Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 379: The Art of Being a Military Advisor on Set with Jariko Denman

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BPS 379: The Art of Being a Military Advisor on Set with Jariko Denman · Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

• 0:03
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, episode number three seventy nine.
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  Speaker 2: Through every generation of the human race, there's always been
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  Speaker 1: screenwriting while teaching you how to make your screenplay bulletproof.
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  Speaker 2: And here's your host, Alex Ferrari. Welcome, Welcome to another
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  Speaker 2: episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. I am your humble
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  Speaker 2: host Alex Ferrari. Now, today's show is sponsored by Bulletproof
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  Speaker 2: to covermiscreenplay dot com. Well, guys, today we are in
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: for an intense episode. Our guest is Jericho the Man,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: and Jericho is a military advisor on film sets and
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  Speaker 2: television shows. And I've never had someone like him on
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  Speaker 2: the show before because he's not just a filmmaker. He
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: is a veteran and he's been in Afghanistan. He was
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  Speaker 2: there as the US was exiting Afghanistan. He tells us
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  Speaker 2: stories about what happened there, how he was able to
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  Speaker 2: deal with PTSD using psychedelics, and and this is just
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  Speaker 2: such an interesting conversation, not only about the filmmaking side
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  Speaker 2: of his life, but about the military side of his
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  Speaker 2: life as well. You are in for an intense treat.
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  Speaker 2: So without any further ado, please enjoy my inspirational conversation
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  Speaker 2: with Jericho. Demand I like to welcome to the show,
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  Speaker 2: Jericho Deadman.
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  Speaker 3: Hi doing Jerko dam great. Thanks for having me on.
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  Speaker 2: Hey Man, thanks for coming on. Brother. You are a
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  Speaker 2: unique guest to the show because I've never had a
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  Speaker 2: filmmaker slash soldier, slash media slash ayahuasca taker and and
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  Speaker 2: so many other things. You know, when when when you're
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: when our mutual friend connected us. I just fascinated by
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  Speaker 2: your story in general, man, and I have all sorts
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  Speaker 2: of question for you. So and by the way, the
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  Speaker 2: best quote I think that pretty much sums you up,
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  Speaker 2: if I may be so bold, is one of your quotes, sir,
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  Speaker 2: h I don't want to be rich er famous, I
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  Speaker 2: just want to be a fucking storyteller. Pretty much sums
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  Speaker 2: it all up.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, I've told some stories and I'm pretty far
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  Speaker 3: from being rich or famous.
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  Speaker 2: So going far then you're you're right on tracks or
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  Speaker 2: you're right on your mission. You're right on mission. So, so,
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  Speaker 2: first question, man, how did you get involved in the military,
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  Speaker 2: How did you become an army ranger all that kind
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  Speaker 2: of stuff.
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  Speaker 3: Uh, yeah, I got of all I was. I was
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  Speaker 3: an army brat, So I grew up in a military household.
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  Speaker 3: My dad served over twenty years. He's Vietnam, VET, uh,
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  Speaker 3: Desert storm grenades and a few wars. So I just,
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  Speaker 3: you know, for me, it was kind of normal. He
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  Speaker 3: did want me to join the Air Force, so I
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  Speaker 3: got treated better than an army guy. But I I, uh,
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  Speaker 3: I pulled a fast on him and I joined the
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  Speaker 3: Army just like just like he was in. So yeah,
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  Speaker 3: you know, growing up in a military family, it was
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  Speaker 3: kind of a natural pacing for me. I was, you know,
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  Speaker 3: as a kid though, I was pretty artistic. I drew
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  Speaker 3: a lot, painted and stuff like that. My dad really
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  Speaker 3: wanted me to go to art school, so I always did.
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  Speaker 3: I was always very creative. But I also wanted to
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  Speaker 3: go in the military. I wanted to do it, get
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  Speaker 3: some adventure. I wanted to get out of my parents' house.
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  Speaker 3: I hated school. So it was just a natural progression.
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  Speaker 3: It was either you know, it be Jeremiah Johnson living
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  Speaker 3: in the mountains or join the military. So I chose.
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  Speaker 3: I chose the military, and then my brother also joined
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  Speaker 3: the military and we both you know, kind of went
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  Speaker 3: down the ranger track. Just I'm not sure how familiar
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  Speaker 3: you are, but you know, uh, number the Ranger community.
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  Speaker 3: The Ranger Regiment is is basically the only special operations
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  Speaker 3: unit at that time. You know, I joined in the
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  Speaker 3: late nineties. It was the only special operations unit you
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  Speaker 3: could go to or assess and select for off the street.
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  Speaker 3: So back then, at least when I went to the
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  Speaker 3: Navy recruiter, you couldn't get a BUDS or a seal contract, right.
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  Speaker 3: You had to join the Navy with some other job
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  Speaker 3: that they had assigned you and then just hope that
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  Speaker 3: you were able to get to BUDS or assess for
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  Speaker 3: the seal teams. Same with the Air Force, same with
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  Speaker 3: the Marine Corps, all those other branches basically said hey,
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  Speaker 3: you can come and be a cool guy, but you
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  Speaker 3: have to sign up for this and hope that we
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  Speaker 3: accept you into the selection process. Whereas to become a Ranger,
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  Speaker 3: you walking off the street and say, hey, I want
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  Speaker 3: to arrange your contract, which doesn't guarantee you're going to
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  Speaker 3: become a Ranger, but it does guarantee that you will
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  Speaker 3: be given the opportunity to assess and select or assess
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  Speaker 3: and be selected. So that was the reason that basically
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  Speaker 3: the whole reason I became an Army Ranger is because
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  Speaker 3: it was the only one you could sign up to
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  Speaker 3: go directly to the selection.
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  Speaker 2: So what I mean I've heard. I mean, obviously the
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  Speaker 2: Seals is a legendary selection process. It's been talked a lot,
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  Speaker 2: but I don't know a lot about the Rangers, which
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  Speaker 2: I hear. It's no joke.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's you know, all all those selections are. You know,
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  Speaker 3: they're similar. They just they choose different things by which
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  Speaker 3: to torture you with, and and they you know, every
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  Speaker 3: selection process in the military or the special operations community,
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  Speaker 3: it's just a series of gates through which you have
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  Speaker 3: to pass before you you you know, you can call
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  Speaker 3: yourself whatever that may be. And uh, you know, in
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: in Buds they use a lot of like maritime stuff,
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  Speaker 3: swimming and and you know, zodiac rafts and all these
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  Speaker 3: all these things physical things, but most of them having
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  Speaker 3: to do with the water. Whereas you know, the the
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  Speaker 3: selection pipeline for the Ranger Regiment is you know, it's
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  Speaker 3: very ground based. It's a it's a the Ranger regimen
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  Speaker 3: is known as the most elite light infantry in the world.
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  Speaker 3: So every gate we passed through is an assessment in
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  Speaker 3: your skills in that in that environment. Right, So you
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  Speaker 3: go through. So when I went in, you you go
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  Speaker 3: to you join the army, You go through basic training
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  Speaker 3: as an infantryman, you go to airborne school, jump school
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  Speaker 3: where you learn how to jump out of a plane,
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  Speaker 3: which is it's like a little break, honestly, it's not
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  Speaker 3: not a hard school. And then you go to a
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  Speaker 3: thing that is now called RASP, the Ranger Assessment Selection Program.
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  Speaker 3: It's an eight week course and it's just physical and
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  Speaker 3: you know, academic tests that test your metal in you know,
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  Speaker 3: doing ground combat, right, so patrolling in the woods, doing raids,
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  Speaker 3: recon ambush and then just like physical things, rock marches, runs,
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  Speaker 3: you know, pt events. And one of the big differences
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  Speaker 3: in being a Ranger and being in a couple of
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  Speaker 3: these other units is in the regiment we have. I'll
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  Speaker 3: refer to it as the regiment because you know it is.
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  Speaker 3: And but at the end of that process, you basically
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  Speaker 3: you're assigned to a ranger battalion. But a difference with
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: us is once you're assigned to the range of battalion,
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  Speaker 3: that's when we say, okay, you're through RASP. Now the
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  Speaker 3: hard part starts, right, So you get placed in kind
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  Speaker 3: of an unofficial probationary status, much like a you know,
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: a probationary firefighter their first year on the job. They
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: do anything wrong, they're gone, right, So you have that
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  Speaker 3: same kind of environment as a new guy in the
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  Speaker 3: Ranger regiment, and then there's this kind of a confusing
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  Speaker 3: thing for a lot of people go to You then
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  Speaker 3: go to Ranger School, right, which is a school run
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  Speaker 3: by the Training Detachment of the US Army. It's a
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  Speaker 3: it's an army school. It isn't necessarily a special operations course.
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  Speaker 3: It's very old school, but it's another gate, right, And
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  Speaker 3: in order to become a leader or really to survive
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  Speaker 3: past a year in the Ranger regiment, you have to
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  Speaker 3: complete Ranger School. So all in, you know, your pipeline
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  Speaker 3: is around a year and a half from off the
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  Speaker 3: street to then getting there and being like, okay, i
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  Speaker 3: am an established ranger. So you know, Rangers School is
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  Speaker 3: it's mainly it's a leadership course, that's what they say.
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  Speaker 3: But they basically don't let you sleep and they don't
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  Speaker 3: let you eat, and they have you patrol for you know,
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  Speaker 3: two and a half months constant raid recon ambush patrols
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  Speaker 3: throughout carrying about one hundred pound rucksack in three different phases.
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  Speaker 3: You do your first phase Forebenning, Georgia, which is just
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  Speaker 3: kind of like run of the mill woods, and then
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  Speaker 3: you go to Mountain phase, which is in Delanaga, North Georgia,
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  Speaker 3: which is the base of the Appalachian Trail.
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  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
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  Speaker 3: So pretty pretty legit mountains there. You do patrols there,
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: and then you go to Florida and you do what's
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: called like Florida Phase or Swamp phase, and you're yeah,
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: in the swamps for the last last little bit there
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: and then hopefully you graduate and you know, you can
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: get recycled, dropped, all those things. So it lasts anyway
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: from about two and a half months to if you're
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: just not a lucky fella, you can be there for
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: you know, a long time.
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  Speaker 2: So it's it's just like filmmaking but different.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you know, it's I found a lot of
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: parallels in the in the film community. I think you're
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: making a joke.
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  Speaker 2: But I know, I know, I know there is. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I've been directed for real almost thirty years. It's always
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: I always looked at it. It's very much like a like
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: a military unit, even though I had never been in
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: the military, but from from watching and understanding and just
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: studying what that's like, you know, seeing just movies, you
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: just go, oh, this seems like a group of guys
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: or of people trying to make something happen, different apartments,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: central leadership, and and then there's sub leaderships all around,
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: and you just got to keep going. And it's and
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: it's you just move into an area that wasn't there before,
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: generally speaking, occupied by force. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I always say,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: we're carneies. We just put up tents. We should do
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: a show, and then the carney pulled the tents down
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: and then you're off. Because I don't know about you
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: if if you've met any people in the industry, carney like, yeah,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: it's I mean.
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  Speaker 3: And that's one of the things that attracted me to
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: the film industry too, is it's a very kind of
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: a nomadic lifestyle. Like you're not nomadic in the sense
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: that you don't have a home, but like you get
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: to go all over the place. You know, you get
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: to go see you know, I don't know a lot
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: of other things where you're like Oh, I'm gonna go
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: live in New Orleans for three months. You know, it's great.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: I think it's awesome.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: I'm going to New Zealand for six months or a year.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: So I'm like that some things like that. Yeah, it
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: is a very it's a sexy business. Uh on the outside.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: The inside isn't that so much? So the one thing
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  Speaker 2: I you know, there's a lot of misconceptions about military
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: and soldiers and you know, and especially in the world
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: that we live in today. What's the biggest misconception uh
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: that you you feel that people have of military, of soldiers,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: of you know, people you know going out there and
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: doing their job.
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  Speaker 3: Uh. Yeah, I think hmm, that's a really good question.
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  Speaker 3: The biggest misconceptions I'd say is just it's kind of
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: like how society in general is right now. Right Like,
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: as a veteran, I find myself either completely lionized like
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: oh man, you're you. If you fart, it doesn't stink
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: to you, to being completely demonized like, oh man, that
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: guy's probably got PTSD is probably crazy, you know, that
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: type of thing. So it's just that I'd say that
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  Speaker 3: the biggest, you know, misconception is like we're not Jason Bourne,
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: you know, but we're also not Travis Pickele, you know,
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: like the we live in the middle somewhere.
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  Speaker 2: Right, they see exactly because movies have and that helped
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: the stereotype they used to they go to the extreme
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  Speaker 2: most movies exactly, I mean other than Full Metal Jacket, right.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. You know, I think within my community, and the
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  Speaker 3: thing I often thatt with is like, I volunteered. I
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: really enjoyed my time in the military. I loved it.
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  Speaker 3: I liked deploying, I liked doing missions. I liked I
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: liked it so was there was there some degree of sacrifice, absolutely,
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: but they're they're ones that I chose, you know, Like, yeah,
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: I missed a bunch of birthdays and I didn't do
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: this and that. But I also got to do some
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: really really really cool stuff that not a lot of
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: get people get to do.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: And you get to play with some pretty pretty narly toys.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah that too. I'm I've never really been a
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: gun guy or gear guy or whatever. I just like
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: kind of like whatever they get me out of the armory,
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: I'll take it and use it. But there are a
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: lot of there are a lot of people in the
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: military that they're really into that. So like every day
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: they come to work, they're like, this is awesome. I
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: get to have this you know, widget or this rocket
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: or this whatever. And I was like, whatever, man, it's
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: just Wednesday to me. You know.
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  Speaker 2: Now, you and you said you enjoyed your time in
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: the military. Apparently you did because you had is it
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: fifty four months of combat?
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's correct, that's what was it?
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Fifteen tours?
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, fifteen tours. So in the regiment, you know, we
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: were part of the special operations community, so our deployments
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: weren't as long. So a conventional army unit usually deployed
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: twelve to fifteen months for deployment, but just because of
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: our op tempo, our operational tempo, we were like hit
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: it so hard and did so much, our deployments were
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: generally shorter. So my you know deployments, those of those
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: fifteen those were anywhere from like sixty to one hundred
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: and eighty days each. They weren't years long, but when
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: you add them all up, it's yeah, they're about four
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: and a half years or however long that is.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: So, you know, being in the military, as long as
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: you haven't seen as much combat as you have. H
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: what do you think is the mentality that you need
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: to have in order to survive that kind of you know,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: that kind of not trauma, but just that whole the
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: whole thing. I mean, there's a special kind of human
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: that goes into that. Like I I can't comprehend going
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: into that, even though I'm a filmmaker. I can pretend it,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: but like it's there's a certain mindset, there's a certain
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: mentality that that you need to have. What do you
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: what's your experience and what do you think it is?
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: It's another good question. It's almost like you do this
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: for a living.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: It's that it's not my first rodeo sir.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: No, Yeah, the uh I think I think it's finding
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: whatever your motivation is. And it's different for everyone, you know.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: For me, uh as corny as it sounds, for me,
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: it was it was service, not so much a grandiose
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: service to our nation, while that did come in, you know,
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: as a youngster, but for me it was again these
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: are all cliches, but cliches come from somewhere. It was
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: service to the people. With me, I I I never
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: wanted to you know, punch out and then you know,
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: find out on the next deployment, one of my friends
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: got hurt or killed. So it was it was kind
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: of a you know, almost a selfish act. It's like
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: a fomo kind of thing.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: You get on these deployments, you start, you know, stacking
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: up accolades, you start to develop a reputation, and you
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: just you just want to keep you know, feeding the beast.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: It can also be a bit of an addiction. Yeah,
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: So while I was well, I would love to say
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: it was like, oh man, I really like I it
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: was it was fifty percent motivation to do it again
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: and fifty percent fear of missing out on the next one.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: That's a that's a really interesting one because I've heard
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: that from from you know, other military people. I've seen
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: that it's just kind of like it's an adrenaline rush,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: like you're on on like a high, an adrenaline high
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: all the time. Like you can't rest when you're on deployment,
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: almost to a certain extent if I'm not if I'm
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: not mistaken, right, Yeah.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And and you know, now we're finding there's like
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: a lot of physiological effects of that in that environment
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: that we're in, you know, like just the hypervigilance, and
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: you know a lot of hormonal things that that have
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: happened to guys just because it takes you know, it
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: takes a long time to unpack that and like reverse
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: the effects of that. But absolutely, you're you're you're in
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: that environment all the time, and you're just like you
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: kind of need it after a while.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: It's yeah, it's almost like a yeah, it's it's from
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: what I hear and from what I've heard that a
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: lot of soldiers that have been out into deployment they say, look,
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm not fighting for my country, I'm fighting for
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: my brother next to me. Absolutely, yeah, that's that's basically
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: because you know, there's the macro and then there's the
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: micro of what you're fighting for. And you're like, right now,
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: I can't think of the macro. I'm thinking about these
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: guys next to me, this this my unit.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, and and and you know you also really
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: don't have time to think about like the macro. You know,
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: at kind of the tactical level, like Okay, we're gonna
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: go out and raid this house or raid this place.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: Like you're you're like, oh, actually should we Like are
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: you don't have time for that. So it does you.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: You you really circle the wagons with the group you're
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: with and and do the best job you can and
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: hope that it's all chipping away at the grant the
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: greater good. But it doesn't so.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Fair enough. Now, you know, from for my research on you,
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: I did hear that you, uh, you took ayahuasca. Now,
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: I I've been fascinated with that that stuff. I haven't
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: taken any, nor do I plan on taking it, but
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: I'm always I always love asking people what they saw
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: because from what I understand, and it is not only trippy,
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: but it's like, and I've gotten deep into the psilocybin
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: and all of that stuff that it's kind of in
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: the similar biote and all that stuff. It opens up
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: doorways in your mind that you can't even comprehend. I'd
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: love to hear straight from the horse's mouth, no pun intended.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: Sorry, absolutely, if I were to describe it, say indescribable.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: But you know, I've had a few years now to
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: sit with it, and I do. I do a lot
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: of work with plant medicine and with with psychedelics in general.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: I think they're really really good when done intentionally. I
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: think there are a lot of people that are running
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: from their problems with them. But when done with intention,
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: you know not only the spiritual changes in myself but
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: also the physiological changes that can be proven through science.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: You can't argue with it. But as far as things
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: I saw, the big takeaway for me and the thing
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: that I think, I will say openly that like I
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: think ayahuasca saved my life.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: Not in that I was going to go kill myself,
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: but I was just miserable. As just a miserable person,
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: I couldn't experience happiness. I couldn't. I couldn't. I couldn't
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: meaning I couldn't connect with people in a meaningful way.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: But I can't know, And I credit ayahuasca with that,
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: and what it really did for me. The thing that
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: I can like really take out of it is that
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: it put me into such amazingly dark places like fear
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: and terror and just bad stuff, indescribably bad, like really
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: feeling that and then being able to pull myself out
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: of it in my own mind. Gave me back the
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: power to feel how I want to feel, if that
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: makes sense.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: It makes all it makes all the sense in the world.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: It seems like it's from what I've heard it just
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: like it does open up different your consciousness opens up.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: It like if your consciousness is normally this way, you
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: have a window of opportunity of maybe a few hours,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: like a few hours if I'm not mistaken like this,
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: And it's a lot that comes in and it's all personalized.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: It's not like everyone we're all going to McDonald's now.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Everyone has their own own experience in that time period.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, And it's I mean like when you when
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: you talk about it being indescribable, it's like, you know,
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: there was no sense of time, no sense of space,
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: absolute just being in not even being it's just it's
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: it's very hard to explain. But again it once you
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: once you're in there and your mind can kind of
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: like navigate your way out, it gives you this power
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: again to you know. I still i still get in
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: bad moods. I'm still sad, I'm still angry, but now
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, I'm feeling angry. Is this like, is
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: this a a logical response to what's going on right now? Yes?
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: It is?
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, good you know whereas before, you know, I
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: would put myself in a loop of like anger and
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: depression and anger and depression, and I'm able to kind
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: of pull myself out of that now.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: So it's kind of like it it almost simulates the
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: darkest parts of your soul in many ways and allows
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: you to figure your way back out of that. So
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: it's almost a training in a virtual environment. It's almost
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: like you know, virtual VR training of the soul. And
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: then you come back and you're like, is that good.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: It's a very good way of putting it. Yeah. Yeah,
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: And you know, one of the kind of physiological ways
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: I've had it explaining to you because it's a very
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: spiritual experience, but I'm also like I like to figure
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: things out, you know. So the way it's kind of
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: been explained to me is, you know, when when our
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: brains experience trauma, when we experience trauma, whether it's childhood
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: or adult trauma, our brain is a is a living
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: being that figures out, Okay, I'm going through this. I'm
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: just gonna like, you know, if there's a pathway between
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: here and here, my brain just says, okay, I don't
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: like it here, I'm going to go around this spot, right.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: So then we have these coping mechanisms for our traumas,
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: whether it's you know, not feeling safe as a kid
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: or experiencing, you know, a blunt trauma of seeing something
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: really bad, our brain shuts off certain pathways.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: Mhm.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: Those pathways, however, are very necessary for our brains to
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: work and for us to be at our true top
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: form self. So what ayahuasca does, or a lot of
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: psychedelics do, is they go back in and they turn
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: those pathways back on. But in doing so, we have
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: to reexperience whatever level of trauma there was that made
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: that turn off, Like the brain remembers and it puts
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: us back through it. But then we come out and
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: they're turned back on and we have a better brain
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: for it.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Sure, it basically goes in and rewires you in many ways.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like the groove in the in the record,
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: there was a scratch. They went in and that right
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: out and made that connection again exactly.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, I'm not a scientist or anything,
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: but I like that way.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: It's very scientific. That's proven science, sir, the record theory.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: So but you mentioned something a few times in our
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: conversation the spirituality aspect of it, and I've heard that
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: as well. What did you you know when you walked
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: in were you a very spiritual person? Or when you
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: walked out did you become more spiritual? Did you see
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: something in there that just made sense to you? Because
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: I've heard many different scenarios, I.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: Wouldn't call myself spiritual. I do, Hey, there's somebody up
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: there pulling the strings on something, right, but I can't
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: put my finger on it. I'm not a religious person.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: Never happened. I wasn't raised that way, you know. I
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: do feel I do feel a really strong bond to
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: the earth, you know, I like with nature, with animals.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: But as far as I wouldn't describe myself as a
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: spiritual person, and I think if anything coming out of it,
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: I feel a stronger bond at the mac like we're
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: talking macro level like to the universe. Like I absolutely
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: think that we are a spec in in in something. So,
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: you know, I feel like coming out of that, I
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: was in some places, whether it was in my mind
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: only or not, that are you know, I recognize that
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: there's a lot bigger of a There's an indescribably big
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: something out there and I can't ignore that anymore. So
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: it just gives me universal rather than spiritual.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: Maybe been either either. I mean you could say either
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: one really, because spiritual has a connotation to it and
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: understanding that's your greater part of a larger universes in
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: many ways a spiritual a spiritual thing. It just all
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: depends on how you look at it. And it sounds
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: to me that it also kind of humbled you and
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: humbled the ego a bit, because when you say we
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: are a spec that is diminishing the ego dramatically.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, I mean there is yeah, no ego left
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: coming out of it. Coming out of that oh yeah yeah.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: The first ceremony and you call them ceremonies, I did four.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Oh you did four ceremonies. Yeah, what you did, because
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: that's who you are.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: But I'm telling you that after coming out of that
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: first one, I was like, I mean, just like bug eyes, like,
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: I don't know how I'm going to.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Do that again, Like I was, you know, how how
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: how long of time did you have between I did?
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: So I did four ceremonies. I did one one night,
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: on the next night, took a day off, and then
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: did two more.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you are a soldier, brother, I mean that's a mentality,
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: that's a that's a military mentality to this thing. Like
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: you're like, I don't care it. It almost killed me
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: the first time. Screw it. I'm going back in.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I've I've talked to you know,
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: I get a lot of questions from people in the
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: in the veteran community about ayahuasca, and I kind of
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: tell people the best time to go into it is
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: if you've got nowhere else to go. It's it's best
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: to do it when you kind of feel like you
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: are out of options because I was able to, you know,
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: with a lot of a lot of turbulence obviously give
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: in to it and and just say hey, like here,
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: I am like you can kill me if you want
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: to do whatever, but I am at your mercy. Basically,
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: you you.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: Surrendered, which is not in your nature as a general statement,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: which is fascinating because you, as a soldier, you're not
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: built to surrender. But in that environment, the ayahuasca, it
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: pushes you to a place where you like I'm done.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: I have and that's basically spirituality, and you give up.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: You like fine, I just go take me yeah, and
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: and then that and then you come back from that,
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: and I mean it changes you forever. And I understand
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: that so many PTSD and traumas are being saved being
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: like with one or two doses of psilocybin or peote
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: or ayahuasca. These kind of psychedelics are doing some really
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: amazing things clinically. Like they're doing it clinically too.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, There's there's people out there doing really really amazing
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: work with it. There's a couple of you know, veteran
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: nonprofits out there that are setting veterans up with with ceremonies,
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: like very responsible ceremonies. You know, There's there's a lot
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: of there's a lot of weirdos out there, you know,
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: like ayahuasca in the basement in West Hollywood. Like that's
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: not where you want to go.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: But I've I've I used to live in a sir,
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: I understand exactly what you're talking about. I've I've heard
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: of these. Hey man, we're gonna go to Ayahuasca and
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: West Hollywood. I'm like, you let me know how that
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: works out for you, brother, because I don't want to
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: go to Ayahuasca and walk out to West Hollywood.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: Oh Man, that would be, that would be I'd much.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Rather be in the jungle with a panther somewhere.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's funny.
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: So speaking of Hollywood, you go, you've gone, You've lived
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: a fairly exciting life, and then Hollywood comes a calling
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: and you get you get caught up in this insanity
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: that is Hollywood as a as a military specialist, a consultant,
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: right me, a tech advisor.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: So tell me why and how did you get in?
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: So I think the how became came before the why,
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: which was I was, you know, I was getting ready
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: to retire. I was working teaching college r OTC in
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: New York City.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: And now back to the show.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: And a friend of a friend who was a Navy guy,
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: seal team guy, which seals kind of have Hollywood that
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: market corner, right, It's no secret teck advising thing. It's
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: it's it's very seal heavy. So rent of a friend
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: got called for a job tech advising on a limited
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: series by nat Geo called The Long Road Home. That
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: series was about Army guys in Solder City, Iraq, and
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: just one major battle they had. So this Navy guy
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: got the job. Call for the job, and he's like,
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: I don't know anything about the Army and I'm not
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: gonna be a shithead and and take a job that
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: I really am not qualified for. So he called another
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: guy and was like, hey, you know he this other
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: guy had worked in the in the industry a little bit,
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: in like stunts and things like that, and helped out
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: on set, you know, being a PA here and there,
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: so he knew the business a little bit, but he
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: was also not necessarily very experienced army guy. So he
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: he called me and said, hey, they allowed him to
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: have a second guy just for pre pro, just for
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: you know, the table reads and the getting getting wardrobe,
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: getting props, getting all that stuff together. So he called
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: me because he knew I was getting ready to retire.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: He's like, hey, do you want to come check this out?
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: I know you were in Solder City. You really experienced guy.
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: You can help out. I'll handle the movie stuff, you
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: just handle the army stuff. I was like, okay. So
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: I went and did it, did the pre pro thing,
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: and they they liked my work, so they said, hey,
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: you can stay on for the run on the show.
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: So I stayed on for the run the show doing
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: tech Advisor stuff. And you know, at this point I
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: was retiring. I knew that I didn't know what I
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: was going to do when I grew up. So I
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: was like, all right, I'll kind of pursue this. So
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: you know that Navy guy, his name's Raymondoza. He's uh,
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: tech advised and produced on a lot of things. He
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: just got done doing the run a show for Terminal List.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: He's he's got a great, you know list of credits
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: in that world. So he's like, yeah, man, I'll kind
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: of champion you into the Indian industry. Anytime I got
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: a job, will bring you along and we'll be a team.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: So him and I just, you know, we worked several things.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: Kind of we had a deal, like we called it,
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: you you eat what you kill. So we all went
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: out and tried to you know, you know, you know
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: how it is trying to get jobs. Hustle yeah, hustle yeah, hustle. Yeah,
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: you're on that hustle. So getting jobs, and then you'd
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: get a job and be like initial entry on the
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: job like hey, I can't do this a lot, and
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: they bring another guy and if they're you know, if
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: the Penny Pinchers say, well, we only got room for one.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: We're like, all right, and it is what it is. So,
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: you know, did that for a long time, like four
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: years with Ray, you know, both of us on a project,
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: him doing a project alone, me doing a project alone.
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: And you know, once I was into it, I guess
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: the why coms is like I really enjoyed it. It was
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: like a really because something I struggled with in my
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: you know, transition out of the military and civilian worlds.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: How do I take all this knowledge I have. I'm like,
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: you know, I retired as a master sergeant. I am
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: a master of this craft. How do I take all
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: that knowledge and use it? You know, I don't want
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: that to be a waste. There are there are these
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: intangible things of work, ethic and leadership and and you know,
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: these things that I've learned, But the actual skill set,
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: the things that I am an absolute master of. How
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: do I use those and not carry a gun anymore?
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: This was it? It was all right. I can be
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: I can be creative, I can be engaged, and I
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: can use these skills to like make art and to
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: help people, you know, bring their visions to life and
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: I loved it and I loved how you know a
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: set it works like a military unit. There are people
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: who do X Y Z. They do those things. They
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: perform or they don't work. You know, reputation carries you
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: a long way in the industry. There were a lot
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: of different things that once I did it, I was like,
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: I really like this and that was that was kind
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: of my why it wasn't I had to get into
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: it to see it, but once I was there, it
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: was like, Oh, this is this is what I want
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: to do with my life.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: That's awesome, man, and it's and you've worked on some
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: pretty cool shows along the way. Without the question. I
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: have to ask though, because I've been in the business
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: for a few years and you know, Hollywood actors they
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: could tend to be a little flaky sometimes a little little,
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: a little soft, but they feel like they they they pretend,
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: they forget that they're pretending to be a tough guy
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: until they run into a tough guy. So off the record,
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: you don't have to say names. You don't have to
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: say a show. Have you ever had to check somebody?
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: Have you ever had to say, dude, you're gonna hurt somebody?
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: Shut the f up.
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I mean yeah, and that's like a lot.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: That's one thing that's really good about Ray and A's relationship.
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: I will tell I'm like, hey, man, I don't care
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: if I get fired, Like, you're not gonna make me
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: fucking look bad.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: I don't like it is you do take ownership of
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: these projects. Like you know, when when a thing that
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: I'm on comes out, I'm I'm nervous because my friends
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: are gonna watch it. Andy be like, would you let
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: this dude do that?
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: Peer pressure?
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, but I will say, and I get I
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: get this question a lot from people from the military.
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: They're like, oh, man, Mark working with actors, all those
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: prima donnas, like they must suck. I've had I would
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: say ninety five percent positive experiences at the end of
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: the day. The actors they want to look good, you know,
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: and if you present yourself as a professional that can
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: make them look good, they'll listen to you. Oh there
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: is one guy. There's one time when I would say,
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: like I had to check someone and be like, hey,
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: shut the fuck up and listen to me. You don't
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: know what the fuck you're talking about. It happened, Yeah,
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: and uh, yeah, I won't name names.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: Of course, not off the record. Well, when the camera
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: stops recording, well.
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: I will say he took very like he took this
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: feedback very gracefully and was like, you are absolutely right.
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, but he did have to get checked.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, Like the stories are here of stunt coordinators and
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: people who like you know, play kung ful guys on
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: screen and they try to test the stunt guy who
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: happens to be like a martial arts expert, and yeah,
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: you know, well I will.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: Say too, you know, in doing what I do in
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: the tech advisor world, some of my biggest issues are
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: usually with stunt guys.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's you know what I because I've I've had
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: I've had a lot of big stunt guys on the show,
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: and I've worked with stunt guys. They're all nuts. I'm
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: not sure as nuts as you guys are, but nuts nevertheless,
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: And I can imagine those two hitting on a set
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: must be interesting.
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: Well, it's it's I get it. It's uh for me,
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: I don't I don't have ego. I just want the
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: movie to look good, you know, And I think what
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: it is is a lot of times, you know, when
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: you're a stunt guy. If you're on an action movie,
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: there's not usually a tech advisor on like an action movie, right,
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: And I've done some action stuff. It's like sci fi centric, like,
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: but I still want the people shooting to look right,
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: you know, for their character or whatever. And I'll be like, oh, man,
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: I was in such and such and I was and
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: so and so, and I was like, all right, great, man,
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: I don't care that looked. Yeah, I watch that. You
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: looked fucking stupid when you're shooting a rifle, so listen
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: to me. But you know, for for the most part, uh,
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: stunt guys are great. There's and and stunt coordinators are
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: are always awesome. They all. I always have a very
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: relationship with the coordinators. It's it's usually like the guys
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: who have been as stunty for you know, a year
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: or two, and they're like, oh man, I know.
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: It's ego, the egos. Yeah. Yeah.
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: I have a friend who is in Special Forces. I'm like, okay, cool,
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: Like I don't care he's not here now and I am.
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: I am your the guy that you're saying, like told
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: you something like that. I'm the same as them, so
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: like shut the fuck up and listen to me.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah. No, stunt coordinators always because they have to be.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: They're they're the leaders, they're that they're the majors, they're
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: the masters of that of that craft, and if they
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: screw up, someone could get hurt or or gy.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: So every stunt coordinator I've ever met, they're like, they're
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: right on the money all the time, no messing around.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: But the stunt guys are the hey, man, can I
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: jump off that roof? I only need you on the floor,
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: but I want to do it off the twentieth floor.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: I could do it off the twentieth floor. I'm like,
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: the camera, I don't need it, but let me try
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: it for my real I'm like, no, fith the floor
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: is five.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: That's definitely a guy that's definitely a stunt guy that's
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: been in the business for like less than five.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: Years, right exactly. And then there's the old guy who's
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: been around twenty years. He's like, I'll do it off
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: the third floor and just move the camera over here
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: like that, throw the light over there. It's gonna look
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: like it's on the seventieth the floor. Let's go exactly now,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: what was now during all of your tech advising. What
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: was the most difficult day you've ever had to overcome
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: and how did you overcome it? Either mentally or either
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: just the day, because you know how it is on
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: a set, things don't go right, things go off things.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: You know, the guns didn't show up that day because
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: they get fucking traffic something like that. What was that
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: thing for you? I know it's not like a director
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: who's like the entire world's gonna come crashing on around you,
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: But was there something really difficult that you were able
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: to overcome and how did you overcome it? We'll be
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: right back after a word from our sponsor and now
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: back to the show.
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd say, you know, when I when I tech
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: advise for The Outpost, there were just a lot of
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: a lot of challenges in that I wouldn't put it
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: to a day, but I think like the pre production,
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: you know, it was all Bulgarian crew, you know, doing
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: it in Bulgaria, a lot of a lot of like additionally,
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: doing it with a studio that wasn't used to doing
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: kind of semi documentary style like war movie. They're used
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: to doing action, they're not used to doing war totally
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: different genre, which was kind of hard to explain to
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: them at times. But you know, there were there were
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: producers and even you know studio guys who really understood that.
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: But sometimes things would happen, you know, and you'd get
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: just the wrong guns, you know, or you know. One
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: of the things that happened with that was like the
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: it kind of worked differently over there with the crew
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: and the you know, the the prop master was kind
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: of handling a lot of stuff that like an armorer
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: would handle here, so he was just kind of out
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: of control, like kind of an ego maniac and just
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: didn't order me any AMO for training for the boot
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: camp that the actors had to do. So just getting
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: really creative in because I had to produce, you know,
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: a good end product of these these cast members being
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: able to portray professional soldiers, and you know, every step
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: along the way during that process, I was just thrown
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: you know, thrown resistance because and I'm not done at
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: the end of the day. I know that that guy
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: was probably getting told some by some line producer somewhere
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: like they don't need AMMO for training, that's just save
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: it until the movie. It's gonna save us, you know,
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: X number dollars or whatever. So, yeah, it was it
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: was getting through the pre production in that in that
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: movie in a way that's still accomplished the director's intent
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: for what he wanted these these guys to step on
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: set for day one, acting and feeling like and it
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: was it was I had hardly any gray hair before
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: I started that movie. This industry, this is she will
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: do that to you, that movie. Ag I'm twenty I'm
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: twenty two years olter, look at me. So I have
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: to ask you, though, man, you mean, obviously.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: You've seen movies over the years. You know, I see
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: that you have mister colonel is it Colonel Hicks? A
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: Corporal Hicks. Corporal Hicks behind you? From Aliens? You know,
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: obviously Full Metal Jacket is considered one of the classics.
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: What is the best, you know, one of the best
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: films that you think that really capture what it's like
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: to be in the military, even if it's a sci
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: fi movie. They didn't like they nailed it because I
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: think I've heard Aliens it's pretty pretty bad, like rock On.
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: I love Aliens. Uh, it's so good. My favorite My
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: favorite movie is Platoon.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's real, that's as real as it gets.
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there there are you know, some technical
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: aspects that are that are weird, but I wasn't in
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: Vietnam also, so yeah, I think just the how it feels,
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: it just feels just it feels right, you know. The
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: and how they they really captured in platoon. They they
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: showed how you never really, at least in my experience,
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: you never really hate your enemy like you hate your
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: chain of command, like you hate your leadership, right right right.
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: It it showed that in a really thoughtful and beautiful
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: way that like, yeah, these people are trying to kill us,
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: but our real enemy is this and I love that
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: about it. It Also, you know, it showed how many
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: different walks of life people come from in the military,
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: you know, and and those people's strengths and like, you know,
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: you have a you have Chris Taylor, who's a rich
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: college kid, and then you have guys you know, who
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: are rednecks or who are whoever. And they you see
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: their strengths and their weaknesses and their their their scar
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: tissue from home, and their their fears and their hopes
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: all coming together and that and that's what it's like.
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: It's it's it's a lot less your your experiences, there
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: are a lot less focused on the enemy and then
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: the actual fighting as they are in the in the
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: in the mundane, in the every day. And that's why
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: I love Platune.
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I had Oliver on the show and we
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: talked to the stories he told on air and off
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: about how he got that thing made is it's it's insane.
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: It's amazing. Anything anything that even has a whiff of
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: platoone on it, all all in jest. I've read all
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: his books, like watched every behind the scenes, like I
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: love that. I love that movie.
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And there was one I think it's one story
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: that I think it was one of the making of
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: that that all the all the actors were like huffing
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: up a hill and they were just dying because he
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: treated him like soldiers. And then he just drove up
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: on a jeep just like smoking a cigar and just
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: going to set and they're like, this is the freaking
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: general here. This is horrible. And he hated he hated that.
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: They hated the command. They hate it.
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: I mean he nailed it.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, he knew how to do it, man, no question.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: Now I wanted to ask you also another about another
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: part of your life where you were on the ground
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: level of Afghanistan when we were when we were leaving
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: Afghanistan over a year ago. But you were like right there,
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: you were at the gates, you were at the airport.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: What what was that like, man? Because all I saw,
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: I mean we all saw the video. We all saw
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: the footage and we saw, you know, people crying and
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: trying to escape, you know, before the Taliban came in.
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: What was that like, brother, Yeah, that.
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: Was I mean in it, you know, so it was
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: it was so just like I don't know if irony
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: is the right word, ironic it's the right word. Whatever.
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: But you know, I went through you know, I did
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: all this deployments in Afghanistan. I kind of I came back,
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: I got the filmustry, and then you know, between jobs
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: and stuff, I just kind of trying to find hustle,
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: you know, side hustles and stuff. So I got into,
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: you know, doing a little bit of freelance journalism, writing,
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: writing articles, doing a little bit of stuff. And you know,
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: I was, you know, presented with the opportunity to go
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: to to the gate to the airport during the evacuation,
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: and I thought I was just going to go on
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: a plane land, watch a bunch of evacuees get on
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: the plane and fly out. Well, then I got there
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: and I realized, like no one was going to keep
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: me from getting off the plane like I I I
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: anticipated there being the military person on the ground to
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: like I was like, shit, I'm gonna get off. I'm
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: gonna get a better story.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: And once a soldier, always a soldier.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And because of my background and the you know,
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: the network I have, I was able to kind of
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: get a little bit of a support network there of
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: basically a room to go to and plug my phone
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: in to charge it and get a couple hours of rack.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: And but.
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: It was it was weird because I, you know, I'd
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: spent years kind of deprogramming myself from the things that
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: like helped me survive there. And then I went back
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: and it was a lot of the experience was a
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: lot more profound and wrang right. Gunfire and things like
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: that were like, oh, that's a big deal, you know,
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: whereas before it was totally within context. It was never
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: something that like raised my hackle or got my heart
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: rate going because it was in context. If I'm an award,
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: this is what I'm supposed to do it. But then
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: you go back and you're there with no rifle. You're there,
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: you know, as a non combatant, you don't really affect it.
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: The experience just became a lot more profound, and you're
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: a lot more of a human in that. Not to
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: say that like I was a sub human or something
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: like that before, but I was there to do a
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: very specific job and task, So I feelings didn't have
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: a big part in my experience, right, But in at
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: those gates, just seeing the the scale of like human
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: suffering there was like a really big, profound time, you know,
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: And it took me a little bit of time to
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: unpack that and and kind of like process it. And
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm healthy with it now, but you know
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: I did have as as my time there war on.
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: I was only there about a week, but you know,
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: the first couple of days, I was like, all right,
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: I'm here to get a story. And then you know, I,
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: as you saw probably in the news, like the evacuation,
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: things started to happen, so people figured out I was there,
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: and I started getting calls and texts and WhatsApps and
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: signal messages and you know, hundreds of messages a day, Hey,
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: my superpreter is there, My my so and so is there. Whatever.
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: So my my my focus shifted from just journalism to
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: helping pull people through those gates. And yeah, and I
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: did that as long as possible. I had, you know,
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: people on the ground there that were still in the military.
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: I was talking to you.
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: They're like, hey, we'll be right back after a word
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: from our sponsor, and now back to the show.
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: You gotta get the fuck out of here, you know,
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: like we're leaving, so you gotta go. So I left,
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: and I left kind of right in the nick of time,
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: right before the bombing, that final bombing that happened. I
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: left about a half hour before that.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: Really, so you you would have been in that area.
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's where I spent you know, eighty percent
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: of my time the whole week was on that Abby Gate.
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's.
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: It's crazy, you know, crazy, It's what movies are made of,
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: you know. And it was everybody, you know. I I
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: had that long Army career, but like since i've been out,
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: I've been like, what the fuck I'll be I'll be
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: in that perspective perspective. When I have this perspective, I'm
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: like what the fucker, Like.
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: What are you doing?
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: Bro?
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: Like this is weird, this is wild, you.
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: Know, like I mean, use your own adventure book and
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: I'm like, pick the wrong.
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: Page exactly, and I mean god, I mean, so you're
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: you're helping as many people as you can, but then
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: you know, obviously you can't help everybody because you're getting
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: bombarded with so many messages and things like that. It
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: was heartbreaking to watch from our perspective. I can't even
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: imagine what it was like from you and for others
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: on the ground there.
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was, it was. It was rough, it was
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: it was it was a It's one of the worst
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: things I've witnessed in my life.
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: Really, yeah, it's.
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: It sucks, I mean, but you know it, it's something
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: like that. Being a soldier prepared me for It's like
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: I don't make policy, you know, I just I can
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: just do the best I can.
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: So and I saw that picture that you took in
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: the in the in that big giant jumbo carrier with
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: like you know, a thousand people or whatever behind you.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: You know, you're one of those guys that took I mean,
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: you were one of the people that the news was
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: showing that image around constantly. I mean you were you
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: were in as they say, the ship.
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, I well, I mean literally yeah.
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: Literally, well brother, I mean I I appreciate you sharing
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: that with us and and uh and doing what you
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: could when you were there. Man, I do appreciate that.
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: Now switching gears to another insanity, your new film that
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: you're working on, Triple seven. Oh yeah, yeah, you forgot
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: all about that. Uh oh yeah, well you call it.
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: I'm not I it is going to be a documentary film,
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: but I'm like, I'm not even there yet, Like I'm
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: my mind's not in that part.
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: But yeah, so Triple seven. To talk to the audience
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: about what Triple seven is and what you guys are
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: trying to accomplish with it.
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So Triple seven is, uh, seven skydives into the
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: seven continents in seven days, hopefully to break a world
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: record for seven skydives into seven continents. The current world
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: record is is months long. So we're definitely gonna break
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: the world record for the skydiving into the seven continents.
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: I mean, unless I like burn in on Continent three
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: or something like that. But it's, uh, it's basically we
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: are doing this as I don't want to call it
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: a stunt, but we're doing a stunt to raise awareness
• 53:22
  Speaker 3: and funds for a an organization called Folds of Honor.
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: Folds of Honor raises money to give scholarships to gold
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: Star Kids, so kids whose parents were killed in either
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: combat or as a first responder. And the reason that
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: we're we're kind of constant. There's you know, you can't
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: swing a dead cat without hitting a veteran nonprofit these days,
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: everybody knows. But the reason we picked Folds of Honor
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: is because, you know, the war has been over for
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: a year now and people are already forgetting. And you know,
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: if there's a there's a kid out there right now
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: who's five years old whose parent was killed in Afghanistan,
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: you know, for four years ago, okay, and in you know,
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: twelve years whatever, whenever that kid's applying to college, we're
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: definitely going to have forgotten about these wars. So we're
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: trying to, when things are fresh in people's minds, go
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: out do things that are crazy to raise awareness for
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: this nonprofit so we can put as much money in
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: their bank as possible so that as all these kids,
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: you know, it's in the it's in the thousands of
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: kids whose parents were killed in these wars, So having
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: funds ready for when they hit, you know, those years
• 54:40
  Speaker 3: that they're taken care of. So that's the long and
• 54:44
  Speaker 3: short of that's the why and the how is uh,
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: you know, it's myself, about nine other guys are jumping,
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: former Marines, former Seal Team guys, former SF guys. Yeah,
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: and we're starting to Antarctica on one January and.
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: This year this coming up just January?
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so about what is that about six seven
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: weeks away?
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: So it is it just because I'm not familiar with
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: Antarctica's weather patterns. January first hot or colder.
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: As it goes, it's summer there.
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, good, so you did choose that at least, so.
• 55:23
  Speaker 3: When we jump, if we jump at you know, around
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: thirteen grand, it'll be negative seventy five at jump altitude.
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: At jump altitude, and then on the ground it'll.
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: Be like hawahi negative forty ish. Yeah, and that's and
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: that's in the summer. Yeah.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So I have to ask, will you guys all
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: drunk one night and said, you know what would be fun?
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: Because this sounds like a bunch of guys hanging out shooting, pool,
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: drinking and going. You know what we should do, man,
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: we should just do seven continents in seven days and
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: raise some money for some kids. Man, what do you think?
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I got brought on a little later,
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: but that's probably exactly what happened.
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: Because this is not the same idea. It's it's a
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: fairly I mean, just to travel alone, and the fatigue
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: on the traveling alone. I mean, I know you're being
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: strategic about where you're going in the world, but still
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: it's like.
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I we'll just drink a lot of coffee, you know,
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: and it'll be fine.
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: Black rifle coffee obviously.
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, for sure to throw that. Yeah, but it's uh,
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: it is going to be very very difficult, and like
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: that's that's kind of the point I think for me
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: and one of the things in doing you know, all
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: the social media activations and then the documentary, for me,
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: something that's very important to me in being a storyteller
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: is inspiring my generation of veteran to realize that, like,
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: our best days aren't behind this, Like, yeah, those are
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: the glory I call them the glory days too. It
• 56:48
  Speaker 3: was you know, I did a lot of living, but
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: like we've got so much time left and we've learned
• 56:54
  Speaker 3: so many lessons and we've done so we put so
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: much in our like life experience. We can't waste that.
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: We have to continue to find ways to serve and
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: you know, hear it, Black Rifle work coffee where I work,
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: that's what we do. We try to go out and
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: inspire veterans, inspire young people to find a purpose, you know,
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: find something that really makes you passionate, makes you want
• 57:22
  Speaker 3: to do things for that thing that suck you know.
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: I mean it's like anyone with there are it's like
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: being a filmmaker, like you know, getting that first movie
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: across the line as a filmmaker that almost kills people,
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: and people go work their whole life trying to do that.
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: But that's what's that's what makes people wake up in
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: the morning, is like having a struggle having a purpose.
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: And for me, this is just a great example of that. Like, yeah,
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: it's crazy, but I mean, no one's going to watch
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: something to make crazy, so.
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean not in today's world. I mean, that's
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: for sure. You gotta get you gotta get attention. Well,
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: I mean I not only do I appreciate your service,
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: and I thank you for the service as well, for
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: all the years and time that you put into your
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: defending our country. But what you're doing now is really
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: that this project seems so wonderful, and I'll make sure
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: to promote it as much as i can through this
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: interview and through all my platforms as well, because it's
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: a wonderful charity of what you're trying to do. And
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: I love insanity. Obviously, I do have been in the
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: film industry for close to thirty years, so obviously I'm
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: not wired well either, but it's just a different kind
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: of rewiring that is needed.
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: You.
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions I
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: ask all of my guests, and this is going to
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: be interesting. I'm going to be interested to see what
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: you say about this. What advice would you give a
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: filmmaker trying to break into the business today, coming from
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: your experience, coming.
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: From my experience, I would give them the advice of,
• 58:56
  Speaker 3: you know, a to use an analogy, don't be scared,
• 59:01
  Speaker 3: don't like start in the mail room, right Like I
• 59:06
  Speaker 3: my first job, I went and shared a hotel room
• 59:09
  Speaker 3: with my buddy because they weren't paying me at first.
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: You know what, I mean you can't. You don't get
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: to skip the line. So drop your ego and start
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: in the mail room, even if you're not getting paid
• 59:19
  Speaker 3: to be in the mailroom, Like, you just got to
• 59:20
  Speaker 3: get your foot in the door and show your value.
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: With all the training you've had over the course of
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: your career, is there any lesson that you can pull
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: out of that that can help filmmakers deal with the
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: industry because the industry is so absolutely brutal.
• 59:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess a couple of things. One is be
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: an absolute master of the basics. That's that's uh, yeah,
• 59:47
  Speaker 3: that's something I tell people. For everything you know, in
• 59:50
  Speaker 3: the military and the special operations community, we always said,
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: like we don't do anything special. We just absolutely master
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: the basics.
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: That's the first one, and then the second one is like,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: it's not personal. It's not it's not it's not show friends,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: it's show business. So get over yourself and realize it's
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: not personal. For for every time you get your feelings hurt,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 3: there's ten people behind you that won't. So thick skin
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 3: and realize it's it's not about you know.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you're breaking hearts all around the world
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: right now, sir, I mean, what do you mean it's
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: not about me and my vision? Come on, Jered, I mean,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: oh god, I'm sure you've met a few people along
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: the way. Uh. Now, what is the lesson that took
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: you the longest to learn, Whether in the film industry
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: and the military or in life.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: I guess it would be listening to my own advice.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 3: Like I I I take things too personally. H m hm, Yeah,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 3: I think it's uh, it's it's just realizing that you're
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 3: a cog in the wheel, you know, and and you're replaceable.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I think for me that's the hard that's
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: been the hardest thing. I have to learn it every
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: day and and not not so much like I get offended.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: I take it personally, but I just really care, you know,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 3: and sometimes I care too much.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: It's not about you and you and you could be replaced.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: That's a really tough lesson, like because when you're coming up,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: you're like, I am replaceable until you get fired and
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: you're like, oh, there's three other people look at too
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: much job. Oh lookly not that special Mommy lied to me. Yeah,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: I'm not a special snowflake.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's two kinds of people, people whose mom told
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 3: them they're special too much, and people whose moms didn't
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 3: tell them they're special enough.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: Right exactly, You're absolutely right. There's those are two very
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: specific groups of people and three of your favorite films
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: of all time.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: That's a. That's a tough one because you know how
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 3: like they.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: Always they always change right now this moment.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Platoon always gonna be number one. I love the
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 3: film Big Wednesday, Big Wednesday. I love it. Oh yeah, that's.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: A good one. John.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't get through that movie with with dry eyes.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 3: I cried.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: That's a that's a dude movie though. That's like A yeah,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: that's a that's Oh it's such a sentimental do testosterone film. Oh,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: it's spiritual with the waves and offense. Great.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's it's so good. And I think you know,
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 3: I've been watching Dunkirk a lot lately. Yeah, and I
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 3: love the I've been kind of like working on a
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 3: project in my own, uh creative space that has that,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 3: you know, those parallels worries. I just the way they
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 3: did that. And it's also just gorgeous, like you can
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 3: mute that movie and watch it and it's still great.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: It's it's Christopher Nolan. I mean, I mean, I can't
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: wait for Oppenheimer. I mean, who else gets like two
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: hundred million dollars to make a movie about Oppenheimer? Like,
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: who else is gonna get that? No one is really
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: going to get a move two hundred million bucks ago
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: make an Oppenheimer? And is he shooting to get a
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: black and white too? I think it's like, it's is
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: he I've seen black and I've only seen black and
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: white images of the movie. So oh, let Chris do
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: what he does. Come on, it'll be.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 3: That number three spot. It's it's constant rotation. But I've
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 3: been watched. I've just been like, you know, you have
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 3: your rewatchables that come up every now and again. And
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: for me, right now, that's Donekirk Brother.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: Jered Man. I appreciate you coming on, man, and thank
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: you so much for being so raw and honest about
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: your experiences and your story that you're telling and and
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: the good work that you continue to do, not only
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 2: in Hollywood make make these actors and these things look good,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: but the work you're doing with your your new project
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 2: and uh and charity, So I appreciate you, brother. Where
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: can people find out more about you and the and
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 2: the Triple seven, and and where they can donate if
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: they want to.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the Triple Seven you can find out all
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 3: about that on Legacy Expeditions dot net, just as it's spelled.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 3: And then I'm Jericho Denman. I guess Instagram's where I'm
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 3: kind of like the most active. My handle's kind of funny.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: I made it years ago. It's laid back Berserker as
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 3: spelled that great handle.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 2: That's amazing, lead back Berserker. That's all that's a yeah.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 3: And then, uh, you know, I'm currently you know, working now,
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 3: I'm uh see, I don't even know my title. I make.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 3: I make long form content for Black Rightful Coffee, So
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 3: you know, go on our YouTube channel check out our
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 3: work there. We we've done some pretty awesome lifestyle stuff
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 3: here recently and then getting ready to start, uh kind
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 3: of a bigger lift on this documentary about the Triple Seven.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 3: So yeah, all things on YouTube, Black Rifle Coffee, we
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 3: have podcasts, we do all kinds of stuff, and then
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 3: Legacy Expeditions on that.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: Man, you are a busy, busy man. Man, your retirement
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: is it's not very relaxing, sir, Yeah, I know. I
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: appreciate you again, man, Thank you so much again for
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: doing everything you've done done. I appreciate you.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 3: Thanks a lot for having me on.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: I want to thank Jericho so much for coming on
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: the show and sharing his journey with all of us.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Jericho. If you want to get
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: links to anything we talked about in this episode, head
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: over to the show notes at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: Forward slash three seventy nine. Thank you so much for listening, guys.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: As always, keep on writing no matter what. I'll talk
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: to you soon.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast at Bulletproof
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: Screenwriting dot tv.