I Don't Know About That - Film & TV Lighting

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

Jim had some sort of a grasp on lighting, but not nearly as much as our expert Jay Yowler (@gaffdaddy). Jim's new special "High & Dry" is now available on Netflix! Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/IDKAT for ad free episodes, bonus episodes, and more exclusive perks! Tiers start at just $2!

eyebrows eyes i'm projecting a lot more i hate it noses the one percent club i know i yell too much of the one percent club i your words that you've sent me have been heard next season i'll do a lot better how are you all going welcome to i don't know about that with me jim jeffries we're just talking off there about how i i yell all the time i don't mean to you all going? Welcome to I Don't Know About That with me, Jim Jefferies. We're just talking about how I yell all the time. I don't mean to yell all the time, but to all the people, the 1% Club is the new highest rated show in Australia. I'm

over the moon. After the first episode, everyone was shitting on me, bloody, you can't read questions. I was like, oh God, they figured me out. And you've all kept coming to watch the episode so I appreciate that we're going to make some more people in Australia

we're going to make some more man we're going to make some more that's all I know about it I want to keep making as many of these things as possible and so

thank you very much to all the people who are watching that we just got back from Las Vegas yep Las Wages as I like to call it

I didn't do well in the poker i'm going to uh i'm going to go and do some more i don't think people know that you were in the actual world series of comedy poker probably you're talking about yeah not just playing poker there yeah i was there doing the poker i i look i i don't know what i did wrong one one one buy-in i knew exactly what i did wrong I held it on two pairs and my two pairs weren't good enough and then another one I went all in at the end there

and it was the right thing to do and then the guy just got the cards it's still a game of chance but it seems that the people who are really good at it seem to their luck goes a lot further than mine did

but I think I could do better I think I could do better I don't think i'm a lost cause at the old poker i just got to learn how to play a few more games the problem i have with poker is this i like blackjack i'm by okay so you have to play in the tournament for like 12 hours i'm a chatty individual or i want to be left completely the fuck alone there's no in the middle there's no in the middle i don't want to i don't want to sit there and be talked to occasionally yeah yeah so i one day i wanted

to be left the fuck alone they kept on bothering me asking for like oh so what happened on that hand what happened on this they'd come up because they wanted to put it in some type of like uh like twitter feed or something like that and then the the other episode, I was super chatty. And I think the people at my table were very happy to see me go. And I went in, I also had had an edible, so I was high. Oh my goodness. I thought I got to change things up. Well, since you've played it somewhat in a professional tournament.

I had one table where everyone was like, they'd come from like, there's this other game that was going on. it was like tournament of champions where you have to have won a bracelet to end this thing yeah and then they're all like this yeah i just got kicked out of the jay sheila well you got kicks up too oh mickey knife guy how you going they all fucking knew each other yeah and then they're pulling out big wads of money like this i have my pockets ain't big enough right and then i'm there like this 40 000 chips um so i don't think i i you know i can't beat those people and also when you're all right because i'm not like there's people way more famous than me who do it but when you're a comedian i think people do take a lot of joy in knocking you out oh for sure people are definitely

gunning for me at the table oh yeah no i'm not a comedian you're like a celebrity yeah it's like it's just they're like uh mr old fucking big britches over here they have a story when they get home yeah have you heard of him I've never fucking heard of him yeah there was there was it was literally like this was at the table and they were like this

one guy was like hey Jim big fan oh thank you very much it's very nice you doing a show no I might be doing a show and then his time went on

he was like this and then one said yeah my cousin just told me to tell you you're a cunt. I don't know. Because everyone's on their phones.

And then another one, are you celebrating April 18th anytime soon? They just figured out who I was while they were playing. And then it was quite bizarre. You have some upcoming shows. I do. June 23 You have some upcoming shows. I do. June 23rd, Reno, Nevada. And June 24th, it says Roanert Park. I know that's near Santa Rosa, California.

Both casinos. Both casinos. Place in Boca. And then you got August 25th in Hartford, Connecticut. And August 26th in Providence, Rhode Island. Hartford, Connecticut. You ever played there? I don't know if you played Rhode Island. Have you ever played? Might be a state you haven't Rhode Island. Hartford, Connecticut. You ever played there? I don't know if you've played Rhode Island.

Have you ever played? Might be a state you haven't been to. It's very small. Providence, Rhode Island. Yeah. Yeah. I don't believe I have. It sounds like something I've done and then something I haven't done.

And then you've got a bunch of stuff in Canada. It's all on Jim Jefferies. Yeah, come along. Dot com. I'm very happy with the stand-up show at the moment i think it's uh i had i ran it so many times across europe and everything it's it's uh it's like when you play the edinburgh festival you shouldn't see anyone in edinburgh for the first 15 days you should go in the last 15 days when they figured the fuck what the show is this show is figured

the fuck out i know exactly what it is i know how it. Yeah, I don't think I've seen any of your current set, which is weird for me because normally I would have by this point. Yeah, you're not missing out on much. It's pretty bad stuff. Oh, sorry, I'm still trying to start the people. No, no, no. Edit that out. All the comments that have been coming in saying,

this is your best set ever. Well, this is the thing, right? So people always go, oh, this is your best set. Because they were saying that before so people always go oh this is your best set because they were saying that before my last special that's the best material when it's live it takes on a different life to seeing it um yeah and so so people are like i've watched all the specials this is his best show ever they say that every time because you've just seen it live and it's a lot more fun live and it's completely. And it's completely new to them as well. Normally by the time they've seen the special

they might have seen me live and seen a joke here and a joke there or seen me do something in a late night show or something. The specials for almost every comedian are always going to be the worst version of that material you've seen. It's the material a lot less loose than it should be. It's just going to be like it's better live.

It's also I have to stick to an hour so it's like I take all the gonna be like it's also it's also i have to stick to an hour so it's like i take all the air out of the bits in between there's never i i i'm actually people wouldn't might not know this but i'm i do quite good crowd work but you're never going to see it because it's not going to make it on the special and i know a lot of comics now post pictures of the crowd work and maybe i could do that but i just feel like i don't know it can't be us but you're missing out on the crowd work also there's jokes

where you for me especially where I could get cancelled for them if I put them in a special but you still do them live so it's a little bit more racier

yeah you know what I mean so come out and see it live I may not ever record it I don't think I will I don't who knows

but there's all on jimjeffries.com there's more dates in Canada there's a bunch more in the states too around't know but there's all on jimjeffries.com there's more dates in canada there's a bunch more in the states too around the la area there's a bunch of shows in oakland and cincinnati new york city all that stuff um i'm gonna be in montreal by the way uh july 6th through 8th at the comedy nest so if you're in the montreal you're gonna be right when the festival's on isn't it probably a week before a week or two before yeah july 6th or 8th the comedy s montreal it's a fun club and then july 9th that same weekend but on sunday philly punchline

one show only so that's what i'm promoting right now come out to that please yeah got to that yeah follow us on instagram at idcat podcast and check out patreon patreon.com slash idcat june we are not charging for june because uh because of your travel schedule we couldn't record so we'll be back next week I think and now it's time for our guest and we're going to switch positions in 3, 2, 1 please welcome our guest Jay Yowler

G'day Jay now it's time to play yes though yes though yes though judging a book by it's cover right jay i don't have anything to look at except apart from your clothes and what you're wearing but you're a hip man you're wearing jewelry you've got bracelets on so i'm going to assume that this is something to do with the entertainment business yeah yes it is okay is it something to do with the music business

no it is not oh good wait you just got that from jewelry? He's not an accountant, is he? Maybe like a front accountant. And he lives in LA because he's here. Yeah. So not too big a swing, was it? Yeah, I guess so. Has it got to do with acting?

In what I do, it does have something to do with acting, but I'm not an actor. Are you a director? No, I'm not a director. Do you work in the technical side? I do. We're talking about special effects? Not so much special effects. You've almost got it now.

Nothing affects. This is going to be a bunch of stuff that you've heard words, but probably don't know the answer to. Okay. Yeah. All right. is it a real thing yeah yeah yeah it's like every time you've been it's in a room with any TV show that you have had it's happening right now they've had to set this up

audio yeah no that's right there lighting lighting yeah yeah lighting I know about lighting you think you did well I've been on a lot of sets. This is film and television lighting. Oh, no, I don't know how to do it. Yeah, yeah, film and television lighting. But I do know they take longer to do lighting than they do to take acting. Fucking hell. They work on lighting three times longer than the acting.

This is what it's like to be an actor. You sit around and they're setting things up, setting things up, setting things up, setting things up. You get get up there you flub one line and they go we're losing light here people and you're like i've been sitting here for fucking hours yeah yeah i think um well the lighting is important so uh for me it is yeah good that's why i don't like doing the podcast that much because I enjoy doing the podcast, but I wish the podcast was just audio, but we live in this fucking world

where everything has to be a TV show for everybody constantly, right? And so I used to be able to rock. Even if you do like morning radio on terrestrial radio, you used to show up in your pajamas and look like a slob. And now they're streaming those people all the time. Whatever happened to having a good face for radio yeah and my point is i don't have a good face for tv either

and lighting hasn't helped that much you don't want to do the video and we've talked about it it's also it's also so when you when you when you do a specialist so whenever someone meets you in real life you're not wearing makeup and you haven't got proper lighting on you and you inevitably look shitter than they have seen you. Plus, you're always the oldest you've ever been. Whenever someone meets you.

That's true, yeah. You're the oldest you've ever been and they've just watched something from 10 years ago and whenever they meet you, they go, I've aged appropriately. And it's not like they're meeting you face to face. Usually they're just lurking for quite a while. And you're doing things not knowing you're being watched.

I had someone when we were playing poker go, oh, you sound a lot like Jim Jefferies. You even look like him a bit. And I said, yeah, I'm a lot like Jim Jefferies. You even look like him a bit. And I said, yeah, I'm a lot fatter than him. And he went, yeah. And I was like, fuck. Fuck, because I slimmed down for telly. Jay Yowler, Yowler is how I'm pronouncing it correctly. That is correct.

Jay Yowler is a gaffer based in Los Angeles, California. He has worked on a ton of classic comedies, including Dumb and Dumber, Road Trip, and Old School. He was the second unit gaffer for Transformers Rise of the Beast, which comes out this Friday? Friday, yeah. Okay, this Friday. And he just wrapped the newest season of Grown-ish on ABC. You can find him on Instagram, at gaffdaddy. And he's my old boss. Oh, is he? That's right. Yeah? How was Jack as an employee? Jack was great. I got better. He got better. He was a kid off the street.

He came to us and had a bunch of questions. And we thought, man, this kid has got some good questions. I walked up to, they were shooting in my neighborhood in Atlanta. I just walked up and just started bugging them. Oh, truly a kid off the street. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I told my guys, I said, get rid of that guy. I don't know who he is, but.

He's a rescue. I got pulled off set. Maybe your fault. And then a week later, I was hired just by chance. That's right. And then I was with you for like eight months. And how did you get hired by chance if you're a kid off the street? I was in the union.

How were you in the union? I knew the vice president of the union. He just got me in. I did one day on Fast and Furious 7 and got in. It was pretty easy in Atlanta to get in. how are you in the union i knew the vice president of the union he just got me in when i did it i did one day on fast and furious 7 and got in it was pretty easy in atlanta yeah it's a right to work state so it's a little easier yeah yeah i had to make sure pull that mic maybe a little closer yeah there you go you don't do it you don't do audio yeah yeah that's right lighting guys that's like that's the the audio that's a tougher job, I reckon. Not like artistically, definitely not as hard artistically as lighting is.

Lighting's very important, but you have to fucking carry that thing like that all day. That's a kind of a job. Yeah. That's a kind of a job. It's a bit of a job. Holding the stick above your head is... The stick. You're great on this quiz.

Yeah, the boom mic, the boom. Holding that above your head all day, like we can go on all day about equality we need more female directors and i agree with that but i've never seen anyone but a bloke hold the bloody stick above his head you can quote me on that there's never been any picketing for we need more women with sticks above heads join the conversation um id cat i don't know so uh jay i'm gonna ask jim a series of questions about film tv lighting updates. Join the conversation. ID Cat. So, Jay, I'm going to ask Jim a series of questions about film and TV lighting, and you're going to grade him at the end of answering those questions. You're going to give him

0 through 10, 10 being the best on his accuracy. Kelly's going to grade him on confidence. I'm going to grade him on setter roll. Adela scores together. If you score 21 through 30, you're in the leading role, Jim. You did really good. 11 through 20 is stand-in. 0 through 10, fluffer. Mm.

Is that a real thing, fluffer? I don't think that's a... At one time. Yeah. Did you work on some porn? Okay. I never did. Okay.

Very bad lighting in porn most of the time. Not always. Some of the ones they did in the 90s when they really went for it. Yeah. And that's what I don't like

about this OnlyFans world. We've lost the quality. We've lost the stories. We have. We we've lost the just chicks just with their fucking phone filming themselves fuck it's like i i appreciate they need to make money and i get them but where's the production quality yeah yeah hire some some lighting and uh okay what is a gaffer i've heard that term right guy sets up the lights, yeah. Yeah, okay. Sets up the lights. There's a lot of fucking metal tubes. And then there's a bit of cellophane and a little flap that goes like this.

And they're like, oh, move the flap a bit. Move it. There. Yeah, I've seen it. These are a lot of terms that you should have heard working into it. What is a key grip? I don't know.

You've heard it, though. It's a bloke who works for the gaffer. I think the gaffer guy's in charge of everything, and then the key grip's the guy who does what the gaffer says. But also, I just want to make another point. Look, I love this business. It's done very well for me but we don't all need credit all the time like we all fucking fight for fucking wages non-stop and i

agree with that fight for wages fight for what's right but the idea of having to watch fucking hours of credits at the end of a bloody movie and i have to know who the second stand in for an act or whatever when you buy a car they don't tell you the steering wheel was made by steve you just drive away you are allowed to leave right yeah you don't have to watch the credits it's the only business if we're gonna do it let's do it for every who made this table or just have a fucking written down where the wood was from where the thing where the thing like it's the only industry and and i tell you and the reason i'm doing i once thanked some people in one of my specials at one of my specials now i thank fucking no one

oh yeah oh my god i missed a name missed one name i missed one name my life was over this was this was a thing that that they would only read anyway that's how i know what a key i think in this industry though it pretty much works as your resume, right? Like, I mean, in other industries, you just write down where you work. But here, it's like it's a way to verify that this person has the talent and the skill to work on these level of projects. I want to also do another one. Okay, well, I'm here. I'm in the Writers Guild.

I pensioned the Writers Guild. I've worked on several TV shows In the writers guild But fuck me Why isn't stand up comedy counted Yeah Why Why isn't stand up

Why isn't stand up comedians Who write and perform their material Who perform on Netflix Or whatever Why doesn't that count Towards them getting healthcare A stand up comedian A stand up comedian

Gets zero healthcare Or benefits Yeah and it's crazy On IMDB It counts you as a writer Yep And like Yeah But you don't get a credit The stand-up comedian gets zero health care or benefits. Yeah, and it's crazy. On IMDb, it counts you as a writer. Yeah. But you don't get a writer's credit. I'm for that.

What do you think? Let's make some posters. That seems to be an obvious piece. Let's pick it up in front of WGA. No, that seems to be an obvious piece of bullshit. I totally agree with you. There's people who are in the writer's guild for writing reality TV. Their writing job was like, send in his ex-girlfriend to fuck him over.

That was their writing for the day. Yeah, if it is a union job, yeah. Like your Netflix stuff is all union. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We stand with you. All right. I don't get SAG. SAG doesn't cover me for performing either.

Why is there little blinders on stand-up comedy? Jim, right now is the time to voice your opinion on this that's what i'm doing i know well i mean yeah 100% right now especially wj and also probably but maybe by the time this comes i know oh yeah tomorrow all right well anyways the acting acting is coming next yeah that's heck all right what does a rigging gaffer do then oh Oh, they're the ones who actually set up all the frames. So then a gaffer is just a... There's all these different gaffers? I don't know the answer.

The main gaffer is like the director of the lighting, and he tells the key grip to go grab some things, and the rigger guy sets it all up. Here's one I don't know, but I've heard. What is a best boy? I have a million jokes we can make right now. I'll tell you, it's another job that they're not fighting for equality in. I'll tell you that right.

Yeah, there's no best girl. There's bus boys I've never heard once. I've never heard ones going, we have to call them bus people. We have stood strong on bus boy for fucking years. Bus person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's the job? I have to pick up dishes

and glasses off people's dirty tables. All right. Don't you want a bit of equality? No, we're fine. Thank you very much. A bus person sounds like an insult anyways.

It's just like someone that's poor or something. Bus person. Yeah, yeah. So I would say a best boy. You've got to get rid of the term though because if you had a best girl.

Yeah. Some people go best girl. A big good girl. Best boy and good girl. Forrest just gave me the ink. As soon as he said good girl, oh, God. I'm lucky I'm fasting today. Okay.

So you don't know what it is? No. Don't want to either. Don't want to be part of your sordid game. Back to that question. What do you yell when you turn on a light, like on a set? There's something that's said out loud. Lights on!

Clap back. Clap loud. Lights on. It should be. I mean, I don't know. I've been on sets. It should be fairly obvious to everybody

I'm trying to think oh god I must not pay attention because I've I've been on many sets I think the lighting happens a lot of times

before you go on set but I've been on a lot of on some of the productions like on the sketch stuff we've been doing you hear it I've heard it constantly

I actually know it'll be something like like lights are hot it'll be one of like, lights are hot. That'll be one of those ones. Lights are hot. Yeah. Yeah, okay.

What is three-point lighting? Three-point lighting? Yeah. You know, it's a TV film we're talking about. Yeah, it's where you're lighted for several different camera angles. Okay. I have a whole bunch of- Like for multi-cam or something like that. I have a whole bunch of different questions there.

I'm going to ask you some. I'll probably skip through and we'll get back to them because it's like... This one seems... What is the difference between high-key and low-key lighting? What does that mean?

High-key and low-key. Low-key is like using a frosted bulb or extra high-key, which is a brighter light. So it's more like dulled low-key. What about diffusion or bounce light? Do you know anything about either of those? Bounce light is where they bring out the silver thing and they sort of stand from a side and

that's so that you don't just get shadows on the face going that way. What's a silver thing? It's literally like a silver disc or a silver cardboard slate. And so they hold that low so that when the lighting comes down it bounces like that so that you have a full flush and so the lighting isn't just giving shadows on the face show that as a name i know the thing you're talking about i don't know the name of that either yeah i think this guy does yeah yeah okay um what is a stop as a reference to lighting um stop that would be the metal flaps what is an apple box family well I know what an apple box is

an apple box is just those little tiny boxes that we need an apple box they're basically in old days what you'd put apples in but it'd really make Tom Cruise look a bit taller yeah yeah you wouldn't put apples in them anymore yeah yeah is that where they came from?

I don't know I don't know. I know they're like little wooden boxes. Yeah, I don't know where the term came from. A couple of apple boxes. I just watched that Michael J. Fox documentary. Very good. Very good. But it's funny how he got into the business.

Being short really helped him because, have you seen it yet? No. They wanted him to be, it was this Gary Coleman idea, right? You get a kid that's older that looks like they're younger and they can act a lot better than having... So they wanted an 11-year-old in the thing, but they got him at 16 because he was so short. He still looked like he was 11.

And so then he's like, ah, this 11-year-old's very quick-witted. He's fucking 16. Right. Ah, okay. So I'm just looking at the positives. My son's short you know so the Apple box is a box but there's an Apple box family I didn't

write this question they're different size boxes okay different like there's a little little bit as thing and then there's a full Apple box and there's different ways you can position them do you know any of those terms you can go up what is a page What is a practical? Practical prop, which means it's lighting you can hold in your hand like if you've got a flash torch in the scene. Okay. A couple more questions here. We'll get to some of these ones we're skipping through.

What is spill? Spill is where the light flows over into a different section or whatever like that. Okay. Do you know what the term magic hour or it's sometimes called golden hour? is where the light flows over into a different section or whatever like that. Okay. Do you know what the term magic hour or it's sometimes called golden hour? Yeah, magic golden hour. This is sort of you're looking at just the 20 minutes before sunset or the 20 minutes afterwards, whatever,

where the sky is all a beautiful golden color. And you only get that hour once a day yeah and that's magical all right that was good okay here's some film equipment with weird names what are these see if you can get any of these uh this is either called a tweeny an in-betweeny or an inky uh we don't call them that anymore we've become a lot more tolerant of those people and their lifestyles what about a I didn't say what they were here's one maybe you'll get baby stand

baby stand I guess it's like slang or terms for stuff it'd be just a smaller stand yeah okay mambo combo mambo combo. Mambo combo. You've got to play it loco. Mambo combo. Don't know. Okay.

What about a cookie? Cookie, that would be like something just you put under one of the legs to make it stop wobbling. Okay. Butt plug? Butt plug's a sexual thing. Yeah, no, but in reference to this would be stuff is this all lighting or just film equipment in general it's filming with a butt plug no don't

okay lollipop how about a stinger stinger when you're playing baseball and you hit it again film tv horse cock there's something called a horse cock wow is this how you guys just entertain yourselves horse cock i'd be a big dick um all right two more beaver board you have any idea what that beaver board is where you put your horse cock. And a Rocky Mountain leg. This is all rubbish. Even if he says it's something, it doesn't need to be called any of these things.

I know these things. Everything's called something stupid. Pointless. Jay, how did Jim do on his knowledge of film, TV, lighting? Fairly well. He's got a couple of them really good. Thank you. Ten's the best.'ve got a couple of them really good. Thank you. Tens of best.

Yeah. You've got a couple of tens in there. No, I mean like overall, what would you give them, zero through ten? Oh, I'd say six and a half. All right. All right. Wow. That's impressive. Callie, how do you do on confidence?

I'll give them a five on confidence. It would have been an eight for audio if we were doing an audio episode. Okay. I'll give you 12, Jim. You're leading role. Ayo. Don't you lose faith pretty good you know in there pretty good uh what is a gaffer jay like he's a guy who sets up lights the gaffer is in charge of lighting which is what i am i have a whole group of electricians it's not just me on a set normally you'll have five six lighting technicians um i'll have a dimmer board operator who only operates the dimmer board.

I have a rigging gaffer, a rigging best boy. I have a best boy. The best boys basically are the ones who are in charge of hiring extra help when we need it or ordering the equipment that i need to to rig a location so jack wasn't a best boy nope jack was not a bus i was an electrician he was it sounds higher up than best boy yeah so best boy is that how that got that term maybe as it was just like he was the the next best person on set in the lighting department or the grip department well that but that obviously would be a job that a female could do very easily why He was the next best person on set in the lighting department or the grip department. Well, that obviously would be a job that a female could do very easily.

Why would we keep it at boy? Well, there are many girls now doing that job, but they don't call it a best boy anymore. It's ACLT. Being titted chicks? It's called an ACLT, which is Assistant Chief Lighting Technician. ACLT. That's right. All right, you've got to cut that.

That joke didn't land. I just thought of it. Wait, ACLT. All right, so. All right, you got to cut that. That joke didn't land. I just missed that one. Wait, that's me, so I'll cut that joke. ACLT isn't as good, though. It sounds like either something you would pull or a sandwich. It's not like. Okay, and then the gaffer in charge is just, I mean, the key grip. Is that the gaffer in charge?

Well, the key grip's in charge of rigging camera onto different things, whether it's a crane or a dolly or putting a point on something that I need to hang a light on. So I kind of said that, right? You kind of said it. Yeah, you said gaffer in charge. I don't know. I know that bit was right because I've been on set,

but I didn't know the best boy bit. Yeah, yeah, because there are so many people when you're on set. There's a lot. I mean, obviously, you're making the thing about the credits, but it is amazing, I think, when a team leader tells you that. Oh, no, no, no. It takes a lot of people to make things happen. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. No, no, no, no. I'm not saying people don't deserve credit. No, I know that. I'm just saying it's the only industry where if you don't have it down, it's a big deal. Aaron, do you have a best boy for in here for yeah what do you think about Aaron's lighting job how's

this well I don't think I'll comment on this too much no it's okay I was pretty good for a podcast I wasn't trying to sell money it's not Aaron yeah sorry it's no credit for it they do you do you, mate? Nope. Yeah. And then a rigging gaffer, are they the ones that actually set up the frames and stuff? Well, the grips set up frames, sometimes called butterfly frames, which are different nets or diffusions or solids. My rigging gaffer, well, generally we'll go into a location

and everyone will look at it. The director will tell us which way we're going to be looking, what he wants to do. I'll decide how we're going to light it along with the director of photography. And I'll tell my rigging gaffer where we need to hang stuff from, how we're going to hang it, where we need to power it in from. And then he has a whole crew that will come in at some point and rig all these lights. So when we come in, we're somewhat ready to go. How far in advance do you start planning for the lighting?

Like, are you in on, like, storyboards where you're starting to plan there, or is it waiting until the set's built? Sometimes storyboards are usually in the beginning of a feature you might go through the storyboards i mean you you kind of go back on them throughout a production but uh is there a certain type of lighting that when you see like one of your competitors not competitors or co-workers whatever um when you see someone else you're watching a film you're like oh fuck frank did that oh yes most definitely right yeah you can always tell a steven spielberg thing there's always light coming through a door or a little beam coming through and then there's a little the little uh what's his name abraham's

always has abrams you know so there's certain people who do certain things what are you known for what do you do better than anyone else? Everything. All right. No, I take it to heart, lighting. This is my 40th year doing lighting. So when I go into a location, I just can look at it and automatically know what it's going to take to light it. TV shows, you generally don't want to just spend money constantly. They're on a budget just like everyone is. But when you're on a job like Transformers,

you get much bigger toys to play with. You can kind of tell them what you need to light a whole city block rather than just one little room like the one we're sitting in right now. My old neighborhood, they used to film a lot of stuff in at night, and they would have those tower. So you'd have to pay someone's house. There was this little house, and they would just crank that tower i don't know what that's called it's like a thing called condor condor there you go yeah everybody wants money when the production

oh yeah there's nothing worse than that yeah the canoes starts fucking mowing their lawns as soon as you start shooting now this is in their house this was like there were certain houses there was a street that they would do, it's like over in Atwater Village, all these little car rates, like it's in North Atwater and like the same houses that always had the light towers,

I think they had a little cash cow going there or something. Yeah, sounds like it. I don't know what you get paid for a lighting tower in your house, probably not a lot.

Is there anyone, do you ever look at the cinematographers and you think they get too much credit? Like how important do you, how important to production do you think lighting is in the ranking of things uh well above actors above directors above cinematographers no

because you know i think it starts with the writers if you don't have a good script you know the writing is most important it's very important yeah so if you have a good script you know that everything else but visually just visually don't worry about the script visually it's all about lighting it's all lighting it's all lighting all day yeah but how do you get into like what did you not props the prop people are they cunts do you ever meet prop people and go fucking here he comes work with them every day yeah they're always you get good prop people you get bad proper and then you get the prop people who go on a bit too much. They come up and they go, we just want to take a photo of your hand and how you were holding the beer and what angle it's on.

It's like, no one gives a fuck. But how do you get into... And then you get the ones that don't notice. Like, you walk in, you go, I had a different watch on in that scene. The continuity. Continuity. I don't want to get in trouble trouble so I'm not going to say shit

yeah yeah the other night I was watching America's Got Talent our buddy Orlando Labo was on it and it was like

the audition ones but Howie Mandel's glasses kept changing they were like just way different and I was like that no one

like it felt like Simon Cowell always looks the same especially because glasses are such a consistent thing like normally you wouldn't be changing them a lot,

so it's even more noticeable. Yeah, I was taken out of it. I was taken out of the reality. Anyways, but I was saying, how do you, like what do you, do you have to, do you go to school for lighting? Or do you study your electrician? Or what do you?

Yeah, a lot of people go to school for it. They go to film school. I did not. My best friend growing up was from a circus family. Seven generations of circus family. The longest living American circus family. Bearded lady she was. Anyway, he went down to Dino DeLaurenti Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina.

And called me right after he got a job down there and said, Hey, you want to come down and make some movies? I lived in Ohio. It was the best thing in the world. Go down to Wilmington and start working on some movies. That was my start when I was 19. And then you kind of get associated, right? Do the same directors call you or whoever?

Director of photography. Director of photography, yeah. Or the gaffer. Am I too old to get into it now at 46? Not at all. Do you want to? Why not? I'm 73.

Are you really? Yeah. Wow, you look amazing. You're 73? What? I work out. You look great. Are you actually 73?

No. I was going to say, I was like, you're making Jim feel bad about himself. I could see it on his face. You were talking about that earlier, and that's a joke that I tell people on set all the time. Because it's like, well, if you tell them you're 10 years, 15 years older than you are, they'll look at you and go, wow, you look great. Oh, I've done that with lots of people. You tell them your age.

I tell them I'm in my mid-50s. But it's when they're still this boy, they go, oh, no, you look all right. Yeah. You look pretty good. I look amazing for 55 get the fuck out of here it's when you get the look when you tell them your actual age and they go oof oh i love i love when you meet someone who thinks they look very young and they're like this and you go you go how old are you and they go have a guess and they're like i'm 34 and they're like, I'm 34. And you're like. Yep, he looks spot on.

Yeah, and they go, can you believe it? You're like, yeah. I actually can't, but not because of the reason you're thinking. But everyone thinks they look younger. I don't think many people think they look older. But you do look younger than 73. Thanks. Looking great.

I think that there would be more labor than you'd want to do. He'd have to be 59 because he's been doing it for 40 years, and he started at 19. I'm 60. 41 years. There you go. No, I'm saying to be a gaffer, I think there's too much more labor than you want to do at this point in your life. I probably won't do it professionally, I've decided.

Just for fun? Just on the side? You don't strike me as somebody who really wants a job i can't i can't make things look nice i've never been able to make i can't to make photographs look nice i don't know i have ideas like i've always like decided like how the backdrops of me um shows well i have ideas and concepts but i can't make things look nice i think that would be yeah yeah that would be that would be my worst job i think would be being a lighting person i can't make things like although i was in a movie once where i was like it was a pretty cheap movie and they were like ah fuck it we need to film this

next scene let's just light it like it's day and i'm like this doesn't look like day yeah we've all got like seven shadows yeah that's that's you tell bad ideas yeah i was like bad idea and then i was like it was in australia i was like this hey in america and it was like oh here he goes i would think that is the big thing in lighting is if the lighting's good you don't notice it. That's right. And when it's bad, cause there's just sometimes I'm watching something like what the fuck's wrong with this? I'm like,

oh, the lighting's awful. Nice. Yeah. Um, by the way, I was impressed the other day you were doing, you were like doing some painting.

Yeah. Yeah. That was impressive. Where were you painting? On a ladder. I'm painting things. Oh, you're varnishing?

Yeah. I was doing some staining. Yeah. I came, I was driving by and I stopped in and I saw and I was like... I'm like a guy. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it did last long. You're on a ladder. I was impressed, but also like... That's pretty good. Someone should be holding this. All right, what do you yell when you turn on a light?

Is it lights on or lights are hot? Well, there's a lot of things you can yell. Hot lights! Get your hot lights! One of of the lectures I used to have used to yell ignition just as fun you yell I to yell watch your eyes which is you can't do of course you can't watch your eyes you don't want to be blinded I thought it was like strike or something so there isn't there isn't an official term well striking is generally what they do but we don't generally we're in their lighting like time strike strike the lights

strike the strike what i thought i don't know edit that out um three-point lighting is that when you're lit from several camera angles well three-point lighting is a basic term for a lighting setup. You have your key light, your fill light, and your back light. And that's a three-point lighting. So your key might be from the side or three-quarters from the front. It might even be straight on. You'll have a little bit of fill, a rim light. So it's three basic lights is what you need to do.

And is it true that everyone looks best in candlelight? Well, candlelight looks great. It's romantic. Everyone looks good. Warm. If you go on a date with candlelight, you'll do all right. That's right. Yeah, but you might not know what the other person looks like then.

Low-key romantic. Oh, they're going to be better looking than me. And then so there's hard light and soft light. But that seems pretty soft. I think that's... Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then high key and low key, difference between high key and low key lighting.

Low key lighting is a frosted bulb, Jim said. Yeah, that's where you kind of failed on that one. High key you see in a lot of comedies. They want to see the joke, so it's usually brightly lit. And soap operas are all. Well, soap operas are a whole other issue. Yeah, they're a whole thing.

I don't even know who likes those things. But low key is more contrast. Well, I've never seen my life in the same light as a soap opera. There's never been like a day where I've walked through the world going, that's a bit soap opera-y today. They do something different with the lights. Every light's coming on from every angle. That's right.

Yeah, I've never thought about that. The comedy isn't dark lighting ever. For the most part. Yeah, but I, okay, when I was making the NBC pilot when they were building the sets and everything, I had a lot of opinions on different things. And I think the better comedies are slightly gloomier lit. Cheers was a very gloomy lit sitcom.

Seinfeld was a gloomy lit. Friends was a warmly lit sitcom, like it felt all New York. And then you get these other ones that are just like with brightness, and I reckon comedy should be warmly lit. There you go. It should be warmly lit for sure. But there's a difference between warm and high key where shadows are filled in. Yeah, I didn't ask that.

What is color temperature? You know how like the more modern comedy, like I know like the office, for example, has to be brightly lit because they're dealing with infrared lights. That's meant to be the lighting. Fluorescent. Fluorescent lights. That's the word I was looking for. So that's sort of more brightly lit. But I reckon your sweet spot of the multicam isn't the bright lights.

There you go. Because I didn't ask what is color temperature. So you have your high key, your low key, and then there's temperatures. Color temperature is Kelvin. It's the color temperature of the light. So like tungsten would be warm. Tungsten is like indoor, like incandescent, like all standard things. Oh, yeah.

Daylight would be blue, more blue. Yeah. You know. My wife is very particular. She likes to audition with sunlight. Why is that? I don't know. She goes, I've got to do this audition.

I've got to get it on tape. And the light's not good for another hour. I'm like, what the fuck? Because does she do it up against a window with the sun? It's not direct sun. It's bounce light from the sky. So it's all really soft and nice. Yeah.

So it just probably makes her skin look really nice. It's like a filter. It's bounce light from the sky, so it's all really soft and nice. Yeah, so it just probably makes her skin look really nice. It's like a filter. It's like using a filter. Good lighting. I don't know. I don't know what lighting is good for me. I don't even know what my good side is. I don't know how to take a picture is what I'm trying to say.

I know you take more pictures than me. I take plenty of pictures, more than the average person, but I don't notice you have a thing. You turn a certain way. You do a thing. Oh, yeah, yeah, because I take plenty of pictures, more than the average person, but I don't notice you have like a thing, you turn a certain way. You do a thing. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because I take photos of people. Yeah, you do like a little.

No, I know, but I'm saying when I do it, I'm always like, I'm like, I don't know what side. You have a side? No, I don't have a side, but I try to angle my body ever so slightly.

Yeah. When I do the photos, but like most of the time, when I'm into photos with couples, I'm normally just in the middle. Yeah, yeah. With my arms around, my jacket up like this, my neck facing out, and my little pot belly. when I do the photos. But most of the time, it's the photos with couples. I'm normally just in the middle. With my arms around, my jacket up like this,

my neck facing out, my little pot belly. It's like a tiny bit of midriff. And then I'm just like, you know what? Fuck it, man. It's their photo, not mine. I'm not going to bloody look at it.

Occasionally they tag you though. Yeah, then I get me tag off. I've learned how to de-tag myself. You de-tag yourself for fans' photos? Yes. If I look like a bag of shit, I do. There's nothing wrong with it. I like their photo.

Like, thanks for coming. Like the photo. Then I de-tag the fuck out of it. I don't want to see that shit. Diffusion and bounce light, Jim said. Well, for bounce light, he said they bring out the silver thing and you don't get shadows in the phallus and then they bounce the light off the silver. Well, diffusion is just like on this light here.

You got some diffusion. It's a good job, Aaron. Soft wrap that's on the front of it. It softens the light more. A bounce light, you can, you can do the same thing with a bounce light cause you're bouncing the light onto the person. Yeah. That will become a little softer than a hard light.

What's that disc called? There's variations. What's these things called that you bounce it with? Well, we have bounce boards. Bounce boards. Good job. Reflectors. Reflectors.

Bounce boards. That one's easy. Better than horse cock. I've made in front of some bounce boards in me day. Yeah, I've seen them too. I just don't know what they're called there's a bunch of different bounce boards too they make them out of all kinds of different materials so and then what is a stop is it the metal

flaps no that would be the barn doors some lights nowadays we're using a lot of LED type lighting a lot of softer lights yeah but a stop is directly in relation to how much light is being let into the sensor. Over the camera. Yeah, on the camera itself.

And the metal flaps are on the tin man's one. Do you want this, Jay? Show what this thing is. Well, this is a light meter. Oh, I know this thing. Yeah, they hold this thing in front of you. Yeah. Well, this is a light meter. Oh, I know this thing. Yeah, they hold this thing in front of you. Yeah. Yeah, it's a light meter.

Button's on the bottom right. Oh, yeah. Are you telling him how to turn it on? He has a nice one. Mine's the shitty one. This is like a little baby meter, man. So wait, that just tells you what to do? It does.

When you read the light, we're reading 5.6 here. But you have it at 1,500 ISO. I'd probably rate it at like 800. Are you an idiot, Jack? Partially, yeah. I'd have it at 700. So what would be ideal to film in right now? Most people will rate it at 800.

We'll start at 800 for an interior. And we're at 5.6? Well, that's the ISO. Oh, okay. We're at 5.6 well that's what the iso okay or five six at a thousand or whatever it was set to the iso um 1600 iso and so what should we be here you might want to go down to 800. uh that's why it looks terrible podcast lighting is a whole different thing though that's touchscreen. Aaron's feeling attacked. What lighting makes me look less fat? What is it?

Very dark. Pitch black. See, we're a four at 800. Candles out. Yeah, you just want really dark. You ever seen that movie with Vin Diesel? Pitch black. Wait, why don't we just do this podcast in candlelight?

Good idea. We should change that to that. Make it intimate. And then what is a practical? A practical is a light bulb that's in a regular light that might have a shade on it. Oh, okay. That's just like a regular light.

It'll be like on camera. Oh, and then the Apple box. So Jim got the Apple boxes right is is that where they came from because they used to use the name apple box i used to use actual apple boxes i'm not real sure where the name apple box came from they used to use them in the early days of film that would be maybe the quickest thing to grab for someone to stand on yeah to get them a little higher but yeah there are three positions basically uh they call it new york on the high side either chicago or texas on the medium side la for the flat side oh so you get

give me an apple box new york new york you'd stand it up on strike it that's right i know what's going on here you got the lingo yeah um and And then what is a spill? Exactly what Jim said it was. It's the light spilling out of a light that you may not want spilling out of light. Nope, he hit that one. Did you just guess that one? No. Oh, okay.

Years ago, I came up with a thing. We used to use a lot of tungsten Fresnels, and they just had all kinds of spill. So you'd either put a foil wrap on them that was called black wrap. You'd wrap this thing around the light. The light would get scalding hot and sometimes burn the bulb out, melt down the head. I came up with a thing that was just a piece of metal that attached to the bottom of the light, and it was called a spill ring. And one of the guys from Aerie came to visit me on set,

and he looked up and he goes, what's that on that Aerie head up there? I said, I call it a spill ring. Well, cut to six months later, they now have that attachment in their catalog called a spill ring. Damn. Wait, you got credit for it or not? I didn't get any credit for it.

See, that's where you need credit. You need credit for that. I get credit on other things also. Jay't get any credit for it. See, that's where you need credit. You need credit for that. I get credit on other things also. Jay gets ripped off all the time. Tell him about the light-up shoes. Oh, yeah, yeah. You invented light-up shoes? My son wears those.

When I was in my early 20s, I was working with a lady cinematographer. She was the first woman in the ASC, Breanne Murphy. And we were always trying to come up with new things. And I told her one day, I said, I got an idea. And she goes, what? And I said, shoes that light up when you take a step. Yeah. So she had some people.

She goes, I know someone we can talk to about that. So we went and I presented it to them. They loved the idea. They said, make us a prototype. Well, I was in my 20s and I was working all the time. I was running around doing all kinds of stuff just time got ahead of me two years later a rebot came out with shoes that light up when you take a step so yeah that's like your battery jim someone's gonna invent it the battery doesn't run out

i also invented i also invented the the i had this idea years ago for a picture frame where all your digital pictures and the pictures would be different. And if you touch it, the picture would move ever so slightly. You know how they do that? There you go. The picture frame with the picture? You know how you touch your phone and it goes sort of. It's like a live photo. The live photo.

Yeah, live photo. I had the idea for live photos before live photos happened. I've never heard this one. I've heard the battery one. I just didn't get off the ground in time. It's my only mistake. I've never even heard you mention it, though. I remember thinking it would be good if you pressed the photo

and you could see if the people were truly happy or whether they were putting in. Because everyone in photos is just like that. What's the little bit before and after? I thought that would be nice. Yeah, I had a thing for a while after my shows that I told people I take photos of them But they had to be candid because I didn't like doing like these and that didn't go over well I don't like that people want to be smiling people like to put your arm around each other and you smile facing forward

But you're never doing that and realize so you're capturing a moment. Let's see you're on vacation They're like hey everybody Let's take a picture and you all stand in a certain way that you don't stand like that at any other point ever in your life. You're capturing a moment by doing something you don't do except in that moment. Stupid. Yeah, but it's just to show that you all got together

to put effort in to capture the moment. I know, but you could kind of do it like just kind of sitting there. Have you looked back at pictures from the 90s of like when you're in college and all that type of stuff? It's insane. Women didn't know how to pose. Like men have always not known how to pose. But now with having a camera phone and having a mirror,

everyone sort of knows an angle or a thing that looks good. You look back at pictures of us from the 90s at a party. Let's all take a photo. Yeah, you had a disposable camera. You didn't get to take it again if you left it up. If you took the photo, if you wanted to look at that photo, you had to go over to Kevin's house and sit around the whole thing. So no one gave a fuck.

Yeah, that was the crazy thing. You'd pose, and you'd be like, I want to remember this pose. You'd get it developed, and you'd be like, terrible pose. I'll remember for next time. And then it would be like months later, and you'd be like, new pose. It's a year-long want to remember this pose you get it developed you're like terrible pose i'll remember for next time and then it would be like months later you're like new pose it's a year-long process to find it now it's just like and then you get it yeah it's a good one my son literally gets more photos taken of him in a week than i have my entire childhood yeah my entire i've got there's like 20 photos and there's so much data being taken up by photos that no one's

ever ever going to look at. I have like 75 videos of my dog snoring. Like three minute videos. In the same position. You've had your dog one month. Almost two. Yeah. Okay.

So magic hour, golden hour, blue hour. You got that right, I think. 20 minutes before or after sunset. The sky's a beautiful golden color and it's magical it is magical yeah i always say that when i'm in the car golden hour yeah so a bit of fun but what does that mean in tv or i mean or in film or something i mean you can't shoot that long exactly what it is what he said oh yeah you gotta catch it like you know that it's the reason that la became the the movie capital is never rains yeah and you can drive for an hour and you can be in the snow you can drive for 40 minutes and you can be in desert the days are really long you can make

anything look like anything and just there's never any wet days it's the perfect weather for film and now because of taxes and shit like that no one films here everyone lives here and no one films nothing um how do you light a green screen i didn't even ask this do you know well green screens green screen or blue screen you generally will put a light on it if it's a green screen you sometimes want a saturated a saturated green light on it but it's not necessary in today's world you can pretty much light a green screen or blue screen as long as it's even throughout top bottom that you can light it with just about anything all right so there's certain shows to me that i watch that i think that shows a blue show a green show or a yellow show now do

you know what i'm talking about so it's like when you watch ozark there is 100 there's a blue filter over that show when you watch better call sal that's a yellow show along with um there was the one the guy who killed gianni versace the whole thing's got like a yellow tinge i think sometimes they do the yellow to go the 80s. For whatever reason, they think the 80s. The movie Traffic did like, they did different colors for the different plot lines. It was like blue, yellow, white. But I'm not imagining that, right?

No, you're not imagining it at all. That's a thing that's going on. And that's a cinematographer's or maybe even the director's choice how they want it to look. I did a movie years ago in Puerto Rico, and we used seven different film stocks to go through seven different seasons. And you couldn't tell it at the end of the – when it was all cut together, you couldn't tell one from the other, really. Yeah. You know, if you're going high contrast or something like that or sepia or –

But how do they make it? Is that a camera thing making it? Because Ozark's blue. It's just a blue show. It's a camera thing. That's not you. You don't have to do it. No, it's all built into the camera.

The cinematographer may use a filter or change what color temperature the cameras are running at because that can affect the color outcome. Do you ever get yelled at as a gaffer or light in the landing set? Because there's always meltdowns at some point on TV or film. I've not ever been yelled at. Yeah, no Christian Bale. Fuck, I've been yelled at on set so many times. I get yelled at when I'm the star of the show.

People find a way. Yeah, that's true. I've been yelled at on every show i've ever been i've been yelled at by people who are below me in the fucking staff yeah i have no authority whatsoever i've only yelled once on set that was in atlanta i don't know if i think i was there for it it was not my fault no it was not your fault that's right but i had a little bit of a meltdown with some electricians at the end of the day that was probably the most i ever got the worst feeling

i've ever had was was me dj and dan went shot i've talked about this before we showed up on set and uh what we normally did was with what happened the lighting people and the people setting up cameras we would get on set so the three of us we get on set. So the three of us, we were in a sitcom together. The three of us would do this sitcom, and we all sort of knew. I'd written the sitcom, so for me it was, like, easy to remember lines, even though I wrote it months ago or whatever. But we would sit down while they were setting up the lights and setting up the cameras, and then we would gangbang the, you know, we would figure out really quickly how to get the lines.

Like, the three of us would run them. Gangbang? That's what you call it? You know, we used to say that in scripts. Let's gang bang this and get out of here. You know what I mean? That might be to you guys. All hands on deck. Yeah, we all got together to figure it out.

All right, bloody hell. Nobody gets to sit in the corner and videotape. Yeah, you're all sordid people. Bloody hell, you bloody PC brigade. Anyway, so we would sit there and we would figure out our lines very quickly. Then by the time the lighting and cameras were done, we would go into set. We never practiced our lines the night before or anything like that. The three of us knew how to system, right?

And then what we would do is we would always film the wide shot first. We would ask for the wide shot first. And then you would go through and then the close-ups would be last so you could fuck your lines up in the wide shot because it didn't matter because you weren't going to use too much of that footage and by the time you got to your turn we've already done the scene five times now i know my lines we're all good right yeah but one time we rock up there and we get there we get our breakfast bur burrito, we get put in the car, we get taken to set. We normally say hello to all the lighting guys.

Hello, how are you going? We're over at craft services getting a donut or whatever and wait for them to do it. Then we figure out. For whatever reason, the lighting guys and the camera people had gotten in there early and they were all set up and ready to go. And so the three of us walked up on set and they go, okay, we're ready to do a take.

And we just looked at each other. Now, we hadn't discussed. You're like, we haven't even done our gangbang. Well, this is the whole thing. We hadn't discussed, did you know the lines? We hadn't. All three of us thought we were the only one who didn't know. I so little knew what was going on in that scene

that I didn't know. It's not that I didn't know what my dialogue was. I didn't know what the episode was. I didn't know. I had no... You didn't know the plot. I didn't know what the emotional state of my character was in any way.

Right? And so we got on. So so i always i looked at like so dj got down into his wheelchair and dan was normally standing up in some scene or i was standing up and so dan stayed there and then i stayed seated in the couch in that little living room we'd have on the stand and then they went action and i was like please someone say something that jolts my brain and then i'll be ready to go and the three of us just looked at each other like we didn't even have a script to pull out right at the end

what's the show again and we we got yelled at that day yeah because the three of us just very unprofessional yelled at all of you guys all three of us really sorry really sorry give us 10 minutes the whole day is over everything is fucked up you guys fucked up

gold hours we're going to miss gold hours you cunts well and Jay's worked with DJ too because you did Road Trip that's right

so I might I might oh so Scott Armstrong wrote that I worked with Scott yeah so Scott yeah oh so scott armstrong right there i work with scott yeah um so scott yeah scott wrote that and he also wrote old school old school old school how did you light will farrell's penis when running through the street well he actually wore a sock show us your dick i've worn one of them before they're they're less flattering than your dick. I've worn one of them before. They're less flattering than your dick hanging out.

Because what happens is it's a sock, and so it's not like a big, long sock. It's like just a little sack, and you put it over your balls and your dick, and then you pull the cord, and then it's just like your meat just in a sack, and then your pubes hanging out over it. It's not like you don't know what's in there.

Yeah, it's like you'd be better off just people seeing your dick. Yeah, I don't think about the pubes hanging out over there. It's not like you don't know what's in there. Yeah, it's like you'd be better off just people seeing you do dick. Yeah, I don't think about the pubes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything's just hanging out the side. And also, it just looks uncomfortable. Like, you've got a jawstring around your dick, but you're like, all right, this is what we're doing to make everyone happy, make everyone comfortable in the room.

Yeah, but he had his ass out. Yeah, yeah. You have to light his ass. I was in the Hasselhoff movie. I had one naked scene where I had to come out wearing a sock or something. I've never seen that movie. I've never seen it either. We shot that scene up in outside of Pasadena.

Right. Side street there. Yeah. And it was just out in the open. People could see what was going on. That's Will Ferrell writing that. He wasn't Will Ferrell, Will Ferrell by then. Oh, he's sat in a library. It's pretty vague, yeah. It was just before Elf, wasn't it?

Yeah, but he was already SNL famous. That's right. Yeah, for sure. And then who else was in that movie? One of the Wilson brothers. Yeah, yeah. And what's his name Vince Vaughn

Vince Vaughn yeah there was huge it was like pre big social media though so that's why there wouldn't have been so much talk about it now you wouldn't have

been able to yeah they'd be like oh Farrell's in a sock in front of my ass oh yeah yeah the amount of footage that would have come out otherwise

Snoop Dogg was in it for a couple days yeah he was in that scene where he runs down the street my wife was just in a movie that Snoop Dogg was in it for a couple days. Yeah, he was in that scene where he runs down the street. My wife was just in a movie that Snoop Dogg was in. The one about dominoes. Oh, yeah, yeah. It was directed by an NBA player.

Baron Davis. Baron Davis. Yeah, he used to be in it. He wrote and directed it. Did you watch it? I did, yeah. It was all right. Yeah?

Yeah, yeah. I've never seen it. What's it on? I think we bought it on Amazon or something like that. I couldn't tell you what happened. It's for Jim's wife's career. I don't think she gets any extra money if you do download it or anything. Here's some terms that I asked Jim.

I don't think you knew any of them. Tweeny, in-betweeny, or an inky. What is that? He said, we don't call them that anymore. We've got to be a lot more tolerant. Yeah, we don't. People on their lifestyle. We don't really even have those.

Those are kind of old retired lights. They were a 150, a 300, and a 650 watt type light. So they were just different wattage small lights, and they were just old mole Richardson lights. What about a baby stand? Is that a smaller stand? No, a baby stand is something that you would put a light on that has a baby receiver. It might be a Fresnel of some sort. It could be any number of lights that has a baby receiver it might be a fresnel of

some sort it could be any number of lights that has a baby receiver what's a baby receiver it's a it's a female receiver and on the top of the baby stand is a pin pretty much about the size of your finger and the light slides right on it and you lock it down oh so these this is where all these sexual terms are coming from kind of well you know, male and female connections. Yeah, sure, of course. But like a mambo combo. To actually put them together, making them actually binary. A mambo combo is a very big stand that the grips use mostly. They use them to hang or hold up big frames to diffuse light.

That's why you never know what's going on in these things because of all these terms. Yeah, like Apple box, Chicago with a mambo combo. It's to keep other people out of the job. Yeah. That's why everyone does everything. That's why lawyers only exist to do contracts. Because they speak in their own language. And then you need one of the people who speak that language.

And if you don't understand the language, you can be in very trouble. I pay so much money to lawyers every time i do a gig every time i do a fucking show there's some contract and there's lots of latin oh yeah and then oh we've looked over it we've done a thing oh it's okay by us is it yeah i'm sure you were worried all day lawyers uh barn doors at an ass but you said that's the metal flaps that's right butterfly frame i don't know if we well butterfly frame they got that term because in the early days of filmmaking there would be a guy a grip that would hold a long pole that had a big round frame on that had a net or a diffusion on it

and they resembled a butterfly net okay so that's why they were called butterfly frames but those are the big square things you see on sets. Yeah, yeah. They have different materials on it. Did you want to be an electrician, Jack? What stopped that dream? You know, I was doing it for a while, and everyone, all the adults in it said, you don't want to do this for a living. Get out of it.

That's what you told them, Jay? It'll beat you up after a while. But you look so young. Well, I'm the gaffer. I can, you know, I don't have to carry the equipment like my guys do. He could be a gaffer by now, not by now, but eventually. He could be if he was. Do you still remember what my nickname was you guys all gave me on set?

I think Jack does. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Noodle arms. Come bucket. That's right. Noodle arms. Yeah, noodle arms. That's right.

He actually brought you here for revenge. I'm sorry about that. It was that and salmon pants. I had both. Salmon. Yeah, noodle arms, that's right. He actually brought you here for revenge. I'm sorry about that. It was that and salmon pants. I had both. Salmon pants. Noodle arms, salmon pants. Now they would bloody sue for that now. You'd be up at HR all day.

That's right. They call me noodle arms. I don't know what to do. Yeah, but they said at the end I was rigatoni. I was spaghetti at the beginning. I got to rigatoni. Meaning he's weak? He was weak. I was spaghetti at the beginning. I got to Rigatoni. Meaning he's weak? He was weak?

He was weak in the beginning. They left me the tweenies and in-betweenies. It's a lot of heavy equipment that you've got to carry around. You could write a children's book, Noodle Arms, Salmon Pants. I definitely was strong. By the end of that TV show, I was pretty strong. And I lost it all when I went to school. I'm still laughing.

It's just like, come bucket. And then we said, come bucket. It just like flew by. Oh, I didn't even hear that. Yeah. It was his nickname. A lot of my disgusting jokes aren't landing today. But I'm all right with it.

Come bucket enjoyed it. Come bucket loves it. We got that one right under the edge. We almost didn't get a cum reference. Is a cookie. You know what's weird? People have now been calling me fuck face. Ever since we posted that.

People are just writing to me like, hey, fuck face. And I forgot that we even did that. About your nickname. And I'm just like, what the fuck is this person coming in? That was his mom's nickname. I hate the comments. This person's coming in so hot. Your mom. mom yeah my mom

used to call me fuckface isn't that terrible a ten a ten she used to go where's fuckface that bloody idiot

fucking fuckface confirmed by your brother yeah confirmed by your brother or my real name's Jeffrey she used to call me Jeffrey because she said

I never paid attention terrible fuckface is worse but still that's pretty bad yeah but fuckface was... Does she still call you that? No, she's dead.

She's dead, so... So I can call her that with no repercussions. That's when you're having a nice tender moment. Yeah, sometimes I think, what would I do? Fuckface, I wish you were here. Is a cookie something you put under a leg to make it stop wobbling? Yeah. I thought that was pretty good.

No, it's not. I was excited for you. That's a coaster. A cookie is a shortened term for kookalores, which is usually it's a piece of wood that's got a big cutout in it that resembles light going through trees or it breaks the light up in ways. So you get that little shadow. Ah, yeah.

A kookalores? Kookalores. A kookalores. A kookalores for short. A butt plug. Jim said he didn't know what that was in relation to lighting. He knew what it was. I know.

It is in relation to what? Butt plug is actually a piece of equipment. We don't call them butt plugs anymore either because of HR. It's basically a junior spud with a baby pin on top and that slips into a combo stand to be able to put

a light on top of it. When you were saying that before I was like that's going to be one of the hardest. So who is the soft cock who bloody complained? Who read the HR? I don't feel comfortable in my work environment because I call this spindly thing a butt plug.

So what's the horse cock then? Horse cock is our biggest, heaviest, thickest cable that we use on set. Plus also it's his nickname. They suck. on set noodle arms and horse cock noodle arms had a hard time with horse cock because it's and it comes in 25 foot lengths 50 foot lengths and 100 foot yeah why didn't you use a dolly why did you why were you trying to well because you missed the days when i was rigging you would would have laughed your ass off. So it's a 100-foot-long cord.

It's a pound per inch, so it's 100 pounds. And watching Noodle Arms try to wrap that thing up and then throw it on his shoulder and then put it in a cart was, I mean, it was a problem. Wait, the horse cock is a pound per inch? Yes. Yeah. So 100 pounds.

So you know when you're at, like, a concert and you see, like, all those all those big cords It's basically that But there's five of them for one line That's right Oh it's hell Holy cow And you have to coil that up A certain size

And tie it And then throw it up on your shoulder Why haven't you got cables? What's wrong with a bit of wifi? Bluetooth Why can't you Bluetooth noise? That's a good point It's probably coming

It's coming There's a lot of lights now That run off batteries So when you get your never-dying battery, I want in on that. It's not even just, it's not like, I'm not stupid. I'm not like, oh, the battery goes in there. It never needs to be charged.

I'm just saying it charges because it's being used. Like regenerative braking. Yeah, but that sort of exists. Like in the pre-existence. The more light you have, the more battery you have. It'll never go down. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, but that sort of exists. Like in the pre-existence. The more light you have, the more battery you have. It'll never go down. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, yeah.

I want to see that. It's more, and for every bit of like power that it uses, it releases more good oxygen and stuff into the air. Oh, it's like better for the environment. Better for the environment. And improves the environment. Better for the environment. And if you ever, you would never get rid of the battery because it never runs out.

But if you ever did throw it into landfill, it would eat up other bits of landfill. That's good. I like that. It's a natural predator in the landfill. You've really been workshopping this. I didn't know that you were. Yeah. You're on to something.

It's very good. Very good. Very good. And you can, actually, the batteries could be bricks. And you make the house, the batteries never run out. You make the house out of the batteries. And then that powers the house. You don't need outlets.

Plus releasing more oxygen. Yeah. You're going to be rich. And if there's a flood, the house will float up and sit on the top. In fact, you'll be more comfortable. You'll be more comfortable. You'll be more comfortable. Because you're now a waterfront property.

Yeah. All right. You should talk about the most famous term in there, probably is the C47. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Jay wants to talk about it. Well, C47 is a clothespin.

Basically what it was, a clothespin. And we would use them to put gels on lights. And nowadays we hardly ever put gels on lights because LEDs can do so many different colors. They're called C-47s? We had to have a technical name for it in order to get it through production. Oh, yeah.

Or they wouldn't give you hair clip money. No. But a C-47. We need 100 C-47s. They need 1,000 of these. They must be important. 1,000 C-47s. We need a thousand of these they must be important thousand c47s we need uh 200 feet of horse cock they don't call it horse cock anymore they don't i mean people don't say it it's not cool but you got to be real careful what you're saying in front of certain

people it's less offensive i worked with a bunch of salty older guys and learned a lot of things just just to the taste. There's something about Freddy Got Fingered next to this. Old come bugger. Oh, okay. I put that in there because it reminded me

when you said horse cock about a movie I did called Freddy Got Fingered. Daddy, would you like some sausage? Daddy, would you like some sausage? Did you have to light up

the sausage scene and there would have been a lot of shadows in that scene because that was a lot of meat hanging from the ceiling how did you get around the meat well areas but the whole horse cock thing reminded me of the very first scene that's in freddie got fingered and tom green's character is driving down the freeway in a convertible and he looks over in to field and sees the

stallion so he gets all excited he jumps out of his car and this is in the first couple pages of the script and the director of photography who I did the movie with I've done 60 features with and he goes I don't want to do this movie he goes what am I gonna do he, let me just read you the first page. And it was Tom Green driving down the freeway, jumping out of his car, running out into the field and jerking this stallion off. Yeah.

Which happens not with just a stallion, but later in the film, he does the same thing with an elephant. Yeah. And the elephant releases and, you know. It is funny how movies have changed. So when the third one comes out when I have to see that film again I don't remember that

it's been quite a while well the thing was he was before Jackass you don't understand how revolutionary he was like Priyaragandre kind of thing

he was he was he was something special he was yeah yeah he was I remember I remember like going

I can't believe he had a testicle removed for testing and he got up and put it in his mouth and stuff on camera I don't remember that he was i remember i remember like going i can't believe he had a testicle removed for testing and he got up and put in his mouth and stuff on camera i remember that yeah he's a god man and he's in road trip as well yeah that's right yeah he is but tom tom green's pretty awesome he's very polite he's very nice yeah i worked a weekend with him when i first started doing common he was really nice that's all that's the only memory i only knowledge up but he was he was very kind so uh i'll get two more terms beaver board is where you put your horse costume so yeah well beaver board's another term obviously we don't use on set anymore it

comes out people will blurt it out and then they'll kind of you know but it's basically a pancake which was in the apple box family yeah with usually a baby plate screwed to the top of it. So you have a small wooden plate with a baby pin metal plate on it that you can put a light on. So if I have to set a light on the ground, I can put the light there and do what I have to do with it. And why was it called a baby board? Because they are horny as hell. Yeah, well, you know, how people imagine it, the pin sticking up out of something, a lot of people thought, well,

that's something women would enjoy. And so that term came up. She called it like a Sibian or something. You really know what the women enjoy. So we don't use that term. Okay, and then the last one was Rocky Mountain Leg, and Jim said, I want the women in George. So we don't use that term. Sitting on a metal pin.

Okay. And then the last one was Rocky Mountain Leg, and Jim said, this is all rubbish. But he should get enough point for that, honestly. It's just one of the legs that's on either a baby stand or a mambo combo that you can adjust for rough terrain. So two legs are one, and you can put the other leg down farther

if you're on a hillside or something. Well, this is the part of the podcast called Dinner Party Facts. We ask our expert to give us some facts, something obscure, interesting about the topic that they can use to impress people. I don't know. Lighting. This might be a tough one. You got something. Well, the other thing I can say is most people wonder where the term gaffer came from.

Yeah. And, you know, back when the streets we didn't have electricity there were gas lanterns along the street so the guy that was hired he would carry a long stick with a torch on the end of it a flame and he would go up to all the gas lanterns and light them on along the street And that was called a gaff stick. So the gaffer, that's where the term came from. He was the gaffer lighting the gas lanterns. Jay has a lot of amazing set stories.

I just wanted to tell the Michael Mann story if you want to. Yeah, that's probably. You're going to get fired from Michael Mann if you tell this story? Well, I don't really work for Michael Mann. I did. I did a movie called Manhunter, and I think that was in 80, I think we shot that in 84 or 85. But I was the generator operator on it,

and I was working super long hours. As the genny op, you had to be there before everyone else got there because you had to power things up. So I was averaging 18 to 20 hours a day on that show with usually six-hour turnarounds. And we had three nights of shooting left, and we were shooting the scene between the FBI agents and Dollar Hyde back in the swamp across the Cape Fear River from Wilmington, North Carolina. So we were in the woods where they built this set, the Dollar Hide House.

Dante Spinotti was the director of photography on it. And we started having a lot of lights that were being used, so the generator needed a little more air to keep it cooler. So it was about 3 in the morning. I climb up on top of the generator and i go and on top there was two flaps you could open one to allow a certain amount of air in you'd open up a second one to allow even more air in to cool it down more so i climb up there i open that flap up and all of a sudden i hear two gunshots and you know this is normal on a film

like manhunter you hear gunshots you know but this time it was a little different you could hear the bullets coming careening through the tree branches and hitting limbs as it went right over my head and i was like what the hell so i dropped down on top of the roof of the generator and i start to scuttle my way back to the back end of the generator to climb down and i heard and i heard two more gunshots this time you could hear them going through limbs then you heard it dink dink and that was the bullets hitting something well as i'm climbing off the back of the generator the transportation captain on that part of the shoot comes flying out of the special effects truck he had been sitting

in there reading a book and those two shots i had just heard went through the special effects truck and hit in the wall on the opposite side right in front of him so he comes running back i'm climbing off the back generator and he goes Jay, who's firing live rounds here? And I said, I have no idea. Just then we heard three more shots coming through the trees, and we're kind of standing next to each other. And right next to my head, three bullet holes right in the side of my generator in a perfect little triangle. And Rick gets on there. Who's firing live ammo?

Who's doing this and they yelled cut nothing no one they called a wrap so we didn't know what was going on so you know i stayed we they did what they did um i shut the generator down after everybody left went home went to sleep got up next morning, came in early like always. And I was the genny operator, so another gaffer owned that generator. He wasn't working on the show. And he showed up, and he says, Jay, I'm glad you showed up this morning. He goes, frankly, I'm surprised you did after what I heard happened last night.

He goes, these rounds hit the generator. I showed him the bullet holes. He said, if they even look at you cross-eyed tonight, I want you to pull the plug on them and pull the generator away. They hadn't paid the rental on some things for quite some time, like a month. So he was kind of fed up himself. So I thought, okay, well, I got some power here. You know, I was feeling pretty good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No apologies, no nothing. Who shot him, though? Who shoot him? Okay, so what I came to find out was that Michael Mann wanted the realism and shot high speed, wanted to put live rounds in a gun and shot through a window, wanted high speed to see the bullets going through the window

and off into the darkness towards the FBI agents. There was no one there. They cleared that area. They didn't have any actors in there. But they didn't clear the whole area back where all the trucks were. They didn't tell anyone. So special effects effects they gathered all their weapons and they loaded them up that wrap that night and they pulled out they left the show

yeah well the next morning i show up and i'm standing there and they everyone had to walk down this long dirt road to get to the set and i'm standing on the back of the generator and i'm just watching michael mann the first ad the second, and I'm just watching Michael Mann, the first AD, the second AD. Everyone's just walking by. No one's even looking at me. They're not saying anything. They're not telling me what was going on. They had no apologies, nothing.

They go in, and I'm like, shit, man. What can I do here? So we shot till midnight that night, and then I got on the radio. The gaffer on the show was John Ferguson. And I said, John, I'm going to pull the plug on this. And I could hear Michael Mann in the background kind of yelling, who the hell does he think he is? And he goes, what do you want to stay?

And I said, well, first of all, I'm still baffled as to what happened last night. Like an apology? There's been no explanation, no apology, no nothing. FX guys pulled out, and I could hear Michael Mann over his radio kind of screaming, and then the radio went dead, and I'm sitting there. He comes back on, and he goes, what do you want to stay? What do I want? Post-coc? Oh, a beaver board

so I said well I want the rental check here before we wrap in the morning for Jock everything that's owed to him I want and I want double time for everybody that's been shooting these long hours for the past week that's what I want so I could hear him screaming the radio goes dead again he comes back on he goes okay you got it

yeah they got off cheap. They got off real cheap. Yeah, yeah, double time. And back then, you know, there was no – the safety regulations weren't in place, and that film actually caused a lot of safety things to, you know, become better for the industry. But I almost lost my life.

And that movie was The Crow. Forgot about The Crow. No, Alec Baldwin is the one that's in there. I feel sorry for Alec Baldwin. That's another episode, another day. Between that and the spill thing that you invented, you should be a bazillionaire. Well, thanks for being here.

Jay Yowler, so much. If you want to follow my Instagram it's at gaffdaddy and check out I don't know he's been in all these movies Dumb and Dumber

Road Trip Old School Transformers Rise of the Beast Grown-ish on ABC he's worked on a million things thank you thanks for being on the podcast

Jay I appreciate it if you're ever at a party and someone comes up to you and goes you look like you've got a horse's cock, I'll be like, oh, I don't know about that, and I'll walk away. Good night, Australia.