Frame & Reference Podcast - 17: “Don’t Peek” DP Julian Terry

Episode Date: May 20, 2021

On todays episode of the Frame & Reference Podcast, Kenny talks with writer, director and cinematographer Julian Terry about his film “Don’t Peek.” Nominated for the SXSW Grand Jury Award, ���Don’t Peek” follows a young woman who discovers a frightening video game character intent on crossing into the real world. Make sure to check out his IMDb for more info on Julians work! Julian’s IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4185582/?ref_=tt_ov_dr Frame & Reference is supported by Filmtools and ProVideo Coalition. Filmtools is the West Coasts leading supplier of film equipment. From cameras and lights to grip and expendables, Filmtools has you covered for all your film gear needs. Check out Filmtools.com for more. ProVideo Coalition is a top news and reviews site focusing on all things production and post. Check out ProVideoCoalition.com for the latest news coming out of the industry.

Hello, and welcome to this, another episode of Frame and Reference. I'm your host, Kenny McMillan, and today we're talking with Julian Terry, the director and DP of the horror short, Don't Peak, which he shot nearly alone in his bedroom. during the old uh the pandemonium the old panda sanctuary the old panera bread um the film the little short has been optioned now so it's going to be in it turned into a feature as well as like two other films of his so it was excellent to uh talk to julian if for nothing else than inspiration but also one thing that i really liked that we kind of dug into was the importance of having a good story and as fun as gear is um having that gear serve the story, you know. Uh, storytelling is not necessarily, uh, a, a popular topic, um,

on the old internet's, but, uh, needs to be, you know, the gear is more accessible, I suppose. Storytelling is far more, uh, cerebral. But so we, we talk about that a little bit, obviously the gear stuff, uh, his career. Um, it's a great, it's a great talk. I love this one. So, uh, As always, short intro. Let's get to my discussion with Julian. Tell me how you got started in cinematography. Were you always a, like a film nut? Or how did you come to the art?

Well, you know, it's funny. You know, I always wanted to direct. That was my big thing. And it got to a weird point where, like, you know, when I was a kid, I would stay home sick and I would try to recreate shots. Like, I remember when I, I would try to recreate shots from seven just with photos and such and try to recreate the lighting.

And, you know, that was something that was really fun. And I loved taking pictures of everything. I had a Nikon FG that I carried with me everywhere. And I just took black and white photos of Chicago all the time. I was always around Rogers Park or Lincoln Park. You know, I really loved just taking photos of architecture, just, people's faces. And I got really into street photography. It was high school. But the thing that really, really got me in was, you know, I really was kind of dancing around filming. I'd shoot

like some of my friends projects. I never had a video camera growing up. I would help out. And it was basically, you know, once I kind of, you know, fled Chicago and came out here after I flunked out film school um i don't know way and i'm in l.a now yeah i'm in north hollywood and um yeah i basically was shooting a no budget music video and it was with some college students like we were just trying to figure out what we were doing but uh i realized really quickly i didn't know how to speak language i didn't know how to talk to a dp i knew how to speak to actors i worked well with direction there But when it came down to like, oh, wait, you know, I knew about the line. I knew about certain elements.

I knew certain images that were pretty. But I didn't understand, like, how to speak vocal lengths and, like, how to speak to a gaffer. And I was like, okay, you know, I want to learn this stuff because I don't want to be this director that can't speak to a DP. So I went ahead and this was my first month out here in L.A. when I was really crashing on someone's couch, a strangest couch. And, you know, like, I was barely making it fine. But I was like, this is what I need to do. I have to learn this.

And I basically took, I basically spent a whole year, really, just working my way from, you know, I was an office PA at one point, but I also worked my up to be in a, I guess I went to, I was like a camera PA for a group. bit, you know, I was a second AC, we're playing with to the first AC, since I was a wrestler at one point, you know, everyone knew that I could just lift stuff so they're like, you can be a grip, you know? And I was like, great. And I had grip a lot. I was learning. I would always watch what everybody was doing, though. And I would just, the best way to get to know a DEP, at least back then, was before the vaping was the big thing, but I would just carry a pack of

cigarettes. And I never smoked cigarettes, but I would just carry a pack. And I would just carry a pack. of them and the DP or director would just go ahead and you know had me come over for a minute and uh yeah there's sometimes where i would literally the for some of these music videos uh this one dp really dug me because i always carried cigarettes and you was like hey let me get a few you go ahead and uh operate the camera for this one i'm like oh cool you know i'm like you've had to find your way into talking with people you just are willing to jump aboard of anything and i would just watch how the tricks were done you know there's a lot of lighting tricks of lighting the face and yeah basically it worked and worked and I eventually was uh there was

an office PA job I was doing where I got hit up to do um I was I got hit up to do this job and I remember I went on an elevator ride down when I found out I didn't even get the keep got to keep the job I literally was fired off this thing really bad day as an office PA and uh I bached a lunch order and um I'm on the way down and I get into an elevator with this exec who does shows for Discovery Channel and we're chatting. He's like, so how do you like your day as an office PA and I'm like, well, I'm not so great. I think I'm not going to be here too much longer. I'm really better with the camera.

He's like, oh, really? Well, we could use somebody here who knows how he's this thing. And I'm like, that'd be great. And I gave him my email, never heard from him for over a month. And I'm literally about to move out of this apartment and I get hit up about this job. I'm like, I'll take it. And it was literally shooting this awful show called Fat and Furious Rolling Thunder season two. It was ridiculous, extremely dangerous.

I don't think that show would be going on at all, you know, with the conditions that we were in. But you learn really quickly how to set up cameras and lights move quickly with these very heavy cameras. And, you know, that really helped me out in terms of moving fast. And then after that was over, I ended up, you know, during that time, you're working really quickly, though. I really didn't. I'm really thankful that I had that job because you learn how to, if they say like you're rocking a guitar, you know, you have one finger on focus, you know, one on your aperture. And, you know, you constantly just kind of like going like this the whole time and be able to punch in for your zooms and keep your focus at the same time and make sure you're rocking your aperture when you go outside. Because this is all inscripted.

Yes. It was just crazy nonsense. Like, you know, throwing phantom, like carrying a phantom camera in front of a bunch of cars and recording really quickly and running out of the way. You know, like it was ridiculously dangerous. But, you know, you learn how to move quickly. But then after that, I came back to L.A. and started shooting music videos again. I was, I worked up to, I was like kind of a gaffer and occasionally I would DP smaller stuff. And I end up getting a job with BuzzFeed as an intern and I worked my way up there and I end up working my way up to being a, the only branded cinematographer on staff. So all their commercials, I end up kind of saving their butts with a shoot because I was able to work really, really quickly and light with what we had and basically pull off a commercial looking shot with what they had in the film cage. And it really saved them on this one shoot and basically got me the job to stay there. And, you know, knowing how to go ahead and problem solve is probably the best thing you can have it as a DP, like the best, you know, knowledge is just, okay, how can we like this with what we have? With a few mirrors, mirror boards can be figured this out and, you know, work my way up as DP for the brand side really helped me out in terms of working with a bigger crew and we're at bigger budgets. You know, we went from like the BuzzFeed smaller stuff was $300, you know. Then you had like $25 grand for a budget.

Then you had like $2.50 grand for a budget. And you work with a bigger crew and you learn how to handle different scenarios. You know, sometimes you're literally the only person with the camera and you're filming sharks, people in the water sharks. Or you'll be with like filming puppies and kittens and you have to find the best lighting for this or film babies. you know it really did help me out in terms of handling any scenario outside of you know buzzfeed afterwards it was really fantastic i guess that's kind of a rundown but yeah that was really um how i got into cinematography was really just kind of throwing myself in there and filming like i think i shot close to 200 videos for buzzfeed in the span of a few months or something

crazy i mean i think well i've got high output i think was 100 yeah it was it was crazy i was it beyond I'm exhausted, but I really think that when you just constantly shoot and shoot and shoot, it becomes second nature and you try to experiment a little bit with your lighting and how you have like, oh, you know, maybe I could, you watch a movie and you're like, I see what they're doing here. Can I replicate this? Oh, what's this checkerboard thing? Maybe you can try that or you end up finding a focal length that you love and then you

start experimenting with that focal length and changing it up. And I think it's really fun to just work with the directors and see how they worked, uh, you know, not only with actors, but how they brought their visions to life. And I think my job was always to bring that life, bring that vision to life. I wanted to always make sure that director left happy, matter, uh, what their crazy ideas were. I was like, how can we achieve something close to that, though? It was never something in it for me or my reel or anything. It was always, how do I make this director happy? And, you know, know, maybe it was throwing an idea is to kind of help it out, help find what that groove could be or make it even better than what they imagined. And I always loved that. You know, that was always my favorite thing to cloth. Totally. You had mentioned, that's a long answer there. Oh, no, no. Hey, man, it's our long podcast. You take as much time I need. Um, uh, you had mentioned like a few, um, like lighting techniques that you had learned. Do you remember any of those off the top of your head that you still use to this day?

Oh, yeah. I mean, I think it's funny to look at, you know, some of these techniques, how you kind of live and breathe by them. Like, I always love the booklight, like, putting up a book light and finding, like, the right, you know, just the right softness on the face. I think that was what I love to do is find, like, oh, how can you get the fun roll off here? I love experimenting with that. I think the funny thing is when I switch to, directing was I kind of threw a lot of this stuff out the window in terms of my own DP style. It became almost how close can I replicate a practical element? And I love that as a DP. I would always try to find, okay, how can I make this stage feel more like we're not on a sound stage, you know? Have the, can we make the highlights bloom a bit? You know, can we really punch out the, our fake sun that's outside, you know? I think that's the fun part is trying to give it a little bit of something organic, make it feel a little bit rougher.

I love that feeling. And, you know, when it comes on to even shooting these little fun shorts, it was all, like, how can we go ahead and give it that realistic feeling? How can we make it feel like they're in bed at this time? One thing for Don't Peak, for example, I had a little hairlight going on on the ceiling. This is actually my bedroom where I shot it. And I think what's funny about it is, you know, for me, for horror films,

I think overlit stuff, you know, is a side. It doesn't freak me out as much. I feel safe when I see, oh, there's a, I can tell. There's a little hair light here. I feel safe. I know I'm on a set. But as soon as it feels like, oh, the only thing lighting here is a lamp. that's way creepier to me.

That's, it kind of feels unpredictable. And I think that's what gets in people's heads. And for Don't Peak, for example, like, I have the opening where things are very lit nicely, and she's lit by the switch, and like her hair lights going on through the ceiling here. And it feels very cinematic. But then as soon as things kind of take a turn for the worst, and we know it's scary I turn the lamp back on

but I don't turn the hair light back up and that's what makes it creepier I think everyone gets like chills by the end because they're like oh shoot this is a horror movie I'm scared just because those little subtle things that nobody really pays attention to like hair light

I don't think the average film goer knows what that is but they see kind of beauty in that they see oh there's something soft here that feel like this is very cinematic but the ones that's taken away it feels like oh my god we're capturing just some moment in someone's bedroom. And I feel like find that authenticity is the most important thing.

Sure. You had mentioned earlier that you were always matching like things from seven, which I'll get to in a second. But were there any other, what were your influences growing up, like your visual influences? Was it a lot of Fincher? I mean, obviously, you know, Fincher is just such a master with the camera.

I think, you know, one thing I find myself, I was always trying to replicate, I think, Spielberg a lot, and I loved, I don't know, I thought, I've kind of fell in love with the way he would do his push-ins, because, or even just kind of locked off shots where you can just kind of capture as much as you can in the frame. So a lot of Fincher was kind of there from the get-go. Like I liked Hitchcock as well, you know, there was something fantastic. But Fincher had such a way of lighting that I was like, wow, that's really cool. It's really, like every frame just felt impactful to me. Same thing with, I think it was Raging Bull in high school. I was like, wow, this is super cool.

I remember even when I watched, I think I started watching Curisala films in the senior year of high school or something like that. And we shot like a samurai film back then, and it was so much fun. But I love, I started watching so much Corosawa because I was like, wow, this is so cool. I don't know what it is here, but something's, different about this filmmaking and i realized later on i was like oh you know this guy is literally just letting the actors do the movement you know um there's of course famous shots that he does add movement too but a lot of the times he just did really good blocking same thing with

spielberg though you know you look at sugarland express it's like a like uh it's like film school blocking you know it's it's fantastic it's like it's a great film school like where you're just watch and you're like, oh, I see what's going on here. And then you see some of those elements almost in Munich where you see, oh, this camera is kind of just flowing with them. It almost feels like it's a character trying to keep up with the talent. And it's, it works really well. And I think that really did help me in terms of my style now. My style now is kind of interesting. It's kind of become a mixture of I love the precision

of Fincher and I love how Spielberg does his push-ins and finds the emotion in things and finds those kind of emotional aspects but the thing that really kind of hoax me a bit is something that came from playing a lot of video games as a kid you know

playing like first-person shooters that was always most scary to me it was you can't see you can't turn around you just stuck with this perspective and I really fell in love with doing a lot of perspective shots. I think they really do sell a story. They really make it just plop the audience right there in the talent shoots. And it's really fantastic to be there. I think that's the most fun in the world is to go and say, okay, can you go ahead and find elements in your visual style from like

a video game or even looking at like what works in something else, a different medium? I think that's the most fun. Totally. Were you a, were you a big like special features guy? I know I, Like half, I went to film school, but like half of the shit I learned even before I got there was just from watching commentaries and special features. Like that's what got me into filmmaking was the behind the scene stuff on my favorite DVDs. Oh yeah. No, I think I literally have the most insane Blu-ray Wall just because of the commentary, special features. I think what's great about him is, you know, I always loved when a certain filmmaker was, coming out with a new movie because I knew

oh they put so much work into their special features it's great you know Robert Regos is very famous for that you have even Finch a Fincher has some great breakdowns for like Panic Room get a whole like this just on pre-production for it and it's like wow if you can get Panic Room on Blu-ray

oh well some reason it's the one movie you can fucking you can't get no like I think either they just put it out or yeah it hasn't come out but like I don't have it on D it's the one movie of his that I can't get a hold of without like spending a bunch of money I just have that one on DVD and it's just I have the like three disc edition of it it's always finding the most editions of it you know I think that's the most fun looking at like my Lord of the Rings box set that thing has like 26 hours behind the same and it's like oh my gosh like this is a journey but I love there's something

beautiful about that where you can it's a close you can get to having a conversation with the filmmaker you know uh that's why i love criterion films where you can really do a deep dive into everything that filmmaker has like do the right thing has a great breakdown with um you know the the the reading so the scripted readings and it's like wow this is so cool it feels uh like it's the close thing you get to being there uh like uh i i think cindy lumet did a great job with like his book making movies where you're like oh you get to feel what it's like to be in the room during these times. And I think that that's the most important thing because no one tells you what it's like to be actually in there.

And now I only went through my intrafone class, but as far as I know, I don't think anybody teaches you about realistically pitching to a studio. It's a whole different world. And yeah, the best thing you can do is read books or watch movies and hear what these directors say. to say I think it's really fantastic to hear about some of the predicaments they'd run into and you're like oh I never thought I'd run into this problem and then you find yourself running those problems later on and you're like oh thank god I've listened to this commentary I'm so thankful I did this and yeah I mean sometimes it's just uh you can find the most fun information from that and now the big one is the podcast you know like dg a good podcast uh

there's a bunch of good ones from 824 um I love listening to these podcasts where they can just It's a huge, just, uh, breakdown with, uh, the directors that you admire, you know, fantastic. Yeah, the, uh, I think that that's something that we've kind of lost in the, uh, what did Steve Holfish call it the journalism, uh, websites that like literally wait for someone else to do the research and then just hack it up to 10 bullet points and then post it. Because even if, you know, they were to watch, for instance, actually, um, I think it's one perfect shot does which a colleague of mine was like they should call it many

perfect shots there's they don't just post one there's like a million um a few perfect shots but uh they'll do like things we learned maybe it's film school read i don't fucking know they're all the same uh yeah but it was like things we learned from ex commentary and then they just bullet point the interesting stuff but what i found is that nine times out of ten those bullet points are yeah fine you know it's all information but what you You don't get, the stuff that you could use as a filmmaker generally is in the time between those bullet points where they're like riffing about some little problem they ran into that isn't click baitable or whatever. You know, it's not Robert Downey left piss on the set. It's like, oh, you know, actually, I was just watching the looper commentary and they were talking about how Emily Blunt had, she had to do the action.

into the stump scene like pretty early on or something like that and then they later go back to the part where she's got Joseph Gordon Levitt in front of the shotgun but her shoulder was all jacked up so they've actually got a like a PA or someone holding the the barrel of the shotgun off camera so she doesn't have to actually hold it because she just couldn't use her rotator cup was shot and it's like little that's a bad example for like technical help but it's just little things like that that like um are fun yeah i think that's what's great is uh yeah there's there's fun bits where you're like oh wow that's something really clever i think um even the when it comes technical i think it was uh was a gone girl when fincher spoke about i think his love for

uh why he doesn't go with masterprimes anymore he went for uh wika because he was like oh you know it's these characteristics that i he's like this is going to be my technical piece right here and he starts going off about why he switched lenses and I'm like oh that's really fascinating like I'm glad that we can hear those nerdy talks because a lot of times these filmmakers they talk about stuff and it's like okay yeah you do know more than this though I want to hear the the juicy nerdy stuff like the reason why it shows this film stock or this camera like why did you go for this over that and I think there's um really fantastic breakdowns with some of these directors where they're like, oh, I love

when you get nerdy with it, you know? That is an interesting thing that I feel like is more recent. I don't know if it's our generation or what, especially the younger kids. Like, you know, it's like a sliding scale. But like believing that there's always something deeper that like if only we had that information because I'm with you 100% like I I live for that stuff you know I've got reams and reams of notes of just like you know exactly like you said like like a over master prime because XYZ and I think people can get too locked into um those sort of stats and then completely get rid of

the why like they're so focused on the how that the why you know the you know it's easy to go like Fincher prefers Lika, the Sumilux's, so those are the best. You know, you always say, I got an email today. And I hate this fucking question. So I'm sorry if this guy's listening. But I told him I hate the question in the email and my response. He goes, is the C500 mark two still good in 2021? What?

And I was like, that's, it, there's something about this idea of what is best. And not what, why? Like, what are you doing? what are you shooting what do you need it also that that camera came out a year ago it's not it's not an xl 2 it's yeah yeah go for it you know i i have to i love to actually talk about this because yeah i think the problem is we are very much a gear focused uh culture here and i think it is very much i don't know it's it's definitely like this broie gear culture world like those were the things that did the best on no film school i'm sure that's why it's always

It's like, well, this is the film, like when it as well, it can apply to anyone look at this thing. Yeah. And it's like, I don't know. I get so tired of, oh, what camera did you shoot on right after your short's done? You know, I was in a weird way, I felt very freed by having such a ridiculous constraint with the most recent short because, you know, before it was always, oh, yeah, what camera should I shoot with? Okay, maybe this or that. With this one, it was really shot in my bedroom with my girlfriend and my roommate and it was like just what we had and that was I was like I'll shoot this thing with an iPhone. I don't care. I wanted to do this constraint of just not leaving my apartment. And thankfully my roommate had bought black magic 4K for tax reasons. But you know, it was this is black magic pocket 4K with a little Sigma art. This is Zoom. And yeah, the Tokina. 11 to 16, those two lenses and a camera.

And I'm like, okay, I've never shot with these lenses. I never shot on this camera. It shoots B-Raw, whatever that is. I'll figure it out. And we'll figure it as we go. It doesn't matter. And putting that the gear aside was so great because it just made me focus on the story.

I'm like, I could care less on what the shoots on because I look at that footage and a lot of my friend, everyone I spoke to at SoundFi, they all thought that it was shot with something like an Alexa, red, but they didn't understand, like, oh, you can shut that on a black magic pocket. And I was like, yeah, it's like a $1,300 camera, you know, and the compression from YouTube's going to just butcher it no matter what, you know, uh, dump a bunch of contrast into it. Yeah. So it's like, there's something to just like, hey, you know what? It's fine. It's like,

obviously for the feature, it's, you know, you have to make sure it's, you know, it's, you know, I will perform on a big screen, whatever, you know, that's whatever. But when you're just shooting something, don't let the tools and the gear get in your head beforehand because it doesn't even matter in a way. You know, it's like, okay, yeah, you obviously need your lenses for what you need to cover. But, you know, a lot of times I find a sensor is just a sensor, you know. So my best looking stuff came from a C-300, the first one, you know? And, you know, I look at like, Girl the Dragon Tattoo, and I'm like, that thing was shot in a Red One, you know?

Social Network was too. Yeah. And it's like that was, I think that was before the MX. I'm blown away by these. I know that. They switched halfway through. Yeah. And then they had the epic, I think, some point in Girls and Dragon Tats.

But these cameras are all right. You know, you could get them for cheap now. The Red One objectively is like tough to use. Yeah. Like, no one would want that today. The whole menu system's awful. Yeah. I mean, there was some...

Sensitivities were off on it, too. I dropped about it. Yeah. Yeah, definitely have to have a lot of light. But I was sitting there like, you know, that film looks incredible still today. You know, I don't think anybody should go ahead and say, oh, well, it's just about how to use it. Yeah. You need a lot more light to make it work.

Zodiac was shot on the Thompson Viper. Who's going to buy a Thompson Viper? No. No, that thing is insane, too. I mean, it's basically just a big old computer. I think of things like, yeah, like I look at that little black magic pocket. I'm like, wow, this thing, it does a great job. I was blown away by the little low light sensitivity that we had these little

IntelliTech lights, two light panels, and they were like, you know, they were pretty cheap. I think it was like just these two light panels, and we kept them at literally at one percent. and two percent. And that was it. Like one of them was so light. I had one tape to the ceiling right here. And the other one, you'll notice I don't have any blinds open in my recent door because I had the other one hanging by the blinds. And I just had it kind of bent so I could have one part of it beam on the screen and the other part hit the bed. And I was like, this is great. And I put some party gels on them to make, to really push the color to where I want it to be. because I knew if I

it never was good with these digital cameras when you push in the colors with what you want to be I like to shoot with the color I want it on set and yeah I pretty much did that and it looked great and I was like perfect we only have to light was 1% of this is great

and battery will last forever well that's the thing I had it I had everything plugged into the wall socket it was great even the camera and you know we could just film all night if we wanted to, but yeah, I was sitting there, like, I love the idea of not letting gear take over my brain. It's very free because it's so easy to go ahead and say,

well, I wish this was the 6K pocket or I wish this was the, you know, I love the Alexa. Alexa look, you know, that's such a fantastic looking camera. And I'm like, oh, I only have this or that. And it's like, it can build up in your head. Just work with whatever you have. have. I know some people that are like, oh, I would shoot a short right now, but I don't have $10,000 to go ahead and give to my camera gear and lighting and stuff. I'm like, you don't need that kind of budget. You can go ahead and make it work a lot simpler. You just got to tame your vision down. It's not going to, it's not going to make or break it. It's on the 65, you know, You can go ahead and have it on whatever camera you want.

Do you think, you know, I look at like Kubrick with shining and I'm like, that thing was shot, you know, it was mostly an 18 million lens the whole time. And, you know, it wasn't shot with a large format or any of this junk. It was just with what he wanted it to feel like and the distortion with, I think it was super speeds, I think. But I look at that. I'm like, this is fantastic. I think it's easy to get overwhelmed with the gear. I think the big thing is just to like find what you can make work. And I love that pocket because it really made those practical sing.

Like it really got to make it feel like, oh, those lamps are really blasting here. It was really fun. Well, man, you make a bunch of points that I have to like keep. Oh, yeah. Sorry. No, no, no. It's great. It's perfect. I love it. Yeah, the one thing I will give Black Magic credit for, and this is something I do wish I've kind of gotten on my one contact at Cannon's case about

is like Black Magic is updating their cameras all the damn time like they keep adding new features they keep like those they're fucking great B-Raw is great but I think that going to the point of gear fetishism I think it's easy to

sit on YouTube all day and watch Lord knows I'm on YouTube all day watching you know people run down gear because it's fun to talk about but I think it's there's a difference between sort of absentmindedly listening to it and just kind of knowing about new stuff and all and then um staking your entire sort of livelihood on whether or not you got the right thing and I think the main difference is no one has a story to tell

everyone's everyone's more concerned about making pretty pictures and then you go well what are you shooting and they're like well I'm going to start a production company it's like what are you going to produce and they're like well I haven't figured that out yet it's like well then you no need a fucking camera man like you need to worry about what you're going to shoot first which is the same thing when people i saw this big old argument on twitter about how we can't just shoot it on his cell phone that's bullshit i'm like you absolutely can the problem is that your story sucks and you want the camera to make it look better you want people to take you seriously even though you don't deserve it which sounds brutal but it's like that's the conversation

we have to start having these days oh i 100% agree i look at one of the movie that i look at that i'm like god damn this is beautiful i think it i was trying to remember what it was shot on but i look at um arrival with bradford young and he went ahead like you know i'd rather amazing dp he lights it's very dark apparently on his sets but he works with he was like i don't need to use really fancy class i can use some older lenses and it was like it gave so much character to it i'm like that's great all these all these movies that we everything we shoot gets so compressed and you know it really I wonder in the end like how much some some of these movies even like something just look fantastic when you watch it on screen like Avengers looks fantastic and that thing was shot

in the Alexa you know it wasn't shot 4k or whatever it was just fantastic how it was I I think about just making it work what you got what you can budget for those are the DPs that even keep getting hired in the end of the ones that don't hog the whole budget up and they're like hey we can go ahead and make it work with this look we don't have to shoot this way you know well it all it all comes down to production design like if you don't have anything in front of the camera to shoot the camera won't shoot any it doesn't you shoot on Alexa sure but if you're in this room that I'm in like at least you

you got blue walls in there. These white walls look like trash. You know, if you try to shoot some. Did you paint them for the shoot? Nope. So I had shot this like you can see the white ceiling that. That's what the whole room looked like.

And so you can tell that's that. Okay. So one big hint towards, for anybody who lives in like L.A. or chief apartments, everything's white walls. Like it's always white walls. You can always tell you in some apartment,

you know, you're filming someone's girlfriend in a horror short. I'm like okay yeah I get so annoyed by just seeing those white walls and so I was like ah and with the short I really colored that's why I'm putting party gels and really pushing the colors so much

so that the gold really stood out from the lamp and it was so easy that's why everything's at 1% because it'll blow out the whole room the white walls capture all that light and like I had everything snooted down like I had a desk clamp that was the moonlight that my roommate made and we just had like a big old snoot on it

just to make a moonlight glow from it but nothing if you bounce light anywhere it just goes covers the walls and so like when I was coloring it it was a big pain in the butt I was pretty much constantly trying to bring down the walls and uh I look at it now and I'm like I remember I had just finished it and it was sometime in September and I was like I'm sick of looking at these white walls and I just painted I just painted the whole thing out I was like I can't I have to do this but yeah I'm so glad I did it really does

kind of do a nice job especially like separation of skin tone versus the walls I'm all about it but well going going back to the idea of you know you were saying your color and we'll actually prompt you to talk about the short here in a second but

being a DP, like, you know, sort of touching on the gear thing, like back in the day, you just had one, one or two film stocks, maybe up to five film stocks that you could pick from, but generally you picked one, slapped it in the camera that did your job, you know, that worked for your crew. And you went, right? The rest of it was costuming, production design, um, shot selection lighting. But, uh, now, you know, back then the job of a DP was kind of mystical. Oh, no, trust me. You know, it's, you know, it's, going to look great, you know. And today it's not. Everyone knows how the camera works pretty much. Everyone can look at the monitor and go, no. You were talking about having colored this project yourself. What are some of the additional skills that you think DPs need to have today? Because in my opinion, you need to also be a colorist, an editor, and have production design pretty not nailed obviously because that's a huge department but just like a good way of directing like where practical lights will go for instance what stuff you need in the background to you know to sort of for lack of a better term color correct on set you know i think every

dp should know color correction just because you know in the end you can't be the person on set that's like oh i remember a lot of these videos where it's on dp and watch them go ahead and say oh you can get rid of that in posts and you couldn't you know i remember going like in my head like i don't think you can't and i remember uh you know for a while after i was a dp everyone said oh it would dream just be a professional dp and that's what you can do and i'm like i want to be a director and i end up actually going into different fields into uh visual effects that picks him on for a bit just so i could learn just a little bit more eventually i came back to directing and Now I'm directing a feature, but I look at the best things, at least as a director,

what I tell people is work every job on set. But even as I tell actors to do this, I tell DPs to do this, direct your own short film. You know, learn how to edit on it, you know, do the visual effects you need to do. Just direct something small. Work with an actor, and you can see that job. You can understand that job. and that makes you way stronger when you go to D.P. again. And you're like, oh, if I, you know, directors want to know this, this and this,

how can I go ahead and be the best at that? Because, yeah, when I was a director and I went to D.P. for that, I was loved because I would instantly say, you know, this is good, but let's talk, let's talk about where the shot's going to cut to next. You know, what's the shot, what's going to be the transition? this and you're thinking in an editor's mindset and that's going to make the director feel way way more safer with you you're constantly thinking okay well yes this would be a really cool shot but will it cut to our close up afterwards um maybe not you know i think there's even i've i've had arguments

where i have not arguments about more discussions but it's all like oh well yes This is a great way to light it, but we're going to be missing out on lighting the rest of this. The cast here, we might need something to flood out the back here. And it's always important to just know what a director is thinking about and be the step ahead as a DP. And I think that's super important. That and also just, you know, there's something great about knowing how to light and work quickly with what you have. like I remember there was a big there was a big ad we're doing um it was a pimple ad and so we have these high schoolers literally uh I got a whole high school we lit and stuff and it was

fantastic um but to say cost I was like I had the whole day planned on the sun and basically had mirror boards up high and shooting light through all the windows and I was I was calculating the whole thing out like that and then we got done early which I was like ha ha I felt so proud of myself and then the director turns to me and he's like hey can we go ahead

we want to go and shoot back in this hallway here because we got done early I'd love to grab this one little line and I'm looking in the hallway it's just darkness there's no area to capture light anymore to bounce in and I'm like oh no what do I do and I went ahead

and I was talking to my Gaffron we were like there was there was always something great about just experience experimenting with something on the fly. There's always a solution. I always tell people, there's always a solution.

And it end up being moving all the mirror boards. So it literally, the sun was setting and it literally went through the doorway. It had another mirror, like the mummy. And it bounced on that mirror down the hallway through a sheet of muz and then to another mirrorboard. And it bounced through this style of thing, I think. And it hit him and I was like, okay, we have like 10 minutes. We have to get it now. It was just ridiculous.

It was so funny. We just had all it. It was this most ridiculous thing, but it's thinking on a, I saw that done on a Nike commercial that I, that I PA'd on. That's amazing. It's so much fun. It's like, it's seen those, it's thinking outside the box. And looking out for the director is the most important thing too.

I like to think in a director's shoes all the time when I'm on set. And I think, yeah, even as a, I try to give respect to the PD as well, Because, you know, when you're dealing with that whole side, they're like, oh, they feel like they're kind of being stepped on all the time. The DPs, I remember just watching them treat, like, the props like just garbage. They just be like, eh, you know, move that side out of the way. We're putting this up. And it's like, you know, you talk with them. I remember I would just talk to them to have another wall built just so I could bounce light off this wall or through the windows from it.

Just to add some more to the set. and you have a real discussion about what you both are looking for, so you're both on the same page. It's also a big thing with DPs that don't respect actors, and I'm like, oh, they should just, I don't know, DPs just need to go ahead and it feels like a lot of times the, you know, the big, all the memes are made about the DPs that just kind of treat themselves like God on set.

And I think the biggest thing you can do is just respect that the director has a vision and you're there to help it, you know. that, yeah, obviously we came from a place where we would shoot on film and no one knew what the hell was going to be coming out. Like the PD would come up to you like, is this safe? Is this going to be in? You know, like they had asked you that. And you're like, oh, yes, you're good. And you feel good about that. But then all of a sudden now it's on a big old 17 inch monitor. And everyone's like, oh, yeah, they push themselves in there. Like, no, this looks good. This way. Okay. Yeah. And it was a little bit of that magic. I think one thing that I found is,

love to just be my own operator and be like I love actually like moving without a monitor sometimes and just being like okay yeah we're good you know I know this framing I've used this lens before a bunch of times I know it's in the frame um but it also kind of makes I don't know that when you have video village up it slows you down I like that uh Wally Fister and Nolan didn't have video village for inception for most of it i guess and i'm like that speeds things up so much because you're just constantly moving you know you're constantly setting up and just like okay let's go you know uh i think when video village goes up everyone sits and looks at it drinks their coffee and it's it it turns it to something else you know i feel like that's great for commercials but when you're

moving when you want to move quick on a narrative feature or something you got to move quick it's not about sitting there and admiring some monitor for a while and then deciding on it. It's about moving fast and trusting your DP on it. Yeah. Eric, Oscar

winner, Eric Measuresmith was saying that that you know, DPs get probably too much credit for how a film looks and not enough credit for how it's told. And I think that's something that people should focus on.

Like your job is more so now than ever shot selection and mood and like you were saying carrying a director's vision forward not so much making pretty pictures and you know like you know

stunning everyone at video village with how cool your flare is or whatever you know whatever the hell you're stoked on that day yeah yeah I think in the end it's just yeah I like with for example with writers

I love a good writer who goes and says it calls me boss when i'm working on something and i'm like okay cool i know that my vision and whatever i'm going to say is definitely like their job but they're going to go ahead and might have like oh what if what about taking the scene this way and i'm like oh okay cool let's try that out but it's not like they're they're the cool guys and they're taking the control you know, it's having a respect for the director and their mood. And on top of that, the other thing that deep is, you know, I have to give a lot of respect to them for dealing with is a lot of client they have to deal with,

you know, a lot of those, like shooting for Toyota when they're like, oh, we need to capture this angle. And then, you know, I remember shooting something where it's like, yeah, yeah. like in one year like Toyota is saying one way and then you know Gina Rodriguez like her her whole her agents are saying oh this isn't looking good on her can you go ahead and change it and you're like okay how do I make you both have here and it's it's funny how you kind of run into those problems but I think it's a really important thing to have is a good way of talking to clients

talking to these people making them feel reassured just saying instead of being like oh no no I'm the I'm the DP now I've worked my job to hear and this is how it's going to be and it's i think there's a way to talk to others and just say hey you know i'm hearing you i'm listening i think this shot it's going to go really quickly we're just going to capture this angle we're going to have the sunlight's beaming through this window we're not going to even we're going to barely see her here or oh you know the camera's doing a whole pivot during this move movement here we can just start here and then do this you know there's a way to discuss it in a fun way.

Yeah, I think managing, if you're the type of DP who's going for anyone listening, if you're the type of DP that is going to work with clients, you're shooting commercials or whatever, best advice I could ever give is like learn to make them feel like they directed the whole thing. That every idea they had was heard and you did all of it

and they're the fucking master of the set because like, that's how you're going to get hired again. But to your point, like, ask, ask why they want the show. shot and then see if you can if you can have a conversation and deliver the quote unquote correct answer to their why because they might just be thinking oh i want it here because i want to see if we do we can do that but if we do it this way it'll be yada yada you know i don't know what the fucking project is for anyone but well i think there's there's something great about

when you're working your way of whether it's the client or your executive producer whoever it is there is going to be that there's always the term the note behind the notes what is that and yeah what are they really after when they ask a question that might sound just ridiculous and you know sometimes you have a director that doesn't know anything about cameras and you're like oh well what are they really after here what are they asking when the scene feels sad and you're like what do you mean it feels sad just tell me what you want and you're like um there's something great when you sit there and like oh I get what you're saying The lighting is looking like this on their face and their eyes are being covered a certain way.

It can feel sad now. And so you can figure it out. And I like to, I love talking in emotion now where I start saying like, yeah, I think what we do want to bring in is a little bit of hope coming from this doorway. How can we get that? And I love to go ahead and talk to DPs now, almost how I speak to actors. But I, even though I might say, oh, yeah, I think like a, you know, this particular, like, you know, a certain light coming outside from here, a sky panel at this setting will be great.

Instead of saying like a particular item or whatever, I love to speak, even to my gaffirs when I used to do this, I would just speak in the emotions. I'd say, oh, yeah, I think this would work here. Maybe speak about like kind of what, like if you want something flagged off or something, but it's always speaking in the general term of what you, the director is after to, you know, what's the emotional side of the scene? I think that's really important.

Yeah. So getting, touching it a couple of times, but you just had this short, Don't Peak. Well, first of all, for people who haven't heard it or seen it or anything, tell the folks about Don't Peak.

Don't Peak was a short that we made for no budget in my bedroom right here. And it was done about, it was basically a short about a young woman playing Animal Crossing and comes across this character, this creepy-looking character that wants to be let out. And it's a fun little short where it really kind of played on the feelings

I think we all had when we were sitting during lockdown when we were sitting there just alone in the bed at night, you know, just staying up way too late than we should be and we come across something that feels off. And, you know, the beginning of it, I was kind of just, it's really funny, actually. Shooting the thing was hysterical because it was really just my goal was to make something that was

with what we had in the apartment. And so the idea was like, oh, well, everyone has an Animal Crossing game. A lot of people are doing this now. So I think it would be fun to highlight that. And, you know, it was really kind of funny because I look at it like, oh, yeah, well, we have, you know, we don't have a monster to put it out here. We don't have, and it was kind of just having fun with it. Like there's a bit more wonder to the beginning of the short.

There's a lot more of like, oh, she closed the drawer in the game and her drawer closes, you know, pulling off these little effects that we knew we could pull off in the camera. It was fun. But yeah, oh my gosh, it was really just working with what we had. Like, since I didn't have a full monster, it was, we had my roommate, Alex, who, you know, he produces all the other horror shorts I made where he's wearing a mask with two gloves and in his underwear. You're like, it doesn't look scary at all. But he's out of focus a few times and creepy there. You know, One thing we did to pull off the scare is what we put, I had him hide under a blanket, and it's this creepy kind of, you see his weird shape under the blanket. And it's like, just stuff that I realized, like, oh, we could pull this off. You know, we could pull off this stuff and not make it this huge, insane thing where you need a bunch of visual effects to pull it off. It was really just working with what we had. And I think that's what was really fun.

And, you know, thank God for that little black magic low lights. because we tried um using a little light panel or something on the switch to hit her face but it looked ridiculous and it's like the spotlight hitting her and you know we were able to brighten up the switch and um shoot this 1250 ISO which is base um 1250 or it 12,500 1250 yeah okay so you didn't have to go too too high no no no it was great uh it was just the base ISO when you switch it to low light mode or whatever and uh yeah it was just she's literally lit by the switch and i think that gives just even more authenticity you know um having those little elements was just great and the short ended up uh blowing up online it ended up i didn't even submit it to

south by katie my girlfriend and actor of the short uh she actually submitted it in it the only film pass all you entered in was south by and uh end up getting in it was crazy um and then uh basiliv uh came aboard and actually optioned it. And now I'll be directing the feature version of it very soon. And so right now we're doing a bunch of prep for it. Yeah. And I think it's important to always experiments and make stuff happen. Sadly, when I was a DP, no one ever gave me, no one trusted me with my ideas.

No one ever was saying, oh, well, he's the DP. But I really wanted to direct. I really wanted to try these ideas out. And it took a long time for me to finally get that. strength to say something. And I did it with a short film called The Nurse. It was the first horror short. And that one I did for a contest.

And it was done within a few days. It was to read like a BuzzFeed video where we basically shot it in the span of a few hours. And I was working during that time at the Visual Effects house. And so it was really edited that night, colored the next night and sound music done the next night. And then it was out.

And it was wild. But it was so much fun. And it would win this contest, new line option that and i was like that's so cool and then we made another one called whisper where it was about a uh amazon echo that could pick up on a voice that our main character couldn't hear and uh so she's hearing this echo saying this stuff and it's super fun it's two minutes long and it was literally shot and the span like five or six hours and uh the it was literally uploaded a week in a week and um

You know, these shorts were really thrown together really quickly. But that one, I remember I was so hesitant to release it. I was like, ah, what if it's not good? What's not good? It can be kind of wacky. I was almost hesitant to release because I didn't think it was, it looked great either. I thought it was kind of choppy. I didn't get enough time to color it nicely.

But it ended up, I didn't think any filmmakers would it like it. But then sure enough, a year later, Stephen Spielberg loved it and opted it at Amblin. And I was like, oh my gosh, like, we're making this movie at Ambulin. That's crazy. And so you just never know how it's going to go down. The other one was they hear it. And that was shot, I think, with like three different cameras. But that was actually kind of funny.

They hear it was basically the one I made right after Whisper. I think a month after, two months after making Whisper. I had this idea for this creepy twilight zone kind of story where, you know, these kids pick up a, they can hear the sound from the woods, but the adults can't. and one after each night these kids end up going missing to hear the sound and so it's a fun creepy story and the short was kind of the opening scene from it and this short hasn't been released yet but um yeah remember my d p.m that one actually quit mid shoot he got sick had to leave and so i yeah you got a little sick and so uh because we're shooting on like this mountain over here fraser park and i was like

Okay, well, you know, I think most directors would panic. Thankfully, as a director of DP, you can, I was just like, well, whatever, we'll just go through it and we'll just do it anyway. And so I was kind of DP and the rest of it. And so which was funny was you get thrown in these situations and it never works out the way you want it to. You know, I think it's important to always have that DP side of your head that you're just going to keep rolling with the punches. Oh, this, our Dana Dolly doesn't have the low boy combo stands in the woods. So what are we going to do? And it's like, oh, we got to throw it on some apple boxes and some sandbags, level it out each time. But we'll figure it out. And it's constantly thinking like that. There's no, there's always an answer to it. And that short end up being optioned that legendary. And with there are Mitchell who wrote it follows came aboard to write that script. And it's like these shorts, they all, you know, find our way out there if you can know how to pitch them and stuff. But I think the big thing is making something that's, personal to you and try you get to try your own style and stuff like that i think what's fun about

doing something like don't peak for example is oh there's no dp here i'm just going to depy it because i can let let myself loose i'm not worried about some big head honcho there as just kind of like oh it's on me if it looks bad um and so it got me to experiment a little bit more with the color than i'm used to i usually kept it really toned down you know uh because it's something scary but for this when I was like, oh, let's give it more color. Let's have some fun with it. And it was a lot of fun to kind of push it in that way. I think this is something different.

And I think it's really nice for D.P. is two direct just because you kind of put some of those situations where you're like, oh, I think I want to try something out that no director would let me do. I think letting that out and experimenting with that is so helpful. Even if you don't end up directing in your career, I think it's important just to let loose and try that out. And I'm so glad I did because, I don't know, I think I really found myself as a director there because I finally took myself seriously and took my thought seriously.

And that really became a lot of fun. Well, I mean, it goes back to what I was saying, what we were saying earlier about no one has a story to tell. Like, I think it is important. Like, if you think you have an idea, commit to it, put it out there because you don't know, you know, maybe it is bad. it like ideas are bad but you should have more than one you know or maybe you get three shorts optioned at various uh production house yeah you know it's it's funny how you just don't know where it's gonna end up going and i think it's it's important to not let that little voice in your head to stop you there's a bunch of times where you can get overwhelmed and you get freaked out

and i think uh yeah i mean i literally thought whisper was a piece of crap you know i because it scare me, but it scared all the people apparently, but I was like, ah, you know, is it really that scary? And you just never know where it could end up going. I think it's just important to try out, even ideas, just whatever it is. Like, as a DEP, it's important to honestly just know that your ideas are good. It's important to know that you have good thoughts. I think it's important to be in that situation where you're like, oh, I've experimented with this a bit on my own and just shot some stuff. And this was fun to just dive into that.

I feel way more, I feel like I can trust myself more. I think there's times where we get very overwhelmed on shoots. Like there were times where I'd shot a really, really big ad. And they wanted to, it was a big car ad. I'm not going to mention which one it was, but they moved, they wanted to, instead of a big psych reveal thing, they wanted to actually have it

in a whole other's location, but we had pre-lit the place for two days. You know, had it done right and it was really it was really like freaking me out because I get a call from the director the night the night before the shoot and I'm like, oh my God, what?

We're doing, we're flipping, we're moving the car somewhere else. He's like, yeah, yeah. And I'm like and it's like, freak me out. We're on the day and everyone's asked some questions to me and I'm like and I remember I needed to take a moment. And I remember there was a moment that deacon said where he put his head on the he put his eye on the viewfinder and closed both his eyes and no one bugs you because you're on the viewfinder but you just like sat in his own

mind for a second and you know with his thoughts and I think that's important to do you know when you feel it's easy to feel overwhelmed and just know that you can handle it you know it's just another big one that that helped me a lot was I couldn't attribute the quote but it's basically Confidence comes after. You, you know, the, it's, what's it called when you do something in the face of danger? It's not confidence. It's just willpower. You have to, basically, you have to do the thing first.

And then when you've learned that you'll live through it, that's when you have confidence to do the next thing. I think a lot of people get caught up in, oh, but how do I know if my idea is good? It's like, you don't, but you do it and then it fails or it succeeds, whatever. but then you have you know that you survived you've learned some things you do it again and again and again and again and now you have a career yeah and i think a lot of us you know we might have some some filmmaker that we really admire and think that they have all the answers but they can be just as scared as we are you know uh it just depends on what it is um but yeah i mean i think it's always important to have that uh sense of danger that sense of fear that sense of

year that's like, oh, I'm freaked out about this. I get more, I don't know, I get more excited about those projects than anything where I'm like, I don't know how I'd handle this scene or handle that shot. And it's, it's getting in my head and make me think, oh, I wonder if I could try something else out, something that's unsafe, try out a scene in a different way. I think that's way more exciting to me than something that's like oh okay I feel safe with this this you know I always want to try something else that's different that makes me feel like I'm I'm in uncomfortable waters you know comfort will kill that's what's more exciting yes you know you don't you don't get a six pack from laying down exactly and I think it's fun like yeah I mean of course like I

think it's just important to try out things that you really wouldn't like even the first or short, I was, like, exhausted. I was going through, like, a bit of a breakup at that point. And I was like, oh, I could just, I would sleep my friend's couch. And I was like, you know, I just want to relax. I don't want to do with this right now. I feel, like, garbage. And I'm so glad I did.

I'm so glad I ended up doing this thing because, yeah, who knew where it would take me, you know? And it took a lot of my money, but it was like, hey, I'll do it, you know, make it happen. I think it's important to go ahead and take those risks. it's now like you know I'm represented CAA because of one of the shorts and it's it's wild to see how that all happens it's important to just take those risks and try out new things try to short that's like it does all these visual effects or try one that doesn't have any visual effects but you have to give it this look that's you know something extraordinary off of nothing I think it's fantastic can you hear that plane it's yeah no it's the fucking leaf blow lower. All right, noise reduction. It's coming in. So to wrap it up, thanks so much for spending this time on me. I ask everyone the same two questions to end. One, well, I won't say the second one. I've learned. First one, what is the, not the one thing, but what's like one thing that pops up in your mind that you think has helped you along your career? It can be

it can be a physical item it can be a change a change of lifestyle a piece of advice you got like one thing that just bounces off your head all the time um i find this works with everything in terms of like writing or even you know editing something or even shooting something i think there's always we are hesitant about something whatever that is in our career it can be anything and I always say like uh like for example when I was um I was hasn't put out the own peak that short I was like isn't that scary I don't know and I think it's important to not let something die in a hard drive I think it's important as an artist to always cut the umbilical cord you know like it's it's scary and you don't you're nervous about this thing but

you just got to do it and I think um that can be attributed to anything but I think there's always a project sitting on a hard driver sitting in your head and you're like oh i'm right i want to write it but i'm i want to send out the script and i'm scared you know there's always that little i did a hesitation i think it's always important to just let it free you know let that thing out there um i think that's very important i i think the other thing i'd probably say is just what we were talking about about tools don't let the tools and all those things get in your head you know make it work to what you got i think is such a fun constraint because it forces you to like sit down and there's always somebody that has a camera

nearby and there's always somebody that you can help out with and they can just come aboard and just you know do whatever and you can borrow and add some all right camera to shoot something with I think there's always a nice way of just having fun with it I will say the other thing I don't think we covered was doing doing things that we don't feel like a genre we don't feel comfortable I'd never done horror up that up until his point in 2017 or 2016 or 2017 is when I did my first horror short and I was always doing comedies and dramas I didn't think I could handle it and I was like oh you know I'm a comedy drama guy and when I did my first horror thing it was what's wrong with you I thought you were better than that and I think that mindset is very easy to have I think it's changed in the recent times like I allow those friends that now do horror things but I think it's easy to be hesitant to try something new to like oh I don't feel like I can cover a documentary style approach or somebody like shoot docu style shooting something very cinematic and difference you know very bolted or whatnot I think it's very different to jump back and forth and that can even be something

you're hesitant to do and I think it's just important to try it out you know try out something that gets you nervous I think it's really really important to just try something out because sometimes you just kind of like what am I even doing you know um yeah it's always important to just you never know if that's the genre that might click with you totally uh second question just uh what do you want to promote what do you want the people to where can they see your stuff where can they find you what uh you know the floor is yours the floor is mine oh my gosh uh well i guess my the biggest place right now is uh my youtube channel um it's julian terry or and don't peek, you know, it should pop up.

The big thing I'm going to be dropping there as soon is a huge making of video for the short in terms of showing all the little practical effects we put into it in terms of also like breaking down, I do break down a bit of like how we put this thing together geese with what little we had and how we were able to push that to its limit, you know, that's a little bit about the editing and the color and stuff that got taken out some of the stuff you might not have noticed. And I think it's really important to just show that you can all put the stuff together for no budget. And we can end up, you never know if it can end up giving you a jumpstart in your career. You know, I think it's very important to kind of inspire others.

The craziest thing about these days are you can, like I went to talk to a high school about a year ago. I think it was a little over a year ago before the pandemic hit. But what was crazy about it was all of these kids were knowledgeable using DSLRs. You know, I was sitting there like, wow, I would have freaked out if I was in high school, like me as a DSLR. I don't know. It's crazy. Look at that now and think, I think a lot of us get so used to having these cameras around. And we kind of think, oh, like, I have my old T2I right here, you know?

Like this thing is ancient. But I bet you I could have shot Don't Peak the same way. It might have taken a little more light. But, you know, you can pull off the stuff. It's just in the end, it just you can. color it up and make it look really dang good with color correction. I think the big thing is knowing that we all

have the tools to do it. I think it's just having the guts to go ahead and make it yourself. Resolve is free. Yes. Resolve is free. I think that's the thing is you know, eventually they get a lot of crap for their cameras sometimes. I don't know why.

You know, I think they had a rough start, but I think it's incredible to see what they're getting out. They're giving out free editing. They're even out a free color, it's incredible. And I think it's just fantastic. You can look at YouTube and just gain all this knowledge. And it's an incredible time to be a filmmaker.

I think it's just about making something that's just fun and just different enough to get people attention. You never know where that can take you. Totally. Well, again, thanks so much for spending the hour and some change with me. I really appreciate it. And when those features start getting made, And we'll, or next time you have a project, just let me know. And we'll have you back on and talk about it.

Fantastic, man. I'm super excited. Let's get going. For sure. All right. Well, take care and have a nice day. Catch you later. Peace.

Bye. Bye, bye. Frame and reference is an Albot production. It's produced and edited by me, Kenny McMillan, and distributed by Pro Video Coalition. Our theme song is written and performed by Mark Pelly and the F-At-R-Box logo was designed by Nate Trax of Trax Branding Company. You can read or watch the podcast you've just heard by going. to Provideocoolition.com or YouTube.com slash Owobot, respectively. And as always, thanks for listening.