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Speaker 1: Clearsy and leases. How's a major in Way?

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Speaker 2: Spring this sun and I'll make you a.

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Speaker 3: Start, continuing our series about getting into the ever burgeoning

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Speaker 3: movie biz that w Way is pulsing with at the moment.

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Speaker 3: Our guest today is Ben Callman, who is a film

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Speaker 3: and TV audio and sound person, a boom operator. Good morning, Ben,

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Speaker 3: Good morning you holding the big furry thing just out

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Speaker 3: of shot?

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Speaker 4: Sorry, that's me, absolutely yeah, telescopic pole, the big fairy thing.

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Speaker 1: One of the many things. I'm sure, what exactly is

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Speaker 1: it that you do?

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Speaker 4: Well, I'm a boom operator, so first and foremost, I

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Speaker 4: operate a boom pole, which is a telescopic pole, and

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Speaker 4: that allows me to extend it with a microphone on

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Speaker 4: the end and then hold it above actors on screen,

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Speaker 4: move it around in shot to follow the dialogue that

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Speaker 4: moves around a table or a kitchen or wherever we're at.

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Speaker 4: On top of that, I do I hide a Lavalier

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Speaker 4: pel microphone on actors, touching it to their costumes, their yes,

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Speaker 4: putting it in their hair sometimes, yes, you may see

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Speaker 4: them in shows. You'll you see a little thing poking

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Speaker 4: out the bottom of a tire that ubbly a radio microphone.

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Speaker 3: I'm on Christmas card basis with anyone who's ever had

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Speaker 3: to attach one, because you know they've got to slide

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Speaker 3: it down the back of your top.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, oh yes, I do.

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Speaker 4: We get up close and personal, so a good bit

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Speaker 4: of a polar building goes along.

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Speaker 2: It was apologetic, absolutely, you have to be. Ben is

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Speaker 2: one of the greatest fears. With that big fuzzy thing

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Speaker 2: you're talking about. You're getting it in shot and getting

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Speaker 2: told off.

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Speaker 4: You know, certainly once once a day is sort of

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Speaker 4: my aim. If you're not putting it to shot, you're

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Speaker 4: not doing good enough job. By times I think, OK,

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Speaker 4: fair enough, but yeah, that's certainly the goal is to

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Speaker 4: keep it out.

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Speaker 1: So how did you get into film and television?

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Speaker 4: Well, it was a little bit of a crossing road

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Speaker 4: across roads in my life, and I didn't really know

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Speaker 4: what I wanted to do, and I sort of started

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Speaker 4: asking myself what I actually like and I was like

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Speaker 4: probably twenty two one now, and you know, film, film

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Speaker 4: and TV came up because it's all I did with

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Speaker 4: my spare time, and I went to Tafe in the

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Speaker 4: end for a couple of years and sort of landed

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Speaker 4: a gig straight out of Tafe and that's kind of

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Speaker 4: all she wrote. It was, you know, eight years it's

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Speaker 4: been eight years now since I finished.

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Speaker 1: And loving it.

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Speaker 2: It's an impressive list of work, maw. Can you drop

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Speaker 2: a few names for us, so at least some of

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Speaker 2: the work is that you're quite incredible. Sure.

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Speaker 4: I mean, I've been quite lucky in that I've had

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Speaker 4: a lot of work here in wa and we've had

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Speaker 4: some great cast and crew come through. So it's been

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Speaker 4: a lot of really fascinating, interesting people like Derek Banner,

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Speaker 4: Aaron Peterson to name a couple of people who've come here.

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Speaker 4: But also I've done a little bit of work over

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Speaker 4: in Sydney as well, taking myself out there on my

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Speaker 4: own dime and working on most recently Kingdom of the

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Speaker 4: Planet of the Apes, right, I think maybe just finishing

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Speaker 4: up it's theatrical release now as well as anyone but you,

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Speaker 4: which has a bit of a global meme phenomenon for

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Speaker 4: a while there. Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell to name a couple,

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Speaker 4: and I did a little picked up a couple of

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Speaker 4: days on Full Guy as well, so Ryan Gosling, Eily Blunt.

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Speaker 3: That's pretty cool, that's awesome. And you're working on the

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Speaker 3: third installment of the twelve now.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely, oh, dear Sam Neils, he's really great and so

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Speaker 4: far as going pretty well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, sound must come with so many challenges because you

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Speaker 3: cannot control the thing that's going to fly over drive paths,

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Speaker 3: just make a general clang of some sort.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely, we try our best, you know, especially other departments

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Speaker 4: do what they can for us, you know, parking the

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Speaker 4: generator further away, having quieter props in the scene that

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Speaker 4: they use, you know, camera fans turning off when we

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Speaker 4: hit records. We do what we do our best, and

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Speaker 4: so to other people. Yeah, as you said, you can't

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Speaker 4: always control it, and you know, sometimes they pick a

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Speaker 4: locations need to flight pass, you know out in the

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Speaker 4: middle you're watching the flight radar every five minutes, you know,

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Speaker 4: waiting for a window.

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Speaker 1: You get your game.

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Speaker 2: And also catering have to do the think and not

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Speaker 2: have such chewy food you might hear then go off.

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Speaker 1: True, right, do you ever get to yel quite on

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Speaker 1: the set?

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Speaker 4: You know, I've definitely done it many times when people

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Speaker 4: don't get the message. But you know that's not really

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Speaker 4: my job. Actually, that's more of an instant director stepping

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Speaker 4: on their toes. You know, I don't want to do that.

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Speaker 1: Did you meet Nicholas Cage or work with him on

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Speaker 1: the Surfer down South?

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Speaker 4: I did a couple of weeks on that, yeah, taking

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Speaker 4: over for a friend and met him very briefly. He's

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Speaker 4: a man of few words, very private man, trying not

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Speaker 4: to bother them. But that was pretty cool shooting and

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Speaker 4: I think it's not out yet, but that'll be a

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Speaker 4: very very fun film to watch. I think.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we've been doing this ben because of the you know,

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Speaker 3: we've got the Malaga Studios being built. At the moment,

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Speaker 3: We've got so many different groups realizing what great locations

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Speaker 3: WA has and a lot of stuff is really growing.

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Speaker 3: You must be thrilled at how way is reaching New

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Speaker 3: Heights as the place to be at the moment.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely. I mean when I started eight years ago, the

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Speaker 4: only studio we've really had that was being utilized was

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Speaker 4: the ABC Studios in these perth and you know, for

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Speaker 4: the most part it was going underutilized. There's only really

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Speaker 4: been a handful of productions that have come through that

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Speaker 4: have used it. When you know, I'm sure they would

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Speaker 4: have loved to if I had a bigger budget or

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Speaker 4: a script that required it. But the best thing about

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Speaker 4: these new studios coming up is that they're going to

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Speaker 4: be incentivizing more productions to come here on top of

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Speaker 4: what we already do. So that extra bit of funding

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Speaker 4: will go a long way with bringing in, you know,

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Speaker 4: bigger and better films, bigger and better TV shows, which

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Speaker 4: you'll only add to know, more crew getting hired, more

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Speaker 4: cast getting hired locally, which will just inject a little

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Speaker 4: bit of money into the industry here, you know, and

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Speaker 4: outside the industry even as well.

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Speaker 2: Ben, you know how you said, you stopped me and thought,

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Speaker 2: what do I really like? Are there times on set

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Speaker 2: you're holding that boom up there, or you're doing whatever

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Speaker 2: in your part of your job, and you cannot believe

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Speaker 2: on doing this?

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Speaker 1: How good is this?

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Speaker 4: It's pretty great? You know. The only times I've ever

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Speaker 4: asked that is when it's been something so bizarre and

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Speaker 4: weird that I couldn't believe I was filming. I feel

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Speaker 4: like one of the ones that earliest in my memory was,

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Speaker 4: you know, twenty eighteen, we were shooting a film called

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Speaker 4: Naked Wonder. I think it's been renamed now, but yeah,

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Speaker 4: we're filming a scene where a guy gets stung by

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Speaker 4: jellyfish and he is, you know, doing a certain act

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Speaker 4: to try and relieve the pain on himself. And I

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Speaker 4: did think what the hell am I doing?

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Speaker 3: But also there must be times where you're holding that

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Speaker 3: thing aloft thinking would you get it in this take?

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Speaker 1: My arm is killing me.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, sometimes when you start hearing take twelve, that's what

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Speaker 4: you start questioning.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, action as you and the camera operators, the chemos

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Speaker 2: always complain about that, especially with in sport.

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Speaker 1: They're hold this bloody.

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Speaker 4: Thing all day.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely for people who are thinking now's my moment

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Speaker 3: to you know, to embrace what's happening in doubly way.

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Speaker 1: What's your your one tip for getting into the industry.

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Speaker 4: My one tip would probably be it's a bit multifaceted really,

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Speaker 4: but checking out our local state rum provider. So Screen

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Speaker 4: West does a lot of funding and a lot of

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Speaker 4: incentivizing towards getting attachments in various different roles and departments.

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Speaker 4: So keep an eye out for screenwere stuff, and you

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Speaker 4: can even go beyond and looking at Screen Australia and

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Speaker 4: then looking through the guild as well. So I'm a

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Speaker 4: member of the Australian Screen Sound Guild and our w

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Speaker 4: A branch here. You know, there's a cinematography one, there's

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Speaker 4: a costume one, there's a production design one. You know.

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Speaker 4: So if you're interested in a certain subset of filmmaking already,

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Speaker 4: like just check out the guild and see what what

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Speaker 4: they've got offering. They might have a talk of free

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Speaker 4: talking and go to and meet people, connect to network there. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well I guess beyond that, it's the context and

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Speaker 2: then the bloody hard work, like any feel, yes.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely, put your head down, do the work, show you're

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Speaker 4: better than anywhere else, and you'll get some work.

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Speaker 3: Nice good advice, Ben, thank you so much for joining us.

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Speaker 3: We'll let you get back to working with Sam Neil.

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Speaker 3: Please give him my love.

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Speaker 1: Quite yes, thank you, Ben.

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Speaker 4: Than