{"id":523,"date":"2014-10-27T22:19:05","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T21:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.quanology.org\/?p=523"},"modified":"2014-10-27T22:36:06","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T21:36:06","slug":"podcast-5-chris-parker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quanology.org\/podcast-5-chris-parker\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #5 with Chris Parker"},"content":{"rendered":"
We have Chris Parker on the show – an average (well, not so average) guy with a job, wife and kids who followed his dream of making a movie. Specifically that movie is\u00a0The Right Juice, which Chris co-produced. It’s a feature film set in the Algarve in Portugal about an English banker who loses it all and decides to move to Portugal to start an orange orchard. Chris will talk to us about how he took baby steps to get there and what happens now that the movie is out!<\/p>\n
YouTube:\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qrTydUwbcXI<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n TRANSCRIPT<\/strong><\/p>\n John<\/strong>: Hey, this is John Khoury, I am your host for the John and Jani Show welcome back, this is episode # 5, this is the beautiful Jani Moon from New York City.<\/p>\n Jani<\/strong>: Hi; hi glad to be back here, again John<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: Thanks for being with me again Jani, so I am author of a new book Quanology, coming out soon, Evolution in you; Jani is a Media coach in\u00a0New York City and on this show we love to take a look at really interesting people, seeing how they do cool things and share their path and progress and journey with you, our viewers to see what we can learn from it, because we all like cool things in life, and we are excited about our guest today, our guest is Chris Parker. Chris made a movie, in Portugal of all places, but it is awesome; I have seen the movie. It is a feature film, and so for me it is pretty exciting; Jani is in the media world, aren\u2019t you girl?<\/p>\n Jani: <\/strong>I am; I am and I am excited to have Chris here to pick his brain about how he was able to do it all, because he is like.<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: Have you ever been on set, <\/strong>you work mostly in television?<\/p>\n Jani<\/strong>: Mostly television but I have been on movie sets as well, and it is so demanding, if such; I mean, it’s like having a baby you are like literally bursting, this huge creative, you know project, with the lights, the sets, the actors ; all of it, to create the story of inspiration as well as entertainment.<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: It sounds pretty challenging, pretty demanding; I think<\/p>\n Jani<\/strong>: Yes, definitely<\/p>\n John: <\/strong>For me it is interesting because the point is, with Chris. He is; he got a day job. Couple of things from me he’s got a day job, he is in the IT consultant and he is also a family man, that’s two things, he’s got three things going. The third thing is, he is a family man but he is also an American, and he lives in Holland, just like me and so<\/p>\n Jani: It’s your twizzy John; it’s your twizzy<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: We ordered the same bagel at Bagel and Beans<\/p>\n Jani<\/strong>: Is that how you met him, you met him at the Bagel place?<\/p>\n John:<\/strong> No, we just had lunch there, no we met via-via, but of course that that’s an interesting person right, somebody who is just like you and all of these levels, three levels at least two. He got short hair too; he doesn’t have a bald spot like me. But the point is he’s got a day job, there is so much; there is always been a trend, it’s like the kind of common things people are saying now; is to follow your passion, and a lot of young people are doing this; and from what I understand they are also getting very much disillusioned.<\/p>\n It is not working out the way they expect, it is not like they just drop everything, become a ballet dancer out what ever, and all of a sudden, life is great; it actually doesn’t work out, as well as they want it to. And so it is interesting to see alternative ways to kind of like, get the bills paid, to really work and have a career; but also to do things that you find are interesting, and so<\/p>\n Jani<\/strong>: That’s a field that are artistic needs<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: Exactly, they are expressive views, isn’t always, you know can a day job and enjoy it, but don’t feel completely expressed, and so that’s what Chris has done, he is a Consultant; it is really cool you know, it runs his own kind of consulting business. So in that sense he is more in control of his life, already than most people I think; but the cool part is, he has been able to just kind of do the side project, and so we want to take a look at it Jani you.<\/p>\n Jani<\/strong>: I do, I have<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: It\u2019s called The Right Juice<\/p>\n Jani<\/strong>: And you can see it at www.therightjuice.net<\/a>; there is the trailer<\/p>\n 3:41 \u2013 6:00 Scenes from the movie<\/p>\n Jani:<\/strong> Hey, cute<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: That was nice, all right let’s get him on air, Chris Parker, lets unhide you; it always takes like a second, here we go<\/p>\n Jani<\/strong>: Hey Chris<\/p>\n John:<\/strong> Chris can you hear us, it is muted, why is it muted? There he is, hey Chris how are you doing?<\/p>\n Jani<\/strong>: Hi<\/p>\n Chris<\/strong>: Hello<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: Hey, thanks for being on the show, Chris, tell us when this movie coming out?<\/p>\n Chris<\/strong>: Well, in Portugal, it\u2019s already out; it’s already been in cinemas for about a month, and it’s actually starting to taper off. So the next question is, when will it be here in the Netherlands for us, John and we are still working on that, that’s part of the story; I guess of getting the film distributed and we are working on UK and New York as well.<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: So it is not just a big bang, it doesn\u2019t just drop; and then it’s all over the world and start at one place and it still keeps you busy, in that sense, right?<\/p>\n Chris<\/strong>: It definitely; definitely keeps us busy, I think that was part of the maybe, moral naivety when we first started, it was oh it was making really good movie, and then some distributor will come and magically take it away from you, and everyone in the universe will see it. No, well it doesn’t always work that way, so what we are doing. I want to say, the old fashion way, was just work on the home country of Portugal and then we have made a bit of a splash there, which we can talk about. And we are really just motivated because people enjoy the film, and that’s the thing that keeps us going.<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: I enjoyed the film too, was there an explosion. I am trying to remember if there was an explosion or not<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> \u00a0Do you love explosion movies?<\/p>\n John:<\/strong> No, it was kind of, I hate explosion movies, but most people like explosion movies. It was a quiet movie but it did keep me entertained.<\/p>\n Jani:<\/strong> But it was schemed, it had great characters \u00a0and it was funny and charming and {7:50 unclear} potential. I would think real issues as well but my question is, how did you even get the motivation to even do this, where did this even come about?<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: Yes<\/p>\n Chris<\/strong>: Well, it certainly wasn’t my own motivation, but it has been, I guess you can call it a bucket listing; but a life goal thing to make a movie and in my case, it meant to be meaningful involved in a feature film; and I have been; and I’ve been carrying that, call it a dream for as long as I can remember; and in preparation for that I went over to London for a film production master class. Friends of mine that have been in the film business, when they were, a friend of mine Trevor who was over, this goes back probably in 2006 or so, sort of calls me out as well and said, do you want to make a movie, you want to be a filmmaker? I’ve got my gears. Let’s make a movie.<\/p>\n So I made a short film, hopefully every weekend and he said, felt like a 48 hour film project, which is a community contest that didn’t exist in the Netherlands. So another friend of mine and I, Richard bought the 48 hours to Netherlands.<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: What is the 48 hours?<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> The 48 hour film project<\/a>, <\/strong>it’s an amazing concept of for armatures and the semi-professional and even professional filmmakers, you get a team together on a Friday night; you get a character, prop and a line of dialogue imposed on you. You pull a genre from a hat; and you have 48 hours to make to make a 7 minutes max film. Awesome it’s just a great thing and we<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: And now, you kind of just implemented it?<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> Right we licensed it from the team in DC and in that first year we hooked up with Netherlands Film Festival, so amateur filmmakers could get their film screened in the Netherlands Festival, and it was during that, that I met.<\/p>\n Jani<\/strong>: Competition, you said competition of some sort or?<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> And it is like in 90, 100 cities around the world<\/p>\n Jani<\/strong>: That so many<\/p>\n Chris<\/strong>: Yes, it is really<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: It started in Washington DC?<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> 9:55 Yes, that’s where the founders are, <\/strong>and it is not a big commercial thing, it’s really a community thing. And the guy who won in Amsterdam, Christian, the first two years he is actually the director of The Right Juice and so it’s through, I guess taking baby steps over about 10 years towards the goal of making a film, then you start to meet the people, and Christian and I became friends, and he did some work for me at my old company and it was actually when I was leaving, my executive world; and starting my consultant practice, and he was one of the first people at the lunch table and said, well, you said you wanted to make a movie, we have a script in development, you know and we need some business help, so can you help us out?<\/p>\n Jani:<\/strong> What is your super power, being in this whole creative project?<\/p>\n Chris<\/strong>: My super power is, there is amazingly creative people in the team; but there wasn\u2019t a whole lot of structure, shall we say maybe business structure, the producer VJ, she has been an Art Director for films all over the career, incredible talented. Christian is also incredible talented Director, so the creative process they had totally under control; but all the stuff around it, the budgeting, the getting sponsorship, crowd funding \u00a0,there was a lot of learning curve there ,also did all the legal work;\u00a0 of all things.<\/p>\n So in this one I did a lot of the dry work, but I was also, is really fun to be able to get involved. So I think I got involved in July 2011 and they wanted to shoot later that year, and they had I.5 million Euro budget in mind, and they had no money raised, they had no talent attached, they had nothing.<\/p>\n John<\/strong>: So did they come to you and say\u00a0“Chris get us some money?”<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> Yes, and we have it sorted out, and we have a couple of \u00a0coming into Jesus moment, and then we ended up shooting for, we worked the script; got rid of some expensive stuff that was written in , got the sponsorship , did the crowd funding, we shot in April and May of 2012.<\/p>\n Jani:<\/strong> How did you get the actors because you have quite a few well-known actors in the film?<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> Well I think in one way, we got lucky, in a lot of ways like Lucia Moniz<\/a> who is a Portuguese dolphin trainer.<\/p>\n John:<\/strong> I didn’t recognize her; Jane did from Love Actually, it is?<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> Yes exactly, she was in Love Actually, and I was just getting in touch with her, her agent, who is in the US and<\/p>\n John:<\/strong> How do you get in touch with somebody\u2019s agent?<\/p>\n Chris<\/strong>: Just start calling around, yes just started searching, they are a lot of other websites on, if you know where people agents are, if you look at it from that perspective, it’s not that hard to find, and just explained to her the spirit of the story, and she bought into it; and she bought into the limited budget we had and she is marvelous. In Portugal she is actually a singer, so she was in Euro Vision Song Contest for Portugal.<\/p>\n John:<\/strong> That’s too bad<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> and, she is like a household name in Portugal for being a singer, and everywhere else she is known as being an actress<\/p>\n