BriTANick Bake a 'Pizza Movie' - Just Shoot It 521

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Welcome to the 521st episode of DISC Shooting, a podcast about filmmaking, screenwriting and directing. This episode is brought to you you by patron Laura Kaplan. No relation to me. I'm Oren Kaplan.

1:30

I'm mad at no relation to me. This episode is really special. We've got Britannicon, Nick Kocher and Brian McElhenny. They've got a new movie called Pizza Movie coming out on Hulu April 3rd. You and I have both seen it. We saw a rough cut or I guess a locked cut but not the VFX weren't done yet and it's great. Yeah, it was so fun.

1:40

We saw a screener before the premiere at south by Southwest. I'm pretty sure it did really well at south by also was shot by a DP that we just had on the podcast. Bella Gonzalez but yeah, you and I have kind of been fans of these guys for a little bit. They kind of came up on YouTube, did some writing for SNL. They wrote for Always Sunny in Philadelphia. They claimed to be the voice of the Cartoon Network. Hard to believe, but they're real life people.

1:58

Not cartoons.

2:23

Not cartoons. Yeah. They were not animated in the least. They're actually quite wooden. But no, there are two very funny guys that also have a podcast, which is. You know, sometimes I think too many people have podcasts, but that's just me. Most people welcome more podcasts.

2:24

I think you pretty actively welcome more podcasts, and I'm with that. Yeah, I like that, too.

2:38

Yeah, I. I do sometimes wonder how people find new podcasts like our podcast. Like the other day, I was like, how are people. How would people even hear about our podcast if they don't already listen to our podcast?

2:44

Well, that's what social media is for.

2:55

Yeah, but who sees us on social media? Only people that already know about our podcast.

2:57

No, no, no. Actually, the exact opposite. I would say about 70% of our viewers are people who haven't heard the show.

3:01

It tells you.

3:06

It shows you who are not following us.

3:07

Who are not following us. So if you don't follow the show, do know the show, and see our social media, then you're throwing our metrics off. But that's not interesting. You know what's interesting? Pizza movie. The movie's genuinely really funny. I think it's exactly kind of the. The sweet spot for you and I both to like it.

3:09

Yeah. Because I like pizza and you like movies.

3:26

That's right. That's right. No, we both love both. Gaten Mazzarato is in the movie, who is obviously from Stranger Things. And then Sean Giambroni. Giambroni. I'm not sure how to say his last name. He's very famous, and I just don't know him because I didn't watch the Goldbergs, which is something that bothered my parents forever, so. But he's really funny.

3:28

He's on like 708 episodes.

3:47

Yeah, he's just been on national television for a decade, but he's so, so funny. I thought the whole cast was great.

3:49

Yeah. Sarah Sherman's in it. Yeah. Bunch of really fun people.

3:55

Yeah. Pretty excellent.

3:59

Well, yeah. Do we. Is there anything else we wanted to talk about before we hop in?

4:00

We could talk about our Patreon, since we haven't plugged it in a minute. Patreon.com jetsjitpod is the place where you can go support the show. Throw us a buck or two. Keep Lily Editing all of those social media clips that keep things going. Keep Kevin editing, because without him, the show would not exist. And also, it would be way too long. So patreon.com help us out if you

4:04

want to come discuss movies with us while eating pizza. Join our patreon. Patreon.com cool. Without further ado, Brian and Nick and Ta.

4:27

Nick and Brian Britannic.

4:36

We made so many sketches. We're like, this isn't funny. How do we make this funny? And then we realized when we cut from a close up to a wide shot and cut the music, it always got laughs. And we're like, all right, this is just working. So it's like it's become part of our vernacular end.

4:41

Yeah, it doesn't even always have to make sense. It's just the, like, Pavlovian response that the audience will have to, like, there's a joke there and they'll laugh and like. Yeah, we've tried experiments where we don't say anything funny at all, but just do the cadence of a joke or something. And it doesn't always.

4:54

I mean, there is a. But there's a performance too, right? There's like an awkward pause.

5:10

Sure, sure.

5:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cut white music out. There is something you can speak about that figuratively, too, where it's like, you don't have to literally cut white music out, but the feeling of being in something and being in this dramatic place and then just sort of like, jarring yourself to like a. A spot where you kind of look at it from a macro place for a second. It's just like, there's something about just that movement, whether you're doing it literally or just in some other way that always. That is kind of the basis of comedy in a lot of ways.

5:15

Establish a pattern, continue it, then break it. It's basically.

5:42

Yeah, yeah, but see, I love the technical, like, getting technical on comedy. I remember one of the first, like, big lessons I had was I was working on a show for Super Deluxe back in the day, and they. The person I was working with, I was like, you're not, like, leaving, like, you're. You're going way too fast, and, like, we're not leaving enough time for these awkward pauses. And she was like, well, the. If you. If the performance is super fast, then your awkward pause can be, like, much shorter, you know, so if the cadence is boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Like, one second is enough to pause, but if they cadence, like, boom, boom, boom. Because she. She kept trying to push things faster, and I was like, no, it's. It's not going to be funny. And then I. I think she was right in the end.

5:47

You know, we deal with that a lot. Our sketches especially move at this very hyper pace. But I feel like a lot of comedy on TikTok now moves that. But it wasn't back in 2010 when we were first kind of starting out. But we kind of, like, don't leave room for people to laugh. We've noticed we would show our videos at live shows, and so, like, in a way, we kind of liked it because, like, people had to kind of, like, suppress their laugh to keep listening. And I don't know if that's a good or bad technique, but, like, we realized we didn't leave, like, a lot of spaces. And I'm like, our movie, Pizza movie, South by Southwest. There's some moments, Nick, where I'm like, wow, we're really just sort of blowing through, and we'll, like, land a joke going.

6:29

We did do some things. So with this movie, Pizza Movie, we did, like, four test screenings for it. And what we. We did adjust for is, like, if something got a laugh in all four screenings, we were like, all right, it's probably safe to say it's gonna get a laugh. So we would build in a. If there was, like, an important piece of dialogue after it, we would kind of build in a safeguard so that that could be heard. But also, it's interesting because this movie is coming out on Hulu, and like most movies these days, it will not be seen in a theater outside of south by Southwest. It'll be seen in theater there, but outside of that, it'll be at. On Hulu being watched, you know, hopefully, by groups of people all laughing together. But you also have to make the movie for one person watching alone any more, like, find it hysterical. They're probably not laughing out loud. They're certainly not laughing loud enough to step over dialogue.

7:05

Yeah, that's fascinating.

7:59

Yeah.

8:00

I feel like there was. And this is a setup for. For the big picture with you guys. I feel like the. When sketch groups started putting their videos on the Internet, right, All of a sudden you develop this sort of editing cadence, right? That's different from the live shows of it all. And I remember seeing you guys in the pacing of those early videos was so wall to wall, and you would see it with college humor and all of the other stuff, but I think you guys in particular, it was almost like hyper literate. You know, it was, like, meant to be really, really writerly almost. Right? So like performance driven. But like the edit was a big part of it. And so it's interesting to see you guys come around to the other side where all of a sudden you're really conscientious about an audience for test screenings. But then with that sort of like reversal with Hulu is fascinating.

8:01

Yeah, it's interesting to, to do and it's like, you know, we go. You can go back and forth forever and with your editor and it's like there's times, there's really no right answer. It's a bit of a taste thing. I mean, our wall to wall speed that you're talking about was kind of us just editing so much and just being like, it just got funnier and funnier the faster it got. And that might be because we just watched a million times. Like it might have actually been too fast because we were just like, for us it felt like the right speed because we just knew it. But that became our style. So like. And people seem to like it. So I don't know, I think we just really like fast, very like you said, hyper literate kind of comedy that's like very well written in like, like kind of circular almost. Yes.

8:59

I think to some degree, like we're definitely conscientious of the audience, but. But really we are making it for ourselves. Which I think is kind of what you have to do essentially, because otherwise you're just, you're kind of aiming at a target that you just have no idea where it is because you don't know every one. Every person's going to be different. So you're never going to please everybody. So we, we're mostly looking to please ourselves. And because we've seen the movie three, it lends to it being like us wanting to just, you know, really pace up the thing and cut out everything that we're bored by. So it's like to some degree we're like, Certainly with our YouTube sketches, we make those for ourselves to enjoy on the 500th watch. So it's like, it's really like, you know, we've cut a lot of fat, we've cut jokes that maybe were solid jokes but that we were just like, we don't need it, we can move past it.

9:39

Yeah.

10:37

And then with, with Pizza Movie, what we found, I think in between the third and fourth test screening was we had actually removed a little bit too much. Like there was some stuff that didn't land as well in the fourth screening that was like very nice.

10:37

Removed the pizza plot line.

10:52

We took away the Pizza. It was a big problem.

10:54

We just left the movie.

10:57

Were you guys speaking of pizza? I mean, the. There's a plot. There's a plot point in the movie where these guys have to eat pizza to save their lives. More or less, yeah, pretty much. And did you guys ever think of getting, you know, one of these pizza. Pizza makers, pizza making companies to pay for shooting?

10:58

They were like, yeah, they were out to, like, Domino's. I think

11:16

that one falls like all the rest, right?

11:21

Probably, yeah.

11:24

From moment one, we were like, yeah, we're fine with if you guys want to find a sponsorship for the.

11:25

The.

11:29

The pizza company. Like, so long as we don't have to, like, you know, they don't demand some crazy rewrite or, like, ideally they exert no creative control, but, like, can you do the.

11:29

The Blossom Squash Pizza? That's just. It's just our best seller.

11:41

So we would have happily done it.

11:44

We would have.

11:46

That would have been absolute triple beam at.

11:46

At first. When we, like, were first making. I'm like, no, this isn't Harold and Kumar. We're not trying to do any product placement. And then once we saw how little time and money we had shooting, we're like, make it a Pizza Hut movie.

11:49

Y.

12:01

Well, guys, I want to talk a

12:01

lot more about Pizza Movie, but I think it actually makes sense to kind of go back in time a little bit and set things up a little bit more, actually, partially because I'm curious, because I think listeners probably recognize you guys as Britannic, right? Like, you did do these YouTube sketches that we talked about, but give us just the quick drive by of how you got from making sketches in college.

12:03

Ish.

12:27

Yes.

12:28

Up to now. Yeah.

12:30

Yeah.

12:31

So, gosh, we're both from Atlanta. Just to give you the. Just to start. Even before then, we both grew up in Atlanta and we. We had very parallel lives. And we were in the same preschool, we were at the same Little league playing baseball. We were at the same performing arts summer camp. And we never met during any of this.

12:32

Are you guys the same age we were?

12:51

And we. We were the same age we are no longer. Oh, here's the thing about this. I age in reverse.

12:54

So Nick is 39. So I guess we are.

13:00

Brian, when you start doing a colonoscopy every week for fun and.

13:04

Yeah, it does take a toll on your body.

13:07

No. So we didn't. We didn't meet until the end of high school. We were at separate high schools and we had a mutual friend and we met through him and became friends. Really Quickly. And we're immediately kind of making stuff together. And then we ended up going to NYU at the same time. Brian went for film, I went for acting. And Brian would always cast me in his film projects.

13:10

And I was the Waverly Films guys.

13:33

Yeah, they were like, I think they're the same year as us.

13:37

Are we.

13:40

Are they old?

13:40

I thought they were.

13:41

I think they're a touch older. I think they're like a couple years. Yeah, yeah, we were.

13:41

Yeah.

13:45

It was like Waverly Films. There was Derek Comedy who was like a couple years older than us, and

13:46

we're the Lonely island guys. There

13:52

already is.

13:56

No.

13:56

Right.

13:56

Yeah, they were in California, but they were at SNL when we started college pretty much.

13:57

Yeah.

14:01

Oh, really? Okay.

14:02

Yeah.

14:03

So you guys weren't. Okay. Yeah. So that's post the group 101 or channel 101 and all.

14:03

Yeah, yeah. In high school, but we never were part of it.

14:08

Yeah.

14:13

I think that was more of like a California thing. Right. It was like a west coast.

14:14

There was a minute where New York was doing. They called it channel 102. And I remember Julie Klausner show and Mitch McGee had a show.

14:18

Oh, cool.

14:26

It was great, actually, but.

14:27

Yeah, nice.

14:28

Yeah. I think the Waverly Films guys did like a puppet murder mystery or something. Right?

14:29

That sounds about right.

14:33

Yeah. They were so clever. Yeah. So then we. Yep.

14:34

Brian would cast me in his stuff. He would write the script, and then I would, like, improvise on top of it. I would refused to say anything I didn't like.

14:38

And so that's how it still is, by the way. Yeah.

14:45

And. And so then sort of towards the end of college, we, you know, Derek Comedy was putting stuff for people who don't know. That was Donald Glover and Dominic De.

14:48

They made the Mystery Team movie.

14:59

Yeah. Which was like, huge.

15:01

When that.

15:03

For the UCB community. Yeah.

15:04

Yeah.

15:05

Sundance midnight screening. And that was very encouraging for all the people watching them, underneath them.

15:06

And we were just big fans of sketch comedy. So we were like, yeah, let's do. Let's. Let's, you know, make some sketches and put them on YouTube. And we had sort of started writing together a bit, but I guess really Britannic was when we first were like, we're both gonna write together. Before then, it had just been sort of Brian writing his scripts and. And I would give notes and. And improvise.

15:12

Yeah. And then we basically started writing sketches. We started performing at ucb. That was like our home theater in New York, and we write sketches and we found our groove pretty quick. I think for the first couple sketches, I would write a sketch, and then we just kind of film it, or Nick would write a sketch and we'd film it. But after, like, two or three of those, we decided we had to kind of do everything together. And then from then on out, it's just been us. Like, we basically get together to write a sketch, and by the end, you can't really tell who wrote what. Like, it's very much like we hammer things out line by line until we are just exhausted. And, you know, it can come. It can start with someone's idea, but by the end, it's like we added the ideas, get layered from each person to the ideas that. It's like a souffle of both of us. But, yeah, that's sort of what we did. Started doing in our early 20s, and that led to us getting jobs writing for different TV shows. We did SNL for a bit and Always Sunny. We were voices of Cartoon Network for a bit. We do odd acting jobs in TV shows and movies. You said you.

15:33

You were voices at Cartoon Network or you were the voice of Cartoon Network?

16:32

We were the voice of.

16:35

Of the network.

16:36

So if you ever heard, you know,

16:38

if you watched Cartoon Network in between 2010 and 2016, you heard us say, like, coming up next, it's Adventure Time or whatever.

16:39

Only on Cartoon Network. Which we had to say every week 100 times.

16:49

You're like, why couldn't you just bank this? Yeah.

16:54

I don't know. Every week for six years, we had to be like, only on Cartoon Network. Only on Cartoon Network. Only on Cartoon.

16:56

Surely you've got it. You guys must have this six years left later.

17:03

I have. I have an Airbnb kind of. And I had this guy saying that was like a radio, like, call sign guy. Like, you're listening to KLSX 93.1.

17:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

17:16

And he ended up, like, switching Airbnbs because he said, there's, like, too many helicopters in Silver Lake, where I live. And. But he literally would rerecord. Yeah. Like, the call signs, like, every week. And I'm like, you're doing the same thing. Yeah. He's like, yeah.

17:17

And God forbid there be the slightest bit of distortion, slightest bit of a wing flap from a helicopter.

17:29

Yeah. I think that propellers.

17:37

Yeah.

17:38

Yes. I realized it when I said it. I did.

17:39

I was gonna say, who's going to call out on this raw?

17:42

And I was like, you know what? I'm not gonna waste their precious podcast time by correcting myself.

17:45

No, I'm glad I hope everyone thought on YouTube just seeing the hard swallow of realization.

17:49

Nick is bright red.

17:55

Just go big. We know Nick isn't a guy who's Shinna's plaything.

17:56

He doesn't, like, zoom in on my eyes as you see me realize I

18:00

just said helicopters have wings and that they're flapped. I mean, even airplanes don't.

18:04

Anyway.

18:09

Yeah. Really? Only birds flap, Nick. Yeah.

18:10

Anyway, so I will push back on that. There are like.

18:12

It's a similar flap sound. It's the sound of a flap.

18:15

What is the sound of a flap? You'll see the propeller has the sound of a flap.

18:19

I think it could be. I think we're really described as a flap.

18:25

We're getting the flapping.

18:28

I. I'm not. We're not moving on until.

18:31

Yeah. Is this what you meant by getting granular, guys?

18:33

That's right, that's right, that's right.

18:36

Yeah. Do you guys know Firefly? Did we talk about this Adobe Firefly.

18:37

Oh, native Fillian show.

18:41

I know Adobe Firefly. It's. They have this new AI thing where you can literally make a sound effect with your mouth. Like, you could go. And then right in helicopter, and it would, like, turn it into, like, ultimate helicopter.

18:43

That seems very. Do you mean bird or helicopter?

18:54

Having just gone through the sound mix of our movie, there's so many times where we would say to the sound designer, Mac, like, okay, we want kind of like a, like sound.

18:58

They love it. They're like. We love hearing directors describe their sound. It's kind of fun.

19:07

Now you have to.

19:11

You have to do with your voice.

19:11

Yeah. Now you can actually do that in the. Yeah, yeah. Firefly. It's pretty cool. Matt's gonna.

19:12

Wow.

19:17

Kill me for just going so into a random part of this interview, but since you were talking about the sound mix of your movie. I did watch your movie. I really enjoyed it. It was really fun. We also had Bella Gonzalez on the podcast.

19:18

Oh, and you would have seen, to be clear, the non sound mixed version with all of the, like, scra.

19:29

Just your voice.

19:36

Absolute version of this movie. We yell vomit instead of going back.

19:37

Tell you guys the screener that they sent us. First of all, there was all the VFX notes that were.

19:44

Yeah, listen, we don't like that anyone saw the incomplete version of this movie. We're. We're actually mortified that you watched that. There is. The music wasn't in it. Or I guess that there was temp music. There wasn't vfx.

19:51

It also has your name, you know, on the screener, right in the middle of the screen, over everything.

20:06

Watermark.

20:12

Yeah, we'll take our name off. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

20:13

No, no, just my name off.

20:16

Right.

20:18

It's like it says Mr. Madano@gmail.com across the stripe.

20:18

No, that is. No, that is in the final cut. That is actually in the movie.

20:23

That's flattering.

20:27

Well, what I was gonna ask. And because this. I'm just curious, from process standpoint, you guys premiered at south by last year, right?

20:30

No, in. In two weeks or in a week. We premiere.

20:37

Oh, you're in four days, Nick.

20:41

Four days.

20:43

Yes. Oh, damn.

20:43

I've never seen Nick say no that aggressively in my life.

20:45

I just want to be very clear that you. You need to not know.

20:48

You need to know.

20:51

That wasn't the final version.

20:52

I'm gonna pump the break for listeners at home. We got sent a screener that had a lot of temp fee effects, like, weeks ago.

20:53

Yeah, yeah, weeks ago.

20:59

But, like, very clearly unfinished.

21:01

Right.

21:03

So we're joking about watermarks and stuff like that. But I think it's not just that. Like, it says, like, hey, Tempe, were there. You know, none of the screens had been replaced. Music wasn't there. It was clearly very rough.

21:04

Just.

21:16

Just for clarity's sake, everyone.

21:16

Yes.

21:18

Yeah, it's something where. I mean, you guys.

21:18

But I think the edit was locked, right? The edit was the official picture locked.

21:20

Yes.

21:24

Yeah, yeah. It's one of those things where. And you guys know this, where it's like, just because we've edited so much comedy and even if it's picture locked and there's enough of the music there or something, people are like, it's pretty good. And it's like the amount. Adding the right little details of sound effects and just adjusting the volume of music and then you watch it again. It's night and day. If a joke hits or doesn't or if it's moving in the right speed or not. Like, all those things like that feel so small if you don't. Aren't really an editor. Add up so strongly and can take the movie from like a C minus to an A plus even though it looks like it's pretty much done. That's what we keep trying to tell our A. That's right. I. I'm saying it.

21:24

Oh, you can only move it one letter grade.

22:01

No, no.

22:03

Yeah.

22:04

I don't know if our movie can go from C minus A plus, but it can turn some movie from a C minus to an A plus. I think. I think sound can do that.

22:04

That's.

22:11

I mean, the sound would be pretty bad for two letter grades to go up, I suppose.

22:11

But no, I think again, yeah, the Lonely island guys talking about, like, Akiva will be like, we'll watch, rewatch and edit from 14 years ago. And he's like, oh, we should have cut that frame out. Like, like.

22:16

And he.

22:26

Yeah, he's like a big. Like, each frame counts and I. I just love. Oh, my God, it sounds like you guys are like, that too.

22:26

Huge. I mean, there's. Just because we ran out of time, there's some parts in our movie where I'm like, we're a couple frames long in this scene or something. But, like, yeah, 1 24th of a second. We've just had it so many times in editing sketches, something's not working, and you take off or add one frame and then it does. And, like, once you see that and you see how it can change a moment, you kind of get obsessed with the idea of those. Yeah, that frame, as they call it, is very important.

22:33

It's also hard.

22:58

That's how my kids are born.

22:59

Yeah. Frame.

23:00

Fucking.

23:01

Unlike live performance. Like, you can't. You can't. Like, each audience is different. And, like, when you're doing a live show, you can kind of go, oh, this audience. We should pace up the show for this audience. Or, oh, we can slow it down. This audience is, like, really, you know, enjoying the show. Like, and with a movie, you can't. You're just kind of like, okay, we've locked it in this. But this joke would hit harder if it was five frames for this audience and if it was two frames this way.

23:01

That's kind of why I hate test screenings a little bit. I. I was after test screening our movie because we had audiences that were very different. And, like, one of our audiences was just, like, clearly a very tired audience. And they weren't laughing at things that others were. And I'm like, I wonder how many movies where the final screening changed something huge in the movie because they thought it needed to, that probably didn't need to be changed. But, like, you can really freak out about your most recent test audience, which might be, you know, indicative of what a bunch of people would think. Or it might just be that audience in that moment. And you can, like, it can be very helpful, but can also, like, drive you crazy when you try to, like, you know, if Nick and an argument. We're like, let's bring up the test audience footage. And then, like, it gets a laugh on my thing. But Then Nick brings up another test audience where they laughed at a different thing.

23:32

It's just like, wait, film your audience?

24:15

Yeah, we filmed our audience watching our movie, which sounds crazy, but it actually really helped.

24:18

It's very helpful for comedies. I. I get why. I think, like, the. We did these test screenings, but we ran them. We didn't use, like, a company to run them. And I could see, like, because I know directors, a lot of directors hate test screenings. I've also talked to plenty that. That enjoy them and are like, no, they're very useful. But I think what was nice about these is that we ran them and we were talking to people. And I think to some degree, that probably, you know, taints the sample a little bit, but it's like, it's. I liked being able to be like, what was confusing about this? Did you think this? Did you think this? Did you get this joke? But, like, like, there was one joke that we had in the movie that, like, three audiences in a row didn't laugh at that we were like, this doesn't. This is a good joke. I don't understand why this isn't getting laughs. And I remember asking certain test screen audiences, like, do you understand this? That, like, this is. We're setting up this here and that

24:24

do nothing for you? Yeah, yeah.

25:27

And they were like, yeah, no, we get it. And I was like, I don't. Like, I guess this just doesn't work. And then our editor did some cut half of the set line.

25:28

Just which moment are you talking about?

25:37

It's the. The shelves falling down. There's a moment where show you fall down in the movie. I thought that was like, the setup line for that joke was longer, and he cut it in half without telling either Brian or I that he had done that. And I would have pushed back against it. I would have been like, no, no, no, you need the whole line. But then that was the. That when he did that, it finally got a laugh in the test screening. And I was like, well, there you go. I can't argue with that.

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27:52

Yeah, it's so funny too, because like,

28:22

if you hadn't realized that he changed it, then all of a sudden your data set just doesn't make any sense, right? You're back to that thing of like, well, one audience likes it, the most recent one likes it. How come? Right? And it is frustrating when it's like there's so many tiny little things that can change. Like an audience has just been laughing too much and all of us, they

28:23

just need to take a breath or

28:44

whatever and all of a sudden a joke doesn't get a laugh, even though it is really funny, right?

28:45

I think that's a big part of it. Like, comedy is really like, it's music. Like, I feel like with our sketches especially, I really started liking the idea of treating the edit like it's. It's a rhythm. It's like you can close your eyes and just like, even if people were speaking gibberish, you'd be like, oh, this feels, like, good. It just feels good to listen to. I think with comedy, it's like you almost like people are breathing in a certain way, listening to a rhythm, so you want to, like, catch the joke when they're like, have the most breath to, like, get it out. And sometimes they're just like, the rhythm's not right, and the joke hits, and they just weren't kind of in that place where they're, like, ready to expel breath. Like, it's like it gets physiological like that, I think. Not that I've fully figured it out, but, like, just, like, make it. If it feels like it's in this, like, nice pocket of a rhythm, all of a sudden, people, like, want to laugh more because it's just like, they're feeling good versus, like, if things feel stilted, then a great joke. You're like, okay, good joke, but I was kind of not in the mood.

28:50

Not there. Yeah, yeah, sorry. No. Have you ever laughed till it hurt? That's like a weird. Remember Peter Travers used to say, like, you know. Yeah, I laughed how it hurt.

29:41

Oh, like, yes. The most recent Jackass movie.

29:52

Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure.

29:55

I've left until I'm embarrassed, you know? Like, I know people that. Because I am incapable of stopping.

29:57

Yeah, yeah. It's a great feeling. I mean, it's. You feel insane inside.

30:03

But I love movies.

30:07

It's a pro.

30:10

The fall film.

30:10

I suspect that maybe, like, when you're just drilling in on a joke, I feel like you have to just double, triple, and quadruple down on the same joke in order to get that feeling. Do you know what I mean? I don't think that you can move past that if you're just going for a huge, crushing laugh. And I'm trying to think of instances where I would laugh that hard at multiple jokes all in a row.

30:12

Do you know what I mean?

30:36

It's.

30:37

It's always.

30:37

It's just kind of like heightening off the same premise over and over and over again to an extreme extent.

30:37

Yeah. I mean, yeah, this is probably an interesting example because it's real people, and it's just like. It just keeps going and going and

30:43

going, and you're like, yeah, it's.

30:50

Yeah, it's like, oh, the. Another person's getting hit. But it's not like you're moving to another segment.

30:52

Right.

30:57

Yeah, I know what you're saying. Yes. Yes.

30:58

It's almost like deepening this fire thing, like Kimmy Schmidt, you know, I feel like there's some shows that I'm laughing a lot, and it is like, just a. A long series of jokes that you're almost missing if you're, like, not.

31:00

Yeah, I. I was such a huge Arrest Development fan in college, and I remember, like, laughing till I heard at some of those jokes, and those were like, you know, kind of, like came out of nowhere and stuff. But, yeah, it's interesting. What are those jokes that make you, like, really, like, really hit you hard and lose it?

31:13

Yeah, yeah.

31:27

You just go crazy.

31:28

It is interesting the. The physiology of it all. I'm sure we can get some AI cracking. You guys see the Kentucky Fred movie? Some movie where these guys. It's World War II, and somebody comes up with this joke that's so funny that when you hear it, it's like

31:28

the brown note of. Of jokes. Yeah.

31:46

I think that's enough for something completely different. Monty Python.

31:49

Yeah. Yeah.

31:52

Which is kind of their Kentucky Fried movie a little bit.

31:53

Yeah. The guy, like, writes it. He's like a recluse. He writes it in his attic, and his. He. His mom hears him laughing, and then she hears him die. And she comes up and she's like, what happened? She reads the. What he was working on. She laughs and dies.

31:55

Yes.

32:07

Yeah.

32:08

Yeah. The Allied powers end up using it. They translate it to German and they. Yeah, it's pretty good. One guy saw, like, three words of the joke and had to be hospitalized for a month. Yeah. Anyway, I do. Yeah. Those guys. What happened to them? They're not making YouTube videos anymore.

32:09

No, they're not. They're just fighting with their ex wives and writing kind of racist things on X and Twitter.

32:25

Both of them.

32:31

We saw them live in. In London. They basically did a show before Terry Jones died. And Nick and I, like, went to London for the first time in 2015. 14. Bought tickets, fourth row center in this arena, the O2 arena, and shoot for

32:32

specifically to go see Money Python.

32:45

Yeah. And it was, like, incredible. Like, it was amazing.

32:47

Yeah.

32:50

To watch them do, like, parrot and lumberjack song 10ft away from you. It felt, like, impossible. We were watching it.

32:51

It does seem what I was gonna ask. And I don't know if this even is too abstract of a question, but you're talking about. I guess I'm just thinking about the, like, what you were saying about the breathing and the comedy and the laughs. And I wonder if that, like, also applies to, like, suspense and tension. And because I try to think of like when I have real physical reactions to watching things, especially at home, a lot of times it is like, you know, like a Breaking Bad or something like that, you know, like where you're. Where it's not coming from comedy. But I'm. I'm like physically invested in the next thing that's going to happen or even like a Game of Thrones. And I wonder if there is. Yeah. Something physiological in the editing and the pacing and how you were saying that even if you had the sound off, you can tell if something is working and like pulling you. Yeah.

32:57

I mean people talked about how Zach Kreger and Jordan Peele have gone from comedy to horror. And that's like there's something linked about kind of like the feeling of suspense and comedy. We've never gone in that direction. But I can sense how it's like, I can see how those two things could be very linked. Yeah.

33:39

They're both very mathematical. I feel like. And rely on the same thing of building tension and then breaking it. Like a jump scare and. And a joke are very like, you know, technically specific things. You have to get a lot of different elements right. And you have to. For them to work. And they're also both. I think they're the two biggest swings you can take in a movie where it's like there's such a clear like in a drama like mumble core film. It's like who's to say what the correct reaction is? But if it's a jump scare, if people don't jump, it failed. And if it's a joke and people don't laugh like that didn't work.

33:53

Yeah. There's an objective reaction that you're.

34:30

Yeah.

34:34

That you can get. Right.

34:34

It's almost like horror has like its own cut wide music out. I don't know what it is, but like to get a scare I thought

34:36

there's some kind of called mirror clothes monster.

34:42

Mirror clothes monster.

34:45

I mean it is probably a jump scare. It's probably kind of the equivalent, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

34:47

It's like music swells like, oh no,

34:52

it's about to happen.

34:54

It's about macro, close up detail.

34:55

It's like, oh, no, it didn't happen. Then the jump scare.

34:57

Yeah, always it didn't happen. Big breath of sigh of relief and then it happens. Gets me every time. But like I knew, I knew the formula always gets you.

35:00

I want is.

35:08

So I apologize for not knowing the answer to this, but is this your first feature that you guys directed?

35:09

It Is.

35:13

Is that. Yeah, you. And you've written. You. You just wrote a feature, too, that just got me.

35:14

Yeah, we wrote one that directed.

35:18

Yeah, we wrote a movie called over your dead Body that. Yeah, Jorma direct.

35:20

It's an adaptation of a Norwegian film.

35:24

It's.

35:27

Yeah.

35:27

And it's coming out the same month. So pizza movie comes out April 3rd on Hulu, and then over your dead body comes out April 24th in theaters.

35:28

And are you guys.

35:35

Congrats, guys. Incredible.

35:36

Were you guys hired to write that or. Yeah, we were.

35:38

Yeah, we were.

35:41

It was a production company called XYZ wanted to do an American remake, and I had become friendly with one of the producers, and he showed me the script, and I was like, oh, yeah, this is great. I feel like this would be really, really fun to adapt. And it was.

35:42

It's a comedy also, or.

35:58

Yeah, kind of comedy. It's like a dark comedy thriller or comedy. It's about. It's about a husband and wife who both decide to kill each other on the exact same day, and hijinks ensue.

35:59

Pretty violent hijinks. But it was fun to kind of work in a different genre than what we normally do. It's weird. Like.

36:15

Yeah, I was gonna say, actually, like, looking at the difference between pizza movie and over your dead body, which, again, you guys didn't direct, but it is kind of like, close to that Zach Kraeger, Jordan Peele move. Right? It's. It's more. It's not pure horror, obviously, but it's, like, definitely a thriller.

36:20

Yeah.

36:38

I was kind of. I was curious about just, you know, the nature of doing that movie versus doing pizza movie and kind of from a careerist perspective, like, what made you decide? It sounds like it's just. You were creatively interested in it.

36:38

Right.

36:53

But, like, there is this. This big question mark for people our age who love comedy and want to make comedy movies and that we don't get to make many of them. Do you know what I mean? And so you guys, you did.

36:53

You did it.

37:07

And also, you kind of did the thriller thing at the same time. Like, it feels like people get to do either one or the other. Right.

37:08

And you did.

37:14

Literally in the same.

37:15

I've been pretty lucky in terms of, like, the things that we've been. I mean, like, obviously in TV we've been hired, like, almost exclusively in the comedy realm, but in features, we. The. We've been paid to write a number of features. Not. You know, these are the first two, pizza movie and over your dead body. That have gotten made, but we've. Each one has been pretty different. Like, we initially wrote a time travel movie for Lionsgate for both of us to act in, and that was like a, that was a hard comedy, but it was like a romcom, I would say. Like, there's romantic elements, there's dramatic elements to it. It. Then we wrote, we adapted a French film that is a, It's a, A comedy, I guess a rom com or a dark comedy that takes place in a spinal cord rehab hospital. So it's a bunch of people who have all been, you know, have varying degrees of paralyzed. Like they've had different spinal cord injuries and are rehabilitating. And it's like kind of like a raunchy comedy with, you know, people with their backs broken. And that is at New Line and hopefully will get made soon. We'll see. But, like, it's been like each one of these has been so different. The approach has been so different. They felt like very, very different movies. They felt like very different genres. And I, I, there's something, I, I mean, I love that. I think there's, it's something that keeps you really sharp doing that, where you're, where you're doing stuff that you don't even know. Like, when we were writing the spinal cord rehab movie, we were kind of like, are we, Are we the right people to write this? Like, can we even. Like, this seems like a very, you know, this is a very challenging idea. And because of that, it just kept us on our toes and we were really present during it, and it was, it was very, very fun to write.

37:15

I would say read it with your feet.

39:08

Yeah, we did. Yeah.

39:09

Yeah.

39:10

From a career perspective, like you asked Matt, it is interesting because, because we also, on top of those features, have tried to have a TV show a billion times, and we've had so many different pilots go to different stages. So it's like at this point, almost 20 years out of college, we were just sort of like, we just wanted to get something, some Britannic feature TV show. And it's like, it's very hard. Like, it's, you know, it's one of those things. We're like, man, we can't quite get there. It's just not happening. So it's like we're always trying to create our own thing. We're always taking these jobs, writing other screenplays if they'll have us. And we got used to the idea that nothing really ever happens. And then kind of just luckily enough, we're working on over your Dead body. At the same time we get hired with for pizza movie, which was a great surprise.

39:11

And then we're like, okay, this was a project you guys have been trying to get off the ground and you. It just kind of got greenlit kind of.

39:54

It wasn't a plan. It just sort of was like, wow, like two huge projects again. We kind of thought projects just never really got past the finish line because you just. It happens so often in Hollywood. It just. Things fall apart in 2022.

40:02

We, I think we were writing multi cam pilot for Fox and we. But we had. And we'd been writing like a. Yes. Like a classic multi cam sitcom. And we were also doing the Edinburgh Fringe that year. We had wanted to do it for a long time and perform live. And I, I remember right before we went to go out there, I was like, I feel like this is a colossal mistake. Maybe because we've got this pilot going to box.

40:16

Going to Fringe would be a class.

40:45

Yeah, yeah.

40:46

Because we were assuming all consuming type of thing, right?

40:47

Completely. Yeah, it is.

40:51

And we were in the middle of writing this script that like we needed to turn in and it was like, you know, we cared about and we wanted it to do well. And it's like we're gonna go for a month and like, you know, perform sketch comedy to maybe no one. And to.

40:52

To be fair though, it's. It's a very popular festival. It wouldn't have been.

41:06

No, it is the largest festival in the world. Yes. Here's the thing. There are a lot of shows there that perform. No one. There are.

41:10

Okay.

41:17

Really.

41:17

Okay.

41:17

There.

41:17

And there's Americans that go out there and do not do well. And it is.

41:18

There's 4, 000 shows a day. That's how big.

41:23

No way. Is that the real number.

41:27

That's, that's, that's the number. It's for 25 days straight. 4,000 a day. It's the same time every day. So it's like Groundhog Day every day. And some shows you're really struggling to get people.

41:28

And if it's not going well, it's, it's. You're just in hell.

41:39

And is there like an Olympic village where everyone is like passing Fringe?

41:43

Yes. Oh, yes.

41:47

In every version. In every aspect of that is correct. Except they're not athletic people.

41:50

Yeah, they're clowns. They're like Bulgarian clowns. They're not. Not like super athletes. The body types, let's say, look a little different. Yeah, yeah.

41:55

And so we went and did that and it was like so great for our souls. It was just like, we had a great time. It was like we were doing.

42:04

Did people show up?

42:12

People showed up.

42:13

Was it a two man show or was it.

42:14

Yes.

42:16

Have a cast.

42:16

No, it was us. It was just like the Britannic sketch show. And it, we, it was amazing. We did it three years in a row after that.

42:17

Yeah, it was so like rejuvenating and just like, you know, after just working in LA and writing scripts and stuff like that, you just kind of, you forget like why you got into it at the beginning completely.

42:25

It's like you go back to summer camp or college. It's. So I tell everyone who's like listless and lost their way in la, I'm like, go to Fringe. Just go to be with the, the rat people of the night.

42:37

With the clowns. Just like the clowns?

42:49

Yeah, with the clowns. Just get the boards and lose some money and you'll like, love life again or you'll hate.

42:50

It also goes really badly for a lot of people, just not like, take

42:56

the gamble, take the risk.

43:00

Like, you can be completely very, very talented and just for whatever reason, you know, those audiences don't like the show. And, and, and it's also just hard to even. You might not, you know, just the audiences might not find you and you might have a great show. So it's, it's, you know, it's. I would say, go into it cautiously and aware of everything, but it was, we had, it's such a wonderful time and, you know, would love to, to continue doing it, but. So at the end of our first Fringe run, there's LA or there's a TV festival, I believe, at the same time in Edinburgh. And so all these LA folks were in town and it was people that we'd been trying to come see our live show that was 20 minutes down the road. They wouldn't go see it at the Dynasty Typewriter Theater. They. But they did see it in Scotland. And so we ended up, I, I sort of thought, you know, going into this, like, this is gonna not, you know, this is gonna be best case scenario fun, but we'll do nothing for our careers. And it weird, it was like one of the best things we ever did for our career.

43:02

It rejuvenated our career. Like it fully took us into our second act like crazy. And like the guy, Billy Rosenberg, who was the head of comedy at Hulu at the time, saw it and was like, listen, we have this deal with this company, American High, to make these, you know, ten million Dollar movies. I love you guys. If you have any idea for a movie that could fit in a high school, we can greenlight it. And we were like, well, gentlemen, don't really have any high school movie ideas. That's not really our thing. But Nick realized this idea that I had in college, which was originally just four people, like, in an apartment getting a pizza. He was like, what if we made that college? And we were like, oh, yeah, that's actually a really interesting idea. We pitch it to them like, hey, we don't have a high school movie. We have a college movie. And here's the concept. And they dug it.

44:09

And we went. People who might not know the concept of the movie, it's basically. It's a group of kids who do a fictional drug and are incredibly high, and they have to go down to the lobby of their dorm to get a pizza. And because they're high on this insane fictional drug, that journey down two flights of stairs becomes this, like, epic Lord of the Rings.

44:52

Like the Raid Redemption.

45:13

Yeah, right.

45:14

Exactly. So it happened. It weirdly, like, it was an idea that. Yeah, like Brian said that he had had in college that we had considered.

45:14

You know, we would.

45:23

Every couple of years we'd come back to it, and we could never really fully crack it. And then when Billy was like, if you have, like, a high school college comedy, we were like, wait, if we set that in a college dorm, that just suddenly made everything click for us.

45:24

Yeah, a lot of things made sense that we couldn't figure out with an apartment building.

45:40

And you get to kind of put the bad guys and the jocks and the kind of the.

45:43

Yeah, like, in an apartment building. We were like, yeah, totally. Because we're like. With an apartment building, we're like, there should be like an antagonist, like an evil janitor. I don't know. But then we put in a college dorm. We were like, ras got it easy. Like, it just, like certain details just, like, clicked into place, and then it.

45:48

It all. It happened pretty quickly.

46:02

So quick.

46:04

Yeah, we. Again, like, something that never happens happened so quick to us, which, again, never. When it does happen, it doesn't happen quick. But, yeah, we wrote it right after the writer's strike was over is when we really started.

46:05

And then right after writer's strike.

46:17

Right, right. Honestly, not a single one.

46:20

Didn't even think about it.

46:23

There was. I think there was like.

46:25

You know, there was. Some of the producers were a little

46:28

like, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

46:31

The deal closed at, like, 11:59pm the night before the strikes, they're like, guys don't work on it for six months. And we were like, got it. And then we just didn't work on it.

46:33

We didn't work on it.

46:42

We didn't work on it. And writer strike in. They're like, so do guys have a script? And we're like, no, we haven't.

46:43

A sunburn dude.

46:50

Yeah, that's all I got.

46:51

So we ended up writing it all. Well, we wrote. We wrote like a. We write very detailed outlines. That's sort of our process, which is like. We write like, I think an 80 page outline, which is more of like a script meant, I suppose, like dialogue

46:53

in it and stuff.

47:08

There's dialogue.

47:09

It's basically dialogue, characters and stuff.

47:10

Totally. Whatever helps for the moment. Sometimes we understand scenes and the dialogue really well. And some scenes, we don't even really know what they are. So it'll jump back and forth between dialogue and then broad strokes ideas and then it goes back and forth.

47:13

Why not just write the script then, right?

47:25

Like 88.

47:28

Like how long is the script?

47:29

The script is 120, but then we

47:30

had to cut it down a bunch. But I think because it I. When you're writing, when you like start actually writing script, I think it cements in your head in this way that's really hard to undo. And we've noticed like when we have just sort of outlines and it's more broad, we can. You're kind of allowed to. I mean you can always change everything. But something happens when you like write a scene and it's there. It feels a little more chiseled in stone psychologically. So it's like undoing that just like. I don't know, it's like. It's a weird process that like, like it just feels a little easier to be like, let's just write this really long outline and we're just writing kind of like paragraphs and it feels like we're able to like kind of erase that and start over a bit. And then, I don't know, then it

47:33

kind of just sort of clarified more for me. What I like about this is that it's like you. Oh God. It just went out of my head. The, like it's hard. Oh yes, it's. It's very hard to like write. I remember like for one of the pilots we were writing, they were like, write a three page story document. And I. That was one of the most difficult things to do because you're like, I don't know how to like, this is such a I'm spending so much time figuring out how to write a three sentence version of this whole scene when I could just write. It'd be easy. Can I just tell you what's happening in the scene?

48:13

Like, I write the script and then I'll. And then I can write the three page document about this.

48:49

Right, right, right. Yeah.

48:52

And so like, that's, that's why I've. And so like with an outline, it's like I don't want to spend a ton of time figuring out how to like concisely get this down to I don't know what a normal outline is, like 15 pages or whatever.

48:54

Sure.

49:09

Like, it's just easier to be like. And, and it's a good writing thing for us because it's like, you know, you'll hem and haul and try and be like, what's. How does this character enter this scene and you. Or like, what's this opening bit of dialogue that just doesn't really matter. It's so much easier to just be like. Like the characters are talking about this and then here's. And then they arrive at the meat of the conversation, which are these lines. And then we'll just go into the.

49:09

I see the script. Yeah, so. So you, you give yourself permission to not be precious about the other aspects of the script. It's just literally what is this about? Yeah, that makes sense.

49:33

And then often what you find is that you actually don't need much more that like when you just write the. This is the most important bit of dialogue that's going to happen in this scene and you don't worry about how we're getting into it or anything like that. You often find like, oh, you actually don't kind of need whatever get like, just get to the point.

49:43

Yeah, that tries. So. So I'm curious. We've talked a lot about writing. Right. And Nick, you have an acting background. Brian, you are on screen as well. Right. But it sounds like the majority of your work has been in the writer's room stepping on set. What was different about this experience?

50:03

Making your first.

50:21

Your first feature, basically, you know, and

50:23

you guys shot like all your sketches and all that stuff.

50:25

Sure, sure.

50:27

But there is, there is.

50:28

Well, tell us about the difference.

50:29

Huge distinction. Yeah, yeah, talk to us about that, you know. Well, first of all, our sketches are completely. They're so homemade. It's us to a DP that we brought it. We don't pay anyone.

50:30

Have you guys ever been like Brandon branded stuff? I'm sure you've been in situations where someone's like, hey, we love you guys. Do this for Pizza Hut.

50:41

Yeah, we've done, really a pilot pilot for Comedy Central that was like, you know, a 700, 000.

50:48

We didn't direct it, but.

50:56

Yeah, yeah, I guess that's true.

50:57

But. But, yeah, no, mostly it's been just us doing stuff on our own. And, you know, we'll have, like, good equipment and everything, but, like, because we're just sort of doing it run and gun. It's like, we just. We take so long to do it. Like, you know, sometimes we shoot stuff and it's just the two of us and it's like we're on a schedule. We don't really have to deal with budget. We don't have to deal with of any kind of union, anything. So, like, being on a set, like, we have never had a line producer or first AD or any of the huge infrastructure of a movie. And it was, like, kind of jarring to just see, like, how things have to move at, like, a very particular pace. And there's, like, a lot of rules about how, you know, what we can and can't do. And then, like, the actual pacing of shooting was really interesting because Bella Gonzalez, our dp, who's amazing, and Pat VP

50:58

of Alien Earth, and that's right.

51:47

She was like, you know, a lot of what we do on our. Our sketches, we just sort of like, we'll get good shots, we'll do. We'll run and gun and get some stuff, and we'll just sort of like, really renegade. And Bella was like, we're going to do this right if we're going to do this. And so it means, like, there's only a certain amount of setups we can get in a day to really make it work. Right. And so it's like, I think we were always just used to the idea of, like, if we don't get it today, we'll come back tomorrow. Or if it's like, you know, hey, it's midnight, but we got pizza and our friends are here and, you know, we'll give them 100 bucks, whatever, they'll keep staying. And it's like we kind of learned, like, oh, we can't just, like, do it this. This really, really slap dash way. We've done everything. We had to kind of like, get very clear and very organized with how we were shooting, which, again, I think we can do a lot better. We were like, really, Organization, I think, is the name of the game when you make a film from pre production to when you're shooting to actually a lot of posts and we were not prepared for a lot of that. So that was the first thing I think I realized is that like, we had to just sort of like, you know, there's just only so much you can do. It's almost like we felt like we had less money than we had making our sketches, making this giant movie because, like, we, you know, had to shoot on a very strict budget and timeline and the days were like running by fast and all those things. Whereas when you were by yourself just shooting in your apartment, you feel like almost freer and looser even though you have no money. So that was just like a weird kind of perspective shift, I think. Yeah.

51:50

I mean, if I would feel any better.

53:14

Yeah, yeah. Wait, we hear it. We.

53:16

We hear that all the time. I. I remember specifically the Palm Springs guys were on and they were so frustrated by just like, can't we, like. If you just had three guys on a camera, you could go shoot this scene right now.

53:19

Right.

53:33

Instead of like, oh, well, no, it's going to take us a day and a half. And like, you know, don't touch that generator because otherwise we're gonna. Someone's gonna call the union.

53:33

Yeah. We didn't have playback. Playback on our movie. We didn't have. Because that was an extra expense and we were like, are you kidding? Yeah, we can't. There's like a whole.

53:42

And also, it's not cool to ask the operator to.

53:53

Oh, no.

53:56

Playback a scene.

53:57

Yeah. Because that's somebody else's job.

53:58

Right. Like, you're putting them in the position of essentially scabbing because you're. You don't have the budget to pay for somebody to do it in the first place.

54:00

Yeah. So I will say I was. When they said we don't playback, I was like, are you crazy? That being said, there were only a few times where we really wanted to watch it. Like, we got. You get your brain changes to get used to be like, focus on the monitor or if you're just watching the scene and just watch it and just like, just learn to know if it's.

54:08

Shoot it again.

54:26

Yeah. I never again. Playback. I mean, we like, every time we have VTR or whatever. Like, I never. It doesn't even occur to me to, like, play things back. But you guys have a lot of like, big.

54:27

Yeah.

54:38

Like liquid related gags.

54:39

What we can do is we could exploding.

54:43

We could ask Bella. Like, Bella's allowed to play it back for herself. She would go from the camera for so certain Very important shots. We'd be like, like, okay, go check that and make sure.

54:46

Did we get it?

54:57

That's good.

54:58

Yeah. But it felt so silly, her behind a black curtain. Yeah. And us being like, is it good? Like, it. It feels ridiculous.

54:58

It will just like it was. You know, it's. It was very different in terms of that. There are a lot of frustrations that come with all the. You know, with, like, there's a lot of wonderful stuff that comes with a bigger budget, and then there's also a lot of frustrating stuff. But at the end of the day, I would actually say it wasn't that different. It was like, you know, you're. You're just. It's like there's a bigger crew. There's, you know, more people working on it and stuff like that. But, like, at the end of the day, you're just all playing pretend, and it's like, you know, once you get

55:05

to shooting, it feels great. Yeah. It feels like we're just there. It's just because of everything around.

55:36

And cut. Everything's essentially the same. I mean, the thing that was really the one. Another thing that was very different. There is like. Like, background actors. We've barely ever used background actors, and there is a whole art to directing their movement and stuff like that. And luckily, that's not really our job.

55:41

Right. That. Also, DGA directors can't talk to SAG background actors.

55:59

Yeah.

56:05

Is that right? Yeah. Well, you can talk to them as a group.

56:06

You can be like, everyone.

56:08

You're having a good time, but you can't.

56:10

You can do what they call an omni. Yeah.

56:11

An omni is like. Like, you know, if everyone booze, you could say, like, boo, hiss. You know, like, improvise or whatever. One person saying a line, you can't do. Yeah.

56:13

What? Yeah. What I thought it was was more that if you do. If you direct them, they then have to get bumped. Yeah, they get bumped. And so they were like, you can. You can direct a crowd, but you can't direct individual people. Yeah.

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I used to have a problem with background where they're all moving at the same speed, you know? And action. And it's like everyone's just like walking, you know? And I'm like, yeah, yeah. I feel like someone should. Especially if you're doing like a college scene or a high school scene or something. You want someone like running. You want some people loitering. You want some. Yeah, like seeing a friend and changing directions. And I would just like walk up to people. I'd be like, hey, you're late to class. Or whatever. You're, you know, you forgot your.

58:01

Yeah.

58:24

Realize you forgot your, your book in the library halfway. And then once I got in the beginning, no one said anything because it was all non union everything but.

58:24

Right.

58:32

Once I got to like SAG shoots don't do that. Features and stuff.

58:33

I learned it the hard way because I upgraded someone without knowing it and they were like, what did you do?

58:36

Cost us so much money. Yeah. Mostly our second AD would direct them because we didn't really. It's so funny because I was always like, you know, when I, I've. I've never directed something this big with all these extras. And I was like, God, it must be so nerve wracking. There's 200 extras and you're trying to shoot something, all those people are looking at you. And then when we had those scenes where we had those extras, it's like, like, I don't want to sound mean here, but I didn't even like, see them as people. Like, I didn't even notice they were there.

58:41

Okay. Like that. So that's not how you should phrase that.

59:06

No, I stand by it. I like, truly, like I was. Because it Was. We're so. I don't even trying to figure out. You gotta get past just.

59:10

Just in support of Brian though have how many times I mean this has happened to me? A million. Anytime we have extras, I'll be at crafty and I'll be next to next round and be like, hey, what's up? And I'm like, hey. And. And then like at some point I'll be like, oh, you know, you're. We'll be talking about something while we're waiting for our cappuccinos or whatever. And then I'll realize they have no idea I'm the director. You know, they don't give a. Okay, Nick. It goes both ways.

59:17

They don't see us. Yeah, well, I mean what I mean to say if I'm sure if I. If I had to talk with them, I'd love every one of them. There's. I can see the beautiful soul in all their eyes. But when you're on set, just like how intense it was and how much we're focused on the lines and our people. It's like. Like I had no time to be embarrassed by or like just self conscious about all these people looking at me. And also the fact that Casey was the one directing them. I was like do what you gotta do. And like I just was so hyper focused that the idea of like stage fright in front of them just didn't even exist at all.

59:40

If you think about it as a slight other side of that, I. I gained a much bigger admiration for background actors during it or. Or the good ones ones because I was just like. I was so appreciative when it was like, oh thank. Like what a wonderful miracle. You're so good. Like your reaction to this ads and is great because there are some that are not as good and it's like. But when you have. When they're good, it's incre. It really levels up the movie I think. Also like one of my favorite movies is Bright Summer Day.

1:00:10

Is that what it's called?

1:00:43

One of my favorite movies. It's.

1:00:44

It's.

1:00:46

It's the. Let me just look this up. I want to. Because it's.

1:00:46

I watch it every night. I think it's called Terminatrix.

1:00:49

Yeah.

1:00:52

Okay.

1:00:53

It's your favorite movie.

1:00:53

It's called A Bright Summer Day.

1:00:55

Never heard of it.

1:00:57

And it's so.

1:00:58

It's shot so well and so much of it is like. It's filled with people's. The backgrounds of scenes are filled with people's faces. There's just like, so many crowd scenes. And I was like, oh, this is, like, maybe my favorite form of production design, in a way, is like, gosh,

1:00:59

it's your favorite everything, Nick, you think they're just props.

1:01:16

Yeah.

1:01:20

No, but, like. And what I realized in the. I remember, like, talking to people about that of, like, yeah, I'd love to fill the frame with people's faces. Like, it's. It's such a dynamic and exciting thing to look at. And it's like, well, not if they're not good actors or if they aren't the right look on screen, then it's wildly distracting and terrible. So, like, when. When they're. When they're good or the right look or, you know, and everything's working, I think it. It's. It's incredibly additive.

1:01:21

Yeah.

1:01:51

Yeah. I don't think we have any distracting background people that we've seen in our movie. I think they all work.

1:01:51

I haven't finished the movie, but there is definitely a dude with a giant

1:01:56

beard who looks old.

1:01:59

Yeah, Yeah, I know who you're talking about. I know who you're talking about, too.

1:02:01

That's one of our buddies. That was a pickup shot.

1:02:05

That's a big up shot. And we were like, can our three friends in their late 20s come and just do this really quick? And they were like, no one will know that they're. But they're grad students. Okay. Or something. I don't know.

1:02:08

Professors. Yeah.

1:02:18

I was like, is this guy gonna.

1:02:19

Because you guys do such a wonderful job of, like, making tiny jokes pay off later. Like, you see people.

1:02:20

Is that guy gonna.

1:02:25

Honestly, I was like, oh, is this the. The Groundskeeper or something funny? Yeah.

1:02:26

Wow.

1:02:30

Yeah. I mean, I think. To me, I think it's the best way to, like, add production value to, like, any shot. It does.

1:02:30

It really does. Yeah.

1:02:37

But it is hard, and it is an. Look at movies like Ten Commandments, where they had, like, 10,000 extras or whatever. Or, like, you know, like. And it's like, you realize the beauty of, like, moving people in the frame in the same way that you would move an actor, one actor in a frame, you know? Is I really.

1:02:38

When I was 17. Yeah, 16 or 17. They shot dumb and dumb ER at my high school. The Unauthorized Prequel. Prequel.

1:02:56

Oh, it's a prequel?

1:03:04

Yeah, yeah, it's a prequel. And I was like, over the moon. No one's in it from the original, but I'm as extra in it as a teenager. And I'm like, young Lloyd right over that movie. That's right.

1:03:05

I'm young with that.

1:03:14

I auditioned to play young boy.

1:03:16

No, no. Isn't it interesting? Isn't it? He's kind of famous, isn't he? A guy from Eric Christian Olsen?

1:03:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, I did. I was just. I'm like, all over the bat. I'm like, and this person's reverse, and that person's reverse. And I just was like. I was like, if I can get myself in the background, like 20 times, I'll be famous. Didn't happen. But maybe I am maybe speaking, speaking

1:03:22

of kind of famous. And I apologize if you guys have talked about this ad nauseam on your podcast, but I, I'm really curious. You wrote on snl, which is pretty insane. Like, what did you guys learn about comedy from that? You know, like, like, what are the takeaways that you see in pizza that you see in the armor?

1:03:40

Yeah.

1:03:59

Or did you come there and be like, you guys write slow, boring things. We're going to teach you how to do it.

1:03:59

I think. I think the biggest thing I took away from SNL was like, to not be so precious to, like, you've got. I mean, you know, you really can't on SNL because you're writing it all in a day, so it's like, you can't. And, and, you know, we. We spend, you know, six months on a sketch sometimes that we're putting on YouTube. So we've spent years, like, between writing it and putting it out and, like, working and perfecting every little thing. And what I think SNL was good at was, was teaching us just like, just get that, just that first draft out so you can start improving it and then also, like, have three or four different ideas because you just don't like, the idea that you think is genius and is going to connect with people might completely flop. And the idea that you're like, whatever, you just, you know, farted it out at 4am that might connect huge. And I think it's like you, you take your best guess and, you know, sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't, and then the week starts over and it was just like, like, be less precious about the first draft. And also don't hang on to, like, your failures because you're gonna have a lot. And did you learn a lot?

1:04:04

Did you learn how to, like, generate a ton of ideas? Like, that's because you guys were kind of already doing that, I guess, right now.

1:05:20

Well, yes, I think that's my big thing is because we were generating a ton of ideas, but we would put A three sketches a year. Because we would just be like, ah, we don't have any idea. We were, like, waiting for inspiration to strike.

1:05:27

The good one. Yeah, exactly.

1:05:37

Snl, right?

1:05:39

You.

1:05:40

Your Tuesday night, you gotta have three sketches submitted to Eric Kenward by the morning. And you gotta do it. You know, there's no. You can't just be like, I didn't write any sketches last night. You could, but I don't think that's gonna go over well. So it's like, you show up, it's like midnight on Tuesday, and you're like, we have no sketch ideas. And it's like. Like, by 9am we'll have three written sketches. And then you somehow, you do it every week. And it just sort of teaches you, like, you do have ideas. They're there. If you really want to go and explore and make this work and dig deeper, it's there. But you just have to, like, that time pressure just taught us, like, the well isn't ever dry. If you put enough, like, I don't know, really intense pressure on yourself, what's the message?

1:05:40

Do you ever just, like, sit in your room and you're like, pringles can. Guy gets hand stuck.

1:06:20

Yeah, I know that we ever really.

1:06:24

It comes from anywhere. I mean, there's no real method. I don't think that I've ever noticed, but yeah, I mean, it's like the

1:06:26

thing I noticed is, it's like. Is kind of.

1:06:33

Yeah.

1:06:35

Leaving yourself open to just be like, yeah, I don't know, maybe this. Let's try it. Like, let's not. We're like, hash it out a bunch and then figure. And then start writing. Four hours later. It's like, let's just start writing this and see if this is kind of comes along.

1:06:36

You just have to have some kind of core. Like, sometimes it's like a game where it's like, oh, there's. Here's something I've noticed about life. Here's a. The human truth that's so interesting. That's. That'll be funny. And if you can create, like, the first joke of the sketch, it probably is legs. Or Kyle Mooney will walk into your room, be like, here's a voice I've been trying out. He'll say a sentence, and we're like, that's insane. Why not? And then that will become, you know, the impetus for a sketch. So it's like. Or it's like the host.

1:06:50

You have to check with him. Do you have to be like, is anyone else writing that thing? Did you say that sentence voice. Absolutely, yes.

1:07:14

I mean, like, well, well, if. Typically, if. If, you know, an actor brings you an idea, it's that, you know you're gonna write it with them.

1:07:20

They brought it to you. It's not like they're, like, dating, but

1:07:29

there are certain ideas where it's like, you know, hey, is anybody doing the, like, Pepsi commercial where Kendall General ends racism by handing, like.

1:07:32

Yeah, this week?

1:07:41

Like, you know, you want to check about racism? Yeah.

1:07:44

You know. Well, it's pretty much over. Yeah. Yeah, it's. Yeah, that would. It would just be. It would be very. It's a very interesting place to work on the record. That's my adjective I'm using. Interesting.

1:07:48

Can you guys tell us or can you tell us any of your favorite sketches that you guys worked on?

1:07:59

Tom Hanks monologue, I would say, would. Is a pretty cool thing. That was like, our fourth episode in.

1:08:04

And monologue something that you guys write or everyone is kind of contributing?

1:08:09

No, it's. Writers often write it themselves.

1:08:14

Writers will write it, and then often the host is working with you on

1:08:16

that, which we did with Tom. And it's like, normally new writers don't get to do it, but we had this idea that they really liked, and so we got to.

1:08:20

Was this.

1:08:27

What era?

1:08:28

Like, when. What was this?

1:08:29

2016.

1:08:30

This is David F's Pumpkins. Is that.

1:08:31

Yeah, it was that episode. Yeah. Yeah.

1:08:34

So we wrote that monologue.

1:08:36

What was your take on that?

1:08:37

It was.

1:08:39

He was America's dad. It's basically. It's like, Tommy, he's always America's dad. And his whole thing was like. And this was a week before the election, the Trump Hillary election. So it was like, you know, America's going through a tough time right now.

1:08:39

Right.

1:08:50

But Hillary, America's dad. Exactly as we all thought that. So he's like, I think I need to have a chat with my kid. He sits down, talks to America. And basically the concept was America.

1:08:50

He's reassuring.

1:08:59

This election is almost like a kid going through puberty. So he's like, sort of talking to America about what's going on with their body and what's Ha. All these changes that are happening. But it's like, you know, you map that onto the political landscape, and it was clever. Yeah, yeah. Fascism. Making fascism cute.

1:09:00

We wrote, like, a couple. Like one. We wrote some sketches that did better than this one, but this one was one of my favorite ones. We wrote for Melissa McCarthy, which is.

1:09:15

Yes, it was so funny.

1:09:26

Beck Bennett pitching to a production company called Lighthouse Pictures or something like that. Lighthouse Productions. And it's like, you know, like the DreamWorks logo where like the little kid is fishing off of the moon. It's like the moving logos. He was like, I've got, I've developed logo for your company, Lighthouse Entertainment or whatever. And it's Melissa McCarthy like in a bathrobe with ratty hair. And she like walks out and just goes, oh, no. And then it like freezes in an image and it says Lighthouse Productions.

1:09:27

They're like, what, what was that?

1:10:02

That?

1:10:04

And then like he keeps doing.

1:10:05

They're just keeping these different insane tableaus

1:10:07

of her being mean to children.

1:10:10

And then it freezes and then, and then at one point they're like, none of this is right. And he then shows them one that's like a really good, like a lighthouse, you know, the light goes around.

1:10:12

Like the Castle Rock or something.

1:10:23

Exactly. Castle Rock. It looks perfect. You're like, yes, there, that was perfect. And he's like, oh, you should have been quicker. I just deleted it.

1:10:26

And then there's like another one. I think that joke got cut to address an air neck.

1:10:32

Did it? That joke?

1:10:37

Yeah, I, I remember also that was a crazy thing because it was the, that was the 10 to 1, it was the last sketch of the night. So it's like right there at 12:50am and they were running long. And at 12:50 we got called into the control room and they were like, guys, we need to cut two minutes out of the sketch. If you can't do it in this commercial break, we're just going to show an old like fake commercial or something. So you have to go now.

1:10:38

And it's like, what's the run time?

1:11:00

Probably two and a half minutes, but it was probably like around four. I'm not sure I, I, we can find it online.

1:11:02

Like two minutes out of four and a half minutes. Something like that.

1:11:08

Something like that. Yeah. We had to go the sketch and it's like we were like, you know, going all the car guys and taping over and writing over stuff and like telling all the actors and like striking.

1:11:11

And it's a live sketch. It's not.

1:11:21

It's a live sketch. Yeah. And it was like, that was a very SNL moment to have of us at like 12:55am trying to get our sketch on. And like everyone's so confused what we're telling them. And it's like, three, two, one, go.

1:11:22

You're live.

1:11:34

And it's like everyone's back on the sketch and they're reading new Details.

1:11:34

The first time, like, half the sketch is gone. We're cutting this beat, and they're like, don't even bother. I'll just read the cue cards.

1:11:37

Yeah, yeah.

1:11:43

Imagine Melissa McCarthy is one of those actors that just makes whatever you write better.

1:11:44

Yeah. I think she was maybe my favorite host.

1:11:50

You'd rather have hosting the best show than Melissa McCarthy? She's so good. She got everything immediately. Like, yeah, it's. It makes all the difference in the world, like, because you'll sometimes have a host who is, you know, maybe even a very good actor, but they just can't do Saturday Night Live, right?

1:11:52

Yeah.

1:12:11

A great comedian with no ego is like a rarity in general. But fresnl, you got, like. You hit the jackpot, which I feel is what she is.

1:12:12

Yeah. No, that's so cool. And that's. I mean, and we've just talked about AI way too much, but to me, that's like one of those things. The Melissa McCarthy is that just like. Like elevate, you know? Like, she could just walk out, Right, with the ratty hair and stand there.

1:12:20

Yeah, she's hilarious. You just. The laugh is there. Yeah, it's great.

1:12:33

Yeah, yeah. Just cut wide. Music out.

1:12:36

Music out.

1:12:39

That's awesome. Matt. What? How are we doing on time?

1:12:40

I'm a little unsure. It's 10 o' clock here. I feel like we could talk to you guys forever.

1:12:43

I.

1:12:50

Maybe I have one closing question, maybe. And then we do endorsements.

1:12:51

Okay.

1:12:54

Yeah, yeah, let's. Let's give that a shot. So, you know, I know we've kind of bounced all over here, all over the place, guys, but I am curious, with Pizza Movie, was there a moment where you felt like you hit your stride? Right. We've talked a lot about, like, all the different things you've learned and how it was tricky and hard, but, like, was there a moment where it clicked in and you were like, okay, this is going to be okay in production and then maybe also in post?

1:12:55

Yeah, I would say it was ever changing because I've certainly had a couple of those moments. And then the next day was like, nevermind.

1:13:19

No, it's.

1:13:25

What did you think you had right, though? What? What? You know.

1:13:27

Yeah, yeah. You go back and forth. You're like, I think we got it. The next day, we're like, we're 14 hours today. Jesus Christ. We're so over. I had a day early on when we were just sort of storyboarding with Bella. We had a big idea of how to shoot this movie, and it was like, we're both really looking at like Scott Pilgrim versus the world and super Edgar Wrighty. And we were so vibing that style and then we didn't realize how short 26 days really was. Yeah, he shot the movie.

1:13:30

Like he, I think he shot 120 days on that movie. Yeah, Pilgrim is like, like we were like, oh, it's so great. He was on such a high. Like he, he, he had a blank check and he cashed it on, on Scott Pilgrim.

1:13:54

Totally.

1:14:06

Yeah.

1:14:06

And it's like Athena Day.

1:14:07

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And this is like the type of thing where if I'm shooting just a two minute sketch, I'll get every single insert and special I want. Because of course with this movie it's like, I think by day two or three, you know, Bella was very clear with me. She was like, all these shots, you have everything you think we're going to do. Make it a third of that. That. I was like, what? And it's like, she's like, I. We have time for this many setups every day, Brian, so let's just like make sure it's that.

1:14:08

And like, are you comfortable saying what the number is? Like how many setups?

1:14:31

How many setups? I think, I mean, somewhere between 15, 20 a day.

1:14:34

Varied days. But yeah, I think each set.

1:14:38

Right. We have the second camera. Ever.

1:14:42

Yeah, yeah, we had a second camera. No, no, we had, we had two. We couldn't have done this movie with a one.

1:14:44

Yeah, that's right. Why am I thinking we had one? We, we. I feel like we only used it when we are really in dire circumstances.

1:14:49

Sometimes they call it one and a half. Right. Like when it works, it works.

1:14:55

That's right. Devin did it. Yes, of course we had a second camera. Yeah, it was a one and a half. We used it for certain scenes that really needed it, but like for dialogue scenes. And very well, never cross shot.

1:15:00

But we would do, we definitely used,

1:15:10

we did that camera just like in the background trying to just like get something that's.

1:15:12

And then also it was all off. We had a second unit at times picking up inserts that we needed.

1:15:16

And yeah, we did that a few days. Yeah, we. I think there was a day, one of the days where we shot the party scene. We had like one day to shoot this huge party scene in the middle of the movie. And by the end we really had to compress like seven shots into two. And we did it. And I remember just like being like, let's just do it like this. And then I. It's a moment I love in the movie so much, and I'm like, how do we even think this? Why do we think this had to be seven shots? Obviously, this is just like. Like two, and we're done. And it's the funniest version of it. I remember, like, just getting that, because up until that moment, I was like, the movie's ruined. Like, that's. You kind of go through this a few times as a director. It's like this thing I've envisioned is going to definitely be shot like this and have all these, like, special little moves, and then once you learn they all have to be gone, you can kind of, like, freak out for a second. Like, you know, I learned directing is really just pivoting constantly. And once I was able to pivot that day in the party scene and create something that I liked even more than what we thought, I was like, okay, this is possible. This is going to be shot a little more simply than we originally envisioned. But I'm actually really liking how it's being shot. And I got comfortable with that, this new way of what the aesthetic of the film was. And that was a really nice moment to just sort of see, like, this is what we can actually do, and it's going to work.

1:15:22

Features can be really forgiving in terms of, like, not every scene needs to be an A plus, you know?

1:16:30

Yeah.

1:16:37

As long as it's getting whatever story beat out.

1:16:38

What's interesting is it's never down to one thing in a feature. It's not like. Like, all the things that you wanted to be incredible. It's like. It's like, if you get most of them, you're going to be in great shape. You know, you're throwing a bunch of darts at the board, and it's. It's the cumulative score of all of that that's important. It's not about hitting the bullseye every single time almost.

1:16:41

Yeah. Features are very forgiving, as you said, Oren. Like, it's I in. Like, you can really get stuck on that when you're shooting. You're like, this shot. We're moving on. Oh, it doesn't even look. Ah, God damn it. And it's like. Then you get to editing, and there's so many shots I used to hate that I'm now, like, that's part of a movie. It's how it looks and it's charm. It actually works fine. Like, so many of the things just sort of. Once you iron them out and you edit them and give it love, it's totally okay.

1:17:07

It's also often it's the stuff that you weren't worried about that actually is a problem.

1:17:30

Sure. Yeah. You didn't realize that it was even something you should be flagging. Yeah. That's real.

1:17:36

Yes.

1:17:41

Yeah.

1:17:42

Yeah. I remember I work at Disney and my boss said the first 10 minutes is when they're gonna decide whether they like your. Whether they're gonna like, you know, pay attention to the movie or not. And then like the last 10 minutes, you know, or just. It's just what's gonna determine what score they give.

1:17:42

Yeah.

1:17:59

And if you want that score to be higher and it's a comedy, then add a blooperie. Real.

1:18:01

Yeah. Yeah.

1:18:05

And he's like on the middle is like. Doesn't really matter.

1:18:05

Yeah, yeah.

1:18:09

But you guys have another one coming. Yeah. You got anything coming up after?

1:18:10

Yeah, so we're. Well, we're doing. He premieres April 3rd on Hulu. Over your dead bodies in theaters April 24th.

1:18:16

We have some other projects lined up. Like we have a TV show that we got greenlit to write the pilot a year and a half ago and we're still kind of in that process because things take so long.

1:18:26

Is it something that's been announced already?

1:18:37

Nope, it has not. And we want it to be because it's very cool. And then we're pitching on some stuff. It's comedy. It's a remake of a British show that we love that we are very happy to be trying to do the American version.

1:18:39

Monty Python.

1:18:51

Yeah, we're doing Monty Python. We're remaking all of Money. And then. Yeah, then we were just trying to figure out what our next step is. We have that and you know, these pitches sort of lined up to maybe see. We maybe have a. I don't know. We'll see.

1:18:52

We.

1:19:02

It's one of those things where we don't have anything definitive at all. But we are hoping to have something after this weekend that feels like we do have.

1:19:02

The spinal cord rehab movie is, you know, reaching forward a new line. So we're like doing something. Yeah, but they've said this before, so for that. Well, yeah, but they, they. It took a long time to get the rights settled with the original French film. So they finally have done that and we're like.

1:19:11

Seems more optimistic than normal, but like I feel like I've just, I've. It's the loosing the football Charlie Brown. You know, I feel like this has happened a bunch, but hopefully that is, you know, going to be our next movie.

1:19:31

We've written Going to production.

1:19:41

What a crazy career we've chosen.

1:19:43

I know. It's just so all over the place.

1:19:45

It's like 20 years into it. It's still all over the place.

1:19:47

It's still over place.

1:19:50

And just the bigger numbers kind of.

1:19:51

Yeah, right.

1:19:53

Sometimes. Cool.

1:19:54

Awesome.

1:19:56

People want to follow you guys. Is there you. Is there?

1:19:56

Yeah, they can follow us on YouTube. YouTube.com britannic on Instagram Britannic Comedy and Tik Tok at Britannic Comedy.

1:20:00

And we have a Patreon where we do something like this and have a little podcast chat show and it's called Cash Grab. And that's. That's patreon.com Britannic. Is that right?

1:20:10

Yes, that's correct.

1:20:18

There it is.

1:20:19

And that's where you can learn the secrets of how to edit funny things.

1:20:20

Yes.

1:20:23

And we heavily. We film ourselves talking for like an hour and then edit it down to like the funniest 10 to 15 minutes. And it's way too much work.

1:20:24

It's way too much work.

1:20:32

They're.

1:20:33

I mean they're very good bite sized podcasts. We now have a guy, but we Australia and it's, it's just so much work.

1:20:33

Work for.

1:20:41

Yeah, what it is. But hey, something to do with our time. No, it is sometimes with our, as artists, people are like, what do you do with your time, Your free time? You spend how much time doing what? And you're like, listen, I got, I, I'm gonna go crazy if I don't do something. So it's like when you're in between jobs and stuff, it's like, yeah, that's sort of the mark of an artist putting way too much effort into something that's absolutely stupid.

1:20:42

Yeah, I love that. That should be the name of this episode. Sure. Great.

1:21:04

Take it.

1:21:08

Well, do you guys have a minute to endorse something with us?

1:21:09

Of course. Unpaid endorsements. So my unpaid endorsement is a video called the director's commentary for the witch is extremely Funny by the YouTuber Nick Robinson. Do you guys know this guy?

1:21:11

No, but I think I've seen this.

1:21:25

I've never heard of him before because

1:21:26

yes, the director's commentary is very funny for the witch.

1:21:28

Yeah, so it's very funny. So essentially it's like just a short little video essay that kind of is mostly an excuse to pull audio commentary from the witch and talk about how Robert Eggers. Right, that's his name.

1:21:30

Yeah.

1:21:46

Thank you. I always get it confused with somebody else, but that Robert Eggers, his first film, the Witch which is, like, inarguably an awesome debut feature. It's so rare and just, like, immaculately conceived and executed. There's all these stories about how he built the shack himself and that they lit it with 100% natural light. And the opening of the video is just a montage of him just being like, there's no way they would have burnt this many candles. Oh, man, I hate this shot.

1:21:47

This shot just like, this is the

1:22:17

worst shot in the movie.

1:22:18

Worst shot in the movie.

1:22:19

Yeah, I didn't have it on this one. I wish I was a smarter person, basically. It's kind of the theme of all of it. And it becomes this kind of awesome little conversation about a meditation on the nature of directing and what we have control over and what we don't and how, you know, even a person who seems as though they're executing at the highest level, even at their first feature, still is frustrated by certain things. And so, like, you know, at a certain point, he makes the point in the Q and A about how all of those details are really important to him because they all subliminally add up to the believability of the story and the film. And if you don't believe that. That the house is period appropriate, then you don't believe that you're really back in time. And then you don't really believe that these characters are real. And so when a witch is doing these fantastical things in the movie, you're just completely taken out of it. And all of a sudden, this thing where this kind of, like, seemingly egomaniac is complaining about how the. The shingles on this vintage house aren't. Aren't period appropriate. And.

1:22:20

Or.

1:23:23

Or how he had to hire somebody from Massachusetts to come up to Canada to build it with them. That seems crazy. And all of a sudden, it just snaps into focus and makes a ton of sense. So, look, I spoiled the video, but it's certainly worth checking out again. The director's commentary for the Witch is extremely funny by Nick Robinson. It's pretty great.

1:23:23

Yeah. That's a great endorsement.

1:23:40

Yeah.

1:23:43

Thank you.

1:23:43

Thank you. I feel really good about it, you guys.

1:23:44

To me, the value is when you realize that, hey, maybe you hate something that you made, but other people can still make might still love it, you know?

1:23:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that was. I. When we were shooting our movie, I was like, oh, God, we didn't get something. I'm like, all other great directors always get exactly what they want. Here we are not able to get this because we ran out of time. We were so unorganized. And then learning that that's. No, that's just how every process is for every director, isn't it? There's something very almost. I don't want to say schadenfreude esque, but something that feels good a little bit, knowing that they're also going through the same troubles as you.

1:23:54

Oh, yeah, totally.

1:24:20

Which is what the show is about. Really good commiseration. Yeah. Brian, what you got? Okay.

1:24:21

This is not film related at all. Is that okay?

1:24:27

Yeah.

1:24:29

100?

1:24:29

Yeah.

1:24:30

Should it be? I. Because I like, 30 minutes.

1:24:30

Yeah, yeah. Owen's gonna talk about sex. Don't worry. Yeah, great.

1:24:35

So I, you know. You know NETI Pots.

1:24:38

Oh, yeah, Yeah, I like it. Allergy season, baby.

1:24:40

Yeah, it's allergy season. I always got mucus and sinus stuff. I was on my Instagram, one of those targeted ads. Someone was like. Like, maybe you've gotten them. If you use NETI Pots. It's called Nasal Fresh MD. It's a $100 machine that's like, this big, and you put two things up your nose, and they're like, you can't just use NETI Pots because you'll, like, squirt it up. But it doesn't suck. You got to suck and squirt. So this side squirts and this side sucks. Then you switch it around, you do it again, and there's this whole, like, container where your mucus comes out. Listen, it might be absolute. I don't understand this. I. This science might be crazy, but I've been using it, and I feel like you hook yourself up like you're a robot, and as you do it, I don't know if this is actually. My sinuses are being cleared in this incredible way that NETI Pots definitely can't reach, or if there's some kind of placebo effect. But I've been feeling fresh and clean using Nasal Fresh md. And if any listener is like, don't use that. That's dangerous. Don't tell me I want to be using this.

1:24:43

I like it.

1:25:41

It feels right. So, yeah, I like

1:25:42

you talking about a colonoscopy. And it was so. It was like liquid leaving one orifice in your body.

1:25:48

Every hole, the nasal passages, the nozzle. I don't know if this is a good endorsement.

1:25:55

That's great.

1:26:01

But it's first thing.

1:26:02

We have a lot of people with congestion issues. I like to tell the story that one of the worst compliments we've gotten on the podcast is somebody wrote Us and said, I love listening to your podcast. There's some, like, useful things, but mostly I feel confident knowing that someone else with a very nasal voice isn't embarrassed by it and goes, you know, on the podcast every week.

1:26:04

Yeah, yeah. It's a common ailment for writers, I feel like.

1:26:25

Yes.

1:26:29

For some reason, we just sort of demographic. That's right.

1:26:29

Yeah. Awesome. Nasal Drip md. Is that what it's called, Brian?

1:26:34

I think it's called Nasal Fresh md.

1:26:37

The company might be out of business, actually.

1:26:39

Yeah, of course.

1:26:41

Nick. What you got, buddy?

1:26:42

So mine is. Is a book that I read during the filming of Pizza Movie, which is the Playboy magazines collection of interviews with directors. So it's awesome.

1:26:43

So you do read it?

1:26:57

Yeah, yeah. It's. There's no pictures in this, to be clear.

1:26:59

Does it smell like cologne, though?

1:27:02

Yeah, and it's like interview. It's like these incredible interviews of. With, like, Francis Ford Coppola and Clint Eastwood and. And, you know, it's just the Cohen and it's. They're all from times like that predate the Internet. So these directors were just going nuts in these interviews and would talk. Other movies, like, were not Afraid, like, were very, very unfiltered. And it's.

1:27:04

They said that extras weren't people. It was really up.

1:27:32

That is, to me, it's a good endorsement. But the more the. The other interesting part about the endorsement, which I think is something awesome, is when you are working on a movie, when you do get 28 days to film every day or whatever, it's nice to kind of be ingesting some. Something like that, you know, where every day you're like, oh. Because it's giving you ideas of things to try on set. That's why, like, I, you know, sometimes I'll listen to a film podcast on the way to set.

1:27:36

Yeah.

1:28:03

Because you just want to, like, shake things up in the brain.

1:28:03

To.

1:28:06

To Matt's point, like, what I found super cathartic during filming was. Was. Was this book and the podcast what went wrong too, where it's talking about all the, you know, crazy stuff that's happened on sets. And it's like seeing other. That other directors have had, you know, the chaos that they've had to deal with and just knowing, like, okay, this is not unique.

1:28:07

Yeah.

1:28:32

To this production. And in fact, ours is a very tame production compared to, like, yeah. Anything James Cameron has ever done. Or.

1:28:32

It's like we were like, oh, we were behind by an hour when we started this morning. And it's like, you Listen to the Eyes Wide Shut one. It's like, oh, Kubrick never got a shot off before noon ever. Okay.

1:28:40

By a month. Because he gave it the yellow taxi to be a certain. Yellow.

1:28:49

Yeah, right. I was rereading that Sidney Lumet book, Making Movies. That was called When I was. When we were shooting. And that's also just such a great inspirational radius. He's so. It's. He's just such full of, like, heart. Talking about.

1:28:53

Yeah. The crap. Yes. I read this book called the name above the title. You guys heard that? Frank?

1:29:05

Yep.

1:29:11

It's super. He did, you know, It's a Wonderful Life and stuff.

1:29:12

Of course.

1:29:14

And you would think it's so old, like, what. What would you get out of that? But he talks about realizations he had like 60 years ago or whenever he was making his movies. And they would be about like speed and cadence of performance. He'd be like. I noticed that when the actors came in and did the scene, like they would do it in real life. Life. People in the theater would be like, they'd. They'd be so ahead of the character. It'd just be waiting for the next thing to happen. He's like. And so I tried just starting to have actors go like 50 faster than normal. And then I noticed people were sitting on the edge of their seat and just like little realizations like that and the book is just littered with them. It's really.

1:29:14

Yeah, that's cool.

1:29:49

Anyhow, my endorsements. I'm endorsing one just to make Brian feel better. I wasn't going to endorse these, but I did just get a new chip, a Trader Joe. I think it's a limited time offer, so you gotta run out and get em right now. But it's. It's a Thai style yellow curry flavored potato chips.

1:29:50

You've already endorsed this. You've already endorsed it, Jordan.

1:30:05

No, last week. Did I talk about it last week?

1:30:07

How else would I know about it? How else would I know about it?

1:30:10

Oh, man, I didn't have it on my list.

1:30:12

Okay, you guys, we threw a party a couple months ago and like a listener gave Oren a Trader Joe's gift card.

1:30:14

Wait, did I talk about. Did I talk about the Buffalo Ranch popcorn?

1:30:22

Yeah, I bought some of the Super Bowl.

1:30:25

Cool.

1:30:26

Yeah.

1:30:27

Okay, then I'll just do my real endorsement, I guess. Ketchup.

1:30:27

Have you ever tried ketchup?

1:30:30

Dude, Matt endorsed whole milk a couple weeks.

1:30:31

I did, I did. And also. Never mind. Let's take it home.

1:30:33

Okay, I'll mark off these yellow curry potato chips. So I just got my daughter for her birthday a hoverboard. Which, you know, don't get too excited. It's not the back to the future thing. It's just those like explode things.

1:30:38

Those are hard.

1:30:51

Yeah, they're the one, I think. So I got one that's kind of made for kids, you know, like you have to 6, 6 and older. So maybe it's easier and more forgiving or maybe just the technology. Because I remember when they first came out, I did try a couple and eat it big quite a few times. But this one is really. Seems really easy. It's called the Guy Roar G Y R o O R G 13 balancing schooner. But I have a 4 year old son too. And I was like, you know, it's gonna. He's gonna be so bummed that I have this thing that he can't use. News that's like the most. Like if we had these as a kid it would be like the most fun, the coolest ever owned in our life. But I found this add on. It's a. The. The Guy Roar version of it is called the K1 cart and it's.

1:30:52

You sure it's not gyroar?

1:31:33

Gyro.

1:31:34

Sure.

1:31:35

G Y R O O r. I don't know.

1:31:35

Right.

1:31:37

Gyroscope, right?

1:31:37

Yeah, I think so. It's kind of the opposite. All people gyro or heroes Giro's. It's.

1:31:39

It's the opposite of a. Should say.

1:31:44

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

1:31:46

I don't know. When I called the. They sent me the wrong version at first and I called them and the people that the, the support service, you know, that were open from 9am to 5pm Eastern Time, there was a chicken crowing in the background the entire phone call. So I'm pretty sure they are not based in America. Not that we don't have chickens here, but I just feel like I'm gonna endorse that chicken. They don't mix in shout out chickens offices. But. But. So there's this go kart. It's basically just a wheel and a chair and these two handles that are kind of the proxies for your feet, they attach to the hoverboard and if you pull the push the right one down, it's like leaning your right foot down, you know. And same with the left one. So you can kind of turn right and turn left and it turns it into a go kart that my 4 year old son just loves and he's just like Speeding Gonzalez. I really understand that he's just like a very fast go Kart kid in the backyard now. And it's, it's really awesome. So if you, you have one of these hoverboards, you can get these go Kart editions, attachments. It's only like 30 bucks or something.

1:31:48

Or did send me a video of his son just tearing down the driveway and immediately crashing into a trampoline, though,

1:32:47

which if you're gonna crash into something.

1:32:54

Yeah, sure. Yeah.

1:32:56

Something to crash into.

1:32:57

That's, that's fun for boys. Just crashing. Yeah. He was play.

1:32:58

Yeah.

1:33:02

By the way, I don't want to give away too much personal information, but it can hold up to 100, 176 pounds. And I was able to write it.

1:33:02

There you go.

1:33:10

And it's pretty freaking fun. Anyhow. Well, if you guys have anything you want to endorse, if you want to tell us about your editing tricks, how to make things funny, do you want us to pass anything on to the Britannic guys? You can email us@just trudapod gmail.com or you can follow us on Instagram on all social media at just Chapod. I'm on Instagram at O. Kaplan.

1:33:11

And I'm at Mr. Madden. Cross all social media. This episode was edited by Kevin Oyang. Thanks, Kevin. Our social is done by Lily Bouvier.

1:33:31

Thanks, Lily.

1:33:37

Produced by Tyler Small. Thanks, Tyler. And you're listening to music provided by the Free Music Archive and the artist Jazar. Thanks, everyone. Goodbye, guys.

1:33:38

Bye Bye.

1:33:46

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