November 7, 2024 • 37 mins
She also produces the series "Side Hustlers" for Roku. This is a show that follows female entrepreneurs. Women are given an opportunity to pitch their "Side Hustle" to Emma Grede and Ashley Graham. They have invented something in the world of tech, pet care, apparel, drinks, sauces - you name it. Some of the women are invited for a mentorship and later, some of the women are given investments in their companies. Seasons 1 and 2 are out now on ROKU. Hello Sunshine was the production company. Here's the link for more info: Her new film "Black, White and the Greys" is now streaming on Amazon, Tubi, Google Play and YouTube. It's what she calls an unflinching look at marriage, race, politics and many other tough topics in 2020. Timely, relevant, romantic, funny, and at times... heartbreaking. www.blackwhiteandthegreys.com Her other projects are: • "Finals Heat" on Amazon, Google Play, Apple TV, YouTube, Fandango - The married owners of a struggling functional fitness gym recruit the best athletes to compete in the Games for the huge cash prize. But a figure from the past with a secret threatens to destroy their team, their gym, and their lives. - The married owners of a struggling functional fitness gym recruit the best athletes to compete in the Games for the huge cash prize. But a figure from the past with a secret threatens to destroy their team, their gym, and their lives. - The married owners of a struggling functional fitness gym recruit the best athletes to compete in the Games for the huge cash prize. But a figure from the past with a secret threatens to destroy their team, their gym, and their lives. With Brad Benedict, Jeremy Gimenez, Alexandra Daniels and Molly Cerne. https://www.lmdb.com/title/tt31283691/ On Instagram at @finalheatmovie.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Savage Babies, just the even more Savage's Mother Love.
We're in studio number two here in Pasadena. I told
you this is a pretty cool show and today we
have all. Thank you all for joining us at first,
for I mean first, and this this chick. I know
she's part of Jamaican because she got eleventeen jobs. Welcome
to the program, Jessica Matthews. Who is an artist, he
(00:21):
is an entrepreneur. You just do everything, girl, Welcome to
the programs to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Oh it's my pleasure. We want to thank your published
business to Carlos our team there. That's who absolutely and
you know he must love us because he make sure
we get hooked stuff. So let's get people caught up
to speech. You're Jessica Matthews, and you do what tell
mother love him, this audience. What we need to know
that we don't know about you.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Oh so I'm not producer.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I produced a lot of scripted television or juveniles, a
lot of independent films, features and stories. And I love
telling stories. I feel like, uh, telling someone's story is
it can be very personal and luckily and sometimes to
(01:13):
tart me know. Uh, but you know a lot of
times there's form for growth and joy and everything in
the tween. So I love telling someone story letters. It's
Christians or your way. You're saying someone's world and getting
it out there to.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
See and and and what's beautiful. And I've always not
really not understood but the format when you said you
do documentaries, what documentaries and you do short stories? Is it?
It seems to me it's harder to tell a short
story and get the meat and potatoes of it in
then it is a long drawn up taking three weeks
(01:53):
to do it. What is your process and how do
you select what kind of products and projects you want
to be involved in? As the Fords it, Well, I.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Think it's that's a great question, and it's really important
to really want to work on the subject matter because
a lot of times, if you're working on a project,
and if you're working on a stand ind feature film,
you're working on that thing for like three years scene,
so you know, you better like the story and you
better like the scene, right because they'll be with them
(02:24):
for a while. So I mean it really I like
stories that kind of you know, they pull up a
heart string or they get people talking, get people communicating
about different subjects. Sometimes those things are kind of woven
in to just the characters who they are, or you know,
(02:46):
there's there's just like for instance, Black White Men Grades
is a story about if the new feature story about it.
Inter racial couple who are struggling in their marriage. They're
going through everything, plot parts, matter, everything COVID twenty twenty
together and they're realizing that their years that they thought
(03:07):
completely lined up, they don't necessarily totally line up the
way they thought they did. So it was really a
story about a couple who is realizing that not everything
is always black and white, and sometimes there's a great
area and sometimes you have to learns to live in
the gray. And it's a heartwarming story. Is there are
(03:28):
some tough subjects in there, and in the end that
has a nice end. They don't want to give months away,
but oh.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
No, that's what we just want to give a little
piece of meat. Just let them have a tasty morsel
when I'm putting and people come to housing with you
like a holiday time and what have you, and they
till they come in early because they know I have
the tasty morsels, and they eat them all up, you know,
And that's what they just want to give them enough
to picture. That's milkyfely. I think it would like to
(03:55):
have an entire plate of debt. And speaking of having
an entire plate of debt, because you short, have you
ever been working on a story and you go, this
is more than a short and vice versa working on
a practical Oh no, this would be a short. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I recently worked on a shore called Woke with my
good friend Christian Alder hey and writer, director, used a
visual artist. He's an amazing writer and visual artists and director.
And anyway, we he had a feature, uh for the
(04:34):
feature it's called Woke of his name and what we
were looking to do. We thought about raising money for that,
and we decided, you know what, let's do a shore,
Let's do a crystal contact. Let's get this out there
and that might be a great way for us to
raise more money for the feature.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
So that's what we did.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
And it is a story about two women who are
struggling with sarah addiction, terrible vampires and.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Bloodsuckers.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
They go to anonymous No.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Wait, wait, wait, wait, I'm just wait you want to
say that again, because I don't think I've heard that way.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So I'm kind of.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
God.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
That by yourself is hilarious. See thick twisted people like you,
you guys can come up with that. Then you find
other sick tisted people go yeah, let's do that. That's
really sick and twisted. That's when you have the most fun,
you know, and it's personally. You talked about having those
teams together, because I've been on productions and you know
different things that I've done, and you see the production
(05:52):
you know the lighting people, you know, they all all
the muff and both people and oftentimes they're the same
group of people. Because you have to learn to trust
your team, and you trust your team needs to learn
to trust you. And of the time when you're coming
into that, you know, you got to feel your way
through it. Okay, how praised they are they going to be?
You know, how crazy well I have to be? Or
(06:13):
how calmed do I need to be? So when you're
talking about producing, and I work with a lot of
producers and you know you all have like some crazy
stuff in your head. When you have you gotten to
a project, Prince, it's really crazy. That's if you really
want to work on this, will you talk yourself into
or out of more projects.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I think I think every project has a has an
interesting you know, gay the story rate, or an interesting mook,
or maybe just needs a little help being you know,
kind of like massage from the beginning, like the script like, Aley, yo,
this isn't exactly in the right place, but maybe if
we develop this character a little more, or we you know,
(06:55):
this personally needs more of a hard And when you're
kind of working at God and look at the story,
I feel like you could probably talk to yourself into
doing you know, most times, but like for instance, you know,
well is I mean, there's there's underlying issues that we
talk about. For me, we do it in a fun
way with the vampires, right, but but it's really we're
(07:17):
workingting on subjects that are in regards to one of
the vampires she was a slave. And then we are
talking about a fiction and we are talking about these
these topics that we're you know, we're kind of interweaving
them throughout. But it's you know, oh, I'm not realized that,
oh that's what this kind. But but also like let's
(07:42):
siflight in the grades is getting people to talk and
people said, oh, but you in my house because I
where you were in my living room and you are
in my conversation with my wife because the games is
exactly what we want do. So I love that. I
love when people can talk and communicate. So when I
see a scription, I I think, oh, I think this
could work, you know, or oh is this organization involved
(08:06):
in this organist and involved and really try to get
it out there on a bigger scale, not just like
distribution that some vessels, but really maybe try to help people.
We set out with the Sort from Under. Its about
two long connectings and it deals with the subjects of
postpartum depression and human trafficking, and we worked with an
(08:26):
antigualing trafficking organization. One of the moms and the film
is shaving us and then another mom is dealing with
postpartum depression and it's about how they come together and
how one's mom like, well, this one mom rest everything
in order to help this other mom. But we worked
with an Eternal Mental Health Now, which is an organization
in LA that helps him who are dealing with postpartum depression,
(08:49):
and we worked with it in Sagumente trafficking and organization
as well, and we had people who are ben traffic
read the scripts and give us the thumbs up, yes,
this is real, this is what happened, or this is
to learn what I went through. So I was just
trying to speak.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Through to the topics.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I had someone apocially recently on the subject matter of
suicide and and you know, I mean, my professionalis is
a big thing and I'm working for us or you know,
working on that. And didn't that word out there so
that people feel like, you know, they're not alone being
a voice. People are hand called, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
And that's one of the biggest things, especially our young people.
They don't believe that anybody is see seeing them, is
hearing them, are understanding them. And I have to have
been the unfortunate in an unfortunate position that the kid
was fourteen years old and he just didn't think anybody
was looking at him. He didn't He felt empty, he
(09:50):
felt love, he felt alone, and he tried to take
his life and he went into the lage. You know,
it was just awful. So none make a lot of Yes,
sure he recovered from that, and you know he was
We thought he was on his way, you know, to
getting well to addressing of a lot of people. You
know this like I do they don't want to address
the issue. I pretend it all go away. I don't
(10:13):
have to acknowledge it. I can do something else with it.
And when you find out that, especially this hard topic
of suicide, they just want the pain to stop. They
just wanted to stop, you know. And he just wanted
it to stop, and it didn't stop, and he ended
up taking his life in the long run. Anyway, So
when you get to something like that, and you know
(10:35):
how many lyrics it can be, how do you, as
a producer, as a storyteller, how do you how do
you keep Jessica together? Because it's like, okay, you're going
into a room like that and it's almost like you
have to have all your battle gear on because you
could get sucked into that. How long did you maintain
Jessica the human beings, the loving kind person who wants
(10:57):
to have these stories told, to be able to say, oh, okay,
I got to I got to step away from this
for a minute.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Well I think they're I mean, you're right, there is
a balance and there I mean, we just screamed up her.
You know a lot of fun facts in the email.
So now I'm still oh, I just.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Lais Lord we don't forget that.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, yeah, so but if we screamed at all these
vessels and every time I'm still crying in the end,
I know what's gonna happen. I know, you know, I
know these are actors, but yeah, I definitely have a
lot of.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
From from an og from an original. I'm one of
the original girls. Let me say if you don't, because
you can watch it as a viewer and see that's
a skill set and you're not watching it, you know,
to pick the pieces when you say you always come out,
you know what's gonna happen. You know you're gonna cry that.
Lets y'all know, everybody, she's a big water head. Don't
(11:58):
let that pretty faceful. She probably got water group mess here, lipstick,
have a lot of everything and you and you know that.
That's when you know you hit that chord when you
can watch that as a producer and you watch it
as a viewer and you go back. Now, do you
need to think your project? Your projects? And do you
definitely don't you hand it over to another team to say, okay,
that me what I did wrong?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I keep playing it all a lot like like an editor,
you know, give them the great sums faces to be
able to do what they feel, you know, is necessarily
with the first cut and then gives notes from there.
So I would like people to feel like they're creative
(12:40):
and that they have, you know, the way. And it's
always interesting to see how someone else sees something and
then you can kind of sapre it and calling it
in a little bit somewhere what you're thinking or you know.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
But there's always a collaboration, you know, and teams out here,
you know, they give up a a where they think,
you know, oh yeah, yeah, the producer you think your
ol ear is in vow and you got the last
felt the work.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
That's what you think. Let's go with that one. How
about that? That's why you think I know how to
get it work on you, buddy. I can get it
around with you, girl. So it's the importance of that collaboration.
What is that process for you and especially you're going
to starting to work on a new project, but maybe
just a few of your core people coming over and
you've got to allow other people to come in and
(13:28):
plug into you and you plug into them. What is
that process like because that can be harrowing and be
snot let our work, We're not thinking about doing this.
It's crazy. You see you look at me and you go, okay, yes, sir,
what have you just lost your mind? Have you had
those days yet?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I don't know. I mean I feel like there have been.
I mean it's not always also, I mean typically you would.
I'm feel pretty good about people in general, and like
getting people that are you know, presenting something. And you
(14:10):
know what I do is I'll read the script and
I give you know, I like giving general thoughts on script,
you know, and and depending upon what people want, Like
if it's like you know, this is when he's a
working relationship, you know, we're we're already you know, in it,
then I feel good about giving very specific you know,
(14:35):
if it's something where you know we're just starting to collaborate,
you know, those you're trying to be a little more general.
I'd like to see this person do a little bit
more of this, or who how fun would it be
so importriate this here? Or just kind of those general notes.
But but definitely I get into the specifics on script,
(14:56):
always trying to make it, you know, the best could be.
And I write working with people who are through that's
their goal it's not just you know, I'm doing your
giver and they just a thing and something. It's always
but it's always, it's always for collaboration. And I feel like, uh,
(15:20):
if people are like minded in that regard, then you're
to have a good all good story write overall, and
also a good working relationships and especially a lot of
these projects you're working on for quite some time, so
it's important.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
And I have to I have to say one of
the one of the great things that you do is
you bring in a lot of talented women to the table,
and we have got to learn to work together in
this business because you know they don't, they will not
be able to surmount of I don't know how much
stupid they think. We're stuck a really, really really and
(16:00):
to get these people. Have you ever had to take
anybody off the office show and when you knew it
wasn't gonna work, have you told anybody was going in
a different direction. That's the one that cracked me up.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I mean it's like, I did I do have someone
want to commit some like a real and then I
found out that it actually wasn't there projects and we
ended up having to like work around that and find
(16:33):
someone else too, you know with the race I have
that happened that was a while back, but I haven't
really I haven't ever had to like fire. Can I
like snatter and you can like me? Yeah? I mean
most of the recruited. Always feel like if you have
(16:56):
those the strong department heads which you have a action
designer and they you know, they say, I have this
art director that I want to bring on and this
is them and here's their work and this is why.
You know, I feel like if you're confident in those heads,
like through DP, you know, they they have.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Excuse me, DP, that DP they work their up photography right, yeah,
yet be a work.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
So you like the director of phothography and yeah, their
first sacy that they love and they want to bring
them on, and the first spacy as a second ape
is generally like whatever the kind of vibe is that
you're getting from those.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Departments, like the director authography, I feel like you could
kind of uh get that vibe from those other people
as well.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So and obviously everyone is still interviewed in but I
like to try to make sure that those people feel
comfortable that they are people to bring on people that
they know and talk you know, as a focus puller
or whatever it is.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
So that they feel good about that day too, and
they have a.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Working they already have a working relationship with these people.
So hopefully we can get people that they already know
and trust on there.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
It's gonna make their it's gonna make the day.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Of corporate too, because they know that you can just
talk to them and have quick language, but okay, you
more instead of just there's there's a little bit short
of language to that sense someone you've just met. It's
kind of uh, it's gonna you know, they know that
there's no no will there when you're in you're hout
(18:45):
uh to you know where you might talk to someone,
so you're just met.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
So and that's really important to make sure you've got
the white kind of people. Sometimes I don't know if
it's happened to other people, because people will come on
to a project and think it's one thing, and then
you tell them what it is and you know, okay,
we're gonna work together, and then they started getting crazy.
I remember we were looking for and an office assistance,
(19:10):
you know, to help us with the books and move
and you know, to keep off the building whistles going
day one, I kid you know they won. She came
into the office, sat down, told the distance, you know
her work stations, what we expect. She goes, well, mother love,
I'm gonna need you to buy me a car. Okay,
(19:33):
And I did one of my mother loves move. I
got her a roup. It's there. I put my my
hand on the back of personal small of her back.
And they said, no, I'm not buying you a car.
Matter of fact, you can leave like right now. And
she goes, well, you don't have a bus line, and
here I said, what would make you think I would
be on the bus line? Okay, No, I'm not buying
you a car. Then she went and told everybody, busts
up with buying your car. And they said, she promised
(19:54):
you a car, and she said, so they said, you
need to shut up because they come on here and
they want to be in the business, but they don't
know how to be in the business of show business,
you know. And that's that's like as a producer, you
got to wear fifty eleven hats. You know. Sometimes we
haven't had over here, one over here, one in the back,
and one on the top. And you've got to keep
these stats moving and if somebody work, you know, you know,
(20:18):
you could tell the difference between an amateur and a professional.
Amateurs look like they don't know what they're doing. Professionals
making the easies. They don't want to look at the work.
They don't understand how much the work is. They don't
really understand where their place in society or in their
career is. Speaking of that, when did you know that
(20:38):
this is going to be what you would do? And
was this year calling or did they call you?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Okay? So I I dar you too about you know,
I entitlements sometimes that's that's really funny to me or
people that don't know how like you said, like how
it works?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Right, A talk loosely.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
But I actually was a business and economics theater and
I got into get all these the key concourses and
we owned a barbecue restaurants.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Right, So I'm Florida.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And I thought I was just gonna run mode. So
I thought, oh, go get a business tree. And then
my last semester I had one elective and I was like,
oh yeah, I one elected? What should I do? And
I started asking for non majors and my acting professor
was like, ohly good you should have as around towner,
you know, just try out for some stuff. And I
(21:37):
did and I got some roles for the university and
local theater and things. And then I thought, I'm gonna
move to Orlando, INDI an actress, so I I I
tried it there, just just filed up a resume and
you know, see what I was, this is what I
wanted to do and really thought about it as before
I went out LA.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
And then h came up here and you know.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Started acting. And then and to that met there was
a role. Uh there's a movie that my friend said, hey,
can you there's this movie for me, Savor the Insanity
by tonyment Else.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
And I said, well, I guess you know, I could
see it.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Still a little bit a hole though, but I did it.
And then I really enjoyed the process and I was like, oh,
why did I like doing this? This is really weird.
You know, I wasn't in this. And then I realized
that I really liked telling that story. So whether you
know you're you're telling, if I being an.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
Actor, you're cooking, cultivate the whole, you know, general story,
my pre singe, whether it's like whatever that is, there's
something in it that I just love the.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Whole process as as a storytellers, and that's really what
we're about, telling stories and sharing stories and being willing
to open up to the ugly stuff because we could
see ugly and we're sharing it with other people. That
ugly does stay of you all the time because you
see a ten rounds in yourself? What have you learned about?
(23:05):
Jeffocrat and had broke some being in Florida that aborn
all the way to California where the crazy people live,
and one of them I get to take it to
say that, yes, So what was what was the moment
you said okay? Or was it a you know, like
a slow burn as you get up and you ring
it up and then you go, I think I'm gonna
leave to La.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Well, I so IDM a cross country by myself. I
came out here see them Burmans for a month and
a half with friends, figure out where I wanted to meet,
you know, lay in the land and see see the
different cities. Where would I want to land if I
lived here? Which do I like to hear? You know
all of that?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
So I did that.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
And then I went back to Florida and I talked
out doing more talk about restaurants for a while and
then I and then I finally like me a move.
But I feel like I was just kind of I
have agents and on, you know, in Miami and Tampa,
and I was doing projects and I was doing things there,
but I just felt like I wanted to do sit
(24:08):
on a bigger scale. I wanted to work in TV.
You wanted to do figure films. I wanted to do that.
And that's really where I moved, right.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I probably did it a little bit different than a
lot of people. I mean, I hate hear stories of
people all the time. They're like, oh, I just lived
to Hollywood, you know, and I'm like, why would you
live at all? Anyway?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, I lit when I came out here. I said
I could work with these people. I gain nutty, but
I need to go so I need to go home
and work. There's some kind of border. I was like, well,
and I was thrust into this. If you had to
tell me there's thirty five years ago out of all,
I was saying, Okay, Jessica, don't you tell me who
your drug dealer is, because I want some of that
(24:52):
crazy crap that you talking about are you insane? And
do you still have rooms to grow? What have you
learned about you just get in the process of being
a producer because you had to came in with one
thinking and you realized that you had to think, you
had to grow, you had to change the way your
attitude was because I'm like, you can't change the situation,
(25:13):
change your attitude towards So when did you know that
this was going to be it? And you were have
you been here?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I'm out in October, you know four. So when I
started doing in twenty twelves, so I think, I think,
I mean really, Tony and I started on Stefan and
with Dan Burrell, and I did. I started just doing
TV and it seemed to me at the time to
(25:41):
be easier to break into unscripted and scripted.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
So that was, you.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Know, the route I took and and I love I
love it.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
So yeah, I feel like maybe that's when I really
started thinking, Okay, this is you know.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
This is my time, this is what I'm going to do.
I just produced things before, I produced events, and I
was doing different celebrity you red carpetarity events and stuff
like that. So I like the process of making something happen,
you know, And I just I feel like I still
(26:18):
like that process and I've worked with the nonprofit and
where it's just still doing, you know, making things happen
right doing whether it's events or doing it, you know what,
whether it's like producing events and making something happen that
way or are not profit versus television or telling the stories.
(26:41):
I just I love the storytelling tent ofment, you know,
and I like I like seeing people's reactions to what
you've done and created and then you get people seen
it on the screen and you get reactions and they
talk about it after and they tell their friends, and
just listening to those conversations me, it's always different. So yeah,
(27:07):
I don't know, that's not right.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
You know, I'm you're gonna kill me. You're gonna kill me.
So when you're like, tell people about how you got here.
What was your life like when you were twelve years old?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Oh, I was a nice theater. I love kidding, which
is weird because I was in Florida, But yeah, I would.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Hey, if they could have a listen, if we can
have a Jamaican Bob flitting team, you could be ice
gating in Florida.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
That I was doing. I was working on our most
so this was.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
A family business.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Yeah, yeah, I started.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Working around the seven.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Don't they have laws about child labor? Your parents now
as the is the restaurant still going? And have they
thought that you were like Crazier and the Betsy Bug
when you came What was that conversation like, well, family
moving the hot wind?
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Yeah, I was it was.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
My U.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, I used to try, you know, I just I
haven't stopped feeling like if I don't try, I'm always.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Gonna wonder and see and we don't have time for that.
Life is too short. I would rather get into the fight,
get into the dog fight. They might whoop my behind,
but it won't be an easy win and they don't
come away with some scratchers and some knocks and some
ood they had look a look at look at that
looking loop got a big out on the side of
your head. Because and you have to stand in this
business because the change is so frequented. I mean, when
(28:48):
you talk about the storytelling and now that we have
the advent of okay, the internet and artificial intelligence, how
are you going to how do you address artificial intelligence?
And what is your take done? Because you said you
do unscripted, and is it? Is it really unscripted, Jessica?
Is it really unscripted? I mean, you know, I've watched
(29:09):
some of them shows, so they give me a headache
because I'm like, really, you forty five, fifty years old,
now you want to go find another hud and go
somewhere in pounds? Friend, what's wrong with y'all? You know,
I don't I don't get it. And you know I'm
old fashioned. It with the same man for fifty two years,
So what do I know? And I don't know what
I'm talking about it, But that's what I want to know.
You you do unscripted. It is just really unscripted. Boy,
(29:32):
They're just telling stories about their Why am I whispering
to you.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
On the side?
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:38):
I okay, So it is unscripted. I will, I will.
I believe there are certain serfs that are less unscripted
than others. Like I think it's a you know, there's
a range there. What what I would do is I proper,
proper story right paper, you know, because there's someone who
(30:01):
is going to be on the show, I talked to them.
I don't know what their day to day could.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Be, right so based upon those conversations, I saw something
that shows, hey, I've put this together.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Does this feel like an actual, real, typical And it's
not like I'm writing out you know, Joe says this
and Tom says this. Right, It's like it's like it's
not like the threads, but it's like writing out scenes
that I between them knowing or incentius her home.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Sometimes I'm glad, I'm glad you brought that up, because
you know that's my next day you go here.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Okay, it was great, great, uh And it was all
on my show runner female. He had a lot of
women on our crew, and Billie Goodman was short runner
and we we just that's a great time. I remember
looking out one day we were filming one of our
side huts was down the street. Mare I house to
(31:09):
do it kind of a walk and talk scenario, and
this little girl walk sign. She said, that's what I
want to do. I want to do this when I
get older. I wanted to produce. I was like, oh,
that's awesome. And then I look and still all women
with my son, person, everybody, camera person, everyone was a woman.
I wouldn't like ads look at us mist and grown
(31:31):
just walk side it was so full. But yeah, so
I would. I would map out kind of what I
thought could be could happen, and then I would say, hey,
you don't really do this on a Wednesday. Okay, we're
going to come there on that Wednesday. Whom do you
think we could?
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Can you help us step this up?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
And we could we film this with your friend or
your mom or whatever on this particular day. So it
was all based in reality, but there has be a
structure students, So there has to be you know, like, oh, yeah,
I would, I would normally call it so and so,
and I'm you know, maybe you know I normally do
(32:10):
that on Tuesday, but yes, I could do it online,
you know what I mean. It's like it's like little
things like that that we have to kind of know
what we're going into, what we're seeing, or what we
could potentially get. But it's not you know, it's not
like I'm sitting there being like, well see it's this
way or whatever. It's like they're you know, they're gonna.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Talk the way they talk.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
But it's a matter of you have to have some
sort of structure in fantasy.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
All Willie Milly just saying whatever comes off the top
of your head. See that's what all like you who
you know? I mean I talk enough, you know, and
and for people and everything. And so it's really something
when you know what it is that you're supposed to
be doing. And you know, I would have never thought
that I would be doing this for eleventeen hundred years.
(32:58):
But when it's called, you did you because obviously you
were called. You were summoned to your purpose. Because that's
what you do. You wake up every day and you
jump out of bed and you say, what when you
first jump out of bed, you go get.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Touch when I first come out of fid Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Something's gotta keep you going?
Speaker 2 (33:20):
What I mean? I guess I just think like, oh,
you know, I think about what are you doing for
that day?
Speaker 3 (33:26):
I got?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I mean, I have I have a son, I might
have a seven year old.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
And what's the good thing? You pretty? Because you are
nuttier and old and you had a seven year old?
Oh my. And they want to know everything. They want
to know anything tear when you're not being honest with it.
You want to find out about a person a person personality,
put them in front of a child or an animal,
because they will let you know, you know, you didn't
(33:52):
think and kids are really good at it. People, well,
animals are too. They didn't smell foul stuff, you know,
and that's why they're animals and so and we are
animals too, and we can you know, work with what
we have. I'm always saying jumping out of the bed
because it's said to be something that gets you up
to get your juices going, you know, do you get
up and do you run? Do you you know, get
(34:15):
one of them twelve dollars cups of coffee?
Speaker 6 (34:17):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (34:19):
I went into one of those stores again. I'm not
allowed to have caffeine. That's just you know, across the board,
mother luck and not half caffeine. Could you imagine me
no caffeine? Well, they saw me on caffeine and he said,
a notre roper. Does nobody gives more than up any caffeine.
You can't have caffeinated tea, caffeinated water. I'm like, well,
what the point? Why would you not? Why would you
(34:40):
have decaffeinated coffee? Aren't you taking it? Drinking it for
the caffeine. It's like non alcoholic beer. Why well, I mean.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
They're kind of costatically I have, like you know, Hopper,
but I do. I also have coffee that I mean,
I make it at home. Really like I was really
into that whole you know thing of going out and
getting the twelve dollars coffee for for a bit. But
I but I yeah, I me, I'm thinking it.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Out now, so I gets me going. I I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
About I mean, I had I read a stress for
last night, you know, and I was asking notes that
I did, and it's a really great scrubs that deals
with an intervention and and then uh, you know, I
see notes when we talked about it today and d
(35:38):
you know, I'm and I said to like work on
the budget for it, and it's just I like all
that stuff I like seeing, you know, Like I can
take numbers and put them to a budget and then I.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Can look and I can go, okay, I like to go.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Line nightem buy life with my budgets. And then I
say like, okay, would do we need these kind of lends?
And you know, or what do we mean? And that
makes me I don't know. I mean, I tell you,
I mean like I do the creative stuff too, right,
you know, I write things. I are creative, but it's
some kind of mold to things together and you can
(36:17):
you're finding out what the specific creative is and you're
doing a logistics for that and they're making it all
work together. That's that's like.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
And especially when you take something from your thoughts, from
your heart, I put it out there and you think
to be the kind of person that you know the
sky's the limits? Are you? Are you your biggest critic?
I think you do too long to answer. You don't
want people to know that I'm already do with that.
(36:49):
What I don't know?
Speaker 2 (36:51):
I don't know, Like I mean, I like as far
as my solfse products are, like I look at them
and I you know, I really I think we get
to a good point where you know, we've gone through
like rounds of notes and then it gets to the
a place where you know you're like, yeah, it's ready,
(37:15):
it's ready now to be seen. I think the same
thing with scripts, Like it's I like the whole happy
reading when you just have it's that out loud so
that people can.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
I don't know what the heck going on over here,
but I'd better get off my phone. Okay, I don't
think I guys thought it was
Hey, Savage Babies, just the even more Savage's Mother Love.
We're in studio number two here in Pasadena. I told
you this is a pretty cool show and today we
have all. Thank you all for joining us at first,
for I mean first, and this this chick. I know
she's part of Jamaican because she got eleventeen jobs. Welcome
to the program, Jessica Matthews. Who is an artist, he
(00:21):
is an entrepreneur. You just do everything, girl, Welcome to
the programs to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Oh it's my pleasure. We want to thank your published
business to Carlos our team there. That's who absolutely and
you know he must love us because he make sure
we get hooked stuff. So let's get people caught up
to speech. You're Jessica Matthews, and you do what tell
mother love him, this audience. What we need to know
that we don't know about you.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Oh so I'm not producer.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I produced a lot of scripted television or juveniles, a
lot of independent films, features and stories. And I love
telling stories. I feel like, uh, telling someone's story is
it can be very personal and luckily and sometimes to
(01:13):
tart me know. Uh, but you know a lot of
times there's form for growth and joy and everything in
the tween. So I love telling someone story letters. It's
Christians or your way. You're saying someone's world and getting
it out there to.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
See and and and what's beautiful. And I've always not
really not understood but the format when you said you
do documentaries, what documentaries and you do short stories? Is it?
It seems to me it's harder to tell a short
story and get the meat and potatoes of it in
then it is a long drawn up taking three weeks
(01:53):
to do it. What is your process and how do
you select what kind of products and projects you want
to be involved in? As the Fords it, Well, I.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Think it's that's a great question, and it's really important
to really want to work on the subject matter because
a lot of times, if you're working on a project,
and if you're working on a stand ind feature film,
you're working on that thing for like three years scene,
so you know, you better like the story and you
better like the scene, right because they'll be with them
(02:24):
for a while. So I mean it really I like
stories that kind of you know, they pull up a
heart string or they get people talking, get people communicating
about different subjects. Sometimes those things are kind of woven
in to just the characters who they are, or you know,
(02:46):
there's there's just like for instance, Black White Men Grades
is a story about if the new feature story about it.
Inter racial couple who are struggling in their marriage. They're
going through everything, plot parts, matter, everything COVID twenty twenty
together and they're realizing that their years that they thought
(03:07):
completely lined up, they don't necessarily totally line up the
way they thought they did. So it was really a
story about a couple who is realizing that not everything
is always black and white, and sometimes there's a great
area and sometimes you have to learns to live in
the gray. And it's a heartwarming story. Is there are
(03:28):
some tough subjects in there, and in the end that
has a nice end. They don't want to give months away,
but oh.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
No, that's what we just want to give a little
piece of meat. Just let them have a tasty morsel
when I'm putting and people come to housing with you
like a holiday time and what have you, and they
till they come in early because they know I have
the tasty morsels, and they eat them all up, you know,
And that's what they just want to give them enough
to picture. That's milkyfely. I think it would like to
(03:55):
have an entire plate of debt. And speaking of having
an entire plate of debt, because you short, have you
ever been working on a story and you go, this
is more than a short and vice versa working on
a practical Oh no, this would be a short. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I recently worked on a shore called Woke with my
good friend Christian Alder hey and writer, director, used a
visual artist. He's an amazing writer and visual artists and director.
And anyway, we he had a feature, uh for the
(04:34):
feature it's called Woke of his name and what we
were looking to do. We thought about raising money for that,
and we decided, you know what, let's do a shore,
Let's do a crystal contact. Let's get this out there
and that might be a great way for us to
raise more money for the feature.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
So that's what we did.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
And it is a story about two women who are
struggling with sarah addiction, terrible vampires and.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Bloodsuckers.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
They go to anonymous No.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Wait, wait, wait, wait, I'm just wait you want to
say that again, because I don't think I've heard that way.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So I'm kind of.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
God.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
That by yourself is hilarious. See thick twisted people like you,
you guys can come up with that. Then you find
other sick tisted people go yeah, let's do that. That's
really sick and twisted. That's when you have the most fun,
you know, and it's personally. You talked about having those
teams together, because I've been on productions and you know
different things that I've done, and you see the production
(05:52):
you know the lighting people, you know, they all all
the muff and both people and oftentimes they're the same
group of people. Because you have to learn to trust
your team, and you trust your team needs to learn
to trust you. And of the time when you're coming
into that, you know, you got to feel your way
through it. Okay, how praised they are they going to be?
You know, how crazy well I have to be? Or
(06:13):
how calmed do I need to be? So when you're
talking about producing, and I work with a lot of
producers and you know you all have like some crazy
stuff in your head. When you have you gotten to
a project, Prince, it's really crazy. That's if you really
want to work on this, will you talk yourself into
or out of more projects.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I think I think every project has a has an
interesting you know, gay the story rate, or an interesting mook,
or maybe just needs a little help being you know,
kind of like massage from the beginning, like the script like, Aley, yo,
this isn't exactly in the right place, but maybe if
we develop this character a little more, or we you know,
(06:55):
this personally needs more of a hard And when you're
kind of working at God and look at the story,
I feel like you could probably talk to yourself into
doing you know, most times, but like for instance, you know,
well is I mean, there's there's underlying issues that we
talk about. For me, we do it in a fun
way with the vampires, right, but but it's really we're
(07:17):
workingting on subjects that are in regards to one of
the vampires she was a slave. And then we are
talking about a fiction and we are talking about these
these topics that we're you know, we're kind of interweaving
them throughout. But it's you know, oh, I'm not realized that,
oh that's what this kind. But but also like let's
(07:42):
siflight in the grades is getting people to talk and
people said, oh, but you in my house because I
where you were in my living room and you are
in my conversation with my wife because the games is
exactly what we want do. So I love that. I
love when people can talk and communicate. So when I
see a scription, I I think, oh, I think this
could work, you know, or oh is this organization involved
(08:06):
in this organist and involved and really try to get
it out there on a bigger scale, not just like
distribution that some vessels, but really maybe try to help people.
We set out with the Sort from Under. Its about
two long connectings and it deals with the subjects of
postpartum depression and human trafficking, and we worked with an
(08:26):
antigualing trafficking organization. One of the moms and the film
is shaving us and then another mom is dealing with
postpartum depression and it's about how they come together and
how one's mom like, well, this one mom rest everything
in order to help this other mom. But we worked
with an Eternal Mental Health Now, which is an organization
in LA that helps him who are dealing with postpartum depression,
(08:49):
and we worked with it in Sagumente trafficking and organization
as well, and we had people who are ben traffic
read the scripts and give us the thumbs up, yes,
this is real, this is what happened, or this is
to learn what I went through. So I was just
trying to speak.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Through to the topics.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I had someone apocially recently on the subject matter of
suicide and and you know, I mean, my professionalis is
a big thing and I'm working for us or you know,
working on that. And didn't that word out there so
that people feel like, you know, they're not alone being
a voice. People are hand called, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
And that's one of the biggest things, especially our young people.
They don't believe that anybody is see seeing them, is
hearing them, are understanding them. And I have to have
been the unfortunate in an unfortunate position that the kid
was fourteen years old and he just didn't think anybody
was looking at him. He didn't He felt empty, he
(09:50):
felt love, he felt alone, and he tried to take
his life and he went into the lage. You know,
it was just awful. So none make a lot of Yes,
sure he recovered from that, and you know he was
We thought he was on his way, you know, to
getting well to addressing of a lot of people. You
know this like I do they don't want to address
the issue. I pretend it all go away. I don't
(10:13):
have to acknowledge it. I can do something else with it.
And when you find out that, especially this hard topic
of suicide, they just want the pain to stop. They
just wanted to stop, you know. And he just wanted
it to stop, and it didn't stop, and he ended
up taking his life in the long run. Anyway, So
when you get to something like that, and you know
(10:35):
how many lyrics it can be, how do you, as
a producer, as a storyteller, how do you how do
you keep Jessica together? Because it's like, okay, you're going
into a room like that and it's almost like you
have to have all your battle gear on because you
could get sucked into that. How long did you maintain
Jessica the human beings, the loving kind person who wants
(10:57):
to have these stories told, to be able to say, oh, okay,
I got to I got to step away from this
for a minute.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Well I think they're I mean, you're right, there is
a balance and there I mean, we just screamed up her.
You know a lot of fun facts in the email.
So now I'm still oh, I just.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Lais Lord we don't forget that.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, yeah, so but if we screamed at all these
vessels and every time I'm still crying in the end,
I know what's gonna happen. I know, you know, I
know these are actors, but yeah, I definitely have a
lot of.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
From from an og from an original. I'm one of
the original girls. Let me say if you don't, because
you can watch it as a viewer and see that's
a skill set and you're not watching it, you know,
to pick the pieces when you say you always come out,
you know what's gonna happen. You know you're gonna cry that.
Lets y'all know, everybody, she's a big water head. Don't
(11:58):
let that pretty faceful. She probably got water group mess here, lipstick,
have a lot of everything and you and you know that.
That's when you know you hit that chord when you
can watch that as a producer and you watch it
as a viewer and you go back. Now, do you
need to think your project? Your projects? And do you
definitely don't you hand it over to another team to say, okay,
that me what I did wrong?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I keep playing it all a lot like like an editor,
you know, give them the great sums faces to be
able to do what they feel, you know, is necessarily
with the first cut and then gives notes from there.
So I would like people to feel like they're creative
(12:40):
and that they have, you know, the way. And it's
always interesting to see how someone else sees something and
then you can kind of sapre it and calling it
in a little bit somewhere what you're thinking or you know.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
But there's always a collaboration, you know, and teams out here,
you know, they give up a a where they think,
you know, oh yeah, yeah, the producer you think your
ol ear is in vow and you got the last
felt the work.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
That's what you think. Let's go with that one. How
about that? That's why you think I know how to
get it work on you, buddy. I can get it
around with you, girl. So it's the importance of that collaboration.
What is that process for you and especially you're going
to starting to work on a new project, but maybe
just a few of your core people coming over and
you've got to allow other people to come in and
(13:28):
plug into you and you plug into them. What is
that process like because that can be harrowing and be
snot let our work, We're not thinking about doing this.
It's crazy. You see you look at me and you go, okay, yes, sir,
what have you just lost your mind? Have you had
those days yet?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I don't know. I mean I feel like there have been.
I mean it's not always also, I mean typically you would.
I'm feel pretty good about people in general, and like
getting people that are you know, presenting something. And you
(14:10):
know what I do is I'll read the script and
I give you know, I like giving general thoughts on script,
you know, and and depending upon what people want, Like
if it's like you know, this is when he's a
working relationship, you know, we're we're already you know, in it,
then I feel good about giving very specific you know,
(14:35):
if it's something where you know we're just starting to collaborate,
you know, those you're trying to be a little more general.
I'd like to see this person do a little bit
more of this, or who how fun would it be
so importriate this here? Or just kind of those general notes.
But but definitely I get into the specifics on script,
(14:56):
always trying to make it, you know, the best could be.
And I write working with people who are through that's
their goal it's not just you know, I'm doing your
giver and they just a thing and something. It's always
but it's always, it's always for collaboration. And I feel like, uh,
(15:20):
if people are like minded in that regard, then you're
to have a good all good story write overall, and
also a good working relationships and especially a lot of
these projects you're working on for quite some time, so
it's important.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
And I have to I have to say one of
the one of the great things that you do is
you bring in a lot of talented women to the table,
and we have got to learn to work together in
this business because you know they don't, they will not
be able to surmount of I don't know how much
stupid they think. We're stuck a really, really really and
(16:00):
to get these people. Have you ever had to take
anybody off the office show and when you knew it
wasn't gonna work, have you told anybody was going in
a different direction. That's the one that cracked me up.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I mean it's like, I did I do have someone
want to commit some like a real and then I
found out that it actually wasn't there projects and we
ended up having to like work around that and find
(16:33):
someone else too, you know with the race I have
that happened that was a while back, but I haven't
really I haven't ever had to like fire. Can I
like snatter and you can like me? Yeah? I mean
most of the recruited. Always feel like if you have
(16:56):
those the strong department heads which you have a action
designer and they you know, they say, I have this
art director that I want to bring on and this
is them and here's their work and this is why.
You know, I feel like if you're confident in those heads,
like through DP, you know, they they have.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Excuse me, DP, that DP they work their up photography right, yeah,
yet be a work.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
So you like the director of phothography and yeah, their
first sacy that they love and they want to bring
them on, and the first spacy as a second ape
is generally like whatever the kind of vibe is that
you're getting from those.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Departments, like the director authography, I feel like you could
kind of uh get that vibe from those other people
as well.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So and obviously everyone is still interviewed in but I
like to try to make sure that those people feel
comfortable that they are people to bring on people that
they know and talk you know, as a focus puller
or whatever it is.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
So that they feel good about that day too, and
they have a.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Working they already have a working relationship with these people.
So hopefully we can get people that they already know
and trust on there.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
It's gonna make their it's gonna make the day.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Of corporate too, because they know that you can just
talk to them and have quick language, but okay, you
more instead of just there's there's a little bit short
of language to that sense someone you've just met. It's
kind of uh, it's gonna you know, they know that
there's no no will there when you're in you're hout
(18:45):
uh to you know where you might talk to someone,
so you're just met.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
So and that's really important to make sure you've got
the white kind of people. Sometimes I don't know if
it's happened to other people, because people will come on
to a project and think it's one thing, and then
you tell them what it is and you know, okay,
we're gonna work together, and then they started getting crazy.
I remember we were looking for and an office assistance,
(19:10):
you know, to help us with the books and move
and you know, to keep off the building whistles going
day one, I kid you know they won. She came
into the office, sat down, told the distance, you know
her work stations, what we expect. She goes, well, mother love,
I'm gonna need you to buy me a car. Okay,
(19:33):
And I did one of my mother loves move. I
got her a roup. It's there. I put my my
hand on the back of personal small of her back.
And they said, no, I'm not buying you a car.
Matter of fact, you can leave like right now. And
she goes, well, you don't have a bus line, and
here I said, what would make you think I would
be on the bus line? Okay, No, I'm not buying
you a car. Then she went and told everybody, busts
up with buying your car. And they said, she promised
(19:54):
you a car, and she said, so they said, you
need to shut up because they come on here and
they want to be in the business, but they don't
know how to be in the business of show business,
you know. And that's that's like as a producer, you
got to wear fifty eleven hats. You know. Sometimes we
haven't had over here, one over here, one in the back,
and one on the top. And you've got to keep
these stats moving and if somebody work, you know, you know,
(20:18):
you could tell the difference between an amateur and a professional.
Amateurs look like they don't know what they're doing. Professionals
making the easies. They don't want to look at the work.
They don't understand how much the work is. They don't
really understand where their place in society or in their
career is. Speaking of that, when did you know that
(20:38):
this is going to be what you would do? And
was this year calling or did they call you?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Okay? So I I dar you too about you know,
I entitlements sometimes that's that's really funny to me or
people that don't know how like you said, like how
it works?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Right, A talk loosely.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
But I actually was a business and economics theater and
I got into get all these the key concourses and
we owned a barbecue restaurants.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Right, So I'm Florida.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And I thought I was just gonna run mode. So
I thought, oh, go get a business tree. And then
my last semester I had one elective and I was like,
oh yeah, I one elected? What should I do? And
I started asking for non majors and my acting professor
was like, ohly good you should have as around towner,
you know, just try out for some stuff. And I
(21:37):
did and I got some roles for the university and
local theater and things. And then I thought, I'm gonna
move to Orlando, INDI an actress, so I I I
tried it there, just just filed up a resume and
you know, see what I was, this is what I
wanted to do and really thought about it as before
I went out LA.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
And then h came up here and you know.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Started acting. And then and to that met there was
a role. Uh there's a movie that my friend said, hey,
can you there's this movie for me, Savor the Insanity
by tonyment Else.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
And I said, well, I guess you know, I could
see it.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Still a little bit a hole though, but I did it.
And then I really enjoyed the process and I was like, oh,
why did I like doing this? This is really weird.
You know, I wasn't in this. And then I realized
that I really liked telling that story. So whether you
know you're you're telling, if I being an.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
Actor, you're cooking, cultivate the whole, you know, general story,
my pre singe, whether it's like whatever that is, there's
something in it that I just love the.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Whole process as as a storytellers, and that's really what
we're about, telling stories and sharing stories and being willing
to open up to the ugly stuff because we could
see ugly and we're sharing it with other people. That
ugly does stay of you all the time because you
see a ten rounds in yourself? What have you learned about?
(23:05):
Jeffocrat and had broke some being in Florida that aborn
all the way to California where the crazy people live,
and one of them I get to take it to
say that, yes, So what was what was the moment
you said okay? Or was it a you know, like
a slow burn as you get up and you ring
it up and then you go, I think I'm gonna
leave to La.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Well, I so IDM a cross country by myself. I
came out here see them Burmans for a month and
a half with friends, figure out where I wanted to meet,
you know, lay in the land and see see the
different cities. Where would I want to land if I
lived here? Which do I like to hear? You know
all of that?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
So I did that.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
And then I went back to Florida and I talked
out doing more talk about restaurants for a while and
then I and then I finally like me a move.
But I feel like I was just kind of I
have agents and on, you know, in Miami and Tampa,
and I was doing projects and I was doing things there,
but I just felt like I wanted to do sit
(24:08):
on a bigger scale. I wanted to work in TV.
You wanted to do figure films. I wanted to do that.
And that's really where I moved, right.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I probably did it a little bit different than a
lot of people. I mean, I hate hear stories of
people all the time. They're like, oh, I just lived
to Hollywood, you know, and I'm like, why would you
live at all? Anyway?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, I lit when I came out here. I said
I could work with these people. I gain nutty, but
I need to go so I need to go home
and work. There's some kind of border. I was like, well,
and I was thrust into this. If you had to
tell me there's thirty five years ago out of all,
I was saying, Okay, Jessica, don't you tell me who
your drug dealer is, because I want some of that
(24:52):
crazy crap that you talking about are you insane? And
do you still have rooms to grow? What have you
learned about you just get in the process of being
a producer because you had to came in with one
thinking and you realized that you had to think, you
had to grow, you had to change the way your
attitude was because I'm like, you can't change the situation,
(25:13):
change your attitude towards So when did you know that
this was going to be it? And you were have
you been here?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I'm out in October, you know four. So when I
started doing in twenty twelves, so I think, I think,
I mean really, Tony and I started on Stefan and
with Dan Burrell, and I did. I started just doing
TV and it seemed to me at the time to
(25:41):
be easier to break into unscripted and scripted.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
So that was, you.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Know, the route I took and and I love I
love it.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
So yeah, I feel like maybe that's when I really
started thinking, Okay, this is you know.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
This is my time, this is what I'm going to do.
I just produced things before, I produced events, and I
was doing different celebrity you red carpetarity events and stuff
like that. So I like the process of making something happen,
you know, And I just I feel like I still
(26:18):
like that process and I've worked with the nonprofit and
where it's just still doing, you know, making things happen
right doing whether it's events or doing it, you know what,
whether it's like producing events and making something happen that
way or are not profit versus television or telling the stories.
(26:41):
I just I love the storytelling tent ofment, you know,
and I like I like seeing people's reactions to what
you've done and created and then you get people seen
it on the screen and you get reactions and they
talk about it after and they tell their friends, and
just listening to those conversations me, it's always different. So yeah,
(27:07):
I don't know, that's not right.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
You know, I'm you're gonna kill me. You're gonna kill me.
So when you're like, tell people about how you got here.
What was your life like when you were twelve years old?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Oh, I was a nice theater. I love kidding, which
is weird because I was in Florida, But yeah, I would.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Hey, if they could have a listen, if we can
have a Jamaican Bob flitting team, you could be ice
gating in Florida.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
That I was doing. I was working on our most
so this was.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
A family business.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Yeah, yeah, I started.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Working around the seven.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Don't they have laws about child labor? Your parents now
as the is the restaurant still going? And have they
thought that you were like Crazier and the Betsy Bug
when you came What was that conversation like, well, family
moving the hot wind?
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Yeah, I was it was.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
My U.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, I used to try, you know, I just I
haven't stopped feeling like if I don't try, I'm always.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Gonna wonder and see and we don't have time for that.
Life is too short. I would rather get into the fight,
get into the dog fight. They might whoop my behind,
but it won't be an easy win and they don't
come away with some scratchers and some knocks and some
ood they had look a look at look at that
looking loop got a big out on the side of
your head. Because and you have to stand in this
business because the change is so frequented. I mean, when
(28:48):
you talk about the storytelling and now that we have
the advent of okay, the internet and artificial intelligence, how
are you going to how do you address artificial intelligence?
And what is your take done? Because you said you
do unscripted, and is it? Is it really unscripted, Jessica?
Is it really unscripted? I mean, you know, I've watched
(29:09):
some of them shows, so they give me a headache
because I'm like, really, you forty five, fifty years old,
now you want to go find another hud and go
somewhere in pounds? Friend, what's wrong with y'all? You know,
I don't I don't get it. And you know I'm
old fashioned. It with the same man for fifty two years,
So what do I know? And I don't know what
I'm talking about it, But that's what I want to know.
You you do unscripted. It is just really unscripted. Boy,
(29:32):
They're just telling stories about their Why am I whispering
to you.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
On the side?
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:38):
I okay, So it is unscripted. I will, I will.
I believe there are certain serfs that are less unscripted
than others. Like I think it's a you know, there's
a range there. What what I would do is I proper,
proper story right paper, you know, because there's someone who
(30:01):
is going to be on the show, I talked to them.
I don't know what their day to day could.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Be, right so based upon those conversations, I saw something
that shows, hey, I've put this together.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Does this feel like an actual, real, typical And it's
not like I'm writing out you know, Joe says this
and Tom says this. Right, It's like it's like it's
not like the threads, but it's like writing out scenes
that I between them knowing or incentius her home.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Sometimes I'm glad, I'm glad you brought that up, because
you know that's my next day you go here.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Okay, it was great, great, uh And it was all
on my show runner female. He had a lot of
women on our crew, and Billie Goodman was short runner
and we we just that's a great time. I remember
looking out one day we were filming one of our
side huts was down the street. Mare I house to
(31:09):
do it kind of a walk and talk scenario, and
this little girl walk sign. She said, that's what I
want to do. I want to do this when I
get older. I wanted to produce. I was like, oh,
that's awesome. And then I look and still all women
with my son, person, everybody, camera person, everyone was a woman.
I wouldn't like ads look at us mist and grown
(31:31):
just walk side it was so full. But yeah, so
I would. I would map out kind of what I
thought could be could happen, and then I would say, hey,
you don't really do this on a Wednesday. Okay, we're
going to come there on that Wednesday. Whom do you
think we could?
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Can you help us step this up?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
And we could we film this with your friend or
your mom or whatever on this particular day. So it
was all based in reality, but there has be a
structure students, So there has to be you know, like, oh, yeah,
I would, I would normally call it so and so,
and I'm you know, maybe you know I normally do
(32:10):
that on Tuesday, but yes, I could do it online,
you know what I mean. It's like it's like little
things like that that we have to kind of know
what we're going into, what we're seeing, or what we
could potentially get. But it's not you know, it's not
like I'm sitting there being like, well see it's this
way or whatever. It's like they're you know, they're gonna.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Talk the way they talk.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
But it's a matter of you have to have some
sort of structure in fantasy.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
All Willie Milly just saying whatever comes off the top
of your head. See that's what all like you who
you know? I mean I talk enough, you know, and
and for people and everything. And so it's really something
when you know what it is that you're supposed to
be doing. And you know, I would have never thought
that I would be doing this for eleventeen hundred years.
(32:58):
But when it's called, you did you because obviously you
were called. You were summoned to your purpose. Because that's
what you do. You wake up every day and you
jump out of bed and you say, what when you
first jump out of bed, you go get.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Touch when I first come out of fid Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Something's gotta keep you going?
Speaker 2 (33:20):
What I mean? I guess I just think like, oh,
you know, I think about what are you doing for
that day?
Speaker 3 (33:26):
I got?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I mean, I have I have a son, I might
have a seven year old.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
And what's the good thing? You pretty? Because you are
nuttier and old and you had a seven year old?
Oh my. And they want to know everything. They want
to know anything tear when you're not being honest with it.
You want to find out about a person a person personality,
put them in front of a child or an animal,
because they will let you know, you know, you didn't
(33:52):
think and kids are really good at it. People, well,
animals are too. They didn't smell foul stuff, you know,
and that's why they're animals and so and we are
animals too, and we can you know, work with what
we have. I'm always saying jumping out of the bed
because it's said to be something that gets you up
to get your juices going, you know, do you get
up and do you run? Do you you know, get
(34:15):
one of them twelve dollars cups of coffee?
Speaker 6 (34:17):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (34:19):
I went into one of those stores again. I'm not
allowed to have caffeine. That's just you know, across the board,
mother luck and not half caffeine. Could you imagine me
no caffeine? Well, they saw me on caffeine and he said,
a notre roper. Does nobody gives more than up any caffeine.
You can't have caffeinated tea, caffeinated water. I'm like, well,
what the point? Why would you not? Why would you
(34:40):
have decaffeinated coffee? Aren't you taking it? Drinking it for
the caffeine. It's like non alcoholic beer. Why well, I mean.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
They're kind of costatically I have, like you know, Hopper,
but I do. I also have coffee that I mean,
I make it at home. Really like I was really
into that whole you know thing of going out and
getting the twelve dollars coffee for for a bit. But
I but I yeah, I me, I'm thinking it.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Out now, so I gets me going. I I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
About I mean, I had I read a stress for
last night, you know, and I was asking notes that
I did, and it's a really great scrubs that deals
with an intervention and and then uh, you know, I
see notes when we talked about it today and d
(35:38):
you know, I'm and I said to like work on
the budget for it, and it's just I like all
that stuff I like seeing, you know, Like I can
take numbers and put them to a budget and then I.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Can look and I can go, okay, I like to go.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Line nightem buy life with my budgets. And then I
say like, okay, would do we need these kind of lends?
And you know, or what do we mean? And that
makes me I don't know. I mean, I tell you,
I mean like I do the creative stuff too, right,
you know, I write things. I are creative, but it's
some kind of mold to things together and you can
(36:17):
you're finding out what the specific creative is and you're
doing a logistics for that and they're making it all
work together. That's that's like.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
And especially when you take something from your thoughts, from
your heart, I put it out there and you think
to be the kind of person that you know the
sky's the limits? Are you? Are you your biggest critic?
I think you do too long to answer. You don't
want people to know that I'm already do with that.
(36:49):
What I don't know?
Speaker 2 (36:51):
I don't know, Like I mean, I like as far
as my solfse products are, like I look at them
and I you know, I really I think we get
to a good point where you know, we've gone through
like rounds of notes and then it gets to the
a place where you know you're like, yeah, it's ready,
(37:15):
it's ready now to be seen. I think the same
thing with scripts, Like it's I like the whole happy
reading when you just have it's that out loud so
that people can.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
I don't know what the heck going on over here,
but I'd better get off my phone. Okay, I don't
think I guys thought it was
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