Summary
Rickey Bird, a third generation oil worker who has made his own films since about 2004, discusses his documentary Kern Oil. He explains that after his father's suicide in 2022, he set out to show how over-regulation affects people in Kern County, noting that California uses 1.8 million barrels of oil a day. The crew interviewed almost 50 people over two years, while anti-oil voices declined to take part. Peter and Wade also ask about favorite directors and how the film was built in chapters.
The United States oil and gas industry is a complex landscape, often misunderstood by those outside its direct influence. This week on Local Energy, hosts Peter Brecht and Wade Spear sit down with Rickey Bird, a third-generation oilman and independent filmmaker from Taft, California. Bird offers a compelling perspective on the future of Kern County oil production as he discusses his upcoming documentary, Kern Oil, which sheds light on the profound challenges families in Kern County face due to stringent regulations.
“The bottom line is that California uses 1.8 million barrels of oil a day, and the demand is still there. It's basically politics that have kept us from producing here locally.”
Rickey Bird
From Oil Rigs to Filmmaking: A Personal Journey
Rickey Bird's journey into the oil industry was deeply rooted in family tradition; both his father and grandfather worked in the field. Despite initially resisting this path, circumstances led him to the oil rigs in 2001 after his son was born. He has remained an integral part of the industry ever since, actively working on drilling rigs while simultaneously pursuing his passion for filmmaking, which began in 2004. For years, these two aspects of his life remained distinct, with film projects occupying his time off the rig.
A personal tragedy in 2022, however, irrevocably merged these worlds. The suicide of his father, which Bird attributes to the devastating effects of over-regulation and subsequent financial struggles within the local oil industry, became the powerful catalyst for Kern Oil. He recognized his father's story as a common narrative among many in Kern County, where economic hardship, job loss, and even imprisonment or forced relocation have become grim realities due to the shifting political landscape.
Bird's mission is clear: to give a voice to those impacted by policies that often overlook the human element of the industry. He aims to illustrate how oil is woven into the very fabric of Kern County's history and identity. His documentary highlights the stark "curiosity gap" between the public's perception of oil and the reality of California's stringent production standards — standards Bird argues are among the cleanest in the world.
How Over-Regulation Is Devastating Kern County Oil Production
The conversation delves into the contentious debate surrounding California's energy policies. Bird points out a significant hypocrisy: while local production faces increasing restrictions, California's demand for oil remains exceptionally high, averaging approximately 1.4 million barrels per day in 2024. This demand outstrips the state's refining capacity, which stood at about 1.68 million barrels per day in early 2024, leaving only a small buffer.
Consequently, California relies heavily on imports. By May 2025, petroleum product imports surged to 279,000 barrels per day, a four-year high, with gasoline imports alone more than doubling since 2023. This reliance on overseas sources, often from countries with less stringent environmental regulations, contradicts the state's stated environmental goals.
Bird argues that restricting local Kern County oil production not only jeopardizes livelihoods but also forces the state to import oil that may not meet California's high environmental standards. He emphasizes that California's oil operations, particularly in Kern County, use advanced practices such as water-based mud and adhere to rigorous safety and environmental regulations. Bird advocates for a balanced approach to regulation, acknowledging its necessity but critiquing the current pendulum swing that disproportionately harms hardworking individuals. The controversial Senate Bill 1137, passed in 2022, exemplifies this by establishing a 3,200-foot setback zone for new oil and gas wells from sensitive receptors, a policy that significantly affects Kern County, a major production hub. [Link to authoritative source on California SB 1137]
Crafting a Realistic Documentary: Challenges and Vision
Creating Kern Oil was no small feat for Bird, who typically works on horror or "grindhouse" films. His primary goal was to avoid producing a "puff piece" that merely glorified the industry. Instead, he sought to present a realistic, albeit biased, portrayal of the community's struggles. Bird made genuine efforts to interview anti-oil activists and representatives, including the California Air Resources Board (CARB), but they all declined to participate, making a fully balanced perspective challenging to achieve.
The production itself was an arduous two-year endeavor undertaken by a small, independent crew. They conducted nearly 50 interviews, accumulating over 15 terabytes of footage. Filming on active rigs presented unique logistical challenges, with some operators initially hesitant to grant access. Bird and his team employed a chapter-based narrative structure to guide the storytelling, evolving their questions after the first 30 interviews to delve deeper into specific themes. This iterative process allowed them to uncover nuanced perspectives, with different individuals offering varied insights into questions like what makes Kern County's oilfield unique.
“This is like all stories combined from CEOs of companies to guys that run roughneck to, you know, politicians to mayors to, you know, there's such a wide variety because it's about the people. It's not like an apologetic thing for big oil by any means. It's like, how do, how do these things affect people?”
The initial cut of the documentary ran for an ambitious two hours and 45 minutes, necessitating significant editing to bring it to a more manageable length. Bird's commitment to creating a cinematic experience, rather than a conventional PBS-style documentary, drove their visual approach, despite the constraints of independent filmmaking.
A Filmmaker's Perspective: Influences and Techniques
Bird's passion for film is evident in his wide-ranging cinematic tastes. He admires directors like Christopher Nolan for his intricate storytelling, citing Memento as a personal favorite. He also holds a deep appreciation for Steven Spielberg, George Lucas (a self-proclaimed Star Wars "nerd"), Alfred Hitchcock (recommending North by Northwest), and Martin Scorsese, particularly for his mob films like Goodfellas. Bird's eclectic influences underscore his dedication to the craft and his understanding of diverse storytelling techniques.
During the conversation, Peter Brecht references a popular anecdote about Steve Carell, who famously kept The Office set cold because "comedy is cold," while horror sets are "hot." Bird offers his professional insight, acknowledging that while set temperatures may vary by an actor's preference, the atmosphere on set is certainly influenced by genre. Comedy, for instance, requires immense discipline from the crew to avoid laughter during takes, while horror can demand an intense environment to elicit authentic performances.
A key aspect of documentary filmmaking, Bird explains, is the art of interviewing. His prior relationships with many subjects in the local oil community provided a unique advantage. His approach involved extensive preparation, designing a chapter-based structure for the film, and then crafting questions to elicit specific narratives. He also tested questions with anti-oil individuals to understand their concerns and address them in the film. This meticulous preparation was essential for extracting the powerful personal stories that form the core of Kern Oil.
Debunking Myths: Air Quality and the Real Drivers of Valley Pollution
One of the most contentious topics in this conversation is air quality in California's Central Valley. Bakersfield, in particular, consistently ranks high for particulate pollution. Rickey Bird directly challenges the common misconception that oil extraction is the primary culprit. According to his interactions with CARB, oil extraction contributes less than 3% to the region's overall air quality issues. Instead, he points to smog from Sacramento and other distant areas that settle in the valley due to geographical factors.
While the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has not provided an exact statewide or county-wide percentage of total air pollution directly attributable to oil extraction versus other sources, such as vehicles or agriculture, research indicates that oil fields are a significant local and regional source, especially in Kern County's oil-heavy areas. Studies, such as a 2024 analysis in Science of the Total Environment, found elevated levels of PM2.5, NOx, CO, ozone, and VOCs near active oil and gas wells, particularly in Kern, which accounts for over 70% of California's crude oil production. These findings suggest that while oil extraction may account for a smaller share of total statewide pollution, its impact can be substantial in local communities surrounding production sites.
Bird recounts his frustration during CARB meetings, where he questioned their plan to clean the air, only to be told to "stop driving cars." This highlights a perceived lack of innovative air-purification solutions from regulatory bodies, despite the region's natural beauty, despite the fact that rain clears the air. The documentary seeks to present these nuanced realities, encouraging a more informed discussion on environmental challenges and the true drivers of poor air quality in the region.
Final Thoughts and Premiere Details
The conversation with Rickey Bird offers a rare, balanced look at the intersection of heritage, art, and energy in California's most productive oil basin. His documentary, Kern Oil, aims to bridge the "curiosity gap" by presenting the human stories behind the industry and challenging prevalent misinformation. Bird hopes the film will help people understand the vital role oil plays in their daily lives and foster a more realistic dialogue about energy policy.
The red carpet premiere for Kern Oil is scheduled for February 27th. Additional screenings are anticipated throughout California, providing more opportunities for the public to engage with this important narrative. To learn more about the film, find screening dates, and connect with Rickey Bird's work, visit KernOilMovie.com and HecticFilms.com.
Listen to the full episode with Rickey Bird to gain deeper insights into the challenges and triumphs of the United States oil and gas industry.
🎙 Listen to the full episode on YouTube or Spotify. Not financial advice. Do your own research.
Links
- Kern Oil Movie: https://kernoilmovie.com
- Hectic Films: https://hecticfilms.com
- Rickey Bird: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickey-bird-jr-131785289
Hosts
Peter Brecht
Peter loves bringing out the best in people. He lives in California and insures high-risk industries.
Wade Spear
Wade is an upstream engineer with a knack for asking and answering great questions. He lives in Oklahoma.
Transcript
Show the transcriptHide the transcript
Peter Brecht00:06
Wade, how's it going? It's good to see you. I know we hung out yesterday for a bit in Tulsa. I got to check out your city, which is great. Yeah, I got some good food, hung out, got some coffee. I think you talked about La Crosse with Maceo for a bit.
Wade00:07
Not bad, how are you?
Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Hey, let me ask you a question. Okay, you've been to Oklahoma City a couple times now. You've been to Tulsa once. You spent very little time in Tulsa. What's your take on the two cities?
Peter Brecht00:22
Yeah.
I am, I don't know. Like, I think I prefer, I like the energy of Oklahoma city from a nightlife perspective. Like there's, I feel like there's more to do here at night, but that's that I've not been in Tulsa at night either. But Tulsa just seems more laid back. And then the coffee shop we went to, there were so many people walking in and out business meetings, oil and gas conversation at like every table.
Wade00:52
Right.
Peter Brecht00:55
It just felt, I felt at home more so than like I was on a business trip maybe that's a good way to put it. Yeah. So going back and I don't think I shared this with you yesterday, but I met up with Reed Goodman last week at NAEP and we had a conversation about cowboy hats. And so he took his hat off. We're at a Mexican restaurant and he's telling me he's like cowboy hats are like three to four times more expensive than they were probably two or three years ago.
Wade00:58
Okay, right, welcome.
Mm-hmm.
Peter Brecht01:20
And I was like, why is that? And he's like, well, you've got all these Tyler Sheridan movies that are coming out, like Yellowstone. So the price of these hats is going, yeah, land man prices going up on these hats. And so there was this massive influence on, from film into like reality, right? And so I'm kind of using that as a way to share that our guest today is Ricky Bird. He's the writer and director of the current oil movie and
Wade01:25
Land man.
Okay.
Peter Brecht01:47
Ricky, I'm so excited to have you on. How's your day going? I'm just this conversation, I've been ear to ear smiling all day as we got ready for it.
Rickey Bird01:56
I've been doing good and yeah, land man has helped me with the current oil film as well. A lot of people excited to see it because of Billy Bob. Yeah. Yeah.
Peter Brecht02:02
Yeah.
Wade02:06
That's off.
Peter Brecht02:07
Yeah,
California, the Hollywood, vibe. I mean, your background, you're an oil man from Taft. You're still working the oil field yourself as you're producing this. Just, I guess I'm really curious, if we could start maybe at the beginning, which is how, what got you into the oil field? And obviously, third generation seems like there's a heritage there, but what kind of kept you attached to it? And then what brought you into film? I think that's another interesting piece because
I'll tell you, like from just producing this podcast, it's a lot of work, like making film and art and trying to find storylines that people are interested in. But we can get into all that, but let's start out with Ricky Bird. How'd you get into oil field and production?
Rickey Bird02:49
So I'm a third generation. My dad worked in oil. My grandfather did. And then I was didn't want to get into oil, but then I had my son really young and that was kind of my option. And then it kind of, it's, I just kind of got pulled into it. And then I've been doing it since 2001. And then I started doing my own films about 2004. And it was weird because
Usually those two parts of my life are separate because I work drilling. So usually you work seven days or two weeks and you're off for the same amount of time. So on my off time, I'd be shooting films and, going all around and trying to learn different ways to shoot movies and stuff. And this was a lot before YouTube and all these other outlets were around. So it was difficult at first. And now with technology, it's been a lot easier.
But in 2022, my dad committed suicide. So usually I didn't blend my films with the oil stuff. It's two different worlds, but I thought that it was necessary to kind of tell the story of how people in Kern County are struggling whenever we get over-regulated and it causes people to take their own lives or go back to prison or move out of the county.
And I thought that my dad's story was pretty common. I know a few other people that have taken their life due to loss of work or financial struggles because of the over-regulation. And we get compared a lot to coal and all this stuff. But the bottom line is that California uses 1.8 million barrels of oil a day. And, the demand is still there. And it's basically politics that have kept us from, producing here locally.
So I think that, my goal here is to kind of show how oil is the history of Kern County. I've lived in Baker still my entire life and, pumping units all around me. And, it's one of those things where, we kind of we're used to it, but the outside, people doing the legislation or people that are anti oil don't really realize how much they affect
Wade04:57
Mm-hmm.
Rickey Bird05:11
This community and oil is one of the weird things too, where if you protest it, you're using oil products to do so. And, it's, the same thing with this film. And we put the disclaimer in the film is without oil, we wouldn't be able to make movies or you wouldn't be able to watch the film. So.
Peter Brecht05:30
Interesting. Yeah, absolutely. In California, so I'm in Oklahoma City right now. And there's, I think I mentioned this to Wade. I mean, you can walk right into a meeting and oil and gas, like go to a brewery, right? And there's, an oil and gas group that's hanging out and having a conversation, or they got a PowerPoint up and it's just part of like their natural fabric, I think of the culture. And in California, when you want to go to, a SIPA event, right? I remember.
Rickey Bird05:54
Right.
Peter Brecht05:59
Very clearly, very different experience was, how'd you find us? Like we're in Oregon, but who are you? Why are you trying to come to our event? Like it's very, it's very protective because it's just not the same culture, right? There's very much a divide. And I think as a, so as I'm watching some of the content you have on your website, recognizing many of the faces, homes and Western and I mean, just some, some general icons, just they're icons. I don't know how else to put it.
Rickey Bird06:12
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
Peter Brecht06:28
And you grew up around that, but when you're trying to come up with this documentary, it's
And kind of determining the story, and obviously you have a background with it, but like, how do you develop the storyline? Because obviously you, this is not just to appeal to people that are in the oil field necessarily. You're trying to, I'd imagine, convey something to a larger audience. So how do you accomplish that? Cause it's not an easy task. Really any, any conversation, oil and gas in California is it's an uphill battle. So how do you craft that story?
Rickey Bird06:59
Yeah.
It's tough. My dad's side of the family is from Henrietta, Oklahoma. So we spent a lot of time in Oklahoma. I was just there last year. We say that basically it's the same. There's a lot of okies here in Bakersfield too. Not a lot of places you get fried okra and catfish. But I think to me, I have the constant conversation with people that are pro-oil and people that are anti-oil.
Wade07:07
Right.
Peter Brecht07:08
Yeah.
Wade07:16
Yeah.
You
Peter Brecht07:20
Yep.
Rickey Bird07:27
And I think that it's given me a different perspective, because there are things that I don't agree with that go on in oil, and there are things that I do agree with that go on in oil. And I think when someone acts like there's no problems with their side, I think that's not a good way to look at it. I think we all need to be open-minded and think objectively to the idea of oil.
But the bottom line is that we use a lot of it. And there are some things that oil doesn't need to be in, but there are a lot of things that we use that it does need to be in. I love, again, love making movies and all that is possible with oil. And I think that telling a story like that's really tough because my audience, when we were making a film and I usually do horror movies or like...
Peter Brecht08:08
Yeah. Yeah.
Rickey Bird08:17
Some wild grindhouse type stuff. So I know my audience. I know what they want to see, with this, it was kind of really tough because I didn't want to do a puff piece. That's like, I don't know if you guys saw that Bill Gates thing on Netflix a few years back, where it's just like a puff piece on Bill Gates on Netflix. And I, I didn't want to do something like that. I wanted to do something that was, kind of realistic. And, it is, I feel like it is biased.
I will agree. It is very biased. Tried to get anti-oil people to interview and they declined. And it is tough because we were a very small crew and I've never done a full length documentary. So that's been really tough. We interviewed almost 50 people over the course of two years. We had like over 15 terabytes of footage. We were begging, stealing and borrowing. Were trying to get on to, some rigs wouldn't let us film, so we
Peter Brecht08:53
Mm-hmm.
Wade09:13
Man.
Rickey Bird09:13
We're trying
To get the footage to explain the story. And it was a lot of work. Thankfully we had some really important people. Once it started getting momentum, they started jumping on board and getting us into different places we probably wouldn't have been able to. But I understand, because typically independent film, everybody, when you're doing it, it doesn't seem as awesome until it's completed.
When I'm, it's just me and a few other guys, trying to, trying to film something with, a very minimal crew. It's not that exciting, but I think now that the trailers have came out, the they can see the quality of what it is. Think that it's gained a lot of momentum. But again, the story is for people that are kind of in California against oil and just kind of doing like a light tap.
Of saying, hey, you you're, you're affecting our community here in Kern County. You're still using the oil, so it's kind of like, why get the oil from overseas when we can make it right? We can pull it out of the ground right here, the safest and the cleanest and in the world really. We use water-based mud. Have a lot of drilling practices because of over-regulation in California. And again, this isn't like a screw regulation.
Peter Brecht10:26
Yeah.
Rickey Bird10:37
Thing, think regulations, there's a happy medium between left and right and regulations and oil. I definitely believe that, but it's like now the pendulum has swung so far that, good hardworking people are losing their job. And you got to be realistic at some point. And, again, I think it said the documentary over and over again, but we're not getting off the oil. We're just importing it from other people. So
Peter Brecht11:02
Yeah, just, we're shutting down refineries now in California. We do import most of our oil. I mean, if you look at the I mean, just you just look at the marine traffic right now of tankers offshore is just increasing. Right. And but to kind of like, I guess, pivot over. So Wade knows this because he gives me new movies to watch all the time, but I'm not very well versed in movies at all. Like
Rickey Bird11:16
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Peter Brecht11:29
I think Wade gave me four movies to watch last year. Think most of them were Christopher Nolan movies too, Wade. I might've been wrong on that, but, I'd never seen Tombstone, yeah. I mean, it's just, for whatever reason, I've always been more on the music side. I'd rather listen to a good, just go do something, listen to music, but.
Rickey Bird11:34
Yeah.
Wade11:35
To you ever more. But it was also
Tombstone which he had never seen before.
Rickey Bird11:39
Wow, I never seen tombstone. Yeah.
Totally.
Peter Brecht11:51
Again, going back to my appreciation for movies is kind of growing because of Wade. I watched Interstellar and then I watched Tenet, which I've watched Tenet now, Wade, like probably five or six times on the airplane as I've been flying, just because it's a good story. Like, like Ricky, as you're making film, right? And, or like the rest of these films too, like it sounds like you're into some different genres as well, but like, who's your favorite, I guess, who's your favorite director? Like you have a, like a flavor that you kind of go towards.
Rickey Bird12:14
Totally.
I like a lot of them, but I like them. I don't have one director that I like the most. Every director, I like something different about them. Like Nolan, for example, I love Memento. Memento is probably one of, in my top 10 films Nolan's done. And I think like, like him because of his intricate storytelling and I really do dig his vibe.
I loved the Oppenheimer movie. Thought it was great. Very cool to watch on IMAX, you know. But the thing I like about film is all these people come together. You have musicians, have people that do costume design, sound design, art deco, all these artists coming together to make one thing. And I think you, when you see behind the scenes and you see hundreds of people on the set and all these different artists contributing.
Even to minimal things that we don't even think about like logo design in the background for companies or whatever all these different things Are super super interesting and that's why I love movies, but I love Spielberg I love I get to actually go meet Robert Rodriguez, which he's a one of one of my Top guys too. He's the one that did the Sin City movies. They're really good. I would recommend those And I really like
Peter Brecht13:17
Mmm.
Hmm.
Okay.
Yeah.
Rickey Bird13:38
I mean, I love George Lucas just on the fact of I am a Star Wars nerd for sure. You're probably there's probably some Star Wars stuff behind me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So and I love old Hollywood. I have my custom Frankenstein thing my buddy made for me. And on this side, I have all different autographs. I have like over 70 on my wall of different people. Actually, he said tombstone. Is this is a tombstone right here. Val Kilmer.
Wade13:43
I was gonna say I see some stuff back there.
Peter Brecht13:46
Yeah.
Wade14:01
That's really neat.
Rickey Bird14:05
Right there, sign from James Stone, Doc Holliday. Yeah, so I am definitely a lover.
Wade14:05
Yeah.
Peter Brecht14:07
That's amazing. Right on.
Rickey Bird14:11
So I, again, there's not one director I like. I like a lot of directors for different reasons. But yeah, Nolan's really, really awesome. He's a good one. He's a good one to definitely watch. I would say I like Hitchcock, North by Northwest is a really good Alfred Hitchcock movie. And then Children of Men is a really cool movie. If you like,
Depending on what kind of movies you like, Children of Men is a really, really cool movie. I don't know if you guys have seen that one with Clive Owen. It's pretty cool. Yeah.
Wade14:42
Yeah, it's
Peter Brecht14:42
Have a seat, yeah.
Wade14:43
Got
That amazing like one, what isn't it like a one, what's it like the continuous shot at the beginning where they're, you know.
Rickey Bird14:46
Yeah, Warner. Yeah, yeah. He's
Got like a really they were like the first ones that did one is I feel that we're really good besides like Goodfellas Martin Scorsese is another one I love Martin Scorsese he's kind of hit and miss lately but that the Goodfellas man who Goodfellas is probably one of my top mob movies for sure. But yeah.
Wade15:07
Heat,
You gotta throw heat in there somewhere.
Rickey Bird15:09
Oh,
He's awesome, Michael Mann. Yeah, we actually just saw last night the crime 101, which is nothing compared to heat. Was not really that great. But yeah, yeah, it was okay. It's worth a watch. But yeah, yeah. So yeah.
Wade15:12
Yeah.
Okay. Right, all right. It's hard to compare.
Peter Brecht15:25
There's a quote that I'd written down. So I'm a huge Steve Carell fan. I love The Office. I love like his style of comedy. And I think it's cause it's nostalgic, right? Like it came out when I was in high school, my friends and I would talk about every new episode, but he has a quote. So he always had the room very cold, right? And so I wanted to ask an actual film director, but he would always say like comedy is cold and like horror films are supposed to be hot on set, right? Like there's like a, like a setting for the temperature.
Is there some truth to that or is it sorta just Steve Carell trying to make the room colder?
Rickey Bird15:56
I think there are different beasts for sure, I think, it also depends on your crew and your director. When we're shooting horror films, it does get intense because we're trying to make it intense for the actor or actress to act and kind of find that vibe. I think with comedy, it's tough because you're to be really quiet. When we shot comedies in the past, it's...
Peter Brecht16:05
Mm-hmm.
Rickey Bird16:23
It's definitely, people want to laugh, but you can't laugh, so there is a hard vibe, with that, which, makes it. But I could see his point to it, I think depending on what kind of horror movie you're doing, if I'm doing like a Friday the 13th and there's a lot of suspense, with the killing and the scared, but then if there's something wild like Planet Terror with Rod Rodriguez again.
Peter Brecht16:29
Yeah.
Rickey Bird16:50
Planetary where it's just action and all this stuff moving all these moving parts, you That is gonna be more intense. But usually like if you're thinking of Steve Carell is a genius too I love that dude, you're thinking like Anchorman or something, you know They're doing a lot of improv where they're just letting the cameras roll and there's they're saying all this crap and I'm sure there's a 20 people behind the camera trying not to laugh, you know what I mean? So yeah, yeah
Wade17:08
Right.
Peter Brecht17:16
Yeah, yeah.
Wade17:18
That's great.
Peter Brecht17:18
And then in moving into doing a whole documentary, you're just probably contending with weather and real people and trying to make sure that you're, like the hardest part for me with even doing a part, like talking to people right all the time is like, I always tell people like, my goal is to bring out the best in somebody. And a guy on Twitter was like, what the hell do you mean by bring out the best in somebody? And it's like, okay, well I got someone on the other end of the camera, right? That they're telling their story and who they are and.
Rickey Bird17:33
Yeah.
Peter Brecht17:43
This is really so that, I want to learn more about you, but at the same time, I could ask questions that you'd be like, I don't want to answer that. Or like, how do you like, as you're sitting in front of somebody interviewing them, developing those questions, like how long are you going through these interviews to like find those nuggets? Right? Cause there is always one or two things someone says, you're like, man, I never thought of that, but how long does it take you to find that, in an interview?
Rickey Bird18:04
Right.
Well, this one was tough and I had a little bit of an edge on it because I work with all these people and I know them and they knew my dad and these are, there was not too many people that were outside of the realm that I knew already besides like we did like the mayor of Taft and there's a few folks that I didn't know, but now I, know now. So that was kind of tough. But what I did is, I spent a lot of time thinking, cause I'm like, how are we going to do this documentary? Cause everybody's like, you need to put this in there. You need to put that in there. So then.
Wade18:14
Mm-hmm.
Peter Brecht18:16
Yeah.
Rickey Bird18:35
I just went in and I spent like maybe about a week and I'm like, what are the important parts? And then I designed a chapter set up. So we did the documentary in chapters to kind of tell the story, right? And then we're like, how will the story evolve? And then I pitched it to a couple of people that were anti-oil, cause that's my audience. And I was like, okay, what are these things that you want to know? And then we developed questions.
Wade18:43
You
Rickey Bird19:00
Based on that. The first like, I would say the first 30 interviews we did, we just did the same set of 20 questions. And then after we shot them, we're giving people about an hour, we were doing about an hour plus each interview, right. And it was tough because we were shooting on three cameras. So we're shooting on these red cameras, which in 4k, the data and all that stuff, it takes up a lot of space, right. So then we're like, well, we got to
Wade19:29
Alright.
Rickey Bird19:30
Calm this down, you because I wanted something to feel cinematic because at the end of the day, I want to be entertaining, I want people to be entertained, I was trying not to, we're trying to stray away from being like a PBS documentary, so we asked those questions. Well, then we're like, man, these is a lot of cameras, a lot of questions, then we kind of tone those questions down. And then we went through because it was funny, I would ask one person one question.
I'd ask the same question to multiple people and I would get different answers that would actually work in another chapter. So was really interesting. I would be like, hey, how is Kern County different than any other oilfield? Because a lot of guys worked in Kern County and then Oklahoma or North Dakota or wherever. And so when they'd answer the question, some would tell me it's about family. Some would talk about the formations to drill in. And there's all these different things from that one question.
Peter Brecht20:15
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rickey Bird20:26
So it was, yeah, so it was super interesting. I've, like I said, I've never done a documentary. So it was a lot. Usually when you shoot a film, you know what scene you have, you how many takes you have. So I could note my takes really while I'm shooting and say, hey, we're going to use these takes. Then we kind of smash them into a scene and we know, hey, this is not going to work or whatever. This is like crap. Remember this guy said this, maybe we can put that there. And then you spend hours looking for that one shot.
Wade20:27
Right.
Rickey Bird20:55
Or that one line, watching and it does get very tedious. So there might be things that we have missed on the edit where we're like, but when we did our first cut of the documentary was two hours and 45 minutes. And then we're like, man, this is too long. So then we had to cut stuff and then it's kind of like, man, it's so good. But then we had to cut it, and it is. Yeah, it's tough. But we didn't want that Zack Snyder cut. That's like three hours, you know. So
Peter Brecht21:16
Okay.
Wade21:22
It's
Peter Brecht21:23
Yeah, well
Wade21:24
So
Peter Brecht21:24
You're gonna have to do...
Wade21:24
Much better though. It's so much better than the theatrical one. I didn't like the theatrical. Then I watched his and I was like, I did not remember this movie at all. I liked it so much.
Rickey Bird21:25
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was like a
Total different thing. So I think, and we're going to take some of these snid bits out and put them online. So because there are some good stories and good, I think there's a lot of good information there. And again, this isn't like it's not like a Dateline episode where there's only three people being interviewed. This is like all stories combined from
CEOs of companies to guys that run roughneck to, politicians to mayors to, there's such a wide variety because it's about the people. It's not like an apologetic thing for big oil by any means. It's like, how do these things affect people? And that's what the, that was the toughest thing is kind of like figuring out, and I really wish we got some people that were anti oil to interview, but none of them would. I mean, we tried to reach out to CARB.
To get an interview, declined. There's a couple of people locally that declined. I went to a couple of CARB meetings and kind of had to set the record straight with CARB because that's one thing, a big argument, especially in Kern County is the air quality here. And the air quality in Bakersfield is really bad, but it's not from the oil fields. Even CARB says that oil extraction is less than 3 % of the air issue here.
Wade22:56
Pollution.
Rickey Bird22:56
Pollution.
Basically, it's all Sacramento and all these other places, all their smog comes down into the valley and kind of just sits here. So I asked Carve, I'm like, are you guys gonna have like some big air filters? Or what's your plan to actually clean the air? And their answer was just stop driving cars. So it's, that makes it real difficult. I mean,
We're not innovating anything to kind of keep that air or clean up the air here. And I don't think it would be that tough because after it rains here in Bakersfield, it is beautiful. And, we get a lot of shots after it rains. February and January are great times to film in the valley because you can actually see the mountains. I mean, we had a bad storm. I was on the rig last week and I'm driving from the rig and I'm looking out and you could actually see the mountains and it looks so beautiful. It was just it's a shame.
Peter Brecht23:31
Yeah.
Wade23:49
Yeah.
Peter Brecht23:49
Yeah. It does seem, it does seem though, at least I think from talking with folks and going to meetings and all, it's like the sentiment is sort of flipping, like maybe not on California as a state yet on energy, but in Kern or just talking with like drilling, talking drilling permits, like let's just go there. Like it seems like that might be opening up sooner rather than later. At least in a bigger way. So.
Rickey Bird24:01
Right.
Right.
Peter Brecht24:14
I don't know, I'm hopeful as a lifelong Californian. I mean, I was born and raised in San Diego and my wife and family, they surf and spend time in Huntington Beach and up and down Ventura and all of that. It's just, I look at it too from a cultural perspective, don't know, growing up around old cars, right? I know they wanted to like, okay, you can't have old cars in California anymore. They figured, there's all so many things that we lose if we lose.
Rickey Bird24:16
Yeah. Yeah.
Right.
Peter Brecht24:40
This fight, right? And anyways, I'm just excited that someone's out there telling the story. As we kind of move to wrap up here, the movie comes out February 27th, is that right?
Rickey Bird24:51
Yeah, so it comes out February 27th for our first premiere and then we're gonna probably do a couple screenings throughout the state. I have some people reaching out to me, which has been awesome. So we'll hopefully have a couple screenings here and get people just, in the know about how they actually use oil and how it benefits their lives. And I think once people start realizing that and looking at the numbers, there's a lot of realistic people that have just been strayed in a wrong direction on oil.
Peter Brecht25:01
Yeah.
Yeah.
Rickey Bird25:19
If you Google documentaries right now, all you see is really gloom and doom, and misinformation. So hopefully we'll clear a little bit, little bit of that out and, people will understand how important oil is in their life and stop hating on us so much because we're just out there working our butts off to give you oil. And, we don't, we use every drop of oil that Kern County produces right now.
Peter Brecht25:26
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, and it's the cleanest barrel of oil I think in the world, right? I mean, if you put it together, so it is, yeah. Well, there's a theater in Encinitas called La Paloma. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but it's a cool, it's right off the 101. I see it all the time as I'm going through. My family spent time going down to the beach there, but I think it'd be really cool to, it's kind of a hippie town, but it'd be fun to put your film down there and just see if we could get the crowd going, but you know how it goes.
Rickey Bird25:50
Yes, yeah. Yeah.
-.
Okay, yeah,
Yeah, I'm game. Let me know. Yeah
Peter Brecht26:14
Well, anyways, where can people,
Yeah, yeah, I'll have to see if I can get ahold of somebody there, but Ricky, where can people find you? Where can find the movie so we can go see when the show times are and get our hands on it when it's out.
Rickey Bird26:25
So the website for the film is Kern Oil Movie.com. If you want to see any of the other movies we've done, hecticfilms.com is our production company. And then yeah, so we'll have posts and stuff on the Kern Oil, but we're on TikTok, we're on Facebook and Instagram. So all under Kern Oil Movie.
Peter Brecht26:37
Okay.
Okay.
Awesome. Well, Ricky, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you all for listening. Yeah, it's been great. Again, I was excited. I told my wife, I'm like, I'm talking to someone that does film today. And she's like, that's not in your wheelhouse. And I'm like, I know, but that's why it's fun. So Wade's here to kind of guide the ship there. Wade, thank you for being here. We're Local Energy. You can find us on localenergy.com. Until next week, y'all take care. Thanks.
Wade26:48
See
Rickey Bird26:51
Thanks for having me.
Yeah.