0:00 so I can finally talk about uh this movie that I was working on for the past two years. >> Oh, best of the best. >> Because uh Oh, thanks, man. Appreciate it. Uh yeah, so like we I've I've mentioned [clears throat] little jokes here and there um that I was working on some Indian movie, but I think like because I never got to explain it on JK since I had like an NDA. Um, it kind of sounded like it was like a Bollywood movie that it was like from India, but it's actually uh an American film with like mostly Indian-Americans, Sri Lankan Americans. It's called Best of the Best, and it uh it hit number one for Netflix Global. >> Wow. >> Yeah. [applause] Not like US Netflix though. [laughter] >> I've been calling it a Bollywood movie. Is it actually a Bollywood movie? But Americans like Americans doing it. >> What is that? What do you So, like the format like is it a Bollywood like like
0:50 musical and like >> it has like Bollywood features in it as as like um but then those are mostly like uh I guess I I guess you could say it's meta. It's like they know that it's they're kind of like alluding to Bollywood almost in a symbolic way >> paying uh >> it's like a tribute. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit. But um but the movie itself is it's very you know it's written by uh Hassan Minaj and uh and uh this guy Pashant Venatar Ratamujan I can't say his whole name >> but um but the uh yeah it's a very like it's it's an American film where it's like two dance uh culture clubs that are uh based in UCLA and USC are like in a rivalry together. it. The movie is really about the friendship of the two lead girls and um it actually is a very very good movie especially for like
1:40 coming from you know like coming from our scene in our culture where on our side of the community it almost has so many parallels to like growing up in competitive dance that's collegiate based. >> Yeah. >> So I think a lot of like people can enjoy it and also just the idea of having to balance dance and your academics which is a really stupid thing to want to do. >> It's a stupid sounding thing as well. it. But it's oddly relatable is all it like it's very >> for its demographic, right? >> Sure. Yeah. And I think it's just a good movie for teens cuz it's not like the movie itself doesn't sexualize anything. It's just about what they're trying to do, their friendship, and and it actually ends up very heartwarming >> cuz I think that's the the problem why uh it's so hard to pitch a Asian-American movie cuz the struggle will be like should he be an engineer or a doctor? >> Yeah. And then [laughter]
2:31 and then it's like that's his life thing and then they're like the studios are like what the ████ >> in a world. >> Yeah. Like what kind of >> oh there's too many choices. Yale or Harvard. >> But that is the Asian-American stronghold. >> It really is. And there's people presently doing that right now >> and then it's killing them. You know [laughter] >> what if you pitched Korean jungle Asian different world type of vibe. [laughter] You know what I'm saying? >> Korean jungle Asian. What? What do you mean Korean jungle Asian? >> You know what I mean by jungle Asian? >> No, but like what but what do you mean like like they get into a fight? Cuz there's a rivalry right now with Koreans and ████ Vietnamese. >> I saw that. I saw that. What what I meant is hey. What I meant is um the the a some form of Asians would look at the other Asian and be like, "How the
3:22 hell did you get up there?" >> I think Yeah. I think what he [laughter] saying to translate for Subie, >> we need to translate. >> I think what he's saying is, you know, how there's a lot of black movies where there's the black dude in the hood and then the black dude that works white collar and comes back now and there's the justosition like, "Oh, you think you're all better than us?" And you have that family dynamic. I think that's what he's trying to It's cuz we don't celebrate degenerate culture. >> ████ >> There's hella ████ [laughter] There's hella ████ degenerate Asians, but we're like like we are them, but like we're invisible. Like it's almost like we don't exist. >> That's why the movie is there. >> We are the minority of of that though. Like 90% 90% is doctor or engineer. [laughter] >> Well, what's questioned on Netflix though is Djen As Japanese reality shows. >> Jin Oh, like the ones where they're beating each other up and dating >> like Yeah. type of vibes. Yeah.
4:13 >> Oh, yeah. >> Like right now like uh crime drama and stuff is doing really really well like from Korean and Japanese Netflix stuff. >> Oh, that's cool. Yeah. >> How come they never had an Asian gambler movie? >> They do. It's called God of Gamblers. [laughter] Like Asian-American. So I think I think because our our struggle is so unique as an Asian-American like all these other ones it exists in Asia cuz in Asia there's equal amount of degenerates, equal amount of high achievers, whatever but it's just Asian-Americans they have a non-relatable struggle. It's so hard to make a movie. >> It's way more boring as the Asian gambler movie would be a Vietnamese uncle with a nail salon. >> That would be the gambler movie. >> Then we Yeah. Then we have the jition. The hard thing is that it's not even it's like what Phil from Juan Fuels says. It's not the question that the movie is going to be good or bad. It's
5:03 how do you get people to watch it? >> Yes. >> You know what I mean? It's like the the Crazy Rich Asians bubble popped >> and like studios are not interested or less interested now. >> No, his wasn't his argument more that regardless if you put Asians in there, it's not that we're not making money. It's not that the the movie theaters aren't selling or anything like that. It's just for whatever reason uh because the money is proven with those movies. It's just how come not more money is being thrown into those stories? >> But like look at look at what happened with uh what was it? Um that the Filipino DreamWorks film. It was like the highest rated DreamWorks movie of all time >> and it's the lowest like financially >> I haven't even seen it. >> I haven't even heard of it. >> Hey, I have an idea. >> It's out right now in theaters, but it's a Philip it's a Filipinobased uh DreamWorks movie. >> Whoa. I didn't even know about it. >> Exactly. They said they didn't spend as much on marketing. So lots of Filipino communities don't even know it exists.
5:53 And it's like the highest rated out of all DreamWorks films. >> So, is it supposed to be like Coco and stuff? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And it's like Filipino. >> You know why they're not spending on marketing? Cuz they already tested it and they're like, "We there's no point in spending on marketing. Nobody's going to watch this ████ movie." Like they they they know that internally. >> It's the titles. >> The titles. >> Speaking of best of the best though, I will say it took me three full sessions to watch a total of only 30 minutes so far. It's very difficult >> because the baby, right? Not because the movie sucks. >> Yes, because of the baby. >> Say that though. Jesus. >> Oh, I thought it was cuz it sucked. >> Yeah, right. It sounds like it's >> Well, if you would have just let me finish the next part of my statement. [laughter] >> It was a little dicey. >> I was going to say there's two things that stand out in a really cool way. One, it's dope knowing that your sound comes in. I'm like, I know that's Ryan sound. Just Yeah. Just having heard just different mixes cuz you guys just whooped our asses all the time on TV and stuff. I'm like, that's a Ryan beat
6:44 right there. That's a good mix. And then two, I'll just say this. This this is a little bit meta for the dance community but what PA pack or Philip Shabib and Mackenzie did >> I thought was brilliant cuz a lot of times their movement is it's so unique and it's always really really good but because the uh Indian culture has so many arms and shapes and lines that are so unique and the threading that they do I thought they were the greatest choreographers for that movie >> and that's that's Joy Aazi too they it's like they have a Indian choreographer who's like in competitive Indian scene as well the choreography was just so good. The music was so good. >> So, it's a musical. >> Yeah, it's definitely a musical, which which ironically is what Bollywood actually is, right? It's just like a more >> like exaggerated musical than we would understand. But to us, musicals are already so far and whimsical. Bollywood's just like another universe. >> That's another that that's a whole other level. >> High school musical vibes
7:35 >> kind of kind of, but it's but it's a comedy, so it's like it's self-aware. So, they're not like up its own ass ever. like it's they make a lot of jokes on their own culture and they're getting backlash for a lot of the jokes they made because it's cross-cultural too cuz uh you know like to us like who don't really know we'll just look at it oh it's a bunch of Indians it's like actually not they're like very like separate like some of the some of the dynamic in it is the fact that the two main characters one of them's like the light-skinned pretty style and the other one's like the darker like kind of gets the shaft a lot of the time so that's kind of there and um >> that's cool there's a lot of like nuance in it >> yeah exactly and the and there are like when you see the backlash then it kind of almost is like in a way an open door to like the rivalries cuz you I didn't even know that some this would piss off certain people and then I'm seeing it now and I'm like wow what I didn't even know about this culture why they
8:25 >> well like the there's like the dark side and then there's a light side and they fight and stuff or >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean there's just so many different, you know, the same way that we you don't even know that much about Bangladesh until you see a video and everyone's calling it Indian and people are like, "No, that's ████ Bangladesh." And they're hella pissed about it, you know, like stuff like it just opens your scope more to like not just Indian. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. >> If people are b███████, it just means hella people watched it. >> Yeah. It's just it's a good thing. Yeah. >> You need people to ████ Like that's what that's what makes My question is was the editors from India too or >> they saved money on it? >> No, I don't think so. No, they weren't from India. No, >> they're not from India. >> No, no. I think the whole like everybody who worked on it's like American. >> Ryan was editing music. He's not from India. >> But he's a Jason. >> He's Indian. He looks Indian. >> I look the most Indian when when we do Zoom chats with everybody. >> Oh, [laughter] wow.
9:15 >> Damn. >> Yeah, >> that's >> I was just curious cuz you said some Bollywood stuff was in it. >> Oh, no. Yeah. I think a lot of these people that that worked on the movie that are Indian, they grew up around all of that and they live here now and they um >> Oh, good. >> It's it's Rideback Studios, which is like located in in like LA. >> Oh, wow. >> So, it's all like um Yeah, it's all >> like the director's uh Indian American. Yeah. >> Since you did the sound on it, what was the idea behind it? Like, did the director give you an intention or did you just get to run with it? So the process that like by the end of it I counted up how many drafts I had of each thing and I had 145 like versions of everything I made. >> So the the crazy thing is that the way it starts um like the very very first genesis of it all is they they give me the script and then I read the script to get the context of that scene >> and then they send they send an like a
10:07 list of possible songs it could that could be featured in that that spot. >> Yeah. >> And then like what the vibe is. >> Yeah. It's my job to kind of pick and choose like what parts of what songs work for that and then create like a narrative with the music and then I send it to the director who [clears throat] then like okays it and if it's okay they send it to choreography. Choreography makes something out of it. And this is all still pre. Wow. >> And we do that like dozens of times. And then once they get to a good point where they actually like it, then choreography makes the piece, teaches it to the actors and the dancers. >> And then they send me what they created to it, like a video of it, >> the actual blocking of it, >> and then I redo the music to match more what they did so that it looks more like intentional. >> Are you working with like samples and stuff too? >> With what? >> With the music, like samples, music samples or no? >> What do you mean by samples? Like are you like taking actual songs and then
10:57 like remixing them? >> Yeah. Yeah. So they'll take like So they'll have a list of different real songs that are like by popular artists and then it'll be like >> I I have like free reign to like move it around, do whatever I want. Put stuff Yeah. Put new beats behind it to But I can't use I can't use stuff from other songs or other music that's not licensed for this movie. Do you feel like it's um a lot of I guess creative fun to be able to have full rain like that because you feel like all the licensing is already taken care of? >> It's it's the best when uh when it's truly up to you. In this case, it really was. I didn't think it was, but once um you know that that feeling, you know, some people they really believe that the only way to get a good thing done is to be an ████ >> Yeah. >> Yeah. This is completely not that. Everybody was too nice that I felt suspicious. like everybody and the director such a freaking awesome person.
11:48 She's she's listening to everybody's opinion, which you think normally is a bad thing to be like, "Oh, you got to like shut some people out." But like no, she's like, "We have let's consider what everybody feels like is good." And in my mind, I'm like, "That's never going to work." But it completely did. And >> you think it's cuz everyone's Indian. >> Yeah, maybe. But um but yeah. So So we send it back and forth. They they send me the footage. We do that for a long time. And then after they've recorded it and they have the movie footage, the actual like footage from the film, then um at that point I'd make um a new mix that matches their cuts, the editor's cuts. >> Yeah. Because sometimes they'll, you know, they'll change camera angles depending on what um whatever they need to do. Like who knows why they have that different decision, but it affects the music a lot because now there's features in the music that you don't see being hit. >> So I have to do it with the angle and then I have to change the mood. I have
12:38 to do different instrumentals if if they ended up going with a more dramatic face shot than the dancing, which sometimes they'll do, which also makes you like the ████ perfect guy to do stuff like this because like to imagine not understanding things like musicality or like the story of music or like or even understanding that the the editing process, you know, when something gets cut and then you have to like rework it because your integrity and your quality of sound needs to be a certain way. It's like >> Yeah. Which is why like I'm a big advocate for like this role that where I'm very niche in. There's a few other guys like me that are from the dance world that edit that way. And a lot of movies don't give a ████ about that. You'll see people clapping off beat. You'll see everybody dancing off beat because they don't do it again. They're just like, "Oh, that we have to change the song there. Okay, whatever. Just put a song." Nobody's on beat in a lot of movies because they just don't give a ████ about that. But hopefully this opens a door for like more people to pay
13:28 attention to why that's a better choice, you know? Like cuz we're sick of seeing that. >> And the craziest thing is you won't know the difference. You'll feel it. >> Yeah. You'll just know it's wrong. Yeah. >> Yeah. But you guys are gay dancers. People like me don't even notice ████ like that. [laughter] >> Like I'm serious. Like when people were clapping off beat, I don't even know. >> We know that you don't know. But we know that you'll feel better if it's better is all. >> Okay, I get it. >> Right. And if it's if it's a people, they even do that for dance movies. Like if it's a dance movie, at least out of all the movies, let's try to be on beat for just that. >> Yo, you see like the the rehearsal footage cuz you'll see like a dance movie, right? and the number comes young and honestly it's beautiful for that movie. If you saw the dancers rehearsal of that same routine to the song they actually did it to you'd be like this is incredible. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> The amount of times that the inspiration is a non-licensed song but it's like that's the inspiration point that the director gave you and then now we got to
14:18 replace it with this song that we do have license to which is cool but man if you saw the original >> doesn't hit the same >> that routine would slap you in the face. That happened to me big time with the first movie I did which was called Work It. It was like when Sabrina Carpenter was still acting and uh it was a dance film on Netflix as well and I did like five scenes and they just wiped four of them out >> because they were just like we're just going to go with a different u older like I guess like version that they had done before I came in >> and it was just like completely different and none of the songs they were dancing to on set or in rehearsal was that music. So it just like didn't really you know it matched but it was like not the best choice but they couldn't there's nothing they can do about it. Like even in this case, we get to the point where after all the editing and ████ once we get up here, then it gets to sending it to daddy, like send it to Netflix, and then someone up there could just be like, I just don't like it. You they don't have to explain
15:09 themselves. They just they just go, nah. Or they just go, I don't want to see this guy's face. And then they back to drawing board. All right, we got to take that scene out. And and all the dance scenes got cut so much shorter than they originally were, which is what always happens, but they're trying to find a way to release that actual um uncut scenes. Also, the guy who did the finale song in this movie, his name's Aar Raman, and you guys might not have heard of him by name, but he's basically the biggest uh music producer of India. >> Wow. >> Like, bar none. He's a guy who did JO for um Slum Dog Millionaire. So, he's like >> he's like the Quincy Jones of India. >> Yeah, he's like the Quincy Jones India. I got to collab with him on the finale track and I did a remix of basically what he sent in. They're trying to release that as its own like track cuz it's >> that's dude. Uh let me uh Hey, thanks man. I want to flex this one thing cuz
16:00 they c Netflix came through >> on this promise that I didn't think they would cuz I don't know. I just don't have much faith but now I like I feel really good about it. But they told me like um I asked for like a a prominent like credit and then they were like, "Oh, we're going to they told me this term where they're like, "Oh, we're going to give you this one credit that's I don't know, something like bumpers or spacings or something." I didn't really know what that meant. Um and then when I when a friend of mine, uh Tim Mgrim, when he went to a screening, he he texted me and goes, "Damn, dude, you got a good credit." I was like, "What what credit did I get?" And then when he came out, like so this is the end of the movie. This is how like ████ dope they hooked me up, right? There's a last scene and then it goes straight to the credits. So, you have these three people. >> My dad's already leaving the movie. My dad's leaving the movie. >> Second assistant director.
16:50 >> WOW. >> YOU'RE the fourth person. >> That's sick. >> Space. They gave me fourth person and no, >> they gave me all like ████ right there. Like all space. >> Why not? Why? No. Confr. >> That's dope. >> Cuz my sag my sag name is random. >> Wow. You're above the VFX producer. [laughter] >> That's badass, dude. >> That's super sick, dude. >> They actually >> You're the fourth person, >> bro. They said they would do that and they actually like kept it and I was like grateful for that. Yeah, >> thank you. >> I didn't say random in parenthesis. Careful, boys. [laughter] So, hey, my my thing is, are you excited for all the people that might hit you up down the line now? >> Uh, yeah. I mean, I I'm excited for more guys like me to get work like this cuz uh there's like >> ████ the guys like you. You get more work.
17:40 >> No, I think but I think there's >> ████ too much still cuz we still need them. ████ them. >> You have a you have a daughter. >> Well, cuz I think there's more movies to go around. Like there's more like if this gets a place in film that's like every movie could use that kind of editing for not just dance but for anything musical like how Deadpool does it you know like >> even for trailers like I got a buddy who's who works for trailer company and I sent him all this stuff and I'm like your trailers could be more like this could be more musical you know what I mean they could hit more stuff and a lot of trailers do do that but not enough of them do it and I'm like dude there's a lot of guys that that's literally they live and breathe this exact >> like more soundbased like Guy Richie movies where it's like very soundbased editing like >> and like and mashup editing mashup editing now that the door is open for that like it used to be a an absolute like no you cannot do that the artists don't want that but now it's you can
18:30 negotiate for that now and they're cool with like whatever you just do with their song like we mashed up so much music for this movie cuz they they sent me so much Indian music and they're like make it mashed up make it more of like a modern like hip-hop thing and then and then go into this song and hide this song in it and it's like you would never be able to do that years ago That's so cool, dude. What kind of guy gets a job and then he's just hyped that other people are going to get the job? >> A mayor. >> A ████ mayor, dude. >> ████ mayor. >> The mayor says that ████ [laughter] >> ████ mayor, bro. Ryan.
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