Latest / Studio B Sessions / How To Get A Netflix Look Without Netflix Money
Transcript
- 0:04Vipul Bindra: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Studio B Sessions with me, Bendra.
- 0:08Vipul Bindra: And today I have my guest, Zay, who's a creative director.
- 0:12Vipul Bindra: Uh, and we've done a lot of projects.
- 0:14Vipul Bindra: And just like always, I've got Mario helping us on the producer desk.
- 0:19Vipul Bindra: How are you doing today, Mario?
- 0:20Mario Rangel: Hey guys, I'm all good.
- 0:22Mario Rangel: Thank you.
- 0:22Mario Rangel: How about you?
- 0:23Mario Rangel: Doing good, man.
- 0:24Mario Rangel: Good to see you again, Mario.
- 0:26Vipul Bindra: It's good to good to be here.
- 0:27Vipul Bindra: And uh, for people, if you haven't seen our uh Chicago vlogs that we did for a project, so go check them out.
- 0:34Vipul Bindra: That's what we did with Zay.
- 0:36Vipul Bindra: Both Mario and I were there, those projects.
- 0:38Vipul Bindra: Uh so hopefully if you've seen those, you have an idea.
- 0:40Vipul Bindra: If not, yeah, uh tell a little about uh to people what about you, Zay.
- 0:45Zay Mccleary: Just a normal guy, man.
- 0:46Zay Mccleary: It's not it's not much to me.
- 0:48Zay Mccleary: Uh well, you know, go by Zay.
- 0:50Zay Mccleary: Um, live here in the Orlando area.
- 0:53Zay Mccleary: Been filming for, you know, since about 2018.
- 0:58Zay Mccleary: Uh I primarily do like you know nonprofit advocacy work.
- 1:02Zay Mccleary: Um and just a creative guy.
- 1:03Zay Mccleary: Love to film, love to collaborate.
- 1:05Zay Mccleary: Um yeah, pretty much simple, man.
- 1:08Vipul Bindra: I'm not a and you know, on this podcast, uh no, and you and you're great, and I you're humble, which is why you know we like each other.
- 1:15Vipul Bindra: So he's being humble, it's very talented.
- 1:17Vipul Bindra: But also, uh, you know, the the thing is um people, you know, on this podcast have been harping about the power of networking.
- 1:24Vipul Bindra: The thing is, I know people talk about oh, talent and all this, and yes, that's important, obviously.
- 1:29Vipul Bindra: Right.
- 1:29Vipul Bindra: But the reality of our industry is it's who you know, simple as that.
- 1:33Vipul Bindra: And so that's why I recommend people go out, network, meet more people, meet more creatives, meet other business owners, or you know, like in your case, more nonprofits, so you can partner with people.
- 1:43Vipul Bindra: Um, so I I think the story of how we met uh, you know, years ago uh is such an interesting one and people should hear about.
- 1:50Vipul Bindra: So if you want to start with that, and then I can I can take me down memory lane.
- 1:54Zay Mccleary: So I'm trying to think this had to be correct me.
- 1:58Zay Mccleary: Uh and maybe you can bring it up on our 2020 or 21.
- 2:01Zay Mccleary: Maybe you can bring it up the screen.
- 2:03Zay Mccleary: It was a long time ago.
- 2:04Zay Mccleary: It's like 2021.
- 2:04Zay Mccleary: I remember I was uh FRC.
- 2:07Zay Mccleary: Matter of fact, I had just flew in uh from doing like a big shoot.
- 2:13Zay Mccleary: Um, and we had a conference.
- 2:15Zay Mccleary: I couldn't shoot because I came back to Orlando immediately the next day we had a uh conference.
- 2:20Zay Mccleary: Um I was in the middle of editing a big project, and I'm like, man, I need some equipment.
- 2:25Zay Mccleary: Um I don't know where to get it because uh it's been last minute, and I was using you know, uh, you know, Lens Depot that used to be here.
- 2:32Zay Mccleary: And um I think I ran it from you like once.
- 2:35Zay Mccleary: Uh microphone, yeah.
- 2:36Zay Mccleary: Microphone, and I came back again.
- 2:38Zay Mccleary: I was like, can I get a mic and some other stuff?
- 2:39Zay Mccleary: Yeah, you're like, yeah, of course, man.
- 2:41Zay Mccleary: What are you doing?
- 2:41Zay Mccleary: You know, doing it.
- 2:42Zay Mccleary: I've never done this before.
- 2:44Zay Mccleary: What are you doing with my equipment?
- 2:45Zay Mccleary: I'm like, bro, I promise I was bringing back.
- 2:47Zay Mccleary: He's like, I usually get bigger packages, uh, took it down to the rose in um Orlando, uh, film with that.
- 2:53Zay Mccleary: But I didn't, you know, I just seen you in the area, you were close, share grid, and you were actually the first person I ever used on share grid.
- 3:00Zay Mccleary: So from there, and the story goes.
- 3:03Zay Mccleary: That's so crazy.
- 3:04Vipul Bindra: So we actually met through ShareGrid, you know, and the only reason I've talked about ShareGrid before, I list stuff for this very reason because it's not the most profitable thing thing.
- 3:13Vipul Bindra: Plus, you know, you're risking your gear, uh, and if something does happen, the getting money through insurance is a pain, and I could go on that forever.
- 3:20Vipul Bindra: But the the thing is, I'm probably the only guy in this area whose Sheps microphones listed on there, so but you know, to be real, not that many people rent those because those are very expensive to rent, they're very expensive mics.
- 3:33Vipul Bindra: And to be honest, I don't want to rent them to people because if they break it, that'd be a huge A, they're used every day, so that would be a loss of use, and B, getting repaired, send it to Germany.
- 3:43Vipul Bindra: It's just a pain.
- 3:44Vipul Bindra: Point is so you you put in a request for Shep's mic, and that was my first one for Shep's mic.
- 3:48Zay Mccleary: Well, I think you actually uh I'm trying to remember what it was, but I was like the first person to ever have that package.
- 3:54Zay Mccleary: Yeah, because we had it, we made a package.
- 3:56Zay Mccleary: And you like, yeah, bro.
- 3:57Zay Mccleary: I don't ever do this.
- 3:58Zay Mccleary: Yeah, exactly.
- 3:59Zay Mccleary: You're like, but hey, uh, you brought my stuff back the first time.
- 4:02Zay Mccleary: Exactly.
- 4:03Zay Mccleary: So let's see how it goes.
- 4:03Zay Mccleary: So I think I was like the custom package guy for a little bit for the first time, yes.
- 4:07Vipul Bindra: The first one you rented a Shep's mic for me.
- 4:09Vipul Bindra: I think it was CMC646.
- 4:11Vipul Bindra: And I like I said, I was nervous, but no, you you took care of the gear, you brought it back.
- 4:15Vipul Bindra: I couldn't even tell it was taken out of the box.
- 4:17Vipul Bindra: And so that's and that's how you build a relationship.
- 4:19Vipul Bindra: And next time you were like, hey, I need a recorder, I need this.
- 4:22Vipul Bindra: So I was like, you know what?
- 4:23Vipul Bindra: I'll just make you a custom package, I'll just give you my sound kit.
- 4:25Vipul Bindra: So I gave you the mic with the whole recorder, the XLR, and all that.
- 4:29Vipul Bindra: And same thing, you brought it back, and then obviously the the power networking is you don't just exchange gear, we got to talking.
- 4:36Vipul Bindra: Hey, because I'm curious.
- 4:37Vipul Bindra: I'm like, I know why I use them, but I'm like, why are you using because a lot of audio guys, even locally, don't use them.
- 4:42Vipul Bindra: And then we got to talking.
- 4:44Vipul Bindra: I'm like, oh, you want to do something really great, because that was your intention, right?
- 4:48Vipul Bindra: You wanted to just have the best audio, so you want to use the best gear, right?
- 4:52Zay Mccleary: Yeah, I think that's what uh you know, being self-taught, doing research.
- 4:55Zay Mccleary: I'm like, hey, you can't not to be the failure, but a try.
- 4:59Zay Mccleary: So it's like, hey, like, let me go try this equipment.
- 5:01Zay Mccleary: You feel me?
- 5:02Zay Mccleary: And um, it went from there.
- 5:03Zay Mccleary: So usually if I kind of research something and I say, oh, this is you know, I'm not too familiar with audio.
- 5:09Zay Mccleary: I'm like, I'm gonna try this out.
- 5:10Zay Mccleary: Even though it probably didn't go too good, I used the footage just a little bit, but it still sounded good.
- 5:15Zay Mccleary: Um, and so that was my first time using chefs.
- 5:17Zay Mccleary: I went to like 10 people sometimes.
- 5:19Zay Mccleary: Do you know about chefs microphones?
- 5:20Zay Mccleary: Do you know about chefs?
- 5:22Zay Mccleary: But uh yeah, that that is a key part though, when you say like um, it wasn't like transactional.
- 5:27Zay Mccleary: We were always talking in the parking lot, and you'd be like, hey, bro, if you never need any insight on business or you know how you run stuff, because you know, at the time I was uh you know, dealt with other people, but it was just uh always like usually doing projects for the company like solo.
- 5:40Zay Mccleary: Yeah.
- 5:41Zay Mccleary: And so I was like, hey, I'm learning to like work with more people.
- 5:43Zay Mccleary: And so it was just cool how that uh was able to like you know pan out exactly years after that.
- 5:49Vipul Bindra: Yeah, and and and what's crazy is now we're here almost four years later.
- 5:53Vipul Bindra: We've worked on tons of projects together.
- 5:56Vipul Bindra: And you know, you never know, and it doesn't happen in day one.
- 5:58Vipul Bindra: I want people to not know, like, oh, you now start listing your gear and share tomorrow, you're doing projects with each other.
- 6:04Vipul Bindra: And that's not how it works.
- 6:06Vipul Bindra: And you know, people met and you've met seen a lot of people have seen here how many people I met, and everyone's through a you know, some kind of story.
- 6:12Vipul Bindra: And I think it's just our story's unique, but it's important because at the end of the day, the reason it worked is because we connected through that piece of equipment, but at the end we were like, Oh, what are you doing?
- 6:24Vipul Bindra: And I was like, Oh wow, you're telling me you've been out and shot John Legend and all these celebrities, and then I'm like, Oh, and then you asked me about what I'm doing.
- 6:30Vipul Bindra: I was like, Oh, that's pretty cool.
- 6:32Vipul Bindra: And you know, that's how it started.
- 6:33Vipul Bindra: Initially, it was just talking while we were just exchanging gear, and eventually, I think uh it was a project that you asked me to come help out on.
- 6:40Vipul Bindra: I think it was the Hit Boy project, right?
- 6:42Vipul Bindra: That was the first call?
- 6:42Vipul Bindra: Oh, yeah.
- 6:43Vipul Bindra: No, actually it was Jason.
- 6:44Vipul Bindra: I take that back.
- 6:45Vipul Bindra: Didn't I come help you do the documentary?
- 6:48Zay Mccleary: No, I believe we actually Which one was first?
- 6:50Zay Mccleary: We filmed.
- 6:52Zay Mccleary: Let's just say it was Hit Boy.
- 6:56Zay Mccleary: Okay, we'll just say that, yeah.
- 6:57Zay Mccleary: Let's just say it because it was it, I think it was.
- 7:00Zay Mccleary: Yeah.
- 7:00Zay Mccleary: Um it was one of those two projects.
- 7:02Zay Mccleary: But yeah, let me give you a project, I can bring my people.
- 7:04Zay Mccleary: You know, you have yours.
- 7:06Zay Mccleary: Yeah.
- 7:06Zay Mccleary: Perfect team there.
- 7:07Zay Mccleary: That we can touch on that later, but uh no, it was Hit Boy.
- 7:10Zay Mccleary: Uh, because that was like a uh crisis management situation.
- 7:13Zay Mccleary: I remember uh at the you know, we had a team member of mine, we were gone at the time.
- 7:19Zay Mccleary: Uh he couldn't make it, and that's how it happened.
- 7:22Zay Mccleary: So it's like, well, you're like, bro, I'll I'll go with you.
- 7:25Zay Mccleary: Uh what are we doing?
- 7:26Zay Mccleary: I'm like, his guy named Kitboy.
- 7:27Zay Mccleary: He's like, You like, I think I know who that is.
- 7:29Zay Mccleary: I'm telling you all the songs he produced or whatever.
- 7:32Zay Mccleary: Um, but yeah, so it's actually like my first time doing a project with you.
- 7:36Zay Mccleary: Like we're flying out to LA.
- 7:37Zay Mccleary: I'm like, man, I'm like, what's about to happen?
- 7:40Zay Mccleary: But it was cool to kind of see how you like uh adapted.
- 7:44Zay Mccleary: Like usually y'all have bigger crew, this and that.
- 7:46Zay Mccleary: But then it was so cool to actually find people on share grid.
- 7:50Zay Mccleary: Yeah, exactly.
- 7:50Zay Mccleary: Uh LA in LA too.
- 7:52Zay Mccleary: You got a gaffer there, right?
- 7:53Zay Mccleary: To shape.
- 7:53Zay Mccleary: Yeah, so I think what do we have?
- 7:55Zay Mccleary: We got like a gaffer, two guys.
- 7:56Zay Mccleary: I think I met the guy in LA um before.
- 8:00Zay Mccleary: Yeah.
- 8:01Zay Mccleary: And he had gave me the equipment in the alley.
- 8:02Zay Mccleary: Like, I don't like he's like L'Angleterre.
- 8:05Zay Mccleary: He got like the equipment he gave me uh in LA would have cost me like thousands, I feel like thousands in Orlando.
- 8:11Zay Mccleary: He's like, hey bro, give me, give me a little bit of a channel.
- 8:13Zay Mccleary: Yeah, that's LA for you.
- 8:13Zay Mccleary: And I gave him like a 50 buck tip.
- 8:15Zay Mccleary: He's like, Yeah, here you go.
- 8:16Zay Mccleary: Yeah.
- 8:16Zay Mccleary: So, but uh because I actually had shot with him uh before, but uh no, you actually came through, um, and I know the partner of mine, um, really cool guy, he couldn't make it.
- 8:26Zay Mccleary: He actually had a movie uh set to uh go to.
- 8:29Zay Mccleary: He's like, bro, I would really love to be here because you know, like you were like dynamic duo, yeah, filming a lot, and then um, you know, you you stepped in, and so that was cool.
- 8:37Zay Mccleary: I I like I'm trying to go back down memory lane, like trying to remember.
- 8:40Zay Mccleary: Yeah, I know it was so long.
- 8:41Zay Mccleary: But I I know um I'm trying to remember what you brought, man.
- 8:44Zay Mccleary: I mean I brought a ton of things.
- 8:45Zay Mccleary: I know I brought FX6.
- 8:46Zay Mccleary: I had like paired to FX3, we had like I don't know how many cameras.
- 8:50Zay Mccleary: Yeah, at least four or five.
- 8:52Zay Mccleary: Yeah, paired up like that.
- 8:53Zay Mccleary: Like you give your perspective on that.
- 8:54Vipul Bindra: Like, how I mean, I look so for me, uh you know, obviously, I you know, I know it was our first time, but like going to LA is pretty normal.
- 9:02Vipul Bindra: But but I was just excited because again, uh, you know, I'm not a celebrity person as you've known by now, but it's just good, it's something people care about.
- 9:09Vipul Bindra: I've realized that when you speak your worth, if I tell people, you know, yeah, I shoot thousands of videos, they don't care, honestly.
- 9:16Vipul Bindra: Right.
- 9:16Vipul Bindra: But now you tell them, oh, I filmed this celebrity, or I've filmed it, it is uh a factor.
- 9:21Vipul Bindra: And so you mentioned that hey, hit boy, so here I am.
- 9:24Vipul Bindra: Honestly, most of my thing go like this.
- 9:27Vipul Bindra: I film so many celebrities or people of note, and I like I don't know who these are.
- 9:31Vipul Bindra: I recently filmed some really big NFL agent, and I had no idea.
- 9:35Vipul Bindra: So they just tell me, like, okay, so this is good, and I'm like, good.
- 9:37Vipul Bindra: So I Googled him, I was like, oh, this is a huge NFL legend, but I didn't know that.
- 9:42Vipul Bindra: So that's how usually I'm introduced because I'm into like limited things.
- 9:45Vipul Bindra: You know, everyone has like my people that I know.
- 9:47Vipul Bindra: So anyway, so you told me Headboy, and I'm looking, I'm like, oh, this is a uh big artist.
- 9:52Vipul Bindra: Uh this would be an incredible work, plus, you know, it's right up what I like to do.
- 9:56Vipul Bindra: It was a session, and I think in a studio, he was gonna play some songs.
- 10:00Vipul Bindra: We were gonna also uh do an interview with your parents there, uh representing you know the organizations that they represent, which is again, like you said, yeah, social justice work.
- 10:09Vipul Bindra: So I don't know.
- 10:10Vipul Bindra: To me, it was a video about uh making a difference, it was also about uh you know filming another celebrity, and it was just a chance to kind of hang out with you because I felt like at that point we had known each other for a while, but we hadn't obviously ever collaborated.
- 10:26Vipul Bindra: And the dates were just perfect, and uh yeah, so I was really excited to jump in, but same thing, I was kind of nervous.
- 10:33Zay Mccleary: I was like, I don't know obviously what the expectations are, uh, you know, what what what all that, but again, but you were calm, but I but yeah, because it's not like it's nothing new, and I I remember I still remember us in the lobby, like going to the camera.
- 10:45Zay Mccleary: This is mine, this is yours.
- 10:47Zay Mccleary: We're gonna uh throw everything.
- 10:48Zay Mccleary: I think we had a suburban at the time.
- 10:51Zay Mccleary: Uh my parents, they go get their equipment.
- 10:54Vipul Bindra: There was a fight happening in the lobby while we were doing that.
- 10:58Zay Mccleary: I think the biggest thing was uh what was cool.
- 11:00Zay Mccleary: I'm like, hey man, this is how this work goes.
- 11:02Zay Mccleary: This is like uh nonprofit, so it's kind of cool to kind of see like this sector of work.
- 11:06Zay Mccleary: Um, and stuff is playing, but not always playing through.
- 11:09Zay Mccleary: You can have a shot list, you can have an outline, uh a schedule, stuff is gonna go off.
- 11:13Zay Mccleary: I remember we got there, and then um Hitboy and his father were shocked, like, wait, I thought this was a Zoom call.
- 11:18Zay Mccleary: Yeah, exactly.
- 11:19Zay Mccleary: Yeah, they didn't even and so that like he was like he was just shocked.
- 11:22Zay Mccleary: And so we were sitting there.
- 11:24Zay Mccleary: I remember the first thing seeing like how much the team player you were, because he's like, hey, this room looks nice.
- 11:28Zay Mccleary: I'm like, this room looks nice too.
- 11:30Zay Mccleary: And so like we literally went from I think about the map out that one uh the studio getting.
- 11:34Zay Mccleary: They had two studios basically.
- 11:36Zay Mccleary: Um and that was in uh what were we with?
- 11:38Zay Mccleary: We were in uh we were in Hollywood.
- 11:40Zay Mccleary: Uh yeah, yeah.
- 11:41Vipul Bindra: We were literally in, we were like not even a couple streets from like Chinese theater, all that.
- 11:45Zay Mccleary: We were actually at like Hit Boy Studio.
- 11:46Zay Mccleary: A lot of celebrities went there.
- 11:48Zay Mccleary: And I'm gonna talk about like the testimony we got from the uh staff.
- 11:51Zay Mccleary: Yeah.
- 11:51Zay Mccleary: Uh that that's the key.
- 11:52Vipul Bindra: So that's so so yeah.
- 11:54Vipul Bindra: So we did that.
- 11:55Vipul Bindra: I think it went great.
- 11:56Vipul Bindra: Yeah, uh as good as it could have gone.
- 11:58Vipul Bindra: Uh, like I said, we pivoted.
- 11:59Vipul Bindra: You told me you like the other room better, and you know, as a as a I wouldn't call it DP, sure, you know, whatever.
- 12:05Vipul Bindra: Because it's just two of us.
- 12:06Vipul Bindra: But what I'm saying is it's just two of us.
- 12:08Vipul Bindra: There's no like so all my job was to make sure that you guys get what you need and you know, we're ready for it.
- 12:14Vipul Bindra: So plus I'm doing all of it.
- 12:15Vipul Bindra: So I did, I think all the sound and all the cameras, yeah.
- 12:18Vipul Bindra: Um, and obviously you would have two.
- 12:20Vipul Bindra: And then we but I didn't have to worry about lighting.
- 12:22Vipul Bindra: So that was one less thing, at least I wasn't worrying about because we we had a uh a couple guys there helping with that.
- 12:27Zay Mccleary: And then you remember us on the train.
- 12:28Zay Mccleary: I don't want to go backwards, but kind of like I'm a chronological org guy.
- 12:32Zay Mccleary: We're on the train, I'm like, we don't have uh uh it was a receiver or something.
- 12:37Zay Mccleary: Yeah, one receiver.
- 12:38Zay Mccleary: Yeah, I'm on the phone we were on the phone, like you like usually.
- 12:42Zay Mccleary: We should have had this planned out.
- 12:43Zay Mccleary: I'm like, yeah, this is how it goes sometimes with me.
- 12:45Zay Mccleary: Exactly.
- 12:45Zay Mccleary: The guy from last year, he's like, Yeah, bro, pull up driving over to LA, go to go to get uh stuff from him.
- 12:51Vipul Bindra: Yeah, so we wanted to do so.
- 12:53Vipul Bindra: I brought four booms and I think three lavs, but we wanted to go and laugh everyone.
- 12:57Vipul Bindra: So we basically rented a fourth, and it was so cool, and that's the the power of LA and you know network that uh they had access to the exact same unit we were using, so it matched perfectly.
- 13:08Vipul Bindra: Um, and and uh so we recorded four booms, four lavs, and then four cameras.
- 13:13Vipul Bindra: I think it's just that.
- 13:14Vipul Bindra: And uh I think it looked incredible because you know uh for what we had, yeah.
- 13:18Vipul Bindra: And it was a very limited because it's a recording space.
- 13:21Zay Mccleary: We made that space look, I mean, no, it was for the time we had, how we switched, and like we were going one way, and then well, hey, let's go this way.
- 13:28Zay Mccleary: Let's pick.
- 13:28Zay Mccleary: I mean, I made the call, but like it either way was gonna look nice.
- 13:32Zay Mccleary: Yeah, and then the crew, it was cool to have uh uh like I said, team players.
- 13:37Zay Mccleary: Part of this work is you can be as talented as you want, but like they listened to what you were saying, listen to what I was saying, you know, exactly trusting our leading.
- 13:44Zay Mccleary: Um, I think we may some some share some screenshots.
- 13:47Vipul Bindra: And I still remember his videographer had a Ronin 4D.
- 13:50Vipul Bindra: Yeah, that was new back that I too.
- 13:52Zay Mccleary: Uh Third Eye Raz.
- 13:53Zay Mccleary: That's his name in IG.
- 13:54Zay Mccleary: No, it's funny enough, um, through my parents again, a lot of people I meet and know because of my parents to work, uh, they do, but um, yeah, I actually met him uh in Miami during Roland week weekend, and he was really cool.
- 14:07Zay Mccleary: Oh, really?
- 14:07Zay Mccleary: Um, yeah, so my parents were speaking on a panel.
- 14:11Zay Mccleary: Um I think it was like Rick Ross, he had some celebrities uh there, and he was a camera guy for this event.
- 14:17Zay Mccleary: Um, a little guy named Marvin, who they know, and he kind of like, oh bro, you can come in and look, whatever.
- 14:22Zay Mccleary: He's like, You're just talking was cool.
- 14:23Zay Mccleary: So it was just cool to see him again.
- 14:24Zay Mccleary: And now, it's uh cool enough, like he's shooting all the uh Hit Boy, uh he shoots all Hit Boys um music videos.
- 14:30Zay Mccleary: So all the music videos.
- 14:31Vipul Bindra: I mean, but yeah, and for me it was cool because I think that time 4D was just brand new, so it hadn't been out for that long.
- 14:38Vipul Bindra: So I was uh I think one of the first times I'd seen it in the in the wild, somebody actually using it, uh the the chicken camera, but uh and now I own one.
- 14:48Vipul Bindra: So um uh coming back to um that project, I think that was a good opening.
- 14:53Vipul Bindra: Then I helped you the documentary, and that I think kind of opened the floodgates helping us.
- 14:57Vipul Bindra: This one part though.
- 14:58Zay Mccleary: Which one?
- 14:58Zay Mccleary: When we left, so we packed up, you know, you know what I'm saying?
- 15:01Zay Mccleary: So when we left, the guy comes in, he's like, bro, I've seen so many celebrities come in, so many camera crews.
- 15:06Zay Mccleary: Uh-huh.
- 15:07Zay Mccleary: I think he was even saying that.
- 15:08Vipul Bindra: Yeah, so the studio manager or whoever the yeah, he's like, bro, this is one of the best crews.
- 15:12Zay Mccleary: I'm like, really?
- 15:13Zay Mccleary: I'm like, you just saying that.
- 15:14Zay Mccleary: He's like, nah, I'm trusting, I'm not.
- 15:16Zay Mccleary: He's like, you guys got a dope crew.
- 15:17Zay Mccleary: And then even the uh the guys who were handling our you know the lights and everything, they were like, bro, no, this is really dope.
- 15:22Zay Mccleary: This is cool.
- 15:23Zay Mccleary: And I guess for them, they may hear, you know, live in LA, they hear celebrities, but this, I guess it's go spend some time with them.
- 15:28Zay Mccleary: It didn't mean much to me, but I mean a little bit because what people don't know, I wanted to produce at one point in my life.
- 15:34Zay Mccleary: Yeah, so but I love music.
- 15:35Zay Mccleary: So before doing camera work or anything, like I just know arch is my thing.
- 15:40Zay Mccleary: So if I'm not on a camera, I'm probably cooking.
- 15:42Zay Mccleary: If it's not cooking, something about music.
- 15:45Zay Mccleary: And so a Hit Boy, funny enough, yeah, was somebody I followed for a long time.
- 15:49Zay Mccleary: And so when we gave those bucket hats, it was something that he was like kind of shocked by.
- 15:55Zay Mccleary: He's like, like, man, you really like it.
- 15:58Zay Mccleary: And I I actually like followed him.
- 15:59Zay Mccleary: So it's nothing that I like, I'm a fanboy and just like jump on the table, whatever.
- 16:05Zay Mccleary: But it's good to see that, and also with you, um, because sometimes when you you go places with people or something that you you're responsible for, um people can overreact, act too important, or you know, uh they just act different or get nervous around celebrities and like, no, they're just people just like us.
- 16:22Zay Mccleary: Yeah, and we're doing them a favor.
- 16:23Zay Mccleary: We're about to make them look good on on camera.
- 16:25Vipul Bindra: So we're gonna make them sound, look, yeah, uh you know, add to their uh, you know, in a sense, you're doing them a service, but like they're on your set, so kind of feel like in charge.
- 16:35Zay Mccleary: Don't um be intimidated by it.
- 16:36Zay Mccleary: Yeah, that's kind of exactly.
- 16:39Vipul Bindra: But no, I think uh all of us uh there did a good job, and like I said, I was just happy to be a part of uh such a shoot.
- 16:46Vipul Bindra: Uh because and that's what I'm saying, you never know what happens, and uh it was uh, you know, it just an opportunity came because you're the guy you collaborate wasn't available, and uh my schedule just happened to work, and I I just navigated that through.
- 17:01Vipul Bindra: We figured it out, uh, and uh we had such a great time over there.
- 17:05Vipul Bindra: And what's crazy is, and this is why I'm so glad I opened up.
- 17:08Vipul Bindra: So you I don't know if you know this, but I started my company in 2018.
- 17:12Vipul Bindra: I've talked about it in this podcast before, but like so.
- 17:15Vipul Bindra: When I started my company, I was freelanced before then.
- 17:18Vipul Bindra: I made a pact that I will only work for my own company.
- 17:21Vipul Bindra: Wow, so I wasn't doing freelance work.
- 17:23Vipul Bindra: So up until 2021, when we met, I would not take a project unless we would shoot, edit, my crew, everything.
- 17:29Vipul Bindra: So I broke the ice.
- 17:30Vipul Bindra: No, no, no, you didn't, but that was the time.
- 17:32Vipul Bindra: So in 2022, January is literally when I, you know, because I got bored.
- 17:37Vipul Bindra: Because sure, I love doing my own projects, but yeah, but I'm also a DP, I'm also a Gaver, I'm also love this art.
- 17:44Vipul Bindra: So in 2022 beginning, I was like, okay, this I love what I'm doing, sure the business is going great, but this isn't personally satisfying.
- 17:52Vipul Bindra: How many projects I'm not gonna get, I'm not getting to be part of because I'm too exclusive to Bindra.
- 17:58Vipul Bindra: So opening myself up, um, and that was literally, I'm saying beginning of 2022 was the year when I did that, where we I finally opened back.
- 18:06Vipul Bindra: So it was what four years where I didn't do any freelance work.
- 18:10Vipul Bindra: Um, and uh so so that happened was perfect time.
- 18:14Vipul Bindra: I think it was just a couple of months after I'd only done a few freelance work.
- 18:17Vipul Bindra: So it was perfect because any other time that opportunity had come, I wouldn't have taken it.
- 18:22Vipul Bindra: And I'm so glad it did, because not only did we create something epic, I think it opened coming back to floodgates of how many other projects we've done.
- 18:31Zay Mccleary: I mean, I I mean I can't I just get it's getting up there.
- 18:34Zay Mccleary: I mean, um, but yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, it's it's definitely more than on my hand, uh more than 10 projects because between the stuff with you know FRC, me personally, um, and that's another thing too, is like the balance between it.
- 18:47Zay Mccleary: Like me, I actually do this, you know, yeah for for my job.
- 18:50Zay Mccleary: Yeah, my parents.
- 18:51Zay Mccleary: I work for one parent, I contract with the others.
- 18:52Zay Mccleary: So that's kind of you know, yeah, exactly.
- 18:55Vipul Bindra: And then there's two balances.
- 18:56Vipul Bindra: For me, in my accounting, you're listed twice, you know.
- 18:59Vipul Bindra: One is for the representative for FRC and then one for XM.
- 19:03Zay Mccleary: Yeah, so I mean that I think that's pretty dope.
- 19:05Zay Mccleary: And it's pretty cool.
- 19:06Vipul Bindra: Um and I'm pretty sure if I because in accounting, you I I uh we look at it separately, but I'm sure if you combine it's a pretty big number.
- 19:12Zay Mccleary: Oh no, I yeah, I I think I think that's pretty cool to um like that taught me a lot, man.
- 19:17Zay Mccleary: This this industry does bring me money, and um, you know, even working with you, I I can see that.
- 19:24Zay Mccleary: Uh I'm definitely profit.
- 19:26Zay Mccleary: So no, um that that that's pretty good.
- 19:29Zay Mccleary: But yeah, um I think after that, we went on to the documentary with um and it didn't start as a documentary, it was just a story we're doing um this little highlight on a guy named Jason who um was a member of FRC.
- 19:42Zay Mccleary: And I said, you know what, let's try to do something bigger.
- 19:44Zay Mccleary: And it was me, you, Everett.
- 19:46Zay Mccleary: That was an amazing shoot.
- 19:48Zay Mccleary: And that's my first time actually seeing you bring all your gear.
- 19:50Zay Mccleary: No, yeah, I think how you adapted.
- 19:51Zay Mccleary: Because before it was like, hey, I brought the camera's audio, yeah.
- 19:54Zay Mccleary: We had the lights, but then you like, hey, and you I believe you brought, I forgot the.
- 19:57Zay Mccleary: I brought all the grip and lighting on that one, yeah.
- 20:00Zay Mccleary: That lady's name.
- 20:00Zay Mccleary: Um, we had my kind of I had an assistant, yeah.
- 20:02Zay Mccleary: Yeah, assistant.
- 20:04Vipul Bindra: And and it's funny, and this is how I do it.
- 20:05Vipul Bindra: So this was my first time.
- 20:07Vipul Bindra: Talk about that.
- 20:08Vipul Bindra: So uh, so you initially, so you anyway, you so you were like, okay, so I'm gonna do my project, and my DP is now available.
- 20:14Vipul Bindra: Yeah, uh, so but I would love for you to come do because we had talked about you know how much I love lighting and and uh grip.
- 20:19Vipul Bindra: So you were like, hey, why don't you come do GE in my set?
- 20:22Vipul Bindra: And uh and I was like, oh, perfect.
- 20:24Vipul Bindra: But then you know, the way I'm thinking, I'm like, yes, I can handle any GE, but I'm like, how big of a project this is.
- 20:29Vipul Bindra: I didn't know that, right?
- 20:31Vipul Bindra: So again, same thing.
- 20:32Vipul Bindra: I'm like, yeah, is it like lighting an interview?
- 20:34Vipul Bindra: Then I don't need it.
- 20:35Vipul Bindra: But then I was like, you know what?
- 20:36Vipul Bindra: I don't have a budget because you know the budget was just I build you for me.
- 20:39Vipul Bindra: But then I was like, you know what?
- 20:40Vipul Bindra: I need an assistant, and this is where shout out to G and David, I love his group.
- 20:43Vipul Bindra: I was like, hey, I need an assistant who can help me with grip, and uh and she was really great.
- 20:48Vipul Bindra: Yeah, she was a great job.
- 20:50Zay Mccleary: And the shots did come out amazing, even though it was delayed and yeah, uh using it only like internally right now, like the stuff was amazing.
- 20:58Zay Mccleary: Um, all from the interviews, yeah, and his story was incredible too.
- 21:00Zay Mccleary: So it was good show.
- 21:01Vipul Bindra: Shout out to filmed at uh UCF, right?
- 21:04Zay Mccleary: I think, and then as his house, so it was multiple days his house, UCF, yeah, two days.
- 21:08Zay Mccleary: Um no, Jason's a good guy.
- 21:09Zay Mccleary: Then we moved on from that, yeah, came to a few events uh for FRC.
- 21:14Zay Mccleary: One um the street before that.
- 21:17Vipul Bindra: I do want to I do remember now.
- 21:19Vipul Bindra: It's so funny.
- 21:19Vipul Bindra: So yeah, so first one is a UCF.
- 21:21Vipul Bindra: So you I don't know if you even know this.
- 21:22Vipul Bindra: So I first one is UCF.
- 21:24Vipul Bindra: So I build you just as GNE, me, no, no crew.
- 21:27Vipul Bindra: And about the assistant, because I was like, oh, I don't know.
- 21:30Vipul Bindra: And I I don't want to I want to do a good job just in case.
- 21:32Vipul Bindra: I was like, I'll leave the cost to the assistant.
- 21:34Vipul Bindra: Didn't need an assistant, she was very helpful, obviously.
- 21:37Vipul Bindra: Not her.
- 21:37Vipul Bindra: So I was like, oh, perfect.
- 21:38Vipul Bindra: So second time, now you're like, oh, we're gonna film at his house, very similar.
- 21:41Vipul Bindra: I'm like, awesome, I got this.
- 21:43Vipul Bindra: Oh so I didn't bring an assistant because I was like, Well, I don't want to take more pay cut, but guess what?
- 21:49Vipul Bindra: Here we are.
- 21:49Vipul Bindra: Now it's just me, and we're like, okay, let's set up an eight by eight.
- 21:53Vipul Bindra: I'm like, okay, I could do that.
- 21:54Vipul Bindra: And then it's like set up another eight by eight.
- 21:56Vipul Bindra: Then let's set up something on top, like a solid.
- 21:59Vipul Bindra: I got some help.
- 21:59Vipul Bindra: Which is good because we needed it, but then I'm like, okay, I would I an assistant would have been a good thing.
- 22:04Vipul Bindra: And I was in the ladder and I was like, Yeah, for that garage.
- 22:12Zay Mccleary: You need it pretty quick.
- 22:12Zay Mccleary: I mean, I yeah, I won't want to.
- 22:15Vipul Bindra: But I don't know if you've noticed that.
- 22:16Vipul Bindra: That's literally when I was setting this.
- 22:17Vipul Bindra: I was like, okay, an assistant here would be nice.
- 22:20Zay Mccleary: No, I mean we killed that.
- 22:21Zay Mccleary: Yeah, no, it came on us.
- 22:22Zay Mccleary: You know, more running gun events, like little events here and there, and then you know, CSI.
- 22:27Zay Mccleary: We finally get a project.
- 22:28Zay Mccleary: Uh you know, the Philly one, right?
- 22:30Vipul Bindra: Last year.
- 22:30Zay Mccleary: We went to uh Philadelphia, we ended up going to Detroit.
- 22:33Zay Mccleary: But the Philly, that Philly project was uh really, really nice.
- 22:37Zay Mccleary: You came again, you know, brought the gear.
- 22:38Zay Mccleary: Now this time is uh you flying with more gear.
- 22:41Zay Mccleary: Yes.
- 22:41Vipul Bindra: So this one was interesting.
- 22:43Vipul Bindra: So I technically was your gaffer and audio guy.
- 22:45Vipul Bindra: So you took two roles, but I didn't fly with my GE gear.
- 22:48Vipul Bindra: So we rented the GE gear, but I brought all the audio and I also brought a camera, I think.
- 22:53Zay Mccleary: We brought some stuff that we didn't even need.
- 22:54Zay Mccleary: Yeah, it was on me.
- 22:55Zay Mccleary: Like I was like, oh, we're gonna need this, we're gonna need to get it.
- 22:57Vipul Bindra: And then we didn't use the thing on a ring.
- 23:01Vipul Bindra: But mainly what I did was uh gaffing and then audio, but I brought in but I didn't bring any GE.
- 23:08Vipul Bindra: We rented that and then but I brought all the audio equipment.
- 23:11Vipul Bindra: Yeah, that was the that collaboration.
- 23:13Zay Mccleary: That was uh a dope collab too.
- 23:15Zay Mccleary: Uh the client, like at CSI, they were happy, they raved about those films, and it it caused me to get the contract the next the next year.
- 23:22Zay Mccleary: Exactly.
- 23:23Zay Mccleary: Um, but yeah, it um and make my mom proud.
- 23:25Zay Mccleary: Yeah, like make her look good and make her proud.
- 23:27Vipul Bindra: So you know, a lot of people, and we've talked about this before, because a lot of people go, Oh, you're the CEO's son.
- 23:34Vipul Bindra: So you know, people have a certain kind of thing, and I'm like, that shouldn't be, because you're getting the job because you're talented.
- 23:39Vipul Bindra: Yes, it doesn't matter that your mom is the CEO.
- 23:42Vipul Bindra: Yeah, uh but people do look at it that way.
- 23:45Zay Mccleary: And I respect the process, the processes they have.
- 23:48Vipul Bindra: So for you to be able to kind of show, like, look, no, this is the talent.
- 23:51Zay Mccleary: So you had to show up because then I think you have to show up even more.
- 23:53Zay Mccleary: So exactly.
- 23:54Zay Mccleary: It's kind of like you're like, yeah, bro, you you are giving them a lot.
- 23:56Zay Mccleary: I'm like, because I don't think they and that's another thing too.
- 23:59Zay Mccleary: Uh I think the biggest thing in all this, like the lessons learned is uh when it comes to budgeting.
- 24:04Zay Mccleary: So like the business side of it is something I'm definitely uh like learning every day.
- 24:08Zay Mccleary: Um, but that part is like um because I do a lot of work with my family, so it's like, hey man, I want to help them out.
- 24:15Zay Mccleary: And he's like, bro, you are and I mean, remember, yeah, we just stacked, we were putting stuff out to you like we can go and shoot FX6 and I can make this look amazing.
- 24:23Zay Mccleary: I remember telling that uh, you know, you weren't a DP on that project.
- 24:26Zay Mccleary: And we I think we still were happy with it.
- 24:28Zay Mccleary: We had the cook look.
- 24:29Vipul Bindra: Yeah, no, we had cook lenses, we had Rings, I mean we had good stuff.
- 24:32Zay Mccleary: So and we worked with a small room.
- 24:34Zay Mccleary: This was the thing.
- 24:34Zay Mccleary: Another, another team, like told like you remember we were supposed to be a joint project.
- 24:38Zay Mccleary: They told us, like, hey, we can't we can't make nothing work in this room.
- 24:41Zay Mccleary: And I was like, uh, that's a challenge.
- 24:43Zay Mccleary: I like my thing is like that's when creativity kicks in.
- 24:46Zay Mccleary: I don't think creativity is uh present when you have all the bells and whistles, kicks in when you like, hey, I don't have everything.
- 24:54Vipul Bindra: And so um and and that's where you get to get creative.
- 24:56Vipul Bindra: What I love is uh, you know, this is why uh I I have I'm iffy on rentals, and which we'll come to this year why we didn't want to rent.
- 25:03Vipul Bindra: So we had very limited gear, and even though it cost a lot of money, I had like five or six total fixtures.
- 25:08Vipul Bindra: That's very limiting.
- 25:10Vipul Bindra: I get it, it's a small room.
- 25:11Vipul Bindra: So here I am.
- 25:12Vipul Bindra: How do I light this room?
- 25:14Vipul Bindra: So what I ended up doing is we actually used a Nova P600 as our key light, a six by six frame in front of it.
- 25:20Vipul Bindra: I think I had uh magic cloth on it.
- 25:23Vipul Bindra: That ended up our key light, and then I think for backfill, uh, we did uh two um I think um 600s, 600 X's with the uh the uh the spotlight mounts.
- 25:37Vipul Bindra: You got a good memory, yeah.
- 25:38Vipul Bindra: No, uh yeah, uh oh, I remember some of the prize, but anyway, we did spotlight and then and then uh and the hurdles you run into.
- 25:45Vipul Bindra: So it was like, oh, we uh so we wanted to light there, was bookshelves.
- 25:49Vipul Bindra: We wouldn't light them, like you know, there's there's some light on them.
- 25:51Vipul Bindra: But guess what?
- 25:52Vipul Bindra: We can only go build so far back, right?
- 25:54Vipul Bindra: So it's like trying to figure out how do we light these shelves, but we are running out of room here, right?
- 25:59Vipul Bindra: And uh so but it came out really good.
- 26:01Vipul Bindra: I think uh uh what else did I use?
- 26:03Vipul Bindra: I think for um uh yeah, and then we had a Dana Dolly set up as far as grip goes uh on B camera, and then A was just on sticks, right?
- 26:12Vipul Bindra: That was uh and then I used the I think it was the same thing 616 uh 646 uh Sheps mic for their audio.
- 26:19Zay Mccleary: Yeah, it's cool to even um it was funny because going back to next year, yeah.
- 26:23Zay Mccleary: I'm gonna jump forward and then come back is like how we compared that one, and then we moved forward to we had clean slate last year, and then we come back this year.
- 26:31Zay Mccleary: We went to Chicago and then the whole plan is every year to get better now.
- 26:35Zay Mccleary: That could be like, you know, how we composed a shot, how you know how we shot it, uh, how we lit it.
- 26:40Zay Mccleary: This year was more dramatic, that was more kind of flat.
- 26:43Zay Mccleary: Um, but we got better.
- 26:44Zay Mccleary: So that that that's that's a cool thing.
- 26:46Zay Mccleary: And uh we kind of beefed up the crew, exactly.
- 26:49Zay Mccleary: And um, so I did appreciate but then to end the stuff for Philly.
- 26:53Zay Mccleary: I will say like they were very happy.
- 26:55Zay Mccleary: Um the reactions from the people, they said they feel like it was their experience, you know.
- 26:59Zay Mccleary: I mean, like uh that work is kind of like some touchy work, you know, people's lives and uh what they say live the live experience with people talking about the issues they go through in the system.
- 27:08Zay Mccleary: Um, even people, I mean, from the questions to the setup, how comfortable people felt, the crew, um, like people crying on tape.
- 27:16Zay Mccleary: We had probably like three people, right?
- 27:17Zay Mccleary: Yeah, at least at least like three people, yeah.
- 27:20Zay Mccleary: And like happy tears, too, not least like trauma porn, but like happy.
- 27:24Zay Mccleary: So like everybody raved about it.
- 27:25Zay Mccleary: And um, that feels good.
- 27:27Zay Mccleary: Uh walking into having your own, you know, media company is like that's my first time, you know.
- 27:32Zay Mccleary: When you could because I'm gonna be honest with you.
- 27:34Vipul Bindra: That was your first big project.
- 27:36Zay Mccleary: Well, like I'll say the one that I did with FRC, you know, John Legend, that was like took me big.
- 27:41Zay Mccleary: Even though we didn't have uh big crew, but that was big to me.
- 27:44Zay Mccleary: Yeah, because I trap that's the most traveling I did in a few days, but this definitely uh topped it off for my mother.
- 27:51Zay Mccleary: This definitely was the um biggest project, but also I feel like biggest impact, the kind of like because you know I'm just gonna be able to do that.
- 27:56Zay Mccleary: Yeah, because these are impactful stories, yeah.
- 27:57Vipul Bindra: And that's where, as a crew, I want people to know, at least from my perspective, it makes you want to be part of them more.
- 28:03Vipul Bindra: And there is a bias.
- 28:05Vipul Bindra: I want you to know, as when you're trying to hire people, if you tell me, hey, you gotta come light up this corporate CEO and we're gonna tell about how they're made 20% quarterly or extra earnings this year.
- 28:16Vipul Bindra: I'm not saying I don't do it, I love corporate work.
- 28:18Vipul Bindra: But versus you're like, hey, same day, I've got a project for you.
- 28:22Vipul Bindra: We're gonna tell impactful stories where people's lives have changed.
- 28:25Vipul Bindra: Which one am I gonna pick?
- 28:26Vipul Bindra: Because you know, yeah, I'm like, and and for us filmmakers, especially corporate and commercial filmmakers like me, we're chasing corporate and commercial work, which makes an impact, if that makes sense.
- 28:38Vipul Bindra: Right.
- 28:38Vipul Bindra: And every time I worked with you, which is why it's always a yes, because the stories that you're usually telling are very impactful.
- 28:46Vipul Bindra: So it's not only just video work, it's actually emotionally um also uplifting because you're like, hey, I didn't know about any.
- 28:53Vipul Bindra: Because you I know you're in the in this all the time.
- 28:56Vipul Bindra: I am not, I'm dealing with all sorts of industries.
- 28:59Vipul Bindra: So when I work with you, it's like a sigh of relief, at least.
- 29:03Vipul Bindra: That was the best way I could say it.
- 29:04Vipul Bindra: Because it's like, oh, my work means something, you know, because it's gonna help you guys or whoever, even one person.
- 29:12Zay Mccleary: But it helps impact lives too.
- 29:13Zay Mccleary: It's like a it's like a whole narrative change, like with the work we do campaign, like how people look at those leaks among us.
- 29:19Zay Mccleary: So uh, and I it kind of I kind of like sometimes like look across the room, see your faces, and like all the crew, and like they're like, wow, this is like you, or like just the little murmurs that people are whispering after the like the interviews, like, damn, that touched me.
- 29:31Zay Mccleary: To where the like the film crew feels impacted.
- 29:33Zay Mccleary: So it's like, hey, they we all feel good about what we did, like we we're making a change, we're impacting people, and in the way we do it, like we're helping people share their own story.
- 29:40Zay Mccleary: So like we help change your life, like with uh telling the stories.
- 29:43Zay Mccleary: Exactly.
- 29:44Vipul Bindra: Corporate work doesn't have to be boring, it depends on what you're doing, you know.
- 29:48Zay Mccleary: And our style too.
- 29:49Zay Mccleary: It's like because even though like it's the model, it's a corporate model, but it's still non-profit work, right?
- 29:55Zay Mccleary: But like you can see how you see suits and everything still in those rooms, right?
- 29:59Zay Mccleary: Like the people who you talk, business owners, everything it's the same thing, there's different name.
- 30:04Zay Mccleary: And so you see how like our style when we come and shoot together, it's like we bring a mood.
- 30:09Zay Mccleary: Usually, if somebody else was to come shoot our stuff, I guarantee you it'd be flat.
- 30:12Zay Mccleary: Yeah, have no emotion, the creativity would not be there.
- 30:15Zay Mccleary: Like we're we're incorporating handheld shots, getting hand shots, like we got dollies.
- 30:19Zay Mccleary: Uh um, we're we're like being we're this is the thing, we're not just getting equipment because it's cool or it's cooked, but hey, does this match the tone or like the feel of what we're doing?
- 30:28Zay Mccleary: And so, like, these are discussions we all have before going into the shooting.
- 30:32Vipul Bindra: You brought such an awesome point that I didn't even mention.
- 30:35Vipul Bindra: The other thing I like why we're working with you is because we get to be creative.
- 30:38Vipul Bindra: So usually on my shoots, I get to be creative on commercial shoots, but carpet shoots they want flat, they want it.
- 30:44Vipul Bindra: And I had a shoot recently where Mario was there.
- 30:47Vipul Bindra: I don't know if you remember Mario, don't mention the client, but where we were gonna do something gritty, something was gonna come out, right?
- 30:53Vipul Bindra: And uh, and we were at a shoot, and I was like, Mario, this would be really good handheld, right?
- 30:58Vipul Bindra: Because I want that feel that you know, like the moment of the thing coming out, and Mario did the shot, but won't believe.
- 31:03Vipul Bindra: Not even 10 seconds later, the client comes to me and they're like, The shot is too shaky, don't you think?
- 31:08Vipul Bindra: What and we were like yeah, remember so I was like, Okay, here's the gimbal, Mario, and that's how it works.
- 31:15Vipul Bindra: It's not I don't like gimbal, honestly, personally.
- 31:17Vipul Bindra: I if I could just chuck that away forever, but I own how many?
- 31:20Vipul Bindra: Four of them because we use them a lot because in the corporate world, they want flat, they want uh uh you know, gimbal shots, they want everything to be stable.
- 31:31Vipul Bindra: Uh, one of the funniest things I've ever had, I'm not gonna name the agency in Orlando.
- 31:36Vipul Bindra: We we did some work through them and uh we did really and you know me.
- 31:41Vipul Bindra: I I take a budget and I knock it out of the park.
- 31:43Vipul Bindra: So we killed it, and you know the feedback we got on all this.
- 31:46Vipul Bindra: I was like, oh, good, good video, so very good editing.
- 31:49Vipul Bindra: Uh, on this one particular shot, I think your videographer in the future needs to train better because there's a tree in the foreground, they should have moved to the right.
- 31:59Vipul Bindra: That was a creative shot.
- 32:00Vipul Bindra: They purposely, you know how you we create this, yeah, exactly.
- 32:02Vipul Bindra: So we had a foreground and I'm in a background and then the subject.
- 32:05Vipul Bindra: So they they they're so untrained, these agencies have no idea.
- 32:10Vipul Bindra: They think that's a mistake.
- 32:12Zay Mccleary: Everybody's spillbird, man.
- 32:13Zay Mccleary: Everybody, every it's funny when people see a set, everybody turns into a director for something.
- 32:16Zay Mccleary: I don't know why, but yeah, it happens.
- 32:18Vipul Bindra: No, but like I I don't mind criticism or feedback.
- 32:21Vipul Bindra: Obviously, it's part of the job, uh, part of how we improve.
- 32:24Vipul Bindra: But sometimes when you get feedback, like that's clearly just wrong.
- 32:28Vipul Bindra: This is no knowledge, and I just laughed.
- 32:30Vipul Bindra: It was like, hey, this is uh to create depth, this is a foreground element.
- 32:34Zay Mccleary: Or to explain, I think sometimes when you explain to them, like this is the meaning behind it.
- 32:38Zay Mccleary: Kind of like what we did, you know, moving forward into this year.
- 32:42Zay Mccleary: Um, so hey, gonna talk about it.
- 32:45Vipul Bindra: Yeah, so so I feel like uh uh I mean it's exciting for me.
- 32:49Vipul Bindra: So we've done so much work, but this was I was excited about it because to be honest, like coming right.
- 32:55Zay Mccleary: You're trying to ward it down, man.
- 32:56Zay Mccleary: This was the this year, Chicago hands down was the best project I've done so far.
- 33:02Zay Mccleary: Well, thank you.
- 33:02Zay Mccleary: I'll take some credit.
- 33:03Zay Mccleary: Tiny like like so.
- 33:04Zay Mccleary: Mario, yeah, Mario gave Mario uh.
- 33:08Zay Mccleary: Thank you, thank you.
- 33:09Zay Mccleary: And I I told you the rest of the crew.
- 33:12Zay Mccleary: The whole the whole crew did amazing.
- 33:13Zay Mccleary: Uh I must say, and I mean, if you don't mind, Mario definitely was the MVP of the crew.
- 33:18Zay Mccleary: Look at that.
- 33:18Zay Mccleary: And that that's still a shout out to Jared.
- 33:20Zay Mccleary: That's a shout out to uh to uh to uh Emmanuel to you, but like you know, Mario definitely um look at that.
- 33:27Zay Mccleary: MVP because it's it's good to have skill.
- 33:30Zay Mccleary: I know we talk about that a lot, and I'm not gonna touch on it much, but like uh also like people's attitude, willing to adapt, uh like having a great you know I'm saying he's had a great attitude and um, I mean, willing to do whatever, not saying you gotta go without, you know, you know, I'm gonna uh use you or do stuff outside of what I paid you, but it's like he was willing to uh get the job done to make the client um happy.
- 33:52Zay Mccleary: And so I didn't I appreciate that.
- 33:54Vipul Bindra: And and and you know, giving you my perspective on it.
- 33:56Vipul Bindra: Thank you.
- 33:56Vipul Bindra: Yeah, no, Mario, great job.
- 33:58Vipul Bindra: Uh but uh, you know, I have two sides of you, right?
- 34:03Vipul Bindra: One, you're a friend.
- 34:04Vipul Bindra: We just talk year projects, just shoot shit sometimes on the phone, in person.
- 34:10Vipul Bindra: We've done this podcast non-recorded billions of times.
- 34:14Vipul Bindra: But then there's the other side, you're technically a client when I'm working with XMR.
- 34:18Vipul Bindra: So every time, you know, I would hear us, you know, normally talking, let's say as friends, and you'd complain about something you had this with this crew or this thing, this thing.
- 34:28Vipul Bindra: And I was like, for like, give me a project with like control, you know, because the thing is either I was your gaffer or sound guy or more multiple roles, just or DP or something.
- 34:37Vipul Bindra: It was never or videographer, but it was never, hey Whipple, get your crew, get your equipment, and do shit.
- 34:44Vipul Bindra: So this was the first time I feel like where you were like, hey, I'd like you to be part of it.
- 34:49Vipul Bindra: And I was like, of course, anytime.
- 34:50Vipul Bindra: Can we touch on that too?
- 34:52Zay Mccleary: Because I think um one thing really quick, we didn't touch on a uh uh Detroit.
- 34:56Zay Mccleary: Yeah, so we went to the we did another conference with Detroit, and I think there's when I told the whole crew we had a we said a decent sized crew there.
- 35:03Zay Mccleary: Yeah, for a conference for a conference, and like I remember talking, like me, I'm like an art unorthodox.
- 35:08Zay Mccleary: Like, I do stuff different.
- 35:10Zay Mccleary: I'm not like so.
- 35:10Zay Mccleary: I'm like, hey, I want you to be the D.
- 35:12Zay Mccleary: I'm same crew that we always shoot with, you be the DP next time.
- 35:15Zay Mccleary: I think I was telling Dier, and then you know what you so like no, it's always gonna be there.
- 35:19Zay Mccleary: I think uh you should I think anybody who has a crew or like a base, you should try these things because you never know when somebody's gonna be like what happened to me.
- 35:27Zay Mccleary: Now like, okay, I'm dependent on one person, what happens?
- 35:31Zay Mccleary: Because um, you know, things can get in the way or people like you gotta be you gotta be like Mario.
- 35:35Zay Mccleary: That's what I'm telling people.
- 35:36Zay Mccleary: You have to be more like Mario, where you can step in at this role, this role.
- 35:39Zay Mccleary: And I think this year, our team, even last year, yeah, was like that.
- 35:42Vipul Bindra: Um, yeah, no, but the team wasn't everybody.
- 35:45Zay Mccleary: I feel like at any moment, even if they talk, could step into like, hey, if we would just say, hey, we're gonna just switch chairs every day.
- 35:52Zay Mccleary: The Vipo, you go do license day.
- 35:54Zay Mccleary: I'm pretty sure you can do it.
- 35:54Zay Mccleary: Mario, you come, you come in, uh, you come and be DP or whatever, he would be able to do it.
- 35:59Zay Mccleary: And so um, going into this year, man, yeah, let's just talk about real quick how we uh exactly get that call from like, hey Vipo.
- 36:06Vipul Bindra: Yeah, so finally, that's so that's what I was saying.
- 36:08Vipul Bindra: So I was waiting for a chance, and uh, and it's so funny, you know, uh, because we talk, so it's like, whatever, you had this issue, this issue, and this specific, and I was like, dude, give me a project where I can bring the people I want to bring, and you know, I'll knock and give me that same budget, and I will knock your socks off, right?
- 36:26Vipul Bindra: That was at least my mindset, and obviously, I get it, there's so many projects, but it finally happened, right?
- 36:31Vipul Bindra: So for me, getting that call was incredible because first she called me and I was like already ready to just it was like, hey, checking in the dates, you know.
- 36:39Vipul Bindra: How I think that's how it started.
- 36:40Vipul Bindra: And I was like, of course, for you the dates are always available.
- 36:43Zay Mccleary: I think it was the dates.
- 36:43Zay Mccleary: I said, so I said, hold the date.
- 36:45Zay Mccleary: Yeah, and then from there we went to you said, Hey, it was totally different because me and you, I mean, we talk all the time.
- 36:50Zay Mccleary: You said, Hey, of course, let's set a date to now meet.
- 36:53Zay Mccleary: I'm the DP, let's meet because I want to see your vision.
- 36:55Zay Mccleary: I think I sent you some stuff over the phone.
- 36:57Zay Mccleary: We came and actually sat and talked, like, no filming.
- 37:00Zay Mccleary: We we spoke for a little bit, we we met, even down to getting equipment.
- 37:05Zay Mccleary: Exactly.
- 37:06Zay Mccleary: We knew you had stuff, but uh that's the key part.
- 37:08Zay Mccleary: I want to touch on it, I'll let you take it from there.
- 37:10Zay Mccleary: But it's like, okay, this is the budget, this is what I got.
- 37:13Zay Mccleary: Uh you know, you you let me know what you have, like, hey Zay, this is what I can bring, but how do we make things easier?
- 37:18Zay Mccleary: Yeah, I think you were on the I'm in my cart, I'm calling you.
- 37:21Zay Mccleary: Hey, I don't know what we're gonna do because uh they got it, they got a truck up here, yeah.
- 37:26Zay Mccleary: And then that car, what happened?
- 37:27Zay Mccleary: And I I'm spiritual, so I'm like, that's nothing but God.
- 37:29Zay Mccleary: Yeah, it ends up that the uh the car gets in an accident.
- 37:32Zay Mccleary: The uh the the uh the the demand, and they want to give you a bigger event and and we we're gonna pay the bill, and you're like, how about if we do this?
- 37:40Zay Mccleary: Exactly.
- 37:40Zay Mccleary: That's the piece I want you to like touch on.
- 37:43Vipul Bindra: For me, okay, so same thing.
- 37:44Vipul Bindra: So uh like I said, very excited.
- 37:46Vipul Bindra: So you're like, hey, you're DP, you know, we can bring the people you like, so I know what I can achieve, but the thing always comes down to then is equipment, right?
- 37:54Vipul Bindra: So there's a budget, there's always a budget, right?
- 37:57Vipul Bindra: So so you're telling me, and then I I kind of compiled it.
- 38:00Vipul Bindra: You were like, let's go with similar to last year.
- 38:02Vipul Bindra: I did it, and then you showed me the numbers, and I'm like, Yeah, that was true.
- 38:05Vipul Bindra: This is like six, seven fixtures, right?
- 38:07Vipul Bindra: And we had a so we had a like a grip van, but it didn't have any lighting, so it's just strictly grip, and then we added some lights and a Dana Dolly to it.
- 38:13Zay Mccleary: I think it was very limited.
- 38:15Zay Mccleary: And I think for all that, it came into I'm not gonna say, I mean, I if you want me to say, No, I don't remember, but it was a huge number, and that wasn't everything.
- 38:20Zay Mccleary: It was crazy, yeah.
- 38:22Vipul Bindra: And then the crazy thing is, remember, that wasn't the insurance for the van and all the extra stuff you were gonna need.
- 38:26Vipul Bindra: And uh for me, it's like this is limiting.
- 38:29Vipul Bindra: I can't, I'm promising you because remember, it's not my reputation's on the line.
- 38:33Vipul Bindra: I'm like, I'm promising you better than last year, right?
- 38:35Vipul Bindra: That's the promise I made to you.
- 38:37Vipul Bindra: I'm like, I have six fixtures.
- 38:39Vipul Bindra: Where am I gonna do it?
- 38:40Zay Mccleary: You did put a bug in my ear, you're like, hey, how about and at first I was kind of I'm like, I don't know, man.
- 38:45Zay Mccleary: Yeah, because the first thing I don't everything in my head is like, oh man, flat tire.
- 38:48Zay Mccleary: Yeah, this happened.
- 38:49Zay Mccleary: Yeah, I'm like, Vipple, uh, hey, I gotta get that equipment there, bro.
- 38:52Zay Mccleary: Exactly.
- 38:52Zay Mccleary: What's gonna happen?
- 38:53Zay Mccleary: But I knew we would have figured it out.
- 38:54Vipul Bindra: Exactly.
- 38:55Vipul Bindra: Um, and you know me, if I put my name on it, which to me I'm nervous.
- 38:58Vipul Bindra: I don't know if you saw the video I made about the the van driving there.
- 39:01Vipul Bindra: Same thing, I'm as nervous as you are because my name's on the, you know, I don't I don't play with my reputation.
- 39:06Vipul Bindra: It took me a long time to get here where Vipple's a reliable guy, right?
- 39:10Vipul Bindra: So I'm not gonna ruin that helping a friend out.
- 39:13Vipul Bindra: Uh so no, but the reason, yeah, and and it uh I put that bug in you, so it's like I'm like, this is not enough.
- 39:18Vipul Bindra: And the way I'm looking at that website, because you know we were looking at a rental company and I'm I'm adding, I'm like, I would like that.
- 39:24Vipul Bindra: I would like that, I would like that.
- 39:26Zay Mccleary: And I'm like, holy crap, I don't even want to tell you the number that it's gonna become because you remember we were talking about ultra primes, yeah, and then because from the last year, I was like, I cannot give the client less, but I I want you to talk, like, talk about kind of like how we got to that point where you're like, hey, we're gonna take this gear.
- 39:42Zay Mccleary: We got to the point, like, bro, we literally had a conference meeting.
- 39:45Zay Mccleary: I called my guy Malik in Atlanta, and like when you made the decision, I was like, I want this look, I want cooked, but I also want like clean, yeah, and how we came up to that point.
- 39:53Vipul Bindra: Yeah, so so now finally decided, I think the better thing is, and I and I was like, I'll figure out the the budget and whatever, how to get my van there because I know I have everything to make that happen.
- 40:02Vipul Bindra: But then came to lenses, and we obviously I wanted to, I was like, hey, if you want my absolute best that I do, I use uh you know, RE um uh mini LFs with signature primes.
- 40:13Vipul Bindra: The cost in those more than our ultraprime is exactly and ultra and and then then you were like, hey, Jared has some ultra primes that you can rent.
- 40:21Vipul Bindra: I was like, perfect.
- 40:21Vipul Bindra: Then I was like, oh, and it happened twice to me.
- 40:23Vipul Bindra: I was like, no, ultra primes are super 35, they're using full frame cameras, ain't gonna work.
- 40:28Vipul Bindra: And then happened again.
- 40:29Vipul Bindra: So it was like, okay, so we so Ari's out of the picture because also coming back, we didn't want to do two cameras, we wanted to up the level.
- 40:36Vipul Bindra: So last year we did two Ari's um and and cook lenses.
- 40:40Vipul Bindra: So I was like, how can we up the thing?
- 40:42Vipul Bindra: And I was like, look, I only have to beat last year, right?
- 40:45Vipul Bindra: Yes, can I do better with Ari mini uh like mini LFs with uh some signature primes?
- 40:50Vipul Bindra: Yes, but the budget is triple, quadruple to get you know two of those, and then that's only two angles to the grid because we the thing was you said give me your plan and I can tell you what we can build.
- 41:01Zay Mccleary: Remember, I said, hey, I want to do this, and that's I call it the it's in text as a God's eye view, yeah, like a top-down bird eye angle, and that ended up being like one of the one of the better angles, right?
- 41:11Vipul Bindra: Like you're so now here.
- 41:12Vipul Bindra: I'm like, how can I do that?
- 41:13Vipul Bindra: I cannot clearly afford four RE mini LFs.
- 41:17Vipul Bindra: I would have given you a heart attack had I sent that request to you as a DP.
- 41:20Vipul Bindra: Because you know, I'm also trying to do a good job, but also never like you delete my phone number because it's like those guys crushing the button.
- 41:27Zay Mccleary: But the thing was, you was very transparent.
- 41:29Zay Mccleary: Like that process was cool, man, because um, I don't know, to me, it's a partnership, right?
- 41:33Zay Mccleary: But we we we actually uh it was transparency.
- 41:35Zay Mccleary: We another cost, another cost of the crew, yeah, even to where they able to they adjusted everyone.
- 41:40Zay Mccleary: Yeah, everyone, yeah, and how we were able to uh now say, hey, well, this is the c no matter what, hey, this is the cost, right?
- 41:47Zay Mccleary: I can't go beyond this, but like, hey, now let's improve exactly the uh the shoe, and we did that by you know five, I mean, all the way down to you ordering.
- 41:58Vipul Bindra: This is called commitment.
- 41:59Vipul Bindra: And so anyway, so I got you so anyway, so we came to the the simple thing is uh the best solution for the project was uh how can we do better but without overkilling it?
- 42:10Vipul Bindra: We decided to do on Sony's uh we decided to go three FX6s, um two uh fx threes, right?
- 42:17Vipul Bindra: No, you did four, yeah, with four cameras.
- 42:20Vipul Bindra: So, right?
- 42:20Vipul Bindra: So three FX3s and one fx six, uh no, three FX6s, one fx three, and one Burano.
- 42:25Vipul Bindra: It's five cameras.
- 42:26Zay Mccleary: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 42:27Vipul Bindra: So we didn't have a the five cameras.
- 42:29Vipul Bindra: Uh so Burano is our A cam, three FX sixes, and one FX3 is that's that top-down camera that we're gonna do.
- 42:36Vipul Bindra: Again, go back to see that vlog if you if you're interested in seeing how we did it.
- 42:40Vipul Bindra: So so we're like, okay, and I was like, the advantage is I own most of these gear.
- 42:44Vipul Bindra: We only need to rent one or two of those bodies, so you save all that cost, I'll eat that rental cost.
- 42:50Vipul Bindra: Then I was able to get the van there.
- 42:51Vipul Bindra: I'm like, okay, now we don't have to worry about what the room situation is.
- 42:54Vipul Bindra: So we're fixed in grip and lighting, then came down to lenses, and I was like, Well, I want that look, you know.
- 43:00Vipul Bindra: I and what's the closest thing?
- 43:02Vipul Bindra: And I've been, and this is my personal thing, and this is how we improve as filmmakers.
- 43:05Vipul Bindra: I've been so negative Chinese lenses because you know what they're doing is not that great, but they improve.
- 43:13Vipul Bindra: The thing is, anyone, even Chinese companies, if they started five years ago trying to make some lenses, that doesn't mean now today they can't, and and they have done a good job.
- 43:22Vipul Bindra: So I've I looked at DZO film, their KataZooms, and they were all right, vintage looking.
- 43:27Vipul Bindra: And I don't do that.
- 43:27Vipul Bindra: And shout out to Malik.
- 43:29Zay Mccleary: Malik, Malik, you had um He had three of them.
- 43:32Zay Mccleary: He had three.
- 43:33Zay Mccleary: We're gonna call him, but he was like this raving on them.
- 43:36Zay Mccleary: And he's like, you know what?
- 43:37Zay Mccleary: I was like, Vibble, that's confirmation.
- 43:39Zay Mccleary: Let's go with them.
- 43:39Zay Mccleary: Right here, right here in your studio.
- 43:41Vipul Bindra: And I saw some tests, and they were the perfect look, and and the best way, and and I'll let Mari speak on those lenses too, because we've used on more projects since then.
- 43:50Vipul Bindra: So essentially, uh the best way I described the people is like they they basically bought uh a signature prime and then uh uh like um uh like a zeiss basically supreme or something like that um or a cook lens and then they sent it to the factory and be like copy yeah exactly because it's looks just like that it's heavy like a tequina it um it the look is a very close to a uh cook lens point is uh it it's sharp like a ze you know what i mean like i mean it's it's it's a perfect uh yeah yeah it doesn't really make any of those lenses redundant but now five years ago you couldn't have even dreamed of a normal or well I say mid-tier cinematographer can afford lenses to buy right that you know cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in any name any of these lens sets that I'm talking about so uh so point is uh there was one person now I know one other person but uh a friend of mine bought it so that video people gotta watch the comparison the point is uh the I knew one person in all of Central Florida who owns those ARLs Prime so that's the lenses we're talking about from DZO film and so I talked to him uh but obviously we were this took a while so by the time we it was like two days before three days before the rent uh by the time it came uh uh he he he hadn't heard from us we hadn't given deposits so he's like dude and I I have a shooter I don't know I rented them whatever they weren't gonna be available and I'm like frick we're screwed we're entirely relying on the and then the set was perfect for us the five focal lens was exactly what we wanted the so it's gonna be perfect and I was like you know what I changed you know so my commitment was never buying Chinese lenses so it's like uh but then I was like you know what I see offering a mid-tier I have GM you know Sony GM lenses for corporate work and then I rent the the signature primes for high end work but I don't have a mid-tier lens because such a thing didn't exist in the past I'm like this is perfect for my client where they're like I want something better I can maybe pay four or five hundred bucks extra a day but I can't pay thousands of dollars extra and so the way my brain works and I get it this may not be the right for everyone I was like you know what I need to make this investment for my company and uh but I was like crap we need this they need to leave on Saturday this is like Thursday I was texting hey Vipo uh hey didn't make a meeting like yes this is this is like days before we leave uh yeah yeah the the same thing you skipped apart while we were having this big I mean we actually had a meeting like we we production was like planned out it was different from our past shoots um we called I believe Mario on the phone Manuel Jared all the same night while we were sitting here I'm marking up on paper seeing what it you know cost and that's when we made the decision um to have you guys drive up your van to Chicago man that was an interesting thing right but I mean it's nothing new to be honest my trailer that I had before man we we drove it a lot of places but it was a because the van's new so this was the first one for the van to go somewhere and me not being in it uh yeah that's what I'm saying the truth the the trust is just like um that's when you know you can trust somebody because if they uh if they're gonna bring people uh I mean Jared we worked with yeah uh Mario Mario yeah yeah you had worked with each person separately just not together and that's why I trusted them I I wouldn't have let just anyone by the way I trusted Jared and Mario because I know them right and we had worked together so long.
- 47:14Vipul Bindra: Plus uh Mario even came and you know practiced so I felt confident that he could then show Jared you know how to because again it's not hard to drive but you don't want to risk the half a million dollars in it it's not the van that I'm worried about it's the A it is a brand new van but it's all the crap in it yeah if if that van didn't come I mean everything but his you're like we can add this we can even you I even got space if you want to add this I'm like okay cool and so uh even down to like how much of your team player you were to go pick up the Barano and then get it just so you know normal clients don't get this service only friends do.
- 47:48Vipul Bindra: So yeah no but no no and I'm throwing it out there like yeah that that definitely was a uh uh teamwork um and more so like you said it's a it's uh yeah even rented Quentin's FX6 for you that was good to hang out with that shout out to Quentin shout out to everybody who helped that helped on the project you're part of talk about the lenses so I'm on Thursday calling B and H my my reps there and I was like I need these lenses by like uh tomorrow and they were like oh no we can do Saturday I was like no no no you're gonna overnight these so I paid I was like I don't care what it costs so they overnighted them and I had them the next day and that's when I called you I I don't call people with problems yeah so I didn't call you like hey the lenses are not available I solved it okay here what you like you I was like I wouldn't got the lens I'm making an investment I was like the lenses are not available but guess what I have good news I bought them they'll be here tomorrow and I mean yes so the project was technically a huge loss for me but I don't count it that way it's an investment I think those lenses every time I've used them uh and like I said I want to go to Mario what's your opinion Mario use them on those projects but you also use them with me on the other shoot we did what's your opinion on those lenses yeah uh uh I love them I mean for for the price and the quality I think it's an amazing lens for sure uh it it g give you that cinematic quality and it's like like you said for for mid filmmakers it's amazing for sure yeah exactly because the set costs for reference people I think it's like ten thousand five hundred dollars for a five lens set that's the A set so they they they're two ten total lenses uh and I'll I'll announce something on this podcast in a second so I bought the first set five lenses ten thousand five hundred I think is the is the cost and you get the normal focal lens like 2535 507500 but they have a B set which has more creative focal lenses uh lens so like 1621 I think 25 uh no uh 40 and uh 135 180 those are incredible obviously they're not your standards but those are uh like our handheld could have easily used 180 that would have been nice but that's a more expensive cent set so I think that's like 12 ish grand 11800 well here's what I'm announcing I'm gonna be buying the B set so I will have the full 10 lens set I am that committed to those lenses so I think that was a good investment because I want to have because I've seen already projects where I'm like oh I need the 180 or 135 or the 16 and not having the full set and like I said since I'm already committed to five I just want to have the whole set.
- 50:18Zay Mccleary: So I'm getting the other five so we're gonna have all 10 set lenses if we ever need to as we you know the time and stuff but like how do you feel about I do want to talk about the um like the comparison you know so like how do you feel about compare and contrast like I mean year one was still good like when we did the CSI stuff but like um for uh and and and for the average consumer out there to say oh well you guys actually went you know you didn't do RE but for what we brought out of a FX6 I don't think me per not to and this is this is for me I have not seen a FX6 look that beautiful yeah I could say that you go find the YouTube video but yeah I mean and this was lit in under two I mean referencing your other video two hours.
- 50:59Zay Mccleary: Yes and so we were on time crunch.
- 51:01Vipul Bindra: Exactly so here's uh the the difference so you want to know year one too.
- 51:04Vipul Bindra: So yeah I was promised and that's not on you but I was like I'm gonna make remember our my commitment to you give me the same thing I'm gonna give you better.
- 51:12Vipul Bindra: So we initially started and this is that same thing.
- 51:16Vipul Bindra: Like we're gonna do story bank we're gonna have this many videos we go up we set up we make it incredible uh and you know we we knock it out of the park but by the time we were like in two days before you know they had changed everything on us and that happens I I want people to know just like I said in the in the vlogs corporate shoots they changed at the end they were there to to make sure CSI gets what they need and if that means we're gonna pivot we're gonna pivot but for us on the production side it meant like hey now you're doing four different setups oh also you don't have time you don't have like because the first time we went there I still remember I had like six hours so while the uh the camera guys or the DP and his second camera they they fixed their cameras I had six hours to set up all that lighting yeah and I'm saying just me so I set all that lighting six hours and obviously audio doesn't take that long so let's say 15 minutes to do set up audio right and that was my task there was a set decorator I didn't touch no furniture uh nobody did you yeah so and then somebody decorated the set I did the lighting the camera and the the Dana Dolly and then the camera guys got the camera and the lenses set up.
- 52:25Vipul Bindra: Point is this year it's completely opposite.
- 52:29Vipul Bindra: We have to film at 230 and you're like uh your your room access is like at 12 or 1230.
- 52:34Zay Mccleary: They ended up cutting off because I I remember I've got they had the roots the room for six hours we're gonna get to six hours they're like well we can't move any oh let's not even talk about the room we were gonna go shoot in um I would just say hey let's film it here.
- 52:46Vipul Bindra: Yeah shout out to you you fought with us they were gonna put I saw so they said they suggested a room that we're gonna film in and you know you don't see the full view they showed the room I was like terrible room but I could make it work but it'll be very corporate y no when we showed up that room was in public the audio there would have been a nice with I mean I want people to know like uh this is a cleaning slate initiative uh conference they have a convening every year um and let's just say I'm I could be fluctuating the numbers but I believe it was like it had to be like five to six hundred people it was a lot of people walking around the old post office I mean big building hope you guys put a picture up um rent out that uh facility uh for the conference and I mean very beautiful looking y'all that yeah the two areas that they uh showed us I went in like literally scout and look I'm like there's no way people were in there on phone calls music was playing from the lobby right next to the bar glass was clinking so like we could have yeah never made anything like this room we just knew I mean from looking and this is the thing the biggest risk we also had is we couldn't go up to the local location and look we don't know what what what adapters is it we're limited on I mean it was policy with insurance don't move the equipment the union all all those things but you guys made it work you guys went in there two hours and I was still able to handle business this is my first day I go go talk to the you have to handle directory director and producer thing so like I did like about this is I give everybody on the crew credit pat on the back everybody took on more than one role yeah whether you were driving and bringing the other equipment whether you were setting up and doing like like nobody put their hands in their pockets and sat in a corner which is cool and um teamwork and I I I do believe uh this has taught me uh that and I I appreciated it furthermore yeah having the right people the right people yeah I mean and then and then and then how people the the reaction and take some credit right leadership too oh yeah yeah no absolutely I do think I'm a uh when it comes to uh I don't think you have to wear that on your shoulders everybody knows who you came in there with I mean it's on your shirt um you don't have to do that um unless somebody's like totally out of line and it's even it's even a way to do that outside but I don't believe in disrespecting anybody um yeah on a small crew like this we're just working together and that's why as you saw we were when we were there it's like hey we can't access the room so we were we were in their ping pong area I was like look guys we we can't we just have to do the best so we are there assembling camera rigs uh if you please go watch that vlog we have a table shot there the t their table tennis table like the ping pong table full of these expensive rigs so what we did was we basically got all the cameras assembled the Dana dolly assembled so as soon as we got the room we we got in there and we basically rolled the dolly in the cameras in but just to give reference point compared to first that I explained we had two hours now we had to do the set decoration we had to move all the furniture we had to get all the cameras and remember five cameras with the top down rig yes eight by eight lighting setup we did all that and we were rolling in two hours and shout out to I don't want to forget my cousin man he oh yeah Tay man Tay is the best right hand man um he definitely like within like Tay will move the car he does this hey this viple need something anybody I mean he he was doing multiple things and even down to furniture so I want to shout him out too because he definitely um yeah he it's always fun hanging out with him Tabron is definitely um the GOAT but I I do say by the time I came back I'm looking at I'm like wow I put my head back in again everything cool yep we're almost there talking with the people for the interview and then even down to I mean this is this part of work you have to be able to adapt we can't cry over spilled milk so like uh the comms director comes to me and says hey I'm actually gonna do the um interview which was cool but then everything changed usually it would be me and then I brought a lady up uh Miss Erifer shout out to Miss Erifer as well but then the whole thing changed like we were able to adapt and pivot exactly where it's like hey I thought Zay you're gonna like no I'm not gonna yeah because it was supposed to be like year one where we were gonna have her interview them but then it swapped because they had somebody they wanted to the three changes we went from uh not only did we do individuals this year you gotta give props to the team yeah we did pairs also to we didn't even know if it was possible the the um the uh the the the five the panel and I just got images uh earlier from the uh the the colorist yeah as he had touching stuff up and man it looks looks good right it looks good and that's the the advantage of these cameras that's what I'm saying so and and I I'll come to challenges uh because that so this is a good part so I think day one given the challenges I think went extremely successful like there's nothing you can go change I mean forget uh sure obviously we have time and budget constraints but I'm saying let's say remove the budget you say I have unlimited money I don't think you could have done anything different in that two hour span so I think uh shout out to like I said the team and everyone like I said Mario uh Emmanuel Jarrett I think everyone killed it even Tay um everyone who was on set I'm saying uh killed it and I don't think there's any way like you said best images coming out of an FX6 I don't think we could have done any better um but then the I think the the bigger challenge came to us on day two because we were there for three days because now we had to do pairs uh which initially we had not planned but you know it's an easier pivot right uh so we were like okay well we can make the same lighting work we move some things around uh fit two people in and we already left day one I think ready like that yeah but then we we show up we can't and and trust me I've done thousands of shoots I've talked to other filmmakers this never happened before but we're not allowed to go to the loading dock for some reason oh no so I I'll tell you guys about the stars say terrible I I feel like I was bringing you guys a whole bunch of bad news through the uh through the headset um no that that venue uh and maybe they felt away because like oh they shot Batman here all this stuff right then I mean they did you know it was cool um and so first day we get through perfectly fine loading the equipment everybody's helping one another by day two I mean this is Chicago this is not like where like in like stuff we can park on the side of the street finding an easy garage I mean I think we even have to go all the way back to the Airbnb to drive my car um the uh the lady who was there who was like the the she was the pro uh the uh the manager the or whatever responsible for the loading like she just she just automatically had an attitude with me exactly um and that's challenging me in front of people because that's a little client yeah um and for me yeah my perspective is uh because remember this is not a Bindra gig right I am working under XM so as in XM is renting all this I am not responsible at most I would send a liability certificate here you go that you know I have to and I want people to be clear we did yeah and so I was gonna combine and even when I called the insurance company she's like oh this is gonna be an extra 2000 I even was on the phone with uh uh with the company he's like bro I've never uh this is the location yeah I mean it's a nice venue but I I mean I've heard of concerts I haven't yeah heard of stuff like this so that was a challenge all the way down to you have to remember this day one we did pairs we knew by going into day two I was saying hey Vippel we had to change the room because we we're going to pairs on day two we had the individuals on day one pairs we had a challenge with the equipment yeah of moving the furniture oh you can't move that exactly so so deal with that they wanted an absurd level of insurance I've never heard any place ask for that it wasn't even liability they wanted like auto liability and a bunch of other stuff and and she was like asking me she's like who owns the van I'm like me it's like uh where's your insurance I was like I sent the liability no I need two million of this and that and I was like that's not normal but anyway ignoring that so we dealt with that which fine which we didn't park the van right we sent the van back to Airbnb or whatever something like that is what we did so we're we're dealing with the situation we got our our our stuff out um and what we needed uh for it to do but then uh same thing so we show up we have everything ready and then they pivot on us now it's no longer them talking to each other which would have been easier to do and look more eyeliner's off yeah yeah so eyelines completely off because now they're talking to the guy yeah the light is here he's here and and you know this is where corporate stuff we pivot because that's the content that they want because you had to make a balance between like when you integrate my my thing is a lot or run my productions is like is like hey I tell the client hey technically doesn't you know this is not gonna look good.
- 1:01:07Zay Mccleary: Once you sit sign off and say hey this is what you want and then they hey exactly because the monitors right there all five and so everybody uh you know they were able to see you know what was going on which is cool because I I think too it is comes with a pre sometimes uh because you never want the client to fail yeah like you let them know hey can you write this on paper can you and it's reasons why he wanted the prompt and I'm like hey we this next time you should definitely let us know because you that wasn't discussed um then going into the five uh person panel now that that was so cool it was just not enough time no yeah and we knew we now that's something I did know going into and I'm like hey it's gonna be impossible we're gonna try it for you guys because they really want to have this conversation it's not enough space I mean it was expensive stuff exactly everywhere I'm talking about the furniture the glass this room and I'm hopefully you you know I know you're showing pictures like people see the room so it's like any little move there's there was a more furniture we can even put it exactly go again watch the vlogs I want to keep shouting that them out but quite literally so we did the two we and and you know I that's why I like collaborating with you so what works best for me is that I'm a director myself so I know how to communicate with you.
- 1:02:14Vipul Bindra: So when they pivoted uh that hey they're gonna interview here uh you know as a DP my main concern to you is like hey the eyeline's gonna suffer and you looked at it you were like let me get them to approve they approved it you know we move on we we we we deal with the situation but then it came to switching to the three person panel oh my goodness so we had lunch and uh and we had uh a couple hours so and I was like yes it's limited time I told you initially I was like hey two hours not enough time but I can manage we can build a menace arm rig I can do something in the middle we can have them you know surrounded so they'll they'll be lit well we we we can work through this I'll I can work out the sound I'll put a mic in there they'll all be heard so we enter we had lunch we enter back and it's like oh you can't touch any furniture because you know we're we've been moving furniture in this room for two days and I guess they were so pissed out because of the van situation they were like honest they're like no no no you cannot even touch it so we're like okay we'll put it back where it was no no no you cannot touch anything so here we are sitting there for an hour or an hour and a half not being able to do anything waiting on the and you know remember the funny thing so they had their people come in and that old older lady poor lady came and they were asking her to lift this heavy couch I think at one point even Tabor had to help and then like the other one comes and like no no no no you can help yeah so it that was that was weird which yeah if we're for us we're like five men over there and I'm just ready to live everybody's just and and they're they're like no not touch and they have older uh lady the who can't lift this that they're asking to lift this so basically that wasted at least an hour hour and a half of our time and then when we were done the the way the furniture we ended up with that they were and they brought the furniture in we couldn't even touch the furniture now they're like so far spread out because we're dealing with our an old couch that we didn't want there.
- 1:04:09Zay Mccleary: So now I'm like uh I don't know how to light this in 30 minutes and so we're trying to and so here we are building the manice arm uh you know all that and then I I feel that I feel they the pressure on you oh no well like telling you like no we need to roll this up I mean yeah they were outside and I didn't feel bad and so at that point I'm like okay hey Velbo we're gonna let them in and so we just knew there's a lot of cleanup imposed and at the end of the day uh I respect I respect all the staff at uh clean slate uh because Bobby who was the lead um they're all understanding like hey well we knew yeah it's not under their top I never got upset with them and I think it's is uh something they wanted to do but it we have to remember like talking to all your viewers and listeners it was a conference so it's not like people you have available yeah you have panelists you have speakers uh a lot of the leaders of from uh CSI because you know the chief of staff is actually in that conversation she's gonna be busy yeah and so she actually is like hey I had this time and I had to go upstairs for another uh uh uh I mean it was the whole every level had was was the conference so um yeah these people are busy and we only have that limited time to record them so it doesn't matter if our lighting isn't part of the thing yeah this is not yeah this is not a day this is not a day dedicated to the to the it's like hey yeah we have the time slot so we have little wiggle roll yeah and so you're you're in my ear and I feel the pressure on you from that that you have to roll to people now we gotta roll.
- 1:05:33Vipul Bindra: So it's so funny pivot I've never done this fast of a pivot 30 seconds I was like menacearm out the way uh we put a lantern here this side we moved the six by uh sorry eight by eight this way so these people are lit and I was like that pack person is gonna be slightly darker but I know the the post yeah uh what do you call the uh the latitude that these cameras have now I was like I know for a fact your colors can bring it up and and we pivoted and like you said it won't be the the bestest work we We did it in the three days, but I still think it came out great.
- 1:06:02Zay Mccleary: Yeah, I would say honestly, as far as an interview, um, and I know there's little slight tweaks, maybe the hair, like what I bro.
- 1:06:10Zay Mccleary: I it's um I'm talking about work I've seen.
- 1:06:13Zay Mccleary: Like that is some of the best work I'm talking about.
- 1:06:16Zay Mccleary: Cause you gotta realize too, um, some people they're not gonna like they'll do what we do and they don't see anything else.
- 1:06:22Zay Mccleary: And we you gotta remember too, we still had time throughout the shoot, so we still adjusted.
- 1:06:26Zay Mccleary: Yeah, exactly.
- 1:06:26Zay Mccleary: I mean we're playing a light stuffing as we go.
- 1:06:28Zay Mccleary: At some point, we did get to that point.
- 1:06:29Zay Mccleary: And I uh the first person is always gonna be a you know touch run or whatever.
- 1:06:33Zay Mccleary: And then we we got there.
- 1:06:34Zay Mccleary: So it's like that's also too how do you use your time?
- 1:06:36Zay Mccleary: It's like you know, from the first if you know this stuff, you gotta change, don't forget about it.
- 1:06:40Zay Mccleary: No, improve.
- 1:06:40Zay Mccleary: No, you gotta change.
- 1:06:41Zay Mccleary: Use use that those last 15 minutes to uh do it, which we did.
- 1:06:44Zay Mccleary: Yeah, I do I believe we gave that client uh a hundred percent.
- 1:06:47Zay Mccleary: I don't think it was like oh the only thing that I said uh was that panel, and that was out of our control.
- 1:06:52Zay Mccleary: Yeah, but the um between the pairs, how we lit it, that it was amazing.
- 1:06:56Zay Mccleary: Audio, lighting, crew, everybody uh one accord.
- 1:06:59Zay Mccleary: Yeah, um going out together.
- 1:07:01Vipul Bindra: So people know we did this with uh unto what uh five people, six people if you count T.
- 1:07:08Vipul Bindra: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:07:09Vipul Bindra: Uh that's it.
- 1:07:10Vipul Bindra: That's that's the crew.
- 1:07:11Vipul Bindra: Yeah, that's the crew.
- 1:07:12Zay Mccleary: And if you look at the stuff, now this is funny.
- 1:07:14Zay Mccleary: Everything, this is when you know, uh, I would say to anybody, this is when you know you executed and did your job.
- 1:07:19Zay Mccleary: One, the client's happy, but what you want because I always say I want the client to say this or feel this.
- 1:07:25Zay Mccleary: The first thing I said is um sounds cliche, like, hey, I want this to feel like a Netflix documentary that you can take any.
- 1:07:32Zay Mccleary: We talked about it, you can take any still and say, bro, that looks like an interview and uh and a documentary dramatic, has some you know, tone.
- 1:07:39Zay Mccleary: Yeah.
- 1:07:40Zay Mccleary: I want the cook look, but I kind of want it, you know, um neutral.
- 1:07:43Zay Mccleary: Yeah, and so we we had that.
- 1:07:45Zay Mccleary: And so everything we said, we executed on, and it's funny where the client tells you, you know, the mood board that you guys put together, that you put together, like, no, these look better than what you than what you sent.
- 1:07:56Zay Mccleary: And so that that's when you know automatically you have done, you've overex uh exceeded.
- 1:08:02Zay Mccleary: And so I would say is uh also this the responses we got as people pass by, because the monitor is like right there.
- 1:08:08Zay Mccleary: And all you you're seeing the angles, and this is just you know what you have.
- 1:08:11Zay Mccleary: Yeah, just this is the like 709, like yeah, this is not a recent.
- 1:08:14Zay Mccleary: So for them to see that, and I mean the CEO of my mother's like, oh my god, I feel like I'm on Netflix.
- 1:08:19Zay Mccleary: Exactly.
- 1:08:19Zay Mccleary: I've heard that so many times down to the color.
- 1:08:21Zay Mccleary: I never said Netflix to anybody, but you uh the colorers, bro.
- 1:08:25Zay Mccleary: Yeah, I've never said that word once.
- 1:08:27Zay Mccleary: Yeah, I know Mario said it, yeah.
- 1:08:28Zay Mccleary: Yeah, but no, no, like literally, I mean, people in the room, I mean they they kept they kept saying that, and then all the way down to post-production, the editor, Maliki's like, bro, this feels like Netflix.
- 1:08:38Zay Mccleary: I'm like, bro, it really and it was all down.
- 1:08:40Zay Mccleary: Remember, I said we I want to do a weird angle.
- 1:08:42Zay Mccleary: You know, I'll just wide, and then we did that, and then there was the other top down.
- 1:08:46Zay Mccleary: So, like, I'm like, no, we got a formula.
- 1:08:48Zay Mccleary: So now it's like it's cool because now we experience is the best teacher.
- 1:08:51Zay Mccleary: I will say that too.
- 1:08:52Zay Mccleary: It's because um I know when people say, Oh, I write a book, I did this, I went to school, it's like, no, you gotta actually experience this stuff.
- 1:08:57Zay Mccleary: I can now take that formula, hey Vipple.
- 1:08:59Zay Mccleary: You remember how we shot that?
- 1:09:00Vipul Bindra: Exactly.
- 1:09:01Zay Mccleary: Let's take that and take this to uh somewhere.
- 1:09:03Vipul Bindra: And to me, and this is why I will tell people uh my biggest thing, like I said, I'm mostly a director producer, so I'm fine.
- 1:09:10Vipul Bindra: As my company, we're doing good.
- 1:09:11Vipul Bindra: But when I freelance with pipe people, one of my biggest issues is when people are like that person's style.
- 1:09:16Vipul Bindra: I'm looking for somebody with that style, and my entire thing is I'm not a fan of it, I get it.
- 1:09:20Vipul Bindra: Some people like my thing is as a DP where I see it, that's different than the director producer.
- 1:09:27Vipul Bindra: Obviously, I have a definitely style there.
- 1:09:29Vipul Bindra: Yeah, yeah, but as a DP, my thing is I'm gonna take the director's vision and bring that to life.
- 1:09:34Vipul Bindra: But people don't see it that way.
- 1:09:35Vipul Bindra: But for some degency, they oh, you've created this and this, and that's why I like this project because yes, a lot of the freelance stuff I do is high-end corporate, not as moody, because that's just not the demand.
- 1:09:46Vipul Bindra: Yeah, so to be able to go to show you, like, hey, I can do moody, and we can do it really well.
- 1:09:50Vipul Bindra: And you know, the same thing.
- 1:09:52Vipul Bindra: A lot of people I just need people wanting that.
- 1:09:54Zay Mccleary: Some people, uh I mean, like you said, corporate, I feel like everybody could like that, but like have this mood, make sure the shadows aren't too much, too hard.
- 1:10:02Zay Mccleary: Like, I don't I don't believe everybody can, uh you know, or some people they just don't do it.
- 1:10:06Vipul Bindra: And so for us to do that and then pull it off, yeah, and and to be able to show that, and which is why I told you, I was like, hey, let me show it.
- 1:10:12Vipul Bindra: And despite the challenges, I think we did, and um, like you said, shout out to you giving me the creative freedom because you know that's what it takes.
- 1:10:19Vipul Bindra: Because to be real, look, I get it.
- 1:10:21Vipul Bindra: When I'm the director producer, it's my money on the line and my reputation on the line.
- 1:10:26Vipul Bindra: So I, you know, it's hard to just tell somebody like, hey, this is my mood board, now go achieve that.
- 1:10:31Vipul Bindra: So for you, and I know this didn't happen, and this is what I'm talking about.
- 1:10:34Vipul Bindra: This is an ongoing thing.
- 1:10:35Vipul Bindra: Oh, this is what we're doing.
- 1:10:35Vipul Bindra: We built this relationship years and years into it, and we're but but that's what I liked about this project was which is why I went above and beyond.
- 1:10:43Vipul Bindra: It was like, hey, you trusting me, then I'm gonna trust you back with this is what you want.
- 1:10:48Vipul Bindra: Yeah, let me get that back to you.
- 1:10:50Vipul Bindra: And I think we we collaborate so well, and which is why we've talked about this project so much, is because we had fun.
- 1:10:55Vipul Bindra: Plus, what I like is there was no stupid NDA.
- 1:10:58Vipul Bindra: I'm tired of these such fancy projects, dude.
- 1:11:01Vipul Bindra: I keep doing these documentaries, right?
- 1:11:03Vipul Bindra: Simple documentaries, not even as good as we did.
- 1:11:05Vipul Bindra: And then they all want NDA, so I can't talk about it or show them on the street.
- 1:11:09Vipul Bindra: I definitely understand that.
- 1:11:10Zay Mccleary: We'll see how long that goes.
- 1:11:12Vipul Bindra: Hopefully, that and that was an incredible part for me to go show people like, look, this is what we do once there's not an Indy involved, so I can show people the work and stuff like that.
- 1:11:21Vipul Bindra: Because um, you know, uh, and again, I get it.
- 1:11:24Vipul Bindra: If you have a project with NDA, whatever, that's fine, that's normal.
- 1:11:26Vipul Bindra: But I'm just saying, so to be so to be able to show to other people, like, hey, this is what you can get paid to do.
- 1:11:33Vipul Bindra: And to me, as a filmmaker, who says corporate is boring?
- 1:11:36Vipul Bindra: Corporate can be moody, corporate can be exciting, and I think and rewarding.
- 1:11:40Zay Mccleary: And I think this is the thing, too, is like you're setting a tone in that space.
- 1:11:43Zay Mccleary: Um, because usually when you see interviews, hey, this is the cleanest, like you'll see like a certain look.
- 1:11:49Zay Mccleary: And when the client starts to trust you, now somebody else can look and say, I want that.
- 1:11:53Zay Mccleary: Because you're trying to tell a story, you want a motion, and it's like I think for that setting, what we were talking about, it is it fits the mood.
- 1:12:00Zay Mccleary: We didn't just pick a room because we picked a room, we picked the room, hey, what are you telling?
- 1:12:03Zay Mccleary: What's the story?
- 1:12:04Zay Mccleary: What are we talking about?
- 1:12:05Zay Mccleary: And we kind of went with that um theme, and uh the room is matched perfectly.
- 1:12:09Zay Mccleary: Uh I I don't I don't have any really regrets about the uh the project, man.
- 1:12:15Zay Mccleary: I I think we we nailed it, we killed it.
- 1:12:17Vipul Bindra: Um yeah, given the circumstances, I know we've talked about this off camera before, but I was like, given the circumstances and the constraints, there's nothing we could have done differently.
- 1:12:26Vipul Bindra: Yeah, obviously there's some minor tricks, but I'm saying overall, majorly, we could have done differently.
- 1:12:31Vipul Bindra: Um unless we had been able to change our circumstances or planning.
- 1:12:36Zay Mccleary: I think the biggest thing was circumstances and then also um external factors, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:12:41Zay Mccleary: And so, um, but no, man, amazing job to everybody, bro.
- 1:12:45Zay Mccleary: And then so I'm just excited for like what's next.
- 1:12:47Vipul Bindra: Yeah, exactly.
- 1:12:48Vipul Bindra: I I hope you uh we get to do it again next year, we get to take it to another level.
- 1:12:52Vipul Bindra: Who knows what cameras we'll use, what lenses we'll use, or what we will do.
- 1:12:56Vipul Bindra: Yeah, and it's just always fun collaborating with you.
- 1:12:58Vipul Bindra: I think that's the main point that I want to drive home is like network.
- 1:13:03Vipul Bindra: You will meet people in unexpected places, but it's all about collaborating.
- 1:13:07Vipul Bindra: Right, it's not about what we do here in video production is not an individual thing.
- 1:13:13Vipul Bindra: Right.
- 1:13:13Vipul Bindra: It's it's an art and it's a business.
- 1:13:16Vipul Bindra: And when you do it with people that you can go back and forth with, I think you create better things than we do individually, right?
- 1:13:23Vipul Bindra: Won't you agree?
- 1:13:24Vipul Bindra: What's your thought on that?
- 1:13:25Zay Mccleary: Yeah, I I've always like um when I first started, but people would tell me, you know, uh all the guys I used to work with, like, bro, you gotta you gotta have a team, you gotta work with people.
- 1:13:34Zay Mccleary: Even something with uh, you know, working with uh the last DP, like he would even say that you gotta have a team.
- 1:13:40Zay Mccleary: And um, I would take heed to all the things he said because you know, when you uh especially when you're self-taught, and so it's things I'm not like I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna have to learn on my own.
- 1:13:49Zay Mccleary: Um I tell people I went to YouTube university, you know, I know that's like funny, like ah ha.
- 1:13:54Vipul Bindra: But um But hey, there's good value on YouTube.
- 1:13:56Vipul Bindra: As long as you know how to parse out good with bad, you can learn a lot, yeah.
- 1:14:00Zay Mccleary: But um I definitely I don't want to get YouTube too much credit, just stuff I had to learn on my own.
- 1:14:05Zay Mccleary: Being creative, I do see the benefit in having people because I remember I did when I first did the first story bank, I did it solo.
- 1:14:13Zay Mccleary: Remember, I'm getting the bell boys from the hotel in Detroit to bring help me bring the stuff up.
- 1:14:18Zay Mccleary: I'm setting up the lights, I gotta go sit in the chair, I gotta come back, I gotta go like so it like no, I did all that um solo.
- 1:14:24Zay Mccleary: There is a benefit in teaming, a good team.
- 1:14:26Vipul Bindra: But that's how you learn too, though.
- 1:14:28Vipul Bindra: That would see now you know what to expect from your career.
- 1:14:30Vipul Bindra: No, no, absolutely.
- 1:14:31Vipul Bindra: And yeah, things like that.
- 1:14:33Zay Mccleary: It used to feel uncomfortable because even last year I was like trying to do too much hands on, but like this year to even sit back because I will say once you know you put to work in it as a director, producer, um, you're not gonna be like be panic too much on what's going on.
- 1:14:47Zay Mccleary: I mean, stuff is gonna happen.
- 1:14:48Zay Mccleary: You kind of sit back and okay, I hey my d I talked with the DP, even the team, you know.
- 1:14:53Zay Mccleary: Um, but we've got this under control.
- 1:14:55Zay Mccleary: And then just step in when you need to, especially in that space.
- 1:14:58Zay Mccleary: Um, it's a conference, so you know you have staff you're dealing with.
- 1:15:01Zay Mccleary: They're coming to you, hey, talk to this person.
- 1:15:03Zay Mccleary: So it's like I'm able to go in and out.
- 1:15:05Zay Mccleary: Uh in last year, too.
- 1:15:06Zay Mccleary: Yeah, our crew was amazing.
- 1:15:07Zay Mccleary: I was able to step out of the room, come back in, still watch what's going on, and um, this is to see how the footage comes together, man.
- 1:15:12Vipul Bindra: Exactly.
- 1:15:13Vipul Bindra: It's half of what we do is problem solving.
- 1:15:15Vipul Bindra: Believe it or not, people who can problem solve better will get hired more just than people who can film because half the time what we're dealing with is things that are out of our control.
- 1:15:25Vipul Bindra: And instead of panicking, and that's when you truly know, you know, there's a difference in doing it like we were talking about earlier on our drive.
- 1:15:31Vipul Bindra: Like, um, it's one thing to do it in your garage or in your home, uh a same set than doing it in a real-world scenario where you have an CEO or some other marketing company or whatever, right?
- 1:15:43Vipul Bindra: Standing there hurting you up, uh, that panic that um the rush that you're put through.
- 1:15:49Vipul Bindra: So that's a completely different thing, but that's where you learn because uh people who can stand their pressure and kill it are the people who are gonna win.
- 1:15:57Vipul Bindra: Anyway, I I I I know we have limited time.
- 1:16:00Vipul Bindra: You got a meeting to go to, unfortunately.
- 1:16:03Vipul Bindra: So before we go, anything else you want to add or talk about?
- 1:16:06Vipul Bindra: We're gonna definitely continue this in season three.
- 1:16:09Zay Mccleary: Uh I can't wait till season three.
- 1:16:10Zay Mccleary: We come back with some more dope projects, man.
- 1:16:12Zay Mccleary: I I just think the sky's the limit, you know.
- 1:16:15Zay Mccleary: I can't wait to see, you know, where I go next.
- 1:16:17Zay Mccleary: And I just encourage people, you know, who are doing, you know, self-taught like myself, man, is to keep pushing.
- 1:16:23Vipul Bindra: Yeah.
- 1:16:24Zay Mccleary: Um, and just connect with good people, man.
- 1:16:26Zay Mccleary: And don't take this film sub too, you know.
- 1:16:28Zay Mccleary: I always tell you that.
- 1:16:29Zay Mccleary: Like, no, it's serious.
- 1:16:30Zay Mccleary: The work is serious enough.
- 1:16:32Zay Mccleary: Yeah, no.
- 1:16:32Zay Mccleary: You know, just have fun, yeah.
- 1:16:34Zay Mccleary: Have fun.
- 1:16:35Zay Mccleary: I I think that's probably something I I do want to check, because sometimes you have uh people like Shakers who like, oh no, this is how it goes in film.
- 1:16:42Zay Mccleary: Like, you know, the uh the director's gonna be an a-hole.
- 1:16:44Zay Mccleary: This is gonna be like, no, I don't, I don't, I don't know.
- 1:16:46Vipul Bindra: That's called dinosaurs, and they're they're slowly getting vetoed out of the industry.
- 1:16:49Vipul Bindra: And so we don't know.
- 1:16:50Zay Mccleary: Yeah, you can have that, but that's not gonna be me.
- 1:16:52Zay Mccleary: So I think I'm the oddball when in in when it comes to this work in the industry, and I have no problem doing that.
- 1:16:57Zay Mccleary: It's like, no, you should be the serious director.
- 1:16:59Zay Mccleary: No, I'm that's not me.
- 1:17:01Zay Mccleary: Yeah, I think you'll notice most successful people are unlike that.
- 1:17:04Vipul Bindra: It's only the bad ones that are.
- 1:17:07Zay Mccleary: Like we were talking about sports, use it as a comparison.
- 1:17:09Zay Mccleary: It's like, um, no, it's at a certain level with film, you you do is like, hey, when you got a lot on the line, I mean that's our that's serious enough.
- 1:17:16Zay Mccleary: But what good is it to uh I mean you're screaming about everything.
- 1:17:20Zay Mccleary: I mean, you see head coach on the bench when you're looking at sports.
- 1:17:23Zay Mccleary: At some point, he may, you know, talk to his team, he may rough them up, and then something goes wrong.
- 1:17:27Zay Mccleary: I mean, you're going straight into it with the attitude, I don't want to play for you.
- 1:17:30Zay Mccleary: Or can you do anything like you're always mad?
- 1:17:34Zay Mccleary: We score, you're upset.
- 1:17:35Zay Mccleary: We went and so uh no, but you know, it's the work is serious enough.
- 1:17:38Zay Mccleary: Um, learn to enjoy it.
- 1:17:40Zay Mccleary: And um, I think we were all smiling.
- 1:17:42Zay Mccleary: When we when we were looking at the subject, like, hey bro, this is exactly what we wanted.
- 1:17:45Zay Mccleary: Exactly.
- 1:17:46Vipul Bindra: No, despite all the challenges, everyone on set was happy.
- 1:17:49Vipul Bindra: We were happy to be there, right, Mario?
- 1:17:52Mario Rangel: Yeah, we did.
- 1:17:52Mario Rangel: We had a great time.
- 1:17:54Mario Rangel: I'm excited for next year.
- 1:17:56Zay Mccleary: Oh no, man.
- 1:17:57Mario Rangel: This is gonna be dope, man.
- 1:17:58Mario Rangel: Who said you were invited?
- 1:18:00Vipul Bindra: I'm just playing with you, Mario.
- 1:18:02Vipul Bindra: You're you're the you're you're definitely you're the MVP, and you're you're definitely invited.
- 1:18:06Vipul Bindra: No, I love uh by the way, shout out to Mario.
- 1:18:08Vipul Bindra: I know I've said this before, but uh I've loved collaborating with him over the last few years.
- 1:18:13Vipul Bindra: Uh that's why I invited him to be the producer on the on the podcast, just because you want the good attitude.
- 1:18:19Vipul Bindra: You not only want the skill, but you want people who are like take a need and then figure out a way to do it.
- 1:18:26Vipul Bindra: Again, problem solving and doing it correctly.
- 1:18:28Vipul Bindra: Mario did that on this because I realized what I needed to do, and I was like, there's no way I can do five things on this project.
- 1:18:35Vipul Bindra: So I remember telling Mario, hey, you gotta do A-Camp, you gotta do B cam, you gotta make sure they're focused, and you gotta listen to audio.
- 1:18:41Vipul Bindra: This guy was triple, triple doing uh the job uh because I was having to do so much talking to you and the rest of the crew and watching the mario.
- 1:18:51Vipul Bindra: I was like, I can't because originally I was gonna monitor the audio.
- 1:18:54Vipul Bindra: I was like, I just can't.
- 1:18:56Vipul Bindra: So this guy for stepping up, and that's why why I agree with you, he was the MVP because he stepped up and did what he needed to do.
- 1:19:04Vipul Bindra: And at the end, I think it came out incredible, and not just him, but I'm saying everyone did, but like for especially Mario.
- 1:19:10Vipul Bindra: So thank you, Mario.
- 1:19:11Vipul Bindra: Uh, thank you for being on this episode, man.
- 1:19:13Vipul Bindra: Thank you.
- 1:19:14Vipul Bindra: Uh I appreciate you.
- 1:19:15Mario Rangel: Thank you, guys.
- 1:19:15Mario Rangel: Hope you have to.
- 1:19:16Mario Rangel: It was a great conversation.
- 1:19:17Mario Rangel: Yeah, man.
- 1:19:18Mario Rangel: Yeah, thank you.
- 1:19:19Mario Rangel: Thank you for having me.
- 1:19:20Vipul Bindra: Thank you, Zay.
- 1:19:21Vipul Bindra: This has been incredible, bro.
- 1:19:22Vipul Bindra: We're gonna keep doing this, absolutely, and uh next time we'll hopefully talk longer because uh so many more problems.
- 1:19:29Zay Mccleary: It's a lot to talk about, man.
- 1:19:30Vipul Bindra: Yeah, but uh thank you for coming, and until the next episode on Studio B sessions with me, Bendra.