Ep. 28 - Your Invisible Mansion

Ep.27 - Your Invisible Mansion

Kent Thalman: [00:00:00] [00:00:00]Hi, I'm Kent 

[00:00:08] Anna Thalman: [00:00:08] and I'm Anna. 

[00:00:08]Kent Thalman: [00:00:08] And This is film and family. If you are a filmmaker and you're ready to take your relationship with yourself and your film career to the next level, you're in the right place, hit subscribe to never miss an episode. 

[00:00:20] Anna Thalman: [00:00:20] Let's jump right in. 

[00:00:21] Kent Thalman: [00:00:28] Awesome. Well, thanks for joining us today. On this episode of film and family, we are going to get a little bit personal in terms of. talking about ourselves. That's what we're just talking about ourselves today, but it's somewhat of a, we're going to try and cover some concepts, but we're also going to try and, talk a little bit about who we are as invisible mansion pictures, and also, a little bit about who we are as Kent and Anna and our family and company, and [00:01:00] then we have, you know, maybe some updates in terms of where we're at right now. So, hopefully, it doesn't feel like we're just talking about ourselves. we do want to talk about some things that will, paint a vision for where we're going and what we are trying to accomplish, as a team, which has to do with, this podcast as well. And it also has to do with. the film and family program. 

[00:01:22] Anna Thalman: [00:01:22] Yeah. Helpful to have a story with the voice. So we're going to give you some context today and explain invisible mansion pictures as it is right now. I'm sure things will develop with time, but right now where we're at and what the vision is. So I think we're just going to start talking about. Our story. How far back are we going? 

[00:01:45] Kent Thalman: [00:01:45] So I was born on September. Okay. 

[00:01:47] Anna Thalman: [00:01:47] This is the boring part right here

[00:01:48] Kent Thalman: [00:01:48] So I think, yeah, it is, isn't it. Um, so our story isn't like super amazing or unique in terms of like, there's really awesome. I mean, it feels that way to us. I think [00:02:00] it does, but I think most people that I know in film have a story that goes something like. When I was a kid, whether you were in elementary school or junior high or high school, Your parents gave you a camera or you read a book or you tried a thing, but somehow you got turned on to this idea that you could make a living making movies. And then that became this great idea or. Even before that you maybe just got roped into making videos or movies or stop motion, Claymation whatever's 

[00:02:32] Anna Thalman: [00:02:32] So what was your story.

[00:02:33] Kent Thalman: [00:02:33] So, you know, I guess mine was a mix of all of those things, but I've heard these stories so many times. I mean, and for those in the generation before us, it was a sort of super eight camera. Right. They had got their hands on a super eight and whatnot. Jacques Demy he started with like hand painting. Old film strips, and then animating them himself. you know, you, you, you get what you can get your hands on. so I read Steven Spielberg's [00:03:00] like pseudo biography. It was like, you know, one of those grade school books talked about him and really, I've always loved Steven Spielberg. And I'm just gonna say that shamelessly, for anyone who thinks he's just not artsy enough, but I really do. Feel like I identified with him in those early sort of formative years. But, in addition to that, what the book really did was it demystified the very first steps of understanding for me regarding the filmmaking process, which was mostly how on earth when I'm watching a movie, am I looking at something and then instantly looking at something else? And then instantly looking at something else, that was like seriously, a mystery to me, even in fifth grade, which is when I read this book and then it hit me. Oh, they stopped recording the camera and then they move it and then they start recording Again, that was literally my conclusion. But then when I read it, I realized that, there's this whole business and [00:04:00] script writing phase. And. Production with actors and directors and positions and jobs. and then there was the whole editorial phase where they edit the movie, they chop up all the pieces and stick them together, which was still a mystery to me, even after I read it, I was like, how did they do this? Mostly I think what the real question was, was how do I do this? And cause it was frustrating feeling like I just didn't have a clue because I didn't. and then from there it just stayed. And it just kept on staying until my parents gave me their old useless camcorder that used, like those high eight tapes, those big fat, they're not VHS, but they look more like cassette tapes that you'd stick in your radio. and I used that only being able to look through the eye piece cause there was no LCD screen on it to like I would hit the record button as fast as I could off and on. I guess on and off. And, I, I hit run, stop as fast as I could. And then I moved my little clay figure and that's actually how I did my first. Claymation's mostly just about handmade clay, [00:05:00] people slaughtering each other, but I would just hit those as fast as I could because there was no like single frame option. and then I eventually tried to rope my friends into it, but realized I still couldn't edit. And then yada, yada, you know, you figure it out, you get better cameras. And then I save it up from a paper out and bought a computer and was gifted some software for Christmas. but this is kind of like everyone's story. And then, ultimately I went to film school at Brigham Young University, but at that point I had already started making some videos for money. In fact, I had already had my first video job before I got into that film school. I got a job on campus before being accepted to the program, doing some video stuff for a couple of the colleges at the university. And so, you know, you, you learned some technical stuff and then you go to school and you watch a ton of films and you read a lot of books and you, hurt your brain a lot in a good way. so that's kind of my career in terms of 

[00:05:56] Anna Thalman: [00:05:56] the childhood of your career, 

[00:05:57] Kent Thalman: [00:05:57] the birth of it. Yeah. The Batman [00:06:00] begins version of it. I don't want this to sound too humble or anything, but I just feel like that's a lot of people's story and I've heard a lot of stories and to some degree or another that's, a lot of people's stories. They just, don't know what they don't know, and they don't know how they're going to get there, but they just keep loving it long enough and they kind of find their way into Into it. So I don't know. What's your story? 

[00:06:21] Anna Thalman: [00:06:21] Yeah. It took me a little longer to figure it out because. Not too much longer. I was still probably middle or high school when I started getting into this stuff. But I, for a long time, wanted to be a writer or a musician or an artist I did, I liked to draw. And so I always liked the arts. I was always kind of moving around the different arts. And then, I had a homework assignment in a journalism class. I think my middle school teacher was named Ms. Jenkinson. I hope I'm remembering that. Right. And she just said, you can write an article or you can do a video. And [00:07:00] so I got my little cam, it was like a little point and shoot camera, but it could also do video little tiny digital camera. And I borrowed my parents' tripod and I just went around and interviewed. All of my friends and asked them about their dating lives. Like that was my first video. That I ever made Yeah. 

[00:07:19] Kent Thalman: [00:07:19] So I made Claymation's about people slaughtering each other, 

[00:07:26] Anna Thalman: [00:07:26] and I ask people personal questions about their lives, which I continue to do as a coach. And I still love it. So I think that's sort of where I, first fell in love. I was like, wow. I can just ask people questions 

[00:07:37] Kent Thalman: [00:07:37] It's where you first fell in love?

[00:07:39] Anna Thalman: [00:07:39] With, film. 

[00:07:40] Kent Thalman: [00:07:40] Oh, I thought you fell in love asking someone about their personal dating lives.

[00:07:44] Anna Thalman: [00:07:44] Oh that's Funny. No, I just fell in love with people. I mean, I've always been in love with people that sounds weird, but I've loved. The study of people and understanding people. I love hearing people's stories and their thoughts and, from a young age, I think that's what got me into film. [00:08:00] And then my friends and I started doing little music videos that I would be embarrassed to even show you some of them. Which was just something we'd do when we were bored, we'd say, okay, pick a random song and we have to make a music video to it. And then we'd make some really cheesy music video. 

[00:08:17] Kent Thalman: [00:08:17] Whereas my friends, I made really good films in high school 

[00:08:22]Anna Thalman: [00:08:22] we had only girls at that point. So we were dressed up as guys to play the different parts.

[00:08:27] Kent Thalman: [00:08:27] We didn't even try and try to dress up as girls, or I think at one point we, this was an active discussion with us. We were like, So are we going to have any girls in this movie? And we just, that was like saying, are we going to have any airplane crashes in this movie? You know, it's like for a high school to say that, how do you, yeah. How on earth could you get a girl in your movie? Yeah, that's definitely it's definitely a high school problem. 

[00:08:53] Anna Thalman: [00:08:53] Yeah. So there's where documentary turned into narrative a little bit more for me. And then, I got involved [00:09:00] with, A place called Spy Hop Productions. It was a nonprofit in Salt Lake City, Utah, and they would help youth make films and give them resources that they wouldn't normally have access to cameras and, programs that had scholarships available or kind of a, like a FAFSA system, if you couldn't really afford it. And that was a really cool. Thing to be involved in. I really think Spy Hop is onto something cool. And, I got to work with a lot of people from different backgrounds. You know, people who'd been homeless, who'd been on drugs. Who'd been in all sorts of different situations and work together to make stuff, which I think helped me get better at making things, but also just better at working with people. From all different backgrounds. and eventually I realized, yeah, people do this for a living and I'd like to do it because it combines every art form that I've ever been interested in into one medium. There's really no limits as far as what kind of stories you can tell and what kind of [00:10:00] things you can do. And it's different all the time. And I, I like that. Change, being able to do all sorts of different projects and what I'm doing this year might look totally different than what I'm doing next year, but I'm still kind of using the same language. 

[00:10:15] Kent Thalman: [00:10:15] Yeah. and so that would bring us to our film career so far as in like where we're at?

[00:10:21] Anna Thalman: [00:10:21] Well, you're skipping, like when we met and stuff. 

[00:10:24] Kent Thalman: [00:10:24] Oh, is that relevant to our film career? 

[00:10:25] Anna Thalman: [00:10:25] Well We don't have to tell our whole story. 

[00:10:27] Kent Thalman: [00:10:27] Well, I'm not going to tell our whole story, but we met in film school sort of at the very beginning before either of us had gotten into the program and then we got married and then we graduated from film school.

[00:10:39] Anna Thalman: [00:10:39] Well, I just think. How we started, our business might be relevant, so 

[00:10:43] Kent Thalman: [00:10:43] that's relevant. So yeah, we, Both were working jobs, making, course content for Brigham Young University at their independent study program. And, just kind of, you know, professors teaching science and stuff, on camera. And then we were editing doing all the graphics and [00:11:00] whatever we worked on a whole team. Right. a lot of talented people coming into that group. In fact, Some of the, name drops we can say is that off of that team came Lindsay Sterling. She worked there a little before us, but, she went on to have a really illustrious, not film career, but

[00:11:15]Anna Thalman: [00:11:15] she still loves making music videos.

[00:11:17] Kent Thalman: [00:11:17] It was a YouTube career and she was making a lot of her own videos at the start that went viral. fun fact. Anyway, any other name drops that I'm sure there are,

[00:11:25]Anna Thalman: [00:11:25] Devin Graham. Did he ever work? 

[00:11:26] Kent Thalman: [00:11:26] He never worked in independent study

[00:11:27] Anna Thalman: [00:11:27] Oh no he was just in the program. 

[00:11:28] Kent Thalman: [00:11:28] No. anyway, we, at some point realized we were getting kind of busy, well, I'll back up. We said we wanted to do this for a living make videos. So we had like, you know, this was kind of a few years after the DSLR revolution in 2010, this was around 2014, 15. We got married at the end of 2014. 2015 toward the end. We became parents right after we became parents. We realized, I guess right before we became parents, 

[00:11:59] Anna Thalman: [00:11:59] right after we got [00:12:00] married, we basically had no money whatsoever. We made a little bit of money. We were living with my grandma in her basement and we spent all the money we made on equipment. 

[00:12:10] Kent Thalman: [00:12:10] Well, so What had happened was, we said, we're going to make something every week. We're just gonna make a video. Of something. And we started, so if we went rock climbing with friends, I think that was one of the things we did. We tried to shoot a bunch. We'd never edited that footage. 

[00:12:24] Anna Thalman: [00:12:24] That's true

[00:12:24] Kent Thalman: [00:12:24] And then we, you know, there was other videos where we'd like, shoot a wedding video for free. 

[00:12:28] Anna Thalman: [00:12:28] We were like begging people to let us shoot things for them, 

[00:12:31] Kent Thalman: [00:12:31] Yeah we were trying to shoot things for them and whatnot. And then we got hired by a couple of family members. One was for like a straight up. Family reunion and the other ones for like a commercial work that he owned a business and he hired us and paid us a pretty professional rate. 

[00:12:45] Anna Thalman: [00:12:45] that was a big deal for us. 

[00:12:46] Kent Thalman: [00:12:46] That was a big deal. And those were big blessings. And that happened very quickly after we said, we're going to start making something once a week. So some listeners to this podcast might be behind us. In their journey and some might be ahead of us in [00:13:00] their professional journey. And so for those of you who are maybe still trying to make this happen, this is a reminder of the value of just doing something. Before anyone pays you to do it, start doing it now. And if you're already married, it's not too late. If you're already a parent, it's not too late, you can start doing stuff for free. Now it will be hard. There'll be some sacrifices, but we just started doing stuff for free. I mean, some of it was for free for people. Some of it was for free, for fun for us. And, a few opportunities kind of popped out and we spent. All the money on upgrading all of our gear, which was at the time, a very good move because we didn't have hardly anything. and then we started to just kind of find work here and there, and we didn't have any time for our day jobs hardly. Anna became a parent. Well, we both became parents, but Anna, kind of was not able to work her, job right after birth. Even though that job, that boss was awesome. And he

[00:13:53]Anna Thalman: [00:13:53] he was like, you can bring the baby in if you want, 

[00:13:56] Kent Thalman: [00:13:56] bring the baby in, and you guys just work evenings 

[00:13:58] Anna Thalman: [00:13:58] when the baby's sleeping and the [00:14:00] team was gone 

[00:14:00] Kent Thalman: [00:14:00] Yeah but we didn't do that. and then I eventually had to leave that job because we started to find other work other ways and. Flood famine, yada, yada. That was definitely part of our story. But yeah, 

[00:14:10] Anna Thalman: [00:14:10] you didn't have to leave. I think that was a leap of faith. 

[00:14:12] Kent Thalman: [00:14:12] it was

[00:14:12] Anna Thalman: [00:14:12] There are lots of leaps of faith, even just the decision to make something every week was a leap of faith. It was like a breakthrough. We just said, no one wants to pay us because they haven't seen us do this yet. And so we need to do what we want to get paid to do first. And then people will pay us to do it. So we started doing that regularly until people did start paying us. And we actually were. Able to, you know, we had something to show for ourselves that we could be competent enough.

[00:14:40]Kent Thalman: [00:14:40] Yeah. And I think, is there anything else on that journey you want to talk about or do you want to just kind of, I was just going to sum up kind of where we're at now. 

[00:14:49] Anna Thalman: [00:14:49] I guess I just wanted to hit some of the milestones, because I think those are where we can teach something like things that we learned that made a difference. So I think the other one was deciding to quit our [00:15:00] day job And just do this, which was a scary thing that the sooner you do it, it's probably the better because our expenses were relatively low

[00:15:09] Kent Thalman: [00:15:09] It just depends. I think one of the greatest values of a day job is education. and by day job, I mean like working for someone else on a regular sort of W2 basis. And when you do that, You can get working under someone who is really way ahead and they can become a mentor. And this job at BYU was actually a really good way for us to just. Shoot and edit and do all this stuff ourselves a lot. And then shortly after we quit that job, we actually got hired and sub contracted by BYU to do the exact same stuff we were working for. But the secret 

[00:15:43] is that 

[00:15:44] when you're a student and you're working for hourly pay, you get paid way less than when you're a graduate and you're getting paid on a contract basis because they're too busy for their team to do it all. And, then we got some experience kind of actually logistically producing the whole thing and [00:16:00] there was new opportunities to learn there, but yeah, working a day. Job is really good. If you're working under someone who's doing what you want to ultimately do, to get a great education. 

[00:16:09] Anna Thalman: [00:16:09] Yeah. And this is just our story. It's not, like it there's a one way there's lots of ways to no, 

[00:16:13] Kent Thalman: [00:16:13] It's the value of a day job but I do think you have to eventually graduate from working for someone. 

[00:16:17] Anna Thalman: [00:16:17] So the other milestone that sticks out to me is, the red story. I don't know if we have time to tell a short version of that, but that competition, I think, taught us the lesson that allowed us to. 

[00:16:28] Kent Thalman: [00:16:28] Make a lot of leaps of faith. 

[00:16:30] Anna Thalman: [00:16:30] Yeah and move forward

[00:16:31] Kent Thalman: [00:16:31] So, so here's the fastest, most bullet point version of that red story. Jared land president of red announces that if anyone submits a shot for shot recreation of this obscure sort of German music video, that was really hilarious, in 4k or higher that he would gift them. a Red Dragon

[00:16:53] Anna Thalman: [00:16:53] It was a competition that the best one would win a red. 

[00:16:56] Kent Thalman: [00:16:56] Yeah, exactly. 

[00:16:57] Anna Thalman: [00:16:57] Gemini, 

[00:16:58] Kent Thalman: [00:16:58] No Gemini, [00:17:00] Gemini didn't exist back then. And I think this was right before they started phasing everything into the DSMC 2 body and color science and everything. And so it was before the helium and all that. And so this Dragon was kind of on its way out as its flagship camera, but it was still a $60,000 brain brand new at the time. Now it's not that expensive. And. so for us, that would have been like, totally game-changing we looked at it. We said, okay, well, we found out about this a little late. We had like 48 hours to do it. We said, let's do it

[00:17:28] Anna Thalman: [00:17:28] it was right before Christmas.

[00:17:29]Kent Thalman: [00:17:29] Anna and I, and one other friend were trying to put it together. We were looking at the costumes online that we would need to do to get. This thing done, order it on Amazon. And we tried to make it happen. We just 

[00:17:40] Anna Thalman: [00:17:40] saw some submissions. People were already finishing and submitting 

[00:17:44] Kent Thalman: [00:17:44] and they were not bad

[00:17:45] Anna Thalman: [00:17:45] pretty good quality versions yeah

[00:17:47] Kent Thalman: [00:17:47] Yeah, pretty good shot for shot. And they did it really fast and we, looked at it and we said, these costumes aren't even gonna come on time. or it would be really, really debatable or we'd have to pull an all-nighter Christmas Eve. 

[00:17:58] Anna Thalman: [00:17:58] Yeah. We're like, do we really want to spend our [00:18:00] Christmas, trying to make this cheesy obscure video for the off chance of winning. A red camera and we're going to spend hundreds of dollars to get these props and things all ready.

[00:18:11] Kent Thalman: [00:18:11] Yeah maybe a couple hundred bucks. 

[00:18:12] Anna Thalman: [00:18:12] Yeah. Not a ton, but still like at the time. 

[00:18:14] Kent Thalman: [00:18:14] Yeah. At the time we were totally broke. And so it was a very, very hard thing. And we just said, I mean, there's a lot of people doing pretty good submissions and we would be just. You know, barely throwing this thing into the mix. We could totally compete. It was just, we found out about it a little, a little late. So, the story is, in the end about 60 people submitted and we were not one of them. We were not one of them. We did not submit. We just said, you know, let's just put family first and 

[00:18:43] Anna Thalman: [00:18:43] enjoy our Christmas. 

[00:18:44] Kent Thalman: [00:18:44] Enjoy our Christmas and Jared land awarded a Red Dragon to. Every single person that submitted anything, including like a few people who submitted garbage, just like shots on a piece of paper in 4k. And that was kind of a devastating [00:19:00] moment when you realize that if all you'd done was try, you'd have won the whole prize equal to what everyone else got. 

[00:19:08] Anna Thalman: [00:19:08] Yeah He did not say that every single person.

[00:19:11] Kent Thalman: [00:19:11] Yeah,

[00:19:11] Anna Thalman: [00:19:11] Was Going to get one, 

[00:19:12] Kent Thalman: [00:19:12] no 

[00:19:12] Anna Thalman: [00:19:12] that was 

[00:19:13] Kent Thalman: [00:19:13] he said one person was going to be chosen. 

[00:19:15] Anna Thalman: [00:19:15] A huge surprise. 

[00:19:15] Kent Thalman: [00:19:15] And so, That was remarkable. That was a lesson for me in a lot, a lot, a lot of ways. And I've been thinking about that story for a long time. and, one of the things that resulted from that was, we said we're never going to ever not do something because we've decided beforehand we've already lost. So from now on, we try, if we think we can. Even remotely do it and we want to do it. We're going to do it. We're not going to just say, well, it's too hard or we couldn't compete or, you know, whatever. So we've tried a lot of things since then and failed quite often or not been chosen or not won, but a, one of those was a Faith Counts. You can look those guys up, but they had a yearly competition that ran for a whole three years or something. And we [00:20:00] submitted to that and won the audience choice. We won $10,000 and that funded our move to Georgia, which we could have never afforded. 

[00:20:06] Anna Thalman: [00:20:06] And We never would have done that probably if we hadn't had this experience with missing out on the red, so it was such a valuable lesson

[00:20:12]Kent Thalman: [00:20:12] a big motivating factor. And, that's come back to help us many, many times. So that was a good, highlight 

[00:20:17] Anna Thalman: [00:20:17] yeah, it's just a great symbol of kind of our view of the purpose of life and. Christ and how all we have to do is try our very best. 

[00:20:26] Kent Thalman: [00:20:26] Yeah. Give it your absolute best. And you might think that, it's not even worth trying, but it always is worth trying. And the reward is the same for everyone who really, really puts it in, and gives it their best, even though it might not look. Equal, in their results. so yeah, that is a cool story. And that does kind of sum us back up to now we're in Georgia. we directed a short film that we raised some money for in various ways, a little Kickstarter, a little of our, a lot of our own money and a little bit from, no, I shouldn't say a little bit. A few thousand bucks from people that we knew who invested in the short film, which was very [00:21:00] generous and they knew that they weren't really gonna make that money back. Cause it was a short learned a lot on that short, I won't go into all those lessons. Maybe we will on another episode. and now we run Invisible Mansion Pictures, which, we started in wedding videos. Now we're doing more commercial work. and we've got that short film and now we're working on our first funded feature film, which is micro budget. And we have two other features that are written and pitch able and 

[00:21:27] Anna Thalman: [00:21:27] Pretty ready to go

[00:21:28] Kent Thalman: [00:21:28] pretty Ready to go. And one of those is sub million and one of those is a few million in terms of budget size, just, for the sake of people understanding like career milestones, career milestones, by the way, do not have to be measured in dollars. just want to mention that, but it's just an easy, quick way to quantify things, but, I mean, in a few years, we're gonna look back and we're gonna say, wow, we were such babies looking at us now. but five years ago, if I'd see where I am now, I would want to be talking to myself and be like, wow, you've got all this, all these tools, all these [00:22:00] resources, you've made all this progress in your career. You've graduated, you've made a, full-time living off of this and you've supported a family. So we can talk about our family so far as well, because that's what, this is all about film and family. 

[00:22:12] Anna Thalman: [00:22:12] Yeah. So we've been married six years now and we have three kids. Their ages are five, three, and one. Pretty consistently every two years we have another baby 

[00:22:22] Kent Thalman: [00:22:22] very consistently. yeah, and we became homeowners, in July. I mentioned that not to brag. I mean, it's a big deal. It seemed like an impossible thing. We were planning on renting for way longer, but for families, because this is a film and family podcast. And for filmmakers, frankly, home ownership is a big goal. A lot easier in Georgia than I think in California. So for any of you Californians listening, haha consider coming up to Georgia, where I'm from ownership is much more within your reach. There are definite pros and cons and affordances and limitations to a California versus Georgia living. And, I'm [00:23:00] sure there's some great opportunities for living in LA and if that's where you need to be. Definitely don't. I feel bad. I'm just joking anyway. but that's a big deal. That was a big milestone in our family. Each kid was a big deal. Marriage is a big deal. Home Ownership was a big deal. they feel like big milestones in terms of family progress. 

[00:23:22]Anna Thalman: [00:23:22] Yeah. And I think it was about when we moved to Georgia that we. Changed the name of our production company to Invisible Mansion. 

[00:23:32] Kent Thalman: [00:23:32] We rebranded from Clear Glass Cinema, which was more of our wedding videos company, which we've completely ended. 

[00:23:40]Anna Thalman: [00:23:40] So I'd like to talk about that name, which you originally came up with, 

[00:23:46] Kent Thalman: [00:23:46] lots of, consultation with you. And others 

[00:23:49] Anna Thalman: [00:23:49] yeah there's a lot of discussion around it, but its meaning has evolved over time.

[00:23:54] Kent Thalman: [00:23:54] Ironically, Brando White had a lot to do with. That conversation surrounding the name.

[00:23:59]Anna Thalman: [00:23:59] Yeah

[00:23:59]Kent Thalman: [00:23:59] at the time [00:24:00] he was just an actor friend of ours, but now he's, 

[00:24:01] Anna Thalman: [00:24:01] he recorded a voiceover for our reel and 

[00:24:04] Kent Thalman: [00:24:04] for the reel, for Invisible Mansion Pictures 

[00:24:06] Anna Thalman: [00:24:06] helped us kind of figure that out. 

[00:24:07] Kent Thalman: [00:24:07] But Brando's now involved in all of our feature film projects including the current one that we're making next month. We're shooting production on it, shooting principal photography on it. and then he's also the writer of the, next film that we have slated called at the edge of a wood, which we've talked a little bit mentioned a, little bit on the podcast, but so you never know these people that you kind of start with. they go with you pretty far, sometimes. 

[00:24:30] Anna Thalman: [00:24:30] Yeah So, what was the idea originally behind the name? 

[00:24:34] Kent Thalman: [00:24:35] I think the original idea was this idea of, this mansion. It that's invisible. That's a great start, is sort of this, it's like this idea of riches and extreme value. But it's not tangible or visible to our five senses. And I felt like film as a medium sort [00:25:00] of the great dream, the great object or goal of film as a medium is invisible. It's this emotional, or even just thoughts that we're trying to generate in another human being. We're trying to communicate in a way that. Impacts emotionally or makes people think differently. And so that was kind of the treasure trove or the mansion of the medium, and the object of our company that we were trying to accomplish. But it has evolved surprisingly as a name, the more we've thought about it since we came up with it. and it's become more of a symbol of, A life, 

[00:25:42] Anna Thalman: [00:25:42] a lifestyle,

[00:25:43]Kent Thalman: [00:25:43] kind of a lifestyle, but also just like a quality, a measure of a quality of life. And this idea that we've talked about, a lot of like building all four walls at the same time, instead of building one wall at a time, most movie studios have these big cities. And if you look behind it, it's, made of. Wood [00:26:00] and fake brick and mortar. And, there's just one wall to a building, but if you walk onto the inside of it, it's like determined show, right? It's all staged. It's all fake. there's nothing inside of it. There's no other wall keeping it up. And if a big wind storm came by, it would just blow it right over. And so, this idea of like being able to have a film career, that's really powerful, but that's gonna last a long time. Being able to have a family, a marriage relationship with children. a spiritual relationship with yourself and God, just sort of this, whatever it is you want out of life, having all of those main pillars growing together at an equal rate, that's kind of, and it goes to this quote that Mr. Rogers often talks about from. the book, The Little Prince, which is that "the most essential things in life are invisible." so there are things that are more important than movies and that's what we should be making movies about. [00:27:00] And I guess that's what we're supposed to remember when we think of the name of invisible mansion pictures is that, Those things that are more important than movies are usually invisible, including relationships.

[00:27:11] Anna Thalman: [00:27:12] Yeah. I started using this analogy with my coaching clients of remodeling, as if. We were going on a home tour, we call it a home tour. When we go through the different rooms in your home, all the different categories of your life and rate them and kind of analyze them to see where you're at and what you want to work on. And then we go through room and we go through a process of remodeling that area of your life. And I really liked that term because I use something called the model. So remodel, feels very appropriate, but. I didn't even think about that in terms of Invisible Mansion Pictures at the time. And then later as we had more of these discussions, it kind of became married into what we were doing as a production [00:28:00] company. Instead of just this side thing that I was doing, helping people through coaching, we discovered that we really wanted to help filmmakers specifically who wanted to flesh out their. Invisible Mansion their full life and not just have this front, like you mentioned, Kent. that looks really nice on the outside, but on the inside is completely empty and we see evidence of a lot of people feeling this way in the industry who maybe their life looks really glamorous, but on the inside it doesn't feel so good. and no one really knows what that's like, except for you. You're the only one who knows what it's like to live in your life. Everyone else just sees the front. And that can be hard because I often have seen people all around me and felt like they were ahead of me, that everything looked so much better for them than me. but I've realized that that's hard to judge and it's not really my place. I don't know what their life really is like. [00:29:00] And. for me personally, I'd rather have it all slower instead of one thing faster. And so we've talked about this idea of, for Kent and I we've decided to build our life one brick at a time, all the way around this giant mansion that we're creating instead of just building one wall. And then hoping that later we can go and build another wall. We've decided to have kids right after we got married to, work on our film business, right from the start to try to do these things together from day one and build up and it's slower, but it's stable and it's. All of it. It's all the things we want.

[00:29:39] Kent Thalman: [00:29:39] And while it is slower, I do expect in a few years that the momentum itself will allow progress to be exponentially faster. 

[00:29:49] Anna Thalman: [00:29:49] Yeah. 

[00:29:50] Kent Thalman: [00:29:50] but it's just going to be. A hard slope up the, curve, if you know what I mean? it's going to be hard at the beginning and that's something that we kind of accepted and we are [00:30:00] only just now I think, starting to see ourselves catching that curve a little bit. I don't want to say that to be bragging, but I feel like, that strategy is working and, our family is by no means happy all the time or perfect. 

[00:30:15] Anna Thalman: [00:30:15] yeah. 

[00:30:16]Kent Thalman: [00:30:16] and our. Our business. Isn't like Hyper lucrative all the time, or just like, people aren't like beating the door down or anything, but we are making money. We are supporting a family. we did manage to become homeowners and our relationships are growing and, and sort of evolving and improving in, various ways. that all feels like progress. And now the career is, the first, you know, I guess the current, the big milestone for right now is that we're, getting this first feature off the ground. Lots of people have made feature films, whether or not ours is just another one of those that just ends up going nowhere and is terrible. Or if it breaks our career out to the [00:31:00] next sort of tier of filmmaking is, Yet to be seen. But, I personally have full confidence that it's going to be, a big step forward. And I mean, it's, something we're all going to have to do. 

[00:31:15] Anna Thalman: [00:31:15] Yeah

[00:31:16] Kent Thalman: [00:31:16] You can't make a second feature until you've made a first one and you can't make a big film until you've made a small one, unless you. I guess are some random exception, which there are a few of those people out there, but that's sometimes that's good. And sometimes that's bad. Some of those people become remarkable filmmakers that have very long careers and some of those people crash and burn early. And anyway, the point is we're going slow and we're doing it in order. And, I was just reading about Christopher Plummer, who was winning Oscars in his late eighties. And so it's like, that's fine. I don't need to win an Oscar ever actually. But, it would be cool if I did. we're just going to keep making movies either way. And if we're in our eighties and we're still doing it and we're like, yeah, no Oscars yet. Then. Like imagine how good you're [00:32:00] going to be. You're going to be as good at making movies as Christopher Plummer is at acting because he just kept doing it. He was also amazing before he was in his eighties. We just finished watching The Sound Of Music again. And I'm like, wow, I forgot how amazing Christopher Plummer is. Side note, go watch The Sound Of Music. 

[00:32:16] Anna Thalman: [00:32:16] Yeah. But I think that the vision we have now for the company is, you know, we don't just want to make films, which I don't want to put a just in front of that making films, Is a. Well, first of all, a monumental task, but also very important. I really believe it's an important industry that seeing characters try to have something that they want and are having a hard time getting and overcome their obstacles and how it all works together in the end. And they're stronger and better because of it, 

[00:32:45] Kent Thalman: [00:32:45] or not

[00:32:46]Anna Thalman: [00:32:46] is inspiring and it helps other people who watch too. Overcome their own obstacles and believe in themselves and feel like they can relate to someone. And there's so much good that can be done just through a film. [00:33:00] at the same time, we also want to help filmmakers and people, behind the camera. And so Invisible Mansion has become kind of dual in nature in that regard where we're, trying to help filmmakers have this full fleshed out life and everyone, but. filmmakers are our specialty because we are filmmakers. and also inspire the people who are watching our films in the same way. 

[00:33:27] Kent Thalman: [00:33:27] Yeah. Well, we hope that our story has been instructive. we probably downplayed a little bit too much for being Dramatists, but, It's something that's very important to us and hopefully helps you understand a little bit more about who we are. And, we also hope that it inspires you if you're kind of coming up still in, your career or in your aspirations or dreams. if you're ahead of us, that's great too. If you're maybe you've already. Done your [00:34:00] first feature, or maybe you are progressing in ways that are a little different than us. I really believe in taking the time to look back and I'm learning the value of believing in people that are a little behind where you might be at that current phase and, investing in people. I'm finding to be one of the greatest, lessons in leadership and management, but also just in life and how that's actually creating a lot of advancement for me to take the time, to find people who don't know anything and start teaching them the stuff that they want to learn. If I happen to have anything to offer in that regard. And so I've been teaching a lot of people, editing and technical skills and, assistant and logistical skills that, I've been able to learn. And that is progressing the company that's progressing myself. I feel like I'm learning and growing a lot through that process and there's advancements to be made. And I feel like I'm watching other people, advance and grow in huge ways. [00:35:00] so that's been really exciting. so, we're in the middle. We'll always be in the middle of our progress. And, so are you, you're in the middle, so wherever you happen to be, and the only, the only way we can move is, is forward. 

[00:35:12] yeah The over 

[00:35:13] Anna Thalman: [00:35:13] arching message. I think we always have is just the, you can have both, you can have film and family and keep your values and have all the things you want to have It's going to feel a little slower at first, but it's like the tortoise and the Hare slow and steady. Wins the race or eventually catches you up. and that's sort of what we're seeing in our own life is that even though we were the ones who were kind of the underdogs and behind, because we were trying to do so much and we often feel still that we're just drowning, 

[00:35:42] Kent Thalman: [00:35:42] Doing way to many things

[00:35:43] Anna Thalman: [00:35:43] trying to keep yeah. Trying to keep all these different things in our lives up, and functioning, but its starting to pay off. And I really believe that in the long run, I wouldn't change. I wouldn't change that approach at all, so, 

[00:35:59][00:36:00] Kent Thalman: [00:35:59] well, awesome. Thanks so much for joining us. on this episode, if you like what you're learning on the podcast, you can compliment us by giving us a five star review, or you can refer us to a friend. If you think that there's anyone in your life that you know, that might, benefit from these conversations, concepts, interviews, we're going to keep doing all of that. 

[00:36:21] Anna Thalman: [00:36:21] Yeah. And when you're ready to take these tools to the next level and really apply what you're learning on the podcast to your life, the perfect way to do that is by joining the film and family program. The process we teach in this program is simple, proven, and has worked for thousands of people. You're going to experience your own character arc. We know you have something that you want badly and are having a hard time getting it. And our guarantee is to help you get it we'll help you discover your unique story. And make your own life, your greatest masterpiece. 

[00:36:51]Kent Thalman: [00:36:51] Please click the link in the show notes to learn more and, hopefully you'll join us next time. 

[00:36:55] Anna Thalman: [00:36:55] We'll see you then. 

[00:36:56] Kent Thalman: [00:36:56] Bye 

[00:36:57] Anna Thalman: [00:36:57] bye.