I don't know about a mountain.
Got some I've got some definition.
Oh, what do you think con?
I'm kind of I'm Bursting out of this shirt.
Don't you think you've been going to the gym a little bit.
Yeah, you're in there I'm very proud of myself for not making it.
I've been doing 12 ounce curls Joe because Hey, good evening and welcome to nightlight everybody I am Pete Schwab your host for this evening's show great to be with you and great to have you with us as always
It's more fun to do this when people are listening.
And I know you're listening because you guys send great texts.
You're part of the show.
It's so much fun.
And I have a great show for you guys tonight.
Great guests.
We're going to play some really funny clips that will hopefully make you laugh.
And we have a great question.
It's just banging on all cylinders here, right, Tom?
a
Not I know the show is off to a good start when you refer to yourself in the third person That that to me says it's gonna be a banger show.
So that's That's awesome We're gonna do we've got a great question.
We'll get to that in just a minute tonight though joining me on the show
very excited to have for the first time.
He's an Eau Claire based filmmaker.
He makes short films.
He's been in a lot of festivals.
He's been to Sundance.
And he is also part of Action Wisconsin.
The group, primarily, I thought Milwaukee based, I could be wrong, but trying to bring film incentives to Wisconsin in hopes that we get more films made here and more production, more production jobs, more movies made.
It's great for the state.
It promotes the state.
Tim will talk about that with us at 635.
Tim Schweigel, he will be here at 635 and we'll talk about his movie making career and how things are going.
The one thing I've learned doing this show, and I wasn't expecting this, like I know people make movies in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, even Milwaukee.
I did not know there was as many filmmakers as there are in other parts of the state.
So that has kind of opened my eyes to...
The great culture we have here in the state of Wisconsin and Tim is based in Eau Claire We've got tons of guys here in northeast Wisconsin that we've had on the show and Some some filmmakers in northern Wisconsin So we have we have a lot of people that want to make movies and we will talk to Tim about how we can make that easier through action Wisconsin That's at 635 then our pal Rob Thomas joins us at 720
Rob has been boots on the ground for the Wisconsin Film Festival I know he's been seeing a lot of stuff at least he alluded to that in our text exchange earlier, so I'm excited to talk to Rob about what he's seen and I have to say I Finished the show the Netflix show adolescence has received a ton of publicity It's gotten its broken records on Netflix for ratings
I know in the UK the government and parents and teachers want to show it in schools.
It deals with cyberbullying and kids that spend too much time on their phones when their parents aren't even aware of it.
So I started watching adolescence about a week and a half ago before I went to Madison for the film festival and I got three episodes and it's only four episodes.
The fourth episode, it's just such a brilliant show.
It's so well done and
It's so thoughtful on every level.
And I finished the last episode today.
I literally was fighting back tears.
It is so powerful, so poignant what this couple goes through.
Stephen Graham plays the boy's father.
Basically, it's a boy accused of killing one of his classmates because of social bullying and the kid claims he didn't do it.
and the police are saying he did, and I won't say what happens, but it leads the parents down this rabbit hole of, could we have done more?
Could we have been on top of our kids more not to be on their phones all the time or locked in the room on their computers?
And I finished it today.
Stephen Graham is such a good actor.
He's one of the show's creators.
I cannot recommend the show enough.
It's not whimsical.
It's not going to make you laugh.
You have to be in the right mood for it.
But if you're a parent with kids,
in middle school or high school age, I cannot recommend this show enough.
It's just very well done.
And even if you don't have kids, it's just great TV.
So definitely check out Adolescents.
I finally finished it and I just think it's spectacular.
You know, Conn, I haven't asked you what you've been watching lately.
I apologize for that.
I did not mean to be rude.
that you're going to say mansions of moms or whatever it's milk manner, but milk manner.
season three
So I'm a little disappointed about that.
So I don't even, I don't even want to know what season three is going to be.
You don't want to spoil it.
But anyways, how I met your mother, uh, it's been 25 years since it released a couple of months ago.
So,
Josh Radner who played Ted Mosby in it and in the co-creator made a podcast about it and They actually are going through every episode and what it took to make it and all the fun stories behind it So I'm rewatching.
I met your mother and listening to the podcast.
Oh No, wow, that's that's serious inundation with your favorite show.
That's very cool It's
it's it's another reason to go back to it because I love it so much but also to get some insights of maybe some things I missed that
they put in there that what it means behind it or something.
So already just the first episode, they talked about why they wrote it like that.
What was it supposed to be like and stuff like that?
So that's what I'm watching.
That when you watch, when you find really good, and I don't, it's not even DVD extras, but just extras behind the scenes stuff about a show that you really like.
It can make you like the show more.
Yeah, it gives you even a greater appreciation It's like Q&A at a film festival.
You see what went into it The challenges they overcame what they were thinking when they asked the role.
I mean, it's just it's great
Oh My god, how was that?
Was that good or bad?
I think it was good standing up and cheering and clapping I
yeah Why what was the deal?
What a bunch of jerks though, why would you do that?
Why would you throw stuff and make them?
Yeah?
So how is okay that stuff aside?
How was the movie?
Did you did you like the movie itself?
could have,
fallout show?
Yeah.
Oh, you did.
And what did you, I watched two episodes and it's not like I didn't like it.
I just got distracted, but I'll probably go back to it.
How was that?
I really enjoyed it.
And what can I think of his name?
Um, the guy in white Lotus.
Um, I don't know.
I can't think of his name, but Walton Goggins.
Yes.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I think he was really good at it.
I like, I like Walter Goggins.
Yeah.
And I think that, uh, they already renewed season two.
So I'm excited for that.
Oh, it's kind of cool.
Yeah.
I'll have to go back to that.
I just kind of, uh,
I kind of got distracted.
Um, all right.
So.
We've got a great guest.
Rob Thomas is here.
Tim Schweigel is here.
We're going to talk about some film in Sanderson, Wisconsin, some independent movie making, and then we'll talk about film festivals.
And Rob saw Black Bag.
I can't wait to talk to Rob about Black Bag, the Steven Soderbergh spy thriller.
That'll be fun.
But I think before we get too far into the show, we need to discuss our question of the night.
the question.
Okay, question.
Question.
Okay, I have a question.
Questions.
This question.
Domanda.
Question.
Question.
Questions.
It's National Change Your Name Day, ladies and gentlemen, so what would you change your name to?
If you could change your name, if you could pick your own name, what would you change it to?
That is tonight's question.
Let us know eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five civic You can text us on the app very easy to use we get those texts too and if you're listening or watching on the stream You can text us through Facebook YouTube.
What else Conrad?
What am I missing?
and Twitter.
and people can just text the show through those Yep, and it gets through.
Yeah, and we read it and we read it.
There are no
chinks in this nightlight armor, folks.
So get ahold of us any way you can, but just get ahold of us.
It's always more fun when you guys are part of the show.
We've been posting the questions of the day on social media.
And so I'll read some of those now until the text answers come in, but these are great.
Ezekiel Drews says, a name that has an interesting vibe considered for stage or theater would be Enoch Vale.
Enoch Vale.
Instead of playing words, I'm not comprehending.
I
don't know.
Ezekiel continues that Pete should go with Ray Iconics.
Well, that one I get.
Play on the word icon.
I got that.
Don't get the Enoch.
Enoch
Vail.
Enoch Vail.
Enoch Vail.
All right, we'll keep playing with that one.
Thank you, Ezekiel.
Great text.
Rose Bauman.
My mother's maiden name is my first name.
So Rose Marie Rose was always her choice.
So that's, oh, thank you, Rose.
That's great.
I kind of think that's fun when people have the same name in their name twice.
Rose should go with Rosemary Rose.
I like that.
Vince Moranto, Max Power.
Love it, Vince.
Thank you for the text, buddy.
Max Power Moranto or just Max Power?
Either one works.
Daniel Wheeler says linguistically, Pete's last name is interesting because it requires a wet mouth.
Requires.
a wet mouth to pronounce it correctly.
Pete Schwabba, you have to have a wet mouth to say that?
That sounds so perverse Daniel.
Todd Michaels says Elvis Carter.
Oh, I like that, Todd.
Very well done.
That's Todd Michaels.
He is the producer of Mino and the Mayor folks.
Check that show out, Todd.
It's awesome.
Jimmy Koska, Civic Media Sports Director says, Pete Schwabba.
That works.
That's kind of a running joke on the show, don't you think?
Pete Schwabba.
All right.
We're coming right back, folks.
We got a lot of names to read.
A great text tonight.
Rob Thomas is here.
Tim Schweigel is here.
All kinds of hell breaking loose here on Nightlight.
We're coming right back.
This is the Civic Media Radio
I had such a great joke and my mic was muted.
I said, welcome back tonight.
Like, this is Pete.
Hold on.
I got to wet my mouth to say the rest of my name.
Thanks to Daniel Wheeler.
That's great.
Michael, Major Gregory checks in on social media and says, Julie is already taken.
If you were thinking of that, let me add that I carried a book for a year writing down names I thought I might like to have instead of my given name.
Add to that, when growing up, I had a number of nicknames, many of which are still used by people who knew me at different times and phases of my life.
Finally, my friend's wife said, I can't take it anymore.
You are called by too many names.
You have a choice, Gregory Michael or Michael Gregory.
That's it.
He says, and that, Pete Schwabba.
It's how I changed my name.
Two of the nicknames still abound.
Mamao from my high school days when interacting with old schoolies and major from my military and my current road name with the American Legion writers.
Name, not rank.
Good luck on your search.
Thank you.
That's, Mike Gregory is, when I lived in LA, he and his wife lived right above us.
He was a soap opera actor.
He's been in uh, Arnold Schwarzenegger movies.
What's the I think your racer mic was in he's got just a long list of credits and he is a phenomenal guy does a ton of stuff for veterans Great dude.
I have a funny story actually mic lived above us In the apartment above us and in the pool area He got locked out so he ran very athletic guy He ran and jumped put his foot on our railing and jumped up and grabbed his railing and pulled himself up and my mother
My mother-in-law was visiting, and she thought the apartment above us was getting robbed.
It was great fun.
So I don't know if you're listening, Mike, but thank you for that memory.
And it's good to hear from you, buddy.
So that's our question tonight, folks.
What would you change your name to?
It is national.
Pick your own name day.
And that's our question of the night.
What would you change your name to?
What would you do, Conrad?
What would you
Ryan Guy called himself Ryan Gosling on the stream.
Ross Geller.
Interesting.
I mean, if we're going to do that, I'll just call myself the Fonz.
you go.
I think I would go with maybe Beauregard.
Beauregard Schwabba.
That rolls off the tongue.
Um, you know what name I've always liked Frank I like the name It's like because with my last name Schwabba Which is Daniel Wheeler just told us your mouth has to be wet to pronounce it properly Um You have to have like like Pete my problem is like and why the peach wabba thing is a joke.
Thank you Jimmy Cusco for blowing the dust off that one.
Um It's hard to say you got to have a hard ending to the first name Jack Schwabba.
I have a cousin named Jack Nick Schwabba.
There's a nick
Could be Frank Frank Schwabba.
I Don't know I got a noodle this for a while.
but what would you change your name to folks?
You have the option tonight at night like
But I've already got I don't think I need two dessert names.
Do I?
You
tort, you know, I don't hate that each tort
Excuse me, Mr. Tord, please call me Peach.
Paula Conrad's mom checks in and says, I have always liked Josephine because of the shortened name of Josie.
Yeah, that's a good one.
Paula says that would have been Conrad's name if he would have been a girl.
Well, besides that one, Conrad.
I think Conrad's a nice name for a girl, actually.
I
I don't think it's had a trend though.
It's like when it's like what your mom is saying like Josie, you know Okay, that's not typically a girl's name like you have the outlaw Josie Wales The Clint Eastwood film Frankie and Johnny Frankie's the girl
I Started calling you that just because it's easier
Don't have the kind of time to say Conrad the whole name because I'm a busy guy.
So I find con is much more.
I'm gravitating toward that Yeah, I people had a lot of fun with my name grown up Schwab's Cotton Schwab's all kinds of goofy stuff.
So thank you grandpa.
Thank you my ancestors Tom from Manona says Wahabita That sounds like a it could be a little joint off State Street
Come on in for a Schwab pita Or unless he's talking about the guy from the hunger games So yesterday when I was driving this is my new pet peeve.
Okay.
I was driving home from Madison And I guess sometimes people are in the fast lane and they don't need to be you know But they are in your daydream and you're like, oh man, I'm holding up traffic Yesterday, I swear to god for 30 minutes.
There were two cars Driving simultaneously right next to each other for
The better part of 20 minutes To the point where I thought they were just doing that to play a joke on me But the odds of that happening are not good the two random strangers would go hey Let's do this and mess with this guy behind us who we also don't know So I'm not saying that's likely but oh my god read the room people Wouldn't you know first of all I feel uncomfortable driving right next to a guy who's or a girl who is in the next lane
because I feel like I would have the need to turn and look at them like, hey, we're driving at the same speed and holding up traffic together.
Like I wouldn't want that weird awkwardness or those looks.
So I would speed up or slow down or something, but this was almost like a planned, like maybe I was on candid camera or something or the Jamie Kennedy experiment with his back.
I don't know.
It was really weird and it started to make my blood boil.
All right, I had to get that out of my chest.
Yeah, everything's fine.
What would you change your name to folks?
That's our question of the night We've got so much to get to I talked about adolescence, which I just loved I finished at 1923 last night season two and those of you who have been watching 1923 Harrison Ford Helen Mirren.
It's a prequel to Yellowstone and Spencer Dutton who ends up being the father to John Dutton who is Kevin Costner
comes back from Africa from hunting lions.
He's a real badass.
And Timothy Dalton plays the bad guy in 1923.
And Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren are anxiously awaiting Spencer's return.
And let me just say, it was worth the wait.
Great shoot them up at the end of that series, because they're only doing two seasons.
It's done.
Hey, when we come back, Tim Schweigel will be here.
He is a Wisconsin filmmaker and doing lots of good things with Action Wisconsin.
That's all coming up next after Civic Media's news team tells you what's up.
This is Pete Schwabba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Folks, if you happen to be going to the Wisconsin Film Festival, you have two more nights.
Tonight and tomorrow night, it's all out at Flix Brew House in Easttown Mall.
I want to get one or two final plugs in here for the nightlight-inspired beer, which is called Hazed on Radio.
When I was leaving town yesterday, the brewmaster, Dave Hanson, who did great work, I love what he came up with, told me that it is outselling all the other local brews two to one.
So if you've been there and if you've tried Hazed on Radio, thank you so much.
It's kind of exciting, and who knows?
Maybe they'll keep making it.
That would be kind of fun.
But if you're headed out to Flick's brew house for a movie or to see a movie with the Wisconsin Film Festival, check out a Hazed on Radio.
It's good stuff.
Steve checks in on the text line.
Our question tonight is, what would you change your name to?
It's National Name Yourself Day.
Steve says, if I could change my name, I would change my name from Steven spelled with the pH to Steve with the V. Just joking.
Seriously, if I could change my name, it would be Maximilian.
Oh, Conrad, your dad's going to love this.
You know we have on the show tomorrow night, right?
And Maximilian.
Maximilian Blaska will be here.
How'd that?
Great first name and great last name, too.
So, Steve, you might think you're the only Maximilian, but you wouldn't be.
You wouldn't even be the only Maximilian on nightlight.
I actually like the V, the V angle with Steve.
Although with the pH, it sounds more distinguished, I think, than Steve.
Steve is the obvious choice for Steve.
And if you take off the EN, then it just looks like Steph.
Sounds like your dad's working through some stuff.
Sounds like I'm working through some stuff on his behalf.
Okay.
Enough silliness.
Let's get on with the show, ladies and gentlemen.
I'm excited to welcome my next guest.
This is his first time on Night Light.
He is a Wisconsin-based filmmaker, and he is also very active in the Action Wisconsin movement, which is trying to bring incentives for filmmakers to Wisconsin.
It is my pleasure to welcome Tim Schweigel.
Tim, hi.
Hey, how's it going, Pete?
Good.
Am I saying your name right?
You are.
You're one of eight people who
say it right first.
So
that's pretty good.
I'm with you because I've got an s th as well and I was just informed by a texture that to say my name my last name properly you have to wet your mouth first I don't even know what that means but it was just kind of one of those things so
I mean it might be true I've never thought about how to say my own last name because I just know but I've heard every possible version I'm sure you have to um
It's what we deal with there's only like a hundred shwaggles on earth or something.
I looked at it
Oh, is that right?
Oh, wow.
It's it might be more than that, but it's very few so it's okay if people don't know
Exactly it adds an error of mystery and I will say that I know that if I meet someone named Schwabba that is someone that didn't drop the a Chances are I'm related to them.
So that's kind of excited.
Yeah So Tim, it's good to have you here.
What would you change your name to that's our question of the night?
Do you have another name?
I am
My gut goes to the default name that I use in Dungeons and Dragons and video games and stuff, which
is
Felix, because that's just the first thing that always pops into my head.
But I quite like my name because, you know, Tim's easy.
People don't screw that up.
And the uniqueness comes from my last name.
So I'm pretty pleased with where I'm at.
But if I had to change it, I might go with that.
I think you're doing OK.
Hey, it's great to have you here.
Before we talk about your filmmaking endeavors, can we talk a little bit about Action Wisconsin?
You're very active, as I understand it, in that movement.
How is that going?
And can you explain a little bit to people what's happening and why this is why you guys are trying to do this?
It's going pretty well right now.
I'm not the best with the specific numbers and all that.
It's hard for me to keep it straight.
But the general idea is that Wisconsin is one of only a handful of states that doesn't have a film office and film tax incentives to bring productions to Wisconsin and keep Wisconsin
or key projects that would be in Wisconsin here.
So that's the big problem, but we made big successes in the fact that in the current version of the upcoming Wisconsin budget, we have those things.
There's allocations for both those things.
So at this point, it's pretty much just making it clear that yes, we want this and yes, it would be good for Wisconsin.
So you're already making films here.
And I know a lot of other people that are as well.
I made a film here years and years ago with no incentives.
We got a lot of help from the community, which you could equate to incentives because they definitely help you get your movie made and help
you
keep your costs down.
But what do you think the chances are of this passing?
Right now, it feels pretty good.
Like I said, I'm not in the weeds on the specifics, but.
It's felt pretty non-partisan because I think people just like exciting stuff, which I know that sounds really basic, but whenever there's any kind of production smaller big in the Eau Claire area at least, everyone kind of rallies around it because it's fun and it's cool and the community can be a part of it if it's even sizeably bigger.
I kind of forgot the specific question.
But
I think the
odds are pretty good.
That's what it was because it does bring money into the area.
And I think kind of the bigger the bigger thing personally is I have so many friends that want to make movies or want to work on movies who just left the state because it's so hard to do it here.
So it feels like without them, there's like creative brain drain in the state.
because people just leave.
It's interesting.
I think what you said, even if we had a film office, and I forgot about that nugget, it would be easier for those people already making films here without incentives.
But definitely the incentives would, but I always feel like Tim, like this has to be taught at a young age.
I think we need to get kids into theater and music and all this stuff so that it becomes part of our fabric of our state.
And it's like, well, of course we would pass this rather than
You know, do we want to take a risk and do this or do we need that money for infrastructure?
I think this should be earmarked just for culture in the arts myself.
Yeah, because it also stops local stories from being told because like in the case of Charlie Barron's has a video on the action Wisconsin site about this how he's pitched ideas for television programs that
very Wisconsin focus because you know, that's his old brand and They won't make them here because it doesn't make sense financially, but he's not really interested in making it anywhere, but here because It's about here.
This is the purpose.
Yeah, so
it might just not happen Which is really unfortunate
Agreed You think
I see that you have the poster on your wall, hundreds of beavers behind you.
Such a fun movie.
I don't know what those guys spent on that movie.
They've been on the show before.
And that's just a question you don't ask people, but like, have you seen the film?
And that's, that is a true indie film victory.
I mean, I hear it's made like a million dollars in two years or something like
that.
Yeah, it's something like that.
I'm a mega fan.
as you can tell, partially because I saw it on a whim at Midwest Weird Fest here in Eau Claire and it was blown away.
And then the fact that, oh, this is a 10 out of 10 movie made in Wisconsin through Sheer Grit.
They've been pretty open about budget stuff.
The actual production itself, I believe, was around $100,000 that they got $10,000 at a time.
So
they
just started making it and we're collecting
like that.
That might not be exactly right but that was kind of the gist of it.
But any movie that's made in Wisconsin as of now is through sheer grit and you're essentially doing it on your own because the perk of a film office is if you want to make something you go to them and they work with you to make it happen and they know the crews and all that stuff but here it's
who you know and who they know and it stops right there, especially if you're in the middle of the state like I am and not down in Milwaukee or Madison or anything like that.
That is, I would be scared to death honestly to film the way they did.
If that's how they did it, 10 grand at a time, I would be worried, you know, I couldn't raise the rest of the money and I'm stuck with, you know,
100 minutes of footage that I have to piece a movie together from, right?
I mean, how have you done it?
Like you make films, you're an indie filmmaker.
Do you have all the money right when you start principal photography or what's your game plan?
Pretty much none of, well, first of all, I'm really lucky to have...
a little network of friends who are all filmmakers or people who want to work in the arts in some way, and we all work together on each other's stuff.
So that's a huge factor immediately, and none of our shoots are over like two or three days, so it's easy to weekend warrior the things.
Right.
And I also, all of my ideas, I think about what can we do without spending a bunch of money.
So...
For me, but that's also just necessity because I don't have the money right
You know like
it's yeah
But I think that that can breed creativity I mean it when you have to think outside the box and figure out how can I do this?
You know fewer locations fewer actors Whatever it is My guest is Tim Schweigel.
He is an Eau Claire based filmmaker and involved with the action was constant movement.
They're trying to bring
incentives for filmmakers to Wisconsin here to bring more business to the state.
Tim, give us a little background on you as a movie maker, if you would.
Well, I've always just loved movies.
I never had any confusion about what I wanted to do, which is very lucky because some people never figure it out.
But
I've always loved movies ever since I was a little kid and my dad would bring me to movie at least once a week.
So it was fantastic.
Was involved in film club in high school.
So we were constantly making stuff together and there were a lot of people just making stuff.
And I kind of just never stopped.
It's pretty simple.
Yeah,
all within my own little friend group all making stuff together and we've all just Kept up and kept doing it Yeah,
it's pretty
simple to be honest
are you when we spoke earlier you said you were gonna be at the Minneapolis Film Festival Tonight initially anyway I've been to that film festival.
I was in a movie that played there and I thought it was a really well done festival Are you did you or are you having a good experience there?
Yeah, I went to a movie called Good Sport, which is fantastic.
That's a local to the Twin Cities movie made by I think it's Andrew Zucker.
It's something like that, but it's fantastic.
I highly recommend it, but it's so well put together.
Their programming is great.
I've seen another movie there on Friday called Cactus Pairs.
And then a short film that I produced is playing literally right now.
It's called 528
made by my friends Mac Hastings and Shane Sleger and It's a little sci-fi drama about a kid playing with What's it called a little machine and when he finds a certain frequency something happens and I'm proud of it.
They did fantastic work on that but
It's always been a great experience when I've seen stuff there.
OK, so earlier on the show, I was talking about my time.
I do some work for the Wisconsin Film Festival, hosting Q&As and introducing films, that kind of thing.
And I've been doing that for years.
I love the festival.
I liked the Minneapolis Film Festival a lot.
I've been to several with my own films.
I've never been to Sundance.
And I know you've been there a few times, whether it's as a spectator or a filmmaker.
How do you equate?
A festival like the one that's happening in Minneapolis right now or one that might happen in Wisconsin with the granddaddy of them all
Yeah, I've gone the past three years just as an attendee You don't have to tell people that though you could just say I've been to Sundance I'll
make
sure because when
you're talking
about film stuff some people are like, you know But um a lot of the stuff that is being programmed this year at the Minneapolis Saint Paul Film Festival
are the same movies that are showing there so like they have really good taste but both of them people show up and they genuinely love the movies like it feels pretty similar honestly outside of I was gonna say outside of the cold but it's still pretty cold here just not right now right
All right, my guest is Tim Schweigel.
We're going to take a very short break.
When we come back, we'll ask him what he's working on, and then you have a website, Tim, with some of your work on it.
We'll talk about that when we come back too.
It's great to have you with me, everybody.
Our question of the night is, what would you change your name to?
It's National Change Your Name Day.
Let us know.
Text us on the stream, on the app, or on the good old-fashioned cellular telephone.
We take all comers.
This is Pete Schwab and Nightlight.
We're coming right back on the Civic Media Radio now.
I don't want to be yourself.
Well, whatever I'm ever going to need for something a little no strong.
Welcome back You got nightlight with peach wava I am peach wava your host for this evening's program PJ on the stream says all All of us with German names referring to himself my guest Tim Schweigel and myself all sch's We got to stick together folks That is our question tonight.
What would you change your name to if you could Conrad's dead said Maximilian I find that interesting because we have a guest on the show tomorrow
Maximilian Blaska.
So there you go.
So we're talking with Tim Schweigel.
He is a Wisconsin-based filmmaker.
Tim, tell us a little bit about New Neighbor.
You have a website called newneighbor.com.
You have content posted there.
Where does that come from?
Is that all you?
Yeah, that's all us.
It's me and my closest pals and collaborators who, again, we've been making movies for years.
And we found, hey, it's easier to promote an entity than ourselves.
We put that together and that's just our home for the stuff that we make.
It's nice to have a website
It is it's nice to have a place you can steer people and I was checking out some of them earlier Just great stuff.
Do you only do shorts?
Do you have a desire to do a feature or is that too overwhelming?
Or where do you stand on that?
What are your career aspirations?
So to speak
a feature feels like the next step
We're literally this week and next week in the final stretch on finishing two more short films, one of which is a proof of concept for a feature project.
So that's the next step that we're hoping to take.
When you say proof of concept, I've heard that term a lot lately.
I kind of know what it is you shoot part of the movie and you show it to investors if I'm not mistaken But please explain that in case people don't exactly understand it and I don't have a hundred percent understanding of it either
Yeah, a lot of people some people do it differently in this particular case I made a short film a few years ago called blossom and the decrepit man And my new one is called blossom needs a ride home and I'll talk about that more in a minute, but the general idea is that
This is something that is in some cases like Jim Cummings Thunder Road That short film turned into the opening scene for the entire feature in my case.
This is kind of just This is the character that will be in the movie and this is a situation that they're in it's a full standalone piece It doesn't feel like a chunk pulled out of something else.
It's just
something that's like hey
We did this and hopefully you had fun with it.
You will have fun with it because I think it's pretty good.
Yeah.
But if you did, we have more in store and it's going to be just like that.
That's how I'm thinking like, look, we did it.
Want some more of that, you know,
like that's
how I think about it personally.
Have you had to raise funds to make short films too or do you just kind of do those out of pocket?
I don't
like to too much if I can avoid it.
I've mostly done it out of pocket and the majority of.
every project I've done with the exception of one has been out of my own pocket, which is why, you know, keeping stuff low is good.
But in this particular case, I raised like 2,500 through Indiegogo, you know, just because it was a little more ambitious.
And if I'm thinking, all right, if we're going to sell ourselves and be able to, there's a certain expected production quality and we want to make sure that we can
Keep that up.
I lost the plot there a little bit, but no.
Not a good thing to say for a filmmaker, but no, I totally got the gist of what you were saying.
Yeah.
So our friend, Nathan Deming, who connected us, Nathan's been on the show several times, says, you're a big movie buff.
What kind of movies do you like to watch, Tim?
All movies.
I know that's a cop out, but I like pretty much everything.
I've tried really hard.
I know a lot of people who work in movies and maybe you can relate to this, but.
Once you like know how the sausage is made it gets hard to watch movies sometimes Yeah, and I have fought tooth and nail to not lose like my when I was a little kid I liked every movie I watched first Yeah, you know you just do it and I've tried so hard to keep that and not I can switch off my movie maker brain so well and just Take in what the filmmaker wants me to take in whether it's some
slice-of-life drama where someone's eating pie for an hour or if it's Terminator 2, which is one of my favorite movies of all time.
I know it's a bit of a cop-out to say everything, but I actually mean it.
You have a genre that you're specific to.
Let's say you have some time.
You're like, I want to put a movie in.
What genre, typically, are you drawn to that will make you want to sit down and watch something?
I mean, just general leisurely walk.
Anything that is kind of in that.
I know genre areas, like genre fests would be like whether it's action movies or horror movies or comedies, mixes of all those things always feel really great to me.
But that's where I go to if I just want to watch something.
But like I said, if someone says, hey, I really love this movie, I'm probably going to watch it.
Okay.
Influenced everywhere.
Well, you're doing, you're making things happen.
I love talking to people who are proactive like that.
You know, drop by next time you have a new film.
I'd love to play a clip of it on the air and keep us posted with what is happening with Action Wisconsin.
It's a very noble effort.
I hope you guys are successful and keep us posted on that as well and see if we can get this thing going.
Oh, we will.
All right, Tim, don't change your name ever.
Oh, I will.
Don't worry about that.
Thanks so much for being on the show tonight.
Have a great night.
You as well.
All right, that's Tim Schweigel.
Oh, Claire based filmmaker and film activist, too.
You think about that Conrad?
You think we need film incentives?
I think I
What would you do?
Let's say right now you're going to make a 10 minute short.
What's Conrad?
10
Hey, wait a minute.
You know.
It's funny
but like you could be the guy like people watch people play video games which blows my mind.
You could be the guy that record yourself watching movies.
We might be on to something.
this after the news.
Rob Thomas is coming up at 7 20 folks.
Get your text in.
What would you change your name to Rob stuff is pre recorded content.
So we've got about 20 minutes if you want to get your text in.
And we're going to come back and have a little ode to Rhea Perlman.
That's Carla from Cheers.
After the news, it's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.