The Real Tony Stark: Ryan Brooks on Innovation, Persistence, and Hollywood

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Entertainment

[00:00:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Insights

[00:00:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't take life too seriously

[00:00:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Brainsky Unleashed

[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I was just fascinated at how we met, literally just through an outsource work, Upwork.com, because I needed to have something done and I stumble onto you and as it turns out, you're incredible.

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was very strange that your website was at TheRealTonyStark.com, so I bothered to ask. And could you go into what the heck that actually is? Because there are people who may be listening this podcast who have actually seen this or run into it on YouTube or even social media.

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well thanks for having me. I think it is really funny how we connected and yeah, I kind of have a unique career path. I was actually going through school to become a teacher and during school I obviously was a huge fan of superheroes and Iron Man 2 would come out and I was like, oh that briefcase suit would just be so sweet in real life.

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I was riding the bus and I'm doing that in my head. I'm like, oh it could maybe unfold this way. And I did a prototype with paper. I'm like, you know what? This actually might be able to fit in a slightly larger briefcase.

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So I was using Lego actually just again for prototyping and then I was cutting armor. I was learning all this stuff online and then I was like, oh I need electronics for this so I learned how to do circuitry and with the Arduino.

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And I've recorded all this just for my own purposes. I want to have a record of how I ultimately build this assuming it eventually worked.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And by the end I recorded a video that we put in the suit on and posted on my YouTube channel again, no subscribers and then overnight it got like 80,000 views and then from there to Skyrocket.

[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's over 5 million views now and I just got a ton of outreach from the Discovery Channel, from the Sci-Fi Channel and they wanted to do features on this.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_01]: And more even bigger than that I had like outreach from a ton of other people who were like, oh can I buy that?

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, first of all, I'm making one of these. This is not something that's easy to make a second one of but the components, the electronics they're like, oh I have a suit but I don't know how to make it light up like that and make sounds and I was like, oh yeah I could do that.

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_00]: And so you did this basically just for your own enjoyment and it turned into something huge?

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_01]: It did, yeah. I was making like a couple grand a month just selling Ironman arc reactors and repulsors. Just the electronic components and ultimately then I made them more optimized and I had 2.0s and there's an e-store just for Ironman electronics.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_01]: That's a niche market but there were so many people who wanted that but didn't want to spend the time to learn how to build those pieces.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah.

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_00]: So just like Tony Stark you started out with something very basic and then you rework it and then reworked it to get even better?

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah. And I ultimately like again completely self-taught and I get so much credit to like YouTube and just like online tutorials for this stuff because I honestly believe I learned and retained more from that endeavor than I did for my entire 4 years of university.

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I still think university is important. I learned how to teach myself through that. That was a key component but the actual stuff I've applied so much more came out of this and it was still the advancement of like or the accessibility of cheap electronics parts, microcontrollers like the Arduino or then 3D printers.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Those allowed me to just even expand even further because so much of what I built is only possible. I'm not wealthy like Tony Stark but it didn't have to be. That was for me a really big key component that made it just approachable, right?

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean you're not wealthy like Tony Stark but apparently you still got it done even though I guess movie design, Hollywood spends a lot of money on it. I mean you did what they did but did it yourself in your house?

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah and so that actually ended up leading to another kind of unplanned situation. I was at a fan event, Fan Expo. It's up here it's like ComCon and there was an actor who had a booth and he saw one of the more confined version of the original Arm Contlet that he makes in Iron Man 1 but it's a lot more technically impressive.

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot more moving parts and mechanics and he's like you know you should do that for Hollywood, right? He's like you should come to Hollywood and make props and I'm not that good okay? There's still Lego in here. This is not, this is not, I've seen a lot worse in the bigger productions.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Well appreciate it. He gave me his card and I ended up going to see the movie Taken 2, you know Liam Neeson. Okay that was that year.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Was that the last Taken or isn't there like Taken 2?

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I think they made another one after it. Yeah but that one, I don't know why. It's just I'm looking at Liam Neeson and I'm thinking man he looks like the main villain from the Legend of Zelda series Ganon.

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why I didn't realize it until then and it was distracting the entire movie and I was like man why is there no live action Legend of Zelda movie? Like that needs to be done.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I would go see that Peter being a fan base and I started researching into it. It turned out it had something to do with the original Super Mario Bros movie from the 90s. I don't know if you ever saw that one.

[00:05:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so Lee?

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna convince Nintendo and I'm gonna make a Legend of Zelda movie so I started learning how to write screenplay again online and it wrote 300 pages and it was garbage like it.

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I was like this is good enough that it is the best I can do. That doesn't mean it's Hollywood quality. So I found a writer online and I had them review and give me some tips and so I rewrote the whole thing and I reached out to Nintendo and I'm like let's go.

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Like I'm ready, I got this thing. They put me in touch with the guy actually they didn't. They gave me his email and he didn't respond for eight weeks but I did the Shawshank redemption method where I just sent him an email a week and then from two different email accounts.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_01]: And then he eventually responded to it and I got all of your emails. Let's get on the phone call and anyways, he was willing to entertain my pitch. He said meet me in San Diego in 10 days and do a full pitch.

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, ah, I don't have anything else that's just screenplay.

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_00]: That's incredible though that you actually made that turn and where did it go in San Diego?

[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, so I went on the international movie database because I was trying to find like producer contacting.

[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I love the fact that you literally spelled that out not just IMDB.

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I don't know if all your listeners know what that is. So I especially when I talk to you like a high school crowd, I just okay, in case you don't know this is the site but I got a PMI account right?

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_01]: You sign up, put in your credit card cancel immediately at least you don't get charged right and you get full 30 days of access.

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_01]: So I was able to get contacting for like thousands of producers and I think I ended up emailing like 300 and six got back to me.

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Four of them said please don't contact me again. And two of them said, yeah, I'm interested.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_01]: So they met me in LA and we drove down to a random strange place from LA I met up with and they turned out to be good, you know, good guys and they had artists that they connected me with that I paid to do some concept art from my screenplay that accompanied and they had even it.

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like in 10 days did this and did like a short animated video is crazy. And we had this two producers now actually know the industry know how to sell this stuff and that was Bill Trinnan he was the third from the top and Nintendo.

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_01]: And he said listen guys, we've had a lot of pitches on this, you know, our 25th anniversary book just came out it's a lot of people are he's like but this is definitely the best pitch I've heard.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, wow. Okay. And he's like, you know, there's two things we need to move forward. One, how do you make this movie sell more of our video games we're not a movie company, right? We sell games so how does the movie do that.

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_01]: And you can't just say oh it's like more exposure for the brand no no it's got to be something unique. Oh, okay. And we need a five minute live action demo to see what this look like on the big screen.

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_01]: All right. So I'm asking the producers right so two and a half hour drive back from San Diego to LA. So the drive I'm just like my brain is going crazy how do we get both of those done? How much are you going to cost me to make five minute live action demo CGI they're like probably 300 grand US.

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. Well I have no money so let's go to the next part how do I make it sell more games and I had even this 3D movie before you know the current 3D glasses the polar eyes lenses.

[00:09:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I thought it's our way to utilize that technology differently right because the way it works is there's two movies on the same screen and one goes through this side one goes through that I just offset by the distance of your eyes.

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_01]: That's that's the technology it's really basic. So I thought what if we had two completely different movies projected on the same screen and you have a flip lens that allow you or like a bifocal that you could then switch the view that you're seeing in the same thing.

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_01]: So you can see it or and you can independently of anyone else change what you're seeing. This is why I thought I'm like is that possible like and if it is why then have been done already.

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_01]: So in a weird coincidence I had worked with the daughter of the guy who invented those 3D glasses he's out of Waterloo Ontario. Yep. Random.

[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I worked with his daughter at the university and I said can you give me his number. And yep as I call him I explain it and he goes nothing's silent.

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_01]: And I said is this a dumb idea. He's like no I've been doing this 25 years and I'm not sure how we missed that. Yes that's possible and you should probably patent this.

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Ryan I don't understand how the stars seem to be aligning for you because there is a pattern here. Are you seeing the pattern as to how everything just tends to kind of line up and.

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm raised with your ideas.

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_01]: It's funny you say that right because every time I tell this kind of is part of my you know motivational speech whatever you want to call it right career talks with students.

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Like I think they say the same you're really lucky. And I said Malcolm Gladwell I think articulated best for me he talks about this in outliers and how there's nothing special about Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or these guys who became you know the top of their industry.

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's really it had everything to do with timing right if I've been born a little bit earlier a little bit later I would have missed the mark on whatever and so me being at that university at the same time as his daughter like you know someone else would have been.

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_01]: And so I know you I know what you're saying but I do believe honestly just a lot of it was yeah so the stars had to align in some way I just was the guy who's fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time trying to do a thing.

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_01]: And I said that's the all that's to me is the biggest part and I had to play as I was out there doing something right because a lot of people would have stopped after the first email I sent to Nintendo didn't get replied to you it was just giving up.

[00:11:55] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I just kept emailing said I'm going to know the hell of them and you're actually going to tell me to stop or you're going to say let's get on the phone and I got the you know the answer I wanted there but I mean you're you're winning with persistence that's critical you know if you're going to be successful at anything it takes a lot of persistence you're obviously incredibly intelligent so you got to win there.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_00]: And you're clearly a hard worker I mean no one's going to be building an Iron Man suit or writing a screenplay unless they have some dedication so that you're passionate yeah passes.

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_00]: So that next component is a little bit of peppered with luck and it seems like you have a little bit of that I mean just either that are insanely good timing what what is happening now where's this going to go.

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_01]: So we call the glasses I called them in vision that was the name I gave them and I had that and then I realized shared in college up here in Canada is is where like Pixar one of those top plays of Pixar and Disney goes a higher animators.

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_01]: It's just it's the animation school and I thought okay maybe students is going to be a lot cheaper.

[00:13:07] [SPEAKER_01]: And they actually have a production studio at that school for that purpose you can hire them the students all get the work that they create as part of their portfolio and I get this for a much cheaper price so we were able to do a five minute demo video over 30 grand I still didn't have that but remember that that actor guy his name is JP Manu from the fan Expo.

[00:13:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I had message him went before I went to LA to be like hey can you help because he's in Hollywood you know producers whatever he didn't respond until after got back and he's like sorry missed it.

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_01]: And I told him about these glasses and he's like do you have any investors I was like I don't have a company what do you mean I don't listen to them like nothing he's like I want to invest like okay so he ended up putting the money forward to do that that video the short film and

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I had I was 3d printing templates of these classes and got some of the Polarize film and it actually works as a bifocal work really well.

[00:14:04] [SPEAKER_01]: And so the only condition we had to carry around a 50 inch 3d TV with us to do the demo because it's the only way no one has a 3d projector you know in their office or whatever for demoing so.

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah so with I brought on a friend as one of my co founders and my brother and the three of us we went down to Hollywood but it's really hard to break into Hollywood like they're exclusive right.

[00:14:29] [SPEAKER_00]: They are I'm actually after this call again just the crazy timing I'm going to introduce you to a friend of mine his name is Scott DuPont and he finances movies so I don't know whether this connection is going to work out for you or not but I can't beat the

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_00]: guys I might as well put you guys together.

[00:14:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Sure.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_00]: The thing was yeah like it doesn't finance me he gets he helps people finance movies.

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Sure that would have been helpful back because we this is like 2013 I think we were we were going right into this and went from then but to get into Hollywood at that time again I had JP Maneu was one conduit he hooked up with Elijah Wood I got to demo to

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_01]: but all the studios because he has his own production studio Elijah Wood right so he's just like mostly horror films but the studios I'm to be just wasn't wasn't they don't have enough like listings there so I went to LinkedIn and just search by studio and just start clicking connect

[00:15:31] [SPEAKER_01]: like and I did it for like hundreds of people at every studio and nobody for two weeks nobody accepted until one guy did his name was Mike from Fox and he was a director of technology and the moment he accepted I was now second connection to everyone else who had already

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_01]: clicked connect on they're like oh well if you know it's Mike at Fox he's got to be legit and so they all started connected with me and I have a direct line through the technology standpoint through the students to the studios and we just said hey we're coming to L.A.

[00:16:00] [SPEAKER_01]: This week like when can we slot you in for a demo of this we got into every studio we got Paramount we met had to be with the president and he gave us footage from the paranormal activity films to recut with our eyewear because we thought showing from different camera angles

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_01]: and increase the scare factor you don't know which one it's going to come from so it went so much further like again for such a random like idea right Leonies and is again and I'm going to make a result and now meet with all the studios.

[00:16:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I just love the fact that your persistence is paying off I mean yeah you really are unafraid of just just forcing your way through.

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people could learn from that a lot of people have passion in life but brother your passions incredible.

[00:16:49] [SPEAKER_01]: The highlight for me was Sony was the only studio we did not get a response from I had two people accept my invite but never replied and we had a day where we had no other meetings so I just let's just show up.

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's just show up and see we have a meeting so in terms of the stars aligning this is definitely one of those instances.

[00:17:07] [SPEAKER_01]: We get to the reception and we say we have a meeting with Spencer Stevens who's a CTO and they're like OK let me call his receptionist let her know you here.

[00:17:18] [SPEAKER_01]: She's like I don't have any record of a meeting like what we wouldn't have come all the way from Canada and not at a meeting and they go well I don't know if you heard but two days ago.

[00:17:27] [SPEAKER_01]: The entirety of Sony was hacked by hackers in North Korea and so all their systems were completely down she's like so.

[00:17:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I remember the mix up happened I was like yep it must be and she's like well Spencer has actually 10 minutes so you can see now like wonderful.

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER_01]: So we go in we do the demo Spencer's like guys this is really cool obviously I'm a little preoccupied and whatever the else is going on but let's circle back to this once I kind of get everything else sorted out.

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_01]: So we go in and we go to the security guard and we were about to leave and there was a security guard who looks like Carl from the movie up little security guards and we're asking like what's going on outside still in the lot but he's like oh that's the Sony staff Christmas party.

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm so well how do we get in he's like it's just for staff guys.

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I guess you could say you forgot your badge in the office that we all laugh and we're like the good idea Carl.

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah we drop off our TV in our van we come back home we take off our visitor badges and we just walked around the lot we went to the Adam Sandler has his studio in their lot we went there.

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_01]: The Ghostbusters car was there it's pretty cool we just did our own tour and then the people start lining up it's outdoor event but it's still inside the lot and we get in line and as me my buddy Rob my brother Josh

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_01]: and the director from Sheridan Mike who had directed our short film was there and Mike and Josh get really nervous they're like guys we can't do is we're going to be arrested and I'm like this is for last it's just a party it's going to be fine

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_01]: and we get closer closer Mike and Josh they bail they're out of the line Rob and I get to the front and they go badges like oh I left them in the office.

[00:19:01] [SPEAKER_01]: They said I have to go check into the table now again all their systems are down so what do they have two interns with a paper directory of who works at the company.

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_01]: So they say name and I froze and Rob without miss a beat goes Spencer Stevens the CTO's name and they're like okay and they start flipping through and I said the other guy who'd accepted my invite on LinkedIn I remember his name and they say what's your extension.

[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I just moved from that building to this building last week so I don't know they're like okay no problem he's a wrist band and you go and Rob's like I don't know my extension ask my assistant okay he's a wristband and you go and Mike and Josh on two other people on LinkedIn and came in.

[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_01]: And as them it a wonderful you need to do our best networking that night and that is incredible absolutely incredible.

[00:19:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I am utterly impressed what a story real quick before we go you you also mentioned before he started the call that you had some other things that you were doing so you do also do motivational speaking.

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah I mean this is kind of the pitch that I give to students to kind of show them like here's where I thought I was going to do with my career and here's where I ended up and here's the journey the zigzag I took to get there because everyone adds a zigzag but mine's a little bit more unique in terms of some of the opportunities that I afforded myself and I mean it sounds like he said stars align

[00:20:23] [SPEAKER_01]: but I also make sure to highlight like that whole invisivism things went dead in the water 2015 because our primary investor JP Manu the actor we have plastic name on everything we named dropped him he had more credibility right he's an actor he's and anyways he was arrested for voyeurism.

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_01]: And all of a sudden we had no more responses from studios like we're dead and we had no money left and my brother Josh is like I can't keep working for nothing like I've got to go and do a real job and that was kind of like a really sad end to the whole this wild journey but I'd partner up with buddy Rob again we were again head and talk for like 10 years and he and I were really good business partners

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and I said I have one other idea and VR technology had just kind of was coming out that winter like that's February the HTC Vive and I'm like I think people are going to need a space to go play this like it if the technology is going to come down in price but in order to get full immersion you need to be able to move around if you want to play together you definitely don't space for two people you can punch each other the dog or whatever right so

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I said let's do one more and my mom took out a mortgage on her house to help us start the first location and she's been working at our head office or the first location for six years she loves it she's in her 60s and she works the arcade floor and loves it and my brothers both worked there and yeah we had like 25 locations before the pandemic that kind of required people to go in person though and when we're not allowed to operate it kind of killed a good chunk of our locations but you know

[00:21:57] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah there's still seven around and from that I've just just moved into you know doing helping other businesses now automate their systems because that's what I did for my own and it's been a fun ride so far.

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what you're doing for me which is how all of this started.

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Well one thing I think is worth asking what happened to your mom's mortgage?

[00:22:18] [SPEAKER_01]: It is all good now because that we were well the franchising helped us accelerate our growth and then help us recover our initial investment quite quickly so she is even and I would say ahead in that she also had a job from that right so she's it was worth I mean she like you kind of recognize my work dedication then she knew that I'm going to see this through it's not like a whim and like oh good luck to your mortgage.

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah I mean good luck for me not good luck but you know good for her for recognizing your persistence and investing in her son.

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of parents invest in their children and it doesn't work out in this situation she saw she invested in you and it worked out phenomenally well so congratulations to her and you as well.

[00:23:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Ryan thank you so much I'm going to let you get back to working on my project because I got to get that done and I know this was a completely impromptu podcast but you know thanks again for doing this with me and I will pass along your information to some of my friends if it goes anywhere it goes somewhere that would be wonderful.

[00:23:24] [SPEAKER_00]: But thank you and I look forward to continue working with you on my project.

[00:23:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Alright thanks very much.

[00:23:30] [SPEAKER_00]: You bet if you like this program hit the subscribe button leave us a five star review most importantly share it with your friends so they can enjoy it too.