KQEK.com Digital / Big Head Amusements / ArtScopeTO - Podcasts

Julia Marchese discusses directing  Out of Print (2014), a passionate documentary on the New Beverly Cinema, the feisty, independent rep cinema renowned for programming rare slices of film history; and the increasing difficulty for programmers to access and screen 35mm film prints in an age of digital projections and DCPs. Visit  KQEK.com  for a film review of Out of Print , which was recently rel...

Craig Atkinson discusses his directorial debut, Do Not Resist  (2016), an unsettling documentary on the militarization of local police departments. Filmed just as the violence in Ferguson began to erupt, Atkinson details the overuse of S.W.A.T. for mundane search warrants, and the current government grants that enable departments to buy army surplus vehicles. Visit  KQEK.com  for a film review of...

Jared Scott discusses his latest film, The Age of Consequences (2016), a provocative documentary on climate change, featuring many former military officials who add deeper credence to the correlation between extreme shifts in climate, mass population migration, and war. Scott also touches upon the film's themes, and his storytelling technique which includes the use of chapters, moments of respite...

Begun in 2012 and completed in the spring of 2016, my experimental documentary BSV 1172: Your Friendly Neighbourhood Video Store  premiered November 13th, 2016, at the San Diego Underground Film Festival, and in this two-part blog I offer thoughts on its genesis (filming the environs of a so-called obsolete form of home entertainment with dead tech), and also present Part One of an edited version...

Victor Kanefsky discusses the art of editing, structure, balance, and pacing in a conversation that spans both his latest directorial work, Art Bastard (2016), a lively documentary on painter Robert Cenedella, and his lengthy career as an editor in many genres, including horror ( Ganja & Hess ) and documentary ( Style Wars ). Visit  KQEK.com  for a film review of Art Bastard , which recently scree...

In what's hopefully the first in a series of vinyl related podcasts, I speak with Cary Mansfield, Varese Sarabande's Vice President of A&R, about the label's recent trio of limited LP editions of catalogue titles – John Powell's The Bourne Identity (2002), Don Davis' The Matrix (1999), and Marco Beltrami's Scream (1996) and Scream 2 (1997) – and the quirks and nuances of pressing an LP and the mar...

In a radical move for director Tim Burton, the score for his latest film was written by the collaborative team of Mike Higham and Matthew Margeson, both skilled in composing, orchestrating, and arranging for a diversity of projects (including several Hans Zimmer productions).  I've divided the podcast on Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children into separate halves, starting with Matthew Marges...

In a radical move for director Tim Burton, the score for his latest film was written by the collaborative team of Mike Higham and Matthew Margeson, both skilled in composing, orchestrating, and arranging for a diversity of projects (including several Hans Zimmer productions).  I've divided the podcast on Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children into separate halves, starting with Matthew Marges...

In my latest conversation with Iranian-American composer Nima Fakhrara, we touch upon some of the organic experimentation that gives his recent horror score  The Girl in the Photographs its eerie tenor, and the fusion of Persian and vintage electronic sounds for 1979 Revolution: Black Friday  (of which both soundtrack albums are available digitally and on CD from Lakeshore Records). This interview...

  This partial Editor's Blog features edited excerpts from the pre-screening intros of Julian Roffman's The Mask (1961), Canada's first feature-length 3D and horror film, screened in 2012 and 2015 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The 2012 extract focuses on the fragile state of a rare 35mm  print and the 3D process, while the 2015 extract covers both the book launch of The Canadian Horror Film: Terror o...

  Author & journalist Tom Roston (PBS's POV ) discusses  I Lost It at the Video Store: A Filmmaker's Oral History of a Vanished Era (The Critical Press), his brisk and engaging chronicle of the disappearing bricks & mortar video rental shop that used to be the main home movie resource for film fans and emerging filmmakers. A review of Tom Roston's I Lost It at the Video Store is available at KQEK....

  As part of Reel Canada's National Canadian Film Day celebrations, actor and artist Stephen Lack participated in a lengthy Q&A with NOW Magazine's senior film writer Norman Wilner after a free screening of David Cronenberg's cranium-cracking classique Scanners (1981) at Toronto's Royal Cinema . Topics include  Scanners ' 35 years of cult fame, blowing up Louis Del Grande's head, co-star Patrick M...

I'm back with the first of several podcasts, after taking an extended break to finish up a new experimental doc, BSV 1172 . 2016 starts with an interview with the esteemed Brian Reitzell on scoring NBC’s Hannibal , of which music from Season 3 was recently released digitally and on CD from Lakeshore Records and on LP via Invada Records. Reitzell also discusses musique concrete, working with David...

Back in 1973, veteran TV and feature film director Ted Post helmed The Baby , a film written by playwright and occasional film & TV writer Abe Polsky. The Baby tells the story of a social worker assigned to check in on a most unusual case: a grown man living in a crib with the emotional and intellectual capacity of an infant. The eccentric plot, bizarre characters, twist ending, and classic sevent...

Interview with Italian film composer Fabio Frizzi, conducted prior to his follow-up concert Frizzi 2 Fulci at London’s famous Barbican in the fall of 2014. In addition to discussing the thrill of performing his music live in London, Frizzi discusses his early film work – Oscar Brazzi’s “sexy” film Giro girotondo... con il sesso è bello il mondo (1975) and Lucio Fulci’s Il cav. Costante Nicosia dem...

Interview with film composer Claudio Simonetti regarding the expanded, remastered release of  Demons  (1985) on LP and CD from  Rustblade Records . Topics include crafting the score, the remixes, the great sound engineering typical of Italian soundtracks of the 70s and 80s, vinyl releases, an upcoming recording of Goblin's Profondo Rosso / Deep Red score by his new band Claudio Simonetti's Goblin...

Interview with film composer Craig Safan regarding the expanded, remastered releases of The Last Starfighter (1984) on CD from Intrada Records , and Warning Sign (1985) on CD and LP from Invada Records . Topics include electronic / orchestral scoring, 'baking' master tapes, and discussing Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985), Son of the Morning Star (1991), and his upcoming album Rough Magic...

Interview with film composer John Murphy ( 28 Days Later , Sunshine , Miami Vice , Armored ) regarding his latest album, Anonymous Rejected Filmscore . Topics include being part of the elite 'rejected film score composers club,' crafting themes and variations, using vintage analogue audio gear to create layered distortion, and the album's vinyl / LP release. Also available: online print interview...

One of Hollywood's best-kept secrets, film composer Elia Cmiral has built a career scoring diverse movies with traditional orchestral and hybrid electronic scores, and in this latest interview with the composer, Cmiral talks about the classical orchestral sounds of Atlas Shrugged Part 3: Who is John Galt? from Atlas Productions, and being the subject of a documentary by fellow Czech director Petr...

Iranian-born composer Nima Fakhrara discusses his breakthrough electronic score for The Signal (2014), released digitally and on CD by Varese Sarabande, and featuring an incredible blend of hand-crafted sounds for William Eubank's visually striking sci-fi thriller. Fakhrara also talks about classical Persian music, minimalism, and his love for the hammer dulcimer, which he's performed on several s...

Film composer / orchestrator Ceiri Torjussen talks about orchestrating for composer Marco Beltrami ( Snowpiercer ), and his latest soundtrack release from MovieScore Media, Test (2014), which captures the electronic soundscapes of eighties Brit pop in this unique AIDS drama.   If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter . Visit KQEK.com for additional film rev...

Film composer / orchestrator Timothy Williams discusses his entry into film scoring, his early years at the BBC, and studying in Ontario, Canada, before moving to Los Angeles and becoming an in-demand orchestrator. Also discussed: his latest release, Red Sky , available from Lakeshore Records.   If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter . Visit KQEK.com for...

Film composer Michael Penn talks about crafting the music for TV's Masters of Sex and using the sounds of the Mellotron, a fantastic organ-like instrument which allowed musicians to access looped sound samples through a keyboard. Also available: review of Dianna Dilworth's excellent 2008 documentary Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie (released by Bazillion Points).   If you enjoyed this podcast, conn...

Renowned Cinerama Restoration Director David Strohmaier discusses his work restoring forgotten films shot and exhibited in Cinerama - the three-panel, wide film process which debuted in 1952 and launched the widescreen wars of the 1950s. Moving from classic Cinerama films released by Flicker Alley to his latest project, Holiday in Spain (aka the Smell-O-Vision classique Scent of Mystery ) availabl...

Composer Darius Holbert discusses his entry into film scoring, composing the music for Jason Eisener's grisly and fun Hobo with a Shotgun (2011), the sounds of vintage synths, scoring the series Quick Draw (2013) in the domain of original programming by online film / TV providers, and the music of Oh, the Places You'll Go! (2012), Teddy Saunders' clever translation of Dr. Seuss' final book. Specia...