Unscripted Podcast with Jeremy Rivera: The Conversation Breakdown

Introduction & Background

Jeremy: "Hello, I'm Jeremy Rivera, your Unscripted Podcast host. Here with Vega Why don't you give yourself a nice little introduction and we'll see where the conversation goes."

Vega: "Alright, sounds great. What's up everybody? My name is Vega Montanez. I'm a Dominican filmmaker, writer, director, producer with a huge background in sound work and editing. So, you know, a little bit of everything. I've got a couple of features out there, a couple of shorts."

Jeremy: "Interesting. what, where did you start? Did you go to school for it? Did you run into a mentorship? What led you into creating with video?"

Vega: "No, I actually started in music and I spent 10 years, 12 years of my life just working in music. And around 2016, I was asked by a friend of mine who's an actor who I met through music to write a script. And that kind of started this long journey. I backed away from filmmaking at first, because I was like, this is crazy the way you have to go through and try to fundraise. And there was just a lot of stuff that didn't make sense to me coming from the music side. So 2019 rolled around and I was like, know, I was supposed to go on a tour that got canceled. I had some extra money and I was like, you know, let me see what I can do, see if I can make a movie. And then that started me on this journey of making movies and I've been at it since. So it's been quite a fun journey, quite a fun road."

First Film Production

Jeremy: "Interesting. you know, you wrote a script. Did the first movie that you made was that self-produced? you have somebody else come up with the script or you come up with the script and direct produce, act, all of the above?"

Vega: "So I wrote, directed and produced. I had a friend of mine who, a friend of mine from elementary school who invested in the project by not charging us for the location. So he gave us access to his whole basement for the whole film. so that was, that was really helpful. I had a lot of other resources, plus the money that I spent. And then as far as acting, like I already knew at that point, I didn't want to be an actor. So I just brought in a bunch of actor friends that I had that I knew would be interested or that seemed like they were interested. We made a pretty good movie, I think."

Jeremy: "Interesting. ahead and shout out the name. What's the title?"

Vega: "So that was that was the hurt we share that was the first movie I made that was back in 2019 it came out in 2021 on Fox and it's now on Tubi and in my most recent films Nico I wrote and produced that the burden of nine lives I directed wrote and produced that those are both available on Tubi and I had a children's movie sort of children's movie that I directed called Beyond Detention and that just came out on Amazon Prime as well."

Streaming Platforms Impact

Jeremy: "Awesome. So it sounds like giving life on the background is this transition to streaming. And I know as a newer generation of video creators of creating movies, 20 years ago there was no such thing as streaming. How has that worked out on the back end? 

Is that then positive or do you think that that's for your industry going to be a handicap overall because or are you excited that you're on these platforms and it gets to stream technically forever?"

Vega: "Yeah, so I think everything in life has its ups and downs, right? It's always a double-edged sword. So on one hand, I'm a huge fan of everything that the streaming platforms bring to the table because of the viability, the access. I tell people very often, if I would have started my filmmaking journey at the time I started my music journey, I would probably still only have four films at this point, right? There's a strong possibility I'd have more, but the whole point is technology has made the job easier and the access to distribution is a lot more available because of all the streaming platforms, right?"

"The downside to that is everybody values the streaming platforms a little bit differently, right? So personally, like I love Tubi. I think it's a great platform. I think it's a really cool option for people who don't want to spend the money, but they do want to enjoy the film. If you're willing to sit through, I think maybe three or four commercials at most at play while you watch it, cool. If you don't want to watch commercials, you pay the three bucks to rent it on Amazon Prime or you purchase it on Amazon Prime, right? So it gives us as filmmakers a lot of control over how we can bring in revenue for our own films, right?"

"And it gives us the opportunity to put our films in front of the world because before these platforms existed, if you made a film and the studio powers that be decided that it wasn't good enough or it wasn't marketable, it wasn't worth it, that was the end of the conversation, right? And that's if you even got to the point of getting people convinced enough to invest in the film because they understood the risk of it never producing any type of revenue because there was no way for it to actually come out."

The Theater Experience vs. Streaming

Vega: "I think at a studio level, it's a much larger effect because and I hope audience doesn't get mad at me for this thought but like I think movies are going from the theater to streaming too fast right and that is negatively affecting the movie business because even if you're excited for a film and I'm guilty of it myself as a fan right like even if I'm excited for a film there's like this extra level of excitement that has to exist for me to say I'm gonna go watch it in theaters."

"Because if I choose not to watch it in theater, my punishment is I have to wait three weeks and then I can just watch it in my house. That's really, you know, as opposed to before, for better or worse, Like the industry was able to have a little bit more control over that. if it was in theater, you had 90 days to go watch it. And if you didn't get to see it, now you couldn't see it for three months, right?"

Jeremy: "It's like Denis Villeneuve with Dune. He created this masterpiece that was really designed for the theater, for the big screen. He described his artistic process of like, he wants this massive ship and the theater is going to shake. He's got so much bass. And then they did a dual streaming event on HBO.

 And I was talking to the people who went to the theater and they're like, this was the most epic thing that I've ever seen. And then I talked to people like, yeah, it was okay. I'm like, did you see it in the theater? No, I watched it on HBO and it was pretty good. And I was like, God, you just that in the surrounding, the, the, for some of those."

Vega: "And even at the most simple version of it that I've said to my friends, it's like going to the movie theater puts you in a different environment. There's just less distractions. No matter what you attribute it to, now you're in a room that's dedicated to watching this film. Everything is in front of you as opposed to you being in your house. You can get up and go make a sandwich. I gotta go to the bathroom. All of the things that you wouldn't do in a theater, you will do in your house. And then we realize, at least for me personally, I've come to the realization, some of the rules that they have in theaters are also for your own enjoyment. Put your phone away. If you watch a movie in your house and you put your phone away, you're gonna like the movie 10 times more than if you have your phone around you. It's really that simple."

New Stories vs. Recycled Content

Jeremy: "That's something I've noticed with my generation too is like, we love the, know, mashing up two old things together. You know, like we had a massive franchise of Transformers, which was a cartoon in the 80s. And then, you know, it's a whole series. When do we try to revive something unique? You know, when do we, as a society, try to not just fall for the stupid sequel, but really embrace unique new different content. I guess it's based out of maybe nostalgia, but we got our new Star Wars series and it was all heavily like Rise of Skywalker, the whole thing with Rey was all based off of nostalgia and we want to see these old characters that we had but in a new situation. Do you think that we will ever break free or are we at the recycle point where now we're longing for new heroes, new different heroes, new stories, or are there no new stories to tell?"

Vega: "I'm sorry, I was writing a script before this so I'm in a very moving emotional space so the first thought that came to my mind was very dark so I guess the morbid dark answer to that question is people have to die because that's the only way new legacies start is like once the newer generation of kids I come from a baseball background so the newer generation of kids probably only recognize Roberto Clemente as part of Black History Month. They don't really know him as a great baseball player."

"The older generation needs to be able to break away from it enough to not encourage it onto the newer generation. If you as a Star Wars dad are like, my four year old is a Star Wars fan now and you got the, like, didn't, again, lack of independence and control, right? They didn't really get to make that decision. So they're just loving dad and this is a way to bond with dad. And then over time it becomes nostalgic and now you are actually a fan, right?"

"It's really hard because we need to make our money back. So yeah, it's way easier for me to make another Ninja Turtles movie than it would be for me to sell you on a brand new story about four ninjas that are not turtles. And like the whole storyline could be pretty much the same thing. And people will be like, I don't know, it's not that good of a story. And you're like, all I changed was the turtles. You know I mean? But that could matter."

Marketing in the Digital Age

Jeremy: "So as an indie producer, as a, like, the streaming experience lets you go around that, but it obviously has a cost. So what's the marketing experience or the business experience that you're trying to hustle and create visibility?

 I had a great interview with Ethan Felizzari-Castillo, and he was another director, and he's got his own production studio, but he also does SEO, search engine optimization, and marketing on the side for his films and for other people too. 

So what's been your experience in trying to gain visibility in an age where you're competing in that distracted age? It can be really crowded, like if you’re Plum Paper, trying to just promote your custom planner. There’s so much noise out there. 

 Like how do you reach people about the message about your film instead of just, hey, I'm on Tubi, I guess this is a thing I can watch, I'll see if I like it. How are you trying to market or bring awareness to your projects in the digital age."

Vega: "So I, I feel like, and I don't, I don't know how right or wrong this is. So anyone listening, take it with, know, your own measurements of salt. but I feel personally attached to in-person communication, right? So I understand the value of being able to spend $500 on a marketing campaign on one of the digital platforms and getting access all around the world and all of that. But I also think there's so much more buy-in to physical activities, right? So whether it be doing random private screenings or if it's pop-up events, pop-up shops, or presenting at conventions and things like that, those are the things that I really try to focus on as much as I possibly can."

"Because I think the people are very experience driven right now, right now. So I think, you know, we all have, we all get the distractions, right? And then the cool stuff that happens on the screen, right? But it's like, first, it's not super memorable, right? Like, that's why we have the whole phrase of going viral, because all of the other crazy things we see on the internet are just crazy things we saw on the internet, right? But some spectacularly crazy things explode and they go very big. And right."

"But from a digital aspect, just think of the amount of times you accidentally scrolled up on something you were about to show a friend and now you're frantically trying to find it again, but it's gone. That's the type of stuff I think about when I'm like, the commitment to digital, sure, if I spend the same $500 in real world experience, I'm probably only gonna touch 200 people at most. But of those 200 people, I'll probably get 150 of them to actually go home and watch the movie. $500 I spend will probably get to five or six thousand eyeballs But of that number I don't know how many of them are actually gonna commit to watching the film right."

The Internet & Discovery

Jeremy: "You know, because we're fracturing, you know, where we spend our time. It's weird. Do you remember the day and age of the Internet? I feel so old of like you went and there were web links like there was no search engine. You'd go from one website and it would link to some other random website and there was no like you couldn't find stuff. It just an experience. And I feel like..."

Vega: "You know, I don't fully remember the internet before search engines. Like I do remember using, like for example, I remember using AOL dial-up, right? And having to like put the disk in and it would give you some time. But I think by that point, even AOL had like its own search menu within its own system. So I've always kind of grew up in that version of the internet. And then when I think beyond that, it's like, yeah, I can't really think of a time where Google wasn't part of the internet experience."

Jeremy: "Now we have kind of a ubiquity people like I'm on the internet, but no, they actually mean I'm on Reddit. Like I'm getting on the internet. No, you're scrolling Instagram. Like, you you're watching TikToks. Like it's so heavily siloed. I wonder like what's the percentage of people that are actually just discovering random websites, just going and trying to find new random stuff, you know, that they don't have an idea for at the outset."

Vega: "And how would you even do that? Every browser you open is already attached to a search engine. So as soon as you start typing something in, it's gonna show you the most relevant things to what you're typing. There is no real control. 

And I make this joke with people all the time, you can't call yourself an independent person around me because you're not, right? Like there's so many things in life that happen for you before they even get to you making the decision around wanting to engage the thing that you can't fully be independent, right?"

Current Projects

Jeremy: "I'm curious, tell me about the project you're working on now and we'll kind of wrap up the conversation around that. Tell me what you're working on. You said you were just talking to your colorists. So I'm interested in your active process right now. What's the title or working title? And what kind of genre are we looking for from you?"

Vega: "I'm a bit chaotic, so I'm working on a few things at the same time, which I think as a wild piece of advice to give anybody, like if you're trying to get into this business, the beginning two, three years of your career, you should be very like organized chaos, you know what I mean? Like trying to do as much as you can to really maximize your output. But with that said, right now we're probably a couple of days from finishing a short film that we shot early February called Tyranny of Silence starring Julie Lyon and Nikki Nunziato. So that is a very, very exciting, interesting, deep drama that Julie wrote about a therapist consoling a student who was recently a victim of abuse. So that was a very deep and interesting piece to shoot."

"I did a comedy short recently that's in festivals right now called Change Gonna Come written by Nadine Mann. produced that and I'm working on a script right now that I've been working on for a little while and it's taken me a lot longer than I thought it would. 

Thought for whatever reason I thought this was going to be way easier to write but I'm writing a drama. I wouldn't say coming of age because they're a little older than like the high school point of life but it's in that vein about a group of friends that are subway performers right."

"So like in New York we have the people who come out and they do showtime subway performances and they try to make some money there. I just, saw a group of guys doing it and they didn't really go well collecting money. And it kind of looked like they got into an argument or a fight as they were getting off the train amongst themselves. 

And it just kind of sparked that reminder in me that like, when we go outside, we only see a piece of people's lives, right? And that's kind of like what I enjoy writing the most is trying to give perspective to different ideas of life in the world, right? Like everybody's built differently, everybody has different things they're going through. 

So in this case, it just kind of inspired me to say, okay, like what does their whole life look like? Right, so now I'm writing a story about four friends who all have different things going on, but this subway dancing is what kind of keeps them intact and keeps them kind of sane as people despite everything that's happening."

Adult Development & Representation

Jeremy: "I love that. And I don't think that just because it's not set in high school, like that doesn't mean you're done growing. You know, the adult brain, no, seriously, there's developmentally, your brain doesn't stop maturing and growing until 28. And there's a touch point at age 23 and then between 23 and 28. And I remember my wife when she was 23 and the person that she was five years later, not even comparable. Like the amount of growth and change in a person in the mid-20s, I think is a underrepresented. And I think it's because culturally, we're just used to this concept of, hey, know, like high school, you're a kid and then you get out of high school and you're an adult. And that's totally artificial. You know, like we've..."

Vega: "It's like there's just a black line and you're just like, here you crossed it, we're done. Like, nah man, like it was phases for me to even be a child. So like, can I get some phases to becoming an adult? Right, like now that I'm 18, can like this be phase one, right? Learning to adult, phase two, practicing adulting."

Jeremy: "Yeah, yeah, really. There's practicing adulting, failing at adulting, and then maybe like mediocre success at adulting."

Vega: "Right, failing at adulting, re-re-learning adulting. Mediocre success at adulting. Now I'm raising a family. Cool."

Vega: "I'm really glad that we had this chat because you I think you gave me the additional hook to this film because that's that's a big piece of it is one of the characters is has always kind of struggled with mental health and depression issues and Despite all of the the pleasantries and the great things going on and the energy it displays in public like anytime He's alone. It's a really dark moment. And I think it's like we're both saying I'm sure tons other people feel There are not enough stories that address life outside of school."

"Right? Like even the stories that talk about people being in their twenties, like they're in college, which college is a great option. I think everybody should consider going to college and make the decision that makes the most sense for you. You know, Based on the position I was in life, I chose to go to college, just taking random classes. didn't actually go for a degree, but I do look back every now and then I'm like, maybe I should have. Right? Like there's always the back and forth you're going to have, but just do what works best for you. But on the topic, there aren't really a lot of shows that show 20 to 25 when you're not in college. Like what does it look like to just go to work? Right? What does it look like to be in a position where you couldn't go to college because you have to start a family? Really what do those experiences look like and those are different stories. So that's that's kind of one of those things that was already being touched on but now like can really see it much more emphasized."