DreamPath Podcast

Nick Basta is a television and film actor. His film credits include Harriet (nominated for 2 Oscars), about Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery, and The Glorias, a biopic about Gloria Steinem starring Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, and Janelle Monáe. The Glorias premiered at Sundance this year. His TV credits include a major role in Turn: Washington Spies, Season 3 of True Detective with Stephen Dorff and Mahershala Ali, and the upcoming D.C. Comics series Star Girl starring Luke Wilson.

What you will learn:

• How Nick became a clay artist and musician before finding acting.
• What educational track he pursued to become an actor.
• How his parents influenced his artistic trajectory.
• Where you should live for the best chance at becoming a working actor (you may be surprised by his answer).
• What advice he has for actors who want to kick start their career. Whether he prefers film vs. television, and why. How playing a part "differently" during auditions can pay off.
• How he obtained the rights to the life story of Yogi Berra and wrote a screenplay based on his life.
• How he's attempting to get his screenplay about Yogi Berra's life made into a film or television series.

Resources:

• http://www.nickbasta.com
• https://vimeo.com/214712555
• https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1604924/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Adri Siriwatt is a production designer in television and film. Her film credits include Batman Begins with Christian Bale (directed by Christopher Nolan), Stranger Than Fiction with Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, and Dustin Hoffman, and The Last Shift, directed by Andrew Cohn and starring Richard Jenkins, Shane Paul McGhie, and Ed O'Neil. Adri's next film, Echo Boomers, starring Michael Shannon, is in post post-production. Based on a true story, it's about five college graduates who decide the best way to get back at the unfair economy and live the life they've always wanted is to steal from Chicago's richest and give to themselves.

What you will learn:

• What childhood activities influenced Adri to work in the arts.
• How she found her way into art and production design during and after film school, as opposed to producing or directing.
• What she loves about production design vs. other behind-the-camera jobs on the film set.
• What she likes about working in film vs. television.
• How she works with directors months in advance of a film shoot to capture the look and feel of a film.
• How film sets can become so distinctive and unique that they become another character in the movie.
• The challenges of production design on a film where 70% of the movie takes place in a single restaurant.
• The rewards of working on films with incredible actors like Christian Bale, Will Ferrell, and Richard Jenkins.
• The challenges of networking and staying connected with film industry professionals. What future projects she's working on, including her own feature film which will be shot in Thailand.

Resources:

• https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1806991/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
• https://www.adrisiriwatt.com
• https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10661180/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Jeff Orlowski is a documentary filmmaker whose latest film, The Social Dilemma, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. The film weaves interviews with tech founders into dramatically portrayed scenes with Hollywood actors to reveal disturbing information about how technology shapes and manipulates society. Jeff won an Emmy for his debut documentary, Chasing Ice, which follows one man's mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. His second documentary, Chasing Coral, documents the vanishing coral reefs around the world.

What you will learn:

• How his experience at camp as a child shaped his world view.
• How the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which occurred four blocks from his high school, influenced his education and career trajectory as a journalist.
• How his friendship with anthropologist and primatologist Jane Goodall influenced his educational choices, as well as his approach to storytelling.
• How listening to Jane Goodall's lectures numerous times taught him the importance of giving audiences hope when telling a story of crisis.
• How his math and science background helped him on location as a documentarian in remote parts of the world.
• How the connections he made as a student at Stanford University allowed him unique access into the tech world for purposes of interviewing the subjects of his latest film, The Social Dilemma.
• Why he doesn't label himself a documentary filmmaker, even though he has directed four documentaries.
• The funding challenges facing documentary filmmakers.

Resources:

• http://www.jefforlowski.com
• https://www.exposurelabs.com
• https://www.thesocialdilemma.com
• https://chasingice.com
• https://www.chasingcoral.com
• https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2341611/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Bryan and Jason talk about the Mai Leisz and Jim Haven interviews. They also talk about Bryan's experience at the Sundance Film Festival and preview the first of eight long-form interviews conducted in Park City which will launch next week.

Jim Haven's career is rooted in advertising and design but at his core he is a storyteller and problem solver. His corporate clients, including Starbucks, Seattle's Best, Amazon, Nike and Bill Gates, come to him for help with branding and advertising, but end up on a journey to discover who they are as a company and ultimately as a brand. The results are ads so grounded in story and emotion that they are more cinema than a commercial. Jim started his career at the legendary firm Goodby, Silverstein in San Francisco and now lives in London and Seattle where he runs a creative consultancy, Applied Daydreams.

What you will learn:

• How Jim got his start in the ad industry.
• How Jim's talent for storytelling helped him become a branding expert.
• Why Jim's ads and branding videos feel more like cinema than a commercial.
• Why working with constraints like a limited budget can actually foster creativity, and large budgets can likewise hamper creativity.
• How Jim finds his clients' story by immersing himself in their corporate culture while searching for "beautiful problems."
• Why he left the preeminent San Francisco firm of Goodby Silverstein for a boutique firm in Amsterdam.
• How he turned his ad agency "Creature" from a boutique firm with 5 employees into an 85 employee international firm with offices in London and Seattle.
• What steps he took at Creature to cultivate and nurture creativity in his employees and why he thinks he took it too far.
• How he helped Bill Gates create a blog called "Gates Notes."
• What approach Jim took when Bill Gates asked him to create a one-of-a-kind 50th birthday present for Bono.
• How Jim's talent for finding universal human truths made him a natural fit to assist the opposition party in the 2012 Venezuelan election, attempting to overcome a voter suppression campaign by dictator Hugo Chavez.

Resources:

• https://www.applieddaydreams.com
• http://www.jimhaven.com

Mai Leisz (pronounced Lease) is a "melodic" bass player and composer from the post-soviet country, Estonia. In 2010 she moved to Sweden to hone her craft, where she started her own jazz-fusion group, MaiGroup. In 2015, a musician touring with Jackson Browne heard Mai busking in the subways of Stockholm. The next night, Mai sat in with Jackson Browne on stage. This led to her writing and performing with other music legends, like David Crosby, and eventually moving to Los Angeles where she continues to write and perform. Mai's most recent album, Metamorphosis, was released in 2019.

What you will learn:

• How being introduced to music at a young age influenced her musical trajectory.
• Why she studied jazz over other musical genres and how that helped her become more malleable musically.
• How a series of seemingly wrong turns and mistakes resulted in her performing with Jackson Browne.
• What she finds most inspiring about musical icons like David Crosby and Paul McCartney.
• What it was like to meet Paul McCartney in a rehearsal studio.
• Why enjoys playing fretless basses.
• What it means to play the bass "melodically."
• Why she chose the bass over other instruments.
• What she finds most challenging and frustrating about the music business.
• Where she sees herself in the next five years in terms of her musical career.

Resources:

• https://www.maileisz.com
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cQ5r8xrPuI
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mai_Leisz
• https://www.facebook.com/maileisz/
• https://maileisz.bandcamp.com/?fbclid=IwAR0ntosA35WFcaOLEG-UcAES6vzgK5e5ObMFiXVO6EfsBp04iVogdKz2TH8
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j05Q7raP6Q&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2OybZvH-9puDfLNN6ttvUwU13Mnaz_yGXjI-MerVWVtcw76iYAg7O-TfA
• Instagram/Twitter @maileisz

Bryan and Jason discuss takeaways from the Chris Kinkade episode, what's coming up next week on the podcast, and what they are reading, watching, and listening to. They also pay homage to the late drummer, Neil Peart, of Rush.

Chris Kinkade is a stage and film actor whose work includes Alpha Dog with Emile Hirsch and Justin Timberlake, and My Sister's Keeper with Cameron Diaz and Alec Baldwin (both directed by Nick Cassavetes). He's the former lead singer of the Seattle-based 1970s/80s rock band Rail, the current lead singer of the band Elsewaves, and a professional harpist. Chris is also one of Hollywood's most sought-after massage therapists, whose clientele includes Woody Harrelson and Nick Cassavetes, among others.

What you will learn:

• How Chris trained to become an actor at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles.
• How a chance meeting in the stairway of his acting school resulted in a life-long friendship with A-list film director/actor Nick Cassavetes (The NoteBook, Alpha Dog, Face-off).
• How Chris' love for music led him to rock and roll, but also to a deep love and appreciation for the harp.
• How Chris' love for acting led him to the stage, and then to television, and ultimately to the big screen.
• Why, despite his success in film, he still considers acting to be a hobby and not a full time obsession.
• Why he considers massage to be not only a healing art, but an act of creativity.

Resources:

• https://www.chriskinkade.com
• https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0455638/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
• Instagram @lamassagepro

Bryan and Jason discuss takeaways from the A.J. Eaton episode, read listener reviews, and discuss what's coming up next week on the podcast. They also talk about what they are reading, watching, and listening to.

The son of a musician and songwriter, A.J. Eaton grew up in rural Idaho but has worked as a television and film director in Los Angeles for the last 20 years. His 2019 documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name (produced by Cameron Crowe, Greg Mariotti, and Michele Farinola). From its premiere at Sundance and subsequent theatrical release, the film garnered positive reviews with a 98% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and won multiple awards, including Best Music Documentary at the Boulder International Film Festival, as well as a Grammy Nomination for Best Music Film.

What you will learn:

• How growing up in a musical family influenced him creatively.
• How he learned about filmmaking in a state that has no film school (Idaho).
• Why he was appointed by the Governor of Idaho to help encourage filmmakers to shoot movies in that state.
• How jobs he took as an aspiring filmmaker helped him hone his skills as an editor, producer, and director.
• How he turned his idea to interview David Crosby on film, with no funding and no backing from a studio, into a fully-realized documentary, produced by world-renowned, iconic filmmaker Cameron Crowe.
• What it was like to attend the Sundance Film Festival with David Crosby.
• What it was like to work with Cameron Crowe and how Cameron's unique interview techniques resulted in profoundly touching disclosures and revelations by Crosby.
• The unique challenges presented by the documentary filmmaking process.

Resources:

• https://www.sonyclassics.com/davidcrosby/#5thPage
• https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1740505/awards?ref_=nm_awd
• https://twitter.com/ajeaton
• @ajefilmon Instagram