The Heart Of Show Business With Alexia Melocchi
Step into the bold and unfiltered world of show business with Alexia Melocchi—PGA producer, international distributor, author, and 30-year Hollywood insider.
This is your backstage pass to the mindset, tactics, and truth behind how Hollywood really works. Through raw and inspiring conversations with A-list creators, business leaders, and global thought shapers, you'll discover the real strategies that lead to lasting success—on and off the screen.
From insider tips to soulful storytelling, each episode is a masterclass in making your mark—not just in showbiz, but in every area of life.
The Heart Of Show Business With Alexia Melocchi
Scripting the Perfect Hallmark Moment
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Have you ever wanted to know what makes a Hallmark movie? In this episode I chat with prolific television producer Jon Eskenas, whose development and on set expertise has been credited to several Hallmark and Lifetime movies and series. Having enjoyed professional interaction and a peer to peer friendship for 15 years, together we celebrate the power of Christmas and romance films, and let Jonathan's wisdom guide us in the process from script to screen.
Get some valuable insights on:
The mysterious alchemy that binds the genres of horror and romance, and how the essence of character dynamics can elicit strong viewer investment.
The Hallmark formula and the craft of character evolution.
Behind the curtain of script development and the meticulous orchestration involved in television production.
The allure of a unique log line and the initial magic of character introductions, revealing the intricate dance between writer, producer, and network.
The unpredictable tides of filmmaking, where empathy and the art of living in the present emerge as our guiding stars.
And so much more!
Don't miss this true insider episode packed with golden nuggets!
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Welcome to the Heart of Show business. I am your host, alexia Melochi. I believe in great storytelling and that every successful artist has a deep desire to express something from the heart to create a ripple effect in our society. Emotion and entertainment are closely tied together. My guests and I want to give you insider access to how the film, television and music industry works. We will cover dreams come true the road. Let's travel, journey beginnings and a lot of insight and inspiration in between. I am a successful film and television entrepreneur who came to America as a teenager to pursue my show business dreams. Are you ready for some unfiltered real talk with entertainment visionaries from all over the world? Then let's roll sound and action.
Speaker 2Well, good evening, good afternoon, good morning, wherever you are in the world. To my, the Heart of Show business podcast listeners and viewers on YouTube, I continue to bring on in this new season excellence, excellence in filmmaking and television, and I think what you all want to know yes, is great, we have celebrities, we have established actors and filmmakers, but, as I always say, it is a producer who sees a vision of something and helps make it a reality. So I have been wanting to bring on more producers on my show. I have yet to bring a big TV producer, so my guest today is actually probably a first one in the TV space and, on top of it, he is like the man when it comes to Christmas movies and romance movies, anything hallmark, anything lifetime.
Speaker 2So, jonathan Askin. As for those of you who don't know who he is, probably in middle America, you don't know who he is, just like you don't know who the hell I am, but he is an accomplished producer who started working with, I think, one of the biggest women producers in television, which was early Aderson, and then he went on, of course, to work at overseas production and development for Dick Clark production, known for the people who produce the Oscars and all the country music awards and the Golden Globes and whatever that is. But he doesn't take care of that part. He takes care of this wonderful movies that we see about Christmas and love and life that we all love to watch all year long, not just doing Christmas. So welcome to my show, jonathan Askin, as this is his last name if you want to look him up on IMDB, welcome.
Speaker 3That's first. It's such an honor to be joining you, alexia. You're one of the great people out there and it's always a pleasure talking to you and such a pleasure and honor to be a part of this. Thank you for the introduction. Too kind, literally too kind, but yes, you're. I've been very fortunate to work with some great people orally, as you mentioned, to have been at Dick Clark productions, which is such a historic place to be, and then started my company about 10 years ago and it's been a great ride and you've been a part of that ride and I'm always fortunate to talk with great people like yourself. So thank you for having me.
Speaker 2Of course it's great to have you and for everybody that doesn't know about it, jonathan and I have known each other for probably 15 years now and we have yet to make a movie together. We had a lot of fall starts but hopeful starts. But yet, unfortunately, you know COVID and all those great things happen. But what I love about Jonathan is and again I say, about true producers. True producers take the time to actually read the material, take the time to give you genuine and honest feedback, because I think everybody deserves that.
Speaker 2No matter you're putting your heart out on paper, you want someone who's just not going to tell you it's a pass. You know, we don't care. And Jonathan, what I love about him is he actually takes the time whether and he's always brutally honest, but in such a kind way they always feel warm and fuzzy. So, jonathan, you hear a lot of pictures, obviously, and you're kind of like the go-to man for the Christmas and holiday and romance stuff. How did that come about? How did you end up in this specific like niche, as we call it?
Speaker 3First I have to say I love brutally kind but brutally honest, but in a kind way. That's a, that's a fantastic to. So thank you for that hilarious. That can be the subtitle of my autobiography that nobody would ever read. So you know how I came about this. It's interesting, the paths that that things take us. I ever since I was a kid.
Speaker 3Storytelling was a part of my life when I was a young kid and things would sort of gone through a tumultuous time when I was quite young and storytelling would help me. I would make up a different version of life and always kept that and never knew exactly what I wanted to do. And I should say I love horror movies, I love documentaries, I love so and independent features and comedies. But as fate would sort of have it, I had been. I worked a few. I came out to California, started working as a PA and different jobs, ended up working for a company at Sony and then with Orly. And the first movie I ever set up or it was so great to give me the opportunity to find projects and pitch them was to Hallmark Channel. It was a movie called mystery woman to an amazing executive there named Lizzy host, who I'm very fortunate to say, is still a dear executive and, even more importantly, a very dear friend, and we set up that movie.
Speaker 3I was maybe 2001 and there were a lot of other things. Or I was doing with Orly. At that time we were doing projects for ESPN, for TBS, for back when CBS, abc used to do movies, but that was the first one and had kept that relationship and then, as the years went on, it did more with Hallmark and one particular was a project called the Goodwitch, a movie that, also with Liz, lovely little movie with starren taffin bell, who's the best of the best. That was just going to be this fun one-off movie that ended up at the time, I think, became their highest rated non-christmas movie ever. So we ended up doing seven of those movies and then it became the series and we ended up doing seven seasons. So for all that time I was working with Hallmark and getting to know everybody there and there's such lovely people, all the executives work with a lot of the executives there and everybody in publicity, marketing, production. It's just a bunch of great people.
Speaker 3So I've been very fortunate to build a relationship with them and those are the movies they're doing, these, you know, romances, obviously, the Christmases, the romantic comedies. They're doing some romantic dramas. They're really growing. You know, I say the picture of love. They're really expanding that picture. Now what does love look like? And in terms of, we did a movie called Color my World With Love with two young leads who had Down syndrome, who were getting married. We have multiple different things in development with them. So it's really just been a great place to work. And though I still love watching horror movies and being, you know, as Halloween comes up, it's a great time of year because they're on television. But to make these movies that make people happy, it's something you know you do. Television you don't always get to see it. You're not in the theater watching people, but let me know and then I'll hear people talk about having watched a Hallmark movie and the joy it brought them. And it's exactly why I wanted to ever work in this business in the first place.
Speaker 2That is such a great answer and I have to say it's been interesting to me because I've been noticing a lot of men watch those movies too. You would think of a big thing. And then sometimes I talk to guys and they're like, oh, you know, what did you do? Oh, I just sat and started watching and binging on some Hallmark type movies, which is there is a reason why now all the other streamers are trying to copy that model and are trying to go that way. So I think people want to be in difficult times, but in, I think, in every moment of life, we want to be transported in another world and we want to believe in goodness and we want to believe in values and we want to believe in family and coming together as humans, and I believe that that's really what the Hallmark model truly is right.
Speaker 3Absolutely, and you're so right. You know, in difficult times, you know in difficult times in the world or in the country or in a neighborhood, we can always get to what you and Knight's Sess is love and is family. And you know we all love somebody, we all want somebody to love us. And then also, you know, personally we go through things and my wife, who is thankfully fine, had just about a month ago had gone through, she had had a surgery and she was in the hospital for a few days. Again, she's completely recovered and fine. When she was in the hospital she was watching Hallmark because it makes her happy.
Speaker 3My dad, when he had had a heart attack and was in the hospital six years ago and unfortunately didn't turn out well, but that hospital had it was a hospital in Florida they had Hallmark on and the nurses would come in and say but I was like, oh, you have Hallmark on. And they said, yeah, because it makes us happy, we might walk in or Roman only be able to be in this room for two minutes and he was in the surgical ICU they said we can come in and whoever's on there is gonna make me happy. And then I said, oh, because I actually I was at the time filming good luck. She was there to be with my dad and I should say and this is the Hallmark family, they were all simple, it'll be with your dad, and Catherine Bell did a headshot, signed a headshot so she could send to the nurses there because they were such fans, you know, and that's what it's all about bringing people joy and then people, and then there's escapism and so you know, I've also. I've done true crime. I've done. I had a true crime series that I did for network. I've done all different sorts of things and it's the same escapism and that's.
Speaker 3You know, storytelling is storytelling and it's funny. There are a lot of people. It seems odd that I would both love to do these movies but also be a horror fan In anything you're eliciting, trying to anyway, emotions or in reactions. You know, we do these movies. You want somebody to cry at the happy parts, you want somebody to laugh at the funny parts. The same you do a horror movie. You want somebody to scream, you want somebody to jump. It's about crafting the story and the production and with the great director and cast and editing and music. But certainly when it comes to Hallmark, yeah, there is a universal quality that we all share of love, and that's what Hallmark's all about.
Speaker 2Wow. But then at the same time, which is interesting to me with Hallmark and I completely agree with you, by the way, that horror and it's interesting I had Evans Piliotopoulos on my show and he's known for all the Disney stuff. I mean he did Beauty and the Beast and he does the Huntsman, he does all this super clean Disney stuff and then he goes and does the Pope's exorcises.
Speaker 3So that's true of so many people that do children's movies and horror movies. That is true of so many people because, again, it's very much about wanting to get a reaction. You have to get a reaction from a child, you have to keep attention, you have to, and that comedy and horror are very similar in a way, in that timing is everything, and sometimes it's about shortening the timing, sometimes it's extending the timing, that if you wanna laugh, the timing has to be exactly right, and if you wanna scare, the timing has to be exactly right. So they're actually quite similar.
Speaker 2Yes, and on top of it I like to add they're a great excuse to hug someone because you're gonna hug more during the day this is true, and then you're gonna hug more when you're getting scared.
Speaker 3Who?
Speaker 2will find anyone to hug, it's true they're both great for date nights.
Speaker 3Yeah, this is very true. So yeah, and we always joke, and we've said this with Hallmark each of the movies have their horror equivalent, like any of these movies, the Hallmark ones it only would take a little twist we would have said that with a good witch of light one little twist and it would be like, oh, but they're actually a serial killer, you know so there's always that what about Winnie the Pooh?
Speaker 2I mean, you know they've died.
Speaker 3I know, yeah, I didn't see that, but I know that one I'm not gonna see, it's gonna ruin my thousand memories. I have. For one, I love Honey, and for two, I have a Winnie the Pooh I've. You know, as here I'm trying to be set me up as this wise producer, I have a Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal I really like. So, yes, I'm not gonna see the horror one because I like the innocent Winnie the Pooh.
Speaker 2Oh, Jonathan, listen.
Speaker 3The worst he does is steal some honey.
Speaker 2Yeah, see, you got a Winnie the Pooh and I got Snoopy. So there you go yeah there you go. Don't make Snoopy a serial killer, please. That's gonna work for me, please.
Speaker 2I mean oh my gosh. So, jonathan, let me ask you something. So there is a formula, obviously, to Hallmark and every writer that I know that I thought I'm just gonna write a Hallmark movie as long as I had two people falling in love, but there is some things that Hallmark traditionally not to give inside information look for right. So what are some of those things?
Speaker 3Can you go over a few of them just to give us a little, a little Of course, you know, one thing that's interesting is that Hallmark they're often, if other movies, people will expect something different than when they watch them, because I think people might believe that there are, that every movie has to have this or every movie has to have that, and, yes, there are certain things that you see in quite a number of them, but there isn't a in Act One. You have to do this. In Act Two, you have to do that. In Act Four, you have to do this.
Speaker 3They're far more open to having, especially now to doing twists that they otherwise wouldn't have had. But certainly romance is going to be a part of them. And there's homework channel. There's also homework movies and mysteries, and now they also have their streaming homework streaming as well and homework movies and mysteries. Their movies are mysteries. They do their mystery reels. They also do more dramatic movies, movies that get with the one I mentioned called my World With Love between Young Adults with Down Syndrome. That was on homework movies and mysteries, though then it also worked on homework channel as well.
Speaker 3But really what they look for is romance. When we're talking about the sort of the typical homework movie and how you get into that romance. It's a concept that, in finding that concept that is relatable but at the same time unique and fun and special. They say, like they're relatable are two people falling in love and as we talked about that, we've all felt it. I imagine we've all felt it. The situation they may be in may not at all be relatable because, depending on the high concept of it, there's all different things that they may go. But you know some of it is looking at.
Speaker 3There are nine acts in a homework movie. So we just say there's eight commercial rates and the first act is always about 20 minutes or so. So you have a longer first act and then the other eight acts are somewhere between seven and 10 minutes and the fourth act is your hour break. So as you're putting these movies together, you need, if you have eight commercials, you need eight twists. Right, you need eight times in the movie that there's a what's going to happen next, or how is this going to? How is this relationship going to grow, or oh, no, they're falling apart, or oh, you know they're going to lose. You know their job or something bad has happened, whatever that is.
Speaker 3So that's part of the structure of these is finding how you keep driving these movies forward, but I guess they've really tried to get away from. You know, there used to be like you can't kiss until the very end of the movie. It used to be at the, you know, only at the end of the movie. The first kiss was the last kiss. Now that change I've done up the last few movies I've done. Actually the kiss has come quite a bit earlier. So you know, those those kind of this is what it has to be.
Speaker 3But I would say, if there's a great idea, if there's a great romance, but also beyond that, who are the characters, if that's the thing that they really look for is depth in characters. You get these movies. They're two hours but they're give or take 83 minutes without commercials. So how do you get into who these characters are, where they are in their life? Because, again, that's what draws us in to any character and I think, to any movie, to any series it's the characters that dry you in and make you root for them to fall in love, make you root for them to have success.
Script Development and Storytelling in Television
Speaker 3And you know, whatever it is that that they're doing, there was one we did recently called Perfect Harmony, that I did for them, where he the two of them. It was a guy who was a former pop star he had had hits on like 15 years ago and a woman who was a poetry teacher. And they end up doing they're sort of called, they get wrapped into being like a wedding band and now they have to come up with a song for their friends' wedding because everybody loved their performance together and in the process they fall in love. But will they be able to write that song together? Is that the highest of stakes? I mean, into hearing it? Not necessarily, but if you believe in these characters and if you want them to fall in love and you want them to succeed for their friends and all of that, then it is the highest stakes, because it's what matters to them and I think that's what we can all relate to is what's going on in our lives. Anybody else might hear and say that's nothing to us, it's everything.
Speaker 2Oh, what a great answer. And you know, I think that there is also a greatness understanding with a lot of people that they're thinking that you know Hallmark is a place to go. But really they need to go to the producers who have the relationship with the Hallmark, because obviously when you're doing so many movies is because a Hallmark or the Lifetimes or whoever network, they trust your judgment number one and number two. They assign you on how to deal with the writers and how to deal with all those type of things, and then they obviously they send you also in production on location to make sure that everything goes smoothly, right.
Speaker 2So you're getting I'm sure you're getting a gazillion queries, a gazillion pitches. What stands out to you is a log line. Do you even read even a little further than the log line? Do you look for the personality of the writer, Like what gets your attention to go and say, well, let me read this and have a conversation and see if I can take it somewhere?
Speaker 3Definitely the log line. You know, a log line that feels like something unique, feels like it has a point of view into this story. So that's the first thing. And then there's maybe a few paragraphs that that you know might come to tell a little more. And then when I'm reading the script, even something I would say with writers especially you know, true of any writer in any movie, anything you're doing, but especially writer if you're, you haven't had anything produced. You're trying to get read, you're trying to have somebody want to take you on or get something into development or produced. Those first few pages, in the first page especially, it's so important. If it's funny, give your one of your best jails, if it.
Speaker 3How do you introduce the characters? There are an interesting way to introduce the characters. There are interesting way to introduce the story, you know, versus sometimes just establishing shock. Your way is, you know, how are you, how do you start in this? It's something that right away shows this is somebody who isn't trying to copy, because when you talk about what Hobbock's looking for, when I'm looking for any movie that.
Speaker 3I do for them or for any. But if I'm doing a movie for them, you want it to obviously belongs on homework. You want to make something that feels like it belongs on homework because it's going to be on homework, but also don't want it to feel like a movie I've done before because I've already done that, You've already seen it, They've already watched it. You know that's your homework. Once is yes, you want something that feels, of course, true to the network and that the fans love, but it also has to feel unique. So, reading a script, I want to see that they're not trying to copy, that they are coming into something with their own unique voice and that each character has their unique voice. It's not this is what I think somebody on homework would sound like, this is what I think this character should sound like. And it was interesting, I will say, when we did and I keep mentioning it just happens to relate to what I just said when we did that movie Color my World With Love. It was really fascinating because the authenticity was the name of the game and we wanted to.
Speaker 3It was very important that we wanted to tell a movie Lodi the story. It was a mom, played by Erica Durant, who's just amazing. If I had a osaurus, I could spend an hour trying to come up with the right word for her, but now we'll say amazing. She was a mom. Or her daughter, played by Lily D Moore, falls in love and wants to get married and Erica is deciding can I let her?
Speaker 3And what was really important was we wanted to make a story up on a mom and a daughter where the daughter is getting married who happens to have Down syndrome, not a movie about a girl with Down syndrome and so wanting to find the voice of this character. You know, what is this character Sound like? What is this character where? What is this character want her life to be? And that's true across of anything that I would want to do, or any writer should want to do, is this is a Hallmark movie and you may have seen 100, Ethelman, thousand of them, but what does this character sound like? And so that the log line and then the voice, the voice of the characters, to me is is everything.
Speaker 2Wow, and you know what? I think it almost had a question that it answered itself, which is, if you were to choose between a perfect, technically perfect script, but devoid of emotion, but just technically, like you said, feeling all the Hallmark beats, and a unique story, a last flawed in the writing, maybe, you probably would say, well, let me see if I can run with it and then we can deal with the rewrite later once I say yes, right.
Speaker 3And we've done that and we've done that and you know the stories. As we do these, we go through different drafts within that work. If you never know how many drafts it'll take to get to the point where you know we'll have something. We'll put it into development. There work with a writer and sometimes we pitch with a writer. Sometimes I say we have a producing partner, kim Bradley, wonderful producing partner in Toronto that I work with, so she and I sometimes will have a book, we'll have a concept ourselves and we'll put something to the network and then we'll, with the network, bring a writer on to it. Or sometimes we'll bring something in with a writer, or writer comes to us. But so there's the different stages of development. There's the outline, there's the first draft, a second draft, sometimes another revision to polish, and in each of those where, together with the network, the right world making changes to the story. So the story is going to evolve and and it is really it's what draws you to it from the get go and that's that's what stays throughout.
Speaker 3And even as you come to production, there are things because there were going to be production issues that come up. There's a location, you know it. We're actually not going to be able to get this location that you know there's. This particular location turns out is going to be very hard to get or there's too many locations or there's too many cast. We try to do that ahead of a green light, but sometimes just things come up and so stories change then as well.
Speaker 3Sometimes you're filming and the scene just doesn't feel right and so we'll go and talk you know the director of the cast. Sometimes we'll call the writer and figure out this isn't quite working and on the fly, figure out something. So it's that collaborative process all the way through that, you know, you hope elevate something to the very end when ending, when it comes to editing, when it comes to music, all of that. So, definitely to your question yes, that voice and that in that concept is important, because what happens on page 30, I wouldn't want to read a script and say I love it. But I wish they, I wish they had ordered fish instead of chicken. Like things can change with you. Love the way into it, wow, and there's always a way around it.
Speaker 2Wow, that is so great. And I guess, also, speaking of the difference between television and film, you know, in film we're so name driven, it's like who's in it, who's going to be in it? You don't care if somebody comes to you, as long as they come to you with a great story. You don't care if they have all this great relationship with talent or actors.
Speaker 3right, Because ultimately, something that a hallmark or any any of those networks will ultimately decide, yeah, yeah, and in fact I would even say it's not even don't care, it's better off to not have attachments. There are some actors that would have done a lot of movies, or hallmark actors that have done a lot of movies with, and they'll go in with a pitch or, you know, come with me, they'll ask me to pitch something. We'll come up with something together. That one perfect harmony was with James Stanton, who was a hallmark star and a human star, and so we pitched that. We have a few movies that we're developing together, but for the most part, yeah, that things get.
Speaker 3We don't know who the cast are going to be until we're greenlit, we're about to go into production and because, also, hallmark they they have a lot of different casts they work with and then some new faces that they bring, new cast they work with, but there's a lot of you know they. Every weekend they have a new movie. So who's going to be in this one, who's going to be in that one? And and so they're very good at they have a wonderful casting team there that, in terms of the two leads, the top two leads of, of who should be in what.
Speaker 3So, yeah, it usually is better not to have any attachments on and also because you're then and again like sometimes I've done it because with hallmark cast and that's different, but you're also then getting into availabilities. You have a project and in hallmark or any network might say we're going to greenlight this movie now because we have an open slot for it and we need you to start. Right now. You have an attachment with an actor who's not available, so you know as as as sort of a free as these projects can be, it is typically the better.
Speaker 2And you shoot fast too, because that's like, I think, the difference, like you guys, in two weeks or something, you know, three, we're, we're 15 day shoots, yeah and yeah.
Speaker 3Three weeks prep, three weeks shoot and we start fast. You know, we've we've had some where you didn't even get any event in development maybe for a while, but where we're greenlit and we're starting prep the next week. Wow, the last one that I did, it's a movie in the Lair in Hallmark this December summer night, Christmas on Cherry Lane we, because they have some where they develop them directly with the writers and then before they go into production they'll hire an executive producer, a creative executive producer on. I was hired on to that, kim and I were hired on to that one. We were hired on a Wednesday and it started prep on Friday.
Speaker 3So you know you're you're going fast with these, which also is part of the storytelling that's part of it too is making sure you have a movie and you have these. You it no matter how big, you always have two commodities you have money and you have time or a lack of right and you have those two commodities and of course, they both interact with each other money and time. Time is the sole of the essence of these ones, that the way it's written, how many locations you have, how many scenes you have, you know if it's a 15 day shoot. You know, I say once you get above 60 scenes. Now you're more than four scenes a day. You do more than 75 scenes, you're above five scenes a day and you're going to have a day where you could only do three scenes because they're bigger scenes.
Speaker 3So all of those things to think about that as they're being written, that you know, at the end of the day, my one of my main jobs is to make sure that the director and the cast and the crew have the ability to do their best work. I'm not a director, I'm not a DP, thankfully, or the movies would look terrible is to help them and support them and give them notes and give them ideas. But for all of the crew, for the sound recordist, for, you know, makeup, for hair, for everybody, for art department, to allow them to do their best job. And it starts with if we're presenting a project that is too big by half, then people aren't able to do their best job. And that's for hallmarker, great partners, jukes, they understand that.
Producer's Philosophy on Problem Solving
Speaker 3And it's how do we tell the story in the way that it should be told? And knowing getting back to you talked about that concept, knowing what is this movie about. Maybe we don't need this scene because this doesn't get to the core of it and we want to spend time here on this scene. So, and even while we're filming, that's what it's about. If you have a day that's going to be difficult to make. Don't put three of your biggest scenes on there because you want to spend time with that you want to do. Take four, take five when you need to.
Speaker 2Wow, you know what you just described, really the job of a producer, which I so love because people think, oh, I found a great script. I'm a producer. No, you're not, but you know how to do certain things. And I think I think the producer has to be two things or three things. He has to be a visionary, a problem solver and a fixer. Yeah, I think if you're able to do all those three, then you're really damn good at producing. And, john, clearly you're a good way you're doing, because hired over and over again even either that or I'm very good at faking it was.
Speaker 3That's the other. By the way, an important part of producer is faking it, which is true in that there is talk about my, my, my stepmom was, was a flight attendant and she used to say you know, if there's turbulence, you're ever scared on a flight, look at the flight attendants because you'll see they're calm and it helps. You know, if you're ever nervous, look at them. And there is a sense of not that I'm equating myself to that somebody who's keeping people safe, but there is a sense that on a film set, something's going to go wrong and and you want to be the one to project calm and you want to be the one to figure things out. In part of your sense, you know my job, but also because you can do everything and you try to do everything to make the production as smooth as possible, but something's going to happen. Something's going to happen. It could be a freak rainstorm comes during your big outdoor. You know shot it does. Something's going to happen somewhere along the way. It'd be big, could be small, and and you just have to be ready to deal with that and deal and, together with the director, with with the network with everybody to make the decision the best way that you know how to in the moment and trust that decision and move on.
Speaker 3And maybe it works out, maybe it doesn't, but if the decision-making was right, if at least you're in your mind, you know I say it's bottom of the ninth two out, you're down by a run, your best hitter is coming up, you take them out, you're putting your worst hitter and he hits a home run. That still isn't a good move. So the same thing as a person, you want to do what is right for the moment, and it may turn out to not have worked out perfectly, that doesn't mean the decision was wrong. So that's what I hope would with experience and with continued experience I'm still trying to learn allows you to keep calm and, again, to let people know that it's a team.
Speaker 3That's what I love about this is the thing I love the most about this work is it's teamwork and it's the collaboration and when things go well or when things go wrong, you should never be treating anybody differently and I would hope any said I'm on. The way people are treated is no different when things are going really well or when something's going wrong and, in fact, the people I would hope are treated even better when something's going wrong. That's what makes for a great. I hope it's what makes for a great movie. More importantly, it's what makes for a great production and you know what.
Speaker 2There is no I in team, so you are absolutely right about that. It is, it is. It is. That's what movies and TVs are. It's a collective creation. It's not just about one person. You're not a painter by yourself putting a beautiful piece of art on the wall. You are a group of people being part of that process, and I think that's what makes it fabulous and what you and I are still addicts in good times, bad times, we got money. We got money. We're still here doing what we are doing, and it's been such a great conversation. Jonathan, I want to get you one last question before we get, of course, which is is there a life mantra, a life rule, something that you go to in moments either professional or personal, as we call the darkness? That you know at least gives you a friccical hope, helps you get up one more time and keep on going?
Speaker 3yeah, um, well, I'm a big music fan and I love all different types of music. I'm childhood 90s, I'm a huge Pearl Jam fan and, uh, and, and they have quite a few thought. They talk about um, about love, about you know. They live a song, present tense. It says, uh, it's about you can live your life, taking yourself what you've done in the past. But it makes more sense to live in the present tense and, and that's what I try to go. Is that right? Every day is a chance to be better. I'm not saying I achieve that, I'm by no means putting myself in a pedestal, but every day is a chance to be a better producer, better husband, better friend, um, better brother, uncle. It's my niece's birth, my nephew's birthday on Thursday, so tie that, um, it's just really that it's the present time, it's that every day, and and and in. Just one other thing, if I may, with that too, that I would put to that is understanding that everybody is going through something and you don't know what that is. We talk about these 15 day shoots and sometimes we'll work with cast.
Speaker 3The last movie that I did, cherry lane each of the cast were the main, the the us cast. Each of them were only in for five days. You're meeting somebody for five days, some of them I already knew. You're meeting somebody for five days or even for three weeks. You don't know what's going on with somebody in those three weeks and somebody might seem quiet, reserved, excited, whatever it might be, but you don't know what's going on in their life.
Speaker 3You go to the grocery store and the person ahead of you is taking your time because they're talking with a person to check up. You don't know what's going on in their life. So that's something that I've really hoped to do is the great thing about our business is you meet all these people that you would never have met. I mean every project you're meeting somebody new and being having the privilege of sharing somebody else's experience in life and what they're going through. So it's not as wanting to each day try to make myself better while understanding that everybody else is doing the same thing. So I wouldn't want somebody blaming me, so they don't want to blame somebody else. If we do that, we can make great movies.
Speaker 2But you know, more importantly, hopefully we can make a great world oh, that's so beautiful and that my beautiful listeners and people all over the world. That's what makes the heart of show business and that's the reason why I do this podcast is because I want to show everyone that there is a lot of heart in the arts. Whatever arts they are, whether it's music, film, tv people are not doing it just for fame, they're doing it because they do. You want to make the world a better place and they want to give people emotions and feelings and things to remember that I was going to just make the life better. Like I said, even if it's cuddled on a couch, scared to death, or giggling like children, or kissing, stealing a kiss because they're seeing a wonderful hallmark movie.
Heart of Show Business Episode Closing
Speaker 2That's what life is all about and, jonathan, you've been such a great guest. This has been like a masterclass in anything hallmark, but also beyond, in producing. So thank you so much for coming on my show and if you'd like the show, please do leave a comment, please subscribe and share. I have no backing on this. I'm doing it just out of love and I would love to hear from you and hopefully this episode has made you feel good and given you a little impact into continuing to pursue your dreams.
Speaker 1So thank you, jonathan thank you so much, alexia thank you for listening to this week's episode of the heart of show business. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend. You can also subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcast player. If you have any questions or comments or feedback for us, you can reach me directly at the heart of showbusinesscom. You.