Sarah May Bates https://www.sarahmaybates.com/ is an AI director, and she’s been getting lots of work! And Matt and Oren dive deep into how she makes that happen. She’s joined by actor Susan Song.

Sarah has a clear line for AI usage. And it comes down to what are you in this for? Do you love the organic aspect of filmmaking and discovery, where what you plan isn’t always what you get? Like, in a good way.

Because if you’re not, you might prefer the robotic precision of AI.

But be careful of being tricked into believing that’s what brands want, especially the top brands you want to work for.

At the end of the day, Sarah believes human oversight is at the core of what creatives do. Like, why would you want to have AI write your script, or even your email? That’s what you do, and that’s what makes you who you are!

Here’s the golden rule: if the medium is leading, then you are failing.

What does that mean? Don’t fall into the trap of creating AI for the sake of filling the request. Instead, Sarah recommends letting the creative work find what it wants to be!

This is the episode you want to hear as an actor, filmmaker, or anyone in the industry looking for some sense of purpose, foundation, and compass for what’s happening in AI!

Connect with Sarah at https://www.yaywithme.com

Connect with Susan on IG @sujjang012

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Help Matts' film: https://wefunder.com/badfeeling

Help our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/JustShootItPod

Matt's Endorsement: Send Help https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8036976/

Nick Lutsko's song for the Manscaped Super Bowl Commercial https://www.local3news.com/local-news/update-chattanooga-artist-nick-lutsko-composes-song-for-national-super-bowl-commercial/article_dd5d9cd0-9c5a-4565-a1af-1dfe3d1ffdda.html

Sarah's Endorsement: The UPA Cartoon "Rooty Toot Toot" https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-70th-anniversary-of-rooty-toot-toot/

The documentary on the animation company UPA https://www.cartoonbrew.com/documentary-2/animation-mavericks-the-forgotten-story-of-upa-documentary-258284.html

The book "Bird by Bird", by Anne Lamott https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/97395/bird-by-bird-by-anne-lamott/

Susan's Endorsement: See the Backstreet Boys at the Sphere, in Las Vegas

Oren's Endorsement: @stuffaboutadvertising on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Natasha Kermani talks about casting Sophie Turner in her latest film “The Dreadful” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30842022/ and it’s amazing how she connected with Sophie and demonstrated why this project was a great fit for her trajectory as an actor.

But when Matt and Oren dig into the details of the one thing Natasha said in her letter that sealed the deal, they get a big surprise.

This is a great episode that explores Natasha’s love for the details, discovering Cornwall, and finding the right combinations of textures, imagery and dialect to tell this story. With Kit Harington and Marcia Gay Harden also on board, this was a film that had to deliver. And Natasha shot it in just 18 days.

Finding the right connection with a DP to make such a tight schedule work, without having to panic, can be tricky. And Natasha talks about how she never threw out the shotlist, but always stayed committed to rewriting each day, to keep the creative work intact with the vision.

From specialized dialects developed just for this film, to finding locations to which she specifically wrote scenes of the film, it’s an amazing story of an auteur at work. And through all of this she brought her daughter into the world, and you get to see her on the pod!

This is the episode that shows great work can be done while raising a family in LA. Yes, you too can find the time to make family and work as a filmmaker a lifestyle!

Find Natasha on IG @natakerm

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Help our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/JustShootItPod

Matt's Endorsement: Italian Paperclips from Dell'era Giuseppe https://www.delleragiuseppe.com/en/stationery/paper-clips/

Oren's Endorsement: Get a DIT who will upload to iCloud as you go without waiting til the end of the shoot.

Natasha's Endorsement: KUSC classical radio https://www.kusc.org/ and just listening t o the radio in general.

Chuck Kinnane's Endorsement from last time: Riehle's Select Popcorn https://www.selectpopcorn.com/

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Chuck Kinnane joins directly from Little Compton, Rhode Island. And he comes out straight on sharing the credit and pay from their latest feature, “Solo Mio”, starring Kevin James.

The Kinnane brothers have been living the dream as filmmakers. And they’re proof that years of work with YouTube videos, closed caption documentaries, and just making shorts, writing scripts and pitching ideas, can and does pay off, even today.

It’s the story of Chuck, who started by just shooting his first films at 10 years old. Then he was fortunate enough to share tastes, aspirations, and the willingness to tough it out, suck up your ego, and collaborate all in the name of what is best for the creative work product. It just so happened he didn’t have to go to film school to find his 7 partners and lifelong collaborators.

Through luck, doing the work, and getting the work out there, the Kinnane brothers met Kevin James, became his co-creator, and then found themselves making an Adam Sandler picture along the way.

This is a fabulous interview. If you like listening to humble, grateful people share the story of how success found them, you won’t want to miss this episode!

Find them on IG: @kinnanebrothers

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Help Matts' film: https://wefunder.com/badfeeling

Help our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/JustShootItPod

Matt's Endorsement: Sound Guy on YouTube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFH3phl5yd1WWTwZyLbn1tcCo0k-gB8BY&si=0PMQnRpXrarngzLV. Top Seedz Crackers. https://topseedz.com/collections/crackers

Oren's Endorsement: Trader Joe's Buffalo Ranch Popcorn. https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/buffalo-ranch-popcorn-080927 Grok AI for video https://grokvideo.ai/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.