[SPEAKER_01]: Michael Mera, Radio Entertainment.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can listen to the Michael Mera Show at MichaelMeraShow.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, what a happy year.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a podcast.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I want to excitement.
[SPEAKER_03]: We have today.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the Michael Mera Show with Michael Mera and Rob Spuac.
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, here's my, and welcome everybody to a special episode of the Michael Marit Show as we are all here along with director Dylan Narang who directed the movie Tap a Wingo now.
[SPEAKER_04]: We've talked about the movie in the past.
[SPEAKER_04]: We know someone who's in the movie, but we've had a chance to see the movie.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we have our voice.
[SPEAKER_05]: We know someone and I am so jealous.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes indeed.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, one at this, I mean, Chad's not only is Chad younger than I am, but Chad.
[SPEAKER_05]: I, Chad doesn't know this.
[SPEAKER_05]: You guys might know this.
[SPEAKER_05]: You might know this.
[SPEAKER_05]: Chad dukes, of course.
[SPEAKER_05]: Chad dukes of, you know, of the Chad dukes, experience, wonders, the convenience store, whatever he's got.
[SPEAKER_05]: All the stuff he's got.
[SPEAKER_05]: He's been on the show.
[SPEAKER_05]: Biggown dukes show back in the day on the same radio station I was on, but my bucket list
[SPEAKER_05]: uh... anyway chab was fantastic and it by the way the uh... movie tap a window and the director dillon naring is uh... nirang is with us right now and dillon
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know where to start, because I have never, I've gotten a lot of screeners in my day, but I've never had a screener where I watched it right up until maybe a minute and a half before I came in that we just delayed the recordings so you can finish it up.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I really, it confused me because I don't know where to begin and I don't want to give a spoilers and I want to make sure, let me just say that
[SPEAKER_05]: I would describe my experience of watching this film, like watching something you would see on the side of the highway that you just can't, but no, because no, it's not a carac is the bad thing to say, what it is is like something you can't stop.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's almost like a guilty pleasure, and that is, and it builds
[SPEAKER_05]: and it's a comedy, and it's got an amazing cast, a use of the cast that is just, I can't define it, you're gonna get a lot of people's talking about Napoleon Dynamite, and this is the star.
[SPEAKER_02]: And this script, you want to know and while you're watching it, you know, this is gonna be even funnier the second time and third time through.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's got it's got some moments in it.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's got you know as far as and I am not blowing smokers far as directing goes Dylan.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, it is obvious to me you worked your ass off on this film because I don't know how many different shots I looked at from a film major's perspective, but boy, you look at the movie something to be whole.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_05]: How would you describe it?
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm going to put it on you.
[SPEAKER_05]: How would you describe the whole thing?
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, look first.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you guys for having me.
[SPEAKER_00]: My thanks for having me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a very, very kind word to troll us in.
[SPEAKER_00]: How would I describe it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think, I think
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to make a movie like the kind of movies I like to watch and that I can put on repeat all the time and I was gravitate to, you know, there's something we said for oldy awardsy stuff and dramatic stuff, that stuff's all great, but, you know, I got enough that stuff going on in my life, like, I want to throw on a movie that I'm like, it's fun, it's quotable, it's in the background, or it's an odds, or all those kinds of things, it just feels like something that you would want to watch over and over,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not valid to really- Yeah, I think also it feels like if I could throw in anything, any of those themes of like, for me, it's supposed to feel like, I know we're all pretty removed from it, but when you left high school and left college or wherever, it was that last bit of, you don't really have a responsibility, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're kind of free for a little bit, you have that kind of feeling of, and you're looking at this big exciting adventure you're about to start.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever that is, and it's that moment right before that happens where you're so excited and so looking forward to it But it's also a little bittersweet because of what you're leaving behind If you can wrap your head around that and it happens at other times in life, too, but I wanted to Invoke that in a movie which I was hoping made its way in that was that was kind of what I was trying to do in terms of Given some feeling and giving it to something that we can all kind of Grass one too, but also be fun
[SPEAKER_04]: and funny and you know all those things you know it really does it is silly it does capture that move and I have to ask two questions first off is it on purpose said in the past or does it just evoke the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is on purpose in the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought, um, you know, like there's a practical reasons why you would shoot whatever you're shooting.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole reason to shoot it is not to get away from cell phones.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I didn't say let's do the 70s so we don't have cell phones.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that is one of those things that the time period of when this movie feels like it could work felt like it would be.
[SPEAKER_00]: at a time in the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: For me, it's always been in the mid-70s, maybe late 70s.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard other people attack me that it's the 82 or 83, and I'm like, okay, okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the right time frame where you don't have technology that's how outdated to distract you.
[SPEAKER_05]: And it all runs together when you're my age because you look at that and you say to yourself, 70s, it could be the 80s, it could be the 90s, I think that
[SPEAKER_05]: the giveaway, of course, the princess found the ultimate star of everything that one is, but it's fun.
[SPEAKER_04]: Another thing about a voking that era, and I don't know if it was just me, I was struck from the first frame by the color of the movie.
[SPEAKER_04]: It is almost
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't want to say surreal, but over the top color, and sometimes when you think back on that era and that moment in your life, you're imagining it, the way you remember it, not the way it was.
[SPEAKER_04]: Understand?
[SPEAKER_04]: I think you go on purpose with the color really intense like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I did.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think any time you're looking back at Fonda Memories or that, usually the color is a little brighter or whatever, but for me, and so that is a given foundational statement.
[SPEAKER_00]: But also, I think, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: The kind of films that I respond to, whether it's a comedy or not, do have the colors pumped a little bit, do feel a little warmer and a little bit more inviting and all those kinds of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think for a comedy, some people ask me at times, why did you shoot it this way?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is it center bunch?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you have whip hands or or zooms and all this stuff?
[SPEAKER_00]: One, because that's stuff's really fun.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, the cinematography in the movie is fun and you get that right away.
[SPEAKER_05]: I would imagine when you're talking about this film that you would immediately be baraged with the questions about Napoleon Dynamite and the comparisons to that.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, you had to be aware that that was going to be coming when you made this movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did, and I kind of like threw it out because, look, I think,
[SPEAKER_00]: One, that kind of style works for me for comedies, especially I think a lot of comedies could work better with that and some from trying some and doing it with their big studios and they want everything in the basic style of filmmaking like a, you know, the master shot and then one or or overs over mediums closer like that's what they do and maybe an insert.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the basic concept for me doing center punch and whips and all that stuff just feels more fun and feels like it works for comedy so that's one of the reasons I also saw I also see movies like that a lot where I'm like this could work better or this is how I want to make this movie but let's not fool ourselves you're making like
[SPEAKER_00]: a horror movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: It might not work as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure, but anyway, as far as Napoleon and all that stuff goes, you're always going to have a reference of what you're doing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: No one's a no one, I don't know anyone who's just like, this is random stuff coming from my brain that no one, it's just, I had references in my references were Napoleon,
[SPEAKER_00]: is it up?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh man, this can be so bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a naked gun, top secrets, airplane.
[SPEAKER_04]: Is that the Abraham's and Zucker?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the Zucker Brothers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I was all of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And other comedies that we've seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not just just Napoleon Dynamite.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's all of that stuff uses as the same kind of storytelling and filmmaking of center punch, whips, zooms.
[SPEAKER_00]: They all kind of do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the 70s, this was the filmmaking.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is how you made movies with these tools.
[SPEAKER_00]: of Center Punch with Zoom.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm setting in in the 70s.
[SPEAKER_00]: It felt like it made sense on top of being a comedy, on top of pumping the primary color.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm sure we're going to get comparisons.
[SPEAKER_00]: The other one is just because we have John.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who is amazing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He is such a good actor and underrated, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He still works, but he's so underrated because he's so good.
[SPEAKER_00]: So good to have on set, good attitude, really talented.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, when we started, uh, when, so I should tell you the story at some point if you're interested, but the script is like, was written in 2009 by Brad DeMaria, and it came to my company in like 2011, the first company I started after, after film school, and, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: the interns loved it, and I didn't, I was like, I don't, I, this like, he had a little real that he was going to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted to direct it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I guess, you know, the interns loved it, and it just didn't, it didn't connect with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I kept trying and trying and trying, you know, 10 pages, 20 pages.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it just didn't work for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think one that was also because I was looking at a perspective of a director, I went to school for directing, but that job was your producing, which is a little different, because you can only see it as it needs to be this way for it to work, not whatever this is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so every couple of years, I would keep checking on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every three or four years, I'd call the agent for whoever was, what's going on with this script.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remembered my interns really liked it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to do something to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: and after three to four attempts of that and 10 years, I found and said, what the crap am I doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: The dudes, emails on here, Brad's emails on the script, I'll just email.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was very lucky, very syrup-titious, not made up, whatever we wanna call it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I emailed him, he said, I can't believe you emailed me.
[SPEAKER_00]: The job, the email is for a job.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm leaving today, I've just taken a job at the University of Virginia, my family moves Sunday.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a Friday.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is, I can't believe you want to do anything with this, feel free, do whatever you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like that, and he was moving to Virginia.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm from Virginia.
[SPEAKER_00]: I went to University of Virginia.
[SPEAKER_00]: My daughter was at University of Virginia at the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then it became, I'm visiting her, dropping her off for school, and then we can talk.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was pretty quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, hey, do you mind if I rewrite some of it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like, yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Where's the movie shot most of it more the outdoor scenes new Richmond you're rich it was As far as the the other thing that jumps out at me is the casting of the of the movie is mind numbing of course I'm fascinated with fellow podcaster chat dukes and his involvement in how he got involved in
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think Josh, you had mentioned last week on the show that, you know, when you're watching it and you produce and consult for Chad and have known him for a long time, you're not looking at Chad and it's just it's amazing.
[SPEAKER_05]: And the moment I I love is the first time you see Chad with with Billy Zane, who is.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, silent and phenomenal, just because he's got the gravitas that he brings to everything he does.
[SPEAKER_05]: The casting, can you talk a little bit about what, when into that, how it came about, because the casting has, it mentions some of the actors that have, because there's so many actors from TV.
[SPEAKER_05]: My number is Tom Rohn.
[SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, everyone's like, go back to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, that's a very, really good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they're all really good.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're all really Chad Duke's amazing in the movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, he's just so, so, so, so good, like, and embodies that character, the casting.
[SPEAKER_00]: The casting, Mike, when Brad first was trying to make it on his own his director, he had Martin, Martin Star, I think he had Martin Star attached, and the kids were younger, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They were like in their 20s.
[SPEAKER_00]: The nickname was in his 20s, early 20s.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was one of the changes I made.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you know, it had been 10 years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was also like, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: This doesn't feel like it makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: If he's 21, 23, 24, and he's living in his mom's.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not great, but it's like, okay, I mean, I feel like that happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now if he's mid 30s, what are you doing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think there was some of that that needed to be different and there was a part at the end that we should talk at some point, we'll talk about that needed to be different.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there was stuff all around and he had Martin Star.
[SPEAKER_00]: Martin Star was no longer with it when I finally got to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we started looking around me in my casting director Alan Cooper, who's very, very good.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we were batting around names, trying to figure it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the back of our mind, was I was John, but we thought you're never going to get John.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's similar to Napoleon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you're not going to get Napoleon, you know, Napoleon to play Napoleon.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't imagine that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we went through, we had at least one really good actor attached, but
[SPEAKER_00]: I've made enough for these to know how much time I need to make a good movie if you don't have enough time.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't get all those shots.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very bare bones and very quick and I know I map out everything when I make a movie like shot to shot, edit to edit.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I need this shot.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to cut to this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to cut like I do that whole bit because an indie film you don't you can't just shoot.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm you miles of everything and hope it works out like you have to figure out exactly what your bits are for the possible
[SPEAKER_00]: And that first actor just wanted to give us like 18 days, and I knew I needed more than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we just said, hey, why don't we just try, let's just try for John and see what happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it didn't take long.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was like, yeah, this looks great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because we had John, that made it, we got
[SPEAKER_00]: We ended up getting Billy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a really good story about Billy that I can't tell you until after.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I know that's terrible, but I will tell you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a good one.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got Billy because we had John, because they were working on waltzing with Brando together.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was hadn't shot.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were just planning on doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they had talked a little bit here and there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was COVID.
[SPEAKER_00]: So everything was getting pushed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they didn't know when they were going to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's why we got Billy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Billy was like, oh, you have John.
[SPEAKER_00]: OK, well, I won John for my movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll come on, Gina came on because we had John most of these, most of these, most of the, Yeah, about Gina, you know, you're Sean.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, you're also in the movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: Most of the actors came on because of John.
[SPEAKER_00]: They all wanted to work with John.
[SPEAKER_05]: Let me just mention we're talking to Dylan the director of a brand new movie that I hope everybody gets to see it's called tapoingo and it's a it's a real romp it's a fantastically funny comedy and and
[SPEAKER_05]: a romance.
[SPEAKER_05]: I have to say that as well.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I, you know, even though I hope I don't come across as that much of a dirty old man when I say I was a bit smitten by the lead female character, Gretchen is her character's name, but go ahead, Robin.
[SPEAKER_05]: I was a German December second.
[SPEAKER_05]: December second.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was also smitten by John Heeder, which is why I want to ask this question.
[SPEAKER_05]: For the common mention, the character, too.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, his name is Nate Skug.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yep, Nate Skug.
[SPEAKER_04]: The character of Nate Skug, for a comedy, this has got such marvelous pacing all the way through it.
[SPEAKER_04]: It doesn't feel rushed, and when there is a laugh, there is a good, good pause for it.
[SPEAKER_04]: The timing is just right.
[SPEAKER_04]: But so many of the laughs are just watching Nate Scoog's face react and he takes his time on the reaction.
[SPEAKER_05]: He's done.
[SPEAKER_05]: So did you really have to wait?
[SPEAKER_05]: Even when he's, when he, you'll just get a little shake in the head, which is kind of fun.
[SPEAKER_05]: I like the movie.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I really did.
[SPEAKER_05]: I, I'm sitting here fresh off of it and I'm still formulaing an opinion on it.
[SPEAKER_05]: It builds, but go ahead Rob, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, you do a shot and his entire shot is maybe three.
[SPEAKER_04]: expressions that dissolve into another and it tells an entire story.
[SPEAKER_04]: As director is it fun to watch him work with that or did you have to hold his hand?
[SPEAKER_04]: Did you see I'd I when the pacing of his character because it's almost addictive his silence in the movie is so great.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's it's an interesting question because I don't want to I don't want to offend John John is a really really good actor like I said he's amazing he can do it you stick him out there
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to get it done.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the difference between one of the differences, at least for me, with John and maybe another actor, is he was also very receptive to, hey, man, I kind of wanted this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, can we do it this way?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you kind of do that a couple of times.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, hey, Dylan, just tell me how you mind going, want me to say it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, all right, it needs to be like, that's the way I play it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That his read on it was, that's the way I play it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the way I play it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, I want you to put emphasis here for it to with this way or on the part where Oswald says, don't tell the, don't tell Gretchen I'm paying you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: She doesn't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does it matter if she knows or not?
[SPEAKER_00]: She's tar water sister dummy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we swing around and John's eyes are like really wide.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had to do that a couple of times to say, I want you to make them wider than you've ever made them in your entire life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a little bit of that, but he's really good at it.
[SPEAKER_00]: taking those kinds of directions.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's actors that would really be upset over a line read or you kind of performing something out in front of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there were some of that and there's some that he's John.
[SPEAKER_00]: He like he gets it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gets it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's again a really good attitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's easy to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to get through it.
[SPEAKER_05]: How much, when you're working, you always hear, I often hear interviews with directors that refer to their style of directing.
[SPEAKER_05]: You hear actors talk about it as well.
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you somebody that gives notes continually?
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you somebody that lets it happen?
[SPEAKER_05]: Would you have a particular style that you emulate when you're directing?
[SPEAKER_05]: What do you do as a director?
[SPEAKER_00]: really interesting question.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, I think, I'm going to try to break it down, but I may not even get to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the first thing is you have to let the actor have a take.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you try to, you know, they have an idea of what the scene's about, and then we go try to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're already noting them before they even start to take,
[SPEAKER_00]: it's going to be a mess you have to at least see something so you can say all right where do we want it to go from here you can give a little bit more guidance at the beginning of what the scenes about or maybe with the blocking is but I think for me if you're just starting in with notes you're going to screw everyone up I'm going to screw everyone up let's let them have a shot and then we can do it as far as um emulating a style I mean
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hard to say, you know, because I'm in the military, Mike, and, you know, I've been in leadership roles, and I have found, and this isn't just for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have found when you're screaming and yelling at everyone, you're going to get less that done than when you're being supportive and providing like, you know, a guidance and an old eye kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, Mike.
[SPEAKER_05]: How about, yeah, Colonel, why don't you refer him by his, you know, we're not dealing with any small potatoes here either.
[SPEAKER_04]: There's just the real deal.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, we could do 10 hours on this interview when Josh lays on me, siops, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: It's the, you know, it's a very awesome.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I think we're dealing with Dylan here might be just a little bit of an over achiever.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, you know, you know, not in a kernel in the military, then you're a director, you know, but outside of one casting error in the movie, I mean, pretty good stuff, you know?
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sorry, did that slip out?
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm terrible.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry, did that slip out?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm terrible.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you're just going to, I try to keep my sets as much as you can, like, you know, a good vibe, moving forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone's feeling kind of a part of the team and and a friend lead for old and sets of purposes It doesn't always work.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think mostly that works.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes you do have to like dig into someone unfortunately But so I know a style I emulate Are you a director that rehearses a lot before you shoot?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think we ever have time, I don't think we ever have time, I think, especially indie film.
[SPEAKER_00]: You hear about all this rehearsal, all the rehearsals and rehearsal time and all this stuff that people do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think those directors that you're talking about, I don't even know if it's crazy does anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you're talking about massive studio directors that have all kinds of time for that actor to come for two months, or there's it's fight heavy and they're like, let's spend a month doing this kind of fight choreography.
[SPEAKER_00]: I tried as much as I could, but Billy's aim, we had him for five days, that's huge stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, that's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we were fighting rain and rich men for that whole exterior scene that we have.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, it's like, you got what are you going to do now, John?
[SPEAKER_00]: John was very cool about, like he came into town, he was there going to be there the weekend before he started shooting.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, hey, do you want to go up to the park?
[SPEAKER_00]: I just figured out what the fight choreography is going to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I had to map it out in my head and I wrote it all down.
[SPEAKER_05]: Sorry, I'm laughing when you're talking about the fake hurry.
[SPEAKER_05]: I can't even get saying that seriously.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's so down.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's funny right there.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: It looks like real life.
[SPEAKER_04]: It looks like a real fight.
[SPEAKER_05]: Not something you mean it looks like a real life fight.
[SPEAKER_05]: Have you ever been in a real life fight?
[SPEAKER_05]: What the fuck are you talking about?
[SPEAKER_04]: First of all, language.
[SPEAKER_04]: All right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Second of all, like when in high school, I've never been in a fight because I'm so lucky.
[SPEAKER_04]: That is obviously a lot of crap.
[SPEAKER_04]: But yeah, in high school, when this is going to be a fight after school, going to be a fight after school, and you don't, and any fight, you don't do, you know, ninja, what you're talking about, yeah, it's some of the missed shots and stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, I'm going to say this, and this is not a spoiler, but the chat dukes frontal attack on John to me is the most credible, because I know a lot of fights that end like that.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's like that.
[SPEAKER_04]: You see my credible, it is credible.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I get it.
[SPEAKER_05]: I, I totally, I want to talk and rob you like this too, because I want to talk about the music.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, my music.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, right.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, as a matter of fact, when you, as far as the comparisons go to John's mega hit, Napoleon Dynamite, that was one of the real,
[SPEAKER_05]: wonderful things about the difference.
[SPEAKER_05]: The difference is the soundtrack.
[SPEAKER_05]: Did you have a lot to do with the soundtrack?
[SPEAKER_05]: Because it was, it's banging.
[SPEAKER_05]: I love the audio.
[SPEAKER_04]: I would buy this soundtrack.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I literally.
[SPEAKER_02]: I tried to say, yeah, I'm the drumbeat to figure out what song that is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right on.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I got a lot to say about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would do want to punctuate with the fight choreography and air quotes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, we were supposed to go to dinner.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got her draw this stuff out, and I wrote up 95 shots of like over a weekend when I was supposed to be like doing stuff with my kid like because I knew if I don't come in there with this sheet of paper that has all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: The stunt coordinator is going to take over and he's going to do something and it's not going to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of what I want with this dumb kind of stupid frame.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it wouldn't be silly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wouldn't be silly enough.
[SPEAKER_05]: I agree with the other percent.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something else.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as far as music goes, let's see, in the drum beats and all that, first you can get it on Spotify.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's available.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Jacob, our composer, put it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: We worked on all that together for hours of what we were going to do as far as the composition goes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll talk about the needle drops in a second, but
[SPEAKER_00]: The composition was really important to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I started working on the needle drops like six months before we filmed, because I knew it was going to take a long time until I could see it.
[SPEAKER_05]: No, just for layman's terms, needle drops would be the clips of music you're using for the various scenes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, right.
[SPEAKER_00]: It took four to five years to get on the music.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I want to ask a question about the money involved there because I read that when Lucas did American graffiti and the entire soundtrack is needled drops, but in the early 70s, he was buying records in perpetuity.
[SPEAKER_04]: We lose rob and fifty three hundred dollars that he could put on the soundtrack.
[SPEAKER_04]: How hard is the financial finagling to get like music from Russian queen?
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, that's crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was not easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was not, especially where, you know, we're not a studio movie, we are in any movie, now we had a decent budget, but we didn't have like studio money, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not paying to $50,000 for song, at one point, I think I'm allowed to say this.
[SPEAKER_00]: We wanted, I wanted an ELO piece for the end that I had, like my art set on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I had to write Jeff Lin and do all this stuff that I was like, is this really gonna go anywhere?
[SPEAKER_00]: And eventually they said, yes, but the price of the piece in music was studio money.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was so much that he would have added.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Queen toppled our current budget of what we're spending so you tell us what the what the what the needle drop was what was the song.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was Do you want my love do you do you yeah buy you love do you Okay, all right, and it's great not like not turn to stone.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was just just curious.
[SPEAKER_04]: I guess Rupert Holmes not driving the hard bargain that ELO was because I did like the use of the song escape
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, look, a lot of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were, once you make that first deal, then you can kind of take that deal to everyone else.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they all done that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they all won, was for favorite nations, which just means you have to pay them the same as you're paying the first one.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they are willing to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a business for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they're like, all right, you want to license a song here it is, but they have their quotes on whatever it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we got a little lucky with it being COVID and for some reason everyone thought
[SPEAKER_00]: and make a movie or anything again.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe we got a little bit of a better rate here and there, but when all is set and done, it was pretty expensive and painstaking and long and woof.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, I can imagine the whole process.
[SPEAKER_05]: When you're Dylan Narang director of Tapah Wingo, when you finished with this and you hear horror stories from directors about just, you know, that it's just a, it's a thankless job, it's a grueling job, it is a difficult thing to put this whole project together.
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you at the end of it when you get done with the editing, when you see the final product,
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, what does that feel like for this particular film?
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you happy with everything that came out of this experience?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, look, I think there's moments of happiness you have when we finished filming.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we got John, when we finished filming, when we finished post, when I got the big song, when I got the last contract for the big song, which finally meant the movie was done, because for a while there,
[SPEAKER_00]: we were pushing forward and they hadn't sent us the contract.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was moving towards our date.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we were supposed to release in August, where I was like, oh, great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some were movies, and then we're, you know, luckily we got December 2nd, which is a good date for the holidays, but we were moving towards it and we were still waiting on.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a piece of music.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember when,
[SPEAKER_00]: that one of the twins flips well in the gym.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, if they classical piece of music, it's a shot to cover, which is second or second or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: that was a problem because we had it and then we didn't have it and then they were like well you still have it but we got to figure out how you can get it we have to talk to the airs now it was a whole thing that was holding back the airs not the airs of the composer yeah so I would think classical music would be the easiest one no I would think it would be based on the particular recording you know the Philharmonic that did that piece all of that
[SPEAKER_00]: More recently, it has not been 70 years, so it's not public domain, so it's still own by the way.
[SPEAKER_05]: So it's early 1900s when a composer passes a particular time.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it is, then you're great.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to use Mozart or Bach or Beethoven, you can do that and then you get to figure out who did the recording.
[SPEAKER_00]: But so the Neal drops took a long long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I had a lot of them already planned.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like when I kind of took my turn at the script, I was like, I should play this song here and I want to play this song here.
[SPEAKER_00]: and this one would work really well here, and I want to play T-Rex here, and there was all these things that I was just kind of new, I wanted to do, and I'm a big fan of 70's Flask Rock.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I made it so much easier to do here.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hocus, Pocus.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, it actually made me, and this is the hard to do, to get me to like classic rock again, kind of working at the edge of Washington, D.C., when Kenny King ruined it for me.
[SPEAKER_05]: It was fun to reflect on it, shows you how much time has gone, has been spent since I last listened to it, and it's just the use of it really, it's tough to do, because we hear classic rock all the time, but this movie, the cuts were
[SPEAKER_05]: Obviously, you put some time and thought into it.
[SPEAKER_05]: It shows.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one piece of music that I wish, well look, wish or not, I had gotten weird albums.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love weird album.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was a dare to be stupid, which is like a B track.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a really good, if it used in Transformers and movie from 84, 85.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had that for the fight scene and they gave it to us and we paid for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I had to map out.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is before we shot.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had to kind of say in my head how long is the scene going to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: That I need to get the song for.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I told him, I think it's like 42 seconds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, can we get 55?
[SPEAKER_00]: That should cover it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we got like whatever 55.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it took the time came.
[SPEAKER_00]: We cut it and we put it together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was like, you needed a minute, 15.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I went back and said, hey, weird house people, can we have the weird house song?
[SPEAKER_00]: And weird house people said you cannot have the weird house song for anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're done.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not weird house fault.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just, yeah, also it happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I guess we don't have it.
[SPEAKER_00]: What am I going to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: It took me this long to find everything else.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just clicked the computer and said, classic rock, zany, and within a minute and a half, I found focus, focus focus focus, like it was so quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I never, I had never heard it before.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was crazy.
[SPEAKER_04]: It has a body song.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we called their people and they were like, you're good, great.
[SPEAKER_04]: You got it, don't worry about it.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's so cool, that was really amazing.
[SPEAKER_05]: So Dylan, first of all, I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us.
[SPEAKER_05]: The movie begins its streaming on December 2nd is that when it starts, and for the foreseeable future, is it military?
[SPEAKER_05]: Is it movies?
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I would imagine both.
[SPEAKER_05]: full-time military takes up a bit of your time.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm a reservist.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a reservist.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're a reservist.
[SPEAKER_05]: You're a reservist.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're a reservist.
[SPEAKER_05]: You're a reservist.
[UNKNOWN]: You
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is going to sound so crass.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think making money back so that I can pay the investors would be good.
[SPEAKER_00]: That would be a process for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think so that you got to put on your little, you know, your ledger of what needs to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: The other thing would be enough viewers and people watching it that all of these guys that worked so hard on and whether it's the crew of the DP, the wardrobe like Jared Russell or Sarah Cogan or
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jacob, who's our composer, which Josh is the one talked about him, like all those guys, like I want people to see the movies, so they can say, oh, I want to hire these people.
[SPEAKER_00]: They know what they're doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's nice.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I have a bunch of, that's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a bunch of good actors that, you know, everyone knows John, Heeter, Gene Grishon, and Billy, and Bratson Burger, and Amandaverse, for Mary with Children, but
[SPEAKER_00]: all those other actors, the twins, Jay, Kim has been doing a lot of stuff, but this is Kim is Kim Gretchen.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: And Tom, just more about her, because I did not recognize her in the film.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I, and I think she is.
[SPEAKER_05]: one of the strongest parts of the film.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fabulous.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: In fact, you might be the best thing in it.
[SPEAKER_05]: We'd tell us about Kim real quick, and then we'll let you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were having so much trouble finding the lead female.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we just, we couldn't find it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Confirure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who would you show you?
[SPEAKER_00]: So good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Alan found.
[SPEAKER_00]: Alan got this tape and he sent it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was Kim, and he was like, dude, I think we found her.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to watch this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you could just tell she had comedy chops and a good understanding of of what to do and how to do it and drama and everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's just so good at the whole thing and her her timing is so good.
[SPEAKER_00]: So once we got her it was she's she was great on set.
[SPEAKER_00]: New had to do everything was willing to do all of the all of the stuff was physical.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it also helped that the female got hopefully.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean this comes across.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was trying not to do a female character that was.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's just pining after a man or anything like that character's supposed to have her own goals and objectives and is moving towards those goals and objectives and it's kind of will do what she needs to get those goals and objectives that isn't You know, using her body or any of that to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's all she's supposed to feel like a real person and real character, what they would be.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Kim is just great at doing that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, since then, she was on LA to Vegas, which was a short show, which was a comedy that only lasted like one season.
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw something, and I was like, oh, this is really good.
[SPEAKER_00]: She should be known.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then after us, she did the SNL movie.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like Jane Curtin, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: I would urge anybody watching tapowing go to watch her in the trash bin scene.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's when I fell in love with the character Rob, we only have a few seconds left.
[SPEAKER_04]: I just want to give you one compliment before we go and it came to me during there's always time for that, Rob.
[SPEAKER_04]: when you talked about how you would sketch out every shot before you did it because of the efficiency of of getting the the movie done.
[SPEAKER_04]: The only other director of fame that I know that did it that way was Hitchcock and he did it because he didn't want people to screw with his product after the fact largely.
[SPEAKER_04]: But also, it is the most efficient way to get your vision on the screen.
[SPEAKER_04]: So, with Mike As, what director, you know, you aspire to be or inspired you, whether or not you like it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, that's very hitchhiking of you.
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's about the biggest praise I can eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, look, I love hitchhiking.
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew that about him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that's where I got the idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just know when I was at film school doing it, I was like, this is not going to work unless I can see all of the thoughts and what it puts going to happen, because otherwise you're going to miss a shot.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, thank you, it's very kind of you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Dylan, thanks so much for taking the time with you.
[SPEAKER_05]: We're actually the very best of luck with the Tappa Wingo.
[SPEAKER_05]: And for your next project, whatever it is, you know, if you need a mid 60s character actor who has who starred in 1979 in a street car named Desire as Mitch, I am available.
[SPEAKER_05]: And would love to help in any way I can't.
[SPEAKER_05]: I can't do an interview with anybody associated with film without something self-serving.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's just the way I roll.
[SPEAKER_05]: Congratulations.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks for taking the time and good luck with Tap-A-Wingo, Dylan Wee, please.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.