Caleb Seales Interview: Directing a J. Cole Music Video | Kanye Conflict

The editor is a second director. The editor can literally make or break a story. It's been so many times where it's been stuff that's been shot well, and the wrong editor touched it, and it didn't look right. Or it's been times where I've been brought in to edit some projects where the shots were terrible, but I was able to manipulate it to where it made sense. Editing is everything. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back for another episode of the One More Time Podcast. I'm playback Ben here with my co-host, Henry with a three, because someone already took Henry with an E, so I had to change it up. That bastard. [bleep] Henry with a three. Who do we have in the hot seat today, my friend? Welcoming in on episode 87 of the One More Time Podcast. My personal favorite comedian of all time, absolute GOAT, absolute legend. It's Dave Motherfucking Chappelle.

Let's get it, guys. That's amazing. Oh man. I'll take that. I got a lot of respect for Dave. Shout out, Dave. You have to, man. He is my number one comedian for sure. Well, so what's funny is you actually look exactly like a former guest named Rico Brooks. I don't know if you're familiar. He's he's Sonny Digital's manager, and he looks exactly like you, to be honest. Okay. The name sounds familiar. it wasn't as funny as Dave. Chappelle. In all seriousness, we have director, production company owner, production studio owner, podcast host. We got Caleb Seals in the motherfucking house. Caleb. Let's get it, man. But like podcast host, bro. Like, are you coming for our spot here? No, no, no, no, no. Like one more time is the only Atlanta podcast that matters. Can we coexist? We can coexist. I think we can cause this. I think there's room for everybody. Absolutely Didn't hear about that. Yeah. So I first became familiar, you know, with your work. We had Chad Tenney's on the show a long time ago at this. Right. First 10. He was teens for sure.

Teens, yeah. Chad's my guy, man. Shout out, Chad. Yeah, for sure. So you guys co-directed the down bad Dreamville video off of Revenge of the Dreamers 3. That had J. Cole. Which is platinum right now, by the way. Exactly. Yeah, Flex. That had J. Cole, JID, Boz, EARTHGANG, and Young Nudie. Yeah. That video was fucking amazing. Yeah, man. It was a journey. You know what I'm saying? And it wasn't just us. Shout out Matt Grant, uh, shout out Mike Dank, shout out to our DP Josh Saban. And um just working on that project, it just really opened the doors to the opportunities that's there. You know what I mean? Um, in the directing space. And uh directing in general, it's just a process, you know, working with people, working with a team, uh, collaborating with people, um, and being in a space where you have that many artists on one song is crazy. You know what I mean? So just figure out a way to like build it out.

Yeah, how does that complicate the like music video treatment and direction, right? It's not even multiple artists, but multiple directors, multiple directors, and we had four directors, and I think it was what, like, five artists, if I'm not mistaken. Um, so we just like divided and conquered. We just delegated, we worked with um, you know, like Nudie was assigned to a certain director, you know. I was, you know, working with people, working with a team, collaborating with people. And being in a space where you have that many artists on one somebody else was working with Jid. Um, you know, we collectively work with Earth Gang and like we just divided and conquered, you know. Shout out Boss too, you know, don't want to discount him, but uh just putting everybody together and just figuring out the right uh game plan to just execute. So who ultimately has the say in you know what I mean? It sounds like there's so many cooks in the kitchen, whether it's the directors or the artists that are involved, like is it Cole that's like has the ultimate say or who has the final? Yeah. It's it's not so much of like one person having the final say so when it comes to like the collaboration that we do as directors is more so like building the right way and collaborating and delegating and like understanding that okay, I'm gonna bring a certain element, another director may bring another element, and it's no conflict of interest. You know what I mean?

It's more of a democracy. Right, exactly, exactly. So like I may be better, you know, working with talent, whereas another director may be better at storyboarding. And so we just kind of meet in the middle that way. So is that true? Do you think your strengths lie in in the working with the talent side of things? I would definitely say so. Um, I've always been very successful in collaborating with like, talent and like reading people and understanding exactly where they are, you know what I mean? And um, what that looks like a lot of times is like being able to like read the room and understand, you know, little baby has been on set for four or five hours. Maybe he's ready to take a break, you know what I mean? And having that type of discernment, you know what I mean? And so like through doing that in those real situations in real time, I've kind of built the brand of like just understanding how to maneuver with talent. So like for last year, for example, I shot a full season for Amazon Music.

Um they have like a live series called Hello My Name Is, which is a show uh produced by ECG Products Productions. Um they do their production, um, agency style, like production studio uh out of Smyrna. And, you know, through collaboration with them, every two weeks in LA, I would go to LA and shoot uh you know several artists I mean Seven Streeter Anthony Hamilton uh Buddy I've worked with um there I was able to like have real conversations with these artists and like really understand you know where they were musically like what type of set they wanted to design um what they wanted to present to the world because like the show was like shot live and it was uploaded to it wasn't even uploaded it was just streamed on Twitch. So it it's it's no like I can't pull up a YouTube video and show you guys it's just like strictly on Twitch. No post production. No postproduction or anything like that. So you know you got one shot at making it make sense.

So damn is that stressful it's very stressful because like I hate to be I'm stressed out I'm like we can do whatever we want on this thing and like I'll make it look like nothing even happened. It's it's it's very stressful but like it's not stressful for me because like I've understood a key thing in just production in in general and that's understanding the value of prep like prepping for shoots like rehearsals um preparatory like you know conversations. You know, if you're working with, like, a narrative project or, like, a film, like, you know, table reads. You know, obviously, like, reading through the script and, like, having those, like, conversations prior to getting to, like, set. You know, all of those things are very key. So I've just been real intentional about doing that over the past couple years and I've seen like a lot of success. So like the prep that I've been doing, and then also like the key hires that I'm doing too uh for the people that I work with. So like you know, I'm a director, I also am a cinematographer.

Um, but I think the main key thing that I do is um just connecting the dots. Like I get a lot of people who come to me, you know, starting with those down bad conversations, and that's led to so many other things, you know, working with Nike, uh, working with Puma, working with um, is there some conflict uh of interest there? Uh they would they didn't really know that I was working with the other. Uh so it wasn't really no they didn't know you were working with the ops, yeah. Exactly. They didn't know they didn't know, so it wasn't an issue. Um, but I think the beautiful thing about it is just like just being able to like collaborate with these bigger brands, and again, like to even get to that scale, it just came from like understanding the best way to navigate with like talent, you know what I mean? And a lot of people they'll get in these rooms or get on these productions and get on these sets, and it's like they're expecting them to like lead, like okay, like if you're working with Neo on like a choreography-based video, you're expecting him to be himself, right? But like, you know, you gotta like still direct.

Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, that's the main thing. You still gotta direct and lead them in a direction for success. So we were just talking about preparation. Oh my god, literally right before you showed up. The world is is a weird place, it's crazy how that lines up, right? But the amount of time to put into prepping versus execution can be just as important. It's just, I mean, it's so cliche, but it's what makes the final result so much better. Right. You know what I mean? Like the the preparation details are what has the final product turn out to what it you know can be. Right. But so going back to the down bad video, because I have to ask this as a native Atlantan. Yeah. How in the hell did you get to shoot the scene at the top of the Olympic torch? Yeah. So I'm I'm gonna speak to this and just shout out like Chad T Man. Um, like one of the greatest like friends, um, business partners, um, all the above. And, you know, he made that happen. You know what I'm saying?

Just you have to pay the city of Atlanta, or like who how does that even it's privately owned. Really? It's a Privately owned tower. Wouldn't have guessed that. And I'll say this here on the the one more time podcast, like this is we're the only production that's ever shot in Atlanta. Wow. Oh, I I was I was like, this has to be CGI. That's how we really did that in real time, and we're the only production that made that happen. Um amazing. And so that really came from like just knowing who owned the tower, you know, having some relationships and obviously understanding, you know, what the cost is for shooting in the tower. Uh, you know what I'm saying, for that shoot. And it took a lot of massaging the agreement for it to make sense. Uh, but it ended up working out, and I think it worked out in the best way it could. No, because yeah, we was able to get some fire shots of there, man. It was crazy. Such a good shot. And I just have like video friends, yeah. And I know how big a part of the game is is locations, like whether it's knowing a guy or literally just even being aware of that a spot is a possibility.

Right. I have a buddy now who has been in the film industry for a long time, and he's just a locations guy now. Right. That's his whole job. Right. He might like, you know, help get people from A to B, but it's he knows the spots. Right. And that's an entire it's like that can be one guy, his whole job. And so like um, just to segue into uh our studio, the HBUC. Shout out to HBUC. You know what I'm saying? Historically black university creative, shout out them, shout out uh Travis Cochran, um, shout out all of our staff that we work with and uh collaborators, partners and stuff like that. Uh but just to speak to that, the reason why we even started like the studio and you know, the country club, if you will, or whatever term you want to put put behind it, is to just let Atlanta know that there's more roles in the world or in film than just like holding the camera or being a director. You can be a location manager, you can work in Glam, you can work in wardrobe. you can be a stylist, um, you can literally work in sound.

You can just be a sound engineer and work on film sets for, you know, however long that you want to do that. So just giving people that exposure has been like my main goal uh with the studio. Like, okay, like, you know, for one, I could like build a studio or or or build an entity, you know, just for the sake of doing it, but like we're we're building like a real, you know, university, if you will. We're we're we're teaching people. That's why we titled it what we titled it. So we want to just give back, you know, and and I hate the word giving back, it's really giving forward. You know what I'm saying? You're giving forward in the sense of like you're giving game to the next generation of people, and when it's time for them to step into the role that you're currently in, quote unquote, like they're gonna reach back to you and say, Hey, look, like, you know, I got this opportunity for you, I got this job for you. I know you've been out of the game for a certain amount of time, but I want to help you out the same way you helped me. Yeah, it comes back to you.

Right. For sure. Yeah. So it's like a 20,000 square foot space or something, right? Yeah. So you guys gotta come by and see it. What's the down? What's the price tag on something like that, bro? Man, Come on. Like give us give us some like round numbers at least. It's very expensive on a monthly basis, I'll say like five figures expensive. Um, but through and through, um, the main thing that we want to do within the space, again, is if you want to come in and you want to shoot on a unique set or a unique look that you just can't really find anywhere on Peerspace on Gigster, anything like that, we have that there. Um, another thing too is like we're developing a community into a country club. And so through that, we're providing memberships. So, you know, the same way that Gathering Spots has memberships, like, you know, let's just say you want to shoot for 25 hours a month, you can do that. And we have the space to where you can come in and you know, you can shoot, you know, two hours this day or four hours the next day, or whatever the case may be, and you can pre prepay for it in bulk, like kind of like Sam's Club, and it'll be a lower cost overhead for you.

And you have a lot of different sets so you can get a different look. A lot of different sets. So we have like five or six active sets right now. So you have so many different opportunities to create something like really dope and highly impactful. Um, one of the main sets that I curated personally is the LED set, and one of the main things that it was used for was the Hawks like scheduled release for last year. Uh huh. So the video of Quavo, you know, in the garage, like that was in our studio. Dope. man. That's fire. I was literally about to ask, what are some of the like coolest things that have been created there that you're most proud of? Yeah. It sounds like that's one of them. the first project that we've ever had in our studio was Chris Brown Go Crazy Remix. So working on their project with like Riveting Entertainment, that was pretty dope. We pretty much like had Dirk, Thug, you know, Ghana, Mulatto, like all of their like sets and looks, you know, that was kind of built and curated like within month one of like us having the studio. Month one.

Like month one. That's a crash course into owning and operating a studio. Right, right, right. So a lot of that really had to do with just like us having the right relationships prior to like us owning the studio. Sure. And so when the studio kind of like went through, it was like, all right, like it's time to go. Right. So was that a logical like next step in your career path was to open this studio, or was that like, did it take a lot of internal deliberating, or was this always a vision for you? Um, I think it was just time. You know, I think it was just time. I'm Like, if you look at a mechanic, like he needs a car shop. You know what I mean? Like, it it just made sense to like, as a director, like have a production studio or a production space, or just like, you know, again, like directors do need space to kind of set up and build and um to, you know, whatever the case may be. So I think like just having that space, it just like it's open so many doors.

It's it's it's like allow so many conversations and so many, like so many good things to come out of it. You know what I'm saying? For example, one one one thing that I'm extremely proud of last year is uh we had Stacey Abrams hold like her largest event, you know what I'm saying, in our studio. In the studio, yeah, in our studio. So we had, you know, I would say well over 400 people in there, you know what I mean? In our studio, she's on a panel with 21 Savage, Charlamagne's hosting. Crazy. Damn, yeah, I think I saw that. Yeah, we had Lyndon Johnson, um, civil activist on the panel as well. So that was in our studio. So just like being in a space to where like we can provide like value in that sense, is just huge. And I think that has like it's opened the doors for me in a directing standpoint because like the studio is my playground. You know what I'm saying?

I can go in there and create whatever I want to create and not be limited. Yes, you know, so I think it was definitely the next step. Yeah, because I guess the alternative is because not every director owns a production studio, I would assume, right? Right. So the alternative is you gotta fucking go pay for the playground. Right, right. Every time, yeah, every time, every time. So that was a thing for me. Yeah. Also, there's just something to be said about like having like a base, like an office space, or just a place where you can go, and you're like, this is where I go to create, this is where I go to work, this is where I go to do my business. Right, and just a location, yeah, you know. Yeah, so like to speak on that, I feel like you have different spaces for different things, right? You have your home, that's your time to kind of decompress. Yes, like that's your time to reset, that's your time for family, and then whatever work looks like for you, it needs to be a separate environment to a degree. And so, like having a studio, it just like it allows me to freely create and freely tap into like that zone when I want to tap into that zone.

Yes. I think a lot of people realized that during the pandemic because it was Oh God, fuck work from home. People were like, oh, I get to work from home. This is amazing. I don't have to go to the office. It's terrible, man. Like It's harder to get yourself up and bootstrapped when you're just in this place of comfort. Because it's like when you're working from home, you don't really have a chance to turn it off. Yeah. Because you're just thinking about like, oh, I'm getting emails and it's midnight. Like, no, like you can you can turn it off. Separate the two. You know, you can separate the two. Exactly. Yeah, it's tough, man. I mean, I definitely have to like I take way more walks just for the sake of getting out of my fucking house. And it's like it's not like I have a terrible house. Like I love my house, but like having to live, work, eat, play, all in the same place. It's tough. It gets tough for sure. So how did you get your start? Were you like was the music video side of things like how you first got in the game? Yeah, so for me as a director, I got my start like just shooting run and gun music videos. Uh I started out uh 250 a video, anyone like that.

Like, I mean, even less than that, bro. Like, Henry, to be honest with you, like I was shooting a lot of videos for free. Sure. I was like working with like a lot of artists for free, just trying to make ends meet. You know what I mean? Um, and so when I say that, like, you know, what's today? I mean, it's 2023 January. Um, like 10 years ago, like when I was starting out in 2013, 2014, like I was in college. Like, I was really just trying to find my way. I was a kid from small town middle, Georgia, you know, coming up here. I got my start in Atlanta. Um, I went to Kennesaw State, and I would say, bro, like two years ago. Shout out to Owls. The owls. You know what I'm saying? Shout out to Owls. You know, shout out. But I got my start, like, you know, two years in at college, I just really wanted to like pick up a camera and try something different. You know, try something unique that could uh I don't know, just wanted to do something different. I was always a a kid who was like willing to experiment. Like I owned a snake in college.

Like I had a hamster as a kid. Okay. You were the snake guy. huh? I think I've heard about you. Well, I wasn't, I wasn't the snake guy, but like If you had a snake, you were the snake guy. Yeah. Sounds like a snake guy. I played, like, soccer in high school. You know what I mean? So, like, You know what I'm saying? He's trying to cover up the snake thing with like something normal like soccer. It's like fucking skirt the snake thing, bro. So it's like I was just like willing to experiment and try and put myself in different environments that I really wasn't exposed to prior to like that experience. So, you know, um But like did you have rapper friends or some shit? Like how did you even, you know what I mean? Like, bro, like to be honest with you, like, you know, like, you know, the rappers say these days, bro, I got out in the mud. Like, you know what I'm saying? For lack of better words, like I didn't really have like a group of buddies who just like are these prolific rappers. Like, I really just got out here and started shooting. I started collaborating with a lot of my real friends that were artists at Kennesaw and shooting with them, shooting for them, you know, building their stories or whatever the case may be, and using that portfolio, right?

Yeah, to pitch to the right people. So I had built a portfolio over like six months. And this was right before A3C, you know. I'm pretty sure you guys are familiar with A3C Of course. The Festival, right? Sure are. so this was like maybe again, 2014 when A3C was hot. And so like I just submitted as a photographer. You know, it was like an unpaid photographer situation. And I submitted and they responded. They was like, hey, look, like, you know, hundreds of photographers reached out, but you wanted the top 30, or whatever the case may be at the time. And like, I'm like, all right, all right, cool. You know what I'm saying? I just had my little DSLR from like a refund check for financial aid. It was like a Nikon D3200 for people that's out there that's familiar with cameras, you know what I'm saying? And that's what I started with. Like, you know, $300 or $400 camera with uh nifty 50, as they say, a 50 millimeter, you know, which is like $100 lens, and I just made it work. There you go.

Nifty 50. I like that. The nifty 50. Gets it done. So Chad Tenney stole told an epic young Jeezy story about like how Jeezy basically like owes him 50k. Yeah. Allegedly. Yeah. Jeezy? We don't know. I'm still on your side, Jeezy. Fuck that Chad T guy. No. No, but you know, are there any like stories? You know, breaking into hip hop as a videographer and like a camera guy, like you're you guys get treated like shit sometimes. Oh, yeah, for sure. You're you're like up there with engineers, man, as far as just like disrespect, yet you're somewhat of the most important people in the process, right? It's Like you're helping them visually tell their story. Right. Engineers are helping them create the sound along with the producers or whatever, right? So are there any kind of like funny, you know, stories or like stories that have like really cemented in your brain like over the years of shooting hip hop videos? 21 Savage owe you a check or anything? No, no, like T.I.

maybe. No, those those guys are good with me. Um, like I would say, like, a lot of the horror stories that we hear, um, you know what I'm saying? I hate to be, you know, the devil's advocate, but like it really just boils down to not taking care of the business. And I felt I felt guilty to that too. You know what I'm saying? It was, and I don't want to, I hate name dropping just purely out of the sake of like name dropping, because like this is like real experiences for me. You know what I'm saying? Traumatic. So it was about two years ago, man. I was like, you know, like, and I hate being that guy, but like, you know, since we here, like it was it was two years ago, 2020, you know, August. I was working with Kanye West, man, and um, you know, shout out Kanye. And it's not entirely Kanye. I've I've actually grown through the situation and understood that like, you know, it's not so much of like the person, it's more so the brand and the entity. That's the entity.

That's the issue. You know what I'm saying? So working with him, he moved down to Atlanta for a period of time. I think it was like 30 to 45 days. And you guys remember when like he walked on water? the Donda rollout. The Donda rollout, right? And you guys remember when he walked on water. You it was like the Sunday service. Oh, right, during the Sunday service. I remember him getting lifted in the air at Mercedes Benz. That so that was that was last year, but the one prior to that, yeah, 2020. Yeah, okay. When like it was like the whole Sunday service thing, right? And so like he was at the studio. I'm not gonna disclose the studio, but you know, he was working at the studio, and um basically I curated like that Sunday service, like working with like the art team, hiring the art team. Um, you know, shout out those guys and girls there that were involved. But like through that experience, I was like hired to basically produce everything that Kanye was looking to do. Like, you know, his like music entity, obviously, Yeezy brand.

You know, obviously he was working with Adidas at the time. And just to reel it all back in when it comes to like not being paid, you know, I was this thing kind of snowballed, right? I like using that analogy. It kind of grew into something that a lot of people couldn't control. And I still was able to control it to a degree. So like his whole company, the Sunday service band, which is over 100 people, his staff, which is like another 100 people. Um, he needed just a space to work out of. So it was like 30 or 40,000 square feet at this like production studio that they shoot a lot of Marvel films and stuff like that. And I was brought on board to be the lead, you know, liaison between like him and whatever he needed done, you know, like from, you know, um like handling like his talent that he was bringing in. Obviously, think of like all of good music is in there recording, engineers, um, Yeezy brand on the other side.

He's beat it with different designers for China. Like I'm doing all of that in real time. This is like a period of like 10 days. And it's like, bro, it's nonstop. You don't clock out from working with Kanye. Right. You just like you go to sleep at like 2 or 3 a.m. just hoping that he don't hit you until you wake up at eight. Right. That's what it's like. And so like during that time. Yeah, you just close your eyes, Exactly. but you're, like probably not really sleeping well. Exactly, exactly, exactly. Your eyes just happen to be closed. You know what I'm saying? So just going back to Chad, like, you know, you're in a space where you're working with Jeezy and you're working with these people, that's like, okay, like it's Jeezy. It's TI, it's future, it's baby, like they gotta be legit. They gotta be legit. I'm not thinking about like contracts. I'm not thinking about NDAs. I'm not thinking about like a scope of work. I'm not thinking about commercial insurance. I'm not thinking about those things. Cause like for me, I'm in front of Dan Cathy, with Chick-fil-A. I'm in front of Rick Fox.

I'm in front of Fonzworth Bentley. I'm in front of Kanye West. Right. Like, you know what I'm saying? I'm in front of these people in real time. I'm Like, so while all of this is going on, I'm not like obviously like I sent off contracts. I've sent off like a scope of work. I've sent off all of these details. Tell them the Chad Tenney's quote real quick. What's the quote? Contracts are worth the piece of paper that they're printed on. Right. They are. They are. Did you have a crash course in this? I did. I did. And me and him have had this conversation. And contracts only really go so far, but it's still an added layer of okay, like D got these guys are serious. You know what I'm saying? It helps in that way. Sure. You know what I mean? Um and if if Chad wanted to pursue something, he just didn't want to go down the legal route. Right. Because you would win if you have a contract and it's legit. You would win.

We will spend all that money on lawyers, time, frustration. And so like and so, like, you know, if you have a lawyer who can like, okay, like just take care of it, and I don't have to do all of the legwork, then it makes sense. But if you don't have the right lawyers in pace in place, it's just probably not gonna make the most sense. Right. Especially with like somebody who's as aggressive of a businessman as Chad. Yeah. So that's what it boils down to. So, but so the Kanye thing, like just assumedly you had sent over things and like just unanswered. So, like I think the main thing is just like um like the demands on a daily basis. Like, I had up to 15 people out there, bro, like that I hired to like help execute whatever they needed done, and like, you know, through working through all of that, like it was just like a challenge, you know what I mean? Um, just getting a response on for one, COVID, bro.

Like, this was August 2020. Like, people were getting COVID in real time, and we didn't even know what it was. You know what I mean? Like that complicates things a little bit. You know what I mean? Like, this is August 2020. Like, I think COVID became a real thing in February, yeah. But August, it's like, okay, like, oh shit, like people are really dying that I know Yes. It's real. Um, yeah, so asking to be in a gathering of like hundreds of people, right? Right, right. Or like even, you know, small rooms of people, right? You're losing people to sickness, literally bro. They're calling out sick, man. And so the issue is. But Kanye doesn't care. The job needs to get done. So a lot of times Kanye didn't even know. He wasn't even aware of it. Again, like it's a Kanye situation, but it's not Kanye directly. Yes, you know what I mean. It's the brand. it's like his team that he's hiring. You know what I mean?

And he's got rid of a lot of those people. And you know, like, shout out his, you know, manager from back in the day. I'm not gonna drop him, but like, you know, me and him got great rapport, even to this day. So, like, everything's good. Um, we still gonna figure out the money, but we're gonna cross their bridge when we get there. I don't know. it's been two years. It's been two years. Like, they say on average it takes you a year to get paid for Kanye. So, like, you know, it's it's about that time. Yeah, it's about that time. That's hilarious. So, you know, you mentioned kind of like factoring in budgets and like realistically, how much is this Olympic tower going to cost us, right? I want to get your opinion, man. Like, how important is a budget to the execution of like a hip hop music video? Obviously, the majority of our audience is like hip hop fans or like you know, hip hop music industry people. Like, how important is the budget? Um, I would say the budget.

The budget is important, but it's not as important as people think it is. It's just like people are like, okay, like you shot a great shot. Like, it's it's a great shot. Like, what what camera did you use? It's not really about the best camera, it's about the camera that's capable. Like, you need a camera that's capable of 60 frames to shoot 60 frames. You don't need the most dynamic camera to do that. You know what I mean? Um, and so that's the same thing with budgets. Like, you don't need the top dollar for every line in your budget sheet in order to produce a great video. Like a lot of my videos that you guys are in love with were you know, quote unquote, like low budget projects, like it's under 50K, you know, it's under 100K for the most part. You know what I'm saying?

And so, with that, it's like the most important thing in order to produce or make a great video is having a great team that understands the camaraderie that it takes to make a great video. It's like the team, and then also the concept. Like the concept has to make sense, and then it's like all of the working pieces, you know, in the food chain, if you will, have to make sense. They have to coexist. Like the director has to be in synergy with the DP. The DP has to be in synergy with the selections of the editor, you know, and to be honest, and this is something that's like slept on in my opinion. Like the editor is a second director. Like, I'll say that here, it's like one more time. One more time.

The editor is a second director. And yeah, what do you mean by that? And so, what I mean by that, like the editor can literally make a break a story. It can make a break, a scene, it can make a break. Like, every like it's been so many times where it's been stuff that's been shot well, and the wrong editor touched it, and it didn't look right. Or it's been times where I've been brought in to edit some projects where the shots were terrible, but I was able to manipulate it to where it made sense. Yeah, editing is everything. That's it reminds me of engineering too, like mixing and mastering a record. It's like if you do your job correctly, nobody notices. Right. They only notice when you fuck it up. Right. Or it's also, I thought where you were gonna go is that like, let's say a recording engineer and the artist get like borderline, like not that great it takes. You as a mixed engineer, I've seen you do some fucking wizardry where I'm like I've changed, like the mispronunciation of words and shit. Literally, he's fixed words, and like I've seen the artist text threads being like, yo, how'd you make how'd you like fix that like bar that I fucked up?

Because they like just completely fucked up the bar and said it completely wrong. And he was like, Yeah, I just used this piece from here and then like chopped it up with this and like manipulated that, and like same thing with you is that you're able to maybe take the input of like somewhat shitty shots or like average shots and turn it into magic through edits, man. Like we've even noticed this, like the editing is everything. It's not, it shouldn't be though, because ideally you have good stuff coming in. The editing should theoretically be the easiest part, right? Because if you start with good material, it's so much easier to just come out with a good product. And and that's why we started this interview with like pre-production is everything. Yes, not post. Yeah, post is like a safety net, it's a safety net, exactly. And it's just that. If you need it, maybe we can take care of it, but like don't need it. If if but you don't want to posit, you don't want to put yourself in a position to where you have to use that every single time. Yes, couldn't agree more. What's the highest budget music video you've worked on?

Uh I've I've I've touched a couple 150s, you know, uh a couple 150s. Um, and like the music video budget space has been on a downtrend, to be honest with you, It's gotta be. because like as of today, like a lot of promos, short form content, like stuff like that gets more like traction than full-length four minute, you know, music video. Yeah, a selfie-style TikTok. like all of that stuff is doing better, you know what I mean? Like, you know, are you threatened by that at all? I'm not threatened by that at all. Um, because like to be honest with you, um, I'm in a space to where like it's time for my debut debut feature, you know what I mean? Like, I'm I'm really trying to transition from music videos and and everybody has their own, you know, path. Uh, right, like some people thrive in the music video space.

You're doing feature films, though. like feature films is definitely where I want to be because like it's impossible to tell a story in three minutes. Yeah. Like a full-fledged story, and I've developed a certain style, I have a certain look, and like it's just time, man. And so like I'm not threatened when it comes to that. Um, I think music videos will never go away. Um, it'll never go away from me either. But when it's time to transition to the next level, it's just time. You know what I mean? And I've had a great, you know, almost seven, eight years working on music videos, and I've learned a lot. Um, but through that resilience and through those lessons and through those failures, bro, like you know, through all of those failures, it's only gonna make that next transition to features so much easier. You know, you look at filmmakers like you know, Barry Jenkins, Ava DuVernay, um, Jordan Peele. like a lot of those filmmakers, like yes, they have like a lot of pre-planned shots, but like Barry Jenkins, for example, specifically, like he gets very intentional about like getting like a lot of run and gun stuff like on the fly, like very intentional, like close-ups and stuff like that.

And that's my that's my shooting style, you know what I mean? And I learned that coming from the music video space versus like coming from narrative. So like I aligned with him so much more, you know what I'm saying? And like again, like everybody knows about Moonlight, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, so just meaning like being more flexible and spontaneous with the shots when you see something, you're like, Let's do it. Right. Just just going and get it, being able to like, okay, like we had a very specific schedule or script for this day, but I see a shot that's gonna add so much value to this story that I'm not saying no to nobody until I get it. You know what I mean? And having the confidence to go off book from this plan that you've taken so long to develop. Yeah, because the producers are like, bro, you're supposed to be changing the money, the money. More specifically, like the assistant director, the assistant director's like, yo, like we we gotta move on.

Like, we gotta go to the next scene or the next shot. But yeah, because they're like playing by the rules, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So their goal is to keep the production on a set schedule and things like that. But yeah, try and reel in the crazy director. Yeah, yeah. So they try to reel up. Like, but it's like, you know, it's uh, you know, good cop, bad cop, I guess, you know. So, how do you go from like you know, music videos transitioning into the corporate work? Because obviously I know your your end goal is like, you know, film direction and kind of like you know, bigger uh, you know, budget films and and that sort of thing. But like, you know, the initial step that you took clearly was from like the run and gum music videos with just homie artists and you know, artists that you started. Yeah, exactly. So then how do you, you know, you've worked with shit. Let's just talk about like, the Nike Yard Runners campaign as the example, right? How does Caleb Seals find himself, you know, moving, you know, from the music video scene to being like trusted by one of the biggest brands in the world? Um, I would say like relationships are everything.

I was able to build a great relationship with Cam Kirk, you know, over the years. We just had Cam on. Um shout out my guy Cam Two episodes ago. Play to the gallery. you know what I'm saying? Drop the ball, fam. Yes, Cam is one of the greatest photographers, you know, in Atlanta and beyond. And, you know, like one of the main things I want people to realize is like when you're building a brand, um, it's important to understand the blind spots or the weaknesses of your brand and also the weaknesses, you know, of other brands, right? You know, and you know, for a collective gallery, for example, like a lot of those guys, like they're photographers, right? They don't really do video, like their specialty is more photography. For us, you know, open season, you know, shout out open season, and a lot of us over there, um, we specialize in video. So when it came to like these Nike campaigns that wants a combination of both photo and video, it made sense for us to partner up.

So we've been doing that too, going on three years. Yeah. Um, just building, and that started with a great edit on the first round of projects. And I came in and man, like, I mean, I delivered maybe 30 edits to them, bro. Like holy shit. Like 30. Music videos? No, no. No, no, no, no. Like the Nike Yards. Oh, yeah, yeah. So like it was so many different like influencers and so many people involved, and like this person needs to edit, and like this yard runner, and we need this overall edit, and like it needs to be a nine by 16 and stuff like that. And all of that stuff is like, you know, it's it's it's cool. And I understand, understood the long term, right? The long term is I want to build with this entity and this brand as like a client. So, you know, like the first run with somebody that you're trying to build a real relationship with, it's probably not gonna be pretty. So, like, you know, like having that, you know, mindset at the forefront is just key, and it has been key for me.

Like, just knowing that, like, you know, like it's it's it's gonna suck. But get through the stuff that sucks. And after that, like, you know, we we did that first project, you know, this was like a low five-figure like project overall between like what Cam, you know, like and his team did and what we did too, collectively, like that was like a five-figure situation. And come around this year, like it, you know, doubled, you know, into six figures. And so like we just been growing and growing and like obviously it's been profitable. And like that literally all started with like a great edit on the first round of like y'all runners campaigns for like 2.0. You know, the first one was like Cam was like honored, and some more people I wasn't involved in. This last year, like I said, like I was brought on to take lead of like video video. So like I was like head of production for that.

And um just putting together like a really impactful edit from like the stuff that we shot really made it see its way through. And it actually was like honored. Um they have Nike has like a yearly award show. A lot of people don't know this. I think it's called uh The Nikes. It's it's it's it's something else. It's something like I don't know, it's called Maxim or something else, but it has like a specific title. And like Drake hosts it like every other year. LeBron is, like, a premier guest. You know what I mean? Like a lot of those. So it's, like a small thing, you know. It's a small thing, but it's also big. Drake LeBron. It's like big and like private, you know what I mean? And it's only three campaigns a year that can like be honored for this. And the Yard Runners campaign was one of the three. So for those that aren't familiar, what what is the Yard Runners campaign all about? Uh like. The Yard Runners campaign, so like Yard runner um in its term is basically if you're in college and you're at an you know HBCU or at a PWI, um, we have, you know, obviously like sororities and fraternities on campus, and like, you know, in that community, it's called the yard. You know, you have all these different like organizations, you know the the yard is basically where all of these different communities kind of come together and you know it's a community.

They work together, they build, you know, stuff like that. So being a yard runner basically is saying, like, yeah, like, you know, you're an ambassador, you're a leader. I run the yard. Like basically, yeah. So that's basically what that is. So if you run a yard on your college campus, like you're basically one of them ones, you know what I mean? So that's basically what that means. Okay, yeah. Cause but it is targeted toward like the HBCU. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's mostly targeted towards HBCUs for sure. Okay. Um, but again, like even with their campaign, it's it's definitely open to everybody. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, did you in your wildest dreams think that you'd be working with a Nike? And you'd turn this little thing of just like being experimental as you described it, like, hey, I'll buy this camera, shoot my rapper homies, you know, like to working with arguably one of the biggest brands in the world. Right.

So like working with Nike, working with Kanye West, uh, working with J. Cole. Um, I never thought it would get to this point. You know, you you never really know. Some people are psychos and like believe it the whole way. It's different. Some people are different, you know, it's interesting. Right. But, you know, again, like I I'm one of those people where like I literally took it one day at a time. You know what I mean? Like, what can I improve on today? You know what I mean? Like, and one thing that I'm super big on is like self-reflection. Like really taking time to like think about, even following this conversation today, like, okay, like what could have gone better? What could I have shot better? What could I have like, you know, I like the metaphor like putting out fires. You know what I'm saying? Like being able to put out real issues in real time on sets is like super key. Like through those conversations and situations, what could I have done better?

You know what I mean? So doing all of that, that's how you improve. That's how you get towards your goals. Um, one thing I will say, um, taking that time to figure out the best approach through every situation is just like so key. You know what I mean? It's so key. And it's allowed me to be as meticulous as I have been. You know what I mean? When it comes to directing, when it comes to like, bro, like as an engineer, like you know how intentional you gotta be as an editor. You know what I mean? As an engineer, like you got to be super detailed. And that just comes from that. Like just being able to, you know, make decisions in real time and operate in chaos. Yeah. Being okay to fail too, right? Like being. And being comfortable in failure. Like, I will say that too. Like, you know, being able to confidently fail is so key, and not, you know, caring. Like, you know, for lack of better words, not giving a fuck.

Like, I can't really care about what the response is to my failure. You know what I'm saying? Cause there's no such thing as a loss. You know what I'm saying? It's a learning experience. Yeah, it's a lesson. And that's a W. every loss is a lesson. And then lessons are Ws. Right. So there it is. Yeah, it seems like you do have like a you're clearly working hard each day and like, you know, moving at a significant pace to try and achieve like the next thing and whatever. But it does seem like you're kind of okay with living in the moment and like as things come, they come. I don't know, you have like this cool cop demeanor about you. You know what I mean? Um, so have you always been like that? Um I I'll say this too. I used to be in a space to where like I felt like everything needed to happen on my time. Like rushed. Like I needed to be, you know, a forbes 30 for 30, or I need to be this, or I need to be that. Like, you know, I'm just taking things as they come, bro.

You know what I mean? Um, I'm working on different projects. I'm collaborating with the collaborators that I work with and things like that. And that's really it. The things that are for me, the things that are for you and you, like, they're gonna come. You know what I mean? And that's what I've learned over the years, like having this whole mindset of like, I gotta do this by this date, or I gotta do that. No, like just focus on today. Like, what does today look like for you? You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? And really being present, and I've only gotten to that space um through therapy, through conversation. Um, and ultimately, one thing I do want to touch on too is like having the right mentors, bro. Like a lot of people just navigate in this space and they don't have mentors, you know what I'm saying? And so that's why they fall to the wayside or they get burnt out in year one. Yeah, I'm eight years in, you know what I'm saying? Yeah.

So who's one of your strongest uh mentors in the in the space? Um man, like I would say honestly, like Zach Wolf. You know what I'm saying? Shout out Zach. Like, he's a photographer, right? He's a photographer, but also a DP. Oh, he is for like a lot of stuff. Cause Cam mentioned him as kind of like the holy grail of like Zach Wolf. Yeah, D Wong, Zach Wolf, Gunner. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like, shout out uh motion family, but like Zach Wolf, like show love to me like early on. Like, I would say like 2016, bro, like 2017, he was like, Look, like, yo, like you shoot music videos. I see what you're doing, like it's dope. And so, like, he gave me a couple pointers and stuff like that. And like, bro, like, like I said, like I don't have like a lot of hip-hop, like older homies who just like been around, you know what I'm saying? So I didn't really have like nobody just like in my real corner.

So, like just having like him reach out and just say, hey, look, like I see what you're doing, I like what you're doing. I like the direction that you're going in. Like, I want to help you, you know what I'm saying? So, like having those type of real conversations with people, it just really changed the game for me. And then, you know, for a lot of people that know who don't know who Zach Wolf is, like, you know, think about every amazing Outkast cover, like that came from Zach. Like everyone. Yeah. Legend. So that's amazing. Yeah, we need more of that shit. Yeah. Like the fact, you know, just people reaching out and genuinely like fucking with what you got going on and wanting to help. Right. Like, I I mean, I got off a call earlier with one of my like success models in the podcast space, these dudes up in Canada, NFR podcast. I had like an hour and a half call with this guy just because Shout out to him. he genuinely like fucks with what we got going on. We're obviously big fans of his, and we just like shot the shit.

And so, you know, the reason why I was asking about like if you've always been kind of like a live in the moment guy and just like you know, working hard day by day, right? He was like, I think it's an American thing, bro, because they're Canadian. And he was like, I think it's an American thing, bro. But you guys are just like so rushed. Yeah, like to your point, you were probably like, I need to be this by this. Right. right, right. we don't need to rush. Henry's looking at me like dude, you motherfucker. Cause I like took that from him too, because like Henry tells me this all the time, but I don't believe anything Henry says, but you know, hearing it from someone else who I do look up to as well, right? Right, right, right. It was like it made me feel like, okay, like we do have something special going on, and we do need to like work hard because don't get me wrong, these guys are fucking workhorses, so he doesn't have this just like lazy, like type of cool calm, and collected. He's like a we're getting shit done, but like we're not chasing everything as like a has to happen by this time, right? Like, right as cliche it is, like our path is gonna be our path, our journey's gonna be our journey. Yeah, it's gonna happen in the time that it needs to happen.

And like he said, you're also gonna think that you need to do this, yeah, and something's gonna happen, and you're gonna fucking do that. Yeah, you know what I mean? And he's like, You gotta be open and flexible and like a sponge and just be willing to pivot because you know, they're almost at a million on TikTok and they've got like 150k subs on YouTube. They're bringing in like 50 million views a month across your platform, like they're crushing it, right? Right, right. But he's got this like just such a demeanor cool demeanor, bro. Yeah, yeah. Do you meditate at all? I meditate very often, I would say uh like taking time to just isolate before your phone starts ringing in the morning. Yes. It's so key. Yes. Before the kids start going, you know what I'm saying? Before artists start hitting you up. Yes. Like, that's key, man. Like just taking time for yourself and setting your intentions for the day. Yes. It sounds so simple, but like the effects it has. Like, man, like that's that's that's been a game changer because like this is a stressful business, bro. Like, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it.

Like, it's it's it's it's exhausting. You know what I'm saying? Like, yes, it's been cool working with the Nikes of the world, but like, you know, like for every project that you see get put out, I'm losing three weeks of my life. Right. Period. That you'll never get back. I'll never get it back. You know what I'm saying? So it's exhausting. So like taking that time to meditate to recharge and to rebuild, it's just so critical. Yeah. So 2023, what can we expect? What's Caleb most excited about? What's on the horizon that you're you know wanting to speak on? Um, so in 2022, I spent a lot of time transitioning. And I transitioned from mostly music video stuff to more commercial and short form content. So that's why you've seen the Nike Yard runners. That's why you've seen the Puma projects. Um, another one I don't want to talk about as well is actually edited, you know, not only one, but also two projects for Ava Duvernay, you know, in 2021 and 2022. So like for this year, it's time to continue to, again.

Like I look at like an editor as like a second director. So like for this year, I'm looking to work on more short form content in the space of like short films. Working on my debut debut uh feature film. Um is that written already? It's it's in the works. Are you writing it? I'm working on it. Uh I have a team of collaborators, and we we we definitely put in it together. But like I think the most important thing is like building for this year, like commercials, short form content, you know, working with Nike more, um, you know, working on things like this more podcasts. Um last year was my first year really like talking on camera in real life. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? You deal with like a lot of camera people, and 99% of camera people, like they don't sit and talk, like they they want to be a fly on the wall, you know what I mean? There's a reason they're usually behind the camera.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's the reason they're behind the camera. But like it's it's it's time to step in front and really talk about what we're experiencing, what our goals are, what we're working towards, and you know, for a lot of open season, that's what we're working towards, bro. Like, we're working to be in a space to where like, you know, I'm working on a TV show and I'm directing, you know, five, six episodes of you know, power, or you know, I have a DP that's a part of open season. They're working on five, six episodes for the game or whatever the case may be. Um so that's the goal, you know what I mean? And it's no shade in music videos. Um, but like we just really enjoy character development, story development, um, and collaborating with like real talent and telling real stories. But you'll still pick up the phone if J.

Cole calls again. Of course. Yeah. I guess just you know, just to kind of like wrap that thought around the music videos. I think the reason why someone like a you does want to maybe like, you know, elevate from music videos is because of the like passion for the art and the story storytelling, like art form itself. You know what I mean? Because unfortunately, I mean, to your point, Henry, selfie style videos, people can tolerate like not like no story. Right. So like the the viewer doesn't care as much about the story. So there's a select group of artists, I would I would say within music where your role is very important. Right. So it's probably highly competitive too, where it's like there's a small fit or small pond, you know, of those types of artists, like the Coles and like the Billie Eilishes and like the whoever that are actually like telling these fucking wicked stories within their three to four minute music videos. And so like when it comes to that, it's like for you to be able to do your own thing, or like there's so much like film and TV that can tell stories that there's just like a bigger pond, I feel like to play in, you know what I mean?

Uh it definitely is. Um, it definitely opens the doors. You know what I'm saying? I think the biggest thing is like opening the doors, like, you know, rap is rap. So it's like, you know, you're limited to the style of videos that you can produce and put out. Um, but just in the narrative space in general, like you have so many different genres of film that you can dive into. You can like work on a comedy this month, you can work on a drama, you can work on like a horror film. Like it could be like a spoof, bro. Like it can be in so many different avenues, and like, you know, just like building out what that looks like for us and our team is just like, I think that's what this next year is gonna look like. So, what genre are you writing? Uh drama. Okay, drama. Yeah, you know, I'm working on a drama. Um dialogue heavy, like real. Uh I would say character development. I would say dialogue heavy, but like I'm also working on like and it's not just one idea, it's a few ideas. Um, and I I can't really disclose it yet because like the script ain't really finalized, but like it's it's a few events in time that haven't really seen um the right story being told about it, you know what I mean?

Um, and not being shared or reflected in the right way, you know. Like, just think about what the last three years looked like, and I know it went by quick, but a lot of things happened in the past three years. So just breaking that down. Is that what's a little hint? It's a little teaser. So it's an anti-vaxx film. I wouldn't say so. It's a short film about the corn kid. It's not Jeepers creepers. Man, that's amazing. Bro, bro, we appreciate you coming on. We've entered the final segment of the podcast. Henry, uh uh. Take us away. Caleb, this is the Rapid Fire Rampage. Okay. And it's gonna be a three part rampage. Okay, cool. Um, I'll break down the sections as they go. First one's a simple little short answer. Buckled up. Ready? Let's get it. This one's uh kind of a philosophical question. What is your go-to Domino's order?

Uh nothing. Papa John's kind of guy? Yeah. He's like, fuck you, Domino's. Nah, no Domino's. Caleb, what is one of the weirdest things you believe in? Weirdest things I believe in. Uh dang. Um, I have nothing. Very logical to that. Uh, very logical, very logical, very direct. Yeah, we yeah, we've had a flat earther on here just to give you a oh really? I mean, we don't know if he was serious, but the 47. I mean I think he was. He seemed kind of serious. Shout out yo dog, the rapper. Shout out yo dog. Yeah. Caleb, you have let's say 150k. Okay. To shoot and direct a video for Jay-Z. Give us a basic breakdown. How you spend it. How you spend 150,000? Um paying Beyoncé to be in a video. She wouldn't do it for free. All of it.

Oh, nobody does anything free. Even for her mans? Wow. No, no, of course not. Wow. You'd be surprised. I guess yeah. Damn. so. What else? That's it. She costs 150. Oh, that's I mean, that's just for a trailer like this. I mean, you guys. So it's so it's just Jay Z and Beyonce standing in a blank room. Oh, Caleb with an iPhone. Oh, yeah. With an iPhone. You know what I'm saying? It goes viral. That's it. All right. That's a hit. Fair enough. Yeah. Caleb, what is your spirit animal? My spirit animal. Um. I would say a koala bear. I thought you were gonna say snake because you're a snake guy. Because you're a snake. I'm the Furthest thing from a snake. I don't want to be a snake. He owned one. I I would say like a koala bear because like they're nice, they're gentle, they're warm, but they'll fuck you up. But they're also the most vicious animals. I always forget that about koala bears.

I'm still thinking like just oh, he's just like cute and cuddly. And that's what makes them more dangerous, I guess. You know what I mean? Yeah, I don't know if you guys have seen the meme, but like the more you fuck around, the more you find out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's me. and a koala bear. so do we just scratch the surface here with you? Is this like a cute and cuddly version? And he's gonna like murder us after guys. If we don't come home after this episode, it was Caleb Seals. We are in Stone Mountain, Georgia. We made it 87 episodes. It was a good run. It was okay, moving on. Caleb, tell us about a time you made a huge mistake. Um a huge mistake. I would say Massive. monumental. I would say a huge mistake is any time that I worked on the production and I didn't have the proper paperwork in place. Yo, get your fucking paperwork straight. That's that's been that's been a few times, but you know, that's that's been a huge mistake. Every time that I didn't do that, it went left.

Like every time. So damn, that's you know, take take care of the paperwork as much as you take care of the creative work. Even if you don't have to use it, like just having it. Well, because I think it's like what he said is that it does give you this, you know, uh like guise of being serious about your shit. And like, don't fuck with me, even though you might not actually, like sue them or whatever. It just sets a tone, you know what I mean? Yeah, before you talk to a client and you send them an NDA, they're like, oh shit. Yeah. they're serious. Yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna lie, like, you know, when I was, you know, starting to get into the management thing, like I was talking to managers right and left trying to get advice. And like uh the majority, there's a few that operate on strict handshake agreements. Right, right, right. That's cool with you know their situation, whatever. I'm not gonna judge, but a majority were like start getting paid immediately, right? Have the paperwork in place. Like even if you're getting paid like 20 bucks or a hundred bucks because 20% of a small amount is is a small amount. Right, right, right, right.

But it just sets that tone of like this is how we're gonna do things. You know what I mean? So that's the key thing. Ben, this is the rapid fire rampage, once again. So I'll try and keep it keep it going. Caleb, what day is the first day of the week? Sunday. God, there's such an overwhelming amount of crazy people out here. We're about to put together the compilation of the city. It's Monday, bro. No, it's definitely Sunday. Caleb, is there an accent you can do really well? Is there an accent I can do really well? British. A little a spot of tea. A spot of tea. Feel free to finish the rampage in this accent. I can't do it though. Anyway, uh sticking on the geography tip. Um, you must get rid of three states. Which states do you delete? Um, I would say Nebraska. Nebraska? Is there an old Nebraska? Yeah, because Western Nebraska. Yeah, Nebraska, yeah, for sure.

Nebraska. Corn. They have corn. You know what I mean? Corn kids. Uh oh, we can't get rid of that. Too much. Uh Nebraska. I would say, man, North Dakota. Um, and South Dakota, because what's in Dakota. Mount Rushmore is in South, but we can build a new one. Yeah, we'll figure it out. Probably make a way better one now. Yeah. You know. 3D print one out. Right. Yeah. Okay, Caleb. How many rubber ducks would fit in a U.S. military tank? Oh, easily a million. Million ducks. Yeah. A million rubber ducks. Million duckies. Yeah. I just like the dichotomy of the rubber duck in the tank. I see what you did there. Last one of the rapid fire. Or the short answer, excuse me, Caleb. What is your favorite curse word? Damn. Part one. Part one. Damn. A million rubber duckies. Damn is so purposeful for so many different situations.

It's universal. It's like it's very universal. Yeah. It's like the Swiss Army knife of curse words. It's also biblical. Yeah. It is. And it's not so harsh. Yeah. You know what I mean? So it's not like fucking bitch. Right. It's like damn. Like you can say damn in front of your mom and it'd be kind of cool. But if you say shit, fuck, like, goddamn it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like a little different. Okay, moving on to the this or that portion. I'm gonna give you two choices and you pick your favorite one. Sound good? Cool. Rap. Rapping or singing? Uh, I would say singing. Drums or melodies? Melodies. Night vision or fish eye? I would say fisheye. Portrait or landscape? Portrait. Slow motion or time lapse? Slow motion. Call or text? Uh definitely text first. Text first. Silly hats or silly socks? Uh silly socks. Hot chocolate or chocolate milk?

Since it's cold, hot chocolate. Chinese food or Indian food? Definitely Indian food. I like Indian food. Win the lottery or find your soulmate? Find your soulmate. Be half your height or double your weight. I would say double my weight. That's a tough one. I'm telling you, man, like it's teddy bear season, bro. I love to hear it. And he's Like, there's hope. It's hope, bro. There's hope for us, big boys. Last one of the this or that. Get punched by a six-year-old ten times a day or punch a two-year-old once a day. Get punched. I would definitely get punched. Part two. Wow. That was pretty rad. That was aggressive. I'm not punching kids. You were really trying to set him up for. You know, I was ready. I was ready. You really only have one choice to not get canceled. Right, Right, right, right, right, right. Did you hear that? Caleb Seals guy's a fucking two-year-old beater. I survived. He's a child abuser.

So you did you improved very heavily on the second part? It was very rapid. It was very good. Ben didn't interrupt as much. It's all gonna boil down to the last part. This is the word association. The word association. I'm gonna say one word. I say one word, you say one word, maybe two words, whatever, off the top of your head. First thing you think of. All right, gang gang. Here we go. Yep. Starting with hip-hop. Reverend. Ooh, good one. Children. Uh Jeffrey Dahmer. Just went down. Okay. Color. Man. He had a big year. Just when we thought he was an abuser. Dahmer had a big year. He had a big year. Well, we just talked about him abusing kids. Yeah. That's why it was fresh on his mind. Wow. Which is it's it's him, it's not me. Right, right. Right, for sure. I guess the film's not about Caleb. Anyways. Moving on. Color. Uh red. Unicorn.

Solange. Breast. Um, chicken. Mold. Disgusting. Lens. Focal length. Uber. East. Atlanta. Hawks. Butterfly. Um, Travis Scott. Lil. Baby. Bitcoin. Um. It's up. Is it? Not right now, but in general. In general. Uh dang. No, that's good. Keep that. Keep that one. Keep that. Escort. Um. Driver. Podcast. Uh, one more time. One more time. Let's go. Let's go. I thought you were gonna say change agents. Shout out change agents. Yeah. Shout out change agents. Not as much as one more time. We we we we on a one more time show, so you know, we are we on a one more time basis. So you know, shout out to guys here.

Yeah, you're on our turf, bro. Gotta get you guys over to change agents. Yes, for sure. But wait for this last one. Open season. Let's go. Let's go. This has been Caleb Seals. Mic Drop. One of your favorite directors, producers, filmmakers on the you know, on the rise. Be on the lookout for one of his short films coming soon, hopefully. It's coming soon. Yes, sir. We appreciate you coming on. As always, please like, comment, and subscribe. It would mean the world to us. Turn on notifications and share it with a friend. And until next week, Henry, what are we doing? We're getting out of here. We're getting the fuck out of here. Peace. Nice. Yes, sir. Hop up in a bit of foreign skirt. No. I don't hope you this year tripping off. Middle finger to the lawn. Yeah.