Episode 50: Behind the Curtain of Film Center News
It's episode 50! Thank you to all our listeners for helping us get this far! Today we pull back the curtain of Film Center News and talk about things that we've noticed since we started this show.
Transcript
This is Film Center.
Speaker:Your number one show for real entertainment industry news.
Speaker:No fluff, all facts.
Speaker:Now, here are your anchors, Derek Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:Hey, welcome to Film Center News, I'm Derek Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And what are we doing today, Nicholas?
Speaker:Today we're going to do a very special episode.
Speaker:So this is going to be our 50th episode of Film Center News.
Speaker:We've been doing this for about a year now.
Speaker:And I had the idea because we, DJ was like, we have to do something special.
Speaker:It is the 50th episode.
Speaker:The 50th episode and he was like, Nicholas, what do you
Speaker:think some ideas could be?
Speaker:And I said, instead of interviewing somebody, why don't we just interview each
Speaker:other about what this past year of getting the podcast to this point has been like?
Speaker:We, first of all, big thank you to all our listeners.
Speaker:It's a, you guys who've been like really keeping us and, giving us an
Speaker:encouragement and helping us push through to make the show is as good as we can
Speaker:make it, and especially with our I never thought that, we'd get a podcast.
Speaker:Then it also was that's also on the radio, right?
Speaker:That's why Comic Con would sponsor it.
Speaker:And then we'd get on Spotify and Apple and, it'd blow up like it did.
Speaker:And then we get to meet so many different really great actors and actresses and
Speaker:like directors and people from the crew.
Speaker:And then, we've actually been able to help people through this.
Speaker:Yeah, we've been able to help a lot of people.
Speaker:We helped Ryan He got to go to Comic Con on the panel.
Speaker:And there's a lot of, other, people who have been on the show who didn't
Speaker:normally get this type of exposure.
Speaker:No, not normally, because, if you guys didn't know, this People come
Speaker:on the show, we don't charge them.
Speaker:Yeah, no some of them, it's Some of them I feel like we should
Speaker:be paying to be on the show.
Speaker:With the type of information and the people that we meet, and the questions
Speaker:we're able to ask, and the stories that people are telling, they're really
Speaker:like, pouring their lives out to us, and we're over here, saying, Wow.
Speaker:Do your parents hate you yet?
Speaker:Okay, so Nicholas what do you think is the what has been your
Speaker:favorite part of the show so far?
Speaker:The favorite part of the show so far is interviewing the people
Speaker:and realizing How different they are, but how the same they are.
Speaker:Yeah, the more they change, the more they stay the same, like the
Speaker:stories, the stories are incredible.
Speaker:Where people have come from, what they have done.
Speaker:Jamal came from, was literally in prison.
Speaker:Yeah, was literally in prison.
Speaker:Learning how to write, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, Ryan, he has, he's got autism.
Speaker:And we got him on that Comic Con.
Speaker:We learned what neurodivergent meant.
Speaker:And just people, people who have wrote for Marvel.
Speaker:People who have done Spider Man stuff.
Speaker:People who have Been on a lot of DC shows and television.
Speaker:And there have been some DC movies.
Speaker:And they've been in black issues.
Speaker:Especially Yeah, it's yeah, that's my favorite part.
Speaker:My favorite part has been the I mean I would think it would be the obvious it's
Speaker:interviewing people, But then realizing like these people are so different yet.
Speaker:They all have one thing in common and that's just You know, they don't want to
Speaker:be a robot Yeah, and also they deserve to be seen and heard i'm saying like you know
Speaker:Some people are pas And they don't ever get interviewed, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker:But they also have a whole bunch of really valuable information.
Speaker:My favorite part has definitely been learning, not really learning
Speaker:cause a lot of it I already knew, but talking about things that other.
Speaker:Shows wouldn't particularly be talking about for example a lot of, film and
Speaker:television based podcasts or shows or whatever a lot of them are like,
Speaker:oh, hey, look here these actors and actresses They were in this movie.
Speaker:How was that acting the movie cool and that's about the maximum
Speaker:Yeah, they don't really care.
Speaker:They don't ask them questions about their personal life about their
Speaker:personal life How did you come to this?
Speaker:Yeah, what does it make you feel me?
Speaker:My favorite part was definitely during the strikes Getting all the really good
Speaker:information out to the public, right?
Speaker:Like we were talking with Cacepheus when he was like, Hey, if you want to be a SAG
Speaker:actor, this is how you do it for real.
Speaker:And gave us that step by step of how you, a normal person could then
Speaker:end up being, a SAG certified actor.
Speaker:He was giving information about there are payment plans.
Speaker:He's giving information about how much it actually costs to be
Speaker:go SAG, when you should go SAG.
Speaker:He was also at that time giving information to actors who were, and the
Speaker:writers who were since on the strike, they didn't they weren't getting income.
Speaker:It also gave him information about going to food banks, right?
Speaker:We give them money, not money, but who would give them food to help
Speaker:them through these difficult times.
Speaker:Information like that.
Speaker:You don't see that on the wire or you don't see it on Hollywood reporter.
Speaker:You don't see all those, that those specific detailed information and this
Speaker:detailed information was all free.
Speaker:Yeah, and was given freely.
Speaker:Yeah, it's not behind some sort of paywall, it's not oh, You know sponsor
Speaker:the show give us some ad money and then we'll let you see that out.
Speaker:No, you know i'm saying and Like when we tell you hey, there's gonna be an
Speaker:it strike coming up this year, right?
Speaker:Because a lot of people like after the strikes from last year, people
Speaker:were like, oh it's over We won and then we came on the show and had
Speaker:hey, look, here's the real truth.
Speaker:Actually.
Speaker:We didn't really win You Because they still got a whole bunch of a hold
Speaker:of us they just ended the strike We didn't really win the strike right and
Speaker:on top of the fact and so it's okay.
Speaker:They had this narrative last year that, okay, that strikes over.
Speaker:And that's going to happen.
Speaker:I haven't for again, for a while.
Speaker:And even us on our show was like, Oh, I OTSI is probably not going to strike.
Speaker:But then as soon as we got that information that it, they actually
Speaker:were going to go on strike.
Speaker:We came right to the people and we're like, Hey, this is what's going to go on.
Speaker:And to let people know who I OTSI is.
Speaker:What they do and how powerful they are as an organization, right?
Speaker:If Iotsy strikes and things go down, the entire Hollywood industry as a whole goes
Speaker:down because they incorporate everybody who's not an actor, who's not a writer.
Speaker:Anyone who's below the line, people think Oh, people who make movies are
Speaker:these seven to ten people who are above the line, including the writer
Speaker:and the director and the producer.
Speaker:No, it's the other hundred plus people who are below the line who actually
Speaker:make this movie, not those ten people.
Speaker:That nobody talks about, that nobody interviews, that nobody, nothing.
Speaker:And I think it's just great that we're able to provide this kind of information.
Speaker:I also think it's great that we we had to change up our formula a little bit.
Speaker:Yeah, we did have to change up our formula.
Speaker:As long as we listen to our audience, at least.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:The thing was, is when we were talking about doing this show, what we were
Speaker:talking about was, okay, nobody talks about What makes a show sync what
Speaker:makes a movie sync, Numbers this that and the other and we were doing that.
Speaker:Yeah, I think the first Actually, you don't want to have it pulled up.
Speaker:I'm pretty sure the first 10 episodes were I think it was the
Speaker:first 10 episodes we were talking specifically about analytics, right?
Speaker:Oh, I think we compare what trades are doing What yeah, what studios are doing?
Speaker:What right and then more it's more numerical You That's how the that's
Speaker:how the intro is done I'm about the Harry Potter reboot Mario vs.
Speaker:Sonic and you're comparing these franchises than a WJ strike, I'm
Speaker:saying How old is too old for action, also talking about comparing the
Speaker:wai kung fu pandas Franchise, even though it's monetarily better.
Speaker:I'm not monetary.
Speaker:The story is better fast and the furious franchise Pizza out the wazoo when
Speaker:it comes to monetary value with right even selling DVDs and the time which
Speaker:DVDs don't even exist He's selling over 30 almost 34 million dollars
Speaker:in DVDs and then who was our first interview our first at first person.
Speaker:We actually interviewed We
Speaker:See we did AMC stuff Actually, no, our first interview was with Kasefius
Speaker:So that interview did phenomenal.
Speaker:Yeah, and people were like, hey, we want more of this type of stuff It's possible.
Speaker:It could have been just timing because that's when the strike was going on and
Speaker:so people were like, hey, this guy's email has a lot of really great information
Speaker:about SAG and where to basically help us.
Speaker:At the time there is some bias that, oh, that could be the reason why.
Speaker:However, doing more and more interviews, we've seen a more
Speaker:positive response from you guys.
Speaker:I think people had told us they were like, hey, listen the
Speaker:interviews, the numbers are great.
Speaker:And the, with the analysis that you guys are going through are great.
Speaker:But we'd honestly just like to hear people in the industry
Speaker:talk about talking about stuff.
Speaker:Nobody really, we might've been confusing some people.
Speaker:Cause like they list it and they'd be like, Oh, what is pre sales?
Speaker:And I'm like, okay, the show is a whole bunch about the industry stuff.
Speaker:And they're like, and we're like so pre sales don't really exist as much anymore.
Speaker:Even though you'll hear out the wall zoo.
Speaker:Studios and development people in development companies, and anyone
Speaker:who made a movie like 10 years ago and has been 10 years ago or older.
Speaker:So I'm talking about specifically 2014 or older and has been
Speaker:riding that wave ever since.
Speaker:So they're probably, they probably have some class that they
Speaker:teach, at some rundown warehouse about acting or making movies.
Speaker:So they'll talk about presales.
Speaker:They even talk about presales still in film schools, even though presales.
Speaker:Basically streaming has destroyed pre sales.
Speaker:Pre sales only really exist in, that really don't exist in the American market.
Speaker:But you'll still hear people talk about it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I guess it's, I guess it's good to, to teach.
Speaker:But also, the thing is after the pandemic, we've talked about this before.
Speaker:Basically, all of the base knowledge is still relevant.
Speaker:But all the like, In depth knowledge is almost useless.
Speaker:I call, I say it's the same thing as a loader.
Speaker:So a loader, is the guy who puts the film in the actual film camera.
Speaker:And, it's a very specialized job.
Speaker:Now, it used to be a common thing to do, right?
Speaker:Put film in the film camera, but you had to do it in complete darkness.
Speaker:We had to be able to do it without looking.
Speaker:The thing is that's a very special, specific skill, but 90 percent of
Speaker:movies are shot digitally nowadays.
Speaker:This skill is basically really old.
Speaker:It's a great foundation to learn.
Speaker:I know how to do it.
Speaker:But, most people don't need it, or need to know how to do it, right?
Speaker:There are specific instances if you're working for Christopher Nolan, Sure, but
Speaker:like Christopher Nolan is one director compared to the Hundreds of thousands that
Speaker:are out there that shoot on digital right that shoot on digital And the likelihood
Speaker:that one of those hundreds of thousands are gonna hire You as their dp or as
Speaker:their loader not even loader as their d.
Speaker:i.
Speaker:t It's gonna be way more likely Than you know this guy Christopher Nolan hiring
Speaker:you as his loader also What I would say is What is something about doing this
Speaker:podcast or doing a podcast in general?
Speaker:What were you surprised about that?
Speaker:I'm surprised people care.
Speaker:I'll be honest with you.
Speaker:It was like, I was like, oh, okay, we will.
Speaker:Comic Con asked us to do this to start this podcast in the first place.
Speaker:And I thought about what I do, what I like to do.
Speaker:And I'm thinking like, there's a billion and a half of these out there.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:There's a whole bunch of.
Speaker:Film studio or film industry podcast.
Speaker:One of the vast, famous ones is a script notes writing guys.
Speaker:So it's what do I have to add to this?
Speaker:And then being like, okay, maybe someone out there does really care about, not
Speaker:only about the numbers, but like cares about the crew, the actual people who
Speaker:are there on set feet on the ground.
Speaker:24 seven having to actually bring this to life, not the director
Speaker:who tells people what to do.
Speaker:So that way other people bring the life, the people who actually know
Speaker:how to do that, the people who are working under the director, Jack, this
Speaker:is like any other business, right?
Speaker:You have a boss who knows that, who knows how to do most of the
Speaker:stuff, but the actual people really doing it is the people under them.
Speaker:And what were you not surprised about?
Speaker:I wasn't very surprised when we I would say I wasn't very surprised when
Speaker:we got the radio show because by that time I think the show was really I was
Speaker:Very confident in our abilities, too.
Speaker:I was surprised like What he gave it to us was a great With
Speaker:cage to shout to cage TS 9.
Speaker:1.
Speaker:Yeah, shut out when we actually got It was like a really awesome
Speaker:surprise But at the same time I was like if you listen to our show and
Speaker:compare it to theirs It is better.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It is better than their shows.
Speaker:So I was like, it makes sense.
Speaker:I was, I guess I was still surprised, but I was like, oh, that really makes sense.
Speaker:I guess one thing that is really common that I was like, oh I wasn't super
Speaker:surprised about is getting some of my friends to get them on the podcast.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Giving some people that I know and go through my contacts and be like,
Speaker:hey, you're like a PA, you're a grip.
Speaker:You want to be on a podcast or no one ever gets.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, totally I would say the biggest thing that surprised me about having a
Speaker:podcast Is I would say that people yeah care because everybody wants a podcast
Speaker:now So the fact that you guys care is you know, it means a whole lot but One of
Speaker:the things that I was also surprised by was also the fact of scheduling people on
Speaker:the show Sometimes how difficult it is.
Speaker:Yeah, it's it was like weird.
Speaker:It's like they're like, oh, yeah, I want to do the show Okay, we'll win.
Speaker:I have no idea.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Only you're gonna know when you're available Right and the thing is we're
Speaker:talking about you Yeah, especially some of these this is los angeles where people
Speaker:only care about themselves Yeah, and you don't want to talk about yourself.
Speaker:Yeah, and it's we have a pretty large audience reach we do over
Speaker:half a million people every month.
Speaker:So it's hey You have some project that you want to get out there want people to
Speaker:know about why don't you come out here?
Speaker:And there's like free advertising and it's wild and it's interesting because
Speaker:It seemed as if like cause we talked about the idea of charging people, right?
Speaker:Come on the show.
Speaker:And there are some instances where people, as soon as they heard that
Speaker:we're charging to come on the show, they were way more interested in yeah.
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:But then when we said it's free, they're like, Oh I don't want to do anymore.
Speaker:It's interesting psychology.
Speaker:It's interesting psychology.
Speaker:Also the other thing that I was really surprised by is Once somebody
Speaker:comes on the podcast They don't tell all their friends about it.
Speaker:Yeah, it's oh I was on the radio.
Speaker:It needs to be a secret why they don't tell all their friends about it, and
Speaker:they don't put all their friends on and it's I get the friends thing.
Speaker:Okay because it's like, if you want the radio station of course
Speaker:you want other people to hear it.
Speaker:That first part is, you're, I'm agreeing with you with.
Speaker:The second part I understand.
Speaker:Because again, if it's Los Angeles and it's okay, I'm trying to
Speaker:promote myself as a Like we had some people who are not only actors.
Speaker:We have some people who run businesses, right?
Speaker:I'm promoting myself as an animator.
Speaker:I don't want to give my other animator.
Speaker:We don't care But it's like I don't want to give my other anime friends on here.
Speaker:I want to be the one Who's the star of the show?
Speaker:But what people don't understand is when everybody around you is winning you have
Speaker:no choice but to win because everybody else is Yeah, but like it's hollywood.
Speaker:No one cares about that But see that's but that's something that I think that,
Speaker:a lot of people still need to learn.
Speaker:It was, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker:It's It's oh, why isn't a narcissist have a giant ego?
Speaker:That's the definition of narcissism.
Speaker:Asking why doesn't make any sense.
Speaker:And then you could be the guy or the girl to be like, Hey,
Speaker:I got the hookup on a podcast.
Speaker:You can go on.
Speaker:Yeah, that's up.
Speaker:Yeah that's true.
Speaker:But of course then we have someone who was like, Oh actually I'm not gonna
Speaker:name this person, but they were like, Oh, I want to tell my other friend.
Speaker:He's on this really big show that's on ABC.
Speaker:He wants to be on the podcast.
Speaker:Oh yeah, sure.
Speaker:And then we're like, yeah, let's connect them.
Speaker:And then they were like, Oh, you know what?
Speaker:I don't think they'll be right for the show.
Speaker:And we were like, dude, what are you talking about?
Speaker:Yeah, what are you talking about?
Speaker:You told them about the show and then you say oh, he's not right for it?
Speaker:Hey, what's up with you?
Speaker:What's such a weird thing to say?
Speaker:We, and then we also, we get a bunch of requests for people, but also at
Speaker:the same time, they come out crazy.
Speaker:Like one guy wanted to come on the show, but he was like, okay, these are
Speaker:the only things you can talk about.
Speaker:Ask me these three questions and that's it.
Speaker:And you can't ask me anything else.
Speaker:You can't do anything.
Speaker:You can't ask anything.
Speaker:And it was just like, okay the show's half an hour, right?
Speaker:We can't just only ask you three questions.
Speaker:If you just want to do an advertisement, then play for a sponsorship section.
Speaker:And I'm saying that's just all you want to do.
Speaker:Also, no, this is our show.
Speaker:We can ask what we want when we want it's, we're not going to be dicks
Speaker:about it, but we're not gonna be mean or anything, but it's it's interesting
Speaker:to, it was an interesting process.
Speaker:I also think it's been really great making it mobile having
Speaker:the show go to different places.
Speaker:Yeah, that's really cool That was a big selling point for a lot of people.
Speaker:Yeah, it's not really something that you see often where Oh some people like they
Speaker:might They'll have some sort of travel podcast maybe and they'll go to oh, let's
Speaker:go to I don't know Barbados and do it over there But we're not a travel podcast.
Speaker:That's not what we do.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah, we're just a mobile podcast But we are mobile so we're gonna have this
Speaker:like show done anywhere and having it done in some of these celebrities
Speaker:houses having it done in offices how I mean in a real studio offices
Speaker:having it done in Restaurants and yeah, right also in people's houses.
Speaker:It feels like It's more casual.
Speaker:Plus it makes the guests a lot more comfortable.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Especially when they're in their own house.
Speaker:They're like, Oh yeah, I don't have to leave to do this.
Speaker:Oh yeah, definitely.
Speaker:I want to try this out.
Speaker:It definitely makes them they're more apt to want to do it.
Speaker:And the schedule usually works out a lot better because they know
Speaker:where they're going to be home.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:And they're also not pissed off from all the traffic they just sat in.
Speaker:Because this is Los Angeles.
Speaker:Los Angeles has terrible traffic.
Speaker:One thing I am really happy about is outside of this responses that we get
Speaker:that, it's gives us a platform to really talk about what we want to talk about.
Speaker:There's a lot of things going on in the trades, but a lot of them
Speaker:are just straight up sponsored.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:Like it's just all of us was just sponsored content compared to,
Speaker:oh, I want to talk about what's actually going on in the ground.
Speaker:Yeah, Hollywood reporter and all those things.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In fact, I'm going to you're not going to find, oh, this writer came from prison
Speaker:on a Hollywood reporter, no, you're not going to find, oh we went to go test
Speaker:out the D box seats and give you a first person review of how it was, right?
Speaker:You're not gonna see them go, Oh here's how the 270 here really is.
Speaker:Cause it's, talk about 270 in regal cinemas.
Speaker:They're just gonna be flowing with positive reviews, Oh, it's
Speaker:great, everybody loved it, da.
Speaker:Compared to here on the show, we're like, Oh, it was cool,
Speaker:but there's some pros and cons.
Speaker:Or you have somebody, Who's a production designer from China be like, Hey,
Speaker:this is how it is in China, right?
Speaker:And this is how it is in Los Angeles.
Speaker:And here's the difference between the two and here's legitimately what it is
Speaker:with no fluff with no nothing because usually here's the flaws Of how it is
Speaker:in china But it's very efficient, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Here's the flaws in the us.
Speaker:Everything goes like this, but it's very slow.
Speaker:Coco talked about doing 10 projects a month, but that's straight up efficiency.
Speaker:I can't fathom a world which America's able to produce content at that
Speaker:speed because they don't have to.
Speaker:Yeah, because they don't.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Not only 'cause they don't have to, but it's just like we don't have the systems.
Speaker:And let's say even if we did want to, like you had to actually
Speaker:not want to, but we had to.
Speaker:America.
Speaker:A lot of Americans don't have these systems set up in our industry
Speaker:currently to even do it like that.
Speaker:This is like a rinse and repeat kind of thing.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:Where these over in China, they were talking, I was like, Oh
Speaker:it's not exactly a nine to five.
Speaker:But your next job, your next two, three jobs after this industry job is already
Speaker:set up compared to Mo and your crew.
Speaker:You're not above the lines.
Speaker:You're not a writer.
Speaker:Who's, first look deal with paramount.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:You're not a director.
Speaker:You're not an actor with some like multi film deals.
Speaker:I'm like, you're a regular crew member.
Speaker:They're like, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We're going to hire you not for this one project for the next 10 20
Speaker:projects we have And so now you know that you're guaranteed to have work
Speaker:on different projects for the next several years And you're doing oh,
Speaker:she was doing a production design.
Speaker:Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker:That's crazy Yeah, when when we've done about 50 or so interviews now What is
Speaker:something that has surprised you about?
Speaker:Everybody we've interviewed a lot of them a lot of them.
Speaker:Have the similar story of my parents didn't want me to do
Speaker:it and now i'm successful at it
Speaker:And then though no, I would say the ones that actually surprised me was like, you
Speaker:know My parents thought it was awesome.
Speaker:Actually my parents really wanted that's what surprised dad.
Speaker:Those ones actually surprised me Those were the ones that were surprised.
Speaker:How about you?
Speaker:What surprised me?
Speaker:About the interviews that we did Was There's a stereotype of people who come
Speaker:into the industry of Oh I was a lonely kid and I was weird and, I was just a ghoul.
Speaker:And then one day you had my, butterfly cocoon moment.
Speaker:Came out amazing.
Speaker:And how much that couldn't have been farther from the case.
Speaker:We literally had every walk of life, every type of person.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Just be like, I was inspired by filmmaking.
Speaker:I was inspired by Broadway, which is something I wanted to do.
Speaker:It was just something I wanted to do.
Speaker:And it really didn't matter what age, what walk of life it came from.
Speaker:They all had the similar, awakening of this is just something that burns
Speaker:inside of me that I need to do.
Speaker:Yeah, this is what I'm going to end up doing.
Speaker:It's quite interesting, especially you bring up the age thing, because some
Speaker:people think they're too old or they're too young or something like that.
Speaker:And there's a lot of people who, they're like, oh, I want to do it my whole life.
Speaker:And you know when you look at one day and you're like, you're in your mid 30s And
Speaker:so it's oh I didn't want to do this since I was seven So I guess it's too late for
Speaker:me No, you can do it anytime you want to like we said we have someone on here who
Speaker:like he was in prison previously I'm, sure he didn't imagine that later on he
Speaker:would end up being you know, a big comic publisher and his And the guy that he
Speaker:looked up to as a mentor was the one that actively You actively told him, yeah, keep
Speaker:writing, keep doing your thing, keep this.
Speaker:We even had a lady she was talking about how she had gotten married.
Speaker:She had kids.
Speaker:Got married and had kids before she even decided to pursue it.
Speaker:She was a dancer.
Speaker:You know in our younger years and the way she had gotten into It was there
Speaker:was a big voiceover artist that was at her kids soccer games that she found
Speaker:out about just by talking Yeah, and she was like, oh, I'd like to do that.
Speaker:And he was like, yeah, you should do that matter of fact I'll help you out.
Speaker:Yeah, it's like Some of these stories are almost like borderline like
Speaker:Fairytale you're like, this doesn't really happen, but they've happened.
Speaker:But they do ha is it statistically likely to happen to you like it
Speaker:happened to the other person?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:But it is more possible than you think it is.
Speaker:I think when most people think oh, The statistic to become
Speaker:famous is like 0.00035%.
Speaker:That's the amount of, that's the statistic you have of becoming a famous person.
Speaker:One, the first thing I like to say is just 'cause you're famous, you're
Speaker:not, doesn't mean you're rich, right?
Speaker:Fame does not equal money all the time.
Speaker:Steve-O Jackass, right?
Speaker:Steve o from Jackass.
Speaker:He was super famous.
Speaker:Everybody else.
Speaker:And then at first, and then, he had no money.
Speaker:Everyone knew who he was, but he didn't have a lot of money at first.
Speaker:And then on top of the fact that, you can still be in the industry
Speaker:and get everything that you want.
Speaker:And, you'll probably not be, you'll be, so you're not doing the rock Johnson,
Speaker:but you're in every single, you're in a whole bunch of A list movies.
Speaker:And so you can invite it to red carpets all the time.
Speaker:We can invite it to stuff.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:We're definitely not as famous as, Leonardo DiCaprio.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We date older women.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We date women older than Leo does.
Speaker:So it's but we don't but people even reach out to us and we go to premieres and
Speaker:like those D Box seats and Regal seats.
Speaker:We don't have to pay for those tickets to go do that.
Speaker:They asked us to be there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They asked us, they're like, tell us what you think, and then, we just
Speaker:went to the Scene the Scene Expo.
Speaker:We were just at the Cine Gear Expo.
Speaker:Cine Gear Expo.
Speaker:Yes this past weekend on Warner Bros.
Speaker:Backlot.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it's oh, I must be some sort of super special specific person to
Speaker:be able to be in the Warner Bros.
Speaker:Backlot.
Speaker:Not really.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:I think that the Hollywood has this because their forte is creating
Speaker:those smoke and mirrors that their smoke and mirrors are so good.
Speaker:It makes people think in real life that the there's giant
Speaker:barrier to get through there.
Speaker:That's really not one of the Biggest things that I would say also has
Speaker:surprised me throughout this whole entire journey is there is not as much
Speaker:competition as you think there is.
Speaker:I would say that there is no, I would say there is a lot of competition, but
Speaker:they're not competent competition, right?
Speaker:There is, there actually is a whole bunch of people here, but.
Speaker:A lot of them aren't good.
Speaker:They're not good, and me and DJ have talked about this before.
Speaker:A lot of people, it seems like they just want to wake up and be famous.
Speaker:They don't want to do any work.
Speaker:They don't want to do any networking.
Speaker:They don't want to learn any skills.
Speaker:They just want to come to Los Angeles, stand on the first street corner
Speaker:they see, and then some guy pull up and be like, Oh my gosh, you!
Speaker:You're the next, Leonardo DiCaprio, so get up here.
Speaker:You're the next Quentin Tarantino, because I just saw you standing on the street.
Speaker:It doesn't happen like that.
Speaker:Do you think the industry maybe perpetuates that?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If they, think about it like this.
Speaker:If they were honest about how difficult it is to reach those
Speaker:levels, people wouldn't do it.
Speaker:No one would be coming out here to go do it.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:Everyone says Oh, I would have been, I would have been rich during the gold rush.
Speaker:You couldn't have stopped me from going out there and da.
Speaker:But the amount of people who actually went out there.
Speaker:to, and actually we're digging for gold.
Speaker:It's a lot.
Speaker:It was a lot harder right now.
Speaker:It's a lot.
Speaker:I'm also went back home because it was so difficult and that happens here.
Speaker:People come out to LA.
Speaker:They're here for one to two years and then just COVID was a big thing.
Speaker:COVID when COVID hit, this place was like a ghost town out of the 5 million
Speaker:people, the population of 5 million people here in Los Angeles, which is crazy.
Speaker:Cause it's a lot for a city, right?
Speaker:When COVID hit, it dropped all the way down to, I think
Speaker:it was like 500, 000 people.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like it's, yeah, they all, and most, and that just tells you most of these
Speaker:people here are here A, temporarily B, just for work or C, they're just here.
Speaker:Just just to fill it out.
Speaker:This Los Angeles is a big touristy place.
Speaker:And I guess some people just come for pilot season, right?
Speaker:I guess it's to clarify when I say if they're actors, I should say not good.
Speaker:What I meant by that is earlier because it sounds a little pretentious.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:My by not good is most of these people who are not good are
Speaker:not doing the bare minimum.
Speaker:For example, if you want to be an actor, you should probably
Speaker:practice acting once or twice.
Speaker:If you want to be a a director, you should probably direct
Speaker:something just once or twice.
Speaker:Even if it is just on your phone, would I put that out there to
Speaker:compete against someone's, several thousand dollar, hourly camera?
Speaker:No, but you gotta practice.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:If you're an actor, know your lines.
Speaker:For the auditions you can have one page of lines that really you'll have Five
Speaker:sentences that you need to know and you'll be surprised how many people
Speaker:were like, Oh, that's too difficult for me to memorize ahead of time.
Speaker:Five sentences.
Speaker:I had worked years and years ago.
Speaker:If anybody listening knows this it was called C A Z T, right?
Speaker:And You've talked about this before, yeah.
Speaker:And what would happen is you could sign up for this.
Speaker:They, I think they closed during the pandemic or maybe it was before
Speaker:somewhere like that, that reopens again, actually, because it was
Speaker:very helpful for a lot of people.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Because it was all like ultra low budget student films.
Speaker:To get your kind of get your start because it's really hard to get into those.
Speaker:It's really hard to get into those USC UCLA student films blah, blah, blah.
Speaker:And I remember going there and using that place to get a lot
Speaker:of auditions and book things.
Speaker:But also I remember you could volunteer.
Speaker:You volunteered to work there, in four hour shifts.
Speaker:And then I remember one time I got called in by some of the casting directors
Speaker:for I don't remember what production.
Speaker:And they, all you, what made them different was the fact that
Speaker:your auditions were recorded.
Speaker:And then you could, the casting directors could then leave feedback.
Speaker:On the recording.
Speaker:But you said the issue was the actors, though.
Speaker:But the thing was, is that and it was done on an iPad.
Speaker:The most helpful that it had ever been for me, as an audition, was that hour
Speaker:or so that I spent Auditioning other actors because you would get to see
Speaker:what other people were like Whenever they would come in to audition because
Speaker:we had we tend to people who are actors We tend to think that everybody who's
Speaker:so much more amazing than us, right?
Speaker:It's just like people are just going in there just Oscar winning
Speaker:auditions and stuff like that I tell you this all the time.
Speaker:I'm like look them casting directors in there.
Speaker:They don't hate you that might be tired Or they may be hungry or cranky or something
Speaker:like that, but dollars to donuts.
Speaker:They want you to win They desperately want you to be the next person that
Speaker:they cast so they can shut that roll down And cast for something else because
Speaker:that's when they get paid too, but they also don't want you to I think
Speaker:you previously said some people came in They had the page in front of their face
Speaker:when they were reading it Some people didn't know their lines stuff like that.
Speaker:We had an interesting, some issues with Our own casting for ourselves and we
Speaker:did some stuff, but the biggest thing, it was like those casting directors.
Speaker:And we said this before, they want you to win.
Speaker:They want you to be really great.
Speaker:And it's weird to me, the amount of people who just like straight up don't care.
Speaker:It's like that on the filmmaking side, I went to film school.
Speaker:And the amount of people who went to my film school who were just there to a just
Speaker:party which is weird Because you can party at any college you go to asu or something
Speaker:usc if you're rich you don't even have to If you want to party you don't have to go
Speaker:to college actually no this That's not a requirement like no bouncer at the clubs.
Speaker:I'm like, whoa.
Speaker:Let me see that degree, bro no one's gonna do that to you, right?
Speaker:But there's a significant number of them who were just there to You
Speaker:They come from super rich families.
Speaker:So they're just they're either a because they told their parents they want to
Speaker:do something So oh feel school isn't it magical i'm just cool like whatever
Speaker:Which happens and then you have the other people whose parents paid for
Speaker:them paid to school So that way they could be there, but that's a whole other
Speaker:topic and then You have some people who are like i'm just here just because my
Speaker:parents told me to get a degree I'm, actually really into traveling and I
Speaker:just like to spend money and travel so then You They wonder why their films
Speaker:that they make aren't as good as the ones who, people who are actually there to
Speaker:create art and they have like their own inspirations for stuff and they're like,
Speaker:oh yeah, I have a story I want to tell.
Speaker:Also, I say story I don't want to tell.
Speaker:Writers, please, if I have one advice, if you've never listened to anything
Speaker:I've ever said before and will never will again, please, I'm on my hands
Speaker:and knees, please listen to me.
Speaker:Do not say, I just want to tell my story.
Speaker:No, it's, you will not get the job.
Speaker:People will start to actively avoid you.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Because, I hate to tell you, everyone has a story.
Speaker:All 8 billion of Have an interesting and unique story.
Speaker:I hate to break it to you, it doesn't matter how much trauma you went through.
Speaker:Guaranteed, someone else went through more trauma.
Speaker:The only people who get big time movies made about them are famous people.
Speaker:That's just kinda just the way it is.
Speaker:If you want to tell your story, the best way to do it is make
Speaker:up some fictional story that has elements of your life in it.
Speaker:That is the only way it's gonna work.
Speaker:That's yeah, that's true because the thing is once the person becomes famous because
Speaker:everybody's had screwed up lives Right because everybody's gone through trauma
Speaker:then they're like, oh we can uncover what that story is or They can just fake it
Speaker:The last day you just fake they can just fake a story right the last dance is not
Speaker:about michael jordan's high school career And the only reason you would even care
Speaker:about michael jordan's high school career is because he's on the 96 bulls but also I
Speaker:think a lot of people like I had to learn a lot of skills to do this podcast, right?
Speaker:I had to learn a lot of skills.
Speaker:Editing, software, editing You know about hosting and rss hosting.
Speaker:They're just a whole Education and a lot.
Speaker:I put out a course maybe we've a lot of people have asked us for
Speaker:that to put out a course About it.
Speaker:We may do that.
Speaker:No, don't quote me on this.
Speaker:Yeah, don't but there's a lot of people that probably wouldn't have
Speaker:done that and haven't done that and the reason why I say that is because
Speaker:they won't even come on the Podcast and talk about themselves, right?
Speaker:Right and i've always thought that was because The joke is in Los Angeles, if you
Speaker:throw a rock, you'll hit 10 actors, right?
Speaker:And all those actors won't be super famous, but then you get a chance to
Speaker:stand in front of half a million people.
Speaker:And they're like I don't really feel like, I don't know if I
Speaker:should do that or whenever.
Speaker:You sit there and for example, back in the day when you were
Speaker:like, yeah, no, I'm a writer.
Speaker:I was like, okay, cool.
Speaker:I need a reel.
Speaker:And because me and Nicholas used to be roommates, right?
Speaker:The crazy part is whenever you do stuff, they don't get you the footage, right?
Speaker:So you have done all this stuff, but nobody cares.
Speaker:But no one knows it because you don't have the footage to show.
Speaker:So I was like, DJ, why don't we do a reel?
Speaker:And cool.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I'm a writer.
Speaker:I'm a director, let's do that.
Speaker:It's gonna cost this much.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:Awesome The amount of people that I had to go through to try and get them
Speaker:to be in my reel to act It's free.
Speaker:It's free.
Speaker:It's free acting for as a free reel to them.
Speaker:It's a free wild and crazy.
Speaker:Yeah, the actors were like, oh, i've only had a reel I really need one that I okay.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:I will make you this reel for free Oh what do I have to do you have to
Speaker:show up at this time and read these four lines I'm not gonna do that man.
Speaker:I just have so many complications.
Speaker:What are you talking about?
Speaker:This is for you and like it's not like we're rent by the way We're not we
Speaker:weren't asking random people the other people we knew these were good friends
Speaker:Yeah, it's not like it's not like you were like and they knew what we did They
Speaker:knew that we make stuff all the time.
Speaker:So it wasn't like it was like random But you know what?
Speaker:At the end of the day This has been a wild, crazy journey this
Speaker:whole year, and I really appreciate you guys listening to us.
Speaker:As we go into year two, we're just gonna make everything bitter
Speaker:bitter, bigger, and bigger.
Speaker:Bitter and better.
Speaker:Thank you so much for 50 episodes.
Speaker:This has been film center news.
Speaker:I'm Derek Johnson.
Speaker:Second, I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And we'll see you next time.
Speaker:See ya.
Speaker:This has been film center on comic con radio.
Speaker:Check out our previous episodes at filmcenternews.
Speaker:com sign up for our newsletter and get the Hollywood trade straight to you.
Speaker:You can follow the show at film center news on all major platforms.
Speaker:Tune in next week for a fresh update.
Speaker:Until next time.
Speaker:This has been Film Center.
