Latest / Yeah Buddy! Podcast / From Fruitvale Station to 50/50 Ball: La Mar Stewart’s Rise and Vision

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From Fruitvale Station to 50/50 Ball: La Mar Stewart’s Rise and Vision · Yeah Buddy! Podcast

0:46
Yes, yes, yes. What's going on, world? This is your man, Buddy Rambick,
0:49
and we are back at each other with another episode of the Yeah Buddy podcast.
0:54
So if this is your first time tuning in, we got a great episode for y'all.
0:57
Y'all know how we do every episode. I try to bring some of my friends in the
1:00
entertainment business, whether it's an actor, filmmaker, comedian.
1:03
We sit down, chop it up, see what we got going on in our respective journey
1:08
in the entertainment world.
1:09
So if you're a returning friend, we got a dope episode lined up for y'all today.
1:12
And we got my good friend in here.
1:14
He is a member of the DGA. That is the Directors Guild of America. And he is a producer.
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He's here to talk about his new production. He has going off 50-50 ball.
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We're going to try to make it live and make it live for my good friend,
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Mr. Lamar Stewart in the building, y'all.
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Thank you, buddy. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much. No, man. Thank you.
1:32
Thank you, Matt. Thank you for joining up to the podcast, Matt.
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Me and you had met about a month ago doing, it was like a commercial production assistance shoot.
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We signed NDA, so we're not going to go into detail about what that was.
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But just, yeah, but no, just being able to sit down and talk to you for a little while.
1:50
You was talking about a really cool production that you had going on.
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So I didn't want to waste any time as far as like the podcast interview.
1:58
We want to dive right into this because I always love hearing about people in
2:03
the production business just kind of taking their careers in their own hands
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and creating their own productions.
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So give people this feel about this production you have going on. It's called 50-50 Ball.
2:13
Well, thank you very much. And guys, 50-50 Ball is the first production through
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Oceanland Entertainment, LLC. see.
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50-50 Ball is the story of Alex Morales, who's lost everything through both injury and addiction.
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And she comes back home to Oakland to kind of lay low, hoping that her agent
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will get her back to her European play.
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But while at home, she is bombarded by questions and asked from her family,
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her niece Maya, and then her former coach who falls through some injury and sickness.
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So she basically picks up the whistle to teach and to train her alma mater,
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which is Bella Vista Tech High School, located in the Bella Vista District of Oakland.
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Our imaginary school will be pretty much the centerpiece and the educational
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hub for our team and our lady vanguards.
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This is a 10-episode prestige drama,
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sports drama, and where Ocean Entertainment is looking diligently to bring this
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story to the city of Oakland to where we can at least be a part of that creative
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hub that's now forming in the city.
3:36
Yeah. And what made you want this to be a web series as opposed to go like a
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feature film route? Well, you know what?
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Oakland has so many stories and is such a character by itself,
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is that we wanted to be able to use the city of Oakland as a character in the
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series and to be able to put our platform on a global stage, along with Atlanta,
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with Austin, with New Mexico.
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We have the talent and the capability to be an equal hub within that formation
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of TV series and production.
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Yeah, I'm glad you got to spoke to that because I did go on to,
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I believe it was either IMDb or the See the Spark page, seeing a couple of the
4:20
people that you have working on it, on your production, like the producers,
4:25
myself, a couple of them. I know you had like Ted Leonard and a couple of those people.
4:28
It all seems like they're all, like if you know these people,
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they're all familiar faces that you see in and out throughout the Bay Area.
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I think one of the actors or one of the producers you had even worked together,
4:40
like going back all the way to Fruitvale Station.
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So we have Lisa Cohen, which is also an actress, a stunt performer,
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and she's one of our producers on 5050 Ball.
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Lisa and I worked together on Fruitvale Station, along with many other films
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that were shot here in the Bay Area, many moons before the pandemic hit.
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So we also have DGA director Ted Leonard,
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who, along with Debbie Brubaker, cinematographer Steve Condiotti,
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and our production designer Susie Allegri, who also production design Fruitvale Station,
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I Am Virgo, all these other iconic shows that were filmed here in the Bay Area.
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So what was the process like going from just 50-50 ball being an idea in your
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head to now you're reaching out to these collaborators and people that you worked
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with before these different film sets?
5:36
What was the process like for you now reaching out to them? It started off with
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the Black All-Star Film Festival that was at the Oakland Grand Lake Theater last year.
5:49
Oh, for the All-Star game. That is correct. I was there. I was there.
5:53
Yeah, because the Black Bill connected through that audio. Yeah,
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yeah, yeah, yeah. That is correct.
5:57
So one of our dynamic writers, Tadjiana Okuswu, was also the moderator on a
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panel that I myself and my co-producer, Ted Leonard, were involved in.
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The question was, was Oakland ready for prime time?
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And at that time, it was ready to explode, but not so much at that point.
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And we came up with that, the ideal of 50-50 ball because of that particular question.
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And Ted's response was that if Oakland was able to have a production,
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a series, given four to six seasons, then yes, Oakland would be definitely ready
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and grounded for prime time.
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After that event, he and I got together and we started reminiscing about past
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basketball shows on television.
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And then the ideal of bringing a series like that to Oakland.
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Particularly a girls basketball team, because of the highlight of the WNBA and
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the dynamic of successful run of the Golden State Valkyries,
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we felt that that kind of dynamic and that kind of entertainment was was was
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prominent to bring a show like that to the Bay Area.
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Oakland has always been a sports town. We've always had sports leaders.
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And so we love to thrive and to piggyback off of that, that environment.
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So to add on to that, I reached out to a couple of writers, Tessie McCoy,
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Tadjiana, Dave Philpott, and we got together and I gave them the ideal and the foundation.
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And they ran with that with our pilot episode, which is 50-50 ball, titled Baseline.
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That's where we introduce Alex Morales, the Morales family, Oakland as a character,
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the Bella Vista Lady Valkyries.
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It just all started to morph together.
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That's awesome. That's one thing that I do notice, because I live out here in
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Sacramento, but in the Bay Area, just being on these film sets or not.
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It doesn't have to be like big budget ones, just, you know, working within the community.
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You definitely get a sense of collaboration and people, I guess you could say,
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could put their ego to the side for the bigger purpose of just making the project.
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Because like I said, when I went out to see the Spark page and saw all the names,
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and even Taji, because Taji's been on the podcast and Taji's making really,
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really great strides in the film community. He's going to do a lot of great things this year.
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So it's so great to see people kind of understand their roles and how they could
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excel at that to just push the community forward to turn it from a community into like an industry,
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like our own self-thriving industry?
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Well, that's what I found is that, you know, you could be a lone wolf,
9:00
so to speak, in this industry,
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and they can choose, but then you really don't have, you won't garner the support
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and the experience and the talent from being a lone wolf.
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Oakland, the Bay Area, we have talent.
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It just needs to be directed in a positive and presentable manner.
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These three writers taught me that you could do almost anything,
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especially when you have the support of the community and the love of the community.
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And so we do have, I don't know if anybody's watching, but we do got the QR
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code popped up right there.
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So if anybody wants to find out, we'll keep it up throughout the whole entire episode.
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But if anybody wants to support 5050ball, the QR code will take you to the C
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to Spark page to show you how you can support it. Like I said,
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just a simple follow of their page goes a long ways for us filmmakers and us support people.
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So can you kind of tell people what they could see on the See the Spark page
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when they click on the QR code?
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So by clicking on the QR code, first off, our page goes live on April 20th.
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And once we receive, we have 174 followers so far. But once we get the 350 that's
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needed, our page goes nationally.
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So we're excited about that. And once you go onto the page, you click a follow.
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Make sure that you respond and verify through the email that Seed&Spark will send back at you.
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And on that page, you have so many incentives for pledging for a certain amount
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of dollars to help us get to our goal to fill our proof of concept page.
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Which we will love to shoot in the early spring of 2026.
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We have seven tiers of incentives, all the way from just an acknowledgement
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in the credits to executive producership.
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Then we have a number of updates that I push out every two weeks,
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Thursdays and Fridays, which talks about the soul of the city,
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its musical landscape and soundtrack,
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the fictitional world that we're building in the East Oakland area specifically.
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Specifically the Bella Vista District.
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It tells you about how you can share the link through either social media,
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through your personal contacts, and or through your text messaging.
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You might actually have some preformed dialogue that you can click,
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cut, and paste and put into it and make it your own as an invite into the platform.
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50-50 Ball is literally a community project, literally.
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Everyone that I've heard from, everyone that I've spoken with is very excited,
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not only because of the popularity of women's and girls' basketball,
12:02
but the fact that we're actually building a show, creating,
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making Oakland a character in this show to showcase how we live,
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where we live, and how we play the game.
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And then I was going to make a point, but before I do that, you had mentioned
12:20
something, you said something about shooting a proof of concept.
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For people who watch you don't really understand what that means,
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a proof of concept, can you kind of explain to people what that is?
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So a proof of concept shoot or proof of concept package is basically the media
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process of what your show can look like.
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Besides all the necessary paperwork that goes into a production packet,
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the proof of concept is what it gives those investors a visual ideal of what
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the show can and will look like once it gets funded to be on the bigger platform.
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Okay I'm sorry proof of concept can be anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes 4 to 7 pages okay.
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And then the other thing that I was saying was how you talk about using this
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as the backdrop to like it's a community project.
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One thing, because like with me being like all the Street Actors Guild,
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one thing that we always talk about is, well, the reason why there's like such
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little work up here for us actors is
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because there's there's like a huge discrepancy as far as like age gaps.
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You know, there's not too many younger workers, you know, 18 to play younger.
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When people look at when the Bay Area was really thriving, like a lot of films
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going on and stuff like that, it was around the same time that we had 13 reasons why it was going on.
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It's because they kind of had a big old incubator for younger actors to kind
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of grow within the business and the industry.
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And now they can go off and do all these other things. And that's kind of like
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a similar thing that you have with the 50-50 ball, where one, it's community driven.
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It takes place, like you say, in a high school setting. So you're going to need
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those younger actors to fill out the things.
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So a lot of those things that happened with Almost 30 from the business side
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of things that was able to help us flourish in the film industry,
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you're kind of doing those things right now with the 50-50 ball.
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So that was just something that kind of popped into my head.
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Yeah, well, you know, it kind of goes hand in hand. Like there are organizations
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that I've worked with in other productions, such as the Hidden Genius Project.
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And then there are other social activism communities that thrive within the city of Oakland.
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And I'd love to be able to tell that story and utilize some of that talent within
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the Hidden Genius Project.
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And then other teenage and young adult organizations that lean toward entertainment.
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And so as far as with the process with the 50-50 ball, do you have actors already
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set in mind to play like the lead or the supportive roles?
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Or is that something that's going to come as you get closer to like the proof of concept?
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Well, we're actively looking for our talent to lead the proof of concept.
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However, once we find that Alex Morales character or that Dr.
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Coach Johnson character, we'll definitely be able to utilize that momentum in
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looking for the series talent.
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We do have people that are part of the process, such as Fatima A.
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She is the founder for the Premier Women's Basketball League.
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She has introduced some of her players to be some of our antagonist,
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protagonist, rival ballplayers.
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Not too many lines, but definitely the skill set that it takes to make this show believable.
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And is this your first time, I don't know if you have said it already,
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but is this your first time producing a production like, or at least taking
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all this much of the responsibility on the production side?
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This is definitely a sophomore job for me at this point.
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Yes, I have produced other smaller projects, but this is of a much more grander scale,
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which is why I've brought in those individuals that I've worked with or worked
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alongside of that have much more experience than me to where I can be able to
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soak all that knowledge in and then pass it on to those underneath.
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Because I want to ask that because I kind of want to get segue into kind of
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like how you got started just into film in general and how that all those the
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things that you've been doing kind of prepared you to say,
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OK, I'm ready to take on something of this magnitude.
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Well, let's start as I PA'd. I started late in this industry.
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I was in my mid-40s. I became a PA through Solano Community College. I went back to school.
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I studied film and television, public speaking.
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And while I was there, a good friend of mine, Jamie Gaines, who was a camera
17:07
operator now here in the Bay Area, referred me to a television show in the city
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I lived in at time, which was Vallejo.
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And I got on that show and I never looked back.
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From there, I went into commercials. I got on the Production Cube.
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Production Cube is pretty simple. You roll in into the morning,
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you pull off those tables and start getting those walkies set up and use your
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pop-up and build a video village.
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It was just a simple, straightforward means segue into this industry.
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Once I was able to learn the dialogue, the tricks of the trade,
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and what's expected of you, then other doors opened up for me,
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which where I became a member of the Director's Guild.
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And the show that got me there was a feature film with Rob Lowe called Knife
18:02
Fight, Rob Lowe and Jamie Chung.
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That crossed me over into the DGA through the help of my director,
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my first AD, and my unit production manager at that time.
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Car commercials and commercials in general were pretty much bread and butter
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for pretty much everyone in the industry.
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So when I signed up for the Director's Guild, I got into that category, which was commercials.
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But over the years, Things have slowed down and waned.
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My first big first AD job was in Los Angeles on a spaghetti western type horror
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thriller called Death Rider in the House of Vampires, directed by rock icon Glenn Danzig,
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starring Devin Sawa and the late Julian Sands.
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But those doors and that opportunity helped me to understand talent,
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helped me to understand the business side.
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And when COVID hit and a lot of corporate jobs popped up, I jumped into corporate
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work to where we were on volume stages, dealing with the Stipe systems and VR systems.
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I learned that dialogue and I learned that experience.
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Phone calls started getting a little slower as the industry started to back
19:26
off and move to other places.
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And it was time for me to put on my big boy pants and make work for myself.
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And in doing so, and during that time down, I put together 50-50 Ball.
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50-50 Ball is basically a homage to the working man here in Oakland,
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the filmmaker here in the Bay Area, but giving us all a sense of breath to try
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to reestablish ourselves in the community.
19:56
So I want to congratulate you for being part of the DGA. Just being a part of
20:00
any sort of guild in this business, in this industry, it's such a hard feat to kind of go through.
20:07
I know like being SAG-AFTRA, we got to either get the Taft Hartleys or you got
20:10
to get that one role that gets you the speaking lines.
20:14
What's the process like for you becoming a DJ?
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Is that like, I guess, a similar process for anybody that wanted to go from
20:21
being a PA to a member of the DGA?
20:24
Well, no, it's not really a similar process. As I was brought up,
20:27
there was an X amount of days, qualified days that you have to bring to the table.
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We lived in the Bay Area, so that type of work power didn't come all the time as if we were in L.A.
20:41
Or Southern Cal. So it took a while for me to cross that bridge.
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And a lot of the jobs were not always union jobs to be able to qualify for it.
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I did a lot of free work just to hone my skill.
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So for me, it took some time.
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But once I did make it across that finish line, it was really rewarding in a
21:07
lot of areas. And then the strikes hit.
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So I was just trying to find back out of that hole. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
21:16
That's not what the yeah the strikes was oh man i don't want to go back to those times,
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2000 what was it when did we go into the writer's like was
21:25
it 2023 or something like that yeah it
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was it was rough well it was i i feel
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like where we had to come like the pros and cause of it is like like we was
21:34
in in a very good time like we could learn the tricks of the trade how to make
21:39
our own productions and then once things kind of slowed down and they kind of
21:43
start like you said I started to move out of the Bay Area or just kind of like
21:46
out of the U.S. in general or in California. Yes.
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We still was able to have joined those resources and we still had the knowledge
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to where even though we're stuck for doing as you would consider independent,
21:59
it's on a very studio type level.
22:02
Like nothing is nothing that we produce it up here is of low quality.
22:06
No, not at all. You have award-winning crew members that live and work here in the Bay Area.
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We have put, there are a number of Academy Award artists that live here,
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you know, that thrive here.
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And that was the genesis for 50-50 Ball.
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With that kind of talent, you just couldn't go wrong. As long as you were truthful
22:29
to the art and truthful to the craft, you know, the support there is phenomenal.
22:34
And I found that to be true today.
22:39
When you have, like I said, the producers on your team, you have a work relationship with them before.
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Is there any specific productions that you maybe remember meeting them on?
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Or you've got to just remember, oh, maybe sometime in the future,
22:54
I could see us working together.
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That project just happened to be 50-50 ball.
22:59
Well, you know, I can go back to my co-producer, Ted Leonard.
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My first paid gig was on the film Pursuit of Happiness with Will Smith.
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And I was on a parking lot lockup for the production office.
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And the call came that Ted needed some assistance in wardrobe fitting.
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So that was my opportunity to get out of the car and get out of the lockup and
23:24
started learning what the real paperwork was about.
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So Ted taught me how to check in background, taught me how much time that they
23:32
needed that was DJ qualified, that they required to be within their specific fitting situations.
23:40
So I learned all that through him. And as time has gone through,
23:45
gone on, we've come back together again on shows like 13 Reasons Why.
23:50
I worked underneath him on an independent film called Freebird,
23:55
where I was his second, and he was the first AD and unit production manager on that feature.
24:02
So we have ebbed and flowed throughout my career, and every time that we get
24:10
together, I have learned something new about the industry that I was able to
24:13
pass along to some other person.
24:16
I have my other producer, line producer, Debbie Brubaker,
24:20
she hired me a lot on a lot of commercials, a lot of shorts,
24:26
and on the Night Fife film, which got me my, once again, like I said,
24:31
it got me my DGA qualifications or signatures.
24:35
But Debbie saw something in me that I didn't see, and she pushed,
24:41
she pushed, and so I was able to get it.
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And once that happened, things moved along quite easily for me in this industry,
24:50
especially here in the Bay Area.
24:52
Yeah, that's one thing that people don't, well, people probably do realize,
24:55
because there's no real job interview to get into this industry.
25:01
I sit down, talk to me, this is all relationship-based, network-based,
25:06
not necessarily who knows you, but not who you know, but who knows you sort of situation.
25:11
You've had to speak to what it takes to maintain these relationships to be able
25:17
to have, like I say, 20 years experience in this business.
25:23
And you know what? Forming those relationships weren't very easy for me.
25:27
I've always been a solitary person in a lot of things that I did. But this industry...
25:34
Forced me to open up to believe in myself, to be able to take that advice from
25:41
that individual, to be able to be shown how to do the work.
25:46
One thing that I can say about this industry is that it forces you to grow up
25:51
and to face your fears in many, many different ways.
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And that's what it did for me. So forming those relationships over the last
26:01
20 years has been challenging and it's still ongoing you know and every day is is hard work.
26:10
And then so what are some of your you you like say you've been on major studio
26:15
productions you've been on independent films tv shows all this type of stuff
26:19
what are some of the pros and cons,
26:22
that you say we'll start with um working on independent films what are some
26:26
of the pros and cons that you see as far as being a filmmaker working all these
26:31
independent films because we do You have a lot of award-winning filmmakers.
26:34
Like, I don't know how many times you see a film winning some award at Sundance,
26:38
and then every part of the crew, makeup, whatever it may be,
26:43
they got some sort of ties and roots to the Bay Area.
26:47
Exactly, exactly. You know, I've been on quite a few independent shows.
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I think for me, the independent shows is where you find that camaraderie of
26:58
family, because it is such a family atmosphere.
27:02
Everybody knows one another. Everyone knows their strengths and their flaws in a sense.
27:08
So being designated a job within an indie position is pretty modular.
27:16
However, when it comes to studio shoots, that's more of a corporate atmosphere,
27:22
and there's a whole different mindset.
27:26
In a lot of ways, people are like in any corporate entity, fearful of losing the job.
27:32
And so people are a lot more tight and stringent on their time,
27:37
on their person, in order to make sure that their particular avenue is taken care of.
27:44
And then I want to do just a couple of Spitfire productions that you've worked
27:49
on, because me and you have worked on a couple of productions together.
27:52
But like I said, I've had that experience from like the actor side or mostly,
27:55
you know, the extra, me, the background person side.
27:58
You was probably the person that was trying to wrangle me in or trying to,
28:00
you know, get on over here and stuff like that.
28:03
So I just want to, you know, kind of share each other's experiences working
28:07
on these different productions.
28:09
And then the first one, which I think is really cool, like we got to start off
28:13
with, was Fruitvale Station.
28:15
As I said, that was the first film that I was ever in. You was on Fruitvale
28:18
Station. And you see what happened with Ryan Coogler and Michael B.
28:21
Jordan. So what was it kind of like.
28:24
Being all that productive, did you kind of, you could see like,
28:27
oh, these guys are about to, everybody knew that they was going to take off.
28:30
But could y'all like kind of see like this trajectory?
28:32
Oh, we definitely, definitely, everyone on the crew definitely saw the chemistry
28:37
between the two, the dynamic direction that Ryan was giving to Michael and how
28:43
he perceived that and played it out.
28:46
I mean, Oscar Grant's story is a national story. It's tragic in a lot of ways.
28:50
But they both brought a humbleness to the character and to the story and truly
28:58
honored the family in the way it was presented.
29:01
And it was almost in a sense a documentary to where you can follow Oscar's last
29:08
few days through that film.
29:11
You know, there was a lot of love there, a lot of attention to detail,
29:18
the whole nine yards. You literally relived this tragic incident.
29:25
What I found took most from that show was the train station,
29:31
the actual Fruitvale BART station scenes.
29:35
It was so realistic. It brought a lot of life and a lot of humbleness to everyone.
29:41
We were simulating gunshots on the upper deck. I had two flat pancakes and I kept clapping it.
29:50
But then at that year, that was the year they put the shot spotters out.
29:55
So we would not only have OPD that were there for us,
30:00
we would always set off the shot spotters and then get the sirens and everything
30:05
else to come and verify that there wasn't a gun or anything to that on the set.
30:10
But it was that kind of dynamic.
30:14
The sound department picked up multiple sirens.
30:17
Some of that was played in the show. And so, yeah, that whole environment on
30:23
that particular night, that held on to me a lot.
30:28
Yeah, that was my very first, like, audition I remember even going on.
30:32
That was my first time, like, meeting Nina Henninger.
30:34
I said when I went to audition, I believe Ryan Krugler was there and all that
30:37
stuff. So just, I was just wide-eyed.
30:40
That was my first time just, like, straight out of acting school and stuff like that.
30:44
So all these things that you're talking about going on, like,
30:46
I don't know what's going on. I'm just looking at, like, oh, wow, a camera.
30:49
You know what I mean? Like, it's not registering to me at the time that,
30:53
like, okay, I'm having a conversation with Michael B. Jordan.
30:55
We're just sitting up here just shooting the shit or whatever. but then it's all like.
31:00
Like once you see somebody get the sides or whatever that they start rolling,
31:03
like, oh, this is way bigger than what I thought it was going to be,
31:06
you know? It's a lot bigger. So that was a lot bigger.
31:09
A lot bigger. The technical side.
31:11
Yeah. Yeah. And it also made me realize that, like, it's also,
31:14
like, it's bigger than me.
31:17
You know what I'm saying? Like, a lot of times, like I said earlier,
31:20
you got to put your ego to the side because coming straight out of acting school,
31:23
even just being an extra on a film set, sometimes you're just walking around
31:27
like, oh, I'm going to get the most camera time out of any extra here, you know?
31:30
Whatever it may be but like even if I gotta walk in front of this camera to
31:35
get this camera top I'm gonna get my they're gonna see my face but that's never
31:39
the case never it's never the case it's never the case and that's why I was saying it was,
31:45
it was that's why I say it was like one of the most humbling experiences because
31:48
I was all like like I said me thinking I'm gonna be the bigger person but then
31:52
like see like oh no I'm playing a smaller part to just a big the bigger picture and stuff like that so,
31:59
So I take away a lot of great memories from working on Fruitvale Station.
32:05
And then the second project that I want to do a rapid spitfire on,
32:09
because I know this had to be hectic for you because it was a hectic day for
32:12
me, but working on San Andreas with the rock and all that.
32:21
Handling all those extras and the crazy action scenes and all that.
32:27
We, yeah, yeah. The biggest day was the AT&T Park at the time was titled, it was named AT&T Park.
32:36
And the, the earthquake that went with it, we had about, I believe 1500 background on that day.
32:43
Could have been more. And myself, along with eight other ADs and PAs,
32:51
second-second ADs on set,
32:53
wrangling everyone, making sure that, A, nobody fell or injured themselves,
32:57
but also making sure that the choreography was on point,
33:02
so that no one would either run into the rock or into each other as they're
33:07
trying to dodge this falling debris.
33:10
Along with the twin parachute
33:15
drop that the Roxham
33:18
stunt guy did Where they tanned
33:21
him down live from a plane into the stadium While all this other chaos was going
33:28
on It was a big day And my goodness Rewarding at the end of the day But still
33:35
a huge day I'm exhausted now as remembering it.
33:41
How far in advance do y'all get a notice that you're going to be having to handle so many extras?
33:49
Well, so I was a PA on that day. So we got the advance the night before.
33:57
However, yeah. But the ADs, which was a great, phenomenal department,
34:04
choreographed that two or three days in advance.
34:09
To this PA will take 15, this PA will take five, this is your group,
34:14
Lamar, this is your group, X, Y, and Z.
34:16
And then they would choreograph us from behind camera through walkie.
34:22
So, you know, the job was really just to pay attention and listen and then give you cues on time.
34:29
I've always been very good at doing that, listening on the walkie.
34:33
So, yeah, from my perspective, I think I did a phenomenal job.
34:39
And making sure that people were safe and sound as they went about their business on set.
34:44
Well, speaking for one of those people that was in the crowd audience,
34:47
just running wild with a chicken with their head cut off and stuff like that,
34:50
I'll say it was a very fun shoot.
34:54
So thank you for that. But for people who are watching, they don't realize that,
34:59
you said it was like, what, eight team members?
35:02
How many people was it total handling all those production assistants, the extras?
35:06
In the AD department, you have your, pardon me, in the AD department,
35:12
they had at least three second-second ADs, eight to 12 PAs, and 1,500 background.
35:21
Yeah, see, that's for people that 8 to 12, like imagine having 8 to 12 babysitters
35:26
or 8 to 12 teachers, and they all have to have to control 1500 high school students.
35:33
So the reason why I say high school students is because as extras,
35:36
yeah, we're adults, but you never know what you're going to get with the crop of 1500 people.
35:41
So it's not even trying to manage the choreographing and all that stuff it's
35:45
like once you say cut and you gotta tell all these extras to go back to hold
35:48
it and now you gotta make sure that they don't run off or go somewhere.
35:53
Whatever it may be they try to run to The Rock's trailer or something you know a film set,
36:00
is exciting and everyone is a kid at heart and you know sometimes one's emotions
36:07
can get away from them while they're on a film set,
36:10
Things happen, but then we have the crew and we have the necessary security
36:15
to shortstop any unnecessary or unwanted adventure.
36:22
All right, cool. That's just so for delinquents, people that don't know how
36:26
to act and stuff like that.
36:30
It's okay. I was there at one point. I was there at one point, but I grew out of it.
36:38
While we're on set we we tend to not
36:42
be not everybody can handle the true so you
36:45
know you have to find ways to delegate words to
36:49
be professional but sensitive to those
36:52
needs at the same time yeah yeah i want
36:55
to be on cameras all right okay you're on camera
36:58
we promise we thomas you're on camera just way
37:03
back yeah yeah you're just a little out of
37:06
focus but trust me once you zoom in and crop in when it's all streaming you'll
37:09
be able to see yourself perfectly no worries no worries yes yeah so besides
37:18
besides fruitvale and and the rocks film we just spoken about, San Andreas,
37:25
is we've only worked on those two projects, film-wise?
37:29
No, we worked on, we did an episode together of, what was the Taye Diggs show that was up here?
37:35
Murder in the First? Murder in the First, yes.
37:39
We did Murder in the First and then there had to be so I had to go back up to
37:46
your IDB and look it up but there was a couple that we did together.
37:50
What about of that TV show Parenthood. Were you ever part of Parenthood?
37:54
Not Parenthood. I did a couple of episodes of 13 Reasons Why I.
38:01
Let me see i'm going i'm going out to your oh did you did blind spotting the tv show right,
38:06
yes yes we did which was it
38:09
did you do the first season we did i actually did both seasons while it was
38:14
here as you know some scenes were filmed in la then they came back up to the
38:19
town to do their exteriors so while they did their exteriors i was part of that
38:25
that crew for exteriors for seasons,
38:27
including the finale over at Santa Cruz Beach in BorgWalk.
38:32
Okay, so I was the stand-in on the first season. I was the stand-in for Benjamin Turner.
38:40
Was you out there when we got caught in that rainstorm? Yes, sir. Oh, my God.
38:49
We were in West Oakland at that time. It was like, what, a fucking night?
38:55
Yeah and they were they was ready for it too they was like it just i know race
38:58
are coming it was crazy because it's like literally the second we set cut on
39:02
the final scene or whatever people put like the the plastic wrap over all the
39:05
cameras or whatever and that it just started pouring,
39:08
pouring pouring pouring oh my word yeah we also had we had a dance scene once
39:14
once that ran that that storm passed us we still had that final dance scene
39:19
that was um we were we shot that in east Oakland. I mean, West Oakland.
39:23
I forget the name of the street. I believe it was off Peralta.
39:27
But we had that dance scene with all the guys, like a step dance,
39:32
right after that storm that night.
39:34
Oh no yeah because they was doing like the the tug like the pull it
39:37
and all that stuff yeah yeah no i was there i was there yeah
39:41
that looked cool that looked cool because like it had rained and all that stuff
39:46
so that looked cool but like like having to wait out the rainstorm and all that
39:50
stuff just to get that cool shot that that wasn't fun but but that shot came
39:55
out really cool no no So, you know, it's never fun to wait.
40:00
But, yes, after the fact, it was extremely rewarding.
40:05
And I also AD'd on the feature as well.
40:09
Okay, I missed the feature. I don't know what I was doing at that time,
40:12
but, yeah, I missed the feature.
40:13
But, yeah, I was going on to your IMDB. Yeah, those are a couple of the projects
40:16
that we had worked on together.
40:18
Besides the commercial, you was just the A, or I don't know what your position
40:22
was, but you was my boss on that commercial.
40:26
Yeah yeah you was you was you was my boss for a day yeah yeah okay so yeah and
40:32
the project was pretty cool they had a great concept i think they that project
40:36
went to um the corporate website for oh i haven't seen it aired as of yet but
40:43
you know it's a new product.
40:46
So how how would you rate my my first day as a pa with all with all your experience
40:50
how would you rate that I did?
40:52
Oh, bro, you were great. You were phenomenal. You paid attention.
40:56
You watched yourself maintain your own safety along with those around you.
41:02
You followed direction. You didn't give anybody any problem.
41:07
You was an A1 production assistant. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I appreciate it.
41:15
So before we do wrap up this here episode, man, is there anything else you want
41:20
to say before we, you know, as far as 50-50 ball goes or anything you want to
41:23
let people know, where people can follow you at?
41:25
Guys, yes, thank you for letting me say.
41:29
Guys, 50-50 ball, we have our C to Spark campaign.
41:35
We need 350 more followers to be able to open up the doors on the 20th nationally
41:41
as opposed to just on an invite basis. I still have to hit that 350 number to
41:48
get that national exposure.
41:49
So please, please, please hit the click onto the duck in the corner.
41:56
And let's get it going. Let's get it going. Thank you. Thank you, buddy, for having me.
42:01
It's been fun. It's been great. I love talking about myself. So there you go.
42:06
That's what this industry is about. That's what this industry is about, man.
42:10
So you can follow me at YeahBuddyENT on all my social medias.
42:14
If you want to follow the Yeah Buddy podcast on my stand-up comedy and on my
42:17
other podcasts, go to www.YeahBuddyENT.com.
42:22
Other than that, man, I'll be your host, Buddy Ramik. If this is your first time, tune it in.
42:26
This was a dope-ass episode to check out, man. It's all about returning friends.
42:30
I appreciate all your support, man, and tune it in. It's spreading the word
42:34
about the Yeah, Buddy podcast.
42:36
Man, Lamar, thank you again for tuning in, man. For being a guest,
42:39
not tuning in, for being a guest, man.
42:41
I appreciate you. I'll catch y'all on the next episode. I'm out. Peace.