Latest / The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois / Chadwick Boseman Was Delicious w/ Justin Smothers

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Chadwick Boseman Was Delicious w/ Justin Smothers · The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois

• 0:00
  Hey, delishies, grab a plate and feast on the
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  delicious culture. I'm your host, John Francois.
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  We are feasting with special guest filmmaker,
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  Justin Smothers, who I had the pleasure of meeting
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  at a networking event in New York City. God,
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  it was already a little over a month ago. Yeah,
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  my God. Yeah, because it's February 26 as we
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  are recording this and that event was January
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  23rd, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Time flies. That
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  is crazy. That is crazy. Justin, thank you so
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  much for being on the show, man. I appreciate
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  it. No problem. Thank you for having me. And
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  we'd like to start with some ice breakers. It's
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  all about food, pop culture, and lifestyle on
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  this podcast. So let's start with the food part.
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  What is a favorite meal that you had in the past
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  week? Oh, in the past week? I don't even know,
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  man. My memory is terrible when it comes to food,
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  because I'm very much like a grab and go. I don't
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  know in the past week. I guess I had a pretty
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  good... Was this like a vegan kind of like steak
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  bagel from a place? Yeah, it was like a very
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  interesting piece. Oh, no sausage. It wasn't
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  a sausage. Oh, but it was from a place across
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  the street. I think it's called Compass Coffee.
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  They had like a kind of like a vegan option there.
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  I think it was like And you're based in Washington,
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  D .C., right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was either
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  plant -based or chicken or something like that,
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  but it wasn't regular sausage. That was pretty
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  good. I love a breakfast sandwich. That's my
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  thing. I like the croissant sandwiches, the English
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  muffins, all that stuff. That's my thing. I like
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  that stuff. It is, and it's funny you say that,
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  because you told me just before the recording
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  that you don't like... Do you not normally eat
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  breakfast? Normally not. When I wake up, it's
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  literally like... Maybe I'll get a coffee from
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  downstairs in my apartment building, or if anything,
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  I'll grab some water and get dressed and go...
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  That it seems to be a common thing. Like nobody
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  is eating breakfast anymore. And I don't know,
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  call me old fashioned. I guess it's just something
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  that I got from my parents. I always envisioned
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  it as the most important meal of the day. So
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  like, even if I'm like quick on the go to work,
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  I always make sure that I have like my oatmeal
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  and my coffee to get me going. I'm an Uber and
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  Lyft driver. So I just need to have like that
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  good pick me up to start in the morning. I don't
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  know, do you think part of it is just like people
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  aren't like really hungry when they wake up in
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  the morning? Like, how early do you get up? So
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  our call time is usually, because I work for
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  a news station full -time, 9? Our call time is
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  about 9 a .m. every day. It's normal times, I
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  know most people are like, oh, that's nothing,
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  that's fine. I like to sleep in. Call time's
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  9, I'm waking up at 7 .38, so then I time it
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  out perfectly, wake up, shower, rest, flight,
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  face routine, and I'm out the door. So that leaves
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  like a very small window to grab something. If
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  I can, I might, you know, again, get a sandwich
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  from across the street from my apartment. But
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  usually I just go straight to work and because
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  I plan on having a hearty lunch. You know, I
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  usually get these little sushi packs that they
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  have at this place across from my job. And that's
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  pretty filling. So for me, I have a hearty lunch
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  and a nice dinner. I'm good. Um, but if I can,
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  I'm gonna say breakfast, get a nice breakfast
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  sandwich. So a new station, the new station in
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  D .C. that you work for, how far do you live?
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  It sounds like you live pretty close by. Yeah,
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  driving wise, it's, well, you're in the city.
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  So D .C. is like a mini New York when it comes
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  to the traffic. So without traffic, like a 10,
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  15 minute drive. But with regular commuter traffic,
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  it can take about 30 to 45 minutes. It's really
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  bad. It can take about an hour. Yeah. All right.
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  So I get what you're saying. So it's not even,
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  so for you, In particular, it's not so much that
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  you're not hungry in the morning. It's that you,
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  like you said, you like to sleep. And then when
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  you get up, it's that there's no time to sit
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  down and have a breakfast. You just got to get
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  up and go, maybe have a quick yogurt or whatever.
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  Yeah. Okay. Okay. Cause I'm a water drinker.
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  So again, give me a bottle of water or something
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  like that. And I'm, I'm cool. I can make that
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  do until about 12 o 'clock and then that's when
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  lunch is. So that's like about. what, three hours
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  of just watering your stomach? Yeah, I'm pretty,
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  and I'm cool with that, honestly. It's funny
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  enough. I don't know why or how, but I've never
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  really been like a huge breakfast eater. And
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  the funny thing is I'll eat my breakfast during
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  lunchtime if I want to. And I'll just call that
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  my breakfast that I had at like noon. And that'll
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  be what I had. So you like the breakfast sandwiches,
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  but you would much rather eat it like... lunch
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  or dinner time if they had the option to serve
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  it then. Yeah, I've actually gotten made fun
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  of at my office where they'll see me get like
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  a croissant and they'll be like, do you want
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  a croissant for lunch? And I'm like, yeah, it's
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  like breakfast food. And I'm like, oh, bro, it's
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  fine. I like it. Because I get the little microwaveable
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  pack. So that's kind of my thing. That's awesome.
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  You're reminding me of my brother and my cousin
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  right now. So first of all, my brother, when
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  he was young and in school, whereas I and my,
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  well, I think I have a sister and brother. I
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  don't think they were really good at waking up
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  on time for school. I was usually the one that
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  was good at waking up on time and having room
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  for breakfast before school. But my brother in
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  particular, he would be the type that would sleep
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  in. My parents would yell at him to get up. He
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  would only have time to eat a yogurt really quickly
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  before he gets on the bus. So that's what you're
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  reminding me of. And then I have a cousin who
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  could eat a croissant casually, like it's a whole
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  meal for breakfast or lunch or dinner. Yeah,
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  and you're good. It's filling. It's a nice, bready,
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  filling thing. Granted, I won't eat one. I'll
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  be honest with you. I'll get two, because the
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  pack comes with two in it. So that's what I'll
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  do. I'll get the two, and I'm good. I should
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  have given you the croissants that my mom and
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  Ann gave me when, God, I was living in Albany,
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  New York at the time. I live currently in Vermont.
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  But at the time, I was living in Albany, New
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  York, and they were visiting my apartment for
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  the first time. And as a sort of homecoming gift,
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  they gave me a box of croissants. That thing
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  just kind of aged and went stale and got dusty
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  over the course of time because I just, I'm never
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  a croissant guy. I never look at a croissant
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  and say, oh my God, I got to eat that. So I should
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  have, I should have given it to you had we known
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  each other at the time. Drew, the funny thing
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  is I'm not a lone croissant eater, but it's the
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  sandwiches that I like. Yeah. I really like the
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  croissant sandwiches. There's some place I went
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  to where they gave you regular burgers, but the
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  burger. bun itself was like a croissant. I don't
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  forget what place that was but that was interesting
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  to me because I usually it's usually with breakfast
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  or seeing it being done on like a burger was
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  like oh okay there people are trying to mix it
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  up a little bit so uh all right so there's burger
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  items in a croissant that you could do Like you
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  could do like a meat, like cheese and lettuce
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  and tomato kind of thing. And then you can also
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  do breakfast items as we know, like eggs, sausage,
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  whatever. Like what do you prefer? Do you prefer
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  like that more lunch or dinner time set up with
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  maybe burger items or do you like a breakfast
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  item in your croissant? So weirdly enough, I'm
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  going to say the breakfast. It's so weird. Like
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  I'm one of those people where, and this isn't
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  specific for me, but like they hate tomatoes,
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  but they like ketchup. So I like eggs on my breakfast
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  sandwich. But eating like scrambled eggs by themselves,
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  I can do it, but it starts to make you feel weird
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  over time. So like, it's a very, like if I do
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  eat scrambled eggs by themselves, I have to put
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  like a bunch of cheese. If I put them in like
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  a wrap or something, that's fine. But again,
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  it has to have some type of cheese in it. Eating
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  eggs by themselves, it has always made me feel
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  weird. And my mom would always say like, oh,
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  it's the... the cholesterol and blah, blah, blah,
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  blah, but I just couldn't do it. And when it
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  comes to like the sausage or things like that,
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  I usually would get chicken, if I can, like a
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  chicken patty sauce or something like that, but
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  pork, I try not to eat too much pork. Only thing
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  pork related I may eat is like a pork rind. And
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  that's about it. But when it comes to like, again,
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  like I said, a pork sausage or a pork link or
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  a patty. Try not to eat those too much. I feel
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  you on the scrambled egg thing. I mean, I personally
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  I could eat it in sandwich form or scrambled
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  eggs by themselves, but you're certainly not
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  the only one because there's a certain like weird
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  squishy texture to eating scrambled eggs by themselves
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  that doesn't vibe with a lot of people. I mean,
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  I used to have a co -host that just straight
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  up hated eggs, period. Like, so much so that
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  if you just say the word egg, they would just
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  vomit. So, I get it. Me and the eggs have a very
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  love -hate relationship. I just discovered Sunnyside
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  Up about 10 years ago, and since then, I've been
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  very intrigued about that. So that was like my
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  new thing. I was always trying to master how
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  to keep the yolk from cracking and things like
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  that. So I was maybe like, I'm 30 now, so yeah,
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  about when I was 20. It was like a new invention
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  for me. I was like, okay, I didn't know I could
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  do this. And then it started randomly trying
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  to whip up new things. I don't like egg whites
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  though. I don't know why. They don't fill me
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  up at all. It feels like I'm eating air. I'm
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  eating just egg whites. How does egg whites work?
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  Because like you say egg whites and I imagine
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  somebody just like. putting that in a cup and
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  drinking it like they're rocky. They're about
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  to go for the fight with Apollo Creed. What are
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  egg whites like? I think it's just the egg without
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  the yolk, which I get it. It's likely way more
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  healthier. But I think, I don't know. I've tried
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  it a few times. I think I bought a carton. When
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  I first moved, it was like my first place by
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  myself. I was like, oh, I can finally live in
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  my own spot and put my own food in here. My mom,
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  we were young. you know, growing up, obviously,
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  as kids, so she would put, you know, pizza rolls
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  and pizza bagels and hot pockets and all that
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  stuff, which is great. When you're young, this
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  is great. But when you got older, I was like,
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  I'm gonna be healthy. So I went out and I saw
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  this little carton of, like, egg whites or something.
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  I was like, I'm gonna eat that. I made it, put
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  a little cheese on it, and I was like, this is
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  not, it doesn't stick to the ribs. So I had to
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  go back to using just regular eggs after that.
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  I tried it once. It was interesting, but, um...
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  Yeah, nah, that was kind of my thing. How would
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  you describe the taste of egg whites? I don't
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  remember fully. Because again, after that, that
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  was like a decade ago. After that, I was good.
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  They weren't nasty. I know they weren't bad.
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  It just didn't fill me up. I think the yolk is
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  likely the part that adds a lot of the stuff
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  that sticks to your ribs when you eat it, that
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  makes you feel full when you eat it. But I think
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  that's the point. of eating egg whites as you're
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  not supposed to get the fall off of it, you're
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  supposed to just be satisfied. Interesting. You
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  know, you were mentioning the breakfast sandwiches
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  that you like, and although my regular breakfast
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  during the week is like the Kodiak peak oatmeal,
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  instant oatmeal, and you know, a nice mug of
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  coffee, whenever it's a special occasion, my
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  wife and I go out to a restaurant for breakfast,
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  I will always either go for an omelet or a breakfast
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  sandwich. Give me a breakfast sandwich with,
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  I don't know, everything. Just eggs, bacon, cheese,
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  sausage, tomatoes, onions, peppers, maybe cilantro
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  if they do that with breakfast sandwiches. Yeah,
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  yeah, yeah. Breakfast sandwiches to me, they're
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  always like a special occasion, like let's go
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  out to eat kind of thing. And, and, and, and
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  boy, they could be really good. So, we've established
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  food. How about pop culture? What is a favorite
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  piece of pop culture that you have consumed lately?
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  It could be a favorite TV show, a movie that
• 10:51
  you liked, a piece of music, Broadway play, book.
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  Like, what are you consuming lately that you
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  really like? The Vince Staples show with the
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  rapper Vince Staples that came out on Netflix.
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  It came out a while ago, actually. They just
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  released the second season and then they've canceled
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  it, which sucks. But I watched that recently,
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  and I watched it all the way through. And I got
• 11:10
  my girlfriend to watch it with me after I watched
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  it. And we watched it again. And the show was
• 11:13
  really good. I liked it. It gave the vibes of
• 11:15
  Donald Glover's Atlanta, which I know I probably
• 11:18
  got a lot of recommendations. Not recommendations.
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  I got a lot of comparisons to that. But that's
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  one piece that I watched that I really liked.
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  I've never heard of The Vince Staples Show. What
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  is it about? It's hard to even say. It's one
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  of those, like, it's kind of a sitcom, because
• 11:32
  it literally is just situational comedy. Like,
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  each episode is just situational. Like, the overarching
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  thing is just he's a guy who's, like, a local
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  rapper, but at the same time, he's just, like,
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  a regular guy in, like, his neighborhood, man,
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  in Cali. From what I'm thinking, I might be Compton,
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  but I might be off. I'm in D .C., so if I got
• 11:49
  that wrong, anybody in California, it's my bad.
• 11:50
  No, but he's in L .A. and he's a rapper, but
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  at the same time, he's just a regular guy, and
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  he just goes through a bunch of things. Everything
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  from girlfriend drama, getting thrown in jail,
• 12:00
  family issues, like just a bunch of stuff that
• 12:03
  just kind of keeps hitting him like one after
• 12:05
  the other. I think there's like an episode where
• 12:06
  he's like in jail with a guy and he's like talking
• 12:09
  to him and the guy is like, look my phone up,
• 12:11
  there you go. And the guy is like, you know,
• 12:15
  oh, are you mad? So he's like, yeah, man. And
• 12:16
  he's like, oh yeah, I'm such and such. She's
• 12:18
  like, oh, you know, such and such. She's like,
• 12:19
  yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they
• 12:21
  talk back and forth. And then the guy is randomly
• 12:23
  just like, yeah, we not cool. And when he said
• 12:25
  it was open, I'ma mess you up. And he's like,
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  oh. And now it's like him in jail, and the guy
• 12:29
  just keeps looking at it and just like, oh, no,
• 12:31
  bro, we're not friends. When these doors open,
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  we're going to go at it. The dude is like 300
• 12:35
  pounds, super big, and Vince is like a scrawny
• 12:37
  little black dude. So it's a funny show like
• 12:40
  that. And again, it gave me Atlanta vibes because
• 12:42
  I was so upset when Atlanta went off air. That
• 12:45
  right is my number one show. For me, I think
• 12:48
  it goes Atlanta, Snowfall. And the third spot
• 12:51
  is still kind of open, but for now, I put the
• 12:52
  event stable show up in there. Atlanta was our
• 12:54
  number one show. So having the event stable show
• 12:55
  to fall back on was really good. I actually didn't
• 12:57
  finish watching season two yet. And I think I'm,
• 12:59
  I know a lot of people do this, which is funny.
• 13:01
  When a show goes off air, you don't ever watch
• 13:03
  the last few episodes because you don't want
• 13:05
  it to end. So I'm like, I think I'm purposely
• 13:07
  just not watching it because I don't want to
• 13:09
  like, accept that it's not coming back. Yeah.
• 13:11
  Yeah, you're mourning because you've grown an
• 13:15
  attachment to the show, to the characters. My
• 13:20
  example would be, my wife and I, I don't know
• 13:23
  if you've ever heard of the show Homeland, but
• 13:25
  we love it. It's a spy thriller. It was on Showtime
• 13:29
  back in the 2010s. And we're not finished with
• 13:32
  it yet. Out of the entire eight seasons, I believe
• 13:38
  we just finished the fourth season, so we still
• 13:39
  have a while to go. But the first... Two to three
• 13:44
  seasons, they were really focused on this Nicholas
• 13:48
  Brody character, this American prisoner of war,
• 13:51
  his family, his best friend also in the military,
• 13:55
  and then... spoiler alert, Nicholas Brody is
• 13:59
  gone after season three, and so goes his family
• 14:01
  members, so goes his friends. And even though
• 14:04
  the show Homeland overall continues, you kind
• 14:06
  of mourn these characters that are no longer
• 14:08
  there because you feel like, oh, these are people
• 14:11
  that I've developed relationships with. These
• 14:12
  are people that I feel like I have this... really
• 14:15
  tight bond with that I've invited to my home
• 14:17
  every night, and now they're gone. It just, it's
• 14:21
  hard to accept. So I kind of know what you mean
• 14:23
  with the Vince Staples thing. Atlanta, I mean,
• 14:27
  Atlanta is fabulous. I did not watch the entire
• 14:30
  series. I think I watched maybe like the first
• 14:32
  season or so before I dropped off of it. But
• 14:34
  yeah, no, I thought it was a really, really clever
• 14:38
  comedy. I think sometimes drama, right? I mean,
• 14:41
  how would you describe it? Is it a dramedy, maybe?
• 14:44
  Dude, that show is, again, it's, because you
• 14:47
  want to call it a sitcom, but they have episodes
• 14:49
  where it's not really funny. Like, it has funny
• 14:51
  situations in it, but it's like, it's not funny.
• 14:54
  So I don't even know how I would describe that.
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  But I think shows like that are becoming, like,
• 14:59
  the norm. Not the norm, but they're becoming
• 15:00
  their own genre. Because I know that there are
• 15:02
  a few shows that aren't, because obviously Atlanta,
• 15:04
  their staples are, they're not black shows, in
• 15:06
  my opinion. There are shows that are, that I
• 15:08
  would say are black shows, and there are shows
• 15:09
  that are shows that just have black people in
• 15:11
  it. And I'll say these shows are just shows that
• 15:13
  happen to have black leads. But then there are
• 15:15
  shows that have white leads that are more, you
• 15:17
  know, for, like, a whiter audience. But, like,
• 15:21
  they had the same, like, makeup. And I forgot
• 15:24
  what Sean's thinking about, but Atlanta, when
• 15:26
  it came on, everybody was comparing it to a specific
• 15:28
  show. I cannot remember the name of it for the
• 15:30
  life of me, but it had the same as that cadence
• 15:32
  and kind of like the same flow, same comedy style,
• 15:35
  the same timing. And I just knew like, okay,
• 15:38
  these are the type of like genre of show that
• 15:40
  I personally like where it's very, it's very
• 15:44
  realistic, but it's also like situationally,
• 15:46
  it's not like the cadences are very real. The
• 15:49
  way they talk is very real. The, the looks on
• 15:51
  the faces and things like that. It's not over
• 15:52
  the top and wacky and too goofy when it comes
• 15:54
  to comedy and it's not too dull and like dramatic
• 15:56
  when it comes to drama. But I don't know what
• 16:00
  the genre is, but I know that that genre whatever
• 16:02
  atlanta and then state pools fall under Those
• 16:05
  are the shows that um, I really like and you
• 16:07
  know for the more dramatic side Obviously you
• 16:08
  got shows like snowfall. Yeah, I kind of like
• 16:10
  it Yeah, what I liked about Atlanta was that
• 16:13
  like it had something interesting to say about
• 16:15
  like hip -hop culture What it means to be black
• 16:20
  whether it be in this stereotyped mold? Yeah,
• 16:24
  or in sort of a more quirky witty sense that
• 16:28
  you might not see portrayed so much on television.
• 16:33
  I just was not surprised coming from Donald Glover
• 16:37
  that we would get something like that because
• 16:39
  before that I remember seeing Donald Glover on
• 16:42
  this NBC sitcom community. Have you ever seen
• 16:44
  the show? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like
• 16:47
  could not be more different than what he offers
• 16:49
  with Atlanta. Like with the community, Donald
• 16:52
  Glover, you get a resemblance of like his standup
• 16:56
  comedy roots and what he used to do with like
• 16:58
  Derek comedy, uh, which was this sort of comedy
• 17:01
  troupe that he formed with these other white
• 17:03
  guys. Donald Glover had a more, I would say mainstream
• 17:08
  white accepting persona in his comedy prior to
• 17:12
  Atlanta. And then something started to happen.
• 17:15
  when Atlanta came around and then it sort of
• 17:17
  meshed with his childish Gambino hip hop work
• 17:20
  where it's like, oh, wow. Like, no, you're not
• 17:25
  just this black guy putting out comedy that appeals
• 17:29
  to whites, but now you're doing, I don't know,
• 17:33
  thought provoking, satirical, dramatically comedic
• 17:36
  work that's making white people think that's
• 17:38
  making black people think and making black people
• 17:40
  love you. And, um, I don't know. And, you know,
• 17:44
  and especially when he came out with like this
• 17:45
  America song as Childish Gambino. I mean, there
• 17:47
  was a time, I think maybe around like the mid
• 17:50
  to late 2010s where my perception of Donald Glover
• 17:52
  started to change. And I really gained a lot
• 17:55
  of respect for him because he, there was just
• 17:58
  more layers. There was just more layers to his
• 18:00
  artistic output, if that makes any sense. A thing
• 18:03
  that I really liked about the show, when I first
• 18:05
  started watching, I was watching it with... with
• 18:07
  an old friend of mine. It was a guy named Zach
• 18:10
  Goldsmith. He's an amazing cinematographer. He
• 18:12
  helped me do my first film that I made. I think
• 18:15
  he won the cinematography award for that one,
• 18:17
  too. But we first started watching Atlanta together,
• 18:20
  because I remember we saw, I think they released
• 18:21
  the first episode on YouTube. And we watched
• 18:23
  it when we were editing a project together, like,
• 18:26
  back in college. we watched it we were like oh
• 18:29
  yeah whatever this is bro we're watching every
• 18:31
  episode yeah and then all we were like link up
• 18:33
  and go watch like every episode together and
• 18:35
  like talk about that to worry that was super
• 18:37
  dope and um i just remember like as i watched
• 18:40
  it it felt like my life was kind of like unlining
• 18:43
  with the characters because the whole thing was
• 18:44
  about you know donald glover and his cousin trying
• 18:47
  to like make it in like the hip -hop industry
• 18:49
  yeah yeah and that's kind of the same cusp that
• 18:52
  that uh Me and Zach were on at the time. We were
• 18:54
  trying to make it in film. And everything that
• 18:56
  they were going through was almost just lining
• 18:58
  up with exactly me and him were going through.
• 19:02
  There was one episode, I think it was called
• 19:04
  The Club, and it was like him and Pedro were
• 19:06
  doing a club appearance. And this had nothing
• 19:09
  to do with our film side, but we were young,
• 19:11
  so we were going out to clubs and things like
• 19:13
  that. And I just remember watching the episode,
• 19:15
  and everything he had about the club was exactly
• 19:18
  how I felt in the club scene. everything cost
• 19:22
  money. Like they bought a section and when the
• 19:24
  section came and they sat down in the section,
• 19:26
  they were like, okay, cool, this is gonna be
• 19:27
  like $300 for your bottles. And he was like,
• 19:28
  but the bottles came with the section. She was
• 19:30
  like, yeah, and you gotta pay $300 for them.
• 19:31
  And I'm like, so you go and you do the same thing
• 19:33
  at a club where you're like, hey, can I get a
• 19:35
  drink? And you order a drink and they give you
• 19:37
  like this much alcohol and this much soda. And
• 19:38
  you're like, so I just paid like 40 bucks. And
• 19:41
  in DC, drinks are expensive. So you can pay like
• 19:43
  $30 for like. Literally like a cup of alcohol.
• 19:46
  And you basically pay for three of those and
• 19:48
  I even spent $120. Like, oh, it's, you know,
• 19:50
  90 bucks plus tax, almost $120. And you barely
• 19:54
  have drank any alcohol. And outside of just the
• 19:55
  alcohol and the club part, when it came to watching
• 19:58
  how he was when he was trying to become a rapper,
• 20:02
  and once he finally got like a small name, seeing
• 20:04
  how people that didn't really give a crap about
• 20:07
  him in the beginning are now trying to be his
• 20:08
  friend later, same thing me and Zach were going
• 20:11
  with. people didn't really talk to us that much.
• 20:13
  And then once we started making our projects
• 20:15
  and we didn't really get like a name per se,
• 20:17
  but we at least had like some work under our
• 20:18
  belt. Now randomly, people who wouldn't look
• 20:21
  our way were like, hey, next time you guys make
• 20:23
  something, call me. I'll let it help. And I was
• 20:24
  like, we called you for this last project and
• 20:26
  you like didn't even respond. So seeing things
• 20:30
  like that kind of happened was like funny to
• 20:31
  me. But that's kind of why I personally like
• 20:34
  the show, because it was like everything kind
• 20:35
  of aligned up. And then also seeing like how
• 20:38
  you had some episodes that had very deep messages.
• 20:40
  that you had to, like, decode. I think in season
• 20:43
  one or season two, he had an episode called Teddy
• 20:45
  Perkins, I think, with a character named Teddy
• 20:47
  Perkins, which was, like, a character that had,
• 20:49
  like, the combination of, like, Michael Jackson,
• 20:53
  Prince, and, like, a bunch of other musicians
• 20:55
  who had all kind of been tormented in, like,
• 20:58
  their childhood. And we were kind of... This
• 20:59
  character was, like, kind of raised the same
• 21:01
  way, where it was, like, hey, I'm gonna beat
• 21:03
  you so you're great. And the character was, like...
• 21:05
  He became one of the greatest musicians ever,
• 21:07
  but at what cost? Because now... He was like
• 21:08
  kinda, he was screwed up in the head and had
• 21:10
  as much as screws loose. And I thought that that
• 21:12
  episode was so cool, because after it came on
• 21:13
  and it went off, I got to like sit down and decode
• 21:16
  like, okay, who was this character supposed to
• 21:18
  be? Why did he write it? What purpose does he
• 21:20
  have in the episode of like, that he has when
• 21:22
  he's talking to the character? Like, is he gonna
• 21:24
  come back? Is he not? Like things like that.
• 21:27
  He had a lot of episodes that really made me
• 21:29
  think. Another one was called The Woods. That
• 21:32
  episode really grasped me and really had me looking
• 21:34
  at myself. He had a lot of stuff in that show
• 21:37
  that really made me, like, look deeper into each
• 21:39
  episode and think. And that's one thing I take
• 21:41
  inspiration from my own work, is wanting to have
• 21:44
  to watch my stuff and, like, go back and watch
• 21:46
  it and look for, like, the hidden little pieces.
• 21:48
  And wasn't Donald Glover's character white in
• 21:51
  one episode, or am I going crazy? That was the
• 21:53
  one. That was Teddy Perkins. The Teddy Perkins
• 21:55
  one, okay. That was the one he wore. I think
• 21:57
  he thought he was going to win an award, which
• 21:58
  I think they should have. And he wore it to the
• 22:00
  awards show, and they didn't win. Keith Stanfield,
• 22:03
  who was one of Donald Glover's friends. Amazing,
• 22:05
  right? Yeah, I first saw this guy in Get Out,
• 22:09
  you know, of course, the Jordan Field horror
• 22:11
  movie classic from like 2016. And he's just one
• 22:15
  of those guys, you watch him on screen and you're
• 22:16
  like, who is that? Because he just has, God,
• 22:20
  he just has an intensity to his acting that I
• 22:23
  really, really find appealing. And it's that
• 22:26
  intensity that... works both in a dramatic horror
• 22:29
  sense and get out. And then in Atlanta, where
• 22:31
  he kind of does play that, like the stoner, like
• 22:35
  the goofy stoner. Yeah. But I think when you
• 22:38
  watch him though, he still says little nuggets
• 22:40
  of like, not just positivity, but it's like little
• 22:43
  bits of like information to let you know he's
• 22:45
  not stupid. He knows exactly what he's talking
• 22:47
  about. It's just he doesn't speak really unless
• 22:50
  he really has to. But I think characters like
• 22:52
  that are so dope where they don't say much, but
• 22:54
  when they do... You should listen because they're
• 22:56
  saying something that matters. I just remember
• 22:58
  him being very dry and being very stone -faced.
• 23:02
  Yeah. And, um, yeah, I don't know. He just has
• 23:04
  that kind of delivery where it works both in
• 23:07
  a dramatic sense and it certainly works in a
• 23:09
  comedic sense when you're trying to, you know,
• 23:13
  give out that, that sort of dry, darkish kind
• 23:16
  of, kind of humor. Um, and he was great in Roof
• 23:19
  Man. I don't know if you saw the movie Roof Man
• 23:21
  with Channing Tatum, but. Uh, he plays cause
• 23:24
  Channing Tatum, like it's based on a real story
• 23:27
  about a guy who was known for breaking into like
• 23:31
  the roofs of McDonald's and the trailer. I didn't
• 23:35
  watch that one. Yeah. Yeah. Breaking in and trying
• 23:38
  to do robberies and like McDonald's restaurants.
• 23:41
  And he also just turns out to be like the most
• 23:44
  generous, kindhearted person. And I know LaKeith
• 23:47
  Sanfield was like Channing Tatum's assistant
• 23:50
  or friend because they used to like, they, they
• 23:52
  used to be. the military and then, you know,
• 23:54
  Shane Tame's character got out and struggled
• 23:57
  to make a good, decent, innocent life and now
• 23:59
  resorted to this. And Shane and LaKeith Stansfield's
• 24:03
  character was his co -military guy, friends who
• 24:08
  helps him with these crimes and taking on different
• 24:11
  identities so he doesn't get caught. Uh, yeah,
• 24:14
  Roof Man is really good. Don't just see the trailer,
• 24:16
  see the entire movie. Like, Heath Stanfield,
• 24:18
  that's another example of his great acting along
• 24:20
  with Atlanta and Get Out. I think it's really
• 24:23
  fabulous to see. Yeah, one of his reasons work
• 24:25
  that I really liked was, um, there was the piece
• 24:28
  that he did where he played, uh, almost like
• 24:31
  a black Jesus, and I can't remember what it's
• 24:32
  called. What is it called? Oh, man. I'm going
• 24:35
  to write. But I watched it about three times,
• 24:37
  and I thought it was so cool. People obviously
• 24:39
  turned off by it for religious reasons, but when
• 24:42
  you watch it, it touched on all of the pieces
• 24:46
  that it needed to touch on as far as not just
• 24:48
  the religion, but the story and the biblical
• 24:51
  stories and all this stuff. And I thought I liked
• 24:53
  it. It's called The Book of Clarence is what
• 24:57
  you're talking about. Yes. Yes. I thought that
• 25:01
  was so cool. I really liked that film. And I
• 25:03
  get why people were turned off by a guy who's
• 25:06
  pretending to be Jesus, smoking weed and blah,
• 25:08
  blah, blah. You really have to look deeper into
• 25:10
  stuff like that because they're not trying to
• 25:12
  offend. Uh, there's likely a message there that
• 25:14
  I think if you just watch, you'll enjoy. I love
• 25:17
  that. Yeah. I got to watch that. That, that,
• 25:19
  that seems like an interesting concept. Jay -Z
• 25:21
  was one of the producers and that surprised me
• 25:23
  because Jay -Z, what I like about him is that
• 25:26
  like he's obviously had this mammoth mainstream
• 25:30
  success as a rapper, business mogul, whatever
• 25:33
  you want to call it, but he still values really
• 25:38
  great art. So I could see him like. producing,
• 25:40
  getting behind something like this. So that's,
• 25:43
  that's, that's really nice. So you had mentioned
• 25:47
  that you're a filmmaker. Take me into the background
• 25:50
  of that. Like what makes you first passionate
• 25:53
  about filmmaking? Like how did that all begin
• 25:55
  for you? So filmmaking funny enough was never
• 25:59
  my passion per se. I like to write, that was
• 26:02
  always my thing since I was a kid. And I never
• 26:04
  really knew that that was my passion, but like
• 26:07
  the older I got and I started looking back on
• 26:09
  things that I did, I realized like, okay, I see
• 26:11
  what my calming is. I remember when I was in
• 26:13
  maybe like second grade, we all got tasked, like
• 26:16
  we all got the task, I'm not good with certain
• 26:18
  words, but we all got the task to write a poem
• 26:21
  and we were gonna make like a big poetry book
• 26:22
  of like all of the like first, second, and third
• 26:25
  graders. Every class had their own personal book,
• 26:28
  I think, and I never want to combine them at
• 26:29
  the end of the year. And when they showed my
• 26:31
  class our book, everybody at each page had, like,
• 26:33
  two or four poems on it. And so I'm like, OK,
• 26:36
  I'm flipping through to try to find mine. I'm
• 26:38
  like, OK, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And I
• 26:40
  get to a page that shows mine, and my entire
• 26:43
  poem fills up an entire page by itself. Damn.
• 26:45
  And I'm like, and I literally, I started feeling
• 26:47
  like, oh, dang, I think I may have did too much.
• 26:49
  I thought the poems had to be long, and we had
• 26:51
  to tell the story. And so I thought I did something
• 26:53
  wrong. Never said anything about it, but honestly,
• 26:56
  I felt embarrassed. I was like, I did too much.
• 26:58
  Everybody else's poem was so short and my eyes
• 27:00
  is this long. Oh, man, why did I do that? And
• 27:04
  now I look back and I'm like, that's because
• 27:06
  you liked to write. Like your poem was a literal
• 27:09
  story about a kid. If I remember correctly, it
• 27:11
  was like a kid who sees like a monster in the
• 27:13
  hallway of his elementary school. And then he
• 27:17
  like runs and gets chased by the monster. And
• 27:18
  then later on, he finds out that the monster
• 27:20
  is really like the hall monitor. stuff like that.
• 27:23
  So I thought that was like wrong to do. And then
• 27:26
  again, later on in life, as I kept going and
• 27:28
  taking English classes, I really had like a calling
• 27:30
  for like English and literature classes. Love
• 27:33
  to read, love to write. And as I kept doing it
• 27:37
  more and more and more and realizing that I really
• 27:39
  liked it, I didn't know where I was going to
• 27:40
  take it. And then I got to college and I met
• 27:42
  Zach. He was a film buff. My thing has always
• 27:46
  been just general media, general media production
• 27:49
  and writing. sports broadcast news. Like I said,
• 27:53
  my nine to five is news, but my part time is
• 27:56
  sports production. So I work with the WNBA. I
• 28:00
  work with major league soccer, a few colleges
• 28:02
  up here. I do a lot. So everything from small
• 28:06
  ESPN productions to again, the big stuff. And
• 28:10
  so I work with the Redskins as well and all that
• 28:12
  type of stuff. So doing all of that work there
• 28:14
  early on, let me know, okay, I like production.
• 28:18
  Photography is not my thing, but videography,
• 28:20
  I love it. Linking up with him and seeing his
• 28:22
  love for film, he kind of like brought me on
• 28:24
  board when it came to the film stuff. He didn't
• 28:26
  like general production. He thought news was
• 28:27
  boring. He didn't really get sports. None of
• 28:30
  that stuff was his thing. But film, he loved
• 28:32
  it. And so I brought him into the world of production.
• 28:35
  It was like, bro, each basketball game is a film.
• 28:37
  Like each player has their own story and how
• 28:39
  they got here. Each team has their own story
• 28:42
  and why they're here. During the game, there's
• 28:44
  going to be a story during the game. Your job
• 28:46
  as the cameraman is to sell the story of the
• 28:48
  game. This guy that made that shot. Why are you
• 28:50
  getting a shot of him? Because he's important.
• 28:52
  He got the shot. He might end up getting the
• 28:53
  game. He might end up getting the game winner
• 28:55
  at the end. You got to show him as a cinematographer
• 28:57
  of the basketball game why it's important. He
• 28:59
  was like, oh, OK, so each game is like a film.
• 29:02
  Yes. Then he showed me when it came to film.
• 29:04
  These are just productions, bro. If you break
• 29:06
  it down, each scene has a writer. If you tell
• 29:09
  that story through your writing, you know, you
• 29:10
  sit down and you really flesh it out. we can
• 29:12
  shoot it as a production and break it down and
• 29:14
  even tell that story. So I started seeing the
• 29:16
  things in my head that I was already seeing when
• 29:18
  it came to my stories and being like, oh, OK,
• 29:19
  we can actually get cameras and make it. And
• 29:21
  once I learned the science behind filmmaking
• 29:23
  due to him showing me films, it really helped
• 29:26
  me flesh out my storytelling. Because now, instead
• 29:28
  of just seeing the characters from a character
• 29:32
  point of view in my mind, I saw it from a director's
• 29:35
  point of view. I saw it from, OK, the camera's
• 29:37
  going to be here. Lights are going to be here.
• 29:39
  Shots are going to look like this. They're going
• 29:41
  to make this motion. They're going to pan with
• 29:42
  the camera, or we're going to put on a gimbal,
• 29:44
  or we're going to follow one, or we're going
• 29:45
  to put on a dolly and do a push. Things like
• 29:48
  that really helped me because he taught me that
• 29:49
  stuff when it came to film. When I taught him
• 29:51
  the stuff of production, we both kind of swapped
• 29:53
  ideas with it, and we really ended up helping
• 29:55
  each other. Once he taught me which films to
• 29:57
  watch and what to look for and things like that,
• 29:59
  that really upped my interest in film, and I
• 30:02
  started naturally realizing which films I liked.
• 30:06
  And it was through bouncing back and forth with
• 30:08
  him and then finally being able to work on a
• 30:09
  film set. A few different small ones, my biggest
• 30:13
  one being 21 Bridges with Chadwick Boseman, rest
• 30:16
  in peace to him. His friend giving me the chance
• 30:19
  to work on that production with him was major
• 30:21
  because when I got there... I was always amped
• 30:25
  up when I would work on any production period,
• 30:27
  whether it be sports, news, anything. But being
• 30:29
  on that film set and being out there with all
• 30:31
  of those creative minds, even though we were
• 30:33
  not able to talk to anybody, just being out there
• 30:35
  and feeling that energy, it really got me already
• 30:38
  hooked. It got me hooked into what I was already
• 30:40
  hooked into. It dug the hooks even deeper into
• 30:44
  it to let me know, like, I love this. And the
• 30:48
  mindset that I'm in now is... When I was younger,
• 30:51
  my mind was bright -eyed and bushy -tailed. It
• 30:53
  was like, hey, let's try to become the next Ryan
• 30:56
  Coogler. We're going to go to Hollywood and we're
• 30:59
  going to make it. But now I'm at the point where
• 31:01
  I just want to do it for fun. I enjoy linking
• 31:04
  up with my friends, calling a few of my comrades
• 31:07
  that I've got and saying, hey, bro, I know you
• 31:09
  shoot. Bring your camera. On this date, I got
• 31:12
  this project. Let's sit down and I'll show you
• 31:13
  the script. Call in my guy that does audio. Say,
• 31:15
  hey bro, bring your audio equipment. Call in
• 31:17
  a couple of lighting guys. Come on, bro. And
• 31:19
  then like the five or six of us will go. I'll
• 31:21
  get a couple of actors. I'll get like a thousand
• 31:23
  bucks that I saved up. And two, three days on
• 31:26
  a random weekend, we'll just hustle and make
• 31:28
  like a 15, 20 minute short film. I'll edit it,
• 31:30
  knock it out, bam. Put it into a couple of festivals
• 31:33
  and hopefully win some of these small awards
• 31:35
  right here. And out of the pure enjoyment that
• 31:38
  I get of doing that, do it all over again. And
• 31:40
  then as I keep doing it, if the opportunity comes
• 31:43
  for me to do something bigger, because a producer,
• 31:46
  like that's what happened with my first two films,
• 31:47
  a random producer saw it that I worked at my
• 31:49
  college with, and she gave us funds. If that
• 31:52
  happens again, great. If it doesn't, I'm still
• 31:54
  going to keep doing it because I enjoy it. But
• 31:56
  that initial spark came from just linking up
• 31:58
  with Zach and him showing me the enjoyment of
• 32:01
  filmmaking. He helped me kind of chisel my way
• 32:04
  out of just being just somebody that liked to
• 32:06
  write to actually writing films. So you had mentioned
• 32:09
  when you were younger wanting to be something
• 32:12
  like a Ryan Coogler, Steven Spielberg, like obviously
• 32:15
  these well -known writer directors. So when you
• 32:19
  were younger and you were writing great stories,
• 32:22
  like the poem you mentioned, I wonder like if
• 32:26
  there was that idea of like, oh man, like I would
• 32:29
  love to... make these into movies and then you
• 32:32
  just kind of like ended up falling into, like
• 32:35
  you say, general media production, being on the
• 32:37
  technical side of like shooting sports and news
• 32:39
  because it was like, all right, I'm in the industry,
• 32:43
  but also this is a much more secure job to have
• 32:47
  than trying to finance, write my own films. Was
• 32:52
  that kind of why you pivoted toward general media
• 32:55
  production before you eventually like found your
• 32:58
  way to, to. Filmmaking more and more yes and
• 33:02
  no Because it can't again because I just love
• 33:05
  just the general process of production I just
• 33:07
  think it's really cool to get a bunch of people
• 33:11
  and I want them together and essentially say
• 33:13
  like hey, let's pluck everybody's brain and Whatever
• 33:16
  we think of we're gonna do whether it's a film
• 33:19
  or if there's a basketball game coming up where
• 33:21
  the camera's gonna go, hey, let's set the switcher
• 33:24
  up here, the producer station here, audio board's
• 33:27
  gonna go here, if it's a basketball game or something,
• 33:30
  the replay's gonna go here, if it's news, then
• 33:32
  we're just gonna put whatever we gotta play,
• 33:34
  just line all these things up, and then turn
• 33:36
  the cameras on, and we're gonna shoot, and people
• 33:38
  are gonna watch it. I always thought that process
• 33:40
  was so cool. My first memory of really finding
• 33:44
  production interesting was middle school, and
• 33:48
  I took a journalism class. because again, I knew
• 33:50
  I liked to write by like eighth grade. And we
• 33:53
  took a journalism class. And I remember we took
• 33:56
  a field trip to Fox Five, which is our new station
• 34:00
  here, the local Fox station here. And we went
• 34:02
  up there. Yeah, we went up there. It was very,
• 34:05
  Ozzy was very boring at first because it was
• 34:07
  so businessy. So they were just like, oh, this
• 34:09
  is where they do the... the meeting's at and
• 34:12
  this is where the green room is, blah, blah,
• 34:15
  blah, blah. And then I remember when they took
• 34:16
  us to the floor of the news station. I was like,
• 34:18
  I saw all the lights and everything was on and
• 34:21
  like instantly my brain was like, this is so
• 34:23
  cool. What is this? I didn't know the time for
• 34:26
  it. I'm like 14. I just thought it was amazing.
• 34:29
  And then I remember officially my brain went
• 34:31
  to, I want to do this when they took us to the
• 34:33
  control room. And we went in there and we picked
• 34:36
  our heads in and I saw all of the monitors on
• 34:38
  the wall. And it was like people that were in
• 34:40
  like DC and in Virginia and Maryland and all
• 34:43
  these other places were getting ready to do their
• 34:45
  segments. The director turned around and spoke
• 34:47
  to us and let us know what everything was. And
• 34:49
  I don't know, but seeing all the monitors, I
• 34:50
  was like, I want to do this. Instantly, my brain
• 34:53
  was like, I don't know what this is. I want to
• 34:55
  be in this room in the future. Very grateful
• 34:58
  to be there right now. But that same feeling
• 35:01
  that I had there is the same feeling I had when
• 35:03
  I finally got to work on an official film set.
• 35:05
  Once I got there, I was like, yo, I like this.
• 35:08
  I want to do this. But definitely the safety
• 35:13
  aspect of working in production, like it pulled
• 35:17
  me in because I knew once you kind of get into
• 35:19
  a market like DC, we have a bunch of sports teams,
• 35:22
  everything from colleges. Right now I'm currently
• 35:25
  working at American University, George Mason
• 35:27
  and George Washington University. Those are my
• 35:28
  top three. Professionally, I do Major League
• 35:31
  Soccer, some Redskins games, the Washington Mystics,
• 35:34
  and the Capital City Go -Go, which is G League.
• 35:37
  Cool. And then outside of that, I'll do random
• 35:39
  sporadic stuff for Georgetown University or any
• 35:43
  random teams that may call. Cool. So I got news
• 35:46
  that I do full -time, these games that I do part
• 35:48
  -time. Cool. It's very consistent. But there's
• 35:51
  something because you can be somewhat creative,
• 35:54
  but there's always a box there because it's sports.
• 35:56
  It's a general media. It's a way that they do
• 35:58
  it. Cameras get set up in the same spot 99 %
• 36:01
  of the time. But on film sets, it's so free flowing
• 36:04
  when it comes to come to the creativity. So what
• 36:07
  comes with the security of the general production
• 36:10
  side, you kind of get boxed into you can't be
• 36:13
  creative. And that's also the thing that makes
• 36:15
  me fearful about going to film full time, which
• 36:17
  is you can be creative. but it's nothing guaranteed.
• 36:20
  There's no guarantee this film is going to take
• 36:22
  off and it's going to make money. There's no
• 36:24
  guarantee that whoever's hires you is going to
• 36:26
  pay you a decent rate if you're shooting or if
• 36:28
  you're directing. You know, it's so open. But
• 36:32
  it's not so much of a fear because I've kind
• 36:34
  of turned it into like an acceptance of, you
• 36:36
  know what? It probably won't make money. You
• 36:39
  probably won't get on Prime. You probably won't
• 36:41
  get on Netflix. You probably won't get on Apple
• 36:43
  TV. But you know what? make it, put it online,
• 36:47
  do a screening, let your friends and family come,
• 36:51
  let the actor's friends and family come and just
• 36:52
  make it out of sheer enjoyment of being able
• 36:54
  to do it. But yeah, definitely the security aspect
• 36:57
  pushed me towards doing the general production
• 37:00
  stuff. It was also just a general interest because
• 37:02
  I love it. But that made me definitely like once
• 37:05
  I got in of like, OK, I'm going to sit here and
• 37:07
  enjoy myself for a while. But going to New York
• 37:10
  was my first step in trying to break out of the
• 37:11
  matrix. Like you want to move from Washington,
• 37:14
  D .C. to New York. If I can find something that
• 37:17
  pays around whatever getting paid right now as
• 37:20
  far as a decent rate. and can give me the same
• 37:22
  sense of security, I'd definitely be open to
• 37:24
  it. Well, I mean, the great thing about New York
• 37:26
  is that it's just a melting pot of everything.
• 37:27
  You can definitely find work. You could definitely
• 37:30
  find more work in broadcast media if you're looking
• 37:33
  for that security, but you can also find a bunch
• 37:35
  of fellow aspiring filmmakers like yourself to
• 37:39
  connect with and network with and maybe, you
• 37:41
  know, get some financial incentive off of it.
• 37:44
  You definitely remind me of like when I used
• 37:47
  to do acting more seriously back in high school
• 37:51
  and college. I was, you know, acting, you know,
• 37:54
  in my high school theater department and then
• 37:56
  did some theater in college as well. And when
• 37:59
  I graduated both high school and college, I was
• 38:01
  like, all right, professional actor, that's going
• 38:03
  to be my thing. You know, theater, TV, film,
• 38:05
  I'm going to see what I can do. And then it didn't
• 38:07
  take too long for me to just not really like.
• 38:11
  The uncertainty of the audition process, not
• 38:14
  only was I very hard on myself and the rejection
• 38:16
  can be tough to take on a regular basis, but
• 38:18
  I am someone that very much likes a stability,
• 38:22
  a security in what I'm doing in terms of like
• 38:26
  making sure bills are paid. And I. I fell into
• 38:31
  broadcasting radio and television. I used to
• 38:34
  host a public access television show in my hometown
• 38:36
  of West Harvard, Connecticut. I used to, you
• 38:38
  know, work for radio stations in Connecticut,
• 38:41
  Iowa, upstate New York, here in Vermont, where
• 38:43
  I currently live. And it was great because it
• 38:45
  was like, oh, entertainment. Like I can entertain
• 38:49
  people as an on -air personality, whether it
• 38:51
  be on the radio or television side. And also...
• 38:54
  It's a job, a nine to five, where I know that
• 38:56
  there's a paycheck coming every week or every
• 38:58
  two weeks. So it was like that nice, nice balance.
• 39:01
  So it's a pro and con. I see what you're saying.
• 39:04
  Cause with the acting thing, I mean, I'm getting
• 39:06
  back into it and there's certainly a degree of
• 39:10
  uncertainty still in taking that on professionally
• 39:13
  where I'm glad I'm not into it in a full -time
• 39:16
  capacity anymore. Um, but also There is a, like
• 39:21
  you had mentioned with you in filmmaking, there
• 39:23
  is a sort of creative looseness that you might
• 39:25
  not get, you know, as opposed to, you know, broadcasting
• 39:29
  or podcasting. I like podcasting, but it does
• 39:31
  become an extension of radio or television broadcasting
• 39:35
  where it's like, all right, you know. Same microphone,
• 39:38
  same office. You have a format that you kind
• 39:40
  of follow to keep your sanity as you produce
• 39:44
  episodes weekly or else you'll just, you'll go
• 39:46
  insane trying to come up with a different, completely
• 39:48
  different show every week. Um, and then maybe
• 39:50
  you take on a theater project or a film project
• 39:53
  in your respect, where it's its own isolated,
• 39:56
  unique. thing, its own story, and, you know,
• 40:00
  you can kind of play around with it, improvise,
• 40:02
  come up with new ideas here and there, brainstorm
• 40:04
  for, I don't know, three to six months. And then
• 40:07
  there you go. Here's your project that becomes
• 40:10
  its own unique special thing. So I know what
• 40:15
  you mean. I know what you mean. It's, it's certainly,
• 40:17
  I don't know. I think it's, it kind of reminds
• 40:19
  me of that relationship between art and commerce,
• 40:23
  you know, stability and taking a risk, gambling.
• 40:27
  Yeah. That's exactly what I told some students
• 40:31
  I was talking to last night. I think I was talking
• 40:32
  to people who were knowing. I spoke to some kids.
• 40:34
  I'm not going to call them kids because there
• 40:36
  was one guy who was like 40. It was at the local
• 40:38
  community college because I went there and they'd
• 40:40
  like me to come back once a year just to show
• 40:41
  the kids like, hey, I made it in production.
• 40:44
  You can too. And that's exactly what I told them,
• 40:46
  which was my full -time job is great. Love it
• 40:49
  to death. Literally. Not just because of the
• 40:52
  money, but I actually enjoy doing the shows.
• 40:55
  But if you ever want to make it in an industry.
• 40:59
  Same thing I did even with my full time job.
• 41:01
  You're going to have to just jump and take a
• 41:03
  risk. And I think filmmaking is probably one
• 41:04
  of the scarier ones to do because it's like walking
• 41:07
  on a tightrope without a net. Once you're out
• 41:10
  there, you're out there. You got actors. If you're
• 41:12
  directing, you got actors. If you're an actor,
• 41:15
  you're out there on set and you're now spending
• 41:17
  time doing this and you're calling out of work
• 41:19
  and all this stuff. Who's to say if the film
• 41:20
  would even see the light of day? So it's definitely
• 41:23
  a scary thing to do. But I think once you complete
• 41:25
  one, you get addicted. No matter what position
• 41:27
  you were in, once you do one film and you see
• 41:29
  it finished, you get addicted to that feeling
• 41:32
  of like, I did that. I want to do that again.
• 41:34
  Can you talk about the film that you worked on
• 41:36
  that Star Trek with Bozeman? What was your position
• 41:39
  on that film? What was the title of the film
• 41:41
  again? So the film was called 21 Bridges. I guess
• 41:44
  I could say Dames. We got the film due to we
• 41:47
  met a gentleman by the name of Logan Coles, who
• 41:49
  was a close friend of Chadwick's from Howard
• 41:51
  all the way up until the time he passed away.
• 41:53
  I don't know if they knew each other before that,
• 41:55
  but I know that they met at Howard, because I
• 41:57
  met another gentleman that introduced us to Logan,
• 42:00
  whose name was Ron Ross. I was introduced to
• 42:01
  him by Zach Goldsmith, I went to college with,
• 42:05
  and Zach met Ron at a Mystics game that he was
• 42:09
  working, and that was our whole thing. Whenever
• 42:12
  we worked, it was like, bruv, you meet somebody,
• 42:14
  introduce me to them out there. I meet somebody,
• 42:16
  I'm introducing you to them. They put me on to
• 42:17
  something, I'm calling you, and we both going.
• 42:19
  Same thing with you, we both going, and that's
• 42:21
  what we always did. So we met Rome, started talking
• 42:24
  to Rome. Rome said he was going to work a project
• 42:27
  in Texas with the NAACP. We met Logan while we
• 42:31
  were down there. We didn't know who he was, never
• 42:34
  looked up his name, because that's not really
• 42:35
  kind of like how we wrote. We didn't look up
• 42:37
  names and try to dig and figure out who these
• 42:39
  people were that we were hanging around. We were
• 42:40
  just happy to be in any environment with creatives
• 42:44
  in general. Funny enough, on the flight down
• 42:47
  to Texas, I was watching a film called Message
• 42:48
  from the King. Now, again, once we met Logan,
• 42:51
  we worked the NAACP event. At the end of it,
• 42:54
  Ron told us that Logan was working on a film.
• 42:56
  He didn't tell us what the film was. He didn't
• 42:57
  tell us it was in it. I said, exactly. Let's
• 42:59
  ask if people work on it. Cool. We talked to
• 43:01
  Logan. He was like, hey, bro, you heard you're
• 43:02
  working on a film in a few months. He was like,
• 43:04
  yeah. I said, can we work on a production? We'll
• 43:06
  be PAs. He said, cool. Cool. We got the role
• 43:08
  as PAs now. He said, it's in Philly. Can you
• 43:10
  guys make it? Well, we're in DC. Philly's like
• 43:12
  a few hour drive away, but we can do it. Mind
• 43:15
  you, we're young. We're like 25, 24. We got no
• 43:18
  real money. But I'm like, bro, we will find however
• 43:20
  much money we need to. We will sleep in my car
• 43:22
  if we have to. We're going to do this film because
• 43:24
  there's no telling what this can do for us. So
• 43:26
  we scraped together however much money we could.
• 43:28
  We bought an Airbnb for like a month and a half.
• 43:30
  Shout out to Philly. And we did it. We worked
• 43:33
  as PAs. We were additional PAs. So I'm not going
• 43:35
  to try to act like we were set PAs. There's the
• 43:39
  key PAs, the set PAs, and then your additionals.
• 43:41
  So we were on the outskirts of the film. So we
• 43:44
  weren't able to see, like, the action, action
• 43:46
  per se, but we did see some stuff. Well, if you
• 43:48
  don't mind, can you explain what a production
• 43:50
  assistant does, a PA, as you mentioned? Yeah.
• 43:53
  So the role that we were, again, we were additionals.
• 43:55
  So our job was really, like, it was the miscellaneous
• 43:59
  work. So if someone like a Chadwick needed a
• 44:02
  bottle of water, they would tell the key PA.
• 44:04
  The key PA would skip over telling the set PAs,
• 44:06
  because the set PAs have to be on set. He was
• 44:08
  telling the additional PA. bring me a set of
• 44:10
  water so I can give it to Chad. Cool. Run to
• 44:13
  the truck, get a water, bam, give it to our key
• 44:17
  PA, I'm not gonna put his name out there, but
• 44:18
  give it to the key PA, bam, and he would hand
• 44:20
  it to Chad. Our job was to stand on the outskirts
• 44:22
  of the set. So the skept was on, let's say on
• 44:25
  the 33rd block, we would be on the 34th block
• 44:27
  to tell anybody that was walking in, hey, when
• 44:30
  you get down to that block there, you're gonna
• 44:31
  have to turn because they're shooting a film
• 44:33
  on that block. We actually, funny story, me and
• 44:36
  Zach almost had to like beat up a guy. in Philly
• 44:39
  because they shot some of the film in Philly
• 44:41
  with New York cars. And a guy from Philly was
• 44:43
  like, man, take this New York, blah, blah, blah.
• 44:46
  I'm waiting for my block. I'll get all in my
• 44:48
  city with this New York crap. Blah, blah, blah.
• 44:50
  And I was like, sir, when you get down there,
• 44:51
  can you just make a left? Because they're shooting.
• 44:53
  I don't care what y 'all shooting in my city.
• 44:54
  What you going to do if I don't? What you going
• 44:56
  to do if I don't? And he was like, he got up
• 44:57
  my face. And so I had to like step back off the
• 44:59
  curb and get ready to like swing. And I like
• 45:01
  kind of looked over his shoulder. And Zach was
• 45:03
  like slowly walking up. Like kind of like, OK,
• 45:05
  I'll just do swings. I got you. So when I stood
• 45:07
  there ready and the guy stood there ready, then
• 45:09
  he just walked off and was like, I don't give
• 45:10
  a blah, blah, blah. And he walked down to the
• 45:12
  street. And when he got to the end of that street,
• 45:14
  he made that left. He had so much stuff on set.
• 45:16
  I already knew he wasn't going to go. But that
• 45:19
  was our job was to divert traffic, divert cars.
• 45:22
  I remember one day a car just blew past us and
• 45:25
  got all the way up on set. And they called us
• 45:27
  and was like, where did that car come from? And
• 45:28
  we were like, we have no idea. There was an alleyway
• 45:31
  that was like. in between the both of us, like
• 45:34
  I was at the end of the block, Zach was in the
• 45:36
  middle. And then there was an alleyway that was,
• 45:38
  like, in between the both of us. And the car,
• 45:40
  like, pulled off from there and just made a turn
• 45:41
  and went right towards set. And neither one of
• 45:43
  us saw it. And they got pissed at us. Well, we
• 45:45
  had to tell them, like, bro, we didn't do that.
• 45:47
  I think, again, you give people sodas. They asked
• 45:50
  me to go to J .K. Simmons' trailer and give him
• 45:52
  a Dr. Pepper, I think. I did that. And I, me,
• 45:55
  again, first time working, I'm not thinking.
• 45:58
  I don't know why I'm on set. And I'm just kind
• 46:00
  of, like, blanked out. But they were like, hey,
• 46:01
  can you take your soda to J .K.? I don't know
• 46:04
  who JK is, because I'm not thinking. So I get
• 46:06
  the soda, and I just walk to a trailer, and Zach's
• 46:08
  with me, and I just knock on the door, and I
• 46:10
  grab the handle and start to open it, and JK
• 46:12
  pulls it open. He's like, hey. I was like, it's
• 46:13
  for you. He was like, oh, cool. Thanks, man.
• 46:15
  And grabs it and goes to a trailer, and Zach
• 46:17
  looks at me. And when I turn around, I'm just
• 46:19
  like, what? He's like, bro, you just opened JK
• 46:21
  Simmons' trailer. And I'm like, die. I was like,
• 46:25
  OK. He was like, you know who JK Simmons is?
• 46:27
  I was like, no. He's like, Spider -Man. And I
• 46:29
  was like, oh, the guy that owned the, he's like,
• 46:32
  yeah. And I was like, oh, shoot. He's like, bruh,
• 46:34
  he could have been naked or something. I was
• 46:35
  like, bruh. I was like, I wasn't thinking, bruh.
• 46:39
  He was like, yeah, bruh, don't do that. I was
• 46:40
  like, my bad, my bad. But he didn't get mad or
• 46:42
  anything. He was actually, like, super cool.
• 46:44
  But again, that's what we had to do, you know.
• 46:46
  Again, divert traffic, bring people drinks if
• 46:48
  they needed them. We really got shuffled around
• 46:50
  a lot. There's a scene on 21 Bridges where they're
• 46:52
  in, like, an alleyway in there inside of a house.
• 46:53
  My job was to, like, sit. But they're in an alleyway
• 46:56
  next to, like, it's a house, but it looks like
• 46:58
  it's just an alleyway. But I'm, like, right behind
• 47:00
  a door and that they're, like... putting clothes
• 47:03
  or drugs into a car. My job was to sit inside
• 47:05
  of that house because they had a bunch of production
• 47:07
  equipment in there. And if a guy or somebody
• 47:09
  went in there to get an item and we were shooting,
• 47:12
  I would have to tell them through the walkie,
• 47:14
  like, hey, you can't move. They're shooting.
• 47:15
  Not a super duper important job, but for me personally,
• 47:19
  again, that being my first time I worked on a
• 47:20
  big budget film, it was great for me. Super enjoyable.
• 47:25
  Anything? significant, profound, inspiring, anything
• 47:29
  like that that you took away from the process
• 47:32
  of making that film? Anything that, like, really
• 47:35
  influenced you when, you know, you got back to
• 47:40
  writing the script, working with Zach on your
• 47:42
  own films? Like, what did you take away from
• 47:44
  that 21 Britches experience creatively? I'm not
• 47:48
  media trained. So, like, should I be completely
• 47:50
  honest? Go ahead. I said it was super enjoyable,
• 47:53
  but I had to be honest. Some of those guys were
• 47:55
  very... They were very mean. I'm gonna just be
• 47:59
  PC with it. And when you say the guys who were
• 48:03
  mean, who were the guys that were mean? I can't
• 48:05
  do that. But like just by job title, was it like
• 48:08
  just your superiors? It was superiors that were
• 48:11
  there. They were actually so bad that they actually
• 48:13
  ended up having to send a union rep for... I
• 48:16
  forgot what's union. I think it was for the extras,
• 48:18
  because they did not treat the extras well. And
• 48:20
  it wasn't everybody. But there were like four
• 48:23
  or five people there that were very aggressive.
• 48:26
  They actually made the writer's niece cry. She
• 48:28
  was an additional PA. And me and Zach spoke to
• 48:32
  her, and we actually hung out with her stuff.
• 48:33
  She was very cool. Not like hung out in private,
• 48:35
  but like hung out on set. Very cool girl. And
• 48:37
  I just remember talking to her, because she was
• 48:39
  like sobbing. And I was like, are you good? And
• 48:41
  she was like, no. You freaking yelled at me for
• 48:43
  sitting down. And I was like, what? She was like,
• 48:45
  yeah. Like, I was sitting. We were there for,
• 48:47
  like, three hours. And I got just sat down. He
• 48:48
  came up and asked, why the eff am I sitting?
• 48:51
  And I was like, that's messed up. She was like,
• 48:52
  I don't care. It's fine. I'm going to tell my
• 48:54
  uncle about him. And I was like, who's your uncle?
• 48:55
  And she was like, he's the writer. He's the one
• 48:58
  that writers on the project. I was like, oh.
• 49:00
  And she was like, yeah. He also wrote the A -Team.
• 49:01
  And I was like, oh, the Rampage Jackson movie?
• 49:03
  And she was like, yeah. It's OK. I'm going to
• 49:05
  tell them the same. I actually cried on set,
• 49:07
  but it was because I was sad. The way that somebody,
• 49:09
  I'm not going to put on an instrument, but they
• 49:11
  were speaking crazy. And because I got so mad,
• 49:14
  I couldn't do anything. By that time, I think
• 49:15
  the Airbnb cost like seven grand, so we couldn't
• 49:19
  get kicked off of set. We had to be on our best
• 49:22
  behavior. I think Zach's first day going, he
• 49:24
  got pissed and wanted to go off, but he held
• 49:27
  his composure. And so when I said super great
• 49:32
  time, I mean personally within talking to the
• 49:34
  other PAs and additionals. It was very cool,
• 49:36
  but there were things that happened that I took
• 49:38
  away from that set that let me know to not treat
• 49:41
  people on my set that way. Some of the superiors
• 49:45
  on that set definitely showed me that no matter
• 49:47
  how big a production is or small the production
• 49:50
  is, respect your crew, no matter who they are,
• 49:53
  whether they be a PA, cinematographer, lighting,
• 49:56
  gaffer, audio, whoever, respect. And just good
• 50:01
  treatment goes a long way. And again, that's
• 50:03
  what I told the students yesterday because they're
• 50:04
  all... you know, small filmmakers that are trying
• 50:06
  to be. I told them if you can't pay your actors
• 50:09
  or you can't pay your crew, feed them and just
• 50:12
  respect them and give them a good time on set.
• 50:14
  They'll be fine with coming back and helping
• 50:15
  you and working with you. In filmmaking, in my
• 50:19
  opinion, like everybody's doing it just off of
• 50:22
  the love of the game. You don't get paid making
• 50:27
  films. It's not, you could be in it for the money,
• 50:30
  but it's... 90, in my opinion, 90 % of films
• 50:33
  on down don't make any money. It's just indie
• 50:36
  filmmakers who make it just because they like
• 50:39
  making stuff. So if you can find people that
• 50:42
  can deal with you who don't know you for one
• 50:45
  to five days when you're making your random film
• 50:48
  that you wrote in your apartment by yourself
• 50:50
  that no one gives a crap about, be very grateful
• 50:53
  that anybody's coming out here to help bring
• 50:56
  the stuff that you thought of in your mind to
• 50:57
  life. And just like I said, You don't have to
• 50:59
  feed them a five -star dinner. But the pizza,
• 51:03
  McDonald's, anything, bring that to set and make
• 51:06
  sure it's hot. Don't just buy it first thing
• 51:07
  in the morning and set it to the side. And then
• 51:09
  six hours later, be like, oh, we got cold chicken
• 51:11
  sandwiches. Like, no, make sure it's hot. Small
• 51:13
  things like that, people appreciate. You know,
• 51:15
  on my set, I'm going to get a little nervous
• 51:17
  because every 20 or 30 minutes, I'm going to
• 51:19
  walk over and say, hey, bro, you good? You need
• 51:20
  water? You sure? All right, cool. Let me know
• 51:22
  if you need anything. Five to 20 minutes later,
• 51:24
  I'm going to come back. Hey, you straight, right?
• 51:25
  All right, cool. Let me know if you need something.
• 51:27
  Because I want to make sure there's a breakdown
• 51:29
  of the wall between us, so that way you feel
• 51:31
  comfortable saying, like, bruh, my knee kind
• 51:33
  of hurting. All right, bro, we're going to take
• 51:34
  five. Go sit down, bro, and chill. We'll come
• 51:35
  back later. Or we'll shoot the scene without
• 51:37
  you. We'll just shoot it from your perspective.
• 51:39
  Something like that, because I want to be able
• 51:40
  to work around my actors to make sure that they're
• 51:42
  comfortable and the set is a comfortable place.
• 51:44
  But that was something I did take away from that
• 51:46
  production. Like, Logan was so cool. The additional
• 51:52
  PAs were so cool. Even the key PA. Dude was so
• 51:57
  dope like he saw that we were having like gripes
• 51:59
  and he would check up on us and make sure we
• 52:00
  good Those things right there showed me when
• 52:03
  it came to the positive that that's the stuff
• 52:05
  that people will remember even Outside of just
• 52:08
  the negative stuff if you give people a positive
• 52:10
  experience They're gonna remember you and they're
• 52:11
  gonna rub your face and shout out to our key
• 52:13
  PA I can't remember his name, but anybody wants
• 52:16
  to look it up you can but his mom passed away
• 52:18
  like The day before we started shooting and like
• 52:21
  I remember the first day on set He was there
• 52:24
  during our interview to get hired, and the day
• 52:28
  before we started shooting, his mom passed, so
• 52:30
  the day of the first day of shooting, we get
• 52:31
  there, and they're like, hey, I was like, hey,
• 52:33
  where's such and such? And he was like, oh, his
• 52:34
  mom died yesterday. And so on my mind, I'm like,
• 52:36
  oh, he's not coming back. Nope, he missed that
• 52:38
  one day, and the very next day, he was on set.
• 52:41
  I'm like, are you good? And he was like, yeah,
• 52:43
  man, I'm good. And I'm like, this is insane,
• 52:47
  but him pushing through that let me know, okay,
• 52:50
  I can push past a little bit of bad treatment.
• 52:53
  if he can push past dealing with all of the stuff
• 52:55
  he's dealing with after losing his mom. And he
• 52:58
  still made sure that all of us additional PAs
• 53:00
  were treated with dignity and respect. He would
• 53:02
  still sometimes come by and give us waters and
• 53:04
  talk to us. So he's still in the mindset of doing
• 53:06
  all this stuff after having that happen to him.
• 53:08
  Was there was there any fear that he was going
• 53:10
  to get like fired if he didn't come back so soon
• 53:13
  after his mom's passing or? I didn't hear anything
• 53:16
  about that, because again, this is my first time
• 53:18
  working in that area and working on a film like
• 53:20
  this. But I can definitely assure you, I would
• 53:23
  assume, because of how quickly things turn in
• 53:29
  this industry, that there was definitely a thought
• 53:33
  that if he doesn't come, they're going to bump
• 53:35
  somebody into that spot and he may not get an
• 53:38
  opportunity again. which I don't know. He might
• 53:40
  have known those guys on set and he might have
• 53:42
  been just locked in. He might have just done
• 53:43
  it just again out of just love of the game or
• 53:45
  something. But I can say from the way it was
• 53:48
  on set, it's very like people are hustling. I
• 53:51
  personally think that if he came back for the
• 53:54
  love of the game, I got to commend that guy tenfold.
• 53:58
  But I think it was probably because there was
• 54:00
  definitely a thought of if I don't come in, someone's
• 54:03
  going to take my spot and it's going to be hard
• 54:04
  to get it back. Any interaction with... Chadwick,
• 54:08
  was Chadwick aware of the sort of verbal abusiveness
• 54:13
  that was happening amongst superiors on that
• 54:16
  set, like anything? That's the one thing I can
• 54:20
  say when it comes, cause I'm not, cause this
• 54:23
  is no marketing against Chad at all. He was amazing
• 54:24
  on set. Like he was very true. Again, I think
• 54:27
  at a time he'd like to be battling with his cancer.
• 54:29
  I do remember the only thing, I never interacted
• 54:31
  with him. The only interaction I even had with
• 54:33
  him ever was during the screening that they did
• 54:35
  at Howard University of the film that we got
• 54:37
  invited to when we went. Me and Zach just took
• 54:39
  a picture with him. But you can see in the picture
• 54:41
  that like his demeanor's kind of off and obviously
• 54:43
  it's because he was dealing with his cancer.
• 54:46
  Which sucks because dude was amazing. But I remember
• 54:48
  on set he lost a stress ball. And I remember...
• 54:52
  The guys on set were like, hey, Chad lost his
• 54:55
  stress ball. If you guys see it, please return
• 54:57
  it. And describe what it looked like and everything.
• 54:59
  And I remember everybody was scrambling trying
• 55:01
  to find this thing. And I was like, man, he must
• 55:02
  really be stressed. And I think it was likely
• 55:05
  something that he had to use for the cancer to
• 55:08
  deal with it physically. But I remember that
• 55:10
  was a big issue. But I never interacted with
• 55:12
  him on set. OK, I shouldn't tell these stories,
• 55:15
  but funny thing is, I feel like if I tell them
• 55:17
  and I... I haven't talked to Logan in like years.
• 55:20
  I feel like if I tell him these stories, he'd
• 55:22
  probably even laugh at this one. So it wasn't
• 55:24
  Chad, it was his producing partner, Logan Coles,
• 55:26
  who hired me and Zach on set. He walked up to
• 55:30
  me, asked me how everything was going on set,
• 55:32
  took his hand, told him everything's going well.
• 55:35
  As I was talking to him and letting him know,
• 55:37
  you know, I appreciate you for hiring me to work
• 55:38
  on your production and blah, blah, blah. He's
• 55:40
  an executive producer, so you know, there are
• 55:42
  big deals on set. But he's the one that hired
• 55:44
  me. So he's like, yeah, man, no problem. As long
• 55:46
  as you're cool with my guy, you're cool with
• 55:49
  me. We actually went out for drinks down when
• 55:52
  we were working at an NAACP event and everything.
• 55:54
  He's a cool guy. So again, he's the one that
• 55:56
  hired me on set. So I'm talking to him on set,
• 55:58
  and he's asking me, hey, so where do we got to
• 56:00
  go? And I was like, oh, so that's just down there
• 56:01
  around the corner. Just go down there and make
• 56:03
  a right, blah, blah, blah. As I'm talking to
• 56:04
  him, a guy runs up. to me and him. And it's like,
• 56:08
  oh, hey, Mr. Coles, how's it going? Hey, just
• 56:10
  go down there and make that right, and you're
• 56:12
  going to go to set. Everything OK? You cool?
• 56:13
  You need anything? Need water? He's like, no,
• 56:15
  I'm good. He's like, all right, cool. Go ahead
• 56:16
  down there. You're good. And he has somebody
• 56:18
  walk Logan down to set. And he turns around and
• 56:20
  looks at me. I'm not going to say who the guy
• 56:21
  was, but it turns out he looks at me. He's just
• 56:23
  like, don't you ever talk to him. You don't say
• 56:25
  anything to him. When you see him, you walk past
• 56:27
  him. You don't say nothing to him. If I see you
• 56:29
  say anything to him, you're fired. Do you hear
• 56:31
  me? You don't say anything to him. Do you understand
• 56:33
  me? And I was like, OK. And I didn't say anything.
• 56:36
  And then he walks off. And in my mind, I'm like,
• 56:38
  dude, I could just tell him that you just spoke
• 56:40
  to me like that, and he'll probably get you fired.
• 56:42
  Like, he's the reason I'm here. How are you going
• 56:44
  to tell me not to speak to my friend? Right.
• 56:46
  And I just thought that was hilarious. And again,
• 56:50
  it wasn't a callback on the entire set. There
• 56:52
  was literally only like maybe four or five people
• 56:54
  that sucked on that set. The entire set itself
• 56:56
  was cool to me. I think Zach ended up talking
• 57:01
  to like a few of the cinematographers who were
• 57:03
  there. And they let him know, like, what type
• 57:05
  of camera to get and all that stuff. So he was
• 57:07
  able to learn a lot. I was able to sit down with
• 57:09
  some of the extras and some of the actors and
• 57:10
  some of the stunt doubles and talk to them about
• 57:12
  their careers. So I was able to learn a lot.
• 57:14
  It was like literally like four or five people
• 57:16
  who just sucked on that set. But everything else
• 57:18
  was so great. A few of the extras I learned who
• 57:22
  had met extras on like so many other pieces,
• 57:24
  everything from the Creed films. Then this is
• 57:27
  in Philly in New York. They had been actors on
• 57:29
  so many other projects. And I was like, dang,
• 57:31
  so you're like an extra like year round. And
• 57:33
  it was like, yeah, we can hire all this time.
• 57:34
  And I was like, I didn't know people had full
• 57:36
  time jobs as like permanent extras and like seat
• 57:39
  fillers. And they were like, yeah, this is my
• 57:40
  full time job. I do this all the time. I got
• 57:43
  to talk to a security guard who had, who was
• 57:45
  like Michael B. Jordan's personal security guard
• 57:48
  during like the Creed franchise. So I thought
• 57:50
  that that was cool. Like talking to all these
• 57:52
  people who work in production. who don't have
• 57:55
  a name, but they have a face was so awesome to
• 57:57
  me because now you're seeing the people behind
• 58:00
  the people. So, yes, you see the actors and the
• 58:03
  directors and all that stuff, but who are the
• 58:04
  people that are behind them who are like taking
• 58:06
  them to set? Who are the people behind them that
• 58:08
  are like shooting the stuff? Like not the actual
• 58:11
  DP, but the cinematographer who like holds the
• 58:13
  camera. Who is that? All that stuff right there
• 58:15
  was like so amazing to me. And so many people
• 58:17
  on that set were so friendly to like, again,
• 58:19
  tell me that stuff. Like you're talking to the
• 58:20
  stunt doubles. I was like, sorry, are you like
• 58:22
  Chadwick's, like, permanent stuff? He was like,
• 58:24
  yeah. I was like, oh, what other projects have
• 58:25
  you done? He told me some other projects, and
• 58:27
  it blew my mind away. And again, just to give
• 58:30
  a callback, because I don't think I ever get
• 58:31
  this answer. When I first met Logan and found
• 58:34
  out that he was working with Chadwick, I also
• 58:36
  learned, once he learned that it was 21 Bridges
• 58:39
  that the film we were going to work on, I looked,
• 58:41
  and he had worked on another film before that
• 58:42
  called Message from the King, which I thought
• 58:44
  was so cool, because that was the film I watched
• 58:46
  on the way to meet him for the first time. So
• 58:48
  I thought that that was... Like, interesting.
• 58:50
  It was almost like the universe was showing me
• 58:52
  what I was going to do before I did it. Absolutely.
• 58:54
  Wow. And obviously, being on that set of 21 Bridges
• 58:58
  and seeing how the crew was treated unfairly,
• 59:02
  but also seeing how the process works. Regardless,
• 59:05
  it gives you a lot of education going into the
• 59:07
  making of your own films. As we close out here,
• 59:12
  Justin, can you... give us a tease of a film
• 59:16
  that you're currently working on, maybe like
• 59:19
  what the story is about, when it might be coming
• 59:21
  out, like what can you give us? So this next
• 59:25
  one I'm doing, so my first two, my first project
• 59:27
  was about a son downtown based on my grandparents.
• 59:29
  My second film was a boxing piece. One of my
• 59:32
  favorite films was Creed. So I thought that was
• 59:35
  like super dope. I was like, I wanna make my
• 59:36
  own boxing piece. It was also a way for me to
• 59:38
  practice my movements when it came to like. working
• 59:41
  with the cinematographer and like shooting action
• 59:43
  but make sure my actors stayed safe so we shot
• 59:45
  like a sparring scene but now this piece that
• 59:47
  I'm doing because the first one was drama the
• 59:49
  second was a drama I was like I kind of want
• 59:52
  to try horror because my first piece was a drama
• 59:54
  thriller and seeing people kind of being they
• 59:56
  weren't on the edge of their seats per se but
• 59:58
  some viewers were I thought that that was very
• 1:00:00
  interesting so like I wonder if I can take a
• 1:00:02
  past edgy receipt and actually have people be
• 1:00:03
  just outright scared so this next one is going
• 1:00:05
  to be a horror And without giving too much away,
• 1:00:09
  it's going to be about a girl and a dog. That's
• 1:00:12
  all I can say. It's called straight. And it's
• 1:00:18
  basically, it involves a girl, a dog, and mental
• 1:00:22
  health. And that's going to be the most I can
• 1:00:26
  say for now. But the key piece about it that
• 1:00:28
  I'm working on is it's going to be no dialogue.
• 1:00:31
  It's going to be like a 10 or 15 minute piece,
• 1:00:33
  but no dialogue at all. One, working with dialogue
• 1:00:36
  is hard. Trying to find the right mic is hard.
• 1:00:38
  Trying to find an audio editor is hard. So I'm
• 1:00:40
  eliminating that for the hard factor. But outside
• 1:00:43
  of that is also like, I wonder if I can tell
• 1:00:45
  a story without using words and just using action.
• 1:00:48
  If I can show what they're trying to say via
• 1:00:50
  the action and via the facial expressions and
• 1:00:52
  all that type of stuff. So it's something to
• 1:00:53
  challenge me and see how good I can write just
• 1:00:57
  physical body language. And if I can get that
• 1:01:01
  story across without even having to say words,
• 1:01:04
  I think that'll be a great accomplishment for
• 1:01:05
  me. And how can we keep in touch with you on
• 1:01:08
  socials or on, like, is there a website? Just
• 1:01:11
  anything you can provide so we can keep in touch
• 1:01:13
  with the progress of this film. Yeah. So right
• 1:01:15
  now I'm really only on Instagram and I have a
• 1:01:18
  YouTube channel too that shows some of my work.
• 1:01:20
  Both have the same name. I direct films. Just
• 1:01:23
  the letter I. D -I -R -E -C -T -F -I -L -M -S.
• 1:01:27
  Once I really started doing my film stuff, I
• 1:01:29
  really got rid of all my social media. So no
• 1:01:31
  Facebook, no X, no nothing. It's literally just...
• 1:01:35
  my Instagram and my YouTube. And outside of that,
• 1:01:38
  if I'm not watching YouTube Shorts, I'm watching
• 1:01:40
  Reels. If I'm not watching Reels, I'm watching
• 1:01:41
  YouTube Shorts. That's really it. Um, and I,
• 1:01:44
  cause I really, at that, when I first started,
• 1:01:47
  I thought it was going to be like that big thing,
• 1:01:48
  but now I'm a big thing to myself. I'm a big
• 1:01:51
  deal to myself and I enjoy doing the art that
• 1:01:53
  I do. I love that. All right. Well, Justin Smothers,
• 1:01:56
  is that how you pronounce your last name? Yes,
• 1:01:57
  sir. Not smoothers, not smothers brothers, not
• 1:02:00
  smuckers. I've been, I've been told all of these
• 1:02:03
  things since I was a kid is just smothers. Yeah,
• 1:02:06
  smothers. Well, yeah, yeah. Pronounced like smothers
• 1:02:07
  brothers, but I know you don't want to be related
• 1:02:09
  to the smothers brothers. I've heard some people
• 1:02:11
  say, you don't hear the smothers brothers? No.
• 1:02:13
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. You haven't heard of the smothers
• 1:02:15
  brothers? Now I have, because I kept getting
• 1:02:17
  asked as like a kid. So I looked it up and I
• 1:02:20
  was like, okay, they're like an old duo from
• 1:02:22
  like old television. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:02:24
  They were an iconic brother. Like they're actually
• 1:02:27
  brothers. They were a comedic duo. They played
• 1:02:30
  like the banjo and sang, and they were very...
• 1:02:34
  They were probably like the earliest iteration
• 1:02:37
  of the political satire that you see so much
• 1:02:40
  today, because like today, where you have your
• 1:02:43
  Daily Show, your Stephen Colbert, your Jon Stewart,
• 1:02:46
  like all of these people satirizing whatever's
• 1:02:49
  going on in politics, the Smothers Brothers were
• 1:02:51
  probably... the only game in town doing that
• 1:02:54
  back in like what the 60s, 70s with like the
• 1:02:56
  Vietnam War and Nixon and Watergate. So yeah,
• 1:03:00
  yeah, look them up if you got a chance. I was
• 1:03:03
  not alive. We were both not alive when there
• 1:03:05
  was noise on the air, but I got a chance to read
• 1:03:07
  their book about their show and their impacts,
• 1:03:11
  like, I don't know, over a decade ago. And it
• 1:03:13
  was really, really, a really interesting read.
• 1:03:15
  So your last name is associated with a great
• 1:03:17
  duo. For those of you listening and watching
• 1:03:19
  the Delicious Culture, wherever you get your
• 1:03:21
  podcasts, we're on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio,
• 1:03:23
  SiriusXM, Amazon, wherever you get your podcasts.
• 1:03:26
  If you're on Spotify, leave us a five -star rating.
• 1:03:28
  If you like it, if you're on Apple, leave us
• 1:03:31
  a written review. It really helps. Email. If
• 1:03:33
  you have any feedback, questions, comments about
• 1:03:35
  this episode here, thedeliciousculture .gmail.
• 1:03:37
  That is TheDeliciousCulture at gmail .com. I
• 1:03:42
  am on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok at The Delicious
• 1:03:45
  Culture. That is at The Delicious Culture. So
• 1:03:48
  subscribe, comment, like, share. That is lovely.
• 1:03:51
  And you can follow me on TikTok personally at
• 1:03:54
  Jean -Francois. presents. Justin, once again,
• 1:03:57
  thank you. And about the next time I need to,
• 1:04:00
  we need to talk about pasta, my big pasta guy.
• 1:04:02
  So next time we're going to talk about it. Oh,
• 1:04:05
  I can go on for ages about pasta. Oh my goodness.
• 1:04:08
  Uh, have you been, have you been to Italy? Cause
• 1:04:10
  that's still my dream vacation. Haven't, but
• 1:04:12
  I heard their stuff isn't that good. I don't
• 1:04:14
  know. Maybe I'm Americanized. I don't know. Cause
• 1:04:17
  I think some stuff I ordered here isn't real
• 1:04:19
  pasta compared to there. So I don't know, but
• 1:04:22
  I would like to go and see. I'm big on like,
• 1:04:24
  you know, the Alfredo's and stuff like that.
• 1:04:27
  So let's see. Yeah. Yeah. So to pay the bills,
• 1:04:30
  I like Uber and Lyft drive here in Vermont. And
• 1:04:33
  one of the riders is like a study abroad student
• 1:04:36
  from Italy. And he was telling me that the same
• 1:04:40
  thing, that the food is not as great as you imagine
• 1:04:43
  it would be. Like, I'm thinking like, oh, Italian
• 1:04:45
  food in America, it pales in comparison to Italian
• 1:04:48
  food in Italy. But he was just like, man, it's
• 1:04:51
  the GMOs. We love the GMOs. All right, man. Take
• 1:04:57
  care, Justin. And for all of you listening and
• 1:04:59
  watching, let deliciousness ring.