What Happens When Hollywood Talent Chooses Charleston?

Justin Allen's journey from commercial actor to award-winning director and producer exemplifies the creative evolution happening in Charleston's growing production landscape. As President of Butter, an acclaimed commercial production company, Justin brings Hollywood-caliber experience to clients seeking to elevate their brand presence through compelling visual storytelling.

Having worked on major productions like Mad Men and collaborated with actor Zach Levi developing shows for networks like NBC, Justin's decision to relocate to Charleston represents a growing trend of creative professionals choosing the Lowcountry for its perfect balance of opportunity and lifestyle. His experience in television development—where hundreds of show concepts compete for just a handful of production slots—taught him resilience and the importance of authentic storytelling, skills he now applies to creating impactful commercials.

The conversation reveals how Connected TV (CTV) advertising has revolutionized video marketing, transforming what was once an exclusive playground for major corporations with six-figure budgets into an accessible channel for businesses of all sizes. With viewers spending three times more time on CTV platforms than social media apps and unable to skip ads, this emerging channel offers unprecedented engagement opportunities. Justin explains how his team creates television-quality commercials starting around $15,000 that can be repurposed across platforms, allowing smaller brands to achieve the production value previously reserved for their largest competitors.

Through his work with local clients like Rev Credit Union and his efforts to integrate into Charleston's creative community after spending his initial years in town filming renovation shows for Magnolia Network, Justin represents a new wave of creative transplants bringing fresh perspectives while embracing the collaborative spirit that makes Charleston's marketing ecosystem special. His story reminds us that as screens continue to dominate our attention economy, the art of visual storytelling remains a powerful tool for brands seeking meaningful connections with their audiences.

Ready to elevate

Transcript

Meet Justin Allen of Butter

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, brought to you by the Charleston AMA and broadcasting from our friends at Charleston Media Solutions Studios. Thanks to our awesome sponsors at CMS, we get to chat with the cool folks making waves in Charleston, from business and art to hospitality and tech. These movers and shakers choose to call the Lowcountry home. They live here, work here and make a difference here. So what's their story?

Speaker 3 0:25

let's find out together there's a couple of justin. Yeah, I know I. I met one of them when I went to the chamber locally did you?

Speaker 2 0:35

you met him in person. Yeah, what was that like?

Speaker 3 0:37

well, I think he was just kind of shocked because he's like my name is justin me too. I'm justin allen, you're so, am I? I'm Justin Allen, so am I?

Speaker 1 0:47

It was like one of those things.

Speaker 4 0:49

No way yeah that's funny, that's cute.

Speaker 2 0:51

Hey folks, We've got Justin Allen here right now, President of Butter, an award-winning commercial production company. Hey, Justin, Welcome to the show bud. Hey y'all.

Speaker 3 1:01

Thanks for having me.

Speaker 4 1:02

We're excited to have you here.

Speaker 2 1:03

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 1:04

I'm feeling bud. Hey y'all, we're excited to have you here. Oh my gosh, so much y'all. Just because you know I'm in charleston now he's in charleston right.

Speaker 2 1:10

So we're all transplants and I try not to say y'all in front of my northern friends, but sometimes it slips it does, but I think we can say it amongst ourselves here, right?

Speaker 4 1:19

yeah, it's a comfort zone I even spell out in text now and do you go y'all in? Text. Well, I talk to my phone so, in fairness, I'm not actually typing out the word y'all, but I'm like hey, y'all, see you there. And I'm like oh, look at me, I've embraced my southerness now that's right.

Speaker 2 1:35

And you got the fancy hat too. Is that a southern thing? No, no, no.

Speaker 4 1:38

This is a sonoma valley thing I'm wearing my wine hat today people.

Speaker 2 1:42

Oh well, introduce yourself, steph what's up guys?

Speaker 4 1:44

I'm stephanie barrow. You all should know me by now. I am the founder of stephanie barrow, consulting a digital agency here in charleston, and I'm here with my friend justin. I know you said I can't talk a lot about la I'm talking about.

Speaker 4 1:57

You can say whatever you want briefly, I'm gonna say don't speak about la justin and I go way back, which is which is wild. So imagine a young stephanie in her early 20s. I'm just playing. No, not really, I moved to la we're in your early 20s when you I moved yep from virginia from new york city oh okay, sorry, I thought I knew your history, virginia. Virginia College, new York City, la, and we all rolled in this big group of people in LA. I'm talking like 50 people deep.

Speaker 1 2:32

It was like-.

Speaker 2 2:33

Big friend group.

Speaker 4 2:33

Yeah, we have these crazy ugly sweater parties. We're all like everybody kind of knew each other. I was friends with his wife and yeah, and so now we're going back to the present day. I walked into the Spark Awards in November and I did like a triple take. I was like what? Because it's been like 10 years.

Speaker 4 2:56

We'd all aged. It's been so long to see someone from your old life in Charleston. I freaked out. I was like taking pictures with them. I was sitting up to my bestie. I freaked out. I was taking pictures with him. I was sending him to my best, angela in Nashville. It was wild. I'm so great that he's here. It's been good stuff.

Speaker 2 3:13

So you just randomly saw him where At the Spark Awards At the Spark.

Speaker 4 3:16

Awards At the Spark Awards and I was doing this what were you doing at the Spark Awards? And I was checking him out and my husband was like what are you doing?

Speaker 3 3:22

I'm sorry trying to win one did you win one?

Speaker 2 3:25

no, but you're up for one though. Yeah, we're nominated.

Speaker 3 3:28

Yeah, we got, we got some encouragement, we got a nomination we got.

Speaker 2 3:30

You know what we have them every year we do.

Speaker 4 3:33

Yeah, we do. Now, what was your nomination?

Speaker 3 3:35

for it was for rev credit union.

Speaker 4 3:37

See, I knew yeah, that was a good one. It was, that was a good one, that's a good one we submitted one too.

Speaker 2 3:42

We didn't win, didn't win either, but it's okay.

Speaker 3 3:44

Yeah, it happens. I mean, you know, not everybody can pick the right things.

Speaker 2 3:48

It's just In the video department. Man, it's tough in the video department.

Speaker 3 3:50

It is. It's subjective. I think something called monkey something won, and I'm just thinking that, like there was just a bunch of animal activists in there. Monkeys were really popular at the time because they escaped from that island in South Carolina.

Speaker 4 4:05

Oh, that's a. Thing.

Speaker 3 4:07

You never know.

Speaker 4 4:08

Have you heard about that? Yeah, I heard about that.

Speaker 2 4:10

Escaping of the monkeys yeah, I heard about that, Matthew's like let's get on our boat and look around for the monkeys.

Speaker 4 4:15

I'm like, all right, I'm down, let's go do that.

Speaker 2 4:17

Oh my gosh, you guys hunted down some monkeys, huh yeah that'd be something that we would do. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 4:22

But I'm so excited that you're in Charleston.

Speaker 2 4:24

Yeah, me too. When did you land here? When did you?

Speaker 3 4:27

move here. So I got here like maybe a little over two years ago.

Speaker 2 4:31

Right, oh, okay, so yeah new.

Speaker 3 4:33

But I was a little, I wasn't really kind of out and renovation show Cool.

Speaker 4 4:44

On the.

Speaker 3 4:44

Magnolia.

Speaker 1 4:44

Network oh dear Uh-oh Do we need to get you the child cup.

Speaker 4 4:49

Yes, I need the Sydney cup.

Speaker 3 4:50

Thanks, thanks. She spilt her water for people who just.

Speaker 4 4:55

That's right, that's right. I talk with my hands she got so excited. I do get excited. I was like it's for the. Magnolia Network. Please take it from me, thanks.

Speaker 3 5:02

Yeah, yeah, and so it was fun. It was the first time that I kind of DP'd a non-scripted show oh okay, from the scripted world but had been producing and directing a bunch of commercials. I'd shot a bunch of stuff myself.

Speaker 1 5:20

Sweet.

Speaker 3 5:22

But this opportunity came up and I was like, sure, yeah, I'll vp that show, it'd be fun. And um, I did the first and second season and just started the third season okay, how's it going? It's going good third season.

Speaker 2 5:36

I mean it's obviously going yeah yeah, it's a fun show.

Speaker 3 5:38

I mean the greatest thing about it is I just show up and shoot and leave you know I don't have to like lead gen or like pitch or yeah, right um, I love post-production. I'm an editor too, uh, but I don't edit that show, so it's um, it's fun, it's just like showing up and hanging out like crew's cool and, um, we have a good time so talk about butter and how you got started with Butter and talk about you a little bit, because I don't know anything about you.

Speaker 3 6:07

Yeah. So I mean I say that about the show just because like when I first came, you know I'd been working in client services and you know directing commercials and stuff, and when I got here and I was on that show like the first season was brutal. I mean it was like the first season was brutal. I mean it was like from a time standpoint.

Speaker 2 6:26

Oh my gosh like yes.

Speaker 3 6:27

Yeah, we were.

Speaker 2 6:28

Production days are how long?

Speaker 3 6:29

Yeah, working five days a week. You know long days, 12-hour days at a minimum and I just didn't have any time to like service clients or meet clients or Probably get involved in the city, yeah get involved in the city. Yeah, get involved in the city at all, like, um, maybe the first year and a half really and it's filming in Somerville, correct? Charleston, somerville. I think we did one in Beaufort last year, okay but in and around the area you know I think, like this year, like they all happen to be on Wagner Terrace, which is kind of funny awesome

From Actor to Director: Justin's Journey

Speaker 3 7:02

there's like five or six over there and so it's been cool, like the Spark Award thing, got to meet, some people ran into you and but for the most part I mean a lot of my work is out of town. So yeah, I've been fortunate to do a couple spots here, but I really haven't been able to meet the community or like connect with a lot of people, and so I've been trying to make a better effort there. I started a company maybe six years ago called Broad Street Media six years ago called Broad Street Media and it was just my video production company where we would produce commercials and some brand videos and like some short docs and stuff like that. And then I kind of merged with this LA company called Butter who has done a lot of work for the last 15 years, almost primarily in the hospitality industry, with hotels and, um, you know, restaurants, but mainly hotels, like they would do, uh, the branding packages for hotels when they opened up.

Speaker 3 8:16

Yeah, like these boutique hotels here in charleston um, you know, they hadn't like because there's a lot here yeah, a ton of them like they like they did a lot of awesome spots. Like they went for the Amman Hotel that opened in New York City.

Speaker 1 8:30

Oh okay.

Speaker 3 8:32

Big stuff Did like 35 properties for Lowe's Hotels Sweet Shringala, marriott, you know like all of the giant ones, yeah that, you know like all of the giant ones, yeah. But the Amman one was rad because they had like these monks come and like bless the hotel in the city for the opening of the property. I mean Amman is like a pretty bougie hotel chain but like yeah, it was really cool, like the monks around New York City and just kind of doing the that's so neat. Sound things.

Speaker 1 9:04

Heck yeah.

Speaker 4 9:05

Yeah, it was super cool.

Speaker 3 9:06

So, anyways, we kind of combined our teams and have been working now primarily in the CTV space and the hospitality space.

Speaker 2 9:17

Sure. So, working in that, how Are you producing shows for the space? Oh no, I mean from CTV connected tv like you know, streaming um ads yeah, there you go, so I'm just doing a lot of 30 second spots um that is good information.

Speaker 4 9:35

My clients are really interested in doing the ott ads yeah they're really. They went to some seminar in california and they got all into ryan reynolds company that's it yeah, yeah, mint is it meant mountain? I keep on calling it mint, because doesn't he do mint mobile, and then he does mountain yeah, how does he not confuse the numbs off?

Speaker 3 9:54

and he has another company, uh, another production company that starts with an m2.

Speaker 2 9:58

He just like that's like m things interesting. Yeah, interesting, because he, well, he is a lot like yourself, justin allen.

Speaker 3 10:03

Yeah, the man I know yeah, so mountain, I mean mountain is rad it's um it's a great platform is that what you use then it's the platform.

Speaker 4 10:13

It's kind of the back end of it is a lot like facebook. It's really user-friendly. I went and did the whole demo and that kind of thing, but you would need someone like a justin to produce the commercial for and then you man it and manage it that kind of thing Like it's neat.

Speaker 3 10:27

Yeah, it's basically opened up a whole new opportunity for um small to midsize businesses to advertise on television. Yeah, and you know, I think one of the statistics or the figures that I read about it which is kind of crazy is that in traditional linear commercial broadcasting for the longest time there was like 200-ish advertisers.

Speaker 4 10:56

Right right.

Speaker 3 10:57

Because there's a huge financial barrier to entry and you could really only play in that space if you had at least a six-figure ad buy oh yeah, you know, and so now it is very similar. It's super accessible. The barrier entry is not that high. Um the uh figures now is there's like 10 000 companies that are advertising on television, yep you can geo target, just like you can for social ads.

Speaker 4 11:26

Yes, awesome, it is really neat.

Speaker 3 11:28

You know, like I pitched to my clients. Um, you know, if you want, if you want to look like your biggest competitor, you know, like if you're a bank and you want to look like chase, like you got to spend a little bit of money to get that production value Right, like you got to spend a little bit of money to get that production value Right, but we know kind of how to do that. That's not going to break the bank, you know if I'm not intended About a bunch.

Speaker 3 11:52

But you know, I think like oftentimes, well, maybe, like the entry point, you might be thinking like too, for advertising on television oh you got to have a big budget right to create a piece. You might be thinking like to advertising on television oh you gotta have a big budget right to create a piece, um, but you know like their offerings can be like as low as 15 grand to produce a 30 second spot, sure, which can also be cut to a 15 second spot and can also be resized for social and yeah, uh, 9 by 16, which I'll just say like my biggest thing, that I'm most grateful for on CTV is just returning to 16 by nine.

Speaker 4 12:33

Yep.

Speaker 3 12:36

I can't stand this little narrow nine by 16.

Speaker 2 12:39

Everything is going that direction. I can't. They don't want, nobody wants content that's horizontal anymore. 16, they want a nine by 16. I'm like, please, can, can I just do both? We're not going to use the other one. Yes, we will I will use the other one.

Speaker 4 12:50

Somehow, somehow, now I'm going back in all my instagram feed and the boxes you know now I don't do the 1080 by 1080, so I have to put, like the, the white boxes around it. So you curated this feed for three years or whatever, and now I'm like, of course, now they're changing it. I'm good with the video, but like, pick aside imagery, like come on now, yeah, and thank god it's coming back yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, I mean it's, it's, it's true too.

Speaker 3 13:14

They talk about like I mean there's a lot of good pitching points for it. Where, um ctv, the audience is three, they spend three times more time than they would on meta apps Okay, adults at least, and so. And then you also have like it kind of annoys me, but it's actually good for my business Like you can't skip the ads anymore.

Speaker 1 13:41

Nope.

Speaker 3 13:41

You know, yep, the ads anymore. Nope, you know, yep, yep and the the. This dirty little secret in Hollywood actually, um, that finally kind of came to light, was that Netflix and prime weren't making any money.

Speaker 4 13:54

Right.

Speaker 3 13:55

They were just going into debt, deeper and deeper and deeper into debt, like trying to outlast the broadcast networks. Um, that had been on an ad-supported business model for so long and now, as you can see, they have a tiered service offering that is ad-supported, non-ad-supported. It's like the airplane, now it know, coach, or do you actually get to pay to pick your seat? Yeah, or the extra leg room?

Speaker 1 14:28

Right.

Speaker 3 14:29

First class, business class. You know, let me get on the plane fast.

Speaker 1 14:32

You know there's like all these different service offerings Right.

Speaker 3 14:38

That's how it is with streaming now, Even Prime Roku, all of them, they're all monetizing.

Speaker 4 14:45

Especially now they have like A-list celebrities as the actors and all these shows oh yeah, I feel like watching tv nowadays is better than sometimes going to the movies, which is sad because I'm I love going to movies. But yeah it's a dying, it's dying thing which makes me my heart ache a lot.

Speaker 2 15:00

I love ads too, though I mean I will watch.

Speaker 4 15:02

I I like ads, especially super bowl ads. I'm sitting there going. Which one am I gonna cry at which one?

Speaker 2 15:07

I'm gonna laugh at. Well, there's short stories. It's an art form. You know exactly it is an art form.

Speaker 3 15:11

Yeah, I agree short stories.

Speaker 2 15:13

Some are beautiful, some are terrible, you know yeah, that's true uh, when you first moved here, how, how, uh, inundated and and wide-eyed were you when you saw all the lawyer spots on TV. Do you watch TV?

Speaker 3 15:26

I do, but I didn't see honestly, I didn't really see that many lawyer spots.

Speaker 2 15:29

Unbelievable. I love it.

Speaker 3 15:31

I just started seeing spots because I mean, up until six months ago I wasn't paying. I mean I wasn't even having to select the higher tier for non-ad supported. You know like I basically get served ads when I'm watching sports or you know, something that's live like the news.

Speaker 2 15:52

Right.

Speaker 3 15:54

But now like I try to watch them too, just to see one who's advertising and then maybe I can target them.

Speaker 2 16:02

Right Solid, anybody on a billboard? Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe I can target them right solid mark on a billboard, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 16:07

Or to, like, you know who's doing excellent work. I mean, I'm always, like, inspired by work that other people are doing as well mm-hmm, there's enough to go around. You don't have to be a jerk, you know yeah, right you can support.

Speaker 4 16:20

You can support the community and yeah, that's one of the best things about Charleston. I feel like it's not very competitive in the sense that everyone was looking out for each other.

Speaker 2 16:28

I mean, that's the community we're trying to build.

Speaker 4 16:29

I feel like that's here.

Speaker 2 16:31

I feel like the community before was maybe not as much as open to doing what we're doing here. It's being more of a collaborative space, more of a community.

Speaker 4 16:41

Right.

Speaker 2 16:45

I think a lot of the agencies were very I'm holding on to my clients right, and that's fine.

Speaker 4 16:47

We're not taking your clients to your point. There's so much, I think. Since covid, though, my clients and people around me are put a lot more emphasis on video, which I think is important because they know that the landscape has changed. Yeah, so it's like you're not pitching nearly as hard when you say, hey, we're really gonna have to get on this ott board or we're gonna be a dinosaur, you know yeah, I think, uh, for me it's good, video creators it's good.

Speaker 3 17:10

But you know, there's a another little thing um, that might not be great for society, uh, but it's that people just don't read anymore nope so if you have a message, you really have to show them.

Speaker 2 17:23

That's true. I just wrote my first blog the other day too.

Speaker 3 17:27

Oh man, I think you missed the boat. You're like the cruise industry in Charleston you just left.

Speaker 2 17:35

Yeah, that's so funny. When did you get started in the production biz?

Speaker 3 17:40

and where. So I got started in 1998. Yes um and where. So I got started in 1998. Yes and uh. The thing that I can point to on that is I have a screen actors guild card.

Speaker 2 17:53

That says member since 1998.

Speaker 3 17:55

Oh, that's cool man. And uh, I did a commercial for sears what was it?

Speaker 2 17:58

what were you doing?

Speaker 3 17:59

um, it was a father's day campaign, okay, and I was like sitting on a oh, so you so you were the actor in this?

Speaker 4 18:05

I was, yes, I was the actor. Oh, that's right.

Speaker 3 18:06

You were in front of the camera. Yeah, I was in front of the camera for a little while.

Speaker 2 18:10

I should have assumed that because you're so handsome.

Speaker 3 18:13

He is handsome. Oh well, yeah, I've got a he. So I was 16 and I was a junior in high school and I got to miss school to film a commercial Nice.

Speaker 1 18:32

How freaking cool is that.

Speaker 4 18:33

That is cool.

Speaker 3 18:35

You said sixth grade, 16, I was a junior and I sat on that porch and flipped a football and said I want my dad to dress cool. It was awesome.

Speaker 2 18:48

Just like me with my rad dad shirt on. Yeah, that's so funny.

Speaker 3 18:56

The other funny thing about that is my parents were trying to instill a work ethic and they had my brother, you know, have to save up a year's worth of car insurance before he could get his license Smart.

Speaker 1 19:12

So it took a year right?

Speaker 3 19:14

Well, I did a commercial, like right before, and my first check was like three grand, I'm like here, and it was like a month after I turned 16.

Speaker 2 19:24

Oh my gosh. And so, uh, what'd you, what'd you get?

Speaker 3 19:27

it didn't really work out so well for them um what car?

Speaker 2 19:30

what kind of car did you?

Speaker 3 19:31

get. What kind of car was I driving at the time?

Speaker 4 19:33

nissan cinderella and I think I had like a chevy full-size like yeah, jacked up truck yeah, it was awesome. Nice, we used to jump it circa 98 there you go, there you go yeah, what city?

Speaker 3 19:45

were you? Where were you born? Where you from? I was born in uh los alamitos, which I never lived there, but I grew up in orange county and then when I was like 16 I started making the 45 minute commute to la sure yeah, it's a did you do a lot more after that, then what did you? Yeah, I did a lot of commercials. I mean, that was kind of my uh, my bread and butter, if you will, and our friend group.

Speaker 4 20:10

A lot of them just did commercials and they would just rake in the money like two or three a year.

Speaker 2 20:15

You're making like easier um, but you have film experience too yeah, so so you went from the short form ad front of camera, yeah, to. Did you start producing ads back then, afterwards, or did you go into film?

Speaker 3 20:29

you know I went straight to, like I went to producing films.

Speaker 2 20:31

You're just like eff it.

Speaker 3 20:32

I need to get, I need the long form, I need to tell the stories yeah, I mean I think that, uh, the first film I produced, um, I think it was like 22 or something and it was in New York City and it was really like out of necessity, because I'd been hired to act in this movie and it was a low budget and they just needed a lot of help and I didn't really realize at the time like, oh yeah, that's what producing is.

Speaker 2 20:59

Yeah, you know kind of.

Speaker 3 21:00

Helping. Yeah, yeah, creative problems.

Speaker 2 21:02

Spinning the plates and making them spin.

Speaker 3 21:03

Yeah yeah, creative problem solving Spinning the plates and making them spin, yeah, yeah, and so I helped, like I brought some cast on, I got some locations for them and raised a little bit of money and, like you know, we were off to the races and I just really love like that experience of like championing in a project and helping people, you know, do what they want to do and, um, it's like. I guess the best way to describe producing is like enabling and empowering.

Speaker 1 21:29

Right.

Butter Production and CTV Advertising

Speaker 3 21:30

Right and so I got to do that and, um, it was awesome and uh, but the the the biggest challenge with features is like the financial barrier to entry you know, and or feature films for people who don't know what features are. Um. But you know I had gotten this job to um develop film and television right this is like post madman, like like post-jumping into full-time television production, and I was a development executive and we had a deal at Universal and I worked for an actor.

Speaker 4 22:11

Was this the one with Zach? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 22:13

I worked for Zach Levi and we were producing a ton of film and television. Actually, I shouldn't say producing, I would say developing, because we really didn't get to make that much sure, interesting. We produced a lot of great shows. I said produce again.

Speaker 2 22:31

We developed a lot of great shows which means that you, what you did, what you pre-wrote it, you wrote it we basically like we would develop pitches and concepts and then take them to the networks and then pitch them and the networks would buy them, but they would buy, buy them, and then that means like you get a script order.

Speaker 3 22:52

Essentially, right and so you spend all this time like developing the script or the concept and then, like a few weeks months later, they're like all right, now it's uh, pilot season, and're going to green light a bunch of shows.

Speaker 2 23:06

Yeah, and then you just cross your fingers and what does that happen?

Speaker 3 23:09

Yeah, well, I mean, here's the numbers. Okay, like, we had a deal at Universal, which is the television studio for NBC. Right, we sold a show to NBC that year. Nbc saw 300 pitches. Oh my, they purchased 70 shows and of the 70, they produced six. That's, that's the way it works, and we were, yes, number seven oh the last like slot was between us and one other show and we just, yeah, we were so devastated, we worked so hard on that.

Speaker 2 23:47

Oh yeah, that's my next question is so, after you develop all these shows and you put a lot of work into these shows you do, you put your heart and soul into these things don't you?

Speaker 3 23:55

Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 1 23:56

Every one of them right yeah, right I mean because you want them to work. Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 24:00

And then they don't. And it happens. What quarterly for you? How long does it take to develop a show?

Speaker 3 24:06

Well, it just depends.

Speaker 2 24:07

You just got to get back up and swing again.

Speaker 3 24:11

Yeah, totally. And all that to say, it could be six weeks, it could be eight weeks. It really just depends on how fast you can put the pitch together. If you're going to take a pitch out to the town, you might go to six to eight different networks and try to find a home. If you're going to actually write a script, pay for a script to be written, or write a script or shoot a trailer or something like that. There's just various ways to do it.

Speaker 4 24:42

There's so much money to be made in hollywood yeah, oh yeah but but not really, though. That's the secret right?

Speaker 2 24:47

not really right, because like uh, nobody really makes money, they're all just employees, that's because you're being employed to develop these shows, right, right, okay, are you getting bonuses if the show does go, or you just get to work some more? Well?

Speaker 3 25:04

there's the creative accounting of Hollywood, where nobody ever really sees sufficient creative participation bonuses, and those days are gone now especially with streamers, because box office rewards are just far between Right.

Speaker 2 25:21

So show gets developed, show gets greenlit. Yeah, what are you doing? What's your favorite part of the well?

Speaker 3 25:27

on that, on that front, like it would be, uh, you know, producing the show and um you said you were dp editing like you.

Speaker 2 25:34

Yeah, I mean pretty much everything.

Speaker 3 25:35

So what's your favorite when I was doing that stuff, like I wasn't really uh, I wasn't really executing production, I was just creating.

Speaker 2 25:44

Oh, okay, you were just developing Nowadays.

Speaker 3 25:46

I would probably want to just direct the episode.

Speaker 4 25:48

Do the whole thing.

Speaker 3 25:50

But part of the reason why I jumped back in and started developing and pitching and directing commercials was because I actually got to make stuff.

Speaker 4 26:01

Right From start to finish.

Speaker 3 26:02

Yeah, I would finish yeah, I would pitch a project and then, like three weeks later I'd be making it and then four weeks later it would be out of post-production and it's like boom, here you go and you can move on to something else. Cool, yeah, and and it's just rad to be able to pitch a story and then go into production and then have it be done and people to enjoy it.

Speaker 2 26:23

It's an amazing feeling. It really is. It never gets old.

Speaker 3 26:27

No, and it's always something new. Yeah, like, even if you have like a really banal product right or, or you know something that just seems like nobody's going to be interested, like that's the fun, the creative problem solving. And like how do I make this like shine or like sing or, you know, make people laugh when they hear about it or create some sort of positive emotional connection? To um I love it. I think that.

Speaker 4 26:53

Uh, yeah, it's just uh now, how did you connect with rev bank? Was that through butter? Rev bank we love rev. We've had them on here before Rev's a fan.

Speaker 2 27:03

They are awesome.

Speaker 3 27:04

I knocked on their door did you really yep, good for you yeah, when I first got here, I knocked on the door and was like, hey, um, I, uh, I, I direct commercials, I shoot commercials and I love what you guys are doing. And, um, that led to a meeting with Shelly who you probably know, that's who we had on the show.

Speaker 4 27:26

She's awesome.

Speaker 3 27:30

And then we started the relationship that way, but it was just from being new to town and knocking on the door with some intent to try and collaborate. She saw the reel and I had done like four or five bank spots before, for some reason, I guess, sure, some intent to try and collaborate. She saw the real and, um, I had done like four or five bank spots before, for some reason I guess, maybe because banks always have money.

Speaker 2 27:49

Banks are my jam. I love banks, banks and credit unions yeah.

Speaker 3 27:52

And they're always like great stories to tell. Yeah Right, whether it's showcasing a small business or like you know you can so many stories. Yeah, you can really tap into hope with banks, because they can, you know, get you to that next level of home ownership, which is always, you know, a great way to start tapping the home with hope, tapping the hope with banks.

Speaker 2 28:12

I like that. That's a good line there. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 28:14

Somebody might want to borrow that copyright, justin Allen, anyway. Mike will probably yeah yeah, so yeah, that's kind of the long and short of it and uh it's been like rev, for instance, has just been a really cool experience just being a part of the community and really kind of understand what they do and you know, kind of being able to tell the story between a credit union and a traditional financial institution and, um, you know them being a nonprofit and how they just really are part of the community.

Speaker 4 28:50

They are. Yeah, we love their branding and overall marketing Like they're just their president seems like a rock star too.

Speaker 3 28:55

Yeah, he is Jason, yeah, and um, thomas, who's over there too, is a really great guy. Um Parker, and Thomas, who's over there too, is a really great guy Parker is another person in the marketing team.

Speaker 2 29:10

It's a great group, yeah, so they're supporters too. That's great, and then, like I said, we just had Shelly on.

Speaker 4 29:18

We did. We just had Shelly on. She's awesome.

Working with Rev Credit Union

Speaker 3 29:21

She is awesome, it's funny too, because when I'm trying to get to know people in the community and I like maybe look somebody up on linkedin, she knows them like she knows everybody.

Speaker 4 29:29

Yes this feels like one of those small towns where everyone kind of knows each other but, there's the. There's a very few that are actually really cool, that you they really know everybody in the state.

Speaker 3 29:38

Yeah, I got lucky by like connecting with her initially because she was just like super supportive and you know just, we were just able to make some really cool stuff I got to do. I've done three spots for them now that's not nice.

Speaker 4 29:53

Do you have any other charleston gigs coming up? Um because he's constantly on the road. People like whenever I'm texting him. He's like oh, I'm in nashville, I'll get back to you, I'm in la yeah, yeah, you know um I I got to do some work for refuel okay um, which was really cool.

Speaker 3 30:11

They're a great company as well, based here in charleston. They have, like maybe gosh, by now probably 300 locations wow eight to ten different um states, all the way to Texas. They have another brand called Double Quick, but I think it's just them. Oh, you know what? I did a spot for this company called Swift Filings, which is like a business services company. Okay.

Speaker 3 30:39

Like if you're going to start a business, you know, start with Swift, I think is their tagline. And I've're going to start a business, you know, start with Swift, I think is their their tagline. Um, and I've been able to do a couple of spots for them, and one of them was actually for a local uh, hot sauce maker. It just coincidentally was Charleston, you know, and that came out of the LA office.

Speaker 4 30:57

Nice.

Speaker 3 30:58

And I was like oh yeah, and I was like oh yeah, charleston, that would be good for us to do yeah. Considering I was in Charleston on the first call.

Speaker 2 31:07

Are you the only team like person here in Charleston? Is everybody else in LA no?

Speaker 3 31:12

so we're a little dispersed. There's two in town here and then there's the rest of them. There's like four in LA, cool yeah, so it's good. It's a good setup right now. I think if we can continue to grow our East Coast team, that would be great. We have a team that we work with, often in Atlanta and then also Minneapolis, nice.

Speaker 4 31:36

And you think you're here to stay in Charleston.

Speaker 3 31:38

Yeah, my kids are enrolled in school. Oh, how old are your kids? Eight and 11. Okay, so I got two nine-year-olds. I'm a rad dad too.

Speaker 2 31:45

Yeah, you can have a shirt. What part of the town are you in? Charleston we're in Somerville.

Speaker 3 31:52

Actually, You're in Somerville, Awesome growing.

Speaker 2 31:55

Yeah, I always think of Back to the Future.

Speaker 4 31:58

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 32:00

Downtown.

Speaker 2 32:00

With the church oh yeah, the downtown with the church Clock tower almost the clock tower yeah.

Speaker 3 32:05

Funny story about that. When we had our deal at Universal, you know my whole job was like getting writers, you know, to come and develop with us, sure, and so I'd meet with writers like every day, a couple a day, and oftentimes, you know like if you've ever been on the universal studios tour, you know the little tram of the studio lot I'd be like hey, uh, when we go get lunch you want to drive by the clock tower?

Speaker 3 32:34

and uh, we'd be like in the golf cart on the way to the commissary and we just cruise through. You know the the Future set.

Speaker 4 32:42

Oh yeah, it was awesome.

Speaker 3 32:44

That's awesome.

Speaker 2 32:44

It was awesome. That is cool, I mean because that's such a legendary for us, oh yeah.

Speaker 4 32:49

Have you ever been on a studio lot, it's fun.

Speaker 2 32:51

No. I have not. I have never been to LA.

Speaker 4 32:53

You've never been to LA.

Speaker 3 32:54

I've never Dude, you better go before it burns down even more.

Speaker 2 32:59

I know we do have an uncle um. Emily has an uncle there.

Speaker 4 33:03

Yeah, I suspect my kid will probably live in la at some point, I think I think I talk about it so much and she's so interested in like the movies and stuff. I feel like she'll be doing something and I was in pr for a long time out there, so I see her doing something. We'll see, you know, who knows If she decides to move back her mom might follow her.

Speaker 2 33:23

Yeah, that's it. That's why you're pitching that. You know that's it. How can Justin, how can we help Butter, how can we help you as the American Marketing Association?

Speaker 3 33:33

Oh, I mean really like I would love to just get to know the community better. You know, like I mentioned, I met a few people at the awards thing and I've been going to the Creative Mornings thing occasionally.

Speaker 4 33:48

Yeah, super fun, we like those.

Speaker 3 33:51

And you know like if there's some opportunity to create some content for people locally, I mean I would you know, not mind.

Speaker 2 34:02

You would do it. He would say, yeah, you would do it. He would say, yeah, you would do it. So have camera. Then what are you rocking? Yeah, yeah, have lights. Yeah, we have everything.

Speaker 3 34:08

I've got a whole package here. We got the Arri Alexa Mini LF.

Speaker 2 34:14

Perfect.

Speaker 3 34:15

The full shebang.

Speaker 2 34:16

Love it.

Speaker 3 34:18

So yeah.

Speaker 2 34:20

You don't have a studio. No Good, there are studios here, though. Have you looked into those guys?

Speaker 3 34:26

well, I saw the guy pixel I think it's matt yeah and uh. I I haven't been over there yet, but he seems really cool I want to I want to meet that dude I I noticed that he uh it's a cool name, isn't that?

Speaker 2 34:39

pixel, pixel, I like, I like Pixel, I like his brand.

Speaker 3 34:42

But I noticed that he did something, posted something recently about a crew meetup thing like a film crew kind of meetup thing which, hey, I'll go there.

Speaker 2 34:56

That would be cool, I would do that too.

Speaker 3 34:58

You need to start that up.

Speaker 4 35:00

I'm looking at you, I'll hang out. He's a connector, oh nice yeah.

Speaker 1 35:06

I like to meet people, and that's what this podcast is all about.

Speaker 2 35:11

Right, it's just meeting people, connecting people and that type of thing.

Speaker 1 35:14

One.

Speaker 2 35:14

Million Cups is also a fun. It is One Million.

Speaker 4 35:18

Cups, if you want to feel. It's basically all entrepreneurs and small business owners that come in West Ashley. Is it every Wednesday?

Speaker 2 35:25

it's in West Ashley every Wednesday at 8am. Frosty Beard, frosty Brewing.

Speaker 4 35:32

Frothy. Beard, there you go it's cool, I'll go with you sometime.

Speaker 2 35:37

Frosty Brewing. Is it a Wendy's Brewing?

The Hollywood Experience

Speaker 4 35:40

I'm just envisioning the logo with the beard anybody else, and he's got gray in it, regardless. Is it a Wendy's Brewing? Oh, there you go. I'm just envisioning the logo with the beard Anybody else, 100%, and he's got gray in it, so regardless it's a great like people if you want to feel loved and appreciated and not sold to, and there's like 80 people in the room. Yeah, there is, and all of them. And you do your like elevator pitch when you walk in.

Speaker 2 35:57

It's cool Like a shark tank situation, but minus the shark, it's more like a powder puff tank if you will, or whatever have you.

Speaker 4 36:04

You start going to these networking events and you'll realize how small the town is and you'll all of a sudden, you'll see the same 50 people and it's great. I like that part of it.

Speaker 2 36:13

Yeah, you can definitely build relationships and a little bit easier here.

Speaker 4 36:19

But it is still a long-term type of thing.

Speaker 2 36:20

It's still kind of an old boys place where you kind of have to be here and prove yourself.

Speaker 4 36:25

Everyone I know is transplant.

Speaker 2 36:28

We collect them, we do, we bring them in and we're like we need more of you. We're building a little community here.

Speaker 3 36:36

I heard it takes five years yeah.

Speaker 4 36:38

I've been here ten.

Speaker 3 36:41

To really get the high five.

Speaker 2 36:42

I guess that's probably a good saying for it too there you go. If you have family that's in a cemetery somewhere you've got an automatic in there.

Speaker 3 36:50

There are generations of people here, so much history. Maybe I should do the 23andMe and see if I do.

Speaker 4 36:57

I did that. Don't do it.

Speaker 3 36:59

Don't do it. I'm actually like part of the family, don't do the 23.

Speaker 4 37:02

I did it.

Speaker 2 37:03

I wouldn't do it either, to be honest.

Speaker 4 37:04

Oh, my mom was heartbroken.

Speaker 2 37:06

Oh.

Speaker 4 37:08

Because I all right, just back to right, uh-oh. I'm Italian. My grandfather came over on the boat and he anglicized his name to Francesca Ricardo, to Frank Ricardo. I did the 23 meet my whole life. I said every time I got upset something I'm sorry, I can't handle it, I'm italian, this is just the way that we are. I'm italian. I am not italian. Oh no, according to this, even though I look italian, we have italian flags.

Speaker 2 37:35

What are you then? What did you turn out to be english, yeah, oh, that makes most of us are I would say you look a lot more english than italian.

Speaker 3 37:42

no, I don't know.

Speaker 4 37:44

I'm pretty blue.

Speaker 2 37:45

For how long were you living? A lie for.

Speaker 4 37:47

You should see my mother, my whole life.

Speaker 2 37:49

Your mom is awesome. I would not mess with your mom.

Speaker 4 37:52

She is very upset to this day about the fact that, because her father came over from Italy, so we're like well, maybe he was English living in Italy. Anyways, 23andme will take you down a whole journey.

Speaker 2 38:04

You might find family that you didn't know you had.

Speaker 4 38:06

I didn't have that problem, you did.

Speaker 2 38:10

Found a sister.

Speaker 4 38:11

No, what Are you serious, half sister.

Speaker 1 38:18

No, I was 78.

Speaker 2 38:20

Justin, I mean, come on right, wow, yeah.

Speaker 4 38:21

Well, anyhow, no, I mean, come on right. Wow, yeah, well, anyhow. No, I didn't have that story, but I'm not Italian. I trumped you on that one, didn't I? Yeah, you did Good job.

Speaker 3 38:27

Good thing you didn't date your sister. I mean, that would have been weird. That's got to happen a lot more.

Speaker 2 38:34

Oh, Matthew, Come on man.

Speaker 1 38:36

I know.

Speaker 2 38:45

Anyways, enough about me justin. Uh, I'm so glad he's here, I'm gonna gonna just, yeah, yeah, what else can we talk to about? Um, you know and give, did you always know you wanted to get in the production because we have a lot of college? Um students, trident has a great film school if you want to knock on their door, trident crushes it. Yeah, um, I've gotten a hold of the film commission. They're out of Columbia. Yeah, you know. Chat with them. Maybe we can connect there.

Speaker 3 39:05

Uh yeah, I mean I. I also, you know, I had an awesome talk the other day with, um uh, one of the local agencies, which was cool.

Speaker 2 39:15

Which one? Uh, we love them all.

Speaker 3 39:17

Uh Brandon yeah yeah, they're a big agency pal, yeah, yeah yeah, and I didn't realize at the time, but, like you know, they talk about like being uh, what is it? Uh, tba, tba. They changed their name to just brandon and then I remember, like as a kid, like seeing that on some of my checks as a commercials yeah, because they got acquired, they were different checks as a commercial Because they got acquired.

Speaker 4 39:45

They were a different name.

Speaker 2 39:46

They didn't around that long.

Speaker 4 39:48

No they were based in New York and other cities.

Speaker 1 39:50

They were acquired.

Speaker 2 39:53

They were acquired. Yeah, that's cool. They were acquired. Okay, so that's cool. So now they have it all, so you're like you already paid me once, pay me again.

Speaker 3 40:00

Yeah, I'm probably in the system still. Yeah, I mean, I think that, like being able to collaborate with some of the local creative directors, would be awesome. Yeah, I met Dan the creative director at Chernoff. I just yeah, I think it would be fun to collaborate with people locally, especially on the hospitality side of things.

Speaker 4 40:25

You could probably do some really cool stuff with that.

Speaker 3 40:27

Yeah, I mean I personally do a lot more. I don't really do that much hospitality myself. We have some other directors that kind of specialize in that. But I do a lot of comedic 30-second spots and just kind of I don't know. I guess I've done some testimonial ones as well or just some straight narrative ones. But that's really my bread and butter.

Speaker 2 40:55

There you go.

Speaker 3 40:56

Love it. Get that in there.

Speaker 4 40:58

Justin has a very cool vibe to him, don't you think?

Speaker 3 41:01

I do, of course. He's your guest, steph, so I know, I know, I feel like we're back, I'm just yeah oh, I uh I also love to pitch okay, I love to pitch yeah, like I mean, it's not because I was on the set of mad men for 48 episodes crazy time and I would go go down and watch them work.

Speaker 2 41:23

Right. What were you doing for that?

Speaker 3 41:25

I was in the production office. I was the office production coordinator.

Speaker 2 41:28

Nice.

Speaker 1 41:29

Yeah, what does that entail?

Speaker 3 41:31

It's basically supporting the line producer and the unit production manager. Sure, so you're just on that. Basically, it's like the nucleus, that everything goes through. You know, if like, transportation needs something or casting or writing department like it kind of all comes in and then goes out.

Speaker 2 41:50

Yep.

Speaker 3 41:51

So it was awesome to kind of learn the big machine from them.

Speaker 2 41:55

Yes, I can only imagine.

Speaker 3 41:57

And then going back into kind of advertising and stuff, I often joke that I used to work at Sterling Cooper, which was like the fictional agency.

Speaker 2 42:06

Oh okay, yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's neat. Yeah, I did a film once.

Speaker 4 42:12

Which film.

Speaker 2 42:13

It's a terrible film. It's called Random Tropical Paradise Island Even the title.

Speaker 4 42:18

What Say it again, random.

Speaker 2 42:20

Tropical Paradise Island. You can look it up on Amazon Prime. It's called Random Tropical.

Speaker 4 42:23

Paradise Island. You can watch it on Amazon Prime. Yeah, oh, I'm going to watch it.

Speaker 2 42:27

I meant it as a holding a sign as an extra, but that's amazing. So I was able to. It was 2015. I just had kids, I just had newborn twins?

Speaker 3 42:37

Yeah, you said they were both nines.

Finding Balance in Charleston

Speaker 2 42:38

They're both nine and and I just had them. And then three months later I got this opportunity, sweet, to do this, and I'm like honey, what do you think? And she was at home, so she was, you know, right. I can't help with all that, but I could you know, I mean whatever as a dad but I was she was able to let me go and it was one of the worst experiences. Best experiences slash worst experiences. Like I'm glad I did it because it was always a dream of mine to do.

Speaker 4 43:00

Where was it?

Speaker 2 43:01

20-some days, 16-hour days, and I was second AD and we needed two of them, Jeez.

Speaker 4 43:09

Where were you filming? All over Tampa, Tampa, St Pete? Okay, okay, okay so local.

Speaker 3 43:15

Oh my gosh 16-hour days as a second AD.

Speaker 2 43:18

It just means that you're also actually working.

Speaker 1 43:21

You're working 20.

Speaker 3 43:22

Wow, right, that just means that you're like also, actually you're working 20 because you're like basically pre-called two hours before and you're there after it was amazing.

Speaker 2 43:30

I woke up. So it was it was a December job and I went up to Michigan. I met up with the family up in Michigan. I would wake up in the middle of the night.

Speaker 4 43:41

I had to be on set what happened.

Speaker 2 43:42

You had PTSD from it. Compton, mike Compton.

Speaker 4 43:43

I would wake up in the middle of the night.

Speaker 2 43:44

I had to be on set. What happened? You had PTSD from it. Compton by Compton, compton by Compton. The AD was always on my grill. Compton by Compton. Where am I? I would wake up sweating. I need to be on set. I had PTSD for like two weeks.

Speaker 3 43:55

Oh man, yeah, that's anxiety ridden. The first AD just like chewing you out and you definitely don't want to be late as the second AD.

Speaker 2 44:03

Knowing where the talent has to go. And oh, it was just the logistics behind it.

Speaker 4 44:07

At least you didn't knock that off your bucket list.

Speaker 3 44:09

I did. Who was the first? I'm sorry. Do you remember the first AD?

Speaker 2 44:13

Oh, it was nobody, you know. And no, it was their first time producing a film too.

Speaker 4 44:17

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 44:17

So it was everybody's first time. It was a first-time director, first-time production company and they're great. I love them for giving me the digital caviar down in Ybor City, down in Tampa.

Speaker 4 44:27

I'm going to look you up on Amazon. I think I might be on there.

Speaker 2 44:31

That's amazing, I think that's fun, but it was great. But it told me that I need to go back to ad space. I need to go back down to the shorter form. I form right. I always loved the shorter form video.

Speaker 1 44:44

Anyways, I was like, oh my gosh, I don't want to do that.

Speaker 3 44:45

Yeah, plus, it wasn't my baby like if it was my baby and I wrote it and developed it like you've done yeah like that would be a different story right, then you can die for it yeah, I think like, honestly, like if you are willing to risk your life to make a movie yeah, then you should probably do it right, right, but uh, other than that, like there's a lot more fun ways to tell stories, exactly like making movies is a rough business, right especially like, if you want to be a family person, you know, if you want to be a family man or woman exactly, he's a very good hands-on dad which, which I appreciate about you.

Speaker 3 45:21

Yeah, well, I mean honestly. I remember distinctively being in the production office at Mad Men and talking to the transportation coordinator and him being, like you know, I haven't had dinner at home with my family in 15 years and that was kind of like a light bulb moment for me, because my son was born in between season 7A and 7B and I was just like man, I can't. If I want to be like an active parent, I can't work in film, yeah.

Speaker 2 45:54

I've seen divorces because of it. A lot of divorces, yeah, you know, so anyway. Another good reason. Yeah, exactly, you know um.

Speaker 3 46:06

So anyway, another good reason to yeah, exactly, yeah, just like.

Speaker 2 46:08

Have a civilized life where you're like yeah, I'll shoot, like you know three days a month and then like being host and yeah, oh, yeah, what? What about, um, danny mcbride and him bringing his team here and have you knocked on his door yet?

Speaker 3 46:17

you're a door knocker the cool thing is that before I moved here, when I was developing with Zach, we were always like big fans of Rough House, sure, and so I had met Brandon James, who's one of their producers at Rough House in LA when we were trying to develop, and I hit him up when I got out here and we went and had coffee and like they're just living the dream.

Speaker 3 46:44

Oh yeah, don't you think, oh yeah, and and you know this is for Charleston audience, so they won't mind me saying this but like they do want to keep it their little secret, you know, like they, uh, they have just a terrific lifestyle here, yeah, everybody is supportive in town because it's one of two shows and to be honest or not to be honest, but like, my first experience shooting in the south was um, a movie in wilmington at screen gems okay, and I was an actor still, it was like the maybe the last movie or the second last movie I did um was it dawson's creek? Was it dawson's?

Speaker 3 47:22

creek it was the same studio see we were there like well, while they were doing one tree hill, we were making this movie okay, got it and I knew it, knew it, and if you saw the rev spot, for instance, yeah the main actress in the rev spot. Her name is bevin prince and she was on one tree hill okay, and that was my jam in like Early college.

Speaker 3 47:44

Yeah, and speaking of banks and showcasing small business, I called her and asked her if she wanted to be the small business that I featured for the RevSpot and that's why it's a spinning studio and her spinning studio in Wilmington. She went on to be a SoulCycle star in New York City and came back and opened this business and so it was like a full, full circle turnaround.

Speaker 3 48:08

Yeah, us shooting nights in Wilmington, oh, that's open this business. And so it was like a full, full circle turnaround. You know like, yeah, us like shooting nights in wilmington, and oh, that's wild that's awesome 18 years ago I've never been to wilmington but I know the film scene is.

Speaker 4 48:17

It's great there for the south wilmington's awesome.

Speaker 3 48:19

But I I say that to say like with danny and brandon, those guys, like when I went there in my mind I made that movie, I was like man, if I could ever get back here and do this.

Speaker 4 48:32

I'm coming there, you go.

Speaker 3 48:34

I don't know man, it just happened.

Speaker 4 48:36

That's awesome.

Speaker 3 48:36

What did bring you here again?

Speaker 2 48:38

Did you tell us that the TV show.

Speaker 3 48:39

The other TV show From Magnolia Network yeah, but I just love that lifestyle when we were doing that movie.

Speaker 1 48:50

They put us up at a beach house in riceville beach and oh, poor guy so so, and I was friends with all the cast at the time.

Speaker 3 48:54

It was me, it was aaron paul.

Speaker 4 48:56

Okay, scoot mcnary you know, aaron paul is right breaking bad.

Community and Collaboration in Charleston

Speaker 3 48:59

Yeah, he plays jesse this guy, mike erwin cameron richardson, I don't. I don't know. Sophia bush wasn't in it, but she was Kerwin Cameron Richardson. Sophia Bush wasn't in it, but she was hanging out with us the whole time so it felt like she was.

Speaker 4 49:13

But basically like we were just all like young 20 somethings, like going to the bars and like you would be surprised in our friend group how many of those people that stuck it out Because I left LA thinking like I'm never going to get married if I stay, I stay here. Everyone ends up married there and almost everyone in our friend group is famous now yeah, there's a lot of people that got really successful, very successful um wild.

Speaker 3 49:37

Like you know, we would be shooting nights and which means, like you know, you go in at 6 pm and you finish when the sun comes up at 6 yeah and I was a cop in the thing and I had blood all over my face and like we would go and go through the drive through after work we had. We see the surfers, like going out to surf as we were like just having our rap beer at home, you know. And it was the beach, the studio 15 minutes away and no traffic.

Speaker 1 50:10

Right.

Speaker 3 50:10

It was like heaven, wow, mainly because the LA traffic is obnoxious.

Speaker 4 50:16

I do not miss the 405.

Speaker 3 50:19

And you're the only person in town making a movie or whatever, and so people are like they're not like yelling at you to get out of their way, right. They're like, oh cool, like tell me more you know, and how can we help? It's so much more inviting.

Speaker 2 50:35

Have you ever used the term a mayonnaise commercial?

Speaker 4 50:40

A mayonnaise commercial.

Speaker 2 50:46

If somebody approaches you and to your point, like what they're bothering you. What are you doing? What are you shooting? We're shooting a mayonnaise commercial.

Speaker 1 50:53

Oh yes, and nobody would nobody cares, because it's a mayonnaise commercial. Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 50:59

And then they would walk away.

Speaker 3 51:00

Yeah, yeah. So we actually like we did that, um, when we were filming the last episode of Mad Men and the. We were shooting it up in Monterey and it was, you know, kind of like a take. It was like a really crazy cool thing for even the ad industry. It was like Don Draper on the bluff like doing meditation and then it cuts into that like famous Coke ad. Well, like I like to give the world a coke. You know that one and um, and when we were doing that, since it was like the season finale, we came up with this fake name for this pharmaceutical drug called sensorium. And uh, all the posters and stuff said like sensorium for like the location, and uh, we got the one of the producers made shirts that said like sensorium.

Speaker 3 51:57

Um. So yeah, we faked it to shoot like the last scene of madman up in monterey.

Speaker 4 52:01

It was kind of fun, that's awesome if you put those shirts on ebay now. They're probably worth so much money.

Speaker 3 52:06

Yeah.

Speaker 4 52:07

All that pervert it was that's a cool story.

Speaker 3 52:08

They were so smart. I learned so much from them.

Speaker 2 52:11

Yeah, such a cool group of people, I bet I bet, I bet what else? Is there, Steph? What else is there?

Speaker 4 52:16

I'm so glad he's here. That's awesome.

Speaker 3 52:20

I'm excited to see where your journey. You two like about the community and living working here.

Speaker 2 52:26

For some reason, I knew that you were going to ask us questions.

Speaker 3 52:28

Yeah, I don't know why I think it was the director in you.

Speaker 2 52:31

I think that I just knew he was going to ask us questions. I like this, I like the community, I like the community.

Speaker 4 52:36

I mean, obviously the three of us are parents, so I feel like having kids here is pretty awesome.

Speaker 1 52:41

Very family friendly.

Speaker 4 52:52

It's very id like. You know, like, um, I like I live in mount pleasant and I like that most of the people on my street are from somewhere else. So because which is great, because I would think like you moved to charleston, like everyone's from here, born and raised, but everyone's been super inviting, I like that piece of it. Um, it's just, you know hell, on the weekends I go out on my boat and then I swim in my pool and I'm like work with work with.

Speaker 4 53:07

I do have a handsome husband I work with like clients who appreciate and love me and treat me like family. It's my birthday. It's like all these roses show up. I'm like it's from clients, not from my husband. So it's just something like really like it's something very magical. Like people will visit me from other places, like you know from LA or New York or you know Nashville, and they're like it's kind of Stepford-y here and I said it's really not. It might look like that because all of the houses are you know.

Speaker 2 53:33

Perfect.

Speaker 4 53:33

They're perfect and they're pastel.

Speaker 1 53:36

But the nitty gritty of the people.

Speaker 4 53:38

people are just so real here and I feel like you know LA and that kind of stuff was so fast moving and we had our crew obviously, our great group of friends. Like you know, I'm really good friends with angela and all those people still um, but I feel like my kid's gonna have an awesome childhood oh yeah I often go like what is she gonna talk to her therapist about? Because like it couldn't get much better than this, like there's gonna be something what is she gonna?

Speaker 4 54:03

talk like what is she gonna say? Like ruin her child. Like did her mother love her too much and scream too loudly? Had her cheer competition? It's like what is she gonna say? She's dancing too hard at the pto, glow hop. Like come on now you know, like, I feel like this is just a really inviting place and it's beautiful and the food is awesome.

Speaker 4 54:22

Oh my gosh, it's very laid back yeah to go from, like you said, the 405, and I was in pr working 12 hours. I could never have had a family like that, never could have sustained like that lifestyle. But there's something about this place, it's like just special yeah I know well, there's a lot of opportunity.

Speaker 2 54:39

It's growing it is growing 30, some people, I think, to charleston.

Speaker 4 54:42

Yeah, I feel like we're almost kind of on the ground floor, because since I've just been here the 10 years, like the music scene's gotten better. Obviously, the movie, the music, all that, everything is getting better and it's just, it's cool.

Speaker 2 54:54

Lots to do. Stuff to do on the weekends Lots to do.

Speaker 3 54:57

What do you do on the weekends? Oh, I'm still figuring that out.

Speaker 4 55:02

Okay, good.

Speaker 3 55:03

I'm open to boat invites.

Speaker 1 55:06

Okay good, you know anybody.

Closing Thoughts and Wrap Up

Speaker 4 55:07

I do. I have one of those. She did throw a boat out there, she did drop that boat bomb. It is so chill just to be out on a boat.

Speaker 2 55:13

What's a yellow boat.

Speaker 4 55:13

I don't know. I'm just saying I don't know. It's just be out there on a boat I know. I'm enthusiastic about it, pull up on. Shim Creek. That's how I roll Flip-flops screams.

Speaker 1 55:25

Sounds like the dream.

Speaker 2 55:26

I'm telling you, living the dream.

Speaker 4 55:28

Flip-flops all day long.

Speaker 2 55:30

Well, you know what, justin You're going to be living the dream soon too.

Speaker 4 55:32

I know we're excited you're here. You've got plenty of time.

Speaker 2 55:35

Yeah, we'll connect you.

Speaker 3 55:37

No problem.

Speaker 2 55:38

Appreciate it. Yeah, welcome to the group. Yeah, say thank you, thank you for being here.

Speaker 4 55:47

I'm so excited he's here.

Speaker 2 55:48

Oh, now she's speaking too softly. You can't ever direct Stephanie, because she'll take it.

Speaker 4 55:52

I'm all over the place and people embrace it. All right crew. Before we leave, we need to thank our sponsors, obviously the Charleston Media Solutions Studios, jerry Feels Good and, of course, the American Marketing Association. If you want to be our sponsor or be a guest on our show, please reach out to us at podcast at charlestonamaorg.

Speaker 2 56:13

We got to check that email, by the way.

Speaker 4 56:15

It doesn't come to me.

Speaker 2 56:16

Okay.

Speaker 4 56:16

If so, no one's emailing me.

Speaker 2 56:18

So once again.

Speaker 4 56:19

You can send it to podcast at charlestonamaorg, or just stephanie at charlestonamaorg, whatever works for you.

Speaker 3 56:27

Somebody send it to her just so we can test it Just test it out.

Speaker 4 56:32

Yeah, DMs work great as well. Awesome.

Speaker 2 56:35

Thanks, Justin.

Speaker 4 56:35

Thanks for being here, guys. Thank you Bye.