Because We Love Making Movies

For the final episode of Season 2, I talk to ZACH KUPERSTEIN.  He’s a brilliant cinematographer who helped create the instant horror classic, BARBARIAN (which I spoke to Zach and the writer/director of Barbarian in episode 1 of this season). But long before BARBARIAN, Zach had already created an amazing body of work. He shot the fantastic horror film, THE VIGIL, the wonderfully disturbing black an...

Today, I speak with Monika Gossman.  An incredible actor who I first became of aware of after seeing her wonderful performance in David Fincher’s MANK. We discuss her collaboration with Fincher, as well as her incredible work alongside Gary Oldman. We talk about how actors are storytellers and filmmakers, how she discovered her calling as an artist, and how she feeds her soul as an artist.  See Pr...

Today, I talk to LYNDA ARMTRONG. She’s a Hair & Makeup Artist & Designer.  Her credits range from the original BATMAN & LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS — to the more modern classics like STRANGER THINGS & ATLANTA. Most recently, she worked with Actress Joey King and a very talented cast of actors and filmmakers to create Hulu’s THE PRINCESS. It’s a great talk about how she found her way as...

Today, I sit down with a film producer who has helped make some truly legendary films with a legendary filmmaker. Fred Fuchs worked with Francis Ford Coppola on films like THE GODFATHER 3, BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA…as well as Sofia Coppola’s directorial debut, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES.  Somebody once said, that a producer is an enabler of art, and Fred is no exception. It’s a great conversation about what...

Today, I’m talking with cinematographer Adam McDaid, and production designer Joshua Petersen. Together these two helped create the world of the new Freeform 1/2 hour comedy, EVERYTHING’S TRASH created by Phoebe Robinson.  Most people don’t realize, these artists are the right and left hand of a director or a showrunner. While creators imagine a world in their head, a production designer builds it,...

Today we’ve got not one, but two guests: Composer Ben Lovett & Film Editor David Marks.  They were part of the team that brought us the fantastic new horror film, THE NIGHT HOUSE.  It stars Rebecca Hall in an unforgettable performance reminiscent of Julie Christie in DON’T LOOK NOW.  Movies are sight and sound…music and imagery spliced together to tell a story…and without the crafts of music a...

Today I talk with Meghan Kasperlik. She’s a Costume Designer whose worked in film in TV but she is best known for her work on the Home Box Office Channel, better known as HBO.  She designed the dystopian nightmare of FAHERNHEIT 451 (for which she received her first Emmy Nomination). Damon Lindlelof’s astonishing remix of the WATCHMEN.  And most recently, the critical and cultural juggernaut MARE O...

Today I’m talking to Ellen Arden. She’s a makeup artist who helped create the completely original world of Marvel’s WEREWOLF BY NIGHT. Just when we think we’ve seen it all — a movie comes along that takes an old form and re-shapes it in such a different way that it’s suddenly thrilling/really exciting…in this instance, I’m talking about WEREWOLF BY NIGHT. It’s a crazy experiment by Marvel Studios,...

My guest today is a special one. He’s absolutely one of the most unsung heroes in the world of films and filmmaking, and particularly in this age when movies being shot and projected on film is a rarity. Benjamin Tucker is a film projectionist. But he also happens to be the Chief Projectionist at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles…and is responsible for projecting some of the most memorable...

Today we have two very special guests.  Michael Sarnoski, a writer/Director whose debut film is none other than PIG — starring Nicolas Cage playing a culinary Buddha in a beautifully restrained performance alongside a frenetically ambitious Alex Wolff—it’s co-written by Vanessa Block and I think it’s the first in a sub-genre I like to call Chef-Noir.  My other guest is PIG's editor Brett Bachman (...

Today I talk with legendary Music Editor, Suzana Peric.  She’s worked on some of my favorite films with some of my favorite directors and composers!  She talks about her amazing life, and how she found her way into the arts.  We talk about her lifelong relationship with the incomparable Jonathan Demme, working with Ennio Morricone in Rome, and how she still has an insatiable passion for music and...

Very excited about today’s episode, because it’s with one of the most talented and inventive Costume Designers working today: Malgosia Turzanska She helped re-imagine the world of Arthurian legend with her incredible work on David Lowery’s THE GREEN KNIGHT (which is what we mostly discuss). She also worked on STRANGER THINGS, AINT THEM BODIES SAINTS, YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE, and HELL OR HIGH WA...

This episode is truly special, because I was lucky enough to speak to one of the industry’s up and coming stars, Charlese Antoinette Jones. If there is a new wave of talent helping to re-shape films and filmmaking, Charlese is at its peak. She designed one of my very favorite films…the Oscar-Nominated JUDAS & THE BLACK MESSIAH (which is what we mostly discuss in this episode) but in the meanti...

Today, I’m sitting down with Wayne Pashley, the Oscar-Nominated Sound Editor & Sound Designer best known for Baz Luhrmann’s ELVIS. We talk about the immense technical undertaking of re-creating Elvis’s iconic music and voice, and why this ELVIS wasn’t a biopic, but an opera. He’s had a legendary career with Director Baz Luhrmann, but he also created the sonic chaos of MAD MAX: FURY ROAD. Wayne...

Today we’re talking to Liz Toonkel. She’s a production designer who helped create what I think is an truly profound film…it’s A24’s Marcell the Shell with Shoes On. When I saw this film, my heart exploded. We discuss this incredible handmade film, and all the artists behind it. So if you’re a fan you’re going to love it. We talk about the power of cinema, finding your way as an artist, and why the...

New Podcast Episode! There are a few filmmakers for me, when they make a new movie, it’s an event.  Spielberg…Scorsese…Tarantino…PTA...Guillermo Del Toro...And now Jordan Peele.  He’s made three films and each one of them are beautiful personal mystery boxes. His latest film NOPE might be my favorite of his so far, and today we’re talking with two of his most important collaborators.  The very tal...

Today we’re talking to two very exciting filmmakers —  the writer/director(Zach Cregger) & the cinematographer(Zach Kuperstein)  of the wildly inventive horror film, BARBARIAN. I grew up on horror movies, it’s the reason I wanted to make movies…movies like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Evil Dead 2…movies that are perfect because of how terrifying they are, but also how original they are — an...

Today we welcome back one of my favorite guests, Film Editor BRETT BACHMAN. Last time he was on we spoke about his entire career including MANDY & PIG! But today is a special Halloween episode, and I wanted to do a deep dive into a film he edited…called THE VIGIL. It’s a masterful folk-horror tale — written & directed by Keith Thomas , photographed by Zach Kuperstein with amazing performan...

Today we welcome back the legendary ERIC ROTH. An Oscar-Winning Screenwriter & Producer.  We talk about how he writes, and blends craft with pure inspiration. He talks about working with Robert Redford. We re-visit MUNICH & THE GOOD SHEPARD. He talks about being re-written, and his unique creative partnership with Bradley Cooper & Lady Gaga on A STAR IS BORN. And last but not least, we...

Today on the program, we’re talking to RICH FRIEDLANDER & GLENN ALLEN—Award-winning Visual Effects Artists who seem to prefer their work to be invisible, which if you ask me, is how it should be. We talk about how they started out in New York City as film editors, made the jump from film to digital, and how they saw the future of VFX as the future of storytelling!  It’s an incredible conversat...

Today I talk to ANDREA CHLEBAK…an amazing artist whose craft is one of the most unsung in all of movies… she’s a Film Colorist. She’s worked with some amazing cinematographers and directors on some really terrific movies. To name a few: Bad Hair, American Pickle, Elysium and Chappie, Prospect, HBO’s Watchmen… and the hallucinatory action-horror film MANDY. Most recently, she worked Netflix’s NAOMI...

Today I’m talking to OLGA MILL. An incredibly talented Costume Designer.  She’s worked on modern classics like HEREDITARY & FIRST REFORMED… as well as some beautiful indie films with Writer/Director Eliza Hittman, and most recently, the highly anticipated Y: THE LAST MAN created by Eliza Clark for FX. She talks about not being afraid to find your way into show business, finding friends in the...

Today is a very special episode in honor of the recent MANDYversary. We sit down with Brett Bachman…a Film Editor and a guy I like to call the Walter Murch of SpectreVision. His credits are many, but to name a few — RAZE, COOTIES, BITCH…the psychedelic Barbarian Opera MANDY, THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE, and most recently, the new critically acclaimed film PIG — also starring Nicolas Cage and Alex Woll...

Today I'm talking with the Emmy Nominated Cinematographers of Netflix's zeitgeist Documentary THE SOCIAL DILEMMA. It's a hybrid film that blends documentary footage with a narrative film seamlessly, and pulls back the curtain on the insidious business of social media. We talk about their very different paths to becoming filmmakers, how collaboration with their director and actors is really what se...

Today I talk with BENJAMIN LOEB. A wonderful Cinematographer & Filmmaker who shot two of my very favorite films...the beautifully cathartic PIECES OF A WOMAN...and the insane fever dream otherwise known as MANDY. We get into how every project with a director is a custom job…from entering the strange world of @PanosCosmatos, to the cinematic troupe of #KornelMundruczo. We talk about using paint...