9DCU0303HD_Directors_Cut_Studio_Transcript

 I put the head on and realized that not only do you have no peripheral vision, the vision you do have is, you know, tinted a lot because you have two screens of mesh right in front of your eyes.  * The main trick was, as soon as you looked down, you kind of like lean forward a little bit.  And then when you're looking out the hole, you know, where you were looking, is no longer where you were looking.  The mouth is like right here.  And so, you can kind of like see straight forward.  ( crowd cheering ) The whole feeling of having 85,000 people cheer for you, is not something you can really imagine what it's like until you've actually felt it.  ( kids cheering and yelling ) The coolest moment of my life was actually looking into the mirror and seeing myself as Bucky, and then touching my nose that's out to here, touching my mouth, playing with my ears, just doing all the motions.  Because when you see Bucky, you don't realize that you can make it look that good.  Because I actually felt like I was Bucky.  And I've looked at myself in the mirror and I'm like, that's Bucky Badger.  But yet somehow, I'm inside of it.  It was a very surreal feeling for me.  Whoo! Go Bucky! I love it! I love it! This is Director's Cut.  I'm Charles Monroe-Kane.  That was a clip from the documentary, "Being Bucky," a hilarious and surprisingly touching film about the seven college students who are Bucky.  We're joined today by the film's executive producer, John Fromstein, and the film's director, Scott Smith.  Guys, thank you very much! I love your movie.  Loved it.  Thanks.  First, what does Bucky mean? What is the bigger meaning of Bucky here in the state of Wisconsin? Well, Bucky is, of course, the face of the university, and has become over the years, kind of a brand personality of the school.  And we were talking about this recently, that there really isn't-- We can't think of another state school mascot that is so pervasive in the entire state. 

 Usually, you know, Ohio State or whatever, it's only really confined to the school.  But in the case of Wisconsin, he has really come to represent the whole state.  And so, everybody in the state reacts to him.  Everybody in the state responds to him.  There's a real love for Bucky, whether or not you've been to the school, if you are a resident of Wisconsin.  So, that means a lot for the university economically.  But it means a lot perceptually, too.  I'm curious.  I was watching the film.  I'm not a sports fan.  I feel bad about that.  Maybe I should become one.  But I'm not a sports fan, but I got caught up in your film.  I hate to use the word gestalt, but kind of the gestalt of Bucky, and kind of the bigger thing.  What about for you, personally? Are you from Wisconsin? I grew up in Madison.  Did you go to school here? I did not go to school here.  How did you get caught up in it? Why did you want to do this? What does Bucky mean for you? There are a lot of different questions in there.  But the reason I wanted to do it was, you know, growing up in Madison, and going to the games, and just growing up, there's the essence of Bucky everywhere.  I mean, everything from Badger Coaches, to Badger Cleaners, to a Bucky this or a Bucky that.  Bucky Cheese.  Outside of just Bucky Badger, you know, the mascot, like John was saying, it represents so much. 

 And there is some sort of, I don't know, it's some sort of a magic around him that, you know, that childlike innocence and mischievousness.  It just, I don't know.  There's a magnetism, too.  He draws people to him.  Weren't you surprised? I was when I saw that we were doing this film for the show, that this hasn't been done.  I was surprised that no one-- Yeah.  It seems like such a great idea.  You know, when we started, and John can tell you the very inception of it.  But we intended on just doing the tryouts, because we heard about them, and how intense and crazy they were.  Our initial thought was, you know, let's just go up and do the tryouts.  We got permission.  It really grew from there.  The title of your film isn't "Bucky," it's called "Being Bucky. " I want to show a clip about the tryouts, because the film really is about becoming Bucky.  Can you set the clip up for us? This is the clip about the four stations of tryouts.  This is how you become Bucky.  Yes, well, it's an explanation of the four stages you have to go through to try out to be Bucky, and what's expected at each stage.  And it actually is a lot more than you would think.  And it's a lot more grueling than you would think.  It goes over a three-day period.  It seemed really hard. 

 I was like, wow.  It's hard both mentally and physically to do it.  But there's a real winnowing down process.  But it works real well.  Let's see a clip from "Being Bucky. " This is the tryout process from the documentary, "Being Bucky. " Monday is the preliminary tryout.  They go through four different stations.  One station is the rhythm station.  And that is a minute of about six different pieces of music.  We like Bucky to have a little bit of rhythm.  Not too much, so they, you know, we have to wonder what's going on in there, but enough to entertain the crowd.  The second station is props.  And we have about maybe 30 to 40 props sitting on the floor.  And each guy will have a minute to look at the props.  And then they're told that they have a minute to perform with them.  For example, if it's a shoe, they wouldn't wear it as a shoe, but they might make a Maxwell Smart type phone call, etc.  Our third station is role playing.  They usually have about a minute skit that one of our judges reads.  All of your motions need to be absolutely huge.  Exaggerating everything is just the key. 

 If you can do that in this station, you'll be money.  And then, the fourth station is a cheerleading pyramid that we use at basketball games, called the Bucky Pyramid.  And they do that, and also a max-out on push-ups.  ( indistinct talking ) I am a little nervous, because I don't want to be one of the only people that doesn't make it back in second year.  I hope I've done a good job.  I've gotten good feedback most of the time.  I feel like I pulled my weight with the team.  I think I deserve that spot.  I'm glad you're not my buddy. . .  ( indistinct talking ) Okay, remember you want to make us laugh.  We're not judging you as a human, but as a mascot.  Okay? One guy comes in here at a time, and we play the music.  The music plays for about one minute, and they have to continuously dance throughout that minute.  What we're looking for is someone who, I guess, is comfortable dancing in front of a group, and someone who's motions are big.  He's actually been our top scorer for the past few years in this category.  I think she's full of baloney.  And actually, to warm things up, why don't you show us a little of what we're going to be seeing? Come on, ready.  Music's on.  Get up, go. 

 * I want to be Bucky! That looks like so much fun.  But you know what, it's hard, isn't it? I mean, it's physically hard.  You were saying it's physically and mentally hard.  Like what kind of person are they looking for? What is the perfect Bucky that they're looking for? What personality type do they want? That's a really good question.  The class clown jokester doesn't work.  Well, and the thing is, you can't predict it.  One of the things that we sort of go through in the movie, is each of these guys is completely different.  Like Jeff, right there, he's the most reserved person in the world.  You would not know it from that clip.  No.  And you know, there's a class clown type.  And there's a serious, brainy type.  I don't mean to stereotype them.  But it's hard to predict what that element is.  And I think, as John said, it sort of weeds, you know, they weed themselves out through that process.  They're looking for seven, right? Yes.  And what else? And they have to be what, full-time students, I assume, what else are they looking for? They have to maintain a certain grade point average, 2. 0.  Wow, good luck, 2. 0.  It's not as easy as it sounds. 

 Depends what you're studying.  There are certain physical requirements.  You have to be 5'10" to be able to do this.  You have to be 5'10"? Yeah.  It doesn't matter what gender you are, though there weren't that many girls trying out.  There's no restriction for that.  And you know, you have to be kind of physical.  You have to do a lot as Bucky physically, so they make you do lots of push-ups, and you know, sort of show your physical strength.  The thing that actually kind of got cut out of the movie, was how heavy the head is.  It's 35 pounds.  I have a big head, but that's a lot! But just wearing that takes a lot of energy.  Imagine doing push-ups on a September day when it's hot out, and it's over 100 degrees in the suit.  Yeah, to do a minute or two minutes worth of jump around with a 35-pound suit on your head, it's not that easy.  One of the things that you do in the film that I really like, and not only does it show Bucky and some of the fun stuff, and how things look, but you profile the people trying out for it.  We kind of get caught up in their lives.  Could you tell me about some of the kids? There's one kid, his name was Chris.  Tell me a little bit about Chris.  Well, the thing that struck us about Chris, was that he was probably the biggest jokester, entertaining, all that kind of stuff.  And when he was doing his final interview and stuff, he talked about his father, who has Alzheimer's.  And it was a very touching moment, and he broke down.  And so, to us, it sort of broke through that sort of facade for him, and he became much more accessible and real to us in that sense. 

 It's interesting, because I started really feeling for some of these kids, like hoping they'd win, or hoping they'd be successful.  Because I started knowing that these are human beings.  And I know we all know that, but you kind of forget when you're watching the film.  These guys are for real.  This has meaning to them.  And I want to show a clip from another guy, his name's John.  Could you tell me a little bit about John? Is it Jeff? I'm sorry.  Jeff.  I could tell you about John, but it's not as interesting! Tell me about Jeff, who will be in the clip.  Tell me a little bit about his life and who he is.  He comes from a little town, Oseola, which is up near Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  He comes from a small farm of like 40 cows.  His dad works, too.  He works at a night job, and then works the farm during the day.  All the kids help out in the mornings.  It's a full-time job for everybody in the family.  They're living on a parcel of land that will soon turn over and become houses, and so forth.  And this farm has been in their family for a long time.  So, you know, that's sort of the socio-economic thing he comes from.  And he is an education student here.  You know, really involved, really responsible, really smart guy, a pretty reserved guy. 

 But he's a very committed member of the team.  His brother also is Bucky.  Wow, let's see a clip about Jeff.  * He was so quiet and shy when he was younger, that I was afraid he was going to get picked on.  So, I figured if he wrestled, it would toughen him up.  I'm definitely not good enough to be Division 1.  I got a few Division 3 schools that talked to me.  They sent letters, and that was about it.  My first goal, I guess, when I originally tried out, was I wanted to get involved and do something on campus.  I spent my whole freshman year just trying to get used to being in college.  And my older brother, Tim, he decided to try out, and he told me I should come with him.  So we went together and we both tried out.  And we both made it that year.  The first time, I kind of went into it really blindly, and had no clue what I was doing.  I didn't think I'd even make it.  Then I did, and I didn't realize how much of a responsibility I was getting myself into.  So like that first week, I was like, holy sh##, what did I do? There were a lot of phone calls to home, and to Tim.  I told him, once you put on the suit, nobody will know it's you, and he could do whatever he wanted to do.  Yeah, a different person comes out.  Some days, it's so hard to put on the suit and you know, just go crazy.  Other days, I have no problem doing it. 

 You really have to work on getting into the right frame of mind, the right mood to be Bucky.  Getting in the right frame of mind to be Bucky.  There's another guy you feature.  His name is Sky.  He was pre-med.  And I was wondering, what does it take to be Bucky? I can't imagine the rigors of being a pre-med student.  And this seems like it takes a lot of time.  I know there's seven of them, but what kind of commitment is it? That's actually why there's seven of them, because there are a lot of events outside of just the sporting events.  Yeah, they're doing humanitarian stuff, right? Well, that, and they're also doing stuff like openings at Culver's.  I mean, whoever wants to hire Bucky to come out can do that.  So, there's a status meeting every Tuesday, where they go over this huge list of events, including sporting events, sort of assigning.  How many hours are they doing? That's a tough question.  A lot.  It just seems intense.  I'm sure it's a blast.  But it seems really intense.  These are all guys.  When you were showing them, these are dudes.  These are college dudes.  I can see them drinking beer and hanging out.  And I would assume that things could get out of control pretty fast. 

 There's a lady in charge of the Buckys, right? Tell me about her.  Josette, yeah, she says that sometimes she feels like a mom, in that sense.  And it is challenging.  These guys are college students.  At the same time, they're pretty responsible college students.  We saw them getting into trouble with Josette at times.  But I can't imagine they wouldn't.  When I was 20, I don't know, I couldn't imagine not.  They're pretty normal kids.  Yeah, right.  They're not necessarily in trouble, but they do what normal college kids do.  But that wasn't part of what we were trying to capture in the film.  It just seems like that would be a thing.  She seems like a strong lady.  I couldn't imagine dealing with the badgers.  One of the rules I was really fascinated by, and tell me this rule, which I can't imagine they could keep this rule.  There's a list of rules, but one of them is, they're not allowed to tell anyone.  They're supposed to be anonymous, right? Well, it's different at different schools.  At Wisconsin, it's sort of a tradition that they don't tell people.  It isn't really a rule.  But they think, you know, it's kind of uncool to use that to get anything. 

 Favors.  Any sort of favors, right.  So they usually keep it quiet and to themselves.  But it's not a big-- Like, their friends will know, and if it gets out, it's not as big a deal.  At Michigan State and Minnesota, they're just like, will not tell anybody.  Like in the program for football games, they're there.  There's the whole group shot of them, and they name them.  But that's not what people are looking at in the program.  No.  But at Michigan State, it's a secret.  That's so weird.  Which we talked about that.  In the movie, we've got Spartys with megaphones over their heads.  Because no one can know who they are.  I think your roommate would kind of figure it out.  It's like, I think he's Bucky.  Is he Bucky? Interesting.  There's another clip I want you to set up.  This one is the rules.  The rules, there are a lot of rules.  And we just, you know, it was sort of part of the mascot side of it that we wanted to show. 

 So, we have the guys talk about the rules.  Let's check out, these are the rules for being Bucky.  There was actually quite a lengthy list of rules for being Bucky.  Some are actually hard to follow, because some of the stuff you just want to do, since it's so much fun.  I'll just go over the main stuff that's pretty obvious.  No talking, under no circumstances.  It is kind of frustrating, though, when you're at events, and people ask you questions that aren't yes or no.  How many points are we going to score on Saturday? Well, I only have eight fingers, you know, because I'm like this.  ( indistinct talking ) How about 20. . . ? We ask them not to try to drive motorized vehicles, you know, golf carts, things like that.  People have an event, and will say, "Hey, Bucky," you know, "here, you can drive. " And they think, oh, okay.  But literally, he has no peripheral vision.  So, he can not be going on motorized vehicles.  A lot of people like to hand over their newborn babies to us, which is a huge mistake.  Mascots have to be constantly moving and in constant motion.  As soon as a newborn comes into our hands, no.  All rules are broken.  We become statues. 

 We do not move.  You have to be careful when the suit on, because there are actually rules about when you can put it on.  You can usually only put it on for events.  And those events obviously have to be passed through Josette.  ( laughing ) Wait, time-out, I want a picture! Keep it on! Most people wash it after every use.  But the head is what really stinks, because you can't wash that.  I mean, I, myself, I Febreze it after every event.  But some of the guys, they say they do, but once I put that thing on, it's just, it smells like a foot, or something.  A really weird one that actually just got implemented this year, I hope not because of me, no touching people food.  Apparently when you see a big, sweaty, like mitten coming at your face, that either is not appetizing, or is not healthy or sanitary.  No touching people food.  No touching people food.  That's one of my favorite lines.  Tell me about the process of making this film.  Did you get a grant to make this film, and then you spend what, a year, filming it? Ideally, yeah, you get a grant, or investors, or something.  We have a not-for-profit part of our company that makes documentaries.  So this is a fully self-funded thing.  You know, we pretty much spent a lot of our time and energy developing, creating and shooting it, and editing.  And we had some close people in the industry who helped us pull it together, in the hopes that it would generate some income and be able to pay people back.  So it was all done pretty much on favors and on the promise of it doing well.  I ask this question a lot, and I'm going to ask it to both of you. 

 But I mean it when I ask this.  Why? So, you have another part of your company that makes money, right? But obviously this is what you want to do.  Why would you spend all your own time and money making a documentary about Bucky? Why do you care? One is because I grew up in Madison, and I knew what it meant.  And I went to school here.  When we first heard the idea way back, and we were starting to kick it around, it was a no-brainer.  We were going to do it.  It was just obvious, and it hadn't been done.  It just clicked.  It's hard to explain, again, because of the sort of phenomenon or the magnetism of Bucky.  But there's something, you know, that you know about him, that you want to share with everybody.  And I think that's one of the reasons that people outside of Wisconsin, or people like you who are not sports fans, mascot fans, or whatever, can relate to it, as well, because we do talk about you know, the kids and their compelling stories and how it interweaves with being the mascot.  It's interesting to me.  I was wondering if this film-- I can see it was at the Wisconsin Film Festival and successful, that makes sense to me.  I can see people in Wisconsin wanting this.  I saw it for rent at my local video store.  I live in Wisconsin.  Here, I can see people wanting to see it.  Has it been successful? Is it successful in New York, L. A. ? Do people get what you're putting out? Well, we just, and it's sort of strange how this all happened.  The Wisconsin Film Festival is the first thing that we entered. 

 Until then, we hadn't done any other film festivals.  After all that, we started sending it out to other film festivals.  We heard back from another one, in Indianapolis, the Heartland Film Festival, which it got accepted to out of 600.  And otherwise, I mean, DVDs have been for sale, and we can see where they're coming from.  I was going to say, we were thinking about that as we were editing it and pulling our final story together.  We wanted it to be appealing to anybody, not just somebody who went to Wisconsin.  And I think if you watch it-- I think people are surprised who didn't go to Wisconsin, and young kids are also surprised.  It's surprising that they really like it, because they can relate to the characters, and can relate to the stories.  And that's really where all the depth of the film is.  The Bucky part is really the background.  And so, we were hoping, we were trying to design it in a way that would appeal to people beyond just Wisconsin.  I think that it has that potential.  It's a matter of whether or not people will be attracted to the theme of it before they get a chance to see it.  For the most part, the feedback we have when people leave the film, if they went to Michigan, or some other school, was that it was surprisingly enjoyable to them.  It's like the whole "Wizard of Oz" thing.  That's kind of what documentaries do in some ways, they go behind the veil and kind of check out what it's like.  But there's another aspect to "Being Bucky. " You guys are showing behind the veil, but when you put veil on, I think one of the seven kids talk about-- They use the word transformative.  He says there's a transformative moment when they put it on and they become the other.  Did either of you guys try on the suit, even just put the head on? I didn't.  No, I was too afraid. 

 It's too smelly.  I thought Josette might hurt us.  You didn't try it on? No, we didn't.  That's one of the rules, right? It's so odd.  It's so weird that we didn't.  Yeah, we could've snuck it on.  But it didn't ever occur to us.  Did it seem wrong? It did seem a little wrong.  Interesting.  It's such a powerful idea.  A little blasphemous.  A little blasphemous to be Bucky, unless you earned the right to be Bucky.  Well, I want to thank you both very much for being here.  It's an excellent film.  Like I said, I'm not a sports fan, but I got really caught up in the drama of who Bucky was.  I'm actually looking forward to going to a football game this season.  I'm going to watch Bucky.  You'll look at him in a different way.  Well thank you very much.  And good luck with the film.  And thank you all very much for joining us. 

 We're going to see one more clip from "Being Bucky," and then we're going to be joined by the star of the film.  Let's see that clip.  Let's roll the tape.  ( cheers and applause ) Bucky's a great guy.  We have a lot of fun with Bucky.  He's crazy.  Bucky sucks.  Well, I like him, because he's got that big head, you know, and he's always walking around like that with the big head.  Bucky's an awesome character.  I mean, he can do anything with his head, like do headstands, which I'm so jealous of, 'cause Herky, it's a like hard head, so it's really hard to be very mobile with it.  When we're down on the scoreboard, we really rely on him to keep the fans involved.  But on a serious note, he travels with us, goes with us, home and away.  Again, I think it's just a symbol of the university.  Everybody identifies with Bucky.  And it's just another reflection of the university.  And I think in particular, Bucky has withstood the test of time.  You know, he's been here from the bad years to the good years, and everywhere in between.  I think that's something that all fans can identify with and relate to.  Bucky's been kicking butt and taking names for so long.  Just to live up to all the guys that have come before me, that's what I really aspire to.  Wow, and Bucky, thank you for being here today. 

 Thank you very much.  So tell me, what's it like? What's it feel like when you try on that costume? Do you have an existential crisis about your identity and who you are? Um. . .  to you, what's the gestalt of Bucky? What's the bigger meaning of being Bucky? I'll tell you what, let's not do the interview, because you're not able to answer the questions.  So, what can you do for us? * Thank you for watching Director's Cut.  For more information on "Being Bucky," please go to: wpt. org/directorscut And while you're there, send us an email.  We would love to hear from you.  I'm your host, Charles Monroe-Kane.  For everyone here at Director's Cut, including Bucky, thank you for joining us today! Check the gate.  * * ( panel laughing ) There was just stuff shaking that I did not want to see.  ( all laugh )