Spreading The Mental Health Care Message Through Film
Join Jimmy Lucarz, a U.S. Air Force Security Forces veteran and film maker, in his mission to raise awareness about the importance of mental health. In his powerful short film, Jimmy highlights the need for military members to take their mental health seriously and access the services available to them. Watch now and be inspired to take action for your own well-being. Jimmy is on a mission to share this film with as many military installations and units as possible. If you're currently serving, please reach out to Jimmy via the link below to schedule a private viewing at your unit or base. Together, let's prioritize mental health and support our military members.
In This Episode We Cover:
Why talking about mental health is important
Why spreading the message of getting seen for mental health support is vital
How important it was as a veteran to get as many aspects of a short film to be as "military" accurate as possible
Short preview of "Police Three" film
Your military career is a small portion of your life, you have more to live for
Battle Buddy Podcast Guest Links:
Transcript from Episode 89 with Jimmy Lucarz:
Keith McKeever 0:01
Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today, I've got a great, great guest on to talk about a film that he's got. It is about a nine minute short film that is very, very powerful. It's got a very, very powerful message. And he's on a mission to spread that message to as many people as he can. So we're going to talk about that film, what it was like as a veteran to make that film.
Keith McKeever 0:24
So without further ado, let's just just get right into it. Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever.
Keith McKeever 0:33
Welcome to the show, Jimmy. Hi.
Keith McKeever 0:36
So tell us a little bit about yourself first. All right, your military background? What do you know? All that stuff?
Jimmy Lucarz 0:42
Fair enough. My name is Jimmy leuchars. I am a independent filmmaker.
Jimmy Lucarz 0:49
I am also an Air Force veteran. I spent 1010 years of the month in the Air Force as a security forces member. I went in in 2006. You know, did the whole Lackland basic and technical thing was stationed at Columbus Air Force Base for five and a half years and then spent four years at Hurlburt field Florida.
Jimmy Lucarz 1:12
During that time, I went overseas three times what I like to call vacations, and very sandy vacations. And then um, after I got out, I got I was a staff sergeant, I kind of plateaued because I was I was very happy as a staff sergeant. Looking back, I kind of wish I push more to get ranked. But I love being an NCO, I really did. I love supervising troops. And then after I got out, I went to University of Hartford for film because I the Air Force, though I loved it, it was very nice career, I wanted to pursue filmmaking, I want to put my entire focus on filmmaking and telling stories. And since I spent 10 years in security forces, which I think we can all agree, gives you some of the best stories in the world, because you're mixing all different types of pupils from I would say around the country, but I also met people from around the world.
Jimmy Lucarz 2:11
It gives you so many different stories. And I was like, Well, if I have these stories, I should be able to tell them and tell them in a way that hopefully people can relate to and be entertained by.
Jimmy Lucarz 2:23
And like I said, I went to college, did a few short films in college for school credit, started a web series called defending also military history lesson. And we can safety proof with Masters already in Berkeley, because I figured one of my professors was like, if you're gonna do a web series, design that you consider normal, but people outside of your group would think is a new, crazy thing. So security forces matches that. So I did those comedy things. And part of the goal was to draw people in. And then after I got out of college after I graduated in 2020, right in time for COVID, I started working on my first short film, Post College Police three, which is not a comedy, it's a drama that deals with mental health issues in the military, specifically security forces, because well, it is, it's an important issue. And unfortunately, we all see the numbers are way too high. When it comes to suicide, and during my time in it was It wasn't necessarily it was hard to get the mental health you needed because stigma was against it or wasn't available, or there was a lot of reasons. And I figured that I might not have the answers. Keith, you might not have the answers. But if we get, the only way we're gonna get to the answers of how to fix this problem, or at least mitigated is by talking. So by creating police three, we wanted to myself and the filmmakers that worked on it, and there were a lot. We wanted to create a film that would generate the conversation of what are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? And what can we do better in mental health, whether it is in military, which obviously is my focus, but also the civilian world? Because a lot of my civilian friends talk about how there's not enough there in the veteran community, whatever, we obviously have a crisis. So hopefully, we can talk about it. And my goal, like I said, is to get it out as far as I can, whether it's film festivals, veteran groups, like the VFW, which the Waterbury VFW was a huge help in making this film or Air Force units, security forces units, Army units, if they feel like they can use it. Anybody who feels like this would start that conversation during their suicide awareness training. Then I think this film can do it because it doesn't look like your stereotypical Well, you know, PSA that the Air Force does or the DOD?
Keith McKeever 5:06
Yeah, I mean, it's not done from their perspective. Keith, you saw the film.
Jimmy Lucarz 5:09
So what would you think?
Keith McKeever 5:14
I think it crosses lines, just just the way you filmed it. Obviously, you know, you could tell it's Air Force, because uniforms or whatnot, but, you know, I think, really any branch could watch it and look past, you know, the fact that they're sitting in a security forces truck, you know, on the edge of a flight line, you know, like, look past that I think the army could can can see, you know, a soldier could see themselves there, I think a marine could see themselves in that situation, too. So, I think it transcends those branch lines pretty easily. You know, and we all deal with the mental health. So yeah, I think there's a lot of value for any unit, you know.
Keith McKeever 5:53
But yet, today, what really matters is does it get people talking? You know, at the end of your I know, is, you know, like nine minutes and some change, whatever, at the end of that nine minutes, does it cause the people who watched it, to turn to one another, and start a conversation, because that's where it really starts to happen. Because like you said, like, stigma and a career field, we were both security forces I went in and Oh, six as well. And, you know, after my deployments, it was like, hey, there's mental health over there. But yet, you had to stigma being the law enforcement security of, if you go to mental health, the commander is going to take your weapon, or mental health is gonna take your weapon, whatever. That's like, your whole identity. You know, I mean, like, it's not just your career, it's like your identity. It's, it's, it's your weapon. It's your bat, you know, your badge and your blu ray. Like you earn it. Like it's so deep. I mean, it's just just like title of an airman or soldier Marine, like, if so ingrained in you like, you can't take that away.
Jimmy Lucarz 6:56
I actually have, I'm going to quote one of my airmen on this from long ago, we were having a mental health briefing from Captain over at Columbus. And he was talking about like, how people need to ask for help and all that stuff, but one of my airmen are Terminator was the airman or the flight chief, because they both talked about it. But basically, one of the my airmen had an issue at home, they had to take away his weapon, which, that's fair, like, there's something going on with him. There's certainly times where that is necessary. Exactly. And I've had my weapon taken away because my brother's fiancee passed, and that is legit reason. I wasn't going to use it on myself. But the fact is, you have to take away that weapon just to be safe. And that's fine. I kind of I understand the logic behind that. The issue is, what do we do with cops that break the law? What do we do with cops that violate rules, and they're under investigation, we do the same exact thing. And then with both situations, we did not talk about why those weapons were taken away. The only reason anyone on my in my flight knew why my weapon was taken away was because I told them, but what if I don't want to talk about my
Keith McKeever 8:15
problems? Oh, and you're standing there and guard mouth. Without the work. You don't have a weapon? Everybody's like, Okay, what's wrong? Are you in trouble? Or as a valid reason? Or is it you know, medical, like, you have a waiver, like, are you on a painkiller or something like that? You can't, for a couple of days, but
Jimmy Lucarz 8:33
it always starts with the, is he in trouble? Or is she in trouble? That's always the first thing is, Oh, I heard so and so did this. And it destroys your self esteem more than now that everyone's talking about you behind your back. And I don't have an answer of like what you should do. Because, you know, obviously, if you have that breaking point, you shouldn't have a weapon. But at the same time, we should probably be talking about it as a community or as security forces to be like, Whoa, like, maybe we could self police ourselves. Because like, if you get yourself started talk stuff about someone who's actually having mental health problems. You might be like, Oh, wait, maybe we shouldn't be talking about this. Maybe we should let them deal with whatever they're dealing with. I don't have the answer. But that's the point of the film is to get those who are in that situation to talk. Because, again, we bottle that stuff up a lot. I bottled up stuff while I was in that I didn't realize I was bottling up. And it's only years after that. I'm just like, you know, one of my co workers said, you know, it's like, you have the PTSD. But I don't think so. I don't blow up at people. And I read it right? I did. I literally just did. So I was like, let me reevaluate what's going on with me. But we get so used to not talking about it because we're afraid of losing our weapons. We're afraid of losing that deployment. We're afraid that we can't re enlist. And the point of the film is there First, you have to take care of yourself because you can't accomplish the mission if you don't. And if you get to that breaking point where you're about to kill yourself, your career is over anyways. Your, your happiness, your long term happiness is honestly more important because, again, we're going to steal this line from the movie. But what do you stay in, if you stay in for four years, and you're staying for 20, your career is going to end all of our careers end, eventually, whether it's in retirement or after our first and listen, and no one's judging which way it goes. But at the end of the day, you're going to be out here in the real world like you, Amira, Keith, and you're going to have to figure out how to live out here. And if you're still dealing with the trauma that happened to you before, during the military, you're not going to, this is not going to be a good time for you. So it's best to take care of yourself while you can, while you have those options available to you. Because out here, there's less people that can help you. It's in some places, there's, I mean,
Keith McKeever 11:03
like I've gotten anybody to help you exactly. By seem like there's nobody to help you. There's there's always somebody to help. Yeah,
Jimmy Lucarz 11:08
but it's, it's the point of like, I can go to the vet center over in rocky hill here in Connecticut, and they'll see me in there really good. But you could be in the middle of nowhere, I don't know, north, North Dakota or South Dakota, and the nearest provider might be hours away from you
Keith McKeever 11:25
know, greater, literally. So it'd be 10 hours if there's snow underground.
Jimmy Lucarz 11:30
But it's like, you need to take care of yourself when you're young. So that way you have developed those tools to take care of yourself when you're older. And again, there's a lot that the DOD and the Air Force can and should do, in some cases do it better than others. I've been talking to multiple bases, and they have their North Star Program at some units, which I hope is helping a lot. I've been talking to a few North Star providers. And again, I hope that's helped. And we didn't I didn't have that when I got out in 2016. Herbert field did not have anything like that. They might have it now, I haven't talked to anyone there yet. But we didn't have that. And the more we develop, maybe the North Star Program is exactly what you guys need great, then that's something that works. Maybe it needs work, maybe something's up with it that you guys think can be, you know, do better. This, like I said, this film is just meant to get you guys talking about what's you know what we can do better. But also, if, hopefully, people will watch it and be like, you know, I relate to that character. I relate to Bailey, I relate to Smith or whatever I wrote, I tried to write it in a way that regardless of what your trauma is, you might be able to relate to it. And that's why it's very I don't give you all the answers in the film.
Keith McKeever 12:58
I know you definitely don't. You leave some things. Yeah.
Jimmy Lucarz 13:03
But that's the point. It's a nine minute film, the point is for you, the viewer to put yourself in Bailey's shoes.
Keith McKeever 13:11
And of course, you can kind of ask yourself some questions like, Okay, what exactly is going on here? Like, I don't want to give too much. Yeah, and this is a good point to say, you do have a little trailer that
Jimmy Lucarz 13:25
we're going to it's not trailer, it's the first minute of the first minute,
Keith McKeever 13:29
we're gonna have the first minute, it's gonna be cut into the video. So if you're listening to the podcast, this is your clue. We're going to pause here for a minute that you need to head over to the video. And the link will be in the description in the in the podcast, if you're listening. If you're watching on video, you're already in luck, because here it is.
Keith McKeever 13:52
And there you go. So, but I do want to back up Jimmy and say one thing, because you filmed this, really for those that are still serving, and you hit on something earlier. And I think it's really, really important to say this to our current service members. Most people join when they're about 18 to 20, right? Correct. Even if you serve 20 years, that puts you at about 38 to 40 ish, right? The life expectancy for people in this country is upper 70s, maybe around 80 Give or take general terms, right? So by the time you retire from the military, what makes it What's your childhood and your military service, your life is only half over. You still have the whole second half of your life let you get to live. That's better, right? So if you are four years into your military career, and you get out, you know, you have a mental health issue. You have to take care of stuff and you end up getting out. It's not the end of the world. You still have your whole life ahead of you.
Jimmy Lucarz 14:55
And it might not feel like it. But I mean it might not have been In situations where I felt like everything I cared about was leaving. I really did. And the good news is, as you get older as you get wiser, you kind of learn how to handle the situations better, more healthily. But it's, there's a lot more adventure out there, I guess is the best way to put it. Like, if you asked me 10 years ago, while still in the military, whether or not I'd be going down this career path now, I would never have thought that. I
Keith McKeever 15:36
mean, last second that I wouldn't had a call, I would, I would have thought you'd been crazy. If you'd told me 10 years ago, where I'm at now.
Jimmy Lucarz 15:43
Exactly. And it's just it changes divorces happen. They happen to a lot of us, unfortunately, in the military part, it happens, loss happens, heck, I mean, just in the military being in for me for 10 years, there's a lot of I became very close to a lot of people. And a lot of those people I don't talk to anymore, and I miss them a lot. And it is a form of heartache. But at the same time, I cherish those memories with those people. Not everyone is like it's not like they died or passed. They just went on, like, there are people scattered throughout literally the planet that were very close friends of mine, you know, whether it's in UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Mississippi, Columbia, you know,
Keith McKeever 16:31
Fort Walton, times their simple times their memories, especially when you're playing over in the sandbox, and life is much simpler.
Jimmy Lucarz 16:37
Exactly. But at the end of the day, life does go on and there is more adventure out there. It's just about finding the tools. I'm not saying that you have to be left to like, go down to the basement and figure things out and come back when you're healthy. No, I'm not saying do that, because that's very counterproductive. What I'm saying is like, you still have people around you that care. You may not think they do. They may not even know there's anything going on with you. I mean, what I did with my heart IK is like, Okay, I need to get out and do things. I need to take control of my life. And at the very least, I'm going to say it plug Applebee's because that's like the least place I want to go. But I went to Applebee's with my friends. I went to Chili's, what, wherever. It's trying to remember that there is other stuff out there. One thing I kept always trying to remind myself is today's no worse than yesterday. It's just our nostalgic brains keep on trying to tell us that yesterday was better than today. We are nostalgic creatures we want. Like we Why do you think there's so many like revivals of 90s TV shows? Because Oh, it was so much TV was so much better back then. Movies are so much better back when
Keith McKeever 17:55
and all those remakes suck? Alright, there's a few good ones. Okay. Okay. I shouldn't say all of them. Okay, I'll give you that. Jimmy. Like,
Jimmy Lucarz 18:03
I already knew the new nightclub show looks like it might be good. But you know, my point is like, you have all these revivals, because we have nostalgia brands. I think of Columbus. Being with those people, as you know, some of my fondest memories. There was a lot of bad that happened at Columbus. You know, I think Herbert has a great place. There's probably some bad stuff that happened there too. But I have to force myself to think about that. And then realize, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, that thing happened or that thing happened. And it's like, Oh, yeah. Okay. So today's just is equal to yesterday. It's not necessarily like a depressing that my entire life is the same. No, it's things change, problems change. At this point in my life, I had this person in my life, and I was very grateful for that. But these other things were happening now that they're gone. The, you know, I miss them. But other good things that are happening, like for me right now, I'm getting interviewed by Keith here. And two years ago, I didn't think something like that was going to happen. You know, we got, again, to present this film to basis, hopefully here in the future, I get to go to film festivals. Two years ago, I was not a very happy camper. But things changed as long as you put the work in to make them change. Like if you're just doing
Keith McKeever 19:26
opportunities out there, the opportunity for growth is out there for change. As time goes on, you grow, you adapt, you change, like this. That's why we're both sitting here saying like, we would not have believed ourselves. Five years ago, 10 years ago, if we would have known where we're sitting today.
Jimmy Lucarz 19:45
Exactly. Well, what was that rocky quote? It's not about how hard life beats you down. It's like how hard life can beat you down and you can still get back up.
Keith McKeever 19:55
Something like that.
Jimmy Lucarz 19:57
I know, I'm paraphrasing, but it's basically pretty close to that. Yeah, that's the point. It's, we wherever you are in your life, whether you're 1936 82, you're going to have different challenges. And it's kind of fight. The only way you become successful is fighting. Now, don't get me wrong. All of us have different levels of ability to fight. That's why we're not all Navy SEALs are all pair rescue or all finance.
Keith McKeever 20:27
But not everybody can be security forces. Let's just
Jimmy Lucarz 20:29
not No, no, of course. Yeah. And I'll just give that right away the
Keith McKeever 20:33
elite of the elite, you know?
Jimmy Lucarz 20:37
Yeah. 100, or 100. Trainees went in 99.
Keith McKeever 20:40
Came out with a right, that's right. Exactly. I don't just get Bri braiser. Lane Air Force for nothing.
Jimmy Lucarz 20:49
So anyways, but my point is like, we, we all have different things. We're good at different things we're strong at. And the best thing about security forces is you get introduced to so many more people. You have we have people that in the Air Force that are paralegals, who do they have they have the few people that are in their office. And that's it. Security forces. How many people aren't a flight, smallest flight, I was on what had 12 people. The biggest flight I was on had hundreds are like about 150. So you get introduced to a lot more people we have a lot more people we can reach out to I was lucky I was at Columbus because I don't just have cops, I got cops, firefighters, whatever. But we, there are people out there, whether it is our friends, whether it's our family, or the Vet Center, if we've deployed or it's, you know, the VA, hopefully your local VA is good. My I'm lucky mine is actually decent. But you there are resources. So this, if you are in a dark place, you're not alone. There are plenty of people that want to help. The difficult thing is being a vet. Not everyone thinks like us, and we don't think like them.
Keith McKeever 22:08
So thank you just in time to throw that up there on the bottom of the screen there. Just since we're talking about it. If somebody is struggling, called 988, press one that is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline now, you know, so that's scrolling there, that's in the show notes as well. Seriously. If you're struggling, that's that's one place to call. And like Jimmy saying, Here's other people, you got battle buddies, you got wingman? For God's sake, just call somebody at least.
Jimmy Lucarz 22:38
Yeah, I mean, I completely second that we actually made our, if you look closely at the uniform that next watch are wearing in the film, we actually made the Security Forces Squadron, the nine ADA Security Forces Squadron, it was our passion designers idea is the there's a company out there called patch phrase, he's an Air Force member. And he designs morale patches and actually creates them. So he created, he designed the security forces patch. And then he came up with that number because it's, he knew that number, like when we're getting this film ready. He's like 98988 is going to be that new National Suicide Prevention Lifeline I didn't even know. I was like, alright, let's run with that. I mean, it's a small detail. But we we put a lot of work into this film to try to make it look as authentic as possible without actually calling out a single base because, like, you know, you can call out whatever base, but they're not the only one that has problems, like every base has their level of issues, some worse than others. So I that's why we made up a base, we just wanted to make it look like it'd be a realistic base. But we're going to severe theory, Herbert or Scott or Ellsworth, you watch the film, and you're just going to hopefully, fall into it and just be like, this couldn't happen here. Because every base, every base has a choice. Every base has, you know, people sometimes being posted alone. So no, that's and we put a lot of work. I mean, our two actors put a lot of work into researching security forces, but then there is a huge security forces presence in that this film, and we've got three military advisors that are not me. That helped my old flight chief, he he's the chief now and he he made sure the max uniform was on spot like it was right. As as right as we could get it. Obviously I can make mess uniform, right because I used to wear those babies. Um, and then as far as the actors go, I had someone that got out as an airman because we are talk to Matt because he's an airman In this phone, I've got, I had a tech sergeant, that used to be one of the troops that I deployed with, talk to medic on length about being a female stat or a female NCO, because I've never been a female NCO. So I can't speak to that I can talk about being a staff sergeant, the Air Force, but I can't talk about the female side. Like we, the people on the radio, our security force members or former security forces numbers, the singer at the end, who wrote and performed the song, she's former security forces, like I said, like wherever we could try to incorporate the DNA of security forces. So when you watch it, you feel it. Next job was, I mean, difficult because she's never been in the military. But her job is to make you feel that she's feeling these feelings. Now, don't get me wrong, she would have jumped at the chance of being thrown into like a basic training program.
Keith McKeever 25:59
Job I mean, you couldn't tell the she you know, I mean, it's good.
Jimmy Lucarz 26:03
But she's like, if this has to be longer, and you want to send me to basic training type of thing. I'll do it in a heartbeat. But that's the type of actress Yes, that's why we hired her. That's why she came on board.
Keith McKeever 26:13
That massively level of dedication right there.
Jimmy Lucarz 26:16
All right, that that was all for going to basic event ever got to that point. But he's, he was supposed to be more of a, you know, the comedic figure in this thing to, you know, be the opposition to Meg seriousness, but they both put in a lot of work. Everyone involved did. Yeah, our cinematographer Qian J. Harrison, he's does a lot of local films here. And without him, the film would not look as cinematic as it does, he gave me a lot of advice, because he's got years of experience over me. And our sound guy helped us tell the story. Through sound, there's a scene where we end up talking about a Humvee. But if you listen closely, there's a Humvee that triggers that memory, you hear that in the background. So we try to use as much visual and audio cues to help tell the story. And I think we did a good job, I believe we do a good job. And I hope
Keith McKeever 27:19
that I think you did an outstanding job. I really do. And I mean, man, I, I know you've been posting online about, you know, trying to make connections at different bases. So anybody who wants to listen to this, if you're at a base, and you think it's helpful, reach out to me, or reach out to Jimmy so we can get it to a chaplain base commander, whatever. But, you know, you're mentioned and all these other people who are connected with it. And I know, you said you weren't an advisor, but I do want to know, how powerful was this for you as a veteran and, you know, as security forces veteran to have, you know, a part in putting this together?
Jimmy Lucarz 28:02
Well, as of Okay, so, I mean, it was, it was a huge thing for me, because I've been in that patrol car before, you know, we're in life seems like it's going spiraling, and you're alone, in the middle of the night, or even during the day, and you have your sidearm there. And it's, it gets dark, like, you know, emotionally sometimes because it's like, I don't I don't know where to go from here. I you know, I'm losing someone or I'm, you know, like, or I'm getting more paperwork, whatever it is, because I've had my share of paperwork, too. And it's, it's difficult. And, for me, what got me through that was just go and visit the gate, go talk to the gate guards, go talk to whoever, you know, whatever, I could just break myself out of that. Because sometimes, yeah, depression hits, and it hits hard. And then be with a sidearm all night for eight to 12 hours or whatever. It's, it's a long time. And not everyone. Unfortunately, not everyone can win that battle. And that's one of the reasons why like, if you're at that point, ask for help. Even if that means you lose your weapon even that means you lose your brain. But, again, making this film I wrote it originally right at the beginning of college, and then I rewrote it after college to make sure it looks better and was more had more emotion in it and all that. But for me, it was always important because it's like you never in film If you never see it from the perspective of security forces, like let's say Transformers or whatever, or EagleEye, they're there. But you don't know what they're going through. Security forces is always in the background of any movie.
Keith McKeever 30:14
Ironically, in the background of a lot of movies, yes.
Jimmy Lucarz 30:16
And that's fine. And I, you know, just like everyone else cheered, or, you know, swore when Jimmy died in the first Iron Man. But I'm still angry about that, given my names right there. But he got the wrong door. I could go off on a tangent on this, but I won't. Anyways. There's there's a lot the security forces goes through. The one thing I loved about the mission of security forces is you're there. Regardless of what happens, medical emergencies, planes falling out of sky, whatever, we go to it, if it happens on base, we're there we know about it, we're part of it in one way or another. But no one talks about the real life trauma that causes to a 19 year old to even go to like a heart attack or a baby choking. You as a 19 year old, barely equipped for that. Now we have films that deal with gunfire and war and all that. But what about just the daily trauma? What about losing a friend that died on a motorcycle or something that just compared to what Hollywood puts out? There is ordinary? It's still traumatic? And my, or the stressors that yeah, because like we were filming this, right when Russia was invading Ukraine. And I'm sure there's a lot of people watching this who had to deploy to Europe with at a moment's notice, because of those shenanigans that Russia was pulling, to bolster up the Manning over there. Now imagine if you're in the middle of a divorce, when that's happening, or you're fighting for child custody, you have that stressor, and oh, by the way, sorry, Judge, I can't make it because I have to go. Like, or,
Keith McKeever 32:09
or you're supposed to get married, or you've got your first child on the way and you've got to miss it. Because now you've you've got to go halfway around the world for god knows what the hell's gonna kick off.
Jimmy Lucarz 32:18
Exactly. And there's so many reasons. I mean, the big guys, when the Benghazi attack happened, I was at Harbor field, we were, we were going knocking on doors to wake people up to get them ready to go out. And before deploy. That has to be scary to be woken up in the middle of the night, and be told, you got to go in 48 hours type of thing. So I especially if like your kids birthdays come around the corner or whatever, like, or your parents are sick or something. There's all these stressors and I went up to Meg during the day of filming. And I'm just like, Man, I know. I told you a lot of backstory of this character. Now let's throw in one more problem. You have all this stuff going on? You know what's going on with Russia and Ukraine? I gave her the quick lowdown on what that meant to someone to security forces. Now you don't know if you're deploying? I mean, how's that to live? Her character and this is apparent. Now she's gonna say goodbye, her kids.
Keith McKeever 33:21
That's pretty kind of kind of clever as a filmmaker to kind of do that, like right before filming. All right, throw to throw a wrench in it in her mindset.
Jimmy Lucarz 33:28
Yeah, it's just it. There was a lot that we put in to her characters developed. Like, we I actually wrote 30 pages of backstory that you guys don't see. Just so she could get in that mindset so she could deliver those emotions. And I gotta give it to Meg. She, other than froze her butt off. She put in a lot of work. Like we're all bundled.
Keith McKeever 33:54
That never happens and security forces. Well, that's a lie.
Jimmy Lucarz 33:59
Well, well, in the clip we showed where she says she's not cold. She's freezing. Like she is legit freezing because all she's wearing is the way they OCPs and that's it like she's in the OCP level. She's not wearing her fleece. She's not wearing a beanie. That's it. It is February here in Connecticut. It's cool. I'm bundled up everyone else has been on we have a behind the scenes,
Keith McKeever 34:25
you're probably doing multiple tanks and it's like okay, get back in the car and warm out of the truck.
Jimmy Lucarz 34:29
Well, I mean, she was in the car, but the thing is, we can't have the car running because that's gonna cause too much sound. So between takes we turn it on blast the heat and then turn it off. But
Keith McKeever 34:39
you know, then you're like freezing and thought like Yeah,
Jimmy Lucarz 34:41
but she's. She puts she doesn't even show that she's cold. She's freezing. Smith or Matt who's playing Smith. He's got the beanie on. He's got the fleece on he's good to go. But mags not and yet she pushed through and we you know she did All everyone putting in a lot of work and yeah, I would love to go further into Meg's or not Meg's but Bailey's backstory. But we have nine minutes. That's the point of the film is, it's not my job to tell you how she gets to this breaking point. It's your job. I tell you enough, so you understand that she's there. Our goal is to make you the viewer. Relate? Because if I do what, let's say other filmmakers do who haven't whole 90 minutes or two hours? Oh, yeah, this happened in Afghanistan, or this happened on Iraq. Okay, well, I never went to Afghanistan, I never went to Iraq. How do I relate to that I know nothing about those places, I don't even know if the channel was any good. I can tell you what the channel was like in, you know, searching Gulf states, and which ones were better than with which, but I can't go into detail about those deployments. So I'm gonna like kind of zone out a little bit. But if I leave that blank, and you were a missile field base, then you might be able to relate. So that's the kind of the point of this film is to get it to the point where you relate enough as the viewer. So that way, when it's time to talk about this film, you can relate, you know, you can project yourself into it, whether you see it as a group, in a small, like a large training session, small training session, or if the VFW locally shows it, or once in the future, unless, you know, we get very lucky, we might be post posting this on YouTube in a year or two after it's done with this film festival. But we want people to talk about it. We want civilians to talk about it. Because again, the civilians who will see it at film festivals, they're used to seeing films from the perspective of what Hollywood wants, which is like zero, dark, 30 or whatever, which, again, not bad movies. But that's talking about Navy SEALs, the majority of us aren't Navy SEALs, or special forces or, you know, don't get me wrong, I respect those guys. But the majority of us are your average infantry men, or your average security forces, or your average paralegal or your average, whatever. And to create a movie that relate to them. Maybe that can help people in those situations talk more. Because the trauma in our military does not come necessarily from deploying, it can come from being home station. I've been to
Keith McKeever 37:47
toxic leadership, military sexual trauma, plane crashes, assault plane crashes. Yeah, anything that you respond to me, it could it could, I mean, what you're dealing with could come from sometimes not even military related, it could come from your personal life, domestic disturbance or anything, loss of a loved one, whatever. Like, there's a lot of different things.
Jimmy Lucarz 38:08
And that's why we want I wanted to make this film is so that way, those stories can be projected to this. But at the same time, again, I'm not to discount anyone that went to war, because that's traumatic, you know, that can be very traumatic. But you, you know, if you're a combat vet, you can watch us and see yourself in Bailey's character, or you could have never deployed or never left the missile fields or, you know, and you still see yourself. And that's kind of the point.
Keith McKeever 38:35
You said about civilians a minute ago that I think is interesting. And away, they typically, you know, like or review military style films. But leaving this open ended or vague enough, would also get them talking and asking questions, which I think is also unique. Because that could get them saying, as a civilian. This is interesting, what is happening here, like I know enough to know that this lady is obviously struggling, but I don't understand why. So what's going on in our military to make this lady struggle?
Jimmy Lucarz 39:11
Exactly. And the hope is that, like, we all know, there's a there's a problem in the military when it comes to mental health. We all know that there's,
Keith McKeever 39:20
I think most civilians have a pretty good idea, or if they're paying attention that there's a fucking problem here.
Jimmy Lucarz 39:25
The thing is, it's not the way Hollywood projects it off, like, Oh, God, you know, I in Iraq, I killed someone. Now I'm dealing with it here or I saw someone get killed. It could do so many different ways like we've covered. But the only way things are going to change for the better in the military is a if those in the military try to change it. But also, those outside of the military try to try to change. Like, if there's enough people outside the military, saying there's a problem in the military, we need to fix it and then Congress gets involved, then, you know, the government actually says, Because the thing is, at the end of the day, our politicians, or let's say, Congressmen, are only there for two years, if we are not happy with what they're doing, we're not going to vote for them again. And their goal is to make us happy, which I mean, that's the whole point of Congress, right? So some do it, some don't, whatever. But my point is, if you have enough people talking about, hey, this is an issue, we need to fix it that will motivate those in power to fix the problem. And that's kind of why I want to show it at film festivals in militaries stablishment mean, the other reason I want to show it, I felt that it was because I am a filmmaker. At the end of the day, I am now a filmmaker. My job is to try to tell stories, and I have so many stories, thanks to my military career, and college and whatever, that I want to tell these stories. And what who's gonna use Hollywood as the term but the filmmaking community, what those that make movies, they want people that have different stories, because if you can tell us very simple, but like a very relatively inexpensive story that touches a lot of people, they want that they want that in a heartbeat. No,
Keith McKeever 41:22
no profit margins, right. Yeah, exactly. But the story that gets emotions up and all that stuff, and sells tickets,
Jimmy Lucarz 41:29
yeah. My goal as a filmmaker is to get the stories out that tell the stories of you guys, like I want I have we have stories about military people that are good stories that we should be telling on the screen. Not the version that, you know, Michael Bay wants to tell. Like, you know, there are some good Michael to entertaining Michael Bay films. But at the end of the day, the best military films, or police films aren't made by those who kind of have can relate to it.
Keith McKeever 42:08
So let's because they're real and authentic.
Jimmy Lucarz 42:10
Yeah, exactly. Like, if you look at Band of Brothers, for instance, you know, I love that movie, that movie feel or that TV show that feels authentic, it's crap, because, well, you know, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, put as much effort as they could to making it as authentic as possible. And that's because they cared about the thing. You watch something like, let's say, though, I did enjoy Washington flash a few years ago, those people in there playing military people don't care. They just, they're the Army's there, because the army is there. And that's it. But more filmmakers that come from our generation of military people can make better stuff like you had a, you had military, former Vietnam vets that came home from Vietnam, and they started making movies. And you have classic movies that tell the story of the Vietnam war experience. So that is kind of my goal is to take our generation. Sure, I didn't see combat, but I understand the military mindset. And I want to tell military movies, I also want to tell other types of movies, comedies, dramas, whatever. But at the end of the day, I want to take what I have experienced in the military for 10 years, and bring it to the world that doesn't understand it. And do it like if I was to make a TV show about life in the Air Force. I want to take it with so much care that you, Keith or anyone else watching would be like, he put as much effort into the simple TV show that, you know, Steven Spielberg put into a band of brothers. Because yeah, it might be fiction. Granted, I stealing some stuff from the real world. But it's taken with so much care that you'd be like, Wow, those uniforms are dead on like, I'm no longer distracted by the mistakes. I'm focused on the story. Because there's a lot of filmmakers that, you know, make amazing films, but they're like, what the uniform looks like, doesn't matter. The story is more important. The story is important. I agree with that. But if no one's paying attention to that story, that then they're not going to listen.
Keith McKeever 44:26
But the the uniform and the way that the actors carry themselves and interact is arguably just as important. It's the full story.
Jimmy Lucarz 44:36
That is the fault of the director and the writer, writer, the director and the producer, because the producer has if financially they have the ability to can hire the right people to make sure everything looks right. The director's job is to the actor or the actor does is just portrays whatever they're told to portray and that is it. If the direction given his act like you're in the military Great, so they're gonna salute like this. But if that director and producer has hired someone, like and, you know, early early to make sure that the salutes right, then you're good. Like you make sure the brace form you make sure
Keith McKeever 45:16
you know, small details are taken care
Jimmy Lucarz 45:19
of. Yeah, but the thing is, it's, you have to put that extra effort in. And in my opinion, which I will continue arguing, even against my professors, is if you're trying to make a police show or firefighting show, and the small things are off, they're not going to pay attention to that story, even if your story is 100% accurate, even if it's like, wow, they really made sure this is like, I mean, it's a dramatization, but it's still very authentic. Well, why would they pay attention if things are off like it? I know, it's silly, but to our community, to the veteran community and military community, it kind of adds up. And it's like, we have ADD, we're all weaponized add. So the last thing we're focused on is the thing we're supposed to be. Spot those mistakes a mile away. Yeah. And then we focus on it's like, well, I can't take this actor seriously. The actor didn't make the uniform
Keith McKeever 46:13
movie in the world. But if there's solute is like this duck for exactly.
Jimmy Lucarz 46:18
It's over that. But that's the thing is like, that's why for me, I believe, like, in our short film, I tried to put as much effort as I could financially afford, there are mistakes, I will be the first to admit it. Because like, we're using an m nine in this thing. Yeah, I get it. We switched over the SIG two years ago, or whatever it was, I get that. However, the SIG profits 300 bucks. So it was the Hollister, so that's, you know, $600, for profit, you're only gonna see for like, what, five seconds max. And we did not have that in our budget, or the fact that we actually want to put real place in her vest. But those things were like 300 bucks each. And yeah, out of our budget, so we bought foam plates that fill it out. So it looks like it but she's not actually weighed down. The vest we bought, had to be the cheaper knockoff version of the vest that's actually used because again, we had to make budget cuts where we could. But
Keith McKeever 47:19
we bought it's not much different than the actual quality. Right?
Jimmy Lucarz 47:22
Exactly. But we bought the OCPs and the Bray and the t shirt and her socks, like everything from kellock, we went as far as we could, because we were like, well, what if we decide to shoot from her boots? It's an option. Her boots are legit, you know, Air Force issue boots, I think they're belfius. But like, we went to the point where she's wearing the right t shirt, like she, you barely see the T shirts like that.
Keith McKeever 47:50
Now you didn't need to, you did a great job on that stuff. Because I didn't even notice the m nine or any of that other stuff. So like, like, we were doing a great job on that stuff.
Jimmy Lucarz 48:00
Trying to get an F 150 in Connecticut was difficult, because, you know, like, I know, security forces still use the F 150. I worked at a car dealership. We had none. We had none that like they're like, We have brand new ones. But we're not gonna let you touch it. Thanks. So I had to rent one from enterprise. And they're like, we have one sweet, it's in black. Okay, that's close enough. And like the people that are trying to help me they're like, well, we can give you a Lexus. Yeah, we don't we don't drive Lexus. Is it security forces. So like I was, it was a constant battle to try to make it as authentic as possible. We went with the VFW in Waterbury, Connecticut, because A, they let us use it for free. So thanks, very thankful to them. But that's the closest thing to military establishment that we have in Connecticut, like that VFW is a steel building, it's close enough to a steel building that you'd find, you know, somewhere on Hurlburt field or something. But like, I would have loved to add those like brick buildings with the metal tops that we have on almost all of our Air Force bases. But we don't have those in Connecticut. And try to find somebody that's not surrounded by houses that are like 100 year old houses from Connecticut, those don't match military buildings. So we we did our best with, you know, what we have here. You may also notice that the magazines are wrong. Well, I live in Connecticut 30 round magazines are very much illegal here. So you know, we had to do what we cut. But
Keith McKeever 49:34
again, most people notice most stuff, but
Jimmy Lucarz 49:37
you know, but me as a vet, I noticed it. And I'm directing it, but it's at the end of the day, we tried to do what we could we put the patches in the right spots, to make sure and you know, make sure they got inspected by the person that used to critique my uniform. So that way, we're good. We try to our goal is to try to take care of and honor the Security Forces members that are serving in good service. We'll serve. Because at the end of the day what you guys would all love every one of the service. But let's talk about security forces because they're usually ignored. What they do is important, like whether it's deploying doing convoys, or just sitting around a nook. Like, it's all important. You may, you may, I found myself sitting around in the desert, feeling like I'm not doing anything hot Humvee. But at the end of the day, what we do is matter what we do matter. Because if we weren't there, that someone else would mess with that stuff. And it
Keith McKeever 50:40
definitely matters, man. And I just want to say, I appreciate you coming on here and sharing with us doing this film because it matters. And it's going to, I have no doubt it's going to impact some people's lives. And it's going to send some people to mental health, it's going to put some people on the right path. And you know what, at the end of the day, that's, that's what really matters? I certainly think so.
Jimmy Lucarz 51:03
I certainly hope so. And everyone, on behalf of everyone that worked on this project, whether it's our actors, voice actors, singer, songwriter, our sound, you know, sound guys, editors, like everybody, even our production assistants, everyone, the one thing we all agree on is this film is important because we, we all whether they're vets, millet, active duty, or civilians, we all care about you guys. All of us care about both those who are currently serving and those who are, you know, fats, like you guys truly matter. And at the end of the day, we want to create something that will hopefully give you guys the tools to continue a happy life, get a happy life, have that life that you deserve, because you guys deserve it. I mean, you guys have said seriously, like, from the perspective of someone who did serve for 10 years, whether you serve for four or 20, or whatever, that's a sacrifice, you have really cut out a chunk of your life. I am starting this career now in my 30s, that most people start in their, like when they're in their early 20s. I gave 10 years to our country, just like you guys are giving time to your country. So all we want to see as you guys find that life that you want to have that you have earned, and to enjoy him for the rest of your days. And yeah, there's plenty of resources out there, some better than others. And I we have that never ending goal to make it better. So please, if you need help, ask for it.
Keith McKeever 52:47
Thank you. Appreciate you. Come on, Jimmy.
Jimmy Lucarz 52:50
Happy to do so.
Keith McKeever 52:53
All right, there you go. Folks, I hope you enjoyed that. You definitely need to check out that video. Remember, check out my website for all kinds of information resources and like I always say, if there's something that's not on there and you think it should be make sure you reach out let me know. And as I we talked about earlier, if you're struggling, make sure you call 988 Press one
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
