#23 | Zach Romeo | A Decade of Storytelling

Filmmaker, musician and editor Zach Romeo on storytelling, music, and ten years working with Ryan, up to post-supervising a ten-part Discovery series. An NYU graduate, a film maker, a musician, an editor, a postproduction supervisor and much more. Zach also worked with me for a decade, first helping me with my social media work, and eventually working up to editing and post supervising an entire ten-episode series for Discovery Channel. Tune for an intimate talk about storytelling, music and the backstory to our friendship and working relationship. Chapters 0:00 Welcome Zach Romeo 2:30 Soccer as a kid 5:04 The magic of old cameras 7:40 Terabytes from the field 10:10 Remaking The Godfather in seventh grade 12:42 Missing the varsity team 15:19 Growing up in North Carolina 17:52 A friend who wanted to be Batman 20:26 A sold-out premiere in Winston-Salem 23:03 The Appalachian Trail 25:36 Two meals a day on the trail 28:10 Running back down the mountain 30:40 Googling the best film schools 33:14 Moving to New York for NYU 35:51 Alumni who made it feel possible 38:25 Subverting the assignments 41:02 New York's pressure cooker 43:38 Nights out at NYU 46:08 Named flasks for the crew 48:40 How Ryan and Zach met 51:10 Central Park and the first edits 53:46 Dodging the border patrol in Mongolia 56:16 Ryan's years in China 58:49 Tough Rides China with a book of maps 1:01:21 Tyres, oil changes and a truck ride 1:03:55 Waiting for a clutch in Tibet 1:06:26 Honing the process by Brazil 1:08:58 Alone at the end of the day in Brazil 1:11:35 Plank bridges and Max the driver 1:14:09 Rain six times a day 1:16:43 After graduation 1:19:20 Leaving Los Angeles 1:21:57 Too much noise in LA 1:24:32 Bringing friends onto the shows 1:27:06 Trust and working harder 1:29:38 Writing the narration together 1:32:16 Not making people dumber 1:34:53 Les Stroud and Survivorman 1:37:24 Corny hooks and big budgets 1:39:58 Travel is just for YouTube? 1:42:28 Extreme Treks, Tencent and Expedition Asia 1:44:59 Celebrities over independent producers 1:47:34 Humble versus chest-beating 1:50:08 A handshake deal with Discovery Asia 1:52:38 Editing his first 46-minute episode 1:55:09 How Discovery Asia sells the show 1:57:39 Showing that you can do it too 2:00:14 Ulaanbaatar and the drive to the wild 2:02:47 Constructing adventure in Hong Kong 2:05:24 Filming a camel caravan 2:07:58 Filming the trekking days 2:10:33 The Central Asia version 2:13:06 Post-production into 2020 2:15:38 The calm before the storm 2:18:10 Editing city content in empty cities 2:20:41 How Covid hurt freelancers 2:23:14 2018 and 2019 at the peak 2:25:48 What 2008 did to newspapers 2:28:20 Learning to make television 2:30:54 Doing it differently 2:33:30 Bhutan's Snowman Trek and other dreams 2:36:04 Leaving the door open 2:38:37 Life is better with projects The Ryan Pyle Podcast is ad-free by choice. If you enjoy these conversations, you can buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ryanpyle Ryan's TV series are streaming around the world. Follow the Podcast X: https://x.com/RyanPylePodcast Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpylepodcast Follow Ryan Pyle YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ryanjpyle Instagram: https://instagram.com/ryanpyle X: https://x.com/RyanPyle Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpyle https://www.ryanpyle.com