Filmmaking Confidential

To celebrate the release of our film "Alchemy Of The Spirit" this week we revisit Mr. Balderson's discussion with Dr. Joseph Suglia, who offers his analysis of the film.   

Philosopher and Author Dr. Joseph Suglia dissects Steve Balderson's new art film ALCHEMY OF THE SPIRIT which stars Xander Berkeley, Sarah Clarke, and cult icon Mink Stole.  The film premiered in Europe at Fantasporto in April, 2022,...

This special Season Two finale features producer/director Anthony Pedone.  Pedone has produced, written, directed, or shot over 24 features, documentaries, and short films.

In 2015, he produced THE STRONGEST MAN, which premiered at Sundance and was released theatrically and on VOD by Film Buff and Sundance Global. In 2018, his directorial debut AN AMERICAN IN TEXAS won the Dutch Golden Stone Award at the Scenecs Film Festival in Hil...

Clara Ritger grew up in the small town of Huntington Beach, California, where she learned what real Mexican food tastes like and how to cut the line at Disneyland. At the ripe old age of two she ran as far ahead of her parents as her child leash would take her on the Yosemite trails to ask random strangers questions about why they were hiking and if they would be her friend. Since then, she has continued to ask why but usually refr...

John Gaspard is author of the Eli Marks mystery series as well as four other stand-alone novels, "The Greyhound of the Baskervilles," "A Christmas Carl," "The Sword & Mr. Stone" and "The Ripperologists." He also writes the Como Lake Players mystery series, under the pen name Bobbie Raymond.  In real life, John’s not a magician, but he has directed six low-budget features that cost very li...

Austin Young is from Reno, Nevada and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. The foundation of his career is from studying at Parsons in Paris. Early in his career, Austin transferred his interests from traditional portrait painting towards a long celebrated career in portrait photography. In many ways, Austin is more accurately described as an image-maker: his projects illustrate the sublime qualities of character that make cel...

Felix Jones is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and a Magician Member of the Academy of Magical Arts and a regular performer in the Magic Castle showrooms in Hollywood, California, where he performs his acclaimed comedy magic and mind-reading show.  Felix has been a featured performer at Jeff McBride's Wonderground and MINDvention.  His many corporate clients include Amazon, Pratham USA, Talego Country Cl...

Kristian Hoffman ran away from his boyhood home in Santa Barbara, California, to New York City where he and his high school friend, Lance Loud, formed a band called The Mumps. This was quite soon after both had made dramatic appearances in what is now known as the first reality TV series: PBS' award winning "An American Family".

Flourishing in the New York club scene in the late '70s, Lance and Kristian became ob...

Iris Berry is the co-founder of Punk Hostage Press.  She is the author and editor of several books and has a vast fan base for her unique voice and formidable writing style. She’s an L.A. Pop culture historian, actress, and musician. She’s appeared in numerous films, TV commercials, documentaries, and iconic rock videos.

In the 1980s & 90s, she sang, performed, wrote songs and recorded with the Lame Flames, the Ringlin...

JAMES OSELAND travels extensively in search of the world’s best restaurants, street food stalls, markets, and home cooks. Long before he was a judge on Top Chef Masters, he was a teenage rebel growing up in the pre–Silicon Valley, California, suburbs, yearning for a taste of something wild. His remarkable memoir Jimmy Neurosis captures the quest that led him from the mosh pits of San Francisco to the pop world of Andy Warhol’s Manh...

Peaches Christ (aka Joshua Grannell) is a filmmaker and cult leader living in San Francisco. Her infamous movie events at the Castro Theatre regularly draw over 1,000 attendees to each new production before they tour. Events have featured special guest stars John Waters, Cloris Leachman, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, Linda Blair, Bruce Campbell, Apollonia, Barry Bostwick, Pam Grier, and more. Peaches is the alter- ego of Joshua Gr...

Elliott Hunter is an international award winning magician and sleight of hand artist.  Elliott began magic after seeing his first magic show at the local library, and then reading all of the magic books he could to learn the craft. As he progressed, he sought professional mentorship and training. In 2011 he had the opportunity to train at the most prestigious magic school in the world, and learn from the best of the best. Over the ...

Susan Traylor is an award-winning actress, writer and film director.  She was born in New York and raised in Los Angeles in and around the theater. Her parents were legendary acting teachers Peggy Feury and William Traylor who worked with the likes of Sean Penn, Meg Ryan, Anjelica Huston, Nicolas Cage, and Michele Pfeiffer.  Their school, the Loft Studio, served as a second home to Susan.  At fifteen she insisted on officially stud...

Davey Wavey is an American Producer who covers LGBT topics related to sex, relationships, and coming out. His YouTube channel has over 1.4 million subscribers.  Wavey is also the creator of Himeros.TV - a site that pushes the boundaries of sex, sexuality, and new ways to experience pleasure, discover desires and express oneself in ways that bring joy and ecstasy.

Wavey described Himeros.TV to The Advocate saying, "We...

Before he became an award-winning writer and poet, Brian Sonia-Wallace set up a typewriter on the street with a sign that said “Poetry Store” and discovered something surprising: all over America, people want poems. An amateur busker at first, Brian asked countless strangers, “What do you need a poem about?” To his surprise, passersby opened up to share their deepest yearnings, loves, and heartbreaks. Hundreds of them. Then thousan...

Bruce LaBruce is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker, photographer, writer, and artist based in Toronto. His latest film is "St. Narcisse" a comedy-drama starring Félix-Antoine Duval as a pair of identical twins who were separated at birth and did not previously know of each other's existence, but who fall in love and begin a twincest relationship with each other after being reunited.  The film premiered at the Ve...

Season Two is officially here!  For our premiere episode, Philosopher and Author Dr. Joseph Suglia dissects Steve Balderson's new art film ALCHEMY OF THE SPIRIT which stars Xander Berkeley, Sarah Clarke, and cult icon Mink Stole.  The film premieres in Europe at Fantasporto (the Oporto International Film Festival in Portugal) where it is in the main competition (1-10 April, 2022).  In the discussion today: the illusion of time...

While Season Two is being produced, I'd love to share an excerpt from the Audible version of my book "Filmmaking Confidential."  Today I'll read the chapters:
"Marketing: You vs The Big Boys"
"How to Read a Screenplay"
"Musicians are Famous Too!"
"Waiting to Work"
For more information: https://www.dikenga.com/books
https://www.amazon.com/dp/17354569...