July 4, 2024 • 29 mins
The BUZZ had the chance to speak with writer and director of, "Coyote," Dustin Murphy. Known as, "Teleport," in the UK, the movie takes place in the dystopian future where two refugees are desperately trying to escape genocide. However, they put their trust in the wrong hands, and the two are separated during teleportation. In their efforts to reunite, they find themselves in a human trafficking ring run by corrupt politicians.
Murphy spoke with us about how he came up with the concept of the film, as well as why he felt it was important to tell the story. We dove deeper into the Indie film scope and why it is such an important medium to tell stories without interference. Murphy also shared his own story about moving from the states in 2017 to the UK. Other aspects of the conversation included what scene stood out for him and working alongside Therica Wilson-Read.
"Coyote" can currently be seen on many streaming platforms, including Tubi, Amazon, and Apple TV.
Murphy spoke with us about how he came up with the concept of the film, as well as why he felt it was important to tell the story. We dove deeper into the Indie film scope and why it is such an important medium to tell stories without interference. Murphy also shared his own story about moving from the states in 2017 to the UK. Other aspects of the conversation included what scene stood out for him and working alongside Therica Wilson-Read.
"Coyote" can currently be seen on many streaming platforms, including Tubi, Amazon, and Apple TV.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The Buzz Buzz The Buzz is on. The Buzz is on, the show
that gets you up close and personalwith some of the hottest stars. Now
here's your host, Novelle jay Lee. What's going on, guys. It's
Novelle Jay Lee with the latest buzzat Buzzworthy Radio. I had the chance
to sit down and speak with DustinMurphy, who is the writer and director
(00:21):
of the movie Coyote, which starsTheraca Wilson Reed, who many fans were
recognized for her role in The Witcher. It tells the tale of two refugees
trying to escape genocide. However,they put their trust into the wrong hands,
wind up getting separated, and inan effort to reunite, they wind
up getting intertwined in a human traffickingring that is run by corrupt politicians.
(00:42):
We spoke with Dustin about not onlythe concept of how he came up with
this film, but why it wasso important to tell the story. We
also dove deeper into the topics ofrefugees, immigration, and even with his
own story of twenty seventeen, Ihad to think of the math there real
quick. Twenty seventeen, how hemoved from the States to the UK all
(01:04):
that and more with our conversation withDustin Murphy. Check it out. I'm
excited to talk to you, eventhough I think you might be a little
bit more excited than I am becauseyou showed up here a day early.
That's true, That's true. Igot the wrong memo. Yeah, I
arrived yesterday and I've been waiting hereto talk to you for a full twenty
(01:26):
four hours. Absorbit in amount ofcoffee you must have had, sir,
I am proud of the stamina,I will say that, But I was
excited to speak to you about aboutCoyote. It is called Kyote for us,
and if you are watching, ifyou have watched it in the UK,
it is called Teleport. For US, it's called Coyote. But for
(01:49):
those that have not seen this,why don't you give us a little background
about the film? Sure? So? Coyote is a dystopian sci fi film.
It's about how newly developed teleport rotationtechnology affects the refugee crisis. So,
in particular, the film poses thequestion, imagine teleportation is a brand
new real technology instantly, what kindof chaos might ensue? What kind of
(02:15):
complications might ensue? Very Oftentimes thecreators of technology can overseell the benefits and
sometimes not realize that they're opening Pandora'sbox. So, yeah, how would
a new technology like that affect thingslike refugees and the immigration and border security?
(02:36):
And our film, even though theycould probably take that in a variety
of directions, our film focuses ontwo queer refugees who are trying to escape
genocide in their home country, andthey trust the wrong back alley teleporter and
are separated in human trafficked, sothey have to try to find a way
to reunite and find their freedom.I love that you have the log line
(03:01):
of how can telepratation affect immigration?Just just even that one sentence, that
one question is very thought provoking,and it kind of segues into my question
of why was this so important foryou to tell the story? What was
(03:21):
what was the reasoning as to whyyou wanted to bring this to the forefront
for people to see. Yeah,I mean I think when people look at
me, they don't necessarily say,oh, immigrant, but I am an
immigrant. I mean I'm a littlebit of a reverse immigrant. So I
moved from the US to the UK. I've always you know, empathized with
(03:42):
you know, refugees, which isobviously much more dire situations than just regular
immigrants. But the system is messedup, man. I have you know
figured that out firsthand and the amountof cost associated with it, discrimination that
you experienced. I mean, Ithink looking at me, being a white
(04:03):
dude from America, people would thinkthey always think, oh, it's easy
for you, But the reality isthat the immigration systems around the world and
the closed borders around the world arecoming for everybody, you know. I
think it goes back to that oldquote. I'm going to paraphrase it horribly
(04:25):
here, but it's like I didnot you know, they started murdering the
women, and I wasn't a woman, so I didn't send up for the
women. They started murdering Africans andI didn't stand up for them, so
it was an African and then therewas nobody left to persecute, so they
came for me. And I thinkwhen it comes to immigration, that is
the way the closed border policies ofa lot of fascist leaning countries are leaning.
(04:49):
Unfortunately for me as a viewer,it's difficult to watch. But imagine
on the other side of the coin, you who it's heavily involved in this
story and bring into life watching thisplay out. What was going through your
mind just seeing this? Did youhave any type of even even more mixed
(05:11):
emotions when watching this play out forthe film with already what you already had
preconceived in your mind. Sure?Sure, I mean yes, it's,
you know, not the lightest offilms. Obviously, it's taking a serious
topic and it's treating it with avery serious tone, which I think is
the appropriate tone when you're talking aboutthings like human trafficking. You're not gonna
want to, you know, turnthat into a dark comedy. You're not
(05:33):
gonna wanna you know, you wantto be respectful to the material. I
will say that there's a big differencebetween writing something and then actualizing it with
actors and seeing it on screen.And there was plenty of times to where
I remember being on set and there'sone scene where a woman is brutalized and
(05:56):
I didn't really think about it thatmuch until till we were shooting it,
and you so see all the bloodon her face and all this type of
stuff, and You're like, oh, wow, that's a lot more graphic
than I was expecting. It wouldbe just based on you know, what
I wrote in the scripts, whichwas like, yeah, woman, you
know, enters the room and she'sbleeding from her face. It's like,
oh yeah, very very disturbing.So yeah, but yeah, I think
(06:24):
that is the point of the filmis moments like that are shocking, and
they should be shocking. They're notput in there for entertainment value. They're
put in there for effect to hopefullyelicit, you know, the appropriate responses
from people, which is like,oh my god, this is horrible,
and let's talk about this after thefact and find the correlations in real life
(06:44):
between this piece of science fiction thatwe've just seen and see if we can
make sure that doesn't happen to people. That's that was actually going to be
one of my questions is what wouldbe the biggest takeaways from watching this film
for viewers is how are they goingto receive it? And you answered it
perfectly because I was thinking that alsoin my head. That hopefully the message
(07:06):
that they take for this, especiallysince I've had a few episodes here on
the podcast talking about umen trafficking,and as you just said, they see
this and they see while of course, you know, probably this could be
emphasized for dramatic effect on this grandscheme of things. It potentially could also
(07:26):
be that experience in real time watchingthis and just going, oh my god,
this is this is serious. Weneed to talk about this. As
you just said, we need tohave a conversation, We need to have
need to have that thought provoking discussion. So I appreciate you saying that and
answering that question that I had,So yes, absolutely, yeah, sure,
(07:47):
Well, I mean I think it'sthat's kind of the point of art,
And you know, art is nevergonna solve the problem in and of
itself, but it's going to sparka conversation that can potentially lead to solutions.
And I think what's about framing thesetype of conversations about real world societal
problems in the context of a pieceof science fiction is all of a sudden,
(08:09):
you're removed from the politicized drama ofit all because you know, when
it comes to immigration, when itcomes to human trafficking, and the stories
that you're hearing that are real storiesthat are happening now. Depending on your
own you know, personal views andthe type of media that you consume,
you might have very strong feelings aboutwhat you align with politically, remove that
(08:33):
in the form of science fiction,and you're free to think, well,
I don't care about what politician Xthinks about this. I don't care what
this person thinks about this. Sothe fantasy gives you a little bit more
accessibility to go into these topics andsee the true underlying humanity of it,
and then maybe it'll spark in theback of your mind of like, oh,
(08:54):
yeah, this is just like thatnews story that I saw and I
never thought about that way. Absolutely, and you have an incredible cast that's
part of the film Thererick Wilson readis in the film. What was that
like working with her in this inthis project? Well, yeah, she's
great. I mean she brings suchan intense presence to the screen, So
(09:18):
yeah, it was phenomenal working withher. She brought a lot of her
own ideas to the character as well, which is great. I always love
working collaboratively. Yeah, I mean, that's that's that's the way to work.
I think maybe a misconception is alot of tour directors have a singular
vision and everybody has to come inand they have to, you know,
(09:41):
do whatever they say. But Imuch more like, I think you can
get to more naturalistic performances if you'releaning into the actor's natural instincts rather than
telling them what you think their instinctsshould be, even if if it doesn't
quite fit. So, yeah,and I think that strategy is a testament
(10:01):
to the performances that are captured inthe film. And Thereka leading the leading
the cast absolutely. And before Iget into your background a little bit,
can we ask what was one ofthe performances in this film that kind of
stood, without giving too much way, stood out for you that basically when
(10:22):
you had it written on the page, you kind of said this earlier with
something, but I was wondering ifthere was if it wasn't that was there
a scene that really stood out foryou that you didn't quite envision when you
wrote it, but then when yousaw it, you were a complete awe
that this was not in the samesense as the previous comment where you were
(10:46):
taken aback by it, but youwere actually in all of it. You
were in all of the scene likeyou were really proud of what was conveyed.
Yeah, I mean, I thinkone of my favorite scenes is the
opening scene, which is kind ofthe Entil prologue to the film. It's
shot in this beautiful location down inthe south of England, which is the
(11:07):
only technical desert in England, righton the coast. And don't definitely not
giving too much away here for anybodywho hasn't seen it, since it is
the opening of the film, butit's essentially this man who has lost his
daughter to his child to an illegalimmigrant in a motor accident, and so
(11:33):
he decides that these immigrants should notcome across the border and he's going to
do something about it. So hegoes to this dead zone where a lot
of teleportations are known to take place, and he waits for the first immigrant
to teleport so he can take justiceinto his own hands. When he does,
(11:56):
there's a massive language barrier, sohe doesn't speak any Spanish. The
immigrant coming in speaks Spanish, sohe doesn't understand a word that he's saying,
and he threatens him with a gunand decides to chase him and eventually
kills him. And then anybody whodoes speak Spanish knows exactly the context of
the situation, which is that guywas saying, you know, please,
(12:22):
I'm a father. The next personwho's going to teleport as my own child.
So the mourning father who is mourningthe loss of his child is now
responsible for killing the father of animmigrant child and leaving an orphan. And
it poses just this existential question toframe the entire film of the cycle of
(12:46):
trauma and who is going to breakthat cycle of trauma? When are we
going to stop blaming the other andwhen are we going to start taking accountability
for our own actions to not perpetuatethat cycle. Seeing that scene play out
the way it played out, withthe great performances that were in that scene,
the great location, the cinematography inthat scene, so many of the
(13:09):
collaborators involved in that scene just knockedit out of the park, and it's
probably the individual scene I'm the mostproud of. Would you say that that
logline that I mentioned before about howteleportation affects immigration plays into that opening scene
or did you already have that questionin mind before that came into fruition.
Yeah, no, it definitely does. So. I mean, basically,
(13:31):
in twenty twenty, I wrote thisas a short film with ten pages,
and I knew that there was toomuch I wanted to say about it,
so I needed to expand it.And when I picked it up to expand
it, the scene that I justdescribes the first scene that I wrote,
and that's when I really knew,like that that scene doesn't really belong in
a short film because it's kind ofa short film in and of itself,
(13:54):
so that can set the context foreverything. But then the regular film can
follow the same structure that the shortdid, which was, you know,
the story about the two women beinghuman trafficked and trusting the wrong teleporter and
then finding out that they're not teleportedto safety like they thought they were.
(14:15):
Absolutely and you mentioned about how,oh my gosh, you started in this
in this field, I'm like,well, I don't know your age,
but you started very young. Youstarted filming in your backyard as a kid,
and working your way up into gettinginto this point. You mentioned when
(14:35):
you moved to the UK. Itwas seven years ago you moved to the
UK from Los Angeles, Yeah,twenty seventeen. And I feel that just
from reading your history, so muchhas come to doors were open for you
when you got to the UK.It seems like I feel like more opportunities
(14:56):
grew as soon as the change happenedand you had said a statement about how
many people might have perceived that,oh, it's easier for you if you
know you're coming from the States intothe UK. But honestly, I feel
like that transition is not easy atall in that retrospect of it. I
(15:18):
don't think that's easier than what peopleconceive it to be. And I'm just
going you, you hustled your assoff, and I'm very proud of that,
and just kind of just tell mea little bit about why you decided
to go from the States into theUK and then just what you saw when
(15:41):
you What were the stark differences prettymuch? Yeah, for sure. Yeah,
I mean it was kind of meantto be a little bit more of
a temporary thing that it ended upbeing. But yeah, I moved in
twenty seventeen for my ex partner,and we knew we wanted to just kind
of be here for a little whileand start a family over here. I
(16:04):
did get exposed to the independent filmscene in London, which is great.
There's a big difference I think beingin la where literally everybody is in the
industry, your uber driver, yourwaiters, everybody has a script, everybody
wants to pitch. So London isa great creative hub, but not everybody
(16:26):
in this city is in the artsand entertainment industry, so it's easier to
have more accessibility to people than itis in la And yeah, there's kind
of there's three factors in London.There's the there's the studio scene, which
is very much like Hollywood. There'sthe institutional side of things, which is
(16:48):
like public funded arts through the BFI, which is something that's pretty cool that
you don't really get a lot inthe States. And then there's the independent
scene. And I've really that's whereI've found most of my collabor raiders.
And this project was very much aboutall of us collectively believing in green lighting
ourselves. So all of the creativesor stakeholders within the project themselves, and
(17:17):
a lot of it was the factthat the bigger industry kept knocking on those
doors, couldn't get those chances.So then we said, okay, well,
let's stop waiting for permission. Let'sjust go and make this film the
best we can make it with theresources that we have at a stretch and
see what we can pull together.And it was amazing to see a lot
(17:40):
of people just really wrangle behind thiswe shot in January February twenty twenty two,
some pickups that did take place laterthat year, had our US release
last year, and then yeah,we're still writing those coattails with the UK
release right now and hopefully more Europeanterritories as we go. So yeah,
(18:00):
it's it's a weird one, Iwill say. Yeah, the UK has
been good to me in some ways, it's been bad to me in some
ways. Creatively has been very good. But you know, if you're talking
about an immigrant story, one thingthat always cracks me up is there's been
a couple of times where people havetold me go back to where you come
(18:23):
from, and I'm like, wheredo you think white people come from?
Dude? Where it is Island?I literally just asked that in my head
up, going well, where didyou think he came from? I don't
know, I don't really know howelse to answer that statement except with the
question. So it's literally the samething I've thought of. So it's just
(18:45):
wow. You know, you hearthings like that and you're just kind of
in your own mind, you're justdumbfounded, going like did you really think
about your statement before you said it? Like, dude, I think For
me, I love the indie creativeartistic abilities because these these filmmakers, these
(19:11):
directors, these actors, these producers, these writers are able to just do
what they want without any basically interference, And I love that they're able to
tell the story that they really wantto tell without having it be and I
and excuse the word here, folks, whitewashed, but but that's really the
(19:33):
perfect word for it. And theone reason when you're talking about that,
when you're talking about the independent filmscene or the indie scene overall, that's
one of the main reasons why Ilove indie projects. And I feel like
it doesn't get the credit that itdeserves because you have these this creative team
(19:55):
that's a part of it, thatare giving it their one that you don't
necessarily get to see in mainstream films. You don't get that in mainstream films.
It's it's a little bit more restricted, whereas when you're doing something from
the heart and you're doing something thatmeans something too, not just those involved
(20:17):
in the project, but those thatare watching the projects, it's a lot
more. It's a lot more interesting. To me, it's a lot more.
It definitely gets me a lot morein the heart than it would in
the film. And that's one ofthe reasons why I love to talk about
the nd scope, especially on thisshow, because you can tell how much
(20:41):
they put into their craft for this, and I appreciate you sharing that with
me too, because yeah, thankyou. I mean, one thing that
really changed was, you know,the corporate takeover of Hollywood, which you
know, primarily in the nineties.So I mean, I think that you
know, art thrives, the artisticbusiness thrives when the art and the business
(21:07):
are on an equal playing field,and you know, you're trying to make
something with a lot of artistic integrity. But yes, you still want it
to be successful. You just wantpeople to like it. You still want
it to reach people. You're notmaking it in a vacuum. But unfortunately,
I think we're living in an erawhere it's been turned way much into
products. So they're not seen aspieces of art. They're seeing as pieces
of product. They're seeing a productsthat people can consume, you know,
(21:30):
with the data driven model, especiallyleading that which says what did people see
before? They'll see it again andthey this project made money, so we'll
make another one just like this project. Regardless if it's that interesting or fresh
or new. Yes, And that'swhy Hollywood is at a bit of a
crisis point right now really because audiencesare getting bored. They're going definitely going
(21:52):
more toward, you know, theindie side of things, the indie strengths,
or that we know how to tella really interesting story without as much
budget and overhead as you know,Hollywood seems to need. The only you
know, downside is that a lotof you know, corporate Hollywood projects,
(22:12):
their marketing budgets are just as bigas their as their film budgets. So
that's how they get people to seethem is the expectation that it will be
good. They're good at putting peopleputting butts in seats, but they're not
necessarily as good at getting people tolove their projects and have an emotional connection
with them. So that's why Iappreciate outlets like you, you know,
(22:33):
giving independent artists a voice and hopefullygetting a couple more butts in our seats.
The fact that in Hollywood it justseems like there's recycled product and a
lot of things now we're seeing andI need to make comments on the remakes,
the revivals, the reboots and allthis other, all this other stuff.
That's you know, you're taking alreadywhat was established and you are redoing
(22:56):
it. Yes you're calling it thesame title, but yet you're giving it
the same title, but it's completelydifferent than what the original recipe chicken was.
I'm going, well, that's notthat's not this if you're if you're
using this as a title to sellthis show or this movie, but it's
(23:18):
completely different in scope of or areimagnt of this, it's not that.
So call it something. Well,there's two things. There's there's the people
who were doing that. And Imean one of the worst defenders is that
Apple Plus show The Mosquito Coast.I don't know if you have watched that
at all, but it's a brilliantbook from the eighties that was made into
this brilliant movie with Harrison Ford inthe eighties as well, that Peter Weird
(23:41):
directed, and then they expanded itinto this series on Apple Plus. And
I was like, great, Ilove this film, I love this book.
Let's watch it. And I'm like, it's just the same title.
There's like it's the same title,the character is named the same, but
it is a completely different story.What is this? Yeah, So there's
(24:02):
that side, and then there's alsothe side of, oh, you're just
literally doing a cookie cutter formula,the exact same thing that I've seen before,
and just putting new actors and newcgi into it to you know,
trying to up the special effects budget. But it's the same, it's the
same story. I like, like, I always crave originality. Show me
(24:26):
something I haven't seen before. Maybeit's because I've been just you know,
consumed so much storytelling as I've studiedit, you know, for the past
twenty something years that you know,your typical formulas just don't excite me anymore.
If I can see where a storyis headed, I'm like, eah,
I know, I know this isgoing to end. I completely can
(24:47):
say no, I can relate.I have done that, and it's and
it's the shame. It's a shameto say that, but that's literally what
it is. When I watch thingson television and in film, if I
know where it's going, I justdon't. I'm just not interested. And
that's why I think it's an interestingpoint that not enough people that are in
positions of power in the industry arerealizing and that's what really needs to hammer
(25:10):
home is people want something fresh.They want originality, They want original originality,
they want as you just said,they want something that hasn't been on
the cutting room floor yet, andyou know, we're not getting We're not
getting that in the majority of aspects. And that's another reason why I respected
indie field because they, as youjust said yourself, they're bringing something different
to the table that hasn't been donebefore, and they're doing it on the
(25:33):
lesser budget. These are original ideasthat they have and this is why I
respect this genre so much. Andwhen I got to talk to people in
the indie in the indie scope,when I first got into it with the
Santa Barbara International Film Festival a fewmonths ago, it was absolutely incredible to
hear about how they came up withtheir stories, what what made them come
(25:59):
up with their story is why theywanted to tell their stories. I just
thought it was great just to see, and especially in that scope with documentaries
that I am such a huge fanof as well. In that in that
genre, it's just it's just amazinghow much talent is there that is not
getting the respect of the serves.So yes, yeah, well talent you
(26:21):
know, talent nurturing is something that'sthat's that's really void in the in the
in the industry right now, becauseI think they're always focused on the current
quarter and not necessarily on building longterm relationships with artists and building you know,
into their careers. It's more likethey want you to do all the
work yourself and then show up ready, which includes, you know, not
(26:41):
only being a good writer or agood director or you know, sometimes a
good editor and a good cinematographer.Sometimes you have to be all these things.
Plus you have to be a goodmarketer, you have to be good
at pitching in the room. Youhave to already, you know, build
your own audience. So you haveto come like with saying out with these
five million people already want to watchmy movie. Yeah, it's just weird.
(27:03):
It's weird. It's a weird timewhere we seem to require such a
very diverse skill set for in orderto allow anybody to tell a story that
is yeah, yeah, that isworthy of being told. And I'm very
proud of you you get to dothis still and be a part of this
(27:25):
industry. So thank you for that, and thank you for stopping by here
to to talk about to talk aboutCoyote for me, teleport for the rest
and so it's very it's very appreciatedand much respect and much love to you
for for everything that you have doneso far. And where can everybody see
the film? Right? Well,since this is yes US based podcast,
(27:51):
you can watch it on I believeit's on to be now. You can
watch it on Amazon, the AppleStore as well if you just want to
go to our website, which isteleport yourself dot com. There's links to
all the different places, all thedifferent platforms you can watch it and it's
available on most platforms. Awesome,well, Dustin, this was fun.
I really appreciate you stopping buying andtalking with me today. This is great
(28:14):
and I hope for the next projectand the next project after that you come
back here. We will love that. Yeah, I really enjoyed the conversation.
Definitely will Thanks for having me on. Absolutely that's the burthey everybody take
care. Many thanks to Dustin Murphyfor stopping by the Buzzcast to chat about
Coyote, which you can now streamon major platforms including Amazon and two b
But that's going to do it forme for right now. I'm the veljlead.
(28:36):
Making sure you keep getting the latestbuzz with Buzzworthy Radio by logging onto
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(29:00):
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The Buzz Buzz The Buzz is on. The Buzz is on, the show
that gets you up close and personalwith some of the hottest stars. Now
here's your host, Novelle jay Lee. What's going on, guys. It's
Novelle Jay Lee with the latest buzzat Buzzworthy Radio. I had the chance
to sit down and speak with DustinMurphy, who is the writer and director
(00:21):
of the movie Coyote, which starsTheraca Wilson Reed, who many fans were
recognized for her role in The Witcher. It tells the tale of two refugees
trying to escape genocide. However,they put their trust into the wrong hands,
wind up getting separated, and inan effort to reunite, they wind
up getting intertwined in a human traffickingring that is run by corrupt politicians.
(00:42):
We spoke with Dustin about not onlythe concept of how he came up with
this film, but why it wasso important to tell the story. We
also dove deeper into the topics ofrefugees, immigration, and even with his
own story of twenty seventeen, Ihad to think of the math there real
quick. Twenty seventeen, how hemoved from the States to the UK all
(01:04):
that and more with our conversation withDustin Murphy. Check it out. I'm
excited to talk to you, eventhough I think you might be a little
bit more excited than I am becauseyou showed up here a day early.
That's true, That's true. Igot the wrong memo. Yeah, I
arrived yesterday and I've been waiting hereto talk to you for a full twenty
(01:26):
four hours. Absorbit in amount ofcoffee you must have had, sir,
I am proud of the stamina,I will say that, But I was
excited to speak to you about aboutCoyote. It is called Kyote for us,
and if you are watching, ifyou have watched it in the UK,
it is called Teleport. For US, it's called Coyote. But for
(01:49):
those that have not seen this,why don't you give us a little background
about the film? Sure? So? Coyote is a dystopian sci fi film.
It's about how newly developed teleport rotationtechnology affects the refugee crisis. So,
in particular, the film poses thequestion, imagine teleportation is a brand
new real technology instantly, what kindof chaos might ensue? What kind of
(02:15):
complications might ensue? Very Oftentimes thecreators of technology can overseell the benefits and
sometimes not realize that they're opening Pandora'sbox. So, yeah, how would
a new technology like that affect thingslike refugees and the immigration and border security?
(02:36):
And our film, even though theycould probably take that in a variety
of directions, our film focuses ontwo queer refugees who are trying to escape
genocide in their home country, andthey trust the wrong back alley teleporter and
are separated in human trafficked, sothey have to try to find a way
to reunite and find their freedom.I love that you have the log line
(03:01):
of how can telepratation affect immigration?Just just even that one sentence, that
one question is very thought provoking,and it kind of segues into my question
of why was this so important foryou to tell the story? What was
(03:21):
what was the reasoning as to whyyou wanted to bring this to the forefront
for people to see. Yeah,I mean I think when people look at
me, they don't necessarily say,oh, immigrant, but I am an
immigrant. I mean I'm a littlebit of a reverse immigrant. So I
moved from the US to the UK. I've always you know, empathized with
(03:42):
you know, refugees, which isobviously much more dire situations than just regular
immigrants. But the system is messedup, man. I have you know
figured that out firsthand and the amountof cost associated with it, discrimination that
you experienced. I mean, Ithink looking at me, being a white
(04:03):
dude from America, people would thinkthey always think, oh, it's easy
for you, But the reality isthat the immigration systems around the world and
the closed borders around the world arecoming for everybody, you know. I
think it goes back to that oldquote. I'm going to paraphrase it horribly
(04:25):
here, but it's like I didnot you know, they started murdering the
women, and I wasn't a woman, so I didn't send up for the
women. They started murdering Africans andI didn't stand up for them, so
it was an African and then therewas nobody left to persecute, so they
came for me. And I thinkwhen it comes to immigration, that is
the way the closed border policies ofa lot of fascist leaning countries are leaning.
(04:49):
Unfortunately for me as a viewer,it's difficult to watch. But imagine
on the other side of the coin, you who it's heavily involved in this
story and bring into life watching thisplay out. What was going through your
mind just seeing this? Did youhave any type of even even more mixed
(05:11):
emotions when watching this play out forthe film with already what you already had
preconceived in your mind. Sure?Sure, I mean yes, it's,
you know, not the lightest offilms. Obviously, it's taking a serious
topic and it's treating it with avery serious tone, which I think is
the appropriate tone when you're talking aboutthings like human trafficking. You're not gonna
want to, you know, turnthat into a dark comedy. You're not
(05:33):
gonna wanna you know, you wantto be respectful to the material. I
will say that there's a big differencebetween writing something and then actualizing it with
actors and seeing it on screen.And there was plenty of times to where
I remember being on set and there'sone scene where a woman is brutalized and
(05:56):
I didn't really think about it thatmuch until till we were shooting it,
and you so see all the bloodon her face and all this type of
stuff, and You're like, oh, wow, that's a lot more graphic
than I was expecting. It wouldbe just based on you know, what
I wrote in the scripts, whichwas like, yeah, woman, you
know, enters the room and she'sbleeding from her face. It's like,
oh yeah, very very disturbing.So yeah, but yeah, I think
(06:24):
that is the point of the filmis moments like that are shocking, and
they should be shocking. They're notput in there for entertainment value. They're
put in there for effect to hopefullyelicit, you know, the appropriate responses
from people, which is like,oh my god, this is horrible,
and let's talk about this after thefact and find the correlations in real life
(06:44):
between this piece of science fiction thatwe've just seen and see if we can
make sure that doesn't happen to people. That's that was actually going to be
one of my questions is what wouldbe the biggest takeaways from watching this film
for viewers is how are they goingto receive it? And you answered it
perfectly because I was thinking that alsoin my head. That hopefully the message
(07:06):
that they take for this, especiallysince I've had a few episodes here on
the podcast talking about umen trafficking,and as you just said, they see
this and they see while of course, you know, probably this could be
emphasized for dramatic effect on this grandscheme of things. It potentially could also
(07:26):
be that experience in real time watchingthis and just going, oh my god,
this is this is serious. Weneed to talk about this. As
you just said, we need tohave a conversation, We need to have
need to have that thought provoking discussion. So I appreciate you saying that and
answering that question that I had,So yes, absolutely, yeah, sure,
(07:47):
Well, I mean I think it'sthat's kind of the point of art,
And you know, art is nevergonna solve the problem in and of
itself, but it's going to sparka conversation that can potentially lead to solutions.
And I think what's about framing thesetype of conversations about real world societal
problems in the context of a pieceof science fiction is all of a sudden,
(08:09):
you're removed from the politicized drama ofit all because you know, when
it comes to immigration, when itcomes to human trafficking, and the stories
that you're hearing that are real storiesthat are happening now. Depending on your
own you know, personal views andthe type of media that you consume,
you might have very strong feelings aboutwhat you align with politically, remove that
(08:33):
in the form of science fiction,and you're free to think, well,
I don't care about what politician Xthinks about this. I don't care what
this person thinks about this. Sothe fantasy gives you a little bit more
accessibility to go into these topics andsee the true underlying humanity of it,
and then maybe it'll spark in theback of your mind of like, oh,
(08:54):
yeah, this is just like thatnews story that I saw and I
never thought about that way. Absolutely, and you have an incredible cast that's
part of the film Thererick Wilson readis in the film. What was that
like working with her in this inthis project? Well, yeah, she's
great. I mean she brings suchan intense presence to the screen, So
(09:18):
yeah, it was phenomenal working withher. She brought a lot of her
own ideas to the character as well, which is great. I always love
working collaboratively. Yeah, I mean, that's that's that's the way to work.
I think maybe a misconception is alot of tour directors have a singular
vision and everybody has to come inand they have to, you know,
(09:41):
do whatever they say. But Imuch more like, I think you can
get to more naturalistic performances if you'releaning into the actor's natural instincts rather than
telling them what you think their instinctsshould be, even if if it doesn't
quite fit. So, yeah,and I think that strategy is a testament
(10:01):
to the performances that are captured inthe film. And Thereka leading the leading
the cast absolutely. And before Iget into your background a little bit,
can we ask what was one ofthe performances in this film that kind of
stood, without giving too much way, stood out for you that basically when
(10:22):
you had it written on the page, you kind of said this earlier with
something, but I was wondering ifthere was if it wasn't that was there
a scene that really stood out foryou that you didn't quite envision when you
wrote it, but then when yousaw it, you were a complete awe
that this was not in the samesense as the previous comment where you were
(10:46):
taken aback by it, but youwere actually in all of it. You
were in all of the scene likeyou were really proud of what was conveyed.
Yeah, I mean, I thinkone of my favorite scenes is the
opening scene, which is kind ofthe Entil prologue to the film. It's
shot in this beautiful location down inthe south of England, which is the
(11:07):
only technical desert in England, righton the coast. And don't definitely not
giving too much away here for anybodywho hasn't seen it, since it is
the opening of the film, butit's essentially this man who has lost his
daughter to his child to an illegalimmigrant in a motor accident, and so
(11:33):
he decides that these immigrants should notcome across the border and he's going to
do something about it. So hegoes to this dead zone where a lot
of teleportations are known to take place, and he waits for the first immigrant
to teleport so he can take justiceinto his own hands. When he does,
(11:56):
there's a massive language barrier, sohe doesn't speak any Spanish. The
immigrant coming in speaks Spanish, sohe doesn't understand a word that he's saying,
and he threatens him with a gunand decides to chase him and eventually
kills him. And then anybody whodoes speak Spanish knows exactly the context of
the situation, which is that guywas saying, you know, please,
(12:22):
I'm a father. The next personwho's going to teleport as my own child.
So the mourning father who is mourningthe loss of his child is now
responsible for killing the father of animmigrant child and leaving an orphan. And
it poses just this existential question toframe the entire film of the cycle of
(12:46):
trauma and who is going to breakthat cycle of trauma? When are we
going to stop blaming the other andwhen are we going to start taking accountability
for our own actions to not perpetuatethat cycle. Seeing that scene play out
the way it played out, withthe great performances that were in that scene,
the great location, the cinematography inthat scene, so many of the
(13:09):
collaborators involved in that scene just knockedit out of the park, and it's
probably the individual scene I'm the mostproud of. Would you say that that
logline that I mentioned before about howteleportation affects immigration plays into that opening scene
or did you already have that questionin mind before that came into fruition.
Yeah, no, it definitely does. So. I mean, basically,
(13:31):
in twenty twenty, I wrote thisas a short film with ten pages,
and I knew that there was toomuch I wanted to say about it,
so I needed to expand it.And when I picked it up to expand
it, the scene that I justdescribes the first scene that I wrote,
and that's when I really knew,like that that scene doesn't really belong in
a short film because it's kind ofa short film in and of itself,
(13:54):
so that can set the context foreverything. But then the regular film can
follow the same structure that the shortdid, which was, you know,
the story about the two women beinghuman trafficked and trusting the wrong teleporter and
then finding out that they're not teleportedto safety like they thought they were.
(14:15):
Absolutely and you mentioned about how,oh my gosh, you started in this
in this field, I'm like,well, I don't know your age,
but you started very young. Youstarted filming in your backyard as a kid,
and working your way up into gettinginto this point. You mentioned when
(14:35):
you moved to the UK. Itwas seven years ago you moved to the
UK from Los Angeles, Yeah,twenty seventeen. And I feel that just
from reading your history, so muchhas come to doors were open for you
when you got to the UK.It seems like I feel like more opportunities
(14:56):
grew as soon as the change happenedand you had said a statement about how
many people might have perceived that,oh, it's easier for you if you
know you're coming from the States intothe UK. But honestly, I feel
like that transition is not easy atall in that retrospect of it. I
(15:18):
don't think that's easier than what peopleconceive it to be. And I'm just
going you, you hustled your assoff, and I'm very proud of that,
and just kind of just tell mea little bit about why you decided
to go from the States into theUK and then just what you saw when
(15:41):
you What were the stark differences prettymuch? Yeah, for sure. Yeah,
I mean it was kind of meantto be a little bit more of
a temporary thing that it ended upbeing. But yeah, I moved in
twenty seventeen for my ex partner,and we knew we wanted to just kind
of be here for a little whileand start a family over here. I
(16:04):
did get exposed to the independent filmscene in London, which is great.
There's a big difference I think beingin la where literally everybody is in the
industry, your uber driver, yourwaiters, everybody has a script, everybody
wants to pitch. So London isa great creative hub, but not everybody
(16:26):
in this city is in the artsand entertainment industry, so it's easier to
have more accessibility to people than itis in la And yeah, there's kind
of there's three factors in London.There's the there's the studio scene, which
is very much like Hollywood. There'sthe institutional side of things, which is
(16:48):
like public funded arts through the BFI, which is something that's pretty cool that
you don't really get a lot inthe States. And then there's the independent
scene. And I've really that's whereI've found most of my collabor raiders.
And this project was very much aboutall of us collectively believing in green lighting
ourselves. So all of the creativesor stakeholders within the project themselves, and
(17:17):
a lot of it was the factthat the bigger industry kept knocking on those
doors, couldn't get those chances.So then we said, okay, well,
let's stop waiting for permission. Let'sjust go and make this film the
best we can make it with theresources that we have at a stretch and
see what we can pull together.And it was amazing to see a lot
(17:40):
of people just really wrangle behind thiswe shot in January February twenty twenty two,
some pickups that did take place laterthat year, had our US release
last year, and then yeah,we're still writing those coattails with the UK
release right now and hopefully more Europeanterritories as we go. So yeah,
(18:00):
it's it's a weird one, Iwill say. Yeah, the UK has
been good to me in some ways, it's been bad to me in some
ways. Creatively has been very good. But you know, if you're talking
about an immigrant story, one thingthat always cracks me up is there's been
a couple of times where people havetold me go back to where you come
(18:23):
from, and I'm like, wheredo you think white people come from?
Dude? Where it is Island?I literally just asked that in my head
up, going well, where didyou think he came from? I don't
know, I don't really know howelse to answer that statement except with the
question. So it's literally the samething I've thought of. So it's just
(18:45):
wow. You know, you hearthings like that and you're just kind of
in your own mind, you're justdumbfounded, going like did you really think
about your statement before you said it? Like, dude, I think For
me, I love the indie creativeartistic abilities because these these filmmakers, these
(19:11):
directors, these actors, these producers, these writers are able to just do
what they want without any basically interference, And I love that they're able to
tell the story that they really wantto tell without having it be and I
and excuse the word here, folks, whitewashed, but but that's really the
(19:33):
perfect word for it. And theone reason when you're talking about that,
when you're talking about the independent filmscene or the indie scene overall, that's
one of the main reasons why Ilove indie projects. And I feel like
it doesn't get the credit that itdeserves because you have these this creative team
(19:55):
that's a part of it, thatare giving it their one that you don't
necessarily get to see in mainstream films. You don't get that in mainstream films.
It's it's a little bit more restricted, whereas when you're doing something from
the heart and you're doing something thatmeans something too, not just those involved
(20:17):
in the project, but those thatare watching the projects, it's a lot
more. It's a lot more interesting. To me, it's a lot more.
It definitely gets me a lot morein the heart than it would in
the film. And that's one ofthe reasons why I love to talk about
the nd scope, especially on thisshow, because you can tell how much
(20:41):
they put into their craft for this, and I appreciate you sharing that with
me too, because yeah, thankyou. I mean, one thing that
really changed was, you know,the corporate takeover of Hollywood, which you
know, primarily in the nineties.So I mean, I think that you
know, art thrives, the artisticbusiness thrives when the art and the business
(21:07):
are on an equal playing field,and you know, you're trying to make
something with a lot of artistic integrity. But yes, you still want it
to be successful. You just wantpeople to like it. You still want
it to reach people. You're notmaking it in a vacuum. But unfortunately,
I think we're living in an erawhere it's been turned way much into
products. So they're not seen aspieces of art. They're seeing as pieces
of product. They're seeing a productsthat people can consume, you know,
(21:30):
with the data driven model, especiallyleading that which says what did people see
before? They'll see it again andthey this project made money, so we'll
make another one just like this project. Regardless if it's that interesting or fresh
or new. Yes, And that'swhy Hollywood is at a bit of a
crisis point right now really because audiencesare getting bored. They're going definitely going
(21:52):
more toward, you know, theindie side of things, the indie strengths,
or that we know how to tella really interesting story without as much
budget and overhead as you know,Hollywood seems to need. The only you
know, downside is that a lotof you know, corporate Hollywood projects,
(22:12):
their marketing budgets are just as bigas their as their film budgets. So
that's how they get people to seethem is the expectation that it will be
good. They're good at putting peopleputting butts in seats, but they're not
necessarily as good at getting people tolove their projects and have an emotional connection
with them. So that's why Iappreciate outlets like you, you know,
(22:33):
giving independent artists a voice and hopefullygetting a couple more butts in our seats.
The fact that in Hollywood it justseems like there's recycled product and a
lot of things now we're seeing andI need to make comments on the remakes,
the revivals, the reboots and allthis other, all this other stuff.
That's you know, you're taking alreadywhat was established and you are redoing
(22:56):
it. Yes you're calling it thesame title, but yet you're giving it
the same title, but it's completelydifferent than what the original recipe chicken was.
I'm going, well, that's notthat's not this if you're if you're
using this as a title to sellthis show or this movie, but it's
(23:18):
completely different in scope of or areimagnt of this, it's not that.
So call it something. Well,there's two things. There's there's the people
who were doing that. And Imean one of the worst defenders is that
Apple Plus show The Mosquito Coast.I don't know if you have watched that
at all, but it's a brilliantbook from the eighties that was made into
this brilliant movie with Harrison Ford inthe eighties as well, that Peter Weird
(23:41):
directed, and then they expanded itinto this series on Apple Plus. And
I was like, great, Ilove this film, I love this book.
Let's watch it. And I'm like, it's just the same title.
There's like it's the same title,the character is named the same, but
it is a completely different story.What is this? Yeah, So there's
(24:02):
that side, and then there's alsothe side of, oh, you're just
literally doing a cookie cutter formula,the exact same thing that I've seen before,
and just putting new actors and newcgi into it to you know,
trying to up the special effects budget. But it's the same, it's the
same story. I like, like, I always crave originality. Show me
(24:26):
something I haven't seen before. Maybeit's because I've been just you know,
consumed so much storytelling as I've studiedit, you know, for the past
twenty something years that you know,your typical formulas just don't excite me anymore.
If I can see where a storyis headed, I'm like, eah,
I know, I know this isgoing to end. I completely can
(24:47):
say no, I can relate.I have done that, and it's and
it's the shame. It's a shameto say that, but that's literally what
it is. When I watch thingson television and in film, if I
know where it's going, I justdon't. I'm just not interested. And
that's why I think it's an interestingpoint that not enough people that are in
positions of power in the industry arerealizing and that's what really needs to hammer
(25:10):
home is people want something fresh.They want originality, They want original originality,
they want as you just said,they want something that hasn't been on
the cutting room floor yet, andyou know, we're not getting We're not
getting that in the majority of aspects. And that's another reason why I respected
indie field because they, as youjust said yourself, they're bringing something different
to the table that hasn't been donebefore, and they're doing it on the
(25:33):
lesser budget. These are original ideasthat they have and this is why I
respect this genre so much. Andwhen I got to talk to people in
the indie in the indie scope,when I first got into it with the
Santa Barbara International Film Festival a fewmonths ago, it was absolutely incredible to
hear about how they came up withtheir stories, what what made them come
(25:59):
up with their story is why theywanted to tell their stories. I just
thought it was great just to see, and especially in that scope with documentaries
that I am such a huge fanof as well. In that in that
genre, it's just it's just amazinghow much talent is there that is not
getting the respect of the serves.So yes, yeah, well talent you
(26:21):
know, talent nurturing is something that'sthat's that's really void in the in the
in the industry right now, becauseI think they're always focused on the current
quarter and not necessarily on building longterm relationships with artists and building you know,
into their careers. It's more likethey want you to do all the
work yourself and then show up ready, which includes, you know, not
(26:41):
only being a good writer or agood director or you know, sometimes a
good editor and a good cinematographer.Sometimes you have to be all these things.
Plus you have to be a goodmarketer, you have to be good
at pitching in the room. Youhave to already, you know, build
your own audience. So you haveto come like with saying out with these
five million people already want to watchmy movie. Yeah, it's just weird.
(27:03):
It's weird. It's a weird timewhere we seem to require such a
very diverse skill set for in orderto allow anybody to tell a story that
is yeah, yeah, that isworthy of being told. And I'm very
proud of you you get to dothis still and be a part of this
(27:25):
industry. So thank you for that, and thank you for stopping by here
to to talk about to talk aboutCoyote for me, teleport for the rest
and so it's very it's very appreciatedand much respect and much love to you
for for everything that you have doneso far. And where can everybody see
the film? Right? Well,since this is yes US based podcast,
(27:51):
you can watch it on I believeit's on to be now. You can
watch it on Amazon, the AppleStore as well if you just want to
go to our website, which isteleport yourself dot com. There's links to
all the different places, all thedifferent platforms you can watch it and it's
available on most platforms. Awesome,well, Dustin, this was fun.
I really appreciate you stopping buying andtalking with me today. This is great
(28:14):
and I hope for the next projectand the next project after that you come
back here. We will love that. Yeah, I really enjoyed the conversation.
Definitely will Thanks for having me on. Absolutely that's the burthey everybody take
care. Many thanks to Dustin Murphyfor stopping by the Buzzcast to chat about
Coyote, which you can now streamon major platforms including Amazon and two b
But that's going to do it forme for right now. I'm the veljlead.
(28:36):
Making sure you keep getting the latestbuzz with Buzzworthy Radio by logging onto
our website at buzzworthyradiocast dot com.We are also on x at Buzzworthy Radio.
You could like us on Facebook andwe are on Instagram at buzznav and
at Buzzworthyradio. And finally, youcan stream our podcast on Amazon Music and
iHeartRadio. We'll see you guys nexttime. Take care, stay in the
(29:00):
no catch up on all the buzzpodcasts and videos at buzzworthyradiocast dot com.
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