This week Nicholas and Derek talk to director/writer Diego Navarro about how he got into filmmaking and how long it took him to make his very first Feature film.

This is Film Center.

Your number one show for real entertainment industry news.

No fluff.

All facts.

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

Hey, welcome to Film Center.

I'm Derek Johnson II.

I'm Nicholas Killian.

And what are we doing today, Nicholas?

Today we're introducing a special friend of ours.

Could you please introduce yourself?

Sure.

My name is Diego Navarro.

I'm a writer director.

Hey, Diego.

How you doing?

Pretty good.

I know.

All right.

Hold up.

Hold up.

Just up front.

You're wearing a John Deere hat.

Yeah.

It's what's the question?

I thought this would come up.

I'm from the South.

I'm from Tennessee.

John Deere is with tractors and everything.

They're very popular, but so do you.

Is this some sort of foreign background?

You just like John Deere?

I, it's ironic.

It's an ironic thing.

Number one, I'm wearing it because it's the only kind of clean ish hat that I had.

But two, I come from like a rural area with like tractors and stuff.

Where at?

In Paso Robles, California.

That's, oh so there is a disc tracker life over there.

That'ss.

What I'm saying, no one randomly wears a John Deere hat . No.

Yeah.

Part of it is ironic and part of it is like a callback to like my

roots, but I don't, I've probably driven a tractor once in my life.

Oh really?

Just once.

Just once.

Just to do it.

And that was like last month?

Oh, just last month.

Just last month.

How was your first tractor?

It was pretty fun.

Yeah, it was pretty fun.

My dad has property over there, so we were.

Driving back and forth across the property in the tractor.

So he taught me how to drive it, so that was Oh, nice.

Those are very powerful machines.

When you get it, when you're behind the wheel of one, you like,

when you're looking at it, you're like, oh, it's like a slower car.

When you get behind it, there's all that oh, wow.

Actually a lot of power.

A lot of power.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

It's a, it's quite a contrast.

You got the jacket on and the glasses and then John Deere.

Yeah.

Although we're one to talk, we're both from the south.

Mr.

Louisiana.

So is that where you're from?

Paso Robles?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've been in LA since 2015.

So I went home for a couple of years during COVID and like after college.

So all together been here for seven years.

Where'd you go to college?

Cal State, LA.

Oh, nice.

Cal State.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you've been in living in California your whole life?

Pretty much.

Yeah.

Before Paso, it was San Jose.

So the Bay Area.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Bay Area!

Are your parents also from California?

My mom is from the Bay Area.

Her family's from the Bay, originally.

My dad's from Mexico.

Oh, nice.

What part of Mexico?

Guadalajara.

Oh, nice.

So I'm like one and a half generation because my dad is like he came over

here, but my mom had already been here So it's like one of the hatchet, you

know what we round up here Round down it round down first generation just

choose first You know because technically On one side, you are first, right?

Yeah.

So might as well just go ahead and just take the dub.

Take the dub.

Take the dub.

Growing up in that area, is that what kind of like, where you were

first interested in entertainment?

Cause it's, it is California.

Although I will say this, people who don't live in California, who

are listening, Northern California and Southern California might

as well be two different states.

Yeah.

Might as well be two different countries.

Yeah.

They're a lot.

It's the same state, but.

Is it so different?

One, the snow, when you get up there, it'll get cold, and then, and San Diego

has never seen a ice flake in its life.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

But even past Robla's, it's three hour, a three hour drive from here.

Three hour drive?

That's almost as far as it takes to get to Las Vegas.

Yeah, about four hours.

Las Vegas is like four.

But even there it's like a different whole different environment different

country so the entertainment influence is not there like whatsoever

Would you do you interesting like writing or something like that?

We were like a kid or like drama or anything?

Yeah, so was your canon event my canon event for sure.

I remember being like five years old Dang, this tango back goes all the way back.

You were that self aware at five years old?

Yeah, I have a great memory.

That's how you know this man's a writer.

Unfortunately.

Yeah, I was about five years old and those like boom boxes that have

the CD player and the tape as well.

So you could record from the CD onto the tape.

I remember like making my own like mixtapes.

Like I would take parts of one CD, like the intro I think some 41 or no, the

offspring had an intro that's for their CD that said, when we step up onto the

mic, it sounds something like this.

So I like recorded that part.

Then I had a different CD.

It was probably like.

Eminem or something and then I like put so I was making my own mixtapes.

I like five you were mixing the CDs Yeah, I was mixing the CD.

So you say you would go when I step up to the mic.

I say hi.

My name is Basically, it would be I don't know if it was that clever.

But I hopefully it was that clever.

I don't have these tapes anymore I wish I did I really miss Being able to like,

when you mix those CDs or like those tapes for the road or something like

that, it'd be like, Oh, you know what?

Cause not everything's on, on, on Spotify, or whatever you might listen to.

SoundCloud or whatever.

You used to be like, Oh man, you're going, how long are you going to be driving?

Oh, you'd be like your friend or your cousin.

I'm like, Oh, it's like a four hour drive.

Bro.

I got you.

Yeah.

Listen to listen to this.

Yeah.

Sharpie writing like number one, number two, number three.

Yeah.

It was awesome.

But I think yeah, that was my first.

of wanting to do something creative.

Cause when I did that, I was like, I want to do this for a living, but that

lasted like a day, how did it only last?

What did you, so when you were, oh, sorry, what'd you say?

How did it only last a day?

I don't know.

I don't remember like that dream or that goal carrying on.

But I've made mixtapes like up until today, probably.

So when you were in high school what did you want to be?

If it wasn't like.

A writer, director.

So in high school that's when I found filmmaking.

Because I'd always been like, wanting to put things together, the reason I

bring up the mixtape thing is because the idea of taking certain elements

and putting them together to make something new is a collaborative effort.

It's a collaborative effort.

And it's like you're cultivating and curating certain things that you think are

cool, and you're putting them out there.

So I've always been like really interested in that.

So the way film comes into this is I was In video production

as an elective in high school.

And a friend of mine told me about a film called El Mariachi by Robert Rodriguez.

And I was like, okay, whatever.

I'll watch it.

Didn't really think much of it before watching it, but once I watched it, it

changed how I viewed film because I don't know if you guys know, but it's like a

7, 000 movie back in 1991 or so for 92.

You.

So it's like very, it's almost like a homemade movie, if a homemade

movie was picked up by a major studio so like that, when I watched that,

that was the first time where I felt like I could see the feasibility

of making something, making a film.

And it just inspired me to feasibility, like it was even within your grasp.

Yeah.

Because the film.

I could see okay, this guy, Robert Rodriguez, is doing everything himself,

like he's shooting it, he's directing it, he wrote it, he's editing it, the only

thing he's not doing is acting in it.

You can't do everything, right?

You can't hold the camera And act at the same time.

But, That's vlogging.

Yeah.

He wasn't doing that back then.

And then what about the film is, you said it changed your way of looking at film.

Besides everything we just said, how did it change how you looked at film?

I think because, part of it was like, I don't know about you guys but I feel

like when you can appreciate like an artisan's Work of art like something

that's handcrafted like you can tell like their fingerprints are on it

Like literally it's handcrafted like a sculpture a clay sculpture or a wooden

sculpture like that's how it felt to me Even though the film was cheesy Because

it's it is like a cheesy action movie and me that was their intention going

into it to me it was like It was art.

It was like it was a beautiful piece of art.

Yeah, inspired you to say Oh, maybe you know if they Maybe I should try

my self expressing myself in this way.

Right as well.

Yeah.

Yeah, because I mean up until that point I had made my own home movies

like and I feel you've been making home movies for a while in high school.

Yeah, because my Mom had a camcorder so she would record us a lot I think

naturally like whenever there's a camcorder around kids are gonna grab

it and try to make their own movie So I didn't really It wasn't anything serious.

It was never like, I'm going to be a filmmaker, but it was more like my brother

was a skater, so he did his skate videos.

And then I grabbed the camera with my little brother and we did he was the

skater and you were like the director.

Kinda.

That's cool.

Yeah, that's cool.

And then in high school when did you sit there and say, Okay,

I'm gonna do this for a living.

Cause you talked about, during the mixtapes.

You saw the movie.

And then you said the movie changed part of your inspiration.

Then yeah, so then when you say, Okay, now I'm gonna tell my

parents this is what I'm gonna do.

How did that conversation go?

I didn't tell them right then and there, but the seed was definitely planted

when I saw that film El Mariachi, because like I said, it just felt

like it was something within my grasp.

So I, having all this creative energy and like wanting to put something

together as big as a film like I had that urge to, to make something like that.

You go to college for filmmaking?

I did, but before I went to college, I actually made a feature film.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

How long after you saw the film, did you make the feature film?

So I saw the film in 2010, I remember I was 16, I was a sophomore in high school.

And I think that summer, so the summer after sophomore year.

I'd written a script and it was like I want to say 80 something pages, maybe a

hundred pages, which I look back at now.

I'm like, how did I do that?

If I find it so difficult to do now we are young, you don't have that that blockage.

You might've, Oh, it has to be self critical.

Yeah.

Especially especially as a writer myself, I usually find that a lot

of writers, they have, they know what it takes to make a good script.

So it's Oh, I'm going to work through all these like errors that I know

first before I actually get it down on the page compared to probably when

you were young, but I didn't care.

You know what I'm saying?

They were just writing just right.

Yeah.

I forget who said this, but they, yeah, they said That the longer you paint,

the harder it is to pick up a brush.

Wow.

Yeah.

And it's, I think it's the same thing.

Cause where, you know what good scripts look like, what the good things look like,

so that kind of blocks you for when you're young like that, you probably didn't care

and you just had a lot of fun, I assume.

And then it's, and it's also, it's you don't know the, I heard an artist tell

me one time, you never know when you're done though, because it's like you said,

like DJ said, and like you said, you never know I know what it takes to make

it good, and it's never good enough because I know that there's something

that can be better, but then that's what can then in turn ruin something.

Yeah.

No, I totally agree with that, both statements, because all I'm

trying to do now, skipping ahead to now, I know we're going a little

bit We can do what we want to.

It's our show.

We can do what we want to.

We can jump back in time if you want.

Talk about now.

It's like a Christopher Nolan movie.

Inception.

But that's what I'm trying to do now is remove all those like inner

critics and all that blockage.

And go back to like when I was 16 and just like I didn't

care about how it turned out.

Like I only did it because I felt like it was fun.

So that's.

What my kind of motivation is going forward now is I don't want to do anything

to impress anybody, like I just want to be able to Just create, express yourself.

Create and express myself because I think that was another to me

wanting to be a filmmaker once.

So once I started shooting that movie and it took three years.

So I did it junior year, senior year, I graduated.

And my first year of community college, that thing finally came out.

So it was, that was a long time coming.

Yeah.

So it was like the reason for taking so long.

Just availability of like my friends.

Cause I was relying on a couple of friends in high school to, to be in it.

And then.

There was some scenes that we shot over and over again, cause I would borrow a

camera, then I got a new camera, then I got a DSLR, so I was like, let's

just re shoot, so I think kinda just perfectionism, which kinda goes against

what I just said about not having that inner critic but also, not knowing

how ambitious a feature film was, Back then you just jumped in the water.

I was like, yeah, let's make this and you were like, oh crap For sure.

I'm gonna jump in this ocean.

Can you swim?

Eventually, Jump off this clip.

How you gonna let figure out on the way down exactly it and it was like that's

because this Your original question.

The reason why I'm explaining all this is you asked if I went to film school I

feel like that was my film school Like putting together in those three years.

Hey, experience is way better than theory.

As someone who went to film school.

Yeah, experience is better than film school.

Way better than theory.

Not to say that theory is not good.

But it's like.

Theories are more like.

Guiding principles, but the actual experience is to

teaching you how to do it.

For example, when you if you go to school, your teachers explain to you,

Oh, addition is one thing added to another one, but it's not until you

sit down and start actually doing some problems that you learn how to use

addition oh, okay, this is how you actually, this is what's going on.

Yeah.

It's it's interesting that you say it took.

Who had those three years to make that, right?

So does this include also shooting or is it just editing like they

were they aging through the movie?

Yeah, it's there.

We're aging through the movie.

Was that on purpose?

No, that was on purpose The only thing that was cuz I would say

that's some genius I would say you should say that's what the goal was.

It's like why just you know They've anyone else the character so it makes

you look like Man, this dude is a genius.

This guy's a genius.

It's like Boyhood by Richard Linklater.

It's it's a real life evolution of a guy growing up.

We just kept having to shoot things because, we were getting older.

But that was also my intention.

It's like, all right, cool.

We have enough scenes for this age, guys.

I'll see you in a year.

Yeah, basically.

Hey, come back with a beard, bro.

You need to work on that puberty, Mike.

Yeah, I could say that.

But then when you watch it, you're like, This character was

just like pudgy and baby fat.

The last scene, now he's slender, and then in the next scene he's

pudgy and baby fatty again.

It's . Hey, he he, he skipped lunch that day.

Yeah.

That's what happened.

He skipped lunch, and I was actually, I actually acted in that film.

So I was the one that was like gaining and losing weight and hair,

facial hair coming in finally.

Did you play any sports in high school?

I didn't.

I'm very clumsy.

So that's, I think that's why I leaned into the creative stuff.

Yeah.

So you, so when you graduated high school, you did tell your parents?

So you were like, oh, or you were just like, oh, they're just going to find out.

You're telling them you're going to go to school for something else.

No, eventually I did tell them.

And what was that conversation like?

And were they happy?

Because, we get a variety here.

I, a lot of people say that, Oh, it went sour in some ways.

And some people say, Oh, actually they were super supportive.

Kind of depends on the race of the person.

Yeah.

And and the reason for going to the reason for getting into it.

I guess the reason more yeah.

Yeah.

I'm trying to remember, I remember one conversation that we had Where I just

like I was disappointing them because like they had Preaching to the crowd All

my parents said was cool just don't get anybody pregnant my parents were like,

oh it's so You're oh, you're gonna have a hobby while you're actually working.

I think that's great And I was like, like this is what I'm gonna do for real

and they were like But what is this?

So that's like plan C.

What does that mean?

So were they did you tell them individually or at the same time?

At the same time.

But it was never like, I don't think we actually had a conversation

where I sat him down and I was like, this is what I want to do.

I just started doing it, and then I would keep doing it, so after I did

that feature, like, the same kind of core of people that did that.

We did a short film cause we were like, we're not going to do a feature again.

That was not going to take another three years.

So we did short after short in a good span of two years.

So it was just kind of something that I was already doing.

And then when it came time, cause I went to community college first and

got my I guess associates degree.

I'm not sure.

Yeah.

And once I was going to transfer and pick a major, I was just like I'm doing film.

And they were supportive at that point.

They didn't because you had been doing it because I had been doing it and they

saw like how much that it meant to me.

And . I think especially when I was younger now that I'm not 18

years old, it it's a lot more like.

If you, I'm more comfortable talking about my work with them.

Whereas before it was like they don't get it.

So I don't really want to get into details.

And I don't know, I felt, like I said, I felt understand it more than they used to.

Even like when I talked to my dad about literally anything on set,

if I say, so I say writing a script or I say someone's directing,

he's okay, I'm like following you.

But as soon as I mentioned anything technical of leg, are you like, Oh.

He goes, sometimes parents just ask arbitrary questions and he has no

idea that I have a specific answer.

He's oh, what kind of camera do you use?

Oh, we use the we use the Dragon Komodo.

And he's nope, stop.

Nuh next topic.

I don't know who, I don't know, I don't know what you mean.

I'm like, but dad, it's cool.

Cause we had this anamorphic lens.

He's no, stop.

Yeah.

I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't understand.

No, my parents are just they're just, my mom is just like, Oh, it's always, she's

just trying to get me to move back home.

Like I'm 32 now.

And she's just like I'm from Louisiana and there's a lot of stuff going on

back home and she's always this is what's going on, but, and I'm just like

yeah, so for you then with your with your parents, I guess they, they might

understand more now, especially if you're, if you had the passion and dedication

to make a feature in high school.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Over three years.

You gotta really like something that you've been working on it that long.

And I think now that it's been like 14 years since then they're like, okay,

it's just, he's not going to let it go.

Let's just let him have it.

It's not a phase.

It's not a phase.

Yeah.

But one of the, it's funny.

One of the last conversations I had about filmmaking with my mom

I made that sound like she's dead.

She's not dead.

I meant shout out to mom, she's still alive.

But the last.

time we talked about filmmaking I was like, yeah, I'm writing a script

and she's just like just don't spend any money on it and I was like, I'm

hoping someone else spends their money because I'm tired of self funding But

yeah, I mean using someone else's money to make films is the better way to

make it The best way to do something.

So did your parents think oh, okay.

Yeah, he's making films That's cute.

And then he'll go on to something that'll actually, make himself some money.

Yeah for sure I think like Coming out of high school, that was the

that was the, their plan for me.

They said, okay, you're, I know you're having fun with filmmaking,

but when are you going to get like serious about something else?

And I flirted with the ideas of doing something else,

but nothing ever came to me.

It was never really came or stuck.

With your father being from Mexico cause the Latin community is

like the entertainment industry.

For tv and film and music it's getting way exploding in the latin community i'm not

saying that it hasn't already been there, but it's just going dummy crazy right now.

Do you ever in any of your Previous films that you've made Have you ever gone down

back down to mexico to shoot anything?

Over there because i'm sure you visited it, but it's you know

Ever, shot anything down there.

I took my camera when we did a family trip back You Maybe in 2010, like when

I was just first starting to get into it but I didn't shoot anything specifically.

I didn't have a script.

I would just like shoot parts of the streets because, they looked really cool.

But there's, because that film El Mariachi was a Mexican film like I think that's

part of why it stuck with me so much.

Cause I finally saw you self identified.

Yeah.

So people who look like you, people who were, people you

can relate to, yeah, for sure.

And I think, that's obviously a big part of it.

That movie shot in Mexico.

So I always felt I want to shoot in Mexico one day.

What would you shoot in Mexico?

Like right now you have whatever funding for whatever idea you have.

What, cause I'm sure you have a couple of different things on your chopping block

that you want to, especially since you're a writer, they always have 40 ideas.

They only want to go with two or three of them.

Yeah.

What type of, if you could go to Mexico to shoot something right now, what

type of thing would you do down there?

Genre wise?

There's this genre is kind of, I can't really identify it yet because

it's still on like the incubation stage but I was writing a treatment

for a film about it's a period piece in Mexico, like 1900s, early 1900s.

Okay.

So that's something I would, I'd want to shoot in Mexico and that

was like, it's not a horror film.

Maybe more of a thriller, but it has like horror elements to it.

Yeah, you know I don't see a lot of period pieces done in Mexico.

So that's why I say this is actually quite interesting I don't think I can't

think of one off of the top of my head I am sure there are some that I just

am ignorant to like I just might never heard of but I can't think of any Oh,

the audience would be like, how dare you?

You don't know I guarantee you about to get like a bunch of emails and

messages Oh, you don't know this one that I know and to be fair.

So speaking of movie history, I recently a good friend of mine

my birthday was early this month.

And a good friend of mine.

No, thank you.

Took me down to the, he was like, oh, you wanna do Warner Brothers tour?

I used to go to film school right across from there.

So I've been on that tour a bit, and I have not been on it in years.

Anyway he was like, oh, he wants, we go, whatever, I don't really care.

Went on the tour.

And there was this guy there who was like, Oh, you guys just shout

out some, I think his name's Dan.

He's like a tour guide there, whatever.

It's like shout out to Dan.

Yeah.

Shout out to Dan.

Cause he was like, Oh, Do you guys name some movies?

And then, I might, see how I can Cater it specifically to you guys,

things that you might like, right?

And people were shouting out things like, oh, friends.

And then they said some stuff that WB doesn't own.

So he can't do anything with Marvel movies and stuff like that.

And then I was like, Oh, hey, watch this.

I'm about to stump him.

I was like, Oh, how about the 1939 movie?

The women, he was like.

The women I see.

I see how you're confused.

Because actually we do own the remake.

The other women that came out in the 1950s, but actually back in the

1939, it was made by MGM and it was like, whoa, this man knows his stuff.

You do his stuff.

Yeah.

Whoa.

I guarantee you somebody like that is about to begin this comic savant.

You don't know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What are some of your major influences that you would say to you currently?

For sure.

Rodriguez has always stuck with me, even though his movies

aren't liked by everyone.

Every time I say Robert Rodriguez is my influence, people like, snicker.

They're like, ah, really?

And it's not his, the, it's not his movies, but it's the way he makes movies.

He's very tenacious.

He's very self I guess self supportive, is that?

He's self he's not dependent on a lot of other people.

He's self sustaining, I think that's what I was yeah, self sustaining.

But when it comes to like actual like films that I love obviously

there's Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan.

Or just, I know those are like very basic answers, but they make great movies.

So there's a reason, there's a reason why they're big time.

Yeah.

They're so cliche.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Is there like a specific genre that you usually find yourself

writing more than others?

I think so.

I think drama.

Even though that term is so broad.

But, right now, I'm writing a sports drama.

That's Have you guys seen The Wrestler?

With Mickey Rourke?

It's got that kind of grittiness to it.

But it's about baseball.

And I'm not like, I watch a lot of football, but I don't

want to chill out of baseball.

Like I'm not an expert in baseball whatsoever, so I kind of embrace

that challenge to make something about baseball without having

it feel like a baseball movie.

If that makes sense.

What made you want to make this film?

And it's about an aging baseball player that's trying to make it back into the

pros after being gone for 12 years.

To me, it's about following a dream.

And yeah, so you're basically, what you're doing is you're writing

a story about somebody going through something and baseball just

happens to be the vehicle to do it.

And who knows in two weeks, the thing could be about like

bobsledding instead, yeah.

That's how the writing goes, isn't it?

Yeah.

The, I feel like the points that I want to make with this film

are driven around the characters.

Not so much about what what they're doing not to say that what they're doing

is not what it's about, but like you said, it's what they're going through

that kind of drives the narrative.

So in your writing process, are you a pantser or an outliner?

Cause I hope I'm, I die hard outlines.

I cannot do, I don't like, not that I can't write on the fly, but I

just, I don't like doing it when I'm professionally developing something.

What did you say?

A pantser?

A pantser.

People who write by their pants.

People who, they just sit down at a screen and like, all right, cool.

Type, until they feel like they're done.

And there are some people.

I wasn't Quentin, Quentin Tarantino's, I think he said now he only outlines

to like the middle, the mid point, and then he doesn't do anything.

How about you?

So I feel like my process is all over the place.

And I'm still like, even to this day, trying to figure out what the process is.

But what's been working for me, like in the last six months, at

least, because now I write every day, every single day I'm writing.

But before that, I was like, very kind of Things were sporadic and only when kind of

inspiration came out, sit down and write.

But in this last month with this baseball project that I've been working on I've

been determined to write every day.

And the way that started was got a pen and paper because I don't

know, it's to me, the pen and paper is so almost therapeutic.

Because I'm doing something.

Yeah.

I'm doing something with my body, at least with my hands.

And there's not distractions as opposed to typing as opposed to typing.

But that's so my writing, like when I sit down to write, I got a pen and

paper and I just start writing whatever.

So usually it'll start as a journal entry.

So it's a panther then?

Nice.

As you say, that's a warm up right there.

It's the journaling kind of, it's a, it's like an introduction.

Because usually the first line is, I don't want to write, that's the first line.

I don't want to be doing this right now, but I'm here anyway, so I'm going

to try to come up with something.

And then I start developing like plot points and stuff.

So the journal kind of transforms into this outline.

So the way I'm writing my script today.

Is I started with handwritten notes, then I typed the outline once I had

an outline kind of together in those handwritten notes and then off the

outline, I'm writing the script, but I still start every day with

a journal entry just to it sounds, it's almost it's quite interesting.

I I hear a lot about I talked to other writers.

Once they get started, they won't stop, but it's about starting that engine.

That's like the hardest part.

So I think that's a really good idea to warm up first with something just

easy that has nothing to do with journaling or something like that.

Because then you're like, oh, it's already warm by the time you're trying to

actually really get into the thick of it.

Yeah, and I've heard that it Clears the cobwebs.

Because I write not first thing in the morning.

I watch a little bit of tv in the morning because it I don't

know I Spurs on the creativity.

It doesn't really spur the creativity.

I watch very bad television in the morning, when I have my coffee and then

I it's just to wake up but i'll start writing and Yeah, it'll just start as a

journal entry to transcend into Dialogue.

It seems like you could, you would be writing like, I don't want to do this

right now because it makes me feel like a cowboy and blah, blah, blah.

And then all of a sudden you're just like, Oh, wow, I guess I'm writing some cowboys.

Yeah, this is this is a story, yeah.

I think the, what eventually happens is I trick my brain.

Like it's all about trying to trick my brain.

Cause I overthink too much.

And I'm like, okay.

I'm already here.

Like I've already sat down.

I might as well come up with something.

Have you seen X Men 97?

I know this is a hard left turn.

Have you seen X Men 97?

X Men is doing nothing but talking about X Men 97.

Oh my gosh, it's so good.

I haven't seen it.

Yeah, you gotta check it out.

If you were a fan of the old X Men cartoons, it picks up

where the old one left off.

Really?

Yeah the only reason I bring it is relevant.

It is relevant, Nicholas.

How is it relevant, DJ?

Please, I would love to hear the bridge on this.

It is relevant because there's a whole bunch of elements in the script itself

that they say they took directly how they used to make stuff back in the 90s.

So back when they used to come up with the used to be Saturday

morning cartoons type stuff, right?

Since they're using the same showrunners from back then, they said they're trying

to carry over their writer's room.

. And it really shows because the type of writing that you would see in

like cartoons and TV shows and movies back then is a little bit darker.

Or in, they're more, especially in the nineties, way, way easier

to have a subject matter about.

Darker themes and, the general public than it is now, now they

were just throwing stuff at the wall And just seeing what was sticking.

Yeah, but you had like episodes of hey Arnold that were about like, oh My

separated from my daughter in Vietnam, but I got read, you know We they

would just do things out of nowhere rugrats would have stuff like that.

Yeah, I could power I was like, oh my I'm gonna deal with the death of my mother

in this kids TV show Yeah, crazy, Yeah.

TV is a different monster because you're constantly coming up with episodes

and different, scenarios for, is there any films of yours that you would

think they'd do pretty good in TV?

I have this sci fi short film that again is more of a drama, but it has those

elements of sci fi to drive the story.

It's about being able to, jump into parallel dimensions and I feel like the

frequency okay yeah I saw some of that because you when you sent me your Vimeo

you have four or five short films so you have the one where it was an apocalypse

And I think that was like one of the first things I ever the one that made that won

the it was in 2016 that won the award.

Yeah, only me.

Only me.

2016.

So yeah, parallel dimensions.

There's always so much you can do with that.

If anything's proven that you can look at brick and mortar in there.

800 episodes.

Yeah, but it's also but the thing is whenever something is very malleable

or when something has a lot of possibilities, you also as I'm.

Sure, you guys both know as writers, it's also very easy to be lazy about it,

because there are so many possibilities.

And I know a lot of people have said this, but, the MCU is a perfect example of being

lazy about, the endless possibilities that you can go through with it.

Yeah.

And I think when I was writing the frequency, it was, I

took a different approach.

It was it's a little bit woo, but I was just like, I was stuck.

I was just stuck.

I didn't know what to make.

And I just sat there for 10 minutes and I said, whatever comes

to me, I'm going to write down.

And that's what came to me.

Like a guy that was obsessed with something in his garage and

was separated from his family.

Yeah.

'cause he had the helmet on his head and he me spoiling all the movie

man . Oh, niggas gave me spoiling.

I was watching this, I was like, oh, that's, you can spoiled

you the entire movie, man.

That's just the beginning.

So you're good.

Yeah.

But no spoiling.

Yeah, no spoilers.

Spoiled.

Yeah.

But you didn't say spoil the warning at all.

Some people, especially nowadays, they're like, oh, there are characters in this.

You spoiled it.

You spoiled it for me, and now I was putting the helmet on the

head and listening to the spoiler.

I guarantee you, the same person who says that we should have known

that movie I'm the same person who's gonna say that, and I didn't know.

The helmet spoiler!

Oh my gosh!

It's been real great having you on the show, is there

somewhere people can follow you?

Yeah.

I'm on Instagram at Diego double underscore two underscores, NAV, N A V.

Do you have any projects you want to plug?

Anything?

Nothing to plug yet.

I just, I'm working on that script.

So hopefully, I can come back here and talk about that once it's done.

Yeah, of course.

Please.

Definitely.

Definitely.

Guys, This has been Film Center News.

I'm Derek Johnson II.

I'm Nicholas Killian.

And we're here with Diego Navarro.

And we'll see you next time.

See ya.

See ya.

This has been Film Center on Comic Con Radio.

Check out our previous episodes at comicconradio.

com.

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

Tune in next Wednesday for a fresh update.

Until next time, this has been Film Center.

Hey, do you like manga, 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.