How VFX Transformed an Award-Winning Marketing Campaign

Scottie Yang takes us behind the scenes of "Future 48," an award-winning marketing campaign that used time travel and visual effects to transform perceptions about manufacturing careers in Arizona. As producer at Ideas Collide, Yang brought his unique background—spanning Hollywood post-production, competitive volleyball, and brand storytelling—to create something that transcended typical corporate content.

The conversation reveals how Yang's unconventional career path shaped his creative approach. Starting as a radio broadcast major who dropped out of college, he found his way into post-production through a technical school and developed his craft sitting alongside talented editors in Los Angeles. This technical foundation combined with creative storytelling proved perfect for bridging the worlds of filmmaking and brand communication.

What makes this episode particularly valuable is the detailed exploration of the VFX collaboration between Ideas Collide and Foxtrot X-Ray. Rather than bringing in visual effects as an afterthought, Yang describes how having VFX expertise on set transformed what was possible—from transforming a small training facility into a massive EV production line to creating holographic interfaces that made the future tangible. His insights about meticulous pre-production planning and maintaining creative standards regardless of budget constraints offer practical wisdom for anyone contemplating a VFX-enhanced project.

Whether you're a filmmaker looking to incorporate visual effects, a marketer seeking fresh approaches to storytelling, or simply curious about the creative process behind award-winning content, this conversation provides both inspiration and practical guidance from the trenches of modern production. Listen now to discover how combining technical excellence with compelling storytelling can elevate brand content into something truly memorable.

Transcript

A high school student time travels to get a glimpse at Arizona's tech future in a series of CGI infused short films. We'll talk with the producer of the award winning marketing campaign on this episode of VFX for Indies. Welcome to VFX for Indies, a podcast about the intersection of visual effects and independent filmmaking. I'm your host, Paul DeNigris, VFX artist, filmmaker, and CEO Of boutique visual effects shop Foxtrot X-Ray with me today is Scottie Yang, producer at ideas, collide a full service marketing agency in Scottsdale, Arizona.

He's also a freelance producer, editor, motion graphics, artist, clothing designer, college instructor, Renaissance man, and all around cool, creative dude. Welcome to the show, Scottie. Hey, Paul. Thanks for having me, man. I'm stoked to be here with you. Oh, thanks for joining us. On this show, our goal is to bring on guests like Scottie to share their insights into visual effects and film production without going too deep into the weeds of tech talk with the goal of educating filmmakers and producers who are relatively new to using VFX.

If you like what we're doing here, please like and subscribe to stay updated as we release new episodes and you can find all Our entire back catalog of episodes at VFXforindies.Com. As I mentioned, Scottie's a producer at Ideas Collide, and we recently had the opportunity to collaborate on a big campaign for the Arizona commerce authority called Future 48, which made extensive use of visual effects to give young people a glimpse into the possible future of tech jobs here in Arizona.

Get them excited about educational opportunities in that sector. Campaign has picked up a shelf full of awards and has been seen millions of times across the web.

Let's get started. Scottie, why don't you tell us a little bit about your background and education and what brought you to produce your producing career in the agency world? Yeah, I would definitely say that, like, I have 1 of those, less conventional paths to this career. You know, I, I, I'm not a film school graduate,

that sort of thing. I actually was a, uh, I started out as a radio broadcast major and, didn't really have, like, the, the desire. Or at the time, didn't really like know what was my motivation going into like the film or the commercial production space and things like that. Although I, although, you know, as far as far back as I can remember, I've always had a fascination and I think that's where a lot of my, my motivation stems from is like a curiosity factor.

I mean, As early as some of our earliest memories are just, you know, watching a, a cartoon, uh, see a commercial watching a film that I've always wondered like, oh, how did they do that? How was that made? And like, what's crazy is that that same curiosity, like, Still carries me today, and I've learned that that is my driving force behind developing the craft and continuing, like, learning new phases of the production, like cycle.

We will, so it's that straight up curiosity, you know, and keeping ahold of that, and being intrigued by the creative process and the production process of creating that so I, I'm a form, actually a former college dropout. I was an athlete for about 18 years of my life. And, so, and I would play, I played volleyball competitively, on the beach and indoor, and I was going to be a professional volleyball player, you know, that stereotypical,

athlete perspective, right? So while I wasn't, I was, I was, intrigued by the broadcast radio broadcast. I had fun doing it. That wasn't my primary goal. Initially, I, I ended up actually, uh, flunking out of, of college. And I was back here in Phoenix and this was probably like, oh, 5 and it's just 1 day.

I was looking at the new times and, um. I saw an ad in New Times for Alpha Pacific Institute, uh, you know, get, get rolling in digital film production, media, uh, radio. It was a kind of an all facet vocational technical school. And I just kind of called it up and the guy that, that, owned it and operated it, Michael Petri, who's actually kind of a media guy, broadcast media guy here in Phoenix.

He's, he's still around. So shout out, Michael, if you're, if you happen to come across this. It was basically like a 6 month intensive training program. It was like my job, uh, you know, you go in and you spend like 2 or 3 hours, just kind of like lecture format. And then he basically gave you a, a task and you went out for the rest of the day and you produced whatever that task was.

And then the next day you come back and you review it and critique it and discuss it and talk about it. And then you rinse and repeat, and that was like 6 months straight. That's what you did. That was like the extent of like my, my traditional like film school, uh, experience, I guess you will. But what was great about that, he, he taught us Avid media composer.

And because of that foundational experience working on, on Avid, that was my lead in to getting my entry level gig, uh, first entry level gig in Los Angeles. At a post production, uh, post production, like marketing broadcast agency called studio city. And I went in there in the tape vault as a tape operator and a vault librarian, making tape dubs and, you know, all that stuff.

Right. Right. And, and learning the learning, patching, patching, you know, machines to, you know, You know, I think they had, like, 15 edit bays in that facility and just, and just kind of cutting my teeth. I felt like I was relearning everything over again. It was, was really, a fascinating experience. And, I'm actually glad it went out that way.

So, and then just from there, just through sheer ambition and, and will and a desire to, to learn. All phases of post production. And the company saw that in me and they promoted me to assistant editor. And that's when things really started to open up for me and it was probably one of the most life changing things that's ever happened to me.

And, uh, it's propelled me, you know, for 15 years. Both creatively and technically because it's a, it's a healthy mixture of both. That's, I think that's one reason why I love it. The technical stuff. Has always been a natural to me, right? It was the creative stuff that I, I, I didn't have the craft down.

I didn't understand it. And so I, that was like my grad school to me, those first few years, it was like graduate school for me. So I became an assistant editor at studio city and that's when some of the creative stuff really started to, blossom. Because now I had an opportunity to sit with some

extremely talented editors, like extremely talent and, and learn from them and, and watch their cuts and help them find shots and organize their projects for them. And, you know, through that process, right, you're looking at their timelines and you're seeing how they're constructing their timelines. And a big thing for me was, they all emphasized your need to grasp how to handle audio, how to cut up

music, how to understand music theory, how to compose, taking like a track and recomposing it based off of the dynamics of the song and what you're trying to do with it in your cut. Right. Like next level type shit. Right. You know, that. Most young amateur editors just aren't, aren't thinking on that wavelength.

Right. And then, just sitting with them and there's a couple of editors that would come through some freelance, some were on staff. That if, especially if they're a freelancer, if I knew. That they were coming in because we booked them for, for some work. I would, I would literally drop everything I was doing.

I was like, you know, fuck everything else I need to get done. Cause I would go and I would just like, I would build a relationship with them, sit with them, ask them questions. And a lot, pretty much all of them were so gracious with their time, willing to help out a young, uh, you know, a young emerging editor come, you know, and, and learn the trade, learn the craft a little bit more.

So I spent a lot of time doing that. And then eventually I, I decided to go freelance as an assistant. I was a pretty damn good assistant editor. It came natural to me. Right. Cause it's very technical in nature. Yeah. And I started, you know, at that point as an assistant, I began just, I joined the, the motion pictures, editor guild got on their active roster and then began, like, that's the easy part.

It's finding the actual gig. That's a union gig out there. Right. That that's, that's the hard part. And I just went freelance and that's when I kind of entered into the, like, agency commercial production world. And working with some post production facilities out in like, like Santa Monica and Venice, that had relationships with like Shy Dane and stuff like that.

And so I got, that's when I really got exposed to like the super high level, large budget, like commercial storytelling type stuff. And, uh, I lied to get hired on some of those gigs saying, I had only known Avid media composer. Up until that point, and, a couple of them, uh, were Final Cut 7 based, didn't know a lick about Final Cut, only knew Avid.

I remember I applied for a gig as an assistant, uh, for a final cut seven based, uh, projects. And they were like, adament in bold letters, you must know Final Cut 7 in the posting for it. And, I just so happened to know one of the producers and she kind of, when I talked to her, she emphasized, okay, so you know, you're, you're an expert level, like in final cut.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Okay, cool. Like, all right, well come in on Monday. Like we'll, we'll get you onboarded and then we have some work lined up for you. I literally bought a book that was titled Final Cut Pro 7 for Avid media composer users. And I read it in a weekend and then went to work, on that Monday.

Uh, and that's kind of how I entered in that, that large, large budget agency commercial space. Which was really, really cool because we got to be on, we were on set. We were doing live captures on set. As they were shooting it direct feed from camera and then as part of my job as that assistant editor was, you know, to, to do those takes and then feed them over to the editor that was cutting there.

So that was a really awesome experience because then I got to wander around on the lots and like, check out what other productions that were going on that had open sets and things of that nature, which was a really, really cool part of that whole Hollywood experience. Right? Yeah. And getting to work in Los Angeles and stuff like that.

Yeah. And then it just, I could have, I mean, if I really could have, I could have dedicated my career to being a career assistant editor, you know, and eventually get my into my way into the studio system where the union gigs are, are, and, and being an assistant editor, a first assistant, second assistant on, on film, that sort of thing.

But, for some reason, I like to make things hard. I like to challenge myself for whatever reason, and the creative storytelling aspect of all was still a little bit of a challenge to me. Like I wasn't great. I wasn't great at it, right? I was still trying to develop that craft and I knew at a certain point I had to stop taking assistant editing gigs.

You know, everyone was viewing me as an assistant editor. Right. And a good one. Right. Which was why I was getting gigs. But at some point you have to take a stand and be like, I want, I'm an editor and that's what I'm going to be. And that means I got to stop taking assistant editing gigs. And that's kind of where it is.

Ended up happening was like, I just had to stop, you know, and it was hard. It was a challenge, you know, because work dries up because you're not taking assistant work. You're, you're working on developing, getting your reel ready. And so you can put it out there and get the gigs. And eventually it started to pick up, went to work in NBC for a while, worked on some, some show content there and that sort of thing.

And then that's just kind of how it's progressed. You know, and then. At a certain point, I, I did, I did leave Los Angeles for a stint. I did some grad school work. I went and finished my bachelor's. I actually went back to college as a 30 year old and competed, finished out my NCAA eligibility while finishing my degree.

And I was out in South Carolina. And the next thing you know, like you're so specialized in Los Angeles as an editor, you're just like, well, now I don't have anything to cut. Right. And then you feel like, okay, well, then you started to figure out, okay, well, if I want to keep my knife sharp, I just got to go out and start filming my own shit.

And so I just bought a camera and I just started filming my own stuff just so I can go out and cut and keep my passion, which was at the editorial side. Right. And keep developing those skills. And I had no choice. So now I'm like getting, I'm out in the field more. Right. And now I am. Holding the camera and now I'm producing stuff.

Now I'm taking on local clients, right? And I'm doing, I was actually the, the school I went to, uh, shout out Limestone University, uh, is hiring me because I knew they knew my background coming in, you know, And they start hiring me to produce some of their athletic content for them, right? So now I'm getting exposed to these other areas outside of what my specialization is.

And that's when things really started to blossom for me, right? I'm now developing my craft as a producer, as a director, a bit, as, As a cinematographer and that sort of thing. And I've just built upon that, you know, year after year after year, take whether it's just whether I'm working with just doing the editing, or if I'm coming up with a story concept for a client that I take on, uh, to producing it, to directing it, or, hiring on a director or things of that nature.

And that's, really, I found a real good niche out of that is that I can tell a brand story pretty well. Right. And I've just, that's kind of where I'm like, all right, well, that's, that's my focus. I want to apply a lot of those principles and practices that we take when we're, you know, uh, producing or creating a feature length film.

Let's apply that to Brand storytelling, right? I think that there's a lot of people, a lot of like, I guess you can call it corporate video and we all know what the stereotypical corporate video looks like. Right? Right. Overly washed lighting, lack of narrative, not very entertaining. And that's kind of when I figured out is like, if I can make something entertaining to an audience.

It can be about anything. It could be the most driest content, but if we can tell it in a storytelling, entertaining type of way, like that's going to hold your audience, right. And it'll be more effective that way. And so, That's just my approach now, right? Cause I see there's an opportunity in that particular space where we can apply filmmaking practices to, I guess you would call corporate stock type of video.

And there's so much corporate content and brand content out there, but it's done in that historical kind of bland kind of way. Sure. It's like, so if we can apply some of these principles of filmmaking to it, Now we're separating ourselves from the pack, right? And that's kind of where I'm, I'm pushing things, trying to push things forward, uh, to this day.

Yeah, that's great. You know, when we were working together on Future 48, which we'll come to in a moment, I did notice, that you were, you were really well dialed in on the creative side, like your ideas and execution work were fantastic. And the way you worked with your team was, was incredible.

But then when it came time for you to actually turn material over to us. Like your timelines were meticulous. Your stuff was super organized. You named everything correctly. And I was like, who is this guy? Like, this is amazing. I wish every producer client was this well versed like you're kind of a unicorn in that, in that regard, like not a ton of producers that I've interacted with have that level of

technical execution. So it's a, it definitely has served you well. Well, I appreciate that. And I, that's probably the, one of the best ways you can compliment me is by saying that because, and that stems from my time as an assistant editor for those that, that may not know, like assistant editing, you're not doing creative work.

I mean, it's technical. I mean, you're setting up projects. You're, you're. ingesting media, you're managing the project, you're managing the media in itself, on the server or wherever it may be living. Right. And you know, you're sifting through shots for the editor for them. So you're doing all that legwork for them because this is the, this is the interesting part is that, that when you're producing a TV show, you're, Right.

It would take us, uh, for a one hour television show. It's a two week turnaround for one episode. Right. And a lot of people don't get that. It's, it's literally like a production assembly line. Right. And because that creates the most efficiency, right? So, you know, you're, you're taking the footage from the production team and it's being brought in and it's handed off to like a PA or like a transcriber and they're transcribing everything.

And everything's in a certain phase of production, you know, And part of your job as that assistant is to make sure that that production is flowing and, and that the editor isn't doing that work. You're paying an editor 250, 000 a year. The last thing you want them to do is to be sifting through shots or wasting their time.

No, like you pay, this is kind of, this may sound kind of harsh, but like you want to pay the assistant who's making a fraction of that, right. And to do that legwork, cause you want the creators creating that's, you know, they need to be creating for 10 hours. That's what their purpose is. And so, my time as an assistant editor has really laid that strong foundation for when it's time to go into finishing, you know, and working with guys like you, like your team.

You know, is making sure that you're prepping things correctly, because trust me in Hollywood. If you don't prep it correctly, I would hear about it. Right? So you kind of learn the hard way of, of when you don't do something correctly. And there's a, there's a way to do those sorts of things like prepping your timeline for Colorists, prepping your timeline for VFX, things of that nature.

And, um. You know, so that's why I'm like, yeah, like that's, I take pride in that. Like I'm a little OCD about it actually. But you should, you should take pride in that, yeah, that's great. I, you know, I used to, I don't know if you know, I used to teach Avid. I used to teach, I taught film at two different colleges for 20 years.

And, uh, I used to teach Avid and I wouldn't let my students do any creative editing until they had really mastered the organization. How to organize their bins, how to create thumbnails, how to name stuff, where stuff was stored because Avid has its own unique architecture. You know, you can be, you can be sort of lazy when you're cutting and final cut or premiere, you can just go to go to finder and drag an MOV in and you're in wherever it is,

that's where premier is going to access it from. But Avid's like, Nope. I have to transcode it. I have to put it in my database. I have to put it here. And then the assistant editor has to know how to find stuff, how to manage the database, how to repair the database when it's broken, you know, all of that sort of stuff.

And they, I would drive my students crazy. They were like, we just want to cut. And I'm like, you need to know this stuff before you can cut. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And the ones who stuck with it, you know, they, they, They got it. You know, when you, the people who get Avid really get Avid and, and they go, I don't want to cut on anything else, but by the same token, like you can, you can learn premiere or final cut in a weekend because Avid's the foundation.

Avid is the root from which all non linear editing. You know, has grown. Totally. And it's like, I just, it's been a while since I worked in Avid, but, cause it's not, you know, in the Phoenix market, it's not in a high demand application. Right. But like, I just, I remember Avid, it was the best way I can describe Avid Media Composer.

As a program is fickle. Yes, it's a very fickle program. And, uh, yeah, to your point, it's like you had to do it a certain way or else Avid wouldn't like it. Right. And we're able to crash on you or, you know, I remember always having, as an assistant, I was always troubleshooting like these random ass errors on Avid.

And I just remember a quick, uh, I have a quick story about that because when I, on that gig that I was working at that post house where they were all final cut, well, one of the owners and like main editors there, they had a leased Avid rig in one of the edit bays because the editor was editing. I think it was Transformers 2.

I think it was that time. Right. And it was literally my first day, my first day on the gig. And, he had an Avid error that none of the bullpen of the assistants knew because they only knew final cut. And I was like, Hey, that's something I actually know because I was faking it. I was faking it the entire time that I knew what the hell was going on.

And I'm like looking over the shoulders of all these other assistants on like how they were using their hot keys to export. Right. Things and stuff like that in final cut. Right. So like immediate, when I overheard someone say, you know, Hey, is there someone available that, that can troubleshoot this, everything I immediately popped up cause I knew I can, I need to prove myself a little bit.

And so I hopped in there and, it was a database error. You know, so you just had to trash your database and then restart it and stuff like that was a simple fix, right? But it was like, it made me look like a golden boy because, and then what, what was great about that? I got to sit with him for a while while he was cutting some scenes from Transformers 2.

And it's like just taking those opportunities, right? Like taking those opportunities to develop and talk to another creative about their perspective from that particular craft standpoint and that trade. I was like, I just, it was one of the funniest things ever. And I'll always remember that.

And I remember a lot of the times, just those late night conversations with some of those editors and sitting with them and, and those sorts of things, because those are the sorts of things that one, you don't really learn in film school. And, it's the. The stuff that doesn't come out of a textbook, right?

It's where you sit and you talk to them and you really learn about scene perspective, who's You know, whose perspective is the scene, the characters through, you know, the, the scene through the characters viewpoint, I learned from, and I'll, I'll never forget this guy. His name is, his name is Danny Sapphire and I don't know if he's still in LA or not, but it was kind of known as like the film doctor, how I, how I remember it, uh, he fixed a lot of like shelved films and, He would freelance with at studio city quite a bit.

So Danny was 1 of those guys that, anytime that I knew that he was coming in, I dropped everything I was doing and I was always there to help him. If you need. Hey, Danny, you need something. Like, what do you need? Like, you need a shot. I'll go find it for, you know, immediately. And, eventually we had a pretty good rapport is a funny guy.

Uh, he would invite me to his house after I got off work because he had an Avid rig there and he was, uh, cutting some film stuff over there. And so I would go after hours after like a 14 hour day, I'd go to his house for a few hours and sit with him and he would talk to me about what he was working on on one of the scenes and the perspective

and he, it's when you really learn. That like really good editors have the ability to, to one, look at every single frame of footage and creatively problem solve as they're cutting something And he's the one that was, I don't know, like next level thinking. And from an editorial standpoint, like creatively, there was, I just remember there was one scene where the actress.

She had to like, look in a direction and he was, we were scrubbing through the takes and, and he was like, I hate all of the takes. It's like, I don't like any of the takes. Right. He's like, but. It's like, I found something and he was like, after the director says cut, the camera was still rolling. Someone off camera shouted the actress's name.

And then she looked and he's like, that's it right there. It's like, that's the, so it wasn't even part of the take. Right. And he's like, this is why, and he taught me that he taught me like, this is why you review every frame of every file of every take, because you never know when you're going to get something better than what was the actual take.

Right. And so that's what made it into the cut was not the cut of her looking the takes of her looking. It was the outtake because the camera was still rolling in hand enough frames to work with. Right. And he got a nice organic, natural looking reaction from the actress. Right. And so I'll never forget that, you know, and it's something that I share with the students that I teach, in some of the classes I teach, you know, to this very day, cause I'll never forget that.

Yeah, that's great. I wish, uh, when actors receive awards for their acting in movies and TV, I wish they would thank their editors more because their, their performance is just raw material until an editor shapes it. Yeah. Right. Oh, yeah. And it doesn't matter how brilliant an actor is in the hands of a mediocre editor.

The performance may not all come together, the story, the arc, you know, it may not all come together, but in the hands of a master editor, uh, even a, you know, an actor who isn't the, you know, Sir Lawrence Olivier or whatever. Right, right, right. They can, they, they can really shine when they're, when they're, their performance is shaped correctly.

That's what I love about it. That's what I love about that the craft of it, because I mean, you're, you are kind of like a director, you're, you know, cause you work very closely with the director, you know, on, on these projects, you know, and it doesn't matter. It could be a feature length film, a short film or, or commercial.

It doesn't matter. Like you're working pretty tightly with director. It's a strong collaboration with them. You know, but it's such a mixture of, yeah. All disciplines within this craft in this industry. It really is. And, to be able to do that effectively is such a great feeling. It really is. So you've been, you've obviously been around for a while,

you've your career has taken, as you said, a very unusual path. And you've, you've landed in this spot where brand storytelling is, is, is your jam and it's what you're, you're good at and what you're known for, uh, here and elsewhere. So let's, let's turn the conversation to that as we, you know, we move into our collaboration together.

So in your, in your opinion, as a brand storyteller, you know, what are the benefits that you see when, when VFX team onto a project? Like why, why in marketing and advertising and brand storytelling, why would you want? VFX. To be one of your tools in your tool set. Why would an agency like Ideas Collide bring a team like mine at Foxtrot X-Ray onto a project?

One, it's your ability to elevate the story to be told. I really can, like you can, and it comes on different levels too. Right. And we've talked about this before, you know, just in our own personal conversations of how, how you, we could utilize and lean on you to, you know, and I, this is such a dirty word in the business, but like to fix, you know, fix certain things that maybe, you know, You know, that may have been out of our control, right?

In production, right? You know, so you do your best you can to capture everything as cleanly as possible, but sometimes shit happens, right? And sometimes you need some help, right? And you, the best way to do that is to lean on partners, such as yourself to, to clean that up or help us fix that. To make it still look authentic and natural as if we did shoot it through the lens.

Right. And so that's one thing. And you guys helped us with, with some of that on, on Future 48, but if I recall correctly, we actually did very little of that. And, and, and here's why, because you and I were preemptively having those conversations on set, which is great. We were, we were talking and I was, Over your shoulder, looking through the lens with you and going, my guess is client is going to ask us to paint that out.

Can we just get some grips to move that? Yes. And so that's one reason that was, I mean, like that was such a huge help because, you know, a lot of my experience with. Collaborating and working with VFX teams, was specifically related to the post production aspect. Right? So I've sat in those bays, you know, with, with the artists working in flame to, to do the finishing aspects of a commercial and sorts of things like that.

Right? Which is a great experience, right? So to see it from that perspective, but then to now then dive into that same. Concept, but having to be on set right now, we're shooting it and we're shooting it for use in VFX, right? And to have you there and have that perspective. Was super helpful because as you can imagine, or probably already know as a director, like you are just bombarded with

all these things the entire time, right? Scottie, this Scottie, that Scottie, this. Hey, Scottie, do you think we should do this? Scottie? You know, so you're making, you're having to make decisions. Like, Every single moment on top of talking to your actors, making sure that they understand what their motivation is and what they're trying, what they're, what you're trying to get from them, right?

Talking with your DP, right? Making sure that you're on the same page with what he sees, with what I was hoping, what I was originally envisioning, things like that, making sure the lighting's right, making, you know, there's so many things, right? And just like to have you there as an one, as an extra set of eyes, You having you thinking through, and seeing things through the lens of a VFX artist, as an extension of, uh, as a extension of a creative director on top of that.

Right? Like, I mean, it was super helpful because there were, I remember specifically, Paul, that there was 1 moment inside that Lucid facility. Where I was the, the shot that was planned when we saw it through the monitor, I was like, it's like, this is not fucking working and I was like, like, full honesty.

Like, I was like, I don't know what the fuck to do on this. Like, I can't think of another frame or another angle to approach the shot to get what we want. And I remember distinctly, like you came in. And I think you could sense, you can sense my anxiety about the situation. And you just, and you stepped in and you said, you tap, I remember you tapped me on the shoulder and you said, Hey, can I suggest something?

And I was like, please do, but like, that's what, that's what a team is. Right? Like, that's the thing is like, and it's so funny we're talking about it. Cause I was just talking to my class on Tuesday and I was reading through some of their, their, I had them doing like an assessment, a skills assessment, so I can kind of get a gauge of what they've done, what they haven't done.

That's really. And I remember 1 students wrote was like, I want to be a director so I can tell people what to do. And I'm just thinking that's not what directing is. Right? No. Right. And so, in my opinion, like, to be a good director, it is about that collaboration, but it's also, it's not nothing about telling people what to do.

Right, because even good directors get hung up and they may not know what to do that moment. That's why you have a team around you and to have someone like yourself there that was just as committed to the story and just as invested into the story that that the whole Ideas Collide team was to be in there and and to sense that that.

I was kind of at a roadblock that I, I couldn't figure my way around for you to step in and be like, Hey, I have an idea or having a suggestion and, and, and got us through that part. And I'll never forget that. And that's like that in itself is why I would like, if you have an opportunity to work with, with your team.

You gotta take it because it's, it's going to elevate what you're doing in execution, like tenfold, you know? Well, thanks. That's awesome to hear. Yeah. Do you, I don't know if you remember that though. No, I, I, I don't know if I remember specifically the shot, but I, but I do know that that Came about because we had, we had been working together on the project for like six months, I think at that point.

Yeah. Right. And we had been on set together for several days back to back. So yeah, but I was able to read your body language and tell like, okay, you know, he's in the weeds a little bit. And he needs, he needs a push. Uh, and, and I had also earned your trust by making small suggestions and, and looking for those opportunities, like, Hey, this is going to cost us money in post, but if we move the camera and avoid that, or we just get our grips to like, move that cabinet out of the frame, knowing that this is the frame you want, like we can remove that.

And then we're not spending money. We're not spending your budget. Your VFX budget on stuff that doesn't matter. We're spending it on the stuff that really does. I had earned your trust so that I could step in. Is it, that isn't the kind of thing that's going to happen. Like we, we meet and then immediately, it doesn't work later.

That's not how it works, man. It's not how it works. Right. It's a, it's a matter of, uh, of building that, that trusting environment. And, and you know, that's to your credit and the credit of everybody at Ideas Collide that I interact, interacted with, like you guys were all super open, uh, to whatever we suggested.

And so, yeah, let's, you know, let's kind of jump back in time and talk about, you know, what exactly is this Future 48 thing that we've alluded to a couple of times? What is it, how did the project get started? How did, how did it land at Ideas Collide? And then, and then how did you come to recruit us?

Yeah, I mean, it, it was, An interesting situation, I know the, the agency has done some work for the Arizona Commerce Authority in the past. And so I believe that's, I don't know the full details of, like, how that relationship started, but what, how I got involved with the project was, I was asked, we had done a substantial amount of focus group, data and surveying and, That sort of thing on to, to define and clarify who the target audience was.

And who they're trying to hit and what they're trying to do with that. And so this was kind of a comprehensive campaign that was to also include a landing page to help drive awareness. It was like a more of a general brand awareness thing around. Arizona's efforts to promote and advance, advanced manufacturing, in the state.

Right? So make it enticing, but like, um. Not so much as like bringing the companies in the focus of this was to educate, and build general awareness around, like for recruiting talent purposes, right? And so there was a lot of misconceptions of what manufacturing is, right? Everybody thinks you think, oh, manufacturing job.

That's not a very fun job. Everybody wants these, you know, easy peasy you know. Cushy marketing jobs or whatever it may be. Right. And like, when you hear the term manufacturing, you're thinking monotonous, boring, uh, maybe overly physical, like labor, dark, you know, grimy, gross, that sort of thing. And part of this whole campaign was to be like, this is not that this is the future of manufacturing.

We're looking, you know, the chip making companies. Right. Uh, the, the Lucid motors of the world, like these are not like your traditional manufacturing jobs. These are highly skilled, highly technical, and technology driven, careers. And they were having a perception issue with the younger demographic, the 18 or even 16 to 24 year olds.

Right. And, and letting them know, Hey, you don't have to go. The traditional route to find a really good career and build a good life for yourself, you know, we can train you on the job. We will pay you well, starting out and training things like that and opening up the opportunities. And guess what? You don't have to leave your family.

You know, if you grew up here, you don't leave your family. You can stay home and find a great job, make a great living and build a great life for yourself. Right. And so that's kind of where that a lot of that stemmed from. I was brought in, and I had not been with the agency that long, but I was brought in because of my, my storytelling, ability and my experience.

Right. And so, they Matt, our, uh, our CEO, the agency, I said, Hey, it's like, I would love to get your, get your help, get you in on this project. And we can, you know, lean on some of your storytelling. Okay. And so I, you know, I grabbed that, I took that PDF of the focus group findings and I just read it, you know, I needed to get in touch with, with what we're trying to hit, what we're trying to target and who we're trying to talk to

specifically. And as I'm reading through it, I'm like, shit, I was like, holy cow, like this was me when I was 18, like just reading, like who the responses and stuff like that. I was like, cause I was that I was like, I didn't know what the fuck I wanted to do. You know, I knew that I was an athlete and that was, that's what I was leaning on the entire time.

Like, I felt my early twenties, I was like lost that sort of thing. And like, I'm reading it and like, like, that's what a lot of these responses are describing. And so I just begin kind of writing and I started with a character that was in that demographic. They're trying to target. And I just built that out.

I just wrote brain dumped this and started coming up with this character. Right. And, and then I, I remember I had a, a meeting with, Ryan Katz who works with us over at the agency. And, it was just kind of talking through it and we kind of just, he and I begin to build out like this rough framework of what this could be.

Right. And I just like took that and I ran with it and it was initially, it wasn't like, there was zero intention of like hiring, you A VFX team, you know, that all came about with what I wrote, and I was like, okay, like, this might be a little ambitious, but I just started going with it. Right.

I just like, you know what? But like, this was like a narrative storytelling type of thing, something that the, the commerce authority hadn't really ever done before with the campaign, uh, you know, and the, you couldn't deny that the story like hit exactly the things that they were trying to do, uh, through that focus group data.

And so. Okay. That's kind of how we're going. And then we're just reading through it. And I was like, okay, and I just told him, I was like, I get it. Like, this is ambitious, right? We're teleporting this person through alternate realities that are future based and stuff like that. And, so that's kind of where it started.

And. And then I don't know exactly if, if our, our, our leadership team at the agency, were, were expecting that. Uh, but as it turned out, you know, uh, Katz to his credit, he kind of just did some diving on like finding, and I think that's when he, he came across, uh, your company, and initiated that conversation.

Yeah, I believe he found us. Cause we're, uh, we're, we're both, both, uh, both companies are members of the, uh, APA, Arizona Production Association. Yeah. So, so Ryan, yeah. Contacted me after seeing me through the APA website. So plug for Arizona Production Association. Oh yeah. Great group of folks. Totally. Yeah. Agreed. Uh, yeah. And so that's kind of how it, how to sort of go.

And, you know, everybody was like, this was, you know, was on board from the agency. Like they were, you know, Matt, the entire team, they were. This is into their credit, right? Because they could have easily said, Hey, this is, this is a little, probably a little too ambitious for our budget. Right. And, and they didn't, and it played to one of the values of the agency is as this blue sky thinking, and that's the approach I took.

Right. I was like, I'm shooting for the moon. Right. We can figure out a way to scale this back if we need to, but like, I'm always going to shoot for the moon. And then, because it's a lot easier for me to scale that back than it is for to, to elevate something after I've already written it. Right. It's, it's kind of harder for me.

It's harder that way. So, so to their credit, you know, they were all in on it. They, they, they loved the story. And, and so then they were like, let's roll with it. It's like, okay, can you present it to Holly at the Arizona Commerce Authority tomorrow? Oh, okay. You know? Uh, yeah, yeah. So this is where I, I didn't have time to storyboard it.

So I had to use, I used mid journey to just basically put out some, some concept storyboard frames for me. Uh, you know, just enough so I can pitch it to Holly. And and we did that and they, they loved it. She was, she was all in from the, from, from that point, you know, and I'm sure because she was with us on set.

So, like, she was and what I, what I loved about Holly working with Holly was she said this several times throughout the production time. Was like, Hey, you guys, you guys know what you're doing. It's like, I'm just here to make sure that we're all good, you know, and she let us cook, you know, and you can't ask for a better client partnership than that.

You really can't. Absolutely. Absolutely. There's, there's so many ways that this could have gone, you know, uh, Been been bogged down with too many cooks, too many people, you know, too many stakeholders having, having, uh, input and, uh, people working at cross purposes, but no, it was once everybody bought in.

And again, I think it comes back to the story. It really does. It's what, what made me and my team buy in. It sounds like it's what made, uh, Ryan and, and everybody had Ideas Collide buy in. It's what made Holly buy in. We were all on board like this. Is a very unique, entertaining way to convey this information that it wasn't, it wasn't dry.

It wasn't boring. It wasn't, you wouldn't look at it and go, oh, this was born from a focus group. Oh, right. Right. Right. And that's like, that's definitely not what you want. Right. Is, And again, I, that to me is kind of what I, what I talked about earlier is like, what can we do as an agency to separate our style of work and what we can do from the dozens and dozens of dozens of producers or production companies out there that are producing in the same market segment that we, that we create work for.

Right. Because they all kind of look the same after a while. Right. And, it's like, okay, but. We want to be able to create something that when someone looks at it, they're like, oh, that's ideas, collide work, you know? And that's, that's what every, every creative person is trying to strive for and mastering their craft.

Right. Is like, is to be able to put your thumbprint of your style and figuring out it's harder, it's hard to do. Right. That's something that, I'm sure like all teachers are trying to teach their, their people in film school is like, You, you really become unique when you have, when someone looks at your work and they know it's your work.

Yeah. Right. And that's what we wanted to do was like, let's create something here. That's not the same as everything else that's out there because there's a lot of it now. Cause everybody thinks they're a filmmaker now. Right. And so, What can we do to, to make it unique and stand out a little bit more?

Yeah, uh, the other benefit, that I saw in terms of the way you guys worked was you came to us and your script wasn't finished. It was, it was close, but it had a lot of sort of TBD effects to TBD, you know, uh, environment TBD and it, and you guys came to us and said, what can we do? Here are the, here are the, the different, uh, areas that we want to talk about.

We want to talk about, you know, electric vehicles and, uh, aerospace and biotech. And for a while we were talking about solar and a couple of other things. And, and so you allowed us. Uh, the privilege of, of really partnering and being able to say, okay, here's, here's how I think we can maximize production value with the budget you have, if we write it this way, or we focus on these areas.

And, and some of that was once you guys started locking in your partners for your locations, like Lucid, like, Amber Riddle up in Prescott. You were sending us photos and, and kind of explaining, here's what they're giving us access to. Now, what can we do to embellish that? What can we add to this to make it the future?

Uh, so it was, it was just a really good give and take. And it was, uh, it was definitely a contrast to a lot of projects. We get, we don't, we're not brought in until post. Like a lot of times you're not interacting with VFX people until post. And that's, uh, that's often a mistake, you know, because, uh, having, having your VFX team part of it early on at the very least you're, you're, you're gaining the benefit of, of their, their planning input with you guys being open and saying, you know, we, we don't want you guys to just push pixels around, we want you to creatively buy in and, and, and guide us through this process and help us add value.

With your strengths, like that, yeah, dream project I've said, right. Well, it's like, if, if it's, if you were truly dedicated to telling the best story possible, why wouldn't you? Go that extra step. Yeah, and I don't even I don't and maybe the extra step is the wrong use of word because I don't see it as an extra step.

I, I consider it part of the process. Right? Then that's that sort of thing is if you, if you really want to be committed to that part of the prompt, you know, to the, to the story, that's kind of like, it's, it's hard because, um. I've, I've always been pro artist. Right. And as I've gotten older, I've gotten a little bit better about like, you know, bound that balancing act of the business aspects to the artist, the art, the artistry or whatever you want to call it.

Right. So I'm always going to fight for what's best for the story, right? And, and so this collaboration was what was best for the story. And so if that means bringing you on to be our onset, you know, supervisor for the VFX and having that input, like, I don't think the project and the final output would have been as good.

If you had not been there, you would have done your, you would have done your, your best with what you had and you still would have elevated the project overall and how we were telling that story and what we wanted to visually communicate in that story. But like, uh, your presence there, your ideas, your input, your collaboration.

On location, it brought it up 10 more notches, if not more, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's because like, you don't, you can't do that. If all we're doing is sending you footage, you know, remotely, and you're doing your thing on that end. Like there's, you're missing a pretty big valley of, of.

Opportunity within that, you know, and so I just, I see as like committing, if you're truly committing to telling the best story possible for your client, and getting the best possible outcome from it, you know, like it's. It's just part of the process, right? Uh, how long was the whole process on, uh, on Future 48?

Cause I, I, like I said, I know you guys were working on it a bit before we, we came on, dude, I mean, yeah, I mean like, dude, we were, we spent, I, I want to say a solid five months just to set up like location scouts, right? Right. So you got to remember, like, we're, we're working with some very large scale organizations.

Right. And I'm telling you this right now, like, if it wasn't because the project was for the Arizona commerce authority and Holly's relationships with these large tech driven businesses, we never, never would have been able to get access to these places. Right. So like, to the credit of the ACA, like they got us the access to things that if I were to me as a producer, Scottie Yang, the director and producer, we're going to try to call these people up.

Right. And say, Hey, we want to film a, a commercial, uh, in your facility. They would have been to go fuck yourself. Right? Like, there's like, no, no, no way. Right. And, we want to shoot a commercial, not for you, not about your brand, not about your brand, but yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's like, and it's like, I don't have the, I don't have like, I don't, I always, I kind of wonder sometimes like, okay, if I was like a known, you know, Golden glow winner.

It's like, would that have helped? And some of them, I don't think it would have helped. Right. Like, no, they would have said, hell no, no. Right. And rightfully so like, I get it because like you have industry proprietary stuff that's happening and like, yeah, I, I protect that too. And that's what, that was their intention.

It's not that they wouldn't be inviting to do that, but it's like, they've got to protect their business and the technology they're using. And a lot of it in some of these cases were proprietary. Yeah. And so totally get that. But it was. I want to say we started in, I want to say March or April of 23 is when, like, the initial conversations were happening.

I was, I was writing things of that nature and it took us all the way up until like, I think, mid to late July to even go look. Because all these conversations with the solar farm, even though we didn't film, you know, that got cut right. Embry riddle, uh, Lucid. What is that? The, the, the PBC labs and stuff like that.

So it took that long just to go look at locations and then even then. I think it was a week before we were about to shoot. We had to change locations on one of them. Right. And so that was, we had everything booked. I remember that right. Lucid understandably decided not to let us, you know, run around with cameras in their actual production facility.

How cool was that visit though? When we actually got to visit, I remember how excited we were. Because it was everything that I was, that was when, as I was writing this out, it was everything, all the visions that were popping in my head when writing it, like, it was everything we had hoped for. I mean, I was like, I remember being so giddy.

About when we first walked on that floor and seeing that expansive line of robots assembling those cars, I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is, this is it. This is the perfect location. But yeah, and I get it a hundred percent, right? It's part of the job, right? You, you're having to problem solve and, and, and adjust on the fly, you know, so, uh, about, I think it was like a week before, you know, We were scheduled to shoot, we had to change it up, uh, rebook, uh, the talent, the crews and stuff like that.

And we did it and it was great. You know what I'm saying? Like it was, and it still worked out. And, and then with your guys help and your guys guidance, you know, we had, their, one of their training facilities and you guys were able to, to make it look like what was originally inside my head. In the best way possible, really.

Yeah, which was, yeah, that was a, that was a fun challenge to, to now have a much smaller space with much less automation, one car, and then to do digital set extensions to really, you know, to blow that out and make it into a full blown production facility. Yeah, which is probably like one of the best shots of the, of the entire thing.

It was one of the money shots really like that when he steps back from, when he steps back from that car. Yeah. You know, and you see that line of, of EVs rolling off the line. Like, I was like, huh, that was such an awesome, but like, you know what, like my favorite pieces of that were, were weren't, as much as I love those shots and how you did that, I, and the very subtle use, but were the holograms.

I love the hologram. And to me those are the ones. It's those little things like that, that really, accentuate and like really make it feel like. Real to me is where those, you know, the person walking by on the wall, you know, the hologram from the watch or, uh, the, the tech inside the hang, the airplane hanger, you know, and he, and he's swiping it there, you know, and, and the work on the PBC labs, that whole DNA strand, Helix, uh, I mean, that whole thing was, that was so cool.

Like that was that, those are probably some of my most favorite shots for those. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. Well, I'm a big, uh, you know, Marvel, Tony Stark fan. So anytime we get to do fun stuff like that, it's, uh, it's always, uh, it's always a blast. It was so fun. Yeah. Thanks. So what's one piece of advice? You've got another, another producer who's in the brand storytelling space and they come to you and they say, uh, Scottie, you did, you did all these VFX.

Like what's, I've never done VFX. What do I need to know? What's one piece of advice you would share with them? That's a great, great question. I would say be. meticulous in your pre production. And that's like, you could probably say that for any project VFX or no VFX. Right. But I personally saw this as a growth opportunity for me to improve myself by in the conversations I had, I would send you some stuff in pre pro like planning stuff, shot descriptions, things of that nature.

And I realized in S there were certain aspects where I felt like there were gaps. You know what I'm saying? And so whether that was, better storyboards to illustrate, each shot or more storyboards of, of the in between of the master frames I provided, right? Even though I didn't feel like there was, I had the time to do that, things of that nature.

Right? Yeah, a lot more detail. Get a little bit more granular with that to provide that over to your team. So you guys can have a stronger picture of what we want to execute. Right? And, um. I, that's what I would say is like, be extremely meticulous with what you want in pre pro, that way, when you get on location, because inevitably it's something's going to happen to where, like, you're going to have to adapt on the fly, but without a strong, like plan and strategy on your production days, you know, you can get over those hurdles a lot quicker.

Right. And so, which I didn't, we didn't really have a whole lot of problems on production day. In our ability to adapt, but I think if I'm nitpicking, like my process, I, I wish I would have had a little bit more, granular detail to provide your team. Leading into production day. Sure. So I would, you know, I would take it probably 50 percent further than what I even provided you.

Yeah, I think that's good advice. So, you know, uh, meticulous planning is always important, especially when VFX is involved, because there are so many moving parts and there are so many ways to screw it up. But at the same time, you know, there's 2 things. I always think about 2 adages that I always say planning is invaluable.

Plans are useless, right? Right? Because plan. And the other adage is no plan survives contact with reality. Amen to that. Right? So we can, we can plan and plan and plan and plan. And then the plan goes to shit. The second you walk on set or your location falls through or whatever. And you have to adapt. And the only way to truly to be adaptable is to plan.

It's, it's counterintuitive for folks that don't do meticulous pre production planning. They think, well, I want to be able to, you know, make decisions on the fly and be creative on the fly. So I don't like to do a lot of planning. I don't like to storyboard. No. Storyboard, shot list, plan, plan, plan. So when you get on set and reality doesn't match what you planned, you can lean back on that and go, okay, here's how I adapt.

Yes. Here's how I change this shot list. Here's how I cherry pick these storyboards that I need to absolutely tell the story and adapt them to this new environment, this new situation. Yeah, no. And 100 percent because it's like, you know, like I said, I was an athlete for 18 years of my life. And I was also a coach after that for a few years.

Right. You know, and we always had, you have a game plan going into your matches and this is for any sport. There's always the coaching staff comes up with that game plan. Right? And there's always adjustments that you make, but you always go in with a sound game plan because again, it is kind of, kind of counterintuitive.

Like you think, well, like then how is having a meticulous sound plan going to help me get over the random shit that happens to us on the fly? Right? But it does, because it prepares you, you're thinking in that mode, right? And you, you, you might have something in that plan. That you're able to inject or move around to overcome that roadblock that you're, that you're experiencing on set, right?

That's why you have those things you need to have, you know, that toolkit ready to go. Yeah, and that's just one, one way that I, I felt like I, I should have, what it helped me was to build more discipline within my pre pro process. Sure. And that's what, that's what really what, like the, the learning takeaway from me is, is.

Is to develop more of that discipline, when you're going through your pre pro right and adhering to that and being stubborn about it, even if you have to. Because sometimes the pre pro stuff is not the sexiest, you know, the most fun thing to do, but it's just, it's the nature of the job. It's what you got to do to, to build a successful team and have a successful production, you know, so.

Absolutely. I mean, Scottie, if you had planned better, maybe we would have won more awards. We, maybe, why don't you talk a little bit about the, uh, the awards that the, and the, the accolades that the project has picked up the campaign. Oh, yeah. I'm trying to remember, what they were, to be honest, it's like, it's fun.

And it's great to be recognized for your work. And, I think it was the, the most recent one. I can't remember that. The, uh, Zima What I love about winning an award for that on the, on the project was that is judged by other creatives. And that to me is what, means the most is, to be judged by a body of our peers, you know, and that's great.

And that's really, that lets me know as a creative professional that I've done, I've done good work. The team has done good work. And like we were on the right track, right? As I kind of mentioned about this particular angle that I want, I'm trying to approach this brand storytelling from right? In a more cinematic way, it lets me know that what we're doing is on the right path.

And that we can, we, we need to just keep building and lean into this style of work that we want to do. And it's hard, it's hard to, when you're talking to some, you know, uh, large tech companies and they've. Done these overly corporate style looking types of things for years and years and years and it's hard when you want to pitch them something kind of out of their comfort zone.

Because they, they, unless they see it, you know, it's sometimes hard to get the buy in. And so that's something that, that I'm, I'm constantly pushing for, uh, with some of our clients and, and trying to make that happen. And, this is kind of like one thing that I told, my boss, James, who's been an amazing colleague and coworker and, collaborator, is like, you know, it doesn't matter to me.

It doesn't matter what my budget is. I'm going to, I'm not cutting corners on my creative process. Based off of the budget, like I'm doing what I'm going to do, no matter what. Right, right. Because you, you, you don't change your process based on the budget, right? You still pour your heart and soul into whatever you're doing.

And, you know, I, I tell everyone, I don't have a middle gear. And I taught, I think, uh, we talked about this. I don't, I don't have a middle gear. It's it's low or high and that's it. Right. And so like my, my approach to everything is like, I'm, I'm not changing the, the process of how I create something because the budget says.

So like, I, this is not how it works. You know, artists don't do that. Right. And so if it takes me. 15 extra hours to do something. I'm going to spend 15 hours to create the best story possible. In post, right? Like that's, this is how it works. I don't say, Oh, we hit our hours. Max, I'm done. Let me export it now.

That sort of thing. And send ship it off. No, that's, that doesn't one, like that doesn't serve your, your, your customers in the best, in their best interest, it doesn't serve your agency in the best interest. It doesn't serve you as an independent artist in the best interest in continually developing your craft.

Right. And so. You know, that's kind of my just my general approach on on everything right on. I do know we got a we got a telly up here That's for that project. Oh nice. We do have a tell that's right. We got the telly. We got a American Marketing Association Award and the Zima which is what Arizona Indirect of Media I believe so.

I don't remember. Interactive marketing advertising. Marketing. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. And, uh, and hopefully maybe a couple more coming and I know, uh, I know it's been performing really well on YouTube and, and there's a great case study on the Ideas Collide website that talks about, Everything, the whole process, uh, including our part of it.

Uh, and I'll link that in the show notes for this episode. And then on our site, there's a whole breakdown of, of the work that we did and some, uh, some really cool before and after frames and all of that sort of stuff. So I'll link all that stuff in the, uh, in the show notes, uh, for folks who want to, who want to check out the work that we've, we've been talking about.

So what's next for, uh, what's next for you, Scottie? What, what, what upcoming projects, what are you excited about right now? Uh, see here right now. We have a few projects that are like early in the pipeline. We're still trying to flesh out, what exactly that's going to be and like how much, how much demand it's going to, it's going to pull on our, our production team.

I can't really say much yet cause I don't want to say anything that's not fully in concrete yet. But, there's some really cool opportunities coming up. It's always tough in these, the, these early Q1 months of a new year, it kind of, it slows down a little bit. And so you just, you're working on building your pipeline up and pitching ideas, to, To clients that you have relationships with and things of that nature.

We just actually there's a really cool opportunity. I think that's with, 1 of our client partners, uh, their mobility. And we, they had a, uh, a really, like, hot rush need for, uh, just a simple montage video on, um. That they were going to put on the booth at CES, they're rolling out this whole connected car.

Division, and that's kind of where the, the trend is going towards or these, like, connected vehicles where you're not just like, using it to pay your tolls as you're passing through tolls and stuff like that. But, like, it's getting even more robust where it's almost kind of like, doing a lot of the same things that your smartphone is doing.

Right? So it's kind of a future looking of war that that technology is advanced advancing within vehicles. And, So I see a really cool opportunity to, to do some storytelling with their, and so I have a, I've got a couple things that I've been working on in the background of, of like story based, like end user experience, ideas that I, that I wouldn't mind pitching, towards, uh, to them.

You know, and there's just a couple other one. There's another one that that's a, I won't say the name, but it's a, a group of like amusement park, that are, they have, I think, several locations in the U. S, uh, that were that we're, we've been talking to about. Potentially doing some work with, so I'm really excited about the opportunity of that because we do some really cool stuff with that.

So that's, that's just kind of what I'm looking at right now. And then just really, working on, we're doing a lot of like, wanting to do like more live stream type work. As well, like getting live doing like webinars around a various, host of topics and, and having conversations around those, kind of expanding on that and like making use of like interacting live with people on, on channels, like LinkedIn.

From a business like B2B type of perspective and like sharing some more knowledge. And then I've kind of challenged myself, me personally, myself this year to write my first feature length script, which I've never done before, but I have, you know, I have like a running list of just like story premises that pop in my head.

And so I've decided this year, as long as it takes me, whatever it takes, uh, to, to start writing my, my first feature length, uh, Narrative scripts. So fantastic. Yeah, it scares me. The writing process scares the hell out of me, but I was like, it's good. I want to do it. I want to do it. Yeah, that's good. If, if, if you're, what's the saying?

If your dreams don't scare you, then they're not big enough. Right? Exactly. So I think it'll be cool. I have another saying, right? Uh, uh, a good, a friend will help you move. A good friend will help you move a body. A great friend will help you make a movie. I'll remember that one. So, uh, well, you know, you know how to get a hold of me.

If you, uh, you, you need any advice on your, your filmmaking journey, been there, done that, you know, have worked at a bunch of different budget levels and, uh, and always, always, always happy for an opportunity to, to, to chat with you or collaborate with you or, or whatever. Talk about your podcast a little bit.

We, I was recently over at the Ideas Collide office to record a podcast episode. Yeah, yeah. So, I am working with my, my friend and colleague, Alex, Alex, Alexis. Uh, she's an editor and I talked to her a few months ago about like, you know, and this has been something I've actually had a desire to do for a number of years now, just, just never really put any, any time or effort into it.

I, I've always wanted to do a podcast focused on artists. Themselves like the artists. So I'm talking like painters, sculptors, pottery makers, filmmakers, fashion designers. It doesn't matter like artists, even like comedian, it's an art in itself. Like I would really love to talk to and have a conversation with some comedians as well.

Cause I really do, feel like their, their craft is an art form as well and itself as well. And so it's called the artistry forum. We're. We're actually still in the, the early phases of production on it. We're trying to get a bunch of episodes in the can first before we launched the podcast, but it's going to be called the artist reform.

Just really focused on the stories of artists themselves talking about their craft, their process, where they started, their influences, how their work may or may not influence, our society, our culture. You know, so we've had you, we've had, uh, so far we've, we've talked with the colorist of the Future 48 campaign and he's a colorist for film and TV, uh, PJ, it's a good friend of mine as well.

And we've also talked to, a good friend of mine from graduate school, uh, Christopher, who's an artist, uh, painter himself. He does mostly like really large. Like large format picture, uh, paintings and in an abstract, form. And so, and super cool guy, uh, really stoked about that. I plan on talking to some, my fashion design mentors, about their creative process and their story and their path of what they're doing in fashion design and how they're changing the game, in fashion.

So just super fascinated with, Artists, various artists just create a process and I see it as like an opportunity to learn about someone's process that I could potentially incorporate into my own right and getting that perspective and just hearing about them and their backgrounds and, and their stories and what motivates them, what's inspiring to them and things of that nature.

And so, that's largely what the motivation is of why I wanted to put that together because I, I don't know, it's like. There are so many amazing artistic people out there in the world that aren't like household names, right? And like, we only hear about the ones we, we read and see on TV, but there's just, there's so many more amazing artists that we never know anything about.

We don't hear about them. We don't know they exist or anything. And so I wanted to create an opportunity to just talk to those people. You know, working artists. You know, just like in Hollywood, they're, they're a kajillion working actors that are making a great living for themselves, but like, they're not household names.

We only hear about the A listers, right? Right. And the big times, but not realizing that there are You know, probably 10 to 20 times more people that are making a living and building a life for themselves, doing, doing this crap, that craft. Right. And so I feel the same way with, with, artists in general.

And I just want to hear about them. I want to hear the story, hear the path, cause everybody has a unique story. So let's hear about it and learn from it. That's great. Well, when, uh, when your episodes start to drop, you know, you'll have to let me know. So I can share it with my audience. Yeah, for sure. And, uh, and point them towards the other half of our conversation.

Yeah, totally. Absolutely. Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Scottie. I really, uh, really appreciate you being part of the episode and, uh, and always just always a pleasure to talk to you. You're just a super upbeat, positive dude. So I love, I love your energy. Oh man. I appreciate Paul. You rock dude. You're a badass man.

And what you do, uh, always any time. You wouldn't need anything from me, man. I will, I will, I'll do it for you, man. Thanks so much. That brings this episode of VFX for Indies to a close. And in addition to thanking Scottie Yang for being our guest, I want to thank all of our viewers and listeners for tuning in to our discussion.

If you enjoyed this episode, please like, follow, subscribe, leave a comment or a review. Whatever you think will help, every little bit helps us get the word out about our show. For Foxtrot X-Ray and VFX for Indies, I'm Paul DeNigris. Thanks so much for being part of our VFX community.