 All right. Well, today we have Tom Parkin, Colorado filmmaker, Boulder High graduate, Boulder High long-time native. Your whole life had been here in Boulder County. Moved here in 1984. 1984, yeah, right, right, and and your latest film, Len Berry, 1, 2, 3. I almost want to sing that. And it's so great to have you here, and it's, you know, being our, it's gonna be our first program next week while we're filming this, and it's even a great help getting people to submit and to make this a venue for filmmakers to, to show their stuff and to get feedback from an audience. So super appreciate your help with that. Oh, I love that you're doing this. I think any venue in Boulder County to show local filmmakers work is great for everyone. So thank you for doing this. Yeah, good. It's good to start with the best. We got you here. So, no pressure. Thanks. So when, when I first heard about Len Berry, 1, 2, 3, I was who? Right. And, and I'm older than you, and I was around in the 60s, but probably more psychedelic, British Invasion type stuff is when I started to listen. Sure. But the, the Len Berry thing, and then I went back and I watched the trailer. It was super catchy. And what, and it's, it's interesting to me that you chose a figure that I wouldn't recognize. Right. You know, from rock and roll history. Sure. And what, what brought you to Len Berry as a topic for your doc? Well, it was an accident. In fact, I call the film an accidental documentary. Because my day job is producing sort of healthcare related programming. And I happened to be in Philadelphia producing a piece for an assisted living facility. It was just sort of like a marketing piece and part of that production was interviewing the residents that lived in this facility. Okay. And so I was in the conference room that he set up for me and they would bring in some of the residents just to talk about their experience living in this place. And the last person that came in was this highly energetic mid 70s guy. He kind of limped in, but he was like, hey, how you doing? Nice to meet you. My name's Lenny. I'm like, nice to meet you Lenny. All right. All right. Well, just have a seat here. Put a little microphone on him. And I started asking him questions about living at this facility. I said, yeah, the food's great here. You know, I have some problems walking. They got good physical therapy and I just love it here. It's terrific. You know, I just needed like a 10 second sound bite. So I got what I needed in just a few minutes. I said, well, thanks. And I started unhooking the microphone. I said, you know, Lenny, you're pretty good at being on camera. Have you done this before? And he goes, well, you know, I had a bunch of hit records back in the 60s. I said, wait, what? Well, are you serious? He goes, yeah, yeah. I had a band called the Dovels and like, okay, sounds vaguely familiar. I don't know. And then I did a quick Google search. I'm like, I know this song one, two, three. Right. Like, I've heard this before just in the pop culture ethos, you know. And I said, hey, can I, do you mind if I ask you some more questions? And he said, sure. So we sat down and we let me spend a half day with him. He told me his whole life story, showed me his gold record and all these things. And I had no idea. You know, it just I just accidentally met him on this shoot. And he told me his whole life story. And from there, you know, I mean, gosh, I must have about three hours of him talking on camera. I didn't know what I was going to do with it. I didn't know if I was going to make a short film or just a news piece or whatever. But you know, I was in the middle of many other projects. So that footage just sat on my computer for a couple of years. COVID hits. All right. You know, and I was like, okay, well, you know, still doing other projects. And then I got the call that he passed away. I said, well, now I got to do something with this footage. I mean, you know, let me just take a look at it. It was COVID. I didn't have much to do. So I got through the footage. And I remember when he was talking, he was very nonlinear. He would jump from decade back and forth. And I knew him when I was shooting this. This was going to be hard to edit whatever I choose to do with it. And but yeah, once I sat down and started to sort of figuring out, okay, well, he's talking about this here, I can make this into a linear thing. My initial cut was an hour and 15 minutes long. But he was talking so much about stuff later on in his career that there was zero B roll footage. And any filmmaker out there is going to, you know, you don't want just someone talking to the camera for an hour and 15. So I just opted to stay with his heyday, which was the 1960s, and found lots of footage online, finding the B roll footage. He did provide me with some photos and some records and whatnot. But yeah, it worked out. Yeah. No, I thought it was great. He has a lot of fun. He was so fun to just listen to talk to. It's like one of those things where you just like, this is a piece of rock and roll history that I've just stumbled upon. That is, that's incredible. That's almost like a film itself. And then you start to wonder about all these other people. And you'd be like, well, these people with these amazing pasts, and they don't they don't run around advertising this. No, they just just meant you asked him, have you been on camera before? Oh, yeah, in front of millions of people. He wasn't going to tell me otherwise. Yeah. I mean, he just told me, okay, well, tell me more. That's great. I mean, that's just always the filmmaker brain is like, is there a story here? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And there was. So that's that's terrific. Yeah. And so you had the whole thing. And I was watching it. It was kind of like, you know, because in a sense, you also have the you know, the arc of somebody like him in their career that they're gonna, they hit big. And then, you know, things kind of drift away. And they try to capture the old glory. And I'm just wondering where it's going to go. And then, but you nailed the most poignant ending I thought. And did that it when you filmed the sequence of that you finished the film with? Did you go like I got my ending right here? Or because because that's that that's settled with me. And I was just that that's amazing. Right. So obviously, I don't want to give away the ending. Right. But, you know, I think most filmmakers, especially documentary, when you're interviewing someone, I'm already editing in my head, right? I can use that. Oh, that's good. Oh, that's good. Oh, that ties to what he said earlier. Okay. But I knew I'd be ending with that particular thing. You know, because we're storytellers, right? And every story needs a beginning, middle and end. Okay. So, you know, without that, you just got, you know, talking, like, Oh, yeah, right. So, you know, I knew I started early in his career during his high school. That's when the band started. And so that's I just knew I had to come back to that somehow. And he already said it. So, you know, yeah, yeah, it was beautiful. Thanks. Just being a former teacher just hit me. Of course. Right, right. And he was just easy. I mean, I've worked on many documentaries in my time. But when you have a subject like him, just he was so charismatic, and just told his story. And I just it was such a joy to sit just listen, I only asked him like, maybe five or six questions. He just right. There was a few times where, you know, he jumped up like I said, he jumped around different time periods in his life. I'd have to say, could we go back to when you, you know, first did the recording? Can you talk about that day? Do you remember the day in the studio? Oh, yeah. And he just goes off. And it was great. Right. So, okay, well, I got something here. Yeah. Yeah, I think you definitely nailed it. Does he have family that have seen the film? Yeah. So, soon after I finished the film, he, I got a Facebook message from Spencer Barry. Spencer Borisov. Right. So, Len Barry is his stage name. Yeah. Leonard Borisov is his real name. But Spencer Borisov from Florida messaged me on Facebook. Hey, I understand you just made a film about my dad. I'm like, oh, hello. How are you doing? And so I sent him the link right away. And he, within, it's a 20 minute film, 30 minutes after I sent him, he said, this is wonderful. Thank you so much. This is great. I can't wait to show it to my wife and everything. This is right. Oh, well, thank you. Because I wasn't sure. He got really nervous. Like, I hadn't even submitted to any film festivals at that point. So I was a little nervous. Like, oh, what if his son hates it or something? I don't know. What do I do? Like, but yeah, it worked out. He liked it. So I got lucky there. Yeah. And now you're submitted to film festivals and it's doing well. So I actually completed the film in November of 2021. I started submitting the film festivals everywhere. And I was lucky enough to get into the Baldwin International Film Festival, our hometown festival. I've been working with them for 14 years doing various things. I do the, I produce their trailer every year. I do their on screen graphics. I'm their cinematographer. So I document it every year. And I, you know, submitted many times in the past. And this is the first time I actually got in. And I was just so happy to, to get it in and, you know, get to, you know, your friends and family get to come see it, you know, like in your own town, like, yes. It was really fun. And it, it's shown at many other places. And that was last year. And gosh, I think he's probably played in at least 15 festivals around the country. And various places. I was in London, Paris, you know, yeah, you've been traveling around with it the whole time? Well, no, a lot of this was during COVID. So a lot of it was on screen, online festivals. So no, I haven't really, I mean, I've really just been to the Boulder, like in person, Boulder. There was a screening in Longmont last month, went to that. But yeah, yeah, it was fun. If that went out of the park. So what are you working on now? What is your next project? Well, I'm currently working on another documentary film. We don't have a title yet, but it is basically it's got nothing to do with music. It's a Christmas based a Christmas themed documentary. It's about one man's quest yearly quest to decorate the perfect Christmas tree. And that's all I can really say about it right now. But we're just wrapping up the production. And I'll be starting editing right away. So hopefully in the next month or two, I'll have a another film to show. That's great. That's I think just the Len Berry thing. And that's just like focus on one person. Yep. And, you know, just be able to tell their story. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty, pretty cool thing. We're all storytellers. We're just trying to tell the good ones. You're like a one man band. They say you edit, you shoot, you do you travel around and do Colorado Health, Health Matters. Yeah. And I don't know how many people out there do the whole thing. You know, you won't see like in the credits, you'll see like lighting and grips and you got all this stuff. But it's probably just you. I know. Video made by feel bad. I see all these other. Thank you, Tom Parkin. Yeah, I know. No, I just do, you know, just one time is what's it all like? Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, you have between, you know, my day job is producing Colorado Health Matters, which is the half hour health care news program every Sunday morning on KTVR Fox 31. Right. Please watch. Yeah. That's my day job. And then so television production by day, filmmaker by night. But I've been a filmmaker for a very long time. I became a freelance videographer in 1999. And I've been doing it on my own ever since. And before that was, I had one job out of college. And I was at a video production company in Denver. Okay. So this is all I've ever really done. So I think I'm getting pretty good at it. I think pretty soon I might be pretty good at it. I don't know. Yeah, someday soon. I know you can you can make money on one of these routes. I would call it the short films you're spending a lot of money probably. Well, that's what we do, right? I mean, that's that's our art. We're artists, you know, that's our passion. You know, I got to do something creative, right, you know, at least once a year. And that's, you know, keeps the juices flowing. Right. And who are your influences? Like, when, who do you look at as far as a filmmaker? And just how do I know that, you know, there's a long list. There's, you know, growing up as a kid, I wanted to be the next Spielberg. And I set that goal for myself. Okay, he was 27 when he made Jaws. Well, I hadn't that came and went a long time. You know, but then I mean, I love independent film, but I also love the big blockbusters. James Cameron is one of my favorite directors. The guy can make entertaining movies. Right. And there's not one movie he's made that I was like, that that that sucks. No, they're all very entertaining. But then I love anything from like Good Will Hunting, as Gus Van Sant made that movie. I mean, this is going back to like the 90s for that, these are sort of low budget independent films, like, because in the back of our mind, we're like, well, we can make that. Yeah. I remember, I remember seeing El Mariachi in the United Artists Theater in Boulder, when he came out, that was Robert Rodriguez, his first, he was his college film, but apparently he sold blood to make, you know. Yeah. And I was sitting there watching it with my filmmaking buddy. I was in high school at the time. I'm like, we can do this. Yeah. So that's where that came from. The movie that influenced me the most was the movie Airplane in 1980. And I remember seeing that not in the theater, but we rented it when I was older. And the room full of us laughed. I've seen it. Yeah. Sure. Well, I would have been seven when I came out. Yeah. But just seeing all these people laugh, like, I need people to do that. Wow. Or just not just laugh, because that's a comedy, but, you know, just get someone to be emotional watching a film together. And I just, you know, that's why when I turned 16, my first job was at a movie theater here in town. And I worked there for five years. I was just always about movies. So it's just in my blood. That's all I've ever done. And so many influences. I would say the most direct influence was a friend of mine who was three years older. He was a film student at CU while I was in high school. And he'd let me work on his films. And then later on in life professionally, I was his director of photography, cinematographer. A couple of his feature length films that he made. And then his name is Troy McGatlin. And he's out in LA. So my influences are like close friends and the big filmmakers. Do people hate watching movies with you because you note things and go like, oh, why did they do that? Oh, continuity problems? Yeah. My wife is kind of like, stop it. Oh, I see the haircuts that are different because they had to do reshoots later. Like, I can remove myself from the filmmaker to just sit back and enjoy it. Because I enjoy every aspect. I love seeing, I can tell if a movie's bad, but like maybe one of the actors is really good. And I can just like, well, that was, you know, the movie was in, but they were great. Or you can tell the screenplay is really good. The acting is also good. Or, you know, yeah, bad sound, bad lighting, but other aspects are good. So I can see, I mean, there are many movies that look beautiful, like the cinematography is just top notch, but you're bored out of your mind. Right. So, yeah, I will say this trend of like three hour movies these days is getting a little out of hand. Like, you know, I liked it when it was an hour and a half, two hours was long, you know, like, okay, come on now. Right. So that's why I've not seen the latest avatar. Three hours. I don't know, you know. And so on the opposite end of that spectrum, the short film genre, which is a real niche, you know, it's, it's, what is it about short films and kind of how cool they are. And if you go to film festivals, you have the features showing, but a lot of times the most popular tickets they're going are the short films where people will show up and watch two and a half hours of different shorts. Well, I think, yeah, no, you hit it the nail on the head. I mean, there are so many feature films I've seen that should have been a short. Right. Like that could have been a short film. The problem is, where do you show short films? That's why this is so important what you're doing. We have so little venues to show our short film, other than on YouTube. And yeah, I hope you get people watching it. But as a community watching short films, this is what we got. Film festivals, what you're doing here. So I really hope this takes off because I mean, this is fantastic. And I will always be promoting this sort of thing. Especially, I work a lot with the Boulder County Film Commission, and we're looking for this sort of stuff to promote and really get the word out there about local filmmaking. And so this works out very well. And it's free. And it's free. What? That film freeway thing, you get up 50 bucks. Yeah. I don't know. And you know your chances. You'd be like, oh, I'm going to submit and be like, oh. Submitting film like Len Berry. I submitted to a lot of places. It adds up after a while. It does. Well, Tom, thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming here. Thank you, John. Good luck with the film. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully you'll be able to come out and be in the audience and that's the plan for filmmakers and absolutely what you can to promote this. We're working on a monthly free beer here with the different breweries here in town. They'll provide beer. And so it should be a schmooze. A schmooze. A schmooze fest. A schmooze fest. Not a snooze fest. Not a snooze fest. Because these are good films. Yeah, these are good films. We want good films. Just the good ones. All right. Well, thank you, John. Okay. Thanks a lot.