Tyler LaPlant | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: And joining us. It's his first time on the show. We have filmmaker Tyler laplant is here with us. Hello Tyler, Hello, Hello, thanks so much for having me. Absolutely, So you are from Nashua, correct, Yes, nashe me, I'm sure. And of course you've got a short film called Joey's Big Reveal.

0:18 Speaker 2: That I do, yes, and tell us about it. Yes, so I shot so a little I guess a little bit about me. I've been working professionally in the film and television industry for coming up on five years, which is pretty great. Right now, I work as a grip uh so, I work in the lighting department, and I'm I've been doing that for a while. And I've always wanted to be a writer director. And you know, this isn't the first project that I've I've written and directed, but this is this is like the first real one.

0:49 Speaker 1: Okay.

0:50 Speaker 2: Yeah, So this is Joey's Big Reveal, And you know, I made it with a really incredible group of you know New England cast and crew, you know to Curtis Comedy and you know, kind of in the veins of I think you should leave. So I'm really you know, we're so close to being done so Ika, I'm really excited to get it out there.

1:10 Speaker 1: Yeah. So, by the way, so you mentioned a grip. What is a grip? Because I remember, you know, even when I was a kid, I would see in the closing credits of things like key grip and things like that, Yeah, and never knowing what that is or yeah, I mean.

1:22 Speaker 2: So okay, So within you know, the way kind of movies work, you'll have you know, your camera department, your sound apartment, light department, you know whatnot. Within the lighting department, it's kind of split up between two groups, grips and electricians. The best way for me to describe it is like electricians will set the lights up and then grips we diffuse the light. We add shadow. We also provide camera support. So if you're ever watching, you know, a movie or show and there's like, you know that shot where they're all you know, camera's following them, that's a dolly shot that typically, you know, a dolly grip would be operating the piece of equipment that's actually making the camera move.

2:02 Speaker 2: So we do lighting, we do camera support.

2:05 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, so what what got you started? I when when I listened to your interview on UH on Ray's show.

2:12 Speaker 3: Yeah, Ray Dudley, great guy.

2:15 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't think I've ever met Ray, but but I grew to like him very quickly listening to that. That interview is a great interviewer. Yeah. So, and I really enjoyed it, and you were very good in that. I enjoyed your your conversation with him. So I got to cheat a little bit learn some things about you ahead of time. But but so you were talking about this was very interesting to me. So you had a job where your boss basically said to you one day, I don't think, Yeah, I don't think you want to be here, so I'm gonna let you go and you can go and make movies.

2:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, tell that, Tell that story for our listeners.

2:48 Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, absolutely.

2:49 Speaker 2: So I was working at a place called New Sky Productions out of Nashville, New Hampshire, and uh, they kind of focused on advertising and like kind of doc you style, advertise for like local businesses in and around New England. And I was working under this guy, Grant Morris, and and I'd worked for him, you know, while I was in high school and then after i'd graduated, and it was the summer I graduated that and this was during COVID. By the way, so like twenty twenty summer I graduated high school.

3:21 Speaker 2: My you know, he came, he brought me into the office and said like, hey man, you want to go make movies. You know, like I could certainly have you here, and but you're going to be wasting your your ambition. It was really tough because like I loved working there and I thought maybe like okay, you know, I'll do the advertisement thing and you know, maybe do something more practical. But that being fired from that really kind of Yeah. It was the you know I love to this day, I still say thanks to him because now I'm out here making movies.

3:50 Speaker 2: I'm going to LA on Monday, so I'm I'm really excited. So I've you know, so it opened a lot of doors.

3:57 Speaker 1: So it was the right thing. Oh yeah, but that's tough love, right, I mean, you know, because it sounds like he didn't it sounds like he didn't call you in and say hey, I'm thinking maybe you should get Like he fired you.

4:09 Speaker 2: He literally straight up and he's like, yeah, you know, I think you learned enough here go out and make movies.

4:14 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's so. How did you feel like in that moment was there. Were you excited? Were you a little bit panicked? Were you like, I don't I don't know.

4:23 Speaker 3: I bawled my eyes out, did.

4:25 Speaker 1: You, because you said you actually loved working there? Oh?

4:28 Speaker 3: Yeah, I loved it. I mean it was a great environment.

4:30 Speaker 2: I was doing something cool and interesting, and you know, I was kind of heartbroken and then but but afterwards I was like, yeah, no, this is this is the this is the way to do it. Yeah, and it was probably probably one of the better better times I've been fired in my.

4:44 Speaker 1: Life, right right, So then what was your next move after that? Like, right after that happened, What was the next thing that you did?

4:50 Speaker 2: Actually, this is a great kind of segue for some of the casts for Joey's big reveal, because I worked on this, uh this short film. It's still on YouTube if you really want to find it. It's called Retribution. It's a short film that I shot and two of my other buddies from Nashua, they you know, they wrote it and directed it together, and we brought on this guy named David Torres Junior to play our you know, bad guy and our main you know, like mafia bad guy. And he came on and it was actually his first he had just gotten into acting, and it was his uh, it was his first time like actually speaking like you know, for a role, like any role once forever.

5:29 Speaker 2: I was like, oh wow, that's really great.

5:31 Speaker 3: Uh.

5:32 Speaker 2: David and I kept in contact for you know, past five years, and he's really been working on some great stuff, getting a lot of great experience. And you know, I wrote this project and Joy's Burg Reveal is kind of like a mafioso type movie, So yeah, I needed somebody to play that. And you know, I remember watching a movie he was in called Ethis that came out last year, a baseball movie, and I'm like, man, this guy really is truly fantastic. So I called him up and and we I pretty much just gave him the part right then and there, and you know, it's been history ever since.

6:03 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So did you like when you when you left, when you left that job, was that like like did you jump right into Oh?

6:12 Speaker 3: Yeah, I tried working on pretty much.

6:14 Speaker 2: The idea is like there's like I looked called the short film Circuit Massachusetts. So there's a lot of short films happening, So you hop on the Facebook group. I hopped on the Facebook groups. Yeah, and I'm like, hey, you know, I'd love to work on people's projects whatever, little no experience, you know, put me in coach and I got reached out by Victor Herman and Jana Cipriano, and I ended up being the assistant director. You put heavy quotations around that because I have at the time, I had no idea what an assistant director did, and I was like a glorified PA.

6:46 Speaker 2: But I worked on their films Woodshedding by Victor and and Trauma Bond by Jana, and that sort of got me in a position to meet a lot of industry professionals around the area. And you know, I started being a productionist and from that for about a year until I moved into the grip department.

7:03 Speaker 1: Yeah, so you got you got busy quickly. It wasn't like you were languishing trying to figure out your next move necessarily, like you you.

7:11 Speaker 3: Jump on what's that I said that would come later on?

7:13 Speaker 1: Oh really okay, But initially like you jumped right in.

7:16 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean I'd be working for free. And then you know, eventually I got really lucky and reached out to work on a couple of like really big projects. Like very early on my career, confess Fletch moved with John Ham. It's a Chevy Chase remake. They filmed it out in Massachusetts, and you know, I got a call from a buddy who I worked on on, you know, the previous short films, and they're like, hey, come on, I'm going on vacation, come work on this fifteen million dollar movie.

7:44 Speaker 1: Wow.

7:44 Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, yeah, I called out of my job at home Depot at the time, and you know, yeah, it was it was great.

7:52 Speaker 1: Yeah. So something interesting too that you mentioned. I remember hearing you say this, Soray too. You know, you talked about the short film circuit. So is it because it never would have even necessarily occurred to me that there was a short film circuit, so to speak. But are there a lot more short films being made than maybe most people even realize.

8:14 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, one hundred percent.

8:15 Speaker 2: I mean there's a lot of there's a lot of big projects or sorry, there's a lot of smaller projects. You know, a lot of a lot of people trying to make like you know, Instagram type content like comedy stuff whatever. And then you know, you have a lot of college kids, a lot of film schools around here Keene State, Emerson, so you have a lot of them working on their movies. And then you have a lot of industry professionals who you know, are like, hey, you know, I like making movies. So then you work on your friends films, and there's there's a good amount like if you want to hop in and at least in Massachusetts, there is a healthy amount of projects that you could work at least for free to start until you, you know, kind of figure out what you're worth.

8:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really interesting because, like I said, I don't think most people realize just how much of that is being done. And so what what differentiates a short film? Well, let me ask it this way. Sure, how long can a short film be to still be considered a short film versus a feature film? Like what's kind of the what's kind of the line in terms of I mean, there's probably no like official rule.

9:20 Speaker 3: But no, actually I think I believe it or not.

9:22 Speaker 2: I think I think there is like an official rule of like I think it's anything over sixty minutes is like defined as a feature okay, Whereas I don't know, I mean I've worked on short films that you know, are two minutes long, and I've worked on short films that are forty eight minutes long, Like yeah, I think the idea is like if you're under an hour, it's a short film. Okay, you know it's the sort of I guess like going, you know, going basis.

9:49 Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, okay, okay. Were there particular short films that inspired you to really want to do that? Oh?

9:57 Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, you know, working on I worked on a project called wood Shedding, like really early on, really close friend of mine and mentor, my buddy, Victor Herman, wrote and directed and produced that movie. And you know, being being with somebody like I. I think the guy's a fantastic writer, director like his his work really really resonates with me. So, you know, being able to to work under a guy like that, and and you know get to become like not not not just a mentor, but just pals, just buddies, like we get you know, we'll we'll get together and watch movies together, like you know, it's it's it's it's nice.

10:33 Speaker 2: So to be able to have that was was huge. So like wood Shedding was was a big one for me. Trauma Bond was another big one for me early on my movie Retribution that I shot like that was like it was just it was just fun and I felt happy with what I am proud of what I was making. You know, I've worked on a lot of really great stuff, uh, in terms of short films by Lando Michael t another incredible writer director out in New England. We worked together in the Whitney Houston movie that came out a few years ago.

11:05 Speaker 1: Wow.

11:06 Speaker 2: Yeah, Now I've been fortunate enough to work on like big stuff, little stuff that's great. But yeah, a lot of great short films around here.

11:14 Speaker 1: Is there is there almost like a in terms of working on a short film? Is is there something exciting about knowing that you're working on something that is going to You're going to get to the end of it quicker? In theory? I mean every project is different than say a feature film, because I would think if you're someone who you know, you want that because there's a certain gratification that comes from that right when you complete, When you complete anything, there's you know, you get that endorphin rush right when you can create anything that matters to you.

11:46 Speaker 1: But with a short film, is there something appealing about Okay, it's a short film, it's not going to take as long to do as a feature film. So I'm going to get to see the the end results of this and reach that that end point quicker and that's exciting or maybe not. I don't know.

12:02 Speaker 3: I don't know, it's you know, it's different.

12:04 Speaker 2: I'm coming more from like a crew I want to answer this more from a crew perspective of not to sound hard and like, because I was just you know, I love short films and working on them, but it is hard. Typically they're unpaid, and they're twelve hour days long, which is average day in you know, on set working on movies, but so it's like a twelve hour long day. You're not being paid. Typically you know, the people who are producing the short film are green and or you know, there are issues, so it's like, you know, maybe food isn't good, or maybe you know, everybody has to move their car eight times because parking is a real pain.

12:40 Speaker 1: Right, you know.

12:42 Speaker 2: And also it's like I I there are definitely short films I've worked on that that are very very good, but there's a lot of short films that I've worked on that either like the script doesn't emotionally resonate with me or whatever, like I'm helping a friend out or you know, like I have nothing going on this Sunday and they're like, hey, come work for two hundred and fifty bucks.

12:58 Speaker 3: I'll be like okay.

12:59 Speaker 2: So there's no Honestly, there's more of an emotional I guess there's more of like an emotional return working on a feature because you have worked so long on it, whereas short films are just like they're for me at least like when I'm working them on them from a crew perspective, they're kind of just like quick jobs like okay, you know, like yeah, this will be done and over with, whereas a feature will be like okay, like I'm here for anywhere from like fifteen to like sixty seventy days, like depending on what it is.

13:26 Speaker 3: Yeah.

13:27 Speaker 1: Interesting if you're just joining us. We're talking with Tyler Laplant. He is a filmmaker from Nashua, New Hampshire. So what are are there A lot of differences? I mean, obviously a feature film has a larger budget, But in terms of the actual process of making a film, is there much different from making a short film and making a feature film.

13:50 Speaker 2: No, I mean I think it's obviously a much bigger task making a feature. You know, really everything from logistics to creative but the core, yes, oh yeah, but the core, the core of filmmaking can be found through the short film experience, where you need to write a cohesive script, you need to rewrite that script five, six, seven times. You need to raise funds, you need to work with actors and department heads and crew and dealing.

14:25 Speaker 3: You know.

14:25 Speaker 2: I feel like maybe on features you'll have more producers so that you you know, you don't as a director, you don't have to worry about.

14:31 Speaker 3: This stuff so much.

14:32 Speaker 2: Yeah, but definitely on shorts, you know, you're you're running around like crazy, so there's a lot of I'm sorry, I might have lost track of the question a little bit.

14:41 Speaker 1: No, no, this is no, this is good. No, you're answering it.

14:45 Speaker 2: But yeah, there's definitely you gotta learn. You gotta be really good. You gotta be really good, and you gotta be really on top of your stuff, whether it's a short film or feature film, because you know, if your short film's a nightmare, like you know, you have people who are giving up their time and money to be a part of this. You don't want to waste their time, and you know, you're on a limited budget. So it's like, I think there are ways that it's like harder on a short film because you have you don't have enough time, like you know, you might have a lot of boundaries, so you know, it's it's kind of a it's kind of a balance.

15:21 Speaker 2: Like you know, I find the writing process to be kind of long and arduous sometimes, so like, you know, I want to make a feature but right now I'm just I'm stuck, not stuck, but like I'm in the writing process, and that's just that's going to take as long as it's going to take, right So as if you have the time and patience for it, then then you can make a short film. And if you have the time patients for that, you can definitely make a feature film.

15:44 Speaker 1: Okay, okay. And then what differentiates a short film from say, because we live in such an interesting time, yeah, in terms of social media and and what you can do, I mean, you know, and because you know, these days, anybody can take you know, can take a cell phone with a good camera and record things and shoot things, and and and obviously I'm sure there's a lot of people on social media, on YouTube who consider themselves, you know, some sort of short film. I mean, content creator has become sort of the catch after YE tell me why I'm sorry, Well.

16:23 Speaker 2: That's the thing, is like, okay, so I don't There definitely are people who are content creator. They watch stuff, they say, they make stuff for you to like watch and write your brain written with ye. But there are a lot of people who are like, you know, like oh, you know, like, oh, this is the content that I make and it's art. So you're an artist, say say you make art?

16:42 Speaker 1: Right?

16:42 Speaker 2: Like this whole idea that it's content, that it's something too not to get all like you know, Cami here, but like something to like buy and and and and consume and and and and spread out is like I think it's like a little ridiculous, and I think it's I get that degrading.

16:58 Speaker 1: I get what you're saying.

16:59 Speaker 2: Yeah, but like yeah, I mean I don't know, like I I don't look at you know the way I look at Joey's Bigger Field.

17:05 Speaker 3: It's a short film. You know, I spent damn I.

17:08 Speaker 2: Spent almost near damn is fine, Oh great, I spent damn near ten ten thousand dollars making this movie. Yeah, you know. Uh so to me, it's not just about money. But it's like, you know, I had twenty five crew members, I had you know, ten background actors. You know, I had months and months of planning and prepping. I had rewrites you know. Now I'm going through the editing process. So it's like I'm putting in the work for it to be a short film, something that I would like to be a cinematic experience for my audience.

17:37 Speaker 1: Right.

17:39 Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean I don't I'm not gonna knock you know, people on on on Instagram or TikTok that are making skits with their friends and they're they're considering that filmmaking, Like, yeah, that that that is filmmaking, Like go out and make a movie with your phone. Like if you if you you need to want to make a movie, you need to it needs to be something that Like, man, the only way I can feel like a person is if I'm making movies.

18:01 Speaker 3: That's how you're going to be successful. I think. So, like, if you're that.

18:04 Speaker 2: Type of person and your only resources is a cell phone and your two pals, then go for it.

18:09 Speaker 1: You know.

18:10 Speaker 2: But the idea is that you want to move past that and you want to get better than that because there's a whole world of filmmaking out there.

18:17 Speaker 1: Right right. You talked about and you mentioned the budget, you know, ten thousand dollars that you've spent on Joey's Big Reveal. Like, what are some because obviously some of the expenses are obvious, but some might might be not so obvious. So for someone like me who's never worked in that realm, where what are what are some of the things that you pay for with so money?

18:40 Speaker 3: The big thing for me was paying my cast and crew. Yeah.

18:44 Speaker 2: That was a lot of short films kind of do the thing where you know, maybe the director of photography or the key grip and the gaffer and the sound guy get paid, but everybody else, you know, kind of falls by the wayside.

18:56 Speaker 3: It was really really.

18:57 Speaker 2: Important for me that each one of my crew members was paid, you know. It was I was working with SAG members Screen Actors Guild for anybody unfamiliar, so I was working with union members. It had to be you know, I had to pay my cast like a certain percentage.

19:13 Speaker 3: I think it's like or not percentage.

19:14 Speaker 2: I think it's like like two eighty five For micro budgets, so it's like, that's automatically, you know, I had I had two SAG after members, Like that's automatically, you know, six hundred dollars like ye, you know, so it's like money, money adds up.

19:28 Speaker 3: So the big thing was labor.

19:30 Speaker 2: Probably the second biggest thing so far has been like post production, just in that again, paying my editor, paying my mixer, paying my color correction. Uh, the voiceover work that has to go into the movie, you know, so you know I've been trying. My My big goal is is everybody, everybody gets paid.

19:50 Speaker 3: You know, a lot of a lot of short films.

19:52 Speaker 2: Then a lot of projects will try to exploit people's labor and they they know that they can get people to work for free, right And you know, my big thing is like, hey, this is how my buddies pay bills. And it's not much, but here's what I have. So most of that money went towards paying people. And then you have food, you have costumes, you have you know, oh, this lighter isn't working, we need to go get another one. And then you have a pa who decides to tip thirty dollars on lunch even though it's your money, you know, like that has that happened.

20:24 Speaker 3: Yeah, that happened on mine.

20:27 Speaker 2: That's okay, But you know, so it adds up, Yeah, it adds up.

20:33 Speaker 1: Yeah, you almost have to be you know, because you talked about how when you're doing a short film, you know you have to be responsible for all these things that you know, like the money for example, Like if you're making a feature and you're the director, well you know you've got producers who are Yeah, you're not worried about the money. Well, the short film, you're worried about everything, and it's almost like you have to be an accountant on top of everything else. Yeah, is what it sounds like.

20:55 Speaker 2: Yeah, I which I'm not a very good accountant. No, I mean I do want to show out the producers I had on here, justin Leslie Smith, Matt my buddy, Matt Hernon and Ted Omo like these you know, these these three guys and gals really took great care of me. And you know there's definitely a lot of decisions producing why so that like, you know, I made myself, but you know I had people to bounce off of and I had people supporting me. So my producers really really killed it.

21:24 Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent, what's been. Is there something that stood out to you as the biggest surprise in terms of as as you're making a short film, something that you didn't expect,

21:37 Speaker 1: or maybe a challenge that you didn't see coming.

21:39 Speaker 3: Ah geez. Honestly, yeah, I think there.

21:43 Speaker 2: I think because I had to take on a lot of producing roles, there's a lot of stuff about my short film that or like specific aspects that I wish that I could change. Nothing too nothing too drastic. It's more it's more just like a bunch of small things. And I've also threw I kid, you know, I've probably watched this thing over two hundred times now, and you know it's going to be a lot harder for me to uh not nick not nick pick after after so long. But honestly, I mean, I think that the big challenge really honestly is like just mentally being like, okay, I'm doing this it It can be a lot like you know, like sometimes I get anxious about these sort of things, like you know, it's you know, I don't want to make myself look like an idiot in front of like twenty five people who are like my friends, and you know.

22:33 Speaker 3: That's not fun.

22:35 Speaker 2: You know, I've definitely worked on I've definitely worked on projects features and shorts where you know, the director just kind of makes a real fool of himself and you.

22:45 Speaker 3: Know, I did not.

22:46 Speaker 2: I that's that's a huge pressure. So like there is I think it's just like the mental pressure of like having to be a successful leader, at least attempting to be. It can be very daunting. But I'd like to think I did a decent job.

22:59 Speaker 3: You know.

23:00 Speaker 2: True morale was good, So good. As long as everybody else is happy, I think I can be happy.

23:04 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's excellent. Yeah, if you're just joining us, we have Tyler le Plant from Nashua. He is a is a filmmaker and we're talking about he's got his short film Joey's Big Reveal. You said, this is the second one you've done, though you did one before this.

23:17 Speaker 2: I've I've done I've directed and written like music videos and like several other projects, oh you have, Oh yeah, yeah, this this is like the first like one where I'm like, hey, this is like kind of professional. Okay, this is like my step into doing something more professional.

23:34 Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, I'm curious here about some of the music videos that you've done.

23:38 Speaker 3: I did.

23:39 Speaker 2: Uh, My first like real like like big one or not big one, but one with like a little bit of budget that I did was this song called Contact by an artist named Leonard.

23:49 Speaker 3: Sweet, really great guy.

23:53 Speaker 2: Actually my girlfriend Peyton that that was her supervisor and she you know, connected us and I. I produced and directed like his first music video and that was great because that was my first time really like since like like my doing films in high school, where like I would, I had a crew, I had actors, you know, I was directing people, and you know, that was that was really great experience that music videos. If you look it up contact Leonard sweets all on YouTube. I did a music video for a a Manchester band.

24:28 Speaker 2: Unfortunately they're not there, they're no longer together, but they're called the Graniteers. Yeah, okay, So I did their music video for mind Slide Okay yeah, which like a decent amount of people have seen, which is pretty cool. But then you know I did I did some stuff for Alfredo Beni Yeah, yeah, Afrado. So I've I've done I've done some stuff with Fredo. You know, I've done like some live performance stuff like little you know, small little things like with my own camera Most recently, I worked on a Dropkick Murphy's music video that was really cool.

25:04 Speaker 2: I ten he's real nice guy. Ken, Yeah, he's a cool guy. I've done, you know, I did this music video for this Boston or sorry, I not did. I worked on in the Lightning Apartment Flawed Mangos Surrealists, which is like I think they're at like two million views now or something like it kind of blew up, which was cool.

25:27 Speaker 1: Yeah.

25:28 Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, I do like commercials, short films, features, music videos, corporate stuff.

25:35 Speaker 3: I do.

25:36 Speaker 2: I do a little bit of everything. Yeah, try to stay busy.

25:38 Speaker 1: That's that's excellent. I mean doing music videos. Is that probably so much fun? Is it? Yeah?

25:43 Speaker 3: Oh my god, so much fun.

25:44 Speaker 1: Yeah.

25:44 Speaker 2: It's like, you know, working usually, like I've worked on music, I've worked on a lot of music videos where bands are either super chill and they're like, yeah, let's do it, or they're like yeah, you know, you guys can do whatever you want, and then as soon as you show up, they have like a million ideas like what they want to shoot, right, So like it's it's kind of funny, like the balance of working with a band. But usually music videos are fun because like you're just doing stuff because it's cool, like yeah, the cool lighting set up, the cool camera move, like, you know, it's a cool vignette.

26:15 Speaker 2: Like you don't need to worry about narrative, you don't need to worry about all this stuff, like it can just be a purely aesthetic piece, which is really fun.

26:23 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's great. Like what's what would be I mean, obviously you don't have to say who it is, but what would be an example of a curve that you've kind of been thrown when when you go to do a music video?

26:36 Speaker 3: You know what, Actually, I'm gonna.

26:39 Speaker 2: I will say the name of the band because it's this is a good curve I'm gonna yeah. Yeah, So we were. It was on the surrealist music video for Flawed Mangoes or Flaming Mangos. I kind of forget the name, sorry guys. Anyway, but so I was working on their video and we were kind of wrapping up for the day and then you know, uh, the creative director of the band whatever, he comes up to us like me and Adrian Morano who's a production designer, and they're.

27:06 Speaker 3: Like, hey, I was key grip on this music video.

27:09 Speaker 2: So anyway, directors like, hey man, we really want to have like a floating guitar gag.

27:15 Speaker 3: Can you do that?

27:17 Speaker 2: And we had no prep for this, We had no like whatever. So you know, I asked Adrian, I'm like, well, do you have fishing line? And she's like, yeah, I have some fishing line. I'm like, all right, cool. So we got two lighting stands and we we pretty much made like a goal post and we raced it up about ten feet, brought the line in, tied the guitar around the what like the strap peg at the top, and then I had another piece of string at the bottom where the other peg was, and I would pretty much just like spin it and and the band ended up using it for like the opening shot of the music video.

27:54 Speaker 2: It's like a it was just really really sick. So yeah, you know, that was that was a good curve. Like every now and then, like you get something that's like it wasn't planned, but it is really cool.

28:06 Speaker 3: Okay, you know.

28:08 Speaker 2: Or I worked on Walking Dead Dead City. Okay, we were you know, we were filming. We were filming something we had to we had to for VFX reasons. We had to like set up these they're they're called bamboozles. They're pretty much like two by fours with like fabric, and the fabric was like this like green screen whatever, and they were doing a fire explosion and the bamboozles all burned down.

28:32 Speaker 3: They got they got torched.

28:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you know VFX comes with their flame retarded material.

28:38 Speaker 3: They set it up. It was fine.

28:40 Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm like, well, why couldn't we have done that in the first place? But I can't complain too much because making those bamboozles gave me forty hours of work that week. So it's like it's all a balance sometimes curve Like, curves can be good, curves can.

28:51 Speaker 3: Be bad, you know what I mean? Yeah, no doubt, Oh yeah, no doubt.

28:55 Speaker 1: So all right, so tell us more about Joey's big reveal. What's that's kind of the plot here?

29:00 Speaker 3: All right, So Joey's big reveal.

29:02 Speaker 2: It's, uh, group of mafioso's are hanging out together and one of them, Joey, uh, kinda kind of has a secret revealed out to his group. Chaos sort of ensues as Joey kind of breaks down, and then towards the end of the movie we get to see like a day in the life or sorry, a night in the life of of Joey living with the secret that he lives with.

29:29 Speaker 3: Okay, and I promise it's a comedy.

29:31 Speaker 2: Okay, watching it might not be obvious that it is.

29:35 Speaker 1: Okay, is it a dark comedy something like that?

29:37 Speaker 2: Did you It's okay if you if you did end up seeing it, but you should, you should.

29:41 Speaker 1: Well, I saw the clip that you said, but it was just a clip.

29:46 Speaker 3: Well yeah it was. It's it's only six minutes long.

29:48 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it like stopped it like it didn't show the whole for some reason. Might have been a Google driver.

29:54 Speaker 3: Is huh. Okay, that's really weird.

29:56 Speaker 2: I'm sorry about okies, but yeah, it's a short. It's only the script was only like five or six pages as long as a comedy. You ever see the show, I think you should leave on Netflix.

30:07 Speaker 1: I've heard about it, but I've not actually watched it, but I've heard a lot about it.

30:11 Speaker 2: I'm heavily inspired by a guy named Tim Robinson. He Tim Robinson and Connor O'Malley are kind of like my two big like comedy big main comedy influences, And you know, they really make some crazy, outrageous stuff.

30:24 Speaker 3: So Joey's big reveal definitely toes the line.

30:27 Speaker 2: Between like awkwardness but but but comedy as well and and seriousness and you know, I don't know, I kind of want you guys to be a little confused watching it, right, Yeah?

30:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So what inspired you to? I mean obviously, so you know you talk about your comedy influences. Do you also like, do you like mob stuff? Do you?

30:48 Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, so I'm an Italian American Okay, so you know, uh yeah, long story, that's a different show, gotcha. Yeah, I'm the Italian guy with a French last name. But yeah, so I mean big, big squor szy guy big, you know, Brian de Palma.

31:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, I probably actually I don't.

31:12 Speaker 2: Know if I can say this on on the radio, but anyway, big big Italian American cinema guys. So the Mob movies have always been big inspiration. This movie is more it's definitely more absurdism than it is like Mafia Mob. It's it's more of like an aesthetic that I I choose to to use to like tell the story with.

31:35 Speaker 2: But yeah, definitely, uh, definitely definitely a big mob guy.

31:38 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you like the Sopranos. Yes, yeah, oh yeah, my favorite television series of all time.

31:44 Speaker 2: I I also love, you know, good crime shows like Breaking Bad, Fantastic. I know, I know it's not a crime show, but I'm I'm I'm in the midst of watching mad Men right now.

31:55 Speaker 3: I've never seen it before.

31:56 Speaker 1: I never have either. Act.

31:57 Speaker 3: It's really good.

31:58 Speaker 1: Everyone tells me I would love it, but I've ever watched it.

32:00 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's it's great. I watch it with my girlfriend. She really likes the show and yeah, you know, yeah, sorry, got a little.

32:10 Speaker 1: No, that's okay. No, it's easy to get sidetracked with mob stuff because you know, if you're really into it, you're really into it, you know, which, oh yeah, which we we obviously both are. I'd blame my mother for that because I remember when I was a kid, she was always talking about she loved uh reading uh uh biographies about mobsters. Yeah, like she was really in a John Dillinger and you know, the the Chicago Mobsters because she's from Chicago's nice, She's really into all that, and then she got me into it.

32:36 Speaker 1: But uh yeah, So so it makes sense that you would want to make something like that. Do you like, like how are you. Obviously you're still putting the finishing touches on this show. We say, do you know when this is going to be released officially?

32:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, so I plan on doing the festival run. Okay, I will be doing like a big test screening so that I can so that people can come and check out the movie, which hopefully I'd like to do that sometime in like May or June. We're getting really really close. But the idea if if you want to watch Joey's big reveal, go out to a film festival, watch it. After about like after about a year and a half of doing festivals, I will throw it online. But you know, I've already been building up the Instagram for that, so we're almost at nineteen hundred followers, which is pretty cool.

33:28 Speaker 3: So yeah, I want.

33:30 Speaker 2: People to go and see it in festivals and experience it on the big screen. But you know, I also spend a lot of time and money working on this one, so I want as many people to see it, so it will definitely be living online at you know, at the end of its festival run.

33:46 Speaker 1: Now, So in terms of festivals, are there are these festivals where there there's a category specifically for short films.

33:53 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, I mean so most most film festivals, like i'd say, like a majority of the entries are going to be short films. And then you will have I mean yeah, obviously the bigger ones cons and and what's.

34:09 Speaker 3: Gosh, Sundance, Yes, thank you, Sundance Tribeca.

34:13 Speaker 2: Like you know, they're all going to have more you know, feature films and it you know, the future films are going to take the cake there. But but they're definitely shorts that still play at the big ones and a lot of local festivals and a lot of festivals throughout the country. Like really most of the most of what they're getting in are our short films. Okay, yeah, so you'll go, you know, watch some shorts, meet some filmmakers, you know, do some networking.

34:40 Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh wow, there's a pigeon right there.

34:41 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the the falcon cam.

34:44 Speaker 2: Wow, that's awesome. Sorry, but I am like a squirrel with ADHD.

34:48 Speaker 1: It's all right, Well that problem. So do you think that helps you though in your work?

34:55 Speaker 3: No, not even a little bit. I don't know. Maybe, like the.

34:59 Speaker 1: Reason I asked you that question, So I have a friend and longtime listeners are familiar with them, longtime listeners on my show, Doctor Kevin ross Emory, and he's written books about like he has a book called Managing the Gift, which is about how if you have a d D and ADHD, how you know the ways that can actually help you and you could use it to your advantage.

35:14 Speaker 3: He's got to send me a copy.

35:15 Speaker 1: Yeah, because a lot of yeah, you should talk to him, should introduce you to him, because a lot of successful people you know, have that or they just have very overactive minds. And and it can actually help you to focus because it's not it's not necessarily that that there's too many things distracting you. It's just that you know, you're you, you have something specific that you want to focus on, that you want to be able to hyper focus on and and and if you can do that, then it can actually help you solve problems quickly and you know, get things done quicker.

35:45 Speaker 1: There's there's a lot of ways that you can use at your advantage.

35:48 Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely.

35:48 Speaker 2: Think you know, I'm I'm very i am very scatterbrained, which does hurt I feel like it hurts me more than it helps me. However, you know, having to be having to like think of a lot of different solutions for things.

36:01 Speaker 3: It's something that I can do.

36:02 Speaker 2: You have to be a problem solver on set, whether you're a grip or you're a director or you're a production assistant, Like you got to think on your feet and if you want to be successful, you got to you got to be able to do that.

36:13 Speaker 1: That's the thing. That's one of the things doctor Kevin says, as people with ADHD are excellent solving problems. Yeah, because they can think of solutions that most people can't think of. Things will occur to you that most people won't won't necessarily think of. So yeah, it's it's it's interesting stuff, and I I kind of suspect that it might be something more helpful to you than you necessarily realize.

36:33 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you know, there's there's like there's a lot to handle, and I feel like I feel like I can handle it. Just every now and then I'll get myself into that almost like trance like state of like oh oh shoot, like I can't like I can't do anything today until I take care of this one specific thing. But then at least you're taking care of that thing. So it's like it's like a balance. It's really a dance, right right.

36:56 Speaker 1: I know exactly what you're talking about, because I have I've never been diagnosed with anything like that, but I have, but I know that my brain works that way. Sometimes Jenny would she's not in the room, but she'd probably back me up on that, and I'll hyper focus on solving something specific that where it's that thing like you. I never heard anyone describe it quite the way you just did, but but you're right, that thing where you feel like you can't do anything else until you solve this specific problem that's in front of you.

37:23 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah.

37:24 Speaker 2: So I'm one of the ways that I This is one of the things that I regret from Joey's big reveal is that so my my director of photography, Cat Holmes, positively fantastic. She's amazing to work with, She's amazing what she does. She comes from a lighting background, so I'm a little bit more biased towards working with her, but anyway, she's fantastic, And I pretty much told her, I'm like, hey, look, there's like two or three shots I really want in this movie. Everything else is just like wides and coverage, have fun and I did that so that I could focus on my actors' performances.

37:59 Speaker 2: I could focus on on, you know, making sure that they're they're nailing the bits. But the double edged sort of that is like, yes, my movie looks great, but there's there's a lot of it that I'm like, man, I wish I thought about shots more like I wish that I had, you know, like sort of like a momentum building to a certain thing. And that's just one of the things as a filmmaker is like a same thing, like like the costume design, Like I wish I went with a completely different costume design for my movie than what I did really and oh yeah, because you know, like I had my buddy Victor gave me a note.

38:31 Speaker 2: He's like he's like, I get that these guys are all like wearing like mafia adjacent outfits, but like what is their relationship? And that was like that was a hard note, but a very good note, because I'm like, Okay, if they're all wearing suits, then they're Mafia guys. They're they're obviously together, but like you know, you know, I got one guy and attracts to one guy in a suit, and then two guys were casual, and I'm just like, damn it, like you know, so it's like, there there are things that I wish that I did.

39:00 Speaker 2: You know, I believe very heavily in collaboration, so I'm like, I'm very happy that I had such a great group of people around me to make my movie better. But there are definitely things like you know, camera like camera shots and wardrobe that I just wish I thought more about. But I'm being tugged in so many different directions that there's only so much that I can do. Exactly, no projects ever going to be perfect. It's a short film, you.

39:25 Speaker 1: Know, right right exactly if you're just joining us, we're talking with a filmmaker, Tyler Laplant. Yeah, musicians talk about that too, you know. They they put out something and then they you know, We've had conversations on the show with various musicians. I'll say, well, you know, I wish I wish I had done this differently. I wish I had mixed this. That's a very common one. I wish I had mixed that differently, or made sure that it was mixed differently, or you know, or or I wish the song was longer or shorter or whatever.

39:55 Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean you're always going to have that, you know. It even happens with you know, doing a radio show. It's an instant gratification thing. You know. I come in and do it and it's live and bang, that's it. But when I go back and listen to it later because I have to cut up the segments, post some individually and so forth, I I'll off and even just be like, oh, I misused that word. That wasn't the word I was looking for. Oh why did I ask that question? That was dumb? You know. It's it's hard not to be self critical when you're a creative person, you know.

40:26 Speaker 1: Yeah, with anything that you make, it's you know, and I'll beat myself up over, you know, just so I mispronounced that name or something. You know. No, you know.

40:35 Speaker 2: And I think there's a good I think there's a good balance of that because I think the best artists are critical of their work and they're like, no, this is bad, like objectively, I made a bad choice here. And I think there are so many, especially filmmakers, Like there's so many filmmakers that really just want to pat themselves on the back all the time and be like, oh, you know like I made you know, I made this movie. It was really really hard and I worked really really hard on it. But that doesn't mean that it's a good movie, right, And and you know that's the thing is like, and if you keep making like a short film each time and you're not getting better each time, then you're not growing or or or or getting better as a filmmaker.

41:12 Speaker 2: And that's the thing with me, is like I will be extremely hard on myself so that the next one is just a little bit better, And the next one is a little bit better.

41:22 Speaker 1: Right right, no doubt do you already have in mind? Uh what you the next one is gonna be.

41:28 Speaker 2: So I'm writing a I'm writing a feature right now called Cigarette Girls, and I'm actually I'm in I'm in the moment of thinking about maybe ripping it up and starting starting new, really new, like the same idea different different genre of music. It's it's about like these girls who work at at a at a music venue and they sell they sell cigarettes and it gets taken over by like a you know, extremist political group. Yeah yeah, so and they take the bar back. But anyway, so I'm writing now, honestly, like I I have a couple of shorts that I want to do.

42:07 Speaker 2: My girlfriend goes to Wellesley University and or Wellesley College, and that's like a famous, you know, all women's school, Mona, Lisa smile.

42:16 Speaker 3: You know the whole thing.

42:18 Speaker 2: I I kind of want to do a short film about like a boyfriend's association of just all the guys who like you know, hang out with hang out with each other because their girlfriends are very busy at at this all female college.

42:34 Speaker 3: Yeah.

42:34 Speaker 2: Just you know, it's it's something, it's something brewing around in my head. But if I'm being honest with you, I know it's gonna sound like so hypocritical as you put the dun dun dumb music in or whatever. But I kinda I don't love watching short films. I don't love making them because I want to make features.

42:53 Speaker 3: That's that's that's the goal.

42:55 Speaker 2: And I'd rather like all the time and effort in resources that I put in to making a short film. I'm like, man, I just want to be doing this for features because features are more tangible and I can like get a feature on two B or it could you know, hit a festival and maybe blow up. Like features are kind of where it's at So I'd like to do like one or two more like shorts and then pretty much devote my time into making features, right, Yeah, I'd like to. I'd like to have a feature out before I'm thirty.

43:27 Speaker 2: Maybe knock on Wood that'd be great.

43:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, that's that's that's excellent, excellent. So Joey's big reveal. Forgive me if I if I ask you this already? Sure, do you know when the official well or when it's gonna be Yeah, I.

43:43 Speaker 2: Gotta I gotta finish up the credit sequence and a couple a couple of tiny things, and then it'll probably take a month for color correction and sound mixing, and then once that's done, I'll have a movie. So I'm looking at doing like a test screening night where you know, open open to the general public to come test screen this movie.

44:04 Speaker 3: I say test screen.

44:05 Speaker 2: It is not a premiere because festivals are very specific about that, to say, test screening of Joey's big reveal sometime in I don't know, May May or Jue. Oh that soon, okay, gratefully. Yeah, We're we're we're getting really close. Okay, yeah, I've been. We shot this back in like December. So, oh, yeah, I took a month off. My my dog died and then he didn't kill her. But yeah, so I took a month off and got back in editing, and we've done like four or five rough drafts and we're getting we're getting pretty close.

44:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty close. That's fantastic. Do you know where you're going to do the test screening? And you're going to do it in Nashua or.

44:50 Speaker 2: I plan on doing it in Massachusetts? Sorry, sorry New Hampshire people, Wow another Falcon. Sorry anyway, I plan on doing New Hampshire. Sorry, I planned in Massachusetts. I'd love to do it at like a really cool theater, like you know, the Region Theater in Arlington or you know Coolidge Corner Brattle something like that. Sure, it's really just gonna be a question of just like what place can I afford to rent right now?

45:17 Speaker 1: That makes sense.

45:18 Speaker 2: But yeah, so hopefully, hopefully, very very soon, I'll send invites to you and everybody else.

45:23 Speaker 1: Excellent, Yeah, excellent, wonderful, wonderful. Let's see, well we are. Is there anything you want us to know about Joey's big reveal that we didn't talk about? Did you want to did you mention any of the the actors who are in it.

45:39 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, Actually I'd love to talk about like cast and cruise super fast.

45:42 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah.

45:43 Speaker 3: I literally like I'm you know, everybody.

45:45 Speaker 2: I don't believe in the tour director like Wes Anderson or whatever, Like I think he makes great movies, but I think it's can I say BS or is that gonna you says?

45:52 Speaker 1: Okay?

45:52 Speaker 3: Cool?

45:53 Speaker 2: So I think I think the tour director is BS because the most you're you're Wes. Wes Anderson is just as good as Dolly Grip And I'm just as good as my movie is just as good as as everybody else working on it. And so I really had an incredible cast and crew, Cat Holmes, Dping Mel Nestrick working as my gaffer. In terms of cast and crew, Joey's played by uh David Torres, junior, fantastic actor. Most recently was in this really big movie or not big movie, but this movie kind of blew up called ephis.

46:28 Speaker 2: It's a baseball slice of life movie. Another ephis star Peter Minkara, he plays Tony. My buddy Ashton O'Brien plays Alfredo, and this guy Pat Say, He's like Instagram kind of Instagram famous, which is cool. He was like the last minute addition to our our cast because his you know, the the guy who I had booked for his role, like dropped out like three days before filming. I was like, oh crap. So Pat Shay hopped in and he was great to work with. Uh and he plays Christopher. And you know, I had some buddies come on to be some background actors towards the end.

47:07 Speaker 2: But I don't want to give away too many okay, too many people. There's some spoiler territory, but uh, okay, okay.

47:14 Speaker 3: Yeah.

47:14 Speaker 2: Really incredible local cast and crew. I mean, I love you guys. Thank you so much. If if any of you end up listening to this, thank you so much. I owe this whole movie to everybody.

47:24 Speaker 1: Oh that's very cool, very cool. What about Tyler? For people who want to keep up with everything that you're doing, where should they go online? Sure?

47:31 Speaker 2: So if you look up Joey's Big Reveal on Instagram, you can find my page there. We also have a Facebook page Joey's Big Reveal my Instagram if you want to check out my photography or you know, just keep tabs on me. Is Tyler Video twenty seven. You can find updates on Joey's big reveal there as well. I'm mostly active on Instagram. Okay, I don't know. I have some stuff out there on YouTube. You can you know, find through my my links and stuff. But yeah, come check, come check us out. Joey's big reveal.

48:00 Speaker 2: Got a lot of great bts, a lot of great stuff. Come in and look out for Joey's big reveal at a film festival near you, hopefully very soon.

48:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, nice, nice, Well, congratulations on that being being almost done and I can't wait to see the final the final film.

48:17 Speaker 3: Thanks so much, man, I really appreciate absolutely.

48:19 Speaker 1: Tyler Laplant from Nashua, New Hampshire filmmaker and wonderful to have you here.