September 14, 2023 • 62 mins
Are you ready for a trip into the mind of an accomplished animation writer? Get those dice ready because Meredith Kecskemety, renowned for her work on the Legend of Vox Machina and the Midnight Gospel, is here for a chat and to share some incredible insights from her illustrious career. We kick off with her early days in the industry, her shift from children's to adult-oriented shows, and how the Hollywood writers' and actors' strike influenced her journey. Meredith then takes us behind the scenes at Titmouse Animation and recounts the inspiring tale of her involvement with Vox Machina.
The conversation takes a fun turn as we venture into the world of Dungeons & Dragons and the process of adapting Critical Role's content for the animated avatar. How open was the cast to innovation? How did their personal connection to their D&D characters affect the writing? Find out in this fun and enlightening discussion. Plus, a unique Q&A where the depth of the answers will be decided by a roll of a d20. Are you game?
In the final act of our chat, we explore the nuances of working on productions with varying budgets, and how factors like tax breaks and labor costs come into play. We also discuss the significant role of a good crew and Meredith's love for D&D gaming. Add a sprinkle of trivia related to popular topics like Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons, and a candid discussion on creating a show without an ending page, and you have an episode rich with information, entertainment, and fun. Join us on this thrilling journey through the realms of animation and fantasy role-playing!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
What's up everybody?
How's it going?
What's going on?
Chat Looks like Chad is kind ofmoving a little bit.
How's it going?
How's it going?
Welcome to the Bad Chest podcast.
I am your host, the current,the reigning, the defending and
the undisputed third worst chessplayer on kick Katie215.
(00:30):
And this is the very firstepisode of the Bad Chest podcast
.
But don't let the title foolyou.
Just like I am a Bad Cheststreamer, I am also also a very
Bad Chest podcast.
You're so bad.
In fact, this podcast hasnothing to do with chess.
(00:52):
So what is it about?
Who knows?
I guess it's kind of abouthaving fun hanging with people I
really respect and admire, andthere are a few people I admire
more than our guests today.
She has been a part of some ofthe best animation in recent
years, including being the staffwriter for seasons one, two and
(01:14):
three of the legend of VoxMachina.
If you're not sure what VoxMachina is, I'm gonna I'm gonna
roll the trailer from Amazonjust to get everybody up to
speed.
Our only hope lies in thesebrave warriors.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
What the fuck.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Right.
Who else have we got?
I'm sorry, who the hell are you?
Vox Machina?
We fuck shit up.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Let's go.
Come on, come on work.
Steadies help.
You can't be seriouslyconsidering them for such a task
.
Our reputation is less thanstutter.
If killing for gold isn'tgetting us anywhere, maybe we
try doing some good this time.
No worry, Kill Vox Machina.
(02:19):
If this evil persists, thekingdom will starve to death.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I suggest we run right now the legend of Vox
Machina huh.
So without further ado, I wantto introduce you to tonight's
(03:02):
guest.
She has often been called MarkHamill's best friend, Meredith
Kaskimetti.
Meredith, How's it going?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Hello hi.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Hi so, Vox Machina.
Huh yeah, I just want to putthis out there to start, for
those who don't know.
There's a strike going on.
The writers are on strike, theactors are on strike.
It limits some of what we cantalk about.
(03:34):
Do you want to just start withthat, just so everybody knows up
front where the limits are?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Absolutely.
I will be very, very obviousthe strike is very important.
The strike is exactly whatneeds to be happening in
Hollywood right now.
It is sort of touching.
It's touching animation indifferent ways than it is live
action.
Fortunately, vox well,fortunately, and unfortunately,
(04:04):
lots of different reasons VoxMachina is not a WGA show and
it's an animation guild show.
Writers are in the animationguild, which is a separate
contract, and actors inanimation right now are still
able to record, and that is alsoa separate contract than what
SAG is striking.
So, from my knowledge far as myknowledge, that's in the clear,
(04:30):
and some other shows that I'veworked on are in the clear too.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
So yeah, cool.
So, I want to start with.
I don't really want this to bean interview show, but obviously
we have to put some questionsout there.
To me, the biggest one is Ihave known you a long time.
For those who don't know, I'veknown Meredith for a
(04:58):
ridiculously long time and whenI met you, your dream was to
write for children's shows.
In fact, I believe you wrote anepisode.
If you give a mouse a cookie,yes, how do you go from I'm
writing children's shows to?
I mean, we just saw the trailer, clearly not a children's show.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, I mean it kind of goes back to a few different
factors.
I going into school and likethe impetus that got me into
film school in the first placeand was like I want to make TV,
I want to make movies, washaving the Lord of the Rings
movies come out when I was.
I don't know if this ages me,but when I was in middle school
(05:43):
and those were like had such animprint on my brain about what
it was possible to do withfantasy in a visual medium like
that, that just really inspiredme to go into TV and film in the
first place when I got toschool.
That when I went to college,that's when I really got into
(06:03):
children's TV and the kind ofcool experimental ways you could
take that I just felt like alot of people tend to kind of
dumb down and shit on kids TV,but I feel like there is a few
are watching the right shows,there's definitely a level of
sophistication and there's someweird experimental stuff that
they can get away with therethat I feel like doesn't happen
(06:26):
necessarily in adult TV.
So that was kind of my goal forlike my second half of college.
That's when I really kind oflike found that weird niche and
then, yeah, I wound up yearslater.
I wound up at Titmouse Animation, which is the animation studio
that does Vox Machina, and I wasthe executive assistant to the
(06:52):
head of that studio for twoyears and when I was ready to
make my move and we were lookingfor, I knew I wanted to write
at that point and we werelooking for like a good show
that was at the studio that Icould potentially move over to a
script coordinator.
There was a show that camethrough the studio or that was
coming through the studio,called the Midnight Gospel,
which, for those of you who areunfamiliar it's a very short
(07:14):
show, only ran one season, 10episodes on Netflix.
It's by Pendleton Ward andDuncan Tressel.
Pendleton Ward is the creatorof Adventure Time, for those who
don't know, and Duncan Tresselis a comedian who has his own
podcast and that was a veryadult show and I was obviously a
(07:35):
fan of Penn Ward and kind ofinterested in the show and they
needed a writer's assistantscript coordinator.
I was actually kind of hesitantto take to kind of go for it at
first because of my kind ofHeadspace, of being like I do
kids TV, I want to do kids TVlike I.
(07:56):
Like there's lots of other kidsshows at the studio.
I should, I want to do one ofthose, and my boss at the time
was really the one who likepushed me.
He's like no, no, no, you wantit, you want to go for this show
.
This show is gonna be, even ifit, even if it goes one season
or a million seasons, so we arereally good show to like have on
your resume and work with thesepeople.
Very grateful that he did that.
(08:16):
And that was kind of my firstForay into adult animation and I
really loved it and realizedthat the original thing that
drew me to TV and film was kindof these fantasy worlds and
fantastical settings and therewas still a space For that in
adult animation.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
So yeah, and you know just to to put out there you
and I actually met on a very,very big, well-known kids show.
We met working on Sesame Streettogether.
What's yeah?
What seasons were you there?
43 and 44 yeah, I've, I've doneSesame Street, for I Feel like
(08:58):
20 years now.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I feel like 20 years so, and I feel like the only
reason I know that so quickly isbecause now my nephew is two
and a half and he is watchingSesame Street and I tried I Well
, I watched them with him and Itried to get him really to think
I'm cool, I want to be the cool.
And I tried again to think thatI'm cool by showing him the
episode that I was an extra in,and he did not give a shit.
(09:24):
He was just Extremelyunimpressed, didn't?
I had different color hair, sothat was kind of it.
He looked at me and was justlike that's not you like you did
have different color hair.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
You, if I recall correctly, you looked oddly
similar To Carly Rae Jepsen whenI met you.
I mean you had the samehairstyle, the same haircut your
face.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I should, I should, I should do my hairstyle like her
because she's blonde now, andthen I could just, you know, be
her number one snacker fan.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
That's what drew me to you was I've continually made
fun of the fact that you lookedlike Carly Rae Jepsen.
I mean, oddly, like Carly RaeJepsen, she also um, you worked
in child talent and, fun fact,my napping couch was in the
child talent office.
It's where I like to nap duringthe day.
(10:17):
It's my napping couch.
I mean, look, if you work andyou have the opportunity to have
a napping couch, you shouldhave a napping couch.
And I did.
Yeah, it was in that office.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Imagine if that wasn't your napping couch, or if
I had a different job on theshow, like if I had been a PA or
in the production bullpen orwhatever.
Or they had like what would ourlives be now?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
So Fox Machina, let's talk about it.
I mean it is, it's everywhere,it's it's critical role.
They obviously, if you guysdon't know who critical role are
, they are very well-knownDungeons and Dragons streaming
and podcast group.
They they kind of Are one ofthe the people that really
(11:05):
helped Shape Dungeons andDragons into what it is today,
which right now is actually.
You know, the fandom is stillkind of up in arms against, but
but it really helped bring Roleplaying, tabletop gaming, to the
forefront.
Them and I would say,acquisitions incorporated, which
I was always a bigger fan of.
(11:25):
The critical role.
But you know groups like that.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, especially on streaming and being able to have
access to D&D.
If, as a viewer and as a casualperson, I think D&D when I was
growing up was such this therewas, it's felt like there was
such a high point to entry andSeeing other people play too
(11:49):
many roles.
Yeah, and just you know, itfelt like, yeah, it felt like
you had to go home and Read for10 hours before you could even
start a game and you needed allthese things and you're like
what even?
Is it like?
Are we role playing?
Are we just sitting there likewhat is what is it exactly?
And then that you know, now youcan actually watch other people
(12:10):
do it before you dive in, soyou're kind of know what you're
getting yourself into so Explainhow you first came to to link
up with Vox Machina.
So yeah, that's all goes back toworking at tip mouse animation
week.
Two or three of me having thejob at tip mouse, my boss At the
(12:36):
time, chris Pernosky great man,wonderful, wonderful guy.
He had me set a meeting.
They were the Critical role waswanted to come in and Pitch.
And I came in, pitch an ideafor this show.
They've been trying to.
They've been teasing of ourlike joking about doing an
animated series on their streamfor a while and but it was one
(13:00):
of those kind of pipe dreamthings and I think they finally
were like well, let's see if wecan actually do this.
So they came in to pitch it totip mouse and I was already a
fan at that point.
I knew who they were.
You know I played D&D's and I'dknown about them and other
other that whole world and so Iwas like very excited about it
(13:22):
and Chris was very excited aboutto.
He loves D&D.
But I think his hesitation washe was a little worried.
He was like you know, I knowthis Streaming D&D, streaming
stuff is getting really popular,but like I'm an old school guy,
you know, I just I just want toplay it.
I don't want to watch otherpeople play it like how
sustainable is it?
Like, is it popular withstaying powers?
(13:43):
It's just like trendy, popularand.
But I think, like he quicklyrealized like oh no, no, this is
like legit.
This is, this has got a fanbase that's gonna Stay around.
And so he started gettingreally into it.
And so, yeah, for like theentirety of my two years of
being his assistant, they wereworking on the show and
developing the show and tryingto get it ready to pitch and
(14:07):
they that's when they.
Then, when I was on MidnightGospel sorry, trying to get my
timeline straight when I was inMidnight Gospel Working on that
show, I had already finishedbeing his assistant or moved on
was screw-cornered on MidnightGospel.
That's when the kick started,dropped and Quickly broke a lot
(14:30):
of records and got lots of lotsand lots of money.
And they realized, oh, I Thinkwe have enough money.
They were originally just gonnado like 40, 45 minute short or
pilot presentation With the ideaof like, hey, let's just get a
bunch of money to do a pilot,because the big issue is selling
into networks at that time, andStill a lot today is fantasies
for kids.
Everyone, they knew they weregonna keep hitting the wall of
(14:53):
like everyone being like this isgreat.
We love your subscriber count,we love how many fans you've got
.
Let, it's got a built-inaudience, but can you make it
for kids Because it's fantasy?
So they were like we reallyneed to have something to show
why it needs to be for adults.
So the idea was to get money todo like 20 to 40 minute
(15:14):
Animation.
But then they got enough moneyto do a whole first season.
So I Reached out to them whilethe Kickstarter was still going,
like being like hey, I thinkyou guys are gonna have enough
money to do a whole season.
Are you gonna be looking for a?
Are you gonna be looking for aCrew coordinator or writers
assistant because my show isgonna wrap?
(15:34):
So that was a nice they were.
And then, yeah, they were supersweet and they obviously I'd
been able to Build arelationship with them over the
two years, so I was able to moveover there when I wrapped on
Midnight Gospel and then waspromoted staff writer Partway
through, I think.
See it between season one andtwo.
(15:55):
So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
So I have a confession.
You're one of your, one of mydearest friends on the planet,
and I haven't watched FoxMocking.
I've watched the episodes thatyou wrote specifically yes.
But I don't remember that.
Look, here's my problem, rightI?
So I was exposed to the live.
(16:20):
You know, the bigger D&D stuffI want to say was acquisitions
incorporated.
They did a stage thing thatended up being shown in theaters
and I went to a theater towatch something else, and I
think I'm gonna be telling methe story and and so I just was
like, well, whatever, I'm justgonna walk into this thing.
Because it was a live event, Ifigured I would check it out.
(16:41):
And the place was packed.
I mean the seats were just Um,absolutely I couldn't believe
the number of people that werein there.
And I watched it and I was likeI didn't get it.
I mean, I'm gonna be honest, Ididn't get it.
And I've played D&D.
I like I love tabletop gamingand board games and RPG, video
games and whatever.
(17:03):
I just I I'm not into watchingother people play the game as
much as I'm into playing itmyself.
So I kind of let those guys go.
And I had always heard aboutcritical role.
And then so Everyone's like yougot to watch him, you got to
watch him and after watching theproduction value of
acquisitions Inc.
And then go into critical role,I was like oh, oh.
(17:27):
But everyone's like no, there'sstill, it's just better
storytelling.
It's just you got to watch this, and so from, I just couldn't
get into it.
So then obviously the cartooncomes out and I know you're
involved and I'm like I'm gonna,I'm gonna watch this, like I'm
gonna, I'm gonna get all in, I'mgonna support you, and then I
just I Feel like my bias towardscritical role Carried over into
(17:54):
me watching the cartoon,because I remember sitting
through the first episode saying, what am I like, why am I
watching this?
And I fell asleep.
I.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Mean, it's not in common.
For you know, d&d streaming canbe really hard.
That's another talk about highpoint of entry.
To get into that, like you know, those episodes are long.
I struggle to watch.
I have mostly I when I I haveto listen like just do the
podcast version of them Forwhatever reason.
Maybe it's just how my brainworks, like if I'm doing
something else and I'm listening, I can focus so much better on
(18:28):
the story than if I'm actuallywatching them play, which seems
counterintuitive.
So I actually normally do that.
And but I will say productionvalue, they've gotten a lot more
money in the most in the morerecent campaign, so they're
definitely, you know they've gottheir own studios now, so so
(18:55):
you, you worked on season one,you worked on season two, season
three.
Yes, yes, season three is in theworks.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
In the works did.
Did you write episodes?
Have you written any episodesfor season three?
Yes okay, all right, but we'renot.
We can't talk about them andtalk about them.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I don't know when it'll come out.
I I Animation takes a long time, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
So let's talk about your, the writing process for
the episodes you wrote forseasons one and two.
So so you're, obviously you'renot yeah, so Obviously, as the
staff writer, obviously you'rethe writer that stays on After
the scripts are written to helpmake changes and edits and
whatever right.
(19:44):
But then you write episodes aswell, and so, but you're not the
only writer.
So is it difficult writing anepisode for a series where
Because critical role, the, the,the people themselves are
writers, right, like they'rewriting their own adventures?
If you, it just seems likethere's a lot of writers.
So how much?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I think it was it.
It was.
I mean, I looked it wasn'treally the I would say the one
Person like the one person thatwas like the hardest to compete
with in terms of the story wasjust like this adaptation and
the kind of expectation that wefelt the audience was gonna have
(20:30):
.
That was like the hardest thing.
I think the cast in general wassuper gracious about like us
taking liberties and doing whatwe had to do to Condense
everything down, because youknow it's hours and hours and
hours of content being condenseddown into 22-minute episodes.
Some of them, for the most part, they were really cool with it
and yeah, they're all you knowwriters and stuff, but I think
(20:51):
they they were very respectfulof the fact that you know
animation and storytellingthrough animation was like you
know the writers that theybrought on.
That was, you know our medium,we, we know this format and how
to tell a story in this format.
So I think they were very opento that um, collaboration, um,
but yeah, I think and they werealso excited to try new things
(21:14):
with this and go differentdirections to kind of subvert
fan expectations too.
So it was honestly like a loteasier than I thought it would
be.
I thought it would be a lot ofcare-pulling and just like that,
being like, listen, you get it,we can't tell a word for word
remake of the show.
That's not gonna work.
Um, it's just it would beimpossible or you could do it
(21:38):
but you would need a hundredtimes the budget.
So, um, but yeah, and they werein the writers room.
It was like we kind of forseason, we kind of did it the
similar for the first coupleseasons where we would do like a
big summit with all the writersfor a few weeks and the cast
(21:58):
would kind of join sometimes tokind of listen in.
Or if we knew we were going tobe breaking an episode that
heavily involved their character, they would come in case we had
questions or wanted to throwout suggestions or like
different ideas that like theircharacter could be doing and
they could kind of the other.
The other hard thing with this,not only being characters they
(22:19):
created, but dnd characters is Ithink there's just such,
there's another layer of feeling, that personal connection to
your character when you'vecreated a dnd character and
you've lived a dnd character.
Um, so at some sometimes itfelt like if we wanted to try
something new with theircharacters, uh, and they didn't
like it.
It wasn't just that they didn'tlike it for that character,
(22:41):
it's like they didn't almostlike it for themselves.
Like it was like this wholeother level of consent.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I felt like we had to navigate um with them so who
was your favorite of the cast towork with and who was your
least favorite controversial?
You have to answer both after.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
No, we gotta do, um, you gotta do something.
You gotta do like, uh, andyCohen's plead the fifth, so that
I can like give me an option todo something to plead the fifth
, um, I mean, all right, who wasyour favorite?
Speaker 1 (23:11):
who was my favorite everyone's allowed a favorite um
, for example, watch I'll gofirst of all of the casting
assistants at sesame, you weremy favorite singing it's very
easy.
Of all of them, you were myfavorite.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I they were all.
They all like brought suchdifferent energies to their um.
I think, like the person who Iobviously like geeked out the
most about who I was just like Ican't believe we're listening
like every day of the week.
I'm like, oh, we're listeningto just like hours of him.
Additionally, world buildingwas Matt Mercer, obviously, um,
(23:56):
like that was great.
I I also the person who I hadalways just like looked up to
the most and was like oh, I,she's so badass was Laura Bailey
.
So that was just really cool tobe in a writer's room with her
um, and then uh, but, uh, butI'm gonna say something nice
(24:17):
about everyone, because I justlike Marisha Ray was also really
badass.
I love her, like her um.
And then so say something niceabout everybody keep going yeah,
uh, yeah they were.
They were also great.
Um, sam and Travis were likeare the kind of spearheaders of
it and they're, they were thepeople who, um, they brought me
on originally and I will justalways have soft spot in my
(24:41):
heart for them.
And there they were really goodabout reigning everyone in and
and getting everyone, becauselike we could have gone on for
like 10 drafts of a script withthem giving notes and like they
were just amazing at reigningeveryone in getting everyone on
the same page, being like greatwe could.
We could take this story in 10different directions, but like
(25:02):
this is where we gotta go, um.
And then, uh, ashley and andTaliesin I will say it's funny
because there's like certainpeople who were like certain
seasons they were like I'm not,I don't really want to be
involved in writing, and thenlater they were just like way
more into it.
Um, like I feel like I didn'tsee Ashley and Taliesin a lot in
the beginning and then they gotreally involved, like later, um
(25:25):
, which was cool.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Ta-da, this is gonna be a fun question.
Did have you played D&D withthem, right?
I knew you were a D&D player atsome point.
Did you ever, you ever say hey,I'm gonna join the campaign or
say hey, come join my campaign.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
No, but I have.
Um, I have run a couple D&Dcampaigns for people on the, for
other people on the crew.
Um, I ran one when we firststarted.
There was like we, when westill had a pretty small crew,
like it was just likepre-production people and like
our production manager, andthere were a few people who had
never played D&D before.
(26:04):
So I ran a special game forpeople specifically who, like
didn't really have anyfamiliarity with D&D so they
could kind of get into it, um,and then, uh, yeah, and then I
ran a second game later, um withother, with other crew people,
(26:25):
but yeah, I've never played,unfortunately.
Um, I have sat at the table, atthe critical table, but so we
have actually talked about doinga D&D stream.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You know, playing a game, I mean, I've talked about
putting it together and youplaying in it, yeah, but.
But my problem is the samething as with this podcast I I
don't half-ass anything, and soI I keep taking the time to put
stuff together for it, and Ifeel like I spend more time
building something than I doactually doing it uh-huh, uh-huh
(27:02):
but, uh, I mean, it's gonnahappen one day and I feel like
we have a great group of people,which I'm not gonna mention
everybody now, but I feel likeit's gonna happen.
So sit tight, we're gonna.
We're gonna have a campaign.
It's gonna be ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I'm gonna show something, but I actually I'm
gonna say I'm gonna change myanswer.
Travis is my favorite becauseTravis gave me this it's a
signed can of strong jaw ale andhe said I signed your name so
that you couldn't sell it andwhy would?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
why would you want to sell it?
Speaker 2 (27:38):
I laughed at that.
Um yeah, I was like like no,that's gonna.
I was like I was like what am Igonna do?
Speaker 1 (27:46):
yeah, I'm not selling that, but yeah, so there are
some people in the chat thatthat I think have have some
questions right um which I wantto.
I'm gonna open it up to some ofthem for uh, but, by the way,
there's a fan in the chat ofmidnight gospel uh-huh that
(28:09):
gospel was very trippy, lovesmidnight gospel, so so if you
want to ask any midnight gospelquestions, or whatever, ask any
question you want, she will takethe questions.
But but we're gonna, we'regonna do it with a little bit of
a, a little bit of a twist, umon the script, because, because,
because vox machina is a dndshow, uh, we're gonna put a
(28:36):
little dnd spin on this and onthe screen we have a d20 when
you ask the question, when Ipose the question to her, we are
going to roll the d20 if it'sfor a knowledge check.
Obviously for those of you whodon't play dnd, we have to do a
knowledge check for her.
If we roll a 12 or higher, sheknows ever she can answer the
(28:59):
question in all honesty.
I mean, she might not knowanything.
That might be the right answer.
That she may not be able toanswer the question, but she can
.
She can go on with everythingshe wants.
If it's between like an eightand 11, she, she's gonna, she's
gonna give a tiny answer.
Just, she knows a littlesomething about it, anything
(29:20):
less than eight, and she knowsnothing about the question
you're asking, but will bullshitan answer just to make you feel
good and make you feel likeyou've had your question
answered, because I don't wantto, I don't want to leave
anybody feeling, um, like they,like they weren't, they weren't
heard.
So so if, if anybody has aquestion that they would like to
(29:41):
ask, we, we will ask, and thenwe will roll the d20 and we will
, we will see and you, mary, youcan see the d20 on your screen
right yes, yes I can okay.
So, uh, anybody in chat, anybodywith questions, it's.
The chat has now has now slowedto a crawl.
When I pawn, that's.
(30:02):
I feel like we asked thatquestion, but I'm, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna roll it, I'm gonnaroll pawn.
Pawn wants to know what yourfavorite show you worked on is,
ever of any show you've everworked on, we're gonna roll the
d20, remember 12 or 12 or betteryou can answer it on it.
You know big eight to eightthrough 11.
Answer it small, just quick.
Answer anything under that lie,just lie at 19 it's almost a
(30:26):
perfect 20.
You go ahead and answer how.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
What's your favorite show you ever worked on okay,
well, I will say, um, and Ithink most people have, uh, in
in LA, we have very shortattention spans, um, uh, so I
feel like most people are gonnagive you answers about stuff.
I, the show I'm working onright now, um, which is, uh, I'm
(30:49):
working on an unannounceddisney show.
Um, I would say the crew on theshow is just a goddamn delight.
Uh, they are so lovely.
Um, I also feel like maybe it'sbecause it's the first show I
worked on, um, that's somewhatthat's hybrid, back in the
office and everyone is justcoming out of.
It's like the first suit roundof shows this past year that
(31:12):
have been somewhat in person.
Um, so people are reallyexcited to be back and
socializing with people, so thatmight also be it.
Um, the show that, uh, yeah, so, yeah, that's my answer about
that, but I feel like I give alittle more because it rolled in
19.
I think the show that I was themost excited to and I knew the
(31:34):
most about and like ended upbeing just this crazy experiment
or experience, was obviouslyVox Machina.
Working on that was just adream come true and that's been
really cool and still.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah, the chat wants to know if you have a favorite
character on Vox.
Maybe, wait, and we're going tophrase this two ways A favorite
character personally and afavorite character to write.
And we're going to, we're goingto roll the d20.
We're going to do a knowledgecheck here.
Does, does she know what herfavorite characters are?
(32:13):
Do you want to roll the d?
You want to roll a knowledgecheck for both or just for for
each question individually?
Yeah, let's do that?
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Do it?
Do it for both, because if Idon't know how to have answer
that unless there's two parts toit.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Oh okay, so then here we go.
Then here we go, we're rollingthe d20.
Let's go.
Oh no, I need to need tobullshit the answer.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Gotta bullshit.
The answer, you know what is.
What is Vox Machina Does ithave doesn't really have
individual characters withindividual traits.
I feel like my favoritecharacter is probably just you
know how, in Cheers, the bar wasa character and I feel like I'm
on the city that they're in.
(33:00):
Is there's really character initself and I think that's you
know, just just the world's andthe big Xandria itself is my
favorite character.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Okay, what are some highs and lows with working on
shows with big production valuecompared to something where the
budget is tight?
Here we go.
We're going to, we're going to.
We got to do a knowledge check,here we go.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
All right, I can't just dance.
Oh no, I think like it's justreally cool when you have all
this money and you're just like,wow, I can just do anything I
want.
There's no limitationswhatsoever, what like budgets
don't exist.
(33:46):
That's a really cool part.
And it's really cool whenyou're working on a big, major
property and you have absolutelyand you don't have any legal
oversight.
You don't have to worry aboutS&P, you don't have to worry
about any lawyers or anythinglike that.
(34:06):
Everyone's just really chill.
When you have a ton of money towork on a show, you know no
one's investing a lot, and thenwhen you're working, when you're
working on a show with no money, it's just I love kind of the
heroin chic look and justlooking like I haven't slept in
(34:27):
12 days and you know I'm notworried about paying my rent at
the end of the month.
That's really fun.
That's my favorite part.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Hey, hey guys.
Also, we're going to do atrivia with Meredith where it's
going to be a generic nerdtrivia While we're answering the
next couple of questions.
If you type plus one in thechat, you're going to be up for
a prize.
If she gets the questionscorrect, you win a prize.
(35:02):
If she gets the questions wrong, no prize for you.
So go ahead and just type plusone in the chat, literally just
the plus sign on the number one,and it'll look like like this
Boom and get yourself in there.
So see, are there any morequestions or any other good
(35:24):
questions?
Let's see.
Let's see.
Um, a couple people said yourwork is incredible.
Your work is incredible, whichis just so, so lovely.
(35:49):
Um.
I don't know anything you wantto talk about while we're, while
I'm looking for perusing thechat here for the questions- Um,
I can talk about.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
I just got a really funny email that someone that I
work with accidentally sent acompany wide email.
I was intended for one person.
That's funny.
Let's see, is it an olderperson?
Speaker 1 (36:28):
or is it a younger person?
Because?
I feel like younger people noware way more guilty of sending
incorrect.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Um, so it's just, it's, I'm, I'm, I feel I just
want to go give them a hug rightnow.
It's like when um, what was itwhen?
The HBO sent out that email toall its subscribers the test
email and they, I, the entireworld, was just like
collectively, like let's go givethat intern a big hug, like we
feel so bad for.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
So if there's, if there's no other questions,
we're going to move on, we'regoing to, we're going to roll
this, uh, this, this, this, uh,this chat thing.
We're going to see who who'sgoing to, who's going to play
for prize.
Oh wait, we have anotherquestion.
Oh boy, by the way, man, man,okay, you, uh, you have, you
(37:22):
have won the prize.
It says write something in thechat to claim your prize.
You have 20, 22 seconds frombotrix, by the way.
So, okay, we're going to, uh,we're going to roll.
The question is what show haveyou worked on in the past where
you missed the crew a lot?
And it's a 14,.
You have all the knowledge forthis one.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
It's weird because I'm.
It's funny because I'm on ashow right now, but like it
doesn't have a lot.
I've never worked with most ofthe people before, but it's
right next to a show that has alot of people I've worked with
before, so it's kind of like Ihaven't even left.
I really miss the MidnightGospel people.
We had such a solid productionteam and in animation your
(38:06):
production team really makes forBreaks a Show.
I always said like I mean,artists are amazing and they
have the most.
Like their gifts are likeGod-given, it is beautiful.
But like you can draw prettypictures all day if no one knows
where to find them and put themtogether, then you're screwed.
(38:28):
So I truly like whenever theyreally taught me how to make
sure I know who is on theproduction side before saying
yes to a show, because that showitself could have just been an
absolute hot mess and disasterjust because of all of the
elements in that show andthere's no, there's very little
(38:50):
reuse because every episode isin a different location.
That show really could havebeen a nightmare if we did not
have such a strong, solidproduction team and I miss them
and I'm still on a group, chatwith them and talk to them all
the time.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Oh, by the way, there is a reminder in chat to a
friendly reminder to remember todrink water.
Remember to drink water.
We're going to do an initiativecheck.
Does she remember to drinkwater?
Let's, we're rolling forinitiative.
No, she does not remember todrink water.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
I don't get to have my Marco Rubio moment, Meredith.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Meredith, Meredith, she's going to.
I do actually remember to drinkwater.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Okay, can I drink?
Can I drink a?
Speaker 1 (39:30):
No, go ahead, have a water, go ahead, you're fine.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
I live in LA, I'm constantly dehydrated.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
I live in the East Coast.
I'm constantly dehydrated rightnow.
Okay, so we're going to playsome trivia.
You, before the show, you havepre-selected some trivia
categories.
The one category that the topof your list was Lord of the
Rings, and what's the Caviar?
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah, I know all these topics very well.
I'm very familiar with allthese topics.
I'm terrible at trivia and havea shit memory, so Listen,
listen, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
You're playing for Mano right now, you know.
Let's see if you can win Mano aprize.
You know, what's funny is, youkind of gave yourself away a
little bit before, when we weretesting the stream.
You saw the trivia questions.
You're like, oh yo, I got theseanswers, so I made the
questions a little harder.
Okay, good, and these questionscome courtesy of dorky geeky
(40:25):
nerdy.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
And here we go.
First question Do not meddle inthe affairs of who?
For their subtle and quick toanger.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Do not meddle in the affairs of elves Such a final
answer.
I can't.
I'm going to say yes becauseyou're, you always do that, you
always try and hey.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
What's the elves called Gandalf?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Um, um, uh, I know this, I can imagine them saying
it.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
These are really hard questions.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
No, this one is not a hard question.
I should know this.
I've like it's in the booksmany times.
Um, but yeah, my, my ADD brainwill not pull it out, sorry, oh,
miss, miss Randi.
Yes, pippin's full name.
Uh, pippin Randy.
(41:34):
Buck Herodron.
Oh yeah, mary Doc.
Oh yeah, the other one, allright listen, I'm going to.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
We're going to back this up a little bit.
We're going to back this up alittle bit.
We're going to make this easierfor Mano to win.
Sorry, mano, we're we're goingto go.
We're going to go to someeasier questions for her.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
I know Sam Tony's name.
I knew the next one.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Oh, yeah, did you.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah, it's Bill.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
All right, here we go .
Get in here.
Before it was called Golem,what was he known as?
It's me Goll.
I mean, I don't think he getsany easier than that.
Frodo's shirt of mail is madefrom what fictional metal?
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Me Thrill.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Oops, it is.
How many members are there inthe fellowship?
Nine, there are nine.
There are nine.
Legolas Hales, from what Forest?
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Um what, uh God, it's uh LaFlorin.
No Um is it LaFlorin.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
I think it's Merckwood.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Merckwood.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
It is Merckwood.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Merckwood Okay.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Sorry, that's a wrong question.
It's a wrong answer.
What character?
Speaker 2 (43:05):
initially goes by the name Strider Ergorn.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Ergorn is correct.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
I got to go.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Oh God, what creature did Gandalf say could not pass?
Speaker 2 (43:14):
The Balrog.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
The Balrog.
What inn do the hobbits go toin Bree?
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Um the Prancing Pony.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
It is the Prancing Pony.
What is the name of Elrond'shome, God?
These questions are easy.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Rivendale.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
It is Rivendale, Is the name of Frodo's sword Um the
one that Bilbo gives him, theGlows Blue when Orcs near.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Um, dabby, I don't know.
Sting, sting, yes, oh my God.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Who was Faramir's brother?
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Boromir it was.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Boromir, that's right .
Somebody says that they're on acall with a prank person.
I want to be on a call with aprank person.
Why don't I get to be on a callwith a prank person?
What were the other categoriesthat you said you were good at?
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Uh, I didn't say.
I never said if you looked atemail legal.
I did not say I was good atthese, I just said I would do
Pixar.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Oh, you said Pixar.
Hold on, I want to do the Pixarone with you.
We'll do the easy Pixar one.
Um, because I don't thinkyou're going to get it.
I'm going to be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Really.
Yeah, it's probably like theydo a bunch of their shorts,
which I I, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
I just feel like it's going to be too, too nerdy.
Okay, what's the name of thelamp that serves as the Pisk
pick?
It serves as the mascot forPixar.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
I as a name, as in it .
Is it picks?
Is it lamp Luxo?
Speaker 1 (44:48):
Junior.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Luxo Junior.
I love to tell my nephew Um, soI was.
I was with my nephew last weekand, uh, I was watching him and
he wanted.
He was like I want to watchsomething.
And I was like what do you wantto watch?
And he, he was just like thething with the bouncing lamp.
And I was like I was like what?
And then I finally figured itout and I was like, oh, buddy,
(45:10):
do I got some exciting news foryou?
There's so many movies thathave the bouncing lamp at the
beginning.
We can, we can watch this onrepeat.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
I mean, as somebody who works in animation, I feel
like you should just be able tofire off the answer to every one
of these questions, but I knowyou're not going to be able to.
What actor has voicedcharacters in every Pixar film?
Speaker 2 (45:27):
Um uh, john Markhamel .
Speaker 1 (45:30):
John.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Ratsenberger, john Ratsenberger, john Ratsenberger.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
You know what?
I don't know that from workingin animation.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
I know that from when I was a worked at a voiceover
agency.
Because he was a.
He was one of our clients,really yeah, along with Mark
Hamill.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
So is that?
Is that how you became known asMark Hamill's best friend?
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Yes, that is how I earned that nickname.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
What movies?
Pictures only prequel.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Prequel.
I Know this, so I don't wait.
(46:17):
I'm blanking, I know like, oh,I Keep going back to Toy Story,
but those movies were all inorder.
Those weren't prequels.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
All right, I'm gonna have to call it so sorry.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
I'm sorry, monster university, oh my god yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Lightning McQueen's number oh.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Gosh, I should know that.
I think I know this.
So, like I know this, it's like23 year, I Think it's 95 was
the year that story came out.
That makes sense.
Yeah, probably 95 95.
You knew that.
You knew the second one what?
Speaker 1 (47:05):
what fashion designer has an aversion to capes?
Speaker 2 (47:08):
in the mood.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
What is the name of the monstrous Baron brave?
Speaker 2 (47:18):
Um only seen brave like two, a couple, two times,
so I do not know.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
More do, more do.
But by the way, our mod Donsays he would be kicking our
butts in this Route 66.
What town do Maynard, sally andDoc all call home?
Speaker 2 (47:41):
what town Radiator Springs?
Speaker 1 (47:45):
Right Radiator Springs.
We know he's just firing theanswers off.
The phrase Dia de los muertoswas almost trademarked in
anticipation of what film.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Coco.
Coco they tried to try totrademark that because, oh my
god, that's stupid.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
We can know there's a woman in Baltimore who
trademarked the word hun andBecame like the villain of the
city.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
Yeah, it's just great .
I guess she she gave thetrademark back.
It was an episode of GordonRamsay's kitchen nightmares
Because she had a restaurantthat literally nobody would go
to, because she was the villainof the city.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
Is he trademarked on?
Speaker 1 (48:29):
because she trained mark ton and finding Dory Hank
has described as what kind ofcreature.
Speaker 2 (48:36):
She is the Hink, the octopus.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
He is.
He is an octopus, oh.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
But it's more specific than that.
It's like yes.
Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
Aceptopus, because he only has seven arms.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
What 2003 short feature to jaggle open a shy
sheep?
Speaker 2 (49:02):
Isn't it like bounding or bounce the one where
that Bounding?
Speaker 1 (49:07):
Don bet you didn't know that one.
Don bet you didn't know thatone.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Truly don't know where I found that one nugget in
my brain.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
Can clear that out for some of that.
Speaker 2 (49:18):
Lord of the Rings, knowledge more important see
this was fun.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
Trivia was fun.
Who said you suck at trivia?
I did.
I feel like we should do aroundwhere we have to roll and do a
knowledge check.
You know if you actually youknow Harry Potter.
(49:42):
You're Harry Potter fiend,Mm-hmm.
But we can look back on thismoment and remember the times
that you messed up Harry Pottertrivia.
How do you feel about HarryPotter and the Sorcerer's Stone?
Speaker 2 (49:54):
I mean, I feel like I'm like I try, I'm sure I don't
know.
Uh, okay, I could do that.
I haven't run them in a reallylong time, my my, my fandom has
my fandom has waned in recentyears.
I'm like not that on Top ofHarry Potter anymore.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
Here we go.
I Just think it would be funnyto have you have to answer the
questions wrong, oh.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
God, I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
I wouldn't be able to answer any of these questions.
Oh no, oh no, here we go.
Let's just give it a shotbefore you answer.
Do you know that you know theanswer?
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Chat, do you think she knows the answer?
She, she seems very, very sureof herself.
Let's see, I don't.
I don't think she knows theanswer, meredith, what's?
Speaker 2 (50:53):
the answer the answer is Three magic place.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
So sorry.
It's number four, private drive, don.
You were wrong too, don, sosorry.
What's what's Harry's birthday?
Do you know the answer?
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Um, I think so.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Oh, hold on, let's see.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
I know at least the month.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Okay, yeah, you can know it.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (51:22):
Can I just say, I just know it's in July.
I think it's July 11th or July31st, 31st, okay.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
What is the title of the first chapter I?
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Know that.
Speaker 1 (51:40):
But do you know it?
Let's find out with a knowledgecheck.
You do know it.
What is, what is it?
The boy who lived the boy wholived is correct.
Go ahead.
Ron tries to turn scammers.
What color Do you?
Speaker 2 (51:59):
know the answer.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
Do you know it?
I believe so.
Does she know it with aknowledge?
Oh, you don't know it.
I'm so sorry.
I Rainbow.
If you did know what was yourguess.
Yellow yeah, you know the chat,the chat screaming yellow, and
yellow is the answer.
What color is the ink onHarry's letters from Hogwarts?
(52:23):
Do you know it?
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Maybe I.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Mean you definitely don't.
But go ahead and make the guessanyway, because it's a guess an
actual guess, I think it'smaybe green.
Like the chat says red, surveysays Yo, it's green.
How did the girl guessing getit in y'all?
And chat who's so sure that youhad it?
Speaker 2 (52:50):
Here's the thing it's not a memory based on, like the
words in the book or anything.
It's memory of my memory, ofthe image of.
So I was like if it's what itwas in the movies, it's green,
but I wasn't sure if that's whatit was.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Whose bike does Hagrid borrow to bring Harry to
his aunt and uncle's house?
Speaker 2 (53:10):
I know this.
Speaker 1 (53:12):
Like you definitely definitely know it.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
But do you know it?
Do you know it?
Does chat know it?
You do know it?
What's the answer?
Serious black.
It is serious black.
Come on, this is a fun game.
Hmm, who is the first Weasleythat Harry meets?
Do you know it?
Speaker 2 (53:43):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
Well, I mean, the knowledge check says you know it
.
So what is the answer?
Speaker 2 (53:49):
I think it's a true question, percy Weasley.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
Oh, Mrs Molly Weasley .
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
The mountain troll invades Hogwarts.
On what day?
Speaker 2 (54:04):
Okay, yeah, I know it .
Speaker 1 (54:07):
But do you?
Um, yeah, just a quick answer.
Speaker 2 (54:14):
Halloween.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
It is Halloween.
What kind of owl is Hedwig?
Okay, do you know it?
Do you know it?
Speaker 2 (54:24):
Uh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:27):
Of course you know it .
What's the answer?
Speaker 2 (54:29):
A snowy owl, if that's Snowy owl?
Speaker 1 (54:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (54:32):
Okay, I wasn't sure if that was like the actual
scientific brief.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
Who teaches history of magic?
Do you know it?
Speaker 2 (54:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
But does she know it With a knowledge check?
The knowledge check says youknow it, professor Bins.
Professor Bins, see, see.
Trivia can be fun Trivia can befun.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
Trivia can be fun.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
Trivia can be fun.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
I retained a lot more that I thought I had.
Speaker 1 (55:04):
I think the D20 is fun too.
Like I feel like that shouldjust be a bit that persists
through my um, through thispodcast.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
I liked coming up with like the fake answers.
That was fun.
Speaker 1 (55:18):
Do you want to answer any of the questions for real,
like um?
Is there some of the highs andlows with working on shows with
big budgets?
Compared to when, were thebudgets tight?
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Yeah, I think it really comes down to where it
depends on where the money'sbeing allocated.
Like, I've worked on shows withreally big budgets but it was
all ballooned for talent, um,and so it was still really
stressful on the crew and Iworked on really low budget
stuff, but it felt about thesame because we were in the
(55:56):
similar situation.
I think, uh, more money justgives you more people, so it's a
lot less workload and more ormore worked load to go around,
like you can spread it out, soit's just uh can feel less
stressful at that point.
Um, but I will say, usuallywith bigger budget shows comes
(56:18):
bigger budget problems.
Usually the networks have a lotmore opinions and are way more
stressed and way more uh overyour shoulder while you're doing
everything, because they'revery nervous about their like
very expensive investmentRightfully so, like they want to
make sure you're doing your jobcorrectly.
When they put a lot more moneyon the line, um, whereas, like,
a show like Midnight Gospel wasa lot lower budget, um, if, by
(56:43):
you know Netflix standards, itwas definitely a lower budget
show for them.
Um, but it uh, it was definitelyreally tight crew and, um, that
one was also the cool thingabout Midnight Gospel versus
like Vox, machina or the showthat I'm working on now, is that
was all animated in-house so wedid not ship uh the show
(57:06):
anywhere um to actually beanimated.
A lot of shows in the US umlike the pre-production and
boarding and editing theanimatic and all the way up to
that phase is done in the US andthen it's sent somewhere to
another country where it'scheaper to animate Um oftentimes
Korea.
We have, uh Tim House hasanother studio in Vancouver
(57:27):
which it'll ship kind of toitself um, or even sometimes
it'll be shipped within the US,like to New York um every, uh
pretty much every other stateoutside of California has really
good tax breaks, so it canoften be cheaper to do parts of
production in other states orother countries Um Canada also
gives really good tax breaks,especially for animation Um.
Speaker 1 (57:50):
So yeah, I feel that that's killed the industry in
California in general.
Right, I mean not justanimation, but I mean look at
the number of productions thathave moved to Atlanta.
I mean Vancouver was always ahotbed of of production, but you
know Louisiana has gottenreally big recently in New York,
I mean they don't.
They don't stop buildingstudios in New York and New
Jersey too.
Speaker 2 (58:11):
There's a we can never like Canada will give us
like half of the money back andlike tax breaks if we hire
Canadian people, like if we hireCanadian animators and stuff,
um, you can make like half ofyour budget through that.
And I think New York, you getlike a third back.
Um, if you hire New York people, um, and I'm assuming they're
(58:34):
similar in other in other places, and then obviously if you go
overseas, it's, you know, laborin general is cheaper and that's
a whole other fun economicstory.
Um, so yeah, india is gettingactually really popular too as a
place to ship for animation,especially 3D.
Speaker 1 (58:56):
That's awesome.
That's look.
I am over the moon that youcame on to do this with me
tonight.
Speaker 2 (59:01):
By the way, like of course, I am one of my.
You're my favorite.
You're like, you're one of mytruly favorite people.
You are the you are, you are.
So when I was a 22 year old,running around with, like
chicken, with my head cut off,just not knowing what I was even
doing in this industry, you,like, took me under your wing
(59:23):
and you were so sweet and kindum to me.
Speaker 1 (59:27):
It's a very stressed job.
I don't remember that.
I don't think that's true.
Speaker 2 (59:34):
I was.
I mean if I felt, if I lookedput together or I felt like I
was coming off put together.
Back then it was just purelybecause of my own delusion.
Speaker 1 (59:41):
Um which is a good way.
Speaker 2 (59:45):
Yeah, like I think I bought a lot of my own bullshit
back then, but in a healthy way,like if I had actually known
how hard breaking into thisindustry was going to be, I
probably wouldn't have eventried.
Speaker 1 (59:57):
Um, but I don't know what you're talking about.
I was really easy for me.
I just rode my bike to a studiowhen I was 14 and asked for a
job.
That's a true story, by the way.
Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
I know that you and you and Steven Spielberg, just
like, just like, jump jumpies.
Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
Well, look, I I I appreciate you coming on.
You know everybody again.
Meredith Kess Kimetti, writerof Vox Machina, um seasons one,
two, three coming out at somepoint soon.
Mark Hamill's best friend.
We didn't get to that story,but we will in the future.
Um, look, we're going to dothis every week, guys.
(01:00:34):
Um, I know, next week our guestis uh Stephanie DeVruzzo.
She is uh huge.
I mean Broadway.
You know her.
You remember Steph, uh Broadwaystar she uh.
Tony nominated for her work inAvenue Q.
She's done Sesame Street.
She um Pooh Corner is.
Is her right?
Isn't she Pooh Corner too?
(01:00:55):
I think, look, she's done a lot.
Oh, she's.
Musical episode of scrubspeople.
Musical episode of scrubs,episode of scrubs.
So if you, if you like thispodcast, come back next week,
I'm going to.
I'm going to keep the D 20thing going.
So when we get to questions forher, she's probably not going
to get the D 20, but I feel likeit's just going to be what sets
us apart.
(01:01:15):
So, everybody, meredith, checkher out on Instagram.
Her Instagram's back up on thescreen.
It's Meredith stories She'dlove to follow.
She'd love a follow if you geta chance and uh, look again, I'm
.
I'm Katie 215, the third, thirdworst chess player on kick.
Thank you so much.
Is there an ending?
I don't have an ending page forthis.
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
I don't have an ending page.
Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
I did, and you know it's funny, mano has made me an
ending page for all that I can.
I think I could put it togetherreally quickly if we just stall
for like, no, I bring it back,bring it back, bring it back.
I can't.
I can't put it up.
This is horrible.
This is the worst day ever.
Um, there was an ending page.
(01:02:00):
I'm going to put up the beright back page for the ending
page.
That's a post it note.
Thank you so much everybody.
Thank you so much.
What's up everybody?
How's it going?
What's going on?
Chat Looks like Chad is kind ofmoving a little bit.
How's it going?
How's it going?
Welcome to the Bad Chest podcast.
I am your host, the current,the reigning, the defending and
the undisputed third worst chessplayer on kick Katie215.
(00:30):
And this is the very firstepisode of the Bad Chest podcast
.
But don't let the title foolyou.
Just like I am a Bad Cheststreamer, I am also also a very
Bad Chest podcast.
You're so bad.
In fact, this podcast hasnothing to do with chess.
(00:52):
So what is it about?
Who knows?
I guess it's kind of abouthaving fun hanging with people I
really respect and admire, andthere are a few people I admire
more than our guests today.
She has been a part of some ofthe best animation in recent
years, including being the staffwriter for seasons one, two and
(01:14):
three of the legend of VoxMachina.
If you're not sure what VoxMachina is, I'm gonna I'm gonna
roll the trailer from Amazonjust to get everybody up to
speed.
Our only hope lies in thesebrave warriors.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
What the fuck.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Right.
Who else have we got?
I'm sorry, who the hell are you?
Vox Machina?
We fuck shit up.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Let's go.
Come on, come on work.
Steadies help.
You can't be seriouslyconsidering them for such a task
.
Our reputation is less thanstutter.
If killing for gold isn'tgetting us anywhere, maybe we
try doing some good this time.
No worry, Kill Vox Machina.
(02:19):
If this evil persists, thekingdom will starve to death.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I suggest we run right now the legend of Vox
Machina huh.
So without further ado, I wantto introduce you to tonight's
(03:02):
guest.
She has often been called MarkHamill's best friend, Meredith
Kaskimetti.
Meredith, How's it going?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Hello hi.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Hi so, Vox Machina.
Huh yeah, I just want to putthis out there to start, for
those who don't know.
There's a strike going on.
The writers are on strike, theactors are on strike.
It limits some of what we cantalk about.
(03:34):
Do you want to just start withthat, just so everybody knows up
front where the limits are?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Absolutely.
I will be very, very obviousthe strike is very important.
The strike is exactly whatneeds to be happening in
Hollywood right now.
It is sort of touching.
It's touching animation indifferent ways than it is live
action.
Fortunately, vox well,fortunately, and unfortunately,
(04:04):
lots of different reasons VoxMachina is not a WGA show and
it's an animation guild show.
Writers are in the animationguild, which is a separate
contract, and actors inanimation right now are still
able to record, and that is alsoa separate contract than what
SAG is striking.
So, from my knowledge far as myknowledge, that's in the clear,
(04:30):
and some other shows that I'veworked on are in the clear too.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
So yeah, cool.
So, I want to start with.
I don't really want this to bean interview show, but obviously
we have to put some questionsout there.
To me, the biggest one is Ihave known you a long time.
For those who don't know, I'veknown Meredith for a
(04:58):
ridiculously long time and whenI met you, your dream was to
write for children's shows.
In fact, I believe you wrote anepisode.
If you give a mouse a cookie,yes, how do you go from I'm
writing children's shows to?
I mean, we just saw the trailer, clearly not a children's show.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, I mean it kind of goes back to a few different
factors.
I going into school and likethe impetus that got me into
film school in the first placeand was like I want to make TV,
I want to make movies, washaving the Lord of the Rings
movies come out when I was.
I don't know if this ages me,but when I was in middle school
(05:43):
and those were like had such animprint on my brain about what
it was possible to do withfantasy in a visual medium like
that, that just really inspiredme to go into TV and film in the
first place when I got toschool.
That when I went to college,that's when I really got into
(06:03):
children's TV and the kind ofcool experimental ways you could
take that I just felt like alot of people tend to kind of
dumb down and shit on kids TV,but I feel like there is a few
are watching the right shows,there's definitely a level of
sophistication and there's someweird experimental stuff that
they can get away with therethat I feel like doesn't happen
(06:26):
necessarily in adult TV.
So that was kind of my goal forlike my second half of college.
That's when I really kind oflike found that weird niche and
then, yeah, I wound up yearslater.
I wound up at Titmouse Animation, which is the animation studio
that does Vox Machina, and I wasthe executive assistant to the
(06:52):
head of that studio for twoyears and when I was ready to
make my move and we were lookingfor, I knew I wanted to write
at that point and we werelooking for like a good show
that was at the studio that Icould potentially move over to a
script coordinator.
There was a show that camethrough the studio or that was
coming through the studio,called the Midnight Gospel,
which, for those of you who areunfamiliar it's a very short
(07:14):
show, only ran one season, 10episodes on Netflix.
It's by Pendleton Ward andDuncan Tressel.
Pendleton Ward is the creatorof Adventure Time, for those who
don't know, and Duncan Tresselis a comedian who has his own
podcast and that was a veryadult show and I was obviously a
(07:35):
fan of Penn Ward and kind ofinterested in the show and they
needed a writer's assistantscript coordinator.
I was actually kind of hesitantto take to kind of go for it at
first because of my kind ofHeadspace, of being like I do
kids TV, I want to do kids TVlike I.
(07:56):
Like there's lots of other kidsshows at the studio.
I should, I want to do one ofthose, and my boss at the time
was really the one who likepushed me.
He's like no, no, no, you wantit, you want to go for this show
.
This show is gonna be, even ifit, even if it goes one season
or a million seasons, so we arereally good show to like have on
your resume and work with thesepeople.
Very grateful that he did that.
(08:16):
And that was kind of my firstForay into adult animation and I
really loved it and realizedthat the original thing that
drew me to TV and film was kindof these fantasy worlds and
fantastical settings and therewas still a space For that in
adult animation.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
So yeah, and you know just to to put out there you
and I actually met on a very,very big, well-known kids show.
We met working on Sesame Streettogether.
What's yeah?
What seasons were you there?
43 and 44 yeah, I've, I've doneSesame Street, for I Feel like
(08:58):
20 years now.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I feel like 20 years so, and I feel like the only
reason I know that so quickly isbecause now my nephew is two
and a half and he is watchingSesame Street and I tried I Well
, I watched them with him and Itried to get him really to think
I'm cool, I want to be the cool.
And I tried again to think thatI'm cool by showing him the
episode that I was an extra in,and he did not give a shit.
(09:24):
He was just Extremelyunimpressed, didn't?
I had different color hair, sothat was kind of it.
He looked at me and was justlike that's not you like you did
have different color hair.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
You, if I recall correctly, you looked oddly
similar To Carly Rae Jepsen whenI met you.
I mean you had the samehairstyle, the same haircut your
face.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I should, I should, I should do my hairstyle like her
because she's blonde now, andthen I could just, you know, be
her number one snacker fan.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
That's what drew me to you was I've continually made
fun of the fact that you lookedlike Carly Rae Jepsen.
I mean, oddly, like Carly RaeJepsen, she also um, you worked
in child talent and, fun fact,my napping couch was in the
child talent office.
It's where I like to nap duringthe day.
(10:17):
It's my napping couch.
I mean, look, if you work andyou have the opportunity to have
a napping couch, you shouldhave a napping couch.
And I did.
Yeah, it was in that office.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Imagine if that wasn't your napping couch, or if
I had a different job on theshow, like if I had been a PA or
in the production bullpen orwhatever.
Or they had like what would ourlives be now?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
So Fox Machina, let's talk about it.
I mean it is, it's everywhere,it's it's critical role.
They obviously, if you guysdon't know who critical role are
, they are very well-knownDungeons and Dragons streaming
and podcast group.
They they kind of Are one ofthe the people that really
(11:05):
helped Shape Dungeons andDragons into what it is today,
which right now is actually.
You know, the fandom is stillkind of up in arms against, but
but it really helped bring Roleplaying, tabletop gaming, to the
forefront.
Them and I would say,acquisitions incorporated, which
I was always a bigger fan of.
(11:25):
The critical role.
But you know groups like that.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, especially on streaming and being able to have
access to D&D.
If, as a viewer and as a casualperson, I think D&D when I was
growing up was such this therewas, it's felt like there was
such a high point to entry andSeeing other people play too
(11:49):
many roles.
Yeah, and just you know, itfelt like, yeah, it felt like
you had to go home and Read for10 hours before you could even
start a game and you needed allthese things and you're like
what even?
Is it like?
Are we role playing?
Are we just sitting there likewhat is what is it exactly?
And then that you know, now youcan actually watch other people
(12:10):
do it before you dive in, soyou're kind of know what you're
getting yourself into so Explainhow you first came to to link
up with Vox Machina.
So yeah, that's all goes back toworking at tip mouse animation
week.
Two or three of me having thejob at tip mouse, my boss At the
(12:36):
time, chris Pernosky great man,wonderful, wonderful guy.
He had me set a meeting.
They were the Critical role waswanted to come in and Pitch.
And I came in, pitch an ideafor this show.
They've been trying to.
They've been teasing of ourlike joking about doing an
animated series on their streamfor a while and but it was one
(13:00):
of those kind of pipe dreamthings and I think they finally
were like well, let's see if wecan actually do this.
So they came in to pitch it totip mouse and I was already a
fan at that point.
I knew who they were.
You know I played D&D's and I'dknown about them and other
other that whole world and so Iwas like very excited about it
(13:22):
and Chris was very excited aboutto.
He loves D&D.
But I think his hesitation washe was a little worried.
He was like you know, I knowthis Streaming D&D, streaming
stuff is getting really popular,but like I'm an old school guy,
you know, I just I just want toplay it.
I don't want to watch otherpeople play it like how
sustainable is it?
Like, is it popular withstaying powers?
(13:43):
It's just like trendy, popularand.
But I think, like he quicklyrealized like oh no, no, this is
like legit.
This is, this has got a fanbase that's gonna Stay around.
And so he started gettingreally into it.
And so, yeah, for like theentirety of my two years of
being his assistant, they wereworking on the show and
developing the show and tryingto get it ready to pitch and
(14:07):
they that's when they.
Then, when I was on MidnightGospel sorry, trying to get my
timeline straight when I was inMidnight Gospel Working on that
show, I had already finishedbeing his assistant or moved on
was screw-cornered on MidnightGospel.
That's when the kick started,dropped and Quickly broke a lot
(14:30):
of records and got lots of lotsand lots of money.
And they realized, oh, I Thinkwe have enough money.
They were originally just gonnado like 40, 45 minute short or
pilot presentation With the ideaof like, hey, let's just get a
bunch of money to do a pilot,because the big issue is selling
into networks at that time, andStill a lot today is fantasies
for kids.
Everyone, they knew they weregonna keep hitting the wall of
(14:53):
like everyone being like this isgreat.
We love your subscriber count,we love how many fans you've got
.
Let, it's got a built-inaudience, but can you make it
for kids Because it's fantasy?
So they were like we reallyneed to have something to show
why it needs to be for adults.
So the idea was to get money todo like 20 to 40 minute
(15:14):
Animation.
But then they got enough moneyto do a whole first season.
So I Reached out to them whilethe Kickstarter was still going,
like being like hey, I thinkyou guys are gonna have enough
money to do a whole season.
Are you gonna be looking for a?
Are you gonna be looking for aCrew coordinator or writers
assistant because my show isgonna wrap?
(15:34):
So that was a nice they were.
And then, yeah, they were supersweet and they obviously I'd
been able to Build arelationship with them over the
two years, so I was able to moveover there when I wrapped on
Midnight Gospel and then waspromoted staff writer Partway
through, I think.
See it between season one andtwo.
(15:55):
So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
So I have a confession.
You're one of your, one of mydearest friends on the planet,
and I haven't watched FoxMocking.
I've watched the episodes thatyou wrote specifically yes.
But I don't remember that.
Look, here's my problem, rightI?
So I was exposed to the live.
(16:20):
You know, the bigger D&D stuffI want to say was acquisitions
incorporated.
They did a stage thing thatended up being shown in theaters
and I went to a theater towatch something else, and I
think I'm gonna be telling methe story and and so I just was
like, well, whatever, I'm justgonna walk into this thing.
Because it was a live event, Ifigured I would check it out.
(16:41):
And the place was packed.
I mean the seats were just Um,absolutely I couldn't believe
the number of people that werein there.
And I watched it and I was likeI didn't get it.
I mean, I'm gonna be honest, Ididn't get it.
And I've played D&D.
I like I love tabletop gamingand board games and RPG, video
games and whatever.
(17:03):
I just I I'm not into watchingother people play the game as
much as I'm into playing itmyself.
So I kind of let those guys go.
And I had always heard aboutcritical role.
And then so Everyone's like yougot to watch him, you got to
watch him and after watching theproduction value of
acquisitions Inc.
And then go into critical role,I was like oh, oh.
(17:27):
But everyone's like no, there'sstill, it's just better
storytelling.
It's just you got to watch this, and so from, I just couldn't
get into it.
So then obviously the cartooncomes out and I know you're
involved and I'm like I'm gonna,I'm gonna watch this, like I'm
gonna, I'm gonna get all in, I'mgonna support you, and then I
just I Feel like my bias towardscritical role Carried over into
(17:54):
me watching the cartoon,because I remember sitting
through the first episode saying, what am I like, why am I
watching this?
And I fell asleep.
I.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Mean, it's not in common.
For you know, d&d streaming canbe really hard.
That's another talk about highpoint of entry.
To get into that, like you know, those episodes are long.
I struggle to watch.
I have mostly I when I I haveto listen like just do the
podcast version of them Forwhatever reason.
Maybe it's just how my brainworks, like if I'm doing
something else and I'm listening, I can focus so much better on
(18:28):
the story than if I'm actuallywatching them play, which seems
counterintuitive.
So I actually normally do that.
And but I will say productionvalue, they've gotten a lot more
money in the most in the morerecent campaign, so they're
definitely, you know they've gottheir own studios now, so so
(18:55):
you, you worked on season one,you worked on season two, season
three.
Yes, yes, season three is in theworks.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
In the works did.
Did you write episodes?
Have you written any episodesfor season three?
Yes okay, all right, but we'renot.
We can't talk about them andtalk about them.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I don't know when it'll come out.
I I Animation takes a long time, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
So let's talk about your, the writing process for
the episodes you wrote forseasons one and two.
So so you're, obviously you'renot yeah, so Obviously, as the
staff writer, obviously you'rethe writer that stays on After
the scripts are written to helpmake changes and edits and
whatever right.
(19:44):
But then you write episodes aswell, and so, but you're not the
only writer.
So is it difficult writing anepisode for a series where
Because critical role, the, the,the people themselves are
writers, right, like they'rewriting their own adventures?
If you, it just seems likethere's a lot of writers.
So how much?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I think it was it.
It was.
I mean, I looked it wasn'treally the I would say the one
Person like the one person thatwas like the hardest to compete
with in terms of the story wasjust like this adaptation and
the kind of expectation that wefelt the audience was gonna have
(20:30):
.
That was like the hardest thing.
I think the cast in general wassuper gracious about like us
taking liberties and doing whatwe had to do to Condense
everything down, because youknow it's hours and hours and
hours of content being condenseddown into 22-minute episodes.
Some of them, for the most part, they were really cool with it
and yeah, they're all you knowwriters and stuff, but I think
(20:51):
they they were very respectfulof the fact that you know
animation and storytellingthrough animation was like you
know the writers that theybrought on.
That was, you know our medium,we, we know this format and how
to tell a story in this format.
So I think they were very opento that um, collaboration, um,
but yeah, I think and they werealso excited to try new things
(21:14):
with this and go differentdirections to kind of subvert
fan expectations too.
So it was honestly like a loteasier than I thought it would
be.
I thought it would be a lot ofcare-pulling and just like that,
being like, listen, you get it,we can't tell a word for word
remake of the show.
That's not gonna work.
Um, it's just it would beimpossible or you could do it
(21:38):
but you would need a hundredtimes the budget.
So, um, but yeah, and they werein the writers room.
It was like we kind of forseason, we kind of did it the
similar for the first coupleseasons where we would do like a
big summit with all the writersfor a few weeks and the cast
(21:58):
would kind of join sometimes tokind of listen in.
Or if we knew we were going tobe breaking an episode that
heavily involved their character, they would come in case we had
questions or wanted to throwout suggestions or like
different ideas that like theircharacter could be doing and
they could kind of the other.
The other hard thing with this,not only being characters they
(22:19):
created, but dnd characters is Ithink there's just such,
there's another layer of feeling, that personal connection to
your character when you'vecreated a dnd character and
you've lived a dnd character.
Um, so at some sometimes itfelt like if we wanted to try
something new with theircharacters, uh, and they didn't
like it.
It wasn't just that they didn'tlike it for that character,
(22:41):
it's like they didn't almostlike it for themselves.
Like it was like this wholeother level of consent.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I felt like we had to navigate um with them so who
was your favorite of the cast towork with and who was your
least favorite controversial?
You have to answer both after.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
No, we gotta do, um, you gotta do something.
You gotta do like, uh, andyCohen's plead the fifth, so that
I can like give me an option todo something to plead the fifth
, um, I mean, all right, who wasyour favorite?
Speaker 1 (23:11):
who was my favorite everyone's allowed a favorite um
, for example, watch I'll gofirst of all of the casting
assistants at sesame, you weremy favorite singing it's very
easy.
Of all of them, you were myfavorite.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I they were all.
They all like brought suchdifferent energies to their um.
I think, like the person who Iobviously like geeked out the
most about who I was just like Ican't believe we're listening
like every day of the week.
I'm like, oh, we're listeningto just like hours of him.
Additionally, world buildingwas Matt Mercer, obviously, um,
(23:56):
like that was great.
I I also the person who I hadalways just like looked up to
the most and was like oh, I,she's so badass was Laura Bailey
.
So that was just really cool tobe in a writer's room with her
um, and then uh, but, uh, butI'm gonna say something nice
(24:17):
about everyone, because I justlike Marisha Ray was also really
badass.
I love her, like her um.
And then so say something niceabout everybody keep going yeah,
uh, yeah they were.
They were also great.
Um, sam and Travis were likeare the kind of spearheaders of
it and they're, they were thepeople who, um, they brought me
on originally and I will justalways have soft spot in my
(24:41):
heart for them.
And there they were really goodabout reigning everyone in and
and getting everyone, becauselike we could have gone on for
like 10 drafts of a script withthem giving notes and like they
were just amazing at reigningeveryone in getting everyone on
the same page, being like greatwe could.
We could take this story in 10different directions, but like
(25:02):
this is where we gotta go, um.
And then, uh, ashley and andTaliesin I will say it's funny
because there's like certainpeople who were like certain
seasons they were like I'm not,I don't really want to be
involved in writing, and thenlater they were just like way
more into it.
Um, like I feel like I didn'tsee Ashley and Taliesin a lot in
the beginning and then they gotreally involved, like later, um
(25:25):
, which was cool.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Ta-da, this is gonna be a fun question.
Did have you played D&D withthem, right?
I knew you were a D&D player atsome point.
Did you ever, you ever say hey,I'm gonna join the campaign or
say hey, come join my campaign.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
No, but I have.
Um, I have run a couple D&Dcampaigns for people on the, for
other people on the crew.
Um, I ran one when we firststarted.
There was like we, when westill had a pretty small crew,
like it was just likepre-production people and like
our production manager, andthere were a few people who had
never played D&D before.
(26:04):
So I ran a special game forpeople specifically who, like
didn't really have anyfamiliarity with D&D so they
could kind of get into it, um,and then, uh, yeah, and then I
ran a second game later, um withother, with other crew people,
(26:25):
but yeah, I've never played,unfortunately.
Um, I have sat at the table, atthe critical table, but so we
have actually talked about doinga D&D stream.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You know, playing a game, I mean, I've talked about
putting it together and youplaying in it, yeah, but.
But my problem is the samething as with this podcast I I
don't half-ass anything, and soI I keep taking the time to put
stuff together for it, and Ifeel like I spend more time
building something than I doactually doing it uh-huh, uh-huh
(27:02):
but, uh, I mean, it's gonnahappen one day and I feel like
we have a great group of people,which I'm not gonna mention
everybody now, but I feel likeit's gonna happen.
So sit tight, we're gonna.
We're gonna have a campaign.
It's gonna be ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I'm gonna show something, but I actually I'm
gonna say I'm gonna change myanswer.
Travis is my favorite becauseTravis gave me this it's a
signed can of strong jaw ale andhe said I signed your name so
that you couldn't sell it andwhy would?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
why would you want to sell it?
Speaker 2 (27:38):
I laughed at that.
Um yeah, I was like like no,that's gonna.
I was like I was like what am Igonna do?
Speaker 1 (27:46):
yeah, I'm not selling that, but yeah, so there are
some people in the chat thatthat I think have have some
questions right um which I wantto.
I'm gonna open it up to some ofthem for uh, but, by the way,
there's a fan in the chat ofmidnight gospel uh-huh that
(28:09):
gospel was very trippy, lovesmidnight gospel, so so if you
want to ask any midnight gospelquestions, or whatever, ask any
question you want, she will takethe questions.
But but we're gonna, we'regonna do it with a little bit of
a, a little bit of a twist, umon the script, because, because,
because vox machina is a dndshow, uh, we're gonna put a
(28:36):
little dnd spin on this and onthe screen we have a d20 when
you ask the question, when Ipose the question to her, we are
going to roll the d20 if it'sfor a knowledge check.
Obviously for those of you whodon't play dnd, we have to do a
knowledge check for her.
If we roll a 12 or higher, sheknows ever she can answer the
(28:59):
question in all honesty.
I mean, she might not knowanything.
That might be the right answer.
That she may not be able toanswer the question, but she can
.
She can go on with everythingshe wants.
If it's between like an eightand 11, she, she's gonna, she's
gonna give a tiny answer.
Just, she knows a littlesomething about it, anything
(29:20):
less than eight, and she knowsnothing about the question
you're asking, but will bullshitan answer just to make you feel
good and make you feel likeyou've had your question
answered, because I don't wantto, I don't want to leave
anybody feeling, um, like they,like they weren't, they weren't
heard.
So so if, if anybody has aquestion that they would like to
(29:41):
ask, we, we will ask, and thenwe will roll the d20 and we will
, we will see and you, mary, youcan see the d20 on your screen
right yes, yes I can okay.
So, uh, anybody in chat, anybodywith questions, it's.
The chat has now has now slowedto a crawl.
When I pawn, that's.
(30:02):
I feel like we asked thatquestion, but I'm, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna roll it, I'm gonnaroll pawn.
Pawn wants to know what yourfavorite show you worked on is,
ever of any show you've everworked on, we're gonna roll the
d20, remember 12 or 12 or betteryou can answer it on it.
You know big eight to eightthrough 11.
Answer it small, just quick.
Answer anything under that lie,just lie at 19 it's almost a
(30:26):
perfect 20.
You go ahead and answer how.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
What's your favorite show you ever worked on okay,
well, I will say, um, and Ithink most people have, uh, in
in LA, we have very shortattention spans, um, uh, so I
feel like most people are gonnagive you answers about stuff.
I, the show I'm working onright now, um, which is, uh, I'm
(30:49):
working on an unannounceddisney show.
Um, I would say the crew on theshow is just a goddamn delight.
Uh, they are so lovely.
Um, I also feel like maybe it'sbecause it's the first show I
worked on, um, that's somewhatthat's hybrid, back in the
office and everyone is justcoming out of.
It's like the first suit roundof shows this past year that
(31:12):
have been somewhat in person.
Um, so people are reallyexcited to be back and
socializing with people, so thatmight also be it.
Um, the show that, uh, yeah, so, yeah, that's my answer about
that, but I feel like I give alittle more because it rolled in
19.
I think the show that I was themost excited to and I knew the
(31:34):
most about and like ended upbeing just this crazy experiment
or experience, was obviouslyVox Machina.
Working on that was just adream come true and that's been
really cool and still.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah, the chat wants to know if you have a favorite
character on Vox.
Maybe, wait, and we're going tophrase this two ways A favorite
character personally and afavorite character to write.
And we're going to, we're goingto roll the d20.
We're going to do a knowledgecheck here.
Does, does she know what herfavorite characters are?
(32:13):
Do you want to roll the d?
You want to roll a knowledgecheck for both or just for for
each question individually?
Yeah, let's do that?
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Do it?
Do it for both, because if Idon't know how to have answer
that unless there's two parts toit.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Oh okay, so then here we go.
Then here we go, we're rollingthe d20.
Let's go.
Oh no, I need to need tobullshit the answer.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Gotta bullshit.
The answer, you know what is.
What is Vox Machina Does ithave doesn't really have
individual characters withindividual traits.
I feel like my favoritecharacter is probably just you
know how, in Cheers, the bar wasa character and I feel like I'm
on the city that they're in.
(33:00):
Is there's really character initself and I think that's you
know, just just the world's andthe big Xandria itself is my
favorite character.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Okay, what are some highs and lows with working on
shows with big production valuecompared to something where the
budget is tight?
Here we go.
We're going to, we're going to.
We got to do a knowledge check,here we go.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
All right, I can't just dance.
Oh no, I think like it's justreally cool when you have all
this money and you're just like,wow, I can just do anything I
want.
There's no limitationswhatsoever, what like budgets
don't exist.
(33:46):
That's a really cool part.
And it's really cool whenyou're working on a big, major
property and you have absolutelyand you don't have any legal
oversight.
You don't have to worry aboutS&P, you don't have to worry
about any lawyers or anythinglike that.
(34:06):
Everyone's just really chill.
When you have a ton of money towork on a show, you know no
one's investing a lot, and thenwhen you're working, when you're
working on a show with no money, it's just I love kind of the
heroin chic look and justlooking like I haven't slept in
(34:27):
12 days and you know I'm notworried about paying my rent at
the end of the month.
That's really fun.
That's my favorite part.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Hey, hey guys.
Also, we're going to do atrivia with Meredith where it's
going to be a generic nerdtrivia While we're answering the
next couple of questions.
If you type plus one in thechat, you're going to be up for
a prize.
If she gets the questionscorrect, you win a prize.
(35:02):
If she gets the questions wrong, no prize for you.
So go ahead and just type plusone in the chat, literally just
the plus sign on the number one,and it'll look like like this
Boom and get yourself in there.
So see, are there any morequestions or any other good
(35:24):
questions?
Let's see.
Let's see.
Um, a couple people said yourwork is incredible.
Your work is incredible, whichis just so, so lovely.
(35:49):
Um.
I don't know anything you wantto talk about while we're, while
I'm looking for perusing thechat here for the questions- Um,
I can talk about.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
I just got a really funny email that someone that I
work with accidentally sent acompany wide email.
I was intended for one person.
That's funny.
Let's see, is it an olderperson?
Speaker 1 (36:28):
or is it a younger person?
Because?
I feel like younger people noware way more guilty of sending
incorrect.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Um, so it's just, it's, I'm, I'm, I feel I just
want to go give them a hug rightnow.
It's like when um, what was itwhen?
The HBO sent out that email toall its subscribers the test
email and they, I, the entireworld, was just like
collectively, like let's go givethat intern a big hug, like we
feel so bad for.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
So if there's, if there's no other questions,
we're going to move on, we'regoing to, we're going to roll
this, uh, this, this, this, uh,this chat thing.
We're going to see who who'sgoing to, who's going to play
for prize.
Oh wait, we have anotherquestion.
Oh boy, by the way, man, man,okay, you, uh, you have, you
(37:22):
have won the prize.
It says write something in thechat to claim your prize.
You have 20, 22 seconds frombotrix, by the way.
So, okay, we're going to, uh,we're going to roll.
The question is what show haveyou worked on in the past where
you missed the crew a lot?
And it's a 14,.
You have all the knowledge forthis one.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
It's weird because I'm.
It's funny because I'm on ashow right now, but like it
doesn't have a lot.
I've never worked with most ofthe people before, but it's
right next to a show that has alot of people I've worked with
before, so it's kind of like Ihaven't even left.
I really miss the MidnightGospel people.
We had such a solid productionteam and in animation your
(38:06):
production team really makes forBreaks a Show.
I always said like I mean,artists are amazing and they
have the most.
Like their gifts are likeGod-given, it is beautiful.
But like you can draw prettypictures all day if no one knows
where to find them and put themtogether, then you're screwed.
(38:28):
So I truly like whenever theyreally taught me how to make
sure I know who is on theproduction side before saying
yes to a show, because that showitself could have just been an
absolute hot mess and disasterjust because of all of the
elements in that show andthere's no, there's very little
(38:50):
reuse because every episode isin a different location.
That show really could havebeen a nightmare if we did not
have such a strong, solidproduction team and I miss them
and I'm still on a group, chatwith them and talk to them all
the time.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Oh, by the way, there is a reminder in chat to a
friendly reminder to remember todrink water.
Remember to drink water.
We're going to do an initiativecheck.
Does she remember to drinkwater?
Let's, we're rolling forinitiative.
No, she does not remember todrink water.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
I don't get to have my Marco Rubio moment, Meredith.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Meredith, Meredith, she's going to.
I do actually remember to drinkwater.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Okay, can I drink?
Can I drink a?
Speaker 1 (39:30):
No, go ahead, have a water, go ahead, you're fine.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
I live in LA, I'm constantly dehydrated.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
I live in the East Coast.
I'm constantly dehydrated rightnow.
Okay, so we're going to playsome trivia.
You, before the show, you havepre-selected some trivia
categories.
The one category that the topof your list was Lord of the
Rings, and what's the Caviar?
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah, I know all these topics very well.
I'm very familiar with allthese topics.
I'm terrible at trivia and havea shit memory, so Listen,
listen, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
You're playing for Mano right now, you know.
Let's see if you can win Mano aprize.
You know, what's funny is, youkind of gave yourself away a
little bit before, when we weretesting the stream.
You saw the trivia questions.
You're like, oh yo, I got theseanswers, so I made the
questions a little harder.
Okay, good, and these questionscome courtesy of dorky geeky
(40:25):
nerdy.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
And here we go.
First question Do not meddle inthe affairs of who?
For their subtle and quick toanger.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Do not meddle in the affairs of elves Such a final
answer.
I can't.
I'm going to say yes becauseyou're, you always do that, you
always try and hey.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
What's the elves called Gandalf?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Um, um, uh, I know this, I can imagine them saying
it.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
These are really hard questions.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
No, this one is not a hard question.
I should know this.
I've like it's in the booksmany times.
Um, but yeah, my, my ADD brainwill not pull it out, sorry, oh,
miss, miss Randi.
Yes, pippin's full name.
Uh, pippin Randy.
(41:34):
Buck Herodron.
Oh yeah, mary Doc.
Oh yeah, the other one, allright listen, I'm going to.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
We're going to back this up a little bit.
We're going to back this up alittle bit.
We're going to make this easierfor Mano to win.
Sorry, mano, we're we're goingto go.
We're going to go to someeasier questions for her.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
I know Sam Tony's name.
I knew the next one.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Oh, yeah, did you.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah, it's Bill.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
All right, here we go .
Get in here.
Before it was called Golem,what was he known as?
It's me Goll.
I mean, I don't think he getsany easier than that.
Frodo's shirt of mail is madefrom what fictional metal?
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Me Thrill.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Oops, it is.
How many members are there inthe fellowship?
Nine, there are nine.
There are nine.
Legolas Hales, from what Forest?
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Um what, uh God, it's uh LaFlorin.
No Um is it LaFlorin.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
I think it's Merckwood.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Merckwood.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
It is Merckwood.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Merckwood Okay.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Sorry, that's a wrong question.
It's a wrong answer.
What character?
Speaker 2 (43:05):
initially goes by the name Strider Ergorn.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Ergorn is correct.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
I got to go.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Oh God, what creature did Gandalf say could not pass?
Speaker 2 (43:14):
The Balrog.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
The Balrog.
What inn do the hobbits go toin Bree?
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Um the Prancing Pony.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
It is the Prancing Pony.
What is the name of Elrond'shome, God?
These questions are easy.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Rivendale.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
It is Rivendale, Is the name of Frodo's sword Um the
one that Bilbo gives him, theGlows Blue when Orcs near.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Um, dabby, I don't know.
Sting, sting, yes, oh my God.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Who was Faramir's brother?
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Boromir it was.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Boromir, that's right .
Somebody says that they're on acall with a prank person.
I want to be on a call with aprank person.
Why don't I get to be on a callwith a prank person?
What were the other categoriesthat you said you were good at?
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Uh, I didn't say.
I never said if you looked atemail legal.
I did not say I was good atthese, I just said I would do
Pixar.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Oh, you said Pixar.
Hold on, I want to do the Pixarone with you.
We'll do the easy Pixar one.
Um, because I don't thinkyou're going to get it.
I'm going to be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Really.
Yeah, it's probably like theydo a bunch of their shorts,
which I I, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
I just feel like it's going to be too, too nerdy.
Okay, what's the name of thelamp that serves as the Pisk
pick?
It serves as the mascot forPixar.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
I as a name, as in it .
Is it picks?
Is it lamp Luxo?
Speaker 1 (44:48):
Junior.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Luxo Junior.
I love to tell my nephew Um, soI was.
I was with my nephew last weekand, uh, I was watching him and
he wanted.
He was like I want to watchsomething.
And I was like what do you wantto watch?
And he, he was just like thething with the bouncing lamp.
And I was like I was like what?
And then I finally figured itout and I was like, oh, buddy,
(45:10):
do I got some exciting news foryou?
There's so many movies thathave the bouncing lamp at the
beginning.
We can, we can watch this onrepeat.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
I mean, as somebody who works in animation, I feel
like you should just be able tofire off the answer to every one
of these questions, but I knowyou're not going to be able to.
What actor has voicedcharacters in every Pixar film?
Speaker 2 (45:27):
Um uh, john Markhamel .
Speaker 1 (45:30):
John.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Ratsenberger, john Ratsenberger, john Ratsenberger.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
You know what?
I don't know that from workingin animation.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
I know that from when I was a worked at a voiceover
agency.
Because he was a.
He was one of our clients,really yeah, along with Mark
Hamill.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
So is that?
Is that how you became known asMark Hamill's best friend?
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Yes, that is how I earned that nickname.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
What movies?
Pictures only prequel.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Prequel.
I Know this, so I don't wait.
(46:17):
I'm blanking, I know like, oh,I Keep going back to Toy Story,
but those movies were all inorder.
Those weren't prequels.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
All right, I'm gonna have to call it so sorry.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
I'm sorry, monster university, oh my god yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Lightning McQueen's number oh.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Gosh, I should know that.
I think I know this.
So, like I know this, it's like23 year, I Think it's 95 was
the year that story came out.
That makes sense.
Yeah, probably 95 95.
You knew that.
You knew the second one what?
Speaker 1 (47:05):
what fashion designer has an aversion to capes?
Speaker 2 (47:08):
in the mood.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
What is the name of the monstrous Baron brave?
Speaker 2 (47:18):
Um only seen brave like two, a couple, two times,
so I do not know.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
More do, more do.
But by the way, our mod Donsays he would be kicking our
butts in this Route 66.
What town do Maynard, sally andDoc all call home?
Speaker 2 (47:41):
what town Radiator Springs?
Speaker 1 (47:45):
Right Radiator Springs.
We know he's just firing theanswers off.
The phrase Dia de los muertoswas almost trademarked in
anticipation of what film.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Coco.
Coco they tried to try totrademark that because, oh my
god, that's stupid.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
We can know there's a woman in Baltimore who
trademarked the word hun andBecame like the villain of the
city.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
Yeah, it's just great .
I guess she she gave thetrademark back.
It was an episode of GordonRamsay's kitchen nightmares
Because she had a restaurantthat literally nobody would go
to, because she was the villainof the city.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
Is he trademarked on?
Speaker 1 (48:29):
because she trained mark ton and finding Dory Hank
has described as what kind ofcreature.
Speaker 2 (48:36):
She is the Hink, the octopus.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
He is.
He is an octopus, oh.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
But it's more specific than that.
It's like yes.
Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
Aceptopus, because he only has seven arms.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
What 2003 short feature to jaggle open a shy
sheep?
Speaker 2 (49:02):
Isn't it like bounding or bounce the one where
that Bounding?
Speaker 1 (49:07):
Don bet you didn't know that one.
Don bet you didn't know thatone.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Truly don't know where I found that one nugget in
my brain.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
Can clear that out for some of that.
Speaker 2 (49:18):
Lord of the Rings, knowledge more important see
this was fun.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
Trivia was fun.
Who said you suck at trivia?
I did.
I feel like we should do aroundwhere we have to roll and do a
knowledge check.
You know if you actually youknow Harry Potter.
(49:42):
You're Harry Potter fiend,Mm-hmm.
But we can look back on thismoment and remember the times
that you messed up Harry Pottertrivia.
How do you feel about HarryPotter and the Sorcerer's Stone?
Speaker 2 (49:54):
I mean, I feel like I'm like I try, I'm sure I don't
know.
Uh, okay, I could do that.
I haven't run them in a reallylong time, my my, my fandom has
my fandom has waned in recentyears.
I'm like not that on Top ofHarry Potter anymore.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
Here we go.
I Just think it would be funnyto have you have to answer the
questions wrong, oh.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
God, I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
I wouldn't be able to answer any of these questions.
Oh no, oh no, here we go.
Let's just give it a shotbefore you answer.
Do you know that you know theanswer?
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Chat, do you think she knows the answer?
She, she seems very, very sureof herself.
Let's see, I don't.
I don't think she knows theanswer, meredith, what's?
Speaker 2 (50:53):
the answer the answer is Three magic place.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
So sorry.
It's number four, private drive, don.
You were wrong too, don, sosorry.
What's what's Harry's birthday?
Do you know the answer?
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Um, I think so.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Oh, hold on, let's see.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
I know at least the month.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Okay, yeah, you can know it.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (51:22):
Can I just say, I just know it's in July.
I think it's July 11th or July31st, 31st, okay.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
What is the title of the first chapter I?
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Know that.
Speaker 1 (51:40):
But do you know it?
Let's find out with a knowledgecheck.
You do know it.
What is, what is it?
The boy who lived the boy wholived is correct.
Go ahead.
Ron tries to turn scammers.
What color Do you?
Speaker 2 (51:59):
know the answer.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
Do you know it?
I believe so.
Does she know it with aknowledge?
Oh, you don't know it.
I'm so sorry.
I Rainbow.
If you did know what was yourguess.
Yellow yeah, you know the chat,the chat screaming yellow, and
yellow is the answer.
What color is the ink onHarry's letters from Hogwarts?
(52:23):
Do you know it?
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Maybe I.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
Mean you definitely don't.
But go ahead and make the guessanyway, because it's a guess an
actual guess, I think it'smaybe green.
Like the chat says red, surveysays Yo, it's green.
How did the girl guessing getit in y'all?
And chat who's so sure that youhad it?
Speaker 2 (52:50):
Here's the thing it's not a memory based on, like the
words in the book or anything.
It's memory of my memory, ofthe image of.
So I was like if it's what itwas in the movies, it's green,
but I wasn't sure if that's whatit was.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Whose bike does Hagrid borrow to bring Harry to
his aunt and uncle's house?
Speaker 2 (53:10):
I know this.
Speaker 1 (53:12):
Like you definitely definitely know it.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
But do you know it?
Do you know it?
Does chat know it?
You do know it?
What's the answer?
Serious black.
It is serious black.
Come on, this is a fun game.
Hmm, who is the first Weasleythat Harry meets?
Do you know it?
Speaker 2 (53:43):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
Well, I mean, the knowledge check says you know it
.
So what is the answer?
Speaker 2 (53:49):
I think it's a true question, percy Weasley.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
Oh, Mrs Molly Weasley .
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
The mountain troll invades Hogwarts.
On what day?
Speaker 2 (54:04):
Okay, yeah, I know it .
Speaker 1 (54:07):
But do you?
Um, yeah, just a quick answer.
Speaker 2 (54:14):
Halloween.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
It is Halloween.
What kind of owl is Hedwig?
Okay, do you know it?
Do you know it?
Speaker 2 (54:24):
Uh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:27):
Of course you know it .
What's the answer?
Speaker 2 (54:29):
A snowy owl, if that's Snowy owl?
Speaker 1 (54:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (54:32):
Okay, I wasn't sure if that was like the actual
scientific brief.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
Who teaches history of magic?
Do you know it?
Speaker 2 (54:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
But does she know it With a knowledge check?
The knowledge check says youknow it, professor Bins.
Professor Bins, see, see.
Trivia can be fun Trivia can befun.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
Trivia can be fun.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
Trivia can be fun.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
I retained a lot more that I thought I had.
Speaker 1 (55:04):
I think the D20 is fun too.
Like I feel like that shouldjust be a bit that persists
through my um, through thispodcast.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
I liked coming up with like the fake answers.
That was fun.
Speaker 1 (55:18):
Do you want to answer any of the questions for real,
like um?
Is there some of the highs andlows with working on shows with
big budgets?
Compared to when, were thebudgets tight?
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Yeah, I think it really comes down to where it
depends on where the money'sbeing allocated.
Like, I've worked on shows withreally big budgets but it was
all ballooned for talent, um,and so it was still really
stressful on the crew and Iworked on really low budget
stuff, but it felt about thesame because we were in the
(55:56):
similar situation.
I think, uh, more money justgives you more people, so it's a
lot less workload and more ormore worked load to go around,
like you can spread it out, soit's just uh can feel less
stressful at that point.
Um, but I will say, usuallywith bigger budget shows comes
(56:18):
bigger budget problems.
Usually the networks have a lotmore opinions and are way more
stressed and way more uh overyour shoulder while you're doing
everything, because they'revery nervous about their like
very expensive investmentRightfully so, like they want to
make sure you're doing your jobcorrectly.
When they put a lot more moneyon the line, um, whereas, like,
a show like Midnight Gospel wasa lot lower budget, um, if, by
(56:43):
you know Netflix standards, itwas definitely a lower budget
show for them.
Um, but it uh, it was definitelyreally tight crew and, um, that
one was also the cool thingabout Midnight Gospel versus
like Vox, machina or the showthat I'm working on now, is that
was all animated in-house so wedid not ship uh the show
(57:06):
anywhere um to actually beanimated.
A lot of shows in the US umlike the pre-production and
boarding and editing theanimatic and all the way up to
that phase is done in the US andthen it's sent somewhere to
another country where it'scheaper to animate Um oftentimes
Korea.
We have, uh Tim House hasanother studio in Vancouver
(57:27):
which it'll ship kind of toitself um, or even sometimes
it'll be shipped within the US,like to New York um every, uh
pretty much every other stateoutside of California has really
good tax breaks, so it canoften be cheaper to do parts of
production in other states orother countries Um Canada also
gives really good tax breaks,especially for animation Um.
Speaker 1 (57:50):
So yeah, I feel that that's killed the industry in
California in general.
Right, I mean not justanimation, but I mean look at
the number of productions thathave moved to Atlanta.
I mean Vancouver was always ahotbed of of production, but you
know Louisiana has gottenreally big recently in New York,
I mean they don't.
They don't stop buildingstudios in New York and New
Jersey too.
Speaker 2 (58:11):
There's a we can never like Canada will give us
like half of the money back andlike tax breaks if we hire
Canadian people, like if we hireCanadian animators and stuff,
um, you can make like half ofyour budget through that.
And I think New York, you getlike a third back.
Um, if you hire New York people, um, and I'm assuming they're
(58:34):
similar in other in other places, and then obviously if you go
overseas, it's, you know, laborin general is cheaper and that's
a whole other fun economicstory.
Um, so yeah, india is gettingactually really popular too as a
place to ship for animation,especially 3D.
Speaker 1 (58:56):
That's awesome.
That's look.
I am over the moon that youcame on to do this with me
tonight.
Speaker 2 (59:01):
By the way, like of course, I am one of my.
You're my favorite.
You're like, you're one of mytruly favorite people.
You are the you are, you are.
So when I was a 22 year old,running around with, like
chicken, with my head cut off,just not knowing what I was even
doing in this industry, you,like, took me under your wing
(59:23):
and you were so sweet and kindum to me.
Speaker 1 (59:27):
It's a very stressed job.
I don't remember that.
I don't think that's true.
Speaker 2 (59:34):
I was.
I mean if I felt, if I lookedput together or I felt like I
was coming off put together.
Back then it was just purelybecause of my own delusion.
Speaker 1 (59:41):
Um which is a good way.
Speaker 2 (59:45):
Yeah, like I think I bought a lot of my own bullshit
back then, but in a healthy way,like if I had actually known
how hard breaking into thisindustry was going to be, I
probably wouldn't have eventried.
Speaker 1 (59:57):
Um, but I don't know what you're talking about.
I was really easy for me.
I just rode my bike to a studiowhen I was 14 and asked for a
job.
That's a true story, by the way.
Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
I know that you and you and Steven Spielberg, just
like, just like, jump jumpies.
Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
Well, look, I I I appreciate you coming on.
You know everybody again.
Meredith Kess Kimetti, writerof Vox Machina, um seasons one,
two, three coming out at somepoint soon.
Mark Hamill's best friend.
We didn't get to that story,but we will in the future.
Um, look, we're going to dothis every week, guys.
(01:00:34):
Um, I know, next week our guestis uh Stephanie DeVruzzo.
She is uh huge.
I mean Broadway.
You know her.
You remember Steph, uh Broadwaystar she uh.
Tony nominated for her work inAvenue Q.
She's done Sesame Street.
She um Pooh Corner is.
Is her right?
Isn't she Pooh Corner too?
(01:00:55):
I think, look, she's done a lot.
Oh, she's.
Musical episode of scrubspeople.
Musical episode of scrubs,episode of scrubs.
So if you, if you like thispodcast, come back next week,
I'm going to.
I'm going to keep the D 20thing going.
So when we get to questions forher, she's probably not going
to get the D 20, but I feel likeit's just going to be what sets
us apart.
(01:01:15):
So, everybody, meredith, checkher out on Instagram.
Her Instagram's back up on thescreen.
It's Meredith stories She'dlove to follow.
She'd love a follow if you geta chance and uh, look again, I'm
.
I'm Katie 215, the third, thirdworst chess player on kick.
Thank you so much.
Is there an ending?
I don't have an ending page forthis.
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
I don't have an ending page.
Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
I did, and you know it's funny, mano has made me an
ending page for all that I can.
I think I could put it togetherreally quickly if we just stall
for like, no, I bring it back,bring it back, bring it back.
I can't.
I can't put it up.
This is horrible.
This is the worst day ever.
Um, there was an ending page.
(01:02:00):
I'm going to put up the beright back page for the ending
page.
That's a post it note.
Thank you so much everybody.
Thank you so much.
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