Hollywood actors go on strike, HBO dominates Emmy nominations and a film about RAGBRAI

Hollywood was largely shut down when screenwriters went on strike, but they are now being joined by members of the Screen Actors Guild with no end in sight. 
This strike came just ahead of the release of the latest summer blockbuster, "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One," which had a big opening globally. But production of next year's "Part Two," like everything else, is now on hold.
Also in limbo is the status of the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, scheduled for Sept. 18. As part of the strike, actors can't do promotional work and likely cannot participate in the show. Regardless, the nominations (full list here) were dominated by HBO heavyweights and "Ted Lasso" from AppleTV+. "Succession" led the way with 27 nominations, "The Last of Us" got 24, "The White Lotus" got 23, 74 total for the three HBO shows. "Ted Lasso" led comedies with 21.
Besides the latest "Mission: Impossible" installment, we discuss the upcoming "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" releases and a documentary that looks at RAGBRAI — the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.
Read more
Two journalists look inside RAGBRAI for a deeper, cinematic story
Where to watch

"Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" in theaters
"Barbie" in theaters
"Oppenheimer" in theaters
"Succession" on HBO & Max
"The Last of Us" on HBO & Max
"The White Lotus" on HBO & Max
"Ted Lasso" on AppleTV+
"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" on Amazon Prime Video
"Barry" on HBO & Max
"The Bear" on Hulu
"Shift: The Ragbrai Documentary" from the Des Moines Register

About the show
Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome everyone to another episode of Streamed & Screened an entertainment podcasts about movies and TV from Lee Enterprises. I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee and co-host of the program with the very well-rested Bruce Miller at Sioux City Journal and longtime entertainment reporter. Bruce, you're on vacation with me.
I was I was on vacation and I did not do any vacation things. I did not visit animals in a zoo. I did not ride rides in an amusement park. I was basically cleaning crap in my basement. That's what.
I planned.
And it's not done. It's not done. And now I'm freaked out because everybody's on strike. And that could mean I don't get interviews.
I know I wanted to talk about this because we were already shut down sort of anyway with the writers on strike. But now the screen actors Guild voted to strike. So on one hand, not a whole lot of changes because most production was shut down anyway because of the writers. But now the actors are on strike as well.
And they won't talk about product that they have that's out there. Now. Directors will. So you can we might be doing a lot of directors, you might hear me saying, Oh, I'm, I'm tired. The all these great directors, you go, oh, do we care? We don't care. But that could be our new our new world order. I think something's got to come to a head with this.
I think we're getting to the point where. Come on, folks, you got to move. Otherwise, we're having nothing. And you can only watch so many game shows and so many reality shows and so many politicians talking before you're ready to just scream. And I think that's where we need to see some movement in this whole thing. And I, you know, I stand behind the actors and the writers.
When you look at the kinds of money that they're not making and you hear about $1,000,000,000 salary for somebody who's the head of the studio. Is there something wrong with this picture? I think there is.
You know, it's kind of interesting. I read a few things about the strike. One was kind of looking at the last time or one of the last times it really came to a head like this, which was I think it was in the early sixties maybe, and it was tied a bit to those payments, you know, like a movie would was starting to get aired on TV.
How would the actors get paid residuals? So that was kind of like the big thing. The last time there was a real, real big strike like this. But now we're getting into a situation where we're looking at things that, like I and I saw in one report, I think it was Rolling Stone. It's almost dystopian in a sense where they wanted to pay someone is an extra and they talk about, you know, everyone gets hung up on like how much Tom Cruise makes, you know, how much this actor makes and that.
But the reality is, is that's like a teeny tiny percentage of members of the Screen Actors Guild. And a lot of it are extras, people that just like stand in the background who make maybe $200 a day at at just whatever the going rate is. And what they were looking to do is like, we would scan your image, pay you the $200 fee, but then only that.
Yeah, we, we you know, we own that image of you in perpetuity and, you know, we don't need to bring you in. And I, you know, for, for a perspective of the actor, I would be on strike too. There's no way you know that's that's good money and it's connections. It's this is how you meet people you like.
You go on a you go on a on on stage. You know, you go on to a set, You meet people, you meet other actors, you meet directors, you meet screenwriters. This is how you get your foot in the door. And you look at some of the legendary, you know, you talk about like Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford, who's been in the business for 60 years.
He was for a decade was working like odd jobs. I think he was a carpenter.
But he had.
These, like little fill in roles. And then he finally broke through with with Star. Well, American Graffiti in that little role. But then Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
Yeah. It's it's interesting how I think you need to make $26,000 a year in order to qualify for insurance. And not that many people make $26,000 a year, which is really scary, I think. And, you know, I've never liked the idea that you could scan somebody and then create a performance. I find that just that's abhorrent when you think that they would like to take Marilyn Monroe, scan all the things she ever did, and then have her in new films.
Now, this is not happening. And I think that's one of the big problems. Also, we thought streaming was such a great thing. Streaming. They were paying them next to nothing to do these shows. There were people from Orange is the New Black who said, you know, they barely made money and they had to have some other kind of job just to be able to keep that job.
This is ridiculous. This shouldn't happen, especially when they're making such huge sums of money out of this. Pick a side. But I really think that the angels are on the side of the actors and the writers at this point.
I find it hard to believe. I mean, any time there's a contract negotiation, a strike, and you have, you know, labor up against management, there's obviously they'll come together and meet in the middle somewhere. But it feels like this one, based on some of the issues, could drag on for a while. And it is like I mean, I try to Im a journalist, you're journalist.
We try to, you know, stay neutral on things. But I'm having a hard time siding with management on this one. This is a this is a tough one. When you get into like, you know, people are trying to just make ends meet on a on a you know, on a set and try to break through in an industry.
We could be duped. I don't know. I'm not saying that we are, but I had never heard that they made this little money. You know, this was not an issue before we got to the strike situation. And so I wonder why people didn't bring that up earlier, especially when they were negotiating with streaming services about because they were all so excited that there was so much content and there were so many opportunities.
And then all of a sudden now it's yeah, they didn't pay well. Why is this? Why did this happen? I do know that they look a lot at European Australia in other countries for actors and so I'm sure that there must have been some easier way to get those people to be in films and TV shows than it is to hire Americans.
I don't know what the situation was, but you know, you'll always go, Well, wait a minute, they why did they pick an Australian or why is that guy British and he's doing an American accent and it doesn't matter. You want the best actor for the for the situation. But it just seems strange and I just wonder if they don't work cheap.
Now, I know in London they have to put together a lot of jobs to be able to make a career out of it. They're not only in like these six episode series. He's they're also on the West End working in plays. They're doing kind of presenter jobs. They're everywhere and they're not just like one movie and done for the year.
So you can see that maybe that is a model for the what the U.S. situation's going to be like. I don't know. It's scary though, because I don't want to see game shows all season long. That's what we're going to be facing is a lot of game shows.
Yeah. And you know, you look at the big movie that opened this past weekend, which was the latest in the Mission Impossible series, Dead Reckoning. Part one will Dead Reckoning, Part two now is on hiatus because it was still in the middle of production and they had to shut it down. So, you know, we're now at a situation of like, yeah, we don't want game shows, but there's a lot of movies.
You know what? What does our summer movie situation for 2024 look like? If this gets extended.
We'll look at Colbert where they weren't able to make new films. And so then they kind of stretch things out for a while. These are long dry spells and I don't want to bail out from stuff I liked when we had a lot of card debt, so maybe I'm in the minority there, but a come to a conclusion, make it equitable for everybody and get us our entertainment back.
You mentioned Mission Impossible. I went to Mission Impossible 2 hours and 45 minutes. Yeah. Does not need 2 hours and 45 minutes because 2 hours of that is it's stunt work. And yeah, I can I could make a case where we need a best stunt ensemble Oscar because easily you could, you could see what they've done. But what's interesting about that is a lot of the stunts are very similar to ones in Indiana Jones.
The latest one, there are bullets running on top of a train. You know, they're both coming to the edge of something. They're in all different kinds of vehicles. There are many, many parallels, like are they looking at each other's own homework and saying, well, we should do that, too, because if they're going to come out with that, we need that.
We've got to have that. If Barbie is running on a top of a train this week, when Barbie comes out, I know that there was.
There a motorcycle? Yes, maybe you know this, but I read somewhere or saw somewhere years ago that Tom Cruise needs a motorcycle. And every movie he does.
He comes to the end. You've seen it probably in the previews. He comes to the edge of a cliff and looks like falling off it. But, you know, and God bless him, he is a hard worker and likes doing that crap. But enough. We don't need all of that. And you can easily see how if he edited it, it'd be a better film.
I have. You know, I've always said this, you know, if it's 90 minutes or less than 2 hours, that's a good sign. They need to be able to kind of pull it in. And it used to be they did, because they wanted to get more showings in a day so they'd make more money. Now, if you see two, two screenings of a film in one day, Oh, that's okay.
We're all right with that. I don't think so.
I'm with you on the length of films, especially to as I've gotten older, it just feels like I, you know, I get that big drink and then it's, you know, two hour, hour and 45. I'm already like, can we wrap this thing up a little bit? I got a great right here.
And then how are they going to have extra scenes after the credits? Do I have to sit for that or do I run like a rat? Yeah.
Was was there an extra scene at the end of Indiana Jones? I don't.
Know, because I had to run like a.
Rat. I did too. I blind. I was. I was so quick getting out of car.
We'll see what happens. You know, what's interesting is Oppenheimer opens this week as well. Yes. And Christopher Nolan is one who really appreciates the old way of doing things. He doesn't want to use special effects that he can easily do, you know, with stunt people, with locations, with cars. He doesn't want to have some animator making his movie, basically.
And he does black and white with this and an IMAX camera. I mean, it's there are things he is doing that are so remarkable that others need to look at instead of trying to see how how high the bar can be. Maybe you should just make something that's a little more artistic. Just talk on here. We'll see what happens.
But have you have you been able to see that one yet or are you waiting until this week?
Oh, oh, waiting for the Barbie Hammer? Yeah, I'm Barbie Hammer. I'm waiting to see what happens with it. But yeah, so I, I think more need to follow this lead. And I think, you know, we're going to be fine this year for best picture candidates. You have Martin Scorsese, big film coming out that should be a real strong contender.
You have Oppenheimer, which is good. You have the going way back air from Ben Affleck. So there are good films this year, but it could be a drought next year if we don't get people back to work.
Box office numbers were interesting this past weekend as well. A solid opening for Mission Impossible. 80 million domestic Indiana Jones, only 12 million. Now overall, Indiana Jones is at 300 million worldwide, just over 300 million worldwide. So it's today. But it the numbers I saw Disney reported, I think 295 million to make it. But there's some estimates that have made it may have actually been closer to 400, you know, with the promotional stuff.
So it's still like it either just made back its money or maybe has another hundred million to go. But it will, I'm guessing it'll it'll get there at the end. But, you know, it was a solid week for Mission Impossible. That's already at 235 worldwide. So it's a really strong opening overseas. Do you see that one continuing on and and really bringing in, you know, is that going to be a top five?
Oh, yeah. It's Top Gun. It's this year's top gun, Italy is that they make the most money. I think it'll be interesting to see Barbie I think will run away with it or the week because there's enough talk about Barbie and it got good reviews to begin with. Oppenheimer is a little more a acquired taste.
And you're not going to get the kids at that.
Well, you're not going to have that big repeat business, but I don't think they're looking for it any way. So I think mission could probably be still number one. Barbie could be a strong number two.
Yeah, Barbie. To me, Barbie could end up as a runaway hit also, because you're going to get the kids are going to want to see it. But it's that type of movie where the and I told my I told my wife and daughters like, you want to go see it, I'm coming with you. Don't don't run out in the middle of the day without rad.
Yeah.
That's this is what But I think it has a better message. And they say that Ken steals the film. So you feel sorry for Ken because Ken is kind of also in the cast, if you will, And he kind of pleads his case in the course of this. So I think, yeah, I'm I'm I'm leery of the two ones.
I'm waiting for Barbie because I know I, I want to see IMAX version of Oppenheimer. Yeah. And I won't see it the first week.
Have you seen the reels, the IMAX reels? It's been they've been popping up on like tik-tok and stuff. Instagram, it's like 11 miles of film. Were there to create an extender on the reels just to hold it just for this movie.
Wow. But I missed those days. I really miss exhibition. Exhibition was a big thing back in the day where you had Do you remember Cinerama? Was that ever anything in your your. Oh, okay. These were it was three screens and they were synched so that they all it created one kind of curved picture and they were not theaters that showed other kinds of films.
It was basically you went for Cinerama how the West was what you would see it kind of going across the screen, the wagon train, Grand Prix. It was a car race. And so you see that wishing bye. So it was very kind of different and those things were long run. You would go, it was like going to a theme park and you would go, and in my day you had to dress up and they didn't have popcorn and they didn't have soft drinks.
They would have like an orange juice or some wine made or something like that. It was very much like going to the theater. And you felt very special when you were at these kinds of things. But it was a different kind of world where the seats were great. There was an overture that started the whole thing, and I think we're missing that.
I think that would be really cool to have that kind of buildup for. I know. I think they need to go back to that and look at that. But yeah, Cinerama was an interesting experiment and it was during that time they were trying a whole bunch of different kinds of visual tricks. And then more recently when they did Censor Round, which was where you sound all around you and you felt like, you know, an earthquake was a big one to try it where you actually felt like there was an earthquake in the theater.
So I think that's where the future lies more than is. You need to look at how you make the experience special. I don't know that you'll get rid of popcorn, but I do think that you will. You can make it just a little higher. And that or one of the things is when we got the good seats, you know, those.
The recliner seats. Yep. That's a nice little that's a nice little touch. I do remember being at a theater once where they gave you a blanket and this is big. You guys bring blankets to the theater?
No, my. Well, my wife and kids, they always pack a sweatshirt or something with.
Their classic bring you blankets. Well, at this theater, it was in Pasadena. You were given a blanket. And then they had a table where they would wait on you like it was a restaurant. They would have heated seats. It was like it was like better than your house and somebody was waiting on you, which is even I mean, tater tots in your movie.
You didn't care how bad the movie was. You were being taken care of. So I think that is the the one area where they can they can sharpen it up a bit.
They heard the the AMC theater that is literally within walking distance of my house. I mean, it's just it's a mile from from where I live. So it's it's super convenient but it's it's about 20 years out of date and it doesn't have all those fancy amenities. And it really could use an overhaul. But we're in that area of the state where, you know, if you just go to Madison or you decide to go on a walkie, you can have that stuff.
So it's almost like, you know, well, will AMC keep this one moving along or do I just have to be happy with it, you know, until they decide to shutter it or whatever? Because it's just I don't think the foot traffic is there to support even the fancy recliners. We went my wife and I went to a movie, probably going on ten years now when we were living in Appleton, Wisconsin.
It was a really small theater. They were showing. It wasn't quite bargain movies, but it was kind of in between. It was in that in-between stage of like first run and then bargain basement and they had tables set up in front of you. And right before the movie started, you'd put in your food order and then like 20 minutes into the film, you would start getting your burgers or chicken fingers or whatever, and you got full service.
They had beer and so made and everything. Thanks. Yeah, yeah. So it was that was an interesting concept. But, you know, that was it was kind of a small theater. The screen wasn't huge, so you wouldn't go there to get blown away. It's just more of a different experience, I guess.
I remember when we had drive in theaters, you got real dinner food, if you will. You know, there would be a dog or something, you know, I have or whatever it was. And we always had that was like, Oh my God, this is so great. And all it was was where you could spill on the car and you'll risk the wrath of Dad because we're not spilling in the car, so you're not getting on it.
But yeah, we have it.
We have a drive through not far from us. We took the kids a couple of years ago to see the remake that that live action Lion King. It was fun. It was fun to sit out there. But, you know, I was just like, please, may the batteries still start. When we started the car.
I would worry.
About yet because you know, the old ones and well this is the soundtrack all right. You think what did they say? They need to close caption these suckers because I don't understand what they're saying at the time. But it was you got out of the house, you know, and I remember, too, that it was car night where you would get as many people as you could get in the car for $1.
Mm. And, you know, it was like they were, they were coming lately or clowns at a circus, the cars would be filled and then they would all sit on the wheel after they got in the, in the drive in theater. So you know, who knows where, where the future lies. But I think it's an exhibition.
Yeah. Yeah. That's an interesting point especially is is home theater experiences continue to explode with streaming. And speaking of streaming, Emmy nominations came out last week.
Now, okay, here's the thing that I think is wrong with the Emmy nominations there. There is a category where there are two shows represented, White Lotus and Succession, and they just over dominate in some of these categories. I think some of the other shows are not even considered. You know, they'll all watch succession, for example, because it's a buzzy show and then they just start picking the people and putting them in there.
And I'm not saying they're not worthy, but. Right. You think what the you know, how many thousands of hours of content there couldn't be more. So I was shocked by that. I, I do think that we're going to see maybe some surprises in the comedy categories. For example, several shows are quitting. Yeah. It's who gets the last damn eight, you know, on the way out.
And I it'll be interesting to see if they'll if they're going to reward a new show in that category. The bear is nominated for best comedy you still as other times this is Maysles going out.
Ed Lasso's going out Yeah.
Supposedly is going out. So, you know, how do you split that boat? I don't know how it's going to be. And then you have ones that aren't even in the mix because they didn't have episodes this year, like Hacks. So we'll see what that all brings. But I wouldn't doubt that something like The Bear couldn't slip in there and win it.
As a sports fan, right? Sometimes you'll see in baseball a team will have a really good player, but or they'll have to really good players. And then there's a third guy. So as a mets fan, in 1988, Darryl Strawberry had a really good half of the season. Kevin McReynolds had a really good half of the season, and then Kirk Gibson for the Dodgers had a really solid, like start to finish, right.
You know, so you ended up having two guys from the Mets effectively split the vote with voters and then Kirk Gibson comes out on top. So I sometimes wonder, too, you know, you've got shows, Ted Lasso, Barry Marvelous. Mrs. Maisel. So if you start splitting that vote because people are getting nostalgic, it's like, Oh, I want to give it to Barry, I want to give it to Mrs. Marzel, then yeah, all of a sudden the bear shows up and can slip in there.
You know, I had ones where I have said to people, I think you should win, I think are really good. And they say they're not pushing me. So that means that the studio or the producers of this show may have one in mind and they'll give them more of a publicity campaign then somebody else. And then who knows what the Emmys are going to be like if the strikes are still going on.
Do they hand them out or do they wait?
Do they? Right. Did they delay the program until February or something? You know, in get it out of get it out of the fall? You know, interesting point I think you made with the number of actors, too. And you look at so many of these shows now like the White Lotus, like succession, like Ted Lasso, these are ensemble casts.
How do you pick? You know, I can understand with some shows you're like, this is clearly the best actor nominee. This is clearly the best actress nominee. These couple characters, you know, like what Cheers. Like you would always Ted Danson is the best actor nominee. No, no disputing that. Or or Kirstie Alley is the best actress. And then you might go to a norm or somebody else's as a supporting.
But when you have the White Lotus, which is an ensemble show, how do you even differentiate who it is or succession?
You know, a lot of times if you look back in the history of some of these shows, they don't have enough screen time to really merit the nomination, but they get the nomination and so they've got to hope that their producers write an episode for them that kind of is built around their character. So they have enough to show off.
And it's not like, Oh, what happened here? Hill Street Blues was notorious for giving them little kind of moments, but not enough moments to add up to a big you know, win. Daniel to bond. He always won because he was the lead. And you could tell he was the lead. L.A. Law another example of, you know, I supporting person could win e r a supporting person could win, but not necessarily somebody who is in a better category because they didn't have the scenes that add up to whatever somebody else could do.
Or if it's something that is very common, like or Angela Lansbury never won, she was nominated like 13 times for murder. She wrote Never Won. Well, she was facilitating a story for everybody else. And she was kind of the glue, not necessarily the one who went crazy and was the murderer. So she, you know, as a result, probably not going to win.
My take on the Emmys, too, in this kind of goes back to my own streaming habits and subscription habits. Now, we've talked about like with Apple TV Plus I kind of come and go from that. You know, I'll I got through Ted Lasso. I got through a couple of other shows like For All Mankind. I got caught up on that.
I'm probably going to check out a couple of other shows, but then I'm going to turn it off for six months and then I'll wave it again. And there's a couple other ones now, like with Hulu, I would probably drop that one periodically, except for it's, it's bundled together with with my Disney Plus. So it's like I have a deal.
So it's not. And then with Netflix there's there's enough things on there to kind of keep me plus the kids really like Netflix so I guess I'm always going to keep Netflix but it's it's even on the fringe for me where I might shut that one down for three months and then come back for it and just save a few bucks here and there.
But pound for pound, you cannot take my HBO away from me. And I think the Emmy nominations, it was like 75, 74 nominations between succession, leading everything in the White Lotus, not far behind the Last of US, Not far behind. I mean, there's nothing that HBO for me can't do, right? I mean, there's no reason if you if all I could take was one, I would just go with HBO all the time.
I am a big EPICS fan, and then they've kind of muddied the waters by doing Fox on Hulu. So you're not really sure where their home is, but they make great content and they've got good stuff coming up for the next year, so we don't have to worry that all they're going to be out of the water. But like one of my favorites is reservation dogs.
That's going after the end of this next season. Fargo has a new addition. That'll be this year. Those are Epix products, but are they Epix on Hulu? So really, it's a Hulu thing, who knows? But HBO pound for pound if they don't mess around with Max Brown has a lot of good stuff.
That's the only thing that worries me a little bit. I mean, I've I've been an HBO subscriber either through traditional cable and then they kind of went to that HBO Now thing and then they went to HBO, Max and now it's just Max. I mean, I'm going to keep paying for it, but is as long as they keep these programs going, as long as there is some sort of Game of Thrones spin off or a nice, you know, dramatic comedy like a white Lotus, a dark kind of show like that for the wife and I to watch those types of things.
As long as they keep bringing those in, it feels like, you know, one show goes off the air and then there's something else waiting for me. But as soon as that stops, you know, yeah, they're going to lose me for sure.
Isn't it funny how you're voting with your pocketbook?
It is.
And look at how Disney Plus got a big bump when they did Hamilton. You know, people do see Hamilton. They threw it on there. That got a huge number of subscribe for them. And now they're kind of hurting. They're wondering, what do we do? We don't have that kind of content. We'll see what see what happens with that.
Absolutely.
I've got a movie that's opening here in Iowa. Yes. And it's timed. And if you've never heard of it, it's called RAGBRAI Register's annual.
Great.
Great bicycle ride across Iowa. I think that's what.
I think it is.
Yeah. It's a it's a 50th year where they they start at one end of the state and then they they bike across the state for a week and it's hotter than hell. Usually when they do it a lot of little towns get involved in all of this. It's a fascinating kind of social experiment. But it for most people in the state of Iowa, it looks like it's just a big rolling party is what it amounts to.
Well, they've made a documentary called Shift, and it's about four groups or four, I want to say four people, But they're like in Kabul, there's two people or there's two people in another and three, you know, But it's four separate stories basically, that are pulled together. That happened during the course of last year's RAGBRAI. And I had a chance to talk to the directors and how they did this and what they chose and how they were making their decisions because you don't have a chance at a second shot.
You have to do it all during that week. If you don't get everything shot during that week, not going to happen. And so I had a chance to talk to the directors, Courtney Crowder and Kelsey Kramer, and I think we've got an excerpt from that interview. If you care to listen, tell me about the project. When did you begin it?
Why did you begin it? Was it all time to be with the 50th? Tell me all that kind of stuff.
So it was when I mean, it was in the pandemic. So like 2020? Yeah. So I texted Courtney and said, Hey, I want to make this documentary and I want it to be really good, so help me. And we ended up we were going to meet at Starbucks, but all the tables were closed because it was the pandemic.
So we went to a park shelter and like sat down and spent like several hours just like talking it through and making a plan. And so we did. We knew we wanted it to be time to the 50th, just as like, you know, that was our news, Peg. So when we talked it there, we knew, you know, that we wanted it to be more than just sort of like a historical retelling of RAGBRAI.
We knew it wanted. We knew that we wanted it to be about, you know, people. We wanted it to connect with more than just people who are interested in RAGBRAI. We wanted it to be bigger than that. And so we, you know, plotted all of that out at our first meeting, you know, Mid-Pandemic And then really like going on it in earnest the January before the 49th ride.
So last January. And then going from there.
So how did you pick the people that you'd focus on? Was that like just spur of the moment or was it something that you, you know, we knew these ones would be good.
That was our biggest that was our biggest concern going forward is obviously the story had to have the subjects that really propelled it forward. And so as the main sort of producer of the story side, I took that on and started in that January reaching out in every humanly possible. So talking to people who had done RAGBRAI a lot, talking to people on our staff, just sort of reaching out and saying, what are the big stories?
What are the things that you've covered in the past that might be good for us to look at? Looking at some of the submissions that people had put on social media about their own stories, I ended up doing more than a dozen phone interviews, which became a little bit fewer, probably a dozen video interviews, and then we ended up with about seven storylines that we actually followed and four that end up in the film.
Well, and then have you guys been on a break right before? Have you done the whole thing, or was this like, Oh, wow.
I mean, we've both covered RAGBRAI, so I've worked at the Register for ten years and have covered RAGBRAI every year. So like some of the stuff that we include in the documentary are like people we knew about because we are very much involved in RAGBRAI, like the registered side of RAGBRAI coverage. Like, I also have always been a part of the route announcement.
Like I've sort of been a big part of planning the Register's coverage of that. So we've we're very involved in it. Yeah, Yeah. So it wasn't a surprise for us.
But then on the on a day to day basis, how do you know who to who to track or do you have other people who are going to do all that. And so you make sure you get something from each of them every day or what?
Yeah. So we had a team of ten people on the ride, seven videographers and three producers and a lot of it's it's one of those things where it's like plan as much as you can and then throw away the plan, right? So Kelsey and I sat down in the weeks before talking about which which videographer might match with which subject best, like they might have similar life experiences plotting out what days we'd like to do things.
And then every day we'd look at that again, right? So we sent them out a week's plan. Then every night we'd say, You know what's coming up the next day? What's coming up the next day? So we were following those seven storylines and then getting beauty shots of Iowa and that kind of stuff. But we were not deviating.
We knew those were our story lines.
So how.
We.
Don't freak out our you during all of that is like, Oh my God, we do we have anything new day. I don't know if we have anything today. This could be bad.
I feel like it. I mean, Courtney and I really I feel like we really knew what we wanted to capture because we had also spent time with some of the main the main people that ended up in the documentary. We had spent time with all of them before the ride, so we sort of knew like what days were were end, what moments were important, and we had kind of an idea of how their week was going to go.
And so I felt like we sort of knew when we needed to be like where we needed to be. And I think we really hit those marks pretty well. Then there was some adjusting, had one photographer ride the whole ride and he bounced around with different different characters. So he spent time with sort of all of our main people.
We had one photographer who Courtney got a bike part of the way through. We realized that it made sense to be on a bike with someone. So we, like Courtney, found a bike. We got another photographer on a bike. And I think that's where having a partnership really came into play, because I feel like any time I was reaching that peak anxiety, I could turn to Kelsey and she could call down.
And same thing for her, right? I mean, it was a lot. You have you have eight days to get what you need for a movie. And so I'm not going to pretend like that wasn't an anxiety inducing. It was, but it was like, stick to the plan, be flexible and just go, go, go, go.
Were you talking to each other on the phone all the time saying, Oh, this is what I found, Oh, this is great. Oh, we got to do this? Or was it like, Well, wait till the end?
No, we had texts going, you know, add you can you're in the middle of nowhere in RAGBRAI. So we had texts going all day long, and then every night at five we had this meeting with everybody from our team. You were expected to be there even if you had to go back out and cover stuff at night, you're expected to be there.
So that's kind of how we coordinated on the ride. So we talked through every day. We talked about what everyone filmed. So we had an idea every day what everyone had. And then we also had with a we had some extra help. So one of the people who was helping us was a woman named Kathy. And I'm not even going to try to pronounce her last name, but she is the photo editor for the Detroit Free Press.
So a part of going back came and helped us. And she was like looking at footage and she was she was out writing and she was like helping us as a producer. She was looking at people spotted and she was sort of helping guides with visual instruction too. And so every day, like all the photographers had a hard drive that they turned in and all the footage got backed up on a hard drive and then people got their hard drives back.
And so we were sort of keeping tabs all week. Yeah.
Or there were tragedies then where you go, Oh my God, we didn't get it, or I forgot to turn the camera on or anything like that.
No, And I think that's a really good point, though. Bruce is like one thing that I learned being a print reporter is the importance of being there. And I think for me that was the key takeaway is if you're making a documentary, if you're doing something on film and it sounds so simple, but it's really not, you have to be there.
So even as much as we knew the times that things were going to happen, we really tried to embed with these people because life happens when you're not looking right. Life happens in those small moments. And we just tried to be with them as much as possible because we can't recreate it, at least in our form of our documentary.
We don't have animations. This is all things happening in the time that they happened. And so then the documentary is based on what we experience. Yeah, it's we. So it's sort of like we had an idea of what was important, everyone's storyline. And then we sort of took stock of what we had and that was how we determined what was in the documentary.
So at the end then, what did you say to each other when it was done? I'm not the documentary being done, but when RAGBRAI was done, did you go, Did we get everything or do we have everything? Do we need something more or do you just kind of sigh and say, Well, let's see what we've got and go from there?
You know, I wish I was not so tired and anxious, but 100%, you know, I mean, driving back from Lansing to Des Moines, that's a four hour car trip to think about. Did we get it all? So I was I was definitely a little nervous. But honestly, it was for me, a feeling of euphoria because at the time, Deb, we were there with our characters and we had been apart because we were with them, embedded with them.
We'd been a part of their journey and their story. So for me it's like, yes, Director Courtney was, was worried and thinking about, you know, immediately making meetings for Monday. But Courtney was experiencing it with these people, understood that they were overcoming and they were celebrating. And I was excited to be a part of that. You know, I it felt like we got it.
Like I felt like I felt like in the stuff that we because we were interviewing everybody as they arrived, like as they were in line to go to the tired it and the stuff that we were talking about in those interviews was like, Holy shit. Like, we are going to have a good documentary like we just like, yeah, we just like captured something really powerful and that I absolutely felt that when we got to the end, like, oh, like, oh, this is going to be good?
Yeah.
All right, Bruce, thanks for that interview. Interesting. It sounds like an interesting concept. I'm always into kind of these documentaries on Netflix that look at unusual endurance types, things like climbing mountains and surfing. And so even though it is kind of a very regional thing, I think this is a movie that might resonate with me as well.
Would you do it or would you actually go on a bike ride across the state when it's 100 and some degrees?
Yeah, I'm not sure I will. I mean, when I was a little bit younger, I did a lot of biking. I did a 25 mile bike ride one time as part of a group in Milwaukee, and I used to bike regularly, like 10 to 15 miles, just, you know, kind of in the neighborhood type of thing. I don't know if I could do that.
That length and that amount of heat in the summer, that would be a little bit about it.
It was like 50 some miles a day. And then you party for the rest of the day and then you get up the next day and do another 50 miles and party that night. That's a lot.
It is. I've known a few people that have done RAGBRAI and including one individual who, if you looked at them, probably, you know, you're like, really? You know, because he was much older, not in the best of shape, but he did it. And I mean, because he biked regularly. So he had the he had the endurance to it to do it and he enjoyed it.
But yeah, I've been to Iowa in July and August and.
Michael, it's October, but I'll stay in the support wagon and, you know, in the air conditioning. Thank you very much and I'll meet you when we get to the small town And I have the piece of pie too, but I won't even had to ride at all. I couldn't. I am no good at writing. Bye. I fall over right away.
I have no sense of balance, you know? So it's not my way.
When somebody says to you. It's just. It's just like riding a bike, you know.
That's not then it's very difficult. It's like riding a bike. I can't do it. Not coming up.
So before we wrap, when are these strikes ending? Do we want to do we want to try to put this one out? I honestly at this point, I'm going to go November.
Or you go that far. I don't think it'll be that far.
No.
No. I think something's got to give. I think they're going to get really antsy around the Emmy Awards in September.
Okay.
And that will get them to think, well, we lost all the free publicity on this. Let's wrap it up. Let's try and do something, I think, before Halloween.
Interesting. I the only reason I'm going out to November is I think there's enough besides these horrible game shows and other unscripted, you know, actor free programs out there. The only thing else that's kind of hanging on is we will have the start of the NFL season. We will have college football, we will have the World Series and baseball.
We will have the return of things like the NBA and the NHL. I think there's enough sporting events where these distributors and and other studios and stuff to have something there. But come November, people are going to freak out because they're like, well, college football's ending and then bowl season is going to be gone. We need to get people back to work so we can start getting things ready for the start of the new year.
So that's kind of where I'm going with like early November. But that's yeah, we'll see what happens. Hopefully you're right.
Yeah, I want it sooner. I think I'm ready for tomorrow. Well, we'll see what happens.
All right. Sounds good. All right. Well, thank you all for listening to the latest episode of Streams and Screened. And we'll be back next week with Barbie.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.