Spaceship Joyride
In this episode we interview the team behind Spaceship Joyride, a new filmmaking company that specializes in music videos.
Transcript
This is Film Center, your number one show for real entertainment industry news.
Speaker:No fluff, all facts.
Speaker:Now, here are your anchors, Derrick Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:Welcome
Speaker:to Film Center News, I'm Derrick Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And today, with a little bit of a flashback, we're back again with actually,
Speaker:we're actually here at the same time.
Speaker:We have a duo here.
Speaker:Do you guys want to reintroduce yourselves to people who
Speaker:missed the previous episodes?
Speaker:Yeah, sure.
Speaker:I'm Bennett Sommer.
Speaker:I'm the founder of Spaceship Joyride.
Speaker:And I'm John August Stapp.
Speaker:I'm the creative director of Spaceship Joyride.
Speaker:Welcome back, guys.
Speaker:Welcome back.
Speaker:Glad to be here again.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Spaceship Joyride.
Speaker:That's such an interesting name, but we're gonna, we're gonna
Speaker:back it up just a little bit.
Speaker:Back it up just a little bit.
Speaker:To, to the people who, To the people who didn't, maybe didn't catch the last couple
Speaker:of episodes can we talk about, you guys are both from Emerson College, right?
Speaker:Give us some stories on how you guys met each other, friendship?
Speaker:First of all, say what your company does.
Speaker:So that way everyone knows where this is going.
Speaker:Yeah, we are a creative production company that specializes
Speaker:in music visuals and film.
Speaker:Cool, so you both met in Emerson.
Speaker:Yeah, so we met freshman year at Emerson actually.
Speaker:It was our first class, or at least it was my first class of college in general.
Speaker:Freshman you do like a basic, video production class, basically.
Speaker:And we met in there just in the same class.
Speaker:And then we actually worked on each other's final projects with each other.
Speaker:Cause we had this thing where it was like, you posted three ideas
Speaker:for a final project and then your classmates would like comment on
Speaker:them and be like, oh, That's cool.
Speaker:Whatever classic film school classic Exactly, and we both
Speaker:really liked each other's ideas.
Speaker:So we were like, oh word.
Speaker:Let's just work on them together And that was the first two
Speaker:projects we worked on together.
Speaker:And then yeah, we just kept going from there So you two
Speaker:went to film school together?
Speaker:Yep Let me ask you this.
Speaker:Do you guys ever?
Speaker:Was there a whole bunch of like suicide or black and white?
Speaker:Films that you guys saw or whether you people actually have I've never been to
Speaker:Emerson I don't know the it's actually really funny because one of the final
Speaker:projects we did We made this satire of an experimental film Yeah And we
Speaker:pretended to be like the directors doing a commentary over it like this like kind
Speaker:of pretentious Experimental film and we were like dude, how funny would it be
Speaker:if someone makes an experimental film?
Speaker:That's like Just way out there in this class.
Speaker:And then the one be like, you screen them at the end of the class.
Speaker:And the one right before that was this experimental film.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:Now this guy's going to think we're making fun of his.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we were like, now we feel bad about this dude, but make some
Speaker:more effective than none of that kind of worked out for the better.
Speaker:But yeah, that was that was how we met and we, I think realized through that we have
Speaker:a similar approach to making stuff and we enjoy the styles we both like, awesome,
Speaker:and then another thing is, what was your guys first impressions of each other?
Speaker:No, what's your first impression of each other's projects?
Speaker:Because you both had to make movies, right?
Speaker:How did you guys know oh, okay?
Speaker:What we'll say is, you guys liked each other's comments, right?
Speaker:But, let's hear what the first impressions that you guys thought
Speaker:of each other before the work.
Speaker:Obviously, you guys worked together, but what did you think of each
Speaker:other when you first met each other?
Speaker:That's a great question.
Speaker:I thought he was a pretty chill positive guy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He's a stud look at him like come on, it's all good to just be like real honest.
Speaker:Likewise, he was like, I think he used to wear this like Bobby Tarantino jacket.
Speaker:Logic Jacket, I think.
Speaker:Logic Jacket.
Speaker:I was like, oh, this guy's a Logic fan.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:But yeah, he just seemed chill as hell.
Speaker:Then saw some of his stuff and it had good energy in it.
Speaker:I think energy in a piece is like really important.
Speaker:You can tell where the person's heart is at, where their mind's at in a piece.
Speaker:Do you guys just fall into working together or was it something
Speaker:that you guys chose to do?
Speaker:Because I remember like, when I was in film school, there were some
Speaker:people who were always on your set.
Speaker:Not because of you sought them out, but because you just You know, it's
Speaker:just because we talked about in a previous episode If someone's always
Speaker:doing the right thing, that's just who you want to work with, right?
Speaker:You don't feel like going find new people and then you have other people who are
Speaker:like, oh, I just want to work this person.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We just, yeah, we worked really well together.
Speaker:Like we just started we'd always talk about ideas and then one of us
Speaker:would be like, oh, let's do that.
Speaker:And then it would just grow from there.
Speaker:And it's we're a part of it from the beginning.
Speaker:So it was just see it through.
Speaker:Now, did you guys start out, you guys obviously started
Speaker:out as work partners, right?
Speaker:You guys worked together really well, and then you were like, Oh obviously you
Speaker:don't slack off and I don't slack off.
Speaker:We're going to work together.
Speaker:And then, is the way that the friendship blossomed was the fact that you guys
Speaker:had late nights and you're like, Hey, do you want to go get food?
Speaker:Or was it like a conscious effort to become friends?
Speaker:It was in The house searching process that I think we became closer friends.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We were we were going to get a house with a few more guys and then that
Speaker:kind of fell through, but we said, Hey, let's go get a place together still.
Speaker:And then once we was during film school or way before you came out to Los Angeles,
Speaker:this was during, yeah, this was during.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And then what was the process in which you guys.
Speaker:Obviously got closer when you guys got an apartment together, right?
Speaker:Yeah, then you're like, oh, it's good and then so Where
Speaker:was the idea to form a company?
Speaker:Where did that come from?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Cause that's a little bit further than Oh yeah, let's just be, just work together.
Speaker:But I was like, Oh, let's be in charge.
Speaker:Let's risk money together.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think once we live together and we really got that experience of
Speaker:being, so close to each other all the time and really understanding
Speaker:who each other are better and, How we overcome conflict as a team.
Speaker:We've realized that we can work together pretty well.
Speaker:And we knew we wanted to create something.
Speaker:We want to build something over time that we're proud of.
Speaker:And in the long run, we can look back and say we did that together and so exciting.
Speaker:And I think we initially were thinking just film production company, but then
Speaker:at least for me I graduated a year early, so I had, I did like a reverse
Speaker:Gap year where I took some time and okay, how do I where do I want to go?
Speaker:Where do I want to navigate more specific with the thought process?
Speaker:Where do I want to specialize?
Speaker:and so over that time I realized I really enjoy making music videos and
Speaker:I have a passion for that and it's not The greatest place to be making money in
Speaker:film because if you're going to artists for money artists typically don't have
Speaker:money And they don't want to give it to you And they want you to do three grand
Speaker:worth the work for a hundred dollars yes, but Spaceship joyride, we're
Speaker:really not looking to maximize profit.
Speaker:We want to make dope art and Make stuff that we're proud of People can enjoy and
Speaker:have a super visceral experience watching.
Speaker:So when did you guys decide okay, this is the name that we're gonna go with.
Speaker:Debated that name for a while.
Speaker:We debated a couple names.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah what's the one with the finalists?
Speaker:What was the one with balloons?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Balloon Man Productions.
Speaker:That's dope.
Speaker:Code Red Productions, but then that was like, Eh, that sounds a little scary.
Speaker:That's Mountain Dew.
Speaker:That's Mountain Dew.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mountain Dew Code Red.
Speaker:Oh, Code Red, true.
Speaker:DEFCON 4 PRODUCTIONS!
Speaker:Ha!
Speaker:Player 2 Productions was another one.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I kinda like that one, but, we're Player 1, we're stepping up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's interesting talking about you guys.
Speaker:It's a lot of businesses in our industry that are production.
Speaker:They start off that way.
Speaker:Me and Nicholas used to be roommates.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's how we, that's how we did it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's how we ended up.
Speaker:And we had a whole bunch of, Insano names right?
Speaker:It's just like what like we went to down to a bar.
Speaker:We like just yeah You know a bunch of names and they were a bunch of insane
Speaker:names But the crazy part is and I would be interested to know if you
Speaker:guys happened upon the same thing.
Speaker:So we were going back and forth on the names But whenever he wrote down one
Speaker:of the names for one of the podcasts that we had, it was called Southern
Speaker:Sempais, as soon as he wrote that out, we were like that's the name, obviously.
Speaker:And we kept comparing everything else to that name.
Speaker:And we kept comparing everything else to that name, and we were like, no,
Speaker:it's so obvious that this is the name.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Did you guys Have that experience.
Speaker:I felt that just the way it flows off the tongue, Spaceship Joyride.
Speaker:I enjoyed it and I said in our previous podcast, like I wanted
Speaker:to be an astronaut growing up.
Speaker:So I think something, some child within me just really your inner
Speaker:child is happy that you named that.
Speaker:Also People would ask, why not just go work for other people
Speaker:and yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker:Why not just go work for other people?
Speaker:Why do it the hardest way possible?
Speaker:and make a company and then, and take the risk.
Speaker:It is a big risk.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And especially 'cause since you're both went to film school in Boston,
Speaker:but now how long have you guys been out here in Los Angeles?
Speaker:Two months we've been here.
Speaker:So you guys are two months now, guys.
Speaker:Fresh.
Speaker:Fresh.
Speaker:New.
Speaker:Yeah, fresh.
Speaker:She's out here.
Speaker:Freshy, newbies.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we're, this is a huge transition to not only say, okay did you start your
Speaker:company before you got out here or did you start it when you got it here?
Speaker:It was a little bit before.
Speaker:So a couple months before you already had your company formed,
Speaker:then you said, decide, okay, we got to take this to Los Angeles.
Speaker:What was the thought process?
Speaker:Why not do stuff in Boston?
Speaker:I think the thought process was mainly there's a lot more
Speaker:artists to work with out here.
Speaker:And a bunch of our friends are based out here from Emerson.
Speaker:So we thought there's a lot of good connections and people that
Speaker:can hop on projects with us.
Speaker:And the music scene is just rising here.
Speaker:Boston, it's a little smaller.
Speaker:It's mainly Berkeley college music kids, which is still good.
Speaker:They make amazing stuff.
Speaker:But we thought we'd diversify our portfolio a little bit out here
Speaker:and have better opportunities.
Speaker:It's so interesting.
Speaker:You talk about music.
Speaker:So I'm from Tennessee, right outside of Nashville.
Speaker:I feel like it's a decent spot.
Speaker:Yeah, there's so much music that comes out of there.
Speaker:The whole, there's this huge new wave of this country hip hop sound.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:With Shaboosie.
Speaker:And then I think It's like a Kane Brown sound and all that.
Speaker:Yeah, the person who made it like a quote unquote, Beyonce attempted it recently.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Apparently made quote unquote really popular.
Speaker:They say Lil Nas X with Old Town Road.
Speaker:Yeah, Old Town Road, yeah.
Speaker:And I remember hearing that song for the first time and being like, This is
Speaker:placed in Nashville called Rocket Town.
Speaker:And, Rocket Town, I'm not really gonna get into that, but basically, that's where
Speaker:that whole area, that sound kinda like hip hop country sound kinda came from.
Speaker:I remember a whole bunch of my friends texting me like, Do you hear this beat?
Speaker:Where have I heard this before?
Speaker:I was like, dude, I think that's kinda Rocket Town, I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker:You know each every city has a whole bunch of music that might be
Speaker:local and central to them Have you noticed a huge musical difference?
Speaker:You're doing mostly music videos.
Speaker:Have you heard notice a huge musical difference of what's
Speaker:available from here than Boston?
Speaker:There's a Great range of sound here.
Speaker:I think there's a people doing all kinds of stuff and that's
Speaker:what's so great about this city.
Speaker:It's definitely Probably pop oriented, but I also love that Cali vibe Beach
Speaker:sound to some like those are the bands.
Speaker:I'm really excited to start working with and doing that kind
Speaker:of Wallows sound where it's just you know, like old like Beach Boys.
Speaker:It's like We're here we're in Cali so if we're in Cali.
Speaker:Yeah, I think we like, like grounded music.
Speaker:There's a lot of indie rock out there and, all other genres.
Speaker:But if they have a really grounded and localized sound,
Speaker:I think that's really exciting.
Speaker:Especially because then you can really build a world very strongly around that
Speaker:and give it its own identity, and make a, Visual artistic voice for that artist
Speaker:based on their sound and in boston, you have a lot of like people trying to sound
Speaker:like john mayer, it's Is that really?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, they're all trying to sound like John mayer and like dropkick murphy's
Speaker:is what I would say you get in boston a lot of guitars A lot of guitar a
Speaker:lot of acoustic guitars at a mic.
Speaker:Yeah and that's great, that's some great music some great art and stuff,
Speaker:but I think out here there's just a Opportunity to do a lot of different
Speaker:work and that's what's super exciting wider variety of things to do since
Speaker:you guys Work on a lot of music videos.
Speaker:Is there anything about music video production?
Speaker:That we might not know since we're not as close to it as you guys it
Speaker:might be different from doing it from film Or television production wise.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, I think production wise.
Speaker:It's just a super fast process a lot of the time you're making a micro short
Speaker:almost in the process Music video medium and that's probably, yeah that's probably
Speaker:the bigger difference because honestly, the rest of it, you can get a little
Speaker:more conceptual with some stuff, right?
Speaker:You're not necessarily capturing dialogue always.
Speaker:You're not lighting stuff the exact same.
Speaker:You can get a little more abstract with it.
Speaker:But besides that, it's really just the pace of turnarounds and of production.
Speaker:And then on the shoot days, it's a lot more, Very high energy dynamic kind of
Speaker:filmmaking because you're never really sitting down for a dialogue scene in
Speaker:a diner it's you're not gonna have that You're just getting this shot
Speaker:and then we're moving on and you're moving on exactly and you're always
Speaker:thinking about Post production, how is this gonna cut together and where our
Speaker:transition is gonna be and you guys even have scripts when you're doing
Speaker:this We'll do we'll do like shot lists detailed shot list lyric by lyric so
Speaker:you do it based off each lyric compared to yeah lyrics or the beat, right?
Speaker:through the song a lot over and over.
Speaker:We'll figure out, okay, what's the story of the song?
Speaker:What's the emotions of the song?
Speaker:And then we start shot listing through it.
Speaker:We figure out if there's going to be a story in it.
Speaker:So if there's a story, we'll figure out what's the story we're going to
Speaker:tell first and then we'll shot list it.
Speaker:What's the story of the songs telling and that we're going to
Speaker:bring through in the music video.
Speaker:And that's how we go through it, but we're not doing like a traditional script.
Speaker:We're more doing You know if we're doing more of a story, then
Speaker:we'll do a little bit more, but it's not like Interior exterior.
Speaker:It's like this is the story.
Speaker:We're gonna tell these are the locations.
Speaker:We're gonna go to so There's a very famous quote.
Speaker:I forget the person who said this, but it's a curious quote I think he
Speaker:was a guy who did a lot of the Beatles like music videos where he says
Speaker:Oh, the song's about a pink house.
Speaker:You don't shoot a pink house.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, you find the subtext really?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So what is that?
Speaker:What is that process like?
Speaker:Is it long?
Speaker:Is it short?
Speaker:Because it's like you're saying you listen to a song over and over again.
Speaker:You're like, okay, listening to it.
Speaker:I'm starting to understand what they're talking about.
Speaker:Or is it more do you guys have to figure out yourselves or more okay, I
Speaker:need to sit down with the artists and hear what they think this subtext is.
Speaker:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker:I love sitting down with the artists and seeing what they're thinking.
Speaker:Because then you can, Voice something through a visual medium that the song
Speaker:itself can't do, and it can add an extra context or meaning to the song in general.
Speaker:Like one of the ones we just worked on with a really
Speaker:talented artist named Eckley.
Speaker:The song isn't he's talking about, is it okay to ask for help?
Speaker:Basically.
Speaker:And the song has no religious context if you just listen to it, but if you
Speaker:frame it in this religious and the social context that we chose to do it in, it you
Speaker:interpret the song in a different way.
Speaker:And I think, finding what the song means to the artist, and now, how
Speaker:can we tell that differently for you, is the most interesting thing.
Speaker:Yeah, I think one of the most exciting things is that, finding that synthesis
Speaker:between the two visions, right?
Speaker:Because we'll have a gut reaction listening to the song and
Speaker:then we'll talk to the artist.
Speaker:And if it's like, what are these two ideas, right?
Speaker:It's like the theory of montage, it's like you're taking two ideas and you're
Speaker:blending them together and then you're getting an idea that wouldn't have
Speaker:existed without that collaboration.
Speaker:And that's what makes something so much more powerful.
Speaker:I think is that Kind of blending of voices into one, one voice.
Speaker:Speaking of blending I'd love to get your take on this, but I've been on some
Speaker:music sets where they're just vibing out and they're just capturing it, right?
Speaker:And you see it and you're like, wow, that's awesome.
Speaker:But then there's some sets where you're on, where it's more of a
Speaker:manufactured vibe to make it look like a certain thing while on video.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:How do you go?
Speaker:And prevent the second.
Speaker:Prevent the second?
Speaker:For making it look like, awkward.
Speaker:Some shots, you have them.
Speaker:Cause you do have to manufacture it sometimes.
Speaker:You have people dancing in the crowd, possibly to them playing the song.
Speaker:But, like you said we've been on sets where they look like, it looks like
Speaker:it comes out fake from the camera.
Speaker:How do you prevent that?
Speaker:Yeah, it feels awkward.
Speaker:I think that's like the magic of, that's the whole job of
Speaker:any kind of filmmaking, right?
Speaker:Is taking this fabricated thing and making it feel super organic and super genuine.
Speaker:And I think a lot of that goes into pre planning, visualization knowing
Speaker:how to use the camera, right?
Speaker:How to, what angles you're choosing, what lenses you're having and what colors are
Speaker:looking like this, what feels natural and what needs to be enhanced to feel natural.
Speaker:And then what kind of what we expect as audience members now from a camera, right?
Speaker:From a look, because Audience members are so good now at saying,
Speaker:That looks off, that looks fake.
Speaker:That just doesn't look right.
Speaker:They're more aware now.
Speaker:They're very aware now, right?
Speaker:Because we see it all the time.
Speaker:And I think to avoid that manufactured look, it's really about, it's really about
Speaker:the pre planning and just making sure your mise all there and all in the moment.
Speaker:And that if everything is together, it's not going to feel fake, but if
Speaker:one thing's off, that's what's going to say, oh, Red flag, like this was
Speaker:fake because that shouldn't be there.
Speaker:Do you think if somebody sees that one thing that's off that's fake Then they're
Speaker:more likely to try and pick out other things that could potentially I know I
Speaker:do I know I would it drives me crazy and then are there some things or you have
Speaker:to direct the artist to say I know this is awkward in real life But on camera,
Speaker:this is going to look really great.
Speaker:That's all the time.
Speaker:Can you speak to, since you say it happens all the time, can you speak
Speaker:to certain situations where you've had to say that and the artist is
Speaker:like, what are you talking about?
Speaker:But then once you show it to them, you're like, see, this is what I'm trying to.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I put someone in a.
Speaker:In a pink morph suit for one video.
Speaker:And I was at my cousin actually.
Speaker:And he was not too happy about that, but I was like, bro, just trust.
Speaker:I'm not going to keep you in the pink morph suit, bro.
Speaker:I'm going to edit you out.
Speaker:And he's okay, cause he doesn't really understand.
Speaker:It's going to be, this is just, I need this for right now.
Speaker:I feel embarrassing in this pink morph suit right now, but it's
Speaker:you got to commit to the art, man.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:One time we had to I'm not going to name this artist because I don't think the
Speaker:video is out yet, but we had to paint this woman, her arms and her face in black.
Speaker:And then the director wanted her to like, do you want to like a liquid look?
Speaker:So it's a shot from above and she's supposed to look like some like black
Speaker:entity, like with a white liquid background, that she's like coming out of.
Speaker:And so originally the day of, they were like, okay, we've
Speaker:got a whole bunch of water.
Speaker:She's sitting in the tub.
Speaker:We have a whole bunch of white food coloring.
Speaker:Good to go.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:It didn't really work out.
Speaker:So then he goes, oh where's the nearest grocery store?
Speaker:And I'm like, I think it's like down the way he's like, all right, cool
Speaker:You got some PA to get like I was like it was like 18 gallons of like milk
Speaker:And the worst part is It looked great in camera, but like trying to convince the
Speaker:artists like, hey, I need you to submerge.
Speaker:First of all, you're already First of all, she's already not fully
Speaker:clothed right because she's about to get into this tub but It's like
Speaker:milk, you know what i'm saying?
Speaker:It's like it has a smell and stuff to it Yeah, you guys ever find yourself doing
Speaker:something where you're like doing some sort of special effects that might be
Speaker:like I really gotta somehow make this work That pink morphsuit shot needs
Speaker:some some special effects work on it.
Speaker:But I would say in general with that, like artists who are willing to just
Speaker:commit to it with no questions asked are just like I love the bravery of that.
Speaker:And I love the commitment to the art and to say, I'm gonna get in that tub of milk.
Speaker:No questions.
Speaker:Like we need it for the shot.
Speaker:We'll do it.
Speaker:Yeah, that's that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So inspiring.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It just comes down to trust really again, right?
Speaker:It's if you guys trust each other that you're going to execute what needs to be
Speaker:executed, it's you'll do it for the shot.
Speaker:How do you gain those trusts from artists?
Speaker:Especially if there's just you're working with someone, they, obviously the future
Speaker:portfolio, the thing that is your great XYZ, you think that they're great.
Speaker:They'd be great to work with.
Speaker:But once you're on set, you still do need to gain their trust.
Speaker:How do you gain the trust of those performers?
Speaker:I think the way that we go about it is planning and pre production and then a
Speaker:lot of communication, and explaining the vision and meeting and talking about,
Speaker:okay what do you think about this?
Speaker:And just having this collaborative creative process so that there's
Speaker:no doubt that the product is going to be what the vision was.
Speaker:And then in that sense, it's okay This might be weird shooting it
Speaker:for this moment, but you know how it's going to turn out and that's
Speaker:why we're doing it like that.
Speaker:More often than not, are the artists more amenable or do you have to,
Speaker:are they like, no, this is what I'm doing and I don't care what you say?
Speaker:It really depends.
Speaker:I think a lot of them realize that the visual world isn't their forte.
Speaker:So they're, that's why they're bringing people in.
Speaker:And they're, so they're very open to ideas and trusting you, but they also
Speaker:have their image that they're curating.
Speaker:So they're like, Oh no, I'm like, I can't do that.
Speaker:That's not the brand I'm pushing out.
Speaker:And it's that's the fun challenge is okay.
Speaker:We have to now mix this video and this vision with this
Speaker:brand and vibe of this person.
Speaker:So it's almost an in between.
Speaker:I know that's a non answer.
Speaker:Oh, I'm sorry.
Speaker:Has there ever been an artist where it's nope, I'm not doing that.
Speaker:You're going to have to find a way around it.
Speaker:I'm not doing this.
Speaker:And does that, we spoke previously about Challenges right
Speaker:how they inspire creativity.
Speaker:Do you find that those more do you find a lot of those happening?
Speaker:So then you have to get even more creative or usually are they more?
Speaker:Collaborative.
Speaker:I used to say yeah, I don't think we get a lot of hard nos but we
Speaker:definitely get people that are like, this is what I'm going to be doing.
Speaker:Like just capture it or something.
Speaker:Or this is what I'm imagining.
Speaker:We got to figure it out.
Speaker:And it's more of a vibe.
Speaker:You had to know the vibe of the person.
Speaker:You had to spend a lot of time with them prior to.
Speaker:We try to, we try on, we try to call them as much as we
Speaker:can, have meetings with them.
Speaker:Like really get to know them as an artist and them as a person, right?
Speaker:. 'cause you have your artistic voice and you have your personal voice.
Speaker:So working with someone to be successful, you need to like work with them as
Speaker:a person and as an artist almost.
Speaker:Yeah, but I think any like challenges like that, like limitations I
Speaker:think make the creativity kind of bubble a little bit, right?
Speaker:Cause it's like you're, it's like you're squeezing a tube and
Speaker:you're forcing the creativity out.
Speaker:And it makes it really exciting.
Speaker:It makes it a really fun challenge.
Speaker:And it just makes it a blast, what would you say separates your company from other?
Speaker:Companies that make music videos because everyone has like something
Speaker:about them that makes them different Yeah I think we're more focused on
Speaker:world building with the artists which You know, you see the spaceship But
Speaker:spaceship world different places.
Speaker:I see what you're doing out of this world.
Speaker:Yeah, so we like Ideally with an artist, we like to create not just one video,
Speaker:but multiple visual pieces around this album or single or something
Speaker:that can be more of an extended piece and extended rollout for the artist.
Speaker:So it's not just a regular, simple video.
Speaker:It's a bit more marketing for the artist as well, because nowadays, as I said,
Speaker:in our interview before, like vertical content is where it's at a little bit now.
Speaker:Music videos have always been a way it's a marketing tool for the artists really.
Speaker:And it's a piece of art and that's why we love making them.
Speaker:It's a beautiful art form, but also Respect the marketing sense of it and
Speaker:how we're trying to get the most people to listen to these artists songs as
Speaker:possible and So we're gonna extend that world extend the rollout make new
Speaker:types of content for social media that Other companies might not be focused
Speaker:on doing throughout the whole process.
Speaker:Yours is more focused on the entirety of where this video like the actual
Speaker:usage of the video compared to just oh just You're more worried about okay
Speaker:how are they going to present this?
Speaker:How, where are they going to show it to like the marketing side of it too?
Speaker:Which is pretty smart.
Speaker:Cause a lot of, I know a lot of music video production companies
Speaker:that they don't worry about that.
Speaker:They worry about like the front end part.
Speaker:It's okay, cool.
Speaker:We shot it.
Speaker:We're done.
Speaker:Comparative to you guys who are more like, okay no, we're
Speaker:going to take a step further.
Speaker:We've already pre planned this part of the marketing, right?
Speaker:This is how you can be able to use this.
Speaker:This is how you use this extension.
Speaker:I think the, like a key difference is that we're interested in a holistic
Speaker:visual approach, so we would love to do Out visual albums for the artists
Speaker:if they release an album I think a big part of this is a lot of music videos
Speaker:can sure they can exist on their own and they can Just sit there but if you
Speaker:make the If you make it a bigger world and you make the distribution of it
Speaker:something larger it's you're creating an experience now, right and you're
Speaker:making that song or that album or that artist their own kind of world and their
Speaker:own kind of enclave to bring people in.
Speaker:And that's what's super exciting.
Speaker:And it really, I think it connects people more on a personal level with the artist.
Speaker:If they build this.
Speaker:this universe around their song, right?
Speaker:And if they really care about it and try to tell a story with
Speaker:everything they're doing that's going to bring people in, right?
Speaker:Because we naturally connect with stories.
Speaker:That's how we, that's how we communicate in the world.
Speaker:So I think if that's the goal of every piece we do, it's just going to up,
Speaker:up your Do you have any advice for, so if there's some musicians listening
Speaker:do you have any advice for what they should bring when they're dealing
Speaker:with people who do music videos?
Speaker:Because I'm sure like some clients you've had have been easier than
Speaker:others, no fault of their own, right?
Speaker:But it just seems like some artists might come with more ideas than others.
Speaker:And stuff like that, or maybe, the artists are a little bit newer compared
Speaker:to some seasoned musicians, right?
Speaker:Is there any advice you can give musicians who might want to work with you guys?
Speaker:Where it's okay This is my something I may need to think about or what could
Speaker:help you make your side a little bit easier that they can Bring to the table.
Speaker:Yeah for sure.
Speaker:I think first of all, reach out to spaceship joyride But I think what's
Speaker:helpful to know is Know the song you want to do or a couple songs If you
Speaker:have any conceptual ideas for it hundred percent bring those to the table.
Speaker:Let us know Have a timeline you're interested in because timelines very
Speaker:big schedule Yeah, like it was quicker.
Speaker:We can get that done the quicker.
Speaker:We can lock it down and then get to work and then really just bring some
Speaker:excitement and bring some energy and Let's make some great art together, right?
Speaker:It's not just a, it's not just like a little video to showcase your song.
Speaker:It's a world, right?
Speaker:It's a beautiful piece of art that we're going to make.
Speaker:And that's like the most exciting thing ever.
Speaker:So bring some excitement, bring some energy show us who you are as an
Speaker:artist and we'll take it from there.
Speaker:Super excited to work with you and know your lyrics.
Speaker:Yeah, really?
Speaker:You'd be surprised.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Know your lyrics.
Speaker:Do you ever have to impress upon your artists that you work with,
Speaker:hey, we are building a world here.
Speaker:We're not just shooting a music video.
Speaker:I'm sure it's different.
Speaker:Cause it's cause since you're building a whole world, I can't.
Speaker:Imagine some, especially people who might not be as seasoned musicians,
Speaker:they're like, they might confuse them.
Speaker:They're just trying to get music videos out there for exposure and
Speaker:they're, they don't realize, hey, if you build a whole conceptual world
Speaker:and give a whole experience like you guys are talking about, they're going
Speaker:to love it so much more than if you just do three or four music videos.
Speaker:Yeah, I think showing some examples of artists that have done that
Speaker:in the past, if they're not fully sure what we're talking about,
Speaker:helps and also inspires them.
Speaker:They're like, Oh yeah that, that is pretty cool.
Speaker:And as John said, once I think the artist realizes that it gives the fan something
Speaker:to grab onto more and as an artist, they want their music heard and you tell
Speaker:them that this will spike engagement.
Speaker:And I think they're pretty stoked about that idea.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I think a lot of them enjoy having that world built.
Speaker:Yeah, I think a lot of people, um realize the value of what they've
Speaker:created and they don't want it to really fall on deaf ears, right?
Speaker:And I think when you put more effort into creating this visual landscape
Speaker:for your song it's really gonna help engage people and drive them to
Speaker:follow more and say, okay what's in this, like, why is this their image?
Speaker:Why is this there that even if that's subconscious, right?
Speaker:Like you don't even have to, even if they see something, Images move you
Speaker:right away when you see it, right?
Speaker:It'll grab onto you.
Speaker:So I think keeping that in mind, it's a lot, it's a big reason to
Speaker:do more than just sing to a camera and put it online, off camera, we
Speaker:talk off camera, off off the show.
Speaker:We talked a little bit about shot deck.
Speaker:So is there, any specific way that you guys, because they're
Speaker:musicians, that's their corner.
Speaker:You guys are helping with the visuals and the world being and stuff like that.
Speaker:Do you find that there's sometimes trouble explaining that to him,
Speaker:that connection of okay, this piece goes here, this piece goes there.
Speaker:And like, when you're presenting to them, because we thought about
Speaker:shot deck and both of us use shot deck to get visuals from different
Speaker:projects to present examples.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Shot deck's a great tool.
Speaker:So what we've been doing is we've been talking about.
Speaker:We'll go through the shot list with them and we'll pull examples from shot deck
Speaker:and say this is what we're thinking.
Speaker:This is the order.
Speaker:This is the progression here.
Speaker:You can see the color palette.
Speaker:You can see the angle we're thinking of.
Speaker:It'll be a little different, like this from shot deck.
Speaker:But it's definitely a super useful tool to lock in people's head what we're going for
Speaker:before the shoot so they can conceptualize Exactly what they're doing exactly.
Speaker:So we've been talking a lot about music videos Is that the future of
Speaker:your company or do you want to expand?
Speaker:Or is that you're going bread and butter for right now?
Speaker:Or is that the bread and butter, like DJ was just saying, is that the bread
Speaker:and butter of your company right now?
Speaker:Yeah, I think we always want to keep the music videos rolling.
Speaker:That's still a long term goal of ours.
Speaker:But I think we also want to move into film more down the line.
Speaker:We're still doing film right now.
Speaker:We're constantly writing new stuff.
Speaker:We're in pre production of one, we're in post production of another.
Speaker:But we definitely want to move into features down the line once we have
Speaker:some more experience under our belt.
Speaker:Yeah, we want to really grow the company to have like mainly two divisions, to
Speaker:do kind of music video side and then to have a more dedicated film division.
Speaker:And we think that's going to be a great approach.
Speaker:And another big goal of that is to bring in other artists, we really want to,
Speaker:uh, get everyone on the joy ride, right?
Speaker:Let's all take the ride on the rock.
Speaker:That's what it is, man.
Speaker:It's it's the more art we can pump out and the more art we can
Speaker:support of other people as well.
Speaker:It's just going to elevate everybody, right?
Speaker:Because every time or hear a piece of great art and great music, great film
Speaker:it's improving you slightly, right?
Speaker:Cause you're just soaking in this great work.
Speaker:And then you're inspiring yourself and going out.
Speaker:Yeah, we see this thing really growing and no pun intended taken off, but
Speaker:So it's been great having you guys on the show There are some of magicians
Speaker:who want to reach out to you.
Speaker:How can they contact you?
Speaker:Yeah, you can find us at spaceshipjoyride.
Speaker:com or Instagram spaceshipjoyride as well Yeah, we have our contact info on there.
Speaker:Don't hesitate to reach out.
Speaker:We would love to work with you guys in any capacity.
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Guys, this has been film center news.
Speaker:I'm Derek Johnson.
Speaker:Second, I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:We're here with Bennett summer on August step.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:We'll see you next time.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Thank you for having you guys.
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, this has been Film Center.
