Cast & Crew Talk – Brick Madness Movie

Cast & Crew Talk – Brick Madness Movie

On this episode of Crew Talk we learn how to go about bringing your vision to life and more often than not, what NOT to do. Listen in as the hilarious cast and crew from the feature film Brick MADNESS discusses the writing, shooting, editing, and distribution of the movie and why it took 11 long years to see it come to fruition. You can get the movie here!  Link to our webcast calendar as well as other resources: https://linktr.ee/shootsvideo

Panelists

Justin McAleece
Jennica Schwartzman
Anthony Taylor
Alan Agazarian
Carl Merriam
Reggie Castaneda
Robin Steffen
Marcia Kimpton

Transcripts from talk

Justin McAleece:

Hey guys Justin McAleece here, we are talking about Brick Madness and I am maybe the most excited I’ve been in a long, long time. Cause I got a bunch of people that I absolutely adore here, and they’re going to make fun of me and sort of ridicule the way this thing went down and why it took 11 years to be here doing this. So that’s good. I’m excited about that. I got Robin Steffen, Anthony Hoots, Taylor Jennica Schwartzman, Reggie Castaneda, another dude named Justin McAleece. Carl switched names. Can you switch your name buddy? It’s the little dots up in the corner. Cause I sent you the wrong link. That’s Carl Merriam, Lego-Extraordinaire. And then we got Marcia Kimpton. She’s going to be hosting for us today. So that’s that? And yeah, just super excited to be here and talk about the movie in the chat section or actually Q&A.

Justin McAleece:

You can write any questions you have and then we will try to get those, get to those as we go along later on in the broadcast, we will be doing a giveaway for 50 bucks, a $50 B&H gift card. So that’s gonna yeah, yeah. Blows your mind, Anthony. You want it? You want it to, you can’t win because you’re on this thing. Cause I see you, you can’t win. But yeah. Put in your questions and Marcia, give us our questions. We’ll be answering and it’s going to be great. So here we go. Marcia, are you ready?

Marcia Kimpton:

Justin? Are you going to give a little intro why we know each other? And then I can talk about your movie before I ask my questions.

Justin McAleece:

Yeah, sure. I met Marcia Kimpton a long time ago. Maybe 10, 11 years ago worked on a bunch of movies with her, including My Reality and Bardo Blues and yeah, have ongoing projects been to Thailand a couple of times because of her and Mongolia and all sorts of other places and Amsterdam recently in American in Amsterdam is the most recent project. And a number of us have worked on that stuff in one way or another. Anthony’s been a lead basically in a couple of those things and yeah, it’s been a great time. Yeah.

Marcia Kimpton:

I’m really excited to be here. I’m rarely in this position cause you and I work, you’re the cinematographer kind of co-director with me on all these films and I’m directing and producing them. Obviously you get co-producer often too, cause you’re helping so much, but it’s interesting to be on the other side, asking you and you as a director, a writer, a producer and actor and cinematographer, you did it all. I guess. What do you call that one? It’s five. What do you call that word?

Justin McAleece:

Pentafacta. That’s a line from the movie that I made up.

Marcia Kimpton:

I love Anthony thing psychopath, but that is not easy. So I was thinking about before I got to the cast and crew asking you some specific questions Justin, cause it did take 11 years and why. And the obvious question is because I just saw the recent cut and I as a director and a writer, how the editing process changes and the movie I really loved in the beginning, but now I just think it’s outstanding. It is so tight. So funny, anybody out there that hasn’t seen it it’s so worth your time. So tell us why as a director and doing a film like this, it takes 11 years.

Justin McAleece:

Most of what I ended up doing after the fact was editing out old jokes that were now outdated. So there was a Danica Patrick joke. There was a bunch of OJ jokes, some bill Clinton jokes, and they just were way too old to keep including in that movie. Now a lot of it was just like getting past the finish line. I think it’s easy to get 90% of the way and feel like you’re almost done. And then something else comes in, in the road and it’s just like impassable and you don’t know what to do. And so it sucks for a little while and you have to like, in my own experience, like I had to like deal with it, sucking for a little while and then get around that and move on to the next thing. Whether I was like taking it from one computer program to the next, when I moved from final cut to premiere or from Mac to windows or lost a bunch of files or whatever it happened to be.

Justin McAleece:

It’s like those things where it’s just super hard to continue. And so it overwhelmed me for a while a month, two months, six months, whatever it was. And I had to set like a date and be like, I have to get it done at this point. And ultimately that’s the only reason I got it done was because I bought a theater. I rented out a theater and it wasn’t done. It wasn’t anywhere near done, but I was like, it has to be done or else I’ll look like a fool or so. So I better finish

Marcia Kimpton:

As an artist don’t we get really attached to what we love. We’ve put it all together. You know, that, even with my reality, it was very hard for me to cut it down. I, you get a task to what you love that you start out in and then you have to look at it objectively and it does take time. But the other thing is you’re a working artist. You have a business. So to create a movie while working as a cinematographer, it’s not easy to do that.

Justin McAleece:

Yeah. Having a full-time video production company is also obviously very draining. That can be an 80 hour a week job right there. And so like doing that and then going back and doing more video production essentially is like, even if you love the project and love all the people that are in it, it’s still difficult to do that. So that’s a lot of probably why I was so bad about it. Well,

Marcia Kimpton:

I, you know, again, I, I know you well enough to, that’s not a, an excuse, that’s a hardworking person trying to create art on the side while working with their own company. But I think the biggest changes that I noticed outside that you’ve made it shorter and edited down, which I think again, I’m repeating myself as an artist. It’s very hard to do that because I know how many funny things were in there before, but you made it a lot tighter. And I, the biggest change I saw was the transition. So what was it as an artist and an editor to be able to have that, that outside look that allowed you to make those really smooth transitions? I really felt the difference in the transitions.

Justin McAleece:

I’m watching it in front of people. You know, I took it around to five different Lego conventions around the country, in Chicago and went down to Virginia and went to Texas and all these places anyway, watching it in front of people another 10 times, including the first two premiers is like, you just noticed the time, you know, that happens very quickly of you feel like uneasy or you’re like, why am I waiting here to get to the next part? And so I think that helps. It’s like a stand-up comedian being able to pitch and being able to do his jokes, his or her jokes. And then like they just edit out that little bit. They’re like, Oh, I don’t need that word. I don’t need that phrase. I think that was part of the process that helped me.

Marcia Kimpton:

And you also feel the audience I’ve sat in a room with as well. When you feel the audience you feel when they kind of pull away a little bit while doing it. So I have so many more questions for you, but we’ll move on to the rest. Yeah. So would you like, I mean, I know Anthony the best, so I go with Anthony, he’s, he’s a

Justin McAleece:

Bit of a wet blanket, but he might have something to say

Marcia Kimpton:

To give you guys an idea of my background with Anthony, thanks to Justin. He made the introduction and he was in my reality. And then he was implanted in a web series and he co-wrote actually, he really rewrote the Bardo Blues and made it incredible. I won a bunch of awards next to his great writing,

Anthony Taylor:

Watching you on TV, Marcia. You’re forgetting. I, I, I know you don’t like to talk about this, but when I first met you, I was like, this chick’s familiar. And then when I started, when I saw the clips, I was like, Oh, can I grew up in the Bay area where you like, where you were? I’m like, I remember that show that late night, y’all remember that stuff. And like, I know you don’t like me to say that because you’re only 33 years old and I’m 42, but it’s a hundred percent true. I do remember all that. So I’ve actually known you longer than you’ve known me.

Marcia Kimpton:

That is wild. I totally forgot that you saw live from the Starlight room. That is great. So Anthony, tell me your favorite experience about break madness. And what do you feel about the film today? Because you’ve seen the changes over the 11 years and what Justin’s worked so hard to do.

Anthony Taylor:

Yeah. I mean about the finish line stuff too. I mean, I think that the finish line keeps moving. If you don’t just move it back yourself, like it’s a, it’s a, you know, the, the process is the process. And if we let ourselves, we’ll just stay in the process forever because letting it go means we have to go do something else. And I feel like what Justin’s done kind of, so admirably is, is after I’ve been working on it for so long, it was just kind of said, enough’s enough. Like, let’s just get it out there. Let’s see what, what, what it does. Cause I think like it was such a labor of love for him. I, you know, the things that I love about it, like my favorite part of the process was a lot of just like honestly, a lot of conversations with Justin and I about like, what the hell I was doing? Like

Marcia Kimpton:

You were doing it, like talking the character, like, who

Anthony Taylor:

Is this? Like, I’m not an actor, like at all, I’m a writer. And I direct some, but I don’t really consider myself as like someone who has an artistic process when it comes to being active. So it was really a lot of winging it for me and

Justin McAleece:

Everyone, everyone who’s an actor raise their hand on this

Anthony Taylor:

Jennica,

Justin McAleece:

Half of the cast wasn’t actors. Yeah. And that,

Marcia Kimpton:

Wait, wait, wait, before we go back to Anthony, Justin was half the cast actors or not actors.

Justin McAleece:

Well of the main people. I mean, there were, there were, you know, I’m not an actor, Ian’s not an actor. Where I think he is great at acting, I think Alan is great at acting. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That’s what I’m saying. I, I think we tried to make parts and we tried to Robin and Reggie and everyone else who was writing it as well, tried to make things that would fit who they were and what they were good at and capable and what we thought would work. And I think that was what helped. And even Alan saying, you know, at one point he’s like, I was like, you’re doing a great job, man. He’s like, I had it. It just seems like I’m being myself. And I’m like, yeah, that’s what we wanted. That’s exactly what we were going for. Right. Anyway, sorry to cut you off

Marcia Kimpton:

So well you were Anthony, but you were in this Ricky six parts. So Anthony, tell me again what the process was with Justin. Was it talking about improv? Was it talking about the lines?

Anthony Taylor:

First thing we did, the first thing we did was that promo, when we shot in your studio did where I was wearing that stupid Nebraska shirt that I can’t find anymore. But I miss, like, to me, if I’m being completely honest, that’s one of my favorite like, like almost like one of my favorite artistic moments, but definitely one of my favorite acting moments was literally just sitting with you for an hour, just making up, like making up, like, just trying to think about who this guy was and how he would act and like playing that old improv game of, if this is true, what else might be true? Like if he was this kind of guy, then what else might be true about the way he saw the world? And like, that was, it ended up being the promo and stuff, but it was really an X that was a character exploration of like, just trying to figure this out because it wasn’t like there was a lot of script to look at for me at that point anyway.

Anthony Taylor:

And you know, and not blowing smoke up of anyone else on, on this thing. But like it was the meeting people and working with people like, I mean, watching Robin work, watching Jenica work not so much Reggie you know, whatever and like honestly being around an artists like Carl, I mean, I remember seeing that you’d made Carl and like literally having moments where like, I’d be like, Oh yeah, that’s cool. And like walking away, going like in no world where that ever occurred to me to do. Like, and I think that was really inspiring. I mean, you know, obviously making great friends, like tilt, who, you know, unfortunately isn’t with us anymore. And like those connections to me and meeting in my mind who I felt were like real artists, real people, creating things and just being in their presence or being in a scene with them.

Anthony Taylor:

I remember watching you Jennica in the frickin flirting with Robin scene, like in the lobby. And I was like, that’s like some real. Like that’s like just ridiculousness, but like in like a real way and not just like me being a goofball. So like, I felt like for me, that was like a huge part of this whole journey was just being around these people who were doing real stuff and like having all my insecure moments, which is, you know, I’m, I’m horrifically insecure about acting. I’ve been joking with people. I’m like, I like another shot at this movie. I think I do better this time around. Can we do a re I feel like I get it now.

Marcia Kimpton:

So know as well, it’s a little late. So I thought you were great, Anthony. And let’s just, and since you’re saying that really to create a process as an actor was really not, there was more about the groups of people. Tell us about the experience of improv. Improv is very, very hard to do. Having taken a lot of improv because what most people don’t know unless they know Justin and the whole crew, how much improv was there. So there was a lot of set up and an understanding of not going on too long. And then getting the joke. Tell me your process when you were doing it. Cause I thought it was brilliant in improv.

Anthony Taylor:

I mean, we knew what we had to go, so it wasn’t like, it wasn’t like we were creating scenes. We were just kind of like we were given this like leeway to kind of play within the, these really specific archetypes that we had. And I think what was great is everyone knew everyone had a really specific point of view. So, I mean, I know, I don’t think improv is that hard when you’re playing with people you trust and you’re playing with people who have a clear point of view and aren’t just like, you know, futzing around. Like, and so I feel like those moments were really fun and honestly, pretty easy because everyone just very clearly knew what was, what they were about. And it was, it made it fun to react and play. And like, I mean, there were plenty of times I remember scenes like going on so long and like, I feel like we’re like, I know this ain’t gonna make it. This ain’t gonna make the cut. It’s fun while you’re doing it. Right.

Marcia Kimpton:

You could, you could feel the joy. Okay. I’m going to come back to you, Anthony. And I want, hopefully at the end, for you just to reflect a little bit on tilt because I was lucky enough to meet tilled through Justin and you, and just kind of your favorite tilt moments. But I just saw Reggie, so I just gotta go, Reggie, Reggie’s my guy for all the films. He is the grip and he’s the master of taking Justin EMAC. Lisa’s incredible cinematography and, and going with it. But I got to tell you, Reggie, I didn’t know you, I forgot. Cause I hadn’t seen the cut and I think three years, maybe Justin and I didn’t know, I forgot that you were in it. How was it? What was the experience of being in a brick madness red dude?

Reggie Castaneda:

It was a lot of fun. It was interesting because I, it was the first time I’d ever actually worked on a set and done film set things like not anything creative. I was not supposed to. I was like, I played the sound guy. I played with this guy and then I was helping in the background. But it was all on camera a lot. So it was, I had a really good time. Honestly. It was, it was it was it was a lot of fun

Marcia Kimpton:

Because your friends before you got on there, so you knew them really well. Okay. Yeah.

Justin McAleece:

Sorry. We didn’t have just so people are understanding like Reggie was part of the crew within the movie. He was also actual crew. So like when we saw him, it wasn’t like we had two sets of crews doing the thing while he was doing the thing. Like it was just us, there was no extra people, very shrewd of you, Justin, very shrewd businessman of you. [inaudible], I’m quite parsimonious.

Marcia Kimpton:

That’s called gorilla independent filmmaking. And Reggie has done that also for most recently, American in Amsterdam, he really played a great bartender, played That. Oh wow. So Greg, before we keep on going on it, since it was your first time on camera and you were crew, which I didn’t realize that was your first time as crew. Were you nervous at all?

Reggie Castaneda:

Oh yeah. I mean it wasn’t, it actually, wasn’t my first time on camera. I’d helped out on other things, but it was weird because when you first start out on a film set, even though Justin and Ian are really easy to work with because they I feel like they just hire a lot of people that don’t know what they’re doing and just babysit them the whole time. So super nice to them to allow me to mess up, you know, their film crew, they have just their film set like left and right. And they’re like, Hey man, do you really want to do that? Like that? But then also I’m supposed to, I don’t know, do a lighting gag or drop some line in the middle of a thing. So, you know, there’s a lot of handholding and it was fun. Yeah. It was nerve wracking in that sense. But you know I was lucky enough to be on set with a bunch of amazing people. Like there was, I don’t think there was a person on that set that I even remotely ever felt any negative feelings towards, except for maybe Carl Merriam, because he’s just the most difficult actor to work with. You know?

Marcia Kimpton:

So I just think it’s amazing because I thought you did a great job. And I think it’s also interesting because working with you on my films and hopefully you will always be working with me. You’re a person that just does everything with a positive attitude. And I just sense the vibe on that set, which Justin knee and set just

Justin McAleece:

Marcia cut out for a second. Everybody gets that. I think the, I think the bunker that she’s calling from might’ve gotten hit, Oh, she back Mark is back last a few seconds just at the end there,

Marcia Kimpton:

Because I was saying how funny and great it was that Reggie adapted so well, but he, he was, he was great in character onset and offset obviously. So I just, I would,

Justin McAleece:

We tried to make it as natural for him as possible to he didn’t. I think

Reggie Castaneda:

I don’t, I’m not very intelligent and I don’t think good. So that part is stupid, not easy, but I did, I did do improv for eight or nine years, so it wasn’t it wasn’t like,

Marcia Kimpton:

I didn’t know that, Oh, I didn’t know that at all. So that’s great thing for the people listening, because I know Justin, like we know tilted, right. And he’s like, I had no idea. And I certainly do, Anthony did that. You were doing improv because you did it so well on the set in the movie.

Reggie Castaneda:

So that’s so kind of got roped in, was Robin Stephan, who is also in this chat Robin Stephan and I did improv together for, I slept like eight or nine years or something like that. And tilt used to perform at the Olympics with us. And I mean, he was like that kid that was at every single show, doing the lighting for all the groups in the back, you know, just helping everyone out. And he also was the funniest guy there, but willing to pull lights and do the music, intro music and stuff like that. So when they wanted to do the character Wyatt, Robin and I were like, we know who we know exactly who this should be, but let’s cast them anyways. And we were lucky enough that Justin agreed that tilt should be the, to play white pocket. So,

Marcia Kimpton:

So you were the one that suggested to Justin to do tilt. Oh, that’s amazing.

Reggie Castaneda:

I think it might’ve been more Robin, but I, we were both on the same page about him that like, yeah, it was the dude that had to be like, he was the he’s the funniest guy we knew. So it’s that. Okay.

Marcia Kimpton:

Why do we have to, we have to sum all, everybody’s got to tell their tilt memory please, because you played Wyatt for those that haven’t seen the movie he’s extraordinary comedian and he’s not here today, which is very hard. So we’ll, we’ll circle back. Let me go to Robin. Are you there, Robin? Thank you, Reggie. Oh, there, Oh my God. Look at your hair. You are a completely different Robin than in the movie. I guess. That’s what 11 years does.

Robin Steffen:

Yeah. Right. Plus you know, 2020 has been just wonderful on all of us. So

Anthony Taylor:

These people play characters that are like different. Like then they were like close. It’s like a different, it’s like a different thing. It’s confusing. I get it.

Marcia Kimpton:

Thank you, Anthony. So Robin, I was, I’m so impressed with you from the beginning. And I didn’t know until right now with Reggie that you you know, I obviously knew you were an actor, but that you had all this improv background. Tell me the most challenging part of doing the movie. And I’m gonna say right away, was it keeping yourself from not laughing with this group because you kept a variation?

Robin Steffen:

I mean, yeah. Everybody was so funny and so talented. I can’t, you know, I honestly can’t think of anything that was overly challenging because it was such a supportive group, like as a whole, the writing was great. Justin’s great. You know, everybody involved is great. Jenica is great. And it’s just, there was nothing that, that felt like work it just hanging out with your friends and making a movie.

Marcia Kimpton:

That’s beautiful. That’s the part that you love the most then about outside that you’re with all your friends.

Robin Steffen:

Yeah. And speaking of improv my favorite moment and I absolutely, it gave me my biggest laugh and I tried so hard to keep it in, but it was, it was with tilt and we improvised the tilts middle name, the Wyatt’s middle name scene that scene. I mean, it was such a great back and forth layup. It’s like the, those are like the improv scenes that you kind of dream of having, like, it was the perfect layup back and forth build, build, build. And if you haven’t seen the movie, watch the movie, the tilts, middle name, sane, and man, that was easily my favorite, my favorite moment that I can remember joke wise from, from set. And that was all, yeah. All improv improvised.

Justin McAleece:

And that was, that was one of those moments too, where we had not, that was not in the script to even have an interview with, with tilt at that point. Like why I wasn’t in there, there was no spot for him necessarily, but like we had a little bit of time. I remember when we were doing the Fowler invitationals or whatever. So we, we set it up real quick and it was different than we would normally do interviews. So it was tough to make it work camera wise, but it was awesome on screen and yeah, it was so great what you guys did and took it and, you know, just made it just perfect in a clueless manner, which was awesome.

Marcia Kimpton:

Well, and it’s so great. I didn’t know until today that Robin untilt already had that chemistry of knowing each other. So I just have to ask you Justin, about Robin, did you create this? You were saying, did you create this kind of character for Robin? Because he linked, well, Cedric obviously sorry, but he linked the entire movie and, and gave us this perspective of what we’re watching. Cause I knew nothing about Lego. I mean, I knew Lego’s as a kid, but I knew nothing about this insane, you know, group of people to compete. I didn’t know. And I really felt he linked it well together, but was that also improv you gave him a structure and then you kind of did in the edit room,

Justin McAleece:

He had less improv than other people, I think because he w he had more blocking and tackling as we call it. So like, he had very specific story moment, storytelling moments that he had to hit, but Robin was there when we were doing the writing of it in the first place. So Robin and Reggie, Anthony was in maybe not in the room, but he was looking at drafts. Carl was helping, you know, we got together for there was a couple of weekends, and then there was a bunch of other miscellaneous days where we got to get together. And all we did was write like a writer’s room would be at a TV show or something like that. And so Robin knew what he was getting into because he had helped write it. And we had gone back and forth about that. And then we added some of like the, the initial voiceover. I realized that it wasn’t tight enough. It didn’t make enough sense. So we had to that in, after the fact to tie it all together. Yeah.

Marcia Kimpton:

Cause I noticed that being a little different. When did you add in that voiceover? The latest one,

Justin McAleece:

We, we did a rough cut showing and then it was like, wait, he was like two in two hours and 20 minutes or something. It’s like incredibly long excruciatingly long. And then I think we did another one and then we did, it was on like the third time around or before the third time around, we added a voiceover. It just needed to be more clear. And we had cut out a lot of backstory when you watched the movie, there’s a bunch of stuff we did in Fresno that like led up to that point that I thought was really great. And it was cool and there was good character moments, but we had to cut it just for time basically. And it’s so a lot of times too, when you’re out there making a movie, it’s like, you have to be aware of what part fits in like a smaller sub puzzle. Because if you take out one piece of that puzzle, then that whole part dies. And so that’s the difficult thing is like, you have to weave these things, but taking out one strand, doesn’t ruin it without eliminating a whole bunch of other stuff. So that’s what you’re doing. And that’s something, you know, as we grow and as filmmakers, we have to be aware of that stuff. What invalidates the whole rest of the thing, if you remove it

Marcia Kimpton:

That’s the hardest thing in editing when you have to edit your movie down. Cause I mean, at least the three movies I’ve done, they’re always too long and editing them down and not ruining that kind of puzzle is the hardest part for me, at least as a filmmaker and the most exciting. So Robin, my last question, is there something that you want to mention? Cause I have a few questions in front of me and I’m trying to get to everybody. Is there something that you want to highlight about this experience or I was, my question was going to be, last time I saw you in LA you were like every working actor or not working actor a waiter. And how do you replicate such an amazing experience? Like brick madness? Are you writing something yourself?

Robin Steffen:

Yes. Reggie and I ha have, have wrote some things together and you know, it was looking to be a good year with things and, you know, as 2020 is, as has heard a lot of us, we, we fell into that category as well. Also waiter or just that just doesn’t exist. Right. So a lot of things definitely got affected by, by all of that.

Marcia Kimpton:

Well, I guess I would, and again, what’s another amazing experience that you remember being on set. You mentioned tilt, but this was very special with you guys, all being great friends.

Robin Steffen:

I mean, you know, my scenes with Jennika were just so much fun. She gave me so much to work with and every one of our scenes, I mean, Jennica is such a, she’s such a strong person, just drawn character. Like she was such a driving force in all of our scenes, made everything so easy and she just so wonderful to work with. So I do have to say, I mean, just really getting to know her and, and working on set with her was just,

Marcia Kimpton:

Well then let’s transition to Jennica because Jenica, I saw your audition tape because Justin and Nicole were living in Colorado editing My Reality. And I also saw tilt and I met Anthony that way. And I was like, wow, that woman’s really, really talented. Everybody’s talented. And this is Jennica here. So I don’t have the technical skills in when it comes To interviews.

Jennica Schwartzman:

Oh, hi.

Marcia Kimpton:

It’s been a while. I don’t look exactly the same, but I’m still smoking. Huh?

Jennica Schwartzman:

Yeah. You don’t have red hair anymore. It’s very confusing.

Marcia Kimpton:

Oh my God. That was a funny moment. Your max, right? Maybe right. Are you talking to, I want to talk to Jessica, but who am I talking to?

Marcia Kimpton:

Jennica Schwartzman. Hi, no Ellen Agis. Arion. Yes I am.

Jennica Schwartzman:

I don’t know. Let me go to Jennica, come back. So Jennica. I really, I want to focus as much on the positive you go. Alan, are you there? And one, give me your process about the character and give me your process about, you know working with everybody on the set.

New Speaker:

I was very lucky. I was invited to the cool kids table on a different movie. I was the lead actress in a movie that we were shooting and Justin and Ian, they very lovingly were the most wonderful people to work with. And they invited me over to a table at lunchtime and said, Hey, we’re working on a movie. And then he wanted to talk to me about it. And I was so excited and I felt so special and amazing, much more special than all the other people here. I was the most beloved and invited.

Jennica Schwartzman:

But that’s what I discovered is that I ended up getting to know them better. And every single person I met on Brix was the most interesting, quick-witted sharp, charming, wonderful person to be around. I was like, Oh, I am not special at all. This is exactly what they’re doing. They’re just finding all of these perfect people that they love to spend time with who would be really fun together. And so I got to do that, but they asked me because they were writing it. What do you want to do? And so they actually made more of a role for you specifically, which I did not know. And had you always done improv, were you always just an actress? Yeah. I’ve always acted and always participated in improv when I was younger. It’s, it’s definitely a younger person activity because of timelines during the day.

Jennica Schwartzman:

And it’s not usually financially a sound decision to participate very much, but otherwise if you’re doing it more but I wanted to flirt and I wanted to have fun. I really liked to. And so I got the opportunity to, and then I met Robin and I was like, well, you’re just going to be catching footage of me flirting with him. I’m not going to like be acting or anything, but you guys. So it was just a bunch of found footage of me throwing myself at Robbins. So it was, you were pretty gorgeous in that and to do well. That sounds like that’s not very hard for you to do, you know, throw yourself at a, at a man because you’re very pretty. So tell me were there anythings new that you learned on their film set that you hadn’t learned in a different ones?

Marcia Kimpton:

Because obviously everybody had this amazing positive, creative experience and in the, in the films really impressive. But was there anything new that you may have learned there?

New Speaker:

Yeah, this was my first of now many my first real improv script where I was given the parameters, the bones for the scene, given the objectives and giving a large overarching, these are the areas you want me to play in. And so being let loose to pro to play, I learned what it was like to also adopt continuity, to take care of what the other player wants to get out and what they did in one of the rehearsals that they want to do. We didn’t actually have like a ton of rehearsal process, which I love. I just got to play as much as I wanted. And I’ve taken that to a lot of other sets.

Jennica Schwartzman:

So I learned also that not being on camera is the best experience on this set because then you’re hanging out with somebody really rad. I got to hang out and get to know tilt and Robin and Reggie. And I think I talked to Carl for an hour about almonds, maybe like three hours about almonds. Honestly, I just got a question. Someone just asked, is it like being on stage, you know, as if you’re in theater or, you know, yeah, yeah. It’s a lot like that because in theater it’s less mechanical about what you have to do for camera and more about the presentation and the style. And a lot of us got to be more charactery and Robin had to be a little bit more of a straight man. So we all like had our things and all of our playing area that we’re allowed to be in, but really just totally impressive.

Marcia Kimpton:

Justin and I have to say with Danica and now Anthony said it because we’re the improv that I took. I found it very challenging. I do a lot of improv when I’m with real people when I do this fake reality show. So what I love hearing from you and Anthony said it, and everybody felt safe is that you each had your specific characters, you had your parameters. And then it really was about rolling the cameras and Justin coming in and just saying, why don’t we go in this direction or that direction, but you did have wines that you had to memorize. Right?

Justin McAleece:

Two thirds of the movie is probably scripted, but there’s little nuggets in there that like come before and after, and little, little fixes and little smarter things. Right. W when I was looking back at it editing at some point, I was like, Oh, that’s a great line. It happened a couple of times. And I was like, Oh man, I’m so happy. They came up with that. And then I was like, I’d look back. And I was like, Oh, we did script that. It might’ve been slightly different, but like, it, hopefully it worked where you don’t know, which is which, because I think

Anthony Taylor:

Sometimes you get into, you were also other, yeah, there are also great moments where we would do something, someone would happen and he would jump in and be like, I liked that. Let’s do that again. Like, let’s capture that, like our let’s wrap that tighter because that’s, that’s a really great thing that we wouldn’t, we were all really got to because he let us find it. And I think too, like Marcia, when you talk about improv too, I think like, you know, the kind of improv that we were doing, wasn’t finding the greatest joke or like being a joke or being funny. And it’s the thing that I think tilt was so brilliant at. It was just finding truth. Like truth is really funny. And especially when you find it in the midst of the madness, like, and, and just revealing those little truths and just finding those real connections, we’re not trying to make anything up.

Anthony Taylor:

We’re just discovering what each of us is reacting to and feeling based on what we kind of decided where the game, the rules of our game is really where the fun was. And that’s why I think, like, while it’s funny, the characters off such hard, because we weren’t trying to be silly. We weren’t trying to be. And the movie itself is silly enough. Like the premise is insane. And so it was about trying to find the real truth in the middle of all that, that led us to kind of explore the funny, without like banging people over the head with it. One of the first interviews we did, I don’t remember if it was before Anthony or not probably the same week or something. Anyway, we talked to Carl and came up with his character and all that. And he had a couple of moments while referencing his relationship with Ricky six as a kid, as like a 12 year old or something that were so real to me.

Justin McAleece:

And it was, it was about, about their little group, you know, their, their little group when they were kids of that, they would build together. And there was something about that. Yeah. And it was something so heartbreaking because you sort of understood that when you were 12 and like, when you felt like you were part of the, like Jennica says the cool kids and then suddenly you weren’t. And like, that was something that just sort of came out as we were working through it. And so I thought in my mind that legitimize the movie a long time before anything else was done, because Carl was so good in that moment. Carl told me how great you are. Well, not at muting, but

Carl Merriam:

I’m trying, I tried to push the button. I’m sorry.

Marcia Kimpton:

Yeah. Carl. Yeah. Comment about what Justin just said, because you work, right.

Carl Merriam:

That was a lot of fun. I mean, it’s mostly just me pretending to be myself, I think is pretty much Rupert is almost exactly the same character as I am coincidentally enough, I don’t know if it was based on me or not, but it seems like it might’ve been. Yeah.

Marcia Kimpton:

What do you think Justin sounds like everybody’s based on the people that they know, and Alan are going to get to you, Alan. I promise you, but, but

Justin McAleece:

We just tried to dial it up a little bit, you know, and just take what they were and go to the quirkier part of it, the more esoteric part of it and make, you know, cause it is about ensemble cast too. We have to make sure that we don’t have nine people that are the same. So like Carl did a great job of being you know, being able to be hurt in that situation and having like this undercurrent of being sort of just he’s the only one in the movie. He’s the the Canary in the coal mine, cause he’s over Ricky six from the very beginning, he’s already had it with him. And so by the end of the movie, everyone else catches up to Rupert. Yeah.

Marcia Kimpton:

What was your favorite experience? And you can’t say, I love working with the group and was so wonderful being with Justin, Ian, cause everybody’s already said that. Wow.

Carl Merriam:

I mean a lot of this stuff that I was doing was just in my basement to build the Lego stuff. So we, we make the sort of, these lists of all the stuff that we needed. And it was, I mean, it was more, more like being being in the art department than being in the part of the, you know, whatever the other part of the department’s called. I’ve been out of the industry for so long now. I can’t remember anything.

Marcia Kimpton:

Well, it was so creative, what you did create, I have to say it added, it was its own character. Kind of like what I wanted to say to Justin Fresno was its own character. You know, like the city or the town really, you felt it, but your, what you designed was beautiful.

Carl Merriam:

Yeah. I mean, it was a lot of fun. I love building Lego of course. And and also getting the Lego community involved through some of the people that I had met on that side of the, of the universe was also super fun and sort of getting that extra little grain of of truth. Like Anthony was saying into the movie where like we have some, some of the big fan people and we have a few of these different other like very genuine references to how that community operates. And what’s fun.

Marcia Kimpton:

And I didn’t know about any of this community. I want you to know. So I see this movie, I think three years ago and it was much longer. I thought it was really good, but now I’m watching it just the other night. Right. And I’m thinking to myself, this is the cult movie of the century. I know you want to hear that, Justin. But I really thinking that I am, because there are so many people that love Legos and they want to see themselves. I just felt it was so real. I felt that these are real people. We don’t need to see, you know, another movie star. This was so refreshing. I

Justin McAleece:

Appreciate that Marcia, you know, and it’s everyone. I think, you know, one of our things, one of the guiding forces for me at least, and I don’t know if everyone else caught up on this or not, but I was like, don’t sell jokes. Like ever don’t ever pitch a thing, just like, say a thing and let it die. And if it dies fine, but like just be a real person. And what they always talk about with comedy is like, play like drama. Don’t pretend like you’re joking. Don’t pretend like it’s funny. Don’t do any of those things. Just be yourself in a situation. And hopefully it comes out funny. If it, if it’s funny, it will be funny if it’s not, then it won’t, you know, trying to shove it in the audience and be like, ha ha. That’s the part that never works. And so I’m super grateful that everyone else, if that was the methodology cool. But they did that exactly. Like we had talked about them.

Marcia Kimpton:

Yeah, they did. Until, you know, when he was on camera, stole the show, you could not be doing anything but laugh. I mean, everybody made me laugh, but you’re just like, Oh my gosh. Before we get to Alan, I promise

Alan Agazarian:

I wanted to share this. Carl, do you see this buddy? Oh yeah. Paro Merriam made this probably a decade or more ago and gave it to me to hold on to, until he returns from Denmark. And I basically consider it mine, but it is a full scale remake of Han Solo’s Mouser type pistol. And it is awesome full with handle and sight and trigger that works. And I just thought you guys might like to see that Carl cool Allen, the video went out. Did you say you got that in Denmark? At the level? I said, Carl made this a long time ago and he gave it to me to hold on to, until he returns from Denmark.

Carl Merriam:

[Inaudible] Carl,

Justin McAleece:

For those who don’t know, why are you in Denmark?

Carl Merriam:

So actually almost seven years ago now I got a job as a Lego product designer. So I’ve been making Lego toys for the last seven years since then beyond the dream. Really. I mean, I don’t, I don’t go to work anymore. I just go, go play with Lego and then come home laughing

Marcia Kimpton:

Your childhood. Like everybody would love to do. That’s amazing. Yeah. So Jess, I’m going to ask about Fresno’s later. I got to ask Allen about, because I’ll come back to you, Carl in Denmark, Alan, what was your highlight? You don’t look anything like Janica. So was it your highlights, you know, makeup and hair? Is that what you focus on mostly for this meeting? Yes. I tried, I tried to do my best. It looked like Jennica Schwartzman, but okay. Let’s move on to the next question. I’m kind of disturbed by the whole thing. I thought I looked pretty good. Tell me Alan, tell me what, what you loved playing max

Marcia Kimpton:

And the creative process you have with Justin and Ian.

Alan Agazarian:

Let me just make sure everybody knows that I was opposed to doing this movie with Justin from the get-go. He told me he had this role for me. I said, I don’t want to do it. And he said, well, too bad. I want you to, and literally all the way up until the day before we started shooting, I called him the day before we started shooting. I said, Justin, I don’t want to do it. Have somebody else do it. I’m not in. And he said, it’s it’s you. It has to be you. And I won’t accept no for an answer. So I went to set and just didn’t act at all. I just, I just said what he wanted me to say. And in fact I didn’t want to do it, but once I got there, once I got there, I was even more upset that I was doing that you are chunking.

Alan Agazarian:

Yeah, no, of course, of course I’m joking. My favorite thing about playing that part was that I just didn’t have to act at all. I just, I was just myself the whole time and I just thought about other things in my life that might me off. And I put that in max grand situation and I just complained, like I do in life. I just bitched about this stuff and it worked out great and everyone thought it was great, but I guess they didn’t know that I’m just great because that was just being myself. That’s my favorite description of acting ever the most indignant. I don’t know. I just show him and say what he wants me to say. That’s what I did. I know. I know. Yeah, I know. Right. Because that’s exactly how it went. [inaudible] We just show up and we say what the dude in the hat wants us to say, go home. And another thing about working on the movie, everyone was great. Except for Justin. He was a total prick the whole time. Yeah, no, that was great.

Marcia Kimpton:

What’s it like working with Ricky six and Anthony and the character and keeping a straight face and having that ending? How long?

Alan Agazarian:

I don’t know. I don’t think Anthony’s funny. So I didn’t really have any problem keeping a straight face. I I had I pretty much didn’t even recognize and notice that he was there. Most of the shoot.

Marcia Kimpton:

Those that are listening that don’t know all these guys are really good friends, especially after being on the set that Alan, anything you want to add that change? Obviously you would probably not want the movie have taken 11 years to be finished. Right?

Alan Agazarian:

Well, can I, can I just quit joking for a second and say I loved working on the movie. Justin was awesome. Robin was awesome. Everyone was awesome. Anthony still wasn’t all that great. But no, it was awesome. I had a great time and I’m very happy that Justin made me do it.

Marcia Kimpton:

I’m good. Are you actor in real life? Because I know not everybody is an actor and what’s next for you?

Alan Agazarian:

I’ve never shopped myself as an actor. I don’t have a headshot, but I get more acting gigs than most of the actors around.

Marcia Kimpton:

Okay. Well, good to know when we finally got our Netflix series. I’ll remember you,

Alan Agazarian:

You guys call me an actor. I don’t call myself one. That’s how it works.

Marcia Kimpton:

Oh, okay. Okay. So Justin, did you see a couple of things? And I see some buddies answering where you can get the movie. What is next for everybody? What I do want to talk about is Fresno. So I feel like so until you’ve gone, a Fresno gets a bad rap and the story, and I know I’ve grown up in only big cities, but when you get to Fresno, I’ve had such an amazing experience in Fresno. And I know so many people from Fresno thanks to Justin. So I felt like Fresno had its own character. Justin, would you agree with that? And I don’t know, Alan, are you from Fresno? Yes, I am. So did she feel the Fresno character in this movie and the best of sense of the down to earth people? And I don’t know. I just really, I felt like it showed the best of Fresno. Wasn’t always cinematic Fresno, but he had the feeling the good part of Fresno that I love,

Alan Agazarian:

You know, I think it just, it felt more like a like real life more than it did any particular town. I can’t say it was Fresno or, I mean, the way I see the world, it’s the same world everywhere we go, just with different shaped buildings. So I, I felt like everybody was genuine and whenever I do go back and rewatch it I still feel like that

Marcia Kimpton:

Great answer. Justin, you want to add to this?

Justin McAleece:

It felt like a big community and that’s what we were going for. And we wanted it to be a small enough down. There was a little odd, you know, within the movie, we’re trying to make it there’s a scene between Ian and I, and we’re talking about why it happens to be in Fresno this year. And that’s because in, within the realm, that is where max Grant’s character is from and that’s where he lives and all that. So that tied it. And so we’re like, why are we in this Podunk town? And you’re like, Oh, because it’s going to be face-to-face with him. Getting his record eclipsed basically is what is happening. So a little more explanation that would be needed, but that was why it was there. And we wanted it to not feel like, I don’t know, Detroit or Los Angeles or, you know, big city or something. We wanted it to be a little smaller and a little like, wait, why is this happening here? And then to have some of that come through, Oh, hopefully we’ll.

Marcia Kimpton:

And, and, and I felt that data added to the movie significantly. Maybe I’m just too big city most of the time, but I felt like that’s what made it unique. It was real America and it was real people. And that transitions to my next question about the audience for the big event you know, the big competition, how did you get all those people in that room? We couldn’t have been easy.

Justin McAleece:

Every single person you see in a shot is the entirety of everyone who’s in the building. Like we were hiding it as well as we possibly could. I wish I had the when we, when we put this on YouTube, we’ll put the flow chart. I made a flow chart, which is, this is ridiculous thing saying, cause we have like four days to fill of people at specific times. And so we basically put like shifts on there and we said like, if you’re this and this and you can show up, then, then be here then for sure. But if you can’t then show up here and we have like nine different sections of when people could

Marcia Kimpton:

Wasn’t the school empty, correct? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was then you gave them time periods of when they would, should come of real

Justin McAleece:

When you’re just hoping. No, no, no. Robotic. It was a lot of robots there. We were just hoping that they showed up. What’s that Carl? Why one of them was my brother. Yeah. He’s got a, he’s got a good role in it too. He’s one of the Tufts, he’s he? I love it because Carl’s brother is a taller dude. And he’s the one that like sort of costs Seth at one point and he’s like this fictitious bricks the muscle of the bricks world needs to put him back in his place, which is so ridiculous.

Marcia Kimpton:

Did I get everybody because the person that’s missing is the guy that runs wind song. And he was so funny in that bathroom. What’s the guy’s name? Why am I going blank on his hair

Justin McAleece:

Byron wasn’t here. And he’s just fantastic in that moment. Yeah.

Marcia Kimpton:

Funny in that bathroom scene, but you shot that bathroom scene afterwards, right?

Justin McAleece:

That was all during the time I might’ve been or something.

Marcia Kimpton:

He was so funny. He was another complete second bathroom

Justin McAleece:

When he’s in with Carl. You’re referring to yeah, that might’ve been later that might’ve been after it.

Marcia Kimpton:

Yeah. Okay. That camera up. I set the toilet cam up for that basically. I just want to know. Okay. So I don’t know how much more time

Justin McAleece:

You took a dump in that bathroom.

Anthony Taylor:

He took a real dump in that bath. That’s a real dump trying to keep this cloud. I think it’s important that people know it was a real bathroom. It was a real dump. It was all real, all things, real documentary. This was a real thing that happened.

Marcia Kimpton:

No, it wasn’t Justin. I don’t know what the timing is, but I would love everybody to give their favorite tilt moment because tilt must be here.

Justin McAleece:

Yes, absolutely. Let’s get to that. I also want to, there’s $50 to give away the gift certificate. So I need to do that before we get too far along. And our sponsors shoots that video. We haven’t even referenced shoot stop video. That’s my fault today. But I’m talking about the website that is for any video production professional out there, anyone in the video production realm to get on there and go to shoot, stop video, and set up your own account so that other people can find you and give you references referrals. And then you can give other people referrals. It’s really easy. Anyway. Video shoots video. Yeah. Everyone’s talking about video. It’s not hoot stopped. Video shoots shoots. Oh yeah. S H O O T Virta. That’s pretty great video, dude. Yeah, we did it. It’s good. We’re giving out a $50 gift today. What you need to do is go to the shoot, stop video page and find the newest recently added member of this. I do this right now because what you’re going to do is come back here and in the chat, you’re going to write down the newest recently added member of the site. So whoever types that in first is going to win. And Anthony give me some, some music to set the stage here for this thing that’s going to happen.

Anthony Taylor:

Are you? You want me to sing? Yeah. Yeah.

Justin McAleece:

Legit or, or just, you know, make music with your mouth.

Anthony Taylor:

You definitely didn’t pay that. I, you didn’t pay for the scene package. Alan, let me hear it from you. I just, I did sit down.

Justin McAleece:

I can’t hear him

Anthony Taylor:

So on mute it.

Justin McAleece:

So go to the shoots, that video page

Anthony Taylor:

Newest recently added member of the site video.

Jennica Schwartzman:

Where did you find the most recently added member to the site? Just scroll down and you’ll see 10 video production services. And then I believe, I believe Greg tomorrow. Has it

Anthony Taylor:

Talking about shoots.video, shoots.video. Tomorrow. Tomorrow is the winner. Is this a commercial now? Dragon Mar 50 bucks. No, it’s over now. Carl. It’s over. I’m trapped. Right? Greg tomorrow wins $50. Great job.

Jennica Schwartzman:

Oh, Denmark, will you just show us your, you have so many Lego. If you just show us one thing that you just did recently in Denmark, that we would have never seen.

Anthony Taylor:

You chose the one you use to kill that guy in the hotel, but how can you see this?

Jennica Schwartzman:

Yes. What is it? What is it?

Anthony Taylor:

It’s like a, it’s like a haunted house. I got to get it further away here. Hold on. Oh my God.

Marcia Kimpton:

You just designed it for yourself or for action.

Carl Merriam:

This is it. This is a Lego product. You can buy this in the shops. Shop.Com got lego.com, $50. You got a spooky skeletons in there and nonsense video cameras in there. You know, something, you might find that a shifts it here [inaudible] dot com and then you get it. You go, wow. That’s great. Cool. It’s shop.lego.com.com

Marcia Kimpton:

Done. And you’ve created that

Anthony Taylor:

Justin, on that product, you put the link to that on a shoots.video?

Justin McAleece:

Yeah. Yeah. It’s already up. It’s one of our major sponsors.

Marcia Kimpton:

Okay. Can we Tilt moment? Can I start with my favorite tilt moment for those of you that have not seen Bardo blues that was written by Anthony Taylor, that was shot by Justin and Ian McAleese. Please go to Amazon. It’s on prime free. Sorry. I just did my plug and I’m really proud of it. We won over 40 awards. So it’s called Bardo Blues. And Tilt actually plays the guide that meets the character Jack and is a drug dealer. But in this movie called brick madness, my favorite moment. And I swear to God, Justin, you showed me right after you were like, your first edit was when he’s going up that escalator and it was totally improv. And I’m now watching it maybe the fourth time, because I saw your first cop, but I had seen a few times when you had shot in and was laughing so hard. So now I’m watching it the other night. So I know it’s right. And I am, I have tears coming down my face. Could you tell us about doing that scene and how he improv that it was beyond?

Justin McAleece:

Yeah, we brought, we brought tilt along. He was going to be part of the shoe. Cause we were doing some Wyatt, a bunch of Wyatt scenes actually over at Santa Clara at the bricks by the Bay. And so we were, he was on a constant quest to work himself into shots. He was not supposed to be in that scene at all. He was not hardly, no, not a bit in, in real life. And he just like started being in it. And apparently he thought I was a pushover enough to where I was just gonna let him do whatever the hell he wanted in the back of the shot. And then obviously the other actors Matt and Laura are so good that they played along and they made it make sense. They didn’t break, they didn’t do any of that stuff. And so it was, it was my favorite part of the whole shoot up until then, because it was just so brilliant and I had nothing to do with it. And that was my favorite part of it, I think, is that he just made it happen and it was like

Marcia Kimpton:

The escalator tried to go up backwards and he was so present and real.

Justin McAleece:

He’s hilarious. Yeah. And it was just beautiful. Let’s take it. So, so Tilt, along with a number of other people actually you know, when you’re making a movie over the course of 11 years, other people that are in the movie as well have passed on Ron Blackwell Caroline Devor, Mike arrow, you know, a few people for one reason or another have passed on and tilt Tyree, especially if I’m missing. I apologize. But anyway let’s take 10 seconds and just like honor their memory if we can, Because I felt like we had A beautiful family here and I really just, you know, it’s people I love and people that I had such a great time with and I think I speak for the rest of it. And my ex-wife Nicole and my brother and you know, that we were just infinitely grateful to be able to work with you guys and to be able to create stuff from nothing. You know, especially when we’re talking about tilt and people who are making up things on the spot to like go from nothing a second before to a thing that now hopefully will live on for a while and people buy the DVDs and all that and they get to watch it. And that’s you know, that’s a special thing that not many people in the world get to be able to do. So, no, I’m really happy about that.

Marcia Kimpton:

I think that’s so beautiful to honor all those people that contributed. And

Alan Agazarian:

Can I share one thing about tilt? Yeah. First of all, am I allowed to swear on this meeting or would you rather me keep it clean?

Justin McAleece:

Let’s see what time is it? You can swear in 50 seconds cause the meeting’s over. No, you didn’t say whatever you want me.

Alan Agazarian:

Well, when we went, when I met tilt, it was after a day of shooting and everyone was eating dinner and I knew he was a funny guy. Everybody loved him. I had met him before. So I wanted to approach him, you know, in a special way. So he was sitting, he was texting on his phone at the restaurant and I went up to him. I said, Hey, there’s no texting in the restaurant pal. And he didn’t look at me. He didn’t stop texting. He just said, you. And it was perfect. And I had respect for him from that point on,

Marcia Kimpton:

Oh, that’s beautiful, Anthony. I know you have so many stories because we wrote with tilt with planted them, which never was filmed because we tell it’s early passing, but Anthony, what will be on break madness? One of your favorite memories of him

Anthony Taylor:

Tilt is one of my soulmates, I know that I’m very clear and aware of that. And so obviously his passing was really devastating to me. And I think my two favorite brick madness moments are after I saw, I was lucky enough to watch the filming of the escalator scene. And like, I think Laura doesn’t get enough credit for just sticking with it. Like, and I, I, she, she’s a great tool. She’s a wonderful actress. And like I saw for her, what a gift gave her to play with. Like this is like, you know, cause she played this kind of mousy character anyway a little bit and like how she really enjoyed playing what it would be like for this weirdo to keep interrupting them. And so what a gift that was. But I remember right after that scene, I was cracking jokes and kind of like what Justin was saying, like, I’m like Justin is such a pushover, like tilts the funniest person, you know, I get it.

Anthony Taylor:

But like he’s working his way into every fricking scene in your movie. Like seems he has no business being and he’s just working his way in and you’re like, Oh no, it makes sense to all my okay. But doesn’t it. And like, and I was watching him work and after I said that he came over to me, he’s like, yo, shut up. Like, it was clear. That was real. Like you had a real moment with me where he’s like, yo you want to keep it down? Like I’m making, I was given a part yay big. And I’m going to find my way into every scene of this film. Like that was a real human quest for tilt and he did it. And what’s great about this. He was doing it and it, I mean, you hate that he was making every scene better. Like legitimately not just funnier better, like they had, they were immediately more present because he was involved.

Anthony Taylor:

And so they were immediately better just for him being, participating in it. But my other great tilt memory is him. And I looked at each other after deciding that we were going to be brothers for life and he was supposed to go back to LA the following day, but he was going to leave early. He was just going to leave that night and go back. He’s like, but I have the hotel. Do you just want to stay and write a pilot? And I was like is that something people do? He’s like, yeah, I think so. I’m like, all right then. Yeah. I would like to do that. And I, we, we finished filming. It was the, it was the autograph scene we were filming. I remember we finished, I finished filming that and I walked out and he was there. He’s like, all right, let’s go.

Anthony Taylor:

And I sat in a hotel room with him all night. We didn’t sleep. And we wrote a pilot that, you know, you’ve probably seen it. Right? No, of course you haven’t. But it’s still great. It’s a great pilot about it’s called big time. About just two fat guys who are actors. That experience was like something I will never, ever forget, like playing, you know, you felt like you were playing with someone who was just so much better than you like, just, it was so much more present, but never felt like he was rubbing in your face. Like at every moment was lifting you up at every moment. Like had your back, like even though you knew this guy just had it, like at a, you know, on a different level, he never made you feel like, like you were less than. And if anything, like reveal things about yourself that you were like, Oh, I guess I do know how to do that. So don’t miss the most about them.

Marcia Kimpton:

Beautiful a memory. He can nail anybody in the room, but not make you feel bad. Like he nailed me, you know, like on the set. Okay. Marcia, it has to be quiet and he’s so he was so humble about his talents and present. So anybody else want to add in beautiful memories, Anthony, thank you everybody.

New Speaker:

I helped with casting. And we called in people for lots of roles and every single time somebody came in red for Wyatt because it was just something Jennica needed us to like cast somebody, Justin, very faithfully said, no, this is written for tilt. When you meet tilt, you’ll understand. And person after person, after person, I pitched to say, we have to hire this actor. He’s phenomenal. He’s perfect for the role. He really understands it. And just be like, you haven’t met chill. You have, you have no idea what talking about.

Jennica Schwartzman:

No person here could possibly be anywhere near the talent and the energy and the person that he’s going to be. And five minutes into meeting him, I was like, Oh, I a hundred percent understand I was a complete idiot. And I’m also like really happy that Justin fought for him so much because I fought really hard against it because he was a stranger. I had no idea who he was. And as soon as I forgot you were in charge of the casting, I’ve mixed that up. Yeah. You’re the one that was pitching to Justin. All those people. Yeah. I was trying to replace every single one of you. Nobody wanted to see with all these talented people. And then I met you and I was like, Oh gosh, Justin and Ian know exactly what we’re doing. And I’m an idiot. Not only that

Justin McAleece:

Was everyone talented. And I’ve said this before, like I wouldn’t, we’re going long, but whatever. It’s my show. I, I don’t feel like, and I, this is honest to God truth. I wouldn’t replace anyone. Not just cause you’re looking at me, but like I wouldn’t replace anyone with a more famous version of a person who could play that role. I don’t think that they would do a better job. Anyone who gets name in Hollywood? I don’t like, I just thought that you guys and the other people that aren’t on the art aren’t on the call, like brought something unique to it. That would be better than any other counterparts would be. I wish you guys were all more famous. So we get some more copies. But aside from that, I would not trade a single thing. So

Marcia Kimpton:

Absolutely well said, Justin

Anthony Taylor:

Marcia, you said that you felt like this film like was like indicative of Fresno in some way. And I think that, I think the problem is it’s because you know, us and you know what this community looks like and feels like. And I think what you’re feeling actually is just a group of people who give a about each other, getting together to make something really fricking cool. And I think like you can feel that energy in every frame of this movie is that it’s not necessarily that it’s a location. It’s the chip on the shoulder that Fresno is kind of always had and how they protect their own and how they came together. And like, cause not everyone hears from Fresno. So it’s not about the location. I think it’s just about the spirit that was kind of imbued in it from, you know, from Justin and Ian and, and, and everyone else that kind of like infected the whole process. I mean, when Reggie says there wasn’t a single person on the set that like you hated, you know, fricking rare. That is like, not even like what, there’s always one, there’s always just one. And like there wasn’t one, it was like, everyone really did enjoy it. I mean, except for, yeah,

Marcia Kimpton:

Except for this happened with me because of Justin and Ian, again, Reggie was there for Bardot, blues, planet M and a American and Amsterdam. I mean, Justin, I got to give it to you. You, you create a group of people that love working together and are all want to make something great. But this was an ensemble that is so much harder. It is so much

Marcia Kimpton:

Harder to have that many actors. It really is. That was what a, that’s a beautiful compliment, Anthony to Justin.

Justin McAleece:

Well, I’m just lucky to find people that put up with me long enough, 11 years and to Carl, like he hasn’t talked in a bit, but he would hit me up and tilt the two of them more than anyone honestly would email me or text me or messenger me or whatever, like every 30 days and be like, is it done yet? Is it done yet? When’s the movie coming out? Can I see it on prime yet? Like all the time. And that actually helped align, made me feel terrible, which was good. That’s what I needed at the time. But it would have been 10 years from now if it weren’t for them, prodding me constantly.

Marcia Kimpton:

He was there in Fresno. Justin,

Justin McAleece:

Hold on. What was that? Carl?

Carl Merriam:

I was saying, I, I just, I need to get that blue Ray then I can just never talk to you again. That’s the dream right?

Marcia Kimpton:

Tilt saw the first cut. The second cut. Do you go to the one in Fresno? When, when did tilt see quick manner?

Justin McAleece:

Aye, Joe, he, Robin Reggie, he did not come to Fresno. Right? I was holding out to do an LA screening and it, that didn’t happen for a variety of reasons. And so I don’t really remember. I don’t know. I mean, I gave him, I gave him a copy. Yeah. Later after the fact and everything, I brought him at DVDs.

Marcia Kimpton:

Okay. That’s all I care to hear. So yeah. And I hope all the other people did, unfortunately pass saw your, yeah,

Justin McAleece:

I’m going to, I’m going to do an ending and then we can continue talking for a little while. If you guys get a bounce, that’s fine. But I love this more than anything so we can talk. But anyway, this was brought to you today by shoot stop video. It’s a website and we’re trying to digitize word of mouth referrals and get video production professionals to go there and sign up and refer each other and find lots of jobs. That’s how we hire. And that’s how a lot of other video production companies are starting to hire. So we urge you to go there and check it out. That would be really great. And come with a video shoot video. What’d you call it, shoot. Stop video. That’s the site talking about shoots out video. I am. I do happen to be talking to Carl. It’s a trillion dollar company. All right. Can you come on for a second? Are you over there? Just like it just peddling Lego on the street. Just handing out little, little poly bags, hoping to make a couple bucks to feed your kid. Is that what’s going on here? What I’m doing? If he sells enough, they give him a trip to Norway.

Justin McAleece:

Oh, the snowy North. Good for you, Carl. We’re hoping for you anyway. So anyone else who wants to bet? Oh, he made it. Good job. Thank you, Ellen. Laura, couldn’t be here. She’s having a baby. I don’t know if you guys know that, but yeah. Lauren who plays Delilah white can be here. And then also Maddie was supposed to be on today and he couldn’t be right now. If something happened with this thing and your cat is also here, Robin Stephan, that’s pretty cool.

Anthony Taylor:

Zoom while you’re pregnant.

Justin McAleece:

That’s that’s a wives’ tale. That is not true. We are not mad at Laura, right?

Justin McAleece:

It’s gone off the rails. Anyone who gets wants to get out, feel fine to get out. All right. Now, Robin and Reggie, do you have a question? Do you guys remember when you had the room here in Fresno and then Matt slept? I don’t know if he slept in the same bed with you guys or in the room or exactly how that happened. Cause I was too cheap to get another room. And I think you guys only had one bed. I’ve been telling this story completely incorrectly on all these podcasts, but I want to hear it from your point of view. What exactly happened that night?

Anthony Taylor:

What? We looked up a little duck. Good talk. That’s all you need to know. Wait, wait, what happened?

Justin McAleece:

I’m sorry. Hold on. No, because Matt was there and I got one room for you guys for you too. And then wondering for Matt and tilt. And Matt was in there and it was late and I was like, what are you doing, man? Are you setting up shop? What happened here? Anyway, it didn’t, I didn’t know what was happening. And Matt was going to sleep in your guys’ room and I was like, what’s going on? And he’s like, Oh, I’m not sleeping with tilt. And I was like, dude, what’s wrong. He’s like

Justin McAleece:

That guy. There’s no possibility I’m sleeping with that guy. And I was like, Oh, I can get you another room. Well maybe not. I probably don’t have money for that, but can I do something he’s like, no, man, it’s fine. Don’t worry. Don’t even worry about it.

Robin Steffen:

Let me give some history on a lot of the people involved here too. So everybody knows. I don’t know if Marcia does as well, but so obviously Reggie and I have been doing improv for a long time and we met tilt through that. But until also lived with Reggie and I for a period of time. So I didn’t hold that and I can vouch for that. Tilt. Snore is very much but also Maddie is very close with us because I worked, the first film I ever did was on a, a movie where I met Justin and Matt was also one of the actors on that. So Matt, Justin and I were very close anyway. So it made sense that Matt would come try to crash in our room because we were all just friends already by the point of getting into the movie. Yeah. So that’s a man.

Anthony Taylor:

I, I love the cat’s tail, but I’m telling you, I heard about tilt snoring on Bardot blues. People are like, I am not even having a room next to his room because he snores so much and I couldn’t deal with the situation.

Reggie Castaneda:

I don’t know. I don’t Marcia, I don’t know if you are familiar with the apartments of Parkland Bria, but there may, by the way next door. Yeah. So your neck, your next door neighbor could be throwing raging party And you won’t hear your next door neighbor until was staying downstairs. And my room was the farthest. You could probably be for sound away from tilt. Like it had to go around so many corners and up the stairs and everything. And my girlfriend at the time was a pretty light sleeper. And she like, she just wouldn’t stay over during that time because you could hear, it was like he was standing on the other side of the door, snoring, like it was the loudest snore I’ve ever heard in my entire life. It was in the same.

Marcia Kimpton:

What’s your tilt memory, Reggie, I haven’t heard you say something you did in the beginning. Is there any other tilt memory on break madness?

Reggie Castaneda:

Obviously the escalator scene I was doing sound. I was, I was the boom operator for that moment and I had to stay very, I had to stay up against this giant pillar. Cause you can’t, you kind of, can’t see there’s a big round pillar that they’re sitting next to in the chair that, that Laura and Matt were sitting next to her or Yeah. And so I’m, I’m trying to hold the boom pole up over my head and get the audio of them. But if I move too much, I’m going to either end up in a shot, which wasn’t a big deal. Cause I was part of the crew or I’m going to cast a boom shadow or whatever. And I had never done this before, until it pops out of nowhere and Matt and character or Seth says to him like, Oh, Hey, we’re trying to win. And you just shut up second. I’m talking to Delilah and I just lost it. I lost it. Like I couldn’t, I thought I was going to like drop the boom pole, but it’s not even heavy. And I wasn’t dropping. I was, I was trying not to laugh. Like I was going to audibly, laugh and ruin the sound when I was the guy that was supposed to be worried about not roping the sound. And I just, I couldn’t even remember. And then my other second favorite tilt ever was from Bardo blues when we were having dinner at the end of the night. And he was just doing impressions of you for no reason.

Marcia Kimpton:

What are we talking about when we were in Malibu or in Thailand,

Reggie Castaneda:

But I’m pretty sure we were in Thailand and he sent a video making fun of you and you sent it to all of us. You’re the one that sent it to me. That’s how I saw it. I was, I remembered him doing it. And he was just doing an impression,

Marcia Kimpton:

Justin, you found the video and sent it. Yeah,

Justin McAleece:

It was the one where he was making it. Yeah, it was making fun of her slash the whole movie up until that point because we tried everything in order to, it looked like the entire movie was just going to be two people at the Riverside talking basically the exact same conversation. That’s what it felt like. And that wasn’t true once you cut it all up, but that’s what it felt like. And yeah, that was hilarious. He was the boss.

Marcia Kimpton:

It was so funny that last night at Bardot Blues and Malibu, I’ll just never forget it. I am literally falling apart in laughter. I will never forget it. When we had Thai food and Malibu, what year it was like a standup comedian and we all know this. But Oh my gosh, I I’m lost for words.

Anthony Taylor:

You know, what’s crazy about that first moment Reggie is because you were, you were the crew and you were, But you also didn’t play the crew. You know like, so there were, there were levels

Anthony Taylor:

And I got my job through the shoot. Stop video guys. Shoots.Video.com

Carl Merriam:

I got my job on jobs.lego.com

Anthony Taylor:

Is really doing well. I glad Carl you’re doing well.

Justin McAleece:

Do you a question? Quick question, Robin. Reggie, do you guys remember when we were at bricks by the Bay and you guys went to go get dinner the first night? No based. Okay.

Anthony Taylor:

Remember when you had a meal, do you guys remember that a time where shut up, shut up. There was like a time and you were like hungry and then maybe you found a place that had food.

Justin McAleece:

No. See, because that’s how the story doesn’t go. If you remember this story, it’s the, they went to, I gave him a credit card or cash or something and they went to Dave and Buster’s, there’s like six or eight of them. And I was working on the script. I was there in the hotel room with Nicole or whatever it was. And you guys all went out to go. We had, had talked about earlier that day, you guys went out to go get dinner and you went to Dave and busters and then you thought it was too expensive. You didn’t want to spend all my hard earned cash and David busters cause that place we know that’s tiptop. And so you decided to go somewhere else that other place was Denny’s and then you went to Denny’s and you realized that you wouldn’t ever be able to be served because you guys were in a city with a whole, but with a Lego convention at the time. And so you ended up at two o’clock in the morning going to taco bell again for your dinner because you were trying to save me a couple bucks. That’s what I remember. Does any of you didn’t make this up?

Anthony Taylor:

I remember. Yeah, I was there, but I was really mad. I don’t know what happened. Does anybody remember anything why this happened?

Carl Merriam:

I think the main thing was adjusting only gave us $3.

Robin Steffen:

This card kept declining and it was like, what was it? Like $15 worth of taco bell just kept declining, declining, declining, like what are you supposed to do?

Anthony Taylor:

So you can find a good craft service person for your shoot at shoots.Video. Yeah. That’s the story. I remember.

Robin Steffen:

I don’t remember why we were mad, but I do remember that. Yeah, it, it became a, it became a priority for us to try to not spend all your money.

Justin McAleece:

I appreciate that. I, I remember it every day. I was like, man, when they saved me eight bucks, by not going to a,

New Speaker:

I’m a producer on it in that time, I’m afraid that this could have been my fault somehow. So I’m really sorry if I was the one who was like, this, we don’t have that kind of cash. I’m so sorry. I just don’t know if Justin, Justin, I actually wanted to ask you about the budget. I don’t know if you it’s recording for the large group of people yet, but I thought what

Marcia Kimpton:

You did with no money was remarkable. I mean, I am always talking about having no money, but I have a little bit of money from my production. You had zero. You did more favors than I think anybody. Right? I mean, I think that was pretty. Could you describe a little bit of the favors you did or asked in detail describe all the favors you did for money Justin ever go. I said that wrong. If thank you, Anthony. I

Justin McAleece:

Jennica. Do you know what scale is? I mean, not what the term means, but like what, what amount of money that would be? What scale?

Marcia Kimpton:

300 something hundred. But that used to be one 50 or one 25. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Years ago would have been one 25. Okay.

Justin McAleece:

So I don’t believe anyone on this movie got paid that much per day. So everyone was here and probably some people didn’t get paid at all. And I don’t, I don’t know. I’m just grateful that they wanted to be a part of it and that they wanted to help and that they wanted it. The Carl spent a million hours working on Lego, along with Jason WADA and other people. And I don’t know, it just worked out that way. I, I asked and we all thought we were going to have fun and we just loved being part of the process. I hope. And so

Marcia Kimpton:

Would also like to know most of the locations free. I mean, didn’t she? Yeah.

Justin McAleece:

I called there’s another story. Most of you guys don’t know this. The day before we went to go shoot at max Grant’s house, let’s see, five days before that, I called up the guy who lived there. I called Mike and I was like, Hey man, can we use your house? I, I have the shoot for big Madison, we needed to go shoot there. And he’s like, ah, probably not. I don’t know. I’m not my wife’s kind of, I’ll have to ask her, but probably not. I tried to find a location. Didn’t do a very good job because we were shooting the rest of the time. I texted him the night before and I was like, Hey man, we’ll see you at seven. Like not actually getting any sort of ability to shoot there. And that was maybe the worst thing I’ve done on or off set.

Justin McAleece:

And we, he was like, no, no, no. I said you couldn’t. And I was like, Oh, sorry, man. I messed up by mistake. We’ll be there at seven. Maybe eight is eight. Cool. And he’s like, okay, I guess I’ll see you at eight. And so he showed up and shot. And so yeah, that was some of the locations came in bad manners like that. And I apologize to him for that, but he loved the movie, right? I believe so. Yeah. Mike is one of the people that passed on, so he’s not around for that anymore, but he was a lovely human being and that I don’t know. That’s what I remember from the thing. I mean, he, I was a jerk in that moment and he was a great person for letting me be a jerk and just sort of like,

Marcia Kimpton:

Well, you were also desperate indie filmmaker without enough money. So another thing is, what about how many days did you shoot the film? How many days did it take?

Justin McAleece:

We probably shot in the course of 30 days, but we’ve probably only shot like 12 actual scheduled days. Something like that. Maybe 10. I’m not exactly sure.

Jennica Schwartzman:

So would you do 10 days and then edit or would you go back to another job for your company and then come back to shoot

Justin McAleece:

Very, were broken up. It was over the course of like, you know, I literally shot something for it a month ago, two months ago. Whenever it was.

Marcia Kimpton:

Wow. So 10 days to make that movie. That’s not a lot of time. Yeah.

Justin McAleece:

Yeah. Somewhere about somewhere there abouts. I mean, we were very efficient and we only did like three takes per thing. Usually like we just didn’t have more time.

Marcia Kimpton:

No I’m did, how many hours do you think editing you spent?

Justin McAleece:

Oh I have no idea. I like to say, I like to say that, you know how they say, if you’re if you spend 10,000 hours at something you’re an expert. I am definitely an expert at this movie. Malcolm Gladwell would be proud. That’s what I would say. Yes.

Marcia Kimpton:

I know it shows a thousand an hour.

Justin McAleece:

Any other questions from people out

Jennica Schwartzman:

Working with this team was such a blessing and getting to know every single one of these people. I have never encountered a project since then, where I didn’t want to be able to bring people on board or want to be able to reach out or include people because again, the sharp, witty, charming, wonderful, a great attitude. Can’t believe you’re working under such terrible conditions with such a positive attitude for this many hours. Like people is super rare in this industry. And I slowly went from acting and producing and now distribution and being able to bring this project across the finish line with my distribution company now is like the most like heartwarming cozy thing I could possibly imagine. Cause I feel like I’m giving a gift that I just wanted to give you guys so much is so anybody could have done it. Anybody could have taken it past there, but I wanted to, because I wanted to do this with you guys. And I wanted to watch it in a different world in a less dark timeline. We would be watching this in a theater together and we would be having a blast for probably 48 hours straight afterwards. So that was what I imagined in a different world. Yeah.

Justin McAleece:

For what you guys have done in putting this out there.

Jennica Schwartzman:

Congratulations. Yeah, Robin,

Robin Steffen:

a couple of behind the scenes kind of things that people don’t often, you know, we get to hear these stories. Two things that stick out to me a lot behind the scenes advise is we had like the, too many kinds of games going on that I don’t know how many people even knew that those were going on, but one at the time this was what, 11 years ago or however long ago it was that game for your phone to just come out where you were when you were draw things and then other people had like, you would send the picture. It was like a, like a Pictionary picture and your friends would try to guess what it was. Oh man, we, we had a lot of that going on, like during downtime from the camera, like we would say, okay, Justin would be like, cut and then like, you’d see, half the people like pull out their phone and like, try to guess what was going on. Like we were like mini going on.

Justin McAleece:

I think It was like a off dad at one point, Hey, put down your video phones, put your machines down, but we’re making a movie here.

Robin Steffen:

Oh yeah. We were playing that like with Blake hooks and everything. Like we’re we were just obsessed with that. And then I wish Matt was here to talk about this one with me. At some point we found like this little dinosaur head, like this little T-Rex Lego dinosaur head or something. And like in between some takes like we, like, I know Reggie myself and like Matt would run off and like make these little mini movies with this thing, like where we would have like these little dinosaur attack movies that we were making here and there for just like, wow, we had downtime. So I think I have some on my phone and I should send them to you. But yeah, we would just like shoot them off in a court where like we would attack each other, like make these little movies with this dinosaur head. And I don’t know those memories.

Reggie Castaneda:

We did, like, we did the scene from Jurassic park where the guy’s like trying to find the Raptor and it comes through the Bush and he says, clever girl, like it it’s like the tiniest it’s just on the end of your finger. And we’re like, Oh no, it was like, can I have a girl? It was just, it was completely asinine completely.

Robin Steffen:

Yeah. I think I still have that little head somewhere. I should look for it, but yeah, we would just make those little tiny movies when we were, when we had the free time. So, but those little things, I mean, they just keep you creative and they keep you going, like while things are happening and we could just go run off and do them somewhere. So

Anthony Taylor:

Remember when this, when, when Justin first brought a black, brought the I, the concept of the idea of the movie up, and I remember I looked at him like, does this really happen? Like, what you’re describing is that like a real thing? Cause I was so not connected to the culture. And then, and then when he, when he said, well, when we just, when he decided that he wanted me to play this part, I scared the out of me because I was like, Oh no, like the, as someone who like has loves my own niche, nerdy things, like I love DMD. I’m a marching band guy. I love Saifai. I love star Trek. Like it would, it, it, the idea that someone else would portray my thing and like really like have no authenticity to it or that it would just come across as like dipshittery like really scared me, like big time. And I think like, for me, like the biggest gift of the movie was Carl, because Carl was like really the heart and soul of the whole thing. Like it wasn’t just about like us as actors loving this thing, like Carl’s love and like tangible passion for this thing that we were all poor train. I felt like for me immediately made it feel like I wasn’t making fun of this thing, which I never wanted to do, but it like protected me from that because he was that driving force. And then for me as the actor to get the gift of that monologue, where he talks about how we used to be tight and I betrayed him like as somebody who wasn’t didn’t really think I was very much of an actor. I was like, wow, what a great gift that was because it, it made it, so I didn’t have to come up with any backstory, like to understand this guy.

Anthony Taylor:

And it made Ricky who is so easily a caricature, like he immediately have heart, like immediately have like an insecure story that this whole crazy thing is born out of a desperate need to be accepted. And when he found that one thing, he just kind of like went all in. And so that’s all, that’s all from. Carl’s like groundwork, all of that is born out of his passion and his love for it. And I think like, I don’t, I don’t think that should go unnoticed because I know for me, for someone who was so paranoid, I’m like, Oh man, like, I’m going to find myself in a, in a Lego, dark alleyway one day and someone’s going to be like, talk in, made fun of my thing. And I’ll be like, yeah, you’re right. I did. And then I’d have to just take it. They just beat me up with like a Lego fist. It’d be bad, all sharp edges. And so yeah, I was so deeply appreciative of that because I feel like that that kind of like co-signed, everything was coming from that place of like, there’s someone that really loves the behind this. And so it made it easy to find the love and not fear that you were going to fall into a place of uneasy, laugh for a laugh sake. So I’m, I’m appreciative of you call on me. I miss your stupid face.

Carl Merriam:

It was a lot of fun. I th I think you make a really good point about how, like, when you want to have fun with something, if you’re everyone is on the outside of that thing, it’s very easy to just make like jokes that are either just don’t make any sense, or they’re actually just offensive to those people. But we have actually watched an earlier kind of the movie with a lot of people that work at Lego and they really enjoyed it a lot. So they’re good. They keep asking me when I’m going to get the final one so we can all watch it. And I still, I say stuff from the movie I work all the time. I love to yell the, of course, jello. That’s one of my favorites. Yeah,

Justin McAleece:

Yeah. Which is a good setup by my ex-wife. Yeah, Nicole. Right. If that’s the last joke in the movie, she did a good job. She’s only in the movie for 10 seconds. So she’s got a good line.

Anthony Taylor:

Is it set up at least for for Ricky’s great line and of course, sorry. I was just going to say, I think the best part is that you’re going to be able to purchase the Blu-ray DVD or Blu-ray a brick madness on shop.lego.com. So make sure you go to shop.com

Carl Merriam:

Can not confirm or deny that the Lego corporation is they’re pulling out my internet connection as.

Anthony Taylor:

I read that that was true on shoots.video

Justin McAleece:

One thing quick about Carl was we were like, Oh yeah, he’s pretty good at Lego he’s seems really good. Stuff’s cool. And then we went to the first, I believe it was the first bricks by the Bay and he was there and you’d actually entered a bunch of stuff, things that you’d built over the years. And then you won like every award and we were sort of walking around and we’re like, yeah, dude, that’s our boy. We brought that dude. He’s here with us. And that, which was the opposite. We were there with him, but still we, we took some ownership over, like, we were like, no, he’s legit. We knew it. And it was,

Anthony Taylor:

It was really funny.

Marcia Kimpton:

How did you find Carl, Justin?

Justin McAleece:

I looked to my left like eight feet. Yeah. Cause he was, he worked for us.

Carl Merriam:

Yeah. I was in production for quite a few years. So I actually,

Marcia Kimpton:

And you were doing this and now you’re in the dream job.

Carl Merriam:

Yeah. And what’s weird is that actually I’ve done some production stuff for Lego, so there’s a few videos that I, that I shot. And also like some photos in the, in the building inspection books that I’ve shot over the, over the years. So I used, I used some of my production skills for the Lego group.

Justin McAleece:

He’s good at so many things. All right. We’re half an hour officially over. So I think I’m going to cut it short or cut it long here. And

Anthony Taylor:

You’re going to hear a recording of this on shoots.video.

Justin McAleece:

Yeah, there is. And on YouTube, you know what the YouTube channel name is

Anthony Taylor:

Shopped up Lego up paying attention to the video shop video at Lego

Justin McAleece:

Dutch shoots. Yeah. That’s fair.

Marcia Kimpton:

Can I just say thank you, Jesse, for including me. I was so fun to see people I haven’t seen and then to be able to think about tilt tonight. And I know Jason that our editor is watching. I just, it was a special night. I, you just asked him to do this and I’ve just, I feel so warm in my heart. So thank you.

Anthony Taylor:

Can I tell you one more? Can I tell you one thing, Justin, that only this group might actually know if you were at bricks by the Bay? Do you guys remember the, that the battle of the ends structure that was there? They had built the whole tower of, it was like insane. It was like five and a half feet tall on top of the table. So it was like, yeah, we had watched them kind of build it. Right. They brought it in, in sections and they were kind of putting it together. I’d agree. I have a great memory of, and it only people who would actually, who actually seen how big that thing was, would get this. But I was standing there with tilt, looking at it, just kind of like taking it all in once it was put together and it was just insanely Epic.

Anthony Taylor:

And I, I remember just looking at it with them and I just went wow. And he goes he said, I didn’t, I didn’t think it was that big. Like you thinking of like the whole battle is what he meant. Like those story, I didn’t think was that big. And I just looked at him. I said too soon, man, too soon. And we made each other laugh about that. Like the idea of like too soon from more of the rings. It’s just so stupid. But like that, that literally tickled us for years forever. Like you can just look at the album and go to sin, man. And we knew exactly what we were talking about. The frickin Lego battle of the end structure at bricks by the bay insane. So stupid.

Justin McAleece:

That’s going to be at Marcia that’s. Thank you so much for hosting this for putting this together. And yeah. I love you all. And I am happy to to have been able to do this. There is there’s a address in there too. You can go buy the DVD by the, the brick master edition. You can even see Ricky’s face. That’s going to be out of focus, but it’s pretty great. That’s a, that’s a magnet. That’ll attach to stuff. There’s a bunch of other things in there and it’s super fun.

Marcia Kimpton:

And are you going to post a zoom link on your page? So those that missed it on my page.

Anthony Taylor:

Shoots.Video, Marcia. Get it together. When you come out of your panic room, wherever that is, Marcia, just go to a working laptop,

Marcia Kimpton:

Right? Everybody understands how funny that is. That’s not my strength in this technology. Okay. So it’s shoot.com. I don’t go to your Facebook page to hear the podcast. Now I’m actually getting anxious.

Justin McAleece:

I’m going to send a link to everyone. It’s in the chats. Everyone can read it. Shoots.Lego.Com. Perfect. Yep. All right. Yep. Totally gone off the rails. I love you guys. All we’re. This is we’re calling it. That’s that’s too long.

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