HOLLYWOOD FILM PRODUCTION & PHILANTHROPY WITH JAMES P. AXIOTIS | E022 PODCAST

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ABOUT THE GUEST

James P. Axiotis sits down with George Stroumboulis in Newport Beach, California on the Invigorate Your Business Podcast to talk about all things Film & TV production, Hollywood, Philanthropy, Adoption and Celebrities.

James P. Axiotis is an accomplished international TV and film producer with 30+ years of experience across U.S. East and West Coast markets. Originally from Athens, Greece, he was adopted as an infant and has dedicated his life to addressing immigration, displaced children, and social injustice, notably women's rights. Currently, he's working on his film, "Georgia," a personal story about his single mother's journey in Greece and his quest to discover her identity.

James, a self-taught industry veteran, began his film career at 13 and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming one of NBC's youngest producers by age 24. His work on shows for Facebook/Instagram taught him the power of social media in boosting viewership and awareness.

Beyond his industry roles, he serves on the National Board for the Producers Guild of America, is a member of several prestigious organizations, and actively supports philanthropic causes. As an officer for the Children of War Foundation (COWF), he creates content to raise awareness about their work. His recent humanitarian efforts in Ukraine involved delivering medical supplies and aid to those in need while using his filmmaking skills to document COWF's impactful work. He also supports LA-based non-profits and maintains a strong focus on women's rights, particularly in education, inspired by his mother's likely struggles with illiteracy.

Website: https://www.jpaproductions.com/
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0043565/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamespaxiotis/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-p-axiotis

“We are one of the most entrepreneurial nations in history. Yeah. We’re the first to cross the Indian Ocean, like crazy stuff. Okay. Trade. We follow the globe.”
— JAMES P. AXIOTIS

MEDIA RELATED TO THE EPISODE

James P. Axiotis sits down with George Stroumboulis in Newport Beach, California on the Invigorate Your Business Podcast to talk about all things Film & TV production, Hollywood, Philanthropy, Adoption and Celebrities.

James P. Axiotis sits down with George Stroumboulis in Newport Beach, California on the Invigorate Your Business Podcast to talk about all things Film & TV production, Hollywood, Philanthropy, Adoption and Celebrities.

James P. Axiotis sits down with George Stroumboulis in Newport Beach, California on the Invigorate Your Business Podcast to talk about all things Film & TV production, Hollywood, Philanthropy, Adoption and Celebrities.

James P. Axiotis sits down with George Stroumboulis in Newport Beach, California on the Invigorate Your Business Podcast to talk about all things Film & TV production, Hollywood, Philanthropy, Adoption and Celebrities.

James P. Axiotis sits down with George Stroumboulis in Newport Beach, California on the Invigorate Your Business Podcast to talk about all things Film & TV production, Hollywood, Philanthropy, Adoption and Celebrities.

ABOUT THE “INVIGORATE YOUR BUSINESS” PODCAST

The Invigorate Your Business with George Stroumboulis podcast features casual conversations and personal interviews with business leaders in their respective fields of expertise. Crossing several industry types and personal backgrounds, George sits down with inspiring people to discuss their business, how they got into that business, their path to the top of their game and the trials and tribulations experienced along the way. We want you to get inspired, motivated, and then apply any advice to your personal and professional lives. If there is at least one piece of advice that resonates with you after listening, then this podcast is a success. New episodes weekly. Stream our show on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, Amazon and all other platforms.

ABOUT GEORGE STROUMBOULIS

George Stroumboulis is an entrepreneur to the core, having launched several ventures across multiple industries and international markets. He has held senior-level positions at progressive companies and government institutions, both domestically and internationally, building an extensive portfolio of business know-how over the years and driving profit-generating results. George’s ability to drive real change has landed him in several media outlets, including the front page of the Wall Street Journal. George was born in Toronto, Canada to his Greek immigrant parents. Family first. Flying over 300,000 miles a year around the world puts into perspective how important family is to George’s mental and emotional development. With all this travel to global destinations, the longest he stays even in the most far-out destination is 3 days or less - a personal rule he lives by to make sure he is present and involved in family life with his wife and three daughters. To read about George’s global travels, stay connected with his blog section.

FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT

George Stroumboulis: Welcome to another episode of Invigorate Your Business with George Stroumboulis. I'm very excited to sit down with today's guest. He is a legend when it comes to film and TV production in Hollywood. He has been responsible and behind many shows that you're aware of, has worked with various actors, global sensations, in producing various films, TV shows, news segments, reality shows, documentaries, and so many other things. He's also a philanthropist and has helped deliver food and supplies and medicine to various war zones around the world, actually delivering them firsthand. And he's just got a tremendous story from his childbirth, which we'll get into today as well, right in up until what he's doing around the world. So, enjoy this episode as I sit down with James Axiotis, talking about all things, media, film production, and Hollywood.

George Stroumboulis: My name is George Stroumboulis and I'm extremely passionate about traveling the world, meeting new people, and learning about new businesses. Join me, as I sit down with other entrepreneurs to learn about their journeys. This episode of Invigorate Your Business starts now.

George Stroumboulis: It's a good conversation when we just jump into it, right? So, we're going to cover a lot of things today. We're going to talk about personal career, just success in Hollywood, in the industry, which is great from the surface. But when you really dive down into your story, you know why you're here, what you're doing, it's remarkable. We actually shed tears together the other day. Honestly, I got chills. Beautiful story. And then the philanthropy aspect, and just talking about our heritage. So we're sitting here today with and I'm very honored to have you here, and I really do appreciate your time. James P. Axiotis, just well-known name, has been in the industry in Hollywood, TV, film production, has awards as a producer. It's part of different organizations from the producer's Guild of America and Producers Without Borders, and several other charities and what you're doing and giving back and traveling the world and going to war zones and bringing medicine and food to those in need and actually doing it, not just writing cheques, and a bunch of other stuff. And then your story, which I want you to jump into on, just how you came from Greece here and bring an awareness to that through your new documentary. So, a million things. Please, thank you for joining us. And just start out, like, talk to us professionally. What do you do? How have you come to this point?

James Axiotis: So, to give the reader’s digest version, which a lot of young kids aren't going to know. The readers [Inaudible] What that Google that. Yeah. So I was adopted in 64. I was about a year and a half old from Nick and Sophie Exodus. And there was this whole, at the time the Greek, well, we call it the Greek scandal, the black market babies has been called now. There's four or 5,000 of us that were pretty much expelled from the country from Greece. And we were deemed illegitimate. So I hit the lottery because again, the parents who adopted me were in Southern California. So grew up out here, and they were a great family. And the relatives and the whole thing, not knowing I was adopted early on, but it was just this, you know. And my dad, to his credit, was very much a really proud Greek. Everything was, you're Greek, you know the music, the whole thing, right? Greek food, all the holidays. We weren't doing, if we did a Turkey where we're doing lamb, I mean, it was great. And then on lowly football team, the lowly football team got asked to do this ABC Afterschool Special, which again, people are going to have to Google what is an ABC Afterschool Special. But we were asked to do that, was on set for two, three weeks. The directors were Greek, Nick and Tony Funangakis and Alex Karras, who was a former football player, that he was trying to be an actor. And when they saw my name, we all had to put our names, our last names, I don't know, it was funny. Just our last names on the helmets. So, you have this masking tape and then Axiotis, right? And the director had stopped, like in Dennis tracks, because there were all the names, da, da, da. And he goes, he says, are you Greek? And I said, yes. And he pulled me aside and said, you're not going to be with it, these are all extras. And I'm like, 12 or 13. I got an IMDB credit. I got to eat with a crew. And then when all the other officers were just killing time when we're not, because we had to be in school first. And then after that, they would just run around and whatever, until we're going to do a scene. But then he started strategically putting me in other scenes and putting me with Alex. And I ate meals with them. And then when I wasn't with them, I got to walk around the set. And that's the birth of the love of the business. Because in this village of the camera department, lighting department, makeup. And I could ask them questions and they're showing me, what is this? and I just remember, as I told you one of the days I was driving home from a shoot and I just told my dad and mom, I said, I don't know what that is, but I want to do that. And everyone early on thought, oh, he wants to be an actor. And it wasn't that. And I did take acting classes. I did have a headshot and resume, and I was doing that. But the point was to get on set. And then in high school, our church dance group was asked to be in, the postman always brings twice with Jessica Lang and Jack Nicholson. And there was, again, we're out of school for two or three weeks, we're back, I'm back on set. And again, I just reaffirmed like, I got to do this. I got…

George Stroumboulis: To be in that ecosystem.

James Axiotis: Just the whole, yeah, you're on set. We're downtown LA in the patriotic Hall. And now it's called the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall. And that's where we shot the scene. And not knowing anybody in the business, didn't have any relatives, didn't have any, I wanted to go to college for something. My dad's like, he was old school, doctors and lawyers go to college.

George Stroumboulis: So they weren't in that space at the time either.

James Axiotis: They were not in that space. And so college wasn't afforded to me. And did other jobs. But it eventually became, I delivered videotapes. I worked at a place called VTP, Videotape products. It were, at that time, was the largest in the eighties. They delivered to all the studios, all everywhere. So I became a delivery guy. And I knew like, well, I'm going to get on a lot of every, in all the studios I'm going to deliver to. So I had this paper resume in the car my mom typed for me. So, after about almost a year of that, I remember I walked into this one place I was delivering tapes to. And I said, look, I don’t know if you guys remember it, but like a long time ago, I gave you a resume. And the guy goes, oh no, we have it on file. Thank you. We don't have anything. Now, this was like on a Monday. And then Wednesday they called me and said, our PA got in a car accident. It's okay. He's fine. His car got wrecked, but he's going to be an editor anyways. Do you still want the job? So I came in on, I think Thursday, they interviewed me. They said, we have some other people, but well, you know, by Friday. And then Friday they called me and said, you got the job. And I remember lying to the company and said, I'm going to be an actor in a movie. You know, can I come back after two months? And they're like, because I didn't know what production was going to be. I didn't know what being, because my dad said, what does that mean? I said, I don't know. I'm a PA, I'm going to make mileage in the raid. I got, how long does it work? I didn't know. So we did a bunch of Disney shows and again, I was just on set. I'm delivering. And when I wasn't delivering, I was sitting with editors and just trying to learn. And this was all, this was 85. And after that, that job, because they finished doing shows. Then I worked at a, I was a manager, an office manager at a literary talent agency. Because I wanted to understand what is, how does that work?

George Stroumboulis: Oh wow!

James Axiotis: And luckily this was talent. And so they had actors, they had like Ralph Macho and they had some pretty big, this there in Brentwood.

George Stroumboulis: Karate kid, right?

James Axiotis: Ralph Karate had him. And they had some other big, in fact, they just got rid of a lot of the kids from the Brat Pack. They had Rob Lowe, they had all them, but they left. But anyway they had Danny Glover. I mean, in fact, I remember me seeing Danny Glover when he just got the job for Lethal Weapon. He was with them, but I was an office manager. And one of the things, because they were literary, they said, you're going to read at least three scripts a day. And then on every Wednesday, we sat in a circle and what scripts we liked were with the agents because what they were packaging is saying, we have actors, writers, and directors. So they would go to studio saying, look, we have a script that you love. Here's a director that you should probably use, and here's three actors. So she was kind of packaging the, this was before the big agencies you see now, that is what they do. This is the eighties.

George Stroumboulis: Okay.

James Axiotis: And she was really ahead of her time, even though it was that were boutique. But again, only doing that, not because I wanted to be an agent, but I wanted to see like, how does this underbelly work?

George Stroumboulis: So what age are you here now?

James Axiotis: So I'm 22.

George Stroumboulis: So 22, now you're getting exposure to the casting side, the director, everything.

James Axiotis: And all that. And then I got a job on the sitcom. In fact, the only job available was a PA. I'm like, I want to be a PA again, but fine. And then one of the guys who was a post coordinator had to take a week off or day off or something. He was doing some other event. And the secretary heard how I used to help the assistant editors on these Disney shows. So she told the executive producer, "Hey, James was, you know..." So all of sudden, next thing I know, I'm promoted. Now I'm a post supervisor on a sitcom for NBC.

George Stroumboulis: And what does that mean, to people that don't understand?

James Axiotis: So that means back then, that means that I had to, after we taped the show, we had three quarter and one inch tapes, and I had to brought them all to the post-production facility. And I oversaw the delivering all, I think it was 13 or 18 episodes, and then we're in offline and online, color session, sound, overseeing that to make sure it got delivered to the network.

George Stroumboulis: Got you.

James Axiotis: Not knowing really how to do that. But you become what you, you do it. And the amazing thing was, while I was delivering tapes and delivering edits to the network, and this is old school, like you're handing them AVHS or to literally to the network. And I mean, on the lot at NBC in Burbank. I made a lot of friends and I was just being conversational with people. So long story short, the shirt wraps were done. And so I still have the same boss who now at the same time was trying to pitch this pilot for a series, a dramatic series. It's called Beakness Place. And I come back to the office and he's with his wife and his wife's like, tell him what the network. And he goes, because I said, oh, I delivered everything. Scoey Mitchell was this comedian, he was in Barefoot in the park. He was this well-known African American who came up in the sixties and seventies. And he was an actor comedian, but he was now a producer. So he says to me, because I said, okay, I just delivered all, everything's in the vault. All the tapes are delivered. I wrapped everything post out. I was just being said, James, I'm not happy with that. You shouldn't be doing that. And I was like, I was kind of like, what I do wrong? He says, you're an associate producer now that should never happen. And I'm like, and I don't even know what that means. And then Claire, his wife says, tell him what the network said. And I guess when he was in talking to the network about doing this new pilot, the network says, who's still with you from the sitcom? And he says, everyone's gone but James. And the network says, promote him.

George Stroumboulis: Get out of here. So what network was that at the time?

James Axiotis: NBC.

George Stroumboulis: NBC.

James Axiotis: So I was one of the youngest, younger producer. I was only 23. Wow! So it was a network recommendation. But…

George Stroumboulis: Up until that point though, this is important to highlight. So 13, 12, 13, because of your last name, someone pulls you aside and kind of exposes you to this, right? Maybe that put you on the path. Maybe it didn't, but it sounds like you did, 18 rolls around, you're back into it. You start realizing it. Now, a few years later, your early twenties, you're working hard, you're dedicated, you're networking. And then you become an associate producer. What traits inside of you got you to that point?

James Axiotis: I will say what I would tell everyone, be nice and kind to everybody. I remember one thing I did early on, that's when people had, I carried a day runner. And I'd be, in fact, the girl who recommended me, she got promoted because she was head of comedy development. She just got developed, promoted into some other thing, which I didn't know that. But what I do remember is things like, if I was in your office and I saw flowers, I go and they're like, oh, it's my birthday. I would leave. Oh. And I'm like, okay, it's George's birthday. I'd just take that note. Or you talk about your son or your daughter or a marriage or an anniversary. I would make those notes on my date runner. So I'd have your name and number. What I'd, so when I saw you again, hey, how's your husband doing? Or did your wife or your kid was sick. Did they broke? I remember these things. So while I was, I wasn't just trying to deliver it, but I was trying to make connections. Wow! Just for the fact, I want to be nice and kind. Little did I know that that woman, Lorraine would remember me. Because she got promoted and said, who do you have? And he did let go of everyone from the sitcom, but me. And never thinking that that would lead to a promotion of any kind. It was just… So I was shocked. And I remember while I went in the bathroom, then I was like crying. But I didn't know what associate producer meant. Because again, there's no, you can't Google. So, I'm going to be okay, Scott, so I'll be associate producer on a pilot for a series and, oh, you get a bump and raise and pay and, okay. But again, there's no…

George Stroumboulis: There's no go-to.

James Axiotis: Yeah. You just, okay. And so he just said, look, I want you to go to every meeting I go to, all the production books you're going to have. And I went to all the budget meetings, location, scouting, casting, I went to, I did all that. I just…

George Stroumboulis: Oh, so you're learning.

James Axiotis: I sat there and he just said, just go with me. Even meeting Brennan Tartikoff, who was the president of NBC, going to all these meetings. And that's what I did. And we did the pilot, it aired. I think it was the day after Christmas. And it didn't get picked up. Okay. But that set in motion, like, okay, this is producing. And then soon, right after that was the rotoscope strike. This is in eight. So now I'm 23 or 24. And then no one's working again for nine or 10 months. No one's working. Okay. So long story short, I met a girl. We got married. Her family was in Iowa. She wanted to have the baby in Iowa. And I thought we'd move there and I would move back. Long story short, I'm there for, I think seven years. I started my own production company there. And in the Midwest, I had big, I had John Deere and Pellet windows and all the hospitals I was doing. Yeah. But realize I’m a big fish in a small pond. Moved up to Minnesota, had Target and Best Buy did stuff with them. But again, big fish, small pond. So finally, and markets were changing and things just, so I said, I got to move back to LA. So now it’s…

George Stroumboulis: Kids in the picture now.

James Axiotis: So now I have, so my oldest at the time, Anna was, oh my gosh, 10. And now I got remarried, got divorced, got remarried. So now I have my Sophia, she's one, turning two. And we move out here in 2002; 2001, 2002. And just doing odd jobs because again, now I'm come back. But now no one's like, well dude, your resume, we know what you did in the eighties. Now it's 2002. And you can't show them hospital commercials and high supermarket commercials. I mean, they were great. They were, but... So there was this gap, the stop gap of trying to get back in. And I did, I worked with some Christian ministries hired me and I was just doing whatever production I could. And it really wasn't until getting on Hell's Kitchen. It was like four, it was 2012 or 13. So that put me back in because everyone named me as like, they remember, oh, you're a post guy. From the eighties. I'm like, well post, obviously radically changed from 85, 86…

George Stroumboulis: 20 years later. Yeah.

James Axiotis: So now it's digital and whatever. But one thing I always tell people is the fundamentals of delivering, those has never changed. So I did end up doing Five Seasons on Hell's Kitchen…

George Stroumboulis: Which was the biggest show at the time.

James Axiotis: At the time, it was one of literally the biggest reality shows with $35 million. We did two. And we would shoot two seasons at a time. Most people didn't realize that we were a year ahead.

George Stroumboulis: How many episodes is a season? 12?

James Axiotis: So I think we did 18 episodes. And I did five seasons.

George Stroumboulis: That's huge.

James Axiotis: Yeah. It was amazing because from then on, I could tell you that when I worked my way up to being a post, I was a coordinator to supervisor, post producer. When they're like, well if he did Hell's Kitchen, that this show's not as big as that. Because it was a big show.

George Stroumboulis: Absolutely. I remember watching that up in Canada at the time. Or no, I was in New York. That was the, so you got to interact with Gordon Ramsey.

James Axiotis: Oh, he was amazing. Yeah.

George Stroumboulis: Was he amazing? Was that all in act when he turned it up?

James Axiotis: Yeah. So the gig was, he knew once you turn the camera on now because up, he was very respectful, very kind. Whenever we brought him into the post facility, because we need to do a voiceover, we need to do whatever. He was always thanking us and like, what's your name? And I mean, he was just like, I tell people if they watch the ones that he did with, there was a show he did with kids, I forgot. MasterChef Junior, I think. I said, that's Gordon. If you want to know Gordon is like how he interacts with the kids when they're crying and he is encouraging. That's Gordon Ramsey. And the other thing, I'm not saying he's lying or fake, but it's Hell's Kitchen.

George Stroumboulis: Yeah. And people want to see that.

James Axiotis: Yeah, that’s Hell's Kitchen. And they're like, oh, how about, you know. So did that. Then got into, and I begrudgingly got into reality because I wanted to go back to scripted sitcoms. So did that. Then did documentaries, did music shows, did talk shows, ran post over ATT, then I finally got an opportunity to do a Facebook show. It was called Three Industries, Five Days of Love. Sofia Vergara was an AP on that. And I really wanted the job because I said, I want to see how, with social media, how does this work? How did that work with them? And it was Instagram show and it was on Instagram and Facebook. And that really, because then I said, that's what's coming. You know, like back in the day when there's selling movies, now there's talkies, or when there was networks and now its cable, and now cable went to streaming. What's this next iteration? And it's here, of course.

George Stroumboulis: Well, what were the numbers? Just to that point. I'm always curious, like today you'll be somewhere and someone, an example, I'm with my business partner in LA or New York. And he'll be like, oh, that's so and so from this show - the show I've never heard of, the person I never heard of. 20 years ago when I was in my twenties, there were few options. Fewer options. And you would know who that actor is, what that show is. It's like, what do the numbers look like when you were doing that sitcom 20 plus years ago versus like a Facebook show. Do the numbers keep dividing up?

James Axiotis: So, kind of, I go back to, and I'm a huge believer of Steve Jobs, his books. But what he did with, let's say with iTunes, when he went to the labels and said, look, we're not buying. They could buy the record, but I'm going to make an opportunity to buy the song, because you're making it. Like, buy this record and then... or maybe the 45 and the whatever. And his whole plan for Apple TV was going to be the same thing with Cablers. Like, I only want ESPN and HBO and ABC or whatever. That's all. I just want those three. Just the same way they picked music. And of course that hasn't happened yet, and what you see now is with streamers and what you see with YouTube and where my daughters will show me people that they subscribe to. There's this girl named, Jonah. I think she's in Sweden, and there'll be 8 million views on this video. Now she makes, she's a photographer. She's a painter. She makes her own jewelry with her husband. And this stuff's amazing. And I've even bought some of the jewelry and stuff, but I love it how it's so parsed out. So now you can pick, like, so Georgia who likes that kind of stuff and painting and artistry and someone who plays the flute, she's subscribes to all those. My daughters, I spend more money on YouTube subscription. When I say, hey, do you guys want to watch NBC? Do you want to watch? And they haven't watched local television in, and I mean years. And if I say, well, just for the weather, well, I'll look in my phone. It's all there. So it's been so, and I don't want to say that's bad, but I remember when we were doing this show for A&E that this, it was a reboot. Unsolved Mysteries. It was something about murder, whatever, where there, I forgot, some crime. Anyways. And I remember they said to us, so to the network said, what are you looking for? So we get another season. I said, if we get like 250,000 people watching this, I said, that's it. I'm like, my daughter's watching YouTube videos and they're getting, it's out for three hours and they've already got 4 million views.

George Stroumboulis: Probably record on their phone in the room, right?

James Axiotis: Yeah. So, and they're talking about, oh, or George Alexis, this one girl who does these period piece dresses. And she goes, here's how you buy it, or here's how you sew it, or here's where you get this linen, or whatever. You know, 3 million views. And she's in Poland. So Georgia is like, so said, you're watching a show in Poland, you're watching a girl in Sweden, you're watching some guy in Florida who's whatever, right? And that's what they want. So it's very, very different. And if people don't under, and that's where, again, watching it go from three networks to cable, which was a huge paradigm shift. And then from cable to streaming. And we're still, with the strikes, still catching up to the, how do we monetize that? What I do love and as a Greek, as an international person, is that brought the whole world. So now you're watching more movies where back in the day, in the seventies when I was growing up, if you want to see a film, a foreign film, there was that two theaters in Hollywood that would show them for a weekend. Now I can go to Amazon or Netflix, go to a streamer, and there's a whole thing of just foreign films. Or if I want to watch just comedies, if I want to watch, it's all there. And again, we're back to the iTunes model. Like, what do you want? And now they even know like, will you watch this rom-com? Here's another rom-com. George, you want to watch this one now because you like that one.

George Stroumboulis: Stupid simple to just click, you get.

James Axiotis: Sure. I like that. But what do they know? They know roughly your age and you're watching this. So here was the amazing thing in post that was the difference. When I was delivering the shows to Fox, I would give them a link and I'd send this to all the executives. And of course our people in post were on the email. And I'd say, here's episode da, da, da. Well, I was on the thread when it, and so the executives at Fox would say, okay, and they'd give you a time code. Can we go to the wide shot? And I think they're on the person Geelong, I don't like that. And they would give human notes, to all the way through. And we'd make those notes, we send it back, more notes. And then finally there'd be a final cut and we'd deliver it. I deliver the show. So now I'm at Facebook. And Facebook was like, no, these are like, we got graphs and algorithms. So they were telling us, we ghosted the show to like, let's say 800,000 people around the world, this episode, right? And they knew like 13 year old boys, two minutes in, 30 seconds in, stop watching it. And girls, they liked it, but whatever. So their notes were more there. They weren't human notes. They were graphs saying you need to change this. And they knew because they knew their audience.

George Stroumboulis: Their algorithm was saying this.

James Axiotis: And what they were saying, what I learned was the top three things were this; if it's with animals, show the animals. The number one animal is dogs. If you have dogs, don't talk about a dog. Show the dog while you're talking about the dog. One of the jokes I made, it was like if it’s a pretty girl, stay with the boob, stay with the prettiness or kindness. Those are the top three things. When we did the changes of their algorithm, of their graphs. Like, okay, so boys cut off at this, girls, or men, whatever. We made those changes. Because they said, what are you looking for? They said, we want to watch it all the way through and we want to share. That's a win. That's all we care about. So we did the changes, and then they showed the graph again. And sure enough, they watched it all the way through and they showed it. Now we did one season. It didn't get picked up for a second. I think there was a lot of, but I just watching, because again, they know their audience, right? Amazon knows its audience. I mean, Sarandos was in an interview and he was talking about how they understand that. And I think someone said a lot of the question, I'm paraphrasing, but they're like, how you know your audience. And he says, look, I know that, but we're not going to give that information to you. And you wouldn't understand it anyways. But they can curate now shows. So back in the day, in the eighties, nineties, networks going, let's do a show on two cups or whatever. And they're hoping that it's, and then they have the upfronts in New York and they show the advertisers and they advertise. Here's our fall lineup, here's the new shows. And the advertisers will look at the upfronts and say, okay, we're going to invest in that. And that's how they, whatever. It's a totally different thing now. When you know and when we log into Amazon or whatever its streamer we use, they'll say, who's watching, am I watching? And even with YouTube now, they'll say, is James watching YouTube? Is George watching YouTube?

George Stroumboulis: Because they want to know. Yeah.

James Axiotis: So Georgia's subscriptions and Georgia is what they suggest for her are very different from what they show me. So it's just a different world. I love it that it's international. I love it that there's more stories that could be told. We've seen them win Academy Awards. We've seen foreign films win best. And I love that. Because I think we should be more globally aware. So it's not just the old model was, in the eighties, it was you did a show and then after it aired, then you went to a foreign distributor and then it would air. Now, with the one flip of the switch, it's global. Oh yeah. It's a global show.

George Stroumboulis: Which look at some of the most popular shows in the last one or two years, just on Netflix with Squid Game. South Korean. And they become global…

James Axiotis: People that we never, that 10 years ago we never would've known of. That could have been a huge hit over there. And if it maybe got here, it'd be after the fact. And I love that's happened. And that should have happened. And now that delves into why I wanted to finally tell the adoption story of my mother. Because I think people will watch it. Because it’s not just a Greek story, it's a family story. It’s a, I think a love story of family. A mother saying goodbye to her son. So I think it works. And if we could do that, and then more importantly use the short film as a catalyst to tell a feature film of which most non-Greeks don't know of, the thousands of us that got kicked out of the country. And it would air. Here's the other great thing, which streamers did. Now there's an appetite for foreign films. Subtitling is not a big deal. Everyone's like, oh, I have no problem with subtitle. It's fine. So I could do this film with Greek actors in Greece, and subtitle it and the world will, this is great.

George Stroumboulis: This is great.

James Axiotis: Yeah. I want to hear this story and I want to hear it in its native language.

George Stroumboulis: It's become normal, right? People watch it. We're going to jump into this documentary. I have a question. You've been in the industry, right? You've been on super successful shows. Not just successful in Greece or outside, the hardest place to produce and most popular Hollywood in that area. Producing shows is, it's a challenge. Everyone dreams of if you want to be a producer, that's where you want to go. You've done that over decades, right? How difficult has it been staying current? Because you started with Disney, lining up clips on VHS and setting that up to straight on Facebook movies. Like, that's a big shift in the industry. How do you stay current and with all this new technology and people self-creating a video in Poland, uploading a video with some editing and getting 6 million views. How do you compete with that and stay current? Because you're still kicking ass in this industry and developing and doing that. Like, how do you stay relevant?

James Axiotis: You got to keep your ear to the ground. You got to stay humble. And the greatest, I've been so blessed with my daughters because they are, the youngest is 19 and I have a 22-year-old, she'll be 23, but really, that's the next pulse. And there are guys my age, younger or older that said, oh like, I'm out. This whole, the way the streamers are like, and they don't want to. And just like, I'm sure there are people who got out when the silent movies went to talking. I'm sure there are people who, when cables came along, they're like, well, I was at NBC for 30 years and now I don't know the HBO. Forget it, right? If you're going to be, you got to keep current and you got to see the next wave. And I think I learned it as a kid growing up as a surfer. I love that my daughter, Sophia, gave this graduation speech at sixth grade, but she says, we can't control the waves, but we can learn to surf. And it was a great quote. It wasn't her quote, but she got it. And I thought, kind of really in life, we can't control the next iteration. No one knew with Netflix when they were giving you movies in the mail, that their plan was, they're going to stream these movies, right? It was just to be a mail thing. Oh, I got the Godfather, they sent me a VHS and a DVD, I could send it back and I could watch it as many times I want. But they were already thinking, when the internet catches up the speed, we're going to stream this. And that subscription to Netflix is now going to be online. And when I saw them get into the, I'm in the television academy, when I saw them get into the television academy, when I saw them get into the Motion Picture Academy, I'm like, it's over. It's over. Because the rules used to be, for movies let's say, you had to be in certain amount of theaters for a certain amount of weeks to even be nominated. And when they got into the academy, they're like, that's over. So this now feature film never went to a theater, ever. The rules changed. And again, to be sensitive to that and realize, and I knew, like I said, when it happened in the television academy, and the motion picture was like, that's it. And of course then Apple and everyone else jumped on board and like, here we are. And so, movies that are nominated that have never been seen in the theater are being nominated for Emmys and best picture. And it's okay.

George Stroumboulis: It is okay.

James Axiotis: It is what it is. Sometimes, and that's what you'll see, movies coming out in theaters only, and that's the old model. But even looking now, just recently, what Taylor Swift did, she now, she had this huge successful, her concert, which is still touring announced, but what she did was, and I just read this article last week in Variety, she upsettled a lot of the studios. Her father called AMC Theaters and said, look, she puts up the 20 or 30 million dollars at SoFi Stadium. They shot the concert. They made a movie. And now they went directly to the theater and said, we're going to air this in your theaters, direct. And when we airs in your theaters, we're going to have their concert merch. So that way people who couldn't go to the concert can go see this movie. And that this has come out. So they've already pre-sold the theater tickets. I think it was a hundred million dollars, whatever. So they jumped a studio and went right just to say, we're going to go right to the theaters and say, and again, let's watch that. There's a new iteration of things that are happening. Yes. So my daughter can watch TV shows or movies or subscriptions on YouTube. And it's direct consumer. Now, of course, yes. Those people on YouTube, they have subscribers, they're making money, and we're paying $25 a month on YouTube. And either embrace it or don't. And if you miss it, you miss it. So now I'm with producers in the Guild and we're saying, which is exciting, oh, I got this documentary or I got the sitcom, or I have a horror movie. And now we're saying, hmm, this may be really good on Apple, or this may be really good on YouTube.

George Stroumboulis: So you're embracing it.

James Axiotis: So now it's, where does this land, where it used to only be four networks, and then it was networks and cable, and now it's streaming. But now it's like, this could live on YouTube. This could be a show on YouTube. And again, you're going directly to your... So there's different ways to do it. And now with the companies, I formed a production company in London last year. We were trying to do the Greek, the short film about my mother. So I wanted to post it and do it all in London. Became a part of a new tech company that does AI because that's the next thing coming on. Not that I'm trying to take your, I know that the whole thing with the Guild and what's going on with, I totally understand what they're saying. We're not trying to replace and do that. We're trying to maximize that and use that and partner with studios to monetize more stuff. But also, shoot, I want to do NFTs. My NFTs I want to do to give, to donate money back and this whole charitable thing. So there's new technology that I'm part of because if we don't catch the next wave, I'm going to be out of a job. And that is the next thing that's happening. So along with wanting to do a short film, which we now call the short film is a proof of concept for a feature. So if we do this, the short film about my mother, the plan would be that it'd be seen by enough eyeballs that some studio would say, our streamer, then I could say, look, well, this is a whole story. This is not just on me, but what happened to 4,000 kids who were, because their mothers weren't married. They were ejected from the country, from Greece. And I think that story should be told in the feature film. Not just a documentary, but an actual… So there's that avenue. I have this access to these female DJs. A friend of mine I worked with at Facebook, this whole Ibiza, these DJs. And I didn't know when the ex, I'm too old. Didn't know anything about that. And they travel the world, right? I was more intrigued with these female DJs that are now up and coming. And they're kind of big, but they're not big, big. And we got some commitments from some of them. And I want to say, look, how can we now, I want to do a docuseries on these female DJs who travel in Russia and New York and Vegas and go around the world to 10, sometimes eight or five or 10 million people. And they're still, and some are mothers, some have kids. So I have commitments from two. I'll do your pilot. And again, promoting women, it's promote because I always was having daughters. This is a male-dominated, that world is very male-dominated. And to see now these women up and coming, I think that's really intriguing. And of course, the whole thing of tying that in. And then another friend of mine in the UK now has this technology as a server. And they just did a thing with MLB, but the server can go, what I'm trying to tie in is, let's say we do the docuseries with a female. Let's say you're the female DJ. So we do this backstory about you and you have a kid and your husband and you travel the world. But then with this new technology, I'm not going to name the company, but they could put the server at Santorini. Let's say she's on an island where there's 5 million people and now 50 million people can pay a subscription. And virtually I could put you in there. So I know Taylor Swift did this thing where she shot the concert. And you can watch the constant movie. This technology will put you at the venue live.

George Stroumboulis: 3D experience type thing.

James Axiotis: You put on virtual glasses. You're here, you see it, you're walking around, you're at the venue. Okay? Because I said, so how can I tie in production to that next VR experience? Because it’s coming. And it’s beta testing right now. So I'm trying to work out the kinks. And I'm not saying we don't know yet, we got to meet and talk about it.

George Stroumboulis: But that's an example. Like, you are embracing this. You're talking about stuff where it's happening. You could either sit there and say, that's not for me. But you're even trying to connect with these DJs and the female DJs and into that scene like...

James Axiotis: Well, it's young, look, it's beautiful. The parties were amazing. And they go around the world.

George Stroumboulis: There's one excuse to go over there, right? Let's be honest.

James Axiotis: I mean, it would be, it's a big job. Because we do, each documentary would be two different girls. We'd have to have, if we did let's say three episodes and there's six girls. I mean, we'd have to have six crews going around the world with them in planes and buses. So that's exciting visually, but also there's storytelling to tell. And then how do I tie in now the VR experience where they can say, look, if you want to watch them live in Santorini on May 15th, and we partnered with PayPal or whatever, say for $15 or $10, you could be in the concert and it's a one-time experience. There'll be no more. It won't go to tape later on. Like, we're putting you at that concert and you're there. So that's something else I want to look at doing. And yeah, there's, I see nothing. Even though the market's been in a downturn right now, I really do see nothing but potential. And a lot then joining with Producers Without Borders and helping start that because…

George Stroumboulis: So what is that? Can you talk about that a bit?

James Axiotis: So, Producers Without Borders. We started it, I helped start it. Kayvon really is the one who started it. I met him in the Producers Guild. He was in the international committee. And I think, it was two years ago. And COVID, was just coming out of COVID because up until then you couldn't throw any parties. And I said, look, we really got to do something to connect people. And I said, I saw, because he always goes to can, and I said, I saw on one of his step and repeat signs, I saw this PWB. And he goes, oh, that was supposed to be an educational thing or something to bring. I said, but that could be a great thing to, let's connect producers globally. I said, I'm from Greece, he's from, I forget the country he's from, but I said, you're from another country. Let's connect internationally. Producers. I said, so just like in America, if I'm going to go to Georgia or Iowa or whatever, they have film offices and of course, and even the producers Guild, if I say, hey, I'm going to shoot in Texas, I need a good whatever, does anyone know that? And of course, they would connect, oh, I know this great sound guy. Call this guy. Right? I said, I want to kind of set that up also do that globally, because the more that producers think, I got this story, it's about this Russian girl, but I don't... No one in Russia who'll shoot there. So I'm not going to go shoot there. I'll just fake it and do it in somewhere in America or somewhere in Canada. Now you can go there because hopefully we're connected globally to have, what would they call fixers to help you out do these projects, whatever country you wrote, and more stories can be told. So I funded the first five or six lunches and dinners.

George Stroumboulis: You self-funded it to get the global aspect of it?

James Axiotis: I self-funded it. We went to Cannes, we went to Venice, we went to London twice. Went to LA.

George Stroumboulis: Sorry, can we put up some B-roll while you're talking? Do we have?

James Axiotis: Yeah, hundred percent.

George Stroumboulis: Parties look fairly incredible.

James Axiotis: You have. And I went to these things and it was more, and then I told him, we have to shoot these, we have to edit and I'll produce my company. We'll produce and give these videos to you. So, you get corporate sponsors, which is now where he's at. He's three years in. And now he's got airlines and hotels that are sponsoring the events. And the investment for me was, how can I connect globally? I've met people from Poland and Russia and Ukraine and everywhere…

George Stroumboulis: Through this effort that you started.

James Axiotis: Through this effort. You got these dinners and you're talking to other producers, other storytellers. And some are other, some are business people who want to, how can I monetize or how can I be an investor to... Because again, its storytelling and just connecting people and getting them in the right situation. So I still believe in it. I'm going to still go to these dinners, you know, as much as I can because I believe in that process of globally telling stories, both with what I want to do and the Greek story, but also helping other, and I've met some other people. There's a movie I want to shoot in India. And I never would've met these people. And these were real life stories, right? And this woman told me about her story briefly, just that she was in a marriage, it was a fixed marriage, and she was abused. And her daughter fled the country, went to France. She started her own wine company. Her daughter's, I mean, she went to college. Now she's in Bordeaux. She has her own wine label. Now that's an amazing story.

George Stroumboulis: That's an amazing story.

James Axiotis: She has her own, she's a single mother. She has her daughter. And then just this whole, and it's not to attack her husband or her culture, but just to say she came out of something and educated herself, went to school and now I said, you're a winemaker.

George Stroumboulis: Living her dream.

James Axiotis: And I never, I met her in Paris. And again, without Producers Without Borders, I wouldn't have known about her. And she had it, she wrote a script and I said, oh my gosh, we have to make, so it's things like that that I want to cherry pick. What do I want to be part of as a producer? What stories do I want to tell? So now in the docket for me, really next year the goal is, this is the fourth writer and she's amazing. I'm not going to name her name, but she's big, she's a director, writer. We met at a party at SAG, through a friend I met a can. And she was intrigued by the story about my mom, because I always, when I tell writers they always want to do all this other stuff, I said, no, no, no. This was the goodbye story. This is about a 20-year-old girl who came to court to say goodbye.

George Stroumboulis: Can we jump into that? Can we talk about?

James Axiotis: Yeah.

George Stroumboulis: Okay. So you've referenced it a few times. I know the story from you telling me. So there was an ugly period in Greece's history in late sixties under the monarchy.

James Axiotis: It was from, I want to say like 57, 56 to the mid-sixties. Okay. The government totally wasn't part of this. The monarchy made, what they made it do was made it look like, oh, we're taking these orphans and giving them homes around the world because they're left here. But in reality was, we were called illegitimate, my mother. And back then, if you weren't married and you were going to have a baby, the government was going to take it because we were deemed illegitimate. So finding out the story at 18, I mean, I first found out at 13, I was adopted. But finding the true story at 18. And when my mother Sophia, I'm reading my adoption papers and I’m stupefied because I didn't know this whole story up until then. And then it said, the illegitimate twice in the papers, it said the illegitimate child of Georgia Caracas. And I remember saying to my mom, who's this woman? And my mom's like, honey. She wasn't a woman, she was a girl. And my mother at the time was in her mid-thirties because they were trying to have a child. And she said, no, your mother unlike with Renee, my older sister didn't show up. Your mom was in court. In fact, even in the court record that says, she's appeared on her own behalf. In fact, it says she's given her consent, which she didn't. She has no legal right over me, but they wrote, oh, she gave her consent to, you know. Anyway, what I did find out in my research was, around the 62, 63, they were sending out notices to the mother saying, your child's being adopted. Which, of course, most of the mothers didn't want to go to court to appear to watch their child being taken.

George Stroumboulis: Tormenting experience.

James Axiotis: Why would you? But they're like, I'm letting you know your [inaudible]. So what my mother Sophia told me, and God bless, she was an amazing woman. She just is an amazing woman. But the two things that struck me, she says, for me to get a child, someone had to lose a child. She says, I'm in court. When the judge said she's appeared on her own behalf, Georgia, my mom realized like, oh my gosh, she's behind me. She's here. And she said to me, I didn't turn. I didn't, like, you know. So imagine there's a court. And listen, you understand, there's my mom, there's the court lawyer. I'm there, whether I was with a nurse or nun, but I'm there. And every given day, they're just banging out adoptions. The judge was there, da-da-da blah-blah-blah. Okay, they're good. Boom! Okay, here's your kid. So he reads the, it's just five pages. And all they really needed back then was a letter from the priest in Northridge, from Saint Nicholas that they go to our church, they're good Greek people. They will baptize this kid and raise him in the church. And they're like, that's enough. They weren't going to the home and home visit. This is like…

George Stroumboulis: A security process…

James Axiotis: This is 1964. So then he reads the thing, okay, they basically awarded custody. They bring me over. So they brought me over to my mom, Sophia, and then now that the hearing's over, right? The pounds, the gavels, they're going to go on to the next case. And my mother, Georgia, walked over and said, can I say goodbye to my son? And my mother handed me to my mother.

George Stroumboulis: So your adoptive mother handed to your biological.

James Axiotis: And my mom, and I remember my mother. I remember my mom just sobbing, telling me the story. And she just said, and that's when she said, I realized, you're seeing who you're taking a child from. Like, I'm getting a child. This is, yay! I'm getting, I get a son. Right? But now you're seeing who you're taking the son from. So she just said, your mother, my mom, Georgia cradled me and was whispering, talking to me, kissing me. And she's just sitting down on the bench in the court, and I don't know how long it lasted, but there was a moment. And I knew they said there was something going on where my dad or someone was like, hey, and they're like, no, she has legal right. She's a mom. She should be there. We let her know that's why she's here. She knew the court date. And my mom says, she stood back up. She hands me back to my mother, Sophia, and very stoked, not crying and sobbing and screaming and all that. Just very, like I'm going to say goodbye to my son, right? And my mom, I said, what she said, she handed it back. My mom said, her and my dad walked out and she just stood there, watched them leave. And she said, we never saw her again, and she never saw you again. So, that set in motion for me that, though, and we talked about this, the showing up. Don't tell me, commitment should cost you. I always say commitment should cost you something. She showed up and she said, I'm going to say goodbye to my son. This is what I'm going to do. I have no legal right. I'm a woman in the sixties in Greece. I'm young, I'm not married, whatever they think about me. I’m doing this. And what I've always tried to tell my daughters and what we did, as much as we, if I gave money to an organization, nonprofit, I said, like when I talked about the fixing fathers here in Los Angeles is a local, they spay neuter animals. I said, so we're going to donate money. I'm going to make videos for them to promote them. They have golf tournaments. They have one coming up next month. But we're also going to, during COVID, there were families who were struggling, who needed, they were between, do I feed myself or feed my animal? So I got the girls in the car. I said, we've got a list of addresses. We're going to deliver food to these people, right? When I gave to Project Angel Food, again, I said, we're going to go down. We're going to get up five in the morning. We're going to package food to people who are injured, who can't go out, and they need food. And then when I got involved with children of War Foundation, it was... and being an advisor on the board, it was, okay, we're going to go to the Syrian border, we're going to go to refugee camps, and we're going to be with these kids. And we did the season of giving it, we took them shopping and got them clothes and we helped fund the school and then the Georgia project, which where there were three girls who we were able to not have them get married off and have them finish high school in a tent.

George Stroumboulis: Explain that "not get married off." So you have these 14…

James Axiotis: There are three girls. What they told me was they're between 12 and 14, 15. And the father's like, look, you know, and money. They're refugee, living in a tent. Right? And it would be in that culture and easier for them just to be married off. And now they're less, one less person to feed. And I understand that. And so I said, can we, and I didn't want to be disrespectful to the culture or to the need and what was going on. So we started, what I call this, it's called the Georgia Project. And, in fact, we hung up a little sign out at the, in fact, I could show you footage, but we have this, the logo's four girls in the Hija. My daughter made the logo, actually. And we said, look, we told the fathers, if we give you money, can you have your daughter keep going to school and not have them get married off? And it was interpreters doing this. I didn't want to come in on the white night. And we did it. So I know that there were three girls, and I believe they've all now, this year, have graduated high school. I don't know because the plan was then hopefully that we'd get them somewhere else into higher, maybe higher education. But the goal goes back to, which I've always told you when I go to these places, when I went to Ukraine, it was to let these people know, like going to an orphanage where I came from, you matter, your life matters. What you do matters. And I'm coming from another country to tell you, not just write a check, but I'm coming to tell you that you're worth me coming here. That don't just think you're trash or you're in a tent or wherever you are. It's crazy to say, but I love, and the war zones are the best because the people are the most, I think any word, they're appreciative. But Ukraine changed my life. During the war, that changed my life. Going through, flying to Jordan, going through, like, there's the military tanks. I mean, they're stopping your car. I mean, it's legit.

George Stroumboulis: Last year?

James Axiotis: So 2022 in April, I delivered half a million dollars of medicine in Kevan Aviv.

George Stroumboulis: Physically. You didn't write a cheque.

James Axiotis: I took it in.

George Stroumboulis: You physically showed up in Poland drove over…

James Axiotis: Flew into Poland, then we arranged through Children War Foundation that, and it had to be in ambulances because that was the only way we were going to get quickly in with the medicine. And the medicine was donated from hospitals here in America. But we also knew there was an expiration date, we had to get this in. When the original person was going to do it, didn't do it. And I happened to be with the founders, the leaders of true, with the actual foundation. And ironically, we're at a Greek restaurant. And I just remember thinking, I just told them, I'll go, I'll take it in. And they're like, this is a war zone. And I said, but this medicine's got to get in. And again, no guarantee of safety, right? You got to wear a bulletproof vest, got to wear a helmet, got to have your phone off. You got to use paper maps. I mean, it's a whole different thing. And being able to go to Ukraine and to go first to Kyiv in the capital and go into these hospitals. And these hospitals that we got millions of dollars for to keep them, these private hospitals open so people that were local can still get their medicine and get operations. And people who were shrapnel and got blown up and stuff can go get aid. And so that was, and again, like you said, yeah, that we take medicine out of the ambulance and I'm like, here, and it was great to say, I don't know where the other money goes or what government grant, whatever that goes. But I can tell you, and I have footage, I have proof that what I brought in, I know I gave it to a children's hospital. I gave it to a doctor and how appreciative, as I told you, the story about the soldiers where they just, it's sad and also sad in a way that why are you here. You're not Ukrainian. And I just said, look, you people, I said, I'm a Greek American, and it was holy week. And I said, we're both orthodox. This is our holy week. I think it was, and have that gentleman put his gun down and hug me and give me his flag and some stuff off his uniform, to let me give you this. And then my daughter still has it. And I promised him that I get the tattoo of the Ukrainian tried in, and I did.

George Stroumboulis: And you got it right there.

James Axiotis: I got it right there. But it was to honor these people and then to go into the children's hospital and they're so grateful. And you're looking at these kids and they don't know what's going on. And some of these kids were sick before. Some kids had cancer, some kids, whatever was going on. But they needed medicine, irregardless of the war.

George Stroumboulis: So, we don't get political here. And everyone has a political opinion. But you were feet on the street. You saw this, right? You were motivated by politics one way or another. You just wanted to help any way you could. You go in and come out.

James Axiotis: That’s, I mean, it was kind of, again, going back in the spirit of my mom, I'm going to go show up. We, earlier with children of war, and again, I was on the advisors, did we delivered pallets of diapers and milk. We did all that. But that took over a month to get in. And I remember hearing the frustration. Because I remember my daughter and I went to Costco and we spent a bunch of money to get, they're like, what do you need? We need diapers and milk. That was the number one. So we went out shopping, we did that. But I actually got in quicker with my medicine before the diapers and milk got there. I don't know what happened. I don't know the whole logistics and international, I don't know how that works. But this was an undercover way we did it. It was so covert because, and then being in the Producer's Guild, Delta Airlines, and they were amazing. They sponsor the PGA, they do dinners. So I called Delta, said, look, I'm doing this humanitarian thing. They say, nothing to do with movies. And from the get go, I told them, they immediately said, look, when you come to the airport, we're going to help you with the luggage. And they checked me in and they were so, because it was through coming from LAX into, I got into Poland. And they were amazing. And I guess some top level guy at Delta was Ukrainian himself. And when they heard of what we were doing, they rolled out the red carpet. So I got to just give them a plug saying they were amazing. So then children war, then new people, volunteers who bought ambulances from other countries, brought them in because they were shoveling bodies. Excuse me. So then she orchestrated, then they picked me up at the airport. And I had all these…

George Stroumboulis: In Poland, you show up in Poland, all the medicine's waiting there. And then you have a…

James Axiotis: So, I brought all the medicine with me, right? All of it, all these bags. And we had 16 boxes and huge black duffel bags, I bought on Amazon, filled with medicine. And we had inventory, all of it. We had the whole thing. And working with the local governments there, defense ministers. Because this was a legit thing. And then getting into Poland, then going into Ukraine.

George Stroumboulis: But like Poland, what city to where? That’s a four or five hour drive.

James Axiotis: Yeah, it took... From getting into Poland, we stayed the night there when we first got in. The next day, we got up early, we drove into, you know, then you go through the checkpoints and then you get into Ukraine. So it was like, it took four to six hours before we got into, we stayed by Lviv, but then the next day we had to get up. That's another thing there was a curfew. You can only be on the road from eight o'clock in the morning till 10 o'clock at night. And the government said after that, if you are, then you could be ambushed or killed or murdered or shut out of the sky. So don't be on the road. So I remember we had to stay and find hotels or restaurants because one night, it was like 9:30. We got to get off the road.

George Stroumboulis: But hotels and restaurants were open. Like that's what, I guess people don't get.

James Axiotis: Some were. And we'd go in and of course we're always asking, do you have a bunker? We had alarm sirens that the apps that would notify you. Like, oh, there's maybe an invasion or a bombing. So everywhere we went, whether there's a restaurant or a hotel or the hospitals, like, do you guys have bunkers? So, if they go off, we could go to the bunker and be safe. So that was, and again, paper maps, you couldn't use the internet. You couldn't use road.

George Stroumboulis: Roads are functional? Like, it's a war zone.

James Axiotis: Roads were blown up. Gas stations are blown up. But the other thing was the gas stations that were open, because they were rationing gas, because we were in an ambulance, we could fill up. Other people, if you pulled up with your car, there were a lot of you, maybe one or two gallons of gas. But we are an ambulance, so we're medical. They didn't ask what they just, oh, it's an ambulance. And the whole time we were there, day or night, we had our lights on the whole time.

George Stroumboulis: But you're still paying for the gas. They're not giving gas. You're still paying.

James Axiotis: No. In fact, children were, they gave me cash to buy gas. So that we even funded the gas for these. So we stopped by tanks that were blown up. I mean, one of the guys walked in, there was someone dead in there. We went into Bucha with our ambulance. And that was like, I wasn't prepared. I mean, I'm not saying I have learning PTSD as a soldier, but I never, you see movies. But until you go into a city where there were corpses and body and the smell and broken glass and dogs are, they just running stray in bloody paws because it’s blasted glass. I mean, they destroyed that city. And they let us into Bucha because we were in Embassies. I don't know if they thought we were going to get people out or bring, but they just said, hey, do you want to go over to Bucha? Because I had a camera and I was trying to just document as a producer, let's tell the story. And I didn't understand. I just said, someone like saying, hey, you want to go over to Venice Beach? And you're like, okay, let's check it out. I'm from Iowa. I'll check out Venice Beach or go to Malibu. So I said, I'll go to Bucha. Sure, if you invite. And when I went in, it was unbelievable. And I remember we only had 20 minutes. I walked around. I shot everything I could.

George Stroumboulis: It was that tragic. Like it was…

James Axiotis: Yeah. They get back in the ambulance. And I just sat there and I just, sobbing. Because you’re not prepared. No one should be prepared for that. No one should realize, and if the war ended today, that city, no one's going to move back to their apartments and homes. It's destroyed. It's gone. It's over. And there were multiple cities like that. And the whole time is we're a Greek Orthodox, as an Eastern Orthodox person, I'm seeing these beautiful churches. And it's Holy Tuesday. It's Holy Wednesday. Oh, we'd normally get holy unction. And you realize, and they can't go to holy because they knew if inside a church that's now they want to blow it up. So even then they weren't able to go to church during Holy Week.

George Stroumboulis: That’s crazy.

James Axiotis: So the whole thing was surreal. All that to say, as a producer and a storyteller, it changed my life for the better. And it just fuels the fire like, let's show up, let's do good, let's go, I guess, at a risk. But my mantra always is, commitment should cost you something. Whether it's money, monetary money, or my time, or me risking something for you. And again, I go back to my mother showed up in court.

George Stroumboulis: Yeah. Hearing you talk about it, it's inspiring. Right? And I have three young daughters and its like, okay, you try to bring them up in this bubble and protect them and the information they absorb and all this. But we try to create too much of a bubble. And there's the real world that's going on and they need to understand what's going on. And at what point do you, but having them see that, having them come along. Your daughters have been to a lot of these places with you.

James Axiotis: They've been to the Syrian border. I didn't take them into Ukraine. Sophia did go earlier before me. She was one who set up with the government in Poland and the defense minister. So Sophia did go to Poland. So when we were helping the hospital that I was going to go to, they had brokered that deal. So she went a month or two before me, got involved in Georgia. My younger one inventoried all the medicine with us at the house that we got donated.

George Stroumboulis: God bless them, man.

James Axiotis: And then we packed it up and I went. So, again, not everyone can, I was fortunate. And having hands on to, and again, having the real world experience of like, let's just don't... Giving's great. And I don't begrudge people who have the money, God bless them to write a cheque. But I want it to be boots on the ground. And I wanted, let's get your hands dirty and let's see this part of humanity. Because that will change you. At the end of my life I'd rather be known for what I gave, not what I got. I think a lot of people are like, they got awards or they got this or they got, they feel known by what they've accumulated. And again, nothing against business and making money. But my whole thing now is if it can be, there's got to be a balance of both. And obviously companies in America, everyone knows, I don't care if it's a Coca-Cola or Budweiser or Target, they now want to get behind giving because they know that people like that. People like to know when you're benevolent, when you're giving. And there are companies that start out from the very beginning and say, look, we're going to give. I mean, I knew Paul Newman years ago when he started all these brands. It was 90% of everything goes to charity. And it was a Paul Newman sell address and Paul Newman coffee. Now, I think I heard all of it goes to charities. And that was just his ethos. This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to use my name, I'm Paul Newman. I'm going to make the sell address. I'm going to make whatever coffee or whatever I do. And it's going to go to charity.

George Stroumboulis: Yeah. And you want to get behind people like that as well.

James Axiotis: And I just feel like if someone said they want to do a business, they want to do something, even when I got involved with the new company hiring. I said, we have to be benevolent, we have to be something early on our DNA. That yes, we can make money, we can make tech, we could do all this great stuff and we should, but there also has to be early on something that's always giving back. That's why I love being a part of BAFTA. When I heard about, I didn't know they were a nonprofit. And then able to give money to them. I'm an Academy Circle member, but that was to donate money to the theater to put my mom's name on a chair.

George Stroumboulis: And BAFTA, the acronym for the listeners…

James Axiotis: It's British. It's the Film and Television Academy. Basically, it's kind of like, instead of we have television academy, motion picture there, it's all, so they handle music, gaming, TV and film. So if you win a BAFTA award, it’s one of those things and they're huge. And so…

George Stroumboulis: Is that a government agency in the UK or that's independent?

James Axiotis: It's independent and it's a nonprofit and they've been around forever. And so, again, at a PWD dinner in London, I met a girl who raises money and I just said, oh, I thought you guys were awards and I didn't know that you help inner city kids or kids in the arts where they can come in and they could become actors and writers and directors, and there's things for just young girls to be, all these different programs. I didn't know any of that. So yeah, I gave a chunk of money and they were refurbishing the building, the Piccadilly building. And there was this queen on theater. And I said, they said you could, we'll put your name on a chair. And I just said, not my name. I’m going to put my mother's name on this chair. So Georgia. Yeah, Georgia Caracas is, I think, the second row. And it happened to be chair number four because I'm born on the 4th of June. So that was cool, how that worked at, because I just said, I don't care where you placed it, just as long as she's in the theater.

George Stroumboulis: Turned out to be symbolic.

James Axiotis: It turned out to be very symbolic. So yeah, now hopefully a thing I'll be doing with them, with NFTs to help them raise money because again, they're a non-profit. And then I got involved with Geanco. I heard from an after friend of mine, and they're all-girls school in Nigeria. And again, I want to help, and I've been to some benefit dinners in Hollywood. But my whole goal is, I told, remember when I met with one of the founders, I remember he said, again, here we go again. He said, why do you want to do this? And I know what he means. Like, you're not African American of Nigeria. And I said, I don't, I get it. But it's sad that me, there's like, what's the catch? I said, ultimately, I want to go to that school. I want to help if there's a school or hospitals or how can I, not just get the money, but how can I go there?

George Stroumboulis: These experiences are changing you from what I've seen too, right?

James Axiotis: Yeah. You'll never be... It's funny where a lot of people would say to me, oh, you know, how you gave, I said, what I got out of Ukraine, what I got out of going to Jordan several times, the season of giving thing we did, where we took those kids shopping and got them clothes and brought them gifts. And again, it wasn't their Christmas time, but it was our season of, we called it season of giving. We got back way more than, I mean, its life changing. Absolutely. And watching my girls, it was so beautiful. We're leaving the refugee camp and they're intense. And we're going back into Jordan. And I remember we're just crying. We're telling stories. And I remember this one girl, my daughter Sophia, she's talking, this girl was like 14. One of the girls we sponsor. Okay. The Georgia project. But she, Georgia was like, oh, that's a pretty ring. And she took it off and gave it to Sophia. And I'm thinking, and Sophia's just emotional. So she's crying. She's like, here's a girl, lives in a tent. And she wants to, because I just noticed, oh, that's what a beautiful one. And she goes, I want you to have this.

George Stroumboulis: Karma.

James Axiotis: And Sophia still has the ring. And it is those moments like that you can't, again, it was showing up and going there. And now Sophia got her degree and right now, she works at a university, but she wants to get into diplomacy. And God willing, she will get her masters and PhD. But that was one of those things, like a girl that lives in a tent wanted, because I commented on her ring, gave me her ring. And it's again, you get way more back.

George Stroumboulis: You get way more back.

James Axiotis: Oh yeah. Than you ever give.

George Stroumboulis: James, let's go really quick. I want to talk about the short film you're doing on your mother and I just want to reiterate, you technically in Greece were considered an orphan. You had a mother and a father.

James Axiotis: Well, she wasn't married, but yeah.

George Stroumboulis: She wasn't married, but the government, the monarchy took you away from a mother who was a teenager at the time and put you in this group as an orphan, to be basically taken to another country, ripped. I just want to make sure the listeners understand like, that is not okay. You discovered this, this is great. You've gone through your emotional rollercoasters. Like that's a lot. You've become like the stronger man. You're giving back. I believe that's motivated you to do tremendous good. Like, you're doing some stuff that truly has inspired me. I need to do more. That may I hear that. It's like, I need to do more. Now you're going to get her story out there. Your mother's story, Georgia. Right? What's that process look like? So you're going to tell a 10-minute story, a 28, like how does that work?

James Axiotis: So we're looking to do with this new writer, it probably a 15, 20 minute short. I found out, because I hired a genealogist and I did like ancestry in 23. I did all those. Because I was been looking for family. And to prove that, I hired a genealogist because I wanted to make sure, am I really a Caracas? And that's true. In this process, we found out most likely my father's Armenian. Now, there were a lot of Greeks in our, a lot of Armenians in Greece because a lot of them fled earlier in, you know. So that made sense. So now, what I love what Lisa said, this director, writer, she's like, the story I want to tell, because it all leads, to me, the whole point that the story is the goodbye that this woman showed up to say goodbye to her son. And because that's all I know about her, we're going to take creative license to get there. So we just thought, let's tell kind of that shown her as a young girl in Greece and she's gone to the Placa and she's dancing and she meets this guy and they fall in love and they get pregnant. She gets pregnant. And we're kind of thinking at the time, because everyone has to serve in the military. He was probably born in Greece. And we're just trying to write this where how do we, he has got to go away. He didn't know that she was pregnant. And we don't know what really happens to him. So she first lose. First we see love and joy and happiness and grace. They're poor, but okay. And then, now she loses him. And the next phase would be that she's trying to, she knows if I go to the hospital and have this baby, they're going to take him. Because all the mothers at that time knew what was going on. So we just thought, well, for whatever reason she did go to the hospital. And the moment they realized that, it's like, okay. And from what we understand, she was illiterate. Most girls were. So even when they had her sign documents, she send away, doesn't know. So my first year and a half was an orphanage, run by the government. And the government made sure that we weren't baptized and we weren't named. And so then, when my parents came to get me, and that's where the adoption paper says the unnamed, unbaptized, illegitimate child of Georgia Caracas. Yeah, the illegitimate. So, which then spawned the idea, which I formed a company, legitimate son here, but I want to do one in London because I'd like to, when we do the short film next year, the production company would be not JPA, which is my company now. We've had it since 2016. But to have legitimate son be the production company, because it was always in her honor to legitimize. Because this poor woman had to hear twice in court. They're saying to a woman, to a mother, your illegitimate child. And I'm sure she's thinking, he's a valid human. No government, nobody should say over anyone who's more important, who's valuable, who's not. No one has that right. And to just diminish the importance, and I'm not even just saying to myself. That's what they said to all of us. We are illegitimate. So having a production committee called Legitimate. So what we're looking at is, we want to get this. And I've had different writers, but I never was in love with the script, because I always led to the last moment, the goodbye moment and showing her strength and tenacity, and make it not a good documentary, but just so people who most non-Greek don't know this story. And the hopes would be that we could use the short film as a catalyst to do a feature. Not on me, but on... Because a lot of kids, as I told you earlier, there's a good chunk of the kids where the mothers was, oh, your baby died last night. And the baby was given away. And the mother said, and they were like, and I knew the story. There was two, I met this one woman who, she went back to, when she found out she was adopted, went back to Greece, found her mom. And the mother's like, I was told you died. So there was some of that going on, that they were just lied to.

George Stroumboulis: But they can't get away with this. Like, how do you, can you vindicate this? How do you get this back? Can you bring awareness?

James Axiotis: Well, a short film and a future would. The government doesn't, they're not acknowledging this. They're not. I think they want to run up the clock. Look, I'm 60 and there are people older than me. And I think if they run up the clock and wait another 10 or 20 years, we'll all be dead. And then what? I mean, my kid, the kids, the grandchildren…

George Stroumboulis: That much harder.

James Axiotis: Yeah. We talking about, like yeah, that was in the fifties and sixties. So it was really one of my product producer friends and the guild was like, and because I would, sometimes I get around to telling the story. Because I said, I'm from Greece, I was adopted, and they never knew the story. And when they're like, wait a minute, that's an amazing, you’re a producer, why don't you want to tell this story? So, it just worked out. Now that I've tried, I've gone back and forth to Greece several times, but it's like $85,000 probably to shoot, it's a period piece. I want to do it right where it's in Athens, 1964. We've got not a lot of locations, but we need to find an orphanage. We need to find the hospital. We need to find. Now the hospital's still that I was born in, the orphanage was gone. They destroyed that. The courthouses I heard was remodeled. It's the building is still there, it has turned into something else. But there are still a lot of the orphanages around Athens. When I had last year, I hired a location crew. They did find some of the old shutdown orphanages that are just, they locked them up and they're just sitting there.

George Stroumboulis: So you want a film there, you want it to be as authentic as…

James Axiotis: I want to have Greek. There's two Greek girls that are amazing Greek actresses. I mean, I want this to be a Greek film. And I want to go to Greece. I want shoot with a Greek crew.

George Stroumboulis: In Greek?

James Axiotis: It would be all in Greek.

George Stroumboulis: All in Greek. Okay.

James Axiotis: And with subtitles and make this film and take it to festivals and to get eyeballs on it to hopefully, again, not tell my story as much as, I want to tell my mom's story. That's all I want to do. If I tell my mother's story and people see it, I’m good. And if that could be a catalyst to hear the 4,000 other people, 3 or 4,000 of us that we went through this and we all have different stories and shed light on that, that would be, on her basis, would be the ultimate goal.

George Stroumboulis: Absolutely. And I know it is her story. It's remarkable. But to have you be a product of that and have all this challenges in life, ups and downs, and to just be skyrocketing and succeed in your career, I feel like you should be part of that story. It has to. And maybe it's not the anchor, but my God, man, you should be so proud of what you're doing and what you're doing for your daughters. And that side, like, it’s incredible.

James Axiotis: It’s very humbling. Like I said, being this, Hollywood's a tough business. I've had my own production company. I mean, when it's great, it's great. When it's bad, it's bad. And besides the stuff in production, whatever I've done, it's also making sure that they've all had college degrees. Sophia just graduated Chapman. Georgia is going to go on to London to go to school. And that again on, they always knew on the back of their Yaya who didn't have a chance at all. And it wasn't even afforded. And so I am grateful. I've just been blessed and I'm not bitter about anything, whether it's all been good. And so now looking through the prism, giving back, making sure my daughters are set up academically before they have options. When they have options and they could... When you live with limited options. And people like, why'd you buy that? Why'd you date this guy? Why'd you go? Because they didn't have any options. So I want to give them options and then professionally stay in production, look at new tech to do. And then I'd love to set up, ultimately, some kind of foundation or non-profit and go to war zones and go to orphanages. And go and hang out with the refugee and dig wells and paint and build buildings and get my hands dirty, if it's dangerous. And do that, like, actually, I mean, get money, get people to donate, but go and know that whether it was you helped raise the money or got the medicine, and then bring it in. Absolutely. So they know. Because again, it always goes back to, as my mother said something to me. I don't know what she said to me when she said goodbye. I want to believe she told me she loved me. I got to believe she told me that she matters to me. I'm her world. And my dad would've loved me and be proud of me. And she's trying to send me off with something. Likewise, I'm trying to say, when I go wherever I've been. And we did a thing with Navajo Nation where we spent money for water too. Because water is poisoned out there. It's just horrible what's going on out there. But again, to be with these locals saying, you guys matter. I love you guys. And I’m coming here because you're not just refugee. You're not just, you do matter. And again, I took my girls out to Navajo Nation and we spent days out there. And just getting your feet dirty and hugging and loving on people. And if, could one person, if one of these girls in Jordan, in Syrian border can say, I don't remember who the guy was. I don't know. But some guy showed up and he bought me clothes. He bought me and he's paying for school, and that could help. I did this education video. I kept saying the videos where we asked them, what do you want to be? All of them wanted to be doctors, police officer. And I said, one guy says I want to build. He goes, why? Because, he goes, all the buildings are destroyed. I want to build buildings. None of them were bitter. None of them were like, I don't know you. They wanted to give back. And they're in tents and they're their schools in the tent. And the video, I based it on, like, this is a human right to have education. And we were educating these kids, but I just sat them down with a camera and just said, tell me what you want to be. And I made three little videos. I mean, I'm sobbing making these videos, but it was just the beauty of the humanity of like, yet we talked about that road. And they're not bitter. They want to become an officer to protect people. They want to become a doctor to heal people. They want to become architects to build buildings that, because of the wars destroyed all the buildings. And again, it just, your belief again in humanity, they want to do something better for the greater good. So that's all that to say. Going back to the Georgia project, I hope next year, whether it's through my own investments I get or my own or however it works out. But we think it's about, it's going to be like 80, 85,000 to do a period piece. Because I really want to, I mean, I don't want it to be cheap. I want it to get the right costume, get the right thing, and shoot this thing right. If we're going to go to film festivals, let's really tell this story.

George Stroumboulis: And film festivals, like you do the standard. How does that work?

James Axiotis: I mean we'd go to, whether it was Berlin or Cannes or Venice, we'd find, because I mean Sundance, there's so many these, because you got to kind of look at the film puzzle. I really believe the documentary we did on refugees, that's a perfect venue for Berlin. Is that a perfect venue for Cannes? Probably not. Right? So you got to look at what festival would want. Because they always want the premier. So once we make the film next year, the goal would be to really look at what festival would be best to show this in. You go to festivals of course. Because even if you get placement, I mean, I know a lot of people use it to get an Academy Award nominee, right? If you win enough, I think three festivals, then you can get an Academy Award nomination where then you can enter it for the Academy Awards. And it's not, I don't want to do this. It's not to win awards, it's to get exposure. Because a lot of films like get into these festivals. You always hear about a film got picked up and Amazon bought it. Sony, someone bought the picture and now it's going to be released. So that's, for me, the idea is to say, let's get the short, let's get the story out there. Because again, most people don't know what happened in Greece then. And do a bigger story of the whole thing. And hopefully, I mean, one day Greece will come forward and this is our home country. And I'm a proud Armenian Greek and I was born there. I have a citizenship there. My daughters have a citizenship there. And I want to do more things in Greece. I'd love to do whether it's a production company or I'd love to one day, a friend of mine who does the vineyard, she said to me, she's talking about this one, this wine, I forget the name of it now, but they only do 600 bottles or 300 bottles. And the bottles are like, there's like a four year way to get these bottles. Okay. And it all goes to charity. And she talked about, James, do you want to push or pull business? Do you want to be in Costco for $20 a bottle or do you want smaller, but there's a demand. And she says, if you can get a story and find a village or an island in Greece, and get the locals and they're buying the story of the bottle, not just obviously wine. So yeah, a pipe dream would be to have wine there again, not my name on it. And the money would go to charity and go to locals in the town and to tell stories. So it's those kinds of things.

George Stroumboulis: Absolutely.

James Axiotis: I mean, because again, as I'm moving to London now, I mean, I hone back to Europe. I'll always have a foot here, but it's what could I do with Greeks?

George Stroumboulis: Yeah. And I think we're going to get some important eyeballs to this episode from around the world. Right? Some important eyeballs. It's good. Your story's incredible. We're going to put all your links up, socials, how to get in contact, everything. You've been gracious with your time. I appreciate it. To wrap up, anything you want to talk about specifically, any plugs, any projects that you have in the NFT space or anything that you have coming up that we can…

James Axiotis: Yeah, the only, I mean the most current thing is we, in the ethos of Greeks helping Greeks, right? I formed a couple years ago, invested with two young Greek kids. Ariana Lexie, to do, we did a Greek NFT, it's called Village Goats. And it took a long time to launch and get it made. But once we finally got it made and some of the money goes to charity, the market crashed and fell out. We were going to sell these original, we did 3000 minted goats, different goats. They were going to be 150 each. Now we put the price to 75. And the goal was, how can we start a thing with [inaudible] for us, by us. How can we, us Greeks do something that's created for us that benefits us and if this model works, we could do even more than line up with a hospital, line up with a... in Greece or here, a Greek church, a Greek foundation, a Greek school. So it hasn't really, I think out of the 3000 we've sold three.

George Stroumboulis: Okay.

James Axiotis: I want to do as much, we're just doing, I'm doing my own self exposure. I invested my own money in this. They did it and we're trying to get it on social, but I'd love to see that succeed and take some of that money, then do some more, but then line up, like I said, line up with something in Greece or something in, I say, look, we're going to do another one. That was, whether it's village goats or something else. And Greek supporting Greek, I think that's very valuable that we, as a minority, even in this country, but even our islands very small where we're from in Greece, but that we are supporting one another. The guy who did my website's Greek. And I'm trying to always look to where we can support ourselves.

George Stroumboulis: So we need to do more of that in our culture.

James Axiotis: We need more of that.

George Stroumboulis: Talking just North America, we don't do enough of that. We compete a lot with each other. And if we could band together when it makes sense, it's got to make sense financially.

James Axiotis: It should be the most, I mean, and again, it's not a matter of exclusion being racist again. I've traveled to other countries that it's not that I'm only trying to help Greeks. I mean, but it's a tough road and Hollywood's tough. It's very, whether not a lot of Greeks helping Greeks. And the analogy I told you where they get up in their castle and they pull up the drawbridge and they wanted to show you, this is where I'm at. I'm really successful, whether I'm an actor or whatever it is.

George Stroumboulis: Absolutely.

James Axiotis: But they're not helping bringing up the next generation. And that has to change.

George Stroumboulis: Think of where your career started, sticker it on, on the top of your helmet.

James Axiotis: Yeah. I mean, if it wasn't for that guy, God bless him, that he just saw the name and that was enough. And if I could keep that momentum where it's like not keeping others up, but saying if I could help. Because I mean, again, I was adopted. My Greek parents went to Greece and got me. I don't know where I'd be in Greece, if I'd be a taxi cab driver, a yido stand out. I don't know what my options would be. But something helped change me. And then he, at 13, changed my life and then all of a sudden, I fell in love with the business. And if we could do more of that ourselves and help where we can. Not just exclude, but help where we can. This NFT, the village goats was certainly something that we wanted to, I hope we sell it out this year. I'd love to see it sell out. We wanted to take some of that seed money and then partner with some other companies or some other churches or some other hospitals and say, we want to do this again. Listen to ideas and keep that momentum going. So that's that. And then the short film next year.

George Stroumboulis: Amazing. Keep rocking, man. Thank you so much for coming on.

James Axiotis: Thank you. I appreciate that you're humble.

George Stroumboulis: And this won't be the first though, we'll have many conversations going.

James Axiotis: Yeah. I'm, we're connected, I mean…

George Stroumboulis: And by the way, you're moving to London this week, right?

James Axiotis: Moving to London. Yeah.

George Stroumboulis: You got a big, we're filming this outside of LA now, Orange County. And James is actually moving over there with his daughter by Monday. So good luck with that move.

James Axiotis: Yeah, it would be, she get her set up for school, got a bunch of meetings with my business partners and people out there and just hustling for the next thing. But no, it's all exciting.

George Stroumboulis: Love it. That's a wrap. That's a wrap.

James Axiotis: Thank you.

George Stroumboulis: Thanks for listening to this episode of Invigorate Your Business with George Stroumboulis. Please hit the ‘Subscribe’ and ‘Like’ buttons and follow me on all the main podcast streaming channels. Also, please share your comments when you can. I appreciate your help in expanding this network to a worldwide audience. Until next time, stay invigorated.

CONTENTS OF THIS VIDEO

00:00 INTRO TO HOLLYWOOD PRODUCER JAMES AXIOTIS
16:50 PRODUCING GORDON RAMSAY'S HELL'S KITCHEN
17:43 GORDON RAMSAY OFF CAMERA
24:06 HOOK A TV AUDIENCE WITH 3 THINGS
29:10 STAYING RELEVANT IN TV PRODUCTION
31:48 TAYLOR SWIFT CHANGING THE CONCERT GAME
37:15 NEW DOCUMENTARY ON GLOBAL FEMALE DJ'S
39:13 STARTING "PRODUCERS WITHOUT BORDERS"
43:22 ADOPTION UNDER THE GREEK MONARCHY
44:56 PUT UP FOR ADOPTION AGAINST MOTHER'S WILL
49:40 HELPING GIRLS NOT GET MARRIED OFF
59:28 VISITING THE WAR IN UKRAINE TO HELP
1:01:44 EXPOSING YOUR KIDS TO THE REAL WORLD
1:13:23 DISGUSTING GREEK ADOPTION SCANDAL
1:25:53 DO GREEKS SUPPORT EACHOTHER

MORE ON BEING A FILM & TV PRODUCER IN HOLLYWOOD

Becoming the best film and TV producer in Hollywood is a lofty goal that requires a combination of talent, hard work, determination, and strategic decision-making. While there is no guaranteed formula for success in the highly competitive entertainment industry, here are some steps to help you on your path to becoming a successful producer in Hollywood:

  1. Educate Yourself: Start by gaining a solid education in filmmaking, business, and entertainment law. Consider pursuing a degree in film production, business administration, or a related field. Continuously expand your knowledge of the industry by attending workshops, seminars, and film festivals.

  2. Gain Practical Experience: Hands-on experience is crucial. Start small by working as a production assistant, intern, or in entry-level positions in the industry. This will help you build a network and learn the ropes of filmmaking from the ground up.

  3. Build a Network: Hollywood is all about connections. Attend industry events, film festivals, and networking functions to meet professionals in the field. Cultivate relationships with directors, writers, actors, and other producers. Your network can open doors to opportunities.

  4. Develop Strong Business Skills: Producing involves not only creative skills but also strong business acumen. Learn about film financing, budgeting, contracts, and distribution. Understand the financial aspects of filmmaking, as this knowledge will be crucial when securing funding and managing projects.

  5. Create a Unique Vision: Successful producers often have a distinct creative vision. Develop your storytelling skills and identify your niche. What kinds of stories or genres are you passionate about? What sets your projects apart from the rest?

  6. Secure Funding: Financing is a major challenge in filmmaking. Learn how to secure funding through various sources, such as investors, grants, crowdfunding, or studios. Develop compelling pitches and business plans to attract investors.

  7. Project Management: Be an effective project manager. This involves overseeing all aspects of a production, from pre-production to post-production. Strong organizational and leadership skills are essential to ensure projects stay on track and within budget.

  8. Adaptability: Be prepared to adapt to changing circumstances and market trends. The entertainment industry is dynamic, and flexibility is key to staying relevant.

  9. Hire the Best Talent: Surround yourself with talented professionals. As a producer, you're as good as the team you assemble. Hire skilled directors, writers, cinematographers, and crew members who share your vision.

  10. Market and Promote: Understand the importance of marketing and promotion. Develop strategies to build anticipation for your projects and engage with your audience through social media and other marketing channels.

  11. Persistence: Success in Hollywood often requires a high level of persistence and resilience. Be prepared for rejection and setbacks, and use them as opportunities for growth.

  12. Continued Learning: Stay updated with industry trends, technologies, and changes in the entertainment landscape. Be open to learning from your experiences and evolving your approach.

Remember that success in Hollywood can take time, and there are no guarantees. Keep refining your skills, building your network, and creating compelling content. Ultimately, your dedication and passion for storytelling will be your greatest assets on your journey to becoming a successful film and TV producer in Hollywood.

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