The Big Picture Hawaii

The Big Picture Hawaii Hawai‘i's film industry, told by the people building it. Hosted by Brian Wallace. 🌺 Season 1 streaming now on YouTube — Season 2 coming soon.

09/14/2026

Day one on the pilot of Lost. Scott Lee Mason is a camera PA in the back of a stake bed truck heading up to Jackass Ginger, making conversation with two guys he's never met. They wrote it.

Then the mud takes his boot. He pulls his foot out, the boot stays in, and he works the rest of the day soaked.

He also spends that whole day at video village next to the director, asking him how every single thing works. The director was . Scott says he learned more standing there than anywhere else.

Scott Lee Mason, camera operator and editor, from Season 1. Full conversation on YouTube, link in the comments.

Season 2 is rolling out now.

Mahalo to our sponsors at , who furnish our set. Show them some love and check out their cafe and their glass company .

09/10/2026

How does a film alliance start? Two dozen people chasing one goal: a stronger tax credit for Hawaiʻi film. Actors, producers, studio owners, equipment houses. Irish Barber, President of the Hawaiʻi Film Alliance, tells the origin story: building an organization from scratch, meeting weekly and sometimes three times a week, finding one voice for a whole industry, then taking it to the legislators. Full episode on our YouTube, The Big Picture Hawaiʻi.

Mahalo to our sponsors at , who furnish our set. Show them some love and check out their cafe and their glass company .

09/08/2026

"Rest is for beginners." Irish Barber has seen the sacrifice this industry asks of the people who build it, and what keeps her going is who's coming next. Second graders with iPads interviewing kūpuna, then throwing their own red carpet film awards. "This new generation, the sky's the limit." The President of the Hawaiʻi Film Alliance on work, sacrifice, and passing it on. Full episode on our YouTube, The Big Picture Hawaiʻi.

Mahalo to our sponsors at , who furnish our set. Show them some love and check out their cafe and their glass company .

09/06/2026

"Let's be clear what unions are for." If your employer treats you well and pays you well, you may never need one. Unions exist because some employers don't. Drawing on her years as IATSE Local 665's Business Rep, a seat she has since passed on, Irish Barber takes on the "strong arm" image problem and explains why 99% of the disputes she handled in Hawaiʻi were resolved with a simple conversation. Full episode is up now on our YouTube, The Big Picture Hawaiʻi.

Mahalo to our sponsors at , who furnish our set. Show them some love and check out their cafe and their glass company .

09/04/2026

"Anytime there's something I see that's not right, I'm there." Daughter of a union ironworker and a community activist, Irish Barber says fighting for people is in her DNA. It's what made stepping in as IATSE Local 665's Business Rep an easy call. She has since passed that seat on and now leads as President of the Hawaiʻi Film Alliance. Full episode is up now on our YouTube, The Big Picture Hawaiʻi, Season 2 premiere.

Mahalo to our sponsors at , who furnish our set. Show them some love and check out their cafe and their glass company .

08/26/2026

"There were times where I just didn't want to live anymore."

Fairai Richmond said that out loud on our show. Then he told us what kept him here, and it wasn't a speech or a piece of advice. It was the next Aronofsky movie. The next Spielberg. Something coming out in two months that he wanted to be around to see.

He's third generation in this business. His dad tried everything to keep him out of it, because he knew what it costs. Never took. The kid kept breaking cameras and his dad kept replacing them, then paid for the film camps, then bought him his first editing system.

Now he writes, directs and produces, and he still calls movies his north star. Not a job. Not a vacation. The thing that gets him excited about life.

Season 1 Rewind. Full episode on YouTube, link in the comments.

If any of this sounds like where you're at right now, you're not alone. You can call or text 988 anytime.

08/19/2026

"A lot of people are calling it the punk rock of film." 🎸

Emmy-winning filmmaker Gerard Elmore — VP of Film at NMG Network and Executive Director of — on a radical idea for making movies here: give the whole crew equity. The grip, the PA, the lead actor — same rate, same residuals, same stake in what they build.

Full conversation with Gerard on the channel — link in bio.

08/14/2026

"We're in a new wave of Native Hawaiian storytelling." 🌊

TV/film producer and educator Jana Park () — Industry Manager at the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival — on local features landing at Sundance and Tribeca, and what it takes to go further: Hawaiʻi-based producers who think past the wrap date.

Full conversation with Jana on the channel — link in bio.

08/10/2026

Chief of War is Hawai‘i's story. Most of it was filmed in New Zealand.

Brian Keaulana takes us behind that fight — why the production went elsewhere, what Jason Momoa pushed for behind the scenes, and what Hawai‘i has to build so the next season can be shot fully at home.

"Because that show belongs here — in Hawai‘i."

🎬 Full episode on our YouTube — link in the first comment.

We started this show to put Hawai‘i's film industry on screen. Now it's on THE screen — the one in your living room. 📺Se...
08/08/2026

We started this show to put Hawai‘i's film industry on screen. Now it's on THE screen — the one in your living room. 📺

Season 1 of The Big Picture Hawai‘i premieres on ‘Ōlelo Channel 53:

🌺 FRI AUG 21 — Tiffany Tavares (6pm) · Mericia Palma Elmore (7pm)

🌺 SAT AUG 22 — Tuia‘ana Scanlan (6pm) · Ricardo Galindez (7pm) · Fairai Richmond (8pm)

Every episode airs 4 times through Oct 4 — then lands On Demand at olelo.org. Swipe through for the full schedule and every way to watch.

No app. No algorithm. Just television. Set the DVR, tell your ‘ohana — and stay tuned, because Season 2 is coming. 🎬

Mahalo to ‘Ōlelo Community Media for bringing these stories to O‘ahu TV.

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