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Welcome to The Vermillion Podcast, a free audio library of business strategies, creative inspiration and industry knowledge for actors, filmmakers, writers and anyone looking to activate their creative potential. I'm Nisha Culver, a writer director who helps artists build the careers that they dream of. I really hope that this podcast inspires you in some way. Thanks for tuning in.
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This week, we're doing a special kind of episode.
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I'm going to be playing the pilot
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of a series that I
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wrote and directed,
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and I'm going to be giving you director's commentary. So
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giving you a behind the scenes peek at how this was made.
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Some of
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the secrets to filmmaking stuff that might save you some time, headache,
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and also some of the gossip
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of what it was like to make this particular series.
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Nothing that I can't legally say
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on this show.
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My lawyer has signed off on this,
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but,
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it's going to be really fun because I haven't visited this show in a long time, and it's very, very close to my heart.
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So
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this show is called All Hail Beth,
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and I wrote and directed six episodes of it for brick TV,
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which is a small network in Brooklyn,
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and they have both a public access network as well as their streaming platform on their website.
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So they,
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greenlight narrative short form series
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and really work like
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simultaneously as
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small network, but also an incubator
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for developing talent.
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So it's just a really amazing resource
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that New York has. And, you know, Brooklyn residents have,
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I recommend checking them out.
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Brick TV,
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mean well, they do well. And
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it's just really, really good vibes there.
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I worked with in particular Kyle Youngblood, who I think is now the head of production. I could be getting it wrong,
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but she's amazing and
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really smart, really kind, really hard worker,
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just like a solid,
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beautiful human being and someone who's always trying to elevate artists
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and also works with Keyshia on
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and Brian, although I don't know if he's still there.
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But anyway, it was a great team and I was so grateful that
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they picked me out of the Tribeca Creators Market
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and greenlit All Hail Beth because I was pitching
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alongside
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a lot of other creators at that market. So,
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that was back in 2018,
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in the spring. And then
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by that fall, we were going into production.
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It was kind of crazy.
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So
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going to watch the pilot episode right now.
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You're going to watch it with me,
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and I'm going to be giving you some commentary as we watch,
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so that I can let you in on the making of All Hail Beth.
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Okay, here we go. Very exciting
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finding it on YouTube. You can
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Watch it for free on YouTube.
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Just
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look up. All hail Beth.
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And episode one is called It's Lonely at the bottom.
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Okay, we open on Beth,
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played by Lila Kushner.
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That was my name.
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She's an incredible actor. I am absolutely loved working with her. When we found her, I was like.
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Done. Absolutely done.
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This. We filmed in somebody's apartment. I think it was an Airbnb.
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These are all extras that we hired that were many of them were actors, but some of them were already working on the flats. The costume designer, Erin, some of them were crew.
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That take took so many takes to get the coffee on her shirt and that that's not actual coffee. So we had to pristine the, the coffee spill.
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That's Randall McNeal loved him.
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This was completely improvised.
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That is my friend, Amy Helene Carlson.
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And Sammy Ma.
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I used to work in PR, so I wanted them to be in a PR firm because I remember how silly it all was.
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Our costume designer on this really was amazing.
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Erin Crosby. I don't know what he's up to these days, but if you find him, hire him. Cronin.
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To be extremely honest, I wrote this part for Cronin.
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I still made him audition, but I always had him in mind for this part.
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So at the time, turning 40 was like the worst thing in the world to me.
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And that's why I made it
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a joke. Now I can tell you the turning 40 is really not that bad.
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That was a very hard shot to light.
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This with the light coming into those square windows. It took us a really long time to figure out how to light this corner. And the DP wanted to kill me.
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He wanted to kill me for other reasons. We had just broken up and had been dating and it was extremely toxic.
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But he definitely got mad at me for every single thing possible on set.
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Okay, that's actually Minard on the right and Margaret Canard there. I love them both so much.
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The chemistry between these friends was like,
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incredible.
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I just got my boyfriend's HBO password last night.
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That has nothing to do with all hail Beth.
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I was torn for that MAGA hat joke because I really wanted to have them react to not celebrating Christmas, as in Islamaphobia. But also I didn't want to show the hats for too long, so I'm like, get out of here. That was Trisha merrick. Really great actor. And I forget the name of the guy.
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There's a lot of Trump in this show.
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He was president at the time and it just ended up being so. Foreshadowing.
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Jamie.
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Jamie was a great catch because we had originally cast someone as Layla's mom, as Beth's mom,
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we had no sister in the in the show. And the mom was the kind of mean one. And then this woman, Jacqueline Anti-romney, and I think is her name. She's,
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been in a lot of movies, a lot of theater. She got cast in a Broadway show.
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She had to drop a day and a half before we shot
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a day and a half at a, rewrite the entire series
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and write it and cast it for a sister in a day and a half. As if I didn't already have enough to do. Being the showrunner for this
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web series a day and a half before we were set to go into production.
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Absolutely bonkers.
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Daniel Ordnance did the production design. He created all this like the fake Twitter in the fake
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graphics bugle instead of Google. I love that guy. He's out in L.A now doing a lot of big stuff.
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That's a tic TAC.
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We really debated on the VFX for that. It took a long time to figure it out. I forget who did the VFX. They did a good job.
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This I remember this scene being hard to shoot. This was T.K. Robinson. He's so funny and so sweet. I think it was just like,
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don't know why. Cold think it was cold that day.
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I yes.
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That laugh was really tough to get in the sound edit. It just started sounding like an evil baby laugh. And I had to like, rerecord it myself. It was really hard for some reason.
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Okay, this musical score is so fire. Roman Merlino done hire him for everything because he just went absolutely above and beyond on this. It's. We were charting on iTunes with this web series soundtrack.
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I
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love her outfit here.
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We spent a lot of time with this outfit and this was a crazy shot because, okay, we were basically using PPAs and volunteers to block off traffic, like politely asking them if they just wouldn't drive for a minute
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on either end. Very dangerous. You're not supposed to do that. It was a police there.
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didn't have money for that.
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We no money for permits. So
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we just literally blocked off under
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the Manhattan Bridge and brought all these people in to do this scene.
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Totally guerrilla, totally guerrilla.
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And that was Adam Rayne on Steadicam.
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He did such a great job, and all these people worked so hard. If you liked this pilot episode, please watch episode two through six.
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I tell everyone the pilots, okay, it's honestly kind of the worst episode.
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Not that it's bad, but it just
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gets so much better as the story goes on.
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And if you can
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check out the whole series, it is so entertaining. It's so amazing what we were able to
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achieve on a very limited timeline
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and a total budget of 90,000
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for the entire six episodes,
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which is not a lot of money.
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back then, a ten minute film.
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Would run, like on a comfy budget, maybe 20 grand. And
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so we basically made six
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ten minute films because each episode's ten minutes.
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So, yeah, we were cutting it pretty thin. And I'm sure the producers wanted to absolutely murder me by the end of it.
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But,
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yeah, in spite of being one of the hardest things creatively that I've ever done,
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it was also one of the most rewarding.
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It was so fun being the showrunner for that and, you know, really having like a big chunk
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of material to get through,
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because, you know, a short it's like one and done. And I just loved the series format
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of knowing that we had to get this and that and this and that and this and that and, like, really build the world over a long period of time.
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I found it extremely fulfilling
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and just really cool. So
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ever since then, I've always wanted to go back to the episodic format
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and do something longform
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because I just.
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Yeah, I just loved it. I mean, it's the most work, but it's also, I think, the most fun.
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So definitely check out the rest of All Hail Beth episodes two through six.
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The finale of the season is totally insane. Absolutely mind blowing. Like, I'm not just saying that Donald Trump is in it,
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so you should definitely check it out.
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It's on YouTube. You can watch it for free,
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it stars the continuity as Beth
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and you can check it out online.
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I was the writer and director, and I hope that you have enjoyed this director's commentary.
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I know that I really loved love, love making that show. And,
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yeah, if you like this episode, I might do more of them. So
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thanks for watching, and I will see you next week.
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The Vermillion Podcast is sponsored by Vermillion, a home for artists. We offer classes, coaching and community for creatives and innovators in the arts. If you're ready to find your voice and build the life of your dreams, we are here to support you every step of the way. Check out Club vermillion.com and schedule a free call today.
