NSSL NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory

Wes: Welcome to the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory here in Norman, Oklahoma. My name is Wes Moody, and I'm with Keli Pirtle and James Murnan. And we're here to give you a little bit of an inside communications perspective on our experience working with the new Twisters movie, a really unique experience that we are thrilled to have had the opportunity to do. And so hopefully this will give you some ideas on what we went through and hopefully help you in some way if you ever get to do something cool like this in the future. So, Keli, you want to introduce yourself first here?

Keli: I'm Keli Pirtle with NOAA Communications. I support, public affairs support for all five NOAA organizations in Norman. So I work with the tornado experts who both do research and forecasting.

Wes: James.

James : And my name is James Murnan. I'm a media specialist. I'm a contractor that works primarily with the National Severe Storms Laboratory. I cover photography, video and work very closely with both of these guys.

Wes: And my name is Wes Moody. I'm the communications specialist for NSSL, specifically, here at the lab, and I've been here for about a year and a half and pretty, pretty cool to get to do this great big thing so early in my career here. And it's just been fantastic.

Keli: Yeah. Lucky timing.

Wes: Well, the movie came out. It's been about a week. It's been official. It feels like a lot longer for us. So we've been working on this for almost a year and a half.

Keli: July 19th felt like such a long way away. And then it's suddenly here, right. And passed.

Wes: So, Keli, do you want to get us started with kind of like the first interactions you had and how this all started?

Keli: Sure. And I think, in this podcast, we want to go kind of chronologically and just talk about our experiences because it's such a unique thing that we have been through together. So the first I knew about this, was when Kevin Kelleher, asked me to lunch, and I've known Kevin for 26 years. And, he is retired now from NOAA. And so he told me at this lunch that he had been hired as the meteorological consultant for the movie, and he was already working on the script some with them, and was hoping that I, he wanted to work through me to connect with our tornado experts at the Severe Storms Lab, Storm Prediction Center, all the folks in Norman. And that was in fall of 2022.

Wes: So when did it start to get kind of the ball rolling? When did you start to see some involvement?

Keli: So we started having some visits in spring of 2023. And the first one was an Oklahoma location, Oklahoma based location scout. And she wanted to see our facilities here at the National Weather Center. So she also said we were competing with Georgia because of tax incentives. And we all know how money talks, you know. And so I know Oklahoma was doing their best to get it here. And she, we provided information as best we could.

Wes: It's been pretty cool to hear the director talk about in some of his interviews, how important it was for him that it be filmed in Oklahoma visually.

Keli: I never I never read the script in advance, but it was implied that it was going to be based in Oklahoma. So it's like it has to be here.

Wes: And with all the NOAA resources here in Norman, it just makes it even better

Keli: This is where the tornado experts are located. Many of them, not all. And then, this is the bullseye. We know from Harold Brooks's research that this is the bull's eye for tornadoes. And, you know, like it or not, that's what we are in Oklahoma.

Keli: So the next round were the art and props departments. So the heads of those departments, plus a lot of people, and so they visited and it's a little fuzzy in my memory, actually. But, I think they visited at least twice and we arranged tours and this, one of the times the art department came and it was, thank goodness, a slow weather day, because they asked if they could take some pictures. And the next thing you know, there are a dozen people swarming the forecast office. Literally swarming, I mean, taking pictures of every single little detail. And in those visits, they talked about how important it was to them to be accurate as much as they could, with the details. And so, I remember the head of props talked about his previous films. He's like, whatever film I'm on, we you know, if it's historical, we have historical items, you know, we make it as accurate as possible. And I think you see that in the movie. I mean, you know, about Wes, you I mean, give us an example.

Wes: Well, I think what you said about the WFO is the best example. Like in the first movie, you see, there's supposed to be an NSSL and you see this room and it doesn't look like anything that you would see here at the lab at. Whereas in this movie, they recreated a WFO office that supposedly is in New York. And you couldn't tell that apart from our office here. So that was really cool to see how important it was for them to make it realistic and accurate and just, you know, how good Hollywood is it at doing that which is, is pretty cool.

Keli: Even down to, one of my little details that I like to point out is as you enter NOAA space on the second floor at the National Weather Center, there are names of organizations on the wall, and they match the font of those letters.

Wes: Yeah. It’s glossy silver. Yeah pretty cool.

Keli: So they look just the same.

James: The room sign, the signs up that are as she's walking in, you know, those match what we have here at the National Weather Center.

Wes: And just to give people some context here in Norman, the National Weather Center is pretty unique because we're co-located with the OU School of Meteorology, CIWRO, our cooperative institute. And then we have NSSL as well as the other NOAA entities that you support here. So we have the Storm Prediction Center. We have the Norman Forecast Office, as well as, the Warning Decision Training Division of the Weather Service. So it's really cool.

Keli: And we have the Oklahoma Mesonet. Oklahoma Climatological Survey. Yeah.

Wes: So it's just a really cool building. And for them to come in and care about recreating that accurately, it was really neat.

Keli: It really was. The screens and even everything on the screens, our folks helped provide that information. Either they recreated it or we gave them the images. So it really is accurate.

Wes: Which kind of brings up our next topic. So what was it like to jump through all the hoops to get that stuff cleared? You know, logos and legal approvals and all that stuff?

Keli: Yeah. So I'm very, very proud of the fact that the NOAA logo and the National Weather Service logo are in the movie, and that doesn't happen by accident. They asked for approval, and I was able to work with NOAA headquarters and National Weather Service headquarters and the legal folks there and the NOAA Comms folks and Weather Service comms to get approval of the use of those logos. And, so I spent I mean, a lot of the time I've spent working in relation to this movie has been with Angie, who handles the clearances and releases, for like, appearance releases and things, so on a variety of things. So once we had the NOAA logo, and weather service logos approved, then I worked with the art department. They would send me just random emails. Can we put the NOAA logo on this? Can we put the NOAA logo on that? And it's like, yes, you know, so, I mean, I approved this, it made sense, you know, but even that was one of those things where I was like, yes, I think so. And I felt like, you know, who am I the authority to say yes, that, you know, but I am and I was so. Yeah. And it was, that was fun.

Wes: What advice would you have for someone in comms who is, you know, maybe not for a major Hollywood picture, but is going through that, like approval process of use of logos and trademarks and outreach events and things like that?

Keli: Well, it requires some trust and it is taking a risk. I mean, Kevin Kelleher had read the script and I trust Kevin and I trust that this was a major motion picture. There seemed to be no reason why they would put us in a bad light. But there still was an element of trust there.

Wes: And with your position, you said, you know, it's like, well, who am I? But you are the authority as the comms person. It's your job to protect the brand.

Keli: Exactly. And I felt that I felt a very strong responsibility for that and also wanted to take a chance because I felt like there would be a big payoff. And I think we've seen it.

Wes: Yeah. So we kind of fast forward through the spring a little bit and we're into May of 2023 and we have kind of the first major, like first thing that kind of caught some attention is when the cast and crew came to Norman. We want you to tell us a little bit about that.

Keli: Yeah. So, I was getting requests for the cast and crew to have a tour. Rick Smith from the National Weather Service Forecast Office, who has been an integral part of all of this, was getting requests to do a tornado class. And so he and I talked and we're like, let's combine it all. So we ended up having a whole morning with the major stars and the director and producer and on I'll never forget the date May 3rd, 2023, because, for people who don't know, May 3rd was, 1999 was a very, devastating, deadly tornado in Oklahoma. So the fact that they were here on May 3rd was significant for all of us. So, you both were there. Do you want to talk about it?

Wes: Well, it was pretty, pretty cool to, you know, just have it just a regular day at the office turn into, oh, my gosh, who are these people that we recognize? So, like you said, Rick got to have a little class where he taught them the basics of tornadoes, but also the significance of tornadoes to people in this area, the way people react to it. You know, with some people being really excited and some people having a real fear of it because like you said, this area has seen some devastating storms. So that was really cool for Rick to be able to do. And then James, you got a chance to kind of follow the group and, and take some pictures and things. What do you think? What was your approach to that day? And kind of all of these events, as you've been kind of documenting and gathering?

James: I think even the day before, you know, Keli had said she was trying to make sure I had clearance to go ahead and take them. And, so you were working with, you know, the publicist?

Keli: Yes. Amanda.

James: And, and so once you got that approval, you said, hey, this is where we're going to be at. And then, so I, I basically just grabbed all my camera gear and just, you know, once I was in there, I just, tried to stay out of the way, but, probably took too many photos, I think, I think there was one point where Keli was like, I think you texted me, like hey, I think that's enough photos. At that point I didn't have the camera that was the mirrorless camera. So, the shutter was going off. So it was probably maybe causing a little bit of an issue.

Wes: Well, I think that was kind of our approach, though. We didn't know what we would need when, and we wanted to make sure that we had documented everything because we didn't know what to expect. So we wanted to be able to look back in hindsight and say, well, here's everything. And if we don't have it and it didn't happen. And so kind of that over-prepared, over-documenting, you know, strategy, I think was where we were coming from and has been helpful.

Keli: So, yeah, it's been great to have all that, frankly. Yes. And so part of the tour that we gave them, we took them, and took a group picture. You took the group picture in front of the Twister props that we have on display in the atrium at the National Weather Center.

Wes: Yeah. For the original movie, we have the Dorothy, and then the actual instrument, the scientific instrument that that was based off of. Pretty cool.

Keli: Yeah. They thought it was cool.

Wes: Yeah. Yeah, they really did.

Keli: We didn't tell people, like, there was an experiment going on in the Hazardous Weather Testbed. NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed. And, I didn't mention it to anybody there. And so there is an account that I read, from one of our scientists recently who he was like, yeah, we were just working. And I look up and there's Glen Powell.

Wes: So that was in early May. And that was part of the reason they came out to do that was because the cast was starting to arrive to film here in Oklahoma. And so they had some tornado safety stuff from Rick. So they had started that's when they started filming. And then Sean Waugh who's a researcher here at the lab, and I had a pretty cool opportunity. And so Sean has been advising on the film. He's been, he was able to help them with props, and make some things for the, for the film.

Keli: And that connection was made from that tour, actually.

Wes: So, you know, while they were here touring and in our vehicle bay where they see -

Keli: From the art department - one of the tours with the art department. I think.

Wes: And they had seen all the things. And Sean is instrumental in the lab here and doing that for real life and research purposes and got connected. So they've had interest in taking a couple - they wanted to have a couple of our vehicles, our actual research vehicles, in the background in the movie. So we had the opportunity to take those vehicles up to north central Oklahoma, where they were filming for a couple of days, and be on set, which was really cool. I had never seen anything like that. And, what was great was that they were so excited to have our real life storm chasing vehicles there, that they placed them pretty prominently. And so we were able to get our research vehicles with our images and logos right there in the shot, which I think is just a great outreach opportunity. That's kind of invaluable.

Keli: And you see it in the movie.

Wes: Yeah. So a couple of different times when they're at a truck stop area, you might keep your eyes peeled. You're going to see real NOAA scientific research vehicles with the logos and everything. But that was just a really cool experience because we got to be there on set, got to watch, you know, how a movie gets made but at the same time, be there to, you know, promote the Lab and all the great scientists that work here and what's actually happening. And that's kind of been a theme, I think, throughout this is that from our perspective, we're not here to promote the film. We're here to use the attention that the film inevitably creates to promote NOAA and NSSL and the science that happens here and our mission to, you know, save lives and property. So that, I think, is the reason that we were that we took advantage of that opportunity. But, you know, on a personal note, that was pretty cool to go out there and watch them make the film and all that. And then and then Sean, Sean being there gave him the opportunity to, you know, collaborate more. And he got to create relationships with them. That led to him getting to give more input. There's a portion of the film where they show like radar images and, you know, left to their own devices, who knows what that would look like. But Sean was able to actually provide them some radar images from real life that are scientifically accurate, that actually happen. So just more realism in the film and more NOAA science on display.

Keli: So I want to go back to one thing though, because we forgot to talk about something related to the pictures. Do you want to talk about it? So after they visited on May 3rd and then, we had promised that we would not do anything with the photos until the movie came out. And so we honored that. James, you want to talk about it?

James: Yeah, that was May 3rd, 2023. And the movie just came out July 19th, 2024. So we knew when we took and when we were collecting these photos that we weren't going to do anything. We couldn't really do anything with them for a good while. I mean, and so this was also in the middle of the Hazardous Weather Testbed experiments that are happening right next to the Weather Service. So I'm in there most days taking photos, video. So I've got a bunch of cards that I'm filling up with videos and photos. And, this was just one day where I just did something totally different. And knowing that there was no, there was no deadline. There wasn't really any push at all to have these photos ready at all. I just didn't do anything with them. They went to the back burner and then, it was probably, maybe a month or so later, I started looking through it, and I was going through all my cards and looking at what was left on them that I hadn't gone through, and I, I couldn't, I couldn't find the ones that we took of all the cast and all these things, the posed photos and all this, all this work that, that got into, that went into, you know, making sure we got these photos and so couldn't find them.

Wes: Start to get a little sweaty?

James: Yeah. Little concern. I was like, okay, it's got to be around. So I ended up going back up to my, to the, my work office and thought, okay, it's probably up there somewhere. And I found one more card, but there were a couple days where I really thought, that is possible, that maybe I accidentally deleted it and, like, and just, you know, reformatted the card or something. And I purposely was not going to tell you guys anything until I had found you til I found it, because I didn't want to. I didn't want to.

Wes: We appreciate you. Yeah. You suffer alone.

James: I do, yeah, I try to, I try to spare people.

Wes: So any advice for folks that are trying to avoid situations like?

James: If I had done it again, I would have very quickly went ahead and, like, made a copy on, like, a hard drive.

Wes: Timeline wise, I think that brings us up to kind of when we had that, there was a strike in Hollywood. Filming was halted there, pretty close to finishing. And then so we didn't really hear a ton from them for quite a long time. I think maybe the next thing we did with them was the following year.

Keli: Yeah. So they did come back in December and finish filming once the strikes were over. But we weren't a part of that. Kevin Kelleher was there with them, I'm sure. And maybe Sean had some contact with them, but, but we really didn't hear anything until this spring.

Wes: Yeah. So almost a full year later. And then we had a day here in Oklahoma that was supposed to be a really high end storm day. And so, Sean, kind of on his own time really, had invited some of the cast folks to come out, and he was going to take them storm chasing so they could experience it in real life. And so that day they were out there doing that, and we were out there on an NSSL outing as well.
And so we kind of had a chance to meet up with them and kind of join together on that day. Yes. do you guys want to talk a little bit maybe? James, you want to tell us a little bit about kind of our experience that day?

James: So I again, not really knowing what exactly I was going to be able to capture, but basically just grabbed my video camera, still camera and everything I could and just whatever we could fit into the car. And then, you know, loaded up. We started early that morning and whatever we, you know, took was all we had.

Wes: Yeah, within driving distance of the lab. So we just kind of loaded up our gear and were gone for most of the day.

Keli: And Sean had them do a balloon launch - a weather balloon - an actual weather balloon launch. The data were used by the Weather Service,

Wes: Yes, we reported the data back to the WFO here, and they were using it.

Keli: Yes. A special weather balloon integrated into their forecasting. And so James got some video of that, and I mean, Daisy and Glen and Brandon Perea all got to participate in that.

Wes: Yeah, we had a New York Times reporter embedded with us.

Keli: So I had been talking to Judson Jones from The New York Times. He had been wanting to go out, and then he also was interested in Twisters, like doing a Twisters story. And so he came along as well. And then we had the NBC Universal behind the scenes photographers. There were a couple of them as well. So it's quite a crew.

Wes: What advice would you have for folks who are maybe going out, you know, other labs comms folks that go out with their scientists or are taking reporters out to go with their scientists and like, how to capture it all while also managing media relations and things?

Keli: Yeah. I mean, well, we, we've done it before. We've had reporters embed with our scientists. So this was similar. and then there just happened to be some Hollywood folks that, so I think James does a, I guess we, we do it as a team, though, because, you and I are drivers, so that James only has to, I mean, only, but, we really think about his camera and what he's going to shoot next.

Wes: Really free him up. Well, it was a very highly forecasted day that ended up not turning out that well. So unfortunately, we saw a lot of sunny skies that day. Kind of hanging around a little bit.

James: I don’t think we saw many clouds.

Wes: Yeah, it's tough to even track down some rain, I think. But it was pretty cool to be out there and like, you know, the panhandle of Oklahoma, you know, stopping for lunch at a diner with these Hollywood folks. And honestly,I'm not sure they got recognized all that much. It was so out of context.

Keli: So we all stopped at a Love's, which is a convenience store gas station, based in Oklahoma. And we all got our stuff and I was standing in line next to Daisy, and a guy was standing nearby talking to somebody else about how he had just seen Glen Powell. You know, the guy from Maverick? And I'm sitting there thinking, this is Daisy right here. And you don't even recognize her. And then we went to lunch someplace, and nobody - and Glen even brought his dog, Brisket, on the day, and that worked out great. But, nobody recognized anybody.

Wes: My favorite was we were kind of sitting in a gas station parking lot, and there was this guy who came up, and he's like, asking me about the trucks. He's like, this is so cool. This is awesome. And as he's looking at me talking about how cool this NOAA truck is, there goes Glen Powell walking by. He has no idea that there's, you know, these major Hollywood stars, that he's star struck by the vehicle and NOAA, but not that those Hollywood folks.

James: And they weren't dressed up. It's not like - And so honestly they you know, they had hats on that they were just like, honestly I don't know if I would have I would have recognized them like at times just because they just it's not like they were like red carpet kind of all dolled up. But my favorite part was we went to this very small convenience store in Vici. And there's this older gentleman that was, you know, in there that noticed that Daisy had like, I don't know if she had chips or something like that. And he recognized that we were all, like, doing storm related stuff. And he was asking if, he said, yeah, I just really, really appreciate the work you guys do. And, let me get that for you. And then he was telling the lady at the cash register, like, put this on my tab, like, this is on me. And she kept saying, oh, no, it's okay. I'm just thinking if you had any idea, like, I think she can cover her chips.

Wes: Yeah, I think she got it.

James: But then after that, though, then, you know, more people kind of come behind Daisy because it's a pretty big crew of us. All of a sudden we're all there and he goes, oh, okay, so y'all are with her too? And I'm checking out my stuff. And he's like, are you with them? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm with them. And he's like, well he tells the lady like, well let me go and put his stuff on there too. I’m like you don’t have to do that.

Wes: Yeah, you're starting to train here.

James: And the lady was like, I don't know what's going on. Like, I. Yeah. And, eventually, yeah, it was just funny.

Keli: Eventually he just kind of left.

Wes: Yeah, he may have bit off more than he could chew but it's cool to see that the reception that we get and maybe that's unique to not all aspects, but, for us, it's really cool to see that reception out in the field, to see that people appreciate, like, oh, that's NOAA, that's NSSL. Those are the folks that chase tornadoes and keep us safe. And and it's kind of, you know, we joke that we basically saw no weather that day, but from a comms perspective, we were able to take advantage of what we did accomplish with, you know, having the cast members, you know, do some actual science, launch some balloons where, you know, Sean was able to explain, like, here's what's happening with the atmosphere and why it's working and why it's not. So not maybe mission accomplished tornado wise, but definitely a success for us for comms.

Keli: Yes. And Daisy especially, but all of them have talked in interviews constantly about how they actually went storm chasing.

Wes: Yeah. So that's been and that's and that's what real life storm chasing is like. It's a lot of sitting around waiting and a lot of times nothing happens.

Keli: Just driving.

Wes: Yeah. Tornadoes are exceptionally rare really.

James: I did want to mention too just as far as, like media wise, one thing that has been really helpful for me is being able to getting that vest that allows me to hook on two different cameras. So one on each hip. And, I basically use that to have very easy access at all times to either shoot video or photos. And so doing it, as a one person, I mean, you, I actually, you helped out some because I just couldn't do it all, especially when it's balloon launch time. You can't do both things at the same time. But, having those very easily accessible at all times, it was very handy.

Wes: Knowing when your science is going to last five seconds and being ready for that is key for sure.

James: Yeah. So you helped out with taking photos and it was a big help. So but yeah it's nice to have things really handy. And right there when it's time.

Wes: So maybe the last thing related to the creating the movie was the ending credits. You guys want to talk about kind of how you got that?

Keli: Yeah. So another unusual thing that happened, I was contacted by a company, out of LA who said they were creating the ending credits for the movie and they wanted to get a lot of photos of, sort of weather research and forecasting through the years. And were asking for our archives and things. And so and wanted to make sure we weren't they weren't missing something. So we had James and I had a meeting with. Were you there, too?

Wes: I wasn't.

Keli: Okay, sorry. James and I had a meeting with them, and, kind of talked about what we have and things, and so, they did a lot of their own research and were showing us things. And then later on, I again worked with the folks who do all of the releases to make sure. So there were some photos that they had found that were historical photos. And so they were asking me to identify the people in the photos and get releases from them, and they're retired, you know, but I knew several of them. And so I was able to get those releases signed.

Wes: It's kind of important through all of this as like it was we're doing this. It's kind of uncharted territory and we want to be able to take advantage of it. But like you said earlier, you are kind of going out on a limb. So all the work you did to make sure as as best as we could that things were approved, that people up the food chain knew about it, and that we had releases and all that stuff. It was the best way to kind of give us some peace of mind while we were doing this big thing. But that was something that I think you did really well was manage that and make sure we were doing the right things and getting things approved, but acting quickly.

Keli: Yes. That's it. I like to respond quickly. Yeah.

Wes: Anything else about the credits?

James: I'm going to shout out myself here. The fact that I did not know that the ATD antenna B-roll that I shot was going to be in the movie, but it made it in the movie. I was very proud of that.

Wes: I mean, to get your own footage into a blockbuster movie. That's awesome.

James: And at the beginning of the credits, you know, where people are still paying attention.

Wes: Yeah, it's right there. It's like one of the first things. Yep. Very cool.

Keli: Do we want to talk about credits real fast?

Wes: Sure. Yeah

Keli: I'm so grateful that Kevin got people acknowledged because that is so important.

Wes: At the very end, you see NOAA, NOAA, NOAA, it's just so cool to see that.

James: Not only were our names listed, but, the fact that like, he even had like our, our actual title, I know, I mean, those are things I don't really ever see in, like, that kind of detail. You know, it's not something I don't ever you don't really ever see from like a it's kind of a special thanks - it's just names.

Keli: It was just very well done.

noaa.gov/twisters Yeah. So we can kind of shift now, I think, into, the movie is out or basically, it felt like maybe a month leading up to the release of the movie, things really started to heat up for us. So, Keli, do you want to talk about maybe the process of getting the premieres going?

Keli: So, we heard the date, finally heard the dates of the premieres that were going to be in LA and Oklahoma City. And, we wanted the opportunity to attend if we could. And, we had a possible chance to have some of our research vehicles at the premieres. But our research vehicles are Fords and Dodge was a sponsor. And so Dodge said no. So that didn't work out. We were meanwhile talking to general counsel if that could even work. And, they basically said, you have to do outreach at the event for you to be able to attend the event. So we ended up with a display table with one of our roof racks from one of the research vehicles there. And so then some of us were able to attend LA - you two - and and then, an even larger group was able to attend the Oklahoma City premiere with the same kind of outreach. But talk about LA.

Wes: Yeah, we were really excited to maybe get the vehicles out there and really get some, you know, some of those like, you know, Entertainment Tonight pictures of the trucks and the and it didn't happen, but we were able to pivot again being pretty adaptable as things are changing so quickly. And no one had done this before. So we were able to go out there and in the lobby of the theater where everyone walks past to get into the movie, right after they come off the red carpet, we had our NOAA booth there with the logo. We had one of our mesonets. Really cool. Similar to what you saw on the movie, instruments there on the table with some, some video playing. And so then we had our director Dr. DaNa Carlis and deputy director Kurt Hondl there. And so those guys were standing there and we were just talking to folks as they were coming in, and obviously those instruments catch a lot of attention. And so people were talking to them about, hey, what is this? And they were able to kind of say like, well, this is the real life version of what you're going to see. So it was fantastic. And getting that opportunity was just, you know, once in a career kind of thing.

Keli: It's pretty special. James, what'd you think? You were with the paparazzi.

James: I was. So we, you know, we had to go get our, you know, our badges and stuff, but we got there early enough where we were able to kind of go - once we got in, nothing was really rolling yet. So there was this kind of fenced-in area where all the photographers could go. I was thankful that I was able to go there first while there weren't people going into the lobby yet to catch photos of Sean and his wife as well as Kevin and his wife. So we got those on the red carpet.

Wes: That was really cool that Sean and Kevin, our folks, got to walk the red carpet. As you know, official advisors on the movie. Yeah. And that was really cool.

Keli: That was really cool.

Wes: Yeah. So we did the same thing in Oklahoma City. There was kind of a double premiere here, that Universal and OKC Film folks did the same night. And so we were able to, kind of do the same thing with the NOAA booth, but invite more of our or some more of our folks. So we had some more people that were involved in the movie. And so more folks to just be there and talk to the public and, and kind of explain, like you're about to see something really cool. And this actually happens in real life. So, yeah, that was pretty, I think, kind of an invaluable opportunity.

Keli: It was great. And there was a little bit of confusion beforehand, on what we were going to wear because we had heard that there was going to be a gala, and we were like, are we invited to the gala or not? You know, because it's a screening. But, so we thought we were going to have to dress up, and then we get finally get the invitations. I know Universal had to send, they had to work with their government affairs office to get the right wording on the invitation for us. And, so it said business casual and we were all like, okay, we can wear some logos. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

Wes: Okay. So Keli, going through this premier stuff we had talked a lot about, okay, there's going to be this huge media attention after the movie. It's going to be so big. We got to be prepared for all these interviews. And that's not really how it went.

Keli: No. So the onslaught of media requests for interviews and the interest in tornadoes really started about a month before the movie came out and was really heavy. during the two weeks before the movie came out, I just felt like it was just like my email. I was, you know, like, okay, catch, catch, catch, you know? So it was just, it was a busy, busy time. And what they - there were several topics that they wanted. Number one was just what is the current state of tornado science? What do we know about tornadoes right now? Also wanted to talk to people who were involved in, kind of as an advisory role in the movie. Wanted to ask about certain things like, can we stop tornadoes? So, those are the main topics. And what was cool. And another topic, actually, was a story for the publication Fast Company, which I had never heard of. I guess I'm not cool, but, I'd never heard of Fast Company, and they did an article about our research equipment and interviewed Elizabeth Smith and and Sean Waugh about our research equipment and stuff. So that was cool. We also had a really good article in The Ringer. We had clips from the usual suspects, an excellent article by Judson Jones who went out with Sean a couple different times, actually, to do storm research. And then Nature, Scientific American, BBC, Slate, I mean, Washington Post, you know, we had a lot of interest.

Wes: A lot of big names. But it’ll just keep coming, I imagine a little slower pace.

Keli: Oh, yeah. We’re still getting them.

Wes: What hasn't slowed down is kind of our plan to, like I said earlier, capitalize on the attention that the movie has created to promote the Lab and NOAA. So, James, maybe you can walk us through kind of what our content plan has been to capitalize on that for our website and social and things like that.

James: Yeah. So we wanted to do a series of videos that were kind of a fact versus, what they call science fiction, from the movie. And we knew that there were going to be some topics that were going to be - they were going to be - that people were going to have maybe questions about. Is this real? Could this actually happen? And so we went and kind of talking to Kevin and just kind of knowing a little bit of what was going to be discussed in the movie. The phased array radar, disrupting a tornado, overpasses, those were all things that were - that you saw from the trailer.

Wes: Yeah. Hot button stuff that people would either ask about or, you know, might be controversial and gather some attention. So talk about maybe a little bit about the format we chose and the style.

James: Yeah. So I worked with you, primarily on developing kind of like a how are we going to, how short are these going to be? We wanted to keep them around a minute, and, we knew we wanted to have them scripted ahead of time. And so, we worked on basically like, developing scripts. and we have a little teleprompter that we have, that's worked pretty well. and we picked several different scientists from the lab and tried to get, just kind of a variety of people from different spots in the lab

Keli: And Rick Smith from the Weather Service.

James: Yeah. And Rick Smith, did several too. The ones especially that were focused on warnings and safety.

Wes: So just from managing social media, we knew shorter is better. Our average watch times like 15 seconds or whatever. so we wanted to keep it short. And then knowing that we knew an interview is not going to work, we had to have something scripted so we could get in, make our point, get out. So that's why we chose that.

James: Real quick, while we’re talking about the short attention span too. One thing that honestly really helps the fact that we when we talked to Universal, NBC Universal, they said, hey, if it's out on the internet, like the trailers, we can use them. Yeah, well, we took advantage of that. If you, if you, if you're if you're scrolling and you're, you know, you're more likely to stick on something if it's got an actual like big movie stars and tornadoes. So every one of our videos, I made a point to every one of them starts with Twisters footage. So at least we can maybe keep their attention for a bit. And maybe if they do, then maybe they'll stick around for like the content.

Wes: Yeah. And we, we also made a point to shoot you shot it in a way that you could edit it vertical or horizontal, because we knew that some platforms like Instagram Reels are going to be native vertically, and if they're not, they won't get as much engagement. So we wanted to make the content tailored to the platform so that we could succeed as much as possible. And just so far we're a week in, our stuff is performing a lot better than normal. Everything's, you know, way higher than normal. And obviously that part of that is from Twisters. But I think these are formats and approaches that we can use going forward. I mean, it's no secret that short form videos are kind of ruling the internet right now. But if we can just keep doing that for other stories down the line, then hopefully that success carries over.

Keli: So yeah, I think the other key to all of this is the collaboration with NOAA Communications. So, Gen Conti from NOAA Comms decided that we should do a web or suggested that we do a web portal. And so we have noaa.gov/twisters. And then Abby Reed has worked so hard and, and, and Julie Bedford have, have worked really hard to get all of that done because there's a lot of behind the scenes that goes into that.

Wes: They really put that together quick too. And we have like this Earth Day style portal where everything's in one place. So that made it easy for us. For in all of our social pushes to say, go here. And we were able to combine things that we were making with things that already existed with some resources from National Weather Service. So we have this one stop thing, and we couldn't have done that without them.

Keli: No, they've been great. And also then, social media, you have coordinated with NOAA Weather Service and NOAA Research on social media.

Wes: That I think has been a really cool, especially on Instagram. I can make a post on NSSL’s Instagram and invite other people to collaborate and what that means is that if they accept it, then it shows up as a post on their account. So we have the same post going on NOAA, NOAA research, NSSL, Weather Service and it just being that coordinated and having that team environment and that one message coming from NOAA is really cool. And I think it's worked out really well.

Keli: Yeah. And it's been safety messages and then fact versus science fiction. And it's been great. And one thing that we knew going into this and that the portal addresses and that we expected is just interest in tornadoes and one of the reasons we know that is because of the original movie Twister really inspired a whole generation of meteorologists. And, my colleague, Alison, actually wrote an article about it. Alison Gillespie. And so she wrote an article about how current meteorologists and researchers at NOAA, were influenced by the movie. So that's on the portal as well.

Wes: Yeah. You mean you talk to anybody in this building and they're probably going to tell you that Twisters had some part, Twister – the original – had some part in them pursuing a science degree in Meteorology. And maybe our hope for this one is that it's the same. A new generation of kids that want to go into science or want to study meteorology. Hey, these are the folks who are really doing this. So I want to get involved with NOAA.

Keli: Yeah. And I love that the main character is a woman in the movie.

Wes: That representation is really important. She’s not just the main character. She's the hero, you know? Yeah. We won’t spoil it or anything, but it's not Glen Powell in the end.

Keli: Yeah. That's so true. Yeah. So true.

James: And just with Twisters like going back and watching Twister again. It is really not a very accurate like scientifically I was actually shocked at how like, you know, inaccurate is. So looking at I mean, if there was that much attention from Twister and that much influence, like Twisters is going to give people a much better, like it's going to be a lot more accurate and really and there's you can tell they put so much more time into this.

Wes: And we saw that on the back end, even from our visits, that they were earnestly seeking our input and wanted to get it right.

Keli: Lee Isaac Chung is the main one to credit for that. I think he has really set the tone. Exactly. And, also, I think Kevin Kelleher should get a lot of credit too, for his early work with the script and just being available to them and making good suggestions and really trying hard to talk to our folks about the current state of the science so that that could be incorporated.

James: Real quick, regarding the photos, one thing that we've found is that even though I took photos and video that we had to run them through NBC Universal, especially leading up to the release of the film, and they wanted to be able to accept or not accept some for us to put out on social media and so even like waiting a year with them, but then also not knowing until the very last minute if we could actually even use them, was, you know

Keli: It's stressful.

James: It's stressful. And. Yeah. And we hope eventually we can use more of them. But, right. You know, they, they approved some and then we can use them. So. Yeah.

Keli: We've never been in that situation before.

James: No, no. You know, so there's all this stuff on the cutting room floor right now that's great that we hope to use some day.

Wes: Just had to adapt. Just kind of go with the flow at times. But you know make sure you're trying to check all the right boxes and inform everyone. But got to be able to move quick and adapt to what comes.

Keli: Yeah. And ask questions. Yeah. You know just and and learn from it and use your best judgment. Yeah I think that's critical.

Wes: Because that's ultimately what we were trying to do is we're just trying to put the best foot forward for NOAA. And not promote the movie, but capitalize on the attention that the movie garnered to tell our story and get NOAA out there. So, yeah, this has been an awesome ride. Yes, yes, I hope my next year and a half in this job is just as exciting. And maybe, maybe it won't be. But you never know.

James: Probably gonna be a sequel.

Wes: Yeah. There you go. A box office hit.

Keli: Yeah, there you go. I hope there's a sequel. And honestly, it's been such a pleasure working with you two on this. You've made it fun and, sometimes bearable and, yeah. Just really, it's. And you've contributed so, so much. I really appreciate you.

Wes: Well the feeling's mutual and especially good to have you, kind of guiding the ship.

Keli: Thank you.

James: Yeah, I mean, definitely a good team effort.

Wes: Yeah, well, I guess the last thing is if anybody out there has any questions for us or wants to, you know, pick our brains about something, just reach out. We're happy to help in any way we can. And hopefully this podcast is helpful in some way or entertaining in some. And gives you kind of an insight into what we've been up to.

Keli: I hope so too.

Wes: Yeah. All right. Thanks for listening.