Film School – Details, episodes & analysis

Have you ever thought of your script, book, or film as a persuasive argument? It is. Drama quite literally arises from two (or several) characters with very different, very persuasive points of view clashing with each other. That's called rhetoric. And if our characters' rhetorical skill can only ever be as strong as the person who wrote that character...well, maybe we all of us writers need to work on our rhetoric, don't we? The better our rhetorical skills become, the more persuasive our characters become, the more compelling our stories become. We discuss that dynamic.

Also, Josh recommends Top Chef on Peacock, and Ira recommends the Shrek series of movies, also on Peacock.

I want to make a confession...

Hitchcock has a nose for a character in a bind, and that's on full display with this one, where a priest takes confession from a murderer, then becomes the main suspect in that very same murder. Will he break his oath as a priest and tell the authorities the truth? Or will he hang for another man's crime? We watch and find out!

You've probably heard this before: there is no ONE WAY to be a writer. Or a filmmaker. Or an actor, or a painter, or a dancer, or a sculptor...the possibilities, personalities, and pathways are endless. Why is that? And if its true, how can I find my own way? We discuss and answer!

Also, Josh recommends The Terror Season 1 (again!), and Ira recommends Scavenger's Reign which is currently on Netflix.

The spice must flow.

David Lynch bites off his first big-budget studio film, and boy howdy is it a BITE. He's tackling one of the biggest, densest Sci-Fi tentpoles out there: Frank Herbert's Dune. Quite the departure from his smaller, arthouse-y fare. So, how does he do? We watch and discuss!

Thinking about going indie? This is the podcast for you. What are the pros and the cons to eschewing the "system?" There are some GENUINE advantages to being your own studio, publisher or distribution network. There are also some disadvantages. How much you enjoy going indie very much depends on how you navigate those pros and cons, and how much you know yourself and what you like. We discuss our own experiences and lessons learned being independent AND traditional creatives.

Also, Josh recommends the WWE (recorded back before the announcement that Vince McMahon was returning, btw), and Ira recommends 1979's classic Phantasm and the 2008 Get Smart with Steve Carrel and Anne Hathaway.

I am not an animal!!!

The David Lynch Deep Dive continues with his second feature film, an historical biopic centered around John Merrick, a young man in 19th Century England with striking birth and genetic defects that made him treated as a freakshow, whether in the circus or in a hospital. It's a surprisingly conventional, normal, straightforward film. Very much not what we associate with David Lynch. So . . . how effective IS it? We discuss.

It's probably the first thing people ask of an artist: where do your ideas come from? What kinds of things strike the inspiration chord and makes you want to create? And when inspiration does come, how do you foster it into an actual piece of art? We discuss our own personal answers to this common question this week on the Cutting Room Floor!

Also, Josh recommends Entergalactic on Netflix, and Ira recommends Everything Everywhere All At Once which is currently available to rent.

In heaven everything is fine.

This week, we're watching David Lynch's first film. It took him the better part of a decade to make. It's surrealist and avante garde in the way only Lynch can pull off, and it's probably his most personal, most intimate film. He kinda lets his nightmares and fears literally play out for us to see, feverish and confusing. We try to untangle it all. What works? What doesn't? We discuss!

Happy New Year!

Lots of fun stuff to come on the podcast this year, and for Josh and Ira personally. We talk about what the year-to-come has in store. What's on the horizon for you?

2022. The first full post-pandemic year. It was also a major year for us here on the podcast in many ways: adjusting to society's "new normal," successes and failures in filmmaking and publishing, and our first forays beyond the AFI's Top 100 list in terms of the project this podcast is trying to tackle. So, how did we do? What will we think of when we look back on the year that was 2022? In this week's episode, we discuss.