Latest / Cinema Yūgen / Christmas Extras: From Traffic Control to Netflix Payroll

Transcript

Christmas Extras: From Traffic Control to Netflix Payroll · Cinema Yūgen

• 0:00
  G'day. That's right. It's that time again. Time for Cinema Yugen.
• 0:17
  Yes, welcome back. One last time for 2025.
• 0:23
  Cinema Yugen. Yugenites. This is it.
• 0:27
  This is the final show for the year no
• 0:30
  movies to promote no nothing in
• 0:33
  the description this time just my wish for a merry christmas and i've brought
• 0:38
  back my spirit animal my good friend part-time dreamer he works real hard all
• 0:45
  day long physically but he moonlights as a filmmaker and,
• 0:50
  as you'll find out, an actor too.
• 0:52
  So the Netflix deal has long, long, long fingers, a straw reaching all the way
• 0:59
  over, and it's drinking Con's milkshake.
• 1:03
  So welcome him back for the festive season, our festive episode.
• 1:08
  Welcome you back to Cinema Eugen, the unstoppable, the irrepressible Con Christopoulos.
• 1:15
  Welcome back, mate. How are you? Very good, thanks, Ken. Very good.
• 1:19
  It's great to be here. Great to be talking to you again.
• 1:22
  And I'm honored to be on your show again, mate. Yeah, this is fantastic.
• 1:27
  It's good to have you. I thought, you know, since we're wrapping it up for the
• 1:31
  year and I can unplug and unwind and do all that, I thought we'd just play it cool, shoot the breeze.
• 1:41
  You know lovely keep it keep it easy
• 1:44
  keep it freewheeling you know
• 1:47
  because usually it's all you know it's organized and there's
• 1:50
  stuff to do and you know it's like
• 1:53
  the last day of school kind of you know there's not a
• 1:56
  lot of stuff to do except you know back in
• 1:59
  the day we used to play board games and eat the chips and
• 2:02
  stuff and you know yeah back in
• 2:05
  the dark ages of the 20th century don't know what they didn't sit around and
• 2:10
  sit around and look at screens and then it's time to go home again so yeah probably
• 2:18
  probably mate it's been uh it's been a good year it's been a good year mate
• 2:22
  you know i know you've been busy with your podcast and.
• 2:27
  Between that i mean i mean to put
• 2:30
  it in some sort of context people ask me i mean now
• 2:32
  when i was at podcasting softly I was part of a group
• 2:35
  of guys so I
• 2:39
  didn't have to do everything myself I
• 2:42
  just had to work on my own little corner of
• 2:45
  it you know but when you're the when when you're the
• 2:48
  guy that's got to do everything and maintain a
• 2:51
  Facebook page and a website and do
• 2:55
  all the homework and get all the links and organize
• 2:58
  all the guests and make sure they've got their
• 3:01
  links and reschedule it if they got to it's
• 3:04
  you know i mean people ask
• 3:07
  me should you know i start a podcast that looks like everyone is
• 3:10
  i mean look you really you need look it's not as easy like no i don't know some
• 3:15
  people think i make it look easy you know i went out bought a microphone got
• 3:19
  a subscription and 150 episodes in so but the difference is i had a lot of practice prior to doing that.
• 3:28
  All right. So it wasn't like I just, uh, I just started, uh, doing it.
• 3:33
  Otherwise I wouldn't have any idea how to get people and how to.
• 3:37
  You know, do all that sort of stuff that you need to do.
• 3:40
  So I make no illusions, people listening to this,
• 3:44
  that what I do is easy, plus doing it at the same time as doing the film threat
• 3:50
  sort of parallel, which has been an interesting mix because they're both as
• 3:56
  busy as the other sort of thing.
• 3:59
  Sure, sure. So how's this film threat thing been going for you?
• 4:06
  Good, good. Well, I mean, it was all very, it wasn't like it was planned or anything.
• 4:12
  I listened to, look, Chris Gore's
• 4:14
  been around forever. I used to read Film Threat when it was a magazine.
• 4:20
  Wow. So that's how, Film Threat's been around for like 40 years.
• 4:25
  Wow. So it's like the oldest place that has been published.
• 4:31
  Chris Gore has always been about promoting independent film.
• 4:36
  And, uh, I've been, since he's been doing a podcast, I've been listening to
• 4:40
  it. And one day I was listening to it as I do.
• 4:44
  He does, they do like three shows a week and I was listening to it.
• 4:49
  And someone like they, people send in questions.
• 4:53
  I don't know. Do you watch YouTube shows? Do you watch podcasts on YouTube?
• 4:56
  People send you a question, you know, people send in questions.
• 5:00
  And so one bloke send in a question. I don't know if he's a bloke,
• 5:04
  but one person send in a question, you know, how do you get to write for film threat?
• 5:11
  You know? And he said, well, you go to the website and there's,
• 5:14
  you know, it's, it's not like you go to the website and they say,
• 5:18
  okay, come here, take a pen and take a desk and sit down.
• 5:22
  It's a little bit more complicated than that. You got to go through an editor
• 5:25
  and then you got to pass through the senior editor. And it's,
• 5:29
  it's a process. You got to prove that you can do it before they let you do it.
• 5:33
  Just like any job in the world.
• 5:38
  So after the podcast ended, I was sitting there thinking.
• 5:42
  Well, I've written film reviews before. Maybe I should have a crack.
• 5:47
  Okay. So I went to the website and I filled out the form.
• 5:52
  Yeah. And lo and behold, I got an email back from one of the,
• 5:55
  not the editor, but one of the sub-editors.
• 5:59
  Yes. And basically what they give you is they give you a, they give you some,
• 6:05
  you know, oops, you've got to jump through some tasks,
• 6:09
  which mainly a bunch of films to review and find out whether or not you can
• 6:14
  do the job that they're going to, you know, pay you to do. Right.
• 6:20
  So we got to the point, they sent me the films, I reviewed them.
• 6:24
  I sent my reviews in just not putting them on the website, just sent them in
• 6:28
  as, as word documents as you would.
• 6:30
  Yes. And they read them and old mate was like, crikey, this is,
• 6:34
  I got the email still, you know, this is some of the best writing I've seen.
• 6:37
  I'm going to pass it up to the editor saying, recommending that he brings you on board.
• 6:43
  So that was like in the space of two weeks, I went from like,
• 6:49
  just having, okay, I'll have a go and see if I'm good enough to get on board.
• 6:55
  And I got on board. So 150 reviews down the road, we're doing all right.
• 7:04
  Mate, I've read some of your stuff, and I'm very impressed. I'm always impressed
• 7:12
  with your writing skills, your level of writing.
• 7:17
  It's standout. It really is. It's nice to know one person.
• 7:22
  I believe anyone who reads it would either consciously and in the very least
• 7:28
  subconsciously probably think the same, that it is a high quality level of writing,
• 7:36
  you know, and you're welcome.
• 7:39
  And it also makes me sort of think, you know, through my daily life,
• 7:45
  which is like all of us, working, trying to earn money to pay the bills and whatnot.
• 7:51
  To me, it's sort of reading your stuff, it sends me back to this one thought
• 7:57
  that I often have in regards to life and reality, for want of a better word,
• 8:03
  is that no matter how talented one may be,
• 8:07
  no matter how intelligent one may be, or talented,
• 8:12
  whatever, whatever, whatever one may be, it all boils down to luck and timing.
• 8:19
  Yes. Some people aren't that talented but have had luck on their side.
• 8:24
  Yes. Some people are extremely talented and don't have the luck.
• 8:32
  Life's a bit of a, you know, it sounds corny, but life's a bit of a game of
• 8:35
  dice when it comes to fortune.
• 8:37
  Mate, it's a lottery.
• 8:40
  Again, I don't like to make anything that I do sound easy. Although when you
• 8:47
  look at sort of the progression, it seems like I just go from,
• 8:50
  I go from this to this to this. Uh, it's not that easy at all.
• 8:56
  I mean, what, what, what you don't see is all the fucking hours,
• 9:00
  all the hours that I spend, uh.
• 9:05
  Agonizing over those words that people find, uh, complimentary and very nice
• 9:10
  and easy to read. It's, it's not that easy.
• 9:14
  Yeah. You know, I was once, I heard a good analogy that a writer is a,
• 9:20
  a writer is a person for who writing is difficult.
• 9:23
  Right. Because it's not just about, anyone can put words on a page.
• 9:27
  If I ask you to write 500 words about something, you can do it because you know
• 9:31
  how to write the English language.
• 9:33
  And I'm pretty sure that you could type 500 words about something.
• 9:38
  So it's not that hard. but trying to find the right words to try and either
• 9:45
  conjure up for you my experience of watching the film and what I got out of it.
• 9:53
  And hopefully it inspires you to go and check it out.
• 9:56
  That's a different, that's a different game because that's being selective.
• 10:00
  That's not just, okay, this is what the story is about and this is who's in it.
• 10:05
  And I give it, you know, like, Like there's people that review food in their cars, you know?
• 10:12
  Oh, this is pretty good. I give it a 6.5 out of 10, you know? Yep.
• 10:17
  It's not like that at all because, oh, there's the rain. God bless it. Ha ha.
• 10:24
  You got some rain there mate you got some rain we're living cool lovely as of
• 10:30
  as of this recording right now ladies and gentlemen it is raining here in the
• 10:33
  country it is a few and far between,
• 10:36
  and the temperature has just dropped a good couple of degrees so thank god for that.
• 10:41
  But uh yeah anyway anyway back to the back to the subject at
• 10:44
  hands yeah i mean yeah i i don't i mean
• 10:47
  i i do agonize like i write a
• 10:50
  review and then sleep on it
• 10:53
  and then come back to it the next day before i put
• 10:56
  it up for you know comment from
• 10:59
  from the editors you know yeah so it's not it's not like i just watched the
• 11:05
  movie and and magically type this up and every review comes out like that straight
• 11:11
  out the gate no i mean i i sleep on it and go back and look at it and go,
• 11:16
  well, would I watch this movie?
• 11:17
  Would I watch this movie based on this review? That's kind of how I look at it anyway.
• 11:22
  Yeah, sure. It's the same process to writing scripts or writing anything.
• 11:27
  Would I pay to watch this? Would I pay to read this?
• 11:30
  Would I, after reading this, watch this movie, that kind of thing, you know?
• 11:37
  It's not so much, are you getting your money's worth?
• 11:39
  It's so much, have I described it accurately or I've described it well enough
• 11:45
  that you get a good picture of what I'm trying to,
• 11:48
  Say, you know. Yep, yep. Have I painted the picture, basically?
• 11:53
  Have I painted the picture and you see what I see, basically? That's what it is.
• 11:58
  Sure, sure. Mate, anyone who makes an independent film and gets a review from
• 12:04
  Kent Hill, they're a lucky bugger.
• 12:07
  They're a lucky person, you know. I mean,
• 12:10
  they've been very, some of them have been very nice to put,
• 12:13
  like, quotes on on posters and ads and stuff which is always very humbling to
• 12:19
  see because you know when i'm writing these things i don't i'm not trying to
• 12:23
  think of it oh this would be a good quote for a poster and this would be this
• 12:28
  would be a good tagline for you know i don't i don't sit around.
• 12:32
  Thinking that way i just try and think well okay what is
• 12:35
  this what's the easiest way i can distill
• 12:38
  what this movie is to me you know
• 12:41
  yeah yeah um and then hopefully
• 12:44
  hopefully it translates hopefully people
• 12:47
  read it and as in some cases it has
• 12:50
  people read and go yeah that's yeah that's what it is
• 12:53
  you know yeah sometimes sometimes it
• 12:56
  takes someone else to tell you too i remember
• 12:59
  i remember way back doing my own
• 13:02
  short films this is 20 years ago and i
• 13:06
  with one short film i was at the big australian one trop fest
• 13:09
  before it got really commercial right and
• 13:13
  they played my one of my films got i didn't win anything i got like a finalist
• 13:18
  on one of them and they used to play they used to play the films in these little
• 13:24
  tents and these screens and there would be people and sometimes they'd ask you
• 13:28
  questions after the film like what was your film about or whatever,
• 13:33
  And I remember the guy who screened it actually really liked my little short
• 13:37
  film and he said, you know, it's an incredible story.
• 13:40
  I think, I think it's a really accurate depiction of what it means to tackle
• 13:43
  adversity on a daily basis.
• 13:46
  Okay. Looked at him and smiled and said, that's exactly what it's about.
• 13:52
  Because that's not what it's about. I mean, it was a three and a half minute
• 13:58
  film made spare of the moment on a Sunday morning because at the time the only
• 14:05
  professional actor I knew,
• 14:06
  and this was a guy who inspired me coming out of high school.
• 14:11
  Yes. To really have a crack. His name was Paul Denny. He's not in the business anymore.
• 14:16
  But a lot of stuff. He did some TV. He's done film. He's done, he's done everything.
• 14:21
  What I liked Paul or what inspired me about Paul is Paul was a working actor.
• 14:27
  He wasn't trying to be famous. He wasn't trying to be a big movie star.
• 14:32
  He said, I love, I want to pay my bills. I,
• 14:36
  uh-huh acting right so that meant he did
• 14:39
  everything he did commercials he did theater he
• 14:42
  did tv he did movies anything anything
• 14:46
  he never said nothing including me
• 14:49
  yeah uh-huh right so the story goes one day back in the day i said to paul man
• 14:57
  i'd really love to work with you maybe we could do a short film and he said
• 15:02
  yeah send me scripts and stuff send me so He had an agent at the time,
• 15:05
  so I'm sending him to the agent thinking.
• 15:08
  So I don't hear anything.
• 15:10
  And then finally, Paul sort of moved around a lot, so it was hard to keep in
• 15:13
  touch with him. So finally one day I see his brother and I said,
• 15:16
  oh, how's Paul going? He's pretty good.
• 15:17
  I said, look, I've been trying to get in touch with him. I've been trying this
• 15:20
  number. Oh, he's got a new number. I'll give it to you.
• 15:23
  So I finally get a hold of him. He's, hey, Paul, how are you doing? Pretty good.
• 15:27
  What about making this movie? I've been sending you scripts and stuff.
• 15:30
  Oh, yeah, my agent's been getting them. But, you know, and I said,
• 15:33
  oh, I thought, I thought that they weren't giving them to you or something or
• 15:37
  throwing them in the bin.
• 15:37
  No, no, I read them, but look, I just did six months at this theater.
• 15:40
  I don't want to say any dialogue, right?
• 15:44
  Okay. I don't want to, I don't want to say if possible, I don't want to say
• 15:48
  anything. So, okay. Yeah.
• 15:50
  And I said, well, when do you think you can do it? And he said,
• 15:52
  look, I'm coming up to see my father on Saturday night.
• 15:56
  I'll be around for a couple of hours till like lunchtime on Sunday.
• 16:02
  If you can do it Sunday morning, we'll do it. And I said, all right.
• 16:05
  And he said, what do I need to bring? I said, do you have a suit and a pair of sunglasses?
• 16:10
  And he says, yeah. And I said, wear the suit and the sunglasses.
• 16:15
  I'll bring the tie and the inflatable Godzilla. And I'll see you down at the
• 16:21
  front of this place Sunday morning.
• 16:23
  And we made a short film together where he says one line.
• 16:29
  And it wasn't about day-to-day adversity. That's just what I had to make a short film with.
• 16:35
  Right. So, I mean, it sounded very grand is what I'm trying to say.
• 16:40
  You know, oh, I think it's a great depiction of the struggle against adversity on a day-to-day basis.
• 16:47
  That makes us say I had something really intellectual to say instead of saying,
• 16:51
  well, I had an inflatable Godzilla. I knew this actor. I had a camera.
• 16:56
  And a couple of hours on a Sunday morning. It sounds way better than that,
• 17:01
  really, doesn't it? It does. It does. Yeah. Yeah, but maybe...
• 17:06
  Whether intentionally or unintentionally from from the maker of the short film
• 17:11
  maybe that's what that particular viewer got out of it and that's that's part
• 17:16
  of the i'm not saying it's i'm not saying it's bad i'm not saying i mean i approve
• 17:19
  his critique it was very generous,
• 17:23
  but all i'm saying is the intention the intention isn't always to be something
• 17:28
  lofty it's just like well these are the tools we had but if you yeah if you
• 17:33
  get some if you get something out of it it, no one's gets out of it,
• 17:36
  then the, whatever magic the story had has worked,
• 17:42
  because at least someone got something out of it.
• 17:45
  Someone, someone saw something that hopefully we hope someone,
• 17:49
  someone saw something that hopefully we thought someone would see, um,
• 17:55
  which is, it is, it was as much as you can hope for any, anything you make really
• 18:01
  that someone gets something out of it, whether it be an enjoyment.
• 18:06
  You know they take something away from it something profound maybe
• 18:09
  not something profound just there's something you know some something to you
• 18:15
  know something that amused them for a time perhaps sure sure yeah something
• 18:20
  yeah yeah that's yeah again that's the beautiful thing about cinema everyone can take.
• 18:27
  Something out of it you know and it
• 18:31
  can enlighten our lives it can improve our
• 18:34
  lives it can inspire our lives that's the
• 18:36
  beautiful thing about the the medium of cinema
• 18:39
  you know that's why i love it so much admittedly i
• 18:43
  i know that i don't love it as much as you you are a hardcore cinephile man
• 18:49
  like you're the epitome of a cinephile and that's that's awesome that's a beautiful
• 18:54
  thing you know And you keep people like me inspired and motivated because I'm
• 19:00
  a bit of a sideline dreamer,
• 19:01
  sort of chipping away at the sidelines looking for an in, you know?
• 19:05
  Yeah, look, I mean, look, we're all sort of sideline dreamers in a lot of ways
• 19:13
  because, I mean, there's so much of...
• 19:16
  You know, I mean, this real life stuff, you know, that we all have to do.
• 19:22
  We all got a pay bill. You know, I mean, I'm not liquid enough for air conditioning,
• 19:28
  although I do have a sore at the moment.
• 19:31
  Yeah. I do have a sweat box at the moment, which is healthy.
• 19:35
  I wish I had like a really cold pool to like then run outside.
• 19:41
  Me too, mate. Me too. Get that big rush that everyone keeps talking about.
• 19:46
  Yeah, yeah. Look, I recently, I might have mentioned to you personally in a
• 19:53
  few messages or a phone call.
• 19:56
  Yeah, you've been doing some extra stuff. Yeah, yeah.
• 20:01
  And that's, as a sort of aspiring, it seems like I'm eternally aspiring,
• 20:08
  but as an aspiring independent filmmaker.
• 20:11
  Yeah. It was interesting to work on professional projects where there were contracts
• 20:18
  involved, confidentiality agreements, you're paid according to a legal structure.
• 20:23
  Yeah. And so that was really eye-opening.
• 20:28
  One job I did was a commercial. Yeah. And that was really cool because it was easy.
• 20:34
  Yeah. And I got paid for doing work in an industry that I've always loved.
• 20:40
  Yeah. So, and that was actually probably the first time I can say I've made
• 20:46
  money through the film industry.
• 20:49
  And it was a real eye-opener, Kent.
• 20:53
  And then I did a movie, and I'm not, even on the movie, I signed a confidentiality
• 21:00
  agreement, and I'm not allowed to talk about it. It's going to come out on Netflix soon. Yeah.
• 21:06
  But the director is a renowned, quite a famous Hollywood actor who is now obviously
• 21:16
  into directing because he was directing this movie. Okay.
• 21:19
  And it had a few stars in it, a few Hollywood stars.
• 21:23
  Did you get to see any of these said stars? Yeah, right there,
• 21:27
  man, right there. That was awesome.
• 21:30
  Are they as sexy as they are in real life is the question. No,
• 21:34
  this was the cool thing about it.
• 21:36
  They looked tired. They looked worn.
• 21:39
  They looked like normal people trying to earn a frigging dollar.
• 21:43
  That's all they looked like. They fart and grunt were the best of us, eh?
• 21:47
  Exactly, exactly, mate. They were sweating. They were tired.
• 21:50
  They were hot. They just wanted to go home.
• 21:52
  You know, it's outdoors, out in the sun. They've been filming for 10 days in
• 21:56
  their costumes and what.
• 21:57
  It really just normalized and stripped all the glitz and glamour away for me,
• 22:02
  and that's the cool thing about it. Right, yeah.
• 22:04
  I saw that they're just normal people trying to earn a living like we all are.
• 22:10
  Right, right. They just happen to have had the luck on their side and they're
• 22:14
  doing it. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean?
• 22:17
  But the Hollywood star who was now directing this film, he looked so ordinary
• 22:24
  and normal. He just had jeans on.
• 22:27
  Right. He just had a T-shirt on. He looked tired, hot, and bothered.
• 22:30
  Okay. And we do the shot. Right. And he'd walk straight past us,
• 22:34
  and he'd go into his little black curtain-walled room, and he'd pull the curtains
• 22:40
  apart, and you could just see, like I was saying before, about $5 million.
• 22:43
  I'm guessing it looked like $5 million worth of money.
• 22:46
  Video with screen equipment, you know, and he'd review the footage.
• 22:52
  And there was one of the extras I was with, he's been acting for like six years,
• 22:57
  and like a lot of them, he's looking for his big break. So he was hanging out
• 23:01
  this director's little curtained room out the front trying to get his attention.
• 23:08
  And so the star who's the director is not starring in the film himself?
• 23:14
  No, he's not. He's not at all, mate. He was not. Okay.
• 23:17
  That's correct. That's correct. Yeah. And we signed this confidentiality agreement
• 23:21
  that we're not, we weren't allowed to take photos at all. Okay, right.
• 23:26
  None of that. We weren't allowed to, even, this was what was so cool.
• 23:30
  It's like, wow, I'm actually making money from a legitimate Hollywood production.
• 23:35
  Yeah. This is the real deal. It's big time.
• 23:38
  So did you, did you have a costume or?
• 23:42
  Did you play a character? Yes, yes, I did, mate. I had to go for a fitting,
• 23:45
  which I got paid for. I had to go for a fitting on the Gold Coast.
• 23:49
  Sweet. And they had bought literally, excuse me. You're right.
• 23:55
  They had bought literally a warehouse full of costumes from L.A.
• 24:01
  Right. And warehoused them on the Gold Coast for this movie.
• 24:06
  And all the actors involved were given the address, time and date,
• 24:10
  and you'd go there and get your fitting done.
• 24:13
  So I did that and I got paid for that.
• 24:16
  And when we were sent, here's another really cool thing to Kent.
• 24:23
  Because I had to sign confidentiality agreements, this, that,
• 24:27
  and the other, like a series of contracts.
• 24:30
  There were six or seven contracts. Right.
• 24:32
  And one of them was to be on the Netflix payroll.
• 24:37
  And yeah, and Netflix, because it's a Netflix production, Netflix sent me an
• 24:43
  email saying, welcome to the Netflix staff team, blah, blah, blah.
• 24:48
  And I thought, how cool is this? This is actually the real deal.
• 24:52
  This is it. You know? Yeah.
• 24:55
  So, yeah, I did my part, but.
• 24:58
  I'm jumping back to that comment I made about luck and timing, Kent.
• 25:02
  Sure. Now, when I was on that commercial, I did this commercial,
• 25:06
  as I mentioned to you. Sure.
• 25:09
  And my little scene in this commercial was there's a lovely young lady behind a lemonade stand.
• 25:15
  Right. And I'm the customer buying lemonade.
• 25:18
  We had no dialogue. No. Just when the director said action, we just had to pretend
• 25:23
  that we were talking. Okay, cool.
• 25:26
  So anyway, she's pouring me a lemonade and we're just whispering small talk
• 25:31
  to each other just to look like we're being natural and whatever.
• 25:34
  Yeah, yeah. And I said to her, so how long, while the camera's rolling and she's
• 25:40
  pouring me her lemonade and we're looking like, you know, our parts, we're acting.
• 25:46
  So I said to her, how long have you been doing this? She goes,
• 25:48
  oh, about four years. I want to be an actress. And I said, oh, that's great.
• 25:52
  And she goes, how long have you been doing it? I said, oh, I've been doing it
• 25:56
  for, this is my first time, actually, I said. This is my first time.
• 26:00
  And I said, do you know what time we're going to finish today? She goes, no, why?
• 26:04
  I said, I have a fitting for a costume this afternoon at 2 o'clock.
• 26:09
  She goes to me, you just said this is your first job.
• 26:12
  I said, that's correct. And she goes, so what are you going for a fitting for?
• 26:18
  I said, a movie extra role. She goes, I've been trying to get a job where I
• 26:23
  require a fitting for four years. She goes, how did you land that role?
• 26:28
  Wow. And I simply just got it, Kent.
• 26:31
  They just emailed me and just went, yep, you want this, yep, yep.
• 26:34
  So here's an aspiring young woman coming to set, looking pretty.
• 26:40
  You can tell she's maintaining a diet, keeping a nice figure, all that sort of stuff.
• 26:44
  She's done all the work. Busting a hunk to get recognized. All she wants for
• 26:48
  now, she's keeping it real.
• 26:50
  She's being realistic. All she wants for now is a little extra role where they
• 26:54
  actually fit a costume onto her.
• 26:56
  Four years, she's been struggling. Nothing.
• 26:58
  Along comes me, a fat 54-year-old Greek dude, bald.
• 27:03
  You know, I'm not exactly Elvis Presley. I'm not attractive.
• 27:06
  And Hollywood wants him.
• 27:07
  Hollywood needs him. She wants him.
• 27:14
  He's on the Netflix payroll. He's on the Netflix payroll.
• 27:21
  Netflix payroll, man. They just bought Warner Brothers and Con Christopolis.
• 27:27
  That was part of the deal, wasn't it? That was part of the deal.
• 27:32
  That's it, mate. That's it, yeah. That was the only way they were getting me,
• 27:35
  mate. That was the only way they were getting me. A hundred and something billion dollars.
• 27:42
  That's what we're aiming for for now. we're just starting at $37 an hour.
• 27:46
  I mean, I know it's going to take 18 months to close, but you're a very lucky man.
• 27:51
  It's on the way, mate. It's on the way. It's happened. You'll be able to afford
• 27:55
  that air conditioner finally.
• 27:58
  Oh, with any luck, mate, with any luck. I'll tell you what, mate,
• 28:01
  my next production, if I get the money I'm demanding, I'll get you an air conditioner.
• 28:06
  Yeah, or at least what you might get is an air-conditioned dressing room next.
• 28:12
  Well, here's the cool thing too, Kent. Was there an introduction dressing room?
• 28:18
  It was. It was my man. Okay, wow.
• 28:21
  Dude, even on the commercial, not just the Netflix movie, but even on this local commercial,
• 28:29
  full five-star catering, we're talking fried eggs, poached eggs,
• 28:35
  two or three different types of sausages,
• 28:37
  omelets, bacon, hash browns, croissants, two or three different types of coffees,
• 28:45
  a barrister-made coffee if you want it.
• 28:48
  You treat it so well, even though you're just an extra. And,
• 28:53
  Talking about air conditioning, it was hot where we were filming.
• 28:56
  Yeah. So they bought in a company. They could see we were sweating.
• 29:01
  And they bought in a company immediately that does temporary tents and all that sort of stuff.
• 29:06
  And they chucked in industrial air conditioners into these temporary tents so
• 29:12
  we could cool down while we were waiting. Beautiful.
• 29:16
  Wish they'd come around my house this afternoon with one of them. Yeah. Yeah.
• 29:22
  I want to work for Netflix, too.
• 29:26
  It's like the Bunnings of the movie industry. I want to work.
• 29:30
  No, it was, mate, even the, see, because, you know, I work for construction traffic control.
• 29:38
  Right, yeah. And you're always dealing with temporary toilets.
• 29:42
  Right. So I'm used to temporary toilets, port-a-loos, whatever.
• 29:46
  Wow. The temporary toilets on this film set, man, they were beautiful.
• 29:50
  It's like, are you guys serious?
• 29:52
  You just get treated so well, you know?
• 29:55
  There wasn't a guy standing at the door waiting to give you some new aftershave
• 29:59
  as you walked out, was there?
• 30:01
  No, but there was dudes hovering around, and every few people,
• 30:04
  they'd go in and freshen it up and clean it up and spritz it up and all that
• 30:08
  sort of stuff. So close. Very close.
• 30:11
  So it really was an eye-opener, and I just thought, jeez, I wouldn't mind doing
• 30:15
  some more of this, you know? Yeah, yeah. Give me a Netflix deal, wouldn't you?
• 30:20
  Oh, man. It turns out that, and this is fact,
• 30:25
  on the Gold Coast around Southeast Queensland, but based around the Gold Coast
• 30:31
  film industry, which is Dream World and any associated businesses,
• 30:36
  they're going to start, they've been approved.
• 30:39
  I think she said four movies. If I'm wrong, it was three.
• 30:42
  But yeah, I'm pretty sure she said four films. Wow. And they're going to need
• 30:47
  a lot of extras around, please don't quote me, but it was something like this, around 700 extras.
• 30:53
  Wow. So I've already been asked to be ready and if I'm available in the new
• 31:00
  year to do some extra work. Wow. There you go.
• 31:04
  The sky's the limit, mate. Next thing you'll be, next thing it'll be speaking roles.
• 31:09
  Next thing it'll be Con Christopolis the movie.
• 31:14
  Dude. Or the Netflix special. I spoke to this, mate, from your mouth to God's ears.
• 31:21
  From your mouth to God's ears. But sort of touching on that as well,
• 31:28
  Kent, amazing things do happen. I spoke to this guy.
• 31:32
  Con Christopolis. The Netflix special, Confessions of a Sidelonged Video.
• 31:38
  Traffic controller to Netflix, you know. From traffic control to movie star.
• 31:46
  Netflix star.
• 31:49
  Well, I'm on the payroll now, mate, so I've broken the ice at least and I've
• 31:53
  received one paycheck from them. Does the money feel any differently coming
• 31:57
  from Netflix than it does from anywhere else?
• 32:00
  You know what? it kind of does because
• 32:03
  it's the industry that you and i both love right so no it's not like you don't
• 32:09
  even feel like you're working kent it's just a joy man yeah no no i mean i'm
• 32:14
  i'm i'm very fortunate i mean look anyone anyone who wants to pay me to sit
• 32:20
  and watch movies i'll take the money,
• 32:22
  beautiful yeah you don't have to you don't have to convince me but an air conditioning
• 32:27
  dress room an air conditioning dressing room on a Netflix movie with the best catering and toilets.
• 32:34
  I don't know. I think they'd have to, I think they'd have to really have to, to talk me into that.
• 32:39
  Yeah, yeah, it really convinced you, yeah, yeah. Same with me,
• 32:43
  mate, but it took a bit of convincing on that behalf when they sold me.
• 32:51
  Anyway, mate, before we run out of time, we're wrapping up the Christmas show here.
• 32:56
  Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for listening to Cinema Yugen with
• 32:59
  myself and the new king of Netflix, Con Christopolis.
• 33:03
  Part of the $100 billion deal has gone through and acquired him as part of it,
• 33:09
  including Warner Brothers and their entire world.
• 33:14
  So you heard it here first. It wasn't part of you as to today's story because
• 33:18
  you're hearing it first on cinema. You can congratulations, Con.
• 33:22
  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. New Netflix employee of the month. Thank you. Thank you.
• 33:29
  Air conditions and catering. That's, of course, why we all want to work in the
• 33:33
  movie business. No, it's because we love it.
• 33:36
  That's why we're here. if we didn't love it we wouldn't go
• 33:39
  through all the crap that it takes to
• 33:41
  get to the air conditioning and the nice catering is
• 33:44
  it con oh absolutely mate well it's been uh unfortunately a couple of decades
• 33:49
  for me at least so yeah yeah it's been an interesting journey and uh it's it's
• 33:55
  a it's a continuing journey next year we'll have you back when you're before
• 34:00
  you become a too big of a star and then we have to go through people to get to you.
• 34:07
  Speak to my agent yeah talk to my people yeah yeah yeah contact my people call your people,
• 34:14
  anyway between yeah yes between me and you would never be like that man i love
• 34:20
  you too much i know that's that's why i stay friendly with you because once
• 34:23
  you're famous you'll look after me i will,
• 34:27
  For sure. I'm just kidding, mate. I'm friends with you because I love you.
• 34:31
  But if you do become famous, I will exploit that too. Be aware.
• 34:35
  Bless you, mate. Bless you. I'll be ringing. I'll be in touch.
• 34:38
  I'll be in touch. Especially if it's Netflix money. They got all the money.
• 34:41
  We'll make something big.
• 34:42
  Anyway, Merry Christmas to you, mate.
• 34:46
  Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Can't keep doing what you're doing.
• 34:49
  We love your work, mate. I love you personally. I love you professionally.
• 34:53
  And let's keep pushing forward, mate. Chipping away. God bless.
• 34:57
  Thanks for everything. And more Netflix movies.
• 35:00
  And more Netflix movies. Merry Christmas.
• 35:03
  Yeah. And catering. Catering. Sweet as.
• 35:08
  Merry Christmas, mate. All the best. Yes. Merry Christmas, Con.
• 35:12
  Merry Christmas, one and all.
• 35:15
  As I said at the top of the show, there are no links in the description.
• 35:20
  All I have for you, my dear Eugenites, is this.
• 35:24
  So come a little closer. A little closer. Come on.
• 35:30
  It's almost there, right? Perfect. Hold your breath. Make a wish.
• 35:36
  Count to three. have a merry little Christmas,
• 35:39
  and a happy new year and I hope that for all the dreamers out there that listen to this keep coming,
• 35:46
  don't quit the second you quit is it's all over after that and you'll never
• 35:52
  know how good it could have been it's going to be tough it's never easy because
• 35:57
  if it was easy everyone would be doing it but if you love it,
• 35:59
  you have the desire and you can put up with repetition,
• 36:03
  you'll get there, don't stop Merry Christmas one and all and a happy new year and Cinema Yugen,
• 36:10
  we'll see you back in the mix for 2026 and as always my little Yugenites,
• 36:19
  thank you for listening to us on Spotify or wherever you choose to listen to
• 36:24
  your favourite podcasts,
• 36:25
  I'm Kent Hill and until next time, you've been listening to Cinema,
• 36:30
  Yugen.