#AATA WORDS AND TUNES
Anna and the Apocalypse, with writer Alan McDonald & composer Tommy Reilly
Raw Transcript from Designrr AI
Speaker 1: I got a theory. It might be Bernie's. Hello everyone.
Speaker 2: That's fine. You didn't do the earlier one because I was going to join a
Speaker 1: dancing demon. That was something isn't right. Today. We have two guests. Oh yeah. If we can avoid overlapping as much as possible. No. Cross stop and don't feel. Don't feel troubled. If you'd say something and you get overlap to start again, it's fine. Don't worry about it. So, um, hello everyone. This is us again. We have two guests today, Alan Macdonald and Tommy Riley. Hello. Hello. Hello. I'll start with two very important important questions. So I'll ask both of them and you have a few seconds to think about them. So I'm Tommy, did you manage to Sell Your Sofa And Alan, um, how important is buffy in your daily life
Speaker 2: and the Sofa still there You're not getting anywhere with that. It is horrible. It's a horrible silver. But what, what it, what it is is cheap and I figured that the, you know, like while it is grotesque in many ways and there are many better options out there and it's really cheap and I thought someone might go for it, no progress yet because instagram not working at well as a method of selling all sorts of feedback I've had so far as craigslist. Some people are enjoying the adverts and there's been a lot of like encouraging, like please continue to advertise the sofa, but please, I don't want it. It's disgusting. If any listeners looking for the horrible sofa, very well sold. It's really brands and like Solo Brian and um, it's very available. Explain the uh, how many people can you fill it out again You can get. You can get three comfortably. Yep. Comfortably. Maybe we will buy it because for them
Speaker 1: podcast. Okay. Three people on a sofa. Well, I was looking at it. It reminds me a bit of a sofa had in my childhood. There is, there's the nostalgia aspect there. But uh, we are lacking space.
Speaker 2: True. Here. You can add it. I'll do it. I'll do it for a bag of chocolate buttons whilst getting desperate. I mean I only put a monetary value on it in the first place to suggest it was worth something.
Speaker 1: Love that suggestion
Speaker 2: because channel sales, classic sales techniques. It's like if, if you think it's like, well I really should. Doesn't meet a thousand pounds audit. I think quite a fire festival on execute the technique properly, but that's what I was going for. What you should do is lie and see like a featured every member of an apocalypse or sat on this couch that you lean into the that quite a few of them have sat on it. I know you've said, oh that's a bit of a creepy. We have to sell. I mean, like I said, it wasn't my idea, but it is there. The coaches there, if you want it, if anyone wants it to be to explain. I've been trying to sell us over to Thailand. One that let me just go to my hands with no context and I'm not trying to sell it. I just need rid of it. Please, so I can put my grandmother's table in its place. Someone please take it. What was my. Oh buffy. All my daily life. Buffy informs me. Meet
Speaker 3: the, into my very Dni even though it wasn't around when I was born at buffy. The vampire slayer is a. So I say this as someone who has been a doctor who finds since about age six. Buffy the vampire slayer is the most important TV show of all time. To me. I first, I loved the original movie with Kristy Swanson, who unfortunately, I don't know if anyone's actually mentioned yet, but it's definitely canceled because she's gone super republican in her old age. But uh, yeah, the original movie I really, really liked even though it's not great. Um, and then I heard this TV show was coming and I thought, well that'd be terrible because TV shows based upon movies have a rubbish because this was the nineties and not the Netflix age when everything is based on a movie. Um, and I caught it on BBC two or to BBC two on terrestrial tv on like a Wednesday night and 98 a.
Speaker 3: and I caught the, the, the two part pilot and it just so happened that that was a night that my parents were. I did have a TV my own, but that meant I could watch it on the big TV in the living room. And I was blown away and madly fell in love with Sarah Michelle Gellar, uh, 18 years old, myself. I think she was 19 at the time. Um, and uh, yeah, that show completely changed my opinion on what TV could be, which I think at that to the rest of the industry as well, frankly, because I think that's probably the start of the files was doing some stuff like this as well, but like in terms of messing with genre and changing turns and building really soppy but enjoyable and deep can have character arcs across the season while still having really strong episodic content that didn't reset to the status quo every week off.
Speaker 3: It did some incredible stuff. And as much as I am a massive admirer of just Sweden's as much as I think these days, there's a, there's a slightly more complicated conversation to be had. Uh, I think back then the second season of buffy in particular, where the examination of what happens when you sleep with your boyfriend, then he literally becomes a demon is one of the best metaphors in the history of TV. Uh, so yeah, buffy I think is an incredibly important tool both for me and for other people. And as I mentioned were smoking and that and we weren't recording, uh, back in 2002, one when I was 21 a after uni. I lived in South Korea for 18 months. And when I went out there I thought I wanted to be an actor, which madness. Uh, but I thought was going to go away, save money, come back and go to drama school.
Speaker 3: But I'd always written since I was a kid and I took out the buffy season one script book with me just to read and I got a couple of scripts that and thought, you know what I'm going to try one of these screenplay things. I've never, I've never written anything like this in my life. Going to try one of these screenplays. And I wrote my first screenplay after reading the buffy season one script boot bites about back in like two thousand and two cent actually, funnily enough. Well, okay, it sends it to the BBC when I came back and go a really lovely response and had it go to like children's television, uh, for, you know, onto the commissioner. Stable it didn't go, but to be at like 22 and get feedback it. Oh No, this is good. And this is, I think we like and you know, you should do more of this really set me on the path to everything that's happened since. Um, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It's very, very cool. So buffy means everything to me and answer to your question yet. Alan likes puffy. Yeah. It just as. I don't know if you've picked up on that. I liked buffy and told me how as a coach to sell. So thanks for listening. Welcome guys. That was the good, the bad.
Speaker 3: That's how we used our guests for their podcast to talk about anet coach. Excellent. Still not the weirdest question anyone associated with this film is West. Ellis had some absolute crackers. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah. We don't wait to find that. I will live the floor to Adam who is our expert in all things. I'm soundtrack and music. Yeah. I'm not. No, no pressure there. And um, yeah. So we are welcome. We are happy to have you there in your capacity of having worked on Antonio Apocalypse. Thanks for having a. We did an episode and thanks for listening to it. And so Adam
Speaker 4: go surfing. I'll start off with just probably too modest to say this before I think vaguely, but last at this time last year we discussed like having themed moms and one of those few months was going to be musicals to which he and responses were telling me when it is. So I'll leave the country so I can't do those, those episodes. So when you came back from seeing it in the apocalypse and said you have to see this movie, it's really good. It's like, it's a musical. You hate these. He's like, no, no, no. You have to see it. So what did you do with the. I know it's like to be able to do that to Yara man who's committedly hates musicals is quite, quite impressive. And then obviously we saw the movie and were blown away by it because it was something completely different I hadn't seen in a long time something like this.
Speaker 4: I'm just, it's ability to like take you on a different sort of journey. I mean you think when you think of like musicals based with other genres like cholera and that yours guys that's going to work. But it was enough of both that it worked both as a horror film on our musical. So on that, on that field. Thanks very much for writing this and composing music for something. That's good. Thank you very much. Thanks. I have back Fat Gray Bat Bong questions. So was like, we'll go through these and then it will the conversation go anywhere. Um, so the first one is basically, um, is this or was this the first time working on a film Well, when did you
Speaker 3: get onto onto the port clubs Because we've had an q and a's from yarn that it's, it was kicking a boat in the pre production stage for quite coil a incredibly long time. So I started on Iona in 2010 and I, in terms of the creative team wasn't even the first person on that film. Um, so back in I guess 2009, uh, the original short, which was called Zombie musical, was written by a guy called Ryan Mchenry who was a film student in Edinburgh at the time from dumfries. And he and his girlfriend had been watching high school musical, which per day, um, and he talked to his girlfriend. Had bangers in there. I'll do you know what I'll give you that there are a couple of banks can freeze and absolutely brick and for years and absolute justice court as a tune or however it has that on record before we continue.
Speaker 3: But the rest of it. Um, but, uh, he talked to his girlfriend halfway through and said, I'm so bored. I really watched them. Zombies would come in and eat Zac Efron right now. And when the time came for him to do his end of year film for his course, he was a film student, uh, well, whilst everyone else was kind of doing what you would expect, I think for film students who are mostly quite ct scan, dramatic pieces, I don't know, probably a bit drugs and deprivation because there's so much of that. Um, Ryan wanted to do something fun and went to his, uh, his very good friend who at the time was a note, what did, what did these unique, it was at Saint Andrews and he did something like international relations or something utterly unrelated and Super Highfalutin, but they knew each other from home and said to him, would you produce a Zombie musical for me
Speaker 3: A nice and said, well, firstly, I've never purchased anything, not producer. And secondly, that sounds like an awful concept for a film. But they did it anyway. And they roped in a bunch of friends. And uh, the subsequent short was called Zombie musical. And these screens are the dumfries film festival, I think in 2010 where it was picked up by a production company called black camel for, uh, the option on a feature at that exact moment. I was still an English teacher, a drama teacher at the time, but had a few years previously written that script based, deployed my, my reading of a buffy screenplay. I was trying to Kinda break through and become a screenwriter. And I had met a guy, a friend of mine called Matt Callahan, a screenwriter's kind of networking event in Glasgow. We'd become friends and make big bait. Got a job as a script reader APP black camel.
Speaker 3: So Zombie musical comes in and Ryan had done a first pass at a feature version which was like 60 pages long. I think he, Nixon had actually gone to a cabin somewhere, um, and, uh, uh, make new that ego is, was a high school teacher and B, I really love buffy and see, I was really enjoying glee, which was still in its first season and still genius at that point. Uh, and he said, well, you should show this to my mate because this is much more his thing and he knows the target audience and he'll give you some notes. So I read and I really loved what Ryan was doing. I thought the premise was incredible. I love the short and I basically sent off like three pages worth of notes just saying, Hey, you know, take her, leave this as much as you please hear the things that I would do if I were involved.
Speaker 3: I think the idea is amazing and please keep me in touch, keep in touch and let me know when you've made it because I want to see it. Uh, I got an invitation to meet Ryan a week later with Mason and a week after that I was curator and that was back in 2010 and we continue to develop it. There were a couple of very, very near messes with actually getting the foam finance than going, um, and towards the end of that initial periods, Roddy and Tommy going forward, um, after we'd been working with some different people for the music earlier in and quite clicked. Um, now let me jump in in a second just to kind of talk about where they are, where they are, but what happened shortly afterwards was Ryan was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, which is a form of bone cancer that predominantly affects young people, uh, and as the hideous thing and was actually a form of cancer that I had lost another friend to earlier in my life as well.
Speaker 3: Unbelievably. Um, and that was really rough and really horrible for Esol, uh, but Ryan was doing really well and as much as the treatment was really harrowing and uh, it took me 18 months worth of treatment. Um, seemed like he'd come at the other sites and things are looking positive and then as suddenly as happens with these things and got some bad news when he went back for his next scans and we lost him three months after that. And that was in 2015. So that could have left. Isn't a position where we've been, you know, I'd been on the film for five years, a nascent Ryan or the other producer. Net crumb had been on it for sex at that point. Um, a nascent, etc. Ryan, you know, before he died, like, you know, this is your idea, what do you want to do And ryan had said, you know, like we're all working on this together.
Speaker 3: I want you to make it like I want it to go on and do something with us because why would you just let it go I'm Really unfortunate. Musical reference there a no, everyone's thinking about elsa. So nixon went off, bless them and worked so hard. Uh, you know, the other thing as well as we are all like all of us with the exception, I think of john mcphee hill, the director, I think we're all self taught. I don't think any of us directly studied film or at least the thing we are doing and film, um, in that respect.
Speaker 2: Caner a little bit, but not, not, not. I did like sound design. Well they sound more like an art degree to be honest than a, I don't know. Yeah. So no, not really. Music for film in any way.
Speaker 3: Give me one second till just a pump up your volume a bit top menu because it sounded a bit a pump up the volume.
Speaker 2: No one else guys turn me up. Yeah, tom know tearing me up that. That turned me right up to be too much later. No, now we're cooking. Tommy saw some volume way down. Mommy's got some volume. Feels good. Oh no, I was just saying then really studied, but none of us. You're right. Yeah. Like I mean rowing
Speaker 5: the boat in some ways. Like there's elements of that on my course but not really. I mean if it's helpful stuff, but nothing that ties in but it wasn't the right to compose in rodents and like, like that was more the zany.
Speaker 3: Well we all have to kind of our interests in any it is. We ended up in and the reason I bring it up is essentially everyone ended up kind of going into overdrive and finding the way through at that point. So nixon went off and nick actually both. I think in vet school he's got kind of mentorships and internships in the industry. Built a contacts, built the knowledge base at the same time. Uh, I was still working on that script and one for another film. you guys rock in a music and yeah, there was a point we kind of just the perfect storm going to kick them when they find the financing. Creative scotland matched it at that exact point. The kind of student film company they'd formed, which was taking called haphazard media, ended up merging with a game studio called and griffin and a picture host called picture lock. I think it was at the time to form what is no bleeding griffin the entity which does video games, film and tv development and post and became this much bigger company. Um, I think we employee almost 60 people there, so that all happened at the same time. And then we went ahead and we made it. Um, but yeah, I mean in terms of how long that the time we shots, I'd been on it for six years. They'd been on it for seven years. You
Speaker 5: and a half. Five, maybe four. Maybe.
Speaker 3: It tells story how you met nixon.
Speaker 5: Well yeah, no, that was through roddy, so I didn't. I didn't know nascent or or anyone who had anything to do with this other than rod and then rod knew I was doing kind of sound design stuff and knew I was. I'd been doing music for my little brother's short films at the time, was trying to do film music. I was trying to get out and normal music. I was fed up of it. I've been in songwriting for seven, eight years to mixed success, had some things, worked. Some things haven't been on the same publisher for a real long time. Tried london, painted that, came back, so I was like looking for the way I have like normal pop music kind of stuff and trying to do bits of film and then rod was like, oh, I've got this thing. I've met these guys. They've got this zombie musical script.
Speaker 5: I, I, I wanna I want to take a look at it. I don't think it's too big to do alone and I know you're doing that thing. I think it might work, and we were, we just said to each other, we could come up with two or three ideas in a week than maybe it was for us and we could try it. And um, yeah, I was, I was at his house 10 minutes after the phone call. I mean literally he lives around the corner from here and he called said zombies as I'll see you in 10. That sense. Ileus and I though you think I was supposed to have the script. I still don't know if to this day I should have had it on my laptop, but I took a copy off of them. I shouldn't have even been redone it. And um, because they hadn't told dan he was gonna write with someone else, you know, but we just dove in, had a great time. Soon as it got up to the christmas number I was like, this is for, I love this. And uh, yeah, just had a blast doing it. It was a, it was a musical freedom from writing normal songs for years. It was like you could go and write anything you want, rock opera, pop music, jazz, wherever you want to do a fish wrap.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of like there's a lot
Speaker 5: cards and things you can use in this kind of project that you can't use a normal and that's kind of where the funders, we have been rodeo, beg Randy Newman fans and that cane of proper harmonic adventure that people that doing a bit more than. I'm actually in the singer songwriter world, but for a long time was kind of not the thing, you know, and so it's quite nice to be back in, in that territory where people are having fun. Yeah, totally. Again, you know, it kind of swinging back to a bit more old school song writing style.
Speaker 4: I got to say that it's the time of year is a beautiful song. I didn't even realize that that wasn't a real crush, like a, like a record that came out with katie. I was like, oh, they'll just listen to something on the radio and then we've got the same track. I'm like, oh shit that's composed for the movie. They got no idea. Oh, but the opener
Speaker 5: YeAh, like, well that was, I mean that's just budget, like we couldn't affoRd any christmas songs and so like we, there was times with john would just come running through from the other room and be like, well I need, I need, I need a jingle bell rock, but we can't afford that,
Speaker 5: so right one. So we'd just write something color christmas at christmas time that never made it on the same track, but please on the read deal in the films it's like, well right it sort of jingle bell rock type songs that we can't afford the big christmas pop song. We need one for the video, you know, all I want for christmas is use the big ones. Like let's, let's go and do a martinez, phil spector tanged. That'd be great fun. And it was, you know, these are the, that is, that is the most fun you can have at work and someone just runs through and says, I can't have this, can we do something Caner lake it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Okay, sure. Great fun. You know, there was a period where it was like spring it up point. Yeah. You guys are still stuck writing christmas music coming through and you look like you're both going insane. I was in heaven. I love christmas. That was one of the things I said in the episode that a lot of the songs have slight christmasy stones in them. I'd be at like, almost like jingle bells in the background, which is something that. And It's almost, it's just weird enough that you have at any other time of the year you wouldn't necessarily notice it, but if you listen, if you watched the movie at christmas, you're like, oh, there's a christmas song. Which was really impressive. I was, it was, it was really cool to see that in near enough. Every single christmas daft. I love. It starts in like mId september for me.
Speaker 5: I love it. I love the whole season. I love snow. Says I get anywhere near snow. Um, my best, happiest self. So like a human penguin. I just love it. I love christmas and so yeah, to do a christmas thing was a joy. My some of my favorite episode zone tracks, you know john dabney's elf, I'll John Williams williams' home alone music. That's that twinkle leaf. That's the stuff that's great.
Speaker 3: Got wait for us to do something else and then discover how much you despise easter. Oh no, we've lost tommy.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Hey, with the easter bunny. It's reboot zombies of bonnie movie. So it was, was this your first goal on a musical or a feature film Lynn Of this scale Yeah, 100 percent. I've done two shots to that point. Little things. One is a unique project, one with my brother, but I kind of felt like I knew, I don't know, I've been a film like real film node since I was a kid and um, was, was really trying to go that way with was so I felt like I could do it and because it was two of us because it was me and rod, they working together. That was, that, you know, you kind of had the stabilizers on of having someone else to tell you if you've lost your mind or not. This is really helpful and just like I really kind of, I think I felt comfortable and it weirdly, even though it was new in that, in that respect I still felt like, ah, this is okay, we'll get this done. So I'm a. Because we know what we never really asked anyone if we do in the school. Nobody stopped us.
Speaker 3: It was a lot. That just felt a little. It just the presumption. I know. I mean this is covered, right, like someone's going to do this. Well we just saw,
Speaker 5: kept quiet about it. Like well maybe we'll get to write lists if normally stops us. So we just, we just wrote it. I don't even really remember a conversation about it. John just kind of assumed we were doing it and we had assumed we were doing it and that was enough.
Speaker 3: So much of the script that looks like that as well. That it was happening. Yeah. Months and months would be good. I mean at some point someone's going to tell me this bowl put sequences stupid, right LIke at some point there's going to go, we're not, we're not just having them turn over a ball pit and using this like it's not going to happen right now. All the way through to the end all the way through. There's so many little moments, some points get. Someone's going to stop and see, is this a bit stupid Nope. Never. 60 child. Really Yeah. Oh listen. See that light. The only line that plays perfectly everywhere in the world regardless of the translation. That gets a laugh, which I am so unbelievably ashamed though. There are some frankly really clever gags in that movie that just don't play. If you've. If you've Missed the reference or if it's in translation or wherever. Everywhere you go, if somebody accidentally cause a child sexy, everyone goes, ha, ha, ha.
Speaker 5: Or what like play. That was funny. Like we all went over to Spain to watch it play, sit to play it safe just. And you know, all the pans, you know, where they'll come in and then you just wait and going, oh wait, this movie's got over 15 pounds and these are all going to sink like a stone. And they didn't just direct translation, totally electoral, but oddly enough, anytime there was blood at that festival was like almost
Speaker 2: the standard innovation. So all the, all the laughs that we lost in wordplay. I know we made up for by like hands coming off and people clapping like crazy whenever someone's head came off. that was one of the weirdest nights. Also the realization that someone had had to go and do subtitles for it. Especially if your song. Yeah, that was the weirdest thing. Breakaway escobar and couldn't stop singing it because that's great. Did you find working with somebody else because you both words on somEthing at least in your respective areas. WaS that a benefit I was oN different to what you'd done before Did it affect the way that the script and the music tondo working with them Something
Speaker 3: else and my experience was so weird because I wrote the first half of it with someone and then the second half of it by myself. Um, yeah, I mean I've done it better court rating and I had done prior to start knowing that anna and anna was my big experience of court rating something alongside another film that was doing that same with somewhere else. So, but what I've discovered, I've sensical written something else with a different writer as well in a predominantly do stuff by myself and every experience is different because people are different. So like rodney and told me, you're obviously a partnership now they've kind of established that shorthand, but for me I don't have like a goto single core director the imagination than just the general vibe in the personality. The other person makes a huge difference. So ryan was just a complete font of unending enthusiasm.
Speaker 3: In fact, tommy remains me on so much sometimes. Just didn't that it was so hard to shake his kind of general sense of everything is awesome. You know, like I can have a though. This is going to be amazing. I've had this really exciting idea. He was, it was a total visionary in that respect. Um, and he was the guy who would set quite quietly for 15 minutes during a conversation while everyone else was having like a detailed conversation about craft or structure or kind of really getting under the surface and just let all of that go because he was happy enough for people to do their job. And, you know, one thing he said to me very early on that's fundamentally he considers himself a director, so to have someone who was so passionate but rating with them really took a lot of that awful and elo tim just to kind of chip in where he thought it was important and he had something to say, but when he adds something to see, it was always mane blowing.
Speaker 3: It was always just. I had no idea where that concept came from. But that is awesome. Um, sometimes they were really big. Sometimes they really small, but like ryan always wanted the bowling alley as a setting because he always had a sense of how you could use it for multiple, um, you know, in the final movie it's used for a big fight sequence, but it's also used for a really kind of lucky, quite grim song and it's also used for a bunch of banter amongst the teenagers. Um, and he always had a sense of that location worked really well for that. He was also the guy that I'm very early on wanted to do this no angel sequence. In fact, he called me on boxing day 20 something 12, 13 because the originals aren't musical. Had been a summer movie. It was going to be like a summer graduation type of fear.
Speaker 3: Uh, and he caught me in boxing. Tastes like it should be a christmas movie. Uh, and of course It should be, you're totally right. So he always had, he had a great eye for a visual and a great sense of like a moment that would just work like ryan very much like john actually my ranges, burrito cinema, um, and had a real sense of what would work on the screen and for me it was always more about getting under the surface of the characters and kind of figuring out what. So ryan would come up with a big visual and then I would come up with, okay, so when we get to that point her, these kids feeling about it, you know, like what does this do to them So again, the burning christmas tree was ryan's. Um, and for me it was more about, well that's amazing.
Speaker 3: But ryan's thing was always, yeah, I Just really want to burden the christmas tree and shoot it. Like, yeah, okay, let's do that. So of that came, you know, like in a suggestion, okay, well that's clearly something that anna and see having discovered somethings going down. But before realizing how bad it is because it's our brilliant, oh shit has really happened. Visual and having like our two main characters who are on that kind of cusp of growing up, watching a literal symbol of childhood joy barden in front of their eyes, but then playing off with a joke with a potassium layman, the balance stuff like all of that tended to be me. So we had a really nice kind of a relationship whereby he would really think, okay, when I'm in the cinema, what am I watching Uh, and, and, and how's that making me feel an economic grind, cInematic sense.
Speaker 3: And then he and I would knock it around to my response will be, okay, that's great. Thematically what that could do for us as this, if we do this with a scene and we talk it out. And obviously after we lost him I just had to kind of go back and, and, and figure out a way to keep it faithful to what we'd been writing. But I couldn't be afraid of making it my own, you know, at that point as well. And, and, and that nascence told the story. But the fIrst draft that I wrote by myself, they had to take me aside and kind of see like, I think we think you've lost it a bit here because it's really dark and it's really mean. Um, and I've never gone back and read it because I don't think I can take it now. But, uh, I knew what was going through my head at the time was, well, this movie's going to get made so we better get serious so this can't be too silly anymore.
Speaker 3: Like I need to like, okay, let's make this, um, so decision, I don't have spoken about this, but a decision that I made very early on and dead run it past the guys. And he said, try it out, was I lost the snow angel scene and said, well, if we're making this movie, we can't cover a park at night and snow and shit it because we're not going to a budget. So let's just do the scene. And the theater earlier between john and anna. And one of the first things that mason came back with to his credit, I think was, I'm really messing the old heart that was there. Can we just get the snow angels back Like what pay for it We'll find a way to pay for it. Um, and that was kinda my way back end. So the snow angel seems really precious to me because that's a scene that ryan and I wrote and rewrote and rewrote and rewrote and it is, I think the way that it reads in the final movie is really faithful to what he and I always wanted from that, which is just a really gorgeous little scene between two friends rate before the world goes to shit.
Speaker 3: But you get this real sense that they are sharing a really genuine moments together. Uh, and it's a really kind of magical, really kind of beautiful moment, but they're also lying in the snow in a shitty play park and a crappy tone in the middle of scotland's. And he desperately want over this place.
Speaker 4: It reminded me because don't. From what I found, one, there is a park like that or just basically like a rusty slade. Yeah. I set a swings and our own the stuff and there's not even a roundabout anymore and I go home. It's like they've taken away their own the back for some reason and just watching that scene going of like when I was a kid, like just plain at this park have having all these things, imaginative stories and like that's what you would do as a kid. You got the sense of like this is where they grew up. They would've had, they would've hanged together here their whole life and now at the cusp of leaving and at that point in the film will be so think that anna's going to leave and travel the world and leave, um, john behind. And she does. And that's cannon. And you just get the sense of like this. This was not. We know that this is going to be a zombie musical. There's zombies. I've comment at some point you're like, this would be the final moment before you even have the whole scene of like john runs the airport. What are good, like the frenCh roots sort of sort of way. Totally,
Speaker 5: yeah. I wish we could have done the market and not told anybody that you literally have to rename it. Stuff like that really appeals to me. It's just like everything. Just because you'd never. You'd never be able to keep it secret or read christmas. Yes, but not the having someone else. Thing is. It has been a blast because I like music on your through, on your own all the time for like 10 years. Writing tunes by yourself. Less like a decade to put something out there. Not to do the month, but you are. I'm a solid. It's a solid sheet exercise. So this film is brilliant. It's like a hundred people work on it. So thIs has been one big party of like getting into all these people, make all these new friends, all these other ideas. Flying around people everywhere. Like the day we turned up first the issue and it was like so 80 foot around working on this thing that you'd want the songs. But yeah, this is brilliant. After years of like, yeah, the music industry which is so yeah, so focus and like dog eat dog and like they're just trying to like live the lane of the part of it I fell into which was people trying to get credits on songs, you know, that kind of very self motivated thing. This films just a great big collaborative, untamed
Speaker 3: and and even like When I was working on it by myself, that was the aren't watching the stream. I'm doing inverted comments thing and like you go away and you'll do a draft and the draft would be six to eight weeks and then you show the draft to people, but after that everyone's reading it and everyone's weighing in and you're having conversations with people. So like even writing it by herself doesn't really mean that if you want to work in screen you will never be writing by yourself. Like you do your own stuff in a self-loathing mess.
Speaker 5: Then a bunch of, yeah, you'll
Speaker 3: sit around a table, a bunch of people and discuss the story and take apart and discuss your ideas and things like that. So it doesn't ever kind of feel like you're working alone even if you're not in a core rating situation anymore. And once the director comes in, john, once he actually start working with the lanes, you know, when she started talking to the heads of department and we spent a decent amount of time with the art department. I'm talking about some of the things we'd see and writing up like a, I wrote up the email that I'm, steph sees early from her parents because a member of the art department just randomly approached me and said, look, they've asked me to do thIs, do you want to write it I was like, yeah, probably should. Um, so yeah. No, you worked with people all the time, especially when there's no money.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly. Just say get making sure the songs fit and you end up talking to everyone about that and that pack collaborative thing that it'd be quite hard to go back to the music. How I used to do it, I think. I think I'd miss the miss the gang atmosphere. Yeah.
Speaker 4: That kind of leadS into another question I had was like, when you think of musicals, well if you think nowadays with like mama mia when it's like we need, we need to, we need this. We have all the songs, we now need the scene. right. Okay. Well what the scene into the song where there's, when, when you think of like other musicals where it's like it's, it's the story and then that leads into a song as opposed to the, you know, there's a moment of joy, blessed. Here's the song that coMes out of that. What was it like on this film Was it the case of like, all right, we've got the zombie story. We should probably have a song here. Or was it, there's an emotional beat here. We could put a song here survey. So
Speaker 5: it was more the second one, but definitely the story was first and then we got a script that had holes in it. Not holes, but like spaces that were left for actually just the word song. Yeah. It would just say like, here's where we think, oh well alan and ryan would say like, I've got, we've got this much and here's where they're at. That's a publicity a really good time to kind of explain further heather feeling. And that was for us, the thing that was interesting because as a songwriter, as having these all these big stories all of a sudden to two rate off of like acid. Like we talked about this a lot like breakaway. That's a very springsteen thing, you know, it's just like small town. I went out to us, we were just, we all, we at the start, because we're so new to musicals, we were just thinking in terms of albums we liked and songs we like Randy Newman songs are obsessed with and we wanted songs that would function outside the film as songs.
Speaker 5: So we were just thinkinG last, such a springsteen widescreen idea. Let's kind of do that sort of big piano driven power pilot. Then you know, because that felt right. So we would try and sum it up in a, in a one word title, you know, something that would tie up that feeling. And so we were trying to deal much more than this film anyway in feelings because we didn't know what else to do because we'd never really done musical theater where it's really. Sometimes the songs are clear. Exposition heavy. Like here's what's happening right now. We're singing what's happening It was a guy coming over, you know,
Speaker 2: and a son. But we, my wife has left me. Oh there she goes, she's off, she's taken a jacket, you know, that kind of song. We'd never done one of those before. We didn't know what that was. She's taking her jacket. So she's left some of her shoes, but she's taken the other units like that. She's hurting the wins against me. We've never done that before. So we're like, well, let's just deal in feelings. Let's deal in songs. We're, how do we know how to write a song is that is that is that way. And then. And then there's bits of it like soldier at war and stuff and it's that time of year where you reach a point where it needs to fit
Speaker 6: the moment
Speaker 2: cinematically to work. But we were like, let's lean more on the how, how do we feel right now that where we were all at songs wise.
Speaker 6: That's one of the things I really liked about this film that I actually saw myself sometimes saying that like the lines like, oh yeah, I would do that. And sometimes in films you fell like the disconnect to like real people don't do that. But because it sets them up. Cinematic. We quite like watching that. Um, but I liked it. I felt like a school would be that way or relationships would be that way. And sometimes the goal actually doesn't like her friend and they don't fall enough. Do you know what I mean There are things that you could relate to and you know, you, you know what it's like to break someone's heart or I have been in a shopping trolley.
Speaker 2: Ten cent 14 shopping trolley racists. Yeah. I said the cross keys pub.
Speaker 3: I'm from london. So I was doing that on oxford street is much more cinematic than yours. That's a much higher budget version.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a street that's like, that's one of the main streets. Streets.
Speaker 3: The streets. Yeah, of course. Like was like, I'm next to my head mistress. I was like, oh, when you said of course there, I thought you were going to go into a long explanation of why and this is just a thing we do in london. Of course my headmistress was there.
Speaker 2: Oh, the classic hazing ritual was their trolleys it the 12th of July. It's the annual oxford street trolley. Right. Running of the trolleys. And oxford, uh, by that I was even saying that we had as the caner thing that happens
Speaker 3: maybe not in central london, but then in london. I am so happy to hear you say that because the trolley came from one of my own experiences when a friend and I got very drunk at like age 19. I came back. Uh, we've got so drunk. We went out at glasgow because we were small town boys for a proper night. I got too drunk to really understand what time it was and realized that a bunch of our friends, including the girls, we both find seeds had gone to the nightclub back home and up with an amazing genius idea that we were going to get a taxi, arrived for the clubs coming out. And then they would see us and he'd be like, oh, well they'd be in time and then come back to see us and they're going to go hang out. We'll have like an after, you know, after club night and we're going to hook up and it can be the best.
Speaker 3: We had no way of measuring time. So we went back and it was 4:00 in the morning and all the clubs were shocked of course, because it was four in the morning. So we were just walking around the town center and cumbernauld offer faces and feeling utterly sorry for ourselves because these girls had clearly going home. Uh, and we find the trolley and just pushed each other. And I, it very sadly around incumbent until we went to the 24 hour as the and got ourselves a big, a big can of a whole liter ice cream. No, no, no. Mike liter ice creams and eater in the trolley. ANd that's that. That was the origin of that scene between john. Yeah, and just a little word of like, okay, now we switch. And then it was just really natural the way that they are, the little moments like that.
Speaker 3: It was really nice to see. That's amazing. Thank you. Lovely. We talked a lot about that along the way as much with the music guys with doc and just like the question was always I want to show our script development exec jillian christy who was script editor all the way through and was an absolute godsend for things like that. She was really great about praising the moments that worked and really great, but taking all those scenes and saying, okay, so why are they doing this And really, really drilling down and making me justify it. Because once I started to justify it, it was easier for me to write the scenes in a convincing way because I could, I could explain what my rationale was and very offered if I had a wallet. No, You're totally right. I have no idea why they're doing this right now.
Speaker 3: It's because in my head, I Think that's what films do, which is the point you were just making a and then getting back to, okay. So he had these two teenagers and they have this experience and you have this relationship with each other. Where does that conversation go Um, and it's why as much as it's probably the biggest, the biggest killer of, um, sort of top line in the movie. I really like anna taking the time to look at john and say, you're my best friend because at that point in the film it kind of felt like it. She needs To say this at some point. I'm john is a lovely, lovely character who doesn't deserve an hour just because he's a lovely, lovely character, uh, and, and, and it was really important that we didn't ever play into that trope. So little moments like that were things we worked on really hard money
Speaker 4: with that because when she says that to him with my horror brain on, I'm like, oh, you're not making it to the end of the film. As soon as she says you're the best friend that said he's gone. I did not expect them to be as gone as quickly after that scene as it was. And that's our fear play in the rain because when he, when he gets god, I'm like, oh fuck you. Why is it. No, no, no. Surely at the end, oh no, don't kill know that moment of actually getting me to go because I love horror film. ONe of my favorite films is, is alien the original from 1979 and w with these moments of like in the vent and it just hits you right there. And I don't him to go at this point to have that moment again and here was, was really nice and also really annoying as a, as a film going like, oh, I really liked this couch. And it was, people were tweeting me with hashtag justice for john, which is one of the highlights of my life so far. IT was like, that's amazing. I mean, no, it was exactly the way it had to go. But uh, that's really sweet that people react in that way. And it's also a credit to the songwriting as well because as he tells us in the beginning of the film, it's like, this isn't a disney and not one line. It's like, of course I'm not going to make it to the end. It's a horror film. Remember that.
Speaker 2: That was the best moment of my experience and this, when people turned up with that on a tee shirt, this isn't it this day because the crew just made their own teaching head of department and cost jazz thing ever. Because I just said that. And rod's living in month day and then no, it's on someone's t shirt. And another line of thought would never make it to the end. I thought at some point somebody is going to do that for like I fought for legal reasons. You're going to get stopped. No, but like even that song is, it's funny doing this here around the corner. Like we wrote that in these flat one street over after like loads of coffee and corthell absolutely, absolutely buzzing and couldn't, couldn't crack that one because that one went through quite a few versions. But as soon as he says, since you get. The title was we had that hollywood ended thing. I didn't see that death coMing. And I remember even like I remember I was watching at my head just went like that, like move to the left, like really quickly looked at them. And I was like, what
Speaker 4: Oh, watching watching films with a nucleus. One of the best experiences. Not just like for the actual scent they watching the film. It's like an ex expressions. The first time I had this as like we did it in one of our early episodes, we all went to see a film together which was atomic blonde. Which is an all right movie. It's quite, it's fairly decent for the action and stuff, but half of that on a plane once it does feel like we also have the term it was john wet goods and then we really got into. John worked with junk weight too because john wick one we're like, oh it's just fine. And then we watched the second one and I'm like, uh, no, I meant this. No, I don't know. I don't know how this film has got me there because they're the same guys that did atomic blonde, but watching the next fiscal from like I hate this movie was to slowly go is like actually there's some things in here is great because you'll discuss like a hotline, a car or flip over her. She was like, like, like stuFf like that. It's amazing. It's so good. The actual expressions that go on watching the film.
Speaker 2: People hate watching movies with me if I've seen it before and one of those guys that will stare at your face. I just want everyOne to be haviNg a good time and I just sat there. I was just sitting there being like, you love thIs, right Oh, I've seen this. This is incredible. You have moments like that where you're like, no, no. Everyone's trisha seeing coming up. That's amazing.
Speaker 4: We can't watch chicken homophobia later. Recited the entire film. Like I'm annoying film print
Speaker 5: in that sense. I just, if I've seen it as well, they did it. Was there any moments of like writer's block block for either of you on this More like just getting it plainly wrong Right. It was blocked. Definitely did a few drafts of songs that were run, but that is songwriting and it's very form never like, right. Just like totally wrong. Like I always feel like the song was a song, but maybe that's so hard. Totally. There's this film anyway to get the teenage voice rate and all the and the shift in tone from the first half been quite up to being really pretty low in places in the second and third. That song song wise, getting the tone right and stuff and there was always this song for the dad that we had a hard time with. We ended up with something, but I really, really liked it. We just couldn't keep because budget and the sub film just been too long. But um, yeah, that one was hard. There's a few songs we just quite tonally then maybe get right away that it's just practice getting in, sharpening.
Speaker 3: I'd spent numerous evening screaming at mY laptop genuinely just like a because I couldn't figure out how to make scenes work, especially when stuff comes back and you get notes. The worst thing in the world, the most annoying note in the world is the one that you already knew it was true and you mentioned the jillian. So good at nailing those things to come back. It's like, Yeah, I know, I know. I know that she was just hoping you wouLdn't agree. Uh, the one to this day that I still don't think I nailed a. Although people keep tellIng me it's fine. I'm the scene between nine and neck towards the end where they can get into their relationship in the past. I think the beats are all right. And I really like, um, I think, I fact I picked up on this in the episode, like I really like speaks or there's nothing worse than right as praising themselves.
Speaker 3: I'm so sorry. And I really like the analytics, the time to say I did not give a shit that people know we had sex. That is not why I'm upset about, uh, I really, I'm really proud of that. Um, but I've always felt that next speech afterwards about his dad still plays a little bit melodramatic and I could never find a way to play. It's subtle enough that it worked for me that said no one has ever come up to me and said, well, that cna. So, uh, I don't know. Um, but that was a scene I, I, I think it's draft 22 or something that we shot and it must be the 40th version of that scene. And I rewrote it so many times trying to find the right way through an a reLationship and also neck doing his whole. And here's my backstory, but, um, which is super frustrating. Um, and the writer's block was hideous on that scene. Just on a feminist standpoint, which I always do in every podcast, and you should not apologize. That's why I know there's another. But I loved that
Speaker 6: because I've always had a problem with that in films when the girls like, oh, but we had sex until now. Everything's like super important to me. And like I can't believe that you wouldn't see me again. And it's like, I feel like of course that happens, but like most women are like, we see sex in the same way as you guys. We had sex. It's okay. It doesn't need to be like we're married now. And I love the fact that that was addressed. Um, and so I didn't think that it was dramatic. I mean, I, I, I feel like it was, it's quite a tough moment in terms of like toxic masculinity. It's like, oh, I have this father who has made me feel like I can't ever amount to anything and I'm not the strong or I feel like I have to be strong and you know, awesome all the time. And that I quite liked how you had both of those emotions going, like feminism and talks about community. Like in one scene I found that really thrilling because I don't think you see that very much. AmazIng to hear. I think for me it's more the perfectionist in me saying like I'm trying to do all the right things I want to do. I'm just not completely happy with
Speaker 2: done it. But to be fair to that, again, I guess that one stuck in. It's the weirdest thing when you've had something soul. Many times I've seen this film maybe like honestly probably a thousand times, but the almost 10 years. Yeah, I get that, but I get that bit stuck. You don't get bits of dialog stuck in my head, which is the weirdest thing because you get songs stuck in your head all the time. But I get bits of dialog stuck in my head and me and me and rod will recite that in the studio a lot. The killed my bad, but we like doing an impression. We liked it. An impression of
Speaker 4: kill. My dad loved doing it. It comes from nowhere. We'll be doing something and someone will start it. I didn't say nothing to her. We'll just start doing it and then know when it comes from. It gets stuck in my head a lot. I think that scene works because at that point in the film we've just had the madness of the headmaster and essentially just losing his head and everyone and you get this feeling like if this is the point in the film where you're gonna start losing people and like aura when they get to write the escape plan is happening. This is when we start losing members of the group, so to have that one moment of like taking the space to breathe and like talk about things apart and before that doesn't usually happen because you usually get caught up in the action of what's going on. It's really nice and I think that seems really fits well and when it isn't the foam
Speaker 2: I ella a neck to neck, goddammit. sorry. Ben. Ella and bands. A really great job there I think as well and if I remember right, that was our last day of shooting. that's how good he is, confused them with this. I know that's acting. So the, that, that is acting, that is hashtag that get put out tissue. That is acting. That is. Let me tell you, that was acting. He's not doing
Speaker 5: it right now with that, but maybe doing it again for fun. You already told me you
Speaker 7: coffee.
Speaker 8: There is some kind of an unsaved rule that says done that. When people are having fun on set, usually usually it turns out not to be fun. Um, you destroyed that unsaid rule. It looks like you had a lot of fun and it ends up being quite fun. The movie. So thank you. Okay. So the super militant rights are in me, is going to come back on that and say the reason people say that is because that's an oldest comedies, but he just let them improvise everything. That's why they're not getting ghostbusters 2016.
Speaker 8: I don't know if I agree with that so much. I eat that. That one's always got super topical, isn't it The whole semester thing again Yeah. The uh, yeah. I think that is an amazing cast. desperately in need of a better story and not sure you mean Yeah, it feels like we just got a bunch of people that are good performers with improvisation and go, oh, a walk. We just let you improvise. know what's scripted. to be fair, I don't know what the process was about. Ratings hard also I guess the course. Yes, tons of films are quite hard.
Speaker 5: I thought. I thought unlike unlike a point like it wasn't always like. I think what was important is everyone was very good friends and it was like that happened very fast. I've not had that in a long time where it's like family instantly. I could tell within a couple of weeks of everyone being on wind, the whole gang got together. I mean as far as island and john sales are concerned, we would all ready pretty close and then the cast showed up and it was very quickly like, all right, cool. These are. These are all my new best pals. This is brilliant, but all just really close. Instantly it has had a very good feeling about it, but that doesn't necessarily translate to. It was like fun everyday if I could just like hot goal in not a lot of time. Budget was tight, everyone was really grafting, but I think the reason the film comes good this because that friendship was established early and core and everyone was pulling for the reason. Like I don't think if we'd had that closeness between a lot of the. A lot. Like everyone, the whole crew, the this, this, this feeling of everyone getting on. I don't think everyone would have it would have happened because everyone had to push and pull a bit harder to actually make it in the money in the time allowed. So actually I think the camraderie was, was was onset a lot of the times and stuff, but I think it was people working really, really hard because they got on because the kids about it.
Speaker 8: It's march given show it's to, to john neeson the neck as well and that was there.
Speaker 5: Didn't put the way they got everyone together and socialiZed and rallied the team. yeah,
Speaker 8: it makes the neck. Ron sent most days and very quickly, you knoW, bearing in mind the new producers themselves. But very quickly and had a conversation earlier on in the process, but he said what you're starting to discover is that actually he's not really there to make any sort of executive decisions when he's there so that people have someone to talk to when they're upset or feeling stressed or just so that they've got someone who can say, here you were going to try and fix that you're doing really well. But like john really took that onboard as well. And, and, and like I would, I would, the days that I was on set, I will catch up with john at the end just to say, you know, you know, how you feeling. You look at the scenes the next day or something. Because I always felt it was good for john to have someone got to him and say, you really knocked out the parts of it.
Speaker 8: That Was great. But in going up and seeing him be with him as he walked around the entire set and said thank you and good night to every member of the crew. And the way I like. He really appreciated everyone's hard work in and made an effort to speak to everyone and bathing remains, you know, we'd be, we'd be wrapping it seven, 8:00 at night and then he'd be going off to prep the next day or go off for a meeting with the producers to talk about where we were like dave was far from over, but he always took time to talk to people to say thank you, to check In, just to make sure everyone was good. So like it wasn't really hard for them. And I think when we talk about it going back, we talk about it in such glowing kind of happy terms because we're really proud of it and we all love each other and deletes stuff that hasn't.
Speaker 8: But there was just like the graft, like your brain gets rid of that because that's finished and you just, you look at the thing that's left of these piles you've made. Then this thing you've made together and that's really fun. Nobody to anything. But yeah, that, that was some crazy. That was crazy for a bit there. We lost a whole day, like the opening of the show, the opening, the opening of the film as written is a massive musical number on the street center. What a time to be alive, which we shot. And uh, it was the worst day of weather, really hard during the entire shoot, completely ruined all the cities we had what Somewhere between 50 and a hundred supporting artists or dancing and singing. We were on set. We were all doing our thing and we could not use a frame of it just, it was easily the most expensive day onset.
Speaker 8: Imagine that opening of la la land and like, and I'm miserable, sharp and kinda got something like that will never see the light of day. And I hope at some point we can show it just for the people who turned up at work so hard just as like an extra. But I don't know what the thinking is on that right now. But that was god's and snowing or art department who had gotten there the day before and set up. So basically the high street where you see the trolley scene later that that is not dressed, that's the aftermath of the day that we try to shoot the opening of the film. So yeah, obviously the art department went around, did spruced up more just so that you would see the devastation and shot. But in terms of the state of things, that's just what the weather does and there was a fault. There was a whole model pen. Oh yeah. John had this beautiful idea to open on this model tone. Uh, I completely forgotten about that until you mentioned it and they built the model tone and he was going to whip his camera and then we're going to come out of it. Two people walking on and you've got, it was just the most beautiful storyboards and yeah, it's 12 hours of shitting all completely lost. It was awful. Awful. So. And to your point,
Speaker 2: lots of
Speaker 5: lovely relationships that I think are really great team effort, but I don't, I definitely wouldn't characterize. It has been all fun and games. That's kind of how you feel about it. And I was like,
Speaker 2: rose tinted glasses looking backwards, but that I think that was, it was a lot of people working really, really hard for the thing they cared about being able to go to the festivals and comic con and stuff after. That'S what a lot of fuNding has come from because the movie's made the most fun. People like it, you know, and then we sold it and it was at that point you don't want to hold, distribution's going to go ultimately, but you're confident enough that the thing you put love into other people are reacting to and then you just get to go and talk to them about it. Like that's fine with your pals that you made.
Speaker 2: That was congress. Great. Lcfs was great. Mike. That's still to this day. Probably the best night ever have ever been a. I turned around at one point to see tommy happily chatting to ben stiller and that was one of those moments where you just kind of go, why is my life we shot this important class, go for two buttons and a bit of string. Like it's. Yeah, that was intense. Her ptsd, flashbacks, like this was shortly after his 15 minute conversation with refers when it was, it was an interesting, even the weirdest, weirdest name ever. But I mean the total highlight was the cake. But then there's this like free free beer along that. That was the highlight, like it was like a class above, like it was like a lovely advice theater, something that wasn't that lcff that was gay. And that for us musically
Speaker 5: was a real moment for me because I've become from something as a maybe I'm like, you know, what's the weather like you, you're the writer when you don't know I'm musical musicals fail if chain, but you know, that kind of thing. I wasn't really a musical. Um, but I sort of a have become obsessed with the medium. I'm musicals, bath. No, that's my whole thing. Love it all the time. Just listening to musicals in because I've realized like a lot of people are realizing now through like what lin miranda is doing and people like that, but there's more to it than Oklahoma. I think you just came to think when you're like an indie musician or any kind of musician that you sort of think, oh, it's just chance hands and this cane thing that you don't really understand and you have an idea of. Especially in britain, you kind of think of it as Andrew Lloyd webber stuff. Someone says musical too. You hear phantom of the opera and then that's not for everybody. That's a very specific kind of thing. But then one big medium and fainting. There's all these amazing things in their, you know, hamilton moment, all these things that you didn't know about. People doing really interesting stuff with it. So I've, I've become obsessed with it and then you get to go to something like elsie first and play four songs from a movie and have
Speaker 2: a cast of people who have varying degrees of experience of musical theater. Get in between like the new musical. It's opening on broadway and all these other original little mermaid. Yeah, all these people and hear your songs in that context and that was a really. That was a special kind of. Things have happened off the back of this that just blow your main 2018 was a traveling is absolutely mental things. We got to that. That's one of those nights I said this is. Yeah, it's pretty special. I can't believe this is happening for like meetings and film set. He talking about it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean there's a long time there. I didn't think we'd shoot this. Yeah, me too. Yeah, totally. And it like I loved the experience of writing it and I learned so much doing it and that was enough. I was like, this has been amazing, but I don't think it will happen.
Speaker 2: And then for it to actually have happened and then get to go and do things like that. I mean it's been wild. Adam, do you have other stuff in your blogspot or hard was. It was quite deep, but we'll, we'll see how it goes. So I will. I listened to some of your soul stuffed a to for those because obviously research the guests and it was interesting to hear songs like 6 billion on wrong rooms after watching the apocalypse so you can go back and like, oh, that song, bits of that walk into their shop. That's some deep dive in the mail that says research. of course. It's odd you mentioned it because it is oddly 10 years ago to the like this canaan month, I got a message from one of the other gate I took part in this competition, but 10 years ago on channel four, it was basically the x factor for people that wrote their own songs and that was what kickstarted me and, uh, doing gigs and putting records out.
Speaker 2: And the other band who would also from glasgow at that came second, which happened to be my best mate from primary schools, cousins banned him, banfield hip. The singer texted me this week and supports them. Is it like you make that show was 10 years ago. I had no idea. I kind of forgot it happened in many ways given to students such different stuff. Now. But um, it's made me be a wee bit nostalgic, last week's fully funny. You pull some of those songs. I had any of them in years, you know, the question would be is like how much of yourself exists in the final final film that hasn't been caught or songs that haven't made it or scenes that were in co, uh, with your, with you where your music and then surely the experiences of school or people you know have, like for example, I have in the episode, I think I mentioned the, we get this deputy head come in and our last year of high school, which is exactly like the headmaster of the school, just an absolute loser.
Speaker 2: So it wasn't anything to you that, that happened to you or part of you that is in the final version that we see Yeah. Thanks. I think a lot. Yeah, it doesn't look bad. I think fundamentally just you bring, you bring that cane of the way you would write a song to something. And me and roger solidly estaBlished the way we write one together. It's a whole other thing though, that we just do the other songs also. I'm sort of not saying no overtime, haven't done more and more of this as they have a thing
Speaker 5: that you can tell. It was the two of us together, which is an odd, an odd thing. I don't really know how it works, but um, yeah, you're coming at that with what you've been doing for a really long time and so is he. And so the results definitely got a bit of the way you write a song in it. I was definitely bits of it. I'm like, yeah, it's just, that's just us. That's the kind of thing we were doing. Um, so I guess that's that and that's always going to exist, which is an odd thing. You guys have the vinyl off it, which is, I can't even get one of them.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Their release was delayed a few times. Like, yeah,
Speaker 5: the third one, I just don't know where to send the ether somewhere, but yeah. No. And that's really nice. You mentioned that and you know those, those old songs, because I think you don't realize we talked about this actually recently been rather in conversation we had you spend 10 years, you know, learning how to do something or you know, that's what we were, whether we knew it or not, we were practicing song construction. So when the job came along by ever by chance to me and you know, through rodney meat and nascent and stuff and you do, you do have a lot of things you can bring to the maybe realize after the fact that you have maybe to sort of practicing for this for a very long time in the other formats, but you're just reapplying something you've been trying to get good at. For a long time. For me,
Speaker 3: when I was still teaching and working is I always send it, bUt we're talking about teaching and all these interviews. I suddenly doing a. I'm just because I'm very wary of coming across as one of those people. That was kind of like, you know, I've always had a dream in a, did a shit job before and I adored being a teacher. Um, and I can see myself going back to it at some point in my life. I'm just having too much fun doing what I'm doing right now. But I'm a big part of my job was I directed the school shorts. Um, you know, when I taught for 12 years and I think a directed 16 shows and that same six of which I wrote myself. So during that period, like to me that was just bootcamp. I look back on it now and I look at and I also, I was really lucky to be at a school that were so supportive of me and I head teacher who very early on realized that not only was enthusiastic, that I would kind of pour myself into the things that I, you know, that I did.
Speaker 3: And as a result he gave me really free rein to kind of do what I wanted him alongside some brilliant colleagues in many of the music department who had been doing shows before I arrived. And essentially taught me how to do these things so we would do some summer shows together and we do big ones like directed like Greece and we will rock you and things like that. Hairspray and then on off years when he doesn't want to do it. I do stuff myself and I drape panels. I wrote a couple of musicals myself with other friends who are musicians, but along the way it's very much kind of finding your style and flare and time musicals work that way. But I was also a huge buffY fan and there was a huge doctor who fan and you know, I really liked that first season of glee.
Speaker 3: And so I was as equally I think verse and specifically genre tv, um, as I was in musicals. So that was always going to feed down. And when I look at an unknown, I've taught kids, I, I, there's, there's a line early on where lisa puts her foot in it, in the canteen and interns to anna and shows love me. I left, lifted that from a student. Like I knew a girl who used to do that. She would just see the stupidest things and I go, oh god love me, and I just dropped it into the script. The script is fill a little moments like that, but what really, what really comes across to me and when it was released, so many of my old students went to see it and drop three really lovely messages, which was amazing, but 10 of my old colleagues that as well and they all went along to the gfc and one day a bunch of teachers to see a be musical. And it was really funny to see how many of them afterwards were just like, oh, I really loved it, but I knew I'd love it because it's basically one of your skill shortage on film. And then all of them would be like, awesome, mr. Salvage is not based on me. Right
Speaker 3: So that note, like that movie, and again, you know, this is such a collaborative thing. Like I, I could sit and points about star, that's the john, but it's the orion, but start eroding insomnia but still a nascent bits. Jillian. But nick, uh, you know, the, the actors. But the fundamental vibe of that being a film, which first, you know, you know, there's a few good dirty jokes in there that's very me, uh, you know, I really love a good pop song and, and watching a bunch of kids and what their heart. So that's very me. But that fundamental thing of like there's comedy in there and there's, there's a, there's a big old heart in the middle of it, but it's not afraid to acknowledge that the world is dark. Something's. That to me is the fundamental. That doesn't the dna. I think of everything I do.
Speaker 3: Even when I was doing big deaf school, she was, I did the weird discussion of alice in wonderland for christmas. Anyone will ever see it had a mortal combat fight sequence. And it was the strangest show. But I've always really enjoyed delving into quite dark stuff off the back of really kind of jauncey knocker own stuff with a real heart in it. And to me that, you know, it struck me like buffy, buffy when I went to see on a june release, so at the audience or with my family, which is a really big deal for them and it was really lovely. But what I came to realize what can it afterwards, which I think really put a nice skin of a nice closure on it for me was I'm convinced that if I hadn't made this film idea fun of this film, being able to watch it with a little bit of distance note and just say, oh god, you know, I really like this and if I go into see this film, if I hadn't been involved, it would have been like going to see something like shaun of the dead or drive.
Speaker 3: I'm not comparing it to the quality of those phones, but I'm seeing elizabeth films. I went to see having heard about a buzz and chemo thinking. I adored that. Like that is a film that feels like it's part of me now. And I think I would feel that way about inf I hadn't been involved. So we'll. Yeah, I just see all of this a watch it again. yeah. Yeah. I just don't think I can. I think christmas coming, I need a couple of years. Um,
Speaker 6: I feel like you can see that, especially in the bowling alley scene where there's like you're with your mates and then you've got this dark period where you're like, oh, actually that was quite sobering and harrowing. Um, and that song like, and somehow it didn't feel like, oh, that was just stuck in there because they wanted like a, you know, a dog bit. It felt really natural and it's kind of how your mind is a kid works. It's like, oh, this is great because I'm with my mates, but also I feel really out of touch with the world and whatever is going on. And oh my god, I'm getting older and what does that mean Et Cetera. Um, and also like technology and how that's like somehow bringing us further away even though we feel like it'S like right in the palm of your hand to be connected to everyone, but somehow we're not making any more. Um, so yeah, that kind of balance of light and dark, which I think can not seem as like, I'm really, you could see that that was a real like um, important thing to show in that especially. So what's so cool about that is that was not a song that was meant to be in the movie. Voice was a demo that role dean told me had put together, I guess it was a song that you guys just have written off your own box anywhere you were with
Speaker 5: a song one day I think we've got it was to be honest, it was like we'd written the song, but the vibe of the instruments were because we, we've got some gear to like that we're going to use on the film that like I think some of the development money from the film with gone to help get this equipment. And so we were preTty much just like, oh, well we need a song to show nascent and the boys what there's new stuff can do. Like what this, what these new signs we've got. And the new gear does. Let's write something. We just wrote something one day and then we're like, well, we can use all these new tires that they're more up and actually words of the sounds that are in the version that's in the film were in that demo. I think it had rodney singing it and then we just sent it to you guys to go look at what the new toys.
Speaker 5: This is what we could use the new equipment for it, but we had that feeling I think I remember right. That one was the film set in one day and that was one of those ones were like, I haven't. I feel really good about this song. I don't know what it's. We don't know what it was for, but it's odd when you think about it later where you go, you probably dead. Sure. We didn't know what was going to be in the film, but you can have. That's all we were doing at the time was stuff for the film, so it broadly fits with the others because that's where we were at songwriting wise, but that's. I think that's when the writers of the film and the in and on a musical anyway, that's been a real education for me is when the people right in the music are working closely with the people writing the story, then it makes it easier to dovetail in and out of the songs in a film and that's been a real education for me is how do you get in and out of songs in a, in a musical.
Speaker 6: And what's interesting about that one in particular is the version, the scope that we had at the time you guys had just written, I will believe, which is the song anna sings at the end dueting with
Speaker 3: tony and at that point the thinking was that moment and the bowling alley is probably where we would use, I will believe. Not like it was a slightly different form at the time, but the thinking was, oh, this is the quiet, sad moment. And then I heard human voice and eh, essentially shut off a whatsapp message. The nice saying. Yeah. Just so you know, I'm rewriting the bowling alley sequence because we need to use this song right here and I don't think nixon was convinced at first not they didn't like the song, but he just thought it was a bit kind of like you've just been given a song. You're just rewriting things. This is weird, but the moment I heard that song, I was like, no, no, no. I get that too. We process you were talking about were initially we'd written the script, given it to the guys and said, well, there's a song here.
Speaker 3: Song is. That was my first chance to see what it's like on the other side of the fence. Let's flip that round. Whereas song. Yeah, and I know what I want to do with it. Like I forget everything we said we separate. We're going to make it this kind of slightly military ballad for this point in the bowling alley and it's about. It's about the soldiers, but it's also kind of just about sadness is like forget all of that. They've given us this amazing song about how people aren't communicating and with a slight twist it suddenly becomes about how the kids wish they could communicate and of course at this moment they're all in their phones but they're not working and I rewrote that sequence in like two days and sent it off to the guys and said, no, we're using the song.
Speaker 5: It was the oddest thing is was we didn't change that much.
Speaker 3: Well at the lennox have barely been touched them out. We had to change a couple of things, but I agree. It feels completely organic. nick, like I can't imagine that moment not happening in the film.
Speaker 4: Funny. It's funny how it goes. That's really interesting. actually. I finished my major arctic, my art, it just like interview style questions. I think the one that I've had those like how how you fell for was the first draft of the christmas song because surely just the core sequence going like, oh, we could get this to work. Like how bad was it to begin with did you have to tailor it
Speaker 5: That's one that me and rod talked about a lot in the. I was very attached to that as a concept like riGht out the gate. Like I remember ryan, I remember saying to ryan and mason can, we've even had the chance to meet alan yet. Like we'd vet that early on. It was in the script that there was this christmas song and all it said in the script was like she sings christmas songs. It's like a dark year santa baby. And everyone kept saying to us like I was really attached to it and we mean I can't talk to roger but we can't. And he kept telling me but we just loved the idea and we were spending a lot of time thinking about that because that's just like, that's the chance to write. So it's not a baby. It's like clean, like write up like a christmas sock just right at christmas is such a crisp idea and I really want to do it. And everyone was like, don't think about that too much because we just don't pitch in for the job. At the time we didn't even have it. We had to write some songs to show them for the guys to get asked to do it and we spent way too much time thinking about that. They were like, it's like a 32nd thing, like don't, don't think it may have too much. And I was like, no, that has to be a food that to be a fool thing
Speaker 2: that, that could be, that could be like a key, that can be brilliant. If we could get through a whole just a filthy song and the nun does k really fast. We just had a blast doing it. And um, I don't think the lyrics changed very much better. And that was it. We had so much fun doing that. M and a, that was the year, that kind of thing where you're like, I'm trusted. It ended up this big number because I think it was just supposed to be a tiny. Oh, definitely in an earlier draft. That was something that was going to be swung by. And they were like, well, what about that last And we were just saying
Speaker 3: no, having too much fun. The origin of the ocean, that was a school charity shows that I used to attend at christmas time where you would inevitably get some, you know, dance trip of like 14 year old girls that wanted to, that dressed up in bikinis and dead rmb, danson and there was always like, there was always a moment, everyone's like setting politely and they're doing that thing where it was just the kid up with a record or who was quite bad. I know we're watching these far too young girls in far too skimpy outfits doing these really raunchy dance moves and no one knows where to look because you can't just ignore them because that's really roots and you have to apply to the end because the, you know, a bunch of kids do, but at the same time you don't want to be the. It'd be this though. Yeah. Fantastic. I really enjoyed that. The loving grandma explain the original script. It was just kind of like, oh, wouldn't it be really funny She just sends a slightly dark song, but yeah. Then you guys really run with it.
Speaker 2: I just thought I just. The christmas innuendos was a treat songwriting, treat that, I mean the joy today, the contrast between that and the route, but it's just before as well is this is brilliant.
Speaker 6: I love as well that it was kind of eased in like I think for a second I was like, do I just have a dirty mind You listen, maybe I should shut up, but I think I felt I felt that in the audience as well. Like you had quite a lot of people go, is anyone else hearing this Is this, is this, this is done or not And then of course there's a point where you're like, oh, okay, now I can laugh. It wasn't me
Speaker 2: come right at the gate with make attack. it's like three little lines before you're like, okay, maybe something like I'm all stiff and, and I've got a fire barney. Like, all right, okay,
Speaker 3: here we go. Nope. Marley marley really chose the unblocking lanes. It to work. That makes sense with a measurable, the visual learner, which works very well. That was so brilliant
Speaker 2: mean. Girls ask yes in that scene as well. It's like perfect obviously. Right. So the reaction shots, so real. Yep. Yes. They are real reactions. All family
Speaker 3: and friends. Yeah. My mother in law, that was the one night of the shoot that. And at the time she was my mother in law to be. Oh maybe we just got married. It's a better yet. No. And there were a whole bunch a nixon. Nixon's mom is there, um, some friends that are there. Yeah. And we didn't tell them what they were coming to see so that they had the reaction. I remember having a conversation with nathan about half an hour before a lot of people shoot, not this is really good. And then there was this really awkward let
Speaker 2: my mother in law is here and he's just like, yep. My mum came to. Didn't expect that. That was a joy. I would say I was a great day at the studio. Right in that. That was a really fun couple of days. I came quick, came fast because we have a right a right laugh. Yeah. It's the song everyone, all the other cast members were most jealous of as well. Brilliant santa. Give it to me. That was an early like that. That's in the demo. The demo at the scent. A scent I give it to me. That's right. That's been there the whole time. I can't was day one. It was just, it just, it just came fast. There was so much fun. The most fun I've had written for marley. So good. She didn't really like, it was like central, but also it really serious like this is a serious song coming season.
Speaker 2: Isn't it amazing Like you know, if this is to you. This is. Yeah. It's little things like the thing I always think about is like how good she is staying in the moment and sTay at the fact that one of the little bits of confetti lands on a high, so she's such a pro styles. She turns it into a moment, actually uses it for the moment. I mean that's just, that's all marley sue is acting. That is acting hashtag that is acting phony. Ho, ho youtube watch. Because when I was looking at some of the soundtrack on youtube, youtube giVes you liked these recommended videos and one of them was an old iron brew advert, which I don't know if you know the, the irony. It's the musical. I'm blue eyed. Yeah, it's brilliant. It's obsolete. It was linked. It was linked to that song. It's like, oh he it his iron brewed the musical. And I was like, that was completely forgotten about that either. It's fizzy, it's gendered, it's phenomenal.
Speaker 2: So I was watching that this morning like, oh, this is good. I can't believe this length from this other scottish fell and we got to do one. We got to do an embryo, which is every scottish media person's dream, every scottish, anyone who works in like making stuff in scotland, like the dream is to be involved in one and john john, john set up a chat group one day on the whatsapp and just said, boys, we're talking about. Let me get to a halloween. I'm brad. But there that was. That was a. I don't know if it was just an online little online thing, but john wrote does enter it and I was like, I cannot believe this is a dream come true. I love, I love the stuff. I basically, I basically run on it and then that was an honor of all the things that tumbled out of this film. That was a great. That was, that was a real treat. The last burning question for young, wasn't it The question is where did the idea for the candy cane went and come from a that if I recall, right Was me. Um, and that was very early when ryan and I had the christmas thing going. So we had discussions early on about weapons and what we wanted to try it. It, what's really interesting actUally, we had so many conversations about like
Speaker 8: the kids are always gonna have weapons because that's like really I chronic but we don't nothing to be born in ones. And actually in the final movie it's really only so that they kind of get their own weapon type thing. But the candy cane, an early drafts technIcally still canon, but we didn't shoot it. Anna is the captain of the hockey team. Uh, so we're like, oh, she could use a hockey stick. And I remember thinking it was one of those moments as. Wait. No, it needs to be a candy cane a because you can see the, you. Yeah, you could just see the, the image of it. Uh, so yeah, she's the captain of the hockey team, which incidentally, again, it's not in the movie, so it may explain. It explains why in the bowling alley when they're trying to get rid of the shoe, she takes the brush and kind of website with the webs the shoe with the brush into the bend and then john throws it.
Speaker 8: The reason she does that as she's a hockey player, but we lost the, we lost the extra stuff. And what alan forgot to think about in the process of writing their salad. And ryan neglected to think that one day we'd be backstage blowing up 5,100 inflatable can be 100 inflatable hockey stats. Like ultimately those things, those things were great. You don't, you don't, you don't plan for that. And I also remember the day and it's not even particularly clever, but I was so pleased when it was like, where did she get this candy cane Like she needs to get it at some point and then it was, oh wait, the, the christmas tree podiums at essentially a garden center. It's one of those garden implements you plug into the garden, which means it has a big spike on it and getting very excited that I'd come up with that.
Speaker 8: But again, in the movie that big reads, she grabs a candy cane, eh Sure. Why not Yeah. So yeah, that's where that came from. One second. Oh, just because it's kind of been taken on. It has like this, like cult emits of thing though. Yeah. So like in a decade it will be like, oh yeah. And the apocalypse, the candy cane also holding it in a certain way or people caused playing is on that will be as a key fit as already stated as it really centers. There was a girl in a, an american high school, they had like a come as you please nonuniform day, and she came dressed designer and I guess she snuck in instagram or whatever and we ended up seeing it. That's great. That's super good. I have a question before we go into the questionnaire with pre questions, which have not like amy, you have not watched it 16 times, but it's just four times.
Speaker 8: It's a super superfund. Amy, when chris and uh, lisa, uh, just after the dildo scene in the headmaster's office, when you actually do the moving of the, um, the, the, the, the phone that is plugged in the tv at some point the battery drains, then chris comes to touch something and it didn't works. again, maybe I missed it doesn't drain. It's a, it's like our last 10 percent warning. So, uh, essentially the video cuts because the phone goes into power saving mode and then he takes off receiving boards. Uh, if Anyone who's worked in film, we'll let you know. That's way too much information to try to communicate with the single image. So our art department understandably just waited for battery. It's a battery warning and people will be happy. Yeah, that's what's happening. they're awesome. Not because India power saving mode in the episode. I said it was perfect and then I wondered about this.
Speaker 2: I'll take 99 percent. That's fine. You'll be good by warning. Not clear as you know what's wrong with you. I didn't realize we were reading reddit. Now there is plan with wives, jackie, but it's been in a chair. Why is the wifi spot the jackie parties today is young. Went to be in the episode. Like what What's the joke with the customer Everyone's laughing. What Who is this Like a scottish person. That's john. Make feel special right there. I'm in the excitement in the building. The day we find that we could get jackie.
Speaker 8: That's awesome. Palpable. So this day when we have gUests, we have this milk in a wineglass question. Amber glass is the name of our company kind of. And it's based on interviewing for jobs. Would you like to. No, no. We need you to write things and it's a questionnaire that was taken by a massive poster, the few stages in his life and banner people had it the last 10 minutes of his show show up as tough and jim's lipton is finishing his inside directors to deal with those type of questions. So we, you see very artistic all of a sudden this. So alan and tommy, what Is your favorite word marriott No, crystalline. I always do that as well. I always say the wrong one first. It's crystalline nice. I like all the, all the. We had scholarships for weather quite like three.
Speaker 2: And also I like skidlette. I like gallus. I don't really have a favorite word. P supo the unicorn. That's a great word that you're going to schedule it.
Speaker 8: What is your least favorite word There'll be political allen. Uh, um, my least favorite words. That's a difficult one.
Speaker 9: Um hm.
Speaker 8: So what do I really just think it's really ugly. Moist. And you know, I'm not. Not one of these people as a problem with most of them. Yeah, I think it does the job. Same topic. I'm good with it.
Speaker 2: No, it's so effective. Effective. Yeah. to be fair. And again, I don't want to get answered. Every women I've ever met hates that word. So like I get it. I totally get it. But yeah, there's some male privilege and actually what we're talking about, the word voice is fine. Uh, what'd you don't link
Speaker 8: You're the lyricist. Maybe. Maybe that's a slight. What's too much. None of them. Me maybe. Can we come back to that one I'll let that one turnover in my heads. Um, who actually dIdn't want. Fuck it. Brexit. There we go. I am sick of hearing a hit. A hit that like, I just hate the contraction because it sort of like, oh, it's a terrible word, but it's like, it's like politicians will be more people being cool trying to be cool. Like just say you're leaving the eu law, you've got to jam. It was like case to brangelina. It's something I've been doing it with taki. Taki. Potential like life over an event. Like it cheapens the entire thing. Completely agree to exit. When one is on, it's like indy ref. It's like, how did that one work that abbreviation doc call on like like, I don't know, lengthy risk, less annoying. SomewhaT of a british of us was taken to see leaving the european union say what you're doing. Yeah. It's sort of almost sort of a caricature is what they've done. That's a separate thing though anyway,
Speaker 6: I think. I think you kind of hit the nail on the head with it. It's like trying to be cool. Like people who aren't cool trying to be down with the kids. I know that it's used in such serious context.
Speaker 8: Oh really I'm with you. If I hadn't ever had stopped that disgusted, if I could never hear it again, I'll be declined. Also, frexit could I still left I, I read that for the first time the other day. Yeah. Apparently the to flex it, which apparently is like
Speaker 6: there's a. There's a flexible version that was on the pta. I'm not going to bore everyone with us. We're also says we're scottish. You'd have to apologize. There's none of us wants to do this, and so my mom lives in berlin, so me and him went over and we went to a new year's party and literally it was like the one conversation that people thought that the way connect. So what is brexit and all these germans, the british people. Well, let's talk about my brother in law's girlfriend is german also when we met her parents thought was also saying if this happens, oh, I wish I could give you an easy answer. This completely derailed this book. No, but you know what's really Funny My mom even said to me, she was like, well, I don't think it's going to happen, but also you live in scotland so you're good for the wall. So it doesn't work like that. But yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 8: It's very nice. If I could, if I could never hear it again, I'll be chuffed. Yeah, we'll edit this. No, I'm kidding. We can now answer ourself into the pool, the politics. So yeah, there you go.
Speaker 6: Creatively, spiritually or emotionally. What turns you on This is love that you started with a disclaimer of boarded up. We honestly turns you on creatively, spiritually, or emotionally. Yeah. You kind of have to because there have been moments when people are like, I'm not comfortable with the. I love
Speaker 8: Me a really spiritually, are you what turns me on creatively, spiritually, more earnestness creatively. Uh, I'm a total sucker for anything that's just genuinely erin is still like, not if it feels like it's that there's a particular kind of anodyne this was the easiest route to tell the story. So everything works out and everyone's happy version that does nothing for me. but if something is genuinely earnest, um, and I think that often reads from like the film perspective, that will always change with me. Yeah. So people just genuInely having a go at something and really feeling something for the right reasons. Santas, anytime I see anything that is good that I think is good and I'm just like, oh, I want to make more stuff. That is amazing. I can't believe people made that such a kickup fainted things. I wake and particularly, you know, funny stuff or things that make me laugh or I just share that stuff all the time with friends and that gets me.
Speaker 8: That gets me going. If I hear a great song, I'm like, wow, that's amazing. I can't believe someone or that I want to write a song now in a famed them, just hearing things, read things, seeing things that are good. Just I think that's a really important point is that kind of makes me want to meet someone else. If someone did that, wow, I want to. Do I want to do something No, it rarely ever the same thing. It just makes you want to make wheN people are making good things. Totally. Well, we feel like that about ana. It's honestly the loveliest things a year and I never get tired of people just saying, I really liked your film. Oh, thank you. I'm really glad we made you smile for a while and cryo either for 19 minutes, so. Oh yeah. I cried. Definitely just hashtag justice.
Speaker 8: Yup. Yup. Fighting me into. I started hustling me. That's fine. That's enough. You have to take that. That is the hashtag. If selfie, we forgot to talk about episode, which was quite nice. Thank you. Hey, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm actually, I'm unbearably smug about that in a right to live and when I came up with as a year, that's exactly what would happen. Like really, really pleased the po With hashtag selfie. So funny. What turns you off Oh, I like that. There isn't any cutting blocks, but that was the best bands. We totally like blondes. Uh, what turns me off, um, you do pointed at buffy. Buffy is an exception to the rule. actually, I'm not getting into this super uncomfortable. I was always much more of a safe person. Uh, so, um, it turns me off. Um, I think, uh, this is really boring, I guess sounds a little bit like I'm just playing to the galleRy. But, uh, what really turns me off is, um hmm. Who do I say this Because I hate the word tolerance because I think
Speaker 3: the word tolerance I'll always feels to me a little bit like, uh, like I was raised, um, I would reasonably, scotland and I went to a catholic school, um, and uh, there was always that slight thing of like, you know, we show tolerance for other faiths and I hate the word tolerance in that respect because it kinda sounds like, I mean, we know it's bad, but you know, we accept it. So I tolerate you. Yeah. So I disliked the words, which is why I also dislike the word intolerance because I think it kind of implies a sense of, well, why don't you just put up with the thing that's central to me that you hate. I really disliked. I disliked what turns me off is people who feel they have feel they have everything worked out and therefore have the rights to tell other people they've got it all wrong.
Speaker 3: So I like, I have equal problems with evangelical believers and hardcore atheists. I had that notion that people just say, no, I've worked out and you're wrong. and that applies all sorts of creative stuff, you know, people who go out of their way on twitter to find people saying, I really love such and such an album, an enemy, but it shirt. Oh, thank you for contributing to the conversation. That's. Thank you for taking the time to do that. So yes. what really turns me off for people who feel the need to shit on other people's likes and beliefs against, as long as nobody's getting hurt, I don't really see what the issue is.
Speaker 5: I think for me, again lazy because it's just the inverse of what I was just saying, but an ever see cynicism in any artwork, pop music, films, anything. If it's just, if I don't believe it's coming from the, from a place of I just like, yeah, I want it to make this foR any reason other than I'm manipulative. Then, um, if I, if I could, if I sense I'm being sold something or I'm trying to be checked in any form of artwork work or any form of thing, if a, if I can tell it's coming from a place of cynicism, I stopped enjoying it because I think I just, I can tell it well for me anyway if it, if it feels honest to me, I'm, I'm up foR it. Been preached. I'm more just like being tricked. I'd like to just things coming from a. I feel like you can tell when someone's just makIng something for the absolute joy of making it. Yeah, I think so. And in the moment than not, I don't like that in any, in any form of anything that really the cynicism and for self gain and what really turns me off. Um, what is your favorite curse word Fox. Brilliant in it.
Speaker 3: Quite fond of wank. There's a bank in China which to this day I don't think plays massively naturally bumped super pro and their ela is one of the loveliest human beings in the world and has a really. Ella has a really kind of kind of almost kind of cut glass english accent and every time I hear I go, oh shit. I was just always. Makes me chuckle.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah. I was about to say I'm really fond of awake. I am really fond of the use of the word wang class they introduced. That's the introduction there, yet I still think you can beat. Fuck. It's brilliant. Such a good word. It's just so good. So expressive. So
Speaker 2: useful in just about every scenario. Alan's really fond that tommy. Thanks. You really can't be a fuck. Yeah, I think. I think folks. Brilliant. This episode brought to you by squarespace displayed. Surely you can get them. They do that for him. I don't think anyone else in the world needs a websIte. Surely everyone's got a website. Get them on the me undies more. Oh yeah. What's. What sound or noIse do you like and dislike I've always loved those chips that you turn. Oh, yay. I love that you called daft with them at school. Yeah, it's brilliant. You get me one of them when I was a win and that was sorted for the day or the big dish full of bolts that you just never seems like a chip system. Electric neon tube, and you say to satan, that makes the best noise. Order one and oh, they're so fun. So fun. I wish I knew what they were called that by myself. One on amazon, you know, amazon frame when I and get tonight, that's going to be your next goal. Every single film you work on from now on, you just get one of them somewhere like muffled and fucked up. It could be a great noise. Arriva somebody shooting in slow motion. That's the second time we've talked about. I love reverb. Reverb that
Speaker 8: uh, it's boring. What I really like the sound and smell of wood burning. I find it very relaxing sounds. I don't like, uh, I don't like, I don't like noises to see if somebody has a habit of doing something similar. Would it be snoring or a weird popping too like the breathing or something. But then it falls into read them and you just, you, I just ended up obsessing over the fact that it's about to happen again.
Speaker 2: Two seconds. So rapid like repetitious, small noises that I can get out of my, uh, I can't get my ears. I despise that. It really puts me on edge a lot of time for the scent of rain screen if I'm covered that. But it's really rainy. I used to have relief when I was in the attic as a kid. The best on glad to let. Let me. For the funds. Yeah. Yeah. Riff windows like scotland, putter in the bag. Guy. Light situation.
Speaker 8: What profession What profession other than your own would you like to attempt and not attempt If I wasn't writing and still be a teacher, uh, I can't think of something else I think I would enjoy doing other than the two things
Speaker 3: that I do.
Speaker 8: God knows. I wish I could paint. That looks like a lot. My dad's a painter. It's amazing.
Speaker 2: Wish I could do it. I, I mean at the, I, I draw for fun, but yeah,
Speaker 8: that horrible joint and wish I could do it, which I do. I get the paint by numbers. Yes. You can tell you I've got one right there and every time I look at it I'm like, I did that even though it's not factually correct. it's like paint by numbers. Like it's special, but like, yeah. So if you wanted to start that off, that'd be an amazing thing to do. I think to paint.
Speaker 3: Sonia hates a tough one, isn't it Wait, no, I'm old jobs we take to do a. I worked in retail while I was at uni, um, and I worked with some lovely people, but that's the worst job in the y actually. No, I did call center work van.
Speaker 2: It was the worst job in the morning for two and a half. That was so rough soul destroying. And the guy, the guy who ran the call center around my bed, it was like, um, you need to ask everyone three times, like, you know, the thing. And I would just ask for one fancy dress and they'd be like, no, no cheers. And, but they were less an mto calls and he came up to me is that you need to ask him a few times as that. But they'd said no and I don't want to. And he's like, you're not really no. One day then I'm not really sure.
Speaker 3: Should've stood there silently. And then we asked what you're doing. Say no. You have to ask me
Speaker 2: if only I could have thought something peppy at the time. Just leave. And was quite good though.
Speaker 8: Hated it. If god exists, what would you like her to say to you when you arrive at the pearly gates A
Speaker 2: oh wow. I'm letting you in tears. You don't have to go downstairs. Graduations. Allen, you made the sunnydale high. That'd be me. Perfect. I'll just live out my years. Killing vampires. Killing vampires in dayton hall. People will be amazing. I love my wife dearly. But you know what that meant. I'd be dead. so I would just like to just like to get in upstairs. That'd be class
Speaker 3: actually. Genuinely. Here's this cool thing. No one could have expected is next is what I want to hear. Like I, I've, I, I've always loved billy connolly had a lovely take on the afterlife, which I always really liked where you said what he thinks that I'm going to totally paraphrase horribly here, but it's like he thinks that what we actually are is an ant on like a stool leg and everyone laughs thinking, oh, he's just saying that religion is silly. And he's like, no, no, no. What I'm saying is that on that stool leg doesn't really know what still is and it doesn't know about what the kitchen is. There still is and it doesn't understand what hosa is. It doesn't understand what a country or a planner or at universities, I think we are an aunt on a stool and right now we can't really understand what now, what's next for whatever is next. Even If there's nothing would blow our minds if there is something. I love that idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Just, yeah, just find that. I find that there was an atole would be a laugh when it would be good. Yeah. If it's not over yet, something else matter. Permanent christmas. Tomi mountain it. Oh yeah. The thing is. Oh yeah, matter of fact could just live in. So it's a five foot deep snow and I had a log cabin and that was it for another day. You could just go to Iceland or something. No, but like, you know, but then I had to have to come home. If you were reincarnated as some other plant or animal, what would it be I will. Yeah. I like the idea of nocturnal and quiet and nobody bothered you from being able to turn your head all the way around in level k and like, uh, yeah, it'd be a fly. Spent a lot of time in the moonlight.
Speaker 2: Sounds great. Oh man. So many animals that cool a reindeer. They're permanent christmas and I'd be guaranteed job. That's true. Never benji. Basically working pants or job security and don't know so many good animals. I'm like quite like this little lotuses, but they've got an like, you're cute but you are poisonous or you don't get fucked with too much untouchable. Be quite good. Yeah. Maybe it's a lot of nice. Sounds good. If you had the opportunity to go and view any culture from the past, like if you were completely invisible, had to be labeled fish and walked around amongst the romans or cave people or native americans before the europeans came, who would you choose I would quite like the boozy absent fueled 19 twenties. Cole porter of paris thing with the love that smashing. Absent the castle and all those types goes quite late.
Speaker 2: All that just sounds like the meat, but I love all that music. I'm a fan so I could have been around for when that was the thing because there's not not a movie yet. It means it's cane of, well when they in paris, but like that kind of him. However, I love all that kid of music, benny goodman stuff and that kid would have been cool. It's hard. I've always been one of those. If you get to choose, I'd go to the future of this diseases of the main thing when they got back came to cool, but like a case to see what the medieval world looked. Lower medieval britain in particular, but equally I think it'd be like a shit version of the game of thrones. Like you'd go back. Everyone's horrible to each other. People are getting, people are dying of disease and treating each other appallingly.
Speaker 2: Everyone's breath as long as guaranteed. Like way back. Like if I could go and have a be that great. Yeah. Could go and have a look and then leave again because go, got and get stuck. My main problem would be that I'm a mixed race woman. sure, sure. But like, yeah, but like invisible and immune to everything. My phone went down. The other data that I didn't know what to do. I was, I was lost. I was on the way. I was using it as a navigation source at the time it went down. I was bereft. Just wandering the streets, like a confused madmen. Just looking for a sunday or I need. No, I'm very much based in the future. Um, I had one of my most embarrassing moments about six months ago when I had to put my foot down to get the battery changed and I had the whole thing going and it's like everyone talks about connect to your phones, whatever.
Speaker 2: It's fine. I'm really not that big a deal to put my phone and I was 10 pieces outside the apple store when I went. Oh, what time is it Shit, I don't want to watch anymore. No idea to tell people that come dangerously reliant on technology. I don't think I could go back and think, oh god, I know. Plus it's so much I want to see the end of like narratively, like movies that are in the running and stuff at the moment. Like I need to know the end of the Story. So yeah, I don't think I'd like to go back and take like I basically I need that third patrick rothfuss book and the thought of wanting to get through april because we need to game of thrones and avengers and got through those. if I could just get him, if he could just give us the third one.
Speaker 2: I want to know what's going on with kathy and need to know. I mean I'm still waiting for the last two games of throne books. I got bad news for you, kevin. I don't think it's quite hard. I think we're lucky. We'll get one more by the time the time it takes. I don't see cfs. King killer chronicles thing goes the same way. I'll be so heartbroken. I was in second year of high school, 17 years old. I read a game of thrones and that wasn't even the year at chemo. Like I read that book when I was 17. It's just flatly. Not everyone involved in a tv show knows the end and to be fair if you were george rr martin and like half the world. We're just tapping their fingers waiting on you to give them a perfect day thing. That's quite a lot of pressure and if the tv show was going to do it anyway. Yeah, I suppose. Yeah. I mean I really hope to because of that, adapting those. Patrick last books. I really hope you don't mind. Well lemme let my weight. I mean, literally they couldn't have given it to
Speaker 1: more unbelievably just wonder uber talent, my favorite personal now, but I still, I need that third book before they bust any of the narrative. Please, please talking about books and leads perfectly into the next question. Um, so we have under show what we call the vault, when we put a films that were so influential to us, uh, and they shaped my personality in some way. We'll put them there. In your fields of expertise, what would you say Can you do a top five of bands I'm the composers for tony allen writers screenwriters for, for
Speaker 3: uh, alan
Speaker 5: bans and composes screenwriters. Randy newman, absolute lovely guy. He's bob dylan was big for me early on. Got me into the whole thing in a big way. But ellen, Randy Newman, top five. This is tough. A can stop. Yeah. Again, joni mitchell maybe, and then compose were I really love Thomas Newman, any of the humans and the gary. Not as much, aLthough, I mean music for chameleons is banging, but eh, yeah, as tough. And, uh, so many people. I listened to a tape I really love michael got dental stuff like ratatouille and all that. I just got back to everything he's done for pixar films. It's just untouchable. I'm at any at any of the disney stuff in any takes. Disney, pixar can and stuff is my jam, but yeah, songs. Why dylan Dylan and joni mitchell and randy and then probably composes wise like ron newman, Thomas Newman, maybe gear chino. Those guys for me go. I'm going to. I'm going to
Speaker 3: the rules a little bit because I think the whole vault thinks quite tacky, but thank you. For me personally. I'm just going put. I'm gonna put some authors and as well some screenwriters and screenwriting. I am going to be the most predictable, straight, white male in the world and see art and socket in Sweden and I get it and I know, and everyone at home is goIng, yo, of course, uh, yes, I get it, but just in terms of the effect, because on my own writing and what I thought could be done onscreen, they're huge influences on me, but I'm also going to take mary shelley in their frankenstein is my favorite novel. Um, and when you bear in mind, blade runner is my favorite movie is anything which examines what it means to be human, has always fascinated me. Um, and I think only recently in a scandal only recently has recently been given even the smallest piece of the credit she deserves for essentially inventing that, uh, you know, that genre.
Speaker 3: I'm frankenstein's an incredible novel. Uh, so like mary shelley, I would put in there hg wells that were put in there. I just read, read the war of the worlds recently and It is terrifyingly apt in 2018 as I read it. Um, so I think, uh, he's, he's a big, big one in there as well, and a good fantasy novelist maybe or something just in terms of the kind of effect on me and make me think about, um, I think I think are slowly going, oh yeah, I see that as like a team of her work as well is pretty incredible and some really amazing stuff in there. But like this whole bunch of other writers are going to spoke along the way who have had effects on me. Like James Cameron isn't an enormously underrated screenwriter. I'm as much as not the biggest avatar, fine.
Speaker 3: Uh, but me, aliens is the best secret of all time and it, that a script is drum tight, such a smart script in so many ways. So he's done some really incredible stuff. They mostly comment nay motion I'd like. Yeah. Yeah. And actually I bet that lane on paper just looked like a decent line and it's all in the delivery of the door. Um, but what that film does with ripley and also does with what should actually have been a completely poisoned chalice alien being pretty much a perfect movie and picking that up and saying, oh, I'm going to put more action in it, that movies should be terrible. And I think it's, for me, it's the best equal of all time. It's so smart and what it does with the genre and with the character of ripley. Um, so always. I'm so sorry. I thought I'd put that on silent. And so yes, I think that predominantly. Yeah. Yeah. I think those are kind of my go tos. Okay. A familiar. You're obsessed with these days.
Speaker 5: You want to go. I love this by the vest. is there that was blowing. It was, that blew my mind. That was nice. Yeah, that was just perfect. I kind of thought it was gonna be. I didn't really know what it was going to be. I'm not calm, efficient now though. And this, I have not read loads of them. I've read some things. I've not read those. I'm not an expert basically. It's not. I can, but when john malaney showed up, is that peg I lost. I lost it. I absolutely. Peter parker. Yeah, I lOst it. That was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. John malaney vice just makes me happy. Everything that gate does is gold. The gag, the gag lIt. It just. It's the delivery of his jokes. Yeah. That ends if the just. He's the best ever and yeah, hammers that pig. That really was one of my highlights of the year so far.
Speaker 3: I'm going to choose a weird one that I wouldn't have actually wouldn't have called myself choosing just one more. ThInk about it. So like it's a bunch of obvious ones like bleach on it be my favorite film. I adore lost in translation in the last 10 years. Dr really blew me away, but I'm going to see spring breakers because I've seen that movie three or four times now and all I know is I really like it and it might be terrible and I can't actually tell whether or not all the things that I feel are coming off that film are actually there, but if it is completely vacuous and it's really interesting that I can watch it so many times and come out the other state and still not make up my mains are, but whether or not a harmonic is actually a genius who's created an incredibly moving piece of pop culture or he just stuck a whole bunch of bikinis on screen and every and like a really weird score and edited it in a strange way and everyone thinks that smart.
Speaker 3: I can'T decide. And for me like the fact that have come out of so many different viewings and I'm still on the fence makes me think that whatever his intentions were, there's something about that film that catches the spirit at the time. Um, that's, that's really interesting to me. I am completely willing for someone to sit me down and point out all the reasons. It's a horrific misogynistic film and I'll probably nod and good. You know what You're probably right. I cry at the end of that film and I don't know why. Like, it's, it's a weird one. So yeah. Actually watched
Speaker 5: to. I'm going to get ready.
Speaker 3: It's a strange film, oddly. Beautiful. I thought. Oh, maybe it's weird. Yes. I slept on that. Have to watch you two bonus questions from a dominant nuke.
Speaker 5: Um, what was the first album you ever bought Lincoln park's hybrid fee, I think. Really Yeah, like a whole album. I remember buying us. I've, I've definitely stolen records off of and little that before that, but a whole album. Yeah, I think so that I was like, I'm buying that because I love to crawl in a man still class. It still holds up. Absolutely. What type
Speaker 3: for single ever bought was new faith and 94, but true at I new order. Nice new faith, true faith, which is a great signal at freestyle.
Speaker 5: First album I bought was monster by rem. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. As a cool one. Yeah. Yeah. I'm quite proud of that. When people hear the pay, the hybrid theory still tight. Early lincoln though. Tight nuke.
Speaker 6: Okay. Um, let me think. Um, m, m, m, m y No. Okay. Um, what's your favorite genre to compose around or like, do you have like a specific, like do you like comedic craig Was that. Of course you were talking about how that was really fun. But like
Speaker 3: I liked genre. Yes. Uh, I think when I look over all my stuff, not massive surprise and the guy who wrote the apocalypse, but uh, yeah, anything skewing young adult that has some sort of kind of genre or kind of scifi supernatural aspect to that I think is my favorite genre to righten
Speaker 5: I saw that for antenna, that's kind of the joy of it a lot these days. Like you know, anna's meant as like a film in terms of like how wide the scope of the musical things that are to have a bash at christmas songs. Then as like, john's a massive. John does a massive influence for joanne, so like really has lead synth score at the back end, you know, and then christmas music at the start. So like I think that's been the joy in this, unlike kind of what I was doing to Florida and more straight songwriting rule him the absolute white gamut of stuff to have a bash at. So I'm kind of up for anything. That's what's quite exciting about it. Now I'll take anything for fla could ever they have the stories like the right thing or whatever. If something comes up that we're into it doesn't. I don't really mean to where it sets
Speaker 3: getting the opportunity to work on it because there's a lot going on this year for resolving and getting the opportunity to work on stuff which isn't in a genre traditionally open kind of pill towards has been really cool and really, really excited and a little scary. Which is good too because when you're writing your own stuff, like I have a ton of spec scripts out there in the old. Mostly settled into the genre kind of arena. But uh, although the not way, but yeah, there's a couple of things about start working on. One is just a pure thriller, um, and that's, like I said, a little scary but really cool, like it's, it's, it's a different pill to be playing in,
Speaker 8: which I'm quite excited about. Nice. Cool. We'll just do this unplugging and then we're done. I won't, we won't do the country a plugging time. Go, go put gas rangers, monte plugin podcast rangers. Go podcast rangers, my deep plugging podcast range. So some live jingle indeed. But uh, yeah. So are you in anything right now that you can plug a. Where can our billions of fans listening to find you and all that stuff I just find me online and sweater. Oh god, for as long as they decide to stay on it. A, m, I'm n h mcdonald's, oliver morton. It's, I warned you. I spent all of last year just spamming out on the apocalypse retweets and this year it's mostly going to be more about brexit. But uh, if you want to come along, by all means come along. Every so often I bought something I think is funny, so that I think it's the same as instagram, but I barely use instagram.
Speaker 2: Ah, instagram's my jam. Farming. I instagram, love it, love gan people's pictures and not their feelings or thoughts. So it's valid. Find family over there. It's just tommy riley, a nine year of my birth, my identity fraud and just. Yeah, it's instagram if you fancy. And then she had to stay on track. I guess there's nothing working on some other stuff but can't really about yet. So. And I think tommy, you're working well. This is not a serious question. You're working on a reboot of the sopranos. Right That keeps happening to me. Like one of my friends take her to david, like, wait, it's not that it's not and yet obviously not this. Yeah. So both the sopranos and a girls choir and it's based on a novel by alimony so that. But the, I love the book gets a real joy to be involved in that mean that it's really, really, really fun to be around that. And yeah. So features, marlisa, peaches, mildly and so in the, in the middle, in the thick of that
Speaker 8: at the moment. Do you have any idea when anna supposed to appear on view at the url on blu ray and stuff soon
Speaker 2: Since last year. Definitely this issue. Don't worry about that. Yeah.
Speaker 8: Digital will becoming. I believed loreal becoming a vod. I'm not sure about yet and I believe, but yes we are. We can see we're getting into the studio to do a commentary soon so that shouldn't be heading. Think because that's not giving away anything that's not been said. So yeah, eyes open. Digital was not too long. We got great. Awesome. Well you can message us later and be like, that's fine. I'll take that one on there. Yeah, I mean we've kinda finished. The other thing I'm slightly could at least favorable is going to get to that night. Tom holland kind of spoilers. Little spidey saw somebody tweeted the other day. It's like the whole of avengers four has leaked online folks to tom holland. He's like, I actually thought I did. They scared me less so. Wonderful.
Speaker 8: Well, thank you very much for coming and thank you so much for your. You're genuinely your review episode nine. It was gorgeous. Not just because it's always nice to people that like it and see nice things, but what I really liked about it was you really got under the surface of the film and kind of examine some stuff that I don't think I've heard talked about elsewhere. And you can talk about the trolley scene and things like that. As much as it's really nice to hear, oh, that thing we try to do work. It's just really nice to put your people acknowledge that work went into it because it is very easy. Something. We've seen a few reviews online and people are just like, oh, it's just like a little budget british thing. Uh, you know, it was just another to try to show him the dead, isn't it
Speaker 8: It's like, well, if you watch it, you don't like it. I'm totally fine with that. Like people don't like every movie. That's fine, but it's lovely to hear people acknowledge that thoughts and a lot of hard work went into it. So thank you. So it's not just the Zombie musical, it's also surprising to me coming away from it. It's a very much a coming of age film as well. Really hard to do and that's. And that's not sold to you when you watch it and you realize that guy, this is a coming of age film. It's on multiple levels as well. First and foremost. Actually john and I had long conversations. It is actually first and foremost the coming of age, but It is obviously a musical and obviously there's zombies and horror aspects and there are. But if you look at the, If you look at the journey of all those characters, it's a coming of age story for all of them that happens to take place as zombie apocalypse at christmas with songs.
Speaker 8: Yes. Yeah. So it's appreciated getting the word out there about it and uh, yeah, by all means do It again, I'll release comes out. we are genuinely hoping that, um, when our digital release kicks in and you know, people get a chance to kinda by gearing up for next christmas that it fades out even wider audience now because we think there's a lot of people out there who would really like this film, but, uh, obviously cinema releases are their own thing and it's really difficult to get to as many people as you'd like. So we're hopIng that will be the year more people get to experience it. definitely. Fingers crossed. So thank you again guys for coming. Cheers. We were adam and alan. Oh, and tommy, thank you all very much.