We Celebrate 50 Episodes! How A Movie Podcast Became A Community For Growth, Gratitude, And Geekery

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Ever wondered what it's like to start a podcast
about all the things that rollaround your head when you watch
a movie?
Got a passion for personalgrowth or just like to learn
something new when you see anold film?
Well, this episode's for youbecause you'll learn in the
Phantom Porters podcast how ithas evolved over the 50 episodes
that we have been running.
And today with your hosts,Aaron, which is me and Brash, we

(00:21):
are celebrating the milestonewith our beloved community.
Thank you for joining us.
Welcome everybody to the PhantomPortals Podcast, the podcast

(00:42):
that explores how fandoms andfilm can help you learn and
grow.
As always, I'm your host, Aaron,a teacher and lifelong film fan.
And each week on the podcast, weexplore the stories that we love
to learn more about ourselvesand the world that shape us.
Except for this episode, becausewe're actually just doing a
celebration, a mailbag, somegratitudes and reflections,
saying some things from ourcommunity on our socials as

(01:03):
well.
And I'm not doing it alonebecause as always I'm joined by
Brash.
Hello, Brash.
How are you?
I want to hide yourself.
Mate, I'm going well, goingwell.
And, you know, it wouldn't bethe Fandom Porters podcast if we
were not joined with our thirdunofficial co-host who's yet to
say a thing on mic.
It is Ace.
He's uh he doesn't contribute alot, but he definitely
contributes to our comfort.
So shout out to you, Ace.

(01:25):
Thank you for joining us on our50th episode, Mailbag.
Uh guys, first and foremost,massive thank you to our
community.
Obviously, this is an episodethat wouldn't be happening if it
wasn't for you.
We are pretty active on ourthreads and on our Instagram and
also through our emails.
And you guys are reallywelcoming and awesome community
for us to talk movies all about.
We often put things on ourstories that you guys interact

(01:47):
with.
And all of the comments,community questions, and things
like that today come from thosesocial media responses.
So we are a podcast that lovesour community.
We do talk about a lot ofpersonal things in terms of
growth and various differentways that we can learn from
film.
So it's really great to go onthat journey with some people in

(02:07):
a big community sort of fashion.
So thank you so much, first andforemost.
Secondly, Brash, I will admitthat, and I've told you this
before, but tanking complimentsis not the thing that I am best
at in this world.
No, I'm very much the same.

SPEAKER_03 (02:21):
I mean, internally I like the compliments, but when
they're given to me, I don'tknow how to react.

SPEAKER_02 (02:28):
Yes.

SPEAKER_03 (02:29):
I don't know what to say.

SPEAKER_02 (02:30):
Uh-huh.
I can't.

SPEAKER_03 (02:31):
And it could be sibly as something instead of
saying, oh, thank you.
But for me, it's like what dothey want?

SPEAKER_02 (02:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Exactly.
That's exactly it.
So yeah, we are we are workingon growth today in the form of
accepting these complimentsgraciously from our community
who has been very generous withthem and answering these
questions with the utmosthonesty.
So that's a little bit of aforewarning that we we love
getting compliments, we reallydo, but it's a part of our

(03:00):
personal growth that we'relearning to accept them in a
better way and to accept themgraciously.
So thank you.
And that's not to say we'rearrogant about it, it's more
like I don't feel like I deservethat.
But yes, it's it's been a bigjourney, Brash.
It's been a big journey.
50 episodes.
Yes, 50 episodes.
Hmm.
That's like each hour of thepodcast, or each episode is

(03:20):
about an hour, so 50 hours.
So that's like we would sit andtalk for two days and a bit
straight.

SPEAKER_03 (03:27):
If you were And then but then if we also take and
count the times that we're we'renot recording before and after
thing, that's probably an extrahour or hour and a half on top
of that.

SPEAKER_02 (03:37):
So yeah, yeah.
And then also when we'rewatching the movies that we're
researching for the actualepisodes, we're back and forth
on the on the text as well.
And it's it's all you know,there's more to talk about when
you like it and I don't, or viceversa, as opposed to if we both
think it's cool and we bothactually we also talk about it a
lot if we both think the movie'sabsolute crap as well.

(03:58):
So Yeah, we have a lot to say.
No, if um if the movie is iswell liked by both of us, then
there's there's lesscommunication.

SPEAKER_03 (04:06):
Sure, but it's pretty disputed just yeah,
streamlined then.
It's just like, yes, everythingwas great.
I concur.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (04:12):
And that's how it goes.
But yeah, so today we're gonnago through what 50 episodes
means to us.
We're gonna talk about thebeginning of our podcasting
journey.
We're gonna talk about Brashcoming on board as a guest star
to start off with, and then he'dcome back as like it's like
those TV shows where you're onas a recurring role, and then
after that, you're just part ofthe cast.
I thought, who was who was onelike that?

SPEAKER_03 (04:32):
I was gonna think Castell, but I think he was
meant to be in the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 (04:35):
No, no, I think you're absolutely right.
He was supposed to season four,he was like a a featuring
character, and then after thathe was third build or something
like that.
He was very well like he was anew part of the team.
Obviously, from Supernatural,we're talking about there, but
yeah.
Uh, we're gonna talk about thethe fandom portals on a board,
which you can find atLetterboxd, the links in the
show notes below, and we'regonna talk about some of the

(04:56):
movies we've reviewedpreviously, just recapping some
of the ones that we think mayhave been wholly judged or
things that may need toreconsider.
And then we're gonna go throughsome of your audience questions,
well wishes, and thanks beforewe jump into some future news
for the podcast.
But guys, I promise this onsocial media, I promise it on
our Instagram because we have anannouncement in terms of our

(05:20):
podcast and our network, theGeek Freaks Network, we have a
giveaway, and that giveaway isfor some copies of the Smurfs on
Blu-ray.
And it's all thanks to ParamountPlus.
So if you want to bring home theSmurfs movie on DVD and 4K now,
in this fun, epic adventure, theSmurfs team up with new friends
on a daring rescue mission tosave Papa Smurf from the League

(05:42):
of Evil Wizards.
By the film critics are callingpure comedy magic and get over
35 minutes of Smurf TasticExtras, including new music from
Rihanna and more.
Available at participatingretailers rated PG from
Paramount Pictures.
So if you want to win a copy ofthat, all you have to do is go
to our social media, follow uson Instagram at fandom portals,

(06:05):
and share one of our posts toyour story.
That's it.
That's all you gotta do, and youcan go into the running for one
of these movies of the Smurfs tobe sent to your dwarf.
Courtesy of the Geek FreaksNetwork.
So thank you so much.
Go ahead and get a free movie.
Always all right, let's get into50 episodes, Brash.
50 episodes.
50 episodes.
I know, mate.
50.
So like for me, I obviously rana podcast before this, the DD

(06:28):
Valley and Odyssey podcast.
And it was really easy to hit 50episodes on that because
literally every time we'drecord, it would be like four or
five sessions, four or fiveepisodes per session of play.
So you play 10 times and you get50 episodes.
But I think with this one's it'sa little bit more intentional.
And to can to think that you'vewatched and analyzed and looked
at 50 movies is like it's it's atrip, really.

(06:51):
But a lot of podcasts don't getto 50.
A lot of podcasts don't get to50 at all.
So blessed.
Feeling really good to get tothis milestone.
And it hasn't always been smoothsailing.
It does take a lot of backgroundwork.
Anyone that's listening thatactually runs a podcast, you
know what I'm talking about.
There's a lot of backgroundstuff that goes on.
Uh but the fun part is whatwe're doing like right now.
We're celebrating our successes.

(07:11):
Recording is really the funpart.
And so it's important that youdo it on something that you
love.
And I feel like over the 50episodes, the podcast has
changed a little bit, actually alot.
And when we started, I obviouslystarted by myself, and I was
answering community questionsabout fandoms that they enjoyed.
So I deep dive into those.

(07:32):
But what I really wanted to dowas find out how these fandoms
help us learn and grow, but moreso like why people attach
themselves to them so much.
And I found that through that,one fandom or one thing that
I've attached myself to over myentire lifespan and learnt a lot
of things from was film.
So I kind of pivoted the focusfrom fandoms to film in that

(07:52):
space because film is one of myfavorite fandoms.
And then that's sort of evolvedonto how the podcast is today,
where we look at a film and wetalk about how it can help us
help us all out.
What do you what do you reckonabout that, Brash?

SPEAKER_03 (08:04):
Yeah, I reckon the film film is uh sort of a good
me because you you'll find likeyou could do a multitude of
fandoms, but a lot of thefandoms, especially if they're
big enough, always end upfinding their way to movies.

SPEAKER_02 (08:16):
Oh, that's so true.

SPEAKER_03 (08:18):
So like yeah, like and like you have the like
because one of your favoritesmovies is extended cut out of
Lord of the Rings.
Yep.
Initially it was a book and thenfancy movies.
You got people who are HarryPotter fans books to movies.
There's the unfortunate businessof one of my favorite books
going to a movie and it didn'tnot work.

SPEAKER_02 (08:40):
That happens more often than you think.

SPEAKER_03 (08:42):
Hey, there's there's a lot of bad adaptations, but
but and even so, like you couldlook at even Lord of the Rings
and you could still say, like,you I'm guessing you've probably
read the books.

SPEAKER_02 (08:51):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (08:52):
Which sounds bad.
I probably should read them, butI haven't.
But I'm sure that in the moviesthey miss a lot of stuff that
was in the books.

SPEAKER_02 (08:58):
Oh yeah, they do and they they necessarily do, but I
I feel like you can't use a goodad adaptation.

SPEAKER_03 (09:05):
I I was gonna say, like you're looking at like say,
let's say these two like Lord ofthe Rings look at Lord of the
Rings compared to say likeAragon.
I find like you you'll find itlike Lord of the Rings is what
can happen when it's something'sdone well and it's probably up

(09:26):
than the top echelon, and thenAragon's like what can happen
like at its worst.
And that's like you sort of yourtable and you'll you'll probably
end up finding that a lot of thebook to movie adaptations fall
somewhere in that sort of scale.
But and the same like games,some games can go to movies have

(09:47):
going to movies as well, likeBlood Rain and everything like
that.
Uh and so I think movies andeven sort of TV shows in that
vein too are good focal pointsfor what like conveying sort of
emotions for people in theircertain fandoms.

(10:08):
Yeah.
Because everyone everyone likehas their own sort ofness that
they like to sit in.
So some people like highfantasy, some like people like
sci-fi, some people like horror,and that's sort of their comfort
and where they go to when theyneed a I don't know, recover and
just find themselves again.
And especially in a lot of m anda lot of movies that uh you may

(10:30):
not usually watch but watchmight find a way to hit you
right where it needs to hit you.
And I think movies and TV showscan be like a perfect medium for
that.
Because it's not it's not likeyou have to read like a 50 uh
thousand page book or somethinglike that.
It's just uh usually like anhour, hour and a half, and you

(10:51):
can usually gain something fromit.

SPEAKER_02 (10:54):
Yeah, I agree, and I think uh for me personally, I've
always been drawn to movies.
I have a rich history with filmand movies, just like watching
collecting with variousdifferent people in my life that
I love and adore, and it'salways an a good experience
going to a movie or watching amovie with someone to chatting
afterwards.
Like that's just the best, bestpart of it.
Going on to what you said aboutlike the film adaptations

(11:16):
towards books and and comicbooks and things like that, it's
definitely something that'sreally busted up in our
lifetimes, like especially fromour teenage years onwards.
It seems to be like everybodythat grew up with that stuff and
loved it grew up and was like, Iwant to make a movie about that
thing that I loved when I was akid.
So I think that they've they'veliterally gone and remade those
things.
But for me, it's always beenfilm because my atten like my

(11:38):
attention is deviated betweenlots of different things all the
time.
So a movie gives me lots ofthings to look at, lots of
things to think about while I'mengaging with this text.
Uh at the point of like a book,for example.
I don't know if you've everexperienced this, but I know
that some people have in ourcommunity.
When you're reading a book, asengaged as you are with it, you
might read an entire page.
And by the time you've gotten tothe bottom of the page,

(12:00):
sometimes my brain has wanderedoff to a point where I don't
remember what I read.
So I'll go up back and rereadit.
And that's a struggle I havewith reading long texts, unless
I'm super into it, like I waswhen I dove into The Lord of the
Rings or I did that with TheWitcher as well.
And sometimes a movie willactually get me, if it's an
adaptation, it'll get me to goback and actually try the book
media that it was about,especially like comic books.

(12:22):
My original sort of transitionfrom that was like I went from
comic books and then theyobviously made the comic book
movies, and I saw X-Men on thescreen after reading a few X-Men
comics, and I was like, this isabsolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_04 (12:34):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (12:35):
But yeah, I think it's just it movies in general,
no matter what the genre, nomatter what your comfort zone
is.
I was saying this to somebodythe other day at my work.
I said, because they weretalking about how they don't
like watching movies that makethem cry.
And I said, I never used toeither, but I feel like the
reason that people like moviesso much, and the people reason

(12:58):
that we make these movies, isbecause people want to
experience and feel variousdifferent emotions.
And when they're watching amovie, they're able to feel
those strong emotions and watchthese personal experiences
without the risk of thathappening to you or damaging
you.
And there's an there's anelement of detachment where you
can experience that and gothrough the full plethora of

(13:19):
human emotion from the comfortof your couch or with a trusted
friend.
And that's just something that Ifeel like I wanted to capture
with our podcast, the PhantomPortals podcast.
So when I was doing it by myselfand that was happening, there
was always just somethingmissing.
And that's why I was like, Ineed to bring somebody else on
here that I can just talk aboutand connect with and do that
kind of thing.
And that's where you came along.

(13:39):
And it's it's worked out reallywell because you have shown me a
whole nother side of movies thatI never really thought that I
could see because I was verymuch stuck in the same sort of
cycle and pattern of movies thatI would watch.
It's very well documented onthis podcast that I'm not a
horror guy, but through this wehave watched like various
different thrillers, horrors.

(14:00):
We haven't really dove intohorror so much right now, but
we've definitely touched onthriller and we've touched on
like a little bit of sort of theweirder movies or left field
movies, or maybe even some Bcategory movies we've looked at
before.
But and I've got to experienceand relive some of the movies
that I love through like yourlens, for example.

(14:20):
We've recently talked aboutForrest Gump, which is a movie
that I absolutely adore andlove.
Hearing about it from somebodyelse and a and a friend is is
great as well to hear whatsomebody else got from it.
And that's what I wanted tocapture with this podcast, but
also like what it can whatwatching that movie can teach
you about real life.
Because I don't know about you,Brash, but I I sometimes feel

(14:43):
guilty for the amount of TV thatI consume.
And I'm sure people listeningwould feel the same way.
Because there's we're alwaysharping on about screen time,
aren't we?
It's like get off the screen,get like screen time, screen
time.
So if I could find a way to makeit sound like my screen time was
productive, then that's exactlywhat I was gonna do.

SPEAKER_03 (14:59):
So if I wasn't doing this, I'd probably still watch
the same out anyway.
So at least this way I get toactually I don't know, it's
yeah, it feels like I'mcontributing to something from
watching all that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_04 (15:13):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (15:14):
But um I also I also want to point out because you
did make a good point aboutpeople not going to like feel
like like oh, I don't likemovies uh that make me cry.

SPEAKER_02 (15:23):
Yeah.
Well for me it's horror, I don'twant to watch it because it'll
make me scared.
It's the same thing.

SPEAKER_03 (15:27):
And I also think like I used to be like, oh, I
don't want to watch anythinglike really sappy or anything
like that because uh I Yeah butthen uh but I do implore
everyone that who's like thatwho's really like tough and
doesn't want to cry or anythinglike that, or anything like just
do it.
Yeah, yeah.
And cry.
It you you'll understand onceit's happened, and I don't know,

(15:48):
it sort of gives like you sortof like it's like a shot of like
um I don't know what's the wordI'm looking for.

SPEAKER_02 (15:56):
Dopamine?
Do you mean dopamine?

SPEAKER_03 (15:58):
Dopamine's like dopamine.

SPEAKER_02 (15:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's the motivation one.
What's the what's the happy one?

SPEAKER_03 (16:02):
Isn't that isn't that dopamine?
Isn't that happy?
Isn't that the one the chocolategives you?

SPEAKER_02 (16:06):
No, it's something else.
What is it?
Chocolate gives it it too, don'tyou?
Cortisol threath.
What is it?

SPEAKER_03 (16:12):
The happy one.
It's the one when you talk aboutthe happy chemical.
Yeah, the happy chemical.
It's sort of like it's not likethat.
Serotonin?
Serotonin?
I don't know.
I don't know.
Maybe not a doctor.

SPEAKER_02 (16:24):
You keep talking, I'll look it up.

SPEAKER_03 (16:25):
Don't take any medical advice from us.
Yeah.
Um, but yeah, it's it's sort oflike a a shot of like just
happiness and joy.
And even like sad ones.
Oxytocin.
Oxytocin.
Yeah.
Um, and it's like sometimes it'sa bit sad and everything, but
like sometimes you just needthat to get out of chest, and
you feel a little bit lighterbecause it's 'cause like you're

(16:47):
always holding on to that thing.
And I used to think it was abadge of honor that like I'd
never feel like I never cried oranything like that or bang or
felt anything like I had fanmembers died and I didn't even
shed a tear.
And like I was like, gosh, it'sbecause I'm it's just how I grew
up and how I just I'm justfucking tough.
And then I think um when mygrandfather passed away and I

(17:12):
lost it on that one, and thenand then I don't know, it sort
of just hit like a switch in me.
And now watching mov somemovies, I'll fully tear up and
like afterwards I'll just feellike lighter, like like the
stress has just been like liftedoff of me.

SPEAKER_04 (17:30):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (17:31):
That's just me personally, but I I think
everyone should should let theiremotion go a little bit more,
especially and especially justin the quiet comfort.
You could be by yourself justwatching a movie, or you could
be with your loved one where itwas like watching a movie.
And like just the vulnerablevulnerability, right?
Like there.
You don't yeah, it'd like to beat the movie theater and pouring

(17:53):
your eyes out with 50 otherpeople sitting around you.
Just in the comfort of your ownhome, just some chocolate and
let it go, you know?

SPEAKER_02 (18:01):
Yeah, but I I feel like movies are good for that
man, and I definitely agreebecause when I was younger
watching movies, I rarely criedduring a movie.
But since the birth of mychildren, I don't know what
happened to me or whether it'sjust I'm just more sensitive.
The switch flick.
The switch flick and I will tearup in a lot of movies,
especially if there's somethingto do with like parents being

(18:22):
proud or kids doing somethingawesome, or like if there's
there's just a really big momentof connection, or even like love
stories and things like that.
I get real sort of sappy aboutlove stories, whereas I used to
watch them be like kind ofthing.
But now it's just I'm all in it,which is really good.
And you know, sometimes it comesfrom just like like that switch
flipping, as we said, but Ithink it also comes from and

(18:42):
I've said it before, like youand I talk a lot about these
movies, and we go into some deepplaces sometimes.
We look at them throughdifferent lenses and we look at
them through various differentlike personal growth strategies
and things like that.
So we're kind of beingvulnerable talking about these
movies while we're watchingthese movies, and it's kind of
opened us up, or for me anyway,it's kind of opened me up to
expressing my true self, whichis what our last DMARC was

(19:05):
about, is like movies wherecharacters were actually trying
to find who they really are andbe who they really are and be
comfortable with who they reallyare.
And I think that's somethingthat I've kind of been moving
towards for a very long time.
Because yeah, I I think thatthat's really important for
people, especially in this dayand age, and what we were saying
before about, you know,vulnerability and and people

(19:27):
talking about things openly.
It's it's like we're living in atime and a culture where we're
more connected than than anyother time that we were before
through social media, but thatis good and it's also bad, which
is why I really love ourcommunity because online we can
talk about various differentmovies like we do here with with
yourself and me, but we canextend that to other people as
well, because you know, talkingis is is good when it comes to

(19:50):
people that are struggling, butit also is is really good to
experience those emotions in asafe sort of way, which is what
movies allow you to do as well.
So I I really like where ourpodcast is sort of sitting at
the moment because it's that mixbetween like geeking out, but
then also growing personally aswell, and just finding out some
new things about like me findingnew things about you and and

(20:12):
vice versa, but also justfinding new things out about
yourself.
And and we've watched somemovies that have surprised me
with the messages that I've gotfrom them as well.
Like a the movie like The Crowthat we watched a while ago,
which is currently sitting fifthon our honor board.
Yeah, oh yeah, or new mutantswhen we watched that.
That's like critically bombed.

(20:34):
And is yeah, but it's like what,fourth?
Yeah, yeah.
We've we've sat at fourthbecause I think like not only
did we just find a really greatpiece of like media in terms of
seeing a group of teenagers justgoing through something and and
being being themselves in thatspace, but in the new mutants as
well, I think we watched that ata time when we probably needed
to watch it too.

(20:54):
And that was almost like mybecause that was during Marvel
Week, and we were like, well,let's watch something a bit
different than your usual MCUbecause that they are very
formulaic and things like that.
So I was just like, let's watchsomething different.
So I think that just cleansedthe palate well, but it that's
the thing, you know, when youwatch a movie through a
different lens or you're lookingat it through the lens of
something critical or somethingto do with personal growth, and

(21:14):
you can really take somethingfrom a story that you didn't
expect, which is that that'lllink to our very next theme arc
that we'll talk a bit more aboutat the end of this podcast,
which is failure isn't final,which is where we look at films
that flop and we're talkingabout what lessons can we learn
from these movies thatessentially like didn't make
much money or are considered acritical failure.
So it it kind of promotes thatidea that just because you fail

(21:36):
at something doesn't mean thatit's gonna be the end of
something or it means that it'sbad.
So that being said though, staytuned for our Aragon episode
because Brash's just gonna shitall over that.
And if you hate that movie andyou love those books, yeah, that
episode is probably gonnafeature some language.
So apologies for our youngerlisteners.
Let's get into some movies thatum we've watched that's

(21:58):
surprised us so far in ourepisode catalog.
For me, I'll go first.
The very first one, I actuallythink it was one of the very
first ones you recommendedbecause we started out with you.
Your very first episode with uswas Red One with Trent Rock
Johnson.
And then I think after that wewent to like um it was like
Venom, and then we went to likeIndiana Jones or something like

(22:20):
that, or there was a few inbetween that, but then Indiana
Jones was one where you werejust like, this is absolute
rubbish.
And that was really the firsttime we kind of disagreed
because I was like, this isokay, and you're like, This is
trash.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (22:31):
So I've seen the first three movies.
This is Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (22:35):
Yeah.
But then the one that reallysurprised me was one of the ones
that you sort of firstrecommended, one that I'd never
seen, and it was Phantom of theOpera.
I'd never watched that, I'dnever had anything to do with it
before.
I knew, and I talked about thison the episode, I knew about it
because of Hey Arnold.
But it actually became somethingthat I was like obsessed with
for the next two or three weeksafter I watched it and then

(22:56):
talked to you about it.
So that actually that that moviethere currently sits like in our
top ten.
It's number seven at the momenton our Phantom Portals Honor
Board.
Both of us rate one.
Yeah, yeah.
It was number one for a coupleof weeks there.
But like that's one of the fewmovies that you've rated a five
out of five.
I'm very I'm like a ChristmasSanta Claus with my five out of

(23:19):
five.
Yeah.
But you when you give a five.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
When when you give a five, yougive a five.
And that was like it was reallyfive.
I think that's true, yeah, yeah.
Are you able to see the rankingsthat you got here?
No.
Okay, so I can I can see thenotes here.
And yes, it looks like that isPhantom of the Opera is the only

(23:40):
one that you've given a five to.
You've given 4.5 to a couple ofdifferent movies as well, Forest
Gum being one of them, Guardiansof the Galaxy Volume 3, Secret
Life of Ultimate 4.5.
Yeah.
4.5 is is kind of like yourfive, I guess, but Phantom of
the Opera was the one.
My mom beyond.
Yeah, yeah.
But I I was blown away by JaredButler for one.

(24:00):
Like people say that he was theweakest part of the movie, but I
was just saying I loved him inthat too.

SPEAKER_03 (24:07):
Like and the c and just also the fact that he had
minimal voice training beforethe actual actual like he had no
voice training before this andjust had to run in and he's
fucked his voice.
Um, I think when he did the uhthe actual music of the night
song, he had reckoned his voicea little bit on that one.
But uh he powered through it andI thought he did fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 (24:29):
Yeah, and then that that coupled with like because
they wanted him to sound raw andyeah, Emmy Rosen, she was just
enchanting basically.
And I'd seen musicals before,but this was like a love story,
but also it was so tragic, andit was also like really artful
the way it was done by JoelSchumacher, I thought, because
the set design in that movie wasjust phenomenal.

(24:52):
Like yeah, it was so gothic inthe way that it looked.
It was just really like I gaveit a three and a half, but if we
were like we're talking beforeabout movies that we might want
to bump up, like if I was tore-watch that through through
like any lens, basically, Ithink that would be one that I
would probably bump up asPhantom of the Opera because
yeah, that that really blew meaway, that movie.

(25:14):
And that was when I knew thispartnership would be pretty
cool.
Like, because you're you'reyou're showing me movies that
I'd never considered or nevereven thought of before.
And then the other one afterthat, obviously New Mutants was
one that we sort of came to byourselves, but for me, the the
other one was a very sort ofleft field movie, and it was the
Ewoks Adventure.
Remember what we did the EwoksAdventure?

(25:35):
Yeah, yeah, Caravan of Courage.
And I'm a guy that loves theMuppets.
Like they, I don't know why, butthey're like a comfort button
for me.
The the Muppets are justfreaking cool.
Loved them all my life.
So I was not opposed to watchingthis movie because of that,
because I'm a Jim Henson fan,but I was like, man, this is
like a TV B list VHS piece ofcrap.

(25:56):
But then I watched it and I waslike, man, this is actually not
too bad.
Like I don't, I don't reallymind this at all.
I actually rated that higherthan you did.
You recommended it.
I gave it a 2.5 and you gave ita two.
Yeah.
But I thought, yeah, I I lovethat you're introducing me to
new movies and expanding thathorizon for me.
And I reckon before we get to ahundred episodes, we may do a
theme arc that is fully relatedto horror movies.

(26:18):
I don't know.
We we might see Aaron grow thatfar.

SPEAKER_03 (26:21):
Hey, hey, I have I have a list of movies we could
watch for that.

SPEAKER_02 (26:26):
So a laundry list.
What about you, Brash?
What are some movies that we'vewatched that have surprised you,
or ones that you think we'veunderrated, or some things that
you think we've overrated?
What's your what's your takes onthe 50 episodes of Phantom
Portals so far you can be on?

SPEAKER_03 (26:42):
One that surprised me.

SPEAKER_02 (26:44):
Good surprise or bad surprise?

SPEAKER_03 (26:46):
Good surprise.

SPEAKER_02 (26:47):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (26:48):
Because I know how much you love.
I'm like sort of like, oh yeah,it's a good movie.
I watched that years ago andthen haven't really watched it
since.
And that's Forest Gar.

SPEAKER_04 (26:59):
Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (26:59):
Yeah.
I love it.
So I I I was I'm like a 10 ofthe one, which is amazing.
And I I gave it 4.5 um after ourafter our discussion.
But I think prior discussion Iwould have probably gave it like
a three Yeah or something likethat.
But after just like deep divingand talking about it and

(27:22):
rewatching it again, because forme it was like I hadn't I don't
think I had the seen for lasttime I watched Forest Gump, I
was probably like 16.
Yeah, I was yeah.
Like or maybe maybe maybe myearly twenties, maybe.
And yeah, so it's been uh it'sbeen a while, and for me, I was
like, I can remember a lot ofit, and there's still heaps of

(27:44):
lines that I quote all the time,like uh bit something bit me,
yeah.
Yeah, I can I just like thatshit all the time.

SPEAKER_02 (27:50):
Most credible movie in the world.

SPEAKER_03 (27:52):
Yeah, exactly.
It's so credible.
And for me, I'm like, if I hadto choose to like watch that or
like another movie, I'd probablywatch another movie.
It's one that I've seen.
I'm like, oh yeah, so you don'thave to see it again.
But I'm talking through you andhow much you love it and what it
meant to you, and and then andre-watching it myself, and I was
like, you know what?

(28:13):
It actually hits a bit harderthan I remember it did.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (28:17):
And why come back to that thing we were talking
about, how we get a bit morevulnerable when we're watching
movies now, you let yourselffeel the feelings, and you know,
at the age of 30 plus, I won'tage us on the podcast, but at
the age of 30 plus, you know,you've been through a bit of
life, so you look at Forrest'sjourney a little bit
differently, especially in thein the lens of love, you know,
because you can see howdedicated he is to Jenny and how

(28:38):
often she just like reallyabandons him.
So that's that brings out theheartstrings as well.
But then, you know, you look atJenny's journey from a different
perspective sometimes too.
And even though if you don'tunderstand it or you don't agree
with it, you can still sort oflook at it and and and think of
it in a different way instead ofjust villainizing her straight

(28:58):
away, which is what I kind oflike too.

SPEAKER_03 (29:00):
So you can see the pain that she's in.

SPEAKER_02 (29:02):
Yeah, yeah.
But my my all-time favoritecharacter in Forrest Gump for
every single part of it isLieutenant Dan Taylor.
He's just an absolute legend.
And as we talked about in the inthe episode just previous to
this one, he is the characterthat goes through the absolute
most sort of growth fromlearning and knowing Forrest
Gump.

SPEAKER_03 (29:19):
Been a rough asshole pretty much to being like this
pretty stand-up, nice, caringguy.
Yeah, he does a full 180.

SPEAKER_02 (29:28):
Yeah.
Is there any movies that we'vedone that you feel like you've
rated too low?
Too low.
Because I've got one for you.
You rated Dragonheart 2criminal.

SPEAKER_03 (29:38):
I was looking at Dragon Heart, I was looking at
Dragonheart, but again, uh asit's like when I when I when I
said to you, like for me, Iwould have rated Dragon Heart
maybe like three or four.

SPEAKER_02 (29:49):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (29:49):
From the Dragon Heart that was in my head, I
rewatched Dragon.
When I rewatched Dragon, I'mlike, this is a fucking
different movie.

SPEAKER_02 (29:55):
Well, that's the thing.
Like, we just talked about twodifferent movies that you
watched at a later age.
One got Better and the other onegot worse.
So that's the thing.

SPEAKER_03 (30:03):
I I had like all this imagination of the how that
movie was in my head, and then Irewatched it, I'm like, I don't
remember any of this shithappening.
The one that was in my head wasmuch better.

SPEAKER_02 (30:11):
Yeah, yeah.
The dragon in that though, youcan't deny the animation and the
CGI for the time.
Oh, yeah, it was absolutelygroundbreaking.
And the I I think you were theone that said it.
The person who who cast SeanConnery to be the voice of a
dragon, it was a genius.
Genius, absolute genius.
Yeah.
Absolute genius.

SPEAKER_03 (30:29):
But yeah, no, I'm sorry, I can't change my mind on
that one.

SPEAKER_02 (30:32):
That's fair enough.
That's fair enough.

SPEAKER_03 (30:34):
I I still will just replay the those numbers in my
head that I like better.

SPEAKER_02 (30:39):
Yeah, yeah.
Is there any on here that youthink we've we've rated too
highly, we've given too muchcredit?

SPEAKER_03 (30:45):
Get given too much credit?

SPEAKER_02 (30:47):
Yeah.
Because we do go through theseand and we're pretty systematic
with the way that we kind ofrate them and talk about them,
and we we do put a lot ofthought into them.

SPEAKER_03 (30:57):
Yeah, maybe something maybe something three.
I was gonna say, like the toplike 15.
I mean, well, to actually to befair, like I didn't watch these
ones with you, which is like BigFish and um 50 Days of Summer.

SPEAKER_02 (31:12):
Yeah, those ones were done with with guest stars.

SPEAKER_03 (31:14):
Yeah.
I I wasn't a big fan of BigFish.

SPEAKER_02 (31:17):
Yeah.
Bro, that that movie is one thatI when I was talking before
about how moments in my life haschanged how I've watched a movie
and made me become moreemotional about it.
Big Fish is one that alwaysreminds me of my dad.
Yeah.
So that's that's why I think Irate it so highly, is because
whereas it does not remind me ofmy dad at all.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(31:38):
So I think for for me when Iwatched that one, it was almost
like a story of of fatherhoodfor me, where I was looking at
it from the perspective of likemy dad, but also me being a dad
now, because it's all about afather talking to his son
through these massive andimmersive tales.
And I thought, you know, why ishe actually doing this?
And I'm like, is he doing it tobrag?

(32:00):
Is he doing it to posture thathe's done a lot of things to his
son?
But then I thought, you know, hepeople do things, especially
teach things for two reasons,and it's either to teach them a
lesson or to sh to try andimpart some wisdom or show them
an emotion that they want tofeel.
So through that lens, when Iwatched that movie, I really,
really enjoyed it.
It's one of my stuff favorites.

(32:21):
And I did that with Thomas,who's part of the Challenge
Accepted podcast.
And he does a Sickburn podcastas well.
He's a really great podcaster.
So if you want to check him out,look him up on any sort of
podcasting platforms, that's uhThomas at the Sickburn Podcast.
He's a good Hawaiian dude.
So Brash, you came onto thepodcast in episode 12.
You did a guest uh when we'retalking about critical role show
Vox Mukana, both being Dungeonsand Dragons fans ourselves.

(32:43):
Um, and then on episode 16, thatis when you like joined fully.
Now, of the catalogue that camebefore you, there is a movie
that I covered solo that I wouldlove to do with you in the
future.
Uh, just to like give a littlesneak peek, but also it's
something that I do actuallyreally want to revisit, and it's
a night's tale.

(33:04):
You know that is also one of myall-time favorite movies.
It's in my Letterboxd top four.
So one day we have to do HeathLedger's A Night's Tale.
I think that is only finished.

SPEAKER_03 (33:13):
We should just do a Heath Ledger a month.

SPEAKER_02 (33:15):
Look, I would absolutely love to do that.
Ten Things I Hate About You,Night's Tale.
You know, Ten Things I HateAbout You is the highest rated
rom com on Letterboxd.
It's like in the top ten or thetop twenty uh movies with most
fans in the in the list.
It's actually really, reallyhighly liked.
And I can see why.

SPEAKER_03 (33:34):
I only watched it a couple months ago.

SPEAKER_02 (33:36):
You're kidding.
Yeah.
Bro, I I had to watch that inhigh school.
And you know, sometimes whenthey roll in a movie for high
school and that crappy old TV.

SPEAKER_03 (33:44):
I don't know.
I mean, I didn't watch it forthe first time a couple months
ago.
I mean, I just re- I justrewatched it like that a couple
months a couple months or soago.

SPEAKER_02 (33:51):
Fair enough, fair enough.
That's okay, that's acceptable.

SPEAKER_03 (33:53):
I I've seen I've seen I've seen that movie many,
many times.

SPEAKER_02 (33:56):
Yeah, yeah.
We had to watch it in highschool.
They rolled in the old box TVand you're like, I think we
watched it in high school too.
Yeah.
Because it's it's a Shakespeareplay that they've taken off of
that one.
So yeah.
All right.
Let's move on from our catalogueand we'll get into our audience
fan community questions.
Thank you so much for sendingthese ones in.
We put a threads post up a few,it was probably like two months

(34:17):
ago now, and an Instagram storyup, and you guys had the
opportunity to give us questionsthat Brash and I would answer on
this 50th episode of ourpodcast, which also coincides
with we're a little bit late,but we're celebrating our
one-year birthday as well forthe podcast.
So some of these will say happybirthday, and if you're
wondering why, that is why.
It's because we are about a yearold when we've hit these 50

(34:39):
episodes.
A little bit more, but here wego.
So first question comes fromAbby Grace underscore from
Threads.
She said, You guys talk aboutgrowth a lot in your episodes
recently.
What's something you've changed,like a habit or a mindset that's
genuinely made your everydaylife better?
That's a good question.
Ooh.
I can go first if you want.

(34:59):
Yeah.
Mine is sleep and also diet.
Like that's a pretty that's notreally growth, I guess.
It's more like a habit.
But for me, my sleep pattern'sdefinitely improved and my diet,
I'm just starting tointentionally eat more whole
foods instead of rubbish.
If you want to talk about anactual mindset thing, Abby Grace

(35:22):
underscore, for me, it'sprobably self-acceptance in
terms of how I am as a personinternally, I guess is how I can
say that best.
So being okay and comfortablewith who I am as a person,
knowing that, you know, thatguy's okay.
And my own harshest critic ismyself.
So for me, it's those threethings some lifestyle habits,

(35:44):
but also a mindset.
One that's slowly developingover time, and it's taken a long
time to get me to this space.
But I feel like talking aboutstuff on this podcast, as well
as some other things, has been areally big factor in helping me
do that.
So what about you, Brash?

SPEAKER_03 (35:59):
I don't know.
I'm a mess.
Uh you are not.
No, um, I think for me, herehere's something personal gross
to me.
So when I was a lot younger, soit was like 17, 18, I was a
heavy drinker and a heavysmoker.

(36:20):
And I was on and off the smokesfrom 17 to 26-ish.
And I used to drink a lot.
Like I'd have twelve drinks anight and wake up and go to work
next morning.
Like, um, and yeah, it wasreally bad.
And I'd used to go to the puball the time and go to the clubs
and like all the young peoplething, but I think for me

(36:42):
looking back at it, it was soexcessive.
And like I don't remember a lotof my early twenties because of
it.
And uh I I think it's ever likeonce I think I was 20 roughly 28
between 28 and 30 I when I was26 I sort of I quit smoking.

(37:02):
Every now and then if I'm outwith friends having a few
drinks, I might indulge in acigarette if the habit comes
onto me a bit and I usually likeregret it immediately
afterwards.
But I don't drink anymore.
So I um the only time I willdrink is like say like a
Christmas party or like a abirthday celebration or anything

(37:25):
like that, or if I go out todinner I'll have like eight beer
or something like that, but likeat home I don't really I don't
drink anymore.
And I think that's made that'smade my life a lot better.
I think I've I've a lothealthier than I used to be.
Like I used to be reallyathletic in school and
everything like that, and thensort of like in my sort of I

(37:47):
thought I was invincible and Ithought I could my metabolism
would never go away and I wasalways gonna be fit and healthy.
And then when I started gettingtowards like 25, 26, I'm like
started playing, I went andplayed footy again and I was
like, I cannot do the samethings I used to do anymore.
Yeah, so I think yeah, cuttingback on those sort of habits
were really life-changing forme.

(38:07):
Like helped me save a lot moremoney as well to be able to
afford to buy a house andeverything like that.

SPEAKER_02 (38:12):
Yeah, but that's so good, man.

SPEAKER_03 (38:15):
I think that's my growth.

SPEAKER_02 (38:16):
That's really good.
It's a hard thing to breaksometimes too, but I'm really
glad to hear I'm proud of you.
Thanks, man.
I know you don't likecompliments and stuff like that.
Shut up.
I'm proud of you.

SPEAKER_03 (38:29):
No, so that that that that's my quitting quitting
out well, not quitting alcohol,like I sort of I take, but like
really, really reducing how muchit.
Yeah.
Like I used to think it wasfunny going to the doctors and
they'd be like, oh, how much doyou drink?
And I'd be like, oh, a day or aweek.
And they like you you see thelook of their face, like, that's

(38:51):
not funny, dude.
And then I look back and lookback at those, I'm like, you're
an idiot, man.

SPEAKER_02 (38:58):
Yeah.
Alright.
Next question.
We'll go.
Kellen Chips was on threads, andthey said, How do you guys
always seem so grounded?
If I had a mic and a platform,I'd never shut up.

SPEAKER_03 (39:10):
Well, that's because we don't record everything we
say.

SPEAKER_02 (39:13):
That's very true.

SPEAKER_03 (39:14):
Yeah, all the all the bragging and all the pushing
happen before we There's an hourbefore we record and an hour
after we record when we justtalk shit.

SPEAKER_02 (39:24):
Yeah.
I don't I don't know about thatone.
I think that like I'm prettymyself when we're we're talking
here, if that's what you mean bygrounded.
I just like I think if youlisten to our early episodes
when you and I are like findingour rhythm, you can see that
it's like it's a little bitformulaic, yeah, so to speak.
But I think now that we've sortof gotten into it a bit, we sort
of talk a little bit more freeflow and like we'll share

(39:46):
something that's personal to us,and then we'll share something
that's like something that wehope people might um might be
able to learn through like likemy expertise, like expertise,
I'll say, in question marksthrough my my work as a teacher
or you as well, through youryour knowledge of like like
games and films and things likethat that you do as as a
reviewer as well.

(40:07):
So I think you know, leaninginto our strengths is a big one,
but also like we're both, or Ifeel like we're both very open
to each other's opinion as well.
Like, I don't think I've everheard an opinion from you, and
you've never heard one from mewhere we've either said to each
other, you're full of shit.
Like, like you what a what anabsolute crappy take that you've
got there.

(40:27):
Fucking wrong.
Yeah, yeah.
How how on earth could you everfeel that way about this movie?
How could you see that you'reyou're stupid and wrong?
Like, I think it's because we'veboth created like a pretty open
space where we accept what eachother has to say about the
movie.

SPEAKER_03 (40:40):
That's it.
We're like, yeah, we're bothreally open to seeing the other
person's point of view.

SPEAKER_02 (40:45):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (40:45):
To the point where it might even sway our rating
from like a bit presumptuous,but I'm I hope that some people
watching this, especially likeif when we're sharing some of
our personal um things thatwe've gone through, it might be
relatable to some other peopleand it might help them try and
get through the same thing thatwe've been through or we talk
about.

SPEAKER_02 (41:04):
Going through, or yeah.
And that's that's part of thereason as well why I've s I
liked the way that this podcasthas transitioned into what it is
in terms of watching a movie andtalking about personal growth
and things like that, becauseone, I know that um a lot of
people do suffer in silence, forone.
So and then for two, it's goodto hear that somebody may be
going through something similaror feels something the same as

(41:24):
you do.
Three, it's great to hear thatsomebody likes the same thing
that you like.
And yeah, I think that it'sreally important for people to
know that it's also okay to talkwith a friend, like we're doing
it pretty publicly on a podcast,but you don't have to, but you
can talk to friends like thisand and you know, get things off
your chest if you need to, or ormove through things as you as

(41:46):
you see fit.
And you know, I don't think it'spresumptuous of you to to say
that because I definitely it'sbecome the purpose of this
podcast, really, is that's likeyeah, we're talking about movies
and geeking out and stuff likethat, but I think we're also
talking really well with eachother.
So yeah.
And which is important.

SPEAKER_03 (42:04):
Maybe like we talk about a movie that talks about
elements of something thatpeople might be going through
and they might never have seenthat movie before and know what
it's about.
They might happen to find it andbe like, that that movie sounds
like something I've gonethrough, maybe I should watch
that and yeah, maybe it'll helpme out a bit.
And I hope that's the case forsome of these movies.

SPEAKER_02 (42:23):
Yeah, and I do too, especially going forward as
well.
So really good question, KellenChips.
I appreciate that from threads.

SPEAKER_03 (42:29):
Yeah, I'd I'd the question, I don't know about
you, but I know uh for me, likeI love what like I go on YouTube
and I watch like reaction I canget lost in reaction videos on
like YouTube.
Yeah, yeah.
And because I always like saylike no one was for um baby
metal.
There's people reacting to babymetal, and there's like people
like who've never seen babymetal before and they watch they

(42:51):
go, that's so amazing.
And I was and like because I'mI'm a fan of baby metal, I
really like baby metal, and I'mlike, and seeing them like that
as I finally allies, yes, I'mlike, you love that?
I love that too.
Get on the bandwagon, and I justI I I know it just makes me
happy when I see other peoplebeing happy watching something
else that I like.

SPEAKER_04 (43:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (43:10):
Like so that's another thing I hope we sort of
bring, like they may really likethe movie Gabriel, and it's a
really uh probably not a reallywell-known movie, but someone
might like it, and then finallysomeone says, Oh, someone's
doing a review or something onGabriel, like no one ever does
this because that movie's gottenforgotten in time.
Yeah, and then they watch it,they're like, Oh, they really

(43:30):
liked it, and I really liked it,and I hope it like sort of
brings someone a little bit ofjoy.

SPEAKER_02 (43:36):
Yeah, no, I can I can definitely agree to that
because that's like it's part ofthe reason why we go ahead and
we put those community polls upon our Instagram for for us to
do movies that you guyslistening want to hear us do
because if we like what you haveput up, then that's obviously a
really great feeling.
But if we don't, then that'sobviously like we're still your
friends, we still love you.

SPEAKER_03 (43:57):
Yeah, but uh but you go like um I like I do like
hearing and because not all thereactions I watch for things I
like are overly positive, andfor me I never get I never get
angry or feel angry aboutsomeone doing that.
It's more of a for me or for meat least, I I try and see it

(44:22):
from their point of view and I'mlike oh yeah, I I feel nice,
right?
Like to be honest, like you youlove you like country music?

SPEAKER_02 (44:30):
Absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_03 (44:31):
I fucking hate it.

SPEAKER_02 (44:32):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (44:33):
I know but like but like say I I grew up in
Charlestown, this is a um littlecountry country Dominicown.
So that was country music allthe time around there, and like
don't don't get me wrong, Idon't hate all country music.
I listen to country music andI'm like, oh that's pretty good.
Like saying the horse right boy,it was my favorite cleaning
song.

SPEAKER_04 (44:52):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (44:53):
But yeah, like to me, like it all just sounds the
same.

SPEAKER_02 (44:58):
But we can still be friends, Brash.
That's fine.

SPEAKER_03 (45:03):
But uh on top of that, you like I've had friends
show me some country music songsand I'm like that slaps.

SPEAKER_02 (45:08):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (45:09):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (45:10):
Alright, we got a question here from sorry if I
butcher your name.
Yuri underscore T and Time.
No, that's not so hard to say.
Yuri underscore T and Time arefrom threads.
And they say this is kind oftalking about what we talked
about before.
It's like who's most likely tocry in an episode.
I don't know about crying anepisode or cry in a film or
either way.

SPEAKER_03 (45:30):
I reckon I reckon I'd probably be more likely to
cry in an episode.

SPEAKER_02 (45:33):
See, I I reckon it I reckon me as well.
I don't know.
You reckon?
Oh, I was almost tearing upbefore.
Yeah, yeah.
Man.
Yeah.
There's been times where I'mdefinitely like I feel like for
me, if you ever hear me startingto talk really fast, it's
because I'm trying to get wordsout because I'm feeling like
emotional.
I really want to like I want toget the words out before I start

(45:54):
to blubber, I guess you couldsay.
But there has been times whereI've sort of gotten a little bit
that way when we've been.

SPEAKER_03 (46:01):
I'm definitely gotten a little more emotional
than I was when I was younger.

SPEAKER_02 (46:05):
Yeah.
I think it's good though.

SPEAKER_03 (46:06):
Yeah, no, like 100%.
Like, like as I said earlier,like it it like for me, like it
just makes me feel lighter.

SPEAKER_02 (46:14):
Like yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (46:15):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (46:16):
I think we talked about this one a lot before.
So we'll move on to our nextone.
And this one isn't isn'tspecifically a question that was
asked, but it was a conversationthat happened on the Nerd Things
podcasts threads.
So the Nerd Thing is a podcastthat that talks about people's
nerdy things that they love.
And they actually said thatediting and marketing the
podcasts has taken over theirlives before.

(46:37):
And they're and I sort of wantedto talk a little bit about how
you can make that stop, I guess.
So I guess for for me, it'sdefinitely a workflow thing in
terms of this.
Like scheduling is obviouslypicking a co-host or or somebody
in a scheduling time that worksfor you is is great and stuff,
but using tools that reduce yourworkflow is the best thing ever.

(46:58):
And learning the phrase and mypodcasting network buddies,
Frank from the Geek FreakNetwork, he taught me this
saying, and it's just like goodenough is good enough.
So he also said, like, nobodylit will like most people will
listen to a podcast episode one,maybe two times if they really
loved it.
You as a podcasting editor willlisten to it like three times.

(47:21):
You'll record it, you'll listento it and edit it, and then
you'll listen to it like atleast two or three times.
So he goes, No one's reallylistening to it more than you.
You'll be more critical onyourself.
So for all the podcasters thatare listening to this, just
remember that if you're doing itfor passion, you're doing it for
love, and that will reflectthrough in what you're doing.
And it doesn't matter, likeobviously audio quality is
important, but it doesn't matterif there's like a slight bit of

(47:44):
this or a slight bit of that inyour podcast recording.
If it's going to take you anextra two hours to fix, then
yeah, good enough is goodenough.

SPEAKER_03 (47:54):
Yeah, touch on that too, because I used to stream.
Well, I try I tried to streamgames on Twitch and everyone.
And yeah, tools are a big help.
Um and guess it is building aschedule and staying to that
schedule.

SPEAKER_04 (48:10):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (48:10):
Because I I built a schedule and then I had to
deviate.
And then eventually, because ofthat deviation, and also I
changed jobs that was a bit moredemand, like demanding of my
time.
So I had to try and change thatschedule, and then I found out
that the schedule I had tochange to was pretty much
non-existent.
And so I it sort of just wentfrom me oh streaming like nearly

(48:33):
two hours a night for a wholelike a month and then all of a
sudden just had to stop so Ithink it's yeah, consistency is
probably the big thing.
Just try and keep it consistent.
Just trying to f just try tofight and cause yeah, it doesn't
have to be long.
Like especially at the start, itdoesn't have to be long, and at
the start it doesn't have to beperfect.

(48:55):
Yeah, yeah.
It's it's about it's about Ithink the consistency.
If you just keep keep doing it,keep doing it, keep doing it
eventually like you'll start tosee some growth.
And if you just keep consistentand being consistent every day,
you'll eventually start buildingthat uh sort of time.

(49:17):
But unfortunately, life doesn'talways like it that way and will
throw you some speed humps.
But just trying to keep it.

SPEAKER_02 (49:23):
I think that's important to note too.

SPEAKER_03 (49:25):
Keep the consistency, I think, is a big
one.

SPEAKER_02 (49:28):
Yeah, and I think consistency is good is good, but
it also has to be consistent andwhat's the word I'm looking for
here?
Realistic as well.
So, like if, for example, whenmy football season's on, two of
my nights a week are taken up bytraining, so that's obviously
nice that I can't edit or doanything like so.
We've moved to like afortnightly instead of a weekly,
which we usually do when I'm notat football training.

(49:49):
So just like giving yourselfit's still consistent, but
obviously you let life take intoaccount those times and you move
through and past that as well.
But yeah, consistency isdefinitely something that you
need to to keep on top of andputting in the schedules, as we
said before, and using the toolsto reduce your workflow.
So that's probably our biggesttips there from uh the Phantom

(50:10):
Portals podcast.
All right.
We've got some messages fromsome previous guests that have
been on the show.
So here is a message from StevenKepfer.
He was on an episode 44, and hewas a stump man that I
interviewed, and he is giving ussome well wishes.
So thank you, Steven, for all ofyour your kind words, and thank
you for appearing on the show aswell.

SPEAKER_01 (50:31):
Hey, what's up?
I'm here to wish Aaron andFandom Portals Podcast an
amazing first anniversary.
I recently got a chance toappear on the show.
I had a blast.
It's really informative.
I've been catching up on some ofthe other episodes, and just
Aaron does a great job, and I'mreally glad that I came across
his show and was able to spendsome time out there talking with

(50:54):
him about the stump world andfilmmaking and everything.
His passion is evident and itcomes across in a fantastic
show.
So if you're not subscribed toPhantom Portals Podcast, you
actually need to go to yourfavorite podcast player right
now.
Search for Phantom Portals andsubscribe.

(51:15):
It's an awesome show.
Congratulations on one year,Aaron.

SPEAKER_02 (51:21):
Thank you for that, Steven.
Yeah, he was a really greatguest to talk to and giving him
some well wishes too.
He also runs a podcast as well,it's the Film Fights Podcast, so
make sure you go and check himout.
He talks to some people thathave worked in the stunt world
about all the differenttechniques and trade secrets
that they use.
So go and check him out and hisstuff as well.
We've also got a message herefrom our network, Mr.

(51:43):
Frank from the Geek Freakspodcast.
He has sent us a little voicemessage.

SPEAKER_00 (51:50):
Aaron Hey Brasher, Frank here.
Congratulations on a wonderfulyear of the Phantom Portals
podcast.
I am one of your most avid fans.
The way you guys uplift yourcommunity and share your
passions, it's infectious.
We all want to join in on thefun.
I've had the absolute privilegeof joining you guys on a couple
episodes, and I'm always leftwanting more.
More, Aaron, more talking aboutthe things I love, more
analyzing the movies that Imight have overlooked, more

(52:12):
Phantom Portals podcasts.
So congratulations on a year,and I cannot wait to see what
you guys have cooking up next.

SPEAKER_02 (52:20):
He's such a nice guy, Frank, and he's like he's a
really big podcasting mentor ofmine.
He he was on the show talkingabout Star Trek before.
We did a crossover episodebecause he does a challenge
accepted podcast with Thomas,who I talked about before as
well.
And we did Mortal Kombat.
Yeah, he's a he's a really bigGame of Thrones fan as well.
So we both vibe over DragonLove.

(52:41):
Dragons.
Yeah.
So yeah, thank you, Frank, foryour well wishes.
Thank you for all your advicealways.
And he's always only a uhInstagram direct message away if
I have any concerns or queries.
So yeah, he he he and the GeekFreaks network as well.
Because the way this started wasI started an Instagram page and
it was just geek stuff going upon Instagram and the podcast was

(53:02):
coming, and I kept saying it wascoming.
And he reached out to me beforeI'd released an episode and he
was like, Do you want to jointhe network?
And I was like, I don't haveanything out to contribute to
the network.
And he goes, No, it's like, doyou want to join the network?
I was like, Yeah, like cool.
We talked about what it would belike, and it's been the best
sort of support network I couldever ask for because talking
about that consistency that wewe talked about before, they

(53:24):
keep me on track and they likethey it's good to have people to
bounce off of how you can evolveand things like that.
So and he's been in the industryand the business for ages, so
can't say enough good thingsabout about Frank the Geek
Freaks Network.

SPEAKER_03 (53:37):
Just say maybe one day might be able to build I
might be able to build acampaign and we can have
everyone from the network?
The network join us in a DDgame.

SPEAKER_02 (53:47):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, he's actually an avid DDplayer as well.
He runs a campaign with a coupleof the people from the Geek
Freaks Network.
I think there's three or four ofthem in there, but they run it
where than ever they can.
And when he found out that I haddone a DD podcast, we started
talking about that a lot aswell.
Because he would you know howwhen you're a you'd know this,
when you're a DM, you can'tshare your secrets with your
players.
Yeah.
And you need somebody to talkabout the cool things that

(54:09):
you're gonna do.
So yeah, I was that for Frankfor a little bit there.
So yeah, he's definitely a he'she's got a lot of similar
interests to you and a lot ofsimilar interests to me as well.
So both big football fans aswell.
We got a message here, abirthday message from Jeremy
Drysdale.
He was a screenwriter that wedid an interview with, and he's
known for coming up with ascreenplay for The Line of Duty,

(54:31):
which stars Aaron Eckhart.
And he says, There's a lot offilm podcasts, but as far as I
know, there's only one driven bythe smart, inquiring, precacious
mind of Aaron Davies.
I'm not making this up, this iswhat he sent to me.
That glittering shimmer of lucidintelligence is fandom portals,
and it is my great pleasure towish them well on their
anniversary.
Happy birthday, and thanks forhaving me for the fun episode.

(54:53):
Thanks, Jeremy.
It was a really great chat.
He he was what somebody that Ilearned a lot from in terms of
screenwriting.
And you know how I go on thesedeep dives every now and then,
Brash, on account of my mindbeing how it is.
I actually went through thisdeep dive of looking really into
film screenplays.
And when I was doing that, I waslike, I've got to talk to one of
these guys that write thesethings.
And I reached out to Heath, andhe was one that sort of hit me

(55:14):
back, and it was really great tohave a chat to him about the
industry.
So thanks very much for that.
Taught me a lot.
We got one from Luke Newton, whois actually like he's pretty
much my brother, Luke Newton,because my little brother has
was his friend growing up inhigh school since they were like
13 or 14 or something like that.
But he's always around the houseand he until he moved away.
But he's the one that we'veactually been doing a lot of

(55:35):
episodes with Avatar the LastAirbender about.
So I'll watch a series of Avatarthe Last Airbender and then
we'll talk about it.
And then I'll watch the secondone and we'll talk about it.
So he says, Hello, fandomportals.
I can't believe it's alreadybeen a year since the potty was
launched.
Since then, you've had someabsolute bang rap episodes that
I've really been able to engagewith and relate to.
I want to thank you for givingme the platform to talk about my

(55:56):
love of Avatar and taking mypodcast virginity.
You're welcome, Luke.
Looking forward to many moreepisodes and even keener to wrap
up the OG Avatar series withbook three in the near future.
I hope you guys get many moreamazing guests to follow and
praying that your potty gets therecognition it deserves.
Love you, brother, from Luke.
Thank you, Luke.
Appreciate you.

(56:17):
And then the last one we have isfrom Tia Jackson, who appeared
on one of our episodes, episode46, and I talked to her about
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchiomovie.
And she says, Happy firstbirthday, Phantom Portals.
What an amazing achievement.
Well done.
I adore this podcast and trulylove guesting.
It was one of the most relaxedand fun recording experiences
I've ever had.
I adore this podcast and trulylove guesting.

(56:38):
Uh, Aaron, you made me feel sowelcome.
Thank you.
I can't wait to see what youhave in the future and what it
brings.
What a wonderful and wholesomepodcast.
It's a great example of joy thatthe world needs many more to
come.
So thank you for that, Tia.
She's from the Alien Effectspodcast here.
So if you go and look her up,definitely follow her on the
Alien Effects podcast.
And she's someone who talksabout her geek passions as well.

(56:59):
And the podcast is called theAlien Effect Podcast because
that's the way she feels whenshe loves something so much.
It's like an alien coming out ofher chest, like from the movie
Alien.
That's that's the whole sticks.
But yeah, that was a reallygreat talk on episode 46 where
we chatted about Pinocchio withT.
So thank you for the birthdaymessages, guys, and thank you
for the support of the podcastfrom all our guests.
It was amazing to hear from youguys as well.

(57:20):
That's pretty much it, Brash.
That's our mailbag gratitudesall wrapped up.
Do we talk about what we'regoing to be doing in the future?

SPEAKER_03 (57:28):
Yeah.
Oh, do you want to talk aboutwhat we've been doing lately and
then the future?

SPEAKER_02 (57:32):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Do you want to kick us off withlately?

SPEAKER_03 (57:34):
Lately?
Go for it.
Uh so I just I watched the newRobin Hood show.
Or what?
Yeah.
There is no new what new RobinHood show?

SPEAKER_02 (57:44):
Bro, Robin Hood is like I read the Robin Hood books
when I was like 10.
And I always it was like thoseDK illustrated I've been
obsessed.
Scott Sean Bean.
Who does he play?
The Sheriff.
What more do you need to sell aTV show?
What's it on?
It is on Stan.

(58:06):
I don't have Stan.

SPEAKER_03 (58:07):
I have Stan.
So if I have Stan, you haveStan.

SPEAKER_02 (58:10):
Because we live in the same household.
Yes.
For those of you listening tothis on audio, I just gave a
really big wink to Brad.
We don't condone.
Yes, we do.
Fuck it.

SPEAKER_04 (58:20):
Yeah, of course we do.

SPEAKER_03 (58:21):
Of course we do.
Fuck it.
I I I pay a lot of money for mystreaming services.
I actually be able to fuckingshare them with someone.
Yeah, I want to enjoy it with afriend.
But no, uh, yeah, see it's onstand.
It just can ask two episodesout, next episode down on
Sunday.
So if I'm here to you know atleast you can watch it over the
weekend.

SPEAKER_02 (58:38):
That sounds great.

SPEAKER_03 (58:39):
Uh and I've been playing the new dispatch game.

SPEAKER_02 (58:42):
Dispatch?
Also something I haven't heardof.
Tell me more.

SPEAKER_03 (58:45):
Um so uh the creators of dispatch it's a
superhero like 911 call center.
So you are in charge of thethere's a whole story with it,
but I won't get into it becauseyou need to get the game because
it's not that expensive.
Throwing out there, even for usin Australia, even though things
in Australia always cost more.

(59:07):
It's not not overly expensive,and it is a very, very fun, cool
game with a bunch of awesomevoice actors.
And some streamers actually dosome of the voices like Moist
Critical, Jacksepticeye, and Ohyeah.
I always fucking Charles And theAustralian Australian streamer.
And then also they sent a scriptto Laura Bailey.

(59:29):
Oh, and Laura Bailey loved itand was like, hey Travis, have a
look at this.
So the C C C C O O of CriticalRole was like, damn, this looks
absolutely amazing.
I want in on this.
And they joined and partneredwith Critical Role.
So Critical Role also helpedfund and build this game.
And it has Travis Willingham asone of the voice actors, it has

(59:51):
Laura Bailey as one of the voiceactors, and then a couple of
other characters who aren'treally in the game, but they're
just extra voices, are also someof the Critical cast members.
No, it's as well.
And it is a fantastic game.
It comes out in episodes, twoepisodes a week.
And I think there's eightepisodes.
And currently there's six out atthe moment.
Oh no, I was actually playing itjust before I jumped.

(01:00:12):
Oh actually, it's actuallybehind my screen of you.
You'll be playing it when westop as well.
Exactly.
Yes.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:17):
And the text is it like one of those old telltale
game things or how's it run?

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:22):
So it's very cinematic.
You can go to interactive, butI'm in cinematic mode because
the interactive modes like whenthere's fight scenes, you have
to move your mouth, click yourmouse, and move it and drag the
line in certain ways and that tothrow punches and dodge and
stuff like that.
But it's just really just sitlike but it's all like active
time events.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:41):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:42):
And so it's just really cinematic, and then the
actual main gameplay of it isyou've got your list of people,
like your pictures of all yourpeople, your superheroes on the
bottom, uh, with all the amazingvoice actors and content
creators and other people whovoice these characters, uh and
they're all quirky anddifferent.
And alert will come up on yourmap, click on the alert, and
it'll say, hey, this something'shappening, like a cat's stuck up

(01:01:05):
my cat's stuck up on a tree, Ineed to get it out of the tree.
Can you send someone to help?
So you have to look at what theuh there's like little clues uh
pertaining to the uh to what thejob is, and then you pick the
right person for the job, and ifthey're good enough and have the
right stats, they'll succeed,and then eventually they'll
level up a little bit.
You can put an extra point inone of their stats.

(01:01:26):
So like strength, mobility,defense, brains.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:30):
Is it permadeath as well?
No.
So you know you know, like forlike for example, XCOM, you'd
have your Australian soldierthat was an arterialist, and
you'd send him out on missions,and then if he died, he was
gone.
But if he if he survived, he'dstay alive for forever.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:43):
No, so th these are your core builds, so you don't
like so these are your maincharacters of your story.
No, they're all and they've allgot they're all different and
they have their own littleunique unique works and
everything like that.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:54):
Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:54):
But like they can get if they fail, they can get
injured.
Or if they fail, they getinjured, and if they fail again,
um and they lose some stats andthey get weaker if they get
injured, and then if they loselike fail again, another
mission, then they can getdowned, and you can't use them
for the rest of the uh uh restof the sort of shift because
there's an issue you've got yourmorning shift and your afternoon

(01:02:15):
shift, and then yes, yeah, it'svery cinematic and beautifully
animated.
Music's phenomenal.
Yeah, it's just an all-around,just a wonderful game.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:27):
A treat.
All right, what have I beeninto?
I have been watching, well, TVshow-wise, I've been watching
Chad Powers on Hulu, DisneyHulu.
It's not too bad, it's prettygood.
The football in is prettyaccurate.
It's like it's story-wise, it'spretty predictable.
It's like literally Mrs.
Doubtfire without the kids andwith more football.
But like Glenn Powell does areally great job, and there's

(01:02:47):
some emotional scenes towardsthe end episode, but they leave
it on a really big cliffhanger.
So uh there's six episodes orseven episodes in season one.
Really massive cliffhanger.
I'm pretty sure they're goinginto a season two, but I'd
recommend watching it becauseyeah, it's like two and a half,
three hours of your of yourlife, and it's entertaining and
it's fun.
Made me laugh a few times.
Kalia was into it as well, soshe liked it.

(01:03:10):
Other than that, I have actuallybeen watching a whole bunch of
movies on Disney that have likethey're kind of in the same sort
of vein and category.
So I I watched the Maze Runnertrilogy, and then from which is
a book adaptation that we couldhave talked about before.
I watched a couple of the Narniamovies, again, another book
adaptation.
I watched The Prince of Persia,which was a game adaptation, and

(01:03:33):
all of the and obviously JohnCarter.
And and all of these movies arekind of in that vein of like
kind of successful, not reallylike takeoff blockbustery.
And I've been doing that becauseour next theme arc that we were
doing, then that we're going tobe launching straight after this
episode, is obviously FailureIsn't Final, where we take the

(01:03:53):
movies that flopped and we seewhat we can learn from them.
So to talk about our futurestuff now, we are going to be
doing an episode straight afterthis one about John Carter.
So we're going to be looking atJohn Carter as a movie, which is
the Disney movie starring TaylorKitch, which is a book
adaptation, believe it or not.
Are we going to be doing Eragonas well, which is the two movies

(01:04:14):
that Brash and I have decided todo?
And the new format we're kind ofgoing into is because we usually
release four episodes a month,we're going to do one that, or
two that Brash and I pick, andthen the last two will be
community picks.
So we're going back to thatformula that we used to do back
at the start, where we do acommunity pick movie.
And we've actually been gettinglots of interactions on our
socials.

(01:04:35):
So if you want to be a part ofthat, make sure you join us on
Threads and Instagram at fandomportals because we hold a fight
bracket basically where we askfor your input on what movies we
should do, and we get a biglist.
Uh, we narrow it down to eightand then we set them off against
each other tournament style,just like Dragon Ball Z until
one of them wins.
At the moment, we've got ourfinals bracket happening for our

(01:04:55):
third movie for that theme arc,and then we'll be doing the
fourth very, very soon.
So those will release and berevealed on our social media.
So make sure you go on there,vote, and uh have a chat about
which one you want us to do.
So it's all going to be filmsthat have flopped, and some of
them have been pretty surprisingin terms of movies that have
flopped because yeah, they'vethey've had massive studio
backings, but obviously theyhave not met the mark.

(01:05:19):
But yeah, we'll be talking aboutthat in the future.
So that is where we currentlyare at at the Fandom Portals
podcast.
We'll be talking about themovies that aimed high,
stumbled, but still managed toteach us something because we'll
be looking at those lessons aswe always do in our Fandom
Portals style.
So believe it or not, brash,you're gonna have to come up
with some sort of thing that youlearned from Aragon, and it

(01:05:40):
can't be that you can't adapt agreat book into a shit movie.
You have to actually go up withsomething.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:44):
Sometimes you've just got to throw it in the bin
and start again.

SPEAKER_02 (01:05:47):
Yeah.
Well, look, we'll talk about itmore during that episode, but I
I have some pretty similaropinions to you on that, on that
stance.
So, all right.
This has been our communityepisode, our gratitude mailbag
episode for 50 episodes and oneyear of podcasting.
Brash, I want to generally thankyou for coming along on the

(01:06:07):
ride.
It's it's the highlight of mytime when we record.
It's really great.
And you know, watching moviesand knowing that uh you're over
the other side of town watchingit too is is kind of comforting,
you know?
Well, all right.
Gratitudes for this week.
My one is all of the communitycall-ins that we got.
We of we obviously didn't saysome of the ones that we got
because obviously press fortime.

(01:06:27):
We're over an hour now, but wedo appreciate every single one
of you guys that uh reached outto us and consistently vote on
our polls is because of you thatthese community picks and movies
and stuff go ahead.
So, and also interacting on someof our posts that we talk about
where we geek out about all ofour favourite movies.
So thank you to our communityonce again.
I know I've been grateful foryou guys before, but I think

(01:06:48):
it's only fitting on our 50thepisode that we do it here and
now.
So I think you'd share in thatgratitude as well, Brass.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:56):
No, I did owe that.
I certainly did er thatsentiment, and I also like to
thank you for bringing me alongon this journey.
It's been absolutely amazing.
And I always I always liked thiskind of stuff.
That's why I wanted to like getinto streaming initially.
I loved because I liked playingstreaming, I loved playing
games, and especially throughCOVID, I used to watch heaps of

(01:07:18):
streamers and podcasters andthat all the time because
there's really nothing else todo.
Yeah.
There's a big boom, and I'mlike, wow, that seems like such
fun to do.
And then just seeing that likeplaying games with their other
friends and all of that, it justit just seems so much fun.
So that's why enjoying you, it'sbeen an absolute blast.

SPEAKER_02 (01:07:35):
Yeah, thanks, man.
I appreciate that.
It's it's been a real blast, andevery time we do it, it's been
fun.
So appreciate you, appreciateour community.
It's a good thing we got going.
Might might keep doing it.
Yeah, yeah.
At least for for at least onemore episode.
One more episode.
That's what we'll say everytime.
At least four episodes.
One more, one more episode.
Yeah, just one more.

SPEAKER_03 (01:07:55):
You know, you know what?
Maybe one more.

SPEAKER_02 (01:07:58):
Yeah, yeah.
All right.
Keep learning, keep growing,keep loving filming fandoms,
guys.
We'll catch you next time.

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