Transcript

Scott Lee Mason: Building Hawaiʻi’s Film Legacy, One Frame at a Time

From The Big Picture · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 9 min · 15,075 words · 325 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Scott Lee Mason: Building Hawaiʻi’s Film Legacy, One Frame at a Time", an episode of The Big Picture published November 2, 2025 (1 h 9 min, about 15,075 words). It mentions 16 people, works and ideas, including One Kind Day, Eolani, The Real Cancun, Cinema, Hawaii 5-0.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Eolani, Magnum PI, Scott Lee Mason
  2. – 20:00: One Kind Day
  3. – 30:00: The Real Cancun
  4. – 40:00: NYPD Blue, One Kind Day, The Real Cancun
  5. – 50:00: Cinema, Code Creative, Tori Tukuafu
  6. – 1:00:00: One Kind Day, Super Geeks
  7. – 1:09:09: Cinema, Justin Aon, Magnum PI, One Kind Day

Notable quotes from "Scott Lee Mason: Building Hawaiʻi’s Film Legacy, One Frame at a Time"

  • Wind and the reckoning. And he's also worked as a camera operator and second unit director of photography on Magnum PI. Whether it's narrative films, documentaries, or…
    about Magnum PI · at
  • I get that. Every year I try to leave Eolani. Like literally I go into the counselor's office like this not me.
    about Eolani · at
  • That's my Charlie Kramer story. So Charlie Kramer, one of our favorite electricians. We were on One Kind Day.
    about One Kind Day · at
  • Then I'd work. And that was fun. They were doing the Threat Matrix and I got to work on The Real Cancun's first movie ever made.
    about The Real Cancun · at
  • Was waiting, I stopped in I worked on the I worked on a short film for the guys from NYPD Blue and they shot it on video. I knew how to do video, so I was like their tech. And…
    about NYPD Blue · at
  • Okay right so we went through a lot of names and then we landed on code creative because I'm a nerd. And so I'm Oh, it's code creative. And he's Yeah, code. We're great. We're all.
    about Code Creative · at
  • That's, that's what we would do. We just surf the net. And so I run and I turn it up and it says DV Cinema.
    about Cinema · at
  • He was always that and so we started the company and then we actually were in the back of Super Geeks and that was the best office I've ever had in my entire life because it was next to a movie theater.
    about Super Geeks · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Scott Lee Mason — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Today on the big picture, I'm sitting down with one of Hawaii's top visual storytellers, Scott Lee Mason. Born and raised in Kyua, Scott's path has taken him from creative…
  • Tori Tukuafu — Person · 1 mention · first at
    So it's Tori Tukuafu. So it's funny. So, so I'm doing we're doing the commercials and I'd run into Vince Kala Lucero, who I know you had on here.
  • Tai Sangas — Person · 1 mention · first at
    View. Local filmmaker. We need more filmmakers doing stuff like that in this world. I've got the Tai Sangas of the world. he's got a great point of view.
  • Justin Aon — Person · 1 mention · first at

Companies & orgs

Products & tech

Full transcript with timestamps

Today on the big picture, I'm sitting down with one of Hawaii's top visual storytellers, Scott Lee Mason. Born and raised in Kyua, Scott's path has taken him from creative writing into the world of film and television, where he's made a name for himself behind the camera. He's been recognized for his work on the wind and the reckoning. And he's also worked as a camera operator and second unit director of photography on Magnum PI. Whether it's narrative films, documentaries, or commercial work, Scott brings a sharp eye and a deep connection to Hawaii's stories. We're gonna deep dive into his creative journey, his experience in the industry, and what he sees for the future of film making here in the islands. Let's get into it.

Um, so thank you for coming on the show, Scotty. You're the man. Like, I've learned so much from you on set. Like I tell people all the time, it's like having like a encyclopedia on set. And and um to the point that we were just talking about uh you know, from gripping, you know, it's labor, but yet you know, you're shaping life. You're be being an artist. I think that's a good point is no matter where you are, what position you're at in film making is kind of what you make of it, right? And and if you are just there wanting to be labor, you could be that and you get good at that and you're valued. But if you want to learn more, all it takes is for you to go ask questions. And you've been that guy on set for me that I can always ask questions. So, thank you for coming on.

Well, I I appreciate that. I mean, back at you is is what I appreciate about you and what we need more people to be inspired by what you do is you care about the story. You care about what's going on and so you're paying attention on set and said so many people are stuck on their phone um or just want to be laborers.

And when we do these smaller things and everybody's invested in the story, it is so much better.

You know, if you watched I mean Magnum was a good example. Even Hawaii 5, there's a lot of people on set that weren't invested in the story. It was just a paycheck.

Yeah. Right. And I'm thankful for that paycheck. We're all thankful for all of that.

But we were just philosophizing about it. Myself and one of our famous first assistants we were just talking about. He's like, it's so refreshing. Like everybody here is knows what's going on. They know what the story is about. They know what we're going to do next. You don't have to go find them,

right? You know, it's really nice. And and and that was you. My point of the whole long story is that's what you always were.

Well, I I actually, you know, kind of pitched it. I I I would pitch it as that, you know, like say working with a a new key grip. It's like I feel like I'm more than a grip. I'm a filmmaker. And like you said, there's people who are grips. There's people who are electricians, greens, and construction. And that's all they they focus on, which is fine, right? That's like

And we need that. We totally need that. But but then you have your filmmakers who are grips. You have your filmmakers who are electricians, you know, and when you when when you engage and and identify yourself as that, I think it's easier for like you said to be invested in the story, right? And um

you know, you've been doing this for what 30 30 40 years. 96 is my first TV job.

Wow. And and so you went you in Puno, right? I'm in Puno. Yeah. Class of 90. That's okay.

I know you're Eani. You know, hey, my whole the whole I was in Puno in all the 80s and white guy. So teased my whole life for being Punoho, right? And and I definitely regretted it. Like every day it was just kind of miserable.

Every day after graduation, I was thankful for it because it was like, man, college was easy. Like just the way I thought about things was easy. It was just a different mindset that they taught us there. That's different.

I get that. Every year I try to leave Eolani. Like literally I go into the counselor's office like this not me. This is not like I don't get along well with people, you know. I'm from Khali and I was like felt like I stuck out, you know, and

probably would have been great when all of them. I mean, that's some [clears throat] serious. That's

Well, they encourage Yeah, they encourage me. No, but this is the thing, right? Like they encourage me every year. No, stay. You know, you can do this. Oh, yeah.

And then the literally the day I graduate, I'm so grateful that I went to Eolani and got the opportunity. You know, I look back on it like how ungrateful was I? And especially my dad working as a grip, paying me paying for me to go to Eolani right?

Wow, that's good. Only for me to become a grip, which he did not want. But you're a filmmaker. You're not just

I'm a filmmaker. Um, so just a little side story, but um, you you went to Puno and was it at Punoho that you were thinking you're going to become because a lot of people just like Eolani like you're not going there to be a filmmaker. You're going there to be a doctor, a lawyer. Did you have any inkling that you was going to become a filmmaker at Puno?

That's a it's funny you should ask that. So like like you you looked up I did. So I used to play baseball at Enchanted Lakes in Kyua, right? I'm from Kyua. Uh, and my dad bought a video camera that you had to attach the VCR to the video camera. So, it was like it was two pieces. So, at at home there was like it was like the tuner part of the VCR and then there was the tape deck part. There were two different pieces.

You took the tape deck with you attached it to the camera and you could film. Oh my god.

Because it's like early 80s, right? Right. And so, so we had that at our house. And of course, me being the Kohi kid that I've always been my whole life. By the way, I always thought that uh Kohi was Hawaiian for Scott. My whole life growing up. I had no idea it was rascal. Uh because all the aunties would always be like, "Oh, you so you." But um but so I I take the camera and I start making movies. As a kid, I start making claimations, uh magic tricks because I realized that if you hit record and stop and then change something and hit record and stop, it just magically changed. So, I would do like have stuff move around. I would do animations, Lego animations, and then I would take the tape and I would dub it to another tape and then do voice over.

And so, I'd make a movie as like a young kid. It was crazy. And and then we do music videos. This is like Rat Quiet Riot days, you know, that's to to date me.

And so, we we did all of that. And Punohal, I wasn't interested in uh uh Puna Vision at all. And ironically, my classmate Matt Jensen, who filmed Wonder Woman, who's like a legendary director, photographer.

Yeah. Was the guy my classmate is at at uh Punov Vision filming us playing football

right? And this other uh Brendan McBride, he became this editor. So, the two of them are at at Punovision with Dollquist, who was our like linebacker's coach, who kept always telling me to go there, and I just was like, "No, no." And I just didn't do it.

Oh my god. My parents had instilled in me that film making was not a career. M that was the 80s they were like you got to go be a businessman you know that's what you got to do that's what you got to go to school for

um I didn't know what I wanted to do and I I grew up watching uh play football and I played football for Puno and we [clears throat] did well except for St. Louis you know St. Louis killed us our whole life and that was the 80s everybody

we beat him my junior year we Yep. Um the only time Yep. Um but but not my senior year and uh uh not for varsity ever while I was there,

right? Uh it was crazy. But so I watched I watched um Gabriel come back beat uh BYU. I think it was Ty Demer got the Heisman and then we beat him at a law stadium losing our minds. And I love football.

And so my parents met at University of Miami and graduate school at Florida. And so they used to always watch those schools and I saw them. I'm like, "These guys, that's that's football." Yeah.

Right. Yeah. We go and watch the Hoola Bowl. Deion Sanders is in the Hoola Bowl. Yeah. I watch him get an interception and then catch a touchdown. And I'm like, "Let's go to he go to Florida State." And I'm like, "Oh." And so I applied to USC. Um I applied to Boulder, Colorado. Um ironically, my friends with worse grades than me got into Boulder and I didn't. I'm not sure why.

Yeah, we can examine that later. Maybe not enough volunteer hours. Maybe not in voluntary hours. Um, and I wanted to go to Boulder pretty bad because they were pretty good at football then, right? And then,

uh, it's a cool city. It's a cool city. And but I got into Florida State and I got into University of Florida. And so I was looking at them and I was like, "Oh, Florida State's closer to the beach. I'll go there." I had no idea that I was going into the Dirty South, right?

Like no idea. I had no idea. It was the It was I but I went there for football and I just happened to pick the best school for the 90s. Like there's probably no better school than Florida State in the 90s.

And you know what? Maybe the 2025. They're looking good this year, man. They beat Alabama the first game of the season. I'm an Alabama fan through my partner. I know.

But um that was a that was a great game. You guys are looking really good in three years by the way. What was that? I've only liked Alabama two or three years ever in the entire because I do not like Alabama, but I love Tuango Valua. Oh yeah, I was rooting for them when he was there.

Yeah, you get a lot of Hawaii Alabama fans for those reasons. Um, so you went to Florida State and was it at that point what you what were you majoring in or what kind of got you into film making?

Can I say it? I was majoring in beer drinking and and enjoying life. Like it was the number one party school in the nation. I had no idea being a kid from Hawaii. Nobody believed I was from Hawaii, right? And so I'd bust out my Banko my it was probably a Bank of Hawaii card. I wasn't a Banko card back then. Had my license and prove it and I'd win free shots, free beers, free all kinds of things because nobody had any idea. They're like, "You're not from Hawaii. There's no way." Like, "No, no, I really am." And and still to this day, people still don't believe that I'm from Hawaii. That's funny. But that's my Charlie Kramer story. So Charlie Kramer, one of our favorite electricians. We were on One Kind Day.

OG OG one kind day and I was complaining about people not thinking I was from Hawaii for something. I was, you know, joking around and I was like, "Yeah, man. Everybody thinks I'm from San Diego." And and uh Charlie Kramer goes, "Where are you from?" And I was like, "Kylo," he's like, "Same thing."

Like, I guess you're not wrong, Charlie. It is It is very much like San Did you grow up with like John Lee or any

I didn't know John Lee until the film. Yeah, I think he's Kylo Boy, too. But yeah. Yeah. Um, and and so you were majoring in party.

But I was majoring in business. I was majoring in business and u but but I was I was partying and and I wasn't doing great in school but

normal. But I did go to Puno. So the first two years was so easy. Like my Spanish book was the same Spanish book I had at Puno. My English book was the I mean it was crazy because

Florida State everybody teases me about it but it's not an exceptional collegic school. It's not known for its academics. That's for sure. Um it is known for its film school

really only six pe only 16 people a year were accepted into it. It started while I was there but so so I was going to business

and that wasn't go I was not enjoying the business thing. Right. And then I just kind of dropped out of school and I was like I'm going to be an actor.

Really? Yeah. I was like I'm going to be an actor. I was like that's why I I don't know. I thought I enjoyed it. I I didn't know I was terrible at it yet

but I was like I thought I'd be great at it. Why did you did you see a production filming? You just you enjoyed movies.

I enjoyed movies. So I'm I'm a John Hughes kid. Thought it was cool. Like so I'm a John Hughes kid. So like all those movies 16 Candles, Breakfast Club, that's all the stuff like I grew up on,

you know. So like I I loved movie Spielberg. All of Spielberg stuff. ET. Yeah. You know, everything. It was like I was just in awe. My parents took me to Star Wars when I was that was I was still in California. This is the weird thing. I was born in California, came to Hawaii at one. Mhm.

Um, then we went to Japan because we had to stay here to get all our shots and live here for a little bit. And then we went to Japan till I was four, something like that.

Really? California till I was eight and then we moved to Hawaii for the rest of my life.

So, it's it's like a very strange origin story. Origin story. It's why why I claim Hawaii. Like, it's like my formative years, everything I knew

was Hawaii. All that other stuff was just kind of my family. Yeah. and interesting,

but all of the formative years of my life was all here, you know, with everybody teaching me about the Au Pua systems, the Hawaiian culture, because we're learning about that at Puno.

You know, we had a Hawaiian studies class with um Pal Eldridge's brother who's legendary, who is my coach, and no, Pal is the guy, boy is the brother. Mhm.

And and uh he was our Hawaiian studies teacher and my intermediate coach. So he was this gigantic Hawaiian guy and he would never get up off his chair the entire class. And then at practice he would walk around the football field and we're like, "How are you doing that?" Like we had no idea how he did that. But we would have to do a chant to get in and we learned all about Hawaiian culture.

And yeah, for sure. anyone who kind of grows up going school here, it's, you know, you grew up with with learning culture and and thank God that they did that, right? You know, thank God that they did that and I hope they never stopped doing that. That's very important.

And you being from Boston, my mom's from Boston and her grandmother's mash pee is got mash pindquin Indian.

That's the Indians that were there. So here I can do my first curse because I can say my ancestors came over on the Mayflower and my ancestors literally and figuratively.

Yeah, exactly. I'm not from Boston. My dad is. I just want to make that clear. That's fair.

But I did grow up a b huge Boston fan, hence the hat. And people always ask me. Um

and uh yeah, but I also grew up loving uh football. And you know, I think that's how we we get along so well is is talking sports on on set. And so you must have been going to some incredible games when you [snorts] were at Florida. But what you you ended up just saying, you know, this is not for me. And you you got a job. Did you stay in Florida at that point?

So I I I got kicked out of school for not paying tuition and then reapplied as an instate, which was genius, right? So, my tuition went down to like 700 bucks a semester or something or 900 bucks a semester.

And and um somewhere along the lines, I gave up wanting to be an actor. I figured out I wasn't that good at it. I remember I did an acting uh gig at school and I was playing a part and it was at a theater and all the lights go out and I got to start my scene and my scene is I got to write. I got to do something and I'm just shaking like shaking like it all the lights are off and I'm like, "Oh my god, this is an entire theater. These are like real theater people and I'm going to have to act in front of them." And so when the lights came on, I think it was a 10-minute play that I was doing. I did it in five minutes because I was like and then I I realized it wasn't my thing. And my mom kept going like, "Look at Ron Howard. He's like legendary actor and he's making movies. If you're interested in acting, you should just go make movies."

And so my friends and I, we just started making movies at Florida State. Mhm. Um, and it was like somewhere around 96, I got the a job because of Tarantino working at a video store. I got a job at a video store, um, Sun Coast Motion Picture.

And then from that, I got a job at PBS. From PBS, I got a job at a 24-hour News Channel. Then I got a job at a at this Mike Vaselinda Productions where I was a nonlinear editor, graphics designer. I was going to say was it mostly for operating editing just production in general or

so I operated at PBS PBS I was a director technical director tape operator camera operator and we had cameras similar to what's here except there were these big ones

call them the gold wing of cameras and they had the they had like a bus driver's wheel and that's how you moved them around the studio. Oh yeah, these are kind of

but these were like by big though. But yeah, but it's the same idea. It's just like that.

And then you could pet up and pet down and then you you did focus and stuff like that.

Charles Pride, I have to give a shout out to Charles Pride because he is a legendary man. He was a

quarterback in Tallahassee or something. Not for Florida State for like um I think he went to FAMU or something,

but like he was probably one of the smartest people I've ever met in in film and television. And he taught me things I still use today,

which is crazy. just at PBS. He was a genius, beautiful man. It's kind of why I have this mentor idea because he told me he was paying us $5.50 an hour

and he said, "Come in whenever you want." He's like, "Just come in. I'll pay you. It doesn't matter. Just come and go sit over there and learn something. Go sit over there and learn something. Just come in whenever you have time and I'll pay you." And I did that for like two years until I graduated from college. And Oh, I never told you. And I changed my degree to writing.

Oh, okay. Because I think I still think story is the most important part of filmm

and anybody can learn how to use a camera. Anybody can learn how to light. You can even hire people that know how to light.

So I wanted to learn about story. What kind of made that click in your head? Like hey, you know what? If there's a skill I should actually learn in college, it should be writing.

Tarantino and Rodriguez. Yeah. Because I mean I just I just would read all the stuff about them, everything they were doing. they always had that they always encouraged um young filmmakers saying just write something, make something, do something. Rodriguez said something that stuck in my brain for the rest of my life. And that is if you want to go make a film and you're like, I need to go make something. Think about someone in your family. You're like, "Oh, my uncle owns a bar. Okay, my uncle's got a bar, so I'm going to write a story that's at a bar because I can go shoot at that bar." Or, "My uncle's got a Corvette. I'll write a story about a Corvette." think about resources that you have that are free and write your story with that,

you know, and that's what Rodriguez did with El Mariachi. That's super smart. Yeah. And I think that's one of the advantages of working in production before you actually make your own movie or something because it all comes down to money, right? Unless you have a ton of money that you can use any location and and you know, rent out anything. You want to be realistic about things and and people honestly creativity is birthed out of being broke.

You're right. Yeah. You're right. And that's where all the good stuff happens. I mean, you've made a bunch of little films, right? And and then I'm sure some of the things you're really proud of that you've done.

Yeah. Um, no, I'm actually very ashamed of a lot of them, but I'm very proud of how much I've learned out of each one.

I remember you did like a PMP thing. Yes, because we were doing PMP on 50. So, you did like a PMP and I was like, that is genius.

Yes. um you know a title that I will never say um of of a short film I did for Showdown and I've said it in this podcast before but I was working on Hoy 5 and Tori had convinced me to do a short film and so I wrote it while we were working and then by the end of basically the day I had Angie allow me to use the grip truck the full like like I think it was like a one ton grip truck like a splinter package one um I the wardrobe ladies pull me like a full wardrobe for all my characters. And then I asked her if I could use the studio for PMP. So, we did like legit PMP in there. And uh the my actresses are smoking like fake blunts in the in the studio, you know. So, um it it was fun, but I it it wasn't until that point that I took everything else on set seriously. Like when I was gripping for probably about 7 years up until that point and all my brain told me to do was grip, right? And make money

which yeah, which is like make money but also do my job to the best of the my ability. But at some point around the five or seven year mark where you start to master that skill and when I did my own short film,

it made me realize how important sound was. And it made me actually go, "Oh, those are the sound guys. Oh, that that's what that person does, you know. And so it made me very aware and it helped me help them do their job because I gained so much respect for it.

And once I started doing that, I became better as a grip because now people are looking at me going, "Oh, this guy, this kid knows what he's doing." You know, this kid knows the process of what's going on. And so I I say it all the time, the best way to learn is making your own film. That's so that's what everybody's that's the big debate now and that the Tarantinos of the world keep telling everybody forget film school take that 20 grand and go make a film you'll learn more with that 20 grand. The advantage to film school and why people if they can they still should go is networking meeting people meeting other people that you want to collaborate with. That's actually in my opinion what college is for.

Like like everybody I don't think everybody's made out made out for college. Like I don't think college is right for everybody. I think we need more vocational schools so people can go do that kind of stuff too. Um but I do think college is valuable for meeting people and finding like-minded people that you can go do stuff with.

I mean that's what Punoho and Yolani is for when you look at it in a way too. It's like you're kind of paying for a network and once you're kind of in that network and

it it it is very valuable you know and and in a lot of aspects it does give you an advantage

but nowadays like you said how is how easy is it compared from when you were growing up or started in it to make your own movie to now? I mean, it is so easy. But, but I do h put on the table uh Robert Rodriguez.

So, that's that's a long time ago and he made that thing for seven grand. So, you're 100% right. It's way easier to do it today. But what's more important than the technology is the drive to do something to tell a story.

Rick Rubin has this great thing I save because AI is the is the buzz word everybody's talking about. We could go talk for like 10 hours about AI. He says AI will never have a point of view. And take AI out of the equation. The whole point of trying to encourage more filmmakers is we need more points of view. If anything, the last four years hasn't taught me. I mean, that's what it's taught me the most is we need more points of view because

so much media slants the views into two windows, right? The left and the right, right?

And we need more views of people to tell their story from their personal experience. I don't mean their opinion on whatever political thing. I mean their opinion on life,

you know, how to just be a better person, how to live life better, how to enjoy the world.

It's why I've said since Puno, since uh the 80s, that Hawaii could teach the world how to be.

And it was the Au Pua system the first time I learned it that I I realized that. Now granted, there was a lot of things that probably weren't great in that system, the cast system, and things that maybe we didn't like, but there was a lot of great things where

they didn't overfish. They all took care of each other. I agree. And I mean, still as we operate today on the sets that I work on,

I think people do take away and learn, you know, just on our industry level, they take away stuff from Hawaii, like working with Hawaii crews. Yeah, you're right.

Um, how we do things, there's some things that they don't like. Yeah. That are unique to Hawaii and how we work, but I think there's a lot of things that they do like. Um, I see people change as they work here, right? Personalities. Um, you know, and and to me, I I take uh pride in that. Like that to me is the most important thing that you know whether we're taking them out and and barbecuing with them and showing them how we live and uh respecting respecting the places we're shooting at.

Um I think it's a little bit odd. It throws them off a little bit when they come here, but by the end of it they completely understand, you know, to working and respecting the people that you're working with like family.

Yeah. You know. Yeah. That's why I feel like we're unique. Yeah. Um, so back to your story, you end the at what point do you come home?

Oh, that's a that's a good story. So, so you know, I was very fortunate that that I got to work at PBS and learn all this great stuff. And then I I got as I graduated, I went right into 24-hour News Network. So, I was editor and I was I was doing not fun editing, but I called it the kung fu because I was doing like this editronist, you know, a thousand of them a day and I was doing them as quickly as I possibly could. that I had to get a three-minute package done in two hours

every day, right? And so and for like two years and then I got hired out because I was doing all these these uh nonlinear editing stuff because I was interested in that. So I started doing commercials for people

and back to when I was a kid and I used to do the the magic tricks. Um that 24-hour news station that I worked at was called Florida's News Channel. They laid fiber optics all across the state of Florida. So I learned about fiber optics, right? And they had a blue screen. Like everything was blue screen. It was all virtual reality. Yeah. Everything was virtual reality. And so I was like, "Hey, I can program that camera to do the same move over and over again. If I can do that, I can do magic tricks for your commercials." So I would just have it repeat stuff. And I would like I had them walk on the state of Florida. I had them do all kinds of things that was really easy to do from what I learned, you know, with my video camera as a little kid. And so I do that. And so I get hired out to Mike Vasilinda. I'm doing really well with them and the oh um 911 happens.

Whoa. So 911 happens which is a crazy story because I was hired to go film something for NASA. So I was going to go fly somewhere. They had sent this thing into space, a satellite into space out of recycled something or other. And I had to go film the kids who did it. Film NASA

for the people who helped them do it. And 911 happened. So we couldn't go right because all everything shut down. And then finally everything got to go. So I was on one of the first planes that got to go out and I saw the Pentagon. I saw the big hole in the Pentagon.

Wow. The craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. Like it definitely looked like an explosion. It was

uh a totally different topic. Like it was I've never seen anything like that in my life. But

and so that happens. And so when I come back it's everything's slowing down because video production can kind of be a luxury because it costs a decent amount of money. Mhm.

So, everybody was pulling their purse strings back right after 9/11. And I was the second editor in Mike Vesselinda's company. And so, he goes, he calls me into his office and he goes, "Well, you know, Scott, you always wanted to go to LA and be a filmmaker. Now's the time to go."

And I was like, "Oh, it's a nice way to fire me." Okay. And so, I was fortunate that I got to collect unemployment. And so, I just kind of waited tables and did whatever I wanted. And I met this kid whose dad was a colorist in LA

and they brought me out there. And so they brought me to LA and I I interned with them for a little while. Lived at their house in Malibu. I used to catch the express bus and then skateboard to work because it was like the it was like the best life, you know, from Malibu. I catch the bus all the way to

um Santa Monica and then I would skateboard because I catch the express. I'd have to skateboard all the way back to work and then I'd work. And uh that was fun. They were doing the Threat Matrix and I got to work on The Real Cancun's first movie ever made.

And The Real Cancun, that's where I learned Fusion, which is in That's ironic. I learned Da Vinci Resolve there and Fusion at this place and now they're in the free software that everybody's using today.

What What is Fusion? It's like After Effects. It's a compositing software, but it was node-based. It

was nodebase back then and nodebase confuses people versus layers. Layers is easier.

It's confusing me right now. Yeah. No, nobase is smarter um just because it's easier to if I want one node to affect 10 things, I can just draw a line between that one node.

And we're still using that now, right? In the Vinci. That's how we do. Color correction is node based there and fusion in there is still node based.

Oh, okay. Okay. But but it's still like it's layers and layers is just basically node base for dummies is what layers basically is.

And so you it's like this layer affects this layer affects this layer affects this layer. Node is this node affects this node affects this note, you know.

Yeah, I know. Yeah, that totally for some reason it confuses me when it's in the node. So you pick up a whole bunch of skills there.

Yep. Yep. So I do um the real Cancun and that's where I learned that Digi Beta we were calling it clones.

Oh yeah. I got to I can't tell these stories. Um, I got to I got to watch Always cut it.

I got to watch all the behind the scenes because it's the real world and so the real world they put all the cameras in the rooms.

Oh, the real world. So, it's it's naughty. They're just feeding them. They're just feeding them alcohol and they're just being naughty. And I'm watching all of this stuff because we have to dub it.

We have to ingest it into I just got I grew up on that stuff and look how I turned out.

But my this is the movie. It was called The Real Cancun. And I don't know if you ever watched The Real Cancun. really funny is I took my parents when I came back home. I took my parents to the movie and made them watch The Real Cancun just so they could see my name in the credits at the end. I'm like, "Look, they're so proud of me." And it is not the movie you take your parents to at all. But um so I did that and so the real Cancun was taking a little bit long to pay me. Um and it was a decent amount of money and we didn't have any work. We're kind of in the middle of work in Los Angeles. My dad calls me up and says, "You know, I'm getting old. M

I could use help around the house. Do you mind coming home? Maybe you could help around the house. You could wait for the check

and then maybe you can go back after you've worked on that. Okay. So, I come home and while I'm at home, I'm watching the commercials. It's about 2000, I think 2001. I'm watching all the commercials in Hawaii and I'm like, these are terrible. I was like, this is like, why is why are this is my home. Why are we making these kind of commercials? Like, this does not like we can do so much better than this. I was like, "Man, I should try to find the independent film scene here."

And then I did. I found uh this guy, Dustin Cross, uh Hawaii. It wasn't Hawaii Film Alliance, that's now. It was called Hawaii Filmmakers Group or something like that.

And so we started making all these little movies. We did Blood of the Samurai with Aaron Yamasato. We did Amazing Asian with Gerard Elmore.

And where were these being shown back then? Like lot of hip. Oh, okay. Yeah, a lot of hip stuff. There's one year I worked on like every film in HIF or something from Hawaii. It was

Where did you start out? I'm just curious because you know a lot of people maybe they need that that inspiration on when you were here and you needed to plug in.

How did you find that guy Dustin? The group. Uh I went to the group. I went to Hawaii Filmmakers.

Okay. So you just And actually it's from my sister. No, my sister here. Yeah. Uh, Donna said there's this group, Hawaii Filmmakers, and there's this woman, Dawn, who wanted me to help her since I knew how to edit her film. And so then I went to Hawaii Filmmakers, and I helped her edit her film. And then I met Dustin Cross. Dustin had a bunch of gear. We just started kind of working with Aaron.

You're an editor? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, oh my gosh, you know how to do post-prouction?

I'm like, yeah. I'm like, and camera. I know how to do camera and all that stuff.

Awesome. Right. What's ironic uh we were I was at NAB and do you remember Ko? Yeah.

Yeah. KO. She was like in the office, right? So we ran into her. I ran into Dustin at NAB. I hadn't seen him in a long time. Ran into Ko and we're talking at at thing and and Dustin's like, "Oh, are you did you look at the new editing of uh Blackmagic?" I think they were just coming out with it. I was like, "No, I haven't looked at it yet." And Ko's like, "You know how to edit like to me." And I was because she only knew me as a dit.

Right. Right. And I was like I was like, "Oh, yeah. I had a decent career as an editor already. Yeah.

And um so you ended up hooking up with them and Gerard Elmore. We had him on the show as well. Great conversation with him and and those were the guys you kind and that was the first time you met them and started working on their films.

So Dustin Cross introduces me to Oh, Dustin Cross probably puts me on the set with Aaron Yamasato for Blood of the Samurai. And so we do Blood of the Samurai. Um Bob and Kyoki Smith are on Blood of the Samurai. Sean Hyatt does the jib on Blood of the Samurai. Uh Kyoki

um used to tease me because I used to drink a lot of Cokes. Kyoki Key grip by the way. Super Ochi local.

Who wants to be a gaffer? Does he? Yes. He is a legendary keygrip, but he would rather be a gaffer.

No, but yeah, he could do it. He could do it. Again, he's a filmmaker. So those guys, it was Kiyoki, James Levy, and Lee Kaneakua. Those were my idols. And I worked with them on Japanese commercials.

Those are my mentors. Mentors. Yeah, me too. Like Lee taught me more than I'll ever I'll ever know.

Yeah. And so we used to do Japanese commercials because here's this is great. So I did go, we're like in all kinds of circles here. I'm sorry. No.

Um but so somebody calls me and says, "Oh, do you want to work this pilot of this TV show? You want to work as a camera PA on this pilot of the TV show?" Um

sure. Yeah, why not? You know, I'll go do it. I can I can do that. Sure. And so I go to go do it and it's lost, right? Lost, right? No way.

Yeah. 2005, I think it is. And so somewhere around there, six, was it? Yeah. No, 2004.

Maybe four. Yeah. No, actually, maybe even three. Yeah, cuz I was a junior in high school. My dad started working on that. My cousin Mokua, all the fam, and I'm like, you know. So,

so, so I'm doing the Pilot of Lost. It's day one. We're driving up to Jackass Ginger and I'm I'm there with the writers and I'm like, and me, you know me, I'm I like to ask people questions, right? So, so I'm just standing there and I'm my first day too and I'm just like, "Hey, what do you guys do?" They're like, "Oh, we wrote this." And I was like, "Guys, you must be excited. This is day one. It's Damon Lindelof and Brian something, right?" And they're just like, "Yeah, we're excited." And they're in the back of a truck. They're not in a car because this is like the beginning. So, they're in the back of the truck with me. We're in the back of a truck steak just getting two set because we wanted to get there.

And the funny story is, and JJ Abrams is the director, Larry Fong is the DP. I mean, like, I learned so much watching those guys. my favorite first day in Jackass Ginger. I am not used to working on set, right?

Like I haven't done much in my life on set and so and I haven't worked in the elements. Like I grew up in all these elements, but I haven't worked in it, right? And so they're like, "Oh, you need boots." So they give me the the old boots

like that you wear the neoprene. No, this is before neoprene. It's just the rubber ones that you slide on over your shoes, like the ones that barely fit. And so they give me those boots and I'm walking through Jackass Ginger. My foot gets stuck. Yeah.

I pull my foot out. The boot's still there. The mud goes straight into the boot and I'm like, "Oh no, I got to get that boot and I just, you know, [snorts] sticking in

and then the whole day whole day wet foot the whole time." But then that's how you learn, I guess, right? But that's where I learned from J.J. Abrams. He set 400 feet of dolly track

and I was video village. I was a camera PA doing video village. So I'm just talking to JJ Abrams the whole time. I'm like, "How do you do that? Why are you doing that? What's going on here?" Just that guy the whole time. the whole time just constantly harassing him for information. I like gave him my demo reel at the end.

No, you didn't. Yeah, he never he never called me. Of course not. Um but JJ, if you're out there,

but but um was really funny was uh I asked him I was like, "What are you doing?" He's like, "Well, I know that's going to take me three hours to set 400 ft of dolly track and then we're going to use it and then after lunch we'll turn around and we'll use it the other direction and shoot the other direction in the woods." And I was like, "That's genius."

Yep. Yeah. There's a lot of stuff um that you know the great thing about loss is you're in a jungle and guess what this part of the jungle looks like this part of the jungle and that part of the j so there was a lot of cheats going on French reverse

yeah but then you you learn and that's a the biggest part of film making is cheating things sometimes right like in working on the little insert units like I've learned so much of of how to cheat shots how to replicate things later on that you need to too. Um, that's fun. I I started my career on loss, but it was like maybe I want to say fourth or fifth season, just kind of second unit. So, we kind

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 2008 was already dropped out of uh probably about 2008 2009. Um,

did you do One Kind Day? No, I missed One Kind Day. Yeah. Was that Was that one of the first

That was like right at the end of Lost. M that's why Tori that was like his first operating thing I think after

Well he was no he was operating towards the end of loss. Yeah, he was. Yeah, he was like I know

it was early in his operating cuz he that guy was a legend. Like he doesn't get enough props for for

mentoring all of us. Like he used to call tell us to be silent assassins. Like that's what he would tell us all day long. And that's the Lee Kaneokua is exactly that is just watch

and then just go do it. Oh yeah. I I was fortunate enough to push dolly a like the first time I touched the dolly and like you know they let me touch the dolly um was with Tori as the operator.

Wow. And so that's and it was great because he was my boy you know so it was like it felt comfortable where like I'm not pushing a guy from LA at you know a camera, B camera or C camera with Tori and

and he teaches. Oh yeah he teaches. He has his way. Especially when you're his homie was like,

but I I still have um some of these funny video clips where it shows me and Chris like pushing Dolly like you know being all serious and then you pan over and it's Tori with his feet down controlling the dolly for us like we just was not hitting it right and he finally put his feet down and took control over it. But that that's a good point to talk about. People underestimate how important the dolly grip is. Like a good dolly grip.

We should talk about that, Scott. No, but a good dolly really is a camera operator. Like people don't realize how much of a

So on my way to Hawaii when I So when I was waiting, I stopped in in uh I I worked on the I worked on a short film for the guys from NYPD Blue

and they shot it on video. I knew how to do video, so I was like their tech. And then I operated on it. So I had Clint Eastwood's dolly grip and I don't know what his name was. He was an older guy, but he was his dolly grip. And

I was like the best operator all day long because he was just putting me right in the spot and I was and it was I was I had never done it before and I was really good because of him.

Yep. Yeah. And and um when you're first starting off, it's like Tori taught me how to be in the right spot at the right time. Tori Tuku Alpha, by the way, we're speaking legendary. Like to us he's a legendary camera operator taught like you said all of us so much things very encouraging encouraging to the young filmmaker at the time involved in showdown in chat. Did he start it with Chris and

I I believe they started it. Did he not start it? I to me he did. I mean he he introduced it to me. So

well it was his name. I know it was his name because they had to get permission from him to do it again recently.

Oh they did. And then there was that there's a I can't think of her name. Um I know who you

she's the one who owns says she owns it and then Chris says she own I don't I know nothing. All I know is that uh showdown in Chinatown is a great name.

Yeah, I love it. Um they're going to do another one I heard um next month. So that'll be fun. Um but yeah, so you get uh but were our paths like really I mean we probably were rubbing shoulders on loss and didn't even realize it. But

I only did the pilot. Oh, you only did the pilot? This is my my union story, which is probably a terrible story for me to tell, but I met the union rep, and I won't say his name. Why not? We just won't say that. And when I shook his hand, I felt like I was talking to a used car salesman, right? Because he's like, "Oh, come join the union. Join the union."

And I just felt like I was talking to a used car salesman because I didn't understand how the union worked.

But what I got from the conversation was, "You're going to take money from me and I got to find my own work." I was like, like, "No, thank you." Right?

So, I didn't even try to get in the union. Didn't try to get on lost, which was a mistake. I probably should have and then just went on to do my own thing. So, I was doing all these lowbudget films, making no money,

right? Getting not getting very far, but working on everybody's thing. And my friend uh Mike Bacon goes, "Oh, you know how to do video assist?

You want to come do these Japanese commercials with me and you can join the union?" And I'm like, "No, no." And I I don't want to do the union. He's like, "It's $42 an hour." I was like, "Oh, yeah." I was like, "Yeah, tell me more about this union thing."

And so that's why I did that. So I did that for I joined 665. I was in the union like that.

No, but that that's the route. Japanese commercials or commercials. That's the gig.

That was the gig. I loved it. And and with Harry Lidda, one of my legendary friends.

And so I did many many years of Japanese commercials making a lot of money, enjoying myself, and it was super easy.

And they had a special visa for the Japanese commercials, right? And that's why you don't see it anymore. That visa went away. Japanese production kind of totally went away. But it was such a really good niche. Like that was the gig.

So there's a few takeaways from the Japanese and the way they worked that I would love for us to emulate some of them. One,

nobody ever stood in front of the camera. Nobody ever stood in front of the camera.

It's crazy because on our sets you're constantly saying, "Hey, can you Hey, can you move? Do you mind so I can see? Can you move?" You're always saying that.

I got to say, but nobody ever stood in front of the camera. Now I think they were a little more abusive. So etiquette,

there's a lot more etiquette, but they also were a little more abusive to Yeah. each other.

We We're We can't We are abusive to each other as well. Yeah. Yeah. I know what you're saying though. But it comes with like the hustle that they expect, right? Like And I haven't worked on Japanese commercials that I remember, but I hear a lot of like 24hour, 48 hour. I mean,

they're meticulous. And it was funny because I did VTR for it. So I started recording the shot before they lit it and then I would record it after they lit it and I would look

and it was always insanely better. Like always it was crazy and like I couldn't even see it in the beginning. What are they doing? I don't even know. And at the end it's like a perfect shine on the product

or like everything was it was crazy. Wow. It's kind of good you had that opportunity and then when did you kind of loop around back into TV production? Was it on 50 when we started?

So it's Tori Tukuafu. So it's funny. So, um, so I'm doing we're doing the the commercials and I'd run into Vince Kala Lucero, who I know you had on here.

Yeah. And, uh, we had met on Blood of the Samurai. He was like a camera operator briefly.

Him and Gerard, right? Had come out and used their dolly jib. It was the first time I'd ever seen a dolly jib. And so they had like, and it was total like the doorway dolly with the jib on it. And they were in Diamond Head Crater. And they were just getting these shots like the whole time. And I'm like, "That's these guys are innovative. I like this." And so of course I was interested and talked to them. Kell and I run into each other again on this uh movie called Public Access

and this guy Lon Takaguchi, he just called me. Yeah. Lon L. And so so we're working on his and we're just shooting it because I just wanted to shoot it

and it's it's early on because I've just come back. I haven't been back back home that long, I think, when I when I did public access because I remember

driving over H3 to go to his place thinking how lucky I was to make this drive every day to go to work. Like I'd never had that.

Like I've had been working on the mainland and I never had that beautiful drive.

And so I and that's how I met Kella. And then that project lasted like a year. It was like a year-long project. It was it took long a while to finish the movie.

Yeah. And uh and I edited a lot of it. Mhm. And so we met each other and so we'd always talk story or something and he had a wedding company and so I would work on at his wedding company at times

and we were out talking one time and we're like we should start a company and we're like yeah let's start a company and so we like all right let's start a company and like you you shoot I'm an editor perfect marriage we'll just

co-creative studios well we didn't know we didn't have a name okay right so we we went through a lot of names and then we landed on code creative because I'm a nerd. And so I'm like, "Oh, it's code creative." And he's like, "Yeah, code. We're great. We're all tight and we're gonna do all this code creative."

And I remember I'm on this commercial with what's the big white Bob guy's last name.

Bob Johnson. Bob Johnson. Yes. Thank you very much. And Bob Johnson is there and we're doing this. It's in a treehouse in in the Northshore and they put like a line of 18ks and and bounced it into the treehouse. And I was like, "This is genius right?"

And they're like, "Yes." And it was a Japanese commercial. And they're like, "This is so there's no shadows

and we can just light the treehouse." And I'm like, "Oh, this is really smart." And Scotty, listener is there. And I was like, "Oh, Scotty, Kell and I were starting our company. It's awesome. We're going to we're going to make this company Code Creative. It's pretty cool." He's like, "Coreative. I love it. Code creative is such a good name." I was like, "No, no, it's code creative." He's like, "Yeah, co-creative. It's great." And I'm like, "No, man. It's code creative." Oh, Co-creative is way better than code creative. And I called uh Kaya like instantly and he's like, "Yeah, co-creative is the is the thing." And uh that's where we and we because he and I were always about collaborating, you know, like from the jump. We've always been about collaborating

and high-tech. And so you guys started going to NAB to we started going to NAB together and

and looking for gear and and um we bought we brought the first Red camera to Hawaii. That's what I was getting to cuz he told his side of the story, but I wanted to hear what what made you guys make this like jump off and say

it's actually really Kala. He was he's always been that gutsy and he just put the hundred bucks down.

He's like this thing is cool. And we had seen the SI2K uh the year before and we had shot the pilot of of um we oh we that's later we shoot the pilot of Hawaii 50 with SI 2K but the SI 2K uh it had this wrapper like so they shot the video but they had this wrapper for color on it

and we're like oh that's really cool and then RED comes out actually back the story up this is even before RED so the DVX100

is the camera that changed all of us DVX1 100 starts back at Florida's news channel for me. So, I'm in Florida, not even coming home to Hawaii, and my friend Norman Elbritt, who did the music for the Orb and good friend of mine, talented filmmaker. Um, and he comes running into my edit bay, and he's like, "You got to go look at pan Panasonic.com." And mind you, my edit bay is like, it's all edit bays were they're like blacked out. So, we would spend half the time editing, half the time surfing the internet. That's, you know, that's what we would do. We just surf the net. And so I run and I turn it up and it says DV Cinema.

And we're like, "What's this?" And they're like, "It's the first digital film camera, you know, ever. It's a tape."

Um they're saying, "Oh, it's going to shoot on a 30 frames per second tape because tape, I don't think HD Cam had come out yet." It may have already come out,

but um it was the first one that was going to shoot it on this small little tape. And then when you import it into your nonlinear, it'd be 24. We're like, "This is amazing." It was called DV Cinema.

Well, like any product, it takes a little while to launch. Mhm. And by the time it launches, I've already moved back to Hawaii and it's the DVX 100. Right. And Vince Kale Lucero owns it.

Wow. Right. And he shoots this movie called Kissing God. And for this guy, Ron Patricio, who changed his name to a Muslim name, and I don't know his his name that he changed it to, but I knew him as Ron Patricio. He had me edit uh Kissing God when I just came home. So, I edit it. Uh Kala shot it, and that's kind of our first interaction because I meet him at Hif and I go, "Man, what you shot was beautiful." I loved editing. It was really easy to edit and we did well at at HIF with Kissing God.

Nice. And but one of the best things that we had like Rolling Stones music like we were like, you know, all the stuff you're probably not supposed to do, which is what made it really really good, right? And so um so he's on the DVX100 and then he moves to the HVX 100 in and he's shooting all these films with us on the DVX100. He moves over to the HVX100. We shoot Gerard's all for Melissa on it. It's like one of the first films we shoot with the HVX100 where or HVX yeah 100 I think and it's got these P2 cards and we had to download it and we had to invent this system for for making three copies and naming and and we're just looking at the old film thing just like everything.

It's like you look back at film and you see what they did and you kind of emulate it.

And so we did um and there so there's this thing called DVX user. That was my whole point. and DBX user was this forum that we'd all go on and we'd talk about our problems and people would help each other and they they'd all talk about it right and this guy kept coming on there going um what kind of a digital camera would you want and we'd be like and everybody would answer him right and for like like a couple of years this guy's doing this nobody knew who he was

it's Jim Jard and he's starting red camera right and so he's and so he had already bought red.com he bought red.com in like 2001 he knew he was going to do this and so then he launches is it in 2007 I think is the red camera and we start our company in 2007 we we have the HVX100 we're shooting with that and then we get the Red camera and we're shooting with that we have our friend Dave Rosen who was shooters only shoot on film hates digital we introduce him to the red camera and he never looked back he was I was just with him like a couple weeks ago shooting something for him and he's like man you changed everything like I was like all going to do film the rest of my life. I shot on that camera that you guys had and I've never looked back.

That's insane. And I did a whole RED education class for everybody. You did? So, what's funny is you got that guy over there, Ruben. He was our idol. Like, like cuz this is before Red Camera, before that, he's got a company, Liquid Planet, which I thought was one of the coolest names ever.

And we would look up to them because we're like, man, these guys are they're they're doing it outside of the union.

Yep. Right. And like Ruben would show up on these, you know, I was just like some peon. He wouldn't know who I was, but he he would show up and he'd be the camera operator and he'd have all the gear and he'd like have all this great stuff and we'd all sit there going like, I want to be like that guy.

Yeah, this is what we got to do. This is what we got to do. Like we were all of us were looking up to him like forever. And so that's kind of why Kale and I started Co-Creative.

While we were at Co-Creative, we actually used to we used to make all these TV shows for people and I'd go to his studio and print it to tape

because I didn't own a beta tape deck. So I'd go to his studio, he'd hook us up, you know, like some super cheap, inexpensive. was really kind to us to try to help us.

He's still hooking it up. He's still hooking. As a matter of fact, I think that's probably his hair right there. And then that one over there,

Ruben. Yeah, that's right. I mean, all of us. Yeah. I mean, he gave so much to everybody. Always was,

you know, he was always that and and so so we started the company and then we actually were in the back of Super Geeks

and that was the best office I've ever had in my entire life because it was next to a movie theater.

So back then it was like 2007 and we would did the Johnny Alamita that that you mentioned. We did all these documentaries for Commander Schools

and back then it would take like hour and a half, two hours to render stuff or longer. God.

And so I would hit a render and I'd just go watch a movie. It was it was like the best light.

Yeah. And then um you you finally got because this is kind of where and and just like uh just like uh Kiko or Kiko whatever her name is. Um I thought you were just a DIT guy.

All right. So I haven't even been a DIT yet. So, so we're we're at we're we're at um Super Geeks and we're kind of out growing that office because uh I had gotten two more editors uh Jeremiah Taio and Song and so and so they're editing for us because we just got we're just pumping out all this stuff and shooting and editing and so we had outgrown it. So then we went and got this other office

in um office, right? And so we got that office and while we're there uh we're friends with Tori uh Tuku, right? And he's

he's coming by and he's talking to us about different things and somebody m Oh yeah, Tommy Lman is is on Lost with him,

right? [snorts] Michael Lman, they they get him to come shoot this movie, One Kind Day with Chuck, the guy, the skateboarding company guy. Um, I don't know,

Chuck Mitsui. Yeah, Chuck Mitsui, I think. And so they get him to shoot it and Tori says, "Oh, these kids out here have a red camera and they, you know, know how to do this stuff and they can help you." So Mike comes to our studio and talks to us and I'm the same guy that you met on set and I talk to him the way I talk and all my nerds speak and he's like, "Yeah, you're the DIT." And I was like, "What's a DIT?" So I'm like googling DIT. I'm like, "Oh, I know what DIT is." Yeah,

I can do that. I can do that. I I know how to do that. Yeah. So, uh cuz this is like 2009.

Yeah. I mean, to be honest, like exactly 2009 where they basically decided like Lost was kind of film and then when they made the decision to do Hawaii 5, they decided, right? Wasn't it digital straight up?

God, Hawaii 50 changed my life. So, so, so 2009 we do the that and I get in the union as a DIT.

Oh, okay. Okay. for a one kind day, 10 bucks an hour. I get my union days, I get in as a DIT

and but I didn't pay the money. Like I got accepted in and then there and then there was no work,

right? So I was like so I went and stopped paying it, right? And so then Soul Surfer comes about and I'm on Soul Surfer and Soul Surfer I'm a VTR because I'm in 665 and I've paid my dues and I'm a I'm an active member there and I'm on Soul Surfer and Rick Brock,

right, says, "Oh, you want to come do this pilot of this TV show?" And I was like, I got to leave Soul Surfer a week early. So I get Vince Kala to cover me on Soul Surfer and I go do um Hawaii 5O the pilot. And the Hawaii 5O the pilot was

uh F No, it was the D20. Um there was a Red camera on it and there was one other digital camera, probably the F-35. No, it was the F23. Wasn't even the F-35. And so we're doing it with these three different cameras. I see the Air D20 for the first time in my life and I was like, "Oh, film is dead." Really?

Yeah. I was like that this is the first video camera I've ever seen that reminds me of the Panavision video tape that I used to see on Lost. And I was like

and and it was but it was it was crazy because you had to roll the camera and the tape deck and the tape deck was a was hard was digital hard drives

and so you had to roll the camera and the deck and the reason I remember that is because second unit didn't do that and they sent it back to me to download it and it was just a still pause of the helicopter that was supposed to blow up.

So that's all it was. The whole tape was just a still. They never rolled the camera. They rolled the tape deck but not the camera.

God. And that's early D20. So then the D21 comes out and it gets better. Hawaii50 goes to the F-35 for season one.

And Rick Brock kind enough pushes for me to be in the union. Tells the union, hey, he's a good guy. The union allows me to you can now pay your dues and join the union. And I go in as a loader for Hawaii 50. So, I'm the loader and and there's a DIT there who's who was really Brit Cyrus, insanely smart guy, and he teaches me all this cool DIT stuff that I kind of already knew, but I didn't know it.

Yeah. I didn't know that I knew it. Yeah. And the and the flow with moving with a whole TV show production while you you know, your setup was like a thing. Like I remember

Oh, yeah. Cuz you remember you started because I'm not I'm not a DIT. That's why I'm a I'm I'm a loader and he's the DIT. Oh, I thought you started I started as a loader and he's the DIT and so I'm just helping him and and he's teaching me how to make cables and all this stuff. All this stuff that I had learned at PBS

in Florida. I was like, "Oh, I know how to do this. Oh, I know how to read a waveform monitor. Oh, I know how to do all this stuff." Like,

he's like, "Dank." Yeah. Like he didn't believe it. Right. And so then so we're learning and then I remember there was a little bit of challenge and I'm sitting out at the camera truck cleaning something and the producer comes by and goes Angie Lret who I owe so much to for because she has been so kind and she put me on one kind day. She helped get me on on Hawaii 5 tells the producers Scott knows how to DIT, right?

And they were having some issues and I think he had to go to Spider-Man or something like that. And so the producer comes up to me and goes, "Oh, I hear you can dit." And I was like, "Yeah, you know, my goal is to learn from this guy because he's a legendary in Avatar. This isn't uh No, this is um

the guy who was the Brian Spicer the first year." I forgot his name. Oh. Um Yeah.

Tall white guy in Canada. Yeah, I know. Exactly. Um so he comes up to me and he says, "Oh, you know how to do this?" And I was like, "Yeah." I was like, "My goal is to learn as much this year and maybe season two." I Brad um it

is Brad. Yeah. Okay. And so I was like, "Maybe I can be the DIT for season two." And he goes, He's like, "You should try to take some of those classes sooner." And I was like, "Huh?" And he just walks away. And I was like, "What was that?" Right. Sure enough, there's a something happens and then those guys have to leave.

They they tell the the DIT that he'll stay on for two episodes and train me. So, I get this the best thing landing in my lap. Yeah. Like, I am the luckiest guy ever. They just gave me a half a million dollar a year job like just given to me. Yeah,

because of Angie Le Pratt and Rick Brock like and Jeff Downer was all about cheap. So he's like local. I like I want this guy. He didn't know me that well yet. Then he will eventually know me.

And so then I was really fortunate. So Britt Cyrus is super kind and he and he teaches me a ton of good stuff.

And so I do one episode I think with him or maybe two, I can't remember. And then he leaves.

And then Ron Garcia is the is the DP. And Ron Garcia doesn't use a DIT, right? So he doesn't use a DIT. So I get two weeks. Oh, and that's why they're a little bit upset with the other guy because he would play video games on Ron Garcia's episodes and then he would work on Don Thorne's episodes, right? And so um and so I'm doing the same thing. I have nothing to do, right? So I built my cart.

Yeah, that's what I did. I spent an entire week and a half of the thing and I just built my cart. So then now um uh James L. Carter when I show up, I got my cart ready for him and it's going. And so then by the season's ending, I had, you know,

remember your igloo that we I had bought it at that season two. Oh, really? Yeah. Season. Oh, no, no, no. I bought it season one.

I was going to say I feel like we started with that because Brit had one. Oh. To to black everything out so you could color and do everything right there on set.

Pop it up. And you guys used to laugh cuz right I go and I pop it up. Yeah. No, no. I mean it it was just like it that's how challenging besides your job. You had to, you know, make sure you had a spot set up. you could run cables from. You're out of every shot, you know? It's like,

so imagine too, and it's also the you just said it was the change over from digital to film.

So my position was the most hated of all positions cuz all the old-timers are like,

"Fuck that guy." Like, he was never on this position was never there before. Yeah.

And then the but then the old-timer who's the DP is like, "But I need that guy."

DP is like, "I need that guy cuz I need I want I need him to like check my exposure, set that thing up and all that stuff." You know what I'm going to say here that a lot of DPS depended on you, especially the ones the ones coming up, you know what I mean? And yeah, you know, they had to match a look for a show, but at the same time, you know, you was there to kind of help guide them from the position you were at.

And then you went on to basically be a a camera operator over on Magnum PI. And um you you you you did all was it three seasons or four seasons of Magnum?

I think it was five. And then I got to be the last two I got to be director of photography on MagnumPI. So I mean I was super fortunate.

And it's I mean it's Angie Lret for sure. I mean it's Tori to start to Tori back in the early one kind day. This is my favorite thing he ever did is there was this one kid who I can't remember his name but he was like a red camera I know everything guy.

And he's sitting there a cable wasn't working on one kind day and he's heckling me as I'm trying to fix it. Right. and and uh Tori goes, "Hey, it's up to Scott. Get away from the camera." You know the story. And I was like, "Wow, thanks, Tori." And then I just I fixed it, right? You know, because I was going to fix it, but it was just making it more difficult.

And on that same movie, uh Tommy um Oh, what is this? What's Oh, Tommy Lman, yeah,

is on there. And I'm, you know, I operate a little quickly. And so I'm operating really quickly and Tommy just goes "Scott

we'll give you as much time as you need. Just take your time, right?" You know, and that's where I learned early on is that if I can't figure out how to fix it in like a minute, let's just down the camera,

we'll say use the other camera and I was more valuable to production. I did it in Hawaii all the time

because it's like instead of sitting there for 20 minutes and then not being successful,

I would try for one, two max and then I'd say, "Nope, I can't do it." Mhm. Because that's that's the thing that people are so afraid to say they can't do something. And that's that's power because by saying I can't do that or I don't know the answer to that. It's better because now we can move on. We can go grab that camera and we can go get the shot,

right? And so many times the camera was bricked because if something's simple, we just need to pull all the power or we just need to calmly

take it out of the set and then we can go fix it. But on the middle of everybody panicking, sometimes it's a lot easier to say, "No, it doesn't work." Mhm.

And then B camera comes over, does a shot, and then by the time they're done with the shot, A camera's fixed again, and then you bring it back in.

What are you doing nowadays? I I mean, TV has gone away. You You have any fun passion projects you're working on now?

I mean, that's it. So, because of when Magnum ended, I went back to the the script to screen production. So, I I I have my own company. Um, and at that company, we write.

What is the name of your company? Cinema. Okay. We write, we shoot, we edit, and then we put it wherever it needs to go. And so I call it script to screen because that's what we do.

Awesome. And you liking where you're at now or um I I am, but post-production's a beast.

Yeah. Like I need help. I found some AI editing software that's helpful, but like that earlier thing I was saying, Rick Rubin, like he said, AI will never have a point of view. That's the hard part with any AI anything.

Is like AI is good for the the tedious stuff that you would hire somebody else to do that's not creative. But the creative stuff, I don't know that it's I mean, I guess maybe it will eventually do it,

but it's still, I think, going to be better when a human makes that point of view. Because back to what we were saying, everybody has a story, right? Everybody has a point of view and it's interesting from their point of view. The biggest thing I learned in writing was there's a number and it's like there's 13 possible plots. I don't know, maybe it's 28, maybe it's I don't know, there's a number. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, the chase, uh the Odyssey, um bar, you know, there's all these ones and there that's it. There's only that many stories that can be told. So every story the unique uniqueness of everybody's story is about character

and that's the point of view. So you have a story that that's unique to you and that story would be interesting to some people and there's eight billion people on the planet so I'm sure millions of them would be interested in whatever story it is that you have and that's for anybody out there

and so everybody's afraid to tell that story. They should just tell it because it's interesting like like the movie Chaperon that's coming out right now,

you know, that's got a great point of view. Local filmmaker. We need more filmmakers doing stuff like that in this world. You know, I've got the Tai Sangas of the world. You know, he's got a great point of view. You know, the Justin Aon.

Yeah. You know, a lot of them. I I agree. And that's you know that's I if you you know if you are speaking directly to a filmmaker what is your advice you know to them as

it's simple make a film like just make a film. I was taught a long time ago that if you make art and you're not dying to show it to people then you're probably in the wrong business. Like that's you should just it's art is to be shared and to be interpreted. And you'll notice in life that you're generally judged by people doing less than you. Rarely are you ever judged by people doing more than you. People who are in a higher position than you are generally trying to lift you up and help you. It's usually the people below and that's the crabs in the bucket mentality, right? And that's what we need to get rid of. And we can, you know, guys with positive attitude like yourself. It's like encourage everybody like like Greg Lunggard is one of my favorite operators that he used to always say, "Well, that's one way." Like like there is no right way. Like that's what the union frustrated me the most

about is so many union guys were like, "No, this is the only way. This is how we did it on lost. We used to do that on 5. This is how we did it on lost. That's why we're going to do it on 50." So when we're on Magnum, it's like, "That's how we did it on 50." So, we're going to do it this way on Magnum. And it used to frustrate me because I was like, man, none of you guys are filmmakers when you want to talk like that. Like a filmmaker is about just feel feel the direction and go in that direction, you know, trust your gut. You have a plan and go with it. And so my advice to any upand cominging filmmaker is just make a film.

Just make one and then make another one and then make another one and then make another one. Just keep making them. start with a small short one, you know, and then try to make a longer one. And um there's this podcast I love listening to is the is the Roger Deakons because I think he's one of the most amazing cinematographers. One of the best things he says all the time is if you're talking about how great my shots are in the movie, then that means the movie failed,

right? You know, he's right. Yeah. Sometimes not to the filmmaker watching it though, but

Yeah. I mean, when a filmmaker's watching it, you're right, because we are going to watch it differently. But to the to the average person watching it when they're like, [gasps]

"Yeah, that shot was so good." It's like, "No, no, no. The the character, you know, going through the arc, that's what was good,

right?" You know, were you on your toes when you you watch that? And that was the important. But

I really could talk to you for hours just like how we would do on set. And I I would be that guy asking you all the questions. And maybe because you was that guy asking all the questions, you always answered all of my questions. and I appreciate you coming on here like you're a legend. You've been in this game for a long time and you've been contributing like you said in your story to so many local filmmakers um from day one who now is inspiring the next generation of filmmakers. So I'd like to pay my respects to guys like you to guys like Ruben and the people who kind of it's nice to hear the origin stories of where you guys came from and how you guys came up. Hopefully you guys inspire the next generation um like you guys been doing. So, thank you so much for coming on, Scott.

I appreciate you. And and like the word Kako, let's all do it together. Let's all inspire the next generation to be storytellers.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Scott Lee Mason: Building Hawaiʻi’s Film Legacy, One Frame at a Time"?

In order: 0:00 Eolani, Magnum PI, Scott Lee Mason; 10:00 One Kind Day; 20:00 The Real Cancun; 30:00 NYPD Blue, One Kind Day, The Real Cancun; 40:00 Cinema, Code Creative, Tori Tukuafu; 50:00 One Kind Day, Super Geeks; 1:00:00 Cinema, Justin Aon, Magnum PI, One Kind Day.

What is mentioned in this The Big Picture episode?

16 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including One Kind Day, Eolani, The Real Cancun, Cinema, Hawaii 5-0, Punahou School. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Scott Lee Mason: Building Hawaiʻi’s Film Legacy, One Frame at a Time"?

The episode runs 1 h 9 min; the transcript is about 15,075 words in 325 timestamped sections.

More from The Big Picture

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.