Rafy App: How AI is Helping Self-Tape Auditions for Actors

Join us as we meet the creators of Rafy, an innovative app transforming how actors prepare auditions. In this eye-opening conversation, we explore how this technology is giving actors more control over their audition process while addressing long-standing industry challenges.

Jamila Hache and Dani Rojas share how they developed Rafy during the pandemic to solve the common struggle of finding readers for self-tapes. The app uses AI to provide customizable reading partners, allowing actors to practice anytime without dependency on others. They discuss their ethical approach to AI implementation, subscription plans with tokens for scenes, and exciting new features including Playhouse for practice scenes and voice-recognition for slates. The conversation highlights how technology can empower actors in an industry that has historically placed them at a disadvantage.

Like, subscribe, and let us know in the comments how technology has changed your acting career!

0:00 Intro and guest introduction
0:55 Welcome to the CFA podcast
1:34 Meeting Jamila and Dani
3:10 How Haeleigh discovered the Rafy app
5:03 Creating Rafy during the pandemic
7:52 Understanding self-tape challenges
10:01 How AI can help actors ethically
12:22 The self-tape process explained
14:54 Industry realities for actors
17:53 Giving actors more control
19:40 How Rafy works for auditions
21:40 Subscription plans and tokens
24:19 Introducing Playhouse feature
27:21 Potential partnership with screenwriters
30:17 New features: Slates with voice recognition
32:10 The story behind the name "Rafy"
34:03 App availability and web version coming
35:00 Closing and contact information

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Transcript

Welcome Back to CFA Podcast

Speaker 1 0:00

The ginger I always wish I was.

Speaker 2 0:03

She is a beautiful, graceful ginger.

Speaker 1 0:09

Just like, just so wonderful and beautiful. And every time I see her I'm just like this is the Cinematography for Actors podcast.

Speaker 2 0:18

More than a podcast. Cinematography for Actors is a vibrant community devoted to bridging the gap between talent and crew. Each week, our show offers transparent, insightful conversations with industry leaders. We unveil the magic behind the scenes, from candid discussions about unique filmmaking processes to in-depth technical exploration. Join us in unraveling the intricacies of filmmaking, one episode at a time. It's more than just cameras and lenses the intricacies of filmmaking, one episode at a time. It's more than just cameras and lenses. We aim to inspire, educate and empower as we peel back the curtain on the art of effective storytelling. Now on to the episode.

Speaker 2 0:56

Hi everybody, welcome back to the CFA podcast. It's been a very, very long time. We gave a little teaser when we were like we're back in our new space and then we had to do some more construction. So now we are really back in our new space and I'm so excited for some guests that I've been trying to get on the podcast. For how long has it been, guys? A year, a year, it's been a year. It's two incredible creators of a very great app for actors that's going to change our entire workflow Jamila Aceh and Danny Rojas. Hi guys, hi, hello, hi, welcome, welcome, thank you.

Speaker 4 1:39

Yeah, we made it happen.

Speaker 1 1:40

I know, and we're like, finally not hand-holding mics. We have made it happen. I know, and we're like, finally not hand holding mics we have good lighting, it's quiet and we said looks beautiful you. We just finished it and we just installed all new beams so that no one will collapse into this space when we're on a yeah, that was the extra construction was.

Speaker 2 1:58

We want to be able to host people up there, but I was starting to get terrible anxiety anytime we had to get together because you could feel the roof bouncing. It was like a wavy trampoline, yeah now it's safe, so welcome.

Speaker 1 2:14

But I this is funny because, um, you'll have to tell me how you guys were introduced again, because I actually forget, but I know that from the moment, um, you guys gave Haley a demo of the app that we'll be talking about, she was like yep, this, I'm switching over to this, like I'm canceling everything else, and this is the one I'm using, and you have been using it ever since. So, um, haley, how did you get introduced? Um, all together?

Speaker 2 2:39

yeah, this is, I think that you weren't there. You were supposed to be there. It was Gabbo's birthday, who I only know, gabbo and Ari, because of you, and so it was Gabbo's birthday party. Okay, yeah, I didn't, but you guys weren't there either. Your friend Daniella was there and she told me and I love Daniella told- me.

Speaker 1 3:05

Yes, yes, the ginger.

Speaker 2 3:08

I always wish I was she's a beautiful, graceful ginger, yeah just like, oh, just super wonderful and beautiful.

Speaker 1 3:19

And every time I see her I'm just like iconic to like you guys. What are you talking about what? I see her, I'm like wow, she's just amazing.

Speaker 2 3:29

She's a knockout, just like right. Yeah, mind her looks that. And then we are both actors so and she's funny, she's amazing.

Speaker 2 3:37

Okay, we love you, danielle. Yeah, thank you. Um, we're both actors, so you know we're talking about like, how is it going? Like, how are tapes for you, since it's after the pandemic? So now, like, self-tapes are just the standard. Do you need help? You know, like kind of when you meet a new actor friend, you want to get close with them, kind of the standard thing is like let me know if you ever need help with tapes. And she was kind of like oh, I'll never need help with.

Speaker 1 4:05

Like what do you mean? She's like your marketing contractor?

Speaker 4 4:08

yeah, she's been amazing, exactly because I mean that's also kind of her background. Yeah, but she's been, yeah, she's been sharing, she's probably one of our. Yeah, she's a champion. Ambassador unofficial ambassador yes, so, yeah, she told.

Speaker 2 4:24

She told me about rafi and about what you're creating, and I thought that sounded so interesting and I said please will you put us in contact, because I knew I would eventually want you here on this couch, because it just sounds like something that we can share with everybody and it's something that I use now regularly okay, let's talk about it.

Speaker 1 4:45

So you're obviously a power couple as well, because you're married and all, and you both work in the industry, so you have context for kind of the different departments that happen. Um, you're an actor, right, and then we have composer, yeah, okay, and so can we talk about how this came together and was created, what Rafi is.

Speaker 4 5:04

Yeah Well, I mean, since we started dating pretty much I mean before the pandemic and everything she was already doing some self-tapes.

Introducing Rafi: AI for Actor Auditions

Speaker 5 5:13

I mean, some auditions were in person, but it was already more self-tapes than Even before the pandemic, self-tapes started making their way in and it became a norm, definitely after COVID, so he was my reader yeah, a lot of times.

Speaker 4 5:28

But before the pandemic she had a whole group of friends, a lot of actors, and they would get together. So sometimes she would text me and be like, hey, I'm going over to mitchell or joanne's or whatever, um, and, but oftentimes she would have to ask me to and I mean that was kind of like the norm when the pandemic hit and we're starting like the bubbles and all that. She couldn't get together with any of her friends, um, so I kind of became like the default reader and as we were doing it.

Speaker 4 5:57

We started talking and I I kept telling her I'm like there should be an easier way to do this with all the technology that is available. And we started looking around and there were a few tools, but nothing quite what we had imagined. So we started talking about, you know, mostly as clients thinking that like there has to be something out there and we would ask friends and everybody would say the same like not really. I mean, sometimes I use this or I record myself with like a voice.

Speaker 2 6:27

The voice recorded and then trying to like change your tone of voice, like in the things, and it starts sounding like weird, or even like voice memo, and leaving the space like leaving a big gap which is not like, then you're not really acting at that point. It's just like drop the line and try to do the thing. But it's the same every time. It just it's not.

Speaker 4 6:51

Yes, and with my background of audio I was thinking like, can we change the sound of these voices and things like that, like very early on, and then at some point you can maybe take over here. But we're both SAC members. So when we knew that SAC was going to go on strike, jamila was starting to get a little anxious, knowing that she probably was not going to work much for the coming year, and she kept telling me, like maybe I should go get an MBA or maybe. I remember she even you considered it.

Speaker 5 7:23

Yeah, I did, I did and I did.

Speaker 4 7:26

And at some point we were chatting and then you told me you're like what if we make the app?

Speaker 5 7:30

Yeah, what are you?

Speaker 4 7:31

talking about.

Speaker 5 7:32

Yeah, because at that point also, ai was a big conversation during the strike and I believe that technology could be as good or as bad as we want it to be, and we're able to. It's manageable, like whoever does it right. So I was telling him like I think AI could be really good if we train it to work for us and not replace us. And that's when I started thinking, like what's something I do every day that I don't need necessarily a human for that? Right, that is technically nobody's job. Um, that this can do. And I was like, oh, maybe a reader, because, yes, there's a lot of readers, people that work as readers, but a lot of them are actors or coaches. But that's something completely different and you get a different service. When you go to a coach that reads with you, you're getting feedback. So we're like, okay, what if we just do one that is very simple, just reads with you? No feedback, no, nothing. So we're not stepping on anyone else's toes in the industry. So we keep it ethical and aligned with what we believe and how we think this technology should be treated. Yeah, so, so, yeah.

Speaker 5 8:51

And of course, I started looking into the flow, which is how could this be like, okay, I want to get the pdf. Yeah, what do I do now? Yeah, so you know, very started writing everything down, Like, okay, I would like to upload the PDF, this thing should read it and just track the dialogue, and then after that I should be able to fix dialogue, because sometimes there's typos. Maybe I have to delete lines, maybe I have to add more lines. So that'll be the next step, and then after that, what's next's next?

Speaker 5 9:27

Okay, who are the characters? I choose who I am, and then I choose voices for all the other ones, and we should have age range, we should have um, gender quality, we should have the all these different options, even accents if possible, and languages too, and um, and then cool after that. Then we customize it and then we make it very human. So raffi gives you a read that is kind of, um, it could be flat, yeah, it could sound flat. I think it's mostly flat and it's. It's supposed to be like that for you to make it human. So you can teach raffi how to read the line if you just take the mic and tell it how I want this line to be read in this way and it will match.

Speaker 2 10:09

That is a feature that I used recently, because I really needed a line delivered to me in a way so that I could respond to it. So, instead of just using the ai generation, I recorded it myself, so it knew the inflections that I was looking for, which was like huge you can you can kind of not even do that if you have a friend reading with you, because then you're like giving them direction, directing them and also the other thing too is sometimes scenes would have several voices.

Speaker 4 10:39

I mean, like she'd be playing one character and I would have to be the grandma and the kid and the sister. Yeah, and I would always try to get creative and she would always be like, don't, yeah I'd be like stop, you know, don't do that. She's like no just read them all the same. But again, maybe me just being like an audio.

Speaker 1 10:59

I'm like it's two characters like it needs to sound different. How are you gonna know? With hayley, I used to do like, instead of voices, some terrible accents and voices if there were different people I would put them in different places in the room. So I would. I would go like that's not what she said you're like blocking the scene because they're standing in a place like it was a nightmare.

Speaker 2 11:22

Maybe we should take a second, because I'm realizing that everyone on this couch understands the process of a self-tape and what it takes, because you have spent hours and hours with me being my reader.

Speaker 2 11:35

Uh, thank you.

Speaker 2 11:36

You're a wonderful reader, um, but for anyone who doesn't understand or doesn't know the process, it's a lot of the time.

Speaker 2 11:43

You'll get the breakdown, you'll get the audition and have 24 hours max to get it in.

Speaker 2 11:50

So then as an actor, you struggle and reach out to a hundred friends to try to see if anyone is available in the next few hours to help you, and then you have to prepare your audition, and a lot of the time that comes, at least for me, with a lot of guilt because I'm pulling somebody out of their day to come help me. So then to make it up to them you know we spend an hour, an hour and a half just doing the audition and then to make it up to them, I'm like, want to get dinner. So every audition is costing me at least 50 because I'm I'm bringing a friend to dinner to thank them for helping me. So there's also that part of it where the panic and the stress of like finding someone who can come and sometimes no one's available, and then you resort to recording your own lines this just canceling you last minute, which would help jamila, because people get busy sometimes, like people tell them yeah oh, I can do it.

Speaker 4 12:50

And then, two hours before, she would text me and be like oh my god, my friend couldn't make it because something came up or she had to go to work and then you're pumping for your grandma voice study exactly yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 13:01

Exactly.

Speaker 2 13:06

So like, not just that, like the tech's really great and the it's super user friendly, but not only that, it's also stripping away like the emotional workload that comes with that, with a new audition for actors a lot of the time, and the it's just like streamlining that workflow. And it's just like streamlining that workflow.

The Pandemic's Impact on Self-Tapes

Speaker 4 13:25

And another thing that for us was an added plus was that a lot of times and we've heard it from casting director friends and people just in the industry in general it matters how quickly you send it to. So even if there's a window that says you can send it all the way until Friday but you can start sending it on Wednesday, Most casting directors tell you it's better if you get in earlier, right, because people start watching the tapes, and they might even book the role before it arrives to friday or already have like a preconception in their mind god this

Speaker 2 13:57

industry. So I know, if you see someone that comes through and like they're gonna work, then you're gonna be like great, that's done. And then only someone who's phenomenal will squeak in after that yeah, so that's another thing, God, this industry, it does, it does, it's brutal, it doesn't like?

Speaker 1 14:13

let me just you know, side tangent for a sec Just a hot sec.

Speaker 2 14:17

You're going to really love what you're doing here, yeah.

Speaker 1 14:19

Yeah, but I okay. So I just came back from vacation we were talking about it before we recorded and I was like, okay, I'm gonna do all my like reading. So I I brought all the books that I had had on my shelf for like five years that I wanted to read and I was like, okay, each like few days I'm gonna get through one and I'm gonna like go through all of them and then I can like donate them and get rid of them. And the first one I read was Furious Love, which is um the love letters and relationship over time between um elizabeth taylor and richard burton and it documents their careers as actors in the industry and theater actors and um, uh, you know, film actors, both but and all the movies they did together and it's really interesting. The book was awesome. You should read it. Jessica chastain recommended that's what I bought five years ago. Oh, did you keep it? Uh, yeah, I gave it to. I gave it to stella okay, great, I get it.

Speaker 2 15:11

After stella dibs, everyone dibs.

Speaker 1 15:14

You can email indy later the reason I bring it up, though, is because it really talked about the way you know. Obviously it talked about like the mgm contracts and the way the industry used to be, but it really annoys me that our industry is still based on half of it is based off of a very old mentality of like the way actors are treated right, like she was both of them, but mostly her, you know, child actor, treated very much like a lot of the golden age actors, as like product right, like it has to be on this movie has to do this work with this director. Product right, like it has to be on this movie has to do this work with this director. You know there's like there's so many like drugs and alcohol and all that stuff just so that they can keep going on set, and a lot of that sure is like mass now, like you don't have a contract with a studio, but a lot of our industry still shits on an actor in other ways, and a lot of that is it costs you money to do self tapes, it costs you time away from actually being able to do your side hustle, because you have to find something flexible enough. You have to have a strong enough network that's going to be able to read for you normally right, like without this app.

Speaker 1 16:16

There's like a lot of pressure on actors still that I don't think people are. They might mention it, but I don't think they're talking about. Like they talk about how poorly elizabeth taylor was treated right because it was so obvious, or marilyn monroe, but nowadays it's like actors are still actually being treated at the bottom of the barrel until you're famous pretty much yeah, and so it's like really annoying to hear that you know you could still be doing the work and not get you know even an opportunity to be seen if you submit it on that prime.

Speaker 2 16:45

Yeah, if you submit within the time frame, you still are too late. It just yes absolutely.

Speaker 5 16:52

Sometimes it's already casted too, but they then the cast and directors, want to show numbers. They're like oh look, we received 4 000 submissions. Yeah, this just sounds great, it's like a number. But they're not even sometimes watching those tapes because, exactly, exactly, reality, you have three days to watch the tapes. Yeah, you're gonna watch 4 000 submissions.

Speaker 1 17:10

Doubt it, doubt it, and so that's why, when you're talking about ethical ai, I think a part of that conversation of like the ethics of how we treat actors and everyone but actors in this industry, because building an app like this allows you to um, I, I think people who are not actors should look at this. An app like be, like, oh, this is like ethically a better thing for actors to have, because you're not relying as much on like people having to come to you, you're not spending your own money to just try and get work like, you're able to do it on your own pace and your time and still get back to the other stuff while you're waiting for that callback or you're waiting for the next thing to come in.

Speaker 2 17:50

And so thanks for creating something like that, because I think actors are going to be less abused in this industry. It really is like just putting one more little part of an actor's career into their own hands. Control so much of it is out of our control being able to not have to depend on. Can somebody come help me with this tape and having it just be like this is me and my workflow?

Speaker 5 18:05

yeah, it's like a little bit more power. Yeah, and I can do it a thousand times if I want, and if I want to spend three days back to back doing it. I don't want to sleep because I want to do it at two in the morning. I can do it at two in the morning because I get to control that a lot of times too.

Speaker 4 18:21

Sometimes would happen like prior to the app too that she would get together with a reader and do the audition, but then, when I get home, she would realize she didn't like any of the takes and you can't be like, and then we would have to do it again. It's normal, but that's something that with raffi, the actor can do six, seven takes. Watch them sure. Look at themselves and be like I didn't like this lighting, I didn't like this, or I should change my shirt, or something and do it again.

Speaker 3 18:47

No guilt, no guilt.

Speaker 1 18:49

And it doesn't cost you anything. Yeah.

Speaker 4 18:51

Like it's just per scene.

Speaker 1 18:53

Basically, whether you do your, pricing is per scene rather than per take. Yes, exactly.

Creating an Ethical AI Reader

Speaker 4 18:57

Correct, because we knew that actors sometimes would want to do 50 takes, whatever it is. So once the the scene is created, you can do as many takes as you want you can do it in one take, or you can do it in 50 takes so tokens?

Speaker 1 19:09

how do tokens work?

Speaker 5 19:10

yeah yes, so we have three different subscriptions, um. The first one gives you five tokens, then next one, up, gives you 15 tokens, and then the next one, the third one, the premium, gives you 50 tokens five zero um, and the token is this is a scene exactly so five scenes, 15 scenes correct and 50 scenes exactly. Um, however, that is gonna change very soon, yeah, so okay, should we?

Speaker 2 19:40

introduce it. We're ready.

Speaker 4 19:41

We're ready for a launch, yeah we're gonna increase it to 10 and 20 yeah, so basic we'll have 10 and then uh, plus it's gonna have 20 amazing 10 20, 50 yes, so two to three auditions a week for the yes exactly, yeah, that's pretty great.

Speaker 2 19:58

I mean, right now I'm doing two to three when I met you.

Speaker 1 20:03

Five to seven, five to seven yeah and what are you doing?

Speaker 2 20:07

like something between five okay yeah, so okay, yeah, it's around. Yeah, like basic, unless you're like like practicing a lot. Right, because a lot of the time you want to like just you just do a tape to practice.

Speaker 2 20:21

Sometimes, especially in may, yeah that's what you guys can do. It self-save me may is a big practice mode, so like, maybe you want more tokens that month because you're going to try to do six or seven a week for practice because of again. And then there's like the castability challenge, so like you might want to use it for that. So like, yes, basic for like if you're only using it for work. But then there are sometimes you may want to practice more, so you'll want to add a month challenge.

Speaker 1 20:52

We have so many challenges like a self-tape challenge.

Speaker 2 20:56

Well, something better, something like that challenge.

Speaker 4 20:58

I got ideas, we can talk about it yeah talking about practicing yeah, is like our main and that's something that we have already introduced, but we haven't yet is Playhouse.

Speaker 1 21:11

Oh, you told us about this at Cannes.

Speaker 4 21:14

Yes, yeah, and we're developing it, we all went to Festival des Combes.

Speaker 2 21:22

We met on the rosette for a pizza and. I did say pizza on purpose, because for some reason in Cannes it's all Italian food. Yes, it's all.

Speaker 5 21:34

Italian anyway, sorry, so Playhouse so Playhouse is it was called Rafi Scenes before, so it's been there since we came out, because this is something that we wanted to have from the very beginning, so we launched with it, but now we're putting more work into it that also kind of came from the fact that me, coming from music, we have so many tools to practice, even as a musician.

Speaker 4 22:03

When I was in college I was a guitarist and there's all kinds of plugins and software where you can have a bass and drums and then you play the guitar part and you know. That's kind of how you practice, like you were in a band, but it's your virtual band. There was even one very early on that was called band in a box for jazz players and you would have like standards and you would play your chords and you just solo over it band in a box. It was very early, but this is like um, and then for actors we realized there wasn't anything like that. So that's what playhouse is and remind, what is it? Yes, so playhouse is our, for you to practice.

Speaker 2 22:50

It's harder when we're not holding them. We're used to it.

Speaker 1 22:54

Now we have to get used to it.

Speaker 5 22:59

Yes, that's what it is.

Speaker 2 23:00

There's not a lot of space on that side. We'll have to move the couches a little bit again. We're alive. She caught it before having pizza. Pizza, wait, what are we talking about? Playhouse?

Speaker 5 23:15

no, playhouse so playhouse is our own library of of scripts written by humans our beautiful friend max, by the way, uh, who's been helping us write some fun scenes that actors can take and do whatever they want with them. So we are only going to give them a space, a location, but then the gender, the genre is for them to decide. That's cool. We don't want to box it. Sometimes I feel like, yeah, we need the where, the who and the what, but like here, we'll give you the where and you can play and figure out the rest. So every scene can be so different from what I mean we can do the same scene, but if you want to turn it into a horror, you know piece genre, then we were talking about.

Speaker 4 24:06

What we were thinking about? Playhouse is that right now, what actors do to practice is usually do a previous audition that they got, or a scene from a movie, for example, marriage Story, so good, whatever you know, which is great, so much fun.

Speaker 1 24:21

Yep Marriage Story. So much fun. Those models, that's a lot of fun.

Speaker 4 24:29

Yeah, a lot of fun. Yep, marriage stories. So much fun, exactly, and it's great practice, no doubt, but there's already a version that exists, yeah, of what that scene was. Yeah, that's again back to scoring. For example, when you start practicing how to score scenes, a lot of times you you take a scene from a movie and you try to rescore it, and it's good practice, you learn about timing, about things but there's already a score that existed for the film and that is like the true version you know, and what you do is kind of viewed it completely all right, so this becomes a scoring a random video is a different, is a different exercise.

Speaker 4 24:58

so for playhouse we wanted scenes that are original, that no one has a conception, and if a hundred actors do it all, hundred of them will do it differently and all of them are right.

Speaker 2 25:07

Such a great creative practice, just kind of like even a warm up, right, like if you have a scene you have to shoot an audition, just like do a playhouse warm up, just like get loose and then jump in. I have an idea.

Speaker 1 25:21

Can I make another suggestion, not as stupid as my other one, but fun?

Speaker 1 25:26

So at CFA we have a lot of great programs. One of them that starts our first inaugural ISF cohort. Isf is the IndieWood Screenwriting Fund. It's a cohort of I think we have 13 screenwriters that have been selected. I love this idea that we fund screenwriting competitions and then we provide education to them. They have scripts and they meet together and they have education every Saturday for two hours until October, starting this Saturday, and we have mentors come in, do one-on-one sessions, but they have one script that they're obviously submitting to stuff and working on, in addition to, I'm sure, other ones. But they got in with that script. They applied with.

Speaker 1 26:01

What would be cool is like a script of the month where you feature. We do a partnership where you feature one of those scripts that has never. They got in with that script. They applied with. Um. What would be cool is like a script of the month where you feature. We do a partnership where you feature one of those scripts that has never been produced or made and it's being worked on. That would be lovely. You do seven pages that you work and, if they want and this is something this is like the part b if it would ever work. But those screenwriters you can have the option for feature of that month. To once. It's recorded in, raffi, have it sent to the screenwriter through us so that the screenwriter can see how their words are said that would be lovely.

Speaker 5 26:34

And then?

Speaker 1 26:34

they can use it as like a cool partnership yeah because a lot of the actor side where you need something to practice on that isn't already ingrained. Like how did partnership? Yeah, yeah, I think that'd be great because a lot of the you know you have the actor side where you need something to practice on that isn't already ingrained. Like how did scarlett johansson, like do that in marriage story, because you're just thinking in that headspace right. Or like how did jessica chastain what's the one you know? Like whatever? Or molly, okay, yeah, me too her in general we can talk about Jessica Chastain.

Speaker 2 27:10

She's a vegan.

How Tokens Work: Pricing Explained

Speaker 1 27:12

Well, now I'm a vegan the cool thing is, like actors need that resource and the screenwriters a lot of the time never have their stuff like said out loud, right? So you have a lot of like workshops where actors will come and do like a reading of it, a live reading, and it's the first time that even some of the directors I work with they want to hear it out loud before they're finished the script, because they want to see if it works, if it flows, yep, and so this would be a cool partnership where maybe, like the writers and the actors, for once, are like meeting through raffi.

Speaker 1 27:41

That would be, I would love that yeah and maybe it starts as, like you know, we have 13 screenwriters, so maybe, for you know, there's three scripts every month that they have for one month to try out and then, yeah, you know, it's a cfa like ad yeah, that would be yeah that would be great.

Speaker 2 27:57

Yes, raffi x, yes absolutely.

Speaker 1 28:01

Yeah, that's a great idea submit those. So anyway, we'll talk about it. We'll talk about it.

Speaker 5 28:04

We'll talk about it. Yeah, I want that to happen.

Playhouse: Practice Scenes for Actors

Speaker 1 28:09

It's coming for you. So Playhouse very excited about that. When that's launched, we're good it's been there from the beginning, but it's rebranded Exactly.

Speaker 4 28:17

Which is what we're working on now. In the next few weeks so maybe I mean hopefully before the end of the summer, so maybe I mean hopefully before the end of the summer we'll have that fully fleshed out and it's going to have a bunch of different scenes and different styles.

Speaker 5 28:33

And something else we're adding to this new build is slates.

Speaker 1 28:39

Because we have to do slates too. You can just insert slates you pre-recorded on your phone.

Speaker 5 28:44

Correct you. You can just insert slates you pre-recorded on your correct, yeah, kind of, say you. You do you fill up a questionnaire of like the typical questions like name, age, location, um, and then, because you know, sometimes they ask you so many things and it's happened to me, I don't know if to you too that you're kind of doing your slate and it's like, oh, what was the next thing? Yeah, oh, if I have tattoos, uh, and then you have to start all over again and then you forget something else.

Speaker 2 29:08

I will like write it on something big and like stick it on the wall to be like I'm Haley. I'm 5'5", I live in Los Angeles. Yes, I'm a member of SAG. Yes, I'm okay with nudity.

Speaker 5 29:25

Yes, I'll kiss somebody not in the same scene. Yes, yeah, and they ask you if you're available, if you have a passport, all these kind of questions.

Speaker 4 29:28

right, and so basically, you fill out a questionnaire and then you're going to have these bubbles and you can just select which bubble. Which bubble belong to this specific position, and then the detector will be telling you so and it's recognizing what you're saying basically. So it'll just tell you like each location and then the bubbles start this.

Speaker 5 29:49

They'll disappear as soon as soon as you say like hi, I'm jimmy latch, and then the name would disappear. Okay, I am five, three disappear. Location it has voice recognition.

Speaker 2 29:59

Yeah, so it knows when you've said those things. It's not just like rolling and rolling, it's like are you ready for the next one?

Speaker 4 30:07

You did it Good job. That's also coming on this next one, and then you can save that and that can be your. So how?

Speaker 1 30:14

can people find it and download?

Speaker 5 30:17

The app store. Okay, rafi R-A-F-I, which, oh, we should share. How the name is so special, tell us about why we wanted a name that sounded like a person's name. Well there's. I'll start like the way danny says it he always says there's two schools of naming apps. So there's like the name of the app, of what it actually does, like a functional name, like I don't know hinge, hinges you together.

Speaker 2 30:49

Oh, oh, there you go, functional exactly exactly.

Speaker 5 30:52

Yes, yes, yes, yeah yeah yeah there's many so that could have been like breeding partner.

Speaker 4 31:00

Yeah, amazing.

Speaker 5 31:03

Yeah, yeah, exactly so. Or the other route, which is like spotify doesn't really tell you what it does, or etsy, um, and we kind of wanted to. We wanted the name of a person, because a reader is a person and it's a little helper, and we wanted it to sound not from any specific place, not necessarily a gender specific name, kind of gender neutral. And we know Rafis that are female, that are male. So, yeah, we kind of thought this is cool and we like the Y because it's just like Etsy, spotify, y, techie, I don't know.

Speaker 4 31:41

Yeah, it's an acronym for reader app for you so we started throwing a bunch of things.

Speaker 2 31:48

You did tell me that once yeah, yeah, yeah, here's your reader today yeah, yes, and we wanted exactly that to like eventually become a like.

Speaker 4 32:01

Are you gonna wrap? You're gonna wrap? You going to Rafi, it Are you going to Rafi it? Oh, I'll Rafi it, I'll Rafi it yeah, fantastic, so we're going to get that going now. App.

Speaker 2 32:10

Store, app Store free download on the App Store, and then you have practice scenes in there already so people can try it out before they make that decision.

Speaker 4 32:19

Absolutely, and this is going to be a debut, since you're saying about that, because we are launching a web-based version, yes, which we are, and this is coming very soon. Yes, and this is the first time we've ever shared it. But we want to include more actors, because there are many actors that don't have iPhone or iPad, and we get that question all the time, and we are developing a native version for Android as well, but that is a slow process because Android, unlike Apple, they're not very standardized there's Motorola's, there's Pixel's, there's.

Speaker 5 32:53

Samsung's.

Speaker 4 32:55

And all of them have different speech recognition systems. They have different microphones different cameras.

Speaker 1 33:01

So the web-based take up a lot of those boxes.

New Features: Slates with Voice Recognition

Speaker 4 33:03

Exactly, exactly, exactly so, the web-based app. You can do it on your computer or on your Android and just go on a website and it's going to have a few differences, but most of the functionality is going to be there and that's going to happen.

Speaker 2 33:19

Do you have an ETA on that?

Speaker 4 33:21

Yeah, Within the next month.

Speaker 2 33:23

Yeah, whoa, yeah Within the next month. Yeah, whoa, yeah. Okay. Android users, you're not going to be left out. No, exactly, we care about you.

Speaker 4 33:31

We do, and also the computer, because we also have a few people that have told us that they don't have very good eyesight, for example, and they want to use like an external monitor Nice, and we have a guy who told us that he loved Rafi, but he had trouble reading the teleprompter and needed. So that has always been something that we are thinking like. How can we?

Speaker 5 33:53

how can we make this thing like literally both ways?

Speaker 1 33:59

yeah, well, thank you guys so much for joining us. Thank you we're very excited to um work on the playhouse stuff with isf. We'll talk yes yep and also to get it out to our community. So we will link everything in the description below and we'll also figure out some sort of like fun promo code to get to promo the first month?

Speaker 5 34:19

absolutely yeah, the first tokens.

Speaker 2 34:21

Yes, yes, yes, yes, rafi take your tapes into your own hands. What is your tagline?

Speaker 4 34:29

We don't really have one.

Speaker 5 34:30

Oh no, we do actually Self-tape anytime anywhere.

Speaker 2 34:36

Absolutely.

Speaker 1 34:37

Self-tape anytime anywhere.

Speaker 2 34:38

Bye guys, Bye Thank you.

Speaker 3 34:41

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