Latest / Yeah Buddy! Podcast / Lights, Camera, Bay Area: Tajianna Okechukwu on Art, Film & Making an Impact

Transcript

Lights, Camera, Bay Area: Tajianna Okechukwu on Art, Film & Making an Impact · Yeah Buddy! Podcast

• 0:00
  Yo, let's get it.
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  Yo, let's go, let's get it.
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  Live from the mic with the vibes explicit.
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  Hosted by Buddy, the legend in the game.
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  Step into the studio, lights shining bright.
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  Discussing personal journeys.
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  Every episode's a treat.
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  Let the conversation play.
• 0:44
  Yeah, yeah, Buddy, yeah.
• 0:45
  Welcome to the show.
• 0:49
  Yes, yes, yes.
• 0:50
  What's going on, world?
• 0:51
  It's your man, Buddy Ramon.
• 0:52
  And we are back at it with another episode
• 0:54
  of the Yeah, Buddy podcast.
• 0:56
  So thank you to all my returning friends.
• 0:58
  And if this is your first time listening,
• 1:00
  we got a really dope episode for y'all this time around.
• 1:03
  You know how we do.
• 1:04
  Like every episode, I try to bring some of my friends
• 1:06
  in the entertainment business, filmmakers, actors, comedians.
• 1:09
  We sit down, chop it up, and see what we got going on.
• 1:12
  This episode is like no other.
• 1:14
  I got a good friend of mine, actress we met.
• 1:16
  Well, we reconnected at a networking mixer
• 1:18
  at the end of 2025.
• 1:20
  But we worked on so many projects together.
• 1:22
  We probably ran into each other so many times
• 1:25
  and didn't even remember.
• 1:26
  But very talented actress, director, producer,
• 1:29
  all around good friend and filmmaker.
• 1:31
  I want y'all to make it live and make it live
• 1:33
  for my good friend, Ms. Tajiana.
• 1:34
  OK, choo-choo.
• 1:36
  Did I say it right?
• 1:37
  Yes, that was good.
• 1:39
  OK.
• 1:40
  Cool, cool, cool.
• 1:41
  For sure.
• 1:43
  Thank you for having me.
• 1:44
  Thank you.
• 1:45
  No.
• 1:47
  This is going to be fun.
• 1:48
  This is going to be rocking.
• 1:50
  Before we dive into all the exciting things
• 1:52
  that you have coming up this year,
• 1:54
  let's give people a little back story
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  about how you actually got started
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  into filmmaking and acting.
• 2:00
  For sure, yeah.
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  So I honestly got started when I was around,
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  I want to say eight or nine years old.
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  My mom actually was doing a lot of acting at the time,
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  also was directing her first feature film.
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  And she was previously a model
• 2:21
  before she became a filmmaker.
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  And so I had always had that creative edge
• 2:27
  through my mom and kind of following behind her,
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  running in and out of the theater,
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  all that type of stuff in the aisles.
• 2:34
  And so between that and my dad being a chauffeur
• 2:39
  in the driving business and driving very well-known folks
• 2:46
  here in the Bay Area,
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  I always had their support with wanting to explore
• 2:52
  a career in the industry.
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  So that's what kind of gave the spark.
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  And Talent Scout came up to me on Walmart when I was a kid
• 3:01
  and was like, hey, little girl, do you want to be on TV?
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  And I was like, mommy, daddy, we have to sign up.
• 3:07
  So they were like, okay.
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  So signed me up for acting classes.
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  And then, yeah.
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  Yeah, about 15 years, 20 years, you know,
• 3:18
  into the making.
• 3:22
  Awesome. That's cool.
• 3:23
  This is actually probably,
• 3:24
  I think you're probably one of the first people I had
• 3:26
  that I've interviewed that who parents, you know,
• 3:29
  kind of come from some sort of,
• 3:32
  have some sort of entertainment background.
• 3:34
  A lot of people I've interviewed before just kind of like,
• 3:37
  oh, I kind of fell into it.
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  So it's good to know that you, it's going to be interesting.
• 3:40
  I'm going to be glad to hear your story, you know,
• 3:43
  because I said you've done a lot of great things out here
• 3:45
  in the Bay Area, Phil community and things like that.
• 3:49
  So let's fast forward a little bit.
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  You guys started acting.
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  Did you always want to be in front of the camera?
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  Did you want to be more behind the scenes?
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  I was like, when I was a little girl
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  and I was in front of the TV and that's how,
• 4:03
  it was that's how Raven for me was like, oh my gosh,
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  I love this show.
• 4:07
  It's so entertaining.
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  Like one of my first pieces,
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  one of my first monologues that I did in the acting program
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  when I was younger was from Bats of Raven,
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  like one of the scenes where she was of course having a vision.
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  And so I had always, when I was little,
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  it was more so me being in front of the camera.
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  And then as I got into high school,
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  I went to San Lorenzo high and we have a video production program,
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  Bay Area digital arts.
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  So I was in drama and I was in video production
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  because I just loved both.
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  And so I was in school plays,
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  but I also was in Bata that was my elective during the school day.
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  So I was learning about video production and how to set up a camera,
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  doing interviews and, you know,
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  getting familiar with the behind the scenes aspect and, you know,
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  watching my mom, of course, from afar,
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  doing her film stuff and talking about writing scripts and landed an
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  internship junior year, I believe it was in high school.
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  And so that in high school is where the behind the scenes,
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  I would say really came into the forefront.
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  And then you went to college, I believe it was at Azusa.
• 5:15
  Was that how you pronounce it?
• 5:18
  Yep. It's the name of the city too. Small, small city.
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  Like near the West Covina, Pasadena,
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  like that area of Southern California. So yeah,
• 5:30
  private Christian school. Yeah.
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  Yeah. It was a really dope experience.
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  Got to meet a lot of really, really like really dope people.
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  And also it was a little bit of a culture shock to coming from the Bay,
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  go to a private school, you know,
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  whether you're coming from a place where you see a whole bunch of people,
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  you see a lot of people who look like you and then you go to a school like
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  that and you don't really see people who look like you.
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  So that was a little bit of a culture shock coming from the Bay area.
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  But I still let my,
• 6:00
  my personality shine and ended up double majoring.
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  So I was in the acting program and I was also in the cinema program as well.
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  So both of my degrees are still with the acting and film still with both
• 6:15
  lanes. Yeah.
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  So I was a cinematic arts major with the film and TV studies concentration.
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  So it was less of production, but it was more like film theory.
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  And for the BFA in theater arts,
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  it was acting for stage and screen is the name of the program.
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  And so I got to learn about stage and also screen your first two years of
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  stage, last two years of screen acting.
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  And so it was a very well-rounded education for sure.
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  What happened like, like,
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  so you're both your parents are already working in the entertainment
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  business. What kind of made you want to say,
• 6:51
  let me at least go and get my degrees and you know,
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  that sort of like that stamp of approval of being on the professional.
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  I think like, I just never saw anything else for myself.
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  Like I played sports in high school,
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  a little bit of middle school and like my mom put us in everything,
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  you know, all the extracurriculars I was in leadership.
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  When I was in high school as well, like, and in college,
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  like I just,
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  I was always have my hand in a few different pots just to gain different
• 7:23
  skills and just to build community.
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  That's how I made friends is through doing activities.
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  And so it just has always been a part of the framework of like who I am.
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  But as a career, like, as like,
• 7:34
  what will you do for the rest of your life?
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  Like, I just really didn't see myself doing anything else.
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  You know, besides being an artist in some capacity.
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  So I work in education, you know, to pay the bills professionally,
• 7:50
  but I teach digital media.
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  I teach, I've taught drama at my, you know, high school as well.
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  So like even, you know,
• 7:58
  education has been such a big part of my journey.
• 8:00
  And even within that, it's always been arts education, you know,
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  all the summer camps that I've taught or, you know, working, you know,
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  to teach some classes after school, you know,
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  an after school program it's always been, you know,
• 8:13
  arts centered or if I've been in a space where it wasn't arts centered,
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  once people find out, oh, you're a filmmaker, you know,
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  can you bring that, you know, into our program?
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  So like, it's always been arts education.
• 8:25
  Yeah. Yeah.
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  I feel like, um,
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  especially that was the way art said like tech and corporate is growing.
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  It's like having, like I said,
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  being somebody who's familiar with the arts,
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  it's just going to be something extra like for like corporate.
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  When you just tell somebody who has no experience at all about what's going
• 8:42
  on with filmmaking, how to even make a film.
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  When you tell them that their eyes just light up because they're like, oh,
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  I know I could do something with that.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
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  It's something that everybody needs,
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  but it's also like so mystified in terms of like this,
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  of how everything works and, you know,
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  I want it to be demystified and like accessible as a career and seeing it.
• 9:05
  Yeah.
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  I just want people to see like arts is like a viable career.
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  Like it shouldn't be this like, oh my gosh,
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  you work in film and TV.
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  How does that work?
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  It should be like, you know, just like another job.
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  I feel like, you know.
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  Yeah.
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  Like it's just a regular nine to five.
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  Yeah.
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  Like this is a part of, you know, we need art.
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  You watch movies, you know, you're going to meet actors.
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  You're going to meet filmmakers, you know,
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  same way you're going to meet people who, you know,
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  work in other disciplines.
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  You're going to work people who work in the medical field.
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  You're going to meet people working construction.
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  You're going to meet people working in hospitality.
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  We're all needed.
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  So I think, you know, being able to demystify the industry as much as possible,
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  I believe makes it more accessible as a career and continues to boost the economy.
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  So, yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  I think once we stop thinking of it from the standpoint of, oh,
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  this is my dream and just think of it as like this,
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  this is a job that I've tried to pursue.
• 9:55
  It makes it it makes one actually jumping into this field a whole lot easier.
• 10:02
  And then, too, you kind of deal with the lows, both the highs and the lows.
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  You kind of deal with them differently.
• 10:09
  You don't take it as personal, I'd say.
• 10:12
  Right.
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  Because you're like, oh, this is my job.
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  That's a part of it.
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  I'm going to get rejections.
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  I'm going to get no's.
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  You know, so it's just like you might work in a corporate space and say,
• 10:23
  can I have a raise?
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  And they might say, no, the first few times.
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  Like, you know, we are sure of, you know,
• 10:31
  what the ups and downs in our own industries are.
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  So, yeah.
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  So let's jump into that, actually.
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  Let's take you graduate from college, graduate from university.
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  Now you're out here in the Bay Area working your way in the film committee.
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  Tell some of the people, some of the productions that you have worked on.
• 10:50
  Totally.
• 10:51
  I've worked on a few great films.
• 10:55
  Geez.
• 10:56
  And also a handful of commercials, too.
• 10:59
  You know, I've worked on a lot of Steph Curry commercials.
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  I've worked random Chipotle, Oli, you know,
• 11:07
  just working as a production assistant.
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  As soon as I graduated school, I just came back home.
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  I was like, all right, like, how do I put these degrees to use?
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  So I ended up doing VA a lot.
• 11:17
  I'm like local commercials, got plugged in to the community,
• 11:20
  was really hungry and, you know, worked on a whole bunch of commercials.
• 11:24
  And then started working on, you know, a few films.
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  I think most notably like Earth Mama with A24.
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  Shout out to all the dream team on that,
• 11:35
  which was a really, really dope experience to work on a feature.
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  And working on, you know, short films as well.
• 11:44
  You know, doing background work, you know,
• 11:48
  as a background actor for one of the scenes in Josephine,
• 11:51
  that was just at Sundance this year.
• 11:53
  So I just always try to find my way in terms of like.
• 11:57
  Your audio just completely cut out.
• 12:00
  Yeah, I can hear you.
• 12:01
  Okay, perfect.
• 12:02
  I'm like, I don't know what happened.
• 12:03
  Your thing was like spinning with the circle.
• 12:05
  I don't know what happened, but it's all good.
• 12:09
  Okay, cool.
• 12:10
  Yeah, I can edit this all out.
• 12:13
  I can edit that.
• 12:14
  A little bit of bumps in the road that you might have to cut out.
• 12:17
  Yeah, no worries.
• 12:18
  No worries.
• 12:20
  I forgot where I left off.
• 12:23
  Oh, we talked about the commercials that you had worked on.
• 12:26
  But yeah, I worked on a lot of great films, commercials,
• 12:32
  a lot of commercials once I had first graduated and came back to,
• 12:36
  I came back to the Bay.
• 12:39
  Just got plugged in and was really hungry.
• 12:42
  Just was trying to figure out who's who, what's what,
• 12:44
  and paid for a few brands.
• 12:48
  I did, yeah, a few Toyota commercials, done Steph Curry, Google,
• 12:53
  Facebook, random, just random stuff.
• 12:56
  And, you know, because obviously with San Francisco, Silicon Valley,
• 13:00
  you know, a lot of commercial work in the Bay Area pops up.
• 13:04
  And so it's a great opportunity to be a production assistant on those
• 13:07
  commercials.
• 13:08
  And so there was a mixture of commercials,
• 13:11
  and then there was also, you know, films,
• 13:14
  most notably Earth Mama from A24, feature film, really dope.
• 13:20
  Shout out to all the Dream Team on that.
• 13:22
  It was a really dope film to work on as a production assistant.
• 13:25
  And also obviously have done a plethora of short films.
• 13:30
  You know, have been producing other, you know, friends films.
• 13:35
  And just really just getting my hands wet, getting my hands wet.
• 13:39
  And getting dirty, you know,
• 13:43
  trying to find my way and, you know, understand how does this all work?
• 13:48
  Because in school I had more of the fear, like I said,
• 13:51
  my degree is in theory.
• 13:52
  So like, why do we set up the shot this way?
• 13:54
  And what does this color mean in film?
• 13:56
  And like more, you know, theoretical and like my hands-on application,
• 14:01
  I feel like really came after I graduated and came back home and started
• 14:03
  working.
• 14:04
  And so I even was a director's assistant in LA for a short film too.
• 14:10
  And was like, you know, going back and forth, you know,
• 14:14
  to LA when an opportunity would pop up.
• 14:16
  And so, yeah, like I've just always been hungry to, you know,
• 14:21
  figure it out.
• 14:22
  Because I know that nobody's going to just, you know,
• 14:24
  reach out and be like, here you go.
• 14:26
  But once you work more and more, obviously, you know,
• 14:28
  people become familiar with you and are like, oh, okay.
• 14:30
  Like she working.
• 14:32
  So the more gigs would come.
• 14:35
  And I also work in theater as well.
• 14:37
  So I was like at the time also in between this and the past few years,
• 14:41
  I've been doing like stage management for theater shows and also acting on
• 14:46
  stage as well.
• 14:47
  So I'm just, yeah, across the big three, theater, film, and TV.
• 14:53
  So been working across all of these disciplines in different capacities in
• 14:58
  between paying the bills, mostly through working in education.
• 15:03
  So, yeah.
• 15:04
  So with working in like, I guess all you say the big three,
• 15:09
  can you speak a little bit to the, I guess the camaraderie or the, yeah,
• 15:14
  the camaraderie within the Bay Area art scene or the film scene in
• 15:19
  particular?
• 15:21
  I feel it was pretty collaborative and for the most part,
• 15:24
  people tend to show up and support something that's, you know,
• 15:29
  a just cause or a good film or somebody that's really actually just out here
• 15:35
  trying to make a name.
• 15:37
  For sure. You know, at least my, I can only speak from my own experience,
• 15:41
  but you know, my experience has been great. I've, you know, like I said,
• 15:45
  I started in leadership as like, you know, as a, as a young girl,
• 15:48
  like in high school, you know, I've always had my hat in like, you know,
• 15:52
  organizing events or taking on different leadership positions.
• 15:56
  And so, you know, my involvement with like Bay Area nonprofits that are,
• 16:00
  you know, championing filmmakers has been like a no brainer.
• 16:03
  And so I feel like that also has brought community.
• 16:06
  I know in the last few years specifically,
• 16:08
  we've definitely been like on the rise.
• 16:12
  Like everybody has been yearning for this community.
• 16:16
  And so I'm super excited about all of the local organizations that I'm attached
• 16:20
  to and that I support. And, you know, we're all,
• 16:23
  we're all like holding each other's hands and, you know,
• 16:26
  kind of leading different parts of the equation, you know,
• 16:30
  which the problem is bringing more film and TV to the Bay Area so that
• 16:35
  people do have jobs. And so I've been a part of, you know,
• 16:38
  all these different organizations, Make It Bay, Cinemama, obviously,
• 16:44
  you know, SF Film as well.
• 16:48
  BayVac Media, BayCat, I've been,
• 16:51
  I've had all different types of touch points with a lot of Bay Area
• 16:55
  organizations, especially working with youth as well, Youth Beat.
• 16:59
  So yeah, it's been an amazing, amazing experience.
• 17:04
  Just, yeah,
• 17:05
  being able to work as a teaching artist with these organizations and also be
• 17:10
  able to help produce events with these organizations or, you know,
• 17:14
  just share opportunities that are going on. So, yeah.
• 17:19
  And you have, you yourself, I mean,
• 17:21
  I know you're affiliated with a lot of these different organizations,
• 17:24
  but you yourself,
• 17:25
  you have a lot of exciting things coming up this year that we could all
• 17:30
  really be looking forward to.
• 17:32
  Yes. I'm super, super excited. Yeah.
• 17:36
  This year is going to be, yeah, it's going to be amazing.
• 17:41
  Yeah. No, so let's get into, let's get into these,
• 17:43
  these good things that you have going on this year.
• 17:45
  First thing I want to say is congratulations.
• 17:49
  Cause you was chosen as the San Francisco Film Festival,
• 17:54
  Filmhouse resident. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. I'm actually here.
• 17:59
  Doing this interview. So I'm super grateful.
• 18:02
  We just had a little powwow right before this.
• 18:05
  So I'm definitely excited about the residency and to develop some upcoming
• 18:12
  projects and gain resources and get advice from creative mentors and
• 18:18
  everything that the program has to offer.
• 18:20
  So I'm really excited to see what is in store for it.
• 18:23
  So how did you go about, I guess you had to apply for it.
• 18:26
  And then now that you applied and you got accepted,
• 18:28
  what are some of the things that you could,
• 18:30
  you personally could look forward to with being part of the Filmhouse
• 18:32
  resident?
• 18:33
  Yes. So shout out to my, my co-applicant, Otito.
• 18:38
  We applied together.
• 18:41
  She is my co-writer on a couple of projects and she's a really good
• 18:49
  writer friend that we both, we both, you know,
• 18:51
  rely on each other in that space.
• 18:53
  And so I'm excited to also be doing this journey alongside Otito.
• 18:59
  And yeah, like I said, this year, yeah,
• 19:02
  it's going to be a creative advising space to access to the space.
• 19:07
  It's in the name, you know, residency being a resident needs to live
• 19:10
  somewhere. So for this year we have access to that.
• 19:13
  Right. You know, edit, whatever it is you need to do.
• 19:16
  All the residents,
• 19:17
  we all have projects that are in different phases in production.
• 19:20
  And so because I'm at the beginning, I'm in the screenwriting phase.
• 19:22
  It's going to be a lot of workshopping the script, doing table reads,
• 19:25
  which I'm excited to invite people out to things of that sort to get
• 19:29
  the script strong and, and, you know, just to attract funders.
• 19:33
  So yeah, it's going to be, you know,
• 19:36
  it's going to be a lot of fun.
• 19:38
  And so with the film that you you're creating, being a resident,
• 19:42
  is it eventually going to get shown at the San Francisco film festival?
• 19:46
  Is that something that we can talk about more?
• 19:49
  One day that would be amazing.
• 19:52
  Yeah.
• 19:53
  One day, one day, one day.
• 19:55
  I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
• 19:57
  I mean, I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
• 19:59
  I mean, I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
• 20:01
  I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
• 20:03
  I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
• 20:05
  One day, one day, that would be amazing.
• 20:09
  Once the film is created and is, is, you know,
• 20:14
  edited and ready to send off to Fest,
• 20:16
  hopefully within the next couple of years, like that would be,
• 20:19
  that would be absolutely a dream.
• 20:21
  For now, I will be at the festival this year.
• 20:23
  So we'd love to meet up with folks and watch them films together.
• 20:27
  And so, yeah, for now it's just getting the script strong,
• 20:30
  polishing my materials and getting it ready for production.
• 20:35
  Nice.
• 20:36
  And then so the short film that you're working with at the San Francisco
• 20:42
  film house, is that the, the 2% film that you have going on?
• 20:46
  Or is that something a separate project?
• 20:49
  So 2% is the short that I would like to kind of one of those,
• 20:54
  not throw away projects,
• 20:57
  but like a project that I want to get out because I haven't been,
• 21:00
  I haven't been on set as much as I would like to in the past year.
• 21:05
  So that's one of those things where I'm, you know, put it out this year.
• 21:09
  That's one of those projects is like, let's, you know,
• 21:11
  get the script strong, put some money into it and,
• 21:14
  and shoot it just to make something just to stay creative.
• 21:17
  And then the other one is my social thriller.
• 21:22
  That is kind of like in the world of,
• 21:24
  if Beale street could talk meet centers that follows a couple around 1950,
• 21:30
  San Francisco,
• 21:31
  where they stumble into a minstrel show and see what happens when they have
• 21:35
  to save the neighborhood from these monstrosities.
• 21:38
  So that is my,
• 21:41
  that is my thriller horror that I've been working on.
• 21:45
  And so we're doing a lot of research and development right now and just
• 21:49
  getting the script strong.
• 21:50
  It's been through a few drafts and looking forward to holding a table read so
• 21:54
  people can hear it.
• 21:57
  And so for these films, for your films that you're, you're producing yourself,
• 22:00
  are you, do you see yourself acting in them?
• 22:02
  For 2%, that's going to be my triple threat,
• 22:06
  not for nights in film that I'm doing with the film house residency,
• 22:11
  but for 2%,
• 22:12
  that's my triple threat film where I'm like, I wrote the script.
• 22:17
  I'm a direct it.
• 22:18
  And I'm also be the main actor because I think it's hard to catch yourself as a
• 22:23
  lead and also be directing. But I'm like, you know,
• 22:25
  I could be Jordan did it, you know, a creed. I mean,
• 22:31
  but because I was like, what would it just be fun? Just one, you know,
• 22:35
  project where I'm just doing multiple things at once.
• 22:38
  And obviously there's different phases. Like I'm in my writer brain right now.
• 22:42
  So even the character, like the main character's name,
• 22:45
  I've changed from my name to like put me in the writer zones, like writing.
• 22:49
  And then, you know, okay, we're doing the shot list.
• 22:52
  We're looking at locations. You know,
• 22:54
  even of course have an AB and like more creative advisors to kind of help,
• 22:59
  you know,
• 23:00
  when I'm in a scene and I'm the I'm the person who's driving because it kind
• 23:04
  of explores a woman whose car breaks down on her way to her best friend's
• 23:09
  baby shower.
• 23:10
  And she has to figure out what she's going to do or sacrifice this friendship
• 23:14
  for her best friend's big moment. So I'm going to be the lead actor.
• 23:19
  So I have to, you know, have some other eyes, of course,
• 23:22
  while I'm the one who's behind the wheel and in the rain and all that other
• 23:27
  stuff. So it's a sort of experimental drama.
• 23:34
  Hopefully it's around 15 minutes or less. So yeah, that'll be fun,
• 23:40
  fun and tiring. I'm already tired.
• 23:43
  I feel like it's going to be a lot. It's going to be short.
• 23:46
  We're going to keep it short.
• 23:48
  So I think it'd be a really dope film just for me to like do something with my
• 23:52
  friends.
• 23:55
  No, that sounds like the way you described that,
• 23:57
  like not the genre of the film, but just the purpose of trying to,
• 24:02
  what the purpose is of making this film.
• 24:04
  I think this is the type of film that you're going to,
• 24:06
  that you do want to be like, all right,
• 24:07
  if I am going to try being a triple threat at something or, you know,
• 24:10
  dabble my hands in something I haven't really done,
• 24:12
  that's the type of film that you're going to want to do.
• 24:14
  And those are always the funnest types of films because those are films that
• 24:17
  it's going to be like, it's just going to be an experiment.
• 24:20
  You're like, let's just see how this goes.
• 24:23
  Yeah, totally.
• 24:28
  And then besides that, those are the two,
• 24:30
  the two projects that you have that you're trying to produce this year or start
• 24:34
  the production on?
• 24:36
  The main other one that I'll talk about is Heritage,
• 24:40
  which folks might be familiar from the first 15 minutes table read,
• 24:46
  where we wrote 15 pages, submitted 15 pages of a script.
• 24:50
  And Celia Peters and the Betty Ono Foundation,
• 24:56
  they basically hosted this table read for sci-fi,
• 25:01
  screenwriters.
• 25:02
  And so my script was selected and we had a table read for those 15 pages,
• 25:06
  which is the first 15 pages of my pilot, because this is episodic.
• 25:09
  And so that follows,
• 25:11
  like just me, I'm me in all my projects, but it's,
• 25:16
  I won't act in that one, but it is a Nigerian American girl who,
• 25:21
  you know,
• 25:22
  has a great night out on the night of her 29th birthday.
• 25:26
  And she, you know,
• 25:28
  ends up getting into an Uber at the end of the night that veers off the
• 25:32
  freeway into a supernatural portal where she has to outsmart these ancient
• 25:37
  deities in order to return back to the Bay Area.
• 25:40
  So it is based in a surreal escape room that leads from the Bay Area to
• 25:45
  Nigeria. And I'm super excited.
• 25:48
  Oh, wow.
• 25:49
  Yeah. So it's going to be really fun.
• 25:52
  That one's super fun and exciting.
• 25:54
  And so I'm glad that folks were interested from the table read and I'm hoping
• 25:58
  to keep developing that project as well.
• 26:01
  No, that sounds interesting.
• 26:03
  I just want to, I just want to see that movie.
• 26:06
  I was going to do like a shameless plug to, you know,
• 26:09
  if you need an actor, let me know.
• 26:10
  But that just sounds interesting enough for me to,
• 26:12
  I just want to see that movie.
• 26:14
  I was going to do like a shameless plug to, you know,
• 26:16
  if you need an actor, let me know.
• 26:18
  But that just sounds interesting enough for me to sit back and watch it.
• 26:21
  I just sit back and watch it.
• 26:22
  Yeah, no, definitely.
• 26:24
  We'll need actors.
• 26:25
  I'm going to hit you up, bro.
• 26:26
  Yeah, for sure.
• 26:28
  For sure.
• 26:29
  And then before I do get, let you get up out of here.
• 26:32
  The last thing I want to talk about is your,
• 26:34
  your nonprofit, the Generation 510.
• 26:37
  Can we talk about that a little bit?
• 26:40
  Oh, we can definitely talk about Gen 510 for sure.
• 26:43
  For sure.
• 26:44
  Yeah.
• 26:45
  Yeah.
• 26:46
  Cause it's super cool.
• 26:47
  One thing that I love to hear is about what people,
• 26:49
  especially in this industry, they get some sort of knowledge,
• 26:52
  some sort of success,
• 26:54
  and then they set up other people to kind of achieve those same sort of
• 26:58
  things.
• 26:59
  I feel like that's something that you're doing with your nonprofit,
• 27:01
  the Generation 510.
• 27:03
  So I said, yeah, like, yeah, spill the beans on all this.
• 27:07
  For sure.
• 27:08
  I mean, you know, it's still a baby.
• 27:11
  We're still growing.
• 27:14
  But this is my social enterprise that, you know,
• 27:18
  is focusing on providing artist development and workforce pathways for
• 27:24
  Bay area actors and filmmakers.
• 27:26
  You know, I don't want myself to be an anomaly.
• 27:29
  I want, you know, this to be everybody's story.
• 27:32
  Like they can find, like I said before,
• 27:34
  find a career in the arts viable and accessible to them.
• 27:38
  So I'm hoping to grow this as big as it can be.
• 27:41
  And, you know, you go to other markets like New York, LA, Atlanta,
• 27:45
  and I think that I want just the Bay to be able to compete in the
• 27:50
  industry and have, you know,
• 27:52
  similar programming across these bigger regions that are, you know,
• 27:56
  hoping provide, you know,
• 27:59
  education around how to become an actor because people,
• 28:02
  I have one-on-ones with people all the time, you know,
• 28:04
  I share this information all the time, one-on-one,
• 28:06
  and I wanted to have a bigger platform to share it, you know,
• 28:10
  doing summer camps, doing workshops, you know,
• 28:13
  and it's generation 510 because 510, the Bay area,
• 28:16
  but generation because all generations in the Bay.
• 28:20
  It's not just targeted towards young people.
• 28:22
  It's also, you know, transitional age, like, you know,
• 28:26
  like people always say like, oh, Ava DuVernay, you know,
• 28:29
  didn't start filmmaking until her thirties.
• 28:31
  And so even if it's like, hey,
• 28:33
  I just worked in law and I want to transition to being a screenwriter.
• 28:38
  How do I do that?
• 28:39
  And so I think I just want it to be accessible to everybody,
• 28:43
  no matter what age,
• 28:44
  just because I know that I've been inspired by people who are younger than
• 28:47
  me and people who are older than me.
• 28:49
  And I'm here because of my parents.
• 28:51
  So I think being able to share with not only peers in my age group,
• 28:55
  but with everybody of like PA, you know, PA bootcamp,
• 28:59
  screenwriter salon, all those things that we do.
• 29:03
  I want to be able to also push that to the forefront and provide enough
• 29:07
  space for people to develop their craft.
• 29:13
  Yeah, that's one thing.
• 29:14
  I think that was dope that you talked about with not catering to a certain
• 29:17
  generation, because especially with filmmaking,
• 29:20
  this is the like one of the only industries or businesses that I know of where
• 29:24
  you could find somebody who may be eight years old and you can find somebody
• 29:28
  who's 60 years old and they both have the same amount of experience in this
• 29:33
  business.
• 29:34
  Yep.
• 29:35
  It's wild.
• 29:36
  It's wild.
• 29:37
  You can see a little 90 year old with a SAG card and then like somebody in
• 29:41
  their fifties trying to get SAG eligible.
• 29:43
  And I was all like, this is the only industry where it's like that.
• 29:47
  Yeah.
• 29:48
  Yeah.
• 29:49
  Yeah.
• 29:50
  Close the gap.
• 29:51
  And yeah,
• 29:52
  I appreciate all the love and hope to do a lot more events.
• 29:56
  We have some stuff coming up.
• 29:58
  So events and also workforce development, like I said,
• 30:01
  so definitely stay tuned.
• 30:04
  Yeah, no, yeah, no.
• 30:05
  I appreciate it.
• 30:06
  I appreciate you being on the podcast.
• 30:08
  I know we have some audio issues and stuff like that,
• 30:10
  but we should be able to get that worked out because you gave a lot of dope
• 30:14
  information.
• 30:15
  You dropped a lot of gems, a lot of jewels for people to pick up on.
• 30:18
  So hopefully they was paying attention and listening.
• 30:20
  I'm so glad that we was able to have you on the podcast, get you on,
• 30:24
  tell people where they can find you if they want to continue to follow your
• 30:28
  story.
• 30:29
  Totally.
• 30:30
  You guys can follow me at Tajana Okechukwu.
• 30:33
  That is my handle on Instagram.
• 30:35
  That is where I'm most active.
• 30:37
  And it also has the links to Generation 510 and also my upcoming production
• 30:41
  company, Montage Productions.
• 30:43
  You can also find me linked there through threads and also TikTok,
• 30:47
  same handle.
• 30:49
  And those are the platforms that I'm most active on.
• 30:51
  So yeah.
• 30:52
  Send me a DM, say hi, say what's up.
• 30:54
  And yeah, hope to connect soon for sure.
• 30:58
  Yeah.
• 30:59
  And if you're watching the video,
• 31:00
  you can see it right there where I'm pointing my finger at.
• 31:02
  That's right where you just go in and follow her right there.
• 31:05
  And then you know me, you can follow me at Buddy Ramming at Yeah Buddy ENT.
• 31:11
  You can follow the Yeah Buddy podcast anywhere at www.yeahbuddyent.com.
• 31:17
  I think Tajana clicked out, but it's all good.
• 31:20
  No worries.
• 31:21
  But hey, y'all,
• 31:23
  we will catch up on the next episode of the Yeah Buddy podcast.
• 31:27
  I've been your host, Buddy Ramming.
• 31:29
  Deuces, y'all.
• 31:30
  I'll catch y'all next time.