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Behind The Film: Edie Arnold is a Loser with Megan Rico and Kade Atwood · Indie Film Weekly

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Andy Film Weekly, Behind the Film, where we talk with the filmmakers behind independent movies that make their way to theaters.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Glenn Reynolds.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm Jason Connell.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're joined by writer and co-director Megan Rico and co-director Kate Adwood.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Their film, Edie Arnold is a Loser, follows an awkward Catholic schoolgirl who discovers an unexpected talent for drumming, forms a punk band with her fellow outsiders, and starts figuring out that maybe the things that make her different aren't things she needs to fix.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I've worked with a lot of directors' first features, and one of the hardest things to pull off is comedy, especially comedy that has a very specific voice.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: And this one knows exactly what it is.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny and strange and a little messy in the right ways, and there's a lot of heart underneath it.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: And audiences are clearly responding to that.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: They're doing very well in the theatrical circuit.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: They had great screens at South by Southwest and Seattle.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: The film actually premiered in the narrative feature competition at South by Southwest, and it earned an additional buzz screening.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then it went on to win the Golden Space Needle for Best Film at the Seattle International Film Festival.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So let's meet Megan and Cade and go behind Edie Arnold is a loser.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: All right, guys.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: So Megan and Cade, welcome.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot to dig in here.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: I love getting to talk to filmmakers after a movie's been out in the world for a while.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: And you've had quite a ride so far with this one.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Before we get to all that, let's go back to the beginning.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: This is a question we like to ask every every to start every podcast.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Every film starts somewhere.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Where did Edie Arnold is a loser start for the two of you?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_03: So it started for me a little bit before it started for Cade.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: I wrote the script like 10 years ago when I was in college.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: It was actually like my first feature script that I had written.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I think because of that, I was still just trying to figure out what does it feel to write a feature-length film.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_03: And so I kept the story pretty close to home.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: So a lot of it is pulled from my own experiences.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like I went to an all-gross Catholic school.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: So that stuff is all very real.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: There are like, I don't know, there are like lines in there that I think I pulled from like my high school friends.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: And then the other half is a little bit of wish fulfillment.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: Just like I never got into the punk scene, but I think that if I had found it, I would have come into myself a lot sooner.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_03: So that's sort of where the idea for the story came from.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: And then Kate and I met again like 10 years later.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: I do have to quickly call out, Megan, your bet said 10 years the entire time we've made this movie, and it's been a two and a half year process making this movie.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: I I can't wait for the yeah, and like the 20-year re-release of our movie.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna have a QA, and Megan's gonna be like I wrote this movie 10 years ago.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: Time just stops.
• 2:53
  unknown: That's weird.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, we were working on a sketch show together.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: I was trying to get another film off the ground that Megan had done rewrites on, and it was around the time of the strikes that we were packing in the movie, and it kept falling apart.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I'm just tired of waiting for someone else's green light.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, Megan, you have a script that we could just make on the cheap, and we can just go out and fundraise ourselves, and we don't need anyone permit to go out and make it.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: And she sent me this script, and I absolutely loved it.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: The comedy was like very snappy, very on point, and it was something that we could make for a pretty low budget.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, hey, what if we direct this together?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: It was the first time we directed together, and the rest is history.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a big decision to make is co-directing.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that had you guys must have had a good friendship and trust because that relies on so much to make that work.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what was that?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Was that scary to take that step together, or was it just a natural progression?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: It was definitely scary, and I think Cade had done a couple things that I think made me okay with it.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_03: Because he came to me after I sent him this script.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know, I sent it to him being like, it's probably bad, whatever.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: And then he read it and loved it, and then I remembered how personal it is.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: And so the thought of having someone else direct it suddenly became very scary to me.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: But Cade didn't even entertain that.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: He came back to me and he was like, Hey, listen, I love this.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think that I can make this by myself.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's not my story to tell, but I would love to direct it with you.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then the thing that I loved was he was like, if you just want to direct it on your own, I will produce it and I will just support you in making this art.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_03: And so I went back and thought through the pros and cons of it.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what were any of the hangups that I was having about like the co-directing process?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I realized like they were all ego-based.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: And film is like at its core an inherently collaborative art form.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so I felt, I don't know, I don't really believe in like the myth of the au tour.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_03: I don't believe that's really a thing.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think that like realizing that I had more pros to directing with Cade than I had cons.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: It makes you go into it already, being like, hey, I'm part of a collaboration.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_03: I have someone who's gonna like not only keep me grounded, but also plus all of my ideas, and like that's very much the way that we work.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: And then also I had been directed by Cade before, like as an actor.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: And I just realized this like this week, but I'm like, oh, like I knew that I trusted him as a director because I had been directed by him, and I feel like that really gives you an insight into how someone is on set, but it was still a leap of faith.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_03: We didn't know, we could have hated each other.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: So, Cade, what did you see in the script then that made you you don't have the Catholic school background, I don't think.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: So, what was it about it that it connected with you?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I did not go to an all-girls Catholic school.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: When Megan initially told me the premise, I was like, This is the script you're choosing to send me.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, sure.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was like shocked by how much I resonated with it.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the big thing was I was friends with all these people growing up, but had never seen, especially teen girls, portrayed this way on screen.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: But I felt like I knew all of those characters and was friends with them in high school, and so I was very excited to bring that the screen and bring that sort of representation to those girls as well, because it also does not feel great to not have yourself portrayed on screen.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I, as like a white man, I am the quintessential portrayal of all films, and so it's really great to go out and give that to a different demographic that typically doesn't get to see themselves portrayed on screen.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I love the title.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, was your script always called Edie Arnold is a loser?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: I go through a lot of different versions, and did you guys came up with this name later or maybe speak to it?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_03: It was it was always called that, and I think we were like, and then we'll have to change it because it's crazy, it's so long, and also we realize later like people can't read the name Edie, they think it's Eddie Arnold, they think it's about a country singer who died.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, we but sometimes I don't know, when you operate under the assumption that this working titles always become the title because it just is stuck in your brain.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Also, Kate, I think I saw, or maybe you told me at some point that you were into pop punk, even though you didn't know the riot girl world, how'd that history affect the movie for you?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: Growing up, I was very much, yeah, like into pop punk.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like punk is the perfect music when you are an angsty teenager and feeling so many emotions and you don't know how to control them.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's like the perfect representation of that.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so that was a huge influence on my upbringing.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: But then it's been really fun making this movie, like listening to more of the Riot Girl music and like seeing, oh, this is where punk originated, like this is like this was the influences of the musician that I was listening to.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's been really fun to tell it about that world and learn here a lot more of that.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you made a movie about teenagers, but you made the decision, probably unusual decision, to cast teenagers.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: What was that like?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Scary as well?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_03: No, it was like a non-negotiable for us.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: And like I think of the cast, only McKenna, who plays Francis, she was actually I think 17 when we filmed.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_03: And then everyone else was like early 20s or like late, like 19, 20, 21.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: But it was important to us that like everyone at least looked believably like a teenager.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: Because I I feel like I could get on a soapbox about the like societal effects of casting hot 30-year-olds as teenagers.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: Keep an eye out for my forthcoming dissertation.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_03: But I just feel like it's so not representative of what you are actually like in that period.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that it's important to show how like baby teenagers are, you know, like they're young.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't know, it just like really does change the way that you're perceiving them and their choices.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas when you're consistently being fed images of like an adult person who's already like developed and is like sexual, like you know, and he's like a hottie.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like as a teen girl watching that kind of stuff, it messed me up where I was like, okay, I don't have boobs.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: When am I gonna get these boobs?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I haven't what's going on?
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_03: But then also I think it just makes people think that teenagers are much older and much more mature than they actually are.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: And so I just felt like it was very important to us.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: We want, like Kate said, you want teens to be able to see themselves for real in this.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: So it was important to us that we work with teenagers.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: And one great byproduct of that that we really stumbled into was this was all the four leads, this was their first feature film, and that's actually really great because we get to shape what that experience is like, and they haven't picked up bad habits.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of times we work with actors that's like, you're a good actor, but like you've picked up this bad habit over the years that like we really need to train out of you.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: And all these actors are so fresh and new that we get to shape them, and they don't have any of those pre-existing notions of what acting is, and so that's very fun.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: But then also we get to create a very positive experience for them for their first movie on like a low budget movie, and so that now they're going to these other projects and they have an expectation and understanding of what it shapes what they the how they should be treated, and they could be like, Hey, this happened to me on this set, and you guys aren't meeting that expectation, and now they can like talk about that and bring that up, and hopefully they'll come do that.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: Uh yeah, especially on a set like ours, which like was so low budget and was so fast.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_03: I think that like, if anything, people would expect us to take advantage of our actors and overwork them, our actors and our crew, and we tried really hard not to do that.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, when these like young actors go onto their next set, they can be like, Hey, I was on a movie with a lot less money and a lot less time, and still my hours were respected.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_03: I had turnaround time.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_03: I know I was treated like a human person.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_03: So that felt very important to us too.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta say that McKenna Tuckett, who plays Frances, comes out like a rocket to me.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like, was she that confident from the beginning?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Did their confidence kind of grow over the period of the shoot?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because she just seems like maybe day one she was ready to go.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I feel like she might have popped out of the womb like that.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: She's she's just like so, and again, she was 17 when we shot this film.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and she was so just like skilled.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: Even in callbacks, we like would put her in every role because we were trying to casting an ensemble is really about like finding chemistry amongst four people.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_03: And so we tried her in every single role, and in every single role, she embodied the character in a different way.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_03: You could just tell she had a different inner life for each character.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_03: She was listening and responding in a way where she's just like kind of a dream, and then also her comedic timing and her comedic sensibilities are like unreal.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_03: So she came out the gate that confident.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_03: But then Addy, our lead, she was definitely nervous in her self-tape, nervous at the beginning of the callbacks.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: But as she started getting like positive reinforcement, she really started to blossom.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_03: And by the end of our shoot, she's asking questions like, what's my eyeline?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or like she's like keeping us on top of continuity, and we're like, Well, I noticed that you know there's so much animation and there's a visual style to the movie and musical sequences.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Was that always part of this offering as well?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: You knew this was gonna be the style from the beginning, or it just kind of came about over time?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: The sound effects were always there.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: It was always, you know, we're gonna have a lot of whooshes, we're gonna have a lot of cartoony sound effects.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: The animations is something that we discovered later on.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: We had done a test screening, hence the choir scene when the girls are when copy scene really poorly.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: We had gotten a note that scene felt long, which was crazy for our note because it's so short.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's the massest movie you will ever watch.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so for us to get a note that something felt long, we were like, What do we do?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: And we initially had sound effects of like when she's stabbing her eye, like the blood sound effects.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: And in order to make it a little bit more engaging, I was I knew Megan was comfortable with an illustration background.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, Megan, why don't you just like whip up an animation?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: You can draw drawing and animating is basically the same thing, right?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: And we'll drop it in.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_03: And it's not the same thing, it's like times a thousand.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, I think that it's not an idea that I would have pitched because I would have been too intimidated by my lack of knowledge and like just the sheer workload that entailed.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: But luckily, Cade was like, What if we try it?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: And so we did.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I like learned, I knew like the basics of animation, but I'd never done anything beyond like a flipbook, like in school.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: And so I like learned, I taught myself animation on this project.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: And like the standard to which I hold myself is like insanely high.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: And so I really like worked myself to the bone uh finishing those because I wanted them to be at a level that I would pay someone to do, you know.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't want them to look shitty, and it was really hard.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: There are lots of times that I think I made it harder for myself because I was like, I could just like fill in the color with a solid color for these objects, but it looked, I don't know, undercooked that way.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was like, we need the texture variations to match the visual style of the movie.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm like hand coloring in like a billion frames of an animation.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: Like I would take my iPad with me everywhere.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: I went to the bar, I would do 10 frames, and then my husband would be like, okay, I'll take over.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: Let me do 10 frames, and he would like color in 10 frames.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: But I really think it worked out.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_03: It like really pays off.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's a really funny collision between Catholic imagery and punk imagery.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: And Megan, I think you described Catholicism as inherently goth.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Did you realize that connection before making the movie, or was that something that you discovered while making it?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: No, I had realized that when I really realized that was when I moved to Provo, Utah to work on the sketch comedy show that Kate and I met on.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: Because Provo is like a very it's like very LDS, it's like very Mormon.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_03: And like the vibes of those two religions are so different in a way that I didn't realize.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_03: We're like, it almost feels like Disney World and yeah, just like Baroque goth, like violent, bloody imagery.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like we're drinking blood in Catholicism.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: So that's when I had really noticed it.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I think the fact that we shot the film in Utah, it actually posed some unique challenges because a lot of the religious imagery that we had access to was more like Mormon imagery, and they have like nice Jesus, and we have suffering Jesus.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: So it's hard to find a violent enough depiction of Jesus.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you're making a teen movie, so to speak, I'm sure that you had some in your mind that you were inspired by and others you wanted to stay clear from.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, what were ones that you're like, oh, they got it right, like these John Hughes movies?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: What are ones that inspired you and ones that you wanted to definitely deviate from?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'll talk about one we wanted to deviate from.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: The opening our movie opens in a car and a mother-daughter scene in a car.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: And Lady Bird does the exact same thing.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so we actually specifically looked at Lady Bird at the opening scene, and we're like, okay, here are the shots they use.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's just one shot, actually.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: Here's the shot they use in this movie.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: We're never gonna put the camera there in this scene.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: When we were blocking that, or when we're trying to figure out how to cover that scene, we were having a hard time like figuring out how to cover it because there's three ways you can cover a car scene, and every movie has a car scene, like it's all been done, but then finding things that you can't do suddenly opens up a world of okay, here's what you can do, and here's the fun place to do it on camera.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so that was a really fun exercise of figuring out a unique way to shoot something that's been done a million times.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, especially Ladybird is a big one because I feel like they do get it right.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_03: I watched Lady Bird and I was like, okay, Greta Gerwig bugged my life and stole my life story for this movie.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_03: So it was like one that we respect so much and are obsessed with, but we wanted to make sure that ours was not, I didn't want people to be calling it like a watered-down Ladybird.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's good to have movies like that because it forced us to be like, why do we feel that ours is different from a movie like that?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: And what is the tone that we're trying to hit?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_03: And like, what are the ways that we can very clearly signal that right out the gate?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_03: So that is a big one.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_03: Another movie that we avoided, or I avoided because I knew I would rip it off was SLC Punk.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_03: I made sure not to watch it before or during because I was like, I can't have that fresh in my brain.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_03: And then I rewatched it after and I was like, oh, we still ripped it off.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, and Detroit Rock City is another one that I'm like, that was a huge reference point for me.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_03: Sure, sure.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_03: Just a fun, kind of stylized.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: I love these sneaky stylized comedies that maybe people don't think that they're as stylized as they are, but then you watch them and you're like, they're doing a lot of really specific stuff here.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: So you guys premiered at South by Southwest, and the response was strong enough that they added a buzz screening.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: And what was it like finally seeing this very specific movie with an audience for the first time?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: It was very fun.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, South by Southwest was a little overwhelming because we had never I feel like most filmmakers, you make a short film, go to the festival circuit, and then eventually you make a feature.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so you've been through the festival experience.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: We didn't do that.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: This was our very first festival experience.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: So it was a lot for us to manage, I think.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: But to finally watch it with an audience is the best thing ever, especially with a comedy.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: And sitting in a room with just the two of us, trying to be like, is this funny?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: This isn't funny, and just trying to guess and thinking that this movie is not funny, no one's gonna laugh at it.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: And so to finally hear a room full of people laughing is such a relete and very exciting.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: And you forget about a lot of the jokes.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, that was a joke.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: We've heard it 500 times, so we don't think it's funny anymore.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like you're watching the movie like 45 times in the edit, and you're like, These aren't words, these are just sounds, and then you forget that, like, no, like that's a setup, that's a punchline, and it hits.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: So that and it also is really fun to see what people laugh at, not just at South by, but like taking it on the festival circuit and going to all these different festivals in different cities, like different communities laugh at different parts in a way that I was not anticipating, and that's been really fun too.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, was there a joke or moment that got a reaction that you just didn't see it at all until you had in front of an audience?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_03: There definitely is.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to think because I feel like K- Oh, the big shock was towards the end of the movie, there's this scene that takes place on a laptop, and I'm not gonna spoil it because it's like the very end of the movie, but we like come up with this idea, and I was like, okay, I'll shoot something on my phone just as a test of this, and then we'll replace it later.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: And we always intended to replace the thing that's on the laptop, but we ran out of time, and so we're like, well, we're just keeping it for South Fi, and then we'll like eventually replace it.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: And we're so glad that we did it because it is one of the biggest laughs in the movie.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: We knew it's gonna be really funny, but like we didn't realize the way that we had filmed it was actually just perfect.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: And if we had we touched it, it might have made it worse.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's one of those things where sometimes you're like, Oh, this is so funny, but it's just for us.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: We thought maybe it was like a funny, like, you know, like a process joke.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: But it turns out that it does hit with an audience.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what about your cast and cruise screen?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Surely you had one of those prior to South by Southwest.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's real for everybody at that moment.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Or did you not have a cast and cruise screening beforehand?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: No, we had one.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_03: I remember it not fondly.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: It was a rough experience.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_03: It was a rough experience.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_03: Well, because we had just finished like the very first sounds mix.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: And we I just remember watching it and being like, this doesn't hit, that doesn't hit, you can't even hear that joke.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_03: This sounds awful, these birds are so loud.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_03: Like, all I could see were these like glaring flaws, and we had the South by the deadline.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_03: We'd already gotten in, but we were like coming down to the deadline of like submitting the DCP that like people were going to see there.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so I feel like everyone was laughing around us, but Kate and I were just like sitting in the middle of the theater, like we this we gave a bunch of notes and we implemented about half of those notes, and then we had to export it for our cast and crew screening, and then the rest of our notes were going to get addressed for the final version, and so we had to watch the unfinished version for the cast and crew screening, and we were not in like a typical theater, and so the theaters like the speaker setup was the best, and like the left side is really loud, the right side is like really quiet, can't hear anything in the center.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's just like very weird.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big disclaimer for the cast and crew, yeah.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: All these things.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: I try not to give disclaimers, right?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like that's like a sign of insecurity, and you should just like own it.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: But they probably loved it, right?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, they're having a great time.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: They're yeah, this is a real movie, you know.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's amazing.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: I was wondering in these screenings you've had, the humor is deliberately awkward and crude and sometimes uncomfortable.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: How have you seen a generational divide in how audiences respond to it?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: That's actually been surprising to us.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: I think we were expecting more of it, but I think a lot of older people who went to Catholic school at a time when like it was a lot more intense than the version that I went to, they seem to really resonate with it.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, we've got we get like in Seattle specifically, we got like a bunch of old white guys who loved it.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_03: And we were like, whoa, not what I was expecting.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: I went to episcopal school and I was a big punker at the time.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: So absolutely resonate with me.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: Plove ends.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we weren't expecting that.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want teenage girls to walk away feeling, thinking after seeing this movie?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_03: Something that I really want teenage girls to take away from this is that there are, I don't know, there are more important things than being accepted.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_03: I there are more important things than fitting into the community that you currently reside in.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_03: And there are more important things than like being pretty.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_03: That's not like such a thing that we address in the movie, but I just feel like the characters are really living their lives in a way where they're concerned with other things.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like their worth begins to be derived from like their art making and their self-expression and finding people that are like them.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think that's like a lesson I wish I had learned a lot sooner.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_03: And when I finally learned it, my quality of life really skyrocketed.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I just want teenage girls to know that like the person that they are is fine.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: Don't worry about it.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_03: Just find things that you like, and the people will come.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's okay to be a loser as well.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_03: Loser is a temporary label.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: You know, exactly.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's fluid.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I was gonna say some people coming out of the screening, some kids inspired to go start a band.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the coolest reaction ever.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: Especially as the reason this movie resonated so much with me is growing up, I felt like I didn't fit in.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then it wasn't until that I found still naked and acting that I felt oh I found a way to express myself.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I think finding a creative outlet is so important for any kid.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so I hope that kids can like be inspired and go find the creative thing that resonates with them and jump into that and express yourself through that.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: That's great.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: I just have a question for you both.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now that you've co-directed this movie together, is that now something you're gonna revisit?
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Are you have individual projects now, or what's next?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: We're not on speaking terms here.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: No, we're we keep saying that we're creative, platonic, married now.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: I think it was really such a great experience.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_03: And I know I don't want to do it currently, I don't want to do it a different way.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I think what's next for us is we're already working on the next film.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_03: I'm doing writer stuff, and then we'll come together and direct it, and it'll be awesome.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: That is great.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so guys, we do this thing now called quick cuts, and it's 10 rapid fire questions.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Don't overthink them.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's just rapid fire is a relative term.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to jump, but it's just some fun things, and it's basically about the theatrical experience and why that's important.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it kind of centers on rather less your filmmaking, then it's all kind of about going to the theater because that's what the podcast is trying to support.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, Jason, why don't you kick us off with the first question?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: And Megan, why don't you go first on each answer?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: And Katie, you go second.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, here we are.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Popcorn or candy?
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_03: Nachos, and you get two things of the cheese, and then you peel off the lid and you stick it to the bottom of your chair.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, you little.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: We're still taking in our answer.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: What a rebel.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: We have to stop the presses here.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that's fantastic.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because our second question usually is butter or no butter, or what kind of candy?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: What do I follow up with to not?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I can still I can still do no no butter and snow caps.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, butter or no butter.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Butter.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: Butter, nice.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Isle seat or center seat.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: Center.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Center.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: What's the ideal number of trailers before a movie?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_03: Four.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Two.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: We wish.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: That would be great.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Matinee or late night screening?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: Matinee.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Theater.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Just go to the theater.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Both.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: So what's your favorite movie theater either now or growing up?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like, oh boy.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_03: Favorite movie theater right now?
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_03: There's gotta be Film Forum in Manhattan.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_03: I love that you can kind of hear everyone outside.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_03: I also love Angelica in New York, where I love that you can feel the subway rumbling when it goes underneath you.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_03: I guess I like to feel grounded in a sense of place.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: The flicks and Boise I know.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's where I grew up, and that's like the only indie independent theater chain there.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: And it's the coolest.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: What's the first movie you remember seeing in a theater?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_03: Treasure Planet.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: I think I it's definitely not the first movie I saw, but it's the first movie I remember watching and then being like, I love this.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: I think mine was Lord of the Reeks.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I I was like stared of the orcs.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: So really it burned in my mind.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_02: Or maybe Men in Black.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: I guess Men in Black.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: The aliens also stared me at Men in Black.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: Very fear-based answers.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then name a movie you saw more than once in a theater.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_03: Everything everywhere all at once.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_03: I think I saw it like four times.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: Parasite as like the most recent.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: I like watched that a million times in theaters.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: Couldn't be known.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's the last movie you saw in a theater?
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: Besides your own.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna say.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_03: I saw Tony.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, cool.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: And you know what?
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: It was fun.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_03: I loved it.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: It made me feel bad the whole time until the very end.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's been Spider-Man.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's been a while.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have time to go to the movies when you make a movie, it turns out.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's true.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: And Megan, you kind of answered this, but for both of you, thumbs up or thumbs down on the last movie you saw?
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: Thumbs up.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thumbs up.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well positive feedback.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we have one more question, and it is called The Final Cut.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: And Glenn, take it away.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: So now that you've made your first feature and taken it all the way from idea to audiences at South by Southwest and beyond, if you could go back to the day you started, what would you tell yourselves?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_03: I would tell myself to get footage of your actors entering and exiting the frame.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_03: I really could have used that advice, okay?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: Fair.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if I would have told myself anything.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: I think our greatest strength was our ignorance of how hard it is to make a feature film.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: And that actually ends up being a really great strength on your first movie.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then Megan Cade, before we let you go, remind everyone where they can see Edie Arnold is a loser next and where they can follow the film online.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we're going on a 22 City Roadshow tour across the country.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: So we're hitting a lot of cities.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: You can go to edyarnold.com and we have a list of all the cities we're going to.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: You can buy tickets there.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: We currently don't have plans to be on stream, so go see it in the theater because that might be your only chance to see it.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_03: And you can find us at ednold.com and I think it's Ed Arnold movie on all socials.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and our socials team is run by a bunch of Gen Z girls.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_03: They're kind of killing it.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_03: It's a fun time over there.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: So I recommend the follow.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to thank you both for coming on.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if there's anything you want to share with the audience or last things, this is a good time to do that.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_03: I just want to tell audience, go see this movie in theaters and see any movie in theaters.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_03: And like it's better to watch a bad movie in a theater than to watch a mediocre movie at home.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_03: It's the it's the best experience you can have.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_03: It's like a form of community.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't know, I just can't express enough how much I want that to survive and to thrive and to never ever go away.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: You probably had a lot of filmmakers listening to this.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think a very helpful piece of advice would just follow your gut.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: When we were making this movie, we had such a small budget, and a lot of people were like, just make a really good short film and then worry about the feature film.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: And we're like, that's dumb.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna go make a film.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then we got into Sound by Southwest.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, that was like the chances of that are happening happening are very small.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: But had we not made a feature film and made a short film instead, I don't know that we would be here right now.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: We probably still be trying to get financing for a film.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: So just go make something that you want to make.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Megan and Cade, and thanks to everyone for watching and listening.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: This has been Indie Film Weekly Behind the Film.