This is the second part of our meet the host special! Listen in as we discover how Derek Johnson II got started as a writer-director in LA.

This is Film Center, your number one show for real entertainment industry news.

No fluff, all facts.

Now, here are your anchors, Derrick Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.

Film Center, my name's Derrick Johnson II.

I'm Nicholas Killian.

And what are we getting into today, Nicholas?

Today, we are filming not filming, but we are recording, interviewing,

You, me, Derek Johnson ii.

No.

So this is the second part of the meet the host.

This is part two of interview the host.

Yeah.

But I don't think people want, I think people want more of the la ComicCon.

No.

I am sure that people would love to know how the man that gets it all done ticks.

Oh, okay.

the man, the myth, the legend Derek Johnson ii.

So where would you like to start Derek?

I don't know.

I don't know, what tell us about your family Tell about your

early life where are you from?

I'm from Nashville.

Let's start off with that.

I'm from Nashville I'm technically from Murfreesboro.

I think you're lying.

But no, I'm technically from Murfreesboro, but no one knows where Murfreesboro is.

Yeah.

And that's the only time my real southern accent comes out is

when I'm saying Murfreesboro.

And tell us a little bit about Murfreesboro.

Let's see.

Isn't Taylor Swift from Murfreesboro?

She's not.

She used to go to my, this is an interesting story,

she's from Pennsylvania.

She moved to my town of Murfreesboro.

Basically berated it and said it sucked, so then her dad, her super

rich producer dad gave her 300, 000 to make a to make her first album.

And it's funny because she basically was like, oh, country music is

so boring and stupid, I bet you I could become a country music star.

And she told this to everyone there.

And there's gonna be some people listening to this who's ah, that's not true.

But it is.

Her ex boyfriend was in my Geometry class when we, like After a couple

years after she got popular, she came back for a Nashville tour.

We bought him tickets, and he didn't want to go.

But we thought it was funny, so then we told his mom.

Ha.

And she made him go.

It was awesome.

And now, this is not to slander her, this is just what happened.

Yeah, it's just literally, it's just literally just what happened.

A lot of people who I graduated high school in 2013.

But this was several years before then that she went there.

And tell us what she was like in high school.

I'm sure people would love to know.

I didn't know her personally.

I've only, there was football games, but it's not like I know who that you can't

name every person in your high school.

You know what I'm saying?

She was, it wasn't like, oh, everyone knows who Taylor Swift is.

All we knew was that she was just some chick from Pennsylvania

who just hated everybody.

Which she just not hate as in being mean but she's had disdain of living

there And so it's like whatever she thought she was better than kinda and

to be fair Mervisboro is boring It's not anymore There's a lot, there's a

lot more to do there, there's a whole bunch of Californians who've moved

there and developed it, and now it's super expensive, and Californians.

And then if you guys don't know, Derrick is an all around renaissance

man, so he writes, directs he does everything but basically acts.

That's one part that, but you did act before.

Yeah, so when I was in high school I think that's my first taste of

entertainment, I I was in musical theater.

And wow.

Okay.

Yeah, it was a musical theater.

And I think that was really my first exposure to it.

My family went to TPAC a lot which is a lot of tours, a lot

of like big Broadway show shows.

They tour the country first, one of them in Broadway, and one

of the stops is in Nashville.

You said TPAC?

TPAC is the name of the Is the name of the theater.

Okay, could you tell us a little bit about the theater?

Yeah it's a Giant, it's a beautiful theater honestly, i've been to shows

on broadway before in the t pac center.

It stands for tennessee Insert letters here and then center.

I should know Because like in nashville, what a great representation All I know is

like So something that people might know about nashville is a huge Hockey spot.

Yeah.

Why do you think that's not wide or known?

Because when people think Nashville, they think banjos and moonshine,

which isn't exactly inaccurate, but, the Predator Stadium is just

right there in downtown Nashville.

And everything is just like, all rounded.

If something is built around it, if you ask someone like, Oh,

they're like, Oh, Where's that bar?

And they were like, it's near the Predi It's near the Pred Stadium.

You'd be like, okay, thanks, jerk.

As if I didn't already know that.

And everything was near there.

But, something that I have really a lot of fond memories of.

Is going with my parents to TPAC, seeing a lot of Broadway shows before

they get on Broadway because it's significantly cheaper because it's

in Nashville, and it's right there.

You get dressed up, all the good stuff, and So it's almost like

Broadway for small town prices.

Exactly.

Exactly.

It's the same exact people you will see in New York.

It's the exact same cast and everything.

It's just that, they do their tour first.

And TPAC is one of the places they stop.

And so Those things really influenced me, especially I remember seeing Wicked

for the first time, at TPAC, and it was like, that was the first of course

Lion King is really great, Rent was really great There was the er The

Nutty Professor that came by that was also really awesome, stuff like that.

The Nutty Professor?

I didn't realize that was a musical.

Yeah, there's a musical version of The Nutty Professor, which was incredible.

The lead, I feel so bad I'm blanking on his name, but he had to be

able to sing in bass and tenor.

To play that, because The Nutty Professor's voice is all the way up here.

And then the cool guy is like all the way down here.

He had to be able to sing in those two voices and go back and forth, and

back and forth, and back and forth.

I didn't know Incredible talent.

I didn't know that you could do that physically, so I was very impressed.

But when I watched Saw Wicked, I was like, Oh, There is

something so interesting here.

It was just, it was an incredible show.

And, that's what really got me more into musical theater.

And then Yeah, I think that's where I caught the bug.

Speaking of your parents, were they supportive of this of this career choice?

To be fair, my parents, so my mother she's a college professor.

My father's a physician.

And they didn't really think that I would be doing something like this.

Even when I went off to college, I went to study genetics.

And because that's what you were studying before you decided, because can you

talk to everybody about how you were based I don't want to say groomed,

but You were That's a very That's not That's But the way, because your dad

is a doctor, and you were basically, trained To become a geneticist.

You went to a lot of camps and yeah, so I you worked with your dad in

the, in his office, talk about that.

Yeah.

So when I was younger and I was a teen middle school, high school years, I

spent a lot of time I went to Space Camp on scholarship several times

because I was going to be, studying to be a biologist and they have a, anyone

who's listening if your kids want to go to Space Camp has a whole bunch of,

NASA Space Camp has a whole bunch of different programs for young kids and,

like I said, I was studying biology and they still will give you a scholarship

for that because they need all sorts of scientists in space and stuff like that.

It's not only about programming and engineering and computer science.

Then I spent some time at the University of Maryland College Park they had a over

the summer medical program there that, I actually learned how to sew together, they

had some pigskin for us to practice doing sutures and stuff like that, and I was

really interested in the medical field.

I think part of that really came from also, that's where my dad was.

My dad was a he only became a doctor when I was like, I want to say I think

it was like fifth or sixth grade.

Before then, he was in the military, and he was a field

medic in the military, correct?

Yeah.

So he was a field medic in the military until about my fifth or sixth grade,

and that's when he entered residency.

And then I think that I went to college, so when I went to college, I just

really had this feeling that I was supposed to be doing something else.

And there's some people who know the day it happened, but, I'll

tell a short version of that story.

The day for me where everything changed is I really had this feeling that

I should be doing something else.

I wrote, really for therapeutic reasons, not imagining that I should

be some filmmaker or something like that, or that I should write

or do anything in entertainment.

I just felt like I shouldn't be doing science.

I was in a freshman, in a junior chemistry class, biology class,

doing well, you know what I'm saying?

But, I just felt like I should do something else, and just, and I'm very

religious, so I, I, Remember going to library and asking God like hey

God if you want me to do something else you got to give me a sign But

please know that as your follower, you know as your child, I'm an idiot.

So it has to be a good sign.

It's got to be a good sign.

It's gotta be a good sign.

I'm oblivious.

And this is true.

First of all, I waited and like I did it like at a chair like at a desk, the

University of Tennessee, Knoxville, which is where I went to first.

And I don't know what I thought was gonna happen like the sky would open up

or something and even if it did I was inside So I wouldn't even have seen it

what I'm saying So what I just don't know.

I literally waited for 10 minutes and I was like, I don't know why I'm

still waiting here I'm like and while I was leaving I saw a whole bunch

of people rushing to the auditorium University of Tennessee, Knoxville,

and they have this lecture auditorium at the bottom of their main library.

Everyone's running over there.

And I'm like, I stopped the guy.

I was like, Hey, where's everyone going?

Like, where is everyone rushing?

He goes, Oh, James Wan is doing a surprise lecture here.

Isn't that cool?

And I was like, that is a really good sign.

That's a great sign.

That's a really cool sign.

And I went to his lecture and just hearing him talk about filmmaking,

how much he loved movies.

It really moved me.

And then they had a drawing.

And James gave me a Terminator 2 action figure.

Really?

Yeah, it's back at my dad's crib right now, yeah.

I was like, okay, this is, I guess what I should be doing.

So then instead of doing something smart and intelligent, I was, I mean I was 18.

So instead I decided, you know what, I think Disney's cool.

So I'm gonna work for Disney, but I don't know how to do that.

So I signed up for the Disney college program.

I went over there, which is the complete opposite direction of filming.

Can you talk about the conversation you had with your parents before

you went to the Disney program?

Oh yeah, calling my parents and telling them, Hey I know I've been, you've

invested a lot of money into me being a geneticist, and this is since I was like,

a child that's all I really wanted to do.

A good ten years.

No one's kid, I remember for Christmas one time, I think it was

like in the fourth grade, I asked for Chemistry for Dummies, and my dad

was like, you don't want a Gameboy?

I want that too, but I also really want this book.

Was that the story you were like, yeah, I want a book, I want a book instead of

it wasn't, I would say instead of video games, but it was definitely on my list

to have all these different science books.

I love it's just something I was really interested in.

And for my parents to hear I called my mom first.

I knew that was going to be the softest blow.

Even though, she'd obviously then tell my dad, I told my mom,

and my mom thought I was joking.

And then she was I was like, oh hey, Ma, I think I think I'm done with science.

And remember everyone my whole life, that's all they've

known me for is science.

And also my parents don't know that I write at all.

They didn't really view the arts as something that you did professionally.

A viable career.

They viewed it as a hobby.

I was doing musical theater in school.

You know what I'm saying?

It's just a hobby, just, some extra curriculars.

Something DJ's doing.

And especially it'll help my, me getting to college, right?

Saying, oh, I have these other skills.

And also, in high school, I was also in ROTC.

Originally, I was supposed to go into the military.

And then, when that changed, that's when I went to college.

Can you talk about why you weren't accepted into the military?

Oh yeah, I can actually.

My ASVAB was really good.

My ASVAB was 95.

It was an ROTC.

Segal High School is one of the Best ROTC programs in the state of Tennessee.

A lot of my friends just went directly from high school to West point.

So it was really cool.

It's like a feeder school, right?

And basically your high school is a feeder school to West point.

A theater school, a feeder.

Oh, feeder school.

Yeah, there's a whole bunch of we get recruiter guys all the

time, you know what I'm saying?

I was on the top Raiders team.

I was on top orienteering team, all that stuff.

And then I went to go sign up for the military at 18 and my grandfather

was also a World War II vet.

You know what I'm saying?

So I'm like, okay, cool.

I'm about to serve my country.

And just a stroke of fate.

It turned out that Obama was downsizing the military at that time.

And so he had a whole bunch of like stipulations preventing people to

get in that previously did not exist.

And one of those stipulations was if you take a certain level of ADHD medicine

consistently, you would have to be off it for a year first to then join.

And I wasn't about to wait a year.

So then that's when I was in college.

And then I'm gonna speedrun this.

Speedrun a little bit, because I've done a whole bunch of stuff.

So I went to then calling my dad and telling him oh, I'm not gonna do this.

He didn't really believe me either, but I think both my parents they

said everything in the book.

They were like, you need to, what's your plan B?

Where is this coming from?

Who are you?

What is happening?

I think a lot of people go through that.

It's like telling your parents, Oh, I want to do the art seriously.

They don't believe you.

They don't think it's a terrible idea.

And I remember talking to both my parents about it later on, many years later.

And they're like, yeah, we really tried to make sure that you didn't do it.

They said it was, they said it was idiotic.

But from what I got from that conversation was like, Oh, it's not stupid.

It's idiotic and it's not a good idea, but it's not stupid technically.

So even though idiotic and stupid are very interchangeable.

Your parents never brought up a pregnancy.

What do you mean?

Just to talk about myself a little bit.

Whenever I had the conversation with my parents, they were

actually pretty supportive.

The only thing my dad told me was, if you get a girl pregnant, that's it for you.

Oh, my parents are, my family's super independent.

So basically, after I entered college, they were like, yeah, you're on your own.

You're just cut off.

That's my first summer back from college.

My room wasn't even there anymore.

Oh, really?

Yeah that's how my family is.

They were like, 18, you're good, man.

I got you.

I remember when I turned 17, my dad was like, you wanna go tour some apartments?

I was like only 17.

We're, because we're all really independent like that, they

dissuaded me not to do it, but I also think that's what prevented

them from saying, You can't do it.

It's because we're all very Because you're so independent.

All of us are super independent and that's just how my family

rolls, you know what I'm saying?

I went to Disney.

I did the Disney college program for about a year.

I laughed, I cried, I would never do it again, but I definitely wouldn't

take away that experience from my life.

It's like pledging in, in, in college.

No it's worse because it's a year long.

But, I guess the sentiment I'm saying is you would never do it

again, but you're glad you did it.

yEah, I'll and then I spent, actually, I spent some time at Universal afterwards,

after my Disney contract got off.

And then, this was down in Florida, so it was down in Disney World,

and then that's how I ended up at Florida State afterwards.

Because, then I was at, then I was at Universal Studios, and my parents

basically called me, and they were like, Hey man, what are you doing?

I was like, what do you mean?

They're like, you're just working at theme parks.

I'm like To be fair, it was really fun.

I was having a good time.

From what I heard, it was a lot of fun.

Yeah, it's a lot of fun, because I was like, when you're 18, 19, 20, you work

at Disney World, a whole bunch of people who you haven't talked to in years,

they now want to be your best friend, because you have free tickets to Disney.

Exactly.

Even like people who are like extended, like people you did not

know you were related to somehow you're now you're related to them.

They're like, yo man, what's up?

Can I get some tickets?

Exactly.

Exactly.

And the craziest part is, some of 'em you'd be like how would this even work?

Like you leaving Connecticut, if I give you these tickets to, you do

still have to come over here , right?

To get the tickets.

All I'm giving you is the tickets You have to pay for everything else, right?

My parents were like, you should, what happened to, I want to

be working in entertainment.

I was like, Oh yeah, I did say that.

I didn't know.

I was like, maybe if I work at Disney, eventually there's some sort of crossover.

I don't know.

Also at this point, I hadn't even Googled what a script looked like.

I didn't even, And nothing this is also as long as I work for the companies,

maybe something will happen This is also the same line of thinking when

people go to extra work and they're like maybe the director will notice

me put me in a featured role and I'll right come discovered that way right

the same Ridiculous line of thinking.

Yeah, so then at Florida State University I spent a lot of time

with their film school Shadowing the people who in their graduate program.

I was a PA for a lot of them for about 11 films.

Could you talk about that process a little bit?

Yeah, usually you need to be a part of the graduate college at Florida

state university to help on their films or like friends of one of

the people or something like that.

But when I got on there, when I got to Florida state, I really was like, okay,

I'm gonna be here do film stuff and the film school of Florida State University

is actually in the football stadium I had some friends who were played football

So they told me where it is because that's the only place in the stadium.

They're not allowed to go obviously this is you I like I went to the

film school and Doors were closed.

So there's like this bench outside of it And I literally just sat

on the bench, I think it was like a, it was like a Tuesday.

So I knew some people were gonna be walking by, it's Tuesday.

And I didn't have classes on Tuesdays at that time.

I literally sat there all day till I saw someone who like

looked like a graduate student.

And I think it was Kendra.

And it's like Kendra or other, I'm pretty sure, I'm just gonna say Kendra because

I'm pretty sure that's who it was.

And I basically walked up to her and was like, Hey you're part of this film school,

you're a graduate film student here?

And she was like, yeah, and I'm like, cool.

Are you making any like you make movies and stuff like short films?

And she's yeah, I'm like cool.

Hi, my name is Derek Johnson.

I will do anything on that say Great attitude to have right just all the

bullcrap you want to get and she was like, oh you would be a PA and

I was like, I don't really know what that means, I'll do it for free.

And she was like, oh, really?

And I was like, yep.

She literally takes me into like her class and they were like apparently all

sitting around about to get all their film screen lit for their for Florida State.

A lot of film schools work this way.

They had their slate of student films, and they had to get greenlit by the

teacher or whatever, and it was just the students sitting around at that time.

She walked me directly in there and then introduced me to everyone, I was

like, hey, this is DJ, he wants to be a PA for free, and everyone was

like, whoa, do you want to work on my film, do you want to work on my

film, do you want to work on my film?

And I literally got to work on everybody's stuff.

It was funny by my third, fourth semester there, I had been on literally

everyone, not the undergraduates, but all the graduate student films.

I had people like Arguing to get me on their student films mainly because I was

just doing anything people asked me to do.

The biggest thing for me was just, it was such a great experience to learn.

It was such a great learning experience.

I bet.

Yeah.

Cause I didn't know anything.

At all.

And to be able to go and interact with these film school students

and see how they're writing, see what it's like to be on set.

What do these cameras do?

What do these lenses do?

You know what I'm saying?

And there's a huge balance.

That I got used to while working at Disney between being curious and

being annoying there's definitely a line razor thin line, right?

And how you usually balance that especially someone like

me who's really curious.

I like to know everything I would ask them a max of three questions.

That was like my thing.

I was like, you can't ask more than three questions Before lunch and can't

ask more than three questions after lunch and by that's a great rule Yeah,

and it's like a to a specific department so it's not I'm not going to go to the

director and bother them because not three questions for each department

or each person that each person.

But each department.

Someone's super busy.

I'm not gonna be bothering them.

But after I've made five or six with them, everyone just knew me.

So they would talk to me more.

When I first got on there, don't ask the camera department

more than three questions.

And so it also makes you raise her down.

What are the, what am I trying to ask?

You know what I'm saying?

It also probably makes you it makes you curate your questions, right?

And makes you calculate your questions and think about, okay,

what do I actually want to ask?

What do I really want to know?

I only have these three questions, right?

And I spend a lot, most of my time actually with, because I was doing

PA stuff, PAs are often funneled into just something, whatever you.

Whatever you seem to just do the most, if you're a consistent PA,

they just make you just do the, they just shove you into that section.

And for me that was PD.

Doing a lot of PD and wardrobe.

What is PD?

Production design.

I was working in a lot of the art department, the

production design department.

I was working with a lot of wardrobe people, and I was making costumes.

And I was making some costumes that got into some of their

movies, which was really cool.

How did you like that?

I thought it was awesome.

I love, I, I would previously, I, not that, I've been to a couple Comic

Con conventions, but I never really thought to myself, oh, let me make a

costume, and so I saw them starting to make some, and I was like, oh,

I wonder if I could also do that.

YouTube Academy, Leo.

Texture Metal.

Looked it up, and a really great moment for me is, like, when I

had this swamp monster costume.

That guy did get into one of their short films, which I thought was really cool.

That must've made you feel really proud of yourself.

Oh, it made me feel like I didn't, I wasn't wasting my time.

I need to prove, I still like, cause my parents were still

like, what are you doing?

What's going on?

A lot of creatives sit there and ask themselves, am I wasting my time?

Pretty much all the time.

I was making costumes.

I went to, then I got into the New York Film Academy, the Los Angeles

branch here in California, in Burbank.

Can you talk about the story of getting into NYFM?

I wish the story was more inter interesting.

All that really happened was like, my portfolio after working on so

many short films was pretty good.

And ironically, I didn't get into Florida State's film school.

Even though I helped make them a whole bunch of movies.

Having so many connections at Florida State, did you ask them like, Hey man

I've worked on all of your movies.

I even helped some of the teachers move in.

Some people who were judging who gets it or not.

And, I was I don't know, it's a little scandalous, but basically

what happened was, I'm not gonna say who or what did anything,

we'll keep it general for whatever.

But, I did get into the school, and then because it was told to

me by my registration yeah, of course you got in, yeah, you're in.

And then while I was finalizing the list, a person who will be, remain

unnamed, paid for their kids to be in Florida State's film school.

And took your spot.

And took My spot, and also someone else's spot.

I don't know who the other person is, but, and literally the students were like,

got really upset, obviously, because I'm like, a good friend of theirs, and I've

been working with them for three years, two, three years on all their stuff.

Here's what it is, and then I was like, okay I prefer it, which

I thought was going to Florida State, but my dad was like aren't

all movies made in Los Angeles?

And I was like, yeah, he goes, why don't you try getting

into the Los Angeles school?

And I was like, I don't want to go to USC or UCLA, specifically because,

I don't know, I was like, okay If I want to go there, I might as well

just go to what's the difference between all these film schools anyway?

It doesn't really matter which one you go to.

And what have you found to be the difference?

Not a whole lot.

Really, the alumni.

And that's about it.

Even though that's like razor thin.

Because some alumni Director of Moonlight came from Florida State.

He didn't go to USC.

But then Steven Spielberg went to USC, but again, that was in the 70s.

He's it depends.

The reason why I chose, I applied to NYFA was because they were the only

film school that had a feature program.

In which a select few of their students got to make a feature film.

And not a short film.

And I was like, oh, that's what I want to do.

Why don't other film schools do this?

And it's really super selective.

Why don't other schools do that?

Cause it costs more.

It's way easier to teach kids or whoever.

Here's a camera, here's, a few thousand dollars, it's gonna make a short film,

compared to, okay now you need to write, you don't need to write ten minutes of

script, you need to write, hour and a half, two hour script, that needs to

be compelling, and obviously it's gonna cost more than a couple thousand dollars,

you then run into illegal issues you know what I'm saying, with a short film

you can get away with a lot of stuff, when it's a feature, you can't there's

a saying, That that I learned working at Florida State's film school, which

to this day has seemed very true to me.

Short films cost money, feature films make money.

For short film, you gotta send it to different film

festivals and stuff like that.

When it comes to feature films, You don't send them to a whole, I mean

you can send them to film festivals if you want to, but you can sell

that feature film to be licensed somewhere, and that generates money.

Compared to a lot of short films you can't really do that to.

You can have a short film with an A list actor in it, and it's less

likely to get sold than a feature film with no A listers in it.

Really?

Yeah.

So you could have just a regular feature with you and your friends and it's

more likely to generate money than if I had Jude Law in my short film.

Wow.

Yeah, that's a gem right there.

And it'd be good to know.

Yeah.

Before you pour all this money.

Yeah into a short film.

There's some people who spend four, 40k, 50k.

There's only, I know a handful of people who regularly perform

very well with short films.

I know this one guy, he like his short films are consistently like nominated

for Oscars and stuff like that.

However, he was making, he's been making, that was his thing.

He was like, I want to master short films and he'd been

doing short films for 40 years.

4 0?

Yeah almost half a decade.

Four decades?

Yeah, four decades.

Almost half a century he's been doing exclusively short films and just working

on making really good short films.

And what's the time length on these short films?

They're like, for a short film to be short, it needs to be under 40 minutes.

And so they usually land around 30.

So they're not tiny.

Yeah, they're not like 10 minutes long.

Which a lot of people do to get their stuff easy, easily programmed.

buT yeah.

NYFA had a feature film program and so I decided oh, this is what I want to go

into and then I became a writer Because I didn't I have never read a script of

those screenplay until I was 24 but I Basically went there to make costumes

for feature films and a teacher of mine pulled me aside and it was like hey

because we had to no one had any money like usual Sorry, spoiler alert to

everyone in Los Angeles, to people who don't live in LA, but a lot of people

out here don't actually have any money, especially the film school students.

We had to make our own films for our costumes to be in the film.

So I'm writing and directing in film school so people can see my costumes.

And then a teacher of mine pulled me aside Gilbert, and was like,

Hey man, can I see you after class?

I was like, sure.

And he goes, you wanna make costumes?

I was like, yeah.

He goes, you should be writing.

So they recognized your talent in writing, and was like, You should write

more than you should make costumes.

Yeah, that's what he said, and at first I was like, Eh, I don't really know

because I'm really into making costumes.

And he was like, No, do me a favor.

Write it seriously.

Take writing seriously.

Just the next two scripts that you write for class, take them very seriously.

And, the rest became history.

I ended up really enjoying it.

And, one of those scripts that I wrote for in film school became Sweating Sand,

which was a short that I'm mostly known for, that's now gonna be a TV show.

Which is the TV show we're making right now.

It is.

It is, yeah.

And I wrote that yeah, I wrote that when I was In film school and if

that teacher never said that to me, I never would have became a

writer director So shout out to mr.

Gilbert.

Yeah, shout out to gilbert.

Yeah, exactly And then what did you do coming out of film

school coming out of film school?

I was hired.

It was a pandemic I was gonna make a feature film my first big feature

sweating sand was gonna be a feature film because they hired one like We

were only on the festival circuit for four or five months and we had 10 awards

and two nominations It was going crazy.

So Getting the money for the feature actually wasn't too difficult, because

it was winning all these awards.

But, it got greenlit in January 2020, and by March, everything was a toddly derby.

But, I actually got hired to be a development executive when I was right

out of film school, when I was 25.

I, Yeah.

I was like, yeah, I was almost 26, 25, 20, almost 26.

It was right before my 26th birthday and That experience was really great.

I wrote a script called Blood Related and that's what, So I was pitching, I

was taking Blood Related around to anyone who would see it, anyone who would look

at it, it was it was a script that I was very passionate about and the guy

who I worked for at the time, at the school, David Nelson, I guess gave it

to someone who then looked at it and then passed it around until eventually

it got recognized by Voyage Media.

And then after Voyage Media, and a guy named Ken Koken, who used to

work, who was a former executive at Perfect World Pictures, liked it.

And then from there, through that connection, I was able to be hired

at the development company of Hot Pot Productions, while I was getting founded.

And now, I do this.

Yeah, I've since left Hot Pot Productions just because internal strife.

That and it's you want to be able to create and do bigger stuff when

you work in development You all you do is just spend your time making

other people's stuff come alive.

You want to make your own stuff come alive Right eventually, right?

Yeah, that's me That's you.

Yeah, and then at the start of the pandemic, that's when you

moved into to the apartment.

Yeah, for those listening, me and Nicholas know each other from being roommates.

Just off random.

Off random.

Just random, and how did you find the, you found it off Craigslist, right?

Yeah, super sketchy, but I was like hey, I'll go check it out.

And yeah, because I was leaving, I didn't have dorms at my film school, but it was

like they had Designated places for you to live and I was like, ah, you're gonna

find some someplace small to be for like, you know a couple months and then leave

and then I end up being there for a Year and that's how me and Nick know each other

and didn't you say your former roommate was like a crime boss or something?

That is a story for another time That is he Yeah, he did international

money laundering and owed like millions and millions of dollars.

And didn't the FBI kick down your door?

Yeah, they That's a story for another time.

I think we're running out of time.

But yeah I don't know.

Everybody might stick around for it.

That did happen though.

Yeah, they seized the property.

It was crazy.

Story for another time.

But all right Derek, thank you so much for just, being so thorough and letting

us into your world for a little bit.

I'm sure everybody will enjoy this quite a bit.

Yeah, I enjoyed, opening up, and this is probably the reason why we

did the meet the host, because we get so many people commenting about

who are these people on the show.

But hey, that's me.

I'm Derek Johnson II.

I'm Nicholas Killian.

And we'll see you next time.

See you.

This has been Film Center on Comic Con Radio.

Check out our previous episodes at FilmCenterNews.

com.

Sign up for our newsletter and get the Hollywood trade straight to you.

You can follow the show at Film Center News on all major platforms.

Tune in next week for a fresh update.

Until next time, this has been Film Center.

Hey, do you like anime and manga?

Well, Nick and I are big fans of the genre.

Yeah, we recently discovered a manga named Tamashii.

It's written and created by Ryan McCarthy, and it recently just

came out with its 10th volume.

Now, Tamashii is an isekai about a girl who gets transported to another

world called the Ancient Lands.

She gains mysterious powers and must fight demons and monsters to find her way home.

Check it out on Amazon, Blurp, and get a physical copy at ryanmccarthyproductions.

com