Mariano Mattei and Fabian Farina of Four Olives Productions on the Keys to a Great Collaborative Relationship

On today’s episode of Creative Space, we have the pleasure of chatting with Mariano Mattei and Fabian Farina of Four Olives Productions, a Philadelphia-based production company that has produced over 10 films and won over 26 film awards from festivals all over the world. Their first feature, One Night, is currently streaming on Amazon Prime and their second feature, Sacrum Vindictae, recently had its theatrical premiere. 

I always like to say, “Friends who make stuff together, stay together,” and Mariano and Fabian have such a beautiful creative friendship that has spanned decades, from their early years growing up together in South Philly to their first band—which stayed together for 20 years!

These days Mariano and Fabian are focused on film, and in the last six years they’ve produced over 10 films through their company Four Olives Productions.

We cover a range of topics, including their unlikely friendship (at first), making the transition from music to the world of film, and the keys to a great collaborative relationship. 

For more information on Four Olives Productions, click here.

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SHOW NOTES:

0:00—Introduction

2:00—Growing up in South Philly

4:00—Mariano’s musical family

4:46—Being 4’9’’ as a highschool freshman

6:12—Learning how to fight back

7:27—”I wouldn’t change growing up in South Philly for anything.”

8:08—What is “deadbox?”

12:28—How Mariano and Fabian first met

14:55—Life before cable and the internet

15:30—As kids, Fabian was jealous of Mariano initially

19:00—Fabian joins the army and Mariano starts writing letters to him

17:15—How Mariano and Fabian’s friendship began

21:45—Mariano’s band that almost made it big, The Edge

23:05—Fabian joins Mariano’s new band

26:39—Learning the drums in 3 months

28:09—”Performing live is better than any drug that you can ever have.”

29:24—The transition from the band to making movies

32:17—”With acting, I can be whoever I want.”

36:12—’One Night’ was our film school. 

38:26—The budget for the first film. 

39:25—Lessons learned from their first feature film

35:31—The day Fabian decided to write a movie

40:58—Preparation is key

46:01—The importance of backstory in creating characters

50:12—Mariano and Fabian’s definition of creativity

54:27—What drives them as artists

58:00—”You either want someone to love it or hate it.”

59:00—The keys to a great collaborative relationship

1:04:11—’Sacrum Vindictae’

1:10:00—What’s next?

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:00 Growing up in South Philly
• 4:00 Mariano’s musical family
• 4:46 Being 4’9’’ as a high school freshman
• 6:12 Learning how to fight back
• 7:27 ”I wouldn’t change growing up in South Philly for anything.”
• 8:08 What is “deadbox?”
• 12:28 How Mariano and Fabian first met
• 14:55 Life before cable and the internet
• 15:30 Fabian had a problem with Mariano initially
• 19:00 Fabian joins the army and Mariano starts writing letters to him
• 21:45 Mariano’s band that almost made it big
• 23:05 Fabian joins Mariano’s new band
• 26:39 Learning the drums in 3 months
• 28:09 ”Performing live is better than any drug that you can ever have.”
• 29:24 The transition from the band to making movies
• 32:17 ”With acting, I can be whoever I want.”
• 36:12 ’One Night’ was our film school.
• 39:25 Lessons learned from their first feature film
• 40:58 Preparation is key
• 46:01 The importance of backstory in creating characters
• 50:12 Mariano and Fabian’s definition of creativity
• 54:27 What drives them as artists
• 58:00 ”You either want someone to love it or hate it.”
• 59:00 The keys to a great collaborative relationship
• 1:04:11 ’Sacrum Vindictae’
• 1:10:00 What’s next?

Transcript

Jennifer Logue: 0:10

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of creative space, a Podcast where we explore, learn and grow in creativity together. I'm your host Jennifer Logue and today we have the pleasure of chatting with Mariano Matej and Fabian Farina of for olives productions, a Philadelphia based production company that has produced over 10 films, and won over 26 Film Awards from festivals all over the world. Their first feature one night is currently streaming on amazon prime as their second feature, sacrum. Vindictus. They recently had its theatrical premiere. Welcome to Creative Space, guys. Thanks for having me, Jennifer.

Mariano Mattei: 0:51

Thanks for having us.

Jennifer Logue: 0:52

It's it's a joy to have you on the show. Like apart from being friends, I'm a fan of yours. And you guys have such beautiful creative lives and your friendship is oh, I also love your friendship. It's really inspiring. I believe friends that makes up together, stay together. You know?

Fabian Farina: 1:13

It's true. Very true. Yes.

Jennifer Logue: 1:17

So I like going way back on the podcast. Um, I like to start off each episode by way back, diving into your childhood. You both grew up in South Philly. Yeah. So what was your upbringing? Like? Did you come from Creative families?

Mariano Mattei: 1:36

I don't know. Your parents creative.

Fabian Farina: 1:41

Creative and kicking my butt? No, no, actually, neither. Well, I'll put it this way. I was born actually in South America, which is a story that we don't necessarily have to get into. Which country? Argentina? Wow, I

Jennifer Logue: 2:02

didn't know that.

Fabian Farina: 2:03

Yes, but my My parents immigrated here and settled in in Philadelphia, I was about a year old. Were there abouts. So not that that means anything in terms of creativity, or lack thereof. But my parents weren't necessarily the most creative people, so to speak. And actually, I mean, like I have, however, what I would say is that my grandfather, on my father's side is was a very, very accomplished artist, painter, artist. And I actually have a few of of his works with me at my house. He liked to paint Native Americans and Native American scenes. He did a lot of religious work, like Jesus on the cross and stuff like that. So he was really, really good. I unfortunately, don't have any of that talent at all.

Jennifer Logue: 3:13

But the creativity manifests and other ways in your life. So you know, how about you Mariano?

Mariano Mattei: 3:20

Yeah, I mean, not that I'm thinking about it. I, I grew up with a lot of it. So my grandmother saying that she till she was 95 would tell us the story again and again about how she had a chance to go to Milan and become a singer. parents didn't let her Oh, it was a big regret of hers. My mother used to perform in the Piazza. She played the accordion. playing the accordion, often in the house. My father was just a naturally gifted, he used to play the guitar and sing. I mean, back then it was for Humperdinck. And so but yeah, I grew up with music. We had a piano in the house. So yeah. Musical fan.

Jennifer Logue: 4:02

Awesome. And what was it like growing up in South Philly? are rough.

Mariano Mattei: 4:10

Was that a lot tougher then as much as you hear about what's going on and Philadelphia now? We grew up in a very rough time. I don't know about see, but there were. There were a lot of scuffles.

Fabian Farina: 4:25

Yeah. Yeah. And and I'll put it this way from from my perspective. I was extremely small. Growing up. Give you an idea. I was 490 my gosh, high school. Oh, yeah. Oh, no. And I probably weighed about 90 pounds soaking wet. But I had an attitude and a big mouth, which didn't kind of mesh together with with each other and I was very scrawny. So needless to say, I got into a lot of fights and I was on the losing and the vast majority of those fights mostly because it was my fault but but also you know growing up with a name like Fabian wasn't the easiest thing a lot of people would would make fun of me and stuff like that. So that that stood out on a whole nother issue of stuff.

Jennifer Logue: 5:29

Oh my gosh, how about you Mariano

Mariano Mattei: 5:31

bomb still fortnight now. I grew a little bit not quite as much as sprouted. But being Italian, I guess my my height stunted. I mean, pretty, pretty much similar. I think it was in about fifth grade where some some switch flipped and I got tired of getting beat up and I started fighting back. So you know, it was like that all the way up until college I would say. I mean, there were I went to Central High School, which was the north side of Broad Street. And there were it was very dangerous so fights almost every day and yeah, guns pulled all the knives pulled on the heart. It was bad.

Jennifer Logue: 6:18

So you had to learn to have a thick skin and

Mariano Mattei: 6:22

learn how to fight and know when to fight mill in Iraq.

Fabian Farina: 6:27

And those were the days before internet and cell phone and stuff like that. So you didn't really hear a whole lot about this stuff. But but it was it was alive and well. In in South Philly, although, even even with all that I would never ever ever trade. The experience of growing up in in South Philly for anything else. So

Mariano Mattei: 6:49

you have a fond love for self voice? Yeah,

Jennifer Logue: 6:51

yes, you do. So what did you guys love the most about growing up in South Philly?

Fabian Farina: 6:58

Mary, you want to go?

Mariano Mattei: 6:59

I mean, honestly, I think it was the people, the friendships. It was a different time back then. So you know, you were out and your mother father kicked you out of the house. And you didn't go back home until you heard your mother calling from a few blocks away. So there were a lot of street sports. You know, you remember the old pimple balls we used to use we used to play no wall ball step or anything. We're buying a handball, you name it. So we had a lot of a lot of sports type things which are not much of a sports person. But you know, some of them were, but I think it was the people because we knew all the neighbors from blocks around if you did something wrong your father knew about it before you've got home like it was it was just a different time. I wouldn't trade and if you notice they both fade in I call it South Philly you don't we're not calling it like my little niches like you know, we're from Bella Vista. Beautiful

Fabian Farina: 7:59

but you, Fabian, I would I would pretty much say the same. I mean, like I think that the amount of st games that no one and I spent six years in the Army after high school. No one ever heard of stickball? Why wire ball. You know, even even street hockey, to be honest. I mean, we played on roller skates we play foot football, on on a cement playgrounds, right, and playing rough to hand touch and stuff. Everything Everything was done in the street. Right. One of one of the famous scenes was moved in that a car has come in Yeah. When when a car would be coming coming down the street because we're playing in the street so and that's kind of stuff like even even today. When I go to to South Philly.

Jennifer Logue: 9:06

I don't really see that at all interesting

Fabian Farina: 9:09

not not even a little bit. And even when I speak to people that are currently living in South Philly and I say, you know things things like this like half ball and stickball. They look at me like I have two heads. Like what are you talking about? So I think that that that kind of died with with our generation, unfortunately right? Because then then video games started becoming popular and bla bla bla bla and, and stuff so that I would think would be like one of my favorite parts. The other thing is, I was able to walk everywhere. Right? So I didn't have a car until I was in my mid 20s And I really didn't didn't need a car like I would I would literally walk 1015 20 blocks Except not even think about it wasn't wasn't necessarily a big thing. So I really love the sense of community like like Meyer said, and the people you know, it was kind of like a tighter knit community feel to it, especially in the Italian community, which I can only speak to that because that's what I was primarily surrounded with. But, but every other you know, ethnic, nationality or whatever had their own kind of niche within within South Philly I think it was pretty much the same with with everybody else.

Unknown: 10:40

Cool. So actually

Mariano Mattei: 10:42

started teaching our kids that box remember that when holidays when everybody's at my parents house and all of the kids are there, we all go outside and draw the dead box and everybody starts playing. So now now it's become something that at least we pass that one game on?

Jennifer Logue: 10:57

What's dead box, I don't know what it is.

Mariano Mattei: 11:01

You get grab some chalk, and you make a giant rectangle. And then you draw all these squares with numbers and you have to shoot a bottle cap, you know, into the numbers zone. And then everybody takes turns, you know, so whoever gets into the middle wins the game. I think it's 13 boxes. But if you end up if you end up in the dead box, then you have to start over again.

Jennifer Logue: 11:24

Oh, that sounds cool. You do a lot of bottle caps.

Mariano Mattei: 11:30

You know, you got to melt wax in them to get them the right way. So whole science.

Jennifer Logue: 11:34

Whoa. Okay. Bonus segment.

Mariano Mattei: 11:40

How to plate that box? Yeah,

Jennifer Logue: 11:42

I did it. So when did you initially meet each other?

Fabian Farina: 11:46

Oh, boy. Yeah. I think that we were in our early teens.

Mariano Mattei: 11:51

Yeah. Yeah, we were young.

Fabian Farina: 11:55

Yeah, yeah. I was gonna admire, I was

Mariano Mattei: 11:58

gonna say I used to talk about walking. So I'm at 20 can chunk and I'd walk to nights and Maurice night. The myth is that's where my cousin is next. And he and I were the same age and we were kind of tight growing up. And my cousin, one of my cousin's friends was feed. So that's how that's how we met with my cousin. Yeah. They'd never crossed over the other side of Broad Street to come visit Mason.

Jennifer Logue: 12:24

Is that a thing? Like crossing the side?

Mariano Mattei: 12:26

Well, yeah. West Side, right. Yeah, I

Fabian Farina: 12:30

think what Western East east side? We were just talking about this recently. It kind of felt like the movie The Outsiders with the greasers and Associates so that the east side where the greasers and the west side where was the socialists? And there was definitely a divide, so to speak, within, within South Philly. It's almost like you know, it was almost like a what side of Broad Street Are you from that type of thing? That was like a further division with within South Philly. I wouldn't necessarily say that. It was like, Holy crap, you know, if you get caught on the wrong side, or or whatever, but but at the same time, it was, you know, because basically what happened at the time was when people on the left side or the west side had table the people on the east side just had one KB cable TV evil Oh, the

Mariano Mattei: 13:34

channel called prison that would show all the fights and yes, had to go on the other side of somebody's fight. Otherwise, you'll click Yes.

Fabian Farina: 13:44

I had a cousin who lived on the west side of bro Street. And we would go over there to watch the home flyers games, because they would be broadcast on prism, the cable that work at the time, and we didn't have access to it on on our side or whatever. The flyers had a home game. I was on the other side of frustrated my cousin's house.

Jennifer Logue: 14:09

That's crazy. I mean, younger listeners might be like, what? Yeah, everyone didn't have the same access to the internet.

Mariano Mattei: 14:19

Now. We went from three channels, right? Yep. Yeah. 363-610-1217 48 Yep. Right. And then there was a Spanish, like Telemundo on 72 or 70. Floors. Yeah.

Fabian Farina: 14:35

Which which my grandmother would watch religiously

Mariano Mattei: 14:38

same. Mother had every Spanish soap opera, she would be there. Yep.

Jennifer Logue: 14:45

That's so funny. So when you guys first met with your friends right away

Mariano Mattei: 14:55

I didn't have a problem with saving the saving had a problem.

Fabian Farina: 15:02

This is this is probably unbeknownst to mer, although, you know, I've told him years after the fact but I did not like Mariana at all. Even a little bit is this kid and, and because Okay, so So again, I was really small and a lot of the girls didn't even know that I existed, right. And along comes Mariano, who's super good looking at the time, Tom same height as he is now. Built built really well. All the girls loved him. They love it when whenever he was around, I was literally invisible. So so it was it was more out of jealousy that yeah, I couldn't stand. I couldn't stand them at all.

Jennifer Logue: 16:09

Oh, my gosh. So how did your friendship develop?

Mariano Mattei: 16:12

It got to the point where fayed would go to parties and then the girls would be like, Oh, you're your Mario's friend.

Fabian Farina: 16:23

That is a true story that my gosh, one more more than one occasion.

Jennifer Logue: 16:29

To film. Objection, being overlooked.

Mariano Mattei: 16:36

So what's funny is that while not funny, I guess, but when faced What were you How old were you when you join the army? 18. So as soon as he turned 18, he joined the army. And I remember my cousin told me now it's just, I was in shock, because I don't know anybody who joined. I mean, I remember stories with my father getting drafted. And I was like, Who would you know, who would just join the army? Like? Who does that? So it kind of it kind of threw me through a loop. You know, I didn't quite understand it. And I started so what happened was I started writing to him. And at the time while he was in the army back home, I started getting into martial arts and then Fabian was all he was doing great in martial arts in your second degree black belt in Taekwondo. Wow, third degree all army, all army taekwondo team, like he was, you know, running in the mountains and getting the, the, what he call at the acupuncture and like his his instructor with the budget, you know, wow.

Jennifer Logue: 17:45

Where did you

Fabian Farina: 17:46

go in the army? Fabian. Yeah. That's, that's what I was in Korea. Wow. So I spent a total of four years in in Korea two years, two years back in the States and two years back in Korea, and

Mariano Mattei: 17:58

favs modestly, he won medals. Right. And you won some awards and stuff for that.

Fabian Farina: 18:03

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was on the army taekwondo team. And I made the USA taekwondo team and competed in in a couple world competitions and stuff like that. So yeah, it was a it was it was a lot of fun. But, but yeah, like I was saying, I mean, like, we, we started corresponding through written

Jennifer Logue: 18:26

letters and letters. This is so cool. Yeah.

Fabian Farina: 18:30

And, and it threw it threw me for a loop the first time that I got a letter from from Matt, because I was like, Wait a minute. Mariana is is writing me like, I'm so I read it, it was really nice letter and stuff like that. We he was talking about the martial arts and, and stuff and, and I wrote him back. And then, you know, one thing led to another, and we just kept writing back and forth, to the point where, at least for me, because not a whole lot of people were writing me. And that was really the main source of communicating particularly overseas, right? There was no cell phones, no computers and stuff like that. So I always looked forward to getting these letters but but you're talking about, like you, you write a letter, and you send it, send it off. It takes about a week to a week and a half to get there. And the other person writes a letter, it might take a week for them to write a letter back, and then another week, or we can have I mean, it's a month or so between between these correspondents. But, but yeah, it was it that that I think, started to kind of grow our friendship organically or what the right term is to the point where, you know, when when I started coming home on leave, we would hang out together, we would do stuff and stuff. And that's when I started to realize, well, you know, he's he's not such a bad guy.

Jennifer Logue: 20:14

And you will get a little taller by this time too. So yeah,

Fabian Farina: 20:17

I was I was already I was already six foot by that. So I was actually towering over Marissa. Oh, yeah.

Mariano Mattei: 20:27

Time when he was coming back, we were at the boat, we knew he was coming into town. We were at the boat. The boat is like this platform behind already that we used to go and sneak behind it to drink beer. So we're all drinking beer, you know, talking about getting together with the later on. And Dave comes walking over, but he's in his class eights, you know. So he's got hats. It looks like cotton in the dark.

Jennifer Logue: 20:55

Oh my gosh, oh, my gosh. So, you know, now then you guys started a band together. But when did this happen? Like, right? So he came back,

Mariano Mattei: 21:07

we were in a band and fade, heard about it, you know, through the letters and things like that. And then when he would come back and, and at the time, the band, short story about the band, we recalled the edge. We had this phenomenally talented lead singer songwriter, and started doing really, really well really, really fast and hit college radio, we were all there was a commercial station called 98. And they used to have a 98 hot or not. And our song got picked. And we tied, you know, some famous artists but still for back then. And then kind of the entertainment lawyers in Philadelphia sat down with us and money hit the table. And we thought that was it, we're gonna blow rock because at the time, we were doing some cool power Pop Pop, there was no other word for it. It was punk rock that was melodic. So think before it read it, okay. And then as soon as people started talking about money, everything just fell apart. Oh, everything fell apart. So my cousin quit the band, I ended up leaving, because, you know, the deal was just really kind of bad. And it was not a good place for me to be. And it wasn't even one at that point in time. I thought they could just do it on their own. Nothing ever happened with the band. So then I had given up. I had such a bad experience. I said, That's it. I'm out. This is exactly what everybody said the music industry was like, but then as the years passed, talk about creativity, I realized how miserable I was. Hmm, was it creating an image? Yeah, I don't know. I used to write and I used to try to draw and nothing was the same. So fate was out of the Army, we were working out. And I was going to start my own band, I was just going to start a band. And we I had actually talked to the guys about starting a band together. But my cousin, the drummer, didn't want any parts of it. And we were out back of my house after worked out and, and favs like, well, I'll you know, I'll be your drummer. And I just just lost it. I was laughing so hard. Fitting up and just belly laugh is like, zero on that play drums never played anything, you know. So I just cracked up the entire the entire night, you know? So but then the next day I started thinking about it. And this is true. Fabian, if anybody knows Fabian, because he's done. He's done a lot of things in his life that everybody was like, What are you crazy, like even growing up, he was going to be an ice skater and play hockey. And he actually went out and did it. And he was doing really, really well. And I'll let him tell that story. But the next day I called them and I was like, Listen, I want to apologize for laughing. Like, because I know if you say you're going to do something like he he will get it done. And he came down the basement and we literally put two sticks in his hand told him where the pedals were and it's like, and he's like, and I'm like, right, there's this day, I got this. Yeah. You know, that fortress for us? Because we're like just trying to play, you know, four bars, you know, that's it. Three months later, we're doing a gig full set. You know, University of Pennsylvania, there was this guy that used to come in phenomenal guitar player called the pizza man. And at the end of the night, you know, he was like, I won't curse but your best dorm drummer I've ever seen in my life, you know, and now it's reversed roles because now I'm like, wait a minute, I think playing for like 10 years I love it. Yeah. So then the tables were reversed with now feed was getting older. Girls and he was

Jennifer Logue: 25:05

oh my gosh, but that was your first it was called the real.

Mariano Mattei: 25:09

When we started back. Yeah, we went through a couple of names, but it ended up being real deal.

Fabian Farina: 25:15

Okay. Yeah. The common denominator in all of the iterations of the band was me no matter. Yeah. Oh, we had other bandmates come and go. And eventually we settled on the name real but we were after the fall we were Frankie's gone. And a couple of other names that I can't really remember. But, but real was was the name that we had for for the vast majority of time, but But yeah, all all true story. And I will second the fact that it was painful in the beginning, like painful, even for me. And I was the one trying to try to learn this up because I, I, mostly my mind what my way of thinking is that I didn't want to disappoint Mary reading jack at the time who was with us. Because I was like, You know what I said, I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do this. I'm hell or high water. I'm going to get this done somehow. So I just practice, and practice and practice and practice and practice. Even even at home. I didn't have a drum kit at home. But I brought the sticks. And I would sit down at my kitchen table and hit the table and work my feet. Right, try and try to get that coordination, the coordination down and stuff. So So yeah, and then, you know, 20 years later, we were still playing in the band together and creating music and, and having a great time. Because that you know, even even today, and we're doing some some really cool, interesting and fun stuff. So I'm not taking anything away from from what we're doing now. But those were probably one of the best times of my life being up on stage. And you know all about that, Jen, right? Therefore mean and stuff. There's, there's no, I used to say to people, because we never did drugs where we got into any of that type of lifestyle. And I would say, performing live is better than any drug. Amen. Ever have that high. Once Once you're you're, you're you're just having a great time with with all your bandmates. Everything is clicking, the crowd is into it. Everybody's yelling and screaming and going nuts and stuff like that. That is indescribable. If I could put that into a bottle and sell it we would be billionaires. My gosh,

Mariano Mattei: 28:02

you know, hey, we were playing a lot of the college circuit, a lot of the Italian festivals, the larger ones. And we're talking, you know, crowds of like five to 7000 people. So the energy was palatable. Yeah. And, you know, we would just chase that. You know, tried to get that back as many times as we could.

Jennifer Logue: 28:21

Yeah. Yeah. So cool. Yeah. And when do you guys make the transition to making movies from, you know, because the band was together for 20 years, you said,

Mariano Mattei: 28:33

years ago, I think we disbanded. The final lineup of the band, which was the best lineup, in my opinion that we had with everybody just kind of went their separate ways. And we were just at that point, I was like, Listen, I'm done. I can't rebuild this band back from scratch. You know. So in that the time, everything the music industry was changing, because the iPhones were out now, which disrupted a lot of creative outlets like making music. So I had a recording studio. I had a music school. Yes. So I had to dump pretty much everything started flopping. And so when all of that was gone, we figured it was time to just put a pause on it. We never actually said well, that's it, you know, we're done. We just said let's pause it. And so we just never picked it back up again. Yeah.

Fabian Farina: 29:26

You know, and so when when that happened, I was kind of like what Matt was describing, which is, okay, I'm not doing this anymore. I need to do something, I need something else. So so I decided to I got a a flyer in the mail one day, about an acting and modeling studio, or whatever. And they were like, you know, I mean, check this out up above whatever. And kind of toss it aside. left it there for a couple of weeks and I was walking by. It was on my kitchen counter and I was walking by one day and he saw it and it was like, You know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna go check this out. See? See what it's all about. Right? Yeah. I had dabbled and dabbled is, is putting it lightly with with with acting and stuff in the past, but never really took it seriously. So anything anyway, one thing led to another, I went to this, this kind of open house type of thing. Wonderful auditioning. didn't make it. I got rejected. And, and I had said, you don't want I really? I really want to try this out. So I called them up. And I was like, Why did you guys reject me? Just out of curiosity? You know? And they were saying one thing or another? I went back real auditions and got in. Okay, so So from there, I started doing some independent films, short films, a, a feature film, and stuff like that. And so I kind of got the bug.

Jennifer Logue: 31:25

The acting like,

Fabian Farina: 31:27

this is really, really cool. Because I can act like anything, right? I can act and I can be whoever, whoever I want. I could I could be a politician and lawyer or teacher, doctor, whatever.

Jennifer Logue: 31:41

Because now your body is your instrument, like your whole being, like you become you're a vessel for these characters.

Fabian Farina: 31:48

Yeah, exactly. And so I approach to acting the same way I did everything else, which is, I was in it, like 24/7. That's what I was thinking about when I started watching movies. And this is the same thing that that happened to us when we were playing music. As I was listening to music, after I started playing the drums, all I would hear is the drums. listening to a song, and I'm like, Ooh, that was pretty cool drum riff right there. And most people wouldn't wouldn't even recognize it or realize that or whatever. I started doing the same thing as I'm watching movies or TV shows, or whatever the case is. So literally, I was practicing acting, almost 24/7. And then, long story short, in terms of like, making now the transition between acting and writing. Yes. Right. So I was going through a divorce at the time. And I was feeling sorry for myself. And one night, no pun intended. I was sitting in my, in my family room watching this romance movie. And within five minutes of the movie, I was like, oh, chiefs, here's what's gonna happen, guys, girl, they're gonna get into a relationship, then they're eventually gonna get into a fight. And then he's gonna be chasing her through the airport, telling her don't get on that airplane. Right? So it didn't necessarily happen exactly like that. But but it followed that, that pattern. Yep. And, and here I am going going through a divorce. And I'm like, That's BS. That doesn't happen in real life. So I, this this idea came to me of I want to write a story about what really happens. Yes. And I want to write a quote unquote, romance movie, but I want to write it based on reality versus the Hollywood fantasy of romance. And that's that's when I started writing and you know, basically, it just kind of like fell out of me. One of the reasons was the two main characters gave and Max remember by character, yeah. Was gate Gabriel, which was Marianas character was loosely based on Mariana and Max, which was my character was loosely based on on me and they were best friends in in this movie. And, and businesses associates have started their own company and this meant nothing. So so that that made it a little bit easier in terms of of writing because I did use a lot of real life stuff that we say we say to each other all the time, or how we act with each other and stuff like that. So and then the the female character was loosely based on a combination of about four or five women that I was involved with at one point in time in in my life. I just kind of bought combine them into this this one person. But yeah, and that's how that was born.

Mariano Mattei: 35:30

Yeah, very similar. Jenny came to me. And he was like, I wrote about a screenplay. And I was like, Yeah, I wrote a movie. I'm like, we were you know about when? Why would you write a movie? Like, when did you start writing movies? One day, write a movie. You know what I mean? Not not making the same mistake. I'm not laughing. I said, you know why I'm coming up. I'm coming on. So the next night I went over, I was like, alright, let's, let's see it. He actually had sent it to me via email, and I read it. And I was like, you know, sounds sounds pretty interesting. So I went over, I said, Let's do a table read. And we sat there for two hours, we read through the entire thing. And once it was done, I said, you know, this is actually really good. Like, I would put money behind it, like, I would do this. And he's like, alright, well, we're gonna do it. And I'm like, wait, we we mean, we're gonna do it. What do we what do we know about making a movie? Like, he's like, don't worry about it. We'll just hire people. We don't have much money that costs so you know, one night, as we like to say was our was our film school, we might not know what to do. But we learned a lot about what not to do. Yes. And, you know, we split up, they became the creative end of things. And then I use my knowledge and technology, I went out and bought a system. And I have built our rig that we use for all of our editing. And, you know, I took classes and having known sound design for music, and being a recording studio owner and producer, that was a little bit easier, but it is. And, you know, had to learn how to color and how to learn how to edit. And so that was a it was a lot of, and listen, one night. We're proud of it and ended Oh, yeah,

Jennifer Logue: 37:26

it's fun. I was watching it last night.

Mariano Mattei: 37:29

That is a success. You know, I mean, it's still there. So what's it like going on three years now? Yep. So

Jennifer Logue: 37:36

on prime so I mean, people are watching it. That's true. And what was your budget? If you don't mind my asking for the film for one night? Like, what were you able to?

Fabian Farina: 37:48

I don't, I don't really remember, at the end of the day. It wasn't in Hollywood terms. It's it's a drop in the bucket. But because Mariana and myself, we financed the whole thing. It was still a pretty big investment. I think it came out to like maybe 50 or $60,000, or probably around that, or something like that.

Jennifer Logue: 38:17

But I mean, that's like one year of film school, at least for one person. Yeah. So, you know,

Fabian Farina: 38:24

and that's kind of how we looked at it, right? Because, after the fact, not know what we were doing it but after the fact, we were like, you know, we we learned a lot of what never ever to do again.

Jennifer Logue: 38:40

So what are what are like the top three things you learned to never do again. If you want to keep it to three, because it's gonna be helpful to somebody listening, number

Mariano Mattei: 38:49

one, never pay somebody up front.

Fabian Farina: 38:54

kind of goes without making sure I think from From a logistical standpoint, which kind of lends itself to what Mayer was just saying. Making sure everybody understands what their job is. Because we we got involved with some, some people with with a little bit more experience than than we had at the time. But But apparently, you know, it's a different genre and stuff like that. So that's the other thing is really kind of focusing in No, knowing what you're doing. If you're doing a drama, if you're doing a romance movie, if you're doing an action movie, if you're doing a thriller, a horror movie, whatever that case is, and you don't really know how to put that production together. What I would say is, find people with real experience, even if they're not working on on your film, because maybe you can't afford it right and like that, but the In, there's tons of YouTube videos out there on camera angles, how you should shoot a fight scene, how you should shoot a love scene, and so on and so forth. It's really not as simple as as you would think. Right? So you have to know camera angles, you have to know. Like the magazine editing, how to put it together and stuff like that one night, we had an editor, because at the time, we weren't necessarily doing that stuff ourselves. But at the end of the day, we wound up editing the entire film ourselves, right? Like, like, I was saying, Marissa Mayer was the technical side. And I'm more on the creative side in terms of like, okay, then we cut to this part, and then we cut to that part, and then we kind of put this together and then on Zoom,

Mariano Mattei: 40:57

and a person. Yeah. Yeah.

Fabian Farina: 41:00

So So I think that those those aspects, which, which again, may not seem glamorous and sexy

Jennifer Logue: 41:11

details matter,

Fabian Farina: 41:13

then, then your your film isn't going to be as as well as, or is it going to turn out as well as, as you might want it to? Right. So that that would be one thing. The other thing that I would say is, if you are hiring people, I hate to put it into the legal terms, but get everything written.

Unknown: 41:40

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. On paper.

Fabian Farina: 41:43

Because if you don't, you're gonna run into miss on, let's just call misunderstandings. When you do you run into the misunderstandings? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So. And, you know, lastly, I would think, just from from, from, like, a casting perspective and stuff like that, is, and this is probably something that I learned personally, that I carried over to soccer Mundek day, is, I want really good quality actors, yes, to, to bring this to life. Because again, if you're, if you're spending, you're not, you're not spending millions of dollars, right? We're not Hollywood, we're independent. But still, it's a sizable amount of money. Do or put to put together the product that is going to be the best that it possibly, you can have a great, great story. But if you're if your actors, if you're, if your cast aren't bringing those characters to life, they don't understand the characters. They don't, you know, their, their, their delivery, is, you know, they're supposed to be emotional, in, in in a scene and they're laughing, and, you know, like, stuff like that, then it's not going to work. Right. So, so that's, you know, if we wanted to stick to three, those are the three things that I think, at least from from my perspective are pretty important.

Mariano Mattei: 43:19

Yeah, and I gotta say, I mean, prepare, prepare, prepare. We, we did a lot on one night, but on SOP rooms and Dick day, we had meetings upon meetings upon meetings upon rehearsal on analyzing the characters defining the characters, like is this who this person is what are their motivators? Like things that might not be in the script, people need to understand in order to be able to bring these characters to life. And one of the other things we did talk about preparation was that shot list and we they put together every single scene and we broke it down into every single frame, from what angle? What distance, you know, how we wanted this whole scene to be filmed, so we didn't miss it. And even then, you end up in the cutting room, and we're like, I'm pretty sure we got this angle. And I'm like, No, it's, it's not there. So that that time we spent in preparing was all said and done. It took three years for suffering.

Jennifer Logue: 44:22

Three years really,

Mariano Mattei: 44:24

you got to think like we did. We started doing dailies on when we started filming. So what was it six months filming?

Fabian Farina: 44:32

It was a little less than, than I think it was about four and a half, five months of filming. Four and

Mariano Mattei: 44:41

a half, five months of filming out of three years. So you think about all the preparation before? Yeah, we you know, getting to locations getting people to sign off on those locations. So, yeah,

Fabian Farina: 44:53

I would say that that you know, and the pandemic played a role in trucking that day. that timeframe, but I would say that that we spent two MERIS point, which we did into at all, with one night, the planning stuff was at least a year and a half, before we picked up a camera, yeah, of talking about the film, defining the characters, creating backstories for the character you don't see in, in the film. But if if I tell you, for example, Jen, you know, you're, you're, you're gonna play a grieving wife, you're going to, you're going to think about, okay, my, my husband, my significant other, whoever, just passed away, and I'm grieving for it for this person. But then if I come back and tell you, this, this man, this husband that that you were married to, he cheated on you at least four times that you knew love.

Jennifer Logue: 46:01

Oh, that adds so much. layers to that.

Fabian Farina: 46:06

Exactly. So the backstory is just as important because the audience, the audience is going to know this or not know this, it doesn't, and it doesn't matter at the end of the day, but this is how I'm telling the story. So as a director, now I'm putting my directors hat on, as a director, I want to tell the story in in a certain way, because I want the audience to say what the hell is going on with with this person? Like, why isn't she as upset as she supposed to be? Or whatever, because it's going to play into another part is one one way or another? Right? And oftentimes, with, with at least our movies, the ones that we write, there's twists and turns. Right? So not even the actors know how the film is going to end? Unless they have to know, right? Because Oh, you

Jennifer Logue: 47:07

don't tell the actors? how it's gonna end? No. Well, they need to know.

Fabian Farina: 47:12

Yeah, yeah. So if you don't need to know it, you don't need to know it. However, you do need to know the backstory of, of your character. So we had to develop every character in in this film. And we have many, many more characters than we did in in one night. And stuff. So so that that stuff was was going on Zoom rehearsals. And, you know, like Mara said, the shot list and which, you know, that that all kind of culminates to, making the process a lot easier on the back end, for editing purposes. And still, like Meyer was saying, we still learn lessons on this bill. Yeah, we will carry on to the next one. Right. So if we had to do it all again, you know, we might do a couple of things differently, and so on and so forth. But that comes with, with maturing, as, as filmmakers, and as directors and as actors, even as writers, to be honest, because my writing approach for for sacrament dicta was much much different than than it was for for one night. I mean, given that, you know, there are obviously different genres and stuff. But even aside from that, just just in terms of putting, putting together scenes, moving the movie, building, where we're where the building needs to be diverting, where, where we need to make an alleyway, next to the building, and so on and so forth. These were all kind of top of mind as I'm writing this script versus the first one.

Jennifer Logue: 48:58

You learn by doing. Yeah, right. It's the best way to learn. Yeah.

Mariano Mattei: 49:04

Oh, yeah. So I'm writing right, how many bad songs you have to write before you start getting it, something clicks, and then all of a sudden, you're starting to write better and better songs. And then, hopefully, six months from now, you're even writing better songs. So it's this new thing? Just takes longer with movies.

Jennifer Logue: 49:21

And it's a bigger budget. Yeah, more moving parts. A lot more moving parts and people. Yes. So this is creative space. And I love asking this question of everyone on the podcast, but how do you guys define creativity?

Fabian Farina: 49:40

You want to go first man.

Mariano Mattei: 49:42

Um, I mean, for me. I think that there's just something inside that maybe maybe growing up in a rough and tough neighborhood that we grew up in, you know, we didn't have any other way of letting certain things out. And So when you find a way to let those things out, you know, it feels good. So you're, you're kind of putting it out there. And I think art the majority of art is never really complete, you have to get it to a point where you just abandon it and then release it. You know, so for, for a lot a long time, the songs were that, you know, just getting it out when when it was really that was done, it was done, I think, go back and listen to that, you know, it was we played it obviously live. But the recording was recorded. And very similar to the movies now that the movies trust me when we're, when we complete a film, we've seen it, probably a couple 1000. So now we don't want to see it again. But it's similar, like you get it out. And you feel that sense of release that, you know, I've gotten this out there and now. And now it's not mine anymore. It's it's gone. It's gone from it's released.

Jennifer Logue: 51:03

Very cool. How about you?

Fabian Farina: 51:05

Um, I think I mean, if if I had to define creativity, without using the word create, right? I would say that, at least in my head, creativity is making something out of nothing. Or making something better out of something that already exists. So maybe a combination of of two of those things. And I think to Tamara's point, which is, which is a really good one. Which kind of talks to letting letting out, you know, that we, we all have daily stresses, right? We are we all deal with people that are annoying us, we all deal with jobs, or whatever the case may be. We're even family members, and drama and stuff like that. One of my favorite sayings is that the only drama that I like, is the drama that I write. Right.

Jennifer Logue: 52:16

I like that

Fabian Farina: 52:17

in in real life. I like to avoid drama Barthe. There really is no, no escape from life. Right. So, so having that outlet to be able to say alright, like, I also like, working out in training. I do that every day. And people that that I'm not right. But that's something that that's me time. That's that's a time when when I can kind of shut the world out. I put my headphones on, I listen to music, I'm concentrating on on working out. And as a matter of fact, when when I'm in the process of writing, that's what I'm thinking about. Okay, what did I write last night. And what comes next in as as I'm doing it, because literally, like, I let everything go. And I'm just kind of focused in on what I'm doing. And what I'm thinking about, which is whatever I'm writing and stuff. So that's kind of how I guess I would define on the periphery, what creativity is, at least least for me, building building something out of nothing for taking something and building upon it. And hopefully making it better.

Jennifer Logue: 53:35

Cool. What drives you as artists, would you say?

Fabian Farina: 53:39

My camera?

Jennifer Logue: 53:44

literally, figuratively, too.

Fabian Farina: 53:48

I guess I can go first on this one, man. I think it goes back to when we were talking about that high that you get on stage. That's really what drives me. And now now that we're in, in the film realm, I actually just had acting class last night, and I'll give you kind of a real life example. I did a scene with with a character that I don't normally ordinarily play. It was it was a comedic scene. And, you know, when when people look at me, the only thing that they're laughing at is the way that I look. Not not the way that I'm acting or whatever. But, um, it went it went really well. And when when I came back to to sit down after we did the scene, one of the actors actually in in the movie, his name is John jazzer, who plays Falcon, the filling mob boss, somebody that I respect, tremendously. He is an amazing talent. He literally came up to me and he said, Holy something That was the best thing that I've ever seen you do that. So that that is kind of the closest to that height on stage. Yeah, that that was a highlight for me because I was like, wow. Like, that's an incredible. And that is not to say that it's all self fulfilling and stuff like that, you know, not about that. But, but it's about putting something out. Because whenever, whenever you're performing anything, whatever that is, whether whether you're reciting poetry, singing a song, acting, being up on stage, whatever the case is, you're doing that to entertain,

Jennifer Logue: 55:46

right, and connect, you know, hopefully

Fabian Farina: 55:49

right to connect with with folks. You're, you're baring your soul, so to speak. Right? So, so any type of appreciation? Not necessarily for for what you did, were or how well you did it. But But when somebody like, like people used to tell us with with different songs we did I really connect with with that song.

Jennifer Logue: 56:14

Oh, that's the best feeling when you touch somebody with something you made.

Fabian Farina: 56:19

It's like, you were talking to me? Yeah. Singing that. That's that. That to me is like, wow. Yeah. Yes. And, and to be honest, that is how I define success. And that's successful to me. We don't have to be making, you know, million dollar box office movies and stuff like that. But if we get a few people that say, Wow, then I really connected with that character, or that scene. Oh, my God, that scene was, was perfect. I that same exact thing happened to me and blah, blah, blah. But that's really kind of what what drives me so to speak.

Jennifer Logue: 57:03

Incredible. How about you, Mariano? No, that drives you as an artist.

Unknown: 57:11

For both? Interesting, you

Mariano Mattei: 57:15

know, what we're talking about? Yeah, I mean, I think that for me, it's just getting it out there. It's great. When when when people love it. But I must say that, I think if anything I don't want someone to not really care about. So we used to say in the music like you either want someone to love it or hate. Don't want them to ever say that's okay. Yeah, you don't want them to be really you suck. This is the worst core. This is great. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Because it's those two extremes that you touch them in one way. Yes. So I think that, that that's what, what drives me as long as we're getting some kind of reaction from it. And people paid attention to, because if not, what are we doing? Right? We create art. So for for for ourselves initially. But once we release it, it's really for everyone. Right? It's for everyone else.

Jennifer Logue: 58:18

So for sure. What are the keys to a great collaborative relationship? In art, do you think? Because you guys have been collaborating for so many years, you know, to know that we know

Mariano Mattei: 58:33

each other really well, by this point. So you know, and it's not always easy, because we disagree a lot. We disagreed a lot in the band. We disagree a lot in the film, and it's really respecting. For me, it comes down to respecting the who is who's the generation of the piece of art. Do you know what I mean? So for example, if I wrote a song, and they felt very strongly about a part of the song, first of all, we always had a rule that we had to try it. We couldn't say, No, we have to try it. We have to run it a couple times to see if it works or not. Right. But in the end, if I wrote the song, I would have final say, right? So it's very similar to the film like so I could feel very strongly about a particular scene or or particular Edit. In the end. This is fabes creation, right? I'm here in support of him. And so he's got the final set, right? So we don't ever get into the point where we're just like, Well, that's it, I'm out. I'm gone, you know, and I'm walking out the door or anything like that. We've so we respect each other from that perspective, like this is yours, and I'm here to support you. I'll tell you what, I think I won't hold back. And I'll argue and if I really think it's something that I should argue very strongly, but in the end, you know, he, whoever whoever came up with it, where's the creative inspiration for it? should have that that final set. And I think that that happens a lot in bands, which is why bands break up. And and we've seen it happen in movies, people feel, you know, we've had people that walked away that said, I don't want any parts of it. I don't want my name on it. I don't want any parts in it. Because I disagree with what you're doing. Is that really their place? Probably not.

Fabian Farina: 1:00:24

That's that's that's a sad face. That's a sad place to be

Mariano Mattei: 1:00:28

and, and know your roles they in your role? Yeah.

Fabian Farina: 1:00:33

I would agree with everything that the mayor said. And I think the reason that we work so well together is first and foremost, we've we've known each other, like practically our whole lives. So I kind of know what matters thinking. Often. He knows what I'm thinking, oftentimes. But But I think that even even now with with the movies, same thing that that man was talking about with with our experiences in in the band. If Mayer will see it, bring something up to me, the first thing that I say to him is, let's see what it looks like. Let's put it let's put it together and open and see what it looks like. Yeah, because I personally don't want to be one of those people. Were taking it to the extreme. Like, this is my project. And you know what I say goes? Because I'll tell you why. Because I've been proven wrong. More times than then I would like to admit, right. And then all of a sudden, I see something I'm like, wow, that's much better. Yes, than what I had in mind. And that's kind of like, like the collaboration even with the short films that that we've done, you know, in between one night and and sacrament dictate that that was kind of an education on like, alright, let's film this this way, let's, let's get close ups on on this, we had to do wide on on on this, we have to, you know, get an intimate scene or, or intimacy between these characters here. And it's a constant learning experience, but basically being open to even when we're shooting or for mare to say, because we kind of switch roles. When when I'm acting in a scene, he's behind the camera, making sure that that everything looks the way that it's supposed to last directing the scene. And then when he's in front of the camera, and I'm behind the camera, I'm directing the scene and doing the same thing. But it's kind of like even when, when we're filming, when when we come up to a point where we're like, you know what, I think that we need a close up on on this one, one shot, and we have a mid mid range shot or a midpoint shot. It's kind of like, Alright, let's do them both. Get get them both. And then we'll figure out in post production, what's going to work. So so that's kind of like the the collaborative process. And I think that we're both very, very open to each other's suggestions. And I don't think that we've ever really gotten to a point like, like my have said, where we're it's kind of like, No, this is the way that it's going to be and that's it.

Jennifer Logue: 1:03:40

That's too much ego. Yeah, it's so closed.

Fabian Farina: 1:03:44

I don't think that we've ever gotten to that point. And, you know, we've had disagreements, right. And let's

Jennifer Logue: 1:03:52

agree all the time. You know, the respect thing is so important. But yeah. So, okay, we talked a lot about the production of the film. And what we haven't really gotten into, do you want to give our listeners an overview of what sacrament ACTIE is about?

Fabian Farina: 1:04:15

Well, I can, I can kind of start off on that. So So basically, it was born from a short film. And the short film was called the hitman. It was this this character Nathaniel Meucci, who is the lead character. And basically the long and short of it was that we were making short films to get the four olives name out in at least a local acting industry, right. Film Festivals and things of that nature. So I wrote this one. Just because I thought it was gonna be fun to play this this type of role, a hitman but I didn't want this to be Your mob related movie? Because I didn't want it to be cliche and stuff like that. Not to mention the to follow the the oh, all Italians are in the mob.

Jennifer Logue: 1:05:12

Stereotype.

Fabian Farina: 1:05:14

Yeah. So, so I wanted to, to kind of have a theme of yes, this this guy works for the mob but as a as a contract hit man or contract killer. But there's a backstory behind this this person and we see him during during the short looking at a picture of him of a woman and a kid we're assuming in his family. He does a couple of things during the film that, you know, kind of puts into question to the audience like what what kind of guy? Is this? Right? Good or bad? Doesn't really matter. But anyway, all that was meant to be is a short film. That was it. Right? And then it's kind of like on to the next project. But a lot of people started asking me questions about like, what's the deal with the pitcher? What was the deal with with the Philly mob boss? What about you know, his his right hand man has his console yesterday? What was the deal with him? And, Mike, my answer to those questions was like, I don't know. I have no idea. This is just a short film. So I kind of did, did what Matt was talking about with with his experience with me and drumming. The next day, I started to think about all of these these questions. And I said, you know, what, if I can answer these questions, I could probably have screenplay. So that's basically what I what I started do so so essentially, the the story is a normal guy, or, you know, as normal as as, as you can put it, he's ex military leaves the military because he finds out that his wife is pregnant. He doesn't want to be in that type of lifestyle. He's kind of like Special Forces and stuff like that. So he's, he's in harm's way, a lot. So he figures you know, I just want to lead a normal life. And, and he does for a number of years, until his wife and child are involved in a botched mob hit as kind of collateral damage, they were at the wrong place at the wrong time, basically. So so that's why he starts to infiltrate and get get involved with the Philly mob as a contract hitter, contract killer to find out who was responsible for for his family's execution, so to speak. So so that's kind of the the story in in a nutshell. That's the whole premise. Yeah. Yeah. So so it's kind of has that mob edge to it, but it's it's definitely not by any means a mob movie. You know, it's more, I kind of describe it. Almost like it's a love story that has a lot of action in it.

Jennifer Logue: 1:08:33

Okay, okay. Right. Narayana, what are your What did you think when you read this screenplay?

Mariano Mattei: 1:08:39

So when I really liked it, cuz I got to play a real jerk on quite a few people that we know. Yeah. You know, it was a was a nice little turn. We don't get along in this film very well. So

Fabian Farina: 1:08:57

yeah, these these two characters. They actually dislike each other. Quite a bit.

Jennifer Logue: 1:09:04

Oh my gosh, you're channeling the energy from your way back. Oh, my gosh. So what's next for the film now that it's had its theatrical premiere

Fabian Farina: 1:09:16

you want to hit some

Mariano Mattei: 1:09:18

right now we have I think it's about 13 distributors that we've sent it out to these two knows so far. So you know, there's 11 Left Right. And some others that that were that were waiting on? So you know, we're hoping that somebody will will get interested in it and talk about distribution whether that's possibly Amazon Prime again, or Netflix or you know, just a lot of other streaming services out there. So we don't know. But like what we like to say every time we get to know it's one more no one and waited we Yes, yeah. Ah, yeah, the answer is an answer. So we don't it doesn't we have a hashtag no, wait, we don't wait for anything, anyone we just keep on,

Jennifer Logue: 1:10:08

keep it moving. Keep moving. And what I love about your films as you use South Philly as a backdrop, you know, it's so refreshing to see Philly, in film and represented as Philadelphia. And it's not like Philly is supposed to be in New York in this film, you know? Because like it was more convenient to shoot here or something, you know, do you want to talk about that a little bit.

Fabian Farina: 1:10:32

I think that that goes back to our our love and admiration for South Philly and being proud to be products of, of South Philly. Even though we don't live in, in South Philly anymore, it's kind of like, you could take the boy out of South Philly we kind of take selfies out of the boy. thing, right. So so we we have that that admiration for for where we grew up, but then, and I think that to your point. So many films are based in LA, or New York, or Chicago, or, you know, some of these these big cities. And Philadelphia is not only a big city, but it's beautiful. It's a beautiful culture, beautiful history. So whenever and, and however, possible, not only is pretty much I want to say, with maybe the exception of one or two short films. Every film that that we've written and produced short film more or full full length feature have been in Philadelphia and is made known that we're in Philadelphia, right, whether whether it's through dialogue, or through backdrops of of different parts of of the city. So in in one night we we filmed down at FDR Park, which is historically been called the lakes.

Unknown: 1:12:13

The lakes. Yeah, yep, yep. Yep.

Fabian Farina: 1:12:16

We filmed some stuff over there. We filmed some stuff on on Patrick Avenue, in in some tea shops and

Jennifer Logue: 1:12:24

to bring the brothers right.

Mariano Mattei: 1:12:26

Well, one night No, it's one night.

Jennifer Logue: 1:12:28

And that one night? Oh, I think you're talking about sacrum

Mariano Mattei: 1:12:31

for one night we were on Patrick Avenue a lot. We tried to get to Kronos at the time, but it didn't work out and then make crusades was there. So we went to make Cousens.

Fabian Farina: 1:12:40

Yeah. So we went to to Bruno's competitors.

Mariano Mattei: 1:12:46

We did a lot of South Philly in one night. And then we did the same thing in in soccer. We had a lot more time to plan for stock from cool, we got lucky. And who knows let us use the Ninth Street store. And there are Piazza as well for us. So yeah, they were very supportive. You know, I'm in South Philly as a backdrop in general, you know, just the tweet itself.

Jennifer Logue: 1:13:10

Beautiful. Well, it's so incredible. You guys, seriously so inspiring. You've accomplished so much. It's only been so you started making films five years ago, that's as a just a little longer than that.

Fabian Farina: 1:13:24

It's about maybe it's going on six.

Jennifer Logue: 1:13:27

Okay, wow. Two features and like, option two. Incredible, so inspiring. Now, I guess I'll read your outro. For more on Mariano Matej. Fabian Farina and for all those productions visit for all those productions.com and thank you so much for tuning in and growing in creativity with us. I'd love to know what you thought of today's episode. What you found most interesting what you found most helpful. You can reach out to me on social media at Jennifer Logue or leave a review for creative space on Apple podcasts so more people can discover it. I appreciate you so much for being here in the beginning stages of this. My name is Jennifer Logue and thanks for listening to this episode of creative space. Until next time,