Copacetic Hour One on One: Fulfilled Before Famous...

Episode: 211

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This week on The Copacetic Hour, we sit down with filmmaker, writer, and producer Will Adams: The creative mind behind Lokekey Productions and projects like Step Off the Block, Sex Ain’t Love, and the new satirical film Tube-E Movie.

We dive into the realities of independent filmmaking, and what it takes to keep betting on yourself when nobody else sees the vision yet. Will opens up about storytelling, the pressure of today’s content culture, and how social media and streaming have completely changed the way creators chase success.

 This conversation is for anybody trying to build something from the ground up while staying true to themselves.

This is an episode you don’t want to miss.

Watch Tube-E Movie:
https://watch.plex.tv/en-GB/watch/movie/tube-e-movie?uri=provider%3A%2F%2Ftv.plex.provider.vod%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F668a507a0cb48e8681b23af5&autoplay=1


Copacetic Apparel:
https://teamtch.square.site/

@Thecopacetichour 
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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:23

Yes, this is the opaesthetic album. Copasthetic is a term meaning everything is fun and cool and in excellent order. This podcast is an area for open discussion, but not for the weak-hearted nor the simple-minded. And although we may not always agree, we will always exemplify respect. But at the same time, nobody, and I do mean nobody, is exempt from getting these jokes. Everything is cop aesthetic. Yes, the copaesthetic hour? Today we are back with another one-on-one with the copesthetic hour. Today we got a real one in the building. We're talking about a creator who didn't wait for Hollywood to open the door. Today we're sitting down with an award-winning filmmaker, writer, director, producer, and the mastermind behind Lok Key Productions, a company that's all about bold storytelling, real culture, and putting independent voices on the big screen. Now, the person today isn't just someone who talks about making films. This is somebody who's actually been in the trenches. We're talking about 13 producer credits with multiple projects rated over 8.5 and 3 rated 9.0 on IMDB. That's not luck, that's consistency. It's the brain behind films like Sex Ain't Love and Step Off the Block. Projects that didn't just drop, they sold out theaters. Then he stepped into a new level of creation with a 2E movie, a dark comedy that showcases his ability to build something original from the ground up, blending satire with storytelling while still drawing audiences into theaters to experience his vision. But what makes him different is that this man has touched every part of the game: writing, directing, editing, cinematography, style production, production design, even stunt coordination. Basically, if it's on a film set, he's done it. And through it all, he stayed committed to one thing: telling real stories, putting on for Chicago, and proving you don't need permission to be great. So today we're getting into the mindset, the grind, the wins, the setbacks, and what it really takes to build something from nothing in the film world. This one right here is for the creators, the dreamers, and anybody tired of waiting their turn. Welcome to the Copacetic Hour, Mr. Will Adams. How you doing today, Mr. Adams?

SPEAKER_02 2:58

I appreciate it. Thank you for inviting me. Yo, you didn't tell me your energy was gonna be up that way. I'm like, all right, we're gonna be cool, and then you just kick it in at 2,000. I'm like, oh, I'm out 10.

SPEAKER_03 3:11

I want to show you the proper respect, man. I appreciate you doing over.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

I hear it. I hear it. I hear it, man. I was like, man, he he just went up. He turned up. He's like, yeah, you want you like you want to talk about anything, and uh, you know how the show's gonna go all right, all right, five, four. What's up, y'all?

SPEAKER_03 3:28

Like, ooh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? I'm happy for you to be here, man. We appreciate it. I appreciate you having me. All right, so today's why don't you chill icebreaker is what's the craziest situation or challenge that you ever had to fix or accommodate in your career?

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Uh somebody quitting day of on set. The day of? Well, actually, not even on set. They called and said they weren't coming. They called them. So I called them and no, I called them and they said they weren't coming because we got into a back and forth about scheduling. And I I told her what time to come there.

SPEAKER_04 4:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

I didn't remember. My guy George told me, yeah, we were in a car shooting Tuesday. You told her to be here on Sunday at whatever time at nine o'clock. I said, I did, but I thought I forgot. And he was like, Yeah, you did. So, but then let later on that taught me to put together a shot, well, not shot list, but uh a schedule letting people know what time to show up.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

Right. Dang, that's crazy. That ain't somebody you want to work with again. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Like, oh never, no, we no, we never worked together again. That was it. That was that was that was it.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

I get that all the time.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Well, I mean, people don't show up all the way around, but facts. That's the first, this was my first movie, and you know, I really didn't know what I was doing. And with that happening, it I said, you know what, I stood there for like probably five minutes trying to get myself together. I said, you know what? The scene that she was gonna shoot, we were gonna shoot with her in it, we'll come back and bring somebody else later on, but we're gonna shoot whatever we need to shoot today. Okay. We got that out the way. So it wasn't a totally dead day. And hopefully I'm glad that wasn't that that was the only thing we were shooting that day.

SPEAKER_05 5:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Now to now, year to date, if one person cancels on me, that would be the only thing we shoot in that day. Because I I I narrowed it down to just doing one scene per day. Because before I was like, all right, well, we got four scenes to do. You gotta break the equipment down, gotta set it up, break it down, set it up, break it down, set it up, man. That's a lot of work. That's that was yeah, oh, that's a lot of work. By the time you get to the second setup, you're like, man, forget it.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Yeah, this is the last one.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Forget this. Forget it.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

Man. All right, so let's get to know you. Where are you from? What was your experience like, your home life? What school or what high school did you go to? What was your neighborhood like?

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Uh, do you have you ever heard of you heard of gangs, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:08

Like actual gangs?

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Chicago gangs?

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Yeah, I was I was in the heart of the GD terrorist work.

SPEAKER_04 6:18

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

But I wasn't a part of it. But, you know, and surprisingly, I don't even know why I didn't, because everybody I knew was a part of it, but they just never, I guess I was too much of uh uh a wimp or a nerd for them to pull me in, like, nah, nah, bruh. Nah, you stay over there and playing with them toys. I was playing with toys until I was like 13 years old.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

Oh wow, okay, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

So yeah, my sister, my my sister's father was like, Man, you know what?

SPEAKER_01 6:48

I see where you live.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

I gotta uh we gotta fix that. So we gave all my toys away and started playing with other stuff. But uh I was always an imaginative kid. Like, you know, Legos, kids that play with Legos got it easy.

SPEAKER_04 7:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Because it comes with the picture on the box. My Legos just came with as Legos. Right. You just your imagination had just had to grow or whatever. I had building blocks that I built Legos with. I built a boat, I built a tank that didn't have wheels. Oh, wow. I built a couple yeah, I built a couple of things uh with that the that Lego set, but it didn't have anything on the box. My Legos was just the blocks. Yeah, you just stick to it. You had to see it. Yeah. That's funny. I guess I could always say I was creative at a very young age, not thinking back, that you made me think back. That was your pro faults. You made me think. We're supposed to be talking about Tubi. You make me think back way, way back. But it's cool. No, I was cool, I'll just other talking.

SPEAKER_03 7:44

We definitely don't get into Tubi for sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Yeah, so uh yeah, that I guess I've always been creative because you know I luckily for me, there was no no internet and we didn't have cable. So, you know, two, five, seven, and nine, most of the time in in the summertime, it's soap opera zone. So I'm not trying to watch a soap opera. So it's you know, uh my imagination was kind of big on my none of my toys mat, but I I still made you know whatever story I could make uh out of whatever I had, because it was the imagination is the only thing I had at that time, like I said, okay. Which I'll kinda I'm actually kind of grateful for because that caused my imagination to be able to grow like it like it is right now. Today, yeah today.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

Yeah. Now what high school did you go to in Chicago?

SPEAKER_02 8:32

I went to Hirsch, and which is funny because Hersh is where I got the bug to want to do video.

unknown 8:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

So I was sitting in an English class at the end of freshman year, and this teacher named John Baudouin, she wrote a big TV in. And then she said, I gotta show y'all something. In English class. She's not the English teacher, she's just a she's just a random person. Random one walked up in the room, this television, saying, Look, I want to show y'all something. She turned this video on, and it was a dope video that was it was like a music video. I don't even know if it was a music video, but it was a cool video. I'm like, man, I wonder, I don't want they're gonna come. I'm thinking they come into the school, whoever's in the video. And then she was like, All right, how do you like that video? And I was like, I like that video. You want to be able to do that? And then I'm like, I started saying, where's she going with this?

SPEAKER_05 9:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Well, sign up for my class next next year, when you know come back, well not next year, but when you come back to school in the fall, yeah, and I'll teach you this. And I'm like, teach me that? I'm like, I'll sign up today. Because I it was something I never thought I'd be able to wrap my hands around. You know, I I always thought what's on the television was so far and beyond that I would never be able to stick my hand or my toe in and do anything dealing with that. And she actually showed me that I was wrong. Because she taught me everything about television. It was a TV radio show. She taught me everything about TV radio, and I was like, I'm not gonna learn too much about radio, even though radio's still around. Yeah. But I said TV is where the money is. So I learned how to frame a shot in her class. That's where I learned how to shoot in her class. That's what's funny.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

Now, how do we get from high school radio film class to the tube e movie? Like, what's the vision? How did we get there? Like, what was after high school? Did you go to college? Did you jump straight into film?

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Yeah, college. I went to college. I went to Columbia College, I graduated from Columbia College, and um I became a shooter. Okay. It was easy to shoot. I mean, I knew how I found out I knew how to write when I was in college, and I learned how to write, I learned script writing when I was in college.

SPEAKER_05 10:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

But I didn't want to I didn't really want to write because it was a lot of work. Because I felt like sitting down and writing, sitting typing out my idea for hours at a time. I'm like, man, I could just shoot somebody's project and get paid immediately. Yeah. I'm gonna give you your footage, walk away from it. And it was one particular time I was on somebody's project and it was doing everything wrong.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

And I thought to myself, I could do that. And then I wrote a script. People kept asking me when I want to shoot it. I said, okay, let's shoot it. And then I made this movie called Kidnap.

SPEAKER_05 11:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

When I made this movie called Kidnap, it was trash.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

It was it was garbage.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

So, you know, and I said, Oh, so that's why he was doing everything wrong, because it this is not easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the first thing I learned from that experience is you have to direct your talent. You can't let your talent just do whatever they want to do. You have to direct your talent. They can say, oh, well, I was thinking the characters more like that. I said, no, the characters like this and that's it. Now we can discuss something later on, but on set, characters like this and that's it. Yeah. And it's one vision. It's not if you got ten cast members, it's not ten visions, it's one vision. Because if there's ten visions, you'll see ten different movies going on off of one script. And they're saying that stuff that match, but it don't look like they're acting on the same plane. Then um after that, I kept hearing this song. Well, I kept I kept playing the song called Good Girl Gone Bad by Scarface. And I was like, man, that would be dope if somebody created a script and played this story out. You ever heard of Good Girl Gone Bad by Scarface?

SPEAKER_03 12:20

I haven't, but I I have an idea for a song that was done by Common that I've been writing myself. So I I get where you're going. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

So Good Girl Gone Bad was a drug deal that went bad. And I named the movie My Enemy's son from that. Because what happens in the at the end of the song is he catch up with the dude to try to set him up, and he he was there with his son. He killed him and took his son. So that became his my it was my enemy's son that made him his own son. So that came about, and then I learned that uh I stu I started learning different personalities because people say, uh, well, I like what's in your script better than you know what you're trying to tell me to say, but you don't sound right saying, so I need you to say it this way. You gotta trust me. So then after the movie came out, and he saw exactly what I was, he heard what I was saying. He's like, Oh yeah, you were right, that was a good call. I said, Yeah, you have to trust your director. Yeah, you can't go against me, and we in the thick of things. If I see something, I hear something, and it don't sound right. You gotta understand and know it's my call because just because you're in you're in it, but I'm looking at it and I'm receiving it.

SPEAKER_04 13:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

And you're saying it, but you're not saying it right.

SPEAKER_04 13:25

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

So then uh My Enemy Son was actually a street movie. It was a hood, there's a hood, it was a hood movie. So I had a friend, he was like, Will, I know you know about the hood, but you do better than this. And I was like, What you mean? He said, because you mean you don't have to write, you don't have to do hood movies all the time.

unknown 13:45

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

I said, Oh. So then I did If I Die Tomorrow, which is about a street dude back to the hood, but he's a street dude that found out he got 24 hours to live, and now he's running to his past to find out he got a kid, and you have to see the it's a short film. Then I did Silent Endeavor, which was about a couple uh out of uh husbands out of work, trying to find a job, trying to, and then come up on some money. But that was a silent film, and I used music that I found. I was looking for music for my enemy's son, and ended up finding the track that I used for Silent Endeavor, and that's how that that's how that movie came about. The music came first, then the idea came second. And then Sex Ain't Love. Sex Ain't Love uh was funny because I had a vision, I had a vision of two different movies. It was Elena and Sex Ain't Love. Elena was about a female assassin, and Sex Ain't Love was a was a romantic comedy.

SPEAKER_05 14:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

I I did both openings. The first opening was Elena. The woman was into it, but the guy was trash. Sex ain't Love was on point. 100% on point. So I pulled a guy from Sex Ain't Love and put him in the beginning of Elena. He was dope, but then the same woman that was in it the first time, she was trash. So yeah. It was wild. So Sex Ain't Love ended up being this movie that I started promoting and saying that I'm gonna do something, and so I raised money for it. And when I raised money for it, uh I think No, I we this is uh I th I'd rather Columbia. But Robin, not was not Robin, yeah, Robert Talon. Robert Talon.

SPEAKER_04 15:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

He came to Columbia College and spoke. So my stepfather said, You should go down there and see what he talked about. I said, uh then one day he called me and said, Don't forget to go down there. He's gonna be there tomorrow. And I'm like, oh, all right, cool. So I went down there, I'm down there, I see Adele Gibbons, but she has Beyonce on her name tag.

SPEAKER_07 15:47

I'm like, Beyonce, ain't no Beyonce.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

I know Beyonce. I know Beyonce Fox, and I beat no Beyonce, no. That's not Beyonce. So I'm like, she looked familiar, but that ain't no Beyonce. So we sit in the audience and uh people asking the questions. I had my hand up for like 45 minutes. He finally answered me and said, What you need? I said, I don't need nothing from you. That's a lot of talent in this room. I raised money for two people, I'm not two in the movie. I raised money for sex ain't love.

SPEAKER_05 16:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

And since I raised money for sex ain't love, I would like to give people the money that I raised to help me make the movie. So then he stood up there like this for like probably like 10 seconds, and then just looked at me.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

And then turned around and said, This is the guy y'all should be talking to. Y'all trying to do something with me. I ain't doing nothing. He's about to do something big.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

So everybody grabbed my card that day, and then all of a sudden Adele gave somebody my her phone to give to me. And I searched for my phone. I said, that's not my phone. That's that phone here, rhinestone on it, and everything.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

I said, that's not my phone. She's like, that's Adele Given's phone.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

I said, oh hurried up, put my number in it. And then I tried to call myself and then it said block. And I was like, oh no, we ain't doing that. So then I went over there and talked to her, and then she gave my number, and then we got cool, and uh we talked behind the scenes, and then she said she'd be in my movie say St. Love. And I met Damon Williams on a a different occasion, and he says, just hit me on Facebook. So I hit him on Facebook. I said, You know any up and coming uh comedians? I know you're busy and you can't do it, but somebody that might be able to do it, uh, you know, any comedians that might be interested in being in my movie, he said, I'll do it.

SPEAKER_04 17:24

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Really? My oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

These these are two like big uh comedians, like they're huge. Legendary.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

And he said he'd do it and didn't see the script. That was striped though. Yeah, you know, he said he'll do it and didn't see the script. Luckily the script was good. But uh so yeah, we did that, and then listening to an old publicist that I had, she said I need to do something that crossed all uh genres, which was a drama which she was wrong. Because Step Off the Block was the next movie. But dramas are like coffee and cocoa either you like coffee and don't like cocoa or you like cocoa and don't like coffee.

SPEAKER_04 18:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

Because if it doesn't resonate with you, if the drama that you see on screen don't hit, it's not gonna hit. Comedy's gonna hit. Comedy's like water. Everybody needs war.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

Everybody needs war. But drama, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:20

You know, oh, mother lost her child to DCFS, it's no, I don't I don't I'm fool. Oh, uh uh uh daughter lost her mother. Uh that's not my you know everybody is is different for it's different types of dramas that draw people in. And if you don't have a platform for that, it's like throwing a rock out into the water trying to make it trying to make a big splash, and you're not, it's just gonna make a small ripple. So I figured that out after the fact. So then I star I did a couple of shorts. I did my last time was about an ex-model that that was an addict that's that was talking about getting clean. She's just gonna have one, she was gonna do drugs one last time and then she's gonna get clean. And then I did another comedy called A Third First, which was about a first date. And the way that that idea came about, I one day I was watching I was online, I ran into something about shorts shot in one location. I don't know if you saw a third first. Did you see a third first? It's a woman and a and a guy. Okay. And they are in the car in one location. So I saw a short film a long time ago where it was two guys in a diner and they were talking, and it was a good short. It was a really good short.

SPEAKER_05 19:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

So I said, I could do that. And so I came up with a third first, which is about a a first uh a first date that has a lot of firsts, so it's like that's a second first, that's a third first. So that's how the name of the movie can't got in there, and then um after that, COVID hit, and I did Plight, Plite as an independent filmmaker. And with Plight, people said, Oh, that's your life. No, it's not my life. Jeff, Jeff is a he's a he's a hell of a guy. That's not my life. Jeff is a hell, he's a hell of a guy. I can just say that. But you know, uh Plight came about, and I felt like since people couldn't get out to the theaters or move around, it would be a good thing to have my people to watch, my fans to watch.

SPEAKER_05 20:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

And you know, they they responded. They told me, hey, we like the series, make the episodes longer. Okay. I did that. Second season.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

Moving to getting into uh to Tube E, what was what was the inspiration behind this satirical film? Because it's funny, because like I like how um you did ignore the third person. Like you just every scene, like it just acknowledged like the third person behind the camera, like what was happening. It was funny to me.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Alright, so do you remember it probably started three years ago where people started posting clips of bad bad movies and saying, Come on to me.

SPEAKER_05 21:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

And we don't know the names of these movies. No, we never know the names of these movies. They just say come on to me. And that's so you can get a reaction or a comment. So people are all that's funny, that's wild, that's crazy, that's so bad. And you see laughter, emojis, and all that, but nobody ever knows the name of the movie.

SPEAKER_04 21:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

So in my mind, I was thinking two years ago, I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna make a bad movie because you know, they people it seemed like people are gravitating toward this, and then I caught myself, I said no. Because all they gonna do is cut a piece of my movie up and then post it somewhere, and nobody ever knows what it is.

SPEAKER_04 21:42

What it's called, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Right. So basically they created a genre they didn't even know they wanted to see. And basically to be movie is what it's it's the movie that they didn't know they wanted to see. Because they already posted they they created the trailers before I created a trailer. They created the trailers before I created it. You get what I'm saying? So they already set it up. So when people come and see Tubi movies, they are like, oh yeah. For sure. That that right there. That's that's it. Yeah. He hit that right on top of the head. They them Tubi movies do be doing that. So now you can't cut this movie up and drop it anywhere. You understand what I'm saying? Because if you do, it was like, wait a minute. He just said something about the microphone. Because as soon as you see the microphone, you just like, you're it's registering in your head, like, is that a microphone?

SPEAKER_01 22:39

And as soon as you say, is that a microphone? The actor say, Hey, you see that dude with the microphone? And then you at home, like, yeah, I see that dude with the microphone. You talk to the screen. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

And then the other actor acting like it's not nothing happening. But, you know, it was the it was important to have the comedians break character because they also are in charge, always in charge of the funny, but it's it's better to have them break characters like, man, what you don't you don't see that. Right. So that was the inspiration for that.

SPEAKER_03 23:10

That's funny. Now, do you think did you create it thinking the joke is for is on the creators of all these crazy Tui movies, or is it for the audience?

SPEAKER_02 23:21

It's for the audience. This is the movie they want to see. They didn't know they wanted to see. Remember, I told you, well, actually, let me let me let me step back. Remember the disclaimer at the beginning, right?

SPEAKER_03 23:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how it got me in uh in the beginning. I was like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

The disclaimer says, this movie, I'm I'm paraphrasing, this movie is not like anything anybody's ever done out there. And if it is, it's purely coincidental.

SPEAKER_03 23:44

Make a better movie.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

And if it is like something you've done out there, make be a better filmmaker.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

Be a better filmmaker, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

That that right there, and I made sure that the stuff that's in this movie is not like anything out there.

SPEAKER_05 24:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

Now, there's some bad stuff in it, but we also make light of it, and everything is in this movie's intentional opposed to the stuff that you see in the other movies, because there's no I mean, I've seen the movie, and I always I've been talking about this movie. I don't know the name of this movie. It's guy, they're talking, two guys are talking at a store, one guy shoots the guy and he runs off. Everybody runs over to the guy that's shot.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Oh my god, oh my god, he's there.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

So as it's a wide shot as people are running towards this guy, and you see the other guy that ran the shot him, he falls in the background, and then he's hurt, and he's in the he's on the ground like rolling back.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

I said, Y'all didn't think he's who's the editor who cut it. Nobody cut this part, right? Yeah, I saw this on my phone.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

I didn't see it, it's not like I saw it on a TV screen. I saw it on my phone because somebody posted it. But again, that that film doesn't get any credit. So you think about the the songs that they play on Facebook, um, the artists get they get they get, I don't know how much money they get paid, but they get paid from every time you add music to your background when you're talking or back or story, and it's like your Instagram and other and other social media platforms.

SPEAKER_05 25:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

But when they post a clip of somebody's bad movie, nobody knows. Nobody knows.

SPEAKER_03 25:21

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

And it's not like you're gonna go there and look for that movie because you already saw the bad part. You're not gonna delve into that. Right. Who wants to see that?

SPEAKER_03 25:30

Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

Who wants to see more of that?

SPEAKER_03 25:34

Facts. What was the most difficult part of making 2e movie? Was it getting funding? Was it did people just show up, break down how creating the movie happened?

SPEAKER_02 25:49

I don't know. I mean, the the the money was there. The people showed up and showed out. The biggest part the biggest challenge that I had was to try not to make it feel like it was a sketch.

SPEAKER_05 26:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

Sketch, a movie that was full of sketches. Right. Because when you think about Hollywood Shuffle, Hollywood Shuffle was a movie that's built that has a lot of sketches.

SPEAKER_05 26:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

There's not move, it's not movie. In Tubi movie, there's situations in these scenes that happen and it's not sketches. It's just stuff that happened, and it and the story continues to move forward, but uh while all these anomalies are happening, these they are interrupting the story that's happening. The biggest, and the other thing that was the hardest for me, I need the story to make sense, and I needed to have a beginning, middle, and end. Right because as I said, if I didn't do it that way, it would be a it'd just be a movie full of sketches. And that's not original. This is the most original piece that I've made. Nobody's ever made like something like this before. People are like, oh, airplane, no, this is not an airplane. This is the characters breaking breaking characters, talking about the bad stuff and the stuff that's in the movie that usually that people at home would say. So and and I did that so the people at home can laugh with us instead of at us, like they're doing with these clips that they post on Facebook.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

When they um when they went to go rob the uh the dudes and they jumped out with them brooms, oh I was dying. So funny. Because those are budget cuts.

SPEAKER_02 27:20

You think about the guys, I mean, think about these other movies, and they don't have they don't have they don't have the props or the proper props, proper whatever. And they just go ahead and do it. And it's uh it's other ways you can get through it without showing that, but I thought it'd be funny if you just used them.

SPEAKER_03 27:39

It was funny. It definitely was funny.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

What about when he shot the cup off the table?

SPEAKER_03 27:43

When he shot the cup off the table, or uh when they went and hid the bodies, and then he came back, he was like, Where's the dope? He was like, Oh, I snorted that all up. It's like, oh, okay. Right. Yeah, that was funny. All right. Um now, what's the amazing parts about uh making to be? Like, it gotta be crazy to like see something in your head and to bring it to real life. Like, what was the most amazing parts about the movie to you?

SPEAKER_02 28:23

That used to be uh that used to be something that's wild, now it's just something normal. Okay because so the guy that the beginning of the young parent.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

Yeah, the other thing.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:35

That got me too. How the two the two young people had this old man as their son. That was funny.

SPEAKER_02 28:42

But as the guy's name, Aaron, so Aaron, I told him about the movie, then he was reading the script, and then he was like one of the first few people who saw the movie. Well, actually, he was seeing the clips as I he was seeing the scenes as I was putting them together.

SPEAKER_04 28:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

So I said, how you what you think about this scene? He'll say, uh, well, oh, well, ha ha ha ha. So when he saw the scene that he was in, he was like, Man, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

I was just reading this script like three weeks ago, and here it is right here.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

And so he was at ah, like more so at ah with it.

SPEAKER_05 29:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

So uh I think for me, I have a thought, and then I put it on paper, and then we do it. So the thing about this movie is Buffalo 8 put it on platforms on February 6th, and it's been hard kind of waiting for it to come out because you know, usually I make a movie, and once I make a movie, then put it somewhere and then go make another movie. Right. Then put it somewhere and then go make another movie. Just keep it keep it going. You remember how you said my producer credit is why? Because I just do something and forget about it. Yeah. So this is the first time I've done something like this. Two years ago the movie was made. Now we're promoting it, and that's a different feeling for me, because I'm this isn't something I'm not used to. But I know comedians on a whole, when they go to different cities and they haven't sold out a show, they'll go on radio, promote. And this is the same thing I'm doing, I guess. And it's better than a marketing team taking a trailer and just stuff it in your face because it's only so much you can do with a trailer before you tell a whole movie. Right.

SPEAKER_03 30:21

And that's the thing too. Sometimes, like with trailers, like they'll take all the great parts of the movie and put it all in the trailer. And then yes, it makes you go see the movie, but like You know exactly what the movie's about. You know what I'm saying? Like, after that, there's no buzz around like, oh, you gotta go see this movie because there's such and such in it. If you start all trailer, they'd be like, oh, you just watch the trailer, you don't gotta go see the movie.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

But what's cool about I'm gonna tell you what's cool about this movie. So, first of all, I don't really rehearse or practice when we go on set, we just shoot. Okay. Because usually when people come in fresh, that's pretty much the energy I get.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Same with podcasting. Yeah, you don't want to discuss it first, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Right. Yeah. So a de but we had to I did I told him, I said, before, he's like, but that's your rule. I said, no, Adele needs to see what we're about to do before we do it.

SPEAKER_04 31:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

So he pulled he pulled out that skull, she busted our laugh for 10 minutes. So I was like, all right, do you understand? Now we can go ahead because she wasn't ready for that.

SPEAKER_05 31:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

That scene by itself, you know, we we had to just rehearse that one little part, but we pushed through it. And usually my shoot days are like when the ki when the cast get there, it's two hours.

SPEAKER_04 31:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

That's the most. It could be shorter, but two hours is the most. Because I get there an hour ahead of time, the crew gets there second hour after the second hour. Because the first hour I'm setting up. The second hour start, the crew gets there, they grab the equipment, make sure everything is working, and then the cast get there. Once the cast there gets there, we jump in and move forward and get the production done so we can get in and get out. And I like I said, I do a scene a day because I've learned that I don't have the patience to be breaking the equipment down and going to somewhere else and setting it back up, and by that time people ask me questions. I feel like if I get there before the cast and the roof and set up everything, and then the crew get there, grab their stuff. When the cast gets there, they can ask me whatever questions and we can get right to it and get out. Definitely be efficient. I might not be the best director, but I'm the most efficient.

SPEAKER_03 32:32

Hey, I hear it. I hear it. Now, something that reading your bio, doing research on you, um, your films, you're like releasing your films in theaters, which isn't real common in today's age. What is um what's your belief behind theoretical releases? What does it what does it take to get indie films and then to get people in those seats? What's your thoughts behind that?

SPEAKER_02 33:05

Well, from for people to come see my movie, they still believe that I'm good. Okay. Thank God. Right, yeah. Well, yeah, because Sex and Love was off the chain. And I'm gonna tell you the first time Sex and Love was in the theater, it was the icon theater downtown, and it blew the theater out.

SPEAKER_04 33:22

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

So Dear White People was playing next door, and I had met Lena Waite that Tuesday.

SPEAKER_05 33:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

And Lena Waite told we both, I both our teachers told us to come down and talk to the students. And we talked to the students, and then she said she was gonna be down to the theater. You know, she was gonna speak to speak on the panel after the movie. And I forgot about it. My movie's gonna be at the theater, so I didn't know she was coming to Icon.

SPEAKER_04 33:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

So somebody told me that they saw it. I'm like, and she didn't say nothing to me.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

You know, she didn't come over here. We met in the class, it's not like we didn't talk.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so then somebody on Facebook, they went to see dear white people, but they saw the commotion and started asking on online about sex ain't love.

SPEAKER_05 34:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

And what was going on with that? And when they asked about it, somebody responded, oh, yeah, that's my homeboy movie. It's gonna be playing on 87th Street tomorrow, and then it blew out that theater. And what the feeling behind, yeah. So what was crazy, the theater on 87th Street, it hit this big open space, and I didn't see nobody there. And I I I was like, wow, I guess who's just one? They said you do it once, that's look. I said, oh. But then somebody was like, they walked up to the table and say, hey, um, Sex Ain't Love sold out? It's like, no. Bought a ticket. I was like, I guess I'm gonna go sit by him and talk to him throughout the movie. I walked in the theater, like, I I waited like two minutes to see if he gets seated, so I didn't go find him in theater. I said the theater's gonna be empty anyway. Yeah. So I walk in there and I see him standing there, looking, looking for a seat in the theater, and I'm like, why are you not sitting there? And he just waves his hand and walked. I was like, oh man, the movie didn't even start yet. He's not that bad, bro. Right. So then I walk in there, man, the theater was filled from the front row to the back row.

SPEAKER_03 35:10

I was like, Yeah, that gotta feel good.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

Whoa.

SPEAKER_03 35:14

Facts.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

I feel great. I didn't watch, I didn't watch the people, I can't watch y'all because what I do is I'll be watching y'all and watch the movie.

SPEAKER_04 35:20

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

But so now, fast forward to Tubi movie. Tubi movie is a movie that you cannot watch with your phone in your hand.

SPEAKER_05 35:30

No, you'll be able to do that. Because you've missed the jokes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:32

You'll miss the jokes. So that's the reason why it's important to be in the theater. And you have that sense of community and people laughing with you, and everybody laughing at the same thing. You could be in a theater by yourself. You don't have to be in a theater with somebody. You like, man, that's crazy. You know, that's all that whole communal feeling. You're like, oh man, that was funny. Yeah, ha ha ha. I mean, people were saying that was scary moves, everybody being scared at the same time, but I love comedy and everybody laughing together, getting the jokes together. That's that's a different type of energy. You know, um yesterday, well actually uh probably last two days, not this today, but the day before yesterday and yesterday, I binged that show called Young Sherlock.

SPEAKER_04 36:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 36:19

Now, guy rich guy Richie, I'm a fan of Guy Richie, but I was able to be in my phone while I'm watching Young Sherlock.

SPEAKER_04 36:26

Right.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

And I didn't I didn't miss too much of anything. And I realized that while I was watching it, and I was like, hmm, yeah. But then I tried watching the boys today, and I couldn't take my eyes off the boys. I'm watching it the whole time. So I'm like, this is different.

SPEAKER_05 36:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:43

And if you if you realize Tubi movie, Tubi movie is very joke-heavy. You have to watch it almost, I'm not saying almost, you have to watch it twice to catch everything. Yeah. Because you will laugh through jokes. And I learned that when I was watching people in the theater because I was getting mad.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

I'm like, y'all laughing, y'all laughing through some good jokes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, some good jokes, y'all laughing. That was just a that's a warm-up joke. Y'all laughing through that.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

But realizing after talking to so many people about it, I write now like people search through the internet.

SPEAKER_04 37:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

That makes sense. Because if you scroll through your phone, if it catches your attention, you look at and you're like, oh, I'm gonna stop. As soon as it doesn't catch your attention, keep it moving, keep it moving. Yeah, so I'm joke heavy because I don't want I don't want to lose your attention.

SPEAKER_05 37:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

I don't want to give you a breather. Now, it's been told to me, like, oh, you gotta give your audience a chance to breathe. You give your audience a chance to breathe. Next thing you know, they're looking at their watch, their phone, their floor, or their food. I don't want, I want your eyes glued to the screen. Like, I don't want to miss what's gonna happen next.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

Especially in today's society with social media, like our attention stands aren't the same. So I agree with you on that.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Yeah, so that that for me, it was important to make sure that I keep your undivided attention and you don't have the ability or the want or the need to scroll through your phone.

SPEAKER_03 38:03

Now, what's the process of getting your movie into a movie theater? Like, how does that happen? That always fascinates me.

SPEAKER_02 38:12

It's a different, it's a different process every time. Okay. So I when I was at icon, I just went down and talked to the people at Icon, and the lady was nice, and then she said your movie did so well, we're gonna give it a theatrical run. So then with Studio Movie Grill, it was the same thing. We step off the block. Your movie did so well. Actually, Sex Ain't Love too. Sex Ain't Love, they said we're gonna give you your movie did well, so we're gonna give you a theatrical run. So now moving forward to go to Market's theaters is not it's not the same.

SPEAKER_05 38:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

You know, it doesn't matter how how good your movie does, they like, well, you know, uh we kind of need more money to put you in a movie.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

Oh, but you're you got these theaters that are empty.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

Uh can I fill your seats? Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

You know, they're they're going the people that came out to Marcus Theaters to see my movie, they they were at the concession stand, and I was pulling them out of the concession stand because the movie was gonna get started. Oh wow. So they got my money plus the concession stand on it.

SPEAKER_05 39:10

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 39:11

I didn't get nothing in the concession stand on it. Back to your question, every relationship is different. So when you talk to one person, depending on how your movie does, oh, we're gonna we're gonna advocate for you to come back and do a theatrical run because it did so well. And then you talk to another theater, and it's like, well, we got a we got a responsibility to the studios to do XYZ. So it it varies. You might you might get somebody that wanna help you out, you might get somebody who don't care. And the people who are working remote that you don't talk to and you only talk to emails, you never want to deal with those people. You want to talk to somebody that you you want to deal with people you can see face to face. You can you can garner a relationship. You can't garner a relationship with nobody through an email at all. When they when they tell you no, they don't feel nothing about it, they can't hear your passion behind your project, they don't care about how what your numbers were like, they just care about your check clear, your your credit card. Those are the things that they care about.

SPEAKER_03 40:11

Now, what are your future goals?

SPEAKER_02 40:14

Well, Fluke is a movie that I mean movie, it's a TV show that I I created three years ago. But Tubi came out and then that took over the rain. Because I was supposed to be pitching Tubi. I mean Fluke Fluke was about an out-of-work actor. I did three concept episodes. First I did a one concept episode, but I said, you know what, I do three to give them a better taste because you know, it's the whole thing when you say one and done. Yeah, that might have been a uh just a the first one might have been a fluke, even though a show called fluke. It might have been a fluke. It might it might it's it's probably lucky being funny. And the second episode is funny, and the third episode is funny, and we just need money to to do the other three episodes. So we're pitching the show now to try to get that picked up so we can do the other three episodes and they can throw the six episodes on a network and see how it does, and then we can renegotiate and see what they want to do for the next uh season if they if it if they want to pick it up for the next season. But plight of the indie filmmaker, the movie, should be the next project that I'm pursuing.

SPEAKER_03 41:15

Now, if you can have it the way you want to, what is the what's the end goal? What is Will Adams' future? What you want your legacy to look like? What what's the what's the dream?

SPEAKER_02 41:26

I'm not gonna say Tyler Perry, because Tyler Perry, you know, he's still I I would rather have a studio where I'm given making opportunities for other filmmakers to be able to work and thrive. Because, you know, it's it's the whole gold and axe theory, you know, California had the gold rush, and then, you know, they had the pickaxe salesman, and it doesn't matter how much you worked in the mind trying to find gold, you always need the pickaxe. Yeah. The pickaxe salesman, he made more money than everybody made because he was selling pickaxes. And I would be the pickaxe salesman. Filmmakers that have not made it, but are talented and enough to move a crowd.

SPEAKER_03 42:08

Yeah. I like that. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 42:11

That's the end goal.

SPEAKER_03 42:12

That's the end goal. I like that. This week's episode is sponsored by the Design Lab at Shutter Shock and Co. From logos and business cards to invitations and custom tees, the design lab is your one-stop shop for graphics. The design lab is the sole creator for copesthetic merchandise available now. Use your promo code Copasthetic for 10% off your Cope aesthetic merchandise. Shop now using the link in our bio. Back to the podcast, moving to our next topic, story time. If you had to pick one moment that would say has been your best experience, something that happened that was crazy in all your career, what would that be? Set it up and bring me there. Let me into the room.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

You know what? Now that you said it was sex and love. So Sex Ain't Love had a theatrical run. All right. And when they had a theatrical run, I would go to the theater every day and be up there it 'cause I they gave me five times a day. Okay. Five screen five screenings a day. That's okay. I would stay up there. Yeah, I'll trust me. I wasn't complaining, but I w it was rough trying to Hey, how you how y'all how y'all doing? Trying to keep that energy going. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

Like, hey, what's up? How'd you like the movie?

SPEAKER_02 44:00

You know, but my best experience was seeing people coming out of there smiling. Like they enjoyed themselves. That was my best experience. And going into making the movie, I didn't think that. You know, I didn't think that that's what it was, but I forgot that when I made Step Off the Block. And I regained that again when Tubi movie came out. Because when Toby movie came out, people came out happy and jovial and like, wow, that was a funny movie. Oh, that made my day. You know, I was lost down, but this movie it brought me back up. You know, that's a a really great story. But just seeing the is that is that is that close to that? Is that was that good enough?

SPEAKER_03 44:41

It's kinda like you didn't really like tell a story of it, but I I I hear what you're saying about your best moments. Seeing the uh just seeing people like what you do. Like that is, I don't think you can beat that.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

Like well, the warm feeling, I mean the story behind it was I didn't know because when I was making the movie, I had no clue that it would affect anybody to the point where they were ex actually happy when they came out the theater and thanking me. And I'm like, I never had that feeling before, but you know, just to see that, it was it was a nice feeling, and I wanted to do I really wanted to do it again. I didn't want it to just happen once, I wanted it to happen multiple times, and I said when I made Step Off the Blocks, even though Step Off the Block, it had a decent ending, but it wasn't like sex ain't love because it was happy.

SPEAKER_04 45:29

Right.

SPEAKER_02 45:30

And Tubi movies even though it's quirky, but it's still happy. And the story, but I guess the story behind it is you know, I who knew that I wanted to make people happy.

SPEAKER_03 45:43

I feel it, I feel it. Alright. Now, two more questions. Um last two questions. If you could see one person on this podcast, who would it be? But you have to try to help to get this person on the show. Who would that person be?

SPEAKER_02 46:02

Falana Sanders.

SPEAKER_03 46:04

Falana Sanders, okay. Why Felana Sanders? See in a tubi movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I saw her name in the credits.

SPEAKER_02 46:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:13

Yeah, yeah. Why Felana Sanders?

SPEAKER_02 46:15

Because she won't do it.

unknown 46:17

She won't do it.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

She won't do it. She won't do it.

SPEAKER_01 46:21

And it's been plenty of times I've been on podcasts and people are like, yeah, you got a Dale Gibbons, Damon Williams, Brando Cole, and Felana Sanders. And I said, why they call her my name? I'm like, hey.

SPEAKER_02 46:32

So Felana Sanders.

SPEAKER_03 46:34

Okay. Felanda Sanders. Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna hit Felanda. Falana, Falana. I'm gonna hit her up. I'm gonna hit her up. We're gonna reach out to her. We're gonna try to see if we can get her on here for sure. By way of you. All right. All right. So if you could give one piece of advice for someone looking to pursue what you're doing as well, new creator, new filmmaker, new director, new producer, what would that be?

SPEAKER_02 47:07

My recipe. And my recipe is very simple. Okay. Write a script. Now, this is if you're doing everything. You write a script, grab your locations, grab your cast. The reason why you do that is because the first thing an actor says when you read a script is when you're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_05 47:24

Right.

SPEAKER_02 47:24

If you have your locations locked, you can tell them that. Because if you talk to the actor, say, I'm thinking about writing a script, oh, okay. And then you grab your locations, and then you go to them later on and say, Alright, I'm ready. They're like, What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_04 47:37

Ready for what? You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

Yeah. Oh, yeah, I'm I'm I'm busy now. But if you have your locations locked, there's no way, shape, form, or fashion, they're not gonna be ready. Because if they read the script, they say, When you plan on doing it. They don't say if they like it or not, they say, When you plan on doing this.

SPEAKER_05 47:51

Right.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

And you say, Oh, um, my days to shoot your parts or the parts that you will be in will be X, Y, Z. Okay, I'll put it on my schedule. You got it. But if you say, I don't know, you might as well say you don't have to act. And also, the best thing about that is if your location a lot, somebody you want to be in your movie and they say they can't do it, that's cool. No problem. You can grab somebody else to still fill that spot.

SPEAKER_04 48:16

Right. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

And that's what happened with Felana Sanders. Somebody else was supposed to be in a spot that she was in, and they didn't, they they didn't make it, and that was her spot.

SPEAKER_03 48:30

All right. Shout out to Felana Sanders. Hilarious. I just want to uh thank you for being here. I appreciate your time. Um, I learned a lot, actually. Like it's something media world that I'm dabbling into. You know, I'm getting about like 10,000 listeners an episode, so I appreciate you being on here and speaking with my audience for sure. For all the dreamers that are listening to this show.

SPEAKER_02 48:57

I appreciate you having me on here. And now hopefully people go check out L-O-K-E-K-E-Y.com so they can find out more about low-key productions, but they also get a direct line to the movie.

SPEAKER_03 49:08

Definitely. I I did want to say that. Giving your hit up where they can find you, anything you want to promote, let them know.

SPEAKER_02 49:14

Oh, that's l-o-k-e-k-e-y.com, but I still appreciate you having me on here. Because, you know, you wanted to talk about the movie, and that's more than uh a lot of people want to do. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 49:27

Definitely, definitely. I am your host five. You can catch me at notorious underscore B-I-G underscore E or hit us up at the podcast. Instagram, Copacetic Hour Podcast, TikTok, Copacetic Our Podcast, YouTube, Cobacetic Hour. Uh please keep buying your merchandise at www.thecopacetichour.com. And as always, please walk by faith, protect your peace, secure your wealth, and define your destiny. This is the Copacetic Hour people.