The Occasional Film Podcast Fast, Cheap Film Books & More

This week on the blog, a podcast interview with writer (and director and playwright and author and podcaster) Ken Levine about the business of writing and directing situation comedies.

LINKS

A Free Film Book for You: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cq23xyyt12
Another Free Film Book: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/x3jn3emga6

Fast, Cheap Film Website: https://www.fastcheapfilm.com/

Ken Levine’s Website: http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/

Eli Marks Website: https://www.elimarksmysteries.com/

Albert’s Bridge Books Website: https://www.albertsbridgebooks.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BehindthePageTheEliMarksPodcast

This week on the blog, a podcast interview with magician Lance Burton about how he wrote (and directed and starred in) the delightfully comic “Billy Topit: Master Magician.”

LINKS

A Free Film Book for You: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cq23xyyt12
Another Free Film Book: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/x3jn3emga6

Fast, Cheap Film Website: https://www.fastcheapfilm.com/

Lance Burton Website: https://www.lanceburton.com/

Billy Topit Website: http://www.billytopit.com/

Eli Marks Website: https://www.elimarksmysteries.com/

Albert’s Bridge Books Website: https://www.albertsbridgebooks.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BehindthePageTheEliMarksPodcast

This week on the blog, a podcast interview with screenwriter and author Neal Marshall Stevens about his new book on horror, “A Sense of Dread (Getting Under The Skin of Horror Screenwriting).”

LINKS

A Free Film Book for You: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cq23xyyt12
Another Free Film Book: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/x3jn3emga6

Fast, Cheap Film Website: https://www.fastcheapfilm.com/

Neal’s book at Michael Wiese Productions: https://mwp.com/product-author/neal-marshall-stevens/

Neal on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0139605/

Brian Forrest’s Blog: https://toothpickings.medium.com/

Eli Marks Website: https://www.elimarksmysteries.com/

Albert’s Bridge Books Website: https://www.albertsbridgebooks.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BehindthePageTheEliMarksPodcast

This week on the blog, a podcast interview with director John Badham, discussing an early made-for-TV movie, “Isn’t It Shocking,” along with “Wargames” and “Dracula.”

LINKS

A Free Film Book for You: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cq23xyyt12
Another Free Film Book: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/x3jn3emga6

Fast, Cheap Film Website: https://www.fastcheapfilm.com/

John Badham Website: https://www.johnbadham.com/

John Badham Books: https://www.johnbadham.com/books

“Isn’t It Shocking” (Made-for-TV movie): https://youtu.be/2fDLHx3feRM

Eli Marks Website: https://www.elimarksmysteries.com/

Albert’s Bridge Books Website: https://www.albertsbridgebooks.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BehindthePageTheEliMarksPodcast

This week on the blog, a podcast interview with filmmaker Amy Scott, discussing her terrific documentary, “Hal,” which takes a deep dive into the life and films of director Hal Ashby (“Harold and Maude,” “Being There,” Coming Home,” “Shampoo”).

LINKS

A Free Film Book for You: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cq23xyyt12
Another Free Film Book: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/x3jn3emga6

Fast, Cheap Film Website: https://www.fastcheapfilm.com/

Amy Scott Website: https://www.amyelizabethscott.com/

“Hal” Documentary website: https://hal.oscilloscope.net/

“Hal” Trailer: https://youtu.be/GBGfKan2qAg

“Harold and Maude Two-Year Anniversary” Documentary: https://youtu.be/unRuCOECvZM

Eli Marks Website: https://www.elimarksmysteries.com/

Albert’s Bridge Books Website: https://www.albertsbridgebooks.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BehindthePageTheEliMarksPodcast

This week on the blog, a podcast interview with director and editor Peet Gelderblom on his collage feature, “When Forever Dies.”

LINKS

A Free Film Book for You: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cq23xyyt12
Another Free Film Book: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/x3jn3emga6

Fast, Cheap Film Website: https://www.fastcheapfilm.com/

When Forever Dies website: http://www.whenforeverdies.com/

Watch it on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/whenforeverdies/806226783

Watch it on the Eye Film Player: https://player.eyefilm.nl/en/films/when-forever-dies

Eli Marks Website: https://www.elimarksmysteries.com/

Albert’s Bridge Books Website: https://www.albertsbridgebooks.com/

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BehindthePageTheEliMarksPodcast

Interview Transcript

I do want to just spend just a minute or so talking about When Forever Dies. But oh, my goodness Peet. Where did that come from? And how do—I realize you could probably talk for an hour about it? How did you come up with that? And the very process of putting it together is mind blowing. How would you describe it to someone who hasn't seen it?
Peet: Yeah, When Forever Dies is an archival fiction and it cobbles together scraps of existing films to tell an entirely different story of its own. And that is the story of the relationship between a man and a woman, and how this relationship sort of degrades over time. And it's really experimental in the way that it takes shots and bits and scenes from completely different movies and also completely different genres. It can be advertising, documentaries, animation, love silent films, everything really, and it still manages to tell a whole story.
You know, you say it's experimental, as someone who has seen it, it's experimental for a few minutes. And then you understand the experiment. And it's then a normal narrative, you get it. I mean, you use some interstitial cards that help bring us along.
Peet: I say that, because I've always believed that experiment in accessibility shouldn't be a mutually exclusive. It's actually, it's a roller coaster ride of a film and it's in a very, in a lot of ways, it's actually very traditional because I'm using the rules of continuity editing, but I’m using the rules against themselves a little bit, because I take from different films, and then I create, you know, sometimes the opposite meaning out of different shots. Yeah, but what gave me the idea was just I saw a way to do this. And it has evolved, of course, with maybe the start of it was the Raising Cain recut, and making movie mashups after that—video essays—but it all comes from my editing background. I've edited lots of trailers and promos for Universal Pictures and Comedy Central and all sorts of TV channels. And then I was also able to take from different series and different films, you know, put different shots together and create this new through line that didn't exist before and I always enjoyed doing that and I just thought, wouldn't it be really cool to try and do this for a whole feature film?
As it turns out, it was really cool. You know, we recently had on the podcast an editor named Roger Nygard, and Roger edits, Larry David's show Curb Your Enthusiasm, he edited Veep and he's a filmmaker like you. He directs and he edits and he put he also makes his living as an editor. And he said that the thing that taught him the most about filmmaking and about editing was editing promos, where you had a you know, you had to do it all in 15 seconds. And he said you'd learn the most about filmmaking when you have that sort of requirement to work within those boundaries and still tell a story.
Peet: Yeah, it's the shortest way to tell a story and you really need or you really learn about what things what elements you really need to make something happening on the screen.
With When Forever Dies what's the music on that post-scored or where did you edit to the music? I couldn't really tell, it was all seems so seamless.
Peet: Wo