Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello, I'm Jeremy Rivera, your unscripted podcast host. I'm here with Vega. Why don't you give yourself a nice little introduction and we'll see where the conversation goes.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: All right, Sounds great. What's up, everybody? My name is Vega Montanez. I'm a Dominican filmmaker, writer, director, producer, with huge background in sound work and editing. So, you know, a little bit of everything. I've got a couple of features out there, a couple of shorts.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Interesting. So what. Where did you start? Did you go to school for it? Did you run into a mentorship? What led you into creating with video?
[00:00:39] Speaker B: No, I actually started in music, and I spent 10 years, 12 years of my life just working in music.
And around 2016, I was asked by a friend of mine who's an actor who I met through music to write a script, and that kind of started this long journey. I backed away from filmmaking at first because I was like, this is crazy the way you have to go through and, like, try to fundraise. And there was just a lot of stuff that didn't make sense to me coming from the music side.
So 2019 rolled around, and I was like, you know, I was supposed to go on a tour that got canceled. I had some extra money, and I was like, you know, let me see what I can do, see if I can make a movie. And then that started me on this journey of making movies, and I've been at it since. So it's been a quite a fun journey, quite a fun road.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Interesting. So, you know, you wrote a script. The first movie that you made was that self produced. Did you have somebody else come up with the script, or you come up with the script and direct, produce, act, all of the above.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: So I wrote, directed, and produced. I had a friend of mine who. A friend of mine from elementary school who invested in the project by not charging us for the location. So he gave us access to his whole basement for the whole film. And so that was. That was really helpful. I had a lot of other resources, plus the money that I spent.
And then as far as acting, like, I already knew at that point, I didn't want to be an actor. So I just brought in a bunch of actor friends that I had that I knew would be interested or that, you know, seemed like they were interested.
And we made a pretty good movie, I think.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Interesting. Go and shout out the name. What's the title?
[00:02:23] Speaker B: So that was. That was the hurt we shared. That was the first movie I made. That was back in 2019. It came out in 2021 on Fox and it's now on Tubi. And then my most recent films, Nico, I wrote and produced that. The Burden of Nine Lives. I directed, wrote and produced that. Those are both available on Tubi. And I had a children's movie, sort of children's movie that I directed called Beyond Detention and that just came out on Amazon prime as well.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Awesome. So it sounds like, you know, giving kind of life on the background is, you know, this transition to streaming. And I know like as a newer generation of video creators of creating movies, you know, 20 years ago there was no such thing as streaming.
How has that worked out on the back end? Has that been positive? Or do you think that that's for your industry, like going to be a handicap overall because. Or are you excited that you're on these platforms and it gets to stream technically forever?
[00:03:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I. So I think everything in life has, you know, its ups and downs. Right. It's always a double edged sword. So, you know, on one hand, I'm a huge fan of everything that the streaming platforms bring to the table because of the viability, the access. You know, I tell people very often, like, if I would have started my filmmaking journey at the time I started my music journey, I would probably still only have four films at this point. Right. There's a strong possibility I'd have more like. But like the whole point is technology has made the job a lot easier and the access to distribution is a lot is a lot more available because of all the streaming platforms. Right. The downside to that is everybody values the streaming platforms a little bit differently. Right. So personally, like, I love to be. I think it's a great platform. I think it's a, it's a really cool option for people who don't want to spend the money, but they do want to enjoy the film. If you're willing to sit through I think maybe three or four commercials at most at play while you watch it. Cool. If you don't want to watch commercials, you pay the three bucks to rent it on Amazon prime or you purchase it on Amazon Prime. Right. So it gives us as filmmakers a lot of control over how we can bring in revenue for our own films. Right. And it gives us the opportunity to put our films in front of the world. Because before these platforms existed, if you made a film and the studio powers that be decided that it wasn't good enough or it wasn't marketable, it wasn't worth it.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: That was the end of the conversation. Right. And that's if you even got to the point of getting people convinced enough to invest in the film because they understood the risk of it never producing any type of revenue because there was no way for it to actually come out again with the advent of technology, right? Like, easier camera equipment, easier audio equipment, easier distribution options, you can print your own stuff. Even though the DVD business has died so heavily that now, like, from an indie perspective, there's that. That's a huge revenue space we lose out on. Because before you could, you know, control your income with every DVD sale, right now it's kind of just hoping people remember to stream the movie after you promote it to them, whether in person or digitally. So it has its ups and downs. I think at a studio level, it's a much larger effect because.
And I hope audience doesn't get mad at me for this thought, but like, I think movies are going from the theater to streaming too fast.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: And that is negatively affecting the movie business. Because even if you're excited for a film, and I'm guilty of it myself as a fan, right, Even if I'm excited for a film, there's like this extra level of excitement that has to exist for me to say I'm going to go watch it in theaters. Because if I choose not to watch it in theater, my punishment is I have to wait three weeks and then I can just watch it in my house.
It's really, you know, as opposed to before, for better or worse, right. Like, the industry was able to have a little bit more control over that. So if it was in theater, you had 90 days to go watch it. And if you didn't get to see it now, you couldn't see it for three months. Right. And then after three months, it was available to purchase it if you didn't want to buy it. You know, you got to rent it from somewhere if that was an option, right. And then once that went away, we go into the options of. Of just streaming, right? So now we're in a place of like, from purchasing it and renting it. Cool. Just pay this subscription plan and now you can enjoy the film as well, you know, so. So that part of it kind of. Kind of sucks. Give me one second.
Sorry. We're in post production for a short film and my colorist was just calling.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: No worries.
It's like, like Denis Ville venue with Dune. You know, he. He created this masterpiece that was really designed for the theater, for the big screen. You know, he described like his artistic process of, like, he wants this massive ship and like the theater is going shake he's got so much bass. And then they did like, a dual, you know, live streaming event on. On hbo. And I was talking to the people who went to the theater, and they're like, this was the most epic thing that I've ever seen. And then I talk to people like, yeah, it was okay. I'm like, did you see it in the theater? No, I watched it on hbo and it was pretty good. And I was like, God, you just. That in the surrounding the.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: And even. Even at the, like, the most simple version of it that I've said to my friends, it's like going to the movie theater puts you in a different environment, right? Like, there's just less distractions, no matter what you attribute it to. Right. Like, now you're in a room that's dedicated to watching this film. Everything is in front of you, right. As opposed to you being in your house. You can get up and go make a sandwich. Oh, I gotta go to the bathroom. Right. Like, all of the things that you wouldn't do in a theater, you will do in your house. Right. And then we realize, at least for me personally, I've come to the realization, like, some of the rules that they have in theaters are also for your own enjoyment. Like, put your phone away. Like, if you watch a movie in your house and you put your phone away, you're going to like the movie ten times more than if you have your phone around you. Like, it's. It's really that simple. So. So from those perspectives, I'm like, it's. It's negatively impacting the movie business in that way. But now we're at a place where the economy is unstable, politics are unstable. Like, everything about the world is unstable. So how do we convince people to risk it all and go outside to spend money?
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's very dangerous. No, but, like, there is much more of a commitment. And, you know, there's. We live in a distraction economy. You know, there are so many incentives and companies that are trying to keep us distracted. You know, Instagram and Meta, they make money from people mindlessly scrolling, even if they're. You know, I've been in situations where somebody's like, they've got their tablet, they've got their phone, and they've got a movie on. So. So, like, lately, the attention is divided.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: It's so divided. Of course you're not gonna enjoy the movie.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: And. And. And I'm also someone who feels like. With, like, for Dune as an example, like, I also had that experience, right. Where watching Dune I don't really love sci fi movies, so it takes a lot for me to enjoy a sci fi movie to begin with. But watching Dune, I was like, okay, this is kind of cool, this is interesting. But also I have a dog. Right. Like, yeah, I live by myself. Like there's tons of distractions at all points. Right. So it's a, it's not the type of movie you watch at home. Right. And even it's. It's crazy to think because like I feel like as a TV series Game of Thrones could be shown in the movie theaters and probably do bigger numbers.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: I'm saying, like, how crazy would that be to be like, you know, every week we're going to put a new episode of Game of Thrones in the theaters and boom. Like you know how much money they would rake in just from that experience. It's like the Red Wedding is a whole different experience on 190 inch screen with full surround sound that you, that you can't afford in your house.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: No, I definitely, if I owned a theater that would be, that would be an amazing thing to try to do to see if you could get license to do like an awesome TV series and make that a whole thing. I don't know.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: Honestly, I don't know why HBO hasn't done it as like, like they have. HBO specifically has the largest catalog of like cinematic TV shows. Right. You think the Wire, you think Sopranos, you think what was when we just was talking Game of Thrones, right? Like, yeah, all of these very, very like over cinematized TV series that you could theoretically scream them in theater. Like just run it in 50 theaters in the country, one episode a week just for the day and just see what happens. Like I feel like that would be the type of experience that people would go crazy for and it would boost so much sales in movie theaters.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: I definitely agree. I think there's, it's a staggering lack of creativity on, on the corporate side of things. Like they just the level of like safeness that they need in order to, to move forward is kind of stifling in a lot of areas of our experience, you know?
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: So as an indie producer, as a like the, the streaming experience lets you go around that, but it obviously has a cost. So what's like the marketing experience or the business experience that you're trying to hustle and create visibility? I had a great interview with Ethan Castillo and he was another director and he's got his own production studio, but he also does SEO, search engine optimization and marketing on the side for his films and for other people too. So, so what's been your experience in trying to gain visibility in an age where you're competing in that, in that distracted age, you know, like how do you reach people about the message about your film instead of just oh hey, I'm on tubi. I guess this is a thing I can watch. I'll see if I like it. How are you trying to market or bring awareness to your projects in the digital age?
[00:13:32] Speaker B: So I feel like, and I don't know how right or wrong this is, so anyone listening, take it with, you know, your own measurements of salt. But I feel personally attached to in person communication. Right. So I understand the value of being able to spend $500 right. On a marketing campaign on one of the digital platforms and getting access all around the world and all of that. Right. But I also think there's so much more buy in to physical activities. Right. So whether it be doing random private screenings or if it's pop up events, pop up shops or you know, presenting at conventions and things like that, like those are the things that I really try to, to focus on as much as I possibly can.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: No, that's awesome because I do search engine optimization for multiple different clients and I've really been trying to find opportunities to remind these businesses, remind other digital marketing marketing experts to go outside and touch grass. Like I'm literally organizing for a landscaping company. I just organized a trash cleanup for them in San Diego. And so that's going to be a real physical in the world event where they're going to make a difference in the community. And you know, we're driving, we're talking to a bunch of churches, a bunch of organizations to get people and through that now they know that this particular landscape company is in their community and doing stuff, having an impact. And so like, you know, instead of recommending, oh, get onto Semrush or Ahrefs and create a blog post and push it out there and run some digital ads. You know, more of the playbook is how do we create visibility? You know, we make a difference, we do something different, we show up.
But also you know, taking the time for like your pop up to go to your, you know, do a Google search and find out what are the local event aggregating sites for that city and make sure your pop up is listed. You know, like doing some basic outreach to the press and saying, hey, I'm having this event, it's happening in the real world and seeing if you can get a little bit more Juice for the squeeze.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: Exactly. Because I think the, the people are very experience driven right now, right now. So I think you know, we all have, we all get the distractions, right? And the cool stuff that happens on the screen, right? But it's like first it's not super memorable, right? Like that's why we have the whole phrase of going viral because all of the other crazy things we see on the Internet are just crazy, crazy things we saw on the Internet, right. Some spectacularly crazy things explode and they go very big and Right.
But from a digital aspect, like just think of the amount of times you accidentally scrolled up on something you were about to show a friend and now you're frantically trying to find it again but it's gone. Right? Like that's the type of stuff I think about when I'm like the commitment to digital. Sure, if I spend the same 500 in real world experience, I'm probably only going to touch 200 people at most, right? But of those 200 people I'll probably get 150 of them to actually go home and watch the movie, right? Versus the 500 I spend will probably get to 5 or 6,000 eyeballs. But of that number I don't know how many of them are actually going to commit to watching the film. Right? And a lot of these social media platforms, specifically when it comes to film and music, art and entertainment, like those spaces, they don't really have anything set up in their, like in their marketing system that really works towards that, right. Like for example, if I try to do an Instagram advertisement, there's no option for watch. Now they all say it either says learn more, send a message, contact. Like that doesn't mean anything if I'm trying to advertise a movie.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: No, that's true, that's really true because I, in our, in the SEO industry we call that the no click effect. You know where you know the experience of TikTok, you can't, you, you see a pair of pants, you want to buy it, you can't like, you know, like the, it's not set up to go to your third party store. Like at most they'll try it. They might give a pop up option for you to buy it through TikTok. But like if you're, you know, for your movie there's, there isn't that pause. You know, even Instagram makes it difficult of like oh hey, I'm watching this thing. I click into their profile and then I have to go through their, their tree link to finally get to their website and access it. So that's three, four extra steps. So they got to be really invested. Most of the time they're just passively consuming content. Maybe they'll remember later, oh, what was the brand name of that, what is that, that director's name? And try to Google it afterwards. Right, so we see what was the.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: Name of that movie?
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Yeah, what was the name of that movie?
[00:18:33] Speaker B: But then for that to happen, something else has to be memorable enough to trigger them. Right. And I'm very confident and aware of where I am in my career. Right. So I am aware that I myself am not a big name. And most of the actors I work with are not big names. Right. So if you saw our trailer scrolling through, even if it piqued your interest, if you weren't able to engage and do something in the moment.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: Then how do you remember the film if you don't? If you forget the name, then you forget my name. And then the actors aren't super memorable. Right. You just end up picking a different movie because now you're in the mood to watch a movie.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: It's challenging, you know, because we're, we're fracturing, you know, where we spend our time. It's weird. Do you remember the day and age of the Internet? I feel so old. Of like, you went and there were web links. Like, there was no search engine. You'd go from one website and it would link to some other random website. And there was no, like, you couldn't find stuff. It just an experience.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: And I feel I don't fully remember the Internet before search engines. Like, I do remember using like, for example, I remember using AOL dial up, right. And having to like, put the. And then it would give you some time. But I think by that point, even AOL had like its own search menu within its own system.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: So.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: So I've always. I kind of grew up in that version of the Internet.
And then when I think beyond that, it's like, yeah, I can't really think of a time where Google wasn't part of the Internet experience.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: And now we have people ask Jeeves.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: Actually, yes, that's where I would start.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: Now we have kind of a ubiquity people. Like, I'm on the Internet. But no, they actually mean I'm on Reddit. Like, right, I'm getting on the Internet. No, you're, you know, scrolling Instagram. Like, you know, you're watching Tick Tocks. Like, it's so heavily siloed. I wonder, like, what the percentage of people that are actually just discovering random websites, just going and trying to find new, random stuff, you know, that you. They don't have an idea for at the outset.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: And how would you. How would you even do that? Right? Like, every. Every browser you open is already attached to a search engine. So as soon as you start typing something in, it's gonna show you the most relevant things to what you're typing, right? Like, there is no real. There is no real control. And I. I make this joke with people all the time. Like, you can't call yourself an independent person around me because you're not. Right? Like, there's so many things in life that happen for. For you before they even get to you. Making the decision around wanting to engage the thing that you can't fully be independent. Right? Like, look at the. Look at the situation with eggs right now, right? Most people just stopped eating eggs, right? Like, if you were independent, you could still be eating eggs. Right? Like that. That's the depth that I'm like, it's just. It's a. It's a joke of a statement to me, but in that sense, it's like there's so many layers that we have to peel, heal back before anything even starts to work. So, like you said, searchability or, like, randomness popping up for you, it doesn't matter what you're looking at. It has some sort of curation related to the thing previous that you were looking at. Right? So it's not actually showing you anything new. It's just showing you more of the same.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: It's just a continuation. Yeah, right.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: It's like, here's the same thing wrapped differently now. Here's the same thing painted differently.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: Like, that's something I've noticed with our. My generation too, is like, we love the, you know, mashing up two old things together. You know, like we.
We had a massive franchise of Transformers, which was a cartoon in the 80s, and then, you know, it's a whole series.
When do we try to revive something unique? You know, when do we as a society try to, you know, not just fall for the stupid sequel, but really embrace unique, new, different content? Because I. I guess it's based out of maybe nostalgia, but, like, you know, we had, you know, we got our new Star wars series and, you know, know, it was all heavily like Rise of Skywalker. The whole thing with Rey was all based off of nostalgia. And we want to see these, you know, old characters that we had, but in a new situation.
Do you think that we will ever break free? Or, like, are we at the recycle point, where now we're longing for new heroes, new, different heroes, new stories. Or are there no new stories to tell?
[00:23:20] Speaker B: I'm sorry, I was writing a script before this. So, like, I'm in a very like, moving emotional space. So the first thought that came to my mind was very dark. So I guess like the morbid, dark answer to that question is like, people have to die because that's the only way new legacies start. Is like once, like, like the, the newer generation of kids, I, I come from a baseball background. So like, the newer generation of kids probably only recognize like Roberto Clemente as part of Black History Month. They don't really know him as a great baseball player. You know what I'm saying? Or like, this generation may not really recognize Ken Griffey Jr. In the way that they recognize, like, Aaron Judge. Right. So like, that just has to keep. And so because films can be rewatched all the time, it's just a matter of like, the older generation needs to be able to break away from it enough to not encourage it onto the newer generation. Right. Like if you as a Star wars dad are like, oh, my four year old is a Star wars fan now. And you got like, they didn't again, lack of independence and control. Right. They didn't really get to make that decision.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: So they're just loving dad and this is a way to bond with dad. And then over time it becomes nostalgic. And now you are actually a fan. Right. But now, like, again, we keep this cycle going in a way where, okay, how do we break out of it? How do we introduce new things? And that's, that's really the hardest part of all creative industries. It's you. Especially from the profitability standpoint. Right. If we're just talking about the business of it, it's really hard because we need to make our money back.
[00:24:59] Speaker A: Right.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: So, yeah, it's way easier for me to make another Ninja Turtles movie than it would be for me to sell you on a brand new story about 4Ninj that are not turtles. And like, the whole storyline could be pretty much the same thing. And people will be like, I don't know, it's not that good of a story. And you're like, all I changed was the turtles.
But that, that could matter, you know? And so when they, when the big studios sit down and do those numbers, that's really what they're thinking about is what are, what are we willing to take a risk on? So when I look at the percentage of sequels or franchise or property related films to independent film like, or to new concept film, new ip.
I think it needs to go up, but I don't think it's awful. Right. Like, I think maybe right now just random guess I would say we're probably at like 15 to 18 new IP and the rest of it is in some way we recognize it every year. We should probably be closer to like 30%. Right. Like that feels like a safer risk space to me to be at annually as an industry, like annually. 70% of the films we make are related to something people already love. 30% are taking a chance. Right. And that, that should feel pretty safe. But I don't have the million dollar budgets yet and I don't know what that actually looks like. So maybe I'm completely wrong and they're doing it right.
15 is better than zero.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it is. And I think it also runs. You're going.
It's part of the streaming problem too, because you have that catalog and the more new stuff that gets added in, the more old stuff you have to compete with. So there's limited space in the ecosystem.
Breaking through and breaking out and gaining visibility.
Maybe it's a little easier because there is that platform differentiation, you know, like you can break out on Peacock or you can break out on Tubi or you can break out on, on Amazon Prime. There's maybe that's kind of helpful because as, as helpful as it is frustrating as somebody who wants to watch a specific thing figuring out, okay, which of the, you know, six network platforms is this actually on?
[00:27:24] Speaker B: Isn't that the worst?
[00:27:25] Speaker A: Oh, Harry Potter, PlayStation. Wait, no, it's on. It's on Prime.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: I use my PlayStation to find where everything is. I literally just search in the search bar on the home screen and it just brings up the options and it's like, here's where you can watch it. That's all I need. I don't care anymore. But it's also something I thought about recently in that same kind of like, what if you blow up on one of these platforms? Right. Like, you know, God, God willing, the next movie I make does incredible. And we don't have to go through the streaming process first or like that. We get to do everything else. But if it goes to streaming first and it blows up on like Peacock or Hulu. Right. For any filmmaker, is that enough data for the studios to invest in your next film and give it a theatrical release?
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: Or did you just solidify yourself only getting streaming releases for the majority of your career now. Because that's because, like, you already proved how much money you can rake in there.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: The theater release is a whole different expense sheet that we haven't experienced. So, like, will the people who sat in their house and watch this on to be with commercials actually get up and go to the movie theater, or are you now just stuck in this lane?
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it's the. Isn't that the. The direct to video conundrum of the 90s, right.
[00:28:48] Speaker B: That is literally repeating the same exact conundrum. You became a B list filmmaker. Not in a negative way, because there was tons of great, like, direct to video films. But also that's one of the things I. I think about all the time. Like, I think, like, our scale for measuring good is really broken right now.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:06] Speaker B: Like, if we're. If we're looking at like a 1:0 to 10 scale, like, most people don't think anything under 8 is good. And I feel like that's really wrong.
Like, there's another really good way lower.
[00:29:24] Speaker A: Like, I'm doing like a solid six, seven. Give me credit.
[00:29:26] Speaker B: Like, it's like not every uniforms, not every movie. I. Like, I would give an 8 to. You know what I'm saying? Like, the warriors is one of my favorite movies of all time. It would be dastardly to give that anything higher than a seven.
[00:29:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:41] Speaker B: I'm saying, like, there's a lot of flaws with the movie. It's still a great, like, fun experience. It was good to watch. I'll rewatch it. Like, I think we got to remeasure how we're doing this, because I see, like, obviously we're all on social media. I scroll to the Internet and you see the recent Captain America movie. Even if the critics are 100% wrong.
[00:29:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: They gave it a six.
Like, that feels like what you guys say every Marvel movie ends up being, no matter how high we score it, like, they're all just action movies that are really fun to watch.
[00:30:13] Speaker A: Right?
[00:30:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
I think I'm not taking away a lesson from this. You didn't do anything magical. Like, it's. It's a movie. I enjoyed it. Yeah. It feels like a six to me. Like, why is that bad? Like.
[00:30:29] Speaker A: Yeah, normalize, Normalize. Okay.
[00:30:32] Speaker B: Right, Normalize. Okay.
Especially when we're looking at movies with those level of budgets.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: Like, yeah.
[00:30:40] Speaker B: Like, unless you're literally comparing it based on its budget and saying, yo, for $20 million, we should have gotten a way better movie. But then, even still, it was watchable and fun to watch.
[00:30:52] Speaker A: Right. But then you have the universe. You do have the inverse of, like, okay, the perverse, like, let's dive and try to make the most outrageous, cheapest movie, like, you know, Velocipaster or Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter.
So there's kind of.
[00:31:10] Speaker B: Those are. Those are like four and five grade movies. You're not going to not have fun watching them, though. Right? But there's going to be a ton of stuff with it that's just not Oscar qualifying, like.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:23] Speaker B: Not every movie I enjoy is an Oscar qualifying film. And that is perfectly fine.
[00:31:33] Speaker A: Not everything. Schindler's List. Yeah, let's keep that in mind, folks.
[00:31:37] Speaker B: Yeah, just have fun. Go back to having fun.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: I'm curious. Tell me about the project you're working on now and we'll kind of wrap up the conversation around that. Tell me what you're working on. You said you were just talking to your colorist, so I'm interested in your active process right now. What's the title or working title and what kind of genre are we looking for from you?
[00:32:04] Speaker B: I'm a bit chaotic, so I'm working on a few things at the same time, which I think as a wild piece of advice to give anybody. Like, if you're trying to get into this business, the beginning two, three years of your career, you should be very, like, organized, chaotic, chaos, you know what I mean? Like, trying to do as much as you can to really maximize your output. But with that said, right now we're probably a couple days from finishing a short film that we shot early February called Tyranny of Silence, starring Julie Leone and Nikki Nunziotto.
So that is a very, very exciting, interesting, deep drama that Julie wrote about a therapist consoling a student who was recently a victim of abuse.
So that was a very deep and interesting piece to shoot. I did a comedy short recently that's in festivals right now called Change Gonna Come that was written by Nadine Man. I produced that. And I'm working on a script right now that I've been working on for a little while and it's taken me a lot longer than I thought it would. I thought, for whatever reason, I thought this was going to be way easier to write, but I'm writing a drama.
I wouldn't say coming of age because they're a little older than, like, the high school point of life, but it's in that vein about a group of friends that are subway performers, right? So, like, in New York, we have people who come out and they do showtime subway performances and they try to make some money there. And I just. I saw a group of guys doing it, and that didn't really go well, collecting money. And I kind of looked like they got into an argument or a fight as they were getting off the train amongst themselves. And it just kind of sparked that reminder in me that, like, when we go outside, we only see a piece of people's lives. Right? And that's kind of like, what I enjoy my writing the most, is trying to give perspective to. To different ideas of life in the world. Right? Like, everybody's built differently. Everybody has different things they're going through. So in this case, it just kind of inspired me to say, okay, like, what does their whole life look like? Right? So now I'm writing a story about four friends who all have different things going on. But this subway dancing is what kind of keeps them intact and keeps them kind of sane as people despite everything that's happening.
[00:34:27] Speaker A: I love that. And I don't think that just because it's not set in high school, like, that doesn't mean you're done growing, you know, the.
[00:34:34] Speaker B: The. Right.
I like that.
[00:34:38] Speaker A: No, seriously, there's. There's. Developmentally, your brain doesn't stop maturing and growing until 28, and there's a touch point at age 23, and then between 23 and 28. And I remember my wife when she was 23, and the person that she was five years later, not even comparable. Like, the amount of growth and change in a person in the mid-20s, I think is a underrepresented. And I think it's because culturally, we're just used to this concept of, hey, you know, like, high school, you're a kid, and then you get out of high school and you're an adult, and it's totally artificial. You know, like, it's like there's just.
[00:35:19] Speaker B: A black line, and you're just like, here. You crossed it. We're done. Like, nah, man. Like, it was. There was phases for me to even be a child. So, like, can I get some phases to becoming an adult? Right? Like, now that I'm 18, can, like, this be phase one? Right. Learning to adult. Phase two. Practicing adulting.
[00:35:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
There's practicing adulting. Failing at adulting.
[00:35:42] Speaker B: Right. Failing at adulting.
[00:35:44] Speaker A: Mediocre. Mediocre success.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: Relearning. Adulting. Mediocre success at adulting.
Now I'm raising a family. Cool.
[00:35:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:56] Speaker B: Now.
[00:35:57] Speaker A: Now I haven't slept in a year, and I gotta figure everything else out while at a sleep deficit.
[00:36:03] Speaker B: Mm. It's just. It Spirals out of control too fast. I blame tobacco and alcohol.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:10] Speaker B: Because those are the biggest restrictions we have at, like, 18. Like, when you. You turn 18 and then you, like, can just do those things. Like, those are among the things that you're just like, oh, word. I'm an adult now. This certifies it. Like, everything else you do as a kid doesn't really come with any reprimand for not being an adult. Besides those.
[00:36:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:28] Speaker B: I mean, like, you can drive as a kid, and it's like, do you have your permit? If so, you're good. You're chilling. Like, if not, like, why'd you do this? Bad. Like, but that's it. Liquor and alcohol, really problematic.
[00:36:40] Speaker A: Definitely. Definitely.
[00:36:41] Speaker B: Oh, guns. Don't forget guns and guns. I'm for guns. But, like, I feel like we need a little bit more train. Like, maybe 18 is where you can start learning how they work. You know what I mean?
[00:36:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I think there's definitely some interesting hard lines in our society that we present as. As. As true, as legendary. I. As in the film industry. I think back to the unusual preoccupation with high school as an experience. Like, the number of shows and videos that are like, you know, you're focused on the protagonist who's like, it's their first kiss. It's their first, like, you know, intimate experience. But they're like, 16, 17. You're like, maybe, like, we have an unhealthy obsession relationship.
[00:37:32] Speaker B: Right.
[00:37:32] Speaker A: With. With high school. You know, maybe. Maybe we need to develop a little bit beyond that or focus on that maturation as an adult who's not quite an adult, but is definitely an adult.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: I'm really glad that we had this chat because I think you gave me the additional hook to this film, because that's a big piece of. It is one of the characters has always kind of struggled with mental health and depression issues. And despite all of the pleasantries and the great things going on and the energy it displays in public, anytime he's alone, it's a really dark moment. And I think it's. It's like we're both saying, which I'm sure tons of other people feel, there are not enough stories that address life outside of school. Right. Like, even the stories that talk about people being in their 20s like they're in college, which college is a great option. I think everybody should consider going to college and make the decision that makes the most sense for you, you know, based on the position I was in life, I chose to go to college just taking random classes I didn't actually go for a degree, but I do look back every now and then. I'm like, oh, maybe I should have. Right? Like there's always the back and forth you're going to have, but just do what works best for you. But on the topic, there aren't really a lot of shows that show 20 to 25. When you're not in college. What does it look like to just go to work? Right. What does it look like to be in a position where you couldn't go to college because you have to start a family? What do those experiences look like? And those are different stories. So that's kind of one of those things that was already being touched on, but now, like, I can really see it much more emphasized.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: Awesome. Go ahead and plug it one more time. I'm gonna keep my eyes open.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: It doesn't even have a name yet, so we don't know you guys. Just enjoy it when it happens, when it happens. For now. For now, go run up the numbers on Burden of nine Lives and Nico on Tui. Like, just go, go to be. Type in the Burden of nine Lives. Watch that. Type in Nico. If it doesn't come up as a recommended film, it probably will though, because that's been happening for a lot of people lately, you know, and just help us out.
[00:39:40] Speaker A: That sounds great. So, you know, are you hanging out anywhere on social media where people can see what you're up to? Clips, sharing things on. On the socials?
[00:39:50] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I always prefer it if people go to my website, whatabvega.com.
i try to update that a couple times a week with some cool blog stuff. But for anybody who's just on the social media waves at what up Vega Everywhere. W H A T U P V E G A I'm mostly on Instagram and threads right now, but it's my handle everywhere. So I'm definitely not on Tick Tock though. So, like I just have the handle. But I don't do anything there. I don't. I never really got into it. It.
[00:40:21] Speaker A: Me. Any of that. Any other. No, no, no.
All right, thanks so much. Incredible conversation.
[00:40:27] Speaker B: Thank you for having.
[00:40:27] Speaker A: Thanks for your time.
[00:40:28] Speaker B: I appreciate it.
