Jeff Ornstein 0:01

Hi everyone and welcome to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein. I am Jeff, and on this show we celebrate people on the cusp of greatness. Those building on past successes in some of the curious and inventive and sometimes unexpected ways they have achieved those, and stepping into moments that could define their legacy. We'll talk about current projects, lessons learned, and the extraordinary opportunities ahead. So the best is yet to come. Nick went from dancing in front of his dad's clunky 1987 VHS camcorder to winning an Emmy two years ago for editing Chaos and Kindness, the wild Amazon Prime, very local series with recycled percussion. In between, horror shorts on public access, car commercials at 19, Werner Hertzog QA's at the Coolidge Corner Theater, seven years cutting peer-reviewed science videos at Jove and getting surprise entered into a Spartan race on national television. Sure to talk about that. Right now, he's quietly writing a sci-fi pilot about ghost hunting apps that accidentally make the ghosts real. And he's pretty sure the best is still yet ahead. Nick, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Jeff. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. You're welcome. Well, I have to say your profile is precisely the kind of people that we're interested in speaking with. People that are not in their early stages of their career, but have a little time under their belt and have explored a couple of different options and have found that that sort of melange of different experiences has led them to yet a new plateau where they're going to take off from. And you've certainly done a little bit of everything and achieved some success along the way. So I'm excited to hear about these experiences firsthand.

Nick Blanchette 1:46

Yeah, it's it's it's been a trip.

Jeff Ornstein 1:50

I mean, I gotta ask about getting the Spartan race. Can you share a little bit about that with me?

Nick Blanchette 1:55

We were doing a tour of 30 days on the road, traveling all over the United States, just the three of us, me and the two drummers for recycle percussion. And we made it to, I think it was North Carolina, where he mentioned, hey, we're gonna do a Spartan race. That's gonna be one of our stunts because every day we're gonna do a stunt and an act of kindness for 30 days straight, and we're gonna, you know, broadcast it on Facebook Live. So they were mentioning a Spartan race happening um that weekend, and they were asking me, kind of joking around, because I'm not an athletic guy, and they know that. They're like, hey, Nick, do you wanna do the Spartan race? And I was joking, like, yeah, sure, why not? Uh little did I know that they actually did sign me up, uh, but they didn't sign themselves up. Uh the tables were turned, and they were like, You're gonna do the stunt, and we're gonna Facebook live it. And honestly, I did pretty well. I'm pretty proud of myself, I should say, uh, not being an athletic person. I did throw up uh towards the end of the race, which was two obstacles away from the finish line. So I took a moment, 10 minutes, like kind of like huddling, like in fetal position. I'm like, oh my God, knowing that I'm live, and I'm like, I'm hoping that they didn't see me puke, or at least they didn't see the the aftermath. But uh, so I ended up finishing the race and we continued on the tour. We went to Nashville, we went to Texas, uh, we went to Little Rock. There was this deep, extreme cave system, one of the biggest cave systems in the United States. We went extreme caving in five feet of water, having to go through like one foot clearance at one point. It was it was pretty extreme. It was uh definitely uh unexpected. I I've done a lot of things that that month that I've never even dreamed I'd do. The tour kicked off with um we went to an amusement park because my boss is a roller coaster enthusiast. So that was like the first week of the trip was traveling to to do roller coaster rides. So it's it's a lot of fun.

Jeff Ornstein 3:50

Yeah, with roller coasters, but I think you kind of lost me on the Spartan race, and once you were in the cave, I was totally out of there. So I commend you for that. So that's really dedication.

Nick Blanchette 4:00

Got a I got a text from my wife after the cave system finding out. Like I had to find out on Facebook Live, you're in a cave, you don't call me beforehand. I could leave. I'm like, oh, sorry. Question though, would you do it again? Would you go caving again? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was scary, but the cave guide that was there was very calm. And I didn't get stuck, but my boss got stuck, and he was like ahead of me, and he was panicking. And the way she was calming him down, I was like, okay, like she knows what she's doing. She's not gonna like let us not gonna leave us. So it was it was definitely like the the guide really helped ease the the anxiety of going in there. It was it was scary, but I'm scary, but it was fun.

Jeff Ornstein 4:45

So I love the fact that you've been through these different reiterations and now like you're kind of hitting your stride on yet this new one after you face like unfair termination or some such thing. Is that how you termed it?

Nick Blanchette 4:56

The whole, yeah, the whole uh company, uh the whole office in the United States was let go. Yeah. And went overseas. So it was it was everybody that was in the team was gone. We were like, what happened? It was a sudden, it was it was so sudden. And for four months after that, almost six months, I was having a hard time even landing an interview. And I was getting scam responses like through WhatsApp. Oh, if you go through WhatsApp, and I'm like, that's a little fishy. And I I ended up taking the bait on one of the the interviews, and it was uh a text interview. It was through WhatsApp, which they can do like the video calls, but they uh I tried to call them, but they're like, nope, do text only. And I'm like, this is a scam.

Jeff Ornstein 5:40

Right.

Nick Blanchette 5:40

I mean so many, there's so many out there. And now now I use Chat GPT when I get a like an email around. I'm like, is this a scam? And they'll show me the red flags. Uh so but it's they're still out there.

Jeff Ornstein 5:52

That yeah, it's crazy. But you know what? That seems like it's in your rearview mirror a little bit. Yes. Tell me about Back to the Future with Legos, because that was my favorite toy growing up.

Nick Blanchette 6:03

Yes. No, Legos is something that I I haven't let go of. I still have my old Legos from when I was a kid. In fact, my son, he uh has his own collection, which his dwarves mine. Like he has so much more Legos than I've ever had. And the Legos that I wanted, like the Technics or whatever, like the he's not into that, so I'm I'm waiting for him to get into the like the electronics and and building robots and stuff, but uh he's uh he's into VR now. So he's in and out of Legos, but I still I still uh play with Legos. I still do I have any Legos? Yeah, I have a couple Legos over there.

Jeff Ornstein 6:36

Yeah, no, Legos are multiple. I can't even I can't even recall how many hours I spent building houses. You know, now I'm a designer, so I built houses a million ways, and my like preferred piece was the actual window that you can nice with a glass pane.

Nick Blanchette 6:50

Yeah, you just you snap right in.

Jeff Ornstein 6:52

Right.

Nick Blanchette 6:53

So that was but that was like Buco De Nero back in the day. Oh, I'll watch YouTube videos on engineering on how people build Legos, like they build like a pneumatic pump and they build like all sorts like a piano, like a pipe organ piano with Lego pieces. There's a whole whole YouTube channel on it. It's it's fascinating.

Jeff Ornstein 7:11

So now your new role that you landed, was it I'm sorry, give us a time frame. When did your company move overseas? What year was that?

Nick Blanchette 7:20

It was like two and a half years ago.

Jeff Ornstein 7:21

Okay.

Nick Blanchette 7:22

Jove, Jove um went over. Right. So now tell us a little bit about what you're doing. So after six months of unemployment, someone reached out to me about a job posting on Facebook about this band Recycled Percussion. And then I've heard of them. They're local, they're from the same town that I'm from, Manchester, New Hampshire. So and I'm familiar with them because they were on America's Got Talent back in 2012, and they got like third place, I think. They almost won. And so they're they're like celebrities in New Hampshire. Right. So I was familiar with them, but I didn't know they had a TV show. So I saw the posting saying that they're hiring a videographer and editor for their for their TV show. And uh it's a six-month gig, you know, potential permanent. And I mean, I've been there for almost two years, so it's it's definitely permanent. But I it started off as being just as a camera guy, following them around. My first week they did a 24-hour Facebook Live, and they had uh they have fans all over that will come in person to participate. So we had um a polar plunge in the Merrimack River. Oh uh, and it was February, so it was freezing. I actually participated. I went down into my underwear, I had a GoPro on my chest, and I went in the water. They also did for that first couple weeks, they had me do things that I uh that's not on my radar, like design, graphic design, because they do clothing. Brian, he's the designer, he does all the designs, but if there's something that he can't do, he'll come to me and ask me, like, oh, can you put this box together, uh, a Christmas box, and and you know, I'll do that. So so my core functionality there is very broad. Yeah, it sounds like I do I do more than just uh videographer and editing. I'll even they just opened a uh burger restaurant at the mall in New Hampshire that I designed all like I pretty much designed the the layout. My boss asked me to put a layout together on, you know, take a photo of the old restaurant and put like the new graphics on there. So he based off of my design, designed the storefront. Uh, and there's the menu I designed, I designed the animations on the on the side of the restaurant. There's nothing the same. It's always different.

Jeff Ornstein 9:31

So has that always been part of your DNA? This uh this artistic design?

Nick Blanchette 9:35

Yeah, like uh adaptability. I'll I'll adapt to whatever comes my way and I'll figure out a way. Like I I've worked for Apple for three years and I I did um I trained on how to use Final Cut Pro and how to use the software. And after I left there, I went through a uh a period of folding origami. So my whole house was covered in origami. It was like a phase that I went through. I was like, oh, I want to try like the f and it was like intricate designs that I was doing. Sure. And I I I can't remember how to do them. I have to follow instructions. So I only made the designs once. So everything I made I only made once because I was I would get bored of making it again. Right. Uh but yeah, so I'm very I've always been creative, no matter what medium it is, whether it's writing or or designing or even music.

Jeff Ornstein 10:25

It also goes to survivability, creative minds, you know, when one door shuts, another one opens, and how do I recreate and reinvent myself? Exactly. When you're doing these following these guys with all these crazy stunts and everything, is some of it scripted? I mean, as the videographer, I mean, like how do you know where to be, when to be there, and so on?

Nick Blanchette 10:45

It yeah, none of it's planned, really. It's if it is planned, it's planned short notice. Right. So we we usually just Justin is a very all over the place, like he has so many ideas and he's a fast talker. Like he'll like you'll want want to do ideas quickly. And uh so yeah, there is really no planning on it, and that's something I thrive in. Like I just follow, I just I'm in the in the shadows kind of with with the camera. Right. So it's definitely, yeah, it's not like I would love to do more narrative stuff, like in the in the future, do like, you know, uh the TV show or whatever with with characters and in a script, but this has been fun filming reality TV, and that's something I've done in the past. And it kind of stems from my my news videographer experience, like kind of filming news segments and and knowing what to capture and you know when to capture it.

Jeff Ornstein 11:35

Yeah, that's kind of where I was going. Because I mean, if if there's no script and you don't know what's coming next, yeah, part of it being a successful take is you being in the right place at the right time.

Nick Blanchette 11:45

And knowing like from past experiences, like, okay, so I know that he's gonna like say like the way someone talks, like I can recognize a pattern, like, okay, he's gonna say something in a moment, so I'm gonna make sure I'm gonna focus on that. Or I can anticipate a certain move so I can cut to a wide shot or move the location and and and get a different shot. But in the end, it's all all in the editing for me, right? Especially for for this show, that's how we figure out the story. Right. And Ryan, who's been editing the TV shows up till I got hired, so they're they have nine seasons of episodes. Uh yeah, like in 20-something Emmys before I got there. And um, so Ryan's been doing all that work, like filming, editing, and he pretty much trained me. So he's been mentoring me through this whole like, you know, editing process. I've edited almost three seasons so far. And every step of the way he's been there, guiding me, like kind of teaching me the storytelling aspect. It's not about the editing, it's not about how good you are at editing or how like fancy you are. It's all about like the content of it. And that that was the one thing I learned about working on the show is it really doesn't matter like how good the edits are. It just is just as long as the the story's there. Right. Like you feel something.

Jeff Ornstein 12:58

I was listening to a feature film, and the director told me there are three films the script you read, the film you film, and the film that's produced after editing. And they could be three completely different stories presented completely differently, but that editing is so key to what's the story that unfolds. So you must have really taken this guy, you know, he must you must have his confidence. If he'd gotten all these uh Emmys, yeah, nominations or awards prior to you joining, I would think he'd have been pretty protective as to who's gonna step into his shoes.

Nick Blanchette 13:31

I that's why I was very nervous about first going into the job. It was like I don't know when I got off to the job, it was through text. I didn't respond right away. I I talked to my wife, and I'm like, I don't know if I can do this. Right. I was nervous, and my my wife, you know, he's like, you can do this. Like you you've been doing this for your whole life. Like you're married. You have you have this. Right. So I took the job, and honestly, Ryan is the most he's the nicest guy. Like his feedback is so delicate and detailed. Like it's super detailed, and like I couldn't ask for a better feedback system than that. Because he's great to grow. He gives me like yeah, exactly. And then I've I've become a better at it. Like, I've seen like I've thought I plateaued for a while. I was like, okay, I'm not, I don't think I'm gonna get any better at this specific craft, you know, because I've I've wanted to do other things like VFX artist and and graphic work and directing and writing. So I was like, maybe editing is something I should start veering away from and and doing something else. But working at on the show as an editor, like I've definitely like strengthened my muscles in that.

Jeff Ornstein 14:44

Well, it sounds also like this Ryan's a bag full of ideas. So if you stay connected with them, you know, there'll be another idea coming down the pike anytime soon.

Nick Blanchette 14:52

And they're they're yeah, they're great musicians too. Ryan actually produced Justin, they they're cousins, Justin and Ryan, and they challenge each other back and forth. And right now, Justin is uh originally he was supposed to be stranded on a desert deserted island for a month while he writes his book. That didn't work out because of sand fleas. It was infestation. So now he's traveling around the United States writing his book. Before that, Justin challenged Ryan to visit all seven wonders of the world in in a record amount of time, or hitchhike from LA, Hollywood sign all the way to New Hampshire just busking, just drumming and and and hitchhiking. So one of the challenges, the reason why I bring this up, is he challenged Ryan to record an album, like five songs, in a in a studio and and release it on an iTunes. And he did that, and honestly, a lot, and he made music videos too, like that Ryan shot and direct and edited. And it's super impressive the talent that I work with, like the the range. They perform over 10,000 shows in Vegas in the span of like 10 years, and and they still do shows every every season. Like the right now is the winter tour. The winter tour starting at the Palace Theater on the first, I believe. And they're going for like two weeks there, and then they go to another theater for another week, and they go to another theater. They have their own theater that they did uh a whole summer performance at. And I go with them sometimes uh when they do tours in the state in other states like uh Texas or we went to Chicago uh a couple months ago and performed for it wasn't Lego, but they were using Lego. It was like an engineering conference for kids. Uh-huh. Uh and the guy, I think the guy from uh the the person who invented Segway. Oh, he's he he actually is from Manchester and he is on the board of this uh engineering conference thing. So it was it was really cool. Like we experienced a lot of cool things on the job.

Jeff Ornstein 16:44

Well, it just it's just it just goes to show you, you know, it never say never, never say die. Because here is, you know, the rook the carpet got pulled out from under you, and then all of a sudden you landed in this fantastic situation where you're able to grow and you can respect the people you work for, and they're giving you all this incredible feedback. I mean, I just love to hear things like that. Because a great mentor is hard to find. You know, some people, time is short, people want to they just want things done and they're not necessarily willing to teach. So Yeah. But now, do I understand this correctly? Are you writing a TV pilot?

Nick Blanchette 17:19

Yeah, I was toiling with the idea of writing a series like for the past couple of years. Like I want to write like a series, like a Netflix, Apple TV type thing where people are coming back every week.

Jeff Ornstein 17:30

Uh-huh.

Nick Blanchette 17:30

As opposed to writing a film where it's you're sitting there for an hour and a half, two hours. I could sit through like a TV show. Like it's easier for me. So that was my my goal is to write a a series. And I've written screenplays in the past, I've written like 120-page scripts before, and it's daunting. So I sat down for the last month and I started writing a series about um, and I had this idea about this app that you can see ghosts. It allows you to see ghosts through, it's like a ghost hunting app. Sure. So I wrote this series centered around a ghost hunting team who discovers that they're not only seeing these ghosts, their ghosts are becoming real. Like they're pull essentially, they're pulling the ghost from their time. And they find out that what they're doing is they're actually looking into past, they've opened up like a time travel window. Yeah. And there's this corporation, like this big corporation that's trying to use their tech to fix a paradox and have a single, a singularity timeline as opposed to like the many fractured timelines. And it uses it's based on real science. I was actually cross-referencing it using Google's Gemini to figure out a way to make this make sense because that was like the one thing about like I wanted it to be grounded in science. Right. So it's all science-based with Einstein's theory of relativity and Tesla's his papers, the Tesla papers that the FBI seized when he died. The lore is based around an actual thing, uh, well, an actual conspiracy theory called the Pegasus Project. Right. Which was a project back that was run, um, I'm not sure like the DARPA or whatever ran this thing where they had a chronovisor that allowed you to see in the past. So you can see historical events. And they used kids because they had a better temporal field. They were sensitive to that. If you look up the Pegasus project, you'll see a bunch of videos on this.

Jeff Ornstein 19:23

And when I was writing up because I thought it was a fantastic idea when I read it in your bio.

Nick Blanchette 19:29

When well, I was writing the pilot episode, and I didn't know about the Pegasus Project. And I I was watching a YouTube channel called The Why Files, and they they go over the Pegasus project, and I'm like, oh my God, this is I'm writing this.

Jeff Ornstein 19:41

You stand for everything or what we're trying to put out there for people that you know there's always a way to reinvent yourself and hit your stride after having multiple different experiences and then conjoining them and putting them into something new. And it sounds like you're on this fantastic trajectory to like really make a difference. And I'm gonna look for that Netflix or Hulu or wherever you end up with the uh sci-fi app because I think it's a great storyline.

Nick Blanchette 20:08

Yeah, definitely. I I have uh the whole series is written. So I have right now I'm simmering on it. I'm like waiting, just kind of letting letting my feelings kind of dwell over it, and and because it's a whole world that I built that I didn't realize how intricate it was. So now I have to make sure it makes sense. So I have to cross refresh like the continuity and the plot holes. So that's that's the next step right now.

Jeff Ornstein 20:31

All right. Well, good luck with that. Thank you so much. Thanks for spending some time with me. I appreciate it. Thanks for tuning in to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein. Follow, subscribe, and stay connected to your favorite socials at www.nextdackpodcast.com. Keep chasing your next act. The best is yet to come.