0:01:00 – Speaker 2
Greetings and salutations. Thank you for joining us. This is Embrace your Storm. As always, we’ve got an awesome episode for you. I’m speaking with Michael Baker today and his film is going to be at guess what? The Tornado Music and Film Festival. That’s going to be held at Foxwood on August 26th, 27th and 28th, and we’re very excited to have Michael on. So, michael, thanks for coming on today.
0:01:23 – Speaker 3
Hi, thanks so much for having me.
0:01:24 – Speaker 2
It’s my pleasure. So, michael, before we jump into the last day and all that fun stuff, how did you know, first of all, how did you get started in kind of like the film industry you do writing, you’re acting and directing, like how did you even start getting involved in it?
0:01:37 – Speaker 3
all in all of this, Right, that’s an interesting story, at least to me.
0:01:44 – Speaker 2
I’m sure to many other people. That’s why you’re on.
0:01:48 – Speaker 3
Well, let me first say that I’m 60 years old okay, I’m not a kid and I’ve only been doing this acting filmmaking for about 10 years. Really, yeah.
0:02:00 – Speaker 2
So, michael, I hate to just I hate to cut you off there, michael, because that’s a sort of a new favorite topic of mine that just because you’re a bit older or whatever, like you’re 50 years old, doesn’t mean you can’t do something you’ve never done before, absolutely.
0:02:16 – Speaker 4
Absolutely.
0:02:17 – Speaker 2
Like I love that you did that at 50. That is so awesome, like I know that. Just we had a conversation before this interview, so it’s just amazing to know that, because hearing you talk about everything, I knew you’re a bit older. I wouldn’t have said 60, but the way you talked I was like I thought you’d been doing this for 30 years, you know like, but that’s really amazing. And again, I just like to point out to people you know, michael started at 50, like you can start at 40, you can start at 60, it doesn’t matter, it’s never too late to start something.
0:02:48 – Speaker 3
I totally agree. It’s never too late, and don’t let not knowing something get in the way either, because resources to learn are out there, I mean we have the fucking internet now.
0:03:01 – Speaker 2
Yeah, seriously. Yeah, michael grew up when there was not the internet.
0:03:04 – Speaker 3
No in libraries and books.
0:03:08 – Speaker 2
So you know, he knows there’s no excuse.
0:03:12 – Speaker 3
No, there’s no excuse.
0:03:15 – Speaker 2
You know, but sorry to start. It started to derail that, michael, but I had to. I had to point out, so I really think that’s worth mentioning. Sorry about that?
0:03:25 – Speaker 3
No, not at all. I totally agree. You know that there’s no excuse. There’s, there’s laziness and absolutely absolutely absolutely.
And let me, let me let me add something there too. There’s there’s nothing wrong with being lazy once in a while. Our bodies need rest, our minds rest. We don’t have to go, go, go, go go all the time. Some days it’s OK just to sit, get out of bed at 10 am, have a leisurely coffee and essentially do nothing, because you know, our bodies, our minds need rest also. So you know, I used to beat up on myself for being lazy and then I realized wait a minute, you know I’ve done, I’ve done stuff Right, right, last 50 years. I don’t need to keep doing, you know, let other people do for a day, that’s OK. So anyway, about 10, 11, 12 years ago now I lose track I had built a software business from scratch. Again, I knew nothing about it when I started.
0:04:33 – Speaker 2
I knew that another topic we could talk about, but I’m not going to stop.
0:04:41 – Speaker 3
The quick story about that is my wife was a music teacher. I was an ex music teacher, went into software. I couldn’t stand the kids anymore.
0:04:51 – Speaker 2
At least they’re honest.
0:04:53 – Speaker 3
That was my. No, that’s a joke, that’s a joke.
0:04:55 – Speaker 4
I love teaching.
0:04:56 – Speaker 3
I love teaching. It was just the kids I couldn’t stand. I used to love the teacher work days. I said wow these are really good places to work, if it wasn’t for all these kids around all the time.
0:05:06 – Speaker 2
Yeah, seriously yeah.
0:05:09 – Speaker 3
Well, she had a need. She was a music teacher. She had all this record keeping. No good way to do it. I was in software at the time, just starting, and we came up with an idea that she could use a piece of software to help do this, and this was the year 2000. And Google wasn’t out yet. The internet was still kind of in an infancy. I realized that her problem was not just the record keeping but locking it on one particular computer, like if she was at the high school, and she installed the software there, like everybody did back then.
0:05:49 – Speaker 2
Right.
0:05:49 – Speaker 3
Well, there it was. And then you know, if she’s home and needs to look up a kid’s phone number, can’t do it. So I said you know what? You need to put this on a website instead of your computer. And you know, she kind of looked at me funny in the year 2000. She said, right, I’m not sure if it’s a website, do you know how to do that? And I said I don’t even know if it’s possible. You know, the idea of connecting a database to a website was like bizarre. So I went to the library and researched and looked it up and figured out how to do it and kind of invented something. And it caught on. And 17 years later we were, you know, in every state in the union and international. We were selling this thing like mad and it was growing so fast we couldn’t really, we couldn’t really support it anymore without some serious money to grow it. So we sold it. We had an offer from one of these big outfits out East and we took the check and ran.
0:06:48 – Speaker 2
What was it?
0:06:49 – Speaker 3
It was called Charms and it’s still out there. C-h-a-r-m-s, you know it’s for music teachers and band directors, choir directors. It got gobbled up by a company that does payments so we had a big payment component. So if anybody out there has been in high school bands, you know it’s a big deal to take a trip right, yeah.
Go to Disneyland or you go to wherever, and so we had a way for the teachers to manage the trips, do room assignments, collect the money, keep track of who paid. We did an online payment system through PayPal.
0:07:25 – Speaker 2
Then 2000.
0:07:27 – Speaker 3
Well, no, that came later.
0:07:29 – Speaker 2
I know, but still, that’s like.
0:07:31 – Speaker 3
Yeah, that was very unique and the first couple of years people were still laughing at us. You know, we’d go to trade shows to show it and people would say, Internet, I don’t have Internet in my building. That’s so funny, Right. And then they say, well, what happens if the Internet goes down? And I’d say, well, you can’t use it. Well, that’s no good. I said, believe me, if the internet goes down in your school building you have bigger problems.
Your phones won’t work. Pones are now working over the internet, and this was like three already.
0:08:04 – Speaker 4
Right, right Right.
0:08:06 – Speaker 3
So I said you got bigger problems, you know, and you won’t be able to enter your grades. You won’t be able to do this and within five years the tide turned and for a nice couple of years we were the only game in town. All of our disc-based competitors disappeared. Nobody came along nipping at our heels on the end of the front. So we were able to really control the market and eventually a few others started behind us, but they were so far behind.
0:08:36 – Speaker 2
Right, right, I get what you’re saying. You found a need that no one was even aware of.
0:08:42 – Speaker 3
Exactly.
0:08:42 – Speaker 2
Yeah, exactly, you were so far ahead, and the fun part about that is back then when we first started, people laughed at us and considered us lunatics. They said yeah, it works right when you’re not far ahead.
0:08:57 – Speaker 3
And then you know by the time it was hugely successful. People were calling us innovators.
0:09:02 – Speaker 2
Exactly, yeah, exactly. What is that saying? It’s like three steps ahead you’re a martyr and two steps ahead you’re a leader, or something like that. Exactly. So we sold it and essentially retired so that’s what brought you to writing and stuff then.
0:09:23 – Speaker 3
Well, I started writing towards the last year or two of the business, because it was a machine, it was humming and it didn’t really need to get involved with the intervene much at all. So I was always interested in acting, never did anything with it. I grew up with the parents that said acting, that’s not a way to make a living, so I never pursued it Later on.
0:09:49 – Speaker 2
That’s so cool.
0:09:50 – Speaker 3
It was bad enough that I got a music degree.
0:09:54 – Speaker 2
Right, yeah, really, that’s only acting. Acting was even worse.
0:10:01 – Speaker 3
So there was a community theater production, they had auditions and lo and behold, they put me in the play. And you know, I said oh, this is fun, how do I do another play? And I learned. And you know, yeah, when I’m another audition and they put me in the play and it’s like, wow, this is fun. And a guy I was in the play with, he says oh, I have a commercial audition next week. I said, oh, how do you do commercials? Those look like fun too.
0:10:35 – Speaker 4
And he’s like agent. Oh, where’s an agent Exactly?
0:10:39 – Speaker 3
I looked around, contacted a few agents, until somebody said, yes, you know, come talk to us. I did, and they said, yeah, we could use a couple of geysers on our roster and I had to do an audition for them. You know, come up with a model on.
0:10:56 – Speaker 2
Okay, like your own, on your own.
0:10:58 – Speaker 3
No, just one from a movie. Okay, that’s cool, all right, right. Well, I didn’t know how to do any of this stuff. I had the computer, I turned on the webcam and and did. You can’t handle the truth. Oh, right yeah from a few good men.
0:11:14 – Speaker 2
Exactly yeah.
0:11:15 – Speaker 3
And they liked it and they brought me in for a you know, in person audition and this was a funny. This was a funny thing. I don’t know why. I was just thinking about this. The other day too, Yesterday in fact, they called me in and I thought it was just for an interview. I didn’t realize they would want to be to do the monologue again, live.
0:11:34 – Speaker 2
Oh no, oh man. You didn’t have it practice or anything, Right right.
0:11:41 – Speaker 3
So the leader of the agency took her chair into the middle of the room and sat down.
0:11:48 – Speaker 4
Oh man.
0:11:49 – Speaker 3
Okay, that was good. She said I want you to do better. Here’s what I want you to do. You got all this space to work in. You can get in my face. You can get behind me, you can do. You just can’t touch me and I want you to scare me. That could be a scary monologue. You can’t handle a truth, son. You know we got a. We live in a world that has walls, right.
0:12:08 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah.
0:12:09 – Speaker 3
And so, and her sister, who is also part of the agency, was there, she was like nine months pregnant and somebody else was watching too. So I said, okay, I’ll try my best, you know. So I launch into it and by the end of it her eyes are like bulging out of her head. She’s not moving. And I said did I scare you? She said yeah, and her sister said you scared my baby, oh there you go.
0:12:39 – Speaker 4
Is that good? Yeah right.
0:12:45 – Speaker 3
And what they did was funny. They said OK, we’re going to put you on the agency and send you out on real auditions. And that’s the difference For anybody interested in professional acting when you have an agent, you don’t get gigs, you just get access to the better auditions. Oh, that’s the difference. They’ll get the TV shows.
0:13:05 – Speaker 2
They’ll get the right Right, like it’s still on you to get the job.
0:13:10 – Speaker 4
Absolutely yeah, you got to do the audition.
0:13:12 – Speaker 3
In fact I have one here in my hand. I have to record tonight for a TV show out of New Orleans and now it goes and I used to get excited by them. Now I just do them and it’s funny when I made that switch from really caring about it to I don’t give a shit anymore. The auditions got better.
0:13:38 – Speaker 2
Well, you know what? I think? It’s because you’re you psych yourself, we psych ourselves up.
0:13:43 – Speaker 4
Yeah.
0:13:45 – Speaker 2
And so we’ve got to get ourselves out of that mindset and be like look, it’s just no audition, this is, this is what I do and I’m good at it, take it or leave. Yeah, exactly, and I think when you switch that mindset, like you said, everything starts to go a lot better.
0:14:01 – Speaker 3
You’re more relaxed about it, you’re more honest about it and acting really is all about honesty, which is bizarre.
0:14:09 – Speaker 2
Which is because you’re faking it Right.
0:14:14 – Speaker 3
You have to be honest in it at the same time, if you’re in a scene and you tell somebody I love you right At that moment, if you don’t totally 100% believe that you’re in love with that person, you’re talking to the camera knows you’re lying Exactly.
0:14:33 – Speaker 2
I know that must be so hard. It’s weird yeah.
0:14:37 – Speaker 3
It is so weird, so you know. And then to try to do that in an audition when you’re in a spare bedroom with a camera and lights in front of your face and nobody there, it’s really bizarre Really. So it’s a wonder that anybody gets any auditions.
0:14:56 – Speaker 2
So did you start acting first?
0:14:58 – Speaker 3
Yes. Ok, ok, I started acting and enjoyed it and eventually I joined a studio because I had no training. I had no acting training.
0:15:07 – Speaker 2
OK.
0:15:08 – Speaker 3
And I did a workshop with some of the casting directors and you actually got basically it was a paid audition in front of them and they give you feedback. And I said I love this feedback. You know, I’ve sent hundreds of auditions and nobody says anything. Now I can see what you’d like them didn’t like. How do I do more of that? How do I get more feedback? And she says will you go to a class that does on-camera acting? So I found one, I went in and it was very interesting. And then, you know, I noticed people were bringing in original scenes, not just scenes from movies they liked or TV shows, but stuff they wrote themselves.
0:15:47 – Speaker 2
Oh OK.
0:15:49 – Speaker 3
They said is that something like you want us to do? And they said yes, you know, if you’re going to make it in this business, you need to do everything. I said, well, I like to write, I’ve always liked writing. And OK, let’s, let’s, I’ll start writing and bring some stuff in, right? You know, they always say safe space, safe space. You’re not here to impress anybody. You’re here to learn in the classes. And if you want to make a huge mistake and crash and burn, this is the place to do it.
So I said great, so I’ll start writing little scenes and bring them in. Well, people liked them.
0:16:27 – Speaker 2
Oh, like right away, huh.
0:16:28 – Speaker 3
Like right away, and that’s cool, that’s cool. I did a comedy. People liked it and I knew they weren’t just being polite when some of the other kids in the class would say, hey, mike, could I, can I get a copy of that and I want to work on it for class, like in two weeks.
0:16:44 – Speaker 2
Wow, go for it. That’s so cool.
0:16:47 – Speaker 3
I. There was something I wrote that I really liked, and it’s something that hasn’t been produced yet and I really want to do it, but it was. It was a tearjerker. Now I’m too old to be the main character. I kind of aged my.
0:17:01 – Speaker 2
Oh, you look fine.
0:17:02 – Speaker 3
No, no, no, no, no, no. It’s a. It’s definitely a, you know, for somebody in their 40s, not 60s. But basically the story is this guy comes home with this enormous bouquet of flowers for his wife. And is that for me? You know? No for you. It’s for the my girlfriend hiding under the bed. Of course it’s for you.
0:17:29 – Speaker 4
And she said, oh, you’re sweet.
0:17:31 – Speaker 3
Now wait a minute. What did you do? Did you wreck the car Right? So they’re doing like old married? Yeah, yeah.
0:17:38 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah easing this.
0:17:40 – Speaker 3
no, I didn’t wreck the car. Okay, why did you buy me flowers? Something must be wrong.
0:17:44 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah.
0:17:45 – Speaker 3
You never buy me flowers, and so they got that. And then the guy starts talking about hey, you know, we haven’t seen our friends here in a while. Can we invite them over for dinner next week, Next week? Well, yeah, sure, That’d be great. You know, what do you want to do? You want to cook? And he says you know, we’ve been saving those porterhouse steaks for the longest time. Let’s, let’s cook them up. Yeah, Okay, Wow, you know, nice bottle of wine, this and that. And then he starts talking about this huge party they had talked about planning. He says what do you think? You know, maybe next month we can.
And now she’s getting suspicious. It’s like okay, party, flowers, dinner. What’s going on? And she says, oh, wow, wait a minute. Today was your annual checkup, wasn’t it? Oh man, and you know he’s bantering. And finally he drops the bomb on her and he says, well, it was different than it usually has been. And it’s back. And she says, well, okay, no, okay, no big deal. We’ve been through this before we can deal it again. You know I get to rub that sexy bald head of yours again and you know you should get that earring this time. It looked cool on you and it’s in that, you know, Mr King is in that and no problem. And he says, well, it’s a little more different than that. It’s back and it’s everywhere. And it’s like boom, the bomb just pops. And now how the real thing happens where okay, well, we got a treatment is in that. And he says, well, this time I’m thinking about just writing it out into the sunset, so it gets real heavy. Anyway, you know, and that’s pretty cool.
Yeah, it’s really. It’s really a cool script, heavy and it starts out funny and then it gets woof.
But, anyway, I was at a workshop, one of these, one of these, one of these casting director workshops and I see some people from my class you know, hey, how you doing Good, is there a time to get up? And she does that scene. I wrote. I go, wow, that was good, yeah, I really liked it, wow, okay. So you know, I didn’t flop and other people in the class started putting up little videos of their things that they wrote.
0:20:01 – Speaker 4
Yeah, yeah.
0:20:02 – Speaker 3
Oh, there you go. Next question Okay, well, how do I turn these things into movies? And you know, I learned. And the real question was well, do you know how to use a movie camera? And I said well, I know you point the round part at the record button right, Get the record button. And they said you better, you better find yourself a cinematographer.
0:20:29 – Speaker 2
That would have been my answer too. I was like you, just hit the record button.
0:20:33 – Speaker 4
I just hit the.
0:20:34 – Speaker 2
This is towards the scene right.
0:20:37 – Speaker 3
So I met with some people and asked around yeah, because I didn’t know anybody in the industry. And asked around, found people listen to that and before I knew it we were making a short film, a comedy, and it became Sid and Marge have a problem. Now, let me, let me plug the website. If you go to dilettbackfilmscom dilettbackfilmscom, the three older shorts are on there. Last day is only the trailer, because that’s still out at festivals.
0:21:16 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:21:18 – Speaker 3
So we don’t want to put that one out for the public. The other three are on the website. They’re also on Amazon Prime if you feel like paying for them.
0:21:25 – Speaker 2
There you go.
0:21:26 – Speaker 3
Hey, I got a whole dollar this month from Amazon.
0:21:29 – Speaker 2
They stopped letting people upload stuff right.
0:21:31 – Speaker 3
I did yeah.
0:21:32 – Speaker 2
Yeah.
0:21:33 – Speaker 3
And they stopped letting people with short films set their own prices. Really, yeah, I had them like for 99 cents or free for Prime. I didn’t care, you know, I knew it’s not going to be a moneymaker for me and one day I logged in and it’s like $2.99. Who the hell is going to pay?
0:21:49 – Speaker 2
for that, no kidding.
0:21:51 – Speaker 3
Yeah, but I guess people do, because I get like one month I had $4.50, $4.50. Woohoo, this last check was a dollar. So make money kids.
0:22:01 – Speaker 2
Yeah right, so that leads you to. Well, so you mentioned last day, which is the film that used to be the festival that’s in. Let’s talk about, because this is your latest one. What brought you to writing this script? Because it’s kind of like what you were just saying. It kind of starts off maybe funny or whatever, but it turns into like whoa, that seems to be your MO.
0:22:26 – Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, and you like to pull the rug out from under people.
0:22:29 – Speaker 2
Yeah, seriously.
0:22:31 – Speaker 3
It was funny because at one screening of the last day recently, you know, people were laughing at some of the stuff in the pre-limbs, like when I’m on the phone with the client and they say, oh God, and there’s one, one of the co-workers gives me a funny look and my desk is a mess.
Right, I got M&Ms on it and something I like to do is drop Easter eggs in the films. So the first one was a sit-in march. Right, have a problem and comedy about two old people in bed and poor Sid still has his lingering effects from the little blue pill he took earlier.
0:23:13 – Speaker 4
Yeah.
0:23:16 – Speaker 3
But the movie isn’t really about that. It’s about the two old people bickering around it, right. Yeah so you know, the old lady says oh my God, I’m calling Dr Fleischer. You know, I’m calling him. It’s two in the morning. What are you crazy? Wake him. I already called 911. The EMTs are on their way. What, at this hour, with those lights and sirens, why don’t you ever think Right? So then, the EMT shows up and she’s a gorgeous, gorgeous young woman.
Yeah, he’s like I’m going to show you. No, no, no, that’s not going to remedy my particular situation and that’s the comedy about it. It’s really about the old people bickering about it. That’s funny so, but in the next movie, which was called Popcorn and Chocolate, it’s more of a dramedy. The, you know, has laughs, has tears, has laughs, has tears, and at the end you should be doing both at the same time, like a sting says crying through my tears, nothing through my tears. That’s the lyric, and I put a the married couple there. I played the husband. You know we’re looking at an iPad and we’re waiting to hear from the army when we’re getting our son’s effects back, because he was killed in.
Afghanistan, right? So, and we’re looking at the iPad I got to show you this little film. I saw these two old people are in bed and one of them, and then the doorbell rings.
0:24:46 – Speaker 4
That’s funny.
0:24:50 – Speaker 3
And in the third movie, which was called who Is Martin Banzig. That was an existential piece. I was reading Paradise Lost at the time.
0:25:01 – Speaker 2
Okay.
0:25:01 – Speaker 3
Slogging through that book. Tough read, I believe it, Because of the. You know the old language.
0:25:08 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, it’s just hard to get through.
0:25:10 – Speaker 3
Yeah, had to go slow, but I brought in Easter eggs from the other two movies so little hidden things and then in last day all three of the movies clues. So yeah, it was kind of fun.
0:25:24 – Speaker 2
So I like that. I like that, that’s cool.
0:25:27 – Speaker 3
I forget, I got sidetracked.
0:25:30 – Speaker 2
So with last day though. So the premise of it is you’re the protagonist, right? That’s what you said, yeah, and so like you’re kind of this disgruntled worker at work and things go awry and you kind of like you get quit I don’t know if I remember.
0:25:48 – Speaker 4
Oh, I get fired.
0:25:48 – Speaker 2
Yeah, you get fired.
0:25:49 – Speaker 3
She comes in.
0:25:50 – Speaker 2
Yeah, you go into the parking lot and you think you’re gonna leave, whatever, and things turn. We’ll just say at that point Absolutely but we do this cool.
0:26:01 – Speaker 3
It’s like you know the my editor didn’t like it, but it turned out good. He called it the Rambo shot this building that we filmed it in. They were so kind to us, they gave us a complete run of this 20 story office building.
0:26:15 – Speaker 2
No kidding.
0:26:16 – Speaker 3
Shreveport. Even the roof. The final scene was up on the roof.
0:26:20 – Speaker 4
Wow.
0:26:21 – Speaker 3
Where the climax takes place, and at the end of it, we launch a drone off the roof.
0:26:27 – Speaker 2
Oh, my goodness.
0:26:28 – Speaker 3
You can see all of Shreveport, you know, in the distance from 300 degrees. It was cool.
0:26:35 – Speaker 2
That is so cool.
0:26:37 – Speaker 3
But yeah, so she comes in. You know, mr, was it Doug Harris? Mr Harris, yeah, hey, I’m on the phone with a client slightly more important than you, don’t you think it’s like whoa?
0:26:50 – Speaker 2
Yeah.
0:26:51 – Speaker 3
You know, yeah. And so during the like an early screening people were giggling. You know at those moments what an awful thing to say, right.
0:27:02 – Speaker 2
Right, because he wasn’t doing, because some people are probably thinking it’s in a Michael Scott kind of way of the office. But it’s not that way.
0:27:09 – Speaker 3
No, no, no, no, he was rude, he was right.
0:27:12 – Speaker 2
Right, Like he was a. He was a dick.
0:27:16 – Speaker 3
So one of the guys looks at him funny while he’s on the phone, and so that’s what I was thinking. The desk was like a pigsty, and on the desk was popcorn and chocolate.
0:27:26 – Speaker 2
Oh, that’s funny, that was the hidden message there.
0:27:29 – Speaker 3
So the guy looks at me and I look at him back like why? But you got a problem and I take a handful of M&Ms and I throw it at the guy.
0:27:36 – Speaker 4
Right.
0:27:39 – Speaker 3
So people, they laughed at that. And then when I come back in the building with this Rambo kind of shot, use the loading dock and it’s a dark hallway and when the double doors opened right, you get blinded by this white light and I’m walking dead center in with the shotgun and it’s like oh, oh, you can hear the audience go listen, and I and I mentioned you know, I leaned over, I says who’s laughing now, bitch?
0:28:11 – Speaker 4
Right, you want to laugh.
0:28:12 – Speaker 3
Who’s laughing now? And just goes crazy. We chase, I chase her all across the guy, I splatter a couple of guys against the glass wall, you know. And the premise is yeah, I came in with the shotgun but I didn’t know why. I had no idea what I was going to do. You know, it wasn’t like a serial killer. I didn’t know, I had no idea. And then you know, these guys startled me.
0:28:39 – Speaker 4
And I blasted him.
0:28:40 – Speaker 3
It’s like and you know the face, you know, I talked about it with the director and it’s like he says, yeah, you didn’t plan any of this. This is you actually pulled the trigger now for the first time ever. And it’s like, oh my God, what did I do? You know? And then you know, ok, it’s on, it’s real now.
0:29:00 – Speaker 2
Yeah.
0:29:01 – Speaker 3
Here I come and I start creep. I start singing in the hallway as I’m looking for her. Come out, come out Wherever you are.
0:29:11 – Speaker 2
Oh yeah, Well, we also forgot to say that it was the HR woman. Right, she was the ex-Marine.
0:29:16 – Speaker 3
Ex-Marine. Yeah, so she knows how to hide. She knows how to do this. You know, she sneaks up behind me, gives me a kick and locks me in a closet, runs away and I just keep chasing her and she’s going to run out the building. But then she looks down the hallway and there’s three dead bodies blocking the blocking the staircase. So she has to go up to the roof. That’s a funny writing thing, right?
0:29:43 – Speaker 4
I knew.
0:29:43 – Speaker 3
I’d rather end it on the roof, but why in anybody’s right thinking would they head up to the roof Up to the roof, right Out of the building, so you need to give her a reason to go up the roof. Right, exactly, I said okay, how about we splatter some bodies in the hallways and she can’t step over.
0:30:06 – Speaker 2
It’s a great like a 12 minutes of just like awesomeness, Like it’s just minute by minute.
0:30:13 – Speaker 3
Yeah, and we did. You know there’s a lot of editing tricks we did in it. You know fast cuts makes it a little more tension and music and angles, a lot of cinematic tricks.
0:30:29 – Speaker 2
Yeah, no, it’s a really great, great film. Against the last day, and don’t forget, we have the tornado music and film festival August 26, 27 and 28. And, michael, it’s been a fantastic having you on and I’m going to give you a chance to say, like your last words and stuff, I just want to say you’re an inspiration again because, like I said, you starting this at 50 and just hearing your passion for this like it, I’m just going to put this. I’m assuming it makes you feel young again, because it sounds like it makes you feel young again.
0:31:02 – Speaker 3
It does, it does.
0:31:04 – Speaker 2
Yeah, really.
0:31:06 – Speaker 3
Especially, you know, not being a 30 year veteran of it, it still feels new and fresh to me.
0:31:12 – Speaker 2
Yeah, no, I mean, it really sounds like you’re just enjoying it and like you’re really loving it, like you’re just. I know it’s just cool to see that. You know, it’s refreshing.
0:31:22 – Speaker 3
And you know, before we, before we started, we talked a little bit about creativity. Yes, the need to be creative and the catharsis of it.
0:31:32 – Speaker 2
Yeah, how it helps Bring that up. Yeah, thank you for bringing that up actually.
0:31:37 – Speaker 3
Yeah, I’m going to throw something out there to think about, and I’m not a religious person, you know, I’m not quite an atheist yet, but I have lots of questions. But, I do believe that you know if you open up the Bible right, and most religious texts always say that man with a capital M, you know not men, women, but you know mankind. Yeah was made in the image of the creator. Now too many people take that literally, thinking that the creator kind of looks like us.
0:32:14 – Speaker 4
Right.
0:32:16 – Speaker 3
And it’s with one head and two arms and it doesn’t.
0:32:20 – Speaker 2
It doesn’t mean image in that way.
0:32:23 – Speaker 3
What I, what I interpret that to mean and this is one of my deeply held beliefs is that the image of the creator. Well, what is the creator’s purpose? What does the creator do? He creates. If we are to imitate the creator, our mission is to create this. To do things is to build things, is to imagine things, and that serves the universe. Not worshiping and giving money and, and you know, saying your Hail Mary’s. That’s bullshit. Excuse me if I offended anybody out there. Go create.
You know, go, everybody has a talent of some sort, and it doesn’t have to be movies or art or music or writing. You know, it could be cooking, it could be sewing, it could be anything, anything creative. You’re serving the image, you’re becoming the image of the creator.
0:33:25 – Speaker 2
Yeah.
0:33:26 – Speaker 3
And the problem, you know, I think the world in general is too many people are willing to destroy rather than create.
0:33:33 – Speaker 2
Yes, thank you. That was well said. Thank you, yes, you, you are. Wow, that was very good. Well put all of that actually, thank you. People are wanting to destroy more than create. That is.
0:33:48 – Speaker 3
Yeah, it’s easier to do a very powerful statement.
0:33:51 – Speaker 2
Yeah, it really is. I know there’s another project you work on, michael, you want to talk about.
0:33:57 – Speaker 3
I get to do a shameless plug.
0:33:59 – Speaker 2
Absolutely no. It’s not shameless at all.
0:34:02 – Speaker 3
Short films are great. They’re a lot of fun. They are expensive business cards. They’re great to show people what you can do. Well, now it’s time to graduate into making a feature film, something that ideally would be in a movie theater, distributed by a company that does these things, and I found a script that I like. I didn’t write it. It’s a legal courtroom drama which is popular, and all I need to do is find a whole bunch of investors to help me make it. If anybody likes movies and wants a great tax deduction, there’s a 100% tax deduction for films. Please, please, contact me and just ask about it. You know, you don’t have to say yes, just listen to what’s involved in investing in a feature film.
0:34:54 – Speaker 2
Give out your email address.
0:34:56 – Speaker 3
Yes, Very easy to reach me is MB, as in Michael Baker. Mb at dialitbackfilmscom and drop me an email and say hey, I heard you on Jonathan’s interview.
0:35:11 – Speaker 2
And I’ll put a link to your website too. Oh, thank you.
0:35:14 – Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, no problem. Yeah, the you know it’s to make a feature film costs a lot more.
0:35:22 – Speaker 2
Yeah, totally, totally.
0:35:25 – Speaker 3
I’ve known people who have made quote feature films which are generally 90 minutes.
0:35:31 – Speaker 2
they’re on, you know, a zero budget or a short film budget and honestly they look like that I was going to say you can tell Nothing, not to say anything against it, but it’s like you can tell.
0:35:47 – Speaker 3
You know like you can tell, and ultimately, for what purpose does it serve? You know so. Congratulations, you did it good for you. Your mommy likes it, your friends like it, see it so you did work? For what purpose? And I don’t think that way. You know I’m going to do something. It’s going to be for real.
0:36:09 – Speaker 2
Very interesting. I like your attitude. I try, yeah. So again, it’s so MB at dial it back. Filmscom there’s going to be a link in the show notes to Michael. It’s been amazing having you on.
0:36:22 – Speaker 3
Thank you Then appreciate it. Congratulations to you. Festival that’s a hell of a work too.
0:36:30 – Speaker 2
Well, yeah, I’m not new at that rodeo, so you know but, it does a lot of work because a lot of people underestimate it, but it is definitely a work. Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, don’t forget Fox Woods. August 26, 27, 28th you will see the last day there and everyone. Thank you for listening, thank you for downloading and we’ll talk to you next episode.
0:36:52 – Speaker 1
Tornado with Jonathan Nado. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe now. See your first year. New episodes with more stories of inspiration about the highs and lows of life and how embracing the storm is so much more fulfilling of a life than being crushed by the weight of the world. And until then, we hope you’re inspired to do something, whether it’s creating, participating or learning whatever leads you to your personal passion.
