Welcome And Guest Introduction

Greg Staffa 0:00

You're listening to the Staffa Corner Podcast, a Staffatarian look at entertainment and life with your host, Greg Staffa. On today's episode, I'm joined by Jason Bitzer, a stunned performer and water safety specialist whose experience stretches from Hawaii to working behind the scenes on production. Jason, thank you for joining us today.

Jason Bitzer 0:42

Not a problem. Thanks for having me, Greg.

Greg Staffa 0:44

Also tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, and a little bit about your upbringing?

Jason Bitzer 0:49

Sure. So I was born in Manasqua, New Jersey, at the Jersey Shore. And I um, you know, cut my teeth in the water here at the Jersey Shore, learning how to surf and bodyboard and be a lifeguard and all these things you do growing up at the shore. And then I had moved to Hawaii after high school to pursue a water sports career. And I was successful after about a year of trying to make it in Hawaii and competing in Hawaii. I got a sponsor to go internationally and compete on the World Tour. And I did that for about a decade while also doing water safety gigs for events all over California, Hawaii, East Coast, even for

Growing Up On The Jersey Shore

Jason Bitzer 1:25

different things like the AVP, which is the volleyball tour. They had some water sports involvement as part of their programming. And I handled that and I learned event logistics. And uh later, later, and then I just ended up settling in Hawaii with my wife and um having kids and becoming a lifeguard there on the North Shore, as well, running my business for different hotels and businesses and even government agencies like the military for uh Bells Air Force Base and different things like that, doing water safety logistics. And in that in that time frame, I actually that's how I got into stunts because you know we would get called upon to help out with some of the bigger players doing commercials and stuff like in Hawaii and California, and then started slowly getting some more production union jobs and things like that for film.

Greg Staffa 2:10

And it's one thing to enjoy, you know, surfing and going out and having fun. At what point do you realize that this is something that could be a career or a lifetime ambition?

Jason Bitzer 2:21

Well, you don't really know until you do anything. Essentially, when I was a pro bodyboarder and I surf as well, but I didn't really see these things as being a long-term career. It was very fortunate that I had a like a professional athlete career at that because it's a very niche sport and I was able to travel the world and make a salary, which is kind of unique in itself. I just learned a lot of stuff along the way on how to rescue people in heavy surf conditions. And that translated to lifeguarding on the North Shore. And then I learned more. I didn't really see it as a way to get into production. Like you just have to add skills all the time. So, you know, like right now, I'm doing my CDL so I can be a driver, you know, and things like that. And different things, you have to add skills to be relevant, and you just have to be willing to learn. I'm always like someone that's curious, so I'm always learning things. A lot of the people that I've met and been fortunate to be around in Hawaii, like Brian Kalon is probably his nephews are my good friends, and they're the ones I actually learned the most my skill sets from when it comes to you know being a crewman on a boat or a jet ski and you know how to jump from a helicopter is was for a rescue technique I learned as a recruit and lifeguarding, but it also translated if you need to jump out of a helicopter for for a stunt. So a lot of these things we we would do to actually, you know, rescue victims that translated into the the nerve skill set to handle yourself in dangerous situations, like to do it safely. So they they're they're translatable to stunts, just fortunately. You know, that's how it goes.

Greg Staffa 3:47

And I would imagine, you know, you're in the ocean and you're getting ready to surf or bodyboard or something like that. That's a very personal. I mean, it's just you and the wave. Yeah, there might be other people out there, but as far as it goes, it's very you and the wave. It sounds very therapeutic versus saving someone is a very different mindset. How are you able to navigate between the two, or is there no difference to you?

Jason Bitzer 4:13

Massive difference. Um, surfing is very self-indulgent. It's you and the wave, and it's a relationship, and you're going after that wave for yourself. Rescue is you, the wave, and a person in a desperate situation that you have to mitigate. So most high-level surfers, in most situations, there's always a situation that gets out of control, can get themselves in and out of uh harrowing surf and dangerous surf. When you add a panicked person or a person that's in a first aid or medical situation, or basically their their own power is gone, it changes the dynamic. And it's much, much harder, much more difficult to keep the stress levels down, to keep your physical fitness to drag that body or person through those conditions. It's a totally different game. And it's it's more of a selfless act because there is a very true danger of dying. People have died, very quality people have died doing that. So you have to be a very good risk specialist in real time. You have to make really high-level decisions quickly. So, lifeguarding, in my, in my mind, is one of the best ways to learn how to make critical and like executive function decisions under high pressure because it's life or death. It's not like, oh, I can just push pause. There's no pause button once you make that decision. So it helps you to think under pressure, is what it comes down to, is being a lifesaver. And then you can kind of scale that to how do I think for other people? So I'm thinking

Skill Stacking From Surf To Set

Jason Bitzer 5:40

for myself in real time, how do I position other people that might not have that skill set to do things safely? Like, so if you're helping someone coordinate a stunt and you have a time frame where they're basically have to film this within, you know, the shot's a two-minute long shot and they're gonna use 30 seconds of it, how does everyone not die in that position when there's uncontrollables? You know, like how do you how do you actually make that relevant?

Greg Staffa 6:02

You had said that surfing and stunt work, there's a huge parallel to that you found almost natural. Yet at the same time, if I'm a regular person and I'm involved in a fire, my house is on fire, my natural instincts are to leave, whereas firefighters' instincts are to race in. As a surfer, you're surfing, you're trying not to drown, but as a stunt coordinator, you're creating an illusion often of struggling in water. I mean, stunt men aren't creating scenes where the person's just sitting there in the water, everything is good. Usually it's something tragic is going on around them for the scene. How do you balance the both mentally from surfing to creating an atmosphere that seems dangerous where everything that you'd been taught leading up to this says, I need to do something?

Jason Bitzer 6:56

Yeah, I think so. When you're when you're dealing with the elements, right, you're you're presented with a bunch of options of how to do this and and rescue the patient, so to say, safest, safest way. But usually there's not full risk mitigation because you're gonna have to deal with uncontrollable, which is the ocean, right? And anything can happen from point A to point B. You choose the best pattern. That pattern, from my my experience, has worked out very well, but there is an element of luck that comes down to it. Because once you start, things can change and you have to make audibles. When it comes to a stunt, you want to take all those audibles away and give the one safe path to complete the visual, essentially the safest way. So you don't want to come to the table and talk to someone, say it's a producer or director and and and uh the site coordinator and all the things and give them five different options that they don't understand. You need to really pick one option that is gonna be the safest, but it's gonna produce the visual that they need. So it's it's like a um process of elimination. You're gonna eliminate the couple options that your brain sees because you'll you you don't want them to have to think about the things that can go wrong. You want to think about all the things that can go right, and then you give them the option where everything can go right. That's that's how it kind of works and way I've been taught.

Greg Staffa 8:11

And how do you find that balance between being the safety guy, but also creating that illusion that is the best for what's on screen? How far do you know where to push it? How do you find that right balance of saying, here's where I'm willing to push, but the safety instructor in me says we can't go past this line, even though the director's pushing to make it seem a little bit more bigger or intense. How do you find that balance of who wins in an argument?

Jason Bitzer 8:42

Yeah, so you're gonna have to get the shot at the end of the day. And if you took out every element of risk, you probably wouldn't get that shot. So what you need is a backup plan for if things do go

Surfing Versus Rescue Mindset

Jason Bitzer 8:55

wrong, so that the the principal can get extracted quickly and efficiently and safely, because things can change in a matter of seconds. You know, if you're shooting in low light, if you're shooting shooting with pyrotechnics, if you're shooting with deep water and no visuals, you you need a safety that can just pick that up. So there is there is some element to that that you just can't uh avoid. So you just need someone there that can pick up those pieces if they do fall quickly. That's that's what I'll say to that.

Greg Staffa 9:24

Now, a director might have little knowledge of working in the ocean or filming in the ocean. He just flew in, he's starting production, you've been brought on to to you know supervise and make sure everything goes smoothly. What's the first thing that you're looking for that a director who might not have your background might not notice or overlook?

Jason Bitzer 9:48

Yeah, so I think everybody has their role to play. And so when you're looking at a director's vision, you're not going to change that vision. That that's he knows what he's doing. He knows what he needs, he knows what he wants, he knows what needs to get in the can. What you need to do is kind of stay in your lane. So, meaning is sometimes they need to know every detail and sometimes they don't, because you don't need to distract them from what their role is, right? You just need to get the job done so their role goes smoothly. And that's where I think uh I'm very new to the coordinating side. I've done a lot of commercials, I've done a lot of music videos, but full production, like examples, I've been brought in under really good coordinators as of late, like Mark Fisher, who now that I'm on the East Coast based, he does a lot of stuff worldwide, but a lot in this area. And he was very nice because it is a small community to bring me in. And I've learned a lot from just watching them operate. And again, it's like the need to knows. Some things you don't need to even verbalize because they're just expressed, like you're here to keep it safe. You're just here to get the visual. So everything else can be done on the back end. Sometimes they need to know all the details in the safety spec, sometimes they don't. And you just have to make that call. You know, like sometimes you you want to extrapolate every detail, and other times you have to keep the production flowing. So you just keep that in-house on your team and you make sure that every medic, every every water safety support, every driver knows their role if something were to go wrong. And and 99 times out of a hundred, nothing goes wrong because you've already spec'd it the right way. But you just, you know, you keep what needs to be inside baseball, inside baseball, and you keep what needs to be, you know, on every single PA in the room and every single factor they need to know, you know, because some people don't have a role to play when something goes wrong. So they just need to be out of the way. And that's sometimes just less is more with that type of information, just where they need to be in the case, you know, so things can go smoothly and the professionals can handle.

Greg Staffa 11:44

Now, most of the time when we think about big productions, you know, filming in Hawaii, we think of filming in the ocean. Is all of your work been in the ocean, or are there times where you've been brought in to film in a pool that has been recreated to look like a swamp or something like that, where the dangers are a lot different, but yet, you know, we've heard of adults drowning in swimming pools. We've heard of adults drowning in in small amounts of water. There's water is a dangerous environment. Is all of your stuff been big ocean stuff, or there's been smaller scale stuff too that you equally have to prepare for?

Jason Bitzer 12:22

Yeah, well, so like examples, when you're shooting in Hawaii, like we were shooting a Sony commercial, it's just a cliff jump, and it seems fairly simple, but swell and

Designing The Safest Stunt Path

Jason Bitzer 12:30

weather change pretty quickly over there. You know, winds pick up, there's more trade swell, there's all the different things that can happen. You start a shoot at 9 a.m. and by 12 p.m. it's a totally different ballgame. So you just have to have a scope in front of you of how to do things as the day goes on, and just also try to plan, plan ahead for alternatives. Because you might only have a day to get a shoot, you might not have a reshoot day. So you have to just have a backup to the backup, and you have to have enough qualified personnel that are comfortable doing things in maybe not the best conditions, too. So, because you know, a lot of things can be faked with lighting. So if the storm comes in and you still got to jump off the cliff and the trade winds are producing six foot swell and it was two foot swell by the morning, you still might have to complete that stunt, but you also want to know what you're getting yourself into before you start the day. So you got to do a lot of planning and and and calls, especially for outdoor shoots. When it comes into the studio, there's a lot more controllables. It doesn't mean the danger's not there, but you you have a lot more controllables when you're, you know, working in an indoor pool or a created set that might have water, you know, the pyrotechnics. And there's still the, you know, like the last one I'm on is like we're on a blacked-out stage and people are dancing in a six-foot pool of water on a stage that's floating. So you those things are controllables, but there's still a lot of haphazard things that can go wrong, you know. There's you learn a lot on the fly too.

Greg Staffa 13:52

You've been a lifeguard in Hawaii. I think a lot of what average people know about lifeguarding, they learn from Baywatch. What's the biggest kind of misnomer or thing that people assume about being a lifeguard that uh Baywatch may have gotten right or gotten wrong?

Jason Bitzer 14:10

Yeah, there's I would say like everything's, you know, that's we watch sensationalism. So some things are sensationalized, but like, you know, one thing is is in Hawaii, we don't use boats to rescue like they do in California. I think it's just different tools are used for different, you know, different playing fields. So there's a lot that they got right for it. I think the jet ski is a better tool always for rescuing people in high surf, but there's an application that can be used. So some things like that, like there's the new Baywatch show, and I've heard they're doing really great things with it. And it's always uh fun to watch California lifeguarding because it's some of the best lifeguarding in the world. But it's just depending on where you live and how your waters are, some things are not really done and some things aren't. I think nowadays most agencies in lifeguarding use jet skis. So you saw, like in that last show that Brian Kaylana actually was um the director on, even though he was a stunt coordinator by trade, he's actually, you know, helping with the the production and the direction side of things. It was very true to what lifeguarding is in Hawaii. I think they got it right. You know, some of the scenes were probably over the top, but some of the scenes they did are actually things that we've done, like had to chase down criminals that are now swimming and trying to escape authorities. That was a scene in the show I was part of one where we actually had to get, you know, a convict on a jet ski because he was gonna drown or go to jail. So, you know, we had to have to convince them, like, hey, get on the ski or die, deal with the cops when you get there. We'll make sure you're not gonna get browbeat and we'll just hand you over, but you're either gonna

What Directors Miss In Water

Jason Bitzer 15:40

you're either gonna drown and we're gonna have to rescue you when you're half drowned, or you can get on the ski. Those things happen more often than not, you'd think, you know. So there's all these weird scenarios that they use as scenes that were actually true true to life, to be honest with you. So there's a lot of stuff that happens that way. A lot of a lot of uh sometimes reality is crazier than fiction. So a lot of the stunts that you do are actually based off real situations.

Greg Staffa 16:03

I don't mean to oversimplify my next question, but is there something out there in your experience that you wish like what's one thing that you wish someone would know that if you're in a situation where you find yourself in trouble out in the water, what's one thing that might change their outcome? What's one fact? What's one some a step? Is there something that you've noticed over and over that if they had just done this, they would have avoided uh you know escalating things?

Jason Bitzer 16:36

Yeah, sometimes uh weather and and wind conditions can take the best of anybody, but panic is what actually kills. You can handle a lot more in the water than people give themselves credit for, even novices. So if you know how to float and you know how to relax, even if you get taken out by a big wave and you and you, you know, you're underwater for 20 to 30 seconds, that's really not a lot of time between breaths. So, you know, if you're underwater for two minutes, it's a different story. That's that's a very big skill. That's a you know, free diver or professional surfer, big wave surfer. Those people know to control their their stress levels and very dangerous, you know, very temperamental situations. But 20, 30 seconds underwater is really feels like forever, but it's not, it's not gonna create, you know, apnea. It's not gonna create, you know, a drowning situation if you were to relax. You come up for another breath, you get hit by another wave, you relax, you push off the bottom, you swim up. You could do that over and over for 10 minutes without really having a failure of survival. So if we could teach people to be calm of mind and just, you know, we call it the kick and glide method, is don't don't frantically swim, just kick and glide, and at one point you're gonna be okay and someone will get to you. But in that two to three minute period where you freak out and climb the stairs is what we call it's like you're you're climbing the ladder, you're trying to get up, you're trying to keep your head above water. If you had just kick and float and stroke and go underwater and do it again over and over, the level of what you can handle versus what your perceived stress and what you can handle in the water is very different. The human body can take a lot bigger of a beating than they think in the ocean.

Greg Staffa 18:15

You see that a lot in TV and films where someone will go out to rescue someone, but then that person is so nervous that they start bringing the lifeguard down with them by trying to grab on and then cling to them. And it sounds like that's kind of what you're talking about, just on a more realistic scale of be patient, be calm, not give in to what's going on, but learning what parts to give into and just finding that kind of middle ground.

Jason Bitzer 18:42

Yes. So that's that's the thing, is like preparing whoever your principal actor is, if they're if they're gonna be in the water for their own stunt or portion of the shooting, is just relax, do your job. We got you. If anything changes, we can always, you know, press cut. So it's it's life over life over the film production at the end of the day. So you don't have to panic, you don't have to put yourself in a bad position. You can we can just cut. It's just shooting, you know what I mean? It's might be an inconvenience, but just do your job and we'll handle the rest kind of thing. And you just need to relax.

Greg Staffa 19:15

Now, we meant you mentioned earlier the new uh Baywatch series starring Steven Armel from The Arrow, coming out in the next, I think coming out in the next few months. Is that a show that you're interested in watching? And will you be watching it as Jason Bitzer, the the lover of surf and and whatnot? Or are you gonna look at it more analytically as Jason the the stunt coordinator and watching how they're doing things? Are you able to appreciate a show like that, or is it more analytical for you?

Jason Bitzer 19:47

Well, for me, I'm I'm in a learning curve. So I have been fortunate to be called to do stunts. Um I've coordinated, like I said, um, not to the level of that. That's Jeff Barnett. Um, he's a very

Ocean Shoots Versus Pool Sets

Jason Bitzer 20:00

uh long-standing stunt coordinator from a family of stunt coordinators. So his level of experience is vast. So um I've talked to Jeff, you know, hopefully one day I actually get to work on the show. But my my view of uh like my elevator view when I look at shows is I try to find, I try to enjoy the show, but I also try to find what they're doing and just kind of making like a mental note, like, oh, that's that's a lot of experience to draw upon, how they did that, why they did that. You know what I mean? So, and you can kind of like extrapolate the checkpoints of where the safety was on the stunt and how they made it happen. And sometimes I get the visual of the behind the scenes talking to stunt coordinators and like just you know, picking their brain and see how how things work because there's a big difference between aquatics and like say rigging. I'm very novice, I'm learning little by little about the rigging world when you're doing that, but like aquatic stunts are a totally different game. I would say I have a high level of knowledge of that, but there's always someone that's done more and done things differently, and you can kind of draw upon what's been done in the past and how it's worked out and how you can do it better. So I'm learning with that stuff every day, even in aquatics, whether it's like, you know, I I'm good at setting up certain things, but there's really great boat captains out there, and I'm learning to drive boats every day. And there's you'll never master the ocean, so it's a fun game to play. Like you're you're always gonna be in that position of a learning uh from like a you're always getting mentored by the ocean itself and other people that have come before you.

Greg Staffa 21:27

There's a a funny clip. I don't know if you've seen it or not, but uh John Krasinski, who played Jack Ryan in the Amazon series, there's a scene where he has to fly out on a uh a Navy helicopter and his character has to drop about 10 feet into the ocean. And they were filming the scene, and his stunt person did it, and it just didn't look right. And finally the the Navy SEALs guys kind of egged them on and were like, it looks so much cooler if you did it, because we would know that you did it. And he kind of got pressured into to doing that. Is there you know, when you're dealing with actors and actresses, how much of their is there to push it to have them, you know, be on screen? How much of it is knowing the safety, but also being able to read people that you're working with and figuring out because not everyone knows how to swim. And yeah, how do you navigate that between what you know is safe and working with someone that that might not have that comfort?

Jason Bitzer 22:31

Well, I'll equate it to someone handling firearms. Like you can teach someone to shoot a gun with a pencil, but it might not translate, you know, on film, especially if you have thousands of military service people watching the show and you see them like go like low ready and flag somebody instead of like or like SEALs usually come in high ready, like they're ready to fire. They're not just, you know, like not trying to flag people. So there's different nuances that not everybody will catch, you know. But if if a lay person can catch it, like, ooh, that didn't look right. Like if someone that doesn't have the specific knowledge, whatever field that's in, then I think the shot wasn't prepped right with the right talent. Like there is always that. You should get the right guy for the right job. Like, example is like if you're doing a Moto X type thing, you know, I'm not the guy. Like I can ride a motorcycle, I can ride a dirt bike, but there's someone way better than me. So that's why, you know, this this role of being a stun person is very specific by shoot, because you do got to get the right guy at the end of the day, and they're getting paid to do the right job. So sometimes, you know, that whole fake it till you make it thing, it just doesn't work in stunts, I don't think. And it and it you might be able to get the day done and get it in the can, but when it gets on on the screen, you know, you the critics will pick it apart. So that's why I think these coordinators, they're really good at having a big list of go-to's, and when it gets

Baywatch Myths And Real Scenarios

Jason Bitzer 23:50

technical, they they they bring in the right people.

Greg Staffa 23:53

I had an interesting comparison to the the shooting a gun, and that reminded me of the film Rust, which was an Alec Baldwin film where they had the the weapons person uh kind of got laxed in the safety measures, and a person ended up dying. Uh, I don't know if you are aware of that story or not. But when it comes to a set as a safety person for aquatics, you know, what are you looking for in the production that may or may not be a red flag? And how do you deal with something like that where you might see them lax daysical or not appreciating what the ocean has to bring? How do you read the room as far as the production and say, hey, we need to get serious about this because this is a serious matter, it's not just playing in the water.

Jason Bitzer 24:43

I think at the end of the day, with the water compared to like dealing with an armory or someone dealing with with um you know weapons specialist for a shoot, because you know, that's there's there should be, you know, obviously fail safes and stop gaps to prevent those type of things, because once the bullet's out of the gun, it's out of the gun. That's that's all I'll say about that. With the ocean, I think, and and just aquatics in general, I think the overarching theme that needs to be accepted by the director and the AD and everybody has to be is like we make the final call when it comes to that. If we say, you know, if we go over the radio and stop filming, it's it's gonna be for a real matter. And there is a a better intervention when it comes to the drowning process, but it's our job to stop that. So if someone's like in a say like in a waterboarding situation, right, and we're watching them inhale water and it's it's translating from the shot looking great to them actually aspirating, we gotta, we gotta make it happen because, you know, also just think about something as simple as that. If you were doing some type of, you know, scene in that nature, and then the principal has to go to the hospital and you know, has has the osmosis and has water in their lungs, and then you stop shooting for the next five days. We're saving you time and money by making sure one, the principal is safe, two, that the production doesn't get shot. So it at one point they need to realize that on that side of the fence, the the safety and the coordinator has to have that under control. They get to make the call whether they like it or not. And I would say I don't think anybody in their right mind in that position, as high level as they are, would have a problem with that because they understand you're one taking care of the actor,

Panic Is The Real Danger

Jason Bitzer 26:20

the principal, and two, you're protecting the the project because there's everything falls under that. So I think we have a little bit better of a situation for our side.

Greg Staffa 26:32

And if for some reason the oceans were to dry up, what would you? I mean, it sounds like so much of your life has been on the water in some way, shape, or form. What else is out there that hobby-wise that are away from the water is what else do you like to do that's not water related?

Jason Bitzer 26:52

Jiu-jitsu is my main other hobby. I've had to take a little break. I was working on through some minor injuries, just you know, you gotta you gotta work first. But um, when I'm 100% healthy, I do jujitsu often. So that's like my my moving meditation outside the water. It doesn't compare to surfing, it doesn't compare to water sports in the fact that it's great, but it's it's a good one.

Greg Staffa 27:14

Now you founded a program called Never Off Duty. Tell us a little bit about what that's about and what got you wanting to create something like that.

Jason Bitzer 27:23

So that was different. That was um, I was seeing uh people drown directly after hours when lifeguards got off. Um so I did a lot of agency work with the government in Hawaii to extend. And uh that's what I was doing with that. So it was basically a passion project to alleviate drowning. That's what that was all about. It was just a it was a give back to the the people of Hawaii that I really enjoyed. And a lot a lot of other programs have spawned from that. There's Nakamakai, there's never off duty, which is more national now. It was a problem that that's getting ahead of right now. So that's the great thing.

Greg Staffa 27:57

I understand you also are a writer.

Jason Bitzer 28:00

Yeah, I wrote a book. It was um, it's called In the Wake of Technology. It was basically after a big event in Hawaii that took out the power grid and just how we've seen things with hurricanes and fires and things that have happened in Hawaii. I wrote it way before a lot of these natural disasters that happened, but it was to show what could happen there and how the people, I assume, would band together and support each other. And oddly enough, that's what actually happened when the Maui fires happen and these hurricanes happen, is is the people are really, when it comes down to it, the salt of the earth in Hawaii, and they really band together to support each other. And that book kind of said, like, yeah, these geopolitical things that happen that they get played into, these natural disasters that they can't control. But at the end of the day, Aloha kind of wins the day in Hawaii. And um, when push comes to shove, the people really support each other. And it was it was kind of a thought of experiment that I wanted to hopefully translate one day into a script and just throw my hat in the ring for that. We'll see what happens. Um, it did well, you know, for

Never Off Duty And Writing Books

Jason Bitzer 28:55

self-publishing, and I haven't really uh pushed it out there to to any production houses, but maybe I will, you know. Yep, you can find it on Amazon. It's uh in the wake of technology. It's um it's a supposed to be a series of two. I've started working on the second book follow-up, but you know how that goes. It's it's uh writing and working is a tough one.

Greg Staffa 29:17

I'll include a link in your uh your biopage for this this episode.

Jason Bitzer 29:22

Cool. Yeah, I'll send it over to you. That's awesome.

Greg Staffa 29:25

Now, what else can you do? Is there anything that you can talk about that you're working on? You mentioned a couple commercials and stuff like that. What can people interested in learning more about you look forward to seeing you in?

Jason Bitzer 29:35

Well, the last project that I rolled off of was Bo Burnham's. Um it was an untitled project at the time, but that's gonna be out, I think, this summer on Netflix. Um, it is uh a really cool project. I can't say a ton about it, but it was it was really fun to shoot. Um, he's extremely talented. My good friend Dutch, who's also a jiu-jitsu practitioner, he was the director on that. I thought they did a really good job. They were traveling international, so I was uh with the crew that was in um New York and New Jersey for most of the studio shoot. And um, I think it's just gonna be cool to watch how it plays out, and it's a very unique project. So that

New Projects And Closing Thoughts

Jason Bitzer 30:10

was something different. I am gonna try to start working on some more uh film projects now that Netflix is in New Jersey and I'm basing over here, um, throwing my name in the hat for different roles that are they're coming out, but they're they're all kind of pending for November. So we're in October now. I'm taking the month off just to hang out with my family and waiting for some things to come back.

Greg Staffa 30:30

Interesting. Well, Jason Bitzner, I appreciate you coming on. It's always fascinating, and one of the things I enjoy about doing the podcast is hearing voices of people in the industry that may not be recognized or household names and learning a little bit about what they do and their involvement. So I appreciate you coming on and look forward to seeing what the future holds. I'll put a link to your book and I hope people check it out. Great. Thanks, Greg. I appreciate the time. It's fun chatting with you. Thank you.