Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hey, everybody. Welcome to go to your room and make stuff, the podcast about making art, any kind of art, all by ourselves in a room or a studio, maybe outside. No one is telling us when, where, or how, or any combination of those things. This is a podcast for solo artistic adventurers. Those who are doing it and those who want to try it, support ideas and just plain fun.
Hi, this is Abby Echinizer. Thank you so much for coming on. I am thrilled that you and I have bumped into each other in the weirdest, coolest places, including, like, the airport and emerald. And we haven't actually worked. Always in the same circles, but we work around each other, and I've been a fan for, like, ever paying attention.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: I'm your fan. What are you talking about? I came to you, remember? That's how we meth.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
Like this interview. I can't wait to ask you these questions because I want to know about all the projects that you're involved in.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Which is so cool.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: So before we dive into the details, is there a fun or unique fact that our listeners might not be aware of about you?
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Yes.
So I actually started off in.
Well, my creative space, honestly started off with the Ren Faire, right? Being fairy at the Washington State Renaissance Festival. Washington State Midsummer Renaissance Festival. Ren Faire, whatever. Ferry and I dance around maple.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Is that the one that was in Snohomish?
[00:01:40] Speaker B: No. So they used to be in Gig harbor. This was a long, long time ago before I even joined them. And I joined them in 2009.
Yeah, 2009 I joined them. Or maybe it was 2010, I think it was. And the way I got in was when I came here, I.
Okay, long story short, when I used to be active duty and I went home, one of my best friends would take me into the New York State State Renaissance fair, and I was like, what is this world? This is insane. I freaking love it. Everyone tries to speak british. It's great.
You know, everyone tries to talk in a british accent, and it's so freaking lovely.
And it was fun. Like, I saw people dress up as, like, satyrs and, you know, all kinds of, like, different creatures, ogres, you know, all of that stuff, right? And, like, that was. That was my world growing up. Like, I was a huge d and d player. We did the gathering. And so seeing that, I was like, oh, this is fun. Then I moved to Washington because I was in the intelligence community, and they had full time support here in Washington as an active duty reservist. And so I had started working for the VA for my adult job.
And one of my coworkers heard me talking about rent fairs and all of that, and she's like, oh, we have a rent fair here. I work there as a barmaid. And I was like, what?
I was a rent fair.
And so, obviously, like, all of the departments were full, and so, you know, I was kind of like, okay, well, what do I want to do? Do I want to be a. No, I don't really think I want to be a barmaid. I have a ten year old child. I don't think I want him to see me walking around with. With dollar bills in my boobs. So.
So I did the thing that I thought would make the most sense because he could be involved.
And so I did. I did. You know, I joined the magic guild, and that was fun because he could be a brownie. And I was like, the name guys. Yep. Yeah.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: You do change.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: So it was so funny, because he was a brownie, I was a fairy. And they were like, oh, you should be, like, a fairy from the Unseelie court, because that's where the dark fairies are.
Okay, sure, that works. I can do that. That's totally fine.
Knowing the history of unseelie fairies and all of that other stuff, too. So I was just like, yeah, whatever. I don't care.
I'm. So I did that, and it was honestly one of the best experiences that I ever had.
And actually, it was the reason why I got into acting, because, again, another coworker that was in another department saw me dancing around a maple and was like, you do this? And I was like, please don't tell me.
Because most of the people that I work with are, like, prior military, right? They're, like, mostly veterans or anything like that. So I was just like, please don't tell anyone, because I don't need to live this constantly over and over again at work. And so he's like, no, no. Like, I. You know, we're looking for, like, the agency that I'm a part of.
They're looking for more actors of color.
And, you know, it would be great to have you, like, join up and all this other stuff, because, you know, I did have a love of acting. Like, I did musical theater and university, right?
And so it was kind of like, okay, well, this is improv considerably, right? So I was like, what is. What is this world? What is this? Like, I love. I absolutely love this. I'm having the best time.
Yeah. Let me do this audition. And so I did an audition, and it was with Greg from big Fish and. Or Gregory and yeah, this was a while ago. It was, like, 2013, I think, when he was there. And I. You know, he's like, oh, yeah, I think he'd be great doing, like, background stuff. And I was like, okay, cool. You know, like, just not knowing what that was all about. Right? Like, what's background? What's the. What's principal? What is all of this stuff? And so I landed my first commercial as a Bartels commercial with the really annoying blonde lady who did, like, who's, like, the spokesperson for Bartels.
And I think that was, like, the last commercial she did because it was so bad. It was so bad. The director had to constantly feed her her lines.
She was never on a spot where she needed to be. And I didn't understand any of that. You know, I was just like, oh, my God, you're the tv person. You know? I'm like, this is cool. But in doing that commercial, I met friends who are still friends till this day. Like David Shea, right, from f theater, who I love. Adore. I adore David.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: He's so much goes to everything. Bless him. Yes.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: He's the one that. He's the one that taught me how to do a selfie within a selfie, because he started that. He started that back in 2013 in my first commercial, because we're doing selfies within the selfie on the bus, the bus scene that we were in. And I was like, what is this? Is this. Are we, are we.
We're background, you know? And David is, like, one of the people that, like, I know that I can talk to anytime and call on and ask him to do anything, and he's there. Right? So I've known him probably the longest out of anybody else, you know, that I know here. And I appreciate that so much because who remembers actors and their first thing and still keeps. Keeps in touch with that person, right?
But, yeah, that's my weird, roundabout way story of getting into acting, first of all. But, you know, weird stuff that no one else would ever probably do because I am too old to prance around a maple.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: Tell us about your art. Medium or medium? So what do you.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: What do you work on your plan?
So I think the thing that people don't realize when it comes to independent film is that you just kind of have to play in so many different roles and see what you love the most. Right, right. I started off background, right. And was like, oh, this is cool. And then I did principal, and, you know, I wasn't really excited about a lot of the things that I was doing right the roles that I was getting, stuff like that. And so I was like, what does it look like to do something else? Like do crew side? Right, right.
And so I started writing. I started doing writing, and we came out with one of our, I think with one of the productional companies that I used to work for, one of our most successful scripts, which was called Strollers, and that premiered at a ton of different film festivals and won a lot of awards, which, you know, I was very grateful for, but it wasn't my project. It wasn't something that I wanted to do. So I kind of did a deep dive and figured that I was very adhd and neurodivergent, and writing was hard for me.
Although I have some great scripts that are kind of just sitting on the shelf right now that I just recently was told, hey, I want to see your script. Hey, I want to do this with you. So those are potential things that could happen in the future.
I wanted to kind of advance a little bit more. And so I started directing and directed my first short film in 2020.
I don't know. I think I feel like I floundered a little bit, but I kind of found my feet directing and producing a documentary that I did about two years ago that ran its film festival circuit last year, won seven awards.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Congratulations.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: That's awesome. Most recent Cannes arts award for best directors.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: I'll put a link. Are there ways people could find it?
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Absolutely. So we literally just talked to a distributor or sales agent two days ago who is going to put it, but we do have a Vimeo behind a paywall right now, so I can send you the Vimeo link until, you know, distribution pending. Right. But, yeah, like, who always, who gets the chance to have a sales agent and do something, you know, where someone else is doing the work for you for distributing?
And it was such a beautiful meeting because he's like, you know what? I have two daughters, and I watched this film and, like, I can't tell you how beautiful it was to me. And I was like, okay, that's gonna make me cry. Actually. I am crying. You know, like, it was, it was such a crazy meeting because, like, you think of sales agents as people who are just trying to get your money and, you know, heartless people, and they're just trying to make a dime. And this guy, first of all, cut his fee in half for us, and he's with clown circus media, and they do a lot of, like, hard hitting, like, television projects, BIPOC stuff, you know? So I was really excited about that. And then just like I said, I was already like, oh, this guy's gonna be a jerk. You know? Like, that's, that was my mind into the meeting. And he was just like, seriously, like, thank you for making this. There, you know, there's no other political based films out there besides attack the block. And there's two BIPOC women on there out of the three, and only one woman wins their race. And it's like, that's, yeah, that's because I watched it and I was like, is there any other, like, political things out there? And most of it is about men, which, you know, kind of sucks, but I was glad for the opportunity to make that.
And so I've still been trying to find where I'm at. And I've been loving producing and doing voiceover work, obviously, because I don't have to go out into the world. First of all, it's great. Yeah, you know, it's great. I like, I love some of the voice over projects that I got a chance to do. I've done a lot of audio dramas with John Patrick Lowry. And I'm like, but it's you, John.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: I have not done voice over with him. And I love this book years ago. If you haven't read it, if you love fantasy, go find John Madrick Lowry's audio of the book he wrote, dancing with eternity is so good. I'll put a link below.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: I knew him already.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: I knew him. Oh, I'll read it because I know John. About five pages in, I forgot all about John. I was just like, and I think I've read it three times.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Well, I have it bookmarked already, so I'm probably definitely gonna buy that as soon as I get up in here.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: Ellen and other people, too. And his wife.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: Okay. I love Ellen so much.
When everything happened with my dad, she took over one of my classes and kept sending me these emails, like, you take the time that you need. I love you. I appreciate you. And I'm just like, but you barely met me and you love me. I love you too.
You know, like, I met Ellen a long time ago.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: Remind me Ellen's last name. For those of you listening, Ellen is a gladios on portal. I'll just drop that.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: What's Ellen's last name again?
[00:14:25] Speaker A: This is terrible. I've known John and Ellen forever.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: She's Ellen.
Oh, my goodness. Ellen Washington. Please let me.
And she, she does the voice of Glenn.
Yeah. You know, she's amazing, right?
And I absolutely adore her.
She doesn't do, you know, like email or social media or anything like that, which is like.
But yeah, Ellen McLean, that's Mc. And then Lain. And I met her. I actually met her the first time, long time ago. It was at my first. No, my second packs party.
My friend Charlie Logan. I don't know if you know Charlie. He does voiceover stuff, too, but he was running a Pax party, like the Pax Pink party, which was, like, the big party, one of the big parties that they did during Pax.
And Ellen was there. And at first, I'm like, charlie, who do you. And how do you know Ellen, seriously? Because I met you at a doctor who convention.
Actually, it was a mo pop doctor who event, not convention. It was doctor who event.
And he was dressed up as Petey Capaldi when Petey Capaldi first came out. And so that's history.
And he's like. He's like, I see you do all of this stuff, and I wanted you to be one of my judges because you're amazing. So he had Ellen, he had myself, he had Christian Nairn, who plays Hodor on Game of Thrones, and Finn, I forgot his last name, but he was also in Game of Thrones. He was the brother that, like, died really quickly from, you know, King's Landing, whatever. I don't remember his character's name, but he was Iron Fist later on, on Netflix. And so we're all, like, talking, like, up in the area, and Ellen wasn't there, but I'm talking to Christian Nairn, like, when we're talking about World of Warcraft and Finn, and he's like, like, he hears my accent because it's very thick at the time. And he's like, where are you from? And I was like, oh, I grew up in Clapham, you know. And he's like.
He's like, are you from Clapham? It's from Croydon. And I was like, oh, Croydon? He's like.
And he's like, from Ireland, right? So he was just like.
He's like. He's like, going from Clapham. And I was like, you fruit Croydon? He's like, I know.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: Folks listening to this don't yet hear your dialect, so tell us where you were.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: So I was born in New Jersey, but I grew up in Clapham, England, and later on, we moved to Stratford because Clapham was just getting so dangerous.
And so I spent a good part of my childhood there, and then I came back to New Jersey, which is where my family is from, or at least where they migrated to, because I'm first generation migrant family.
And, you know, I came back, I was like, this black person with a british accent, and people were, like, going on, what's wrong with your voice? You know, stuff like that.
And so I had that for a good chunk of time and, like, kind of learned to earlier on that sometimes it's not good to be different, especially in a very non diverse area, mainly, you know, black people. Right. Or African Americans. And so, you know, being someone who was different and all of that other stuff didn't always really fly well, especially in Newark, New Jersey.
So I kind of had to conform a bit, right? And. And so my, my american accent turned very valley for a little bit and was like that for a while. And then I got it back, like, after I got out of the military, because I spend a lot of time in England. I was in Menwith Hill, back and forth from Menwith Hill to Milden hall, and that's the Royal Air Force base that's over there. And so I kind of developed it again. And sometimes it comes out when I'm drinking or when I'm very angry.
And it's hard for me to get rid for a bit. But, you know, the one person who kind of, like, killed it was my agent, my first principal agent here in Washington, who told me, oh, it's really hard for you to be hired as, like, a voiceover person because there, or even, like, you know, on screen talent because, you know, black people here don't have british accents. And I was like, huh?
What are you talking about?
You know, so it was one of those things that I kind of had to phase out of my life, you know, if I was to get any type of gays. And then here I'm with a new agency, and it's, like, turned around. Like, we need your accent all the time.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: I was like, okay, I'll give you the accent if you want.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: You're female. You have a british accent when you want one, and you're prison of color.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, you are.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: Every agent in this country wants right now, all of them.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: You know, it was just really interesting to kind of have that, like, as a background history, you know, so a lot of people are like, why didn't you have your accent? I was like, oh, because I was told that I couldn't, you know.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: This podcast is brought to you by the Seattle Voice Academy, and your host runs the podcast and the Seattle Voice Academy. This online voice school specializes in vocal health, singing, voiceover, and public speaking. Come check us out. Seattlevoiceacademy.com.
when you go to do your work, whether it's writing all the stuff you do. Do you have a studio? Voice over Studio? Where do you do your most creative work?
[00:21:05] Speaker B: So I am lucky that I got to build my house, the house that I'm in right now. I got to build my house. I found this beautiful piece of property, designed it the way that I wanted it to be.
For my voiceover stuff, I used my massive walk in closet, and it is amazing because it's bigger than, like, it's bigger than the booth that's at any of the school that I think, which is like, you know, not me bragging or anything, but, you know, I don't have an actual solid voiceover booth because I do so much, and it's not something that takes up all of my time. Right. But my room itself is very well soundproofed, which is great.
And I am lucky that I have a massive space to myself because my fiance, he works during the day, and I work from home with my full time job. And so I have this ability to be at home and do all of the things that I need to do, whether it's working on a film production or doing a voiceover project or whatever.
I've also learned a lot of, you know, like, work with John. You know, we hang out at Jack Straw studio, and I love that place so much because, you know, we get to do stuff in, like, a round table, you know, round robin kind of thing, which I don't normally get to do. I don't normally get to react to other people.
So those opportunities are wonderful. But my room is my creative space. Like, hands down, 100%, it is my safe space. It's where I can be as creative as I want to. My ADHD doesn't always take over, you know, when I'm here because I kind of feel, I don't know, the room just makes me feel grounded. I have everything that I want. I have a loo. I have my closet space, you know, if I need privacy or anything.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: So, yeah, I think environment matters. You're hearing this lovely buzzing. You should mention that you're in the middle of a bell project. And so Abby's phone is blowing up as we speak. Checking mine. I keep looking at my wrist. Oh, no, take it. Because I'm just. Because she's in the middle of a project. When you're producing, you don't have a free ten minutes to yourself.
[00:23:36] Speaker B: I don't. I really don't.
[00:23:41] Speaker A: In the middle of, like, checking my watch, going, oh, it's not me.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: Oh, honestly, I should have probably put this in do not disturb, and I don't doing that now.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: If you want to go into film work and you're going to produce, this is really important that they're hearing your phone blow up, because I think sometimes producing is like surviving the phone buzzing, a bottle of apple and a hammer.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: These are the three things, right? Every time. Every time.
And I love it. I know that some people are just like, how do you do it? But. Or they're like, you're always busy. And I'm like, but actually, I'm not. You know, like, I might look like I'm busy, but a lot of the stuff, especially when it comes to producing, like, especially when it comes to pre production. Unless you're actually in, like, pre production and production, you know, all that time beforehand, you're not doing anything. The only reason, like, life has been a little bit busy recently is because I am getting married.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: You graduated in less than a month.
So it's a destination running on top of that, too. Right?
[00:25:02] Speaker A: Years ago next week.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, and it's. And we realize, you know, that, like, our friends here, obviously, it's really hard for them to come fly across the, you know, the United States to come and do this. And so, you know, we told ourselves that, and we've been telling people, hey, like, we're gonna do something here.
We're just doing the nigerian aspect of the wedding because, yeah, hell, from Nigeria in. In. On the east coast, because that's where all of my family, his family is in Ohio, so it's a drive for them, you know, so it just made sense. And it was my dad's, like, last wish, you know, before he passed. And so it was just really important to, like, stay with that.
And we found a beautiful venue. It's, like, 200 acres and, like, 40,000 sqft mansion for really inexpensive. It was $6,000 a day. So we're technically paying for our wedding party to stay there, literally not paying.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: That much money, and got married at a friend's property, which brought the price way down. But then we all dare come to the wedding. I bet the actual ceremony, it just knocked the flowers and St. Shares down before had the ceremony, and it came back that night of the bear in the wedding album.
Yeah.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: I need to see photos. First of all, that is amazing.
I'm really hoping that we don't have that, because I know in this story it's amish country. Um, and, uh, it's Mount Bethel, Pa. It's right next to Allentown. Okay.
Yeah, very close to the Poconos, about 20 minutes away. Um, and, you know, it's. It's. It's a beautiful place, really a lot of mixed culture there. Like, when I told the venue that we were doing a mandarin wedding, they're like, what's that? Yeah.
And, yeah, good.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: I mean, good.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: They thought we were jewish, and I was like, no, no, no, we're not.
Thank you.
Yeah, it was definitely gonna be.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: Do you have any mentors or people that really affected you the last, I don't know, 10, 15, 20 years?
[00:27:39] Speaker B: Oh, God, yes. Yes. 100%.
Nikkei Imaru, who's one of the top casting directors here, hands down, one of the most amazing people I've ever met.
She's the sweetest person, and anytime I have any questions or concerns or thoughts, acting questions, things like that, she is phenomenal.
I absolutely adore her, and she's such a strong black woman that she's someone to aspire to, you know, I absolutely adore her. And I tried to keep. I tried to keep my mentors, people who I know, mainly because there's the easy access that's there, and then you can follow a lot of the things that they do without having to deal with social media too much. Right, right. Because I'm neurodivergent, and I just actually met someone recently who has been a huge mentor to me, Claudia Black, who I got to work with a couple of months ago, back in December. I got to work with her.
She's very, very neurodivergent, very adhd, and 100% promotes that. And to have someone who's up there who is so adamant about that silent disability, it's just been a whirlwind knowing her, and I, you know, having her send me messages every once in a while, just checking in. How are you doing? You know, have you come up with, like, any new things? Let me talk about it. And I'm like. Like, my life is so busy right now. I wish I could. I want to, but, you know, like, you know, I've.
I've had to pivot a lot with a lot of the things that I love to used to do, you know, compared to now. And so definitely her. She is a freaking firestorm and windstorm, all because. Because she's vibrant and alive and beautiful, and, you know, I love the short weekend that I got to spend with her because I was her celebrity celebrity handler at an event that she was doing. And even though she wasn't in love with the event, she was very much in love with me. And that is all that I care about.
Literally all I care about.
But I would have to say hands down.
I mean, mentors come and go, and they're the people that I kind of call on right now as much as I possibly can, because they're easy access, and I love it. There's not that many people that I can be like, oh, my God, I love you, and I want to, like, talk to you all the time, but I know that I can't because I know that you're busy, and I I would feel like I'm disrupting your life, you know, if I tried to, like, talk to you or anything. So. So, yeah, you know, I just. I love that very much. I love that they're accessible and everything.
[00:31:00] Speaker A: Have you. How do you handle social media critiques? How do you handle that stuff for your projects?
[00:31:09] Speaker B: Oh, can you repeat the question? Because there was a pause.
[00:31:15] Speaker A: How do you handle critiques, opinions, social media, that stuff?
[00:31:20] Speaker B: Okay, so critiques, I usually take them personally, but that's because I'm always trying to better myself as a creative. And so if I feel like someone is telling me something, I. I look inside myself and. And actually try to figure out what I can do to make it better. You know, I don't come. Trying to come to a. I mean, I do try to, like, come to a compromise a good chunk of the time, but not most of the time, you know, what can I do?
Because as creators are always hypercritical of ourselves, and so it's really hard to not take it personally, because that's your work. That's who you are, you know, and your work reflects you as a person.
And so I try to do what I can, especially when it's about me and what I'm doing, to try to better it as quickly as I can and explain why things were done the way that they were. Too right for social media. Oh, my goodness. I am such an activist.
A lot of my. My social media is very much, what can I do to better my place, my space for myself and for my kid when I'm not here anymore? And, you know, we had the protests, and the protests happened, and I was very key involved in all of that.
You know, we had the women's movement that happened when Roe v. Wade was overturned. I was very key involved in that.
You know, my social media is very important to issues that are just. Yesterday, you know, I shared a petition. Not yesterday. Day before yesterday, I shared a petition about how city of Seattle was trying to take $51 million from the black arts community that they wanted to place somewhere else. And I know where that place was, but I'm not going to stay because we're not going to make this controversial. But it had everything to do with the protest, Pat.
[00:33:24] Speaker A: Don't worry, everyone. Well, go look at that later because it's important.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: It is very important. Two council members who I thought were very key to the development of film and equity here in Seattle were the ones that proposed the bill. And I was really upset to see that.
And, you know, doing what I can to make sure that I'm sharing that information as much as possible is very key and important to me. Having friends who are involved in those spaces is very key and important to me, you know? So having people share that information, you know, like, we. We found out about it, like, in the evening, and I was like, I need to post this on my facebook, so it takes visibility. And as soon as I did, the next day, I found out that we got the signatures that we needed, and people were, like, abhorred to find out that the city council was trying to do this, you know?
So I was glad for that. But like I said, you know, everything, everything that I've ever done has everything to do with being as socially active as possible, because the world needs to change, and it is not done changing. And whatever we can do to fix that and continue it and fight for those people who can't fight to. I'm so, so adamant about that.
I do get to share my projects, too. You know, projects that I think are really important. But most of the time, it's people tagging me and stuff and sharing things that I've done.
[00:35:02] Speaker A: To use your art to also further those messages.
[00:35:06] Speaker B: Absolutely. Oh, God, yes, 100%. I mean, like I said, the. The documentary that I did was literally about women of color running from political offices. And six out of eight of those women won their office seats, including Lisa Manion from King county. District prosecutor Mona Doss was the 47th district senator.
And that's Hartman, who's out in Oregon, who had to deal with Proud Boys almost every single day.
[00:35:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
You know, it was just. It was. It's so important to me to have that. One of the short films that I wrote is about Roe v. Wade, you know, and the decision to. To have the ability to be pro choice or not to be pro choice, you know? Another. The current project that I have going on right now is called Sticky Buns, white Cake and ravioli.
And it is a short film concept from her, Mad Hatter, which was a book written years ago. And the feature we hopefully plan on shooting September, October of this year. We're doing this concept short film, obviously to have investors involved, but it deals with BIPOC mental illness, you know, and how to seek help when it comes to having a mental illness and what that looks like, what that mental illness could potentially do to the world around you. Right?
It's the first time I've ever gotten a chance to work on a virtual production. We're going to be shooting in front of a huge led studio at Busler in Kirkland. It is an 84 foot led processing studio.
And I am beyond excited because I don't know how many people can say that they've done this or have been involved in any that we get to do that tomorrow. That's a twelve hour shoot.
We have a key amazing team that's involved, and I can't wait to work with a lot of them again. You know, a lot of them I brought onto this project from previous projects that I got a chance to work on. And right now, you know, that's gonna be a long day. But I'm producing that, so I'm super excited to be able to say that I'm producing something like that. Another thing that I am involved in, that we just launched the Kickstarter for all of the role playing game people that are out there, and I cannot finally say it, I'm not under NDA anymore, is we have launched gamers for the series, which is per Mary sue, the Mary sue, one of the best D and D movies that has been out to this day compared to any other D and D movie that has been out there.
It has been bunny for about 23 years. It's been in the world.
There is a beautiful cult following.
Some of the big named people that we have is executive producers from Con man, the television show with Alan Tewig and Nathan Fillion. We have Paizo that is behind this production, which is one of the big Pathfinder production places right here in Washington state.
And we are so lucky to have it shared by so many big comic book creators, a number of people who are interested in being involved in production.
We're bringing back Chris Mazzio, who was the director of photography from the original gamers series shows, and Kevin Inouye, who was a fight choreographer for a lot of the fast paced, fast hitting scenes that were involved.
And people can go to YouTube and just look up gamers, hands of fate or gamers the series, to be able to watch some of the previous stuff, but I showed it to my fiance who never knew about the show, and he's just like, this is the funniest crap I have ever watched in my entire life. So the fact that stuff 20 years ago still holds true and holds up to this day because it fights sexism, especially in the gaming community. You know, women, gamers, gamergate, all of that. Right? Like, literally, is it fights all of that. So I'm so happy to be involved in a project. The original writer, Matt Vancel, is involved in this. We've already raised over $100,000. Our goal is 500.
We have 31 days left.
We are at $100,000. So over 100,000. So, yeah.
Oh, go ahead. Sorry.
[00:40:36] Speaker A: Telling everyone they should go on right now and give money to this project now.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: Yes, yes. If they literally go to Kickstarter, look at gamers four.
It's an easy search. It's one of the top searches that have been happening recently. So I'm excited about that. And then I have, like, one more production that I'm associating producing on in Bainbridge called detention. And it is a modern take on the most beautiful movie ever made, the breakfast club. I want to see that.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: I can't wait to see.
[00:41:07] Speaker B: That is so cool.
[00:41:08] Speaker A: So you have a lot of irons in the fire.
Yeah. One question I definitely want to ask you, though, if someone were new, they were a kid or an adult who wants to start being more creative? What advice?
[00:41:22] Speaker B: The beautiful thing about that is that I am vice vice president of an organization, especially for BIPOC kids who are interested in getting enrolled in film, getting involved in creation. All that stuff is called rising wheels. And we're sponsored through the city for the past couple of years, actually, to hold classes, teach things to kids. They get their own camera, video camera, and they can literally go around and just shoot content all of the time.
If they go to the website risingreals.org, they'll be able to find out a ton of information about that. And that's an easy path right there.
If they had questions or thoughts of concerns, they can always send me a message. I am always available to answer any kind of questions whatsoever. Because it is a process. This is an arduous process. There are a lot of things that I had to learn that I wasn't excited about learning along the way.
Most important thing is have your friends sign contracts all of the time. It is so important to protect you, to protect them, you know, as much as possible.
Yeah.
And, and if you want to get into the world of being creative, be creative.
Follow the path that enlightens you as much as possible and have fun with it. And don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't. Don't ever, ever, ever. I can't tell you. As a nigerian born, first born child, my parents did not think the world of film or creation or creative works was lucrative at all. I think you've probably heard this from any international parent. You need to be a doctor, lawyer, or an engineer. That's it. You don't get choices to do anything else.
And so my whole process was being creative. When I was very young, it was very important to me, and I stayed on that path, and I stayed true to that path as much as I possibly could. Not with this, not always with the support of my parents, you know, later on, yes, but in the beginning, definitely not. And you're going to get that, you know? So it's just really important to. To continue to fight as much as you possibly can and continue being creative, because we need. We need so many people.
You know, I feel like the creative industry is slowing dwindling, and it's so important to keep minds not cornered, to be able to explore out into the world and do whatever you want to do and have fun doing it. So stay true to yourself.
[00:44:12] Speaker A: I love that. Abby, thank you so much, so much for coming on during your incredibly busy schedule. May your filming tomorrow be.
Have a great time tomorrow and take aspirin.
May you sleep on again someday.
Abby, thank you so much for coming.
[00:44:36] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:44:37] Speaker A: All right, let me hit. Hey, everybody. Thanks for listening. To go to your room and make stuff the podcast for artists of any kind who want to make art by themselves. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast in all the places where you find podcasts. Find us on social media. And if you ever have any artists you would like to see featured, please let us know. Now. Go to your room and make stuff.
