The hello welcome back to the extra credits.
I'm Trey and I'm solo today. Kelsey is busy with finals right
now, but I'm very excited to talk about holiday episodes in a
really good holiday movie with our today's guest.
Joining me now is a three time guest actually once with a
Prometheus covenant episode we did quite a long time ago and
then a Last of Us episode we did for the video game a bit ago.
And I'm joined by Co host of one of my favorite movie podcasts
out there, and I, the duck and director of the new holiday film
Drink and Be Merry filmmaker Adam Bolerich.
Adam, how are you doing? I'm doing great.
Thank you so much for having me back.
It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah, man, excited to have you
on. Before we get started in talking
about this movie that I love a lot and I'm excited for
listeners to check out, I want to start with I the Duck because
I love your show. Sad Dom couldn't be here.
It would have been cool to have. The three or four of us would
have been lovely. Yeah.
Unfortunately, you know, it's
that time of year where everyone gets sick, so.
Yes, yeah, totally get you. But I genuinely love the show
and since we, you know, last spoke, you guys have been really
busy. You started a Patreon which I
believe is pretty new for you guys.
Which is exciting been we're a couple months in now to I guess
like 6-6 months in to Eye of the Duck after hours, which is
different than our regular show. We're sort of talking about the
film industry, kind of like covering the biggest stories of
the week and, and kind of giving our take on what we think the
hell is happening out there in Hollywood.
And then, you know, it's a, it's a place where we can expand on
what we're covering on the main feed.
There's always a couple of films that don't really make sense for
a model or in the case of some of the larger franchise things
we cover, there's TV shows or books or music or, you know,
these ancillary things that don't fit the mold of our main
show, but which we want to have a opportunity to talk about.
And there's just a place that we can kind of shoot the shit about
new release things as well that again, have have kind of no
place on Eye of the Duck proper. So it's, it's been really nice
to to have that as an additional outlet for, for the stuff that
Dom and I want to talk about. Yeah, it's it's kind of crazy to
see how much you guys have on your slate, because I was going
back in the catalog looking at episodes I've listened to over
the past year and a half, from Blade Runner to ET, War of the
Worlds, the Batman series you guys did, which was awesome.
That was fun. And now you guys are deep into
Mordor. You're in Lord of the Rings.
What's that like doing the big Lord of the Rings in your latest
series? I feel exactly like Frodo in
Moria where he says to Gandalf, I wish then the ring had never
come to me. It's simply too big, man.
It's I, we, you know, we, we, we said to ourselves at the start
of the show when we, when we began about five years ago, if
we're ever going to do Lord of the Rings, I feel like we need
to, we like we need to wait like 5 years.
You know, we, we, we, we're too, we're too young a show to be
able to tackle such a, a massive thing.
And now we're cashing that check.
It's, it's five years later and, and we thought, let's do it.
Let's let's go big or go home. And it's really daunting it.
It somehow feels like the the biggest series we've ever done,
just because these three films are so massive.
Yeah, me and Kelsey did. We kind of have the opposite
like method of Y'all show where you guys go through these great
series that are tone specific or genre specific or director
specific. And you guys usually do what I,
from what I can tell, like newer releases, sometimes on the main
feed you'll do like a year recap, but like you'll do those
on Patreon now. But we kind of the opposite
model where we do new releases on the main feed on Patreon,
we're doing deep dives into like franchise films or just like
some classics or blockbusters. And we did.
You also do like like 7 movies in like 1 episode though.
You have so much prep per app. Sometimes we will do something
like that. Like we just recently did up
with Hunger Games last night. We did like 4-4 or five films in
one episode, and that was a lot. But we did Star Wars this past
summer and you know, Kelsey kept saying like, we've had the show
for a while, it's fine if we do it.
And I was like, I don't know, I feel like we should do it.
Like you're 10, you know? Yeah, that's that's how I feel.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, I don't know if we're
ready for this. And it's like she's like, when
else are we going to be ready for this?
We're not going to be the Star Wars experts.
Like we're huge fans. But we, you know, as much as I I
love, I love and bleed and or I can't, you know, know everything
about the universe. And so I kind of feel you there
about the the stress of, you know, programming a show and
prepping a show with Lord of the Rings because I would feel
obligated to like reread some of that those books that I never
finished from school. Yeah, I've, I've, I've done some
rereading, but I'm nowhere. I'm not, I'm not nearly far
along enough, you know, I think I'm, you know, maybe halfway
through fellowship and we're recording fellowship tomorrow.
So I'm not catching up. It's it's not going to happen.
And then I think I've watched 7 hours of documentary about
fellowship and, and, and Parth who researches for us has read
like 3 different books about the makings of, of these films in
addition to also watching those, those seven hours and a whole
bunch of other things. So it's a, it's a lot of prep.
And I think these episodes might well they'll, well, they'll
certainly break our like our time limit.
Like there's no way that we'll be able to.
We, we try to never go beyond like 3 hours.
I think if we have like a, you know, when we did The Dark
Knight, I think that was a 3 1/2 hour app.
But basically every time we've had Griffin Newman on, that's a
3 1/2 hour app. Yeah.
But I think I think these are all going to, I mean, I don't
see how these could be less than than 3 1/2 research documents
are like double the size that they normally are.
And they still feel like they don't like, it's like there's no
way to do everything. Like we always try to do the
like, like, you know, if you want to know the definitive
story of this film, you can come to our show.
We will tell it to you and then we'll give you, you know, our
takes on on the eye of the duck scenes.
This is really the first time where it's like, there's no way
that we could we can be the definitive authority.
Like you need a whole season of a podcast per per film honestly.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's impossible.
I remember Kelsey and I did like 4 hours and 45 minutes on like
Dune Part 2 because we're like, we're going to be the Dune
podcast. And then it did pretty well.
But afterwards Kelsey was like, listen, I'm not going to do that
again unless we're like cancelling the.
We're going to have to cancel the show if we try to do
something like that again. Yeah, that was a mistake, but I
know exactly what you're saying. Do you mind letting the
listeners know? Maybe pitching them a little bit
about Eye of the Duck and like what you guys do.
Yeah, absolutely, Lord. Of the Rings is actually a
really cool series to explain what you guys do over there
because you're taking sort of a detour into the the franchise,
if you will. Yeah.
So the premise of the show, which is also in the name Eye of
the Duck, this is an idea that we kind of borrowed from the
late David Lynch. He while on the press tour for
Blue Velvet, he was asked a very, very normal question and
he gave a very David Lynch response, which was to start
talking about ducks. And he's talking about a duck
and he's saying, you know, the duck's feet are very fast and
the duck's feathers are a kind of like a medium speed.
And the the bill is doing this and and blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah. And he's going on and on and on
and saying very, very strange, dreamy things.
And then finally he goes, but the eye, the eye is in the
perfect place in the duck. It's like this little jewel.
And if you really want to get to know a duck, you know,
everything that the duck is, is, is contained within its eye.
And then the interviewer tries to get things back on track and
he's like, oh, OK. And so would you say that every
movie has an eye of the duck scene?
And he's like, yes, yes, I would.
And so we kind of blew that premise up and decided, you
know, what if we tried to find the eye of the duck scene in,
you know, in, in, in every movie, basically, we go on long
enough, you know, if we go on for 100 years of, of podcasts
and we cover, cover them all, you know, but no, so, and, and
we, we have a sort of a season, kind of mini season, mini series
or season long format where we'll pick either a, a kind of
movement in Hollywood history or a franchise and, or a sub genre.
And we will try and explore kind of all of the most major entries
in chronological order. And in each episode we try to
tell the entire story of that film, from kind of the earliest
inklings of its development all the way through its production,
its release, its cultural legacy, and then dominate each
OfferUp what we think scene is. We've done series on subgenres
like 80s dark fantasy. We did a whole season on winter
horror, you know, outer space movies and cyberpunk.
And then we've done franchises like, like you mentioned
already, like Batman, like Mad Max.
We had a lot of fun doing all of George Romero's of the dead
zombie movies. And now we're doing a series
that is kind of a combination of the idea of the subgenre series,
but also the idea of the franchise series where we've got
this kind of three chapter approach to covering Lord of the
Rings. Where the 1st chapter is a
series on films that sort of pave the way for Lord of the
Rings and either directly or indirectly inspire Jackson or
are in conversation with Jackson.
Then there's the trilogy itself. And then as a kind of third part
of the story, we'll be talking about all of the films that are
produced by Hollywood kind of in the wake of Lord of the Rings.
Yeah, I mean, it's it's heavy. You guys do a lot of work, like
we said at the top, lot of preps going into this, which I really
appreciate with Lord of the Rings.
My like very specific niche question about this franchise,
even though it's not like one of my like top ones, I love Lord
Lord of the Rings like anybody else.
Will you be covering or be talking about at any point The
Two Towers or Return of the King PS2?
Video game, if that I think I think certainly, yeah, I think I
think it's going to happen. It'll probably happen on
Patreon, maybe like a little inkling of conversation on on
those episodes. But Dom is a big video game like
emulator person, so he, and anytime we do a series that has
any kind of like video game tie in, he tends to boot up the
yeah. And, and we'll, we'll talk about
it a little bit. We actually both had a really
good time on the Mad Max series playing the, the Mad Max like
open world game from from 2014. I think it was.
Yeah, I, I never played it when it came out because everyone
told me it was sort of like a junkie, you know, Fallout or
Borderlands clone. And it kind of is.
But it's also a lot of fun. Yeah, you know, 100% that sounds
awesome. It's been a while since I've
seen clips of that. Yeah.
I was just thinking about it the other day because I was like,
wow, the Return of the King PS2 game is like the best, one of
the best classic games from my childhood.
And then I saw the trailer for the new Fall of the Old
Republic, the new Star Wars game for like the Knights, the oh,
yeah. And like those two memories just
clashing for me at once. I was like, I got a totally, I'm
getting old because I was like, I got to get the PS2 up again or
emulator, do what Tom's doing. I got to reach out.
I've been playing, I've been playing Mega Man Battle Network
on a, on a, on a analog pocket, which is like a, like a, a kind
of Game Boy emulator thing. So I'm I'm right there with you,
man. So love Eye the Duck, but today
you're coming on the show to talk about holiday movies.
But your film, which I'm really excited to talk about, drink and
be merry. So I wanted to get you on a
little bit sooner. But the show has been kind of
like crazy with just kind of award season films dropping all
at once. Totally.
And so we're getting closer to the the kind of Christmas date
now, which feels appropriate, I think to start off.
Maybe you can walk us through this.
What inspired you to make a holiday movie, quote UN quote?
What led you down this path? You've been a filmmaker for a
long time. I've watched a lot of your,
like, short films. Misprint.
I think your last yeah, short was excellent.
I recommend people check that out on YouTube.
We'll put a link in the description.
Yeah. We'll also put a link,
obviously, to the movie in the description.
So you guys can rent that on Amazon or buy it on Blu-ray,
which I think it's available soon or now.
Right, it's out now. Yeah, it's a it's a it's
officially out. You could get it on Blu-ray or
DVD from from Amazon or Walmart. Unfortunately only available at
the big box stores, but it is adorable.
It does exist. Yes, but with the this movie, I
was, you know, I was kind of shocked actually to see that was
your first feature film. Because I don't remember exactly
what we talked about last time when you came out, when you
talked about your career at that stage.
Because I know you had said you'd made almost close to 100
shorts or something like that. And so you've been working for
quite a long time preparing for what seems like this moment.
So can you. Like, let the listeners know
about your career a little bit leading up to this.
You know, what got this movie going and why Holiday film.
Yeah. So it's it's my first feature as
a director, but it's not the first feature I've I've worked
on. And, and even when I was saying
last time around, it had been, you know, over 100 short films,
that doesn't that that's, that goes beyond just directing.
So for the bulk of my career post, you know, leaving school
and, you know, moving to New York to, to work on, on, on
sets, Most of my, most of how I've like paid my rent, like my
main job for most of my adult life is being a, a
cinematographer. And so I've, I've shot tons and
tons of, of short films and, you know, all sorts of other stuff
that isn't interesting to talk about.
And I've, and I've shot a handful of features as well, all
the while using my, using that career, using the, you know,
the, the, the money I would earn as well as the skills I would,
I'd pick up along the way and the friendships and
relationships I would, I would form to, to also direct.
You know, directing is it's a very difficult career,
especially compared to things that have a kind of clear sort
of technical skill that is very marketable, like things like
cinematography or editing. No one really wants you to
direct. There is someone else's
directing and they want to hire people to help them make their
movies. So you have to sort of make your
own opportunities for yourself, which makes, which is why it was
helpful for me to also have, you know, have have cinematography
as a sort of career and gig that I could be doing to support
that. So, yeah, spent over 10 years
having that be kind of like, you know, I wouldn't call it my day
job because I, I never looked at it as a, as a job, even though
it did pay my bills. But that was my main gig for,
for, for 10/10 plus years. And I loved it very much.
I, I still, I still do shoot other people's films every now
and then, but definitely the last year and a half or so has
been kind of entirely tied up in, in making this film and, and
both producing and then working on the post for it.
Yeah. So that kind of like organic
networking leading you to making what I assume to be a micro
budget film, though it it doesn't like it, which like I'm
less use the word micro budget. I don't know if that is true or
not, but I'd say it's a compliment because I assume it
is. No, it very much is.
So can you talk a little bit about that, that experience of
like what it was like to kind of be constrained with the
resources and trying to make this movie from the ground up
and then building that kind of like network, that organic group
of people that you've built over those years of being ADP?
Yeah, I mean, this is an interesting one where the the
network sort of encapsulates my work as a cinematographer, my
work as a director and my work as a as a teacher.
So the origin of this film is the misprint which you mentioned
earlier that played at the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival here
in New York in, I want to say, August of 2023.
And while I was at that festival, the film played in
this block of shorts that was kind of all about, you know, men
in crisis who were sort of falling to pieces and
constrained by the, you know, very masculinity that they were
sort of, you know, fighting against.
And there was another great short film in that block called
Holter Dash, written by this guy, Leo Winters.
And the two of us really liked each other's films.
And we started talking at the at the festival and, and agreed to
stay in touch and we started trading scripts back and forth
and giving each other notes. And Leo sent me what was the
script for Drink and Be Merry. At the time it was titled Drinks
must. So the film in that sense, you
know, it's the it's the directing gets you got me the
script, which then got me to to that point.
But Misprint really only happened the way that it did
because of years of being ADP and building connections with
crew who then all worked on that film with me.
My, my work actually in fiction podcasting is what attached my
producer Brandon Hubbard, because I was working with him
on fiction podcast stuff during the kind of lockdown period of,
of the pandemic. And then Jeff White, who was the
star of Misprint, is also the star of of Drink and Be Merry.
I was shooting sketch comedy for him for years and years and then
slowly working our our way up to, to making films together.
And he starred in Misprint and then before we made Drink and Be
Merry, he actually directed a feature film called Caravan,
which I was the cinematographer on.
And because it was this sort of very run and gun like low to the
ground micro budget road trip movie where we would kind of
shoot 2 days here, 2 days there. I wasn't really able to bring on
the kind of more traditional crew members that I would
typically have because we didn't really have a very traditional
crew. And so actually what I did was I
reached out to a lot of my former students because I teach
sometimes in the film program at Rutgers University and Mason
Gross. And so I reached out to a number
of my, my former students and sort of said, hey, like, I'm,
I'm kind of in this weird situation where I don't really
have a camera department, but what I have is like, I'm going
to be the camera department. I need hands, I need people that
can sort of assist me. And, you know, we'll, we'll kind
of figure out what positions make sense for everyone once we
get moving. And one of you will become the
gaffer and one of you will become the AC and we'll build a
crew and, and we'll shoot this thing.
And so everyone who worked with me on on Caravan was a former
student of mine, including Parth, who is my researcher.
I the duck. He came on as as a camera
assistant, ended up moving into producing, which then carried
over on to the next one. And Jack Mannion, who who I had
worked with a number of times before, he was once a student of
mine. He was my gaffer and my my BCAM
operator on that movie, Jackson Clark and Cody Lawrence, my ACS
on that film. And while we so while we were
making Caravan, I sort of realized like, we've got this
really nice kind of well oiled machine here.
I've got this script that Leo has sent me that I really want
to make. And then a film that Jeff was
supposed to star in ended up getting postponed because of the
sag after, because of the sag after strikes.
And so all of a sudden there was this window where Jeff was going
to be available. And I had always hoped that he
might be able to star in the film because I felt the chat was
such a kind of a perfect Jeff role, and I love working with
him. And so I called up the Aylin
Witch Pub in New Brunswick, NJ. Right around Rutgers University.
It was the place I used to be a regular at when I was a college
student. And I called up Robert at the
bar, and I basically pitched him.
And I said, look like I've got this movie.
It's mostly set inside a dive bar.
You are only open, you know, in the evenings because it's a
student bar. Unlike, you know, New York City
where bars are open from like 10:00 AM to 4:00 AM, this, this
place is open, you know, from 5:00 PM to, you know, to
midnight or 5:00 PM to 2:00 AM. And then there's two days a week
it didn't open till 7. So then, you know, I've got this
script if we only shop while the bar was closed, you know, do
you, you know, is that something you'd be interested in?
Is there, is there a possibility that it could be work something
out? And he basically said that if I
would keep the signage up and call the move, call the bar in
the movie, the Ailin witch, that he would be willing to work with
us on a, on a, on a deal. And, and he did.
And thanks to his generosity, we were able to land on a budget
that we could sort of raise ourselves and finance ourselves.
So between Jeff, myself and Leo, we, we, we managed to put the
financing together to make the film.
And I'll say it's, you know, it's, it's a, a budget in the
five figures. You know, it's, it is very much
a micro budget film to the point that, you know, the SAG, for
example, is a union considers micro budget anything that is
$300,000 or less. And I'm like, man, you guys got
to get another tier below micro budget.
You know, there's, there's such a gulf between, you know, 10,000
and 50,000, such a gulf between 50,000 and A100102100203.
You know, these are these are very, very different budget
ranges when you but when you're getting that granular and, and,
and when you have that little. Yeah, I mean we watched Shawn
Baker's take out I think it was which was his first or second
micro budget film. Still never seen that one.
It's excellent. And it seems like he's similarly
kind of assembled A5 to seven, you know, person team, then
increase that to like 12. And then when he eventually kind
of increased his budget and got to afford a project at
$1,000,000, his biggest, you know, the thing that he kept
talking about was like this, you know, people look at this as
like an independent film. He's like, I don't even look at
this like an independent film. I spent $1,000,000.
You know, there's $1,000,000 being spent on this movie.
I started my career making $5000 movies, like $50,000 movies.
And so, yeah, the, the tier system is pretty crazy there.
Yeah. But that's kind of what I was
saying at the top. I just really, I was kind of
shocked by the, the cinema of the movie instantly.
I love the look of this film, the color palette, the green,
the bar lighting that felt like, you know, Spielberg's Guy
Kaminsky is that, was that right?
Who's the key? Wow, that's quite the
compliment. But truly it really did.
And the, the I, I think the all the tools were being used that I
would love to see in movies. The split diopter was there, the
the wipes in the edit that made me of course think of Star Wars.
That made me smile. There was a there was a close up
at one point with Jefferson White and his Co lead the
romantic lead. Sophie Zucker, Yeah.
She's wonderful. And there's a close up between
the two of them in the movie. And I found myself, Kelsey,
like, came around the corner and she saw me smiling at the
screen. She's like, it's good.
And I was like, it's very good. Like, I'm really enjoying this.
And later in the film, when we get this kind of cutaway black
and white sequence where it feels like we're watching a
dreamy kind of date night that we never really get to totally
be in. I was kind of like, oh, I want
to step into this world. Like there was so much again,
like cinema going on to not like sound super pretentious, but
like it really. It really was fantastic.
So I can't recommend it enough. When it comes to Jefferson
White, what about him wanted What what what was about him
that want made you want to cast him as as Chet because he came
off as such like this strange because he's perfect to me too
for what the character was like his performance.
And I've watched another things outside of just misprint, but he
has this like, for me at least, this kind of sensitivity mixed
with like this kind of like there's something brewing
underneath. There's a volatility there.
There's an anger there for me at least when I'm watching him.
So I don't know if that resonates at all.
But why did you cast him? I think he's one of the most
energetic people I know and energetic performers I know.
And I get this script from Leo, and the thing that I key into
immediately is the stillness that it is asking for.
And it is very much a film that is about stillness and our
relationship with silence and that feeling of being stuck.
And having known Jeff for a long time and worked with him for a
long time, I always felt like the, I, I felt like the most
interesting sort of version of Chet was a person like Jeff who
is so filled with, you know, energy and emotion and who has
like so much love to give and, and has so much, so much inside
of him. That is just kind of like
busting to, to get out and forcing him into this, this
location, putting him behind that bar and trapping him there
and then shooting it in a way where the camera is almost never
moving and, and forcing him to, to try.
And, you know, and putting him in a position in a position
where, like, you know, Jeff's energy and his sort of natural
charisma would allow you to tap into a version of chat where
even when he wasn't doing much, you would always feel like this
is a guy that is desperate to get out of here and just can't
find his way out. So it felt like a perfect kind
of pairing of of actor and character to me.
Yeah, I kept literally like 1520 minutes into the movie, I kept
pausing being like, who's this guy Remind reminding me of right
now. And he and I kept thinking about
Ethan Hawke, which was like a really, you know, oh, nice.
It was such such a compliment to his performance because again,
there was such a sensitivity there of something that was just
like somebody being restrained who doesn't want to feel
restrained, which I think speaks to his kind of through line as a
character really beautifully. And I'll try to stay away from
like any major spoilers for people who haven't checked it
out yet. But yeah, let's talk about the
bar a little bit. That setting and also the
texture that I was just alluding to with the film targeting.
What led you to making the color palette the way you did, having
that green that the the lighting, the way you did, just
the kind of atmosphere that you created in the mood you created
in that bar? Did you see that right away in
the pre production? Did you get into the, you know,
post and we're changing things around?
Did you know what you wanted in that visual palette?
I had a pretty strong sense early on of what I wanted it to
feel like. I, having worked as ADP for such
a long time, I, I, you know, I'm someone that is always studying
the image and, and thinking, thinking about the image.
And when we got into the bar, the two sort of concerns for me
were how am I going to be able to light this based on how I
want this to look? You know, I really wanted to use
wide angle lenses for the most part and have these wider
framings that would basically make it impossible for you to
ever lose sight of the space. And you know, I, I want you to
always be aware of the geography and be aware of where you were
in it so that you as the audience would begin to feel
trapped there as well. Like I wanted this feeling of
like there's no escape, but I also wanted coupled with that,
this feeling that maybe you don't want to escape because
it's really warm and lovely and inviting and you know, it's,
it's you, you just, you can't bring yourself to get up out of
the stool because this is just kind of a really comfy place to
be. So I knew that I wanted there to
be this kind of golden glow to it.
The decision to shoot with A32 aspect ratio came from our very
first tech scout where I had like the, you know, a view
Finder app on my iPhone. And I was kind of setting up
frames and seeing what made sense for the space.
And I, I always kind of default to 235 because to me that's the
aspect ratio of movies just sort of internally for me.
And we were certainly able to get, you know, set up shots like
that, but there was so much information in the space that
was getting lost. Like the bar is such a tall
space, such a vertical space. And so 235 felt really
insufficient for what the story was asking for.
And then shooting in in a taller ratio, it meant I could sort of
crush the actors underneath a lot of headroom and, and, and
make them feel, you know, even more helpless.
That then further complicated, you know, how we're going to
light this because, you know, wide lenses, wide, wide shots,
tall aspect ratio, all of a sudden everything is starting to
become part of the frame. And so I knew we'd have to find
a way to try and incorporate the lighting into the design of the
film itself. And so if you're an indie film
maker, what we did was relatively cheap and easy to do,
honestly. So at first I was thinking,
could we could we get some kind of flexible kind of cloth LED
panels and like magnetize them to the ceiling or or hook them
into the ceiling in some way. But the drop ceiling of the bar
was was made of like pretty thin plastic.
So that that sort of went out the window.
And also shaping kind of top light is really difficult to do
in a way that is satisfying in, in my opinion, at least for what
we were trying to accomplish. And so then had the idea to put
something on the bar itself, like could could we put lights
directly on the bar? And so I grabbed a couple of
lamp bases and lamp shades off of Amazon.
And then we had these little programmable LED bulbs that that
we could control from like an iPhone or an iPad that we put
into all of these lamps. And then we also put those same
bulbs in all of the actual fixtures in the bar itself so
that we could control all of this this lighting.
And so the the lamps on the table were amazing because they
had very hard light that came out the top of the lights where
there's no shade on them. And so we got this kind of great
kind of up lighting effect on all of our actors and it really
like created contrast and emphasized all of their all
their features, every single imperfection really, really
stood out in a way that I really love.
I really love, you know, guys with faces.
You know, it's a it's a big thing for me.
And so being able to get that was really lovely.
But then on the other hand, the shades would curse these very,
this very nice soft glow. And I was putting really heavy
diffusion filtration over the lens, which is probably where
you're getting the, the Kaminsky thing from.
So we had a double strength pearlescent filter over the
lens. And the lenses themselves were
these vintage Soviet era lenses, Zeiss contacts primes for any
film makers out there. They're still photo lenses from,
from, from that time period. They say made in West Germany on
them. And I love them.
I've been sort of slowly collecting this set over a / a,
you know, a 10 year period and building it out, just buying one
on eBay every time I had a little extra money in the bank.
And so those lenses, those filters, those lamps that really
helped to create that kind of glowy, warm sort of aesthetic.
And then it's the, the, the, so those lamps are like throwing
practical light that's useful. And they, they're, they're
aesthetically useful within the frame.
And then our main like key light, we really just had the
one key light, which was a a larger LED fixture on a rolling
light stand. And so basically we could very
quickly between setups, I would sort of make the call, you know,
OK, this is the we're motivating from this particular lamp in
this moment, this lamp that is in frame.
Let's bring the key light in and, and motivate from there.
And I should say that my my DP and I are Jack Mannion.
I Co DP D it with Jack Mannion, who I had worked with on Caravan
and when we decided to make this movie together, I it just sort
of seemed like the logical thing to do would be to kind of
promote Jack and share that role with him.
Which was a really amazing collaborative experience to get
to, to do that together and also thankfully freed me up to be
able to spend a lot of time with the actors as well.
How many days was the shoot? It was really.
Short, We had six full days of production inside the bar, 1/2
day to do some inserts and shoot pit bulls, the show within the
movie. And then we had a day of
exteriors in Brooklyn and then we had two days of interiors in
also in New Brunswick at an apartment.
So I think it works out to like 9 1/2, like 10 days or
something. I was, yeah, we were very, very
prepped. There's always things that,
which is actually crazy. It's crazy.
We were as prepped as we were because we only had six weeks
between deciding we were officially going to make the
movie. Like we like we were kind of
like, I think we're going to be able to pull this off.
I think we can do this. I think this might happen.
And then Jeff's schedule changing.
It was like, oh, it's going to happen, but it's going to happen
in like 6 weeks. And so we had to pull everything
together in six weeks. So on.
We we were surprisingly well prepped with things considered.
Although you know, we didn't have the the entire cast fully
locked until like I think 2 days before we shot.
Wow. Yeah, so there, I mean, there,
there were all sorts of of things like that.
But as far as things like the actual day-to-day goes and, and
how that differed from making a short film, I, I actually think
it, it's easier in a lot of ways, specifically because I
think that day three of production is when every crew
like finally, like fully like lines up into sync and you're,
you do it. You know, you, you've like day
three is when you know how to make the movie and, or a short
film. You know, you might not get to
day three. You might, it might be a 2 day
shoot. Or if it does get to day three,
you'd be like, oh, damn, like I finally figured out how we're
all going to do this and now it's over.
It's done So on a, on a feature. I actually found it easier in a
lot of ways that, that we, you know, we hit day three and it's
like, OK, I know how we're going to be able to do this.
In fact, in in a lot of ways, like when when we were in pre
production, I kept saying sort of to myself as a way to kind of
calm my nerves, like this is going to be just like making a
short film, it's just going to take longer.
And that was honestly like pretty 100% true all the way
through production and even through most of post where it
became completely different was the sort of question of, OK,
I've made the movie, what does one do with the movie now?
And that was what I was completely unprepared for as a
first time feature director. It was just like, what do you do
with a feature film, especially if you're a micro budget movie
like that? In terms of the, because you're
making your first feature and you didn't write the screenplay
in terms of like your, I don't want to speak for you, but I
think I've been, I've, we've talked to a lot of first time
directors and they've, there's a lot of meaning and whatever
project they get to do for their first time.
And sometimes it's not always the case.
Like for other, you know, aspects of filmmaking, if you're
an actor, sometimes you're taking, you know, you're taking
the first job that comes your way.
It's ATV series about vampires. You're like, fuck it, like
whatever, it's ATV series. Like I'm going to totally up for
this. And so for you, though, as a
director, when you're picking your projects, was there any
hesitation in picking something that you didn't have that wasn't
like just dating with you for like a decade, for example, that
you were just like, thinking about like, non-stop?
Or was there something in the kind of like the protein of the
script that really spoke to you? Because there's a lot of things
that, you know, stuck with me that I want to talk to you
about. But I'm curious about, you know,
picking your brain about that since you've been wanting to,
you know, make movies for so long and have been making movies
for so long, but this being the first feature that you'd
actually were able to make. Yeah, no, I mean, it's a it's a
great question to ask the what what it comes down to is this.
I mean, the answer to the second question is yes, there was a lot
of, you know, protein here to to chew on that I found very
attractive and that I felt was in line with the kind of stories
that I'm interested in. But as far as, you know, was
there trepidation about, you know, having my first feature
not be something I'd written? Absolutely, yeah.
I think I, I had definitely for a long time envisioned that I
would make one of these. You know, this I've, I've been
thinking about this for my entire life and like now I
finally get to, to put it on film.
A lot of those scripts, and I have a couple of them that I,
I'm desperately trying to make. I'm still desperately trying to
make. There's a feature length version
of misprint that I'm, I'm desperate to, to put out.
Yeah, I would love to do it. It's, it's just a question of
getting the, you know, securing the financing.
And I was finding myself in a lot of meetings where people
were saying to me, you know, this sounds cool, but, you know,
we don't take chances on first time film makers or, you know,
this sounds cool, but the amount of money you're asking for is
simply too much. And so that was happening a lot
with the scripts I had written and that I was, you know, hoping
to make. And so I kind of let go of the
idea of of doing my own script because I felt as though I
didn't necessarily know how to write a script that was cheaper
than the scripts that I was writing.
Is a big part of it. You know, like, like, like just,
you know, just truthfully like my, I felt, I think the, the
ideas I had were two kind of technically ambitious for the
kinds of budgets I was, I, I was, you know, potentially able
to raise. And I got Leo's script and I
immediately felt sort of connected to chat in in such a
such a strong way that I felt like I could, I could tell his
story and that I, and that I wanted to tell his story.
And the, the, the bar itself also was such a strong draw
where the, the real bar means so much to me in, in my real life
that being able to make a film set there, it, it was such an
attractive idea to me and, and really drew me in.
And then, you know, the, the script was very dialogue driven
and there were actually elements of it where, you know, I, I
didn't do much in the way of rewriting.
This is very much Leo's script. But when I, when I got it, you
know, it, it didn't have a ton of scene description and it
didn't have a ton of action lines in it.
In a lot of cases for long stretches, didn't even have
scene breaks. And so to me, I think I saw that
and, and I felt like there was a lot of potential for me to take
what Leo had written and really filter it through my point of
view in a way that you don't often get as a director when
you're you're taking on someone else's screenplay.
Sometimes the screenplay is very directive in terms of what it's
asking for. Yeah, as to in terms of being a
film, and it's up to you whether or not you're going to follow
the kind of blueprint the scriptures laid out.
But I felt like there was like a a world of possibility on this
page. There's a lot of confines which
are very necessary for the story, but within those
confines, I felt like there was a lot of possibility and
potential for what I could personally bring to it.
And yeah, that that was sort of my, my feeling.
What really stuck with me is that it that throughout
basically the entire runtime, I was miserably happy.
Like how like I was. Thinking, I mean, that's, that's
the tone we were going for, you know?
Yeah, and you nailed that because it just felt like such a
movie for skeptics of like holiday skeptics, but also like
well intended people who are just trying to trying to make it
in the world. And it felt like a sobering film
for people who are, you know, allergic to a holiday
sentimentality, but still being sentimental people, if that
makes sense. I'm absolutely, I, I consider
myself to be a, a very sincere person, like maybe to a fault in
a way where like, you know, there's, there's all sorts of
stuff I like can't even get on board with, you know, but, and,
and, and, and especially as a filmmaker, I'm a very sincere
filmmaker. You know, I don't really know
how to be detached and I don't know, you know, I think there's
a lot of films by film makers of our generation, which I love.
I love these films, but they're very ironic and, and have that
kind of like too cool for school detachment.
And I, I don't really know how to do that.
It's just like an old yeah, to a degree, you know, and it's just
not something that's in my wheelhouse, but.
But sincerity very much is. And that being said, I'm 100%
allergic to most holiday films. That's all.
You know, I, yeah, I, I can't, I can't really get on board with
them. You know, for, for the most
part, there are a couple that I really love, but I am always
looking for the kind of Christmas counter programming,
you know, what's, what's the, what's the film for a, for a
freak like me to watch during the holidays.
You know, there's we, we all love Die Hard, right?
Like Die Hard, you know, the, the, the classic, it's a
Christmas movie, but it's not a Christmas movie.
You know, I love that. And then on the, you know, on
the sincere side of things, but also it's a little tongue in
cheek is, is Muppets Christmas Carol, which I think is like
basically the best Christmas movie, you know, but I'm, I'm
always looking for, for the other kind of Christmas movie.
And, and, and so getting the script and sort of seeing what
was, you know, everything that was in it and feeling it, I was
like, I mean, this is it. This is my chance to make the
kind of movie that I'm always looking for around the holidays.
Yeah, I mean, I think that's why we love Prometheus so much.
Prometheus is like, it's our, it's our like fucked up
Christmas movie. Exactly.
Idris Elba and his Christmas tree on board.
Yes. Yeah, I feel like we are.
That's why I was so surprised to see when I was so excited that
you got your first feature made. And when I saw that it was
called Drink and Be Merry, and I saw that it might be a holiday
film, listening to your show and also speaking with you on the
show, I was a little surprised because I was like, yeah, Adam's
making a genre Christmas movie at a time where it feels like
people are sort of exhausted by holiday movies.
But that's why I really love this film because it's it's
subversive, but it's not contrarian about it.
It's not really confrontational over the confrontational about
the subject. It it, it felt really like I
said, sobering and also just kind of like really satisfying
to see how how real this movie was as opposed to like the, you
know, whatever the new Netflix streaming algorithmic holiday
content of a film that they're putting out on their their
platform. It's very rare that we see
artful attempts at this, you know, sub genre.
But I assume like you did, I'm assuming you were a little bit
worried about, you know, making it just as a holiday film at
first. Oh, totally.
Yeah. And I'm still, I'm still
concerned that we're going to, you know, if we're, if we're
lucky enough for the film to break containment, I imagine
we'll be due for a lot of one star reviews from people that
are looking for a a Christmas, Christmas movie and are going to
be sure painfully disturbed by by what they are confronted
with. So I, I'm, I'm, you know, I, I
look forward to, to getting review bombed.
But yeah, I, I definitely, I definitely had the, you know,
you have to have the moment of asking myself like, oh, am I
going to, am I going to make a Christmas movie?
Especially being Jewish. That's the other thing, right?
I mean, I, I fucking love Christmas, I should say.
Like, you know, I really do love it.
And, and having spent my childhood in England, you know,
I love English Christmas so much.
And I, I, I still, you know, every year I try to get in touch
with, in touch with that as, as best I can.
It's a little difficult now that my family is so scattered and,
and my grandparents aren't with us anymore.
But we you know, I Christmas does mean a lot to me, despite
being a a a Jewish person that actually isn't religious and
doesn't celebrate anything but but did grow up celebrating
Hanukkah. And there's a whole scene in
this movie to represent that with Griffin Newman, which is
great. Yes, that's my little, my little
wink, wink and nod there. Yeah.
But but yeah, I did, I did certainly ask myself, like,
what's it going to be like making a Christmas movie?
And then I I again, I kind of went back to this thing of
thinking, well, I'm always looking for, for that kind of,
you know, that's that kind of Christmas movie that's a little
bit different. And so it was a very exciting
prospect to maybe get to be in that conversation.
You know, I feel like this is the kind of thing that if it's
ever discovered and, and, you know, is seen by people, it
feels like the kind of thing that, that I would look for on a
list of, you know, the 15 movies you, you didn't know were
Christmas movies or 15 Christmas movies for people who are sick
of Christmas movies. You know, And then weirdly, I,
I, I think something that I, I want to make sure doesn't get,
get lost in that conversation is that Chet, the main character of
the movie, like we're, we're sort of talking around this and
saying like, oh, it's kind of like an anti Christmas movie.
It's kind of programming. Chet.
Chet fucking loves Christmas. Yeah, nobody.
Nobody loves Christmas more than Chet does, you know?
But it's very much not your typical movie about a guy who
loves Christmas, you know? Yeah, that's what I I love Chet
the character. I especially love when the there
is a moment where a character sees his bedroom.
And we're also, it's also revealed to us that, you know,
Chet is going through a sort of worst person in the world, like
identity crisis at this stage in his life.
Or at least that's the way I, you know, perceived it.
And I felt like he was reckoning between his kind of like naive
optimism about who he's going to be versus this kind of like
disillusionment as an adult trying to find meaning and
tradition without pretending everything's OK, without using
tradition as a coping mechanism. And I think that's kind of going
back to your your point, which it feels both like a, a
celebration of like why tradition might bring the best
out of us to try to find something about the human
spirit, trying to find something about our ability to want things
or to find meaning in the world, But also how tradition can sort
of keep you sedated and muted, 100% stuck.
And so I found that that the movie nailed this balance
between those two tones really beautifully, genuinely.
And I think that you and you really nailed that with the
Czech character and that performance nailed it as well.
Because about halfway through the movie, I did get worried
where I was like, alright, is this just going to like, is Chet
just going to go doubled? He's.
Going to like double down in Christmas and he's going to go
be like the local Santa at his as malls.
It's going to like turn into a really like sour film.
But he has a really beautiful scene with his his mother at the
end that definitely made it worth it.
You know a lot is is due to the directing but also the the the
performance is is wonderful. I mean this this movie has an
insane cast. I like can't believe that I have
this cast. I feel everyday like, how did I
trick all these incredible people into working with me?
But yeah, so we've, we've mentioned Jeff White and and
Sophie Zucker already, who are sort of our, our, our main
leads, especially Jeff. But then I have this incredible
cast of character actors that we were able to, to, to recruit
into the film. So we have these kind of older
guys that populate this, this dive bar and they're really the
only patrons in the bar. And so we have Delaney Williams
and Bryan Anthony Wilson, who I think are most recognizable for
their work on The Wire. Both of them play Baltimore PD
guys on that show. But also, you know, if you look
at their Imdbs, they've got like hundreds upon hundreds of
credits between them. And then Billy Smith, who, who
also plays one of our, our patrons, you know, he's he's a
former Boston police officer who became an actor, you know, many,
many years ago and has made an incredible career playing, you
know, these kind of nuanced, sort of, you know, characters
that draw on that kind of archetype.
And so that's kind of what we, what he does in this film as
well, playing, playing a, a retired firefighter.
But he's, he's been in like a bunch of Scorsese's, like he's,
he's in the departed, he's in the Irishman, you know,
incredible guy, very lucky to have all of them.
And then Wharton Tract who plays our sort of silent, you know,
guy who has basically become furniture, become part of the
bar. He's a musician and, and at one,
at one point, record label owner, record studio owner from
Philadelphia that my producer Brendan Hubbard has has known
for a long time. And then Siobhan Fallon Hogan,
who plays Jeff's mum, Incredibly lucky to have her.
I think, you know, people most would rec.
Yeah, recognize her from, you know, Forrest Gump, Men in
Black, SNL, Seinfeld, just and and a million other things.
I mean, she's worked with Michael Hanukkah and like Lars
von Trier. Like, it's like, it's crazy that
she's in this movie. You know, it's crazy that any of
these people are in this movie. And then rounding out the
younger members of the cast, Casey Wartman, also playing
Casey Wartman and Sophie Zucker both play young women who sort
of stumble into the bar, maybe accidentally in a kind of a
little bit won over by by Chet's charm and sort of stay longer
than than perhaps they intended to.
And then Griffin Newman can't really say who he's playing
without sort of spoiling a moment, but I think sort of cast
against type and, and playing a very different kind of role than
what you might be used to with Griffin.
And, you know, I, I just feel very lucky and, and very
grateful. They're all, they're all
amazing. And then Pamela Jane Morgan, who
I stole right out of the holdovers, you know, we're very
lucky to, to get in contact with her as well.
Yeah, I was going to, I was going to ask you about that one
because I I noticed how she was also, you know, from the
Holdovers we were talking about maybe, you know, discussing the
holdovers on this episode. Actually, it's like one of your
like several inspirations on this film.
But that is an incredible cast. But to to circle on that, that
holdovers point, what is it about?
I I want to hear this from like Adam, the director, but also
Adam, the podcast movie podcaster who's like very in
touch with like what's, you know, what's going on in this
crazy Hollywood system that we're covering like every week?
What do you think it is about this kind of this wave of non
holiday films? Is it the allergy to tradition,
the kind of like conflation of like the rise of conservatism
with like holidays? You know, not to get too deep
into that conversation, but what is it about?
Because there is something about this movie that is like kind of
very satisfying from if you're on a certain political spectrum
that is a little bit skeptical of the holiday traditions
because it's not going back to our point, not to repeat myself,
but it's not exactly an anti holiday movie, but it's not also
like kind of no glorifying holidays in any specific way.
It's kind of just reckoning with, you know, people on a
day-to-day basis who are kind of stuck in a cycle of of holidays
in the in America or in the West.
But what do you think? It is, that's, that's kind of
it. OK.
I, I, I, I think, I think you, you've kind of hit it on the
head there. I, I think the, the holiday
movie industrial complex is something that really relies on
the, you know, universally accepted truth that the holidays
are amazing and that Christmas is incredible and that it's the
most wonderful time of the year. And it's for, for a lot of
people, it isn't, you know, and, and the holidays this time of
year being a time of kind of death and rebirth, you know, the
end of one year, the beginning of another.
It's a very emotionally, you know, potent time of year for a
lot of people where you are forced to kind of takes unless
you do have a wonderful Christmas time, in which case
I'm very happy for you. But perhaps, you know, you, you
might be having the kind of experience where you get into
the end of the year and you're recognizing that your life isn't
maybe where you want it to be. And you're wondering how it is
you got here to begin with. And the new year comes around
and you tell yourself this year will be different and the next
Christmas comes and it's exactly the same as the one before.
And you're still feeling that way.
And I, I think that people yearning a little bit to feel
that reflected in, in the art that they that they enjoy.
And I think that's why the holdovers was so popular when it
came out in in addition to being just brilliantly written and,
and directed and having a amazing performances at its
core. But I think tonally, I think
people are, are, are, are craving that to some degree, or
at least some, some people are. Because that being said, the,
the hallmarks and the Netflix's of the world and, and now
Amazon's getting in on the action as well.
Like those movies do well and they, they do well for a reason.
People, people love them. And I, I, I mean, no, no shade
to them, but they're certainly not what I reach for at this
time of year. No, I agree.
And I think that's like, why? Yeah, I assume that's why The
Holdovers and then your movie are basically the best holiday
movies I've seen in the last like, you know, basically five
years of this of the 20 twenties because they're.
Honored to be compared favorably in that light.
Well, they, they're the most, you know, they're the most kind
of like down to earth, realistic, just presentations of
what it's like to live in a, in a time where it feels like
holidays have become less about tradition and more about
commodities. And you're just kind of like,
yes, good consumerism is like over rotten.
You're just constantly you've said it perfectly and just
constantly re reflecting at the end of the year being like, what
did I do? You know, to to get to this
point as we start the year, which leads me to the final
segment of the conversation, which is I'm going to try to
locate my personal eye of the duck of your film, please.
Would love to hear. It would be a fun exercise
because I'm sure you've reflected on it Maybe or no?
Oh yeah, absolutely. OK.
I mean, I, I, I know what I've, I've known what my eye of the
duck was since since pre production.
You know, that's awesome. I mean, I did, I did because of,
because we host that show and I should say Dom who, who couldn't
be here. He also edited the movie with
me. So the, there's a lot of eye of
the duck DNA in the film between the two of us and Perth working
on this. I, I, I wanted to try and find a
way to craft the film so that someone could make an argument
for just about any scene in the movie.
That's, you know, I think that we've thank you.
I think, I think we've discovered while doing the
podcast is that the other things that we have loved covering the
most tend to be ones where, you know, if there's, if it's Dom
and I and there's a guest on the show, we all have a completely
different scene and we maybe even have a wholly different
take. And but Even so, it, it feels
cohesive. And so when we were in pre
production, I was really conscious of that and, and
trying to think like, what is the what's the argument for this
scene? And I'll say, I'll say this, the
few times I couldn't make an argument, those are actually the
scenes that didn't end up in the movie.
They either didn't get shot or they got shot but they didn't
make the final cut. Wow, that's a good kind of
litmus test to feel like what you want in a movie or what you
feel comfortable with being in your final project.
So for me, for the eye of the duck, my personal eye of the
duck, and then you can tell me I'm like dead wrong, even though
you just said, you know beautifully how every scene
could be the eye of the duck. But one thing that really stuck
out with me, you know how the film kind of treats holidays as
this moment of forced like reflection for self reflection
and chat in particular can't really hide from his
insecurities or his ambitions. You know, the season won't let
him, his job won't let him, his living situation or conditions,
his dating life won't let him. And what really hit for me is
how maybe because I'm, you know, in education as a teacher and
like in how Chet was. And this is probably the only
bar comparison I'll ever make to education.
But like how Chet almost functions like a therapist?
Totally. To so many people and just
watching Wake Up Dead Man recently, I don't know if you've
seen the new Ryan Johnson left it.
Yeah, it's very good. Joshua Connor's priest figure
also kind of goes through this like, you know, navigates this
tough place of looking at his, the the figures he's supposed to
kind of idealize as in there like these prophetic monologue
heavy kind of autocrats. And he's like, I just want to
like help heal people's wounds. And Chet also does that.
A bartender as priest, as mentor, kind of like caretaker
of his community in some way, even though it's very small
clientele at his bar. But there was something very
American about that to me. Or very maybe like just kind of
like a Western dystopian spirituality to that that I felt
like was very on point and very bleak, but very, again, real
about kind of like bars becoming places in the United States
where people confess their sins. And you've got guys, you know,
sitting there watching Fox News and they're drinking their
sorrows away and trying to make sense of who they are and where
their lives went. And you have chat kind of like
pouring their drinks and shots. But he's doing it like, am I
killing these people and not helping them at all?
Like he there's just a sort of guilt he feels throughout the
film, which I I just thought was very powerful getting to my eye
of the duck moment as I'm like realizing this throughout the
movie and getting to about like probably 70 minutes or 60
minutes into the runtime. There's a scene with I I believe
it's Ray, the character Ray. I don't know the actor's name,
Delaney Williams. Yes, he's very good.
And outside of the obvious like David Lynch nightmare sequence,
which is fucking rad by the way, like that was awesome.
Thank you. As kind of an eye eye of the
duck scene. This to me, the scene with Ray
is the eye of the duck scene for me, where, spoiler alert, Chet
helps Ray through some deeply personal stuff is what I'll say.
So light spoilers, His identity, some like kind of societal
induced shame around his identity.
And in that moment, Chet is basically acting as a therapist,
just being there for this guy because he can't be there for
himself to a certain degree. And it feels like the emotional
center of the movie for me. And I just thought it, I thought
it was beautiful. I thought it was like, really?
It was like borderline inspiring where I was like, oh, this is,
you know, there are people working in their day-to-day jobs
who have their own ambitions, but are also just like very
observant, very self aware people who are just trying to
help other people survive as well along their own personal
journeys. That I thought was kind of the
if there was like a holiday spirit of this movie, like it
was in that moment for me when he's trying, he's trying his
best to help Ray, even though Ray's almost, you know, he's
pretty far gone. So I thought that was a It was a
beautiful sequence. I, I love that man.
Thank you for, for that reading. That's, that's really wonderful.
I think Chet, you know, the, he's, he is this therapist to
all these guys. He's also kind of like a
surrogate son, but ultimately their relationship with all of
them, it's based on this transactional thing, you know,
like they, they are there to give him a couple bucks for a
drink and they take so much more than than they have paid for.
And he he offers so much more than than than he gets in
return. And I think it it speaks to who
Chet is as a person. You know, who he is as a
character that he, he cares enough to want to treat these
guys as well as he does and take care of them in the way he does.
And, and ultimately become, I think complicit in, in, in
keeping them from growing in some ways.
But I think you're correct to highlight the the race scene as
a as a moment where like growth almost happens.
Yeah. But I I think Ray is Ray Ray is
is dealing with a lot of, you know, internalized kind of, you
know, despair and self hatred that he he has not figured out
how to get over. And Chet being, you know, the
sweet, naive guy that he is trying to do the right thing and
trying to make make this person feel better.
I think only sort of highlights how, as he said, how how far
gone he is. Yeah, But I mean, that was AII
love that scene. It's, it's also, it's the eye of
the duck. It's, it's the our sound
designer Nick Mercede. It's also his eye of the duck.
It's been fun talking to the, the cast and crew and being
like, so you know, about my show, you know, about eye of the
duck. What do you, what do you think
the eye of the duck is? You know, and, and yeah, people
have different answers, which is, which is really cool and,
and makes me very, very pleased. But but yeah, I mean, I, I like
it's, I think it's, it's my wife's eye of the duck as well.
Actually, oh wow, do you do you want to share yours and keep
that private? I got to keep it private just
because I, I, I, I just think I'll, I'll tell you off mic
actually, but I just think about, you know, death of the
author, you know, I think, I don't think I have the right to
tell you what the, what the eye of the duck scene is.
I respect that. OK, love this conversation, love
the film. Listeners please check it out.
Look in the description of this episode for Adam and Dom's
podcast, but also their new film, Drink and Be Merry.
Adam, what is, you know, the the worst question I ever asked
directors when I get to talk to them on the show?
What is next for you? Obviously, you're very, very
busy with the show. I'm sure you're in a, you know,
you have your hands in different projects.
You're probably trying to get misprint still turned into a
feature, as you brought up earlier.
Maybe you're trying to remake Black Christmas.
If you want to stay in the holiday lane.
I don't know. What are you feeling?
Actually, I quite liked the recent remake with with Imogen
Poots. I thought that was a lot of fun
yes. What am I?
What do what do I have next? It's you know, it's it's a wild
industry. It's the Wild West right now.
So I have a number of films I would love to make.
I would love to make the feature length version of misprint.
We got a great new draft of the script that I'm, I'm really
hyped up on. And then there's a couple of
other scripts that I'm sort of, you know, attached to that I
would, I would love to, I would love to get made.
But it really is entirely dependent on what kind of shape
the industry takes and, and who is interested in collaborating
with us and, and working on financing with us.
You know, that's just the reality of making making these
micro budget independent films is that you, you need people who
want to make them. And I'm, I'm, I'm ready.
You know who who if you're out there and you you want to get
involved, I'm around.