Film Formally

S2E09 - EMERGENCY PODCAST: Justice League & The Snyder Cut

It’s an emergency, time for a podcast! This week, we’re discussing the sordid tale of the DC comics behemoth blockbuster Justice League. Initially released in 2017 to much disappointment after extensive Joss Whedon-helmed reshoots, it’s taken on a new life after a movement around releasing original director Zack Snyder’s preferred cut formed. What has ensued is a confusing stream of contradictory information, and we’re here to sort it out!

In this episode, we discuss:

• The mysteries surrounding the mythical “Snyder Cut”: did it ever really exist? Why does the story keep changing?

• Aspect ratio revisionism and open matte versions of films.

• Brian Wilsom’s sMiLe and the impossibility of truly non-revisionist reconstructions of never-completed works.

• The “Black and Chrome” trend.

• Devan’s controversial Letterboxd review of Rise of Skywalker.

• What IS art, anyways?

If you’d like to support the show, here’s a link to our Patreon.

Additional Resources:

Will’s Snyder Cut tweetstorm.

Works discussed during this episode:

Sully

Blade Runner 2049

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

The Mist

Mad Max: Fury Road (Black and Chrome Edition)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Parasite

Son of Saul

Brian Wilson’s sMiLe

 

S2E08 - Lighting Motivation feat. Paige Smith

How do we light our movies? The answer for many starts with the idea of motivation. What, within the world of our film, justifies the light illuminating our stories? In this episode we once again sit down with Paige Smith to discuss the ins and outs of lighting ideology. Most films circa the 21st century are lit in a way that prizes ‘naturalism’; we delve into the reasoning behind this as well as other ideologies, including the theatrical lighting methods that dominated early and mid 20th century cinema.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Lighting ideologies and how they can influence our creative process.

• The dangers of using the words “Key”, “Fill”, and “Backlight.”

• The evolution of lighting linguistics, from the birth of cinema through the era of classical hollywood realism to modern-day realism.

• Gendered lighting techniques and other broken methodologies.

• Gregg Toland’s groundbreaking candlelight in The Grapes of Wrath.

• Janusz Kaminski’s use of ‘documentary’ lighting in Schindler’s List.

• Ellen Kuras’ use of broken lighting motivation in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

• James Wong Howe and Roger Deakins’ lighting seminars.

S2E07 - Blocking in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Okay, folks, it's time for blocking! The pre-planned arrangement, movement, and posturing of characters in a frame is one of a director's most artistically demanding on-set tasks, and nobody blocked a scene better than Sidney Lumet (whom we've already talked about once this season). Screenwriter and Lumet mega-fan Cameron Carpenter joined us to talk about the blocking in Lumet's swan song, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke. We also found time to talk about the film as an early example of digital cinematography, and chatted about how critics responded to the presence of a naked woman in the film (not well) and directorial batting averages.

S2E06 - Experimental Animation

Today we're taking a trip through a few of the wild worlds of experimental animation, to get a sense of what makes these proudly bizarre shorts — which take on or even invent processes unheard of in mainstream animated films — feel so persuasive and affecting. We're joined by animator Gil Goletski, who came with an excellent program of shorts to watch (all of which you can see for free online), and who was happy to indulge (or initiate) some digressions into comedy and experimentalism, the shame of an unseen canon, and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (and we cut far more of the latter subject than you might suspect from what's left).

S2E05 - American Utopia and Visual Structures in Concert Cinema

There’s a new concert film out! It’s called David Byrne’s American Utopia, directed by none other than Spike Lee and shot by none other than Ellen Kuras. It documents David Byrne’s most recent tour-turned Broadway show, and it’s drawn much discussion: in particular, to David Byrne’s previous high-profile concert film, Stop Making Sense. We took this release as an opportunity to delve into the entire genre of concert cinema, and the difficulties that arise when one must turn a stage-bound show intended for a live audience into a film object. 

 

We also discuss Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme), Jazz on a Summer’s Day (Bert Stern, Aram Avakian), Monterey Pop (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967), Gimme Shelter (Chartlotte Zwerin, Albert & David Maysles, 1970), Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh, 1970), The Last Waltz (Martin Scorsese, 1978), U2: Rattle and Hum (Phil Joanou, 1988), Bjork: Biophilia (Peter Strickland & Nick Fenton, 2014), Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!  (Adam Yauch, 2006), Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse (Julian Schnabel, 2008), Heart of Gold (2006), Trunk Show (2009), Journeys (2011) (Jonathan Demme), and Shine a Light (Martin Scorsese, 2008)

S2E04 - Sounds of an Inner Life

How do you establish a sense of space through sound, not just as a means of describing a physical space, but the inner state of a person? Filmmakers Nisha Platzer and Nayuribe Montero Jimenez join us to discuss how they pulled that off when they sculpted the sonic shape of both the Cuban landscape and a silent, train-fixated boy within it in their short film Vaivén.

S2E03 - Indie Post Production

This time around we’re using our personal experiences to shed light on one version of how post production on an independent film can play out, discussing how we helped Daniel Jeffery and Mackenzie Warner finish the short film they co-wrote, A New Leash on Life. The four of us discuss our respective roles of editor, composer, colourist, and sound designer, sharing anecdotes and our personal theories of the craft along with our fair share of silly tangents.

S2E02 - Varda by Agnès: What is Videography?

In which we discuss Agnes Varda’s final film, Varda by Agnes, and the questions it poses about the nature of cinema: is it simply a piece of lecture videography? The swan song from one of the greatest artists of our time? Both? The fundamentals of what constitute “Videography” and “Filmmaking” are put on trial as we interrogate Varda's late work. 

S2E01 - Fail Safe and Contrast

We kick off our second season talking about one of our favourite films, Fail Safe, and its extraordinary use of contrast not just as an aesthetic, but as the guiding philosophy behind the whole film. Sidney Lumet’s nuclear thriller employs endless contrasts: between dark and light, fast and slow, loud and quiet, abstraction and realism, and the life and death contrasts of nuclear war and its ideologies. All this contrast adds up to a one-of-a-kind nail-biting experience, and we’re here to walk you through how so much of the film’s construction centers on that one unifying concept.

Inter-season Special - State of the Podcast & Listener Q&A

As season 1 comes to a close, Devan and Will take stock, answer your questions, and look forward to the new season.