From Armenia to Prime Video: Winter Song’s Journey Towards Global Screens

0:00 Every single one of us is trying to get the Armenian community to understand if you want more voices like this, if you want our stories told, every single person has to show up for a movie like this. And we're not just our movie, just any movie there needs to be. We need to prove that there's a market for it and that people care for these types of stories. Sit back and grab a glass. It's Wine Talks with Paul K. Hey, welcome to Wine Talks with Paul Kay. And we are in studio today in beautiful Southern California, about to have a conversation with the crew of Winter Song, a great show that just came out. Introductions. Right now, we have with us Yvette Amirian, the editor of the show. Welcome to the show. Thank you. We have Annie Dashtoyen. Wow, that was good. Well done. You did great. Edgar Dalmatian and Arman Aloyan. You know, look, you think that I would have a better grasp of Armenian names after growing up in Armenian household, but I don't. So that's the way it goes. So, you know, here's what happened. We have this family chat, and my mom, my sister's a judge in San Diego, and she writes, I just saw the greatest rom com, which I didn't know what that meant. And she says, you have to put up. The whole family watched it, and they all chimed in how great it was. So my wife and I watched it that night. It's called a winter Song. And so tell me the impetus of this song for the audience and the listeners. It's about. It's sort of a Hallmark movie. Feel good,

1:33 but back to your roots kind of thing. And it's professionally produced, as we would say. You know, the. The production value is very high, but this is kind of a new thing for the Armenian community to be stepping their toe into it, putting their toe into how did this happen? What's the original impetus for it? So. So I'm Iette. I'm the editor of the movie. Armand's our composer. Annie's our producer. Edgar is also the lead actor of the film, and he and I were also producers on the film, in addition to our editing and acting roles, respectively. So the movie was written and directed by a woman named Angela Alsaturian. And she kind of, you know, surrounded herself with this group of individuals, this crew, this cast and crew, who were equally passionate about what her vision for the film was. Which was what? Wanting to showcase our culture for a wider audience through the lens of, you know, this universal coming home for the holidays kind of story. You know, we didn't want it to be specific to just Armenians. We wanted it to be something that, you know, even though it was independently produced, our goal was to help it land somewhere mainstream, which thankfully we were able to do. And the goal was really to showcase the Armenian culture, you know, through. You know, we're often portrayed through this very tragic lens, given our history. And so we wanted to really showcase it through this joyous lens of. Of what it means to be Armenian, what the country's like now, what it is to fall in love there, what it is to kind of come of age there in a

3:06 lot of ways. So that was the impetus. That's how the movie came about for me personally. Edgar had been cast in the film, and he brought me the script to read and I gave some feedback, and we just kind of had these conversations over the course of what, like, two years until they. Angela. Angela wrote it. Yeah. So let me stop you there for a second because I want to go back to this. It's a very important part of our culture is that tragic woe us, the Armenian misery, we've been through it all kind of thing. It's. It's kind of part of the DNA. Right. It's just part of what's going on. So what an interesting, inspirational thing to do to try to break out of that mold. Yeah. And put it in a more contemporary, you know, viewpoint from. From what's going on. Did that meet as a producer? Did that meet positive feelings, or did it. Were there? You know, I want to go back to this because I. I see this in the wine trade all the time. I really want to, you know, pound on. On who we were instead of who we could be. No, actually, that was kind of one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to be part of the project is because it had no trace of our tragic history, but it was more so of us looking forward. It's a young Diasporan who's, you know, wanting to go back and visit where her father was from. She's just lost her father. So it's the beauty of what our country could be and what it should be.

4:28 You know, the history is obviously very important, and we need to be aware of it and make sure it doesn't repeat itself as we've seen it, you know, happen multiple times. But I think it's important to also showcase what the country has. So we're not just. We're not. We're more than just our genocide. We have to look forward and see what more we can do. Now you had to go Shop this well. So I came onto the project after the fact and after the money was raised, which is. That's a little easier, doesn't it? Yeah, I was yes and no. I was on the studio side. I was at Warner brothers for nearly 15 years and I've never actually worked on an Armenia project. I know the rest of these guys had, but this was my first time and having read the script, I knew that it was something that it talked about our culture, but it wasn't hitting you on the head. You weren't feeling like it was a history lesson or you're trying to force culture down people's throat. It was just a feel good, happy movie and we were pretty confident in, you know, that the non Armenian community would show up for it. And the reception from that community has been pretty amazing. We did also we partnered with the Wonder project. It was pretty amazing how that even came up.

5:33 We saw a very vague posting, Yvette and I on LinkedIn and we just reached out and we made a connection and that's kind of how the movie got acquired as well because we knew that in order for someone to see the vision, they kind of had to understand the past as well. And Ani, being Armenian herself, she kind of, she saw the potential of this movie and which was pretty amazing. And a lot of our Ians and y which is so rare trade, you know, you think I'm going to a dinner few nights for Hair Kazanjian. Yeah, yeah. And this we're sort of buried. And who's the guy that produced some great movies? He's always at the scripter awards at usc.

6:14 I forgot his name. But you know, we're around. Right. And so in this being your first Armenia project is kind of interesting. So how did you get involved as an actor? Like did you do reading or did you have to respond to a, you know, backlot thing or what? So there was a hotel room. Kidding. I'm kidding. Yeah. I actually met the director just through a mutual friend. So I was the first one on this project and I, you know, she was a first time director so I wanted to help her with the process of it. I obviously have some experience in this industry so I wanted to be like a helping hand. So I kind of worked with her throughout the whole beginning and obviously entire process throughout the development of the film. So we kind of worked on the script and we like the.

6:58 A main purpose was to keep this, like you said, a very positive and light hearted movie. And we like made it a thing to not mention any genocide, anything on purpose, because we wanted to make that message of, let's make something positive. Let's have the other communities who are not Armenian see this movie and learn who Armenians are in this very positive light. So with that being said, I work with this crew sitting Tim by my side and also Muko, our cinematographer, very closely. So I recommend kind of all of them in their own right positions because I knew, like, this is the best people that I know who are the most talented that I know as well. So I knew that putting this crew around this movie was going to make this the best movie possible. That's great. You know, it's very funny because, yeah, we have that DNA issue about, you know, woe us and what the problems are, what we've been through. But at the same time, and I grew up in Los Angeles. I grew up at the beach, you know, surf cat, my day. There's always that guy that knew an Armenian guy growing up in the neighborhood, and he was a great guy. You know, there's always a great guy. There's always this gregarious person. My grandfather came from itap, and he was a gregarious guy. He was president of the Rotary Club in Hollywood, like in the 50s, you know, it's like, kind of crazy. So there's that. We have that, you know, that gregarious. I don't know what the word is, if it's happy be lucky or happy, go lucky type of attitude. But at the same time, we have a tragic story to tell. On the flip side, when

8:31 I was doing this interview in. In Italy, in the glass room, there was another group there from another side of the wine business. And they go, you're Armenian. You know, we used to have, and this is no joke, an Albanian secretary. And I was like. It was like the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It was at the same time, it was crazy. But I think it's a very important piece because we were talking about that the videos that we have coming out on the wine trade in the first cut that I got back, which the footage is great and you feel good about it, there was a duduk in the background. And from a music standpoint, that just. It like, brought down the whole thing, right? And when I told the director, she goes, oh, we're not allowed to use duduk music. This is the Armenian director. It was an American editor put it in and we took it out. It changes the whole thing.

9:24 How did you manage that with this show? When it came to making the soundtrack, very intentionally, Yvette did a great job like, mapping the whole thing out for me with, like, past soundtracks. And so it was like she already had, like, a great guideline, and we kind of went off of that. I intentionally didn't want to make it, like, crazy Armenian. We do have some, like, super Armenian pieces in the times where it feels traditional and, like, there's a scene where they go to, like, one of the oldest restaurants in that spot, like, Edgar's walking through. And you really feel the culture through the music. But overall, we still wanted to keep it, like, very romantic comedy style to stay true to the genre. And you said Duduk. I did use Duduk, but you wouldn't be able to tell unless I, like, soloed it for you, because I use it very transparently. Well, you didn't use it to bring down the old.

10:11 Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Duduk is known as being really sad, but it could be very cheerful if you use it, sprinkle it, you know? And that's kind of what we did. Well, I had a new player sitting where you guys are not too long ago on turning. He's on it. Okay. So when he sat. I had tried to play the hood growing up, and I have some beautiful Oods. But either he was able to show the diversity of those instruments just by the chord structure, how you play through. And I think the Dudik would probably have that same. Yeah. Versatility. If you give it a chance. For sure. So you said that there was four or five authentic scripts and scores from that, from the movie you wrote. And then some of the stuff was. Oh, so. No, no. Yeah. No, no. So we had used, like, pretty much. I think all the source tracks were Armenian. Were they by Armenian artists? For the most part, all the. What we call needle drops or, like, the lyric music was. We were really intentional in using Armenian artists.

11:14 So we had Rosalin. We had a band called Jinj. Savannah, from Jinj, we have Ruben Hakbertian, which is an older song. Saya Ravana, which was actually written into the. So there were a couple of songs that she had actually written into the script, and for the most part, we kept them as they were. Christa Marina, who plays the lead role, she also is a singer, so a couple of her tracks were kind of worked into the script, and thankfully, they worked really beautifully. So that was really nicely thought out. And executing it editorially was really fun to make it work. Like Armand said, I had temped the score part of it using old. We had used a combination of rom coms and things like that that we all really liked. And so that gave him a guide, but he really took that, obviously, and elevated it. And then, of course, bringing in Andranique and Ayda, who plays the Kannon, we had a beautiful session with them in Armand's studio, where we were able to put together one piece of the score that did heavily feature Armenian music.

12:17 But then they were able to give us some pieces that Armand was able to weave through the entirety of the score to kind of give it that sprinkling of Armenian without it being too over the top. So that was a. That was a nice balance. There were some sections where I kind of, like, looked to Armand and was like, should this be needle drop? Should these be score? What should we do here? So we experimented a lot to. To get the right balance, you know, producing something like this. In my limited experience, I was an extra, you know, during college. Nice. Oh, cool. Okay. Very professional. But I think the two shows I was in, I was cut out anyway. But you were there. But you have. You know, there's a lot of moving parts to this. And so in the grand scheme of producing a show like this, whether it's a miniseries or a movie or whatever, you've got a lot of moving parts. Is that your job was to organize those parts? You know, we actually worked really closely together, all of us, with Angela as well. Well, we. It was a lot of moving parts also because. Because it's an indie project and, you know, obviously a budget is a little bit more limited, and me coming from the studio side, it was a lot more where things I can just kind of hand off to coordinator or even like a music supervisor that we had to do was. It was. It was a big learning experience, but it was also pretty amazing to really. We all rolled up our sleeves. It was a very collaborative process. We were just constantly talking.

13:35 I think figuring out how to license all these songs were. I wouldn't say challenges, but I think it was a learning curve for all of us, you know, so, like, for example, Rosalind, she's with some pretty big labels. There are big publishers involved. So we were kind of wearing many different hats. We were, you know, music supervisors, post production supervisors. We did it all. And it was pretty amazing. It seems almost like, how do you get something done? Like, how does it even get done when you've got so many things to worry about? It was really interesting also, like, shooting in Armenia with a local crew there. Like, we're so used to American crews, local crews that are very different to work with. Like, the language is different, the. The way they Operate is different. Yeah, that's true. So that was a very interesting learning curve. Our cinematographer Muko, who has shot movies there, he's. He's, he's from there.

14:24 He knew kind of Leia Lance. So he, he helped us out a lot in terms of like navigating the day to day filming process of what it was, site, location, location scout, permission. A lot of that was Angela and one of our associate producers, Nona, who went out there I think the summer before this was all shot and securing a lot of those locations. We also work with a local production team. With a local production. That's what I was going to say. Yeah. So a lady by the name of Diana, her and Angela and Mago actually went and did all the location scouting and stuff like that. How about call sheets, all that stuff. We had like Thursday working this. That's. That's incredible. That's formidable. Formidable thing to do.

15:05 I didn't have all that when I went out there. Were there any political issues that happened or show up people? No, nobody objected. Actually, I would say it was the opposite. The country and the city really took us in. Like anytime we need any kind of permit, any location, it was given to us. There was never any trouble with that kind of stuff. So like they were very welcoming of this production coming in and shooting in some of the most historic places Armenia has to offer. So it was actually surprisingly amazing. So start to finish from let's say, let's say when you got the script the first time and you started to correct it to the time you showed. Were able to show the first screening. How long that take?

15:46 Three years. Yeah. You were on longer? Yeah, I got the script. Really? Yeah, I was like, yeah, I was the first one on three years. Yeah, basically. But I think from like almost three years. Almost three years active pre production, which I think started in summer of 2024, right? No, no, summer of 20. Summer of 2023 was when I got the script and then they shot it in the winter of 22, I think she was in Armenia. That's when you met her, in the summer of 2024? Yeah, summer 2024. And then we screened it for the first time at the Armenian Film Festival in September. September of last year. How long is the whole. I forgot how long. Oh, 85 minutes. The movie's 85 minutes. So on an 85 minute Hollywood project of this, let's say this storytelling magnitude, three years normal, long or short? That's pretty weird. It's pretty. I mean I've had been on projects that lasted four or five years.

16:38 So, you know, we shot this. Don't. Go ahead. It took us 20 days to shoot this movie. That's the part that was amazing. Yeah. Told me that it was even less than the month I thought it was. And that's. That's amazingly. And in the winter time, like, given our locations, like, driving to that mountain was not easy. So, like, there was a lot of obstacles we fought, like, for example, Mother Nature and just everything in general that, like, could have extended this, but as well as the roads in Armenia. That's what I'm saying. Like, which we can't really argue now because you've been on the 210 freeway, those roads. But, yeah, all those. Those historic areas of Armenia, they're not close. Destiny, right? Exactly. And you got a place to go. I mean, and these guys were, you know, on top of mountain, dancing and running around, and it was pretty. You guys did such an amazing job at that. Because when we got to the mountain, I looked cold. Just watching it. I got cold. We got to the mountain and the equipment was put on a ski lift to go up to the actual mountain. Wow. Yeah. So that was really. I've been on that ski lift. Because we got there, we're like, yeah, I'm not sure.

17:40 In case it's over. Yeah, yeah. No, we had. I mean, that. I think that just speaks to, you know, we had this amazing crew there. Like I said, like Edgar mentioned, McGo was sort of spearheading this, the camera department to be able to pull this all together. And there were a lot of those. Those challenges, but especially for me, having watched all the footage, you know, I can see how they were navigating all that. And it was really, really well done, really professionally done. And I think that's one of the goals with the film as a whole, for all of us involved, from the director to, you know, like, me in post, is we want there to be more productions there. We want to be able to showcase. Exactly to your point, like, oh, this is really professionally put together. We want people to see that and say, well, maybe Armenia is a potential shooting location for whatever this feature is that I want to do.

18:27 We want it to be able to compete with some of these other locations that are being utilized when people need, you know, these. A different type of landscape than you would find, let's say, here in la, not just shoot, but also record music. Record music. We originally had planned to record the whole soundtrack there, but budget and time didn't allow for that. But people pay serious money like to go to Abbey Road because of the space. Some of the churches in Armenia, if you get some musicians in there, it'll create this totally unreal sound. And so I think if you make that available to Hollywood, it'll be a very sought after sound. Hollywood. Just. Did you go to, did you go to the op? Did you, Were you guys in the Opera House? We, we didn't.

19:07 Well, she and I were not there, but they. We did, we did film in front of the opera house. We did, yeah, we did. I think we seen if I remember that. Yeah, there was little montage scene. So, you know, this is interesting for me because I'm working on a bunch of stuff and obviously the industry is in a different state now. The wine trade, which I came from, is in a terrible state. And maybe because it's transitional, because of Gen Z does business differently, maybe because, you know, the way people consume media is completely different than it's ever been. You got micro dramas on your portable phone. I mean, did you guys consider this a big risk to try and pull this off or was the money, was the production costs not happily given, but given with the sense of Armenian pride to do this?

19:55 Sorry, go ahead. No, you're wrong. No, I think with any production there's pressure. You want to make sure that it lands in the right place. And like Annie said, we were very intentional, exploring every opportunity that we could. And when we were able to partner with the Wonder Project, that felt like the right fit because they, I think they had the film's best interest at heart. They wanted to make sure that it was given the kind of platform that it, that it deserved. I think for us as Armenians, it was more than just about, you know, the monetary value of it. The significance was we wanted to make sure that A, it was a beautiful film, B, it was something that Armenians could be proud of. And of course the primary thing was wanting to make sure that it reached a wider audience. And so getting it onto a platform like Wonder Project where, where this is now streaming exclusively on Prime Video, you can't watch it anywhere else unless you come to like a private screening or something like that that we're hosting. It's available to everyone here in the US to watch. And that's a, for me, that's a big deal. And I think that's a really big goal that was accomplished and I think we're all really proud of that. That's one of the things that's changed, right? You can, you can get on a platform, but who knows about it, right? So now we gotta tell people. We could have just put it up on YouTube and charged like 3.99 and that's how people would watch it.

21:15 But it was really important for us to make sure it's on a well known streamer. And that way you can have people just happening across, you know, the. The title. Because right now I think it's really difficult to have a movie sold or acquired if you don't have either a massive director or massive actor that every single person knows. So we really knew we were kind of fighting up against that. While amazing actors who are very talented, you know, they're. But we don't have. He's sitting right next to you. He's sitting right here. How many times are you gonna say? A few more times. But we don't have Brad Pitt. We don't have a George Clooney a name. But he will give him like, give him another couple years and he will be up there. But that was something we were also, you know, we knew that was going to be something we would have to fight against. So it was really important to partner with a streamer who saw the vision like we did. It's an important piece of what you do. I mean, we know acting. Getting jobs is tough. And I do belong to one or two of this things as a voiceover guy and it's just hard work.

22:19 And so this must have been kind of a. Not a relief, but an opportunity that you thought, wow, I get to do two things at once. I get to get a job. And I also now can tell some stories. Absolutely. I mean, just, I love the genre of rom coms. I think it's a lot of fun. It's always like a feel good movie to watch. But also being in one is a lot of fun as well. Also being a lead is also very tough to ever book as an actor, let alone get one line on a TV show. So obviously I jumped at this opportunity and I wanted to bring my friends along as well. So, you know, a part of that is the camaraderie of working together and building something that you can keep moving forward with. But also, like, I trust everyone does their job here. Amazing. And a part of the reason why you also take that risk in an indie movie is because you put all the trust in yourself and the team. And that way, you know, the result is going to be that much better. So let's go. Professional experiences. Sitting right here.

23:18 I did a project for some nuns up here in Monrovia. When I added up their experience, there was like 300 years of ministry out of these young amongst these 14 women. So we actually calculated, we calculated it recently. So your, your background in the. In the sound side of things is diversified, it sounds like. But how long you been doing this? Probably since I was like 5 years old. I'm not expecting. I started on the piano because my mom wanted to learn, but she couldn't afford in Armenia, so she took like one or two years and then just kind of dabbled around. So, like they bought me one and I was obsessed with playing. But I never thought like, film music would be like, what I wanted to get into until my brother started making films. And then he asked me to try and write one and I did it. And then I did another and another and another. And now I have like eight of his movies.

24:09 Plus, like so many other wonderful filmmakers that I've had the chance to meet, whether through social media, whether through word of mouth. Sometimes a friend, like an actor can get you a gig like this too. So it's amazing. Like what, what can come. So is that your primary focus when you write as scores, or is it right now? It's kind of all over the place. It kind of like varies year to year. Sometimes I'll get more film projects, which is what I do want to focus on. But in this day and age, you kind of have to be flexible to work on anything audio, sound, just because one doesn't pay the bills. So how long you've been editing? I've been editing, I guess professionally about a little over 20 years. But I like Armand, I learned when I was very young. I started messing around with the first editorial platform I used, which is still the one I use. I was 14, I think I was in high school, so almost 30 years. Avid. Avid media, yeah. That's what my daughter learned in Sarah, you know, Sarah grade or something she's not very good at.

25:07 It has changed considerably. Yeah. And now you have editing software on your phone. I use Capcut for that kind of thing. Yeah, my kids do too. But 20 years of doing this. I say professionally necessarily, but yeah, no, 20 years professionally. So I go, yeah. Because I graduated college in 2005. So professionally I've been working as an assistant editor and then an editor for 20 plus years. I also teach at USC in the film school. And. And yeah, I've been primarily. It's been the last five years has been primarily movies, some shorts. I did TV for a really long time. I did documentary series, documentary features.

25:50 And so it's been a good combination of things. I Also have produced and written in tv. I'm also a screenwriter. I have a, she's a great writer. Thank you. I have a few screenplays that I've written and hopefully will get to produce. So a little bit of everything. But primary focus has, has been editing for 20 plus years. You ever get depressed? As an editor? No. As a screenwriter and the fact that you get, I'm just going to come from my own experience. It's like a numbers game. Plus it's a perseverance game. Yeah, of course. I, look, I honestly, I don't know that I could have just been a screenwriter for 20 years. I feel like it may have been depressing. And that's when I, I, when I graduated from college, the first thing I tried to do was write. Even though I knew in my heart I was an editor. Tried it for like a year, was a little bit depressed. I couldn't find an agent, I couldn't find representation. And then I got, you know, a few editing jobs and realized I, you know, I think it was like that realization that I'm still telling stories as an editor. And I think that's one of my strengths is I am a good storyteller. I know how to look at something and say, okay, this is not working for this reason. If I restructure this, putting it here, putting it here, and I had to do that with this movie as well. It was a lot of trial and error. It was a lot of, okay, let's put it together the way it's written in the script. Let's show it to a few audiences, get some responses. Okay, now I see what the issues are. Maybe we need this reshoot, maybe we need to rewrite this section. And you know, all of us working together to bring that all to fruition.

27:21 It was a lot of, I always say it to my students, the last draft of the screenplay is the last cut of the picture. So you're constantly rewriting. And thankfully, when you're able to work with a team like this and with a director like this, that is really just open to that flexibility and that creative process where you get to work together. It comes together in a really beautiful way. Phenomenal. So you were corporate. Very corporate, yeah. I am depressed and depressed. Yeah, depressed in the corporate world. That's right. No, I, I, I was very blessed to kind of, you know, being on the studio side, that was kind of like my film school. I worked with amazing directors and producers and on their sets. I was producing all the behind the scenes documentaries and the making ups that Ended up on the DVDs. If anybody still watches them.

28:11 I know you do. Christina Hagopian. Yes. She was one of my vendors. Oh, that's my wife. Yeah. First cousin. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Christina's great. We. That's actually how we met because there's not that many onions, so it was amazing to, you know, to work with her. Pretty Little Liars was actually the first time I met. Was that Warner Brothers then? All of it. Your whole career? Yeah. You left that recently, or are you still doing 2024? Summer. I was. As amazing as it was to have collaborated with some of the biggest directors in the world, you're at the end of the day telling their stories or the studio stories. So I just really wanted to carve my own path. And I felt like I. I learned enough on the business side, the marketing side, the PR side, the legal side, where I felt like I was kind of ready to take the plunge and start to tell stories that I wanted to tell. You know, I. My career was. My dad was an entrepreneur. His pictures there, you saw. I thought that's what I was going to do for sure.

29:05 And then went to college and did nothing. And then told myself in college, I'm not going to go to corporate America. I'm going to be an entrepreneur. And I went to corporate America. And I wouldn't trade that for anything because it teaches you so much discipline and layers of bureaucracy and how to deal with people, all the different life lessons that come with that. And then it prepares you to take the risk. If not just. I got to get out of here. Absolutely. It helps. That's interesting. Now I have to say I have a relationship with. With the Warner Brothers. Yeah. I just bought at auction wardrobe. Oh, wow. Yes. I go. I have this. There's a guy in Glendale called R.L. spear. And they take. So I bought a Brioni. You know what Brioni is? Yeah. Okay. Very fancy Italian stuff. And it's a. Two Brioni jackets. And I open it up and I pulled the sleeve out, and there's a little Warner Brothers sticker.

29:53 And who knows what. Who wore it, what movie? Because usually it says it. It. Who wore it. It does. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it was. It had felt pinned over it. So I can only see the Warner Brothers, whoever wore it. They don't want you to know that. Tom Cruise on there. But smaller than I am. The Warner Brothers archive is actually pretty amazing. If you ever get a chance to visit. I mean, they have. I don't even know how massive it is, but they just have rows and rows of just wardrobe from different studios and they do have all the labels inside and who wore what, what year. It's pretty amazing. My wife's like, really need another jacket. Yes. It's Brion. Come on. And how long you been acting and what's. I've been acting since I was like 15, 16 years old. And I've been just lucky enough to, you know, be able to book some projects on the way to like through my journey classes. I did, yeah. I, I went to acting school. Then I coach privately with like this one like mentor that I had.

30:48 I was born in Hollywood, raised in Boston. So a lot of my training is from the east coast in New York City in Boston. So I have a lot of background from there. And then came out to California. Born in Hollywood. Yeah. That's a pretty good credential for this actually. Armand, also born in Hollywood. Yep. And his brother as well. Same hospital. My mom lived on Gower. Well actually the small street. But you go up by Cheramoya School, right By Franklin. You go up in the hills by the Hollywood sign. That's where she grew up. Wow. Yeah. My mom, my. My grandparents, my grandmother and my grandfather were two brothers and two sisters married each. Oh, that's. So they live next to each other in the Hollywood. And so she went to Chair Moya. So they're always around Hollywood. She's a chic. Hollywood high chic. Yeah. So did you go to Ruskin or Berg or any type of acting class like that? No, like Juilliard or stuff like that, but just in New York. I took a lot of scene study classes, trained with some really high profile coaches there.

31:47 So that, that was that. And I've just been lucky enough to book a lot of really cool stuff. I mean, the life of an actor is very hard. I'm always dealing with the idea of like, my passion in acting always comes first. No matter what day job I've had, I've always risked that for the work. So that's always my mentality and always will be until it's officially full time, full time. Like I was even working during the production of Winter Song. So like it's always a, it's always a give and take. I was working remotely. Like Paul's Bakery down there. No, no, I've worked in like tech and all that kind of stuff. So like I was working remotely at nights while we're shooting. Like in between I would be like running off night. There's morning. I have a call tomorrow at 11:00pm there, 11:00am there. 11:00am talk to civil night. It'll be 7:11am here. Yep. So he didn't sleep for three weeks.

32:39 Yeah, basically I was there. So it was really interesting. But like, I just like, you have to do those kind of things to survive as an actor. And, but the work always comes first. Acting always comes first. Do you think most. My daughter's a baker. She's a trained French baker. And the hospitality side of food is very tough. And so we went to one of the schools to get a lecture and he was sort of pitching the idea that cookie school was an alternative to college because, you know, you can get on TV and become an, you know, become a food chef, you know, TV chef. Sure. And you know that's not accurate. Right, right. It's like very few and far between. So as a, if, if I'm a young man getting into the industry or an old man, what's the number one rule that you have to follow as to try and be successful? The number one rule is if you do not put a hundred percent of everything you have into following this path of acting, there is zero reason you should continue the path of acting. Probably zero chance you'll get anywhere. Right. Like, if you, if you're not willing to risk basically everything else, then it's, it's not going to work out. So as a, as a voice person, I thought I, I wanted to act. And I've shot, I shot with David Zucker, you know, the fame director. But I had to pay him, of course, to show up. But, and, and it leads to another part of this conversation. But I

34:10 thought, you know what? I'm going to sell the company. Maybe I'll dabble in it. And I talked to John Ruskin, who's, who's. I forgot the, the methodology he uses. And he's like, yeah, it's two days a week and it's going to be like three years. I'm like, there's no way now, if I'm a young man. And I would have done that because I had the perseverance. But this age, you know, this. I said, look, man, I can't, I can't. You do have a great voice. I can totally see it. Five hour a day. I got work to do. But I can see that perseverance just from when I put my toe in the water a little bit. Here is the number one key to this whole industry in general. All of it. It is. And also, like, experiencing life as a human being makes you a better actor. So, yeah, Go live your life. But when the work comes, like, you have to, you know, take. Put everything aside and focus on that. And that's eventually, like, you. You break through and you find success and you build off that success and have that be a catalyst for the next job and the next job, because it's, I mean, builds on each other. Rejection is every single day. There are a lot of roadblocks in this industry, I think, no matter in what field you are. So if you're going to hit a roadblock and just quit, then this is not it. I was not going to make it if you quit.

35:22 But, yeah, so let's, let's talk about that for a second, because each discipline has its issues, as you just said. And the production side of this thing is so interesting to me because I love the creative part of the business. I'm not good at all the organization of it, but, man, if I can think of a story, and this is my favorite thing to do, and I play with editing software to see if I can make emotion out of it. And that being. When I shot three little stories, I had a story, not a story. I had a character. It was the man with the million dollar pallet. And it was this guy that would go around to different scenarios in the world of wine and fix them. And one of them was the last supper.

36:08 You know, like, we saved Jesus because I poured better wine than they had at the table. Or, you know, the gladiator was going to get killed, but I gave wine to the. To the emperor and he called it off. You know, this kind of thing. So we thought we shot three of them. One was a date that I interrupted, one was a dinner party I interrupted. And one was just a psycho shower scene, which my wife's like, you didn't tell me you're going to shower with a naked woman. She wasn't naked, but whatever. Anyway, the point being, I had USC cinematographers, masters of shooting. David Zucker was the director. And you have to understand what's going on there because the.

36:50 As Stephen Smith said, the cinematographer said, now the magic's kind of. After we wrapped up, now the magic happens. Yep, that's really what happens. It's really the production crew that once we've got the shots that in the music, that changes the whole thing. It doesn't seem like you get enough credit now, Shade. Yeah, no, I mean in general, that the production crew, the credits roll at the end of the film and they roll by so fast, but they call up. Yeah. The director, usually the writer, and that's it, right? Maybe a few of the actors. Seth Rogen, who just won the Golden Globe in his speech thanked the whole crew basically by name. By name. So like more of that is great. And like when you're on set, you're so appreciative, everybody. But then when you leave set, it's like you never talk to people ever again. So it's like done. You move on. And I think that's why a lot of directors, they have their go to people, they're, they just, they use the same crews for every single project. Cuz there's like a shorthand with them. They know what they're getting.

37:48 It's. It's just easier for them. So I suppose that synergy is kind of what makes some, some shows more special than others. Absolutely. For sure. It's so important. And I think that's what I loved about this project too is everybody was in it completely. And it wasn't about money, it wasn't about fame, it was just about. We all shared this passion. We had a mission. And I think, look, every single one of us is trying to get the Armenian community to understand if you want more voices like this, if you want our stories told, every single person has to show up for a movie like this. And we're not just our movie, just any movie, there needs to be. We need to prove that there's a market for it and that people care for these types of stories and our efforts didn't go to waste. Like when the movie released on Wonder Project, it got in their top 10 on Amazon on the first week. And when you look at these bigger movies, they have, you know, marketing budgets of millions of dollars.

38:39 We had zero. It was just us and our community. Our budget was depressed. It's still depressed. Over and done at that point. There's depression everywhere. Happy go lucky movie. Well, it's, you know, it's the same in the wine business. You walk down the, the shelf of the Ralph's or Vons and all those wines that you see that the same brands all over the place, those are backed by tons and tons of money marketers and every celebrity has a wine company. Yeah. And if you, you and I try to start. Well, let's just talk about AR wine for a second. There was a scene in the movie where you guys are pouring wine and was that, was that actor indigenous Armenian or did he come with you? Yeah, yeah. He's from the uk, but he's Armenian. Really? Yeah. We have wine here, you know, we have Armenian wines, but that's It's a parallel issue because frankly, if freedom came in 91 and the wine trade was. Had been completely suffocated by the Soviet rule. It's.

39:37 From my standpoint, it's an amazing transition. Absolutely. Today because it's a very slow business. It's only once a year, as you already know. So in order to pull off what they've pulled off so far with people like Bhai Kashkari and his daughter and Voskavas and those people, it's pretty amazing. But. But that's fine. They make good wine. And some of the stuff I think is world class. I'll pour that at my home. The wine guy will pour that. But try and sell it. It's hard. I mean, that's like, you know, try and get a spot on that shelf is almost impossible. Yeah, there is a slug it out. And I'm wondering if that's the same, you know, the same headwinds in the. This side of the business for. For Armenian stories specifically, or. Yeah, yeah, I think. I mean, I think that was one of the. What was really wise about the way this was approached was like I said earlier, it's this kind of very universal story, you know, that kind of going home for the holiday story or girl trying to find herself story. It's not like there's not something about it that's like super unique in that. We haven't seen it done before, but it's taking that. That we know that kind of general formula works well, figuring out how do we make it unique, how do we make it specific to Armenia and, you know, putting that on paper and then eventually having it evolve to. To what it. What it became.

40:56 You know, the. The making the movie part itself was. Had its. Had its challenges, but getting it to land somewhere, that was the big goal that we were talking about. And so thankfully we were able to do it. I wouldn't say it was easy. I think there were a lot of things that had to sort of align for that to happen. And we were. We all operated very intentionally. You know, we saw this opportunity, we approached it, we were very thoughtful about it. We did everything that we could to make sure that it kind of landed where it landed. And we feel really blessed that that was able to come together. There must be other genres that this could apply to, so to speak. Absolutely. For sure. So you can expose the story without the same issue, without the focus on I. The focus on us or them. For sure. So nothing on the books right now that you're thinking about, but your brain has to be sort of massaging, you know, what can we do? That's just so much. This was so much fun to do. We've got some traction. Maybe you got a strike soon. Anyway, you have a show coming up. Don't you have a show, a showing coming up at usc? Oh, we did that on Tuesday. Oh, you did on Tuesday. How'd that go? It was good. It was really well received. Yeah.

42:10 And it was a nice mix. Mix of. There were Armenian community members, there were some people from film school. Like I had some of my TAs, my old TAs came out to support. That's great. I had a few people from the editing community. So it was a really good mix of people. And I think that was a really positive response. I mean, look, all of our screenings have had positive responses, both from Armenians and non Armenians. I think the, the number one thing that I think we've all been told, which is always really nice, is that you leave kind of having this warm fuzzy feeling. And that's what we wanted, you know, we. We wanted it to be something that you walk away feeling that it's enjoyable, you know, and, and that you get to have this great, you know, movie going experience, whether you're watching it in a private screening or whether you're watching it online at home. This Armenian institute, usc, that's that I'm active. They were, they were actually. They helped promote the film. They were the ones who led the Q and A at usc. Oh, they did. Okay, great. But I think Shushan. Yeah, not Shushan. It was a Marle, who's their managing director and she's.

43:07 She's wonderful. We're going to wrap this up now, but I'm just asking each individually what is on the horizon for you personally and what you're working on and then you know, how you see navigating this short term potentially or hopefully short term glitch in the industry. Yeah, I just wrapped up a few short films. We have two podcasts that we're working on with my brother. Hopefully you can turn them into miniseries eventually and also a feature film that hopefully all. Well, not hopefully all of us are going to be a part of podcast, as in producing one like a narrative scripted podcast scripted. So it is a story. So that one will be fully in my hands because no visuals attached and so just audio and music. It'll be fun crafting the whole story myself almost, other than the script, obviously. And you're just cruising along stuff on your editing. Are you doing this with the.

44:02 The 16th? Well, there was A. There was a short film that I had edited for a wonderful director, Ophelia Tunian, a few years ago that we qualified for the Oscar. So I'm currently in the process of wrapping up her next short film and then obviously pushing. Pushing this through and promoting. This has been a lot of work. And like I said, I teach at USC part time and hopefully getting to collaborate with these folks again very soon. And I'm writing a lot. I have a couple of scripts that I've written. One of them I really spent a lot of time developing with Annie especially. So hopefully more to come soon. Excellent. Outside of what they just all mentioned we're doing, I do have a few book options that I'm shopping around with different production companies.

44:50 Books to sell the story. Film rights. Yeah. Acquired film rights to buy. We have to have a conversation after this. Uh. Oh, I gotta go. No, it's fun. And for me, I had a good Knock on wood. Had a pretty good year. Last year I had a few movies in theaters, not including this one. And then this year, I have a couple TV shows releasing. I'll be on the Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix season four, and I'll be on the Rookie season eight as well. And then aside from that, I have a couple other things lined up that I can't talk about right now. But it's gonna be a good year. 2026 is gonna be a big year. I think it's on its way. Yeah. Stay tuned. It's such an honor to have you guys in here. Thank you for having us. This was so much fun. This was great. It was really nice to meet you. My pleasure. And I think think we're going to probably do it again sometime as this goes on. And there's more projects to do because I think there's an important aspect of telling the story of the culture in a more modern fashion. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Usually I end these things with cheers because they're talking about wine.

45:55 Take care.