SPEAKER_02 0:00

I'm the one with the tech issues.

SPEAKER_04 0:02

Yeah, come on.

SPEAKER_03 0:06

No, that wasn't a tech issue. It's that stupid thing that happens. It's that stupid thing that happens when someone calls my phone and my earbuds go on a vacation. And so let's hopefully it won't happen.

SPEAKER_04 0:18

Are you able to just turn off your Bluetooth on your phone?

SPEAKER_03 0:22

My uncle called me. He's my tax accountant. Oh. I will have to see if I can do this without hold on. Like, don't, I hope it won't steal it. How do I make it stealing?

SPEAKER_04 0:36

If you go to your phone, I just did the same thing. Um turn off Bluetooth though. So it's not connected to your headphones.

SPEAKER_03 0:46

Oh stop, Bluetooth. Oh god.

SPEAKER_04 0:52

Okay. And then you go into this area.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

Not connected. Okay. There's a Bluetooth. I think I made it do not disturb and that. So I jumped him, I'm pretty sure, directly to my voicemail. And then came back. But I know why he's calling and I'm scared.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Oh no! How about it's good news? How about it's you know, you actually overpaid and you're owed a few thousand dollars. Let's I like that. Wow. Let's keep it positive. Let's keep it positive here, man. When your friends don't just say, we should make something, they actually make it and then keep making it and then build a whole ecosystem around it. That's a different level of commitment. Welcome back to Ilse Will Say, the place where people told me to pick a niche. And I said, sure, I pick indie film collectives, improv teams that somehow become production companies, and the friends who turn group chats into actual art. Welcome back to my brain. I'm Ilse, your host, your wait, are we shooting this or just riffing? Collaborator and your biggest fan of people who just start before they feel ready. And today's guests, they're the kind of duo that makes you go, oh, this is what happens when talented people actually stick together. She's an actor, filmmaker, comedian, and co-founder of Film in a Bag Productions, a storytelling-driven company built with her creative crew, also known as the FIAB Five, which is really hard to say. You've seen her performing improv with Park Dog, creating work that's sharp and funny, and co-hosting the Urban Pebble Podcast, where she spotlights indie filmmakers in Chicago. He's a filmmaker, visual arts, and writer-director behind projects like Try That Again, Infernal Beeping, and the upcoming Margaret and the Alien. His work lives in the whimsical, slightly off-beat world that makes you lean in. And he's also co-building Film in a Bag and lifting up the creative community around him. Together, they're co-founders, collaborators, improv teammates, and co-hosts who are fully in it, making work, supporting artists, and actually doing the things a lot of people talk about doing. Please welcome the very talented, very collaborative, and genuinely fun creative duo, Teresa Martinez Moore and Adam Rabora.

unknown 3:24

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 3:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_04 3:30

Oh my gosh, we were laughing uh beforehand uh when we're like trying to like think of think of like who we are in our little bios. And we're like, we overlap a little too much, but these are just the same bio.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

Yes, I sent mine in first, and I was like, I stole it. Now Adam really has to do some heavy lifting to have something different. That's okay. You remember to send a photo in it. I was like, what? Oh, the bottom. Got it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

All the requirements, they uh they must be met prior to no, I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

Um, together we've we required check.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Oh my gosh. But I missed y'all so much. Um, we met onset, like most incredible relationships do, but how did y'all meet? How did it come about? And where are y'all from? Oh, whoa.

SPEAKER_04 4:27

Um well, so we met through uh our improv team, uh part dog, which is still performing the last Saturday of every month at the Boyhouse Theater.

SPEAKER_03 4:37

Get your tickets now.

SPEAKER_04 4:38

It's a plug!

SPEAKER_03 4:39

Um my gosh, you plugged already. Check.

SPEAKER_04 4:42

Got it. Um but it was uh it was a group that was formed. Um I was part of like the the original crew that formed it at our college. Um that was Illinois State University. Um we had started it by doing like um musical improv shows at a planetarium. A shockingly little amount to do with outer space, uh, except that we did do it around, they had like the giant star projector that was like built into the center of the room. So we were kind of doing it in the round, but like around this giant thing. It was fun.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

Uh but then I was not part of that. I was not those years I've just heard of as lore.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

They're the nerds. Like, I'm cool. Um I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

I was very happy to be found in Chicago, let me put it that way.

SPEAKER_04 5:32

Because the um uh a bunch of the members were older than me, so they graduated first and left off to Chicago, uh, where they kind of re brought it into the Chicago scene and had some new people join, such as Teresa.

SPEAKER_03 5:48

Yes, I was found. I was recruited. I don't know. Actually, I was invited one day and we played in a in someone's backyard, and I got so many bug bites that night. Um, but I had so much fun all at the same time, and so that's how I became a part of Part Dog. And that was like the year before you graduated.

SPEAKER_04 6:08

Yes, I joined like a year, I rejoined a year later.

SPEAKER_03 6:12

So I remember going, I was like, who's this Adam who's coming? I don't know. And then I found out.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Dang, that's awesome. And how do you go from that to like film collaborators? Oh time.

SPEAKER_04 6:32

Time.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

How many years is that? A decade.

SPEAKER_04 6:36

Yeah, about 10 years now.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 6:39

Um, I because I think we like right away, we were like, uh, I was acting, you were acting, we were both like, and we liked making stuff in general, and so we were both figuring out like the Chicago scene.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

I think it originally a lot more on the acting front, and just like we're like, okay, we connected over the acting, and you got an agent, and I had an agent, and then we were like, who who's your agent? What are you happy? Do you what's your plan? Like, where's it going? What's up? And we would just we had a lot of practices each week for this improv team back in the day. So it was uh it was hours and hours, like three-hour practice at least once a week.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

But practice is like like let's have some fun, let's figure out, let's eat.

SPEAKER_03 7:22

Yeah, but you know, if you spend enough time, you actually do like chat with people, and depending on where the practice was, Adam has a car and was kind enough to drive me home several times so that I didn't have to take the train super late. So we just had these little mini conversations. I think it just like friendship developed over many hours of city times and practice and other shows and you know, little side combos and things like that. But yes, we definitely um had a lot of similarities on the acting front first. And then um, I think how did Urban Pebble come about? Okay, that's uh the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 8:03

Um so we have a film collective, uh Urban Pebble, which we also now have a podcast for, the Urban Pebble Podcast. Uh second plug, let's go.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

Um that makes too. That makes too.

SPEAKER_04 8:16

Um, but the original idea of it was um I I was working with uh my good buddy Miles Strong Austin, who is also filmmaker, and we were like, hey, we like at the time we're like we both like making stuff, we like learning about the stuff. Why don't we try and make a short film? We haven't done that before. Um and we made one called Doors, which is a horror comedy about a party where all the doors come to life and eat people. It's super silly.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

The usual door. You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:50

Uh and then uh Teresa had done uh a project as well. She had done one 48 project with uh another group, and then um that's right.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Yeah, it's all coming back to me now. Yep, we uh we did well I was inspired by the 48 project that I'd done with these other folks, and so I was like, what if I shop this party?

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Project in Chicago. Yeah, you make one film in 48 hours.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

Correct. This will come back and be, I'm sure, important later for how we also intersect with you, Ilsa. I don't know, I'm just like a little like breadcrumb, breadcrumb for future part of conversation, yes. Uh, but basically, I made a pilot, I shot a pilot and I I roped Adam in, I roped a lot of other people from our improv team in. Um, we cast people we knew, we held auditions, I think, for people we didn't, and then found some lovely folks uh who we still work with to this day. So it's been a really, really um, it was a very productive little project. It's called Mrs. Hunter is dead. Spoiler, she's not. Um, but she might be. She might be. The doors killed. No. It's very silly. It's a very like um, you know, rated G, very heartwarming tale, like an Andy Griffith meets uh murder she wrote type energy. Um, so it's it's also on our Urban Pebble, but that basically I think we all enjoyed making doors and and then also Mrs. Hunter, and then it was like we should keep making stuff. And that was the birth of the Urban Pebble Collective.

SPEAKER_04 10:32

Because we wanted to like one, it's like whenever you go to make a film, you try to figure out like, uh so are we a video production company now, or like what do we do? Do I need to make an Instagram for this film and then a second one for the next film, or one YouTube page, and then do one film every year or something? And it's like uh we're like, let's just build off each other and share all that, and we can like work together, learn how to submit to film festivals, uh share equipment, share like ideas and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

So that's that was really I'm gonna put a pin in that because I actually have a question about that. But I really I'm really curious of when you were doing uh well when you first started doing your improv together or sketches or characters. Is there something about the other person? Like, is there a character, a sketch, a specific joke that you were like, yeah? Do you remember? You're like nah, they're not that funny.

SPEAKER_03 11:27

I can tell you a pattern that I appreciate about Adam every time we play in a show. Um, I I remember when you joined Part Dog slash we're always an original member and then rejoined. So new to me to part dog. Um I remember thinking, I was like, oh wow, he's really unselfish, and then he's really, really good at getting the audience involved and like stepping out and like playing with the scene, but like by bringing more people into it. And that's just a pattern that's been something I've clocked from like day one, and then you've just so I've always enjoyed that unselfish, but like very collaborative play. So that's not a specific sketch, but that's something that does stand out. Adam?

SPEAKER_04 12:14

Yeah, no, uh no, Teresa's wonderful, and she you have uh like she has a really big energy that comes into everything, but there's also this little bit of like Teresa in a lot of the characters, which is a very funny thing because like at sometimes it's you like breaking on stage and like cracking up, but like you were having so much fun during the scenes that it's it just becomes like, oh, I want to play with you, I want to like do do more. Like, this is so much fun, and we're having a really good time on stage, which is then also really funny because occasionally you'll fully turn off Teresa and it always catches me off guard, and you're just like she'll become just a fully different character. Uh, we recently did one where she was like a crazy swear-in CEO of an oil rig, and yeah, I was dying laughing. It was I was like, that's not right, who is this? It's the oil rig man.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

That's really fun. That's true. That's really fun. Um, and and going back real quick, I've like recently I was like, you know what? Fuck it. I'm just gonna use this podcast to learn from people. And one of the things that I'm currently like going through is the cold email ghosting that is just oh my god, just like submitting to a whole bunch of things. Like, how do y'all kind of go about cold emails? I think I I think I'm a terrible emailer. I think I've just come to terms where I because I hate selling myself, I hate being like you know, how do y'all do it? How who takes care of it? Do you enjoy it?

SPEAKER_04 13:50

I think like if it's for a creative project, um I think a lot of people tend to be pretty open. Like they everyone at least that we've come across, luckily one we we have met them before often, so we know they're great people. Uh, and then we'll talk to them about uh like hey, do you want to do this thing? And everyone's just looking to do their craft in different ways, and even if they can't or the opportunity is not available, they seem pretty open to being involved in some way or down the line, or just like cool, not that that didn't really work out, but that's all right.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

The beautiful thing is y'all have a group, so like if one pings them, then the other could like run into them later, or you know, like you have you have also like other folks that could help. But we are gonna do hot cakes real quick. I know. So there's two of you, so you just you just gotta say it really quickly. Just try and beat out the the other person, all right? And I think that's that's what we did last time with two folks, and I think that'll work here, okay? No thinking. Okay. Ready? Explain the rules to me one more time. I'm just gonna ask a couple questions, like one word or yes or no if you can. Okay. Um just as short as possible. Got it. Ready? 60 seconds on the clock, and stage or set. Set. Stage. Improv or stick to the script.

SPEAKER_04 15:18

Improv.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Improv. Writing at night or writing in the morning? Writing in the morning. At night. A true Chicago pizza joint is uh Giordanos Favorite move on the dance floor.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Who's more likely to add one more idea last minute?

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Adam? Adam.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Favorite film uh myth congeniality.

SPEAKER_04 15:45

Uh-oh, man and the moon.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Who's secretly funnier?

SPEAKER_04 15:48

Theresa.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

I think Adam. Ooh! What mythical creature do you actually believe in? No thinking. Go.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Phoenix.

SPEAKER_04 15:56

Kappa.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Thank you so much for playing. See? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

And the pizza joint, you said somebody said pequad, and the other said um. Oh, Giordano's? Yeah. Interesting. Giordano's? Hey, they got a soup.

SPEAKER_04 16:24

Okay, they have a super good deep dish. And then the secret, the secret is they have a um a Thousand Island dressing that comes with their salad. And if you put that on the pizza, it's crazy. That is my hot tip.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

You're like, um, that's a lot of work for the pizza.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

It's worth it is so worth it.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

I've never heard of putting like salad dressing on a pizza.

SPEAKER_04 16:51

It's so good. It's probably horrible for you, but I all your calories for the week at once, but I um it's so good.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

And we get weird on this podcast, so for the mythical creature, um, like Phoenix is something that you you'd get into, Teresa. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:10

What did you say? Yeah, Adam. I I said a kappa. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 17:14

What the heck is a kappa? What's a kappa?

SPEAKER_04 17:16

They're these little like um, it's like from Japanese folklore, and they're these little kind of like turtly eyes, and they have they live in the water and basically are like they they were the blame for like if the river overflows, but uh they have the funny things, they have like a dent in their head that's like a bowl, and they have water in that, so if you can trick them into spilling the water out, they they die, so they can't bother you.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

That's I've learned so much. Learned so so much. Here we go, so keep an eye out for them. You're probably right.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Where where would one see one? Um, how did you come about, Kapas?

SPEAKER_04 17:57

Um I I'm a fan of folklore and I like uh different different like countries, various folklores and stuff. Uh, and specifically my favorite has been uh Japanese ones because they have these characters called Yokai, which are basically like less of like giant gods and stuff, like Western cultures like Greek and Zeus and stuff like that. Um it's more like there's just creatures around and they do mischief, and they're not like some some you can like respect, some you're like, get away from here. Um and uh it's kind of fun. It feels like a early cultural influence of something like Pokemon or anything like that, where you're like, oh, that's it's like a world where you co-inhabit with these creatures, and some are good, some are bad, some are just just mischievous.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

I like that. Well, don't spill that bowl, that's all I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

I love that. Teresa, your face drawing it, you were like, I have not heard this before.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

I've never I was just thinking, we've just discovered a font of knowledge from Adam that I didn't know existed, and this is great. But I'm learning so much. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Oh is there anything else that like you're going uh like on a on a wiki hole or like anything? Like, do you believe in aliens, ghosts, any other fun mythical things, paranormal, adjacent?

SPEAKER_03 19:26

Yeah, Adam. What do you believe? This is not an interrogation, Teresa.

SPEAKER_04 19:33

Oh gosh. I don't I feel like I don't have a good enough one outside of outside of those. I don't know. I think I like the um I always enjoy how people respond to those things. Like the kind of the maybe more so than like believing in them is like the common cultural understanding of them, how like something like a zombie or a vampire can like exist in multiple cultures throughout time uh and have like different names, or like very similar creatures can exist, or similar stories, and it's fun to see how they're created, or like if there's no direct origin, and then just like people have found them, and maybe it's because they're real, maybe they're not. Or maybe have you guys ever seen uh one of my favorites is um early renditions of animals that people had only like barely seen. So like an adventurer would be crossing and like go to Africa and see a rhino for the first time very briefly, and then try to draw a horse with like a like an extra thing, and you're like, oh, okay, skinniest rhino I've ever seen. That's looks like a this is a magic creature that it's like horse but thick and born.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Uh maybe they should have taken like a an artist lesson before going. Um I know.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

Um Teresa, you're the only person in Europe that has seen this. Why can't you draw it better?

SPEAKER_04 21:00

I think the best ones are whales, because like you're like you just have seen this massive thing that you're like, that's unreal, and uh uh what? And you saw it real quick, and they're like stupid faces. That's it. That's the thing I saw.

SPEAKER_03 21:16

Um I'm thinking. Uh no, but I mean, I've been kind of enjoying the space mission that we've got going on currently. Uh just enjoying the like, what if outer space has you know more out there? And and um we have some family relatives who are super big alien believers, and I'm fascinated. Like any documentary or article or whatever about aliens, I'll read it, I'll watch it, I'll I'll go down that path, I'll I'll wander through it. Does does scare me quite a bit, but also intrigues me, intrigues me greatly. Sure don't want to get abducted. Sure. No, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

Have you have you seen? He'll marry the movie?

SPEAKER_03 22:02

Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

It's really cool. I like that type of alien. Can I please have that type of alien? Yeah. I hope they're all that type. Yeah. Like just nice. Just just nice.

SPEAKER_03 22:13

Little Rocky action would be great.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

That's all I need.

SPEAKER_03 22:17

Yeah, thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

I'm good. Um, well, okay, I don't know if we have time for this, but I'm just gonna say it. I recently saw a bunch of whales. Um, and they I heard a whale song and they flapped, and I swear I was like, I am being blessed by whales right now. That's amazing. Isn't it? Like, I've never seen whales, and I've never been more fascinated with whales in my life. Um, they came in and then they just started flapping like their their fins, and then they turned over and then they kept flapping. It was just like, oh my god, it was incredible. It was incredible. And if I had to like paint them really quickly, I don't think that I would do them justice. So here we go. I understand the folks, and I want to watch them, but now I want to go see what the the whales from back then um looked like. Yeah, wild. Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, thank you for obliging me. Obliging? Obliging? Obliging? Is that a word?

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Obliging, obliging?

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Um yeah, it's it's a word. Uh thank you for going down the rabbit hole with me. Um, and now I just want to chat a little bit about uh film in a bag and the 12 for 12, which means you're doing 12 short films for the entire year. Like you're doing one film a month for the year, and that is Cuckoo Bananas. And we met at the 48-hour film project, and I know y'all can do it, but like doing it every month, like that that's wild.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

It's a lot, yes, yes. Welcome to a lot of work.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

What inspired you to do it?

SPEAKER_03 24:09

How about that? Um, oh Adam, this is you. This was it was Adam's idea. Um Adam's fault, if anything.

SPEAKER_04 24:19

And yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:22

I mean, I would never so fun.

SPEAKER_04 24:24

Um well, so so backtracking a little bit is uh Film in a Bag is a production company that uh Teresa and I are founders of, along with three others, Austin Millet, uh Millet, I said it Millet, um Nick Cartwright, and Daniel Mashburn, um, who are all like uh filmmakers who want to make a video production company so we could survive on video making. Uh but a unique thing about it is we were all filmmakers and had this urge in all of us to make some films. Um and doing we did the 48-hour film project last year where we did a short film called Hold Your Horses that Teresa directed, um, which involves horses and maybe aliens.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

Yeah. Maybe it's a happy accident. A happy accident.

SPEAKER_04 25:15

But it was uh it was the 48, I think, is always a good reminder that like you can do it. There's a lot of like when you're going to do a film, there's a lot of like, oh, but when will we do it? How? And it has to be perfect, and all this stuff. And the 48 makes you do it in a weekend, and it just inspires that like that ability's in everybody. Like, we could do this, we can speed this up, we can do this thing. Um, and so we came up with kind of our marketing idea for the year and also a way for us to have some fun and use it for the the company was to make uh 12 short films in 12 months. And so we have been making a short film every month. Uh they didn't have to start necessarily in the month that they they are uh released in, which gives us some time, but also means that some can be pretty big uh in scale. Like the early ones had to be really quick, but uh some are like, oh great, we can be very ambitious on it, which is also its own uh challenge. Um but luckily the first one you were in.

unknown 26:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:19

So we got to film it before you were out of Chicago.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

It was very fun. It was very fun. Highly recommend working with y'all. Um where can folks find y'all?

SPEAKER_04 26:30

Uh you find me.

unknown 26:32

No.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

I mean, sure. Sure.

SPEAKER_04 26:36

Um yeah, uh we're at film in a bag on Instagram, uh Film in a Bag Productions on YouTube, where you can watch the 12 for 12 uh as well as uh we're doing behind-the-scenes videos interviewing each of the directors on them. Uh you can watch Try That Again, which features Ilsa that I directed and wrote something. We got it.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

It was very fun. It was very, very fun. I rarely get to play evil. Um, and I think it's a disservice, quite frankly, because I love playing. You you just let me go, and I was like, Yes.

SPEAKER_04 27:09

It was so good. You just kept being like, hey, would it can I do this thing? And it would be like the worst thing I could imagine. I'm like, yep, dude, that's so mean.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

It's just so uncomfortable to watch, and then it's so good. It's so good. We revel. I was always I've always thought that like watching television shows or movies where someone is playing like the evil person. I was like, they had so much fun shooting that scene. Yeah. And I was like, you definitely so you were like, you were showing that it is so fun to be this evil. And I was like, yes, I'm vindicated.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Yeah, I'm a nice person. You don't get to be evil on a regular basis, you know.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

No, no, you're like, nah, nah.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

Yeah, but uh, that was really fun. Um, and folks should check that out. And thank you for being on the podcast. This is a lot of fun. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Oh my gosh, that was so much fun. I I have not laughed like that in quite quite some time. Uh, Adam and Teresa are awesome. Uh, please go follow them on Instagram at filmin' a bag. They're doing some incredible, incredible work. Go pitch them your ideas, tell them I sent you. I'm just kidding. Um, but maybe. Um, if you liked this, if you laughed with us with the whales, or you know, you you got a little um information about caffeine in the brain, please like, subscribe, and send me a DM. Like us on all the things. I really appreciate everybody. And go hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. All right, bye. Ilse Will Say is an Intrepid entertainment podcast produced and edited by Jacob Cagle, music by Eric Bacchus, and photography by Joel Mysenet, and I am your host, Ilse Sacharya Rivera. The views and opinions expressed on Ilse Will Say are entirely those of the host and guests, and do not reflect the views of any employers, sponsors, or innocent bystanders. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. Nothing said here should be taken as professional advice, expert opinion, legal guidance, or a reason to DMSU conspiracy theories. We're here for the laps, y'all. Carry on everybody.