090 – Steve Donovan – From Media Professional to Educator & Entrepreneur
July 25, 2024
Have you ever wondered what it takes to transition from a stable nine-to-five job to the exciting world of entrepreneurship? Join us as we sit down with Steve Donovan, a seasoned media professional and current educator at Madison College, who shares his remarkable journey through various roles in media and education.
Steve is an awesome friend who is one of our favorite people to run into at all the professional events we do. He’s always a joy. Grab your favorite libation and tune in for the fun.
Topics in this episode:
- (00:00:32) Who is Steve Donovan?
- (00:02:41) Meet Steve.
- (00:03:24) What are we drinking?
- (00:15:08) Freelancing is just as safe as a full-time job.
- (00:17:36) How do you know when to add a team member?
- (00:23:50) Passive income opportunities.
- (00:27:09) Thoughts on Crypto.
- (00:30:12) Stronger Sun Prairie.
- (00:36:11) Seeing the Positive.
- (00:54:32) What was the review process like with the client?
- (01:00:14) Watermarking.
- (01:02:37) Movie and show recommendations.
- (1:09:19) Two truths and a lie.
- (1:18:32) Is That Guy Dead Yet Podcast.
Transcript
Ryan:
hello and welcome back to the let’s backflip show happy hour.
Ryan:
I’m Ryan Freng, co-creative director and co-founder here at backflip. I almost went into another intro for another podcast. Like you just kind of get into the groove and forget what you’re doing and where you are. You lose all sense of space and time and just start going with that rote, memorized performance. So luckily, I think I survived. I don’t think I. I don’t think I goofed it up anyway.
Ryan:
This is episode 90 with Steve Donovan, who has been around as long as we’ve been around, through various companies that he’s worked for um and you know, working at media companies and then now being on his own and formerly working at a window company as their media person. So he’s got such a breadth of experience and knowledge and he teaches at Madison College now too. So Steve’s just a good dude. This is a real good fun hang and next time I want to get him in person, because I don’t think this was in person, but we’ll make it happen. So, without further ado, this is episode 90 with Steve Donovan.
Ryan:
Hello and welcome back to another let’s Backflip show happy hour. I’m Ryan Freng, co-creative director here at Backflip and joining me as always, who I pointed the right way is, john Shoemaker Say hey, john,
John:
hello
Ryan:
how’s it going, dude
John:
it’s going well
Ryan:
You’re really rocking the facial hair. I love it. Good Lee.
John:
I, you know, I did the thing that everybody did during COVID and just like kind of let that, let it happen. And uh, and then I was, when then I think we were looking back at some pictures a while ago I was like that actually works out once it gets there. But yeah, you know, I I’m also rediscovering some roots of family heritage and there’s a lot of french fur trappers and traders there, so I might there’s, there’s some blank spots that are going to be, you know, yeah, for the life, unless you start using some rogaine or some keeps or something. Otherwise, you know, if I just wear one of those big hats with a feather and I just do like this and that like yeah, yeah, I mean you just kind of naturally grow that way. So I feel like you got to start just trapping around here and you know skin and beavers or and I don’t know whatever.
Ryan:
Yeah, whatever we find, yes, indeed, all right. Well, you’re not here for us, you’re here for this man who we’re hanging out with steve donovan. Steve donovan, how’s it going, steve?
Steve:
How are you? Ryan?
John:
More facial hair,
Ryan:
yeah, when I grow up, I want to have Steve facial hair.
Steve:
I always had patches of it for the longest time. It wasn’t until I was a stay-at-home dad with one of the kids that I just forced the issue and just let it go and finally it just filled in. Yeah, it just filled in. Yeah, it just fills in. Like, how old are you?
Ryan:
um, I’m waiting for that to happen is my question I think like 35 okay, so I’m a little late. I must be a late bloomer, that’s what you tell me yeah, all right, well, this is a happy hour. I just reached over and grabbed my drink.
Steve:
Uh why don’t you?
Ryan:
guys, tell me about what you’re, uh, what you’re drinking right now.
Steve:
Let’s see here he’s got like a jug down there or something I got.
Steve:
Well, I’ve got the water because doctor says it’s good for me. Yeah, we gotta hydrate first, yeah, so I did that.
Steve:
Um, I’m doing the all-day ipa
Ryan:
oh nice, I had some of that on tuesday
Steve:
yeah, it’s, uh that’s.
Steve:
I’d recommended it to uh to the tuesday event because it’s just like low in alcohol and it’s. It’s just a good session.
Ryan:
The ipa is refreshing type of thing.
Steve:
Yeah, yep, that’s good, yeah, like that for all day.
John:
Who? Who makes that?
Steve:
What founders?
Ryan:
Founders, that’s michigan, right. Founders, there’s them.
John:
Yeah, I’m trying to remember. There’s another founders
Ryan:
one like old dirty bastard, or um, founders won, like Old Dirty Bastard or what else. There’s a bunch of them Like Founders. Does the barrel-aged ones right?
Steve:
Yeah, they do. A few porters and barrel-aged stuff, old Dirty Bastard, or was that a member of Wu-Tang?
Ryan:
Yeah, they’re nothing to with. Trying to think
Steve:
Well, there’s one beer that’s really good of theirs that I can’t get enough of, but anyways, yeah.
Ryan:
Yeah, I wish my wife was in here and she could help us out.
John:
Maybe, if I’m thinking of their their porter, I think I’ve had. I’m looking at their website, right now
Ryan:
yeah like KBC or I’m trying to think of what the? Acronyms stand for yeah, it’s like those very funny.
Steve:
I think it’s like a turkey bourbon something.
Ryan:
Monica.
Ryan:
I’m summoning you.
Ryan:
Breakfast out. What are you drinking, john?
John:
Uh well, I’ve got some, some coffee. There’s nothing to write home about other than the uh, the design on the cup too those are my favorite cups.
John:
My wife doodled uh on a bunch of cups with these like permanent marker things.
Ryan:
Let’s yeah, let’s also shout out your wife. These are more than just doodles. These are like amazing, like you can see in the dots, like these are all 100 unique, uh, and they’re amazing like they’re my favorite cups in the entire world yeah,
Steve:
that’s awesome
John:
, that’s fun, and then I don’t.
John:
It’s not like super. Uh, yes, dan. Yeah, dan’s asking a hilarious question. If we’re in the same building but different rooms, that’s that’s what
Ryan:
it’s easier this way dan,
John:
we’re always together.
Ryan:
Wow, yeah,
John:
anyway, it’s not original, it’s the same as last month or week or a couple weeks ago. But the hawk jones that’s in the, in the kegerator, in the let’s drink awesome glass
Ryan:
oh I forgot. Yeah, we have. We have that session ale in in our keg, about two steps away from the door. I have, so I just need a little energy boost. So I got the, the zoa, and then at some point I’m going to run back and grab some hawk jones.
Ryan:
Um, this is, this is cool, it’s like a 15 calorie, you know, energy drink. But, uh, I was hanging with ryan koga the other night and he told me the story of like, so they’re connected with the, the national guard, um, and they were friends with the, the fighter pilots and the fighter pilot who died, and so that’s where Hawk Jones comes from. It’s in honor of, I think, jones and I think his call sign was Hawk and they got to go up there and fly in F-16s and do crazy stuff, and so they have a really good relationship with that group up there and that’s where that wonderful beer came from. So it’s like one of their staples now. Um, it’s a great, great session.
Ryan:
Speaking of sessions, check that one out like
Steve:
I will thank you
Ryan:
this is like I love the convenience of online but like to have a discussion can sometimes be a little bit difficult because you’re like is somebody, are they going to keep going?
Steve:
Yeah, is that the end Okay?
Ryan:
Now is that the end, and then is it my turn. Oh, okay, now I go
Steve:
Very curious.
John:
That’s how it is in person with us, though, too, because when I get gone, people are like is, is he gonna keep gone?
Steve:
or you have that. You have that art of trailing off. That’s pretty amazing.
Ryan:
Yeah, I was just waiting I always try to end it
John:
just waiting for people to jump in. Yeah, I’m trying to. I’m trying to like softball it, I’m trying to like serve it up like here it is, and it’s now time for you to knock it down.
Steve:
Yeah, you’re like the scotty pippin to all the michael jordan’s out there in conversation we’re just,
Ryan:
we just don’t see it coming yeah, all right.
Ryan:
So, steve I want you, uh, to give like a little intro, like who are you like? Who’s your daddy and what does he do? Who are you and what do?
Steve:
you do. My father’s name is Thomas Joseph Donovan Jr. I work as a freelance producer editor. I do projects all over the board. I just finished up an event to air online, air A 60-minute documentary about an explosion in Sun Prairie that was caused by a gas leak and it was something that the city of Sun Prairie wanted to put together and they had a grant for. So they did all the interviews and they had a bunch of B-roll and I licensed a bunch of stuff too. A producer and uh cut it together. So that’s uh, but I I’ve been on my own for about four years, uh, doing projects all over the board like different brands, different projects, different non-profits.
Ryan:
so it’s been before that you, you worked, you did agency work, right, or you’re at a video production house
Steve:
yeah, I worked right before I was by on my own.
Steve:
I worked for a company in middleton springs, window fashions, as their video like lead video guy, and they, um, it was just a ton of work cause they didn’t really have anybody that was just focused on just that. And um, uh, so it’s uh. So I did that, I, I did agency work back in Kansas city and then before that it’s just always been like a different affiliates I’ve worked for Um it’s all over. Um, it’s all over the place. So, yeah, I have my experience, but this has been the most fun experience out of my own, working with people I like, and you know, uh, on my own, uh pace, as good as I want it to be, and all that good stuff.
Ryan:
So there’s certainly a different energy to it as well, you know, because there’s like being off on your own. There’s the chance of failure and I was talking to somebody about it this morning who just they’ve been doing well over, like the last year as a voiceover artist, but they were a graphic designer and then they just went full voiceover artist and people will sometimes ask her, like what’s your backup plan? And she’s like I don’t have a backup plan. This is what I’m going to do, and I was just relating like how important it is to have that attitude when you do something difficult like this.
Ryan:
I think just difficult in general, but especially when you go out off on your own. You’re starting your own business. You don’t know if you know this client’s going to go away and you’re going to have the next client. But if you have that mentality of I’m going to make this work, you’re going to have the next client. But if you have that mentality of I’m going to make this work, you’re going to figure it out. Like when your back’s up against the wall, you’re not going to look for a door or a window to jump out of. You’re going to figure out how to, you know, move forward and continue to grow. So I think everyone should go through this kind of experience a little bit if they’re in our field, you know.
John:
Was that saying never go full voiceover artist?
Ryan:
What’s that?
Steve:
I think it’s a reference to a film
John:
you never go full Voiceover artist.
Ryan:
Yeah, what is I’m trying to think now? I’m trying to think of the film you never go full it’s.
John:
Is it Tropic Thunder?
Steve:
yeah, it’s Tropic Thunder.
Ryan:
Oh, is it like a blackface reference or something inappropriate?
Steve:
No, even more inappropriate.
John:
Disability related.
Ryan:
Oh yeah, oh, that’s right, it’s terrible. Nobody look this up.
John:
You know I had a. I mean we share a little bit of this experience because, you know, Ryan and I started the company, Um, you know we were working together on it. But we still have that same kind of transition from you know the I don’t know the, the nine to five, the stable nine to five, uh, and then moving into doing your own thing.
John:
And I think what really, like you know, dawned on me was that the stability is just an illusion, you know, in like the, in the nine to five, in the, in the you know job, because at some point I realized that I really didn’t have control over whether the people running that company you know we’re keeping staff on or not Um, and you know market conditions and things like that. And you know, once I kind of realized that like I had just as much security, you know, on my own as I did being there. Then it was kind of like okay, yeah, I mean it feels a little bit inducing when you first get started, but you realize like well, you know things are, you have control of your own destiny, you can like, you can always work harder and longer and you can always make more phone calls and go try to meet more people. But I couldn’t do that when I was sitting at my other job in a role that where that wasn’t my responsibility and I couldn’t be, like you know, go out on sales calls and stuff.
John:
It was just like, yeah, oh, things are slowing down. That’s unfortunate. Sure hope that doesn’t continue, you know. So it’s like anyway. Uh, yeah, it was just a little bit of a shift of perspective and I don’t know if that resonates with you or if you know. That’s kind of like maybe you know what was your
Ryan:
how’s that been for you, Steve, that?
Ryan:
kind of changed your perspective.
Steve:
The moment they make a B plan, you’re just going to do it because it’s easier route, at least for lazy bums like me.
Steve:
So it’s always good to just make it happen, no matter what you know.
Steve:
If you can keep that in your head, no matter what, I’m going to do this, no matter what, that’s the most important thing.
Steve:
And they say, having a B plan makes you think that you have an alternative.
Steve:
And just to echo what you guys are saying is that is that if, if you just keep keep at it and you keep working on it and you keep doing it and there’s no other alternatives, then you’re going to make it happen. And and I totally agree with you when you were talking about how, um, it’s just as safe as a full-time job, because I’ve worked for enough companies, corporations or agencies that they just change the whole leadership team and you don’t know whose head is on the chopping block at any time, so that’s just as frequent as a company going under or you drying up or anything like that. So you might as well enjoy yourself and work for yourself and keep chasing the projects and keep chasing the work and and be the master of your own destiny, rather than leaving it up to an slt team
Ryan:
yeah, especially in what we do too, it seems like there’s a lot more uh, producers or owner operators and things like that, and we all just kind of flex to.
Ryan:
You know, we come together for big projects and go kind of off on our own for smaller projects and you know, we’ve kind of found like a good size for us and our company. We’ve got john and I as creative directors and then max uh is our lead editor. We’ve got a intern editor. Right now we had a, an assistant editor. He’s growing up and traveling and things like that. Um, and then we have a designer and then, of course, scott, our business guy. But beyond that, you know, we typically can handle all the editing. But you know, when you’re doing more producing, more shooting, we just bring in really talented people who are in the area, which is fantastic, you know.
Ryan:
In the market to be able to do something like that and you can flex as needed. And then I think, you know, having a couple of employees, we got to think about basically that same energy, like how do we encourage and inspire people to still think and feel the same way, like I’m done with my work, well, what should I do? Well, what can I do to drive the company forward? You know, provide incentives too, that if somebody brings somebody in, uh, you know, turns into some work or they develop a new way for us to do something better, you know there’s always incentives to grow in whatever position they have, because then they can have a little bit of that entrepreneurial energy too, because I think everybody should have that.
Steve:
I agree. How do you guys get to a point where you say because everybody has a different misstep, that you know that you need to add on to the team, or um, there’s gaps to fill, or things along those lines?
John:
yeah, there there was the. The. The most important time that we added on to the team was when we went from three of us, which is ryan and I, and, well, I guess not an intern. She started as an intern but quickly, you know, became like a associate producer role, um, but we were, that particular summer this is many years ago we were trading, you know, taking turns. At 70 years ago we were trading, you know, taking turns at 70 hour weeks or something. I remember, like you know, texting back and forth and being like hey, do you have any more time this week? Because, like, I have X, y and Z to do, and, um, and we had another project coming up and I think I took a couple evenings of time, like, even though there was no time, I took more time to like put together in a piece of software, like a capacity kind of chart, uh, and like, and I, it was, it’s the most organized that I ever got and it’s the most organized I’ve been, you know, since, was that?
John:
one time putting it all in and being like because I couldn’t see it and I was like I need to understand how many hours of estimated editing and production there are in the things we have like and the due dates and if there are that many hours, you know, in the week. And I put that all together and I was like it was the most clear I’ve ever been about justifying, like we need to hire an editor, um, and we started, we started freelance. It’s actually the first time that we hired max, our current editor. Yeah, we hired him and, you know, had him going for a couple weeks on a project and then, uh, in the middle of that, we were doing interviews, interviewing a couple different people at the same time. That’s how that has gone. That one time was a really clear. We need to move from here to here.
John:
But then the big question mark. There’s not a solid answer in my opinion. If, if you’re asking this question, like, once you’ve done that, how do you know that it will continue at that capacity? I think you don’t know and I’ve always just gone by the. I think Google has talked about it. There’s various business articles that have talked about it, like when you find the people that are the right people, like they will. They will bring in the the extra work, even if they’re not directly, like in sales or marketing or whatever, just like the amount of energy and output and everything that they have. You know, maybe it’ll free you up to do the things that you couldn’t quite do. So it’s always like that’s like the. That’s the real story of. Like business and entrepreneurship is like it’s not a one-time thing, it’s like a every step of the way thing is always like this tackling another risk. Like okay, well, do I take this risk? And I have something in front of me right now. I think we should bring on this new employee, staff or whatever. Hopefully that amount of work continues, hopefully I don’t have to make difficult decisions in the future and be like oh, I couldn’t keep that going and well, and we’re all a bunch of people who can do a lot of different tasks. And I think that helps as well, because sometimes there’ll be more posts, sometimes there’ll be more pre-production, sometimes there’s more production and you know we figure out who has capacity to do what.
Ryan:
Like we have an editor and john and I are primarily. You know we figure out who has capacity to do what. Like we have an editor and John and I are primarily you know, uh, director, producers, uh, and writers. But Max can also write and he’s very good at it and can do it very fast. Uh, luke can also just go shoot. Um, luke and another team member could go be a little bit bigger team and shoot.
Ryan:
Luke can edit, john can edit, I can edit, john can edit, I can edit. Um, you know, there’s kind of like a hierarchy of like who’s next after somebody else’s foot fold. So full bill full. So you know, if something gets a little crazy, we buckle down and we divvy up the work and work together and then ideally you have a little bit more breathing room and then we can work more in those areas that we excel at. So that’s kind of what I was getting at before. We’re like at that point where we can flex pretty well with the crew that we have and like even doing much bigger jobs, it’s easier just to bring somebody in for a specific job than it would be to staff up and then after two months like, okay, what am I going to do with this staff that was primarily for this one project?
Steve:
yeah, interesting, all right
John:
I mean, are you?
John:
so how? How is it with you where, like, are there’s no other team members right, like are you?
John:
you’re the guy
Steve:
yeah, I just hire out freelancers,
John:
do you ever. Do you ever think about that? Or uh,
Steve:
the moment I do,
Steve:
I’m working too much. Yeah, I’m a bit older than you guys, so it’s like I’m starting to not count the days, but I know that, like I uh, um, I’m starting to, you know, see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of retirement. So that’s only going to complicate things. I’m more interested in passive income than amping up projects and stuff like that. Right now I’m doing projects. I like people that I like to work with, things that interest me. You guys know, if you like it, if you love what you’re doing, it’s going to reflect in your work. You’re going to see it and be like, wow, it did a good job on that. Well, it was just a secret and it’s like I enjoyed working on it. That was my secret.
Ryan:
I want to get to the stronger Sun Prairie too, here in a second. Then we can watch the visuals. But what you said right there passive you know you want to work more on passive income. Are there things you’re working on?
Ryan:
for passive income.
Steve:
It’s like investment, just investing,
Ryan:
oh okay,
Steve:
and just trying to do that type of thing. Not, it’s not like I’m buying property or anything like that.
Ryan:
Yeah Well, I, or anything like that. Yeah well, I didn’t know if it was because I think about this too, and you absolutely have the capabilities to teach, right, because you also teach. Um, thinking about like online courses, right, like spending a week or two weeks producing some content and then it’s out there and then, hey, you can sell that for a few months or a few years as passive income, you know that’s kind of where my mind goes to
Steve:
and one of uh, one of my uh clients, uh, who I.
Steve:
Another group that I love working with I don’t know if you know uh um is uh andrew and gracie foxwell, who have uh foxwell digital here in town, here in madison, and um, they just started this. Uh uh, they do a lot of digital media buying and um, and what they’re doing is sort of what you’re talking about, like this online community and online learning, sort of a master class for digital media buyers and working with them, I’m just like learning how lonely it can be. They’re. They’re making the great, great idea of bringing everybody together because it’s there’s such unicorns in terms of they’re here in madison and then there’s somebody over in london and there’s somebody up in ontario and and brings them together and they have this, this sort of what you’re talking about, this membership fee, and they’re part of a community and they get to learn more about what should I be?
Steve:
Right now I’m cutting something together for Andrew. It’s A-B testing, really digging into A-B testing, and I think that’s extraordinary. That’s really cool. That’s a great source of passive income, but I am teaching, but that’s because, again, I do. I let my passion follow, like, follow my passion, I follow my passion and that was an opportunity I was given. I knew that was something I’d love to do. And that was an opportunity I was given. I knew that was something I’d love to do. And the head of uh, the video communications department at Madison College coincidentally approached me was like would you be interested in teaching two classes a semester?
Steve:
and I was like, yes, I’d love to. It’s been great. Two days a week, just enough to enjoy myself and keep doing work. And the students are awesome, are great.
Ryan:
Yeah, we love working with Madison College and their students too. We do have a question here, so, dan, I’ll get to your other question, too, in a second, but it was relevant to investment.
Ryan:
Can you talk about crypto and how much XRP do you have?
Steve:
I have no crypto, it’s uninsured. I just like checking it. I like federally insured stuff.
John:
It’s passive, you know, it’s just my understanding. You just get it and then you just make money. That’s it, a little crypto brochure.
Ryan:
Yeah, you don’t have to do anything.
John:
No, I’ve been around the block once or twice,
Steve:
I know that.
Ryan:
And now XRP all that XRP is finally coming in. I overbought so much XRP and then I just left it there out of disgust and now it’s up, but it’s still probably lower than what I paid for it.
Ryan:
Let’s see One more question and then we’ll jump to the Stronger by Stronger. Sunbury, dan, dan the Coach. Is it the Cloach? I forget the Cloach, yeah. Yeah, am I a fraud because I don’t put my camera on rails with a map box? I like that question.
Ryan:
What do you think, steve?
Steve:
No, you can just gear it all up your you could have your black magic mini and just just pile everything on there and put it on something and it looks, looks amazing yeah,
Ryan:
I was gonna say, if it doesn’t look cool like, are you even a shooter, bro?
Steve:
exactly exactly
Ryan:
you gotta hear from professor donovan
Steve:
and that’s it, let’s.
Steve:
That’s the thing. Like, uh, iphones, iphone pros are shooting amazing stuff yeah, right now. But if you take that on a shoot as a b camera, it’s like your client’s going to be like what
John:
right it’s the challenge of like it it’s.
John:
There’s a article I saw recently that was talking about about it and it’s just like it’s the client like they need to see, like oh, you got the fancy stuff you know, like you could have an iphone down in there, if it’s like behind the mat box and under you know, that’s what I’m saying, just a monitor and it’s got the, you know,
Steve:
just 3d print like a, you know, like a red camera
Ryan:
oh my gosh, that would be hilarious
Steve:
and just put an iphone in there.
Ryan:
You, I mean, I feel like this is how you explode on youtube or tiktok. You are the guy who 3d prints a red and then you put a camera, you put a uh iphone in there and then you shoot some projects and be like guys isn’t this amazing? And they’ll be like yes and you’re like if you it’s on my phone, what? Yeah, I love it. So we came up with that idea here and you’re going to become a tiktok.
John:
Yeah, and I’ll just trademark. I’ll just take royalties on that idea.
Ryan:
Yeah, that’ll be some passive income yeah.
Ryan:
I love it. All right, so Stronger Sun Prairie. I put the link. We have that link, luke. Do you mind throwing that up? And I can put this up too. I’d love to watch the trailer and then maybe have you talk a little bit more about it Do. I’d love to watch the trailer and then maybe have you talk a little bit more about it. Do you want to set it up at all or do you want to just watch it?
Steve:
Let’s just watch it.
Ryan:
Okay, this can be glitchy, so bear with me.
Steve:
Okay, all right, let’s see.
Ryan:
Okay, you can’t hear me. Oh, come in today.
Steve:
Yeah, how is uh, that was that was. Uh, that project was just uh, because they it’s a five year anniversary and the me working on this. Uh, of course, on anything this massive, you have hours and hours and hours of footage and it’s between um, body cams, car cams, um footage that people shot on the street, uh, uh, everybody that experienced it. It was just like a ton of stuff and the choices they make. You have to form an opinion ahead of time of uh, what, who is this for? What is this saying and what? What should it be about?
Steve:
Um, they lost a firefighter. Only one person passed away from this whole thing and it shook, basically shook a town. It was seismic and only one person passed away and they think about that person and that firefighter and they um, but for the most part, it was an amazing victory. For outside of that one death like uh, um getting out in half an hour from a whole downtown, it was amazing, and I think the film is about the victories of people coming together over horrific events, even in a small town like that.
Ryan:
And what I remember hearing kind of what was going on through the grapevine we don’t really watch the news, so facebook and other things so they determined, uh, there was a gas leak and they had cordoned off the area. Were they doing an evacuation then?
Steve:
and then that’s when the explosion happened yeah, we heard the 911 call at the very beginning of the trailer. Um, it was um a we energies like stringer. He didn’t even work for we energies, he just was somebody that they that they contracted somebody, who contracted somebody and they were looking to run lines and they tapped right into a gas main that was unlabeled. So as soon as he taps into it breaks a hole open. You can smell it immediately. It’s pouring right into his face and so you can hear him on the 911 call saying, like we have a gas leak, you know, got figured out. And uh, so that’s when.
Steve:
That’s when the fire and police Sun Prairie Fire and Police run into the downtown and have to like, literally go into pizza places like Salvatore’s and tell everybody to get out. This is what’s going on. It was a half-mile radius, so it’s a humongous area and they have to get everybody out. And there’s about 20 minutes, just over 20 minutes, after it gets called in. That’s when the explosion, something ignited it. They don’t know something ignited it, they don’t know what. Uh ignited it and um, and blew up the bar house, which was uh sort of a bar restaurant that one of the firefighters the firefighter that actually perished, coincidentally had um, had owned with his wife. Oh wow, yeah. So he left behind Abby, his wife, abby Bar, and their two daughters. So it’s easy to just keep mulling over the loss, but I think the story’s important in terms of the amazing things that went on outside of that, the people that came around to it and came around to help and just wanted to just find a way to help.
Ryan:
So good stuff. Yeah, you had mentioned, too, having an opinion, and when you’re making a documentary, you know there’s the story that’s presented to you and then I’m sure you did a lot of research and there’s a story that starts to come out what, what did you discover? You know, what was the opinion that you have that this film takes?
Steve:
well, exactly what I was saying and I was like working really hard to establish that the idea that Fred Rogers once said that when he’d watch a tragedy on television, his mom would say don’t look at the tragedy, look at all the people that are helping around. And I like when I was putting this together, I like to focus on that. I didn’t want to shy away from somebody passing away. I didn’t want to shy away from the fact that people were displaced, people lost a lot in explosions and fires, but, by the same token, there’s something beautiful there that, unfortunately, a horrible thing like this brought about. I think it’s my philosophy in life too like not to dig in too much about it, but I I like to look at the good things, focus on because, like, shitty stuff’s always going to happen and um, and you can. You can let it take over and do what you want it to do, or you can just try to help and focus on the good stuff and what other people are doing.
Steve:
That’s great yeah, that that.
John:
Uh, there was a, a book that I was reading recently that was getting at that. You know that basic concept of of like well, how do I, you know, how do I have this like positive view? Um, how do I see the glory in things when there’s all of this bad? You know that’s in the world and basically it was just what you were getting at was like well, you know your perspective has to be on seeing like that’s going to continue.
John:
That’s what that’s what’s in this world, and what you need to do is see the people that are working to like help others to get out of those things, the to see the positive way out of whatever situations, because otherwise, yeah, you could have a I mean, and many people do find themselves in a very dark, negative worldview um, because there’s things that happen, it’s just part of life. But, yeah, it’s good to good to see the positive and like well, you know, here’s how we got out of it, or, and again, it can. You know order on cliche sometimes, but if it’s like um, you know, seeing that like well, at least this didn’t have, or you know, at least we were able to get this good out of it, or, or stop it at this point or whatever. Um, just trying to count those, those positives.
Ryan:
Yeah, well, and, and honestly, like COVID, right, so bad things happened, um, and maybe even close to you, but when we think about it, when we look at it, we try to think about, okay, you know what are, what are some of the positive takeaways that that we experienced and happened.
Ryan:
You know, like the way we interact, uh, developed in largely a good way. Um, you know, intentionality, online, online technology, uh, people leaning into communicating and marketing and, um, creating more. You know that was, that was one of those things that you know people were like, well, how was COVID for you? And I was like no one, no one got sick around me and business was good, you know, and things grew and technologies grew. So it’s like a hard thing, it’s like, you know, in tragedy, trying to be positive and look positive, and I think you know that’s probably what we like to how we can deal with things like that.
Steve:
Yeah, I think one of the most important characters in that oral history has to be the mayor of Sun Prairie. Throughout the whole thing, he has this amazing, beautiful perspective of the whole thing that I tried to highlight as much as I could.
Ryan:
That’s cool.
Ryan:
I’m going to ask a question. Yeah, can you repost that link? I lost it. Yeah, I did the Cardinal. I broke the Cardinal law of clicking on like update, like our restream here has, like trying to the new experience. I was like, oh, what’s that? Like this couldn’t go wrong and it just blew everything up.
Steve:
All the power in my apartment went down.
Steve:
There it is, thank you.
Ryan:
I’m going to throw this in chat. Can people purchase it here?
Steve:
It’s totally free.
Ryan:
Oh, totally free.
Steve:
Cool, you can watch away all you like. Boom Thanks, I’m going to do that. It’s about 52 minutes long, so
Ryan:
time for commercial break.
Ryan:
All right, let’s see. You got another question. Can steve talk about the use, uh, of the slow dip to black between shots in the trailer? I love it, but what was his thought process on that choice? Also, I love the feel like it’s got like that music. It’s got like a serial kind of feel to it, like it kind of makes me chill, but I’m like a little anxious, a little hopeful, like it’s kind of a good mix head to what.
Steve:
What I tried to do, just the uh, just to add on to that and I’ll answer, uh, dan’s question. Um, question is that I intentionally tried to find a song that had a clock feel to it, because they were racing time. The whole thing was about racing against the clock and getting first when they tried to evacuate everybody, and when they’re to evacuate everybody and when they’re trying to figure out is there going to be another explosion, and that was so. I wanted to give you that anxious feeling.
Steve:
But, in terms of the slow dips to black between shots in the trailer, um, the, the thing I struggle with in the trailer, as well as the documentary, was do I want to just go in a timeline, like go in chronological order, or, uh, do I want to be a little bit more poetic about it in terms of here’s one person’s story, the whole thing, and another person’s, so, um, I tried to do the.
Steve:
I tried to be a little bit more poetic, but not too flowery, that it was just like. It was just like dumb. So, uh, in terms of the slow dips to black, I wanted to separate what people were saying and give it something that visualized what they’re saying, but it wasn’t in chronological order either, so I wanted to give it some kind of transition, but not dissolving, because dissolve? I feel like the scenes are related in some way. If I dip to black, you can say these are separate, siloed scenes that don’t have anything to do with time or space. It’s just like they’re living by themselves. That’s what dip to black in my mind as an editor means.
John:
Yeah, the the trailer was really intriguing to me too, Like I heard all about it. Um, our editor at the time, jeff bell, was living in sun prairie, uh, and he was trying to remember if he said that I’m trying to remember if he heard it or what, and he was far enough away that his like building his apartment wasn’t affected, but, um, but I think he could either see the smoke or maybe hurt it or something, but I didn’t know much about the situation. And that shot of like from down on the street, of like the explosion happening when it just seems like people are standing around, is like very startling and striking
Steve:
yeah, when you see them running the beds out of uh assisted care facilities.
Steve:
It’s, it’s.
Ryan:
Yeah, that’s freaky yeah,
John:
so that that time element that you mentioned, like that, that definitely that seems like a good, like the right choice for um, for cutting the documentary of, like, the emphasis on and the unknowing too, because like you don’t know, like somebody calls in and it’s like this thing happened, people got to get out of here, but you don’t know if something will happen or how much time you have. It’s not like, hey, there’s a train headed here and we’ve got this much time before impact or whatever. It’s just like. I have no idea. It could be.
John:
You know, any like could be nothing, could be any time, whatever
Steve:
yeah, as it was, it was just, you can tell, just pure chaos. And uh, the final shot that you saw, that where it pans over, that was from like a couple miles away, that that plume of smoke was still going. Just it was just insane, the whole thing, just crazy. And that when I was, I was cutting it together and I was I talk about every now and then in my advanced video class and one of the students said she, uh, that she lived in some prairie at the time and she said that she had a bunch of footage and that’s the thing affected thousands and thousands and thousands of people. There are 35 000 people in some prairie alone.
Steve:
So you can imagine like how many lives that touched
Ryan:
in going through that footage and finding stuff like how was that? Like I know it’s interesting, we work on like human trafficking stuff and to some point, like there’s a separation where you can kind of look at it more objectively, right. And then I think the first time, like Max was editing one of those projects, he’s like I got to stop. I’m just like wrecked right now and I was kind of struck because I’m like man, I’ve been doing this work for a couple of years now and so I have that mental separation to be able to be like, okay, let me hear these stories, okay, let me find and figure out what the best stories and put it together and do this. And okay, there it is.
Ryan:
And then somebody who doesn’t have that experience goes and listens to it or watches it or edits it and it’s like, oh my gosh, I can’t, I can’t even handle this, what it? Or edits it and it’s like, oh my gosh, I can’t, I can’t even handle this. Um, what was your experience? Going through all this footage, you know, over what I assume was a long period of time
Steve:
there was there.
Steve:
Uh, funny, you should say that because there was one point. I forget what the minute mark was um, but I was in the fire chief’s interview. I cut it together. You know you like you try to use your uh editing synergy and like and cut it together. And you know you like you try to use your editing synergy and like and cut it together and you’re feeling it and it’s coming together and stuff like that. And then when you get to an end of a section, you want to like go back, let it play, correct what needs to be corrected and mix what needs to be mixed.
Steve:
And I’m watching this one segment back of the fire chief and I’m just like crying and crying and crying and I I think I hit that wall, that emotional wall with it. Where I was, I just had to like let it alone for a day or two and and, um and just and just be able to um, like go hug your kids or something. Yeah, exactly, just, uh, um and just just all of that. Just remember that how, how great everything is and your life is wonderful and and thank God for cops and fire crews Like so
Ryan:
and people who rush towards the danger.
John:
It’s an interesting thing that maybe people don’t know about editing and video production in general that you can be in that analysis mode where you’re like. You can be in that analysis mode where you’re like, okay, yeah, this soundbite builds upon that topic that we’re on and okay, yeah, the person is reacting in this way, that’s adding some emotional weight and that’s good, oh, and the music is swelling here, and then, like you said, you go back and rewatch it and it’s actually possible to experience it from analysis or from like just being a viewer, and then, when you like, watch it as a viewer, you can be like, oh, oh, wow yeah, this is yeah,
Steve:
and, like you guys, um.
Steve:
When I came across this and I was fortunate to get this as a project I had been acquainted with it, but I wasn’t. It wasn’t a story I was following. I was on top of and reading every scrap I could find, so to learn some of those things along the line is just like, was just um, was just so surprising to me, just so, uh, crazy, uh, so, um, so I hope that showcases all that stuff
Ryan:
so when, when you were approached, was there a certain you know, there’s probably some parameters of we want to showcase the community in this story and have this be something that it like is healing.
Ryan:
Uh, you know, I’m sure there was uh scope and goals and things like that objectives
Steve:
the only thing that they asked for was that can you get as close to 60 minutes as possible? Oh, really, really. Yeah, I don’t know if it’s because that they I know there’s a few other people that were up for it because it’s a city, you have to have at least three bids. Sure, but maybe something about my work was they thought this is the guy for this, to tell this story, and we want you to roll it out. I I’m not sure I can’t speak for them, but I think uh had something to do with uh trust being able to say, like, could you do this for us, help us out with this?
Ryan:
there’s also like I was good, I was just following up with that real quick like the idea of like a documentary and like discovering this story. Did you have different perspective at the beginning than the end, or was it kind of consistent throughout, like did did things change?
Steve:
um, yeah, I At first I was like this is just going to be a telltale timeline of what happened and everybody giving their account. But there was a lot more. It was a lot more layered than that. There was one down bite in there that made it into the documentary and uh, uh, she was at a fundraiser with the fire chief and, um, they, they were so appreciative of everybody always doing stuff and everything, but they just had the perspective of we just need to move on. We can’t keep going to these fundraisers and talking about what happened. And so there’s a lot of layers to it in terms of people realizing the um, the massive casualties, uh and um, and, at the same time, wanting to be like what do we need to do? And I know we’re not going to be the same, but I’d like to move on in some way. It’s the grief, the grief of it all yeah, the, uh, the other thing.
John:
So like I imagine I I’ve thought about this a lot that when you know any promo video that you do for a business or organization, like all of its documentary, you know like a lot of it fits into that category. Yeah, but what was the? You know? Do you do you feel the weight and pressure of like, when you’ve got something that’s like bigger profile and there’s a lot, a lot more kind of you know it’s like, oh, the story of a business that’s, you know, cool and there’s some, there’s some stories about somebody you know, yeah, really happy with the work they do or changing it, but like you’ve got this kind of thing like what was that like to to work on a project,
Steve:
I was incredibly worried.
Steve:
I just meant, uh, like what everybody, like what different people would think about different things about it. And you know, I most of all, uh, abby barr, the widow of the firefighter, was lost. Um, she didn’t speak to the camera for this, but she has spoken about it and, um, I, I tried to see things through her eyes, I tried to see things through the fire chief’s eyes and I worried a lot about that, about the weight of it, and it made me want to make a more beautiful piece, wanted me to make it more precise, it made me a better producer-editor for it. So I was very worried.
Ryan:
Yeah, how long was the project? How long did it take you to go from we want you to do this to now?
Steve:
I think it was end of November. End of November is when they gave me the green light and then I had to drive to Sun Prairie and get a removable hard drive with all the footage and everything and um, that’s when I just started logging everything and uh getting transcripts together and and uh reading up on it and things like that so this is a great luke question.
Ryan:
What was the review process like in client feedback?
Steve:
yeah, um it. Uh, because it’s so massive. At first I was going to put a rough cut together and then just take a look at the rough cut. Um, but I thought this was more of an emotional piece, so I would finish off. I finished off to begin with, uh, five or six minutes of it all clean, cleaned up and everything, and when it’s like this is a direction I’m going in well, how do you feel about this?
Steve:
And um, they were very supportive. The city was very supportive. The uh, sun prairie media center was very supportive. And um, and they, they loved it and they said keep moving forward. And I I got to a point where I think I got like 40 minutes into it because it was just so energizing, and then I’d send them that 40 minutes and have them take a look at it. But the whole kid in caboodle didn’t look at it until it was done. So I was inspired to get it done way ahead of time. I think I got it done in May, the very first cut and so people like the mayor would look at it, members of the media center board would look at it, fire chief would look at it.
Steve:
Legal team would look at it, uh, fire chief would look at it, a legal team would look at it, things along those lines. So, yeah, it’s a little nerve-wracking.
John:
Yeah, well, and you know, that’s that sounds like a good move that you made. If it was a smaller team earlier on, it sounds like this what you were saying because, um, I always have to like, I feel like half of it is like client education. When we’re talking about review process, we’re like well, let’s like review with as few people as possible and then when you start sharing it to a wider group, share it and tell them here it is, it’s done like, don’t be like. So what do we think? You know, what are all the individual opinions that all 500 of you have?
Steve:
you know it’s, it’s an art form. I I mean, I don’t need to tell you guys, it’s an art form in itself, the client review process, and that’s why luki boy is asking about it, because everybody does it differently for different clients and it’s and um, it’s, it’s such an art form, the client review process. I know people do rough cuts unless you have somebody that really knows production. Yep, you don’t hand over a rough cut.
Ryan:
Nope, yeah, we look at it too. We have like an assembly that’s like is this the content? And then, okay, rough it up, get the B-roll in there. Okay, now let’s go to fine, so that it looks like something that they’ll recognize. And then, even with the caveats, it’s still like the color looks flat and you’re like I know I said that in the message. It’s not, you know, it’s not colored yet exactly,
Steve:
and and that’s, and that’s the tough.
Steve:
Tough thing is educating the client and they shouldn’t have to be educated honestly, like you should be able to. But it, that again, uh, it’s, it’s such a difficult thing. You shouldn’t have to educate the client. I totally get where they’re coming coming from, um, but, uh, um, but if you totally put something together that’s gone uh, close to finish, fine to finish, and it’s, it’s, and they’re like no, this is totally wrong.
Steve:
You know, like, as it’s, like, oh, I have to pull it all, pull this puzzle apart and put it back together again
Ryan:
yeah, we did a documentary feature film and that was a interesting learning process too, you know, uh, in a very specific client so clients are going to be different. Basically, just one person that we had to get through creative because the producer was like, yep, trust you. So then the executive producer was the one who we worked with a lot and a lot of circling and like it ended up being a little brutal and a lot of circling and like it ended up being a little brutal. And I’m curious, you know, if you had any things towards the end of your film where you know, watching through and like making sure overall color, overall audio levels, or oh, what happened? Okay, my computer started falling asleep because I haven’t moved my mouse in a second. Uh, you know all those things like where it gets brutal, where you’re like, oh, I gotta watch it again. Yeah, was there anything like that towards the end of the process?
Steve:
yeah, they uh the. The funniest thing happened they had just one more change and it came from legal and it just threw off, uh, all my music and just like, uh, it was just something, something weird. It was like and I was just like wow, what’s going on? I’m like watching through. I was like and, uh, and suddenly I realized I just messed up somehow. Uh, all my, uh, all all my levels. So it’s like okay, well, there we go. So, that was fine then.
Ryan:
You still got it done early.
John:
I’m laughing at Dan’s comment.
Steve:
I’m laughing at.
Steve:
Dan too.
Ryan:
What did he say?
John:
Sent a rough cut to a client with a watermark piece and they say we love, love it. But there’s a woman who keeps saying audio jungle in the background. Can we, can we remove her? Well, I’ve been there. One in three clients like one, three new clients will say that, yeah, as though that was what your creative vision was. Yeah, right, well, I actually put in that audio of her saying audio jungle. I felt like it really lifted the piece, like of course we can remove that.
Steve:
I have in my notes that you wanted audio jungle on the music bed.
Ryan:
You know, and it doesn’t matter that you put that up there Like this is you. This is an example audio track. It’s got the watermark on it. You’ll hear this. People read it and then forget about it, and that’s why we did the water flip spoof a couple years ago. It was really fun.
Steve:
That was hilarious, that was great.
John:
Jeff Bell plays the watermark artist who manually records each and every watermark.
Steve:
You got to put that in the chat also. That link yeah.
Ryan:
Luke, can you find that one that’s fun? Yeah, so now that it’s out, is there marketing, any smaller pieces you’re doing for it, or is it kind of like it’s out like is there, is there marketing, uh, any smaller pieces you’re doing for it, or is it kind of like it’s out and you can relax?
Steve:
and share. I can, I can relax and just uh, they’re, they’re sort of handling all that stuff. Um, I would like to uh, clean up some stuff and then send it to a couple of film festivals. Yeah, Um, possibly, uh, so, but we’ll see what happens. Yeah, stuff and then send it to a couple film festivals, possibly, but we’ll see what happens.
Ryan:
Yeah, when are you going to kill that baby? You know, as it is like it’ll never be done unless it’s done right?
Steve:
yeah, it’s 99% done. I mean there’s a couple little things I’d like to see, but that’s awesome, don’t tell. There’s a couple little things I’d like to see, that’s awesome, don’t tell anyone ever what those little things are? No one will ever know except for you and it’ll make you happy. They’ll just bug me. Moving on, I just want to ask you guys one thing have you seen the new Mission Impossible?
Ryan:
I might go today or tomorrow actually, and I gotta catch indiana jones, yeah, yeah have you seen it?
Steve:
yeah is it really amazing? Yeah, I’m gonna probably catch it in imax yeah, that’s the way to do it so good well, what about it? It’s amazing. I just wanted to check with you guys.
Ryan:
This seemed like greater than your wheelhouse of films. Dude. I mean I will give Tom Cruise the Scientologist all my money because he’s so entertaining. He is Every movie. Looking back through the Mission Impossibles, from now to the first. They’re so dumb, they start off so dumb and they kind of get a little bit less dumb, um, so I’m kind of excited for that.
Ryan:
It’s a little more real, uh but just the action is fun and I
John:
I finally watched the. Uh watched the first one with my 13 year old like a few weeks back, and he was in trance, you know, like it’s so good, like it’s so classic. And it was funny too, because I’m sure we’re all having this now where, like, I showed that to him and he’s like, oh, so that’s where this. Uh know, like every time somebody drops from the ceiling and is suspended over something in a movie like flat, you know, like the that’s that’s where this comes from. That’s what the reference was kind of fun. Yeah,
Ryan:
yeah, what did we just see? We just saw the sound of freedom last week, which is like the human trafficking one, yeah, um, which was like number one on July 4th. Uh, you know, and it’s it’s kind of exceptionalizing it, but I think it’s a good film that everyone should see so people have a perspective on the human trafficking that’s like actually happening, like it’s pretty nuts.
Ryan:
Yeah, um, yeah, I love movies. I go to movies all the time.
Ryan:
Yeah, what, what are some recommendations you have? Steve, do you watch a lot of movies or TV shows?
Steve:
Yes, and, yes, I just finished watching my Girlfriend, my Sarah, and I watched Based on a True Story on Peacock.
Ryan:
I just a friend of mine just told me about that yesterday. Oh my God, it sounds hilarious.
Steve:
It’s hilarious and crazy and just like oh my goodness
Ryan:
yeah can you pitch it real quick?
Ryan:
I think John would probably get out of it.
Steve:
So it stars Kelly Cuoco and the actor who I can’t remember his name from new girl as a this couple and he’s like this has been tennis star. He was like a humongous tennis star and uh uh blew out his knee and still is a pro Uh, and they’ve been married for a long time. He and Kelly. Kelly Cuoco is a pro uh and they’ve been married for a long time. He and kelly cali quokka and, um, they’re sort of came into this rut of their relationship and she’s a huge murder podcast fan and when this west side uh ripper or whatever they call west side stabber or west coast um is goes on a killing spree, she suspects that, that, that this one person is the killer. So they decide to start a podcast with this guy.
Ryan:
Is it like their plumber too, or?
Steve:
something. Yeah, to see if, see if he’s the killer and how he does stuff, and it just becomes this cat and mouse game and at the same time it’s a hilarious sort of rom-com wrapped into it with this couple. So it’s just phenomenal, it’s just so good.
John:
Yeah, I’ve seen it, uh, and I’m intrigued by it. It sort of reminds me. Well, I mean, it’s different, obviously, but have you seen only murders in the building? Oh yeah yeah yeah, so good very season three cast, but but really, really works.
Steve:
Selena gomez is great in that I mean they all are upcoming season has paul rudd and meryl streep yeah that’s gonna be amazing.
Ryan:
Um, all right, what’s your movie recommendation? Mission impossible.
Ryan:
I want to get your recommendation, and then we’re going to do a little something special
Steve:
um, I, I, I, I really liked uh, mission impossible a lot, um, but uh, I just watched on paramount and I know the horror genre is not popular with everybody, but I watched uh x and Pearl, which are sort of companion movies, and those were just that. It’s on Paramount Plus, both films, and it was just they were just super gory, but I mean just so well done, that was really good. I’m looking forward to seeing joyride and also looking forward to seeing uh, no hard feelings I don’t know either of those either city asteroid city.
Ryan:
Yeah, that’ll be super fun. Yeah, um, what’s joyride?
Steve:
and the other one you said um, no hard feelings is with uh, uh, jennifer lawrence, oh yeah, yeah, and she is hired by uh, a couple to um basically date their son, who is sort of a nerdy wallflower type of kid before he goes off to college. They want to sort of educate them and it just looks like it just looks like a lot of fun and good summertime. You know sort of super bad style of comedy of like raunchy fun humor. So the parents are played by matthew broderick and um cordney cox oh, that’s amazing.
Ryan:
Yeah, I think I saw that in the, because it’s out now, right, yeah, yeah, that looks super fun. All right, we got those recommendations and guys, do you know what time it? Is you ready for this? It’s? It’s time for two truths and a lie. He’s going to tell us three things about himself, three short things, and we’re going to pick the lie. And if you play along at home, you have a chance to win swag.
Steve:
I think I can do this one in a while I’m going to vamp.
Ryan:
While you think about things, you could win. One of these cool, let’s Make Awesome Is that cork, cork.
Steve:
Yeah, what else do we have? What else do we have what?
Ryan:
else do we have? What else do we have? What else do we have? What else do we have, what else?
Steve:
do we have Nice?
Ryan:
I forget what we give away. Hannah handles the giveaways and that you can get, yeah, just whatever trash we can find on our desks. It’s so good, it’s like we got swag, that we’re like I would actually use this. So I have the. I have like that. I have four of these on my desk and some behind them, and then I have several at home like I use the crap out of them. Good, good things there, so we can keep vamping too. If you want to think a little bit longer, steve, because we didn’t prep you at all yeah, I keep, yeah, I keep vamping a little bit sticky notes too, that’s.
Ryan:
We’ll throw that in. You could win sticky notes. Yep, um, and I’m gonna pull my notes too. Uh, this is a podcast, so if you’re, if you stumble upon this and you’re not already subscribed, uh, please do like, subscribe, follow, hit bell, do the thing, because it’s on YouTube as well.
Ryan:
Nobody gets murdered in this podcast, only murders on this podcast. Yeah, let’sbackflipcom slash the let’s Backflip show, or wherever your podcasts are sold. That’s where you can find us. I think we have Chelsea Bowers from Madison College coming on either next week or pretty soon. She’s our next guest, oh, yeah. That’ll be super awesome. Yeah, she is such an amazing creative person over there. We’ve been working with them for a year or two.
Steve:
Yeah, Shu introduced me to her.
Ryan:
What’s that?
Steve:
Shu introduced me to her. She seemed awesome, she seems great.
Ryan:
Yeah, she’s one of those. You know, like yourself, who I’m like. We just got to hang out with these people, even if it’s online, yeah.
Steve:
Okay. I’ll try to figure one out here. Okay, I was one, I was an extra on the film Cold Fusion. Two, in 2005, I published a book. And three, I served a night in jail. Ooh.
Ryan:
I’d like all these to be true. If you’re a pro, you probably changed one of the details here. So, number one you’re an extra in the film Cold Fusion. Number two you published a book in 2005. And number three you served a night in jail. Yeah, some good ones.
Steve:
So you guys can’t guess at all, no Googling.
John:
If you want to play by the rules, that’s right. No Google, let’s see.
Steve:
What was the book? Title the Untitled Journals.
Ryan:
If this is a lie and you pulled that out of your butt. That’s amazing. I feel like you’d be good at improv.
Steve:
Have you done? Improv before I’d like to try it sometime.
Ryan:
I feel like you would be a shoo-in. I thought, for sure that you had done it because I think about the same thing. Yeah, what do you think of John or Dan, or anyone at home, or Luke, you can say? Luke says he thinks number one is a lie, the extra in the film Cold Fusion.
John:
I don’t even know what that film is.
Ryan:
Yeah, I don’t know what that film is.
Steve:
John Reeves, Morgan Freeman.
Ryan:
Oh, still don’t know. I know those people yeah.
Steve:
They shot it on the John.
Ryan:
Reeves, morgan Freeman, steve Donovan. Third build yeah, it sounds like a comedy. Third build yeah yeah, yeah, comedy play it okay, emily Pearson, I don’t think Steve would survive jail. That’s a good guess, are they? Let’s see, are the three?
Steve:
of these facts related makes friends with the criminals. Yeah, I wouldn’t be the first guy to go down.
John:
The three of these facts are related. After the movie, during the movie, he got himself sent to jail and then the book is about it.
Steve:
You’re not an extra. The book is about his experience, great to jail and I’m like I’m going to write a tell-all about jail.
Ryan:
Yeah, these are my diaries about jail. Yeah, and one night I like it. That’s what you got to do. Sell it on Amazon for $1. The longest night of my life, all right, emily. So Emily says number three, luke says number one. What do you got? John Bless you. God bless you.
Steve:
What you got, what you think.
John:
Okay, I usually like to try to come up with it just right off on the the first responses, but I think that’s the book. Um, because of the your response on on the title, which you know, follow up question I had in my mind too, I just like to try to figure it out without follow-up questions. But that’s I. I think you answered very smoothly and very, very well. I mean, far better than I could have like on the spot. But yeah, I think it’s the book 2005. What were you doing in 2005? I don’t know, I don’t think you were writing a book.
Steve:
I’m a lot older than you guys. I wouldn’t be in school you say a lot older.
Ryan:
You just have a big beard that I can’t grow, that’s all. If I had your beard, I would. We would look the same. I have friends who have those longer beards I always wonder like there’s no way I can.
Steve:
If I had your beard, we would look the same. I have friends who have those longer beards. I always wonder like there’s no way I can do that. You know a longer beard? Well, I think if you just don’t shave it right.
Ryan:
I don’t know Because of like you don’t think you could grow it or you don’t think you would want it.
Steve:
I don’t think it would help my eggs. I don’t want to deal with the upkeep. Exactly, I don’t want to deal with the upkeep.
Ryan:
Yeah, because it’s like you got a whole second head of hair basically to deal with. Right, there’s this, and then you also need to do this. Alright, Any more guesses on chat?
Steve:
I’m going to guess.
Ryan:
Film Cold Fusion. I’m going to say Jail Served a Night in Jail, just out of you chat, I’m gonna guess I’m doing the bar film cold fusion. I’m gonna say jail serve tonight in jail, just out of the you saying I’ll come up with another one and then that was a third. It’s kind of a uh, cop out functional thing and I’m I will unabashedly ask questions to try to fair it out. I know you will.
Steve:
It’s true, you’re like a cat always curious, unabashed and kind of a little bit of an asshole.
John:
It seems like a guy who’s been in jail for a night. He’s seen some things.
Steve:
I don’t like talking about it.
Ryan:
We’ve given the people at home a chance.
Steve:
Now you may reveal what the lie was I was not in Cold Fusion. Oh, we didn’t even question that. That’s actually a Bill Jenter story. She was Nice good lie. She was an extra on Cold Fusion and I always joke with her about that, about like, yeah, you have a film resume, you’ve been in cold fusion, you know what the business is like. That’s awesome.
Ryan:
Luke wins. So Luke, you win this. Luke happens to be in the office as well, just in a different office. So there we go, if you send that Luke’s way. If you need another coaster next to the other one on your desk, probably come on over.
Steve:
You need a David Letterman crash sound effect too, when you throw stuff.
Ryan:
Luke, can you make that happen? We need a soundboard Stat. Just don’t click on try new experience right here. It’s going to blow everything up. We’re winding down. I want you to plug anything else you want to plug, uh we did link the sun prairie strong, the um the trailer. Are you guys going to update that website to have the other? Yeah yeah, because this is an easier one to share. Otherwise, somewhere down in chat you can find the actual film.
Steve:
So I did just start a new podcast and I’d like you guys to come on. It’s called Is that Guy Dead Yet?
Ryan:
It’s the murder podcast.
Steve:
Murder and um, it’s the murder podcast, a murder, and the whole idea is that, um, I rattle off facts about a certain well-known person and you try to guess who that person is and is that guy dead.
Ryan:
so I love this idea, because it would be. We’re like we’re probably the worst at this, and then you’ll be like it’s actually john I was talking about john yeah, happy to come on. I didn’t even know I was an extra in that movie and if you scan that qr code in the top left, I believe that’ll take you to one of the links. Luke set that up for us because he’s rad. Thanks, luke, do you?
Steve:
have a.
Ryan:
URL for your podcast.
Steve:
No, it’s just on Spotify and Apple. Wherever you find podcasts, it’s called Is that Guy Dead Yet?
Ryan:
Oh nice.
Steve:
There’s a Facebook group too that I make. Let me put the Facebook group in the chat. Sounds very very entertaining, yeah, and then you guys can play along at home.
John:
I feel like I get, I get this is a side note but I get stressed out by podcasts because of just the sheer quantity, sheer volume of media to consume. I’ve just I’m like, I mean you could say the same thing, I guess, about tv or movies, but I feel like it’s like I feel like I’m behind, just like everybody’s, like if you listen to that podcast, I’m like I can’t even. I can’t even keep up with. Just great life, I don’t good news shoe.
Steve:
This is only 10 or 15 minutes long, this podcast wow, perfect, exactly.
John:
I could hammer out three episodes on my commute yeah, exactly yeah, or just one, if you’re just like okay, this is fine, I’ve heard enough until you have us on,
Ryan:
and then it’s like 10 minutes of you asking us questions and then, and uh, 45 minutes of us just failing miserably at figuring out who it is You’re like.
Ryan:
I’m not going to let you go until you figure it out, just Google it, just figure it out.
Steve:
So we’ve uh, they come out every Monday, um, and we have two episodes posted and another one coming obviously next Monday. Dude, that’s super rad. We’ll check that out. Yeah, that’s the only plugola.
Ryan:
I have for now. Well, thanks for coming on, that’s what we got. I already plugged our stuff, so if you’re already listening.
Ryan:
Please make sure you subscribe to this podcast or find us on the web. I forget how to say all the things. There’s too much going on. I just want to go see Mission Impossible. Do we got anything else, john? Burn it All right. I mean you just got to like, subscribe, hit the notification bell, write a letter to your grandma and don’t forget to postmark Love it All right. That’s what we got. Thanks for tuning in people. Um, we’ll see you next time. Thanks, steve. We can hang out here too, after we not go live or after we end the stream. So thanks everyone. Bye.
Steve:
Bye.
