July 22, 2025 • 35 mins
Join us as we meet the creators of Rafy, an innovative app transforming how actors prepare auditions. In this eye-opening conversation, we explore how this technology is giving actors more control over their audition process while addressing long-standing industry challenges.
Jamila Hache and Dani Rojas share how they developed Rafy during the pandemic to solve the common struggle of finding readers for self-tapes. The app uses AI to provide customizable reading partners, allowing actors to practice anytime without dependency on others. They discuss their ethical approach to AI implementation, subscription plans with tokens for scenes, and exciting new features including Playhouse for practice scenes and voice-recognition for slates. The conversation highlights how technology can empower actors in an industry that has historically placed them at a disadvantage.
Like, subscribe, and let us know in the comments how technology has changed your acting career!
0:00 Intro and guest introduction
0:55 Welcome to the CFA podcast
1:34 Meeting Jamila and Dani
3:10 How Haeleigh discovered the Rafy app
5:03 Creating Rafy during the pandemic
7:52 Understanding self-tape challenges
10:01 How AI can help actors ethically
12:22 The self-tape process explained
14:54 Industry realities for actors
17:53 Giving actors more control
19:40 How Rafy works for auditions
21:40 Subscription plans and tokens
24:19 Introducing Playhouse feature
27:21 Potential partnership with screenwriters
30:17 New features: Slates with voice recognition
32:10 The story behind the name "Rafy"
34:03 App availability and web version coming
35:00 Closing and contact information
For our listeners, CFA’s teamed up with We Make Movies to get you a discount on production management services, including access to comprehensive production insurance and workers' comp for your next shoot.
Visit wemakemovies.org/insurance and use code CFA23 on your intake form for 10% off your quote.
Calling all actors! Take 25% off your membership at WeAudition with code: CFA25
Website: www.cinematographyforactors.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinematographyforactors
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cinematographyforactors
Cinematography for Actors is a community aimed at bridging the gap between talent & crew through our weekly podcast & community events. Our weekly show supports the filmmaking community through transparent, honest & technically focused interviews with the goal of elevating the art of effective storytelling.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The ginger I always wish I was.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
She is a beautiful, graceful ginger.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Just like, just so wonderful and beautiful.
And every time I see her I'mjust like this is the
Cinematography for Actorspodcast.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
More than a podcast.
Cinematography for Actors is avibrant community devoted to
bridging the gap between talentand crew.
Each week, our show offerstransparent, insightful
conversations with industryleaders.
We unveil the magic behind thescenes, from candid discussions
about unique filmmakingprocesses to in-depth technical
exploration.
Join us in unraveling theintricacies of filmmaking, one
(00:42):
episode at a time.
It's more than just cameras andlenses the intricacies of
filmmaking, one episode at atime.
It's more than just cameras andlenses.
We aim to inspire, educate andempower as we peel back the
curtain on the art of effectivestorytelling.
Now on to the episode.
Hi everybody, welcome back tothe CFA podcast.
It's been a very, very longtime.
(01:03):
We gave a little teaser when wewere like we're back in our new
space and then we had to dosome more construction.
So now we are really back inour new space and I'm so excited
for some guests that I've beentrying to get on the podcast.
For how long has it been, guys?
A year, a year, it's been ayear.
(01:24):
It's two incredible creators ofa very great app for actors
that's going to change ourentire workflow Jamila Aceh and
Danny Rojas.
Hi guys, hi, hello, hi, welcome, welcome, thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah, we made it happen.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I know, and we're like, finally not hand-holding
mics.
We have made it happen.
I know, and we're like, finallynot hand holding mics we have
good lighting, it's quiet and wesaid looks beautiful you.
We just finished it and we justinstalled all new beams so that
no one will collapse into thisspace when we're on a yeah, that
was the extra construction was.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
We want to be able to host people up there, but I was
starting to get terribleanxiety anytime we had to get
together because you could feelthe roof bouncing.
It was like a wavy trampoline,yeah now it's safe, so welcome.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
But I this is funny because, um, you'll have to tell
me how you guys were introducedagain, because I actually
forget, but I know that from themoment, um, you guys gave Haley
a demo of the app that we'll betalking about, she was like yep
, this, I'm switching over tothis, like I'm canceling
everything else, and this is theone I'm using, and you have
been using it ever since.
So, um, haley, how did you getintroduced?
(02:38):
Um, all together?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
yeah, this is, I think that you weren't there.
You were supposed to be there.
It was Gabbo's birthday, who Ionly know, gabbo and Ari,
because of you, and so it wasGabbo's birthday party.
Okay, yeah, I didn't, but youguys weren't there either.
(03:00):
Your friend Daniella was thereand she told me and I love
Daniella told- me.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yes, yes, the ginger.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I always wish I was she's a beautiful, graceful
ginger, yeah just like, oh, justsuper wonderful and beautiful.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
And every time I see her I'm just like iconic to like
you guys.
What are you talking about what?
I see her, I'm like wow, she'sjust amazing.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
She's a knockout, just like right.
Yeah, mind her looks that.
And then we are both actors soand she's funny, she's amazing.
Okay, we love you, danielle.
Yeah, thank you.
Um, we're both actors, so youknow we're talking about like,
how is it going?
Like, how are tapes for you,since it's after the pandemic?
So now, like, self-tapes arejust the standard.
(03:53):
Do you need help?
You know, like kind of when youmeet a new actor friend, you
want to get close with them,kind of the standard thing is
like let me know if you everneed help with tapes.
And she was kind of like oh,I'll never need help with.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Like what do you mean ?
She's like your marketingcontractor?
Speaker 4 (04:08):
yeah, she's been amazing, exactly because I mean
that's also kind of herbackground.
Yeah, but she's been, yeah,she's been sharing, she's
probably one of our.
Yeah, she's a champion.
Ambassador unofficialambassador yes, so, yeah, she
told.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
She told me about rafi and about what you're
creating, and I thought thatsounded so interesting and I
said please will you put us incontact, because I knew I would
eventually want you here on thiscouch, because it just sounds
like something that we can sharewith everybody and it's
something that I use nowregularly okay, let's talk about
(04:45):
it.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So you're obviously a power couple as well, because
you're married and all, and youboth work in the industry, so
you have context for kind of thedifferent departments that
happen.
Um, you're an actor, right, andthen we have composer, yeah,
okay, and so can we talk abouthow this came together and was
created, what Rafi is.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Yeah Well, I mean, since we started dating pretty
much I mean before the pandemicand everything she was already
doing some self-tapes.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
I mean, some auditions were in person, but it
was already more self-tapesthan Even before the pandemic,
self-tapes started making theirway in and it became a norm,
definitely after COVID, so hewas my reader yeah, a lot of
times.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
But before the pandemic she had a whole group
of friends, a lot of actors, andthey would get together.
So sometimes she would text meand be like, hey, I'm going over
to mitchell or joanne's orwhatever, um, and, but
oftentimes she would have to askme to and I mean that was kind
of like the norm when thepandemic hit and we're starting
(05:49):
like the bubbles and all that.
She couldn't get together withany of her friends, um, so I
kind of became like the defaultreader and as we were doing it.
We started talking and I I kepttelling her I'm like there
should be an easier way to dothis with all the technology
that is available.
And we started looking aroundand there were a few tools, but
(06:12):
nothing quite what we hadimagined.
So we started talking about,you know, mostly as clients
thinking that like there has tobe something out there and we
would ask friends and everybodywould say the same like not
really.
I mean, sometimes I use this orI record myself with like a
voice.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
The voice recorded and then trying to like change
your tone of voice, like in thethings, and it starts sounding
like weird, or even like voicememo, and leaving the space like
leaving a big gap which is notlike, then you're not really
acting at that point.
It's just like drop the lineand try to do the thing.
But it's the same every time.
(06:47):
It just it's not.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Yes, and with my background of audio I was
thinking like, can we change thesound of these voices and
things like that, like veryearly on, and then at some point
you can maybe take over here.
But we're both SAC members.
So when we knew that SAC wasgoing to go on strike, jamila
(07:11):
was starting to get a littleanxious, knowing that she
probably was not going to workmuch for the coming year, and
she kept telling me, like maybeI should go get an MBA or maybe.
I remember she even youconsidered it.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Yeah, I did, I did and I did.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
And at some point we were chatting and then you told
me you're like what if we makethe app?
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Yeah, what are you?
Speaker 4 (07:31):
talking about.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
Yeah, because at that point also, ai was a big
conversation during the strikeand I believe that technology
could be as good or as bad as wewant it to be, and we're able
to.
It's manageable, like whoeverdoes it right.
So I was telling him like Ithink AI could be really good if
(07:56):
we train it to work for us andnot replace us.
And that's when I startedthinking, like what's something
I do every day that I don't neednecessarily a human for that?
Right, that is technicallynobody's job.
Um, that this can do.
(08:17):
And I was like, oh, maybe areader, because, yes, there's a
lot of readers, people that workas readers, but a lot of them
are actors or coaches.
But that's something completelydifferent and you get a
different service.
When you go to a coach thatreads with you, you're getting
feedback.
So we're like, okay, what if wejust do one that is very simple
, just reads with you?
No feedback, no, nothing.
(08:38):
So we're not stepping on anyoneelse's toes in the industry.
So we keep it ethical andaligned with what we believe and
how we think this technologyshould be treated.
Yeah, so, so, yeah.
And of course, I started lookinginto the flow, which is how
could this be like, okay, I wantto get the pdf.
(08:59):
Yeah, what do I do now?
Yeah, so you know, very startedwriting everything down, Like,
okay, I would like to upload thePDF, this thing should read it
and just track the dialogue, andthen after that I should be
able to fix dialogue, becausesometimes there's typos.
Maybe I have to delete lines,maybe I have to add more lines.
(09:20):
So that'll be the next step,and then after that, what's
next's next?
Okay, who are the characters?
I choose who I am, and then Ichoose voices for all the other
ones, and we should have agerange, we should have um, gender
quality, we should have the allthese different options, even
accents if possible, andlanguages too, and um, and then
(09:45):
cool after that.
Then we customize it and thenwe make it very human.
So raffi gives you a read thatis kind of, um, it could be flat
, yeah, it could sound flat.
I think it's mostly flat andit's.
It's supposed to be like thatfor you to make it human.
So you can teach raffi how toread the line if you just take
(10:05):
the mic and tell it how I wantthis line to be read in this way
and it will match.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
That is a feature that I used recently, because I
really needed a line deliveredto me in a way so that I could
respond to it.
So, instead of just using theai generation, I recorded it
myself, so it knew theinflections that I was looking
for, which was like huge you canyou can kind of not even do
(10:30):
that if you have a friendreading with you, because then
you're like giving themdirection, directing them and
also the other thing too issometimes scenes would have
several voices.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
I mean, like she'd be playing one character and I
would have to be the grandma andthe kid and the sister.
Yeah, and I would always try toget creative and she would
always be like, don't, yeah I'dbe like stop, you know, don't do
that.
She's like no just read themall the same.
But again, maybe me just beinglike an audio.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I'm like it's two characters like it needs to
sound different.
How are you gonna know?
With hayley, I used to do like,instead of voices, some
terrible accents and voices ifthere were different people I
would put them in differentplaces in the room.
So I would.
I would go like that's not whatshe said you're like blocking
the scene because they'restanding in a place like it was
(11:21):
a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Maybe we should take a second, because I'm realizing
that everyone on this couchunderstands the process of a
self-tape and what it takes,because you have spent hours and
hours with me being my reader.
Uh, thank you.
You're a wonderful reader, um,but for anyone who doesn't
understand or doesn't know theprocess, it's a lot of the time.
(11:43):
You'll get the breakdown, you'llget the audition and have 24
hours max to get it in.
So then as an actor, youstruggle and reach out to a
hundred friends to try to see ifanyone is available in the next
few hours to help you, and thenyou have to prepare your
audition, and a lot of the timethat comes, at least for me,
(12:06):
with a lot of guilt because I'mpulling somebody out of their
day to come help me.
So then to make it up to themyou know we spend an hour, an
hour and a half just doing theaudition and then to make it up
to them, I'm like, want to getdinner.
So every audition is costing meat least 50 because I'm I'm
(12:27):
bringing a friend to dinner tothank them for helping me.
So there's also that part of itwhere the panic and the stress
of like finding someone who cancome and sometimes no one's
available, and then you resortto recording your own lines this
just canceling you last minute,which would help jamila,
because people get busysometimes, like people tell them
(12:48):
yeah oh, I can do it.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
And then, two hours before, she would text me and be
like oh my god, my friendcouldn't make it because
something came up or she had togo to work and then you're
pumping for your grandma voicestudy exactly yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
So like, not just that, like the tech's really
great and the it's super userfriendly, but not only that,
it's also stripping away likethe emotional workload that
comes with that, with a newaudition for actors a lot of the
time, and the it's just likestreamlining that workflow.
And it's just like streamliningthat workflow.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
And another thing that for us was an added plus
was that a lot of times andwe've heard it from casting
director friends and people justin the industry in general it
matters how quickly you send itto.
So even if there's a windowthat says you can send it all
the way until Friday but you canstart sending it on Wednesday,
(13:49):
Most casting directors tell youit's better if you get in
earlier, right, because peoplestart watching the tapes, and
they might even book the rolebefore it arrives to friday or
already have like apreconception in their mind god
this
Speaker 2 (13:57):
industry.
So I know, if you see someonethat comes through and like
they're gonna work, then you'regonna be like great, that's done
.
And then only someone who'sphenomenal will squeak in after
that yeah, so that's anotherthing, God, this industry, it
does, it does, it's brutal, itdoesn't like?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
let me just you know, side tangent for a sec Just a
hot sec.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
You're going to really love what you're doing
here, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, but I okay.
So I just came back fromvacation we were talking about
it before we recorded and I waslike, okay, I'm gonna do all my
like reading.
So I I brought all the booksthat I had had on my shelf for
like five years that I wanted toread and I was like, okay, each
like few days I'm gonna getthrough one and I'm gonna like
go through all of them and thenI can like donate them and get
rid of them.
And the first one I read wasFurious Love, which is um the
(14:42):
love letters and relationshipover time between um elizabeth
taylor and richard burton and itdocuments their careers as
actors in the industry andtheater actors and um, uh, you
know, film actors, both but andall the movies they did together
and it's really interesting.
The book was awesome.
You should read it.
Jessica chastain recommendedthat's what I bought five years
(15:04):
ago.
Oh, did you keep it?
Uh, yeah, I gave it to.
I gave it to stella okay, great, I get it.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
After stella dibs, everyone dibs.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
You can email indy later the reason I bring it up,
though, is because it reallytalked about the way you know.
Obviously it talked about likethe mgm contracts and the way
the industry used to be, but itreally annoys me that our
industry is still based on halfof it is based off of a very old
mentality of like the wayactors are treated right, like
she was both of them, but mostlyher, you know, child actor,
(15:36):
treated very much like a lot ofthe golden age actors, as like
product right, like it has to beon this movie has to do this
work with this director.
Product right, like it has tobe on this movie has to do this
work with this director.
You know there's like there'sso many like drugs and alcohol
and all that stuff just so thatthey can keep going on set, and
a lot of that sure is like massnow, like you don't have a
(15:56):
contract with a studio, but alot of our industry still shits
on an actor in other ways, and alot of that is it costs you
money to do self tapes, it costsyou time away from actually
being able to do your sidehustle, because you have to find
something flexible enough.
You have to have a strongenough network that's going to
be able to read for you normallyright, like without this app.
(16:16):
There's like a lot of pressureon actors still that I don't
think people are.
They might mention it, but Idon't think they're talking
about.
Like they talk about how poorlyelizabeth taylor was treated
right because it was so obvious,or marilyn monroe, but nowadays
it's like actors are stillactually being treated at the
bottom of the barrel untilyou're famous pretty much yeah,
(16:36):
and so it's like really annoyingto hear that you know you could
still be doing the work and notget you know even an
opportunity to be seen if yousubmit it on that prime.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, if you submit within the time frame, you still
are too late.
It just yes absolutely.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
Sometimes it's already casted too, but they
then the cast and directors,want to show numbers.
They're like oh look, wereceived 4 000 submissions.
Yeah, this just sounds great,it's like a number.
But they're not even sometimeswatching those tapes because,
exactly, exactly, reality, youhave three days to watch the
tapes.
Yeah, you're gonna watch 4 000submissions.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Doubt it, doubt it, and so that's why, when you're
talking about ethical ai, Ithink a part of that
conversation of like the ethicsof how we treat actors and
everyone but actors in thisindustry, because building an
app like this allows you to um,I, I think people who are not
actors should look at this.
An app like be, like, oh, thisis like ethically a better thing
for actors to have, becauseyou're not relying as much on
(17:31):
like people having to come toyou, you're not spending your
own money to just try and getwork like, you're able to do it
on your own pace and your timeand still get back to the other
stuff while you're waiting forthat callback or you're waiting
for the next thing to come in.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
And so thanks for creating something like that,
because I think actors are goingto be less abused in this
industry.
It really is like just puttingone more little part of an
actor's career into their ownhands.
Control so much of it is out ofour control being able to not
have to depend on.
Can somebody come help me withthis tape and having it just be
like this is me and my workflow?
Speaker 5 (18:05):
yeah, it's like a little bit more power.
Yeah, and I can do it athousand times if I want, and if
I want to spend three days backto back doing it.
I don't want to sleep because Iwant to do it at two in the
morning.
I can do it at two in themorning because I get to control
that a lot of times too.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Sometimes would happen like prior to the app too
that she would get togetherwith a reader and do the
audition, but then, when I gethome, she would realize she
didn't like any of the takes andyou can't be like, and then we
would have to do it again.
It's normal, but that'ssomething that with raffi, the
actor can do six, seven takes.
Watch them sure.
Look at themselves and be likeI didn't like this lighting, I
(18:43):
didn't like this, or I shouldchange my shirt, or something
and do it again.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
No guilt, no guilt.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
And it doesn't cost you anything.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Like it's just per scene.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Basically, whether you do your, pricing is per
scene rather than per take.
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Correct, because we knew that actors sometimes would
want to do 50 takes, whateverit is.
So once the the scene iscreated, you can do as many
takes as you want you can do itin one take, or you can do it in
50 takes so tokens?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
how do tokens work?
Speaker 5 (19:10):
yeah yes, so we have three different subscriptions,
um.
The first one gives you fivetokens, then next one, up, gives
you 15 tokens, and then thenext one, the third one, the
premium, gives you 50 tokensfive zero um, and the token is
this is a scene exactly so fivescenes, 15 scenes correct and 50
(19:31):
scenes exactly.
Um, however, that is gonnachange very soon, yeah, so okay,
should we?
Speaker 2 (19:40):
introduce it.
We're ready.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
We're ready for a launch, yeah we're gonna
increase it to 10 and 20 yeah,so basic we'll have 10 and then
uh, plus it's gonna have 20amazing 10 20, 50 yes, so two to
three auditions a week for theyes exactly, yeah, that's pretty
great.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I mean, right now I'm doing two to three when I met
you.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Five to seven, five to seven yeah and what are you
doing?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
like something between five okay yeah, so okay,
yeah, it's around.
Yeah, like basic, unless you'relike like practicing a lot.
Right, because a lot of thetime you want to like just you
just do a tape to practice.
Sometimes, especially in may,yeah that's what you guys can do
.
It self-save me may is a bigpractice mode, so like, maybe
(20:30):
you want more tokens that monthbecause you're going to try to
do six or seven a week forpractice because of again.
And then there's like thecastability challenge, so like
you might want to use it forthat.
So like, yes, basic for like ifyou're only using it for work.
But then there are sometimesyou may want to practice more,
(20:50):
so you'll want to add a monthchallenge.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
We have so many challenges like a self-tape
challenge.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Well, something better, something like that
challenge.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
I got ideas, we can talk about it yeah talking about
practicing yeah, is like ourmain and that's something that
we have already introduced, butwe haven't yet is Playhouse.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Oh, you told us about this at Cannes.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Yes, yeah, and we're developing it, we all went to
Festival des Combes.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
We met on the rosette for a pizza and.
I did say pizza on purpose,because for some reason in
Cannes it's all Italian food.
Yes, it's all.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Italian anyway, sorry , so Playhouse so Playhouse is
it was called Rafi Scenes before, so it's been there since we
came out, because this issomething that we wanted to have
from the very beginning, so welaunched with it, but now we're
putting more work into it thatalso kind of came from the fact
(21:57):
that me, coming from music, wehave so many tools to practice,
even as a musician.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
When I was in college I was a guitarist and there's
all kinds of plugins andsoftware where you can have a
bass and drums and then you playthe guitar part and you know.
That's kind of how you practice, like you were in a band, but
it's your virtual band.
There was even one very earlyon that was called band in a box
for jazz players and you wouldhave like standards and you
(22:23):
would play your chords and youjust solo over it band in a box.
It was very early, but this islike um, and then for actors we
realized there wasn't anythinglike that.
(22:44):
So that's what playhouse is andremind, what is it?
Yes, so playhouse is our, foryou to practice.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
It's harder when we're not holding them.
We're used to it.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Now we have to get used to it.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Yes, that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
There's not a lot of space on that side.
We'll have to move the couchesa little bit again.
We're alive.
She caught it before havingpizza.
Pizza, wait, what are wetalking about?
Playhouse?
Speaker 5 (23:15):
no, playhouse so playhouse is our own library of
of scripts written by humans ourbeautiful friend max, by the
way, uh, who's been helping uswrite some fun scenes that
actors can take and do whateverthey want with them.
So we are only going to givethem a space, a location, but
then the gender, the genre isfor them to decide.
(23:41):
That's cool.
We don't want to box it.
Sometimes I feel like, yeah, weneed the where, the who and the
what, but like here, we'll giveyou the where and you can play
and figure out the rest.
So every scene can be sodifferent from what I mean we
can do the same scene, but ifyou want to turn it into a
(24:02):
horror, you know piece genre,then we were talking about.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
What we were thinking about?
Playhouse is that right now,what actors do to practice is
usually do a previous auditionthat they got, or a scene from a
movie, for example, marriageStory, so good, whatever you
know, which is great, so muchfun.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yep Marriage Story.
So much fun.
Those models, that's a lot offun.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Yeah, a lot of fun.
Yep, marriage stories.
So much fun, exactly, and it'sgreat practice, no doubt, but
there's already a version thatexists, yeah, of what that scene
was.
Yeah, that's again back toscoring.
For example, when you startpracticing how to score scenes,
a lot of times you you take ascene from a movie and you try
to rescore it, and it's goodpractice, you learn about timing
, about things but there'salready a score that existed for
the film and that is like thetrue version you know, and what
you do is kind of viewed itcompletely all right, so this
(24:52):
becomes a scoring a random videois a different, is a different
exercise.
so for playhouse we wantedscenes that are original, that
no one has a conception, and ifa hundred actors do it all,
hundred of them will do itdifferently and all of them are
right.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Such a great creative practice, just kind of like
even a warm up, right, like ifyou have a scene you have to
shoot an audition, just like doa playhouse warm up, just like
get loose and then jump in.
I have an idea.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Can I make another suggestion, not as stupid as my
other one, but fun?
So at CFA we have a lot of greatprograms.
One of them that starts ourfirst inaugural ISF cohort.
Isf is the IndieWoodScreenwriting Fund.
It's a cohort of I think wehave 13 screenwriters that have
been selected.
I love this idea that we fundscreenwriting competitions and
(25:44):
then we provide education tothem.
They have scripts and they meettogether and they have
education every Saturday for twohours until October, starting
this Saturday, and we havementors come in, do one-on-one
sessions, but they have onescript that they're obviously
submitting to stuff and workingon, in addition to, I'm sure,
other ones.
But they got in with thatscript.
They applied with.
What would be cool is like ascript of the month where you
feature.
We do a partnership where youfeature one of those scripts
that has never.
They got in with that script.
(26:05):
They applied with.
Um.
What would be cool is like ascript of the month where you
feature.
We do a partnership where youfeature one of those scripts
that has never been produced ormade and it's being worked on.
That would be lovely.
You do seven pages that youwork and, if they want and this
is something this is like thepart b if it would ever work.
But those screenwriters you canhave the option for feature of
(26:25):
that month.
To once.
It's recorded in, raffi, haveit sent to the screenwriter
through us so that thescreenwriter can see how their
words are said that would belovely.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
And then?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
they can use it as like a cool partnership yeah
because a lot of the actor sidewhere you need something to
practice on that isn't alreadyingrained.
Like how did partnership?
Yeah, yeah, I think that'd begreat because a lot of the you
know you have the actor sidewhere you need something to
practice on that isn't alreadyingrained.
Like how did scarlett johansson, like do that in marriage story
, because you're just thinkingin that headspace right.
Or like how did jessicachastain what's the one you know
(26:56):
?
Like whatever?
Or molly, okay, yeah, me tooher in general we can talk about
Jessica Chastain.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
She's a vegan.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Well, now I'm a vegan the cool thing is, like actors
need that resource and thescreenwriters a lot of the time
never have their stuff like saidout loud, right?
So you have a lot of likeworkshops where actors will come
and do like a reading of it, alive reading, and it's the first
time that even some of thedirectors I work with they want
to hear it out loud beforethey're finished the script,
(27:32):
because they want to see if itworks, if it flows, yep, and so
this would be a cool partnershipwhere maybe, like the writers
and the actors, for once, arelike meeting through raffi.
That would be, I would love thatyeah and maybe it starts as,
like you know, we have 13screenwriters, so maybe, for you
know, there's three scriptsevery month that they have for
one month to try out and then,yeah, you know, it's a cfa like
(27:54):
ad yeah, that would be yeah thatwould be great.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yes, raffi x, yes absolutely.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yeah, that's a great idea submit those.
So anyway, we'll talk about it.
We'll talk about it.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
We'll talk about it.
Yeah, I want that to happen.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
It's coming for you.
So Playhouse very excited aboutthat.
When that's launched, we'regood it's been there from the
beginning, but it's rebrandedExactly.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Which is what we're working on now.
In the next few weeks so maybeI mean hopefully before the end
of the summer, so maybe I meanhopefully before the end of the
summer we'll have that fullyfleshed out and it's going to
have a bunch of different scenesand different styles.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
And something else we're adding to this new build
is slates.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Because we have to do slates too.
You can just insert slates youpre-recorded on your phone.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
Correct you.
You can just insert slates youpre-recorded on your correct,
yeah, kind of, say you.
You do you fill up aquestionnaire of like the
typical questions like name, age, location, um, and then,
because you know, sometimes theyask you so many things and it's
happened to me, I don't know ifto you too that you're kind of
doing your slate and it's like,oh, what was the next thing?
Yeah, oh, if I have tattoos, uh, and then you have to start all
(29:06):
over again and then you forgetsomething else.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I will like write it on something big and like stick
it on the wall to be like I'mHaley.
I'm 5'5", I live in Los Angeles.
Yes, I'm a member of SAG.
Yes, I'm okay with nudity.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Yes, I'll kiss somebody not in the same scene.
Yes, yeah, and they ask you ifyou're available, if you have a
passport, all these kind ofquestions.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
right, and so basically, you fill out a
questionnaire and then you'regoing to have these bubbles and
you can just select which bubble.
Which bubble belong to thisspecific position, and then the
detector will be telling you soand it's recognizing what you're
saying basically.
So it'll just tell you likeeach location and then the
bubbles start this.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
They'll disappear as soon as soon as you say like hi,
I'm jimmy latch, and then thename would disappear.
Okay, I am five, threedisappear.
Location it has voicerecognition.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, so it knows when you've said those things.
It's not just like rolling androlling, it's like are you ready
for the next one?
Speaker 4 (30:07):
You did it Good job.
That's also coming on this nextone, and then you can save that
and that can be your.
So how?
Speaker 1 (30:14):
can people find it and download?
Speaker 5 (30:17):
The app store.
Okay, rafi R-A-F-I, which, oh,we should share.
How the name is so special,tell us about why we wanted a
name that sounded like aperson's name.
Well there's.
I'll start like the way dannysays it he always says there's
two schools of naming apps.
(30:37):
So there's like the name of theapp, of what it actually does,
like a functional name, like Idon't know hinge, hinges you
together.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Oh, oh, there you go, functional exactly exactly.
Speaker 5 (30:52):
Yes, yes, yes, yeah yeah yeah there's many so that
could have been like breedingpartner.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Yeah, yeah, exactly so.
Or the other route, which islike spotify doesn't really tell
you what it does, or etsy, um,and we kind of wanted to.
We wanted the name of a person,because a reader is a person
and it's a little helper, and wewanted it to sound not from any
(31:23):
specific place, not necessarilya gender specific name, kind of
gender neutral.
And we know Rafis that arefemale, that are male.
So, yeah, we kind of thoughtthis is cool and we like the Y
because it's just like Etsy,spotify, y, techie, I don't know
.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah, it's an acronym for reader app for you so we
started throwing a bunch ofthings.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
You did tell me that once yeah, yeah, yeah, here's
your reader today yeah, yes, andwe wanted exactly that to like
eventually become a like.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Are you gonna wrap?
You're gonna wrap?
You going to Rafi, it Are yougoing to Rafi it?
Oh, I'll Rafi it, I'll Rafi ityeah, fantastic, so we're going
to get that going now.
App.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Store, app Store free download on the App Store, and
then you have practice scenes inthere already so people can try
it out before they make thatdecision.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Absolutely, and this is going to be a debut, since
you're saying about that,because we are launching a
web-based version, yes, which weare, and this is coming very
soon.
Yes, and this is the first timewe've ever shared it.
But we want to include moreactors, because there are many
actors that don't have iPhone oriPad, and we get that question
(32:42):
all the time, and we aredeveloping a native version for
Android as well, but that is aslow process because Android,
unlike Apple, they're not verystandardized there's Motorola's,
there's Pixel's, there's.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Samsung's.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
And all of them have different speech recognition
systems.
They have different microphonesdifferent cameras.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
So the web-based take up a lot of those boxes.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Exactly, exactly, exactly so, the web-based app.
You can do it on your computeror on your Android and just go
on a website and it's going tohave a few differences, but most
of the functionality is goingto be there and that's going to
happen.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Do you have an ETA on that?
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Yeah, Within the next month.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, whoa, yeah Within the next month.
Yeah, whoa, yeah.
Okay.
Android users, you're not goingto be left out.
No, exactly, we care about you.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
We do, and also the computer, because we also have a
few people that have told usthat they don't have very good
eyesight, for example, and theywant to use like an external
monitor Nice, and we have a guywho told us that he loved Rafi,
but he had trouble reading theteleprompter and needed.
So that has always beensomething that we are thinking
like.
How can we?
Speaker 5 (33:53):
how can we make this thing like literally both ways?
Speaker 1 (33:59):
yeah, well, thank you guys so much for joining us.
Thank you we're very excited toum work on the playhouse stuff
with isf.
We'll talk yes yep and also toget it out to our community.
So we will link everything inthe description below and we'll
also figure out some sort oflike fun promo code to get to
promo the first month?
Speaker 5 (34:19):
absolutely yeah, the first tokens.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, rafi take your tapes into your
own hands.
What is your tagline?
Speaker 4 (34:29):
We don't really have one.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
Oh no, we do actually Self-tape anytime anywhere.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Self-tape anytime anywhere.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Bye guys, Bye Thank you.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Join us in bridging the gap between talent and crew.
Start by subscribing on yourpreferred podcast platform.
Sign up for our newsletter tostay up to date on vendor
discounts, community events andnew podcast releases, and
educate yourself through ourfree course releases on YouTube.
It all starts atcinematographyfractorscom.
No-transcript.
The ginger I always wish I was.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
She is a beautiful, graceful ginger.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Just like, just so wonderful and beautiful.
And every time I see her I'mjust like this is the
Cinematography for Actorspodcast.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
More than a podcast.
Cinematography for Actors is avibrant community devoted to
bridging the gap between talentand crew.
Each week, our show offerstransparent, insightful
conversations with industryleaders.
We unveil the magic behind thescenes, from candid discussions
about unique filmmakingprocesses to in-depth technical
exploration.
Join us in unraveling theintricacies of filmmaking, one
(00:42):
episode at a time.
It's more than just cameras andlenses the intricacies of
filmmaking, one episode at atime.
It's more than just cameras andlenses.
We aim to inspire, educate andempower as we peel back the
curtain on the art of effectivestorytelling.
Now on to the episode.
Hi everybody, welcome back tothe CFA podcast.
It's been a very, very longtime.
(01:03):
We gave a little teaser when wewere like we're back in our new
space and then we had to dosome more construction.
So now we are really back inour new space and I'm so excited
for some guests that I've beentrying to get on the podcast.
For how long has it been, guys?
A year, a year, it's been ayear.
(01:24):
It's two incredible creators ofa very great app for actors
that's going to change ourentire workflow Jamila Aceh and
Danny Rojas.
Hi guys, hi, hello, hi, welcome, welcome, thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah, we made it happen.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I know, and we're like, finally not hand-holding
mics.
We have made it happen.
I know, and we're like, finallynot hand holding mics we have
good lighting, it's quiet and wesaid looks beautiful you.
We just finished it and we justinstalled all new beams so that
no one will collapse into thisspace when we're on a yeah, that
was the extra construction was.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
We want to be able to host people up there, but I was
starting to get terribleanxiety anytime we had to get
together because you could feelthe roof bouncing.
It was like a wavy trampoline,yeah now it's safe, so welcome.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
But I this is funny because, um, you'll have to tell
me how you guys were introducedagain, because I actually
forget, but I know that from themoment, um, you guys gave Haley
a demo of the app that we'll betalking about, she was like yep
, this, I'm switching over tothis, like I'm canceling
everything else, and this is theone I'm using, and you have
been using it ever since.
So, um, haley, how did you getintroduced?
(02:38):
Um, all together?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
yeah, this is, I think that you weren't there.
You were supposed to be there.
It was Gabbo's birthday, who Ionly know, gabbo and Ari,
because of you, and so it wasGabbo's birthday party.
Okay, yeah, I didn't, but youguys weren't there either.
(03:00):
Your friend Daniella was thereand she told me and I love
Daniella told- me.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yes, yes, the ginger.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I always wish I was she's a beautiful, graceful
ginger, yeah just like, oh, justsuper wonderful and beautiful.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
And every time I see her I'm just like iconic to like
you guys.
What are you talking about what?
I see her, I'm like wow, she'sjust amazing.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
She's a knockout, just like right.
Yeah, mind her looks that.
And then we are both actors soand she's funny, she's amazing.
Okay, we love you, danielle.
Yeah, thank you.
Um, we're both actors, so youknow we're talking about like,
how is it going?
Like, how are tapes for you,since it's after the pandemic?
So now, like, self-tapes arejust the standard.
(03:53):
Do you need help?
You know, like kind of when youmeet a new actor friend, you
want to get close with them,kind of the standard thing is
like let me know if you everneed help with tapes.
And she was kind of like oh,I'll never need help with.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Like what do you mean ?
She's like your marketingcontractor?
Speaker 4 (04:08):
yeah, she's been amazing, exactly because I mean
that's also kind of herbackground.
Yeah, but she's been, yeah,she's been sharing, she's
probably one of our.
Yeah, she's a champion.
Ambassador unofficialambassador yes, so, yeah, she
told.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
She told me about rafi and about what you're
creating, and I thought thatsounded so interesting and I
said please will you put us incontact, because I knew I would
eventually want you here on thiscouch, because it just sounds
like something that we can sharewith everybody and it's
something that I use nowregularly okay, let's talk about
(04:45):
it.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So you're obviously a power couple as well, because
you're married and all, and youboth work in the industry, so
you have context for kind of thedifferent departments that
happen.
Um, you're an actor, right, andthen we have composer, yeah,
okay, and so can we talk abouthow this came together and was
created, what Rafi is.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Yeah Well, I mean, since we started dating pretty
much I mean before the pandemicand everything she was already
doing some self-tapes.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
I mean, some auditions were in person, but it
was already more self-tapesthan Even before the pandemic,
self-tapes started making theirway in and it became a norm,
definitely after COVID, so hewas my reader yeah, a lot of
times.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
But before the pandemic she had a whole group
of friends, a lot of actors, andthey would get together.
So sometimes she would text meand be like, hey, I'm going over
to mitchell or joanne's orwhatever, um, and, but
oftentimes she would have to askme to and I mean that was kind
of like the norm when thepandemic hit and we're starting
(05:49):
like the bubbles and all that.
She couldn't get together withany of her friends, um, so I
kind of became like the defaultreader and as we were doing it.
We started talking and I I kepttelling her I'm like there
should be an easier way to dothis with all the technology
that is available.
And we started looking aroundand there were a few tools, but
(06:12):
nothing quite what we hadimagined.
So we started talking about,you know, mostly as clients
thinking that like there has tobe something out there and we
would ask friends and everybodywould say the same like not
really.
I mean, sometimes I use this orI record myself with like a
voice.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
The voice recorded and then trying to like change
your tone of voice, like in thethings, and it starts sounding
like weird, or even like voicememo, and leaving the space like
leaving a big gap which is notlike, then you're not really
acting at that point.
It's just like drop the lineand try to do the thing.
But it's the same every time.
(06:47):
It just it's not.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Yes, and with my background of audio I was
thinking like, can we change thesound of these voices and
things like that, like veryearly on, and then at some point
you can maybe take over here.
But we're both SAC members.
So when we knew that SAC wasgoing to go on strike, jamila
(07:11):
was starting to get a littleanxious, knowing that she
probably was not going to workmuch for the coming year, and
she kept telling me, like maybeI should go get an MBA or maybe.
I remember she even youconsidered it.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Yeah, I did, I did and I did.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
And at some point we were chatting and then you told
me you're like what if we makethe app?
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Yeah, what are you?
Speaker 4 (07:31):
talking about.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
Yeah, because at that point also, ai was a big
conversation during the strikeand I believe that technology
could be as good or as bad as wewant it to be, and we're able
to.
It's manageable, like whoeverdoes it right.
So I was telling him like Ithink AI could be really good if
(07:56):
we train it to work for us andnot replace us.
And that's when I startedthinking, like what's something
I do every day that I don't neednecessarily a human for that?
Right, that is technicallynobody's job.
Um, that this can do.
(08:17):
And I was like, oh, maybe areader, because, yes, there's a
lot of readers, people that workas readers, but a lot of them
are actors or coaches.
But that's something completelydifferent and you get a
different service.
When you go to a coach thatreads with you, you're getting
feedback.
So we're like, okay, what if wejust do one that is very simple
, just reads with you?
No feedback, no, nothing.
(08:38):
So we're not stepping on anyoneelse's toes in the industry.
So we keep it ethical andaligned with what we believe and
how we think this technologyshould be treated.
Yeah, so, so, yeah.
And of course, I started lookinginto the flow, which is how
could this be like, okay, I wantto get the pdf.
(08:59):
Yeah, what do I do now?
Yeah, so you know, very startedwriting everything down, Like,
okay, I would like to upload thePDF, this thing should read it
and just track the dialogue, andthen after that I should be
able to fix dialogue, becausesometimes there's typos.
Maybe I have to delete lines,maybe I have to add more lines.
(09:20):
So that'll be the next step,and then after that, what's
next's next?
Okay, who are the characters?
I choose who I am, and then Ichoose voices for all the other
ones, and we should have agerange, we should have um, gender
quality, we should have the allthese different options, even
accents if possible, andlanguages too, and um, and then
(09:45):
cool after that.
Then we customize it and thenwe make it very human.
So raffi gives you a read thatis kind of, um, it could be flat
, yeah, it could sound flat.
I think it's mostly flat andit's.
It's supposed to be like thatfor you to make it human.
So you can teach raffi how toread the line if you just take
(10:05):
the mic and tell it how I wantthis line to be read in this way
and it will match.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
That is a feature that I used recently, because I
really needed a line deliveredto me in a way so that I could
respond to it.
So, instead of just using theai generation, I recorded it
myself, so it knew theinflections that I was looking
for, which was like huge you canyou can kind of not even do
(10:30):
that if you have a friendreading with you, because then
you're like giving themdirection, directing them and
also the other thing too issometimes scenes would have
several voices.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
I mean, like she'd be playing one character and I
would have to be the grandma andthe kid and the sister.
Yeah, and I would always try toget creative and she would
always be like, don't, yeah I'dbe like stop, you know, don't do
that.
She's like no just read themall the same.
But again, maybe me just beinglike an audio.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I'm like it's two characters like it needs to
sound different.
How are you gonna know?
With hayley, I used to do like,instead of voices, some
terrible accents and voices ifthere were different people I
would put them in differentplaces in the room.
So I would.
I would go like that's not whatshe said you're like blocking
the scene because they'restanding in a place like it was
(11:21):
a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Maybe we should take a second, because I'm realizing
that everyone on this couchunderstands the process of a
self-tape and what it takes,because you have spent hours and
hours with me being my reader.
Uh, thank you.
You're a wonderful reader, um,but for anyone who doesn't
understand or doesn't know theprocess, it's a lot of the time.
(11:43):
You'll get the breakdown, you'llget the audition and have 24
hours max to get it in.
So then as an actor, youstruggle and reach out to a
hundred friends to try to see ifanyone is available in the next
few hours to help you, and thenyou have to prepare your
audition, and a lot of the timethat comes, at least for me,
(12:06):
with a lot of guilt because I'mpulling somebody out of their
day to come help me.
So then to make it up to themyou know we spend an hour, an
hour and a half just doing theaudition and then to make it up
to them, I'm like, want to getdinner.
So every audition is costing meat least 50 because I'm I'm
(12:27):
bringing a friend to dinner tothank them for helping me.
So there's also that part of itwhere the panic and the stress
of like finding someone who cancome and sometimes no one's
available, and then you resortto recording your own lines this
just canceling you last minute,which would help jamila,
because people get busysometimes, like people tell them
(12:48):
yeah oh, I can do it.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
And then, two hours before, she would text me and be
like oh my god, my friendcouldn't make it because
something came up or she had togo to work and then you're
pumping for your grandma voicestudy exactly yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
So like, not just that, like the tech's really
great and the it's super userfriendly, but not only that,
it's also stripping away likethe emotional workload that
comes with that, with a newaudition for actors a lot of the
time, and the it's just likestreamlining that workflow.
And it's just like streamliningthat workflow.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
And another thing that for us was an added plus
was that a lot of times andwe've heard it from casting
director friends and people justin the industry in general it
matters how quickly you send itto.
So even if there's a windowthat says you can send it all
the way until Friday but you canstart sending it on Wednesday,
(13:49):
Most casting directors tell youit's better if you get in
earlier, right, because peoplestart watching the tapes, and
they might even book the rolebefore it arrives to friday or
already have like apreconception in their mind god
this
Speaker 2 (13:57):
industry.
So I know, if you see someonethat comes through and like
they're gonna work, then you'regonna be like great, that's done
.
And then only someone who'sphenomenal will squeak in after
that yeah, so that's anotherthing, God, this industry, it
does, it does, it's brutal, itdoesn't like?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
let me just you know, side tangent for a sec Just a
hot sec.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
You're going to really love what you're doing
here, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, but I okay.
So I just came back fromvacation we were talking about
it before we recorded and I waslike, okay, I'm gonna do all my
like reading.
So I I brought all the booksthat I had had on my shelf for
like five years that I wanted toread and I was like, okay, each
like few days I'm gonna getthrough one and I'm gonna like
go through all of them and thenI can like donate them and get
rid of them.
And the first one I read wasFurious Love, which is um the
(14:42):
love letters and relationshipover time between um elizabeth
taylor and richard burton and itdocuments their careers as
actors in the industry andtheater actors and um, uh, you
know, film actors, both but andall the movies they did together
and it's really interesting.
The book was awesome.
You should read it.
Jessica chastain recommendedthat's what I bought five years
(15:04):
ago.
Oh, did you keep it?
Uh, yeah, I gave it to.
I gave it to stella okay, great, I get it.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
After stella dibs, everyone dibs.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
You can email indy later the reason I bring it up,
though, is because it reallytalked about the way you know.
Obviously it talked about likethe mgm contracts and the way
the industry used to be, but itreally annoys me that our
industry is still based on halfof it is based off of a very old
mentality of like the wayactors are treated right, like
she was both of them, but mostlyher, you know, child actor,
(15:36):
treated very much like a lot ofthe golden age actors, as like
product right, like it has to beon this movie has to do this
work with this director.
Product right, like it has tobe on this movie has to do this
work with this director.
You know there's like there'sso many like drugs and alcohol
and all that stuff just so thatthey can keep going on set, and
a lot of that sure is like massnow, like you don't have a
(15:56):
contract with a studio, but alot of our industry still shits
on an actor in other ways, and alot of that is it costs you
money to do self tapes, it costsyou time away from actually
being able to do your sidehustle, because you have to find
something flexible enough.
You have to have a strongenough network that's going to
be able to read for you normallyright, like without this app.
(16:16):
There's like a lot of pressureon actors still that I don't
think people are.
They might mention it, but Idon't think they're talking
about.
Like they talk about how poorlyelizabeth taylor was treated
right because it was so obvious,or marilyn monroe, but nowadays
it's like actors are stillactually being treated at the
bottom of the barrel untilyou're famous pretty much yeah,
(16:36):
and so it's like really annoyingto hear that you know you could
still be doing the work and notget you know even an
opportunity to be seen if yousubmit it on that prime.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, if you submit within the time frame, you still
are too late.
It just yes absolutely.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
Sometimes it's already casted too, but they
then the cast and directors,want to show numbers.
They're like oh look, wereceived 4 000 submissions.
Yeah, this just sounds great,it's like a number.
But they're not even sometimeswatching those tapes because,
exactly, exactly, reality, youhave three days to watch the
tapes.
Yeah, you're gonna watch 4 000submissions.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Doubt it, doubt it, and so that's why, when you're
talking about ethical ai, Ithink a part of that
conversation of like the ethicsof how we treat actors and
everyone but actors in thisindustry, because building an
app like this allows you to um,I, I think people who are not
actors should look at this.
An app like be, like, oh, thisis like ethically a better thing
for actors to have, becauseyou're not relying as much on
(17:31):
like people having to come toyou, you're not spending your
own money to just try and getwork like, you're able to do it
on your own pace and your timeand still get back to the other
stuff while you're waiting forthat callback or you're waiting
for the next thing to come in.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
And so thanks for creating something like that,
because I think actors are goingto be less abused in this
industry.
It really is like just puttingone more little part of an
actor's career into their ownhands.
Control so much of it is out ofour control being able to not
have to depend on.
Can somebody come help me withthis tape and having it just be
like this is me and my workflow?
Speaker 5 (18:05):
yeah, it's like a little bit more power.
Yeah, and I can do it athousand times if I want, and if
I want to spend three days backto back doing it.
I don't want to sleep because Iwant to do it at two in the
morning.
I can do it at two in themorning because I get to control
that a lot of times too.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Sometimes would happen like prior to the app too
that she would get togetherwith a reader and do the
audition, but then, when I gethome, she would realize she
didn't like any of the takes andyou can't be like, and then we
would have to do it again.
It's normal, but that'ssomething that with raffi, the
actor can do six, seven takes.
Watch them sure.
Look at themselves and be likeI didn't like this lighting, I
(18:43):
didn't like this, or I shouldchange my shirt, or something
and do it again.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
No guilt, no guilt.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
And it doesn't cost you anything.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Like it's just per scene.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Basically, whether you do your, pricing is per
scene rather than per take.
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Correct, because we knew that actors sometimes would
want to do 50 takes, whateverit is.
So once the the scene iscreated, you can do as many
takes as you want you can do itin one take, or you can do it in
50 takes so tokens?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
how do tokens work?
Speaker 5 (19:10):
yeah yes, so we have three different subscriptions,
um.
The first one gives you fivetokens, then next one, up, gives
you 15 tokens, and then thenext one, the third one, the
premium, gives you 50 tokensfive zero um, and the token is
this is a scene exactly so fivescenes, 15 scenes correct and 50
(19:31):
scenes exactly.
Um, however, that is gonnachange very soon, yeah, so okay,
should we?
Speaker 2 (19:40):
introduce it.
We're ready.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
We're ready for a launch, yeah we're gonna
increase it to 10 and 20 yeah,so basic we'll have 10 and then
uh, plus it's gonna have 20amazing 10 20, 50 yes, so two to
three auditions a week for theyes exactly, yeah, that's pretty
great.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
I mean, right now I'm doing two to three when I met
you.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Five to seven, five to seven yeah and what are you
doing?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
like something between five okay yeah, so okay,
yeah, it's around.
Yeah, like basic, unless you'relike like practicing a lot.
Right, because a lot of thetime you want to like just you
just do a tape to practice.
Sometimes, especially in may,yeah that's what you guys can do
.
It self-save me may is a bigpractice mode, so like, maybe
(20:30):
you want more tokens that monthbecause you're going to try to
do six or seven a week forpractice because of again.
And then there's like thecastability challenge, so like
you might want to use it forthat.
So like, yes, basic for like ifyou're only using it for work.
But then there are sometimesyou may want to practice more,
(20:50):
so you'll want to add a monthchallenge.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
We have so many challenges like a self-tape
challenge.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Well, something better, something like that
challenge.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
I got ideas, we can talk about it yeah talking about
practicing yeah, is like ourmain and that's something that
we have already introduced, butwe haven't yet is Playhouse.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Oh, you told us about this at Cannes.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Yes, yeah, and we're developing it, we all went to
Festival des Combes.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
We met on the rosette for a pizza and.
I did say pizza on purpose,because for some reason in
Cannes it's all Italian food.
Yes, it's all.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Italian anyway, sorry , so Playhouse so Playhouse is
it was called Rafi Scenes before, so it's been there since we
came out, because this issomething that we wanted to have
from the very beginning, so welaunched with it, but now we're
putting more work into it thatalso kind of came from the fact
(21:57):
that me, coming from music, wehave so many tools to practice,
even as a musician.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
When I was in college I was a guitarist and there's
all kinds of plugins andsoftware where you can have a
bass and drums and then you playthe guitar part and you know.
That's kind of how you practice, like you were in a band, but
it's your virtual band.
There was even one very earlyon that was called band in a box
for jazz players and you wouldhave like standards and you
(22:23):
would play your chords and youjust solo over it band in a box.
It was very early, but this islike um, and then for actors we
realized there wasn't anythinglike that.
(22:44):
So that's what playhouse is andremind, what is it?
Yes, so playhouse is our, foryou to practice.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
It's harder when we're not holding them.
We're used to it.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Now we have to get used to it.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Yes, that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
There's not a lot of space on that side.
We'll have to move the couchesa little bit again.
We're alive.
She caught it before havingpizza.
Pizza, wait, what are wetalking about?
Playhouse?
Speaker 5 (23:15):
no, playhouse so playhouse is our own library of
of scripts written by humans ourbeautiful friend max, by the
way, uh, who's been helping uswrite some fun scenes that
actors can take and do whateverthey want with them.
So we are only going to givethem a space, a location, but
then the gender, the genre isfor them to decide.
(23:41):
That's cool.
We don't want to box it.
Sometimes I feel like, yeah, weneed the where, the who and the
what, but like here, we'll giveyou the where and you can play
and figure out the rest.
So every scene can be sodifferent from what I mean we
can do the same scene, but ifyou want to turn it into a
(24:02):
horror, you know piece genre,then we were talking about.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
What we were thinking about?
Playhouse is that right now,what actors do to practice is
usually do a previous auditionthat they got, or a scene from a
movie, for example, marriageStory, so good, whatever you
know, which is great, so muchfun.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yep Marriage Story.
So much fun.
Those models, that's a lot offun.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Yeah, a lot of fun.
Yep, marriage stories.
So much fun, exactly, and it'sgreat practice, no doubt, but
there's already a version thatexists, yeah, of what that scene
was.
Yeah, that's again back toscoring.
For example, when you startpracticing how to score scenes,
a lot of times you you take ascene from a movie and you try
to rescore it, and it's goodpractice, you learn about timing
, about things but there'salready a score that existed for
the film and that is like thetrue version you know, and what
you do is kind of viewed itcompletely all right, so this
(24:52):
becomes a scoring a random videois a different, is a different
exercise.
so for playhouse we wantedscenes that are original, that
no one has a conception, and ifa hundred actors do it all,
hundred of them will do itdifferently and all of them are
right.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Such a great creative practice, just kind of like
even a warm up, right, like ifyou have a scene you have to
shoot an audition, just like doa playhouse warm up, just like
get loose and then jump in.
I have an idea.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Can I make another suggestion, not as stupid as my
other one, but fun?
So at CFA we have a lot of greatprograms.
One of them that starts ourfirst inaugural ISF cohort.
Isf is the IndieWoodScreenwriting Fund.
It's a cohort of I think wehave 13 screenwriters that have
been selected.
I love this idea that we fundscreenwriting competitions and
(25:44):
then we provide education tothem.
They have scripts and they meettogether and they have
education every Saturday for twohours until October, starting
this Saturday, and we havementors come in, do one-on-one
sessions, but they have onescript that they're obviously
submitting to stuff and workingon, in addition to, I'm sure,
other ones.
But they got in with thatscript.
They applied with.
What would be cool is like ascript of the month where you
feature.
We do a partnership where youfeature one of those scripts
that has never.
They got in with that script.
(26:05):
They applied with.
Um.
What would be cool is like ascript of the month where you
feature.
We do a partnership where youfeature one of those scripts
that has never been produced ormade and it's being worked on.
That would be lovely.
You do seven pages that youwork and, if they want and this
is something this is like thepart b if it would ever work.
But those screenwriters you canhave the option for feature of
(26:25):
that month.
To once.
It's recorded in, raffi, haveit sent to the screenwriter
through us so that thescreenwriter can see how their
words are said that would belovely.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
And then?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
they can use it as like a cool partnership yeah
because a lot of the actor sidewhere you need something to
practice on that isn't alreadyingrained.
Like how did partnership?
Yeah, yeah, I think that'd begreat because a lot of the you
know you have the actor sidewhere you need something to
practice on that isn't alreadyingrained.
Like how did scarlett johansson, like do that in marriage story
, because you're just thinkingin that headspace right.
Or like how did jessicachastain what's the one you know
(26:56):
?
Like whatever?
Or molly, okay, yeah, me tooher in general we can talk about
Jessica Chastain.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
She's a vegan.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Well, now I'm a vegan the cool thing is, like actors
need that resource and thescreenwriters a lot of the time
never have their stuff like saidout loud, right?
So you have a lot of likeworkshops where actors will come
and do like a reading of it, alive reading, and it's the first
time that even some of thedirectors I work with they want
to hear it out loud beforethey're finished the script,
(27:32):
because they want to see if itworks, if it flows, yep, and so
this would be a cool partnershipwhere maybe, like the writers
and the actors, for once, arelike meeting through raffi.
That would be, I would love thatyeah and maybe it starts as,
like you know, we have 13screenwriters, so maybe, for you
know, there's three scriptsevery month that they have for
one month to try out and then,yeah, you know, it's a cfa like
(27:54):
ad yeah, that would be yeah thatwould be great.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yes, raffi x, yes absolutely.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yeah, that's a great idea submit those.
So anyway, we'll talk about it.
We'll talk about it.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
We'll talk about it.
Yeah, I want that to happen.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
It's coming for you.
So Playhouse very excited aboutthat.
When that's launched, we'regood it's been there from the
beginning, but it's rebrandedExactly.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Which is what we're working on now.
In the next few weeks so maybeI mean hopefully before the end
of the summer, so maybe I meanhopefully before the end of the
summer we'll have that fullyfleshed out and it's going to
have a bunch of different scenesand different styles.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
And something else we're adding to this new build
is slates.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Because we have to do slates too.
You can just insert slates youpre-recorded on your phone.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
Correct you.
You can just insert slates youpre-recorded on your correct,
yeah, kind of, say you.
You do you fill up aquestionnaire of like the
typical questions like name, age, location, um, and then,
because you know, sometimes theyask you so many things and it's
happened to me, I don't know ifto you too that you're kind of
doing your slate and it's like,oh, what was the next thing?
Yeah, oh, if I have tattoos, uh, and then you have to start all
(29:06):
over again and then you forgetsomething else.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I will like write it on something big and like stick
it on the wall to be like I'mHaley.
I'm 5'5", I live in Los Angeles.
Yes, I'm a member of SAG.
Yes, I'm okay with nudity.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Yes, I'll kiss somebody not in the same scene.
Yes, yeah, and they ask you ifyou're available, if you have a
passport, all these kind ofquestions.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
right, and so basically, you fill out a
questionnaire and then you'regoing to have these bubbles and
you can just select which bubble.
Which bubble belong to thisspecific position, and then the
detector will be telling you soand it's recognizing what you're
saying basically.
So it'll just tell you likeeach location and then the
bubbles start this.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
They'll disappear as soon as soon as you say like hi,
I'm jimmy latch, and then thename would disappear.
Okay, I am five, threedisappear.
Location it has voicerecognition.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, so it knows when you've said those things.
It's not just like rolling androlling, it's like are you ready
for the next one?
Speaker 4 (30:07):
You did it Good job.
That's also coming on this nextone, and then you can save that
and that can be your.
So how?
Speaker 1 (30:14):
can people find it and download?
Speaker 5 (30:17):
The app store.
Okay, rafi R-A-F-I, which, oh,we should share.
How the name is so special,tell us about why we wanted a
name that sounded like aperson's name.
Well there's.
I'll start like the way dannysays it he always says there's
two schools of naming apps.
(30:37):
So there's like the name of theapp, of what it actually does,
like a functional name, like Idon't know hinge, hinges you
together.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Oh, oh, there you go, functional exactly exactly.
Speaker 5 (30:52):
Yes, yes, yes, yeah yeah yeah there's many so that
could have been like breedingpartner.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Yeah, yeah, exactly so.
Or the other route, which islike spotify doesn't really tell
you what it does, or etsy, um,and we kind of wanted to.
We wanted the name of a person,because a reader is a person
and it's a little helper, and wewanted it to sound not from any
(31:23):
specific place, not necessarilya gender specific name, kind of
gender neutral.
And we know Rafis that arefemale, that are male.
So, yeah, we kind of thoughtthis is cool and we like the Y
because it's just like Etsy,spotify, y, techie, I don't know
.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah, it's an acronym for reader app for you so we
started throwing a bunch ofthings.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
You did tell me that once yeah, yeah, yeah, here's
your reader today yeah, yes, andwe wanted exactly that to like
eventually become a like.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Are you gonna wrap?
You're gonna wrap?
You going to Rafi, it Are yougoing to Rafi it?
Oh, I'll Rafi it, I'll Rafi ityeah, fantastic, so we're going
to get that going now.
App.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Store, app Store free download on the App Store, and
then you have practice scenes inthere already so people can try
it out before they make thatdecision.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Absolutely, and this is going to be a debut, since
you're saying about that,because we are launching a
web-based version, yes, which weare, and this is coming very
soon.
Yes, and this is the first timewe've ever shared it.
But we want to include moreactors, because there are many
actors that don't have iPhone oriPad, and we get that question
(32:42):
all the time, and we aredeveloping a native version for
Android as well, but that is aslow process because Android,
unlike Apple, they're not verystandardized there's Motorola's,
there's Pixel's, there's.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Samsung's.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
And all of them have different speech recognition
systems.
They have different microphonesdifferent cameras.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
So the web-based take up a lot of those boxes.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Exactly, exactly, exactly so, the web-based app.
You can do it on your computeror on your Android and just go
on a website and it's going tohave a few differences, but most
of the functionality is goingto be there and that's going to
happen.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Do you have an ETA on that?
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Yeah, Within the next month.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yeah, whoa, yeah Within the next month.
Yeah, whoa, yeah.
Okay.
Android users, you're not goingto be left out.
No, exactly, we care about you.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
We do, and also the computer, because we also have a
few people that have told usthat they don't have very good
eyesight, for example, and theywant to use like an external
monitor Nice, and we have a guywho told us that he loved Rafi,
but he had trouble reading theteleprompter and needed.
So that has always beensomething that we are thinking
like.
How can we?
Speaker 5 (33:53):
how can we make this thing like literally both ways?
Speaker 1 (33:59):
yeah, well, thank you guys so much for joining us.
Thank you we're very excited toum work on the playhouse stuff
with isf.
We'll talk yes yep and also toget it out to our community.
So we will link everything inthe description below and we'll
also figure out some sort oflike fun promo code to get to
promo the first month?
Speaker 5 (34:19):
absolutely yeah, the first tokens.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, rafi take your tapes into your
own hands.
What is your tagline?
Speaker 4 (34:29):
We don't really have one.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
Oh no, we do actually Self-tape anytime anywhere.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Self-tape anytime anywhere.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Bye guys, Bye Thank you.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Join us in bridging the gap between talent and crew.
Start by subscribing on yourpreferred podcast platform.
Sign up for our newsletter tostay up to date on vendor
discounts, community events andnew podcast releases, and
educate yourself through ourfree course releases on YouTube.
It all starts atcinematographyfractorscom.
No-transcript.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a thought-provoking, opinionated, and topic-driven journey through the top sports stories of the day.