Screen Testing

Neil Studd and Dan Billing
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Neil Studd and Dan Billing bring you a fortnightly movie podcast with a software testing spin. We'll be looking for bugs in the plot, and comparing how the films compare to real-life experiences we've faced in the world of testing!

  1. Ep 28: The Social Network

    09/16/2020

    Ep 28: The Social Network

    We're joined by Jenna Charlton to discuss David Fincher's critically-acclaimed Mark Zuckerberg biopic which straddles a very fine line between hero worship and cautionary tale. We talk about the pre-Facebook internet days of Angelfire and MySpace, how the movie mostly gets its tech correct for a change, and our real-life experiences with the privilege which the film displays. We get a bit serious in the middle as we unpack the overt misogynism on-display in the movie, discuss the impact of Facebook's push into the editorial and advertising spaces, and look at what happens when content moderation goes awry. There's some light-heartedness along the way as the crew discuss the feel-good programs that they use for respite, why Dan's name didn't meet AOL standards, and Neil shares a story of an unfortunate encounter with Justin Bieber. We'll see you again in October for our discussion on JURASSIC PARK! Twitters: @ScreenTesting @SheWrestlesTest @TheTestDoctor @neilstudd Emails: screentesting@gmail.com Intro music: The White Stripes - Ball and Biscuit Outro music: The Beatles - Baby, You're A Rich Man

    1h 14m
  2. Ep 27: The Net

    07/31/2020

    Ep 27: The Net

    It's time for another long-overdue dive into technology in 90s movies, as we go deep into the "not as bad as you heard it was" Sandra Bullock thriller, The Net. We investigate whether Jack Devlin has the skills required to be an international spy, whether the film merited the little-known sequel and TV series which it received, and whether Angela should be briefer in her emails when she's being pursued. As usual, there are tangents upon tangents, as we uncover the secret behind Neil's unwritten novel, Dan's time spent working at the bleeding edge of the early days of the internet, and the time that Neil was framed as a pervert by a badly-trained keylogger. Films and TV shows mentioned: Hackers Speed Demolition Man Speed 2 Patriot Games Clear and Present Danger The Hunt for Red October Independence Day Goldeneye North by Northwest Notorious The Net 2.0 From Russia with Love The World Is Not Enough NYPD Blue The Bourne Identity Casino Royale Mr Robot Lost The Amazing Spider-Man Jurassic Park Gravity Bird Box Ocean's 8 Our Brand Is Crisis Crash The Blind Side All About Steve They Live The Silence of The Lambs Bill and Ted Face the Music Star Trek: Short Treks Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Die Hard 2 Doctor Who: Earthshock Hannibal Strangers on a Train Diagnosis Murder The Punisher Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Proxima Hanna Star Trek: The Next Generation The Mandalorian Firefly Bad Education Palm Springs Other references: Taken 3 - Liam Neeson jumps a fence Anatomy of a Scene: fake breakdown of the Taken 3 fence jump Dwayne Johnson in The Net (TV series) Dwayne Johnson in Star Trek: Voyager Jeremy Renner in The Net (TV series) Ian McDiarmid "Do It" Shia Laboeuf "Do It" Ben Stiller "Do It" Blackadder Goes Forth - Alan Darknet Diaries IT Crowd - Fire IT Crowd - 0118... (I was pretty close) IT Crowd - "behind the lady" Goldeneye - Sean Bean impaled Commando - Bennett impaled Family Guy - Brian's novel Star Wars - Maclunkey! Bristol Tourist Board  We'll be back at the end of August, hopefully with guests, to talk about THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Twitters: @ScreenTesting @TheTestDoctor @neilstudd Emails: screentestingpod@gmail.com Intro music: Mark Isham - The Net - Act I  Outro music: Annie Lennox - A Whiter Shade of Pale

    1h 21m
  3. Ep 26: Independence Day

    07/03/2020

    Ep 26: Independence Day

    Trying to sync your episode with an immovable calendar date? Doing two recordings in one week? Suffering with kidney stones as well? It's no problem for your favourite (perhaps) test-focused movie buffs, who are here to talk about a sci-fi classic which has an unmentionable sequel, despite the fact that Neil keeps mentioning it. Dan and Neil are your guides on a trip through that most traditional of holiday tales, featuring a weird mix of American bravado and hubris. The explosions are almost as large as the plot conveniences, as they set out to answer all of the most important questions: Is there such a thing as too much backstory? Was Randy Quaid really abducted by aliens? And does this film feature the most expository line of dialog of all-time? Oh, by the way, the show that Neil was thinking of which featured a Pringles can antenna was Mr Robot (S2E4, "Master-Slave"). However, any attempt to link to it was MAJORLY spoiler-ridden, so you should just watch all of Mr Robot instead. Films and TV shows mentioned: Independence Day: Resurgence The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Jurassic Park The Fly The Tall Man Battlestar Galactica (TV series) The Lost World: Jurassic Park Men in Black Godzilla Armageddon Deep Impact Titanic Goldeneye Ant Man The Legend of Bagger Vance Six Degrees of Separation Enemy of the State Gemini Man Memphis Belle Rocky Balboa The American President The West Wing House of Cards Stargate Mr Deeds The Mummy Planet of the Apes (2001) Doctor Who TV movie (1996) Airport Airplane! The Wonder Years Jason Bourne (2016) Arrival Close Encounters of the Third Kind Hidden Figures Star Wars Independence Day (1983) Avengers: Age of Ultron Hamilton Other references: Orion Cinema, Burgess Hill Empire magazine Amazon: Chris Hadfield - An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth YouTube: Independence Day UK radio play Wikipedia: Star Trek: Short Treks SETI@home YouTube: Riskstorming the Death Star Image of the British army official who doesn't know how to handle guns YouTube: James Brown and the upside-down Empire State Building Join us again later in July for a long-overdue romp through THE NET! Twitters: @ScreenTesting @TheTestDoctor @neilstudd Emails:
 screentestingpod@gmail.com Intro music: David Arnold - 1969 / We Came In Peace Outro music: REM - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

    53 min
  4. Ep 25: The Return!

    06/30/2020

    Ep 25: The Return!

    Where have the last two years gone? Neil and Dan reunite as they attempt to quantify the many things that have kept them away from their microphones, whilst also focusing on some of the bigger issues of today (virulent or otherwise). As well as the many subjects of births, deaths, marriages and bubbles, we attempt to put a positive spin on COVID, discuss the ever-evolving impact of Black Lives Matter on historical media, and there's a rundown of the mixed bag which is the current UK box office for 2020. Films and TV shows mentioned: Contagion Deep Blue Sea  Brexit: The Uncivil War Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng Chiang Frozen 2 Space Force Hunters (Amazon Prime) Star Trek: Discovery S1 Serpico Trolls World Tour The Hunt 7500 The Walk (not Man on Wire!) The Dark Knight Rises Inception The Platform High Rise Uncut Gems Punch Drunk Love The Wedding Singer Good Time The Invisible Man The Handmaid's Tale S1 Hollow Man Emma. Jojo Rabbit Thor Ragnaraok Avengers: Endgame The Mandalorian S1 What We Do In The Shadows S1 Birds of Prey Parasite Get Out The Gentlemen Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels King Arthur Aladdin Paddington 2 Dolittle Bad Boys For Life Lethal Weapon 4 Transformers: The Last Knight 6 Underground Sonic The Hedgehog Pokemon: Detective Pikachu 1917 Rope Dunkirk No Time To Die Black Widow Tenet Dune Arrival Blade Runner 2049 Dune (1984 version) Hamilton Other references: Testers' Island Discs - Episode 25 MoneySupermarket Scott Logic Dan's fundraising page for Macmillan Cancer Research Postman events (including Twitch streams) Twitch: Automation in Testing Online Clifton Suspension Bridge BBC News: UK virus-tracing app switches to Apple-Google model Quality Remarks podcast Episode 12 - Ethics Panel BBC News: Liverpool fans flock to Anfield to celebrate Premier League title BBC News: Beach littering Black Lives Matter BBC News: George Floyd death BBC News: Edward Colston statue torn down BBC News: John Cleese speaks out about Fawlty Towers removal BBC News: 30 Rock: Tina Fey apologises as blackface episodes are withdrawn BBC News: Little Britain pulled from iPlayer and Netflix Meetup: Ministry of Testing Manchester Meetup: Ministry of Testing Buckinghamshire TestBash Home 2020 Upcoming TestBashes Kiuwan: Busting the Security Myths in DevOps The Motrix: Transcendental Learning from the Space Time Continuum Agile Testing Days BBC News: The Hunt release cancelled Star Trek: The Next Conversation We'll be back again by the weekend, with our timely take on the sci-fi classic INDEPENDENCE DAY! Twitters: @ScreenTesting @TheTestDoctor @neilstudd Emails: screentestingpod@gmail.com Intro music: Pearl and Dean Theme Outro music: Depeche Mode - Shake The Disease

    49 min
  5. Ep 24: Sully

    06/01/2018

    Ep 24: Sully

    We're back from a brief hiatus with - unbelievably - a film which actually deeply relates to testing! We're joined by Mark Tomlinson, who brings his own experiences of dealing with the National Transportation Safety Board, to discuss a film about a remarkable moment of true-life heroism, and the decisions that we make in the heat of the moment. The events of the movie give us a chance to get into in-depth discussions about the challenges of testing within regulated industries, developing risk mitigation strategies in life-critical environments, debugging/monitoring, and whether quality is a team effort. There are remarkably few distractions, although we get into some meta-discussion about whether it was correct to portray the NTSB as pantomime villains, a general critique of Clint Eastwood's agenda, a surprising number of references to metallurgy, and we give Mark an introduction to 1980s UK gameshows. YouTube trailers for films mentioned: Equity Miss Sloane Flight Unforgiven Bridges of Madison County Every Which Way But Loose Million Dollar Baby The 15:17 To Paris Gran Torino Ex Machina Deepwater Horizon Runaway Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle Miscellaneous links: Amazon.co.uk: Captain Chesley B Sullenberger III - Highest Duty TestBash Philadelphia 2017 TestBash San Francisco 2018 Del Dewar - Dressing Up the Spinning Cat Wikipedia: Yanny or Laurel Wikipedia: US Airways Flight 1549 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Wikipedia: 2015 Shoreham Airshow crash AP News: Real-life investigators object to portrayal in 'Sully' movie Federal Aviation Administration Wikipedia: Hagiography YouTube: Clint Eastwood RNC speech interviewing an empty chair Earwolf: James Bonding podcast /r/MovieDetails: Poster for Gran Torino visible in Sully YouTube: Eddie Izzard - Glorious (Birdstrike) YouTube: Agile Testing Days 2015: Richard Bradshaw - Automation in Testing YouTube: Brendan Gregg - Shouting in the Datacenter YouTube: Austin Powers (1, not 2!) - Bathroom Break YouTube: Sully EPIC SPEECH Wikipedia: The Krypton Factor YouTube: The Krypton Factor - Flight simulator round YouTube: The Krypton Factor - Rearranging perspex shapes YouTube: The Krypton Factor - Tony Slattery and Roger Lloyd Pack in "Dead Ringer" sketch RailPlan 2020 Twitters: @MarkOnTask @TheTestDoctor @neilstudd Emails: screentestingpod@gmail.com Intro music: Christian Jacob - Sully Suite Outro music: Christian Jacob - Flying Home (Sully's Theme)

    1h 19m
  6. Ep 23: Speed

    04/06/2018

    Ep 23: Speed

    Pop quiz, hotshot! You want to record a new podcast episode, but you also want a break from some of the darker plots that you've talked about recently. Plus, you're snowed-in at home. What do you do? Dan and Neil decide not to shoot the hostage, but to instead kick back with a discussion about Speed. In an episode recorded at the beginning of March (hence some timeline discrepancies and weird Oscar predictions), they find many parallels with Die Hard, and manage to work-in a surprising number of testing elements, including setting/reviewing acceptance criteria, pairing in the workplace, communicating information, and using psychology to analyse a situation. Miscellaneous Links: BBC News: The Beast from the East How Did This Get Made? podcast Den of Geek: The strange history of the Die Hard movies  Dailymotion: Mythbusters - Speed Bus Jump TV Tropes: Camera Spoofing Dailymotion: The A-Team: Trouble Brewing (skip to 34:00 for the Polaroid scene) YouTube: The West Wing - In Excelsis Deo (Richard Schiff Emmy win) The West Wing Weekly podcast YouTube: Austin Powers - Head Puns Films and TV shows mentioned: Die Hard 2 The Thing Pingu Speed 2: Cruise Control The Net The Lake House Jurassic Park Twister Independence Day Die Hard Black Rain The Hunt For Red October Basic Instinct The Jewel Of The Nile The Matrix Point Break Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure The Haunting Under Siege Equilibrium Minority Report Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life Tomb Raider (2018) The Rock Swordfish The Martian Ferris Bueller's Day Off Star Trek: Generations The Corner The Wire Lenny The Wonder Dog I, Tonya The Hateful Eight Lady Bird Game Night The Game The Mercy Finding Your Feet As hinted near the end, our next episode will be based on the true-life story of SULLY with special guest Mark Tomlinson! Twitters: @ScreenTesting @TheTestDoctor @neilstudd Emails: screentestingpod@gmail.com Intro music: Mark Mancina - Speed (Main Title) Outro music: Billy Idol - Speed

    43 min
  7. Ep 22: The Silence of The Lambs

    02/14/2018

    Ep 22: The Silence of The Lambs

    We return a little later than planned, as we discuss one of the greatest thrillers of our time, getting into discussions about psychology, interviewing, misogyny and gender politics, and appropriate occasions for purchasing FBI-themed cakes. We also salvage the best bits of our failed Oscars announcement episode, highlighting a few nominations that we hope will win big, and staking our reputations on a few predictions of our own. Miscellaneous Links: Ministry of Testing charity calendar  Saving Linnea Wikipedia: List of Big Five Academy Award winners and nominees YouTube: The Silence of The Lambs as a Romantic Comedy Wikipedia: The Silence of The Lambs: Accusations of homophobia, transphobia and sexism YouTube: Frasier - Dan Butler as Bulldog YouTube: The Silence of The Lambs - Chris Isaak cameo YouTube: The Silence of The Lambs - George Romero cameo YouTube: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault YouTube trailers for films and TV shows mentioned: Hannibal (movie) Saw Red Dragon Hannibal Rising Manhunter Hannibal (TV series) Casino Royale It Happened One Night One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest American Hustle La La Land The Wire Breaking Bad Se7en True Detective Criminal Minds Prime Suspect Contact Nell The Killing (Danish version) Spiral Sicario Sicario 2: Soldado The X Files The Day of the Jackal I.T. The Crying Game Philadelphia The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert To Wong Foo The Danish Girl Heat Monk Diagnosis: Murder Columbo Detroit Wonder Woman Justice League Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Moon The Shape of Water The Post Darkest Hour Saving Private Ryan Dunkirk Blade Runner 2049 Molly's Game Loving Vincent Twitters: @ScreenTesting @TheTestDoctor @neilstudd Emails: screentestingpod@gmail.com Intro music: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - American Girl  Outro music: Q Lazzarus - Goodbye Horses

    50 min
  8. Ep 21: La La Land

    01/12/2018

    Ep 21: La La Land

    We begin 2018 with a discussion of Neil's favourite film of 2017, and a worrying early revelation about Dan's general problems with musicals. But we persevere, and discover not only a few musical gems in Dan's closet, but also a shared appreciation for some of the plot elements in La La Land. Things get a bit philosophical and introspective as we dig into how we motivate ourselves (and others) when we (or they) suffer setbacks, how we tell our own stories about the world around us, taking the opportunities that come your way, avoiding being paralysed by "what if", and a few of the many screw-ups we've made in our past relationships. As usual, we get sidelined by literal vs metaphor, fantasy physics, childhood dreams, Neil adopting some of Mia's vocabulary, and using BCC in emails. At the end we have a very brief discussion about The Last Jedi, which is basically spoiler-free, but if you want to be really careful then you might want to fast-forward a couple of minutes! YouTube links to songs referenced from La La Land: Another Day of Sun Someone in the Crowd Mia and Sebastian's Theme Take On Me / I Ran / Tainted Love A Lovely Night Planetarium Start A Fire Audition (The Fools Who Dream) Miscellaneous references: Neil's profile on Untappd Dan's profile on Untappd YouTube: Kermode and Mayo's Film Review channel Empire podcast History vs Hollywood: The Greatest Showman vs The true story of P.T. Barnum Empire: Rogue One interview about the missing TIE Fighter TestBash San Francisco 2018 Curbed: La La Land - The ultimate filming location map Game of Thrones location tours YouTube: A-Ha - "Take On Me" YouTube: A Flock Of Seagulls - "I Ran" Hollywood Reporter: How La La Land Got Its 6-Minute Sunset Dance Just Right (In Only 4 Takes) YouTube: Wayne's World 2 - Kenny G YouTube: Wayne's World - Bohemian Rhapsody Speak Easy The BRIT School YouTube: Galileo Observatory in Grand Theft Auto V vs the real-life Griffith Observatory BBC News: Golden Globes 2018 Prince Charles Cinema - Blade Runner & Blade Runner 2049 double-feature (some tickets still available!) Amazon.co.uk: Ben Elton - The First Casualty YouTube trailers for films and TV shows mentioned: Monty Python and the Holy Grail The Producers (1968) Les Miserables (theatre) Miss Saigon (theatre) Baby Driver Saturday Night Fever Staying Alive Mamma Mia! Mamma Mia! 2 The Greatest Showman Moulin Rouge The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Rogue One: A Star Wars Story The Commuter Singin' In The Rain Rebel Without A Cause The Lion King (movie) The Lion King (musical) Beauty and the Beast (2017) The Big Bang Theory Mulholland Drive LA Confidential That Thing You Do! Sliding Doors Doctor Who - Turn Left Quantum Leap Drive Blade Runner 2049 Molly's Game Star Wars: The Last Jedi Star Trek: Discovery - Despite Yourself Black Mirror - The National Anthem Black Mirror - USS Callister Black Mirror - Arkangel Doctor Who - Twice Upon A Time (Christmas 2017 episode) Blackadder Goes Forth ending Hannibal Red Dragon As we discuss in the episode, January is a bit manic, but if all goes to plan then we'll be back with THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS in two weeks' time! Twitters: @ScreenTesting @TheTestDoctor @neilstudd Emails: screentestingpod@gmail.com Intro music: Another Day Of Sun (Instrumental Version) Outro music: City of Stars (Humming)

    1h 6m
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About

Neil Studd and Dan Billing bring you a fortnightly movie podcast with a software testing spin. We'll be looking for bugs in the plot, and comparing how the films compare to real-life experiences we've faced in the world of testing!

Information

  • Creator
    Neil Studd and Dan Billing
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2020
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Screen Testing