Episode 20 – Back From “Vacation”

Episode 20 – Back From “Vacation”

So full of excuses, we are. Here's what we've been up to.

Brought to you by Cayenne Diane, Heat Seeker Box, Endangered The Movie, Lawn Couch, Story Trix and VFX Jams.

And, yes, there are missing episodes. We will be coming back to those. Promise. Probably.

Show notes? We don't need no stinkin' show notes!  Let us know if you miss 'em.

As always, you can contact us on our Facebook page or Twitter. Let us know what you think, if you have any questions, or if there’s anything you might like us to cover in the future! Ten Giant Robots opening theme music by Shane Kneip.

Episode 14 – Burnout and Burbank

Episode 14 – Burnout and Burbank

We're talking about our level of burnout and the sort of distractions that get us through it all. And sort of a love song to Burbank.

With unsolicited props to 3DRetro!

Show notes? We don't need no stinkin' show notes!  Let us know if you miss 'em.

As always, you can contact us on our Facebook page or Twitter. Let us know what you think, if you have any questions, or if there’s anything you might like us to cover in the future! Ten Giant Robots opening theme music by Shane Kneip.

Episode 13 – Lucky Episode 13

Episode 13 – Lucky Episode 13

The boys discuss influential medias in this luckiest of episodes.

As always, you can contact us on our Facebook page or Twitter. Let us know what you think, if you have any questions, or if there's anything you might like us to cover in the future! Ten Giant Robots opening theme music by Shane Kneip.

Episode 12 – Just a Podgecast

Episode 12 – Just a Podgecast

 A hodgepodge of topics. We work for TV while also cutting the cable.

 

As always, you can contact us on our Facebook page or Twitter. Let us know what you think, if you have any questions, or if there's anything you might like us to cover in the future! Ten Giant Robots opening theme music by Shane Kneip.

Episode 11 – Tomorrowland Ain’t What it Used to Be

Episode 11 – Tomorrowland Ain’t What it Used to Be

An in-depth conversation about Brad Bird’s latest Clooney vehicle: a “Tomorrowland” that never arrives.

  • Disney owns everything.
    • Marvel
    • Pixar
    • Star Wars
    • Jesus (optioned with right of first refusal)
  • The original “Tomorrowland”
    • Tomorrowland the movie
    • PJ was going to blow it off.
    • Efram was intrigued by the “touching of the pin” in the trailer.
    • Sean saw trailer on duct tape.
    • Brad Bird also did Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (his first live-action film)
    • Tomorrowland: No there there.
    • How to deliver on new, magical place – good example, Harry Potter – Diagon Alley.
    • Good exploration of magical places:
    • Oz
    • Blade Runner
    • Things to Come
    • Metropolis
    • Bait and switch with no satisfying resolution on layered mysteries.
    • Sean’s Rant: Mystery Box is hipster bullshit
    • The MacGuffin: A person or object that the good guy and the bad guy both pursue. To gain control of the MacGuffin is to have the upper hand in the story and “win” the outcome of the movie.
    • Hitchcock MacGuffin – Meaningless. Just designed to drive story forward.
    • Modern MacGuffin: MacGuffin has meaning beyond just being a plot device.
    • The Ark is the MacGuffin. It also has special meaning beyond just wrestling for its control. It defines the boundaries of Indiana Jones’ character.
    • Flakey MacGuffin (mmm… delicious):
    • Hipster Bullshit: Pretending to take a risk without actually taking a risk.
    • Desiring to imbue the MacGuffin with special intellectual meaning (a la Raiders of the Lost Ark). The storyteller’s desire to demonstrate their cleverness with a Modern MacGuffin but chickening out at the last minute for fear their idea is weak.
    • Actually having an idea and landing on it might be embarrassing or underwhelming. A fate worse than death for the Hollywood filmmaker.
    • Avoiding landing on the idea but pretending to have one is faking intellectual content where there is none. aka “Hipster Bullshit” – pretending to be artful while only having the trappings of it.
    • Efram: Read where Abrams and Lindelof think the question is more important than the answer.
    • Sean: Disagrees. He goes to movies to see points of view.
    • Joss Whedon: Pays off and entertains the whole way through a story. And the whole thing isn’t resting on the mystery box.
    • Star Wars (the original): Mystery AND payoff throughout.
    • Efram breaks down plot:
    • Too much “getting to  Tomorrowland”.
    • Hugh Laurie explains “plot” towards the end. Meanwhile, the director tries to divert you from the lame, confusing explainer with a big portal on a beach action sequence.
    • Topic: “Artist Exceptionalism”
    • Sean doesn’t like the “better than you” character device.
    • We’re also looking at YOU, midichlorians.
    • The exceptional are always being beaten down by “the man”.
    • The only authentic voice is the “special voice”.
    • Efram: Getting an answer to anything was impossible. Efram’s wife describes it perfectly: Like a bad relationship: No answers until you’ve almost lost interest and then, at the last minute, suddenly gives you a crumb to draw you back in.
    • PJ: Doesn’t like the journalist who goes everywhere. In a fighter jet. In space.
    • Pretending there’s a “there there” is an empty experience.
    • The boys wax poetic on how to be great in a relationship.
    • Fear of being a fraud.
    • And be cool.
    • Cultivate fake mystery when there’s no there there.
    • Luke is the real kind of “special”.
    • He’s a hero because he’s very average. Works on a farm.
    • Only stumbles into his innate power later. And even then he doesn’t trust it.
    • Sean: The character in Tomorrowland is special because “she’s pretty”.
    • PJ goes to her defense: Because she’s a scientist and is anti-government.
    • The boys did really well on the Heisman-Boseman test.
    • The utopian future is always a weirdly Ayn Randian fascist future.
    • Sean thinks an actual future should always have punk rock.
    • PJ calls out the ridiculous flying Eiffel Tower.
    • The boys can’t figure out what world we’re supposed to be in.
    • Efram: Ending should’ve been meaningful… not a reveal by Hugh Laurie.
    • Sean asks “What is a better Tomorrowland than the one in the movie.”
    • PJ proposes that there may have been more of an explanation but got cut in the final movie.
    • Efram points out that “gray characters” round out binary “good and evil” type stories. i.e. Han Solo and Lando Calrissian from the first three Star Wars movies.
    • Efram irritated by constant re-directing of audience to force fake dramatic tension.
    • Sean brings up Hitchcock’s definition ofsuspense.
      • Here’s a great video of Hitchcock explaining the difference between mystery and suspense and how he prefers Suspense because it emotionally engages people throughout the entire story.
    • The boys imagine Damon Lindelof telling a campfire ghost story.
    • Guesses on how to improve Tomorrowland.
    • Efram compares J.J. Abram’s Super 8 to Tomorrowland in terms of withholding information from main characters (and audience).
    • PJ suggests that midichlorians are great for keeping whites white and darks dark when doing laundry.
    • Efram loses his shit. Paramedics are called.

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