The Austin Meyer Podcast

Latest Episodes:

The Making of ‘My Octopus Teacher’ with Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed, and Roger Horrocks | Ep. 046 Oct 15, 2020

Show notes

On today’s episode I sit down with the team behind the hit Netflix documentary, and one of my personal favorite films of the year, My Octopus Teacher. Co-directors Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed, as well as cinematographer Roger Horrocks, take us behind the scenes and under the water to reveal how they crafted this incredibly moving story about a filmmaker's unlikely connection with an octopus.
Pippa Ehrlich, based in South Africa, is a natural history filmmaker and award-winning environmental journalist, specializing in the field of marine science and conservation.
James Reed, based in the UK, is the founder of Underdog Films and has directed and produced documentaries and natural history features for Disney, Netflix, and the BBC.
Roger Horrocks is a world renowned wildlife cinematographer, having worked on Our Planet, winning a BAFTA for outstanding cinematography for Blue Planet 2, and is currently working on BBC’s Planet Earth 3.
Watch My Octopus Teacher on Netflix
The Sea Change Project

Jeff Orlowski on Directing The Social Dilemma | Ep. 045 Sep 18, 2020

Show notes

Jeff Orlowski is the director of the newly released Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, which explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations. He also served as director, producer, and cinematographer of the Sundance Award-Winning and Oscar short listed films, Chasing Ice and Chasing Coral.
In this conversation, Jeff and I discuss where he got the idea to make The Social Dilemma, why his team decided to use the unique stylistic choices of dramatizations and animations, and the process of taking a ton of disjointed interviews on broad/complex topics and weaving them together to create one of the most talked about documentaries of the year.
LINKS:
Watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix
www.thesocialdilemma.com
Tristan Harris' podcast, Your Undivided Attention

Amanda McBaine & Jesse Moss on Directing Sundance Winner, Boys State | Ep. 044 Aug 21, 2020

Show notes

Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss are co-directors of the newly released documentary, Boys State, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Grand Jury Prize. The film, which is now streaming on Apple TV+, is a political coming-of-age story, examining the health of American democracy through an unusual experiment: a thousand 17-year-old boys from across the state of Texas gather together to build a representative government from the ground up. High-minded ideals collide with low-down dirty tricks as four boys of diverse backgrounds and political views navigate the challenges of organizing political parties, shaping consensus, and campaigning for the highest office at Texas Boys State—governor.
In this episode, Jesse, Amanda and I discuss how they came up with the idea to make a documentary about Texas Boys State, the unique challenges of filming a feature length doc in the course of one week, and why a verité documentary like this is such an effective tool for holding a mirror up to our political system and divided country.
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USC Film School and What Comes Next with Director Tayo Amos | Ep. 043 Jul 23, 2020

Show notes

Tayo Amos is a director and filmmaker from the Bay Area now currently living in Los Angeles. After double majoring at Stanford, Tayo went on to earn her MFA in Film Production at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, where she focused on Directing. She is the winner of USC’s First Look Faculty Award for Excellence in Directing, and her thesis film, “On The Clock” screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
In this conversation Tayo and I discuss her experience and key takeaways from USC film school, what qualities make a good director, and how recent events in our country around race and diversity are pushing our respective movie industries to take a good hard look in the mirror.
LINKS:
Tayo's Website
On The Clock film on Amazon
Follow Tayo on Insta
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Editing The Last Dance with Devin Concannon | Ep. 042 Jul 09, 2020

Show notes

My guest today is Devin Concannon, who was one of 4 editors on ESPN’s mega-hit 10 part documentary series, The Last Dance. The Last Dance revolves around the career of Michael Jordan, with a particular focus on his last season with the Chicago Bulls. The project itself is a beast of an endeavor.. we’re talking 10 episodes, over 100 interviews, and according to director Jason Hehir, 10,000 hours of footage to sift through: that includes every game from every main character they had and every news report that had been done on them, both nationally and internationally. The Last Dance averaged 5.65 million viewers across all 10 episodes when they premiered on Sunday nights over the course of five weeks in April and May — making it the most-watched ESPN documentary of all time.
How do you go from 10,000 hours of footage to a 10 hour series? I turned to editor Devin Concannon to ask that question and many more. Devin is an editor based out of New York City. An NYU Film School graduate, Devin edited Rest In Power: The Trayvon Martin Story and Fyre Fraud, about the infamous Fyre Festival, before joining The Last Dance Team.
I hope you enjoy the conversation!
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Devin's IMDB
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Phenomenally Big Ideas with Meena Harris | Ep. 041 May 21, 2020

Show notes

Meena Harris is a lawyer, activist, and the founder of the Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign, a female-powered organization that brings awareness to intersectional social causes. And now Meena is also an author, with her new children’s book titled Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea, set to debut on June 2nd. The book is based on a true story from the childhood of Meena’s mom, Maya Harris, and aunt, Kamala Harris. In it, two sisters make a difference in their community by dreaming big, organizing across diverse groups, and fighting for what they believe in. Senator Elizabeth Warren calls it “A must read for little girls around the world.” And Stacy Abrams says the book is “An inspiring tale.”
In this conversation, Meena and I talk about the creative process of writing her first children’s book, the impact of diverse representation in children’s books, and how stories shape our identities from a young age.
Get the book
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Photographing the 2019 Hong Kong Protests with Laurel Chor | Ep. 040 May 07, 2020

Show notes

Laurel Chor is an award-winning freelance visual journalist and National Geographic Explorer from Hong Kong. In 2019, she worked with the New York Times, National Geographic, Getty, AFP, Reuters, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, NBC News, the Telegraph, and many more. Laurel also has a lot of experience as a text reporter and video journalist. In the past, she was the Asia reporter/producer for VICE News Tonight on HBO.
In this conversation Laurel and I talk about her start in journalism and the lessons she learned from working on deadline as a local news reporter, how being a world cup rugby player has prepared her for life as a freelance photojournalist, and what it was like to cover the 2019 Hong Kong protests.
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Say it Loud with Documentarian Austin Meyer | Ep. 039 Apr 21, 2020

Show notes

Rerunning an episode of the Say It Loud show, in which host and photographer Raul Espinoza invited me on as a guest to talk about my documentary filmmaking, why I am drawn to human-centered stories, and my mission that drives everything I do.
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Austin Meyer is a documentary filmmaker, photographer, and podcast host. He is a National Geographic Explorer and the 2015 winner of the New York Times International Reporting trip with Nicholas Kristof competition. His work has been published by The New York Times, Washington Post, National Geographic, The Atlantic, Al Jazeera, and Slate among others. His documentary films have screened at the American Documentary Film Festival and the Mill Valley Film Festival. On his podcast titled The Austin Meyer Podcast, Austin interviews the world's best storytellers in all sorts of genres about how they craft the stories they tell.
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Check out the video version of this interview and all of Raul's other episodes of the Say It Loud show
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Website: http://austinmeyerfilms.com
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How Max Romey Films the World’s Top Endurance Athletes | Ep. 038 Apr 16, 2020

Show notes

Max Romey is an adventure filmmaker and water color artist who, for the past few years, has documented the sport of trail and ultrarunning for Salomon TV. What is it like to film a 200 mile race circumnavigating Lake Tahoe as a one-man production crew? Why is the success of a running film determined by much more than just keeping up with, and filming, a runner? In this conversation, Max and I dig into those questions and much more to learn how he has become one of the premiere filmmakers in the ultrarunning space!
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Rowing 1300km down the Paraguay River with Photographer Henry Maillet | Ep. 037 Apr 03, 2020

Show notes

Henry Maillet is a photographer whose stories focus on conservation and development. After serving for two years as Peace Corps Volunteers in Paraguay, Henry Maillet and his colleague Jeff Wong decided to stay in the country for the adventure of a lifetime. In partnership with WWF, they rowed a handcrafted wooden rowboat down one of the continent's last remaining free-flowing rivers. Over the course of six months the team covered 1,300 km and visited a wide range of riverside communities, from the Yshir indigenous peoples of the Pantanal to the metropolitan capital city of Asuncion. Through photography and recorded interviews, they documented the rich bio-cultural diversity found along the river's banks, and shed light on the critical need for freshwater conservation and cultural and idiomatic preservation along the Paraguay River.
Having just finished the expedition, Henry is currently quarantined in Paraguay during the coronavirus pandemic. He and I jumped on a call to talk about the project, how his work as a freelancer is being impacted by coronavirus, and the advice he has received that is helping him stay creative during this unprecedented time.
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