Join us as we sit down for a chat with one of the newest members of our team, Jesse Mar-Ramirez!
Alex
I heard about the leak and I was like, “there's no way they’re getting Garfield,” but it's legit.
Jesse
Side smash is going to be him pulling out a box of lasagna.
Alex
All right, what's up, guys? Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Alex. I'm joined by Norbert, longtime member of PBC, and we're also joined by our newest member of PBC, Jessie. I actually brought him on to the team.
Jesse
I feel like I’ve been here for a while now. We’ve had newer members.
Alex
What, was like six months ago. Maybe?
Jesse
I think so. I've been working with the guys for a while now. I'm mostly video editor, but also shooter. I do mostly video for you guys. I’ve been getting into photography; really like photography. I recently bought a Sony (sponsor us Sony)…
Norbert
Which one?
Jesse
A7III. I'm not trying to ball out so so much.
Alex
Oh you’re so quirky you have an A7III!
Jesse
I saw the A7IV come out and I saw that it was like a 2500 dollar type deal and honestly, with the deal that I actually got on the A7iii, I got $1200 dollars off, basically.
Norbert
Oh, snap, so you got the A7iii for 1.6k then?
Speaker 4
No, I got it for 1300.
Norbert
13?! Oh my God, that is a good deal. What lenses did you get with it?
Jesse
No lens is just the body, I got two SD cards, you can film whatever you want on them, like SLOG3 100 MBPS, and just one battery, and A1 strap which is cool! So I went ahead and I put a little sticker above the A7iii logo on the camera, so people just think I own an A1!
Norbert
People are going to think you’re a baller, but then you actually go and shoot and the high speed shutter is slow.
Jesse
I’ll go and edit the photos and people are also going to be like “where are the other 20 megapixels?”
Alex
Yeah, I actually try to buy the A7iv, but I forgot I have 1800 dollar spending limit on my credit card. So it declined and I thought I don't need this right now.
Jesse
I think we talked about this, what bank are you with?
Alex
Bank of America.
Jesse
Why do you only have an 1800 dollar credit limit?
Alex
I tried to expand it, but like I don't have like a on paper salary, you know, because I don’t have a W2.
Jesse
You don’t need that!
Alex
They asked for that.
Jesse
That's so…move banks!
Norbert
Did you call them? And they said they couldn’t do it?
Alex
I did.
Jesse
That's so bad.
Alex
Anyways, this is so out of topic.
Norbert
By the way, Alice's bank number is… and social security number is...
Alex
OK, so let’s bring this back to Jesse, what do you do outside of work?
Norbert
Yeah, what do you do for fun man?
Jesse
Not so much now, but I’ve been meaning to get back into it, I bike a lot. I would bike from my house to Huntington Beach, which is a really nice, like hour and a half two hour trip.
Jesse
I think it's similar to a Norbert’s trip here in Irvine, where you just go down to Newport right?
Norbert
Yes, I bike down to Newport, but my trip is only about one hour typically.
Jesse
But you also bike a lot faster than me, I mean you have gears in yours and I just have a single speed.
Norbert
Oh man. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Jesse
But I enjoy having a very simple single speed bike because I'm not trying to mess with like…like I need to replace my chain. I don’t want to mess around with gearings and mess that up. So, yeah, I bought my bike from Germany! I went to Germany last year…
Alex
Oh boy, he’s talking about Germany again! (sarcastically)
Norbert
Did you import the bikes from Germany or did you…
Jesse
I brought with me.
Norbert
Like on the plane?
Jesse
On the plane. So I went to Germany study abroad for six months. I bought a bike there, and I didn't want to leave the bike over there because it was one, pretty expensive and I'm not just going to waste this money from wanting to have a bike over here for a few months and just dip, so I bought a ticket for it. You can buy tickets for a bike. It's like €60, it’s pretty great.
Norbert
Oh, that's really cheap! To America?
Jesse
To America! Wherever you're going.
Norbert
For 60 bucks.
Jesse
For 60 bucks. I got a bike box from a local shop and it was so stupid just biking down Hamburg with a big box on my back, like one hand on the bike. I looked really dumb. But I got it to my dorm fitted it in there and it was my first time taking apart a bike. So I kind of felt like a mechanic, which is really cool.
Norbert
Nice.
Alex
And then after you came back from Germany, you were like a biking maniac.
Jesse
I was biking maniac, yeah!
Alex
You asked me to bike and I was like I’m tired!
Jesse
Dude, we bike only once and I had to stop for you, what, six times on the way?
Alex
Yeah, because that's my first time biking that much.
Jesse
So I live relatively close, Alex, by car. By bike it's like a 30 minute trip. I biked over to his place, took him on my route which is pretty different from wherever you go.
Alex
It goes up and down, it’s hella steep!
Jesse
My route goes up and down and it’s just a straight line, but Alex always like just goes downhill. So he has no condition to go uphill.
Alex
You calling me fat?
Jesse
I'm not… you do kickboxing. I haven’t done exercise in like a year, brother!
Alex
Yeah, you're fat.
Jesse
I am a little fat … I’m not really fat I’ve got a little bit of a dad bod right now, but I'm hoping that I can work on that.
Jesse
More biking. My girlfriend recently stayed, so I wasn't able to bike as much just because I was trying to maximize my time with her.
Norbert
That was great, which is great. Where did where did your girlfriend go?
Jesse
My girlfriend went back home to France because I actually met her on the study abroad trip.
Norbert
Oh, in Hamburg?
Jesse
In Hamburg. We were studying in the same not same university, but we were both staying in the same dorm.
Norbert
Was she also doing like a study abroad thing, or was that more domestic for her?
Jesse
A little more domestic. Because there is this deal that France has with Germany for her law program, you guys may not know it because I didn't know it, but France and Germany had a lot of beef going back from the wars and stuff.
Norbert
Might have something to do with because Germany maybe invaded France or something like that? (sarcastically)
Jesse
Maybe, I don't know. I never paid attention in high school.
Alex
Speaking of high school, Me and Jesse have known each other since sophomore year of high school. And you can talk about how we met.
Jesse
Yeah, briefly, briefly; a little tangent. I’ve known Alex since freshman year high school when we had a smash tournament.
00;06;31;23 - 00;06;33;25
Alex
It was freshman year and then sophomore year, we became actual friends.
Jesse
Yeah, freshman year I was introduced to you as just like the guy to try to beat in this Smash tournament and I lost too many times, so I was very ashamed; but the next year we just hung on the same friend group type deal and got closer because of video games. A lot of shit has changed since tenth grade, but yeah it's great.
Jesse
Going back to the whole France and Germany thing. She was there on a special stay where she's able to study between France and Germany consistently. Right now, she's back in France on an internship and while we were there, we just met after a little party, we walked in a park and I don't know, it's all like that. Those little high school butterflies, it would be like having a crush in high school.
Alex
Gross!
Jesse
Gross! I haven’t felt like that in a while, so I'm very glad that I felt that with her! Shoutout to Ori!
Norbert
How nice!
Well, I'm curious about is where did you get the tools to dismantle your bike? When you said you did it yourself in your dorm.
Jesse
It's crazy, biking is really huge in cities, especially like Hamburg, especially just all of Europe in general. So I went out of my dorm, and they have a little bike rack with tools attached to it, and you just throw your bike on and start dismantling everything. That's what I did. It was really nice that they just provided that for us. I didn't know how to change how to change out a tube for a long time until I actually came here so I would just go to the shop and they would just gyp me out of 20 euros to change a tube.
Norbert
$20 to change a tube?!
Jesse
That's like $25 here.
Norbert
Oh my god, yeah you got a little scammed there!
Jesse
I hated it so much!
Norbert
Dude, that's crazy. Speaking of inner tubes. There is this guy I once met when I was selling the bike back in college who told me that in his country - I don't know if this is true – but I feel like he was lying to me because I tried to look it up, couldn't find it. He told me that the inner tube in his country is called a camera.
Jesse
Yeah! That's what it's called in Spanish! “La Camera”
Norbert
That’s real?! Oh shit, that's real? I thought he was lying to me this whole time!
Jesse
That's what is the inner tube of a bike is called!
Norbert
Oh, okay, wow, we learned something interesting.
Jesse
So when I was younger, I had a little like a kid’s bike and stuff and the inner tube broke and my dad was like “(speaking Spanish, presumably something about fixing a ‘camera’”) What do you mean? I have to fix a camera? What? What camera? You're not recording me right now. I was just a dumb kid. I didn't understand that the camera was the inner tube. I also just didn't understand how bikes worked.
Norbert
Wow that's interesting. I did not know that that's interesting.
Alex
So anyways, Jesse was in the same boat as me, and we're both film students in our last year. And so being a film student, how does being into, you know, the wedding and photo industry, how does that change things for you?
Jesse
Honestly studying as a film student gets me very worried about just financial security especially withal the recent IATSE things that have been happening and…
Norbert
Recent what things?
Jesse
IATSE
Norbert
What are the IATSE things?
Jesse
I forgot the specifics. It's just that the unions in the film industry had had enough of, just like the unfair treatment of the crew.
Alex
The 14 hour bs work days.
Jesse
Yeah, so work days typically in the film world are twelve hours, but those twelve hours don't really account for, like, tear down and driving back home. So realistically 14 hours sometimes.
Alex
And it's not 14 hours like for one day, it’s like sometimes you're working for like a week or four. Four weeks sometimes for features.
Speaker 4
Yeah, like months on end. Yeah. You'll be working those long hours and you're expected to drive home and show up the next day on time. You don't have much time to spend with your family, and so that kind of goes into what I’ve found to be a pretty good middle ground for me because I enjoy wedding photography. I enjoy wedding video editing for Paper Birch is great. And the biggest thing is that it's more of a stable thing. I don't want to be worrying about my next gig because that's just something that I don't think I can raise a family on. I very much want to have my family in good standing with my career.
Alex
So Jesse’s basically using us as like financial stability (sarcasm). I would choose like being on film sets over this like on my own projects. But working with you guys makes everything really worth it. You know?
Norbert
It's the people, really.
Alex
Yeah, it really is. Literally, if you're working with like asshats, why are you working in the industry, you know?
Jesse
Yeah, I've worked on film sets where there's just people I don't know, and knowing people on a set really makes it work and same weddings. I'm sure you guys have talked about it before where it's like, Oh, I love working with Paper Birch, not just because it's a good place to make good money, it's more about the people.
Alex
It’s because we're fruity!
Jesse
We smack each other’s butt cheeks.
Speaker 4
Playing grab-ass with G?
Alex
Definitely!
Jesse
Actually.
Norbert
And it definitely is much nicer. I actually had shot with a couple other groups way back in the day. We have kind of an interesting dynamic because we don't have a high turnover rate. If anything, I think our turnover is decently low, like the only people that turnedover are people that went on to do bigger and better things, but they still stay around and still work with us every once in a while. But these other companies that have really high turnover rates, I mean, they're not like bad people, it's just, I don't know, it's a different kind of feeling.
Jesse
Is it a lot more business oriented for them?
Norbert
Yeah.
Jesse
And, you know, no hard feelings, right? If you want to if you want to move on and do bigger, better things in the wedding business, go ahead, no one’s going to stop you. But I don’t know how you’re going to keep consistent, good friendships with that, with people who are in that same business. And I think we just have something special.
Alex
Yeah, we're starting a wedding frat. It’s like the start of one, basically. But yeah, that's a good thing work. What was your first like experience working with PBC and how was that?
Jesse
I actually kind of forgot my first experience.
Norbert
You started as an editor, right?
Speaker 4
I did started as an editor, but I remember for a long time I was just trying to get into contact with Alvis. I was telling you (Alex) to tell him that I'm available for jobs. I was like, hey, Alex, I know you're doing a lot of stuff with Alvis right now. If he ever needs another shooter, drop my name or something!
Norbert
Did you know Alvis before Alex?
Jesse
No, no. I know Alvis hit you up on Twitter and stuff and just like kind of inducted you into the group and you started working for him. And when I saw it like, I kind of wanted a piece of the pie, so I asked you if I could like, come get involved and then eventually you just told me that Alvis was looking for an editor and I’m like, I can edit. I mean, I can do something wedding stuff! So I met up with Alvis in one of the Vietnamese plazas out in Westminster, and honestly, I was kind of socially anxious, it's kind of a miracle that I'm speaking so well right now, and he turned up at a little Vietnamese coffee shop and I sat down with him and my leg was shaking like crazy. I was like this guy is holding the keys to my happiness.
Alex
Funding my girlfriend’s food?
Jesse
Funding my girlfriend’s food and our trips to San Juan Capistrano. But it was pretty good, he was chill. He gave me a hard drive to work with and we got on Discord and just started talking. I think I met G that day on discord too, and I felt a lot more relaxed once we started talking about (ooo what were they talking about???) and the fact that Alvis is (hmmm what is Alvis doing??) half the time he’s alive. The second Alvis pulled out his highly modified (probably a camera) in front of the camera I was like “Oh OK, at least I can feel safe around him.” So it was really like it was…
G (in the back)
It was me who made you feel comfortable!
Jesse
You honestly made me feel pretty comfortable in the group. First wedding I met up with G, I met up with you (Alex *editor’s note it was not Alex but actually Norbert) as well, and Alvis. I think it was us four at a Dana Point wedding, no? I think so.
Norbert
Your first wedding was a Dana Point wedding?
Alex
Was it not the Occasions?
Norbert
I thought it was the Occasions.
Jesse
No, it was the Occasions you're right, yeah, my first wedding was at the Occasions and I didn’t know what to expect. I was just very nervous. I felt very green. Alvis handed me a camera and he’s like, OK, when they're going to do the ceremony, I want you to run over to that stand and throw the camera onto the 70-200. OK, cool. I went to go grab b-roll, and he’s like “it's happening right now!” So I run over, I’m trying to dismantle a Sony, which I don't use. And he's like, He takes it, takes apart, snaps it on there, and I'm like, OK I got this and I'm pointing and I'm pointing, and I didn't press record and I just keep going!
Alex
Oh, I don't know that!
Jesse
I missed, like the first minute and a half of people walking.
Alex
Ok, but we have 2 other cameras right?
Jesse
We did, we saved it. It was fine, but I felt really stupid. I was like freaking I’m gonna get fired today!
Alex
It reminds me of my first day, being at a wedding with Alvis. I didn’t mess up, thank god. But like, I feel the same way! I felt the same kind of pressure and franticness as you because like, I'm trying to learn the flow of a wedding, because like, I don't know what a reception is, really.
Jesse
Yeah, I had no idea what the wedding lingo was about.
Alex
I didn’t know what vows were or whatever or first looks!
Jesse
You’ve never been married before?
Norbert
Have you guys not been to a wedding personally before work?
Alex
I was four years old. I was like, the ring bearer, and I dropped the ring!
Jesse
You dropped the ring? Is there footage of that?
Alex
I dropped the ring in the aisle because I trying to walk fancy as a four year old, I guess.
Norbert
Like strutting?
Alex
Yeah, I was strutting, I remember. So I dropped that. Anyways, now I work weddings!
Jesse
Oh, it's embarrassing. You still strut down the aisle with your gimble, ass out.
Alex
I wouldn't call it that, but…
Alex
You stare at me when I use a gimble?
G (off camera)
We all have to stare at you!
Jesse
I’m up on a perch with the 70-200 I kind of have to see you!
Alex
Oh my god!
Jesse
Top angles are really nice!
Alex
We met through a video game and that's Smash Bros. So what's your relationship with Smash Bros, me, and what does that mean to you?
Jesse
Nowadays, I'm not as passionate about Smash, whether it's just because I haven't played it as much.
Alex
But we do like some drunk Smash.
Jesse
We do a lot of drunk Smash for friendsgiving!
Alex
That was fun!
Jesse
My relationship to Smash Brothers is… it goes way back, I never played Smash Brothers until Brawl and I only started…
Alex
Brawl?
Jesse
Yeah! I only started when…I was a fifth grader! I was a fifth grader and I was in an after school program called Summer Pride, where it's just a bunch of like middle schoolers getting together with, like some adults taking care of us, one field trip every day, and when we were not on field trips, we were just in a room kicking it. They had a WII, they had game controllers, they had Wiimotes , they had everything you could think of. And we just played Smash Brothers all the time. We also play Guitar Hero. I play Guitar Hero on expert and my brother kicked my ass and I'm very disappointed. But I started with Smash Brothers as just like a really fun game that you can only play with four people. I did not know there was a competitive scene, and when one of my friends is like, “oh yeah, I play Melee and I play fox he’s really fast!” I was just like “Cool, can we run this four setup though?” I'm trying to party. It's fin, but I only really got into the competitive aspects when Smash 4 came out in high school and I had it on my 3DS. I kicked some kid named Andrew's ass in the boy’s locker room. Dude he was such a cocky Ness player.
Norbert
Do you guys are stereotype mains? Like “he’s such a Ness player”
Jesse
He’s such as Ness player!
Norbert
Those freakin’ Samus players!
Jesse
Ok, I main Samus!
Alex
Essentially our best memories of Smash is, forming the first Smash club at our high school.
Jesse
Yeah, we formed the Smash club at our high school.
Alex
And that grew into the e-sports club as well, so we founded the e-sports scene at our high school.
Jesse
It's kind of crazy that we did! Honestly, I didn't think we could ever pull something off because we had to spin it like “how are we going justify this as educational for the kids?” So we told our high school board, like, Hey, we're going to make this a charity driven association, which it was, and this also connects to our educational goals by tapping into psychological … what do we say… like it helps strategizing?
Alex
No, it was like building a safe community within school for the nerds.
Jesse
I remember our teacher coordinator for the club was like, “We need to spin this so that it's educational somehow” And we were like, OK, cool, let's just say that we're trying to strategize and have people think ahead and that's it! It worked! I don't know how we made it work.
Alex
Mean, it is forward thinking because e-sports is now a legit thing.
Jesse
If you can't read, you're not in e-sports, you know? Reading is predicting your opponent's moves.
Alex
Oh yeah, reading.
Alex
And the second best thing with Smash was honestly Evo. Like going to Evo with you. Evo is one of the biggest Smash tournament and we went in 2017.
Jesse
No, sorry, 2018. It was after I had a drink for the first time, so it was 2018.
Alex
OK, so yeah we went to Evo for 2018. We went with my family and that was like me and Jesse competing together and that was so fun!
Speaker 4
Yeah, your brother made it pretty, Andy. He made it into like his third set of pools? No, second set of pools. I died and my first set.
Alex
I died at the very end of my set in the first pool by some Japanese players.
Jesse
Do you remember the streamer that I went up against? Who I know he crushed his spirit? This guy, I totally forgot his name, but he was a streamer who dropped everything and decided to dedicate everything to smash and become a pro smash player. And I was like researching him and stuff on YouTube.
Alex
They had what, ten followers, maybe?
Jesse
No, no he had like what, 70?
Norbert
Was he just starting out?
Jesse
I guess, yeah, he was just starting and I was looking his game play and I thought “I could kick this guy’s ass!”
Alex
Before the tournament you know who you’re fighting for the day.
Jesse
Yeah, you're told who you're fighting. So I'll looked this guy up, I'm like, OK, he's not that big of a deal. I went on up onto the match and I realized it was a little too easy. So I lowkey went onto my secondary, which at the time was Lucina and stunted on him three times. He kind of lifted his head down. I felt really bad about it!
Norbert
You ended the man’s whole career!
Alex
He was probably thinking he wasted $40!
Jesse
If you're out there, I'm so sorry, I apologize! But after that, I went up against an actual player who was on a team, a Little Mac player, and I mean, it’s Little Mac, I'm like, I’m just going to zone him out three times with Lucina…got my ass whooped three times bro!
Alex
Dude, same!
Jesse
I was so sad that he just broke my brain in half and threw me off the stage and it was insane! I didn't feel so defeated as much as I just felt embarrassed that I was so cocky in my head, but it was, regardless, a really fun experience because afterwards we went to finals! You have to buy separate tickets for finals guys, and we saw one of the most hyped plays of Smash Ultimate History!
Alex
The grand final set!
Jesse
In the Grand Final, it was between MKleo and Tweek, who at the time were the two top players
Alex
MKleo is still the best, Tweek was like number 3, still, current day.
Speaker 4
But at the time they dominated, it was just a rivalry between them two.
Norbert
And these are both American players?
Jesse
These are both American players. No, no. MKleo’s from Mexico.
Norbert
So they're international best?
Jesse
Yeah, International.
Alex
International, best.
Jesse
Yeah, exactly, and MKleo got into losers’ bracket pretty early on, which means in order for him to win finals, he had to win, I think, six games in a row against Tweek since it was best three out of five. MKleo lost the first two games and everyone thought “ok Tweek has it in the bag, he only needs to win three times to win the whole tournament. But MKleo went…there was something that we called it…it was like Ultimate Leo or something?
Alex
Did he actually reverse 6-0?
Jesse
He reversed 6-0!
Alex
It was a crazy come back!
Jesse
A crazy 6-0 comeback where he was down and out! Everyone thought ok, cool, Tweek still has this in the bag. Tweek fumbled all those five games afterwards and it was just screaming! The crowd was like, “MKleo really just did that! MKleo just reversed Tweek!” Honestly, I got my money's worth. It wasn't some B.S. like the last Smash 4 tournament where it's just than Bayonetta’s.
Alex
Smash is obviously amazing as a party game. I'm sure pretty much everyone watching probably plays Smash casually, but as a competitive sport, it's so much fun, it's like there's so much depth to it and there's like all these storylines that…
Jesse
Smash is a party game, it is not a fighting game get your head out of your ass!
Alex
Yeah, but it's crazy. But being in tournament is such a crazy experience because you play so much worse and you get nervous! If you're like me and Jesse, you play so much worse. We're pretty good, but we're not competitive.
Jesse
I don't lab anything, I know…
Norbert
What does Lab mean?
Jesse
Lab just means going into the practice mode and doing the same combo for 40 minutes straight.
Norbert
Grinding.
Jesse
Yeah, grinding it out, just trying to get that muscle memory in. I wasn't much of a fan of that. I was more like on the fly, Oh crap, I can do this. Oh crap, I can do that. I just did it, I just ran with it, which I found is really fun! I know that you (Alex) and your brother lab a lot. Your brother labs way more than you.
Alex
I don’t lab!
Jesse
You don’t lab?
Norbert
Alex is out here flexing, he’s like “I'm just that good!”
Jesse
“I just play funny frog!”
Norbert
And that’s the reason why I can't play games like Pokemon because just so much grinding! And it just is just so much downtime.
Alex
So you're saying you won't get into competitive gaming, ever?
Norbert
No, I don't think I ever will. Well I almost exclusively play single player games for the story.
Jesse
So you play Persona? Do you grind in Persona?
Norbert
There’s only two games that I can play, two turn based games I can play and that’s Persona and some Pokémon games.
Jesse
Some Pokemon games.
Norbert
OK, yeah, but I barely can stand Persona.
Jesse
I enjoyed Persona and I enjoyed grinding in Persona!
Norbert
Really?
Jesse
Yeah, because what I would do…in the game Persona, it's a day based game where there's a time limit on how long you have until you can beat a dungeon, and I would just beat the dungeon all at once.
Norbert
Yeah that’s what I would do too!
Jesse
In a single day! You’re supposed to space it out because you run out of energy, or whatever, and I’m like, “no I’m not about to waste these days and not go on dates with cute girls!”
Norbert
Yes, exactly! That’s the thing, so you actually just play the main quest for one day, and then the remaining two weeks or three weeks…
Jesse
You're just going on dates with girls! That’s really it! It's for people who don't know how to talk to girls in real life!
Norbert
It’s fun though, Persona’s really fun!
Jesse
It is, it really is!
Alex
Please play Persona 5 Royal!
Jesse
Alex only played Royal, he never played the original.
Norbert
Oh, I think royal is a lot better.
Jesse
Yeah, I should have have played Royal, but I just finished five and I did not want to get into that again.
Norbert
Same, I just bought Royal for 20 bucks and I’m giving it some cool down time.
Jesse
It’s $20 already?!
Norbert
Yeah, well on sale it is. I bought it last Black Friday for $20 bucks, so not just bought it.
Jesse
So it’s there?
Norbert
It's just sitting there and I just haven't had time to play it. Although I played Persona 5 Strikers!
Jesse
It’s really fun!
Norbert
The gameplay is what I think Persona should be.
Alex
No, the turn based system in the original Personas were really fun!
Jesse
That's what Pokemon should be.
Norbert
Right? Yeah, I agree with that.
Jesse
I been talking to Alex on this for a while and Sword and Shield came out, Alex went full soy boy mode was like “I’m gonna buy this game day one, I don’t care about the bad press!” And he slobbed all over Nintendo’s knob…
Alex
I don’t think I did though! Because I enjoyed the previous game a lot. So that gave me hope for the next game, naturally.
Jesse
You saw how it looked, sir!
Alex
It could still play well… but it was just actually disappointing. As a single player experience, Sword and Shield was like the worst game, actually, sadly.
Norbert
But Persona 1 and 2 were ok, I thought, but the…
Alex
I’m surprised you played 1 and 2, that’s like a rarity!
Norbert
Yeah, they were just ok…
Alex
Didn’t 2 have Hitler as an enemy?
Norbert
I think both of them have Hitler. Spoiler alert, but I think in 1, the main villain is Hitler, and then 2, he just makes appearances or something like that. I can't remember.
Jesse
That’s pretty hard.
Alex
It goes hard.
Jesse
That's pretty hard. Having Hitler as your villain.
Norbert
Yeah, Persona’s go the horror vibe, but it’s not really a horror. It's like finding your place with your friends.
Jesse
It's a game by game basis. Every game has its own set of vibes. I'm sure of Persona 3 was a lot more depressing than 4. Persona 4 is a lot like the happiest in the series, and Persona 5 was a good in-between.
Norbert
Yeah, Persona 5 was a good in-between, but I don't know if Persona 3 is still the best!
Alex
Speaking of horror, Jesse, you mentioned that you like analog horror videos, right?
Jesse
Analog horror videos, yes. It’s something that is a little more popular now, but I got into it in high school with Local 58 emergency broadcast system. To put it into simple terms, do you remember when you were a kid and the TV would come on with the Emergency Broadcast System with a whole blaring, that really scary stuff?
Norbert
Wait, that happened to you guys? When? For what? In reality?
Jesse
Yeah! In reality, where you're just sitting down and the emergency broadcast system comes on, it’s like...
Norbert
Like when there's like a nuclear strike coming?
Jesse
No, no, no. You don't say something like child was recently abducted, terrible stuff…
Norbert
Oh you’re talking about Amber alerts? Amber Alerts freak me out.
Jesse
It would have the same Amber Alert tone and stuff. So basically the emergency broadcast thing that I would watch from Local 58, was this whole overarching story of like something's going on with the moon and it is messing with people to the point where, like, they're killing each other or there's some kind of creature…it would show off an emergency broadcast, it would say there is a meteorological event going on, don’t go outside, don't look at the moon and it would cut out. And then all of a sudden it'd be like someone else is typing stuff out like the moon is safe to look at, go outside. Then it would cut back out and say “do not look at the moon, close all doors, close all windows. Don't answer the door, no matter how human it may appear.” And it's like, Oh god, it freaks me out so much, and it’s just, I love horror, I love the concept of analog horror being…
Alex
It’s sick because, it's meant to feel like things that could happen or that could realistically be presented to you in real life, even though it's like, hella surreal, but the fact that it feels real, is how it scares you.
Jesse
It feels rooted in reality, and it's in the sense that we have this emergency broadcast system. The one that really messed me up was the Local 58 Contingency order which was supposed to mimic a the end of a local channel’s broadcast day and they somehow mess up and air a contingency message from the 70’s or 80’s… I think it was Reagan was the president at the time…
Norbert
Oh, you mean the one they filmed in case of the end of the world?
Jesse
In case the Cold war suddenly fell into Russia's favor or something, and it was a message where it’s like a handwritten letter and “dear Americans, we are truly sorry, our glory filled country has fallen to our enemy. Take pride in being American,” and then it tells you to off yourself. It shows images of like, getting into the position and it’s like a guy going up just telling you to kill yourself! And the most eerie part about the program was that it talks about children, telling you to tend to your children first! Dude it freaked me out so bad!
After the message airs, they air an apology of “Oh sorry, this wasn't supposed to happen, and we apologize for anybody who may have…”
Norbert
Killed your children?! But this was all part of like the whole show right?
Jesse
Yeah, this extended alternate reality that I find very interesting.
Alex
Yeah, and it feels like it is kind of a trend on Twitter sometimes where you see, like real life footage and people edit like a huge leviathan in the clouds or whatever.
Jesse
Dude! Yeah, the Blair Witch Project, type deal, Marble Hornets are some things that I am super super into, because I love horror! I was scared shitless when I was a kid, but nowadays horror is my thing. I want to eventually make a horror movie, but you know, smart horror movie. I like gore, I don’t like very visceral gore. Very obvious gore because there are some very bad gore films that are just gore and I hate them.
Norbert
They’re just not scary at all.
Jesse
They’re not scary at all, they’re just a bloody mess! Saw as an exception because I like the way that saw does stuff.
Norbert
Saw is more psychological!
Jesse
It's more psychological. The second movie messed me up pretty bad!
Alex
I can't do horror!
Norbert
Is it the blood, or is it the scare?
Alex
It's the scare.
Norbert
I agree with you on that. I'm not a huge fan scare.
Alex
I’m ok with gore, but like, just like anticipation, I can’t do it. I love thrillers, though, because like I can stick with them. Just like any thriller, any thriller I’ll enjoy, for sure. But if there's a horror element, you know, if there's a nun or a ghost or like a freaking demon.
Norbert
A lot of demons hanging from the ceiling, all that stuff?
Alex
I can't do that!
Even though like some of the movies have such an interesting plot, and I think horror is super interesting because the fact that horror filmmakers, their goal is just like to scare the shit of you and they just as themselves, how do we do that?
Norbert
I don't know about that.
Jesse
I don't think that's their main goal.
Alex
No, no, no, but it's like not exactly scare the shit out of you, but like, create a reaction, you know. They're forcing the audience into a reaction.
Jesse
If I’m ever going to make a horror film, I want to get into the mind of the viewer more than anything else I want them to feel like, holy crap, that this creature's right behind me. For me, what’s terrifying is a presence that you cannot stop, and it comes after you relentlessly and it gets in your head. Paranoia is such a good thing to play with in horror. The movie, It Follows, do you know what it follows?
Norbert
I don't know what it follows.
Jesse
It Follows is a horror film about an invisible creature who will maim and a person who is cursed with this, like an STD. I imagine it’s supposed to be some kind of metaphor about dangerous STD’s or whatever, but the only way you can pass this curse down is by having sex with somebody else. So prime for horny teenagers, that trope was like super “The thing about the movie” and that's what I kind of hated. But the terror of it is that this creature is only seen by the person as a curse; to everybody else, it's invisible. And the way this creature blends in is it will look like your average person that's just walking towards you.
Alex
So they slowly walk towards you?
Jesse
They slowly walk towards you!
Alex
That’s terrifying, it’s more scary than them.
Jesse
Yeah, the scariest scene is when there’s this girl in a room, paranoid the creatures right outside her door and her friends break in and are like “there's nobody here, there's nobody here.” And then the creature is in the hall and he’s just this really tall dude who grabs the top frame of the door, comes in and just walks through!
Norbert
Like a slender man type figure?
Jesse
Very slender, not abnormally long but he just like grabs the top. He walks through and he freaks me out so bad that he just it’s so casual!
Alex
Goes to that feeling of like dread. Yeah, feeling like relentlessly being followed.
Jesse
You are helpless because you are in a room, it is crowded, you have to jump out a window at that point.
Alex
How’d she get out of that again?
Speaker 5
I forgot! I haven’t watched that movie in years!
Norbert
The thing that I think that's so smart about good horror movies is that the story and the whole immersion thing, right? That you get so immersed in the story that it transcends television. I think that's what's unique about horror is that no other genre can copy, besides, maybe like some thrillers or like, you know, bad rom coms that people don't understand what real life is.
Alex
Once they make a threat feel real, then the horror movie just has you.
Norbert
Yeah, it stays in your mind. Yeah, it transcends everything.
Jesse
And that's what I like about horror is that it sticks with you more than other genres of film work, media in general. That’s why I really like analog horror because I feel like what if there is a presence in my room?
Some lovecraftian shit, from the inside, right?
Norbert
So when you say analog horror, do you mean… what exactly do you mean by analog, is it animatronics or…?
Jesse
I recently heard the definition of analog horror is more so media that is constrained of VHS or older TV, or just media, in general. So a lot of times you'll get VHS videos, you'll get found footage, imagery, photos like old police training tapes, that’s what you're constrained to for the most part. People have done a lot with just that medium. The guy who’s making the analog horror piece that I’m really into right now is actually trying to move away from just analog, just flesh out a little more. Honestly, I think this guy is actually to push the medium a lot more, which I'm really excited for. I forgot his name, so his name's also Alex. He did insert name of what I'm talking about right here (Alex Kister).
And it's great, it has to do with a creature that will come into your home, kill a guest and then mimic their voice to try to get someone to come into contact with them. And it is terrifying because they had a bit where some guy calls his friend. He's like my mom just screamed, I’m going to take her to the hospital or something, can you come home and like, turn on the cameras or whatever?
So he drives up to the house, turns on the cameras and heads home.
Norbert
Why is he turning on the cameras?
Jesse
Because he fears that there may be some creature there. This is the creature is called an alternate and it’s a creature that mimics people.
Norbert
So there's suspicion already?
Jesse
Yes, there’s suspicion already. He turns on these cameras and as he heads home, and it's revealed that this creature followed him home. And it's just like this handheld VHS video of him recording his door where all you hear is knocking and the voice of his friend going “Mark, I brought you a present Mark” you can hear his voice repeating over and over again, and it’s a creature who can’t mimic it perfectly. He's missing his voice up. It's like, “I won't hurt you Mark.” It’s horrifying to think about, because what they’ll do too is they'll mimic the voice of people that have died. So in an earlier version of it, there was a guy who was in his house and he heard his mom's voice like “Honey, I fell. I need help. Please help me come inside. Come inside now” And it's like... that's horrifying. Because it's like... Lord, don't ever let her pass… but if my mom passes away in the future and I hear her voice coming from a room, I psychologically will want to go see if that's her or something, you know?
Norbert
Isn’t that the whole plotline of Shang-Chi?
Jesse
Is it? Shang-Chi and the seven…
Norbert
Ten Rings.
Alex
Basically yeah! With how the ugly vampire dragon is speaking as the mother? What a weird plot!
Jesse
Shang-Chi was pretty good. I watched it in Mexico with Spanish subtitles.
Alex
We watched it too late. I think we didn’t really enjoy it as much as we should have.
Norbert
So when we digitized analog, like a VHS, would it still then be considered analog horror? Or am I getting the definition wrong? Is it like a like the movie Super 8?
Jesse
I think it’s really is just more of the look than anything else, because we would need to digitize it anyway if we’re going to view it.
Alex
So it's like how movies are still called films.
Jesse
Exactly.
Speaker 4
Yeah, it's all digital media now, but we still call it film.
Norbert
So it’s like film photos, but we view it on a computer, but still called a film photo and it’s still called analog photography.
Jesse
I find that also very interesting because I recently got a little card from my desktop that allows me to import Mini DV video onto my computer. And I took that camera when I went back to Germany to go visit Oriane, and I recorded a bunch of stuff with it. I bought a secondary VHS camera, too. It's pretty great.
And just the whole aesthetic of this older media, the way the audio comes out and how it's all crunchy…
Alex
You can’t replicate it.
Jesse
You can replicate it pretty well digitally but not one to one. And I really enjoy just that format. I remember Alex and I actually filmed this music video for someone on Twitter where we had both those cameras. He was filming on the A7iii and I was filming on my dad's old camcorder that does MiniDV. And I really like how it came out. There was a little scene where we had the artist and his love interest at a pier and I was like, focus on the mountains, I pulled out. And, you know how when you zoom out, it is a very like boom, you're zooming out now. It’s just that look of zoom out, see them in full and they’re just embracing the stuff. It’s just a really good look that I love!
Norbert
Is it like that home video VHS feeling?
Jesse
Oh, it's exactly that home VHS feeling is what it is.
Norbert
It's been so long, since I touched a VHS camera. I think last time I was using it, I had to transfer the files I had to transfer my files via FireWire.
Jesse
That’s exactly what it is, it’s the FireWire! We don’t have FireWire anymore. It was like a port Mac pros used to have back in the day.
Norbert
Takes me back!
Jesse
I don’t have a bigger computer anymore, I can't put any more expansion cards. I put that into my brother's computer because he has my old computer now and I gave him Premiere. So now that he's editing stuff on his own, which I'm pretty happy about he’s doing simple little videos now just like me. Shout out to Juan.
Alex
All right, guys. So we're starving, so that's the end of the podcast. Thanks so much for your time. And thank you, Jesse, for your time.
Jesse
Oh, thank you, guys. Honestly, this is the first time I've done a full podcasts, one that looks and sounds so professional.
Norbert
I hope so!
Jesse
I enjoy talking with you guys. I feel very, very open!
