Speaker 1: 0:00

All right, welcome to a very special edition of let's Get Lost. We're super pumped to have two very special guests with us today. We have Taylor Morden and Ralph Apple from the upcoming documentary Getting Lost. So, taylor, you are a documentary filmmaker. Ralph, you're a podcast producer extraordinaire. You guys have some crazy cool history with Lost and other things. Taylor, you've done a cool documentary called the Last Blockbuster, which was pretty awesome. I've seen on your socials the upcoming movie Vampire Very cool thing as well. So I see the hat as well. So two guys who know their stuff really well. We're super pumped to have you. Taylor, you also did a documentary about Build-A-Bear, so that's pretty fun. Where did these ideas come from? What draws you to making films like these?

Speaker 2: 0:55

All sorts of things. I mean I'm a child of the 80s and 90s. I love pop culture. I'm a child of the 80s and 90s. I love pop culture. I love movies and TV and toys and video games and all the stuff that most dorky people my age were into, like Blockbuster Video, like you know. I mean I was never into Build-A-Bear, but it was a direct line from like one 90s iconic company to another 90s iconic company. And then you know things like Lost. I mean Lost spoke to people who were, you know, maybe a little bit nerdy, maybe into stuff like that, like sci-fi, and you know I'm like a Star Wars nerd and I'm into stuff.

Speaker 2: 1:46

So I don't know, I like to make movies about things that I like, because you end up spending years and years doing it. I got a lot of respect for the documentarians that are out there, you know solving world hunger and things like that. But I couldn't, I couldn't do the tough job for years and years. It's it's hard enough to make a movie at all. So my philosophy has always been like let's do it about something fun. So if I'm gonna, you know, fill up hard drives with material and focus on one thing for years and years and years. It might as well be my favorite tv show.

Speaker 1: 2:20

I love that fair yeah and you know what we need. Them all right. We need the fun ones, and we need the serious ones, and so we need you for those exactly right.

Speaker 2: 2:30

I like to think of my movies as the ones you watch after the important ones yeah, we need that debrief where we can all just heavy. Let me just watch this silly thing about blockbuster video take a breath and just enjoy yourself.

Speaker 1: 2:43

Right, that's awesome. So, ralph, you are a podcast guy. I've, you know, been on on your website and seen all the podcasts that you produce and are part of. It's pretty amazing, and, of course, the Dharma Lars loss podcast, which was huge and super successful, which we love here. What, what is it about podcasts that you love?

Speaker 4: 3:10

I stumbled into podcasts because I was at home writing and while I was writing, sometimes I wouldn't want to get into like I get tired of listening to music. Sometimes I get into like I get tired of listening to music sometimes. And so I remember going on iTunes and they had, when you typed in Lost, it had a whole section devoted to Lost and in the bottom corner there was this thing that said podcast. I didn't know what it was, but the first one was, I believe, the transmission, and the other was either like the lost podcasting network or it was um jay and jack, and so I clicked on the transmission. Here it is on this, this official, this page, this official page that has, uh, everything lost, unique downloading the episodes, which was new at the time. And so I clicked on the transmission and started listening to Ryan and Jen and I'm like, oh, this is great, they have information about my favorite show not realizing it wasn't like sanctioned by ABC and that anyone could do it yeah, yeah and it took me a while.

Speaker 4: 4:24

I think it took me when it was when I started listening to Jay and Jack's where I realized, wait a second, this isn't. This isn't sanctioned either. And so I'm like, oh, pretty much anybody can do this. And then I was listening to a show Make your Own Kind of Music with Scott and Steve, and when they went off the air, me and my friend Ben tried to pick up the pieces where they left off, because one of the hosts left to go to the Navy, and so we picked up the episodes they missed. There were four episodes, starting with SOS, and then Make your Own Kind of Music came back with a new host and they announced that Ben and I were going to continue doing our podcast, which I did not agree to, but I'm like it was fun, and so I've been podcasting since 2006. Wow, okay.

Speaker 3: 5:13

So that's a fun question. You picked up at SOS or they had done SOS, sorry.

Speaker 4: 5:19

They hadn't done, they stopped recording and the next episode was SOS.

Speaker 4: 5:24

Okay, okay I was bummed because they were gone for four weeks, okay, and I really wanted them back. So I'm like it may be able to be easier if they don't have to play catch up, if we can play catch up for them by doing this one super episode of covering the four things, and then, yeah, it just kind of snowballed from there so that's funny because we're on s, so we record weekly like and we're on sos is the one we're actually recording after we talk to you guys.

Speaker 3: 5:52

I'm not even joking, this is perfect.

Speaker 4: 5:54

So this is perfect. Every episode of the dharma large is still up on the old itunes feed. If you want to listen to us, uh, I'm just gonna give you a little bit of a heads up. Um, we were one of the only lost podcasts that had the explicit tag. Uh, because ben and me and ben didn't really want to censor ourselves and we just that's kind of, we just talk how we talk and if we get excited about something we tend not to, um, have a filter, and so just a heads up no, that's okay, ours has the explicit tag as well is this?

Speaker 2: 6:31

what's this podcast rated? What can we say?

Speaker 3: 6:33

you can say anything. We also have an explicit rating. It's mostly my fault. I can't stop myself from very constantly swear a lot and kip would have just. Kip does all our editing, so he would have had a lot of work we're putting the explicit tag on because and I just want to say anything that I said in 2006, which is, you know, almost 20 years ago.

Speaker 4: 6:56

um, please understand that I was a dumb kid and maybe wasn't the most PC, so I apologize in advance for any sort of awful stuff.

Speaker 1: 7:12

No worries, no worries. Well it's funny you say almost 20 years ago because, like 20 years ago, in September will be when lost premiered, and I know that that's the idea of getting lost is to have it ready for then. So what brought the two of you together on a documentary called Getting Lost? How did it start and what brought you together about it?

Speaker 2: 7:36

um, well, it started well. Lost wasn't just my favorite tv show, it was very formative for me, like I, I I I get really into things, I obsess over things. And the fan community, the message boards, the podcasts, the ARGs, the, you know, the articles, they it was like what I did, my hobby was lost. Right, it wasn't just a show, it was a lifestyle. Um, and that really, really stuck with me. Um, so much so that in 2010, when they were filming season six, my wife got me a trip to Hawaii for my birthday and we visited the set and it was the first time I ever saw anybody filming like a real thing before I had any dreams of being a filmmaker and I was standing on the set watching them do. The explosions in episode 612, when they're shooting the missiles from the one island to the other and fake locks camp is blowing up all over the place, and also the scene where alana is blowing up. I don't know if you've seen the show or if you're just oh no, no, no spoilers, don't worry.

Speaker 2: 8:41

But it was epic. There were these explosions and the cast was just there. I met like a ton of the cast of the show and the crew and I saw how TV worked and that like really stuck in my brain. And so cut to 2016, where I'm starting out making documentary films. I make my first movie, I make my first movie. I make my second movie. I'm like what are the things I want to make movies about? Well, I loved Lost, but also Lost had this really unique fan community at this unique point in time with the internet, that no other show had ever had or will ever have, because TV, even in in 2016, had already changed completely and there was no network water cooler show.

Speaker 2: 9:31

So I've been wanting to make a documentary about lost at least since 2016, but it was way too soon. Like people were like that just ended. We all still hate the ending of lost, like that's the narrative. Um, and then I made another movie and another movie and it just kept sticking to my head like we should make a movie about lost and I was like 2024 will be the 20th anniversary. That's when it's not too soon, that's when it's been 20 years, it's. You know, nostalgia comes in these waves.

Speaker 2: 10:03

Um and ralph I. We've been facebook friends since, like facebook started, probably since 2006. Um, I don't know when facebook started but because of lost and I have several internet friends that are I had never met in real life but like I know these people, I listened to ralph talk into my ear holes for hours and hours and hours about the TV show and when the pandemic hit, ralph had a podcast and he needed a last minute guest. So he did a Facebook post and, for whatever reason, that day the algorithm chose to show me this one post.

Speaker 2: 10:41

And it's the pandemic and I'm not doing anything. I'm just sitting around like I want to talk about stuff, put me on your podcast. So you know, I was maybe the first to comment and I did a podcast First time we ever spoke. And very shortly after that, I think we were on a phone call. I like emailed him. It was like I need to talk to you about a thing about lost, and I was like I want to make a documentary and I think you should produce it and I think we should start soon so we can get it done in 2024 this was about three years ago at and he said no.

Speaker 4: 11:29

I was. I took his phone call. I was sitting in a parking lot eating lunch because I was doing DoorDash. I was like there's nothing that there is. You know, it's one of those things where, like my, jobs are very, very minimal and they've always been very, very minimal jobs. I spent 16 years doing custodial work at Disneyland like not very exciting work. I worked, you know, in warehouses shipping comic books. You know it's all like whatever, all like whatever, and nothing in my life felt like that I should do something that I felt would be really important. I did especially like messing up Taylor's movie.

Speaker 4: 12:16

I'm like I'm not coming in here and I'm not going to mess up this guy. This guy clearly has like this sort of like three year vision of how the next three years are going to go to make this project. That I don't want to be the guy who starts running around throwing wrenches into the, into the machine, uh. So I I said no, but I think you kind of suggested that I think about it. And I went home and I talked to my wife, stevie, and she's like well, why don't you just do it? And then Taylor got in touch with me again and he said hey, listen, this isn't my first rodeo, I know what I'm doing. Uh, there's nothing you can do to mess it up, uh, uh. So it's essentially like the only thing you could do is make it better. And he trusted in. What I didn't notice was I do a podcast and I get guests on the podcast and essentially what's happening is he can use my skills of getting people to sit down and talk, to do it in front of his cameras as opposed to either like over Skype or whatever. And I'm like okay, okay, if you say I can't mess it up, then I'll totally do it. Freaked out a little bit, because it was. It was one of those things where it's like, oh, like I get to have an IMDb page or yeah, I you know it's. You start to think of all these things. Oh, I'm going to be sitting in the theater and my name's going to be up on the big screen. That's weird. And so I started getting really excited about it.

Speaker 4: 14:02

Getting really excited about it and, uh, we, we ended up like getting a really solid, um, first shoot weekend. Like we had a really good rounded cast for the first weekend which included michael giacchino and jorge garcia two massive names when it comes to loss. Um, uh, both of them, uh, for very good reasons, had to back out last minute that first weekend of shooting, and so I had to, like, I was jumping on the phone talking with michael's assistant and through that, we ended up getting uh, rescheduling and getting to spend more time with Michael than what we would have. And we, of course, rescheduled Jorge and you know we're doing this from my friend's house where we stay when we do the Los Angeles shoots, and my friend works in Hollywood and I got off the phone with Michael's assistant and he was like wow, dude, a really great phone call. He said you're a really good producer. This is day two of shooting.

Speaker 4: 15:08

It kind of gave me a boost of confidence where I'm like okay, like it's literally just talking to people. Sure, they're like academy award winners and emmy winners and stuff, yeah, yeah, but they're just people and the thing is like it's been getting like easier, a lot less sleepless nights. Sure, there's a few names, the big names, that'll pop up where I'm like really anxious, we really want to make sure we get that footage and we're done with that interview. So we can like be like okay, no more worrying. But for the most part, like the more and more we've been going, the less stress it's been producing.

Speaker 4: 15:50

Because, I'll tell you this, every single person we've interviewed which was now 70, we've now interviewed 70 people Every single person has been super nice, super amazing, and they all tend to be like hey, have you talked to so-and-so, would you like me to get in touch with so-and-so? And so I don't. We were hoping by now to be done with the interviews, but we keep getting people that we can't say no. We cannot say no to these people and it just. You would think it would be more stress and some of the scheduling can get stressful, but for the most part like if something doesn't work out, chances are we bounce back pretty quickly and it tends to go more in our favor. Yeah, so it's been less, less sleepless nights, for sure Great.

Speaker 2: 16:46

I mean, I forgot about that, but it's great that things went wrong in that first trip, cause you sort of get that out of your system of like, well, that's, that's the worst that can happen, right Right.

Speaker 2: 16:58

I think we've only had one, one shoot that was canceled, that we haven't been able to re rebook and it'll still probably happen. But it's like, even that you look at the, we get to the point where we're like 70 interviews in and there's no, there's no like one thing that's going to make or break the project right at this point.

Speaker 2: 17:20

Because it's and we hit that milestone I don't know a year ago where I'm like, hey, ralph, we've got the movie yeah everything else now is just it's better and it's leveling up, and it's better and it's more of what the fans want, because we're fans too, like we know, people like to tell us you know, hey, it'd be really good if you know, you should really reach out to nestor carbonell because his character was so great. It's like we know that we absolutely know. He was great a lot like yeah, we're fans, you know, like anybody anybody you haven't seen us announce?

Speaker 4: 17:55

yeah, um, we've thought of them too, we reached out, guys.

Speaker 3: 17:59

We promise yeah, well, and that's actually kind of something I want to hear more about the crowdfunding piece. But while we're kind of on the interview piece, I have a couple questions just about that. You said you've talked to like 70 people and what I find really interesting is it's it's literally the gambit of people, it's crew, it's it's like one-off kind of those like niche characters that show up in like one or two episodes that we're like the fans are obsessed with. But maybe wouldn't be like if this was being produced by, you know, disney, they wouldn't waste their time necessarily on making sure Rob McEnly is there or whatever.

Speaker 4: 18:37

Right, I keep remembering we're still trying for him him, by the way, you know, like stuff like that right, like things like that.

Speaker 3: 18:44

They people wouldn't necessarily concentrate on that. So the evolution of that I'm kind of interested in seeing, like and this idea that now, yes, you've probably had a vision for a two-hour movie with 20 people and now you have 70 people and and how does how does that work? How do you, what are you going to do with all this footage?

Speaker 2: 19:03

it's a problem, it's a real problem. I'm probably just going to mail it to you guys and you figure it out. Um, no, I mean there's no set length that the movie has to be, but probably it's under two hours because it's a movie, uh, about lost, and there's only so much we can put in that. But I mean, people have asked about making it a multi-part docu-series. Um, I don't think we're going to do that unless there's interest from, like, a streaming platform or somebody to uh to pay for that, because that's a lot more work than cutting it into a feature. That said, we definitely have the material for it.

Speaker 2: 19:47

What will likely happen at this point? Again, you know we're two, two and a half years into a three-year plan. It's hard to predict the next six months because things have changed a lot, but what is most likely going to happen is it's going to be a 90 minute to two hour movie, just like it was always supposed to be, and then there's going to be another 90 minutes or two hours of stuff on the dvd and on the digital extras, because I mean, frankly, that's how I consumed lost like those dvd extras were just as valuable as the show. And you know we've already, because you brought up crowdfunding. But we've already sold hundreds and hundreds of these dvds and I'm more than happy to put the extra content on there for the people that supported us from the beginning.

Speaker 2: 20:37

Absolutely, and it's not like it's gonna be. You know, crazy revolutionary stuff, like the best stuff, will be in the movie. That's, yeah, how you make a movie, but it's like you said, like some of these people, like, uh, sean whalen, who played frogert- yeah he's in an episode and a half and one mobisode and we're like, yeah, let's talk to that guy.

Speaker 2: 21:01

Yeah, he's probably not going to be in the movie for more than 30 seconds, but who wouldn't watch a 15 minute bonus feature of just froger telling froger stories?

Speaker 1: 21:12

like lost man.

Speaker 2: 21:13

We would all love that absolutely yeah we're not going to throw it away, I think, is the short answer.

Speaker 1: 21:19

Yeah, well, I I like that because you know we we watch the dvd like we have the box set. So we watch the dvd, we read the dvd synopsis each before each recording and you know, get that behind the scenes stuff too, and you miss a lot of that with streaming services. Nowadays you don't get those behind the scenes things that you get on the dvds and on the blu-rays, and so the fact that you're going to be looking at doing that too is super cool because it's like one of those things that's. As also a child of the 80s and 90s, I love that stuff. I love popping in the second dvd to get the behind the scenes stuff and the extra featurettes and all that stuff.

Speaker 3: 21:53

That's super cool so you kind of touched a bit about how the it kind of snowballed into you. You would meet with one person who would say, hi, why don't you talk to? You know this person and that. So you kind of touched upon this, but it sounds like it wasn't. It's not proving that difficult to get people on board, to get people to come in, but what I mean, yeah, here's the thing it's a it's, it's like a snowball effect, but it's also it was very calculated Right With me.

Speaker 4: 22:26

Personally, I'm friends with Michael Giacchino and Jorge Garcia. They're my friends, so that's a great starting point. And once you talk, once you get them in the movie, that starts raising the interest with other people. And so when you, if you guys, were to produce a lost documentary, let's say who are the top three people, it's going to be the hardest to get, probably.

Speaker 1: 22:49

Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway.

Speaker 4: 22:51

Yeah, so you don't really want to start.

Speaker 3: 22:56

Don't really want to start there, ask them.

Speaker 4: 22:58

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 22:59

Start there.

Speaker 2: 23:05

You kind of want to get through your fro-gurts, and then you start working your way up. Because, everybody's first question is who else is in it? Right, right, yeah, first thing, they respond to the email, if they respond at all, because it's agents and managers and gatekeepers. But they write back and they say, uh, what's the budget, where is this going to be streaming and who else is in?

Speaker 3: 23:22

it.

Speaker 2: 23:23

And we're like, uh, the change we found in our couch, we don't know where it's going to end up. But check out this list and it is very calculated of like, yeah, start with the people most likely to to not ask those questions.

Speaker 3: 23:38

Right.

Speaker 2: 23:39

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 23:39

And then build up kind of piece by piece until you're getting these insane names that are just like you know, and and one of the ways. So you know we've followed you guys for a while now but we're in a few. We still talking about the fandom, we're still involved in a lot of that, like we were in Facebook groups.

Speaker 3: 23:57

We're in and every time you guys announce anyone like from, like a fan that you're interviewing about their history with the, the, the groups go crazy and they're just sharing it everywhere and it's so. It's so interesting that, like I said, that there's an appetite for like. Of course, if we see down the road, you know, like I, I personally love Desmond as a character like he's my favorite character. So when that was, I was like OK, well, this is, I'm going to die happy now, but I also get excited about others Right.

Speaker 3: 24:30

So it's like just that idea that was there one person that said yes so far that you found surprising that you can talk about, or I don't think that we can talk about well.

Speaker 4: 24:40

I mean well I was surprised.

Speaker 2: 24:42

I, I would say terry o'quinn was a surprise. Uh, because we were told by other people that he does not like to do interviews, um, and he told me himself he's like I don't really do this, um, but that was he's friends, friends with Michael Emerson, and it was the snowball effect. Michael Emerson had a lovely time chatting with us about Lost. He put out pastries. He's the kindest person.

Speaker 3: 25:07

I would like to talk to you for two hours straight about Michael Emerson, but I digress.

Speaker 2: 25:13

Right. But we wrap up that interview and he's like have you talked to Terry yet? Have you talked to my friend Terry? And I'm like, no, no, I mean we reached out and you know it's hard, you don't get a response, things like that. And he's like, oh well, let me text him and tell him how much fun I had.

Speaker 2: 25:27

Yeah, so that's how the snowball effect works, because these people yeah, you know they went through a huge life thing together. They, they still know each other, even if they don't hang out. Yeah, you know people, you know people connect, reach out to Jorge and ask like, hey, are these guys legit? And Jorge, we're legit, and that's. The other thing is we're like nice people, we're having a good time and we try to make everybody comfortable and we're laughing and we're talking about our favorite tv show and they're like having fond memories and stuff like that. So pretty much every time we wrap up an interview, people are just smiling and like this was so fun and what a great trip down memory lane. And that's why I like making positive documentaries.

Speaker 3: 26:13

You're not like bringing up everyone's like childhood traumas and your questioning and things. Yeah for sure. So just quickly, before we kind of go down that rabbit hole and we've touched on a bit the crowdfunding piece, like, can you talk a little bit about what it's, what it's like to to to do that stuff?

Speaker 2: 26:32

I can't imagine that it's because we also.

Speaker 3: 26:34

We we're on a charity board, so we've done some like fundraising and kind of basic reaching out, and that alone is it can be so overwhelming. So I can't even imagine doing it on on such a large scale like that.

Speaker 4: 26:48

That was many sleepless nights and I wasn't even super involved with it. I was mostly supplying like sort of graphics and and and support and like looking what Taylor and Emily were doing with the Indiegogo stuff and I would like review and be like okay, that's fine, I don't want, I don't want to mess anything up.

Speaker 4: 27:09

So I was essentially would look at things, supply graphics, they would alter it and make it fit and everything fit just right. But sleepless nights because I'd never done anything like that before and, um, we were already over halfway through shooting. We had probably at that point shot maybe 40 people, um, and it was. It was one of those things where, like taylor's funding that, taylor the completely funding that and I felt that's when I started feeling pressure was like, oh man, I hope it doesn't get messed up. And the night before, the night before, I couldn't sleep, and I think Taylor might not have been able to sleep as well, because he ended up launching it at like five, 30 in the morning or something like that. I woke up.

Speaker 2: 27:59

I woke up to see it was 5.15, so it could be 8.15 on the East Coast. Oh yeah, it was very calculated.

Speaker 4: 28:07

Everything's calculated. I woke up in a bit of a panic. We were doing a live stream that day at 8.15 Pacific time. And what was crazy? If you watch that stream, which is on our YouTube channel, you can just see my relief seeing the updates coming through. Taylor had set up this progress bar that went to like 42 or something.

Speaker 4: 28:37

Yeah 4, 8, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22,. Smart, it was the progress bar. Yeah, 4, 8, 15, 16 it was. Yeah, it was the progress bar. Um didn't get to use any of them because we funded that 42 within I think it was 30 hours.

Speaker 4: 28:46

It was pretty much our first day, um, and I freaked out and then he said, well, why don't we do the stretch goal at 108? And I'm like, you're, like, you're nuts, dude, you're nuts Hit. That by the time our campaign ended and it was it was a huge relief. It's helped the production immensely. There's been, there's been, moments where, because of the, the contributions we're getting through the Indiegogo, it's funded full trips, so like the trip to, uh, the east coast for terry, uh, uh, the trip to the east coast for michael, um, and stuff like that. Our trip to hawaii, um, you know was all this stuff is.

Speaker 4: 29:36

Basically, we have the freedom to do this stuff because of the contributions on indiegogo and it's just been like, uh, it's, it's been overwhelming for me, um, and uh, it's been exciting. It makes me happy. I'm not crying, by the way, I'm just but it's, but it's one of those things, um, if you want to see me emotional, I'm pretty sure on one of those streams, uh, yeah, I get overwhelmed with emotion, but it's, um, it's. I mean, I don't even know like, I know taylor's doing the indiegogo for vampire right now and I'm watching that and I'm showing me how rabid the lost fan community is yeah by comparison I've done four, five, one, two, three, five crowdfunding campaigns, um, and I have never seen anything like what happened with the lost one.

Speaker 2: 30:41

Uh, we've we kind of thought, maybe, like because we're aware of the lost fan community, like we're part of it, and if somebody, you know some they announce a vinyl pressing of the soundtrack, we see, like everybody goes nuts and we all buy it and we're all excited about it. We see, you know some, uh, somebody announces, uh, michael announces a concert and everybody goes crazy. Or there's a, even when, like, perio quinn is in the walking dead and everybody loses their minds. Yeah, you're like, okay, I mean, the fan base is still active, hungry for new content. Because, yeah, because we are them, we know that.

Speaker 2: 31:22

But it was still shocking to see how much people supported this idea and supported us, because it's like I've yeah, I've made some movies before, but like I'm not famous, or like we don't have a big budget, we're not doing this, we're not abc, we didn't have access when we lost much the crowdfunding, I mean, I think, half the names. Like we didn't have a daniel day kim, we didn't have a terry o'quinn, we didn't have a josh holloway, like it was a much smaller thing and people were just so supportive and, like ralph said, because of the indiegogo and because of the support from the fans, there's there's things we've been able to put that will be in the movie. You know, going to hawaii and talking with daniel day kim on the beach is like something we couldn't have afforded. You know, it's just financially very, very expensive to do some of these things, but because of the support of the fans, we're like this is, this is what people, people want us to do this, and that's like a very surreal feeling to be supported that way, like directly financially.

Speaker 2: 32:38

Like I have an idea we should do this thing, and then I think we're up to like 1400 people online who think, who, like got out their wallets and said yes, you should do this thing and we would like to see it when you're done, and that is a crazy feeling of like. And now there's this new pressure of like all these people are paying very close attention and now we really don't want to fuck it up. Very close attention, and now we really don't want to fuck it up. Now we have to finish this movie and it's like oh shit, we actually have sold hundreds and hundreds of DVDs.

Speaker 4: 33:11

The features better be great right, but also with another thing, with the fan community too is one of the first people we reached out to when we started was Jo Garfine of Cancer Gets Lost. Yeah, she was really instrumental in helping us. Um, uh, she got us in touch with michael emerson. She got us in touch with, uh, henry and cusick uh, ian was. He was like one of the first people to say, yes, we, we knew about him like, I think, before we even started our second shoot. Wow, uh, it was just a matter of us getting to hawaii and his schedule matching up with ours.

Speaker 2: 33:50

Um, so, so like at that point and having the budget right, he said, yes, but he lives in hawaii and that's, you know, thousands and thousands of dollars. Of course we want to talk to, to desmond hume, one of everyone's favorite characters, but, like you know, at that point, before we did the crowdfunding, I had spent like twenty thousand dollars out of pocket, just like man. I hope this works. Yeah, it's all the savings I've got.

Speaker 4: 34:20

We kind of have to raise some money now or we're gonna have to stop making this movie yeah, next level yeah, the fan community has been just like super helpful in other ways other than just um crowdfunding, like people who work on visual effects, graphic designers, uh, people, people have come out of the woodwork because they want to do the subtitles for us. Um, how so that they can, so that we can send it out to as many people as we can and they can watch it, uh, with the subtitles in their language, uh, and it's just people like volunteering, like it's I think. I think that's what it is is people um coming out of the woodwork as lost fans and just trying to help us in any way possible. Michael giacchino, um academy award winner.

Speaker 2: 35:09

Yeah, uh, uh, you mean, you mean, uh, award winner he's, he's down there yeah, I think he.

Speaker 4: 35:17

I think he's we're we're hoping that coco gets a broadway show so he could get his tony yeah, he's gotta get that, he got yeah but it's. It's one of those things where it's like, it's like he's rooting for us so much that he gave us um, was it an hour and five minutes of unreleased music, fully orchestrated?

Speaker 4: 35:37

music that was recorded in 2009 that he's been sitting on. It was part of this other documentary and he's like I've been sitting on this um, and I think it's it'll be good for you guys, because he's a fan of lost and because the music he gave us sounds like lost. Yeah, um, it's. If, if you've, if you've watched uh, like like our the pin tweet we have up where we show the slates for all the people involved with the show, that music's not from lost. That's the music that michael gave us for the movie um, and you can, you can hear some of that in there a lot of our clips, a lot of our clips use music from that as well.

Speaker 4: 36:14

um, and it just shows you like it's. It really feels like we're on the right track, because there's so many people that are doing everything that they can do to help us, this little engine, get over the hill. And, uh, and it's just like it's just there's more and more people just like adding fuel to the engine and it's just it's, it's, it's crazy, cause I feel like we're getting to the point where we get over that hill and it's just going to be like full steam ahead and everybody's gonna gonna be able to enjoy it. It's, it's been, it's been awesome.

Speaker 1: 36:49

I've just. I'm like we started this with you, taylor, saying you love to make feel good movies, and I'm already feeling so good it feels so good and everything you're saying is like this just feels so amazing, and we had a lot of questions about the documentary and and, uh, the process. But I think you guys answered a lot of it. We want to maybe, if you still have a bit of time, we want to ask you a few questions about lost, specifically theresa, you have some questions for them, if, if they're game we would.

Speaker 3: 37:15

We'd be remiss if we didn't ask two lost experts, some some pressing lost related questions okay, they're all opinion

Speaker 2: 37:24

based. Don't worry, they're all opinion based.

Speaker 3: 37:26

Alright. So the first question is what are your thoughts on the ending?

Speaker 4: 37:35

love it it's.

Speaker 2: 37:37

I mean I loved it in the moment, I love it still. I it's hard at this point because, listen, we ask everybody that. How could we not? So I've heard, I've heard 70 plus very interesting takes on the ending yesterday I think was one of the best takes I heard.

Speaker 2: 37:59

Oh, yeah, yesterday was a good one and some of them I mean there was a great one a few weeks ago that was like like theatrical performance about what the ending means and like why, why it's good for the most part people we talk to love the ending. I've been going back through the interviews. I think we have two people that didn't like it and you have to because that's yeah, that's a real thing, that's really part of the narrative. When I watched it in real time, I watched it with my wife and our roommate at the time, um, and we were big fans. Um, my wife made like dharma cupcakes and we printed out the boarding passes and we were, we were there for it and I loved it and the other two people in the room hated it and I felt that was such a specific feeling that we're trying to capture in the documentary of just like why?

Speaker 2: 38:56

why did other people not like it? Am I stupid for liking?

Speaker 1: 39:00

it. What's wrong I?

Speaker 2: 39:01

felt in real time like I loved the whole ride, I was there for the whole thing, and the fact that some people didn't like it hurt in a really strange and new and unique way. It hurt my feelings and I had nothing to do with the show and I had nothing to do with it. I'm just like, but you know I like it. Why are you being so mean to me? Other people thing to do here? I'm just like, but you know I like it. Why are you being so mean to me, other people so? So I love the ending, but I hate that people hate the ending agreed.

Speaker 4: 39:31

That's fair yeah yeah, yeah, I'm a big fan of the ending and I gotta say I'm gonna be honest with you guys, since doing this documentary, I have grown to love the ending even more. Hearing everybody's takes on it, uh, it's just, it's one of those things where it's like you know what it almost feels like a. I have grown to love the ending even more, hearing everybody's takes on it. It's just, it's one of those things where it's like you know what, it almost feels like a support group in the fact where, like, I feel like somewhere in there is going to be a take that will grab you and be like, yeah, that person's right, that person's right. The one we heard yesterday was so great, great, uh, and I, I, I can't really talk about it, but it it was one, it was a a the 70th take on the finale, and I was like, okay, that's a real good one. I really like that one, um, but it's, yeah, I can't, I, I can't, it's. I think it's perfect for the show.

Speaker 2: 40:27

You know I think my favorite thing and we probably had 20, 30 people say this in their interviews is like, for everyone who doesn't like the ending, like what's your ending? A better ending out loud or in writing that I've seen that would. That would remotely fit the other 117 episodes of the show. Like sure You're ending of where, like the whole planet blows up and then Battlestar Galactica flies in and then Darth Vader enters with the thing and Wolverine cuts his lightsaber and have him like, yeah, that's a pretty cool ending, neat.

Speaker 1: 41:06

But that's not lost.

Speaker 2: 41:08

Yeah, ending, but all right, I guess for sure okay, all right.

Speaker 3: 41:13

So what are your favorite episodes and your least favorite episodes? Well, that's easy for me I think it's easy for a lot of people I could go through this.

Speaker 4: 41:22

I can tell you my favorite episode of lost is through the looking glass and I count two parts. I mean the episode has it all, not Penny's boat being one of them, but also we have to go back. I mean that's the same episode. It's like it's a monster of an episode. That's my absolute favorite. My least favorite may come as a surprise's further instructions. Okay, nobody ever mentions how how sort of weird and kind of pointless further instructions uh is, uh, uh, we, we.

Speaker 4: 41:59

I'm sure if you ask this question to 100 lost fans, 95 of them are either going to say stranger in a strange land strange strange land, or like expose um, uh, it's just stranger in strange land, has a story in there, further instructions ends with eddie in the flashback pointing a gun at lock and that never gets resolved. So what is even the point of that whole story of of lock living on a on a weed farm? And then that's the one where, where, uh, where, boone comes back in his, uh, in his sort of sweat, his, sweat lodge thing, and I'm just like listen guys, at least we found out where jack got his tattoos and why.

Speaker 1: 42:46

Yeah exactly, man.

Speaker 4: 42:47

It was a resolution there and that and that kind of was jack's last flashback leading into through the looking glass. So when we saw through the looking glass, it's the greatest misdirect. We're like, oh, this is continuing. When he was down on his luck traveling around the world to singapore great, that's fine. Further instructions serve zero purpose. I, I'm sure there's stuff in there, but it's not. Uh, it's. It's not my favorite and my apologies to the writers of that episode. I'm sure it wasn't easy producing that many episodes of the series. Uh, you know, so that's me good answer good answers yeah I'll go with

Speaker 2: 43:27

taylor yeah, it's tough. I I like to start with least favorite, because then you get to end on a high note. But um, I I find something good about every episode, like for the instructions. It's like you get more Terry O'Quinn than usual, and that's not bad, you know, and Boone's back.

Speaker 1: 43:51

And a weird wig and that's fun, boone and a wig.

Speaker 4: 43:56

I'll tell you this, though I'll tell you this, the least, my least favorite episode of Lost is better than most every other episode of any other TV show, right, yeah, so it's fine this just happens to be the one I don't.

Speaker 2: 44:11

Yeah, that's the thing that comes up a lot, because we also ask people similar questions and you know, yeah, like a lot of people don't like expose and a lot of people don't like stranger in a strange land, um, but it's still way better than like the best episode of I'm not gonna name a show that's not good, but you know how tv works and most shows are not lost. Um, my least. I'll give you one that's like circumstantial, my least favorite episode because of the way I experienced lost. Um is special and it's what is it? Season one, episode 12 or 16 or something. It's mid season one which is almost a perfect season of television. Um, but that episode, uh, which is the michael and walt origin story, you know, like where did this dog come from and why can he talk to animals and things? Well, hey, it's got the most unresolved mysteries, probably of any episode of lost, come come the ending of the show. But what happened is that's the first episode of lost I ever saw, completely out of context, and it caused me to not watch lost for like another six months, thus missing out on the conversation in the community for another six months, because I was.

Speaker 2: 45:34

I heard all these people say you got to watch this show. You got to watch this show. It's the best show. You don't understand, like tv is good now and I'm like okay, okay, okay, I was in a hotel somewhere and it came on, you know, the guy was like coming up next, lost, like all right. Everybody says this is a hotel somewhere and it came on, you know, the guide was like coming up next, lost, like all right. Everybody says this is a great show and I sit down and it's some kind of weird drama about a father and son and I think the son of the superhero, and then then they're on an island and there's a polar bear, but there's not, and who? And then the mom is mean, I guess. And then there's a thing and I just did not understand the show and it seemed like a bad show. Like watch that, watch that episode, completely out of context and it's not good television. In hindsight, it's great episode. I love, right, all of season one, but like I'm mad at that episode because I missed out on like six months of enjoying loss because of it. So that's my least favorite. My most favorite episodes Um, and I say episodes because it's it changes all the time I love through the looking glass.

Speaker 2: 46:42

Um, I'm going to stick with walkabout as being the most important episode of the show. It's the one, I think, that hooked me, and for a lot of people it's like that was the moment where television changed, where you're like, oh, they can just do. It's like the sixth sense. They're doing movie level writing and phenomenal acting and they're paying off something from the pilot episode that we didn't even know was a mystery. And now I'm in, I'm in for the ride. That was the episode that hooked me. That's still, I mean, 114 episodes later. I don't think they topped how good that was, because, also, we didn't know that could happen. After that, you're expecting the twist. You're like, oh yeah, it's a flash forward, but you know they've been doing twists for a while, so that's awesome, but it's not the first time. Your mind was blown on network television. And then also, exposé is a perfect episode of television and if you don't like it, you're crazy.

Speaker 3: 47:50

That's. I was actually going to say that's funny that, yes, exposé obviously is one that comes up. But Kip, that's one of Kip's favorites and. Walkabout, we agree completely. We've given it. We always rate them at the end and they're completely arbitrary because we love every single episode and the difference between 9.2 and 9.1 means very little in the end. Um, but we gave walkabout.

Speaker 3: 48:10

We all agreed that walkabout's like a 10 out of 10, like perfect, because you do, you get that twist, but you also it shows you like, because you see lock in a certain way in the pilot and then you see him again through this new lens and you're like nothing is what we think it is going to be and it's going to all shift through the perspective of all these individuals experiencing this insane place altogether. And it was. It just gives me chills talking about it.

Speaker 4: 48:35

It's it's really great to go back and watch it a second time and, knowing the information I think that's what Lost does is when it surprises you, like that, you go back, you watch it again and see that you missed the clues.

Speaker 4: 48:48

So it kind of forced you and one of the things with Lost is DVRs out of TiVo at the time and that was really instrumental in me watching the show Because you can do that, you could go and rewatch it, you could go rewind I mean I had a VCR still hooked up at the time but the TiVo really let me sort of rewind and pause without tracking problems and really like looking in close and when you have a whole world doing that. And that's when message boards were big and that's when Twitter came about. Twitter was invented, invented during lost and same with facebook and it's it's. It just kind of it was this puzzle that everybody around the world was was, you know, putting pieces in? Um, yeah, and so it's the walkabout, I think was is. It's probably one of the best ones to watch a second time, because you can't see the wheelchair in many of the shots but you didn't.

Speaker 4: 49:54

You didn't notice the first time around. You don't notice that standing in the flashback Was that Jack Bender did that episode.

Speaker 1: 50:03

Most likely, we have one more.

Speaker 3: 50:07

We have one more loss related question, but while you cause you brought up Jack Bender. My final question for you guys was going to be and I apologize for not knowing every single of the 70 people, but is Jack Bender a possibility of someone to talk to, cause Kip would die. He'll fund the whole thing.

Speaker 4: 50:22

I mean at this point, at this point, everybody's a possibility. It's just, you know, a lot of it depends on scheduling and whether people want to be in it or not.

Speaker 3: 50:34

You know there's, there's, so you know people had different experiences on the show.

Speaker 4: 50:39

Some experience were less favorable and they just don't want to talk about it. So you know, for us right now with Jack is, I believe it's just scheduling and you know he's super busy.

Speaker 2: 50:55

We have a very, very short list of people. You know that we would still interview, like at this point, we got to cut it off somewhere. That's right, jack Bender is on that list and if he's listening to this episode we'd love to hang it off somewhere. That's right, backbender is on that list and if he's listening to this episode we'd love to hang out and chat. My my very first moment I told you I went to Hawaii while they were filming. The very first thing I had contacted Ryan Ozawa from the transmission. He said they're filming up on police beach. Here's how you get there. And I, my wife and I drove down and we did the weird hike and like walk a three quarters of a mile down the beach and I hear out of my left ear somebody like get out of my shot. And we had walked and it was jack bender and we had walked into the background of a shot, uh, from season six, episode 12. Don't worry, we're not in the there's no easter egg.

Speaker 3: 51:50

That's amazing.

Speaker 2: 51:51

I love that that's my only interaction with Jack Bender so far.

Speaker 3: 51:56

He's phenomenal we talk about him a lot obviously he's great.

Speaker 1: 52:01

He yelled at you one time. I wasn't even shot.

Speaker 3: 52:05

Yeah, exactly, you got one in one or two more quick little last questions yeah go for it um, who do you relate to the most?

Speaker 4: 52:15

character wise, character wise nikki, no, uh, I think I think, hurley, I think hurley all the way.

Speaker 4: 52:27

Hurley likes the same stuff I do Green Lantern comics, this is my Kyle Rayner statues over there, star Wars Stuff like that and it's one of those things where you know you would never see a guy like that, just like your everyday average nerd. And I feel like a lot of the situation he gets put in, like having to hold the Marshall down while Jack pulls out the shrapnel I feel like I don't know if I would faint, but I'd definitely be freaking out the way he does. I feel like he was a. He was a great sort of conduit for me as far as being the character I latched onto and being in the show, because a lot of the questions he had I also had and a lot of points he brought up I would bring up. So I found I found that, uh, I would. I would gravitate a lot towards Hurley.

Speaker 1: 53:18

Hurley is definitely one of those characters. I think. Especially going back rewatching, people gravitate towards Hurley a lot too as that sort of surrogate audience and just as the all around just great guy that Hurley is as a character and you know he's he's super awesome. He's also one of my faves.

Speaker 3: 53:35

And the person Kip said he related to.

Speaker 1: 53:36

Yeah, so, taylor, how about you?

Speaker 2: 53:39

Well, hurley is my, is the answer that I say. When I first started watching the show, it was Charlie. I was a aspiring musician. I was playing in bands. I was like, oh man, if I ever am in a plane crash, I hope that my band gets famous you know like I was, like ah that's so relatable to very few people like.

Speaker 2: 54:00

It's specifically for me and that's one of the beauties of Lost is there was a character for everyone to relate to, like, no matter who you are. And then, obviously spoiler alert charlie dies and there is a direct emotional handoff of like. If charlie was your favorite character, your new favorite character is hurley. Like, hurley is the only one who cares.

Speaker 3: 54:20

Charlie died, so we're with her, so I spent three seasons, with hurley being my very favorite, uh.

Speaker 2: 54:27

But since everyone else says hurley and now I'm 20 years older, I'm going bernard, I'm going mark and just like, gets it and is like, if I can't get off this island, if no one's gonna help me, I'm building a hut and I'm hanging out with my wife and we're living happily ever after we don't need your drama. I love that.

Speaker 1: 54:50

That's awesome.

Speaker 3: 54:51

That's one of my favorite parts of season six. Good answer.

Speaker 4: 54:54

Three years and you're still shooting each other for guns yeah exactly. There's always something about you.

Speaker 2: 54:59

Like calm down everybody.

Speaker 1: 55:01

Did you not notice?

Speaker 2: 55:01

it's beautiful here and there's food that falls from the sky. One more cookie.

Speaker 1: 55:07

Really, oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 3: 55:09

So, yeah, that was all we really in terms of the only thing. One kind of thing I find interesting, just also because you're you are a filmmaker and you're involved in this kind of stuff we talk a lot on our podcast about just what it would look like today in terms of if Lost was to be you know, I'm not going to say the word reboot or remade or anything like that, but if they were to do that, like what do you think it would look like today? Like we've kind of talked about on our podcast, about it being a streaming service show. Before there was streaming services and the fact that it did it was storytelling in a way that TV, particularly network TV, maybe HBO was doing some stuff, but network television did not tell stories like this. And so, yeah, is there a place for lost in in 2024?

Speaker 2: 55:59

Well, I mean, there's a place for lost. It's still around. It's coming to Netflix this summer. You can just watch it. It's not like it's one of those things people talk about the reboots and the remakes like ruining your childhood or whatever. Listen, they can remake Lost, they can do a spinoff, they can reboot Lost and it will not affect Lost Like I can still like Lost and if the new one's great, I can like that too, or I don't have to even pay attention to it and it makes me really happy. Like all of your questions are things we've asked people, it's the same, same questions I want to know.

Speaker 2: 56:40

And we've heard a lot of takes on reboots and spinoffs and you know, damon and Carlton haveton have famously said obviously Disney owns it and can do whatever they want, but they wouldn't be involved. And you know, I would say we've asked a lot of the actors if they rebooted it, would you come back? And a few people were like heck yeah, but like their characters died. So what are you? You're not going to be in the spinoff.

Speaker 4: 57:11

I feel like if it came out today it wouldn't be as great because it would be all dropped at once. You wouldn't have that week of being on the internet. I think Disney Plus does that now with their Star Wars shows, which is nice because it does give the fan community to sort of take it all in. But the fan communities are a little bit different now than they were back then. They're a little more combative where you know people will complain about a character and it's like, well, you're only three episodes in and you know how character arcs work, right, like you got to. Just you know if you're mad at it after it's all said and done, that's one thing.

Speaker 4: 57:50

But to complain about this guy's not a good person, you know by episode two you know that person's going to be good by episode six. As far as for me personally, would be Lost now wouldn't be shot on film and every episode of Lost was shot on film and it looks timeless, like it looks, it looks great. I'm hoping for a 4K transfer. I feel like ABC, let's get on that and maybe maybe do a little retouch on some of the effects I'm sure it'll be a lot easier these days.

Speaker 4: 58:29

Um, keep the wigs, that's fine.

Speaker 2: 58:33

Yeah, um, maybe a new polar bear.

Speaker 4: 58:35

I was watching I was watching an episode the other day where daniel faraday was young and they gave him just long hair wig and and jeremy davis just kind of like slumped his shoulder like he was a teenager.

Speaker 1: 58:46

I'm like man, the time before de-aging was wild it was absolutely wild put a wig on him and send him out there make him seem sadder just put foundation over the crow's feet and you're apparently 14 year old hello fellow young people

Speaker 4: 59:04

yeah, so it was one of those. Yeah, it's one of those things where it's like it was at a perfect time. I don't mind them going off and doing like additional stories set in this universe, but but we don't need to remake. We don't need to see the plane crash, we don't need to see all the. We don't need a reboot. Um, I think lost is great and if you could go like something like the, the dave floney route and like maybe through storytelling and using a new cast and a new generation of lost people, use that to sort of go back and fill in some of the question marks. But don't just be like we're going to start from scratch. Uh, you know, I I feel there's room for it. I, yeah, we've heard weekly release. That's all I would request. If there's more lost, weekly release, don't dump. It always has something to talk about yeah, we've heard really interesting pitches.

Speaker 2: 1:00:04

I think my favorite is like something else in the universe that takes place in the 500 years we don't know about between you know what we've seen and what we've seen Right Well, there's nothing. You know what? What was going on in the island in like 1790? Yeah, or or you know 1850, or like 1910. We don't know. And so it could be anything. It could be. You know, do like you do with other. You know fargo or american horror story where, like each season is just a chunk of time on the island and the only recurring character is the island you could do that and it wouldn't really affect anything else.

Speaker 2: 1:00:45

Or Richard Alpert Just have Richard Alpert.

Speaker 1: 1:00:50

No, I'd love to see an anthology style Lost, where you get some of that backstory of the island and the island is there and we see where it is through time. I think that'd be super cool that universe, a story could be told.

Speaker 2: 1:01:02

And then the other very common pitch is bring back all the kids right, aaron and Gian, and taller, taller, taller, older ghost Walt, clementine, clementine.

Speaker 1: 1:01:15

All the kids from where they are now. Where are they now? Well, you know I don't want to take up way more of your time, but we've really really appreciated you guys spending an hour with us.

Speaker 1: 1:01:26

This has been amazing. Um, we're so grateful for you to take some time out of your extremely busy schedules and and spend it with three lost nerds who just do a podcast for fun and and just love the show so much. So we're super pumped about everything that you're doing and and and that we get to be a part of it too. We all have our dvds ordered as well. Just fyi, we can't wait to order or get them. So you know, super pumped for that.

Speaker 3: 1:01:50

Especially now that we know there's going to be hours of extra footage.

Speaker 2: 1:01:54

So we're holding you to that.

Speaker 3: 1:01:56

Yeah exactly so awesome. Thank you so so much.

Speaker 4: 1:02:00

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:02:00

Thanks for having us. Yeah, always.