Andy Hodgson
Join us on an illuminating journey through the lens of cinematography as Andy Hodgson, a seasoned Cinematographer and Producer with over 150 credits on IMDb, sits down with host Kyle McCachen of Set Tracker. Together, they delve into the ever-evolving world of filmmaking, exploring the intersection of A.I., artistry, technology, and career growth.
In this episode, Andy and Kyle explore the captivating realm of Artificial Intelligence in film. Discover how A.I. is reshaping the cinematic landscape as a producer and accept that it is here to stay. Gain insights into staying ahead in the industry, with Andy sharing his wealth of experience and offering valuable advice on promoting your career as a visual artist.
Behind the Scenes by Set Tracker is not just a podcast; it's a rendezvous with the minds shaping the future of filmmaking. We are here to shine a light on talent in the industry and hope to inspire others to be bold in their film and TV careers. Don't miss out on the latest episodes. Subscribe on Spotify and share the love of film. Connect with us on social media @SetTracker, @andhod23, and @stokeshow to join the conversation and stay updated on all things cinematic.
Transcript below.
Set Tacker Today, I'm thrilled to introduce our guest. Your experience, Andy, with cinematography and the entire camera department is impressive. I love it. It includes darker movies like thrillers and also some comedies, like the very first Letterkenny videos. Thank you for joining me.
Andy Thank you for having me, Kyle.
Set Tacker So to start, I'd like to mention this interview is brought to you by Set Tracker, where I hope our discussion can shine a light on filmmakers and possibly inspire others to be bold in pursuing their creative aspirations. Now, to kick things off, I'd like to ask you if you thought that your career would turn out this way when you started?
Moreover, did you envision reaching that? Did you envision reaching the heights you have where you've worked with some of Canada's top actors?
Andy Man That's a good question because I had to. I was never really intrigued with film as as I grew up as a young kid. I grew up in Central America with no television, so it wasn't like movies or, you know, cartoons or things like that were kind of in my presence as an early age. But I sort of fell in love with the arts when I landed in Vancouver and started going to Capilano Film School. Did two years there in Graduate. And then I found this sort of this I my I just kind of fell in love with lighting and and, you know, framing and what you could do with the camera and movement.
So that's kind of where I discovered the passion for filmmaking and specifically cinematography.
Set Tacker And that's amazing. I went to cap, too, and I'm the same way. I didn't initially think I was going to be a filmmaker. I was snowboarding and then I went to film school and I fell in love with it when I was about 20, I had been filming, but I didn't fall in love until I was a young adult.
So your online portfolio is great and I think you've got a very unique style comedians, singers, filmmakers. I think they all have this challenge of how do they market themselves when they're trying to be a professional and be creative. Do you how does this challenge how does this how do you feel about this challenge in your career? Oh, the creativity.
Andy That's one of the toughest, because I think it's you know, you're putting out work that speaks for yourself and it's your message and it's things that you love and and are kind of holding the air to. And then for people to kind of take a look at and judge or like or dislike. You know, so I think in a way there's got to be a bit of a disconnect to the art at times where you sort of release it to the to the world.
And that's sort of what all you could do to it, because then it sort of has a leg, it's got its own legs. And I think creatively it's tough. It's, you know, you've got to stay relevant, you got to stay current. I mean, you and I come from the non Instagram game, the you know, the the TikTok, the YouTube.
And so I think it's kind of like learning a little bit of what sort of the younger generation is doing and also seeing what the older generation has been up to and being kind of stuck in the middle and playing ball with both. I think that's really important to stay relevant and current.
Set Tacker You know, you're so good. Like I think you had such a great style. That was how I recognized you before We met was from your great photos and your image of yourself to you've put really great photography of yourself on there with. To me, it jumps out as being somebody who is an artist.
How do you think about how do you think about creating that persona?
Andy Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, I, I kind of separated myself a little bit. I like to dabble in a little bit of everything. And as you can see, some of those photos are definitely high end photos, you know, taken time modeling photos. And so I think for everything that I do, it kind of challenges me.
And I've learned a lot through even those photos of the crazy haircuts and some of the modeling photos of like being in front of the camera because I'm always behind the camera. So I now feel what an actor feels. I'm now you know, being lit. I'm now being told I'm now being told to direct. So even though some friends of mine are like, Well, that's so outrageous, I'm like, But this is me.
Like, I like to explore a little bit of everything. I'm not shy to to play within the medium. And I think that's a good way to separate myself. You know, you see other cinematographers or producers, they kind of just post their movies or things, you know, maybe you don't see their faces on there. But I think for me, it's relationship building.
You know, I think it's important for people to see me who for who I am and the style that I bring. And, you know, sometimes it might be intimidating, but at other times it pays off because they're like, Wow. Like, exactly like what you said. Like, you're so cool in your style. And I think it's important for people to see who they want to work with, not just their work of, like, beautiful images.
And I think I bring a unique style with some good flair. And you can tell that through those images. Certainly. Certainly. I think there's a lot of truth to that in how people find us now on Instagram and some producers recently I worked with had to replace a director and I was immediately sending them to Instagram of the director and they were looking at it.
And some of those decisions happened really quick, so you get a snapshot of them. And for me, looking at your Instagram, I thought to myself, I need more pictures of myself there because I do have just my work mostly. Absolutely. And that's also to like your own confidence. Right. And I feel like when people are looking at that, they're not really going to be sort of judging your work for, you know, I think if they can see some sort of human connection, they can see where those images are not coming from.
Right. So and it's bold. It's bold. It's like my haircuts, I would say my work. Yeah. You got to stand out. You got to stand out. And it's a challenge for all creatives to market themselves because a lot of them don't think that they need to be commercially doing marketing and that they're just doing the art, which I kind of understand that argument because it's a balance.
But I do think that it's important to take consideration of like, how are you putting yourself out into the world in this business?
Set Tacker I noticed that you put some 35 millimeter film shots up the other day. Just tell me that's amazing. You still shoot with 35 mil??
Andy Yeah, I'm. I'm bringing it back. I mean, I know there's a couple of guys out there, you know, normally Chase Urban, some guys that have been shooting film for a while, who we kind of came up with in the film game here.
And yeah, man, a couple of years ago I just sort of I just wanted to kind of revert back to the simplicity and to the to sort of the methodical organizational way of like that. You have to shoot film. It's, it's very regiment, it's very militant, It's very you know, you can't just keep rolling. You know, you have to you have to pretty much sink deep and start rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing.
So I like that. I like these sort of slowed down ness that it gives us on set. I think it it makes something very pure as coming from like the film days to digital in the mid 2000s. You know, everybody just kind of was able to shoot. And if you look at today's world, you can pick up a camera, you can pick up your iPhone and shoot.
And it's making us I think it's just making us a lot faster in terms of our image creation. So I think what film does for me, it kind of slows my process down. It it makes me think again, you know, kind of back in the day. So it's been it's been good and it's been good practice as well.
So I've done the last couple of films shot on film. 16 mil, 35 mil. And I feel it's I think I'm going to keep doing it as much as possible because images to me now with digital, they can be so beautiful and so short, but there is nothing better than just to capture something so natural through the the camera and through through film.
And I've always been a cinematographer for who uses a light meter, even though, you know, these new technologies with the waveform, with the all these other exposure sort of information and levels that you can get in the camera, I'm always metering. I think that's kind of my do my old school way of cinematography and I refuse to look at any monitor for exposure and just use the meter.
So I think also that works for me in film because I'm I'm very regiment again and militant about metering everything I'm doing. What are my shadows that what are my highlights. What is that window looking at? What is the you know, the fall off of the wall. So yeah, I think it's it's it's good practice and I was telling my, my loader the other day I had Panavision, I said, you know, this is all good practice to go shoot a feature on film.
So I've been doing a ton of shorts and it's great practice man. And it's bringing me back to, to what's real, I think. Yeah, yeah, certainly I, I saw that and it made me look at my Super eight that I bought, which I never did. And I'm going to buy the film and I have plans now over Christmas to shoot my niece on a skating on lake.
That's beautiful. We've been to before and I'm like, I'm thinking, I know I'm going to see her and I'm going to get some I'm going to make a little 30 second video.
Set Tacker This is a great segway into the question I was gonna ask you about because you mentioned film and digital and how that news is changing.
What are your thoughts on AI? The conversation around it? Is it scary to you that it might replace our our cracks in our career, or are you thinking that it might be like digitization of film from the into the video world where it actually expanded and created more jobs?
Andy Absolutely. I think that's a loaded question. I certainly I mean, to me personally, it I feel it's a tool, something that's going to be helpful, used in the correct way.
You know, I feel that sometimes these new technologies come out in their use incorrectly. We will lose some jobs. I believe. I think we will lose some jobs that we will generate others, whether I don't know what those others are going to be. But just like I remember when digital came out, everybody was like, Oh my God, film is dead, film is dead, and look at film now, like, So I think everybody's always going to want that human experience.
I think air is going to be there to support us and help us. But in the end, you know, kind of going back to what I'm shooting, why I'm shooting film, right, That kind of humanistic experience, will it help my job? I definitely think it does. I mean, I just started messing around with chatGPT for the first time, so I'm kind of integrating myself as well.
I think it's important to kind of stay relevant, but will I let it like drown me in my career? I don't think so. I think I'm going to be able to sustain, even though the technology is really advancing fast, because in other ways, too, as like you mentioned, I'm a cinematographer, but I'm also a producer, so it's really important to as beautiful as those images are, I also need to know the back end because it's a business and I think that's where my strengths come in.
And if I want to come in and start shooting their movies, well, I'll just distribute those movies or I'll try and pivot. So I think it's it's going to be good. Some jobs will be lost, others will be see growth.
Set Tacker Nice. And when you mentioned pivoting, what's your take on how important is it for you specifically to be able to be nimble in your career because you have been a cinematographer, you have directed, you've worked on the camera side and you've produced?
Andy In today's film game. I don't think most of us just do one thing, right? So I think it's important for cinematographers to perhaps learn the back end or producers to learn more on set and sort of branch out because, you know, you're more valuable for the more things you know.
And I think, you know, when I started producing, I was very scared of it because I was just a cinematographer. I knew nothing about it, but I looked at the long term goal and I was like, okay, well now I'm going to be learning about back end. Now I'm going to be dealing with people giving me money. Now I have to get insurance now.
I got to crew up everything that comes with that. And it was very, very scary at first. You know, you're handling people's money. But I think that diversity and the fact that you're able to have those tentacles in different pools is going to be really important. And anybody can make a pretty picture, right, as you can see on Instagram or YouTube for some people's reels or whatnot.
But it's like, how will you survive in the back end? And I think the end is a little bit more as I grow up. Cinematography is always going to be there for me, but I look at it more as a business than in terms of like selling my movies or, you know, film festivals, you know, distribution. So it's you got it.
You should have a bit of a balance out there.
Set Tacker I'd like to ask you what your parents, where did they work when you were growing up and what did they think when you told them what your career plan to be in film?
Andy That's a good one. So long story short, my parents were working in the Middle East before I came to Canada, so I've been in the Middle East for about 10 to 11 years with them and my stepdad is Canadian, so he had to just sit. And I come to that. We come to Vancouver and then I discovered film.
I will say a defining moment in my life in in terms of parents. I had gotten a job when I first moved to Canada at the airport to kind of help me get through through film school. And I remember one day a friend of mine said who was working in film, he said, Andy, do you want a grip on this memo?
There's a memo. I know the key grip I can get you on set, and I'm thinking, This is it. I got to jump. So without telling my folks, without telling anybody, I quit my job at the airport as a screening officer. It was union work. It was getting paid really well. But I quit cold turkey. I didn't even notify the company.
I quit my job at the airport I called them one day pretending I was sick. They thought I was calling in sick and I said, ‘Look, I quit.” And my parents flipped because they were still living in the middle East. So that was a defining moment where my folks were like, What are you doing? Why are you leaving that job? But you know what? I just always have it in me. Like when I jump, I survive.
Like when I jump, I survive and I swim. And it turned out that I went and was gripping on like three of the three or four other shows after that. And then the union came around and we got unionized. And then I was doing the gripping in the union. So yeah, that's definitely a defining moment. And my parents were not too happy about Look at me now.
Set Tacker Okay, that's awesome. That's awesome. And do you think you get more of your personality from your mom or your dad?
Andy I think it's a bit of both. Yeah. I mean, I grew up with my mom. I would see her as a single parent, so definitely her. But now because of a step dad, I do get some for him, but because I've now rediscovered my biological father about ten years ago, we've been really connecting and now I see a lot of me in him, which I'm actually going to go see him in a couple of weeks in Nicaragua.
So I'm excited about that. So it's a little bit of both. It's a little bit of the Afro-Latino flavor, you know, a little bit of Central America, a little bit of South America mixed in there. It's nice.
Set Tacker So now when you get jobs, do you go in? Are you getting interviewed every time you get a job or sometimes you just getting hired and somebody says, hey, we're on this show and when you're getting a job, are you interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you?
Andy Yeah, it's a little bit of both, I think. You know, now with 20 years of a footprint here, I do have some loyal directors that like working with me that just kind of come into the blue to shoot their movies. Sometimes I do get interviewed, but I think the body, the body of work kind of speaks for itself.
I less and less get interviewed now. I would say just because a lot of these companies have hired me and I work with a lot of directors, but if they're new directors, then I have to jump in, you know, conversations with the networks. I got to jump in conversations with the director. I haven't landed them all, that's for sure.
I've been interviewed lots and haven't landed them, but that's okay. I think that's just the process of self-discovery and how you can better yourself in the interview process. And it's always good to to ask them questions of like, okay, what is the feel of the movie or what do you, what do you intend to to get out of it?
You know, a lot of the times I like to ask if it's a feature or not. A network you'd already sold. Going to a specific network is like, well, what is the end game for the movie? Because, you know, a lot of us want to work on movies, but you know, when they don't get finished, they don't get completed.
You can't put your work out there. And then it was some of your best work, you know.
Set Tacker So I always find like a good question. It's like, well, what's your end game for this? You know, where is the the viewership, where is what platforms are you looking to get into? And also as well as, you know, digging deep into the story.
So a little bit of both. I'd say. I haven't been interviewed in maybe two years, but I'm sure there'll be interviews committed. So digging deep into the story, like, what did you think when you read that first letter to any problem script? I know you shot those early videos and now that blew up into this most successful show in Canada.
Yeah, well, it's funny because I'm not Canadian, so I couldn't really understand the jokes at the time right. But I will say this delivery, the writing now that I get it, like the delivery, sorry, the acting, the writing, the delivery, and just the way we shot those first couple of episodes for you. YouTube. I just felt like they were so real.
Not that the show doesn't feel real anymore, but it's just so home grown. I think what they did was really like cultivate their home grown land. And I get that, you know, like, but it was funny, man. I'd be on set and I'm like thinking, what does that even mean? Like, I know, man, that's such a good sound.
But, you know, I was on set of the first Letterkenny shoot thinking, What does this mean? Well, they're, you know, the way they speak, I guess their their accents are very heavy. Right? So it's it's tough to understand some of those. And so was it pretty low budget at those first shoot? Yeah, we were pretty low.
Set Tacker What was Jared like? What was Jared Kesso the creator of Letterkenny, what was he like?
Andy I think we just showed up. I Mean he would just write things and we showed up to some form and we just, like, place them, you know, we'd find the truck, we'd place them on top of the truck. We find the pigs, we'd sit them down in front of the pigs. And our friend Terry Kim, Theo Kim was was directing them at the time.
I just thought they were they were great humor. Once they started getting the humour nice and nice.
Set Tacker And what do you have of all the things that you've done now of all? You've got so many pieces of work that you've done over 150 cards, I think is more like 180. Do you have a favorite one that kind of jumps to mind for you or a visual one, maybe just not your favorite, but something that comes up that you think is a great piece of work that comes up right now when you think about it?
Andy Yeah, absolutely. I think my own feature films, to be honest with you, you know, those are really home grown close to me, close to my business partners, you know, my first business partner, Road Woodland, and we've waited a long time to do a feature film so that would be one. And I would say the Whisper of Silence, which was developed by myself and my mom shot in El Salvador.
It was her story. So that was was really, really close to me and Brother I Cry, which is an indigenous feature talent to watch Telefilm funded, which again was very dear, close to me with my good friend and producer Jesse Anthony, an Indigenous director writer. So I kind of like working on social change, you know, things with the meaning.
Not, not that I'm not saying the network movies have those, but those sometimes are just a little bit more commercially. So, you know, it's kind of like talkie talkie. Here goes the hour. Yeah, everybody's happy in the end. So I'd say my own work. And then recently, my my short films that I've been kind of directing, I think those are very those are very me in a way of not having to speak out just to show you the images.
Yeah, it feels like a voice where some times I feel like we are looking at the world and everyone wants to talk about certain issues and politics that comes up for me. Every now and then. I get to feel like I get to speak a little bit through a piece of work if I'm involved in writing it or directing it.
Set Tacker Absolutely. So how do you handle situations? How do you handle situations when your work ends up on the cutting room floor? Is there a sense of disappointment?
Andy Again, I think it's a I think it's a an idea of like allowing in releasing. Right. Because, you know, the cutting room floor sometimes you're not even in the cutting room floor.
So I think, you know, I like to say I do one for them. I'll do one for me. Right. In order to keep it in order to keep the stability in the cutting room floor, it's like, do one for them, do one for me. So it's there's there's been times where absolutely you, you know, you just get left in the dust as a cinematographer and in the cutting room floor.
But I think that's why I create my own work, you know, nice. Do you have any story about a major learning lesson that you had earlier on in your career that helped you build a bit of a thicker skin? Because in film it's a very high pressure environment. Everybody can see the set and yeah, Tell me about something that went south when you were just early on.
I think earlier on I my first ten years at least in my career, yeah, I think it was mostly internal. Like I've always been a very chill cinematographer, producer on set, you know, handle very stressful situations very calmly. I think you need a good leader on set, whether you're the cinematographer, the producer. But I strongly feel that in my first like ten years, you know, it was very tough for me because I was comparing myself, comparing my work, you know, asking why I didn't land that job, why that person got that job.
And I was kind of questioning whether I was good enough. You know, which is kind of what artists do, I think. And it was really tough. It was really tough to to shed that. And, you know, I sort of had this epiphany of wake up and, you know, smell the coffee. And one day I just said, you know, I just gotta focus on myself, on the things that I want to do that my business partners want to do.
Like, you know, my mom has an idea here. I have ideas here. And I think once I allow that process of like focus within me, with inside me and just do what I wanted to do and it's okay that other people are doing better things. They're doing bigger budgets, are getting better cameras, whatever that is, to always kind of just hone it back home and be like, This is my work and I'm doing this because I love to do it and I do it for myself.
I think that was definitely another defining moment. And I woke up, Stop comparing myself, stop worrying about what other people were doing. And that's when my work started kind of being recognized. Yeah. Nice. Nice. My first day on a real set. It was a nonunion shoot, but it had about 70 people and somebody gave me the special effects atmosphere gun.
And I just went they rolled camera, I hit the gun and the entire you couldn't see anything in the monitors. The cast was coughing and then they took it away from me. And everybody saw, obviously, and that was my first day. And I was I just felt so terrible about that.
Set Tacker Do you have any story that you can tell?
Andy not directly. As a cinematographer, producer, I mean, I have a story when we were producing woodland that our director broke his ankle three days into filming, and then he never went to the hospital and he hobbled for 15 days on a broken ankle directing the movie, which we thought we had to. Yeah, I mean, three days in, your director breaks his ankle and you're like, Oh, we got to stop shooting.
But, but he definitely battled through. But I do have a story. When I joined the union and I was the only grouping I had, he was some really high pressure moment. I remember what job it was at the time, but I was pushing the buggy and we were running out of time and the focus puller couldn't get the focus.
And then they're looking at me because I'm going to slow. Then they're telling me to speed up. And then I did miss my mark and I flew the the dolly off the track and like the operator went flying and yeah. And I think for me that was a big learning curve because I was like, okay, regardless on who is yelling at you or who stunt you go faster.
Like you need to focus, right? And you know it. Like you said, it's a very high pressured environment. But in my own sets, even just a cinematic crew for a producer, you know, I like to keep it very chilled. I like to play music during set ups, you know, depending on the content. If it's not too heavy, you know, while people are setting up or at lunchtime or, you know, just make it a bit more of a friendly atmosphere, we don't have to be so, you know, stiff.
Yeah, there's a tense, there's a tension. But a lot of when I worked on bigger and bigger shows, I see that sometimes that goes away and people are able to make jokes about it when it's even when it's going wrong. As long as no one's getting hurt. It's like, this is a movie. It's not it's not brain surgery, I guess.
Set Tacker And regarding personalities in the departments of, say, cinematography, for example, do you think you have to be really tough to be a camera operator and move up? To be a cinematographer?
Andy You have to. Do some people not have that ability to handle when others are losing their temper? That's a good question. And I didn't come up through the camera department.
I actually came up through the great department. And I'll say this because one of them in one of my mentors said, Andy, why would you want to go serve some camera operator coffee for ten years and then you'll be promoted where you could go grip, learn about lighting, shaping, adding, directing, taking away, balancing, softening. And I was like, You know what? You're right. So I had joined the department, but through the people that I do hire my CS and second CS, people that have worked in the union or in the bigger shows, you know, it's it takes time. It takes time. I mean, you're going to be a trainee for a couple of years and then you'll probably be a second for a couple of years.
And then like that you might block out and get to first thing and then eventually to camp three, maybe 15 years down the line. And then if somehow, you know, the showrunner or the DP or somebody ends up, you know, knowing your work or that you just been on that show that long and you get promoted up. So for me was sort of like I had already started shooting and then I had joined as a grip, realized what the union was all about.
And then I was like, okay, I need to just face this out of my life. But there is times where, yeah, there's still some friends of mine that are, you know, still first thing and they've wanted to operate. And what I tell them, it's like if you just want to operate, go shoot your own projects. Go shoot your own projects because you know, it's, it's, it's tough.
Not everybody can just jump off a ten month show and go do any stuff. It's really tough to survive as an indie filmmaker, right, if you're not well rounded. So a lot of the guys, they just stay on these shows for years and years, right? And then they're like, Oh, I wanted to make that short film like five years ago.
But I've been, you know, Supernatural took, you know, three. I did six seasons of Supernatural and now it's like four years later and I never did it, you know. So I think it's good in terms of like stability, but sometimes that other side of the world is not very good if you're a technician trying to be creative. Yeah, to make your own short films is not easy to start getting people to join in and sign on.
Now, I was a little more used to it because when I was still a snowboarder, I thought that was my career. We were filming and we required a guy to drive the car. We required somebody to bring some lights. We had a camera operator and I would be performing the tricks. So there is already a team there. But for a lot of people it's difficult just to get a short film made because you're not used to getting ten people.
You have to be a salesman in a sense. Pretty much, absolutely. And you got to get people behind the story. I think that's that's a big one, too, right? Like, so depending on what how good your story is, I think people will rally. And again, it's good to work in the industry. I don't I'm not saying just go completely in the you know like I did it for a couple of years and I still kind of keep, you know, a foot in there.
I still know guys who are in the unions, still doing things, saying hi, you know, funny story. Actually, I got I remember a gaffer. He he does the bigger shows and I was gripping at the time and we kind of became friends and he was like, Yeah, man, I hope one day, you know, like you blow up and I get to gaffer you.
And then last year I did a mystery Hallmark movie and he was my gaffer. There you go. And I was like, Man, this is so cool. Like 15 years later, I can finally say, I got the budgets to hire these guys. And they're like, you know, they're bringing their trucks and yeah, even like, yeah, I mean, I remember a, a gentleman who I grew up with, I think it was 2012, and we did a show for four months and he was like, Dude, I think one day you're going to, you're going to make it.
And I'm like, If I do and you're going to be my key grip. And I hired him and those guys that Dina Boyd and Rory Sutherland, I finally got to hire those guys. Man, it's so cool to like, see them still in the game, but also like that, you can be like, Hey, come, let's do my show. And, you know, they knew me from when I was just grinding out and just little pop.
Set Tacker So would you say to people starting off like the number one thing, if you're trying to get a short film or a feature film made, number one thing you need to think about is the story?
Andy I think it's story, man. Yeah, I think it's story because which story you are going to gather people that connect with that story.
So, you know, whether it's an immigrant story, whether it's a personal story, whether it's a hardship story, or whether it's a story or fantasy, right? You find the click and you kind of click with that. I think for me personally, you know, my business partner has him in. I went to film school together and I think him and I really align with like my stories that I wanted his stories.
So I think it really just starts with those stories. And now once your build your team and you build, you know, people want to jump on your stuff. So, you know, after I made my first short, I didn't really tell anybody I was directing. I just sort of did it. And then people were like, Well, you're directing. I'm like, I want to work at everything you do, right?
And that's just because I had been building so much, right? So I think definitely the story is everything. Like the story is Guy the gather your crew's going to gather your, you know, your actors want to act in it or directors, and your story can also potentially get it funded because if the you know, you go through a platform or you find an investor and they love that story, they're probably going to put some money into it.
So, yeah, absolutely. Focus on the story first.
Set Tacker Well, thank you so much for agreeing to do the interview. And I'm just inspired by your career, your success it is great to meet you. As mentioned, I've known about you in town for a little while and I'm so glad that you were able to take the time to talk to me.