Doing it Scared & Faking it ’Til You Make It with Writer / Producer Jason Shuman

WEBVTT
00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:10.092
It turned out to be genius because Friday night there was no other movies to see Kangaroo Jack, if anyone remembers, that was basically the only other movie out.
00:00:10.092 --> 00:00:14.070
So somehow teenagers with nothing else to do flocked.
00:00:16.681 --> 00:00:20.786
This is the Cinematography for Actors, podcast More than a podcast.
00:00:20.966 --> 00:00:26.461
Cinematography for Actors is a vibrant community devoted to bridging the gap between talent and crew.
00:00:26.461 --> 00:00:31.562
Each week, our show offers transparent, insightful conversations with industry leaders.
00:00:31.562 --> 00:00:39.351
We unveil the magic behind the scenes, from candid discussions about unique filmmaking processes to in-depth technical exploration.
00:00:39.351 --> 00:00:43.691
Join us in unraveling the intricacies of filmmaking, one episode at a time.
00:00:43.691 --> 00:00:51.982
It's more than just cameras and lenses we aim to inspire, educate and empower as we peel back the curtain on the art of effective storytelling.
00:00:51.982 --> 00:00:53.466
Now on to the episode.
00:00:53.466 --> 00:01:00.725
Hi everybody, this is Cinematography for Actors podcast, and I am your host, haley Royal.
00:01:00.725 --> 00:01:06.034
I'm very excited today to have an esteemed guest with me.
00:01:06.379 --> 00:01:08.108
But neither an actor nor a cinematographer.
00:01:08.299 --> 00:01:14.246
No, but wait, I'm going to get there with you, hold on, it'll all make sense.
00:01:14.246 --> 00:01:33.525
Jason Schumann everybody you know him from lots of movies, a large handful of number one box office winners, contestants and all amazing other things.
00:01:33.525 --> 00:01:34.810
Hello, jason.
00:01:34.810 --> 00:01:37.487
Hello, thank you so much for coming here today.
00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:38.724
Thank you for having me.
00:01:39.239 --> 00:01:44.611
Before we jump in, I will tell you, to make it apparent why you're here.
00:01:45.072 --> 00:01:45.493
Okay, good.
00:01:46.600 --> 00:01:50.271
We love to talk a lot at Cinematography for Actors about bridging the gap.
00:01:50.819 --> 00:02:20.757
It started out as bridging the gap between talent and crew Because Indiana, my co-founder co-host, is a cinematographer and I'm an actor, and we realized that there were a lot of communication and collaboration gaps between those two departments and so we set out to bridge those gaps by offering context, by teaching talent and crew how to socialize with each other through workshops, community building, things like that.
00:02:20.757 --> 00:02:29.462
And then we quickly realized that those gaps exist between every department, especially the.
00:02:29.462 --> 00:02:41.127
It feels to me like the more budget you get, the more closed off those departments become from each other and the less context everyone has.
00:02:41.127 --> 00:03:08.109
So I brought you here today because you are a very wildly successful producer who bridged the gap between producing and writing, because you then became a very successful writer and I want to talk about that and how that worked and what you found that you would have liked to have had from a producer as a writer and vice versa.
00:03:08.109 --> 00:03:15.229
And also I want to know about your life, because we met and I told you my life story.
00:03:15.501 --> 00:03:16.900
She did, she told me her whole life story.
00:03:17.340 --> 00:03:25.848
You were so gracious and you listened and you were excited to hear about me and I walked away being like, oh, I don't know anything about that person.
00:03:25.848 --> 00:03:32.050
So you're here to tell me your whole life story and also those other things.
00:03:32.472 --> 00:03:33.313
All right, all right.
00:03:33.600 --> 00:03:34.564
Let's get into it.
00:03:34.564 --> 00:03:35.247
Let's jump in.
00:03:35.247 --> 00:03:36.963
You were born, a small infant.
00:03:38.086 --> 00:03:38.647
Quite big.
00:03:39.330 --> 00:03:40.192
Big infant, then I shrunk.
00:03:41.080 --> 00:03:45.527
Yes, I was born in Detroit, Michigan Okay For any Michiganders out there.
00:03:45.527 --> 00:03:51.572
And then we moved to Cleveland, Ohio for any of those Ohioans.
00:03:51.759 --> 00:03:52.784
What age was that move?
00:03:53.841 --> 00:03:54.544
When I was four.
00:03:54.905 --> 00:04:01.772
Okay, Okay, so you'd you were kind of, you'd done a little bit of school, but not enough to be like solid, I don't remember.
00:04:01.979 --> 00:04:06.264
I mean my whole family's from Michigan Uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents.
00:04:06.264 --> 00:04:15.627
So, I have a lot of memories of Michigan, just not living there, but my mom was such that she hated that we had.
00:04:15.627 --> 00:04:26.824
My dad was a clothing salesman, so we were constantly moving and my mom made this deal with my father that she could take me and my sister back to Michigan anytime she wanted.
00:04:26.884 --> 00:04:42.629
No matter what so we were always being pulled out of school like always just going back to Detroit for long periods of time, that you know at the end of the school year when they give like perfect attendance awards my mom would always say you will never win that award.
00:04:42.668 --> 00:04:44.291
Don't worry about that award.
00:04:44.291 --> 00:04:45.314
It isn't for you.
00:04:45.314 --> 00:04:50.437
How did she skirt truancy laws to be able?
00:04:50.458 --> 00:04:50.759
to do that.
00:04:50.759 --> 00:04:52.646
Are there such things oh?
00:04:52.747 --> 00:04:56.524
yes, oh yes, as a wildly absent child myself.
00:04:56.524 --> 00:05:01.492
Police will come to your house to check on why you haven't been to school.
00:05:01.492 --> 00:05:02.793
So she must have.
00:05:02.793 --> 00:05:03.115
Well, not to?
00:05:03.154 --> 00:05:04.946
brag, I was a very good student.
00:05:04.946 --> 00:05:07.583
Okay, I cared about grades.
00:05:07.583 --> 00:05:25.473
Uh, my sister not so much okay, so we were very different and she's very successful acupuncturist now, but we were very different back in the day, yeah, and so I don't think there was a worry for me, maybe, maybe for my sister okay, um, but the teachers were like.
00:05:25.913 --> 00:05:27.478
You know, he gets it, he's good.
00:05:28.742 --> 00:05:29.345
I used to get.
00:05:29.345 --> 00:05:44.266
I went to this very preppy private school and I had to wear a suit and tie and uh, maybe that's how we skirted it, because it wasn't a public school yeah and, uh, my mom liked the idea of me having long hair, so all my pictures in these like suit and ties.
00:05:44.266 --> 00:05:47.490
That's me looking like Prince Valiant or something.
00:05:47.629 --> 00:05:48.411
How long?
00:05:49.392 --> 00:05:51.956
She, would you know, like that.
00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:54.067
Did she ever like pull it back for you?
00:05:54.067 --> 00:05:55.293
Were you ever also in?
00:05:55.293 --> 00:05:56.557
You know how in the?
00:05:56.639 --> 00:05:56.899
olden days.
00:05:58.288 --> 00:05:58.649
No ponytail.
00:05:58.649 --> 00:05:59.454
You know what I'm talking about.
00:05:59.454 --> 00:06:00.500
The ponytail with the ribbon.
00:06:00.500 --> 00:06:10.007
Yeah, I always found that incredibly attractive in those old movies, like a period drama and a guy with a ponytail and a bow.
00:06:10.007 --> 00:06:16.404
For some reason that bow is very masculine oh but, only in that case and never a brave.
00:06:16.425 --> 00:06:21.302
Maybe she was thinking that, no, she just, she just thought that that's how I looked good.
00:06:21.302 --> 00:06:27.723
And then I mean, one day I probably asked to cut it, and then I probably cried, because isn't that what kids do?
00:06:27.723 --> 00:06:32.459
They get their hair cut, they think it's a good idea, and then they cry because it's going to take a year to grow back.
00:06:32.620 --> 00:06:47.908
Well, you know, there's so much pressure too, because you've become a new person, almost Like when you cut your hair off, you're a new person, and I don't know if a child is ready for that to embody the new person.
00:06:47.908 --> 00:06:50.440
And they realize that when they're looking in the mirror and they're like, how do I do, how do I stand up for this?
00:06:50.440 --> 00:06:51.523
Like, how do I become this?
00:06:51.523 --> 00:06:53.206
I, I get that.
00:06:53.206 --> 00:06:59.225
That happened to me a number of times where I'd go long from long to short wow.
00:06:59.425 --> 00:07:07.331
But then we moved to the bay area, we moved to San Francisco and that's where I feel like I had my true teenage years childhood yeah.
00:07:07.331 --> 00:07:09.547
So I was already moving west.
00:07:09.627 --> 00:07:19.853
Yeah, okay, and I did a little research and I heard that you had a special note from your mother to get into R-rated movies.
00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:22.649
I had a lot of notes from my mom.
00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:26.331
It sounds like your mom was kind of a badass and a rule breaker.
00:07:26.839 --> 00:07:29.918
Well, she was just loved being a mom.
00:07:29.918 --> 00:07:32.264
Okay, so anything that had she was like.
00:07:32.264 --> 00:07:41.653
She was happy to coach the soccer team, happy to do PTA stuff, happy to carpool, happy to it was her dream to just have kids and be a mom.
00:07:41.899 --> 00:07:47.041
So, I always had like the best lunches with cool notes inside about how great I was.
00:07:47.041 --> 00:08:04.752
And so, yes, like if I wanted to go see an R rated movie, it was just a kinder gentler time back then where she'd give me a note and I'd go at 12 years old, I just walk up to the thing and they would accept it back then, Just quick thing.
00:08:04.752 --> 00:08:24.468
Like my mom knew very early on that I wanted to be a storyteller of some sort and um, so when, when a movie would come out that I wanted to go see right away and I had a bicycle, I would just ask her if it was okay if I ditched school and go see the movie.
00:08:24.668 --> 00:08:26.733
And I have to say it's so I don't know.
00:08:26.733 --> 00:08:39.860
I know rule breakers are cool and edgy, but for me there was something nice about like I'm at a 1230 show for a movie and my friends have all ditched school and their parents don't know and they could come home to angry parents.
00:08:39.879 --> 00:08:40.965
They would come with you.
00:08:41.419 --> 00:08:43.788
Yeah, and I would be like so relaxed thinking like my it would come with you.
00:08:43.788 --> 00:08:46.136
Yeah, and I would be like so relaxed thinking like my mom's already approved this.
00:08:46.216 --> 00:09:04.572
Yeah, it's totally fine Well and as a parent too, I'm sure, like you, would rather know that your child is at the movies, yeah, and not be thinking they're like, just in case anything happened, you can be like it's okay, I know where they are, and just that, like that freedom to be able to be like mom.
00:09:04.572 --> 00:09:08.302
I am going here because you probably would have gone anyway.
00:09:08.342 --> 00:09:17.297
I would have gone anyway, but I just enjoyed it more knowing I wasn't gonna get in trouble when I got home maybe that's an unedgy part of me, I don't know.
00:09:17.297 --> 00:09:23.208
It just was better, and but I did something like senior year I was I did play baseball.
00:09:23.208 --> 00:09:29.087
That was like a big sport for me and I was captain of the baseball team, and which is not saying much.
00:09:29.087 --> 00:09:33.772
It was not some big public school team, it was a private school it was a private school we have.
00:09:34.013 --> 00:09:45.655
We have learned that this was a private captain of some fancy high level team, but we went on a like a spring break trip and someone brought a bottle of Southern Comfort.
00:09:45.655 --> 00:09:48.089
We all passed it around the motel room.
00:09:48.089 --> 00:09:54.113
I did drink it somewhat, how the principal found out, and all our parents were called and brought in.
00:09:54.799 --> 00:09:59.331
And my mom pissed the principal off because my mom was like so what?
00:09:59.331 --> 00:10:07.648
It's a bottle of Southern Comfort and these kids are like one year away from going to college, these kids are going to start drinking anyway, come on.
00:10:07.648 --> 00:10:09.765
The principal, mrs Schumann.
00:10:09.765 --> 00:10:11.313
That's not Mrs Schumann.
00:10:11.313 --> 00:10:14.767
The rules are they are underage and they're not supposed to be drinking.
00:10:14.767 --> 00:10:17.144
And my mom was like I was doing much worse when.
00:10:17.144 --> 00:10:20.984
I was my son's age, so that's just the kind of mom she was.
00:10:21.304 --> 00:10:27.302
She just respected you as another human being oh, that's nice it sounds like she's like.
00:10:27.302 --> 00:10:35.269
You have your ideas of how you're gonna live your life yes, my job is to support you and growing get out of my way honestly yeah, fantastic.
00:10:35.269 --> 00:10:36.471
So you had this note.
00:10:36.511 --> 00:10:41.645
You got to go to movies I went to a lot whenever you felt like it r movies.
00:10:41.806 --> 00:10:43.208
I just love that story.
00:10:43.208 --> 00:10:49.346
And, yeah, that fed you and then you went to film school.
00:10:49.947 --> 00:10:54.357
Yes, I was sort of like well, I was kind of USC do or die.
00:10:54.357 --> 00:11:04.669
Okay, there was a time when I was 16 and I thought I wanted to go to NYU and my parents God love them were like, well, maybe you should go to a summer program at NYU.
00:11:04.669 --> 00:11:08.807
So I went Wow, they just dropped me off in New York City.
00:11:08.807 --> 00:11:17.547
Think about this there weren't cell phones back then, so there was a pay phone in the lobby of the dorms and I was supposed to call on Sundays between 5 and 7.
00:11:17.547 --> 00:11:18.549
And that's it.
00:11:19.211 --> 00:11:19.712
That's it.
00:11:19.799 --> 00:11:21.903
That's all they knew of their 16-year-old.
00:11:21.942 --> 00:11:22.383
They're like.
00:11:22.383 --> 00:11:23.124
Mine is off at camp.
00:11:24.144 --> 00:11:26.708
I'm like oh my God, would that happen today?
00:11:26.708 --> 00:11:27.249
I don't know.
00:11:27.249 --> 00:11:28.270
No.
00:11:28.910 --> 00:11:30.013
No, but I didn't.
00:11:30.013 --> 00:11:32.296
No disrespect to NYU, I didn't love it.
00:11:32.296 --> 00:11:36.660
Ok, I didn't love being in the city.
00:11:36.660 --> 00:11:38.942
I kind of wanted like a big old school campus feeling.
00:11:38.942 --> 00:11:45.388
So after that experience I was like like all or nothing to USC film school it was.
00:11:45.388 --> 00:11:55.514
If I didn't get in there, life was over to me at 16, 17 years old, thank God you got in and when I got in I honestly I thought like the heavens had parted.
00:11:55.514 --> 00:11:57.236
Yeah, and I was.
00:11:57.236 --> 00:12:00.782
I'm the anointed one You're the chosen one.
00:12:00.802 --> 00:12:11.152
And then you get to orientation and you realize so did everyone else that got in think they're God's gift, and so I was like, OK, it's time for me to like get off the high horse and get to work.
00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:12.884
Yeah, and you.
00:12:12.884 --> 00:12:14.811
You realized that immediately.
00:12:15.700 --> 00:12:19.528
Pretty quickly because I was.
00:12:19.528 --> 00:12:21.072
I didn't love high school.
00:12:21.072 --> 00:12:27.773
I thought a lot of the courses just in high school the physics and it just didn't interest me.
00:12:27.773 --> 00:12:42.807
I did what I had to do to get a good grade but I was so much more interested in history and literature and storytelling that it was a lot of the courses just were like I have to deal with this, you know, because it's part of high school curriculum.
00:12:42.807 --> 00:12:51.056
But getting into film school, not only that, but then meeting all these like-minded people, it was heaven to me right away.
00:12:51.056 --> 00:12:52.227
Yeah, I was like.
00:12:52.227 --> 00:12:59.245
All these people were like little me, from Tennessee, from Pennsylvania, from all over the place.
00:12:59.245 --> 00:13:07.908
There were me versions of me and we all became like instant friends and forget having to get a note from my mom.
00:13:07.908 --> 00:13:13.993
We would be like we'd have a test on like a Tuesday night and everyone would be like come on, let's go see the new Tom Hanks movie.
00:13:13.993 --> 00:13:16.072
We'd be like I don't have to ask anyone.
00:13:16.264 --> 00:13:17.551
I can do whatever I want.
00:13:18.125 --> 00:13:30.316
So we used to laugh to like our version of like freedom and everything was not going to a party and getting drunk, but it was like all going to Westwood on a Wednesday night To Westwood To see a movie.
00:13:30.316 --> 00:13:31.538
Very safe.
00:13:32.058 --> 00:13:32.880
That's amazing.
00:13:32.880 --> 00:13:36.195
So you realized that you had to get to work.
00:13:36.195 --> 00:13:44.115
And we have a lot of listeners who are in this area now, who are, you know, first or second year of their undergrad.
00:13:44.115 --> 00:13:46.154
They're realizing that they want to work in film.
00:13:46.154 --> 00:13:50.534
So what did get to work mean to you?
00:13:50.534 --> 00:13:55.738
How is it different than just like, oh, go to your classes and do have the experience and then graduate?
00:13:55.738 --> 00:13:59.328
How are you getting to work before you even graduate?
00:14:00.110 --> 00:14:02.735
It's a great question, I mean, to me it's twofold.
00:14:02.735 --> 00:14:29.130
One is well, I'm 18 years old and I have to acknowledge that, even though I've watched thousands of movies, I know nothing right, and so I need to sort of soak in all these classes photography, film history, editing, uh, the class where you make short films I have to go into it just feeling like don't think that, don't assume I'm just some young Spielberg or something Like.
00:14:29.130 --> 00:14:32.596
Let's just start from scratch and try to see what I think.
00:14:32.596 --> 00:14:36.874
Maybe I gravitate toward more what I feel like I'm good at, what interests me.
00:14:36.874 --> 00:14:39.952
Am I even good at screenwriting?
00:14:39.952 --> 00:14:41.972
Am I even good at whatever?
00:14:41.972 --> 00:14:44.231
So that was a lot of it.
00:14:44.231 --> 00:14:50.847
Also, trying to take classes like reading the classics and then back.
00:14:50.847 --> 00:14:55.217
The great thing about university as opposed to high school is I could pick my classes.
00:14:55.217 --> 00:14:57.533
Oh, world War II class, that sounds interesting.
00:14:58.265 --> 00:14:59.451
Oh, a mythology class.
00:14:59.451 --> 00:15:02.154
Well, those are where stories come from, or mythology.
00:15:02.644 --> 00:15:11.538
So you're realizing that you can pick and choose even your general courses to fit what you're looking for on a large?
00:15:11.538 --> 00:15:12.525
I think a lot.
00:15:12.525 --> 00:15:13.609
I don't realize that.
00:15:13.609 --> 00:15:27.254
A lot of kids don't realize that there are options that don't just pick something like I have to do this damn class, like I'll pick this one, but like look for something that's going to fit into your overall career goals.
00:15:27.455 --> 00:15:31.427
Well, that plays into the second thing I was going to say, which is finding your voice.
00:15:31.427 --> 00:15:45.278
Like, as I'll be honest, as a just kid growing up and say Northern California and being on swim team playing baseball, it was part of the community living up North.
00:15:45.278 --> 00:15:49.595
I don't know so much down here, but I felt like I had to find my voice.
00:15:49.595 --> 00:15:50.677
What is it?
00:15:50.677 --> 00:15:52.567
What kind of stories do I want?
00:15:52.768 --> 00:15:55.312
to get us back on track, sorry.
00:15:56.453 --> 00:15:59.620
I see like coming before me.
00:15:59.620 --> 00:16:11.105
There were people like John Singleton at USC and this was like a kid grew up in South central, popped out of college with boys in the hood script right, had a strong point of view, right.
00:16:11.105 --> 00:16:13.330
I didn't have that life yet.
00:16:13.330 --> 00:16:21.427
I hadn't really lived a life, to tell stories other than my imagination, which is worth something.
00:16:21.427 --> 00:16:28.067
But I kind of felt like it was time to start, I don't know, without going overboard.
00:16:28.067 --> 00:16:30.654
I'm not saying like do a bunch of drugs and go crazy.
00:16:32.750 --> 00:16:38.441
I felt like I had to start to live life, so I could figure out what kind of stories.
00:16:38.441 --> 00:16:41.472
I wanted to tell or where my imagination could go.
00:16:42.826 --> 00:16:43.691
There we go Beautiful.
00:16:43.691 --> 00:16:49.317
Then you finish school and you have kind of an enviable.
00:16:49.317 --> 00:16:53.650
I'm sorry I'm leading this so much, but I just I'm proud that's your job as the intern.
00:16:53.650 --> 00:16:55.580
I know, sometimes I like it.
00:16:55.580 --> 00:17:03.035
I would go to ramble, though, but you had kind of the dream transition into career.
00:17:03.035 --> 00:17:09.270
You finished school and then you had an internship that led to a job, right yeah, yeah.
00:17:09.632 --> 00:17:10.012
And that's.
00:17:10.012 --> 00:17:14.279
I feel like it's so smooth.
00:17:14.279 --> 00:17:18.192
It's so smooth and just like clear that that's what was meant to happen.
00:17:18.192 --> 00:17:19.896
Thanks, I guess.
00:17:19.896 --> 00:17:20.557
Did you feel that way?
00:17:20.744 --> 00:17:25.718
I'll give you the intricacies, so it doesn't seem so easy-ish.
00:17:25.718 --> 00:17:28.865
I felt like I'm in Los Angeles.
00:17:28.865 --> 00:17:43.092
I feel like if you're in college, I don't care if you went to USC, if you went to community college, afi, ucla or any of the surrounding film schools, which are all Occidental, what's the one?
00:17:43.092 --> 00:17:43.633
Chapman?
00:17:44.153 --> 00:17:45.696
What does Occidental mean?
00:17:46.238 --> 00:17:47.219
I think it's a college.
00:17:47.625 --> 00:17:49.049
Oh, it is a school.
00:17:49.049 --> 00:17:52.106
I was like what does that mean about colleges?
00:17:52.106 --> 00:17:56.413
I'm using big 50 cent vocabulary Wow.
00:17:57.596 --> 00:17:58.056
Apologies.
00:17:58.056 --> 00:18:02.971
I felt like shame on me if I didn't do some internships while I'm here.
00:18:02.971 --> 00:18:10.624
So the only thing you can do at that point is look up people that you like or movies you like, and so I did internships.
00:18:10.624 --> 00:18:14.972
Because I loved Lethal Weapon, so I got an internship with this producer.
00:18:14.972 --> 00:18:31.640
Joel Silver at the time had kind of a bombastic reputation and it was fun, you know, making copies in the copy room, listening to him screaming right right um, which those kind of things led to, like a summer job being a PA.
00:18:32.205 --> 00:18:46.585
So one summer I'm here, I'm living in the dorms and I'm like running around being a PA on a TV movie, and the TV movie ended up being produced by this guy named Arnold Copelson.
00:18:47.169 --> 00:18:51.613
I don't know why he was doing this tiny TV movie, Because he had won an Oscar for Platoon.
00:18:51.613 --> 00:19:08.576
He had had the Fugitive come out and he not only was at a gargantuan blockbuster, but he got nominated for a second Oscar and I got asked if I wanted to do an internship once school started back in.
00:19:08.576 --> 00:19:10.440
So I was sure yeah.
00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:18.940
So then I went every Friday to his office on the Warner Brothers lot to do an internship there.
00:19:18.940 --> 00:19:31.690
Now I could smell the cigar smoke wafting from his office on Fridays, when I would be there Again just making copies or answering phones or doing whatever coffee, and the year was coming to an end.
00:19:31.810 --> 00:19:32.611
I was about to graduate.
00:19:32.611 --> 00:19:40.518
I would be there again just making copies or answering phones or doing whatever coffee, and the year was coming to an end, I was about to graduate, I had planned to, I had like my first grown up girlfriend like adult related.
00:19:40.518 --> 00:19:43.421
Like man, I have a person I can call my girlfriend.
00:19:43.421 --> 00:19:51.335
We were going to have a fun summer, and then I was going to take life seriously once the fall came.
00:19:51.335 --> 00:19:53.508
Um, I didn't know what that meant, right, and then?
00:19:53.548 --> 00:19:56.655
but isn't that's how we're like raised to think, though it's like.
00:19:56.655 --> 00:19:59.972
All right, it's summertime and then we'll get serious in.
00:19:59.972 --> 00:20:00.535
August.
00:20:00.535 --> 00:20:10.438
Like I love back to school I even though I can't do that anymore, I still think like May 17th graduation day should not be like May 20th.
00:20:10.478 --> 00:20:11.586
I'm supposed to start life.
00:20:11.747 --> 00:20:12.627
I know very weird.
00:20:12.627 --> 00:20:19.407
No, no, no, you need a break so you were going to become an adult in August yes, after that summer.
00:20:19.567 --> 00:20:31.017
so I was ending my internship and, uh, the, the, the company, arnold's company, was having a movie coming out that summer, big Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.
00:20:31.017 --> 00:20:36.938
They invited all the interns to come to the movie premiere, which is fancy for like a college kid, that's so nice.
00:20:36.938 --> 00:20:51.980
Yeah, so because I would smell the cigar smoke, I went to some store in Beverly Hills and I bought two Cuban cigars which you can get at the fancy if you just kind of be like wink wink.
00:20:52.019 --> 00:20:52.904
You're like please, it's for somebody.
00:20:52.904 --> 00:20:54.490
There's some Cubans in the back room.
00:20:54.510 --> 00:21:04.233
Yeah, and so at the premiere I saw him, arnold, and Arnold Copelson, and I said thank you for the internship.
00:21:04.233 --> 00:21:05.369
It's been a wonderful year.
00:21:05.369 --> 00:21:09.115
It ends in two weeks and I got you these as a thank you.
00:21:12.905 --> 00:21:12.965
Wow.
00:21:13.126 --> 00:21:15.413
That is wise, beyond your years, to be honest.
00:21:15.433 --> 00:21:30.765
Kiss ass not, not real, like it's just, you were being appreciative I was, and you were paying attention, you know you could have gotten him like a coffee gift card or something but you, you multi-millionaire yeah, here's a five dollar starbucks gift card for you.
00:21:30.805 --> 00:21:46.907
Thanks, but this is where some luck came into it, because, as I'm giving it to him and he won't accept them, he's like jason and, by the way, uh, I don't even I'm making that up, I don't think he knew my first name yeah I think he was just saying thank you young man I can't take these from you and I said I bought them for you.
00:21:47.127 --> 00:21:50.134
I also enjoy cigars and I can smell them from your office.
00:21:50.134 --> 00:22:03.926
And as he's trying to tell me he can't accept them, literally Arnold Schwarzenegger walked up not to me, to him and said oh, oh, those are good, let's take them, let's go, let's go to the parking lot and smoke them.
00:22:03.926 --> 00:22:05.288
So they took them.
00:22:05.288 --> 00:22:08.794
Yeah, they did not invite me, but they went off.
00:22:08.794 --> 00:22:15.752
And two days later I got a phone call from his office saying we heard you're graduating.
00:22:15.752 --> 00:22:17.170
We want to offer you a job.
00:22:17.170 --> 00:22:21.973
Wow, so now it puts my whole plans, my whole summer plans in tailspin.
00:22:22.226 --> 00:22:23.333
No beach days.
00:22:23.432 --> 00:22:23.734
No.
00:22:24.721 --> 00:22:28.951
Okay, we are stoked to shout out our audio sponsor, Deity Microphones.
00:22:28.951 --> 00:22:39.949
Their S-Mic 2 Pro shotgun mics have impeccable sound clarity, directionality, headphone monitoring and a user-friendly design, and we're proud to launch our studio with them.
00:22:39.949 --> 00:22:48.469
Our goal is to bring you educational gems every episode and with these mics, you can listen to the best quality audio possible wherever you are.
00:22:48.469 --> 00:22:55.593
To learn more about using deity mics for your own podcasting, voiceover or filming needs, go to deity miccom.
00:22:56.339 --> 00:23:01.290
So I got some good advice which was like this is a good opportunity for you.
00:23:01.672 --> 00:23:03.221
You can always quit if it's not for you.
00:23:03.221 --> 00:23:22.609
Cause I had kind of thought that I was going to do this thing where I was going to go, like in the fall, I was going to start writing this amazing indie script and then I was going to do this thing where I was going to go, like in the fall, I was going to start writing this amazing indie script and then I was going to scrap together some money and I'm just going to go direct it and cast it and I'm going to do like mall rats kind of thing, clerks, and just go make an indie movie.
00:23:22.609 --> 00:23:24.244
Well, what about that dream?
00:23:24.244 --> 00:23:24.605
What about that?
00:23:24.605 --> 00:23:25.248
What about my movie?
00:23:25.248 --> 00:23:31.153
But people wisely, were like Jason, jason, why don't you just ride the roller coaster for a minute?
00:23:31.153 --> 00:23:34.950
Why don't you just take the job and see where it goes?
00:23:34.950 --> 00:23:35.932
You can always quit.
00:23:35.932 --> 00:23:37.666
You can always do that a year from now.
00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:37.921
And.
00:23:37.961 --> 00:23:53.612
I thought that was good advice to me, so I did, I quit and it was very working girl-esque for those who don't know the movie Melanie Griffith is an assistant and at the end of the movie Melanie Griffith is an assistant and at the end of the movie she gets a job.
00:23:53.612 --> 00:23:54.836
But she thinks she's going in to be an assistant.
00:23:54.836 --> 00:24:07.512
And I thought I dressed in this awful vest and shirt and I went in and I checked in at the front and they showed me to my office and so I was not an assistant, I was a junior executive oh, oh, my God.
00:24:07.794 --> 00:24:09.537
And I had literally just graduated.
00:24:09.537 --> 00:24:38.112
Thank, God, you accepted that job, so I went from intern to junior exec, which I acknowledge now is not, is very rare and very lucky because I skipped having to be an assistant, which I know people can spend years, years waiting to get off that desk, which was great the moment, but also tough in the in the job because all the assistants hated me yeah yeah, they thought they were gonna get like how did this kid?
00:24:38.693 --> 00:24:47.705
I've been, I've been on this desk for years, but I was literally the intern who came in on fridays and would do stuff for the assistants, and now I'm what them.
00:24:47.885 --> 00:24:58.771
And all it took was two Cubans, and then, and then you had a fantastic career as a producer.
00:24:58.932 --> 00:24:59.433
I will skip that.
00:24:59.433 --> 00:25:01.186
I'll give you the abridged version.
00:25:01.186 --> 00:25:03.048
I did that job.
00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:04.606
We might have to make two episodes.
00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:06.006
I did that job for a couple of years.
00:25:06.006 --> 00:25:11.683
I then got lucky where I teamed up with a wonderful producer named William Sherrick.
00:25:11.683 --> 00:25:15.186
We were the same, a whole other story but we got this movie.
00:25:15.186 --> 00:25:32.563
We went to Australia for nine months.
00:25:32.563 --> 00:25:37.384
Now I'm going from being a junior exec to leaping to being a studio producer, so I took some big leaps.
00:25:37.881 --> 00:25:40.488
Do you feel like you were prepared for the work?
00:25:40.488 --> 00:25:45.048
No, not for the position, but like it was the work scary and hard, or were you like.
00:25:45.087 --> 00:25:45.730
I know how to do it.
00:25:45.730 --> 00:25:47.564
It was constant fake it till you make it.
00:25:47.844 --> 00:25:49.227
Constantly fake it till you make it.
00:25:49.227 --> 00:25:50.169
Listen up, everybody.
00:25:50.169 --> 00:25:52.532
Constant fake it till you make it.
00:25:52.634 --> 00:25:55.078
So we go make this movie.
00:25:55.078 --> 00:25:56.643
It's called Darkness Falls.
00:25:56.643 --> 00:25:57.787
We come back.
00:25:57.787 --> 00:25:59.553
The studio doesn't think much of it.
00:25:59.553 --> 00:26:01.619
It's kind of like a scary movie.
00:26:01.619 --> 00:26:04.968
But way before scary movies were sort of super in vogue.
00:26:04.968 --> 00:26:06.832
Anyway, it came out.
00:26:06.832 --> 00:26:09.156
It was number one at the box office.
00:26:09.156 --> 00:26:15.930
So all of a sudden, in a very short span, I went from an intern to a junior exec to number one.
00:26:17.051 --> 00:26:30.795
And that got us a big movie deal at the studio and that started kind of like what I say, like the 80s montage of my life, because like for the next 10 years, all I was doing was producing movies.
00:26:30.795 --> 00:26:42.105
Suddenly I'm 26, 27, 28 and I'm flying all over the world like on the set of my own movies yeah it was very surreal yeah, and really, really cool, let this kid do it.
00:26:42.145 --> 00:26:42.507
He's got.
00:26:42.507 --> 00:26:43.249
He knows what he's doing.
00:26:43.249 --> 00:26:43.931
By that point, I was.
00:26:44.240 --> 00:26:45.541
I was feeling confident.
00:26:45.541 --> 00:26:48.707
Now I didn't have to fake it as much Was Darkness Falls.
00:26:48.767 --> 00:26:52.693
Was that the release that was very strategic on Super Bowl Sunday?
00:26:52.693 --> 00:26:55.507
Yes, okay, will you tell a little bit of that?
00:26:55.507 --> 00:26:58.711
I mean, I'm sorry, I ruined the.
00:26:58.711 --> 00:27:04.680
I said the punchline, but tell us about that strategy and who like, how and why did it work out so well?
00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:22.829
There was this brilliant guy, tom Sherrick, who passed away years ago but he was very much mentor, godfather figure to me at the studio when we were there making these movies and he was like let's put it out on Super Bowl Sunday and everyone around him was like that's a dead weekend.
00:27:23.019 --> 00:27:24.164
And nobody done that before.
00:27:24.204 --> 00:27:24.928
Right, no one.
00:27:24.928 --> 00:27:28.779
People always scared off of that weekend because it's essentially a two day weekend.
00:27:28.779 --> 00:27:30.627
So it's the opposite of a holiday weekend.
00:27:30.627 --> 00:27:33.386
It's a weekend because Super Bowl Sunday is.
00:27:33.386 --> 00:27:34.971
No one goes to the movies.
00:27:34.990 --> 00:27:35.491
No one's going out.
00:27:36.300 --> 00:27:39.830
So you basically only have Friday night and Saturday, and that's it.
00:27:39.830 --> 00:27:58.229
It turned out to be genius because Friday night there was no other movies to see Kangaroo Jack, if anyone remembers that movie that was basically the only other movie out, so somehow teenagers with nothing else to do flocked to go see darkness falls, for whatever reason they cut a great trailer.
00:27:58.229 --> 00:28:05.070
So even though we only had two days, we somehow made a lot of money in those two days and it changed my life.
00:28:05.359 --> 00:28:07.119
Tom Sherrick should have been a hedge fund manager.
00:28:07.661 --> 00:28:09.684
He was already very successful man.
00:28:09.744 --> 00:28:14.694
He knew, he knew how yeah, he knew how to sell low, no, sell high.
00:28:14.694 --> 00:28:16.337
Buy low, sell high.
00:28:16.337 --> 00:28:18.163
He knew how to do that with movies.
00:28:18.163 --> 00:28:22.892
Okay, so then you decide to make a career change.
00:28:22.892 --> 00:28:27.025
Yes, and this is the gap that I made in that 12 years.
00:28:27.246 --> 00:28:32.755
I made over 20, 20 movies and, um, I loved it, I had the best time.
00:28:32.755 --> 00:28:42.286
But I never forgot about the true passion, the true itch I had, which was to write, to write and direct my own stuff.
00:28:42.286 --> 00:28:45.893
And I felt like I had learned so much as producing.
00:28:45.893 --> 00:28:47.707
I'd worked with so many great writers.
00:28:47.707 --> 00:28:53.167
I had sat there for thousands of hours helping writers work through their story.
00:28:53.167 --> 00:28:54.743
It was now or never.
00:28:54.743 --> 00:28:55.989
It was now or never.
00:28:55.989 --> 00:29:02.126
And so I just up and it was a guy named Danny Strong.
00:29:02.126 --> 00:29:03.769
I don't know if you know who that is.
00:29:03.769 --> 00:29:04.776
Look him up if you don't.
00:29:04.776 --> 00:29:09.088
Danny Strong, wildly successful actor turned writer, showrunner, director.
00:29:09.088 --> 00:29:14.731
He had moved to New York and he told me like get out of LA.
00:29:14.731 --> 00:29:22.932
You're never going to get into the writer's mind being in LA doing your day to day as a producer.
00:29:23.814 --> 00:29:28.579
I see you had to escape the people who knew you as one thing and to get out of my routine.
00:29:29.059 --> 00:29:29.737
And to get out of your routine.
00:29:29.737 --> 00:29:30.334
And to get out of your routine.
00:29:30.316 --> 00:29:30.377
I see.
00:29:30.377 --> 00:29:33.730
So I went to New York and just started writing.
00:29:34.039 --> 00:29:35.445
How long did you stay in New York?
00:29:35.846 --> 00:29:36.388
Four years.
00:29:36.911 --> 00:29:40.369
Okay, you moved, yes, for a long time.
00:29:40.369 --> 00:29:44.604
Was that the plan, or did you think you would go for a little bit?
00:29:44.683 --> 00:29:48.426
I had no plan except I want to be a writer and I want to be a great writer.
00:29:48.426 --> 00:29:49.288
I don't just want to.
00:29:49.288 --> 00:29:58.476
For those listening, I have a lot of friends who also are trying to be writers and I think the mistake they make is they spend a year on one script.
00:29:58.476 --> 00:29:59.396
Don't do that.
00:29:59.517 --> 00:29:59.797
Right.
00:30:01.619 --> 00:30:02.284
Don't think this is your opus.
00:30:02.284 --> 00:30:03.894
I was just trying to hone my craft.
00:30:03.894 --> 00:30:08.730
I was writing a script every four to six weeks and then throwing it away.
00:30:09.011 --> 00:30:09.512
Whoa.
00:30:09.819 --> 00:30:11.369
I was writing a script every four to six weeks and then throwing it away.
00:30:11.369 --> 00:30:12.859
Whoa, I was giving it to friends getting notes and then I'd throw it away.
00:30:13.259 --> 00:30:14.990
Throw it away meaning never look at it again.
00:30:14.990 --> 00:30:16.339
Yeah, like don't you're not.
00:30:16.359 --> 00:30:17.673
I'm evolving as a writer.
00:30:17.712 --> 00:30:18.278
I'm evolving.
00:30:18.278 --> 00:30:19.525
You're just letting him go.
00:30:19.700 --> 00:30:24.026
I'm not spending hours tweaking and obsessing on that one script.
00:30:24.066 --> 00:30:28.393
When you're throwing a script away, are you also parting with that story?
00:30:28.573 --> 00:30:29.694
and never telling it again.
00:30:31.140 --> 00:30:31.520
You never know.
00:30:31.540 --> 00:30:36.068
Maybe 10 years from now like when John Hughes like was John Hughes.
00:30:36.068 --> 00:30:39.474
He started taking scripts off the shelf that he had written in his 20s.
00:30:39.519 --> 00:30:41.647
And you're like well, I have this one here, yeah, yeah.
00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:48.002
But I was trying to hone my craft, trying to evolve as a writer, not trying to put all my eggs in one basket.
00:30:48.002 --> 00:30:50.384
Yeah, okay, trying to evolve as a writer, not trying to put all my eggs in one basket.
00:30:50.403 --> 00:30:50.584
Yeah, okay.
00:30:50.584 --> 00:30:57.386
And so after two and a half years, I felt that I was at the level, that I felt confident.
00:30:57.386 --> 00:31:07.931
That I felt because, in the real world of writing, once you sell something, the demands on you, the ability to have to take notes and turn them around, are huge.
00:31:07.931 --> 00:31:21.836
And if you've spent a year plus obsessing on one script and, let's say, you sell it, and then the producers in the studio are like great, we're so excited about this, here's our notes, we need it in four weeks, how are you prepared for that?
00:31:21.836 --> 00:31:24.398
You're not, because you're so obsessed.
00:31:24.398 --> 00:31:28.223
So then you're going to freak out and then you're going to look bad.
00:31:28.223 --> 00:31:31.209
Anyway, it's just from experience of a lot of my friends.
00:31:31.209 --> 00:31:32.711
I wanted to avoid that.
00:31:32.912 --> 00:31:34.795
So you feel like, you feel like it helped you.
00:31:34.795 --> 00:31:37.440
Not, you know, be so precious about things, don't?
00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:37.680
Be precious.
00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:44.766
Because, you were like okay, you don't like this one, I'll write another one for you in a month, don't worry, okay, yeah, that's very good advice.
00:31:51.319 --> 00:31:52.561
So advice, so again, giving you the abridged version.
00:31:52.561 --> 00:31:54.525
Yeah, I, after two and a half years, I felt like I had a writing sample.
00:31:54.525 --> 00:31:56.147
That was good and I sent it out.
00:31:56.147 --> 00:31:57.830
I got signed by CAA.
00:31:57.830 --> 00:32:01.403
Uh, it was a tv spec sent it out, meaning what?
00:32:01.944 --> 00:32:15.337
I changed my name, I wasn't sure what my reputation was in the business, and by reputation I didn't mean good or bad reputation, I just I didn't know who knew me or didn't know me, right, right, but I just didn't want that to cloud the read.
00:32:15.337 --> 00:32:15.539
Right?
00:32:15.539 --> 00:32:17.105
Oh, jason isn't he a producer.
00:32:17.125 --> 00:32:17.887
Isn't he a producer?
00:32:17.948 --> 00:32:25.951
yeah, so I just put a fake name, sent it out, but then when I was sitting there with the CA agents, I immediately said my name's not whatever.
00:32:25.951 --> 00:32:29.512
That was my name's Jason Schumann, I don't know any of you.
00:32:29.512 --> 00:32:33.075
So I feel like this is a start starting from scratch.
00:32:33.095 --> 00:32:35.277
It's safe for us to start here with real names.
00:32:35.277 --> 00:32:36.057
I see.
00:32:36.277 --> 00:32:37.157
They didn't seem to care.
00:32:37.157 --> 00:32:51.753
They loved that I had a producing backdrop and I said I really want to show run, I want to be a TV show runner, and so I hope that my background as producer and now my newfound thing as a writer can and it did.
00:32:52.319 --> 00:32:57.112
You deciding to change your name and just send it in on merit and not.
00:32:57.112 --> 00:33:08.766
It's almost like you know how sometimes people who have parents in the industry are like no, I don't want to like ride on their coattails, I'm going to do it just because I'm good.
00:33:08.766 --> 00:33:12.506
But you did that with yourself and your own hard work.
00:33:12.506 --> 00:33:17.546
You were like no, I'm not even me, you don't even know me for the good work I've already done.
00:33:17.707 --> 00:33:29.191
Well, that's strategic, because there is a bias when people are trying to hyphenate yeah, there can be a bias and like oh, another producer who wants to write.
00:33:29.191 --> 00:33:31.914
I actually was doing it to protect myself.
00:33:32.275 --> 00:33:33.757
Is that a thing Producers who want to write?
00:33:33.757 --> 00:33:34.458
I think so.
00:33:35.741 --> 00:33:48.373
I mean, look, if you want to write, write, oh an actor who wants to direct oh there are some natural transitions, but I feel like an actor who has a script or a producer who has a script gets a little bit of an eye roll.
00:33:48.373 --> 00:33:51.063
But you have to overcome that.
00:33:51.063 --> 00:33:52.647
You have to believe in your stuff.
00:33:53.349 --> 00:33:59.472
Yeah, solidly enough to overcome the eye a little bit of a cheat code to be like look it's good, yeah, I'm, I'm.
00:33:59.472 --> 00:34:02.542
You have never heard this name before, is it good, right?
00:34:02.542 --> 00:34:04.686
Yeah, okay, all right, move on.
00:34:04.686 --> 00:34:05.208
Here we go.
00:34:05.648 --> 00:34:08.735
Sorry that's a good, you use a good point, though.
00:34:08.735 --> 00:34:11.623
Yeah, it could go either way we have some exciting news.
00:34:12.306 --> 00:34:22.179
Cfa has teamed up with we make movies to get you a discount on production management services, including access to comprehensive production insurance and workers comp.
00:34:22.179 --> 00:34:31.355
For your next shoot, visit we make moviesorg, slash insurance and use code CFA 23 on your intake form for 10% off your quote.
00:34:32.701 --> 00:34:33.742
It could go either way.
00:34:34.465 --> 00:34:46.271
But I got agents, felt like a writer for the first time in those years, sold that TV pilot to 20th and then it didn't go to pilot.
00:34:46.271 --> 00:34:47.753
So I was like what now?
00:34:47.753 --> 00:34:50.021
And my agents were like, like write another one, do another one.
00:34:50.021 --> 00:34:51.967
I wrote another one the next season.
00:34:51.967 --> 00:34:58.463
I sold that to Sony TV, uh, and then CBS didn't make it to pilot.
00:34:58.463 --> 00:35:01.811
So now I'm like kind of two for two, but I felt like, oh for two.
00:35:01.831 --> 00:35:04.644
Right, you're like sold them both, but can we see it?
00:35:05.025 --> 00:35:10.878
yeah like you, want a table read I know didn't get that far but now I feel like I'm making money.
00:35:10.878 --> 00:35:15.954
Yeah, I'm kind of a writer now I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm in the transition phase.
00:35:15.954 --> 00:35:32.420
Then I had a wonderful stroke of luck again where I met this, uh, gentleman named eduardo cisneros, who was introduced me to another mentor of mine, sanford panich, who, who worked at Copelson when I was there.
00:35:32.420 --> 00:35:39.577
So a lot of times in my life things came full circle and he introduced me to Eduardo.
00:35:40.018 --> 00:36:03.806
Eduardo was this really successful producer out of Mexico who had this massive movie called instructions, not included, um, which was the biggest hit ever, multi-language hit um, and he had been partners with this actor, uh, ogenio derbez, and I meet him and there's a lot of there of like I meet him.
00:36:03.806 --> 00:36:24.043
He's already such an established writer, but I had read somewhere from judd Apatow that when he worked the comedy clubs and like Jim Carrey or Ben Stiller would say, hey, can you write me a joke about whatever, about toilets he would come back the next day with 15 jokes about toilets and that's how he?
00:36:24.123 --> 00:36:27.724
impressed Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller and they all wanted him.
00:36:27.724 --> 00:36:42.530
So I prepared for the meeting and I came in with the 12 ideas that we could work on together and he liked the actually the 12th one wow uh, I thought I was like failing failing you did he liked the 12th one.
00:36:42.530 --> 00:36:43.592
We worked on it.
00:36:43.592 --> 00:36:46.583
We pitched it to Fox movie studio.
00:36:46.583 --> 00:36:47.425
They bought it.
00:36:47.425 --> 00:36:50.413
Yeah, yeah, so now my first movie pitch got sold.
00:36:50.793 --> 00:36:50.893
Mm-hmm.
00:36:51.101 --> 00:36:52.025
We write it together.
00:36:52.025 --> 00:37:00.635
Again, it doesn't get made, but we had a great time, mm-hmm, and that led to a movie called Half Brothers which we sold to Focus, which did get made.
00:37:00.836 --> 00:37:02.324
All right, so we're moving up in the world.
00:37:02.679 --> 00:37:03.577
I'm getting movies made.
00:37:03.597 --> 00:37:04.541
now here we go.
00:37:04.581 --> 00:37:30.659
that exact same time is when we created Acapulco which we sold to Apple oh, thank you, I love it, um, which was like a semi-autobiographical story, mixing his life and my life, which I thought in itself is highly original a Jewish kid from the Midwest and a Mexican kid from, like, an immigrant from Mexico.
00:37:30.659 --> 00:37:44.331
We're blending our lives and our stories to create this potentially original story about a kid in Acapulco in the 80s, and now that's like leads to this four-season hit show on Apple.
00:37:44.331 --> 00:37:52.630
But that all started because of that introduction to him and because of our wonderful, loving working together.
00:37:52.670 --> 00:37:52.931
Yeah.
00:37:53.380 --> 00:37:55.336
So that led to Acapulco.
00:37:56.059 --> 00:38:11.597
So now, as a producer who writes, a writer who produces, what do you, what context do you wish producers had on writers and what context do you wish writers had on writers and what context do you wish writers had on?
00:38:11.597 --> 00:38:14.731
Producers you know like the, the job, the people, the whole thing.
00:38:14.771 --> 00:38:28.282
Like what would have made either of your jobs easier had you known certain things well, as a producer, I always had the mindset that I am like I have no skill specifically.
00:38:28.282 --> 00:38:50.333
I'm just supposed to watch over everybody and be as respectful as possible, which is nice, I guess, because I'm acknowledging that I don't know how to costume design, so I'm hoping to hire the best person and let them do their job and I'm here for them if there's a problem, or I'm here to sort of deal with it if a problem happens.
00:38:51.623 --> 00:39:00.681
But with writing I think I should have gone deeper than that, because I'm sitting there with them months, years before the.
00:39:00.681 --> 00:39:06.759
It's one thing to have that attitude once we're in production because we're moving so fast we're in production.
00:39:06.759 --> 00:39:12.815
I can't know the intricacies of cinematography, of costume design, you need to be able to trust.
00:39:12.869 --> 00:39:22.376
With writing now that I'm on the other side of it and I'm so obsessed with structure and character arcs and everything I'm like what, what, what?
00:39:22.376 --> 00:39:29.320
I can't believe that at 22 years old, arnold was sitting me down with million dollar writers going like Jason, read your script.
00:39:29.320 --> 00:39:39.547
He has some thoughts yeah and these million dollar writers are have to listen to me yeah, they do and then I'm a producer all of a sudden at 25, 26 years old.
00:39:39.628 --> 00:39:47.152
And now they really have to listen to me and I think back upon how little I knew about screenplay struck, even though I went to film school.
00:39:47.152 --> 00:40:06.179
I took classes, but until you're actually doing it for a living, day in and day out in the script, learning about scene structure, character structure, all those sort of things, I just I'm baffled right that I had any success early on, because how could I have had any good notes?
00:40:06.619 --> 00:40:07.621
he just saw.
00:40:07.963 --> 00:40:24.769
He saw it, he knew what was gonna happen so I implore producers and I bet all the good producers out there do do this, I would hope which is, try your best to read some screenplay books or try to really understand.
00:40:25.092 --> 00:40:34.277
Or take your best screenwriter friend out to dinner or something and ask all the questions you can about how they approach writing and all that stuff.
00:40:34.277 --> 00:40:56.706
God, it would just to be a good producer, which I think first and foremost is recognizing a good script, a good writer, but then holding their hand, he or she or group, and and like getting them to the finish line to get to the 80 percent to 100 percent, to where a studio is like, wow, this is a movie we would make.
00:40:57.150 --> 00:40:57.994
That's the difference.
00:40:57.994 --> 00:41:02.980
That's all the difference between success or never having your screenplay made.
00:41:02.980 --> 00:41:15.672
So that would be something I would tell a younger version of me or anyone wanting to be a good producer yeah, fantastic, you're working on something cool now oh, what can?
00:41:15.713 --> 00:41:17.536
you tell us anything?
00:41:18.277 --> 00:41:31.751
only I could only tell you what's was already publicized, which is uh, yeah, I um, I'm doing this movie called cola wars with steven spielberg and jed apatow and I can just say it's awesome.
00:41:31.751 --> 00:41:34.715
Um, it's a dream, it's.
00:41:34.715 --> 00:41:42.585
It's a movie that, uh, I would run and go see in two seconds if I saw a trailer and I wasn't involved.
00:41:42.585 --> 00:41:58.590
It's to me, the movie I hope I'll be remembered for, but I'm just trying to enjoy the process right now of writing it and working with my idols and just taking it one day at a time.
00:41:58.650 --> 00:42:12.836
But I do often pinch myself, uh, when I'm like because these two people are everything to me, yeah and they're brilliant and um the fact that I'm in this position, I again feel lucky.
00:42:12.836 --> 00:42:23.023
I feel like luck has sort of been a theme of this, this podcast, for me, but, um, a little bit of hard work was involved, but also, yeah, you worked your ass off.
00:42:23.043 --> 00:42:26.577
So it's very exciting you didn't get your summer with your girlfriend.
00:42:26.659 --> 00:42:26.838
I didn't.
00:42:26.838 --> 00:42:29.748
And then we broke up because that job was too demanding.
00:42:29.748 --> 00:42:31.556
You were too successful.
00:42:32.090 --> 00:42:38.226
It's so hard Will we ever see some direction?
00:42:38.768 --> 00:42:39.030
from you.
00:42:39.030 --> 00:42:40.476
I hope that will be next.
00:42:40.476 --> 00:42:45.001
I hope to learn as much as I can from Stephen and Judd.
00:42:45.001 --> 00:42:54.840
I think they know a thing or two about directing, and also Judd especially being a writer, and Stephen writes a lot, but he started as a director.
00:42:54.840 --> 00:43:01.056
Judd specifically started as a writer and transitioned into a director Judd specifically started as a writer and transitioned into a director and I feel ready.
00:43:01.056 --> 00:43:05.135
But like I've done my whole life, I want to do it right.
00:43:05.590 --> 00:43:13.077
I want to learn from the best and know that it's always about setting yourself up for success.
00:43:13.219 --> 00:43:14.001
Not failure.
00:43:14.001 --> 00:43:25.710
So that's what I hope to be doing Next year, and I do know you did just get a swimming pool, so you will get a summer soon right, yes, a lot of pool parties.
00:43:25.730 --> 00:43:29.637
I hope you'll come over we will, and hang in the pool you don't have to worry about that.
00:43:29.898 --> 00:43:30.742
Thank you for the invite.
00:43:30.742 --> 00:43:31.304
We'll be there.
00:43:31.485 --> 00:43:32.309
Great yeah, great.
00:43:32.610 --> 00:43:47.472
Thank you so much for listening jason schumann, everybody uh like and subscribe bye, thank you.