0:00

Welcome to Truth Hounds, a production

0:03

of My Heart Radio. I'm

0:06

Anna and I've been unemployed

0:09

for two years now, so

0:11

i really have nothing going on. And

0:13

I'm Kyle and in middle school

0:16

I received the ward most Enthusiastic

0:18

to Learn. So that makes me pretty

0:20

special. And that is what makes

0:22

us the perfect investigative duo.

0:25

We are two friends who love each

0:27

other very much. But what we love

0:29

even more is getting to the bottom of

0:32

mysteries. All mysteries, sure,

0:34

but small mysteries specifically.

0:37

Trust me, No mystery

0:39

is too small. No, no, no, Why don't you trust

0:41

me when I tell you we are ready

0:44

to sniff around? We are

0:47

the the truth Hounds.

0:53

Previously on Truth Hounds, Oh

0:56

my, what is that? What

0:59

is that? Deep? Macromy

1:01

the director of the festival, looked

1:04

terrifying. We can make something

1:07

really sick and really spooky

1:09

that also has a social commentary

1:11

that's for the good of you for long. You

1:13

know what, We're going to make the short in four

1:15

hours. Something

1:17

you probably can't tell right here is that

1:20

I'm actually terrified. How

1:24

did this happen? What

1:26

happened? What is this? Um?

1:34

It is one pm

1:37

um and there's just been a

1:39

break in the case, I got an email, and

1:41

um I told Anna about

1:44

it. Let me just get this my shirt. I'm

1:46

trying to get myself together. Um

1:48

Anna's coming over in a few minutes, so we can go

1:51

over it. Oh my god. Episode

1:56

five, What is fear? And

1:59

why can't I away hard

2:01

for? Okay?

2:10

Um, I'm just getting to Kyle's.

2:17

Ok Okay

2:22

are you? Oh my god?

2:25

Oh, let's

2:28

go. Okay. So it's so crazy meat,

2:31

So we have we got an email. So I just

2:33

wanted you to come over to your okay, okay,

2:35

okay,

2:37

okay, Oh my god,

2:40

okay, Oh my god, just

2:43

perpetually running. Okay,

2:46

let me see okay, Okay, I

2:49

haven't got it. I wanted to get it.

2:53

I don't see it in my embo. Oh my okay,

2:55

Oh my god, Oh

2:58

my god, okay, super

3:03

oh my god. Read this entire

3:06

email entire Okay, there's tune to this email,

3:09

but the words got it, got it to

3:11

comfirm you received and ready to entirely. Failure

3:14

to follow directions could result in a loss of an

3:16

official selection status. Wait does

3:18

that mean wait? Wait for receiving

3:21

possible honorable mention? Okay,

3:24

congratulations official?

3:29

Oh my, oh my god, oh my god.

3:32

Wait virtual show? What

3:36

wait? Wait? Wait, your film

3:38

is an official selection? Okay, virtual

3:42

show taking

3:45

place this sympe

3:49

Okay, wait one second? Okay, so attached to this

3:52

email as your official bullet Laurel. Be

3:54

sure to attach it to your poster and shared on social

3:56

media, tagging us. Okay, what's

3:58

next? We needed the little copy of your film,

4:01

masap um. If your film is not in

4:03

English, please have English. I was up virtual

4:05

screen or submission deadline? Wait

4:08

and then there's this Okay, wait, let

4:11

me see. We are currently

4:14

organizing our virtual festival

4:16

this year. Do you have experience that the

4:18

climate is still not conducive for

4:21

the types of live events we tend to organize,

4:24

which are usually balls to the wall. We

4:28

do make our virtual shows both memorable

4:31

and valuable to our filmmakers,

4:34

and our main page does have sample videos the virtual

4:36

events we organized throughout the pandemic for reference.

4:40

Ha. Wait,

4:42

but so the regular funds are balls

4:44

to the wall. Yeah? Wait,

4:50

wait, so we got Okay, I

4:52

just want to look at this. Wait where

4:54

does it wait? But why does

4:56

it say why does it say

4:58

did you get your ticket? It? Because if we got

5:01

wait, but we got in, so why when we

5:03

probably know, we probably don't need to get because if you

5:06

got in, you probably you

5:09

need to reserve your virtual ticket

5:11

online to participate in the

5:14

festival. We've been emailing

5:16

you know that probably just means, like you you reserve

5:19

your spot online, just that you're you're going to be attending.

5:21

Like that probably doesn't mean then what is

5:23

that you must purchase

5:26

a ticket to participate? Wait?

5:30

Yes, so even it says here,

5:33

yes, even filmmakers need to

5:35

purchase a take to purchase a ticket

5:37

to access the show. I'm

5:41

sorry for a virtue. So for

5:43

a gig or who got in, which is us,

5:46

you have to purchase a ticket to

5:49

attend your own screening, which is online.

5:55

Wait, Belower, about

5:57

how much does it take? Belower to available

5:59

ticket? Use the code for

6:03

fifty okay off

6:06

your ticket pages? Well, how much is

6:08

that fifty

6:11

three dollars plush tags?

6:16

So for us to screen our short

6:19

online is

6:22

at least fifty

6:25

dollars. I

6:27

mean, putting something on YouTube is for free.

6:29

I just and

6:32

it's not even going to be balls to the wall. Oh

6:34

my god, I'm

6:37

gonna I'm gonna trun off the party. Yeah, so

6:50

a lot just happened. Let's

6:52

just take a moment to talk about everything. Remember

6:56

that this whole investigation was about meeting

6:59

this one trigging yet terrifying

7:01

man, Beat Macromy who

7:04

happened to be in charge of the festival.

7:07

What initially drew us to him was quite simple.

7:11

He seemed to be super weird because

7:19

he was the director of this film festival.

7:22

We decided the most direct way to meet him

7:24

would be to infiltrate the festival. That

7:28

meant making a movie,

7:31

and making a movie was no easy

7:34

feat. In fact, it

7:37

entailed a lot. We

7:41

had to hire a director, find

7:43

a screenwriter who understood our vision,

7:47

fundraise for the eventual submission,

7:50

fee, pets

7:52

and salad for the day of the shoe, work

7:56

with a reputable acting coach, higher

7:59

actor, one of whom was Anna's crush,

8:03

and finally shooting

8:05

edit the damn thing. All

8:09

of that had to happen in

8:12

order for this one moment to exist.

8:16

But the thing about this moment, it

8:19

didn't even guarantee we would meet

8:22

Bet Macromy. No,

8:25

it just got us here to the front

8:27

door of the festival. But

8:32

now that we were at the front door, he

8:35

hardly felt celebrating because

8:38

we just learned he

8:40

would still cost us a hundred dollars

8:42

plus tax to step inside.

8:47

Sure, he

8:49

offered us a discount on the tickets,

8:53

but that didn't matter because

8:56

the principle of the matter, meeting

9:00

Beat back room and confronting our fear,

9:03

it's beginning to cost us a lot of money.

9:07

In fact, we

9:10

now faced a question, is

9:13

confronting your fear worth approximately

9:15

three? Honestly,

9:19

I didn't know. Let's

9:22

take an even further step back. If

9:25

this was a virtual event, would

9:28

we even get to meet Beat macromy

9:32

We had done all of this so we could face

9:34

our fear, but how

9:36

would we be able to do that on a computer screen?

9:40

I mean, zoom is good, but

9:42

it ain't that good. Discovering

9:51

that there was an admission fee for the filmmakers

9:53

who were accepted into the festival definitely

9:56

left a sour taste in our mouths. And

9:59

as far are is, not getting to meet Beat Macromay

10:01

in person, that felt like a blow

10:04

to the investigation. It

10:07

definitely meant that there was further to go. Basically,

10:13

our investigation wouldn't end after

10:15

attending this festival, but

10:18

it would definitely answer some questions and

10:21

assist us in eventually getting there. There

10:26

being meeting Beat Macromain in the flesh. We

10:30

were on the right path. It's

10:32

just that the path now looked a bit different. We

10:35

had no choice but to keep going. We

10:38

were into deep so

10:43

we came up with another plan, fund

10:48

raise and additional fifty dollars to

10:50

pay for our ticket to attend

10:52

the festival so

10:55

we could see Beat Macromain on a computer

10:57

screen. For now.

11:02

We did, but we have historically done

11:04

best. We put up a post

11:07

on Instagram. I

11:09

typed up a lengthy letter appealing to my

11:11

followers. It was verbos,

11:13

but it was from the heart. I

11:20

don't quite know how to say this, but

11:22

our short film Core is

11:25

an official selection for the two thou

11:29

Festival, taking place

11:31

virtually this year. It

11:34

cost us a hundred fifty dollars to submit,

11:37

so needless to say, we were very

11:39

nervous to hear the outcome of the decision. We

11:41

couldn't have done this without our Indigo Go

11:44

donors, because of whom we

11:46

were able to afford the submission, as

11:48

well as pizza and salad for the day of the shoot.

11:51

And a huge thank you to our talented Cask

11:54

and the only director brave enough to believe

11:56

in us play taking

12:00

h now

12:03

here comes the hard part. Moments

12:08

after we found out that we were selected, we

12:11

were told that on top of the hundred fifty dollar submission

12:14

fee, we have to pay to

12:16

attend the screening. Even

12:18

as the film's creators, the

12:22

cost to attend fifty

12:24

three dollars. This does

12:26

not come easily, especially

12:29

with the holidays around the corner. We

12:32

do not have time to fundraise, so we instead

12:35

asked that you ven Momie, and our

12:38

goal is to allow everyone who was

12:41

involved a ticket. Please

12:45

donate what you can. Within

12:55

minutes, we raised

12:58

fifty three dollars, which

13:00

would grant us one ticket to attend

13:02

the festival. And

13:05

keep in mind we had already spent a hundred

13:07

and fifty dollars to apply. I

13:10

guess you can't put a price tag on art, but

13:14

just for the record, if we did

13:16

put a price tag on art, it

13:18

would read two hundred three

13:21

dollars. This

13:24

was a virtual event, which

13:26

came as a complete surprise to us.

13:30

Remember we

13:33

had been anticipating booking flights,

13:36

renting gowns and tuxedos, taking

13:40

a limo. The whole crew is

13:42

there. We are passing a bottle

13:44

of champagne around. Everyone

13:46

is taking a big gulp, except for Kyle

13:49

because she has some sparkling apple cider.

13:52

She's been sober for five years actually, But

13:55

we talked about it beforehand and it's not a

13:57

big deal, and she's super comfortable with us during

14:00

king around her, and she's cheers

14:02

in us like she's also drinking champagne. But

14:04

again, I do assure you it is apple

14:06

cider, And in some ways I'm

14:09

jealous because I think

14:11

apple cider actually tastes better than champagne.

14:14

In fact, a lot of alcohol tastes really

14:16

bad, which brings to mind

14:18

the question are we just

14:20

pretending anyway?

14:25

To reiterate, this was

14:27

a virtual event, so

14:29

we did have to scale back, but

14:32

we still wanted it to be fun and feel

14:34

like a celebration, so we

14:36

invited a bunch of our friends over to Anna's

14:38

house, six of them to

14:40

be exact. And

14:43

before you feel too bad for us, check

14:46

this out. We only

14:48

purchased one admission ticket,

14:52

and there would actually be about eight of us

14:55

technically attending the event, which

14:58

means one ticket it

15:00

is fifty three dollars, So

15:02

theoretically eight tickets

15:05

would equal four d four

15:07

dollars, but we

15:10

only bought one, which

15:12

means we technically

15:14

saved three hundred

15:16

and seventy one dollars. So

15:19

if anything, we

15:22

won at

15:24

last the night was

15:27

here, we would finally

15:29

attend the festival and

15:32

get a glimpse of the mystery man himself.

15:35

Beep macromy Now

15:38

again, we wouldn't actually be meeting him in person,

15:41

but we would be damn close to

15:43

it. Oh

15:49

my god, they're here. Oh my god. Sorry,

15:59

everybody, chocolates.

16:04

If that voice sounds familiar to you, decorative

16:08

chocolates, it's because

16:11

it is. That's Megan,

16:14

the mean person with whom we did

16:16

a right along in season one. But

16:19

that doesn't affect me. All I care about his mind

16:21

getting my nuts. You

16:23

might be thinking to yourself, she

16:26

doesn't actually sound that mean, and

16:28

she brought decorative chocolate. Correct

16:31

a mundo. It turned

16:33

out that Megan was no longer mean,

16:37

and all it took was her finding

16:39

love. Huh

16:43

makes you think? So?

16:46

Oh? Rod's here? Also? Okay, let's see

16:49

it's her friend Rod from from before.

16:52

Do you remember Perfect Day Rod from the

16:54

White Is Giving Back Feels So Good episode

16:56

from season one? He

16:59

was here too, and he wanted to celebrate

17:01

our film. Our friends

17:04

Claire and Nick came as well, and

17:06

everyone got settled in Anna's cozy living

17:09

room. We waited for

17:11

our brave director Clay to arrive. We

17:14

did our best to make our guests feel very

17:16

comfy. We come on, Hi,

17:20

how are you? How do you want to tea

17:22

or spend drift or one of four beers?

17:27

Four beers okay, maid

17:32

a total of two dollars at this point

17:34

to be in this festival. So this

17:37

is kind of a big night for us. So we're expecting

17:39

this link to come any moment. Of

17:41

course, we we did get into the festival

17:43

um and so now we are waiting

17:46

for a link to the festival. The Lord

17:48

ceremony, it's toasted by a man named

17:52

Oh here it is, Oh here it is? Do

17:55

you want to Oh? I

17:58

didn't know it was going to start so soon. And

18:01

and our director, our brave

18:03

director Clay is supposed to come, although

18:06

his eighteen minutes, so we st

18:10

no, we won't be watching

18:12

our short. So that's that's

18:14

I hope everybody's on board with that play.

18:19

Got there right in time. Oh

18:22

wow, let's starting. I

18:38

know things are getting really good, but

18:40

we have to take a break for some ads.

18:44

And the ad break is over back

18:46

to it. What

18:52

we saw next was um

18:56

confusing to say the least. O

19:06

yes, let

19:12

me be your eyes. What

19:17

looked to be just someone's

19:20

basement appeared

19:22

on the screen. Either

19:25

our or their internet connection

19:27

was bad, we

19:30

weren't sure who's. Either

19:33

way, the screen looked very pixelated.

19:37

The audio quality it

19:39

was horrendous. It

19:42

sounded like someone was holding their iPhone

19:44

in a different room hoping

19:47

that we would be able to hear it in this room.

19:51

Honestly, it

19:54

was hard to tell what was what. In

19:58

fact, at this point

20:01

it looked like someone just forgot to turn

20:03

off their web camera and

20:06

now we had to

20:08

look into their weird room. In

20:11

fact, if they

20:14

hadn't framed the shot with black curtains

20:16

as though it were a stage, we

20:19

wouldn't have believed it was on purpose.

20:24

I know, Anna said let me be your eyes,

20:28

but actually we

20:31

can't be your eyes because

20:33

in that moment we

20:38

had no idea what the hell we

20:40

were actually looking at. We

20:46

looked at this for about

20:49

ten minutes. Nothing

20:52

happened. Then,

20:55

just as we thought that maybe beat macromy himself

20:58

had forgotten about the festival altogether, there

21:01

something appeared on the screen.

21:05

There was no doubt in my little mind it

21:10

was him. Kyle

21:12

and I gripped each other's hands as

21:15

we looked at him. I

21:18

wish you guys were there to

21:22

stare at the computer screen and hold

21:24

hands with us, because

21:27

what we saw was

21:29

almost indescribable. But

21:33

I'll try. This

21:40

was beat Macromay. Remember

21:44

the man who appeared so crooked in

21:46

his picture that he seemed to

21:49

be almost diagonal. The

21:51

man whose contact lenses were so white

21:54

it was hard to tell if you're looking at

21:56

death itself. The

21:59

man we knew very little

22:01

about, except that he had a very

22:04

interesting potential roommate, and

22:06

it was a doll. This

22:09

was him, all right, And

22:12

this time he was even

22:14

scarier because

22:17

this time he did not appear

22:19

to be crooked. No,

22:24

this time he appeared

22:26

to be very upright, And

22:30

that confirmed the

22:33

scariest part of all. He

22:38

was real. Tonight

22:45

it was clearly a special night for

22:48

Beet macromy because

22:51

tonight he dawned

22:53

a black cloak. This

22:57

cloak was all black, but

22:59

his face was

23:01

all white, devoid

23:04

of all proof of life. He

23:07

moved unpredictably across the zoom screen,

23:10

as if his ancestors had been lizard.

23:13

He slithered contorting

23:16

his body, paying homage to

23:18

paganistic rituals that had come before

23:20

him. He was hypnotizing,

23:24

and we watched him and pointed silence,

23:28

and then at

23:31

last he opened

23:33

his mouth, for it was

23:35

time to speak.

23:42

Disclaimer, we cannot

23:44

play the audio of beat Macromy's

23:46

real voice. Instead, a

23:49

brave editor, Adam has once

23:51

again doctored the audio.

23:54

It's time, It's time for the show

23:57

to begin. The

23:59

next thing that came out of Beep's mouth was

24:02

really unexpected because

24:05

it was not worked. No, it

24:09

was singing. Again. We

24:12

cannot play the original audio here,

24:15

but we thought it was important to preserve the spirit

24:18

of what we heard because our editor

24:20

Adam refused to sing, stating

24:22

that he was an editor, not a singer.

24:26

I Kyle did the honors.

24:29

I was on an a pirate ship and she

24:31

was all that cared. I was

24:34

on an a pirate ship, and she was

24:36

all that cared. The

24:39

singing was very

24:42

interesting. I wouldn't

24:45

say it was scary, but

24:48

that's just one reporter's opinion. What's

24:51

scary to me might not be scary to someone else.

24:54

I don't know their life anyways,

24:59

beat macrom I took a second from being

25:01

terrifying to let us all know that this

25:03

was an award ceremony and

25:05

all the films accepted into the festival were

25:08

in the running to win awards in various categories.

25:12

This was news to us. There

25:15

were categories. What

25:17

were the categories? Scary

25:21

and more scary? The

25:28

strange thing was when

25:30

we took a closer look at the programming,

25:34

we realized there were indeed many

25:36

categories that

25:39

spanned way beyond horror, drama,

25:44

comedy, sci fi, thriller,

25:47

experimental documentary, and then

25:50

this is very peculiar, there

25:53

was even a category for and

25:55

I quote everything

25:59

in between. Um,

26:04

not to be a total square, but you

26:07

call yourself a horror film festival, wouldn't

26:09

you? And again not

26:12

to have my shirt buttoned all the way up to the top or

26:14

anything like that, But wouldn't

26:17

you only have horror

26:19

films at

26:21

your festival? But

26:25

Anna, it's okay, sure

26:28

all those people representing all those categories

26:30

would be at the festival. And by

26:32

that I do mean this um zoom meeting.

26:35

But we knew what we had,

26:38

and we knew we represented horror.

26:41

So we opened a second

26:43

window on our computer screen and let

26:46

the zoom meeting. I mean the festival

26:48

play in the background for a moment, and went to the

26:50

horror film section in the programming. We

26:57

excitedly scanned the names

27:01

here, we're our peers, are

27:03

contemporaries, our

27:06

brothers in horror, and

27:09

our horror brothers. That's

27:13

right, Kyle. They

27:15

were there too, I

27:18

mean, people who were cut

27:20

from the same cloth as us, and

27:23

soon we would be standing

27:25

with them, shoulder to shoulder,

27:28

waiting to hear the name of the

27:31

winner, content to

27:33

knowing we were all winners for just

27:35

being accepted into this festival and

27:40

being in the business of

27:43

horror. But

27:47

something happened. Our

27:50

name wasn't there. Wait,

27:53

that couldn't be. We had

27:56

made a horror short film. We

27:59

scrolled through the programming in disbelief

28:02

while the zoom meeting um, I mean festival

28:05

continued to play in the background,

28:10

And finally there

28:12

were our names. We

28:15

were in a category all right, in

28:18

that category comedy.

28:24

What I

28:26

don't understand. We did everything right. We

28:29

both ran backwards, both of us. That's

28:32

never been done in a horror thing to

28:34

my knowledge. No,

28:39

Kyle, I promise

28:41

you it was really scary. I

28:43

can't even think about it too much or or else. I won't

28:45

be able to fall asleep at night. It

28:49

was really scary, I promise.

28:52

Let's just try to take this as a compliment.

28:56

Beat macromy himself thinks that we're

28:58

so funny that you thought

29:00

our horror short was, you

29:03

know, a comedy. But

29:08

Anna, I hate

29:10

to tell you this, it was

29:12

not funny, not

29:15

in the least. Um.

29:18

But you know, you're you're

29:21

you're awesome. Um, you

29:23

are beautiful in

29:26

every single way. Uch

29:31

can stop that, I

29:33

know what you're doing. Okay.

29:39

So we found out, much to our disbelief, that

29:42

the festival had categorized as a comedy.

29:45

And you know what, that was

29:48

fine. Sometimes

29:50

when you make art and you

29:52

put it out into the world, it

29:55

ceases to be in your control and the audience

29:57

gets to decide it's meaning. So

30:02

we decided it

30:05

was fine. Now

30:08

we closed the web browser and

30:11

brought the zoom meeting. I'm so sorry,

30:13

I mean the festival to the

30:15

foreground, hit enter

30:17

full screen mode and sat

30:20

back in anticipation of

30:23

the comedy category. And

30:28

now it's the award for the best Comedy

30:30

Film. Stephanie,

30:35

where are you? What happened

30:37

next was a bit jarring. A

30:45

woman stepped onto the screen beautiful,

30:50

well dressed, seemingly

30:52

at odds with the otherwise scary atmosphere

30:54

of the festival. Typically,

30:57

award ceremonies often have guest

30:59

presenters m and in this

31:01

way the festival was no different.

31:05

We listened for our name to be called, sitting

31:08

at the edge of our seats. Would

31:11

they call our name, meaning

31:14

would our film be

31:17

nominated? We

31:19

knew our film was good, but

31:22

was it award worthy? I

31:24

don't know if there's a different area,

31:42

and I

31:49

don't know what happened, but

31:51

our name wasn't

31:54

called. We

31:58

were devastated, but

32:01

Clay, our brave director, assured

32:05

us that the nomination was probably on its way.

32:09

I mean, there would probably be another category

32:11

for dark comedy, and

32:14

our name would certainly be there. I

32:17

mean, Clay was right. Our short

32:19

film sat at the delicious intersection

32:21

of comedy and horror dark

32:25

comedy. The

32:32

dark comedy category just

32:36

never came. It

32:38

was sort of like waiting at a train station

32:40

for your beloved to

32:43

come back from

32:45

war. You

32:47

look, and you look. John

32:50

comes out and hugs his wife, Dave

32:53

comes out and hugs his kids. Robert

32:56

comes out and pets his dog. Steve

33:00

in Tyler Morris,

33:04

They all come out. But

33:06

where's Albert, you

33:09

fault to your knees. He's

33:11

definitely dead and not coming back from war.

33:15

The wave of people around you washes away.

33:18

You are left alone, and the train

33:20

conductor comes over and sternly taps you on

33:22

the shoulder. Ma'am,

33:25

you have to get up. You're loitering,

33:27

you say, But but

33:30

my Albert. What Albert,

33:35

ma'am. I've

33:37

heard this to him before. He

33:40

ain't coming back. This

33:45

is bullshit. I'm

33:47

sorry for cursing. It's

33:50

just informed that we have a twelve year old fan.

33:52

And to you, I say,

33:55

I'm sorry, but my

33:57

heart isn't a million pieces right now, and it's

33:59

a little hard to think about protecting you in

34:01

this moment. But I

34:04

know that you are out there and

34:06

I think you're awesome, and

34:09

just be honest with you, guys for a second. You

34:17

the listeners, the

34:20

festival, it

34:23

was bad, In

34:26

fact, it was awful.

34:31

And this next word, it

34:33

requires a bit of a trigger warning you're

34:37

about to hear. It might sound like an accusation,

34:40

but you know what, here it goes. The

34:43

fact of the matter is we

34:46

spent three dollars to receive a

34:48

zoom link. So this festival.

34:53

It seemed like a bad deal. That

34:57

was our editor Adam. Again,

35:00

there was a particular word we had to avoid,

35:03

so every time it gets mentioned, you

35:06

will instead hear the words bad

35:09

deal. Let's

35:11

be honest, you

35:14

don't need to be handled with kid gloves.

35:17

The festival was

35:19

a complete mess.

35:23

What the previous audio didn't properly

35:26

exhibit was that this was

35:28

a poorly organized event. It

35:31

was a live stream of some guys basement

35:34

via zoom. His

35:36

internet connection was extremely poor.

35:40

He kept cutting out, to the point that

35:42

the other attendees virtually turned into

35:44

a mob in the chat, taping

35:46

over and over that he needed to restart

35:48

his router again.

35:52

The audio sounded like he was playing music

35:54

from an iPhone in another room. The

35:58

ambiance was unperfect rational,

36:00

to say the least, it

36:02

felt like at any minute, beat

36:05

mcarmy's roommate might open the door

36:08

and yell at him to keep it down and finally

36:10

wash his dishes. We

36:17

were heartbroken. There

36:21

were no two ways to say that. Frankly,

36:26

we were embarrassed. I

36:29

mean, we had gathered our closest friends to

36:31

celebrate all of our hard work. I

36:34

couldn't help but feel like just

36:36

leave my house, thinking to themselves a

36:39

fucking loser. To

36:43

our twelve year old fan, I

36:46

see you, I hear

36:49

you, and I want to protect you from how cruel

36:51

the world can be. But

36:54

honestly having

36:56

a really hard time right now. We

37:01

were completely dumbfounded. Not

37:04

only were we embarrassed, but

37:06

we were lost, Like how

37:09

did we even get here? I

37:12

mean, before making the movie, before

37:15

finding the website, I mean even

37:17

before the beach where we talked about who

37:19

was afraid of rats and who was afraid of roaches?

37:23

What had gotten us here? If

37:26

I was being honest, I

37:28

didn't just find the festival website

37:30

by myself. I

37:32

had heard about it from a friend, someone

37:35

who had come to me and said, you

37:38

gotta check this out. We

37:41

decided that it just made sense to retrace

37:44

our steps. Maybe my

37:46

friend would be able to shine some light

37:48

on what had just happened and what we should

37:50

do next. So

37:55

we gave my friend Chris a call um,

38:00

not my crush Chris, my

38:03

friend Chris, a

38:05

different one, and

38:14

now an ad break. The

38:17

ad break is over. My

38:25

name is Christopher Um,

38:29

a director. One might say

38:35

that's Chris. Chris and

38:37

I had met through some mutual friends. He

38:40

was an accomplished filmmaker and

38:42

someone who you might say was deep in the festival

38:45

circuit and most

38:47

important in this moment. He

38:50

was actually the person who had originally

38:53

shown me the festival website.

38:57

He was the whole reason that we knew

38:59

about macromy which

39:01

at this point I

39:04

sort of wish he had kept to himself.

39:08

No offense. I

39:11

think it was just, um, you know, you get

39:13

emails for film festivals,

39:16

cement our festival. The submission

39:18

fee is still like kind of exorbitant,

39:21

um. Yeah, yeah, and

39:24

I think, um, this one was one of those

39:26

ones. But

39:29

yeah, I looked at the website. You

39:32

know, he has something, you know, like

39:35

just him himself. You know, I don't. I was like,

39:37

I wasn't. I wasn't particularly interested

39:39

in the film festival, but I was. He seemed

39:42

character. Um. So

39:44

I think that's why I mentioned it to you. After

39:48

Chris told us how he had come to find out about

39:50

the festival, we shared what we

39:52

had gone through and caught him up to date. Well.

39:56

So we became so

39:58

kind of transfixed

40:01

on this person that we decided

40:03

that we would just make

40:05

a movie to try to get in, to

40:08

try to meet him, and

40:11

the submission fee was a

40:13

hundred fifty dollars. That's

40:16

very excorted. That's

40:22

absurd. I mean, I

40:25

don't even a hundred fifty

40:27

dollars. That just seems like you

40:30

made that up. So

40:33

we fundraised for that, and then we got in.

40:36

And then he's he's in the same

40:38

email where he said you got in. He said, you

40:40

also have to purchase a ticket to attend

40:43

the screening. And the ticket

40:45

is fifty dollars. It's actually fifty

40:47

three dollars plus tax. Kris

40:52

didn't mince his words. And this

40:54

next part what's really hard to hear.

40:57

Yeah, I mean this sounds like, you know, there was that article

41:01

and I think it's like the Hollywood

41:03

Reporter about kind of bad deal

41:05

my film festivals. I'm

41:11

sorry that, you know, it sounds like kind

41:13

of along those lines. M

41:16

hmm. That

41:21

it was brutal to hear, but

41:24

you know what we needed

41:26

to hear it the

41:29

festival was

41:31

this a bad deal? And

41:34

beep macromy was

41:38

a we

41:42

had gotten. It's a bad

41:45

deal. Hard We

41:49

got off the phone with Chris. Okay,

41:52

um, this is a lot to think about. Thank you so

41:55

much, but thank you so much for talking to us. Yeah,

41:58

yeah, yeah, sorry

42:00

about your bomber. I

42:04

was so mad. In

42:07

fact, I

42:11

was piste off. I

42:13

should have seen this coming. How

42:17

did I let myself fall for this? I

42:21

am a confident, smart, beautiful

42:24

woman. I

42:26

mean, hello, I'm

42:29

gorgeous. I should

42:31

have known. I

42:33

should have protected Kyle. I

42:36

mean there were signs all along. The

42:39

festival never listed a location. One

42:42

festival employee listed her high school g

42:45

p A and her bio beat

42:47

Macroman didn't even capitalize his own last

42:50

name. They

42:54

said a submission to the festival was

42:56

a submission to the way of the previously

42:59

unfamiliar. Yeah, unfamiliar,

43:02

bullshit. I

43:05

told Kyle, we are doing something

43:07

about this. No one bucks

43:09

with us. I'm

43:12

sorry, twelve year old fan, but

43:15

no one sucks with us. Wait

43:23

wasn't there that other festival, the

43:26

one that reached out to us asking to screen our

43:28

shirt OKI means short play

43:31

the audio from that moment We

43:34

got it Instagram message.

43:37

It says I'd love to screen

43:40

your shirt at my festival. We

43:43

would love to screen your shirt. Yeah, And

43:45

I wrote back and I said, WHOA do you mean short?

43:48

Good to clarify we would love that, and

43:50

he said, I absolutely meant short.

43:53

And then I said awesome sauce. Tell us when your

43:55

festival is we will give you our

43:57

short. Okay, um?

44:03

Yeah. He reached out and I we transferred

44:05

our shirt I mean short to him, but

44:07

we never heard back. Wait you,

44:10

we transferred the short and he downloaded

44:12

the short and then we never heard back. What

44:15

did he do with the short? Is

44:18

he doing something weird with the short at his house?

44:20

Look? This guy identified himself as

44:22

a listener, and you know that I love

44:25

our listeners, including him,

44:27

and my love for our listeners knows

44:29

no bounds. But how

44:32

could you do this to us? Kyle?

44:34

Open up our Instagram and follow up on his DM.

44:37

Get me get mad? Crack

44:43

Hi, just wondering about your festival

44:45

and if our shirt just joking

44:47

our short will be screened. We

44:51

waited for an answer. What

44:54

came next was honestly unbelievable.

44:59

Hello, Hello, so funny.

45:01

I was just thinking about y'all. I

45:03

listened to episode one of season two

45:05

while cleaning my screen printing shop yesterday.

45:08

War opened our shirts I mean shorts

45:11

program on December eleven. A great

45:13

response. He

45:18

had screened our short on

45:20

December eleven and had not even invited

45:23

us. Where

45:25

were we I

45:28

mean it? Was sort of like someone throwing

45:30

a birthday party for you, but forgetting

45:33

to invite you. This

45:36

guy was literally a listener, one

45:39

of you guys. That

45:41

meant he was a loved one, and

45:44

to have a loved one stab you in the back

45:46

like this and then

45:49

tap you on the shoulder and say turn around real quick

45:51

and let me stab you in the front. How

45:54

you're walking around with quite a few stabs.

46:00

Yeah, I'm sorry, this

46:02

one hurts. We

46:05

knew what we had to do. We

46:09

were not going to make the listener pay because

46:12

he's a listener, and that actually

46:14

cancels itself out. We

46:16

actually really appreciated his support and he

46:19

seemed really cool. But

46:21

beat Macromy. He

46:23

was going to pay double.

46:27

He would pay and then he would pick up the other

46:30

guy's tab. We

46:32

were going to scam beep Macromy.

46:36

We were going to make him pay for everything

46:38

that he had put us through. Honestly,

46:41

I don't understand. I'm gonna walking

46:44

because honestly, what okay? Because

46:46

the other guy's a listener, right let

46:50

me um.

46:56

I was a little worried about Anna. I

46:58

hadn't seen her like this since she

47:01

wanted to go skydiving for you guys,

47:03

the listeners. Honestly,

47:06

this whole investigation was starting to scare

47:08

me. From a legal perspective, I

47:11

needed advice, legal

47:13

advice, So I called

47:16

up my family lawyer friend Paul. If

47:19

you tuned in last season, then you know this

47:22

is what we call a Paull

47:24

call. Hello,

47:35

is this Paul? Oh

47:38

my god, it's Kyle. Paul

47:40

was a busy guy. That's why

47:42

I sound so excited to have finally gotten him

47:44

on the phone. Hey, how

47:46

are you? I am so sorry. I haven't

47:50

run. We

47:53

jumped right in. Okay,

47:55

So what is the legality

47:59

of damming someone? Could

48:03

you get in trouble for scamming

48:05

someone? Spanning?

48:09

Oh? I said, scamming? Scamming?

48:13

Yeah? Yeah, I mean if you fraud

48:15

somebody, you're committing your crime

48:19

depending upon the gail,

48:23

the size of the amount of money,

48:25

and you to fraud somebody out

48:27

of um, you know, if

48:29

it's a pod can be you know, bring in

48:31

larsity and a felony and you can go to

48:34

jail for several years. Okay.

48:38

While I had Paul on the phone, I had to ask

48:40

him his official take on the Beet Beet festival.

48:43

You know that how is a bad

48:46

deal in all that's

48:50

not fraud. Oh, that's not front.

48:52

That's just you know, buyer beware. As

48:55

long as you know and everything is in good

48:58

faith, that just drips out to be a flop.

49:01

Yer mm

49:05

hmm. Good to know. If

49:08

I knew Anna was here on this call, there

49:10

was one question she would have had to have Paul

49:13

answer. Would you say that I was

49:15

bouncy as a child? What

49:18

I was bouncy as a child? Yes,

49:22

well, bouncy like

49:25

a ball? Yeah. I

49:28

heard everything I needed to hear. We

49:31

said our goodbyes. Well,

49:33

have a good weekend, Paul. I hope to see you soond

49:37

Okay, bye, thank you. Paul

49:42

was right. Scamming Beef

49:45

macromy could put us in grave legal

49:47

danger. I needed to

49:49

tell this to Anna before she did something that

49:51

she might regret. Plus,

49:55

technically, the festival was

49:57

not a bad deal. It

50:00

was just a shitty festival. Maybe

50:03

I would just tell Anna about that later. M

50:06

m, well

50:10

what about the investigation? Where

50:13

did that leave us? Did

50:16

that mean we were done? That

50:20

was it? We

50:24

love you guys, the

50:26

listeners so much,

50:30

and we didn't want to lead you down a dark

50:32

alleyway and then leave

50:35

you there with no answers. But

50:38

here we are ship.

50:47

I called Anna and let her know she should

50:50

meet me at the beach to talk. Hi.

51:00

Oh my gosh, well thanks for meeting

51:02

me. Of course, I can't turn

51:04

the tables on me, or is everything okay? Well,

51:08

okay, behind your back, I

51:10

went to I called Paul, Paul

51:13

the lawyer, Yeah, my family

51:16

lawyer friend. You gave him a paull call. I

51:19

gave him a pall call. Yeah, wait without

51:21

me? Yes, why

51:24

did you do that? I had to find

51:26

out some stuff from him, and I just felt like,

51:28

you were so worked up. I just felt like I needed

51:31

to call him and I need to tell you what

51:33

he said. Yeah, it was really mad, but I

51:35

mean, we weren't coming here, and

51:38

I was worked up, and I just think we need

51:41

to put a stop to the investigation. What

51:44

do you mean to put a stop to the investiga. It's feeling

51:46

like, based on what Paul said,

51:48

I feel like we could be putting ourselves at

51:51

risk to get our asses

51:54

majorly sued. And I

51:56

don't want that. You think we can get sued, yes,

51:59

because you're talking about I

52:01

mean, I can't say the word, but you're talking about bad

52:04

dealing someone that we

52:06

think bad dealed us. Yeah, of course

52:08

I want a bad deal them because they bad dealed us

52:10

and I want to make them pay. But we

52:13

could we could be put in jail. We

52:18

we can't be put into No, we can't be put in jail.

52:20

We could get sued. We could get put

52:22

in jail. I have two

52:26

hundred dollars in my bank account. I

52:28

can't deal with that. I don't even have that. Wait,

52:36

I'm sorry you gave him a pall call. Did you ask

52:39

the most important question of all? Because

52:42

you know I like to be there when you make the poll call. Okay,

52:47

yes, yes, tell

52:50

me what you asked him. I asked

52:52

him. I said, I said,

52:54

my my podcast co host would

52:56

like to know if I was bouncy as a child.

52:59

And he said yes. He said

53:01

good. No, it's not good. Okay,

53:05

so you gotta listen to me. For our own safety.

53:09

We have to put the investigation to arrest. And

53:11

I know I don't want to do this because we're so

53:14

we spent so much time on this, but I just don't

53:16

think it's safe. He

53:20

really said you were bouncing as a child. Yeah,

53:25

are you lying? I'm not lying, It just said

53:28

he didn't seem as into it. This time, which

53:30

was really weird. He just actually acted like a

53:32

whole different person then the last

53:34

time we talked to him. But okay,

53:38

oh, so we should

53:43

put a full stop to the investigation.

53:45

Yeah, but what will we tell the listeners.

53:50

Honestly, I

53:53

don't think we need I don't think we can think

53:55

about the listeners right now. We have to think about ourselves.

53:57

What do you say, What do you mean we can't think about

53:59

the list sitners. There's no show if there's no listeners.

54:03

Yeah, but there's no show if we're in jail.

54:07

So yeah,

54:10

that's a really good point. So

54:14

yeah, okay,

54:19

yeah, I thought that was a seal. Again, No,

54:22

it's wrong. M

54:27

h m hm.

54:35

To be continued later.

54:48

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54:51

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54:53

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