Hello and welcome to Big Gay Energy.
I'm Caitlin. And I'm Fiora.
Come along with us while we dive into the fun and nuances of
queer media. Representation matters, and
we're. Here to talk about it.
Cheers, queers. We're back with another super
fun interview. Today we are talking to Yolo
Martinez and Nick Zimlow, who created the new web series High
Stakes. Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you for having us. So excited.
We are so excited to talk to you guys.
So we got to see the pilot and listeners at home.
You haven't seen it yet, so could you guys explain to our
audience what High Stakes is about and also what inspired the
project? Yeah.
Do you want to go next? Sure.
So Yolo's actually the originator of the series and she
brought me on to help with the script and then I just dove into
the whole world with her and now it's I think both of our our
little like project child. But it basically follows a
Monster Hunter named Medi Soul who accidentally falls in love
with a vampire named Sitwali because they bump into each
other, both covered in blood. And Mirasol thinks they're both
monster hunters and Salali thinks they're both vampires.
And so they fall for each other under this like, mistaken
identity. And then the rest of the episode
follows, like, Medisol and her brother go to a call about
vampires, and then they bump into each other and they realize
the mistake that they made. And, you know, through a series
of events, eventually, Marisol and Sillali end up fighting each
other one-on-one, and the fight ends with a kiss.
And then we, the rest of the series, dive into their dating
life and the, like, navigating this new relationship with these
diametrically opposed backgrounds of, like, Monster
Hunter and vampire. And we're also planning on
getting more into like other types of monsters and, you know,
exploring that queer identity and, and we really want to just
like showcase diverse characters with diverse backgrounds is like
the goal, not only the diverse characters, but a a diverse crew
to go with the cast. So that's really important to
us. Yeah.
And what inspired this? Honestly, this whole thing came
about through a college script writing class.
Like I was, I was taking a script writing class.
Let me, let me just put that out there.
I am by no way means a writer. Like I know where my limits are
and writing is not one of them. So I wrote this because my I was
having such a hard time thinking of a concept and my professor
was just like, just write something you would want to
watch. And I was like, that is so true.
So I decided and it came about just like I want to see more
fantasy stuff because a little bit about me, I personally love
the fantasy genre. I grew up with the fantasy
genre. Like my mom was a really big
fantasy head. So like I grew up with like Van
Helsing, Twilight, all vampire movies.
So I was like, I'm going to make something vampire.
And and I was like, and at that time in my life, I needed like a
cute little love story. So I was like, let's make it
about a Monster Hunter 'cause I, I just had watched First Kill
and I was so sad that it got cancelled.
So I was like, Oh my God, let me, let me, let me continue on
this trope. And I really loved it.
So honestly, that's how high stakes came to be.
And I decided queer, queer women, because I was like, we
need more diverse characters not only on screen, but off screen.
And I think it was important for us to tell a story that like
wasn't a coming out story and wasn't like coming to terms with
being queer. It's like we're, that's just a
part of it. Like it, it's like how in any
queer person's life, it's like, that's not the drama that's
going on in my life. Like that's, that's a, that's a
side dish to, to the main event, you know?
Yeah. And for me personally, I
personally as a woman of color wanted to see more women of
color in this specific genre because I feel like this genre
and specifically is very not diverse.
Or if it is diverse, it's usually the people of color
dying first or or the villain. So I just wanted to spin people
of color in a more positive light within this genre.
And just have fun, just like have a good time, like really
feel good media. Yeah, 'cause I I don't know
about you guys, but times are tough now and we need, we need
some silly little vampires and I also just love fake blood, so I.
That was a huge thing is like Yolo told me going into this.
She's like, I made way too much fake blood for a photo shoot and
now I need a project that uses a lot of fake blood.
That was part of the goal, too. Yeah, like if you look into my
fridge you would think I would. Insane.
I have like buckets and buckets of fake blood in my fridge that
I can't wait to use. So do you currently have fake
blood in your fridge? I do.
Do you want to see it? Do you want?
To see it. That is totally up to you, OK?
Hold on. Can you hear me?
Yeah, I can. This is just one out of.
Many. Oh my gosh, yeah.
I mean. It's huh it's corn syrup based
because my biggest fear is getting fake blood and my actors
getting it in their eyes or in their mouth and having it be
toxic so I decided to make it food grade.
Yeah, it's fully edible. It is fully edible, yeah.
That's that's awesome. Yeah.
I I did a project in school for basic film and I used ketchup
because it wasn't serious. It was literally telling the
story through pictures. And my teacher told me to never
do that again. That's crazy to create fake
blood. I'm like, OK, but it wasn't
supposed to be serious. Yeah, we were nice and goofy.
Not me though, I have the too much gene so I always be doing
the most. It's true.
Which is wonderful and that's why we even got to this point of
you making it and being here. And everything you just talked
about is something that we rant about and care so much about on
our podcast. And that's why we thought you
would just be such a great fit. So yes, what was the process
like for getting the production together for the show?
Oh. Jesus.
Christ, I was brought onto the project actually quite a ways in
to what was like the original production.
So y'all, I don't know if you wanna like start off at the
beginning 'cause that's that was all you.
God, let me just say, as much as I am proud of the final product,
getting to that was a complete, complete and utter mess.
Like if it was it genuinely the motto of the of the pilot of the
filming of the pilot was if it's not one thing, it's another.
So not only did the script had like several rewrites during the
entire. Production major rewrites.
Yeah, you know, we had a crew dropping out left and right.
We had, you know, locations dropping on us.
So ultimately, this production was a true testament to, like,
indie filmmaking and, you know, being able to, like, think on
your feet and just, like, create solutions where, you know,
problems arose. But originally, it started
senior year. I was working at this production
company called 22 W Media and they were supposed to help me
produce it because not only did they have the resources, but
they had a lot of gear. But because of, you know, like I
said before, major script, free rights after availability and
just like overall crew dropping left and right.
I remember at this point I was only a stunt coordinator on the
project cuz I actually have combat stage combat background.
So I was just helping out with that at the time.
And I remember like it was days before, I think like a day or
two before the original shoot dates and it all got cancelled
and we no let. Me.
Let me rephrase that. It was the night before.
OK, yeah, the night before it was like, and everything's
called off, like don't show up. Like it's not happening, which
was because like I think like 80% of the crew either didn't
respond or dropped like the day before.
And so, and it was also senior the last semester of college for
both of us and some of the other members on the team.
So it was, it was very busy. There were other like big school
projects going on. So I think after that, after it
got cancelled, it kind of we had to like reset and had to go
about it a new way and, and, and start from scratch in a lot of
ways. Yeah, like nothing was ever more
stressful than getting that phone call from one of my
producers being like, so nobody's answering, I don't know
if you want to take that shot. And I was like, well, what do
you think, 'cause I'm just like, I'm over here freaking out.
And she was like, honestly, I don't think it's worth it.
But because of that we had to push back filming dates and I
graduated so I no longer had access to not only the company
but to like the resources. So we were basically starting
from like 0. I remember the moment that I
became a producer on the project is like, Yola was talking to me
and I'm like, so what's going on?
Like how are we? And she's like, it's you and me.
That's it. That's all we've got.
And I was like, well, then you don't need.
At the time I was also supposed to be kind of like not an
intimacy coordinator because I don't have like the, for like
the qualifications for that, but I did have some research
experience with it through my senior project.
So I was supposed to just be like a third party for the
actors for that. And I was like, you don't need
an intimacy coordinator right now.
You need a producer. So I'm going to step down from
that role. I'm going to come on to produce
and we'll find someone else to do that.
And, and that's how I got more directly involved with like
production outside of just stunt coordinating.
And, and that's when we really started from scratch again and
had to pull together like a new crew.
Luckily, all the cast stayed the same.
Our cast have been amazing. They've been with us through the
start. They so have because I was like
throwing, crying, screaming, throwing up because I was like,
we're going to have to recast. And I personally hate the
casting process. So I'm just like, I don't want
to have to do that. I don't want to have to do that.
And I feel like at that point too, like because they've been
so many rehearsals, because we almost shot at one point, it was
kind of like the cast already owned those characters.
So to have to like it was really important to us to to pick new
dates and to to keep our cast that we already had.
Because I think anyone else coming in would the characters
would have completely changed being being somebody else, you
know, and you. Didn't want to risk having to do
another rewrite. Yeah.
Well, it worked out. Yeah, yes, it got it all came
together in the end, which I, I, I remember even in the editing
process, scenes were changing. I was like, listen, we did not
get like everything we needed for that scene.
Like I'm going to do my best with with the editing I can do
to put a story together. And I, I remember the first time
we viewed it all together after the color correction and the
sound design and, and everything.
And we were like, I can breathe again.
We actually made something, it actually worked out.
And, and I'm super proud of what we what we pulled together.
And I think the episodes to come are only going to get better
because I I know for sure we learned so much from from doing
this problem. Oh my God.
I can give you like an encyclopedia of things that I
learned. Oh my God.
Yeah. No, it genuinely this this pilot
episode has been a testament to like indie filmmaking and
genuinely putting our degrees to work essentially.
And look, you got a full-fledged pilot out of it and many more
episodes in the works, which is super, super exciting.
So let's let's go back to the pilot for a second.
So you mentioned give us a little rundown about what it's
about. So we've seen it and the
protagonists are Metasol and Sidlale.
They seem to be opposites in many different ways.
How would you describe these two characters and their dynamic
with each other? I feel like like Medisol is a
little bit more like the reserved strong type and sit
Lolly's a bit more of like a party girl and like a little
more, I don't know, I guess like flamboyant is, is one way you
could describe it. Like she's a she's got a little
more spice to her. And, and I think like the
dynamic between them, they're both, it's kind of like you were
saying, like it's a little bit of that like opposites attract,
like they really balance each other out and kind of complement
each other. And I, I think it's also for,
for both of them kind of like this new exciting thing for Medi
Soul. It's like breaking a lot of
boundaries for her of like she has all these preconceived
notions that like monsters are terrible, I must kill them all
kind of thing. So it's really a revelation for
her with her morals and like changing as a person.
Whereas for Sid Lally, she's been around hundreds of years
and there's not a lot of stuff that's new to her.
But I think, you know, being with a human and something about
she gets like this like spark, which she gets to talk about a
little bit more in the second episode.
But she feels this like kind of love at first sight moment with
Mehdi Soul. And I feel like that is new to
her. And that's what's interesting to
her about the relationship and kind of pulls her in, rather
than just her being like, oh, it's just another human girl,
you know? Personally, they're giving me
Black Hat and golden retriever. Enemies.
Which I love. Yum.
No, I love that. Totally, totally.
It's always a fun dynamic. Always also enemies to.
Lovers, are you kidding? Yes, yeah.
No, that is the. Best juicy enemies to lovers?
Yup. Or lovers to enemies to lovers.
Yes, all of it. OK, so we have to talk about the
meat. Cute over bleach pens.
What was that concept? How did that become what it was?
Yeah, so for everyone listening, the very first scene, they're
both going to buy bleach pens and they bump into each other.
And then instead of Medi still having to buy her own, Sillali
ends up giving her one of the ones that came in her pack and
that's how they meet each other. But that all originated from
Yolo, so I'll I'll let her spill on how that came to be.
Again, so I was in script writing class and I knew that I
wanted to write a comedy because, you know, for further
context, me and Nick's were did our senior project together and
up until that point I had been doing a lot of dramas and I'm
like, that's not who I am as a person.
I'm very silly goofy. So I was like what?
You know, I personally, I think the horror genre in it of itself
is such a funny like like, I don't know if about you guys,
but I saw nose fraud too recently and I was cracking the
hell up because it was just so funny.
So with that in mind, I was like, you know what would be so
funny? A vampire going to buy like
bleach. And I was like what would be
even funnier a bleach or like a tide pen.
We we use bleach pen cuz copyright.
We didn't want like the branding and.
Yeah, yeah. So I thought it would be
hilarious having this meet queue.
Originally it was supposed to be at ACVS, but that didn't end up
happening. That that was one of the
rewrites that happened, like on set.
It was like, oh, we're not gonna get to go inside, so it's now
happening outside the building. Like, yeah, that was the whole
thing. In my head, I had originally
want them like, have it to be a lot more awkward, have, you
know, the like displays and having it spilled all over.
And I thought it would have been really funny.
So honestly, I just thought it would be funny.
A vampire going for bleach. Yeah, just like having to deal
with the stains of that that come with every meal for a.
Yeah, 'cause like, why is it like every, every vampire movie?
They're like so clean. I'm like, there's bodily fluids
going everywhere. Exactly.
It's just it just seemed like a very practical thing and from
both of those characters, they're just a very funny and
clever like meet cute. So well done there.
Thank you. All right, so Speaking of the
script, so as you mentioned, like at least the pilot episode,
it focuses on vampire monster hunting that you said there
might be more different types of monsters later on when you were
creating the world. How did you choose just focusing
on the vampire part? How did you choose which like
lore to include? Because in the pilot, like they
need to be welcomed into into crossing thresholds.
And like, how did you decide what to include, what not to
include for your like monsters? In general, we really wanted to
go like classic vampire. So like, and, and I think for
the most part, we're kind of like any vampire trope that we
can work in or like make work in this script, we wanted to do
that. So there's like the garlic
powder, there's silver handcuffs, there's the entry to
the doorway, a stake to the heart.
And so I think we were just, we're both love vampire media,
but I know like we, we thought a lot about like Twilight and what
we do in the shadows. Vampire Diaries.
Vampire Diaries, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
So we we kind of pulled all of our favorite little bits from
all of our favorite vampire media.
Yeah. So, Speaking of favorite vampire
media, if Pie Stakes had a crossover with any other vampire
slash, monster Monster Hunter series or movie, what would it
be and why? Oh that's such a great question.
A part of me, a part of me wants to say like The Vampire Diaries
only because the the the actress who plays Seat Lolly literally
every 5 minutes cannot stop bringing up Vampire Diaries.
She loves vampires. Like, I sort of obsessed, like,
I kid you not, she's always like, so when are we gonna have
a Vampire's Diary reference? And I'm like, girl, I don't even
like Vampire Diaries like that. I personally my like what I just
because of the sentimental value and like it takes itself so
seriously but is actually so silly goofy.
I would say twilight because I just think it is like the most
ridiculous thing. Like I watch twilight for the
laughs like I and like that was like growing up through middle
school and it and it being so popular and everyone was like
die hard fans of it. Like I remember I went to the
first release of Breaking Dawn Part 2 and it wasn't just the
movie. I showed up at 8:00 in the
morning and sat with the theatre people and we watched the entire
series to then the very first premiere of the last movie.
So like Twilight was just a big part of me growing up and now I
look back on it and I'm like, why are these vampires so
Mormon? Like let's let's make good
vampire media that's not like about some like crazy stalker
and straight people and stuff like, but I think it would be
really funny to have some like sparkly vampires taking
themselves way too seriously around our our more grounded
classic vampires. I feel like we have a very
different vibe to the vampires we chose.
I think that that conflict would be interesting.
I would have to add also Interview with a Vampire, but
the new one, the recent I would love.
I would do anything and everything to have Lestat and
Sidlalli and Pierre interact like I I need that to happen
because Pierre, Pierre and Lestat one of the same.
They're so dramatic, and for what?
It's true. I personally would vote for
First Kill 'cause I would like to see the monster Monster
Hunter family interact, those families interacting and then
like the vampires. Interacting First Kill.
I did watch First Kill and like it.
There's so much, so many, I think like accidental parallels
between. Yeah, totally.
Yeah. I love first kill.
Oh. It's so.
Good. It's so good.
It. Wasn't sad, it's sad with prime.
Yeah. My only critique of it is that
why are they like? Why are they all centered around
high school like? Well, thank you.
Yes. I know, can we just be in
college? I agree.
Just be. In college.
That is one of my ransom media in general, like because a lot
of times in American media, they have high school kids doing what
college kids do and it's like just put them in college and
you, you're like universe expands so much by just
standing. With actual adults, literally.
And then no one has to be uncomfortable doing like those
intimacy scenes. And it's like, oh, right, I know
that this actor's 30, but they're pretending to be 17
right now and I'm uncomfortable, right?
Exactly, Yeah. Yeah, that's true.
OK, so let's age up the first, kill people into college and
then have high stakes, First Kill and Carmilla all come
together. Yes.
Oh my God, yes. Can you imagine?
Laura Hollis? Oh my.
God, Oh my God, yes. I personally think Laura, Hollis
and Marisol look he might be besties.
I agree. I can see that for sure.
That'll be so fun. Damn.
OK, All right. Away from Carmilla, sadly.
OK, so let's go back to the pilot for a second.
So in the pilot, there's multiple fight scenes that
happen, so how did you approach the fight choreography when
putting the pilot together? So as I said earlier, I was the
stunt coordinator. I actually went to college
twice. So right out of high school, I
went to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, where I
majored in acting. It's a strictly performing arts
school and they only have, at the time I went there, they only
had three majors, I believe they have 4 now.
But it was acting, musical theatre and dance, and I was in
the acting program and you kind of choose an extracurricular
track for that. And there's a few different
directions you could go. But I decided to go with stage
combat because it was really exciting and something I hadn't
done prior to that. And so because I stuck with
that, the two years that I was at that school actually did my
last semester, I took a like stunt coordinator board
certified test saying that I was qualified to teach in the
unarmed combat. So I was also trained with like
rapier and dagger and broadsword and like a lot of other fun
stuff, but I'm just qualified for unarmed combat.
So when Yolo came to me with this idea for a script and we
were writing in the fight scenes and stuff, I had in mind that I
was like, due to our limited resources, I'm going to be
leading these fight scenes because I at least have some
semblance of knowing what I'm doing rather than just like be
like, OK, go hit each other. But so they we had to teach the
actors how to keep themselves safe during these fights and
talk a lot about like how to maintain distance.
So even when you're, you know, throwing punches, you're not
close enough to that other person to hit them.
And considering like, what camera angle angle are we going
to be shooting at so that the choreography can lend itself to
wherever the camera is going to be positioned.
And we did have to originally the the party scene fight where
Sid Ali and Marisol run into each other for the second time
was originally at a movie theater.
And we this was during when we were still in school and we had
access to one of the theaters at the school.
And we had actually choreographed the whole thing
with rehearsals in the theater. And then, you know, production
got kind of cancelled for a moment.
We had to wait till after graduation.
We read it, redid things. And now the fight scene that you
see in the final product happens in my apartment.
It's actually the high stakes party apartment.
Oh, sorry. I got my dog splayed out on the
couch right there. But but we had to redo, we kept
the heart of the fight choreography you had already
done. We had to place it in a new
setting and rework everything. Make sure that, you know, we had
to remove furniture from the room to make it more spacious,
so it was safer for the actors to do their combat.
And overall, all of the actors did really well with combat.
They were great at listening and and learning something new.
I think they're all really excited to try some combat.
So overall, I feel like the combat was one of the things we
actually struggled with the least.
It was it was probably one of the the smoother parts of
production. Yeah.
Was there a specific moment during production where you
thought like, yes, This is why we're making this?
I don't know about for Nix, but oh give me a second Nix Hugo
verse. OK, I think filming the last
scene where Citlali and Marisol have their first kiss that day
we were working with an intimacy coordinator who is Absolutely
Fabulous. Her name's Myra.
But she was so professional and so good at what she does.
And even though we just had like a kiss and most people wouldn't
hire an intimacy coordinator for that, it was very important to
Yolo and I to protect our actors and make sure that they were
comfortable. And also knowing that like
they're both more green actors, like they're newer and they're
still in college and school and like still developing their
careers just like us, we really want to make sure they were
protected and we weren't exploiting them in any sort of
way. So we had an all non male crew,
so mostly women, but like personally I'm non binary and
also, well, not that day that we were filming, but we had a non
binary sound person as well. But just keeping men out of the
environment because we didn't want it to feel like a bunch of
men watching 2 girls kiss, like that idea made us uncomfortable.
And it was also something that the actors said they would feel
more comfortable if there were no men in the room during that
portion. So I just felt like working with
Myra and having that day on set, I, I was really like, this is
the atmosphere that I want to create and work with.
Like I want to be in a world where like we're keeping actors
safe and putting them first. Even a super low budget
production, we managed to scrape together the funds to hire an
intimacy coordinator, protect them and we listened to them
and, and wanted to give them a space where they felt the most
comfortable. There was also some really fun
fight choreo that day. And I felt like that kiss is
really the, the climax that we fight for, for the whole thing.
So not only from a narrative perspective, but also from
perspective of what we're trying to cultivate in this, like very
like diverse and caring film crew.
I just felt like that was a really good culmination for us.
So I really enjoyed filming that day.
And I felt like that was like, yes, like, this is what I want
to do more of. I know Yolo for you.
That was a particularly stressful day.
You would not feel like that on that day.
But you can share your version. No.
Yeah. That day.
For me specifically was extremely rough, but but I would
have to say like the moment I knew I was doing something right
wasn't particular when we were shooting.
It was it was after I was covering or I was helping out at
this Film Festival and I, you know, was talking to, you know,
some of the other volunteers and you know, we started like
swapping projects or whatever. And I met this one girl, her
name is Magnemar. Amazing, lovely shout out to
her. But she basically said something
to me, something along the lines of like, I can't believe you're
doing it. Like, like that is so
impressive, 'cause I was, I honestly, I was kind of just
like completely negative about the experience.
I was like, this happened, XYZ happened.
And she was like, OK, but you are a Mexican woman doing it in
this room. You know, you're like, it's kind
of inspiring that you're like making your own path when this
industry notoriously doesn't give women like you
opportunities. And that's where I was like, oh
shit, you're right. You're right.
I should be grateful for this. And, and then after that, like
my, my mentality changed and I was like, you know what, we're
doing it. We're here.
Yeah, I feel like we both suffer a bit from that imposter
syndrome sometimes of like I'm just running around with the
camera being silly like, but at the end of the day, like if
you're making film, you're in the film industry, no matter
like how small a production might be your or low budget or,
or how new you might be to all of it.
Like at the end of the day, we did that and we're continuing to
do that and it's the start of a career, not the end.
So, you know, it's we're only going to continue to grow.
So I think that's exciting. Yeah, sorry, I didn't know if
you're asking it or if you're deleting it.
I'm should I ask this? Actually, they just answered it.
Yeah, you're good. Well.
I am so glad that you did make it.
I mean, you've been through so much.
It's natural to be like feel negative about it because
everything is so fresh. But it's definitely nice to have
that positive reassurance from people being like, yeah, but but
you're here and you did it. And it's also so great to hear
how passionate you were about protecting the actors.
And this just proves that no production has an excuse not to
protect. Actors.
Absolutely. Can I just, can I just make a
note about Anora I? That whole press tour was a
goddamn mess in my head. I'm just like, I can't believe
like, us being a very, very, very low production made better
strides to make sure that their actors were comfortable.
Sure, I'm not gonna speak for Mikey and her experience, but to
me it just felt really wrong of the production to to just kind
of like make her feel like she didn't need it, you know what I
mean? Yeah.
I don't know, intimacy court. Intimacy coordinators are so
important, not just for the actors, but for the crew.
My biggest thing? And from my experience, really
wonderful people. Oh.
No, she was so wonderful. Like, it wasn't like she made it
overtly complicated. She made it very simple because
I at that point hadn't or like directed an intimate scene.
So I needed that support for me personally, and I wanted to make
sure my actresses were wonderful, especially because of
the subject matter. Like my biggest thing going into
this was like, how do we write intimate scenes in a way that
isn't exploiting or fetishizing? It's a.
Really delicate line, especially when you're working with two
women because it's so commonly fetishized.
So I think like we've really tried to be protective of them
and make sure we're not contributing in the wrong way.
Yeah, especially like Nick said before, our actresses are, you
know, younger and newer, so we didn't want to set them up to
fail, essentially. And that's amazing.
Yeah, intimacy coordinators are definitely very much needed.
I'm very glad that they're becoming more well recognized.
We had the opportunity to talk to the intimacy coordinator from
Red, white and Royal Blue, and he really told us more about the
industry. And even just like hand holding
or someone like touching a shoulder, like all of that is
included in intimacy coordinating things that you
wouldn't normally think about. Yes, and I, I think something
that was great with Myra was like, not only was she there to
be like that third party that can advocate for the actors, but
and and you know, someone to show up with like mint and
toothbrushes and like stuff like that.
But she was really great with like, OK, so how do you see this
scene? How do you want it to feel?
And then walking through like the specific choreography of it.
I think there's just like a lot of details that, you know, it
was her job to make sure they were recognized and they very
easily would have been unaddressed if we didn't have
that that intimacy coordinator there.
So I think that's part of the reason it's so important is
like, even if you think you know what you're doing, it's not your
profession and you're going to miss details if you don't have
someone there to support you with it.
Totally. We talked about like you, how
you scrape together the budget for an intimacy coordinator.
So you're basically working with zero budget and like, that's a
huge challenge. Like kudos to you for making it
happen. Were there any creative
solutions or even unexpected opportunities that came about
from not having the funds to like, maybe do exactly what you
wanted to do? We had we raised a few $100
through GoFundMe. Honestly kind of a flop of a
GoFundMe campaign. We did not reach our goal, but I
think that really had to do with us being like kind of new to
that crowdsourcing and not going about it the best way.
I've been doing a lot of research on crowdfunding for our
next episodes because we we cannot go broke again.
So we're actually going to be working with Seed and Spark in
the future, which if you haven't heard of it is really great
fundraising platform specifically built for film.
So we're in the process right now of getting a Seed and Spark
campaign going for episode 2. So look out for that.
Make sure that you come support us when we when we get there.
But for episode 1, a big chunk of how we paid for intimacy
coordination was a collective that Yolo got accepted to, which
was the Undocumented film makers collective.
And they gave us a donation that essentially covered the the
coordination. So I don't know you'll if you
want to speak anymore about the experience you've had with them,
but they were a great support to us.
No, yeah, they were extremely wonderful.
They're very, they're very big on finding creative solutions.
So they were kind of just advising me, you know, mostly
reassuring me because at that point I was just like, I don't
know if I can do this. And they were just overall
helpful answering any questions I possibly had.
And, you know, we're graciously, we're so gracious enough to give
us that money that was needed for the intimacy coordinator.
Cuz that honestly, that's what that and the location where this
kiss happened were our biggest expenses.
Yeah. Well, I'm glad it all came
together. Yeah, it's amazing.
So being a podcast that focuses on queer media, welcome.
I want to know, just in your own words, why queer representation
is important to you and why you decided to make a queer focused
pilot and project. Yola, do you want to go?
Yes, you want me? To go ahead.
Queer representation to me is honestly so viably important,
especially being a woman of color.
I personally feel that all representation matters, but you
know, to have this representation, you have to
represent all aspects of life. My biggest thing with media in
general, especially portraying Latino people, is that we're
kind of just like set in one box.
And in when writing the script or writing the idea, it kind of
just led to that. The how I wanted to break away
from stereotypical how Latino people are shown and also how
queer people are shown because I feel like those two, those two
types and Co not only coexist but help each other out.
If there's more Latino representation there, there's an
opportunity for more queer representation in a more
positive light. So honestly, representation is
everything to me because it not only reflects how I live but I
just want to see overall more stories of me and my friends.
And I remember when we were writing this together, you told
me like one that we wanted to post it to YouTube to make it
super accessible and, and Yolo. I remember you talking about
kind of doing it for little you like a younger version of you
and and wanting to give yourself that representation that you
didn't get to have. Growing.
Yeah. No, honestly.
It's huge. High stakes, honestly, for me is
just healing that inner 13 year old in me because at that age,
you know, everything's going on, you know, you're discovering so
much about yourself and, you know, I.
It's not that I didn't have the representation I wanted, like
Carmilla, huge inspiration for me.
Like, again, 13 year old me was raving, going crazy over it.
But, you know, a part of me always felt like, yeah, this is
great, but she doesn't look like me.
Or these characters do not, you know, reflect how I.
Grew up and also putting it on YouTube is representation
because I grew up not financially well off.
So having it on YouTube, I'm hoping with the series that, you
know, some little 13 brown girl sees this and it's like, wow, I
can do it. Yeah, that's.
Amazing. And for me, I feel like queer
media's important for the representation for people
feeling seen and heard and seeing your stories reflected on
screen, seeing something you're able to relate to.
Like ultimately at the end of the day, that's why we watch
stuff, is to relate to it and to feel something.
And from a like strictly from a writing perspective, it is so
boring to see more as straight people, like we've seen straight
people in every direction, every flavor, like let's go do
something interesting, let's go do something different.
There's so much more to this life and this world to explore
when you start breaking away from those typical boxes that we
see. So I think it's, I think there's
just no reason not to write queer media.
Like it's real life. It's exciting.
People like this exist. People like this want to see
themselves on screen, screen and there's just no reason not to do
it, especially as a queer person.
Like it's, it's not so much like I'm going out of my way to do
it. I'm just listening to what I
want to see on screen and like to my heart and my passions and
my life. You know, it's, it's like if I
guess it's like a, a straight person would never even consider
not writing straight people because that's like the life
they experience, right? Or it'd be very awkward or going
out of their way to write someone not straight.
I feel like it's the same way for me where it's like, well,
I'm queer. Of course I'm going to write
queer characters. I mean.
That's preferable for us as well.
I guess too literally all of that.
Yeah, I'm again, thank you for adding to the representation and
all the care and time you took into this project and continuing
to how can people help support high stakes?
Follow us on our social media so you can find us most places
where on most sites. I think at this point high
stakes dot series or. Even on.
Tumblr. YouTube, TikTok and I think our
big platform right now, we can our most established platform
would be our Instagram. So you can see a lot of our
behind the scenes and different like interviews with the actors
and stuff like that. So follow us on a different
social media, watch the first episode of high stakes on our
YouTube, watch it, comment like, subscribe to the channel.
Those are all great ways to support us and when you're
following our our Instagram or whatever, have you look out for
our upcoming Seed and Spark campaign and even the the
smallest donations are going to really help and just like
spreading and and sharing the word to help make episode 2 also
come to life. Period.
All right, well, you heard it. You heard it here first, folks,
go out, go check out High Stakes and follow the program and we'll
be looking out for your seed Sparks thing.
That's great that you guys are doing that.
We're very excited to see more of this series as you kind of
like dive into this world you're building.
It's very, very exciting. We personally want to thank you
for being here today. Those are all of our questions.
Thank you for answering them in depth and with so much passion.
We appreciate that. Is there anything you'd like to
say to our listeners at home before we like sign off today
other than support you? Just thank you so much for
listening and, and being interested and, you know,
supporting our media, but also supporting you guys and, and I
think like we all make a really nice community together and it
doesn't happen without people wanting to watch and listen.
So thank you to all those people.
Yeah. Thank you so much.
Not only you guys, but listeners out there, you know, we go
further together. So ultimately, you know, we got
to support each other and watch vampire media so Hollywood,
Hollywood can make more of it because.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Vampire not cancelled. Yeah, cancelling things.
Yeah, stop cancelling good vampire representation.
Oh my God. Yes, bring back first kill.
Please bring back first kill. Oh.
My God all. Right.
Well, thank you both again. It was a really pleasure talking
to you. And until next time, hydrate for
lesbian Jesus everyone. Woo.
Hoo and gay it up all over the place.
And with that, we've been big gay energy.
Thank you for listening. We'd really appreciate it if you
downloaded this episode and left us a review.
No matter how brief, your contribution will help us reach
a wider audience. We would love to hear from you
about everything and anything. You can find us on all social
media platforms at Big Gay Energypod or e-mail us at Big
gayenergypod@gmail.com. Join our Discord server to
connect with us and our friends who also love queer media.
The link to join is in our episode description.
Below, if you'd like to support us, check out our merch store on
Big Gay energypod.com or join our Patreon for early access to
episodes, exclusive content, and so much more.
Until next time, hydrate from lesbian.
Jesus and get it up all over the place.