In this episode of 48 Hour Heroes: Origin Stories, host Kirk Nordenstrom sits down with filmmaker and city producer Chad Terry. Chad has run the Albuquerque and Denver 48 Hour Film Projects and worked as a health and safety manager on productions like Better Call Saul. He shares unique insights into COVID compliance on set, the importance of thinking beyond yourself when it comes to health, and how the industry can continue caring for its people post-pandemic. The conversation also dives into community, resilience, and the role Filmapalooza played in bringing producers together just as the world was changing.
Welcome to Episode 7 of 48 Hour Heroes: Origin Stories.
Guest: Chad Terry – filmmaker, former EMT, health & safety professional, and 48HFP city producer in Albuquerque and Denver.
Topics discussed:
Lessons from working on Better Call Saul as a health and safety manager.
Why on-set safety goes beyond COVID protocols and should become a permanent part of production culture.
Living and working with psoriatic arthritis and the importance of protecting immunocompromised crew members.
How Filmapalooza 2020 in Rotterdam created lasting friendships and community just before the pandemic hit.
Chad’s journey through divorce, job loss, and rediscovering purpose through filmmaking and the 48 Hour Film Project.
The balance between competition and camaraderie in 48HFP.
Why mentoring and making space for the next generation of city producers matters.
This episode is part of CREATE48 Media Network’s mission to support filmmakers, build community, and celebrate the stories behind the 48 Hour Film Project.
[00:00:00]
Hello and welcome to episode seven of 48 Hour Heroes Origin Stories. I'm your host, Kirk Nordstrom, co-producer of the Seattle 48 Hour film Project and the Montana 48 hour film project. Today's guest is another person who I think exemplifies what Filmapalooza is all about and really exemplifies the spirit of the 48 in a lot of ways.
His name is Chad Terry. He has produced both Albuquerque, New Mexico and Denver, Colorado, 48 hour film projects, and most recently he's been working as a COVID compliance officer on the television show. Better Call Saul, and he has some very good insights as to safety protocols and just thinking about other people's health.
[00:01:00] On set and how we're gonna move forward during and post pandemic. So I met Chad at the 2020 Rotterdam right before the world went to shit. And I'd never met him before. Didn't really even know of him as a city producer 'cause he hadn't. Done many at that point. But at Filmapalooza, we, city producers have a little bit of a click 'cause there are a, a handful of us that go to all of the Filmapaloozas or many of the Filmapaloozas.
And when we get there, we're the first people we see that we know and we immediately glom together. But it's not an exclusionary click by any stretch of the imagination. And he just stepped in and became a buddy to all of us, and he was in on our city producers Zoom meetings, and [00:02:00] very quickly just became a very good friend.
So without further ado, I would like to introduce you to Chad Terry.
Welcome back to 48 Hour Heroes Origin Stories. I am speaking with Chad Terry today, so welcome, Chad. Hi, how are you man? I'm doing good. All things considered. Good. Yeah. All things considered is always asterisk these days. Yeah. You have to put it in relative terms. Yeah. Yeah. Hundred percent.
You'll be, I don't know, either horrified or relieved to know that whenever I've been working on set. First thing we have to do when we show up is shove a Q-tip up our nose and yeah, 15 [00:03:00] times each nostril. And that entire time I'm thinking of you. Aw, I appreciate it. I think that, I think moving forward, a lot of people are gonna be thinking of me and thinking of picking their noses.
So probably only a handful of people listening to this know who you are. So. Who exactly the hell are you? My name is Chad Terry. I am currently the city producer for Albuquerque, New Mexico, and currently I just got off of working on Better Call Saul, season six, the series finale as the health and safety manager and I already.
Jumped on a gig for a, a movie coming out called National Anthem, the lower budget, but I stepped up a rung and now I am the COVID compliance supervisor because these positions are not like union positions. Every single show has a different title that they like my [00:04:00] personal. Thought and ideas on it is health and safety is a better title than like COVID, whatever.
You know? There's pros and cons to both, but I like health and safety just specifically because that's my former work. I used to do health safety and the environment in the oil field, so it's Oh, okay. Yeah. Health and safety and I'm a former EMT, and so all those things combined to what we're trying to do with protecting people on set.
Yeah, I think the. The wording is important because going forward, even if we get COVID to an endemic state rather than a pandemic state. Mm-hmm. And it's a manageable thing. These protocols I think have to be, uh. Managed in perpetuity going forward? Yeah, a lot of it does, and just you take into consideration how long people work on sets and how, how many hours they're dedicating to it, how much sleep they're losing, how much stress everybody is under while you're making these [00:05:00] things.
Once COVID does come to a spot where we're living with it a little bit better than we are currently, we want to protect everybody from the flu or the cold. If you're showing up to work and you're sick. You can get other people sick, not just with COVID, but if you show up with the flu and they're like, well, I tested so I'm not COVID positive, so I'm good to be here still.
Yeah. But if you have the flu, we don't wanna spread that onset either. Exactly. And so having some sort of a health safety department moving forward, I think more than what, what they currently have, I think would be good for the industry. Definitely. And, and call me biased, but it would keep me employed.
Hey, that's good. As my brother would say, that's a good story. Exactly and I appreciate it because I just turned 50 last year and a couple years back I found that, discovered that I have psoriatic arthritis. You know, thanks to my. Paternal grandmother's genetics. [00:06:00] Okay? And I have to take arthritis medicine to address it.
So I can do little things like lift five pounds. Yeah. But one of the side effects is it makes, it puts me in the immunocompromised category. Okay. Yeah. Not to a huge extent, but enough that if I get the flu, I, the first time I got the flu on methotrexate, it was terrible. It was really, when I get sick, I get hit hard.
Oof. So since that diagnosis, I've been extremely careful about it, like make sure I get my flu shot and I keep everything up to date. And to see that as a regular practice on a set going forward. COVID or other, I think it is a wise decision. Yeah, because I think immuno randomization.[00:07:00]
I think that going forward it seems to be a more commonly aware state for people at at this point. Yeah, I think so. A lot of people understand. Part of what we're trying to do, not only in the industry but in the world is, is protect other people by. And by protecting other people, you protect yourself from having COVID.
Exactly. And that is how you protect other people as well. So Exactly. It's forcing a mindset on us that I think is largely been absent, but crucial. Yeah. Is you protect yourself by protecting others or you protect others by protecting yourself. Exactly. It's either way. Like it goes either way. It is, it's all hand in hand.
It's it is. It's about thinking. Outside of just yourself. It's about thinking about how we live our lives, no matter what side of the political aisle you fall on with this stuff. We all live in a society and we all live [00:08:00] together and certain things we not only have to do, but there are other things that we should do to help take care of one another.
Exactly, exactly. This is a good point to get into, uh, filma Palooza. Yeah, because the timing of our last in-person Filmapalooza was crazy. Absolutely insane. It was absolutely insane At 2020. It was in Rotterdam and, and you and I hadn't met before that? No, that was my first Filmapalooza. That was my first year as a, as a city producer.
I believe it was 2020. I'm pretty sure it was. When that all came about, I got all my, I was super excited about it. I had never been, I might have dipped up into Canada and dipped down into Tijuana, but as far as like actual travel abroad, I don't have experience with that. A lot of travel in the States, and so I told myself, I, I'm doing it no matter what.
And COVID was. Uh, [00:09:00] whether I was willfully ignorant or what, it was only this weird, oh, that's, it's in China. It's not anywhere near where I'm going. It's not here. And so I don't need to change my plans. I can go and then I was. Using my map a lot. I was using, trying to search stuff up a lot because I flew into Paris.
Lemme back up a little bit. Okay. I think the idea of these interviews are to get us, get to know us all on a little bit of a personal level. So when I became the city producer, right before I remember exact timing or whatever, but I had gotten, uh, divorced and then, so I had a little bit, whatever you wanna call it, a little bit more freedom or a little bit more of a obstinance to be like, I am gonna do this for myself.
Mm-hmm. I deserve it. Damn it. And so. I had gotten divorced. I got all my stuff together. I was ready to go to to go, and somebody had told me, make sure you check your passport. If it expires within three or six months or something like that, they won't accept it. So I had to like really quickly get a new passport, got all my ducks in a row, [00:10:00]and I was ready to go.
And obviously a trip like that is pretty expensive. And a couple weeks before, either a couple weeks or a month before. My flight left. I had lost my job. Ugh. And so I, I was like, I don't care. This is my time. I'm doing it. I'll figure it out. Doesn't matter. And so I went anyway, and we, I, we all had a blast.
It was amazing meeting you guys and meeting you and just. Having that sense of community that we had there, just everybody was there for the same reason. We're all supportive of one another and just meeting all the different filmmakers from around the world was great. So I'm like a broken record on this, in that film.
Palooza is pretty much my favorite time of year. Yeah. And the international Filmapaloozas are relatively new. So Paris was the first one in 2018 and Olivier knocked it out of the park with that. [00:11:00] Yeah. But I, I've heard a bunch of people with stories. Yeah. I, that's where I met Indra for the first time.
Yeah. Was at Film Palooza. Paris just happened to sit in front of her at the opening night screening with my wife and. You know, we were buddies after that and now we're, we share a tattoo. Yeah. It's so great. And so I knew Hans and Sper would pull out all the stops and, and Film Palooza and Rotterdam would be great.
And it, it was, it, it absolutely was. And I got to reunite with Angela and Pierre from, and. Chris Cherry was there, you know, all the, my gang was there, which was great, and we added to the gang that year you came along and yeah, I appreciated that. You just kind of stepped in with all of us. There's no, uh, pretense, just, [00:12:00] Hey, we do this, we do the same thing.
We have similar experiences. Yeah. Let's, you guys are my people. Let's hang out. Exactly. And I remember the Seattle team that year, the team leader didn't come. Two of the actors did. Okay. And they're mom, 'cause they're minors. And I was really bummed because they, the team leader, they had such a good film and they had taken home numerous prizes over the, the two years prior in Seattle that they participated, but they came from Denver originally.
Oh, that's right. Yeah. We talked about that. A team called, uh, twisted Ladder and I was. Super excited when they won best in City. 'cause in my opinion, as city producer and not a judge, I'm, we're never one of the judges. You don't participate in that judging and I like that. Yeah, exactly. We're facilitators and that's it.
That's it. And. [00:13:00] I think they got robbed one year. I, I think the judges one year made the wrong choice and should have gone with Twisted Ladder, but didn't. And as city producers, we stick by the decisions. We don't say anything one way or the other. Once they're gone and we have all the information, sure we could be like, I disagree, but whatever.
Yeah. Allowed, have opinions as long as we don't get in the way. Right. So I was bummed that they couldn't be there for it. They were moving back to Denver and had family issues and really just didn't want to chance COVID. Yeah, because this is at the point where, you know, it was in Italy, but it hadn't spread North into France at that point yet.
We actually had a handful, just a small handful of cases in, uh, a suburb of Seattle. Okay. It was Kirkland, Washington, right across the. Lake Washington from Seattle, and it popped, started popping up in, uh, nursing homes. So it was still a [00:14:00] novelty. When we got together in Film Palooza, we were all hugging and Yeah, drinking beers and just hanging out.
Yeah, I was like, I was saying, I flew into Paris, I went to Disney. I did a whole bunch of different things that. That were for me, I, so I flew into Paris, went to Disney, went to Amsterdam, went to the Anne Frank Museum. I went to the Van Gogh museum. I went to the catacomb. You know, I went all over and, uh, I wanna touch on Pierre a little bit because it was interesting meeting everybody.
You know, I was still in my little bit of a, whatever depression you want to call it, from a divorce. Fuck yeah. Call it a, call it getting a divorce and then losing your job is not something that you really hold high. And I was talking to him about how I had the re, the only reason I was in Denver and why I'm in Albuquerque now is because I had moved, because we got married or whatever and I moved for a woman or whatever and he stopped me and he said, no, you moved for love.
[00:15:00] Always. Yeah. I was like, that's, that's a absolutely a better way to look at it, whether no matter what happened, no matter why or how it all fell apart. It wasn't at that moment. And, and so that's one of the things I love about meeting all of you guys. We all have these different philosophies and we all have these different ideas about what life and love and, and, and passion is.
And it was, uh, it was very helpful that he had said that to me at the time. And so, thanks, Pierre. Yeah, I met, uh, Pierre and Angela in Paris, and they are two of those people that. If you don't immediately connect with them, there's something wrong with you. Right. Not with them. Exactly. They, and they, they recently stepped down from the 48 after.
Oh, did they? It was eight or 10 years of doing it, so, and I, I believe those two, they'll be the people that are. [00:16:00]Still at Film Palooza, as long as it's appropriate for them to be able to get there and all that stuff. Stuff. Exactly. And we want that. Exactly. Yeah. That's, you know, I know if I travel to Europe, I.
If I'm in, if I'm in the Netherlands, I'm going to seek them out. I'm gonna seek W out. I'm gonna seek Indra out. Exactly. All those guys. Yeah. Just like, Hey, I'm in town. I don't, I, I don't wanna get a hotel. Can I sleep with one of your guys' place or jump clean? You know what I mean? Yeah. Indra and I were joking that I text her almost every day.
Because, you know, we're tattoo pals and she's a little sister I never had. Yeah. And uh, she's a delightful geek and Oh, she is. Yeah. And. I said, now that you have your license and a car, next time I come to Europe, we're gonna go do a city producer road trip and start getting city producers in cities that don't currently have city producers that [00:17:00]need 'em.
We need to go to Oslo. Let's you know, let's do a quick, just a tour and have fun and all that stuff and we'll, we'll go to. Bel grad or Sarajevo, you know, start set, setting him up in the former Yugoslavia. Yeah, we're getting our, our second tattoo, this go around. Nice. And we're inducting Dino from Atlanta into the club.
He wants to do it. He is hardcore about it. I can't wait for him to be at Filmapalooza as a city producer. Right. He's been to Film Palooza in Atlanta and he helped out when he was a participant. And now he gets to experience it from the other side and not really have to work, which is not right. You know, we met him through our Zoom meetings that we had pretty regularly early on in the pandemic and those, those were a great lifeline.
Those were, yeah, it was super cool. Fantastic conversations I [00:18:00] was in, I was working on a show called Naomi in. Atlanta. And so I was actually able to meet him, like we went out and had dinner and stuff like that. And it's an interesting thing because you can, if you, you know, I transitioned into film as a full-time job because of the COVID, because of all this stuff.
And so to be able to go into any city that I work in, if I need to find people to hire, I just. My first stop is one of the city producers. Yeah. 'cause the, the job that we're doing right now isn't a union job. You don't need to be a part of the union or anything like that. And so you can get a lot of experience and make contacts on set.
Get yourself into the business. And that's what I've been able to do for a, a handful of people here on Better Call Saul. They, they work with us and then the props department is like, well, I need somebody, Hey, can I borrow your guy for a day or two? Absolutely. They get a couple of union days and then they're like, Hey, they need me for [00:19:00] like longer.
Can I go? Absolutely. That's the whole point of what I wanna try and do is, is get our job done, but also if I can get. Those connections made for other people and get them into the industry. Get 'em into the union. I'm always gonna do that. Exactly. I've said this ad nauseum is that I. Love and hate it when a longtime participant in the 48 whose career I've gotten to see start and grow exponentially and love their, their 48 hour films.
I both love it and hate it when they say, Hey, I can't do it this year. I'm too busy. That's a good segue into. I, I have not reached out to Mr. Mark yet, but I am going to, but I'm too busy and I'm gonna have to step down as a city producer here in Albuquerque. And it hurts. It's sad, but I give somebody else an opportunity.
And we were talking a little bit about, about it off, off the recording. Part of the [00:20:00] reason that I made that decision is because of how much I love the 48. Mm-hmm. I don't have the time or energy. To put the love into it that it, it deserves, and I'll always be there, whoever comes up underneath me, and if they need help.
I'll always be there to help and I'll always be there to give them some ideas or contacts if they need it, but I just, I don't have the bandwidth to do it anymore. Yeah, yeah. I, I completely understand that in 2008, 2009, when I was still in my thirties and a little more energetic and yeah, professionally ambitious.
I was getting frustrated with opportunities here in Seattle 'cause it's difficult to carve out a living in this industry in Seattle. Most people end up. For the sake of proximity to family and friends, we'll move down to Portland because there's a lot more work in Oregon. They have [00:21:00] a bigger tax incentive than us by quite a bit, which hopefully will be changing this year.
Yeah. Or they move to LA or Atlanta. But people go up the first few rungs in Seattle and then go, ah, no, I gotta move. But I, when I started the 48 here in 2005, I fell in love with it and yeah, but by 2008, 2009, I wanted to ex, you know, expand my career and grow a little more. I just wanted to, you know, edit.
I would've loved to have had a career editing, be horror movies all day, every day, which isn't gonna happen here in Seattle, but. I made the best friends of my life here and in 2010 I met my wife. And another nagging thought in my head [00:22:00] was, well, I wouldn't be able to run the Seattle 48 hour film project if I moved down to la.
Yeah. And I loved doing it. I mean, this is my 18th year. It's amazing. Yeah. And I'm at a point now where I can't imagine not doing it, but I. That's a personal and professional decision. I, you know, I've made on my own, right? Yeah. Yeah. I've prioritized this over other things and that's, that can't be the case for everyone.
I'm working a good 16 hours a day. I sleep for four or five. Yeah. I do it all again. Yeah. So there's not a lot of room in there to be able to. To do it, sadly, but I, I respect your approach to it in that you can't give it the, the love and attention it deserves. Right. So you're gonna help men mentor someone into the position.
Yep. Absolutely. You can help mentor someone into the position [00:23:00] who can. Do all that. And it has been helpful on resumes and things like that as well. Yeah, so it's definitely, it's not, it obviously wasn't a, a decision I made lightly or anything like that. Exactly, exactly. Took me a long time to get to that point.
I think I probably should have come to that decision earlier, but it's hard to let go. It really is. And for me, like I have a, I have a really unique story even with the 48, you know, I started my very first 48 when I found it was here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And after that year is when I moved for Love Up to Denver.
And so I immediately looked for a new group to do it with. Started doing that a couple of times and then when the city producer job opened up there, I applied, got that job, and then, so I did that the first year of city producer, and then that's when the job loss happened and the divorce happened and everything.
And so I wanted to tuck my tail between my legs and come back to Albuquerque. And as I was doing [00:24:00] it. The Albuquerque position was open, and so I applied for that. Got that. And then in be in between those, when I was trying to focus on doing Albuquerque, that first year is when we had, there are all sorts of different things went on.
The guy who took over for Denver or whatever happened, he, he had to step back as well. And so I helped run Albuquerque and Denver at the same time and it was. Interesting because what ended up happening with COVID shutting everything down, everything was online anyway, and so my physical presence really wasn't needed in Denver.
And so it worked out in a. For lack of a better term, it worked out that me doing it just strictly online was not only acceptable, was the only way we could do it. And then we, we got somebody else on board up there in Denver, then we did, did Albuquerque again this [00:25:00] year. So although I've only been doing it since 2020, I have one.
Plus an extra one in that middle there. So I like, I've done five of them, I guess in a span of two or three years. Yeah, it's interesting. It's hard and I think that's. One, one of the most, one of the most amazing things, you know, it's a producer job. It really is. It's not just something that that gets handed to you and is, here, call this person.
Go take this step now. Take this step. It's you are producing something. Yes. And so all the complications that come with that, they really are. Any sort of hiccup or speed bump or, or difficult thing. Helps you become better suited to work in the industry, better suited to make your event bigger and better the following year, and you just build on that.
Every time I've developed skills doing this that I never foresaw. Having to need in the [00:26:00] first place. Right. I've always been, I have an editor's temperament. I'm primarily an editor. That's where I make, you know, the bulk of my income. And we tend to be a bit of a solitary lot. We like to be in our cave and dark room hunched over at the computer.
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And you have to be, I. Social when you're a city producer. Yeah, and I can't say I am a total introvert. I'm definitely not, but I'm also definitely not an extrovert. I'm an ambivert that kind of tend toward, tends toward introversion. And as a city producer, yeah, you have to talk to people all the time.
And there are certain diplomatic skills I've learned. How to break something to someone gently. You know you will. You miss the line of [00:27:00] dialogue. The prop isn't in it. You didn't handle the character correctly. One second over. Oh, that's once brutal. It's only happened to me once where it was just frames over.
Right. And one of the coolest things about our community as city producers is we do have this, we have this network of people, not only, not only headquarters, but we do have a network of people that we can reach out to as well. If we've got, like, let me get a second opinion really quick before I talk to these people.
And, uh, I, I actually asked Walter to help me out on one of 'em because. I, I was like, I can't tell if this is that one second over or not, or if it's on the dot. So I sent it to him and he checked it out and he was like, they're on the.to the frame. They used every single second of us. I was like, right on.
And it's, I think a lot of people, sometimes they forget. It is a competition. It's not just something that is like, oh, [00:28:00] make it however you want. It's, here's the competition. These are your guidelines once you're outside of the guidelines. You're no longer in the competition and it's a really hard thing to be like you did X, Y, or Z incorrectly, and that's why you're no longer in the competition.
And I always try and tell people it is a competition. You wanna win. But at the end of the day, if you have something that's up on screen, you've already won. Exactly. You made a film. It's difficult to make films and when you, when you. When you make it within 48 hours, it's even more difficult. But the reward for having that at the end of the day mm-hmm.
Should be always worth it. Exactly. And it's a fine line that we have to walk as city producers because we want people to participate as a personal growth experience, as a fun experience, and. Downplay the competitive nature of it a little bit, but it is a competition. [00:29:00] Yep. And Mark always says it very well in that if you, and you just said if you complete a film in a weekend, you've already won, you're gonna get screened and.
That you, the chances of going to Cannes, that's like winning the lottery. You really gotta be at the top of the game because the competition at the top of the 48 is pretty fierce in terms of. Quality. Yeah. Not in terms of interpersonal competition, right. It's just about the actual films that come out it at Film Appalooza in Rotterdam, when we went and I was watching the, you know, 'cause that's, that's when we see all the winners from around the world just watching some of these things.
I'm. It. It's amazing what products come out of this. It's unbelievable. Yeah. The best Seattle has ever done is we got third internationally [00:30:00] in for the 2014 film Charin, and it went to Cannes and I. The top two films of course, were Dutch and French. What are you gonna do? Huh? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, anyone who's listened to all of these has heard, uh, the stories of fucking French and the Dutch man.
So good. And they're just genuinely nice people as well. I know. They're the nicest people you want to punch. Yeah. Well that's part of what I like about, uh, competition. Is just shit talking. And so when, even if a film I have made is not, you know, and I'm, I'm aware as I'm watching the other people's films or whatever, I still love finding the film that I like the best.
And like going up to that group and just being like, ours is gonna blow you out of the water, even though it's [00:31:00]completely obvious that it won't just, it's so much fun to just. Interact with one another, have that comradery about what we do and what we love to do and just have fun with it. There are times where people are really disappointed with how, not necessarily how their film turns out, but with the results of, yeah, judging and you have to talk them down and you have to.
Tell 'em this is art. Art is objective. You know, the, this is part of why I, I have most of my judges I leave as, what's the word I'm looking for? I don't know. Anonymous. Not because I'm trying to hide anything, but, yeah. Uh, when I took over Denver, there was a, the person I took over from had told me that's probably a good idea to do that.
Because we did have an incident where someone reached out, found one of the judges and was attacking them. And so I, I decided to do that up until this year I did, I gave everybody the name of, of one of the judges because she was one of the supervising producers on Better Call Saul. Oh, nice. [00:32:00] And so here in Albuquerque, having a judge like that is not only.
Someone who is very in the industry, somebody whose standards are very high. So is Yeah, it's, it's amazing the standards that they have on that show. And no matter how your film lays on that subject, subjectivity. Someone in that level saw everybody's films out of Albuquerque and that Exactly. I think that gives a lot of people that boost of, oh my god, it's, it's being seen, quote unquote.
So I, I did my best to get that person and, and they had a lot of fun. And, uh, her name's, uh, Trina. Trina spi, I think that's how you pronounce her last name. But, so she, she was one of the, one of the judges last year and. And she had a lot of fun doing it. Yeah. In Seattle, I give the judges the option of anonymity or not, and if one judge wants anonymity, I extend that to all of the judges.
Okay. So it's, it's an all or nothing. And a lot of times they say, yeah, it's fine, whatever. But if, if one person says, [00:33:00] no, I don't want to, then I dunno that's who they are, because I wanna respect their privacy and. I am just excited because for our horror event the last two years, I, I, I got to have Charlie Beante, the drummer for Anthrax.
Oh, cool. To be a judge. 'cause he is a huge horror fan and that's awesome. Yeah, a friend of mine. Who I met through the 48 while he was working at Funko. He got to know Charlie. It was like the most random thing. All right. Summer of 2020, Dima 11, Chuck. He was working at Funko at the time and he, he occasionally asked me, Hey, you have some spare time to help me out with something?
I'm like, yeah, of course. And he asked, you ever heard of a band called Anthrax? And my jaw dropped? Uh, yes. I know who they're, I've been listening to them since before you were born, dude, that's, you [00:34:00] know, 15 to 19 for me. Just anthrax, love them. And I got to work on two videos for a virtual metal fest. In Europe, cutting to all Zoom recorded home recorded video of two classic Anthrax songs.
Okay. And when I started getting the footage like, holy crap, there's Scott Ian on my screen. Oh my God. There's Frank, there's, there's Charlie's, Joey. Holy shit. I've made it. I was just in heaven. Yeah. And then I had another moment like that. A little later in in the summer because during the pandemic, all these musicians were doing these cool preserve their sanity cover projects.
Right. And Charlie actually put out an entire album of 'em and they're amazing. Absolutely amazing. One of the songs he wanted to do was a U2 song. [00:35:00] And it was a city of blinding lights. And so he and strangely, his nephew, Frank Bellow, who's the bassist for anthrax, they're huge U2 fans. Charlie had been teaching himself piano and they wanted to cover this song, and they got Mark Ossa Guita, the vocalist for death, angel to sing on it, and he did a spot on Bono.
It was amazing, but it, the first mosh pit I ever went into when I was 15 was at a Death Angel show in Mountain View, California, and I'm texting with. Yeah, I'm texting with the drummer for Anthrax, the drummer and bassist for Anthrax, and the singer for Death, angel. And my mind was blown, you know? Yeah. 15, 15-year-old me would not believe this.
And they're the nicest guys. And just being [00:36:00] able to get Charlie as a judge was great. That's awesome. And as busy as he is, that he took the time and took it seriously, was such an honor for me And.
We tend to, you know, skew a little younger in the, the 40 eights. Mm-hmm. So a lot of them have no idea who Charlie is. Right. Yeah. There were a handful of the older participants who were like, no shit. Charlie Ante watched my video. And it, it, it feels good. It really does. So I, I hope we, obviously, we have so many places around the world that it's not, it's not possible for every city, quote unquote celebrity judge, but when we can, when we can do it, I know that our city producers love doing it because when you think about it, someone like Trino or someone like the drummer guy.
Like they didn't start where they're at. They had hopes and dreams and they [00:37:00] had to start from the bottom as well. And a lot of the stuff that we do, a lot of us are like, as we're making our 48 hour films, I know that when I was participating. It was a way for me to continue to make films, to continue to act, to continue to produce, even though I spent all my time in the oil field doing work.
You know? And so, I don't know, just having that connection because you have those judges and I think that they take it so seriously because they know what they're watching is their former selves. If only somebody saw me when I was at this level, I, and I think that's part of why it's exciting for some people.
Yeah. Yeah, in, I can't remember what year it was. It must have been 2015. We had two young women who made an amazing film, and I had a very well-known local indie producer here in Seattle, Lacey Levitt, who's she worked on like all of Lynn Shelton's [00:38:00] films and was part of that. Subset of now legendary Seattle filmmakers.
Lacey's amazing. Lacey's absolutely amazing, and I had her as a judge and she loved the film that. Abby and Keira made, and when I told her that they were teenagers, she was floored. She was absolutely floored that teenagers could make something this complex and nuanced. Yep. Which is, as we move forward, I, when the, when the 48 started, um, obviously I wasn't there, but when it started it was, I think they talk about like people handing in VHSs, like Yeah.
You know. The technology that has grown from the beginning of the 48 to what it is now. There are some teams that have brand new iPhones and they film the entire thing with that. And it has cinema quality. [00:39:00] Yeah. So the technology has advanced as, as, as, as, what am I trying to say? Like, you know, you, you could have this wild idea and this dream of making whatever you're gonna make, but at the beginning of the 48, like there's no way to really.
Capture that or do it well, or yeah, or whatever. But with the technology now, that's not a hindrance anymore. You know? I mean, big fantasy with a dragon or something might be a little difficult, but you could still do it. Really? Yeah. But. It's a really low bar for entry, which is, it is amazing. And I, I started out in the industry.
I switched careers in, in 2001. I was working in web and print design and events and, and working in a cubicle farm and just drinking way too much and I hated it. And when I got laid off in April of 2001 from a good paying job. At a, what I thought was a stable company, but it turns [00:40:00] out it wasn't. Turns out, and I was thinking of moving back to the Bay Area then I'd only been in Seattle for five, six years at that point.
My roots weren't that deep yet, but I still had great friends and I wasn't quite ready to move back to the Bay Area. And I saw this 40 week program certificate program at the Seattle Film Institute, and I studied photography in college, so I figured, huh. Why not? This seems like the next step in photography for me, and that was 2001, 2002.
Final cut was a new thing and it's crazy 'cause everything was still standard def and mini DV tape and watching it evolve from that to what we have now is cinema 48 and people shooting on black magic cameras that are 4K cinema quality that cost 1500 bucks. Yeah, I have two iPhones, one for personal and one for business.
And my, my business phone. Has the best camera I've [00:41:00] ever owned. Right. It's insane. Yeah. It, I, I just, I think it's, I think it's amazing and like you said, it lowers the bar of entry. Yeah. And, and I think that's what, that's what we want in the 48. If you, and I've, I actually told, uh, there was, um, this was in Denver, I believe it was the first year when I city produced in Denver.
And as I was going out to, you know, events. Bringing people in to tell them about 48 and because people like to just come to those to get to know everyone. There was, there were these guys that were like, we're thinking about it, but maybe next year, like, we'll kind of watch and we'll, we'll see the movies and then maybe next year or something like that.
I, I told 'em, I, you know, not like a hard sell or anything like that. I just said. One of the things about the 48 is you're gonna mess up, you'll miss a piece of paperwork, or you'll miss the line because, because your mind was on something else or whatever. There's a lot of ways that you can miss something.
Yeah. And so I said, [00:42:00] so rather than waiting next till next year to start that process, participate so that you can learn and grow from there. And the next year get better, and the next year get better, and the next year get better. And 'cause I was like, failure is always an option. Yes. And so. Jump into it that it's the only way to do it.
Exactly. You know, because you can't, with the 48, it's unique. You can only prep so much. And so he was like, that's a really good, I, I mean that's, I'll take that into consideration. So they decided, uh, it was two guys they decided to join and they won that year. Yeah. The film is called, uh, cinnamon. Um, and I thought it was just.
You know how we, uh, you know, they, I don't know if they're just great. Yeah. It's fascinating to watch people develop or, I, I take it back. They may not have, they may not have won overall, but they, they won something. They won, like audience choice [00:43:00] award. They won. I, I'll have to look back because I, I don't, I take it back.
I don't think that they did win, but it was like. It was one of the most celebrated films from that year. It did really well by jumping. They did really well. Yeah. They had, they got the best actor and I think they got the audience choice award, maybe something else, but it was. And, and I, I, I just tell 'em all the time, I'm like, that that one was my favorite.
You know, take it what it is. But it's been a, it's been a few years, so I apologize, uh, to the winner that year. We see a lot of films, people, we see a lot of films we do, and the years kind of overlap. And, but I wanna, I wanna get back to this film by the, the two young women, Abby and Kira, when Lacey watched it, and I told her it was made by two young women.
Two teenage women. She was floored, absolutely floored, and asked, can I have their contact information I want? I want to take them out for coffee and talk about film and career in film. [00:44:00] So I contacted Karen Abey and said, Hey, you know, Lacey Levitt wants to, wants to talk to you, and they're young enough and indie focused enough that they recognize the name.
We're blown away. This woman who has no obligation to reach out to him, offered to, and that's an opportunity that I love being able to spon, to foster, to sponsor to the filmmakers because that's what we do all we're here to facilitate. Exactly. That's it. You know what I mean? I, the community itself is amazing too.
There was an issue, uh, again in Denver, I believe it was the first year. There was a, because sometimes our website has issues and it goes down, not our fault. It's, we're not the ones doing whatever. It just, it happens. And so as we were filming over the weekend, the, they couldn't [00:45:00] access the website, so the paperwork was like they couldn't print things out or whatever.
And there was, uh, someone on another team who had. Everything's saved into a file. Like they, rather than just picking every time they need it from the website, they download everything and they just have it. That's smart. And, and rather than somebody not being able to get a, a waiver or somebody not being able to get X, Y, and Z and then their film is disqualified for one reason or another.
She made sure everybody knew and we shared it on our Facebook page and everything and emailed people like, if you need this, boom, here, it all is. And she didn't have to do that because sometimes somebody might want to be like, oh, well I can get an edge if four or five of these people drop out because of something.
But the idea of what we're doing trying to, I don't know, but just trying to help everybody to be their best. Even when you're a participant in a contest. Mm-hmm. That I think is amazing. And that's, those are the stories I [00:46:00] love being a part of and hearing about and just what our community is Exactly. It's, it is a community and I'm in the same boat with you.
I, I, I enjoy nothing more than seeing people. Reveling in filmmaking together. My favorite thing at a screening, a lot of times at a screening, I don't sit through the whole screening because I've watched everything and I'm stressed out and I'm tired and I'm afraid I'll fall asleep in the theater and start snoring.
Yeah. Which is the exact opposite effect I'd want people to have. But I will, for the last one or two films, I'll go sit in the the front row. Because I have to get up on stage and talk and bring people up, and I won't even watch the film. I'll just watch the audience behind me. And you just see everyone's smiling and laughing and you see someone [00:47:00]nudging someone else like, Hey, hey.
That's, I know. That was so funny. Yeah. It's such an amazing feeling to create a platform and a community and an event. Where people can celebrate each other's hard work and achievement. Because once the weekend is over, the filming weekend, everybody is tired, everybody is frustrated and work, working in film as a, as a job as well.
Like when you're on something, it's a lot of hours. You're very tired and by the time you're done with it, you're just like, I'm done with it. I wanna be done with it. But then you rest for a little bit and then you get to see it. That excitement is back and you, you know, and you see what all that. That frustration and that that hard work and all that pays off for, and that's, that's why we do it.
Exactly. Chad, it's looking like our, our time is about up. Oop, yeah, I gotta go move a bunch of wood chips from the front yard to the backyard. [00:48:00] I gotta go work on the, the new film, get everybody lined out, make sure all the tests are done, make sure everybody's safe, make sure everybody's ready to work. It's good work you're doing, it's good work you're doing.
I always, uh, appreciate our, our health and safety officers on set. They have a very hard job. They, uh, it's, uh, very difficult. So if anybody out there is working on a film and you have a. Health, safety or COVID crew, whatever they call it. Different things on every set. Make sure you guys are kind to 'em.
Make sure you guys are trying, trying your best to make sure everybody on your crew is safe and healthy, because that's the biggest thing we want say. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be nice. Thank you. Thank you. Costs nothing and uh, it means a lot to people. It does. One of the most recent sets I was on our COVID officer, he was a, a firefighter.
In addition and EMT and every day going in, he'd hand me a test and say, come back in 15 minutes. And I'd always say thank you. And at the end of the day, say thank, thank you. And if I was out wandering [00:49:00] around, it's like, can I get you anything from craft services? Yeah. Can I get you a cup of coffee? You know, soda, whatever.
They should always be like, no, I appreciate it. But we don't want to, we don't want to hand things off a lot. And I appreciate it. I have some hand sanitizer, but I, I. Basically on set, always drenched in it. What the one last anecdote. Uh, my first onset gig during the pandemic was, uh, an Amazon event in November and December of 2020.
Again, with my buddy Dima who hooked me up with Anthrax and there was hand sanitizer everywhere, which I was grateful for. They were, this is during the time when the, the local distilleries were all getting into the hand sanitizer game. Oh yeah. Yeah. So there was a distinctive aroma to all of these hand sanitizer.
Yeah. Some of them are not [00:50:00] great. You know, some of 'em, uh, they smell like. The booze. Yeah. You can tell a normal hand sanitizer s scent just smells like isopropyl alcohol. Yeah. But whiskey has a distinct aroma and I had a bottle of this stuff at my desk and. Whenever I'm walking around, I'm just dousing myself in this stuff.
'cause there were a lot of people there and I, yeah, there was no vaccine at that point and I was just worried I was gonna get pulled over going home and the police officer would ask me if I was drinking. Right. Actually, no, I'm just kinda. I've been, I've been taking all of this, uh, you know, whiskey distillate externally, right?
It's all external. Technically, not internally. It was nuts. But Chad, again, thank you. I gotta make a trip down to Albuquerque. I. Absolutely. You're always welcome. I've never been. It's a great place, uh, film here. If you move here [00:51:00] specifically for film, you can, oh, I gotta hook you. There's a whole contingent of ex Seattle people that have moved down there.
I gotta introduce you. Oh, cool. Yeah, absolutely. So, I, I don't know if I, I don't know if we've talked about it. I was born in Bremerton, so when you and I became friends at the, uh, yes, I remember Palooza. I was like. He's like my hometown buddy. But yeah. Uh, you know, one, one final thing, just signing off. I wanna say, you know, I, you know, I will be stepping down as a producer, but I, I, I will be.
Involved with these guys. You guys are my friends now. Yeah. You guys will be talking. You're stuck with us. Dammit. I'm stuck with you guys. And then whomever takes over here in Albuquerque, I'll be there to help guide them if they need any questions or any contacts or anything like that. Because again, it's a, it's a collaborative process and when you have someone there that you can ask a question, even if it's just a simple question.
Yeah, I'll be there for 'em. So. Awesome. I appreciate everything that the 48 has ever done for me. And, uh, it's, uh, [00:52:00] it was not an easy decision, but I believe it's the right decision for the 48, so. Excellent. I'm glad the 48 brought us together. Thank you Chad. Thank you so much. Good to catch up. And I think we should, uh, bring back the Sunday morning meetings again.
I think that'd be great. That'd be a lot of fun. Yeah. Alright. Thank you Chad, Terry. You're welcome. Soon to be ex city producer of Albuquerque, New Mexico for the 48 hour film project. Yeah. Check out, uh, season six. Better call Saul. Oh yeah. Enough. Oh, and also you wanted to mention, uh, the brewery for the shirt that we can't see.
Oh, yeah. Real Bravo Brewing here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They're great. They were one of our sponsors. We had our, we had our award ceremony back there. They have really good beer. They've got great food. They are. They're just great people. Albuquerque's got a lot of breweries going on and there's a lot of people in that industry that are amazing people as well.
Yeah, and, and Rio Bravo went above and beyond to help us out [00:53:00] and, and we really appreciated it. Nice. I love a good micro brewery. I'm a home brewer myself. So. Nice. I always appreciate a plug for Yeah. Good local brewery. Appreciate you nudging me to, to, to do that. I.