Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 352: From DIY Filmmaking to Directing Studio Films with Matt Stawski

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BPS 352: From DIY Filmmaking to Directing Studio Films with Matt Stawski · Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

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You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
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podcasts, just go to ifahpodcastnetwork dot com. Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast,
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episode number three fifty two. A day without filmmaking probably wouldn't kill me,
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but I wouldn't risk it. Anonymous broadcasting from a dark, windowless room
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in Hollywood when we really should be working on that next draft. It's the
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Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you the craft and business of screenwriting while teaching you
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how to make your screenplay bulletproof. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
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Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. I am your
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humble host Alex Ferrari. Now, today's show is sponsored by Bulletproof Script Coverage.
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professional readers, head on over to covermiscreenplay dot Com. Now, Guys,
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today on the show, we have a very interesting story of a DIY filmmaker
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who taught himself how to make films doing skateboard videos, you know, really
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really low budget music videos and just kind of like hacking away until he got
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a chance to not only work on huge music videos, but now he's working
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and directing Hollywood studio features. His name is Matt Stosky and Matt is the
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director of the new Blues Clues film that just got released on Paramount Plus.
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And what he was able to do with the budget he had is pretty remarkable,
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which makes sense being a DIY filmmaker. But we got into the weeds
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about how he came up, how he kept going when everybody was saying no,
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all the challenges he had to overcome to get to where he is,
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and so much more so, without any further ado, please enjoy my conversation
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with Matt Stosky. I like to welcome to the show Matt Stosky. Hey
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do, Matt good. Thanks for having me as you to me ya,
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thank you for having Thank you for coming on the show. Brother. I
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really appreciate it, you know, I was. I get pitched on the
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show all the time for people to come on. And I heard your story
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of the DIY beginning of your career, just kind of like hustling it out,
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grinding it, doing the these crazy music videos to get started, and
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then all the way to uh where you're now where you directed your first feature,
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first studio, The Blues Clues, uh spider Man far from a Far
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from Home or yeah, no way home version, which we'll get. I
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love the meme treatment. Oh my god, there's people. The Internet is
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a great place sometimes, you know, you know, sometimes sometimes it's a
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beautiful place. Sometimes every once in a while everyone as well. So my
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first question is how and why, God Screen Earth did you want to get
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into this insanity that is the film industry? Oh man, I wow,
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why did I want it? That's that's a question. I've probably never been
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asked. I think I was just I was into it because, like a
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lot of people, I was just making stupid short films with my friends.
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You know when you're young, you know, running around the woods making horror
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movies. Got what wasn't called The Hacker. Was was like my first stupid
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horror movie. I made it my friend Mark. And then another reason was
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because I just had access to equipment. You know, my high school was
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a cousin o in Warren, Michigan, and we had a radio station,
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TV station, and we would you know, the second half of your day,
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you know, your fourth, fifth, and six hour, you just
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go to the radio station. It was like this red place where there's like
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stickers on all the walls and like my teacher had green hair, and we
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just got records from all the record labels. They would send it to all
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the radio stations first, and we were like a high school station. We
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weren't even a college station, but we had access to all this red music.
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And that's where I learned how to edit by doing like radio dramas.
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So I did a lot of like audio editing, and I learned how to
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shoot local bands because we would be able to rent out cameras and we would
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just go shoot bands. So that's kind of how the music video things started,
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was at my local like radio TV station. So I guess that's yeah,
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that's beginning. That's how you got started in and put I gotta imagine
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that the second you decided to go to be in a filmmaker, that all
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the money came in and you were living large and life was good and it
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was everything was easy. You got yets is all the time, right,
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Oh yeah, the I have to. I'm trying to sell my fifty yacht
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because you know, I gotta, I gotta for THEA for tax resist for
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taxsess, I understand, I understand. I too sold my seventh yet last
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week. It's fantastic. Yeah, it's sacky to have too many, you
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know, it's to have too many exactly. But when you got started it,
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I got to imagine during those early years, there was a lot of
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rejection and a lot of just like not you know, you you're talking about
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doing music videos, which I'm assuming a lot were free at the beginning,
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just to get reel up. What did you do to keep going when that
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door just kept getting slammed in your face? Yeah, that was I mean,
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I think when when you're young, as long as like I had Final
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Cut Pro and I had my parents computer, you know, and my friends
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and I we threw our money together. I mean, yeah, we borrow
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a gear from the school, you know, to to shoot stuff. But
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we also bought like DX one thousands and VX two thousands, like those skate
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video cameras. And as long as we had a camera an editing gear,
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we were able to you know. I mean, yeah, the band in
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the lay would be like, hey, we got five hundred bucks for a
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music video. I'm like cool, that's the gas to get to New York,
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you know, And that happened multiple times. But like you know,
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at the time, like I don't know, everything was cheaper. We were
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all, I mean, high school, we're living at home, so don't
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have any bills to pay. But when I got to college, you know,
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we were able to really stretch a dollar, you know, so we
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would shoot tons of stuff on like five hundred dollars one thousand dollars budgets.
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I remember we got like our seven thousand dollars budget, and our mind was
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blown. For this video for this band called Evergreen Terrace. They're like this
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hardcore band from Florida. I'm still good friends with Josh James, who's in
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that band. He's actually getting into videography now and I'm kind of helping him
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with that. But but we got seven thousand bucks to shoot that in Detroit,
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and we used all the money to get like a real Chapman Dolly and
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like sixteen milimeter you know, camera, good lenses, some real lights,
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and it was me and like two other guys in a makeup person and we
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hauled it all up to the roof to this rooftop like ten stores, like
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literally a Chatman Dolly a chat Yeah, we had We had like no no
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PA's or rips or electricians, aything. We just did it all ourselves.
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And so it was it was a lot like up until the point where I
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was like actually doing music videos and record labels, I was still like wrapping
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up all the chords and putting all the lights away, you know, like
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everything you could do on a non union shoot. We're just used to it,
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you know. So we had tons of situations where even though we were
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we we you know, you write a lot of treatments and you get rejected
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a lot, but those treatments, those times we did get the opportunities,
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even if the label at five hundred bucks. You know, like we just
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had to be creative, you know, we just had to learn how to
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shop in a fabric district and learn how to go to a party supply store
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and get confetti poppers, you know, and just like weird things to add
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production value to a video when you can't build sets, and and really like
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you know, the city of Detroit, like to scout the city and find
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the cool alleys to shoot in, and find the picturesque areas and shoot when
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the lighting's good and all that stuff that, you know, the gorilla filmmaking
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stuff. You just kind of learn it on the fly. You know,
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I'll blow your mind because I'm a bit older than you. So in the
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nineties. In the nineties, I remember working on three hundred thousand dollars budget
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music videos with which was low and third third string artist, not even the
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top that's not top level, that's not the Taylor Swift of their day.
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It was third string. They were the backup singers of the real people who
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were the label was trying to get out. I remember specifically, and I'm
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like two, seriously, there was so much money yeah in Miami. No,
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less in Miami, not even in New York or LA. In Miami,
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yeah, where you don't have access to like multiple rental houses and stuff.
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And that was I mean, I would I think that was the biggest
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budget I ever. I mean I did a commercial that was bigger, but
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music video wise, like the Disney videos videos I did, like the Kid
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videos, those were that was the budget and that was considered big. Like
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we're like, whoa, we could shoot two days and set on one,
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you know. But but I mean, yeah, I got into the game
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right when it was just doing this. But a lot of the you know,
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I heard a lot of stories from you know, a lot of eighties
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and and uh kind of electrics I worked with, you know, being on
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the set like the Michael Jackson's jet where he didn't show up and it was
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a forwardy shoot and everyone got paid full rates and they just sat around that
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you know kind of thing. And right now, so it's just so much
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money, It's so much money was coming on it was insane. Well I
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mean also to be fair, I mean everyone was still selling you know,
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twenty dollars CDs. Yeah, then yeah, there was it was a whole
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other different business model back then and now the checks where you get five cents
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you know, residuals on Spotify and stuff. You know, so it cost
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it costs more to send the check and the check is worse. Yeah.
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Yeah, so just sent me a stand We'll be right back after a word
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from our sponsor, and now back to the show. Send me a free
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stamp, would you do that? That'd be our value? Yeah. Yeah.
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So so when you were so you did a bunch of stuff like,
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you know, like and I did a bunch of that stuff too coming up
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as well, like doing these commercials and stuff like that. I wasn't getting
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paid. But when you first had a real client and there was a big
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budget, when you walked on set, you had a real crew, yeah,
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you know, and that was you're not wrapping cable anymore. Yeah.
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What did that feel like like when you were on the first time, you
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were on one hundred thousand dollars plus budget, You're like, oh god,
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this is real, Like there's a lot of pressure. How did you deal
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with how'd you feel on that day? Yeah, you know, I can
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remember it too. It was it was like a follow up boy video in
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two thousand and eight that I did, and that one was I think like
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Pete Wentz was dating Ashley Simpson and I remember there was like paparazzi on and
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like, you know, people doing a back, like I think she had
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a reality TV show that was filming. There was like all these cameras and
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like I don't know, you know, there was the MTV people and the
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VH one people and then our cameras and so it was. It was intimidating.
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But but I do remember like Pete Wentz had my back, you know,
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he saw I did this Anthony Green video that was really trippy with lots
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of animation, and that's the reason I was able to be fallout boy,
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because he he vouched for me. He's like, I want that. I
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want that weird trippy animation style. And so you know, when the artist
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kind of you know, has your back like that, all it takes is
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to sort of get a couple shots in the can and show the band,
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you know, and like show them what it's going to look like. And
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when they sort of like how it looks, you just get that confidence boost
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and then like the artist is gonna they act a little wackier on set,
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you know, and then they you know, kind of give it their all
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and everyone sort of trusts you. So it's just I think I think early
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on though, in that stage that I'm not going to say fake it till
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you make it, but that sensibility does make sense, like you may feel
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like you you know, there's some poster syndrome for sure. I think the
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main thing about directing that that I've realized, like in the last I mean,
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I don't know pretty recently, maybe in the last five years, is
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you just have to be the person in the room that knows the most about
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the thing you're doing. You know, if you're gonna, you know,
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make a music video about whatever Detroit, you just got to do your history
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and be able to tell all the executives, all the you know, record
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label people, all the artists like, yo, Detroit, this is and
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this, these spots are great, this is awesome. You know, you
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just have to you know, do your research and know the most you know
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kind of the thing. So with music videos, it was all about pre
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production, just having insane storyboards and references and film clips and all this stuff.
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So when you're on set, you're showing the artists all this stuff.
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You know, I guess we didn't have iPads back then, but just flipping
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through it like your laptop computer and just showing the record label like, Okay,
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this guy knows he's got a vision, and he thought about this a
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lot. You know, I hate ed living. I think guy had nightmares
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about like coming up with shots on the spot. You know. So yes,
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it's intimidating, but if you just like have tons of references with you
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and like really tell all your department heads exactly what you're going for, then
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it's been that confidence kind of you know, swells inside you. It's funny
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though, like literally last week, my daughters were listening to a song and
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they're like, what's this song? And and and there's like I'm like that's
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that's Sea Little Green. And it's just like I'm like, can we see
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the video. I'm like, I've never actually seen the video this video.
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So I literally watched the Sea Little Green video Forget You, like four or
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five days ago. Well, not knowing that you directed it. Oh cool,
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not knowing that you directed it. I just it just it was a
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happenstance. The universe just brought that to it. So now it's like it's
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fresh in my mind. I just saw it like litterally four days ago,
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and then as I'm doing research on you, I'm like, son of a
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he directed the Yeah, was that Celo Green? Because that was such a
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massive hit for Celo Green? I mean so massive. Was that the thing
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that just took your career to another level? It was for sure. I
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mean that that's the thing that got me representation. It got me an agent
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and a manager. You know that. You know Eric Garfinkeel and Britain Rizzio,
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and they're the ones that taught me the narrative industry of the film industry
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and got me reading scripts and all that. So that that video was a
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big, a big help for me for sure, and we didn't you know,
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it was the whole story behind That's really interesting because I was working at
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Refuse TV, which is you know, this woman Kathy Pellow runs that.
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She also has a record label called Sergeant House, and she's this like incredible
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just punk rock woman that knows everyone. She's like knows the New York party
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scene, and she hung around with all these I think she was a model
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back in the day, and she hung around with all these legends, and
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she knew people in the theater in the Broadway World and she was a missioner
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for Atlantic Records as well. So when that track was was kind of sent
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out, the song was called fuck You, and a lot of big name
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directors passed on it, like I don't quote me, but I think like
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Mark Romanic and Spike Jones and Chris Cunningham like all passed on it. All
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they were trying that arts group, you know, and and she was like,
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well, we got like a sixty k budget and we got to do
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this in one day, and so I got to like write on it,
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and I just wrote that like motown Doopie treatment and he loved it. So,
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you know, enter enter sixteen hour day, you know, try to
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shoot the thing. A catillact jacks up in the valley and uh and that's
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what like kicked it all off. So it was a really good like I
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have to thank Kathy Pellow for that because you know, a lot of people
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I don't know, everyone's break is always a weird story like that, Like
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it was right place at the right time, you know, kind of a
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thing. Because she happened to be the commissioner for that for that video,
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and a lot of people happened to pass on it. Just because the song
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was obscene, you know, the type at a time until they did Forget
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You, which they we need some radio play guys. Yeah, yeah,
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and it just it had that viral thing because it was like an obscene title,
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but it was such a happy going do opposite like like you know,
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it sort of you know, made f you this popular memi viral thing,
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you know, so it's it's I always thought that was kind of fun.
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How that that that that whole thing happened. It was, It was quite
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the quite interesting it was. It was what year was that was that?
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I mean it was a two dozen and exactly because it still had a vibe
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because I remember the nineties when you had the mcg's of the world and the
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Michael bays of the world where they' using the cross processing and it really vibrant
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colors. You had really vibrant colors in that I remember. It wasn't gone
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like a McGee smash mouth video was the end of the day. But it
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looked beautiful. And then you mixed in this whole like musical aspect to it,
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which was like which is which was the sign of like where you're going?
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Because this is what you love musicals? And we'll talk about the musical
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side of you in the minute. But it was really it didn't look complex
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in the sense of the budget. It wasn't. It was one location,
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essentially a few It wasn't that crazy. But it wasn't. It wasn't an
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expensive budget. It wasn't. It wasn't. You did a lot with the
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money you had. It made it look really good at one locate basically one
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big lookat or what's all look Yeah, And we just like it was one
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of those things where you just used the look, you used the advantage of
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that location and neon lights and the colorful walls, and we just like saturated
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all the lights. And there was also something that happened to like that was
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the first job I ever did with Lindsay and Craig, my choreographers, and
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they did the Blues movie too, and every music video in between, and
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uh, we we sort of like we had all the dance figured out with
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with the dancers, and that this thing happened when we were playing the song
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on set and like people were like snapping their fingers and bobbing their heads and
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we're like, yo, let's just let's really lean into the little shop befores
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of it all, and even the background you know, all the background actors
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that were sitting in the seats, like they just like kept bobbing their heads
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almost like Betty Luke. You know, everyone's like moving to the beat,
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and they just added this like kind of funny, nostalgic touch to the whole
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thing. And I think everyone just loosened up and all the you know,
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all the people that were playing all the roles in the film and the different
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selos, like we're just real loose. And I think people were just vibing
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because it was a good song. You know, you don't always get like
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a good song to write. Times you have to do you know, I've
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done every kind of video, but that was just a great song and I
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ready loved it. So everyone was just bobbing their head the whole time,
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and it just we capture that energy, you know, And how did the
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town treat you after that? After that video, I booked, I booked
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a good you know, I kind of stuffed up as far as music videos
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go, you know, and I was able to book a lot of jobs,
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and I was really riding that momentum. I think if I could go
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back in time, you know, I mean, I guess I I would.
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I can't say i'd like change anything about my life, but I probably
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would try to use that momentum to push myself more towards narrative earlier, you
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know, because I you know, I'm thirty seven now, and and I
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probably could have gotten into the narrative world a little bit earlier. But I
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just I just kept booking music videos for years. And that's kind of why
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I stalled on the narrative thing, because I was just working and like,
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yeah, exactly, and he got five you got five yachts, brother,
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you got to I mean that's a lot to support. Yeah, yeah,
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And after the second yeat, I just had to keep doing the music videos
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because the budgets got by. Yeah I'm talking like the paper ones he fold
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up, you know, obviously, sir, But yeah, I was.
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I was booking some work after that, and it was cool. You know,
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it's a good feeling to do like eight music videos a year. I
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mean, I know some people like churn out twenty a year, but with
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all the post effects that I do, you know, I always was like
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editing my own stuff, so it was like keeping me really busy. And
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and yeah, I was really busy after that, for sure. That's awesome.
19:52
Man. Now we all as directors, there's always that day on set.
19:56
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor and now back to
20:03
the show that the entire world's coming crashing down around you and you don't think
20:10
you're gonna make it. You're not gonna make it. And then and arguably
20:11
that's every day, but there's generally that one event that really stands out out
20:17
of a project. If you don't want to say the project, you don't
20:19
have to say the project. But if it's a project, you could say,
20:22
say it and what was that event and how did you overcome it?
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As a director, I have to say that that's only happened. I mean,
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yeah, we have tough days, and yeah we have to like you
20:33
know, kill setups and weather happens and things like that. But like the
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toughest day it was this video I did for me for me the friend like
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Me. It was a Disney video. He was doing a cover of bo
20:45
Ad and Song and it was just one of those days where the setup for
20:51
everything, we just didn't have enough money and enough people to light this location
20:56
and there was this big pool in the middle of our location and it was
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so hard to move the camera around there, and I really tried to,
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like, I mean, we we at the end of the day, we
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pulled it off. But it was one of those days where we really ran
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out of time and I had to like kill half the shots, like literally
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half the shots. But they were the narrative shots and something inter I mean,
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this is this is an interesting thing that happened, and this legitimately happened.
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We shot we shot Nao against a wall for the performance stuff, you
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know, let him pretty just put like a blue color on the wall and
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lit them all orange and we shot a wide beating close up and that was
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like the performance coverage. He's an incredible performer, so it was like we
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had great stuff and all that footage got corrupted in you know, the cards
21:45
or whatever. So the insurance for the production actually covered us. They have
21:51
another day of shooting, so we were able to get him on the stage
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and light him even better and get even better performances on him, and no
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one was stressed out. So all that time that we didn't you know,
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all the shots that we didn't get, we're able to get on the second
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day because a card was corrupted and insurance actually covers that somehow, you know,
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I don't I don't know how that all works. But we got another
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day. So that was the most like, that was one of the days
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where I realized, like, wow, we're not going to get it,
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you know. And the video looks cool. You know, his performance was
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incredible. It's all about him. So but I've never had I mean,
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I've heard those stories you know from you know, some some more like seasoned
22:27
you know guys and gals that I've worked with of you know, the hurricane
22:33
comes through and blows the you know, the flags over and then he stands
22:37
flying and somebody got injured, and there's like, you know, like you
22:40
know, people suing people and all that. Like I've heard of that,
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you know before. I've never had like a nightmare day like that. And
22:47
I don't know, maybe it's it's a little bit of lock and a little
22:49
just being prepared kind of a thing, you know. But well, listen,
22:53
when I was putting my demo reel together, I shot thirty five and
22:56
I sent it up to uh do art because I'll say it out loud in
23:00
New York, and uh they uh the machine broke and burned out all my
23:04
egg for two of my spots, for two of my out of the three
23:07
spots, I did two of my spots, gone twenty five grand out of
23:11
my pocket. And they're like, well, do the new roles again for
23:15
free. I'm like, oh really, And I was so young. I
23:18
could have sued them. I should have done. I mean, I could
23:19
have got. I should have easily gotten because come on, so I had
23:23
to go back and that's why my demo real cost fifty grand. But I
23:27
lost and I was better. Actually I got back. I got a better
23:30
set of DPS. I did it the same thing as you got to do
23:33
it again, figured things out differently. It was an expensive lesson, but
23:37
it was a lesson. Nevertheless, imagine that. Yeah, yeah, I
23:41
mean that's that's I mean I can remember back times like heart, like like
23:45
hard drives are going corrupted and things like that. It turned out like whether
23:48
my generation your generation we turned into like command saved people, Like I'm always
23:52
hitting command saved command say, making double backups and triple backups, and like
23:56
sending a hard drive to my parents just so I know in Michigan there's a
24:00
hard drive with the thing in case my house burns down, you know.
24:03
So it's uh, when that happens, you turn into a worry work for
24:07
sure. Yeah, you know, it's in I came up with when the
24:11
first avage were coming up, and those things crashed all the time. So
24:15
I became an apple save apples of applesde eppisode constantly. It's it's happened.
24:18
Now I'm used to the new stuff that just kind of saves in the background
24:22
constantly and everything. It is a whole different thing. So but oh my
24:26
gosh, I still have all those hard drives too. They just like every
24:30
time, big creative stuff. And it's like I don't even think that the
24:34
power outlets work anymore, you know, Like but I don't know. I
24:38
just I just moved from LA to Austin last a year ago, and I
24:44
did that. I had a box of FireWire four hundreds yeah, yeah,
24:48
yeah, and I and they all worked, they all ribbed up, and
24:51
I just downloaded them all into a solid state drive and just started dumping them
24:56
like I don't need this, I don't need that, and then just put
24:57
nice drills in holes. Yeah. I just recycled them. Yeah. I
25:03
threw on my home recently. My like I had like some sixteens and thirty
25:07
five. I can't get rid of mine, and I can't get rid of
25:11
mine. Yeah, having in my closet right now, I can't get my
25:15
thirty five. I got thirty five sixteen super eight, and I can't get
25:18
buckets of them, buckets of these thirty five props. Someday you need it
25:22
to like, you know, well, the other day, the other day,
25:23
I actually I just retransferred them all to four K or to six K
25:27
actually because I did overthing to standard death before because I was like, you
25:32
know what, let me go back and take a look at some of that
25:33
stuff, and I did I transfer. So but eventually I'm going to have
25:37
to I'm gonna have to look. Yeah, I mean because because you know,
25:41
our mansions don't have the space for him anymore, you know, obviously.
25:45
Yeah, I mean we have to get sat in my West Palm Beach.
25:48
Yeah. Yeah. So another thing a lot of people don't talk about,
25:56
as fresh filmmakers don't understand is the politics of a set and music video.
26:00
I came up later in my life. I was I joined a music
26:07
video crew, and I did a lot of big music videos in the post
26:10
side, and I was on set, and you know justin BIEB versus Snoop
26:12
Dogg, you know, Ludacrous, all these kind of people are coming up,
26:17
and I saw the insanity. Yeah, it's insane, like insane on
26:23
set with a music video set. But when you started getting onto these other
26:27
sets that weren't they were more professional quote unquote, and you had these older
26:32
crew members who saw this, kid, I gotta imagine you got some pushback.
26:37
How did you do? How did you deal with that? Yeah?
26:41
I mean my personality is I'm very passive, you know, I'm I'm I'm
26:49
I can say i'm if, I'm if I'm confrontational. It's as kind as
26:55
I can possibly be. I know, I mean I had to. I
26:57
always knew I was the young I on the set, you know. And
27:00
I think anyone's going to deal with that if you're directing, because you know,
27:04
you're always going to get crew guys that are, you know, a
27:07
little little older than you. But you know, I can't think there's ever
27:12
been any like Confett, Like I know there were probably people. I mean,
27:15
obviously we've had like our eighteen hour days where you know, pushing people
27:19
too hard and stuff. And I learned from really good producers not to do
27:22
that very early on because someone gets an accident on the way home. That's
27:26
you know, So I only had I had a very short lived career as
27:30
far as pushing people too hard and having long days, and luckily I worked
27:36
with some really good Like I worked with this guy, Mark Russell. Chef
27:40
is his nickname. I don't know if you ever ran. He's an incredible
27:41
a D. And he was big in the music video team, like he
27:45
worked with Hype Williams and Mark. Yeah, he was like Hype Sky for
27:48
a while. And when I got to that like budget range bracket afford him,
27:53
you know, he was my a D and he had my back,
27:56
and he was one of the you know, like the best ads are the
27:59
ones that can like you know, kind of yell and get everyone to listen
28:02
to him, but like kill you with kindness at the same time, you
28:04
know, like compliment that like when it's time to get the shot, like
28:07
let's go. He's that guy, and he he sort of taught me a
28:14
lot that I know, and he always had my back on set and I
28:17
think that helped a lot with those situations because he was a veteran and so
28:21
just like the Directing department being sort of like supportive like that, like he
28:25
was able to push back at any of that, you know, like any
28:30
credit smirks or anything that came from some of the older people on set.
28:33
And and I also, you know, like if you can remember someone's name
28:37
and shake their hand and look them in the eye and compliment them if some
28:42
you know, some lighting looks incredible, it's not just the dbs, the
28:45
gaffer, you know, it's like so many it takes a village every time,
28:48
and as long as you, you know, really make sure everyone sees
28:53
that their craft is seen and respected and that they're doing a good job.
29:00
I think that that's like the key, you know, to to to sort
29:03
of getting that respect, even being younger. But I don't know if there
29:07
was anyone that was a little bit better just because I was young, Like
29:11
whatever, I don't care, you know, I'm too focused on this insane
29:15
where there's so many shots you got to get and you have this amount of
29:18
time, and the clients like looking over your shoulder like there's too much other
29:21
stuff to worry about, you know, So gotcha. Yeah, I mean,
29:23
if you have a good if you have a good first a d or
29:26
deal good DP to to kind of yeah, to help you with that stuff.
29:30
That's helpful, but sometimes you I mean I had guys who literally just
29:34
like literally try to try to chut my legs off underneath from underneath me while
29:38
on set. So it's a different certain things you just have to figure out.
29:42
I Mean, at one point, someone I walked on said thought that
29:45
I thought it was a p A. Yeah, m hadn't met me yet,
29:51
and they're like, all right, you uh go get the gap service
29:53
cod. I'm like, dude, I'm the direct Yeah, that's happened to
29:57
me recently actually, because like we'll be right back after a word from our
30:03
sponsor and now back to the show. I had a couple like like our
30:11
second ad was like like because I just black T shirt and jeans, because
30:17
I'm there to work. You know, I'll be on my knees like I'll
30:18
and I'll get my hands dirty and I'll you know. It's like he's like
30:22
normally the directors I work with like show up like with a suit and a
30:26
tie and makeup and their crazy hair and all this, and I'm like,
30:27
yeah, man, I'm just like here to work. You know. It's
30:30
it's the same mentality, like it doesn't matter if if you're sitting like and
30:33
I also like don't like to sit, like I'm always trying to stand because
30:36
that was like in music video world. It was like you see a shot
30:40
and you're gonna run over and talk to somebody and then like you just can't
30:41
be on your on your butt. You know. I haven't had that luxury
30:45
yet, you know, so maybe in a commercial I sat because that's like
30:48
the bottle. Oh yeah, it's all about like four hours on live in
30:52
the freaking bottle, I mean, and the clients they're like and you're like,
30:56
just just just do let me know when you want me to el action.
31:00
Yeah, but when you got like a million setups in, you know,
31:06
no time to do it, like you're just you're running and I think
31:08
as long as I mean, and a lot of people see that too.
31:11
They see how physical the job can be too, so it's like expect from
31:15
that too, you know. So that's true. That that is true though,
31:18
is if this cruises you bust an ass. Yeah, they but if
31:22
you're sitting on a on a recliner with your caffee latte, yeah, you
31:26
know, and and there, but and they're like Hey, guys, I
31:29
need you to lift that crane up ten stories. I'll meet you up there.
31:33
Not that you need to do it, but they just need to see
31:36
that you're it's you're you're a general man, You're a general running running a
31:40
unit. And yeah, and they got to see you moving and they got
31:42
to see that you're into it. But if if there's pretension, oh man,
31:47
it's hard. You lose, you lose your crew, you lose everything.
31:49
Yeah. Yeah, and and and that's like that was a big part.
31:53
Feel like I never like I was never like posing for photos or like
31:57
you know, like yeah, you know, doing the whole the whole thing,
32:00
like look at this set we built, you know, like you know,
32:02
like like no, you just like you get a shot. You go
32:07
you talk to the actors of ours first, then you talk to your DP,
32:08
then you talk to your AD and then you you know, you make
32:12
sure they know what to communicate to their team and and you just you just
32:15
go in order. And whenever the you know, the record label's talking to
32:19
you, everyone else needs to like you know, there first obviously, but
32:22
but yeah, it's just it's just making sure if you communicate good, I
32:27
think you get that respect like if you're very clear and there's no like question
32:30
marks or people that confuse as to what they're doing, you know. And
32:34
and even if people say you make if they see you make decisions like you
32:37
know what, we're runn out of time. We got to cut this shot.
32:38
Like if you do stuff like that too, they're like, Okay,
32:42
he's not going to like run us into the ground, Like we're going to
32:44
get through the day, you know. So yeah, So if there was
32:49
the thing, man, if you can go back in time and tell your
32:51
younger self at the beginning of this journey one thing, what would that one
32:54
thing be, It would be shoot a short film way earlier. Because my
33:00
agent and manager like, we're always telling me to shoot a short film,
33:02
do a short film, you know you need yeah, yeah, And and
33:07
I was, I don't know, I think I wasn't like cocky when I
33:09
was younger, but I definitely was like I can just go straight from music
33:14
videos to features, you know, like Venture did it? Yeah exactly,
33:17
Yeah. And you know my first short film I did was like you know,
33:22
with with that looked good was like twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, And
33:24
I should have done that way earlier. Because and just like learning narrative,
33:29
you know, like I think, you know, I learned a great deal
33:31
in school. I actually really liked college, but you learn the most from
33:37
just watching movies, just putting on the Criterion channel and watching old shit,
33:40
you know, like and that's and that's sort of the best film school.
33:44
So I think, I mean, I do like to watch a lot now,
33:47
and I did watch a lot in college and stuff, but I think
33:51
I would have I mean, I have friends that, you know, four
33:52
hundred they watch four hundred movies a year. You know, it's like like
33:55
every night they're watch a new movie. And I think that's the because that
34:00
the influences from all those films is gonna like consciously or subconsciously make its way
34:05
into your film. And I think taking taking your references and style from old
34:09
stuff is the best way to go because if you take it from new stuff,
34:13
it's obvious like, oh, they're ripping off euphoria, they're ripping off
34:16
you know, you know, whatever new you know, Tarantino movie or whatever.
34:21
But if you take well, Tarantino kicks from all the old so they're
34:23
like that's a big circle. It's a vicious it's a Vicious Circle. Yeah,
34:29
no, you're absolutely You're absolutely right. That's why, like you know,
34:30
pt Anderson stole a shot from Boogie Nights from I Am Cuba. Then
34:36
no one had ever heard of unless you had a Criterion laser disc of it
34:39
or your Mark Scorcees, your fresor for Copla who produced it or released it.
34:43
And everyone was like, this SHOT's amazing, and I'm like, wait
34:45
a minute, that's where I am Cuba. Yeah, but it's it's it's
34:49
such a great shot. It is so beautiful. You know. I saw
34:52
that for the first time just recently, because I'd never heard of it and
34:55
I'm Cuba. Yeah, it's just like I saw that one shot and I
35:00
was just like, what is this? Like it just how how do they
35:04
do it? Oh? Yeah No, And the thing that they did was
35:08
how they did this stuff you're talking about nineteen fifties Yeah technology these yeah,
35:16
tank of thirty five millimeter cameras. I mean, the tanks weighing a ton
35:22
and they're flying them around like they're like an iPhone on the gimbal like it's
35:27
i mean just insane. And then from the ceiling from a rooftop down an
35:31
elevator, walking around into the water like mind blowing, mind blowing. And
35:38
that's why that's why the whole practical way is always the best. Like and
35:43
I think people, even people that swear by CGI not seeing good for sure,
35:47
and I like certain amounts, but you subconsciously know it's not real,
35:52
you know. But when you put that real practical thing there or the camera
35:55
really you know, like what in your autube does and what they did in
36:00
What's the Good? Oh yeah, even top them. Yeah. I saw
36:04
that three times in the theat because I was just like, I know,
36:06
this is really happening, and my mind and can you imagine if that would
36:10
have been c G. Can you imagine if that was it? It just
36:13
it wouldn't have made the money. It wouldn't people would be like, great,
36:16
yeah, that's a really good example of something that everyone's gonna hear before
36:22
they see that that it was all real. You know. So if there's
36:23
like a good I think I think films should definitely have campaigns behind them if
36:28
they do pull off crazy practical things, you know, like like even was
36:31
that film that came out to Victoria The one shot was a film? You
36:36
know, they said like, yes, this actually is a one shot film.
36:40
It's not like a Pitchcock floorground pass that we're doing, like we shot
36:44
this. I think they did it three times and the second time was the
36:46
one they used or something like that. But that was a full They started
36:50
at two am and or three am and the film ended at five am.
36:54
And it's an actual one shot thing. And I don't care who you are,
36:58
if you know that information before see the film, it's going to make
37:00
the experience that like when the guy plays the piano or he catches the thing,
37:05
or they have the squibs and the guy gets shot, like you just
37:07
know, like wow, this was all planned out, you know, and
37:09
it's just like, yes, it's another experience. Like seeing the the eighteen
37:15
wheeler flip in dark Night. You're just like yep, and you could tell
37:20
that's real, Like that's there's no seats, you can't see gi the way
37:22
it looks, the motion, the things that are cooking, it's just too
37:25
complicated for it to look real the way it is. Did they did they
37:30
do a Jackie chan on that and show the crep show it multiple times?
37:34
I can't remember if it was like, oh, you mean like what,
37:37
I'm sure they did. I'm sure the edit was like that, but it
37:39
once it left, it was there. And then I think they probably cheated
37:44
a little bit as far as just the edits, but that thing was and
37:46
then I think boom boom boom, like they probably amed the down like three
37:51
times, like the Jackie Chance style. But you think, yeah, you
37:54
think in the edit they were like, oh my god, we have eighteen
37:57
incredible angles of this, but we can always show like three, you know,
38:00
like they probably I also heard. I mean I can't remember this,
38:05
but I thought I saw a viral video where did they shoot that during the
38:07
day and they just colored it to be night? No, I think that
38:10
was nice at least the behind the scenes. At least the behind the scenes
38:14
that I saw was not. So. Yeah, that would be too difficult,
38:16
man to day for night is tough in general, like to do something
38:22
like that with the like no man. Maybe it's because like I remember seeing
38:25
somebody filming it from their apartment and it's like daytime. You know. Maybe
38:29
it was the Preppers. I don't know, because they have to you know,
38:32
it wasn't. I don't think it was a won er. I think
38:34
they I think they could do it more than once. But yes, but
38:37
now we're getting Now we're getting into some geeky film stuff. Yeah. So
38:44
yeah, when two filmmakers get together, we started going down that road.
38:46
I'm Cuba turns into Chris Nolan real quick. Yeah, exactly. So.
38:52
So your your features film debut is the new film Blues Big Ced the Adventure.
39:00
Yes, how did the guy who directed Fuck You the Blues Clues?
39:07
You know, you know, a big paramount release. You know, how
39:12
did that happen? How did you get involved in this movie? Then I
39:15
have to say it's it's I. I worked with Brian Robbins back in twenty
39:21
thirteen. Brian Robbins, Yes, sure, he's now had a paramount you
39:23
know, was head of Nickelodeon, had Austin's TV. He when when he
39:27
was at austin and TV, I did like a sort of team musical thing
39:30
with them called Side Effects, and I just stayed in touch with him over
39:34
the years. He then eventually got me like an Aquaphene commercial, and then
39:38
I did like a pilot for Nickelodeon with him, and I think the script
39:43
was kind of sitting around for a while with Blues Clues, you know,
39:45
like they had always wanted to do it. And the timing was right because
39:49
you know, Steve went viral last year, and as far as the co
39:53
viewing ship, a lot of the adults that grew up with Steve now I
39:58
have kids that are growing up with Josh. We'll be right back after a
40:01
word from our sponsor and now back to the show. So I think from
40:12
a just like promote, like a free promotion standpoint, like like if the
40:16
parents are going to watch, the kids are going to watch it, the
40:19
kids are gonna watch you know it just it worked out, The timing worked
40:22
out, and Brian just called me and he was like, hey, man,
40:24
like we got this thing and it's a musical. And I was kind
40:28
of in that musical because he gave me a lot of creative freedom. Like
40:31
obviously I don't forever want to be in the kids' space. I don't want
40:35
to be in the preschool space, but I want to show like, hey,
40:37
I can take something with a you know, like an indie budget and
40:43
stretch every dollar and make it look like three to four times more than what
40:45
we really had, because that's what we had to do in the music video
40:47
world. And you know, fingers Crossed, I hope like, like I
40:52
know that like our movie is coming out the same day as Disenchanted, you
40:54
know, the big Disney tent pole whatever. You know, they probably a
40:57
hundred million bucks on that. And if we compete in the smallest degree with
41:00
that on streaming, like the smallest degree, if we put a dent in
41:04
that, then that's cool because we did have you know, yeah, it
41:07
was it was like an any budget, but it was still a lot of
41:10
the ways and the technique we used were you know, ragtag DIY ways of
41:16
doing things. And so I was I was kind of like, I like
41:22
the challenge of it. I knew the brand was important and existed, and
41:25
I just had this this, you know, the fact that I was going
41:30
to be able to make colorful, beautiful musicals. And with the musical genre,
41:32
it's fantasy, so you can break so many rules into where you're going
41:36
to do a lot of fun stuff. As far as the fantasy of it
41:37
all, I was, I was game and also like I'm not rich,
41:43
so I'm gonna take every job I can get, so like literally that's part
41:46
of it too, Like I was, I've never been able to pick and
41:50
choose my jobs, you know. So it was on top of the fact
41:52
that it's an incredible opportunity. Like you got to keep working because in this
41:58
industry, if you become irrelevant, it's a hard path back. You always
42:00
have to have something like cooking in the oven. You know, there's four
42:05
hundred there's four hundred guys or gals right behind you waiting in the wings to
42:08
tick over. Yeah, where you left whatever you left behind? Oh no,
42:14
boy, when you were coming up is a little bit different. There
42:17
wasn't as much competition. Definitely when I was coming up, it wasn't as
42:20
much competition. But now, yeah, yeah, because you can you I
42:24
mean the you know, the this camera looks incredible. Now you can even
42:30
do that faked up the field thing too, So it's like, man,
42:34
it's insane. It's pretty Yeah. Can you imagine if we had this gut
42:37
technology when we were coming up as kids? Man, especially in music videos
42:42
too, you know, five hundred that's an extravagant budget. Yeah, yeah,
42:46
exactly. It's funny that this kind of like this has been a problem
42:51
sometimes because like my choreographers will film dance and they they they're also directors too,
42:58
and they like to kind of test out what kind of camera moves could
43:01
work with the dance, but they're using this and when we get on set,
43:06
I'm like, well, we can't move that fast this this big steady
43:07
camera. It's a dollar or you know whatever. It's like a lot of
43:09
times, you know, you have to like slow down when you're when you're
43:13
rehearsing things. But but yeah, yeah, it was you know, it
43:16
was also just like what a big opportunity, and I just couldn't pass it
43:22
up, you know. And I love and I love Brian and Nickelodeon's great
43:24
too. My my my partner, Niki Lopez, works for Nickelodeon too.
43:29
We just happened to both have projects in Nickelodeon, so it's it's definitely a
43:34
good family there for sure. Hey listen, one of my first jobs was
43:37
working in Orlando, Florida Nickelodeon studios. You were at the OG, I
43:40
was the I used to saw Brian many times walking behind on set. Yeah,
43:45
because he was producing stuff back then using all that and yeah, I
43:49
to sort of for a a for trivia that no one cares about. One
43:53
of my first PA gigs was Global Guts. Oh no, I was on
43:59
I was a Spanish translator in Global and Global Guts, so they would bring
44:04
in, like the Spaniards and the South American kids, and I would be
44:07
the one translated for them, and I was on set there and there's oh
44:09
it was amazing. Yeah, I go correct. The Global Guts was the
44:14
glowing out right right right, yeah, yeah, it was. It was
44:16
a little bit different. I never did I never did guts. I did
44:19
Global Guts. It was just always the international kids coming in and man,
44:22
it was so much fun. I mean that was we're talking about ninety six.
44:27
Yeah, yeah, in the in the heyday. So I remember seeing
44:30
Brian, and I remember seeing Brian, you know, on head of the
44:31
class when he was yeah, back back, back, back in the day.
44:36
No, I've watched his career, man, and he's pretty he's a
44:40
pretty remarkable dude. Like he really hustled up to the point where now he's
44:45
running the studio. Gotta give it to him. Yeah, No, and
44:49
and and everything Nickelodeon did in the nineties was so cool. I mean it's
44:52
still it still is, like a really cool like company that takes a lot
44:57
of chances. But I was defined by that, you know, this red
45:00
and stimpy slime like Nick magazine like all that. It was so different than
45:04
Disney, you know, because there was there was Disney, and there was
45:06
Nick and us Nick kids grew up a little weirder, you know, And
45:09
I would agree with you on that. Red and Snippy would do that.
45:13
Yeah yeah, yeah. So when you this is something I've always like,
45:17
I love asking the director who does musical Man, I've never done a musical
45:22
scene. I mean, I've done music videos, but that's different. You're
45:25
talking like a musical scene. Hey, I'm just gonna bust out into song.
45:30
We're gonna start dancing in the middle of Central Park. How the hell
45:34
do you approach something like that? And let alone would see g characters on
45:37
top of it? Yeah yeah, I mean, like the mentality of the
45:42
music video is still there, you know, like there is still but I
45:46
think the most important thing that the biggest difference is transitioning into it, you
45:52
know, because you I mean, obviously, in the old MGM musicals,
45:54
they would just be talking then boom and then they'd start singing. But I
45:58
think like nowadays you kind of have to justify, you know, Like the
46:01
MGM musicals, it was always they're putting on a show, you know,
46:06
So that's where the musicals came from. And then you know, but some
46:10
musicals, like like the Umbrellas of was it Schubert, I can never say
46:15
that word. They were just singing the whole time, kind of for no
46:19
reason. You know, it just was a musical, you know. So
46:22
this film was kind of that same thing where Josh's auditioning Broadway as the flavor.
46:27
But our justification of the musical was always the sounds of New York,
46:30
the things happening around you that sort of create a soundtrack if you really listen.
46:35
So the build up to all the numbers was really important on this one.
46:37
So that's why that transition into the first musical number, He's like,
46:42
it's all chaos, and there's cars honking and people, you know, cars
46:45
squealing and people yelling out hot dogs, pretzels and all this stuff. And
46:49
then he kind of slows down and closes his eyes and here's heartbeat and you
46:52
start hearing like, oh, like the taxi cabs are honking in rhythm,
46:55
and the bucket drummers are playing in rhythm. So using the sounds of New
46:59
York, that was how we got in and out of these musical numbers.
47:02
And that was the thing, you yeah, because you can't you know,
47:07
if you just start singing and dance like, that's fine, but it's so
47:09
much cooler if you like kind of transition into it and sort of justify what
47:13
you're seeing on screen is a story element. Yeah, yeah, exactly so.
47:19
And the other the other difference is kind of you know, when you
47:22
kind of cut the dialogue too, and and the timing of everything, you
47:25
know, I mean it's that that's an interesting thing too, because you have
47:30
to like have a metronome going, you know, and like practice the dialogue
47:34
because if you're recording dialogue, like you can't have playback going, so you
47:37
have to really rehearse all the dialogue that is in between two sections. And
47:42
we were doing a lot like the songs that we that we did play back
47:45
on set are nothing like the songs we ended up with. And I remember,
47:49
like we we shot this one section twice that Josh did, and we
47:54
liked him so much we just doubled up the chorus in post production and just
47:59
like made it long because he danced really good from these two different angles,
48:01
you know. So there was a lot of Frankensteining and posts two and that
48:06
like drove you know, Steph think my incredible. She produced all the music
48:09
and wrote one of the songs, Happiness is Magic, and I mean our
48:14
post production was insane and I definitely drove her crazy, but she was such
48:16
a trooper and we changed the song so many times after the fact. But
48:21
you know, it's it's a lot of you know, you fall in love
48:24
with shots and you just got to use them all, so you change the
48:27
songs. I like using the vision, but yeah, I think the transitions
48:30
is the biggest difference because in a music video, just starting the song plays,
48:34
you know what, I need to share allong the less. So now,
48:37
there was another aspect of this film that was really interesting. It's the
48:40
Spider Man No Way Home effect, where all of the hosts from all generations
48:47
came in through the multiverse. And I'm joking, but all come in.
48:53
That was probably a big of a deal to Blues Clues fans as watching Spider
49:00
Man No Way Home. For you and I when we saw that were like,
49:04
oh my god, that's Toby. Yeah, like how that's Andrew and
49:07
they're all together and like look, I get chills. We want to talk
49:08
about this because it's such a geek. Yeah, he's just like you know,
49:13
you start like tearing up. You're like, oh my god, I
49:15
remember when I saw Toby a spider Man. So I imagine the same thing
49:17
happened with the Blues Clues. People like I'm sure that the parents were like,
49:22
oh my god, there is there's Josh, and there's this. So
49:24
how what was when you guys, when you read the script and all that,
49:29
How was that whole thing bringing that hole together? As a director,
49:32
I mean, I thought it was cool when I first heard the script,
49:35
but I didn't I didn't realize the impact because I didn't grow up with Steve.
49:37
I was you know, Steve came out and I was a little bit
49:39
too old. So it was more like one of those things when after the
49:45
fact, you know, like not not after we were shooting, but after
49:46
I got on the project and he did the whole viral thing and talked to
49:49
the camera, I realized, like, it actually makes sense. He was
49:53
such a I mean, Blue Clue was the first time, you know,
49:57
the character looked at the camera, We'll be right back after a word from
50:00
our sponsor and now back to the show, talked to It gave the kids
50:09
time to react and talk back. It was this interact to TV show being
50:13
it was pretty revolutionary and he meant a lot to a lot of kids,
50:17
you know, and they're all twenty five thirty now, and you know just
50:22
what you look online and all the comments when every post something, I mean,
50:25
people were like, Yo, you helped me get through this. You
50:28
helped me do with anxiety. You know, you just like you shape my
50:31
life when I was like when I was an outcast and I just went and
50:34
watched Blues Clothes and felt like somebody was listening to me, and it's I
50:38
didn't realize how how much of you a responsibility it was to both myself and
50:44
even him performing in the movie. You know how many people love that guy
50:46
and putting them all together. I mean, I by the time we were
50:52
shooting, I was like, yeah, this is important because there's all the
50:53
rules of Blues Clothes, you know, like you have to make sure you
50:57
talk to the camera at I love, but you don't look down at a
50:59
kid. You don't look up at a kid. You know, you're talking
51:00
on their level. And Steve was teaching me a lot of that stuff too,
51:04
you know before we were shooting, because he directed a bunch of Blue
51:06
Spooks as well, and you know, seeing them all together. It's it's
51:12
it is that thing, you know, because I mean in the theater when
51:15
Spider Man happened and people were throwing popcorn in the it's like screaming. You
51:17
couldn't even hear the scene because people were screaming, you know, and everyone
51:21
knew it was coming, right, you know, it had to guy my
51:24
girlfriend. I wanted Miles my house to be in there somehow too. But
51:28
maybe that'll happen next the next time, next time. Come we don't get
51:30
greedy, don't get greedy. I know, we got the spider it's a
51:34
Spider verse o pay come on. But but you know, like with this
51:37
one too, you know it's coming. But we really paid attention to like
51:42
building up their intros and when the first time you see them, and even
51:45
like the comedy because they're also they're also different. Yeah, they all were
51:47
hosts, but they're their sense of humors and the fact that like, you
51:51
know, Joe is still wearing a stupid purple pink shirt, you know,
51:54
and he runs a present store but the rent is high and he makes a
51:57
joke about that, you know, And the fact that Steve is this bumbly
52:00
detective that has this great heart, but you know he needs a piece of
52:05
a bar of soap to help him, you know, find clues and stuff
52:07
like It's it's just so funny and and ridiculous, you know, and it's
52:14
so heartwarming. I mean, these guys are incredible. The show is incredible,
52:17
and it was great to be a part of that and see it all
52:20
happen. And again, it was something where I read the script, I
52:22
was like, this is cool. But then once you sit down and work
52:24
with them and see them all in sat You're like, this is this is
52:28
a big deal. It's like twenty five years in the making. So I
52:30
was glad to sort of lend you know, my point of view, you
52:35
know, to that whole process. Now, when is it coming out and
52:37
where can people see it? It's November eighteenth on Paramount Plus. And you
52:43
know, I don't know if there's going to be rocky horror you know,
52:45
midnight showings of it, but I think a lot of fingers crossed that happens
52:50
because there's a lot of silly stuff in the movie that you could you could
52:52
throw a pretzel at the screen, or you could like you know, toss
52:54
salt over your shoulder or whatever. I feel like there's a lot of that
52:58
fun stuff. But yeah, it's it's November eighteenth, and I think internationally
53:04
it's like November nineteenth, and then it's going to come out of some other
53:06
some other countries in December. But yeah, paramount plus. I mean,
53:09
if the whole thing goes to hell, man with your career, at least
53:12
you know in twenty years you'll go to a convention. Is just this will
53:15
sign some autographs? Yeah yeah, So I mean, I mean, you're
53:17
good, you're sent bro, Yes, I will. I will get those
53:21
residual autograph whatever you know, signing a little funko doll that's deep game out
53:24
with and exactly now I'm gonna ask you, if I'm gonna ask you a
53:29
few questions, I ask all my guests, what advice would you give a
53:31
filmmaker trying to break into the business today, I'd say, right, and
53:37
conceptualize what you know? You know, just if you if you're obsessed with
53:40
Christmas, make a Christmas movie you grew up in. If you grew up
53:45
in Chicago, make a movie about Chicago. If you know a certain neighborhood
53:47
there right about that, if it's your cultural background and you're and you're really
53:52
invested in that. Just write what you know, because when you pitch in
53:54
a room and you know more than the executives about something, you know,
54:00
they will generally want to hear that story. You know, if you make
54:02
a movie about something you know about, you know, it shows you know.
54:07
So if you know something from back, like you can be the guy.
54:08
You have to be the only person that can make that good. That's
54:13
actually really good advice. What lesson would what lesson took you the longest to
54:16
learn, Whether in the film industry or in life. Oh my gosh,
54:22
we got more hours left on this now. It's it's it's never worth it,
54:29
I think. I think on set, it's never worth it to do
54:30
anything that isn't safe. You know, there's always those opportunity, there's all
54:34
the there's those moments where like obviously an age, like there's so many people
54:37
on set that don't want you to do on safe stuff. But you can
54:40
sense when you're pushing something a little too much, When a crew member is
54:44
pushed a little too much, when an actor is pushed too much, it's
54:46
just never worth it, Like find a different solution because you don't want someone
54:52
being too tired when the driving home. You don't want an actor to lose
54:53
your respect. You don't want someone getting hurt. It's like, it's just
54:58
not worth it. Don't take chances with Yeah, and I've had too many
55:01
stunt guys come up to me. I'm like, I could, I could
55:04
be on fire. I'm like, I don't need you fright. You need
55:07
to, you need to, you need to. Have you ever met a
55:08
stunt guy who didn't do that? All of them do it everything because it's
55:13
like, hey, we're just suspending this guy from wires, but they want
55:15
the explosion, you know. So it's always like I need you to jump
55:17
ten feet. I could do it sixty feet and I could be on fire
55:22
while there's a tiger chasing me. I'm like, dude, I don't need
55:24
to know. You need to relax. Every single stunt guy I've ever met
55:30
yet, oh, I guess I love. Oh they're the They're the craziest.
55:35
They are the craziest carnies in our carnival. I mean they are nuts.
55:39
They are and the best, wonderful, wonderful, loving way. They
55:45
are absolutely nuts, and they make our films so much better. And last
55:49
question three of your favorite films of all time. Okay, Number one is
55:52
going to be eight and a half Fellini. I'm obsessed with it. The
55:55
whole thing feels like a dream, and it feels like looking at my own
55:59
child, even though it's totally different culture. You know. Number two would
56:04
be Natural Born Killers. That thing just breaks so many rules and it's like
56:08
all the all the formats they shot on how they shot it, and it's
56:12
this like awesome like bad Lands love Story but updating in so nineties, and
56:16
it's I love that movie. And then man number three has got to be
56:22
Clockwork Orange. It's just me. I mean, I mean Kubrick, I
56:28
mean, every one of those movies can be in anyone's top ten. He
56:30
was a director that made like the best horror movie all time, the best
56:34
war from of all time, I mean argue, you know, the best
56:37
drama of all time, the best comedy. But Clockwork Orange is just I
56:40
mean, it was my It has roots in my punk rock like high school
56:45
upbringing. And that's just the movie we watched on repeated a million times.
56:49
Can you imagine releasing the first twenty minutes of Clockwork Orange in today's world?
56:55
I mean, how wow? Could they even do then, and I'm watching
57:00
I just watched it recently again, I'm like, this stuff is still so
57:05
far gone, so far out. Yeah, you could not release it.
57:10
Can you imagine if a major studio released this day. Yeah it's crazy too
57:15
because everything that's like based off book is really obscene and dirty and profane.
57:21
You know, books are always the dirtiest thing ever, you know, it
57:23
doesn't matter how old it is, Like you can like you read it all,
57:27
Henry Miller, but you're like, whoa, you know, But you
57:29
know, that's where all the good movies come from, is great books.
57:31
You know a lot of them do. And so it's the the obscene will
57:35
always be there, and let's hope the studios keep releasing it because they're fun.
57:40
Matt Man, it's been a pleasure talking to man. Continued success and
57:44
congratulations on all this is that you had, and and thank you for bringing
57:47
Blues Clues to the new generation and bringing all of them together. Man,
57:51
It's it's a lot of fun man. So I appreciate you, my friend,
57:53
Thank you for having me. Nice to meet you, Alex for sure.
57:55
Man, I want to thank Matt so much for coming on the show
58:00
and dropping his knowledge bombs on the tribe today. Thank you so much,
58:02
Matt. If you want to get links to anything we spoke about in this
58:05
episode, head over to the show notes at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv. Forward
58:08
slash three fifty two. Thank you so much for listening, guys, As
58:12
always, keep on writing no matter what. I'll talk to you soon.
58:15
Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast at Bulletproofscreenwriting dot tv.