SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome back to Hollywood Blueprint. I'm producer A.K.

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Moore, and I'm your host, Michelle Goldsboro. And today I'm talking to First AD, Xochie Blindmeyer, who I worked with on Animal Kingdom when I was a baby PA, a COVID PA, and she was Zochi. She grew up on movie sets with her parents, and some of her credits you might recognize include insane titles like Terminator 2 Judgment Day, shows like Graze Anatomy, AP Bio, All American, and my personal favorite Aquamarine. Before we fangirl too much, let's get into the interview.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

She also did George of the Jungle.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Hi, Soji. Nice to like actually meet you. Hi, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm excited. Um, we're trying to talk to people who do things that not everyone knows about. And I've worked on a few shows, but you were like the one that everyone kept talking about. So I'm like, still follow this woman. Let me go see her. She'd be interested. So here we are.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

What's social media is all about? You can find that's how I found uh my last job. Heck yeah. I listened to your I listened to China's interview today. And it's funny because I've been working on All American, but when she did her first episode, she wanted to have a screening and she was looking for somewhere to go, like maybe a bar or this. And I was like, you know, I'll ask my friends if they they have a projector and a screen. I said, if you want to do it in my backyard, so you can invite whoever you want, you don't have to pay anything. And my friend said yes, and China said yes. So we had her first episode screening in my backyard. That's so cool. Really fun. A couple of the writers came, a lot of her friends from like her, you know, friends that she had gone to school with and different people.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Yeah. And you like you're busy. I don't know how I had no idea. Like when I was working as a COVID PA, I knew like nothing about what anybody else was doing. And I was like, this is my first time working in COVID, obviously. And then I'm just like this woman, and then you have like 17 other lives. It's impressive. But I'm excited to like actually meet you because I realized that I I think I had like one interaction with you. I remember on Set when you needed a new brick, and Flip was like, I got it. And I was like, No, I got it. And I ran for you. And Taylor's like, girl, go ahead. That's hilarious. And that was it because you were always busy, and that's how that goes. But you were on shameless. Yeah, I was on shameless too, but I was mostly in the office. And then by the end, I was driving Ian McDonald around, and I really didn't get to know anybody else, which is why I didn't know the whole crew knew each other already. So small.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

We had some of the shameless people because they worked both shifts. Like first half of the year was Animal Kingdoms, second half was shameless.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

So we basically shared recognition. And then I said, I'm done. I'm done. I can't PI anymore. You don't make any money. I can't do it. Yeah. But thank you for joining. Zochi Blimeier, welcome to the Hollywood Blueprint. How are you doing today? Great.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Thanks for inviting me.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Yeah, I'm really excited because we are a new podcast, but you are the first person to guest who I've technically worked with, but I never ever like had a conversation with or met on the set during my COVID set PA, any of that those days. And I really don't know anything about what being an AD is. And I know that you've been doing this for a really long time. So I'm very excited to talk with you today. And to just kind of jump right into things, for people who don't know, can you define what a first AD actually does day to day on set? On set.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

The first AD has has been prepping, prepping the episode, making a schedule, working with the director, going picking out locations and all of all of the things you need to do to have ready for when you're shooting. So once I get to the set, I'm kind of dealing with the present, like the day from the beginning to end. We've scheduled it. I need to make sure cast is on time. I've chosen a time with the second AD when they should arrive. We approximate how much time we think a scene might take to do so that we can build our day accordingly. So maybe we have five scenes, you know, some scenes have multiple actors, so that takes a little more time. Then maybe you end the day with a scene that has two people that, you know, might go a little bit quicker. But your goal is you've been given a you have 10 hours to finish the day or 12 hours to finish the day. And your goal is, you know, to do it either on time or ahead of time. And it just my job is to communicate with all the different crew as to when we're moving on or what we're doing next, or you know, just for everybody to get all their ducks in a row and be ready. And that's all really the crew wants is information. So they because they've got their own, they've got their own plans, you know. Yeah. Like the grip department knows they need to build a platform for later in the day, or the electricians want to pre-light something. So if you give them the information as to when and how long we have and this and that, then you turn around and you're like, Oh, you guys already did it. Well, because you told us this is what we were doing today. So you're actually on time.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Wow. I had no idea that you like you you literally set up the day, like you pick the time.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Yeah, that's so what the goal is, you know, and the director has to kind of give you information as to how many shots they want in this scene, or or you know what the goal is. Oh, this is the scene that I have a complicated, I don't know, steady cam shot, you know. Lighting says that'll take me more time because I need to hang the lights, or you know, so you gather a lot of that information if you can ahead of time. So, first off, so you're not surprised, so the crew's not surprised, and it just makes things go smoother.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Yeah, I imagine. Okay, wow. So the other thing that immediately comes to mind is the way I learned about it, which was not true, was if in my head and people who I would speak to would say, Oh, yeah, I'm a set PA and maybe I'll become a first AD and then maybe I'll become a director, but that's not how that works. But also becoming a first AD is a really um logistically challenge. It's not a very creative job as I'm learning. And maybe people don't just fall into that or go, ah yes, I'm gonna grow up and be a first AD. How did this? I know that your mom was involved. I don't know how you came into being in this position. I'd love to learn about like Zoji's career path to becoming a first AD.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Well, it all started back in the dark, back in the dark ages. No, I grew up in this business. You're correct. My mom was a hairdresser, she was a hairdresser to Natalie Wood for like 17 years. She was in the business for 40 plus. My dad was a gaffer, also in the business for over 40 years. They mainly did big features. So I grew up. Um, we would go to location with them. Like I went to uh elementary school in South Dakota on a reservation. I went to uh middle school in Missouri or no, Montana, I don't know, Missouri. Uh, you know, yeah. We did a my dad did a movie in the uh called Day of the Dolphin in the Bahamas. So I went to school there. So we traveled with whichever parent was doing a show, and um, you know, that's kind of how I grew up. And I always imagined that I would get into the movie business when I grew up. But in the when I was in the middle of high school, they decided to get out of the business, and we moved to New Hampshire and they bought a country inn and country. Yeah. They thought they would spend more time together, but the in business is actually a little bit more difficult than making a movie. Um so you're just on call 24 hours a day. Yeah. So my dad would leave and he'd go do a movie now and then. My mom she left a couple of times, but she was happy being an innkeeper. And then I ended up going to college because everybody back there goes to school. I went to the University of New Hampshire. I was a math major. I get out of school. Now what am I gonna do? You know, I could have been something exciting like an actuary, which somebody that makes statistics, like if you're a smoker and you how old will you live till four? Or I could have been not, and I'm kind of I'm kind of being mean like we need those people, but it wasn't such an exciting job because I still thought I wanted to be in the movie business. I ended up going to Boston. I got my first real job. And I had worked at the inn, but after college, I got a job at at the Better Business Bureau of Boston, helping work on computers. I spent two years doing that, a regular like 8 30 to 4 30 every day, riding the subway until I was like, this is not what I want to do. So I got in my car, packed it up with a friend, drove out to California where my sister lived out here. I ended up my first job, my dad came out to do a movie. Um, what was the first the first one? Might have been a movie of a movie of the week on Catalina Island. I was a stand-in for my dad. Wow. And my mom even worked on the movie. I don't know. We were all on the movie. And then I did another show as a stand-in for him called Action Jackson. And then the next, I think the next thing that came up was my dad got a movie called Red Heat, and he said, You should call this producer that I met and tell him, you know, to say hi and tell him I had you call. So I called this guy, Dirk Petersman, and he's no longer with us. But he hears the funny thing. I said hi, this is Sochi Blymeyer. Or and whoever answered the phone heard the name Sochi, sent me right to Dirk's office because the executive producer in a different office had an assistant named Sochi. So she just whoever answered the phone assumed uh the executive producer. So I got right to the producer. That's lucky. Yeah, I said who he was. He invited me to come in for an interview just to meet me. And he said, if you want to be a director, direct. If you want to be a producer, produce. If you want to do anything else, you got to start at the bottom and work your way up. Wow. Okay, so not much has changed. Exactly. So he exactly. So he introduced me to the first AD, a man named James Dyer. And luckily, Dirk actually wanted to do the schedule on a computer because this new computer program had been invented, film production toolkit. Um, and Dirk had just happened to have two computers that looked like sewing machines, these compact computers. And he was willing to let me use one. So he introduced me to the first AD who didn't know anything about computers and said, you know, I'd like to get this on the computer. So she knows computers that we interviewed. I got the job. So my very first PA job was getting to prep this movie, learn how to, if you've ever seen those boards, those cardboard schedules, the first AD would do the schedule in the old-fashioned uh schedule things, and then he would give it to me and I would input it into the computer in this scheduling program. So I knew I didn't, I'd never been a PA, I'd never, I'd only been on set, well, as a kid, and then as a stand-in, I didn't know what this job was supposed to be, but here I was learning the schedule of the movie, and then it ended up. This was a movie called Red Heat that started in Chicago.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Is it bad that I don't know this movie? Should I know this movie? Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Belushi.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Yeah, you're gonna love it. That's not to love about Arnold movies. But this movie is is like the trailer for I want to be a PA and get into the business. Uh so my dad was on the movie, as I said, they weren't gonna take me with them to Chicago, but this is back before there were locals everywhere. So they take the whole crew, but they weren't gonna take me. But my dad said, Well, if you can get your flight, you can I've got two beds in my hotel room, we'll figure it out. You can stay with me. So I did, and I like my first here I am. I've been in the office, I know the schedule, but I haven't actually been on the set as a PA. And they stick me on some corner in Chicago near the grip truck, and you know, they're like, All right, just keep it quiet. And uh, you know, they'd say rolling, I'd be like, Rolling. Yeah, like like no, I was not. I mean, now, no problem. Yeah, you found your voice. Somehow I got shifted to base camp and I ended up running base camp. Okay. So I I went from not really knowing how to lock things up, but then they figured out that I was actually really good at wrangling people, and I ended up running base camp, helping with the production report, and then when the schedule needed to be changed, I would go get my little compact computer and change the schedule.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

So so they thought I did a good enough job that they paid for my flight home back to Los Angeles. I worked in Los Angeles, still running. Well, I won't tell you this part. Um you have to now. So in in the old days, it was known that the like the train DGA trainee was basically put at base camp and ran the actors. Nowadays, they bring him to the set and teach him how to do background or yeah, variety of things. They don't just like stick the kid there. But we had a trainee, so they said, All right, so too, the trainee is gonna run base camp and you're gonna be on set now. I was like, great, you know, I did so good the first time. Um, so the problem is that trainee was very big on getting people to set, and he went to Jim Belushi's trailer one day and went bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Jim opened the door, like yelled at him, like, don't knock on my door like that. I will just ask me and I'll come to the set. I get the call. But uh, so you're going back to base camp to run base camp.

unknown 14:08

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Uh Jim was Jim was fine, but he did not like the change, and he's like, uh he wanted me back there, so I ended up finishing. So I finished, um, we finished the Los Angeles portion, and they were gonna do they had a couple weeks in Hungary that they were gonna go to do. And at the end of the movie, I get this, it was around Christmas time and the end of the movie, and I go talk to Arnold and I get this Christmas present. It was, I don't know, it was like perfume or something, or he was he was big into World Gym sweatshirts. So I he gave me a gift, and in the card it said, Thanks for everything, da-da-da-da. PS see you in Europe. Oh, and I went to him, I said, No, they don't take PAs to Europe, but you know, appreciate. I said that'd be nice. And he says, All right, we'll see. Excuse me, the Christmas holidays goes by, and in January I get this call from Dirk Petersman that says, Okay, you're going to Europe, but you're flying coach. And I was like, uh, yeah, no problem. Give me some wealth to hold the chickens. Uh, you know, whatever you want. I had I had never been to Europe. Yeah. So the story is from what I gathered later, that Arnold was went skiing with this executive producer. They were on top of a mountain, and he kind of said, you know, the PAs one day may be a producer and they will remember if you've been good, you know, if you help them along the way. His point being if you, you know, be good to the PAs because eventually they will rise and you may end up working with them again. Yeah. Like, thank you, Arnold. Oh, wow. That's amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

I mean, yes, that I think people forget that now. Be kind to whoever, no matter what. It's a good lesson to remember.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Yes, for sure. But um, so I got to go to Europe, went to Hungary, so I kind of did the call sheets and took care of the cast and crew from America. Wow. My uh very first day is I'm like all bundled up. It's winter. Uh I'm the last one to arrive, and someone leads me through, and uh suddenly I'm in this locker room, and I'm like, I look to one side and there's all these like naked men, and then then the other way there's all these naked ladies, and then they show me through Naharam and my like Eddie Bauer Big Jack, and I walk in and it's a steam room. The scene is um like a Hungarian, I don't know, Russian steam bath.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

All the guys, all the guys, all they were wearing were loincloths, and the girls were naked.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

No. Ew, man, you must have over your career, you must have found yourself in like the most interesting rooms and spaces that you're just like, this is only a thing because of this job. It is. Anyway, that was my first movie. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

This is great. I'm gonna have a good time in this business. Um I well, I guess you are since you're still here. Summons Morgan. Well, here's the thing I continued to be a PA. I did like um, I did enough movies to get 400 days as a PA. And I turned those 400 days into the Director's Guild producer training program, where where you turn your stuff into. And at the time it was 400 days, and you had to just have proof of working on the show. So but you had to get letters from one from the company, like say an executive producer, and one from the actual production, the director. So I successfully got letters, and the letters had to say Sochi Belly Meyer ran base camp. You couldn't say I assisted in running base camp because they said, well, then it looks like maybe you got coffee for the person that was running Basecamp. I was hired as a PA on Terminator 2. Um that sentence is crazy. Okay. Well, I was well, it gets better because I was hired on Terminator 2. Same producer Dirk Petersman. He came back into my life. I worked on the movie right before we were gonna break for Christmas. Um, they said they were gonna change things up. I had my paperwork in to the DGA. Dirk says, let me make a call and see if they can hurry along the approval. And if they can, then you can be the second second because we're gonna need a second second. He did. DGA did. So January 1991, I joined I joined the DGA and started uh Terminator 2 as the second second. So that was my first okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Obviously, the introduction quick question is all of these acronym terms are popping up for anyone who has no idea what we're talking about. Director's Guild? The Director's Guild also a first 80 compared to a second second. What what does all that mean?

SPEAKER_00 18:58

So when you join the director's guild, you start as a second, second assistant director. If you see the credits for like an English movie, you'll see third assistant director, but here it's second-second. We don't know why. Second, second assistant director. And then when you're ready to move up, you would move to a second AD or otherwise known as a key second assistant director. And then when you have enough days, which you do have to accumulate another amount of days, you can then join or move up to first assistant director. Uh and then the next position would be a unit production manager, which is the person in the office working with the budget and hires and fires and all those that but as a assistant director, you don't learn anything about being a production manager. So that's the direction you go. But each job, like the second ADs, don't really learn how to be a first AD. Like none of the jobs do you learn before you're actually that job.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

And that's where the DGA stops in the AD production manager side. The other side of the DGA is the directors. Okay. So being an assistant director does not lead you to being a director.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Yes, I have I learned that one working on set.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Yeah. Many, many ADs want to be a director. Yeah. And some successfully do make that move, but it's not, you have to direct. If you want to direct, go direct. If you want to be an assistant director, you gotta work your way up. Right. And is there a reason, or it's just that's just how things work? It's well, it started as, and I'm not the as the director's guild, and because they had their teams, somehow we were lucky enough to be folded into that union. Gotcha. Okay. But we were never really it we it's like a it's not a lateral, I don't know. It's a it's a lateral, lateral but up movement. So yeah, it's an interesting thing because people assume, oh, oh, so is your next step? You're gonna direct a movie? I'm like, Yeah, well, that's what you think. That's just if uh Michelle says, Hey, Sochi, I got a movie, will you direct it? Then I can say, Yeah, whether I have experience or not. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

It's just like the career trajectories just make no sense.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

No, whatever. Most of them you don't do the job. I mean, yes, as a first AD, you know, if this first AD got sick, they might go, Hey, someone come run the set. And the the good and the bad is no matter how good or bad you are at your AD job, if the crew is a normal Hollywood crew, they're gonna get the show made, whether you're good or bad.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Like you can tell when it's a well-oiled machine, too, even as PA. I remember that very clearly on Animal Kingdom. I was like, wow, like I I remember, and maybe this is just me because I was a little bit green still when I was a COVID PA, but there were a lot of men on set, and then there was you, and you knew what you knew your shit, you knew what you were doing, and it was like, let's do it. I was like, damn, girl. It's very impressive.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

You you have you if you know, if you know what you're supposed to do. To be doing, and you have these great people. I can't tell you how to do your job, but I can tell you when we need it done.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

So obviously, being any kind of assistant director or second assistant, like what all of these things, uh, you know, logistic the logistics side that makes sense. I is there anything about this job that people might completely misunderstand about it?

SPEAKER_00 22:22

As you're working your way up, we are not the fun department. We're not, we don't get to do all the fun. I don't even know what fun stuff is. I mean, I do, but I have fun making the schedule. I have fun when the schedule works and when everybody's nice. Um, no, because as a PA, especially, you might have to go stand, go stand on the corner and make sure no one crosses through. And there's something really fun gonna happen behind you, camera, but you have to, as a friend recently said, he goes, Yeah, I tell them you have to face the enemy. And and not everybody understands that because they're like, no, but the I want to watch the scene. And then some ranger walks and they're like, Who just walked through the set? Who was locking up? It's Sochi, who was locking up? I'm like, I get um, so there's that. Sometimes it's just there's just so many different jobs that aren't they're all entry entry-level jobs. But if you come in and you've gone to film school and you've gotten to direct things at school and or produce or whatever, some people come in with that, like, oh well, I really want to direct. I'm like, Well, why don't you get me a walkie-talkie first? And you're like, Okay, that's cute.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Here's your walkie-talkie.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Yeah, you don't get to talk to the actors. Um and uh unless you're running first team, yeah, and we'll work you'll work your way up in like 10 years, you know.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

Yeah, you're like, good luck. Let's see if you make it even a season.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

But if you embrace like just the job, and I I tell people, I know it's no fun to stand in that empty hallway and keep people quiet. But when we're not doing something and you're not busy, come in and see what's happening. So you you don't feel like like sometimes even the office, like, oh, I don't know any of those people on the set, or you know, yeah, I've never seen what you guys are doing. I'm like, it's a great show. You should come down, you should come check it out. I mean, I know some people love the office and they don't want to come down, but they know they're making part of a show. But I think there's certain departments there's a little bit of a disconnect.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Not I mean, oh my gosh, I get it. Because it's two very different worlds. Unless you're driving unless like when I was a PA on shameless, unless you're driving like the director to set for some reason, you just you have no, you're not even cleared to go near the set. Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Like on uh All American, they'd come to the set and be like, come closer. Do you want me to take a picture of you on the set? And they'd be they're so cute. What's challenging these days? Like I said, I got in when the DGA was 400 days. I got right into the West Coast where I live, and I became a second second. I did the work, I did the paperwork, all of that. But one director that I worked with said, you know what, Sochi, I'm so glad that you're in the director's guild now. But when I signed those letters, they told me that there were a couple loopholes that they were closing up because of you. What does that mean? Well, somehow they created this uh third area, which is nowadays, if you go the PA route, you have to get like 600 days. You have to send them to New York, even if you live here, you get a and and they can be anything. They I believe they just send 600 days worth of proof. New York office approves it. Then they have to do what's called third area, which is like 150 days out of town. So if you live here, you have to go find a home in Atlanta. No, yeah. You have to meet, you have to meet ADs there, or New Mexico, or New Orleans, or wherever you want to Chicago and get 150 days, or you have to get a bunch of commercial days. Or I mean it's I may all my facts may not be correct, but it's not you just have to go to some other land and find work and just do why what my PAs on Animal Kingdom went off to Atlanta. I introduced him to like the one person I knew that was a nice first aid D there that might be able to help him out, and she really did. I mean, cool.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Wait, do I know who it is? Who was the guy? Greg Demura. Was he on the last season?

SPEAKER_00 26:30

No, because he was but Greg went, my friend Ronnie got him some work. He stayed there, but he had to, you know, his fan his mom was here, his dogs were here, he found a place there, worked his way as a PA to being the additional second AD to getting into the director's guild. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Yay, we love when people help people out.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Yeah, I couldn't do much, but I got him a couple days.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

Yeah. Well, okay, so speaking of all American, you've obviously worked across a lot of seasons, and I'm wondering if your approach to how you help a show find its rhythm has that changed or evolved from your first season to where you are now? On that show?

SPEAKER_00 27:12

That show when I joined, like I I had worked with NK, the showrunner that China had talked about on bone on Bones. Bones, I had just filled in on Bones and I had met this great woman. She was a writer on that show, NK. So we kept in touch through social media and all that. And when I was looking for work after Animal Kingdom, I just sent her a message, hey, I'd love to work with you again if anything comes up. And she said, Oh, just happens we have a position, first AD position open on my new spin-off, All American Homecoming. Nice. Let me set you up with the producer. They end up hiring me on Homecoming first season. And first seasons of shows are known to be challenging because you're putting a whole new crew together, new cast, all that stuff. So it was it was challenging. We got it done, and then I got the call. Hey, we're thinking you might be a better fit for All American. Would you like, would you like to go to All American? And I was like, Yes. It sounds great. So they set me up with an interview with those, that producer and um and production manager, and I got hired on that. And the difference between a brand new show with a lot of new heads of department on homecoming to a show that had already done four seasons. All the crew was basically the same. They had the sets they knew, they knew what they you know, what they wanted, how the how to light different people, and and the the I walked in there and like I I could have been just some dumb post in the yard and it would have just run. Oh wow. Maybe I helped maybe I helped a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

You're like, I do I even need to be here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

But it was it was a lot of a lot of fun. And the crew sometimes when you join like all American um Animal Kingdom was the same way. Um when I came in, because I came in on season four.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

And the crew was just like, oh, all right, great. You know, it wasn't it some shows that you come in, it's not that necessarily I don't know, the crew is kind of just they they know things evolve and change. ADs tend to change more than any other department, um for no reason. I don't know. Um so I've replaced a lot of people. There's been a couple times I've been replaced, but um and it's it's like, well, we decided to go a different direction. Um but so Animal Kingdom was, you know, welcomed with open arms, and as an old American even more so it and in fact a couple seasons ago, one of the actors said something like, Yeah, you've been here, you've been here, you've been here the whole time, Soji. I was like, No, like I joined in season five, five, and he goes, Really? Wow. I said, Yeah, do you remember who the other ADs were? And he's like, Not really. No way, and then I suggested a couple names. He goes, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

And then you're that good at your job that they don't remember life before it.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

And then one of the other but no, it was great. I'm like, I love that I'm the only one you remember.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

You remember me forever because then he asked the one of the other actors came over and he goes, Do you remember who the other first ADs were? And that guy was kind of like, Oh yeah, there was uh like they came up with a couple names and it was kind of it was it was fun for me because I was like, All right, that's the way I want to be remembered. I I want to be the one that's remembered, not the hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:39

I mean, if nothing else, your hair is kind of white memorable. But that's amazing. Okay. I love that. They're like, we don't know what day it is. Like, when did you start?

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

I love that. Okay, so obviously there are gonna be bad days on set, and this is great for me because I'm learning a lot about what it's like to be in the AD department at all. What does a bad day look like on set for you? And how do you save the day? Like, I don't know. It's like anything from because I'm thinking about like the management side of things where it's like if you send a client to a coffee that got rescheduled, you're gonna have a really, really bad day, but it's usually because like your boss is gonna be really stressed out and the client's gonna be upset. But I wonder what that looks like when you're on physical production.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Well, I mean, a lot of times it's you know, the sun's going down and we still have a scene to complete.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

Or we're really need to finish this, but the actor had a spill on their shirt, you know, and we can't shoot their close-up or yet. And you're like, and and you're on location, so they had to walk down to the trailer and get, you know, like nothing, the things when there's a problem, things appear to go super slow motion, and then you have the director that's starting to panic or not panic, like both ways are happened, but you know that time is running out. It's usually time.

SPEAKER_01 32:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Or or there's an actor that's sick, and okay, what do we do? But it's kind of more like my job is to figure out all right, what's the next step? Oh, actor's sick, call the showrunner. You know, is this act if it's a group thing, is this actor, can we take him out of this? He only had the one line, or he walks in at the end. If you need him, can we do it a different day? Or, you know, then they're making the decision. If it's the director has we've gone over for whatever reason, first half of the day, and now we have less time. It's like with the director and the cameraman, the DP. The three of us get together and like, all right, how are we gonna finish the day? And you know, sometimes it's put on like when you're the AD, you figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Um, and I'm generally stay the same calm self that I am right now. That's cool. Or I should say 95% of the time, unless there's chaos on the set, then I might raise my voice.

SPEAKER_02 32:56

But generally, so then you know it's trouble when Zochi's raising her voice.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Yes, that's correct. Okay, um, you're like, all right, so Mr. Director or Miss Director, um, we only have an hour. We have one more scene, we planned an hour and a half, but you know what we you know, we need to figure it out. And you bring the DP in, okay. Well, we can light this one side because he's standing up against the wall. Uh you know, sometimes you have the directors like, well, I don't want to stand up against the wall. You're like, okay, well, then you still only have an hour. So whatever you need to do. I remember on Homecoming, we were on the baseball field and we had one scene left. Sun was we had like maybe half an hour, 20 minutes. It was a dialogue scene with two people, but on sports days, also on all of we had three cameras. So we set the three cameras up so all the coverage was done in one shot. And that's when you really have to depend on the DP for lighting-wise, because especially if it's a lady, you don't want to do terrible lighting on them. The guys are a little easier to light on and you know, because you want everybody to look pretty. Yeah, the guys are better at looking pretty with less specific lighting. Okay. Um, and you know, you so you depend on and you have to have a cooperative, let's figure this out team. There might be a DP that says, no, well, we're not gonna get the shot because I only light this way. And then you're like, okay, I haven't had those people I haven't had in my life for a while. But okay. Yeah, it's definitely for me, I inside I might be very calm on the outside, but inside everything's like go, you know, churning like that.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

I can't imagine like the calm you have to be, and also it's making me think of like almost the support position you have to put yourself in for actors. Maybe like if they're seasonal, it's a little bit easier if they're first time and you're like, okay, keep your eyes on them, but just you gotta kind of like clock everybody. Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

And the thing is, you can't for the actors, sure, we're short on time, but they might need time to warm up. You gotta like I will go up to the cast and say, Listen, I don't want you to feel like you're being rushed, but you kind of are time-wise, but we're making it work, we're setting it up. I'm sorry, you know, that that's the time that we have, but I don't want you know, I just want you to know so you're not surprised when you go out to the set.

SPEAKER_02 35:23

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

And everybody's running around.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

And you generally, if you go and talk to them, they're they understand. My department is the one that usually gets the finger pointed at and the blame for things that aren't like I said, I don't do any of the other jobs.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

So I'm not the cause of something being slow or an actor not getting dressed or forgetting their jacket. I'm not the one, if you know, if I could and run back and get the jacket myself, I would, but those aren't my jobs. So my job is just to get the information out, hope that people are listening and paying attention, which generally they are. And if you know, you kind of gotta plan a little bit of what if something happens, especially if it's a big day, like it's a wedding, you have everybody in dresses and makeup and hair, and you have to plan for time to touch people up.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

What about like like an explosion? Like, I remember I don't even know what it was, but there was a day on Animal Kingdom, we were in the middle of nowhere in LA and we were blowing up a van. And I remember everyone was like standing back. We had like this water tanker just in case. Oh, yeah, and everyone was like recording it, and I was like, Oh, I've never seen this before. And then I'm thinking, like, what happens if it doesn't go right? And then that's it. That's that's the shot that you got.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Oh no, we didn't go right. No, and then I mean, I don't know which one you're there was one that the ice cream van was blown up. That wasn't me, but then there was one that was like it was like an old 1970 something van on the side of a little hill. I think it had to roll down or something, but yeah, it did. Um it didn't go right. Then we needed a tow truck, and we had to, and the tow truck, the sand was too squishy, and yeah, I think we went back and did it again because then over on the other side of things, like a an actual fire was happening. Not not us, but you know, where we were like was it acting or somewhere out there there was a a fire, so they're like, Do we need to evacuate? Like, do we need to go? So we had to wrap, but I think we did as much work as we could, and then we were told we had to leave. So yeah, we ended up going back and shooting more. But that's one of those. I wish I remember that. Also, the thing is, like, even though I'm the one running the set, I can't make the final decision. Like, that's it, guys, we're wrapping. I mean, I could, but probably wouldn't be there the next day. Right. And you get in situations where there's no cell phone service, or yeah, you know, or suddenly you can't find the producer because they're in a meeting, or you know, yeah, that could even happen when you're on stage and you're like, I need to know if I can go into overtime. And you're there's always like a big scramble at the end, and sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, but you can't um you can't plan for everything. No, no, you just some things you just gotta, you know, I like the Animal Kingdom people, they would never throw me under the bus. It's a great all-American, it's unless I truly was the one that didn't make the right decision. But you know, you know, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 38:26

Yeah, I just remember that. I'm like, wow, we are blowing up a van. People were like really stressed out. And I was just like, some of the scenes or days I would like, you know, because when you're at COVID PA, there's only so much you need to do at all times. I'm like, who can I like kind of hover near and shadow? I loved it when um our like COVID nurse was this woman named Emily, and when she wasn't on set, I would like stand kind of near you and be like, okay, how what is this job? How did you do this? And it was, you know, you're in this like super old house with all this like vintage stuff that I've never seen before because it's like before me, and by the time I was alive, it didn't matter anymore. I'm just like the way it was just it was very cool to watch you work, and you were the only example that I had of that because I didn't work on set on shameless. And when I was on Reasonable Doubt, I was a props PA. So you really are just with props, and that's it. So that was like my first exposure to everything, and it was very cool. And I was just like, wow, the logistics must be nuts, especially if you're blowing up a van or anything that involves the elements.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

I mean, those are the kind of that show we were always doing action. We were always doing something, something that needed the right like needed meetings about special effects, needing meetings about stunts and and vehicles. And so that show that's what they did. So everybody was doing safety stuff and how much gas we put in, well, you know, this and this and this. There's other shows that you don't do all that all the time, and that's when it's kind of fun to watch people like, oh my god, we're gonna light a birthday candle. Like, what are we what are we gonna do? Do we have to get the firemen? Do we have to you know like hold on, guys? It's not that serious. We can have a meeting about it and figure it out, and you can't be, you know, you can't be too well. I'm kind of end up being a little bit sarcastic, but you you realize, oh, they've never done this before. Ah we're gonna teach them that it's not a it's not that it's not a big deal, but it's not, you know, we can plan for it. Yeah, yeah once we plan for it, everyone will know what we're doing and it'll go perfectly. But yeah, so there's the different kinds of shows you've like I I have never worked on a uh multicam show, but I've heard that it's always funny when they go out on location. Yeah, I mean sitcoms don't generally go out, but when they do, I hear it's like, oh my god, we're moving the truck and we're like people are calm.

SPEAKER_02 40:52

I mean, yeah, is there a type of project you want to work on that you haven't done? I want to work on one of my shows.

SPEAKER_00 40:59

Um hell yeah, you do. I did a um a short film a few years ago that I wrote. I wrote and produced it, and someone else directed it, but um it was it was here, shot at my house, so I was also the decorator. It was uh it was called Hey Alexa. Like, what if Alexa was a real person? Oh my god. But she didn't have a computer or phone. All she had was the stuff in her office. She's a real person in an office that has like a record player and a piano and a bunch of books, and and people would call in. So it was just her and all these voices, like you know, anything from playing my favorite music to Gramps telling her his kids are coming, just uh but anyways, the first shot, the video village was here in my office, and I'm standing there, and uh, I think even China said something just watching what you wrote be suddenly be on film being created, and you're like, I wrote that. Yeah, look, it's it's real, it's actually what I wrote coming to life.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

So I have a lot did that feel amazing?

SPEAKER_00 41:59

It did. I almost like draw tears to my eyes because of like, because you know, I've been around for a long time and I've always worked on other people's shows and helped get, and and that's my job, so I'm fine with that. But then to be able to do something that I wrote was pretty pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 42:14

Yeah. So I bet. And I know that there was an interview you did at some point where you mentioned that you somehow don't think you said, somehow I don't think I'm a writer, and I'm wondering, because obviously anyone who looks you up can see that you do a lot of personal endeavors and you've been around Hollywood a lot.

SPEAKER_00 42:32

Well, the thing is, I've been on enough shows and watched enough shows that the writing is really great. Like, you know, the like that was a great dialogue, that was great scene. Sure, the actors are acting it, but you gotta give them something to to read. And it's not that I can't write, it's more that I think the things that I've written that I have are good fun ideas. And if I found somebody to produce them, you know, I have you know, I have a couple feature scripts, I've got a half-hour comedy. I've been working on this documentary for now 10 years. Oh my gosh. And that one's been in post for eight years. Well, what is it about? Well, it's called Red Dog and Bates. It's about these two men that walked from Los Angeles to Mexico City in 1958-59, and well, they they didn't really have any money. There were just two guys that one of them was working at Disney. He was a photographer, but he saw all his friends getting married and having kids, and he's like, that's not what I want to do. And the other one, the other one was my dad, but I didn't actually know about this story until I met the other guy 12, 13 years ago. That my dad had been separated from my mom. He was working as a locksmith, wasn't happy with his job or life. He found out this other guy was planning this trip and um called him up and said, I want to go with you. So they weren't friends, they were just two guys that were like, Not happy with their lives and wanted to do something. So they pack up and start walking. And they they uh didn't really have any money. They the guy brought a camera, a tripod, and a timer. So when I met him, I met the guy in like 2012, Red Dog, William Red Dog Time, and he had just his house in the Hollywood Hills had burnt down.

SPEAKER_02 44:21

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 44:22

And he the only thing that survived was like this cabinet that had this drawer of some of his pictures, like some of the things had gotten burnt, but like 250 of his photos, his journal, and many of the papers that he saved from Mexico were in it. So he started trying to track down Bill Bates, found out he had already passed away, found my stepbrother who invited me to this lunch that was gonna be with the guy that walked with dad to Mexico. That's how I found out about the story. He opens up this photo album with all these amazing pictures of the two of them. They look like movie photos of them in the desert. So I got to know him. Turns out he went to the same high school as my mom. They had gone on a date back in whenever the 1940s, I don't know, 50s. And I asked him if I could do this documentary.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:09

Which he said yes, because he had wanted to do one. He had tried to do one before. I got to interview him, got to interview a lot of his old friends, and then he actually got sick. And I never got to interview him again. But the next year I took his journal and eventually I got my dad's journal, started at the top of Mexico, and drove through the Grande Sierto all the way down to Mexico City and found people that they had stayed with. And if not those people, if they weren't alive, we found their some of their families with the photos that I have had of his. We matched up like the places where those photos were taken.

SPEAKER_02 45:43

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

Yeah. And we found some great, great people. Found this little boy, little boy, this picture he has. Um, there's an island outside of Puerto Villarta called Yalapa. And someone said, These pictures look like they were taken there. So we go over and we find this lady on the beach and show her the pictures, and she goes, This looks like, I don't know, she said some name, and we're like, Really? Okay. And she takes us on this. We're like the Pied Piper. We kept picking up people. Yalapa is like this little village on this island, and we're walking through, and she's asking, doesn't this look like him? And people are like, Oh yeah, finally we find this guy. He's just sitting on the side of this wall, and she shows him this picture, and he like his hands were shaking and teared up. And now we didn't have a name or anything. We just had this picture of these three boys in a canoe, and this kid was probably like three years old. So now he's 60 something years old. He's seeing a picture of himself that he's never seen before. Oh my gosh. And he was so like, I don't know what we did to him, the emotional, but we did get him on camera saying, Hi, my name is Jonas. I was born in Yalapa. This is me in the picture. Yeah. So those were the kind of things that happened. So anyways, I have all this footage. Yeah, like this really long, really long, rough cut, but and I've uh funded it all myself, but I really need some lottery ticket to oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 47:09

I mean, I'm invested.

SPEAKER_00 47:10

Jeez, that's production money, incredible edit, and get music and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

So it's a really good story. I just as back to like being a director, or it's you know, I don't know why I chose a documentary to be the first thing I was gonna make because there's no rhyme or reason like people don't speak different. It's not dialogue like that. You've written, so it's not like scene one says this, Michelle says this. It's like I uh yeah, all Americans obviously ended, so I'm waiting for the phone to ring too for yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

Trine and I talked a little bit about Sadie's job, yeah. Okay, fingers crossed. I mean, hey, you've been successful for this long, which is really impressive considering how hard it is to work in Hollywood. And it's since I started in 2019, it's never not been hard to like stay.

SPEAKER_00 48:01

It is hard these days. I mean, I've been very lucky through the most recent COVID and strike and all that because I had Animal Kingdom and All American. Yeah, and a lot of people didn't have an ongoing show.

SPEAKER_02 48:13

Yeah, it's nice if you have like a little bit of infrastructure to back you up, I think is what people have learned. And even then you might lose it and then you're a little bit screwed. But I guess for a good way to close it out, after so many years of working on sets, what still excites you about? Is it like the first day walking on to set and getting it going? Or like what is the thing that makes you go like, yeah?

SPEAKER_00 48:36

It's you know, it's when I went from second AD to first AD, is anybody really gonna listen to me? You know, like like what what is it? But the coolest thing was when you're like, okay, you know, everything's ready, and you're like, all right, here we go. You say, here we go. All those people go away. The camera operator gets onto his camera, the boom guy puts the poll up. It's like all you have to say is like, here we go, okay, let's roll. And all these people just, you know, it doesn't matter who you are, you know, you've got it's just it's really cool because then and the actors, you know, are just waiting for action. They, you know, everybody's doing their job, and it's all when you're just saying, like, all right, rolling. And yeah, it's like, oh my god, it's happening. And to see and and to see something fun being created.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

And somehow it's a cohesive unit, and it will never not shock me how it works, but it somehow works because if you're good at your job, you're good at your job, and you are clearly very good at your job.

SPEAKER_00 49:33

People are like, What are all these people doing? I'm like, Just you know, just watch.

SPEAKER_02 49:36

No, my first time was probably on Shameless when I drove Ian McDonald once to set it, and it was like shameless had been, it was the last season, and shameless had been shameless for a while. And I was like, Oh my god, I'm here. This is so and I like stayed and hovered on the side and I was like watching them, and then they were like, Goldie, where are you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I remember that. I don't, I don't, yeah, it it never gets old ever, which is I guess why we're all right.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

I grew I grew up in it, always had fun. And you know, I I would originally, like I said, before all the local places have crew, you got to travel with everybody, and you spent the weekends or you know, you'd work six days a week on like Geronimo. We're in Moab, Utah for the summer. And on Sundays we'd go jeeping or Wave Runner or play softball. And you kind of like like if you asked me how was the set, I'd be like, I'm not actually sure. I know there was a lot of sand and dirt. We got to go jeep, like it was like this really cool, fun experience that all the crew was on location, and it didn't matter where you were to have everybody there getting to do things.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

Soji, thank you so much for giving me so much of your time and having this chat and telling me and whoever finds this podcast about your life. It's like rejuvenating to like this is also why I'm doing it because I'm like, where's the joy in Hollywood? And it's it's like in you, like it's right here.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

So this is very cool. There's still there's still joy in Hollywood. Um thanks for having me. That was a lot of fun. Um I wish you very much success with your podcast. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 51:12

Thank you so much for listening andor watching. We really appreciate it. We hope you learned something. If you think that you or somebody you know might be good on uh the podcast, please go ahead and reach out to us. We don't mind. We want to book everybody who we can.