School of Movies Alex & Sharon Shaw

[School of Movies 2024]
This week, I have put together a presentation utilising footage drawn painstakingly from many, many hours worth of commentaries and archival interviews on the Star Wars movies, all focusing on one man.
I worked until the thumb and index finger and on my mouse hand no longer obeyed commands, in order to do justice to the astonishing amount of our experience of those movies is informed upon by the sounds he composed with. His decades of craftsmanship are as crucial to Star Wars as the sensational scores of John Williams. That's not even mentioning Indiana Jones, Willow, WALL-E or E.T.
You'll hear how the most memorable FX (as well as the ones used so subtly we don't even notice) are recorded in the real world to create that lived-in environmental ambience and audible character forever linked with that Galaxy far, far away. Here for your further movie education is one of the greatest and most ground-breaking sound designers in the history of cinema, Mr Ben Burtt.

[School of Everything Else 2024]
When the Roman Empire looted the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, the amount of gold they found inside dropped the price of gold by 50% throughout the Empire. If something like that happened today, it would have caused the collapse of several First World countries overnight.
But that amount of loot pales in comparison to the value of the One Piece; both the fictional mysterious pirate treasure that has everyone in this wonderful waterworld taking to the high seas, but also the third best-selling comic of all time and the phenomenally popular anime, both of which have been running since the late 90s.
For those of us who need to catch up really fast without reading or watching over a thousand things, the new Netflix live action series is the best place to start. Just eight utterly compulsive episodes long, so far, this will give you a grounding in the major characters the same way it did for us in this commissioned episode. And we brought in both the sponsors and two more Straw Hats to fill out the map on this vast, rich and vibrant world. Guests

Self AKA Selfproclaimed


Teemu Helasharju AKA Banzai Tree


Bradford Yurkew AKA Lanodantheon and


Austin Wilden AKA WC-Wit

[Check out Austin's writing on One Piece here...]
https://wits-writing.tumblr.com/post/690798073331515392/my-favorite-panel-in-one-piece-or-why-ill
[And on Transformers Earthspark here...]
https://wits-writing.tumblr.com/post/721584287457181696/a-wonderful-experience-why-transformers
 

[School of Everything Else 2024]
Our years-long journey through the DC Animated Universe comes to a close, and it is both melancholy as we say goodbye to Kevin Conroy and at the same time wildly enthusiastic for some of the very best episodes across all that we have watched.
It is strange to think that we started this in 2020 when the DC movies at the cinema were on a high note: After years of the only success story being Batman, they had a billion-dollar hit with Aquaman, a cheerful adventure with the original Shazam!, we were moving past the embarrassments of Justice League and Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman was still a shining beacon and even though barely anyone saw it Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey kicked absolute ass... and now as we finish it, Aquaman 2 was a damp squid that made about a third of the original's box office, Black Adam finally appeared after over a decade of development for a "...that was it?" response, Shazam 2 pootled away the goodwill of the original, Justice League came back to satisfy the Snyder Cult... who then demanded more Snyder, James Gunn tried a Suicide Squad, but without Joker there, nobody came (everybody came to Joker), new management stepped in, they locked Batgirl in the dungeon and threw away the key, The Flash ran through time and space and development purgatory, resulting in a big, cringing NOPE! from audiences, Wonder Woman went back to 1984, her beacon puttered out and now she does birthday party cameos, and Blue Beetle kicked absolute ass... even though barely anyone saw it. The only big success story... was the Batman.
I honestly hope James Gunn can rescue ALL the heroes from this turd-fire, but whether or not that is possible, School of Movies can now definitively say that this IS the superhero universe to be held up as that shining beacon again (absence of a much-needed Wonder Woman: the Animated Series notwithstanding).
My personal final rankings are...
1. Justice League Unlimited
2. Batman: The Animated Series
3. Superman: The Animated Series
4. Justice League: The Animated Series
5. The New Batman Adventures
6. Batman Beyond
Between those, a breadth of the DC comic characters and settings was laid out in such a rich and consistent manner that makes this the definitive encapsulation of the mythology. If you've never had the pleasure of watching these in remastered High Definition, you will have your breath taken away by the artistry on show.
Guests:
Toby Jungius @TJungius of Through the Wind Door
Nama Chibitty @namathenerd

[School of Everything Else 2024]
The DC Animated Universe marathon reaches its Avengers phase, as the established animated Batman and Superman from their own Animated Series' which had already crossed over, team up with Wally West's Flash (who had guested on Superman) John Stewart's Green Lantern (as opposed to the Kyle Raynor who guested on Superman) Diana Prince who should absolutely have gotten her own Wonder Woman: The Animated Series, J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter (not to be confused with the unrelated Manhunters from the later Green Lantern: the Animated Series, which takes place in the Young Justice timeline) and Shayera Hol, Hawkgirl (not to be confused with Carter Hall, the unrelated Hawkman) of Thanagaria, the bird-people planet. Comics are weird.
The first two seasons, simply called Justice League are an odd fit. It doesn't have an explosive beginning that has all these new personalities playing off each other, and the event of them being revealed and meeting feeling like a special, momentous thing, they're just kind of all there, converging on a bunch of boring aliens to fight. The following episodes are almost across the board two-parters, making it less easy to sit down and just enjoy one. And they are still remarkably coy about getting inside their heads and playing out the drama of being this close to other supremely powerful beings. Making them gods first is always less appealing to me than making them people first.
Fortunately, when those first two seasons concluded we moved onto Justice League Unlimited. Self-contained episodes, even stronger animation and music, really making use of a massively expanded roster of seemingly everyone in the DC Universe, and a deft handling of smaller, more personal stories, with grand overarching umbrella plots. We get into some of that on this episode as there is some intersection between the two very different formats, (as well as a discussion of the Batman-Beyond closing episode 'Epilogue') but the grand finale will come in next week's concluding episode to the entire DCEU.
Guests:
Toby Jungius @TJungius of Through the Wind Door
Nama Chibitty @namathenerd
(And on the Epilogue, originally recorded on our Batman Begins session)
Chris Finik @finmonster09
Kevin Veighey @KevinTimeGeek86
Bradford Yurkiw

[School of Movies 2024]
This is an idea for a new kind of show that I've been developing. It just so happens to coincide with a period where my voice has been wrecked from illness and I'm trying to limit talking for long stretches so that my vocal cords can heal up.
I've been pulling together an archive of Director's Commentaries from the various discs that nobody seems to want any more. These represent a window of just over a decade wherein we got to hear what was in the heads of the filmmakers. As we move into the era of the vast majority of movies being watched over streaming, with scant few extras or documentaries on their construction, it is even easier to dismiss the works as 'content'. The general public never much cared for these materials, but if you love movies like we do, the bonus features are troves of creative insight to be uncovered.
However, most commentaries are a little bit dry, or might need the film there viewable for context, or the speaker falls back on saying what they're seeing onscreen, and the bigger issue is who has the time in the 2020s to sit down for two hours with one of these? My way forward is listening to them on my iPod as audiobooks. And what I want to share with you is the focused and collected cream the crop I'm studying. This brings our show closer to what it was always meant to be, Sharon and I learning along with you folks, from the craftspeople of film. And who better to start with than my absolute favourite person in this industry?
Now, I need feedback on this show, which is composed of the most fascinating parts to me from his commentaries on Hellboy (2004) and Cronos (1992). How much do you like this format and who else would you like to hear from? Because my archive is growing towards hundreds of hours worth of precious perspective, and to be the curator of that for you would be a literal honour.

[School of Everything Else 2024]
The conclusion (for now) to this series of shows on the triumphant return of Star Trek.
Season 2 slaloms between unsettling and dark episodes which would feel more at home in Discovery if they weren't so personal to the characters in this rich ensemble... and some of the most hilarious, touching, light-hearted yet heart-breaking downtime episodes which highlight the comedy strengths and the charisma of everyone in the crew. It's bumpy, but so worth the journey.
Kaoru's recommended episodes of the original 1966 series, AND the redheaded stepchild of Star Trek, the much maligned Enterprise series which ran for 98 episodes from 2001-2005.
TOS S1-24: Space Seed
TOS S2-7: Wolf in the Fold
ENTERPRISE S4-4 to 6: Borderland/Cold Station 12/The Augments
Chris' Suggestion: The Orville - Season 2
Debbie's Suggestion: Talistheintrovert on YouTube with her presentation "PSYCH the best Sherlock Holmes adaptation in existence".
Jesse's Book Pick: This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone.
Sharon's Book Pick: The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers.
The Bad Batch S2-E12: The Outpost.
Guests:
From Sequentially Yours  Kaoru Negisa  @Moonpanther22
and Debbie Morse  @bastet8300
Jesse Ferguson of Recorded Tomorrow @TheDapperDM
Chris Finik @finmonster09