The 50/50 Podcast

This week,  producer and actor Raven Whisnant joins us from North Carolina to discuss her journey in the industry, from NC's deeply collaborative independent film community to building her own production company, New32 Productions. We dive into her work on Dylan Clark’s CATCHER, exploring the development process behind translating a big concept into a 12-minute short, and why she believes short films should spark curiosity rather than necessarily tell a complete story.

Raven shares her thoughts on finding your voice through consistent output (specifically in the Youtube space), the value of putting shorts online versus pursuing the festival circuit, and why different formats and platforms work for different folks; whatever best serves their work and who they are as an artist. We also zoom out to discuss the importance of theatrical filmmaking in the broader industry, what it takes to establish a production company and build a recognizable brand, and ultimately, why horror — and the industry at large — remains so male-dominated despite an audience that is far more evenly split.

RAVEN'S INSTA

NEW 32 PRODUCTIONS

IndieEmpire (Filmmaker Education Platform)

SUBMIT TO 50/50 COMEDY!

SHOTDECK (CODE: 5050) 

This week, comedian Jack Greenberg joins us. We kick off the chat discussing his relationship with live performance and the evolution of Jack and Caroline Present: The Show, a multimedia variety show he created with his fiancée, Caroline, designed to showcase their comedic strengths (think choogy/cosy core couple, desperate to share their art with you). We also get into the art of character creation, exploring how physical ticks, mannerisms, and the rhythms of everyday conversation can unlock comedic moments. Drawing on his upbringing in San Francisco and time at Stanford, Jack discusses finding inspiration in the personalities and conversational frameworks of the Silicon Valley world he's experienced firsthand.

We also talk about Jack's ambitions as a screenwriter, including his number-one goal of getting staffed on a comedy show. With a short film currently in prep and a feature screenplay nearing completion, Jack shares how he's balancing his live performance work with his growing aspirations behind the camera and on the page.

Jack's Insta

Jack's Tik

JACK ADDITIONAL LINKS

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It's a no-guest episode! Luke and Wyatt get together on a Sunday to recap another vibrant 50/50 Horror. Additionally, Wyatt is rolling around on the floor in acting classes, Luke is becoming delusional on set, and we walk the tight rope of talking about YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING without spoiling too much... enjoy!

Submit Your Comedy Short

This week,  we sit down with Kira Guess, Coordinator at Mosaic, to discuss how resourcefulness, entrepreneurial thinking, and an actor’s perspective can translate into effective literary representation. After studying performance at LAMDA (an acting conservatory in the UK), Kira found her way into talent representation, where her firsthand understanding of the actor’s experience helped her connect with clients in a uniquely personal way. She later joined Innovative Artists, working for 13 agents simultaneously and finding opportunities to contribute to the literary business by taking initiative and solving problems before anyone asked.

Now at Mosaic, Kira brings her performance background to the development process, approaching material through the lens of character and understanding what makes talent-driven stories sell. We discuss what she looks for in prospective clients, why writers should seek representatives who are willing to take chances on unconventional material, and how a willingness to be crafty for your clients and challenge the industry's traditional mold can make all the difference.

This week, we sit down with reality TV producer (and Wyatt's neighbor) Nicholas Gloria to break down the art and business of producing unscripted television. From his early days at Scout Productions (QUEER EYE) to being IN THE VILLA as a producer on LOVE ISLAND in Fiji, Nicholas shares what it means to get closer to the talent, manage big personalities, and help steer a show's story without sacrificing the authenticity of the people at its center.

We get into the psychology of working with reality TV casts, the importance of validating their emotions and advocating for their needs, and what a typical day on one of television's most immersive reality shows actually looks like. Nicholas also breaks down how to climb the production ladder, build relationships with showrunners, and understand the role production companies play in shaping unscripted television. Plus, he walks us through the process of pitching a reality show, from putting together a sizzle reel to finding the right buyers — and, most importantly, figuring out why you're the right person to tell that story.

50/50 HORROR TICKETS

This week, we sit down with filmmaker and actor Santi MacLean to get physical. Santi breaks down his acting practice, Action Theatre — a highly reactive, physical, and primal form of acting derived from dance. We talk about what happens when you completely surrender to an acting exercise, what it means to align your body and instincts with a performance, and how this practice has fundamentally shaped the way Santi approaches directing and filmmaking at large.

We also get into Santi’s ambitious current project, compiling 12 SHORT FILMS to form a collection of films he’s creating almost like an album — blurring the lines between filmmaking, performance art, and experimentation.

Finally, we talk about how our relationship with our own work evolves over time: writing something, putting it away, coming back to it years later, and discovering that you’re suddenly in conversation with the person who made it. What does our art preserve about who we were — and what can it teach us about who we are now?

A conversation about physicality, instinct, experimentation, and the strange experience of constantly creating alongside our younger selves.

Santi's Website 

Santi's Insta

50/50 Horror Tickets

This week, we’re joined by producer Aisling Lynch of Fourth Wall, who moved to Los Angeles in a yellow Smart Car named Leonardo with just a couple bucks to her name — and quickly began figuring out how to make it work.

Aisling talks about PA’ing on the final week of EUPHORIA Season 2, which led to a full run on THE IDOL and gave her a firsthand education in the chaos of constant rewrites, reshoots, and life on set. We get into why actually being on set is so important for producers — especially as more and more young executives enter the business without much production experience.

From her first desk job at Asylum Entertainment, where she primarily worked in unscripted, to freelancing as a book scout and learning how to read material quickly and instinctively, Aisling breaks down the experiences that shaped her taste and abilities. She then “lucked out” by becoming Russell Hollander’s assistant at Fourth Wall, where he gave her the freedom to source as much material as possible — setting her on a rapid path from assistant to producer.

We talk about the value of being scrappy, making cold calls, finding opportunities wherever you can, figuring out what’s actually working, and learning how to build a productive relationship with your producing partner. 

Aisling Instagram

OPEN HOUSE (Deadline Annoucement)

50/50 Horror Tickets

Wylie Anderson RETURNS to the Pod fresh off directing Grace Guy’s DECKHAND at the Edinburgh Fringe — and fully recovered from much chaos involving international travel and visceral sickness. We also discuss Wylie's HOME MOVIE SHOW: an event where fellow "adults" bring in the earnest, hilarious, deeply personal home movies they made as kids. The live show taps into Wylie’s love of hosting and her ability to access her inner child, while opening up a bigger conversation about purpose — and remembering what is actually FUN about filmmaking.

We also get into Wylie’s newest feature, which she describes as her most personal yet. She shares how she immerses herself in the writing process, including using movement and dance as a way into a script about dance itself. From there, we zoom out to talk about creative process more broadly: setting goals and writing benchmarks, holding yourself accountable, and knowing when — and how — to let other people into the work-in-progress. 

WYLIE INSTA

HOME MOVIE SHOW - RSVP 10/16 SHOW!

DECKHAND @ FRINGE

Submit Your Horror Short

(RE-RELEASE) This week, we resurface a CLASSIC episode. We sit down with David Jacobson, marketing director at Cherry Lane Theatre — freshly reopened under A24 — to talk shepherding one of downtown New York’s most historic stages into its next era. David cut his teeth in sports marketing with the New York Knicks and New York Rangers (not to mention a brief, glorious stint working the second floor of the old times square NikeTown — RIP). Along the way, he adopted a simple philosophy passed down from his dad: the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Ask questions. Meet everyone. Be the “dumbest” person in the room. Remain a fan at heart. 

David stepped into Cherry Lane just months before its reopening, balancing the theater’s deep, rebellious history with A24’s modern indie sensibility. He says that running marketing there feels more like a startup than an institution. It’s a candid conversation about hustle, taste, and parlaying every job into meaningful relationships. 

In classic 50/50 fashion, it's another theatre/film mashup. Buckle your seatbelts! 

YOU GOT OLDER at the Cherry Lane Theatre

The Cherry Lane Theatre Instagram

HENRY WINKLER'S INSTAGRAM (random but relevant)

Submit Your Horror Short!

Director Britt Berke is back on the pod! Since we spoke with her last year, Britt has been BUSY— she most recently directed Ruby Karp’s solo special I DON’T TRUST ADULTS, premiering on VEEPS September 10th. We get into the unique challenges of directing a stand-up special versus theatre (and where the lines between the two blur), including how to manage blocking for stage/film. 

We also dive deep into Britt’s experience directing Julia Atkin’s CRYING AT MY PODIATRIST, a body-horror solo show she was brought on to direct for the Edinburgh Fringe. She and Julia built the show from the ground up - they workshopped it first in NYC and then jetted off to Edinburgh where they only had room for minimal set dressing and a two-person crew.

Britt gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what it actually takes to put up a show at Fringe — including flyering strategies, theatre timeslots, director fees, costs, and why so many industry people love Edinburgh. Plus: shipping-container bars, late-night theatre kid antics, seeing 20+ shows in a month, the list could go on and on. We close the interview by highlighting Britt’s recent directing residencies, how she chooses the projects she wants to work on, and what’s next — including her upcoming production of PHYL at the Mint Theater Company.

I DON'T TRUST ADULTS (Britt Directed Ruby Karp Special - on VEEPS Sept 10th)

CRYING AT MY PODIATRIST (FRINGE)

PHYL at MINT THEATRE (Oct 3rd - Nov 7th)

BRITT'S WEBSITE

BRITT'S INSTA

Submit Your Horror Short