender. Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:Like I don't need to have it all figured out but there's something for me personally where, when I can kind of know the glossary of terms and have a little bit of a fuzzy map about what's going on, I'm less confused about what I'm doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's almost like.
Speaker 2:It helps shore up intention and purpose and focus. It's and this goes into something else it's interesting because it's.
Speaker 3:It is almost like embracing a chaotic state, a little bit like a less clear picture or a less. We're always like it gets back to everything, the things on the table right. We're always chasing. We have to understand we can't just sit with things.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We can't just sit with things like, oh, like the here's a bunch of things that I don't really have a full grasp on.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And it just be like these are cool, Like let me just put these in my little like lunch pail and carry them around for a little bit.
Speaker 3:It's. We have to have an opinion, we have to have something that we have to grab into it, we have to oh, here are these ideas. They have to be put into a structure. Right, and I think unstructured thinking. I think we'd benefit from that as a whole in public discourse, just being able to well, why do you think that? Why did that idea come? Or even in collaboration, there was I heard this thing the other day, that was you. Just, if some you hear something you're like that is a terrible idea, and then you end up trying that idea, it's like more likely than not. That's the one where you're like, oh man, that was actually the right, that was perfect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it's different when you do it, yeah, versus when you think of it being able to step back and just be like okay, let's try it. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And that's not that level of patience in the current public discourse. I think, creating a space to where that is. That's always been what I would love to see. Yeah, you know I talked about it with AI. Like you can have a conversation with AI and there's no fear that you're gonna sound silly.
Speaker 2:You're not vulnerable, you're not, yeah, You're removing that vulnerability because it's like oh, I'm just talking to a Because it's not gonna roll its eyes, it's not gonna make fun of me, right, and when you're talking with your partner, maybe eventually it does.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but you know, like when you're talking with a close friend, when you're talking with a partner, that it removes that layer. But when you're, you know, when you're with somebody who you don't know, all your guardrails are up Right and you're afraid to have any kind of. Most people are afraid to have any kind of meaningful anything because that's where it gets in You're afraid.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like oh, are they gonna agree with this? Maybe they have a different worldview, maybe they're gonna, maybe they don't, and that's the same thing. As you know, putting those barriers up in a conversation is the same thing as putting those barriers up on a piece of art.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:When you're going into a conversation with a stranger and you're like I'm not gonna talk about, you know this, about social whatever, this about anything political, or I'm not gonna talk about my religious beliefs or I'm not gonna talk about, because you're like, oh, it might offend that person or it might, and it's like, is that? So you're censoring that about yourself.
Speaker 2:Your diary.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're censoring the diary and it's like the diary element of book club. A lot of people approach right Book club is probably better if you're just like what do you guys think of this? Right, and it's like you know, and there's a, there's a. No silly questions. Right, there's a subtext.
Speaker 2:When I say book club, there's a subtext of like you're in a place where it's safe to make a mistake or to not understand something, or to understand something and teach us or have us look at it differently. It goes both ways.
Speaker 1:And that's kind of what I mean by it's a safe book club.
Speaker 3:I don't know it's a safe space to just like be explore ideas.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Hey, you know, that's what university was supposed to be right for a lot of. But then it turns into this thing where it's like, well, you have a bunch of professors who are trying to put their ego on the student body.
Speaker 2:And they have bullshit that they're dealing with.
Speaker 3:So and like they have Insecurity failures.
Speaker 2:I'll give you an example, just a quick story. I was when I was in grad school at Florida State. I was in a playwriting, because it was half playwriting, half screenwriting. I'm in playwriting class and we had to read something together. I don't know what it was, but is he a philosopher? I don't even remember Camus, right, is he a?
Speaker 3:Yeah, camus, yeah, the French philosopher. So I had never.
Speaker 2:No knowledge of this person whatsoever. I'm a graduate student, 27 years old, Never read the word before in my life, never knew the person, never heard it on Jeopardy and I watched a lot of Jeopardy and I said Camus, because it's. C-a-m-u-s. And the professor looks at me and this is my interpretation of how he responded not necessarily the truth of what he was feeling, but my interpretation of it was the line reading is it's Kimu and it was this, like condescending you idiots right.
Speaker 1:How do you?
Speaker 2:not know that kind of feeling.
Speaker 2:Now that could be me projecting that from insecurity in the moment, like you know, because I certainly have come through with a lot of confidence and chip in my shoulder being good at Jeopardy that I know a lot about nothing, yeah, but it was just one of those moments where Ultimate pop culture roll of dice when I thought I was in book club and that trust that I was in book club was violated by someone in a position of authority that I thought was, of all the people in that room, the one I could count on to be gentle with me if I made a mistake.
Speaker 3:And so then you're completely self-conscious moving forward. I'm sure it was just a shit show.
Speaker 2:I think about it randomly all the time but it's not like you're so stupid man. How did you not know that? I just think of the violation, the betrayal, a micro trauma, if you will.
Speaker 3:But that you're your lack of context on how his name was pronounced had nothing to do with your interpretation of the content, or no pot like what you could have offered in terms of free-flowing thought or you know, new, bringing your own interpersonal context to that situation. Yeah, it had nothing to do with and he violated it and, throughout the window, any kind of true exploration of what, what could have happened?
Speaker 2:and I think that one yeah, you see people doing that all the time and YouTube comments or I think it happens a lot with people that and this is we don't have to unpack this now but I think this, this happens a lot with people, I think, that have a really high emotional intelligence, but they're not always the smartest person with, like, academics or academia or trivia or you know, like knowing the pronunciation of this or that, but they're highly perceptive and you know, I I do consider myself someone who, like, is good at trivia, like I know a lot of stuff that just gets stored up there, but I'm not always the smartest about something that's logical or ethical.
Speaker 2:I don't mean like I have bad ethics, but I mean like these, these sort of situational things that you have to deal with. I'm not articulating this very well and this is kind of symbolic of what I'm talking about. Like I don't know how to articulate this, but like I can read the room, the emotional intelligence, and I think and my, my, my dissonance with the professor was we were opposites. Yeah, he was incredibly intelligent, very smart, but I don't think he had very, very I didn't sense a lot of emotional intelligence. And I think I'm the opposite to the point where sometimes I think people think I'm kind of ditzy sometimes in how I present ideas or talk about things, but I think the emotional intelligence is where the strength is and that's just something that I've, you know, yeah, sort of tried to map about myself over time and go it's okay. I think it's all right to sometimes say camis, because you have like, don't beat yourself up, just you know.
Speaker 2:And again, my, just to wrap up my, my pain, and that isn't that I was dumb and didn't know how to pronounce it. Yeah, how did I not know that it was there, was, there was a. There's an understanding in this room that there's a trust here that we can make mistakes and express ideas that we're not, that are not sure on and and and will be handled properly yeah, and I mean I think first of all, like that is kind of on the professor's shoulders of, like that's.
Speaker 3:You know, in my opinion that's his responsibility to maintain. You hear it all like good work needs a safe space to be created yeah like you don't want people reading your work yeah, and like you know, first draft most vulnerable state you don't want people reading that. That are gonna be like you're such a fucking idiot. Your topo too. Yeah, I think too with him he was.
Speaker 2:This was a backtrack for him in his career. Yeah, I think he was something that he was qualified to do because of his degrees, that he had to do, maybe because of the money, and ultimately his dreams of playwriting and screenwriting and all that stuff were not being realized as soon as I think. Maybe he thought they should be again.
Speaker 3:This is just my interpretation and so I think he was, he was, he was in a place of of debt or negativity or whatever it was.
Speaker 2:So any little trigger would trigger that. Like I'm sitting here in Tallahassee Florida, talking to this dumbass kid who doesn't even know who Kimu is yeah, what the fuck am I doing?
Speaker 3:yeah, well, I think it's into like there's so much in the world to know things about, just being like completely honest there is, I mean I didn't start drinking coffee, though. I was like 36, 30, something ever like then, there's ever been yeah so like the odds that anybody knows anything about any right thing that you're speaking about.
Speaker 2:The odds are already astronomical and they're getting worse every day and I look at that moment, though, and I go I'm glad it happened, because I know now, hopefully with my intelligence when I know when I'm in book club yeah and when I am and people are expressing their feelings or whatever their interpretation, whatever, to treat them with respect, even if I don't disagree or I don't think it's a very intelligent perspective or whatever. Yeah, I'm not gonna pass judgment, I'm not gonna betray their trust. Yeah, none of that stuff.
Speaker 3:They, they'll be handled properly well, there was a great quote, so I watched a movie last night called in the soup and I told you about it a little bit and highly recommend actually. I mean, you know it's not the greatest thing of all time, no, but it's just a little DV-ish to me, like not it's, it's hard because of the trailer. It's well done. I mean it's, you know it's, it's a good it's not like the camera, like was the camera. I'm pretty sure it's film. Yeah, probably 35 35.
Speaker 3:It was probably just because of the whatever digitization they did, or yeah, I mean I'm sure the YouTube compression that I showed you on, but anyways there was a scene in there where, yeah, it's, you know, this pretentious kid, and he's like 25 whatever and he's, and he's talking to this old guys, like you know, gangster grew up in, you know, jersey, you know, and he's name, dropping all these names, and he's like and then the old guys, like you, essentially, like you don't, like that doesn't impress anybody yeah like you you're, you don't understand life, and it's incredibly obvious and you're trying to compensate with this.
Speaker 3:You know, oh, I want it to be like like a Tarkovsky or like a dada, and you know, renoir, like it's, like nobody gives a shit, like nobody, and I think that's something that I've always tried to plug into anything I create, anything I do is just like, like, if you're trying to create some high-minded piece of work, pretentious yeah pretentious. What, yeah, it's? You're not. You're betraying the. You know sorry.
Speaker 2:I thought about that, my bougie French title for my yeah from a previous. We talked about the previous episode yeah yeah, it draws to PDA. Give me a break. This is what an artist was.
Speaker 3:This before the Camus it no, just can't. Um no, but like you know you're not, you're not, and I've always had such a high regard for people. You know the types too. I mean that he's the, the Jersey guys, like the Jersey gangster. He comes in and he just doesn't. You know, some of that is false confidence, but there's also some people who can just show up and be like I don't know anything, and I do know a little bit about some things yeah and I'm just excited to learn about this.
Speaker 3:If you want to tell me about it, I'm super here to listen, you know. But I feel like when you approach it from that standpoint too, it's less in, because you can approach it from the point of this I'm so fucking dumb, I don't know anything, right yeah, beat yourself and you're just gonna be miserable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no and then from the audience perspective, if you know you're often there, you see a lot of people where they try to project and try to create this heady whatever because it makes them feel like they're in a, they're in a sect above or whatever. And you know, I think the best work is just true, honest work and a lot of times the high minded stuff is more culturally reference referential, like you're referencing something here, something there and all that stuff's gonna die out anyway is like the most primitive things are the things that are gonna last the longest well, I think a lot of that stuff has to get by.
Speaker 2:You know, if you could go back to the diary entry thing and you know, I think sometimes you know great work, you know there's certainly great work out there where, like the first, at least my first thought is like the technical execution, the technical mastery, like you, just you know a photorealistic painting from the 1700s and I'm like the first level is how in the world did someone do that? Yeah, you know, some of you know Michelangelo's carvings, like this was a solid tonk of marble and now it is this unbelievable sculpture. Yeah, how did you know the proportions, the legs, like, just like understanding bigger than a building.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like all that stuff.
Speaker 2:And then, of course, you know to like the diary entry where you see a piece of art that maybe, maybe it doesn't seem terribly complicated and like the artisanship and craft that went into making it, but there's something about it that just punches you in the gut or hits you, you know, hits you in the heart, because it there's something about it that just exudes this, like it was that this person's diary entry and you're experiencing it and it's communicating raw emotion or whatever it's.
Speaker 2:It's obviously pulling something out of you and your experience. You know those, those pieces of work, I don't know, sometimes they only resonate with a few people and sometimes they resonate with millions. Yeah, and I imagine, too, there's things out there that I have seen that I probably have been dismissive of because it didn't feel like a diary entry to me when I consumed it, or it didn't bring something out of me or give me an experience. And I might be so, so egotistical or callous or flippant to be like that's not art and not saying that I do that now, I guess you can only test the diary, diary entry, prince.
Speaker 3:You can only test it against yourself yeah subjective versus objective, like eventually you're gonna get to a point, I think. The best tests in my opinion the best test the diary entry method yeah. I can go back and read diary entries from when I was 14. Yeah, and you know I'm not gonna judge it one way or another unless I'm like it because it was diary entry. Yeah, I'm just gonna be like, well, that was yeah pretty accurate of that day in my life when I was 14.
Speaker 2:Right Now if I was being inauthentic in that dire entry or trying to, then I'll go back and read it, well knowing someone might read it. And you were reading it writing it.
Speaker 3:I'll just go back, and you know that's disgusting, I hate that. So you know, if you create a piece of work and you can go back and experience that piece of work again a couple of years later usually it just takes a couple of years You'll cringe or you won't cringe, and I think that's a good metric to how at least in my experience some people might just be able to watch stuff and be like oh no, that's fine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it's usually a good metric to one if you've grown or evolved, and two if it was honest at the time or not, right Based on how you react. There was another. So I kind of like, before we get too far away, how do you think like I want to talk about creating safe spaces?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Creating safe spaces for work and safe spaces is kind of like a.
Speaker 2:That was just you sent me the Bradley Cooper interview with Spike Jones, the director's on directors.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he talks about the set and the sanctuary of the set.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And as a safe space, no visitors. You know all that stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, no no, no, that's a good. I mean, yeah, I've been. It's been a couple of months.
Speaker 2:I haven't thought about that, I went back and cued everything. No, that's.
Speaker 3:I mean that's a good, that's a good pull, because, yeah, basically they talk about the most important thing.
Speaker 2:And it's always a violate.
Speaker 3:I might have said Spike Jones. It's Spike Lee, spike Lee and Bradley Cooper. Yeah, we were talking about her beforehand though, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's so important and you hear all the great directors talk about this, and I mean, if you've worked on a set and you have a bit of understanding what that environment's like, then I think you probably know this too. But you know, I've worked on both kinds of sets and typically, when, when I'm leading a set, I like it to be. If you're not, if you don't need to be here for this thing, look, being and acting is way. It's highly difficult enough. Yeah, and like the idea that you're going to be able to overcome this insecurity or you're going to be able to really open yourself up to a world that's incredibly difficult in and of itself. So add in 13 people that are watching.
Speaker 3:It's just going to make things more difficult and there is a group of people I've I've worked with them, you've worked with them, and just it's like a archetype of a person where they're more concerned with how many like let's get a chip and like let's let's get 46 people, and they're going to stand around and everybody's going to be sitting around, and because they're more interested in the, the pageantry right of what's going on rather than just like, look you got to it.
Speaker 3:Is your job to create a safe space? Yeah, it's like I'm glad that you have all this pageantry, but the result nobody's going back, nobody looks at anything. All the shittiest films ever with big budgets. I'm sure it looked impeccable on that set, you know. I'm sure that it was as impressive as you could imagine. Like, do we were? Do we go back and judge it, though? I'm like man, yeah, the film sucked. No emotional connection whatsoever, didn't understand what they were doing, just terrible. But did you see the set? Like that thing was killer. Nobody gives a shit. There's, there's plenty of stuff that was shot. I mean Kubrick talks about, you know, he'd often, I think it was on Eyes Wide Shut, where it'd be like him and a DP and like you'd have Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise at the time too. Just as big as yeah, the name is, if not bigger, because everything was kind of more yeah it was more of like a media powder keg back then.
Speaker 3:There were only so many outlets and they yeah, they would just go to places and shoot it be like the DP Kubrick, I'm sure what like a production assistant, probably, or like maybe a grip Steel, a few shots. A grip who can kind of double as like a gaffer or something and they would steal shots for, like, important scenes.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And you hear about that all the time, just throughout. You listen to a great director. So all of that to say creating a safe space, it's important. How do you think, like, how do you go about that? And you know that was a film example, but I think this applies to everything Do you feel like this is a safe space? Does the camera influence?
Speaker 2:Maggie wasn't here. That damn dog just makes and puts me on. She puts me on.
Speaker 3:She's listening to every word and judging me got to really work into what we're saying Honestly. She's in here.
Speaker 2:She couldn't care less.
Speaker 3:I mean, I do stress you out or like, because there are certain things.
Speaker 2:No, I'm so used to it now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was going to say it's so.
Speaker 2:It's such a it's such a standard part of my life for so many years, whether I was doing it on my own as a kid with a VHS camera all the way up till you know, 2018 when I started my YouTube channel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it. Admittedly, a lot of what I've made has not been terribly collaborative to where I have to be thinking about creating a safe space in making work with other other artists. Now I've done commercial work where I'm very cognizant of everyone being respectful and I see myself, you know, as a somebody who struggles with control and the pressure of getting, you know the day and all that stuff. You know I certainly have behaviors where, if that stuff mounts in certain situations, I can become visibly impatient or frustrated or whatever. And I go, you know, you know, fortunately, can map myself to go don't, let's not make, let's make sure you're not contributing to any, any unsafe feelings that anybody has. You know that hasn't been an issue for me on commercial shoots and all that.
Speaker 3:And I just want to. I just you. You said unsafe feelings there, so I just want to take a moment to kind of define what we're talking about with safe spaces, because it's like I think it's like what a place where you can be vulnerable, right and not have to worry about getting killed for it, right. That's essentially it right, raked over the coals, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean, I've been in a few old funny looks. Yeah, made, just made to feel like you don't, yeah, that your contribution isn't needed. Yeah, you know I make that joke Sometimes. There's been a few times and I don't think you know, sometimes I think, when I've been in situations in professional settings where I don't like that and when someone thinks like, oh, he's just like the, he's like the guy that helps the editor, you know, or whatever position it was, my ego and my insecurities will come out and be like well, I kind of want everyone to know, like I kind of know this world.
Speaker 3:So you start dropping comments and you start doing that crap and you look back on it. Just gross yeah.
Speaker 2:Like, like, why is the? You know, why is the whatever guy saying it talking about this stuff? Like you, your insecurities about them? No, really, like I'm a talented filmmaker, I just have to do this for money. That's why I'm like paing on this thing. But like I mean, I live in LA. I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah like just stupid. And if you could see a recording of yourself doing that?
Speaker 2:you just be like just get over your and.
Speaker 3:I think that you just perfectly exemplified why it's necessary because you, you're, you're in a space that it doesn't seem like it's just you can be yourself, you can be whatever. There is an expectation and you know, sometimes that's the director comes in and starts talking about this or about that and they're just like look at, oh good, I and that happens, or the DP or whatever.
Speaker 3:And yet suddenly you have people that feel like it's a keeping up with the Jones's environment. So then you start wearing a mask, you start changing your interactions with people, you start presenting the best version of you, the plastic version of yourself, to whatever that world is. And obviously, if that's happening to the crew, it's affecting how they're doing, going about their work. Suddenly they're like well, I don't want to try that thing because I don't know if I can pull it off. So why put myself in that vulnerable situation?
Speaker 2:That's happening with the crew, it's happening with the people that are literally carrying the thing so well and especially, you know especially singers or setting you know, you know when I would be in a situation where I've got a little bit of my own agenda. Well, I'm going to make inroads with this person, or I'm going to drop a hint that I'm a screenwriter. You know, whatever to like, try to like, satisfy my agenda.
Speaker 2:Well, even if you're the you know, the quote unquote lowest person on set, the smallest position, you know like you're the assistant to the caterer, whatever it is, you know, all those positions and this to me, you know, creating a safe space as a director or producer or someone who's at a, you know, a top level position, to try to communicate to everyone, just as a reminder, because sometimes we need that.
Speaker 2:What we're doing is all in service to the work we're creating and even though Bill here is the director and I'm the producer and she's the lead actress, we're all working together to serve the vision of this work, and that goes all the way down to the guy in the truck with all the gear, to the PA, to whatever. You all have an opportunity to make this happen, because without all of you it doesn't happen. You're here for a reason and I think for me and this is the beauty, especially a film school and being in these positions where I had kind of my own little agenda and maybe I wasn't paying attention to what was going on and I got busted for being loud or I, you know they shut the door because I was talking or whatever it was. You know you almost need that conversation to get everybody to coalesce behind this thing.
Speaker 3:Start with that almost yeah.
Speaker 2:Because some people that don't really understand, they might think, well, I'm not as important to this as the lead actress, like, well, actually you are, yeah, and even if you aren't focused on it, it's going to be a problem. And Bradley talked about that in the discussion with Spike Lee. He said you know, on my set I expect everyone and I mean everyone to bring it, to be focused, to be contributing all that stuff I liked Bradley Cooper's and he said no chairs too. Like I don't like chairs, that's what I was getting into.
Speaker 3:He doesn't have video village, which, if you're not familiar, that's basically you know you shoot a take. There's usually this section that's built out and you go watch the take.
Speaker 2:You can watch playback?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's, but it's this huge thing dumped in the middle and people set it up and there's always. Sometimes you have directors who just sit over there the whole time and you can look at works sometimes. Yeah. So, that's how you do it, but I like that a lot because it's kind of what and I don't know if Bradley Cooper has made a great film yet, but he's his mind is that of someone that I think has great, many great films in him. Yeah, potentially.
Speaker 3:And I'm interested to see kind of Did you see Maestro yet? I watched like half of it. Yeah, I haven't seen it yet it seems, you know, in my opinion it's like it almost feels kind of like that, like some of those early like PTA films where it's trying some things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you. Just you're still finding aspect ratio, you're finding the white and color Well, like some of those, some of those early, you know PTA films.
Speaker 3:It's like you know he's, he's like look at how Technically amazing I am yeah.
Speaker 3:And some of the later ones. He's just like Serving the story, serving the story, serving the story, and it's like, you know, he has all the ability to do whatever, but he's serving the story and I kind of feel like it's that. But anyways, that's yeah, sidetrack, sidetrack. But I, the video village thing stood out to me because it's kind of like if I were to we're having this conversation and then I pick up my phone and start texting somebody, yeah, it's like, and I could do that and still be listening, right, but I mean, and I owe you the respect of being, you know, I making eye contact, we're listening to each other, like if I was just sitting here and letting you talk. And then it's like, ok, my turn to talk.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then you know, when I finish saying what I want to say, you talk. That's not a conversation. Yeah, and I think when you're making a great piece of work, whether it's film, music, whatever it is, it has to be a dialogue. And yet going off to video village you're standing is almost akin to opening your phone and being like, yeah, I'm listening to you. And he was talking to.
Speaker 2:In addition to that it was talking about, some actors really struggle with seeing or hearing themselves in playback. Yeah, so let's say, one actor like, really likes playback and wants to go over there with the director, or because Bradley was directing himself, he needs to watch playback. And then the other actors in the scene he was in, you know, obviously working with Carrie Mulligan and I'm not saying that she's doesn't like seeing herself or hearing herself back but that can create a fracture of the safe.
Speaker 2:Safe, yes, you feel because, it does something you know, whatever the effect it has on that performer, and it can. And if you're just like like we got to watch play back, we got to watch playback and it's not something that they feel safe doing, but you're just steamrolling them, yeah, that's going to have obviously a real effect on the work, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Now.
Speaker 2:I do, would say, though, not to spend a bunch of time on video village. There are some actors and I correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know what I've seen, and you might not know this, but I've seen some BTS stuff with DiCaprio that he really likes watching playback. Like he it's a really helpful tool to him because, like, like with me, people like how do you watch yourself back on your videos?
Speaker 1:I'm like I don't give a shit.
Speaker 2:I can watch myself back If I was performing a scene, if I was at the premiere, like I have no problem watching myself and it's not like, oh look, how great I am. I love looking at myself on the screen, or whatever I think for me. I'm just so focused, and not that the other people aren't somebody that doesn't like playback. I'm just so focused on like, getting the work done, that anything that I don't like about hearing my voice or seeing myself goes away.
Speaker 3:It's just yeah, well, that's that's what I was going to say Sometimes.
Speaker 2:I'm like you got some bags under your eyes but you're not looking.
Speaker 3:So great, but I'm like, well, that's me, yeah, no, I think. I think with the DiCaprio thing maybe, I mean, I would imagine, with DiCaprio just watching, being a fan of some of those performances Um, he probably gets lost in the performance quite a bit, and so I bet the experience of I bet.
Speaker 3:The experience of playback to him often is it's him seeing it for the first time, like he's like oh, I know I did that, okay, okay this. The tone is not quite okay. I need to try this. Okay, I need, but it's not. You know, it's not. Let's go see how I did.
Speaker 2:Or this. That's a lot of time when he's watching the the playback.
Speaker 3:It's probably the first time he's actually been able to kind of like he's intellectualizing the performance for the first time.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:And that's where a lot of good performance comes from. And I mean, I'm sure the same thing. But yeah, it's just like you know, I'm sure Cooper still does dailies, so that's a similar, you know, and you know, I don't know, it's up to the choice of who's doing it, because I could see the benefit of having playback. But then, you know, if the director is vigilant enough, maybe then he's like OK, let's, we need to try this, we need to try this. Yeah, worshi Right, just talked about Greta Gerwig before, but I know I think it's interesting taking how he was like, yeah, I don't want people sitting down, I want people engaged. I don't want people looking at screens, I don't want cell phones on the set.
Speaker 2:And obviously that doesn't mean that, like when it's time for lunch and they're at catering like seated and taking a break. Right this means like when we're working, we're up.
Speaker 3:I think more sets should should do that. I mean, we've just gone down the film set rather.
Speaker 3:But I think it's because, like, that's the world that we can most easily relate this to. But it goes for musicians in the studio, it goes for writing, it goes for, I mean, just if you're working on something in an office with somebody else, show them the respect and, like I think, the product will be better of anything. This is across the board. Create that safe space where no idea is a bad idea, nobody is lesser because they, you know, because a lot of times I think those off the wall things are going to surprise and make, make a better result.
Speaker 2:And I'll tell you one director I've been on a few sets in Chicago, you know, and not like I was an actor like in a, like a speaking role or anything, but I was a stand in on a Harold Ramis movie in Chicago and Harold Ramis could make a very safe set, like you know he had video village.
Speaker 2:You know he was working with John Q sec as a movie called the ice harvest link in the show notes, and the way he was back and forth between video village and working with John and then in between setups when there was more complex, you know production design changes he would like bring out his acoustic guitar for the like in the extra, like the extras and the stand ins, and he would.
Speaker 2:He was just, it was just a wonderful place to be on that set and you, just he had. Actually I was, I was standing in for the actor opposite, john Q sec, and I didn't know protocol because I'm like they just I'd never had been a stand in before I've done extra work and so your, your sort of designation as a stand in is your cult second team and the first AD never told second team to stand down. That's usually what you say when the stand ins are done in the in first team the actors come in. Well, they never said that. So I'm like standing in the hallway and then, like John Q sec and Harold Ramis walk up and they're like talking about the scene literally right next to me.
Speaker 3:I'm like.
Speaker 2:I'm like looking at him, like, oh okay, that's cool, that's interesting. I went to acting school, so I'm like like I'm like watching the BTS in person and then like John Q sec notices and he's like, he's like, he's like hey, he's like hey, how's it going? And I'm like great. And he's like and Harold just gives me this look at, he's like you can, you can, stand down.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but, but then I. But then I went he didn't do it.
Speaker 2:No, he's super awesome, not like he's like stand down, fuck it and then I went over and I was like, like, like watching with some distance, respectful distance, but I was watching at video village and he clocked it a couple of times and he just let me. He was, like this guy's, interested in the whole process and all that.
Speaker 3:The second.
Speaker 2:AD was super nice, like, so it was just you know. But then I'm like we've. But then I'm like you being so ignorant of set protocol and not understanding, like, how to like not be like the weird guy that's doing weird out of the ordinary stuff you know like you might have put a couple of people off.
Speaker 3:Who knows, though, he might have been like oh man, that's you know, I like, I like that that's yeah, keeps it interesting for him.
Speaker 3:I think you know we've we've all been on the sets where everybody's more focused on you know they're they're just chasing something. They're trying to show that they're better than everybody else in some way or another. And we've all been on the. I think you know the opposite. The Harold Ramis set or like. One of the one of the biggest compliments I ever got from a, from a model, was like that, was that felt like therapy, yeah, and I was like, wow, like that is the best compliment you could ever get. Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, our safest places you can be right, right, like that, like that's an unbelievable thing to like if you can make, yeah, if you like, you want it to feel like that right, and you know that goes for the crew, that goes for the talent like you nobody enjoys. It's kind of. I heard this thing the other day about if there's certain people that there's an expectation that the conversation is going to be like an intellectual conversation, right, and there's only so much of that that you can take, yep, like.
Speaker 3:The best, I think, is where you can just weave in and out of like we can talk about some nonsense for an hour and we can talk about something that's meaningful to us for an hour and we can weave those in and out, but there's certain, certain conversations where you're like this is going to, like I'm going to have to really like pay attention in a way that's like recall and da da, da da da, and maybe that's just. Maybe that's just how I look at some of these things, but it's like that's exhausting.
Speaker 2:It can be yeah.
Speaker 3:A lot of times you just want to be able to just flow, exist yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think that's what we're getting at with the safe space. You know, we talked about, like, what was that thing and what was that? The root of it? Ego. Well, like, okay, great, say, but why? Why are we making that? What's the what's the desired outcome of that?
Speaker 2:And to me and I had this note on my note as something, a possible topic for us to talk about now that we have to dedicate a big segment to this, because we probably don't have time to, because it's four or three, yeah, you're going to have to get going pretty soon, but just to wrap up the point, it's you want everybody to be feeling safe and the ability to be vulnerable and trust their collaborators and the crew and whatever situation you're in, so that you can get to a state where you're channeling yeah, you're not, you're, you're writing your diary entry, you're telling the truth, you're in the moment and you're listening. You've surrendered. All those things fall away because you know from my background as an actor, my background writing, and now I'm doing photography and making YouTube videos, the things that, the times I love it the most, whether it's with other people or on my own, is when you get to that channeling state.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think what I'm doing is. Rick Rubin calls it the source as.
Speaker 3:Steve Pressfield calls it the muse?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you are, you're not. I mean sometimes to the point where you get done doing the thing and you don't remember what, what happened. You were in a I don't know a different plane of existence. I don't know whatever you want to call it, but you were channeling something and making work. And I think, when someone like Bradley Cooper recognizes that he is going to do everything he can to create an atmosphere I always love when Quentin Tarantino, I always love when Quentin Tarantino would talk on his sets that he would like sort of remind everyone hey, everyone, just a reminder. We're making a movie. Yeah, Isn't this amazing? Yeah, Like, like, just just that to sort of take that edge off of, like, you know, we worked overtime or we're on, you know, fraturdays and you know, or whatever the thing is like. Hey, just a little gentle reminder, we're making a movie. Yeah, Like, this is what we're doing.
Speaker 3:Don't, don't lose yourself, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Just like we're making a movie. Yeah, this is awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I think you know, just clean intentions.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Make all the difference in the world, yeah.
Speaker 2:Managing expectations, creating a safe space, understanding what the desired outcome is of everybody giving their all to get to that state of truth and purity and channeling and all of that to make great work. And that was another note I had Alex Otho that was watching. Yeah, this is coming up in my Instagram feed. Alex Otho, photographer and he like did a little like hey, my master class that he had partnered with Magnum Photos on was whatever.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he had a little clip on his computer and it was something like my mom asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up and you know I just said I want to make something great. Yeah, you know, and you know that goes to Quentin Tarantino's point, that goes to Bradley Cooper creating a safe space, Like everybody like wants to make. These people want to make something great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, spike Lee, spike Lee Spike Jones yeah.
Speaker 2:Spike Jones, all the.
Speaker 3:Harold Ramis, harold Ramis, yeah.
Speaker 2:And we were overnights, you know, and there's a lot of people on. There was a, you know, a restaurant scene. You've got a ton of extras, like it's a lot to be working overnight. It was the first night of overnight too, yeah.
Speaker 3:That's tough. Yeah, everybody's in yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, everybody had to.
Speaker 3:When you get to a set like that too, the particularly one thing that I think is true, especially in the extra pool, is it's often a group of people that are trying to prove themselves. Yeah, but maybe they, like they're an extra on a big movie, they've made it to the top tier of the worst rung of the ladder.
Speaker 2:They're going to overact, they're going to. They're going to overact, they want to.
Speaker 3:They want to show everybody that like, oh, you know I'm, I'll probably be like in the scene next time. Yeah, and that's like the worst environment, like you got to almost get in there and handle that You're not auditioning Because it is. It is like a toxic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you'll permeate through the entire set and I mean, yeah, you can, just by simply being like hey look, we're here to create a piece of art. Like we're all here, we're playing. Essentially, we're all getting paid to play. Yeah, like there's people you know working in mines and there's people, like who have physical labor every day. We're all here, just you know, dicking around, essentially.
Speaker 2:The dream.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's like you know, you settle that that ego down a little bit and your opens up a grand possibility for anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 3:But cool, well, we got to let you go. You're on one off. I got to go pick up that kid.
Speaker 1:And it's been a golden afternoon and I remember having the familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the replacement with something.