Making Pondo with Carol Edwards Live!

 In this episode we talk with Carol Edwards. Carol played the Angry Customer in The Love Song of William H. Shaw.

The Love Song of William H Shaw Trailer

TusCon Link

https://practicallypoetical.wordpress.com/

https://vesuvianmedia.com/under-her-eye/

That Thing You Do Trailer:

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Welcome to Making Pondo and Talking Pondo. Talking Pondo is a podcast where we pick out two movies each week and talk about them in detail. Making Pondo is a podcast where we talk to people we've made films with and we discuss all their experiences on set. This week on Making Pondo, a special live episode of Making Pondo. Recorded at Tuscon 50 with special guest Carol Edwards. So here we are at our first ever live version of Making Pondo.

SPEAKER_06 0:36

But where's everybody?

SPEAKER_04 0:37

Well, they're they're out there in Radio Land listening to this uh recording that was recorded live at Tuscon 50. Radio Land? Well, Podcast Land. Some people on RSS Feedland. RSS feed land is probably more appropriate.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Internet land.

SPEAKER_04 0:53

We could spend a whole hour talking about is podcast radio. So I'm Marty Catola. I'm Cliff Campbell. And I'm Carol Edwards. We're here with our guest Carol Edwards. We're doing our making condo format today where we uh ask uh someone who's made films with us uh a series of questions and we see how they respond to we've even had a previous guest in the audience today.

SPEAKER_06 1:16

Yay, Jessica. Hi Jessica.

SPEAKER_04 1:20

All right. Well, how are you this morning? A little tired, you were saying. This is the second day of the con, so we were wearing ourselves out pretty good yesterday. Well, and you were on elevator duty.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

I was on elevator duty. Well, because I'm not just a guest at this con, I'm also the head of security. And the head of security, you you know, bring her down to the humble level and be like, nah, you have an elevator shift too. Okay. You know, because you can only get up there with the key that keeps your room. She leads by example, people. I lead by example.

SPEAKER_05 1:48

Okay, she leads from the front, not from the back.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Oh no, my elevator shift tonight. I think I have two, and I get the 11 to midnight. Oh, fine. Because my my deputy took 11 to midnight last night, so I could drive home.

SPEAKER_04 2:00

So for those listening who might not know, what what is the elevator shift? The elevator knows.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Okay, so this is so this hotel that we're at has a very good security measure for their guests. And you can only use the elevator from the first floor and the stairwell, I checked, if you have a key, one of the key cards. So you you scan it, it summons the elevator down to the first floor, you can go whatever other floor you want, whatever. The problem is that a bulk of Tuscan's attendees are not also hotel guests. Yeah. So how are they going to get to con suite when con suite's on the third floor, and panels and vendor hall and other things are on the first floor? Well, that's where the security team says, yeah, we didn't notice that was a problem until two weeks before the con. Well, just sit in a chair next to the elevator after Reg closes and badge people up.

SPEAKER_05 2:55

Did we consider maybe putting Con Suite on the first floor?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Uh this was way beyond deciding where Con Suite was gonna go. ConSuite was solidly booked for third floor. We could not change that. So it became, well, Carol, do you have a solution? Yeah, bodies and keys to our own rooms that we scan to let people up. Yeah, so that's elevator shift.

SPEAKER_05 3:20

You learn something new on this podcast every day, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 3:23

I this is something new for me because I've never had to do this at a con before, elevator shift.

SPEAKER_05 3:28

I've never heard of it.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Yeah, I know, exactly. It is unique to the Tuscon 50 experience.

SPEAKER_05 3:33

You gotta come out here and experience this.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Yeah, I gotta experience this.

SPEAKER_05 3:36

See all the kinds of stuff like this.

SPEAKER_04 3:37

People will be coming out here wanting to do elevator shifts.

SPEAKER_05 3:40

I'm here to volunteer for elevator shift and it's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

No, no, no, dude. So many people, so many people have come to volunteer for elevator shift. Oh wow. And I'm intensely grateful. I don't know if they're gonna be like, so names. I'm terrible with names, y'all. But uh and Cassandra. Thank you. I have a right there. Yeah, I got a little card thing, even though nobody can see us. Um Cassandra, Tom, John, uh, my counterpart. I call him Edwardian, but people know him as Ian the Tall and Eddie. He has many names. Um, and his posse. Come on in. AJ, Athena, and Ian the Small. So those are the ones who have volunteered for they volunteered for Elevator Duty yesterday. And then we have Eric and again, I believe Cassandra and John, I'm gonna have to double check on that. Uh, they all volunteer for elevator duty tonight. Oh, yeah. I am intensely grateful because otherwise it would be me and Edwardian sitting in front of the elevator for like two-hour shifts four times. It would suck. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:50

So thank you. So the we're here at Tuscon and we shot uh I'm looking at this like it's a camera, it's so funny. I know I am too on TV. Uh so we shot Love Song of William H. Shaw, our latest film, partially at Tuscon 46, and Carol's in the movie in multiple roles, and so we figured.

SPEAKER_05 5:06

She snuck in so much, and then she got a part. And then I got a part. Oh, that's such a fun story. She was like, I'm gonna make sure I'm in this movie. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Can I tell that story? Sure, of course, yes. So so I I initially got involved with Love Song because of Eric Schumacher. Oh, okay. And he's been um involved with our convention committee by hosting our virtual meetings. They used to be in person and then the pandemic happened, and we were like, oh, hey, why don't we use Zoom? Well, we need it for like a two-hour block, and I think Zoom had a limit of like, you know, 60 minutes or something. And Eric graciously stepped up and said, Well, I have the pro account or whatever it is required for longer, and he began hosting our meetings for us so that we were able to do it without you know possibly exposing each other to COVID. And he has remained on con committee in various capacities ever since. So when he brought up um filming at Tuscan, quite shortly into that whole thing, um, we were like, uh yes, please. Oh. And then they said, Oh, well, we'll need extras. And I volunteer a tribute. So I'm an extra in a few scenes in the film. And then, fast forward to a few months later, he had mentioned, oh yeah, we're gonna be filming in March, and we need some extras there too. And I'm like, Yeah, ooh, extra, that's my niche, I can do that. So I type I emailed him and I said, Hey, you know, how's this? Actually, it was you. I was in contact with you at that point. And I said, Hey, you know, schedule, do you need me as an extra, whatever? And you said something about needing to cast one more part before you guys could do the filming. And you know, one small role. And I said, I think, well, can I audition for it? Well, that's right. I said, Do you have an audition tape? And since you cannot see me, the feedback I got from the audition tape was, yes, but does she have a fedora?

SPEAKER_04 7:08

That was Jeff's note. That was Jeff's note.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Does she have a fedora? And lo and behold, I have had a fedora since I was 15. And I bought it on a trip to visit my extended family in Seattle. And this was one of those things where my parents were trying to teach me and my sister about impulse purchases. And I bought the hat because I fell in love with it when I saw it, and my mother was treating it like it was an impulse buy and trying to make it a teaching moment. And fast forward to now, many, many, many years later, and I go, I am validated. You're wearing this. My 15-year-old self is validated. Me and my hat are in an indie film. Don't you love when that happens? I love it. Love it so much. I love you, Mom.

SPEAKER_05 7:52

Well, you were very good. Um, I keep saying that. I was very, I was very, very happy with the your level of acting. It was right up there with everybody else, and you were very good. I was really pleased. You can't let you when that scene starts, it's you're very aggravated. It's you're very frustrated. Very good. Comic books.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:11

I like it. Yeah, she plays the angry customer. Angry customer. Literally, that's the name of the name of the part.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Angry Customer. And I'm like in the first 15 minutes. Yeah. Actually, after credits, I'm in like the first five, I think. Yeah. Yeah. So real quick. So at least the speaking part. The extras part is later.

SPEAKER_05 8:28

Your scene's important. It lays, it lays out a lot. Yeah, it lays.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Oh, yeah, it did. No, I was I was kind of expecting to be somewhere hidden in the middle. Nah, that sucker opened right up into this is the problem we are facing with this movie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:40

You leave most of the exposition for us.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Yes, yes, yes. So that was fun.

SPEAKER_04 8:47

So, I mean, I know you haven't done a whole lot in film, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:51

No, I have not.

SPEAKER_04 8:51

And and so we threw you into the acting and extras part. But if you did more work in film, would there be anything that you'd be interested in pursuing? Maybe more acting, or you're not sure. Oh, no, absolutely the acting.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

The the acting, I got bitten by the acting bug in high school. Oh, yeah. And and I was a theater major in college. Technically, technically, oh no, I have I have a story for that. Okay. Um, technically, my my major was communication arts with an emphasis in theater. Because at the time, the small university that I went to did not have its own theater major, which actually turned out to be good because the communication classes I was required to take come into play with my regular day job. So that's fun. And that's also easier to put on a resume and be like, oh, it's a theater major, as opposed to, oh, communication arts should be great. So yeah, yeah, that's that lovely little twist of fate right there. But I had a professor once in college, acting professor, who told me I had hit a learning curve, and I say that with finger points, um, with my acting. And at the time, what was I, like 19? I took it as nice speak for you suck. And I stopped acting. I went all tech stuff after that. That's a shitty thing to say to somebody. Right. Um, however, upon reflection over many, many years and the fact that I did get back into stage acting with Shakespeare in the Park, um, uh El Rio Theater Project uh with Michael Givens, who has retired and the project has since closed. But it was a very, very special time in my life because um I had a coworker goad me into auditioning and I landed a lead role after something like a nine-year sabbatical from acting. So from all of that, I reflected on what my professor said, and I'm thinking that maybe he wasn't telling me that I sucked. He was telling me that what I needed to learn he couldn't teach me. I needed life experience to fuse into the acting. So um at least that's how I'm kind of like you were hitting your head on the ceiling and and and I had to like through that. So so that's how I'm choosing to take that. Looking back, that's all I'm doing. Looking back, that's how I used to look at it. But um, yeah, so I have stage acting a lot under my belt, but film no, you guys are actually the the first ones, I think.

SPEAKER_05 11:13

How did you uh how did you like doing film? Do you prefer film or stage, or which one did you like?

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Oh gosh, I don't think I could choose. I liked them both. They the rehearsal side of each is is completely different because you're you walk on the set, you're about to do the scene, you've tried to memorize your lines as best you can, you have zero blocking, you have zero interaction with the other actors. And so the first few takes for several takes are almost kind of like the rehearsal. And and you were doing this, and I super appreciated it because my nervous button was on full, man. And and though the more we did it, the more comfortable we got with our lines, and and you you asked a question, I'm skipping the question, um, about uh my favorite moment on the set, and the moment is when my nervous button switched off. Oh, okay. And and the muscle, the acting muscle memory kicked in. And since we had done it a few times and I knew what kind of motions we were doing and when they were handing me things, and working with with Eric and Jeff was just a real treat. It became giving each other things to work with and then responding to what they give you, and each take that we did, it just increased exponentially. So it wasn't no longer, oh my gosh, am I gonna pardon my language, uh fuck up the scene, uh, because I did. Um the first few times I did. It became the collaborating, the working together, the creation among the the actual four of us. Because, you know, um Gia. Gia Gia was in the I'm again terrible with names, but I really wanted to get that one. I'm sorry, Gia. Um, but she was in there too with it. So it was the four of us doing this this creation of it, and that was my favorite moment was hitting that stride and us being able to do that. And it's completely different with stage, where you walk in the first day and it's a rehearsal, and you're not expected to be off book. You're reading from from the page, you've got it folded in half backwards, and you're like doing the thing, and you're looking at your person, and everything is very stilted and stiff, and and you're working all of that out with your blocking until you've gotten it to what the director wants, and then when you're doing like the dress rehearsals, is when you hit it and it smooths out. Hopefully, hopefully, it has smoothed out. So, yeah, totally different experience, but I really enjoy both of them. Cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:34

Did did we have many times we had to stop for a train going outside? We did. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

I actually thought it would be kind of fun if we could have caught the train going by somewhere, but it was the noise.

SPEAKER_05 13:48

We put some construction effects in the city. A little bit just to allude to that. Alluded to the fact that John's moved to us moved to a store that's probably not easily accessible and has a lot of construction effects.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Which that location is not. That is not really, and and the parking like right in front is not great, and the parking surrounding it, because it's our downtown, is all permit, except between certain times. So yeah, no, you were you entirely captured that.

SPEAKER_05 14:12

Well, that's that's the great thing about, I was gonna say that's the great thing about digital. Like if if because we're shooting on digital instead of film, you you have the you have the leniency, in my opinion, to kind of all right, just turn the camera on, we'll shoot it if we if if it if magic happens while we're rehearsing, great, we'll keep it. Yeah, but if not, then we can just kind of keep going until we get happy. Now, you know, obviously you don't want to waste a lot of takes on on camera doing that, but you can you can burn a few and it's not costing you any film. You know, film is every foot is a couple of dollars a foot, right? Yeah. Oh my god, oh my god, we're wasting money, we're wasting money. Yeah, but they're just like delete. All right, go again.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

That that fits into your other question about what area of film would I be interested in working in. And I like being also an editor, not a film of of writing. I like it when it, you know, the the cohesive whole coming together. And I as painstaking as I've heard it is, I've been curious about editing film and how that works in comparison to other types that I've done. So I've never edited film whatsoever in my life. But the the um the putting all of it together, I recognize him! Yeah, I recognize him! Oh my god, I've got a fangirl!

SPEAKER_05 15:32

Nate Campbell just walked in the room every time.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Nick Campbell just walked in the room, yay! So, so yeah, that part. Putting making something into its cohesive whole so that the the story being told in the medium of film versus how it was on the page in the script when it got first got written. That is very interesting to me.

SPEAKER_04 15:54

Yeah, there's similarities. There definitely is, because you're you're reassembling it again. It's almost like being the director for a second time editing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:02

Yeah, and it's like, I mean, but you've also got like editors that can, you know, like Jaws is a famous example, right? Shark breaks down, Spielberg's like, I don't know what we're gonna do, and the editor's like, give me more of this empty water stuff. Give me more of this empty water stuff, I'll put some music over it, make it ominous. Yes. And she saves the picture, right? Yep, yep. Not because she's putting it together based upon the script. Yeah, but she's going, all right, what do I have?

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Because she saw what it could be based on. And that's to me, those are the best editors. And it's kind of like editing literature, it can sometimes be the same thing. And that's usually what I'm editing. Well, business emails also, yeah. Much shorter than a film, but you know. They were like, I need more paragraphs like this. Yeah, no, no. With business emails, you need less paragraphs. If there's one thing I've learned in my job, it's that people don't read their email. They'll like read the first sentence, and if it doesn't like grab them with the information that they need, they're just like, eh, whatever. So you have to always the first line is that's why.

SPEAKER_05 16:59

So I start my emails off with dear chuckleheads.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 17:02

That'll get their attention. Hey, morons.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Oh no, I like chuckleheads. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:07

Yeah, I might borrow that. I might borrow that. So you said that acting was your main interest. Uh what kind of is there a dream role that you would like to play if you uh had your life?

SPEAKER_01 17:18

If y'all hadn't noticed, I have a villain laugh. I have a cackle. I want to be a super villain. Yes. Because you I can just there there's also the the humor entertainer side of me that y'all have seen in just real life. And I feel that a supervillain would be right up my alley man. Come on, right?

unknown 17:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

I could do the angst, but also the I'm not doing a frenzy movie.

SPEAKER_05 17:48

I'm not doing it.

unknown 17:50

I'm not doing it.

SPEAKER_05 17:51

You might write it and let somebody else recommend Carol as the bad bad guy. Yeah, I'm not.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

I would love to be in the bad guy.

SPEAKER_05 17:58

I gotta get away from these characters. Do something fresh.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Are you starting hallu- are you starting to hallucinate? Yeah, I mean, I've been with these characters. I've been with these characters for 12 years now, or at least. Yeah. Is that as long as Billy's been with them? Yeah. No, yeah, something like that. Something like that, yeah. We saw what happened to him. It's time to kind of you need to put some distance there. Yeah, it's time to move on.

SPEAKER_05 18:19

These guys, plus the they've come full circle. They're fine.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

And if y'all have if y'all hadn't watched the movies, now you need to to understand that. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 18:28

So everybody has secondary career interests. So what's your other creative outlet, or probably your primary since the acting is the side thing. Since the acting is the side thing.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

We already, well, the audience. The audience doesn't know. Oh, the audience doesn't know. I am also a poet. That is a fairly good thing.

SPEAKER_05 18:45

Don't a good one, too, for what I think.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Thank you. Thank you. Yes, I have I have very, very supportive friends. Good. Very supportive. And it doesn't help that that Linda tends to praise me to my face. That's kind of one of those. I'm turning very red because I don't know how to handle compliments. And yet I'm supremely grateful that she says these things because it gives me the boost of confidence to kind of keep going. And she's not the only one, you know. And you go, okay, well, you know, if they keep consistently getting published places, maybe, maybe I've been kind of okay. Maybe maybe not bad, you know? Uh yes, so poetry. Um, Carol, what kind of poetry do you write? I write right now, uh, or at least I publish right now, dark poetry, and I'm sticking my foot in the horror poetry genre, hashtag shameless plug. There is an anthology that just came out that's a charity project. Um book is published by Black Spot Books, but all of the proceeds go to the Pixel Project, which is a nonprofit working to end violence against women worldwide. And this anthology is the second in Black Spot Books' horror women in horror showcase. So the first was called Under Her Skin, and that dealt with themes about women and their relationship with their own body. Under Her Eye, this one that just came out on Tuesday is about women feeling unsafe in the one place they should feel safe, their own homes. So yeah, very good theme. Um Lindy Ryan is from Black Spot Books, and she co-edited, and I'm going to get this person's name wrong, I deeply apologize. Lee Murray. I could probably look on my phone, but my phone is in my bag right now. So you know we'll do that because I feel it's very important to get her name right. Anyway, I'll just keep talking. So, with the dark poetry, horror poetry, that's not what I exclusively write. I handwrite things. That's a notebook since I've had since late September, and I've got that much left. It's about 15 pages at the back of the notebook. And a lot of it is sometimes not dark poetry. It's um it's like nature poetry because I go sit outside to get some quiet, and my backyard is quite lovely with giant Bogan via uh bushes. And sometimes I just write about dawn or plants or the ocean. I live writing about the ocean. Calm down the row. I know, I know. But what's been getting published is my dark poetry because it's something that people relate to. It's it's expression of difficult topics that sometimes people don't really want to talk about. But when they read about it, they feel this oh god, yeah, that applies to me. I feel this. And um and and so it resonates with people. So now that I have my phone, did you recently hit a publishing milestone? I did. I recently hit 550 separate publicing. Of poetry, but that doesn't mean that it's one poem per. Nor doesn't mean that it's only though so it's 50 publishers. I have actually been accepted several times by set by the same publishers for different anthologies, one of whom is my own publisher for my own collection, Ravensquoth Press. And my collection, Solely Me, is titled The World Eats Love. So you can kind of imagine the dark poetry therein. Let me see it under her eye. Alright, now we're gonna get the name right. Yeah, we're all looking at us. Now we're gonna Lee Murray. I did get it right. You did get it right. I did get it right. Go me. It also helped because I did a panel about it this morning, so that would be good if I got the names right. Hopefully, neither uh Lee nor Lindy is um I found it. Is is is is like rolling their eyes at me right now. So anyway.

SPEAKER_04 23:06

Uh check the show notes for the link.

SPEAKER_05 23:08

Yes, we'll yeah, we provide yeah, we provide links to show notes, um, Carol's work, any, any, anything that she's got online that you can purchase will we'll provide the links to and anything like that. Of course.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Uh so yes, mine, solely mine is The World Eats Love, and then the horror poetry anthology that I'm shamelessly promoting uh because it just came out under her eye, available from Black Spot Books, pretty much anywhere. Um Amazon.

SPEAKER_05 23:32

Isn't it ridiculously hard to self-promote? Like I have a whole I have a whole like self-conscious thing about it. I do.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

I think it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_05 23:39

Really a self-conscious thing about it. Yeah, so you just a really stupid thing for a filmmaker to say.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Yeah, how many words that I gave about that anthology versus my own book, right? Yeah, yeah. I feel it's it's like one of those, oh no, I can't talk about my stuff. Let somebody else talk about my stuff. I'll talk about this person's stuff. Yeah, it's a thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, so yes, that that is what I do. It is kind of like a second job, except I don't often get paid for it. I get contributor copies of the book, so that's fun, most of the time.

SPEAKER_04 24:10

So now we're segueing into a couple of Cliff's favorite questions. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:15

So do I know what you got your let me uh Okay, yeah, okay, so um this is a question I like to ask everybody because uh my favorite type of movies are based on music. Not necessarily musicals, not talking about like sound music, but like um the commitments, for example. That's the one I always go to, yeah. So do you have a film based on music, like a favorite film based on music that you go to like a go-to or that you really love?

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Okay, so the first one that I thought of right off the top of my head, That Thing You Do. Oh, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_05 24:52

Such an excellent choice.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

I saw that so many years ago, and I loved the music. I loved that it was Tom Hanks, I loved that it was Liv Tyler, and and the whole just the whole thing and the story that they told, the music part and the personal lives part, I I just it's a very happy movie for you.

SPEAKER_04 25:13

It is. That's one of his favorite favorites.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

I have no idea what it is.

SPEAKER_05 25:18

There's a there's an extended edition on Blu-ray where you get to find out that the manager he's he's actually gay. Oh and he's dating Howie Long is his boyfriend, and they they show up to uh the drummer, they're in Hollywood, and they show up to fix something for the drummer, and the drummer's like, Where are you going? He's like, I've I've got a d I've got a thing, I've got to go. And as he's going to the Corvette, there's Howie Long in the car, and he's going, we should bring him with us. And he starts laughing. He goes, Oh yeah, at this party, ha ha ha. And they jump in the car and they drive off. I'm like, Oh, why would you cut that out? That's so great. It was a lot of those extra moments.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Well, I don't know. That's that's cutting room floor is killer for actors, you know. Yeah. Like, I actually part of me when he guys Cassie in Angry Customer, and we did the scene, and uh positive feedback all around, and I was like, okay, cool. And then this little part of my brain was like, Yes, but Carol Cutting Room Floor.

SPEAKER_04 26:08

I'm like, shit. Is that actually gonna happen?

SPEAKER_05 26:10

It was too important on the scene. Yeah, I didn't know that. We did it too. We did it to our lead actress, unfortunately. I mean, we we we were like, okay, here's here's this scene you gotta you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to cry. Like you're gonna have to, okay. So he's gonna come in, you guys are gonna have this argument, and it's all gonna be MOS, which is no sound. You're just act it out, and then he's gonna turn and leave, and you're gonna hit the door and turn around and slide down and start crying, and she's like, Alright, this is gonna take a minute, I'm gonna have to get there. Let me go to the room. You gotta get there, yeah. So she's got music in, she's listed all this sad music, she's in the bathroom for 10 to 15 minutes getting ready, and I go knock like, okay, you ready? She's like, Yeah, nailed it. And then we get to the we get to the eddy room and we're like, oh, beats on that are all wrong. It's like it's just not right. So we we ended up cutting a bit of it out, yeah, shortening it up to make it to make it flow better. But even I remember when we were during the premiere, she was like, Hey, where's my clock? Like, where's my card? It's like, oh yeah. Yeah, we wanted to have a conversation with you about that.

SPEAKER_04 27:02

Yeah, before we saw the sorry, Olivia. We got to the point as filmmakers where we our deleted scenes, they're they're not cut out because they're bad, they're actually just as good as the rest of the movie, but the pacing demands that they can't be in there.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Yeah, yeah. See, that's and of course that ties in with my interest in editing a film and how that all happens. Because you know, it's different on paper than it is.

SPEAKER_05 27:25

Well, you'll have this you'll have this great, you shoot this great moment, like, oh god, exactly what I wanted, and then you put it in with everything else, and you go, you go, oh man, it's like a look. I just try to wait around a balloon and just drag it in the field.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

It's like it's like a line or a verse in a poem. I love it, but it doesn't fit with the rest of it. And you gotta take it out in order to make the overall piece stronger. Yeah, there's so many times when that sometimes I'll I'll take it and I'll put it over. This is funny. I would to me, it's funny to me. I would I'll take verses or lines out of poems, but it's so good, I don't want to forget it. Sure. So I kind of dump it over on this one page in the same file because I have a master file, and it kind of just collects lines of things that I've cut out of other poems.

SPEAKER_05 28:08

That's like Bowie.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

And then you go, I I've gone back before and I go, Can I make a poem out of these pieces? And I have done that successfully twice.

SPEAKER_05 28:18

Bowie writes songs like that. He would take lines from magazines and articles and put them into files, and then he would just go to his computer and go, all right, boom, randomly, and go, okay, great, that's great. And then and then boom, okay, great. Yeah, and then sort of tie them together, you know. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

I uh I I definitely appreciate my subconscious working working overdrive so that I get multiple poems from my discards.

SPEAKER_04 28:39

Yeah. I mean, the film version of that or screenwriting is there'll be scenes that kick around from script to script until they finally find the movie that they belong in. Yeah, that's true. That's very true. Like the scene at Tuscon, that was from a script we wrote almost 20 years ago. Oh wow where there was supposed to be a scene taking place at a convention and it morphed throughout the years and finally found its way into love songs.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

I'm gonna laugh if 20 years from now I'm still writing poetry and there's a poem I wrote in like 2020, and I go, I know what to do with this now. Now is time. Now is the time.

unknown 29:11

Finally.

SPEAKER_05 29:13

So my next question, did you have um what was your favorite moment on the set while you were working there? Other than that, was it was it the click?

SPEAKER_01 29:20

It was the click where my nervousness finally switched off, and we were doing the the it felt like us in our little bubble doing our thing. And it I I love this moment because it's the realization of something that a different acting professor, she retired and the other guy took over. She was my very first acting professor, first class, acting 101. And she says to us, Your job is to make other actors look good. And we were kind of like, What? You know, little freshman coming out of high school, whenever you do shows in high school, it's like look at me. My job is to be the star. My job is to be the star. No, no, your job is to make who this who's in the scene with you look good. She would hammer that into us. And she, you know, wasn't like vicious about it, but you do a scene and it felt kind of awkward, and she'd be like, Alright, so motivation for the scene, you go for you. So, how can you help them look better? What can you give them to work with? And so that would that was one of the the basics that she taught us in acting 101. Thank you, Carrie. And Carrie Jill, sorry. It's come on, it's been like 20 years. So that lives with me. And every time we do the stage thing, that's what I'm trying to do. And when it was Eric and Jeff and Gia all in the scene, and I finally stopped being a nervous wreck, that happened. We were all trying to give each other something to work with to make the scene better, to make our own performances better in response to what they were giving us. And and that's why I love it. That's why it's my favorite. It is what Carrie Joe was talking about so many years ago. And I finally, finally lived it.

SPEAKER_05 31:09

Well, and I keep telling you you were good in it because again, it's like we talked about earlier, it's exposition. And exposition's tough. Like writing it, making it feel natural, feel organic. And so when you get it, when you get it, like, okay, I'm I'm comfortable with this. This is right in the flow. I've got the I'm giving the audience what they need without giving them too much, I'm not holding their hand. Yeah. And then you see the person take it and really make it, and where you're like, oh, that's perfect. That's great, it sets everything else up. You know, that's what that's why I was telling you such a good job. It's fantastic. The audience is a Carol's turning pray-right.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

So I don't know what to do with that. I don't know how to handle compliments. You just say thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 31:44

Did you so my last question um normally is just uh well it's I guess you would have gotten, yeah, Marty was there. So did did you get any feedback that you really appreciated, or was there specific director directorial feedback that you got that you really liked? Or do you even like to get feedback from a director? Oh no, but yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Um I because of the one uh professor, I don't often trust my acting to not be stiff and silted and cardboard. Um I actually have two stories, I'll try to make them short. So onset, yes, the feedback that I got, um it was minimal but encouraging. And so sometimes you would just be like, okay, let's go again. And it wasn't a disappointed okay, let's go again. It's entirely your delivery of that because you said it multiple times, obviously, because we did so many takes. I was like, okay, let's go again. And to me, that was we can do more. Yeah, we can do more. All right, let's give, let's let's do more, let's commit to more. And that ties back to my director, Michael Givens. Love you, Michael. And he, when he cast me his lead in my very first show with him, he we were doing the first rehearsal. I was I already had the part, you know, this was not um auditions, and we're we're doing a scene that I'm in, and he at the end of it, he's like, okay, and he looks at me and he's kind of doing this this business, and he goes, Carol, I need you to. And he's got his hand out in front of him and he kind of strokes his beard. He goes, Carol, I need you to reach in sand a little further and narrating them. And he just kind of does the beard thing again. And he goes, I need you to and then he does this, and to us who are of a certain age, this looks like the the money symbol, you know, rubbing your thumb and two fingers together. He's doing this. I was very confused because that's what I'm like. You need some change for a song. You need you need change, what? And no, it turns out he was doing this gesture because he's he's he's trying to express that he wanted me to give him something to work with. And I, of course, you know, that's like a blow. It's like, oh, sucker punch. Yeah, I suck. Oh god. And uh, okay, so what do you do? Your actors are so fragile. As an actor, no, but seriously, as an actor, what do you do? Your director who has already cast you because he saw the potential based on your auditions. When he says to you Keep that in your head. He says that yeah, he says to you, give me something to work with. You go, all right, what the hell do I do? You do the homework. So this was a Shakespeare show, Comedy of Errors, that I was not unfamiliar with, but unfamiliar enough that I needed to go back and reread the whole thing again, get big picture. How does Adriana fit into this? That was my character, she's one of the wives of the mistaken twins. And the quite violent one, actually, I ended up throwing a wooden spoon uh at a guy, and I I actually hit him and I wasn't intending to. It was supposed to go past him. And written his head, during a show, that was hilarious. The audience loved it. Yeah, but anyway. Yeah, that's like side rap trail, coming back. Um, so you go home, you do the homework, you study the character, you study your motivation, you you expand in your head the possibilities of what the other characters' motivations are in that scene, and then you bring it to rehearsal. And it takes courage sometimes to commit to your character being a certain way when you have not collaborated with the other actors that are in that scene or about their characters. So I went home, I did the homework. The next time I had a rehearsal, which I think was like a few days later, I come in and I have to commit to this violent-ish sort of woman who's kind of you know the hen pecking her husband, you know, and and just really commit with it. And after we do the same scene, Michael says out loud, Yes, you have given me something to work with. And that was deeply affirming as somebody who's recovering from unhelpful critique. Fantastic. So there, that all ties together.

SPEAKER_05 35:52

Well, speaking of throwing things, um, when we shot Revenge of Zoe, Rachel Netherton, who plays uh Frenzy Zoe, um, we had this desert scene. It's a it's kind of a montage dance sequence, right? So we've got Billy out there, and uh we've got um Bradford, he plays Billy. And so in the scene, it's kind of a dream sequence. So we're doing a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

Yeah, I think we're gonna remember this is the second film. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:16

So we're doing a lot of weird stuff. Just chasing him from left to right, they're disappearing, and all this kind of weird stuff. And so at one point I'm like, hey, let's have you throw some rocks at him, right? We'll have him crouch down like he's afraid, and you just chuck some rocks. Don't throw them at him, just throw them past him. You know, the camera's gonna tell tale. And she goes, Yeah, okay, I can do that. And she chunks one and hits him right in the freaking head. I'm just like, no. No, overhit over Bradford's. Poor Bradford. He took so much abuse from Rachel in that film. There's there's some great outtakes of uh because he she has to smack him quite a bit in that movie, and there's some great outtakes of him. Yeah, you know, I think he I think he cracked a filling. Oh my god, that was so good.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

Oh no, you know, my uh my co-star, yeah, co-star, yeah, yeah, I think that's accurate. Um, in because he was also there were four main characters in in comedy of errors. Uh John Love, the fourth. I hope he got your name right, John. Uh he played one of the twin servants that often gets confused in that show. And I'm throwing, he's the other guy's servant. I've mistaken him for mine. He's disobeying me, and I'm getting angrier and angrier. Hey, do we see a pattern? And I throw this wooden spoon at him. I cannot see without my glasses. I am required to have these suckers in order to drive, because without them on, y'all are just kind of flesh-colored blobs and various different colors for your clothes. Yes. And I had my glasses off. I had no contacts at the time. So I am walking around stage because blocking was so precise, um, the way Michael would do things, that I knew where the steps were. I didn't trip or anything. But chucking the wooden spoon, all the shows that I'd done that before had never hit him. The rehearsals never hit him. It would just go far. So we were completely relying on that. Not this one. I just chucked the spoon at him and I heard it connect. It was all I could do, like, because I'm still on stage. I don't just I'm all like, I'm sorry! No, Carol, tell him later. Tell him later. That's what you get. It was so funny. Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 38:33

Anyway, yes, that's a highly entertaining moment for me. Set stuff. So I have a bonus question. So when we were shooting the scenes at Tuscon back four years ago, Tuscon 46, and you were working security and hiding in several scenes that were in the world.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

Hiding in several scenes, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:51

Did you think we were just completely out of our minds? Or what was your impression of what was going on?

SPEAKER_01 38:56

I wanted to know what the story was.

SPEAKER_05 38:59

I wanted to know what the story was.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

Well, because Eric had kind of pitched it at us, this is what the story is, because he had to get permission from the con committee. And and then we had to get permission from the hotel, and we had to do all of the consent forms with people who were appearing as extras and whatnot. Uh so there was quite a process during which Eric explained the gist of the movie to us, not in huge great detail, but I know that there's two guys who are kind of competitive with each other, and they're going to a con and they want to film at our con for reasons, which is wonderful. And um, I was kind of like, okay. I did get caught by accident in the scene where they're rushing through the vendor hall.

SPEAKER_06 39:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:38

I did not intend to be in that scene. And it was you guys just started filming, and I was standing at my friend's booth talking to her, and I'm dressed in like you I don't even really think you see me. No. Because I'm dressed all in black and I'm very much against. Yeah, you're you're up against the back. Yeah, I'm up against the back, so it's like that. And I couldn't even spot me the two times that I've seen this movie. Yeah, I'm already had to point it out. Yeah, you have to point it out in order to see like my back and my hair. But you know, we were just and then you guys did it a couple of times, and I know from talking with friends who are extras, uh done an extra work in movies, that you have to be consistent because continuity errors errors, man, I hate them. I see them in films and I go, You weren't wearing a hat! The other the other angle just a second ago. What are you doing? So I didn't want to be that person, and so every single time y'all shot the scene, I'm like, okay, do the same thing, turning this way, talking to Christina, and off we go. So, so yeah, no, I was not all like, you're crazy people, what are you doing? I was I was prepared.

SPEAKER_05 40:37

Were you there when we hit Nate in the head with the lens with the camera?

SPEAKER_04 40:41

No, well, that was in the dealer room when I was doing that.

SPEAKER_05 40:43

That was in the dealer's room. It might have been on the other side, and I was just trying to right in front of David Lee Summers table.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

Yeah, that was like because it was the U shape, and I was here at the beginning next to the door, and then David Lee Summers, I believe, was like around the other side or at the bottom of the U. And so so that happened, but I didn't see it.

SPEAKER_05 41:00

I was sure, I was sure we'd split the forehead and split four head open. Oh well really? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_06 41:05

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_05 41:06

Apparently we did.

SPEAKER_06 41:08

Apparently you did.

SPEAKER_05 41:08

Couldn't see it on camera though. That was honestly, that's what I was worried about, you know.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

Filming it's a hazard. At a 10. Uh yeah, and so so then um I was also in the so what's really funny is is the scenes where I'm an extra were filmed, uh, what was it, four months, five months, maybe six months?

SPEAKER_05 41:29

November of 2019.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

November, and then we didn't actually film in March, we ended up filming, I think it was in June. June or June. Oh, a whole year or something. So so soup fun bonus information. I lost something like 30 pounds in that seven months. So when you see me sitting behind Joe at the registration table, that's seven months prior to Angry Customer. And and I kind of look different.

SPEAKER_05 41:56

Yeah, yeah, you don't. I mean, I don't in my head when I see you at the beginning, I don't tie you to the conversation. Yeah, you don't tie me.

SPEAKER_01 42:02

Yeah, but yeah, that's me. I mean, you might because of the hair, but you know, I'm not wearing the hat. I think the yeah, I think the hat causes the difference. It causes the difference. Yeah, I did play two characters in a Shakespeare show once. Um I was the this was much to do about nothing. I was the Friar, and I was oh shoot. Who else was I? I don't remember because the Friar was memorable because our friend from from London, she was cast as Burgess, one of the silly constable people. She taught me the posh British accent so that there was a difference between my friar character and my other character. So that's memorable because I learned a dialect, I suppose you could say. I could not do it now for the life of me. It has been way too long. I did not keep that up. I probably should have.

SPEAKER_05 42:51

Well, we appreciate being able to come into the con and film and all that. No, we we loved it.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

We were really I mean, you're talking with a bunch of geeks who love knowing the process of things. So we know. There's just special guests.

SPEAKER_05 43:06

There's Jeff Numpkin coming in.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

Jeff!

SPEAKER_05 43:08

Right at the end. Perfect. Perfect timing.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

Perfect timing. Oh, thanks. Hi everyone.

SPEAKER_04 43:13

So I I guess we can open it up to our crowd if anyone's got any questions. Questions?

SPEAKER_01 43:18

Questions, comments, memories, because we have cast members in here. Yes. No, no questions. That's fine. Are you sure? We got five minutes. They can make the one.

SPEAKER_02 43:31

Yeah. You said you wanted to play a supervillain. Yes! Did you have any in mind that are already in can or established characters, or did you want to come up with like an original character? You want to play an original supervillain?

SPEAKER_01 43:44

So no no. What want what the ultimate push into wanting to play a supervillain character was uh Mega Mind. Oh, okay. That's what she's like, oh yeah, that's that's the thing. And it's the whole scene where she's Captured, you know, the the reporter lady. She's captured. He's trying to do all these scary things, and she's just deadpanning it. And then the spider, the dreaded spider. Yes, that is what I think of. She's like, oh, the spider's new. And it's just dangling right here in front of the spies. And I'm just going, what is this? I love it. That would that that was my that was my I you know, I want to play a super villain now.

SPEAKER_05 44:27

You know, the minute you mentioned it, my my first my first thought was um oh well, I can't remember her name, but she shows up at the end of um WandaVision. She's the bad, she's the villain. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That when you said that, I was like, boy, she'd probably be a great Agatha.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

Oh, I I love that was fun. Yeah. Oh, I loved that. The whole reveal, and then I'm like, ooh, more serious supervillain. I'd be cool. But you know, because I have a laugh. And I my my laugh is like my normal laugh is just a cackle. I have a witch's cackle. I can't really control that. Ignore it. Yes. Jeff.

SPEAKER_03 45:04

I want to play a supervillain too. Yeah. And you might remember that at the beginning of Revenge of Zoe, we've got the fake trailer, and I had a bit part as Professor Bon Blitzkrieg and which was filmed in a set at my old studio. And there was a plan, since we'd done now this trilogy of tongue-in-cheek comedy drama making of comic book things, that we would do an actual superhero film with Blitzkrieg and Frenzy battling it out. And there was a time that we were, this was high on our radar, like this is gonna be the next film. And Rachel Netterson, who played Zoe, and I were both working out big time. Wow. Training, running, doing the whole thing. Oh my god. So I still hope that that will happen.

SPEAKER_01 45:54

Okay, well, if he's the super villain.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

Malicious. Malicious.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

Malicious? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have like fake characters. Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_01 46:05

Yeah, no, that's the one that I was angry about not having anymore that you sold to some your character. Sold to someone else. Yes. So when they knew I was coming in to get it.

SPEAKER_02 46:17

Exactly. So if we make this movie about Zoe and Meluscious and the other characters from inside the comic world, we might have a cat.

SPEAKER_01 46:26

That would be so my god. I love I love secrets tucked into things. This is frenzy from the future. Oh, you guys, I would love to work on that. Okay. You already know you already know that I want to work with you again.

SPEAKER_03 46:42

That wasn't my question. So what's your question? So, as you know, Carol, because I told you this before, your relatively short but very intense performance in love song is so fantastic. And I I've I've had it's played in my head so many times. Do you know how long I've been waiting for this? Since I was a kid. And it's so impassioned. So my actual question to you are you really a comic book collector or are you method doing that?

SPEAKER_01 47:11

I was method, I'm not a comic book collector necessarily, but um I my fandom is the original She-Ra, voiced by Melindy Britt, whom I love. I got to work with her at a con. I was her handler. So that was a dream come true. Yeah. I'm allowed to nerd out about it now because it was about eight years ago. And she already found it. One of my coworkers outed me right in front of her. Oh, yeah, you know, she cried when they announced that you were gonna be a guest. And I was like, dude, I'm gonna punch you in the face. I've been working so hard to establish the rapport, you know, because you're supposed to be professional, they're in your safe space, you don't get to fangirl all over them. You can do it around the corner when they're not looking, but not in front of them. And then he just outs me. She was so excited. I just I went, what? And then we just bonded even more. So so I love her, she's delightful. And um, no, I'm not thanking him for that, by the way. That was not a thank you. I'm still kind of like, don't you? Anyway, um, where was I going with this? You asked me a question, method. So, what I did was I imagined that this was like a She-Ra, original She-Ra comic that I had been wanting since I was a child, and they sold it out from under my nose, knowing I was coming to get it. And the feelings from that just came right out. That's awesome. That's fantastic. So yes, I did method with that. It was it was real, yeah. Yeah. It you know, you like kind of hook with something and then you can carry it along with the particular scene that you're in. But yeah, that was that was the emotion that I grabbed onto and then ran with. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_05 48:49

I want to say we saw um that that Vegas thrift shop that we were in, that well, the curio shop that we were in, they had some animated cell backgrounds. I'm pretty sure there was Thundar and Shira in there. There were some Shi-Ra backgrounds.

SPEAKER_01 49:02

You know, just the motion motion backgrounds and yeah, no, you guys were talking about it. There were cells and that and then Las Vegas. And as soon as you said Shira, I went, yeah. I'm like, but uh, what shop is this? Can you send me a pin so it's like I can drive to Vegas and go see it? Yeah, because I would I would actually probably do that.

SPEAKER_03 49:20

Well, somebody's gonna be in Vegas pretty soon.

SPEAKER_05 49:22

Well, that's true. I'm I'm gonna be in Vegas soon.

SPEAKER_01 49:24

So maybe we maybe Alright, so you're gonna like take a photo of it and text it to me, be like, Carol, Carol, Carol, this is how much it is. Do you want it?

SPEAKER_05 49:31

Yeah. I would be happy to do that.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

Yay!

SPEAKER_05 49:33

Yeah, yeah. What I'm not gonna do is write a write a frickin' frenzy script. I'm not doing it, guys. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 49:43

We need to have the uh cut scenes.

SPEAKER_01 49:47

Like uh Oh yeah, you need to do the the the cut scenes like compilation.

SPEAKER_04 49:53

Oh blue brew. Oh god, I'll I'll send those to you. I I'll put them together already.

SPEAKER_01 49:58

And then and then people are gonna see how many times I fucked up my scene. Pardon my language.

SPEAKER_04 50:04

I only included the funny ones. Yes, okay, good.

SPEAKER_01 50:07

Oh yeah, he takes all of bearers like you know, where I'm visibly embarrassed at what I just did.

SPEAKER_05 50:12

Yeah, there's a there's a great one where uh there's a great one we're in a we're in a house and it's a it's the three actresses and they're they're doing a scene together, and I'm standing off to the side, and the camera's supposed to pan over. One of the actresses picks something up and then walks into the trio of conversation. And I'm like, okay, action, and I'm staring with my script, and the camera pans over and just I'm right in the shot. Like just dead in the shot. Just dead in it. And they're and everybody's just like you're in the shot, dude. I'm just like, I got a lot of stuff going on, guys, and you can hear me say it on the thing. It's just I'm just dead in the shot, just stand there like anyway.

SPEAKER_03 50:52

There were there were a bunch of times that happened with me, especially in the comic book shop, because I was the location photographer. I was still photographer along with about six other things. And I was trying to be very diligent, and I mean I am aware that you're supposed to be behind the camera, but I'm also trying to get the really cool shot just balancing or expressions or whatever. Yep. Clifford action, and they they they start panning, it'd be a few seconds in, and Clifford goes, Jeff's in the shop. Yep. I gotta not get in the shotgun. I gotta not get in the shotgun.

SPEAKER_05 51:20

Knock it in the shotgun. Not get in the shotgun every time. No. That and the uh uh the other one with Marty and I would whisper because you hear ch ch ch chch ch ch Oh yeah. We go, he's gonna stop filming when I say action right. Okay, go.

SPEAKER_03 51:36

Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Eventually I figured that by turning the sound off.

SPEAKER_05 51:42

Oh man, that was great. Okay, my bad. Well, Carol, thanks so much. You are very welcome. You were delightful to talk to me.

SPEAKER_01 51:49

Oh, thank you. And you're great. Yeah, and so now you have an actual recording of my laugh, and you can see that it is actually a villain's witchcackle.

SPEAKER_05 51:58

Harkness, I'm telling you, Harkness.

SPEAKER_01 52:00

I'm telling you. All right. All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks, everybody. Thanks so much. You should come. Oh no, wait, because you guys will be playing this later. This isn't like. But you should come to you should be. Yeah, you should research Tuscon and come out for one whatever year it is by the time this this releases. Yeah, you should do that. Okay. Right on. Bye, everybody.