Every artist's journey is a tapestry woven with threads of inspiration, setbacks, and triumphs. Join us as we sit down with LaPala Crawford, the visionary filmmaker behind Prime 8 Visions, who peels back the curtain to reveal the heartbeat of his creative evolution. From the echo of youthful enthusiasm in our first artistic ventures, we traverse the landscape of growing pains and milestones that shape an artist. LaPel shares the vibrant tales of his neighborhood that sparked his storytelling fire and the high school script that captured his peers' imaginations, setting him on a steadfast course toward the silver screen.
Navigating the film industry's choppy waters, LaPel and I recount the adrenaline rush of submitting films to distributors and the persistence required in the face of industry gatekeepers. As we dissect the process of bringing a vision to life, we celebrate the small victories, like individual scene completions, and reflect on the importance of collaboration and technical savvy. LaPel's anecdotes of overcoming barriers and misconceptions in the industry underscore the determination needed to rise above challenges, reminding us that progress isn't just about motion but also about forward momentum.
Wrapping up our conversation, LaPel delves into the nuances of emotional intelligence in directing, how personal inspirations fuel our drive, and the exhilaration of current and future storytelling endeavors. His candid reflections on set dynamics and the care required to foster a positive production atmosphere offer a window into the soul of a filmmaker. As we bid farewell, we invite you to join us on this intimate journey, urging you to explore Prime 8 Visions across various social media platforms and engage with a community dedicated to the art of film.
Follow Allen C. Jackson - @2cupschronicles
Every artist's journey is a tapestry woven with threads of inspiration, setbacks, and triumphs. Join us as we sit down with LaPala Crawford, the visionary filmmaker behind Prime 8 Visions, who peels back the curtain to reveal the heartbeat of his creative evolution. From the echo of youthful enthusiasm in our first artistic ventures, we traverse the landscape of growing pains and milestones that shape an artist. LaPel shares the vibrant tales of his neighborhood that sparked his storytelling fire and the high school script that captured his peers' imaginations, setting him on a steadfast course toward the silver screen.
Navigating the film industry's choppy waters, LaPel and I recount the adrenaline rush of submitting films to distributors and the persistence required in the face of industry gatekeepers. As we dissect the process of bringing a vision to life, we celebrate the small victories, like individual scene completions, and reflect on the importance of collaboration and technical savvy. LaPel's anecdotes of overcoming barriers and misconceptions in the industry underscore the determination needed to rise above challenges, reminding us that progress isn't just about motion but also about forward momentum.
Wrapping up our conversation, LaPel delves into the nuances of emotional intelligence in directing, how personal inspirations fuel our drive, and the exhilaration of current and future storytelling endeavors. His candid reflections on set dynamics and the care required to foster a positive production atmosphere offer a window into the soul of a filmmaker. As we bid farewell, we invite you to join us on this intimate journey, urging you to explore Prime 8 Visions across various social media platforms and engage with a community dedicated to the art of film.
Follow Allen C. Jackson - @2cupschronicles
Give me one for the wake up. I'm so grateful For another day to help stimulate the mental Time to strategize. Huddle up where's your sickle. I can feel the moment radiate through the convo. Talk is cheap. Turn your faith into work. I drink my second cup and put my hands in the dirt. Two cups drinking straight drip from the earth caffeinated conversation. You heard him here first. One fuck the wake up. One fuck the wake up. Welcome back to two cups cafe where I'm your host. Alan C Jackson, who I have joining me today for a high-quality caffeinated conversation is LaPale Crawford from Prime 8 Visions. How you doing my brother.
Speaker 2:I'm doing good. Thank you, sir, for having me. Oh man, Appreciate you.
Speaker 1:I really appreciate you accepting my invitation to come on. Man, A filmmaker like yourself, man, if you could just give me just a little background on yourself for my listeners and my viewers.
Speaker 2:Okay, everyone, my name is LaPel Crawford, also known as LaPaula Lee Crawford, also known as Mr Director LLC. I've been doing film since 2008. Okay, actually started out writing when, I was younger.
Speaker 2:As a kid, I always loved writing, loved movies, loved everything that had to do with film. I was getting the behind the scenes and watching those on the DVDs and the VHSs and all that kind of stuff. But 2008 came around, got my first camera, started filming, been hit the ground running ever since. Went to school for it for a while, started out at Full Sail, then ended up going to LA Film School and just learned the technical side of things to complement the talent and the vision that I had for it.
Speaker 1:So your interest at first. Like you say, you used to write. Was it the writing that gave you the book to want to see your stories come to life, or was it the film part? It was the writing.
Speaker 2:Okay. So when I was in high school this was my freshman year in high school I've always written short stories, um uh poems, uh songs. Started out doing music young, but in my freshman year in high school I wrote a, my first full script that I wrote.
Speaker 1:It was called holla at me now, mind you this this is young, 13, 14 year old me.
Speaker 2:So it was called holla at me, so, and I grew up on Oakwood, which is known as Cokewood, right right. So that was a lot of gangs and violence. It was a lot of stuff going on in that area, so it was a hood. It was a hood movie. It's a hood, it can be, I'm young, so that's what I wrote. It was a hood, it was a hood movie, it's a hood, it can be, I'm young, so that's what I wrote. What got me into actually wanting to do more with it was I was in my art class and these two cats that were the bullies in the classroom. They used to pick with everybody. They saw me writing and I was minding my business because I could draw as well. So they was like everybody used to what is he?
Speaker 2:drawing now, but no, they's like he ain't drawing nothing, he write what you writing. Give me this, so they start reading it and, like that whole day, the two of them read the whole script and then they told everybody else in the classroom about it. So now everybody else in the classroom wanted to read it. So everybody took turns reading it in the classroom. And what tripped me out is, as they was reading it which I didn't realize until one day they came in, everybody was picking which character they was, oh man. And when they came to class one day they were acting out the scenes. So of course it would cause a little disruption in the classroom because there was two rival sets. Okay, okay.
Speaker 2:So they was going all the way with. The was going in, they was going in and the art teacher took it. He read it. He told my mom was like he's talented, this is a great story, but he can't. He can't do it in my classroom, no more. So ever since then, once I saw how my stories impacted people and influenced people, I was I was hooked.
Speaker 1:Wow. So did you have anybody when you were before that point to kind of feed your, your, um, your creativity? Like you said, your mom or family member that kind of gave you that push or something you was kind of just doing on your own, and then there's just kind of blossomomed just from there.
Speaker 2:My mom has always been supportive in the way she knew how. So my mom was very spiritual. I grew up in the church and everything. So anything I did she was like, hey, make sure you put God first, okay, and God will guide you directly. But at the same time it was like, hey, but I need you to be on the usher board, I need you to be. So I was the kid in church that was put to work, okay. But my mom said, hey, if you do, you sure you want to do this I ain't gonna waste no money.
Speaker 2:But it all started from music, though. Okay, what, what instrument would you do? You play? I play the piano, okay. Um, I play by ear. Um, I joke around, tell people when, when I play, I pretty much just hit the keys until I hear something I like and then I go from there.
Speaker 2:But I started out with music. My grandmother used to sing in church. Excellent singer, my uncle. He wasn't in church but he could sing. He'd be in the basement at my grandparents' house doing hair and and you'd hear him singing old school music, hearing him singing. So I was always surrounded and influenced by music in that way. But as far as the support. Everybody said, yeah, he talented, he going to do something. But I was like you go ahead and go, do you? We'll be here, right? Because yeah, I was a kid, I liked to play outside, but I grew up like an only child. Because there's a 12-year age difference between me and my older brother Okay, I understand. So by the time I got old enough to build a bond with him, he was already. He's on his way out. So my imagination was all over the place. So I'm acting out movies and stuff that I like. But then I started writing poems and songs. So I had teachers that would have me write short stories or poems and put in the little school papers.
Speaker 2:Um, I was at uh first church of God, um, up into the fifth grade and in sixth grade I went to Lincoln okay because my mom was like, well, you're going to public school when you get to junior high and then you're going to high school, you're going to public school. I was like, well, if public school? I was like, well, if I'm going to do that, I need to be in public school and get ready now I can't come in seventh grade and they.
Speaker 2:But it all started with writing songs and poems and stuff first. Okay, then I start getting more into doing music, so the support was always I'll get you anything you need. She helped me get a keyboard, so I practiced at home. I'll get you anything you need. She helped me get a keyboard, so I practiced at home. I used to do the Matt Cumber shows when they used to have the fashion and talent shows at the Matt Cumber building.
Speaker 2:I used to be in those performing or doing the music for the artists that performed in the admission for the fashion stuff. So it all started with that. My mom's support was I'll get you there, but you got to get away home.
Speaker 1:I know all too well about that man.
Speaker 2:So that's where the support came from, but it just I wanted it, so I wanted it that bad. So then I got really pushed to where I was like I'm going to do music, that's going to make my money to help me make movies, okay, so that was the game plan, that was the plan, that was the plan from there.
Speaker 1:So did you. So you know we come from a city that's not known for, I guess you could say, the film, although I know the university. I took some film and video classes there, like early in the 2000s. But did you ever get that that bug or that that thought that I have to leave here and move somewhere else to be successful, because I know you wind up shooting movies right here in our hometown? And it's like that was inspiring for me to see somebody say, well, I could do something where I am I did.
Speaker 2:Originally, I wanted to move to Florida because that's where Full Sail University was, which is a film school. Okay, excellent, film school, and they have an online course. You can take it online. At that time when I was looking into it, they didn't have the online course, so you had to actually go to florida. So I was like, yeah, I'm gonna go to film school. Um, for me, I did have a period to where me staying here became a I'm not gonna do it because I despite everyone.
Speaker 2:So I had a teacher, mr crumbie. He was one of the music teachers at Scott High School. Okay, he took over after Mr Dixon passed. He was Mr Dixon that does the choir, not the band director. Mr Dixon, this was Mr Dixon that used to direct the choir for Scott because I was a part of the choir the boys' ensemble, singing and doing the music and stuff for that. But, mr Crumby, he took over after Mr Dixon left and he got me an audition at UT to try to get to the music program. They said they loved my audition. He's like you did, great. Only problem is you can't. You have to read. You got to be able to read music and you're not classically trained enough to be able to get the scholarship to come here. So I was like, well, I can't. If I don't get a scholarship, I can't go to school, right, my mom can't afford it and I don't know how I'm going to come up with the money on my own Right. Then, working with a friend of mine named Charlie Numbers, he's a known DJ.
Speaker 2:We was doing music, started a record label. Actually started two record labels.
Speaker 1:And what was the first? What were they called?
Speaker 2:again, the first record label was called Dotted Line. Okay, that was fresh out of high school. Okay. We did that and then later on with those partners, everyone went their separate ways because we had different self-opinions on how we were running. So, we started another one later on, called One Mechanism. One Mechanism okay.
Speaker 2:But working in music and doing all that, I was like well, I'm going to go to film school, I'm sorry, I'm going to go just full sail for film and music so I can learn how to do that. And I was getting ready to move to Florida. And then that's when my first son was born.
Speaker 2:So I was like I can't move nowhere. I got to stay here and then, by that time, technology started catching up to where you didn't have to leave and learn, and so the notion of if I don't have to leave and learn, why do I have to leave to be successful? I mean I can live here and travel wherever I need to go, because the one thing that I realized was Toledo is a little big city. Was Toledo is a little big city? The thing that I think a lot of people miss out on is that we're so centralized to where you have a lot of people from all over that come to Toledo.
Speaker 2:So why do we feel we have to leave Toledo to do big things? Right? So you have people from Chicago, from Detroit, from LA, from Cleveland, columbus, and I'm like, okay, so I can be here and if I need to travel, I can travel. Yeah, definitely, but my home base is here.
Speaker 1:Definitely, and I know we could get into talking a little. I don't want to go too fast about your movie that's currently out now. So what was the progression from? I know you want to go too fast about your movie that's currently out now. So what was the progression from? I know you said you did your first. You did a short first yeah, a short film.
Speaker 2:So the first film I did was called Dare. Okay. It. Actually it's a short film but I broke it up into five parts, so it's five separate like. If you were to go on the YouTube, you will find five different like episodes, but it's all. Once you put it all together is one cohesive short. Okay, but I started out doing shorts first. Then, when I wanted to get into doing feature films, I started writing shorts that would lead into the feature films. So my first feature film was called Love or Nothing at All. Okay.
Speaker 2:And premiered it at the Mommy Indoor Theater. All local Toledo actors. That was my first full feature. The whole nine with the crew, because with Dare it was just me, my wife, which she was my girlfriend at the time, and one other gentleman, Kevin Jackson, who was a photographer, does wedding photography but he had a camera that was the same as mine, so he was my second camera and he brought his lights and helped me with the lighting. And I joke and tell people that when I look back at the growth from there to my stuff now I'm like, yeah, I love there, I love the story story, but I have to be realistic and under and be honest and say, whoa, was I green?
Speaker 1:I think that's. That's the beauty of it, though probably even with music and a lot of things like um, you can look at your growth and appreciate where you started to where you are now, because it's kind of almost like an artistic diary, almost Like oh man, I can see like a journal, exactly yes.
Speaker 1:You remember where you were at, but then you still remember, I feel like no matter how primitive it was to where you look at it, but how you felt when you made it. At that time Exactly, I remember I recorded my first song, man. I thought, man, it was the best, that feeling I had, like it was the best feeling ever, man yeah, I.
Speaker 2:I honestly, once we rapped on dare, it was one of the most terrifying, freeing feelings ever, because initially it was okay finish the movie Now, what? Now what? Oh, what am I going to do now? Just edit it and take it step by step. But the release was okay you finished your first project, you did it and I just had to attack it like I would do music With music. We would have the artists we would work with. They would be writing on their songs and while they're recording one thing, I may be over here with the headphones on.
Speaker 1:Tweaking stuff up.
Speaker 2:Working on stuff, and so same thing Just write, put it together and make it happen.
Speaker 1:Take it one step at a time. So how did you source your actors for your early work, the?
Speaker 2:first one was just ask people. I knew, hey, you want to be in a movie, I'm doing a movie. Okay, I ain't never acted before.
Speaker 4:Well, I ain't never directed before. Come on, come on, come on.
Speaker 2:Come on, come on, but it was a, it was. There was a basic audition process, so with Dare it was the bite mouth Like hey, I'm doing a movie. I have my brother, jason McCoy. He stars in it. He was one of the, and funny thing is Jason's pretty much been in almost everything I've done since then, with the exception of a few things. Mike Smith Michael Smith he's, I think he's a sergeant with the police department now.
Speaker 2:Okay, but he started out with us. He was the leading male character in Dare Okay, and this is going to tie in later, but the irony of it is is that his wife that he's with now they met in my film dare. They met on set with dare okay and they've been together ever since oh, that's wild so I've worked with some, some decent people. But after that that's when I got into learning the audition process.
Speaker 1:Okay, it was like okay did you have anybody um any seasoned film? People like mentor you at that time, or it's kind of like you still were like self, like motivated to learn, self-motivated Okay, and that's where the growth of technology came into play.
Speaker 2:Okay, because it started out with just getting books going to the library, going to Barnes, noble and just getting books on writing, because that's the first thing I did got books on writing.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you had to go through the whole screenwriting process even before you can get to the storyboarding and all that.
Speaker 2:Right, okay, and I didn't even know about storyboarding when I did Dare, okay, it was just how to write the script and how to hold a camera and didn't really know much about angles, didn't even other than what I saw in movies. So at the time I used to be like, okay, well, for a more dramatic scene. I know, you have to get the wide and you have to get the POV Over their shoulder and over their shoulder.
Speaker 2:Those are the three I knew for a fact I had to get Okay. Everything else was just hmm, I saw this in a movie once. Let me try Right. So there was the experiment. So, but as I got more into it, I started Google became a champion. I was YouTube tutorials champion.
Speaker 1:There's a couple other books that I used to get that would talk about actually directing and filming and things like that and that tied in with just diving in there and just doing it yeah, so in school, where you were like a good student because, man, you, you're talking about that gotta be some discipline to sit and learn and and and go through this process like on your own. I mean I was.
Speaker 2:I was a good student with bad habits, okay. So my issue was I totally rebelled against the idea of homework, them two words that just did not go well. Nah with me. I was about the same way. I ain't like homework either.
Speaker 1:That's like because if I can do it all, in school.
Speaker 2:Why do I have to take it home? I was like well, you get graded on your homework, I did it already, but you didn't take it home. But I did it already, right, well, you ain't do your classwork? Yes, I did. And then it was just a whole big mess my mom used to get on me. It was to the point where in elementary my mom pretty much. This was during a time where you could still get paddled in school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember that I came right on tail end of that.
Speaker 2:This is what my mom told the principal at First Church of God. She told her, however many homework assignments he missed, that's how many paddles he'd get.
Speaker 1:And then you call me and let me know, and he's, he gonna catch it again when he get home.
Speaker 2:It's old school right there, so, but they used to. Teachers used to always tell my mom like his only issue is that he doesn't really want to do his homework. He does his classwork, he aces his tests, right, but he's just not doing his homework and that's a big part of his grade right.
Speaker 1:So I had to get over those bad habits and the irony of it, you you wound up doing all homework learning.
Speaker 2:Right, it's a funny thing, but I, if it was something I liked, I was on it. I didn't care what nobody said, that's what I was on, like my choir, I used to skip class just to go hang out in the choir room. And while I'm in the choir room this is during high school I would be doing my homework in the choir room because I'm not supposed to be there, right? But nobody's going to bother me while I'm in there. Okay, so I would do my homework there and just put it in my locker. And it wasn't that I wasn't doing the homework, it was just that it would be in my locker and the next day I'd be done, forgot about it, and by the time I remember it it's already late, so I'm losing points anyway. So I was a good student. I could get the grades, but I had bad habits. But as I got older, once again, because I loved music and writing and film so much, I was tuned in, because I adapted the idea of everybody always talks about you should have a plan B.
Speaker 2:No matter what your dream is, you should have a plan B. Well before I started getting confirmation as I got older about what that really means confirmation as I got older about what that really means I had the idea then that you have a plan A. Even your plan B should be put in process to feed into your plan A. It shouldn't be. This is what I want to do as a plan A, but if this doesn't work, I can fall back on this as a plan A but if this doesn't work, I can fall back on this, because now you already got that idea of failure already pre-programmed in your mind.
Speaker 2:So everything you do is like, okay, I'm working towards plan A, I'm working on plan A, but you do other stuff to make sure, okay, in case plan A don't work. I got to do this to make sure plan B is ready in case plan A don't work, but you're taking away from plan A to make sure you got a safety net under you.
Speaker 1:Right, so you started running your plans parallel kind of.
Speaker 2:Parallel. Yeah, okay, yeah. So how to better explain it is Charlie Numbers. He told me one time and I never get it because people used to ask like how can you DJ and work here and work at the Greyhound and do all this and still travel the way you do? He's like, because the Greyhound is my second job, djing and doing the music, that's always my first job. So once I come into this job, everything I do, even with talking to the managers and supervisors, they know from jump hey, this is my second job. So when I have to travel for my first job, hey, I need this time off because I'm going to be gone with my first job and people will only take you as serious as you take yourself 100%.
Speaker 1:I believe that 100%.
Speaker 2:So if you're saying like right now the job, I work, I love it. It has the best work balance, the work-life balance that I've ever had at any job. Okay. Because I work two days on, two days off and I have every other weekend, so I can plan everything I want to do around my days off. Okay, and it's not like some jobs where you work six days in a row. 10, 12 hours Right exactly.
Speaker 2:But I'm guaranteed to have at least two days in a row off, or at least every other weekend three days in a row off, okay, so I can plan everything around that. So if I need to film on a weekend, I know this is my off weekend or I'll use my vacation if it runs into a work day. Okay.
Speaker 2:But it's all put in position to feed into my plan A, Mm-hmm, and put in position to feed into my plan A. And it took a while for me. I had that mentality but I didn't know how to implement it. But as I grew and got more into it, I learned how to implement that, Because then of course, you have growing up, you have life, you got to get a job, you got to pay your bills, you got to take care of it. I was like, okay, I get that. And I think this is where, as parents and once I became a parent, I understood it more. But even our parents you used to think that my mom's a hater.
Speaker 1:She's hating.
Speaker 2:I was like well, make sure you're going to work son Make sure you're doing this Because they come from a time if you go to work, if you don't go to work, you don't eat yeah, you go to work. If you don't go to work, you don't eat, yeah, you pay that bill. Well, you know, it's 100 people out here trying to do what you do and how you going to do that, coming out of Toledo. But you know what Do you? But make sure you go to work. Right, I was like, okay, hater, I love you, but hater. But it became an understanding to where. Now I see where they're coming from, because they came from an age to where being a movie star, being a director, being in music, that's all, was the exception to the rule. Exactly, it was never considered a primary way of oh, that's a fantasy the party life. You just want the party life. You just want the fame of it.
Speaker 1:Fame is right.
Speaker 2:And it's not about the fame. The fame comes with it, but that's not why I do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, young people these days they'll never understand, or because they grew up with content you know, content creators. You know everybody got a phone with cameras. We grew up like different, like you had to. It was some effort to get a camera. It was some effort to get a camera.
Speaker 2:It was some effort to set up some lights To get seen.
Speaker 1:It was an effort to get, like you said, to be seen at all. Our parents, our generation of parents. They try to instill in us what actual work was like a job. I tell the story all the time. I used to play the trumpet. I stayed with my grandparents. I came home one day my trumpet was gone. He's like that horn, don't pay no bills. You know what?
Speaker 2:I'm saying so.
Speaker 1:It was like it was a definite line between what was considered work and what was considered just a hobby or extracurricular or a dream. You know what I? Mean. So I definitely I could appreciate that thought about. You know your parent, you're looking at your parent like you, just don't. You know you're kind of a hater or you don't believe in me, but they was trying to make sure that we was going to be able to take care of ourselves.
Speaker 2:Right, right, exactly. And the work that goes into it. A lot of them don't, like you mentioned about, like content creators and everything, the work that goes into being a content creator. That's a job within itself, exactly. It's a job when you can't just oh, hey guys, this is such and such and I'm on to it. It's like yeah, that's it, but the ones that truly put in work, they coming up with ideas and skits, and what they put thought and work into it and plan their day out where they're going to go.
Speaker 1:You know, even with the like my wife she watched, sometimes some creators she watched, they do like hauls, you know buying stuff, but they still have to plan that out. Like I'm going to go here, get this, do that. Then they have to budget. They have to try to get sponsorships.
Speaker 2:Because it's a business. It's a business. Sponsorship Because it's a business. It's a business. And knowing that it's a business, even when we were coming up and doing music and getting into film at the time I was I always understood that it was a business because, like I said, growing up I used to watch the behind the scenes stuff of everything. Right, like I may go see a movie, but as soon as it comes out on VHS or DVD I used to see if you let it play long on the VHS, long enough, after credits they'll have a quick behind-the-scenes that'll play with. Then when DVDs came around, they had DVDs that had whole deleted scenes and those behind-the-scenes chapters. So I was watching the behind-the the scenes stuff just to know like, okay, that's how they did that well we get the end result.
Speaker 2:But it's the behind the scenes that also made me fall in love with it, because to see how you have all these different pieces moving right, just to get that that two-hour feel that you get.
Speaker 1:It's amazing. So how were you when you first started shooting? How were you at managing your sets, like your actors and your talent and your day? You know you're shooting your day.
Speaker 2:First time starting out, it was chaotic. Okay, the reason why it was chaotic is because, even though I had help, I was the one everyone was going to to get the answers of what they needed. Okay, and, mind you, this is my first time, so I still don't really know, so I'm having to come up with solutions and answers on the fly. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But at the same time, once I figured out, I had people that was like all right, let's move. So, for example, uh, my wife, she would read the script while we were doing it. So if the lines was off, because sometimes I couldn't catch it, because I'm working the camera right, so I'm making sure the camera's good and the sound is good and she's like okay, when I call cut, she's like they didn't say that line, right or that wasn't a line. Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I have to go back. All right, review. All right, then I will go to the actors like, well, let's try this this way and this way. Then you may have some actors like well, I think we could try it this way, I want to try this, it might be funny or this might be good. Okay, let's do it the way I want to do it first, and if we have time, we'll throw yours in there, but we have to at least get what was written first. Like it's a running joke, with every project that I have done they tease me about it all the time when they go off script. Sometimes they'll see me in the background and I'll be looking through the script like where'd you get that from that ain't it.
Speaker 2:It works. But that ain't it. That ain't in the script. But you got to leave room for that because sometimes those moments where they feel something, yeah are the best moments to capture. Okay, and so, as far as managing the set, everything moves with a rhythm. So if you can get the actors in a rhythm, yeah and where they feeding off each other and they're in their vibe and they're truly into the characters.
Speaker 2:It makes everything else behind the cameras work smoother okay um, so if they moving together you ain't gotta worry about them. So now I can actually move with them with the camera and if I have the lighting set up it makes them look even better. Then if whoever's in the background and the crew, you need that lieutenant. If I'm the general, I need that lieutenant that where I'm focused and they keeping everybody else in the back. Quiet because sound quality If you are into film, make sure your sound quality is right. I learned that the hard way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sound is you know my guy Darryl man. He tell me sound is like that's the foundation of everything. Don't matter what it look like, if it don't sound right, nobody going to want to pay attention to it.
Speaker 2:It'll take you out of it. It'll take you out of it, Boy. I know I made my mistakes with sound. Okay. I didn't understand the value of having a separate audio source compared to using in-camera sound. Okay, I didn't know any better. Right, I learned, because when you go to edit that don't sound right.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But then I got to go okay, camera one, where's that loud noise coming from? So I got to go try to find camera two and see where the sound matches up. But camera two, it sounds better, but it only sounds better on that actor. But I need this actor. So now I got to figure out how to make the sound quality matches between the two cameras. Nope, that's not going through that, no more. I learned my lesson. But yeah, it's just a balance.
Speaker 1:And, like you said, like technology too, because when you first started out, camera equipment was crazy pricey. You know we had a. I mean, I remember my first quality of camera was a 3CCD cam with the little tape that went into it and I thought I had the best camera ever.
Speaker 2:You was a better man than me. My first camera was a little sony camcorder okay, the little I'm talking about, the little one with the. It beeps five hundred dollars, and that is my wife. When we first started dating she read one of my scripts I was still doing music heavy and because, um, she would be with, uh, charlie numbers with his wife, yeah they were friends, so that's how we met.
Speaker 2:So, okay, she would be over there, I'll be in in be with Charlie Numbers, we doing music, they'll be doing anything. And she, we got to talking and got to know each other. And then she, I let her read one of my scripts and she was like two things. Number one this script, right here, you can't touch it till you had the money to do it the way it needs to be done. To this day I have not touched that script ever since. Second thing if you have so many scripts because I have like 14 scripts that just stacks of notebooks, man, okay. And she's like, why don't you make a movie? I was like, because I'm going to use the music, make my money off the music and that's going to pay for the movie. She, the music and that's going to pay for the movie she's like okay, I like that idea, but why ain't you making a movie?
Speaker 2:So I don't have a camera? Well, did you ask? Ask who.
Speaker 1:You got siblings.
Speaker 2:So I have siblings on my dad's side. Like, did you ask your siblings to help out? Did you ask your mom? Did you ask anybody else? I was like she was teaching about crowdfunding, yeah, but what she was doing was eliminating excuses, excuses, uh-huh. So I went on a limb and I asked my sister, uh-huh, on my dad's side, anita, and she was like okay. I was like, oh Right, he's like, oh, that's that easy. She gave me the money and that was the first camera I got.
Speaker 2:And so learning, like you said, the difference in technology from there, because it was the first digital camera I ever had, and so there was no memory card or nothing. It was just plug it in film, plug the camera into the computer camera I ever had. And so there was no memory card or nothing. It was just plug it in film, plug the camera into the computer and pull the footage off. And the Kevin Jackson guy mentioned he had a similar camera, camcorder, so same thing. So it was just now you have memory cards and you have the more advanced cameras, the hard drives, external, 8 terabyte, 16 terabyte.
Speaker 1:I remember trying to render something that was probably like 10 minutes on Final Cut back in the day up at the university man, I was in the film class. Up at the university man, I was in the film class. I couldn't get my project done because I had to go to work, because you're just sitting there and just be render, render, render, render. It took hours to render something that might be on like 10 minutes but it also the advancement of technology.
Speaker 2:now the brains in these computers are faster, the CPUs and everything are faster and stronger, so they can't handle that much information. Yeah, things are faster and stronger, so they can't handle that much information. Yeah, so now it's now rendering. It's still a process, but it's not as labor extensive as it used to be, so you just have to stay with it. You got to be patient. You get you anything you love doing. You got to be patient because it's going to be a process, for if you're going to get quality out right.
Speaker 1:So how did you escape the um, the mindset of what a success was? Because I know, like with anything like with sports or music, or you know film or acting, like the level of success somebody thinks is like you know NBA or NFL, or Oscar or Grammy. So how did you define, come up with the definition of what success was for you going through your processes?
Speaker 2:The main thing that I had to come to understand was success is not a singular goal. Success is layers there's steps to it. Singular goal Success is layers, there's steps to it. Recently, denzel talked about don't confuse motion with progress. Okay, because you can be standing in place, you're moving, but you're not going nowhere, right? Well, you can stomp all your feet and jump up and down and do all that, but you're still in the same place. So you have motion, but you're not progressing, you're not moving forward. So, when it comes to success, the first success is rewrapped. That was the first success. Yeah, that's the first step. Next success is each part that I edit. Okay, I got this scene. Edit, that's a success mm-hmm got this in edit.
Speaker 2:That's success. By the time I finish after the whole movie, that's another success and itself. Then, okay, what I'm gonna do with it, I'm gonna do a premiere.
Speaker 1:That's a success.
Speaker 2:Okay, I got you Now to fast forward and not to get too far, but my film that's on Tubi, called Under. It came out a year and a half ago on Tubi. We filmed that movie in 2017.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that was a success then in 2017, but the years it took to where, even to get it out, where the world can see it for them, that's a success so I remember when you, when the movie wrapped, when you got it finished in 2017, the technology or the apps and things that we have available now, or the distribution lanes they didn't even exist for us back then, did they?
Speaker 2:They did, but they were different. Okay, because you got to realize they evolved as much as we have to evolve. So even then distribution lanes was there, but there was a formula that everybody was trying to follow to get to them. So at that time the only way you could really get to distributors like truly get to distributors is to get into a film festival and possibly win one. Okay. So if you can get in a film festival and win one, oh okay, they did something, Now you can get distribution.
Speaker 2:Now you can get distribution. Okay, festival and win one. Oh, okay, they did something. Now you can get distribution. Now you can get distribution. Okay. Now here's the other piece of it.
Speaker 2:Not all distributors are good. Okay, some of them was like okay, we just need a catalog. So say, you have a distributor or aggregator who we buy up, we'll get 100 movies and we'll sell a package to these channels. Okay, okay, and they'll sell this package. Okay, we'll send you, we'll give you these 10 movies. But the channel only wanted one specific movie. Well, to get that movie, you got to buy these 10. Your movie might be in that bundle of 10, but if that, if your movie ain't that one movie they were looking for, ain't no telling when they're going to see it.
Speaker 2:But now, like you said, with the digital era and the things now programs like FilmHub, you can put it on directly. Amazon Prime Video, you can go to them directly and release it yourself, set your prices and all that. So there's different avenues like that. Now there's a lot of online channels that you can go to directly and say, hey, I got this movie. And there's still some that say you have to go through an aggregator or a distributor to be able to get it on our channel.
Speaker 2:Or if you don't get it on YouTube or get it on social media and you're getting numbers, they'll come to you. Hey, we saw you, we saw you moving on YouTube. We want to work with you. What you got brewing, what you got cooking, or we want to take this and put that on our channel, license it or something like that. Okay, so it's evolved. So, yes, and the reason why I say all that, to go back to and say it was available for us. But if you wasn't active in that fully and wasn't aware, the gatekeepers wasn't going to know how to do it Right.
Speaker 2:The gatekeepers won't tell you. But it's not that we weren't allowed to do it, it's just we didn't know any better.
Speaker 1:That's powerful. So a lot of things like that's wisdom for young people today. Like they think like automatically, that they're not going to be allowed to do certain things, or you know, I remember my brother-in-law. We were talking about something. I still think I was right. I forget what the exact thing was, but he's like man, they're not going to let me do that, and he was like brother-in-law, ain't nobody going to let you do nothing, but he was right.
Speaker 1:But in that particular instance he was wrong, but he was right. I took that thought that he gave me with me from there. So when you say, when you don't know any better, you can just discount yourself automatically like, well, they're not going to let me, or I can, or I don't know the right people, or I can, or I don't know the right people, or I don't have the right connections or the right amount of money. So you know.
Speaker 2:So that's just so tell me a little bit about how you got your movie Under onto Tubi With. Under I actually went through a gauntlet of emotions because I had three feature films done. There's Love or Nothing at All, which was my first feature film.
Speaker 2:Then I had Captive Audience, which is my first horror film. In between there I did a web series called the Detective Chronicles. Okay, and that's available on YouTube under Primate Vision. So there's season one is Mr Nice, season two is Kissing Death and season three is Final Breath. Captive Audience came in between season one and season two. The lead characters that was in season one are the main characters in captive audience. Okay, in the movie, in the movie, okay so, and then season two and season three is the aftermath from Captive Audience. Okay.
Speaker 2:So with Love or Nothing at All, which was a love story by the title. I was like, okay, I got these three movies, I got to do something. Yeah. I got to do something. I have Captive Audience and Love or Nothing at All was on DVD. So this was a time where you hustled DVDs but Under I hadn't made DVDs for it. I just had finished it and was trying to figure out what I was going to do with it. Okay.
Speaker 2:So I was like, well, I'm going to put it on YouTube now. Love or Nothing at All was a victim of sound quality. It was way better than what I had done before, but it was still some things that I was like, okay, I dropped the ball on that Captive audience way better than loving nothing at all. But still, like I said, I'm my own worst enemy, so I'm seeing my mistakes more than anybody. Everybody's like we love it. Okay, you still was like, ah, still, and then under. So now I'm I'm like I gotta do something with these. But then I'm start seeing the boom of tubi. Detroit is killing it. This is before fox bought tubi. So, okay, you, it was nothing but independent, okay. So I'm seeing Homestead. Okay, homestead Studios. Dennis Reed is the owner of Homestead and they're from Detroit, from Detroit.
Speaker 2:Okay, Darren Brown. He's a prominent director that was out of Detroit. Yes, he had a few films on there. Prominent director that was out of Detroit. Yes, he had a few films on there. And then I kept hearing let me back up. I was aware of them but didn't know anything about getting in contact with them. Okay, so I got a call from Big Trav. Big Trav in Hollywood. They had their show where they would go. They were heavy in Detroit doing interviews of the cast. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So and one of the movie premieres that happened. I guess a couple of actors that I've worked with that were in Under was in that movie and they were getting interviewed. I guess a couple of actors that I've worked with that were in Under was in that movie Okay. And they were getting interviewed. So Trav called me. He's like hey, man, I did a couple interviews. Your name came up a couple of times. Yeah. Let's do an interview.
Speaker 2:Okay, I was like all right cool, so we did a phone interview, did a live Zoom interview interview okay and we was chopping it up and everything. He's like, yeah, man, he's like you know what, man? We want to? Detroit's booming right now, but we want to see Toledo win. We want to see.
Speaker 2:Toledo get into though they hadn't. So I'm gonna get you, I'm gonna get you connected with, like Dennis Reed and Darren Brown and you know this plush and they was. They was running down the names. I was like I didn't even know they existed, okay, I mean, I knew who they were as individuals, but I didn't know they had their own companies okay, as distributors.
Speaker 2:So I just went through, I made a list and I just went through and submitted to both. I submitted love and nothing at all and I submitted under, okay, captive audience I couldn't do anything with, because I had submitted that into a film festival. To both, I submitted Love and Nothing at All and I submitted Under, okay, captive Audience I couldn't do anything with, because I had submitted that into a film festival and I couldn't do anything with it until I heard back from the film festival. Okay, but I submitted Under and I submitted Love and Nothing at All. And Lisa Brown she was the first to respond for Plush, okay, for plush, okay. And we started talking on the phone. We had a good conversation, our first, our first talk, and she uh, sent me a couple emails and was like well, this is what I want to do, this want to do.
Speaker 2:You want this, it's a contract but, I see you have love and nothing at all you have under. Which one do you want to really put through? I was like I definitely want to put under. Okay, so I'm thinking under is the last feature, but it's my best foot forward because that's where I feel like did my best cinematography okay what about the love? Or nothing at all? Hold off on that, because at that point I was already weighing the scales on possibly reshooting love or nothing at all okay so she's like, alright, well, we're going to weighing the scales on possibly reshooting Love or Nothing at All.
Speaker 2:Okay. So she's like, all right, well, we're going to put it under out there. Then we went back well, we need some cover art. The cover art you have is cool, but it's too many words in this thing. You did a poster for, like, the movie premiere. We need a regular movie poster for promotional stuff on social media and stuff like that. So she helped me get that together. And then she was like well, I'll let you know when it launches on Tubi.
Speaker 2:I was like, all right, cool. About a week later I'm at work and she sent me a message and said, hey, it should be live sometime tonight or first thing tomorrow to keep an eye out. And I was like, all right, so bing.
Speaker 1:It's live. I was like okay.
Speaker 2:And I just let everybody know from there. And so it was just so.
Speaker 1:I was very grateful for Lisa in that it had to be a monumental moment though it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a, it was a woosah, it was. It was a woosah moment Because it was at a moment to where it came, at a moment to where I was almost at a verge of giving up on doing film.
Speaker 2:Because I had a. We were working on my fourth film, which is called Intervention, which some things didn't go as according to plan so we never finished it. But a lot of it happened in my personal life as well as on set, to where all that compounded, to where it broke me, to where I was, like I'm done, I'm tired of dealing with all the mess. I'm tired of dealing with people. I'm tired of dealing with people I'm tired of dealing with.
Speaker 2:I got my family Like in that process of filming, I had two family members die within weeks of each other, so I hadn't really had a chance to grieve. Then I'm on set and I'm dealing with the chaos of the set, but still dealing with the family chaos, and it just something broke with him and after that I was like I can't take this, it's too much drama and all this. I can't take this. And that's when Under got put out.
Speaker 1:I was like okay, it kind of put some fuel back in your tank.
Speaker 2:It was like okay, Even though I went through that, there are people who sees the vision of where I'm trying to go with it.
Speaker 2:I can't give up. Because that was the other reason why I think that the break was there Because I was taking the weight of everybody's success on my shoulders, meaning if I don't make it, if I don't do nothing with this, I don't let everybody that believed in me and believed in the story, I let them down. So I had to get that weight off of me to understand it's like okay, yes, it's a group, collective work, but their success isn't dictated by my success, and vice versa. My success isn't dictated by theirs, and I had to get out of that. My success isn't dictated by theirs, and I had to get out of that. And once I got that better understanding, I was, in a way, better place.
Speaker 1:You said, you was carrying that, you was carrying the weight, like the responsibility, like I have to push this because this whole cast is dependent on me to present it to the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a lot, that's a lot and it was like okay, I can't work with people that take this as a hobby. Mm-hmm. I got to work with people that are serious about doing this, yeah. I can't cheapen my vision to make somebody else fit into it. It it's funny because I did a short and it was crazy how this conversation came about. I had an actor who was supposed to come and be on set, but at the last minute.
Speaker 2:He had a family situation he had to take care of. So I called up another actor that I had met and said hey, I got a small role. It's a non-speaking role, it's a quick scene. You just walk in, grab this guy and take him in another room and that's it. Is this a paid project? No, it's not a paid project, but I will feed you and all that, we feed our cast and everything. Well, no, I'm good because I'm a serious actor and I get cast and everything. Well, no, I'm good because you know I'm a serious actor and I get paid and everything. And it seems like you would benefit more from me being in your movie than it would benefit me. I was like then he asked well, what's your plans for the movie? I was like, well, you don't seem like you have a plan. I was like, well, just because I'm not telling my plan, right, doesn't mean I don't have a plan. But I wish you the best, right, thank you, but I wish you the best and I appreciate you consider your consideration.
Speaker 2:Kept it moving yeah but that was also me understanding. Not everybody sees your vision right a lot of times, even when they come on and say yeah yeah, I'll be a part of it. They still have their own agenda that goes into it. And if they don't feel if it's the agenda, I can't be mad at you for that. I just have to. Once you become, once you're aware of the nature of a thing, you have to let it be what it's going to be.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I agree. I mean, I used to like customizing my cars back in the day. Somebody would always say, well, what you should do is this. Or if it was me, I would do this. Or somebody always trying to take your material and make it to what they want to see. And you had to realize, no, this belongs to me. I had to put out my vision for what I see, no matter if you know, you think that it's not worthy or not.
Speaker 1:So that's like with this podcast, like when I first initially came up with the idea. It was like a mode of expression and I sat down with Touchdown and they helped me kind of like plan out like how I wanted to do it. But it was something like. That's why I asked you about your definition of success. This, for me, is the success, because it's something that I thought about, that I prayed about, that I invested in and something that I've been able to do consistently. So for me it's a success. And to have conversations with people like yourself, man, because I work with juvenile teenage boys, so you can imagine the conversations that I'm subject to all day.
Speaker 2:It's amazing. I used to work with students. I used to be ISS in used to be ISS in school suspension In school suspension.
Speaker 2:Yep, and I worked with students all the time at that time and everybody. Well, you get all the bad kids. It's like they're not bad, but you don't know what they go through at home. And when they're going through so much at home, they don't have an outlet, Right. So where does it normally get released? When they get to school. School, yeah, Because now you're bringing all these different personalities that's all going through some individually and you put them all together, of course, and some can handle it better than others. Right.
Speaker 2:But to go back to what you said, imagine in the conversations you have, we have to normalize and I'll say this as adults across the board we do, but especially in the black community. We have to normalize, being okay with meeting these kids where they at Right, because, okay, we can definitely say, hey, don't do drugs, hey, don't be out here gangbanging, don't be out here fighting and wilding out, don't be out here giving your body away just because you can. There's other avenues, but it's always don't, don't, don't, but it's never.
Speaker 1:Here's an alternate Right, here's a better way and even, like you said, like with the, the conversation, like I know, for adults, our our knee-jerk response when we hear something that we feel is, uh, not appropriate or disrespectful, uh like, since, you know, I feel like cursing. You know, if the kids start talking, you know, and it's like as an adult, sometimes I have to catch myself, like, like, don't tune out, don't turn it off, you know, let them get out his thought. And then, you know, then you can redirect them, but let them get it out.
Speaker 1:So I learned that over the years like, because when we were small, like, we were taught like language was important. But if you got the parents, you know talking, just like you know they talk to each other. That way it's like how you're going, you know that child is having a conversation with you. You know you might not like how it sounds, but that's my, that's the everyday language.
Speaker 2:Right. I had two rules that I gave no matter what and I adjusted for each student, but two main rules that everyone. The first rule was how you act dictates how I act, and number two was when you come across that door, I don't care what happened outside of this room. When you come to this door, you get a fresh slate with me. Okay.
Speaker 2:So when they start wilding out in the classroom with me, I'm like, okay, I'm not about to be yelling and arguing with you, I don't do that with my own children, so I'm not about to do that with somebody else's child. But, like you said, let them get it out. Then, when they calmed down, can I do this. Mr Lee, no, well, why not? Well, when I asked you to sit down and relax, you didn't want to do nothing for me. So what? What currency do you have to get anything from to get what you want, when I couldn't even get you to sit down for me?
Speaker 2:I didn't even tell you to be quiet, I just wanted you to sit down right and you know how, when kids, when we were kids, we had turned the lights off and that's quiet time, right, right. So I used to do lights out. Some of the teachers were like why is there no lights on here? I was like they haven't earned their lights today, what you mean? I was like they have to earn their lights.
Speaker 2:How are they going to do their work? They don't care about that, so they don't want to put the work in to get things, so they have to earn their lives. They have to earn being able to have a free time. And, of course, iss is in school suspension, so it ain't supposed for them to kick it. No, they're not here to kick it and have fun, but I'm not here to be a slave driver and yelling at them all day. And working with those children kind of helped me better understand how to deal with the different personalities you have coming on set when you're a director, because now you don't know what this actor has been through. You don't know what process they had, what depths they had to dig into to be these characters, right. Good or bad?
Speaker 2:I don't know what this DP went through before he came on set today. I don't know what my lighting guy went through before he came on set. So you have to approach everyone with the difference of okay, it's my vision, it's my story, but I also have to be mindful of everybody's going through something. For sure. And you don't know what mood they're going to be. Mindful of everybody's going through something For sure, and you don't know what mood they're going to be in on the day of 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we all hope that everybody's going to come in and be professional and put their focus on getting the job done, but reality is not everybody can pull that off as easy. So if I'm yelling, cut, why can't you get this right? Why you ain't doing I need it like cut. Why can't you get this right? Why you ain't doing I need it like this. Why this light ain't moving over here? Or why this camera ain't going. If I'm yelling and coming at people, I might be the one that set this person off, yeah, you trigger them, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, hey everybody, let's take five reset and go through. Come here how that be real quick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you all right. I mean how?
Speaker 2:that mean real quick, you all right, Anything I can do to help. Which was like, yeah, I'm going through something. I was like all right For this scene. I need you to cry, so channel that. Whatever anger or frustration you have, use that. Okay, all right.
Speaker 2:Cool, cool, or I didn't go. Hey, what's going on? I just need to like man, I just can't. No worries, let me do this one. I'll show you how I want it done. Then the next round you can take care of it. But you take five and clear your head, take a deep breath, come back For sure. So you have to learn how to and that goes back to the set management that you talked about. Yeah, you have to know. As a director, you have to know a little bit of everything to be able to run a set Right. But it's not for you to do everything, but you also have to know how to pay attention to people's moves and how they move.
Speaker 1:You got to have that emotional intelligence as well as the you know, the IQ to get the job done Right? Yeah, for sure. So, man, I could talk to you all day probably. Man, I'm not going to be in front Because the stuff that you talk about, you know it fascinates me just to hear about somebody's process and how they get to where they are. And you know, I see you on social media and I follow you and you know, like I say, like a lot of stuff you do just is inspiring to me. But you know, this is a two-cups cafe, so it's one for the wake, one for the work. So the first cup is what's waking you up, what's inspiring you, what are you dreaming about? And then the second one is what are some next steps, or what are some things that you got coming up.
Speaker 2:Okay, for the first one. My family wakes me up every day. I have four kids, three sons and a girl she's the youngest and waking up and saying I can't give up because I can't ask them to keep pushing forward if I give up. I have to keep pushing forward if I give up.
Speaker 2:I have to keep pushing With. My daughter, talented, does some of everything, some of the stuff I don't know where she got it from. She just does it Like she crochets, like crazy, she draws, she dances, she sings when she want to, as long as there ain't nobody looking. My youngest son, great graphic designer okay at 17.
Speaker 2:yeah, great graphic designer. My second oldest son he's a producer. He produces music and and licensing music on youtube and everything, and him and my youngest son rap as well, so they're great songwriters. My oldest son he does t-shirts Okay and is great at it. Yeah. And was a great athlete too. So they all seeing them come into who they are individually feeds me on. I can't give up. Yeah. And then my wife. She's been my biggest cheerleader but also my biggest drill sergeant. Okay, she won't let me give up. Right right?
Speaker 2:Oh, so you ain't. Did you write something today? Did you edit something today? Well, why then? Right? It goes back to that original conversation where she eliminated excuses.
Speaker 2:Eliminated excuses yeah, and so making sure I do what I need to do, to make sure I'm there and getting them where I want them to be and where they need to be, is what wakes me up. Okay, as far as what I'm working on now, it's a few things. Um, we're actually getting ready to um reshoot intervention okay, which is my fourth film. Didn't complete it the first time. This time, better prepared, better hit space, okay. So that's coming up in a couple of months. We're going to be reshooting that.
Speaker 2:Um, that's what we're waiting to hear back, okay, um, we're working on making sure we can get that, rob Markman, do you read in no cast or you got some additions, tj, that's what we're waiting to hear back. We're working on making sure we can get who we can get to come back and who we may have to recast, rob. Markman, okay.
Speaker 2:TJ Still working through that. That's all the pre-production process and that's a process within itself Because the availability that a lot of people had and the freedoms had, like we have one actor that he may, he may be willing to do it, but he may not be able to because now he's sad, okay. Okay, so that those are that. And that's why I say we can't really say who's all going to come back yet, because I have to make sure if they do come back, how would that affect them being a sag and what do I have to do to make sure I'm within the guidelines of the union, right to be able to have a SAG actor? Okay, so there's a intervention is what we're working on. I also have a few scripts that I'm working on. Okay.
Speaker 2:So I have a lot to keep me busy. Yes, I don't like that, but I'm learning to slow down and not spread myself too thin. Okay, and that's my focus, that's my goal is to get this next project done, get that edited. I got another short that's gonna be released soon. That's gonna feed into the intervention film. Okay, and just stay focused and stay driven yeah that's what. That's the work I'm into right now.
Speaker 1:Sounds great, man. I'm looking forward to your new work. Could you tell my listeners and my viewers how they could follow you or see some of your projects? Okay?
Speaker 2:Of course, go to Tubi. Look up under U-N-D-E-R. Under you find it on Tubi. Do a search, you'll find it. If you want to see any of the web series or any of the shorts, you can definitely go to our YouTube channel, which is Prime8Vision. All one word Prime, the number eight and vision, and that's our Instagram. Um, twitter or x? Uh, all under that same type. Even the youtube is all under prime 8, vision. You'll find everything from there. Um, definitely gonna be posting more stuff, letting everybody know where we're at and keeping the content flowing. You know, like you said, that's a, that's a job within itself.
Speaker 1:You know getting everything out, letting everybody know where we're at and keeping the content flowing. Like you said, that's a job within itself, getting everything out there. But, man, I just enjoyed our conversation, man Once again thank you for coming out and sharing this time with me, man, I definitely learned a lot from you today, and I'm sure that my viewers and listeners have as well, as always. Man, just like, subscribe, share the page. We're available everywhere, the podcasts are available, and we also on YouTube. Until next time, yeah, man, two cups.