WEBVTT - Interview: Leslie Iwerks 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:14.040 of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:18.960 Frye and I'm Tracy be Wilson. Tracy, we have an 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:21.560 interview today that I have been wanting to do for 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:25.080 a very long time. At this point, He've been talking 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:28.280 about it for a while. I know you're probably like, 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.240 this is never going to happen, But it did because 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:35.239 several months back, Leslie iwork's team reached out to me 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.000 and asked if I would be interested in talking to 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:41.080 Leslie on the show, and the answer was a resounding yes. 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:43.760 I would have wanted to talk to her before that. 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:48.240 I think she's amazing. Our schedules, though, just did not 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:53.600 want to cooperate. It became comedic where it was like, well, 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:58.800 I'm getting back from California on this day. I could 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:00.800 do any time after that the following week and it 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:03.120 would be like no. Then Leslie starts her travel that 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:07.000 night and it would be like Okay, well, uh, Leslie's 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:08.880 gonna be back this day, and I'm like I will 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.160 be on a flight to Italy. Like it just nothing 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:15.080 was working. But we finally wrestled those schedules to the ground. Yeah. 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.240 I like how it finally worked when I was on vacation. 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:23.280 Perfect timing actually was perfect. Yeah, it was during a 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.880 week when we were not doing our regular record. We 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.840 did some recording before you went on vacation, so I 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.080 had like some freed up time in there, and it 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:37.600 just everything came together as it should. Hooray. If the 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.240 name Iworks sounds familiar, it's because it's come up on 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:42.759 the show before, although it's been quite a while. 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:44.000 I Works. 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:48.960 Leslie's grandfather was an animator and cartoonist and director and 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.760 special effects artist and many other things, and also famously 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:57.080 Walt Disney's partner from his earliest years in Kansas City. 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:00.840 Don I Works, Leslie's father spent third years at the 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:04.880 Disney Company, pushing the boundaries of film's more technical side 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.040 and venting, among other things, the first three hundred and 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:12.560 sixty degree camera. So Leslie's pedigree is really quite impressive, 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:15.760 and Leslie herself is very impressive. She is a filmmaker. 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:22.040 Her latest project is a documentary titled Disneyland Handcrafted, and 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:26.959 it shares the story of Disneyland's construction, something we talked 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:29.400 about in our Haunted Mansion episodes, which were quite a 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.880 while back now, although we have rerun them as classics. 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.560 I think when the pandemic first popped off and everyone 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:38.400 was at home, we did a list of our favorite 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.240 episodes that we republished, and that was on there because 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:45.600 I love that place. But this is a really beautiful 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:49.280 look and also terrifying, as we'll discuss in the course 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:54.280 of the interview, look at how Disneyland went from an empty, 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.600 massive lot to the place the amusement park that we 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:03.160 all know today at Leslie very graciously spent time talking 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:07.280 to me about making this film. So here is our conversation. 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:13.080 I am so beyond delighted to get to be here 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:15.880 today with Leslie. I works someone who's work I have 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:20.160 admired a great deal and we're going to jump right in. So, Leslie, 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:26.000 your grandfather's story was of course incredibly instrumental in your 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:30.720 decision to become a documentary filmmaker rather than what you 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:33.280 initially went to film school for, which was narrative film 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:35.840 I believe. Will you talk about that and how that 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.080 resulted in your first film, The Hand Behind the Mouse. 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:42.800 Sure, First of all, thanks for having me on the show. 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.680 Nice to be here. Yeah, I you know, I went 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:51.760 to fill USC have a great time, and when I graduated, 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:53.920 you know, everyone's always trying to look for what are 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:56.520 they going to do next, what's our next project, and 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.280 what's what are they passionate about? And I think for 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.400 me it was to tell the story of my grandfather, 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.160 who who I never got to know because he died 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:09.240 when I was just one. So I thought, you know what, 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:12.640 I now armed with a film degree, and I want 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.400 to tell his story in a documentary. And so I 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.080 got the support of roy Disney roy E Disney to 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:21.600 do it in Michael Eisner, and you know, I think 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:23.600 they probably thought it was going to be like a 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:26.400 small little doc and you know, no big deal, and 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:29.040 then it ended up being a They said, well, we'll 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.720 fund you for sixty minutes, and I really wanted it 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:35.119 to be a ninety and I just have a great 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:37.680 time and made the best film I could. And when 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:39.920 they saw the sixty they said, well, actually it's so good, 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:42.159 we'll fund you for an additional thirty to make it 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.360 what you really wanted. So that's that was great and 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:50.159 ultimately became this project of fulfillment in a way to 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:52.359 get to know my grandfather that I never got to know, 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:54.839 and I traveled all the way through and walked in 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.560 the footsteps of Walton and my grandfather back in Kansas City. 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.520 For those that don't know, his name was by Works, 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:08.000 and he was Walt's original business partner and collaborator for 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:10.520 the majority of his life. As an animator and also 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:16.240 as an Academy Award winning visual effects and engineer. He 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.920 developed all sorts of camera systems, projection systems, and all 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:21.600 sorts of things for the parks. So it was a 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.040 multi part story that I was able to tell and 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:27.359 really get into all the facets of his life. And 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:28.520 so that was a lot of fun for. 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.200 Me, and you have subsequently made a lot more document her. 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:36.760 He's both in standalone form and as series like Recycled Life, 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:39.920 the Pixar Story, one of my very favorites. Industrial light 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:42.960 and magic, creating the impossible, and on and on. If 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:45.160 somebody just wants to spend like a great weekend on 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:46.960 the couch where they learn a lot and have fun, 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.440 your library is like where it's at. Ah, thank you, 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.880 Oh it's listen. Researching for this like doing my reviews. 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.159 I was very delighted to call it work. Not all 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.400 of those films are about creative people and endeavors, but 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.000 a lot of them are. And I have heard you 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:07.960 speak before about growing up around the work of your father, 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:13.640 Don Iworks, who was also groundbreaking in filmmaking and as 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:17.960 an inventor and technology. How as being immersed in that 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:20.400 world of filmmaking from the time you were very young 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.320 informed the way that you tell stories, and particularly stories 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:25.520 of creative people. 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:31.240 It's a good question. I've often wanted that myself. I mean, basically, 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.640 what I really think happened is that I was given 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.680 the opportunity to go behind the scenes with my dad 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:41.040 as a kid, whether that be the Disney Studio back 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:45.560 lot when it was still a working set, you know, 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:50.280 back lot with movies happening and in production, and also 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:54.920 to the parks backstage Disneyland and Walt Disney World and Epcot, 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:57.919 and I got to see is a little kid is 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:01.320 you know, a young adult little kid young how things 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:05.160 are done? And he would always be very generous in 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.760 sharing with me how things are done, and it just 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:13.040 I think created this inquisitiveness in me to want to know, 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:15.560 you know, how do movies get made? How do you 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.280 know how do these animatronic figures get made, and he 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:21.400 would show me how cameras get built and how he 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.200 comes up with optics and lenses and all sorts of things. 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.840 So it was not only technologically, it was also movie 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:31.240 making as well, and I think that early interest fueled 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.720 my interest to go to film school, and ultimately, ironically 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:39.240 or not, that the fact that I've told stories about 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:44.560 how things are do get made, whether it be industrial 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:46.760 like and magic and the visual effects, or whether it 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:49.520 be you know, Pixar and how they make their films, 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.160 or whether it be imagineering and how they make the 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.120 parks and the rides and the attractions. It's all kind 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:58.000 of interesting to me. But I think what really was 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:01.720 interesting to me also in a young young age, was business. 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:07.680 Business and business opportunities and how people find something and 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:11.000 find a niche that needs to be, you know, a 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:12.960 hole that needs to be filled out there in the world, 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:14.960 and they figure out a way to create it and 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:18.200 build it and bring it into fruition. And also innovation, 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:22.680 and so innovation, business and creativity I think are the 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.400 three pillars of a lot of my work. And I 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.960 really enjoy all those stories even independently, but when they 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:30.480 come together, it's really exciting. 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:36.520 Speaking of exciting ways they've come together, your most recent project, Handcrafted, 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.920 delves into the creation of Disneyland, which hits all of 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:47.280 those pillars. There is some amazing footage in this documentary because, 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:51.280 as you mentioned in it, while Disney hired photographers and 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.520 cinematographers to basically have the construction documented throughout, and you 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:58.440 ended up with a lot of footage that no one 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:02.160 had ever seen before that you to work with. How 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.640 do you begin to sort through all of that when 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.280 you realize you have to turn that into a film? 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:12.280 Well it, how do I even begin? I think what 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:15.040 happened was we found these binders that were in the 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:18.200 film archives, and we borrowed them and looked through them, 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.720 and they were from like the fifties, right sixties, and 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:24.680 they were the list of film reels that were taken 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:30.000 captured during the making of the Disneyland park and film 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:33.319 reels post Disneyland, you know, opening over the next decade. 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:33.600 Right. 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:36.080 So we started going through all this for the Imagineering Story, 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.120 and we used quite a bit of it in The 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:44.960 Imagineering Story Episode one. But my editor most Stobe had said, 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:46.760 you know, one day, He's like, you know what if 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.520 we tried to do something that's just using this footage 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:53.040 by itself al veritay and I said, well, that's a 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:55.840 great idea. I said, you know, you need to find 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:58.160 a structure for it and figure out, you know, how 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.840 much is there and find the audio bytes to support that. 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:02.199 Right. 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:05.800 I didn't want to do talking heads, typical talking heads. 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:08.920 I didn't want to do still photos. I think what 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.280 really intrigued me and intrigued us as a team was 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:16.920 the fact that this footage was shot by the photographers 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.640 who were some of the true life adventure photographers at Disney, 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.679 hired to go shoot animals in Africa and you know, 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:25.400 groundhogs on the prairie and things like that, and so 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:32.320 these guys were so used to documenting real life as 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:36.640 it happens for hours. So that was intriguing to me 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:40.440 that they shot these scenes as scenes. But when you 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:42.360 look at the reels and the way we received them, 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.040 they were all over the map, they were all disorganized, 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.200 and we'd have to basically find the one shot that 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:51.320 was on real thirty two and then another shot part 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.360 of that scene that was on sixty five, and we 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.240 finally had to like organize, you know what, became probably 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.720 six sixty to seventy hours material just for the pre opening, 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:07.120 and so taking all that information, all that and figuring out, 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:11.240 like an archaeological dig, what was this mound of dirt 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.360 and where did what direction was it facing, what direction 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.080 is the camera facing, and what is that going to 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:18.920 be down the road? Is that tomorrow Land? Is that Adventureland? 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:23.320 So all that stuff became a major feat for my 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:27.000 editor Mo and my producer Mark Ketley and myself to 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:29.280 really go through it all and figure out, okay, well 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:31.959 what is what? But then now it was about how 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.959 do we tell the story? Because construction footage by itself 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:38.080 can be a bit boring, so we need a story. 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.520 So then we started going through all these transcripts of 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.960 people figuring out who was there at the time, through 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:46.199 photographs that we've seen and research that we found in 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:48.679 the Disney archives, who was there and who were the 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.600 key people involved in the making of the park. I mean, 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:53.560 there's a lot of people, but there were some, obviously, 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:55.720 people that were kind of right front and center in 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.880 the major parts of it, the finance, the engineering, the story, 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:04.920 the construction, the leadership of all that. So we found 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:07.360 we started going through all these transcripts of people and 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:11.520 then realizing that so much that was there that was 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:15.480 interesting was about the drama happening behind the scenes, right 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.160 and it was the fact that Walt was crazy, and 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.400 Walt was insane, and you know, how's he ever going 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:23.200 to do this? And he's going to run the company 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:25.320 into the ground, and you know, there was so much 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:30.840 doubt and fear in some cases of just can this 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.360 get done? And then ultimately the Disneyland TV show with 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.160 ABC promised to have this park done in a year, 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:41.600 So he set himself up for what should have been 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:45.199 total failure to make that park. In today's world that 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:47.800 would never happen. And the fact that he did, I 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:49.719 think is the ultimate feet of this film. And I 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.000 think was also unique in this film is that it's 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:56.360 never been told in this way before, just straightforward footage 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.440 that allows you to sit in it and immerse yourself 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:01.200 in it. And that's really what we wanted to do, 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:03.720 is take you back in time into this time capsule 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.959 of that plot of dirt that that would become the 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:10.000 happiest place on earth, and see how they did it. 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:12.840 I imagine there are a number of times when you 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:16.000 were going through all of those hours of archival footage 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.720 and notes in information where you get some surprises along 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.600 the way. Did any of those happen in this project? 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:24.120 And what were they? Well? 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:27.440 I think, you know, to me, what stood out was 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:30.400 so much of the detail in building, the like the 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.760 brick and the you know, just crafting things by hand. 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:36.560 You know, you kind of take it for granted now 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.080 when you walk through the park that this park was 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:41.160 always you always think it's it was always here, you know, 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.800 and and but this was the very origin story of it, 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:48.680 and how they the level of detail that they went 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:50.959 with to create it. It could have been any other 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:53.720 amusement park that's kind of just off the shelf stuff, 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:59.880 but they they literally crafted so much of this by hand, 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.600 so much artistry to it, that you really gain a 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.559 whole new appreciation for it. And I think the fact 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.520 that they only had about ten percent of the plans 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:15.800 built when they started making a Disneyland, that's incredible to me. 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:19.040 And I had never known that, And so I think 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:21.360 those were little surprises along the way as we started 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:22.320 to read the transcripts. 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:25.360 Yeah, yeah, that's the kind of thing that if a 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:28.200 person in a leadership position did today, Like I only 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:29.920 have ten percent of this planned out, but we're gonna 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:32.840 go ahead and get guys on the ground. They get fired, right, 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:38.080 It's not it's not anything that's really tenable in most 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:38.880 people's eyes. 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:41.680 Yeah, And I think also what's interesting is to see 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:45.920 those guys walking on those beams, smoking, you know, and 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:49.920 going up and down the sliding down this beam, and 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:53.760 it's just like the sheer fearlessness at that time of 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:56.960 just getting this done and not caring about I mean, 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:59.640 OSHA was not even a thing then, so it was 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.200 just like, let's just do it. And I think that 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:05.080 that's so refreshing for so many people to just have 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:07.520 that ability to, you know, just go do it. There 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:09.320 weren't a lot of rules and stuff, you know. 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:21.960 Yeah, it's so easy for people today to think of 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:25.880 Disney as this very money flush juggernaut of a company, 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.920 but your documentary really shows how tight money was in 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:33.240 those early days and how stressful this project was for 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:36.320 everyone involved, but of course for Walt Disney in particular. 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:42.040 How much of that heavier side of this project were 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.440 you aware of before you started making the film. 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.760 Well, I certainly knew about it, because I've done a 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:50.280 lot of research on Disneyland and read a ton of 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.200 the books and whatnot and so, and also having told 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:56.720 Imagineering story episode one, I was aware of a lot 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.800 of those stories, and I think for me, I just 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.200 I didn't want to tell that story the same way. Again, 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:06.760 there was a there's a book called Disney's Land that 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.560 I really appreciated, and I think that that book was 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.360 very inspirational too, and that it really does get into 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:17.280 the kind of the hardship of behind the scenes of 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:19.040 what it took to make the park, to build it, 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:22.640 you know, to put it together. And so I took that. 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:25.280 I took that very seriously and really wanted you to 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:27.920 feel it. And I think with the choice of music 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:31.680 that we used, and it's it's not your typical happy 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:35.440 Disney you know cues, it's it's actually a little more 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:38.760 grounded and making you feel Yeah, the more the weight 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:41.400 I think of what they were all going through. 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:46.200 We have talked on this show before about the timeline 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:51.120 of Disneyland's construction, and so even being aware of it, 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:54.240 seeing just how much, like getting the visual of how 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:57.960 much was still undone even a few months before opening, 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:02.560 is a very different thing. Yeah, did seeing that footage 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.040 give you as much anxiety as it did me, Like, 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:07.000 I know it's going to turn out. I know we're 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:09.480 going to land the ship, but it still was like, 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:10.800 this is very stressful. 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:16.280 Yeah it is, and it so many people have said 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:18.600 to me. My heart was racing towards the end there. 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:20.119 It's like are they going to you know, how are 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:22.280 they going to do it? And I think that's I 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:24.600 think when you finally get to the rehearsals a few 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.800 days before and everyone's all over themselves, all over the place, 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:29.800 on top of each other in the park trying to 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:32.840 rehearse for the TV show that's live across the country 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:36.520 and also finish the park at the same time. I mean, 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.520 that's conflict. And I think that once we started seeing 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:44.840 all that come together and knowing that you still got 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:47.840 wet cement and you still have tomorrow Land that's not 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:52.359 built finished yet, and you start to feel the pressure. 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:54.800 And we also the editing style I think also started 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.639 to get a little bit quicker, and you start to 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:00.520 really feel the tension as we go, you start to 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.639 edit a little bit faster is in pacing, and so 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.480 that's a subliminal way to kind of know, okay, well 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.119 they were acting faster, and we need to edit faster, 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:12.280 you know, to create that phonetic energy. 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:15.679 Yeah, there were two quotes that really stood out to 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:19.600 me in it. One was from harber Goff where he says, 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:23.680 I didn't understand what worry was until he was talking 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.280 to Walt about, you know, just Walt's day to day concerns. 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:30.440 And then the other one being art link letter saying 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:32.879 it was a great, big panic all the time. 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:33.800 Yeah. 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:36.280 And when you think about those two things in conjunction, 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:40.439 it sounds like it's a marvel. Everyone didn't have a 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:41.520 heart attack. 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:48.520 It's true, especially Walt. Yeah, you know, I agree. It 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:51.280 seemed like maybe at the beginning when they were making, 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.840 you know, doing gag shots and gag scenes and having 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:58.120 fun in the in the field, Yeah, you didn't see 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:02.880 so much of that as it got closer to the finish. 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.639 Did you have any difficulty reconciling all of this information 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:11.320 about just how stressed Walt actually was every single day 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.560 with that very cool, smooth, assured persona that he was 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:20.160 always showing the public on television and in interview appearances. 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:24.080 Well, yeah, I mean it's funny because he had to 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:28.159 put on that persona obviously, he's Uncle Walt to so 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.480 many people around the country, and he had to show 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:36.960 that that sort of real confidence and sureness. But what 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.920 I thought was actually pretty brilliant was in the TV show, 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:45.439 they made fun of themselves. You know, they acknowledge that 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:47.720 they're in the final race and it's you know, all 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.399 hands on deck and it's the final push. And you know, 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:52.760 even when the guy was falling over in the tractor 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:57.520 and jumps out that scene, they said, oh, nobody got hurt, 0:19:57.680 --> 0:19:59.600 you know, and you know, we can tell you to 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:01.920 continue to have a good time. I mean, it's they 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:04.040 kind of make light of a lot of it, but 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:07.560 then they're also acknowledging that they're they're in that final 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.280 stretch and it's and it's harried, right, And so I 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:13.600 think by by just being open about it and not 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:16.280 denying that and sharing that with the audience, I think 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.000 that was really smart. They brought the audience into the 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:20.760 whole process and shared it with them. 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.760 Yeah. Oh the gasp, I gasped when that big tractor 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:26.720 goes over. I was like, oh, oh, he's fine. Okay, 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:30.280 that's fine, that's fine. I know you talked a little 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:34.720 bit about this already, and approaching this with a very 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:39.359 verite style in mind. But to be clear to any 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:43.879 of our listeners reviewers who haven't seen it, this film 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:47.159 includes voice recordings of people who were working on the 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:51.160 Disneyland project. But you never cut away to those interviews, 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:55.080 like to show the person speaking. And I think correct 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:58.439 me if I'm wrong. You enhanced some of the sound 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:02.159 of the original footage. So those those kind of immersive 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:06.440 sounds of like hammers hitting things and you know, trowels 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:10.400 scraping against stone, et cetera, are there, and the footage 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:14.479 is always the building and the construction, and it becomes 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:17.760 really really powerful. Were there any was that always did 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:20.119 you already always have this vision that we're never cutting 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:24.040 away from this construction or did that kind of congeal 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:27.480 in the process of laying out what you had? 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:31.360 No we early on it was like, we're staying all 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:33.560 in in this footage. We're not going to cut away 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:38.280 to somewhere else, right, or a flashback to something. It 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:40.879 was always about staying in the moment as if you 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:44.600 were there and living in it. And that was and 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:48.840 then the sound effects were really something that I that 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:51.280 was important to me because I knew that all this 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:53.680 footage was mos. It was there was no sound to 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:55.960 this raw footage that we got right and they didn't 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:57.720 record sound when they were in the field, so it 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:00.320 was all silent, and so when it came to together, 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:03.480 we had to do a temp audio track to build 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:05.280 in all these sound effects, and that's when it really 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:08.199 started to come alive as a proof of concept that 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:10.520 we did. And then we added some voiceovers to it 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:12.439 and just to kind of see get a feel for it, 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:14.320 and that's when Disney Plus said, Okay, this is great. 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:16.399 And then the project kind of went on hold for 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:19.200 a bit and then kind of sat on a shelf 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:23.040 for a number of reasons, not due to the project itself. 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:25.560