182: From Filmmaking To Skywatching w/ Brad Peyton

been a pretty wild couple of days. I feel good. I feel really good. But yeah, it's pretty awesome trip.

It is always fantastic and a lot of In a lot of ways, it reminded me of where I'm from, which is Newfoundland, Canada, which is very salt of the earth, very friend Like when we walked into your house and everyone was like where huggers, I was like, oh, this reminds me at home, you know, like even the like, uh, the wood interior of the of the house. I was like, I haven't seen this since I was in Newfoundland, you know, because correct me if I'm wrong. But isn't Newfoundland kind

of like country, yeah, if you like? You know, so it was known as like a fisheries province until the fisheries died out, like I think in the eighties early nineties. I grew up in the central part of Newfoundland, so I didn't really have much to do with the fisheries, but like very traditional, like Saint John's the city and in Newfounland is the oldest city in North America. Oh, like John Cabot or John Cabot, howeveryone pronounce his name?

He arrived at Newfoundland. There's a Viking settlement in Newfoundland. It's a very very old part of the world. And so like when people just ask me to describe it, I'm like, think of Ireland in North America and like, go listen to our accent. I don't have much of an accent. Like, my parents traveled a lot. They really tried to like educate me, like make me read books

basically beyond comic books. But it was like they wanted to try to educate me to see outside of my province, because my province is quite kind of small and insular in some ways. It's an island. It's the furthest point of North America as well, so it's an island in the Atlantic. The weather's really harsh, we have really long winters. It's just a very unique existence, I would say, and it breeds a very unique culture. It's very Irish, very Scottish,

very English, like very musical. Storytelling, like verbal storytelling is like one of our biggest tradition. So it was just like even in Canada, Newfoundlanders or New Fees as they kind of tallow sometimes it was derogatory before. But I think people I didn't say it wasn't I'm allowed to say it. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. No, it was like it was. It's sort of like when I was growing up, if someone called you a new fee, it meant like they're treating you like you're stupid. It's

like it's like your redneck. Yeah, it's kind of like that. It is like that's what I At a certain point you kind of like just own it. It's like, you know what, yeah, yeah, a new fee. I mean I didn't say that, we make you a new fee. It's very easy. I would love to be an honorary new fee. What do I have to do? You have to uh, well, we would screech you in is what it's called. Yeah, it's that actual process. Yeah, it's an initiation. It's like jumping in, like the most lovely jumping in. We get

you drunk. We forced you to kiss a cod fish on the lips. Sound awesome, and then I think you're a news. There might be some other stuff, but the main thing is drinking. So we have screech is a is a is a rum that comes from came from the Caribbean because they would come up and when they would trade the rum for the fish. Yeah, so like rum is a huge part of our culture. And screech is a Newfoundland rum that came from the Caribbean. So they would screech you in is what it's called. Screeches

the name of the rum. It's terrible. It tastes terrible, but we'll make you drink it. Yeah, and so we'll drink the more nicer stuff. But it's like, yeah, they screech you in, they make you kiss a fish, and they go, ah, you're and then everyone just cheers and and and you get wasted with everybody.

It's very different now, but like I felt like when I was a kid, we were coming out of that, like we were shifting to Well, first of all, let me contacts. Newfoundland didn't join Canada until nineteen fifty. Oh wow, we were the last province to join Canada. So like when I was growing up, my grandparents' house had a portrait of the Queen in their living room. Wow, Queen of England. Yeah, they were basically a British colony until nineteen fifty. So it was just it's just it's hard

for me to explore. I'm living in la now in the film industry. If I've run into someone who knows about Newfoundland, I'm shocked. Come from Away, change that a little bit. The Broadway musical that's about the town I grew up in, Gander, Come from Away, Come from Away, nine to eleven. All the planes had to land in a small town called Gander, Newfoundland, which is where I was born and raised, And they made a Broadway musical about it, about how nice everybody was because they took

in like that, like ten thousand people overnight. Because all those jetliners had to land, they had to move them every day. They were so heavy, and the runway wasn't built for it. They would sink into the cement on the runway because it wasn't built for these massive jets.

that along the way. Too, but I've always tried to stay conscientious of it, to like go this is very important to me, to remain a certain way and to not sacrifice certain things. And it's very hard because people are very tricky, and sometimes you get roped in with people you aren't you don't have the best intentions for you,

because everyone's out for themselves on some level. And I get that, but I've really, specially in the last couple of years, really focused in on, like I don't want to lose that part of me, Like that's my intuition, is my kind of superpower as a filmmaker, I don't. I'm not really like a book top. I'm a self taught filmmaker. I went to film schools, but I dropped out of all of them, you know, so after like

a semester, I didn't stick around long, you know. And so I've had to like find my own way as a filmmaker. And I've watched a lot of people become less successful to me and much more successful to me. And I've also been able to see the price they pay for some of that success. And a lot of the people I've seen who are really successful are just not healthy or happy. Or like they've sacrificed humanity. Yeah,

they've sacrificed things in a way. And I don't want to like paint like a negative picture, but it's like some people have flourished and they're they have loads of human and they give back all the time and they're great people too, you know. So just when you're attuned to that, I think, and part of an instinct is a big thing for you. You have to kind of keep your humanity in and make sure you don't lose it, you know, because you can very very easily.

I you know, I was peaying on sets. I would do every I would do every job I could do just to get a taste of what it was. But the problem for me was I knew really early on that I wanted to be a director. I just was like, that's I have little interest in anything else besides storytelling. And I also was like not a tech nerd, so I couldn't really operate cameras like well, like I was that last night, yeah, and then your dad's like, here,

use this camera and I'm like, I don't know. I'm not that guy like I can turn that on for you and I can tell you how to aim it, and but I'm not that guy. Like I'm not. And it's funny because a lot of people will be like, oh, he's a VFX director, and I'm like, I don't know anything about VFX, Like for what is worth?

Like so like my approaches, film, something that can go into the frame that's actually filmed and light is actually hitting it, so that when they put the visual effects in, there's something as a litmus test. Yeah, there's a reference where you're like that looks fake, that looks real and it look Visual effects is really hard, and you know you're gonna get criticized about your vfect Like you know, my movies have like a thousand VFFCT shots or six

hundred or eight hundred VFFECT shots. It's hard to get them all at the level you want them. But my approach has always been I want realism as much as

you can get it. You know. The other thing too, is that like my movies, Atlas was my biggest budget, but like San Andreas was one of those movies where we never felt like we had enough money, Like we were always it was made for like one hundred and fifteen million dollars, which is, like I know, is a lot of money, but it was going up against movies that were made for two hundreds, you know, and I was like, man, so like there was so little waste

because I couldn't afford to waste anything. You know, Like there's a lot of movies where you're like cutting like, you know, fifty shots. I didn't maybe cut five because I couldn't afford to spend the extra money on the fifty shots and then cut forty five of them. You know, like you had to keep everything lean and pointed and like very very specific and yeah, so it was like that that taught me how to be a good storyteller as well, where you're just like, okay, you're looking for realism,

you're grounding the movie. You can't shoot an absorbite amount of stuff. You don't have the time, you don't have the money, you don't have the resources, and you're still you know, the studio and you're beholding this bit. And my visions tend to be big, like world building visions, so yeah, as epic as I can get them. And then like you know, I remember like on my second movie, on a Journey Too is what it was called. Yeah, yeah, cool. Yeah.

So so we all went to Hawaii for the first half, shot all the exteriors and then had a Christmas break and after Ristmas came to Wilmington and shot all the interiors. Here. Where did they do that in Wilming studio?

I showed him the storyboards and I'm like, yeah, so they wake up here and there's like close ups, you know, people waking up. And then I'm gonna do this big helicopter shot of the beach. And he's like, helicopter shot in this scene and I was like yeah, He's like that sounds that sounds like a lot. And I'm like, you want a big movie, right, He's like, yeah, I

want a big movie. I was just like, all right, well we're doing a helicopter shot on the beach, you know, like and so it was like a tricky like the way I looked at it was and it would be a digital beach because I would shoot a little plate of the beach. Yeah, put a digital environment, right, And so the way I looked at it was you have to put shots like that in scenes that don't necessarily stereotypically demand that. So the audience very early on goes, oh,

this is a big movie. You know, like you're training Yeah, you're training them, you know. I don't even think people would think about it, but like we all were like or the crew was just like helicopter shot in this scene, you know, and I was like, I was like, yeah, we need to set the stage. We're in a big movie now, you know, We're on this mysterious island, this jeweles Verne thing. So yeah. So it's just it's always been like my goal is to make these big stories

on these big canvases. And so starting was really hard because there was no resources at all, no cameras, I'd know, money, you know, I was you know, I dropped out of some film schools because I wanted to be a director. So for me, it really started from writing. And I'm not a great writer, but I'm a pretty good writer because I just have written so much at this point.

And then I instead of the traditional like, oh, I'd shoot things on the weekend with my friend because I could shoot stuff, and I got myself a little video camera and i'd do a little exercise to kind of learn like what camera movement looked like, and or I would go get a gimbal and kind of move the camera and get a sense of what it was. But then I didn't do a lot of like I didn't make a lot of short films because even if I could figure out a way to shoot it. Then I'm like,

how do I edit this? Yeah, I don't have it. I didn't even know anyone with an editing bay. It's not like today where like I know ten people that edit stuff at home. Was not like that, you know, Like, so I didn't have any of those resources. It wasn't as easy to kind of put stuff together on your own. So for me, I stored up that hunger to make something, and then eventually I wrote a grant for the government, which in Canada's really good when you're coming up as

an artist. They have a lot of government grants, like you'll get like twelve thousand dollars and fifteen thousand dollars, and you know, as a as like a twenty one year old, twenty year old, you're like twelve thousand dollars, Oh my god, camera activities budget. Yeah it's not like yeah, yeah, it's more a little bit, but it's enough to make a short film. So you know, I made a short

film that way. And what I would say is what it did for me was it put me in this headspace that I really benefited from later on, where if I'm going to shoot something, I'm going all in. Yeah, like I am going one hundred percent. I'm giving it my all. It is the only thing I'm doing is this thing, you know, Because it wasn't like, oh, I'll do a little thing here and a little thing here and a little thing here. It was like, no, I can't do these little things. Oh I have twelve thousand dollars.

I have to do this one in my mind, big thing, you know. And it was like whatever, like an eight minute short film. But it was like I went all in on that and made that as best as I could make that little thing. And that kind of serviced me because then when I got to go make my second short film at the film school, I eventually didn't drop out of the CFC. I made this short film called Evelyn, and it was like I threw everything at it because it was my mentality was so different, I

think than everybody else's. I was like I used to think, I honestly like, I didn't exercise at the CFC. And they gave us five hundred feet of film, a DP and a camera and we all pulled emotions out of a hat. And I got the emotion of fear, and they said, you need to capture fear. Oh, yeah, and I was like, this is a great exercise. How much time one mag so? How much time would that be? Three four minutes? It was not a lot. It's a

little project, yeah, very little, like here do. Basically the exercise was do a single shotah and make it about fear. So I interpret it was so of course I did the most stereotypical thing first, tied someone to a chair, put it on high speed, made them shake. I was like, you know, like a fincher thing like. But in my head when I was doing it, I was like, this isn't scary. So then and I was in a basement, so it looked like it was like a horror film,

like it was gnarly looking. But then I had the and I did a couple takes of that, and then I was like, then I tried something else, and then finally I was like, I think the scariest thing in here would be how I felt, which was I felt like I was failing that exercise. So I was like, I'm scared that I'm failing this exercise. So it just hit me again. The intuition is where I draw from. I said, I said, pull out every light bulb in

this place except for that one wow. And then I said, take the camera and go all the way to the other end of the basement and I stood under the light bulb and capturing how I felt, and I said, just pull out from my face. So as it just pulled out, it just left me in this little puddle of darkness, right, this one little thing of light over me. And I was like, that's how I felt. Like, that's how I felt in that moment. Even though I have this crew around me, I'm like, I'm dying here. This

is I'm failing this exercise. And back to my initial point about this little story was when they gave me that camera and they gave me that five hundred feet of film. In my head, I was like, no one's going to get and I believe this. No one is going to give me a camera or five hundred feet of film again in my life. That was what was in my head. I was like, this is it. Yeah, Brad, They're never going to do this again. They're never going to give you this type of equipment again. Like you

better do something with this, you know. Fear. Oh yeah, When I saw a fear, I was like, okay, yeah, I can work right, I think this is gonna work out for me?

They took eight directors, eight writers, eight producers and four editors every year and you just go to school every day for six months. Wow. Wow, very different schooling. So I dropped out of a number of film schools because I was like, this is all nonsense. You're not teaching me how to be a director. I don't want to know about sound waves. I'm never going to be a

sound engineer. Like it just didn't apply. I was very practical minded and I was also very poor, so it was like I can't just waste money on four years of nonsense that I'm not going to utilize. You know, I was being very practical about it in some way. And so you know, when when the CFC would screen these exercises, this was like our second exercise, they would everyone was sitting in the room, and I was a complete introvert. I was frightened to death of showing what

I was going to do. I was the youngest person at that point, and I may still be the youngest person who've ever gone to the CFC. I was like twenty one. Oh, I was a kid. I was a real I was a child. There's an advantage of that, though. I did not have any fear of feeling because I had no experience. Yeah, I had like literally no experience like a superhero at that age. Well, I was more like dumb, you know what I mean. I was just like I'm like, I don't, I don't I'm just gonna

try my best. And they were you could tell when people were scared to look bad, and I was just like, I'm probably gonna look bad one twenty one, like, let's just take a swing at this.

All the Christmas tree ornaments my mom made are stocking to my mom. But even uh Ella fiance is stocking my mom made it for her. Wow, you know, like everything's handmade in our in our growing Yeah, it's it's super it's super neat. I didn't think about it as a kid, but then, like, you know, my mom is one of those people like to this day she paints on rocks and goes to the beach and lays them for kids to find. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, they're super They're

super cool people. My parents are really really cool. So anyway, I we did all the gifts and then I said, did you get me any stocking stuffers? And she's like, what's the stocking stuffer? I was like what, you know, I was like totally playing it up because I put the ring box in the stocking and so I was like, you didn't get me out? Well, I got used some stocking stuff first, and she's like, oh, I feel so bad. And I was like, well, go look at your stocking.

She goes over there and she looks in the stocking and the ring boxes and I could just see her brain like, you know, like what what and she takes it out and then I'm like, I better kneel down or something, you know.

brain stopped working, you know. And then so she was standing up and she opens it and she just like started bawling and she was so happy and she's like is this And I was like, yeah, that's that's exactly what you want, you know, I was like she So she was so specific about like the ring and all that kind of stuff, and I had played dumb so often I'm really good at playing stupid, like like what you want, Like I just pretend I don't hear anything, you know, And so I'd got you know, it was

really really fun and it was great to see her so happy, and I was so happy. And the funniest thing about my engagement was I was you know, I I I instantly fell in love with with l Yes, it was like it just the sensation right away was like wow, this is so strong, this is so like pure, and I didn't have any questions about it, Like as soon as I met her, I was like, oh, this person like vibes like me, like creative, open, adventurous, like all of the and then our core values are very aligned,

so perfect. But we'd just been to the Netherlands, we'd just been to Switzerland, and I carried this ring through Europe with me on my person because I was so scared of losing it, looking for an opportunity to give it to her. For two weeks in Europe, I had it on me at all times, petrified she was gonna find At one point when we got on the flight over there, I had it in a big in a big ring box, like a big cardboard box, like I got shipp in the mail in and she's like, where

are the snacks? And she's taking the box out and I'm like, I don't touch that box. So she had no clue. I even bought the ring let alone, had traveled through Europe with it in my pocket. But when I was in Europe, like we were so busy, like Amsterdam was so awesome. We went to all these museums and then we were flying like to all these different countries and trains, different places, and it was always so full that I was like, I feel I don't want

to shoehorn this in. And the closer I got to like going, okay, the timing starts to feel right, the more I wanted it to feel special. So Christmas morning was like, this is time with just us. Yeah, he's just us and the dogs. This feels right. I can do like a silly thing with the stocking. So anyway, so that's that's Yeah, it was fuerfect. Yeah.

freaking me out, it's gonna freak everybody like you. Hear a lot of filmmakers who are populist filmmakers, like the Camerons and the Spielbergs, Like, you know, Cameron's famous for this thing where he's doing Avatar and some junior execs says, why are they flying around so much? And he's like, because I want them to. He goes, yeah, But why do you think they're gonna be interested in this? He goes,

because I am Yeah, right, I love that line. Yeah, And it's because he knows he's an intuitive, populist filmmaker, and he's like, this is going to be I'm interested in this. They're going to be interested in this, right, you know, believe it or not.

exact take. And again that mentality about I'm never gonna get film again, I'm never gonna get a camera again.

I was like as soon as I was like, okay, that one's done, new idea, that one's done, new idea, that one's done new, because again I was trying to find the right idea that was scary and you And so that was the thing that shocked me the most was that like, some people had just done the same shot for five minutes, literally the same exact setup over and over until they ran out a film and I was I think I had like five different shots completely different,

like film speeds, exposures like again. The mentality was, well, they're gonna take this camera in this film away. I'm never gonna get DP again. I'm never That mentality is I think helped me a lot in my career because it's like, I don't want to mess up. I want to get the I want to pull the best thing

I can pull out of me. Whether everyone else agrees it's good enough or not, I can't control that, but I can control if I pull it out and I go, Okay, you know what, that's honest, that's doing what it needs to do. That captures the emotion. I think that's gonna play to an audience, you know. So that was the big takeaway with that exercise, and it opened my eyes a lot just seeing what all the other much older than me, much more experienced filmmakers were doing or not doing.

So it was a big eye opening kind of period for me.

have a good movie. And it's true.

it's yeah, that part of it was great. But then sometimes I'd get an exercise where it would be like a writer wrote this comedy, pull this off, and I'd be like, oh man, first of all, I don't even find this funny, Like like I just was like, I don't know what and then I would fail miserably at that exercise. I would give it everything I had, but I was like, I can't. This is not I'm not good at this.

was like, this is a safe place to fail. So I would swing for the fences on everything, and sometimes it was terrible. It was just like, I mean, I made an exercise and literally nobody got it and then I but but I was just like I understand why they don't get it, and then you learn from it for the future. Yeah, one hundred percent, And like that

was like a big learning lesson. So it was just sometimes I would be you know, people would be like, Oh, You're amazing, and then sometimes people just stare at you and you be like, yeah, this is what failure looks like. Got it. I've learned so much? Yea.

They have a real knack for finding material. And so I had talked to them for a while about what I wanted to make, and I would always reference Aliens because it's one of my favorite movies and I love science fiction. So I was like, I always want to do with science fiction. So they sent me the initial script and it's it was pretty different than what's there now. There wasn't the relationship of Smith and Outlass was not

as strong as it is in the Finnish movie. The relationship with Smith and aatlyss kind of is what we developed and and you know, it had to go through developmental steps because at a certain point in the script writing process it was almost too like he was the therapist. I mean like literally it would read that way like stop down and there's therapy. So I was like, Okay, we need to like make this more of an arc of these two people like learning about each other.

I knew it was a big challenge because I was like, okay, listen, like we have we're building a world from scratch. There's been so many mech suits, there's been so many cyborgs and everything in movies. It's like I need to like try to get out of all the stereotypical stuff and like invent something new that feels whole. I felt that, Yeah, it's it was hard. It was really really hard. I think we succeeded a lot with the visual stuff. I really really loved Smith than Atlas. That's my favorite part

of the movie is their dynamic. And it's also probably one of the like that's what everyone was worried about. And when I cast Greg Cohen as as Smith, and he you know, he's an actor, but he's just a voice in the suit. So he's like on the he's in like a sound booth on the set talking to Jennifer live in the scene so that Jennifer can act cool. There's not like a thing in her earbud, and he's actually piped into the cockpit so the speakers and the

cockpit are lost, so they're having real conversations. So like sometimes if I wanted to have her do something different, I wouldn't go to her. I'd go to him and say, hey, at this moment, like when she says this, I want you to like awkward pause and force her off a little bit. Yeah. Well it was like to force comedy in a way, ok, right, because It's like if she says something is like she's like getting in his face and he's like beat beat beat, and then delivers the answer.

Suddenly it's comedy, you know what I mean. And so like he'd be like, yes, I know, okay, great. And with Jennifer, she's she was a lot like me in terms of her She's intuitive, very intuitive person like very very just like dialed into her emotions and her intuition. And so the more I could allow her space to play and just kind of do her thing. And by the way, I'd already put her in a fucking cockpit, you know, like I can't strap someone in like much

more than that, you know what I mean. Like, so I felt like, okay, Brad, like you put this actress in this cockpit. You've given her no room to like maneuver. On top of that, I was like, okay, there's a hologram here, and I'd put up a wire and be like you need to hit this and hit this, and she'd be like she's okay. I mean, she was great, but I knew, like I'm giving you, like, you know, invisible things to do and like putting you in this little space. So I didn't want to like belabor her

in her performance, so I would go to Greg. Now. Of course, like her and I had talked through the script and we got on the same page and we had no issues with that. Like we knew the movie, you know, we knew what we wanted to do, and we knew like the ebbs and flows of scenes. But like you have to as a filmmaker. You know, every actor is very different, Like Jeffrey Dean Morgan is completely different than Naomi Harris or Dwayne you know, like and

so on Rampage I have. These three actors are very different. Their approaches are just so different, you know, And so I had to learn Jennifer's approach. Loved by the way, thank you. Yeah, I loved it. It was fun. It was a fun movie to make. But with Jennifer, she was so intuitive. And I'm that way that I'm like, I'm not gonna be the director that like gets in her way. Not a chance. I'm backing her. Yeah, did

you know what that feels like? Yeah? And it's the worst when someone just downloads you with too much information.

let me let me help you. And so the dynamic on set with her and Greg was really really fun and was really enjoyable for me because people would come up like Greg. No one knew who he was, and at first people were just like, he's just here for the production, will replace his voice. Later in my head, I was like, not a chick, no way, this guy is perfect. That's why I cast him. I was like, that's how I picture Smith, you know. And this was an odd movie. There were a lot of voices in

my ears on this movie. And so the I'm very proud of, like a lot of the things where I put my foot down and was like, this is how I picture it are the things that really work. And so it's a learning lesson in that regard. Sometimes I didn't put my foot down, and there are things that like I don't think quite work, because I never thought they were going to quite work. But I was being told, you have to make this concession, you know, like it's Netflix like execs, or it's all of it. When it's

all of it like Netflix were really great. They were really really good to work with. The exec My personal execs were amazing. I thought that studio was excellent. Cool, but there was there's a lot of voices, there's a lot of producers, there's a lot of studios. All of these movies are like that, and so you know, the difference for me specifically was on So I made Journey to San Andreas and Rampage with the same star, at the same studio, with the same executives, with the same producer,

one producer, one producer, two executives, one star. So I had gone through this situation and then the first movie again they would like question a bunch of these things, and by the time I was doing San Andreas, they were like, whatever you want, do your thing. I mean they would call me on set and be like, dude, that shot yesterday was amazing, and then I'd be as smart as'd be, like all my shots are amazing. Yeah, right,

I knew the executive is. By that point, I had a great relationship with them, a great relationship with Bo the producer, had a great relationship with Dwayne, Like we knew each other, we knew our strengths, we knew where. It felt more like a band playing, you know. I went to Netflix. They they were gracious, they bought the script. We had great meetings, but then COVID happened and everything slowed down, and then we had to stop. It was

like this very up and down, sporadic situation. And then I had never worked with I mean, we had like eight producers on Atlas. I'd never worked with eight producers. Oh my god, I'm not sure I'll ever do it again. It's a lot of producers. Man in the kitchen, It's a lot, dude, It's a lot that's wild. It is wild. It is wild. And you know, I had more than two executives. You know. It was just a completely new form for me too, And I am guilty of maybe being like too nice. Honestly, I had to. I've now

learned like as a artist, I need firmer boundaries. Oh yeah, there's when there's that many people involved. Now I'm just like Okay, I need to draw a line in the sand. I can't do my job, you know, And and I felt some of that. So Atlas was harder in that regard. Yeah, And so I felt like I felt the movie sort of being like very difficult to wrangle, and then I would wrangle it back in, and then I would feel

it drifted away and I'd wrangle back in. And I don't know if like people understand as a filmmaker, when you're doing these big technical movies, it's like everything matters, every single thing. The focal length, where the green screens are every It's not like I'm just putting cameras on my shoulder and shooting people talking doing dishes. It's not.

And even that would be like the lights would be outside in the kitchen and it'd be like noon and you're making it look like six pm, and like, you know,

everything is complicated. But on these big movies, if if if a couple things wobble, then it the wobble's really big, you know, because you're like the chain reaction is massive, and there's just you know, sometimes there's arrogance and sometimes there's like short sightedness and they don't see that I feel that all day long because I'm like, it's my job for there to not be wobbles and for no one to feel a wobble, and there's no chance I can let the cast feel that. So I've got to

protect them at all costs. Now, So now I'm protecting the cast, trying to like make these things that I don't think might necessarily work work, Like it's very difficult. So Atlas is a little bit bittersweet because I felt like we went into it with really good intentions. I didn't feel like I was at the top of my game, and I have to take responsibility for that. I'm really happy with big portions of the movie, but of course, as the person who made it, I see the weakest parts.

You know. Now, I know I'm being hard on myself, but still like that's how I feel about it. But you know, it obviously did pretty well. We were number one for like four or five weeks in like ninety something countries, and you know, yeah, I can.

art department. That's how you're dealing with money. You're never dealing with like the big number.

through your binders, go survive that week. You know, like there's no other way. It's just too big, you know. And so and then of course you trust your plan and you know, you trust the people around you. So, yeah, you don't think it doesn't it doesn't happen like that. It's it's not like realistic. You don't really think of the number, you know. And also a lot of times, like I'll be honest, like a lot of the budget stuff is out of my control, like the studio is

paying for it. They have a point of view. They may say like I've gotten the note. Most of the time when I was working at Warner Brothers a New line, I would get the note more like hey, you did this sequence, and I'd be like, yeah, I love this. It's like George. I remember this because this guy named Michael Disco is one of my two executives, Sam Brown and Mike Disco, or my executives at Newline and Richard Brenner, and then Toby Emrick was the head of New Line.

He was above them. But I would deal with Sam and Mike all the time. Every day. I would talk to them, great guys, super super friendly, and I would storyboard everything. I'd board it myself by hand, and then i'd hand it over to a board artist. They'd polish it up. Then I would cut it together as like an animatic, so you could see the sequence, you know, again, like there's no fat I'm shooting the sequence, I'm boarding the sequence, we're cutting it together. I'm shooting that. Yeah,

maybe a couple and I'll have an extra camera. Someone will throw in an extra shot. And if I did have an extra camera, I would say to my DP, if I'm not using that camera, find something awesome, shoot it. But I'm telling this story. And I would show those animatics to the studio and sometimes we would take the animatic and then do previs, which is like a pre visualization, which you'd probably see online. It's like a computer rendition of the scene.

But then I would be like more sounds good. Though maybe maybe I could do like another cool thing with a forklift smashing into the you know, like.

it's your money. Whatever you want more. I can't control the budget if you're and so then if someone complained about money, I'd be like they wanted more, you know, like they said it like you know, I don't know what to tell you, Like I I was fine with it being this, and then they were like, add more to it.

There's just a certain amount of trauma that you go through when you're making these movies and you don't sleep for a year, you know what I mean, There's no way around it.

Survivor is? And I was like, who. She goes, Peter Jackson for real, Yeah, and she goes, I'm texting him right now, you guys need to meet and I was just like, please text him, you know, like and so she texted him and he flew me out to New Zealand to have lunch with him, and I had the private tour of his whole thing, his whole studio. That's the nicest guy in the world. Like we were. He would sit in his big editing bay and they would bring in magazine covers from like, you know, very famous

magazines with like the he was cutting. I want to say, he was, oh, man, I'm gonna mess this up, San Andreas. He was cutting one of the Lord of the Rings movies or one of the Hobbit movies. I can't remember. But I walked into his editing bait and I was

watching them cutting one of those movies. And then as he was sitting there, they were flying in magazine covers and there and then the assistant would be like, you wanted fire for the words, and then you wanted gold text and he's like okay, okay, yeah, and he was signing off on this stuff, and I was just like, this is Sandre's was my third movie, and I'm sitting in front of Peter Jackson like editing a Lord of the Rings movie. I was like, that's cool. Oh my god,

how did I get here? Yeah? Man, I was just like, what is happening right now? You know, so humble, so cool. I don't know if anyone knows, but Peter Jackson's does not wear socks or shoes, bare feet inside.

I never do that, but I was like, I just think I might need to watch it again to like understand what I made and come to terms with the process that I went through, you know, because I was very proud of a lot of it, and then there are parts of it, and again I think when you create something, you're kind of like you judge it by the worst parts for sure, you know. And and then the critics hated it, and I was just like, oh, you guys are so mean.

So when all that stuff started stirring up, and I don't I'm not like a tabloid god, I don't even I don't even like I live in Los Angeles, but I live out by the mountains. Like I'm not like a hollywoody like go to all the parties. I've never really been that guy. I'm just like not, I'm too awkward, man, I just like I'm just standing there like too real. Well, I just don't want to like, I don't know, I don't know, I just don't want to do that. I

just I don't get much from your thing. Yeah, And I feel like also like I did all that stuff when I was young, and now I'm like I just want to like watch movies, hang out with my girlfriend, my fiance, let's go and then you know, watch movies, write, read, paint, travel, That's what I want to do. Life. Yeah, I love that life. I love my life in that regard family, art And if we want to talk about business, like let's go have lunch or sit in a meeting and

talk about making something cool. But like going and doing the scene, I'm just not It's never really been my thing, you know, Like and I'm kind of jealous of people who can make deals at parties. I've never been able to do that. I don't understand it. Some people that's how they operate. They go to a party, they strike up conversations, and they're making deals many they're doing or work.

did you think I was making? Like it's like Jennifer Lopez in a mech suit and they're like, this AI movie isn't realistic enough, And I'm like, what I didn't say this movie was telling you about what AI was going to be doing, Like, yeah, this is an adventure film, wholesome action fiction. I didn't I didn't understand, you know, and I just felt like problematic message, right, Yeah, yeah, I was because AI.

It did very well. Yeah, but it's still stung. Like you know, the movie came out, no one saw it coming, you know, like my my agents, like I didn't see it coming, and it was like pretty pretty brutal couple of days.

I can't control. I just don't do that, right. I understand that if the movie makes a lot of money, they're gonna be like, Wow, that filmmaker is fantastic. The movie feels are gonna say that filmmaker is terrible, and it's just like that, so you but it is and so I and I'm like, okay, well let's just deal with that straight on. That's just what it is. No problem, Like I'm signing that contract. I want to go be a filmmaker. Fine, So I kind of just go, oh well,

like I can't control. This doesn't feel good, but you have to just kind of go like, all right, next, like I'll take some lessons out of this and you're moving forward, you know, like forget Like also, like how can you please everybody? So if everything you can't?

I'm twenty seven years old and I'm like an eighty million dollar movies a big I mean two short films before that, damn. Yeah, so this was like a big deal. Oh my god. I was just freaking out.

work my ass off on the gig. And then after all that, after working on this movie for two years, I get these people telling me I've set back cinema twenty five years.

back cinema twenty five years. That didn't feel good. But now I'm like, okay, guys, all right, you know, like and the thing is is that, like I feel like I'm pretty even keel, like I I would like to be a movie critic, like I get it, Like I wouldn't like, yeah, this is cool. I don't think I would be nasty, right, you know what I mean like that, but some of it's just nasty. You wonder where that comes from?

I'm a movie fan. I watch movies almost every day, like almost every you know, I haven't watched movies since I've been here, but like if I wasn't here, literally, you know, if you asked Ela, he's like, yes, he watches something every day. I watch movies every day. It's awesome. But there's a lot of people that don't. And what critics are really good at is, hey, you guys are not paying attention to this little film Anura. Everyone should

go see this little film Anura. And that's awesome. And I love that about it, where they're bolstering the medium and the bolstering the audience and getting people intrigued and getting people open to new things, and also the films that aren't put out by one of the major studios, Like you got to get people that are aware that maybe don't have access easily to those things, because a lot of people just want to come home, turn on Netflix,

watch it, not think about it. If you have to go searching around for this little indie film, you may not even know to look for it, let alone how to find it. So I love that critics do that. They bolster the sort of the smaller movies or they say, hey, this big movie over here is really saying something really important. But you know, I know Marvel doesn't need you know, great reviews. Everyone everyone wants to see Marvel movies. I want to see Marvel movies. It's like that doesn't do

much for me. Sure, you know, so I just sort of take it all all on stride. I'm not mad about any of it. You know, I get it, you know what I mean, Like there's a reality in which I could never have been a filmmaker and I might have been a critic, you know what I mean. And that's how I think about it. I'm like, yeah, you do your thing, man, Like you have to tell your truth and get that out there. Just why are so mean? I did not set back?

is funny. Yeah, I had to laugh at it because I was like, this is making me want to cry so much. It was so mean.

Like what is this? And then you start going this is impossible that this is isn't that wouldn't this can't

be shooting stars? You know this can't be And then you start recording it, and then when you start zooming in on the recordings, you're like, what am I seeing here, so the and then also your dad's innate ability to kind of sense them, which is extra bizarre, like like he's he's an earnest, humble, genuine person, and so he's not the type of person I don't even know if your dad is capable of blowing smoke, Like he's just not that kind of guy at all, like zero percent.

And so like when your dad's like, we need to be outside five to six, and you're like, and you were like, we need to be outside five I was like, all right, not probably, Well, we're not gonna go anywhere, we'll be we'll be ready. And we're at like a five thirty and sure enough, five to six it starts and I was like, now, because I'd never experienced before, I was like, okay, yeah, this is this is cool,

this is cool. And then it got more and more active, and it got like it became a lot and a certain points there's like five moving lights in the sky moving erradically, and you're like, this is so strange. It Honestly, it wasn't until the second time we went out and saw nothing did I go, oh shit, this okay, now this just got really interesting because he didn't say we need to go out now. Yeah, he didn't say any of that. It was it was Dax. It was one

of the let's step out again. Yeah, and so now put yourself in my shoes, and now we go outside for half an hour and see nothing. And in the first hour earlier we did, we saw like one hundred lights firing around the sky within an hour. So it puts it into the context where you're like, huh, this guy like I you know, basically he's like, we need to go and be there.

what is it? You're gonna try to answer it in your mind, but it can't really be answered, you know, especially when you go back and you look at the videos and you're like, hey, this doesn't really make sense. These things are changing colors, like rapidly changing colors. They look like they're going in a straight line to your eye. But then when you record them, you see there's like little micro movements all over the place. There's like movement

even within the lights there's movement. You're like, okay, this is this is very odd. But it wasn't until we went out the second time and there was nothing that I go like that I realized like, Okay, I truly believe this person has a connection with these things because he can sort of sense it. And then like, for example, if it were satellites, they'd be going all night like that. Yeah, there's no there's no media showers, don't have meteor showers shooting in all ways.

outside and look at the sky and there's nothing. Right now, You're like Okay, I this is now different.

And I didn't even consider that element where it's like, oh my god, yeah, that is interesting that you say that. It wasn't Dad that was like we got to go out. It was uh, it was Dax and we're all just like, yeah, let's step out there. Yeah. He didn't have that sense. So the fact that it impacted you that way is very profound.

opportunity to kind of do that for me. Yeah, Like I was like, Okay, there's no way it's a meteor shower. There's no way it's satellites. Like if it were planes or satellites or drones or any of these things, it wouldn't show up for an hour of crazy movement in all directions and then.

a real way, yeah, you go, Okay, there's real. This is real like, I'm seeing something here.

you're right. You can see that he's really been through it and he really has this connection. And even me when at one point before we went out the second time, we were all talking about something and I was like, I'm gonna step outside real quick and probe this guy. I walked outside, I looked up for a minute, said I thank you, looked at the stars while so beautiful, didn't feel light, and I was just like, okay, that's okay.

not something you see a lot. And it's very upsetting to hear about how a community treated him, you know, or how the world might treat him, because you know, he's a genuinely like his humanity is at one hundred percent.

there's no one else like this person. Yeah, you know, and he has that thing and then his his story, his experience. I just think it's really really valuable and I don't think there's ever been a story like that, and it's very rare that as a storyteller, you come across a story and you're like, this is intense, this is so unique, This person is so unique that this story deserves to be told. And you know, I look at it as a very good, healthy challenge to try

to tell it at the highest level. Yeah, and have the most people exposed to ithathetically, hypothetically.