Episode 2 | Teddy Frederick: Don't Blink

In this episode of the True to the Game Podcast, Teddy Frederick shares his mindset and the inspiration behind his creativity. He speaks about his fascination with understanding how the world around him works and how he uses those observations as inspiration for his creative work.

The conversation explores a deeper side of his approach to art and film, while highlighting the versatility and creativity that can emerge when you see the entire world as a canvas.

In this episode:

- Teddy speak about the importance of believing in what you do .

- How his surroundings, experiences, and observations influence his creative ideas.

- He talks about his fascination with understanding how things work and observing the world around him.

- His childhood experience and how his creativity started.

- Teddy discusses how he thinks about creativity and the way he approaches his work.

- Part 1 of a film series called "Don't Blink" and the reason he decided to create the film.

- How his work demonstrates how one person can express themselves through multiple creative outlets and mediums.

This episode offers an insightful look into Teddy Frederick’s creative mindset, his curiosity about the world, and the experiences that inspire his work across art, film, photography, and other forms of multimedia expression.

Drop a comment below and share your thoughts!!

About the Podcast

The T2TG Podcast is hosted by Kevin Cox. Through stories, interviews and real conversations, the podcast highlights how the lessons from everyone's journey, no matter the career, translate into resilience, purpose, and success.

Watch the video version on YouTube and Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@T2TGPodcastChannel

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true2thegames-podcast/id6785093254

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033FQitd3xpvN6R4ZQaDsZ?si=8f7c282b444c4384

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Back again with another episode on True to the Game Podcast. We're shooting episode two with a visionary in the art game here in Grenada. His name is Teddy Federick. You know what I mean? I've known for a while. You know, it's way before I went on my scholarship. You know, we've kept in contact, I wouldn't say like every single day or every, you know what I mean? But like, you know, ever so often me and him, we kind of um tapping with each other, stuff like that. And I feel like to do episode two, because I don't want people to think like the podcast is strictly about basketball, it's really about people on their walk and their own journey in life, and just try to inspire and motivate uh the listeners. Um so you know, I got my boy Teddy here. You feel me? Um, it's been a while since we linked up, bro. For real, for real, for real, for real. So just want to know what you've been up to, you know what I mean? How you feeling, how you been.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Man, you know how you know how I stay. Um, I'm always trying to like make something, you know, artwise. But coming back to like last time we linked, bro, like seriously, I'd probably say it's like Germany. Like, I I saw you doing some stuff out there, and I was just like, yo, Greens guys out here too. Yeah, you know what I mean? And yeah, I think we've always had this like little on and offs where you're somewhere in the world, bro. Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean? And I'm trying to find out if I'm in your area, you know, bro. Yeah, so yeah, and I think that's just kind of been our relationship for that, like, for that eight years too. Yeah. And when you say you're coming home and what you're trying to do, I was like, yeah, bro, tap in.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Yeah, yeah, because when I when I came back and I told you that, I think you was you was one of the first persons that that told me, like, yo, like, if like don't really worry about what anybody else think about me starting this, because since nobody, there's nobody in Grenada who ever went full-time like basketball trainer, you know what I mean, and just kind of like do a deep deep dive into that. Even before trying to making the decision to go into doing the basketball stuff, remember I was kind of looking around to try and get hold on to something, and even you collecting with some people, yeah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Yeah, yeah. I was like, yo, my greens, bro, whatever you need, dog. You know what I mean? And when you called me for this podcast, too, it was just like no exception. Yeah, yeah. It's like, yo, just sign me up. He's like, Oh, you can make it, yes. I was like, Yes, I can make this. Yeah, that's I mean, I support you, bro, and I want to see your basketball um journey just like grow tremendously here in Grenada, regionally, and continue to do what you're doing internationally. So, anything I could do to support, bro, you know what I mean? I'm here. Real, real, really, really.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Yeah, I appreciate that, man. Of course, bro. That's uh you know, um, I want to talk about with you about the um the we're gonna cut get into a lot of things, but I want to talk about the transition because I've always um we met through basketball. Like you know, a lot of the relationships I've built with people. Um, most of it stemmed from getting to know people on the basketball court, and then at some point people branch out and do their own thing. But um, you were in the art space even before I met you, right? But I know you through basketball, so um, I know you don't really play ball that much anymore. You know what I mean? So when it comes to you and uh the level you at your art right now, not only art but producing film and stuff like that, you just being a creator um on a whole, like, you know, what's the what's your mindset behind that? You know what I mean? Um because you was you was on a basketball team and now for real don't play ball anymore and you just all in with what you do.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

For real, for real. I mean, I would play ball, you know. I would play ball and come and like you know, still teach a few dudes something. Play yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Y'all don't know, y'all don't know, for real. How we talk talking about bounds, bro. There's a fair there's there there's a clip on on YouTube when we used to sweat on box. Yes, sir. Remember that dunk? Yeah, right. You're gonna try to clip it and put it in there, bro.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

I still got some I still got some life in me too, you know what I mean? Yeah, but I think with my art, um, I take art pretty seriously. Yeah. And I think sometimes for me, especially with collaborations, I'm looking for people who also just like taking it just as serious. Because, you know, you're you're creating something and it's putting a lot of energy into it. Just like with your basketball and anything that we do, you know, if you want to see it come true and mean something, you can have to take it seriously. And so for me, like one of my decisions to kind of like step down from basketball is because I just um, you know, like I run the math and I realize like I just want to be heavy into the art thing. And basketball required a lot too, like, you know, you gotta come out for training, you gotta go to these camps, you gotta, you know, don't miss the games. And and I was like, when would I make art? But I was doing good at basketball too. Yeah, yeah. So like, you know, my coach won me out, and you know, other teams want me out, and I was just like, you know, I'm just making a hard choice. I wanna see what's the possibility of um shaping my identity inside of art. Right. And I think for me, moving around in Grenada and even how I move around to different basketball courts where art is concerned, I want to know first and foremost if I can understand the essence or the vibes of the people and see if I can answer my own questions about my own identity through that.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

And a lot of the films that I started making came out of that desire to want and to understand my own heritage, my own identity. As soon as I travel, and you know that as soon as you leave Grenada and you go somewhere else in the world, someone asks, Where are you from? And you know, sometimes it kind of hits me like, yeah, I'm from Grenada, but like what do I tell them now? What do I what about Grenada? I want to tell them right now, you know? And sometimes I used to be stuck in uh genuinely, like it's not like I can't tell them we have all of these things, yeah, but you overwhelm a person with those things, and then I wanted to find out, I wanted to say more what touches me more about Grenada than just telling them, Oh, yeah, you know, Grenada has like good beaches, the people are cool, and you know, you're getting coconuts every day. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanted to go a little further than that, and I feel like part of that for me is like I wanted to elevate the conversation, and so I've started making stories on topics in Grenada that would teach me about Grenada and even about the history of that thing or the cultural reference of that thing so that I understand it. And at the same time, I continue my my craft, I shape it, and I try to make it entertaining enough so that anybody could understand, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Okay, that's man, like that's that was heavy though.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Yeah, because I had to say that first because I think a lot of time when people look at my art, they're looking at the finished results and they're comparing it to maybe a lot of technical things. Yeah, but for me first, I want to understand vibe, I want to understand essence because the technology is gonna change. Um, there's always gonna be a new way to do something. But if you understand why you're doing something and you're convinced that this is why you're doing it, that's belief. Yeah, and belief is really what drives art. So, in any time period, in any era you're in, if you have a convinced idea, if you're convinced on your idea that you want to put out there and you're willing to go after after that idea and make sure it manifests, make sure it comes to fruition, make sure you do it, you will see, you know, the results.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

The reason why I say it's heavy because it's the the approach you said you took with um the film and the art that you want to create. It wasn't just like you know, I could make art, so let me just make it and put it out this way we could see. It's it was it was you making it so you can get a better understanding of where you're from. And then with you doing that, you also just share that with the people in the you know in Grenada and worldwide too, you know what I mean. So, and one of the one of the things me and you spoke about when we had um we had our recent conversation was um how much me and you travel and um being exposed to certain things and trying to bring that kind of that mindset back to Grenada when we are in our respective, you know, um areas. So like with me and the basketball, I'm trying to think over and beyond um when it comes to things like we I haven't seen here. You know what I mean? And you, for instance, like you going out there and you know, like thinking about what you can do in the art space or the film space back here that nobody's really used to. And that that in itself, you know, kind of would encourage people who want to do the same thing, but they don't know who to look at, like in Grenada to be like, ah, well, this person doing it so I can do it too. You know what I mean? So much respect for that, man. Um for sure, bro.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

But on even on that point, well, yeah, for sure, even on that point, uh, you know, people stop me in the streets like regularly and or they message me online and they're saying or they're asking me, you know, how did I get that? Or what did I do to do that? And sometimes that's like a huge challenge for me to answer. Because when I think about my process, I know my process is not a technical one. I'm not so much of a technical person, and a lot of people probably wouldn't accept that because they feel I still hold a camera, so I have to understand like a technical things. I do, yeah um, but not as in-depth as like people who are really specialized in you know like camera operation or these type of things. And the reason why I say that is because I'm treating the camera as a medium and nothing else. I'm I'm focused on the idea of answering questions of identity. So for me, that's experimentation, and that's where it builds my confidence. When I say experimentation, what it means is like, okay, if you trying to figure out, you know, like what the name of your area means, and we're making a video about it, you know, people need to know that. Yeah, but they don't just want to like, you know, get it boring, yeah. They also want to be like, this is interesting. So for me, I'm thinking too in the experimentation part, what can I do to communicate this in the most interesting way? And that's where the experimentation comes. So now I want to figure out, play with tools, look at other creators, I want to play for myself with different you know ideas and techniques, and just looking at those things, doing a little research and testing things out for myself. Like I'll just take my camera out for a day. If I know a shoot's coming up, I'm like, practice with a technique that I see somewhere. And that experimentation just sort of kind of like elevates my ability to feel confident and make erratic choices, choices I don't feel like would make me feel like you know, this is not what a professional would do. Because it's true to how I interpret my space, and it's true to how I interpret the identity that I want to bring across my films, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yeah, okay, that's man, that's dope, bro.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah, I'm not even like going with to talk about technical stuff because I feel like a lot of times when people do meet me and we do have conversations, they want to know how, but the why is so much important, more important than the how because if you understand why I'm making those choices, you can figure out for yourself based on what you believe, yeah, why you need to make your choices. You know, I wouldn't you know believe everything that you believe, and to put that even in context, more it's it's kind of like how uh a guy who loves diving turning a photographer would take diving photos would be way different than how I would take photos if I now go and try to like be in the water, be in the water, yeah. Knowing that I don't really want to be a diver. Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean? Because he's feeling and experiencing that world in a whole new different mindset, the way he wants to probably preserve the landscape of under the water, you know, yeah, you know, that just kind of gives him an emotional connection to that space, and so he sees imagery different, different, yeah. And yeah, I want people to like bring their individuality out of their art because if they do that, then we would give the world something that it has never seen before. But if we we only trust in like, oh, this person did that, so let me try it, then you're not just you're just repackaging stuff, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? And for me, I I don't want to feel like everybody else. I want to feel like my identity matters. Being born in Grenada does not determine the outcome of how I see myself or where I go in the world, and my art needs to reflect that. Yeah, you know what I mean, and so my belief in how I do what I need I do is more important to me first than what it is that I'm using as a medium to do that.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

And and and like to your point with like the why that make your art makes your art authentic. Yeah. Because if you do it, like nobody would have would understand your why better than you do. Exactly. So you putting that, you putting that out and bringing that into reality, reality, there's nobody who could copy it and bring it to life the way you would bring it out to the people. Yeah, you know what I mean? So the why is very important because even with my the young kids that I train, bro, like when they sign up, when some of the parents sign them to the academy, so my the application form, I always ask them, okay, why you want to play basketball? Because I'm not the type, I have too much love and passion for this game to be like, okay, just come and train with me, you know, I'm gonna pay me, and then that's but I'm like, why you want to play it? They have some kids saying, oh, they want to get a scholarship, some saying oh, they want to um just get better at the game, some saying they want scholarships and stuff like that. But I had this one kid saying, like, you know, I'm a friend of them in school playing it, so I'm like, that's not a good reason. That's not a good reason because you can't want to do something just because your friend is doing it. You have to have your own individual reasons why you want to do it. If you wanna, if you want to train and get better, you want to get good enough so you can play with your friends or you can, you know, be on the same level with them, it's fine. But just don't say like, oh, I want to, I'm doing it just because my friend's doing it. That you know, that's I think no sense.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

But man, you know, even to I mean, you're absolutely right. And even to add to that, you know, for me, because a lot of people also come around, they want to learn what I know, they want to try things, and sometimes I'm also asking them like, you know, things about themselves because I want to find out, you know, how convinced they are about what they believe that they're gonna probably put it into their art. Yeah, and sometimes people don't, some people, you know, they take a while to also understand, you know, their own identity because that's something that's ongoing, right? Sure. And so for me, I always kind of like try to leave the the room um open um so that persons could like experiment a little bit. And even if it means, yeah, you come to my class today, my art class, and you're probably gonna never become an artist, but you wanted to give it a try. To me, that's even more important still than saying that you know um I'm not gonna come because I I'm not gonna even gonna do that in life, but you don't know where you're gonna go, you're not gonna show where you're gonna use it. Exactly. And even if you know for a fact you're probably gonna study mechanics and you're not gonna play basketball, the individuality that we that we require to be creative to solve problems in the world requires us to grab from different places, different places, yeah, yeah. And just that's true, maybe how you interact with your players, the team building of that, it helps you to manage better under stress. Yeah, you never know. You know what I mean? And so I still I still like leave them, let it come, bro. Even if they have like a weird reason, I'm like, all right, perfect. You know, you come, you come, bring your friends. He's like, You don't want to play basketball? Sure, let him come and watch us play basketball.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

You know what I mean? Yeah, mind you he's there though. He basically he's with the group. I just I just want I want him to, I just want I wanted him to like have something that a little bit stronger, you know what I mean? Yeah, but like but like you said, still bring them because like that's that's the start. So we're getting him to think, yeah. And then now he's watching everybody improving and then he's getting better. He was like, oh, like if and if he's improving, if he's getting better just as much as somebody who wants to make it to the NBA, then he'll be like, oh well, this kid wanna get a scholarship, we're the same age, and I'm improving a little bit faster than him. Well, maybe I should try and get to the NBA too, you know what I mean? So it's like she kind of that's where it starts, you know. So um, but yeah, what I wanna I want I want you to just you know tell, you know, I want to know as well, you know. Um I know the people want to know. Um Teddy before the present. Meaning like was art out like your well, I wouldn't say art, because you have a very creative mind, bro. I would say like your creativity. Was it something that was always there since from childhood? And like let people know, like, you know, just about you from you know um growing up. Was that a part of you for from the beginning, or you that you kind of like grew into that?

SPEAKER_01 17:42

For real, for real, for real, for real. Uh what I would say here first is that I feel what contributed more to my creative journey is my ability to ask questions. And I wouldn't ascribe it to an thing that I inherited or any kind of special, you know, thing that was, you know, placed on me or anything like that that gave me the sauce. I just was a curious person. And um I like asking questions and I like solving problems. So that that type of critical thinking I think made me creative indirectly. Because now I have a behavior of if I need to know something, I want to experiment with different concepts to see what conclusion I arrive at. And now I'm left with technical skills because of that exp that experimentation and then the questioning to arrive at the idea of identity, um, you know, helps me to use that technical knowledge to then try to play with different mediums and things to come to answer that question. Right, right. So for me, it's still just communication and trying to solve problems technically if I have to, or uh maybe you know, just for my own personal understanding.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Okay, so did that start from like childhood, mean like primary school or like since you were a kid.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Yeah, so since I was in like primary school, to be honest, I'm always fascinated with how things work. Right, you know, to the point where you know my parents used to like be like um they used to I used to always just be in the backyard, like playing with mud, clear and I would cut it up and try to like make toys and all types of things. Man, I was a kid today and knew what that felt like. And I remember I used to like strip I had those cars that you can pull back like this and it goes forward. Yo, that's okay, that's going long memory lane.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Like, I used to destroy that and take the mechanism to put it in my mud car because my mud car was like cooler, right? Man, that's yo, that's sick. Because I'm scrapping the car to figure out why is it always going back and then going forward. Going forward, yeah, yeah. You know, I'm curious. So then I scrapped it and I was like, my parents never they stopped buying me toys because I used to scrap all the toys. Yeah, so then I was like, then I got into bicycles, you know, like um breaking bicycles down, like putting them back together, taking different ones from different ones and putting on the next one. And just like, I'm like, why am I doing that? And then I started like making kites in my community. Okay, like every Easter would just like make kites for like some of the kids around or myself and like skites, which bamboo, yeah, bodies, bodies, I think, yeah, and then we want to like make the craziest design on it. Yeah, my coco rike. Yeah, bro. Uh-oh, and long tail too.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

You know what Kokoriki is?

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Oh no, oh no, no, okay. Put up a kokoriki on the screen.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Put up a kokoriki on the screen. Yeah, you gotta put up a kokoriki on the screen. We gotta find a picture of that for a year.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And um just just like doing those things just make me like experiment even more. I was like, yo, I can make a kite, I can do this, I can pay that, I can do the bicycle. I was like, other things are working differently from the things I already gotta understand of. And then I don't know where it clicked, but somewhere along the line, I just kind of like picked up a paintbrush, and something inside of me just kind of like clicked where I was just like, This is a really chill thing to do, you know. At first I was just like painting out all the things in my home, my parents, my sisters, and then people would ask me, like, yo, could you do this? I was like, I don't know, but I can find out because I love to go, yeah, you know, so I never would be like, Yo, I know this like that, yeah, yeah, yeah. I would just be like, you know what, they give me a few days, and I would just go research it, and I would try to figure out how that thing works, and then I would come back and say, Hey, yo, I actually went and like get myself a little model, and then I like worked it out, so I kind of feel like I can work this one out. And I have a video that showed me step by step how to get it done. So I don't I haven't done it before on a real one, but I can I feel like I can figure it out. And that's been my attitude ever since.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Real quick though, what you just said, man. And I saw I I listened to a podcast called Secret to Success, right? And the guy CJ on there, he had mentioned a quote where he just said, like, if someone asks you to do something and you was like, you could find out. The quote, and that stuck with me. He said, not knowing, not knowing something, it's not a good enough reason not to find out. You know what I mean? Mean like if someone asks you, if you know this, if you know this or you know how to do this, your response can't just be, oh no, I don't know how to do that. I'm just leave it like that. You know what I mean? You can be like, okay, let me let me see if I can get some information on how to do it, and then just move forward with it. Because like you have a lot of people in this world, it's like you ask them, like, um, you know, can you, you know, do you know how to probably fix this or do you know how to, you know, um get this thing to work? Oh no, no, I don't really know. Even if when it comes to like you're not fighting out, you can be like, I know, but I know somebody who knows, so let me call him and or let me call so and so and let me see if they can help you. And also, the same person you're calling to find out to like who you think have the solution for whatever the problem is, you can find out about the same thing from that same people. So just like you're saying, like I think that's that's that's big, man.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Yeah, for real, bro. You know, it's like when I used to sit down thinking about how things work, how to break things apart, and I realized like it takes the same amount of time to think big that it would take like if I were to sit there and think small. Yeah, like the same amount of time. Like, even if I were to say, like, yo, I could put a helicopter on top of this car. Right. The time it took me to be like, yo, I could just probably get in the car and drive away because that's the easiest thing. Same time, but it still allows me to diagnose like the scenario, even if some of the ideas are outlandish, and to see if I can just add some type of perspective that makes me feel like I've you know infused myself into it a little bit more. Yeah, so then it's natural for me. A thing that I would always look at whenever I'm on a production, it's the point of view of the subject. Right? That's that always like it's been curious to me. Like, if you have a glass in your hand, what is that glass seeing? You know, or if I'm playing with a little car, what is that little car seeing in this giant hand? And that bugged me for a long time, bro. That bugged me, and I was just like, okay, so I've always tried now to get a camera that can do that. And then the big lenses can't go close. So I'm like, alright, cool. So I need something that can go close. So I research what goes close. It's like so a macro lens, I need a macro lens that can magnify it. And then even the macro lens, because of the the size of it, sometimes just makes it wonky, just for that. So then I was like, okay, research more. And then I discovered there's this probe lens, it's like a small diameter like this, but it's a long barrier, like about that. And I can put it in any little area and get like good quality, you know, shots. And that I so I got that because I want to see things from their point of view, and that lens helped me more to do that. So that little car here now in my hand, I can put that lens anywhere around it and see what they see, and my giant face with a glasses looking onto that miniature car.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

And that and that kind of broadened things in terms of like, but that by itself, that just that's just a car. Yeah, so and imagine how many things you see moving around every day every day, and you'll be like, Okay, you're watching everything from your eyes, but if you could see it from your just like um, I think I don't know if you ever see video where well you you probably I don't know why I'm asking that, you probably do. But um yeah, they have drones, like they're throwing a drone up the cliff and then they just fly through and then you're gonna wave. Yeah, and then it's like I saw people sometimes like one of the videos I saw someone in the comments like, damn, like the birds are living their best life. You know what I mean? Because watching, watching how the drones flying over the water, um, the water crashing on the sand, or sometimes like just just like where's like if it's like a coral reef or whatever the case may be, and it's like the view, bro. Yeah, without a drone, you wouldn't be able to get that view, but that's really like how probably a bird sees so and that perspective is like crazy, bro.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Yeah, yeah. But when you think about that perspective, put it in the context of your individual story and how that perspective can change how the viewers see things if you trust yourself enough to um play and to not take it as serious as if you're going to win or lose or fail. Because if you're experimenting, you're not failing. All you're doing is coming up with multiple ways to get to a conclusion, and from there, you're discovering a lot more than just getting to that one conclusion, right? You know what I mean? So that individual story, that perspective that you have, that idea, or the way you see things that no one else is considering, that's what I want to nurture. Yeah, that's what I want to culture. Not so much like what new camera came out tomorrow or yesterday, or you know what I mean? I want to know if you're trusting your guts enough to tell the story of your heritage and your birthplace and trusting yourself enough to show the world your point of view unapologetically, yeah, because it's my point of view. I no one else can share that like me. So I don't have to say sorry for sharing my point of view. Yeah, I don't have to feel like it's not a point of view that's worth sharing because I'm here, yeah, and the fact that I'm here and I'm contributing to physically in the world, it means that I have a point of view that's valid, and I want to discover with the rest of my life, you know, what that looks like if I were to really make an intention of giving it a chance to express the way I see things on the world. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Do you think do you think like a lot of people who want to get in creative space, they're kind of like scared of criticism?

SPEAKER_01 28:18

I think it's a genuine thing to to put your baby out there and have people criticize it, you know? Yeah. Because you you have like, you know, you put your best foot forward. Yeah. But I've never, I wouldn't say never, maybe in the earlies, felt that way. But the more I started experimenting with different tools and things to try to understand myself, it the criticism didn't felt like criticism anymore. You know, it felt like, wow, I never saw it in that way. And I started hearing that more than um, well, oh, this is bad or this is good, because then you can't say something is bad if it's not your point of view and you're not living it. The most you can do is just look at it and try to understand that person's point of view, but you can't criticize it because that's their point of view, and so that's where I felt very confident, and I would walk into any film set and not feel like I'm at a disadvantage because I'm like, I know my point of view is valid, their point of view is also valid, yeah, and what they have is not different from what I have in terms of my humanity and my ability to bring my identity into a space. We can then talk about camera after. You know what I mean? But that's the first thing. When I walk into a room, I'm thinking I have the right to take up space here. I'm valid for being here, and my point of view and my perspective matters.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

So as we as we're talking about um, you know, you not being scared to put your put your stuff out there because um you know what you you're you're creating, yeah. You know, even if someone feels like they're wanting criticize it, yeah, um, it's not on them to have the you can't let them their their words dictate where you go from go from there with with your stuff. So what I was gonna touch at, um, I've seen you, you've been you've been to a lot a lot of different schools, right? You've been to even you've even been to my alma modern. What school is that? Wesley College. The last episode the last episode I said I wasn't gonna say anything. I don't want people to keep guessing because now I'm some real bro. I don't speak about I'm gonna bring it up again because people think I always go either go PBC or I'll go D BSS. Facts, facts. But I went to Wesley College, you know, you know what I mean? Like big up Wesley College. Yeah, we got our 50th um anniversary um coming up celebration. We just came from Wesley College and showed Don't Blink. Oh, yeah, because that's where was it that that's where I saw the video? Maybe, maybe. Yeah, but I saw you, yeah, you went to Wesley College. Um, did y'all go to Boca too? Um, not yet. Not Boca, but y'all went to West Milan. Yes, we did. Yeah, I went to a few schools. So um what I want to ask you, like when you go to the when you go to the schools, like to share your art and share your creativity uh with the kids, and that's the young minds, you know, the young kids, they're the the up-and-coming generation, they're the future of the country. Um just as you're breaking down the the uh the way you handle like criticism and stuff, do you just you know also give them a talk about that as well? Or is it just like you know, you let them know what you have going on, you show them the art, or do you give them a little bit of um something that they could take forward in life, like advice and stuff like that? I catch what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

I think I do it a little bit more indirectly. Um I feel like as a as an artist, I've always show and not tell. Yeah, and so I invite people into collaboration to experiment and play. Yeah, and so inside of there, they're building the same things that I've built confidence, pulling out their own identity. Right I'm gonna ask them questions like that. Um, you what you want to do? What do you like? What's going on home in your village? Like, you know, what you guys just do up there? And they're like, oh, we just play a lot of um, you know, short knee. I was like, all right, cool. Give the character a little shot knee vibe. He's like, and you put it in there, he's like, yeah. So now when and I'll be like, yo, stand up in front and talk about it. You know, and they would stand up in front of it, was like, yo, well, I don't know. You know, up here had the most short knee and things, so I put that inside here, and you know, and then that helps, bro. And they come not to the to the art session, not because it's just like something that they had to do, it's because the community that we're building with the type of language and communication to allow permission to play. Yeah, I think that changes the mindset immediately.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

That's so yo, that's so smart too. So it's kind of like you're not you like you're not throwing something on them, but you just you're just making them work with something that they're already familiar with. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

And it's inside of you, bro. So I don't need to tell you, yo, do it this way. If I do that, I'm creating a pattern where everyone's thinking in this particular projectory. Yeah, bro. But I want to break the pattern or think outside of the box, understand what it does, the pattern does, but then challenge the pattern. You know what I mean? Yeah, and that's the only way you would be able to give um something to your space or contribute to your team in a unique way that you know no one else can do. So I want to pull that out of everyone that's collaborating with me. Because if you look at a film, uh film credits at the end of a movie, you see they take five minutes just for the credits. Just for the credits, yeah. Some people don't stick around. Yeah, but think about it. Those are people. Yeah, five minutes of uh wall of text going up of people's names. Yeah, that means there are multiple people there that made that one thing come together. And the way you emotionally react to the final product is on the basis of all of their lived experiences coming together on that one collaboration. Yeah. And that's super important to understand in Grenada, especially in the creative industry. Because when you're thinking about monetizing your creative ability, you don't want to start thinking about the too much of the threat assessment in the space and the competition because you think like the space is saturated. Yeah, you want to know that you're trusting your guts strong enough to put yourself out there with the perspective that you know to give the world something that's unique only to you, and that will call the people who want to collaborate with that thing. So you're never gonna be out of work, bro. Yeah, you're never gonna be not being able to do something that you wanted to do because you feel like oh, everyone's doing that. Nah, yeah, it's gonna be limitless. Yeah, I mean, at my position right now in the creative industry, after like giving this like a really strong, good, you know, run, you know, I'm talking about like 10, 15, 20 years, it's just like hard, hard on my creative journey. And I don't feel like I'm in a competition, bro. Yeah, I've never felt like I'm competing with other creative people, and sometimes it actually hurts more when they confront me and then they put those things out there as if, like, you know, like, yo, you keep keeping the sauce. Like, yeah, you need to trust your ability more. Yeah, you need to go out and figure out what it is that made me so unique and why I'm doing it this way and amplify that. I could never take that away from you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? And if you understand that, no, I'm ready, yeah, I'm ready to talk. Yeah, I'm ready to like push because it's like you got that lockdown, I'm ready, I'm locked this down. So, like, you're good at diving and stuff, and you you understand camera stuff, just like how me and you know, your cameraman was talking earlier. We like we're talking the technical language, yeah? Yeah, but his lived experiences is different, like through basketball. So if we're going to shoot basketball, I'm gonna ask him. That's my mindset. Like immediately, I'm looking for the players, I'm gonna ask him, what do you guys do here with the so-and-so? I want to find out so I can draw that out of him so then I can make the story better.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Better, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that and and that's just drawing out what he's already submerged, what he's used to. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

So, like the setup we have now is just like a conversation that we were having, and now I'm drawing that out of him too, naturally. Yeah, you know what I mean. I'm not sure if he's checking on it, but just like I already know he knows these things. So now it's just to play with to see what's like comfortable for you, what colors was in the background, and you know, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

Cause I ain't gonna lie, bro. When y'all start talking about the names and whatever on the lens, I'm like, bro, and now y'all sound like y'all from another planet. Let me really really. You know what I mean? So, like what you got going on right now in terms of like projects and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

What you trying to know? What you trying to know, huh? You trying to be in a movie?

SPEAKER_00 36:53

I already reached that point of being in a movie and nothing like that. Yeah, you know what I mean? But like I projects that you have going on. I know you have, you know, you have you already have a film you're working on. You know what I mean? Don't blink.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

Real, real, real, real. But you're gonna miss it.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

You could, you know, touch on that a little bit. Well, not a little bit, if you as far as you want to go to expound on like what you got going on with that.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Real. I mean, Don't Blink is a movement, so it's a Grenada project. You know, my idea here is I want to get as much people involved in Don't Blink on a community level as possible. Um, for me, growing up, I never seen any folklore. Never. I've only heard of it, and so you know, I'm curious to find out, you know, what's going on there because that's part of our identity, and I just feel like it's with a generation of people that we just don't have information about it. So I'm just using my medium to try to figure out how to tell that story and understand it for myself. In my mind, you know, folklore is a Caribbean story, a Caribbean narrative. So Grenada has its own versions of some of these folklores. So why not talk about it? Why not tell it, not show it, or make it interesting enough that people understand it so they're not even probably scared of it. You know what I mean? So I'm trying to be in as um, I'm trying to get into as much communities as possible and give those communities representation so that they could tell their version of the folklore film. So Don't Blink is really a series, you know what I mean? Um a lot of people see it as a one-off and say, like, yeah, it's a movie. Um, yeah, because of the length, but in reality, I we see it as a series.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Yeah, that's fire. So that's a drop right there. So for people who didn't know, uh, Don't Blink was part of a series. Um, and the whole the whole um the whole meaning behind it, like you spoke on folklore, like you don't hear a lot of people talking about it anymore. Like I want to do the generation thing, but like the generation that's grown up now, you don't you don't hear about people talking like Laja Bless and Mama Malady and those kind of things, but like um, like especially like I know my grandma and my mom, they spoke about that a lot. Yeah, so we grew up, like, so this is one thing, and I did mention that this, like, um say, like, if you walk in in the sh on the street at night and it's dark, like to keep jumbi and thing away just out of cost real bottle and things. I think you know what I mean. So it's you know what I mean? So it's so it's like stuff like that that people like you know, this generation might not know. So I think that you're doing a dive into that, you know, try to expound on what it actually means or try to understand what it means, and then you create a film out of it in the in the process.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

I mean, that's what art does, right? It it asks questions, it challenges things, and uh Ingranator, you know, a lot of our narratives are just oral. So I wanna see if I can use my craft to probably bring something to the light. But man, while we're doing this project, I gotta tell you, um, like I've I discovered, you know, why there's not much folklores and you know, jumbi hunting around these days. What is it? Yeah, it's for two reasons, two things that you know cause them to like vanish. So, surveillance systems and street lights. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like as soon as we started putting streetlights in places where Jumbi used to live, they ain't there no more. Around a corner or in the dark or something. And for all the parts where the streetlights wasn't working and there's a camera, they just don't show up around the camera. You don't see nothing, yeah, yeah. So these folklors got a sense of humor, right? You know, and I think when we go into communities and we ask um people like if they ever seen one, like 90% of the times, or even 99.9% of the times, yeah, they've seen one. Yeah. But it's not with another person or in a group, it's always by themselves. And so, you know, I don't know if folklore is real or not real. I don't want anybody to look at Don't Blink as some type of accurate historical documentation of talking about folklore. Yeah, um, it's basically trying to uncover what that meant for a few people, you know, in our communities and in our country, and to see if we could just package it and put it together in an entertaining way as well. But I don't know if they're real or not. Never seen one. And everybody that I met who've seen one have only seen it by themselves, so they can actually say that, you know, they've seen it. They've seen it.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

It's like me, I've never, bro, I've never, I've never seen, I haven't seen any of it, bro. But I've I've heard the stories from like, like I said, like grandparents, like my grandmom, you know, mom and them, like they tell certain stories. And they tell the stories, and it's like it makes it seem like it's so real, like they actually experienced it, you know. So, but you know, like you said, you know, more street lights, more like cameras, like just all that, all of that just disappear. But you know, I gotta give me some grace because I haven't seen Don't Blink. Because remember, I mentioned too that uh like the way I'm training the kids with the academy, it's like I would train until like like 6.30 or sometime when I'm leaving leaving the court, it's like 7.30, 8 p.m. So I never really had a chance to go watch it. But and they do come back around, like for real, for real. Definitely gonna tap in.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

Yeah, don't blink and go in nowhere. So and uh if you blink, you know, you're gonna miss it. So you missed it because you blinked. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? But I mean, I want people to know that um this is a Grenada movie and they can take ownership off of this film. Um right now, people can just like you know, reach out to us if they think they want to be around the project and be in it, be around it, be you know, whatever aspect you think you're wanna be on. It's a grenade movie. Once you're here, you live here, and you want to be part of it, just reach out to us, uh message to M Bing page, and just tell us your interests. And yeah, once we're ready for part two, we'll definitely circle back to everybody within that first cohort of contacts, information.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

And that and that and that's huge because it's you know grenade uh grenadian produced. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like you know what I mean. Like, you know, we don't have somebody doing stuff like this on that scale.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Yeah, I mean it's always a tricky situation because um, in one light, you want stories and narratives to be told by the people who live them and who have the emotional connection to the landscape. And in another part of that, in especially in Grenada, you want to also increase the production value. Yeah. Because you want it to look like what you see already out there on Netflix and some of these bigger productions. So it has to take a type of hybrid situation, you know, to take consultation from people locally and do some type of international collaborations and scale the production value.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:01

And I think that type of thinking could definitely get us to tell emotional stories that is accurate and true to the essence of the space and the production value that could compete anywhere else internationally. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

I think that's that that's huge though. Because you will definitely find just like um one of the Grenada top content creators, I think he's one of the stars in the film, right?

SPEAKER_01 44:25

Yeah, yeah. King Dre.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

King Dre, yeah. Big up the boss, big up the boss, big up the boss. Yeah. So and knows there's other like young, upcoming, and either you even people who's in the content creation space um who like being in front of the camera. Yeah, yeah. So that gives them an opportunity to like kind of tap in a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

Man, for real, because um, just to give you some stories that we encountered for um the last times we were showing Don't Blink, um, a lot of you know families would reach out to us and express like their interest in this like support in the film. And, you know, some of them want to get their kids involved, uh, some of them actually want to get involved. So that kind of triggered my thinking in terms of opening up the project. Because, you know, we just kind of did it in the beginning because uh we wanted to challenge ourselves, you know what I mean? So we didn't have so much production value inside of it. Right. Uh it's just me and a few friends, and we try to like, you know, make something cool. But when we see the emotional impact it was having on people in the cinemas and in some of the communities where we go, every single time we go somewhere and show the movie, tell yourself someone there is asking us to show it in another location. So the list right now for visits is very long. But we had to take a break because it was just like a lot, and it's a national film, so I know a lot of people want to be like, yo, you're not coming to our school or you're not coming in our area, you know, stuff like that. And I still want them to understand what's going into the film process. So I'm I'm trading as I go along, educating as I go along. Because I know it's uh uh a new thing for Grenada, you know, to just sit here, live here, and then make a movie at the scale. Facts. You know what I mean? That's very different, bro. Yeah, very, very different. But I love it here, bro. I'm from Greens, and you know what I mean? When I'm growing up here, I always hearing about you know things going on outside in the world out there, and I'm just like, yo, some of these things could happen here. But I guess it's just to kind of like trust ourselves to collaborate more and yeah, and pour into our own, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

Just like I'm doing my basketball academy, because what I brought to um, because I'm doing it full-time, so what I brought is really because first of all, nobody's doing basketball training full-time. I'm the only full-time basketball trainer on the island. Okay, but I'm not just training kids and then you know, they go in the way. Like, I also mentor them as well. And what I do with my basketball page, I get content. So like just as just so they can have that the feeling of you know, if they go online, they can see themselves doing drills, they can see themselves working out, they can read the comments and see what people are saying about them. Not saying like they have to really like go all in and you know, take it to heart what people saying, but just give them the same vibe of what trainers in the US are doing.

SPEAKER_01 47:13

But it's also the culture, dog, like you know, these days you just gotta kind of have a presence on the internet, yeah, yeah, and you know, because this is where people kind of like flesh out your history, your archive, yeah, and they see what you're doing already. So when they talk to you, it's just a reinforcement that you actually, you know, kind of on your thing. So that's kind of important. I would push that, you know, for anybody who's even collaborated with me, you know, younger and up and coming, and they want to do that, like nah, have an online presence, make sure you do that because yeah, your coach can do as much as he can, and you know, your community can do as much as it can, Grenada can do as much as it can. But if you're online and you're out there in the world, people seeing you, and you know, the pages are moving around, people sharing stuff you never know.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:57

So it's just collaborating with other people in the same community, and things could go far. And you could probably bring that back to the cohort of the basketball group with a coach, yeah. He can help you now expand on it and help you talk him, talk through some of the opportunities and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 48:12

Exactly, and all that comment could kind of just stay in open-minded as well.

SPEAKER_01 48:16

Because I mean it's a game, so that means at the end of the day, too, it's competitive and you know, we're playing to beat the next team. And part of that is also like looking for opportunities that allow you to get training and allow you to develop your skills over other players, yeah. You know what I mean? So you can't sit down and like wait for the coach to be like, Oh, yeah, we have this tournament coming up, and you know, we're all going, then we're all competing there. Yeah, exactly. So, what if you were able to go and research for yourself opportunities and places that are providing, you know, maybe basketball advice, basketball training, resource material that you don't have access to normally, these type of things, that gives you a competitive edge. Like, if you want to win at something, you have to do stuff that other people are not doing, not doing, bro. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 49:02

So yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_01 49:04

So if you want to make good art, you have to do things that other people are not willing to do. And for me, that looks like if I have to go like a little extra mile to give that extra production value, do it. Yeah, so with Don't Blink, we kinda um didn't have the ability to afford like the visual effects, you know what I mean? So that kind of halted the film for a while. Okay, and you know, we were talking for a bit, it's like, you know, it's not bad anyways, it's like really good filmmaking, and you know, but it didn't have that extra visual effects that brings the folklore to life, and that makes a huge distinction because orally we've always been talking about folklore, and when we document it, it's always in that same type of capacity. We can sit there and document it and talk about it, but we can't show someone what it looks like. Right. So the visual effects was super important for us to sort of materialize the film the way it did. And I'm kind of happy that we stuck it out and we did our fundraising, and we even if it took us two years, we still kind of like got through to got the first part up. So that for me is like a big win in terms of um breaking the mold of not doing it simple, not doing it ordinary, and you know, trying to do it to a level that most people are not trying to do it at.

SPEAKER_00 50:29

Yeah, and that's man, that's and that's that's what it is, bro. It's kind of like sticking to your vision, and regard regardless of the adversity or roadblocks, just kind of seeing it through.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

Yeah, but but it goes even further for me, bro, because when I think about it, like even like playing basketball, like you have to, it's mandatory that you find some way to get from point A to B, regardless of the turbulence in the middle. Yeah, because your competitive advantage is your ability to also find opportunity for yourself to develop your skills, to develop your mind, develop your practice. Nobody can do that for you. So you can't come and be like, oh, the coaching, you know, he didn't push us hard today. Nah, you didn't push yourself hard today. You know what I mean? Or you can't be like, well, you know, there's not much filmmakers in the country, then you know, don't be a filmmaker. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, don't be a filmmaker, but you want to be it. So you have to ask yourself questions that diagnose where you are to where you want to get to. You know what I mean? That's super important. That has to be like your job. Like if you're in school, your job is your your profession is just being a student. It's within your right and your interests, if you really care about like your future, to put effort into learning the topic. You know what I mean? Because exam day is gonna come and someone's getting a grade, and someone's gonna be below 50, and some people are gonna be above 50. So you could already tell if you're gonna be above 50 because you know what you're putting in. Yeah, and so with my art, I'm doing the same thing. It's mandatory for me to um do monthly research, to do um monthly call-outs and uh monthly you know collaborations with people, um, just have conversations with people who don't exist in my space and bring something, a different perspective to the table. Right. But to also, you know, consult with people in my space to kind of understand the essence and the emotion of the stories that we're trying to tell. But to me, I see that as very crucial. Like I have to figure out how to get from point A to B. And inside of the middle of that, I want to diagnose what are the things that's stopping me from getting to point B.

SPEAKER_00 52:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:46

Yeah. I want to know. Like, that's all I'm focused on. So if it means more training, okay, I gotta train. If it means relocation, okay, I gotta relocate. If it means I need to find a mentor who does this thing because it's really technical with a specialized skill, okay. How do I find that guy? You know what I mean? But I'm asking those questions all the time. And I would not stop asking those questions because I want to make dope shit. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? I want to make dope shit. And to do that, I want to possess the skills and the um the network of collaborators that are able to make dope shit.

SPEAKER_00 53:21

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's bro. That's that's sweet as it is. You touch, you hit the nail on the head with that one, bro. Talking about like, you know, use the uh perfect analogy. I'm not playing basketball, so you use the basketball analogy. We're like kids say, no, the coach didn't push them today. But what do you mean the coach didn't, if you know, you want to get a scholarship, you're gonna wait for the coach to push you. Exactly. Exactly. That was that was good, man. I I love that, bro. You know what I mean? And like everything that you're doing, especially with um with that film, well, you know, you just drop the news to everybody so they know it's a series now. It's a series, yeah. I'm definitely I know a lot of people are gonna be not when they're not that they know they're gonna be looking forward to it. I'm still gonna tap in, I gotta get past the first one. You feel me? Yeah, for real. Um but as always, bro, like, you know, like I really appreciate you as a brother. For real, bro. And for coming through and doing this pod. But apart from don't blink, bro, if you have like any other things, because I know you do way more than just like the film production part. You're true, true. Um, in your own right, and then you have other things you do. So if you want to like share with the people, like if you like stuff that you do, like what you have coming up, other than uh the the film, um, that'd be dope.

SPEAKER_01 54:31

But I mean, right now for me, uh it's don't blink. So I want you know as much persons as possible to get involved in Don't Blink. If you have a location that you think would be worthy of us filming at, if you think you want to try your hand at acting, join us. If you think you want to learn filmmaking and how we're doing it, join in the chat, you know what I mean. And um on the art side, we have the art gallery here that we're in right now. Uh, we also do an event, we try to do an event every month. So you can become you can be part of that. Uh, we try to focus a little bit more on the art therapy side, but at the same time, try to give people some skills that they can you know make their own art for themselves. Yeah. So if you're interested in art classes, whether you're in school and you just want to like beef up yourself or you know, be just an enthusiast, um, we do that stuff here, you know, and we try to collaborate as much artists as we can to you know diversify the artwork.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

Artwork. Okay, that's dope, man. And you had, and remember I told you like uh um stuff that you do, I wanted to at least be a part of it just uh because all I do I uh basketball. I'm literally like submerged in basketball, bro. Like my love and my passion. So do something out of that. I know you had mentioned to me about um the brushing bites. Ah, true, true, true, true, true. Whenever you have in that, like I for myself, not that might turn into a hobby of mine, you never know. Um, so that's you know. All right, say this, bro. So we designed something for you. Yeah. My duh. In every life, in every life, in every life. Yeah, for real. Um, also, you know, I have my basketball skills camp that's currently running. We're on week two. Well, week two is almost, well, week one, sorry, it's almost over. And we're going into the second week, um, putting them kids through some work. And we're currently working on bringing a team to Antigua for an invitational tournament next month. That's good, that's good. We're at the Barrett KCB Academy. That's where we're um pushing right now, and we got a couple projects we're working on for the end of the year. I'm doing some connections and collaborations with some people outside of the island, you know, trying to give the kids more opportunity to just continue playing and just get the um get the recognition and the experience of playing against people outside of the island. You know what I mean? So um, so again, though, you know, my brother Teddy here, appreciate him as always, putting up on the you know, to um, you know, to just share some of his um his work and what he does, you know. So um anything you want to tell like the people who watching, like any inspirational words or anything to motivate the people true, true.

SPEAKER_01 57:06

There's always a need for something like that. And facts, facts, facts, facts, facts. Yeah, man. What I would say to anybody who's watching this podcast and listening to our voices, um, I want to say that you know, you do good stuff, people will talk. You do bad stuff, people will talk. You just gotta commit to an idea and you know, get it done. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 57:32

You know, it is simple as that. You feel me? So again, my brother, appreciate you coming through and doing this part. As always, you know, as we always close, stay true to yourself, stay true to your journey, stay true to the game.

SPEAKER_02 57:46

Ooh, ooh. Really, real