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068 – Max attack is back jack!

In this Happy Hour podcast, we’re chatting with Max Olmsted about life at Backflip, VFX, and The Top Hat Balloon Show.

Timestamps

  • (7:18) Who is Max Olmsted?
  • (11:28) The interview.
  • (17:38) Jordan Johnson.
  • (26:37) Story time.
  • (32:30) VFX.
  • (39:15) Life at Backflip.
  • (42:46) The Top Hat Balloon Show.
  • (45:40) How does Max stress out?
  • (54:50) Two truths and lie.

Transcript

Ryan Freng 3:32
All right, you guys want to see a grown man floss? Oops, now getting out of hand there. I think I had it. Yeah, I got kids. I can do it. Oh, yeah. Okay. That’s not why we’re here though. Thanks so much for tuning in. I’m Ryan Freng, Creative Director, co creative director here at bat club. And John’s not here. He’s actually shooting right now. And I’ll be helping out with that as soon as we’re done here. So I’m not actually consuming alcohol right now because we’re shooting but it is a happy hour, so I’m gonna make something fun before we bring our guest on. Actually, let’s bring him on because it’s more fun that way. And he’s right next door. It’d be weird if I didn’t. Hello, Max. How’s it going?

Max Olmsted 4:19
Pretty well. I’m pretty well. So what do you make and Ryan?

Ryan Freng 4:23
Yeah, that’s that’s a good lead. And that’s what I wanted. I knew I could count on you.

Max Olmsted 4:26
I know. Oh,

Ryan Freng 4:27
hang on. Panera is here.

Max Olmsted 4:30
Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah, we ordered Panera. And it’s gonna it arrives just as we started, of course. So now there’s this part where I have to vamp because Ryan has gone and the Panera is actually going to be a reward after doing the stream and he’s back.

Ryan Freng 4:50
I mean, it was funny. I ordered it you know just said just sit inside the front door. And they came in the back door and just walking by and Max and I are currently the only ones in this in the office. Everyone else is away. And we’re in the studio. John and Luke are Yeah, in the studio shooting. So we had to take care of this. That’s just the way it goes when we’re live. All right.

Max Olmsted 5:14
And by we he means himself because I had nothing to do with the banana situation. But

Ryan Freng 5:19
that would have been amazing. If it was like Hey, Max, can you can you go get

Max Olmsted 5:24
can you do do the thing?

Ryan Freng 5:26
That’s we joked about the shoot was like, okay, when I step out to do happy hour, we’ll let Max go in. There we go. But but it’s just throw me in the happy hour. I know. All right. Happy Hour. This is a drink. So this is Monday. They create some non alcoholic stuff. That’s pretty all right. I’ve got this whiskey, which is basically just like a Carmeli sour thing. It’s not whiskey. It’s not really PD, or smoky or anything. And then this is like gin, but it’s just kind of floral and effervescent. Which is kind of fun. So I’m gonna put some of this in with some sparkling water just to have like a nice little floral spritzer. Yeah, hello, good floral, Jim. Yeah, yeah. What do you get drinking next?

Max Olmsted 6:16
Like a like a death’s door is a that’s my go to gym.

Ryan Freng 6:21
Oh, so So one of our clients?

Max Olmsted 6:24
Really? I know that you learn something new every day.

Ryan Freng 6:27
Dancing goat. Yeah.

Max Olmsted 6:31
Okay, so what I’m drinking, drinking a line and Kugel honey Weis, but I’m drinking it out of a carbon four glass, which is probably blasphemy. Just if we’re being honest.

Ryan Freng 6:45
No, you’re reppin. You always got to be perfect.

Max Olmsted 6:49
Yeah, exactly. But it’s pretty. It’s delicious.

Ryan Freng 6:53
Cheers to you. And cheers. Anyone at home? Who’s drinking? If you are I mean it is follow six.

Max Olmsted 6:59
That’s true. Yeah, well. Six minutes, it’s fine.

Ryan Freng 7:07
We are live. So feel free to put questions in the chat. We can answer them. This is probably the longest weirdest intro to because I didn’t really introduce you. We just kind of went into drinks, but that’s fine. So know who I am. It’s I know. That’s the best part. Like when So Max, this is Max geofoam said. Oh my gosh, you froze for me on this great face like this. Oh, no. That’s unfortunate. That was amazing. I hope that happened online. We got Max joining us. He’s right next door to me, because that’s right. He works at backflip again. He’s back after was it like three years or something? Two years. I don’t know how many years it was. Yeah, yeah. It’s tough because you’ve been helping out on Christmas videos and creative stuff throughout it. So people know like our one of our big superfans Carolyn was like, oh, yeah, Max. That’s awesome. He’s like, didn’t didn’t he work for you? Like wasn’t working for you? Because he’s always in the Christmas video.

Max Olmsted 8:09
Yeah, the Oh, yeah. It’s funny, the most recent Chris Christmas video. My wife Morgan was very confused when I showed it to her cuz she’s like, they, they know you don’t work for them. Right? Like, there’s there’s this whole section, where there’s three me’s from different timelines that merge. And it’s like this huge storyline. So

Ryan Freng 8:31
it’s, it’s called foreshadowing, you just gotta go back to her and be like, this is a cinematic tool.

Max Olmsted 8:38
It was set up and pay off that whole video. Just yeah, just as you said, foreshadowed my employment. So

Ryan Freng 8:45
yeah, we knew. Yeah, I can give a little bit of your story. But why don’t you just kind of tell us you’ve been on the show before. But for those who don’t know you, as they say, when giving a best man speech or speech at a wedding? Can you give us a little rundown kind of on your story and bring us up to where we are?

Max Olmsted 9:05
Yeah. So Jeff and I were talking about this, the story of, of me being hired, and then not working for you for that little bit. And then coming back is this kind of long and interesting journey, and just shows how small, how small the world, the the Madison video community is, and then also just how small the world is in general. Because this all started with me actually applying for the job that Jeff currently has and has had for what is it like 10 years, or something like that? I think it’s 777. Yep. Yeah. And we were kind of vying for the same position. And that was back when you guys were in this in that little incubator space. And I remember interviewing there. And I was I was doing some freelance editing for you guys at the time for some kind of dairy conference. And that’s right, right. I was it. Yep. I was editing a bunch of cows.

Ryan Freng 10:15
And that was world dairy. That was baumatic. Yes, sir.

Max Olmsted 10:19
That’s, that’s what it was. Yeah, yeah. And I remember editing that, like, right after I had interviewed, and getting the news, well editing, that I didn’t get the job. And I was like, I was devastated. Because I remember hearing out in the main office area that you guys were playing like, todos Africa or something. And that was that was back when Phil worked for you guys. And these are very specific details, I realize. But they kind of like stick in your brain, just these little things. But I remember Phil going, I’ve just been playing this, this song non stop for the past three days. And I’m like, these, these are my people. This is this is like, even then I felt like there’s always been sort of this kind of familial. kinship between all of us, I feel like, and yeah, so that’s where it started. Me not getting that job. And I did some freelance for you guys. In between that and landing a job at The Ben Heck Show, which is a electronics web series. On YouTube, my work for it was it was for a company called element 14, which is an electronics distribution company. And this guy named Ben Heck would get electronics components from element 14, and every week make something really cool out of it. And what they needed at the time, the main person who produced it shot, edited, and basically did everything production wise on it was leaving. And they were like, We need someone to replace this person. And I remember John, going telling me the story of how they saw that job. And we’re like, well, Max can do all those things. We know a guy. And I ended up getting that job, which I was actually surprised about, because I remember my interview just being not good. Just Oh, really? Yeah. So that first interview with Ben and Alison, it was with Ben, the guy who was the host of the show. And Allison, the current producer there. And then I think I think you were there, Ryan? Maybe?

Ryan Freng 12:58
Yeah, I can, I can back you up to end like I had a connection to let’s see, here. Here we go. Here’s The Ben Heck Show. Oops, should come on. I had a connection to a Chris Mayer, who somehow got asked about it. I don’t know if Allison knew him or how it worked. But she was leaving. So they need to replace. So get connected to us. And we were like, Oh my gosh, Max would be amazing for this. And then we can employ him, which would be amazing. So I think I did an interview with them first. Gotcha. Because how it kind of worked is they hired backflip, and then we hired you to do all the work, you know, to do the on the ground, producing and living and being in the shop. So there was that one interview and then we had the other interview. I think it was over at the shop too, right?

Max Olmsted 13:53
Yeah, at the shop. It was this group interview. And I was for some reason, just super nervous and basically said nothing. And you guys were like, you guys were I was off to the side. And you guys were telling him We swear this guy is like really good. You’ve seen his work. He’s like, it’s is work kind of speaks for himself. Right? Because he’s not speaking for himself. And, and I remember Ben at the time after going, Yeah, we like all this stuff. But I think we need another interview with just him because he’s seemed like, seemed like he was just being shy and nervous and not wanting to talk about himself. So the interview after that actually went super well.

Ryan Freng 14:38
So it seems like you were shy and nervous. And I wanted to talk about yourself. Yeah.

Max Olmsted 14:42
Yeah, it seemed like that and that was the case. So after that interview, I was like, Well, I blew, I blew it there. But I did get another interview. And with that, in that interview with just myself, Ben and Alison, we talked about it Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom we talked about Galaxy Quest and how it’s, it’s like the fourth best Star Trek movie even though it’s not a Star Trek movie. And yeah, and Ben and I, like just kind of develop this bond immediately. And have I known I just had to talk about movies to get the job, I would have just done that. But But yeah, so the rest. So then I got the job. And that went for like, three, three years, three years on The Ben Heck Show, which was a wild, wild time. And one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. And I also just, I learned so much doing that job in just thanks, Rafi. I see my friend ruff A is, is on? Yeah, that’s a good

Ryan Freng 15:57
shout out we are, we are live. So we’re going to do that. Definitely. And for those listening, you know, we had like, I don’t know, like a 5% or 2%, I can’t remember how much time it was producing, you know, on the ground. So providing some of that support. So I would be over there half a day, sometimes a day, every week. And just providing coverage and support. And I think only did it maybe twice. But just covering when you needed to get away or were sick or something, you know, and we had to shoot something. Yes. So we, you know, we provided kind of that overhead production. And then at some point, Max got so good, that they’re like, you know, what, we don’t want the overhead production help. We just want max. And so that’s how that transition happened. They essentially, like bought out Max’s contract from us. And so, you know, we I was sad to not have him be a backflip employee, but it was, you know, awesome that they’re like, Hey, we love max so much. We just want to hire him directly. So yeah, then a few years.

Max Olmsted 17:04
And you talking about you having to cover for me, if I ever needed vacation, it was a big thing. Because on that show, you either had to you either had to deliver an episode a week, or you were following, you’re falling behind, because since it released weekly, and there were literally no breaks. It was because it was produced like a TV show. But there was no hiatus. So it was just every every week and episode comes out. And if for some reason you don’t get the episode done that week, you’re you’re falling behind, and you’re losing ground. So that part of it was kind of stressful. But in general, we tried to stay, we tried to stay ahead like three weeks. So then if something catastrophic happened, like a lot of times since it was a show where you’re building something, there were there were times where the bill just ended up not working. And we either had to buy more time or pivot to something completely different. Or there were a lot of times like that, where we just had to, okay, this this is a problem, we have to brainstorm a solution to fix it. And I see my wife is asking if I’m single. So

Ryan Freng 18:28
yeah, I didn’t want to interrupt you. I wanted to post that. But amazing. Or I mean, maybe she’s talking about me as hard as I could

Max Olmsted 18:38
be do. Yeah, yeah. Very true.

Ryan Freng 18:41
There you go. Yeah, and that intensity, like I was always impressed by your ability, you know, because you’re you’re producing so you’re figuring out what the client wants, how to make it happen in the shop, how to help the talent and how to make sure you’re sourcing everything that you know Ben can’t, doesn’t have time to figure it out or whatever. This is great. Your friends are the best your friends and family. And your your Jordan Johnson the successor. Yeah,

Max Olmsted 19:13
so this is Jordan Johnson saying that that job sounds stressful. And he currently has that job. Because what I what I did in leaving element 14 Was I trained up Jordan to take take my place. And he’s actually been doing it editing for me when when things got like if any, if ever it got too busy, and I just had a project that I needed to push on to somebody else. That was Jordan. That was the person that did that. Which was very, very helpful. And speaking of that, Jordan now being in my position, my old position now needs a Jordan to edit his step when he gets out. Oh, yeah. To full up. So if anybody’s watching and they want to, they want a part time job. That’s the thing that’s happening. Try. I’m trying to rep for you, Jordan.

Ryan Freng 20:10
So yeah, hit us up and we’ll connect you with Jordan. That’d be awesome. I’m sure he’d appreciate that. I was I was pulling up the show, too. Here’s something. Let’s see. Where is it? area? Yeah. So just some of the fun things, too. That we got to help out with like that was, that was always the most fun to me anytime I could do anything like help out and act. This is not acting, but we did this really cool 3d Pinball thing that Jeff did.

Max Olmsted 20:43
That was awesome. So

Ryan Freng 20:45
yeah, it was so much fun.

Max Olmsted 20:47
I remember, because this was pretty early on. And we were like, we should replace the intro for this. And I remember having this idea of like, what if it’s a pinball, and it’s hitting different things in the machine, and hitting the different types of builds that we do in the show? And I remember having the idea and thinking to myself, well, there’s no way I can do that, because I don’t know how to render 3d at all. So I, so then I contacted you guys, because, you know, that’s, that’s like, Jeff is like a 3d guru. So I was like, I know, Jeff is able to do this. So yeah, that, that and that intro is, that’s the one that fans of the show no, and quote to, that is the, that’s the like, that’s become the iconic intro. So that’s pretty cool.

Ryan Freng 21:42
Well, and you know, just thinking about the show, I mean, we’ll get back to the story in a second, but just thinking about the show, and the needs to produce and what to do, like, we were so excited. When it became an opportunity for us for like, Max is the guy, it’s the same thing when Andrew, our second editor left. And we’re like, we’re looking around, you know, getting resumes from Chicago, and like, all around and lots of different skill levels, you know, people with, like, 20 years in, in the industry and stuff, but then I think you sent an email. And I like, almost, I don’t know, like, not flip the table, but like, good, good flip the table, like, lost my mind, because I was like, yes, like, you know, because like, for us a number two editor you know, I don’t know, maybe 70% of the time is working on, you know, has a product or project backlog. But the other times, it’s, you know, we’re coming up with stuff for them to do, we’re bringing them on shoots and whatnot, then when you apply it as like, oh my gosh, we can, you know, we can have another great shooter, because Max has been doing that he’s produced this show for so long, like he can help production. And in my mind, I was like, Okay, here’s 100% of the time, like how much actually is editing, like, I’m gonna have to shove that down as much as possible, and be able to use Max on you know, writing, acting, shooting, producing, like, all that stuff. So, I was like, frickin so excited that you reached back out. Yes, sir. You know, after a couple of years of being away,

Max Olmsted 23:24
and I’m, I’m super excited about that stuff, too. Because my, my job at least for the past three years has been basically only editing it with with some producing and such mixed in, but I’m excited to, to continue, continue along the path of continuing to learn and develop my skills. And I just think it’s going to be super fun. And I get to do it with people who I’ve known forever and really like so that’s like, best of all worlds.

Ryan Freng 23:58
It’s kind of you. And it. It. It only sucks a little bit. You had a vacation plan, because we had that hotel. Yeah. And like, you could have acted. We’ll get you into the next thing.

Max Olmsted 24:12
It would have been really fun.

Ryan Freng 24:13
We love you as an actor. Especially but that comes up pretty frequently. So, yeah, you just acted in some tutorials. For Gilson Gilson. Yeah, we have a couple lab clients but yeah, Gilson. Yeah. Which was amazing.

Max Olmsted 24:33
Yeah. And that’s, that’s actually one of the things that got it in my head where I was like, you know, maybe this if an opportunity ever came up, this could be a fun option for the next part of my life, I guess. Because it was kind of out of the blue. No, it was actually before COVID that John reached out to me and was like, Would you like to act in these little these instructional videos? And I was like, Sure sounds fun. I’ve never been paid to act, but could be good. And and that was moving along. And then COVID had to get postponed for a while. And then as we’re starting to climb out of COVID, that production came up. And I was like, No, of course, I’ll still do that. And it was just those two days, and just a just a really fun experience and kind of reminded me of the fun collaborative environment that exists here. And I was just like, and I was also coming up on the end of the current contract with the 14. So I’m like, there, there might be an opportunity here. And then when Andrew left, and I saw that you had some kind of position open, I was like, it can’t hurt to reach out. And here we are.

Ryan Freng 25:54
Yeah, that’s, it’s awesome. Let that be a lesson to you. kiddos out there, like, you know, just making those connections and staying connected and helping out because like, you would come and help on on creative projects, like, no question. You just like, Yes, I’m in. And that that creative energy, that attitude, like, that’s what we look for, you know, that’s what to us is like, just quality quality producers, quality creatives, you know, people who are just hungry and, and willing to be like, Yeah, sure. I don’t know what it is. But I’ll do it with you. Because I enjoy that. So, you know, the feeling is definitely mutual. And I try not to turn these like backflip. Crew. Happy hours into Oh, no, you’re great. You’re great. You’re great. But it’s true. I mean, that’s why we work together. Yeah. And I think that’s why we can create really great stuff. So I think we’ve had you help out on Yeah, you just helped out on the overnight shoot, which you are real champ I at one point this so this is like a midnight to 10am. And I’ve done a couple of them. So I kind of know how to prepare myself for like a third shift. And I think I think you did prepare yourself pretty well. But there was like when we stopped for lunch at like five. You just like weren’t talking. You didn’t you weren’t eating. You had a sandwich in front of you. And you’re just like

you know, you’re right. You’re like, good.

Max Olmsted 27:31
And the talking I was doing was just in that delirious state where you’re just kind of past tired, and you’re running out on adrenaline.

Ryan Freng 27:41
But yeah, I think you made the comment. It’s like that point at the sleepover. You know, where everyone’s over overtired. And just everything is funny. We definitely hit that around lunch. But then we kind of overcame that. And were able to push through. Yes, until the sun came up. Yeah. So let’s see, we kind of interrupted your story a little bit.

Max Olmsted 28:04
Oh, yeah. I did is there’s one thing I wanted to say about about The Ben Heck Show and if Ben was watching eat ate that I would tell the story but just about things coming up in a production. So one day on the next show, I walk in and I’m setting up cameras stuff. Ben comes in. And he goes, Max. So I get cold sores. And I have this cold sore developing on my lip here. As you can see, is there any way that we can shoot this week’s episode without my face? And I go, because I’m new, I’m just I’m trying to come up with a way that we could possibly do this. And there’s just this pause. And I’m like, No, there’s there’s there’s not really an option for that. And he’s like, Okay, well can we shoot it like super wide so there’s no way that anyone could zoom in and see this little thing? I’m like, Yeah, not really. I don’t want to change the entire feel of the show. And so what ended up happening was we shot the whole thing normally, and for that week, for that episode, I had to track his cold sore out of every I mean, cutting to the close is possible but on every wide, tracking his cold sore and replacing it with a little teeny bit of skin so

Ryan Freng 29:56
that it wasn’t the same skin or did you like create like a can stamp every time or I just how nerdy we’re gonna get on the stream?

Max Olmsted 30:07
It was, it was different skin for each shot because it was slightly I mean, depending on the lighting setup. So I would take a different section of skin each time and just kind of track it on to. But the the great thing is, and the highest compliment is that nobody noticed in the comments. No one was like, what’s that? What’s that thing there? And I was like, I’m proud of that. It’s, it’s kind of funny, but with with like little effects with work like that. The highest compliment is that nobody notices. And no, nobody even knows what you did because it was seamless. And

Ryan Freng 30:45
I remember one of our first four days that we did with the crew out here. There was an award for best VFX or whatever. And it was this group out of Milwaukee who had like, the cheesiest little like energy bulb, you know, element 3d type of deal. And I was like, Okay, well, I guess I’ll kind of take that as a compliment. Because we had so much VFX in there. It was like, fake sign a billboard. I can’t remember all the other ones. But there were so many it was like that. It was like hiding things and fixing things, and adding things into the scene. But it was so subtle, and at least well enough done that no one had any idea there. Like how did you find that sign? Or, you know, where’s that location? Like? Well, we made it up. But the little, you know, the little sparkly fireball WinZip because it’s the noticeable one. So it is a high compliment. Yeah, it is. It is a high compliment, but it kind of sucks. Yeah. Yeah. Accurate, that kudos. But it’s all gonna be the kudos right now. Great job.

Max Olmsted 31:52
So thankless job. The thing is, the dumb thing is that I don’t remember what episode what it was at all. So I can’t point you to where that was. So really, I could have made up this whole story. And we would never know. But

Ryan Freng 32:07
for those. Yeah, those are astute out there. Maybe you could look through and find it. Maybe

Max Olmsted 32:14
if you look, you just got to go through all of the episodes we’ve ever done. Zoom in on Ben’s chin and analyze it for any facial inconsistencies. That’s right. That’s

Ryan Freng 32:27
what you can do is you can you can pull every frame into Photoshop, and then see if it’s been edited. Right. I think that’s how you can tell the authenticity of it. If I’m correct.

Max Olmsted 32:39
Oh, yeah, that’s that’s absolutely right. And correct. And everyone should do? Yeah. Nice.

Ryan Freng 32:46
I think it’s stuff like that, that like, you know, you know, You’re among friends, and the same type of people when I get excited about it. And like, Jeff gets excited about those things. And you’ve probably heard his trash cans story. There was a shot and I don’t know, he says it was the client who was like, Ah, it’s too bad. There’s a trashcan there. I’m like, 80% Sure, it was just Jeff. Oh, I can’t allow a trash can to be there, you know, and then removing it, and no one having any idea.

Max Olmsted 33:21
But that’s, that’s what I love about Jeff’s style is that he will notice those little details. And and he’ll put in the things that you’re not going to notice, but really sell the realism of whatever it is.

Ryan Freng 33:38
Yeah. Well, that’s I think that’s a part of what’s fun and filmmaking and why I’m again, so excited to have you back. Because we you know, we could always do creative stuff before, but now we can get paid to do creative stuff. And do it during the day and not not lose too much sleep, you know, except overnights. Yeah. While doing it.

Max Olmsted 33:59
Yeah, it’s great. I do have a it’s an ancient anecdote, and I’m not even sure it’s true. But it’s about the effects being a thankless job. So this is going to be a tangent. But oh, yeah, kind of like how David Fincher uses CGI blood. Very true. And you wouldn’t be you wouldn’t even know it. Because it’s, it’s, it’s because he’s such a perfectionist that he does. So many takes that resetting for blood would be would like, destroy his mind, and he’d go insane. Because he’s like,

Ryan Freng 34:37
Yeah, he’ll do like 50 takes and an actor will walk out.

Max Olmsted 34:40
Yeah, it’ll be 50 takes and then he’ll be like, delete the last 50. Okay, do it again, to try and try and break the earnestness of the performance, which it’s basically a social experiment at that point. Oh, yeah, so, so about VFX so Planet of the Apes And 2001 Space Odyssey came out the same year. And we’re competing for the same visual effects Oscar. And Planet of the Apes. No, it might have been for makeup. Either via effects or makeup, the internet. Oh, the

Ryan Freng 35:19
story is falling apart now.

Max Olmsted 35:21
It’s falling apart already. But Planet of the Apes one, because it was the more noticeable use of makeup effects. But 2001 everyone just thought they use real apes. So nobody, nobody even detected it as an effect. So could be true could be not true. It’s

Ryan Freng 35:48
what? Like from the beginning of the film

Max Olmsted 35:50
from the beginning of the film. Yeah, where they’re all going. I’m not going to replicate it, but they were acting like monkeys.

Ryan Freng 35:59
I wonder if I wonder if I can show it on here.

Max Olmsted 36:02
Yeah, I wonder if we can corroborate that somehow. We can reach out to someone who knows. Yeah, we can. We can phone a friend.

Ryan Freng 36:12
That’s true. So we’re streaming on YouTube. I wonder if I don’t have audio? Let’s see. I wonder okay, skip ad. I wonder if like, I don’t know I do this. Maybe it won’t. It won’t flag? Yes. Oh, you can’t see anything. Hang on.

Max Olmsted 36:35
No, I can see nothing. Yeah. I’m just looking at both of us. Which is fine. But

Ryan Freng 36:42
rotating movie sets,

Max Olmsted 36:44
movie sets. That is very cool, though.

Ryan Freng 36:48
Apes. Yeah, actually, this. I think this is kind of similar to the space film that Ben had worked on. Or written?

Max Olmsted 36:58
Oh, the one the one that Ben and I worked on? Oh,

Ryan Freng 37:01
I was not aware that you were in there.

Max Olmsted 37:04
Yeah. Yeah, we still have this full, full pitch for a space movie. That’s kind of just sitting there because it was going to be produced. But then the production of that movie was contingent on a horror movie. And then the production company that was going to do that went under. So sure. It didn’t end up happening. But

Ryan Freng 37:31
yeah, so here’s the apes. So people thought these were the leaps.

Max Olmsted 37:33
People thought they were relapse. Yeah,

Ryan Freng 37:37
I mean, there you go. The highest compliment that no one will pay you. Yeah, I mean,

Max Olmsted 37:43
oh, no. All the work you did. That was just real monkeys that you were directing?

Ryan Freng 37:47
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Makes total sense. Makes sense. Thinking about Fincher and doing all of those takes. I feel like he should direct Crispin Glover at some point. Because I was watching the movies, the movies that made us or the movies that something else I don’t know, whatever, on Netflix, but it’s about Back to the Future. And apparently, like Zemeckis would be like, Alright, now. You go through the door, and he’s like, Well, my Christian would be like, Well, what’s his character’s name? The dad in Back to the Future, McFly. He’s like, or Yeah, he’s like, what’s the dad’s name? Not not Marty. Marty. He’s a son, McFly. Whoa, Jeff’s hating us right now!

Max Olmsted 38:39
Jeff would be so mad right now.

Ryan Freng 38:41
Don’t anyone tell jet? It’ll come, it’ll come. But he’s like, my character wouldn’t walk through the door. And he’s like, you have to walk through the door because the rest of the scene takes place in there. So like, that’s the scene where like Michael J. Fox, George Morgan says George Morgan. Yeah. Thank you. Michael J. Fox like shoves Crispin Glover through the door because he’s like, my character wouldn’t go through the door. There was another like two shot conversation where he George and Marty are talking and they have clips of it. GEORGE just walks off like, you know, it’s an over the shoulder or like, over his shoulder over Marty’s and all sudden you just like he’s just like, out of the scene. So they actually made like a little fence around him so that he couldn’t move, you know? Something. I’d love to see just that the might of David Fincher and Crispin Glover and just see just quiet in there. That’d be amazing.

Max Olmsted 39:45
Because you could you could really cast him in a David Fincher movie. And then there’s a secret documentary film crew. Just the real movie is the behind the scenes documentaries about that movie. be

Ryan Freng 40:00
yes, no. See, see, write that down. Let’s make it.

Max Olmsted 40:04
There we go. Let’s do it. We’ll

Ryan Freng 40:05
start we’ll start next week.

Max Olmsted 40:07
David Fincher versus Crispin Crispin Glover.

Ryan Freng 40:10
Yeah. Fincher versus Crispin Crispin

Max Olmsted 40:15
Glover versus David and the Christian.

Ryan Freng 40:21
Also, that’s Yeah. Christian. I don’t know what Christian is. Yeah. David.

Max Olmsted 40:26
Interesting name.

Ryan Freng 40:28
Go lie, Crispin.

Max Olmsted 40:30
Goodbye, Christian.

Ryan Freng 40:33
Yeah. So let’s see, you’ve been here a month, a month now.

Max Olmsted 40:38
Yeah, minus two weeks. But I was well, minus one week because I did work from home. Yeah, things happen.

Ryan Freng 40:45
How’s it? How’s it been?

Max Olmsted 40:47
It’s been great. I’ve been

enjoying period.

Yeah, I mean, possibly. I may have rose tinted glasses still on, but I’m really enjoying it. Yeah, it’s a it’s living up to my expectations. So. So that’s good. And I’m what’s as I, as I was telling you, the other day, I’m just really enjoying being able to craft a story through editing. Because that’s not not something that was really it was present on The Ben Heck Show, but not as present on element 14 presents the show that succeeded. Just succeeded. Nope, succeeded. succeeded. succeeded. That one. The show that succeeded that one. It is

Ryan Freng 41:31
the other co creative director, the other? Yeah.

Max Olmsted 41:37
How’s it going? How’s the shoot? Oh, that’s unfortunate. Now, I don’t have headphones in Hey, what’s up?

Ryan Freng 41:49
My headphones? In here? Oh, that’s. That’s how good my hair looks. I actually can’t hear John either. Because these are noise cancelling shoes.

Max Olmsted 42:00
I was thinking Could you could you agree to shave your head? Could that be something that you get them to? No, I don’t know. You don’t want to I’m allergic to that you’re allergic to head shaving. All right. Gotcha. Well,

Ryan Freng 42:14
keep it up.

Max Olmsted 42:16
Thank you. I’ll keep up. Keep up that whatever

Ryan Freng 42:19
I was. The best part was that the people at home we’re having a completely different experience from any of us here. And you can take that to the bank.

Max Olmsted 42:32
It was interesting doing improv with someone who can’t hear you. That sounds like that’s a concept. Yeah. It’s a concept for something.

Ryan Freng 42:40
Oh my gosh, I want to do we got to do some improv. I think we did improv game with you. The last time we had you last time, it was it was you and Jordan, right?

Max Olmsted 42:50
Yes, it was. Yeah,

Ryan Freng 42:52
that was so much fun.

Max Olmsted 42:54
I also remember, there’s there’s this in the ancient times, like 10 years ago or something. I did this improv workshop with some friends of mine, where we took the concept of Antiques Roadshow. And everyone just brought an item to be like, appraised at the antiques roadshow. And we had cameras set up and it was just, it was just a green screen setup. But we did these kind of faux Antiques Roadshow episodes. And yeah, we would just improv off of whatever object the person had brought. So it’s just kind of a fun, fun setup for whatever

Ryan Freng 43:38
crazy you guys recorded, or were you performing? Or?

Max Olmsted 43:42
We did? Yeah, we recorded it. And there are episodes of it on my personal YouTube channel, which you may or may not want to watch

Ryan Freng 43:54
your personal YouTube channel or these specific videos?

Max Olmsted 43:58
Both really, I mean, I mean, after this, I’m gonna go after go back and view and scrub it every few years I go. That’s no longer something I want on the internet.

Ryan Freng 44:10
Unless, or at the very least easy to find, because once it’s on there, it’s on there. That reminds me the, like, improv show the, the, or the sketch show. Yeah, that you enjoyed and we’re doing for the longest time. I know that’s been on hiatus. Just it kind of became a chore and you had to produce it was every week or so

Max Olmsted 44:38
it was it was every week for like a year and a half. So it just got to be got to be a lot of work and it became a job. And it’s never fun when your passion becomes your job in a bad way. You know? It can be like parts of your job can be fun. And that’s, that’s the feeling that I’m after. But in that case, it just, it just kind of became a chore. However, however, Jordan and I have been slowly working on a pared down version of what we were doing. So we would do like reducible version. Yeah, we would do like 1010 up a 10 episode, second season, where we would put more work into each episode. And just kind of release it whenever we had 10 Instead of, because what we were doing before was releasing it weekly, and also producing it every week. And we didn’t, we didn’t release one until we had 12 episodes, which was nice. But then you also have to like The Ben Heck Show you have to maintain that pace, or you’re losing ground. Right? Right. So yeah, we kind of want to eliminate that and make it more when we get together because jordanelle lives in Chicago. So it’s also kind of harder in that way. At the time. At the time of the tap that balloon show. We were roommates. It was it was Morgan, myself and Jordan. And so it would just be we would get home. And I’d be like, Hey, I wrote this thing. And we have to shoot it now. And whatever you’re doing doesn’t matter. Because we’re doing this show. And yeah, and it worked. I wasn’t that much of a dictator. But

Ryan Freng 46:27
yeah, you’re You’re too kind. I can’t wait to see you kind of in that. Whether it’s an ad or directing role, where you do have to be a dictator, where you do have to tell people tell people to do something maybe maybe they don’t want to be doing at the time. I can’t wait to see that. Because who has a helmet? Oh, Rob. We had a happy hour with Rob. And he’s like, telling me about Max, tell me this. Tell me that and like what what were would you use to describe him? And I, I can’t remember what I said maybe was like energetic, but but then I came back and I was like, no, no joy, like, joyful. Like Max is just like a such a joyful person. And that kind of comes out in everything that you do. And so I’m curious to, as you know, as we work together on a regular basis as we travel as we get put in more stressful situations. I’m super curious to see, like, how you stress out? Yeah. Yeah, like, clearly the other night when you were tired. You were just tired. And so you just stopped functioning. Yeah, different. Yeah. But like, I get I get short. And I’m like, I already told you that. I want to tell you that again. You know, like I get kind of typically short, agitated, agitated, but I’m curious. What, what do you do? What would your wife say? When you’re not happy go lucky. Mister Mister happy G lucky.

Max Olmsted 47:57
That’s that is a good question. Guillermo, which is something people say when they are trying to think of an answer.

Ryan Freng 48:04
Yeah. Me,

Max Olmsted 48:08
huh.

Ryan Freng 48:10
Says you rarely lose his cool, it’s super.

Max Olmsted 48:17
Because awesome. I mean, a lot of I mean, this is getting into my marriage. But a lot of our a lot of our relationships, a lot of our relationships starting off was learning how to fight. And originally what would happen is Morgan has a very, like, emotional, she’s going to react to her emotions immediately. And that’s how she processes emotion. And with me, what I do, which annoys the crap out of her is that I will kind of not react to anything in the moment. And I cuz I often don’t know, I need time to process my emotions. So I’ll just, I’ll not say anything. And then later, I’ll bring, I’ll bring up this list of things that I’ve been thinking about. I’m like, so here’s some notes from our, you’ll bring it back up. Yeah. Here’s some notes from our interaction before, this is where I went wrong. This is where I feel you could work on some things. And

Ryan Freng 49:28
that was a that was a pro move right there. This is where I went wrong. This is where I feel you you went wrong. Or you could improve like, I know people who are much older than us, who say, Okay, this is what I did wrong, and this is what you did wrong. And I’m like, Ooh, you don’t you can’t say that. Yeah, cuz

Max Olmsted 49:48
it’s not objective. It’s right. Right. subjective. And yeah, so working through that has, was an is still a struggle. Because you know, as you know, Being a married man, it’s it’s a constant thing that you’re always working on. Yeah, yeah. It’s it’s never. I mean, that’s that’s kind of part of my philosophy on life in general is that it’s, it’s You’re never done growing, and you’re never done learning you it’s it’s a constant journey until my life is great until Yeah, until it’s not and it’s fine. And death happens.

Ryan Freng 50:26
Yeah, I gotta go. I gotta process this though. Also I appreciate that Morgan. Morgan put the answer in the chat. And then right after said, check the chat I already told you. Which is funny, because if I’m not reading the chat, I’m not gonna see your second message either.

Max Olmsted 50:47
And it shows that there’s a slight lag because I did react to it. It’s true.

Ryan Freng 50:51
Yeah, there is probably a 22nd lag. Yet. Interesting. Let’s see. So you are your Are you more of a slow burn? Because I feel like, I don’t know. Like, I kind of kind of burn hot and fast. And then afterwards, I’m like, done. I’m like, Okay, I said, what I needed to say, Okay. Now I assessed all right, well, I shouldn’t have done it in this way. Or I shouldn’t have said that. And here’s why I got mad. And then I’m like, Alright, I’m done. I’m over it. I’m not going to think about it anymore. Whereas my wife, in the moment, can’t really deal with the emotion. And then afterwards, can talk about it after she’s been able to brush up. Just just have Yeah, process the emotions. Yeah. And then afterwards be able to talk about it. And I’m like, Oh, I Okay. Sure. Yeah, I’m not thinking about it, nor mad or anything. You know, it’s weird.

Max Olmsted 51:46
Yeah. Yeah, it’s, it’s interesting kind of just navigating, navigating people, and, and we’re all different. And it’s, it’s in those stressful times that those differences really, you know, can cause friction, but also, it’s, it’s also how you get to know a person to it’s like, how do you how do you react, like you were saying, how you’re interested how I react in a stressful scenario. And we will see as time goes on. And also, it’s also different that it so you’ll react a certain way in a personal relationship in a fight. But that is also different than how you react in a professional environment under stress. So yeah, I’d say, in a work environment, under stress, I’m more of a, like a freight engine, or like, like a train where I’m just like, we have to keep continuing until this is done. Because my number one goal is eliminating the stress. And in order to eliminate the stress, you have to do you have to continue doing the work until you’ve reached your goal. And then you can relax.

Ryan Freng 53:01
You’re gonna work through it. Yeah. Yeah. Who?

Max Olmsted 53:05
It’s not helpful.

Ryan Freng 53:09
Yeah. Well, it’s there’s different different ways people handle it. You know, like, I know, John likes to talk things out. And it’s, it’s interesting, John and I have been working together for like, 13 years. How long? Yeah, like 14 years. And so we’ve learned kind of the different nuances in our forms of communication. And like, when I say something, it’s generally thought out or thought out enough that I’m like, this is the end of my thought. This is my conclusion. I know. And John is kind of processing something, he likes to process it out loud and talk about it out loud. And so like, as I’m tracking with it, I’m like, oh, okay, so you want to do this? No. Okay, so you want to do this? Okay. No, so what am I supposed to get out of this, like, helped me along. And that’s, that’s kind of like my wife to like, just verbal processors, where you have to have patience, and just listen and not try to solve, and then at the end, you can be like, okay, so to sum it all up. What do you want to do? How are we going to handle this? So that’s been a really fun process to see. And I think like you were saying, learning that stuff just really helps us work better together. So that, you know, you don’t get frustrated by the way I communicate. And I don’t get frustrated by the way you communicate, but instead, we understand the differences and with Grace can have patience.

Max Olmsted 54:39
Yes. Yeah. We’ve covered some good stuff here.

Ryan Freng 54:44
We have and it’s 1255. Sometimes we go later, but this is I am shooting today. So I gotta get back to the mat shoot, right. But I did want to do two truths and a lie with you. So I’m not gonna play. Okay, you’ll do it because, you know, we’ve got Morgan and Jordan and your friend Sorry, I’m gonna pronounce it wrong. Rafi Rafi Rafi, Rafi, Rafi Rafi. You got some friends.

Max Olmsted 55:13
Fun fact about Rafi. We were saying his name wrong. for like a year. We were calling him calling him or Fe. And his name is Rafi. And he never corrected any of us. And after a year, his girlfriend finally told his girlfriend Sarah finally told us you know his name he told me to His name is Rafi. And we’re like, we want to see your name, right?

Ryan Freng 55:41
That’s a very kind person.

Max Olmsted 55:43
Yeah. Oh, yeah, he’s he’s, he’s a relentlessly kind person. So

Ryan Freng 55:48
raw, Rafi. Rafi along a Rafi. Rafi, I don’t know. Parts of Speech are consonants or vowels. Yeah. That’s awesome. All right. So have we Vamp long enough for you to have your stories for your teachers and ally? Ally? That sounds like you don’t you think I’ll do all the plugs right now? Okay. So that we can just do it in that order. So oh, you know what I gotta do though. I gotta do this

there we go. Now they know what we’re doing. You didn’t know before.

Max Olmsted 56:31
Who? Who was that? VoiceOver? That’s my

Ryan Freng 56:35
four year old. That’s amazing. Yeah, it was just one day. I was like, Oh, that’d be fine if we had like singers and stuff. So I just had her come down. And this is when I was at home working from home. I was like, hey, just record this recording, again, recorded again. And I was like, Oh my gosh, this just melts my heart. So yeah, I’m going to do the wrap up. But then we’re going to play two truths and a lie. So I don’t know when our next episode is Emily’s gonna kick me. It. It’s not next week. It’s not the week after it’s probably in three weeks from this week. Because next week, I’m camping The following week, I’m in Oklahoma filming buffalo. It’s gonna be amazing, among other things. So we’re gonna take a couple weeks off, but the plan is to have more of these podcasts up. So if you have not yet, you should definitely go to let’s backflip.com/the let’s backflip show. Or just look us up on wherever your podcasts are sold. The let’s backflip show, it now is the last backflip happy hour. So we kind of rolled them into the same thing. We’re releasing them from episode one from last March or April of happy hour. So we’ve got you know, 50 some episodes that are coming out. So check those out. You can catch up more easily on all the past happy hours with all the interesting people that we’ve had on here. We’ve had directors and writers, you know people out of LA, we’ve had loads of people from the area, our friends, interesting people doing interesting things, that’s kind of the MO of the show. Just updating everyone on just the cool stuff that our friends are doing and the people we can get in contact with and that we’re doing. So we’d like to share all that stuff with the world. Check that out as a podcast again, wherever your podcasts are sold and hit that subscribe. And oh, yeah. So Emily just sent me a message. Thank you, Emily, for listening. 827, we’ve got Lynn Fraser, who we’ve had Ryan and broski, on who’s a producer out of Milwaukee. So that’s his partner. That’s going to be a lot of fun as well, you got it. You gotta keep feeding me details. I could pull up the notes, but I’m on a roll. Some would say I’m not on a roll, I would say I’m on a roll. So that’ll be the end of the month, you can check out the podcast, like I said, get those downloads going. As soon as we got a new episode up, we got like 17 downloads, which is really, really fun. So we do have some subscribers on there. We can get more going. That’s awesome. You know, we just want to share the content. Also, let us know if there’s anyone interesting you want us to talk to any especially if you’re a super fan like Carolyn, and just super awesome. You’re super connected and want us to hang out and chat with people and have some drinks. We’d love to have those recommendations. I see Max is ready and would love to know you know what else you want us to cover and talk about so do let us know in the comments. Yeah, hit that. Follow subscribe, do all the things. We’re also on Instagram and Let’s backflip. And yeah, check us out, you can see some cool stuff. So now let’s do two truths and a lie. I almost called you, Jordan, because we have all these Jordan comments.

Max Olmsted 1:00:14
Max, basically, Jordan were the same person,

Ryan Freng 1:00:16
you’re very similar. It’s great. Max is going to tell us three stories. He’s going to tell us two that are true. And one that is a lie. And we got to guess which one’s the lie. And if you participate at home, we’re going to send you some swag. We’ll send you some coasters. We actually have some now, Hannah made some. So I think she sent the ones out for previous guests, or previous viewers who guest questions. And we have a few more left for any people who guess on this stream. So you should definitely participate. All right. So Max, what do you got for us?

Max Olmsted 1:00:52
All right, I’ll take it away. So my first story is a when Max was a child story. So when I was a kid, I was about eight years old, my mother made a pan of chocolate peanut butter bars for dessert. And she told me, okay, Max, and feel free as my younger brother. So if you guys eat all of these, this whole pan of peanut butter chocolate bars, I’ll make another one. There will be no end to this dessert. And to a kid, I’m like, that’s a challenge. I want more peanut butter chocolate bars. I’m going to eat this whole pain. So I ate the entire pan of peanut butter and chocolate brownies and got really, really sick. And for years after that I hated the combination of peanut butter and chocolate like it was. Yeah, it ruined it. Which sucks. Because what a great classic combination. Oh my gosh, so good. So that’s my first story. My second story is so in between one of my first video Jobs was working at a different production company represent video. And they eventually were dissolved and basically realized they didn’t didn’t leave my position. And I was let go. And there was a time period in between that and the Ben Heck Show that I worked as a server at a undisclosed restaurant, because this story is not great. And you know, I don’t want to get in trouble. So at this restaurant, at this restaurant, after my shift one time, my boss is like, Hey, Max, you want to have a drink? And, and I’m like, sure, whatever. So I’m having a drink with my boss. And he tells me that when he was a kid, he did cocaine and burned dogs. So I was like,

Ryan Freng 1:03:16
this is your this is your requisite Video Boss or your restaurant. Now requisite video, they

Max Olmsted 1:03:20
were great. They were awesome. Oh, this is my this is my boss when I was a server at the restaurant, which which you could find on my Facebook profile. So he tells me this. And I want to end this this situation as quickly as possible. And I just leave and i i Tell Jordan at the time, you wouldn’t believe what this guy just said to me. It’s insane. So that’s just this this wild, crazy thing that happened to me. Last one. This is during The Ben Heck Show years. It was the first conference I had ever gone to is in Texas. And it’s for an electronics company that no longer exists anymore. I think it was NXP or something like that. And so we go there. And it’s this most the most extravagant conference I’ve ever been to and like, every every few feet, there’s free beer. And there was a different style and ethnicity of food for every meal. It was it was just ridiculously decadent. And we got to see, on one of the nights, there was a talk by free talk that was by Steve Wozniak and a free concert. And it was Miley Cyrus that was the concert. So it was just this insane conference and Ben was like, you know, no other conferences are like this. You’ve got to you’ve got to temper your expectations because this first One is just absolutely ridiculous. So yes, those are my three. You don’t know what they are. Who knows no.

Ryan Freng 1:05:10
two truths and a lie. A lie truth Truth. Truth lie truth. Who knows? All right. So we got your you’re eight years old and your mom told you you could eat all the chocolate peanut butter bars in the pan and she made another one. You did it. Did you make it to the second panel just get sick after the first.

Max Olmsted 1:05:28
I got sick after the first there was no second Pam. Yeah,

Ryan Freng 1:05:32
that’s that’s too bad because that’s like my favorite combination. Like that’s all I want to eat his chocolate. Peanut butter. Jordan says he knows a lie. I know the lie to I’m gonna keep it myself. Oh, yeah. How am I gonna tell anyone? Emily, when men thinks the first ones the lie. Second one is first video job was that wreck was a video at the restaurant you worked at your boss. You gotta check with your boss one time he told you about his cocaine. Use as a kid that sounds for real. Or as a youth. Yeah. And Morgan says a third is a lie. It was in my recent Miley Cyrus. So when you were doing you’re telling a story you looked down. And I feel like you’re good about Steve Wozniak, but then the the artist you look down. Damn. And so I’m gonna go with three as well. All right, no, that’s okay. This is yeah, this is how we play. Yeah. What is it?

Max Olmsted 1:06:30
Yeah, so the third one is a lie. It wasn’t Miley Cyrus. It was cake. The band cake.

Ryan Freng 1:06:35
Oh, yeah. You know, I actually knew these details. Yeah, cuz

Max Olmsted 1:06:38
the funny thing. The funny thing though, was that at the at the end of Steve Wozniak stock is like, and there’ll be free cake after. And Ben and I were like, oh, cool dessert.

Ryan Freng 1:06:54
As was every other nerdy person. They’re like, Oh my gosh, yeah, I want dessert. We were just like, what a frickin band.

Max Olmsted 1:07:01
Oh, there’s no cake here.

Ryan Freng 1:07:04
Yeah. That’s awesome. So here’s what’s gonna happen. Let’s see. We’ll sit we’ll give you suffer all your friends. But I think we can give you give you something to take home for you and Morgan to enjoy. Because Morgan gosh, she said she didn’t know that, actually. So even if you did give you credit for that. And Jordan, you didn’t even gas you’re like, Yeah, I I just know. It’s cool. I’m gonna wait till you answer and I’m gonna say it. But we love you. So we’ll somehow get you some supplies as well. And rough a and I say that right? Okay, cool. I got the spelling of my mind. You’re hanging out with us too. So you should get some as well. So rough a and Jordan, send me your guys’s addresses. And we will get you some sweet swag for coming on hanging out and given Max crap. Because that’s, that’s what this is all about. So we already did the wrap up. But is there anything you want to plug? Max, thank you so much for coming on again.

Max Olmsted 1:08:14
Anything I want to plug?

Ryan Freng 1:08:16
Doo doo doo doo? Like your personal YouTube channel?

Max Olmsted 1:08:19
Yeah, I mean, I could plug the sketch show that we worked on for a year. So that is that’s the top hat balloon show. If you want to watch myself and my friends just being goofy every week. It’s the tap that balloon show.com. And there’s all 44 episodes there and they’ll eventually be more so there’s that I can plug that.

Ryan Freng 1:08:43
Cool. Yeah. And then work will be coming out on our website that you create. So we’ll promote the heck out of that. Otherwise, check out the top hat balloon show at a top hat balloon. show.com. Max, thank you so much. I think we’re right right in the wall here. Let’s let’s do a wall high five. Ready?

Max Olmsted 1:09:01
We can do it. Yeah. Oh. Oh, how am I? There we go. Now we’re recording.

Ryan Freng 1:09:08
Nice. Okay. So good. Thank you for coming on.

Max Olmsted 1:09:11
I think that works. So well.

Ryan Freng 1:09:14
Thank you everyone for tuning in. That’s our show. Tune in in a couple more weeks. And don’t forget to LIKE subscribe, follow hit all the things I don’t know what you’re watching this on. And tune into our podcast to get this show weekly in your ear so you don’t have to watch it if you don’t want to. So awesome. Thanks. Bye. They

 

author avatar
Ryan Freng
Owner and creative director. Shall we begin like David Copperfield? 'I am born...I grew up.' Wait, I’m running out of space? Ah crap, ooh, I’ve got it...