Episode 224
#224 - Interview with actor Grant Johnson
I sat down with voice-over actor Grant Johnson. To explore our shared love for storytelling, video games, and practical effects in film. Grant opened up about how his early influences. Like Mrs. Doubtfire, Fraggle Rock, and classic 90s cinema. Shaped his creative spirit and led him into the world of voiceover and sound design. We dive into the magic of old-school effects, the charm of indie film. Why authenticity matters more than ever in a world driven by algorithms.
From game dev dreams to collaborating on game jams and indie productions. Grant shares a grounded perspective on what it takes to make your own path. When your dealing with working in the entertainment industry. You can find more of Grant’s work, demos, and contact info at:
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Transcript
Grant Johnson VO
you can kind of play around with and just be a kid really, you know, all the different, like
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Sorry about that.
::Grant Johnson VO
different, like building block kind of things. And, um there's like a water space. So like, you know, just all the different things water can do with like little, basically, you know, floatable balls and, and pumps and mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's kind of like kind of like the ultimate place. you know When you're a kid, you're like trying to like figure out like the world around you and how everything operates and how everything works, and you're like, oh my god, I get to like break shit and like I don't get in trouble? This is awesome.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. Yeah. There's like, oh geez. What did they have? um There's like a sound room. So like a whole bunch of different like instruments. And like there was a tube with little pieces of styrofoam that, you know, have a specific resonance. So like on one certain frequency, it it lets you kind of tune the the speaker that's in there.
::Grant Johnson VO
So it can go through all these different frequencies, but only one of them. If you get that one, then that's when if you turn up the volume on it, you can see the little styrofoam balls just start to kind of like float in the air and
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Jesus.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's crazy because like so much of the stuff we do today is online, but it feels like almost like you gotta like push to go outside, you know, and interact because if you don't, it's so easy to fall into that pattern of like, here's an iPad, you know, like here's, here's virtual goggles and just be a part of a completely different world for 18
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Grant Johnson VO
Right. yeah Yeah, you just fall down the the rabbit hole of I'm just going on a screen and looking at what other people have made, which and in one sense is good. But in the other sense, it's like, why why are you scrolling? you know Are you scrolling to be entertained you know just for like the little quick hits of dopamine? Or are you is there something you're looking for? Because if if there's something you're trying to actually accomplish, yeah, just the mindless scrolling, that's one of the least beneficial things you could probably be doing with your time.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Well, it's fascinating because when you look at sci-fi and just futuristic interpretations of what our future looks like, you always see that the young generation is either the rebellion and the uprisers, like taking in control. And they're always more alert and more aware than everybody else.
::Grant Johnson VO
Right. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
and
::Grant Johnson VO
Everyone's also has already fallen into the the repetition and the the complacency and just all of the nonsense.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh, yeah. Yeah, all of it. And it's just like, what does that tell You know, I feel like there's almost like a resurgence, especially with kids these days where they're kind of rebelling. See, I come from je early Gen Z. And the weird thing about our generation is They're completely engulfed in all of this. Like this is their life.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
24 hours, seven days a week. Whereas the next generation, you know, like, for example, like younger kids these days, you know, like.
::Grant Johnson VO
Into the alphas and...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, exactly. i don't think it's going to have the same problem.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. It's possible.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
What's your thought process on this? Because I i feel like you're you're like a very, like not a deep thinker, but like philosophical and almost in almost way.
::Grant Johnson VO
Um,
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's very interesting.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I know it's hard.
::Grant Johnson VO
And i mean, the when I grew up, I'm a little bit older than you. So I still had sort of that upbringing where a lot of the stuff that I went through was a lot more,
::Grant Johnson VO
you know then you theater of the mind kind of you know, childhood imagination, go play with a stick and it's a lightsaber and that kind of thing. And just kind of being kids outside and, and then,
::Grant Johnson VO
I fell early and hard into sort of the video gaming stuff from around the time when I was probably six or seven, because I had a babysitter who had an NES and, you know, I got interested in that.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh, yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
And then I had a close friend that he got basically every Nintendo gaming system from Super Nintendo,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
The rich kid around the corner what we used to call him.
::Grant Johnson VO
super Super Nintendo up up to N64, into GameCube.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
And I think he also had, like, PlayStation. So he had he had, like, everything.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh, my God.
::Grant Johnson VO
He had everything.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Was he one of those kids that like had it all in like a case?
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-mm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, like it had like a light in there? No.
::Grant Johnson VO
No.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We had one of those.
::Grant Johnson VO
he He was not too particularly concerned about sort of keeping things neat and tidy and in order.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No.
::Grant Johnson VO
Like, he was just a kid.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Just throw all that shit out.
::Grant Johnson VO
Fun...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's crazy.
::Grant Johnson VO
Fun hanging around with him. But yeah, he had all sorts of stuff. So I was always trying my best to get over there so I could just, you know, use it and, and you know, have fun with him and do whatever kids did.
::Grant Johnson VO
I was on it, I think back in: ::Grant Johnson VO
it It drives, and think, people crazy, what if especially if if they know what The Stranger Hood is, because it's a machinima series that was made using The Sims. And the hardest thing about it is the fact that it's The Sims. So, like, you're trying to use the video game to make, you know, ah video component to go along with, like, some sort of an audio story.
::Grant Johnson VO
and you can never get anything to match up the way that you want it to, like, you know, framing and all of that stuff. Like you're at the the beck and call of whatever the Sims want to be doing at that time.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It is interesting because the the way that The Sims was designed, like from like the get-go, it's open source.
::Grant Johnson VO
Hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So, i mean, i think i think we're talking about the same thing.
::Grant Johnson VO
Hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
that When Sims 3 came out, most computers could not handle that. You know, it was like you're talking about a game and like there are games today that are way – more power-hungry than The Sims 3.
::Grant Johnson VO
Hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, way more.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, they have like require higher but like graphics cards. They require a lot more processing.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But it's just hilarious because like there was a time where like people were just doing the dumbest shit ever. like I remember there was the age of like the Clown Squad on Halo. Do you remember that?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They were called the Clown Squad. So there were a bunch of these people that used to break into...
::Grant Johnson VO
Hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
like online like battles and they just would just start like causing shit for no reason and i was like literally remember like i'm playing this game and all of a sudden like these random who the hell are these people just showing up out of nowhere and you're just like what what just happened we just been hacked oh it was so good
::Grant Johnson VO
OK.
::Grant Johnson VO
Right.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. People that were just, they were so good at it that they just, it didn't matter what they did that you just, you basically just got taken over and.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah basically like it was just hilarious like
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i It's funny that you bring that up because there's just so much of that shit and it's like You can kind of get away with some of that stuff i don't know about any anymore, you know um
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you you You've had a pretty early experience with video games. Have you like always kind step like stepped with that? Like that is like, do you still play video games to this day?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
or that's just something that you were just doing in the past?
::Grant Johnson VO
It's not as something I'm as religious about doing or making sure that I'm keeping up with the trends or the the things that are you know, the, the flavor of the month, but it's, it's something that I'll still kind of keep my eye on. of I'm pretty heavily and involved in doing game jams now. So of I like helping people just make stuff.
::Grant Johnson VO
So look for whatever game jams are going on and be like, Oh, you guys need a sound designer or a voice actor. Cool. I'll jump in and take whatever, whatever it is a week, a month, and then,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you like You like collaborating with people.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. Yeah, it's fun.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
theory There's something about connecting with other people, especially like with artistic projects. It's not necessarily like you're by yourself. You're more or less going through artistic experience with other people that are not necessarily doing what you would call a normal job.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
There are a lot of people that are used to a 9 to 5...
::Grant Johnson VO
Right.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I got to deal with that shit. But sometimes you you're able to like be in those situations like, yeah, like we're all just here having fun, you know, and just that's I kind of get that, too.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, even if you're not playing video games or stuff like that, like I could see how that can inspire you at a young age to be like. I want to do something different.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. Well, I think the first time that I got the the actual like bug to make video games was probably around whatever it was, third, fourth, fifth grade, because i remember my fifth grade teacher, he he had made us write down, you know, what you wanted to be when you grew up kind of thing so that when we were seniors graduating, he could bring it to our our senior banquet.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Thank you.
::Grant Johnson VO
and And mine was to be a game dev, I think. is either a game dev or a game tester or, you know, QA something like that. And at this point, I think I might be, i'm not so much interested in the development side of it. Like it might be interesting to learn a few different programming languages, but i don't really see myself taking on that role for video games, but sound design is really cool. And I liked working on that stuff. So,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, especially how it has evolved. You know, it's it's kind of cute because, like, back in the... Going back even, like, 20 years ago, a lot of the games had very similar soundtracks. They all kind of sound the same.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
know, they kind of use the same kind of synthesizers. You know you would kind of, like, limit it whatever. But it was kind of fun with the limitation because if you look at, like, some Japanese companies like Sega, they took it to the next level, you know?
::Grant Johnson VO
Right. Well, and the programming languages back then, because you had to try to, you had to get to fit on such small memory cards that it's like, okay, you get eight bits.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Um,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
so basic.
::Grant Johnson VO
So what's eight bits? That's like nothing.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It is, it's nothing.
::Grant Johnson VO
And then you get onto Super Nintendo and stuff like that. It's like 16 bits. Okay. It's a little bit more in terms of like the the amount of data that could be held in there, but it's like just the language.
::Grant Johnson VO
Like it it would be impossible for me to wrap my head around. How do you make a word out of numbers and letters so that it will actually show up on a screen in a certain way? It's like ah my, my brain can't handle it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oregon Trail.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oregon Trail. ah it it all starts from It all starts from somebody's idea. you know, even the start of even a great story. You know, when you're... Working, for example, like with an animated series, there was like a storyteller.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
There was a writer. There was a something that happened to make this a reality. you know And then you have to like inspire artists to draw this shit at the same time.
::Grant Johnson VO
right
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's like you you need to get like everybody on board and kind of be like, do you understand where you do do you know where I'm going with this?
::Grant Johnson VO
and
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah. Can we go this direction? Oh, can we do? Okay, we're limited with that so we can't do this.
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That is just insane, especially 25 years ago.
::Grant Johnson VO
When they had to record everything on tape still, I think 25 years they would have been had those restrictions.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yep. And floppy disks. Yeah. Yeah. It was rough.
::Grant Johnson VO
like but I love the story about how the song Frankenstein was made by the Edgar Winner group.
::Grant Johnson VO
Because what they did was they...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Um, let me see.
::Grant Johnson VO
they took the tape and they just had this like really long jam session and there's like four or five different like cuts of it where it's like, they just kept adjusting what parts of the the song were being used with just like, I think it was masking tape is what they used to, or not masking tape, ah cellophane, but
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah, i know what talking about. Okay.
::Grant Johnson VO
they would just tape the different parts of the recording together. And by the end of it, they looked like Frankenstein's monster. So that's, that's how they came up with the name.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
called frankincense yeah it's it's crazy i mean even in that era you had people like brian eno which i mean revolutionized the entire like industry regards to like digital effects and special effects and like beyond
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
Hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
A lot of it comes from practical effects. Like we were saying earlier, like when you are even taking in when designing these things, there's a lot of like practical things you have to consider before even getting on the drawing board and getting it started.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. Yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
ah And like today, we don't have any of these limitations. Like we could sit here right now, me and you right now, and we could design ah game with AI in like two hours. so
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Two hours.
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Maybe three. I'd say about two.
::Grant Johnson VO
Might not be a good game, but it would be a game.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It'd be a game. Yeah. But like that that is a reality that exists 20 years in the future where we are right now. Like 25 years ago, not even 10 years ago, this was not a reality.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So much has changed.
::Grant Johnson VO
The barriers to entry have definitely been eradicated. and
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah. I mean, I feel like especially with even um for yourself, like with voice acting, you got to.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Some people find like um inspiration from other people. but Do you you seem like somebody that you found inspiration, like, for example, like from the 90s or 80s, like your childhood?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Where do you think that flows from?
::Grant Johnson VO
Some of the earliest influences I think that I came across would be a lot of the work that Robin Williams and Jim Carrey did. Cause I, I'm kind of an odd ball.
::Grant Johnson VO
and You know, if you actually yeah know got the time to see me in my element, that's, I, I annoyed the heck out of somebody back when I was in college because I was sitting in kind of a communal space and I sang C is for cookie for like 15 minutes straight.
::Grant Johnson VO
So,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You gotta to get that on YouTube.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah, maybe.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
ah
::Grant Johnson VO
But yeah, yeah. So that that's another that's another influence was all of the different Muppet stuff. Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock and the Muppet Show.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh, Fraggle?
::Grant Johnson VO
and i got it I got it on DVD when I was a teenager.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh my god, Fraggle Rock was amazing. I watched it on VHS. Yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
and I don't think I ever made it through all of it. At least not all of the DVDs, but I think I got close.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
it was it's just hilarious because they're all puppets and it's just yeah and practical effects and it's just like it's just so funny you know you're just watching this just giant fluffy thing that's definitely controlled by a human being you and you're just just like whoa you're just going along with it and it's weird and it's bananas and it definitely is old as shit like especially now but like
::Grant Johnson VO
Again, practical effects.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's amazing. ah Like, it's amazing.
::Grant Johnson VO
The... The only thing more impressive to me than like watching the finished product is watching the behind the scenes because to see what they had to do in order to make some of that stuff work, like inside of the gorgs, like the big gorg costumes, there was a monitor and the monitor was outside of them showing them what they were doing. Like it was, ah it was ah basically the the cam to cam of what they were doing. So they had to look at that to see what they were doing, but then they had to also remember, okay, because I see myself, I need to do the opposite of what I think I need to do.
::Grant Johnson VO
Like if they didn't have the mirrored. So if they moved to the left, they would, you know, move right on the screen.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's crazy.
::Grant Johnson VO
So it's like how they got that to work. I don't know.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, if like especially to be able to voice that thing, that's kind of fun.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
like you you know you're in that I mean, it probably gets hot in that costume, but don't know. That sounds like a lot of fun.
::Grant Johnson VO
Oh yeah. And then the other one, Audrey too, from little shop of horrors, the, the movie that Frank Oz directed back in the eighties little shop of horrors had Rick Moranis and Steve Martin and
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Which movie?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh, yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
So the big finale for that
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah. Oh, that was a that was a weird movie.
::Grant Johnson VO
They had the giant plant and the giant, the biggest version of the plant had like 50 puppeteers moving it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, it was not it was animmateture it was animatronic.
::Grant Johnson VO
And
::Grant Johnson VO
it it was a giant puppet, but yeah, it's like 50 different performers were helping move the different parts of the the puppet. And they had to record the song that it was used in at like one eighth speed.
::Grant Johnson VO
So like for every, know, whatever it is, 30 frames of, of the movie that you see that took eight times as long in real life to, to actually do all of those move movements.
::Grant Johnson VO
And then they just sped it up.
::Grant Johnson VO
It's like,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
it's it's it like It's crazy because it's all about, well, how can we make this work? Can't do this in real life. Okay, so what can we do to make it happen in real life?
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
that That's literally what it It's literally playing pretend.
::Grant Johnson VO
it was It was like they were doing a stop motion at full scale in real time. It's like, oh my God.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i mean, stop motion in itself. I mean, I'm like... I'm a little bit of a tip like I'm a little bit of a hardcore Tim Burton fan. I mean, like I'm not like one of my favorite Christmas movies is A Nightmare Before Christmas.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's stop motion, but. It's amazing, you know, and like just to think like there was somebody that had to like take off the face and put on another one and then they have to like move around Jack Skellington and like get all the characters.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's crazy.
::Grant Johnson VO
And to put it so close to where it was before so that it only moves just that little bit between shots, just need to have that such a mastery of your spatial awareness and, and framing and all of those things.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
There's a beautiful element to like the visual part of things. It's not like you're like being a part of the story. You're also like seeing a picture play itself out.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Right. And even if it's not necessarily like real, like we're talking about, like stop motion and practical effects. I don't know. It still feels comforting. You know, it's still feels like a genuine part of the story.
::Grant Johnson VO
Right. Yeah. It doesn't quite like, like there is a little bit of that uncanny Valley, but at the same time, not as much as you would get from something like a lot of the, especially early AI kind of stuff.
::Grant Johnson VO
because with that, it's like it, you've got like all sorts of different, uh, abominations just coming out of thin air where it's like, that doesn't look like anything that's ever existed.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Whoa. Yeah. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
so No. I mean, you could take it even a step further, right? You know, you take like ah movie like Alien that came out in 79.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You barely see the alien the entire movie. Like, I think there's maybe like two parts.
::Grant Johnson VO
Right.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah, same with same with Jaws.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I think that's all it is. It's just two parts.
::Grant Johnson VO
you know, you you barely see the the shark. And part of the reason why you barely see the shark in Jaws is because it broke down constantly when they were trying to use it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yep.
::Grant Johnson VO
So it's like they didn't have that much footage to to draw from, but you can use that to your advantage when you're, you know building in things like suspense, because then it's like you use the tension and then you finally get the release when when you get to those key moments.
::Grant Johnson VO
and And that's another kind of interesting thing with storytelling is like you use what you have, but at the same time, it it can work to your advantage.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's weird. ah Also, now there are a lot of ah filmmakers that are still holding on to those practical effects. You know, um indie film filmmakers, you have even um Wes Anderson is is still a great example of this. He still heavily uses practical effects in all of his films.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And. ah It's kind of crazy. Whenever he comes out with a movie, he's like, oh, my God, because, you know, it's just going to be a movie full of practical effects. And it's just like.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We still gravitate towards that, even with all the CGI and all things that we had, develop people are like, can we get what we had like 20 plus years ago or like even less, you know?
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
ah
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah, well, and the cool thing with having so many different kind of like practical effects is that it means that you can have a lot more people involved in a production who have those kind of specialties or specializations where that's something that they've put decades of their life into figuring out how to make it work.
::Grant Johnson VO
And, and if you don't have those things, it's like, well, what are they going to do? Because you almost need to have somebody with a vision who's willing to accept those types of ah specialists into their productions to say, okay, we need you to make these things. Otherwise they just kind of, that's, it's kind of a a lost art and it's gonna make it so that there aren't as many people willing to do it in the future. Cause it's like, what's, what's the point of me learning this if, if no one's going to utilize it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i I wonder, you know, when you... i've I've always been like a type of artist that i I love films and music and TV shows and just like the whole like other side of the thing.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But when you look at even storytellers like even Gene Roddenberry, where, you know, he tells the story of what the future looks like.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You see ah very different aspect, even though that we're still so much like we have technology and different things. There's still that aspect of interaction and practicality with the way that, you know, they operate, the way that they communicate, the different types of machines and things they're working on.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You still have a bunch of people still playing key roles. um And i think that gets looked on. It's like, yeah, things are going to get easier and things are going to advance.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But we still hold on to those things that make us us, which is we're crafters. We're idea thinkers. We build things. We make things. And that is the way that we shape tomorrow. That's how we've always done it.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. Yeah. We get to use our time however we like and and, cast our, our votes for what kind of people we want to be, what kind of a world we want to be in. And
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Have you been have you been able to work on any projects, like dream projects that you've always wanted to work on or anything like that?
::Grant Johnson VO
ah Not yet. um I'm still a bit on the onset of my voice acting career that I i haven't been exposed to a whole lot of industry connections that would be able to, I think, make that a reality.
::Grant Johnson VO
But at the same time, those types of roles are the most highly sought after. So depending on who's casting it, they're going to be looking for the cream of the crop and...
::Grant Johnson VO
when When you start looking into that, you know you you're getting down to the... ah I'm trying to think which one it is. Is it Price's Law? There's there's some basically ah thought that came out about, i think it started out as research papers, and they looked at the total body of work that was being published in a given year, and then looked at the total number of authors, and they were able to figure out that, hey, for this many people, you take the square root of the total population, and they make half of everything that gets written. So if you've got 100 different authors, 10 people are writing half of the work.
::Grant Johnson VO
so when you start expanding that and you you know you go into populations of i think sag after i think they've got what is it 180 000 members so we'll we'll call it 200 000 um the square root of 200 000 it's like it's less than a thousand people that are getting half of the work so it's it's mind-boggling
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Okay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
g, I've been doing this since: ::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I don't have a large podcast. The thing is, I'm very well established because I've been around for so long. We're... um you you reach a point where it's not about like the highest level that you've reached.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's the amount of work you yourself have done and accomplished. As an artist and as a creator, you know, it's those little stepping stone milestones.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, like the truth is there are thousands of people that are doing this, but the reality is I'm part of the 10% because most people don't make it to 100 episodes.
::Grant Johnson VO
i I think you're in probably the 1%.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
so
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, I'm probably in the 1%. I'm yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
i think i think the the cutoff for that's like 20 episodes.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah
::Grant Johnson VO
If you can make it past 20 episodes, you're in the top 1% of all podcasts.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But you have to... You have to be able to love what you do for what it is to you more than anything else.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like I enjoy being able to have these conversations with people like yourself because like, oh my God, you know, you've had your experience with like video games and your love of just the structure of how things are made in films and being able to find a career in voice acting.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's not easy.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
and you know, we were talking about earlier, Robin Williams is the greatest example of this. Everybody's like, oh my God, the man had a successful career. He had a horrendous career. OK, he was bullied, tormented, abused, treated like shit, committed suicide because he couldn't fucking handle life anymore.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like. That was a man that was tormented because he. He just had this thirst to just be as successful as he possibly can, just be happy and structured. And look where that got him.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
There's always that you need that balance. You need that balance in life to be able to be like, I'm doing this for me. This is what I want to be good at. This is what I want to better myself in more than anything else.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. And i think a good way to do that is to have a good understanding of the industry, but also what you're capable of and And being able to sort of inform your own goals so that it's not about, it's not about the destination. It's about the journey.
::Grant Johnson VO
So finding ways to get those wins and not have it be about, oh, I got this job. It was, i made this thing.
::Grant Johnson VO
And for a lot of actors, I think what is the most beneficial goal that they could be setting is the audition.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Thank you.
::Grant Johnson VO
You know, did I get the audition in? yes. Okay, good. If, if I didn't, we still have tomorrow tomorrow. We can always do better. And it's from a lot of the, the well-established actors. I think there's been, uh, interviews where Robert De Niro said this. Um, I want to say maybe like Paul Rudd or a few others have also gone on to say this, but it's the audition is the job.
::Grant Johnson VO
And, If you can get through it, that's that's all that matters because our goal as actors is to just give people interesting characters that have risks that they're taking and show our unique contribution to what that role would be if we were cast in it.
::Grant Johnson VO
And, and the casting directors and everybody else involved in the production want you to succeed. So as long as you can do that in your most authentic way, I think, you know, anybody who auditions for stuff will be successful.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah. it Again, it's not taking away the fact that it's easy. You know, you're you're talking about any type of career that you want that revolves around you yourself, you know, either using your hands, your mind, your voice.
::Grant Johnson VO
Right. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's going to be extremely difficult, but it's not impossible.
::Grant Johnson VO
right
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's just, you know, you have to be able to to be able to get there. And, know, I think the thing that makes you the most successful is yourself. You know, if you can be the most genuine version of yourself.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
People will see that, you know, people like, no, that's not true. Yes, it is. It's very true. Like if you put on a facade and pretend to be something you're not, you know, show up and say, yeah, I'm confident, but clearly you're not.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you're representing yourself in the room
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah, and that was one thing that I think I had a ah pretty incorrect frame of mind when I was like really early on and in my acting career. like i was you know still a teenager at this point thinking, oh part of the reason why I want to pursue acting is because I don't want to be myself.
::Grant Johnson VO
You know, I want to put on characters and I want to be somebody else because then I can maybe convince myself that life's not so bad. and And that that's the wrong that's the wrong mindset to be working from.
::Grant Johnson VO
i think it is. you You need to be comfortable in your own skin enough that, you know, anything that happens, you can just kind of shrug off. I've sort of developed a lot more of ah a stoic mindset. you know, the...
::Grant Johnson VO
People like ah Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus, those are some of the people that I look up to now. so and And they didn't have great life lives either. I know um or Marcus Aurelius, he had what I think some people might consider a a decent life in the fact that he was the ruler of the Roman Empire at one point.
::Grant Johnson VO
But you it's not it's not all that it's kept cut out to be.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He, um, I know you talk, what was the name of the book that he wrote?
::Grant Johnson VO
ah meditations It was his journal.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Medit, yes.
::Grant Johnson VO
it was his It was his personal journal that he was using to kind of collect his own thoughts. And the goal was never for it to ever see the light of day. It was just for his own personal musings and so that he could kind of wrap his head around what he was.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
How do they, do you know how they found it?
::Grant Johnson VO
I do not. I'm not entirely sure how they would have come across it, but... i'm I'm sure it was a matter of after he died, it was just there and somebody managed to to take it and get it to a place where it was able to be either transcribed or ah we're just ah perpetuated in a form that didn't go by the wayside.
::Grant Johnson VO
And then here it is all of these centuries later that we can... And um and the fact that we're using it as a ah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's amazing.
::Grant Johnson VO
form of ah you know, gleaning from the past sort of the human experience and and how to how to go through it without having to be tormented endlessly by our own existence.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
it's It's an incredible, almost Telescope view into Roman life and Roman culture during that time.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i mean, yeah that that's kind of the thing, like a character, like it's almost like you're in the character's head.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
um We call that first person.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But. That type of writing style, like we were talking about, was very much something that was. Kept internal.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
There was like a turning point where the idea of first person, where the person telling the story became a narrative.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, I mean, like the greatest example is like when you look at Shakespeare, it's the complete opposite. It's not first person at all. You know, you got all these different characters playing different positions and you you have to figure out where the story is going and kind of laying down the ground, depending where everything is.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We as people tend to keep those stories secret and those stories hidden.
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i honor Maybe that is why some great movies are great movies is because of that.
::Grant Johnson VO
i I think that has to do with it. And then also just the vulnerability that it takes to put yourself into a position where you can show sort of that authentic, vulnerable side of yourself to other people.
::Grant Johnson VO
Because that's that's one thing that's kind of boggled my mind is it's we've got... even Even unconsciously, we're putting on 50 different masks depending on who we're around and and what kind of a situation we're in
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
And nobody can live inside of your head. So you're the only person who actually gets to know who you are at the most fundamental level.
::Grant Johnson VO
And... it takes stuff like that autobiographical works or what have you to, to let people in and show that vulnerability.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's hard to be able to share, especially when you have those stories that have so many emotions and nerve endings, you know, and and those deep ties.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
ah This is so cliche, but like one great example that comes to mind is like West End Story.
::Grant Johnson VO
Okay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
the The story itself, like um like i know it's a musical and they've made it into like a film, but
::Grant Johnson VO
west West side story.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's so West Side Story. Sorry, West Side Story. is so My brain is late. oh
::Grant Johnson VO
New York, not London.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
it Not London. Wrong place. No, I'm mixing. I'm thinking of thinking of we're American werewolves in London. Brain. um
::Grant Johnson VO
Well, the West end is where they perform. That's, that's their equivalent to Broadway.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah Yeah, it is Yeah, you're right. You're right. Yes. but the wrong country oh but with that movie it's just so the stories is so heartbreaking and just so heart-wrenching but you feel so emotional because as you keep being a part of the story you resonate with those characters so deeply even with the traumas and everything that are going through it doesn't just do that with like people talking it just does it with the environment the the change of the scene
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like what were saying earlier, there's so much of that practical element that also makes the story, the story.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. And, and just when, when people are telling those really personal stories, uh, one thing that, that makes them even more,
::Grant Johnson VO
what's the word I'm looking for here?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
The je ne sais quoi. No, no.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. Yeah. So that, or, or just like the, the immersion in it comes from just how personal their experiences and how, how much it ties in with the culture of, of their, of their lives and the people around them.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
And, and the fact that, the the best storytellers are the ones that can translate that into a format that shows other people what it's like to experience that without having to like beat them over the head with it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I don't know. is like the other the other spectrum of that is like I and obviously like you look at the 90s and all of the films are just parents being the worst parents ever.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, it's like these poor kids that like have to like set up traps for fucking bandits on Christmas. You know, there's the list goes on.
::Grant Johnson VO
who
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You got this other kid that just goes to library, ends up in this magical world full of like fucking things that are going to kill it. It's just hilarious. You know, it's just like got the 60s that are full like stories like West Side Story. And then you got the 90s. It's just Home Alone Pagemaster.
::Grant Johnson VO
For the sixth sense or
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Mrs. Doubtfire Yeah, there's a lot space jam
::Grant Johnson VO
which Which, yeah, Daniel in in in Mrs. Doubtfire's, like, had custody taken away from him of his kids. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I Mean i'm not gonna lie robin williams does make a pretty Pretty good nanny. I mean not a pretty woman But nanny yes
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
How are those? It's just it was it just a crazy decade. like You want to talk like the culture shift of just stories? the ninety like i dead as I feel like you walk into like a director's like circle. you got the director, the producer, you've got the writer and everybody, and there's a bag of coke on the table. and They're like, alright guys, we're going to make a kids movie.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Let's go. Okay, idea. Rabbit, sexy woman. Bing, let's make it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Great time. Great time.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah, to be on a fly to be a fly on the wall for some of those conversations or some of those meetings, those brainstorming sessions.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
a i mean, like, we're talking about this before, like, Jim Carrey's, like, the greatest example. He came up in his acting career, like, at the perfect time, like, when all of these lunatics, like, these people were just drugs galore.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, meet this guy that can make all these weird, goofy faces or, like,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
we We can make some good money off of this, you know?
::Grant Johnson VO
We need that. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's crazy.
::Grant Johnson VO
go through Dumb and Dumber and the mask and Ace Ventura and Batman and all of those.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He did back and back. Like, back to back. Like, I think in 94, he had two movies. 95, 96, 97, 98. Like, kept pumping films. And, like... every single year this mandic just kept films
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
in like Majority of all of those films today, there's incredibly inappropriate. and There's a lot of problems going on, like especially age gaps between characters. im like, whoa.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But i to be honest, like, I don't care. They're just, it's just a movie, you know, you don't.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. it they It really depends on if you're, if you're there to scrutinize or if you're just there to be entertained because I, there's, there's stuff like that in every movie and it's anywhere from plot, plot holes to all of the different ah things that shouldn't have been in the movies that made it in because of um people forgetting them on tables or, or forgetting to, to match up the scene and the shot so that,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
oh, the clock is facing this way, but then in the very next, like when they pan back to it, it's over here now. It's like all of that stuff exists. And, you know, are you, are you less entertained because you pick up on stuff like that? Like if if you're there with a magnifying glass, it's like look intentionally looking for those things, or are you there to just see like, okay, what, what are these people going through and how does it, how does it turn out?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That reminds me of I was watching this tick-tock, you know, and like growing up as a kid like I had like Lilo and stitch came out and this bastard on tick-tock goes ahead
::Grant Johnson VO
Oh, yeah, the thing about the the scene on the beach where Lilo's running.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Why did you have to do that like what you could just leave our childhood alone for like just one freaking minute and it's like
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Now, whenever I watch it, it's just like immediate like, okay, they're not moving.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They're still not moving. Why aren't they moving?
::Grant Johnson VO
do Do you want me to ruin something else for you in case?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, we should just keep going.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Why not? Let's just keep ripping all the fucking bandages.
::Grant Johnson VO
ah
::Grant Johnson VO
So another podcast host I talked to who he he has his own production company for you know commercials or whatever. And one thing that he he tells people is um when you're looking at an over the shoulder shot and the person who's like, you're seeing the back of their head Not only is it probably a stand-in who isn't the same actor as the one one you when it pans back around to the other shot, but there's also the possibility that when you see their like chin wobble when they're talking, it won't match up with what they're saying.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
There you go, folks. All movies, all TV shows ruined.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Ruined. I mean, especially now they do, um I forgot what it's called. It's like a deep fake where they can take an actor and they can put another person's face on it.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
The problem is it is creepy as hell. is so creepy, because I genuinely feel as human beings, like I'm just a spiritual person, I feel like when people die, we all know as a collective that the person's no longer living.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And then all of a sudden when you resurrect the person from the dead, there's like a part in our brain that just goes, we like, nope, stranger danger.
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah stranger danger
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, this person should be under the ground six feet. Like, why do I see them on the screen right now?
::Grant Johnson VO
and and there is a difference between stuff that like existed when they did and then stuff that comes out after the fact I mean, there's there's some some situations where it's like, okay, we know that there's a delay between when stuff's recorded and when it's released, so there's that.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Just...
::Grant Johnson VO
but But then there's a whole other thing when it's, okay, this they've they've been gone for five or ten years now. they It should be settled.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, it's like bringing back, you know, Christopher Lee. You know?
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
like, the man was scary enough when he was alive.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You need to bring that man back.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And he's a great actor.
::Grant Johnson VO
He's not done with his, he's not done with his heavy metal career
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He's...
::Grant Johnson VO
he needs to kill more Nazis.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
my god. It's been... Like, honestly, some of these... Like, we were talking about, like, just some of these actors... They have some of the most bizarre backgrounds imaginable.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, you know, you think like, yeah, like they made it, but a lot of them made it and suffered like didn't become successful until like a lot later in their lives.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But
::Grant Johnson VO
Well, yeah, most of the people that I think are famous now that like are well established and are the main reason why I see a lot of the movies today, they, they didn't get their break until, and I say break, but they probably had been doing stuff. It's just that they weren't in the public verbiage until probably their forties for a lot of them.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah and you know what? I feel like that is almost hope because there is a place for all sorts of artists and all different.
::Grant Johnson VO
Hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You just have to be able to find it. You know, like it takes time. you know and i feel like you just you need to accept the fact that life comes with patience.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, being a TikTok or YouTube star, that is great. What is your long term goal?
::Grant Johnson VO
Right.
::Grant Johnson VO
And that's, I think, ah where a lot of people do mess up is that you've got people like... Mr. Beast, Mark Rober, they've got it down to a science, how to go viral.
::Grant Johnson VO
And then you've got all of the other people that they haven't got figured out yet. But part of the reason is because they're impatient. They want to get there. So they're just trying to get through the slog and they've heard people say, okay, part of the slog is you just need to be releasing content. So they upload a video every day or every week and they,
::Grant Johnson VO
Hell or high water, they got to get there. They got to do the thing to make sure that they're they get there. But at the same time, what are are you only doing it to do it or are you doing it to get better?
::Grant Johnson VO
Because there is, i think, on one side, there's the people who don't take any sort of... feedback or any sort of experience from what they do to improve. And then there's the people that they do latch on to certain things or be like, okay, I know I could be doing this better. How can I do that?
::Grant Johnson VO
And then incrementally they'll combine that with all of their different reps. And then that's when they finally make it through.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, you you are your worst enemy. that's That's the endgame of it all. it's um Look, not everybody is going to make it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you know And some people will be less successful than others.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But whether you believe in God or whether you other believe a creator, don't know, you're an atheist. get this life and you know some people find that by finding a partner having maybe having kids or what have you but you have to be able to have a happy life like i'll be honest with you i have even with like my own grandparents and my grandfather passed away a little bit ago my grandmother is 87 and she is the go free lady of the everybody loves her
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
She's happy-go-lucky. She loves to go out. She loves to spend time. like She's great to talk to. She's like that because she spent her entire life like doing what she loves. She loved being an aquatics director. She loved teaching people. like That's what she did.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And she had a good life from it.
::Grant Johnson VO
right
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Nobody's telling you to be like Mr. Beast. you know
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i just think like the most healthiest attitude you can do for yourself is... Be the best and do what you want to do. You know, it's like you're cutting yourself short.
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Well, I need the nine to fives to make a living. Guess what? I used to do a nine to five. I don't do that anymore. I'm getting a degree to work in the automotive industry can work on cars.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I get to do something with my hands. I actually enjoy that. You know, you there are workarounds with everything. It's like you could come up with the greatest excuse in the world. But at the end of the day, it's the cards are in front of you. You got to make the choice of what you want to do.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Plain and simple.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's so many things that people need done and so many things that people want to do. And it's finding kind of that cross section of that with basically your own preferences and aptitudes. you know i'm I'm sure you've you're probably aware of the the concept of Ikigai. That's basically what that is. You just find the thing that intersects with all four of the different quadrants and you say, okay, I like to do this and it pays me and people want it and it'll give me some sort of a creative outlet.
::Grant Johnson VO
even if that is just like sorting mail, like that's one thing that I've done in my life. That's like, this was actually an enjoyable experience was being a um substitute for a real male mail carrier.
::Grant Johnson VO
It's like people need that at least now. I don't know if in the future, if that'll still be a thing, but I mean, you know, if, if it eventually goes by the wayside, there's going to be other things to pick up.
::Grant Johnson VO
That's the craziest thing about technology is it's like, There's always jobs that end up becoming to some degree irrelevant because new technology introduces alternatives so that we don't need to always have the same this or that or the other thing.
::Grant Johnson VO
But it also creates new problems and with new problems come new solutions. And that's kind of the, that's sort of the key key to key to slide into that that opportunity to be like, okay,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Neverending story.
::Grant Johnson VO
Now we've got self-driving cars. Well, we either need mechanics for the self-driving cars or we need supervisors so that we know that they're actually going where they need to go. So it's like, there's always going to be something.
::Grant Johnson VO
But the question is, are you willing to to take on the something new and not be afraid of it? Because I know that's one thing that as we get older is we kind of become complacent and we become adverse to change.
::Grant Johnson VO
And, Really, i think probably the last 100, 150 years of the human experience has been an example that you need to not be afraid of that change that's coming because that's where the opportunity is.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah have to remember that we live in an industrial age, like you mentioned, and there's there's almost like this attitude of work to survive.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That's great, but I'm not going to trust anybody by the time I'm 65 that I'm going to receive my pension. I think that's stupid. I think a lot of people realize that's kind of stupid because you can't rely on anyone to keep you afloat. The only person that can keep you afloat is you. You know, and.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
The like to your point, like this idea of like being so adamant to change. Trust me, it is hard to change, but the wonderful thing about change, it comes with amazing opportunities like.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You restrict yourself, you're limiting yourself. Like, again, we've we've talked about this before. Like, there's so many people that are going up against the same things you're doing.
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Instead of just limiting yourself, see what else you can do. Like, put yourself out to all the different things you can. Like, one of the cool things, like, I know with voice acting, because I've had other people on, especially with now with technology, is...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
There's a lot of indie projects that exist, you know, and there's a lot more opportunities where you don't have to go through a middleman anymore. You know, you could reach out directly with the production company. You can get in touch with people that are a part of um different film districts or groups. i It's become a lot easier for a lot of different sectors. Yeah, it has limited and like obsoleted certain jobs, but look how much better it's made.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, yeah, there's... negatives and the positives but I mean there's a lot there's a lot more positives we have now it's just incredible
::Grant Johnson VO
now
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. And I've been lucky enough. I've managed to get in with some of those indie productions. It's like, yeah, this is this is the way that it works. You just gotta not be afraid to, to reach out to people and be like, I'd like to work on your cool thing.
::Grant Johnson VO
Let me know if you want me to work on your cool thing.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's amazing. I mean, um Apple TV, which it's crazy I'm even saying this, Apple TV has some of the most amazing indie TV shows and films you can find in any other streaming platform.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And it's just such a breath of fresh air because, you know i like I have such a limited time. Like ah when I do want to watch something, like I'm just so tired of watching Netflix.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They got political agendas in there, social. not I'm like, shut ah Just let me watch something that doesn't involve reality. Right. That's why I'm here.
::Grant Johnson VO
Get the escape.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yes. You know, and it's it's it's wonderful when you see a rise of that. And again, like a lot of that has to do with technology. You know, years ago for an indie production to be able to have a blockbuster film.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
was next to impossible. i mean it would cost millions of dollars. These days, you could do it with a budget of $175,000. It's been done for $75,000.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Block, but I think the, I forgot the name of it. It was an Italian film. I watched it. Yeah, was like $75,000. It was like staged in the 80s. It was amazing. stage in the eighty s was amazing
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
but
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. what what was what was the budget for ah Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Because I know that was it was less than $100,000.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It was very low. I'm gonna check that now.
::Grant Johnson VO
And I want to say, was it the, it was a rock band. I don't remember which rock band, but it was, it was a British rock band was basically who funded it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No fucking way. was Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And Genesis.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yep.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And Genesis!
::Grant Johnson VO
Yep.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i
::Grant Johnson VO
So Phil Collins and yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Wow, that's an amazing group. Who's the 229,000 pounds?
::Grant Johnson VO
Okay, so it was more than 100,000, but it it still wasn't into the millions.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No. But that that was kind of the beauty of it too, where that was kind of the beginning that was kind of the beginning for a lot of indie films to get their start and i mean it really did take until the internet started to rise for those production companies to really be able to break break the clay that's a little too old school yeah there you that's a little more fresh break ground
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yes.
::Grant Johnson VO
Break ground. Yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. Yeah. To be able to utilize the fact that, oh, now you can talk to people from across even the world and, and get talent, especially for things that you don't have to be there in person for. And,
::Grant Johnson VO
And yeah, all sorts of different ways to fund things now. So now we've got different crowdfunding websites or even just like everybody's got social media. So if you know somebody's got some sort of an agenda for, oh, I need to use my money to do something, you know, what better way than to reach out to them and be like, hey, I know you like this thing.
::Grant Johnson VO
Let's make this that's about this thing. And if that's you know, some sort of sports related thing or entertainment or, you know, any of those different things. It's, it's up to the purview of whoever has the money, but yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's just ah it's really cool to just see like the flip of the coin because the underground scene for the longest has always been the underdog.
::Grant Johnson VO
Hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But now almost as if it's the alpha dog, you know, it's what people are gravitating more and more. And I think like it's just a fact of. Hollywood's just not cutting it anymore.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, like I, you know, like Marvel movies kind of suck. Gal Gadot is just doing a woke version of Snow White.
::Grant Johnson VO
Well, it's...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's just it's all over the place.
::Grant Johnson VO
The problem is that it's been played out before. And because we like searching after things that are unique and basically haven't experienced them before,
::Grant Johnson VO
we're always searching We're always searching for that new high. So it's like, okay. but But then at the same time, we're giving them all these signals that, oh, we enjoyed this existing intellectual property. So maybe they'll just make another one of those. And that's where, what was it last year?
::Grant Johnson VO
There were in the top 10 movies at the box office, nine of them were sequels or remakes. And the the only one that wasn't was Wicked.
::Grant Johnson VO
I want to say that's correct.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I'm
::Grant Johnson VO
So yeah, they, they all, yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
not a fan. I like the musical.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i don't know. I just, it's like... hi When they redid West Side Story, because we were talking this before, i was like, okay, all right, cool.
::Grant Johnson VO
Right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Then they made a version of Cats.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
All right.
::Grant Johnson VO
okay
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And they just keep on going. It's like you want to go through all of the musicals, you know, because like Broadway's just got a ton. Like we could just go through the list.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
know, we just start from the: ::Grant Johnson VO
Well,
::Grant Johnson VO
that's the thing is that because they're established stories that people are already familiar with, there's already an audience. So you get that audience for free and then you also...
::Grant Johnson VO
you know depending on who's in it, you get their audience and, or, you know they have that kind of draw or appeal and, and that's what gets people in the door.
::Grant Johnson VO
And that's just how it works now.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I know.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It is. And you know what? It's not about like we can change the world. It's what we can do in the moment. You know, the for example, like for even yourself, like being able to get attached with, i you know, an indie project or something where, you know, you collaborate with the team and it's really, really well and you really enjoy the project.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, That could be something really special because you know you're resonating with the project and on top of that, you're really excited about doing this and then you do it and then somebody actually watches it. They had a bunch of people that are watching, they're seeing you perform and they're like, oh my God, this is really cool.
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I like this. you know That in itself is amazing. and
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Look, I've never been in Hollywood. I don't feel you can get that same experience if you were around a traditional Hollywood setting, especially now. I feel like you have to be so restricted and convoluted. Like you have to be so careful what you say at every single time. Like, how could you possibly be comfortable?
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah. Yeah. That's the hard part. Yeah. It's being yourself, especially when you know that there's stuff on the line and it's like, we talk about taking risks. Well, one risk that you don't want to do is killing your career. And it's like, there's a thousand and one ways you can do that. And it's ridiculous.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
God, again, like you literally are your worst enemy. It's bananas.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Um, Grant, I know that you talked about your voice acting. ah Do you have any social media presence, ah like a a website or anything?
::Grant Johnson VO
Mm-hmm.
::Grant Johnson VO
I have my website that would be grantjohnsonvo.com, VO like voice over. And that's got links to my YouTube, to my, it might even have my LinkedIn on there.
::Grant Johnson VO
I think I've got my Twitter or X account on there listed and, and it's got my, it's got my commercial demo and my sound or my, my studio, my raw studio sample.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Fancy.
::Grant Johnson VO
my acting resume, all those things. So, and ways to get ahold of me. So that's, that's probably the most all inclusive website for all of those things.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, hey, I don't know the type of person might be listening to this, but... You never know. and know, people be listening all the time. It's just a matter of um what I'm going to do is I'll put the links down in the description box below.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So if anybody wants to go check it out and what's your social media handle.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yep.
::Grant Johnson VO
It's at GrantJohnsonVO on just about every just about every platform. so
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
that's that's pretty easy to remember.
::Grant Johnson VO
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah. Keep everything simple.
::Grant Johnson VO
It it kind of ah kind of works because then it's like, oh, that's my website.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Grant Johnson VO
That's how you find me on just about every every platform.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah I know, you got to keep you gotta to keep everything simple, you know? It's like, look, ah you wanna find me? Put in my name. And then you got the V-O-A-O right there at the end of it.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I love that.
::Grant Johnson VO
Yep.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
um Listen, Grant, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on. i
::Grant Johnson VO
think
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah i feel like we've covered a lot of stuff.
::Grant Johnson VO
we had a lot of tangents.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, oh, it's wonderful. I like... You do have a really good voice for recording. It's not so all nice. Like you do a podcast. You're like, oh, I got a nice, pleasant voice. This is going to be fun. and
::Grant Johnson VO
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
so thank you, man. I really appreciate it.
::Grant Johnson VO
i'm I'm glad I could be on Dave. It was it was a blast.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
um Anybody out there that if you want to check out more of the podcast, you can find us everywhere and anywhere at Lost in a Groove Pod. So with that, get your motherfuckers on the next one.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Peace out.
