so you know how before a guy does a
shirtless scene in a movie he'll like
do a bunch of curls and push-ups in
order to like
make everything look pumped and whatnot
i do that too before i film
uh but the joke's on me because it turns
me beat red
laura b asks what's your favorite
dinosaur
all of them so of course i've thought
about this and it's it's
impossible for me to come up with just
one dinosaur that's my favorite
the best i can do is like my favorite
dinosaur
for each clade of dinosaurs like i've
got a favorite sauropod
a marcosaurus a favorite hadrosaurs
probably parasaurolophus
favorite theropod is probably like
probably a tie between cryolophosaurus
and therazinosaurus does it make sense
is it possible for styracosaurus to be
my favorite margin of cephalian
but nesutoceratops to be my favorite
ceratopsian
tanner v asks before going the writer
director route did you ever consider
focusing on
acting uh or voice acting instead uh so
the short answer to that is not
really not seriously i was involved in
acting
in high school i was very involved in
high school theater for three years
uh and i loved it high school theater is
where i found
uh kind of like my love of art but it
wasn't specifically because i was acting
uh it was just because i was involved in
the creation of art
uh and i always wanted to be a writer
writer was always the prime thing i was
going for
even in high school when i was acting
i was always doing more writing on the
side to say nothing of the fact that i
don't think i was
i don't think i was great at acting like
i did a cameo
in my own movie uh but that wasn't
because i particularly wanted to
uh it was because uh i couldn't find
anybody
uh to fill that role for the day so
tanner v asked
when's the next episode of the foster
fuelers coming out so one of the first
things i did on my channel
was i made a trailer and the first
episode for a planned nine
episode series uh about a bunch of
dinosaurs
uh at cross purposes with each other uh
and
and the first episode is still up on my
channel i don't think a lot of people
have seen it because
it again it's like one of the first
things i did i might have had
500 followers when i posted it uh but it
is still
one of the proudest things one of my
favorite things that i have ever
produced
uh and put my name on duel is objected
we are gathered here today to witness
the union of quincy the machiasaurus
and this volcano when i produced that
first episode
it was just uh i didn't know any actors
yet um
and so it was just me and another very
gracious friend who agreed
to voice all the characters um it was a
blast
but i still don't think i was
particularly good at it i think i was
good enough
for a no budget youtube video i have
several other episodes
scripted and i've got the uh the first
season all plotted out uh but if i did
it now
it would be much more organized and i'd
bring in a lot more talent i would bring
in as much talent as i could afford the
long story short is that in what little
dabbling
in acting that i've ever done all it has
taught me is
just how difficult it is briny asks
are you working on any screenplays right
now if so any hints uh
so i'm always working on something uh
the fossil fuelers
is something that's been in my drafts
folder for years now i have the first
four episodes scripted
those are done uh the other five
episodes uh
are not uh they're plotted but they're
not written yet
right now i'm stuck in the second act
second acts
are difficult and i'm busy trying to
bridge the first and the third acts
together i'm also working on a short
film script that i
that i like that i'm excited about it's
exciting to me not only because of the
story which is
about interesting things that i care
about but also it's
once this thing is done being scripted
it's something i could film myself
it takes place in one location uh it
takes place basically in real time there
are no scene changes it's just six
people
in a room no no expensive special
effects required
also who would be your dream
collaborator on our film i mean of
course there's so many people
uh so many actors and cinematographers
and
writers that i would love to collaborate
with as a writer but let's just to keep
it simple
i would i would give steven spielberg
any script i've ever worked on
uh no questions asked for him to go
ahead and direct um i'm a big fan of
spielberg from way back it's
every most everybody is a big fan of
spielberg so i don't really talk about
it that much
but um i would let him direct anything
john carpenter too
i would collaborate with john carpenter
on anything
film or otherwise like i would
collaborate with john carpenter on like
putting together an ikea desk ellen n
asks
what's your video script writing process
and your screenplay writing process
uh so this is a really good question so
in order to write a screenplay i need
two things
a topic that interests me and a question
that keeps me up at night
and looking back on the scripts that
i've finished or even just the ones that
i've started
uh that remains consistent like i'll
write a script about deep space
exploration
and that'll be the topic that interests
me but then the question that keeps me
up at night
is like how much time does humanity have
left before it destroys itself uh and
then i combine those two into a story as
for
the script writing process for these
videos that's also a good question
it starts off kind of like writing a
term paper where
uh you know i'm i'm using very precise
language to describe
exactly what i'm thinking about all
these different topics
but then i go through on multiple passes
uh to make it sound more vernacular to
make it sound
less like a term paper and more like a
conversation i could have with a friend
the hard part about writing a video is
not determining the content
of the video the content of the video is
actually decided pretty quick
structuring it is what takes forever
because it's not just about getting the
content out there
it's about structuring it in a way that
might
hopefully fingers crossed make the
audience feel something almost like
i try to treat my video essays almost
like um little movies little short films
that make you feel something
also drop your hair care routine uh so
in terms of hair care i don't have any
big secrets uh the one tip i've got
uh is don't shampoo your hair
every single time you shower that'll dry
it out and maybe turn it brittle
uh and that reminds me of this great
story when i was a i was a bar trivia
one time
and the question was according to some
poll by some magazine
what do women wash three times as often
as men
and all the men at the table instantly
said hair like like
somebody was writing hair down on the
answer sheet before anyone had even
discussed it
and the women at the table were like no
no it's not hair
it's bed sheets and the way that these
men's faces paled around the table
you could tell they were like oh you can
wash bed sheets
liz asks how do you currently make your
living uh
so i have a clerical position in the
legal field
in terms of discussing current
employment that's about as specific as
i'd like to get
but i will say uh that my previous
employer
i worked as a consumer bankruptcy
paralegal for almost five years so
besides my taste in movies and dinosaurs
the other subject that i actually know
more than nothing about
is consumer finance and i'm thinking
maybe one day that'll make it into a
video
christine jay asks what's your white
whale essay topic
the one you'd love to tackle but likely
will never film uh that's a great
question that's a fun question to answer
probably anything about tv not only
because i don't really consider myself
an expert on tv like i'm a fan
but i'm not super privy to the processes
that tv goes through to produce emotion
in the audience i think it's a very
different medium from film i think
television
could be just as different from film as
like
theater is from film so first i would
have to find a tv show
that i felt i understood exactly how it
was operating but then secondly
the amount of content to then pour
through and curate and
cite in order to make a video would be
it'd just be so much time i will say
uh if i do make i've been thinking about
this recently about doing a video on
specific tv shows
and the top contenders are all computer
animated tv shows from the 1990s
that's all i'll say right now james
somerton
asks you bet your ass i'm gonna say your
whole name james summerton asks so my
question
will you go on a date with me uh well
i'm very flattered
uh but the truth of the matter is um i
am not single daniel
i'm sorry if i'm mispronouncing that um
daniel cebaja
asks do you watch many non-english films
and if so do you have any
recommendations um so i definitely
probably watch more english films i mean
i definitely watch
more english films than anything else
just because that's what i've got the
most access to and that's what's being
advertised to me the most although i did
recently finish
dark on netflix which was a show that i
really liked
involving time travel it's like if if
stranger things
and lost were combined
and given purpose max baker asks
do you write the scripts for your videos
the same way you talk adding jokes and
personal touches as you write
or do you try and get your information
and thoughts on the page first before
going back and editing the draft into
something that sounds like a cold crash
pictures video
uh so that's a great question i do try
to get my thoughts down on paper as fast
as possible just so that i don't forget
them
but my writing voice is different from
my speaking voice
so what i wind up doing the first draft
is usually
like a term paper and then what i do
over successive drafts
is i edit it down to make it sound like
something i could say in conversation
without
sacrificing clarity and hopefully
funnier
that's a big thing if i could i don't
know how funny you guys think my videos
are
um i but i know that my goal for the
channel is to always make the videos
funnier
and sometimes i'll deliver the script to
my script consultant
and the script consultant would be like
is this is this a joke
it'd be like yeah you didn't think that
was funny
max baker also has a quick list of this
or that questions
uh cake or ice cream both both
both both is good 90s or 2000s aesthetic
uh probably 90s coke or pepsi
serge boxers or briefs wouldn't you like
to know
tammy and the t-rex or theodore rex okay
so both of these films were
on the list of dinosaur films i wanted
to
talk about at some point in my new
series Saurian Cinema
but i haven't actually seen either of
them they're both on my watch list
when i see both of them i will be sure
to tweet
in response as to which one i prefer
netflix or hulu
well um netflix has more content
but hulu is more carefully curated
uh but honestly when it comes right down
to it only hulu has little woods
slasher horror or psychological horror
for me personally definitely
psychological horror
rather than comparing the best of each
genre or even the worst of each genre
i think like the mid level the mid-tier
mid-quality psychological horror i enjoy
a lot more than mid-tier slash or horror
if that makes sense
physical or e-books okay so i definitely
prefer
physical books but my bookshelf is
getting pretty full
and e-books are often cheaper so if i
don't have room and the e-book is on
sale
i'll usually go with the e-book disney
channel or nickelodeon
uh i mean i'm gonna have to go with
disney channel they're the ones with
smart guy
gushers or fruit by the foot gushers
as if you need to ask reese gallagher
asks
do you think that musicals work better
within the stage
or in a movie that's a good question
it's actually it'll probably be
announced by the time
i post this ama but my next video
is going to be about musicals um so i'm
going to save my answer for there
reece then asks favorite least favorite
kurt vonnegut book
uh well so from back to front i've only
actually read
two and i like slaughterhouse five more
than galapagos so there you go
but i do love slaughterhouse five
everybody should read it gordon dell
asks are you at all musically inclined
do you play any instruments
uh the answer is no i don't further say
i ever got on any instrument was uh like
playing hot cross buns on the recorder
in elementary school there was one
one weekend in high school when i asked
if i could borrow a friend's acoustic
guitar and he gave it to me
and he taught me like rudimentary
lessons he gave me like a song book
i played all weekend and i ended the
weekend with like with like calluses on
all my fingertips
uh but at the end of that weekend i
still couldn't change
a single finger position like i still
couldn't find a single
guitar string without looking down at
the guitar
now i know i know it takes more than a
weekend to learn the basics of acoustic
guitar obviously
but look when you learn a new skill
uh you go through four phases the first
is unconscious incompetence
where you're no good at it but you don't
know that you're no good at it
uh so you continue the second part is
conscious incompetence where you're no
good at it and you know you're no good
at it this is the part where
you're practicing a skill and it feels
like you're getting worse
you're not getting worse you're just
realizing where you're making the
mistakes
the third phase is conscious
competence where you're getting better
and you know you're getting better but
you still have to think about how to
improve and then finally the fourth step
is unconscious competence where you
don't even need to think about it
in order to just practice proficiently
anyway i bring all this up
because when it comes to music i skipped
that first phase where i couldn't tell i
was bad
and all i know and all i knew was how
fun it was uh i jumped right to the
second phase
where i knew i was bad and it was i
don't know it was discouraging enough
for me to give it up after a weekend and
that's all that i have to say about that
sarah hall asks what's your next big
milestone
i hope you're aiming high bonus question
what's your favorite tv show of 2019
uh so next big milestone you know this
was already such a big milestone i
haven't really thought
about it i i honestly i never thought i
would make it to 500
a month um and i have
you all to thank for that and i cannot
thank you enough i never thought i would
reach
120 000 subscribers i mean there's
always i guess there's always like a
stated
milestone to get to next like i'll
probably have another big twitter
post about um subscribers when i hit
like
two hundred thousand but honestly having
never thought i'd reach this point
i don't spend my days trying to figure
out how to get to the next
patreon goal uh i i just try to
i'm trying to figure out how to thank
you guys properly anyway
what's your next big milestone like for
me um
you tell me that and i'll try and do it
for you and what's your favorite tv show
of 2019
so i actually listed a bunch of them uh
at the beginning of this year's top 10
favorite films video 2019 gave us the
premiere of shrill the return of flea
bag watchmen
dairy girls chernobyl unbelievable big
little lies falling for a killer
the best season yet of the marvelous
miss maisel and the series finale of the
good place but since that video
i have also watched a black lady sketch
show
on hbo and that that's probably a top
contender as well
uh everybody should go watch that olivia
hare asks what books
slash films have shaped you the most in
becoming the person you are today
and have any books and films
particularly challenged or previously
held using conceptions about the world
um so that's a good question i wouldn't
necessarily say that
my opinions came from
fiction books and films but i will say
that around
2004 five six and seven
it was a very formative years for me uh
just in that i was becoming an adult
those were the years that for the first
time i was
how do i put this i was noticing
the the thoughts and values that were
important to me
reflected in my cinema uh reflected in
the media that i was consuming so i
wasn't just watching for entertainment i
was watching i guess you could i guess
you could say i was watching for
catharsis for the first time and i was
seeing
my values and my thoughts reflected in
media like
there was a bunch of films from that
time period serenity
lord of war jarhead i was finally
recognizing him in fiction as something
that other people
were also experiencing and creating art
to respond to it luke vale
valley i'm sorry i don't know if the e
is silent or not
uh luke asks what was the last film you
saw in the theater before you know
the world ended and did you like it uh
so
this is true the the last film that i
saw in theaters before quarantine
started
i saw birds of prey three times in two
weeks
and i regret nothing jason blodgett asks
or blodget i'm sorry i'm i'm sorry if i
butchered your name in this
jason asks how will pc culture no matter
whether right or wrong
have a negative impact on comedy i'm not
not entirely sure what you're getting at
there
um because you say whether it's right or
wrong but then you say it'll have how
will it have a negative impact
i guess the long story short is i don't
think
offending people is an essential
ingredient in comedy
and when i look at some of my favorite
comics who are practicing today
like john mullaney hannah gatsby they're
not known for
offending everybody i don't think pc
culture has to negatively impact comedy
at all
what do you see as the next genre given
superhero movies will become
oversaturated
um pandemic media what's the best thing
about running a youtube channel
um probably the independence i get to
write about
whatever i want uh whatever my latest
hyper fixation is i get to spend a month
consuming it and it suits my
sensibilities i guess scarlett letter
asks
could you describe your high school and
college experiences growing up in a
confederate background how did you come
to have such progressive beliefs
uh so that's a really good question and
they're linked so i generally had a
better high school experience than i did
a college experience
high school was where i tell you i found
that theater group
and it was it was like the most
progressive environment i'd ever been in
it was the most accepting environment
i'd ever been in
it was the most creative uh and i got a
lot of support there i got a lot of
emotional support i got a lot of
artistic support it was just such a
great environment that was so
interested in letting me figure out how
to become a better
person once i got to college not so much
of that like i remember i spent a lot of
time in first year trying to join
clubs and stuff and it just kind of
fizzled out you'd think i would have
become a member of the
of the university of chicago uh film
society film club i tried filming
something
with them uh and they kept all the
footage and stopped returning my emails
anyway college seemed less interested
in i could never get a beat on what
college wanted from me
or what it wanted me to learn
and i was paying through the nose for it
so yeah high school was definitely
probably a better experience than
college
i felt like i learned more in high
school and as for in my high school
experience
is kind of the answer to the second part
of your question growing up at a
confederate background how did you come
to have such progressive beliefs
so my hometown is a very conservative
town
within a very progressive county and my
high school was in the progressive part
of that county my high school was very
um i guess the word is cosmopolitan it's
like 25
white 25 black 25 hispanic and 25
percent
everything else uh and it wasn't just
diverse in terms of race
it was diverse in terms of financial
backgrounds it was diverse in terms of
thought
uh and uh and not to say that you know
you have to
hang out with regressive people and
progressive people but i
embedded myself in the progressive crowd
and that's
really where the course correction
happened and then scarlett letter asks
if you had to make a whodunit film a lot
clues or knives out
how would you go about it um so i guess
i don't have any super specific ideas
i do think though that the best who done
it's like the two that you mentioned
klum and knives out they have the same
goal
of any good screenplay which is to give
the audience an ending
that is both surprising
and makes perfect sense in hindsight uh
those are in my opinion the two
ingredients for any great twist
the audience can't see it coming but it
has to make perfect sense
when they look back on it and i think
fundamentally the whodunit is not any
different in that regard
than in the other screenplay catherine
asks if you've never talked about this
before
where did the moniker cold crash
pictures come from i'm so glad you asked
that i have i think explained it on
twitter but never in a video before
so cold crash was the name of the first
long-form fiction that i ever finished
i was in high school and i wrote a play
it was like 40 pages long but it had
like a first second third act
it was like the first it was the first
thing longer than a
short story that ever finished it tells
the story of it was a plane crash in
antarctica
which i was convinced i could stage in
like a high school auditorium
uh and there's like eight survivors it's
like four pairs
of survivors and each pairing of people
the characters
they've got baggage and they've got
backstories with each other
and by the end of the play it's all sort
of
all of their intermixed motives are like
putting everybody across purposes with
each other it was not
good and i feel it's important to say
because
um i have i have a self-deprecating
streak in me
uh i should probably get that looked at
but the idea
was to name my channel after something i
did that was
bad um as a way to sort of maybe
preempt criticism i guess except it
doesn't exist as far as i know every
physical copy was destroyed before i
even got out of high school so maybe it
wasn't a way to preempt criticism so
much as a way to
uh it's nice to think about how far i've
come
as an artist so thanks again to
everybody not just who pledges to
patreon which is great
but also anybody who gave me your time
and attention there are so many things
that
demand our time and attention the fact
that anybody gives me
any of it is just it's very humbling
and it makes me want to do better and
better and so even just watching this
ama if you made it this far thank you
very much and
i hope to see you soon with some great
content and stay safe out there guys
