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Behind The Film: Double Trouble with Shaun Paul Piccinino · Indie Film Weekly

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to any film weekly.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Behind the film, I'm Glenn Reynolds.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm Jason Connell.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: Today we're going behind Double Trouble, a holiday action comedy about two sisters caught in a Las Vegas jewelry heist.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Madeline and Violet McGraw star alongside Andrew Koji.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: The film opens in theaters October 9th.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: As someone with two daughters, I recognize the conversation where one sister says they're not fighting.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's just how they talk.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: Apparently, the rest of us are just hearing it wrong.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of the fun here is in that in this movie.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: Charlotte and Whittelow, the main characters, get caught up in this robbery, but they still have time to annoy each other.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: And Andrew Koji, who you may recognize from action films, is trying to keep them alive while getting unsolicited parenting advice from the younger one.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: He can handle the criminals.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: The sisters are a tougher assignment.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Let's meet director Sean Paul Piccinino and go behind Double Trouble.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, Sean, welcome.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: So every film starts somewhere.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Where did Double Trouble start for you?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, Double Trouble was kind of born out of the desire to do a movie with the McGraw sisters.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So the company that I have now directed 10 movies for, ESX Entertainment.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: At the time I had done eight movies for them, but I'd also worked on other movies.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: We became a film family over the years.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: How do you do 10 movies with folks that you don't, you know, really love?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I love them.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: They're honestly, we call ourselves the film family, and I think it's absolutely true.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think of them all as family.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And many of them, I mean, literally, since my first movie, it's still a lot of the same crew and department heads and all of this stuff.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a really tight-knit group of filmmakers.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: They had worked with the McGraw Sisters before.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I had met the McGraw Sisters and their whole family, absolutely lovely people.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And they had done a movie with Violet when she was really young.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't think it was her first project, but it was one of her first.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so we had known the family for a while.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: And this idea sprung up like, let's do a fun holiday movie with the sisters.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: But if we got the McGraw Sisters, we can't just do a stereotypical thing.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: We got to do something fun and make it a really good time.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so the idea of an action movie popped up, and the girls were like, we want to do something that's got some action and comedy, you know, kind of bringing those two elements.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about Home Alone, of course, Ali Apshar.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's like, Well, what if we film it in Vegas?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And what if there's a heist?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, so that got thrown out there, and the girls loved it.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like his favorite.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, one of my favorite genres is heist movies.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I've really wanted to play in that space.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I was hook, line, and sinker.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was sold.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so we developed it from there.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: We got John Ducey, who's he's actually written, I think this might be five of my films.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Five of those ten, I believe, he wrote, or four or five, something like that.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he is also in the movie, you know, plays the father, and he's a great comedic actor himself, and writes comedy really well.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: So brought him on board to pin the script.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, yeah, that's kind of we were rocking and rolling from there.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever shot in Vegas before?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: It seemed like a real challenge with casinos and locations, and seems like a whole nother level of difficulty.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: I did, I mean, I didn't film there.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: I should say I was on a production in Vegas once upon a time, but no, I had never directed anything there.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, I think you can imagine a live casino brings up a lot of challenges.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, you can't shut down a live.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they bring in so much money per day.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine trying to, you know, we we don't have that kind of budget?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, of course, what you do is you cordon off certain areas, and of course, they're very lovely.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: The Palms Casino coordinated with us, let us have certain spaces and rooms, the high-stakes blackjack room, we got to take over for a section.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: But you can't control who's coming in and out, you can't control the noise levels.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: They were kind enough to turn the music off in certain rooms, certain areas.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I think one of the biggest, and maybe I'm jumping the gun on a question here, but one of the biggest challenges we had was when we were filming kind of the climactic action sequence.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to give too much away, but the climactic action sequence in the lobby of the Palms Casino, we had something like 4,000 football fans stormed the lobby.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And as you can imagine, just the noise level alone, it really made it difficult to try and film that sequence.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, we have a live studio audience and they're hooting and hollering and doing all the things.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So our actors could not hear each other.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're saying their lines, and they're like, I don't know if they said their line, I couldn't hear.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the director of photography, Brad Rushing and myself, we're trying to talk to each other.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: We can't hear each other.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it was so it was it was a big, big challenge.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: But in the end, we got through it.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: I feel proud of what we were able to accomplish in spite of those odds and obstacles in front of us.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's funny that this really is proof that Vegas is family-friendly.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's come a long way from casino and leaving Las Vegas, and now you can make a family movie there.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: I that was part of the challenge we wanted to accept as well.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a lot of challenges, even getting a casino okay with where we were gonna film with children, with actors who are under the age of 18.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was a challenge as well.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, you can't have any unaccompanied minors on the casino floor, like where there's slot machines, where there's gaming tables, right?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: So even if we were gonna own that space, there was still challenges, like, no, they can't walk here, they can't, you know, because they want to, you know, stay true to what those what the laws are and all of those rules and things.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we had to kind of fake certain areas, bring in our own slot machines to certain things.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so there was there was a lot of challenges, but thankfully we have a great team and production designer and Cooper, and also the poems, you know, really helping us out in a lot of that stuff.
• 6:13
  unknown: Nice.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: Well, for people who haven't seen the movie, the object that everyone's chasing is a diamond gauntlet worth three million dollars, I think.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um was that always in the script?
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's such an absurd celebrity accessory, which makes it fun before anyone even tries to steal it, right?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, John, I don't know if it was in the original original, but John came up with that.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, we're trying to think of like what do you do?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like a ring, a bracelet.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta come up with something that's absurd and off the wall and maybe hasn't been done.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: We kind of looked at some of the stuff Beyoncé was doing, like with those cool like finger things, you know.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, oh, can we play with something like that?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we're trying to figure out what we could do.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was in her Sasha Fierce era, but I think that had some inspiration there for the eventual gauntlet.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: I love that you work with this family, this crew, this team, if you will.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: It does make it more fun and you can, you know, really be yourself and there's variables you can control.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: But when you make a movie and you've made what more than 10 at least, or something like that.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm 14 or 15 now, yeah.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Incredible.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: So you know what you're up against, you know the challenges.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: Every movie's unique.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: But when you're making a movie, do you tend to like look at things like, oh, it's gonna be a little bit of this?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mentioned Oceans 11 jokingly, but at the same time, it's heist, which I'm with you.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: I love heist because it's Vegas.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: So, what were you kind of comparing it to?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it's this meets this when you were kind of delta.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: You nailed it.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's Home Alone Meets Oceans 11.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: And we also had Die Hard in there with Andrew Koji's element.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: We were definitely drawing inspiration from Die Hard, also being, you know, Home Alone and Die Hard are my two favorite Christmas movies.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll die on the hill that Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: It is a Christmas movie, yes.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we were inspired by that, Oceans 11, of course.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other piece of that puzzle was Jackie Chan.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we really were inspired by, and I was certainly inspired by, and of course, Andrew Koji, and then our stunt coordinator, Arnold Chong, who came into it, and of course, our writer John as well.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: We were all like, let's create some action and some fun stuff, especially with the kitchen fight.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: We use every utens as a weapon.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, lettuce is a weapon, even in that scene, you know.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we were definitely inspired by Jackie Chan for some of those action sequences.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: Love that you've got Andrew Koji for this, and the first scene you have, or one of the first scenes you have with him, is trying to help a woman who's missing glasses or sitting on top of her head.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: Was that always how you wanted to introduce that character?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's such a the the the smallest problem crisis before the whole night goes crazy.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was always something that was gonna be like that, right?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like it needed to be something, and especially to kind of establish his just general disdain for the position finds himself in, you know, in this current state of his existence.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we wanted to establish, you know, and the the point was he was it's we wanted him to be grumpy, but it's a little bit of that holiday thing, like he's the bah humbuck to the girls, you know, spunky energy and all of that.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So of course the girls are gonna eventually wear him down.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: And was there any stunt or gag or anything that just like it easy on the page, really difficult to execute, you know, to film?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh yeah.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, kind of all of it.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: We have a piece with again, without giving up too much of it away in the climax where we had the younger sister played by Violet McGraw doing, you know, with Andrew doing this kind of flip over the body.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that was that presented a bunch of challenges in obviously the choreography of it, but how could that actually work?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And lining it up with knocking this kind of broken, sharp object out of out of our villain's hands, and so that one was pretty darn tricky to get right.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and that whole exchange, again, giving too much away, we're using like stanchion ropes as weapons, and again, trying to use the environment and inspired by Jackie Chan.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's very tricky to get those pieces.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we had a wonderful actress Azizi who trained a bunch, and then we brought in an amazing stunt woman and Caitlin, who you know, doubled for Wonder Woman and like Ahsoka Tano in the Star Wars stuff.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So the top of the top, we got super lucky to have such amazingly talented, you know, folks with the action prowess behind them.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like Jesse Lafleur is who plays, you know, opposite of Andrew in that kitchen sequence.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he's world-class stunt man, fighter, but also free runner.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's one of the world's foremost, you know, parkour guys who can jump through everything.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so we wanted to, we didn't get to utilize it that much, but it's still, I'm like, you're gonna jump over this counter or what would you do?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: How would you get over this counter and kick them?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: So getting to play in that space was a lot of fun.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Did your actors, and mainly the sisters, they go through a training regimen like for many months or weeks or something?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: They also had to do some of that stuff, which was a lot of fun, you know, with the choreography.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't months.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: We again uh we have a ton of budget.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I will say Andrew Koji came in early and he was in that gym.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: We were training in some really awesome mixed martial arts gyms in Las Vegas, and Arnold Chong really set all that stuff up for us and doing the rehearsal with all the stunt team, and we got the girls in there for those, you know, that flip kick, and we had a stunt double as well for some of that stuff just in case.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times what happens is Andrew did all of his own action, but we still have a double that learns the things, that does all the things, like in case you need a double for something, but Andrew did not.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: But those doubles still do all this work and help with the choreography and film it and put it together and then help teach the actor to do it.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So even if they don't end up as like an actual body double on screen, they still are putting in a lot of work to make this sequence as good as it can get, and and then help, you know, me understand it and the camera angles and all of this stuff.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: So David and Robin take things from each other during their first conversation, including his watch.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: How do you stage that exchange so the sleight of hand and their history both register without calling out too much attention to the mechanics?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we were trying to again, of course, you know, setting up what needs to happen later, right?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Which is the sleight of hand and kind of, you know, I come from that a little bit older school of filmmaking train of thought, which which is the less is more, you know, like just off-screen, something happens.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And if you pay attention, there's subtle like sounds that are in there that that could maybe clue you in, but really it's very, it's almost subconscious.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the idea is to not show that so that later in that when the heist is happening, you also don't see what happens, right?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's that thing.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody was lifting something off of you, like a watch or something, you would never know.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like they divert your attention, right?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: So they're talking to you, or a friend is talking to you as they're lifting that watch off of you.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it was that exact idea.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't want to show how they steal the things.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: You as that kind of outside person or the mark, you would never know exactly how they did it.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that was kind of the fun of it.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it seems like it this thing was was beautiful, like the the cohesion of your team and the cast, and but there had to be challenges.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what was the biggest challenge of getting this movie into production once you came on board or or even in the midst of it?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: There was a couple big ones.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: One was finding the right partner in a casino.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, of course, we toured and visited and spoke with a bunch of them, you know, from Caesars to Fountain Blue and all of these folks, and they were all wonderful, but we really were looking for the right space that could help us with those story elements.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: We were traveling out to Vegas a bunch trying to figure out locations and really make that work.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: So locations were a big challenge on this.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, in the end, the Palms really stepped up and helped us so tremendously.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was really amazing.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then, like I mentioned earlier, that lobby fight sequence, you know, climax of the movie with 4,000 young rabid football fans who were angry that their team lost, by the way, that night.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you also had to deal with that.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: But also, you know, a challenge of doing a film like this that has so many moving pieces.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look at it, Violet and Maddie are in almost every scene of this movie.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, again, what I mentioned, especially at the time of filming, they're both under 18.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that limits how much time you have with them on a set.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, Maddie, we had an hour more than we had Violet.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: So there was also this thing, but not only there are they in every scene, they're in every scene together.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, as you can imagine, it was like, how do we do this?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, we'd be like, well, let's start with Violet's coverage, let's make sure we shoot that out, and then get everything with the two of them.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then, okay, we'll just shoot over Maddie's shoulder to Andrew, right?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And like try is this this dance in the circus.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the only way that it worked, the honestly, the only way that this could all happen was because you had in our core, of course, Azizi, who plays our villain, was also just spot on.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: They were all nailing like take one.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I say this and people won't believe it, but both Violet and Maddie, take one was magic.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I was doing more than one take, of course.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's such pros.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And same with Andrew, and same with Azizi, and same with our whole cast.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everybody was nailing it.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're doing a movie that has limited time, because we also had limited days to film, again, talking about one of our biggest challenges, that was it.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how long can you disrupt a casino, right?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: And our whole movie outside this ghost town, outside of Vegas, our whole movie takes place in the casino.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: So there was that dance.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how many days can we actually film in here?
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, it's not that many.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you guys only can, you know, 16 or 17 tops, right?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so trying to do this kind of movie in that short a time and having limited time with our lead actors, it was a dance.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: But again, the crew is on point, all the local crew that we worked with, everybody has to be on point.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the actors have to just nail it.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: They come in and they're just nailing it.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the only way you pull it off.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: If there's any weak links, if there's any huge shakeups, and I'll tell you that this 4,000 screaming, yelling fans was one of those, but we all came together, we hunkered down, and we made it work.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just super, super proud of our team from Cast to Crew.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: Those 4,000 football fans weren't paid extras, I take it.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them end up in the movie.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're in the background, they're there, you know.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's great.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: I was I really liked the scene with the heist.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: While Juniper performs, there's a heist going on at the same time.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's unfolding at different places.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: I was wondering how you planned the song coverage of that so you could cut between the performance and the action without losing the momentum in either one of them.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that was a lot of fun.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was a big challenge again.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's an original song.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: I believe Caitlin Epperly composed that with oh she had a oh sorry, there's a lot of noise going on in my office in Warner Brothers right now.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you guys can hear that.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: They're working on something.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: They're making movies.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Come on, it's okay.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: They're making movies, guys.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, so she composed it, and our composer, Jamie Christofferson, I know, had something to do with it as well.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: But we had a couple like original songs in the movie.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really cool.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Jack Griffo was so awesome to work with, and he got into the studio early to do the pre-records to make sure we have not even just lip singing, he was singing it live, but so that you get more of that authentic thing.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: But then, of course, she used the fully recorded song in the end in the edit.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: But I really like this.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is now my second movie where I've had original songs being performed on screen, and I really love having at least a pre-record done that doesn't have to be the finished song, but it is, you know, the version of the song that that you'll build off of.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the timing, the tempo, and all of these things are set, and then letting the actor actually sing to their own track so it feels authentic.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't feel like lip-syncing, you know.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and it worked, I think, really well in this movie, and it worked in my my previous movie called Holiday Harmony.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, we always knew we wanted an original song and we wanted to, you know, juxtaposition with the song playing to some action.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, we brought in some higher-paced action music to kind of cross-cut with that.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: But then it was important for us to start the fight with that music and then make sure we ended with that music.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we kind of bring the worlds together.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the end of that fight, this the song transitions really beautifully.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Jamie Christofferson, our composer, did a lot of that, like creating pieces that melded the action music into the Christmas song that's playing at the same time.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and before we get into the distribution of it all, I just have to ask you as a director, what was it like directing sisters?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: It just had to be a little bit, I don't know if you've done it before, but you want to talk to one, you want to talk to the other, they're thick as thieves.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what was that challenge like for you?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: So this is interesting.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: I have not directed siblings, I don't think, before, but I have directed multiple married couples.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe more challenging.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, which you would think would be challenging, but every time they're just wonderful.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: I directed Josh and Lauren Swickard in multiple movies, and they just are so supportive of each other and like helping each other on their coverage.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, did I do that right?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Did I have the nuance?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was it's wonderful.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then I also directed Michael Jai White and his wife Gillian in a movie, and it was the same thing.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, you know, oh, I don't know what to expect.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're just so wonderful to each other, and they have each other's back.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like even in scenes when they were in, they always showed up and they were always there.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then they would come and talk to each other.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Did I do this right?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Did I, you know, and it was just so wonderful to see.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, wow, ever you would think that there would be some challenges.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't, I haven't had to face them yet.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: With the McGraws, again, they're so pro and they did the similar thing where they helped each other out.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, they've got the sister digs, the sibling digs they might do with each other, but we just harness that for the role.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're just like, no, no, lean into that.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: If I gave any direction, this whole filming process was just lean into that more.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because in truth, they're really sweet to each other.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: They're very kind to each other.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure behind the scenes, they just like any sibling.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm sure they have that stuff.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: But on set, they're such pros and they're so kind to each other.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I would be like, you know, what was the last thing your sister did that really annoyed you?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then we'd talk about that.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: I go, okay, lean into that.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like pretend like she just stole that shirt that's your favorite shirt.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really the main direction because as far as acting goes, they just have it, they have that instinct and they don't get in their own head and they just let it flow and they just are in the moment.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this movie was also you know their background.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: They're both in these incredible horror franchises and Mike Flanagan TV series and just that are scary and serious.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: And this, they got to play.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: They got to play and have fun.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that, and they were also executive producers on this.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: So they were there from the inception.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: When I said we were going back and forth to Vegas, they were there.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: They came, they showed up.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: They were location scouting, they were, you know, learning all this stuff down to the post-production.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't in the edit bay every single day, but they would come in and do the check-ins, see what how the progress were going, if there was any notes.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: They really got in there and learned all the different aspects of filmmaking.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: How do you think that their recognition in the you just mentioned, you know, they're in Blackphone and Megan and whatnot?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: How much does that recognition do you think help you sell a comedy?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: And how do you make clear that this is, you know, a very different kind of movie?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's the challenge.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, quite to be quite honest.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: We have an amazing marketing team and they've been doing great stuff from setting up the interviews and the press and all of these things.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, you're right.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: It is a challenge because they have made quite a name for themselves in the horror genre.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a completely different game.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time, this is PG 13, right?
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's not PG.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And there was some thoughts there, like, okay, if we just go pure PG, now are we alienating their core audience, you know?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's always those conversations that are going on.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, we could have gotten rid of the few kind of curse words that were in it to get it to a PG.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: But and I mean, I guess the action maybe pushes it a little bit that way as well.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: But we just kind of let the film land where it landed, and we're like, you know, this is fun.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Violet's got a line there at the end that that uses a bad word, so to speak.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, we've got to keep this.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's great.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's fun.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it gives it the slightest edge.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, it's not an edgy movie by any means.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's very fun and lighthearted and fun for the whole family.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I think it is an interesting thing.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, and I think they're at the right age.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, we don't want to get stuck into a box.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: We want to do all sorts of things.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: They have all sorts of plans.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Maddie's delving into directing now.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, so it's they've got, you know, the world's their oyster.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're incredibly talented, incredibly kind.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think they will have long and lustrious careers and get to try every genre that their hearts desire.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, speaking of family friendly, I'm assuming you've seen this movie with an audience of kids and parents.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: What's that reaction like?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: And just curious to speak to that.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we did, of course, we did early test screenings and things like this, but really the premiere was wonderful.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Filmmakers, I'm sure, have these moments all the time, and I've certainly had them.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably my favorite part is the surprise at moments that get reactions that maybe you didn't even, you know, you thought, oh, maybe this will get a chuckle, but that gets a belly laugh from the whole audience.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh my gosh, it really worked, you know.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and you have the converse of that.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: But no, I didn't have that in this movie, but you have the converse where you're like, oh, I thought this would work and it doesn't.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Really, the audience was laughing and cheering and such a wonderful experience.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the house was packed with parents and kids, and we had kids on the red carpet and doing interviews.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was really such a wonderful experience.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: We got to do that on the Warner Brothers lot and in the you know big theater and had our name in the marquee, which was Dream Come True.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I have had another premiere that happened there, but the name wasn't in the Marquee.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that was like uh Feather in the Cap.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: That was uh uh Dream Board, you know, thing checked off the list was one of my movies' names in the Marquee at the Warner Brothers, you know.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was pretty cool.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there's a show that I do another podcast for called Cobra Kai, which is no longer, but it was it was really a mashup.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great show that spoke to you know the parents, the new generation.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: So it was really, it really covered a wide net, which it seems like this movie could as well.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's bringing in the adults, it's bringing in the kids, not too kiddie in the middle ground.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: So if it seems like, you know, once you bet on a movie like this and you execute it as you did, you could really reach a wide audience.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's the hope.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think any project I approach, I'm always just, you know, I've got the nerves as a filmmaker, and you're kind of releasing this project out into the world.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And like what the energy I try and put out and the kind of the mantra I say is like just let it find its audience.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever that is, you know, it could be a handful of people, but that it helped them in some way, even if it's just entertainment.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: But that's my hope for any projects, is just it finds its audience, the audience that it's meant for.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Even our Christmas movies like California Christmas, at that time I really didn't realize the true power of this medium that we that we work in, that it can really reach people in a in such a profound way, even with something as lighthearted as a Christmas movie.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: I got emails and messages from India and Germany and Australia from that film, New Zealand, and it was folks talking about we had a character battling cancer in it.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that so profoundly affected these people that were reaching out, and that this, for the most part, lighthearted rom-com Christmas movie could really affect people in that way.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just like such a the best feeling I could possibly have as a filmmaker, as a storyteller, was like, wow, it found its audience.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't even necessarily the audience I was thinking it was for.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was, and it was just an amazing feeling in a positive way.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: This affected somebody.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my hope for this.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Again, and I think it's fun for all ages, like we said, family friendly.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: You've got some cool action in there too, even for, you know.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I just really hope it finds its audience and people enjoy it.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's all I can hope for.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: Last question before we move on.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: Your previous Christmas movies been released in October as well.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the philosophy there I've seen is you want a nice lead-in into Christmas.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: You don't want to go right on Christmas because everybody's done with Christmas at that point, I guess.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: But it seems like we're now even pre-Halloween before, and now we're doing Hallmark movies Christmas in July, right?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: In July, so yeah, I think it's evolved.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: California Christmas one, I think it released December 15th or something like that.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that was on Netflix.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: But again, that's a very different platform.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think they released a trailer two weeks prior for an original, but there's really like no other marketing, like, but their whole platform is their marketing.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really interesting.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think it depends on how you want to do it.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think this one doing like a limited theatrical, that is the idea.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like get it out early and hopefully word of mouth builds, and then when it hits the streamer, whenever it hits that, then there will be hopefully some some good buzz about it.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this one, I believe, will be on Prime, is its home after the theatrical run.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we're excited about that.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I think you're right.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think especially as you know, back when we did California Christmas one, Hallmark had the the corner on that type of film.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: And Netflix obviously wanted to transition into it.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were one of the early Christmas movies, I think the year before they had done like three or something like that.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then when we did California Christmas one, it was actually the pandemic, so there was kind of nothing.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: We took the risk.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Ali Afshar, my boss, he was the one who said, Hey, let's take a swing.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody's filming anything.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: We can all test, we'll get into this bubble, be a tiny crew, a small cast, all on this ranch.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: And we did.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: We literally all stayed on this ranch and we'll film a movie there.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I was like, sign me up, and it's exactly what we did.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: But nobody was making anything at that time, especially Christmas movies.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we here we had this Christmas movie in Netflix before we even it was before we shot a single day.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: They were already like, we want to partner with this, let's let this be an original, and you know, we got super lucky that way.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I think as the years have progressed, we've seen so many Christmas movies.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think that year that we did California Christmas one, there was something like 27 Christmas movies total in the entire world that got made that year, right?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then you flash forward a couple years later, and there was like 380 Christmas movies that year in one year that were produced.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, wow.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you have to start releasing them in July, right?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: Which is the other reason why we never lean super hard into Christmas, yeah, is because there's already that market and there's already rabid fans for that stuff for the Christmas movies and the Hallmark style.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: So we've always, even with our California Christmas, we leaned in a little bit more edgy and we're obviously dabbling in that space.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then this one we're like, hey, it's more more diehard-ish on the Christmas.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and I also think that's kind of fun because it has a little bit, you know, broader scope to it, and then maybe a wider audience and and and and maybe more uh replayability when it's not the holidays.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, totally.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's a fun movie for sure.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: Now we can transition to something completely different, Sean.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: This is more about your experience in the theater, go into a theater, and we call it quick cuts.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it's 10 rapid fire questions.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: Don't even overthink it.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: All right, Jason, go for it.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, popcorn or candy?
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: Candy.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: Ooh, what kind of pieces?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_02: Teresa's pieces.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: That and that goes back to E.T.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: E.T.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: I was hooked as soon as that happened.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: That was my snack at the movie theater.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: Isle seat or center seat?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: Center.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a purist.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: And how many trailers is too many?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: Oh trailers, bring them on.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Commercials, the pre-roll stuff.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: But trailers, I love I love watching trailers.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: I get there early because I want to watch the trailers.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, missing the trailers, you might as well just skip it and go to the next screening, right?
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: You can't miss the trailer exactly.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: Matinee or late night screening.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: I love a good matinee, but I'm gonna go late night.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go opening night at midnight.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, love that.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: Nice, love that.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: And favorite movie theater, either now or when you're growing up, whatever comes to mind.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not the Chinese Gromins anymore, but the OG, just the history of it.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't get to see Star Wars premiere there because I wasn't born, but seeing the imagery of that and just the history of it, I'm a huge Star Wars buff.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: And in my visual effects history, I actually got to work a little bit with Lucasfilm and got to make lightsabers and stuff like that.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm a huge Star Wars geek.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so just the history with that movie alone there, it's the most iconic.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the first time I had a film screen there, that was a huge like pinch me moment.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no way this is actually happening, you know.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: So probably for that reason alone.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's my favorite.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you may have answered this question already, but we'll see.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: The first movie you remember seeing in a theater.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Mmm.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, that's tough.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: First physically remember scene is probably now it might have been Empire Strikes Back, but not because it was a new release.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because I was born in 78.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I believe it was Empire Strikes Back because we were watching it to lead into the release of Return of the Jedi.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, interesting.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think we didn't make it for the first movie because I was very young.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was like five, I think.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: So there's no way I was going to make it through three movies, but it was one of those where they were playing all three movies together.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so I believe I saw Empire Strikes Back and then saw Return of the Jedi with my mom and dad.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um mind-blown.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think my entire life philosophy is based on Yoda from that movie.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good philosophy to follow.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: Not bad.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Not bad.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: I I said that because I thought maybe Star Wars was a re-release and you caught it then because they would do it like you're talking to every few years.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: That that's how they would re-release it.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that's fantastic.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was definitely, I think it was Empire though.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: I had seen Star Wars, and obviously that's why I wanted to go and see them in the theater.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: And but I hadn't seen Return of the Jedi yet because it was brand new.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: But then I think we saw Empire first.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think my dad was like, we gotta see this on the big screen, you know.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: And um but yeah, do or do not, there is no try.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: And when Luke says to Yoda after he lifts the ship out of the thing, you say, I can't believe it.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, That's why you fail.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: That is why you fail, because you don't believe.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was my whole life.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: I just keep trying to manifest more and more and make it happen and believe.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_02: So we may know the answer to this next question, but movie you've seen the most times in a theater.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now it might not be those because I wasn't old enough to just go, I'm gonna go back again and again and again.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's probably one of the Lord of the Rings.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because I was old enough to make that choice.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: It might have been Return of the King.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely watched the prequels a lot, but I think it I think the Lord of the Rings might have taken that as far as how many times I'm trying to remember if it was Two Towers or if it was the Return of the King that I saw more.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I am definitely somebody who will return to the theater because I'm such a student of movies, and I really want to make movies for the big screen.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like that is my dream.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: And we know there's challenges, especially nowadays, with that, but that is still my ultimate goal.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so that experience and seeing how audiences react and see how things play on that screen.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like my daughter and I, you she really wanted to go see it.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: The re-release of Interstellar on IMAX.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: We went and watched it on 65, I think.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: And seeing the different formats change and and why Nolan chose to have the format change, like was so amazing to me.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: I watched that several times on IMAX, but I'm definitely somebody who will return to a film, especially if there's things in it that blow my mind.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like the Lord of the Rings movies, the scale of them, yeah, the you know, the original trilogy was so phenomenal to me.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, I also watched even a movie like 1917.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think I saw that three or four times in the theater just because it was such a phenomenal execution of filmmaking, like such a master level of filmmaking, right?
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: That you know, you can argue maybe it's not the best movie ever, or it's not the best war movie, or whatever you want to argue.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: But from a technical filmmaking prowess, I don't know that there's an equal, other than maybe the Odyssey now and also Interstellar, those are up there.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: But 1917, obviously doing the one take through the whole thing.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not one take, but you know what I mean.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: The stitching and but just the execution of every piece and how that had to work together is so superb and so beyond, you know, even my comprehension as a filmmaker.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: I had to watch again and again, going, this is just unbelievable.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I've seen it a bunch of times, you know, on at home as well, but it just blew my mind.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it a lot of people slept on it because they have no comprehension of what that movie actually took to make obviously the Odyssey was another thing like that.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like they built a thousand ships and put them in the water, like like that's just unreal, you know.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I'm really I'm a big fan of filmmaking and the art of it.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so I try and support, and I'm also not a good film critic because I will find something that there is to praise in a movie.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I hear you.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: People will trash movies, and I go, but didn't you think the cinematography was amazing?
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was great, but the story, I'm like, yeah, but it's phenomenal what they did with, you know.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm always praising and supporting movies and trying to get people to go out and see them and go, don't listen to the critics, go see the movie, like support the 400 people that worked on the movie and you know, stuff like that.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Here, here.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, this is awesome.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna rename this section Quickish Cuts.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, I'm going on and on.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: Just loved it.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: I loved it.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: You're preaching to the choir and you're getting it talking about the experience of the cinema, which is what we really are all about.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: And you're nailing it, yes.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like you can watch it on your phone, you can watch it on a device, but when you're in the theater, it overwhelms you.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's all the senses.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's really all the senses, yeah.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we only have two more.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: And you may have answered this one too, but the last movie you saw in a theater.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: Besides your own, besides the county, yeah.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because I was gonna say it was my own double trick, double trickle is literally the last one I saw because I've just been so busy.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: But what was it?
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: I saw the Odyssey, of course.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: I saw the end of Oak Street, which I really enjoyed.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like that one got kind of slipped on.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Dang it, what was it?
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I saw Coyote versus Acme.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was the last one I saw.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: So on that one, thumbs up or thumbs down.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a thumbs up.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: I love awesome.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I thought it was great, and it was so like you know, I spoiler alert, but at the end I was tearing up.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, how am I tearing up for a coyote and a roadrunner right now?
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: But and I think it also just speaks to so much that's going on in the world right now, and what's important is people and our relationships and over all the other noise.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, the message was so great in that movie.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we have one more question, which is called The Final Cut, and Glenn, take it away.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_02: So, Sean, underneath the heist in the movie, you've made a movie about two sisters learning to appreciate each other and an adult who has something to learn from them.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I was wondering when a family walks out of the theater, what are you hoping they're taking away?
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: What do you hope they're talking about on the way home?
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's obviously family.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: And again, like we were talking about earlier with my film family, it's that found family, right?
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like family can be whoever you want it to be.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think in that way, you know, the girls help uh help Andrew's character find David find what's really important.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and family at the end of the day, whether that's blood related or whether that's who you have chosen as your family, that's the most important part.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: That is the meaning of life, in my opinion, is the people that you truly care about above all else.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully that message gets through.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely does.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, Sean, where can people see double trouble?
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: On October 9th, it will be in limited theaters.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, it's not, you know, uh super wide release, but you never know.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, if a bunch of people go see it, maybe it'll expand.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: But after that, it will be on Amazon Prime, and the release date of that, I'll have to get back to you on that.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have it in front of me, but I do know it.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: I do have it somewhere.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it'll release on Amazon Prime, and then everybody everywhere should be able to uh get their get their eyes on it.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you, Sean, for joining us and taking us behind Double Trouble.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you guys so much for having me.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is wonderful.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are awesome.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: I love Indie Film Weekly.