Luke Dye Episode Summary

In the studio this week is editor, writer, and director Luke Dye. We talk about Luke’s experience as an editor for TV, writing and directing his feature The Little Ponderosa Zoo, and so much more!

Luke Dye Episode Notes

Luke Dye Transcript

Corey Allen  00:08

I have Corey, I’m Bill and together,

Bill Cornelius  00:11

we host the infocus podcast on Zoom today on Zoom today we

Corey Allen  00:15

are zooming. Yeah, we’re zooming

Bill Cornelius  00:17

everybody during the pandemic. I guess you could say I’m a zoom director now. I’m sorry. I am to an acquired taste that I don’t wish to acquire. Today on the infocus podcast, we have writer, director, editor, Luke dye, and all round great guy.

Luke Dye  00:47

That rhymed. That was that was good. That was good. That wasn’t my that’s all good, man. Oh, wait, I’m can’t believe I just read this before I start. So I’m moving to a new house next month. And I was I was packing up Mike my DVDs. Yes. And I came across the work of Bill Cornelius. Oh.

Corey Allen  01:11

Look at that.

Bill Cornelius  01:13

I saw sorry.

Luke Dye  01:16

It was Sir. It was signed to Luke 4.7 gigs of awesome.

Corey Allen  01:22

That is so awesome.

Bill Cornelius  01:25

I totally forgot about the at least the signing of it what I put on there. That’s really fun. Sorry to disappoint you, but there will not be a part two or a volume two.

Luke Dye  01:36

That’s what I was worried. I was I was gonna ask him. Where’s my volume two?

Bill Cornelius  01:40

I don’t think it’s the fact that volume one is even out there floating around is like,

Corey Allen  01:46

how much for me to get a copy of that. I thought you had one. I have a copy of my computer. Oh, that’s even worse. And of the horse. Yeah, that’s not good. I don’t think I have like a collection. I don’t have the series. Well, I’ve

Bill Cornelius  02:01

got a box full of them that I don’t know anybody except a select special people.

Corey Allen  02:07

So I don’t even have to like bribe Luke for a copy. You just have one. I know.

Bill Cornelius  02:11

I can give you a box of 100 of them.

Luke Dye  02:15

You just need a metallic Sharpie and you’re set.

Bill Cornelius  02:17

Yes, I still have my metallic Sharpie. So I’m good to go. So Luke, that that brings us to you and I have known each other for a while. We’ve worked together on numerous projects over the years. So how did we meet back in the day? We start with that origin story.

Luke Dye  02:38

The origin story of the bills in the Luke’s I mean, I think it was

Bill Cornelius  02:43

a it was a 4848 Hour

Luke Dye  02:47

Film Festival in Nashville. Yeah, that was I think it was the film payday like that Western that we did. Yeah. And like Chris Blanton was directing that. And you and I were on the hunt for the prop that we had to have. Right? It was like wagon wheel, though. Yeah, the wagon wheel. That’s that was the prop that we had actually even went to like, this antique store. We’re like, what are we gonna find a wagon wheel? You know? Yeah. But we did we found like this cart that had a wagon wheel on it. We did Yes. For explosives in that cave. That was you know,

Bill Cornelius  03:28

yeah. This was like back in 2007. Wagon. Yeah, like I got the invite to work on that. 48 through MySpace if that gives you any time contact is so amazing. Yeah, that’s great. Wow. Chris Blanton messaged me on MySpace. Hey, I saw that. You do film? And you’re in Nashville? Yeah.

Luke Dye  03:48

That was the that was the start of a lot of things. It was yeah, I met Scott Marino who just an amazing actor that like, did multiple you know, like a project for for me and for Zack Adams. Yeah. And all that. And I mean, yeah, I think that kind of little mini projects spawned a lot of stuff.

Bill Cornelius  04:09

It did. Yeah, that was a and I remember when you and I were hunting for the wagon wheel that we kind of like connected over making films as kids and you know 80s movies and like all the stuff we we both like like that was the connection.

Luke Dye  04:28

We were we were like trading baseball cards like but we’re trading like our like our our films that we have done in the past.

Bill Cornelius  04:36

Yeah, that was great. Like you

Luke Dye  04:38

were like, oh, like Oh, you like your young fighters. Can I have this countdown to Christakis? Gotta shut it down?

Bill Cornelius  04:47

Yeah. For those who don’t know, and it will be most of you. That’s a film I made when I was 14. Oh, all right. Many VHS.

Luke Dye  04:58

So one of my personal favorites. was the Legend of Zelda? Oh, of course. Are you? Yeah, were you were linked and your sister was Zelda that was that was That was epic.

Bill Cornelius  05:07

Yes. That’s been mentioned on this show a few times I think.

Corey Allen  05:11

Any chance that is on volume one? Absolutely

Bill Cornelius  05:15

not. None of the really good stuff. Yeah.

Luke Dye  05:19

So you did a like do you did a? Like a Vimeo? Vimeo?

Bill Cornelius  05:25

Oh the, the series Yeah. The little like the, the BC films the history.

Luke Dye  05:31

Yeah. The history of BC films. That’s when that’s when I saw it. Yeah, I saw those clips of it.

Bill Cornelius  05:36

Yeah, those are all in a box. A giant box of tapes in my house now.

Luke Dye  05:41

Yeah. Along with your work of Bill Cornelius. Volume One for Corey.

Bill Cornelius  05:47

Yes, your 100 copies. Nope. Just one. That’s, that’s Yeah, that’s better.

Luke Dye  05:53

Okay, I think I think the persone still have 100 copies of the narc Enigma in their office.

Bill Cornelius  05:58

Yes. Speaking of the narc enigma. Let’s start with your origin story. How did you get interested in film? Like what what brought you to this place?

Luke Dye  06:08

Um, I think, Gosh, man, I mean, I really had to go back and think about this. I mean, I think it was like around it was 9419 94 I wasn’t big on filmmaking. But I was bigger like in like martial arts like I window I took Judo hapkido and my buddy, my high school buddy, Mark Foster, who took a martial arts also, can I ask them, it’s like, Hey, man, have you heard of Jackie Chan? And I was like, No, who’s she? Like, Jackie was a girl’s name. This is before like, he made it big and like rumble in the Bronx and rush hour. And I had no clue who he was. I mean, he was.

He was like, Hey, man, my brother gave me vs. VHS copies of like, all his films, you want to borrow them? And then like I did, and I was just like, blown away. I was like, I was 15. And like, these were like, the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Especially like the early ones, where they had like, had no budget, and it was just all about this fighting choreography. Yeah. So I told my buddy, I was like, we could do this, we should do this. And he was like, oh, it’s gonna be that’s how we talked. You talked earlier about? Sort of our mantra

Bill Cornelius  07:19

igvault

Luke Dye  07:21

Yeah, RGBA it’s gonna be awesome. And it became our mantra, like, over the summer as we film like, our first film, and it was called the young fighters. Yes. And pretty much like every film after that, like, it was the mantra of that film. Every film we did after that, and it was like, so much fun to make with, with, like, your friends just doing fight scenes and stuff. And it was a horrible, horrible movie. But like, I mean, I remember editing on the classic TV VCR system, you know, where you hit, you hit play and hit record on one, you wait two seconds, and you hit. And you just see hope you don’t get that little rainbow squiggle.

Bill Cornelius  08:00

Oh, I’d become a master of that at one point. Yeah, yeah, there’s an art to that a lost art that

Luke Dye  08:05

there is a lost art to that, you know, but that’s where I got start. I mean, I guess the first film I did, but I wasn’t, I wasn’t sure if there was going to be any good. But I remember going to a friend’s like party. And finally showing it off. And like, everyone loved it. Like we went, you know, peers just standing up trying to watch it. And I was like, This is what I want to do. Now. And so we pretty much made a film every summer. To like, 2000 2001 Yeah, you know, for like, five, six years. We did. We did

Bill Cornelius  08:44

that. That’s awesome. Yeah, and I have seen most of these because you, you and I had a what we called retro fest.

Luke Dye  08:53

Yeah, we have retro fans. And man like boy watching, like, all that stuff. I mean, that makes you delirious. Like, we need to step outside for a moment, you know,

Bill Cornelius  09:05

we don’t smoke, we would have taken a smoke break in between.

Luke Dye  09:10

We just need like an oxygen break.

Bill Cornelius  09:13

So yeah, we basically watched because we have such similar backgrounds with like, you know, making these VHS movies with friends that we got together. And just like I showed one, and then you showed one, and then I wasn’t that oh, it was? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It’s a lot. That’s wild. If you didn’t need to come up for air at a certain point. It was sure. I’m sure. Yeah. So yeah, so you made it you made a whole series of young fighters movies.

Luke Dye  09:46

Yeah, I made a trilogy I made a vampire martial arts movie. Somewhere in there. I made a slasher film. And a sequel somewhere in there. Yeah, those were sort of my like, retro films.

Bill Cornelius  09:58

Nice. So then I At some point you went off to college obviously, is that is that something that you were trying to pursue? In college? Is that what you like? You were like, seeking a film program.

Luke Dye  10:15

I mean, I sort of was I was trying to figure out what exactly what kind of what route if I was going to do that like kind of what part of the kind of professional business I wanted to pursue. I mean, there was directing there was editing there was writing like, which way I wanted to go. You know, so what when I came to college when you know MTSU Murfreesboro Go Blue Raiders. Yeah. I remember, I was like, I just shot young fighters. 2000. And I was like, You know what? To do? Yeah, why? FTK? I do not want to do the two VCR system. I was like, I want to find a place to edit.

Yeah, so the the girl that was the I hate to say this the girl that was the the prologue kill in my my slasher film. She introduced me to Scott and Matt Missoni. Yeah. Who were the kind of the Guru’s of the news.

Bill Cornelius  11:27

Like the broadcast room? Yeah. Yeah.

Luke Dye  11:31

And they were like, Hey, man, you can edit your film in here. So, yeah, that’s what that’s that’s sort of what I did. And that was sort of like, my big thing over any classroom was just like, I gotta get back to the like, the newsroom. I gotta edit. No fires. 2000. And I remember they always made fun of me, because I started I was editing this movie, and it was just getting longer and longer. Like, I think I think the max VHS at the time was two and a half hours on SP. SP. I didn’t want to go to EP because I was like, oh, man, I’m gonna lose quality.

I asked Sony, I was like, Hey, man, can you quit your way to like, cuz he was like a techie. And I was like, Hey, man, can we add more tape to this VHS? Is that possible? He was like, oh, no, man. You just have to cut some stuff out. They still make fun of me to this day about asking for more tape added to a VHS

Corey Allen  12:35

what a polite response though. Like, I don’t think so. When you get a full well, I

Bill Cornelius  12:44

need to take a different route. You moron. Yeah, nobody wants to do EP that was like, EP was like, Hey, man. I shot I shot 4k, but I’m gonna have to transfer this and 240

Corey Allen  13:00

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And Luke was that was that that first time you’d met the Sony brothers?

Luke Dye  13:06

It was and yeah, and they were just, I mean, God, like, I always talked about like, Man, I wish I had a pocket for Sony, because they were just like, so brilliant. You know, like, they were just, you know, it’s, you know, one was just so tech savvy, and one was so just like, management, management savvy, you know? Yeah. And I mean, I also met like, Scott Jackson during that time who were doing the, the WMS the medium rare, which was the wrestling show on the local access. Nice. We were editing back to back.

Like it was like, like, both of us were playing battleship or something like as we’re editing, and we would like look over each other’s shoulder like what do you add any man I’m like, Oh, I’m editing this fight scene. Like what do I do? You know, I was like, Oh, I’m messing this guy doing a you know People’s Elbow. Kind of what it was and we both kind of gain respect for each other. And because of that, like why FTK and fire suit? I had a big like wrestler following

Corey Allen  14:11

because of that connection with

Luke Dye  14:13

you. Yeah. So but because of like meeting the Sony’s and Jackson like, they helped me with my purse, my first professional film, which was which was letto

Bill Cornelius  14:26

letto Yeah. So on the road before before we get to letter like so you got into writing at a certain point when was that? Screenwriting?

Luke Dye  14:40

I think why me it was you see sort of learning you make young fighters which had no script, you make writers forever, which had a little bit of script like I would go to outline and yeah, I was gonna this is so bad. I go to church and you know, like those operatory envelopes that you know, you put you’re supposed to be you’re on Victorian Yeah, I would start writing script. Excellent.

Or fight scene like duck, upper cut, swing kick, you know, on their shoulders this day of all that stuff. I mean, but but like as you got older you start, you start to, you want to make your films a little better and better. You started with a fight scene, but then you were like, Okay, why? Why is there a fighting? Yeah, okay, well, who will having the fight scene? You know, and then it just became more about it became more about the script.

Bill Cornelius  15:32

Yeah. And you’re, I told you this before. And I know you’re very humble, but you are a phenomenal screenwriter. Like, thanks, man. I remember when you and I would like occasionally swap scripts to give feedback. I would always like angrily throw your script down when I was done because I was so mad. It was so good. I was just like, This is so good.

Luke Dye  15:58

I did not know that. Oh, yeah. No, you did that.

Bill Cornelius  16:01

Because Because we you were like, we were both looking for feedback. Right. And my feedback to you would always be like, there was one monologue that maybe was a little too long, but everything else was mad. Mattingly maddeningly perfect, just like, like so the beats were right, like everything tied together in the end, just like the most immaculately written stuff, like everything I’ve read from you, just like you crush it and writing.

Luke Dye  16:31

Thanks, man. Thanks, man. I see I forget. I forget that craft. You know, I you know, I was I was I was so eager to get to get to the production or the the post production of that. But you can never overlook the, you know, the first stage. Yeah. Right. And so, you know, I mean, I think I think it was, you know, in college because like, I would give my scripts to the Sony’s and I, you know, I valued you know, Matthew’s opinion on stuff. And if he gave me like, no, he was like, come on. Look, I know, you can do better, I would get really personal. Yeah. Because I knew, like, I you know, it would make me Yeah, because I knew it would make me better.

Bill Cornelius  17:27

Yeah. That’s awesome.

Luke Dye  17:29

But that’s why I was really with letto. Like, I really try to find too as best I could.

Bill Cornelius  17:36

Yeah. And that was another script that I feel like it was just like, I guess concise, or like, like, the way you write is very, like spot on. There’s, there’s not too much fat in there ever. It’s always just like, bam, this is it. And yeah, I appreciate that. Well,

Luke Dye  17:55

I appreciate the compliment, because I think what it is, is I just think about, like, if if I was reading this, and it wasn’t my script, you know, like, what I love what I want to read. Yeah. So that’s, I mean, that’s really what it comes down to. Yeah, cuz I’m like, Oh, is this is this? Am I given, am I talking too much, am I trying to dumb down the audience? You know, like, I just don’t want to do that. You know.

Bill Cornelius  18:24

That’s awesome. And so you you had like a stint in LA for a little bit, right?

Luke Dye  18:30

Yeah, basically. Yeah, I didn’t. It’s unfortunate. Because I didn’t move out there because I like, because of my because I wanted to pursue this business. I mean, really, I moved out because my mom saw my tattoo. And she freaked out. Like, I was like, I gotta get out of here. So then I moved away. You know, she was like, you know, like, sort of like that. And I was like, yeah, I gotta go. So I moved to LA and I did try to become a writer. You know, I spent days pretty much jogging. Malibu beach. And then my nights riding.

Bill Cornelius  19:15

Yeah. What were you writing? Just just ideas you had or your

Luke Dye  19:21

script. I had a script and I wish I could find it. It was very much like that movie Crash before crash came out. Okay. I can’t like I’ve I looked for it. I couldn’t find it. Which I’m bummed about, like, it’s probably on a drive that I packed. Yeah. But, I mean, that was I mean, that’s all I did in LA. I mean, like, I had no money and like, I had like one job out there. And it was Like, through my friends wives, brother. I got a job as a PA on the very first p90x videos with Tony Horton.

Bill Cornelius  20:10

Which I have done the workout. Yeah, yeah. You’ve got a great story about eating pop tarts on this

Luke Dye  20:21

one just look as Tony Horton man, he’s a cool dude. But he was like shredded. Like, if you like remember like your love biology books. And you see that human body with like, the vessels in the veins. Yeah. Like he was like the living embodiment of that

Corey Allen  20:36

was just layer a skin over all of yeah, yes,

Luke Dye  20:40

exactly, exactly. But I was trying to curious because I was like, I was probably I mean, I’m most probably a buck 50 out there. Because I mean, I was eating like canned tuna. And I was running, like all the time. Yeah. But I was trying to coerce him into telling me that pop tarts were okay to eat. He was just like, No, man, like, the sugar intake, you know? And I was like, But Tony, like, if you don’t eat a lot of them, you know? And he’s just like, No. Like, I was, yeah, yeah. So I could not get that to fly. But I was probably other than, like, his background, talent.

That was like, in there to like, you know, okay, come on people. And he was like, the background, but I was probably the most in shape person on the crew. So they made me like, do that mid pull up where they shut up cameras. I like, alright, we good guys.

Bill Cornelius  21:34

You were the standard. Like,

Luke Dye  21:35

I was the standard for Tony, which was like, very complimentary at the time. Nice. But that was basically my LA adventure. I mean, but you know, like, you go there and people are nice. Below them are like that fake. Nice, though. Yeah. You know, like that. Kind of like, what can you do for me? Yeah, kind of to get into the business out there. You know, and like you just try to get try to become a writer out there anything you have to kind of sort of have a referral? Yeah. And even then it takes like months or years to for your story to get any sort of traction. Yeah. So I was like, You know what, I can write anywhere. And I came back.

Bill Cornelius  22:18

And is that when you started working for river media, or when did that so I

Luke Dye  22:22

worked at River right out of college for about a year like I was like, like an assistant editor. And then I became like a kind of a freelance. But then I became full time. When I came back. I was there for like, I was there for 15 years before I moved over to the production Hi, where I’m at now. Gotcha. But I did some really cool I was at River which was a I don’t think a lot of people know this. It’s, it was a film I did a film at River. I edited a film called the devil you know. And it’s a film by directed by James Oakley, who was the steps on of de Haslam who was my former boss.

And the film was kind of in this kind of post production roller coaster. They just didn’t know how to tell that kind of story, I guess. I don’t really know the specifics. Or like I don’t even know how it fell into my lap I think maybe be new I was like into film or whatever. So here I am and in this big budget film and it starring Academy Award winner Rosamund Pike. Oh, wow. And I and I could be wrong. And I believe it was also like Jennifer Lawrence’s first like acting debuted.

Bill Cornelius  23:36

Wow. And heard about that. Yeah, like

Luke Dye  23:40

if you look at IMDb, like that’s the film I did that film you could like you could find it. And I even like the guy like save the screenshot of my name on the opening credits where it says editor Luke die right next to Rosamund Pike as she’s like, in furious acting mode.

Bill Cornelius  23:54

That’s awesome.

Luke Dye  23:57

Like that was like, probably when I look back at my, my tenure river like I like that. It was it was awesome. So to do something like that big

Bill Cornelius  24:09

Yeah. And so like, just for the people that don’t know like the history of river media or what what they what you did there like what What all did you work on? Like what shows Did you work on for what networks and just as an editor

Luke Dye  24:24

I do a lot of like just that how to shows for like HGTV. Yeah, but every now and then that you get like the cool stuff like well, wars on a&e or escaping polygamy. Yeah. And but that was that was really cool. Now I’m at the production high, which is a lot of the kind of murder doc shows which right now I’m doing storm of suspicion for weather channel.

Bill Cornelius  24:53

Nice. You’ve been doing some weather channel stuff for a little bit, haven’t you? Are you getting fired?

Luke Dye  25:00

Yeah, the last Weather Channel show I did was fat guy in the woods. That’s right.

Bill Cornelius  25:04

Yeah. Did Wes you are? Yeah. The

Luke Dye  25:12

human the human did work with, with me on on bad guys. Nice. That was a good time. But yeah.

Bill Cornelius  25:20

So what explain I didn’t realize you weren’t at River anymore. So the production hive what is explain what that is?

Luke Dye  25:30

Well originally it was called Jupiter and but basically like its biggest draw is snapped, which is on oxygen, it’s just that, that show that you know, kind of basically women killing their husbands or lovers you know. But it is. Yeah, and but I mean they’re but they’re really kind of growing to do a lot of stuff. I mean, the last step, when I joined I did a show called fourth and for ever MK city, which was a a show about high school football. But I really enjoy what I do now. And they I mean,

Bill Cornelius  26:16

you said it’s more like a lead type role.

Luke Dye  26:19

Yeah, yeah, I, I became a lead editor on the storm of suspicion. And it’s been sort of SubSys storm of suspicion is a show on weather channel about, like, people that try to maybe murder some body during a natural disaster or a heavy,

Bill Cornelius  26:39

specific.

Luke Dye  26:42

So it’s either like, oh, you know, I’m trying, you know, I’m gonna kill somebody during Katrina to hide it. Or it’s or it’s, you know, it’s because of this natural disaster that the, the investigators are able to solve it easier. Yeah, you know, something, you know, footprints in the mud or the snow or whatever. So

Corey Allen  27:02

what a wild concept, like connects like, a true crime types show with just a weird connection to the Weather Channel.

Luke Dye  27:12

Yeah, it is. And I think I think what it came down to, and I could be completely wrong. So this is maybe not fact. But you know, I think Weather Channel was like, Okay, what kind of show can you bring to us?

Bill Cornelius  27:27

That’s weather related as well.

Luke Dye  27:28

Yeah. related. Here we go. Here it is. I mean, it’s on its third season. So

Bill Cornelius  27:35

let’s be doing something. Yeah. Yeah.

Luke Dye  27:38

Apparently, it’s not uncommon to kill someone during a, you know, turn asleep storm.

Corey Allen  27:44

Who knew? For our listeners who do not suggest that you check out the show, but don’t do it in real time to that? Yeah, there will be a disclaimer.

Bill Cornelius  27:55

Yes. So are they under the discovery umbrella? That whole thing or?

Luke Dye  28:00

No, they’re not under the discovery umbrella. And they do they do shows for discovery?

Bill Cornelius  28:07

Oh, okay. Gotcha. This Kristen still do stuff with them. Discovery?

Luke Dye  28:11

That is a whole other question.

Bill Cornelius  28:13

Oh, yeah. Well, we can ask, you can have her.

Luke Dye  28:17

There you go. No. And she and she can tell you. She she did work for discovery. She’s freelancing right now for another company. And she may be she may go back. But because discovery is like, you can work with us for a year, but then you have to take like three months off, then you can bounce back. Oh, it’s a

Bill Cornelius  28:38

interesting business model. It is. It is. So like switching gears for a second. letto so we alluded to letto earlier. This was your first like debut short film that was like a budget like substantial crew put together you reunited with the Sony’s and

Luke Dye  29:03

yeah, it was like it was my first professional production. Yeah. 30 minute film. It was a 15k budget. Because I blame that on Matthew persone. Because he was like, Look, we’re gonna have to build a whole motel room set. But Jackson and the persone bros like they came in to lend their magic and and you came on to shoot the behind the scene?

Bill Cornelius  29:30

I did. Yeah. And I was I was a silhouette in the doorway. Because I was the only guy that was like available that was thin enough to actually have the silhouette read on the floor. I think it was because the actual dude, cuz it was the big guy. It was supposed to be the big like, abusive guy. Yeah. And he was too big to read as a shadow in the doorway. So you guys had me standing If you can’t tell it’s not

Luke Dye  30:03

I don’t think I remember that. That’s great. Yeah, that’s a good that’s a good behind the scenes behind the scenes without even remember. Yes. But we yeah, we shot that what over a long weekend. I think it was like four days, I think it was like three days and then one days of pickups

Bill Cornelius  30:23

like mostly on a soundstage. Like you did actually build that motel room, or the hotel set around

Luke Dye  30:29

now. It was one more tell room that acted as three motels. Yeah. motel rooms, you know. And then we did we did one day of the exterior of the motel in Smyrna of like an actual right outside of Murfreesboro. Yeah. Yeah. Which was awesome. Yeah, but yeah, but the film was, yeah, it was it was so much fun to do.

Bill Cornelius  30:56

It was.

Luke Dye  30:59

And it did the whole FESEM Orion, and it did well enough. But man, like even film festivals are like a weird place to it’s like everyone’s talking about their next film and all that. It’s like, they can be like many LA’s

Bill Cornelius  31:11

Yeah. Yeah.

Luke Dye  31:16

So I mean, it kind of after that, I was kind of like, not really interested. It was like more pressure than it was fine. Like, I love doing the shoe, but the pressure of like, the aftermath. It just takes a lot out of you, you know,

Bill Cornelius  31:30

the marketing and the release aspect. And the Yeah, that works.

Luke Dye  31:35

Yeah, there’s just all that work and all that care. And then somebody go like, Oh, yeah, that’s cool. So anyway, when I feel like well, you know, yeah. So that’s why, like, when I came back, I just wanted to like, get that layer letto gang back together. And then we did the the CS way. Yes. Zack Adams of Scott films and the 48 hour National Film Festival.

Bill Cornelius  32:00

Yes, we we reunited on the 48. We did the 48. Again, as directors you and I, we were we co wrote and CO directed C’s, which was our 2010 Was it? 2010. I think it was was 48 hour. And twin. Yep. Yeah. And we had Scott for Sony was the DP Zack Adams producer, that that was still to this day. That’s one of the most fun shoots I have been on. Like, that was a blast. That was like a really, really fun weekend. It was exhausting. Because I remember you crashed at my house. And we we you know, when you’re writing, directing and editing a 48 You’re the guy who doesn’t go to sleep like you’re the person.

Luke Dye  32:45

That was the first time you’ve ever gotten mad at me. And I can’t remember what it was about. What

Bill Cornelius  32:51

was it? I don’t remember.

Luke Dye  32:54

I think it was like, I just I just wanted to stop editing because I was so tired. And you’re like, Dude, we have a deadline.

Corey Allen  33:02

That sounds like Bill. Yeah.

Luke Dye  33:04

I’m so tired bill.

Bill Cornelius  33:06

Well, I I was so tired and I guess I do get I do get a little crunchy when I’ve been tired.

Corey Allen  33:13

Crunchy. A little crotch.

Bill Cornelius  33:17

Spiky Yeah. But yeah, we that still cleaned up. We did really well that year. Yeah. won a lot of awards and, and then we kind of pieced out. We haven’t done it since then.

Luke Dye  33:31

Yeah, but that was the film. What was it that film that brought back like the famous character like your alter ego?

Bill Cornelius  33:39

Oh, Mike boo Fontane.

Luke Dye  33:41

Yeah, explain give a little insight to Michael Fontane,

Bill Cornelius  33:45

please so for those who don’t know I had a podcast previous to this podcast years and years ago, you can’t find it anymore. So don’t even try unless you have MySpace and the year 2008.

Luke Dye  34:01

So I didn’t I didn’t calm is the only person that has

Bill Cornelius  34:05

Tom even quit MySpace. But uh, I I played a comedian, a washed up comedian character, just as like a fun bit as like an interlude in between bits of this podcast. And it was just so much fun to play that character that I actually portrayed him on screen and like short cameo and sees can we can that was Lampl that was weirdly a big hit for a lot of people as like the two seconds I’m on screen. That was a lot of people were talking about that.

Luke Dye  34:42

It was such a hit that when we made the DVD to see you did a commentary just as that character.

Bill Cornelius  34:49

That’s right. Yeah.

Corey Allen  34:52

That is Mike boo Fontaine. availables he around.

Bill Cornelius  34:56

He’s he’s around he’s, oh, you mean for this podcast? Yeah, I suppose so I need a glass of water before I do this though because it hurts my my vocal cords it’s scratchy smoking a lot. Miko Fontaine’s harder to do and in this day and age, the me to movement is is like comedy is comedy is not is not pretty crass but yeah that was that that whole shoot was so much fun. I really think fondly of it. And so you know you you’ve occasionally worked with me and Zach and that team. Yeah, you helped out on Hear me now?

Luke Dye  35:43

Yeah, that was the thing though, because because of that, because of C’s, it led to the Zack Adams. SCOTT I project which was national risers about the National Flood. Yeah,

Bill Cornelius  35:56

right. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. I’m losing. I can’t remember the sequence. It’s been so

Luke Dye  36:01

yeah, I guess I think that was the first time actually work was work was that was was on TV. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It’s like, you know, like, Hey, man, I got this documentary. What I’ll do when, like, you know, like, Yeah, you didn’t know, I knew like, maybe you’d like take a look at you. Know, that was like Redbull. Zack, sorry, after you walk like five miles. 10 miles. Yeah. Yeah. 10 mile. Sorry. Sorry. Short there. Yeah. Yeah. I’m sure remember, like, during that time, I was like, going through some personal stuff. And he just gave me this footage. Like, just this drive of all this footage. And he was just like, you know, I’ll like Do you have a script or whatever.

He’s like, No, man, I’m good. You know, you got free rein. I trust you. And like, what I mean, Zach’s credits. I mean, he gave me like, an overview of what he wanted. He had like, the voiceover written, which helped but yeah, I mean, I remember like, I just worked like non stop on that documentary for about like a month. And it was like a really good escape. And my goal was just like make Zach happy because like, I love Zach happy he’s got this ad that infectious positivity can do anything. You know, like you gotta love that you got it, man. You got it. And it turned out to be really good Doc, I think. And then that led to your doc which was like, which was Hear me now? Yeah. Which is almost hear me never considering how long it took.

Bill Cornelius  37:30

Oh, yeah. Nobody felt that more than I did.

Luke Dye  37:35

I just remember like you My favorite memory of that was like you did you like your second interview that and you’re like, wiping the sweat from your brow? Yes. Like okay, you’re like Okay, I think that’s it, man. I think we got it yeah, Kimmy, can you give a little insight on like, during that time?

Bill Cornelius  37:57

Oh, they hear me now. Yeah,

Luke Dye  37:59

just just during that time when I was trying to edit and try to give it back to you because I really it’s hard for me to remember

Bill Cornelius  38:05

it was yeah, that well that was like six years of my life was just that film. Because we I remember you cut the first trailer we did like a year in the shooting. Craig CLE who’s a guy in town like did did the logging the footage to kind of help you out because he wanted to be a part of the the dock and then I you cut a trailer and the trailer I remember the trailer was like coming in 2012 Of course it comes out in in 2016. So my guy Yeah, but but we were still like so far away from having it done. A lot of that was one me self funding it and running out of money repeatedly through the project. And also when you do a documentary of that kind of scope, you have to rely on people’s schedules.

And their we interviewed people from all over the country and you know traveling cost money took time getting people just pinned down to do it took time like we would drive like nine hours down to like Southern Georgia to do one interview in a hotel room and then drive back like there was like that going on on Hear me now. Like it was a lot and I remember it It had taken like you had committed to editing it because you know, in my mind we were gonna get it done in a year. And then like it was taking so long you you got caught up in all kinds of stuff like you were doing your your actual work like getting, I just got I got busy

Luke Dye  39:46

in life. Yeah. And so I was committed I was committed.

Bill Cornelius  39:51

committed. Yeah. And so I at one point, I think Mike Stryker, he talked about this like he He called me at one point like we’re talking four years in to the production. He was like, Hey, Bill, I would like to help you get through post production. And so suddenly he like, he can’t He graciously funded the kind of post production process hiring like a fresh out of college MTSU Student Oh, and Jackson, who, who like, cut the whole thing together from beginning to end. Just to lay it out, because I remember you, you came back to me, and you were like, I’m still committed to this. But it would be really helpful if there was like, at least an assembly the that I could work on. Yeah. And so

Luke Dye  40:39

I couldn’t do the national rises again, like I could. Yeah, I just didn’t have the time. Yeah.

Bill Cornelius  40:45

And so the time Yeah. And I, I actually edited the first 20 minutes of it, which whichever remained unchanged through all the editing. So fun fact, if you want to hear me now the first 20 minutes was cut by me. The rest was Luke and Owen. But But like, Oh, and did this big assembly and delivered it in a in a timely manner. And then I passed it over to you. For the I guess the second time, like you hadn’t been with the footage since 2012. And then this was like 2015 or 2016, even. So you got to revisit the film all over again, and do the polish and do all the title effects and do all that and I remember I needed because we announced on the news, a premiere date for the film at the Bellecourt before the cut was done.

I don’t know if you remember that. No pressure. No, you were you were still working on the final polish. When I was on the local Nashville news being like, yeah, come on down to the bell chord on November 3. And like, the whole time I’m in knots because I know it’s still you know, you’re still working till not done. Yeah. And and I remember I would I was texting back and forth with you. I was like, You think we’ll have it right? Like, we’ll have like a cut we can look at and you were like Yeah, yeah, I got it. I got it. And and I kept having to pass you like last minute stuff. Like, like pieces of music and people’s title changes and things like that. And you’re like, I got it. I got it.

Corey Allen  42:22

And at no point you ever you never told Luke like, Oh, and by the way on Fox 17 or whatever, like, yeah, I have committed to a premiere.

Luke Dye  42:32

Yeah, he never did. He never did like there was that there was none of that pressure. It was like hidden Bill pressure, I

Bill Cornelius  42:38

guess. Yeah, I was in a magazine talking about it with the date in there. Like the like, Nashville arts magazine. Like like did a whole story and not

Luke Dye  42:49

had me freaked out dude, if I known Yeah, like

Bill Cornelius  42:53

that. I was. I was saving your your heart from that.

Luke Dye  42:59

Well, you were like, Hey, man. So are you gonna get this done by this time? Yeah. And you did. So good deal.

Bill Cornelius  43:05

And you got me a Blu Ray copy that was to be screened at the Belcourt I think the the week before the screening. Like you you mail it to me. And yeah, I was like waiting for it because so that for the audience. Luke is in Knoxville. I am in Nashville. They’re three hours apart. So yeah, he had to mail me the blu ray. And I remember the day I got it. I like almost wept. I was like, it’s here. And then I had to like test play it just to make sure there was no glitches. And then I had a test play at the Bellcore like it was It was wild. I’m so glad that worked out. So man, I appreciate your help with that. Yeah,

Luke Dye  43:49

dude, I’m really I’m really glad. And it it was I was honored to be part of that project.

Bill Cornelius  43:55

Yeah, thanks, man. Like it and it’s, you know, it’s gone on to be on prime and be in schools and libraries around the country. I still get DMS on Instagram. Every now and then from somebody in like New Jersey who saw it? And like their class like it’s crazy. That’s still happening. That is crazy. Yeah, that is crazy. So I would say it was worth the blood sweat and tears Yeah, yeah.

Luke Dye  44:21

And like hearing that story it it makes it worth it to

Bill Cornelius  44:25

Oh yeah, yeah, that’s that’s what makes it worth it. Oh, like not even any monetary stuff like the the impact it had on the audience that’s what it was about. So after Hear me now or during Hear me now when were you working on little Ponderosa Zoo? Or how did that come about?

Luke Dye  44:48

Yeah, the timelines a little. In your words. It’s a little crunchy.

Bill Cornelius  44:54

to overlap, I feel like this. Yeah.

Luke Dye  44:57

So I was doing like I was doing like a bunch like films for like the Knoxville Film Festival just kind of for fun. But Chris bland who was the director of pay day introduced me to curl Willis, who is a writer here in Knoxville. And he and Glenn had directed a baseball film that Kurt row called amateurs. Oh my man. So he introduced me to Kurt and Kurt and I became really good friends.

And he kind of brought me on the, the edit for this kids feature film called bandit and the saints of dogwood for this company now and out in LA. And it was directed by Brooks Benjamin, who also went who is also an MTSU alumni. So like the company out of LA, like makes these kids films for like 100k budget, and they like distribute him worldwide.

But that film led to little Ponderosa zoo, which was probably my like, my favorite project I’ve ever done. I mean, Kurt and I co wrote it, co directed, and I edited it. And we had kids, we had animals, we had hygiene, it was just the most fun I ever had on a film. It was like seas, it was just like, it was just fun. Like there was no pressure, but you know, a kid’s film.

There’s just not a lot of pressure. Because I mean, it’s a kid stone, they’re more forgiving than trying to do like a period piece in the 60s. You know, it’s just I basically took everything I loved about movies as a kid, like, you know, like Home Alone or just like, you know, the Goonies and I put that in that film. And it did so well. I mean, it showed on like HBO family for like,

Bill Cornelius  46:48

ever wasn’t enough stars to

Luke Dye  46:51

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe it was stars family, too. I can’t fully remember. And I’m sorry for that. But it did really well. I got paid. I got paid up front. So I didn’t get any residuals of that. But

Bill Cornelius  47:05

still, I think I saw it on Walmart on DVD. I’m like, Yeah, Caf.

Luke Dye  47:09

Yeah, yeah, it’s, I mean, it was fully distributed and everything. And I’m just I’m really proud of doing that movie. And we had talked about maybe do another one. Then I had a kid and, you know, life, you know. But there’s still there’s still possibilities to do something else like that. And that’s, that’s what what I would ultimately want to do is to do like, the kids don’t like that. Because that’s what I mean. When I when I grew up to like, like, Bill, you said, like those 80s movies that you grew up in you love. You know, like

Bill Cornelius  47:46

the fun adventure. Yeah, through a child’s eyes almost kind of the Spielberg type. Exactly, exactly. That’s awesome. Yeah, I just remember. I think I was so deep in the trenches with Hear me now. I had, I know very little about you working on that. Like, like you worked on Hear me now for a little bit. And then, and then I was like, in the trenches with Hear me now. And then suddenly, I saw that you had made this family feature. I was like, when did he do that? Have I’ve been asleep in this cave working on Hear me now for so long? Like, I don’t know what’s going on in the world? Yes, you?

Luke Dye  48:26

You probably were, I mean, it was, I think it was just like a three weeks, shoot, you know, and then. And then it was probably the same amount of edit time. The thing is, like, with edit time, like I had to do a whole like music and audio mix with no dialogue, because then I had to send it to Mexico, because Mexico will have to just take all that music and dial our sound effects, and then add their own dialogue.

Bill Cornelius  48:53

Oh, wow. That’s a process that’s new. I feel like yeah, it

Luke Dye  48:57

was a whole it was a whole different experience for me. Because, like people from Mexico were calling me like, you know, like, you do have a track without dial. And I’m like, Okay, here

Bill Cornelius  49:08

it is, you know, so they can have it in Spanish right? Yeah, exactly.

Corey Allen  49:13

That’s crazy. Interesting.

Bill Cornelius  49:14

Yeah, that’s that’s a thing you don’t think about in the editing process is like no, no, that sort of thing. Yeah internationalizing it?

Corey Allen  49:24

Yes. He filmed that whole project in three weeks.

Luke Dye  49:28

I believe it was three weeks I can be wrong but I think it was three weeks we shot at an actual like a petting zoo called Little Ponderosa which is in CLIN for like a week and a half and then and then shot like another week and a half in other locations. oppressive, but it was like yeah, it was $100,000 budget. But we cannot man was so fun because we hired everybody like out of Knoxville we hired Knoxville actors and Knoxville crew and it was just, you know, you’re you’re, you’re working with your friends. And there’s not. There’s no ego or anything it was it was amazing.

Bill Cornelius  50:10

So speaking of that, like you are a big part of the Knoxville film community there. We talked about Nashville hear, obviously a lot because that’s, that’s where we are. But you know I’ve interacted a lot with the Knoxville community and I’ve, you know, I met most of them when we would go to the Gatlinburg screamfest. Back in the day, you know, like, I met all those guys. And so talk a little bit about that community you’ve got there because you all want to work together on the same stuff. And I see a lot of like cross collaboration a lot with you guys.

Luke Dye  50:47

Yeah, I mean, a lot of people that worked on little Ponderosa zoo were from that Knoxville community? I mean, it was, I mean, the pandemic really kind of, kind of put the whole kind of film community can on, like, on mandatory hibernation or whatever. Yeah. But like when it was in its prime, like in 2010. Like, it was awesome. Yeah. I mean, it was just, it was just so much talent coming from like, you know, good old East Tennessee. That’s where I met my wife. Yeah, we were doing like, one and like the opening films for like, the 24 Hour Film Festival, and I was directing. And she was an actress in the opener. Yeah. But a lot of great films just kind of came out of that. And they and that led to like, talk of doing bigger films.

It was just sort of like a, I mean, and you as far as like the National Film Festival goes, it’s probably you know, film festivals are a great way to kind of try out new things and kind of sort of, like, do a warm up before maybe to jump on that. That Meteor project, you know, yeah, it’s kind of that same way you kind of you know, meet people that, that that, you know, kind of want to do that bigger. Next thing. Yeah. You know, and then and then you’d like, Okay, you do a bunch of short films and whatnot.

And then you kind of pass the torch, because there’s a lot of other people like younger filmmakers now, where I’m like, you know, I got a wife and kid now like, I don’t do the old guys now. Yeah, we’re the old guys now but but but we pass the torch. You see younger filmmakers you go like, Wow, that’s impressive, man. Yeah. But that makes you proud. That makes you proud of your community that makes you proud. That it doesn’t have to be in LA. Yeah, you know?

Bill Cornelius  52:44

Yeah, it’s true. It’s true. And and like I did. I just love that. I love that Knoxville group, first of all, because it’s it’s not as the Nashville film community has grown pretty substantially over the last few years with a lot of influx and transplants coming in, which is great, which is really great for the community, but it also makes it harder to know, everybody and yeah, kind of collaborate with. Yeah, you know, like, I feel like y’all in Knoxville, it’s like, your community is such a tight knit community. It’s like, you’ve got like, the family dynamic to the max, like in your film?

Luke Dye  53:27

It is 100% A family dynamic. Yeah, it’s natural. It’s natural light. You know?

Bill Cornelius  53:34

Like, we have that here still, but it’s, there’s so many, like extra pockets now of people coming in.

Luke Dye  53:42

I can imagine because I imagine a lot of people from New York are coming to Nashville. It’s

Bill Cornelius  53:47

it’s a lot of La people. I was it do? Yeah. Mostly, I would say mostly. Wow. I believe that. Yeah. It’s the housing market will tell you that. That’s true. That’s correct. Yeah, it’s, it’s funny, like you mentioned, you mentioned Brooks Benjamin. I mean, and this is the power of networking. So I met Brooks on letto because he played one of the, the dude’s like the goofy dude. And, and then I met Brooks a little later when he had his feature boys of Somerville at Yep, at the the Gatlinburg screen Fest and we talked and reconnected.

Then he reached out to me, because he had seen Hear me now and was like, I see you had had worked with kids, would you be interested in directing a book trailer for my my book, my seventh grade life in tights. And so then here, he’s, he’s an author. Now he’s an author and then and then I directed that. That was like my first foray back into like narrative type stuff after finishing Hear me now. So it was like a breath of fresh air to do that.

That Trailer. And then that yeah, that was my trailer that like as I mean kind of cleaned up with awards and things like I mean that was and then you saw it. Yeah, Corey saw the book trailer and hired me to do his lucky scruff ads for his beard company and so like the the, the networking?

Luke Dye  55:23

Yeah the like the spider web that just kind of reaches out and connects through this community it’s amazing

Bill Cornelius  55:30

even from Knoxville and Nashville like Tennessee you know? Yeah, it’s awesome. It is awesome. Yeah. And we’re always like all the times we’ve sent footage to Knoxville. For you to work like physically mailed footage to Knoxville. Yeah. Oh, that hard drive in a box.

Luke Dye  55:52

Yeah, my favorite is I always love getting like packages from Zack Adams because his his handwriting I get from a 12 year old. You know? You always knew. Yeah, he always knew it was him. I love Zach.

Bill Cornelius  56:08

He’s the best. We all have to get on here as a group and talk for like five hours. Yeah, I don’t think anybody would want to listen except our group. So you’ve, you’ve done so many different things, editing, directing, writing, what what’s the most creatively fulfilling for you? Like personally? Like, what, what gets you on fire with all of these?

Luke Dye  56:35

It mean, I mean, you know, it’s got to be editing. It’s like, you know, it’s that final phase and storytelling before writing and the actual, you know, before writing the actual production? Yeah. It’s just, I mean, it seems like everybody in our business at some point wants to direct I mean, I remember went to a film festival and everybody’s a director, but I, people asked me what I did. I was like, I’m an editor. And then everybody wanted to talk to me, you know,

Bill Cornelius  57:02

their insurance director. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody.

Luke Dye  57:04

Every director wants a good editor. Yeah. And now I do it for a living and I love it. Phenomenal editor. Thanks, Bill. Thanks, man. Yeah.

Bill Cornelius  57:18

And so, and one thing I’ve said this before on the show is that, you know, I edit full time as well, that’s like, a majority of what I do Monday through Friday, a lot of corporate stuff, most of it, though, is stuff that I was either on set for that I shot myself, which makes it a lot easier to think about the cut. And, you know, I know what I’m getting in there with before I get into it. So one of my big just like, kudos to people like you and other editors, that that get all this footage they’ve never seen before, and have to form a story out of it.

You know, you’ve got the context, but you’ve actually got to make sense of it all. You’re not on set with it, you’re not part of the shooting process. And to me, that’s always just like, and because I don’t do that. I don’t do that a lot as an editor. I just think that’s that’s impressive. That takes a lot of like talent as an editor.

Luke Dye  58:19

I mean, I mean it it does and I appreciate you saying that man that means a lot.

Bill Cornelius  58:24

Yeah, man for sure. And that’s like that’s all you do. Right is just you get all this footage from who knows? Well, I do make a story. I do. Yeah.

Corey Allen  58:36

I cannot imagine like just getting a dump of hours of footage. And seeing it for the first time in like all right.

Bill Cornelius  58:45

Make a story up get to work. Yeah,

Luke Dye  58:47

that was that was that was really that was national rises. Hey, man. Here you go.

Bill Cornelius  58:55

My footage?

Luke Dye  58:57

Yeah, we got we got Billy Bob Dornan to do the the voiceover but

Bill Cornelius  59:03

he’s so good at that. Who’s there? No, yes. Luke doing the Zack impression. You’re like, I’ve told Zack Zack knows this and he thinks it’s hilarious. Cuz you know, he’s, he’s Zack. Everything’s fun. That’s cool.

Luke Dye  59:21

But again, he gave me that but he gave me confidence that I could

Bill Cornelius  59:24

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I did it. He does that he’s a great coach. Like a good yeah, like pump you up kind of guy for sure. Absolutely.

Luke Dye  59:31

Absolutely is.

Bill Cornelius  59:32

Yeah, like the first time I really thought really hard about you know, just the amount of people that are in your position I have to go through on a daily basis. Was Was West human. I went out and I went out and visited la like in 2004. And he had just moved out there and was doing editing work for like Barnum and Murray which make the real world and road rolls. Yeah, yeah. So he he was like a and editor on like the real world Road Rules challenge or like the gauntlet or it was like something like that. Yeah.

And I remember talking to him about over Yeah, I was talking to him about it. I was like, what? Like, what’s the what’s this footage you get? What’s the experience like and he was like it’s just hours and hours of really boring stuff like nothing is happening. And he’s like, but but they tell you you know the producers like like fine. Put these nuggets in there like these are the bits of drama. These are the this is the narrative we’re trying to tell. So you know that stuff is happening on set, those notes are being taken. Yeah,

Luke Dye  1:00:41

that’s that that is certainly helpful when you get like that little bit nuggets nearly Okay, now. Now I can find what you know what I can to cover those nuggets or find the music or find the scene? Yeah, you just need a starting point. Like the biggest fear and editor has is just a blank timeline. Like when you start that first episode, and there’s just nothing there. It’s It’s terrifying.

Bill Cornelius  1:01:05

It really is. That’s no joke even for me. We’re you know, a lot of what I’m editing I’ve been there for like, it’s even hard for me like seeing that blank timeline with a little cursor blinking. Yeah, just like especially a music video where it’s like, how do I kick this thing off? It’s like the most important shot in the world is that first shot, that first cut. How do we do that? How do we kick this off? And

Luke Dye  1:01:34

like start with a white flash.

Bill Cornelius  1:01:37

I did that a lot back in the day. I still do sometimes not a Star wipe but a white flash. But I like out pace around the room. I like I listen to music I go upstairs I walk and stare at the screen some more. I’ll pay some more like before I get that one that first cut laid down that first shot in my timeline. I’m always just like you’re right like it’s it’s it’s intimidating. Almost you’re like sweating about it is but once you lay that first bit down. Yeah, it flows

Corey Allen  1:02:10

and you just build from there. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Now Luke, do you do you edit professionally in Premiere, or?

Luke Dye  1:02:17

I? I edit in Media Composer NABBA.

Bill Cornelius  1:02:22

Oh,

Luke Dye  1:02:24

which is weird because I work from home now because of the pandemic. So I work. Like my computer system is at the office, but like they got me set up with this Teradici so I edit all my computer at the office at home. It’s very bizarre, but but it were

Bill Cornelius  1:02:45

no lag or anything.

Luke Dye  1:02:47

No, no lag. Wow.

Bill Cornelius  1:02:50

I wish I don’t do that. I had to I had to bring like the raids and everything home to my

Luke Dye  1:02:56

house. That’s brutal. Yeah, it’s tough. I have a drive, you know. Yeah.

Bill Cornelius  1:03:02

Yeah. And you know, then I’m also relying um, you know, hoping and praying that a storm doesn’t come through and zap my house and take out the company’s you know, 10 years worth of footage. Because I you know, the office it’s much safer because they got all the generators and the backups and everything you need. But

Luke Dye  1:03:26

are you editing? Are you editing in Premiere?

Bill Cornelius  1:03:28

I am. Yeah.

Luke Dye  1:03:30

Okay. Gosh, I haven’t I haven’t done premiere since college. Linode was the first Yeah, Naga Nygma was the first linear

Bill Cornelius  1:03:38

Well, you were Final Cut seven for a long time.

Luke Dye  1:03:41

No, maybe that was maybe it was no, that was Final Cut seven. That’s right. That was five to seven. I don’t think I’ve ever edited in Premiere.

Bill Cornelius  1:03:47

Because yeah. I learned I learned in college on like Final Cut four or five or something like that. And then that was my go to for years. And I held on to seven because Final Cut X was just iMovie on steroids and I had to I’m like I can’t I don’t have time to relearn how to use professional editing software. I can’t do this. And so I switched over to premiere I want to say like six years ago, seven years ago just add a necessity and I built my it’s funny my my workspace in Premiere is built to look like Final Cut seven. Just just to ease me into it first started that’s

Luke Dye  1:04:31

no that’s no that’s nice. That’s nice to have that yeah,

Corey Allen  1:04:35

I recently abandoned premiere and made the switch to resolve like two months ago resolve studio Yeah.

Luke Dye  1:04:42

Oh really? Yeah, I’ve only worked with resolve for coloring because it why we I colored banded and little Potter was a zoo and resolved. I mean it’s a nice system. I mean, it’s how was edited.

Corey Allen  1:04:54

I don’t do anything super complex, mostly like music videos in will shortly like three to five minute commercial spots. So it’s actually it’s actually really easy. And I use the speed editor like their little mini speed editor deck. So it’s, yep.

Luke Dye  1:05:12

Pretty straight for I think, yeah. Okay, cuz I imagined it for like short form. It’s, it’s good to work with.

Corey Allen  1:05:18

Okay, can you just really quick go from cut to edit to color to deliver like you just like jump through the tabs and it’s yeah, there’s like it’s not as fancy as premiere as far as integration with, like After Effects after effects or things like that. But for what I do if it hasn’t crashed Once

Bill Cornelius  1:05:42

there you go, what’s your footage? Yeah,

Corey Allen  1:05:44

with my 6k and 8k RED footage. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

Bill Cornelius  1:05:49

Which is

Luke Dye  1:05:50

that’s the benefit of resolve. It takes good I mean, that amount of footage because we shot I mean, we’re little Ponderosa in 4k and resolve had no problem.

Bill Cornelius  1:06:00

Yeah. And that was like to be clear. That was a few years ago. So 4k, yeah. Was was much harder to ingest back. Back. Yeah.

Luke Dye  1:06:09

Yeah. I’m gonna be I’m gonna be like, no get away. Like, you know,

Bill Cornelius  1:06:13

what is 4k?

Luke Dye  1:06:14

Yeah, I would add it is I would edit in Final Cut seven. Yeah. Like, and then I would up you know, I would reconnect 4k In resolve to color.

Bill Cornelius  1:06:25

Like, I liked the mix workflow. Yeah. Because I

Luke Dye  1:06:29

was so used to, because I was like, so used to sound like that seven. Just yeah, you know?

Bill Cornelius  1:06:34

Well, story, right. Yeah. And you don’t you don’t want your software to slow you down? Yeah, like, cuz you’re learning or whatever it might be. I mean, I honestly went over to premiere kicking and screaming, because I was like, Don’t separate me from Final Cut. I’m so fat. Because you know, I would I had been editing and Final Cut for at that point. 12, maybe 12 years. And so I had gotten so fluent and so fast with that program. I mean, I can speed that Thing.

Luke Dye  1:07:06

Thing is bill, if you know, the aesthetics of editing, you can really you can learn a software you can learn a software.

Bill Cornelius  1:07:15

I did yeah. There you go. There you go. I now I’m, I’m pretty speedy with Premiere. It just took some time. But you know, I didn’t want change. Now. It’s like having an old reliable car. Well, you need to drive this new car now because the old one doesn’t take fuel. So what would you say like this? This is the vulnerable question, as we call it. As I get into my NPR voice. What is your what would you say is your biggest failure creatively? Or maybe the biggest lesson learned?

Luke Dye  1:07:50

This is in this this is it was brutal. It was brutal bill. I was doing I was the director, Flash editor for like a commercial for this college is Fountainhead College of Technology, which was a local college. My wife Kristen was a producer. We did. We did one commercial and it went off without a hitch. And everyone enjoyed it. And like the president and CEO, who was a friend of ours asked if we could do another commercial with the same script, but do it sort of like a nerdy Star Trek theme. So we did that shoot. And I had all the footage on my desktop in a folder. And at the time, I was like doing like two jobs. I was doing my full time job, my side job.

And then a third job, which was beat with this commercial. Yeah. So when I finished the side job, or like any job, I kind of do like that clean up, you know, to start the next thing. So is this like deleting stuff? Or moving folders and files and stuff that I didn’t need? Oh, no. Turns out I ended up deleting the footage of that shoot. Mmm, my stomach just, I mean, I tried everything I could to recover that but it’s, you know, like, just every software, like, recovery from my, you know, trash bin, like, no avail, you know,

Bill Cornelius  1:09:17

that makes me upset.

Luke Dye  1:09:19

I know, it was the worst. It was the one of the worst feelings I ever had. And I just I felt like I let Richard who was the CEO down like in my wife, who was a producer and all the cast and crew and I remember just having to do because we were like, at the dream more which was like the Dollywood hotel at the time, because we were like just getting a Christian I was doing it won’t get away. And I just remember having to make that phone call and tell him what happened.

He was just like, in just disbelief. But, but he I mean, I guess he Yeah, he saw I mean, he was like, okay, look, we’ll figure it out. You know, let’s just think about it. And I mean, I pretty much I mean, Chris and I pretty much had to end up paying like the damages out of pocket.

Oh, no. And like to make matters worse, like Fountainhead had to permanently close shortly, shortly after. I mean, it’s completely, it was completely unrelated to the project. But like, I felt like, I felt like I never got to, like, redo or make it up to anyone. Because I always thought, like, you know what, I’ll just make it. I’ll just do another commercial, you know, I’ll just do it for free. And then it closed as mainly because of like, you know, like, you know, both political reasons. Yeah, but, I mean, so basically, I just learned to just put my footage on a drive make multiple copies. Keep copies like that was my butt. Man. That was my biggest. Oh,

Bill Cornelius  1:10:51

my stomach hurts now like that. I feel that I feel it in my stomach. That’s so it’s so bad. I’ve never done that. But I’ve I’ve often worried about it.

Luke Dye  1:11:04

I imagine you have nightmares about that. Aries have nightmares about that.

Bill Cornelius  1:11:08

Absolutely. And just like what would happen if like I said before, if a storms after my house, and I lost everything. Oh, yeah, that is off. Every time there’s a lightning storm now. I get scared, but not of the storm. I get scared about the rain. All the footage, all the footage I’ve got in my house. That’s that’s not but that doesn’t belong to me.

Corey Allen  1:11:33

I feel like, I feel like you your company is large enough. They could afford like some Amazon web services like cold storage. Like you could have some off site.

Bill Cornelius  1:11:42

Yeah. Right. Easier said than done. I would love that. Yeah, that that makes things a lot easier to manage. So and then, if there’s one piece of advice, you could give somebody who’s wanting to get into the business, what would that be just doing anything, not not just editing, but you know, whatever it might be.

Luke Dye  1:12:07

You know, I think at some point, everyone who wants to kind of be in this business, kind of has that dream of kind of making a big, you know, like on a, like a Spielberg or a Marvel scale, you know, hey, is something like on a smaller scale or like, you still can have that same sense of accomplishment? I always had that big dream, you know, but then I did that little Ponderosa movie or did letto or just, like, did CS with, you know, my buddies with you?

You know, like, and Zach, you know, everybody, and I was so fulfilling, you know, because here I was making a film with my friends and having a blast. Um, you know, like, and I never got like a big check or anything. Doing it. I just, I just had fun. And I felt I just felt happy about doing that stuff. And even if I don’t do another film after like little Ponderosa zoo, where I just felt so proud of doing. I’ll be happy.

Bill Cornelius  1:13:10

Nice. So the takeaway is, don’t don’t just try to be the next Spielberg.

Corey Allen  1:13:17

Do what maybe that’ll work for you. Maybe that’ll happen. Maybe it won’t. But

Bill Cornelius  1:13:22

yeah, be fulfilled

Luke Dye  1:13:24

with what you’re getting. You know how to shoot for the stars. You know, shoot for the mountain, you know?

Bill Cornelius  1:13:28

Yeah. That’s less stress in life. Ultimately.

Luke Dye  1:13:36

It is what it is less stress.

Bill Cornelius  1:13:38

Yeah. Awesome. You want to move into the lightning round Corey. Looks like what

Luke Dye  1:13:48

I was trying to I was waiting for like a lightning Jonathan.

Bill Cornelius  1:13:51

We don’t we don’t have anything yet. Okay, so

Corey Allen  1:13:54

we’re like 30 to 33 episodes in we still don’t have

Bill Cornelius  1:14:01

that’s gonna be the bit is just we say that at the beginning of every lightning, right? We don’t have anything for

Luke Dye  1:14:08

season two. Season two. Yes, that’s

Bill Cornelius  1:14:10

true. Yeah, this is still season one,

Corey Allen  1:14:12

I guess. Well, we’ll up the production value significantly for season two. T shirts. Yeah, we got merch coming. Merch is gonna merch is coming. All right. All right. Here we go. Luke dye. all time favorite movie.

1:14:27

The Goonies no doubt. Oh, yes. Excellent.

Corey Allen  1:14:32

That is fantastic. Yeah, the last movie that you watched

Luke Dye  1:14:36

Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. I showed my four year old that movie. She loved it. She wanted the bike. Nice.

Corey Allen  1:14:43

Alright, so that’s, I like that. I’m curious. Did you start with the television series or did you just go straight to the movie?

Luke Dye  1:14:52

We started with the movie. Then we went to the television series. Okay. All right.

Bill Cornelius  1:14:58

How did she react to large Marge

Luke Dye  1:15:01

shot while she was like on my bag like hiding her hide neurons

Bill Cornelius  1:15:06

because I could tell you from my own personal experience as a four year old terrified me.

Luke Dye  1:15:13

Me too. Me too. But she, she took it well, which I was proud. She was coming that first time you just don’t know what’s coming HYDrive kid,

Bill Cornelius  1:15:21

I’m pretty sure I ran out of the room and didn’t watch the rest of it for like the next 20 years. I didn’t watch anything. Nice.

Corey Allen  1:15:29

All right, favorite director.

Luke Dye  1:15:32

That is hard, man. Because there’s so many good directors and like, you know, you kind of fluctuate on that. I gosh, I have to say like, if I say like, Oh, this guy’s makes a movie. I wouldn’t miss it. Kind of right now. It’s like, it’s Gareth Evans, who made like the raid films. He’s he’s gonna win. I’m like excited to see when it kind of what comes next.

Bill Cornelius  1:15:57

What else has he done on the raid films? He’s done some other

Luke Dye  1:16:02

Moran tau, which was right before the raid, and I think he’s done like some television series. I think like the gangs of London. Okay, TV series, but I don’t I don’t know. I think he’s got a couple of films scheduled, but I just I like his. I like his action choreography and his attention to detail. So I’m just kind of excited to see what what comes next. What’s next. Yeah.

Corey Allen  1:16:25

Cool. What about favorite cinematographer?

Luke Dye  1:16:32

I’m going to say this is an odd what Bruno del Bonnell? Who did the he was a cinematographer for Amelie. Okay.

Bill Cornelius  1:16:44

And a very lot jumped yours today.

Luke Dye  1:16:48

Yep. And he did the Amelie in a very long engagement. And I just, I think you’re beautiful films. A lot of people don’t know, I don’t think he did. He was a cinematographer for like the, I think it was the six Harry Potter film, like the Half Blood Prince. And if you watch that film, compared to like, all the other films, maybe safer, like the Prisoner of Azkaban, like you can tell, like, every shot every angle, just felt like it was thought out, rather than say, like, hey, let’s put the camera here over next to this broom, you know,

Bill Cornelius  1:17:21

just functional only. Yeah. Yeah,

Luke Dye  1:17:24

I was just like, Weimer machine that film and going like, wow, like, the, the cinematography was really good for being like the sixth film in a series.

Bill Cornelius  1:17:34

Yeah. Interesting. I, you know, I noticed that too. I didn’t look into the, you know, unfortunately, I didn’t look into the crew to confirm that, but But I kind of watched them all in succession in a short period of time. And I noticed how they, they sort of gotten more stylish and kind of darker, the more the further you go on.

Luke Dye  1:17:56

Yeah, cuz I think the director didn’t change. But then I noticed the cinematography did. So I was just like, okay, like, yeah, maybe take notice.

Corey Allen  1:18:06

That’s awesome, huh? I’m gonna have to go back and watch it in context there. Because I definitely, I did not notice that. I was gonna use Harry Potter fan

Bill Cornelius  1:18:17

though. I wasn’t. I almost like gave up on it. Like, someone gave me all his Harry Potter movies. And he was like, watch all of them. And so I I watched them all back to back to back and I almost bowed out at the third one. I started getting dark and kind of cool. And I was like, alright, well, maybe I’m gonna.

Luke Dye  1:18:39

I wasn’t either. And I start reading the books. I was like, Okay, this is kind of interesting. I’m gonna see what they do cinematically. Yeah, you know, with this, you know. But I just, I remember one shot just part two in particular, in this house, and it was just this low to high angle and every and all the all the actors were like, looking over the balcony. And it was really blocked out well, and I was just like, I, I was like, that’s really well done. And so that’s, that’s when I thought the cinematographer I liked them. I was like, wow, that was the same cinematographer that did Amelie, which I love. Yeah,

Corey Allen  1:19:14

that’s awesome. Makes a lot of sense. Good

Bill Cornelius  1:19:15

to make those connections. Because the reason we have this question is because not enough. Not enough people think about the cinematographer. It’s always the director, right? Like, that’s who everybody thinks about. They’re like the lead singer of the band. Like nobody knows. Nobody knows who the drummer is. But they know that

Corey Allen  1:19:32

unless you’re unless you’re

Luke Dye  1:19:34

unless you’re a drummer. Yeah, like, who hid that hi hat, so well. looked that up.

Bill Cornelius  1:19:40

Yeah, exactly.

Corey Allen  1:19:42

Alright, this was a little easier coffee or tea.

Luke Dye  1:19:46

coffee black. Yes.

Bill Cornelius  1:19:49

Nice. Hardcore. Alright,

Corey Allen  1:19:51

now, pineapple on your pizza.

Luke Dye  1:19:54

You know, I don’t order it, but my kid does. She just orders a pizza with pineapple and bacon. And then I’m always regretting it because I’ll finish yours and go like, Man, that was way better pizza than mine.

Bill Cornelius  1:20:07

Corey has a he does not like pineapple on the pizza. So he keeps hoping people are gonna know this side that we interview and nobody has this quite

Corey Allen  1:20:17

look to the origin of this question is all just like my social experiment to understand. Cuz I’ve never tried it so like, give me all the shit that you want. But I definitely it was like strong no yeah

Luke Dye  1:20:31

it’s a it’s a sweet versus salty kind of thing maybe I you know I don’t know.

Bill Cornelius  1:20:36

We got it you know? We need Corey to try it on the show for the first time.

Luke Dye  1:20:42

Yeah, you need to do it live man.

Bill Cornelius  1:20:44

We’ll do that when we when we do the film school Friday about catering. We talked about crafting. Yeah, yeah,

Luke Dye  1:20:51

crafting.

Corey Allen  1:20:52

Yeah. All right. Favorite camera.

Luke Dye  1:20:56

Man, I’m gonna have to go like gorilla here and go like the Canon D series. Remember? Like this five d the 60 D the 70? Yeah, that’s when like, things were like happening filmmaking wise because it was affordable. Like in like everybody like all the all stables have like the National Film Festival community. They just had they, they all had those cameras. And that’s where like, things were awesome during like film festivals. Yeah.

Corey Allen  1:21:22

So I’m curious. A little sidebar here of all the different television shows that you’ve worked on? Is there like any similarity in the either camera manufacturer camera model? Or is it really just all over the board?

Luke Dye  1:21:39

It really is all over the board like the How to the HGTV kind of shows they were really kind of more like a video feel. And then you do these murder dogs. And they they’re more of like the cinematic type feel they’re trying to try to get like a 30 versus 24 P. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of feel. Got it? Does that answer your question?

Corey Allen  1:22:11

Not really, but that’s okay. I’m sorry. You actually again, you actually may not know this, like when you get the footage you may not even know like what it was shot on, I would guess.

Luke Dye  1:22:24

Oh, no, I don’t. I really don’t. Which is unfortunate. I had to I’d have to look. Because we shot one short film with that camera. Man. Yeah, no,

Bill Cornelius  1:22:39

it’s okay. What was the so I was talking about this earlier the the camera that you shot letto on? Was that the that was the Vera cam the Sony?

Luke Dye  1:22:50

Yes, it was very I think it was a very cam. I you know, if you interview Matthew with Sony and asked him he could probably tell you,

Bill Cornelius  1:22:56

I’m sure.

Luke Dye  1:22:59

He took half my budget to rent that camera. Oh, yeah,

Corey Allen  1:23:03

that’s about right.

Bill Cornelius  1:23:05

Like that was the same camera. They shot collateral on the Michael Mann film.

Luke Dye  1:23:10

Yeah, I made I think it was the Vera cam if I’m mistaken.

Bill Cornelius  1:23:14

I think it was.

Corey Allen  1:23:15

That sounds like good budgeting half on camera and lenses. The other half on lighting.

Luke Dye  1:23:21

Yeah, hadn’t half on building a set. I mean, but that’s I mean, but I mean, it was it was making. Yeah, it did. And it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of fun. Yeah.

Corey Allen  1:23:33

Alright, last question. Three films everyone should see before they die.

Luke Dye  1:23:42

Well, I’m my favorite film The Goonies diehard.

Corey Allen  1:23:47

Like the original, the first the Christmas version? Oh, yeah,

Luke Dye  1:23:50

the Christmas version. Of course. You know, the, the third, the third, I’m going to go like way rogue and probably a film that a lot of people have not seen it’s called the way home because if anybody has a grandmother, they should see this movie. And they will appreciate how much their grandma mother did for them. Like I don’t think I’ve ever cried so much of my life. I will only watch it once and never watch it again. Oh, let’s call it it’s a film in like 2002 is called the way home and it just makes you appreciate how much your grandmother’s do for you.

Bill Cornelius  1:24:31

Awesome I’ve never like the The name sounds familiar but I don’t I don’t know if I’ve seen it I’ve not seen it I feel like I’d remember

Corey Allen  1:24:43

remember a movie if it breaking down?

Luke Dye  1:24:46

It was it was it was it’s Korean it’s a I think it’s so but yeah, it’s just all subtitles but man. It’s like what it’s one of those like, yeah, it’s one of those like Like record for dreams. I mean, it’s not like a record for a dream, but it’s one of those movies you watch once. You’ll be like, okay, like, again. Yeah, yeah, I’m good. Yeah.

Bill Cornelius  1:25:09

That’s how it was about Schindler’s List. Yes. This is a phenomenal movie, but I never need to watch this again.

Luke Dye  1:25:17

Yeah, yeah. But I feel like that’s a movie that, so everybody should see before they die to just feel that love. Yeah. And they’d be like, okay,

Bill Cornelius  1:25:28

I’m good. Yeah. Everybody needs that movie. That’s there. Like, once and then Peace Out movie. Yeah, yes. This impacted me and now I’m good.

Corey Allen  1:25:38

That sounds like a good one, though. Yeah, yeah. I’ll check it out. To check it out. Yeah. Awesome. Well, Luke, thank you so much for joining us today,

Bill Cornelius  1:25:47

man. It was good. Catching up.

Luke Dye  1:25:49

Dude, this is, this is a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun.

Bill Cornelius  1:25:52

We’ll have you back on when we bring the whole group together.

Corey Allen  1:25:56

season two, season two isn’t too big raw table. Yeah. Yep.

Bill Cornelius  1:26:01

And I will bring a pineapple pizza for Corey.

Luke Dye  1:26:03

Yes. Hopefully I like it some coffee. Black.

Corey Allen  1:26:08

Yeah, we could be coffee brothers. I’m big into coffee. Yeah, it will it will leave links to all of your things in the show notes today. And for our listeners, we know you have a lot of podcast options. We appreciate you choosing us. Make sure you check us out on Instagram at infocus pod or online infocus podcast.com. And if you liked what you heard today, go ahead and subscribe. If you’re on Apple podcasts, please leave us a rating it would help us out a ton a ton a ton. And until next time,

Bill Cornelius  1:26:40

feed your crew.

Corey Allen  1:26:44

Feed them something delicious

Bill Cornelius  1:26:47

yes