This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Jason Scott: I mean there's also very few things these days that are live like theater, right? So I think that's the cool part is like it's you still have the stress of life, right? And that's that's an interesting like pressure that you feel, but uh it's kind of like thrilling, right, in many ways.

[0:24] Alan Seales: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Business of Entertainment Podcast. This podcast is dedicated to shining light on those who work behind the scenes in film, TV, theater, and live events. Today's episode focuses on Jason Scott and his role as a choreographer for dance. I first got to know Jason near the end of 2020 when he sent me an email looking for help putting together three virtual productions that turned into 14 over a three-year period. Jason is an absolute legend and I'm excited to share with you now his story and involvement with dance. Enjoy.

[1:01] Alan Seales: So um so for those that don't know, because I'm supposed to give this to a broader audience than just you and I. This is Jason. Jason and I work together on some uh demo days at Google for Startups where accelerator videos are uh where accelerator programs come to an end. They have a graduation day where they do a pitch and there's twelve pre uh presenters, twelve startups, and there's a lot of there's about an hour and a half of video that goes into the final product uh that is this that is shown on YouTube. And uh yeah. So we've done nine of 'em so far. And now we're gonna do you and I another two before you're out of here. And then uh but anyways, along the way, uh, you had talked to me, you had told me you'd done musical theater.

Uh huh. And my I got into tele I got into entertainment through lighting ten years ago. And when I close when I hear music, I close my eyes. I can picture shapes of light and color. And I just listen to the chorus, listen to when the song's, you know, getting a little like smaller when the song goes big and how would that look like on a stage. I just literally close my eyes and picture that. So I really know nothing about what you've done in musical theater and would just love to hear what you've done, how you got into it, and we'll go from there.

[2:26] Jason Scott: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um so I guess to take it all the way back, uh so I started at um so I went to undergrad at MIT in Boston, and and part of that was um I had been doing a lot of dance previously, um, and um kind of more recreationally. Uh dance is pretty expensive if you're taking classes and things like that. So it'd be more of like a weekend trip to New York and take some classes at Broadway Dance Center or uh maybe do school related things. I'd done a lot of school musicals and things like that growing up. Um more so as an interesting avenue to combine um both my past uh uh experience in dance and also my past experience doing a lot of kind of um uh singing in choir and things like that growing up.

And so um it was kind of that perfect storm. And so at in MIT though, I had um figured out the most effective way to do to or cost effective way to do dance and cost effective way to do kind of theater was to join uh uh audition for and joining professional company. And so um I like took the plunge in my freshman year. Um I actually remember auditioning for um a company in Boston that did um a lot of dance production, a lot of competitive dance as well as some theater production as well. And so uh didn't I honestly didn't think uh that the audition went that well but I think someone maybe saw something in me and they like gave me a chance and let me join and from there I it kind of just expanded it by the time I graduated undergrad I was doing maybe three hours a day of rehearsals um either me choreographing things or me learning things or um guests instructors coming through Boston etc and so um that cumulatively would would turn into kind of three hours a day on the weekdays and then we would spend the entire weekends where we would go to New York and like uh like I said go to Broadway Dance Center and do a lot of classes and things like that.

[4:19] Jason Scott: Um but then I had actually taken a pause um a couple years after graduating I was still kind of doing it but it was hard to do both with work and um and doing this kind of as a side hobby but professional kind of side hobby. But then um when I went to grad school it was really awesome that we um people might laugh at this but Stanford actually the grad school they do this big musical production that's kind of a mockery of tech which is really funny. Yeah it's I imagine kind of Silicon Valley the TV show the kind of mocking tech but like in musical theater version. And so it was interesting for me because that like combines my worlds right like I work in tech, I've always been in tech. I do think that tech can sometimes be something that I mean obviously with all the Netflix specials and things coming out they could be it could be really entertaining because of all the just the the weirdness that is the tech world yeah Netflix really knew like figured out documentaries.

They figured out how to get people hooked in documentaries. 100%. And but the the thing is there's so much material, right? Like if you think about it. And so um I actually got involved they were uh in helping produce and choreograph um that one, my one of my my first year of grad school, and then um did it again my second year of grad school. And then after I graduated, I was like, hey, like it seems like this perfect storm, this middle of the Venn diagram of musical theater, dance, and kind of tech is like one where it felt like a great fit, right? Where I could kind of um I mean transparently meet and network with a lot of people in tech, um, and people that I would collaborate with, either startup founders or um people that work at big tech like Google, et cetera, but then also uh come together in a way that's um uh expressing ourselves and connecting outside of kind of our work, right?

Like it's so it's like awesome to um to meet these people who work in startups or work at Google or work in investing, but we're connecting over something that is on the artistic side, right? And we're buying work something on our artistic side. And so for me, that's what I kept doing. And so in San Francisco, we actually had um this musical that we ran called um uh um South of Market, which is an area of San Francisco for those that aren't familiar, um, but South of Market Street. Um but South of Market, and it was literally just a parody of San Francisco in many ways, is it it ended being a big hit. It was funny. We did it, honestly. We were all volunteering the first time we did it. We didn't even want to pay ourselves, we just wanted to put together this great show.

But we ended up selling out um the show was completely um sold out. Um that's cool. And the second year we ended up having to do it for two weeks um of productions um um because of of how popular it became. Um and honestly, that for me, again, like I said, was kind of the the optimal uh way to combine those worlds because um the reason transparently the reason I ended up at Google was that one of the other producers was actually working at Google, working in startup programs, and she had said, Hey, like, is this role at Google that you might find um fits your goals and fits your needs um in terms of what you want to do for your career? And that it went from there. But it like, but also a couple of the founders I've invested in were part of that production.

So it's just really interesting how um those worlds kind of we all combined our worlds, our loves of dance and production and musical theater um and tech um to really bond and create um kind of this community.

[7:41] Alan Seales: Well, can I take it back from what you some something you talked about? I I have so many things I want to say. But let's take it back to the first thing. I I wanna ask you about like uh what type of dancing were you first into? Because I have a kid in dancing right now, and I'm wondering, um, is classical uh dancing what she wants to do? Is it, you know, gonna be hip hop or I I I don't know if I'm starting in the right place or if it's just that starting is a way that hopefully she'll take it in a way that she wants to.

[8:14] Jason Scott: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um so the answer to that first question around what I like most um is interesting because I actually wrote um uh kind of bringing it back to grad school again, like wrote my essays. There's this uh famous kind of prompt for uh Sam for business school, uh what matters most and why? And for me it was um the answer was helping people lead happier, healthier lives. And on the happier side, like part of what I enjoy about dance and just general is performing is um is generally just helping people put a smile on people's faces, right? Entertaining. Like I enjoy that a lot, right? And same thing with the the demo days we were talking about earlier and all of these other things. Like it's just always fun to kind of a live audience is if you don't go ever to a live show, whether it's a concert, a theatrical performance, dance recital something.

If you don't if you're not participating in the live audience, you don't understand what that's like to even be there, or if you're part of the crew, what it's like to like wait for the audience's reaction and have them enjoy the fruits of your labor.

[9:11] Alan Seales: For sure.

[9:11] Jason Scott: And it's you it's so unique. For sure. And like also creating a production is very similar to creating a company, right? It's really awesome to kind of create something that people are willing to pay for, right? Or people are are and are willing to kind of go advocate for and go tell their friends about it and stuff like that. So there's like something about the creativity aspect as well. So the combination of those two things. But then going back to your um question around types I think um similar to how I feel about I think my approach to my career and like many other things in my life I think the sampler platter model is great like to sample a bunch of things and then see which um which things feel right is I think if it's like A B testing it's like okay this this one I like better than this one.

Okay let's try something okay this one I like better than this one then like ultimately kind of find your niche. And so I think same thing. Also with sports when I was growing up she kind of just maybe try everything and kind of figure out which one fit and so I think it's similar similar model right um but then ultimately um it's interesting because um I think now and now you see a lot more like styles and things kind of blending and stuff like that. So I think um there's no wrong I guess wrong place to start I don't I I believe that if you don't ever start you'll never start I mean I guess that's a dumb way to put it but yeah anywhere is a good starting point to find out what you like and what you don't like.

[10:32] Jason Scott: With me in lighting I I the reason I transitioned more uh more to like theater and uh like rock and roll perfor and live live performances and things like that was because television and film kind of have seasons. I mean obviously television has sees and then there's like a see season windows of when films will shoot. They don't always shoot in the nicest parts of the year in the most comfortable parts that you can film in. Uh so I would be looking for work usually during the summer when a lot of people are on vacation and I got recommended to a rock and roll touring group that then had me on one thing and then they recommended me to another company that needed help with a convention setup for an expo it kind of just uh out of necessity of needing a paycheck I was like all right well I have some skills I know what a light is I get height angle intensity color and shape so I was like all right let's let's figure out how to do it this way people are also such great um humans right it's always kind of great to kind of connect with people um in ways that aren't just our day-to-day work jobs and things like that and so yeah working jobs and stuff and so like for me um I've kind of veered away from doing it I actually found that when I was doing it um most recently doing it for money um like teaching and things like that for for for secondary income um it's it did take a lot of the joy out of it for me right and it also made there's this interesting pressure of knowing that like people are paying you to do it right versus like when I'm volunteering is actually funny. I I like feel a lot more uh liberty to take the artistic freedoms and just they're just happy you're there.

[12:21] Alan Seales: Yeah yeah exactly I'm I'm volunteering I'm gonna do something out of the box right I'm gonna do something that make a group that I think is fun or funny or kind of new or novel right versus like the pressure of oh they're paying me um to do this production or to teach this class etc so I need to make sure that people um uh get what they expected right um um which is interesting though because I actually feel like in the times that I volunteer the output is up being even better right because it is a it ends up allowing me to think outside the box or do something kind of that I maybe wouldn't have take a risk that I wouldn't have taken previously.

[12:58] Alan Seales: Well I think it's also that you're having a good time I I realized uh that uh there are there are gonna be bad days in entertainment but there are gonna be some great days. So you really have to accept those those stressful days with the good days. Uh but more to your point of what you were talking about with with the pressure aspect I I like that pressure. For me it's not pressure. For me it's more of even with like the smaller shows that I've done I will take home after the initial meeting with the director and having seen uh the location uh the the space and also having seen a rehearsal I will go home and just put on music and start going over the script like little by little.

[13:48] Jason Scott: Alright so this is scene one. This is uh scene one two like this is like start breaking it down into my head as to where these things go and then I will I will start mapping out in my computer what lights need to be where, and then I will start programming lighting cues without lights. I will literally uh just have like okay, so uh the first lighting queue on my board is gonna be uh pre-show lighting, then second queue is house to have, third is blackout, fourth is the uh initial lighting queue for the lights that come up, and the fifth is usually like a I usually like to bring them in in sequential where they're they'll just follow like parts of the light get bright and then the rest of the stage gets bright, like so it's like a little bright, a little bright, a little bright, and then it just kind of depending on what it is, maybe you just need a spotlight in one spot.

But so it's like the first five cues, and then after that I go into uh the script uh and look about and look around is like okay, so this is what's gonna happen based on the rehearsals and this is the mood that's feeling, and about 75% of that work, I will program a show uh not in its most finite entirety, and I'm not working with timing, I'm just working with general looks for the set and the show based on where I've already conceptualized things in my head, and seventy-five to eighty-five percent of what I do before I get to the show without even using a 3D visualization software makes it into the show, and I love uh knowing that I'm coming to the first tech day uh very uh way more prepared.

No one's gonna be waiting on me to build a million lighting cues. I don't need to be here till three in the morning. No one is saying, Hey, why is lights taking so long? So to me, being able to sit and enjoy some of that during my own time, I uh and then come more prepared to production. That I love that. Even if it's a bigger it smaller show, a bigger show, I'll put in the same effort if I really want to be a part of the show.

[15:57] Alan Seales: Yeah, so the big thing though for me that's interesting is like because yeah, I agree. I think that when so I think of it this way you have a show and you have your stakeholders. The shows um with the production, oftentimes a lot of your stakeholders, particularly the ones that are paying you, tend to be the people the production side, right? So the directors, the producers, etc. However, for me, in similar to a product and being an entrepreneur and creating a company, what I care more about are the users, right? Like so I think of it as like if you're starting a company, same thing. You can have your you can have you can take capital and have your investors, but at the end of the day, you're trying to build for your users.

And so for me, I think the interesting thing is when I when I'm not and I'm not taking capital. So as an entrepreneur, if I'm relating this to an entrepreneur, but if I'm really into this, when I'm not getting paid, I am more likely to do high risk, high reward type of things for my users, which are the which is the audience, right? I'm more likely to like not feel the pressure to just do what's prescribed or what or what I think that the um the I guess the production team or the director and the producers do exactly what I think they would want because I know in that case, like again, I'm volunteering, so I'm going to do I'm gonna do something, we're gonna do something that I think will be a high risk, high reward thing for our users, right?

And I think at the at the end of the day, of course the the I mean high risk is high risk, so of course there's a risk that I fail in those cases and it ends up being bad, but I think ultimately what's interesting is like there've been some cases where I've done things that are way outside of my own comfort zone, right?

[17:46] Jason Scott: Um and and they've actually paid off quite well in in terms of the final product of the production, right?

[17:53] Alan Seales: This is choreography?

[17:54] Jason Scott: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. When it comes to choreography, or just thinking about the integration of choreography. Because the interesting thing is a choreographer in particular, um, and you feel this with light production, I'm sure as well, because I've also worked a lot with lighting to kind of balance that with choreography. But um in musicals in particular, sometimes they blend together, right? So sometimes you can have a scene that is like I'm just choreographing the movement of that scene because the it goes in and out of kind of song and script and things like that, right? So I'm like, it's got waves to it. Exactly. And there's some productions that I've done where you call it choreography, but I'm basically just staging the entire thing, right?

Because like so it's so it's so musical of a musical that there's no real like distinction between this is that Hamilton's a great example, right? Like musical Hamilton is like is is music the whole way through, right? There's no like pause. And so the choreographer for Hamilton literally is basically staging the whole thing for the most part, right? Because there's like it's constantly happening. And so there have been productions like that where um I'm working very, very closely with the director um in particular, as well as um the music, etc. Just to make sure that it feels continuous and it feels seamless because I'm not just doing choreography, I'm also staging the musical and and kind of placing the people, right?

The telling the story through their physical um um um what's the word I'm looking for? Um just telling story through them physically, right? Like in terms of like where they're standing, their positioning, etc. And so um, yeah, like there have been times where um I've taken a lot of risks. Like one time I remember doing one where um it was again the one that was like a Silicon Valley parody uh musical.

[19:49] Jason Scott: And I um I was like, let what if we did the whole first scene, uh, which was I guess you would call it dance, but like dance plus kind of just general staging, with everyone having iPads, right? And they're headed because the whole thought, the whole the whole thought process there was that tech was all consuming. So that was kind of the story that the director and the producers want and the writers wanted to tell. And so I was like, oh well, like one way to do that is like if no one ever breaks like um uh eye contact with the iPads, right? Like the screens. And so I literally did the whole opening with core with like choreograph movement and staging where every character never broke eye contact with their screens, right?

And so like that sort of thing is is something I wouldn't I mean, who's to say? I mean, maybe I would have taken the risk and maybe I would have, but like I I definitely was felt more empowered to take that risk because I was like, let me just think out do something else out of the box. Like I'm gonna put something on stage and and I'm gonna put in work, but it's it's a matter of how risky is the work that I'm doing and how risky is my how how much creative freedom do I feel like I have.

[21:01] Jason Scott: In terms of big risks, there was a uh I just thought about this in terms of big risks. I was doing a show of Hauptmann, and I don't know if you know Hauptmann, but it it was uh there was a graveyard. It's about uh the Lindbergh uh baby that was kidnapped in the early 1900s, and the this play is about that. And two of the people are meeting in a graveyard to talk about this. And what I had originally done was there is this uh this uh the this backlight, this deep purple with blue ice back light that I created, uh, and that was the only light for the scene. There was no front lighting. And on one of the days at the beginning of that scene, my lighting board and like the electricity for my lighting board shut off.

The sound was working. The sound board was lit up like a Christmas tree, like it should be. But uh I finally got the lights back on, the board went back to the exact same queue it was in, and the lights came back on before the uh end of that scene. People during intermission were like, wow, that was a brave choice. And me and the director were freaking out the whole time, like we just ruined the show, and everyone was like, that was that was cool. And she then apologized to everybody after intermission. Sorry about that. I was like, Why'd you tell people they thought it was on purpose? Take credit.

[22:20] Alan Seales: Well, that's always right. You always like I um well, not always, but I think um I oftentimes try not to let the user know, other or the audience know, or the user in this case, um, is audience, the audience know that something wasn't intentional because oftentimes they don't they don't even notice, right? Like some of the times like we we've usually by the end of by the actual time that something is premiered or or released, like we we know we've seen it a million times. We we know every I know when every light's supposed to go on and I'm not even involved, right? Those sort of things. So I think um but I think the the key is um to remember that they don't they aren't uh they aren't as close to it and they're seeing it all once right and like it's it's it's it's like I mean take the Hamilton example right that we had it's like it moves so fast that like if they were to miss a word one night I wouldn't even know no one would notice I I here's the thing at this point I would probably know because I I saw the show I read the I got the book yeah uh read the book uh got the album memorized the album got the mixtape album memorized that reread the book and have watched the musical again but on a digital form I I would probably notice yeah but that's because I'm obsessed beyond normality with that yeah but I get what you're saying like the the regular audience isn't they'll they never really know they're just there and like okay um and I um I definitely I mean similarly I've I've seen it a million times but it also is happening so fast right and so like I think oh for musicals for sure.

[24:08] Jason Scott: And hopefully there's so many other things happening that you are um like you usually there's a there's so many things whether it's the lighting the lyrics the staging the um the props etc there's so many things on stage right and so like the the nice part is like you have all of these things happening at the same time and so like a lot of times like good lighting can distract me from like someone I mean something going wrong on the sound side or something going wrong on on the script side or some what a prop move not happening right because they're they're all kind of happening in unison and so like there's plenty to kind of um I don't want to use the word extract but distract the the audience from from the the few mistakes that might happen on the way we did uh rumors here a few months uh about a year ago.

[24:55] Alan Seales: Uh yeah, it was about a year ago, and uh during the show, uh one of the pe one of the actors leaves the stage very abruptly through the front door, slammed the door, and the painting on the wall just fell down. Audience broke out laughing for a few minutes, and we were just backstage going, someone's gotta get that off the stage.

[25:17] Jason Scott: So one of the one of the actors who is technically still upstairs, we we I don't remember if we radioed to him or walked around, but we're like when you tech when you come downstairs, grab the painting and walk it off the set. It's I I theater just has those moments that you don't get anywhere else. There's no cut, there's no uh take it from the top. There is the show's going on, the audience isn't not gonna stop looking, and you just gotta go.

[25:47] Alan Seales: I mean, there's also very few things these days that are that are alive like theater, right? So I think that's the cool part is like it's you still have the stress of of life, right? And that's that's an interesting like pressure that you feel, but it's kind of like thrilling, right? In many ways.

[26:04] Jason Scott: My the pressure I feel if I've run a show uh like uh uh operating the lighting board and I'm on the la we're on the last scene and I haven't missed a cue, it comes into my head, you've done this show perfectly. Don't mess up the last seven cues. Just paying attention now more wholeheartedly to the last seven cues, then I probably have been all show to the other cues. Because I'm like, yeah, here it goes. Yep, here it goes.

[26:33] Alan Seales: And then I was like, I'll miss I'll miss.

[26:37] Jason Scott: The one thing that theater has really taught me, I'm wondering how this applies to you with other aspects of your life. The one thing that theater has taught me is timing.

[26:49] Jason Scott: It's just the amount of that the tightness of timing in theater is so precise and involving so many different moving things and people and lights and sounds and everything. That it's like, uh, you I just feel like my, uh, I don't know, my focus and timing on certain things has is more heightened. I don't know how you feel or if you can apply how you can.

[27:16] Alan Seales: Yeah, I mean I think that I think timing is is one. I think also, um, I think generally the ability to tell um a story through not just words, right? I think that's also something that has come around. So, like I think for me is I've become like through little things, through movement through lighting through all this, like give it a convey an emotion or feeling through um non-verbal cues. I think is something that has been big, uh, for me coming out of that.

[27:49] Jason Scott: Um, I think timing, I think also not just timing, but also the ability to um move. I don't want to even say in unison because we're not all moving in unison, but like your part, you're one piece in this large moving puzzle, and kind of like coordinate your own timing, right, with everyone else's and kind of like be in sync. I think that's something as well that I think, um, you have to be so conscious of of everyone else and kind of um and read off of everyone else and like and again like going back to those nonverbal cues I think there's so much like nonverbal that you get both from um being able to put together from uh production and like uh convey those feelings but also like read and vibe off of everyone else as part of that production right because um to your point when the picture falls off the wall knowing how to like move forward and who's gonna do it right and be able to do that without a lot of like a full discussion right and kind of read and and um build off of other people I think is is huge for me.

[28:54] Alan Seales: You are going to be leaving Google and you're gonna be starting your own startup and these are these skills that you've learned in in theater. Um, can you touch more on how they're helping you?

[28:54] Jason Scott: Yeah, I mean confidence or I mean you've just now touched on like uh the movements and relationships how do you skills are translating is I mean all of that stuff right, um one like high stakes conversations um to your point like being able to like read off build off of things that are live and kind of go with the flow of things I think um whether it's me raising money for to start a business or trying to get people to use your business or customers or or startups etc right, um but then secondarily I think um from a management standpoint, right?

[29:46] Alan Seales: A meeting.

[29:46] Jason Scott: I think there's a lot of um there's a lot of um that you learn from like a leadership standpoint when you're putting together production because you're there's certain people that you can tell what to do, there's certain people you have to work really you have to lead laterally, right? Or peer uh I call it like with your peers and and upward as well, right? And like, and so I think that all come that all applies in the in the business world too. It's like how do you get people to how do you influence people and build off of people sometimes without authority, right? Or sometimes when they have many other options.

[30:21] Alan Seales: So, like I think there's a lot, there's a lot there when they have many other options.

[30:25] Jason Scott: They do, they do, right? And so um, yeah, I would say um a lot of that uh moves over to the working world. Question for you now though, where do you do you see yourself kind of um going into any of those specialties more so or kind of where what's next for you in that journey?

[30:44] Alan Seales: I just want to do lighting design for now.

[30:47] Jason Scott: And if I have the money in the future, throw some money and executive produce a show. Have you thought about um combining that like I as I was mentioning earlier, kind of the combination of that plus the kind of world the tech world uh and kind of Google world, etc. How have you thought about combining those if at all?

[31:08] Alan Seales: Uh to a point. I mean, I get to work on some in terms of lighting itself, uh the studio in here in Tel Aviv. And when I first got here, they wanted to know my thoughts on the studio, and I was like, Well, what do you mean my thoughts? And I just look at the studio, talk to us about it in a month. We'd like to hear what you think about the studio. And I came back with them and I said, Well, I could benefit from a few more lights by doing this, this, and this. I showed them like here's a proposal, this is how much I want to spend, and I wound up uh basically designing the new light grid that's in our studio here, and being able to see on a continual basis how other startups benefit from that.

[31:48] Jason Scott: So yeah, that's well, I was gonna say also, like, to your point that you mentioned you've um in some ways developed a uh kind of a niche. Not I wouldn't even say competency, but a uh well, kind of a competency, right? Do what you do but applying it to startups, accelerators, etc. Right. So I guess part of my question was also like do you uh to your point, like a lot of the the playbooks and things like that haven't even weren't even established right now how to do that sort of stuff, like uh digitally in particular. And so curious like how you could apply that.

[32:21] Alan Seales: Oh um uh more broadly, or if you if you wanted to, it's similar to what I was saying earlier.

[32:26] Jason Scott: Wait, I try and use the skills that I have and teach them to give these to other startups. I understand the process of the create of of the creation content content creation process. Like I I understand from development all the way to distribution. Where when they come to me and say, Hey, we want to do this, I I don't tell them do X, do Y, do Z, put this here, put that there, it's gonna look beautiful. Because then it's my work, it's not their work. And what I try and do is actually teach storytelling, digital storytelling as a skill to these startups that come in here that need help. Where when they say, I want to shoot something, I don't know what I want it to look like, I have no idea what I'm doing, and I don't know how to turn on a camera.

I love that because if someone's enthusiastic enough and wants to create it, they're gonna go through the process of figuring out how to do it. But I start them off on a path of think about uh all right, so tell me what I asked them like questions like what is it, what's the demographic you're trying to reach? Do you have other visual aids that you can show me that help reach your audience? Do you have other examples of commercials, product shots, videos, explainers that are similar to what you were thinking of a concept? Okay, great. So what is your messaging? Well, my messaging is this, this, this, and this. Okay. So, where do you think, based on your ideas, how do you think your ideas could fit within you know, here, uh here, here, here, here, here, and and walk them through that.

[33:59] Alan Seales: And then once they have an idea that, then I tell them, all right, go ahead and write out everything you want to say, doesn't matter if it's too long or too short, write out everything you want to say, and then compare that to the visuals that you have.

[34:13] Jason Scott: And and and and in your head, you got to think about does this visual make sense with these words? It's a very simple thing. The uh the wolf huffed and puffed and blew a house down. I don't know if that's copyrighted. I'm trying to think of something not copyrighted, everyone's gonna know.

[34:30] Alan Seales: I think you I think you twisted it a little bit enough that it wouldn't be.

[34:34] Jason Scott: So if I then have a visual with those words of someone sitting at a computer desk working on post production, that might not necessarily make sense in context. So it's it's about trying to help them match up, you know, all those things, and then if they want to refine the text, like uh I I'll help them walk through refining the text, and you know, if this is too much fat or this is too much, and if they say I want to do 60 seconds and they want my opinion on the script, and I can clearly see they give me three pages of text, and it's way too long. I would give them suggestions of you could cut here, cut here, move this up, switch these around. And then how do the visuals that you are thought of also work with that?

Alright, so if these are this is what you kind of want it to look like, let's maybe draw something out. So I help them with a little bit of storyboarding. You know, just stick figures. Here's a piece of paper, here's a head, here's a person sitting in a standing in or sitting or whatever they're doing in the frame. And these are the visuals that we need to have in the frame. Are we gonna do them in like in camera or are they gonna be digitally? If they're done digitally, it can we can shoot this much faster with with more mistakes because we can do pickup shots. And then you just add that in digitally later. Uh so there's different options for that.

[35:51] Alan Seales: And then I I can help them through the edit process. Once they get the first edit, I always tell people I hate watching even my own first edits. I know that they're bad. Remember the voice the Google Voice AI intro?

[36:04] Jason Scott: Yep, yep, yep.

[36:06] Alan Seales: Okay that was originally like almost a minute. And it was supposed to be like what 10 seconds?

[36:13] Jason Scott: Yep.

[36:16] Alan Seales: So it's way too long and all the information you need is on the other end and that needs to come over here. I then refined it, refined it, refined it, refine it and got it down to like the 15 second Google Voice AI intro, re-recorded a few things and that's what we saw.

[36:31] Jason Scott: Uh so yeah I try and walk people through it like that and I say to first edit don't expect uh too much out of the first edit other than take it in, put it away for a day and then come back to it and write down notes. Because the first edits usually not gonna be a home run.

[36:51] Alan Seales: For sure.

[36:53] Jason Scott: Um and then uh yeah, and then we go and if they want my help after the first edit, I'm happ more than happy to help them out with that. There have been startups that have gone through this process with me, learning about how to do digital storytelling that have graduated our accelerator programs and then reached out to me recently and said, Hey, I need the studio to do X, Y, and Z, came in, got all their footage without even needing my assistance, and left to because they're rebranding and doing some new messaging with what they're doing, and so they needed to create some new content. But because they had these skills, they were able to just come in and do it because Google for Startups provides this to the startup community.

[37:35] Alan Seales: Well, on that, that's interesting, uh interesting doc, because something that I often think about as well is um the shift from kind of production to um or producing to being more um educating and teaching other people how to do the work, right? And so I'm curious for you. Have you seen started do you see yourself shifting into that? I mean, I know I do. I see myself doing a lot more, kind of shifting into like kind of supporting the next wave of of of mini me's or future meas, right? Uh and and that and teaching a lot more uh than than I used to um and getting a uh getting quite a lot of um um kind of satisfaction out of it, right? Like you're still able to kind of scratch the ditch and such. So curious if that applies to your world as well.

[38:23] Jason Scott: Uh in general, like broadly, or just yeah, yeah, or just or kind of with um with with entertainment and lighting and stuff, yeah, yeah, exactly.

[38:30] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah. Your world with respect to the this conversation around the entertainment.

[38:35] Jason Scott: So with I I still have that theater bug. I love the process of getting a script, going over it, and then when I have my initial meeting with the director excuse me hopefully being on the same page by at least 70% that's my goal because if we're not 70% on the same page with ideas as to as to the script maybe I missed something or they want to change my idea that's cool uh then I'm just not right for it but being able to be in an environment where my creative ideas are taken and they're used to help uh elevate a show that's it you can't and watching like what we said the audience reaction like that is just something that most people just don't experience and I I love scratching that itch.

[38:38] Alan Seales: Cool all right well I don't want to take too much of your time I know we only scheduled an hour.

[39:31] Jason Scott: Yeah well I'm happy to um hop in again if ever helpful but um but yeah no I mean this was super super fun um and yeah uh it was it was always a great it's always a pleasure kind of chatting with you about all the many things that we seem to have in common these days.

[39:46] Alan Seales: Thanks for making it all the way to the end of this episode of the podcast this podcast is not sponsored in any way so please like share and subscribe I'll be releasing an episode every week so make sure to come back for more thanks for listening and stay creative.