Neil Evely, the Global Head of Innovation at Helo, joins Jessica Kantor to discuss how showing clips of his son's interests in adult film sparked his curiosity to learn about the character and stories.
Neil Evely, the Global Head of Innovation at Helo, joins Jessica Kantor to discuss how showing clips of his son's interests in adult film sparked his curiosity to learn about the character and stories.
Neil has experience on both the Product/R&D side AND the client side of businesses for previous companies, including The Mill and Superbright, focusing on creating human-centered experiences (be they digital, video, or experiential).
Films discussed include:
[00:00:00] Jessica Kantor: Welcome to the Raising Cinephiles Podcast, a show about passing on your love of cinema to the next generation. I'm your host, Jessica Kantor, , and I have worked in all facets of the entertainment industry for the last 20 years and recently became a mom.
[00:00:15] In today's episode, we speak with Neil Evely. He's the global head of innovation for Helo, a production company. I am signed with as part of a duo called Lola Tango with my directing partner, Eve Weston. When we met Neil, as you joined Helo, he told us about his love of cinema and how he is enjoying sharing his passion with his son. And I just knew he was a perfect guest for raising cinephiles.
[00:00:40] Always remember that myself and guests are speaking from personal experience and not giving parenting advice Let's go ahead and dive into the episode.
[00:00:50] Welcome back to the Raising Cinephiles podcast. This is your host, Jessica Kantor, and I'm here today with Neil Evely, who is the global head of [00:01:00] innovation at Helo, and also, a cinephile starting his career in animation and production and x and also a new friend. I'm so excited to welcome you here to Raising Cinephies.
[00:01:14] Neil Evely: Thank you, Jessica. This is very cool. This is my, I've, as I've mentioned before, this is my first ever podcast and I can't think of a, a topic that would be the best one to start with, so I'm thrilled.
[00:01:24] Jessica Kantor: Awesome. Thank you. I'll kick us off with my first question, which is, what is your first movie memory?
[00:01:30] Neil Evely: My first movie memory. I've been thinking about this since I knew that we. I'm gonna slightly cheat cuz there's two. But there's a very vague one, when you don't really know if you've dreamt it or not, but there's a vague memory of my mom taking my sister and I to the old Plaza Cinema in Truro in Cornwall where we grew up. It was one of those really old school retro cinemas that thankfully still exists and has actually become slightly [00:02:00] famous.
[00:02:00] Thanks to Mark Commode, who was a big fan of the Plaza Inro. But it's, it was very old and we were sat at the top, the, in the high seats, whatever you call them. And I vaguely remember watching Jungle Book. Now this would've been a re-release cause I would've been, gosh, six or seven. But at that time I didn't know anything about the fact that you rereleased movies.
[00:02:22] And we just engaged with it and sung along with it as best we could, but that's my kind of, but it's so vague and foggy. But my kind of earliest big cinematic memory is when my dad took me to see back to the future two. So my dad blessed him has tinnitus. So when we used to go and visit him at weekends, he used to take me to the cinema and then sit in the car park and read a paper and wait for me to come out.
[00:02:49] So I had, I started having these kind of cinema moments by myself really early on, which I guess. He's quite, kinda, quite poignant when you think about it. But I remember him buying me my single ticket and me having to [00:03:00] walk down to the to the front. And I was right at the front row and I how old would I have been?
[00:03:05] I probably nine or 10. And just that was my first kind of proper, big screen experience. I was a huge back to the future fan, even at a young age, and it stuck with me, which is why there's a. Behind me there's a Back to the Future Play mobile set, which is slightly outta I was just, So excited about seeing this film.
[00:03:28] I just loved Marty McFly. I dunno why I was nine. I was just not even too clued up enough about it. But he was cool. He could skateboard. I couldn't skateboard. So yes, so I remember so in the uk there was a really big thing. I imagine it's the same in the US with kind of movies hitting tv and it was only a couple of Christmases before, maybe even the cri that Christmas before went back to Future, had made it onto the TV and I remember it was on the front of all the TV magazines and it was like the first time we actually got to see it, it was before VHS rentals and we watched [00:04:00] that and then, so I was thrilled about gonna see the second one.
[00:04:03] And actually, I don't remember much about the movie at all. I just remember going into the cinema sitting down. then my next memory is of the, when they played the trailer for the third one because they shot them back to back. And it just blew me away that there was this already, they'd thought about the story and where he was going and that I could watch the next one, like in a year time.
[00:04:24] And I remember just finding my way out. The cinema completely swamped. The cinema was totally full. And then having to find my dad in his car, reading his newspaper and that was it. That was kind my launch into kind film fandom and I never really looked.
[00:04:39] Jessica Kantor: So that, that's when you really, that. of seeing the trailer post the film is when you realized that film was a craft. It was something that was created and thought about
[00:04:50] Neil Evely: yeah, I think I got really caught up in the story and I was so excited the fact that there was another part of it and that they, the idea of them teasing it, I suppose [00:05:00] it was a really early Easter egg, which we're all quite familiar with now. But yeah, I just couldn't wait to find out what was going on.
[00:05:05] And there were all these new characters and it was in a different place. And I still rate back to Future three amongst one of it's still a good film in the trilogy for me despite what my friends say. But yeah, it was it was a moment for me. And then yeah, there were lots of solo cinema trips after that unfortunately, for.
[00:05:22] Jessica Kantor: Now that you're a parent do you think maybe your dad enjoyed the break? Of you going to the cinema?
[00:05:30] Neil Evely: I think, yeah, it was tricky in the sense that when only saw my, my, my parents split up when I was about 10, so the kind of the weekends were quite special. So I imagine looking back on it now, he was probably happy that he was able to do. Something that I wasn't able to do when I was at home, and it was special, but at the same time, if it were me, I'd be like, it's two hours that I'm not gonna spend my time. So I imagine he was a little bit torn, but he's a very considerate man. He, and I think he would've just seen it as being a, a. [00:06:00] A treat, it was one of those things that we were able to do and, but yeah. I'm sure he just enjoyed reading sports pages in on a bench or in the car.
[00:06:09] Jessica Kantor: Did you talk to him about the film after you come out?
[00:06:13] Neil Evely: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I would. And this is where I think he probably benefited being slightly deaf in, in the left ear. So on the drive home, I would just be going, and this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened. And I dunno why this happened and I dunno what Doc Brown's gonna do, but apparently there were some horses and I could see in my mind's eye, my dad just kinda nodding as he was driving.
[00:06:35] Belittle Did he know that he was gonna be on that journey with me for the next 20 years while. Made him record everything on the tv. And then I got into, really into comics and he was surprisingly supportive of that. I think he saw them as an investment, as a, as an ex bank manager. But yeah, he was along for that journey with me.
[00:06:55] Whether he liked it or not.
[00:06:56] Jessica Kantor: And do you have any siblings?
[00:06:58] Neil Evely: Yes, I have a sister. Yeah, [00:07:00] she's a couple years younger at home.
[00:07:01] Jessica Kantor: Did she start joining you at the movies?
[00:07:03] Neil Evely: We were very different growing up. There were a couple of films that we bonded on Goonies, I think we probably watched Goonies every two weeks at my dad's house. Even my dad started to know the script and know what was about to happen. But, No, my sister, if my sister came up with me, she would often spend the time with my dad and I would go solo.
[00:07:23] But yeah, we used to, watch a lot of stuff together at home that dad, my dad had recorded in between those two weeks. We used to phone him up. Dad dad, there's something on tv, it's eight o'clock, it's on this particular channel. And he'd beaver off and record it. And he was so diligent and so sweet.
[00:07:37] He'd write it down and put it in a little notebook and it was alphabetized. And yeah, we built up quite a little library. Thanks to his diligent recordings.
[00:07:44] Jessica Kantor: That's such a nice , thing that he was able to do for you and bond over.
[00:07:48] Neil Evely: Yeah. Yeah. And he would, and sometimes he'd go rogue and record stuff that we didn't ask for. And often they were the nice surprises. Like a, he'd grab a James Bond movie or something random that he'd [00:08:00] come across in the newspaper. And if, and sometimes he'd sit there and pause the adverts out, which is just he's, he wasn't even that interested in the film.
[00:08:07] And it was just such a theme of thinking about it. Now it's It was very sweet of him.
[00:08:11] Jessica Kantor: Yeah. That is really sweet. And on television, did he watch with you?
[00:08:15] Neil Evely: Yeah, it was he would sit in the background, read the paper, and my sister and I would be watching something or playing in front of the TV with the movie on. And I remember thinking that he was, there was movies that he would engage with more. Like he, he was always quite a big fan of the Goonies going on.
[00:08:30] I think he, he just enjoyed it. And there were a couple other films I think that he would pay attention to, but he, I think he just really enjoyed. The environment that it created. And obviously this is a slightly whole different conversation about kind of parental care and single parents and not seeing your dad.
[00:08:47] But that, I think for that moment, although that weekend there was something quite special about everything, just feeling quite normal. And I think looking back on it, I think that was quite special for him.
[00:08:56] Jessica Kantor: Yeah and it's also, when. To have something [00:09:00] individual. Even parents in these conversations have. Different relationships with their kids and different way they bond over content with each one individually. Or each parent has their own moments with their kids, which I think is a really nice thing.
[00:09:15] That's why I always ask about the rituals of what the family viewing is because it, it's really intimate and beautiful and creates conversation and family time. The other question I ask a lot, and especially since your dad would go rogue and film movies maybe you wouldn't wanna watch, do you think taste is nature or nurture?
[00:09:36] Neil Evely: Oh gosh. I think it's nature. I think. I look back on thinking about what's in my iMovie library and the things that are on my Netflix and what have you. They're very, my father and i's taste are very different. There's probably a very kind of small overlap. And I wouldn't even say my dad's a particularly, a particular film buff because of him previously not being able to hear [00:10:00] stuff and.
[00:10:01] The age of when he grew up. No, I think the things that I'm into from a film point of view are very much my own that I've developed over, yeah. 30 plus years.
[00:10:12] Jessica Kantor: I can't edit out that cough.
[00:10:14] Neil Evely: No, I'm.
[00:10:15] Jessica Kantor: Just kidding. as you got older, did you find let's, were middle school teenage years? Did you find a community around going to the movies or friends that you watched films at home with?
[00:10:30] Neil Evely: Yes. Outside of being with my dad there was a group of us that would go to the movies. I remember one particular trip to going to see. Seven. We all drove out to a different cinema Outta town just because it was the only one that it was on, and that was back in the day, which I miss when you didn't really know much about a film.
[00:10:49] You just knew you'd seen the trailer. You might have read a, not even a review, but a kind of a preview piece of copy in a, in Empire Magazine or something, and you'd be like, yeah, I'm, [00:11:00] and we went to watch seven and we sat there in this kind of small cinema. And just utterly blown away by it.
[00:11:09] And we all came outta the cinema and it was dark and it was raining. We all got into our individual cars and all drove home and I don't think anyone said anything to each other until we saw each other at college a couple of days later. It was just, it stayed with you. There was something very different about those kind of trips.
[00:11:25] And another one, when we went to go and see something and it was full. We ended up gonna see Ace Ventura and we'd never, we didn't know what it was, had no idea. And there were four of us. And we just so hard until our kind of side split, we'd never seen anything like it. We didn't know who this guy was, we weren't prepared for it.
[00:11:45] And they're very kind of very vivid, colorful memories of going with my friends. And then I ended up getting a job in a video rental store and for about two years, I. I pretty much saw everything that came [00:12:00] out. I was able to have stuff on in the store, which was great when it was quiet.
[00:12:05] But my friends would come and hang with me. And we maybe watched half of something and then half of something the next day, especially during the summer when it was dead and I was trapped in this video store, but, and I had keys and we could go and rent and pull anything out. And for about two, two and a years while we were college, and then seen absolutely everything.
[00:12:26] And that kind of led just carried on into college and into university and and yeah, I couldn't get away from it.
[00:12:33] Jessica Kantor: The person I had on yesterday was talking about how he would go to the video store and it was actually the store clerk, college kid that opened him up to all sorts of new cinema. He would rent some go to rent something, and they're like, eh, are you sure you want that? And so were you that person, did you help develop other kids' tastes when you were in that role?
[00:12:55] Neil Evely: I, looking back on it, I'm surprised at how many people wanted your opinion. I think maybe [00:13:00] they just assumed you'd seen it, but they really valued your kind of guidance and my boss. And I became very involved in picking the number of different copies of each film that he would pick.
[00:13:11] And he's have you seen this? That was back when they were like a hundred pounds of tape or a hundred bucks of a copy. And yeah, the amount of people that would come in and you try and guide them one way or the other. And sometimes there was just nothing left. Cause it was a Saturday night and you'd see people take stuff home and you're like, yeah that's not gonna float your boat.
[00:13:28] But it was a big store. He stocked an awful lot of stuff. And there was some, yeah, there were some unusual titles. Or, not non-mainstream, which was great. It was a very popular place. I loved that place.
[00:13:39] Jessica Kantor: And when did you know you wanted to work in the industry?
[00:13:43] Neil Evely: when I was in my teenage years finishing college. So in the UK we finished secondary school or high school, and then we do two years of college and I rather naively did. Art, drama and photography, thinking. They're all fairly physical A levels at the time. And they'd be great [00:14:00] fun.
[00:14:00] And actually the three of them compiled together. There was so much extra work involved in trying to make them all payoff that I, I had quite a stressful time at college trying to make it all work to the point where I very nearly didn't, but I was desperate to try and. Something creative. I used to love drawing and I got really hooked into photography, and that was back when we did photography in a dark room and we developed film and printed and it was just that whole process.
[00:14:26] And then I had to do a history photography course. And that led you down the really early stuff. And then you learned about Edward, my Bridge and the famous kind of horse footage and then into film and it and something just started to click. And that learning about the background and then have being immersed and having all this content that I could access in the video store.
[00:14:45] It was. It just felt like something I really wanted to get into. I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I'm pretty sure I wanted to do animation. I loved the idea of drawing and making something move. But it wasn't until I actually got to film and animation school that I realized how hard [00:15:00] it was and actually how.
[00:15:01] Diligent and talented, you have to be to make that work. And it was university that taught me that actually I still wanted to be in the industry, but animation was not gonna be something that I was gonna
[00:15:11] Jessica Kantor: Yeah. And how much classic cinema classic animation did you explore while you were in the video store?
[00:15:19] Neil Evely: It's funny, I'm not sure how much classic films in the video store, I was probably a bit of a sucker and watched all the new stuff. It wasn't until you reach a lazy Sunday afternoon where you might pick something a little bit random. I'm quite even now I'm quite bad at, I have to really force myself into new.
[00:15:40] Areas I'll, if there's something, if there's nothing on TV or something I can't find to watch I'll, I'm quite comfortable kind of going back to something that I've seen a lot, rather than explore something new, I have to really force myself out of my comfort zone. And then I'm fine, and then I'm like, oh, I'm into this.
[00:15:57] This is great. And I think at. It was too [00:16:00] easy in the video store just to sling something on that I didn't really need to pay too much attention to. I remember watching Brazil. I brought it home one night. I hadn't really, I'd read about it. I read about how strange it is, but again, it was slight, slightly science fictiony and that kind of appealed to me.
[00:16:14] And I remember watching that and thinking that's just. Bonkers and it inspired me a little to break out of my comfort zone a little bit more. There were definitely moments where I'd take something back and just watch it one evening just to explore it. But university was a bit more of a a broadening of education from a film perspective.
[00:16:33] Jessica Kantor: You didn't grow up in the US were most of your mainstream films American or were a lot of them more local to the uk?
[00:16:43] Neil Evely: No, I would say it was probably three quarters, mainstream American movies. Hollywood movies. In the nineties there was. Mid nineties, I would say when there was this big kind of brick culture uprising, and that's when [00:17:00] you started to get trains spotting train spotting, sorry.
[00:17:02] And other films of that genre that I can't remember. There was loads of that kind of burst onto the scene which is very exciting. So late nineties, 96, 97, that was when I was in art school. So there was loads of that kind of lower budget. UK based film fund BFI funded film out there that you could really get into that was more, that kind of bridged that gap between mainstream and being slightly more arthouse.
[00:17:27] But then that kind of, that bubble slightly burst. And then everything was went back to being a little bit more Hollywood. But university did teach me to explore other things. We did a lot of cinema studies and I remember watching a really early film called something about Bag of cherries.
[00:17:44] It's a really terrible, it's a residing memory of mine where the. The lecturer had tracked the people within this stage. It was a silent film, and he believed the way that the people moved within the stage was [00:18:00] an underlying meaning of of the kind of the characters and their struggles.
[00:18:03] And I. I was a bit naive at that time at university, and I just I just didn't buy into it. I just was like I can't believe that back then when they would, they literally had one camera that would barely work. That the director had thought about their space from a bird's eye view and how they moved within the stage and then to read meaning into that.
[00:18:24] And actually it really, I remember it really me I felt like he was a, he was layering something onto this that didn't exist. And I wrote an essay, basically just countering it and saying, I just didn't agree with it. And looking back now, I think maybe, maybe there's something more interesting there that I dismissed.
[00:18:43] But I think there is a tendency in those classes sometimes to read into a lot of stuff that, that that isn't there.
[00:18:50] Jessica Kantor: Let's talk about kids and introducing your kid. How old? So how old is your child, children?
[00:18:56] Neil Evely: so we've got one little boy, he is called Mac. We'll get his name out the way. He's [00:19:00] seven. So he's on a really fascinating little journey. I was really thinking about this the other night, and I think a lot of where he is at now with his kind of love of, let's just say broadly film, although obviously he watches other things, he's not like some sort of complete film nerd at seven years old.
[00:19:17] A lot of it has stemmed from the age and where he was when the pandemic hit. And I'm sure it's not a unique story, but he was, he'd just turned four when the pandemic hit us in the UK the end of March. And at the time, both my wife and I, full-time jobs, both within the creative industry, both fairly demanding, both absolutely used to being. In studios or in places with people and people just didn't know how to handle this kind of working from home like overnight. And you had a four year old who, so who [00:20:00] hadn't started school, he was still in nursery or preschool. He was due to starting that SEP in that September. So he was of an age where, He would entertain himself to a point that he would need engagement.
[00:20:12] You couldn't just flunk him in front of something or give him an iPad or whatever he needed playing with, he was interested. He wanted to come engage. So we didn't really know how to juggle this particular situation, and Mac was never particularly interested in the really young, infant tv.
[00:20:30] The singing, the dancing the bright characters the Anane songs, the nursery rhymes. We ne weirdly, we never really had many nursery rhymes in the house. It was always Just music as, as and when it occurred. So he needed kind of something slightly different to, to engage him and we just didn't want him to just be watching this, these kind of bright, colorful things on YouTube for hours and on end. He. Became fascinated with cars and trucks like all little boys do, or a lot of little boys do, I should say. [00:21:00] If you templated a little boy, Mac is that little boy. Sport, cars, animals, all that kind of stuff. Of course there was no sport cause it was the pandemic. And so we started he got really into Monster trucks.
[00:21:10] And he was really into his monster trucks. We were ordering kind of matchbox cars daily. Again, you were just doing anything you could to just make it through the day in the week. Cause it was three months of lockdown from March until, June, which is when his nursery finally reopened.
[00:21:24] So cars took us to YouTube, which we have a love hate relationship with, and we actually don't we've walked away from it since, but it was cars and then that led us to boats and tanks. And then he got really into kind of the whole army thing. He just wa he just loved the vehicles.
[00:21:43] He just wanted to watch the vehicles. And then one day I think we just run out of things to do, and we. Put on and I'm gonna be judged. We put on the movie Battleship that came out a few years ago. I should point out, finger actively hovering over the Apple [00:22:00] remote looking for anything that shouldn't be.
[00:22:04] But he was just absorbed by the mechanical side of things. He wasn't. He wasn't at all remotely scared or I wouldn't even say he was that excited. He just wanted to watch the boats. He just wanted to watch the things move and the things engage. He wasn't worried about the aliens. It was like, it was the whole kind of mechanical thing and he just became just fascinated with all things in motion, whether it be particularly cars and boats that got him really into wanting to watch. Things about world War because he knew his great granddad had been in the World War, and so he's four, he's, he can engage, he can explain what he's interested in. So we went down this path of of, and that became movies where he could watch. That kind of, I lose use the term action loosely, but that kind of motion, there was excitement, there were vehicles, maybe there were planes, maybe there were boats.
[00:22:54] Then all of a sudden we realized that with the loads of films that we could put on with the volume on low and just skip [00:23:00] through stuff, and he just loved it and. One of the films that we he would actively ask for was a bridge too far. Now, I should also point out there's a lot of stuff in a bridge too far that isn't suitable for a four year old, but there's a scene in the bridge too far where.
[00:23:13] Sean Connery is gathering his troops and they all get in the gliders as the planes take the gliders over the the channel to Holland and I swear, I think we've watched that one scene a hundred times. He just, and he was fascinated. And then when they crashed, he was like, why did they crash?
[00:23:28] Where was that? And then there were other parts of the bridge too far where the tanks just go on a down the road and they can't get to. And we would just skip through and there were chapters and we would watch Bridge Too Far in. It became this thing where wherever we could find suitable loosely, movies that had interesting scenes or interesting kind of motion and cars and that kind of thing. We watched Fast and Furious with the volume down.
[00:23:55] Jessica Kantor: I showed my son, who also is a templated [00:24:00] boy. I would add dinosaurs to our list,
[00:24:03] Neil Evely: yes, sorry. Yes. Yeah
[00:24:05] Jessica Kantor: but I showed him the scene from speed where the bus like had to jump over the thing. Oh. He was like, just so like mouth agape looking at it. And also the scene of Jurassic Park where they first see the dinosaurs.
[00:24:20] It's five minutes, six minutes clip that I've been doing clips like that too. It's very very interesting kind of what. They engage with.
[00:24:28] Neil Evely: Yes. Gosh, I can't believe I've forgotten dinosaurs. So we, yeah, we found ourselves doing Jurassic Park again in little chunks here and there, avoiding the kind of the really terrifying bits. But then he used to just get really annoyed with us that we were skipping stuff and he knew it wasn't. He claims he knew it wasn't real.
[00:24:45] He just wanted to see the dinosaurs. He knew the dinosaurs didn't exist. He knew they had died out. So he, for him, he his train of thought is it's, they're not real, so it's okay. So he never really we never had any kind of moments where of terror, he just wanted this content, he just wanted this kind of [00:25:00] engagement and he would name all the dinosaurs.
[00:25:02] So yeah, we've done all of the Jurassic Park stuff
[00:25:05] Jessica Kantor: I, I
[00:25:06] Neil Evely: and yeah.
[00:25:07] Jessica Kantor: I accidentally had the T-Rex scene on one like cuz we were playing and I didn't stop it in time and I was like so nervous and he just looks at the screen and goes,
[00:25:18] Neil Evely: Exactly. Yeah, absolutely. I think we we worried unnecessarily. He's fairly well balanced and who knows what'll happen in 10 years. But he just loves it. He understands that there's there are characters there. He likes the story. He wants to know what's gonna happen.
[00:25:32] He wants to know what's gonna happen with the people. So I think that's the really interesting part is when it stopped being pictures and Kind of action scenes and he started to string them together and he wanted to know how person A got from that part to that part. It wasn't just enough to skip and obviously he's not Fast and furious and paying attention and really getting all the script, et cetera.
[00:25:52] But he, when he got a bit older, things like Jurassic Park, he said, no, I he wanted to understand that, that story arc and you [00:26:00] couldn't skip it. And we were like we're in this now. So we just gotta see how it pans out.
[00:26:04] Jessica Kantor: How old was he when he started to crave this story?
[00:26:07] Neil Evely: It was probably When he was five. So post pandemic, he'd done his first year at school, which was challenging to start school and the pandemic when everything was just so weird. But they introduced a great deal more reading. I don't think we were great in hindsight. Doing the kind of the reading early days.
[00:26:24] And I think that introduced him more to the sense of story. Now he's He's still learning to read, but he really wants to engage with it. And I've seen him try and pour into books that are probably slightly out of his age range. He wants that character. And I think that came about off the back of school.
[00:26:40] Jessica Kantor: Have you introduced him to Harry Potter?
[00:26:42] Neil Evely: Oh, Harry Potter. We are deep into Potter. We have done, we've done all seven, eight films I should say. We literally finished. Definitely Hallows part two about a week ago. And that was funny enough, one of those rare occasions where my wife and I were doing faces each other going [00:27:00] because it's pretty intense.
[00:27:01] Even to the point where my wife was like, had that kind of face on her when she's my goodness, even though she knows how it's gonna end and I could see Mac and it like under his blanket and he's got one of his soft guys with him. And the minute he finished. He took the control and just went back to Chamber Secrets and just pressed play again.
[00:27:19] It was like, cool, I need, I need this again. And we've done the first book and we're into the second one. And that's the book that he's trying to read himself, which is like the most adorable thing. And yeah he's going through these different kind of franchises I suppose. We dabbled with Marvel and he enjoys a bit of Star Wars, but
[00:27:36] Jessica Kantor: the first full movie you showed him
[00:27:39] Neil Evely: yes, it Yeah, I can never remember the name of the film. It's the Pixar one with the two El brothers who bring back their half dad. And it's just the guy with the legs actually, we need to figure out what the name of it is. And I needed to remind myself what it was. I meant to do that before I spoke to you.
[00:27:54] Because it's a particularly, it's a story that kind of It's part, it's particularly
[00:27:59] Jessica Kantor: [00:28:00] it onward?
[00:28:01] Neil Evely: The onward. Yeah. So yeah, so the first film that we watched from beginning to end at the cinema was onward. And it was again, one of those rare occasions where it was post pandemic and we'd seen the trailer. And he just really liked the kind of the look of it, and I, it must admit, it really appealed to me. And we took him to the cinema and he sat on my lap and it was the first cinema experience that I'd had with him. And then onwards, such a strong kind of father and son story. And I blobbed, I was like, I couldn't handle it.
[00:28:32] It was me with him on my lap. It was the first time out, it was the first cinema experience. It was post pandemic. when the older brother hugs his dad and the younger brother can't see him. And then he, and there was a brief moment in the middle of it where Mac ran off cause he needed to go to the bathroom.
[00:28:48] And I thought, oh, we might have lost him. It's 45 minutes. It's quite a long time. And I could see him just running back up the stairs and just clambered back on and he didn't move again until it was finished. And on we, we still [00:29:00] revisit onward even in kind of chunks here and there.
[00:29:02] And we listened to the theme tune and the song quite a lot. Yeah, it was a quite a poignant moment in in our lives, from the past couple of years.
[00:29:10] Jessica Kantor: And did you do any animation for him when he was little at home
[00:29:14] Neil Evely: Yeah, so even now I will,
[00:29:16]
[00:29:16] he loves to draw on color. And he will brief me into what he wants to color, and I will have to go and draw it and print it out and then give it to him. We can't, we're not allowed to Google it. I have to draw it, which is actually like one of my favorite things.
[00:29:29] And it reminds me that how much I still like drawing as well. Sometimes the briefs are pretty tricky and it, and especially when they're vehicles from very specific points of view. But yeah I, we still do that and we do it together and we try and. It sounds like all we do is as a family is just watch tv, but we try and balance it out and he's really into, he's recently got really into what he's called crafting, which is just modeling and painting and making stuff from all sorts of stuff.
[00:29:57] We're really embracing that. But yes I will [00:30:00] do doodles or drawing or black and white pictures for him to color or we'll do it together. yeah, it's a nice thing to be able to do.
[00:30:06] Jessica Kantor: And do you find that the story worlds that he's engaged with the film and have helped his imagination?
[00:30:14] Neil Evely: I've really seen it recently actually. Another thing that we did during the pandemic is we got really hooked into Lego. It became a real thing that we could do together. And it reignited my love for it, and I've seen him over the course of the past year instead of just making the models, putting them apart and building his own worlds And he where, whereas in, he used to wake up early and then the first thing he would do is come and wake us up.
[00:30:38] He's now in that lovely place where he'll he'll wake up and play and do his own thing. In his room, whether it be with Lego or Transformers or toys or whatever, and he's much, that kind of side of him has really developed, I think over the past 12 months, I think he's gone through a real spurt, a real developmental spurt, which has involved him really understanding. That kind of story and [00:31:00] telling stories and telling tales. And he'll always want to reiterate the adventure that this particular character has gone on when you come up to his room or yeah, there's definitely something there that has, that is growing.
[00:31:10] Jessica Kantor: That's great. And then before I ask my last question, I, is your father still with you? Is he still Okay. Just wanted to make sure before I ask this question, ha, have you invited him in to watch movies with you guys with your family?
[00:31:27] Neil Evely: So when they come up and visit we'll watch stuff together. And it's very. Mack and my father have got a really lovely relationship and he'll sit down with my dad and and they'll watch something on the sofa and dad will, he's almost better engaging with it now with Mac than he was with me.
[00:31:43] And that's not to say he didn't know what we were up to. I just think he found it hard to connect. But I think. Max broken that down. I think my dad's in a different place in his life as well. So yeah, they'll watch stuff together. They'll watch cricket together, they'll watch sport together.
[00:31:58] There's a real kind of [00:32:00] sharing of that moment. So yes, that's really lovely.
[00:32:03] Jessica Kantor: Yeah I feel like grandparents, cuz they don't actually have to parent, they can enjoy your kid purely
[00:32:10] Neil Evely: Yeah, 100%. It is really lovely. Mac . Will kind of point things out and he'll be like, oh, that's happening because of this. And my dad will ask questions and there'll be a kind of a really lovely dialogue between two of them. Yeah, quite special to watch when.
[00:32:24] Jessica Kantor: Yeah. All right. I'm gonna throw you my last question, which is, what movie should I show my son Miles as he grows to fall in love with cinema?
[00:32:34] Neil Evely: I I knew this question was coming. I thought about it a lot, and I was trying to, trying to come up with an answer that wasn't so obvious to me, but I think I just wasn't being truthful to myself. And I still think everyone should watch back the future. It's just, and it's probably not very, it's probably not very original, but it's just such a film of its time.
[00:32:53] And I think it's very special.
[00:32:55] Jessica Kantor: I had one other guest who also had, has shown each of his four children back to the future [00:33:00] as one of their first films. And I obviously need to ask you, have you shown your son back to the future yet?
[00:33:06] Neil Evely: Yes. However, we had to do it in chunks. I think there were, although the second time we revisited it, he was a lot more into it. I think he's not quite at the age where he can pick up on the dynamic and the back and forth between Marty and Biff and the other characters and Doc. But he definitely is aware of it.
[00:33:25] He gets annoyed the fact that I bought the Playmobile back to the future advent calendar and he's not allowed to play with it. So he's very aware of it as a thing. I'd be lying if I said we've watched it from beginning to end, but Yeah, every, we went to a car festival the other day and there was a DeLorean there and he said, daddy, it's the car from your favorite film.
[00:33:42] And I was like
[00:33:43] Jessica Kantor: At least he knows, and maybe, maybe there'll be like a rooftop cinema or a summer cinema where they show it. Again, so he can experience it with you the way you saw it.
[00:33:55] Neil Evely: I'd love that. Yeah. We're very lucky where we live. They do cinemas in open air cinemas and cinema [00:34:00] in, in the local museum. So if that happens, I should definitely be keeping my eye out. That's a really lovely idea. But yeah, I'm sorry it's not more original, but it's a, something that's close to my heart
[00:34:09] Jessica Kantor: I didn't think of Back to the Future actually as one of the movies on my list for my son. And then now that it's been brought up twice, I am definitely gonna revisit it. And the other thing that I think is really fun in terms of imagination is just the idea and concept of time travel.
[00:34:26] As something that, you know, as a discussion point, as an imagine, a jumping off point for our imagination and good stories that we come up I think that in itself is worth showing the film.
[00:34:38] Neil Evely: For what it's worth. My second one was The Incredibles.
[00:34:40] Jessica Kantor: I was the mom once by accident for Halloween. I like dressed up and everyone's are you from the incredible? So I was like, sure.
[00:34:47] Neil Evely: Yeah, that was one of those films that came out when I was really. Really trying to get into that specific industry and it's yeah it's very cool.
[00:34:55] Jessica Kantor: Thank you so much for sharing your stories and your [00:35:00] child's film education with me. I really appreciate you being on my podcast.
[00:35:04] Neil Evely: Not at all. It's an absolute pleasure. I hope people don't judge my battleship viewing too harshly.
[00:35:09] Jessica Kantor: I love it. I think it's so great that. Everyone comes from a different perspective on what they're showing their kids. And as if you get a chance to listen to some of the episodes, it might even Share some ideas, comfort, nobody quite knows what they're doing. These conversations haven't really been had, it's been so fun to hear and I'm so honored that people are sharing what they're doing in the privacy of their home with their family with me and so publicly because Nobody really knows.
[00:35:39] And a lot of it is trying to just share passion with our kids and help expose them to new things. And
[00:35:46] Neil Evely: Yeah,
[00:35:47] Jessica Kantor: so yeah, it's been,
[00:35:48] Neil Evely: no, absolutely.
[00:35:49] Jessica Kantor: this has been super fun. So there's definitely no judgment, at least from me.
[00:35:55] Neil Evely: No, it's been great. Thank you, Jessica.
[00:35:56] Jessica Kantor: if you enjoyed the conversation, please don't forget to like [00:36:00] and subscribe new episodes, release every Wednesday and leave a comment and let me know which movie you think I should show my son. Until next time, take care.