SPEAKER_01 0:02

So yeah, this is the podcast. Like we just have fun and uh chat a little bit. I did some research on you. Um and yeah. Oh my god, I didn't know.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

No, no, no, there's nothing bad. I Googled myself and I was like, I wonder what pops up. I'm like, oh, there's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Yeah. What is the weirdest thing you found out when you were Googling?

SPEAKER_00 0:23

No, no, the weirdest thing. It was um this article from when I was in like high school uh from like my local paper about this award that they gave like a high like high school uh one high school student per like high school. It's called the Rising Star Award. And in it, um, they just have like little descriptions of everyone, and then they put me as like someone who's very like unassuming, and I was like, okay. I was like, not much has changed.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Um, that's amazing. So that might make it down to the podcast now. Um welcome back to Ilsa Will Say. Welcome to my brain. I'm Ilta, your host, currently overly caffeinated and back on the tea track, which is not going very well for me. And today's guest introduced me to a new cafe. I forgot the name. I I already forgot the name, but it had a great cappuccino, and I was also very caffeinated for that, and I also talked her ear off. So get in for a treat. She is the president of Baella Club, a monthly hang for Latin creatives in LA. Her Instagram bio says making films as good as her letterbox top four. Um, also works at Anti-Gravity Academy, um, has gotten has gotten to work with a lot of incredible people. Um yeah, I mean, I can't even list them all up. Uh for Mexico for All Time, a sphere film, two sports Emmys, uh Blumhouse internship, and a macro internship. Like your head's gonna explode. So please help me welcome Wendy Medina. That's just like an arena of like soccer fans being like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

I'm at an LAFC game.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Yes. Was that soccer? I'm so sorry. I don't know sports.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

It's the Los Angeles, it's the LA team that plays game.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Um, I did want to ask, what is Letterboxd? Letterboxed. I like Googled it, but I was like, give me, like, yeah. Let let folks know, like me, that don't know what what it is and why do you want to be on your top?

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Top four is it's essentially like nowadays it's kind of like Twitter for like movies a lot, but you'll find some good reviews on it's it's meant to be like a review page and like a way to to kind of log like your your films, it's a little film diary. Um yeah, it's it's cool. I think I got it back in like college. Once I I forget who told me about it, but it was just kind of like being amongst the amongst the film nerds, and I've loved it ever since. I vlogged every movie since. And then at the end, you kind of get like a at the end of the year you get a similar like Spotify recap email that lists like the direct the most directors, the directors you watched, the genres you watched, and it just gives you all these cool stats.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Ooh, that's cool. So you're like you're like, I just watched this film. I thought it was great, or like, or do you do a full review on it on it for yourself?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

It depends. It depends if like the film really moved me. Um, I think it's like a really, really good film. I'll like write a whole thing about it, but then if it's like it was like I watched Barody this week, it was okay, it was alright. I was like, I gave it, I don't even remember what I said in it, but it was just probably like a one-liner.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. Okay, so in like the log line of your life, how did you go from uh San Diego, right, to college and your application for that, and now working uh like in anti-gravity and uh with Carlos and everything that you are working on now? Because you are you're a mover and a shaker, you might be doing it in the quiet of the night, but you are uh like really accomplished and like it's it's freaking awesome, and you also have an even temper that I don't see I don't see a lot in this industry, which is really refreshing. So, in the log line of your life, I was born in LA.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

I lived, I was a child, I was like one, I was a baby. I lived here for like a year, and then my parents, uh, my dad got a job out in San Diego, so we moved there, and then since then we they just liked it, and we were like, we're gonna stay here. But I just naturally found myself drawn to like making things and like making videos specifically. Uh my the middle school that I went to had a little news broadcast show um that would produce like weekly episodes, and I was I was like a sixth grader and only the seventh and eighth graders could get in. And I was like, I want in on it. So I would hang around like the classroom so often so they could pick me to like use as extras and stuff. Oh, that's awesome. And then I got into like the the whole program and I loved it. My the teacher there, Miss Whitney, rest in peace. Um, she was a mentor to me and and truly like pushed me and pushed me to be the most creative I could be. Um and then from there I went to science-based high school, and that sucked. I was like, where is the art? I like tried to make the most of it. We had a yearbook, that was probably like the closest I could get to it. Um but yeah, and then I would make YouTube videos. I think because of that, like I started making more YouTube videos in high school, and I was like, okay, cool, I have to find like my own outlet for creativity. And then when it came to apply to colleges, I was like, where do I go? What do I do with my life? So I pursued um film school. I was lucky enough back in that middle school program to actually tour Chapman. And um, we went to Universal as well. So I was I was like, okay, cool, Chapman. Uh so I when I was applying, I was like, Chapman's a dream school. I would love to go there, it'd be amazing. And I I got in. I was like, oh wow, cool sick. Um, not to brag. It's like the I think at the time the acceptance rate for the film school was like 7% for that program. And I was like, oh yeah. Um then I that summer or my senior year, uh, my last semester, I got my first internship at Macro. And I low-key wish somebody would have told me that you should get internships like literally the minute you're in college. I was like, why am I getting my first internship? Um like the my last semester. But regardless, I I got it and it was super fun. I got to work from their offices in Hollywood, and I was like, oh my god, it's like a taste of like what my future can be. And I was so delusional. Yeah, I'm gonna live like on sunset. I'm gonna have an apartment on there. I'm gonna have like this cool, cool assistant job. It's gonna be able to pay for everything. And I was like, oh then summer came and I um that macro internship, someone that I knew there and I got lunch with was friends with someone at Blum House who was taking care of like all the internship applications, and they had mentioned me by name, and that's it helped me get the internship there. I was like, okay, cool. Networking, the power of networking.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah, truly.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Yeah. And I the at the time their offices were under remodeling, so we worked from like the NBC Universal building. I thought I was so bougie. I thought I was I like walked in, did my little card. I'm like, this is it, this is the life. I I loved it. My little cubicle was sad. The cubicles were kind of sad though. We were working from like a like the classic like office looking thing, um, where I couldn't really like see anyone. But I was like, okay, cool. I was still delusional that I was gonna get a job with Blumhouse. I'm like, yes, by the end of this, I'm gonna have a job. And I did not. I did not. So I'm like, okay, you know what? Pack my bags, let me go back home. Maybe it's like, maybe let me go save up some money. And I worked at like a social services place um where I worked a lot with like low-income folks, um, unhoused people. It's just very emotionally heavy, and I commend the people that do it. Like, we need them, and thank God, but I feel like I I could not do that personally. Uh, and on the side, I was still applying to to what's it called? I was still applying to like entertainment jobs, and I stumbled upon a Facebook post from Chapman because we had a little like Chapman career page. And Carlos was looking, Carlos Lopez Estrada was looking for an assistant, and I'm like, you know what, let's do it. It was part-time. I was like, you know what, let's do it. Let me let me let me throw my hand in the ring. Threw my hand in the ring, and then like two, three weeks later, I was I was out in a lake. I was crashing on my friend's couch, my current roommate's couch, and bless her, she let me, she let me stay for that month while I like found a place. Um, and the first week that I started was the same week that Carlos had gotten this big gig with UFC for their Mexican Independence Day fight at the sphere. And he asked me, like, hey, like, do you want to go to crime while we work on this project? Oh, it was wild. It was really cool. I got to learn a lot about like the sphere mechanics, so so robust, so detailed. Like every it gets insane. Sure. Because it's not like a flat screen, it's the fact that it's like a spherical thing, and then all the testing that goes into it.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Yeah, and for folks that don't know, it's in like in Vegas, right? Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Um, and yeah, so that was like one of the first projects that I got to work on with him. And since then, I've gotten to work on a few movies. I worked on his own film called Dead. Um, and in Mexico, we shot in Mexico City. We also did, I've done a couple music videos here and there with him. What else? Yeah, and then um aside from that, he does well, he's the founder of Anti-Gravity Academy, and we do a bunch of like incubators, grants, so we do like the screenwriters camp every year where we select a couple writers to go out to Lake Arrowhead and um like we workshop their scripts. It's really cool. I literally one of my favorite times of the year. It's like I'm at summer camp and I never went to summer camp throughout my entire time working with Carlos Key founded along with Ben Lopez, and then later on we were joined by Olna Segura. They started Paella Club, which is a monthly gathering for Latinos and Entertainment. And I like started off just kind of being like the PA. Like I was the guy, like we originally started doing it at houses, and like we like they were kind of little like house parties. So I was like the little PA in charge of like bringing the drinks, making sure like everything was set and like communicating with like the house owner. And now here we are, and I'm president. Um, but it's really cool. We've grown a lot. We've grown from like originally from even before my time, they were dinner parties, and then they like my time it was house parties, and we got so big that we started like finding other venues, and we worked with companies such as like Netflix, UTA, Google, Amazon, and now we've just stuck around to like helping local businesses with like Latino businesses specifically, um, by bringing in like clientele and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

So that is awesome, awesome, awesome. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Sorry, that was not a long line.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

No, it's AOK. Yeah, that is incredible. Um and what do you think like the biggest lesson working with Car Carlos and being in this environment has been?

SPEAKER_00 12:30

I think the biggest lesson has been to do things even if they scare me. I think a lot of the times I felt like I was like super unqualified when I was doing this stuff. I was like, what do you mean I'm gonna be working on this like big UFC project? Like I've never played this is my first assistant job, what am I doing? Yeah. And and it just like remind I learned along the way that the best way by learning is just kind of diving into it, even like if you're scared. So I think that's the biggest takeaway.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Yeah, what would you tell somebody who's scared? Like, would you tell yourself something when you're scared? You're like, oh my god, I can't believe I gotta sign this, or yeah, what would you tell someone?

SPEAKER_00 13:13

I think I just tell them that that growth isn't supposed to feel comfortable, that growth is supposed to be like there is part it's part scary, there's part pain, it's like it's growing pains, you know? Um that you just have to think of it as like there's the before you, before the scary thing, and then there's the after you once you've conquered it, and how good it's gonna feel like once you get through it.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Oh, that's awesome. That's great. Um, and then in this like environment, um, how do you sort of stay a decently happy human being?

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Um well right now I'm currently doing the artist's way. Which I think yes. I am on week three. I think I've looked taken like five weeks in total though. So we're going at our own pace. There are no rules. Yeah. Yeah, it's been really fun. I I like kind of push myself to do it. Makes me realize that like there's so much time that I do have that I can just be creative and do things. And like I've I baked a cake. I've never baked a cake before. Joy, pure joy. I was literally, I was like, this is the happiest I've ever felt. Like it was so it's like a cake and ate it. I made something. Yeah, it was amazing. And I think that's kind of yeah, that's just one of the ways that I that's one of the things that's keeping me happy.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Well, one of the things that's keeping me happy is hot cakes. They're like hot takes, but they stack up. We're gonna put 60 seconds on the clock. Uh and they're gonna you can go as slow as you'd like. Okay, ready? Yes. Your letterbox top four.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Um, Mosquita y Mari. Uh Moonlight is like top, top. And then Real Woman Have Curves and The Farewell. Best taco in LA.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

I know you told me, but I forgot.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Um, it has to be Avenue 26, I think is what it's called. It's like in kind of in downtown outskirts of downtown LA.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Okay. Most to real moment making a movie for the sphere.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Oh, and I got to I got to record a couple lines, and then when we were doing the testing, like I could faintly hear my voice in like the in the sphere when we were doing it. I was like, that's me. Oh my god! Best snack while working.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Um, the the Trader Joe's talkie knockoffs. Ooh, scariest thing in the Blum House office.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

I think they had like I forget who they had like oh, they had the black phone mask. I think it was around the end.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

And I was like, oh First movie that meant you want to direct. Get out. Uh Eugenio Dervez, funnier on set or offset? I think funnier off. What does LA get wrong about San Diego? If anything.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Uh that's a good question. That San Diego. Oh, they always say like they I feel like people say that Mexican food is better in LA, and I'm like, no, like when do you mean it's San Diego? Like we're right there.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Which Mexican mom superstition do you still follow, just in case?

SPEAKER_00 17:14

That if I like walk barefoot and my hair is wet around the house, I'm Yes!

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Yes, you're gonna get a resfriado.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Thank you so much for playing. I definitely have that too. Or like, don't go to sleep with wet hair because you're gonna get a resfriado. But resfriado is not a real thing.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

I know. It's like, I don't know. It just well, part of me, I think just because like they told me all the time, I'm like, it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Yeah, yeah. So you're like, is that is that because I walk barefoot? I have the same thing. I have the same thing. Yeah. Um, that is awesome. Do you so the Blumhouse thing, are you into the scary stuff? Are you into the woo? Because we get a little weird on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

I love scary movies. Yeah. Am I like this? I'm like this. You're probably if you're only listening, you can't see. But I'm covering my face with my eyes, and I'm like peeking through with one eye. And then sometimes like if it's like a really tense scene and it sounds like too much, I'm like covering my ears.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

But I love them.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

You do. Okay. What do you love about them? And may and why.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

I really why do I like them? Even though I'm really scared, why do I like them? I I just love that they I think it goes back to like I mentioned that get out is one of like the movies that made me want to direct. And I think there's there's so much that you can say with horror. Like it's just right there right in front of your face, and and it's horrors horror movies reflect the the things that society is scared of at the time. So I think me when I like look back on these, it's really cool to like peek into like a little time capsule of like like obsession. We were like, why like we're scared of men? Like why why is that right now, you know? Um but like I don't know, it's just it's just it's a it's a cool way to storytell, but also provoke uh social commentary.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

And I think it goes back to what you said do the scary thing, where it's like there's the you before the scary thing, and there's the you after the scary thing.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Yeah, it's like it's monumental change. I think it's it's just like the main character usually goes through like an inner, inner it goes through a whole arc, and I I I know like obviously that's every story, that's every movie ever, but I think a horror movie is just so much more in your face about it.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Yeah, yeah. Um and is there anything uh do we have any ghost stories? Have you done any Ouija board tarot, any conspiracy that you believe in, you're smirking, so I think there's something there.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Um I don't have a I don't have a personal ghost story, but I know my mom when I like mentioned to her about like Ouija boards when they were like super big thing back then or something. I asked her about it, and she's like, Yeah, mean like you're you're you're a DS. Like we did, we did a board and like it got so scary that like my mom, like my grandma burned it. I was like, what happened? What do I not know? And she didn't tell you, she's like, and she was like that lie.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

And it could be a complete lie, at least from my from my mom. It could be a complete lie, or it could be so creepy and terrible that like she's like, I'm never gonna tell anybody. But it really can go either way for my mom. That's awesome. Okay, dang. Um yeah, and we met at Paella Club because Marcos Rosas I love so I love paella club because I think the Instagram bio is like uh invite only, but everyone's welcome, or something like that. Yeah, which I love because like you just gotta know somebody and be like, hey, add me to the newsletter, and then you're in. But um it is a little secretive. So I like I like both things where it's very welcoming, but also we um I don't wanna, you know, we were like a little bit a little bit of a club, you know? I dig it. Who who came up with like those parameters and how have you seen it change and evolve since you started? Because you were there right the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

It was mainly it was mainly Carlos um that set those parameters. I remember when I think the Instagram we started it like a few months after I had started working with him. And the rule was like you can only you have to look at like how many mutuals the person has. So if there's like four and up, like you're in, like you're good. Um yeah, because it's just it's just like I think a lot of the times our community works very much like word of mouth. And like like the power of word of mouth is really the power, there's so much powerful, oh my god, well words. Word of mouth is very word of mouth. I'm like mouth words. It's a strange phrase. Yeah. I know it's it's it's a powerful thing and because like you're essentially just like here's here's the person that I brought and like I'm recommending them to you and this and this entire group I think would love them.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

I think that's that's that's kind of what we want to get at um we want to like if we surround ourselves with good people then the people that they recommend like it's all it's all a circle yeah so um how I've seen it evolve I think well yeah like I mentioned I think we've just gotten like bigger and bigger and we like how I think a lot of our barriers barriers have been put down like we don't care if you're below the line or above the line like everyone can come um it's been a really beautiful thing to see and hear when people like meet their collaborators or like I when I've heard I've heard in previous ones that someone found financing because they for like their shore or their or their feature because like they talk to so and so and they love the idea that they pitched and I think it's just fostering it's fostering a community where we are able to collaborate and and share ideas and meet new people uh because essentially at the end of the day I think it's Latinos themselves and our own communities that have to help bring each other up so what better way to do that than bringing everyone together yeah I absolutely agree I mean and even we we talked about Marcelo uh the SNL cast member like even just having him on SNL and seeing his stand up and it's just like the like I don't think I don't think representation and it's just like what a word right I I I think it matters more than I think we give it credit for or at least that I give it credit for because when I hear his story and his mom's story and then I see him like on Amy Polar's podcast and you know there's a sense of community already instilled in that moment and then bringing everyone together and like you said everyone's bel like the there are folks from all different types of jobs um and you let in folks who are non-Latino too um but it's just allies are welcome yes absolutely and it's just it's just a wonderful time um and it's super chill it's very fun uh I know I went there the first week that I got here and it really set the tone of like okay I'm not alone you know and I think that that to me especially in this world especially with with like social media and everything that alienates us to have something that brings us together I think is beautiful I agree I I similarly when I first got here and I would like hang out at the like the pro about being a little PA and like getting the drinks and everything is like I obviously got to hang out at the event and like help and talk to people and it was truly a great way for me to transition into LA I got to meet so many people friend and like people that I'm still friends with to this day and I think like we're all gonna make I'm so excited to like make things with these people.

SPEAKER_00 25:35

Yeah so it's it's a it's a beautiful thing to be able to find your community and like just it it really helped with that transition.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Yeah and I know you're also a writer director um there might be a a secret music doc coming in in the works I don't know I read that somewhere um but you're a writer director um are you working on anything right now have you found your collaborators there um anything that you want to share that you have that we want to promote um I think the biggest thing is that I made a website took me forever it took me forever but I was able to make one and I put all like my my college shorts on there and some social media work and it's it was really cool.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

I was like it was a really reflective moment because I had to think of like what have I done um scary a scary a scary question I my roommate wanted she was out of New York when I finished it and she was like you have to present it to me so I presented it to her and she's like Wendy like you're really accomplished and I think I tend to forget that I tend to undermine like all the things that I do so like hearing it from her I'm like I'm like yeah and then like seeing the website I'm like yeah like I I've done I can't say I've done nothing like I have this to show for it. So I'm really proud of it um but it's the free version so I can't like change the link name like the actual link myself but for me to work absolutely and what is do you want to share the link to it now or do you I can link the it's not like one thing that it's like number like there's numbers in there. It's the whole thing. Okay I'll share it in the bio on my Instagram bio.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Okay great I'll I'll share it in the show notes and stuff. Um that's amazing I'm so excited so will you be doing a scary movie then soon at least a scary short I I dabbled this past week actually trying to write like a little poor like a three minute three pager thing.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Yeah and it's hard it's hard I was like how do you make something scary on paper yeah um but we're trying I think it'd be really fun to experiment with I'm trying to make something like super low budget so I think that's that's kind of the next thing that I'm working on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Amazing awesome well thank you so much for being on the podcast this is very very fun and I'm excited I'm excited to see your website and um all the scary films that you're gonna make when uh what a fun episode uh she's absolutely wonderful and just a community builder here in LA and I kid you not if you are in town go to the paella club like at them on Instagram get invited DM me because it is it one it's really fun and and two I do think it does bring the community together in a way that is like relaxed and enjoyable and really fun because it does just feel like a house party even if it's at a restaurant or bar or like outside or on the moon. Thank you so much for listening to this episode and uh if you enjoyed it please like subscribe do all the things we'll link Wendy's awesome new website in the show notes and do all that good stuff. So thank you so much and have a great day will say is an Intrepid entertainment podcast produced and edited by Jacob Kegel, music by Eric Placus and photography by Joel Mysenet and I am your host Ilse Sacharia 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 DM a few conspiracy theories. We're here for the laughs y'all. Carry on the law