NOLA Film Scene with Tj & Plaideau
A podcast about acting, filmmaking, and the improv scene in New Orleans.
NOLA Film Scene with Tj & Plaideau
Kaleb Cook & Liam Buckley: The Last of Us Immunity
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Kaleb Cook and Liam Buckley share an extraordinary journey into the world of filmmaking with their project "The Last of Us Immunity." Discover how a simple idea centered around Ellie from "The Last of Us" blossomed into a feature film with a rich narrative and original characters. Kaleb and Liam, of Magic Numbers Studios, reveal the excitement and challenges of shooting in authentic locations, the collaborative spirit that fueled a seamless production, and what it takes to bring a lightsaber duel to life on screen. Their experiences offer invaluable insights into the filmmaking process for both seasoned creators and newcomers alike.
Follow them @magignumberstudios on Instagram and TikTok, and https://www.youtube.com/@magicnumberstudios
Follow us on IG @nolafilmscene, @kodaksbykojack, and @tjsebastianofficial. Check out our 48 Hour Film Project short film Waiting for Gateaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pFvn4cd1U . & check out our website: nolafilmscene.com
Hey, my name is Caleb Cook. My name is Liam Buckley. I am a producer and actor.
Speaker 2:I am a director, writer, producer.
Speaker 1:And I am thrilled to be on the NOLA Film Scene podcast.
Speaker 2:And I am extraordinarily pumped to be on the NOLA Film Scene.
Speaker 4:Welcome, gentlemen, thank you, thank you, yeah, welcome. Good to see you guys. It's been a while you as well. We met. I had the privilege of working on one of y'all's projects the Last of Us Immunity and that was an incredibly fun project for me. That was over in Austin, texas. Everybody everybody on set, I think got to meet just about everybody during the media day event before we filmed. Everybody was very welcoming. I kind of felt like the old man on set and everybody was welcoming, very kind, very, very fun to work with. I had a fantastic time on that shoot. Who came up with the idea to do that one? Y'all kind of come up with it together.
Speaker 1:So I guess originally I had decided to. After we finished the Star Wars project we were like, well, we've got to come up with something else that we want to do. So we had a general pitch meeting with probably about 15 of the people that are kind of still involved with Magic Numbers Studios and we had, like it was maybe seven to 10 ideas that got pitched and everyone voted on it at the end to see what would be the next one. And I had originally pitched an idea that was a continuation of a story with Ellie from the Last of Us, where it would be Ellie meets another immune person and they kind of go over what that means to them. What does immunity truly mean in this world, with flickers and bad people and all that kind of stuff?
Speaker 1:Eventually Liam came on and was like, really interested in helping write, and so we started with that concept and then we completely went in a different direction and we got to the Last of Us Immunity with all of the original characters that we ended up with. And that's kind of the inception of it, liam, if you want to speak on anything else about your involvement in it, I mean, yeah, I think you nailed it with its origins and conception.
Speaker 2:I remember Caleb pitched the idea and I was like this just makes so much sense for a fan film, in my opinion, because we have the Last of Us. It's coming out soon, it's relevant, but also more than that, we're just giant fans and I feel like it's very fun, producibility wise, because you get to go and look at places, because we didn't build anything for the sets. We used all real locations, and so just thinking about that and thinking about what we would need and need to do in preparation for a film like that got me really excited, and so I was 100% on board. Yeah, it started out with that idea of Ellie being the main focus, and then it was funny because Caleb and I were talking recently and you were like, remember when this movie started with Ellie and it was supposed to be 12 minutes, and now it's going to be this 15 minute ginormous thing that we never anticipated, and I'm very happy with the trajectory. It's where it started from and where it is now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we definitely got pretty carried away when we started writing. We were like, wait a second, this is 30 pages, wait a second. We just it's now 50 pages long. How are we going to do this?
Speaker 4:Yeah, and filming went so well that it was perfect for a feature. Right From what I understand, I was only there for that one day, but from what I understand, the way it grew, the script and the filming was just so well done. What's the runtime of it going to be?
Speaker 1:That's a Caleb question. It's still being pieced together on the timeline but I think amongst all of the parts it's probably going to be hour to an hour and five minutes long.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's. I thought I had heard that, because I think when I auditioned, y'all were still calling it a short right, and it was sometime between auditions and filming that it grew to a feature.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think the entire time writing it we were in our minds it was just short, short, short. And then, like Caleb said, we got carried away and realized that the narrative structure that we had is like this kind of loosely follows the beats of a feature, with like an act one and act two and act three, a midpoint, etc, and so it's kind of a weird in between we're calling it a short feature, because I think a lot of the criteria for something to be called a short is to be 45 minutes or less, and we're just over that and also kind of follows the feature structure. And, like I said, we never anticipated that at all. And then we were like well, we planned out the shooting schedule, this could work, and so we kept it, gotcha.
Speaker 4:I do want to expound on one thing, brian. This is the project that I told you about. That was so well done. Y'all worked like an old machine. Just Y'all worked like an old machine, just perfect. Everybody seemed to know their job, where they needed to be, what they needed to do. Setups moved really fast. Everybody was just efficient. I don't remember how far into the filming my day was I don't think it was very far in, but y'all were just. Y'all were firing on all cylinders and, from what I understand, a group of people that came together kind of came from different areas, didn't they? Yeah, I've been on other sets that weren't as well organized. Your call sheet, shot list, everything came out and just, I don't know, that's how it seemed to me Just very smooth, very efficient. I thought y'all did a fantastic job and it was just. It was one of my better times on set.
Speaker 2:I've got to say I'm glad that we could provide that for you, because we saw your submission and we're like we got to have this guy as a Firefly. He's just perfect right off the bat, and so we appreciate you being there, thank you. I wish we could have had you for more days, because it was super fun working with you. Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I appreciate you saying that we really wanted to just try and emulate like a higher budget thing just with the resources that we had.
Speaker 1:We had a lot of challenges in terms of, like scheduling, and trying to fit all of that into a two week lock was really challenging, and it was also the middle of summer and it was getting up to temperatures of 105, 104. So we had to block out the middle of the day because we're like we cannot make people shoot a film in this heat right now and so logistically, it was a really fun challenge to just figure out how to work a schedule because there's so many moving parts. There were, I think, at its peak, which was Bartlett, the unit that you were at TJ. I think we had 20 to 25 people on the crew there with six to seven people on cast. We were shooting on that street in Bartlett, which was super cool. So it was just. It was a really fun experience to kind of be like well, we wrote this story and like we've got to figure it out now. We've got people coming in from all over the country. Their tickets are really not refundable, so we've got to get something going.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that organization is impressive because I've been on independent shoots a budget, nothing major, yet with no money with one of them. We've been doing since my first time was in 2020. And the principal's done. I think they just have the sound to do so, no money on their spare time, so he's been focused, even though it's been spread apart. I've walked into something and it was a clusterfuck. You know what I mean. And then so that's impressive. I wanted to ask because you had said fan film and people might not understand because you're not part of the HBO Last of Us or the video game. So how can you make a film using someone else's property like that?
Speaker 2:That's a good question and Caleb and I had concerns about that from the start with like what can we use in this movie? Are we allowed to use these characters? And it's something that we spent a lot of time just harping on that we actually really didn't need to, because what the soul of a fan film is like you mentioned with our, the previous film that we created, the star wars eye of the forest, eye of the forest a star wars story I'm getting the title wrong. It's like star wars fans have been making movies about jedi and since its initial release and it's just something that we always wanted to be a part of that kind of creative community. Because when Caleb and I were planning Eye of the Forest and others, we were just looking at other Star Wars fan films for reference like, yeah, we could totally do that.
Speaker 2:Oh, I like that element that they did. They can't afford this CGI element, so how do they practically shoot that? Oh, yeah, let's do that in this film. But there wasn't a lot of that for the last of us franchise and so it was kind of just like taking inspiration from the games, primarily because the show had been. I was trying to remember the show had been up at the point of shooting, but not at the point of the idea that we want to make a last of us short film, and so it kind of started with taking elements from the game and so forth cool, yeah, that's the big thing is as long as you don't profit off of it.
Speaker 4:I mean, y'all didn't even want to take crowdfunding for it either, just to be on the safe side. Everything was volunteer, everything was equipment owned by the crew and y'all that brought your own stuff, I mean even wardrobe, everything y'all kind of sourced just out of your own pockets to not break any of those rules.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, you can never be too careful with that kind of stuff, exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah. And even then, like I often forget how expensive making a movie is, because we started out with, I think, a collective pool of it's not a lot like. We're all students, so it's very much just like what we make in our jobs that we balance with also having not a lot. We're all students, so it's very much just like what we make in our jobs that we balance with also having an academic life, and so all of it coming from that and we're thinking like all right, we're done. All of our budget allocated to pre-production, we're chilling now it's kind of us just on our computers. Post-production Nope, money. You keep having to spend money on stuff, and it's a lot, but it's all worth it because this is our passion. Money on stuff, and it's a lot, but it's all worth it because this is our passion. We love the Last of Us, we love making movies and we just wanted to put those two together to make something cool.
Speaker 4:So the Star Wars film I want to circle back to that. We talked about it just a little bit on set and I've seen other Star Wars fan films and to me y'all's is the best that I've seen the CGI, the lightsabers I mean as a Star Wars fan you have to be kind of snobby about doing that right, and I think y'all did it right and my mind is just utterly blown with the way you did the CGI for the lightsabers. Can you speak to that? Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 1:Yes, and thank you. That really does mean a lot. And thank you, that really does mean a lot. There was the two weeks leading up to the release of Eye of the Forest. We had a VFX artist working on it and I was really excited. I had seen this guy do work before and I was really impressed with the quality of his work. And then I get a text one week before he's like hey, man, I haven't done any of it and also I can't do it. So really sorry about that, and I was like, no, devastating.
Speaker 1:So that week I taught myself after effects and I the concept of it is rotoscoping. You basically just paint a color over the unlit blade and then you just glow it up however you want in After Effects and you have to go over each individual frame of the fight to make sure that that blade is covered with the digital lightsaber. And so I was kicking myself because in pre-production we were like let's do a fight with four lightsabers. That would be so awesome. We're going to have a double blade, it's going to be sick.
Speaker 1:And then I'm in post-production. I'm like why did I ever decide? Because as soon as you add a second lightsaber, it doubles the amount of lightsabers that you've got to use. So it was a really interesting process because I myself see where I first started working on it and then where I ended up at the ends, like with the first scene versus the last scene. I went chronologically and I think that the last scene looks much better because I had learned tips and tricks and how to make it go faster, and so I think if I were ever to do it again, there would definitely be some knowledge from how it works on the output to figure out how to do it better in the beginning. But yeah, I mean it was a really fun challenge to get through.
Speaker 4:So I have After Effects. I haven't gotten into it. I mainly stick to Premiere and Audition for editing. And so there's a. I'm a gamer I don't know if y'all game but there's a guy that I watch.
Speaker 4:If you're gamers, you've probably heard of this guy called the Russian Badger, and he started out just doing like After Effects cartoony characters over his gameplay and his friends they all say funny stuff. Well, after he started making really good money, he bought a motion capture suit and he does animated videos. It's kind of a like an overlay on top of his gameplay and it's funny moments from the games and it's just incredible. He spent like 26 K on the suit and then he's running like a 10k machine. But that was, you know, right after the problem with getting graphics cards because of the chips, so everything was probably a lot more expensive. And then also a really expensive camera and I mean his streaming setup is very just plain, not much to it. It's what he does with that. With after effects. Do you have to have the motion capture dots on the device that you're capturing or are you just having to manually do every single frame?
Speaker 1:We had. On the blades themselves we put pieces of blue painter's tape so that there would be some kind of a reference. But the After Effects in-unit tracker is not that fantastic and so I ended up just manually going through and doing them. That's how they did it in the prequels as well, like you can see. If you pause it at specific elements you can see like the line that the mask is in, whatever software it is they use. So it's not a hard process to learn, it's just mastering. It is what kind of sets different ones apart, like the sequels or the prequels obviously look fantastic with their lightsabers and you can kind of tell that there's something about fan films that you're like that's a little bit off, but the process is the same in that regard.
Speaker 4:I got you. Did y'all build them yourselves or did y'all purchase them? The actual, the handles.
Speaker 1:We actually got them donated from a lightsaber company that we were kind of close with and we had some people that we knew over there I think it was imperial workshop and we went in and we said, hey, we've got this fan film. Would you guys be interested in coming on as a sponsor? And they were really gung-ho and really excited about it. So they even let us use some unreleased hilts and we were like their promo for it, nice.
Speaker 2:I just want to add, not to get us in trouble, but it was sponsored in terms of like, they gave us props and they don't have that license from Disney because they're not replicos per se, so they have to. If it's Anakin's lightsaber, they have to call it like space warrior, yeah, and so we got those. So like everything was totally legit, finessed around. How do we not get in trouble? Not that disney would care, that a bunch of you know college students are in the woods like swinging lightsabers at each other. But yeah, but it was. It was cool to see that you're almost in the parody realm yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So it's not Anakin's lightsaber, it's grown-up sourpuss boy who you know nobody likes saber. Right right, I did want to hit you with three Star Wars fan films. I don't know if you've seen them. One of the originals from the 70s was called Hardware Wars. It's mostly a trailer. It's fabulous. Hardware Wars Two Troops. Have you ever seen that one?
Speaker 2:I have not seen that one either.
Speaker 3:No, Troops is the Star Wars versions of Cops. Okay.
Speaker 2:That actually is really really cool idea, I think.
Speaker 3:It was very cool. It was pre-internet when I first saw it, so it was comic conventions. I bought the videotape. That's cool, so we're talking bootlegs back in the day. The third one is called Pink Five, picture of Valley Girl on the outskirts of Star Wars. So like Luke is Red Five, she's like I'm Pink Five and that was hilarious.
Speaker 4:Nice, that's funny.
Speaker 3:Hardware Wars like it's a commercial line. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll kiss seven bucks, goodbye.
Speaker 4:It's so long ago.
Speaker 3:That's what it costs to get in the movie and TJ if you want to tell them how, what they inspired you to do after their media day, things you have to go through an oral board to get a certain qualification.
Speaker 4:So there's a lot of interviews. You have to check a bunch of boxes and I always felt comfortable doing that because I knew the material and I knew what to expect. But a media interview especially being new to acting at the time, I didn't feel prepared to do it and we started talking when I got back from Texas from shooting and we both had individually thought about doing a podcast and I said you know, it might help us because this could come up again when we're filming. We could be getting interviewed behind the scenes and of course I did. And the very next one I did they had a similar thing and I thought that would be great. We'll get to know people in the industry and learn some things. Maybe we don't know about the industry and maybe help hear because we were in the same boat in terms of just starting out, because we had only made one movie before and that was amongst friends.
Speaker 2:Really we hadn't networked kind of past that like hey, we have a friend who knows how to do this, let's get them on. I was working with people, I was directing people that I had never met before, and so it was all very new to us and to hear that something like that inspired this, which is super professional. I took a look at another episode and I was like, wow, this is a cool thing I'm going to be part of. It's super cool to hear that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so wait a minute. You know I was thinking y'all had done a couple of other projects that we just hadn't talked about yet in between the Star Wars one and this one. So Immunity was y'all's second film together. Wow, correct, wow, that. I mean I was already really impressed, but that is just incredible. On your second project, didn't you do accounting in school?
Speaker 1:I did. Yeah, I just graduated in May with my accounting degree. Congratulations.
Speaker 4:Thank you. I remember that on set when we were talking. Maybe that's where some of that organization comes from, because y'all were meticulous, not like I don't mean like micromanaging meticulous, but just well organized.
Speaker 1:I don't know, maybe that's got something to do with it yeah, I would say it's helped me figure out how to be intentional with just being intentional about things, and I think we in the pre-production process, we really wanted to hone in on the fact that we were having all of these people coming in and we just wanted to be respectful of their time, that they were volunteering for us. So if we said that we were going to get them in and out in six hours, we were going to get them in and out in six hours, because that's what we committed to do and I'm not speaking for Liam here because I don't know if this is something he agrees with, but I think that that's like just telling people what you're going to do and then doing it and being honest about doing it. I think that's just one of the best ways that you can be in charge of something to that caliber.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and y'all both did really good going around and talking to people and getting to know people. I think that helps with the directing process is to have that rapport. Liam, you mentioned that you were working with people you never worked with before and I think you did really good talking to everybody and kind of getting a feel for us because everybody takes direction differently. I think that is something that you did really well.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that that brings me to the infamous first night of shooting at Bartlett.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's the first day, like obviously it's going to be one of the most challenging because, like you're kind of getting the rhythm of getting into the shoot, the chemistry is still establishing between, like the crew and the actors and everyone involved. And I remember during a take there was something going on with the lighting that needed to be adjusted and I didn't know the gaffer's name. On that day I was like what am I doing? And so I remember, after a take, when we came to a lull setting up for our next shot, all the crew members were like sitting on the street on the sidewalk in Bartlett and I was just like gotta know these people. And on the sidewalk in Bartlett, and I was just like got to know these people. And it was a lot because Caleb knew these people coming from his college and then all these strangers that are now working under me. It was a very strange feeling and so I like to think that I made a good effort to get to know them before the shoot moved on.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, and I've stayed in contact with people from the shoot. I'm following everybody that I can think of and have communicated with a lot of them and I feel like I've made lifelong friends from that shoot Other shoots not as much, Even just in that short period of time. What y'all did bringing everybody together on that one day for the media day, the mingling before we got interviewed that's something it's kind of hard to do, especially on a big shoot, because shooting is spread out in different days and it's very rare that everybody's going to be there on the same day. And the way y'all timed that I thought was pretty cool. And I like to stay in touch with people anyway, because you never know when somebody's going to have that answer you're looking for hey, have you ever experienced this or done this? And it's a good source of information.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I agree I think I'm not going to speak for Kayla, but I would love to work with every actor that we had in the movie. In the last first movie, again, everyone was on top of their stuff. Everyone, like, really wanted to get into their character. There were improv moments that I absolutely loved. I remember Blake, your co-firefly. He was so into it that he wanted to, like, jump off of the truck during a take. I love that you want to do that for this, but we cannot risk your safety for a cool shot like that.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, like everyone, all the actors were so into it and if you remember Caroline, who played Logan, she's like one of Caleb and I's best friends. Now we hang out. She lives in LA and closer to me than anyone else, and so we see each other often and it's like everyone was just such a joy to work with.
Speaker 4:So are you in LA? Are you close?
Speaker 2:to LA. I grew up in Boston. I'm in Boston right now for Thanksgiving. It's funny. I go back to the LA area to finish the semester for two weeks and then I come back. So a lot of fly. Oh, actually no. I go to LA and then I go to Austin for the premiere and then I come back home. So a lot of moving around in this next month. I'm excited for it.
Speaker 4:You don't have a really heavy Boston accent, I don't think.
Speaker 2:It's funny. A lot of people, when I tell them I'm from Boston, it's like oh, that's weird. You don't have the accent at all. But all of the kids I'd say 90% of the kids at my high school never had it. My parents don't really have it either. I'd say it's my grandma's generation is like the last generation of strong Bostonian accents, unless you live in the heart of this city. That's where it really comes out. Oh, I got you. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Brian, I'm hogging up all the airtime.
Speaker 3:No, no, that's nothing wrong with that. You're obviously closer to them because I'm just meeting them and there are times when I'm hogging up all the airtime which is every other episode, no, out of the airtime which is every other episode.
Speaker 3:No. So, guys, what I like to ask directors? Because in one of my experiences a director pulled a performance out of me. I had to be thinking about something and I was very surface on everything he goes for. This take right before we do, I'm going to ask you who's your favorite Spider-Man, and then just think about that, don't say anything, action and cut. It's like. In that vein, are there any techniques or things that you've experienced that you've used to pull a performance out of an actor?
Speaker 2:And no, is a perfectly good answer because we can cut it.
Speaker 1:That's a really good question, Caleb do you have any ideas off the top of your mind? Well, I was almost going to defer to you because I was acting in most of this, so I wasn't really directing because Liam's really like the director of this movie really directing because Liam's really like the director of this movie. There were a couple of moments when just example of like you giving me notes where we were in that one scene New Grandparents Garage with Caroline and I, and it's a moment where it's like a very close moment between the two characters and I almost don't remember exactly what you said, but there was something that I wasn't getting. And then you said something I was like, oh, I understand it now. And so it was just like I think a good director is able to kind of give an actor almost a different sense of what the underlying emotion is in the scene, because that will change a performance entirely.
Speaker 1:Yes, I think Liam was particularly good because I helped write and produce. I was like I had an idea about it and I was so set in my idea about it. When Liam would challenge me he'd say, well, why don't you try this way?
Speaker 2:And I was like, oh gosh, I can't remember anything because the entire shoot was just like a blur of practicality, like I wasn't remembering, like the oh hey, yeah, like I did do a good job there. It was like no, I need to get this done. Did we get it done? Like, thank God, it's like that's what you remember in the time of the shoot, but I'm glad I could help you out in that moment.
Speaker 3:It's not giving someone a line reading, but exploring the emotion and the motivation, the underlying thing. And you had a media day, which I heard TJ talk about. Did you have a table read? Did you have a chance to sit down with the actors to explore those emotions beforehand? Because you were pulling everybody in from different parts of the world.
Speaker 1:The pre-production timeline was really tight. After casting, I think, we casted and then it was probably two to three weeks later that we started shooting. It was quick, yeah, it was a quick turnaround, and so we didn't really get much time beforehand with the actors to kind of go over character beats and that kind of stuff, which I guess you're just a testament to the people that we got on it, because everyone did an incredible job with their characters. And obviously there are moments like when Liam and I would say this is kind of what we're going for with this character. If you could kind of lean into this emotion or if you could kind of lean into something like this and people were really good at taking direction and kind of running with that, we would have benefited greatly from having some table reads beforehand and I also think that that kind of helps build chemistry early on amongst the actors. But we didn't really have an issue with that because everyone gelled so quickly. That wasn't really an issue.
Speaker 2:That reminds me of a memory like our cast got so tight, so quickly. There was a moment where there was a scene by a pond or a small river and my direction was like all right max. The main character is off, brooding, he's alone, he's like kind of in his feelings right now. He doesn't want to socialize, but he's also jealous that you guys kind of have this connect and you feel comfortable with each other. And he's still trying to find that, and so I want you guys to kind of be like the visualization of family and having fun and like helping each other out after a long day. You're all like bathing in the water and they're like all right, got it.
Speaker 2:And then so I went off to do another thing for like a minute and then I come back. I was like all right, actress set, and then I genuinely could not tell that they were acting because they were already so tight. So I thought they were still just like talking about whatever, and so I thought they were still just like talking about whatever and I was like guys, come on, let's go. And then I remember Caroline looked at me like this is it Liam? Like we're ready.
Speaker 2:I was like oh oh, okay, Sorry my bad, and so like, yeah, everyone was just on top of it. I couldn't have asked for a better chemistry between the cast, and all the cast members were so nice to each other too. There was never, ever liked anything close to an issue. It was great, right, very cool.
Speaker 3:So what's next for y'all? I mean, I know you just said you're about to have your premiere. Any plans, any thoughts?
Speaker 1:or you just need a break, caleb. Do you take that one? We don't have any plans yet for what our next project is going to be. That's not saying that there's not going to be a next project. It's just we have to take the time to kind of deliberate and think about what it's going to be.
Speaker 1:But I think after we release we're going to take a little bit of time to kind of build up our studio and more and make it a little bit more official, because we don't even have a logo yet. We're kind of just like using whatever font the movie uses and just typing our name out and that's our logo. For the next little bit, yeah, just coming up with and establishing what Magic Number Studios is to everyone and to its members and kind of what our goals are in terms of bringing people in, that just passion is more important than anything else and dedication to the craft and so bringing in people that are equally as passionate as us and equally willing to kind of get into the nitty gritty and figure it out, and just kind of establishing ourselves more and kind of figuring out what we want to do going forward.
Speaker 4:Are y'all going to run it out of Dallas? Are you going to stay decentralized until everybody's in one place?
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely decentralized. Or is it top secret?
Speaker 4:That's okay too.
Speaker 1:No, not top secret. I mean we don't even know yet. It's decentralized because everyone's still. I mean we've got people in North, south, east and West. People are all over. At some point there will be a move to get everyone in the same spot. We will be so much more productive when we're all in the same place. It's kind of hard when it feels like we're all living our separate lives and you can only get to somebody through one of these things. That's definitely in the cards for the future. It's just kind of CBD up in the air. Yeah, Understood.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to convince people to come to where I am, because whenever I drive through LA it's a little bit intimidating. The driving is intimidating in my opinion, but the resources are there. So I'm like guys, just trust me. I know it's expensive, but it's worth it. I think we can do good stuff out here. So I'm still working on that. Maybe they'll win me over to like moving to austin.
Speaker 4:We'll see, I don't know there's been a lot of work in austin.
Speaker 3:I see stuff all the time casting calls louisiana just pre-approved the new season of tax credits.
Speaker 4:I'm just saying I saw that I mean it was a close call. We thought it was going to go the other way.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:It seemed like we might lose the tax credits, and if that happened everything would dry up and spread out even more to Atlanta, and I mean there's a lot happening up in Boston too.
Speaker 2:Boston's starting to sprout again. The early 20-teens there was a lot happening up in Boston too. Yeah, boston's starting to sprout again. The early 20 teens there was a film scene kind of building up and it kind of died down COVID and everything died down and now I see it sprouting again. So lots of fun options.
Speaker 3:Guys, this is the last of our time together today. It's been a blast. Caleb and Liam, thank God that I can read your names on the screen, because I'm old and I forget things, but it's been a pleasure talking to you. It's fascinating. I can't wait to see where you go next.
Speaker 4:Yeah, guys.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much and thank you for having me. I can't wait to see where this podcast goes. I know TJ's passion. I only got to talk with him for one podcast. I'm excited, thank you. I hope you guys have us back whenever we shoot something new. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 4:I hope I get to work with y'all again.
Speaker 2:We'll have you back to talk about how you brought us to where you were filming and put us on.
Speaker 3:Exactly, was that too much TJ, was that too much?
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 3:We got to plug ourselves with the future of filmmaking.
Speaker 4:Some people say I'm too pushy, and they're right. No, no, no, that sort of is good, they're right. You have some social media that you want to plug.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can find us on most platforms. We've got Instagram, we've got TikTok, we've got YouTube. It's all Magic Number Studios. Just one big word the film will be premiering on YouTube Stream. Last of Us Immunity, december 20th.
