EP 404: The Art Department

Julie: [00:00:00] This is the Catch A Break podcast, the insider's guide to breaking into and navigating the entertainment industry. I'm Julie Harris Oliver. You can find us at catchabreakpodcast.com and all the social media places @CatchABreakPod, as well as all the podcast places.

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We are continuing our Project [00:01:00] Greenlight series where we talk to the cast and crew of Gray Matter and get the real behind the scenes of the behind the scenes. We are dropping these pretty fast, so if you wanna start at the beginning, go back and start with episode 401.

In this episode, I sat down with production designer, Martina Buckley, set decorator, Vince Rodriguez, and set dresser, Joel Newton. We learn all about Martinez philosophy of method art department. You're gonna wanna hear this. Along with all of their other low budget indie adventures in the art department.

Okay, have a listen.

Alright, so I am here today with three of the people who worked on Gray Matter. We have Joel Newton, Vince Rodriguez, and Martina Buckley. So as a quick bio, Joel Newton has spent two thirds of his life on set and played mostly inside the art department with a start in production and a slight detour over on the grip side. We will hear more about that. Currently, content as a set dresser, he loves working for dedicated artists and is blessed to do so quite often. Welcome, Joel.

Joel: Hi. Thank you for having me. I'm, uh, I've been [00:02:00] enjoying your podcast since I've learned of it, and, thank you for letting me be a part of this.

Julie: Okay. Well that is an excellent start. Flattery will get you everywhere.

Joel: My sentiments exactly.

Julie: Vince Rodriguez is a proud Angelino and theater kid who grew up on the principles of love and inclusivity, which he carries with him on every set he walks into. Now you are talking my jam. A recently promoted set decorator, Vince was recognized for his work by the Art Director's Guild for his work on Rihanna's Savage X Fenty Volume 3 as a set decorator. Welcome Vince.

Vince: Hi. So good to be here. Thank you for having me.

Julie: Thank you for being here.

Okay. Martina Buckley is an award-winning Irish production designer based in Los Angeles, who has worked on 20 films as well as hundreds of commercials and music videos. A true visual storyteller who enjoys promoting method art department, which we are going to hear more about.

But let's start with this. Joel, tell me about your very first job in this business and how did you get it.

Joel: Well, I go back to, um, [00:03:00] I'm a fourth generation musician. My family had been in the music industry since long before I was born. So when I was a teenager, I ended up going to college early. Uh, I went in at 15 and then was a full-time student at 16.

I spent my summers down in Oklahoma, where my uncles who were studio musicians at an advertising boutique, hooked me up with, I can't say the name, but if you're from Oklahoma, you know, about a certain Christian cowboy, uh, movie series. And that's where I first learned about that chaos.

From then on, I moved out to LA when I was 19 and became a PA. Because I had experience running for Christian cowboys.

Julie: That's amazing. How did you get that first PA job?

Joel: Uh, I came out to LA. There's a 7-Eleven on the corner of Franklin, and no, maybe it's Vermont. It's up in Los Feliz. I pulled in there, I called my parents to check in and let [00:04:00] them know that I got there cause these are the days of payphones. And there was a, "would you like to be an extra make up to a hundred dollars a day?"

So I did extra work for the first, like two or three months out here. And funny enough, I was almost kicked off set for smoking some reefer. And then the first AD, whose name will remain nameless, uh, came up to me, asked me if I was holding, told me to bring some tomorrow, and that I was starting as a PA.

That was on, um, well I can't tell the movie then it'll give the AD away. Anyway, that was a early James Franco, Shane West movie where I played a high school student and then I became a PA for the last week of it. I got to boss around the other extras.

Julie: That was an excellent story. Thank you very much. So was that literally as you arrived in LA you saw this sign?

Joel: We had directions on Yahoo Maps from Marshall, Minnesota [00:05:00] to Mann's Chinese Theatre. And then we drove aimlessly around, pulled into that 7-Eleven. It was my, my partner, my writing partner, I moved out here with. Somebody hit us while I was on the phone in the parking lot, dented the car. He let the guy go and I came back and I was like, "we're gonna be extras! Look, I got a phone number!"

And he was like, somebody just hit our car. And then he didn't even realize how big of a dent it was. But yeah, that's, that's, that's the gist of it. I literally was maybe in town for two hours. I was on set the next day with Win Ben Stein's Money as an audience member.

Julie: This is amazing. I mean, not everyone's Hollywood story is that direct, but that is incredible. Thank you. All right, Vince, top that. What was your first job and how did you get it?

Vince: So, um, my first job in the industry was on the set of Married at First Sight, one of their season reviews, and I had just left my career in sales and insurance. And I was just kind of hanging out [00:06:00] and enjoying like unemployment. And I get a call from a buddy and he's like, "Hey, I need help, like, hang out with me and make some money."

And so I showed up and, the production designer on that set, we ended up hitting it off instantly. Um, and he, very quickly, we became brothers and he became a mentor to me.

Um, his name is Marc Manabat. And, uh, we worked together for about two years, like job after job, after job, after job, after job. And he's the one who gave me the opportunity to set decorate on Rihanna's Fenty fashion show.

Julie: Did you know you wanted to go into art department or did you fall in and that just happened to be your jam?

Vince: I fell in, and quite honestly, I, I don't, I don't think that I would've had the same tenacity and like passion had I helped out in any other department. Like it was absolutely for me, and I knew it within, you know, by the time lunch hit, you know.

Julie: I love that. [00:07:00] Okay. Martina, what was your first job and how did you get it?

Martina: Well, I kind of had two experiences. I had one when I was 18, when I was living in France, in Paris. And then I had another experience, um, when I moved out to LA when I was 27. So, um, the first one's really funny because I was living in Paris and I was working as a nanny and straight out of high school and, um, there was a nuns convent, convent in Paris where all the Irish girls would go and look for jobs. Yeah. So I went there and I was working as a nanny and I, you know, we'd go and look at the notice board in the nuns convent. How very Irish. And there was a, uh, notice to say that, uh, there's a very famous French comedian called Michel Blanc.

And, uh, Michel Blanc was doing a movie and they were looking for Irish people to be in a bar and drink for free and [00:08:00] act Irish. So it was a no brainer.

So I went there and I acted as an Irish person drinking and apparently did a good job, and they paid us. So I worked as an extra in Paris, uh, when I was 18, and I had no idea that I would end up in this business.

Julie: Amazing. Okay, so then how did you end up moving to LA and then how did you get in the business? Or was that your first move?

Martina: I wasn't in LA at first. I moved to LA after being in New York and Connecticut for seven and a half years. I became a nanny in Connecticut and put myself through college. Um, and I ended up with some scholarships. And then I ended up in New York City and my focus was really in fashion. The film industry was not really anything that I, I loved film, absolutely loved film as a child. Took some film courses in college. But I, that door wasn't open to me in New York, so I was in fashion. I worked for the Sierra shirt makers and I did private label for like [00:09:00] Ralph Lauren.

And, um, you know, I did the, I was a merchandiser in the menswear business at the men's line and then the women's line. And, you know, I thought I was gonna have a career in fashion.

So I ended up moving cross country. I had a boyfriend who worked on, was a producer on a show, and we drove cross country and the first thing I did was, um, they would do reenactments on this show. It was Rescue 911. And so they couldn't always find the garments that the people had the accidents in. So I would actually paint garments to look exactly or build garments to look like the outfit that the woman was wearing when the barracuda bit her.

And, that's how I started. Joel is dying laughing.

And so what happened from there was I started to get jobs in the costume department and I worked for a pretty prestigious costume designer, um, you know, draping, stitching, dealing with actors. But I kept looking at the art department and I kept listening. They [00:10:00] were always having conversations about art and music and food, and I kept thinking, they're my people. They're my people.

And um, so I left working with this very prestigious designer and I moved into the art department and I worked my way up. Because I knew how to paint, I knew how to drape, um, I knew how to build. And so I kind of went from there. I started as a PA in the art department. And I went all over town to all the prop houses and I introduced myself to everybody and I walked the floorboards of every prop house so that I could be of value when I got an opportunity.

Julie: Smart. I love that.

Okay. Now for this job, for Gray Matter, had you all worked together before or was this the first time you were all working together?

Vince: Uh, Joel was a blessing to us. Um, it was the first time that we had worked with him, but Martina and I had worked, um, a few commercials together and when I met her, I knew right away that she was tribe, you know, that we were kindred spirits. So, yeah, even [00:11:00] though it's been a short time, it, it also feels like, like an incredible lifetime too.

Julie: Now, were you familiar with the Project Greenlight franchise before you took this job, Joel?

Joel: I was, um, I'm not gonna say which one, but it was a very early one. I had PA'd on Project Greenlight back in the, in the, in the original iteration.

Julie: Oh, you'd worked on it before, like the Shia LaBeouf days?

Joel: Second to fourth year maybe.

Julie: So I'm curious for all of you, when you were presented with this opportunity and you're going to be on camera inside of a reality show while making the movie, what on earth made you sign up for that? How did that, how did that hit you as an opportunity?

Well, Joel, why don't you go first since you did it before.

Joel: Honestly, it's kind of a bit of a story on this one. I would've absolutely said no to Project Greenlight in a heartbeat. I honestly, I didn't really realize that that's what it was until after I'd met Martina.

But like I said, I was a blind hire. I [00:12:00] missed an email because I came home late from a wrap that had the producer of Project Greenlight and, uh, a really good friend of mine who's another designer that said, "I don't have anyone I can spare, but maybe Joel can help you." So I called back, I got it the next day and I was like, "Hey, you know, I'm, I'm interested. Whatever, Mel wants me to do, I can help you out."

And then I talked to our production manager and our production manager was like, "It's low budget, it's, it's not very big. We're all shooting at one location. Can you jump on?" I said, "Yeah, I can come do some days as a set dresser." And he said, "Can you get a few other guys?" And then he, so I rounded up a few other guys.

And the big part hit was when they said they had no lead man. And I was just gonna day play. That just means I come in maybe once a week for the run of the show and help out on big days, but I just hooked up like four of my guys on this show from beginning to end and I was like, well, no, I don't want [00:13:00] you just to pick some random lead man to stick with my friends on a blind hire. Uh, so why don't I take this on right now and we'll, we'll move it along.

And then I believe it was the next day I met Martina and we just clicked. I was like, oh, I'm gonna do this show. And then we, we had sat and talked for like a half an hour just getting to know each other. And then right at the same time, we both got some calls and my regular lead man called me and she took like a production call and he's like, what are you doing?

I was like, oh, I'm in Universal. I'm, I've just met this designer named Martina Buckley. And he's like, oh my God. He's like, I've done so many things with Martina. I've known her for years. He's like, you're gonna have a good time. He's like, are you, is it a feature? I was like, yeah, I'm gonna think I'm gonna lead this feature. And he's like, all right, well, I'll miss you for the next couple months. Uh, you're gonna have a blast. If she asks to cook for you, under no circumstances do you turn it down. And I was like, okay, cool.

So we went back in and then an hour later she was like, so they're not gonna feed us on this [00:14:00] job, so I'm gonna show up every day with food. And I was like, awesome. And, and that's how it went.

Julie: Okay. Vince, how about you? How did you find out it was gonna be, uh, well actually Joel, you didn't answer the part about you're gonna be on camera doing your job.

Joel: Oh yeah. So then I find out that it's Project Greenlight and she, and we're sitting in Universal, the thing is Universal prop house is like the biggest, most used prop house in town. They have their showroom side, and if you even walk in there with like one of their Dixie cups of water.

Uh, we prepped in $5,000 chairs. We sat on $20,000 sofas, treating $10,000 desks as our work desks because they know Martina and they love her, and we didn't have anywhere else we could do it. And she was like, I'm just, here's my bag of resources. Bam.

After that, I was just, I'm in it. She's like, they're gonna be coming by and we're gonna be getting interviewed in these showroom chairs. And I'm like, oh no, it's Project Greenlight. I was like, but at this [00:15:00] point I had already fallen in, in love with this lady and was ready to jump into it.

Yeah. I mean, it, it's, it's in my bio. I, I I, I look for, for fun people to work with. And, uh, when my guy said that Marina was amazing, that's like having, you know, that's a message from Oden right there. So that's, that's my it. I was not happy about being on camera though. I am not a camera person, but we'll get to that part later and I'll be kind.

Julie: Okay. Alright. Vince, how about you? How'd you react when you thought, oh, I'm gonna be on this show doing my job?

Vince: Well, having a background in acting and, and theater, if you meet me for 10 minutes, you know that a. I love to talk. B. I love to make people smile, so I, I'm an entertainer regardless of what, whatever professional hat I'm wearing.

So knowing that and having Martina, you know, a relationship with her for about a year at that point, she was in contact and then [00:16:00] she reached out to me and she was like, Vince, you're gonna love it. It's Project Greenlight and this is such a beautiful opportunity for you to just showcase not only your talent, but who you are as a human being and, and how you work with people.

Um, but we were also like, we had a good laugh because she was like, "well, maybe you'll hate it, but I doubt it," you know? Um, and that was great. Like that, that laugh really kind of set the tone, I think, for what was to be, what, like two and a half months on this project.

Julie: So for you, this was like all the things. This is like the best job in the world. I get to be on camera and do my job and work with Martina. Sign me up.

Vince: Absolutely. I mean, yes. Uh, but when we were in the thick of things, it, uh, I don't, I don't ever like remember having, like being aware of the cameras because it was always feature first. It was always putting out the best possible product, regardless of our environment.

But with that being said, during those like lulls or those down times or [00:17:00] after we were done, you know, I was keenly aware and like, you know, there is maybe an extra smile here or there.

Julie: Okay. Martina, how, do people always talk this way about you? In front of you?

Martina: No, you don't really. I mean, people are very kind and the crews in Los Angeles are just so beautiful and I can say that because I've worked all over the world. And I just come back from working on a very difficult feature in minus two degree weather in Montana. And the director was phenomenal. The producer is beautiful. Um, the DP was phenomenal. But there was challenges with, with the crew because, there was some eagles and there was some inexperience and um, it was just a very challenging job and it was a period film. It was 1870s and it was multiracial, so it was really exciting for me to do that.

And, um, to come back to LA and to be able to work on this project and tap Vince immediately, cause [00:18:00] I really wanted to do a film with Vince cause Vince is just a tremendous amount of talent and so much potential and he does bring the actor with him, and that's really important cause he can go inside the characters.

But also, um, Vince has a, a great ability to find phenomenal people, and not just in his department. And then Vince is so incredibly generous. He'll say, "Hey, Martina, this is an amazing construction coordinator."

And Joel is the same way. Joel went through hell. Hell. Because every single day, Joel was faced with finding people to fill in the gaps, fill in the gaps, fill in the gaps. And when you're on a tier one, he never complained about it. But when you're on a tier one film, right, the minute somebody gets a decent job or a better rate, they're out of there. Like the hummers, the hell. And Joel, every single day dealing with that. And that was my biggest concern on this [00:19:00] entire project.

And the producer, Jeanette, um, told me, and also Yolanda, they told me, they're like, Martina, we got you. We'll get you a great lead person. And um, I have heard that so many times. Vince has heard it so many times as well. And, um, they did it. They did it, and I couldn't believe it.

But ultimately we were all there to make a feature film, right? That was first and foremost. And I put it out into the universe that I wanted to do a sci-fi film, and when this bounced back, my reaction was read the script first. So I read the script immediately. It was a great script, but it felt very white. And then I was told it's a multicultural project, so that thing that, that definitely appealed to me.

And then they were like, you, you know, I was on camera for my interview with them, which was really intense and I kind of, I've had a lot of opportunities. I've won awards in the past and I've never taken advantage of when [00:20:00] something goes your way. You know, I've always been kind of like, ha, you know, you didn't really think I was that great before I got the award. I was a ding dong.

So when this came up, I felt like, okay, the universe is giving you an opportunity. You're in the stage of your life where you're a pro and you're supposed to teach. This is your, this is your Celtic obligation. This is your, uh, obligation as a, as a female, you're a pro. And so I said, okay, I'm gonna use this as an opportunity to show people what we do, how we do it, and, um, the joy of it. That's really what it was about for me.

And then just having the pleasure of working with such a gorgeous group of people. Masha Nova, who's the art director who's worked with me for 10 years, came in as a PA, and came up through the ranks. Um, it was just, I was protected cause I had the most magnificent people around me.

Julie: Now I heard that you actually were hired kind of late in the process and so were under a tremendous time [00:21:00] crunch. And I'm curious how you were able to overcome that and what did you have to do in order to make it all happen?

Martina: It was shocking. Uh, you know, when I came in, um, there had been another designer on the project and um, you know, a very lovely person, a young designer coming up in their career. And I'm sure we'll hear the person again. And I wish them the absolute best of luck.

And so I had three weeks. I got the call on a Thursday from my, um, agent Ivana Savic. And she gave me the script. I read it, I made a presentation, and I met with them on Friday. And literally as I was driving back, they decided they wanted to go with me, which I was very grateful for.

And I hit the ground running on Monday, and it was a three week prep, which is, insane, insane. It's just unheard of. And um, once I had tapped Vince and tapped Masha, and the fact that we were in town, you know, I didn't have to go abroad or go to Montana and and like not be [00:22:00] able to tap really beautiful people that I've worked with before.

And then I knew I could make a deal at Uni because I've known Beverly Hadley who's running property and costume department and we've got Ray on the ground floor. I knew everybody. And a lot of designers don't necessarily walk the floor prop houses, but I do. And I love those guys and it's a gold mine. I'm killing myself here cause everybody's gonna start doing what I do.

But Uni is a gold mine. There's so much great stuff there, but you do have to rummage around and you do have to kind of, um, it's better, the culture is much better there than it used to be. And so, you know, what I've done is on the, on the cowboy film, I made a deal and I took a, a lot of iconic, beautiful Victorian furniture out of Uni.

And on this one, and it was a lump sum, and they were so gracious with me. And so I had a lump of money on this. I went to Beverly, we negotiated and we took everything out of Uni. And then Vince and [00:23:00] I went to work from there.

And, and, you know, normally I wouldn't have been so heavy handed with the set deck, especially with somebody like Vince, uh, to help and make it happen. But because I only had three weeks of prep, I knew all of the locations were practical locations, and we were shooting in one complex and all of the sets were there. So the idea was to create a gold room there to have the truck go down, bring all the stuff up there, and then we had our own prop house that we took everything from, and the truck wasn't going back and forth to LA because we couldn't take the chance that stuff would show up on time. So what we did was we convoyed out there and we set up a beautiful prop house and broke it out into sets, which was really great for the confidence of the director as well, and for the show Project Greenlight, because they could actually come and visit our prop house.

And we decked it out. We had a tea set up, we had a coffee set up. And [00:24:00] you know, we were living there. Joel was living there more than anybody else. But it was a great spot and they gave us a great building and we went from there every day and we weren't back and forth cause we were in Pomona. Some days it would take four hours to get there and we couldn't take the chance.

And I saved production a fortune by not running trucks back and forth with Teamsters back and forth to LA every single day. That gave us the chance to really focus on dressing the sets rather than waiting for the truck to come back. And we had tons of stuff, didn't we Vince? We had tons of stuff. We took six five tons full of furniture out of Uni. We cleared out the joint.

I made my own prop house with Vince and Joel, and they were very good to me. And I'm super grateful to Universal cause we couldn't have done it without them. Not only that, they gave us permission to bring in Project Greenlight, which is actually HBO Warner Brothers. So Beverly Hadley made it possible for them to actually come onto the lot and shoot us while we were prepping.

And [00:25:00] I just think that's more exciting than watching previous episodes of Project Greenlight where everybody was white and it was a bunch of talking heads, there was some arrogance. And this was a gang of multicultural people all working together for the greater good of a super talented director and spectacular female producers.

So from the start, it was, we weren't in it for the money cause there wasn't that much money. We were in it for storytelling and making it as good as it could be and supporting our incredible director Meko. It was a joy. It was an absolute joy.

Julie: Okay, that's wonderful. I wanna dig into all those things cause I know that Jeanette and Yolanda were able to hire a very diverse crew, set a very inclusive, um, culture. At least I've heard that. So I would love to hear, uh, what your thoughts were about that, Vince and Joel. But let's start with Vince.

Vince: Yeah, absolutely. Um, this by far was my favorite project. As far as the, in, like the crew [00:26:00] in its entirety is concerned. Um, there was a really special air of communication and collaboration that you, you don't really get.

And, and there is definitely some waves being made right now within the industry where inclusivity and collaboration are, are starting to make more of a, a, a presence. But the old guard, it's very, you know, stick to your department, speak when spoken to, that kind of thing. Um, which quite honestly, you can't, you can't really, uh, create art if you don't feel liberated or you don't feel free to do so.

So, um, in regards to Gray Matter, you'd show up every day and people had smiles on their faces and like, you know, we're having crosstalk between departments and you could just really feel the energy. It was truly palpable, um, and really, really special. And I don't think that it would've been possible had it not been for the foresight of, you know, the producers and the department [00:27:00] heads to really make a conscious decision to include this in their crews.

Julie: All right, Joel.

Joel: Well, um, when I sat down with Martina and she was explaining to me the Project Greenlight, I started getting a bad taste in my head, though, one of the first things that she mentioned was this is not the Project Greenlight of old. This is really focusing on putting women and people of color into positions of power to be able to give them art to create, to go out to the world. And to me that's very important and had been for a long time.

So being around a diverse and accepting inclusive crew is very important to me. So, my, half of my bad taste for the idea of joining Project Greenlight was gone when Martina mentioned that. Cause it's, it's a move we need in Hollywood.

Julie: I mean, it sounds like, having watched every season of Project Greenlight, it, it feels like this season was kind of a reparative experience.

I remember the last season just blew up over this stuff and so it, it seems like some years have gone by, some things have changed. It sounds like it was really [00:28:00] reparative to the franchise.

Joel: Watching the PAs on this, they had a very different experience than I had 20 years ago. I'll, and I'll, I'll leave it at that.

This is a very inclusive and warm crew. There was not anybody for me in a, doing a job that I very often have to butt heads with people, I didn't have to butt heads as much. And I could be myself everywhere, and it was cool.

Julie: How wonderful.

Um, now I'm curious, you know, we haven't seen what the reality show will come to be yet, so we haven't seen what sort of struggles and challenges and conflicts they'll show in that show. But I'm, I'm curious what sort of challenges you found and had to overcome that that may or may not end up on the show. Like what, what were some, what were some challenges? You really, I know budget and time were one, but was there any particular instance where you're like, oh, this is a thing we don't know how we're going to make it happen and then you ended up making it happen?

Okay. Martina's showing me the [00:29:00] LaCroix can. Go ahead.

Vince: The, uh, the coconut LaCroix absolutely kept us sane. It was, it was, it was our, our, our rally, um, our rally drinks, so to speak.

Um, but when things got a little hectic, uh, you felt the entire, you know, team pull tighter rather than step back and point a finger. Um, and that I really respect about everybody, you know, from Martina to Masha, all the way down to Joel and all of the, the wonderful crew that we had.

But I think it was another episode of, uh, Catch A Break where someone had mentioned you don't fix problems in post. You fix problems in prep. And there is that, that was absolutely the case with us.

Like I know time is almost like a universal, um, complaint, or lack thereof, right? Um, but had it not been for [00:30:00] Martina hitting the ground running and coming up with the idea that we were going to, you know, convoy, six five tons from floor to ceiling and have a warehouse, you know, a prop house, it would've made everybody's life super difficult. It would've cost a ton of money.

Um, so I think the biggest headache was nipped in the bud before we even stepped foot onto location.

Julie: And then Joel, Martina talked about the challenge you had of finding day players all the time. Was that the biggest challenge you had or were there other things that were really challenging?

Joel: It wasn't the biggest challenge, but it was a very daily challenge. And I don't know if they'll hear this, but Cip, Angel, Rico, Brian, Kyle, I could not have done it without you guys. The, the deal really is for those, uh, who don't understand, I work commercially. That is my bread and butter. That is a much higher pay rate, [00:31:00] much more, less stress with getting paid over-time, not having to go through a big chain of command. We're in, we're out. I work two weeks a month and I, I make a very happy living off of that with very low stress.

When you jump onto a tier one, you're asking your friends and your coworkers to take a pay cut. So the rule of thumb with my guys was if you got called for a job, you take it, it becomes my problem. You just come back as soon as you can. And I gave that, I, I told the PM first thing right up when we started getting into moving on this, that this is how it is. There's gonna be days, like I gave him a schedule of everywhere where I needed extra dudes. He had it in advance. We never broke off of that schedule too, except for the fact that someday we might be short. But I was able to keep, I had an extra of five guys I think probably that came in and filled in for a day or two here.

But it was a constant, alright, you gotta go. I lose you for two days. I lose you for three days. I gotta bring [00:32:00] this in. But my point with the PM, um, with COVID being in play, he did not give any hassles. If I had a day player, I literally called at four o'clock in the morning to show up at six, he had a COVID person there, they would isolate him for a half an hour, do a rapid test, and then send him right up to me to go into the, uh, the grinder.

So I was very thankful of Corey. Corey was a very great and understanding PM. He had a lot to go off of. He had a lot on his plate and he really did a great job.

Julie: Amazing. And I, I bet that core group of people that you work with are pretty loyal cause they could go do a high pay job and knowing they could come back.

Joel: Yeah. My dudes without them, honestly, like, there's two things that I believe couldn't have happened with this show. This show would not have been the quality that it was if they didn't land Martina, because Martina's just this gigantic bag of resources and she's, again, she saved them so much in just knowing.

The thing with, with [00:33:00] Martina and Vince is they've done my job. They've done the job below me, they've done the job below that, and they've done the jobs above me, so they know. When they say we are gonna take six five tons out of Universal over the course of a week, I know we're gonna take floor to ceiling. We had all the space we needed. She called it right off the bat.

Oh, and the other thing that couldn't have worked is if I was not able to keep a steady amount of guys. Um, this movie is shot mostly at nights and it splits and then being a, I mean, she's not kidding, some, on some days it took her four hours to get all the way into, into set. And we'd be sitting, taking phone calls with her and she'd be telling us what freeways she changed onto.

But if I was not able to keep a good amount of, of people coming in, that was loyal to me that, I mean, everyone fell in love with Martina on the first day. She, she really, she wants everyone to engage. That doesn't happen on commercials at all and [00:34:00] features, it's a very rare thing. She wants your opinion. We're in neck down position. We move furniture off a truck onto a set, and then we move it back onto the truck. And we embrace that because it's, it's no thinking.

She got everyone's engagement asked everyone's, how they felt about this, if they thought they could add anything else. Uh, so just between her resources and then the mix of dudes that I have that I'm so grateful for that are loyal, that's what pulled this off.

Julie: Now, Martina, you talk about method art department, which I think is a nod to method acting. Would you explain that? I

Martina: would explain it. But before we get to that, I'd also like to just bring up, um, Vince, because Vince got me the best construction coordinator. He got us an amazing art department PA, Sophie, that was so resourceful and so talented. And we also had the pleasure of working with Joel's wife in the prop department, who was excellent, um, Charity.

And I just really wanna give Vince a [00:35:00] nod for, um, just kind of, um, stepping out of, uh, just being the decorator. And also Vince is very collaborative, so Vince actually let me do these things and let me help him. And then Vince took the reins from there.

And the other thing is I always feel comfortable having Vince on our crew in the position that Vince is in, because I know Vince is not going to be abusive to people he's working with. And that's a big deal. And then, um, I'm also not generally that comfortable handing the reins to a decorator that's not as evolved, maybe. And Vince is a very evolved person. He genuinely cares. You know, Vince carries with him a spirituality and a genuineness that means so much to me, and he puts that into everything he does.

And to have him and Joel at the same time, I couldn't believe, I just couldn't believe it. Because wherever there were [00:36:00] gaps, both of them stepped out of their roles as decorator and lead man and said, "Hey Martina, I know this one over here and they're fabulous. Let me go and sort that out for you." So I just wanted to put that out there as well.

You know, it's a collaboration. I don't wanna do it by myself. And working with these beautiful people, it's different every time. And you learn and you grow. And I'm grateful. If it's hard, I wanna do it. I wanna grow, I wanna learn. I'm gonna be 57 this week and I'm really excited because I work with these people who teach me.

Julie: Okay, now the method bit.

Martina: So method art department is something I came up with to help people engage. Because sometimes, you know, you see somebody putting books on a bookshelf and you say to them, ah, I don't know if the character will have those books, and they don't know what you're talking about. They're just really, literally, as Joel says, functioning from the head down. I don't want that. I don't want it, no part of it. [00:37:00]

I am an immigrant. I don't know everything about American culture, even though I've been here for half of my life. And so what I wanna do is I want everybody to emotionally connect to the material because that means they care.

And also, it's not just a job. We're the art department. Somebody said about me once and I really appreciated it, "Martina Buckley, putting the art back in art department," I mean it's humbling, right? Humbling. It was Johnny Day. But, um, I, that's kind of a big deal to me, you know? And so I want everybody to feel connected to the material and to feel their contribution is massive.

So the idea is like a method actor. You watch these incredible actors step into a set. The likes of Lynn Collins, the likes of, oh my God, there's so many amazing great actors that we've worked with, that we've had the pleasure to work with. They're always in character when they walk onto the set. [00:38:00] And so when they do that, I, I work, what I create, like smell on the set as well, so that the environment smell like what it should smell like. If it's a bakery, it should smell like a bakery. If it's a strip bar, it should smell like vanilla perfume and beer. And it's, it really helps everybody.

And I find that the people in the art department love that as well. They're like, oh my God.

Julie: Hold on. You put the scents onto the set. I've never heard of that, and that is brilliant.

Martina: Thank you. I do, because many years ago I worked on a film and I had spent six months with the director and all of the actors were improvising, and they all had opinions about everything. I would get phone calls, at the time there were answering machines, I would have famous actors leaving messages on my answering machines at 11 o'clock at night telling me where they thought the door should be on the set, right.

So I knew this, excuse me, this famous costume designer [00:39:00] would say to me, "Darling, it's Diva Junction. Diva Junction." And so, um, I knew that the first day they were gonna walk onto the set, it was like a $1.2 million set, that they were gonna be nervous and they felt like they were gonna have to say something and that they were going to have criticisms, possibly, right, because it was their first time.

And so what I did was, the last thing we did was we sprayed the entire place with vanilla perfume and beer and made all the surfaces sticky. It was a strip bar and the minute they stepped in, it disarmed them. I saw the expressions on their faces cause all of these girls had been working in real strip bars and they were kind of like, you know, really getting into character. Some very famous actors and some super talented people.

And so, they just immediately started doing their job and I was like, oh my God, this works. And that was method art department as well, because that was going inside cause with this [00:40:00] director, I was visiting strippers and I would see, I would smell and I would feel, and so I wanted, and I would even sit in the dressing rooms while strippers were getting dressed.

And I, you know, I learned all the things around them and what they would do. Right. So, and it was an honor. It was an absolute honor. All of the things we do, it's, it's an honor to go inside another person's home and, and have the privilege of seeing their lives and then turning it into another world. It's an honor to do that.

So Method is really kind of going inside the character and I expect everybody to do it. I do. And I expect everybody to read the script, and it's not just shoving things in. Nothing we do is random. Nothing. Everything that's in the room is there because it tells you about who the character was before we met them.

This is their life, and I call us the current in the river. You put your hand in the water, you can feel us, but you [00:41:00] shouldn't see us. If you see us, it's a problem. It means I have a big ego or I have a favorite color, or that's my taste. And that this is not what it's about. It's about the story. So all of these beautiful people that I have the privilege of working about, the likes of Vince, the likes of Joel, the likes of Masha Nova, Sophie, everybody that worked with us, yeah, they get in there and they do things for me that I don't even expect. Or they do things for the characters that I don't even expect, and it just sets me on fire. I'm just so happy about the whole thing and that's what it's about. That's Method Art Department.

Julie: That is so beautiful and reminds me why I love talking to artists so much. That was so great.

All right, we are running out of time and we have a few more important questions I wanna ask you. Um, Vince, what is your favorite memory from this job that you'll take with you?

Vince: My favorite memory, I mean, there, there are [00:42:00] a lot to choose from and all of them revolve around, uh, just being with, with our team and laughing or eating beautiful food, as Martina likes to say. And it was. It absolutely was. You know, those moments where we celebrated, uplifting each other or just support.

But, there was one day, uh, and I don't, I don't know why, like I have an art department car. Um, and for those that are listening out there, that means, uh, your car is messy and there's a bunch of random things in there. You know, you may, you may have a couple bolts, you may have, uh, a few wigs like it, it's just, it's a hodgepodge of, of, uh, random things.

But anyway, I had a wig, and it was a big curly wig, and I threw it on and I found some glasses that were like 70s, like just big old, like disco glasses. And I turned the corner and, and we had just got over the hump. You know, we, [00:43:00] we finished our last, uh, really big set. Um, so I turned the corner and I was like, "Hey, Martina, you know, I, I think that we should go back to set. There's something."

And she was like, she started to respond before she like realized. She was like, oh my God. And the laugh, the laugh that, um, we all had collectively was incredible.

Yeah. There was that, and then there was a group photo that we took at the very end of the project where you could feel the joy and the triumph that everybody felt. Yeah.

Julie: Okay. Joel, tell me your favorite memory that you're gonna take away.

Joel: I can't decide if it's between the stroganoff or the curry, but there was,

Julie: But definitely food.

Joel: It was definitely food.

Um, there was a great day where I realized, so we talked about start late and not having much prep. Vince, give me the thumbs up, but you were really kind of the last one on the crew to actually get into the game with us cause you were on another project, right?

Vince: Yeah, yeah.

Joel: I didn't know what to [00:44:00] expect with, with Vince. I'd spent a few days with Martina. We had been running it down. Um, and I had, I had a game plan and a schedule, but we started moving so difficult. We worked off hours with the set, which really meant a few of us started the morning at like anywhere between 6 and 8 and then didn't go home until midnight or 1, and then repeat because we're busting our hump all day and crew doesn't show up until we're 8 or 10 hours into our day.

But when I realized that I was able, Vince, we talked about how he came up. So Vince was, was a 44 set dresser, like me. Normally set decorators are wearing white shirts and they do this and this and this. I was able to send Vince with guys and not only be able to have him be at the set back with the art, but he's like, "okay, well bring the truck back in here and then you guys will start with this. Bring this in for me so I can make, I'll make room for you to land."

And then he would really go [00:45:00] off and, and do, he'd take on a, a heavy share of my position to help me out because he just, he knows the job and what it entitles. And we were always just on go.

Well, I have, I think I have one picture of a day with two, with just two of my guys and me sitting down and then you can see the boss table where Vince and Masha and Martina had in the background. And I was like, this is so great. We have like a sit down moment.

So, but the day that I, I realized that, that Vince was able to do heavy lifting with me like that, it was, it was just such a, a blessing. It was great. That was probably that. That or the curry.

Julie: That or the curry. Great.

Martina, what's your favorite memory from the show?

Martina: You know what? There were so many brilliant moments with these people and just, I think for me, what really stood out, what was very emotional and beautiful for me, um, was just the [00:46:00] kindness. The kindness, and the fact that they cared so much. It meant so much to me. It just meant the world to me.

And the senses of humor and the taste in music and just, um, it was just a, a beautiful, the whole thing was beautiful. I mean, you know, there was a, a hot moment with myself and the AD and, um, but it was not a big deal. We hugged each other, we worked it out.

Um, how we got rid of the, the people from the docu-crew is we would actually go, you are awesome. No, you are awesome. No, you're awesome. We would hug each other, love on each other, and then they were like, yeah, boring.

But actually they loved being around us and we had like a whole tea set up, you know, and that's a big thing from, you have a tea kit, but when I wasn't there, Angel was, you know, Angel started making the tea for everybody. And he was lashing out pots of tea, and my tea was going down very fast and it was super expensive. [00:47:00] And when I came back I was like, "holy shit, where's my tea?" And they said, "Angel's been making us tea all day." I said, "Angel, you can use those tea leaves four or five times, my darling."

And so, but there was, just the level of kind of love and connection and then with the crew, the food for the crew was fantastic. The issue for us was that our schedule was a reverse schedule, so, there was, there's beautiful Indian food out in, uh, Pomona, Corona. And so every day we had nice food. I wasn't cooking all the time, but the food is a big thing for our department people. And we got to sit down and we got to be together.

The community of the art department, the, that was magical for me. I will have to say it was one of the best experiences I've ever had in spite of the fact that it was tier one and in spite of the fact that it was a challenging project because the, the, the [00:48:00] docu-crew, who were absolutely lovely and I kept turning the camera on them, um, it slows you down. It slows you down. So that was challenging because we were all there to make a movie and we wanted to make the best possible movie we could.

And, um, I just love these producers. Corey was a phenomenal UPM and, and his production manager Miranda, they were just brilliant, you know. I just super appreciate that everybody really cared. Costume designer was magical, actors were beautiful, and it was just a very good experience.

Julie: That's wonderful. I'll be curious to see how much you all show up in the reality show given that you didn't have that much drama and were just having a nice time.

Joel, what do you wanna say?

Joel: I'm gonna go out there and say this on record. I can't wait to see this, but also I'm really excited to see Gray Matter as a film because I think it's gonna be rad and I generally don't watch stuff that I work on.

Well, it's gonna be a fun, it's gonna be a fun show and it's gonna be a great film. I [00:49:00] don't say that usually about stuff that I worked on, but, but I really am excited to see what we all brought together on this one.

Me too.

Julie: All right. This brings us to our martini shot, which you all know what that is. It's our last shot of the day. And I'm gonna ask each of you, what is your piece of advice for someone who is trying to do what you do in your career? What advice would you have for them? Let's start with Joel.

Joel: I have been giving bad advice on the film industry for years, uh, but the best advice I could really tell people when they're in their first couple of years, in your first five years of working on set, no matter what department on, you're going to meet a lot of people and they're gonna make a lot of empty promises. And you can't take those promises to heart, but that doesn't mean they're bad people. So know your boundaries and know when you are being disrespected on set and don't stand for it.

But don't let that [00:50:00] stop you from putting your love and your heart into it. It's a very nuanced business and it's a grinder of a business and a lot of really talented people get shit on really early, and that costs us the art that they could have given us.

So just be wary, but be wise about how you network, no matter what department you're in. Uh, and if you are gonna be in the art department, like all of us, the, um, I meant to say this earlier, the art department, you don't pick the art department. The art department picks you. Nobody wakes up and says, "I want to be a furniture mover for the rest of my life." At least not in my case. That's it.

Julie: Yeah. Can we just say across the board, just be nice, be nice to people.

Um, okay, Vince, let's hear it. Your martini shot.

Vince: I absolutely love that this is our martini shot, um, because education and empowerment are so close to my heart and always has been, so the fact that, you know, we, you've crafted [00:51:00] a question for the person who's, uh, maybe on the outside or, or just took their first step in, is absolutely beautiful. Thank you.

Um, I, uh, I, I really had to, to kind of sit with this one for a minute and, um, , my advice would be to keep close to your heart that joy and excitement that, uh, you felt, those goosebumps that you felt when you decided to take the plunge, uh, when you decided that you wanted to be an artist, to remember that and hold onto that. You know, when maybe things don't look so favorable or things are tough.

Um, be tenacious in your pursuit of your art and move with joy and love. And whether that's interacting with your crew, interacting with, you know, your, your prop house managers, um, develop your network, celebrate the, the help that you get, every opportunity that you get.

And lastly, yeah, just, just be tenacious. Actually that's, that's it.

Julie: Okay. Martina, [00:52:00] you get that the martini shot of martini shots.

Martina: I just would really advise people to lead with love and to not be ever, um, insecure about their ideas, you know, and, and not to change, you know, to always have a sparkle. And sometimes things happen, sometimes you get blamed for things. We don't like to play the blame game cause we've been blamed a lot for things, and it's the, there's always a scapegoat thing.

Everybody gets fired. I've been fired twice. I sat next to Darius Khondji when he was fired from Panic Room and um, you know, sometimes it has nothing to do with you. When I was fired, the first time it had to do with that I was making more money than the director cause I just won a bigger award.

And so I just want people to understand that you really have to be resilient, and you have to be committed, and you kind of have to always go back to who you are and not change, or not let it [00:53:00] make you bitter or angry. And, um, you know, that's the thing. It's, it is a tough business. It's not necessarily about money, particularly when you're in the art department. Um, but it's incredibly rewarding. And every single time I work, I learn something new. And to me, that's the gift of growing and I embrace that wholeheartedly.

Julie: Thank you. All right. Thank all of you. We have to stop now because my face hurts cause I've literally been smiling for an hour.

Martina Buckley, Vincent Rodriguez, Joel Newton, thank you so much for being on Catch A Break.

Joel: Thank you for having me on this. I look forward to hearing it and, and more of your other podcasts.

Vince: I'm so grateful for the last, you know, hour and change to, you know, just speak about the industry with you and to enjoy Joel and Martina's company. Again, this is definitely the highlight of my week. Thank you.

Martina: Thank you so much Julie. This was brilliant [00:54:00] and I wanna, you know, just really I miss Joel and I miss, you know, I miss Vince, so it's beautiful to see them and I look forward to doing another project with them real soon, you know. We're working on some stuff right now and also Cip and all the other beautiful people that we worked with, I can't wait to repay them for what they did for all of us, for this film and for this story.

So thank you so much for this opportunity. We really appreciate it.

Julie: Wonderful. Thank you all so much and we'll talk to you next time.

This has been Catch A Break, Project Greenlight edition. I'm Julie Harris Oliver. I'd like to thank our guests, Martina Buckley, Vince Rodriguez and Joel Newton. And special thanks to cruvie.com, a dynamic platform that connects people to productions worldwide.

Please check out our website at catchabreakpodcast.com and follow us on all the social media. Catch A Break is produced in partnership with CatchLight Studios and The Other 50%. Our theme music Mantra for a [00:55:00] Struggling Artist was composed by Andrew Joslyn.

Thanks for listening and be sure to go watch Project Greenlight and then come check us out for the behind the scenes of the behind the scenes. Next up we talk about the locations, stunts, and transportation department with Yvette Yurcisin, Dee Bryant, and Sandra Ninham-Gallardo. Not only did they do an incredible job, but we also talked about some fascinating side jobs.

In the meantime, I hope this helped you to catch a break.