It wasn't closely.

What's the secret thing?

Just got to find something you love to do and then do it for the rest of your life.

I don't want to be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me.

Hello and welcome to the Establishing Shot, a podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies.

I am your host Eli Price, and we are here on episode 119 of the podcast.

As you may know, we kind of wrapped up our Spielberg series with the Spielberg epilogue last week.

And yeah, so we're kind of in a little bit of a hiatus.

I still have some episodes that I'm wanting to do and kind of spread throughout the end of this year to the end of this year.

So yeah, this is kind of a special episode.

I, I didn't anticipate this happening, but I got in contact, reached out to by indie film, a director and his agent to check out this new indie film stationed at home.

And so today I'm going to do a quick review of this film and I had the opportunity and privilege of interviewing the director, Daniel Macchiari on about this movie and about, you know, his experience as a director.

I'm in a filmmaker.

And so, yeah, I'm excited to get to do this.

And, and I really enjoyed this film.

So I'm going to, I'll, what I'll do is I'll, I'll just kind of introduce it, give the give a, a quick review, my thoughts on the movie, and then we'll transition into that interview with with Daniel.

And, and it was a great interview, a great conversation.

He had some awesome things to say about the movie that I really loved.

So that really kind of like, I guess confirmed a lot of things I was like feeling or thinking with the movie.

So, yeah, I'm excited to share with you that that conversation with Daniel.

But yeah, let's let's talk about the movie.

Daniel Machiari.

He's he's a indie filmmaker from Boston or the Boston area.

And yeah, this is his first feature film on his debut feature called Stationed at Home.

It is shot in black and white and set in the late 90s on a cold Christmas Eve Eve in Binghamton, NY.

And it follows this taxi driver named Ralph, played by Eric Bjarnar, who was kind of a revelation in this movie.

You know, he's not like a well known guy, obviously, but was really great acting in this.

So enjoyed that.

But it follows him, Ralph, this taxi driver on his night shift rounds on this Christmas cold, cold Christmas Eve as he has recurring encounters with this ragtag crew and is anticipating the International Space Station going across the sky into view.

And so, yeah, first of all, the the film looks phenomenal.

He worked with his DP was Jackson Jarvis.

And in the interview, he talks about his collaboration with him and it looks really great.

I was getting a Jim Jarmusch vibes from the movie, not just because of movies like oh, shoot the Jim Jarmusch film Night on Earth, which is, you know, also kind of taxi driver themed, but not just because of that.

But it really like obviously the indie feel that you get with Jarmusch film, you get here, but also just like the visual sensibility, the kind of like there's this kind of dry humor throughout and and you're you're really following these kind of outsider characters and that I think you get a lot with Jim Jarmusch.

So yeah, which I love Jim Jarmusch.

He's kind of one of my favorite indie film directors.

And so I was I was kind of locked into that feel from the get go because of that.

And one of the things that impressed me most with this movie.

And I, and I talked with Daniel about this later on, is the visual language.

He has a real sensibility for how to communicate with the camera, not just with the dialogue of the characters or narration or whatever, but communicating with you what he's trying to get across with the visual language.

One of the things that we talked about in the interview is the insert shots.

There's tons of insert shots, a doll or a nesting doll on a shelf or there's, you know, when you're in Ralph's home, kind of these objects and things that he is placing or grabbing, you know, his cat, wherever his cat is positioned, he's insert, insert shots that really like to give you a feel for the space you're in the atmosphere, making you kind of like pause and meditate on that.

And then just like, I don't know, like I talked about this transition that he uses to kind of like it's a humorous transition that is totally like visual.

There's there's not anything being said, but it communicates so much of like, you know, Ralph is scratching off a ticket, the lottery ticket.

And then it cuts to them with this big meal out of diner and you know, you're communicating like these.

Got this.

This taxi driver and his passenger are now have decided to share a meal together.

You know, you've cut in the edit from him scratching off the ticket just before you kind of see that he's won to that meal.

There's so much communicated in that right?

These guys have decided Ralph has decided to share this with with Harry the the other character.

It's humorous because they've decided to go have a big meal at at a diner with this lottery money that he's won.

It's not a lot.

It's like a few 100 probably that's a scratch off.

Yeah, it just like this communication through visual language and there's a lot of that.

There's a lot of, you know, looking up at the sky and you know that that theme of remember to look up kind of throughout visually.

So I was, I was really impressed with with just ability to use visual language and such a powerful and, you know, refined way for for a debut film.

The other thing I was surprised by was the humor.

You know, it kind of had me chuckling throughout the movie.

It's not like laugh out loud humor.

It's kind of like chuckle worthy humor that I really appreciated.

Just some of it is situational.

There's this scene where before Ralph and Harry meet, where Harry's kind of talking to his girlfriend and trying to have a serious conversation with her, and Ralph is in the background getting coffee and it's loud and pouring into his cup, and Harry pauses and looks back at him.

The kind of situational humor, some of it's even like slapstick or silly.

There's this car chase sequence that's very kind of slapsticky and funny.

There's this moment where Harry gets out of the car after a long ride and the fair is like over $1000, which is kind of funny.

They they exchange glances.

So I was surprised by like this dry humor that's throughout as well that I that I really appreciated and kind of enjoyed.

You know, another thing with this movie is that the characters and the place very lived in and real, which I picked up on that and was feeling that as I was watching it and reflecting on it.

And as Daniel will share when we get into the interview, his he really got the inspiration from just this place, just being in this place in this certain moment.

And so it made makes a lot of sense now knowing that and he'll expound on that more when we go to the interview.

But there's there's great chemistry between these characters.

They they feel real.

They don't feel kind of like fake.

They don't feel like forced.

They just kind of feel like they are who they are.

They they've lived lives.

They will live lives after this.

And and yet in the place feels very lived in.

You know, it was shot mostly, I think on location in Binghamton.

And so, yeah, I I just loved the the kind of atmosphere of it there.

There's one character, Jack, that's kind of a part of this ragtag crew that Roth picks up that he wasn't my favorite character.

I, you know, he kind of rubs you the wrong way, which I think is on purpose, to be fair, and then has a moment of like kind of character revelation later in the film where I think you're supposed to feel like more sympathetic for him and didn't really click with me.

But really he's the only character like that.

Like, I love Ralph, the main character.

Obviously I loved him.

Harry Layed by Darrell Johnson is really great.

The the other friend in this crew is George.

He's played by Peter Foster Morris I believe.

He was really funny and enjoyable.

A lot of side characters that you only kind of encounter in moments.

And then there's the guy, this guy Scott Williams, who's the radio DJ that you kind of hear his voice throughout.

Great stuff.

Daniel even shared that a lot of that stuff was just kind of like improv and, you know, this guy riffing and sending him stuff.

And so that the way they edited that radio DJ throughout is really, really great.

Yeah.

And then thematically, you know, there's a lot of stuff going on, probably more stuff than I was able to see.

Probably even it's one of those films where you watch where you're like, I could watch this again and get get something more out of it.

And that's always a good indicator, right.

And so and and you know, I think I think sometimes too, even as speaking to things that that the artist maybe didn't even realize it was speaking to, one of the things I noticed was this, I don't want to talk too much about these because I talked about some of this with Daniel.

So I don't want to like reiterate, but these like small kindnesses that you see throughout the film, a sharing of 1/4, a sharing of some toothpick.

Daniel mentions, you know, and then it's connected to this, you know, the International Space Station is going to cross the sky is kind of this thing that you're anticipating and that Ralph is anticipating this the whole movie.

And you know, you you get that moment eventually.

But it's yeah, it's it's kind of like that International Space Station kind of represents the interconnectedness of people, the bridging division sort of thing.

And you get that on a cosmic like level and space.

But you also with that, you know, with that being the thing they're looking forward to seeing, but also in those small moments between characters.

And I really liked that.

And then, you know, just that theme of always remember to look up is something that you hear kind of a few times throughout the movie and just about that, you know, that connectedness to something greater that you kind of feel through the movie.

It's not like that's a good thing about the movie.

This these aren't things that are like being said necessarily.

They're things that you kind of feel.

And that's what I really love with the movie.

I love what I can connect with a movie.

And I can feel things that aren't necessarily like being forced down my throat, that aren't being like, I'm not being told this is how you're supposed to feel.

I'm just feeling it along with the characters or with, you know, with the film makers as they're they're capturing and editing these sequences.

And so, yeah, this is connectedness to something greater than this longing for something transcendent that you can kind of feel in the movie.

And then and there's a moment kind of late in the film that I absolutely love that I'm still kind of thinking about and contemplating on that I talked about with Daniel and ask him about.

But yeah, I, I really enjoyed this.

I thought it was a really great debut feature film.

Looking forward to to seeing more from Daniel and whatever he creates next.

And so, yeah, but that's enough.

I think, of my thoughts on the movie.

We're going to transition now to that interview with Daniel Machiari about Stationed at Home.

And yeah, I hope you enjoy it.

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Back to the show.

Hey, I am excited to have on a this is I believe your second film from what I saw on kind of letterbox.

OK, first feature first feature film.

Daniel, I I should have asked you this before we started recording, but your pronounce your last name for me.

Yep, Mashari.

MASHIARI OK, See, I was going to do the the hard K sound and so I'm glad I asked you.

And so yeah.

Daniel Mashiari And he has a new film, his first feature film stationed at home.

It is available to buy and rent now that you can go hop on Amazon.

I don't, I'm not sure if it's any other places but I did see it on Amazon.

Yeah, Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango.

Great.

Yeah, Dish Network.

Yeah, so you can go, you can go check it out now, but we're going to talk to Daniel about him, just like his journey to, to this film and and then dig into the film a little bit.

So Daniel, thank you for for coming on.

I'm excited to talk to you about, you know, your, your journey to this film and, you know, yeah, I'm, I'm excited.

How are you?

Good.

Thank you, Eli.

Really appreciate being here.

Excited to talk with you.

Yeah, so, you know, you, this is your your first feature film, but I'm sure this just didn't just like happen.

You didn't just wake up and decide one day, you know, oh, I'm going to direct a film now.

So I would love to hear, you know, what drew you to film and made you want to be a director?

Was it, was it a moment in your childhood or was it a film you saw or, you know, how did you come to this moment?

That's a, that's a great question.

I guess I could answer it in a number of ways.

When I was little, my parents got me this little Canon ZR300 camera because they knew that I wanted to like mess around and make films with my friends and everything.

So we made some, you know, terrible films with that.

And I, I always, I always felt like there was a vision that could never be executed when I was a little kid.

And so, so I was just tooling around and it and it became this passion of mine to edit films.

So I was always shooting things with my friends just to get to edit them because I was, you know, it's solitary and I could kind of create something on my own.

And then it wasn't, you know, a plan to make my first feature film from the get go.

I was working as an editor for 10 years or so.

What the time I guess cuz I've been making this film for like 6 years, so like 5 years at the time.

And I got this idea for the film for Station at Home when I was on a bus from New York City to Ithaca, NY, And we stopped in Binghamton.

And it was a cold winter night.

And I was listening to the song Dusk by Duke Ellington and something about stepping out and looking at this abandoned train station on a train track.

There was some mood that I was just really gravitating to.

And the music and the cold, it just inspired the film that is out now.

And so I was imagining Eric Bjarner, who plays Ralph, as his lone cab driver kind of in this forgotten city.

So yeah, it was, it was.

I never said, oh, I want to, you know, just make films.

I was just, I, I always made my short films and, and this film from the same source of inspiration where I felt the need, like I had to make it.

There's something existential about that process to me.

So I'd say that was sort of the motivation for this.

That's definitely the motivation for this film.

And everything I write is there's some yearning inside that it has to be a film, some some idea has to be a film.

Yeah, yeah.

So how, how do you get from, you know, that kind of like transcendent moment of inspiration to, you know, a script and a crew and like, what does that process look like for you?

Where, where?

What steps do you take?

I guess along the way?

I love that question.

Yeah.

So fortunately I have.

I, I mean, on this film, I just had the best collaborators you could imagine.

And with this, with this film, I wrote the film with a lot of inspiration from the city of Binghamton and actors that I'd worked with before who are just so amazing.

So I was able to actually write the parts.

Most of the characters in the film I wrote for them.

So I knew the chemistry between them.

I could knew sort of the vibe that I would get from working with them.

And I, I was really using that as muses essentially to sort of get an idea of where the film will go, because I could imagine them as those characters in it in an interesting way.

Some of the characters I didn't have that, but for the bulk of the of the leads I did.

Yeah, very cool.

Yeah.

And what I, I guess like, so when I was watching the movie, there is this moment where I, so I really love Jim Jarmusch films.

And so there was a moment when I was watching it where I was like, and I'm picking up some Jim Jarmusch vibes.

And so I don't know if it's if it's like a indie, another indie director like Jim Jarmusch.

But what were your inspirations like a film wise, like maybe a, a, a director or maybe like a specific film?

Were there any things you had like in mind that kind of like you were drawing from?

Not necessarily like I'm going to make a movie like this, but just like inspirationally.

Yeah, I mean, I have to admit, when I was writing the film, I really just felt this.

It was almost a myopia.

Like I just knew the film I wanted to make.

I knew the cab driver was waiting for the International Space Station, and I knew the characters that would surround him while I was writing it.

So there was no, there was no feeling of, oh, this particular film was inspiring me in that way, I'd say.

Like, I mean, when I was little, I would watch a lot of oddball films that my parents would show me just they had this their first date they saw like the Elephant Man and that film I saw when I was like, really young.

I saw a lot of Hitchcock films growing up and yeah, and you know, and Tonyone films as well.

So I think these films definitely inspired me.

I mean, I love Jim Jarmusch as well.

A lot of people have made the connection with this film, I think largely because of the sort of black and white and you know, Night on Earth is a tab film as well.

I mean, to me it's like a hugely flattering, although it's like also, you know, I, I, I have a lot of admiration for him and these other film makers.

So it's a it's definitely a funny feeling.

And then and then Kirastami as well.

I love Kirastami films like Taste of Cherry and close Up.

So yeah, I think these films definitely had an effect on me in terms of how you can take a simple subject or like a simple, a simple character even, and sort of create a very fruitful sort of place that they exist in, in that, in that sort of with a beauty sort of shined on it.

So yeah, I think I think the inspiration was definitely from just like years of watching films that like a lot of people don't see, right, that sort of realization that film can really be a poetic medium, so.

Yeah, one thing I was going to say.

One thing I noticed that I really honestly, you know, for for first time directors, a lot of times you don't see is the, the visual language.

So a few, few things that I have in mind are like, there's a lot of whenever you get to a new setting, you use a lot of insert shots of just kind of like the environment to kind of you really build like the atmosphere of each new kind of place they they end up in by just kind of throwing in some insert shots of some, you know, things on a shelf or, you know, you know, these people over here.

And so I really liked that.

And then also just like there's that that kind of more comical visual moment where Ralph is scratching off his ticket and then it immediately cuts to them like chowing down and cutting into their stakes.

But it's, you know, how do you, how do you envision, you know, those communicating in those visual ways instead of having the characters dialogue about the atmosphere or, you know, that sort of thing?

Yeah, I love, I love that question.

Think I think what I'm writing, especially this film, I really wanted to almost slow time down a bit.

Yeah.

So there was just this instinct of, you know, just slow down and see what you can find in those textured moments, those those inserts and working with Jackson Jarvis, who's just one of my best friends, incredible DP.

He was in involved from the gecko.

Like second, I sent him my first script.

She's like, I want to do this.

So we really had fun making sure we got those inserts in the textures of the film, especially because so much of the film is about, you know, the cosmos, right.

So we wanted to play with, you know, high angle shots, low angle shots, things that sort of give this connection between the the ground and the sky.

So I mean, it's, it's very subtle sometimes, you know, like we can, there might be some wide shots where the cameras just ever so slightly tilted up or at a slider low angle than you'd normally do.

And I think it just sort of we wanted the, you know, the characters in the film, like especially when they're walking around town kind of feel like aliens or something on Earth where they're just, you know, in this forgotten place.

Some kind of rambling here.

But I think the I love that you picked up on those inserts because I think I love I love a good insert shot.

There's something about it that I don't know, the audience just, it's kind of hypnotized on these, like.

Yeah, you know, well, it, it makes sense too, because, you know, you, you talked about being just inspired by this place and a place is like, what makes a place have a certain feeling or a certain vibe?

Are those things that you like look around and see when you walk into a new, you know, a new place or a new room or whatever.

And so I, I feel like it's, it was because you were so inspired by the place.

It makes sense that, you know, you wanted to capture that vibe by, you know, giving us those shots, those visual shots to help us feel what you, I guess, were feeling when you were inspired to make it.

Definitely, yeah, I think that.

And again, like just harping on the insert shots as well.

There's something about you can do a lot with sound, too, when you're in an insert shot because a whole space of sound opens up when you're just looking at, say, you know, a shot of Duke Ellington and Ralph's apartment.

You know what?

What is that sound?

Maybe it's just silence or something like that.

So yeah, I think, you know, sound was a huge part of this film.

And working with Jack Lyden, our sound designer and mixer, we created a lot of really fun sounds together and found a lot of cool ways to give that space of Binghamton.

It's due when it comes to the, to the Sonic world.

Because when you're in Binghamton, because of the architecture is so vast and especially in the winter when it's kind of empty, you can hear, you know, the faintest sound will reverberate, you know, across the city.

It's, it's a really beautiful, like a motorcycle miles away.

You'll hear that, that little vibration if you're in the right spot.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, very cool.

Yeah.

It's it's funny how like these like small places that no one knows about have such like distinct feelings and vibes and unique like qualities.

I love that.

And I think I really think you capture that well through through the movie.

What?

Thank you.

I would, I would love to hear what inspired placing this around, you know, the International Space Station.

I'm assuming you had kind of like late 90s in mind when, when it was kind of a new, the International Space Station was like a new exciting thing.

But what?

What kind of inspired that idea?

Eric Bjarner, who plays Ralph, he in real life, he loves the International Space Station.

And, you know, it was years after he had sort of told me more about it that I remembered that thought that he had put into my mind, you know, this little dot in the sky.

And it just felt right.

He's waiting for that in 1998 because that's when it first launched.

And to me, it was this perfect example of the most mundane thing in the world, A dot in the sky.

Yet it has so much meaning historically.

And I think emotionally as well, when someone can look up there and say for all the troubles people have on Earth, there are humans up in the sky right now flying around and orbiting, orbiting the Earth.

Not always people up there.

But, you know, it's there's a magic in that sort of feeling that I always loved.

And so, yeah, that was it was Eric's, you know, essentially his passion for this idea and this object in the sky that allowed me to dream a lot about how that yearning to see that could affect the other characters in a way that maybe they don't even know until the end.

Yeah, yeah.

That's one thing that I was I was kind of noticing is I guess the idea of the International Space Station is kind of this, this coming together despite differences.

And I saw kind of along with that like very like cosmological idea is the smaller like tangible idea of like small kindnesses.

So like, and it seemed like throughout the film that was most like the recurring way it was used as like, hey, do you have 1/4?

Hey, do you have like any money?

And it's these guys who have nothing basically like sharing with each other with these small kindnesses.

And I don't know if that was like an intentional connection of like this cosmological coming together despite differences connected with these small kindnesses too.

I love that.

I really love that reaction.

I always definitely wanted to put a microscope to this film, you know, So we're picking up on these subtleties.

Little, you know, like, yeah, like the quarter toothpick, you know, these little things that, you know, somehow have an effect.

I'm.

You know, if you didn't scratch the scratch off there with Harry's quarter, they may not have gotten.

The whole story wouldn't have unfolded.

Yeah, so.

So it was Harry's.

Yeah.

It was Harry's giving nature to give him the quarter because, you know, he he feels like this man is someone he could be friends with.

You know, that it's those and I don't know about you, but in everyday life, you know, we could meet, meet someone who like a cab driver, for example, or someone, you know, working at a convenience store where you have this maybe bizarre connection with them that ends there.

You know, like, maybe there's like a chemistry that just ends there.

And this, this film is about, you know, having a moment like that where you're like this, like there's something there, there's some kind of connection, but taking it all the way to, you know, one whole night.

Yeah, Yeah, yeah, I love that.

Yeah.

That is a, a funny thing of like making those small connections you make with people that you probably will never see again.

And you know, the, the, I guess the what if of you know, what if I had more time to spend with this person And, you know, you even in the end, you kind of get the feeling like, I feel like Ralph and Harry will cross paths again, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

I think that's that's, I love that that thought as well, because we were watching it.

We had our Binghamton premiere last night.

I actually had that similar thought where, you know, I on the one hand, I on the one hand was thinking, oh, whoa, he's never going to meet him again.

He, you know, he's they've met that night.

And then there you go.

But there was this bond and this friendship.

And again, I got to give credit to these actors, Daryl Johnson in that for Harry and Ralph talking about their dynamic, Harry and Ralph's dynamic.

Eric.

Eric and Daryl just have such great chemistry.

Yeah, I feel like they were always meant to play this role together.

They have.

They're both kind of like the Blues in a way.

Now there's there's something about them that they can get on that wavelength of mood.

And Daryl actually describes the film as a haiku in a way, you know, a sort of poem of sorts in these subtle moments.

And that that moment actually in the diner where, you know, it was scripted as Ralph looking out the window and Harry looks out the window to see what he's looking at.

But and then I I had written it like Ralph looks to Harry and Harry looks to Ralph and then they both sit back.

But they played that moment up a little bit in rehearsal and I loved it where they both kind of go one after the other.

It's just a a fun moment where they're both kind of in on something, maybe without knowing it.

It works very.

It's like, you know, in a very walks of fine line that I like.

Yeah, yeah.

I love that.

I also noticed, you know, in the, as the, you know, before the credits roll, you know, you said that this was dedicated to your grandfather.

And I was wondering if the character of Ralph was kind of influenced by or inspired by him as well, and in what ways that might be.

Yeah.

I think, you know, in retrospect, I think, well, there were a couple layers to this.

So one, I grew up watching a lot of films with my grandfather because he would let me stay up late and, you know, Yeah, my parents didn't know about it.

Yeah.

And his name was Ralph.

And I really wanted him to see this film, but he had passed like a year or two before we shot, so that wasn't possible.

And and he remembers that Eric Bjornhar, who plays Ralph, had come over to my family's place once and visited in Boston, where I'm from.

And my grandfather made him meatballs and this Italian sort of tradition.

And, and so the character named Ralph, I think my grandfather had a, an innocence to him, like a mood of innocence that that name Ralph just sort of reminds me of.

There's something very simple about it and something very.

Did she use a synesthetic idea like that?

The color brown sort of just comes to my mind when I think of the word Ralph, sort of like a very calming, innocent kind of vibe.

So yeah, I think in that sense, I didn't name the character Ralph off of my grandfather, but I think that the name came to my mind probably because of a similar feeling I have with that name.

So yeah, I think that that's about it with that analysis.

But yeah, I like the question.

Yeah.

Now there's this other character that I was a bit of an enigma for me.

It is.

I'm trying to pull up the the Elaine.

Is it Elaine?

Yeah, she can.

So she rides with Ralph to this hotel.

And there are these sequences throughout the film where you cut to just Elaine and her in the hotel.

What was what was the thought process with that character?

Because we end up spending more time with her, you know, kind of by herself then then I expected, I guess when we first when I first saw her.

I would love to hear more about like that character.

And there's kind of this, I don't want to give away too much in this, but like this kind of surreal kind of moment that she she has.

I love to hear more about that.

Yeah, I know for sure.

Yeah.

And without giving too much away to the audience, yeah, I mean, I always felt Elaine was this character who was sort of the city of Binghamton, like sort of the the the other dimension of Binghamton.

You know, I always felt like the city of Binghamton, there's this hyper real kind of quality to it, and then there's this other dimension to it, this timelessness to it.

And I always felt like her character was going to explore the underworld of Binghamton.

So the character of Elaine always felt to me like the spiritual part of the film, you know, the other dimension of Binghamton.

Because I always saw Binghamton as having, you know, this reality of 1998, this sort of forgotten city, but then the spiritual timelessness to the city that to me, Elaine was this sort of force.

She could be in the late 1800s or the 1960s or something like that.

So, and without giving too much away to the audience, the her purpose as an enigma, I think I'm I'm happy that came through because I wanted it to be this question of of who is she?

And seeing it all connect to the to the adventure of the other characters.

I really wanted to tie the the sort of, yeah, the surreal, the sort of other dimension of the city to the to the real in a way that felt natural to the progression of the film.

Yeah, that's really interesting to me because when you're talking, I was just thinking, man, I've never really thought about how, you know, we we might think about like how we kind of have different sides of ourselves, are like physical side and are more spiritual side of our self.

But I've never really thought about that as much in terms of like a place, like a place has its physical side, but also this like kind of communal spiritual side to it that, you know, you can feel when you go somewhere new, maybe don't know how to explain it, but that that's super interesting.

Yeah, It, I love that you're saying that.

It's like the the idea of the uncanny in a way.

Yeah.

You know, that feeling of whoa.

And I actually, what's so fascinating too, is when I started writing the film, a friend of mine reminded me or you guys, I think I had known about it.

I'm blinking if I knew about it or the first time I was learning about it, that the Twilight Zone was spawned in Binghamton.

That's where the idea came from.

In fact, Rod Serling's, there's like a high school named after him.

So, yeah, I think there's something about the city that has this from the visuals of the buildings and maybe some other aspects to it, but there's something that feels timeless, at least to me.

So I think that, yeah, that spiritual dimension of the location was really important to me because I think in some ways allows the audience to become like, almost like be, it's like familiar yet not familiar at the same time.

So yeah, I'm, I'm happy that the the audiences seem to pick up on that.

And I think Elaine's enigma, her enigmatic quality, brings us to that throughout the film.

And I don't want to give too much away.

Yeah, that's really interesting too, about the Twilight Zone, because as soon as you said that, my mind immediately went to this.

There's a kind of Christmas themed Twilight Zone episode called The Night of the Meet.

I'm not sure if you've ever seen that, but I don't know where that was shot.

But it has a very like the town has a very similar vibe to, you know, Bingham Tom and and stationed at home.

So I don't know.

I'll have to.

I'll have to look that up after and see where that episode was shot.

Yeah, no better way to spend your Christmas holidays than watching The Twilight Zone, for sure.

It's a great, it's a great Christmas episode.

I love it.

It's my brother.

It's one of my brother in law's, like favorite things to watch.

He's the one that introduced it to me.

Yeah.

A Christmas time tradition for him.

I'll have to check that out.

So one of the other things that you know, I noticed is this this like radio announcer throughout the film is talking about different things.

And it all kind of culminates in this kind of transcendent moment, you know, where he's talking about the passing of the International Space Station.

And and there's this visual moments that I won't explain it in too much detail, but.

Of a, a person like going into a door that you're seeing through a hall and you know, into some light and you know, the, the announcers talking about, you know, the, the moment where like we'll say goodbye to the, the space station as it passes through the sky and someone else will be on the other side of the world will be welcoming it.

And it really like as I was reflecting on that afterwards, it made me think about how kind of death can be not just a moment of loss, but a moment of like passing on a legacy of sorts.

And you know, kind of throughout you see that Ralph is like reflecting on his mother too.

And so I was just wondering if if that's something that you had in mind of just this idea of death as this kind of like a passing on of a legacy and of a tradition and.

Yeah, I mean, I, I want to first say to Scott Williams, who did the radio DJ, it's just fantastic.

And, and he, he actually was sending me, he was riffing.

So like a lot of that he just came up with so a lot of these even more poetic phrases that he says throughout the film.

He was just riffing in his like bathroom and sending me like voice things.

And then ultimately we recorded it properly.

So I have to say, like the this idea too, of death and the poetic sort of build of the radio DJ was something that we found a lot of it, at least we found while we were editing the film.

I love that.

Which again, I come from an edit.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I come from an editing background.

And so to me, it's, you know, I wanted to make sure that as we were in post production, there was room to heighten things and elevate things without it being just, you know, just what we shot, just the script.

I wanted to, you know, be able to flow but still have those anchor points to make sure it all is correct.

But yeah, I think the.

To me, yeah.

Anyways, yeah, the space station is again, at least.

I mean, I'm probably wrong about this, but visually, as far as we can see humans out there, we're pretty far out.

I mean, we're not that far, you know, in terms of the Galaxy and the universe, but it still looks like we're getting out there, you know?

Still.

Yeah, I always.

And again, not to give too much away, but I really wanted to have this idea is, you know, not that, you know, heaven or, you know, the afterlife is necessarily in another sort of and maybe it's just further out, you know, maybe it's maybe it's just, you know, in space.

Not as far away as.

Was this an idea of thing?

Yeah, yeah.

Maybe the, you know, I just something we were playing with.

Yeah, just like the idea of space, like perhaps it's all out there and, you know, I don't know, just riffing.

Yeah, yeah, People are probably going to think I'm like, I don't know, tripped out or something.

No, no, like I, I love that because I think when we sometimes when like we create things, it ends up like we have to reflect on what we've created and, you know, think on it and it, it shows new things to us, even though we're the one that made it, you know, for sure.

I think that's a beautiful thing about art and creating things.

The, I think the black and white also allows for this ability to imagine more than what meets the eye.

I think sometimes color, I mean, obviously I love films that are made in color, but I think it it's, it's a bit more of a hurdle to allow the audience to to go into their own imagination a bit.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

So I think that's what I was going to.

Say great.

Yeah.

So before, before we go, I would love to to hear, you know, do you have any other like stories that you're like itching to tell?

Do you have anything else on the horizon?

Yeah, I can tell you off air about that.

That's fair.

It's sort of great.

It's in its infant stage.

Great.

I'd love, love to hear about the that secretly.

Well, yeah, one last question before we end.

I would love to hear just a recommendation, like something maybe that you've watched recently.

It could be new, could be old that you just loved and and want to recommend for other people to to see after they watch stationed at home.

Yeah, for sure.

So before I forget, yes, to all the audience watching this, please.

It's so important for independent films like Cars, Going, Rotten Tomatoes and rate and review it and Letterbox if you haven't really.

It really helps us get more and more visibility.

Yeah.

And I'll, I'll make sure to link link those in that description so people can just click on them and go review it.

Thank you so much.

But yeah, to movie recommendation that I've seen recently, there's quite a few.

There's this film I absolutely love called Delirious, OK, from 2006, starring Steve Buscemi.

He plays a, he plays a paparazzi guy.

And not to give too much away, but he takes this young man off the street essentially to like be his assistant.

And the young man has these aspirations to become an actor.

And so there's this like real sort of like heated relationship about like how much he owes Steve Buscemi for helping him.

What did he get some?

It's an incredible film.

It's a it's I can't believe I only had just seen it.

It's so good.

So I highly recommend that.

I love the film The Passenger by Antonioni starring Jack Nicholson.

Love that film Days of being wild by one car Y It's amazing, yes.

So those 3 for now.

OK, great Gary, I got more than I even bargained for, so I'll take it.

Well, thank you so much Daniel for for coming on and talking about your, your movie.

I really enjoyed it and I hope other people go go rent it and then review it.

And I hope everyone enjoys it too.

So best of luck to you on your journey with this film and and whatever projects you might have coming next.

Thanks a ton Eli, really appreciate being here.

Thanks.

Hello again.

Do you know how you can really support the show for free in just a few minutes or less?

That's right.

Just leave a rating and review on Spotify and Apple or wherever you listen.

That might allow for ratings and reviews.

These really help the visibility of the podcast.

In fact, just hit that pause button right now and drop the review right now and then you can get back to the show.

I'd greatly appreciate it.

Okay, I trust that you went and left that rating in review now.

Back to the show.

Huge thanks to again to Daniel Macchiari for coming on and talking with me about Stationed at Home.

Like I've said already on this episode, I really enjoyed it.

I highly recommend going and checking it out.

As we kind of just talked about in the interview, you can rent it and buy it on all the kind of typical Apple TV, Amazon, Fandango at home.

I think just search for a station at home.

I'll, I'll try to link some of those in the episode description.

And yeah, please go watch it and go, go rent it and and support this film.

Indie films are so they have to work so hard to, you know, promote and to get it, get it out there and get it in front of people.

And so I'm glad that I have the opportunity to to kind of help help with that with this film that I really enjoyed.

Yeah, you should go watch it and then go review it.

I'm going to put the links to Rotten Tomatoes, which is a something a lot of people use.

And then the letterbox, of course.

So I'll link those so you can go review the movie, rate it and that that helps a ton.

You know more than you can know for every little review, every little rating helps a ton, as I know as a podcaster and independent podcasters go do that.

But that is really, that's really it for the show today.

We have a few more things coming out over the course of the rest of the year.

They might be, they might not be every week, but I'm going to try to throw in a few more episodes before the end of the year.

And so be on the lookout for that.

I'm hoping I can get a best of the 21st century sofa far podcast recorded and out next.

So that's the that's the plan.

You'll find out if that's what happens when you see it in your podcast feed.

But but I want to, I want to just kind of go through a list of just films that I think represents the century so far, the this first quarter of the century from 2000 and 2024.

And so I'm going to do that and that that should be a fun episode, maybe a Christmas episode that I have in the works coming out at some point.

And so, yeah, those are those are a couple things that you might see in your feed soon.

Be on the lookout for those.

But until then, I've been Eli Price and you've been listening to the establishing shot.

We will see you next time.

We will not be here.

For a little while, but.

Look, I think.

It was.

This way.