#291 – Crafting Horror and Humanity: Behind the Scenes with The Night Visitor’s Blu Topalli and Peter Stass
On today’s episode of Spun Today, host Tony Ortiz sits down with the powerhouse creative duo Blarime ‘Blu’ Topalli and Peter Stass—veteran writers, filmmakers, and the minds behind the atmospheric new horror podcast, The Night Visitor. Together, they dive deep into the art of collaboration, exploring how blending backgrounds in gothic fiction, comedy, screenwriting, and visual effects leads to stories that both thrill and provoke thought.
Blu brings her experience from working on iconic projects like Titanic and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, along with her love of gothic literature and psychological horror. Peter, meanwhile, draws on a rich foundation in comic book art, screenwriting, and his unique ability to straddle the worlds of humor and terror. In this conversation, they open up about their creative process, the magic of partnership without ego, and why the best horror uncovers truths about ourselves—not just our fears.
Whether you’re a writer, creator, or simply love a good story, this is an episode about the craft of storytelling, the power of cathartic genres like horror and comedy, and how chasing creative risk—rather than playing it safe—can lead to truly original work. Stay tuned for inspiration, behind-the-scenes stories, and a masterclass in creative chemistry.
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Transcript
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Transcript 〰️
Peter Stass [00:00:00]:
As far as storytelling in general, you know, comedy and horror, I think have something in common in that they both rely on a kind of a cathartic response. They both utilize surprise, you know, a bit of a shock inside of the shock of the scream or the shock of the laugh. They do seem to have a relationship comedy and har Rich I don't fully understand, but I know that I'm not the first person that works in both arenas. The guy who wrote the Exorcist, William Peter Blatty, had written only comedy before he did the Exorcist.
Tony Ortiz [00:00:56]:
What's up folks? What's going on? Welcome to the Spun Today Podcast, the only podcast that is anchored in writing but unlimited in scope. I'm your host, Tony Ortiz, and I appreciate you listening. This is episode 291 of the Spun Today podcast and in this episode I have a question for you. What happens when two seasoned storytellers come together to craft horror that doesn't just scare, but reveals the truth about who we are? In this episode, I sit down with Blerime Topalli, AKA Blu, and Peter Stass, the duo behind the upcoming horror podcast the Night Visitor. Between them, they've worked across film, television, writing and teaching. Blu has worn so many hats from ghostwriting for tv, which by the way, I regret not asking more about because one of the shows she worked on was Dawson's Creek and Fun Fact About Me, I used to love that show and I actually used to watch it with pen and paper and write down like all the cool big words. They would say that I had no idea what they meant and would look them up in the dictionary to try to use them and seem smart and sound like they did on the show. She also worked VFX for James Cameron on Titanic.
Tony Ortiz [00:02:14]:
Yes, that Titanic. And also had development roles on films like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which we did get into in this episode. Her current work digs into gothic themes and psychological horror. Peter started with the intention of becoming a comic book illustrator and artist here in New York and he discovered a love for film. He went on to co write features like Relative strangers starring Danny DeVito and Kathy Bates, and he's also taught screenwriting at Gotham Writers Workshop. He's also directed award winning shorts. He has a knack for exploring that fine line between humor and horror, some of which we touch on in this episode. And as I mentioned, together they've teamed up to create a new horror podcast called the Night Visitor.
Tony Ortiz [00:03:02]:
It's really immersive. I had the pleasure of getting a sneak preview of it. The first episode is going to air October 14, 2025 and it's really immersive, it's atmospheric, and it leans into the tradition of classic radio dramas while pushing the boundaries of modern day sound design. In this episode we dive into their creative process, what it really means to collaborate without ego, and how horror can be used not just to scare, but to reveal truths about humanity itself. You're in for a real treat folks, so definitely stick around for all that good stuff. But first I wanted to tell you all about a quick way that you can help support this show. If you so choose. Your support means a ton.
Tony Ortiz [00:03:48]:
It helps to keep the lights on here in the proverbial Spun Today studios. It's motivating and validating for me and very much so appreciated. If you'd like to support the show, you can go to spontane.com support where you'll find a ton of merch or affiliate links for things that you may already be in the market for, some discount codes, so on and so forth. And here is one of those ways that you can help support this show. Then we'll jump right into the episode. You can also support by Checking out my writing go to sponsored8.com freewriting here you'll find a collection of freely written thoughts which is intended to be a cathartic meditative practice for myself, but also winds up doubling up as motivation and inspiration for myself and others. You can also go to spuntery.comshortstories to check out my latest short stories and also listen to the free audiobook versions of those stories. You can also support my writing by going to spun today.com books and check out what I have available for sale.
Tony Ortiz [00:04:56]:
Currently available is Make Way for your, which is a collection of tips for getting out of your own way. It's a great read for my fellow writers or creatives out there. Also available is Fractale, which is my debut time travel novel and last but certainly not least, Melted Cold, which is a collection of short stories. Each of the books are available in all digital formats for your Kindle or ibook or any other e reader, as well as paperback and hardcover options. Again, go to spuntery.com books and I'd love to hear what you chose to check out as well as your thoughts after reading spun today.com books. Spun today listeners. Today I am joined by two incredible storytellers, Blu Topalli and Peter Stasse. Blu's known for gothic character explorations and dark humor and immersive horror, while Peter's written award winning Comedies and screenplays and taught screenwriting here in New York City.
Tony Ortiz [00:06:01]:
Together, they're working on a brand new horror podcast, the Night Visitor. And today we're diving into their creative process, their experiences, philosophies on writing and creativity, as well as what we can expect. Blu and Peter, welcome to the show.
Peter Stass [00:06:17]:
Hi.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:06:18]:
Thank you.
Peter Stass [00:06:20]:
Thank you.
Tony Ortiz [00:06:21]:
Great to have you guys. And I had the pleasure of a sneak peek of episode one of the Night Visitor, which will be released on October 14th, if I'm not mistaken. And without giving anything away, I just wanted to say kudos to you both for how immersive it was. I thought the sound effects really pulled me in as well as the story and the voice acting was impeccable. So all of which we can get into a little bit later. But I just want to say great job to you guys on that.
Peter Stass [00:06:51]:
Thank you.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:06:52]:
Thank you so much.
Tony Ortiz [00:06:53]:
No problem. And since it's your first time on the show, I wanted to start at the beginning. And Blu, we can begin with you. You're originally from Boston and now reside on the west Coast. Tell us a bit about growing up and how you eventually wound up making the trek out there to the west.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:07:09]:
Yeah, I grew up in a little suburb outside of Austin called Newton. And the movie theater was really big for us in the 70s and 80s when I was growing up. And I had two older brothers who were super into sci fi and comic books, and I was the youngest and the only girl and kind of grew up kind of a little bit of a tomboy, I think, just having two older brothers and that influence. And so we went to the movie theater weekly. That was like a huge escape for me. And. And then on Saturday mornings, you know, we get up really early and watch the Creature Devil Future on Saturday mornings. And pretty much like all Saturday was dedicated to horror and sci fi for.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:07:56]:
For us growing up. And basically when I got older, it wasn't really until I got out of high school that my. My oldest brother took me to the side and said, hey, listen, you know, we come from an immigrant family and it's a lot of pressure to do a lot of different things, you know, quote, unquote, responsible things. But he said, you know, I really think you have an amazing eye and you should maybe take a film class or something or photography or something. And I fell in love with film and I went to film school at Boston University and ended up coming out to LA just after college. I kind of graduated, tried to graduate early and just get out here as fast as I could and worked for Places like Industrial Light and Magic and Sony Image Works that got into visual effects and, and worked for a couple big directors in that realm. And I worked in development. I became a development executive and worked on a lot of what, what we would say.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:08:54]:
I would say remakes, adaptations. And I, I met Peter at that time. I don't even remember Peter, how long ago it was about 20 couple decades. Yeah, it's been. It's been a while. And I would say, like, the films that really influenced me growing up were. The thing was very influential. I remember that being, you know, one of my top films growing up.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:09:23]:
And I would say, like, probably really top, top. Alien. Alien was really influential for me. Really, these sort of cosmic, really the cosmic horror elements of it. And, and you know, I think for me, sci fi and fantasy has always been really big and comic books have been an influence for me. Probably more so for you, Peter, I'd say, but I guess I'm going to pass it on to Peter.
Peter Stass [00:09:49]:
Okay.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:09:50]:
Yeah, so that's kind of where I, where I'm at.
Tony Ortiz [00:09:52]:
Thanks for sharing. Blu. And not to, not to cut things off or go off on the tangent, but real quick, just with the Alien movie tie in and Peter, feel free to incorporate this in your background as well. You mentioned the Alien movie and I saw, Peter, that you are an illustrator as well.
Peter Stass [00:10:09]:
Yeah, I'm an illustrator. I was originally going to be a comic book artist and I went to the High School of Art Design here in New York with the intention of doing that. And it was there that I discovered film. You could major in film. You know, you have that option, you can major in illustration. But I was a lonely teenager and I. The idea of myself sitting behind a drawing board for the rest of my life, I actually had a moment, a real moment, like an epiphany where you picture something in your head. And I pictured myself behind a drawing, a desk, you know, a drawing table.
Peter Stass [00:10:39]:
And I just went, I don't want to do that. I don't want to be sitting in a room by myself the rest of my life. And I thought, what's the most collaborative? And it was film. But I also did always have a love for film. I should mention as well. In fact, a lot of what Blarima was saying echoes with me. You know, watching Creature Features as a child growing up at the 7, we're the same age. At night, it was the color films, the British horror movies that were in color.
Peter Stass [00:11:05]:
And then during the day it was the black and white, the. The Creature Features, the Universal monster Movies, Dracula, Frankenstein, all those guys. And as a kid also, I read the. These two magazines and anyone my age will recognize these names. Starlog and Fangoria. Okay, so before the Internet, Starlog took you into the background of the making of science fiction movies, and Fangoria was horror. And they would interview the people who were doing the special effects. They would do features on all the upcoming films.
Peter Stass [00:11:36]:
So there's always a love for movies. And, you know, before I even really understood that I was being drawn to it, I was being drawn to it and. But I also loved visual storytelling as well when I was a boy. Also, again, in comic books in the 70s and 80s. John Burns, the wonderful writer and illustrator of comic books, was the king during that time. And he was a huge influence on me, I think, as a writer, John Burns. So that. That was a big thing also.
Peter Stass [00:12:05]:
I just wanted to say Lorima is very. Being very. She's being very. What's the word I'm looking for? Lorima has worked with some incredible people. She's been very humble. Blarima has worked for James Cameron on Titanic. Blurriema's writing is what brought her out to LA to work for Lucasfilm. I mean, she's worked with some pretty.
Peter Stass [00:12:23]:
Pretty big people and she's worked in development. So she's a writer, but much, much more than that as well.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:12:30]:
Oh, you're very kind, Peter. Thank you. Thank you very much for that.
Peter Stass [00:12:35]:
Yeah. As for my own background, I grew up in New York City in a housing project in Astoria in Queens. I like. I said, I like to draw from the time I was very young. I love to go to the movies. There was a movie theater on Steinway street, as a matter of fact, that movie theater is now. That space is now a gym. And I was just on the treadmill the other day and I was looking out and you could still see the marquee.
Peter Stass [00:13:00]:
They still have it there. And I was thinking, I'm in the same space right now on a treadmill that I was in sitting and watching Ghostbusters and Fright Night in all the movies of that era. You know, it's sort of a sacred space for me. You know, I thought, how interesting if I could have projected myself years now, one day you're going to be sweating in this space, you know, as an adult that you're now sitting in and watching. But it's fine.
Tony Ortiz [00:13:27]:
A nice full circle moment there.
Peter Stass [00:13:29]:
Yes, yes, totally. Yeah. So high spartan design where I decided to major in film. I decided that would be the focus because it's still visual and it's storytelling. And that was where I got into that. I'll try to compress it and jump forward. I did not go to film school, but I was largely sort of self taught. And I would literally just watch a scene, pause it, and then write down what just happened.
Peter Stass [00:13:54]:
Watch the next scene, pause it, write down what just happened. I was trying to teach myself to understand the mechanisms of it. And so jump forward. Many years later, I wrote a screenplay of my own. And I happened to meet a guy who was successful through a mutual friend, a guy named Greg Leanna, who had just written Meet the Parents. And I met Greg during that time and Greg liked my writing and he took me on as a partner. And I moved to la and I met Larima not long after I moved to la. And I found that we were very compatible in terms of our aesthetic, terms of the sort of things that we wanted to write about.
Peter Stass [00:14:33]:
And I was interested in horror and Blooming was also interested in horror. And we began to develop some work together and some stories together.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:14:41]:
Yeah, I feel. I feel like Peter is like. You're like my brother from another mother.
Peter Stass [00:14:48]:
Yeah, yeah.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:14:48]:
You know, I feel it's almost like we're related. I mean, it really is, actually.
Peter Stass [00:14:55]:
Yeah.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:14:55]:
It's just. It's like one of those uncanny. I don't know if you believe in it. Karmic connections, but I believe in it.
Peter Stass [00:15:02]:
I totally.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:15:02]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Peter Stass [00:15:03]:
Because.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:15:06]:
Very randomly. But just our. Our thinking and our aesthetic and kind of the way our brains work is so in sync. It's like when we write something, I can't really tell who wrote what. Like, at the end of it, I go, did. You did. Was that your line or my. I don't even know.
Peter Stass [00:15:24]:
Like, at the end, with the essence of collaboration. It's great. It's a great.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:15:29]:
Yeah, it's fantastic. And there's no, like, between us. I really feel like there's no. There's no. None of those ego trips or any of that, but I think really get. Get in the way. And I, having come from, you know, I too came into more. I would say more officially in a writing capacity as a ghostwriter.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:15:49]:
And that happened because I worked with. I also worked with a writer. He was working kind of this little bit of this paranormal space as well. He taught me a lot about structure, which I have really, really taken to heart. And I'm really appreciative of a guy named Ozzy Cheek, who. I don't know, I think he, like, flood the country anyway. Yeah. Obviously from the Appalachians He.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:16:11]:
He, like, fled the country, I think, is what happens with him. But. But great guy. Great guy. And taught me so much. And that was around the time that I met you. And. Yeah, I mean, I had been working in development and stuff.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:16:26]:
And I do feel like what I would see when I was working in development as a director of development on features, you know, I'd see different writers come in and different. You know, sometimes writing partnerships was much more rare. It's very difficult, the collaborative process and finding that chemistry with somebody is like finding a needle in a. In a haystack. And it's. It's very difficult to maintain over a long period of time. So when you find it, you hold on to it.
Peter Stass [00:16:56]:
Yeah, it is a great thing. I also want to mention Loren worked with Diego De Laurentiis. Anybody who grew up in the 70s knows that name. Dino De Laurentiis and his company. I mean, so.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:17:07]:
And he sounded like. Everything that you think about is like, Dino. You know, like his famous quote, when delunky die, everybody could die. You know, he would actually really, like, walk around the office.
Peter Stass [00:17:17]:
You know, this Tony reference to, you know, De Laurentiis made a famous remake of King Kong in 1976.
Tony Ortiz [00:17:24]:
Okay.
Peter Stass [00:17:25]:
And that was his line. When did the monkey die? Everybody cried.
Tony Ortiz [00:17:29]:
Everybody cried. I've heard that, but didn't know. Didn't know the. The exact reference, honestly.
Peter Stass [00:17:35]:
Yeah, I did.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:17:36]:
Yeah. It's an answer to why, why, why do remakes, Right? Why? Because he was the king of remakes. He was the one who really. He was the first person to do. Really do a remake. So for. For the question that he would pose was, you know, why do you think people respond to this film so much? Like, what is it about this film, King Kong that people respond to? And that was his response.
Tony Ortiz [00:18:01]:
Summed it up so. So concisely and accurately. Yeah, one line.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:18:05]:
He was good like that. Yeah, he was. He had some really. I mean, he had some things that he said when I worked with him that were just. They were really out of another era. You know, you really understood that as a producer. He was. He was, at one point, anyway, he was a star maker.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:18:22]:
He could really pick up the phone and call anybody and. And honestly, he could get on a planet. As he said, I get on the plane, I go to New York, I go to the burlesque, so I make a star. I mean, he would say things like, to speak them into existence like that. And I'm like, yeah, I'm like, it's. It's 2008 okay. All right. Sounded like it was 1966.
Peter Stass [00:18:47]:
He's an old school.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:18:48]:
He was an old school guy. Yeah. I mean there was good and bad with that too, but yeah, I did have to minute. But you know, Peter, you're being very, very humble as well, I have to say. I mean, Peter is. Is a multi talented sort of. I think you're kind of polynomic in your own. Well, we'll say across the arts.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:19:08]:
Anyway, I think you are kind of a. You have so many different talents, talents that you bring to it. And. And I also love that you remember all the names of all the creators and people and everybody. Because I have name blame this. This is part of my way my brain wiring works is I cannot remember my own name. But this is why I think everybody now knows me as Blu. But Peter, you know me so long that you call me Larima, which is my first name.
Tony Ortiz [00:19:38]:
But yeah, speaking to Peter's creativity, I just wanted to tie in with the dimension of the Alien movie. Your drawing Peter on Sigourney Weaver was amazing. Which I'll. I'll link to in the episode Notes to your Instagram for both of you. Just for folks. I just thought it was. It was amazing.
Peter Stass [00:19:56]:
Thank you. I do like to draw and I'm learning to paint at the Art Students League. I've just been learning to, you know, the past 20 years have been dabbling in painting. Problem is, you have to keep going consistently.
Tony Ortiz [00:20:07]:
Right, right. With anything.
Peter Stass [00:20:09]:
Right. Any.
Tony Ortiz [00:20:09]:
Any creative ever. Blu. Before we move off of this, I actually wanted to ask you a question. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask. Related to your previous works, I read that you worked on My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which is one of my wife's favorite movies, and you were the director of development for that feature. So I just wanted to ask if you could tell us a bit about that experience in that role.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:20:31]:
Well, actually, I'll be honest with you. I came into that experience when the film had been shot and they didn't know what to do with it. It was sitting on a shelf for a really long time. They could not get the film. They couldn't sell this film into a theater and really were trying to figure out what to do with the film, you know, or are they just gonna go. They almost went straight to video with that film, which would have just been. Can you imagine if this film just went into anonymity as a. As a straight to video? It was kind of an unusual time because people didn't self release films 4 walling, meaning that go out and rent the theaters out and distribute the feature yourself.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:21:21]:
And so they were just trying to find out different ways to do things. So one of the things that there were very few people who worked at Gold Circle Films, where I worked at the time, there were five, basically five executives, and that was it. And we would just sit in the office of these weekly meetings going through our entire, you know, roster of unreleased films at that time. And we went and tested my big Factory Wedding. And it had this unbelievably high testing number. It got like a 95, which is unheard of, out in. I think it was in Calabasas that we tested it. And so the idea was like, well, we can go straight to video.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:22:02]:
We can do a European release with no North American release. And the reason why was because, to be honest with you, they were saying, oh, we don't know how we're going to sell Neil Vardalis. And who's this other guy? He's kind of like, he used to be on Northern Exposure. You really know him anymore. We can't sell this film in North America. And yet, to really make that release work, you needed a North American release at that time. So it was going to be straight to video. Otherwise.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:22:31]:
So what? What? Yeah, so what we. We kind of went through were a number of scenarios, and one of them was really about sort of modeling what could it look like if we. If we did our own theatrical release and rented out the theaters. So that became part of my job, I think, you know, really, at that time, I was focused on remakes and adaptations because of my previous writing work, and which is ultimately why I ended up working with Dino De Laurentiis later in development. But at that time, because they had, like, 19 films sitting on a shelf, they were really, really much more focused on, like, how do we. What do we do for a distribution strategy? Right now I can get into so many details about why that happened and get into what you do and don't want to do. When you're up brand new company with lots of money, you want to first go out and get a distribution deal with a studio at that time, but that's not what they did. So they ended up with all these films like that sitting on a shelf.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:23:36]:
And so we just said, we've got to take this film and let's release it. And so part of my job was to help model that out and see where we would release, what that release might look like. We were looking at cities like New York City, Chicago, Boston, where there were big Greek communities and saying, well, let's just release it to like release it to 100 theaters and just see how it does. And that's all it took. And it was just the timing. It was post 911 people were very kind of depressed. There was really a vacuum in the market and people were just dying for comedy at the time. They wanted to laugh.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:24:12]:
And we released it that summer after 9 11, you know, before the anniversary, of course of the first anniversary of 9 11. And people just ate it up. There wasn't anything like it that summer that was being released.
Peter Stass [00:24:23]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:24:24]:
And it wound up. It wound up going on to being the large, if I'm not mistaken, the largest grossing rom com in history.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:24:30]:
Yes. It cost us 2.6 million to make. 2.6 million to make it. And it cost probably that much to market it out or whatever as it usually does. It made $286 million.
Peter Stass [00:24:48]:
Wow.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:24:48]:
Initially. So it made 100x. It's just. It's just like winning the lottery or something. It doesn't, you know, I can't even take credit for that.
Tony Ortiz [00:24:56]:
So that's an amazing story from a creative perspective of sticking to your guns, going with your gut, knowing that it's good and wanting to get it out the way it deserves to be out.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:25:06]:
What do you think? Going with a creator. Right. Who he had done that as a one woman show Features where my name blindness comes in. Oh my God. Tom Hanks's wife Play tone.
Peter Stass [00:25:17]:
Rita Wilson. Rita Wilson.
Tony Ortiz [00:25:19]:
Right.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:25:19]:
Rita Wilson. Thank you. I'm so sorry. Oh, Rita. I'm sorry. Rita Wilson, you know, had seen it and Rita Wolfgang is, you know, she sleep by background and just loved the story and wanted to support this creator. And I think we need to do more of that. You know, right now we're really stuck in this sort of glut of material that has to be based on other material or has to have it has to have something attached to it to get made.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:25:49]:
I get it from a marketing perspective because I have to work in that realm too. But yeah, I understand the mechanics of it. But at the same time, it leaves so much on the table in terms of creatives. There are just so many great stories, original stories out there. And I do think that the. The pendulum, I hope will swing at some point back to that rather than trying to regurgitate everything all the time.
Tony Ortiz [00:26:15]:
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more with that. There has to be a balance ultimately, right. Between the financial realities of a film, but also with the leaning more so on the creative side, in my opinion. I mean, look what like Ryan Coogler's Sinners did and films like that, that kind of give hope to that type of, you know, moving a little bit more away from the cookie cutter, you know, has to be based on previous IP type of stories, which they're. There's still a place for.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:26:42]:
Well, and then you. Yeah. You know, then you get into this game which people will play, which is we have to have a base on something. So, you know, maybe you write the scripts and then you write the book and then you say, oh, the book was first. I mean, I've been in that. I won't get into it, but I've been in that situation where, you know, things like that have happened and I'm like, oh, okay. So it just becomes a game, you know, and. And at the end of the day, the work is the work and, you know, the quality of the work, you know, that.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:27:15]:
That hopefully, you know, is what ultimately rises to the top for people. But. But, you know, it's a film business. Right, we understand there's the business side of it. And. But it's definitely evolved over the years. It's evolved in these ways that are. I think it's what in some ways is what is hurting the film business right now in Los Angeles, where we're seeing the film business get really hammered here.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:27:38]:
And I think part of it is this kind of lack of respect for the creative.
Tony Ortiz [00:27:44]:
Agreed. Definitely couldn't agree more. And Peter, I wanted to bring you in. I wanted to ask you about Kathy Bates. She's amazing. I love her. Misery, the Blindside, Titanic, which you mentioned the Blu worked on as well. How was it to co write Relative Strangers, a screenplay that you wrote which starred her and Danny DeVito?
Peter Stass [00:28:05]:
It was a great experience. I mean, it was a challenging experience to write this film because I live in L. A and my co writer, Greg lives. Lived now he's in Chicago, but he was living. He was in. Did I just say I was in la? I'm in New York. I'm in New York and Greg was in la. So we were writing it back and forth.
Peter Stass [00:28:26]:
This was a long time ago now. So there was no way for us to do live collaboration. We didn't even have Zoom. None of that stuff existed back then. So we talk on the phone. I would write and then I actually used to send hard copies off to Greg. I remember I would. I would mail them.
Tony Ortiz [00:28:44]:
Oh, wow. So no notes or anything like that existed.
Peter Stass [00:28:47]:
None of this stuff really existed. So this is like in 2000, a little 2001, we started this process of collaborating together on this. So it was tough. I will say this too. I was brand new to writing. The only thing I could do, really do, was I could be funny. I didn't know anything about structure. I didn't know anything about anything.
Peter Stass [00:29:07]:
Greg was basically writing story, and my job was to provide dialogue. Of course, I had strong opinions about story as well, but he was sort of the senior person in the situation because he had written parents. He was the reason that this was happening, and he was doing me an incredible favor. I mean, this was just an incredible thing to even be invited into the world of professional screenwriting. Also, as you just mentioned that it was a factor. My younger brother had cancer. So as my younger brother was dealing with cancer and ultimately dying of cancer, I was having to write this screenplay. It was very, you know, the famous quote from Dickens.
Peter Stass [00:29:42]:
It was the best times, it was the worst of times. That's how it was at that time in my life. The same week I was invited to work on my first professional screenplay, my younger brother was diagnosed with cancer. So sorry to hear things were coinciding. Thank you. So there were times where I was literally have. But here's the thing, too. I had to be with Baby there for my brother.
Peter Stass [00:30:04]:
I had to be there. I had to be. Of course I was not going to be there. At the same time, I couldn't drop this opportunity because I knew that this was something that was a. I couldn't. It was a once in a lifetime thing. Right. I couldn't say to Greg, thank you so much for inviting me, but I have an illness in my family, so I can't do it.
Peter Stass [00:30:22]:
I wasn't going to do that. So I did both at the same time. There were times where I would literally be typing, writing the script by my brother's bedside as he was being treated for cancer. So it was a very intense time in my life. One of the most, maybe the most intense time ever in my life. And it was difficult to write because I disagreed with a lot of tricky decisions. And I was having to learn to rewrite something which I didn't know how to do. And I felt like it was uphill the whole time.
Peter Stass [00:30:54]:
It never leveled off the hill, never leveled. It kept. It was a steep incline the whole time. And then eventually we finished it and it got to a place where everybody was happy and the producers were happy that Greg was working with. And we said, okay, we're fine, we're good. The script is complete. And then I moved to la. My little brother subsequently passed away.
Peter Stass [00:31:14]:
Unfortunately, I moved to LA for a couple of reasons. One, because I felt that the film is starting to come together and there was sort of a reason to be there. I also, to be quite frank, because of everything that had just happened, I think I wanted to go to a new place and look at different things and just be completely away from the world that I had been living in. I needed to sort of start over.
Tony Ortiz [00:31:38]:
Change of scenery.
Peter Stass [00:31:40]:
Yeah, change of scenery, change of life.
Tony Ortiz [00:31:41]:
Right.
Peter Stass [00:31:42]:
And so to answer your question, yeah, it was. It was challenging to write this screenplay. It was difficult. It never really got easier, but we ultimately finished it. I will say this, too. A lot of people don't like the collaboration with studios. We made this movie with a studio called Millennium New Image. I didn't mind getting notes and incorporating them.
Peter Stass [00:32:06]:
And in fact, I thought the notes we got from them were pretty good. And I didn't mind sitting in the room and having the notes. To me, it was part of the collaborative process and I actually kind of enjoyed it, to tell you the truth.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:32:18]:
Yeah. I mean, I think that that's. I think that that's one of the reasons why, if you're a writer, I think that puts you miles and miles ahead. Because one of the biggest problems is that people. And I know this from being in the room as a development executive, people didn't know I was a writer or anything, didn't know that I'd written, had things, produced, that obviously I was a ghost writer. So it wasn't under my name, unfortunately. But they would come in and they'd be offended, you know. Right.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:32:48]:
They'd. Who was development executive, telling me what to do? And of course, I never said anything. Wasn't. That wasn't my position to say, I write too, you know, but it was such a block. And a lot of times things didn't get made because the writers just could not sit down and put their ego aside and say, let's talk through these notes. Let's collaborate. Right.
Peter Stass [00:33:10]:
Yeah.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:33:11]:
You're not a novelist.
Peter Stass [00:33:12]:
Particular form of writing, right?
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:33:14]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:33:14]:
Right.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:33:14]:
Yeah, it is. It's collaborative by nature. And so I really think in any part of the industry. And I. I'll say this, too. That goes for, like, when you're. You know, I studied Meisner technique at the Baron Brown studio here in Los Angeles, and for two years I studied acting. And it's the same thing.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:33:35]:
It's like, you have to be very open. Right. You have to, like. It's like, what do we need. What's the goal here? That we can. That we can all get around with. We all have our eye on the prize at the end of the day. And, yeah, of course, argue for your point of view.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:33:51]:
Have a strong point of view. Have a strong aesthetic. Always make sure that you have developed what your vision is strongly. But also understand that you are working with groups of people and everybody's adding a piece to that in order to elevate the overall. In this case, the overall feature, or maybe it's the series to make sure that that is the best possible experience for the audience. The audience that, too, is, you know, at the end of that rainbow for me, is, how are we going to make this the best possible? And I always say this to Peter. How do we get it to the height of the meaning, the height of the moment? And, you know, we. Sometimes we write something and I say, what do you think, Peter? And they'll say, I think it's pretty good.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:34:39]:
And I go, could we. Could we up this? Yeah, I want to get it. Yeah. Why not take it to the next level?
Peter Stass [00:34:49]:
You know, go beyond pretty good. You want it to get the most out of it.
Tony Ortiz [00:34:53]:
Absolutely. And that.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:34:54]:
Yeah, I'm never. Yeah, sorry.
Tony Ortiz [00:34:57]:
No, go ahead, Go ahead.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:34:58]:
And that's. That's sort of. When I write with Peter, the goal is that, you know, because we do live in two separate cities. I live in Los Angeles and Peter lives in New York. And so often what we'll do through our writing process is, you know, say I'll take this scene and you take that scene, and let's get together in a few days and talk through it. And then sometimes we'll switch or we'll give each other notes. The idea is not that I go off and write on my own, come back, and it's like, that's great. That's good enough.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:35:30]:
Or, that's great. Let's just leave it there. It's a collaborative process. So what I'm looking for and what he's looking for when we come back together is I want you to, you know, not ruthlessly, but I want you to pick it apart and see what you can add to that to. To. To elevate the piece. Right. That.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:35:49]:
What's the point of a collaboration if two people aren't coming together to make something better than each one of them could do separately?
Tony Ortiz [00:35:57]:
Yeah, absolutely. And I just wanted to highlight a point that you both mentioned where we kind of see the juxtaposition of the example with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which almost Went straight to video, as you mentioned, Blu just be leaning too much. So on the financial or, or bottom line or, or just like the business side of show business and then swinging the pendulum to the. The other side. You have many films and TV shows that never get made just because the creative is like steadfast and stuck in their ways and doesn't want to budge an inch. When again, to the point we made earlier, you know, finding that the equilibrium that balances is where we should be, especially in this medium of, of like movie and film, where it is much more so collaborative than like, Peter's point to, you know, writing a novel, for example.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:36:47]:
Yeah, you really have to have. I mean, maybe we're getting philosophical, but, you know, personalities. Personalities are the thing that can get in the way, right, of the, of the process. I mean, obviously we want to bring our personalities to things, but when we put our personalities above our sort of principles, I think that that's where we, we get off the beaten path. I mean, we, we get off track rather. So we always want to have like, what is, what is it that we're, what is the true goal? For me, it's, it's really coming to the process with my values, with my principles in mind and, and not my ego, you know, that my, my personality is what will get in the way of the process if I allow it to, you know, anybody, anybody will be in that position. So when I come to the collaborative, you know, when I come to the table with Peter or with anybody, you know, my, my, my thing is, you know, what hat can I put on her that's going to be most valuable to the process? And, you know, what can I bring. Let me put my ego to the side and what can I do here that's going to be about sort of the greater good in terms of the creative process.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:38:05]:
And, and so I think Peter and I, Peter and I do that really, really well. I think Peter, you and I, you know, Peter is such a, he's, you know, you're one of my favorite people, Peter. You know, you're one of my favorite people. You're such a good person, you know, and it's like, it's easy to work with somebody who's such a good person and who's so talented and intelligent. It's really, it's easy and it helps, you know, me feel like, hey, I don't have to carry any burden here alone. I'm not carrying the weight for somebody else. Sometimes that can happen in a creative process where somebody really kind of doesn't pull their weight, or they're not really bringing that much to it. And you're sort of like, I'm pulling all the weight over here.
Peter Stass [00:38:49]:
And.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:38:49]:
And that's never the way that I feel with Peter. I always feel like we're both bringing everything to the process, and we have.
Peter Stass [00:38:58]:
Each other's backs, too, and that's sort of a partnership thing.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:01]:
That's awesome. I love that for you guys. And this episode is shaping up to be a masterclass in collaboration. So take notes, folks. I wanted to ask you guys a bit about your influences. So both of you have backgrounds that blend different disciplines. Blu with gothic, character explorations, vfx. Peter with comedy, screenwriting, teaching.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:24]:
How do those early experiences continue to shape the way that you guys approach horror today? Because to me, from the outside looking in, it's kind of like a melting pot of different lenses of creativity coming together, which. Which is exciting, seemingly for me, from the outside looking in. So just wanted your take on how those experiences shape your approach today.
Peter Stass [00:39:49]:
That's a big question. Well, yeah, because there are a lot of different influences. I guess there's the influence of comic book storytelling, which is visual. It's the combination of word with the image. I guess I've brought that into film writing, you know, as far as storytelling in general. You know, comedy and horror, I think have something in common in that they both rely on a kind of a cathartic response. They both utilize surprise, you know, a bit of a shock. It's either the shock of the scream or the shock of the laugh.
Peter Stass [00:40:29]:
They do seem to have a relationship. Comedy and Harvard, I don't fully understand, but I know that I'm not the first person that works in both arenas. The guy who wrote the Exorcist, William Peter Blatty, had written only comedy before he did the Exorcist.
Tony Ortiz [00:40:44]:
Oh, wow. I didn't know that.
Peter Stass [00:40:46]:
So, yeah, he had written only comedy. He had written, like, one of the Pink Panther movies in the 60s. There must be some relationship that maybe I don't fully understand, but I think it has to do with the visceral reaction that we have as well. You definitely get a reaction right away. It's not neutral. Like, the first thing that I really wrote was sketch comedy, actually. When I first began to put material in front of an audience, it was in through the venue of sketch comedy. And the great thing about that is that we were going out into comedy clubs and we were getting that reaction immediately.
Peter Stass [00:41:19]:
You knew right away if your work was connecting or not, because you either get a laugh or you didn't.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:41:24]:
Well, that's it. Right? It's that horror and comedy, these are their reactions. They're not just genre, right?
Peter Stass [00:41:33]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:41:34]:
Your actual. I mean, horror actually is an actual reaction, right? You react with horror, right?
Peter Stass [00:41:40]:
Yeah.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:41:41]:
And I think they are very. You. You hit the nail on the head when you said visceral. They both have this almost primal, visceral reaction. And it's almost reflexive. It's almost reflexes. And that's not, you know, what necessarily other genres bring. Right.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:42:02]:
It's. It's not that it doesn't have that immediacy that laughter or the screen have. Right. So I think there is something really primal about it, and I think that's what really attracts people to it.
Peter Stass [00:42:17]:
Yeah, they're kind. They're twins in some weird way.
Tony Ortiz [00:42:20]:
That's awesome. That's an interesting blend there.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:42:23]:
And I think too, like, you know, when. In terms of, like, when I was growing up, I was very into. I mean, I didn't bring this up at all, but I was very into poetry and Victorian literature, like Gothic Victorian literature. And my favorite book is Frankenstein. And actually recently, I had my daughter this past year, she read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so. Great.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:42:47]:
And, you know, these. These. These novels had a lot of influence on me as well. Like, literature has had a lot of influence on me. And my own, I will say, like, even my own personal history, my own personal tragedies, all of those things come into. You know, we tend to think of horror. I think some people, when you say horror, they think, oh, blood, guts and gore. And that's all it is, usually.
Peter Stass [00:43:15]:
Yeah, I hear that all the time.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:43:17]:
Yeah. Yeah. And it's so much. Well, at least for. For, I think you and I, Peter, it's so much deeper than that. We're really trying to touch something very deep inside of. Of our human sort of experience that is deeply emotional and. And sort of the inner traumas that we.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:43:40]:
That we are dealing with in life. Those are the things that. I think that for Peter and I. You know, Peter, I think you can speak to this too, but this idea of we kind of tend to go through these sort of moral or ethical questions when we're. When we're writing. And I think because we're true, we are trying to dig deep into our own psyches to understand, you know, what is this human experience. We're doing it through these. Through these genres of comedy and horror.
Tony Ortiz [00:44:08]:
That's great.
Peter Stass [00:44:09]:
Yeah. I'm much more interested in the ideas than the blood and guts. I like the idea that you can explore with horror.
Tony Ortiz [00:44:15]:
That's awesome.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:44:17]:
Yeah, it's like, it's a little bit more, you know, I mean, we can get into it later. I'm sure you'll ask us about this county, but about the piece that we did write. And we can get a little bit more into kind of what, what the influences are from our backgrounds that kind of brought us to this particular story and to the idea of even doing a podcast. I think, I think a lot of that will come out in that.
Tony Ortiz [00:44:41]:
Yeah, absolutely. Agreed. We can actually shift to there. And then I want to circle back to a couple other questions that I have here.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:44:48]:
Blu.
Tony Ortiz [00:44:49]:
So you've described your work as kind of a co creation with audiences and pulling them into dark places that we hesitate to explore. How do you balance giving audiences what they expect from horror while maintaining like an element of surprise? And we can definitely, with that, get into, as you mentioned, the aspects of the Night Visitor.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:45:14]:
Yeah, I think that. Wow, that's a good question. I mean, I think, you know, for, for me, what I'm trying to do is understand that I too am a fan. Right. So, you know, I definitely want to hear the perspective of the storyteller. You know, I think one of the things that I, I feel maybe this is just my own generation or something, but I do feel like, you know, there was a time where we as filmmakers were trying to teach people how to see differently, and I really still look at it that way. So I'm. I'm definitely trying to bring my eye to it and, and convey my point of view to the audience.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:45:57]:
But at the same time, you know, I remember being a fan, I am an audience member regularly. You know, I go to the movie theater by myself. I love that I go in the movie theater and enjoy the experience for myself. I love being around Strangers in the Dark and watching these films and seeing and feeling and hearing the reactions. And so to me, it's like, I love that feeling, that feeling of just the excitement and the anticipation of being in the theater and having the goosebumps rise as you're so anticipating the story that, you know, you've just been dying to see, maybe, but understanding also that sometimes you want that experience to continue after the film is over. So it's giving, for me anyway, it's giving the audience enough to really engage them while they're watching it. And then when they leave the suitor, they're thinking back on it and going, wait a second, what? Okay, this happened. And Then that happened and wait, I kind of want to know more.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:47:01]:
Wait, what was that whole. What is that whole world about? I want to know all the rules of that world. I want to, I want to explore this even more. And this is where I think the modern era has come in in such an interesting way with fandoms. You know, we have given people platforms, especially online, of course, to share out their own fan stories or share out, you know, their own perspectives on what happened and really connect with other fans. So I guess I would go there. I don't know if that answers your question, but to me that is almost equally as vital as the experience, you know, of watching a film. Right.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:47:44]:
It's equally vital to have that fandom that continues on where people can continue to explore and even possibly co create. Right. In that, in that world that you've created for them.
Tony Ortiz [00:47:54]:
Absolutely.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:47:55]:
So we're making the rules, but we're letting people say, okay, well now we know what the four walls of this world are and now we get to play inside of it, you know, and let them have that as a sandbox.
Tony Ortiz [00:48:08]:
Absolutely. There's a, there's a quote that I'm going to butcher that, that reminds me of, which is something to the, the effect of when you create something or like for me, for example, with like my, my writing with books, you three things are created. Your, Your creation and then the, the reader's interpretation of your creation and then the, like, the collaboration of both. Like when there's interaction around that. That creation.
Peter Stass [00:48:39]:
I would say.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:48:39]:
And I'll say another thing.
Peter Stass [00:48:41]:
Go ahead.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:48:41]:
Sorry, go ahead.
Peter Stass [00:48:42]:
No, no, no, go ahead.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:48:43]:
Well, just, just was going to say. The other thing that I will say as well is that when we go back to that whole conversation about adaptations and remakes and things being based on other things, which I worked in that realm for a long time. You know, I've had people come to me. I hate adaptations. They're never as good as the book. I hate it when they do written remakes. Every single person who has read a book has a different version of that book. They have recreated that book in their mind.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:49:15]:
They've recreated the characters. They know what they think they look like. So when you're casting it, they say, oh, that's not how I imagined it, or oh, that's exactly who I thought I imagined. In that role, every single person gets to co author that creative piece with you. And whether it's a film or a book or whatever it is. Right. Whatever type of media it might be. So this idea that you know, adaptations or remakes or anything is bad.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:49:41]:
I kind of. I want to be careful and not, you know, I'm going to retract a little bit of what I said previously, just to say those still have a place in the world. We still need to tell these stories, maybe even retell these stories sometimes. But make no mistake, every time somebody sits in the movie theater with your movie, there's a different movie playing in their minds, in each person's mind also.
Peter Stass [00:50:04]:
In a way where we've been retelling the same story throughout time to some degree. If you go back, back, back, way back, you know what I mean? To the original story, the original myths in some fashion. We've been sort of retelling the same things, you know.
Tony Ortiz [00:50:19]:
Absolutely.
Peter Stass [00:50:20]:
Just been kind of all the way.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:50:21]:
Back to Sumeria, you know.
Peter Stass [00:50:24]:
And I wanted to add this, too, to answer my take on your question there about how do you balance your point of view with what the audience expects. I would also say this. You have to sort of trust yourself, too. You have to trust that, you know, you're. You're not so far off, you know, your. Your tastes are going to be not so far off from other people that they won't be able to understand it. I remember I was watching the. It was like the audio commentary on Young Frankenstein, and Mel Brooks was saying this, which I thought was interesting.
Peter Stass [00:51:00]:
He said, when I make a movie, I'm the audience. The only audience I know is me. It's the only audience I understand. So I'm gonna assume that I'm not so different from the rest of the world that they're not gonna get this. You know, I kind of like that.
Tony Ortiz [00:51:16]:
I like that as well.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:51:17]:
You have to trust the audience. Yeah. You really have to trust the audience. Right. I mean, you go through that when we're writing sometimes where it's like, let's not overwrite this. Let's trust that our audience can understand what we're trying to convey.
Peter Stass [00:51:30]:
Yeah, right. Give it.
Tony Ortiz [00:51:31]:
Give your audience credit.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:51:32]:
And.
Tony Ortiz [00:51:33]:
And you are an audience member yourself at the end of the day, right?
Peter Stass [00:51:37]:
You're.
Tony Ortiz [00:51:37]:
You're technically. You're creating something that you haven't seen and that you want to make exist.
Peter Stass [00:51:42]:
So, yeah, what would I like? What would I accept? What would excite me? You know, Exactly.
Tony Ortiz [00:51:47]:
Peter, I wanted to ask you. You've emphasized the grounding the like fantastical in reality and making the incredible seem credible. So I wanted to ask you.
Peter Stass [00:51:56]:
I love it, right.
Tony Ortiz [00:51:58]:
I wanted to ask you, what techniques do you use in your Writing or dialogue or structuring of scenes to create that believability. Because one thing circling back to the Night Visitor is how the fantasy aspects of. Of the horror are really grounded by the historical elements of it.
Peter Stass [00:52:17]:
Well, I credit Blurriema for much of that historical richness. But yeah, I think that basically create a believable universe and then have weird things start happening, essentially, right? So, like, remember, if you remember the setup to Poltergeist, right, the old poltergeist in 1982, what was so brilliant about that movie is at first we established a family that we absolutely believe in, it's recognizable, we believe in it. And then start having weird things happen so that it can feel real to us. You know, we can really experience it. And I guess in creating it, I would just ask myself, well, how would I respond if something really crazy happened? You know, because the worst thing in a film is where you see people reacting, almost taking weird things for granted, where it's like crazy things are happening, but they're not reacting realistically to it. I feel if you want to bring the audience into it, to make it an emotional experience, they've got to react like human beings, right?
Tony Ortiz [00:53:20]:
Absolutely.
Peter Stass [00:53:21]:
But I would say yes, first you lay the groundwork of reality and then you slowly start to bring the weird stuff.
Tony Ortiz [00:53:26]:
Awesome. I like that. Now, both of you have worked in, as we've discussed in film tv, and now we're turning to audio. What excites you most about the horror storytelling in this medium of podcasting, which is, which is largely audio based. And just from a technical perspective, if I can add to that question, do you guys like, storyboard sound like similar to how in film visuals are storyboarded or how does that piece of the collaboration work?
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:53:57]:
Well, I can say one thing to the first part, which is one, I think, Peter, actually you can probably speak to radio, radio shows, which I think you even more than I. I would say expanded into that a little bit earlier than me. I mean, I think you can talk to that a little bit more. But I think for me, what I saw was that podcasts really had a huge explosion out in the market. And I started also listening to a lot of audiobooks. And I was like, when are they going to do some dramatic readings of these audiobooks? And they started doing these kind of like minorly dramatic readings. And I was like, this could be so much more rich. You know, this could be such a rich tapestry sound.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:54:52]:
If you wanted to, if you wanted to invest in the platform that way, you could. And I Heard maybe, like, a few podcasts out there that had tried to do some more realistic soundscapes. And I just felt that one of the things I do, and I should mention this, is that I. I also have a technical side to my career, and I have consulted for a long time in the area of sort of future technologies and platforms. So. And that's a whole other problem of my life and a whole other story. But. But because of that, I'm.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:55:30]:
I'm used to predicting future trends. So when I was looking out at podcast, I really saw a kind of potential second sort of explosion of narrative pieces that could be put out as really rich, immersive entertainment. Right. So a couple years ago, I was talking to Peter, and I think it was a couple of summers ago, you had released your. The other film that you wrote with Greg, help you love. And after that, you. You got in touch with me and again and said, you know, I mean, you could tell that story, but it was like, hey, hey, I really want to write with you again, and let's write something together. And I was like, here, we've written so much stuff.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:56:18]:
Let's just. Just, let's get something out that we'd already written in love, and let's do it as an audio piece. And I think at first, it was a little bit of a hard sell with you. You were like, okay. I don't know. It took a minute to get you kind of, like, into it. I want to say it was, like, maybe a good six months before it was like, okay, we're actually gonna try to do this. Probably hemming on it, but.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:56:46]:
But I. I somehow I. I think we got there together finally. I think it was pretty much like six months or so. And, you know, so a couple years ago, I really felt like this trend would be coming, and I. I do see it growing. I do. But I think you can add a lot to this.
Peter Stass [00:57:02]:
Yeah. Podcast is huge.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:57:04]:
Yeah. Oh, podcast.
Peter Stass [00:57:05]:
I think he said our cast podcast is huge.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:57:09]:
Yep.
Tony Ortiz [00:57:09]:
I'm definitely. I'm definitely a fan.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:57:11]:
Yeah. Well, podcasting is interview, right? Like. Like what you're doing, Tony, on podcasts. You know, this is. This is kind of where podcasts are biggest. Right. In this interview space.
Tony Ortiz [00:57:22]:
Right.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:57:23]:
But I just see so much, you know, more. Right. I see more for it. I see more opportunities there that can be explored creatively, and I hope that people will listen to what we've done and be inspired and decide to do their own, you know, that would be great.
Tony Ortiz [00:57:41]:
Absolutely. There's definitely room for much more of That. I agree. I agree with you there, Blu. There was actually a podcast that I wanted to. No, go ahead.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:57:51]:
No, no, I just wanted to make sure. Peter, also. You know, Peter, I think you had a radio. You did have a live radio show. So I just wanted to mention that.
Peter Stass [00:58:00]:
Well, yeah, I mean, what I was going to say, you know, what inspired us particularly to create our audio drama? I mentioned that I had written a film with Greg Leanna, who I mentioned earlier, called Puppy Love. I'm hesitating because I think it was really called puppyhood in the 19th century. So we wrote this movie for Buzzfeed Features. And I think I felt a bit inspired, you know, having gotten hired for another feature. But at the same time it made me look back at my own work, the work that I actually cared the most about, these stories that I had written with Lorima. And it made me think, you know, I really, really, really want to tell my own stories, you know, because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life writing stories for other people that were just jobs. I mean, I'm proud of Puppy Love, but it was a job I wanted to really. So many of our own stories and these.
Peter Stass [00:58:53]:
And I had written these. I had written these great horror stories together. So we decided, yeah, let's take one of them and find some way to tell the story. And rather than do a short film, you know, we thought about. We came. Arrived at this idea of the audio drama and we thought, wouldn't it we could be much more affordable and we could do it with sound. And actually having now created it, I think it's great. I mean, if I may say so myself, as far as, you know, creating this world of horror through sound, which is so immersive and it allows the audience to.
Peter Stass [00:59:28]:
It really engages with their imagination, perhaps even in a different way than a film would do because it is just sound. And so you can really conjure up the image of yourself. I think it's very powerful. I mean, I'm so proud of what we wanted to piece of art I've ever made.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [00:59:44]:
Yeah, I mean, that. That you've said before and I mean, that's like a testament to the platform itself. I mean, it's just that it was so above and beyond our expectations. I think when we started this, how far we could take it, just how far we could take the sound. And really on a very, very modest budget, what we could do was just immense and, you know, a lot of horror. I mean, obviously we can talk about just sound in the genre of Horror. You could have an entire. Could probably have an entire series on that.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:00:21]:
But I really feel like we tapped into something because, you know, you can basically shut your eyes and. And visualize. It feels like you. You're watching. Yeah, it's like, you know, it's like a movie playing, but you shut your eyes and you just got this really, really rich soundtrack going. You're like, wow, you know, I feel like you're there, right?
Peter Stass [01:00:44]:
Yeah, you can.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:00:45]:
So. And there's something almost. Yeah, it's almost. There's. And there's more opportunities, actually, in a way for. I mean, it did scare. Because there's so much that depends on these sounds and sound effects. You know, you're basically going in blind when you're.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:01:02]:
When you're. When you're listening to it. So some moments actually, to me, have more shock value, but I digress. Anyway, Peter. I wanted to also mention, though, that I think Peter's being humble too. You know, Peter has probably a. I'm going to say, Peter, that I think you have a bigger, even a bigger appreciation for old radio dramas as well. I think you produced.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:01:27]:
Yeah. And you produced a piece that was kind of a radio show at one point, so.
Peter Stass [01:01:31]:
Yes, I did.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:01:32]:
You had, in a way, more previous experience.
Peter Stass [01:01:34]:
You're reminding me. I forgot that I had done that. Oh, that's right. I did. I did do that. Yes, I did. I did.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:01:42]:
Remembering each other's, you know, and so having that experience of putting on a live radio show, I mean, that's something that you had already. You'd already done.
Peter Stass [01:01:50]:
And I done this with a feature.
Tony Ortiz [01:01:52]:
Oh, that's awesome. What was the name of that one, Peter?
Peter Stass [01:01:55]:
The horror comedy is called Ackerman and Associates Meet Dracula. It's about realtors who end up selling a home to Dracula. He's moved to la and it's about real estate and it's about the wheeler dealer nature of that and the trouble that these two guys sort of get themselves into. So hard comedy, obviously. But yeah, that's a feature that I've written as well.
Tony Ortiz [01:02:18]:
Yeah. What you guys created with the Night Visitor. I couldn't agree more. Within the podcast medium, it's great. It is lacking in the space and it also serves as a proof of concept as well, because it doesn't necessarily have to be there. It could also evolve into other mediums from there. And I wanted to mention to you guys a podcast kind of within that. That, like, theater of the mind type of historical fiction podcast called Bronzeville that I loved.
Tony Ortiz [01:02:49]:
It was. It was set in Chicago, 1940s. It was like two, like, rival families that were kind of like the underbelly of, like, running numbers and liquor and. And.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:03:02]:
And.
Tony Ortiz [01:03:02]:
And, like, speakeasy spots and stuff like that. Within there, they had Laurence Tate was one of the voice actors, Laurence Fishburne. And it did really well and only did two seasons, which I was disappointed about because I think they got, like, a television deal from that, which, honestly, I haven't seen come out yet. Obviously, those things take time, but. Yeah, that's just. Just a testament to how one thing could evolve into something else, you know, whether intended or unintended.
Peter Stass [01:03:32]:
Yeah, I have to. I'll have to look for that. I wasn't aware of that.
Tony Ortiz [01:03:35]:
Yeah.
Peter Stass [01:03:36]:
You know, there was another thing I wanted to mention. Sorry. Just to backtrack just a tiny bit. One of the values, I think, of audio drama in terms of a horror piece, you know, growing up for blurima and I in our generation. I'm not sure how old you are, Tony, but, you know. Okay. A little bit younger than us. You know, in the old days, you didn't see the monster that much.
Peter Stass [01:03:59]:
You didn't see him in broad daylight. They sort of hid the monster, and you sort of got him little by little, and maybe by the end, you finally. The monster is revealed, like in the original Alien. Right. And there's so much shadow. Yeah. And in Jaws, for example, there's a power, I think, to not showing the audience everything. You want to show them just enough, but I think you want it.
Peter Stass [01:04:21]:
You want to leave space for them to meet you halfway, because their imagination is going to be so much more intense than what you can actually show them. And I wish there were more of that now, because now we have the technology to literally just show them everything. We could show them the whole monster from front to back, from beginning to end. But there's a value, I think, in sort of holding back and letting it little by little. You know what I mean?
Tony Ortiz [01:04:46]:
Absolutely.
Peter Stass [01:04:48]:
I think there's a lot of power.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:04:49]:
You know what's crazy, Peter? I went to Universal City Walk the other day to go watch a movie with my daughter. And we're passing by the 50th anniversary jaws, you know, poster which is. Which is playing up there now. And I looked and it said that Jaws was pg.
Peter Stass [01:05:13]:
I can't believe that movie. You see a man get eaten by a shark. No, I can't believe you just watched it again this summer. We just watched it. You see Quint get eaten alive. How did that get a pg?
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:05:28]:
I Don't know. I'm like, they, they put it out, it said pg. And I was like, no, this is, something's wrong there. This cannot possibly be pg.
Peter Stass [01:05:36]:
I know.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:05:37]:
Remember? I remember we would be frightened by commercials sometimes. Remember like the Jaws commercial.
Peter Stass [01:05:44]:
Yeah.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:05:44]:
Just by itself was like, oh my God, don't look. You know, it was terrifying. And there were some films like that where even the trailers were like, oh, carry actual Carrie.
Peter Stass [01:05:55]:
They would show Carrie. So we're going back to 1976. You'd see Carrie when she gets the blood dumped on her. And I think they would only show the ads after a certain time. But I remember if I had the misfortune being up at that time and I looked at it, I was like, okay, you just destroyed my life. I don't even know how to live in this world anymore. But I've just seen.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:06:17]:
Oh like now it's just like you could turn the TV on and it's just like, it's just like sheets of blood everywhere. It's amazing to me what kids are exposed to now versus when we were kids. Like, I mean, I had a friend who fainted. She fainted because she watched somebody on TV get like stabbed. It wasn't even bloody, you know, it was just like this action of it and she like passed out. She's like, oh, you know, this is, this was what was frightening for us because we just weren't expecting exposed the way that we are now. So like it. To me it was hilarious that we saw the PG thing on the.
Peter Stass [01:06:53]:
I mean, I mean, Bambi is pg. You know what I mean? Like, like, you know, kids movies are pg.
Tony Ortiz [01:07:02]:
Since you guys, I have a couple questions left for you guys and I just want to say I really appreciate you both. No, no, no, no worries at all. I'm actually about to go on a tangent myself, so based on something you said, I just wanted to thank you guys for taking the time and coming on the show. It's been, been great so far.
Peter Stass [01:07:17]:
Thank you.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:07:18]:
Thank you.
Tony Ortiz [01:07:19]:
Speaking of Carrie, have you guys read Stephen King's own writing memoir?
Peter Stass [01:07:24]:
And I loved it.
Tony Ortiz [01:07:25]:
Same, same. And I've told this story so much on the podcast. So for folks that listening that have heard it before, apologies, but. But I think it's a great one. But it's just the story around how Carrie came to be where, where he, Stephen King wrote a draft of it and wound up like crumpling it up and throwing it in this wastebasket. And he lived like in a two way trailer or something like that with his wife at the time, and his wife was just cleaning up one day and took it out of the trash and read it and told him, hey, I like this story that you wrote. You should, you know, flesh it out. You know, actually write it.
Tony Ortiz [01:08:03]:
No, not throw it away. And he was, at the time, you know, living in a trailer. I think he was, like a substitute teacher and, you know, before Stephen King became Stephen King. And listening, listen, wise man listened to his wife's advice and wound up writing it. And that's the story that, you know, fast forwarding a bit. He winds up getting a call from his agent or manager saying that it was optioned for something like 400 grand or like, something like that.
Peter Stass [01:08:31]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:08:31]:
And the rest is history.
Peter Stass [01:08:33]:
But he supposedly sort of collapsed. He supposedly, like, collapsed against the wall when he heard the amount.
Tony Ortiz [01:08:39]:
Right.
Peter Stass [01:08:40]:
This is living on, like, nothing. He couldn't even imagine that much money.
Tony Ortiz [01:08:44]:
Exactly. And if I remember correctly, it was like. Like Mother's Day or his wife's birthday or some. Yeah, some holiday. And, like, all the stores were closed, but he was, like, so excited. And his wife was visiting her mother, if I'm not mistaken. So he just went out to the only place that you could find open and, like, went to a pharmacy just to buy her something, like, as, like, a gift. And.
Tony Ortiz [01:09:06]:
Yeah, I just think that's a great story.
Peter Stass [01:09:09]:
It's a great book on writing Stephen King.
Tony Ortiz [01:09:11]:
Yes. I love it.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:09:13]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:09:14]:
I wanted to ask you guys, I've heard that horror works best when it's something about real fears. So, like, what truths or, like, anxieties are you guys trying to surface in in this podcast? Whether it be around, like, politics or family dynamics, technology or. Or otherwise.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:09:36]:
Peter, I don't know if you want to take this first or do you want me to?
Peter Stass [01:09:40]:
I think you have something to say, but I. I can add to it, or do you want me to take it?
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:09:44]:
I would just say for this. Well, I would say if you see how we are, we're like, wait, there's two chipmunks in the car. That there is a After you. No after you. So I think for this first piece, we wrote this a long time ago. Actually, I won't even say how long ago it was because it's almost embarrassing how long ago it was. When we started writing this, we adapted this piece for podcasts, and now we've adapted it again, Peter, because we've written a screenplay from this now, so for feature. Awesome screenplay.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:10:19]:
So this has come in three different versions now. And really, what's come out of it. I mean, I can at least speak to the part. For me, this particular podcast episode takes place in the Accursed Mountains, which is a real place. The Accursed Mountains of Albania at the end of World War II.
Peter Stass [01:10:42]:
And Albanian.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:10:45]:
Yeah, yeah, I'm half Albanian. I'm half Turkish. So the political conversations around my dinner table when I was growing up were really interesting. But basically, you know, my dad was obsessed with World War II because he was a very small boy when World War II began. He was 7 years old. And his first memories of like even seeing an airplane were when the Italians were invading. So. So those are his initial memories.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:11:13]:
And Nazis and all of that stuff. He was very obsessed. At that time period. My family had interactions with Nazis, very scary. So that as I was growing up and I had an older father, so as I was growing up, unlike my peers, I had a parent that had lived through World War II and was still really haunted by it. And there were some sort of, I would say there was little survivor's guilt from that time period, especially as Albania became, you know, then Communist and then he escaped from communist Albania. And there's a lot of guilt around that, a lot of obsession over how World War II was really a turning point. So it does have a family tie for me.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:11:58]:
And an exploration of some of these themes about guilt and faith come into it. And really, really sort of the ethical questions around warfare were really, really of interest to me in particular. And so as. As Peter, as you alluded to earlier, you know, I'm kind of. I'm kind of a history nut. So I tried as much as I could at least to. And you know, with Peter, make sure that the piece was historically as accurate as it could possibly be. And what I think we did was we really explored World War II from the perspective of German soldiers and really tried to tell.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:12:42]:
To give kind of a different view on the German soldier from these six different perspectives of these six different soldiers. Really give a much more three dimensional view of it. Because what I think of when I think of today, when I think of what's going on in the world today, I think that people look at World War II and think right now anyway, that that was a long time ago and this is now, and oh, that could never happen here. Oh, nothing like that will ever happen. And I remember being seven years old and, and my dad getting upset about something and saying, you know, you never know what will happen tomorrow. Everything that, you know, could change in a single day. And I remembered saying, oh, dad, what Are you talking about was a very, very 1970s thing to say to your parent was, oh, this is America. What are you talking, free country? It's a free country is what I said to my dad.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:13:39]:
And he's like, no, everything that, you know, could change in a day. Because when later I realized much later, when I looked back when he was seven years old, things did change for him in a day. And, you know, we're in an environment politically and socially right now that is really a potential powder keg and where people don't see that we are slipping further and further into. Into really, really scary, polarized territory. And so I think people have this idea that, well, that could never be me, because they think of Nazis as just mustache twirling oil can Harry. And, you know, the reality is a lot of these German soldiers got into it for a lot of different reasons and had different perspectives and still slipped into these morally questionable position as soldiers. Right. They.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:14:32]:
They did things that were immoral and unethical that they themselves may not have believed they would have been doing, you know, years earlier. So I just wanted to kind of explore that and really explore like, you know, are. Are we capable of also having redemption? You know, because if we commit these types of sins, if we commit these types of atrocities, is there a. Is there a redemption or not? And so that. And I won't give the answer to that away today, but that was really the exploration and why we would call this of kind of a moral tale. So, Peter, I think you could probably jump in here, but that's sort of.
Peter Stass [01:15:17]:
I think you crystallized it. Yeah, I think he crystallized it pretty well, actually. I think. I think the story does explore moral guilt. A moral weight, you could say, or the weight of guilt. I think that that's there throughout the whole story. That's sort of the background that sort of permeates the whole story. The weight of guilt and really kind.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:15:37]:
Of what defines monstrosity, you know?
Peter Stass [01:15:39]:
Yeah, right.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:15:40]:
Because we can talk about monsters, but. And we can have them be these sort of fantastical creatures, but sometimes the real monster is within. And so that was a piece of this.
Peter Stass [01:15:54]:
Yeah, I mean, I think you summed it up pretty well.
Tony Ortiz [01:15:57]:
That's great. Thanks.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:15:57]:
We drew a lot on really folkloric. Yeah, folkloric. We really drew on folkloric horror for this piece. I mean, I would. I'd probably. I mean, Peter and I have. You have talked about this quite a bit, Peter. We kind of would say it's cosmic horror with really a lot of folkloric elements and dread kind of as part of the piece.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:16:23]:
And. And, Peter, you mentioned this idea of, like, not revealing things, you know, that. That there's something enticing about kind of really only revealing the monster really at the end.
Peter Stass [01:16:37]:
Slow reveal.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:16:40]:
Yeah, yeah. You just don't know. You're like, what's happening here? As the audience, you're trying to figure out with these men what is going on in this remote village that they've just sort of stumbled upon. And there are all these strange rituals happening and things happening that they don't really understand. And, of course, they have their own intrinsic bigotry that's coming into that as well. And, you know, what happens for them, I think, is faith to. Faith for us, Peter, is that they believe that they're in control. And slowly but surely, moment by moment, they start to lose that control until they realize their own world is really turned upside down by the.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:17:28]:
By the horror of this, you know, otherworldly village. And. And that's really kind of the. The. That's really what we were trying to bring to this particular. Particular piece. We. And we really try to put in.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:17:44]:
You know, I would say. I don't know if this gives it away, Peter, but to say that you get taken down a few different paths to try and understand what this might be.
Peter Stass [01:17:55]:
Yeah.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:17:55]:
And what we hope is that people come to the end and are truly kind of like, oh, my God, I did not realize it was going to be this. It has kind of the thing that we generally try to do.
Peter Stass [01:18:06]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:18:07]:
Yeah, we love the Twilight Zone.
Peter Stass [01:18:10]:
Yeah, definitely that kind of structure. Yeah. I would say it's a slowly tightening knot, sort of. And then at the end, there's this reveal. This is what it is. This is what's happening here.
Tony Ortiz [01:18:21]:
Nice. I definitely, definitely can't wait to.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:18:23]:
And we generally try to do that with all of the pieces. Yeah, yeah, we try to do that with each of these pieces that we've written. And we have a number of these. This is just the first episode. But the idea of the Night Visitor podcast was to have. You know, it's an anthology, so we're. These are each episode or each series. I'm going to say these four.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:18:46]:
We're releasing it in three episodes with a fourth kind of anchor about, you know, sort of like this, how we. How we came up with the concept and all of that. And then we have. Our next episode is just a completely different story. But each one of these has that kind of Twilight Zone structure. And is you really kind of have that nice twist at the end. And it's really exploring these sort of moral questions is really what.
Tony Ortiz [01:19:13]:
That's awesome. So it's going to be three total, and then with the fourth, kind of like director's cut, behind the scenes, how the sausage was made, type of.
Peter Stass [01:19:20]:
Exactly.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:19:21]:
Yes.
Peter Stass [01:19:23]:
Three chapters to this particular episode and then the next episode. Also what we're doing is we're mashing up genres. So, you know, the next episode, like, we have another episode, for example, that's a western story, you know, but also dealing with a supernatural element to it.
Tony Ortiz [01:19:40]:
That's amazing.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:19:40]:
That's like a western ghost story.
Peter Stass [01:19:43]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:19:43]:
Nice. And, guys, what do you hope that listeners, after finishing the Night Visitor come away with? Whether it be scared or exhilarated or thoughtful or all of the above? I'm leaning towards the latter with the thoughtful and kind of like introspective.
Peter Stass [01:19:59]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:20:00]:
Based on what? You guys.
Peter Stass [01:20:01]:
I think there's a haunting. I think it ends on a haunting note. And I think this gives you a lot to think about. First of all, because of the times that we're in right now with the way things are swinging to the right, I think that's inherent. I think there's a political, social awareness to it. I think that's just inherent because of what's happening right now. And the funny thing is, we wrote this originally a really long time ago, before we were at where we're at politically.
Tony Ortiz [01:20:24]:
It's like the more things change the same.
Peter Stass [01:20:28]:
I know. Yeah. Unfortunately.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:20:29]:
Yeah. Well, sometimes you see things coming and you go, I don't know, you know, like, hopefully we can swing things away. I mean, one of the. One of the ideas about the reason for doing this is when I was growing up and, Peter, I think you. You feel the same way. We used to watch, you know, Twilight Zone and the reruns, and we used to watch the Twilight Zone marathons. And, you know, what they were really trying to do was it was kind of. It was for the social good.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:20:56]:
I really do think.
Peter Stass [01:20:57]:
Absolutely.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:20:57]:
I think that these stories were told for that purpose.
Peter Stass [01:21:00]:
Rod Serling is another big hero of mine. You know, Rod Serling created this on his own. He wanted to discuss things, so he was discussing him through that. Through that context.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:21:10]:
Yeah. I mean, Peter, I think even, you know, for you, Rod Serling, I mean, as heard you talk about Rod Sterling many, many, many times. You know, I. I think that he was an influential figure for both of us. And we, We. We grew up at a time when that type of storytelling was more prevalent. And, yeah, we kind of wanted to bring that back, I think, and, you know, that's what we. We hope to do, is get people thinking.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:21:38]:
Of course. I want people to come out of it feeling blown away. I want people to come out going, holy crap.
Peter Stass [01:21:45]:
Yeah. Let's put it this way. I think it gives you. It gives you all the things that you want from a horror piece and more, because it also gives you something to think about.
Tony Ortiz [01:21:53]:
I love it. I have two. Two questions left for you guys to wrap. The first, more of a fun one, and the last one, more of a reflective question. So to you both, if you could bring one classic gothic or horror figure into the podcasting world, for example, whether it be, like, Dracula, Frankenstein, etcetera, Who would that be and why?
Peter Stass [01:22:16]:
Well, I'm a big fan of Dracula. It's funny Larima mentioned Frankenstein. I love Frankenstein. The book, and I love the book of Dracula. And to me, Dracula has never really been. I don't think anyone's ever really did a faithful adaptation of the book, and we've done so many versions of it. Not really. I think that it's.
Peter Stass [01:22:34]:
Yeah, I would love to. I don't know if I would do it, but, I mean. Oh, actually, I've written. I have the speeches screenplay I mentioned earlier that interprets Dracula in the modern age, but I think Dracula. I'd love to do my own take on him.
Tony Ortiz [01:22:48]:
Awesome. How about you, Blu?
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:22:50]:
Yeah. I mean, it's difficult for me to even pick. I mean, I think, like Peter said, my favorite book is Frankenstein. I think I've also never seen a proper adaptation, to me, anyway, of Frankenstein. I think they've always just missed the mark on that and on that character and on the monster's intelligence. You know, I think that that's just completely. It's just been so misinterpreted so often. I don't know.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:23:23]:
I don't know that I would bring that into the podcast world. I mean, like Peter, I. I think Dracula, of course, first comes to mind, because, to me, Dracula is, like, the most. I don't know, He's. He's like the superman of. Of horror characters, to me. You know, like, there's nothing more quintessential than Dracula. And like Peter said, I don't.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:23:49]:
I don't think it's ever been done justice, you know, I really don't think it's ever been really done justice.
Peter Stass [01:23:57]:
You know, Speaking of. You know, it's funny, y'. All. Toro just did Frankenstein. He's got a Frankenstein coming up.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:24:03]:
I know. Oh, nice I know I haven't seen it. I'm crossed fingers on that because I love Kenya del Toro. Yeah. I think, you know, everybody has their own interpretation again, so they come to it with something different. And I'm sure he'll come to it with his own personal, you know, stamp on it, which will be very different. You know, I don't know, actually, I guess I'll stop there because I could wax on about this subject for a long time. I read a book recently, Carmilla, and that actually created.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:24:32]:
And I was really interested because it predecesses Dracula. Actually, it's earlier.
Peter Stass [01:24:39]:
Oh, wow.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:24:39]:
It was really great. I really loved the kind of a novella, Carmilla and. And it's about a female. It's about a female vampire, which I thought was really cool. And actually, while I was reading it, I thought this should totally be like this. This character would do. Would be really interesting. Oh, yeah.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:24:57]:
A podcast or screen or whatever. I think it could be great. How interesting. And we don't often get to see, like, a female lead female vampire. I mean, really down. I'm trying to think of when the last time that I saw. I saw that depicted on in any form, whether film or podcast or whatever, other than the novel, of course, I haven't seen it. And yet I think that that would be.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:25:25]:
I mean, we have Twilight, of course. I don't want to. I don't want to diss Twilight, but, you know, when I'm thinking of. Of these stories, I guess I'm not thinking of, like, ya stuff, but I'm sure there's stuff in there. But it would be great to have something epic like that, you know, female character.
Peter Stass [01:25:41]:
I agree. I'd love to see that.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:25:44]:
We have. And, you know, actually, Peter was gonna say we. We have another. The other episode that we also had does have a female lead, which. The Unspeakable, which is a mashup of the old 30s and 40s, you know. Yeah. Invisible man kind of story meets kind of comedy, actually. Comedy.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:26:07]:
There's a lot of comedy elements to that piece that we brought into that. So we have a lot of stuff coming up that explores these different. These different types of characters. We try to put our own personal. Of course. Everybody does. Right. We.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:26:20]:
We have also tried to put our own personal stamp on some of these traditional monsters and stories. And so hopefully that's what you'll see, or rather, that's what you'll hear in our podcast.
Tony Ortiz [01:26:34]:
Awesome. So final question for me, guys. If you could go back to your younger creative self in those nascent stages of getting into creativity, what advice would you give yourself?
Peter Stass [01:26:46]:
Hmm. Good question.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:26:48]:
I say no. No fear.
Peter Stass [01:26:51]:
Yeah.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:26:51]:
You know, just like the biggest thing that gets in the way is hesitation.
Peter Stass [01:26:56]:
Yeah.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:26:56]:
And really being kind of like, you know, afraid. You know, being afraid to just get up and go and do. Do the necessary things. Having structure for me was. Was really, really important in terms of taking myself to the next level. And in that way, I wish I'd done that even earlier, was really understand that this is. This is work, it's a job. It's something that you should go and do every day.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:27:26]:
It's not something that you do when you feel like it. You do it when you don't feel like it too. And, you know, I think, yeah, there's. There's also just understanding that you. You are coming into it with an open, really, just absolutely open mind and, you know, really open to trying anything, being. Being experimental. But figure, what would you add?
Peter Stass [01:27:50]:
I would say along the same lines, I would say trust yourself. Go for it. Try. Be willing to not be great at it the first time you do, because you're probably not going to be willing to make mistakes. Don't let that stop you from trying to understand that it's going to be a process of learning. But try and trust yourself. Like, it's almost like a balance between trust yourself, keeping an open mind. Keep an open mind.
Peter Stass [01:28:14]:
But, you know, express yourself. Just try and be willing to learn. That's what I would say.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:28:19]:
Yeah. Willingness to learn, for sure. And. Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, like. Like you said, Peter, I think it's like we're trying to find that balance between not letting other people tell us who we are and, and, you know, being being open to learning from others, but at the same time having really developing a point of view.
Peter Stass [01:28:41]:
Yes.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:28:42]:
And continuing to develop it.
Peter Stass [01:28:45]:
Yeah, yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:28:46]:
Getting. Getting out of your own way. Right. And something you guys said reminded me of advice from Steven Pressfield, which is a writer that I follow.
Peter Stass [01:28:55]:
I love him. Yes. The war. The art. The war of art.
Tony Ortiz [01:28:57]:
The war of art, Absolutely. And what he says about turning pro and, you know, showing up each day as if it's a job and taking it seriously through. Through that lens.
Peter Stass [01:29:08]:
Yes, yes, I agree.
Tony Ortiz [01:29:10]:
So, Blu Peter, tell our listeners where they can find the upcoming first episode of the Night Visitor. The release date, which I believe is October 14th. Your social medias where folks can connect you if they so choose.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:29:24]:
Well, you can come to thenightvisitor.com which is our website, where we will have up to Date release information. We will be releasing this on Apple Podcasts so you'll see announcements there on our website and also on Instagram. We're at Night Visitor podcast on Instagram and like I said with Apple Podcasts and we're also releasing on Spotify and Podcaster and we're also going to ultimately have the full episode available on YouTube on Halloween. But prior, if you want to catch us, obviously prior to that on October 14th, you can catch us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Tony Ortiz [01:30:05]:
Awesome. And then Peter, your socials, it's eterstaff.
Peter Stass [01:30:09]:
My handle on Instagram at Peter. And then I think it's underscore stats. I should know these things should not. You could definitely. You could connect with me. Anyway, if you go to tonight to the Night Visitor podcast, find us there. You're going to see my link right there and then you can link to my Instagram.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:30:26]:
I was just going to say also that I'm not really huge on social media. I do have an Instagram handle, which is my full name, which is Blarima B L E R I N E. But again you can just go find it when you go to Night Visitor podcast on Instagram. And, and I don't, I don't really post much on my personal. But I will try. I will try throughout this process. I generally tend to post off of our, off of our podcast Instagram so you can find me there as well.
Tony Ortiz [01:30:59]:
Yeah, awesome. That, that makes total sense. And for folks listening per usual, I'll link to everything discussed in today's episode in the episode notes, the website socials, all the references that that we made so folks can check out the description of this episode where wherever it is that you're listening and connect with everyone. Peter, Blu, I just wanted to thank you once again for myself and sponsored A listeners. We really appreciate you guys coming on. It was a great conversation. I'm sure folks will gain a lot from it.
Peter Stass [01:31:27]:
Thank you. This is great. This is really a nice experience. Thank you so much.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:31:32]:
Yeah, this is fantastic. Tony, thank you so much. We really appreciate it and we appreciate your listeners.
Tony Ortiz [01:31:37]:
Awesome. Thanks guys. Take care.
Peter Stass [01:31:39]:
Thank you. Take care. Bye Bye.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:31:41]:
Take care. Bye.
Tony Ortiz [01:31:45]:
And that was episode 291 of the Spud Today podcast. I hope you all enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. One of the things that really stood out to me, especially listening back, putting the the show together, was how much respect Blu and Peter have for each other's craft. The way they talk about collaboration as a process for lifting each other up and making the work stronger feels like a lesson that we can all take away that goes way beyond writing and filmmaking. We also got into what makes horror powerful when it's done right, because it's not just about the blood and the jump scares, although it definitely is that. But it's also about creating that uneasy mirror of ourselves and reflecting on our own fears and aspirations. Be sure to check out their new project, the night visitor. Episode one will be airing on October 14th.
Tony Ortiz [01:32:39]:
Wherever it is that you listen to your podcasts, I'm definitely looking forward to that fourth episode. Very, very much so. As mentioned in the show, it's a three part series to the story itself. And then they are going to put out a fourth behind the scenes kind of how the sausage is made type of episode, a director's cut version if you will. And I love that kind of stuff. So I'm really looking forward to that. And I'll link to everything in the show notes per usual so you can follow along and support their work. The main place you want to go to is the nightvisitor.com There you'll find links to Spotify, Apple, YouTube, so on and so forth.
Tony Ortiz [01:33:18]:
Lou and Peter, thank you very much once again for coming on the show. I can't wait for what is to come. And to you, my dear listeners, if you like this episode, go back into the archives and check out some of the other conversations I've had with writers and creators. As always, thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss the next one. Please stick around to listen to a few ways you can help support this show if you so choose. And until next time folks, Peace. What's up folks? Tony here. I hope you're enjoying the Spun Today podcast as much as I enjoy producing it for you.
Tony Ortiz [01:33:55]:
Here are a few ways you can help support the show. You can support the Spun Today podcast financially by going to spuntoday.com support. There you will find a couple different ways that you can do just that, some of which will actually not even cost you a dime, such as using my Amazon affiliate link. When you go to spuncerday.com support, you'll see my affiliate link to Amazon, click on it and click it will take you to Amazon's website where you can do your shopping like normal. This will not cost you anything extra, but Amazon will pay me for driving traffic to their website. If you'd like to support the podcast more directly, you can do so by becoming a patron@spuntoday.com support. You'll also find my Patreon link. This is where creators such as myself can be paid directly by patrons like you.
Tony Ortiz [01:34:44]:
You can either make a one time donation or schedule recurring donations if you so choose. There are also different tiers of support and depending on which you decide to go with, you'll also receive some perks in return such as early access to content, free digital copies of my books, free bookmarks, etc. That is again by supporting via my Patreon link available@ sponsorday.com support similar to Patreon at that same location. You'll also find my Ko Fi link as well as my Buy me a coffee link. They work very similar to Patreon and are different ways you can help support the show financially. And last but certainly not least, you have the good old fashioned PayPal donation button. Any which way that you choose to support is greatly appreciated. It all helps me do more of what I love, which is writing and podcasting.
Tony Ortiz [01:35:31]:
Again, go to spontaday.com support. You can also support the Spun Today podcast by rating and reviewing the show. Wherever it is that you're listening to this episode. I'd really appreciate it because it really does help. Also, follow me on all socials. Fun Today on X formerly known as Twitter, Spun Today on Instagram and punt today on YouTube where you'll not only find full length episodes of the podcast, but also chopped up clips and additional content. And of course you can follow the Facebook page at facebook.com forward/spun today. Another way you can help support the Spun Today podcast and also upgrade that stale wardrobe of yours is by going to Spun Today.com support and clicking on the banner for Stitch Fix.
Tony Ortiz [01:36:22]:
Once you do, you'll enjoy a $25 discount to your first purchase. And the way Stitch Fix works is pretty cool.
Blerime 'Blu' Topalli [01:36:28]:
Cool.
Tony Ortiz [01:36:28]:
I use it and I've never been disappointed. You'll set up a profile. You'll put in all the sizes for your clothes as well as all the different brands and types of clothes that you like to wear. It's really simple and intuitive to set up. They'll show you pictures and pretty much give you a thumbs up or thumbs down option on if you would wear something or not. And you get to select all the brands that you already are used to wearing. With this information there are thousands of patterns. Passionate trend setting stylists will curate a Stitch Fix box for you.
Tony Ortiz [01:36:59]:
They'll send you five items that you get to preview before they mail it to you and you'll get to select based on the image if you like it or not. If not, they'll replace it with something else and if so, they'll mail it to you absolutely for free. You can try everything on and you have a few days to send everything back or keep the stuff that you want to keep. Then you can use that 25 credit that I mentioned towards your your purchase of those items again. To freshen up your wardrobe and also support the Sponsor Day podcast, go to sponsorday.com forward/support and click on my affiliate link banner for Stitch Fix and enjoy your $25 credit. Do you want to start your own podcast? Have a great show idea that you want to get out into the masses but don't know quite how to get it from your head out into the world? Well, here's how. Use the podcast host Libsyn. That's who I use to bring the Sponsor Day podcast to you.
Tony Ortiz [01:37:50]:
And now you can use them the same way. Using the promo code spun Spun, you can open up your Libsyn account today and get two months of free podcast hosting. Here's how it works. Once you record your show, you upload it to your Libsyn account where you can fill in your episode notes, upload your podcast star and schedule when you want your episodes to release. Once you do that, Libsyn will take care of the rest. They'll distribute your show to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all the other podcasters that you choose instantaneously and seamlessly. Again, go to Libsyn.com and use the promo code SPUN S P U N to get two months free. Or use the affiliate link that's in the episode notes.
Tony Ortiz [01:38:38]:
Again, that's Libsyn.com promo code SPUN. Take that great podcast idea from out of your head and put it out into the world. And as always, folks, substitute the mysticism with hard work and start taking steps in the general direction of your dreams. Thanks for listening.
I love you Aiden.
[01:39:12]:
I love you Daddy.
Tony Ortiz [01:39:14]:
I love you Grayson.