#oh well every masterpiece has its cheap copy i guess | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

natsumiheart · 10 months ago

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Ever since I met you.

…Hello world! Lmao

Hi, I'm Natsumi, and I'm wondering who is even reading this but if you are, welcome to a very long post about how I got into Tears of Themis, how it helped me through such a hard time, and how I ended up falling in love with a certain detective.

I made this post for an event on hoyolab but I’m posting it here too in my trashcan! I already wanted to have a post documenting this online just for myself, even if in the future I cringe while reading it, I can look back and remember the emotions I felt through the year. I also wanted to share it with the world so that maybe people will feel like me, or come to appreciate this character that I love so much as much as I do. (you’re free to reblog btw!)

Warning: This post is mostly about Luke!

It contains spoilers about some Luke cards and some spoilers for his Blossom Chapter. There are small scenes from episodes 2 and 5 of main story as well. Oh, and Artem and Luke 2nd anniversary cards.

If you are here because you’re interested in learning or reading more about Luke and do not care much for the rest, I recommend the interlude, part 6, and The end: part 1. The other parts also talk about Luke and his stories but those are the most important in my opinion.

Due to Tumblr’s 30 image per post limit, this will be divided into 3 parts, each part added with a reblog.

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Index because this post ended up incredibly long so here are the parts laid out to read anything you’re interested in!

> Part 1: Introduction

(How did I learn about this game?)

> Part 2: Contact

(Getting the game)

> Part 3: The Beginning

(Starting the game and first impressions lol)

> Part 4: Falling

(FOR LUKE AHAH)

> Interlude: Luke Pearce’s Fear

> Part 5: Obsession

(How and why did this obsession start?)

> Part 6: Reflection

(Thinking back on Luke’s personality that attracted me)

> The end: Memories

(Extra memorable moments)

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Part 1: Introduction

I play Genshin (shocker) and I have some online friends who play it as well, so when Tears of Themis came out globally since it's made by Hoyoverse as well, most people who played genshin went to check it out. I discovered Tears of Themis through those people, and I was recommended the game by my online friends.

What was my response?

“I have no phone storage.” AAHAHAH, yes. I'm not a day one player. I only started during the second anniversary because back when the game came out despite being interested I could not play because I did not have any device that could handle the game. My phone could not handle Genshin's size either, it's not compatible to begin with- I played Genshin on the PlayStation [emoji]

However I did not forget about the game, I was just hoping that somehow one day, a miracle will happen and I will be able to play mobile games like other people LOL but what are the odds of that happening?... Well, a miracle happened 2 years later.

Bonus: I had a little beef at the time with Artem because I kept thinking drawings of him were actually of Jumin who is a very well written character I love like crazy from mystic messenger since 2016 BWAHAHA

Every masterpiece.. has its cheap copy.. IM JKJK PUT THAT KNIFE DOWN AHAHA

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Part 2: Contact

So one day I was visiting my aunt's house and met my cousin's acquaintance. I met the guy for like.. only 2 hours and during those hours my cousin told him about how I draw digitally but I have been drawing on an 8 year old phone that stays alive for like 30 mins at a time AHHAHA

The guy was like “That's it, I'm getting you an iPad to draw on.” I laughed, thinking he was joking- but then 2 days later I received TWO iPads, one for me and one for my little sister! W t f. Angels do exist on earth? And I was never able to thank him in person because he's a busy guy who only visited my village and I never saw him again o.o

Can you guess what I started doing when I got it? Download a bunch of games I wanted to try throughout the years but couldn't! Among them was Tears of Themis. My house didn't have the best Internet and had a couple hours of electricity a day so I downloaded it very slowly at my aunt's house.

I remember so clearly about how I sat next to my sister as I was downloading the game, and it started playing the second anniversary promotion video since it was starting during that time. At first I was like “aww, they proposing!” but suddenly things turned spicy and I almost dropped the iPad from my hand HAHA.

I did not know what to expect going into this game because I stayed away from spoilers and videos about it since I knew I wanted to get into it myself one day (I was interested in the main story). It made me sad too to be honest because I wanted to play it but couldn't, so I avoided it for years.

I however, did not expect at all that the game would get THAT spicy LMAO my sister noticed my reaction and she was like “What's up?” And I was like “you cannot see this” though she is older than the game’s age rating AHAHHA

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Part 3: The beginning

I was so excited getting into this game! When I started I was incredibly hooked to the main story, and at the time.. hear this.. I had a bias towards Artem because he looked like Jumin AHAHA

I was honestly more interested though in the main story than the boys, because the boys didn't make me feel much at the time- I do not have a “love at first sight” I never had that kind of experience for real life people or fictional people. (Anyone can experience it, and that's valid! It's just for me personally that never happens.)

After knowing characters and learning more about them, that's when sometimes- I fall in love with them as a character, they end up giving me so much happiness just seeing them, they give me comfort.. And they fill up my sketchbooks HAHA is this love romantic? Usually no, that's very rare!

I did not feel much for Artem (turns out the only thing he and Jumin have in common were their looks and being socially awkward, shocker-) but I had a little interest that led to me pulling for his second anniversary card when I started being able to wish. I lost- and got a standard Artem, but then I won and got his card LMAO you can get a lot of wishes starting off. However I was doing the stories of the standard SRs, along with the main story and someone.. someone was warming up a lot to my heart.

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Part 4: Falling

The boys were all very interesting and lovely characters! (The NPCs as well!!)

Artem, despite how he comes off at work, is actually just a shy guy who is bad at communication outside of work.

Vyn is actually a very interesting and well written character being very different than the rest of the cast due to his unique upbringing (honestly? His family feels like a cult, bro literally is running from a cult) and you learn more about his own psychology the more you get to know him.

Marius is literally just an artist who wants to chase the life he wants but is hindered by responsibility and his position.

And Luke- Luke stole my heart LOL

First off, he's a detective and I've already confessed online to having a thing for detectives by a drawing- that starting since I was a kid and I watched detective conan🧍‍♀️his introduction chapter.. was very interesting. It was literally the first episode, Rosa clearly knows and cares about this character right off the bat you're like hmm? What was this guy doing for 8 years? Why did he show up now after so long? Almost making him suspicious even. But he and Rosa seemed so close despite it all.

After that Luke had started showing up in the story here and there, a moment that made me go “ohh.. what a cool guy.” Was when after Marius’ case in episode 2, he shows up on a bike like “get in we outta here” and saved her from all the reporters.

His theme plays at this scene.. my heartttt

Revealing he'd been watching her and the case from afar and was literally waiting for her to get out and get her away.

I started reading the standard SRs, the first one I did was “Among the great blue” which honestly I recommend everyone doing again because I bet you all do not remember Luke saying this about Jellyfish

The card made me go *the rock eyebrow raise* GAHAH and at the time I was all innocent, not knowing anything about what Luke was going through, so when Rosa woke up and did not find him sleeping next to her (after she invaded where he's supposed to be sleeping lmao) and Luke was hunched over like “I'm fine I just accidentally swallowed gum lol” I actually believed him 💀 there were signs, but it would fly over a player's head until things are revealed ON THE FIRST FREAKING ACT OF HIS PERSONAL STORY and suddenly everything makes sense. Wow.

When I started personal story, I was just starting it because starting all of them is part of the “Rookie tasks” event you get when you start the game. Only to be punched in the gut immediately.

This is LITERALLY what you’re greeted with when you start his story 💀

I was starting to warm up to this guy and you're telling me.. he's sick and planning to leave us.. omg.

I got to choose one limited SR from the Rookie event, and I thought Luke looked adorable so I picked his card "A star in the palm" and the story.. omg that card, I'm weak. Everyone needs to see it, READ IT!

It’s illegal to be BOTH handsome and adorable smh

After that I started WANTING to do more Luke stories so I did the other standard SRs “Radiant Sunlight”, “Timely Rescue”, “Inner Sanctum”. They were all so good, my favorite being Inner Sanctum for how much it messed with my heart.

Dude is literally falling and he STILL makes sure to protect her.

I- was dying. I started pulling for Luke's anniversary card, starting to regret my choice going for Artem's. But he wouldn't come-

So I went back to main story because that's how you get the most schips, and guess what- I had reached episode 5…

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Interlude: Luke Pearce’s Fear

The way episode 5 starts, Luke joins the NXX and Rosa is incredibly surprised seeing him there introducing himself as an agent from the NSB. Meanwhile Luke… is mad.

At first he can't believe Artem would even make her do this but she confirms to him that it was her decision, and then he spills the truth about his identity, and about where he's been the past 8 years. He apologizes, for lying, for planning to leave her again, for everything.

And then this happens.

You guys, this scene made me go straight up insane. You can tell how much he had cared and loved her for all these years, and how his biggest fear is literally the main character getting hurt or something happening to her. I felt so emotional over it, that after this act I started DESPERATELY pulling for his card and I finally- finally got it

Episode 5 BTW is one of my favorites in the main story, it is 3 parts because it's THAT good. It's when people will start seeing what Luke is as a character, what's beneath the surface you see in episode 1. (Also this episode introduced the best character: Hugh Moss AHAHH)

The parallel between Rosa, and Jasmine (the reporter whose case you investigate), was not lost on me. That reporter died trying to expose the truth which is exactly what Rosa has been trying to do. I think the entire chapter literally is showing you why Luke is so scared of her continuing the path she's in.

But you know what's the best part? He's freaking terrified, yet he never forces her to leave. He says this:

People keep saying Luke is a red flag that keeps trying to control Rosa and her actions and I swear my reaction is always “Are you even paying attention?” Luke never forces Rosa, he only shows he's against it, but he always says he will support her whatever decision she makes.

A similar more light-hearted situation is the story of his summer card “Iridescent Heartbeat” where Luke is afraid of Rosa getting hurt or doing things that are too much for her so he doesn't consider doing things such as Bungee jumping or rafting. But Rosa insists that she wants to do it and when she's visibly afraid later, Luke teases her a bit (LOL)

but then holds her close to him and soothes her saying there's nothing to be afraid of cause he's there.

He encourages her to do what she wants! And when she does indeed get hurt because the rope was too tight around her leg, he does NOT put the blame on her, but on himself-

Y'ALL HOW IS THIS GUY CONTROLLING??

(The scene after kinda got on my nerves cause Rosa got “angry” that he’s not his usual “cheerful self” like girl I love you but please- can’t you see how much you getting hurt affects him? She pretends that she’s angrier than she actually is making Luke apologize over and over like 💀 but tbh it was also funny, I don’t like how she handled it but it was funny lol)

When they go rafting Luke lets Rosa take the lead and he will follow her because she wanted to prove to him that he doesn't need to plan everything, however Rosa's plan backfires, things go horribly wrong and she can't figure out how to get the raft to go straight. Luke again, does not reprimand her in any way and only helps her so she can do what she wants. Later on even after they've fallen off the raft and onto the water he immediately holds her and takes her up to the surface so worried like “are you okay???” And despite all that, he says she's right. That she's always right and he will stop trying to plan and go more with the flow.

Luke never tried to control Rosa, he just loves her so much that he does not want to ever see her in pain or sad. He wants her to be the happiest girl in the world.

So who is Luke? Luke is the coolest mf, a guy that always jumps into action to help others with a heart so damn big that his own emotions slowly destroy him. He has felt an astronomical amount of guilt and regret since childhood- and has cared for and loved the main character just as long. The girl who is the reason he was able to keep his sanity, the girl who he always wanted to protect, and the girl who is the reason he is still here today.

I wholeheartedly believe that without Rosa in his life, Luke would've ended up completely different, if still alive at all.

Bonus: I remember people being like, the characters have gemstones that match their color in the proposal ring, so why does Luke have Ruby instead of something like Topaz? This is why.. the ruby in the ring represents Rosa (getting emotional over here omg) and honestly that ring is freaking insane because not only did he design and make it and its box by himself for years.. but a ruby is inside the key that Rosa gave to him.

Remember how Luke when you click on the key in visit says “I wear it like this to have it as close as possible to my heart” now look at the key.. if the Ruby is Rosa, and Luke’s heart is the key, do you see what he conveyed in that ring? Yea, I’m crying too.

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Part 5: Obsession

I have a bit of an obsession problem, I've been obsessed with stories, games, or characters and that obsession can last years of my lifetime. And it's understandable, when you're going through terrible things in your life, you get attached to what makes you feel happy and you hold on to that feeling. That's what starts that obsession.

When I got the second anniversary Artem card I did the story immediately and it was.. it was alright. Artem wants to propose, but in his attempt to keep it all secret distances himself too much and gets Rosa worried, but then wow! He proposes with the help of his coworkers and happy ending + things get a bit spicy at the end.

But I felt like.. like I'm getting deja vu AHAHA like I've seen this kind of story a million times before. (Probably cause I did from watching a bunch of kdramas and having consumed a bunch of stories from a lot of media) It did not exactly get me to feel anything much, I'm sure it's different for Artem stans though having him propose after probably following his story for 2 years XD good on you guys have fun with your mans!

For me though who had just started, it did not have that much of an effect. After I got the Luke anniversary card I was excited and went into the story oh so innocently not knowing back then that Luke cards are honestly heart wrenching.

It led to me crying in bed while the sun was rising from the window as Luke says “That's because I love you.”

The way how he blocks the wind from her and lets it hit him instead at that exact moment is freaking PEAK writing.

That card showed me a lot more about this man who is so shackled by his own emotions and circumstance, that he's willing to sacrifice everything even his own wants and dreams for the one he loves.

Have you guys seen that one official art with Rosa posing as Themis? And the boys are represented by the objects around her? Luke is the sword, Artem is the balance, Vyn is the blindfold, and Marius is the snake by her leg.

It starts to make sense why Luke is holding onto her sword to the point of bleeding, he's bleeding yet he looks up to her in absolute devotion not caring for what happens to him and his eyes are only always on her. He’s willing to be her sword, to take all of the pain and protect her so she can be happy.

My life.. has not been what is considered “normal”. I'm not going to give my backstory in this post aHAHAH but at the time when I started Tears of Themis I was going through a very bad point in my life where I was close to have given up completely on my future and accepted my fate as it is. I had shut down completely, and I went back to becoming a shut-in which is honestly something I went through for four years before, it wasn't good.

When you reach that point, you start becoming apathetic to everything.

Luke however, somehow started making me start having emotions again. Reading and learning about this character was actually affecting me in a way I have not been affected in a long time. He felt.. real, like I could feel his emotions, his love, his despair.

And that's part of why I got so attached to him and he became my comfort, because of him, I started to feel human again.

AHA CRINGE. OK enough with the sadness.

But I'll never forget how much Luke and Tears of Themis helped me keep a grip during those hard months. I'm in a better place now, it's not good- but it's better, and I still just open this game and visit Luke to help me ground myself.

One time after a bad day I accidentally touched him and he said this, I went insane-

I think that says a lot about the state of my sanity AHAHAH

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[To be continued in reblog]

#tears of themis #luke pearce #xia yan #lukerosa #rant #my complete insanity has shown its head once again #I just— love him so much LOL

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lookbackmachine · 6 years ago

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Brink! Oral History

[music]

00:06 Speaker 1: What up, Cinema? It's Chad Goes Deep reporting live. Dudes, when I'm scooting the S walks, I'm often mistaken for one dude, Erik von Detten, or as I call him, The Bear. And guess what guys? I'm never insulted. He has great hair, and from the movie I'm convinced he uses a leave-in condish, which is a good move. The Bear, Erik von Detten, also known as The Bear, inspired me to rollerblade, which I mastered in six months culminating my career in a sick Royale grind. The whole school saw it. He also taught me the importance of soul skating and full lettuce underneath your helmet. Or as it is also known, flow. His 1998 masterpiece Brink! Served as a benchmark for my development as an alpha male with heart from the tricks to the sick burns.

00:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to win, but no matter what, win or lose, at the end of the day, I'm not you. So it's still a good day.

01:02 Speaker 1: I loved everything about this movie. My favorite part being when he chucks a chocolate shake in Val's grill. I copied that move when I was beefing with Dillon. It's over now. Alright, dudes. Now let's get down to Jake's script, which I've been told I have to read word for word. So this is going to be like a quasi-Chad Masterpiece Theater of sorts. Hope you guys enjoy.

[music]

01:55 Speaker 1: The Disney Channel began in 1983 like this. Goofy and Donald Duck costume characters were decked out in crisp white lab coats with their good friend, Donny Osmond, Beast. The ragtag crew was manning mission control to launch the signal to cable boxes around the country. The cost for the channel was less than $10 a month, and in six months they had 500,000 subscribers. Whoa, that's a lot.

[music]

02:19 Donny Osmond: And that as they say is just the beginning. In the months ahead you'll see more great movies for the whole family, more new shows that are fun to watch, easy on the eyes, and packed with the things that you want to know. The people at the Disney Channel want you to know that that's a promise, a commitment to bringing you and your family the kind of quality television you'll be glad to welcome into your home.

02:37 Speaker 4: All personnel, one minute to Disney Channel programming. Donny, will you start the audible count down, please?

02:45 Donny Osmond: Oh, you want me to start the countdown? Geez, this is an honor. [chuckle] Okay, we all set? All systems ready to go? Okay, you ready to roll programs in there? . Great, okay, here we go. Mickey Mouse, Earth station Mickey. Stand by to commence countdown.

03:04 Speaker 5: Mouse control, this is Earth station Mickey, you are cleared to commence countdown, Donny.

03:09 Donny Osmond: Here we go. Ready?

03:12 Speaker 1: The Disney Channel followed up their launch with their first made-for-TV movie, Tiger Town, starring Roy Scheider from Jaws. Not to be confused with Rob who was a gigolo.

03:23 Speaker 6: Roy Scheider, Justin Henry. In a special encore performance of Tiger Town.

03:31 Speaker 1: Dude, since then the Disney Channel has produced countless films for cable, but according to its official history, the first Disney Channel original movie or DCOM began with Under Wraps directed by Greg Beeman in 1997. Legend.

03:45 Speaker 7: The spirit of the mummy may be freed by the purity of the full moon and loosened to walk the earth.

03:51 Speaker 8: And he's walking your way on Disney.

03:54 Speaker 9: That's a mummy, cool!

03:56 Speaker 10: What are we going to call him?

03:57 Speaker 11: How about Harold?

03:58 Speaker 8: And it's up to these three kids to help him find his way back home.

04:02 Speaker 11: We don't have much time, right, Harold?

04:03 Speaker 8: Under Wraps tonight at eight-seven-central only on Disney Channel.

04:09 Speaker 1: Beeman would go on to direct a string of six Disney Channel Originals, but his most famous was On the Horizon. Hell yeah. In the '90s Disney had just purchased ESPN, and ESPN had just launched the X-Games, and inline skating was hip. Well, skating was much cooler but inline skating for Disney was pretty rad. And so, with its unique brand of synergy, the Disney Channel wanted an aggressive inline skating movie based on a children's story from 1865. I didn't know they had skating back then. And there's just one man to write it, Jeff Schechter. Not to be confused with Ryan Sheckler who skates.

04:46 Jeff Schechter: I always knew that I wanted to be a writer and thought I wanted to be a director too, and so I actually directed something and said, "This is way too much like real work." [chuckle] So I was like, "Yeah, I'm kind of happy to sit home in my pajamas and write something and be paid disproportionately well. I started working in editing in New York. I started for an apprentice sound editor and did it for about two years or so and read at that time a book by William Goldman. He's the guy who wrote Butch Cassidy, and Sundance Kid, and Marathon Man, and Princess Bride, and he wrote a book called Adventures in the Screen Trade, where he had all these different chapters. And there's a chapter on producers and a chapter on directors. And there was a chapter on LA. And the chapter began, and I'm paraphrasing, something along the lines of, "I find Los Angeles to be a dangerous and potentially very harmful place in which to live. And I recommend that anyone seriously considering a career as a screenwriter move there as soon as possible." [chuckle] So I read that and went, "I guess I'm going to LA." I threw everything I owned fit comfortably into a vehicle Sabre.

06:02 Jeff Schechter: And the big break came with the infamous Bloodsport II. It was a open writing assignment, I had written an action movie, the un-spec that the producer read and liked and he wanted to meet me to see if I was good for Bloodsport II. Basically, I quit my job about six months earlier, so I could just focus on writing. I had heard this principle that if you want full-time results, you have to do something full-time. If you do something part-time, you'll get part-time results. And it was true, I was writing part-time and working part-time, 'cause I needed the money. And I was getting, what I would consider, really good part-time results. Somebody would be interested in a script, they adapted it for a dollar. It was like part-time results. So embracing this, if you want full-time results, you got to do something full-time, I said, "Okay, I've got enough money for six months, and I'm just going to focus on writing for those six months."

07:00 Jeff Schechter: Worse case, I'm single, renting a cheap place. It's like, if it doesn't work, okay so I'll get another job. So literally, I was in month five and out of money, and I get a call from my agent saying, "This producer wants to meet with you." So I met with him, and it was just, there was no way I was not going to get that job. [chuckle] I was like, "I will do whatever it takes to get this job." I didn't say that to him, I didn't want to come off as desperate. I wanted to come off as confident, I guess. I had this good fortune. I'm from Brooklyn, and I've been in LA long enough for my broken accent to have diminished a little bit, so it comes out in bad ways [laughter] sometimes. But you put me in the room with people from New York and New Jersey, and it's like my old accent just bubbles up to the surface. As I go in to meet this guy, and then he's from New Jersey. He starts talking to me like this, and I immediately start talking to him back like this, and he was like, "Yeah, I really like your script, and we're talking." And every time he would say something like, "Yeah, well, I'm meeting with other writers." And I go, "No, no, there are no other writers." [chuckle] I turned into that guy. And then that happened two or three times in the meeting, and he wasn't put off by it, he actually liked it, because my people.

08:20 Jeff Schechter: So as soon as the interview was over, one of the jobs that I had been doing was I'd been working at a martial arts studio. And I had helped the Ester at the studio with a book on karate forms and stuff like that. So he had put a nice big picture of me in the front of the book thanking me for my help, and this is a picture of me doing this 12:00 side kick, which is something that I was able to do back then. [chuckle] If I do it now, I think I could do it one time, and then somebody has to carry me to the hospital. So I go, I race away from this producer's office, I go to the martial arts studio and say, "Master Cho, can I have a copy of that book?" So he gives me a copy of the book, and this is going to sound worse than it is, but it was really the only place where in the picture where there was room for me to write this. But basically, a 12:00 sidekick is one leg is on the floor and the other one is high over your head. And in that gap between my legs, [chuckle] oh my God, why am I telling you this. In that gap between my legs, I wrote, "There are no other writers." And I ran it back to his office and gave it to his assistant who gave it to him, and I got the job.

[laughter]

09:33 Jeff Schechter: I don't think I got the job solely because of my aggressive attitude, or [chuckle] my controversial autographing of that picture for him, but the action script that he read was a martial arts script, and it was a good sample. So I had at least the material to back up my Brooklyn attitude. And then the writing of Bloodsport II was actually very easy, because I didn't have to write out... It's a gajillion fights, this person versus this person, and set this match, and this round. And basically, I just wrote X fights Y, as much as you need, which was an old trick from, I think there was this writer, Lee Bracket, who used to direct Westerns. And I remember reading somewhere that Lee was notorious for when you have this cowboys chasing other cowboys battle going on. It would be like, "Cowboy chase, as much as you need," because what's the point of writing it, if you're just going to get stunt coordinators, and production concerns, and where it's going to be shot. So why you putting in all these things that everyone's going to just toss out anyway? So for all these fights, there's these 20 fights or whatever, in Bloodsport II, I just wrote, basically, this person fights this person as much as you need. These movies are not dialogue heavy, [chuckle] so it was easy in a way.

[music]

11:04 Speaker 13: The Kumite fought like the world's most awesome fighters. The prize, a ceremonial sword. A sword that one man will steal.

11:18 Speaker 14: Steal from James, it'll be suicide!

11:21 Speaker 15: Don't tell me my business.

11:24 Speaker 13: Now, sentenced to a life in hell.

11:27 Speaker 16: Why are you in this prison?

11:28 Speaker 17: Sold at a value beyond riches. It was to have been awarded to the greatest fighter on earth.

11:35 Speaker 13: His sword is rescued.

11:38 Speaker 18: If you wish to learn the Iron Hand...

11:40 Speaker 13: The ultimate lesson.

11:42 Speaker 19: I will show you.

11:43 Speaker 13: Is about to begin.

11:45 Speaker 19: Force is not the answer. It will break inside of you. Wear it as inside, it will never break. It is not about winning. It is about finding oneself.

12:00 Speaker 13: Because what he has stolen is a chance.

12:03 S?: What do you think all this is going to cost me to have the sword returned?

12:07 S?: One million American dollars.

12:08 S?: That's your price for your freedom.

12:10 Speaker 13: The prison that holds him is a path.

12:12 S?: It is a spiritual event.

12:15 S?: The Kumite.

12:16 Speaker 13: And the challenge that faces him is a war.

12:28 S?: You and me, soon just me.

12:33 S?: His arms are like cement.

12:35 Speaker 13: The world's greatest martial arts masters are facing the ultimate challenge. Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite.

12:52 Jeff Schechter: So I started off writing these action movies. I was just newly married, and we didn't have a kid, and I'm wanted to do something more family film friendly, so I wrote a spec script about a kid and a baby elephant, an action-adventure comedy family thing, and it attracted the attention of Warner Brothers, which hired me to do a production polish on a kid and baby panda movie called Amazing Panda Adventure. Right around that time I sold a big spec screenplay, so now I was on the Disney radar a bit, and they had another rewrite for a movie called I'll Be Home For Christmas with Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I did my work on that script, and then just one day I was on the lot, so I just stopped in at the office of the producer who was working on I'll Be Home For Christmas. And we're just talking, I said, "Hey, so what have you got going on?" He said, "Oh, we've got this thing, a TV movie for the Disney channel, I don't know if that's something you'd be interested in." I said, "Yeah, sure, why not? I'm between jobs right now." That was Brink! It was an adaptation of the Hans Brinker story.

14:04 Speaker 1: Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates, was written by Mary Mapes Dodge, an American author who became obsessed with Dutch culture to the point where she would ask everyone she knew for them to recall anything they knew about the land. With Motley's history of the Netherlands as her load star, she wrote Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates as a way of ridding American children of their prejudices against the Dutch, who I'm guessing were very anti-Dutch. Weird. The book was a massive hit and is still considered a classic. The book was a massive hit then, and is still considered a classic. For sure. For this piece, I've gone ahead and hired my British friend Buttersworth, my dog. He's going to read this brief section to give you guys a feel for the novel. Please enjoy.

14:47 Buttersworth: Thank you, Chad. Meanwhile, with many a vigorous puff and pull, the brother and sister, for which they were, seemed to be fastening something to their feet. Not skates, certainly, but clumsy pieces of wood, narrowed and smoothed at their lower edge and pierced with holes, through which there were threaded strings of raw hide. These queer-looking affairs had been made by the boy Hans. His mother was a poor peasant woman, too poor to even think of such a thing as buying skates for her little ones. Rough as they were, they had afforded the children many a happy hour upon the ice, and now, as with cold red fingers, our young Hollanders tugged at the strings, their solemn faces bending closely over their knees. No vision of impossible iron runners came to dull the satisfaction glowing within. Chad, I just want to thank you for having me here today. It's been one of the great honours of my life. Good luck and goodnight.

15:58 Speaker 1: Alright, thank you, Butters. So guys, that's the gist of the story, and almost 80 years after it was written, The Walt Disney Company adapted it into a television movie for The Wonderful World of Disney, in 1962.

[music]

16:31 Speaker 21: Hans Brinker was a Dutch boy who lived in a small village by the Zuiderzee. His story takes place about a hundred years ago. In those days, Holland had all the quaint characteristics we have come to think of as typically Dutch. All the charm and the beauty captured and passed on to us in the paintings of the great Dutch Masters, such as Vermeer, Ruisdael, and Rembrandt. Here in the fishing village of our story, the men pursued their livelihood on the sea for six hard-working days each week. But on the seventh, they took their folks to church. And that is where they'd been on a particular Sunday in Spring when our story begins. Among the good burghers on their way home from Sunday Mass was a humble family of fisher folk, called Brinker.

17:25 Speaker 22: What a wonderful day for a sail.

17:28 Speaker 23: On Sunday?

17:29 Speaker 22: Why not? We've been to church.

17:30 Speaker 24: We can go to the coast and have a picnic.

17:32 Speaker 25: Please, mother.

17:34 Speaker 23: Alright, I'll take a basket lunch.

17:36 S?: May I invite Inga Landgre?

17:38 S?: Of course.

17:42 S?: Do you think the burger master will approve?

17:44 S?: Why shouldn't he?

17:48 Speaker 1: Fast forward 36 years and we arrive at Andy 'Brink' Brinker played with glorious glee by Eric von Detten, The Bear. He is a bear. In the updated version of Hans Brinker, Brink and Team Pup-N-Suds are in the junior X-Games against the dastardly sponsored team X-Bladz headed by Val. A quintessential douche. It's a battle between soul skating and corporate greed. Something I struggle with daily.

18:14 Jeff Schechter: I looked at the book, the source material and said, "Okay, what are these elements that I think were going to make a compelling contemporary drama?" Sort of the hook was it's the Hanz Brinker story but with roller-blades, so that much we knew, so I said okay, what's the world today? There's skating, there's competition, it's X-Games, you know, what's the family dynamic? Well, Hanz Brinker had an injured father, so we gave Brink an injured father, so I said okay, what does that look like? Well, there's going to be obviously stress in the family, and there's probably money problems, of course, the father's going to have to get well at the end because it's Disney. And we know Brink is going to win the event, so it's probably some sort of tournament. So it's like just looking at the source material and saying what's still resonating today? And then saying where would that fall in to the structure of a well told story? Everything just laid itself out pretty nicely. As I recall, it was a pretty easy process writing the script. The internet hadn't quite exploded then. I guess I wrote this in '97 or so, so I had internet. It was really slow and pokey and very text based, so there wasn't a lot to research online, but there were a bunch of skinny magazines and skate shops who were all selling these videos that people were making of aggressive inline skating, so I bought a bunch of the videos and did my research that way.

19:50 S?: Hey check it out. Jerk weeds at 2 o'clock.

19:53 S?: Hi ya, children.

19:55 S?: Excuse me, but I believe we out-skated your sorry butts yesterday, old man.

20:00 S?: Anytime you want to go at it again...

20:02 S?: Cut it out.

20:02 S?: Guess you heard about Boomer?

20:08 S?: Yeah. How long's he got to be out?

20:10 S?: A couple of weeks. For sure he's out of the invitational. Means there's an open spot on the team.

20:19 S?: Yeah right. Like we're going to try out for Team X-Bladz.

20:22 S?: Like any of you have the talent. I'm telling you so that you garments know you're not invited.

20:29 S?: Good you told us. Now beat it.

20:33 S?: You don't get it do you? Being a sponsored skater is cool. I get all the newest gear whenever I need it. I get my picture in every skating magazine on the planet.

20:44 S?: Oh, now I'm nauseous.

20:47 S?: And I make a lot of money. Just think about that. Being known as the best, but the pay at the same time. What could be sweeter?

21:04 S?: Hey, look. We don't care about any of that stuff. We skate for fun. We're soul skaters, right Brink?

21:15 S?: Right.

21:16 S?: Yeah, right. Why is it that the losers always say they're in it for fun? Come on.

21:25 S?: Could you believe that guy?

21:29 S?: Skating for money.

21:31 S?: Sell out.

21:33 S?: Okay guys, we did it. We came this far, and I'm not going to let you guys down, you hear me? Just remember one thing, win or lose, skating is what we do, not who we are.

21:47 S?: Man, that was like deep.

21:48 Jeff Schechter: There was a couple... There were a couple of moments that I really responded to, and there was one line that kind of changed at the last minute, and it was a little... I'm kind of happy it changed. I'll tell you, it was when Brink is talking to Gabriella after she's injured, she goes over to the house and she's all mad at him, and he says, "Look, I'm really sorry, I was just doing it for the money. I needed the money." She was like, "We all need money," and then she goes, "And that's how it starts. First you do something you love, then you do it for money, and then you're an adult like everybody else." But then, the line got changed to you do something for love, and do it for money, and then you're just a sell-out, right? But there was something kind of pointed about by trying to hold on to your youth by don't worry about the money dude, just do those things that are exciting to you and that you love to do, and don't grow up too soon Brink, was really kind of the message. But I changed that... I don't know, I felt like I was slamming adults or something like that. I don't remember if I took it upon myself to change it or if that was a note.

22:57 S?: Gabby, I'm really sorry. I honestly didn't think anyone would get a hurt.

23:15 S?: And I guess for once, you didn't think of everything.

23:19 S?: But Gab, you got to understand.

23:22 S?: You were the one who told me about soul skating, about skating from the heart, and only skating for the love of it. And I believed you because you were my friend.

23:36 S?: But it was only going to be for a little while. My family really needed the money.

23:42 S?: We all need the money, Brink. What does that have to do with it? That's how it starts, you know? First, you do something that you really love, and then you start doing it for the money, and before you know it, you're just another sell-out.

24:17 Jeff Schechter: So, I really liked that line, and then I had this other line delivered by Brink's father to Brink. Which is, you know, when he tells Brink that the measure of a person is who your friends are and how well you keep them.

24:35 S?: I didn't listen to you, dad. I tried out for the sponsor team.

24:42 S?: When I told you no?

24:46 S?: We needed the money.

24:57 S?: Not so bad buddy, that we needed you to disobey us.

25:03 S?: I know. I guess it wasn't just for the money either. I wanted to be a part of Team X-Bladz. I wanted to have my picture in every magazine. I wanted to be a somebody. I don't know if you get that.

25:31 S?: You know, you and me, we're a lot alike. I used to love being a construction foreman. [chuckle] "Hi, how you doing? I'm Ralph Brinker, I'm the construction foreman." I used to love saying that. People looked up to me. Then I got injured. Suddenly, no more construction foreman. You want to know the worst part about being on disability? I didn't know who I was anymore. I used to define myself by my job title. But you want to know something? After being laid off for six months, I finally figured out that construction foreman is what I do, not who I am. Andy, you are defined by the company you keep and how well you keep it, not by what you just happen to do. And kids who skate, come on, California, they're filthy with them. You, you are Andy Brinker. You are a good son, and you are a good friend, who just happens to skate. And tomorrow, if you never skate again, you're still Andy Brinker.

27:23 Jeff Schechter: The script was just a lot of fun. I don't want to sound immodest, I've written plenty of stuff where you read it and you scratch your head and you go, "This guy's a professional? [chuckle] The story's too convoluted," or whatever. But Brink was just... It was just a good, fun read. It was fun kids with welcoming personalities, and occasionally they would say something fun and the family dynamic was fun. It just was a painless, whatever 100 pages. And I remember before I turned anything in, it's always like you would proofread it three to four times. And I remember going back through Brink and after like the third or fourth time reading it, going, "Even though I wrote this, I'm still not tired of reading it." So I was like, "Okay, I hope... Maybe people won't like it, maybe it won't get approved by the studio. If it is, it's for some other reason, because this is a fine read." And they were very welcoming to the script, they really liked it, and yeah, went into production really, really quickly. The director, Greg Beeman, was very faithful to the script. Greg was my hero, he was really respectful of the written word and did the absolute utmost to make sure that that was reflected on the screen.

28:46 Speaker 1: The film had its writer, now all we needed was a director. Greg Beeman, director of Brink!

28:55 Greg Beeman: I originally wanted to be a comic book artist, that was my dream when I was like 15. And then a movie called Star Wars came out, and kind of the night that I saw it in the theatres, I didn't know what a director was, but I knew that I had to do that. Then, mostly through naivete, and not realizing that what I wanted to do was hard, I found out where George Lucas went to college and went to film school, and I was like, "I got to go there," so I went to USC film school and sort of like ever since I was 15 years old, I've been focused on being a director. So I went to USC and I made some student films, and one of them won some awards. And it wasn't instantaneous, it was like a long, slow, slugging away, but I have never had any other idea, ultimately, that's my big secret. So I'm stuck with being a filmmaker and being a director. So coming right out of film school, I got a few writing jobs, and then I also directed a couple of music videos. But then the first thing I ever did, I think I was just like 22 years old, I directed a, at that time they had something called the Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights. So I directed two two-hour movies. And then the first movie I ever did was called 'License to Drive' with Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, and I think I was like 26 years old when I directed that.

30:08 Greg Beeman: At that time in the early '80s, and Michael Eisner had just come over and been the president of Disney, and Jeffrey Katzenberg was his second-in-command, they were newly there. So I think at that moment in history, they were looking for... The industry was kind of looking for film students, because I think the other thing that was happening in the world was the teen comedies were really big, and John Hughes' movies were really big, and I think there was a sense in the industry that if we get young filmmakers, they'll have more connection to teen material. So I think in some ways, that was my big break. In retrospect, I was exceedingly naive, but I wasn't also overly confident, but I just felt like it was normal to be doing this. I don't remember feeling incredibly nervous, even when I got relatively big opportunities, I just felt like this is what I wanted to be doing, and this is what I was going to do. It takes a little bit of a couple failures, which happened later before you actually can lose your confidence, which did eventually happen to me. The big one was Mom and Dad Save the World. So that movie took a long... It was held up from release for a couple of years, and then when it came out, it was a dismal failure.

31:14 S?: Finally, in motion pictures, that asks the age-old question, "Is there intelligent life in the universe?"

31:21 S?: You're welcome.

31:22 S?: The answer, is no.

31:26 S?: Doors.

31:28 S?: Teri Garr, Jeffrey Jones, Jon Lovitz, Kathy Ireland, and Eric Idle. Mom and Dad Save the World.

31:36 S?: You're a cute little fella.

31:39 S?: Directed by Greg Beeman. 'Mom and Dad Save the World', the film which opened nationwide on over 1,000 screens. The film the daily news said had broader laughs than Bill and Teds, and called it funny family fair like "Honey I Blew Up the Kid". Mom and Dad Save the World, now being released on home video with special foil packaging, and with each three bag you order, get 100 Mom and Dad Save the World recycle plastic bags to give out to your best rental customers. Mom and Dad Save the World.

32:15 Greg Beeman: And then I was kind of like out of the business, no one would hire me, my agents wouldn't return my phone calls. I think in the life lesson, if I've done anything right, which is the same as I had no better ideas as I just never quit. A handful of people that I went to film school with are still in the business and slugging it away, and still working and doing good with their own ups and downs. But I would say the bulk of people that I graduated with, in 1983 or '84, most of them are not around anymore. I didn't quit, which would have been the reasonable thing to do, so I eventually got a chance to direct TV, and I got a chance to direct a TV show called "The Wonder Years". That was the beginning of doing TV, which is almost exclusively what I've stuck with ever since then, and TV's been a good medium for me. I ended up having, for about seven or eight years, a very happy relationship with the Disney Channel. I got a chance to direct a Disney Channel movie called Under Wraps.

[pause]

33:30 Greg Beeman: Once I proved myself with Under Wraps, and once Under Wraps was a movie that they were really happy with, they started to just give me an enormous amount of freedom. It came onto my radar as basically a finished script. They had, I think Jeff Scheckter had originally pitched a version that was based on Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, and I think he originally wrote a draft that was much closer to the original Dutch story, that I'm not that familiar with. X-Games and inline roller skating was just coming into the culture at that moment in history, and I think they had him kind of re-tool it. You know, the Disney Channel movies are a little more like how features are, once the script is finished, the director comes on board. And I think things were pushed pretty tight, I don't remember... I kind of remember I got the script and we went and made the script. I didn't do a significant amount of re-writing on it, there was a few things. Mostly we just went and made it.

34:21 Greg Beeman: It's one of the few experiences in my life where I just felt like I had an adequate amount of time to make the show. I think we shot for 24 days, which is an enormous amount of time for an hour and a half movie of the week. Usually, these days you might get 14 days or 15 days. It was hard. It was set in Los Angeles, and we filmed all up and down the coast, and mostly in Venice Beach and I also had my world record for most set-ups in a day. Every time you do a separate shot, and move on and then you move on to do another shot. I don't count how many set ups I do a day, as necessarily whether I'm doing well or not, but there was one day that I did 107 set-ups up in one day. A normal amount is like 30, 25 or 30.

[chuckle]

35:03 Greg Beeman: So that's the thing. There was another one of the competitions. I just remember going like... There was a big competition and we set up all these different ramps and stuff on the beach in Venice, north of Venice. I just remember about two thirds of the way through the day, I just kind of finished the acting scenes, but there was no way I was ever going to finish all the action, and I remember just being in dismay, like, "We're never going to make this day, we're never going to make this day." And my VP, who was from New Zealand, goes, "Yeah, give me your camera, mate. I'll go get some shots for you." This guy named Ernie Orsatti, who was the stunt coordinator, was like, "Give me your camera, I'll go get some shots." And I was like, "Okay, I'll go get some shots." So I grabbed five skaters, Ernie grabbed five skaters, and Rodney Charters grabbed like five skaters, and we just went off. [chuckle] And we had like six cameras and we just started doing shots, like, "Okay, you skate, go, roll, and jump, and do a twist and back spin, do a 180." So we just started getting shots, and shots, and shots, and shots, and shots, and at the end of the night, I had done 107 set-ups, which is still my personal best.

35:57 Greg Beeman: First off, let me talk about how the team I put together. So I mentioned that there was Bernie Caulfield. She was given to me by the Disney Channel. Did she do Under Wraps? Yeah, she'd done Under Wraps, so it was my second time working with her. And she brought the production designer on, who was great. I brought a cinematographer named Rodney Charters, who I'd worked with on Nash Bridges, and he was great. And in some ways, I think the secret weapon was there was a woman that I was friends with in film school named Lee Haxall. She'd been a post-production supervisor, but she was just transitioning into editor, and I knew how talented she was. So I kind of think Lee was the secret weapon of that show, because I shot a lot of film, just by nature. You know, there was just so much action, so many scenes and so many competitions, and Lee masterfully cut that show... And I will say in the course of... I told you I've had a 35-year career, I would say in my whole life, maybe there's four occasions and only two editors who ever show me the first cut, and I think, "Oh my God, that's better than I imagined."

36:53 Greg Beeman: Billy Wilder's famous quote is, "Your movie is never as good as your dailies, and it's never as bad as your first cut." Usually, the first cut that the editor gives you is like this disappointment where you go like, "Oh my God, I thought I knew what I was doing. Oh no, I'm in trouble." Like there... It's almost always a disappointment. But Lee's first cut of Brink was like on point, she just killed it. The way she put that film together and the way she cut all the music. The other thing about that movie, and you can hear I'm getting excited talking about it, it was a movie that I stayed with it from beginning to end. The kind of the way you do with a feature film, but which most people don't do in TV. You know, like I said, the script was pretty much 90% of the way there by the time I was given it, but I stayed all the way through post, like I stayed all the way through music, I was at the music recording sessions. In fact, it was the very early days of electronic and music, and there was a piece of music that we were trying to copy, and there was a part where I kind of imitate an old, southern preacher and I go, "You got to know yourself." So, in this downhill race, there's this throbbing beat with this guitar solo, and my voice is in there like as a kind of old southern preacher, and...

38:02 S?: Most skaters just flying down the course, neck-and-neck. This is the section in the course where the top speeds will be reached. Both totally in a tuck, whoever can be the most aerodynamic is going to start to pull away. 42,5 miles per hour. That is a new course record.

[music]

38:46 Greg Beeman: I really feel that Brink was very directed from beginning to end, because I was there from the minute I got the script to the time that we delivered it to air. I was involved in the color timing, I was involved in the music, I was involved in the sound effects mixing, and I really cared about that movie, and I put everything into it. In a weird way, as much as it was a Disney channel movie, I think we were doing some innovative stuff. And again, I got to credit the Disney channel people who didn't come at me with a lot of, "It has to be this. It has to fit into that box." They knew that it was kind of... They knew that the subject matter was kind of cutting edge at the moment. Like I said, rollerblading, and I think the X-Games had occurred twice, I think that there had been two X-Games, and it was a brand new thing. I don't know that I even consciously thought of it, but my approach, artistically, was to make it very raw, relatively raw, for a Disney channel movie. And they supported that. It didn't need to be presentationally too sedate.

39:38 Greg Beeman: And then the other thing that I think really happened... So besides the fact that I just got kind of a dream crew that worked in great harmony with each other, we also got the best skaters in the world. Because the X-Games was a brand new thing, and because at least rollerbladers at that moment in time had not got a lot of commercial promotions or sponsorships, we got literally the best skaters in the world as our stunt doubles, right? The people who were stunt doubling the cast were like world class X-Games skaters, and the stuff those guys could do was just crazy. I will say another funny thing that I always remember about the skaters. They were a different breed, right? Because the stuntmen have their own aesthetic, and I work with the stuntmen all the time, but when the stuntmen... If a stuntman wrecks or wipes out or gets hurt, God forbid, but it does happen, all the other stuntmen circle them, and the medic comes over, and everyone there is very quiet. And then when they get up, it's kind of like on a football game, and then everyone applauds... [chuckle]

40:38 Greg Beeman: Well, when the X-Blade guys, when they would wreck, like if someone went flying off the edge of a ramp and just crashed 15 feet to the ground, all the other guys would just look the other way, like it didn't happen, and the person would pick themselves up as best they could and run around the corner and hide. [chuckle] That was their aesthetic. If they got injured, they had to go off by themselves and suffer and work it out. The rest of their team just pretended like it never happened. And I just thought that was pretty funny.

41:07 Speaker 1: So, they cast The Bear, which if you didn't know, is Erik von Detten's nickname. Nice. Erik told Romper that he asked his mom what would happen if he got into acting. She said, "You wouldn't be able to go to school anymore." And then he said, "Sign me up." Good story. Von Detten became a Disney mainstay, appearing in Toy Story as Sid, Lawson on Recess, and Escape to Witch Mountain in 1995. But now, he was taking on his iconic turn as Andy 'Brink' Brinker, The Bear. Which is his nickname.

41:38 Greg Beeman: And Erik was someone who was kind of a star at the time, from the Disney Channel point of view, so I think he did audition but he kind of, the job was his to screw up, basically. Everyone at Disney Channel was excited for him. But I would say that the rest of the cast was pretty much brand new people. And after Erik, though, it was all a bunch of new people, right, who didn't have a lot of credits, and so it was just the vibe of people who came in and auditioned and felt right for the part, right.

42:07 Jeff Schechter: It's funny, I had some reservations 'cause the production company showed me the casting. Yeah, when I saw Erik von Detten, I was... I'd always imagined the kids in Brink seemed younger. I thought they were like, 13-14, and this was more like 15-16. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but yeah, but if you look at Eric von Detten and Sam Horrigan, they look like they are older teens, and I was thinking that, "Oh, God, we're going to get into the Jay North syndrome here," which is, Jay North played Dennis the Menace on television. And he had all his, "Gosh, Mr. Wilson," like his annoying kid stuff. And so, but Dennis the Menace ran too long. So when Jay North was 10 and doing that and saying those lines, it was cute. When he's 15 and saying those lines, you're going, "Ooh, this kid needs help." [laughter] It's not cute anymore, it's disturbing. So I was concerned that because I wrote it feeling very young and enthusiastic, that casting these older kids would be like, "Uh, this is just creepy." But it did not come to pass. The cast delivered the lines, and they turned what would have been awkward in the chore stuff into just useful exuberance.

43:29 S?: Hey, Gabriella. Ever get arrested for impersonating a boy?

43:34 S?: No. You?

[laughter]

43:36 S?: Yo, guys. What up?

43:39 S?: Uh... Lateness?

43:39 S?: Dude, choreness! My mom made me clean my room before I could leave.

43:43 S?: Fine, but we missed the bus. Now we're going to be late and have to wait to use the pit.

43:46 S?: I don't think so! Haha!

43:51 S?: Wait, wait, wait. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You're not thinking about skating to the beach, are you?

43:55 S?: Why not, Jordy?

43:56 S?: Well, guys, it's like a million miles away!

44:00 S?: Ah, Jordy, Jordy, Jordy! When you woke up this morning, did you say to yourself, "Today I'm going to talk or today I'm going to skate?"

44:07 S?: Yo, what's up, fam?

44:09 S?: It's just not normal, that's all.

44:11 S?: Ralph, please.

44:13 S?: No one should be that happy all the time.

44:15 S?: What's the matter with being happy? He's a great kid!

44:18 S?: It's just not normal.

44:19 S?: Yo, let the games begin!

44:21 S?: Then why don't you wear something that doesn't look like somebody just let the air out of it?

44:25 S?: Dad, kids at school are down with this style.

44:27 S?: What's for lunch today, dad?

44:28 S?: What's your least favorite?

44:30 S?: Bologna on white with extra mayo.

44:32 S?: That's what I made for you!

44:33 S?: Oh, yeah. Peace out!

44:37 S?: No, that's not it.

44:38 S?: You know what your problem is? You're just no fun to skate with. You got beef with me, you take it up with me Sunday at the championship.

44:48 S?: Oh, we'll get it on for sure.

44:53 S?: Did you really throw that vanilla shake in Val's face?

44:57 S?: Chocolate.

45:01 S?: How did it feel?

45:02 S?: It was cool. And it was so [45:04] ____. [chuckle]

45:09 Greg Beeman: I guess I like that one where he goes, "What are you doing in the bathroom?" "Noneya!" "Noneya? What is noneya?" "Noneya business!" I thought that was so stupid. I don't know. I know. Noneya business. I know, it's so lame. It starts like a dad joke.

45:25 S?: We got more stuff now than when you left. What's in the bag?

45:31 S?: Noneya.

45:33 S?: Noneya?

45:35 S?: Noneya business.

[chuckle]

45:41 Greg Beeman: You know, ironically, Schechter and I didn't spend a ton of time together. We had a couple of meetings. And he was on set a few days. But as I said, the script was mostly finished. I think, I maybe gave one or two rounds of notes. And actually, I do have... It's kind of like, I'll be teasing him, but I think it's okay. [laughter] He wrote this one thing, that to me, is like still this famous story in my personal history, where there was a scene that was about... I think it took up about one-third of a page. And the one-third of a page effectively said this, "They show up at the competition. It is the biggest thing they've ever seen in their lives. They're overwhelmed, but they skate their hearts out against the fiercest competition they've ever met and win the day."

46:26 Greg Beeman: And then I remember, just like Schechter going like, "Dude, that's a minimum of one day of filming. You can't write a third of a page that's going to take me a day to film. Whatever you do, I don't care, you don't have to add any extra words. You just have to space this out, so it takes up at least a page, or a page and a half." [laughter] You can't just go, "They faced the stiffest competition of their life and win the day." [chuckle] That was the competition in the middle when Brink is skating for the X-Bladders and his friends turn on him. I was fine that that's all he wrote, but the film business is gauged on how many pages you shoot per day. [laughter] So if you only write a third of a page, and it takes me two days to shoot it, I need you to write more pages. Take the same amount of words and put more spaces. [laughter] It's funny.

47:15 Greg Beeman: All my memories of that show are good. I remember it being very hard. It was just hard to get all the shots we needed. There was a lot of pretty cool shots in that movie too, just in terms of set-ups and camera work. We were on a motorcycle. We just had a low mount on the front of the motorcycle. And the thing that I did, which I actually kind of ran and personally placed, I placed all these orange cones in the foreground. And then there were two skaters, Chris Sayer and Laura Lee Connery were going down this hill in Long Beach. And I think they were going about 40 miles an hour. They just tucked, and they went so fricking fast. And then at the bottom of the hill, there was this gigantic pit, like a balloon pit that we laid out.

47:51 Greg Beeman: So they just went 40 miles an hour down the hill, and then their only option was just to bail out into this giant balloon. And the camera was just going so fast. And they were going so fast. And then the orange cones are just blurring through the foreground. It's one of my favorite shots I've ever done. And then the other shot that I remember just loving, it's when Brink and Val stare off at each other before the race. They just had a couple lines of dialogue, and the camera's circling them on a super low Steadicam. The camera was super low, and I just circled them, and circled them, and circled them. And then, I did it again going in the other direction. It was always my intention to kind of jump cut that. But the way the camera is circling them and the jump cuts that happened... And after, Brink was like a, from their point of view, a big mega hit.

48:33 Greg Beeman: Because I know that 10 years later, I got a residual check, that was a check for about $5.45. But it was for the 600th re-run of Brink. And I was like, "Holy sheesh, Brink re-ran 600 times!" That movie used to play in the '90s over, and over, and over, and over, again. It was literally on, I think every day for a long time on the Disney Channel. Once Brink happened, the people at the Disney Channel just gave me a lot of... A lot of freedom. They would offer me all the scripts that they felt were their best scripts. And they would kind of like... I did have an enormous amount of freedom to make them the way I wanted to make them. And it was really fun. And I really got along with that group of people. I think it was just a really good relationship.

49:12 Greg Beeman: There was a women named Carol Rubin. There was a guy named Gary Marsh, who I think is still there. And then there was a guy named Michael Healy. Those were the three top executives. And I just really liked them, they liked me. After Brink they just gave me a lot... It's true that they didn't give everyone that kind of freedom, but they did give it to me. So that was great, it was a really great relationship. I used to do six or eight TV episodes every year, and then I'd do a Disney Channel movie every summer. That went on for six or seven years. I eventually made that movie called, "Miracle in Lane 2" for them, where I won the Directors Guild Award. That was another very successful movie. It was a really great time in my life where... Also at that time in my life, I had little kids. So my little kids were watching my movies and going to the sets of my movies. I felt really happy at that time in my life that I was making film that my kids could watch, and that I could be proud of.

50:05 Jeff Schechter: A couple of years later, they wanted to do "Brink 2" and that, there was some thought that that might go as a feature. But it neither went as a feature nor as a TV movie. The project just kind of went away. Because it was going to be a feature, they wanted to pitch it before writing the script. So we had worked out a whole pitch for what the story would be. And we went in and we pitched it to the executives at Disney Features. And then it kind of just dragged on as I recall, for a while. And then eventually, it just faded away as a project. I think, because what I heard, and I don't know if this is true, that they were developing at that time, something in the aggressive sports world, so I think they felt that they didn't want to have too many projects in that same familiar...

51:07 Jeff Schechter: No, I really don't remember. It's just probably, 18 years ago, 18 years and several hundreds of hours of film and TV writing behind it. I remember an idea got floated early on that Peter, Brink's friend, was hurt in a skating accident, and so something was like, they were skating to raise money to get him the operation that he needed. But I don't remember if that actually ended up in our finished... Here's what our story is.

51:43 Speaker 1: So guys, the Disney channel had a run of original movies that became cultural touchstones, like Johnny Tsunami, yes. Alley Cats Strike, [chuckle] nice. And Halloweentown, whoa, scary. And then the eclectic schedule seemed to fade away. Bummer.

51:58 Greg Beeman: I think it was just kind of happening. There was this woman that, as I said, named Carol Rubin, she was very passionate, and Michael Healy and Gary Marsh, they just were very passionate, and they started taking risks. I think they also felt the sort of sense of freedom to just take risks and not feel like they had to fit into a certain formula. You know then later came the monolith called High School Musical, and that broke the mold. After High School Musical, I was kind of not doing Disney Channel Movies anymore, but then I think I kind of look back in my own observation, is then suddenly there was a feeling of obligation to always repeat High School Musical. Before that, during the '90s when I was there, there was just a sense of like, "Do we have a great story?" Although it always had to be positive. They always had to be kind of colorful. There was certain obligations, but for the most part, I think they felt a certain freedom to just find a great story as long as it revolved around positive family values.

52:57 Greg Beeman: So I did a lot of different kinds of movies, like the Miracle in Lane 2 was like another... It was just a great script. Again, it was a script that was given to me kind of whole-cloth, it was finished. And when I read that, I was like, "This is one of the best scripts I've ever read." And it was written on spec by two Mennonites in Indiana about a kid with spina bifida who won the national soap box derby race. It was crazy. Who thought that would be a great script? But I loved that script. Yeah, and don't get me wrong, High School Musical is a great movie. I love it. All I'm saying is, I think, subsequent to High School Musical was the first time I think that suddenly there was a need to catch that lightning in a bottle again and again and again, whereas in the '90s, I don't think that was the driving force. The driving force was, "Is this a great story? Is this a unique story?" And so I just happened to be... I happened to be doing those movies at a time that suited me for sure.

[music]

54:23 Greg Beeman: You know what's been a really nice experience for me is that what's happening to me now is that young people who are coming into the film business, people who were like 22, 24, 26 year-old, 28-year-old PAs or assistants or actors, like, they loved that movie. It's funny. That movie was very, very important to... If you were 6-12, maybe to 14 years old, in 1997, you watched that movie a whole ton of times. And I was just working on a show called The Rookie, and there's an actor... I got to look up his name, Titus Makin. When he found out I directed that movie, he literally went like... He started shaking. He goes, "I saw that movie everyday of my life. It's the reason I skateboard. It's the reason I have a skateboard in my backpack right now." So that's kind of my new experiences that the people who are young people in the film business now, that it was a very important movie to them. And that makes me feel really good. Brink was, and continues to be one of the happiest experiences I've ever have. It was a really, that was just something where everything came together. Brink brought nothing but good into the world.

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