Episode 4 - Tony & Nanette Lankford Revelation Blue Series Renderyard Interviews

Today we speak with Tony & Nanette Lankford the director & executive producer of Revelation Blue for the Renderyard Interviews. To find out how they produced and created the faith based crime series.

Interview Transcription

Speaker 1: Welcome to Renderyard Interviews. Todays guests are Tony and Nanette Lankford. The director and executive producor of the faith based crime series Revelation Blue. Welcome to Renderyard todays guests are Tony and Nanette Lankford the director and Executive Producer of the Revelation Blue faith, crime, drama series.

Speaker 2: Hey Mark, how are you?

Speaker 1: I'm good. Hi guys, how are you?

Speaker 2: Well, yes we are. Yep, we're doing real. Well, well well

Speaker 1: And where are you coming from

Speaker 2: today? We are in the United States of America, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the City of Brotherly Love. So they say, go Philadelphia Eagles. Our football team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, neither do we really don't know. It's about it.

Speaker 1: So you guys, you guys have been making films from for quite a long time now. I think he began in 2014. Yes. Possibly before then but we met through your for your first installment of the Revelation blue series and I think your first release was around 2014. And so you you've got a very unique story which which back in 2014 was was was much less kind of explore than it is now so you your work is strongly based around drama and reality-based characters but also explores faith. Now, when you have a whole genre of faith-based medium, but back in 2014, it was an emerging area. Can you tell us a little bit about Revelation blue and, and why it became different to the normal cup. Cop, based dramas?

Speaker 2: Yeah, of course. Well Revelation, blue is the story of its lead character, Devon blue. He's an excellent creature. Who became a You're police detective, he in a lot of ways. He's exploring his faith based on how he's now, living his life more so than he was before he's coming up against situations and complications that are not really well explained in his His former life as a preacher. So he the skill said by the Holy Spirit, to become a police officer and solve unexplainable crimes, that no one else can do. And he has grown since the first is, psalmist says, the first pilot of Revelation blue. His attitude has grown, his perception has grown, and also, his thinking has grown, and he has influenced a lot of other people, which is basically what our project is about. To number one, bring forth the word of God that where the Jesus Christ in a framework that is recognizable. And logical for you to view and accept and to understand.

Speaker 1: Yeah, it's on the first viewing of the series. It really does come across like a kind of early 90s crime. Thriller into interwoven into the dialogue aspects of religion and Christianity. Yes, and Proverbs from the Bible, but also mixed into a very gritty Urban looking Thriller with it with a fantastic cast. Yes. I'm sorry. It really caught my attention when I when I watched it.

Speaker 2: What we didn't want to do Mark is to hit people over the head with it. Right? Yeah. We had to have its base is grounded in reality, but still have a spiritual word to it. You don't want to be hit over the head with this to get its true meaning, all you have to do is listen and live. Yeah,

Speaker 1: that's it. You obviously have put a huge amount of energy into producing the series. Can you tell us a bit of the back story of how you went about actually financing the first episode and also finding your cast? And you know, bringing them into the story before you start filming it because I can imagine some actors who maybe already have faith were like, hey yeah, we're on board with Spray. Yeah, I'm not sure because I got not the actors, but I'm sure a few of them may have just been, you know, actors of just everyday non faith and maybe they needed persuasion. I am just

Speaker 2: guessing. Yeah, well, I mean, the first of all, There is a tremendous amount of respect in this project, okay? And it influenced a lot of people on the way. When we casted for this project, we specifically asked people who had respect for God, Jesus and understood what that meant and what it means to other people to be Christians. I feel that you didn't necessarily have to be a Christian, but you did have to have a certain amount of respect for what we're doing. Okay, and understanding what these words mean, we could mean to No one else or yourself. Hmm. No and above everything else. God is love and the show. The series showed that within its dialog and its story lines and so on and still, you know, in the everyday acting of the actors who interpreted the words that were on the script,

Speaker 1: we have it in your

Speaker 2: heart. Art to do this not just words. They mean something and it means something tell the people,

Speaker 1: okay? And I wanted to say also to piggyback off of what Tony the saying, one of the things that that I love most about bringing it together was our approach, we allow the Holy Spirit to use us. And the best can sometimes one of the things that I've realized some people may never pick up a Bible, they may have heard about Jesus but you can hear about Jesus and not know Jesus. Yeah. And that's all we need because our life the way we live withdraw them. And I, and that was the rewarding part for myself. And I feel like I could speak for the director Tony too because we watch the actors grow based. On our lifestyle we set the tone. Okay? We were those living Epistles, we were the ambassador's all the and and and I wanted to Circle back a little bit to Tony mentioned that you don't want to hit him over the head. No you just want to he's in right? And you you know need planted to see and we allowed you know the Holy Spirit to bring other people to water it and what I meant by that. So That I just said was all but we gave them the groundwork, there were other people, I'm sure in their lives, meaning the other actors because some of us, you know, didn't know the Lord. And I don't like to say, didn't know the Lord, and not know the Lord. Because I really believe that we're all God's children. And I know that God loves all of us, even if we don't physically or mentally understand that he is loved. And when we exuberant, That people can sense that and that's what drooled the actors and eventually it was like based on what Tony was writing. They felt something that's the best way that I could put it in. When I say felt something, I'm trying to explain it in a way where people can truly understand that the holy spirit is real, God is real and how, I know because I'm looking at him, right? Now, he lives in you, he lives in Tony, he lives in me, and it's just based on how we allow ourselves to be embodied by the Holy Spirit, how we allow ourselves to be used in governed our way of thinking, the way that we do things. So that was never a concern for me as far as kind of having to coach them once we met and we they sense that love they sensitive. The genuineness they knew that we had a heart for Christ and everything else just followed suit. The the the cast is quite large and I can imagine that the external crew lighting. Yeah. Gaffers props Etc. How did you manage everybody with such a small presence as Just the Two of yourselves. How did it what was the daily huge?

Speaker 2: Like, well, what? Well, here's the secret to all, to all to all filmmakers of all type, you're looking at the craft Services. Yes, the lighting in the camera, the camera for the tripod person. We when we first started out, we had one camera person and one sound person. Plus us to and we were going double and triple Duty on everything. Yeah, I tried to focus on the actors and my, my to crew people. Yeah, and my wife executive producer. She also focused on keeping the actors engaged. And yeah, and, and on point with the scripts and one point with their lines and everything. So we Bounce back and forth doing multiple viewings

Speaker 1: and I have to tell you, I wear a lot of hats. Yeah. You know, you're always going to hear me go back to, I trivet, everything to God. Because like a lot of times when we're done shooting, I sit back and I'm like I can't believe we did that. Like yeah yeah that's where I was on the floor. You can see

Speaker 2: on. Yeah. Holding the Boom. Let me show you where my

Speaker 1: ferret is your

Speaker 2: house right out of my pocket, out of her pocket of my wife's pocket. It

Speaker 1: was all the were laughing and having a great time. It's hard work. It's not easy in the moment, you know, you're absolutely right. You have to have a Grace for this. Did you enjoy it? Yeah, right. And don't get me wrong, we came home and we we

Speaker 2: were stressed out and I was tired in the cars and because because, you know, like it's one thing to be holding a, what a 20 or 30 lb

Speaker 1: camera on

Speaker 2: we were using digital but still you all the attachments. Have the public oh what's that guy really shooting? Like I'm really directing

Speaker 1: police tape and

Speaker 2: had on the program you know. But you know it's funny because you know I've always told my wife that I could I could never really right. I always had an issue with writing but when this project came along it just flowed, okay? You know it just flowed it's because you know, No, they say that you want to write what, you know. Yeah. You know and this is something that I knew I know in my heart what to say and it just flowed, you know, and

Speaker 1: I am I really, really enjoyed all the caste great but then the main character. Yeah. - play by Nicholas Terrence. He's such a strong character. Its presence is like The I enter in each, you know, pivotal moment of end of the film. How did you find the actor and was it easy to get him involved? Or did he need some coaxing?

Speaker 2: Well, he was actually using to get involved, you know, telling my wife that I remember way back. When in 2013 the latter part of 2013, we met on, we met at a coffee shop in the part of town, which is called South Street, which is a Very popular strip with retail, establishments, restaurants, coffee shops and things of that nature in the summertime. It's a it's a really nice place to go and it's a it's a place that that a lot of young people. Now, hang out in the 70s and the 80s, it was like more or less the punk rock and hippie kind of see now it's you know, a young adult sort of a

Speaker 1: what did you call it. It's just like a place where they go. And

Speaker 2: hang out, have fun. And yeah, it's

Speaker 1: been time for money. It's, you know, it's just a nice place to when you're want to get out and enjoy the scenery. It's kind of like Soho in looks like,

Speaker 2: it's exactly like correct. That's exactly. Okay. So I'm making a coffee shop and I explain the concept to him in the character and he loved it right of it right away. It just sort of something that you know, no, that attracted him and he attracted it. Yeah. So no, it was a perfect fit and, you know, I sat down and like, with all my actors, you know, we sit down and talk to them and discuss the process. What we are looking for this character to be, are you able to do this? Lets, you know, talk to you, you know, over the course of the weeks before we started to shoot and then, boom, everything worked, right? It was like a match. Made in heaven.

Speaker 1: So predominantly. I assume that nearly all the film is filmed on location in Philadelphia are around Philadelphia. Yeah, it was, it was it easy to do the filming with, with the public just, you know, obviously in the background or do you have to get special permits, Etc.

Speaker 2: Well, before we actually started shooting, of course, we We had to have our insurance in place. Yes. And that's something. My wife handles,

Speaker 1: specifically another hat? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2: We did have to have permits to shoot in front of certain properties, like, if we were shooting in front of a coffee shop, or a convenience store, or something like that, we have to have paperwork signed by them. Absolutely. Because anything can happen. And as far as responsibility for that, it had to be A dressed accordingly. If anything did

Speaker 1: happen, we wanted everyone to be taking care of you, just in case I'm a real advocate for that on. I try not to leave no Stones unturned. When it comes to think that's important to me somebody's welfare. Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 2: And also, what we made a specific point of doing this contacting, our local police department and the local precincts will they don't use precincts in Philadelphia districts in anal area that we were shooting the let Them know that we were shooting that day. How long will you be there? And if we were using any type of prop weapons or anything like that, you know, we don't want to be like brandishing, you know,

Speaker 1: they want to know all aspects. If the shooter, how does that work? Well you know

Speaker 2: you know surprise yeah for this project executive producer and knowing you know people in the police department we just simply give them a call and said, hey you know, my name is Tony. We work our Our local Philadelphia film office, right? The Greater Philadelphia film office to let you know that we are going to be shooting under the bridge at 10:00 a.m. We'll be there for two hours. You're welcome to stop by, we'll have some coffee for you. If you want to be in the scene, you can do that. It was great and they're like, okay, have fun times when we

Speaker 1: were actually On seeing even if a certain District didn't know that we were shooting they would ride by and stop you look and what good are you guys doing it? And I would you know Tony was getting the actors together getting prepared or whatever or we were acting in seeing. I would kind of like try to talk to him on the side, you know, they could visually see that we were working and I have, you know, I really have to tell you throughout this whole process we have really been blessed because everything just fell in place. Yes. And for me that was confirmation that when you have a heart for God when you have a heart for people that's equally important to when you have a heart for people and you have their best interest at heart, these things just love. Oh yeah. And people like I said, the regalness people since that. Yeah, you don't work hard when you're real, right? That's my model. When you re little show if you're real about what you do and you Your labor and love into whatever project you're embarking on, it will show and people want you explain to people what you're doing and where you're approaching, they'll gladly be on board if they understand all the details of what you're trying to accomplish. And if you do a decent in an order, things always turn out the way that you expect them to even though it was a lot of work. Yeah, I always want to mention that it was a lot of labor labor of I keep saying that because the heart for this, it was um it could be very taxing because you had to do the interview you had to we'd certainly cloud and we were blessed to have so many great actors. Yeah.

Speaker 2: All of them. All of them. So, were Stellar even some of the earlier episodes of Revelation blue, when we have the younger actors? I don't know. If you remember watching the pilot was, you know, the young lady that Team up running in the alley to Devon. Blew her name was Samantha.

Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, they go. Yeah,

Speaker 2: whatever. Younger. And I had worked with Samantha on stage at one of our local Regional Theaters here in Philadelphia and she was just a wonderful actress that I said, hey why don't you come do this project with us? You know, and she said yeah sure I would come along and ever Thing. And you know, her mom was there you know for every, you know, every shoot hair which was great, you know that we look forward to how about that Family element and Revelation blue is like a family correct. Even though we have some family members come and go for, you know, for a lot of reasons, you know, Logistics, they move on, they went to school. They have a projects that are working on. And right now, what I'm doing and what we're trying with right now is an anthology Version of Revelation blue, which will mean like different stories with different characters in every ride every episode. Okay. It's kind of cool because, I don't know if anyone remembers that show called police story back in the 70s, I've had each week was a different Character with a different set of stories each week different, it wasn't the same characters every week, which I thought was great and keep a lot of interest, right? Keeps it interesting gives a lot of actors of work. Yeah. And you can get, you get to

Speaker 1: explore the backstory, you know, we have a lot of talented people and it's so important to you to, you know, to get as many young people to display what they can do, young middle-aged, you know, which we don't have a number as far as that's concerned. But I just think that it's fitting to express that because you don't want people to think that it's just directed to one group of people. We don't care. God is love. We love everybody, right? You have a talent. I mean, in, you want to get be a part of it, let us know.

Speaker 2: And I always make it a point to have a multicultural multiracial cast, because everybody has a story, and everybody has a story to tell and everybody recently. So you know as many cultures is as many colors as we can get, you know? I'm so grateful for it.

Speaker 1: Yeah, so you you're kind of putting together the The idea of producing a new episode at the moment. Yes, from Revelation blue, can you tell us a bit more about what you may be? Bringing to the table. You know, very soon.

Speaker 2: Well, what if I don't want to divulge too much, but, you know, has as they say in interviews, you don't want any spoilers but without his it makes me want to watch something. We want to bring Devin blue out of his. Paranoia his anger and making him a lighter character. Yeah, it goes through a lie. He has, you know, and we kind of figured that maybe this is time to is this time to progress to move on, to forgive to, to accept the fact that he is loved by the people around him. And

Speaker 1: God, okay? Because we couldn't get any wasn't feeling the love. Oh, no. You know why? Because he was

Speaker 2: able lovable, right?

Speaker 1: That's the whole Crux of. This is a very kind of brooding. And Lee was projecting that, you

Speaker 2: know, and although and he was angry,

Speaker 1: he was here. He was very, he internalized a

Speaker 2: lot and, and we'll get into why he was angry, right? Why fertilizer, right. We'll get into that

Speaker 1: as well into the area

Speaker 2: because I don't know why. Yeah, I have to figure

Speaker 1: out to come to you.

Speaker 2: It was divulged that he was a preacher and he didn't get the truth in the congregation that he wanted, and he was misunderstood exactly. And he was a little selfish because he wanted these things for himself. And when you're in this, you can't be just for yourself, correct. And when I say in this, I mean, being a Christian, why you have to be for other people and not for Self. It's not a selfie feel that and that's

Speaker 1: when you found them very unique way of putting forward your ideas and your belief in a non. You know as you say you know bash people over the head kind of way out there anything else it's it's there for each individual to interpret how they want and I thought I was a really unique way of going about it. How has the series been? Received by the faith-based community that maybe your, you know, have you had screenings in churches of gospels? How have you approached getting the film to the public over the over the years, since its release?

Speaker 2: Well, we won a number of awards for the series itself. At first people don't really understand where it is coming from, or What? This is actually, until they start watching it because I think that people when they hear a faith-based films, they think of cute little dogs running up to little girl in the background, and it's a Crowd. Oh, you know, that kind of thing. Look at ya. You know, but that's okay. Yeah. Because you know number one we really don't want to preach to the choir. Right? Okay. We want to reach people that have never seen this before and are interested in learning about it with an open mind, right? The whole thing is the whole thing is keeping an open mind about the possibilities of. Can I change my life through this or is this something that is for Real? Okay, and you can't use. As logic. When you explain God I'm sorry you just can't drink and so many people try to do that and fail and say hey I don't understand this, I don't want to be bothered anymore. Okay, so that's number one, the wrong

Speaker 1: approach and the secondly, if I could piggyback or not We cannot see that wind outside, but we know that it's there because we feel it and that's just a metaphor of how God works because he works through us right you know just because we don't see him but we do and that's what I try to give people and it's almost like an oxymoron. I don't, I don't know. God, where is he? You're looking right at him, right? I'm looking right at him, he lives in US. And that's the whole idea. And that's why I said with the project and also want to be clear to, yes, we're going to Help people the best that we can, with God's help to understand. There will be some people that just will not accept it and we're okay with that, because we can only just be Like I said an ambassador, we could just be the person that sets the ground rule or puts it forth but we can't make people believe anything that they don't want to believe you were not. Trying actually do that in the same token. Are we gonna order it down because you don't want to accept it? Absolutely not. We are living Witnesses. What God can do. He can change your life. If you put your trust in the faith in him, it's all about faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of Things Not Seen. And basically what that means is just because we don't see, it doesn't mean that. It's not real. And I think part of the problem is, we're so used to tangible things that we don't even want to touch things that we can't see. Right? Right. So that's the bigger picture here. And that's right. Go ahead. I was just going to say that for myself. I enjoyed the kind of, Obviously it's spiritual but it's from a film perspective. Correct. The aspects of religion in the film with with with the main character. Yeah. When he's conversing with God or asking questions. Correct. Correct. More of a kind of I think the words metaphysical. It's yeah, yeah, Moody. That is correct. It's actually quite dark. It's the opposite of light. The Shining Light is It's like, you can sense that this guy's lost or trying to find something, and it's interesting because it, it's the opposite kind of approach that you would usually see great. So, yeah, I got those elements resonated from a film perspective. Yeah, that's not.

Speaker 2: That's what it. That's what we want to do. We wanted to take a different approach. To type of filmmaking that you haven't really seen in a lot of films. The movie, The Book of Eli to me with a very spiritual movie, the one with Denzel Washington?

Speaker 1: Yeah, I was wondering if you were talking about give a

Speaker 2: perspective from a strictly Cinema perspective, one, but also on the other side of it, The Yang of the Yang, it's like, you know, it's a spiritual movie as

Speaker 1: well, right? Had a lot of spiritual. Yeah, it's a giant

Speaker 2: and I know I think me personally, I feel that faith-based films need to take the lead from that and start developing stories and formats and formulas ations like that bring in Mass audiences.

Speaker 1: Yeah, just to kind of lead on what you're saying. Aw, So, the Will Smith film. I Am Legend. Exactly. Okay,

Speaker 2: exactly. Although it's obviously it's a

Speaker 1: horror and it's a vampire base. Zombie horror movie. It's also the central character is trying to find Faith. Sure. Or something to believe in right? Which, you know can be a perceived actually a manual. Yeah, text

Speaker 2: Right,

Speaker 1: and yeah

Speaker 2: yeah yeah moving the fact that he was 33 years old

Speaker 1: stuff. Question what you're seeing on a visual level instead of just taking it for what it looks like, right? Can you bring something as you're watching it and you're having a kind of moment? Then then you're getting across that part of the story that doesn't have words and it's really hard to do that. Sure they're not just Faith, but ye as a director, as an actor and it makes you, I think some of the most powerful Awful films that are out there usually films, where there's elements were, this just something you're connecting as the viewer and you're like feeling it, you're not hearing

Speaker 2: it your fee, right? That is so true. Absolutely. The one thing that I that we do want to sort of water down is the use of firearms, we wanted their detectives and they're cops and are dealing with crime and all that kind of stuff. We don't we we made a conscious decision not to show like really any guns being fired, you know? I mean they're on their hips. Yeah. And yeah, they're visible. And they talk about them in certain scenes but we didn't want to see anyone getting shot or any blood or anything like

Speaker 1: that. Yeah,

Speaker 2: keep that aspect out of it. Ford

Speaker 1: for Elsa also, very unique and that, and that, and that was one of the things that we always pride ourselves on because We always questioned. I know I did. Okay. Tony, how are we going to do this? Make this. As Regal as possible without all of the violence. But at the same time, keep it interesting and wanting people to feel the need of. Okay. What's going to happen next? That's not always easy to do because you don't want to gain in one aspect and then losing another right. So we really had to think about, okay? So if we do this, we don't want to lose that we had to have balance and everything that we Doing what we didn't want to lose the regalness, to all of the

Speaker 2: action, you know? Yeah, you know,

Speaker 1: the main point of what you're trying to drive home, you know what I'm saying? So

Speaker 2: that's why, that'd be pretty much a dialogue-driven. Yeah. Yes, the dialogue had to re like right on point no and I'm still learning about writing dialogue in, you know, it's an ongoing education. Yeah it is I'm still learning about how to Write dialogue in how to say certain things. Very important in certain ways that sound realistic and look, realistic, and come across as being real, without my, you know, still to the war, you know,

Speaker 1: people do pay attention, they pay attention. And I tell you, you have a lot of critics, they want to be able to say yes. She's just

Speaker 2: saying, but that's okay

Speaker 1: because, hey, we welcome it. But as long as, You know, at the end of each project that we have done Reach people to reach people who are put in our heart, we did the best we could, it's like, hey, eat the meat, spit out, the bone, whatever's for you. You know what, we try to produce something that you can get, as you can give full off of every bite. Because the key is, is to let people know that God is love. Of and you can do all things through Christ, you know. And and that people really love you. People really love you and we are byproducts of one another, we're here for each other, you know, and that doesn't mean that I have to be something else in order for me, and you to connect part of it is to be the ability to accept the person where they are and that's Grace. We have Grace on our lives every day, we have mercy and Grace, everyday brand new Mercies, And through this Pilot, We want people to understand no matter what the characters are displaying, we want them to know that this is real people really experience this

Speaker 2: and that and it's funny, it's hilarious. I don't know whether they were intentionally, throw a little bit more action. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean there's a lot. Of, there's always like a lot of running,

Speaker 1: which is yes, a lot of,

Speaker 2: which is cheap to do, you know, I don't have to, you know, build or hire a rig, to follow a Car anywhere, you know? So I mean, you know, we're working on some stuff that

Speaker 1: movie has, you know, potentially the best reach is on is on YouTube and Revelation blue restoration. Is currently available to watch under Randy our day YouTube channel, and we'll put a link in the description below this interview. And we we accept everybody's feedback and comments and it's good for the director and producer to get a better understanding of how they may approach their next film and things ideas that maybe haven't occurred to them. Right? So, it's, you know, No as somebody who's watching something that's available for free, it's good to, you know, present constructive feedback. Sure, it helps everybody. Yeah, we got

Speaker 2: ya. Welcome it. We welcome all feedback.

Speaker 1: That's it. So I just like to say thank you for being on. Randy had interviews today.

Speaker 2: This was one, we want to come back.

Speaker 1: And we can, we can get you back to discuss it. Great,

Speaker 2: thank you so much Mark for having us. He was an honor to very well. You're welcome.

Speaker 1: Take care. All right, thank at, bye-bye, thanks for listening.