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Unknown
Hello,

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Unknown
everybody, and welcome to You're watching a movie with Silas Lindenstein. I am your host, Silas Lindenstein. Today I am interviewing writer director Nicholas Acosta. Nicholas, just put out a new short film. It's actually made its its debut, its world premiere at the Dances with films Film Festival that just happened this June 25th. I interview him to talk about this new film.

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Unknown
The pickup, the pickup is a is a is a short about a Uber driver who unwittingly picks up a a secret agent who has to deliver a package. And comedy and action ensue on this Uber drive. It is actually a really a really well-made, highly skilled, executed action short that looks very expensive, but was made for just $6,000.

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Unknown
And I find that amazing. Like, if you see this film, I'm going to try to get a link or something to it to show you this film. I love that I'm allowed to share know because it's on the festival. I don't want I don't know that I'm allowed to share it yet, but when I do it, I'm very impressed with the quality of this.

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Unknown
And it was shot for just $6,000. And that may sound like a lot. It is a lot of money. It's nothing to sneeze at. But for making a action comedy, something with with car crashes and jumps and fireballs and a helicopter, it's it's kind of astounding that you could do that. So check it out. Check out the check out the film if you can.

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Unknown
A little bit more about that. It was shot for 12 days over the course of nine months. They filmed during Without a Permit in L.A. because it was during the pandemic. So the streets were empty. Now, this all these things happened during the pandemic. Like all these creative things happens that people are able to get get away with.

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Unknown
If nothing else, at least we got creative on this. I feel like we're still like I'm still interviewing people from pandemic era, like things that they made during the pandemic. And that's kind of kind of lovely. I guess we should be getting the post-pandemic stuff soon, right? Anyway, uh, he wrote Nicholas wrote and directed this. It stars Xavier LeBlanc from Orange is the New Black, who was also a cast.

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Unknown
His wife adds, Yeah, I think it's just a 7 minutes 51 second runtime, and Acosta does a lot of he does a lot of shorts and how to how he talks about a a how to do stunts and special effects on a budget type of show on YouTube. You can check that out. Anyway, we had a good time talking about making this film and how to do it.

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Unknown
Yeah, you know, I don't always spend a lot of time talking to folks here about the the process of the particular films because I like to get to myself the questions that I ask them. But I did on this one. Okay, So check it out. Check it out. I think you'll enjoy the set of you. I had a lot of fun.

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Unknown
You had a lot of fun. And of course, uh, this is another co podcast with my other one, Black and a Half. So whatever you're listening to. Thank you. Thank you for. Thank you for listening. Whether it's black and a half where you you're watching a movie with South and say thank you for tuning in so right now I want you to sit back, relax, open your heart, open your ear holes and listen to me with Nicolas Acosta from the pickup, answering my seven questions.

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Unknown
the question about has this aired anywhere.

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Unknown
Yeah, it is. Is it.

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Unknown
And where is that. Nice. Okay. It's so I want I want to ask you right off. So I thought my appeal to watching it once they sent it out was like I was like, Oh, well, I was a I was a Lyft Uber driver before I started there. So this this story is like, Yeah, yeah, No, I feel like sometimes like this this is an action adventure about to start.

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Unknown
I don't know what's going on in here, but, you know, I mean, I watch a lot of short films and they get a set, a lot of films of different qualities. And this is I think you try liberal quality, like just from a I mean, from a technical standpoint, why does yours look so good and you're just like ultra low budget, right?

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Unknown
Like it's a $6,000. Okay. Which is probably more than that's less than one of those cars cost. So what like how do you make the film look so good? Because I watch feature feature films that I don't understand why they look like a little like like shot on a camcorder, even though I know they used film, I don't get why they look.

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Unknown
So it had they always have this like low budget look and I don't know what that is technically that yours looks so incredible for such a for such a small amount of money.

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Unknown
Okay yeah yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm hmm. Okay. Yeah.

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Unknown
Mm hmm.

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Unknown
Okay. There are a lot about. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Unknown
Mm hmm. Yeah, Yeah. Oh, I know. I think it's just. It looks. It looks high budget like. And so I these feature films sometimes, and I'm like, I can't understand either. Why like, why does this look like the. Mm. I have a little like a Sony ar3s or whatever that to shoot on. And I'm like this doesn't look as good as my camera.

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Unknown
And I didn't the inexpensive this is not super expensive camera right so really. Oh nice. Okay yeah yeah right. Yeah yeah. Mm. Yeah, yeah. Mm. Yeah. Well and I was just say I don't want to boy it's hard to not spoil a seven minute film at all, but like there's, there's an explosion and I was like, well I know he didn't explode anything for 6000, but oh but I'll say I've, I've seen, I've seen some shows on Netflix, but the explosion was not as good as that.

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Unknown
Like that was a really I was like that. I will say if I didn't know that people were using special effects for explosions, I would have. And if I didn't know the budget on this, I, I, you could have tricked me that I think it looked really good. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

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Unknown
Mm hmm. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. You know, I saw I had read something on that, and then I'm watching it and I go, No, but. But they had no. Okay, that's. That's old, old school miniatures, huh? Yeah, the flipping. That was a toy car. Like how big a car is? Like matchbox size or like. Okay, so the kind of big wow.

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Unknown
Yeah, Well, well, yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's, that's fantastic. It's a it's a fun were you a have you ever been a nobody. I loved your line. Does it left? I love that. Great. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh doubt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No or yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, yeah, I. One of the reasons I stopped Uber driving was because of an experience where I thought I was going to die.

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Unknown
I thought some. I thought the passenger was going to kill me, so. Oh, really? Maybe it was. Maybe it was the same guy. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um. Hey, the first time I have people on my show, I there's a series of questions I ask them. It's the same questions. It's. It's my world famous assassin sends world famous seven questions, and that's where eventually I'll get a sound effect.

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Unknown
They happen. So, number one, what are you most nerdy about? Like, and it doesn't have to be sci fi. It can be that that. What's that thing that you know more than maybe most people about or you are super into, um. Okay. Yeah.

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Unknown
Mm. Yeah. So the making of movies is the fascinating thing that you gonna do, you know. Now, do you look at how they're made before you watch it or do you.

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Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well that was, yeah. When I was a kid. P, B, both PBS and HBO, they used to do a lot of the making of a movie before, but before it was even released, like, before it came out. And I used to watch those because it was my first look at an Indiana Jones movie that's coming up.

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Unknown
And it wasn't. They wouldn't show footage, but they would show how they were making these things.

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Unknown
Oh, yeah?

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Unknown
Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Really?

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Unknown
Mm. My. My daughter's trying to decide whether she should try to go to a film school or just go do it. What's your vote?

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Unknown
Yeah, Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So. Yeah. Okay. All right. Number two, What's something that you love to eat? Mm hmm. Okay. Yeah, Well. Oh, yeah. Oh, it's the worst. Your body rejected. Body rejects it so badly. Well. Oh, it's the worst standard. But French fries don't have 17 ingredients. But really? Oh, they're so good.

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Unknown
Yeah, Yeah, right. And number three, what's something that you love to drink? Oh, I love that. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, I. Oh, I once did a I did a I directed a play, my first mainstage full length play. It opened up, lights come up, and the play and the ground is supposed to be littered with pizza boxes and Dr. Pepper cans.

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Unknown
The Dr. Pepper. Was she in the in the play she claimed that there was an ingredient in Dr. Pepper that like, gave her the nerve to get outside for a little bit. So she needed to get like laundry done, like she could go do it if she chug some Dr. Pepper and got back in. That's the only thing that could get her out of the house.

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Unknown
I love. That's right. That's right. Okay. Number four, What kind of music do you love? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I have I have this slightly ongoing gag where I like to put take trailers and delete the sound and put sabotage under by Beastie Boys. Just, uh. Yeah, that it's a movie fast enough. Here is. Oh, that's. It's now it's grand.

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Unknown
I want to. Torino. Torino? Yeah, I was like, That sounds really close, but you're right. It's not correct, but. Okay. Something about trailers. Because I did it, too. But I did it for the last. Was it last year? No, it wasn't Last Jedi or. Yeah, I think it was the last Jedi that I did up to edit. It just cracks it because I saw it on someone else, did it work for something?

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Unknown
And then I was like, okay, I'm going to start adding this into everything. And so yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I love, yeah.

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Unknown
Okay, let's see. Number five. What do you love to create? Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it. I love it. Okay, Number six. What's a game you love to play? Do you ever do board games for games or. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's that way. It hurts so bad. Oh, I love that game. Yeah, that's a fun game.

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Unknown
Okay. All right. Last question. Number seven. In 100 years, when someone reads your biography, what do you want to be remembered for? Mm, Yeah, Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, that's great. I think you're on your way there. I think, uh, I think this, this this film, this film is a delight. It's. I mean, it's short and I want I wanted to see more.

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Unknown
I like and I think that's our. But I've heard, I've heard the you know, when when a chef like what you want to do when you serve a dinner to somebody is you want to leave them wanting one more bite like. And so that way they're not like overfull and like, all right, they should have ended. Yeah. Who does?

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Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Well, Nicholas Acosta, thank you for coming on the show and thanks for spending and answering the seven questions. Of course. Oh, at UN rendered Media. Yeah, well, I will be checking that out for sure because I'm fascinated by all of that. I Oh, Oh, wow. That's that's when I was like, I have I find old pictures that I took in like 1985 with a little like a 35 millimeter camera that I had.

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Unknown
And I have all these pictures of me setting up action figures with like doing some sort of scene. So like even back then, before I knew it, I was trying to create things like that. Yeah, that's great. All right. Well, thanks. Thanks for being here. And a block and a half.

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Unknown
and that was the interview. That was it.

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Unknown
I enjoyed it. Did you did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments or whatnot. I always enjoy putting out this podcast as a simulcast or on its own. Seven Questions. I want to interview anyone and everyone about this. Is there is there somebody out there that you want me to ask some questions to? Who do you who you got?

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Unknown
Who you got sent? On my way out of my way. I got a lot of a lot of PR folks in and film setting, either independent filmmakers. But I want to hear from you. Like, who else do you want to hear from? Who you got to hook up on? I'll ask them on the show. So thank you for tuning in to you're watching a movie or Black and a Half wherever you're listening to your favorite podcast or watching this.

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Unknown
As always, my name is Silas Little Stein.

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Unknown
thank you for tuning in. Thank you for keeping a black and a half and for watching a movie with Silas Lindenstein.

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