Short-form storytelling with filmmaker Asha Alaji-Sharif

Mikey: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Presentation Thinking, a. k. a. the Storyteller's Study Club, a. k. a. Molly. Throwback episode. Friend of the program. This is a little bit of a This Week in Storytelling nod. Welcome back. Asha Elaji Sharif. Friend of the Ranch. Filmmaker. How's it going?

Asha: Hey, I'm so excited.

Asha, we're so happy you're here.

It just feels like you're coming, you're coming home, you know, welcome, welcome to our zoom room again, for those that don't know, Asha was a Ranchero for many years, amazing designer and produced a very cool [00:01:00] series on Tik Tok. If you follow us there, you already know this week in storytelling twist on little anecdotes and snippets of pop culture.

History, anything that had to do with storytelling, Asha would find it, break it down for us. Lots of fun that we had on our TikTok

Asha: going viral with you, Asha. No, it helped me learn so much, I feel.

Mikey: Correct us if we're wrong. We believe you were the world's first presentation design apprentice. Oh, yes, of course.

Asha: That's a theory.

Mikey: Yeah. And we, I remember when, so yeah, Molly, this was, three, four years ago, we put this apprenticeship post out there. We get this amazing portfolio from a student from Howard university. And one of the things that like really got our attention was there was some really cool designs, but then there's actually like a documentary.

I remember Asha from your portfolio and. Like your website was more skewed toward photography, filmmaking, [00:02:00] that kind of stuff, so like, this person can tell a story, and, and flash forward to today, and Asha, like, you are sort of debuting in the screening process of a short film that you just put out there, so Molly and I were like, can we please like see it before it's like publicly available and you let us watch it and now maybe we can just talk and wrap and learn about the process of bringing a short film from Concept to like out there in the world and up on big screens.

Yeah. Yeah, and Asha. I'm curious like yeah I've always known you had a media chops like you schooled me in any like fast video editing for the ranch. It was so helpful. And I know you love films and filmmaking, and I'm curious, was, what's your little inciting incident or if it's a film or a moment that got you into filmmaking?

I think it

Asha: kind of was like, in a way, always a part of my life, like just arts in general, because my dad like did some modeling and acting and like [00:03:00] growing up, he would always record us. Like we would always have these. Home videos. And like, he always took like professional pictures of us as kids growing up.

And so I think I just kind of always had like a thing with cameras when I was like, in elementary school, I used to make YouTube videos of littlest pet shop, like, like stop motion animation. And so I feel like that's when I first started like getting into film, but it was always just kind of like a side thing in college with the documentary that you're talking about, Mikey.

That was a part of this like magazine, we were like pitching ideas of like content we could produce. And I was like, a documentary about this or like, would be cool. And they were like, okay, we'll do it. And I was like, I've never made a film before. Like, I just make YouTube videos. Like, so that was like my first time actually making a film.

And how was that? I really liked it. I feel like that kind of got me into my love of documentaries. Like, I've always liked watching films, but I mean, just like making documentaries. And it was hard. It was really hard. We had like zero budget and like, you know, like [00:04:00] broke college students, like trying to film.

Yeah. Like trying to figure out how to make it work and make schedules work, but in like not having proper programs on our laptops and like having to go to like places to edit, but it was really, really fun.

Yeah. Yeah. I remember that running around when I was in film school, running around cold, freezing ass Chicago trying to find location.

And one of the most frustrating things is we'd record a scene and the L would just scream by so the train just like knocks out all audio. And just, there's so many funny things you can't control as a student filmmaker. It really teaches you to be creative and resourceful, which you definitely are. And this film that we want to talk about today, The Four Noble Truths.

You premiered at the Voices with Impact Festival in San Francisco. What is, how did you find out about that festival and what's your, yeah, what's your connection to it?

Asha: So I've done this festival before. I think it was the 2021 to 2022 cohort. [00:05:00] So that's how I knew about it. But I think I found out about it through a friend who also does film.

He like sent it to me and was like, Hey, you might be a good fit for this. Um, so this would have been my second time applying. I like them because they're a nonprofit. So they focus on, you know, Using these documentaries and films to like educate college students about mental health. And so yeah, very cool.

And I like anything with like a cause. So

yeah, their tagline is Mental Health Film Festival. So if you haven't heard of it, give them a follow. Very, when I got the login to watch your thing, there's like the other ones that I need to scroll through as well. So it's such a cool space to be.

Mikey: Super new question, but what comes first, the film or the application?

Like, do you find out about the festival and then make a film for it? Or did you already have this in the works?

Asha: Yeah. So they release themes every year. So there are like themes categories. And so I think the first year I did it, one of them was substance use disorder. So I had nothing in the works. I just kind of was like, okay, is there something that I could make?

About this and that's when my, I [00:06:00] like posted on Instagram, I think, and I was like, would anybody be interested in sharing their story? And like my cousin reached out so I just got lucky with that and then this year I thought like the schizophrenia when I saw that schizophrenia and serious mental health was a theme Chris's brother we know made that has schizophrenia and I was like, do you think he'd be down to like do this?

And so I just reached out to him and after I had like a little FaceTime call with him I kind of developed the idea from there and then you fill out the proposal and Submit it and then they decide whether or not You can get the money to make the film basically.

Oh, cool. Okay. So they give you a little like green light and funding to be like, go make it, go make it nice.

Asha: Cool. I think there are some people though that have already had things and they just so happened to work. So like if you have something in the work, you can use the funds to finish it.

Mikey: Yeah, sure. Make it. So you're pitching an idea as you know, that's what we talk about all the time. Like. What, what works, what doesn't when you're, when you're doing [00:07:00] something like this, like applying to be accepted to get the movie made.

Asha: Yeah. I think having a decided background helps because like my portfolio is always really nice and cool and I can like illustrate and like do some really cool stuff so that it stands out in that way. They ask a lot of questions, just like short answer essay form questions. They want like mood boards, like what is this film going to look like?

So I, I really like to incorporate like a lot of color and like create a color palette for the film and then have images that fit and like do little explanations and go really in depth. They ask about your team, like if you have a team, like what are these people do? So I try to establish a team ahead of time so that way I can like also brag on them in the proposal to make it.

You know? Yeah. And then they ask for like a budget. That's always the hardest thing for me because I don't know a lot about finances, but you have to like write out a detailed budget so that they know that you understand how you're going to spend the money and that it makes sense logically. Then they basically just ask for a doc, since it's a documentary, they just want to know like what a general outline would be, [00:08:00] but if it was fiction, I think they usually ask for a script.

Okay.

Mikey: Right. And you don't have to share this, but like, if you're willing to and we can, we can leave it out. But yeah. What is a budget for something like this? What'd you come up with? And what were you

Asha: close? Yeah. So they give 7, 500 for the film. Luckily, the first time I did this grant, I was able to use that money to get a lot of equipment that was like super expensive.

And like, so like that first go around, like I was able to get a lot of equipment. So now I have a ton of equipment, so I'm like, okay, I can use a lot of this money for, if we need to travel. paying for a studio space, any other like lingering equipment. Like I think I upgraded like mics or something and just like got little things that typically aren't as important, but are like really nice to have.

And then the rest of the money just went towards like paying people, like being able to pay them like a significant amount for their work time.

That's so impactful too, because a lot of times it's just that volunteer request and it's really, it elevates it to be able to actually pay [00:09:00] people for their time and get your yourself, like professional equipment.

I was wondering if you rented or yeah, what you, what you had, because there's some drone shots in here that I wanted to ask about. I was like, holy shit, we're on top of a church. So we'll get to that. We'll get into that. So your brothers are, your husband's brother has schizophrenia and it's your connection to META and he's the subject of this story for Noble Truce.

I want to know, like getting into, yeah, the visual storytelling process after you had that FaceTime call, With Maytel, what came first? Like, did you start storyboarding, writing it out? Like, how did you start bringing it to life?

Asha: Yeah. After I talked to him, um, I just asked a couple of general questions and he was so happy to talk about it.

Yeah. And Lexi, who is the youngest one in the film, she's the youngest sibling. She also was with him because they're very close and she kind of just was talking about some things. So as they were talking, I just like jotted down notes about things that stuck out from there. I just kind of let it marinate.

And I don't know, like [00:10:00] the, I like the concept for the Four Noble Truths. It just kind of like, it just kind of like clicked, like, I don't know how that came about. I think I was just thinking about, cause the one thing that he talked about that really got me was exorcism. And so then I was like, okay, Buddhism.

Okay. How can I connect this to like religion and then like being in the South and I just like religious. Thanks. symbolism and things anyway. So it just kind of like developed from there.

And is Buddhism and this might be a dumb question. Do the four noble truths have symbolism in Buddhism? Okay. So that's why your choice, I was curious about your choice of, because the film five and a half ish minutes, just under five and a half minutes is divided.

The only text that really appears is the one, two, three, and four in Roman numerals. And I was curious how you yet chose to, to bring those in.

Asha: So the four noble truths are like, So like, the first one is suffering exists. And so I just kind of like, I framed the story in like the topics in the story around these four [00:11:00] things.

So yeah, the first one is suffering exists. The second one is that there's a cost for suffering. The third one is that there's an end to suffering. And the fourth one is that you have to go on a journey to end suffering. So I kind of framed all of the like parts and the questions around those four.

teachings and I thought it would be an easier way for me to be able to like pace because five minutes is so short. And so I was like, this needs to have structure.

Yeah, no, I totally got it. It kind of reminded me of Beyonce's Lemonade with the five stages of grief and using something that's kind of this universal symbolism to divide up a story that you're applying to it and the religious motifs that are already there as a kind of an obstacle for Meta as well, using them as a way of that's maybe can turn it a little more positive too.

Yeah, Mikey, what was your first take? I've seen it. I've seen it twice now. What was your impression?

Mikey: It was so good. Like, I at first wasn't entirely sure what it was about, right? It's like, so there was that sort of the roller coaster ride where you're like, Oh, this dude Mehta is like, [00:12:00] sweet. They're just like talking him up.

He's like super dope, really good guy. And then, so, I, which I think is that there's some book like Save the Cat or something where it's like, apparently they teach it in screenwriting classes, but you need to like the hero, right? First, first and foremost, you like care about them, and so I think you establish like right away you're like, this dude seems really good, and then Twist is like, Then he like, he went through some stuff, you know, and they, they started to see the other side and then you could tell, like, gosh, he kind of flipped the mood of the, like, things went from kind of bright to this like darker setting.

And that really stood out to me, but just in general, I mean, what you can do in five minutes kind of blew my mind, you know, and like everything was on point. Like the, the music, the simplicity of that, those like type treatments that you talked about, Molly, just like just four numbers and that was it on the Yeah, it just, it did have just a feeling about it, which is so important because that's what you remember and that's what sticks with you in addition to just the characters [00:13:00] who you can tell they love this person too.

And then they also feel for him that, you know, he's gone through this suffering, like you mentioned.

Yeah, you definitely bring in that kind of hero's journey, establishing him. As just your normal kid and then like introducing like this problem and when he start when he first talks about his experience with schizophrenia as like the long shadowy figure.

It's like there's this definite element of like scariness and like there's a villain and. I really loved the way you filmed that part with like really short cuts and there's like definite shift in the music and you know, it's not like you have like a cheesy animated figure or something you drew. It's like these kind of like insane cuts where you like go back and forth on,

Music: I

don't even know what was that?

Like, what was that?

Asha: Those were totally accidental. Um, but I remembered that I had them and I was like, This could work. Yeah. So like, not like intentionally pocket kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I was just like, when I was shooting things, I just would not stop my camera. I was like, I'm late. I'm too lazy.

Like, just keep [00:14:00] doing this. I'm just going to keep it running and then I'll just like cut it up in post. And then I was like. Wait, this is kind of like, this could kind of work for this.

Mikey: Ashley, there was like a treatment at the beginning. It looks like, I don't know if it's a technique or like, um, a nod to like older VHS or something, but what is that?

You know what I'm talking about? Where it like, kind of like, it's a distortion that moves up the screen. Yes.

Yes. I know. What

Mikey: was that? The intention with that?

Asha: Yeah. I really like working with different mediums because I feel like it's just more interesting when you have like different formats in a film.

Um, and so I thought it'd be cool to do VHS one as just a fix for some of the footage coming from different phones, different cameras, like, cause that's all footage I got from them. And I was like, Hey, if you guys have any like videos of yourselves, send it my way. So that was kind of just a way to like, make it all seamless.

But also I just like, like to look at VHS and like to clearly like establish like, okay, this is previous. moments. Like, these are not the same things that we filmed within this span of time. And like, I just [00:15:00] made them an Adobe Premiere. It was like, one of the last things I did was make that like overlay.

And the format when it's in the past, like found footage vibe is square as well. So you can like tell us kind of like this periscope look into the past. I loved that. It was being seen it a little grainier. I love the treatment that like went up, kind of slides up that VHS thing, whereas it's rolling and then it would come back down.

It's like gives that typewriter effect. Very cool. And I love who you brought in as far as, like, sharing small anecdotes about growing up with Meta and, like, having those, I mean, you see that in every TED Talk, right, Mikey, where some people are sharing, like, and here's a small anecdote too. illustrate how schizophrenia affected me as his sibling, you know, and it's this shift of like, then we get one of those drone shots, bringing in the religious motifs of the church and how there's so much stigma and some religious trauma around this with people trying to exercise his demons of sorts.

And you know, then his queer identity and coming out, [00:16:00] being in the South and having all of those, those cultures kind of blend together. Tell us about how that, like, how you shifted the filming for that piece of it.

Asha: Yeah. Oh, like in terms of like shifting topics or. Yeah.

Like it's, there's definitely a tone shift during that time where the music drops and the shots are very dramatic.

And.

Asha: Yeah, that honestly was the hardest segment because I knew like, okay, this whole film is going to be like centered around religious beliefs. And, but like with that, I feel like the queer identity also kind of comes in. So it was like, honestly, that was the hardest thing for me to work out when shooting was like figuring out, okay, how do I like make this flow and like, how do I make this seamless?

And I don't know, that was, that was so tricky. Chris Hyde, who was our like story consultant with that, like he really had to like get onto me because the first cut of it that I sent him, like the rough cut, he was basically saying like, yeah, there's just not enough. Of a connection between, I guess, like religion here, the story framing, [00:17:00] and he's like, you need to like, bring that back in since that's like your whole plan of this, like theming.

So like, you need to find a way to center that, like the film around that. So I think it really worked to have it like in the middle and just like make it feel bigger and some of the other things so that it stood out, stood out in the right way.

Yeah.

Asha: And like, didn't get like overshadowed.

Yeah, it kind of, I think, named, at first we have like the scary dark figure that Meta faces like individually, but then kind of zooming out, it's like the place that he's in and the South and like the culture of like religion and like his family around it that might not have known what was happening.

Not a lot of education around mental health is like, it zooms it out a little bit. And you can tell that with the shots, I guess, is what I was thinking of with the, you know, Okay, tell us about how did you do the drone shot?

Asha: I just have a great friend, Ade, who has a drone and I have used him on some other things like music videos that I've done and I was like, Hey, uh, want to [00:18:00] operate some more drone?

And he just like does it as a hobby, but he's obviously very talented at it. And yeah, we like got up really, really early for those church shots because I wanted the sun to still be kind of like coming up from the horizon. I think we got up at like 4 a. m and then it was freezing outside. Like I kid you not, I did not know Alabama could get that cold.

It was like, We were cold, like we were bundled up completely gloves, hats, scarves. Yeah. And he was like, he was like, I'm gonna have to come back in the car for a minute and like get some heat. Cause like it was so cold. Oh my gosh. But we were out there for maybe like three hours, like getting in and out of the car, like shooting.

Cause he tried to do as much as he could controlling from the car. But at some points it's like, get out, set it down and,

Yeah, move your thumbs and get your thumb movements going. Yeah, make sure you get some circulation staying there. Yeah, that's that seems like was that the hardest shot? I was I was curious what like the hardest shot to grab was.

Asha: I would say maybe the drone shots and it was [00:19:00] super windy. So like there were a lot of times where like the wind is like blowing back on the drone and he's trying to center it. But it's just not like working so and it's I think maybe because mobile is like right off the ocean like off the water So there's just a lot of wind.

Yeah, but it was like very very windy those days and like that was definitely a challenge Yeah,

Mikey: oh my gosh. Yeah, so you've got the the planning the ideation the actual like shooting and production like you talked about and then I imagine You spend a ton of time sifting through all the footage and chopping it up together.

Like what is the editing process like, especially to get it down to something as short as five minutes and 20 seconds.

Asha: That was like one of the hardest things I've ever done. And I knew it was going to be hard because I had done this before and that was also a five minute documentary. But for some reason, this one, and I think it.

I think in a way it's like I prepared myself so well that I had these expectations that I [00:20:00] needed to like remove from my head for me to actually get the job done. Cause like the first one, I didn't have a lot of structure, like wrote out the questions, but I didn't know how I was going to frame it. And so I guess it kind of made it easier for me to cut things down cause I wasn't like married to any things, but like with this, it was like, dang, I loved this thing that she said.

I love this thing that he said, but like how relevant is it? And that was what was so hard because it all felt so important and it all felt so powerful. But it's like, okay, no, we have to like also tell a story here. So I can't just make this like all the best things that people said we edited with the whole team because I thought it was very important to get like those extra perspectives.

So we'd go to my friend a days since he had this massive like setup, he's like an audio engineer. And so we would like edit there and we would be sitting four hours, five hours, like maybe once, sometimes twice a week. It was just, it was so hard, like, sifting through was actually the easiest part, I would say, and I used, like, AI to, like, get a transcript, so, like, me and Chris sat here and, like, cut it up together.

That took maybe, like, two hours, [00:21:00] but, like, trying to put it together, it was just a lot of, like, little movements, like, okay. And then I think we got it down to 15 minutes and I was like, I don't know if I can get this. Yeah. And that, and like, there's five interviews and those interviews were each like 45 minutes on average.

And then like we had all the extra footage. It was such a challenge, but it got to a point where we're like, okay, we need to step back from this. So we would take a couple of days, come back, watch it from the beginning and be like, okay, what felt like it didn't stick, like what felt like it didn't feel impactful enough.

And then we would just cut it. And then a lot of movie magic with like audio and like chopping up people's sentences and making it sound more cohesive so we could get those like important parts and like cutting down a lot of like dead noise and like ums likes not too much that it still sounded natural but just like enough to like save on those like seconds because like every millisecond we have only five minutes like really matters.

What were the restrictions for the festival? Like [00:22:00] what was the requirements? Could it be more than five minutes? Yeah, no, five minute maximum.

Asha: So when

you landed at

Asha: 15 minutes, you're like, shit. Yeah. I was like starting to panic. And

Music: yeah,

Asha: yeah. I was literally up till, I think it was due midnight, April 1st.

And I was up like the night before. Like honestly all night. God,

that was, yeah. Oh my God. I can't even imagine.

Mikey: You know, in our presentation work, Asha, we're always asking like the presenter, what's the one thing, right? Because if. If you're trying to say all these different things, you're going to have that 15 minute jam instead of the five minute.

And so did you have sort of a North star concept that you kept asking? Like, is this supporting that central idea or not? And if no, then it has to be out. Like, yeah. How did you distill down to the, like some core theme or idea?

Asha: It was so hard, like literally bless Chris Hyde. I could not have done it without his, like, just hounding on me about that [00:23:00] because I feel like when you, like, it's like, okay, I knew that the whole purpose of this film is like people about mental health, like that truly is the North star.

Like, educate people in reducing stigmas is a lot of their work. Like, we need to reduce the stigma. So I'm like, okay, I need to educate people about schizophrenia, what it's like, and also help them realize, like, this is not what it seems to be. But part of me, because, and I think it's just because I have a personal relationship with Meka.

I was like, but I want people to see that he's like a great person and I want people to know how awesome he is and how cool he is. And like, Chris kept telling me like, but this film is not for him at the end of the day. Like. It's about him and it's like for other people to learn about this. And so that was something that I really had a hard time with because I felt like I owed it to him.

Like I owed it to me that to be like, we love you and we care about you. And like all these people love you and care about you. But like at the end of the day, the truth is like, that's not the purpose of the film. And I just had to keep, keep that in my head and be like, he's going to be happy with this regardless.[00:24:00]

And so like, I don't need to put all these great, amazing things about him. Like that's not the point, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And that seems like a hard hill to get over. Like, I wonder, I've always wondered that with documentaries, I think, would it be easier if you don't know the person so that you can have that perspective that's a little third, like, zoomed out, bird's eye, where you're like, the purpose is breaking the stigma, awareness.

If it doesn't, if it's, if it's about a sweet, amazing memory with Mayda and like, you know, a great anecdote, but does it always support that explicitly? Then that's the delete key, right? That's so hard.

Mikey: Put all the nice puff piece stuff into a nice little roll for his like 30th birthday or something. Yeah, totally.

That's

what you don't need to feel good about yourself. You got plenty of pull quotes. Yeah. That's the hardest thing. Yeah. I mean, even just having like 45 minute podcast to relate to it with pull quotes is like, it's tough to sift through. What pieces you want to support, but then like each, each [00:25:00] piece could apply to a couple different topics and stuff.

And so I can't imagine having hours and hours of video footage and the found footage and deciding what goes where it's truly like the most epic media scrapbook project. Really tough. But once you got over that hill and like whatever supported that, was it, did it become a little bit easier to get it down to the five minutes?

Asha: Oh yeah. For the most part, like there's little things here and there that it's like, okay, we need to just shave off like 0. 5 seconds, but I knew we could probably do that with like that audio magic. So, like, I think I got it down to maybe, like, almost six minutes. And when, like, we went through that edit, I was like, okay, do we think we can, like, take out this and that?

And, like, how, how much time can we cut down? And I think we were able to cut down, cut it down to, like, the five minutes with that.

And do the credits count as your five

Asha: minutes or no? Oh yeah, good question. I guess not. Um, I think it technically is supposed to, but I think I was close enough that they just wrote whatever.

It was at 520, but I mean like there's 10 seconds of credits sitting [00:26:00] before and after. That makes sense. Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine. Asha, that's very impressive. Asha,

Mikey: for, you know, like we've got a lot of presentation nerds listening, people who are about to take a stage or want to embark upon a speaking career.

Yeah. Yeah. What crossover or influence do you see like, do you think we as presenters or presentation builders Should try to take and adapt and learn from like from the short film world

Asha: That's a good question. I think about that.

Mikey: That's a really good question. Sorry.

Asha: I think it kind of comes maybe down to just like finding that North Star really because Like when you have such a short amount of time, like there's not a lot of room for fluff, but you can't kind of like you can't really BS around like you have to like get to the point quickly and I think it goes comes down to like also keeping attention because like with this film festival, the reason that it is 5 minutes is 1 because the subject matters are like very, very heavy and they don't want to overwhelm the audience.

Cause they were like, imagine if all these films were like 15, 20 minutes, like [00:27:00] that is a lot of information coming at you. That's a lot of emotions coming at you at one time and you won't be able to digest it as easy. Whereas like with five minutes, it's like, okay, I can digest all this information. I have time to think about it and I have that time to like start a conversation about it versus just like.

You know, sitting and wallowing because it was just too much to run at once. And so I feel like being like a presenter, that's something that you can learn from, like, you know, how can I get this information across in the most straightforward way where people can actually take the time to sit and think with it and then talk about it and like discuss it.

Yeah. Wow. I didn't even think about that, Mikey. I love that question because there's that. Old proverb that's like anyone could write a feature length film, but it takes like a very skilled storyteller to make a short one, like especially five minutes and people's attention spans are so short now. So like they're, they're extra powerful and it's an opportunity to say a lot with a little and I just, I hate, I think it's crazy that that you've done.

[00:28:00] multiple short films and can't wait if this is how good the short films are. I can't wait for the feature length, you know?

Asha: I

don't know. Now I'm

Asha: like, now I'm starting to really get into like short films because they're just so much faster to produce. I feel like even though it's more of a challenge, it's just way clearly very more of a smaller budget.

Yeah. And like, these friends like the experience so much that they were like, do you want to make another one? Do it again. And I usually have like a rule about like one project a year because it's just so draining. So like right now we're working on another short film, but this one won't be five minutes.

It'll be like 15.

Music: Yeah.

Asha: There you go. But hopefully. We're supposed to be shooting it in like a month. So I'm like, Oh boy,

Oh my God. And back to like the festival setting, did you have to along the lines of present presenting the film? Did you have to intro it at all? Talk about it. Anything like that? Q and a panel.

Yes. Tell us about that.

Asha: So I had to do in San Francisco, we all had to speak on a panel about it. That was [00:29:00] super fun. It did put me on the spot a little bit. Cause I was like, Oh my gosh, this is like live. Like there's no editing. Like there's people in the audience right now. Like they could ask any type of question, but I think everyone just did a really great job of handling it.

And it was really cool to meet everybody in person too. And then after the film festival, you also have to do these. Sessions about it. And so the first year I did it, it was like, I had to do like five sessions, like over the course of like two weeks, which is kind of a lot. And so I'd have to sit in these sessions and like talk to people and like answer all their questions.

This year they just did two sessions. So I just had like one additional obligation where we had to go through the screening again and like answer questions virtually and just like talk about. Yeah. Mental health stuff.

Mikey: Mm hmm.

Asha: But it was fun.

Mikey: Yeah.

Asha: sure.

Mikey: Was it just you and San Fran or anyone from your team?

It was just me. Yeah.

I'm sure they were excited to see it come to life. What were some of the other films that you really enjoyed watching? We can Give them a shout out, that's always good. [00:30:00]

Asha: They were all so good. They're all so amazing. And it was even cooler, I guess, seeing them on the big screen because like we had seen them before the festival, just so we all knew, but like seeing them up there, I was just like, wow.

Studio speakers. Yeah. Yeah. I was crying. Like I was like, I can't do it, but there was one in particular that really just like got me. It's called crane and it's about. Brothers and basically one of the brothers struggles with mental health things. And I believe he was on some sort of life support or something.

The other brother has to obviously like he's his, I don't know what you call it. When like somebody has, Is it would like pull the plug or like they make the decisions,

Music: but

Asha: his brother, I guess had written him a letter saying, you know, like, I don't want to be here, like, don't bring me back basically. And he had to like, make the decision of like, I have this power to like pull the plug or I can like honor his wishes.[00:31:00]

And that was just really like it, just the framing of the film. It was absolutely beautiful. Like it was just stunning. And, um, the filmmaker, it was based on like his real experience. It's just so interesting how personal people's films are. Like everybody's film was like very personal to them, but he was just talking about how, you know, he had to make a decision.

His brother asked to go to Switzerland and how that like basically inspired the film, but it just like, you can just feel it. Like you could just feel everything. Yeah.

Yeah. Wow.

Asha: That one's not called Crane. That one was called Brotherly Love. It's called Brotherly Love, or Brotherly, Brotherly, that one's called Brotherly.

Yeah, I think it's a different one. If

you're looking for a chill Friday watch, that sounds like the perfect thing. A really light hearted watch. Maybe have a little Pixar line. No, that's beautiful though. And Mikey, we've talked about this, like, it's hard to talk about. Hard things, emotional things, and so the setting of having a framework [00:32:00] like something like the TED Talk, where it's like just the 15 minutes, which is long compared to the short film, but with the short film, you have so much visuals and the audio coming at you, so I love the idea of like handling those topics within the realm of like such a strict parameter.

I think it makes a lot of sense. We talked to him about, like, this amazing cartoonist, Tom Fishburne. Asha, that deal, it specifically helps with corporate communications, deals with hard things at work through his cartoons. And I just think it's, like, interesting to put something kind of difficult into a medium that might be a little bit unexpected or is really structured in that way so that people can handle them, you know?

Mikey: Molly, I think we've been in the Spice Cabinet.

Yeah, welcome, Asha. You've been here before. Yeah,

Mikey: so we talked about the films you liked from the Fest. Are there some other films or like filmmakers that you're super into right now or giving you lots of inspiration,

Asha: Asha? Well, the first thing that comes top of mind is that, [00:33:00] and we're using this film just for like reference visually for the film we're working on now.

I don't know if y'all have seen The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Cool. I mean, one of the most, like, visually pleasing films I've ever seen. Everything is so symmetrical. So I was using FilmGrab to just get some inspo on like, how we can use symmetry. Okay. Yeah. That film is like, just stunning.

Music: Dang. Like,

Asha: the color grading is gorgeous.

It's like, super warm and it's just a great story overall. I highly recommend it. It's based on a true story. Really? And the guy who it's about, he's in it. So like he's the lead role. Really? He's playing himself. Yeah. Playing himself. Did he write it? I love when that happens. I'm not sure if he wrote it or not.

Maybe. I would, I would think that he would had a hand in writing it, but it's, Oh my God, such a good film.

Mikey: He's really good at skateboarding too, from what I remember. Maybe that was a body double.

Asha: Fabulous. Dang. I don't know. I'm like. I'm watching a lot of Pixar. Have you seen Inside Out 2 yet?

I haven't. [00:34:00] No.

Also, you know, I have a thing against animated movies for emotionally manipulating me and making me cry. So I'm just putting it off.

Asha: Too good.

Inside Out 2, though. I've heard I've heard it's really, really good. And in a fun twist, like, I mean, you can speak to this, it like kind of grows up with the kids that probably watched the first one, like kind of dealing with some teenage emotions and that kind of thing.

Asha: I've never felt more seen, truly, than in that film, no, for real. Cause it talks about anxiety as like a big part of it, but I feel like anxiety is such a hard emote, like it's such a hard thing to explain to people that don't, like their brains don't work that way, you know, like. And so I, I thought that this film, like, I was nervous cause I'm like, Oh my God, how are you going to like explain this?

Cause people just think of anxiety as like somebody freaking out. But like, it's so much different than that. Like your brain just works totally different than most people. And I just thought they had a great way of showing it in a way that's like digestible for any kids that are watching too.

Yeah.

Beautiful. Do you have some old time faves, like films or [00:35:00] filmmakers, like from Hollywood or not, you know, just throughout your life?

Asha: Uh, Trey, Edward Schultz. Probably my favorite director. What's he done? Waves. It's his most recent.

Oh, yes. He also

Asha: did. It comes at night. I believe it was like one of his first like debut films.

I just like his style. He's like very innovative.

Music: Yeah.

Asha: And he's a great writer. My opinion. Underrated for sure. All right. Underrated guy. Love

it. We'll link that. I haven't seen Waves yet because for the same reason I've been inside out is that I'm just avoiding my emotions. It's a

Asha: very, very tough watch, but it's worth it.

Yeah, we'll link that too. Asha, where can people, I know you've, this is not your first project, not your first rodeo, where can people find the films you've made? And I know that The Four Noble Truths will be available publicly in a couple weeks, yeah? Hopefully, I think so, maybe? Yeah. Okay. Definitely before the end

Asha: of

the year.

Okay, we'll make sure that that's available, if it is, and link the Voices with Impact Festival [00:36:00] for people to peruse more, more films and stuff, but yeah, where can people find you?

Asha: Yeah, um, I don't know. Instagram, I guess. Instagram,

Music: yeah. That's

Asha: where I'm most, I'm usually on there. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. That's where I post a lot of what I'm working on.

I need to get a website together. I just. I was

just wondering if you had IMDB. I am lazy. You can find IMDB,

Asha: Asha. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Quick Google search. You could probably find, like, some of the other films. But, yeah. Instagram. I started streaming on Twitch. So there's that. Oh, you did? Same handle. Yeah.

Yeah. I stream gaming stuff. I'd like to the set too. Gamer by night, filmmaker by day, or designer by day. You do it all. Keeper

Mikey: of lizards.

Keeper of lizards. Yeah. Keeper of

Music: lizards.

Mikey: Yeah.

Yeah, if you want to see Asha's amazing pets, follow her on Instagram, too.

Mikey: And I know Presentation Nation has waited the entire episode to [00:37:00] hear Asha.

You're rolling up, maybe to your TED Talk, coming up here, what is going to be your walkout song?

Asha: Oh yeah, I'm going to change it.

Mikey: I'm

Asha: going to say something new. I guess I'll say Moment by Victoria Bonet,

one, because I use that in my demo reel, but two, it's just a chill, chill vibe. You know, a lot of people like the hype songs, but like, what if somebody just strolls out and something.

It sets the tone.

Asha: Yeah. Kind of chill. Laid back. Okay.

And I know you're a Victoria, Stan.

Asha: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Makes Ariana Grande who she is as well.

Controversial, but yeah, I love it. Beautiful. Asha, any parting words for like, you know, you're an amazing creative and filled with lots of ideas and stuff and you just like parting words for anyone wanting to get into some filmmaking. Yeah. Thanks, [00:38:00] James.

Asha: Don't be scared. Just do it. Like, it doesn't have to be perfect either.

Like, just do it. I feel like there are so many things in like projects that I had ideas for, like things I wanted to do that I was like, Oh, but I want it to look like this. And I want to have the right equipment. And I want to, and it's like, none of that stuff actually matters. Like just, I feel like put one step forward cause you didn't literally never know like what could happen Yeah, act on your ideas.

Don't let them be ideas. Let them be like actual tangible things.

Mikey: Hell. Yeah. Thank you so much Asha Listeners Molly. Thank you for being here. Thanks for tuning in if you have any other Amazing outside thinkers who you think could help us go a little deeper with the presentations that we make Send them our way.

We want to talk and until next time keep on pitchin