How to Manage Finances in Filmmaking and College | Bien Bagui

Welcome to episode 4 of The First Act Break podcast, the show where we dive into the art, business, and hustle of breaking into the film industry. Today, we bring on Bien Bagui, a USC film director who has a passion for financial literacy. We chat about his advice for managing finances in film school and the film industry and how he got into USC film school.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro & Oscar convo
• 1:45 General financial skills
• 5:33 Savings Account
• 7:15 Personal budgeting & investing
• 10:07 Budgeting in filmmaking
• 11:14 Subscriptions
• 12:49 Food prepping
• 16:33 Cooking vs. filmmaking
• 17:06 Time management
• 20:33 Beginning Filmmaking
• 26:49 Applying to Film Schools
• 28:36 Connecting with Jiayang
• 30:13 Heading Into the Industry
• 31:56 Dream First Job
• 33:04 Crewing on The Odyssey
• 34:43 Christopher Nolan
• 36:47 Democratization of Filmmaking
• 37:49 LinkedIn Networking
• 40:49 Dumbest Purchase
• 41:57 How to Spent a Theoretical $1M
• 43:36 First Feature

Transcript

Speaker 00: 0:00

And today we are joined by our good friend, Bien, a USC director, producer, who is very passionate about the film industry and especially about financial literacy in the film industry. So thank you for joining us. Of course, I'm happy to be here today. Bien, how much money do you want in the future? I want to be comfortable. I want to be doing what I love, but I'm not... Like, I don't want to have to worry about paparazzi and stuff. You don't want to be famous? It's weird because I want to be at, like, that point. I'm trying to think of, like, a good person. What did he say? Sean Baker? Is that a point where he doesn't exactly get a lot of, like, press coverage, but at the same time he's known for being good at what he is? Indie filmmaker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe, like, an indie filmmaker. I love Sean Baker. Yeah. Speaking of, because I was just watching the Florida Project. Oh, that's my favorite movie. What'd you think? Oh, I'm not done yet. Oh, you haven't finished it yet? I'm not done yet. Oh, so good. And then something crazy happened. Something crazy does happen. Oh, I got spoiled. Oh, no. I want to see how it plays out. So do you think Enora's going to win Best Picture? You know, I hope it's very seriously considered, and I'm glad it was nominated, but just based on the way the Academy works, I don't think so. Yeah, true. Me too. I hope it wins, but we'll see. Wait, what? That's what you like, huh? I just pointed that out. I didn't say anything about that. I'm a little upset that Dune 2, and especially Dennis, you know, was the best director. It's okay. What would you want? An Oscar for Best Picture or $100 million? Oh, Oscar for best picture. If I just wanted $100 million, I'd be in another field that makes a lot more money, right? That's right. That's true. So if you do choose a field that isn't the big money maker, then what makes you so interested in the business and money side of things? Well, I mean, especially because of that, the fact that I don't think filmmakers, or at least the vast majority of filmmakers, the 99%, They'll make a lot of money, which is why I think that they should be wise about how they spend it, save it, earn it, reinvest it, that kind of thing. I mean, what are some keys you think to making a comfortable income and a comfortable financial system for you and your future family? Well, I mean, I just want to preface it first by saying I'm 21. I haven't lived life like long enough. So I'm no expert at this and I'm no financial advisor at the same time. But just a few years I've been alive, been an adult, been in college. I think I've learned a significant amount, enough that I think I should share and would want to share to other people, especially others in my field. And it's also stemmed from my desire to be a producer, working a lot with budgeting, financing, that kind of thing. But the core of it, And I know I'm getting a little bit technical here, but the core of it, I think, has to do with just basic life organizational skills and things that even those who aren't filmmakers, regardless of what field you are in, should know. And a lot of college students should know. What are some ways you learn technology? know what are some sources and books or you know channels that you you look to to get financial advice from you know i'm so i'm not so pretentious as to like read books about it yet i'm still on the like youtube side um i i watch this guy named humphrey yang um he gives a lot of financial advice and he does it all you know out of the the goodness of his heart he's not like one of those scammers pyramid scheme kind of people you see on instagram which is why i was just drawn to him yeah um this is other guy you never know what i guess you might have a course coming that's true money money's gonna get tight um i think this other guy named graham or i'm something graham stephan yes you know hey iced coffee hour i've been watching that guy for the last like six years yeah so i mean i also watch him for financial advice sometimes so you just like those are my sources and then just kind of working through it on my own finding what works for me um doing my own research sometimes just talking to friends and family people who've been in my position um yeah yeah absolutely that's amazing of course do you have a lot of family who are into business and financial stuff my dad is a banker okay um But I'm not, you know, it could be. It's in the genes. My mom's an accountant. Oh, wonderful. Or she started off as an accountant. She was really good at math. I don't think I'm as good as her, but again, I guess it has to be the genes, right? No, genes. Oh, and I'm Asian, so. Fair, too. Genes play such a big role in someone's future. It really does. I don't know. What are some advice for your younger self? My younger self, yeah. Let's say freshman year BN. How would you? If we were just going purely off of financial advice, I'd have a number of things, but at the same time, I don't regret it. the choices I made in freshman year, I was a little bit more reckless with my money. But just coming into college, coming into this new lifestyle, living alone for the first time, 6,000 plus miles away from home, I gave myself some wiggle room to spend, have fun. But if I want to truly be responsible, my number one advice would have been to start a high-yield savings account. I think my choice of high-yield savings account, I used Capital One, but there are multitude of good ones. Discover, Amex. I used Capital One because I know I want to travel. And the current account I use and the current even credit card I use allow me to do so. I was able to finance my Italy trip just purely off of... That was awesome. points yeah but i did hear capital one's being sued it is yeah oh that's what i heard it's sued for um six billion dollars or something something like that was it like fraud or something um like financial whatever yeah intricate so maybe you'll make some money off of that oh maybe or maybe it means i should switch over yeah i think america's not bad yeah well bank of america i think They don't have a competitive savings rate. What is it? APY. I think with like Discover Capital One, they have an APY of like 3.7 right now, 3.8. When I first signed up, it was like 4.25% annually, right? Whereas like Bank of America, Chase, your normal savings account gives you like 0.03% interest. So even just like little things like that, knowing that... knowing just even getting having access to that information would have helped me a lot freshman year um because you know if i had invested or just left a thousand dollars and my savings account i would have had like a four percent return on that at the end of the year so that's like what 40 bucks how do you budget like per month though like you know do you do you budget i do budget okay um And in complete transparency, it's something I just started to do at the beginning of my junior year or a little towards the end of my sophomore year. What are some habits you picked up when it comes to budgeting? I check how much my income is and I get an allowance from my parents too, but I also work some jobs on campus. So I kind of take my projected income plus allowance and anything else. and how much I might make off of side gigs or whatever. And then I'll kind of budget what I know I will spend on a monthly basis, whether that be like haircuts, regal unlimited pass.

Speaker 01: 8:02

We're switching.

Speaker 00: 8:03

Or AMC. Or AMC. Or Alamo. Or Alamo. Bunch of options out there. And then like grocery stuff. Do you do like percent inch based? No, I'll do like actual... Amount. Amount. Numbers. And numbers. And then I want to make sure I'll have a surplus at the end rather than a deficit. And then I'll have enough to either put into my savings or invest in like my stock portfolio, which is currently pretty non-existent. Same here. What do you invest with? I think right now all my money in my portfolio is in the S&P 500 and I use Fidelity for that. Okay, what made you pick Fidelity? Fidelity, so for those who don't know what Fidelity is, it's sort of like a brokerage system that allows you to trade in increments rather than like full stocks. Um, so like you wouldn't have to buy purchase of one full stock in order to be, you know, you could get like a half stock. Uh, but like the good thing about Fidelity is it allows you to invest in what we call ETFs or mutual funds and S and P 500 kind of tracks the entire stock market. So you're, you're investing a little in the top 500 companies in the market. So that includes like the big seven, like Apple, Microsoft. So, well that way, you know, you you'll have the security of no matter what, or almost no matter what, because the, the market usually, you know, usually rises that your stocks will rise with it and usually has like a compound rate of 12%. so that's another good way to get into it just leave your money in there check in like 30-40 years when you're about to retire or when you're about to invest in like a huge feature pull it out

Speaker 01: 9:48

so you invest for the long term

Speaker 00: 9:50

yes you do invest for the long term you can do like day trading it's a lot riskier that's a job in and of itself definitely wouldn't recommend that to the average student, especially filmmaker. Speaking of film, I mean, how do you translate all these skills into filmmaking? That's a large part of filming, especially indies. A lot of people are... Money is a big part of it. Not everyone has... you know, Warner Bros. funding their feature and making a studio picture, a lot of it is independent. So how do you go about, or what have you learned about that part of filmmaking, which is the financial side? Yeah, I mean, so that financial part of it, it's like one of those life skills that's transferable across careers. I would say, was it a soft skill? It's a soft skill, definitely, right? And I think when it comes to filmmaking, it's most practiced as a producer, financier, and it just helps to be able to know your way around money and financing, budgeting, making sure that everything's allocated correctly. You're not over-allocating to a specific department. You're not wasting money on a subscription you don't necessarily need. And, you know, I think it's good for producers to know that. I mean, not just producers, for everyone as well. Yeah, directors as well. Right, regardless. How much do you spend a month on subscriptions? Let me think. Have you seen those ads? I've seen those ads, yeah. In the podcast, too, in the podcast format, yeah. I think the bulk majority of subscriptions, like when it comes to streaming and stuff, my parents pay for. Oh, I see. You don't have to count those then. Yes, I don't count. The only thing I think I pay for was my Regal subscription. I was subscribed to Artlist, but I'm still subscribed to Shotdeck. I think those are useful tools for filmmakers. I'm on someone else's account. I've been on it for a bit. You know, whatever we can do. Whatever we can do, yeah. If it works, it works. You don't use DoorDash Pass, no? I was on Uber Eats, Uber One for a minute. I think I had the annual pass. I might still have it, but I'm working on, in the spirit of budgeting and keeping track of my life, I'm working on food prep, cooking for myself. But every once in a while, I'll be happy to treat myself out. What about ChatGPT? ChatGPT? Oh, I'm not subscribed to that. Although I know that both the plus and premium versions allow you to... There's a $200 version a month. Are you guys subscribed to that? I have the 20 that I want. And how's it going? It's pretty useful, I'd say. I feel like without it, there's some limitations with it that sometimes really gets to me. And I use it pretty often now, so it feels like a worthy investment. It gets a lot of ideas flowing. I don't really try to take anything directly, but it gets me thinking about things I might have forgot or might have missed out on thinking about. Talk about food prepping, though. I'm curious. How do you go about food prepping at college? I usually just food prep for the day or the next day. Yeah, yeah. And I'll buy like, I'll get my groceries at Trader Joe's. If I'm with friends, we'll like go to like Ralph's. and then buy there. And then most of the time, you know, I'll just spend, I'll spend the night before cause I'm, I'm a night owl. Like if I'm going to be up anyway, I might as well do something productive. Right. Um, and I know that I'm not waking up early, like giant prep, my stuff. So I'll, I'll cook the night before and then I'll have like, you know, my Tupperware containers. Um, I'll cook enough rice to last for like the next day. And so, um, and my protein, get my, my, my calories and my macros. Yeah. Good. Do you track that stuff? I really should. I used to, I used to have this app that tracked, but it was, it was a little, it took a lot of time and, you know, dedication to just minutiae. My fitness. I think it was life, something, life, some life, some wherever I use it in high school for like one semester. I was like, I was spending way too much time just trying to figure all that out. So maybe it'd be a good incentive if, uh, you know, we were sponsored. Yeah. Uh, There's a lot of companies we would love to work with, but you know, it's okay. We'll figure that out later. One day. I mean, Richard, for you, I mean, do you budget? I do. I just use a little tracker. What app do you use? I just use Notion. Wow, Notion. Yeah. You gotta share that template with me. Yeah, it's just something I found online for free. It just worked for me. It keeps me... This is something my dad does as well. He's really, really... not adamant, but he's really strict with himself in terms of tracking everything. He does this at the end of every week, and that's something I've picked up since junior year, I want to say. Every week, every Sunday, I just see how much I spend, how much I earn, you know, ways I can sort of adjust that and then build better financial habits. And I started cooking way more late junior year. And then now I basically have like a plan every week so that I can. Wow. Yeah. How do you plan on your food every week? Oh, man. Just like, again, every Sunday. Yeah. I just kind of think about what I want to eat. Wow. Make a menu for yourself. Yeah, and I do a run. I just spend like one hour, sometimes it's two hours. I just literally, I go to Trader Joe's drive to Trader Joe's drive back to Ralph's and if I need more I go to K-Town get everything I need throw it in the fridge and then I'm basically set for for that week and also I don't cook like fancy I try to keep it pretty simple but then every once in a while I cook some Chinese food that takes hours but it tastes good well you should come over to cook you guys have more space here too we gotta do some dinner parties yeah that'd be cool but yeah I mean That's such a huge part of it too. Oh my God. You save so much money when you cook. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And it's healthier. It's healthy for you. It's also a good... I kind of treat cooking as like almost therapy in a way. Right. I just go about it like, okay, I'm putting pieces together. You know, it's quiet. Sometimes it can feel a little bit urgent. You know, if I have something like within the next hour and I'm still cooking like class or something, it can feel a little bit urgent. But other than that, you know, I've been told that it's very similar to filmmaking in the sense that, you know, it's different departments. You're pulling it together even though you're kind of doing it all by yourself. But you got to put the right thing in the right place at the right time for it all to work together. I wanted to know how do you manage to carve out time for yourself amongst your busy schedule? I know you're also a very accomplished producer, filmmaker yourself, and you're taking up a lot of internships and stuff. How do you carve out that time for yourself? Oh, man. I think for me, I... Really enjoy and this is something I've been doing I think since high school which I found helpful It's such as block time out on my calendar and like see what I can do within, you know, two hours three hours You know have maybe a break between class and see what I can do during those time And then I do it sort of the day before so I know like what I'm doing like today's Friday You know, I know what to do tomorrow and then on Monday at the end of the day I kind of schedule everything for the next day obviously it doesn't always pan out the way I want to. Like if I want to study for two hours and then by the end of two hours, I learn nothing. I'll have to like sort of figure something out. But usually it gives me a good idea of like how much time I'm spending on everything. And then other than that, there's something I'm actually struggling with is prioritization. A lot of times I think I can get caught up in like really small sort of menial tasks. And instead of focusing on like bigger tasks. So I think that's something I'm proactively trying to work on. Like write down like the top three, four things that I need to get done today and just get on top of it. So I know Jion has a lot to contribute to this topic. He's very... Oh, shit. Okay. I mean, I think advice I would give is having your to-do list as a calendar instead of a list. Because then it's like you're actually doing... You're spending time allocating your time to doing the thing. Like the opposite of... um, what's it called? Distraction is traction, you know, is not focused. And it means you have to know exactly where you're going with your day to actually not be distracted. Because if you're not blocking out a time to do something, being on your phone isn't a direct distraction because what is it distracting you from doing, right? So I think I'm a huge believer in like blocking out and just like organizing your calendar on exactly, you know, what to spend your time doing. And you use your screen, use your iPhone screen time like limit. I use so many different limits. It's not helping. Same. I've tried so many different apps. Apple. Apps, I've been using OPPO right now and like after a week or two, I think I get so used to like the whole process of like taking a break and everything that it's like automatic. It just adds another layer of like maybe 12 seconds of like block timers. But I try to work actively about it. There's this app called OneSec where it makes you breathe for like 10 seconds. And every time I go to a networking event, I'm like, hold on. Yeah, right. I have to disable it first. And then yeah, I think they go about it. I just make like a huge like ringing noise or something. No, oh it's just let me grab an Instagram and you open Instagram and it does this thing where it goes from bottom to up for like 10 seconds and it's like hold on there's something going on with that phone it's happened to me like several times yeah but I saw a thing on Instagram and if the CEO of this wants to come on the podcast hit me up but I'm thinking about getting one of those bricks oh I saw those it's like this little device where you put somewhere and you it's like a physical thing you tap your phone on it and it disables all these apps and the only way to get these apps again is to tap on the physical thing again right so the only it's like you can't just click a button on your phone to bypass it you actually have to physically do it does it have to be the exact same model like what if you lose that or break so you're screwed yeah you can use another model I'm sure maybe yeah but that's a smart way to go about it right yeah I've seen it maybe I'll wait until Richard gets in I'll yeah it'll be cool wait Bien tell me a little bit about your career in film actually like how did you get into it and where you want to go I think One of my earliest memories, like when you close your eyes and you try to comb back to the first memory you can remember, was me sitting on a couch watching Kung Fu Panda. No way! I think so. I think my love for filmmaking started, or it really started to pop to the surface in middle school, I think 7th grade. Although I'd had like, it's a very obscure YouTube channel that no one ever is going to find. And I'm never going to disclose. But I started like editing on iMovie back then. Um, and you know, filming and taking initiative to, to create these like small YouTube videos, um, of like me doing like, I was inspired by this guy named Evan tube HD. Um, you guys, I watched his Lego videos. Yes. I would do like Lego unboxing videos and whatever on like, um, and I do like some like vlog style videos. Um, I think the most I'd ever gotten was like 2.6 K on, on like some, that's pretty good. Hot Springs video. Uh, But so that's that's kind of how like my videography or my introduction to media started but it wasn't until middle school I took this video production class I remember very distinctly my teacher's name was Mr. Thiessen he was the basketball coach and the middle school counselor and uh the video production like teacher right um and we shot on I don't even know what those are called but definitely camcorders right uh super like old school I'm sure at that point iPhones would have been better but we shot on those ones and we'd make like 30 second to uh Two minute clips, and all of them are like really cliche, suspense film. where there's like the record scratch at the end and like some plot twist right so super it's all a dream yeah it's all the dream kind of stuff um and then but that was my introduction to adobe where you know i kind of took a step up from imovie um and then i continued my passion eighth grade i i tried my hand at acting wasn't for me i'm not the best actor full disclosure um And then I decided like, you know what? I'd rather just stay behind the camera. So high school, I took a film class, like a real film, I think it's called film VFX and something, animation class with my teacher, Mr. Craven. He was Canadian. I have a very fond memory of Mr. Craven. I think he took a liking to me. And one of my friends from the swim team, we decided to make like a short trailer at the pool together. And that was like, wow, that's cool. We're filming at a pool. We're going to do some shots from inside the water. There's going to be fire. It's going to be lit. We got a lot of praise for that, and that kind of boosted my ego. And I was like, hey, I like that people were happy with what I made. And then I knew from then, what if I keep doing this for the next three years in high school? So I took an advanced project class where Mr. Craven was kind enough to let me do my own thing the entire semester, as long as it was related to film, and he'd check in from time to time. But I would basically just build my own course for myself. So that gave me the free time to... to find out what I love and what I was passionate about. I got into post-production, although I didn't know it was called that back then. I just thought it was like editing. So After Effects. I used to watch this guy called Film Riot. Oh, same. Ryan Connolly. Ryan Connolly. Please come on. Please come on. The OG GOAT. Eventually, I made this music video using like accumulation of all the skills I'd learned and VFX I'd learned. Whether that be like the quick silver effect, like a duplication effect, like the Shazam transformation effect. like an earth zoom effect. I thought that was pretty cool. And I made that to music video. And then I think, and then I discovered that we had like a regional film festival. So I submitted a couple of stuff there. Didn't really win. I got like silvers and bronze. But then that gave me a new goal. To eventually get a gold. So I think this is either sophomore or junior year at this point. But I just started IB. And I had to start to think about what colleges I wanted to apply to. But I knew. I knew for sure still at that point that I wanted to do film. I hadn't really told my parents. And I'm sure you guys know. Going on a pretty non-traditional route with Asian parents is kind of tough. topic to bring up for discussion so I hid it from them like a little bit while I continued to make more films in another film class they I took a film two class that they built just for me I was the only kid in that class and I took it with the other film one kids and And similar to like the previous year, the teacher, and she was new, her name was Ms. Sowers. I have a very fond memory of all my film teachers because they all helped me get to this point. But yeah, so she kind of also let me do my own thing, craft my own films. And as long as I was, you know, I was giving her like deliverables, assignments, and making sure I got a grade. And I decided to like make my five minute short film for application, or so four minutes short for application. Was it five back then? Okay, then five minutes. I know it's changed now, right? I think it's two minutes now. Yeah. Crazy. No, one of my friends, they shot a movie that they thought it was five minutes and they looked at the thing again. It was like two minutes. Yeah, so I did that and then I actually submitted that. for college, USC, UCLA, NYU. I'd done some research, and by that point I'd talked to my parents about what I wanted to do. They were supportive. Yeah, they were supportive, I think, as long as they wanted me to apply to Harvard. Did you? But I didn't. I convinced them, or I don't know if they were fully convinced, but I managed to convince them that applying for Harvard, at least for me, wouldn't be beneficial at all. I didn't want to waste time or applications. And I decided that I would shoot for the top film schools in the U.S. So that was USC, UCLA, and NYU. My top was USC, followed by UCLA and NYU. What was the record? I took two L's. And obviously I'm here at USC, so. There you go. The one that mattered, yeah. Yeah, the one that mattered. And I also applied to a couple other film schools, LMU, Chapman. Emerson SD although SD is more like a film studies program UCSD yeah did you get in I did I did cool and I was prepared to go there after being rejected by NYU and UCLA and then I'd been waitlisted to Chapman and LMU and I've been rejected by UCSB for communications do you regret anything with your choice USC or do you think USC was the best decision ever I think as a person I definitely would have vibed more with the East Coast just coming from Tokyo, I think. But I am happy here. In hindsight, I don't regret anything, although I just think as a person I might have liked more New York. But yeah, it was during that time when we were starting to get college acceptance decisions that my dad sent me a YouTube link to this super... I think he had like 700 subscribers at the time. But anyway, this guy named Jiayang Liu. I forgot exactly what the headline was, but it was like... Oh, like reaction video? Yes, that one. So I watched that one. I watched the entire video. I watched every single one of your reactions. And then I was like, wow. Wait. So this guy's going to be my future classmate. So I left a comment on the video. I don't know if you ever responded to it. And then I don't think it was right away, but I know I did cold DM you on Insta. i shot you a text you can probably pull up pull it up but some someday and i think i said something along the lines of like hey man i watched your videos on youtube i thought they're like really cool inspired me i just wanted to let you know like i'm gonna be one of your classmates um and i can't wait to see you in the fall that's amazing what was your response oh let me you might have left me undelivered and you got too many you got too many guys so i found this comment he said Bro, your videos are so good. I got into USC for film production as well. So I'll see you there. And I replied immediately, actually. And I said, thank you so much. See you there. That was dry as f***, dude. Okay. You were like a stranger at that point. You were one of the first people I met before coming to USC. Oh, yeah. Do you plan on doing grad school or you think... you know, after film school, you know, you want to go into the business. I considered like AFI cause it's supposed to be the number one film school or grad school in the world. Right. Um, but I just, I don't know what I'd be doing there besides procrastinating my, like myself at least. Um, although I'm not, not to like hate on grad school and I'm sure there's a lot to learn from there. It's just, I think personally, um, I could definitely see the comfort in still being in school and getting access to all these facilities and being able to make more films. I see the appeal. Every day, the closer I get to graduation, the more I think about whether or not I should stick around for grad school, AFI, or even just here, USC. But I think on the path I am right now, I want to go straight into the industry, preferably at like studio. I consider production companies, I'm still kind of weighing my options, talking to different people, talking to my bosses, professors about the way in. And I do know that the industry isn't doing too well right now, but you know what is. And then all these fears about like AI, taking over jobs. and then like how people say like super cut throat and the barriers of entry are really high. All these fears, you know, that made me consider maybe I'll feel a little safer if I stick with grad school. That's kind of the same thought process that I had for a while. But I think I stuck with, you know, heading straight into the industry in whatever way possible. So I was wondering, what would be your sort of dream career? first job out of college if that was the path that you decided like um whether at the production company or studio like what what would you think you'd be doing that would be a dream but also realistic okay so like a realistic dream a realistic dream it's a realistic dream then i would love to work at one of the big studios um i would say warner i think maybe syncope syncope all right yeah but they haven't they they never have job listings yeah i do i go on a linkedin it's dry yeah i think it's just it might just be nolan and his wife i mean there's also a realistic route of like i've you know you guys know max say love um he was able to work or he's able he was able to crew or i mean i don't know if he's I don't know by the time this video releases if he's still on it or not, but from at least this current moment in time, he's going to be able to crew on The Odyssey, Nolan's upcoming film, and that's literally my dream. I saw your LinkedIn post. Yes, I posted on LinkedIn for those who don't know and who want to check out my LinkedIn. It's the end, Maggie. But if there's any way anyone knows a way for me to hop on set, on Christopher Nolan's set, The Odyssey, I will do anything. I will sweep the floors. I will be a chair. Inanimate object. I will be an inanimate object. I'll be a fucking sea stand. I will Hollywood the fuck out of a flag if I have to. I will be a sandbag. I weigh more sandbag anyway. You cause more too. No, I'd be free. I'd do it. If, if it would let me, I think, but I mean, I don't know. Let's give BN two dollars. Yeah. Yeah. Um, although I know that there's a, there's a way there's Max Salo has done it. I think if you join the IMAX class, um, where you get to shoot on real 35 millimeter IMAX or 70, uh, I think 16 or 70 maybe but I think he's 70 I think he might be developing he says he's developing some new technology with IMAX again after the black and white with Oppenheimer but I mean sorry I meant in USC oh USC oh I think it might be 16 16 I mean it's still it looks great but I think through that I He was referred to IMAX, the company, and then eventually trickled down all the way to Nolan. And that's how he's working on set. Someone's done it before. Yeah, dude. That's your idol, right? What's your favorite Nolan film? Oh, Nolan. My favorite Nolan film? The Prestige. Hey, good pick. I like The Dark Knight. Oh, The Dark Knight. You can't go wrong with The Dark Knight. I gotta go with Memento. It's trademark. Have either of you watched The Following? I have. It's kind of memento, but even less complicated. Have you guys seen Doodle Bug? I have. He's got another one called Spider something. It's very experimental. It was very experimental. The Odyssey is his first fantasy movie right the prestige is kind of in that territory but a lot of his stuff are you know sci-fi and hardcore you know science and future and all that but now he's going towards mythology yeah i'm super excited about that i grew up reading like percy jackson and uh-huh yeah so you know i have to read the odyssey in the high school for english yeah homers yeah how do you think nolan keeps his financials in check I know that he started off as another college student. He didn't even study college. He studied English. English, right, yeah. ICL or King's. I think UCL, right? University College and then, yeah. UCL. I think he was with his wife at the time, and I think they might have produced their first feature together, which he also shot and edited. And then... You know what? That's a good question, but I can only imagine. I know he worked in the camera department at first. I think he was just shooting commercials and TV ads and all that. And then... And he's squabbled together like $8,000, $6,000 and shooting with friends on weekends for fun. And then, yeah, I mean, you got to start somewhere. Yeah, definitely. It's more accessible now than ever, than his time. Oh, yeah. Grab an iPhone. You can do the same, if not better. So, I mean, because like the barriers of entry are so low now, do you think that makes competition amongst filmmakers or aspiring filmmakers harder?

Unknown: 36:56

Yeah.

Speaker 00: 36:57

course i think so everyone's competing for your attention at all times oh yeah it's not just film it's like video video youtube tiktok everything yeah so do you think breaking out the same way like the oldies did is harder youtube is such a strong you know stuff like youtube and tiktok you know you have people um Whoever directed the A24 horror movie, talk to me. They were, the directing duo, I think they were YouTubers. And then they started directing. Oh, talk to me. Sorry. Yeah, with the handshake and the stone thing. Yes. Oh, is that the one with LeMond? Yeah, that one. There's another kid on YouTube. Wesley Wang? No. No, it's actually, it's the King Backroom. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. His stuff is amazing. It's like some of the best horror ever. It's so good. And then A24 scooped it and I bet it's going to be amazing. You talked about LinkedIn earlier. How do you build such a big LinkedIn audience? You're kind of a celebrity on LinkedIn. Hey, I don't think so, but thank you. I happen to know a lot of my peers from back home. with like upperclassmen, underclassmen, I'll hopped on LinkedIn. So I already had that, you know, kind of starter pack. What's your approach to networking though? Um, I'm definitely more like a people in person person. I like, you know, being able to shake them in the hand, look them in the eye, firm handshake, tell them my name is Bien, like muy bien. And that usually earns me a LinkedIn connection. Um, sometimes, you know, Oh, uh, uh, at our last dka meeting i was pitching myself as a production chair and in the middle of my speech i also shout out my linkedin and vimeo just like the same way i did earlier um you know sometimes i'll get people i'll see people follow me and connect with me on linkedin after that surprisingly enough uh and then just everyone i meet um you know i'll Connect with them on LinkedIn just because, you know, USC is a prestigious school. It's always good to connect with whoever you can. You never know where that connection might lead you. Sorry, not to make it sound like I'm very conceited. I'm not just using people for connections. If you meet a new person, do you usually go for the Instagram or the LinkedIn? Well... If we're talking back in the day, I'd go for her LinkedIn or her number. Sorry, her Instagram or her number. Yeah. But if we're talking nowadays, because I'm taking... I'd go for their LinkedIn or Instagram. Well, what do you go for first if you could get one? Are we talking about like now or back then? I'm talking about now. Oh. Yeah. I feel like... Obviously, if you're in a professional setting... I think LinkedIn just feels more appropriate. Otherwise like your number, at the very least their email. Let's say like a mixer, you know, S-E-A, S-E-A. Oh, for sure. Like an Instagram, dude. Or a number. I can kind of gauge. if they'd be the type for Insta number. But usually, almost everyone, I don't know, just by talking to them. Obviously, everyone has a phone number, or almost everyone has a phone number. I know there's a few people who I know don't have any social media at all, in which case... asking them for their insta or their yeah snapper i don't know their myspace i always go for the instagram first because i feel like instagram gives like not just a professional you know layout it also is more personable and then i would go for the linkedin the next time i meet them and then remember the next time yeah instagram is always like a good first step i feel yeah yeah because then instinctually yeah yes maybe it's not so intimate at the same time it kind of gives you a Right, right, right. In your life, what's the dumbest purchase you've made? Dumbest purchase I've made? I don't think I've made any dumb purchases. I'm a pretty smart man when it comes to my finances. Okay. Maybe some film equipment, perhaps? Oh, yeah. Those are expensive? Yeah. Because, like, now I know that I don't really want to DP. Oh, I think that sounds like good. Like, don't splurge too much on camera equipment. Yeah. I mean, I guess, like, you know, it's fine if you want to make your own videography stuff, but no need to buy yourself, like, all these lights, I think. I get it. If you're not DPing, you don't need all that gear. No need for all that camera gear. Unless you want to set up your own studio or podcast. Yeah, okay. No. No, all these gear we... just source from friends to be honest you know that's you saying it's for the jam band actually we just took it upstairs really yeah it's from downstairs it's uh we have a thesis film coming up soon and the light stand that's currently being used is the one we're using wait the same with the line okay yeah theoretically speaking tomorrow uh someone throws a million dollars um into your down your chimney not taxed not taxed Is it trackable? No.

Unknown: 42:14

Not trackable.

Speaker 00: 42:15

What would you spend it on if you had 24 hours to spend it on? It simply appears. Okay. I would first take $10,000 of it, put it in my emergency fund. It's always important to have an emergency fund. And then I'd take $90,000 of it, invest that into... the S&P, right? And then with the remaining $900,000, let me think. I'd save, oh, I'd take $100,000 of that, send it to my parents, you know. Thanks for paying one year of my time. Yeah. And then I'd take $50,000 of that, set that aside for, I don't know, marriage or something. Okay. And with the remaining few hundred thousand, As a filmmaker, I'd probably either invest that into making my own short film, or I guess I could make a feature film with that amount of money, but it'd have to be super micro-budget. But a lot of investing into my future as a filmmaker, either creating a short or financing another short or feature, that would help me make those connections, get into the industry. What would your first feature be? I love, I love genre films. I love, I also love sci-fi and I love thriller films. So something along the lines of that, something that I would really like, you know, project to the world, what my cinematic style is while at the same time, open enough, enough avenues for future projects. Do you feel like, you would lose purpose if you had so much money? Like if you didn't have to worry about money ever again, like would you still pursue film the same way you would? I think so. I think, you know, as like we, you learn with like 310, budget is definitely a very restricting obstacle in the creation of some films, but also gives you like the boundaries. It allows you to use your creative abilities juices in the limits and make something out of that, make the best of what you can. And that kind of challenges yourself, right? Which I think is good. But with that amount of money, I think that would definitely be a reason why it's important to be able to know how to to manage your finances and not just like spend it on a yacht. So it's definitely important to know how to manage your finances, right? And just reinvest that into your future. So you can keep doing what you love to do. Yeah, I think I love what you said. I think on top of that, I think it's important to like really protect your money. Like, have you ever been scammed before? I low-key think so. I've been applying to houses for the next year. academic year and this one house when this one like rental company Remain nameless or no. Yeah, I don't want to you. Would you want to stay in LA after I think realistically? I mean, this is where the heart of the industry is, although it's kind of branching out across the states It's and you know, it's gone international. There's Canada. There's Netherlands France France But like closer to home, you know Vegas Or Arizona. Arizona or Nevada. They're building a new Sony Studios. I think so, yeah. And then obviously Atlanta is another decent hub for filmmaking. New York, obviously, for indie. I do realize there's a trend where a lot of production companies are filming outside of L.A. They're filming in Romania and Europe. That has to do with tax breaks. Tax incentives, yeah. That's a big part of it now. Yeah. So I know L.A. is going to try to come up with incentives of their own to try to reel people back in, especially because with the wildfires situation, People have been certain. It's been like a mass exodus. It's been happening from LA. Yeah. Yeah. And it's been like exacerbated by the fires. It is. Yeah, I know. I agree. Like it is the heart of the entertainment industry. Everyone is here. You know, I drive to my internship and it's like, I just see Universal Studios, Netflix, you know, everywhere just surrounding me. And it's like, it's quite surreal, but it is where everything is. Everything feels done here. You know, it's the best weather too. Yeah. Yeah. I hope you guys enjoy this episode and learn a lot about the financials of being a film producer, director, and how to navigate the film world in film school and outside of film school.