Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Darius: What do you want to watch next week?

Jordan: Let's see. When will that episode come out?

Darius: This will come out the 24th.

Jordan: Okay, so the next one will come out on Halloween. So we got to do like a good one. You got any in mind?

Darius: Good scary movie. Yeah, you want to want it to be a thinker or just some dumb slasher type ****.

Jordan: Let's do a thinker.

Darius: I mean, it's. Or do you want to do like be hollow?

Jordan: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, **** it. Let's just do dumb slasher ****.

Darius: Let's do your next.

Jordan: Okay.

Darius: Have you seen that?

Jordan: No, I don't think I've heard of it.

Darius: I think I got a copy of it on a hard drive already. If not, I can just get one, but it's...

Jordan: Came out in 11.

Darius: Yeah, it's... Okay. Literally, it's really dumb, but it's...

Jordan: Hey everybody, welcome to Out the Trunk with Jordan and Darius. This is our movie review segment. My name is Jordan. You can find me on all socials at JordyBWriting.

Darius: And I'm Darius. That's D's all up in the area on all socials.

Jordan: And today we're gonna be reviewing Sleepy Hollow. This movie came out in 1999. It stars Johnny Depp, Christine Ritchie, sorry, Christina Ritchie, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambin, Casper Vandien, and Christopher Walken. Sleepy Hollow takes place in 1799 when New York Constable Ichabod Crane, an eccentric investigator, is sent to the secluded village of Sleepy Hollow to probe a series of brutal decapitation murders. The terrified localist insists the killer is the legendary headless horseman, forcing the skeptical Crane to confront A terrifying supernatural reality to solve the mystery. So I'm gonna toss it to you for your intro.

Darius: Act one, we're gonna call the assignment. Skeptical New York Constable Ichabod Crane is dispatched to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of brutal decapitation murders attributed to a legendary headless horseman. He meets the townspeople, including the mysterious Katrina. Off the rip. Johnny Depp has aged terribly. I couldn't even recognize him. Yo, he has. He has.

Jordan: It's crazy because he aged great at one point and then it just like fell off. It's like, I don't know what happened.

Darius: I don't know if he stopped paying the surgeon or what. Yeah. He looked. I did not know it was him until I had to like, I was doing the rundown. He looks like a different person. You could not tell me side by side that was one person 30, 25 years ago. And don't get me wrong, I'm one of those people who believe people age, that's fine.

Jordan: It's okay, yeah.

Darius: Man, good CGI for $19.99 though. What you got for act one?

Jordan: Yeah, I was gonna say, when we talk about like great director and actor collaborations or duos, I feel like people sleep on with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. They've pretty much anything like cool and creepy that Johnny Depp's ever been in. Tim Burton probably directed it. What do they do? Edward Scissorhands. I'm sure you've seen that one. What's it called? It's the animated one. The bride corpse. What's the corpse bride?

Darius: We got Dark Shadows, Sweeney Todd, Corpse Bride.

Jordan: Sweeney Todd is dope.

Darius: The subject of the podcast movie, Ed Wood, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in the Wonderland. I think this is a biography. And Alice in the Wonderland again. I have not seen any of those. Really. movie that we're reviewing today.

Jordan: That's crazy.

Darius: They're all cartoons, you know. It's audience.

Jordan: I mean, I think only one is only one is not live action. They're all the other ones are all live action. Yeah, Sweeney Todd is ******* fire. It's based on the play. So it's like a musical movie. It's actually really dope. I don't know if you've been to that or not, but it's a cool movie. Just I love them together as a duo. Also, I love when you take kind of old stories or like fairy tales and you kind of flip them on their head. And I think this movie was I like that's what I love most about this movie is the way it kind of takes a children's ghost story and turns it into a really cool whodunit.

Darius: It is a it is straight up a who done it. Do you think it's it's friendly to a first time viewer?

Jordan: So do you mean like in terms of tone or the way the story is told?

Darius: The way the story is told. Like, I'm not someone who demands like a lot of exposition. But you're just kind of dropped into the world.

Jordan: Yeah. And crazy **** happens.

Darius: And crazy **** happens, but yeah. It's just, I just don't feel like it was set well. Like is the world, because like Johnny Depp's character, and one of my questions is, did you share his skepticism of the supernatural? But I'm not supposed to, it's like I don't understand if I'm supposed to understand this world as supernatural or if it's, or if these people are crazy or if he's not, I don't understand if it's well founded for lack of a better way to phrase it.

Jordan: Okay, I get what you're saying. Okay, yeah. I think so because I think this movie was made to be rewatched.

Darius: Yeah, for sure.

Jordan: So I think this movie, like the first time I saw it, like the first time I saw it, I think it was maybe like 19 or 20. And when I got to the end, like my head was blown. No pun intended, you know. And then, and then it was on like TBS or TNT and it was like Halloween season. So like they re-aired it right away. And I was like, Okay, cool. Because I was like, okay, I need to figure out what the **** I missed for the first hour and a half of the movie, you know. So yeah, I'd say it's not friendly for first time viewers, but it's not meant to be because I think it's supposed to be rewatched.

Darius: You can tell it's of an era where people just went to the movies and saw **** all the time. Because you got the DVD and you just watched it over and over and over again. It's very much of the era because they it's hard. I watched it twice because I didn't know what happened the first time I watched it. And I rarely watch the movies twice. So yeah, I get you.

Jordan: I think the thing is that made it makes it a little hard to follow is there's a lot of characters that play big roles, but because you weren't familiar with them at first, you're like, wait, okay, who did what and what role did they play in the conspiracy? And you know, so I think, at least from my perspective, when I first watched it, what Or if I haven't watched it in a while and I'm like, wait, hold up, what happened? That was what was what threw me for a loop.

Darius: Well, so like Game of Thrones is similar where there's just a lot of characters and a lot of bad written stories, but you know, a good writer sort of creates an event to where.

Jordan: Yes, it's not.

Darius: They're all together. But they're like, there's a reason why. Like, so the first episode of Game of Thrones, you're meeting all these people. But You know, Robert Baratheon's Hand of the King died. So he's traveling north to give the job to Ed at her Stark. And so that gives you a reason to go Sansa Stark, Lady of Winterfell. You know, this is Terry Lannister. Oh, the ******. Let's talk. You know, your dad hates you. And it just yeah, in a way that feels very natural where like the events are explained to the viewer in a way that doesn't feel like the fourth wall is breaking. So I just feel like this movie needed a little of that. Like you need to create something that gives the characters a reason to explain things in a way that's good.

Jordan: I agree. I agree. Yeah, that's a good point. I'd say so too. Because I think there's two or three major scenes where there is a lot of exposition. And I think everything else is more implied.

Darius: Yeah.

Jordan: And I think that's what makes it a little hard for a first time viewer, especially if you're not used to watching these kinds of movies.

Darius: It's like a video game that you just kind of like. It's like a save file that wasn't yours and you just start. Yeah.

Jordan: It's like, it's like we like traded PS5s for a week and be like, wait, what level am I on right now?

Darius: You're just like, oh, I got the buttons. I know I've played a PS5 before, so I know that Square does something. I know like, I know how to slash, but I have no idea what's, I'm just slashing things.

Jordan: Yeah, it's like when you play Tekken the first time, you just press X over and over again.

Darius: Yeah, it's like, you know what, you have enough muscle memory from watching these kind of movies to kind of set a scene for yourself. You're doing it by yourself.

Jordan: Yeah, that's true. That's true. What else do you have for Actor White? Yeah, I think one thing too is that because Ichabod is not from this world and he is a foreigner and you sing everything from his POV and before a lot of the movie, he is confused and lost. And I think that's kind of a part of, we're supposed to be on the journey with him and I think it's part of why the story was told that way. Yeah, I.

Darius: Wouldn't call it bad. It's just I would have went a different way about it. But no, I wasn't. Yeah, this wasn't a bad one.

Jordan: I was going to actually ask you about that in one of the later segments. Yeah.

Darius: Was this Johnny Depp's? Was this earlier? I mean, obviously it's earlier than now, but was he a certified ticket at this point? This is a big role.

Jordan: Yeah.

Darius: It's just him. You know, it's really just him.

Jordan: It's just him.

Darius: The whole movie, like, which is a lot of young actor.

Jordan: Yeah. I mean, I'd say this is one of the first few, because I mean, this is after what's eating Gilbert grape. But this is like right a few years before Pirates of the Caribbean. Let me see.

Darius: This is great radio.

Jordan: Remember, he got his big break doing TV when he was in 21 Jump Street in like the late 80s, early 90s. Yeah, but he wasn't a movie star yet.

Darius: So, they weren't going out all the way out on a limb wondering if he could carry good. He's I mean, he acted the **** out of this. He was very, very good.

Jordan: He ******* bodied this. By the way, he's like one of the more, I feel to me at least he's one of my favorite actors and I feel like he's one of the more slept on actors too.

Darius: But that's what happens when you go do stuff like pirates is people start not thinking you're an actor.

Jordan: And even that, I don't think anyone else could have played, could have played, would even have thought to have played Jack Sparrow the way he played him.

Darius: Leo says I never put on a suit because you can't take it back. Yeah, a superhero costume.

Jordan: Right. Yeah. I was gonna say, yeah, so I also wanted to shout out Johnny Depp out as well. Like I think casting him, who was at the time period like a Hollywood heartthrob type as like a quirky, squeamish detective, I thought that was a really interesting turn. And for him to be able to pull that off is a testament to his acting ability. Also shout out Tim Burton because I love like the dark gothic tone of this movie. Like it's always cloudy. the set pieces are incredible. It really looks like an old village in the 1700s. it doesn't, it doesn't look like some set that they like just slapped a barn on.

Darius: It doesn't look like they're in LA with a green screen.

Jordan: Right.

Darius: No, this was that. You could tell this was back when studios would actually like pay for mid level, like mid, mid budget movies. It's not a mid, but mid budget movies. Ready to get an act too?

Jordan: Yeah.

Darius: Act 2, we're gonna call the investigation. Crane's scientific methods clash with the town's belief in the supernatural as the horseman strikes repeatedly. He uncovers a conspiracy and must accept the ghostly reality to find the Hessian's grave and his missing head. I knew it was somebody they knew when the monster thing didn't kill Johnny Depp. He had him and he just like stabs the other guy's head and he looks at it and he rides off. I was like, all right, so this is Clearly an inside job at that point. So yeah.

Jordan: Okay. Yes. I was going to ask you. So at what point did you realize there actually was a horseman and that it wasn't like Scooby-Doo where like a guy, it's a guy in a mask.

Darius: The end. I didn't really. I thought it was. Yeah, I didn't like spoiler alert, but we started years old, but like he's being like mind controlled almost by. Yeah, by another lady. And so I didn't put that together. I just thought like I just took it for what it was like, this is just a monster, a headless horseman.

Jordan: Yeah.

Darius: That's just running around chopping people. And I was hoping and expecting the story to, you know, my thought was this was a hokey, this town is built on an ancient graveyard and he's looking for his grandma or like, that's how I, that's where I thought the headless horseman was going. I was wrong, obviously. But at that point, I knew That's where I thought it was going until that happened. And I was like, okay, I understand he's the main character. So maybe there's some, you know, plot armor there. But it was like, I just feel like this is an inside job now. It feels less supernatural now that they just, they felt very intentional that they left that spot. So what you got back to man?

Jordan: Yeah, I forgot to answer your question from earlier where you asked me, is it the town? Was it supposed to be the town people were crazy or he was just a skeptic? I think town people were supposed to be like normal people.

Darius: Yeah.

Jordan: And he was just a skeptic. But I like that they showed why he was a skeptic because they kept doing the dream sequences where it was his mother and his mom practiced witchcraft. She was a good witch. And I don't know if that was his father or not, but someone saw her practicing witchcraft and killed her for it.

Darius: The dream sequences being So modern threw me off. I was like, okay, is this like some of the village **** where they're not actually in 1799 and you walk to the highway and it's modern day. But yeah, I don't really, is there, did he ever give a reason for that direction there? Why were the dream sequences so much farther along in the timeline?

Jordan: No, I never, I never even thought to look that up to be honest with you. I would imagine because it is It's obviously he had a traumatic childhood, but before she died, he had a good childhood. So I'm assuming that was him looking at his childhood with rose colored glasses, something like that.

Darius: Yeah, because the dreams look like 1955, not 17. And I was like, okay, so maybe this is, so I'm trying to, this is the first view and I'm trying to really piece together what I can. And so that threw me off for a little bit. Also, houses were really small in 1799.

Jordan: They really were.

Darius: You know, as a society, we've gotten a lot.

Jordan: We've come a long way from an architectural standpoint.

Darius: I was listening to a podcast about basically it's like how things work and. Oh, yeah. Okay. First he was explaining, you know, how we get energy and how we get water and how that's like, you know, food and stuff like that. But he's like, people don't understand that the average person today lives better than like the kings back then. And the example he used was like Calvin Coolidge, president of the United States 100 and some years ago. His son went and played tennis and stubbed his toe, scabbed over, got an infection, died of sepsis. Holy ****. He was like, today you'd have just gotten some ibuprofen and some antibiotics and been fine. You get better health care today as a postal worker than the president of the United States got 100 years ago. Yeah. No, that's real ****. Yeah, I don't even know how we got there. But houses were really small back then is how we got there.

Jordan: That's true. Did you see that viral tweet where it was like, imagine blowing your ACL in like 1850? Yeah.

Darius: They probably see Bernard King's knee.

Jordan: Yeah, I was gonna say that's what made me think of it too. Yeah, that **** was crazy. And he was the first guy to ever come back from ACL, which I did not realize. A legend in many folks.

Darius: Well, he put the uniform on again. He never came back. True.

Jordan: He was out there just getting cardio.

Darius: Oh, man. Yeah, it's kind of wild that a torn ACL used to do that. But now it's just like, people look at it like you do a little six, seven month bid and you back. Which is not always the case, but it's often the case.

Jordan: That is true. Agent Pearson kind of ****** the people's perceptions of how devastating that injury is.

Darius: Get well soon, Juju Watson, get well soon, Kyra.

Jordan: Yes. Oh yeah, I was gonna say, I really like, one thing I liked about this movie in terms of the storytelling was the callback to the Salem Wood.

Darius: Yeah.

Jordan: With, what happened to his mom and him being so skeptical of Katrina when he saw, when she had like a little spell book and all that. I thought that was really cool storytelling because it, was about 100 years from the time in the movie.

Darius: Yeah.

Jordan: But again, that's two generations. So that would have been his grandparents. He would have heard that story from his great grandparents. Like, don't be don't be doing witch **** because they'll kill you pretty much probably. So.

Darius: There was just a lot less entertainment and things to do back then. So stories just stayed around. I, it's like.

Jordan: That was TV back then.

Darius: The quality of life and standards of living did not change much from 1799 to 1899. And so a book or a story or a wives tale, like they couldn't watch a Netflix movie. So it was like, just tell that story again. All right, what else you got, Frank, too?

Jordan: Okay, so I know you mentioned where you realized that someone was controlling the Helless Horseman when he just stabbed the **** was he the notary? Not the notary, whatever position he held, the fat guy.

Darius: That's one of my drives at this is that everyone else is just nameless and faceless, except for kind of.

Jordan: That is true. This movie was very much like a Johnny Depp vehicle. Yeah.

Darius: They were like NPCs in the everyone else. But so, I don't know who the hell he was because they were all the same people.

Jordan: Yeah. I'd say the only other characters I really, really remember is Katrina and the little kid that helped him the whole time because he was just by his side the whole movie. I think that's all I have for act two. But I'll go to the actually wasn't actually for act three then. So If say you were a writer on this movie, what would you have changed in the script to make it more audience friendly or just in general, like what specifically would you have done creatively different from this movie?

Darius: I would have written a B plot and used that as a way to world build for the viewer. And so I don't know what name, you know. So plot A is is the horrorless horseman, headless horseman cutting everybody's heads off. Yeah. You know, movie was an hour and 40, 45 minutes long. You know, maybe plot B gives. No, plot B is some crazy lady in the attic who, you know, I don't ******* know, but like, I would have written something plot B and given, it would have served 2 purposes. It would have given another character something to do to give the viewer something to contrast with Johnny Depp.

Jordan: Yeah.

Darius: And it also would have served as a way to world build for the viewer to just hold their hand. I don't want my hand held the whole time, but just there was very little world building in it. And I understand why they didn't. But yeah, that's oftentimes the B plot is to hold the viewer's hand a little bit. Like the A plot is it's what you're supposed to follow. And the B plot is like your vegetables that you sneak into the, like, you know how you got to give your dog its medicine. So you put it in the candy. Yeah. So like the B plot is usually some vegetables and that's how you sneak into to the viewer, you know. So that's what I would have done.

Jordan: Okay. I mean, I think I'm trying to think.

Darius: I think that's all I got for act three. We're going to call the reckoning. Crane identifies a person controlling the horseman's murders, leading to a climactic chase. He must defeat the villain and restore the ghost to his resting place to save the town. And Katrina kind of gave this away the earlier segment, but I would have found the movie a bit more compelling if they had more characters and the other characters had something to do. But like by the end, I didn't actually care who did it. Yes. It was like, I kind of like, even after it was explained to me who did it, I don't really, okay, all right. A lady that was there did it. was like, did they explain like, do you like, do you know why she did it?

Jordan: Yeah, basically. So the, remember they went back to that cabin in the woods that Katrina, her father used to live in.

Darius: Yeah.

Jordan: And there was the archer on the fireplace, the symbol.

Darius: Okay.

Jordan: So you know, back then every family had a crest. So that was this evil stepmom, that was her family's crest. That was their home. And they basically got evicted so that they could give the home to Katrina and her father when they were younger and poorer. I think that's pretty much basically she had a resentment pretty much ever since then for them. And then she just happened to kind of grow up and be a witch and she was attractive. So she used that to basically kill, get into the, get in with the family, kill the wife, take over as a new stepmom. And then the will was rewritten Yeah, so the will was when the will was adjusted, everything would was going to go to Katrina's dad. But because of the channels that had to go through because of the baby with the widow from the other guy, she had to kill everybody off. She basically had to have a hit list to get everybody off so she could get the inheritance pretty much.

Darius: Clear as mud. What else you got for actors? It's just so many characters, I can't even name their names to make the story make sense. Bit cumbersome, but we got there.

Jordan: Yeah. If this is a regular movie, I promise guys, I would be able to name the names of the characters. No, I mean, look.

Darius: These people know us by now. If they're new to us, they'll learn, you know, we don't, we're transparent here. If it's hard to follow, we're not going to. Pretend it wasn't. It's a good movie.

Jordan: It's just. It's a fun movie.

Darius: It's not a good first watch. Like you need to that first time.

Jordan: This is not a.

Darius: You said this when we review Memento. Let that first one wash over you. Yeah, don't try to just put your eyes on it, put your phone away, let it wash over you.

Jordan: Yes, throw your phone outside.

Darius: The second one is the real one.

Jordan: Correct. This is what I'd call, this is not a tweet or text movie.

Darius: No, not a second screen movie.

Jordan: No, not at all. I will say to me, one of the hallmarks of a really good horror film is like the big like crowd scene, like where there's like the big angry mob or like the town hall meeting or whatever. So the church scene is always one of my favorites whenever I watch this movie, because you kind of see like, okay, because we have all these characters and they never really interact with each other because everything's in secret. So there are always all these back channels and backroom conversations. And then when you see everybody get together, you're like, oh, Okay, this is the dynamic. This is the hierarchy. And then you kind of realize we thought Baltus was the bad guy, but he actually was getting played by his friends the whole time. And then **** just goes haywire.

Darius: I like it. I like it. Would you have preferred a supernatural or real? A supernatural or an explanation grounded in normal physics and reality? I don't, you know, I don't want to besmirch people who are into supernatural things. So supernatural or grounded in the physics that we're aware of.

Jordan: Okay. I think for, because I view it as a Halloween movie. So for a Halloween movie, I prefer it with a supernatural, but I think it could have been a really cool, excuse me, like plot twist or storyline and character development if they were to show like this person hired this person to just kill people or they had something on this person and they just had to make them kill people to cover up whatever crazy secret would drive you to kill people to keep from being revealed, something like that. I think that could have been really cool. I think one thing I also probably would have done as a screenwriter on this movie, one tweak I would have made was I would have opened the movie with the murder scene just like they did because it builds intrigue and it was interesting and It was a different tone for that kind of movie. And then I would have done like, okay, a month earlier or something like that. And I would have shown like a day in the life of the town where **** was all good.

Darius: Yeah.

Jordan: And then I'd cut to New York with Ichabod.

Darius: To answer your question earlier, I would have used, I would have tied in the Salem stuff, using a B plot is like, you know, some lady is accused of being a witch. And in her defending herself not being a witch, she does a little world building. And so off the top of my head, I know that sounds clumsy, but obviously if I had the time to screenwrite it, I could polish it and make it full. But that's kind of, off the top of my head, I would have done that and used that as a way to, in the movie we reviewed last week, like Nick and Nora, Like I didn't even like that B plot, but you can see the world building within it where she's just like they're in chasing her. They're talking to each other.

Jordan: Correct.

Darius: And they're explaining, oh, this is how I know that band is da da da da da. This is how I know that he's plays bass. This, you know, like just there's ways you can do it. There's tricks you can do as a writer, you know, to sneak the vegetables in. So.

Jordan: Yeah. I'm with you. I think I like your point about having like a random character, a random citizen in the town be like a B plot character.

Darius: Yeah.

Jordan: Cause that, cause they would be closely, they're closely, more closely relatable to us as a viewer who is not a part of this world. And, you know, before the Horseman was revived or whatever, the town would have been normal. So a normal human would be like, what the **** is going on? people would be moving out or fleeing or you know stuff like that.

Darius: Because as it stands it's like this Johnny Depp showed up in the world created like it's not like you know it's all like it's all it almost felt like no one talked to each other off screen they're just all there to interact with Johnny Depp and you know it's nothing's perfect it's a it was a good movie but that you know we're here to critique and that's my critique so okay for sure you got factory.

Jordan: I so I will say like I go back and forth on this with this movie because the fact that we hardly ever see the wife makes makes the twist that much more interesting when it's revealed that it's her. And then when you go back and watch, you try to look for any tales like in her performance or, you know, and she shout out to the actress, Miranda Richardson. She did she like doesn't really give anything away during she just seems like very like just like a sweet housewife, you know, and she's like a murderess. But I kind of wish we could have seen more of her. She would have had more scenes just to like have more familiarity with her to even to increase the shock even more.

Darius: Well, that's to me, that's like a novice's idea of a good plot twist. A good plot twist, it's cheap. A good plot twist upon second viewing is obvious to the viewer. But it's like, it's shocking the first viewing, but upon the second viewing, you can see the seeds being laid. If there's no seeds laid, it feels like you just picked a random person and said they did it, and you just flip it. Right, It's just like, good writing and a good plot twist is almost like a double-sided belt. Like, you know, it's a shocker. And also the crumbs were there. It was in your, the shock was in your face. It's like The Sixth Sense. When you rewatch it, you could see that no one's talking to him. But you'll notice that the first watch. It's just that that's a good shock to a plot twist. And then at night, Shallahem didn't get another one. But you know, ever again, one hit wonder with 12 shots at it. But yeah, I mean, yeah, that's a good point.

Jordan: Yeah.

Darius: If you rewatch it and it's still not there and it's still crumbs, then it just feels like you picked a random person that said they did it, you know?

Jordan: Right. Like I even like so remember the their servant girl was like hooking up with one of the older guys that was in the plot in the conspiracy. I think like it would have been cool to have show more of her relationship with the wife because they probably would have been more closely together because you got the housewife with the servant. I'm sure they were cool. They both in the house all day, you know, whatever. And then like that would have made like her killing her more shocking and more ruthless. And, you know, it would have been like, okay, that's how she was able to know about the affair she was having with old dude and you know, how she was like, it never really They never really showed just how she came to know everything about everybody in this town.

Darius: Yeah, that's the other thing too, like none of these murders landed with me because I didn't care about any of these characters. Right. It's just like random kids getting chopped off.

Jordan: Yeah, it was just like, oh man, that's sad, but all right, who did it?

Darius: I know I'm supposed to feel something, but I don't, you know, so.

Jordan: The only one that really hurt was when the one with the little kid hiding in the basement.

Darius: Yeah, that one was tough. When she snatched them off the ground, that one was rough.

Jordan: Yeah.

Darius: Are you ready to rate it or you got anything else?

Jordan: Yeah, it's more of a general question, I guess, about movies. So we always talk about a lot about like what we change in terms of like writing the movie. But I want to ask you from a creative aspect, would you rather be the writer of the movie or would you rather be the director?

Darius: I'd rather write. Yeah, I'd rather write directing is I mean, it's different. No **** but yeah. Directing is more of a technical job than a creative job. And if I'm going to be in the movie industry, I'd rather be on the creative side of things. They're both needed, but like, you know, they're both kind of, you know, writing is a technical job too. But if it's, you know, writing is 80% creative, 20% technical and I would say directing is like a 6040 split, 60% technical, 40% creative. And, you know, I'd just