Latest / Girls Gone Hallmark | Hallmark Movie Reviews / Julie Sherman Wolfe (Encore)

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Julie Sherman Wolfe (Encore) · Girls Gone Hallmark | Hallmark Movie Reviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi, friends.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: Technically we're on break over here this week, but it
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: is International Women's Month and we thought in light of that,
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: we would share some encore presentations of interviews with some
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: of our favorite Hallmark ladies.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: We hope you enjoy these episodes. Just to set the
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: scene for you, this episode was recorded very early in
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: our podcasting career and before Girls Gone Hallmark even existed
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: as its own podcast. This was recorded in early twenty
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: twenty one, so there are some very deep pandemic references
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: in this episode, and you'll notice that the podcast name
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: is even different. Just wanted to give you a little
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: frame of reference as you listen to this super fun
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: interview with Julie Sherman.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Well, this is a Bramble Jam podcast. Hey everybody, welcome
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: to a bonus episode of Long Story Short the podcast.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: I'm Megan, I am Wendy, and.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Today we have the absolute pleasure of being joined by
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Julie Sherman Wolfe, the writer of our absolute favorite movie
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: from the New Year New Movies lineup this year, which
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: was taking a Shot at Love, and she is also
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: a prolific Hallmark movie writer. We are so excited to
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: talk to you. Thank you so much. For joining us.
• 1:30
  Speaker 5: Thank you guys for having me so much. And I
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: will say thank you again for the amazing art that
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: you created from some of the dialogue and that's how
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: we met and found each other. And I have them
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: ready to print and put them on my office wall.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: So thank you for that makes my favorite happy.
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: I love them. I love them. I almost want you
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: to watch every movie I've ever written and make things,
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: but I would never ask you to do this.
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: Okay, Oh, I love a challenge.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: I love a challenge.
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: I'm just saying, if you happen to see one.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Wall, we have been trying to track them down as
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: they are re airing. For those who don't know that,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Wendy creates unique images for each one of the Hallmark
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: movies's review and you can find those on our Instagram,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: which is Girls Gone Hallmark. She grabs fun lines from
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: the movies and they're always a surprise to me. That's
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: her project, so I love seeing them.
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: And my friend Nina, my friend Nina Wineman, who I
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: gets to say Wineman on TV. Yeah, Nina Wineman. She
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: has another last naming wife but she I actually forward
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: her forwarded I think you did one for her. I
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: did for hers and she loved it too, So thank
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: you for her.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: So why don't you start by telling us just a
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: little bit about yourself.
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: Well, I lived, I've been writing for twenty five this years,
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: most of those were in Los Angeles, and then thanks
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: to the Hallmark work, I was just able to leave,
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: which was my preference. I grew up in North I
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: grew up in northern California, went to school in San Diego,
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: and then ended up in La So I pretty much
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: did the California thing enough and I was ready. Always
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: loved New England, always loved the East coast, and same
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: with my husband, who grew up in Los Angeles. So
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: when it was clear that the Hallmark thing was working
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: out pretty well, and you know, he's a teacher and
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: he can pretty much get a teaching job wherever, we
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: were just like this is now or never. Our son
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: at the time was seven or eight eight, This is
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: about three and a half years ago. He always said,
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: this is it, this is our chance. And we just
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: basically found a house. I saw it online. I knew
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: that was exactly the right house and the right town,
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: and basically put an offer in, flew there to sign
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: the paperwork. Greg never saw the house till he walked
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: in with the keys when we owned it. Wow, because
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: we knew what We've been looking at housines for fifteen
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: years at that point, like we had the same I
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: knew he would love it, and yeah, so here we are,
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: and I have my little Hallmark world that I live
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: in and there's I'm looking at a ton of snow
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: outside and it's fantastic. I love it.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I love it. So my husband is also a teacher,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and I have to tell you that his lifelong dream
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: in the back of his mind, in spite of never
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: having written anything, is to be a Hallmark movie writer
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: for aw So, I'm curious, how did you make the transition?
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: How did you get into writing for Hallmark.
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: So? I started in sitcoms. That was where I was
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: for a long time, and then that I had a
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: kind of a dry spell, and then I romantic comedy
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: has always been my favorite genre ever, even before I
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: was a movie or TV writer. That was just my
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: favorite thing. And I wrote a couple of feature films
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  Speaker 5: that got sold. One was to Disney and one was
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: to Paramount, and that sort of gave me these the
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: samples that I needed to sort of break into the
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: TV movie market, and I was friends with one of
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: the executives at Hallmark for a long time and just
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: never it just never worked out. And then finally kind
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: of all the stars aligned and I hooked up with
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: a producer and had my first movie with Hallmark, and
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: luckily for me, they just really really responded well to it.
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: And then it just kind of snowballed from there and
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: I did a lot of tween stuff. I did a
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: lot of Disney Channel before that, and the movie that
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: I had written that won an award was a young
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: you know, a ya Disney Channel movie. But once I
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: got into the Hallmark thing, I was just so happy
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: and I just kind of didn't even try to do
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: anything else anymore. You know. I used to have pilots
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: and try you know, sitcom pilots, and I would pitch
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: to try and run a show, or try and have
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: my own series, or do all these things. And then
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: once I got in with Hallmark, I was just fulfilled.
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: I just felt like, Okay, I'm just happy. I can
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: do this forever and as long as they let me,
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: I will. Know. I just you know, a couple of
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: times I've had been approached to develop a series, and
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: I'm like, yeah, but then I have to move and
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: back to Los Angeles. Yeah yeah, or in my you know,
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: my son's to hit he's a tween now, and I
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: just feel like I need to be around and yeah,
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: until they decide they're sick of me. I'm just going
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: to keep doing this.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Hey, well, I think you've absolutely found the perfect place
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: for you. And obviously you know. I was looking at
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: your IMD IMDb page and you are a prolific writer.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, you had three movies in twenty twenty three,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, four in twenty seventeen, and so I
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: have kind of a two part question. One how are
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: you turning out this much content? And two you mentioned
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: that you do some rewriting. So are some of these
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: scripts that come to you like half developed and they're like,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: we like this idea, but it's not there. Can you
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: work your magic?
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah? So I would say that's not most of them.
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: Most of them were just my thing. The last couple
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: of years is when I really started doing the rewrite thing,
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: only because it was almost like I was doing it
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: as a favor to the executives that I've become close
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: with at Hallmark where they just really needed and you know,
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: I like to keep the boss happy, yeah, you know,
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: And it also is a great way to develop new
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: relationships with producers. And you know, sometimes sometimes the producers
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: will like the script they has turned in and Hallmark doesn't,
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: and so you come in you're kind of like, you know, well,
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: who's this person gonna change everything? But then I I ultimately,
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: you know, I'll win them over. But so as far
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: as something like taking a Shot at Love, that was
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: just a script that had been going back and forth
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: and back and forth and Hallmark just wasn't feeling like
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: it was right. And I came in and it was
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: a lovely experience and I love that I met these
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: producers and you know, that got made and I feel
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: I still feel like it's my script because I did write.
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: You know, I did change quite a bit, but and
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: you know, the idea, the initial story that was still
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: the same was, you know, ballet dancer helps an injured
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: hockey player rehab an injury. You know, but there's a
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: million ways to do that, and sometimes, you know, the
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: initial script can be fine and there's nothing wrong with it,
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: it's just not the way the Hallmark wants it to be.
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: So you know, I don't feel like it was bad,
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: but it just wasn't the way Hallmark wanted it to be.
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: And you know, at this point, I know the formula
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: backwards and forwards. They just they just sometimes need to
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: bring in somebody who's been around a lot, like a
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: lot longer, to sort of put it in that Hallmark place.
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: Is what it is? Right? And I have another one, actually,
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: I have another rewrite that I just finished that is
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: getting made in March. Same situation, similar situation where it
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: was the script was good and there was you know,
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: it was a cute idea and everything. It just needed
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: to get that extra little midge to put it in
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: that Hallmark place.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Is that a summer movie that we can look forward to?
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: There's okay. So there's one that I've had in development
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: for four years that finally got made, and that's Her Spring,
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: and that's called right in front of me. And I
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: don't know if that's public knowledge, so anyway, it doesn't know.
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: They're starting shooting in next week, so it's it's not
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: a big secret that one. That's all that one's not
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: a rewrite, that's just an original. And then the one
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: they're shooting in March is actually going to be for
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: next winter, for that winter Fest. You know, I know
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: I did. One of you did not like the new
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: movie New Year. I don't know where that came from,
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: but you know, I call it Winterfest still, and.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: So I appreciate that I was a little harsh on that,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: but to me, it's always going to be Winterfest in
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: my heart.
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: Well that's why I stole Winterfest and put it in
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: as Avon Winterfest, because I'm like, well, Winterfest still is
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: a cool name, so I'm using it if I stole it,
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: and I used it, and now I'm now I'm convincing
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: the mayor of Avon, who I'm friends with, to make
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: an actual Avon Winterfest because we don't have one. I'm like,
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: I told her, I'd like you had the perfe big thing.
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: Now make it happen.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, make that happen. I want to fly out there
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: when he wants to go. Are you twys experience? Are
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: you guys in La Orange County just south of La Okay?
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah? The only thing we miss is our annual passes
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: to Disney, but not that you can use them right now?
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: But not now. That was my son basically drew up there, and.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Now they've eliminated them all together. They've sunset in the
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: annual pass program. I'm sure it'll come back in summer. Ever, well,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: they are refunding everybody, and I think the issue is
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: when they reopen, they're going to have to reopen in
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: stages with smaller groups, and I think trying to manage
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: you know, the annual passes, we believe kind of ruined
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Disneyland a little bit, and so I think they just
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: need a fresh start, and trying to manage these million
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: annual pass holders while trying to regulate crowds would seems
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: like a logistical nightmare.
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: So you know what, you know what killed it, and
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: I know this is off topic. What they messed up
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: was letting people do payment plans. Yes, yep, because then
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: everybody could do it, and then you showed up and
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: like you know, people would show up for two hours
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: and hard be packed because they would just you know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: took their daily walk on Main Street.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, myself included. I mean we were guilty of that,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: but yeah, it became it got to the point where
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: there was no down, there were no off days, there
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: was righttime.
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: The only day off day was read and that was
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: my favorite day to go. Yeah.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: We Sunday mornings were our favorite. It was the only
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: kind of couple hours of quiet, but that was really
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: it and we would have to get up at like
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: five thirty. You know, I get better, I know.
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: But there's nothing better than like empty Main Street? Yes
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: sing ever? Yeah dad? Do you miss that anyway?
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Miss it too?
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: Back on topic, So.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: When you're creating these movies, how involved do you get
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: to be with the production once the script is written?
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: It just depends. Yeah, yeah, it depends on who it is.
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: If it's a producer that I'm I've worked with before,
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: they know that. I prefer to take the script all
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: the way through production, which I'm doing right now with
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: the one There's there's just about the start where even
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: the director is amazing, and it's this woman who is
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: a Canadian woman who I love and we just we
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: just hit it off so great. And you know, she's
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: wonderful because anytime she's about the change any dialogue or
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: has a question she comes and asks me and a
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: lot of time to get these directors who just cannot
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: be bothered with the writer and we'll rewrite whatever they want.
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: To rewrite, and then I'll watch the movie and be like, wait,
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: where did this come from? And there's a couple Actually,
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: there's one line I'm not even gonna say which line
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: it is, but there's a line in taking a Shot
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: at Love that I did not write that I find
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: cringey and it it I'll tell it to you, off off.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Wait.
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: But that was the one thing that that somebody else
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: wrote that I didn't, I was not involved in, and
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: it just makes me just I hate it. So, you know,
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: it just depends. I've had script. I hadn't one movie
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: that I turned it in to the network and I
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: literally never heard from anybody again until it aired and
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: the director took a path like you know, wrote, did
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: a pass on it, and rewrote a bunch of stuff,
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: and I was like, well, I don't know, you know,
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: this really isn't I don't even consider it my movie
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: at this point, but whatever, And so it just it
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: really just depends. I prefer with the people that I
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: like to work with, and there's most of them actually,
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: I have wonderful relationships with everybody for the most part,
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: and you just shepherd the script all the way through.
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: That's because if you don't then the voice changes. And
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: that was the problem that I ran into on this
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: other one where it didn't sound like the same movie
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: because it was some of it was my voice and
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: some was this director's voice. So it doesn't feel right.
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: And to me, the voice is everything, and that's what
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: I'm that's my that's my thing that I'm known for
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: as sort of the banter. And generally people can tell
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: you kind of my scripts have a tone to them
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: that is very specific to me, and so you can
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: tell what it's not. I try to be as involved
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: as possible.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: So switching gears to writing in a pandemic. You mentioned
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: your husband's a teacher. My husband is, excuse me, also
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: a teacher. And one thing that you know, we noticed
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: in the transition he taught from home for months and
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: he's a zoom screamer, has no sense of his volume.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: So for me trying to also work in a home
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: where someone who is scream teaching now and stairs change
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: the dynamic of our house a little bit. Oh and
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: so you know with your husband, I would imagine home
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: more than he used to be. Your son maybe doing
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: school at home? Did that change your writing process? Did
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: that added challenges?
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: For you. Well, yeah, I mean, because it's funny. So
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: I my workload didn't really change. They all, I was
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: still doing all everything I was doing, but the time
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: at the time of working changed because my son was home.
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: Luckily in Connecticut, you know, it's pretty rural here. It's
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: not I mean, it's still it's still semi urban, you know,
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: it's just it's a nice suburb. Right. So they're back.
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: They're back in school in person for the most part,
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: and then they'll but then they had a hybrid for
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: the beginning of the year, and then every so often
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: the class will get quarantined and then they'll be remote
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: for a few days. So it's like it just kind
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: of goes back and forth. But when everybody's home and
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: I'm trying to write, it's impossible. And I have my
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: own office and I have my door closed, and I
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: have curtains and I have noise machines. But there's always
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: something happening where you know, mom, the Wi Fi is
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: not working, switching, you know, healthy, and it's always something.
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: There's always some issue right upstairs. And his his the
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: learning what if I call it his little annex, his
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: little learning annext it's right above my office and there's
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: just always something. And then when it's you know, time
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: for lunch, I usually try and have him make his
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: own lunch. But then yeah, I'm here and he wants to,
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: you know, I have to go make him go do recess,
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: go down to the basement and work out or just something,
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: and I just can't focus on my own screen the
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: way I normally would have before, when I had the
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: house to myself and my husband generally has been out teaching.
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: I would say last you know, last spring, when everything
• 16:14
  Speaker 5: happened and everybody was home, that was more challenging. But
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: now he's mostly teaching at the school right now, he's
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: his class is quarantined, so he's home like right now,
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: and I can hear him tea and he's very he's
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: lowed to it. Isn't that funny. He's got that, you know,
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: and he's chipper and he's trying to just engage them
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: right really loud. He teaches history.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know what your husband teaches English and history
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: and middle.
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: So he's yeah, sah, say he's eighth grade history.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: It's funny.
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: So yeah, so he's got that whole thing going on.
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: I liked my alone time he too, saying, and I
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: don't every single day I'd say, oh, I finally have
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: a day where I don't have to work, like I
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: don't have a gun to my head and I'm just
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: gonna petter around the house. That's the day someone's quarantine,
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: someone has to be remote. And so that's it's just
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: that time. I need like four hours focused time with
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: no distractions to really get that good work in for
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: the day. And that's the hardest part is just getting
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: that four hours or so. And that's and I work
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: for much longer than four hours a day because I
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: always have a bunch of different stuff going on at
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: the same time. But to get that chunk of really
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: solid work, that's the only that's the big change that's happened.
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: It's just hard to get that.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, go ahead, Wendy.
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: I was just gonna say, I can't imagine being under
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: a deadline to get something finished and not being able
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: to focus your time on it. That must be That's
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: why I say stressful.
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: So try being like, well, well well out of college age,
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: but then pulling all nighters, because that's what ends up
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: being like so I am I'm not young anymore and
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: pulling it all nighter is not recoverable. Yeah, So, like
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: I've them, I've done a few. Actually the last two weeks,
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: I would say I had a couple really late nights,
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: like two three am, working to get stuff done, and
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: I just I just can't bounce back the way I
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: used to. You know, it's just hard. So I mean,
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: but that's just part of that. That's part of the
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: trade off is you know, I get this amazing life,
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: I get to do I get to work at home
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: and all that stuff. But then every so often it
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: just my friends know this to hear, like, it's hard
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: to get me to do stuff because I'm usually working
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: well into the evening. I decided to take a little
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: bit of a I'm trying to sort of my Workbote
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: was really crazy, and I'm trying to make it less
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: less crazy and take on less projects for a while,
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: just to sort of calm down a little, calm everything
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: down a little bit.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: So we've noticed a shift in the types of stories.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Hallmark is writing a little bit more diverse stories in
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: terms of the lifestyles of the characters, and that's something
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: that we're very much in favor of. We're celebrating that
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: when we see it and do you feel like this
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: gives you a little bit more freedom when you're writing totally?
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, it's just way. But it's just great. I
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: love it.
• 19:07
  Speaker 6: And my biggest note used to be in the in
• 19:11
  Speaker 6: the old regime, used to be that my characters are
• 19:13
  Speaker 6: too snarky and sarcastic and to pull back on that,
• 19:17
  Speaker 6: and that's not really.
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: A note I'm getting anymore, which is great. That's because
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: I prefer to have my characters have a little bit
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: of an edge and be funny, and because comedy is
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: sort of where my background is, so I prefer that.
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: And then also the stories we can tell. They broadened
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: the kinds of stories that we can tell as well,
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: Like I have a couple of hitches that are into
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: them that have to do with a couple dealing with
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: infertility because my husband and I dealt with that and
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: that's nothing I've ever seen on Hallmark yet, and just
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: just more more real stuff. It could still be fun
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: and light and hallmarky, but just dealing with a little
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: bit more reality. But still what people love about homar
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: is sort of that escape from reality. So it's certainly
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: not going to be I'm not going to write anything
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: like the old school made for TV very special presentation.
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: You know, I'm not going to write the AMMI winning
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: TV movie about COVID, you know what I mean, Like,
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: that's not that's just not, that's not what I'm here
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: for you, And that's not like that's my job is
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: for right they want they want the happy ending, And
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: I think a lot of I actually take a lot
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: of pride in that what we have done is an
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: escape for people right now that is sort of this
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: bubble of normalcy and happy endings because right now everything
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: else is so up in the air. So I'm very
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: proud to be part of that escape for people. So
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: I'm certainly not going you know, so while we are
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: while our movies have a more realistic edge to them
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: and tell, you know, obviously show the world the diversity
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: that's all around us, that we that is real, we
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: also still are aware that we are here to give
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: people that little two hour break.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we can definitely appreciate that. Right now.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I'm known for loving escapist TV because I'm a big
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: baby and I need my TV to be kind of
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: like visual pros acts.
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: I'm my husband wanted to watch like The Hunters that
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: Hunters show, and I'm like, I can't deal with like
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: Nazis and violence right now. I need to watch The Office. Yeah,
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: that's what I'm wanting. I'm like, I'm just rewatching and
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: my son's now watching you with us, which is hilarious.
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: It's fun. It's so funny to see him watching the
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: Office because we can he gets it now. It's just
• 21:38
  Speaker 5: very fun. So that's what we're doing. We're completely avoiding conflict,
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: like dramatic conflict and violence.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: So yeah, okay, Well you mentioned before we started recording
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: that you, first of all, Taking a Shot at Love
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: was the first movie in the New Year New Movies
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Slash Winterfest series. Yes, and Whennie and I I honestly
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: can't remember what I rated it, but I do know
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: that as we finished the series, we both agreed that
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: that was our favorite of the five. We loved it.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: They rate one liners and you were kind enough to
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: listen to that. And I've just pulled up my notes
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: because I have forgotten what we said. But I understand
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: you might have some thoughts for us and some of
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the questions we asked.
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: Well you, if you have you tell maybe you can
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: tell me, like what your burning questions were if you
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: go back, but I remember one of them was, why
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: isn't he staying at a hotel? So I am gonna
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: look at the script because I am almost positive that
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: I have a line in that script. May we missed it,
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: and if I didn't have it and it got cut,
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: see now, it's entirely possible. I'm gonna look at it
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: right now. It's entirely possible that there was this line
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: and then it did not make it into the final edit.
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: So I'm going to type, I'm gonna do a search
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: for the word hotel. Here we go. Let's see. Ah.
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: I don't know if this made it in there, but
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: the line was he said, are you sure this guest
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: house is is good at the hotel? And his agent says,
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: trust me, it's better. And he says, why isn't it
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: already booked up like the hotels are? Because I had
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: it that the hotels we're all booked in town.
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: Oh that makes so I.
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: Don't know if that line made in.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: It is possible that we skated over that one line.
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: So you're not listen, it's not you know. The beauty
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: of a Hallmark movie is that you do not need
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: to completely laser focus on it, like you're watching like
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: a Christopher Nolan movie where you're gonna miss that record, right,
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: so you need to like, you know, I get that
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: people are mostly doing something else or on their phones
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: with watching the movies. But yes, that's that was the
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: answer to that question. And I don't know if it's
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: still needed, but that's the answer. The other reason that
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: I give is the joke answer why isn't he staying
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: at a hotel? And the answer is because then there
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: wouldn't be a Hallmark movie of course, because so like
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: when when when I hear reviews, sometimes I laugh because
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: it's like, well, you know, it's I always say, you know,
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: it's not a documentary, so obviously there has to be
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: a buy in to the situation. So obviously, you know,
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: like we have to get them doors to stay in
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: the guest house. But that's the cute thing about it, right,
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: So you know, we try and get through that the
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: why of it without spending too much time explaining because
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: it's just sort of a buye. You just sort of
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: be like, yeah, okay, well that's a Hallmark movie and
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: that's what's happening. That's so like we try and explain
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: it and not have plot holes. But at the same time,
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: we don't want to spend an entire page explaining that
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: the hotels are booked in Ravon and why because you know,
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: I had a whole thing in an old draft about
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: how there was a hockey tournament or a winter fest,
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: people are staying there, or there there's only one hotel
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: in town, and it's you know, I had a whole
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: thing about it. But then ultimately they just tell you
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: to cut it because we're we're always running along.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it works better piece in her backyard. Of course,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: of course because you can get there during the ice storm.
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah. I always say because movie, because script, That's why.
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: That's the answer. The other one was, yes, Avon is
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: a small enoughtown and you can leave a key end
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: of the mat. I'm not king like, but I will
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: say there has been a rash of cars that's in
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: Avon because people are coming over the hill like in
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: in roving gangs and driving around all the neighborhoods and
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: trying to steal cars with open doors because people leave
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: their cars open and their keys in the car.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: Now, yeah, so we all we know from being from
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: Los Angeles that we do not leave our keys in
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: our cars and our car doors unlocked, and we do
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: not live open things, and we did not. We just don't.
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: Like I'd never understood that when I moved here. I've
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: still I always locked my car at night and put
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: the keys inside, but apparently here people don't. And that's, uh,
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: that's where that's coming. So that's another question you had.
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: And now the huge thing, Oh right, yes, so that
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: was a bigger part of the earlier drafts where that's
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: just her, that's her thing. I have all these books
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: in my living room about Huga and I had and
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: I was into this before Frozen took it because Frozen
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: the Musical made a song about it. But I was
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: always like into this before I was into this concept
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: a long time ago. I always wanted to use it,
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: and I just they needed a way to kind of
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: introduce that word that wasn't sort of, it just needed
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: to They people needed to see the word, and because
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: there was, I had a whole bunch of jokes about
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: it and stuff, So I think they just wanted to
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: see it on the sign. So we just decided that
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: her Norwegian family named it that because they gave from Norway.
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: That was that was the quick solution to them wanting
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: the audience to see the word to understand why he
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: was having trouble pronouncing it or any of that stuff.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: So the sign was created for the movie. Then yes, yes, okay,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: I have a question, but you can choose not to
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: answer to protect the innocent. But can Luke McFarland skate, yes,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: okay he can? Does he skating double?
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: He did have a double for some of the hockey bits.
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: He's actually what's funny is that he is a Juilliard
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: trained actor and took dance and was a better dancer,
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: this is what Alexa said than she was. So when
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: he does that pure wet that was legit, Like he
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: already knew how to do that funny hockey. He's Canadian,
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: so he knew how to skate. That's part of That's
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: just the rule of being a Canadian is that you
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: know how I skate. And he learned how to juggle
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: the pup on the stick because of the script. And
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: he sent me a video of him practicing and learning
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: and and he was, you know, showing me, who's so
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: excited that he learned how to do with so you know,
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: for the hockey action scenes, they had a bunch of
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: actual hockey players wearing the Rangers stuff filming that, and
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: I actually have one of those. I have one of
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: those jerseys they put sure M on the.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Back and there and I love that.
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I love it. I'm so excited. And the wolf Pack,
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: you know, that's the local. I was actually gotta hoping
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: to get a wolf Packed jersey because that's actually a real,
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: the real minor league team. That's why I said it
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: here because it made sense to the story completely that
• 28:12
  Speaker 5: he would have to come to the minor league team
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: to get back up, to get ready, and that it's right.
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: We are a suburb of Hartford, so it actually legitimately
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: made sense, and so that's why I said it. That's
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: why it worked to set it here, because I could
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: have said any movie here that I've had this whole time,
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: but this made sense to me. Like One Royal Holiday
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: was also set in Connecticut, and I'm shot in Connecticut,
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: but I made up a town name based in a
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: combination of Simsbury, which is the next town over from Avon,
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: and Kent, which is a very beautiful town a few
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: minutes away, and I made it Kentsbury. Yes, but they
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: shot it in a different, totally different part of Connecticut
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: because it was one of the first movies back after COVID,
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: and it was shot in the corner of Connecticut that
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: basically nobody lives in, and everybody just kind of quarantined
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: for two weeks and then they made the movie.
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Well, so we didn't review that one, but I did
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: watch it, and I just as a side note, wanted
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: to say I really enjoyed that that movie made okay.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: I thought there were some sweet moments. I loved the
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Queen's character and I love her warm and loving she
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: was in that movie, and I really enjoyed that.
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: That cast will never get again unless they do a sequel,
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: because they are all huge Broadway stars and I just
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: cannot believe we got them. But they theyd nothing else
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: to do, so they they are. I mean Victoria Clark
• 29:43
  Speaker 5: who played the Queen, it's a Juggan, She's a Tony
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: Award winning Broadway star. Laura Osna's not Broadway forever, and
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: you know Aaron Debate, the Prince is the lead Mulin rouge.
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: And then the girl played Sarah, the Mayor is in
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: Hamilton when she's Eliza and Hamilton in on Broadway while
• 30:01
  Speaker 5: it was running, and so it's like this huge, huge
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: group of fabulousness. And then just I needed to do
• 30:08
  Speaker 5: a sequel where they sing.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Yes and not just a quick Christmas Carol.
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: Clip will they didn't want, I mean everyone get A
• 30:16
  Speaker 5: lot of people got on me for not living them
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: having the like more singing, but that was not my choice.
• 30:22
  Speaker 5: I would have had them doing the entire thing as musical,
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: but they did not want to. They went, oh my gosh,
• 30:26
  Speaker 5: they wanted to be actors.
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: Yea.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: So now was that film during the winter in Connecticut
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: because the snow looked very.
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: Real in that that was summer and it was hot.
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: Oh you can't. I can't even tell you. I had
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: the one day they finally let me go on set.
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: I had to go get a COVID test in the
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: morning and then I could go over there, and I
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: brought my two friends that are the biggest Hallmark fans.
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: I was going to have everyone I know be in
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: this movie before it was COVID, because I could have
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: had like everyone I know the extras. But this wasn't
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: going to work now, So I got a couple of
• 30:58
  Speaker 5: my friends. They had to go bring all their the
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: cutest winter clothes they had and then do wardrobe. So
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: I'm like in shorts and a T shirt and flip
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: flops and they are in like heaviest winter coats, sweating
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: just you know, in hats, and they're in it. They're
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: in the movie at the beginning when at the doughnut shop.
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: They're the ones that just get served right before she
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: goes to the counter and and he's so it's funny because
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: we have Yeah, so we have these pictures of the
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: two of them just just dying and I'm in shorts,
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: and it's just it's funny. It's like a hot it's
• 31:29
  Speaker 5: the hottest day of the whole summer.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Of course. Yeah, there's the scenes where they're snowed in
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: and there's big mounds of snow. It looked very good.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I was very impressed. So that was Yeah.
• 31:39
  Speaker 5: They do a really uh this this crew in Connecticut.
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: They've done a lot of really good stuff for Hallmark,
• 31:44
  Speaker 5: and we were trying to figure out another movie to
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: do because I really love working with them. But they're
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: really good at and a lot of it is post
• 31:52
  Speaker 5: production digital stuff too. But the fake snow looks great
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: and they kind of melt the edges of the cotton
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: so looks like the edge of snow. They have a
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: whole they have a whole way of doing it. That's
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: really cool.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Well, it's coming the way because my husband and I
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: were watching one of the earliest Countdown to Christmas movies
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: from how it was old and it was very clearly
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: like cotton batting rolled out over the ground that we
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: were walking on. Like, they've definitely improved there ability.
• 32:22
  Speaker 5: Just digital snow, I mean just digital snow has changed
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: at all, right, that they can literally just make snowfall.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's great, yeah, digitally.
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: I have a quick question back to taking a Shot
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: at Love Now. Was there some sort of deal between
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: the New York Rangers, because I was surprised that you
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: guys got to like for Luke to like wear that
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: merchandise and all that stuff throughout the movie.
• 32:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah, they sent the script to the Rangers and asked
• 32:50
  Speaker 5: if they could do it, and they really were into it,
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: and it actually now they're so happy with the publicity
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: they got it sort of you know that that they
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: loved what happened, and now they're kind of interested in
• 33:02
  Speaker 5: other you know, massive Square Garden as a company is
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: interested in other connections and I and and I do
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: have something going on, uh like with some but I
• 33:10
  Speaker 5: can't I really can't say what it is.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: But fight.
• 33:13
  Speaker 5: But there's stuff, you know, it's it's cool. It's a
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: nice little I like the I liked it because you know,
• 33:18
  Speaker 5: it's hard enough to get guys to watch Hallmark, but
• 33:20
  Speaker 5: at least this movie I felt like had enough stuff
• 33:23
  Speaker 5: to kind of keep them okay, keep them interested, you know,
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: like air hockey and hockey and.
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: Oh, I love that scene so much.
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: Guys stuff. And I had a lot more guys stuff before,
• 33:34
  Speaker 5: like I had, well in my mind, they were a
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: lot of the stuff was in a at a pond.
• 33:40
  Speaker 5: I'm really hoping they would get a pond for a
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: lot of these hockey scenes between like that she had
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: a pond at her property, So I was picturing this
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: neighbor of mine who has a really beautiful big house
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: and a cute, super cute cottage and a huge pond
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: that's always frozen over and there's always kids skating on it.
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: So that was sort of my vision of like we're
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: feeling the boy and everybody. That's where they were doing.
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: All that stuff was going to be on the pond,
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: but they couldn't. Oddly enough, they could not find a
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: way to make that happen in Canada.
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: Well, speaking of Felix, I loved that little character. The
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: boy who played him was awesome, so awesome.
• 34:20
  Speaker 5: Boy, answer amazing, right, can you believe that? Yeah, he
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: actually was Billy Elliott. I guess whatever Canadians version of
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: Broadway is. So he was legit, like he played hockey.
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: I could not believe we cast the actual real version
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: of this character. It just it was perfect And.
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: I really liked that. And tell me, was this part
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: of your writing was that it was like this micro
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: messaging of you can do both. You can be a
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: dancer and you can be a hockey player. You don't
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: have to box. Yeah, I loved it.
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: Yes, that was very on purpose. My son loves to
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: play tackle football and it's a great actor and saxophone player.
• 34:59
  Speaker 5: And you know, I always tell him just be you
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: got to be. You know, he's a renaissance, renaissance man
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: in training, just got to do, you know, a jack
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: of all trades kind of a thing. It's hard, though,
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: It's hard to be a kid like that. You know,
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: you're not kind of into your one thing and you
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: have lots of different things. But yeah, Ashley makes it
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: a little harder.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, especially go ahead.
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: I was gonna say. We are both moms of tweens
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: and teens as well, so we understand. Yeah, yeah, the understand.
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: We understand definitely well.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: And I think you know, it's also hard if you're
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: one thing isn't soccer or baseball? Right, Like my thirteen
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: year old his thing pre COVID was bowling, Like he's
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: a bowler and bowls competitively, which is bizarre that it's
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: a thing, but that's his thing. And you know, people
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: always kind of give you a second glance when that's,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: like his quote, sport. But I think it is hard if.
• 35:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah, right, that's amazing though. That's really cool.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: He loves it and I love that it's always indoors
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: in air conditions.
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: Oh for sure. Well he doesn't you know, soccer soccer
• 36:03
  Speaker 5: in Valencia, which is where we lived, it was brutal
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: when I mean when he played, Uh, when I was
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: hoping he would be a soccer guy because I played soccer,
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: and I was hoping I was hoping he'd be a
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: swimmer because I was a swimmer and none of those
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: things happened, and I had to sort of get over it.
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: And we finally figured out how much he loves football
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: when he started playing flags and that's his sport. As
• 36:25
  Speaker 5: Jewish mother, you know, the father complaining tackle is not
• 36:28
  Speaker 5: great for me. But you know, they have they have
• 36:31
  Speaker 5: a lot more safety rules and helmets in place now,
• 36:34
  Speaker 5: and I'm not that worried. I'm not as worried about it. Like,
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: but yes, but he also is a really great actor,
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: and that's definitely a hard thing to balance. It's like
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: it's like a high school musical basically. Oh yeah, yeah right,
• 36:50
  Speaker 5: I mean, so you know, it's it's tough to be. Yeah,
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: it's just tough to be anything outside the mean, the
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: mainstream at this age.
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's what I said. He's concluded new show what
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: of High School Musical.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: A Disney Plus Wait what?
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: Oh, I haven't seen it.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: Oh it's pretty good. Honestly, even as an adult, you'll
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: enjoy it. In High School Musical the musical the series.
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: I watched what I think that I think I watched
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: one night, but I wasn't paying close enough attention. I'm
• 37:18
  Speaker 5: obsessed with WandaVision right now, like completely obsessed with it,
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: so I that's my my one appointment television.
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: I don't watched that yet, Megan, have you watched Oh
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: my god, no, because.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: I'm afraid I won't be able to follow what I've
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: seen pretty much all of the Marvel movies, but I
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: don't have like all of the details in my brain.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: So I kind of feel like, am I going to
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: know what's happening? You? I think you will, okay. Well,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Also we have the Internet, so I feel like I
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: could maybe look things up.
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah, if you're a fan of if you're a fan
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: of television and just sitcoms and and all that, it
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: is just genius. It's I can't even tell you how
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: perfectly they do the genre of sitcoms, and in the
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: years that they're doing as they go up in years
• 38:04
  Speaker 5: from like the Black and White Ones to the Brady Bunch,
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: you know, tied to the eighties full house stuff. That's
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: where we're at now, is the eighties one. It was
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: so genius And I can't wait because I feel like
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: this week they're gonna do like Friends or something or
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: some you know those nineties sitcoms. I cannot wait. It's
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: just the best and the writer and I'm really critical
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: of other TVs stuff, of course, and it's hard to
• 38:25
  Speaker 5: watch sort of just for fun, but my mind gets
• 38:28
  Speaker 5: blown every week. I love it. I have to watch it.
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: I'll watch it this weekend.
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: Try it. No, I know me too.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: So you talked a little bit about the Spring movie
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: you have coming up. Can you tell us what else
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: you're currently working on?
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: So, besides the one for spring and the one for
• 38:44
  Speaker 5: next winter, I have a Christmas movie that didn't quite
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: make it in time for last year, so we're making
• 38:52
  Speaker 5: it for this year. So I already wrote it, which
• 38:56
  Speaker 5: is cool. So I know I have a Christmas movie coming,
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: not as high profile as one where holiday, but I
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: think it's just a nice little Christians movie. And then
• 39:03
  Speaker 5: I have two very high profile projects that I cannot
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: talk about that are both involving sort of name people
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: and things. So I can't say anything on everything. No,
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: it's a it's all okay, okay, you know, until everything's
• 39:20
  Speaker 5: always under the vest until it's not. And sure, so
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: but I'm really excited about those. And what's fun is
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: that there's a whole team uh in New York City
• 39:28
  Speaker 5: for homemark and and it's really been fun to kind
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: of work with them, just we we all feel like
• 39:33
  Speaker 5: we're all kind of you know, we're all we're the
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: East Coast crew doing our thing, and that's been really great.
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: And then I just have a few, like you know,
• 39:39
  Speaker 5: pitches in development, and then every and then people have
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: a couple of rewrites maybe that I may I might do.
• 39:46
  Speaker 5: So I'm like, usually I have like eight things on
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: my desk and right now I have four. So it's
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: it's it's on purpose, though, I'm just trying to take
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: a breath. It's been crazy, crazy, crazy, but in a
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: good way. I'm grateful for it. But I definitely you
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: need to have a little bit of balance.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, that was my word of the year. It's not
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: going so well.
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: I'm just forcing it because my blood I was starting
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: to not you know, I started to feel not well
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: and you know, just from stress and everything. And I
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: you know, that's one thing. I'm so grateful for all
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: this work and this all the hallmark success. At the
• 40:20
  Speaker 5: same time, though, you know, I work myself into the ground,
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: and you know, there has to be a work life balance,
• 40:26
  Speaker 5: especially when you have kids. And yes, that's kind of
• 40:29
  Speaker 5: I'm trying to balance it all this year a little
• 40:31
  Speaker 5: bit better.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: And where can people find more from you? Where's the
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: best place for them to spook with what's going on?
• 40:37
  Speaker 5: So I am not the best about my social media.
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: It's usually when something's coming out that I really get
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: back on there and post stuff. So I would say
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: Instagram is okay, I think it's I think it's Julie
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: Sherman Wolf, Right, it's Julie uh And then like Underscore Sherman,
• 40:55
  Speaker 5: Underscore Wolf, and then Twitter is at shermool and I
• 41:01
  Speaker 5: do a lot of live tweeting one thing.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Air yay, that makes me so excited, But I wait
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: for you. I'm sorry, go ahead.
• 41:10
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I've been generally not around on Twitter. I don't
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: really have time to like maintain it. But but yeah,
• 41:14
  Speaker 5: so things air I'm there for sure. So yeah, so
• 41:19
  Speaker 5: I'll be around and I always engage, try and engage
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: with as many people as I can. It's really fun
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: to engage with the actors too.
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: They're usually live tweeting as well. Right yeah, yeah, And
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: it's you know.
• 41:32
  Speaker 5: It's funny because the East coast feed is easier and
• 41:35
  Speaker 5: then it's like now it's midnight in the West coast song,
• 41:37
  Speaker 5: I'm like, I don't know if I could do this again,
• 41:40
  Speaker 5: So you guys are gonna have to You're gonna have
• 41:42
  Speaker 5: to come out on the East Coast feed.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: Well, it's funny. I do watch it in the East
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: Coast feed for me too. I use the Friendly app
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: and everything air in East Coast time, so yeah, perfect.
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So that's pretty much it. And then there's a
• 41:58
  Speaker 5: I do have a Facebook page, says Julie Sherman, Wolf Writer,
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: and I kind of posted that every so often, sent Terra.
• 42:05
  Speaker 5: I should be better at it, but it's just a
• 42:06
  Speaker 5: time suck. Once I get on Instagram and start caring
• 42:10
  Speaker 5: about that, it's really hard to It takes a long time.
• 42:14
  Speaker 5: I don't know how you guys do it like. It
• 42:15
  Speaker 5: just takes a long time, and it's really hard to
• 42:17
  Speaker 5: maintain that social media presence it is.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: It's really hard. Yeah, it's definitely a big port.
• 42:24
  Speaker 5: Whole other job. Yeah, totally.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: Well this was so fun. I can't thank you enough
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: for joining us. I'm so glad you agreed to do this.
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me and really appreciate
• 42:35
  Speaker 4: it so awesome.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: We're gonna leave links to everywhere you can find Julie
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: in our show notes, you can also, if you don't have,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: we've sung its praises often. But the Hallmark Checklist app
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: Hallmark Movie Checklist app, you can search my movie and
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: it'll let you know when movies are airing, So past
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: movies you can find them so you can catch up,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: you can record them, you can watch them. And thank
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: you for listening to this episode of the podcast. As always,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: if you enjoyed this, we would love it if you
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: would leave a rating and or a review. Of course
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: we love them, but it also helps people find us
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: in the Apple podcast community. Until next time, have a
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: great week. Bye bye. All right friends, before we go,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: just a quick heads up. You're about to hear some ads.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Thee Little Gems help us keep the show running and
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: the hull Park love flowing. So do with that info
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: what you will, Grab a snack, hit the skip button,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: or maybe just maybe listen in and discover your new
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  Speaker 1: favorite product.
• 43:43
  Speaker 5: Bye