fyre the greatest party

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Okay. On you go.

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All right, Jason's here on Fyre Cay,

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showing him the newly purchased property.

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-I like it, man.
-Getting set up for the Fyre festival.

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I like your life, man,
I like what's goin' on.
-I'm ready, man.

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-You have.

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All right, cool,
that's all I need to know.

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-Biggest event in a decade, I promise you.
-I'll be there.

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When did you first become
aware of Fyre?

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I started seeing people posting
kind of the promo video.

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It was this very slick production
that promised

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that it was Pablo Escobar's private island

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and that they were flying in
thousands of people on private jets.

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It was just the coolest party
that you'd ever seen advertised.

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My agency contacted me

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and was like, "Hey, there's this
new festival coming up.

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It's really exclusive."

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The most insane festival

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the world has ever seen.

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All these models, like,

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in the Bahamas.

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Acts like Major Lazer, Disclosure, Tyga...

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This is the first weekend
this has ever happened,

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so, literally, I was excited.

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But we didn't know anything.

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It's become one of the most
talked-about dramas on social media.

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A glamorous,
luxurious Caribbean ...island getaway
turned disaster--

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...quickly spiraling into chaos.

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Now, the event's co-founder
is facing up to 20 years in prison.

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Are you sorry?
Do you have anything to say for yourself?

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Thank you, guys,
I'll arrange a comment later. Thank you.

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Hey, Billy?

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There's a bunch of people
who's filing lawsuits

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against you today in federal court.
Did you hear about that?

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It just became much more
than anybody ever dreamed it would be.

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I mean, you know the saying,
"Desperate people do desperate things."

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And now I hope Billy doesn't go to prison
for it, but I don't know.

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We are here at the Web Summit...

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I remember that
it was a big deal that Ja and Billy

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were going to the Web Summit
to talk about Fyre.

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It was the first real piece of press.

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Well, I'm gonna let
my partner in crime here, Billy McFarland,

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give you all the introduction
of what Fyre is.

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Billy and Ja met because
Billy's previous company, Magnises,

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he would have parties and special events
and invite the members,

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and one of the events,
he tried to book Ja Rule,

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and apparently,
that was a very difficult task.

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I went to Instagram
and found this guy named Reggie Muscles

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and he says, "Give me 500 bucks
and I'll get you Ja Rule."

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I paid Reggie Muscles.

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The next day, Reggie Muscles
brings in a guy named Gunner.

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Gunner's a little smarter now,
so Gunner asked for $1,000 and he said,

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"I'll get you Ja Rule."
So, I gave Gunner $1,000.

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And Gunner called me a week later saying,

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"Ja Rule hates your offer."

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So one of the problems
that we're really tackling is...

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the nasty business of booking.

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So, Billy actually pitched me
the idea,let me know he was

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working with Ja Rule
and they were recruiting engineers

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to build this marketplace.

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You go to the website, you can
scroll through various types of talent.

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Somebody who wants to have Ja Rule
at a birthday party

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could, through the app,
book Ja Rule for that event

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and that's sort of the type of thing
that you could never do before Fyre.

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What these guys did was identify...

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I think, a really beautiful "blindspot"
in the industry that...

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The way the trifecta
between the three of us worked

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is that I oversaw product,
ran the design development of the app,

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Ja was the entertainment
industry connection

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and Billy had connections through
what he told us was VC funding.

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Every single thing
that goes into the booking process

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is right then and there...

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I thought that this was
a functioning platform,

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something that was really going--
That had the opportunity

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to revolutionize the way,
you know, the industry worked.

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The Fyre app had the potential
to be a billion-dollar platform.

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After working on the app
for three to five months,

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we were starting to figure out ways
to promote it

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and in a meeting,
I had actually mentioned,

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"Why don't we throw a festival,
a concert for industry professionals?"

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That idea, Billy kind of hooked onto
and then it morphed

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pretty dramatically
outside of any input from me or Ja

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into what became the Fyre Festival.

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Let me fix you up, man.

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Let me fix you up a little bit, a'ight?

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A little sandy. That's a'ight.

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We're sandy 'cause we're on
our fuckin' island havin' a good time.

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A'ight?

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Originally, when Billy called me,
he said,

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"I've bought an island in the Bahamas

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and we're hosting a music festival
down there."

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And I said, "What island?"

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And he said, "Pablo Escobar's island,"

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and I said, "Oh, my gosh!"

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-A year and a half ago...
-Talk to them.

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...Ja and I were flying over the Exumas
and we saw this unmanned runway.

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We tried dialing it and no one responded,
so we landed there.

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Turns out it was Norman's Cay.

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When I met Billy, it was like,

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"Man, this guy is stinking rich.
He's bringing all his friends down here

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and he's paying for everything."

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Four jet skis, four boats,

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and, you know, all having a wild-out time.
You know. I think the idea just popped up
in his head like,

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"Ping! We're gonna throw a festival here."

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They were going to have
celebrities there,

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it would be
this big consumer-facing thing

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and that they were going
to do buried treasure.

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A real-life treasure hunt.

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Win a piece of land on the island,
your own private island,

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right here, with the Fyre Cay team.

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From a pure concept standpoint,
it holds water.

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An amazing experience
in a beautiful location

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with beautiful people and great music.
You can't ask for more.

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This is going to be
the most incredible fuckin' shit. -The Magic Bird.
-The Magic Bird.

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"The Magic Bird" is a phrase
that me and Billy coined.

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The impact that Magic Johnson
and Larry Bird had on the NBA.

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It changed the way people saw
and thought about basketball.

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And me and Billy are going to change
the way people look at

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a young tech entrepreneur

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and a hip-hop mogul come together
and create something incredible.

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Billy was kind of nerdy,
but clearly smart,

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clearly an incredible entrepreneur.

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We interacted a lot.

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He seemed very charismatic,
very trustworthy.

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I thought that he had a vision.

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He was able to maneuver
and conduct himself around investors

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and then build teams
to build his products.

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We were hired to do all the advertising
and marketing for the festival.

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They were hiring the best of the best
in each category.

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Best talent, best distribution,

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best social media company.

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Fuckjerry had just launched
a new marketing agency

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and we were hired by Fyre
to basically run all the social media.

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We've got major news.

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Ja Rule just called us,
basically said he wants us to pitch him

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for his new app, Fyre.

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This is Fuckjerry?
Yeah.

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That was an amazing meeting.

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They just bought an island
and they're going to have a party in April

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for 10,000 people.

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It felt like they were basically doing
a music festival to draw attention to

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this bigger brand that would end up being
the Uber of booking talent.

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Who was playing,
what the food was gonna be,

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all the things that typically sell
a music festival wasn't the sales point.

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This was like selling a dream,
selling a vacation, selling a concept.

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We knew that there was a place

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and we knew that there was an idea
of having a music festival

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and that was pretty much it.

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I directed the commercial.

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When I saw the call sheet,
I was like, "That's crazy!"

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Basically, like, ten of the top
supermodels in the world.

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It was the titans
of the modeling industry -

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Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski,
Hailey Baldwin.

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Supermodels,
I'm talking about supermodels.

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I thought it was the best thing ever.
"It can't get no  bigger than this."

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He's recording us!

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One camera crew is shooting
with the models,

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and they had a dedicated film crew, like,

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shooting the dialogue
between Billy and his people.

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So, we ran into a little issue today.

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-Sorry, cut. Talk to me.
-Okay.

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Start, one more time.

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-We ran into an issue today.
-No. Start again.

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[Brett There was no,
"This is the story we want to tell."

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There was just, "Capture everything."

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We need genuine shots.

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We need genuine people interacting,
having a good time.

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I need a wide yacht shot.

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We have to do the cave underwater,
we need the boats in a flying-V formation.

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Could we tell Herbie to have
a big, big, big bonfire tomorrow night?

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Like a huge bonfire?

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Grant was a neurotic person.

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He was a-- He's a smart dude.

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He was just overwhelmed.

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I'm our chief marketing officer.

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I wouldn't call myself a perfectionist,
but everything must be perfect, you know?

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I mean,
it was like a job of five people.

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And he had no experience
in doing music festivals

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no experience in doing events.
But he did work hard.

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So I know Billy wants to go see the pigs
and this is the only way to make it work.

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But we can't shoot it, dude.

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Fair-- So I--

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...and you know we don't need to shoot it.

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Real talk. Like,
we're spending a lot of fucking money.

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If we want to go fucking see the pigs,
we go see the pigs.

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'll find a way to make it work.

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That's it.

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If we wanna fucking see the pigs.
the girls wanna go see the pigs,

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we go fucking see the pigs.

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It was like,
"We're gonna scratch the pigs now

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and we're going to shoot it."

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We were the production company

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but we didn't have the authority
to organize it like we were supposed to.

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Here go the shots, come on.

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Hey, yo. Catch this, get this.

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Billy didn't have no rules.

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He had everyone drinking, open bar

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wilding out. It was more of a party
than a promotional shoot.

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Yeah, let me fly the drone.

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Our guys were partying non-stop.
Sunup to sundown, gettin' loose.

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Billy fell asleep on the beach,
literally, just broad daylight.

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Out like a light.

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I flew here with Billy,
just for a holiday

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and now this has ballooned
into a full production team

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of girls and cameras.

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There was this crazy pilot, Keith.
He made the plane go zero gravity.

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00:10:41,599 --> 00:10:42,642
I don't know how he did it.

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Near take-off, he's like,
"I bought this plane six months ago,

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I just got my license."

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I ended up teaching myself and you can use
Microsoft Flight Simulator.

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Microsoft Flight Simulator
has lessons and it's excellent.

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Once in the air, I was like,
"What are we gonna do?"

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He was pulling off the end of the runway
and going straight up into the thing

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and killing the engine.

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You know, whenever I'm with Billy,
I have to...

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do at least three zero Gs.

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Billy and Ja made their famous toast.

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That's when I was introduced to the toast.

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Here's to living like movie stars,

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partying like rock stars...

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Billy?

222
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And fucking like porn stars.

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It was definitely, like,
a trying work environment.

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One night, they wanted to turn the bonfire

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into, like, the Billy and Ja party
on the beach,

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and that's all on camera.

227
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Come on, baby.

228
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We about to create art.
Get over here.

229
00:11:38,739 --> 00:11:39,865
Just get in the water.

230
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If y'all don't want to put on a bikini,
it don't matter. Let's get in the water.

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Hell, no, I'm not getting in no water.

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Yeah,
get in the fucking water, Chanel.

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They wanted to get everyone in the water,

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So they made it sound
as if it was a scene,

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but nobody was there directing that scene.

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Guys, what's the purpose
of what you're trying to do We're gonna jump in,
then the girls will follow us in.

237
00:11:58,926 --> 00:12:00,344
This is the money shot!

238
00:12:00,428 --> 00:12:02,471
Us jumping after you?

239
00:12:02,847 --> 00:12:05,349
It was them partying with talent

240
00:12:05,433 --> 00:12:08,060
that didn't really know
what they were there to do.

241
00:12:08,561 --> 00:12:10,438
But in the end, it didn't matter.

242
00:12:10,521 --> 00:12:13,149
We're selling a pipe dream
to your average loser.

243
00:12:13,232 --> 00:12:17,069
-Selling a pipe dream to fucking buyers.
-Your average guy in middle America.

244
00:12:17,153 --> 00:12:20,406
They were selling a vision
of what people want.

245
00:12:22,199 --> 00:12:25,286
We should tell all the girls to post
one picture of them on the beach today,

246
00:12:25,369 --> 00:12:27,997
or on jet skis,