WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:00.560 Foreign. 2 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:11.320 Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your sanctuary 3 00:00:11.320 --> 00:00:15.200 for bold conversations that spark change. I'm Joanne Lockwood, 4 00:00:15.200 --> 00:00:18.720 your guide on this journey of exploration into the heart of 5 00:00:18.720 --> 00:00:22.640 inclusion, belonging and societal transformation. 6 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:27.040 Ever wondered what it truly takes to create a world without? Remember, everyone 7 00:00:27.040 --> 00:00:30.760 not only belongs, but thrives. You're not alone. 8 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:35.200 Join me as we uncover the unseen, challenge 9 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:38.760 the status quo and share storeys that resonate 10 00:00:38.760 --> 00:00:42.480 deep within. Ready to dive in. Whether you're 11 00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:46.400 sipping your morning coffee or winding down after a long day, let's 12 00:00:46.400 --> 00:00:50.360 connect, reflect and inspire action together. 13 00:00:51.080 --> 00:00:54.870 Don't forget, you can be part of the conversation too. Reach out 14 00:00:54.870 --> 00:00:58.670 to jo.lockwood@seechangehappen.co.uk 15 00:00:59.070 --> 00:01:02.590 to share your insights or to join me on the show. 16 00:01:03.470 --> 00:01:07.230 So adjust your earbuds and settle in. It's time to 17 00:01:07.230 --> 00:01:10.830 ignite the spark of inclusion with Inclusion Bites. 18 00:01:14.670 --> 00:01:18.110 And today is episode 193 19 00:01:18.700 --> 00:01:22.220 with the title Animating Queer Futures. 20 00:01:22.460 --> 00:01:25.820 And I have the absolute honour and privilege to welcome AJ. 21 00:01:26.460 --> 00:01:30.220 AJ is the founder and creative director of 3dio 22 00:01:30.220 --> 00:01:34.180 Studios, a queer bipoc woman led indie 23 00:01:34.180 --> 00:01:37.580 studio creating adult anime series, animated series 24 00:01:38.300 --> 00:01:41.340 Poison Us. And she also champions 25 00:01:41.820 --> 00:01:44.700 globally resonant LGBTQ storytelling. 26 00:01:45.830 --> 00:01:49.470 So when I asked AJ to describe her superpower, she said it is telling 27 00:01:49.470 --> 00:01:53.430 storeys and it is something she loves to do and always has 28 00:01:53.430 --> 00:01:56.470 done. Hello, AJ, welcome to the show. 29 00:01:57.030 --> 00:02:00.989 Hello. Thank you for having me. Absolute pleasure. This is our 30 00:02:00.989 --> 00:02:04.310 second attempt. So we tried this probably a couple of months ago and 31 00:02:04.710 --> 00:02:08.630 detect differences between us and anyway, we're back today. 32 00:02:09.830 --> 00:02:13.740 Whereabouts in the world are you? You're. You're. You're in the States somewhere. I 33 00:02:13.740 --> 00:02:16.740 am in the States on the east coast, near 34 00:02:17.060 --> 00:02:20.980 Washington dc. In between that? In between that. So what's the weather 35 00:02:20.980 --> 00:02:24.100 like this time of year? Is it getting colder? Is it. It is getting colder, 36 00:02:24.420 --> 00:02:28.260 but it's that nice fall cold where you're wearing your plaid 37 00:02:28.260 --> 00:02:31.940 and your. Yeah, it feels really nice. And the 38 00:02:32.180 --> 00:02:35.500 pollen has finally died down a little bit because it's just cold enough to kill 39 00:02:35.500 --> 00:02:39.390 off that last round of like weeds and hay fever. That really tries. 40 00:02:39.550 --> 00:02:43.430 Yeah. So it's nice, soft, warmish. We just 41 00:02:43.430 --> 00:02:47.350 had Halloween. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful. Yes. So the 42 00:02:47.350 --> 00:02:50.430 trick and treating is big in the States. I mean, over here it's become becoming 43 00:02:50.430 --> 00:02:54.430 something, but probably not as big as it is in the States. Big 44 00:02:54.430 --> 00:02:58.350 in the States. I have two kids and they were just 45 00:02:58.350 --> 00:03:02.230 tearing through the neighbourhood in the pitch blackness and I was like, 46 00:03:02.230 --> 00:03:06.170 great, awesome. Door to door. We noticed over here is you go to 47 00:03:06.170 --> 00:03:10.170 the local cinema and they're Doing reruns of all the horror movies. Sort of 48 00:03:10.250 --> 00:03:14.170 October is horror movies these and then everything is there. All the 49 00:03:14.170 --> 00:03:18.130 Halloween movies or the, all the Freddy Kruegers and all this 50 00:03:18.130 --> 00:03:21.930 other stuff. Final Destination comes out. I think they bring that back. And so yeah, 51 00:03:21.930 --> 00:03:25.170 there's a lot of. Culturally we seem to do a lot of horror movies on 52 00:03:25.170 --> 00:03:29.150 at the cinema at this time of year. Yeah, we have a 53 00:03:29.150 --> 00:03:32.510 decent amount of horror movies come out on like the streaming 54 00:03:32.510 --> 00:03:36.310 platforms and then there's some that show like, hey, you have a 55 00:03:36.310 --> 00:03:40.190 limited showing in theatres, but I mean it'd be nice to do, to do that, 56 00:03:40.190 --> 00:03:43.750 but you'd have to find one of those small 57 00:03:43.750 --> 00:03:47.630 theatres that probably do it. We do, we're 58 00:03:47.630 --> 00:03:51.470 big on Rocky, the Rocky Horror Picture Show. A lot 59 00:03:51.470 --> 00:03:55.030 of theatres. Yeah, they'll either show it or they'll have like live 60 00:03:56.840 --> 00:04:00.400 acts or plays of it that go on the same time the movie's running. Like 61 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:04.040 that's a big thing. So you never thought about your indie studio knocking out some 62 00:04:04.200 --> 00:04:08.040 R rated horror then? We actually have a 63 00:04:08.120 --> 00:04:11.640 thriller piece that we want to work on and it is, 64 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:15.960 it's got two women who try to seek 65 00:04:15.960 --> 00:04:19.560 revenge on men who I guess treat women 66 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:23.250 poorly. It's called the Manslaughter Project and 67 00:04:23.250 --> 00:04:26.170 so it's one of those thriller comedies 68 00:04:27.370 --> 00:04:31.290 that. But we're, we're, we're way in, we're still in pre production with that. 69 00:04:31.290 --> 00:04:35.130 So that's. Yeah. Oh, sounds intriguing. So I, I noticed from your 70 00:04:35.130 --> 00:04:38.890 bio that you sent through that your studio 71 00:04:38.890 --> 00:04:42.410 aims to be a gayer and more colourful 72 00:04:42.890 --> 00:04:46.410 Disney. That's an ambition, isn't, is an ambition. 73 00:04:47.370 --> 00:04:51.270 When you think about Disney? We have just this titan in the 74 00:04:51.270 --> 00:04:55.070 industry right now and it's, I mean, I grew up on Disney. 75 00:04:55.390 --> 00:04:59.150 A lot of us grew up on Disney. We watched the 76 00:04:59.150 --> 00:05:02.270 movie the Lion King and really formative in our years. 77 00:05:03.550 --> 00:05:07.070 And then, not to say, I mean, Disney still does great stuff, 78 00:05:07.950 --> 00:05:11.950 but there's a whole section of Disney that I feel 79 00:05:13.230 --> 00:05:16.330 could be better. And 80 00:05:17.050 --> 00:05:21.050 then we had the closings in the last couple of years of a 81 00:05:21.050 --> 00:05:24.650 lot of our DEI sectors and our LGBT 82 00:05:24.970 --> 00:05:28.810 and bipoc and women were laid off. 83 00:05:28.890 --> 00:05:32.410 If you know anything about the animation industry or the Hollywood industry, 84 00:05:33.370 --> 00:05:37.170 the animators and artists, while they are a lot of 85 00:05:37.170 --> 00:05:40.570 times female, they very rarely reach those 86 00:05:40.730 --> 00:05:44.090 opportunities to become the creators or to become the 87 00:05:44.090 --> 00:05:48.070 directors or become somebody that can actually call shots. 88 00:05:48.790 --> 00:05:52.630 So once that started happening, a decent amount of us still 89 00:05:52.630 --> 00:05:56.310 wanted to create and we wanted to create projects that were 90 00:05:56.310 --> 00:05:59.510 reflective of who we are and when this 91 00:05:59.830 --> 00:06:03.670 studio was formed, we decided, okay, this is going to be. 92 00:06:03.830 --> 00:06:07.830 Our mission, is to tell these sort of storeys that 93 00:06:07.830 --> 00:06:11.750 are missing in Disney. So when I say more colourful, I mean Disney's colourful 94 00:06:11.990 --> 00:06:15.510 when it comes to colour and we love colour, 95 00:06:16.710 --> 00:06:20.390 but we also want colourful, as in the different 96 00:06:20.470 --> 00:06:23.510 shapes and colours of people 97 00:06:23.750 --> 00:06:26.790 represented. So the main character isn't always, 98 00:06:27.510 --> 00:06:31.470 you know, a person, you know, a white girl or a white 99 00:06:31.470 --> 00:06:35.430 boy or a white male 100 00:06:35.430 --> 00:06:39.430 toy or a. I mean, you can argue that 101 00:06:40.100 --> 00:06:43.900 Lightning McQueen, he's a car, you know, he's a bright red 102 00:06:43.900 --> 00:06:47.340 car. But we kind of know the demographic that he 103 00:06:47.340 --> 00:06:50.740 represents. You know, between the manner of speaking 104 00:06:50.980 --> 00:06:54.340 and the voice actor and 105 00:06:54.900 --> 00:06:58.820 all of that, you. You kind of get the hint as to where he 106 00:06:58.820 --> 00:07:02.700 falls. So that's what we want to do, is we want to bring 107 00:07:02.700 --> 00:07:06.600 more people of colour in and 108 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:10.320 queer people in and people that haven't been able to really 109 00:07:10.400 --> 00:07:14.200 lead and put those things in to 110 00:07:14.200 --> 00:07:17.920 animation into storeys without that 111 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:21.600 pushback from the board or, hey, you need to rewrite this. 112 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:25.960 There was not exactly recently, but Disney had 113 00:07:25.960 --> 00:07:29.720 that character who was trying to tell her 114 00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:33.520 storey through baseball or softball and she 115 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:37.180 is trans and they had. 116 00:07:37.420 --> 00:07:41.380 While the aspect of her transness still stayed, certain scenes were 117 00:07:41.380 --> 00:07:45.020 cut out, like the scene of her having to choose in the locker room, that 118 00:07:45.020 --> 00:07:48.860 was cut out. The. Some of the language was cut out when 119 00:07:48.860 --> 00:07:52.620 she was trying to come out. And so we don't want to have to 120 00:07:52.700 --> 00:07:56.380 censor those sort of things, if that makes 121 00:07:56.380 --> 00:08:00.300 sense. But yeah, it's a big game, it's a big, big reach, 122 00:08:00.380 --> 00:08:04.290 but we're going to do it. I think it's down to responsibility 123 00:08:04.290 --> 00:08:08.210 of organisations and production companies like yourselves to take this messaging 124 00:08:08.210 --> 00:08:12.090 on, because we can all criticise Disney and other corporates for their stance, 125 00:08:12.090 --> 00:08:16.090 but we have to recognise they operate in territories all over the world. Some of 126 00:08:16.090 --> 00:08:19.290 those territories. It's illegal to be queer in any shape or form. 127 00:08:20.730 --> 00:08:24.690 They've got sponsors, they've got money, they got shareholders, they've got everything going on. So 128 00:08:24.690 --> 00:08:28.610 they are trying to tow this middle line and we can complain that 129 00:08:28.610 --> 00:08:32.510 they're selling out and they're not really standing up for us. I'd 130 00:08:32.510 --> 00:08:35.830 rather invest in some, in an organisation such as yourselves 131 00:08:36.310 --> 00:08:39.990 that aren't. Well, you're unashamedly 132 00:08:40.070 --> 00:08:44.030 queer, queer led and you're trying to push that message 133 00:08:44.030 --> 00:08:47.950 out to the masses and you're not, you're not actually going to be swayed 134 00:08:47.950 --> 00:08:51.590 by someone saying, oh, you can't say that in China or no, in, in the. 135 00:08:51.590 --> 00:08:53.830 In The Middle east. You're going to have to cut that bit out and change 136 00:08:53.830 --> 00:08:57.760 that word. Aiming at a queer audience or an 137 00:08:57.760 --> 00:09:01.720 ally audience who are receptive to the message of Chantel, 138 00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:04.520 aren't you? Yeah. There are 139 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:08.440 people that are obviously going to say, hey, this isn't. 140 00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:12.760 We can't show this here. And it's okay, fine, don't show it. 141 00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:17.080 That's the people that will want to see it. They'll reach for 142 00:09:17.080 --> 00:09:20.960 it, or they'll take it and they'll grab it and they'll want it. And we 143 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:24.590 have such a history, a robust history, 144 00:09:24.910 --> 00:09:28.870 and even more, you know, future options for the people that, you know, don't 145 00:09:28.870 --> 00:09:32.590 want to see queer or don't want to see people of colour in the 146 00:09:32.590 --> 00:09:36.310 forefront. They still have all of their options. We're not taking anything from them, 147 00:09:36.310 --> 00:09:39.950 obviously. We are building a media and 148 00:09:40.350 --> 00:09:44.190 platform for people that want to and need that 149 00:09:44.190 --> 00:09:48.190 sort of representation, want to have and need that sort of representation. 150 00:09:49.290 --> 00:09:53.290 So we're not worried about. I mean, even in China, where 151 00:09:53.290 --> 00:09:57.210 sometimes you'll get censored stuff, they'll still go, and 152 00:09:57.370 --> 00:10:01.290 the queer young people of China will still go and they'll find 153 00:10:01.610 --> 00:10:05.490 what they want to watch. That's just the way it is. Just even in the 154 00:10:05.490 --> 00:10:09.490 States where you try to, you know, block something as simple as, 155 00:10:09.490 --> 00:10:13.410 like high schoolers and you're trying to block, I don't know, Reddit at 156 00:10:13.410 --> 00:10:17.050 their school, they'll find ways around so that they can read what they want on 157 00:10:17.050 --> 00:10:20.450 Reddit. It just, it comes down to, this is what we're making 158 00:10:20.690 --> 00:10:24.530 and we are making it for us and we're making it for our community. 159 00:10:25.650 --> 00:10:27.770 And if you don't like it, you don't have to be a part of it. 160 00:10:27.770 --> 00:10:31.570 That's fine. Yeah. But the advantage that you have 161 00:10:31.570 --> 00:10:35.090 is your talent through a queer lens as well. It's not just 162 00:10:35.890 --> 00:10:38.850 a straight director or a straight 163 00:10:39.170 --> 00:10:43.130 screenwriter or the production is tend to be people straight with a 164 00:10:43.130 --> 00:10:46.290 queer character or a queer author. Maybe. In there 165 00:10:47.890 --> 00:10:51.890 you're telling the entire storey and the concept queer first, if you like, which 166 00:10:51.890 --> 00:10:55.170 means you're going to get a different version, a different flavour 167 00:10:55.810 --> 00:10:59.530 of the output than you would from a mainstream studio. And 168 00:10:59.530 --> 00:11:03.410 that's the power, isn't it? So someone's quoting Abraham Lincoln the other day. 169 00:11:03.810 --> 00:11:07.690 By the people, for the people, by the queer community, for the queer community. It's 170 00:11:07.690 --> 00:11:11.490 going to be far more representation, isn't it? Yes, and that's important 171 00:11:11.730 --> 00:11:15.080 when you want to tell a storey, you can put a queer character in there. 172 00:11:15.080 --> 00:11:18.800 Or a character of colour in there. But if you don't have the 173 00:11:18.800 --> 00:11:22.800 people behind it, the storyboard artists, the writers, the 174 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:27.240 voice actors behind it that can actually tell that storey in 175 00:11:27.240 --> 00:11:31.160 a representative and authentic sort of way, then what 176 00:11:31.160 --> 00:11:35.080 are you doing? That comes back to that 2020 where you're just sort. It 177 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:38.560 feels sort of like you're pandering or you're trying to 178 00:11:39.450 --> 00:11:43.330 give the people what they want for commercial aspects rather than what 179 00:11:43.330 --> 00:11:47.090 they're actually asking for. So we have a character in 180 00:11:47.090 --> 00:11:50.890 Poison Us in our animated show coming up. We have a 181 00:11:51.290 --> 00:11:54.889 character who is Filipino and our voice 182 00:11:54.889 --> 00:11:58.810 actress is Filipino. We could have just cast a regular, 183 00:11:59.450 --> 00:12:03.210 like any other sort of voice actress like that came to us. 184 00:12:03.450 --> 00:12:07.210 We could have found somebody cheaper. We could have just said, hey, we need an 185 00:12:07.210 --> 00:12:10.480 Asian voice actress. But no, we want somebody who. That is 186 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:13.400 representative of the demographic that we're putting out there. 187 00:12:14.200 --> 00:12:17.800 Other character in Poison Us, Oleander, he 188 00:12:17.880 --> 00:12:21.800 is a trans man. And we have a 189 00:12:21.960 --> 00:12:25.480 trans person of colour playing Oleander 190 00:12:25.959 --> 00:12:29.920 because that's important. It's important and authentic to have somebody in there. 191 00:12:29.920 --> 00:12:33.800 And then I can also. If there's moments in the script that don't read 192 00:12:33.880 --> 00:12:37.800 right or that maybe need to be changed, we allow 193 00:12:37.800 --> 00:12:41.760 that flexibility to talk back and forth and be like, hey, 194 00:12:41.760 --> 00:12:45.600 actually, in this culture, or in. We have that 195 00:12:45.680 --> 00:12:49.600 exchange of ideas, so it's not gonna run up against 196 00:12:49.760 --> 00:12:53.120 some sort of. I guess. What is that word that I'm looking for? 197 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:57.760 Not political. I'll just use the word inauthentic so that it doesn't 198 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:01.720 sound inauthentic. When we're creating a character, when we're creating a 199 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:04.070 storyline, we want it to be 200 00:13:05.190 --> 00:13:09.150 reflective of other people. Like other Filipino 201 00:13:09.150 --> 00:13:12.550 people when they see it, or other ace people when they see it, or other 202 00:13:12.950 --> 00:13:15.590 trans men when they see it. We want their 203 00:13:16.070 --> 00:13:20.030 experiences to be, hey, I actually relate 204 00:13:20.030 --> 00:13:23.790 to this. Even though it's set in a world. With magic, I hear something there 205 00:13:23.790 --> 00:13:26.470 about this authenticity part. And by going back 206 00:13:27.590 --> 00:13:31.420 so it's 100% through the eyes, through the ears, 207 00:13:31.740 --> 00:13:35.500 through the writing of someone with that lived experience and then portrayed by someone with 208 00:13:35.500 --> 00:13:39.460 that lived experience, the character becomes real to the 209 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:43.020 people that it matters to. We see it in mainstream movies all the time. We 210 00:13:43.020 --> 00:13:46.820 think, well, is that a straight guy playing a gay guy? Is 211 00:13:46.820 --> 00:13:50.740 that. Is he. Is he really getting off on that kiss or that. That love 212 00:13:50.740 --> 00:13:54.410 scene? Is he just performing? And, yeah, act is acting, 213 00:13:54.560 --> 00:13:58.160 but if you believe that as well, that's part of the storytelling, is that 214 00:13:58.160 --> 00:14:02.120 belief in that storey, that message that resonance, actually, that 215 00:14:02.120 --> 00:14:05.280 is my storey as well. And there are so many 216 00:14:05.760 --> 00:14:09.160 talented people that are not seen in 217 00:14:09.160 --> 00:14:13.040 Hollywood because it's very much a who you know, 218 00:14:13.040 --> 00:14:16.320 or this person knows this person and recommended them. 219 00:14:16.880 --> 00:14:20.830 So you end up, or you went to school with this person. And that 220 00:14:20.830 --> 00:14:24.670 leaves out a whole demographic that leaves out several demographics of people. That leaves 221 00:14:24.670 --> 00:14:28.510 out people in other countries that maybe couldn't afford to go to scad. That 222 00:14:28.510 --> 00:14:32.390 leaves out people that, you know, even in this country that 223 00:14:32.390 --> 00:14:36.309 couldn't afford to go to acting school or, you know, knew that, hey, 224 00:14:36.309 --> 00:14:39.950 acting school is probably not my best choice. As a queer person of 225 00:14:39.950 --> 00:14:43.670 colour. I need something that I can fall back on, that's going 226 00:14:43.670 --> 00:14:47.410 to spend more money, but at the same time, they're a 227 00:14:47.410 --> 00:14:51.250 great voice actor or voice actress and they, 228 00:14:52.130 --> 00:14:55.410 you know, do it on the side. They're not represented, 229 00:14:55.810 --> 00:14:59.810 they're not being seen by people or they're just. They're thought to be 230 00:14:59.810 --> 00:15:02.689 too niche, so they're not picked up by an agent. 231 00:15:03.330 --> 00:15:06.930 There's so much talent out there that, 232 00:15:08.290 --> 00:15:10.690 you know, if you just look, you can find it. 233 00:15:12.220 --> 00:15:16.020 I think what you just said there about they're not getting picked up by the 234 00:15:16.020 --> 00:15:19.580 mainstream agents, films, whatever it may be, 235 00:15:20.140 --> 00:15:23.940 because they're not of the typical blend. So what you're also doing is the 236 00:15:23.940 --> 00:15:27.540 valuable part of this is actually putting money in people's pockets, 237 00:15:27.540 --> 00:15:31.420 giving visibility to people, amplifying people that would not 238 00:15:31.420 --> 00:15:34.780 sort of be amplified elsewhere. So it's not just about telling someone else's storey and 239 00:15:35.020 --> 00:15:38.960 the audience, it's actually providing income into that, 240 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:42.800 into that segment as well, isn't it? Mm. And there's a big critique with 241 00:15:42.800 --> 00:15:46.240 indie animation right now. There's a lot of people 242 00:15:46.800 --> 00:15:50.440 that create their own studios, that create their own 243 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:54.120 shows. And for pre product, pre production or even 244 00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:57.680 sometimes production, they're not paying their 245 00:15:58.160 --> 00:16:01.920 screenwriters or their voice actors. And for some people, 246 00:16:02.640 --> 00:16:06.170 especially getting started in the voice acting scene, I mean, explain exposure 247 00:16:06.410 --> 00:16:10.090 or building clips, that's great for them. Some people can do that. 248 00:16:10.890 --> 00:16:14.410 And. But indie animation gets a bad rap 249 00:16:14.730 --> 00:16:18.730 because we're. It's like, oh, you want us 250 00:16:18.730 --> 00:16:22.730 to work for free for you? No, Wideo doesn't want you to work for free. 251 00:16:22.890 --> 00:16:26.610 No, we pay everyone. Except for me. I don't get paid right now. And 252 00:16:26.610 --> 00:16:30.170 that's fine. I put all the money back into the company and back into the 253 00:16:30.170 --> 00:16:33.930 artists and animators and people that work with me to create our 254 00:16:33.930 --> 00:16:37.770 projects. We know that, especially with all the people 255 00:16:37.770 --> 00:16:41.690 that got laid off, it's important to have income, any kind of income. 256 00:16:42.090 --> 00:16:46.010 And right now we can't afford to pay union rates. We 257 00:16:46.010 --> 00:16:49.210 want to. And we want to be able to pay union rates to people 258 00:16:49.770 --> 00:16:53.610 that are underrepresented, are. You know, 259 00:16:53.610 --> 00:16:57.210 without an agent at this point, we don't have that sort of 260 00:16:58.090 --> 00:17:01.530 income. Our Kickstarter has the goal of 261 00:17:02.340 --> 00:17:05.540 being able to pay people that. And it's going on right now, 262 00:17:06.260 --> 00:17:10.260 but we'll see if we reach that goal, honestly. But until then, 263 00:17:11.060 --> 00:17:14.660 I'm paying people. FWDIO is paying people. We 264 00:17:15.060 --> 00:17:18.820 want people that are underrepresented to get paying 265 00:17:18.820 --> 00:17:22.460 gigs so that they can also put on their 266 00:17:22.460 --> 00:17:26.300 resume that they had this paying gig. They have done 267 00:17:26.300 --> 00:17:30.100 this thing for actual money for a company and 268 00:17:30.180 --> 00:17:33.300 hopefully launch them even further. Yeah, because that. That c. 269 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:37.800 That showreel, that testimony is so 270 00:17:37.800 --> 00:17:41.520 valuable. How can you get experience? And you need experience to get experience. 271 00:17:41.760 --> 00:17:45.600 It's. It's a crazy world we live in. So this social proof, this footage 272 00:17:45.600 --> 00:17:49.360 you can give, the portfolio you start helping people build is 273 00:17:49.360 --> 00:17:53.080 invaluable for their career. As well as it is. And I remember going 274 00:17:53.080 --> 00:17:56.960 into my first job, my first interview at I was 275 00:17:57.040 --> 00:18:00.420 15 or 16, and I went in for 276 00:18:00.900 --> 00:18:04.580 a stockroom position. Position and at a grocery store. 277 00:18:04.820 --> 00:18:08.500 And she asked me if I had any experience. And I said no. 278 00:18:08.740 --> 00:18:12.020 Cause I mean, I'm clearly high school at that point. And 279 00:18:12.980 --> 00:18:16.940 she goes, well, we're looking for someone with experience. And I 280 00:18:16.940 --> 00:18:20.820 remember sitting there thinking, well, how do I get experience if nobody gives me 281 00:18:20.820 --> 00:18:24.580 experience? But I mean, either way, I was 282 00:18:24.580 --> 00:18:28.020 hired not in the stock room, but I was hired as a cashier up front. 283 00:18:29.320 --> 00:18:33.240 So that was, I guess, but that was that first foot in the door 284 00:18:33.320 --> 00:18:37.320 of okay, this is a job. And any kind of job 285 00:18:37.320 --> 00:18:41.120 that I get, I have to use it to pivot to whatever I'm 286 00:18:41.120 --> 00:18:45.040 doing next. Because it's hard. It's hard 287 00:18:45.040 --> 00:18:48.800 to go in there with no experience and try to get something. Especially when it 288 00:18:48.800 --> 00:18:52.800 says, hey, you need to have experience. And that's why I see a lot of 289 00:18:52.800 --> 00:18:56.620 people in indie animation doing clips for free, doing voice acting 290 00:18:56.620 --> 00:19:00.500 for free, because they're building that roster. So what is the typical 291 00:19:00.500 --> 00:19:03.820 length of a feature that you produce? Is this 292 00:19:04.460 --> 00:19:08.420 long hour, two hour, or is this short? We 293 00:19:08.420 --> 00:19:12.220 have short. Okay, so Poison Us, the pilot is about 294 00:19:12.220 --> 00:19:16.060 10 minutes. The next several episodes are also in that 295 00:19:16.540 --> 00:19:19.500 between 10 and 15 minute range. 296 00:19:20.790 --> 00:19:24.710 Just because that's the amount that we've budgeted for. And we've 297 00:19:24.710 --> 00:19:28.630 also found that we can tell that short enough storey in that amount 298 00:19:28.630 --> 00:19:32.510 of Time. Now, what I was talking about briefly before the manslaughter 299 00:19:32.510 --> 00:19:35.750 project, that's at more of an hour and a half 300 00:19:36.870 --> 00:19:40.750 for a movie length. That's. But again, that one 301 00:19:40.750 --> 00:19:44.550 is still in pre production, so we haven't nailed down the number. We just still 302 00:19:44.550 --> 00:19:48.490 have the script that we're finishing out and 303 00:19:48.490 --> 00:19:51.330 fleshing out and actually I'm looking for 304 00:19:53.410 --> 00:19:57.170 a co writer on that one just because the 305 00:19:57.570 --> 00:20:01.490 topic does have a mAJor 306 00:20:03.010 --> 00:20:06.490 character, dear Woman, who is part of the 307 00:20:06.490 --> 00:20:10.170 indigenous community. And this is one of those projects that I'm not going to go 308 00:20:10.170 --> 00:20:13.970 forward on until we have a writer from the indigenous community 309 00:20:14.940 --> 00:20:18.780 that is wanting to join on this. Because 310 00:20:19.500 --> 00:20:23.020 that's a cultural icon. I guess icon's the wrong word. 311 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:27.420 That's. A dear woman is a cultural. Dear woman is a part of their 312 00:20:27.420 --> 00:20:30.380 culture that I don't want to mess up 313 00:20:31.660 --> 00:20:35.260 personally. And if I don't have somebody that can 314 00:20:35.260 --> 00:20:39.020 consult on it and I don't have somebody that can write on 315 00:20:39.020 --> 00:20:42.990 it, then that's not something. We're either gonna 316 00:20:42.990 --> 00:20:46.950 have to pivot hard with the film or that one is gonna have to 317 00:20:46.950 --> 00:20:50.950 be shelved because it's just. That's the way of 318 00:20:50.950 --> 00:20:54.790 the world. Like I. That's the way of foidio, at least. It 319 00:20:54.790 --> 00:20:58.150 doesn't matter how great it is. It needs to be 320 00:20:58.470 --> 00:21:01.670 responsible, reflective and 321 00:21:01.990 --> 00:21:04.790 resonant. Yeah. 322 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:10.160 Where do you push these films shorts out? Is this 323 00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:14.160 a YouTube or is it self hosted? Is it through independent cinemas 324 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:17.920 and things? Or a bit of everything? So with Poison Us, 325 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:21.920 we have several shorts that come out on TikTok, but the 326 00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:25.760 actual pilot will come out on YouTube, but it'll come out on 327 00:21:25.760 --> 00:21:28.880 YouTube after we do a separate screening 328 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:32.720 for the people in the Kickstarter that have 329 00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:38.160 paid, you know, the $25 to be VIP or 330 00:21:38.560 --> 00:21:42.560 we have. I think we're also debating right now 331 00:21:42.560 --> 00:21:45.680 whether or not to do a physical screening 332 00:21:46.080 --> 00:21:49.520 alongside. Like a. Alongside the early 333 00:21:49.520 --> 00:21:53.200 screening. When it comes to Poison Us, the rest of the episodes 334 00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:57.600 will come out on YouTube. And when it 335 00:21:57.600 --> 00:22:01.390 comes to indie animation, it's kind of like you can 336 00:22:01.870 --> 00:22:05.710 make a pilot or you can make an animation, but then if you end 337 00:22:05.710 --> 00:22:09.390 up partnering with another company, like a production company 338 00:22:09.710 --> 00:22:13.470 or a distribution company, then it has to be held until 339 00:22:13.870 --> 00:22:17.630 they put it on whatever streaming platform it's going to be. We don't have that 340 00:22:17.630 --> 00:22:21.070 issue right now with any of our 341 00:22:21.070 --> 00:22:24.830 projects. So we get to decide when we're putting them out, which gives us 342 00:22:24.830 --> 00:22:28.380 amount of time, whatever amount of time we need to finish it 343 00:22:28.700 --> 00:22:32.300 or to make it so if somebody has. 344 00:22:32.300 --> 00:22:36.060 Somebody has surgery or somebody needs a mental health break for a week, especially 345 00:22:36.060 --> 00:22:40.060 like one of my animators or one of the cleanup artists. Okay, cool. 346 00:22:40.300 --> 00:22:44.260 Like, if I can't get somebody else to jump in on that week to 347 00:22:44.260 --> 00:22:48.140 fill in that piece that we need, that's fine. We will wait a week. 348 00:22:48.140 --> 00:22:51.980 We have that luxury right now. And that's great because mental health is so important 349 00:22:52.550 --> 00:22:56.390 to me and it's important to a lot of the people that work 350 00:22:56.390 --> 00:23:00.110 with, you know, in this industry. It's easy to burn out and burn out 351 00:23:00.110 --> 00:23:03.470 fast. So your route to monetization is through 352 00:23:03.470 --> 00:23:06.710 sponsorship. Adverts, YouTube, 353 00:23:07.110 --> 00:23:11.110 watch, revenue monetization on the channel. That is that. That's primarily 354 00:23:11.110 --> 00:23:14.630 your. Your trAJectory to. To revenue generation. 355 00:23:14.870 --> 00:23:18.710 Yeah. So we have. We have sponsorships. We actually just 356 00:23:21.030 --> 00:23:24.910 about a month ago landed a sponsorship with Toon Boom, which is a 357 00:23:24.910 --> 00:23:28.870 big animation software piece in 358 00:23:28.870 --> 00:23:32.830 the field. Big player for 2D animation. So we have a 359 00:23:32.830 --> 00:23:35.030 sponsorship from them. We also have 360 00:23:36.630 --> 00:23:40.510 two other sponsorships right now. And 361 00:23:40.510 --> 00:23:44.510 then we have the Kickstarter going on, which will fund the 362 00:23:44.510 --> 00:23:47.360 mAJority of the pilot. 363 00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:52.520 Ooh, your puppy. Puppy's 364 00:23:52.520 --> 00:23:56.160 here. Puppy's here. She's getting. She's getting all 365 00:23:56.160 --> 00:23:59.120 excited. She's playing with a nylon bone and she's 366 00:24:00.560 --> 00:24:03.200 making her very excited. So, yeah, anyway, yeah, sorry, 367 00:24:04.320 --> 00:24:07.760 yeah, no. So we have several different 368 00:24:07.840 --> 00:24:11.520 streams of revenue. So we have the sponsorships, we have 369 00:24:11.760 --> 00:24:15.230 the Kickstarter, we will have 370 00:24:15.710 --> 00:24:19.590 merch also, and we have whatever comes back to 371 00:24:19.590 --> 00:24:23.550 us from the YouTube or TikTok, that 372 00:24:23.550 --> 00:24:27.350 sort of thing. And we're. We're thinking about doing Patreon, 373 00:24:27.350 --> 00:24:31.070 but that's not something that we've committed to yet. 374 00:24:31.070 --> 00:24:34.350 So this is using sort of modern, you know, 375 00:24:34.830 --> 00:24:38.790 sounds quite patronising, modern, young, younger ways of doing this. 376 00:24:38.790 --> 00:24:42.660 You know, you're not looking traditional production, fundraising, going 377 00:24:42.660 --> 00:24:45.340 to the usual suspects. This is community 378 00:24:46.780 --> 00:24:49.660 sponsored and fed and the people are sponsoring. You are 379 00:24:50.060 --> 00:24:54.020 predominantly interested in queer bipoc content, so that 380 00:24:54.020 --> 00:24:57.820 you're accessing that market as well, right? Yeah. So we do 381 00:24:57.820 --> 00:25:01.580 have. There's a couple of reasons for that. One is that our 382 00:25:01.580 --> 00:25:05.460 topic and our. What we're producing is niche in the 383 00:25:05.460 --> 00:25:09.390 idea of. This isn't what Disney would put on. This 384 00:25:09.390 --> 00:25:12.870 isn't what necessarily Netflix would pick up 385 00:25:13.190 --> 00:25:17.110 because it is. Because it is queer and it's bipoc 386 00:25:17.190 --> 00:25:20.310 and it's right there. So unless we, 387 00:25:22.230 --> 00:25:26.030 you know, negotiated some sort of control of, you know, content 388 00:25:26.030 --> 00:25:29.910 and creative direction, that's. And that's probably not something that they would 389 00:25:29.910 --> 00:25:33.870 take and want to give up those liberties. So there's the 390 00:25:33.870 --> 00:25:37.870 reason for that. But the other reason is, yeah, we're community driven. We 391 00:25:38.030 --> 00:25:41.390 are making things for our community by people in our community. 392 00:25:42.350 --> 00:25:46.350 And that's what those people want to see 393 00:25:46.350 --> 00:25:50.270 as well. So we're reaching out directly to them rather 394 00:25:50.270 --> 00:25:54.190 than to a studio or, you know, financial 395 00:25:55.390 --> 00:25:59.390 backers that, I don't know live in the clouds. 396 00:25:59.390 --> 00:26:02.640 They don't live in the clouds, obviously, but they people that 397 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:07.080 we also don't have access to because a lot of us were in the 398 00:26:07.080 --> 00:26:10.640 lower tiers of the echelons of Hollywood. 399 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:14.440 We never had access. There's no way to go up and be like, hey, look 400 00:26:14.440 --> 00:26:17.920 at this script, look at this project that I have an idea for. 401 00:26:18.480 --> 00:26:22.160