 Today's video is going to be a discussion with Peter Ramsey. He's the director of Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse, and he's also directing on Mandalorian Season 3, and I'm joined by Dimitri Milkin, who is a good friend of mine, is a writer-director, and he's a partner in our terrestrial project. It's an awesome discussion, so let's not waste time. Let's get right into it. There he is. Here's Dimitri. Hey, everyone. All right, so if you're watching my channel, you've realized that there hasn't been an upload for quite some time, but there's a good reason for this, because I've been working with Dimitri on a very special project. I'm super pumped about this. I am so excited. We've been working on this for a while, and it's finally here. JD, tell them what we're doing. So Dimitri and I are teaming up to direct this epic blockbuster quality animated sci-fi short called Terrestrial, and we're sharing all our pitch material here with you for the whole week. This is going to be a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday reveal with special guests, so stay tuned. They're going to be talking about the project. It's going to be awesome. I can't wait to show you. So now you know the title. Now you know the people behind it, but what is the story about? Well, Dimitri will tell you more. We started with a question. What if E.T. couldn't go home on a crumbling alien planet? An irresponsible celebrity astronaut living in the shadow of his heroic commander father finds an orphaned alien child and must make a choice to disobey direct orders in order to save her life. It's a story about the universality in every sense of the word of being a parent across all possible cultures. So this project is the first iteration of this IP and it acts as a proof of concept for a feature length story, which lends itself to sequel after sequel and in fact an entire narrative universe. It's epic. It's huge. It's not just one little contained story. There's so many story strengths that we can build upon. It's just it's really cool. I'm super excited about this. So we're doing things a bit differently. Instead of shopping this around kind of quietly behind the scenes, we thought why not show this here to all of you and make a big splash and see what comes our way. It's unconventional, but we believe in the short. We believe in the story and the potential of it. So we want to go step by step and share that with you. You get to watch this pitch. You get to be part of the journey of getting it made. You get a sneak peek behind the scenes the entire way. And most importantly, you get to be part of it by spreading the word because the only way that we can make this movie at the scale that it needs to be to do it justice is if you let your voices be heard that it's something that you want to watch. Why are we doing this? We want the industry to come to us. Be a part of this. Come help us build this new franchise. Explore the potential that it has with its awesome and fantastic storytelling. Stay tuned for a first look clip from our animatic. But first, our conversation with Oscar-winning director of Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse, the Mandalorian, and Rise of the Guardians, Peter Ramsey. Welcome to Terrestrial Week. Welcome to Terrestrial Week. Oh. Hey. Hey, guys. JD, Peter, Peter, JD. Hey, JD, how are you? Hi. Thank you for taking the time. I know you're busy, so I don't want to waste your time. But also the reason why we're doing this is just because instead of pitching this project where it's just Dimitri and I talking, kind of like a talking head type of thing that could be potentially very boring, we thought it would be great to have someone like you here as a discussion guest. You have so much experience with movies and that type of work. And you've seen the animatic, you know, you give us notes and it's super helpful. And for me, it's, and for Dimitri, we want to know for someone like you who has done so much work with it for live action and animated, when you watch the animatic, what resonated with you? What spoke to you in terms of what you watched that? Yeah, no, I just thought that the story, it was a story being told by people who know what story they're telling. You know, when you feel like, when you feel you're in the hands of a good storyteller, it always, it always impresses me and it always, you know, I pay a little bit more, I'll pay a lot more attention, you know, because I know that it's going to be worth the time. And that's, you know, it's you kind of, you kind of make a deal with the audience that what you're going to, what you're putting on the screen is going to be worth their time that they're giving you, you know. So it's a big, big thing. And it's a big hurdle to get over. So for me, that very first thing of feeling like, oh, this is really going somewhere. And I get a sense of depth and I can see there's, you know, there's thematic stuff to it, the pacing, the atmosphere, you know, it creates, you know, when it creates a mood that really works, you know, all the, all those things let you know that you're in the hands of a good storyteller and then you forget and you just give yourself over to the story. Well, yeah, I mean, I try to be professional and not get too clumped from that, but I just think you can't get it together. We're doing this in such a weird, unconventional way of just putting all of our pitch materials on YouTube, on JD's channel. Instead of going about the regular way, I feel like because you also have such an experience working with various studios, what about this project? Do you feel like that world would resonate with, like the studio system? Because ultimately our goal is to, you know, to have studios see this, essentially come to us and be like, hey, we want to help you make this. You feel like what you've seen so far would do that. I would accomplish that. Oh, I think so. I mean, executing this story well, people are going to see it and see the worth of it as a story and get that stuff because you guys know what you're doing. It's just a crapshoot as to who in the system will see it and respond to it in a way that gives them the confidence to want to take it further. Like traditionally, when you pitch a project, this you've been through this, this additional path is you put together a pitch packet, your pitch deck, your script, all these materials. Ultimately, the best case scenario that you hope for is that it lands on a very full desk of someone that has a large amount of content to sift through. And so we feel like it's our responsibility, especially with things being so different now in the industry, to stand out from the pack. And essentially what we're doing is we're doing that. We aren't just saying, hey, we have a great story. We have a great project. Please, please, please take a look at us. We're saying we also can deliver an audience. We can deliver the big grandness of it. We can deliver the excellence that we can surround these artists. Like all these things that we've put together ourselves and we can come to you on your terms, you know, through your screen and not on this giant pile. Essentially, try to make their life a little easier by coming to them in a different unexpected way. Yeah. Yeah. I totally get it. That it all makes sense. That all makes total sense. The good thing about what you have is it feels like it's already real. You know, people are much more amenable, I think, when they can, the more they can see and understand about what you're doing. I think it helps them feel, it helps them see it more clearly and it also helps them feel like, oh my God, this thing is happening already with or without me, you know? Yeah. And that's kind of the atmosphere that we want to create. It's like, wow, yes, this is a big pitch. And like, we have all these materials that throughout the week, we're having this big week of reveals. Like today we're going to reveal the big, like the animatic, like a big clip. So it's going to be like this sort of big, you know, spectacle week. But we also want it to be essentially inspiring. We want to give people, both an audience and people in the industry, something to root for. Because like, it's one thing to be like, hey, like, here's my project. I hope you like this and that. But it's also like, here's everything that we've assembled. We're doing this, trains like Lino Station, like get on because, and root for us, aside from when you help us, but also we want to show like, we want to build an audience and have them have an emotional stake in what we're doing. But you know, your stamp of approval doesn't hurt. I'm flattered that you think so. Yeah, I am kind of interested for you guys to talk a little bit more about, you know, what the story means, really means to you. I mean, I know, Dmitri, I know, you know, you're a recent father and you're just kind of going through this. So I know, I know that it's really personal for you. So maybe you could talk about how this comes out of, you know, what's been happening in your life. Absolutely. Yeah, I have an 18-month-old, full-blown toddler. Yeah, you know, being a dad has completely shifted me both personally and my wife keeps telling me like in my writing. All of a sudden, you know, everything is about being a parent. Everything I write is all of a sudden about fatherhood or embracing that responsibility and the joys of it. And terrestrial really comes out of really two things. One is that transformation, that identity shift, that transition from the sort of the selfish mind, the goal-oriented to the, oh my God, like there's this being that I did not comprehend what it would do to me, like to my identity and so willingly and so happily to do that. So there's that shift, this is about, but it's also in part about being an immigrant, honestly, which JD and I are both immigrants. JD is an immigrant, he moved over, how old were you? Uh, past 24, 99, I've been here 20 years. Yeah. And then... So it's all in the original. I came over as a political refugee when I was six from Russia. And so that transition from leaving your, you know, as a child leaving one place and then completely culture shift to a completely new place, it very much resonates in this. So it's kind of that merge of those two feelings of suddenly the transition of being a parent, the relationship between Puck Paters, the hero astronaut and living in the shadow of his heroic commander father. And that experience of shifting from being a son to now being a father, like that transition, while also taking into account the experience that the little alien has of leaving the only thing that you know, and going to the unexpected. Wow, very cool. It's very true. And I think it's, because I think you have you're a parent as well, I believe. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's the thing that spoke to me just with the story, because I have two kids, a younger one and a much older one. And I think the story, the universal story of being a parent and caring for someone and taking care of someone, be it your child or not, I think that's what draws me to the story. And I think that might be hopefully something that is appealing to many people, where it's that personal story that's set in such a grand scale of sci-fi and spectacle. So hopefully that will be something that people will like. I mean, there's a lot going on in the film. What do you see as the next steps in the process of the making of Terrestrial and beyond that, what's the future for this thing? Where is it all going? We have lots of ideas in terms of where this can go, because it's a short, but the short is based on the longer treatment for a movie. So this could be just the beginning of the movie is the short. And if that happens, that would be great. And if this goes directly into the movie to tell the larger, bigger, more personal story, even better. But within that universe that we talked about with Dimitri, there's so much you can do in terms of what happens after the story is done, what happens before this whole story started. There's so many aspects of this in terms of the different characters, how they got there, and all of that is always rooted in family and relationships and also loss. Because the thing is with my... For me, for that story, it's not just having a baby and being a new father. My older one is 25. So I went through teenage hood and conflict and problems, and that's also in the story. And also loss. Like as I'm older, friends and family members, they have died, there's so much in the story that I can connect with. And I think this whole story in terms of making the whole movie as one story, but also not saying it has to be sequels in a franchise. But it's just, it's a story. But it does. There are characters as a whole that can be further explored. It's not just like a one-off, which it can be and it works to me very well within that, but it can branch out and do more. And this could be more shorts, prequels, sequels, whatever it is. So that's kind of the wishful thinking again. I started this whole project from its original conception with one question, which is, what if E.T. couldn't go home? You know, what if E.T. came to Earth and was stuck? And what sort of world is it coming to? And what sort of world was it coming from in the conflict there? What if not everyone agrees? What if not everybody wants E.T. to be there? That sort of thing. So, and you know, it's J.D. and Star Wars. You know, I'm like, okay, well, what if it's similar themes, father, son, you know, political dynamics, stuff like that. But what if it's not in a galaxy far, far away? What if it's coming from there, but coming to us? What if they're coming to Earth? And what if it's our galaxy, our planet? And what if it's not a long, long time ago? What if it's right now or the very near future? And so essentially this short is a preamble to that longer story of, okay, so now they're going, you know, they have this alien. Well, what are they gonna do? What is, is Earth ready for that? What happened with the, is there any survivors of the civilization? What happens there? How did they even get in this? How did that plan to get in that state? How did the planet, you know, is it natural? Is there war? How does that affect all that? So, to the J.D. point, like there's, there's, what I did was I created a story about a father and son and that conflict and that transition between a son that's trying to get out of his father's shadow and then realizing and assuming responsibility. And that's sort of our anchor, but everything else around it is just questions. I just wanted to create a series of questions that an audience would want answered. Wow, sounds great. I mean, how much beyond the questions, how much do you actually have worked out? As to the storylines. Oh, it's a full written feature. Oh, fantastic. Wow. Sounds great. Sounds, and also sounds really, you know, to your point earlier about, you know, as being a story about immigration, it sounds really relevant. I mean, super relevant to today. Seems, I mean, I think that's, you know, in addition to the, you know, the, the, the relatability of father-son story, having a take on an issue as like pressing and as sort of, you know, immediate as the, as this one about, you know, touches on immigration, diversity, whatever, you know, there's so many things that it feels like it gets into. That seems like it could get some, get some eyeballs and some attention. I'm intrigued. I'd watch it. Well, thank you very much. Yes, thank you. Oh, it's my pleasure. My pleasure. Now, and I'm seriously, I'm not just saying that. I didn't, I didn't really know the larger ambition for it. But, you know, if you guys are delving into stuff like that, that sounds amazing to me. Yeah, no, and I totally, I think you guys have really found a great, a great balance of that. You know, I mean, the, you're, you're sitting on two rock solid ideas, you know, rock solid thematic concerns that are like, you know, they're organic to the story. So, you know, you have that. And I think there's a, it's, it's just, it's much easier to build something, I think, kind of lasting and something that's got some actual quality to it when you're starting with strong, strong ideas beyond just a high concept like an alien lands on earth or, you know, a guy can, you know, turn gravity backwards, whatever it is, you know, you've got something deeper that like people can relate to. And that comes directly from people's lives. And that's, that is what gives you longevity. And it's all that stuff under the hood that people aren't conscious of necessarily as they're watching, but it's working on them and they feel it and they internally, they know it. Yeah. So many spoilers in this discussion. Well, should we, should we show everyone, should we, you know, we can't show the whole animatic in full because we want people to take it to festivals and they have their rules. So let's do the big reveal without further ado. Great. Yeah. All right. Like a plan. And roll it. Stick up his butt, pompous dinosaur. He had his time. It's my time now. But no, he can't share the spotlight. Not the amazing one and only commander over in patterns. Are you talking to me? What? No Jenkins. Can I get a minute? Yep. Sure. It's just that you are way off course here and I really think that you should- Old man couldn't care less about me when I was a kid. Why should I expect him to now? I swear you can't see what's right in front of him. Get down. Get down. Show yourself. Oh God, you're an illusion. Are you okay? Are you hurt? Can you speak? Should I get help? Do you need help? What did you do to me? I can't take her. I'll be court-martialed. No, I'll get help. Help. But attention, this is Puck. I need assistance in the western ruined quadrant. Hello? Can anyone hear me? This is unstable. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. What have you been doing? This city is about to fall apart. Not now Jenkins. You only know straining simulation for this. Drop it. The pack's not worth it. I can't show you everything. There's some awesome stuff before and after but for now that's all we can show. But come back on Wednesday. It's going to be part two of another reveal and Friday's going to be part three. It's going to be awesome stuff. So stay tuned.