The Vision Maker Podcast
The Vision Maker Podcast
EP 25 - Behind The Laughter
Director John Silecchia and editor/camera operator Sean O'Brien sit down with us to unwrap 'By Day, By Night', a documentary that spotlights comedians who master the balancing act between daytime professions and nighttime punchlines. They reveal how the project blossomed under producer and comedian Claudia Bonavita's vision and share the magic that happens behind the scenes, from selecting the film's fascinating subjects to the nimble footwork required during production when the unexpected strikes.
Director John Silecchia also discusses how his decision to add hand-drawn animations complementing the real-life humor of our comedians. The documentary taking a creative leap by using this to fill the gaps where traditional B-roll might tread, resulting in a vibrant visual narrative that echoes the comedians' own colorful lives. This isn't just about laughs; it's a testament to how animation can weave itself into the fabric of documentary storytelling and resonate with audiences in unexpected ways.
As the curtain falls on another performance, the real alchemy happens in the editing room. Sean shares his experiences of crafting a narrative from disparate threads of footage, celebrating the transformational effect of multi-cam editing on interviews, and reflecting on the personal growth found in every frame. Whether you're a comedy aficionado, an aspiring filmmaker, or simply drawn to stories of passion pursued against the odds, this episode promises to leave you with a newfound appreciation for the art of documentary and the enduring bonds forged in the creative forge of filmmaking.
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Welcome to the Vision Maker podcast. Today I'm with a director and editor of a documentary for the local Long Island comedy scene, so I'll give you guys introduce yourselves real quick.
John Silecchia - Director:Hi, I'm John Seleke. I am the director of by Day, by Night, working to make people laugh.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:Hello there, I am Sean O'Brien and I am the editor and a camera operator on by Day, by Night, so how did the idea for this film come about?
John Silecchia - Director:So this actually came about from the producer of the film, claudia Bonavida. So it all started actually, when she called me one day on the phone, I was actually driving home for work and she's like John, I have an idea for a movie because she's a stand-up comedian herself. So it all started with I want to like highlight people who do stand-up comedy and kind of go into their lives a little bit more, and I was like, all right, that sounds great. Actually it's an interesting concept because, you know, you just see the people on stage just doing stand-up and, let's be honest, no one really knows what they do or in that moment, really, you know, cornucle cares. But we kind of shine a light on how these people, you know, worked during the day, then by night do stand-up comedy. So for only about a month we kind of did a little pre-production and from there we were like we have an idea and let's roll with it.
Victor Miranda:So how did you guys come about selecting the comedians that you specifically focused on?
John Silecchia - Director:I think that was Claudia's idea. I think she reached out to just a few people. She knows essentially who she thought had eclectic enough jobs to be in this documentary. Because you don't want to have like a guy who's you know, just works, like you know, typical, like nine to five, because it's like everyone works nine to five. You know what's the fun of that. It's like, oh, we have a guy who works for the Hempstead Courts or you know someone who does adult protective services, like a little bit more beefier and a little bit more interesting.
Victor Miranda:Yeah, I thought the range was super interesting, especially thinking about, like, in the comedy, like you think of a comedian. But, yeah, the range of jobs I found super interesting, everything from working in the courts, like you say, adult protective services, psychiatrist, minister or missionary, and they really have this common thread, though, when they come on stage as a comedian. This just definitely felt like a genuine love for the craft. Right, what was your thought process as far as putting the story together, like, what was your process as far as putting the interviews together, the questions you asked and the story you really wanted to tell?
John Silecchia - Director:So a lot of the questions were mostly Claudius. Okay, a lot of that came from just her experience and just knowing them a little bit more and it was just more of my job to make sure that you know everything was kind of on key and on point to make that type of deal. How did the pre-production work.
Victor Miranda:Look like then, Because it sounds like you guys really came out. You did a lot of pre-pro planning out the whole thing. So how did that look like?
John Silecchia - Director:A lot of it was just us going back and forth on, like, how to present the idea. Because we had a lot, again, a lot more ideas that we had. It was like, all right, we need to cut this out, this out, this out, until we had one consent like idea. You know you don't want to do anything like high profile, like oh, why don't we go into all this, let's just keep it short and simple. Comedians on Long Island with, like, different jobs and what are the questions? Are we going to ask what? How are we going to present them? Like, where are we going to shoot? Because you know, a lot of them were. We actually shot a lot at St Joe's, at, like, the Clair Rose Playhouse. Okay, so that included a lot of the main interviews, except for Mitch's interview and Lou's interview, where we shot at his house and we shot at the Hempstead Courts. Yeah, but even for, like, act 1 and Act 2. Same spot, same place, just different days. Yeah, yeah.
Victor Miranda:You were telling me a little bit before, but the, the production itself was pretty quick, pretty tight right.
John Silecchia - Director:So I would say, for main part of production, five days in total, okay, most of them over the course of July and August, then one day in October to film the third act, which was a whole comedy show, yeah so, and then maybe one day in April Actually two days in April because we had a we shot the place that's James Street players Because we had to do Ellen's performance right, we did Ellen's performance, but I think it's February or March where we ended up going to shoot Mitch's interview in his office.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:It was around that time.
Victor Miranda:So awesome any any particular stories from production that stand out to you you know it's weird, I'm gonna say no and.
John Silecchia - Director:No cuz, just everything went Ready smooth like I had no issues, which I think again.
Victor Miranda:I know you do film too, so it's you know, Everyone has a story on a set.
John Silecchia - Director:I just don't think I had any issues personally with this film. It's like oh, this one smooth, everything, kind of worked out how I wanted it to film is done.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you have any stories but I would say, the last day when we shot, when we shot and not an issue. But like the last day when we shot, which was for Ellen's performance, because she was unable to make it for the night of because something had happened, so we shot her performance a couple months later and really wanted her to be in the movie and all the acts. So we had actually a more limited crew that night. It was just me, john and Eric.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:Yeah, so we set up the three cameras and we set up all the audio. So you know it was a bit of a challenge, but I think we pulled it off really well.
Victor Miranda:Yeah, I would have noticed that that was a struggle.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:Yeah, we were going like, like John and I would go back and forth just to make sure the cameras were recording. The audio is on a good level because, like I was making sure that the floor cameras we're working, eric was on top filming with the main camera to give it a more dimension.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:Yeah and you know I would go back to the audio thing, because we just set up the mics and like no one was like wearing headphones and I just wanted to make sure it was everything was recording, nothing ran out of battery and everything ended up working just fine.
Victor Miranda:That's great, great. And then I know, with the, the main performance, that was a five camera set up right, that was a five camera set up Well what made you want to go like full out.
John Silecchia - Director:I mean, logistically just would have made more sense, because you're getting everyone from every angle. The comedians tend to walk around a lot. Yeah, you know, if you just do like a static shot, especially that like it's the third act You're gonna have, do you really want to spend 25 minutes? Look at a straight camera, being like oh hi, here's me on performing like no. Of course I want to have a little bit more oomph to it Of course. Yeah, yeah.
Victor Miranda:So that was also pretty smooth night for you guys too, right I?
Sean O'Brien - Editor:that's that part of the documentary I think I'm most proud of. Stuff like we really kicked butt Shooting that and then I eventually became the editor, like maybe a month or two in. But when we shot that show, especially the interviews, but for the show, I just was really confident in the work that not I just did, but that everyone else did.
Victor Miranda:Yeah, no. And then of course, I know that the post-production was the big bulk of the project. Oh yeah.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:Yeah, like actually that was more time than uh, because what we spent like a year and three months working on that, yeah, so basically, like I said at first, like this was gonna, we thought maybe this would be a short documentary but I think by the time we were filming we filmed the big show. We're like no, we got like a full feature length film. So I spent the next few months interviewing the, you know, editing the interviews and in the big show Before I did like any color correction or sound, and then by three months after the show we did the first viewing of. We did that. We viewed the first cut. There's two and a half hours long.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:Was to not always just straight two hours? No, it's two and a half hours. And we spent, like I think, most of the day like a full six and a half hours just going over things, just trying to figure out, yeah, what we wanted to keep in the movie, what we needed to add, because eventually we did add Add Mitch's interview for act one and then we added Ellen's act three set. So of course that's gonna add more and change some things, but we were able to tell Folks for the most part like, okay, we can cut out that but that. But it's also tricky sometimes in interviews when they say something that's maybe important, just to make sure everything makes sense and translates well, because not every question is gonna be there like I believe. Oh yeah, most of the interviews were like 10 to 16 minutes long. Okay, and the truth is is like they're probably reduced to about five minutes.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:Mm-hmm, like four to six minutes.
Victor Miranda:So yeah, so no, I mean, I think that's that's very much the nature you want to grab all the best answers, all the best tapets, the sound bites. So yeah, so you pretty much you guys. You know you edited the full interview and then you started to find the commonalities that blow one into the other that you wanted to Tell in your story and then, of course, after going through all the questions, now you're narrowing down to the questions that you needed to focus on For the film to get it down to the time. Who is the most involved in reviewing and helping make the cut decision? Was it mainly you too? Was Claudia involved? I?
John Silecchia - Director:would say Claudia, yeah, I think I just want to say, like it's mostly her film, like it was her vision, yeah, she produced it. I was just the one who was able to help it bring it to life, you know. So, yeah, you know, big shout out for Claudia for just being so wonderful to work with and just getting this project done, that's great. But no, she was very involved, which, again, I, like you know, it was a, as I said, probably a very, very good collaborative effort that we had Together what is one of the things that you guys are really hoping the audiences get from the film.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:I think that the comedians that we interviewed we never met them beforehand, but I think what people will see is that they're just everyday average people like them, working the nine to five, and I think that there's some really personal but touching stories in there that I think people are gonna relate to mm-hmm.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:And everything the comedians said. Nothing felt better. They all felt like they came from a place of passion and what they all said was pure. So it's like you. It was all positive. It was all positive, I feel yeah, no, I felt great.
Victor Miranda:I felt really like they really opened up to you guys.
John Silecchia - Director:Oh, 100%, like you think once, because, again, we had a lot of downtime for the most part, so we were able to just talk with each other and just get to know each other a little bit more. Yeah, so it just helped with the synergy on set. Like, okay, when we interview you it's gonna be fine. Like, if we have to restart, there's no big deal. But I would say, you know, just answer your question.
John Silecchia - Director:I just hope that audiences, when they watch the movie, just remember, like, just do what you love. You know, because you know, as a director or someone who does film, before you actually get that job or even like an onset experience, you're gonna do a lot of Mediocre jobs. Like you're probably gonna be working, you know, retail food service, which I have, yeah, and the socks, you know. But at the end of the day it's like, are you gonna let that, you know, deter you from making movies or doing Animation or making music? Like no, you should be doing it anyway. Like, if they can work their jobs, yeah, and go home, go on stage and, you know, tell jokes. What's stopping you from you know, doing what you love? Good?
Victor Miranda:message. So what is your plans for showing this film and the rollout of this film?
John Silecchia - Director:so right now we already have a premiere of February 7th at Savile cinemas, which we are really really proud of and we're really happy that's finally on like the big screen. We are doing screen at st Joe's College, I think. For their students it's gonna be like a Q&A, and then we were having one more screen in, I think, in March in the pet jokes in our center, which is nice, but we're hoping to do like a festival run, you know, so more people can see it, which would love, because I haven't been in the festival since 21. Yeah, so it's finally nice to actually be, be back in and actually have something to show the world.
Victor Miranda:I also noticed an interesting thing about this film is this is animation throughout the film. Yes, there is select stories throughout of each of them, and I believe that's also your role, john, that you are the animator for the film right.
John Silecchia - Director:Which is so high. I'm also John Sluck yeah, also the animator of by day, by night. So I started animation in 2021. So I took a six at least a six week class From John Dilworth, the guy who created curse, a cowardly dog. It was like online lessons amazing. It was great. It was a fantastic was like just me, the basic of the animation and I'm trying to get animation a little bit. I'm like, oh wait, you know, I'll just contact you know someone in the city. He was in the city and like alright, let's do these like zoom lessons and I did. I took like six weeks of you know classes from him and then I kind of, from there, started to just work on my own stuff. So I mean like little cartoons, you know, just for myself.
John Silecchia - Director:But I started to do more freelance on the side Once I started to really improve my craft. I just did a film for my friend Tate called 777, which is a premiered at a Video dome in Brooklyn, which was very nice and very fun to have out there. Yeah, but I should probably get back to Claudia how that came to be. I think we're trying to find B-roll for the movie and we were kind of trying to figure out like oh, is this royalty free or not? You know the lot of logistics. Yeah, I don't want to pay for it, so let's try. Yeah, you know we're fine yeah.
John Silecchia - Director:I think was was it your idea or Chloe's idea? It's like, hey, john does animation, why don't we do a little cartoon stories, all the odds? At first I was kind of against it. I was like it's gonna look. I think what happens that?
Sean O'Brien - Editor:Yes, we needed more visuals for the interviews. But what happens that you, eric, and I eventually watched a cut of the movie by like spring of last year, mm-hmm, and we realized, like we're cut, we're bouncing ideas off of each other. I think it was maybe you or him that started to think like what if we added like animation? I think that could fit in top the tongue, yeah it was Eric, because I was against it.
John Silecchia - Director:After I was like I really don't want to do animation, it's not gonna fit, like why would I want to put cartoons in a documentary? But they convinced me and I was like all right, well, time to bust out the pen tablet and start working on it. So I end up putting these little like cartoon segments in the documentary and honestly I think they look good.
Victor Miranda:I think they work really well. It definitely. It adds a unique spice to it all. Like every breaks up the film, which is nice because it's like oh, okay, and then you can follow along with the story way more engaging, you know. So was your selection of which stories to animate purely based on if you had to be role for it, or was it more like okay, this sounds like it would be good animated like?
John Silecchia - Director:so how he did, it was I. So, sean, I think we agreed on this that we try to find stories that just didn't have b-roll or anything that wasn't Interested, and I don't mean interesting like what they were talking about, yeah, but interesting like there was nothing to kind of break the site?
John Silecchia - Director:Yeah, nothing kind of break the visual silence. So I think you picked about like five and I would have to choose like alright, does this one fit, this one that I think we came up about like five or six, yeah, I think in total we did five or six stories and I think we stopped at five, but then Claudia suggested just maybe crank out one more, and that was the the frog one.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:That, yeah, that was the frog.
John Silecchia - Director:That was my favorite one because there's a bunch of fallen brought blocks. So how we did a lot of them, if you see them like transition in, I would just have a green screen. So I do everything in Adobe animate okay, you know, formerly flash but I would just have a. I would put like a green you know color filter on it, so chunk and key it out in post and I would have the block kind of come down so it looks like it's stacking on the frame.
Victor Miranda:Oh, that's how you did this. Okay, very nice, very well done. No, no, yeah, I think those transitioned very well. They told the story, it was engaging, they're broken up and also, like you know, animation. Visual effects are very common in Demonstrations and documentaries especially, you know. So I definitely feel like it's not out of place at all.
John Silecchia - Director:I think it's. I know they did that in Bullen for Columbine I they did.
Victor Miranda:It was like after Matt Stone's interview they transitioned into, like the history of guns in America, which was like yeah, I've seen it in so many, like in the social dilemma and different things, different Netflix documentaries and different things like that. Yeah, they use a lot of animation or like visual effects type of storytelling, so it definitely helps. We created another level of engagement but also, like your style, did add like a humor to it, because it was very cartoony and then and you know, like these people are comedians and they have a very like lively personality, which is why I think you know it fit, because it was a little cartoony and like uplifted, like if this was just like the history of a political in America this cartoony frog jump around.
John Silecchia - Director:That's not going to work. It's not going to work at all. It's going to be interesting. Totally misses the point, but you know it has to fit.
Victor Miranda:Yeah, no, so it definitely. I think it meld the story. I thought the story was very wholesome. You know, overall, do you feel like there's any particular role that you personally find that you gravitate to more? Yeah, I know, we're all here. We know like a whole bunch of different avenues in filmmaking. Yeah, let me turn into like a Swiss Army knife. Nowadays it's like the essential thing.
John Silecchia - Director:It's ridiculous.
Victor Miranda:But, but outside of that. No, I feel like the to get to that next level of filmmaking, you always got to focus on, like, what's your role going to be? So, like, is there a particular one? I'm going to ask you the same, but is there a particular one for you that you really feel like gravitates for?
John Silecchia - Director:you, I personally would love to do animation more than live action. At one point in my life it just feels more like rewarding, in a sense, as the animator or as like a showrunner.
John Silecchia - Director:I think either. Or I mean because animation itself, like doing the art of animation, is a little tired or something. But like you know you have to do it. You know it's not like I can just send over, you know, the stuff to North Korea through like rough draft or something. You know I still have to, you know, do everything frame by frame. You know I don't have a crew. I animate all my shorts by myself, so I don't have someone. Do backgrounds, layout, keyframes, you know that. So I personally would love to do that. I mean, obviously I'm still brewing with ideas. You know I'm story boring out a few projects, but I think eventually I would like to go down more of the animation route.
Victor Miranda:Is there a particular genre you would love to do of animation? You know, because there's like adult comedy shows and then there's like also kids shows and everything in between, you know.
John Silecchia - Director:I would say more like the prime time lean an adult. Okay, so nothing like family guy Simpson's or Rick and Morty, but more like Space Ghost Coast to Ghost, you know, aquatine, hunger Forest Venture, but like kind of the really weird surreal stuff I love. Oh nice yeah.
Victor Miranda:Yeah, you brought something else up to. It's the fact that you guys have to go frame by frame, which for me it just blows my mind because I'm just like you know that's 24 frames a second You're talking like I mean 30 actually 30 frames a second and you know it's like man, there's 60 seconds in a minute. Yeah, I'm like, I'm like that's 30 by 60. And then if you do it for like a not even like a 10 minute thing, that's like by another 10 and it's like that's so many frames.
Victor Miranda:I'm sure there's tools that makes it flow a lot faster.
John Silecchia - Director:I mean again, since I'm still up and coming with it, as I'm still new to it, I'm still trying to figure out how to make stuff faster for myself. Okay, okay, you know, I mean I don't want to be there for like 12 hours like oh, I just made my hand move just up there. You know, I would like to get a little bit more out of what I'm doing. Yeah, so eventually I would like to have a system go and maybe bring on some more people. But I mean, obviously I love what I do. Yeah, you know, if I didn't, I wouldn't be doing it.
John Silecchia - Director:You know I would be like Sean, do you really want me to animate? You know, six things for a film if I didn't love it.
Victor Miranda:Yeah, I mean, you also were like Sean. Do you really want me to animate six?
John Silecchia - Director:things for the film. Yeah, pretty much I'm like you can do it, john.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:This needs animation for this one part and it's going to be great, and it was great, it was great.
Victor Miranda:And Sean. You were both the camera up and then you became the editor for the film. So how do you feel like? In both camps is like. What do you feel is more your main steakhouse than being the editor?
Sean O'Brien - Editor:I think so. I love post production and over the past couple of years I've been focusing more on editing. I've been editing vlogs and podcasts and a few other things for a couple of my friends' channels like Game Controller Network. I did a little bit of work for A&P Productions and I've done some stuff with John, even before we did this documentary. So you honestly.
Victor Miranda:You know you like the whole editing process more than the in-person camera shooting process. Not that you dislike it but that you prefer.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, I've always loved. Editing is like putting pieces of a puzzle together, and it's like you're able to change things and make them even look cooler or better than you imagined.
Victor Miranda:So that's awesome. We need more people like you in the world. So I love shooting and I love the fact that once I'm upset, that's it. I shot, there is the footage and it goes to the editor. What editing is no is like you keep going and going until it's done, and then revisions and all that stuff.
John Silecchia - Director:Yeah, the fun stuff.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:It could be tedious. Especially it's like you'll get to like. You'll be like oh, we're 95%. Let's say we're like 95%, done with it. But, it can take like a lot of work just to get to 96%.
Victor Miranda:Yeah, but I noticed there's people on the opposite end. They don't like the whole fast pace shooting and this and that they like to have their time to work the problem, to make it happen, to do the step by step Right. Yeah, definitely. As an editor, how did you feel this project really came together? Do you feel like the production made it come together really cohesively, or did you feel like there was a lot of work to be done in the post to really make all the pieces work together?
Sean O'Brien - Editor:I feel that this was a pretty strong production. The great thing that was that when we started is that Claudia had a format of how she wanted the movie to go, so that helped give us an idea of like what we needed to do. Of course, it took a little bit of time. We spent over the course of 2023 editing the movie, watching cuts, because we're also busy doing other things with our lives, you know, working and stuff like that. But I would say probably the reason why the movie hasn't is gonna is premier now is because we just wanted to make it right. You know, we wanted to make it a good time length, we wanted the right amount of visuals, we wanted to make sure the color and correctness correct, and I'm I don't like to settle. I like to make sure that everything is great and that my clients, there being Claudia and John, are satisfied with the work.
Victor Miranda:That's a great attitude to have, you know. Keep a maintain the level of quality. Thank you, it sounds like you guys also were pretty collaborative in the editing process as far as overlooking everything and coming up with the.
John Silecchia - Director:I mean, of course, me as someone who edits, like myself. It's like okay, sean, why don't we do it like this? I think one thing I gave to you Was how to edit the light, the interview and the live shows which we did. Again, we did everything in Adobe. So how we kind of went about that is like why don't we just make everything one like merge clip yeah, put on what's it called like video cut, like how do you what's the right tool for?
John Silecchia - Director:it's like Kind of nest the yeah, you want to nest it together and you want, you want to multi cam it. Yeah, so you. So I just made the process faster so you're not having to like oh, do I think this goes there? It's no, we can just switch one two three. One two three, oh yeah.
Victor Miranda:There we go. Honestly, any and every interview that's multi-cam should be done with a multi-cam. Yeah, clip in, be it. Davinci Premiere I I'm assuming final cut has some version of the multi-cam.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:I believe they do yeah, they have to have some version.
Victor Miranda:I know DaVinci does and I know Premiere does, but that definitely saves so much time and Post to to create those clips, because then you can just pick your angles and then you can feed it in with everything else on top.
John Silecchia - Director:Yeah, it's like you have to go through, I move and be like all right, why don't I just cut this piece out and put this there?
Sean O'Brien - Editor:Man, I learned about the multi-cam, the multi-cam thing, and it was so helpful for this, for this project, cuz, like, what happened was that I into, I edited the interviews first, yeah, but then as we were cutting things along and realizing, okay, that need to change, that angle needs to change. Yeah it's like I was basically re-edited in, not just the interview but the angles of the interviews.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:So just to make sure that it did double up real work, but it was worth it, cuz it fit in better than what it had started as it makes sense.
Victor Miranda:Yeah, no, no, it makes sense. What do you feel is next for you guys?
John Silecchia - Director:What's next? Well, that's a great question. Besides, so, the festival run.
Victor Miranda:I think, first and foremost yeah, you got the premiere, the festival Cuz that's gonna be at least a few years, maybe two to three years tops I mean hopefully.
John Silecchia - Director:I mean, if it goes more, I'd love that, but I will. You know, that's gonna be my main focus. But right now I'm starting to really just kind of focus on myself and just do projects for me a lot of animation, a lot of Even just short films, just because I haven't done that in like almost two years. The like the last one I shot was a little skit on YouTube called killer geese and that was 2021 and besides that, you know, I've just maybe made like Really just animation stuff and I kind of want to just focus on that, as well as freelance work. You know, I'm not gonna say no, someone's like oh hey, we're gonna pay you a thousand bucks to shoot an event. I'm like, okay, you know, but it's frankly just Putting more emphasis on what I need to do for me and just build up my portfolio a bit more.
Victor Miranda:No, smart, smart. And how about you Sean?
Sean O'Brien - Editor:I'm looking to also do more freelance work. Eventually, I would like to Do more post-production work like video editing and audio editing for like feature films or documentaries or other types of projects, and I also I do make some my own content on the side. I have a my own production banner called punky studios, which I have some content on YouTube. I'm looking to release a short film called critic within the next few months. That I Shot as my senior thesis film back in college and it was in two short film film festivals in 2021 nice so I'm looking to finally release that for people to watch it, and If John's got more projects or anyone that I know has more projects, I'm always willing to help nice nice.
Victor Miranda:How'd you get started in editing?
Sean O'Brien - Editor:I have always loved film but I didn't realize I could like Get into it. I was like maybe 10 or 11. I was just like I originally wanted to be a gym teacher because I liked my gym teacher, but then, by like 11, I was just like no, I want to get into film, I want to do this stuff. And then, by the time I was like 1617, I had made a couple of like homemade movies and you know, when you're starting off, you take them too seriously and they're not the best, of course. But my mom actually really encouraged me to focus on the editing aspect. She's like I think you're really good at that and that you could be even greater in that. So Over the years I've just been even though I've made some of my own shorts, like I mentioned I've just been focusing more on that because that's something I'm passionate about and I feel that I can do strongly amazing, amazing.
Victor Miranda:And how did you start? As far as filmmaking in general, oh, god, where'd you go back?
John Silecchia - Director:What like 10, maybe 15 years at this point, which, oh god, to actually Get there yet to get the lamp to real turn in over here. But I Think I mean, if we asked for like inspiration, like I'd also. I mean just watching Godzilla movies, like I just think it's just the most creative thing. It's a guy in a suit destroying it, but like like a model it's great, it's a great concept.
John Silecchia - Director:But I think beyond that, how, myself, you know, just being in middle school making deals with my friends, you know that eventually it became like, oh hey, bocies have has classes for, you know, film video. So I went to Bocies for like a semester not semester but a year, yeah and I was like, okay, I kind of want to go through this route. And I did. I went to four years of college and you know it was good. I got my senior film made, went to a film festivals, but you know, the pandemic happened, everything kind of you know Went to the hayside. And that's when, you know, animation came and I'm like, oh, at least I can make stuff from home. Yeah, and you, that's how everything kind of came to be in a nice little package.
Victor Miranda:Yeah, yeah, no time goes by quick, it does, john and I actually met.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:Well, we went to the same school district, but we didn't really officially like meet until, like, we went to like a bossies camp together in summer 2013. And ever since now, we've been not only friends but we've been working together.
Victor Miranda:Bosses is so underrated. I feel like everyone should know about bossies, because I did bossies when I was in high school as well, either for audio, oh nice, yeah it's. It's such a great program to get like an actual actionable technical stove right out of high school Mm-hmm, that you can start working in, because right after bossies I started working in audio even though I started going to college for it, I was already working in the field. So I feel like that's something that Would be so helpful to. I'm sure other Locations, other states, have similar programs as well. So you know these technical schools when. And it's such a great deal to in high school when you get to spend half your day Technical job like that.
Victor Miranda:You know it's like all great. It's. Gives me a science and the math credit.
John Silecchia - Director:Do? I feel like we need more of that in schools. I mean like not every kid in high school is going to be oh, hey, I can do a general ed type of math music. Hi, you know whatever happens in high school now. Like some kids are just need to work with their hands or do have more technical, skill I think that's important.
Victor Miranda:I personally think all high schoolers should at least do one semester of trade school Guaranteed you know, we just have the option to like a little bossies, because it gives you the option that like Not every student wants to be a doctor, lawyer or professor, which all requires a lot of schooling, yeah, but Some people, you know they want to be a mechanic. So there's bosses for mechanic, for makeup, for all these things, and they're very Actionable, that you can make money. And if they want higher education because they want to do something else, now they also have an actual skill that they can start working in immediately or apply, or if they want to open a business in that area, you need the technical skill you know 100% and you also have your own production company as well. Right, I would say it's a production company.
John Silecchia - Director:I just it's a production title. Yeah it's called Neon Dream Studios, neon Dream. It's where I just make my little cartoons and films and just post them online. Nice, I wouldn't say take it like like, obviously I take it seriously, but it's not something like oh, I'm gonna make it like a big brand.
John Silecchia - Director:It's yeah, this is more of your passion projects, your original projects, I guess it's just if I can make for myself, because personally, you know I'm gonna make more money doing freelance and doing stuff where I can be like, hey, I'll direct your film or I can do that, or frankly, I'm okay with doing that, yeah, but every once in a while it's like I just want to sit down, do a project for myself. So this is where I kind of put everything on. Is Neon Dream Studios.
Victor Miranda:I'm excited for your film guys. I think you guys did a good job, the people it's such a wholesome story all together and the comedy at the end was funny the whole stand-up.
John Silecchia - Director:Oh, they were hysterical.
Victor Miranda:It was. The minister really caught me off guard with her said Thank you so much for coming down today. I People got to see the premiere on February 7th, 7th at Sable theaters. Say real feed ears. You hear it here. Is there any way people can stay in touch and keep up with what's happening with the film and what's happening with you guys?
John Silecchia - Director:So obviously, please come to a lot of the festival screens that we're doing. We're hopefully we can get a few years after this. So if it's ever coming to your town, please do come. We would love to have more people watch this movie by day, by night, doccom.
Victor Miranda:It was awesome. And how can people keep up with you guys?
John Silecchia - Director:on YouTube or Newgrounds Neon Dream Studios. That's where I post a lot of my own personal work. Nice and your content.
Sean O'Brien - Editor:You could check out my content on punky studios. It's on YouTube. We have got a couple of videos on there.
Victor Miranda:Awesome. Well, thank you so much, guys, thank you for having us. Thank you for having us, I have pleasure and, of course, you can always follow us at vision maker podcast and follow our other work and content at vision maker productions.
John Silecchia - Director:Okay, have a good night, everybody.
