WEBVTT
00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:01.040
Nerdy.
00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:02.640
Nostalgic.
00:00:02.959 --> 00:00:04.480
Madly inappropriate.
00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:06.160
This is nerd hat.
00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:06.959
Nerd hat.
00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:08.080
I'm with late.
00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:10.640
Why am I a robot?
00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:14.240
It's good, man.
00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:15.439
Yeah, it's really good.
00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:18.399
We're we're finally winding down.
00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:23.519
I mean, we it was pretty much a mad dash after river run all the way through the end of the year.
00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:27.039
I mean, we had, you know, maybe two or three festivals every month.
00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:29.839
So it was a ton of travel.
00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:32.079
Got to go to a lot of cool places.
00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:37.280
But yeah, now we're on the on the tail end, you know, figuring out the distribution thing.
00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.320
So still like, you know, a lot of admin work that we're that we're digging through.
00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:46.000
Um man, it's been a r it was a super super fun year.
00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:49.119
Yeah, I noticed uh I've been trying to follow along, by the way.
00:00:55.359 --> 00:00:56.159
So check them out.
00:00:56.320 --> 00:00:59.359
And then I think the film does not have uh its own website, right?
00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:01.520
It's through yours, TJ Sandela.com.
00:01:01.759 --> 00:01:02.640
Yeah, you can get there.
00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:04.319
Uh it's Battersea Film.
00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:07.280
Okay, so it it forwards to Yeah, it's like a little redirect.
00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:07.599
Yeah, yeah.
00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:08.719
Nice, nice.
00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:17.840
So I've been trying to follow along, and I I noticed uh y'all had a couple of awards, like one in Minnesota and then another one recently up in Connecticut.
00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:19.280
How uh how was that?
00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:20.239
How was that experience?
00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:23.120
Yeah, I mean they ball been great, man.
00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:28.239
Uh so yeah, I mean after River Run, I don't know, we probably played another 20 some festivals.
00:01:28.319 --> 00:01:32.400
We had our international premiere in Galway, which is really cool.
00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:35.120
We got to go to we spent like a week in Ireland.
00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:40.319
Played at this really incredible uh incredible theater there.
00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:45.040
But yeah, I think we we've taken home like maybe eight or eight or nine awards.
00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:54.079
What's been cool about that, I think, has been um that they we've gotten um a bunch of different ones.
00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:57.680
You know, like we've gotten acting awards, we've gotten best best film.
00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:07.040
And then, you know, for Jad and I, you know, considering how long we spent on the script, the the best screenplays, we've won a couple of those and getting the that was the mystic, that was the mystic award.
00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:13.759
So those have been really that's that's been really nice to take home the best screenplay award considering how much time that we spent on it.
00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:23.840
Yeah, I think if I remember correctly you said about ten years total, like not literally ten years time, but like over the course of ten years just developing and coming back to it.
00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:29.520
This scre we there were really not many lols in in that decade.
00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:34.800
Like we were pretty diligently working on it that entire time, crashed it a handful of times.
00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:35.280
It's funny.
00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:39.439
I I just watched Blue Moon the other night, so I've been have you seen that one yet?
00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:48.240
It's a Link Later movie, you know, so like obviously even Link Later was a big influence on us, um, just like the dialogue-driven, talkie, talkie films that he does.
00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:52.159
So it's cool to see him kind of come back to it in a little while like that.
00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:57.199
But the guy that wrote the screenplay, I think it's his only screenplay credit.
00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:05.520
He's like a retired Rutgers professor, and he had been working on this, or no, he had one previous a long time ago that Link Later actually produced.
00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:07.520
Um, but it was like 20 years ago, I think.
00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:19.680
But yeah, he his story was that like I've been working on this script for a decade and you know finally got me, and they were they were doing all these like read-throughs with Ethan Hawk and Richard Link later at at Hawk's house.
00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:26.560
But it just reminded me that like because I watched that movie and I was just like, my God, this screenplay is so good.
00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:30.159
So it was a good reminder that like that is kind of what it takes, I think.
00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:33.280
Like you don't write a good screenplay in six months, you know.
00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:35.439
That'd be pretty rare, I imagine.
00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:36.400
I don't know.
00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:44.639
Maybe someone more talented than us, but like or some kind of ADHD hyperfocus fever dream or something where you just like crank it out.
00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:55.280
But I mean this thing like Blue Moon is just so layered and complex and aware of itself and polished, like the only thing you have to have time to get there, you know.
00:03:55.439 --> 00:04:02.319
So like as I'm starting to work on a new script now, too, it's like a it's a good reminder that like, you know, give yourself a little grace.
00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:04.800
It's slow, it's slow, painful work.
00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:07.520
Have you guys like you and Jed?
00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:12.479
I was trying to remember from last time, did you guys start your own production company together?
00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:14.879
You have like a LLC, that type of thing?
00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:15.840
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:18.480
We have uh house things on the business side, I guess.
00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:20.399
Oh god, terri terrible.
00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:24.720
You don't make an independent movie to to make money.
00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:26.879
We're you know, I don't know.
00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:34.800
We're like I said, we're close to getting um getting out on streaming platforms, so hopefully we'll root recoup uh uh a little bit there.
00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:37.519
Otherwise, you know, we're just playing the long game.
00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:52.800
The way that, you know, with an LLC for film, you know, we're just waiting on those tax write-offs once the once the film is like actually done and we've lost all our money and made all of our money and we can hopefully collect uh against all of our losses.
00:04:55.279 --> 00:05:02.480
But no, I mean, you know, that that really was we learned so much about making movies, and a lot of that was just really on the on the business side.
00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:06.319
So, you know, continue to make a lot a lot of mistakes.
00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:08.639
But uh but yeah, uh yeah.
00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:14.639
So the production company is called uh Glass Brothers, which is a Salinger, a Salinger reference.
00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:16.879
So we'll probably continue to carry that through.
00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:26.879
Have you all thought of like working on other people's projects in the interim just as a means of bringing an income, or is it more just a a home for future films of yours to live?
00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:27.439
Like I think.
00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:28.240
What do you all think of?
00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:36.480
I think we've thought about it, but I have a really t hard time like getting excited about I want to make my thing, you know?
00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:37.040
Yeah.
00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:42.079
And I don't think our goal ever was we don't even think about the business side.
00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:44.319
Like we're artists all the way through.
00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:56.879
The business is just incidental, which I wish we were better at it because like, you know, you work so hard on it and the b being good on the business side is so helpful as far as far as like, you know, marketing promotion and and getting eyes on your thing.
00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:03.199
But I think we've always just been the type that like if you hopefully if you make good art, the eyes will the eyes will come.
00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:11.279
So I mean the cool thing about the festival circuit has been just meeting a bunch of incredible people and like kindred kindred spirits.
00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:22.879
So we definitely have some like we've made some friends that like I think we'll work with in one capacity or another, whether it's on, you know, you know, I've had people ask me to like, you know, write a script for them.
00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:38.560
So I think uh I think we'll definitely partner with people down the line, even if it's just like, hey, we need some acting talent and we know X, Y, or Z from this festival who we really liked what they did, or we need some help on the cinematography side, and now we have this this DP connection.
00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:45.839
Yeah, we've made we've made some some really great connections, and I think we'll definitely partner with with some of those people.
00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:53.920
And that's really that's really exciting to me because, you know, uh some of those folks that we've met are like like I said, they're they are kindred spirits.
00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:57.600
They're they're like us, they're artists first, all they care about is the work.
00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:01.600
Um and it's it's exciting working with people like that, you know.
00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:02.560
That is cool.
00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:24.720
That is one of the things I really enjoyed about the festival experience last year of just having that communal experience of joining with other people, many of whom are probably also artists or filmmakers, I imagine, like they're at the festival just enjoying together the work of other people and just their their passion projects, their art for art's sake projects.
00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:25.920
That yeah, it was really cool.
00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:28.560
And then obviously getting to meet some of you as well.
00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:30.319
Really enjoyed that.
00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:40.480
Um It's cool to find people that are excited about their work because you know, the weird the weird thing about making a movie is like like you know, we worked on it for 10 years.
00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:52.240
You briefly form this community for the production and post-production, and then everyone else, you know, goes on and do does whatever their next thing is, and then you're sitting with your projects still.
00:07:52.399 --> 00:08:09.199
So you know, for for Jad and I now it's been like third focused on this one thing, and thank God we had all these other great people that came in and helped us with it, but they've all got to go on and do, you know, 15 other cool new and exciting things, and you know, we're kind of pushing the pushing the boulder up the hill.
00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:13.120
So has it mostly been you and Jed traveling together to the festivals?
00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:13.920
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:14.160
Yeah.
00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:19.439
We pretty much between us, really by large, we both got to go to almost everything.
00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:24.160
And then there were, you know, two or three that we you know divided and conquered.
00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:24.720
So yeah.
00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:27.040
Did you get to bring your spouses along to some of them?
00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:27.199
Yeah.
00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:29.439
Yeah, yeah.
00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:35.039
There if they weren't if they weren't sick of watching it before, they're definitely sick of watching it now.
00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:38.879
But uh, you know, every truly every screening is a is a new experience.
00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:48.000
You know, we had a we had a screening in Port Townsend at the Port Townsend Film Festival, which is everybody always asked me what my favorite festival was, and that's real high near the top of the list.
00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:50.080
Just like incredible community engagement.
00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:51.440
We had two screenings there.
00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:55.279
They were both sold out, like packed houses, really smart audiences.
00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:58.720
So yeah, every every screening is a little different.
00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:03.120
You get different questions, the audience response is different, you get laughs at different places.
00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:06.399
So you just you learn a lot getting to watch it in in different rooms.
00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:14.080
Well, one thing, in part because there was three of you on our last interview, I did not get a chance to ask you, I don't think, about your poetry.
00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:21.039
I noticed on your website that that is something that you like to do and that you've gotten published a few times as well, which is pretty awesome.
00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:25.679
You got some things in the works with that or no.
00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:28.960
Yeah, I mean that's what my that's what my background is in.
00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:30.320
Like that's what I got my master's in.
00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:33.039
It was in creative writing with a with a focus in poetry.
00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:42.639
Um and the book that I had published in in 2021 that was with Black Lawrence Press out of out of New York, great little indie press.
00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:47.120
But really a lot of the a lot of the subject matter in that book is in the movie.
00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:52.159
It's stuff that I was, you know, circling and stewing on and trying to suss out.
00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:58.799
Even after having written the book, I hadn't really processed some of that a lot of that stuff yet.
00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:01.279
You know, death of a parent, stuff with my family.
00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:06.080
So, you know, film gave it kind of a second life to explore some of those things.
00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:10.960
I mean, truly I have a there's there's a poem in that book that's basically the monologue from the film.
00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:14.639
Some of it is pulled like word for word.
00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:15.360
So it's cool.
00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:25.120
It was cool to give it a a second life, because like the only art that is maybe harder to socialize than indie film is poetry.
00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:29.440
Um so you know, I I love poetry.
00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:31.679
I I still read it, I still read a ton.
00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:44.320
I have a you know, a notes app in my phone that's just like 200 poem ideas that I want to write, but really the experience of making a film and the the communal aspect of it, and then just getting to go.
00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:48.080
I mean, more people have seen the film than have probably read my book, you know.
00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:52.159
So I mean it's just an easier art form to get in front of people.
00:10:52.320 --> 00:11:01.840
So really I a lot of the a lot of the ideas that I have for poems, I'm really just turning into putting in the in the next screenplay instead of instead of writing poems.
00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:08.960
And I mean, you know, like the first film is mostly people talking, telling stories, exploring metaphors.
00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:13.039
So I mean, it really is lyrical and poetic and in its elevated realism.
00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:15.679
That's what I intend to keep that's what I intend to keep doing.
00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:19.919
Well, we're coming up on our time here, but I wanted to ask one final question.
00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.320
Uh I'm gonna ask it all our guests this year.
00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:24.559
What's in your nerd hat currently?
00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:30.159
Like is there a movie, TV show, a book, a novel that just really has you excited currently?
00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:35.759
I know you mentioned Blue Moon earlier, but is there is there anything else it just you just really jazzed about?
00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:38.159
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:40.159
Let me pull up my my letterbox.
00:11:40.399 --> 00:11:41.279
Oh, there you go.
00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:47.360
No, I'll tell you, just because I've been on a a tirade about this ever since the Oscars.
00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:49.840
And hopefully people have heard of this film because it was up for an Oscar.
00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:58.879
But we we were really fortunate when we were we played at a festival in Fort Worth in the same theater directly it directly in the spot before Train Dreams.
00:11:59.039 --> 00:12:02.080
And I just thought that was the most beautiful.
00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:06.240
I mean, I was like teary-eyed in the first 10 minutes of that of that movie.
00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:16.320
Um I thought it was so poetic and cathartic and smart and unhurried, and I think it deserved way more at way more attention than it got.
00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:20.799
So beautiful film, it's on it's on Netflix, and I I absolutely adored it.
00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:21.039
Yeah.
00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:33.279
Was uh were any of the uh filmmakers there at the festival, like the directors or writers or no, they weren't there, but there were I think there were some people from the productions from the there were some producers there.
00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:34.000
Nice.
00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:36.480
And the story that is is it's a similar story.
00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:48.639
You know, even at a large scale, these indie stories are all the same, where it was like Edgerton had gotten the rights to that film like long, long time ago and just been trying to hustle and hustle to get it made.
00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:55.200
It's really a it's really a cool story, and then you know, obviously they they finally did it and it is just yeah, it's it's a beautiful film.
00:12:55.279 --> 00:13:00.960
And it's based, it's uh based on a novella by Dennis Johnson, so who's a um a great writer.
00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:04.799
But yeah, man, uh beautiful, beautiful movie.
00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:05.279
Nice.
00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:07.919
So Train Dreams and Blue Moon as well.
00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:13.200
Yeah, those are those are my two are my from this year for sure.
00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:13.840
Awesome.
00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:19.840
Well, DJ, thanks for popping on for a few minutes to just give us an update on life and career and all of that.
00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:29.360
Yeah, I hope everything works out well with the distribution for Batter C uh definitely deserves to be seen by by I think more than just the festival circuit.
00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:33.840
You know, as amazing as the festival circuit is, I would love for even more people to get access to it.
00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:36.399
So I hope that it all works out well for you guys.
00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:39.600
And good luck on on your future projects, right?
00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:41.519
Yeah, I appreciate it.
00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:43.039
I appreciate you getting the word out.
00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:45.279
And yeah, everybody keep your eyes peeled.
00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:48.559
I think we'll be streaming here in the next hopefully month or two.
00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:49.279
Nice.
00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:51.200
I'll keep keep an eye out for it.
00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:52.000
All right.
00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:01.040
Nerdy.
00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:02.640
Nostalgic.
00:00:02.959 --> 00:00:04.480
Madly inappropriate.
00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:06.160
This is nerd hat.
00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:06.959
Nerd hat.
00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:08.080
I'm with late.
00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:10.640
Why am I a robot?
00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:14.240
It's good, man.
00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:15.439
Yeah, it's really good.
00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:18.399
We're we're finally winding down.
00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:23.519
I mean, we it was pretty much a mad dash after river run all the way through the end of the year.
00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:27.039
I mean, we had, you know, maybe two or three festivals every month.
00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:29.839
So it was a ton of travel.
00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:32.079
Got to go to a lot of cool places.
00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:37.280
But yeah, now we're on the on the tail end, you know, figuring out the distribution thing.
00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.320
So still like, you know, a lot of admin work that we're that we're digging through.
00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:46.000
Um man, it's been a r it was a super super fun year.
00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:49.119
Yeah, I noticed uh I've been trying to follow along, by the way.
00:00:55.359 --> 00:00:56.159
So check them out.
00:00:56.320 --> 00:00:59.359
And then I think the film does not have uh its own website, right?
00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:01.520
It's through yours, TJ Sandela.com.
00:01:01.759 --> 00:01:02.640
Yeah, you can get there.
00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:04.319
Uh it's Battersea Film.
00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:07.280
Okay, so it it forwards to Yeah, it's like a little redirect.
00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:07.599
Yeah, yeah.
00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:08.719
Nice, nice.
00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:17.840
So I've been trying to follow along, and I I noticed uh y'all had a couple of awards, like one in Minnesota and then another one recently up in Connecticut.
00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:19.280
How uh how was that?
00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:20.239
How was that experience?
00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:23.120
Yeah, I mean they ball been great, man.
00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:28.239
Uh so yeah, I mean after River Run, I don't know, we probably played another 20 some festivals.
00:01:28.319 --> 00:01:32.400
We had our international premiere in Galway, which is really cool.
00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:35.120
We got to go to we spent like a week in Ireland.
00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:40.319
Played at this really incredible uh incredible theater there.
00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:45.040
But yeah, I think we we've taken home like maybe eight or eight or nine awards.
00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:54.079
What's been cool about that, I think, has been um that they we've gotten um a bunch of different ones.
00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:57.680
You know, like we've gotten acting awards, we've gotten best best film.
00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:07.040
And then, you know, for Jad and I, you know, considering how long we spent on the script, the the best screenplays, we've won a couple of those and getting the that was the mystic, that was the mystic award.
00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:13.759
So those have been really that's that's been really nice to take home the best screenplay award considering how much time that we spent on it.
00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:23.840
Yeah, I think if I remember correctly you said about ten years total, like not literally ten years time, but like over the course of ten years just developing and coming back to it.
00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:29.520
This scre we there were really not many lols in in that decade.
00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:34.800
Like we were pretty diligently working on it that entire time, crashed it a handful of times.
00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:35.280
It's funny.
00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:39.439
I I just watched Blue Moon the other night, so I've been have you seen that one yet?
00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:48.240
It's a Link Later movie, you know, so like obviously even Link Later was a big influence on us, um, just like the dialogue-driven, talkie, talkie films that he does.
00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:52.159
So it's cool to see him kind of come back to it in a little while like that.
00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:57.199
But the guy that wrote the screenplay, I think it's his only screenplay credit.
00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:05.520
He's like a retired Rutgers professor, and he had been working on this, or no, he had one previous a long time ago that Link Later actually produced.
00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:07.520
Um, but it was like 20 years ago, I think.
00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:19.680
But yeah, he his story was that like I've been working on this script for a decade and you know finally got me, and they were they were doing all these like read-throughs with Ethan Hawk and Richard Link later at at Hawk's house.
00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:26.560
But it just reminded me that like because I watched that movie and I was just like, my God, this screenplay is so good.
00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:30.159
So it was a good reminder that like that is kind of what it takes, I think.
00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:33.280
Like you don't write a good screenplay in six months, you know.
00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:35.439
That'd be pretty rare, I imagine.
00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:36.400
I don't know.
00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:44.639
Maybe someone more talented than us, but like or some kind of ADHD hyperfocus fever dream or something where you just like crank it out.
00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:55.280
But I mean this thing like Blue Moon is just so layered and complex and aware of itself and polished, like the only thing you have to have time to get there, you know.
00:03:55.439 --> 00:04:02.319
So like as I'm starting to work on a new script now, too, it's like a it's a good reminder that like, you know, give yourself a little grace.
00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:04.800
It's slow, it's slow, painful work.
00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:07.520
Have you guys like you and Jed?
00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:12.479
I was trying to remember from last time, did you guys start your own production company together?
00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:14.879
You have like a LLC, that type of thing?
00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:15.840
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:18.480
We have uh house things on the business side, I guess.
00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:20.399
Oh god, terri terrible.
00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:24.720
You don't make an independent movie to to make money.
00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:26.879
We're you know, I don't know.
00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:34.800
We're like I said, we're close to getting um getting out on streaming platforms, so hopefully we'll root recoup uh uh a little bit there.
00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:37.519
Otherwise, you know, we're just playing the long game.
00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:52.800
The way that, you know, with an LLC for film, you know, we're just waiting on those tax write-offs once the once the film is like actually done and we've lost all our money and made all of our money and we can hopefully collect uh against all of our losses.
00:04:55.279 --> 00:05:02.480
But no, I mean, you know, that that really was we learned so much about making movies, and a lot of that was just really on the on the business side.
00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:06.319
So, you know, continue to make a lot a lot of mistakes.
00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:08.639
But uh but yeah, uh yeah.
00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:14.639
So the production company is called uh Glass Brothers, which is a Salinger, a Salinger reference.
00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:16.879
So we'll probably continue to carry that through.
00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:26.879
Have you all thought of like working on other people's projects in the interim just as a means of bringing an income, or is it more just a a home for future films of yours to live?
00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:27.439
Like I think.
00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:28.240
What do you all think of?
00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:36.480
I think we've thought about it, but I have a really t hard time like getting excited about I want to make my thing, you know?
00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:37.040
Yeah.
00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:42.079
And I don't think our goal ever was we don't even think about the business side.
00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:44.319
Like we're artists all the way through.
00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:56.879
The business is just incidental, which I wish we were better at it because like, you know, you work so hard on it and the b being good on the business side is so helpful as far as far as like, you know, marketing promotion and and getting eyes on your thing.
00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:03.199
But I think we've always just been the type that like if you hopefully if you make good art, the eyes will the eyes will come.
00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:11.279
So I mean the cool thing about the festival circuit has been just meeting a bunch of incredible people and like kindred kindred spirits.
00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:22.879
So we definitely have some like we've made some friends that like I think we'll work with in one capacity or another, whether it's on, you know, you know, I've had people ask me to like, you know, write a script for them.
00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:38.560
So I think uh I think we'll definitely partner with people down the line, even if it's just like, hey, we need some acting talent and we know X, Y, or Z from this festival who we really liked what they did, or we need some help on the cinematography side, and now we have this this DP connection.
00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:45.839
Yeah, we've made we've made some some really great connections, and I think we'll definitely partner with with some of those people.
00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:53.920
And that's really that's really exciting to me because, you know, uh some of those folks that we've met are like like I said, they're they are kindred spirits.
00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:57.600
They're they're like us, they're artists first, all they care about is the work.
00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:01.600
Um and it's it's exciting working with people like that, you know.
00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:02.560
That is cool.
00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:24.720
That is one of the things I really enjoyed about the festival experience last year of just having that communal experience of joining with other people, many of whom are probably also artists or filmmakers, I imagine, like they're at the festival just enjoying together the work of other people and just their their passion projects, their art for art's sake projects.
00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:25.920
That yeah, it was really cool.
00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:28.560
And then obviously getting to meet some of you as well.
00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:30.319
Really enjoyed that.
00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:40.480
Um It's cool to find people that are excited about their work because you know, the weird the weird thing about making a movie is like like you know, we worked on it for 10 years.
00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:52.240
You briefly form this community for the production and post-production, and then everyone else, you know, goes on and do does whatever their next thing is, and then you're sitting with your projects still.
00:07:52.399 --> 00:08:09.199
So you know, for for Jad and I now it's been like third focused on this one thing, and thank God we had all these other great people that came in and helped us with it, but they've all got to go on and do, you know, 15 other cool new and exciting things, and you know, we're kind of pushing the pushing the boulder up the hill.
00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:13.120
So has it mostly been you and Jed traveling together to the festivals?
00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:13.920
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:14.160
Yeah.
00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:19.439
We pretty much between us, really by large, we both got to go to almost everything.
00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:24.160
And then there were, you know, two or three that we you know divided and conquered.
00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:24.720
So yeah.
00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:27.040
Did you get to bring your spouses along to some of them?
00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:27.199
Yeah.
00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:29.439
Yeah, yeah.
00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:35.039
There if they weren't if they weren't sick of watching it before, they're definitely sick of watching it now.
00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:38.879
But uh, you know, every truly every screening is a is a new experience.
00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:48.000
You know, we had a we had a screening in Port Townsend at the Port Townsend Film Festival, which is everybody always asked me what my favorite festival was, and that's real high near the top of the list.
00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:50.080
Just like incredible community engagement.
00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:51.440
We had two screenings there.
00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:55.279
They were both sold out, like packed houses, really smart audiences.
00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:58.720
So yeah, every every screening is a little different.
00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:03.120
You get different questions, the audience response is different, you get laughs at different places.
00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:06.399
So you just you learn a lot getting to watch it in in different rooms.
00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:14.080
Well, one thing, in part because there was three of you on our last interview, I did not get a chance to ask you, I don't think, about your poetry.
00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:21.039
I noticed on your website that that is something that you like to do and that you've gotten published a few times as well, which is pretty awesome.
00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:25.679
You got some things in the works with that or no.
00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:28.960
Yeah, I mean that's what my that's what my background is in.
00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:30.320
Like that's what I got my master's in.
00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:33.039
It was in creative writing with a with a focus in poetry.
00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:42.639
Um and the book that I had published in in 2021 that was with Black Lawrence Press out of out of New York, great little indie press.
00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:47.120
But really a lot of the a lot of the subject matter in that book is in the movie.
00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:52.159
It's stuff that I was, you know, circling and stewing on and trying to suss out.
00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:58.799
Even after having written the book, I hadn't really processed some of that a lot of that stuff yet.
00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:01.279
You know, death of a parent, stuff with my family.
00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:06.080
So, you know, film gave it kind of a second life to explore some of those things.
00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:10.960
I mean, truly I have a there's there's a poem in that book that's basically the monologue from the film.
00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:14.639
Some of it is pulled like word for word.
00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:15.360
So it's cool.
00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:25.120
It was cool to give it a a second life, because like the only art that is maybe harder to socialize than indie film is poetry.
00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:29.440
Um so you know, I I love poetry.
00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:31.679
I I still read it, I still read a ton.
00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:44.320
I have a you know, a notes app in my phone that's just like 200 poem ideas that I want to write, but really the experience of making a film and the the communal aspect of it, and then just getting to go.
00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:48.080
I mean, more people have seen the film than have probably read my book, you know.
00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:52.159
So I mean it's just an easier art form to get in front of people.
00:10:52.320 --> 00:11:01.840
So really I a lot of the a lot of the ideas that I have for poems, I'm really just turning into putting in the in the next screenplay instead of instead of writing poems.
00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:08.960
And I mean, you know, like the first film is mostly people talking, telling stories, exploring metaphors.
00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:13.039
So I mean, it really is lyrical and poetic and in its elevated realism.
00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:15.679
That's what I intend to keep that's what I intend to keep doing.
00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:19.919
Well, we're coming up on our time here, but I wanted to ask one final question.
00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.320
Uh I'm gonna ask it all our guests this year.
00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:24.559
What's in your nerd hat currently?
00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:30.159
Like is there a movie, TV show, a book, a novel that just really has you excited currently?
00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:35.759
I know you mentioned Blue Moon earlier, but is there is there anything else it just you just really jazzed about?
00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:38.159
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:40.159
Let me pull up my my letterbox.
00:11:40.399 --> 00:11:41.279
Oh, there you go.
00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:47.360
No, I'll tell you, just because I've been on a a tirade about this ever since the Oscars.
00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:49.840
And hopefully people have heard of this film because it was up for an Oscar.
00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:58.879
But we we were really fortunate when we were we played at a festival in Fort Worth in the same theater directly it directly in the spot before Train Dreams.
00:11:59.039 --> 00:12:02.080
And I just thought that was the most beautiful.
00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:06.240
I mean, I was like teary-eyed in the first 10 minutes of that of that movie.
00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:16.320
Um I thought it was so poetic and cathartic and smart and unhurried, and I think it deserved way more at way more attention than it got.
00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:20.799
So beautiful film, it's on it's on Netflix, and I I absolutely adored it.
00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:21.039
Yeah.
00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:33.279
Was uh were any of the uh filmmakers there at the festival, like the directors or writers or no, they weren't there, but there were I think there were some people from the productions from the there were some producers there.
00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:34.000
Nice.
00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:36.480
And the story that is is it's a similar story.
00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:48.639
You know, even at a large scale, these indie stories are all the same, where it was like Edgerton had gotten the rights to that film like long, long time ago and just been trying to hustle and hustle to get it made.
00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:55.200
It's really a it's really a cool story, and then you know, obviously they they finally did it and it is just yeah, it's it's a beautiful film.
00:12:55.279 --> 00:13:00.960
And it's based, it's uh based on a novella by Dennis Johnson, so who's a um a great writer.
00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:04.799
But yeah, man, uh beautiful, beautiful movie.
00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:05.279
Nice.
00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:07.919
So Train Dreams and Blue Moon as well.
00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:13.200
Yeah, those are those are my two are my from this year for sure.
00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:13.840
Awesome.
00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:19.840
Well, DJ, thanks for popping on for a few minutes to just give us an update on life and career and all of that.
00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:29.360
Yeah, I hope everything works out well with the distribution for Batter C uh definitely deserves to be seen by by I think more than just the festival circuit.
00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:33.840
You know, as amazing as the festival circuit is, I would love for even more people to get access to it.
00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:36.399
So I hope that it all works out well for you guys.
00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:39.600
And good luck on on your future projects, right?
00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:41.519
Yeah, I appreciate it.
00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:43.039
I appreciate you getting the word out.
00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:45.279
And yeah, everybody keep your eyes peeled.
00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:48.559
I think we'll be streaming here in the next hopefully month or two.
00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:49.279
Nice.
00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:51.200
I'll keep keep an eye out for it.
00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:52.000
All right.