From TV Script to Video Podcast - with Caleb Fisher

Jaclyn: 00:00:00

Hello, welcome to the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast.

Jaclyn: 00:00:03

My name is Jaclyn and I'm excited to be here today on video where we can actually see our guest and me and, and just.

Jaclyn: 00:00:12

Actually have a, a conversation where you get to actually see what's happening with us, um, and.

Jaclyn: 00:00:18

So today I actually have a special guest because this guest has been part of faf Association from before it even was faf Association.

Jaclyn: 00:00:27

Before we became Faith and Family Filmmakers Association.

Jaclyn: 00:00:30

We were family friendly Screenwriting Academy and Caleb Fisher has been with us ever since then.

Jaclyn: 00:00:37

And actually, I got to read the script that we're gonna be talking about today.

Jaclyn: 00:00:42

I got to read an earlier version of it.

Jaclyn: 00:00:44

Way back then.

Jaclyn: 00:00:45

So this is really exciting to be able to have Caleb on as a guest.

Jaclyn: 00:00:48

So let me introduce him.

Jaclyn: 00:00:50

Caleb enjoyed his school years being homeschooled and feels the experience allowed him to learn at his own pace and use alternative methods of learning while following his many interests.

Jaclyn: 00:01:00

He's a creator, producer, and co-host of YouTube channel.

Jaclyn: 00:01:03

Good Morning fellow foodies with his brother Seth.

Jaclyn: 00:01:07

He's a voice actor.

Jaclyn: 00:01:08

Playing parts in multiple episodes of Project oan and is also an assistant with his brother's farm business Mini Acre Farm.

Jaclyn: 00:01:17

An avid reader, Caleb enjoys words and investigating alternate ways to make communication more effective and distinct.

Jaclyn: 00:01:24

He's currently working on several novels and articles for future publication.

Jaclyn: 00:01:29

Welcome to the podcast.

Caleb: 00:01:31

Thanks for having me.

Caleb: 00:01:32

I'm, I'm really excited.

Jaclyn: 00:01:33

Yeah, no, it's great to have you here actually.

Jaclyn: 00:01:35

Um, 'cause there's even more than that, like in your bio you, you note some things and I know when you write a bio you have to choose what are you gonna include in it.

Jaclyn: 00:01:44

But I was hoping you would also include that you are a pirate hog that our merch...

Caleb: 00:01:50

Oh yeah.

Caleb: 00:01:50

I should have included that.

Caleb: 00:01:53

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:01:53

Our merch is from Pirate Hog and so we've got mugs, hats and uh, a t-shirt here.

Jaclyn: 00:02:00

I'll pull that up.

Caleb: 00:02:01

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:02:01

I started Pirate Hog Apparel, uh, back, uh, a couple years back with my brother Seth.

Caleb: 00:02:06

Um, making, yeah, shirts, hats, mugs.

Jaclyn: 00:02:10

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:02:11

Quite the expensive library there.

Jaclyn: 00:02:15

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:02:15

And if you've been to, uh, like, um, Geoff and I, we've brought our merch to a few of the festivals, like, um, purpose Fest and Content.

Jaclyn: 00:02:25

Uh, so yeah, and any of the festivals we're at, we're gonna be bringing some merch, so, you know.

Caleb: 00:02:30

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:02:30

I love

Jaclyn: 00:02:30

online all the

Caleb: 00:02:31

pictures on social Live of you guys posting with guests and everything.

Caleb: 00:02:34

That's, I, I've always wanted to go to the, to those conventions.

Caleb: 00:02:37

I've never been able to make it so I, I live vicariously through all those images.

Jaclyn: 00:02:41

You'll make it someday, I'm sure of it.

Caleb: 00:02:43

Oh

Jaclyn: 00:02:43

yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:02:44

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:02:44

Um, and so if anybody does wanna, you know, learn more about the merch or purchase them or whatever, go ahead, uh, we'll put the, the link in the, the comments, um, or the, the bio of this podcast and you can go and check it out.

Jaclyn: 00:02:58

Um, okay.

Jaclyn: 00:02:59

So writing, writing, that's what we.

Jaclyn: 00:03:01

We're gonna talk to you as a filmmaker today.

Jaclyn: 00:03:04

Uh, so back when I read this script, which I'll get you to tell me about in just a minute, um, it was a very early draft and I will say I really enjoyed it.

Jaclyn: 00:03:13

It reminded me of, uh, certain other sitcoms that I'd seen.

Jaclyn: 00:03:17

And because I love the quirkiness and, you know, workplace comedies are always fun.

Jaclyn: 00:03:23

So tell us a little bit about, um, the story and how you came up with this idea.

Caleb: 00:03:29

Yeah, absolutely.

Caleb: 00:03:30

Um, I, I'm glad you said that 'cause, uh, a big inspiration for me was old comedies like the Dick Van Dyke Show.

Caleb: 00:03:37

Um, of course, uh, Frazier TV show.

Caleb: 00:03:40

Um, I'm sure everyone's familiar with that one, um, where that one takes place in a radio station.

Caleb: 00:03:46

And, um, so I, I was always intrigued by radio and the writer's room, like they show in the Dick Van Dyke show.

Caleb: 00:03:55

So.

Caleb: 00:03:56

Yeah, that always wanted to be a, I always wanted that to be a part of the story.

Caleb: 00:04:00

So, um, the story is Tally light broadcast and its focuses around a radio station that is kind of decrepit.

Caleb: 00:04:10

The, the owner doesn't really want to pay for anything, doesn't really want to update anything, and the people who are working there just kind of lost hope of anything changing or becoming better and.

Caleb: 00:04:24

So the, the story is, it's very much of a redemption story where the characters are able to kind of see a glimpse of possible change and, and improvement in, in their workspace.

Caleb: 00:04:36

'cause they love what they do, but they just don't know how to do it the best they can.

Caleb: 00:04:41

So, um, yeah, I was inspired a lot by old shows like that.

Jaclyn: 00:04:45

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:04:46

WKRP in Cincinnati.

Caleb: 00:04:48

Oh yeah,

Jaclyn: 00:04:49

that was one I watched when I was younger.

Jaclyn: 00:04:51

Um,

Caleb: 00:04:52

yeah, WKRP in Cincinnati.

Caleb: 00:04:53

Um, uh, what was, uh, good morning?

Caleb: 00:04:56

Uh, good Morning World.

Caleb: 00:04:58

That was one that, uh, I really loved.

Jaclyn: 00:05:00

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:05:01

News Radio.

Jaclyn: 00:05:01

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:05:01

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:05:01

News Radio.

Caleb: 00:05:02

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:05:02

Oh, yeah.

Caleb: 00:05:03

There were some really good ones back then.

Caleb: 00:05:05

Um, but yeah, so, uh, so this, the, it, it actually started off as a joke, the story because, um, my dad, he, um, he, he, uh, was in construction.

Caleb: 00:05:20

Um.

Caleb: 00:05:20

And when he would, of course be, um, kind of held to what the weather was going to do.

Caleb: 00:05:29

And so he would call us.

Caleb: 00:05:31

He was never very tech savvy, so he would call us and be like, Hey, you know, what's the weather supposed to be like?

Caleb: 00:05:36

So we'd get on the computer and we'd look it up and tell him what was going on and.

Caleb: 00:05:42

After a while it got annoying.

Caleb: 00:05:43

'cause, you know, he would just, he would call almost every single day asking these questions.

Caleb: 00:05:47

And the joke was always, you know, all you have to do is put your hand outside and see if it's raining.

Caleb: 00:05:52

And so we would joke with him constantly.

Caleb: 00:05:55

Um, and, uh, my aunt Brenda could is from West Virginia and she can always tell what the weather's gonna do.

Caleb: 00:06:03

She, uh, at my oldest brother's, uh, wedding, she was like, you know, it's gonna be raining in about two hours.

Caleb: 00:06:09

And it was clear sky.

Caleb: 00:06:10

There was no sign of it whatsoever.

Caleb: 00:06:13

I looked at my mom and I was like.

Caleb: 00:06:14

Uh, is she serious?

Caleb: 00:06:15

She was like, don't, don't question Brenda.

Caleb: 00:06:17

She's going to be right.

Caleb: 00:06:19

And sure enough it started raining and so all that to, to come back, the story originated with one of the main characters, turbo, and he's a meteorologist.

Caleb: 00:06:31

Doesn't have a lot of like, um, uh, you know, tech experience or anything like that, but he can tell what the weather's gonna do.

Caleb: 00:06:38

And so I actually started off writing this story based on that character.

Caleb: 00:06:44

And I wrote it up, you know, quick little one page story and I showed it to my dad and he just started chuckling.

Caleb: 00:06:51

And so that kind of snowballed and I just started adding characters to it and uh, kind of went in different directions and.

Caleb: 00:07:00

You remember that script was, it was very rough, but

Jaclyn: 00:07:05

Well, they all are.

Jaclyn: 00:07:05

I mean, first drafts are that way all.

Jaclyn: 00:07:07

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:07:07

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:07:08

So, um, I, I showed that to you and you gave really great feedback and I went back to the drawing board and added more characters and started plotting it out more.

Caleb: 00:07:17

And, um, yeah, it's, it's gone through quite the journey.

Caleb: 00:07:21

It's on, its.

Caleb: 00:07:22

I always tell people it's hundredth draft, but officially like 25th.

Jaclyn: 00:07:27

Right, right.

Jaclyn: 00:07:28

I know.

Jaclyn: 00:07:28

I, I think after it passes the third or fourth draft, I just stop counting.

Jaclyn: 00:07:32

I don't remember, you know?

Jaclyn: 00:07:34

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:07:34

And, and how much are you gonna edit before you call it a draft or just an edit?

Jaclyn: 00:07:38

Eh.

Jaclyn: 00:07:39

The point is point, you're working on it.

Jaclyn: 00:07:42

No, and I, I love how it has very distinct characters.

Jaclyn: 00:07:46

Uh, their voices were definitely clear.

Jaclyn: 00:07:48

Um, and I think that that's an important piece when like to know if you have a, a script that.

Jaclyn: 00:07:54

Could work is when you have these very unique characters that when you bring them together, the dynamic itself is interesting.

Jaclyn: 00:08:01

And so then when you develop the story, you know, this is all gonna work.

Jaclyn: 00:08:05

Um, but I wanna ask, did you originally intend to have it as a film?

Caleb: 00:08:12

Yeah, I, well, no.

Caleb: 00:08:13

I originally had it intended as a TV show.

Jaclyn: 00:08:15

Okay.

Caleb: 00:08:16

Um, I've always been, I've always leaned more towards television than movies just 'cause I think.

Caleb: 00:08:23

Stories, um, have more potential to grow with a TV show.

Caleb: 00:08:28

Um, a lot of times I've watched a film, I'm like, oh, that would've made such a great series.

Caleb: 00:08:32

They could have had like 10 seasons and it would've been perfect, you know?

Caleb: 00:08:36

Um, so I've always wanted to create a TV series, and that's, that's kind of where I'm, I plotted this story out to be.

Caleb: 00:08:45

And, um, the way that I'm doing it now, with it being more of a, a video podcast, it.

Caleb: 00:08:52

Translates really well into that and I think it has potential to eventually, you know, maybe adapt into a TV series, a lot of growth.

Jaclyn: 00:09:01

So can you explain, uh, what you mean when you say video podcast?

Jaclyn: 00:09:07

I mean, this is a video podcast, this episode, right?

Jaclyn: 00:09:10

At least.

Jaclyn: 00:09:11

But, um.

Jaclyn: 00:09:13

But I know, 'cause you have shared it with me, it's a little bit more than that.

Jaclyn: 00:09:17

Um, unless I'm just maybe not aware that that's a thing.

Jaclyn: 00:09:21

Can you explain to me what it is that you've created and, uh, and how you came to that conclusion of moving that direction instead of doing the, the television series?

Caleb: 00:09:32

Yeah, absolutely.

Caleb: 00:09:33

Um, well I, I always call it a video podcast for most people just 'cause they kind of instantly know associate what that is.

Caleb: 00:09:42

Um, but it, it started out with, um, a project called, uh, project Audien.

Caleb: 00:09:49

And I've acted with them in about five episodes now.

Caleb: 00:09:53

Actually gonna be filming a, a sixth one really soon.

Caleb: 00:09:56

Um, well with me in it, they've done way more than six, but six with me in it.

Caleb: 00:10:01

Um, and what he did is during COVID, uh, back, I think he started actually in 2020, um.

Caleb: 00:10:10

He did remakes of, uh, old radio programs and, uh, he's, uh, the gentleman's, uh, Larry, uh, Grobe and he.

Caleb: 00:10:20

Is very much into the audio drama scene and

Caleb: 00:10:24

for people out there not familiar with audio drama, it's the best description I've ever heard is it's a movie for the ears.

Caleb: 00:10:31

And so it has great sound effects to kind of bring you into the world.

Caleb: 00:10:35

And so you can visualize what's going on without actually seeing something

Jaclyn: 00:10:39

like adventures and odys.

Jaclyn: 00:10:41

That's what I grew up

Caleb: 00:10:42

on.

Caleb: 00:10:42

Yes.

Caleb: 00:10:42

Adventures and Odyssey.

Caleb: 00:10:43

Yep.

Caleb: 00:10:44

I grew up with Adventures and Odyssey and then later on with, um, Lamplighter Theater.

Caleb: 00:10:48

Mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:10:48

They do really great audio dramas and, um, so.

Caleb: 00:10:53

What he did is actually use audio drama methods with a lot of sound effects and all the actors, but he uses Zoom as a way to record the video so you can still see the actors acting.

Caleb: 00:11:07

And Larry does the sound effects live.

Caleb: 00:11:09

So you can see him, you know, doing the coconuts on, on soil to do, you know, the, the hoof sounds and things like that.

Caleb: 00:11:16

Um, so what I did is I saw that.

Caleb: 00:11:21

And, um, with his help and kind of instructions on how to do some things, um, I took that format and I made my story video.

Caleb: 00:11:31

And audio.

Caleb: 00:11:33

So I added sound effects later on.

Caleb: 00:11:35

Those aren't done live in this, this episode, future.

Caleb: 00:11:38

Uh, but so I added sound effects to create the world, um, in an audio form.

Caleb: 00:11:44

And then I recorded all the actors, uh, in video.

Caleb: 00:11:48

And what I did is with the actors, I actually recorded the main cast live.

Caleb: 00:11:55

And so all the.

Caleb: 00:11:58

Which is really fun 'cause live just brings a different dynamic.

Caleb: 00:12:01

Um, and so I recorded them live and then a guest cat and guest cast voices I had recorded separately and then I brought them in in post and with post editing I used.

Caleb: 00:12:15

The method of bringing out the actors who aren't currently acting, not showing them on the screen at all, and only showing the audience, uh, the cast that's currently acting.

Caleb: 00:12:26

So it still has that visual element of, you know, things disappearing coming up.

Caleb: 00:12:30

And, you know, um, I also had, uh, actual musicians who had original work I had, I got permission from four different artists to have their music up.

Caleb: 00:12:43

And so I had, um, their music actually playing in the background and I have, you know, the visual of showing their, um, their, um, art, their cover art.

Caleb: 00:12:53

So I, I added as many visual elements as possible to make it appealing for the people who are watching as well as the people who are listening.

Caleb: 00:13:01

So that was a lot of fun.

Jaclyn: 00:13:04

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:13:04

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:13:04

And I like how, uh, you do see all of the people who are in the scene.

Jaclyn: 00:13:10

And so if somebody enters the room, even if they don't have a line, they're entering the room.

Jaclyn: 00:13:14

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:13:14

We see them.

Caleb: 00:13:15

Right.

Jaclyn: 00:13:16

Um, and yeah, so it is.

Jaclyn: 00:13:18

It's kind of like that next stage of, um, imagination.

Jaclyn: 00:13:23

I guess where I can see these are the people in the room and I can see how like their facial expressions, how they respond to each other.

Jaclyn: 00:13:31

'cause they are in character during that part, right.

Jaclyn: 00:13:35

Um, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:13:35

It's not like they're just waiting for their line.

Jaclyn: 00:13:38

And so what's interesting too, though, and one of the differences from say like a table read is like there's no narrator, but it works I guess because you do have this visual element showing who's in the scene and even, um, from a.

Jaclyn: 00:13:54

I guess like just the audio perspective, there are like the sound effects that help you to visualize what's going on.

Jaclyn: 00:14:01

And, you know, one scene does lead into the next where, you know, uh, 'cause I've seen parts of it.

Jaclyn: 00:14:06

Um, so when they say like, ah, he's calling us to his office, we gotta go, well, the next scene is at the office, right?

Jaclyn: 00:14:13

And or in his office.

Jaclyn: 00:14:14

And so it, it does make sense where one thing flows into the next, where, um, you can imagine without the narration.

Jaclyn: 00:14:24

Uh, you can imagine where you are.

Jaclyn: 00:14:26

So, yeah, it's really cool.

Caleb: 00:14:28

And, and that's what I love about audio drama is, um, it's very much of a, a craft, just like filmmaking.

Caleb: 00:14:36

It's, it's two distinct crafts, but they both have, I mean, there are people who specialize in just the sound effects and creating the sound effects and making it flow perfectly.

Caleb: 00:14:49

And so it's very much of an art form.

Caleb: 00:14:52

Um, when I, when I was doing this, I spoke to several people who helped me figure out what sound effects were needed.

Caleb: 00:14:59

'cause when I wrote the script, I was thinking visual for tv.

Caleb: 00:15:04

So, you know, when somebody walks into a room, it's shown you don't, you know, put steps are gonna be taken for granted.

Caleb: 00:15:11

The door opening and closing, taken for granted.

Caleb: 00:15:14

So there were several times I went to someone and I was like, it doesn't sound right.

Caleb: 00:15:18

I don't know what's missing.

Caleb: 00:15:19

And they were like, oh, well you need the.

Caleb: 00:15:21

You need the sound of the door opening, but you need the squeak to hear it actually open and then the doorknob, and then you need it to hear it close, and you need to hear scuffles of footsteps.

Caleb: 00:15:30

And so there, there's so much layering, layering and so many details that you need to think about even when writing the script that is, uh, so different from just a regular TV series.

Caleb: 00:15:44

Right.

Caleb: 00:15:44

Um, so yeah, it, it, it takes a lot of, uh, thinking through and, and.

Caleb: 00:15:50

And just a lot of extra steps to make sure that.

Caleb: 00:15:53

The world sounds right and looks right.

Jaclyn: 00:15:56

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:15:57

So, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:15:57

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:15:57

And, and like, one of the things I did notice was, um, when your characters went to, uh, the donut shop, there was the room tone of people in the background, like chatter and stuff like that.

Jaclyn: 00:16:09

Uh, and so you did feel like you were in a different location because at the radio station.

Jaclyn: 00:16:14

You know, there was, it was just the people that were in the scene and there was no, uh, background noise, which made sense.

Jaclyn: 00:16:22

Right.

Jaclyn: 00:16:23

You know, uh, but yeah, when they go out into, uh, at the donut shop that yeah, you need to have people in the background.

Jaclyn: 00:16:31

Uh, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:16:31

And yeah,

Caleb: 00:16:32

and if you listen, you can even hear like ting of glasses and spoons and flatware.

Caleb: 00:16:36

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:16:37

Exactly.

Jaclyn: 00:16:37

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:16:38

A lot of other room noise that.

Caleb: 00:16:40

Wouldn't even really think about usually when, when writing a script or something.

Jaclyn: 00:16:44

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:16:44

So actually let's talk about that for a bit.

Jaclyn: 00:16:47

When you're writing the script, um, like I know when I'm writing for a screen, I'm thinking, what am, what are we looking at?

Jaclyn: 00:16:55

'cause I need to write that down.

Jaclyn: 00:16:57

But, so for an audio drama, are you thinking, what picture do I wanna paint and what do I need to do audibly to make that happen?

Jaclyn: 00:17:07

Like, what are you thinking to.

Jaclyn: 00:17:09

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:17:10

To write this script differently?

Caleb: 00:17:12

Well, in the script I still write, uh, directions for the cast of like, you know, it's in such and such a place.

Caleb: 00:17:18

Uh, like, uh, for instance, the donut shop.

Caleb: 00:17:19

That's, that's gonna be a really big, uh, location in future episodes.

Caleb: 00:17:23

Kind of like the, the coffee shop in friends.

Jaclyn: 00:17:26

Mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:17:26

Um, so it's gonna be kinda like a gathering spot for everyone and.

Caleb: 00:17:30

So with that, I wrote down, you know, donut shop.

Caleb: 00:17:34

Um, the owner is Uncle Ronnie.

Caleb: 00:17:37

And, you know, uh, I wrote down a brief description of what it's supposed to be like.

Caleb: 00:17:41

I think I even put like, um, specifically like, uh, sixties inspired.

Caleb: 00:17:45

Donut shop.

Caleb: 00:17:47

Um, so 'cause in future I'm gonna have like a jukebox playing in the background and uh, things like that going on.

Caleb: 00:17:53

And so I give those details for the actors so they kind of can get into the mindset of, oh, okay, this is a totally different, like you even mentioned, it's a totally different space than like the radio station is.

Caleb: 00:18:06

Um, and then I, the way I did it is I wrote it basically like a TV script to where I was giving directions of, you know, what it's gonna sound like, look like everything.

Caleb: 00:18:15

And then I go through and I add the sound effect directions, and that's.

Caleb: 00:18:20

Primarily for post editing.

Caleb: 00:18:22

Uh, in future it will have live sound effects.

Caleb: 00:18:25

So the actual person doing the sound effects live, uh, fully artist is what they're we're called in radio.

Caleb: 00:18:31

And so what Foley would do is go through and they would see those sound effect, um, mentions.

Caleb: 00:18:36

And so they would know what's coming up next and what sounds to do and everything.

Caleb: 00:18:40

But the actors also would get an idea of, okay, that's what's gonna be going on in the background, so I need to be aware of, you know, this sound is gonna have to be happening.

Caleb: 00:18:48

So I'm.

Caleb: 00:18:49

I need to be in this kind of, you know, mental space of, of my acting.

Caleb: 00:18:53

Um, and so I go through, I, I write everything down and then I go through a second time, write down all the sound effects.

Caleb: 00:19:00

And, um, I then I had a, a great crew of, of individuals who were willing to look at my script and including yourself.

Caleb: 00:19:07

And I had, uh, grace Gman and a gentleman, John Warnoff, he's worked in, well, his name is.

Caleb: 00:19:14

Like revered in audio drama circles and in, in film.

Caleb: 00:19:18

And, uh, he went through and he listened, looked at it and you know, he gave suggestions.

Caleb: 00:19:23

And even Larry Grobe, he listened to it and he was like, oh, you know what, this sound effect, probably need to add a little element here in there in the script.

Caleb: 00:19:30

Uh, then of course, multiple edits.

Caleb: 00:19:33

Uh, had really great editors.

Caleb: 00:19:35

Um, John Forno.

Caleb: 00:19:36

First and foremost, he really helped develop the full story and helped me rethink everything and.

Caleb: 00:19:43

Um, create the current version that, that we see now.

Caleb: 00:19:47

Um, then Grace Gman, uh, was recommended to me, uh, by John Warnoff and she was amazing.

Caleb: 00:19:53

Um, she was able to look at the characters and help me make them more three-dimensional, more interesting and.

Caleb: 00:20:01

Um, layered them out a little bit more, which helped, uh, so much.

Caleb: 00:20:06

Um, and she helped with dialogue and she'd go through and make suggestion ex after suggestion.

Caleb: 00:20:13

Um, and then, uh, Austin Peachy.

Caleb: 00:20:16

He was incredible.

Caleb: 00:20:17

He helped with fine tuning the story with, uh, dialogue.

Caleb: 00:20:23

He gave, um, suggestions on things to, to tweak with, with literally everything.

Caleb: 00:20:28

And then he helped with casting.

Caleb: 00:20:30

Um, most of the individuals who I, I used were from recommendations that he made saying, Hey, you know, I think this person would be great here.

Caleb: 00:20:38

I think this person would be really good.

Caleb: 00:20:39

You should, you should reach out to them.

Caleb: 00:20:41

Um, and, uh,

Jaclyn: 00:20:44

it, it was, it was amazing just how I was blessed with so many great people working with this project.

Caleb: 00:20:50

So I went through and I added all those sound effects and then in post-production I went through and I added those in post and, you know, layered them.

Caleb: 00:21:00

So they happened at the right time, just like you know, the door and.

Caleb: 00:21:03

You know, if somebody picked up a phone and made sure that there was a, a click that somebody, you know, had actually picked it up.

Caleb: 00:21:08

Yep.

Caleb: 00:21:08

And even a slamming down noise when they hung up angrily.

Caleb: 00:21:12

So,

Jaclyn: 00:21:12

yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:21:12

Yep.

Jaclyn: 00:21:13

There were, I remember seeing that or hearing that, I guess.

Jaclyn: 00:21:15

Right.

Jaclyn: 00:21:16

But, 'cause it was interesting too.

Jaclyn: 00:21:17

I'll, I'll just pause for a second when I was watching it, 'cause your character picked up the phone with his hand.

Jaclyn: 00:21:24

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:21:24

Making a hand with his or phone with his hand.

Jaclyn: 00:21:26

Um.

Jaclyn: 00:21:27

And he, when he put it back down, like the, the sound effect matched his actions.

Jaclyn: 00:21:32

And even though he didn't physically have a phone, I actually remember thinking, would it, would a prop have been better?

Jaclyn: 00:21:39

And I was like, yeah, this worked just the same.

Jaclyn: 00:21:41

Like it.

Jaclyn: 00:21:41

Yeah, because we know when we're watching them, they're not.

Jaclyn: 00:21:45

They're not acting together in the scene.

Jaclyn: 00:21:48

Like they don't have props like we we're seeing them.

Jaclyn: 00:21:51

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:21:51

With the voice acting and their right.

Jaclyn: 00:21:53

You know, facial expressions.

Jaclyn: 00:21:55

But even when they're walking, obviously they're not walking, they're sitting down.

Jaclyn: 00:21:58

So like that, that part of the illusion, we already understand what's going on.

Jaclyn: 00:22:02

So I think it totally worked.

Jaclyn: 00:22:04

Not having the phone as the prop.

Jaclyn: 00:22:06

Like just using his hand.

Jaclyn: 00:22:07

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:22:07

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:22:08

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:22:09

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:22:09

And, and, uh, Craig Hart, I think was the one who did the, the phone gesture, uh, the best.

Caleb: 00:22:15

He played Oscar, and it's like he was, I I, when I directed it, I, my main concern when I directed was.

Caleb: 00:22:24

A that I would miss something.

Caleb: 00:22:25

'cause this was the first time I'd ever directed anything.

Caleb: 00:22:28

So I was a little concerned that I was gonna miss something.

Caleb: 00:22:30

Thankfully I had a, a co-director, Jack Kline, he's a friend of mine who, who helped in early stages of the story and helped direct.

Caleb: 00:22:39

Um, but I was, I was concerned I was gonna miss something and I was also concerned that I was going to just get lost and forget.

Caleb: 00:22:48

Like what I was supposed to be doing.

Caleb: 00:22:50

And there were several times with every actor and actress that I worked with, there was a moment where I was just, I was just kind of just, you know, sitting there, just watching, you know, like so, uh, with, especially with Craig, 'cause he did, um, the telephone, which was surprising, but also, uh, um, you were one of the cast members mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:23:13

Who were done in post.

Caleb: 00:23:13

Mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:23:13

And so.

Caleb: 00:23:14

I had to have the main cast do a second, or even a, a third voice just to kind of cover in.

Caleb: 00:23:20

So, so the pacing would be right, uh, when the, when the, um, actor who was doing it in post, so that way the pacing would be correct.

Caleb: 00:23:29

And so Craig actually did your, your part, which of course was written down as Jaclyn callin.

Caleb: 00:23:37

And so he knew it was supposed to be a female.

Caleb: 00:23:39

And so when we went into the acting, he just.

Caleb: 00:23:43

Did a female voice.

Caleb: 00:23:45

I wasn't expecting it at all.

Caleb: 00:23:46

So I just started busting out laughing.

Caleb: 00:23:48

All the cast started laughing because no one was expecting it and he just, he just went with it.

Caleb: 00:23:54

Like he was a totally different character and he felt he just did it throughout the entire thing.

Caleb: 00:23:59

And we had to take the most retakes of that part just 'cause everyone kept losing it.

Caleb: 00:24:06

But it, it's always fun, especially when you're doing it live.

Caleb: 00:24:10

'Cause everyone brings.

Caleb: 00:24:12

There's something different than you were expecting.

Jaclyn: 00:24:14

Mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:24:14

Um, there, because, um, when I work with Project Audien, Larry does, uh, three, well, two rehearsals, and then the final take.

Caleb: 00:24:24

And with this project, I, I was, um, every, all the actors and actresses, they were giving their time.

Caleb: 00:24:32

So I didn't want to, for lack of a better word, waste their time.

Caleb: 00:24:37

Mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:24:37

So, I, I did, you know, one rehearsal.

Caleb: 00:24:40

And then the final take, which isn't much time for everyone to like meld like you want them to.

Caleb: 00:24:46

But thankfully I was working with all pros and we got through it super fast.

Caleb: 00:24:53

And there were, like I said, there were only a couple retakes, mainly because Craig kept bringing out the voice.

Caleb: 00:24:59

And um, you know, there was one or two times that we had an internet issue 'cause we were recording via, um, well, with main cast we were recording with, uh, Riverside and then a few of the other actors, we had to do Zoom 'cause there were technical issues.

Caleb: 00:25:16

Um, so.

Caleb: 00:25:19

But when you're able to see each other and do it live, you're able to just like feed off of each other's.

Caleb: 00:25:26

I hate using the word energy, but because it has negative connotations, but you're able to feed off of each other's reactions and able to react to it in, in just a really special way.

Caleb: 00:25:38

It's

Jaclyn: 00:25:38

so much fun.

Jaclyn: 00:25:39

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:25:39

Well, and because actors will say that acting is reacting, right?

Jaclyn: 00:25:42

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:25:42

And so you know, you're gonna respond to.

Jaclyn: 00:25:45

What the other character's saying.

Jaclyn: 00:25:47

Doing and Right.

Jaclyn: 00:25:48

You know, listening is a big part of acting and it's hard to do that if you don't have a scene partner.

Jaclyn: 00:25:55

Right?

Jaclyn: 00:25:55

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:25:55

And so when they're all there, and you can.

Jaclyn: 00:25:58

I think energy is the right word though, because is it, it's, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:26:02

Is it, is it a high energy?

Jaclyn: 00:26:03

Is a low energy, is it a mm-hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:26:05

A tense moment.

Jaclyn: 00:26:06

Like you can feel the energy, uh, of that from each other and you can flow with it together, because there could be something that an actor says that triggers a shift in energy, and then everybody can go with that.

Jaclyn: 00:26:19

But you're not going to catch that if you're just each recording your lines individually and then putting it together, so,

Caleb: 00:26:25

There's, uh, usually with audio drama, um, especially when it's a, a smaller, lower budget, the actors are recorded separately.

Caleb: 00:26:34

Mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:26:34

Or, you know, they'll sometimes get on to, with like one actor and the, the cast, director, whatever, will read the line opposite them.

Caleb: 00:26:42

So it, it sounds good.

Caleb: 00:26:45

Um, but, but yeah, there's, there's just something, there's just something amazing having all the cast together.

Caleb: 00:26:53

At the same time and just being able to hear them react and listen to the script.

Caleb: 00:26:58

And 'cause when you're writing, I mean I'm sure you experience this all the time when you're writing, you constantly have somebody in the back of your head of.

Caleb: 00:27:07

Like who you're modeling this character after.

Caleb: 00:27:09

Right?

Jaclyn: 00:27:09

Absolutely.

Jaclyn: 00:27:10

I have them cast in my mind,

Caleb: 00:27:12

right?

Caleb: 00:27:12

Yeah, exactly.

Caleb: 00:27:13

Um, so when you, when you hear that in your brain, you're trying to find somebody who matches that sound or, or something, a lot of these cast members were a bit of a surprise 'cause they weren't necessarily like the first person who I would've thought of, but they melded so perfectly.

Caleb: 00:27:33

They worked together expertly and.

Caleb: 00:27:36

I was a little concerned at the beginning 'cause we had a couple technical issues and several of the people were kind of frustrated because, you know, the, the internet wasn't working or the, you know, whatever wasn't working as it should have.

Caleb: 00:27:49

And so a couple people were, were frustrated, but thankfully we were just like, took a deep breath and they were all pros.

Caleb: 00:27:55

So they took a deep breath.

Caleb: 00:27:57

They were able to switch off the negative, you know, ideas or negative, um, emotions that they had.

Caleb: 00:28:04

They were able to just take a deep breath, let it go, and just move forward.

Caleb: 00:28:07

And it was, it was perfect.

Jaclyn: 00:28:09

Mm. That's wonderful.

Caleb: 00:28:11

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:28:11

And so, okay, I have one thought, a difference between doing a full out audio drama and, uh, the podcast drama that we're talking about is that you do have to cast each character as a different actor.

Jaclyn: 00:28:28

Correct.

Jaclyn: 00:28:28

Because I think for an audio drama, you can have an actor voice more than one character.

Caleb: 00:28:33

Right.

Caleb: 00:28:34

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:28:34

I mean even like, uh, it's cartoons but like male blank.

Caleb: 00:28:37

He used to, he used to do all the, well, pretty much all the audio for what, 12 characters in a cartoon.

Caleb: 00:28:45

So, yeah.

Caleb: 00:28:47

Um, yeah, that is a slight difference.

Caleb: 00:28:49

Um, I think in future I'm going to still probably use one actor to do, you know, multiple voices, just 'cause I. A, a lot of actors are really good at it.

Caleb: 00:29:00

Um, but I think it's also fun for people to watch and listen to.

Caleb: 00:29:04

And if you're watching, you're able to hear a totally different voice and watch them do something different.

Caleb: 00:29:10

And it's just adds a little extra fun to that element of you're just kind of watching like, how did he do that?

Jaclyn: 00:29:16

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:29:17

You know, it kind of draws you in almost even more.

Jaclyn: 00:29:19

Yeah, I agree.

Jaclyn: 00:29:21

You get to see, you get to see them as an actor, like their skill, right.

Jaclyn: 00:29:25

When they switch, you know, and they bring something different.

Jaclyn: 00:29:28

Because I think sometimes when you're watching someone, if you've never seen them act before, like you feel like.

Jaclyn: 00:29:34

Whatever character they're playing is probably pretty much who they are.

Jaclyn: 00:29:38

But then when you see them switch to something entirely different, you're like, I don't know this person at all.

Jaclyn: 00:29:43

You know?

Jaclyn: 00:29:43

And so it's really cool to be able to see that, uh, you know, that spectrum that they can bring.

Caleb: 00:29:49

Right?

Caleb: 00:29:50

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:29:50

'cause you know, there was, um, another gentleman, uh, his name was, uh, hunter Atkins.

Caleb: 00:29:54

And, uh, he played Turbo and he also did a Second Voice.

Caleb: 00:29:58

And it was because Turbo is supposed to be a little on the.

Caleb: 00:30:02

Like a, like country boy type sound.

Caleb: 00:30:05

And, um, he, he was played a different part.

Caleb: 00:30:09

I can't remember which one he played, but he changed demeanor completely.

Caleb: 00:30:13

I think he played like an old man and it was just, it was perfect the way he changed it.

Caleb: 00:30:19

And so when you're, when you're.

Caleb: 00:30:22

Uh, the best, um, thing that I ever heard someone say was, you're suspending disbelief.

Caleb: 00:30:28

So you're trying to make people believe something that isn't actually happening, uh, or isn't real.

Caleb: 00:30:34

And so when you do that, you're watching, you obviously know it's the same person, but when they switch the voices effortlessly, you're still suspended in, in that just you believe the story still.

Caleb: 00:30:48

Because you're, you're hearing it and you're like, Ooh, I, I believe the story.

Caleb: 00:30:51

But at the same time, that's really cool.

Caleb: 00:30:53

You know, you kind of lean in and you're like, Ooh, that's interesting.

Jaclyn: 00:30:56

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:30:56

Well, I think we're all in on, you know, we're here for a story and, you know, these are the, the storytellers that are, you know, engaging me.

Jaclyn: 00:31:06

Right?

Jaclyn: 00:31:06

And so we already have that.

Jaclyn: 00:31:09

Um.

Jaclyn: 00:31:10

Like that understanding and like we're in on the joke kind of thing, right?

Jaclyn: 00:31:14

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:31:14

Like we're, we're already in on it.

Jaclyn: 00:31:16

And so then when, when it plays out kind of to that, um, the further extent, then I think it just brings more entertainment to it.

Jaclyn: 00:31:24

Like what you're saying.

Jaclyn: 00:31:25

Uh, I've done that for our table reads.

Jaclyn: 00:31:27

Um, where like sometimes, for example, I love when John Goad is the narrator 'cause he does such a great job, but sometimes there's a character that is maybe only in one or two scenes.

Jaclyn: 00:31:38

And so not all actors wanna show up just so that they can have two lines.

Jaclyn: 00:31:43

Uh, but so I'll ask John, like, Hey, do you wanna fill in for this role?

Jaclyn: 00:31:46

And he's like, sure.

Jaclyn: 00:31:47

And so he flips between narrator and the character and it's.

Jaclyn: 00:31:53

So clear that he, there's this difference.

Jaclyn: 00:31:55

And so it is a lot of fun to watch that.

Jaclyn: 00:31:57

I agree.

Caleb: 00:31:58

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:31:59

And I, I, it takes a, it takes a special, I, I mean obviously anyone can do it, but it takes a special kind of, uh, mentality for someone.

Caleb: 00:32:07

'cause you, um, you have to think, okay, this is my main character and this is how they sound and this is how they act.

Caleb: 00:32:13

And then to be able to just switch it over, it really takes a.

Caleb: 00:32:18

A different type of person to just carry it off perfectly.

Caleb: 00:32:20

And

Jaclyn: 00:32:21

yeah,

Caleb: 00:32:21

that's, it's, it's fun to watch.

Jaclyn: 00:32:23

So what are your plans with the project?

Caleb: 00:32:26

Uh, well, I'd like to do a full season of the project.

Caleb: 00:32:30

Uh, we're currently have a Kickstarter up to film to fund the first and second episode.

Caleb: 00:32:37

'cause the first episode is gonna be, uh, redone with live sound effects and a, a lot of, uh, additional.

Caleb: 00:32:43

Additions to it.

Caleb: 00:32:45

Um, and then the second episode, which I'm currently in the process of writing.

Caleb: 00:32:49

Um, and yeah, our, our, we have several goals.

Caleb: 00:32:55

The first one is to be able to do the first and second episode, and then the larger overarching goal is to be able to film, uh, a first season.

Caleb: 00:33:04

Um, so I, I'm really excited about that 'cause I have.

Caleb: 00:33:09

The story has changed a lot from the very first one.

Caleb: 00:33:13

'cause, you know, obviously the first, uh, idea that I had was just with Turbo as a, um, meteorologist, and now it's kind of, it's grown into, you know, full radio station and I have ideas for, you know, original music and all, all this, all these extra things.

Caleb: 00:33:32

And so I, I want the show to.

Caleb: 00:33:38

I want it to be something where a family can get together, can listen to it, and just enjoy themselves.

Caleb: 00:33:46

That's what I loved about Adventures in Odyssey.

Jaclyn: 00:33:48

Mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:33:49

Is that was one of the only radio programs.

Caleb: 00:33:51

My family was very conservative.

Caleb: 00:33:53

We listened to very few things on the radio.

Caleb: 00:33:56

Um, they wanted it to be very, they wanted to be, have, uh, principles and lessons and.

Caleb: 00:34:03

I want this to, to do the same thing.

Caleb: 00:34:05

I want it to be something where someone will look back and be like, I remember when our family got together and listened to this, or, or watched it.

Caleb: 00:34:12

And, um, I, I kind of have strong ideas about, um, Christian entertainment.

Caleb: 00:34:18

And for me, when I was writing, I didn't have a, this is the principle that I want to teach, or, you know, this is the, the message that I want to get out.

Caleb: 00:34:28

I very much had.

Caleb: 00:34:30

This is the story that I wanna create.

Caleb: 00:34:31

These are the characters.

Caleb: 00:34:32

I want it to come out naturally.

Caleb: 00:34:34

And actually the creation of Uncle Ronnie's character is kind of.

Caleb: 00:34:39

Well, not an accident, but kind of was an accident of where I wanted something.

Caleb: 00:34:44

Like I had mentioned, uh, friends where they have the coffee shop to hang out, and I wanted something like that.

Caleb: 00:34:50

And so I was thinking of that, and I was of course inspired by, you know, John Avery Whitaker's, you know, um, ice cream shop.

Caleb: 00:34:57

And, uh, so I, I always loved donuts and donut shops and so I mentioned it to my brother, Seth.

Caleb: 00:35:03

Who helps me out with, um, story ideas and things, and he was like, yeah, I like the idea.

Caleb: 00:35:08

And, you know, we, we should name it after, you know, our, our uncle, um, he passed away, uh, several years ago from cancer.

Caleb: 00:35:16

But, um, he was a, he was a West Virginian and, uh, he had a, a really good, strong Virginia accent.

Caleb: 00:35:23

And, um, I, I was, I was kind of, uh, hesitant to add him in there because, you know, with with loved ones, you always have.

Caleb: 00:35:33

Their, uh, voice kind of implanted on your heart.

Caleb: 00:35:37

And, uh, that's very much with me for, for Ronnie.

Caleb: 00:35:40

And so the actor who mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:35:42

Who played in Glenn Haskell, um, I spoke to Glenn and I was like, you know.

Caleb: 00:35:48

Uh, because we, the first rehearsal, he, he did the, the part, and I, I had told him that he was my actual uncle, that he was, he was playing.

Jaclyn: 00:35:56

Right, right.

Caleb: 00:35:56

And we did it.

Caleb: 00:35:57

And I, I emailed him.

Caleb: 00:35:58

I said, you know, you, your acting was perfect.

Caleb: 00:36:01

I loved it.

Caleb: 00:36:02

The sound was great.

Caleb: 00:36:03

I said, but.

Caleb: 00:36:04

You know, when, when my uncle would would say, 'cause I actually have a, a phrase in there that I'm gonna be using as kind of his catchphrase was a young man.

Caleb: 00:36:12

'cause that's something Uncle Ronnie always said when he, when he greeted us.

Caleb: 00:36:16

And so I said, you know, when, when you said that it kind of needs a little bit more of a, a pause a little bit more, kind of like a, a little to your voice.

Caleb: 00:36:23

And he's like, oh, okay.

Caleb: 00:36:24

You know?

Caleb: 00:36:25

Do you, do you have by any chance, any recordings of Ronnie that I could use and.

Caleb: 00:36:29

Um, uh, my, my, uh, aunt and uncle's daughter, Angie, she actually sent us a, a voicemail that, um, Ronnie had given her, had sent her.

Caleb: 00:36:39

And, um, and, uh, I listened to it and my brother listened to it, and we both were crying and I sent it in the email and I said, I said, Glenn, you know, this is the only recording that we could find that had his voice really well.

Caleb: 00:36:51

I said, you know, however close you can get, I, I'd appreciate it.

Caleb: 00:36:55

And he actually sent me five separate recordings of him doing different variations and like different pauses and everything.

Caleb: 00:37:03

And like, he, he hid it every single time.

Caleb: 00:37:07

But there was one where it was just a little part of his voice that was like, yeah, extra perfect.

Caleb: 00:37:13

I, I told him, I think it was like recording three or something.

Caleb: 00:37:15

I said that, that's my uncle.

Jaclyn: 00:37:18

Wow.

Caleb: 00:37:18

And so he did that for the recording and it just, it was amazing how.

Caleb: 00:37:22

How much further he went than he had to, to make the, the part perfect for me.

Caleb: 00:37:27

It wasn't even perfect, you know?

Caleb: 00:37:28

It wasn't even, you know, you're doing a bad job, you know, you need to do it better for the project.

Caleb: 00:37:33

It wasn't even that, it was just personal for me, Uhhuh, and he just went that extra mile.

Caleb: 00:37:37

It, it was, it's amazing.

Caleb: 00:37:38

And, and everyone did that.

Caleb: 00:37:39

I, I had very few critiques for anyone.

Caleb: 00:37:43

It was mainly just like, Hey, you know, could you do this?

Caleb: 00:37:45

You know, just adjust a little bit.

Caleb: 00:37:47

And every single person did it, and they did it perfectly and without.

Caleb: 00:37:51

I, I'm, I'm always worried when I give people, uh, criticism, uh, or, you know, like

Jaclyn: 00:38:00

constructive critiquing.

Jaclyn: 00:38:01

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:38:02

Constructive criticism.

Caleb: 00:38:02

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:38:02

Pretty or

Jaclyn: 00:38:03

direction.

Jaclyn: 00:38:04

I mean, you are

Caleb: 00:38:04

the director direction.

Caleb: 00:38:05

Thank you.

Caleb: 00:38:06

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:38:06

I'm always concerned that when I give them something like that, they're gonna take it the wrong way and be like, oh, well, you know, I'm doing it perfectly.

Caleb: 00:38:11

None of them did that.

Caleb: 00:38:13

Every single person I worked with, they just, they were perfect.

Caleb: 00:38:16

I mean, they were professional.

Caleb: 00:38:17

100%. Um,

Jaclyn: 00:38:19

was this your first time directing.

Caleb: 00:38:21

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:38:22

Okay.

Caleb: 00:38:23

First project directing.

Caleb: 00:38:24

So anyway, it was the best first time directing you could possibly imagine.

Caleb: 00:38:29

'cause you know, I, when you're working with people who understand their craft and who don't take anything personally.

Caleb: 00:38:36

I mean, directing's a dream.

Jaclyn: 00:38:37

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:38:38

Mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:38:38

You know, so, um, so yeah, that was, this project was a lot of fun.

Jaclyn: 00:38:42

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:38:43

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:38:43

So, okay, so what you currently have produced is, uh, like a proof of concept.

Jaclyn: 00:38:48

'cause you said you intend to Right.

Jaclyn: 00:38:50

Redo it.

Jaclyn: 00:38:50

Okay.

Jaclyn: 00:38:51

Well that's fantastic.

Jaclyn: 00:38:52

And so I'm curious, um, like how, how long did it take you, because I'm thinking there's probably some people listening who are thinking, that sounds like an interesting idea.

Jaclyn: 00:39:03

Um, you know, to make a proof of concept for a project that is done this way.

Jaclyn: 00:39:07

Um, it could be a really great pitching tool.

Jaclyn: 00:39:11

I mean, obviously when I saw it, I can see, okay, I know where he is going with this, right?

Jaclyn: 00:39:17

That, um, if you had a few more resources or something, I like you'd.

Jaclyn: 00:39:21

Make it even better.

Jaclyn: 00:39:23

So, uh, so I'm curious, how much time did it take, and I know you put in a lot of sweat equity, if you're comfortable sharing how much, uh, those additional costs, if there were any, were, um, you know, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:39:36

Let us know a little bit of what it took to make it.

Caleb: 00:39:39

Sure.

Caleb: 00:39:39

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:39:40

Um, well the, the most sweat activity that I put in it was the writing, because I started actually with this idea.

Caleb: 00:39:48

Um, I looked back and it's about 13 years ago, so I always tell people 10 years plus.

Caleb: 00:39:53

Um, so that, of course, you know, multiple edits.

Caleb: 00:39:58

Um, I hired editors.

Caleb: 00:40:00

I had Grace Gman, and I also had a gentleman and.

Caleb: 00:40:04

They were really great.

Caleb: 00:40:06

Um, they did not charge even close to what they should have for editing.

Caleb: 00:40:09

Um, but I think the, I think the average came out to around $20 an hour for, you know, them to, to look at it and edit the script and give suggestions.

Caleb: 00:40:20

Um,

Jaclyn: 00:40:21

is that finished hour or per working hour?

Caleb: 00:40:23

That's per working hour.

Jaclyn: 00:40:24

Okay.

Caleb: 00:40:25

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:40:26

Um, and so when doing that was.

Caleb: 00:40:32

Close to the largest expense.

Caleb: 00:40:33

So the second largest was the, um, theme song, which I actually, uh, had done by Jason Za of ZA Media.

Caleb: 00:40:41

A little bit of plug for you buddy.

Caleb: 00:40:42

Uh, he's done a lot of, uh, content for, um, mainly movies and TV shows.

Caleb: 00:40:49

So, um, he's pretty well known in the Christian filmmaking community.

Caleb: 00:40:54

Um, I, I don't know, I don't know if he's ever worked with you before, but.

Caleb: 00:40:58

Um,

Jaclyn: 00:40:58

I don't know him yet, but I would like to.

Jaclyn: 00:41:00

Yeah, so you can make an introduction.

Caleb: 00:41:02

Yeah, absolutely.

Caleb: 00:41:03

Um, so trying to think.

Caleb: 00:41:05

So it was the music, um, sound effects.

Caleb: 00:41:09

I had to buy some sound effects 'cause there, there weren't always some that were, um, you know, free to use online.

Caleb: 00:41:15

I, of course got, um, custom web domains and things like that for the thing, but if you're talking just production, it probably was around a thousand dollars.

Caleb: 00:41:25

For the production and then editing and everything, probably call it 2,500.

Caleb: 00:41:31

Um, and that was also doing very, I won't say minimal, but it was kind of, it, I got to the point with a story where I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and so I got to a point where it was like, I, I have to stop somewhere.

Caleb: 00:41:47

You know, I, I have to stop fixing the story or the script or something.

Caleb: 00:41:50

I have to pick a spot and just say it's good and.

Caleb: 00:41:55

I kind of got there faster than I think some people would have.

Caleb: 00:41:58

Um, and again, this is a proof of concept.

Caleb: 00:42:01

So I think that with, with that has, uh, an understanding with everyone that it's great quality, they did the best job they could, but there's of course going to be improvements made later on.

Caleb: 00:42:13

Mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:42:15

So, um, but yeah, I, I would say probably.

Caleb: 00:42:18

2,500. And that's also, you don't always have to get, you know, a, a custom intro music.

Caleb: 00:42:24

Um, you can do a lot of things on your own.

Caleb: 00:42:27

I did a lot of the sound effects and all that stuff on my own.

Caleb: 00:42:30

Um, but I mean, you can hire somebody and it'd be done faster and much better.

Caleb: 00:42:35

Uh, but I would say if you wanted to do something like this really well, I would say set at least 3000 aside.

Caleb: 00:42:43

Um, which mean, you know, that's way less than a TV show or pilot.

Jaclyn: 00:42:48

Oh, absolutely.

Caleb: 00:42:49

Absolutely.

Caleb: 00:42:49

It's a drop in the bucket compared.

Caleb: 00:42:51

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:42:51

Um, but also you're probably gonna have to pay your cast.

Caleb: 00:42:54

Thankfully, every cast member who worked with me was generous and they, they gave their time.

Caleb: 00:43:00

And, uh, you know, if you do a project where you're gonna make money at it, you're gonna have to pay cash and that's going to increase the, that amount of money that you're gonna spend.

Caleb: 00:43:10

Mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:43:10

Um, but you know, if.

Caleb: 00:43:13

If you get the right people and you pitch the projects and you, you ask around, you can sometimes get people to do it for less than their usual fee and give them exposure and say, Hey, if, if I make this into an actual thing, I'll use you for, for blank, or, you know.

Jaclyn: 00:43:28

Mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:43:29

Um, so, but yeah, it was very minimal budget, thankfully.

Caleb: 00:43:34

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:43:36

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:43:36

And just for the, the audience's, uh, knowledge, the project itself is about an hour long, right.

Caleb: 00:43:42

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:43:43

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:43:43

End of it.

Jaclyn: 00:43:44

So, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:43:44

Not like it was a, a short, like a 15 minute No, it's, it's about an hour long.

Caleb: 00:43:49

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:43:49

And, uh, I think the end was an hour and eight minutes, and that was with my outro and, you know, the credits and all that.

Caleb: 00:43:55

So about, yeah, about an hour.

Jaclyn: 00:43:58

So you've got a Kickstarter campaign.

Jaclyn: 00:44:00

Um, tell us what you're looking for.

Jaclyn: 00:44:03

We'll have the link in the, the show notes, but tell us, uh, a little bit of what you're looking for and what you plan to do with that.

Caleb: 00:44:09

Yeah, absolutely.

Caleb: 00:44:10

Um, so the first goal that I have is a thousand dollars, and that will be funding the, uh, remake of the first episode and the full make of the second episode.

Caleb: 00:44:21

Um, and that's going to be for, um, you know, hiring someone to do sound effects, um, scripts.

Caleb: 00:44:29

'cause I'm currently in the, you know, middle of.

Caleb: 00:44:31

Writing the first, the second script.

Caleb: 00:44:34

And so I'm gonna need to hire editors.

Caleb: 00:44:36

Um, there's also going to be with Kickstarter, some physical rewards like shirts and other things.

Caleb: 00:44:42

Um, and oh,

Jaclyn: 00:44:43

and you maybe just know who can print those shirts.

Caleb: 00:44:46

Pirate Hog.

Caleb: 00:44:47

Yes.

Caleb: 00:44:48

We've partnered with Pirate Hog,

Jaclyn: 00:44:50

you go.

Caleb: 00:44:52

Um, and so we have that as reward.

Caleb: 00:44:54

We also have some really fun and exciting rewards.

Caleb: 00:44:57

I'm, I'm really excited about.

Caleb: 00:44:59

And that is actually some things with, uh, web producer credit.

Caleb: 00:45:03

So we're gonna actually put credit of some, um, Kickstarter, um, um, what are they called?

Caleb: 00:45:09

Kickstarter participants.

Caleb: 00:45:12

Uh, I can't remember what they're called.

Caleb: 00:45:13

Um, but we're gonna actually put them up as web producer credits and put it up on our website as a special page.

Caleb: 00:45:20

We also have some special edition shirts.

Caleb: 00:45:23

We even have a, a framed script, uh, signed script.

Caleb: 00:45:27

Um, and we also have something that's even more interesting, I think is have your music featured in a future episode.

Caleb: 00:45:34

So we're hoping to get some really creative artists.

Caleb: 00:45:37

We're promoting it, going to be promoting it a lot in, um, homeschool and Christian, uh, venues.

Caleb: 00:45:44

So we're hoping to get some really great musicians that may not be known right now, um, who can maybe be put up on there and we can help promote them and they help promote us.

Caleb: 00:45:53

And, uh, we even have, uh, featured voice talent that we want to get.

Caleb: 00:45:57

So, 'cause I know several, um, Christian voice actors out there who are just getting started and who they'd like to, you know, have something put on there and have their first project under their belt.

Caleb: 00:46:09

Right?

Caleb: 00:46:09

Yeah, sure.

Caleb: 00:46:09

So we're, we're, yeah, we're really inspired, excited with, with some of these.

Caleb: 00:46:12

Um, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:46:13

Nice.

Jaclyn: 00:46:14

And so where is it going to live once it's finished?

Jaclyn: 00:46:17

What's your distribution path?

Caleb: 00:46:19

Yeah, we, we have a YouTube channel that's gonna be dedicated to it.

Caleb: 00:46:23

We're also gonna be on all so, um, podcast platforms.

Caleb: 00:46:27

Um, we actually have the pilot episode, um, on pretty much every platform that there is one major platform there is.

Caleb: 00:46:35

Um, and we're hoping to, once it's, once we, uh, have the first and second episode completed.

Caleb: 00:46:42

Actually looking for deals like, um, prime video and things like that.

Caleb: 00:46:47

Actually putting it on really good, uh, video streaming services also.

Caleb: 00:46:52

Um, so it gets to a wider audience than just YouTube would.

Caleb: 00:46:56

So

Jaclyn: 00:46:56

Nice.

Caleb: 00:46:57

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:46:57

Nice.

Jaclyn: 00:46:58

Well that's exciting.

Jaclyn: 00:46:59

Um, and definitely I wanna.

Jaclyn: 00:47:01

Keep up with what's going on with all of that.

Jaclyn: 00:47:04

And so we'll have all of your links and everything in our show notes so people can check that out.

Jaclyn: 00:47:09

I think especially, um, for people who are thinking about doing proof of concepts or, um, you know, even if they're thinking table read or something, this is something that's like a step above a table read.

Jaclyn: 00:47:22

So yeah, it's definitely, I. Think there's going to be some people who are interested in this and you might get some phone calls asking you for advice.

Caleb: 00:47:30

Yeah, and I, I'm hoping that this kind of is a, a bit of a, like you, like you said, it's kind of , a way for people to get their ideas out without thinking, oh, I have to spend, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars on a pilot episode.

Caleb: 00:47:41

Right.

Caleb: 00:47:41

Or something to where they're still able to get their ideas out there and still be creative.

Caleb: 00:47:46

Because, um, you know, I, I never want to, I don't wanna diminish it by saying that it's, you know, so much easier because doing it as an audio drama type, um, project, it is very much of an art to it.

Caleb: 00:48:00

Mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:48:01

So when, when people, when people are listening to me and saying that it's so much easier than this, or, you know, so much better than that, I still want you to keep in mind everyone who's listening that it's still an art form.

Caleb: 00:48:11

So it's still something where.

Caleb: 00:48:13

You're gonna have to get some advice on scripts and everything else to make it, uh, fully immersive, the way that people are used to it.

Caleb: 00:48:21

And, um.

Caleb: 00:48:22

Yeah, I, I'm, I'm really excited about this.

Jaclyn: 00:48:24

Yeah, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:48:25

No, that's awesome.

Jaclyn: 00:48:26

No, I appreciate that you're figuring this out because I already, I have some ideas for some projects and I'm like, Hmm,

Caleb: 00:48:34

perfect.

Jaclyn: 00:48:34

Maybe we could try that.

Jaclyn: 00:48:35

Because the thing is, you, you could start out with what you have, and let's say if, if it does well and somebody's like, you know what, we actually should make this a series.

Jaclyn: 00:48:44

A film series, like a TV series or whatever.

Jaclyn: 00:48:47

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:48:48

You're still gonna go for that.

Jaclyn: 00:48:49

It's not like you're saying, well, I'm doing this instead of that and I'm never gonna do the tv.

Caleb: 00:48:53

Oh, right.

Caleb: 00:48:54

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:48:54

It's just this is where you're able to actually make something happen right now.

Jaclyn: 00:48:59

And I think, um, you know, that's a really important, uh, piece of the puzzle, you know, with being productive and creating things is.

Jaclyn: 00:49:09

Which direction can I actually go right now?

Jaclyn: 00:49:11

Okay.

Jaclyn: 00:49:12

Let's go there.

Caleb: 00:49:12

Right,

Jaclyn: 00:49:13

right.

Jaclyn: 00:49:13

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:49:13

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:49:14

I, I think so many times, uh, for me it's, uh, it happened a lot.

Caleb: 00:49:18

When you see a barrier, like the money that you need to create a TV episode, you just kind of give up on it.

Caleb: 00:49:25

You're like, uh, you know, it's down the road.

Caleb: 00:49:27

I can't do it right now.

Caleb: 00:49:29

I'll just put it aside for a while, and you either forget about it or it just doesn't happen.

Caleb: 00:49:35

And so with this, it at least it, it gives, I always want to try and encourage people, look at the baby steps and say, okay, this is, this is like the big goal.

Caleb: 00:49:47

Like eventually I wanna make this into a TV series, but that's like my 10 year goal.

Caleb: 00:49:51

No.

Caleb: 00:49:52

If I can do this and make it the best version that I possibly can.

Caleb: 00:49:57

Then that's gonna be perfect.

Caleb: 00:49:58

And that's my first step.

Caleb: 00:50:00

And so yeah, if, if people can kind of get outta the mindset of this has to be perfect, this has to be my big dream right now, and start looking baby steps.

Caleb: 00:50:08

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:50:08

Mm-hmm.

Caleb: 00:50:09

They'll, they'll be able to progress and, and everyone has such a good story.

Caleb: 00:50:13

I've heard like 12 stories since I've started this, listening to people and they're all like, oh, you know, it'll never happen.

Caleb: 00:50:21

It's like, well, maybe it can, if you think about it differently.

Caleb: 00:50:24

Yeah.

Caleb: 00:50:25

And that's, that's another thing that's really exciting about this, is it's, uh,

Caleb: 00:50:31

it, it's another way of giving people hope for their creative dreams, and I'm really excited about that.

Jaclyn: 00:50:37

Yeah, I love that.

Jaclyn: 00:50:39

Thank you so much for sharing your project.

Jaclyn: 00:50:41

The, the highs, the lows, the really exciting part, and you know, you're.

Jaclyn: 00:50:46

Your ability to, to pivot and work with what you've got.

Jaclyn: 00:50:49

I think that that is something that God will honor and, uh, I look forward to seeing how this whole thing turns out and, and where you go from here.

Caleb: 00:50:58

Thank you so much.

Caleb: 00:50:59

It was a pleasure being here.

Jaclyn: 00:51:01

God bless.