March 12, 2018 • 28 mins
Join Chuck and Noel as they crush out on your Facebook comments and questions in this week's mini-crush.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hey everybody, and welcome to a movie crush Charles W.
Chuck Bryant here in our home studio at Pont City Market, Atlanta, Georgia,
along with the sunny and bright and well coft Noel.
Thank you for commenting on my quaffery, Chuck, I appreciate
that I've been working on it. Well. No One and
I both have these uh big dumb beards, like all
all guys have. I can't wait for the day we
(00:44):
look back at pictures and everyone goes, what what the
funk were we all doing? Well? Apparently beards are out, Chuck,
But I've never worn my beard for fashion. It is
just strictly to hide my double chance. Oh yes, I
have quite a few chins under here as well, and
it does a great job. But not only staid, big
shaggy here too. But in uh, you gotta cut what
six months ago? So I got a promotion at work, Chuck,
(01:04):
and I had to I had to have the dude
had to match the Yeah, they say, dressed for the
job you want, in this case, it's cut your hair
for the job you got exactly sort of reverse and
Alex just cut his hair looks very nice. He did
he's getting married soon. That might be wine. Okay, so
that was his his lovely bride to be at the
Christmas party. Yes, she's delightful you No, that was someone else.
(01:28):
Alex is another guy we work with, a producer who
did the music for my other podcast, Ridiculous History, which
we get comments on all the time. He's another um
jack of all trades, how stuff works, super producer. Yeah, man,
he's great. Interesting is great. We have such an amazing
teen Did all these guys come through you? Man? You
can find him very lucky, very lucky to be able
(01:49):
to give amazing people an amazing opportunity here. Well, and
it's cool because all of these editors and engineers, like
you said, jack of all trades, it's like they're all
musicians and and I assume him originally probably a video
and film editors. Yeah, it's great. And Alex, by the way,
is one of the lead hands on Atlanta Monster, which
(02:11):
is our partnership with Tenderfoot TV and true crime show
about the Atlanta child murders that has blown up the
podcasting world's true setting the charts on fire. Yeah, I'm
a fan. Actually, I've been listening every week because I
grew up during the Atlanta child murders, and even as
a white suburban kid in Atlanta, it was scary at
(02:32):
the time. You talked about that a good bit with
your buddy Dave Willis, who also grew up in the area,
about how that sort of was a specter hanging over,
like parents didn't want you to go to the mall
by yourself. Yeah, that's a real thing. So welcome every one.
As you know, follow us on facebooks, you can interact
with the show where we post questions and we call emails,
and we have a few segments that we're gonna do
(02:54):
today and number one we'll go ahead and get right
into it called Grip This it's a new one. I
like it. So the idea here is that occasionally I
will explain something about the film industry and these weird
uh names and title job titles that you see on
the movie screen in front of you. Because I take
(03:16):
it for granted because I worked in the film industry
that everyone knows what a dolly grip is and what
a fully artist is uh and what a gaffer is.
But um, a lot of people don't know this stuff.
And we get emails from time to time saying, hey,
you guys, you and Josh on stuff you should know,
should do a podcast just explaining what these jobs are
in film crews. So I'm gonna do that here. Uh,
(03:38):
in this segment of Grip This, I'm going to talk about, uh,
the job of producer. And this is a this is
a weird, weird job in the movie industry because a
producer can be everything from uh, strictly the financier of
your project, all the way down to and in that
(03:59):
case would be an acutive producer, almost assuredly, all the
way down to an associate producer who it might just
be someone who did you a favor that allowed you
to shoot one scene for a movie, and so in
lieu of money, they might say, all right, we'll give
you an associate producer credit. And sometimes that works, believe
it or not. So we're gonna go through a few
of these various titles. Executive producer obviously is at the top.
(04:23):
And like I said, um, they could be the financier
of the movie. They can be, um, the the head
of the studio that you are working with, um, like
a Steven Spielberg, let's say. And as an executive producer
in that case it can. It can run the gamut
from someone who just says, I allow you to go
(04:43):
make this movie with our studio. Um too. Maybe they
will even oversee parts of it and weigh in creatively
at times, or help make connections two actors or or writers,
or pull the crew together as a director and maybe
package it it. Really, there is no set script for
what an executive producer might do. That could be super
(05:05):
involved or not very involved. And you see stars and
TV shows get elevated to executive producer as they learned more.
Cache absolutely, like of the Office, a lot of main
players at later seasons you see them with executive producer credits.
Yeah that's a that's a true U H up the
ladder type of thing. And actually, when Josh and I
did our silly little TV show for Science Channel, one
(05:27):
of the things that we negotiated was producer credit. Um,
I don't even know why, just a little feather in
the cap. Although we did do the job of producer.
I mean we were involved soup the nuts in that show.
Uh So executive producer again, uh might represent the studio.
They might keep watch over it, or maybe it's just
symbolic to give the movie visibility. UM. For instance, George
(05:49):
Clooney was an executive producer of the great great movie
Far from Heaven. UM, but he didn't he wasn't really
on the set um making decisions, but he did has
something to do with it early on. So sometimes I
will just give a little cash at associate producer, Like
I said, well, let's go just with the regular producer title.
(06:09):
This can be a lot of things because you can
see a lot of producers listed on a movie. But
when I think of producer with just that title, I
think of the main person who was working on this
movie from beginning to end, hand in hand with the director,
(06:29):
um packaging the movie, working with the crew, were casting,
helping with casting, really just sort of the partner of
the director going into battle together to get this movie made. UM.
Since we're on Far from Heaven. The great Christine Vashon
was a producer of that, and she's one of the
all time great producers. Has a stellar sellar list of
(06:51):
credits to her name. And Christine Vashon is of feet
to the ground, get down to it, nitty gritty producer
involved in reaspect of the making of the movie from
the very beginning to the very end UM. But producer
can also mean you're just you know, sort of involved
or maybe one of the actors assistant producer. They basically
(07:12):
work on things that the producers tell you to do.
So it's just sort of a h almost like a
co producer. But then there's also a credit of co
producer and they share responsibilities responsibilities generally as a group
and as a team of producers. UM. Maybe take on
some creative responsibilities. Another co producer might handle more of
(07:34):
the business um. But then you also have the line producer,
and the line producer generally is handling the budgetary things, uh,
the physical aspects of the movie production. UM, not as
involved creatively, but they're really their day to day UM,
making sure that everything is all departments have what they
(07:57):
need uh and and have the money they need or
in some cases they don't have the money and they
have to figure out how to do it anyway. So
that's the line producer. UM. The associate producer, like I said,
can be they can be involved UM or it can
be like I said, like a title that you just
throw out to someone who did you a little favor. Uh,
(08:19):
it's like a courtesy title. Sometimes as a backer of
the film. Uh. They may not play a major role
at all, but sometimes they have worked on the movie.
It's a very um nebulous sort of gray area for
a lot of these titles. I think you're starting to
get that picture. Um. Supervising producer. They can oversee some
(08:40):
of the other producers as they perform some of their duties. Uh.
Sometimes they may take the place of an executive producer
or work for the executive producer. Uh. And then you
have finally the coordinating producer, and they coordinate the work
of several producers. Is it's starting to get that thing
where you say the producer where so many times starts
to sound funny. Producer overload, recording producers are They're very
(09:06):
valuable if a studio is producing related films. And the
example here on how stuff works is the movie Spider Man.
When you have um two related films being produced at
the same time, um, like the Pirates of the Caribbean
or the Spider Man movies, or like when they did
Lord of the Rings altogether. Sometimes a coordinating producer might
make sure all the various heads are talking to one
(09:28):
another well, especially if there's like Marvel Cinematic Universe types
where there has to be continuity from one movie to
the next, and they have to know what the other
crew is doing in order for the one crew to
do it right. You know, absolutely, So that is grip
this for this week and what's the best boy, Chuck? Oh, well,
we'll get to that. So hopefully that cleared things up,
but I have a feeling I've just really confused everyone
(09:50):
further on what a producer is. I once met this guy,
Dean Zanek, who is the son of famed producer Richard Zanek,
who also related to Darryl Zannek. Yeah, and Dean was
producing this movie Get Low With that had Bill Murray
and it Yeah, I remember that movie. It was good.
But they shot it near my hometown of Adusta, Georgia,
and I did a piece on it for a public
radio and I got to go to the set. They
(10:10):
shot it in a town called Crawfordville, and I kind
of asked Dean what a producer was or how do
you become a producer And there was no real clear answer.
That's an adorable question from you at that age two, Yeah,
exactly what he was sort of like, you know, the
ultimate answer was you you're the son of Richard's you know, yeah,
it is a getting into the job of producer is
(10:32):
kind of weird. And like Emily, my wife was a producer,
she'd produced music videos. And in that case, the path
to producer is you usually start work as a p
A and then you move up to maybe production coordinator,
and then you move up to production manager or maybe
u PM unit production manager, and eventually you can get
(10:54):
work as a producer, and then the line producer is
sort of attainable too. Isn't that a little bit more
functional job that aolutely That's like you're you're handling the
money in the budget and uh uh. And those you know,
like Emily as a producer unfortunately wasn't super involved creatively.
They are the people responsible for pulling off that job.
And then the case of music videos, that is a tough,
(11:15):
tough job, or at least was back then. I don't
even know if they still make music videos. They just
all make them with their phones. Now, okay, good, all right,
Segment two, we're gonna move on to another edition of
the Highlight Reel. This week, I'm going to highlight the wonderful,
(11:40):
the amazing, the lovely, and amazing hint hint, Nicole Holofsiner
in her first three films. Specifically, Nicole Holofsener is one
of my filmmaking heroes. She as from New York City
and began her career as a writer and director in
with the independent film Walking and Talking with a very
(12:01):
young Katherine Keener and Leev Schreiber and Hesh todd Field
and Kevin Corrigan. And it was in that I know,
I talked about it all the time, but that wonderful
mid nineties period where independent film um was burgeoning and
really kind of put itself on the map. And there
were so many great, great movies made then, and Walking
(12:21):
and Talking is certainly one of them. The story of
these two best friends, Katherine Keener and Hesh or Hess.
I think it's I haven't seen her in a while.
She's good or she can be, Yeah, it does. It
seems like she kind of disappeared. Yeah, let's let's go
find a Haitian put her on the show. I'm sure
that I'll do it. That'll put her right back on
the star map. Wasn't she married to Ellen for a
(12:43):
while or weren't they like an item? Yeah? Absolute? Um,
So they played good friends and Liev Schreiber is the
is the friend of Katherine Keener and just sort of
their life in New York as twenty somethings and uh,
failed love affairs and romances. It's just a really really
great movie. Uh five years later. It took five years,
I imagine because Nicole Holofstener is a woman in Hollywood
(13:06):
in the mid nineties and there just was not and
still is not enough opportunity for female writers and directors.
So it took her five years after The Great Walking
and Talking to make Lovely and Amazing, which is a
wonderful film with again Katherine Keener. As you will see,
she has become a staple in her movies, the Great
Brenda Blevin, uh, Emily Mortimer and uh the first movie
(13:29):
from a young woman or a young girl at the time,
I guess, Raven Goodwin. And it's the story of a
mom and two daughters and a granddaughter and their life
together and it's just again so sweet and so real,
and which is sort of a pattern you will see
in Nicole Holofsener's work. She just is able to tap
into these real human emotions and get these great performances
(13:51):
out of all her actors, and then finally movie number three,
Friends with Money, Jennifer Anniston, And it's when Jennifer Aniston
left Friends and took the or when Friends ended, and
she took that turn in her career where she wanted
to do some um, smaller movies, some more independent films
and did really good, some really good quality movies during
(14:13):
that period, and Friends with Money was certainly one of them.
And it is the story of four sisters, Jennifer Andison,
Joan Kuzack, uh the wonderfully amazing, Frances McDormand, and again
Katherine Keener, one of my favorite actors. And there are
four sisters and it's about again just their interpersonal relationships
(14:33):
and um, some are married, some are not, some are
um looking for love like Jennifer Anderson's character and uh money.
It's called Friends with Money because that is a theme
of the movie. They're sort of an undercurrent of of
and you don't see this in movies, which is what
made this surreal is and it's a real thing. It's like,
if some people have more money than others in a
(14:57):
friend group, it can get weird and and that's the
case here. And it's just sort of a real life
thing that you never see in movies. And in this case,
Frances McDorman is has made a lot of money as
a as a fashion designer, um, whereas Jennifer Anniston is
and I think Katherine Keyner's character and her husband are
also very well off in Los Angeles, and Jennifer Aniston
(15:18):
is has not much money and she's cleaning houses to
get by, and as the sister, you know, they try
to do everything they can to help her out. But
it's just a really interesting look at what money means
when it comes to relationships with one another. But it's
done in a very real way. It's not like they
don't you know, she doesn't beat you over the head
(15:39):
with with finance. That makes sense. I thought Bride'smaids did
an interesting job of that as well. And their friends, yeah,
because that's the deal, you know. That's the thing like
if if a group of friends, if someone breaks out
and has a lot of dough all of a sudden,
it can make things really weird and uncomfortable. There can
be jealousies involved for sure, And in this movie, uh,
(16:00):
the ones with the money are very generous, but then
Jennifer Ranson also doesn't want to take them up on
that generosity, whereas the people with the dough or you're
kind of like, hey, it doesn't matter to me. But
to be in that position where money doesn't matter is
very unique and uncomfortable when your sister or brother or
friend does not have the money. So it's really interesting.
(16:20):
Uh it's called friends with Money. And also just a
quick shout out to the movies that followed are also great.
One called Please Give Again with Katherine Keener and the
great great Oliver Platt and Amanda Pete. And then she
did the last movie with James Gandolfini before he passed away,
called Enough Said with Julia Louis Dreyfuss. She has some
(16:41):
great TV credits to like six ft Under few episodes,
and I want to say she did some parks in
Wreck and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Enlightened, which I think
is a little bit of an underappreciated show with um
oh dude, Laura Dern that was one of my favorite
favorite shows. In fact, you know I'm gonna save that
(17:02):
one for the highlight reel. The Lightened was so great
a uh and also um, she directed nicolehol Offsener directed
the pilot for one Mississippi, the great, great show that
I'm about to talk about right now on stream this
all right, as we finish up with stream this and
comment card UH as I mentioned one Mississippi season two
(17:23):
is what I'm gonna highlight this week. The wonderful Tignataro,
who was UH an episode two of Movie Crush, And
if you haven't listened to that one, the numbers are
a little lower for that one because it was very
early on UM. But if you haven't, go back and
listen to the Tignataro episode, because the setup for that
very quickly is. She came in here and right before
(17:44):
we recorded UH and hit record, she got the call
that she was cancer free, the call that she had
been waiting on from her doctor. And as any fan
of tig Nos, she's um been through the ringer with
her health and her life and she has a bear
all up on stage quite literally actually, and UM it's
(18:04):
been very up front about her battle with cancer and
her struggle. So I come into record, she's literally crying
in the studio and no one knows what's going on.
And as it turns out, that was the there were
tears of joy because she had gotten the cancer free
call and we launched right into recording about the movie Mask.
So it's a show I'm super proud of. So if
(18:26):
you haven't listened to that, go back. But a tig show.
One Mississippi is just great. Um. It's a story of
her going back to her hometown in Mississippi after her
mother has passed again. Autobiographical and um. Season two really
makes great strides with her relationship with a local woman
there working at the radio station who is her real
(18:46):
life wife, Stephanie, And they are just obviously chemistry um
off screen, so they have it on screen as well.
And Stephanie's just adorably wonderful on that show. And I
just saw her in a super Bowl commercial too, which
is kind of funny. I was like, wait, there's Stephanie.
Good for her making some big dough uh. And she
you know, continues to von with her brother character on
(19:08):
the show and come to terms with her mother's widowed husband,
which is a problematic and strange relationship. So One Mississippi
Season two just continued to build on the great foundation
they late in season one. And if you haven't seen
it on Amazon, you can stream it now. And very sadly,
I just found out that it was not renewed. So
(19:28):
that's all we're gonna get of one Mississippi man, which
really bumps me out. I think it's the Louis backlash. No,
I don't think so. I think, um, you know, I
think it just didn't get renewed. Smallish audience from what
Tig said, very loyal audience, though she has very loyal fans,
myself included. And here's kind of a cool thing, dude,
I was. I saw her post on Facebook that she
(19:52):
there's a club in l A called Largo. Do you
know Largo? Of course, and Josh and I performed at Largo.
It's right there in Hollywood and it's known for just
some of the best comedy shows and they curate just
some of the best shows in town and Largo. She
had a picture of her sitting on the couch there backstage,
and she said, when my mother passed away, I had
(20:14):
all of her furniture and stuff, and I didn't know
what to do with this couch. I had no room
for it. So I called I can't remember the owner
and proprietor of Largo, but she said I called him
up and he said, hey, you can keep it here.
So she had her picture taken on that couch, which
was her dearly departed mother's couch, and I saw that
and I was like, man, I have sat on that
(20:34):
couch and had no idea that it was tiggs mom's couch.
So it was just very cool. Uh. If you love
tig and you you then you definitely love her story
of her and her mother's relationship. So it was just
kind of kind of neat for me to be like,
wait a minute, you've been on tiggs mom's couch. Largo
was the spot where she recorded all those specials. I
think early on that became the big the stuff that
(20:56):
she was known for on This American Life and all
that story. Yeah, Largo, I've never been. I really like to.
It's cool. Well you got a l a lot now,
so yeah, John Bryan, you know John Bryan, the film composer.
He does like a monthly gime there. I've always heard that.
It's amazing. I'd really like to go see him do that. Yeah.
He um did a lot of Pete Anderson music and
produced the Good Fion Apple Records, and he's in that crowd.
(21:19):
The Largo crowd is what I call it. And this
is the the well, it's not new now, but this
is the second location for Largo. When I lived in
l A. It was a even smaller venue in Hollywood,
uh where I saw Rufus Waynewright play very early on.
It was almost like a piano bar. It was very cool.
It was one of the first dates I went on
with Emily. They call it Largo at the Coronet Now,
(21:39):
I think is that the differentiation there? Yeah, because it's
the old Cornet Theater, one of the old great Hollywood theaters.
So uh yeah. One Mississippi season two streaming on Amazon.
Support tig Nataro and all her efforts because she is
the best. And finally we'll finish up with comic card
(22:02):
who got a couple of emails here and I call
from Facebook is from Vanessa Lopez. Hi, Chuckers and Nol Nol.
You're officially a cast member, so cool man, Isn't that great?
I've listened to stuff you should know for years and
I'm loving movie Crush. It's fun hearing the conversations about
how much these movies mean to each of your guests.
People always say the book is better than the movie.
Is there a movie that comes to mind that you
(22:23):
think was actually better than the book. For me, it's misery.
Not even Stephen King could write a character creepier than
Kathy Bates played good one. What is a good one?
So this one was hard for me because I haven't
read a ton of books that later became adapted into films. Uh.
(22:44):
But of the ones I have read, I can't say
that they were better, but I will say they were
as good as I could have hoped. Uh, mainly because
I read good books. Um, I went to look out
online just to see get some inspiration, and typically, like
the list is like The Godfather and Jaws and these
things that were kind of popcorn summer books that were
(23:05):
made into really great movies. But I read really good
books to begin with. So it's kind of hard to say, well,
No Country for Old Men, because that was a great,
great book and a great, great movie. Yeah. I think
it's all about the way it handles the source material.
And sometimes if it like can paint this picture visually
that is so arresting, then it's almost like you can
(23:26):
say this medium told the story better. And yeah, well,
I mean if they if they managed to bring it
to life in a way and cast it. Casting is
so important because when you read a book, or at
least I do, I almost always cast it in my
brain from like Hollywood, you know actors. I usually don't
read a book and just think of just some random,
(23:46):
you know face. I think in some ways the Game
of Thrones TV show is better than the books because
the books get mired down and a lot of these
real flowery, overly long descriptions of the tables of food
and stuff, where in the book it's like you can
describe a banquet table in five pages. In the movie
or in the TV show, you you just see the
camera pans over it and you're done with the food.
You know. Yeah, that's always really interesting for me to
(24:08):
see that happen, like the thing in the book that
is so uh well described that could just be a
shot or not even in the movie at all. Uh
So for me as a tie, I'm gonna go with
No Country for Old Men. I'm gonna go with The
Virgin Suicides, the great book and movie, the book from
Jeffrey U genitys in the movie from Sofia Coppola. Um great,
(24:29):
great adaptation. Uh there's a book in a movie called
Jesus Son with Billy Crude up a little independent film.
Um really really great book of almost a little independent
short stories, and the director Alison McClean managed to um
tie and weave these stories together in a in a
great way in the movie that it was one of
those when you read the book, I thought it would
(24:50):
be pretty challenging. Uh. In Jesus Son from really really
good movie. And also, I mean, one of the great casts.
I don't know how, oh she got such a cast
for an independent movie, but it has not only Billy
Crude up, Samantha Morton, Holly Hunter, Dennis Hopper, Dennis Leary, Um,
Michael Shannon, a young Michael Shannon before anyone knew him.
(25:12):
Jack Black is in the movie. It's just got the
orderly Yeah, well I want to ruin that. No, no, no no,
that's a movie that's like everybody like it's like equal
parts heartbreaking and hilarious and like full of joy, and
it just kind of runs the gamut, but not in
like a way that's like overly kind of overwrought, you know.
It's really really good, agreed, wonderful movie. Uh. And then
(25:34):
To Kill a Mockingbird to Go Back in Time a bit,
great book, great movie. And then finally American Psycho. Um.
I read American Psycho in college when it came out,
and this is a weird one and that I was
terrified reading this book. And then when the movie came
out as a dark comedy, I had to completely rethink
(25:57):
the eyes through which I had read it. Did you
see your read? I didn't finish that book because it
was just it was like so horrific and misogynistic, and
it was just I almost was like, what if someone
reads this over my shoulder that I'm reading right now,
They're gonna think I'm like the sickest human being a lot.
And the movie doesn't have like in the book. It's
(26:19):
just so graphic that it's just like you can't even imagine.
And the movie really pairs it down and plays up
the dark comedy aspect and I love I like that
movie a lot. I haven't seen it in years. I
wonder if it holds up. Uh yeah, it's good. I
mean again, I never thought of it as a dark
comedy at all, and it's one one that really made
me go back and rethink everything. Um, but I guess
(26:41):
it is a dark comedy female director as well. Yes, yeah,
I think that's about the only way you can make
that movie, you know, because it is brutally misogynistic and
awful about a serial killer who praise on when while
you praise on ment too. But yeah, pretty pretty bad
stuff and somehow managed to to reak some comedy out
(27:01):
of it. And that's Mary Heron. Ah, that's Mary Heron,
who yeah, off off Mike. I thought Mary Heron had
directed Jesus Son getting all the Ducks in a row. Everyone.
Uh So that is it for this week. Thanks for
tuning in. Thanks to Noel as always for the insight.
This week we have Oh boy, everybody, hold onto your hats.
(27:21):
I went to New York City and I got into
a studio with the great Tony Shalub. The Tony Shalub, Well,
he certainly looked like him. That's exciting. Check. I can't
wait to hear that one. Yeah, it was Tony Shalub.
And we talked about the sting. So I know Tony
through a friend from high school and he hooked this up.
And Tony was awesome and a big thrill Like he's
(27:44):
a legit, like I almost want to say legend of
TV and film. Guy's been around forever and been in
a million things. I think legend is utterly a fair characterization,
all right. Uh So, Tony and talked about The Sting,
which is a great movie, and this is now marks
the second Newman and Redford directed by George roy Hill
pick after Butch Casson and The Sundance Kid and Tony
(28:08):
Club This Sting, and so did I and it was
a really great interview. So brush up the crush out
this week, and thanks for joining us right now. Yeah,
it's always a pleasure. All right, We'll see you guys
next week.
Hey everybody, and welcome to a movie crush Charles W.
Chuck Bryant here in our home studio at Pont City Market, Atlanta, Georgia,
along with the sunny and bright and well coft Noel.
Thank you for commenting on my quaffery, Chuck, I appreciate
that I've been working on it. Well. No One and
I both have these uh big dumb beards, like all
all guys have. I can't wait for the day we
(00:44):
look back at pictures and everyone goes, what what the
funk were we all doing? Well? Apparently beards are out, Chuck,
But I've never worn my beard for fashion. It is
just strictly to hide my double chance. Oh yes, I
have quite a few chins under here as well, and
it does a great job. But not only staid, big
shaggy here too. But in uh, you gotta cut what
six months ago? So I got a promotion at work, Chuck,
(01:04):
and I had to I had to have the dude
had to match the Yeah, they say, dressed for the
job you want, in this case, it's cut your hair
for the job you got exactly sort of reverse and
Alex just cut his hair looks very nice. He did
he's getting married soon. That might be wine. Okay, so
that was his his lovely bride to be at the
Christmas party. Yes, she's delightful you No, that was someone else.
(01:28):
Alex is another guy we work with, a producer who
did the music for my other podcast, Ridiculous History, which
we get comments on all the time. He's another um
jack of all trades, how stuff works, super producer. Yeah, man,
he's great. Interesting is great. We have such an amazing
teen Did all these guys come through you? Man? You
can find him very lucky, very lucky to be able
(01:49):
to give amazing people an amazing opportunity here. Well, and
it's cool because all of these editors and engineers, like
you said, jack of all trades, it's like they're all
musicians and and I assume him originally probably a video
and film editors. Yeah, it's great. And Alex, by the way,
is one of the lead hands on Atlanta Monster, which
(02:11):
is our partnership with Tenderfoot TV and true crime show
about the Atlanta child murders that has blown up the
podcasting world's true setting the charts on fire. Yeah, I'm
a fan. Actually, I've been listening every week because I
grew up during the Atlanta child murders, and even as
a white suburban kid in Atlanta, it was scary at
(02:32):
the time. You talked about that a good bit with
your buddy Dave Willis, who also grew up in the area,
about how that sort of was a specter hanging over,
like parents didn't want you to go to the mall
by yourself. Yeah, that's a real thing. So welcome every one.
As you know, follow us on facebooks, you can interact
with the show where we post questions and we call emails,
and we have a few segments that we're gonna do
(02:54):
today and number one we'll go ahead and get right
into it called Grip This it's a new one. I
like it. So the idea here is that occasionally I
will explain something about the film industry and these weird
uh names and title job titles that you see on
the movie screen in front of you. Because I take
(03:16):
it for granted because I worked in the film industry
that everyone knows what a dolly grip is and what
a fully artist is uh and what a gaffer is.
But um, a lot of people don't know this stuff.
And we get emails from time to time saying, hey,
you guys, you and Josh on stuff you should know,
should do a podcast just explaining what these jobs are
in film crews. So I'm gonna do that here. Uh,
(03:38):
in this segment of Grip This, I'm going to talk about, uh,
the job of producer. And this is a this is
a weird, weird job in the movie industry because a
producer can be everything from uh, strictly the financier of
your project, all the way down to and in that
(03:59):
case would be an acutive producer, almost assuredly, all the
way down to an associate producer who it might just
be someone who did you a favor that allowed you
to shoot one scene for a movie, and so in
lieu of money, they might say, all right, we'll give
you an associate producer credit. And sometimes that works, believe
it or not. So we're gonna go through a few
of these various titles. Executive producer obviously is at the top.
(04:23):
And like I said, um, they could be the financier
of the movie. They can be, um, the the head
of the studio that you are working with, um, like
a Steven Spielberg, let's say. And as an executive producer
in that case it can. It can run the gamut
from someone who just says, I allow you to go
(04:43):
make this movie with our studio. Um too. Maybe they
will even oversee parts of it and weigh in creatively
at times, or help make connections two actors or or writers,
or pull the crew together as a director and maybe
package it it. Really, there is no set script for
what an executive producer might do. That could be super
(05:05):
involved or not very involved. And you see stars and
TV shows get elevated to executive producer as they learned more.
Cache absolutely, like of the Office, a lot of main
players at later seasons you see them with executive producer credits.
Yeah that's a that's a true U H up the
ladder type of thing. And actually, when Josh and I
did our silly little TV show for Science Channel, one
(05:27):
of the things that we negotiated was producer credit. Um,
I don't even know why, just a little feather in
the cap. Although we did do the job of producer.
I mean we were involved soup the nuts in that show.
Uh So executive producer again, uh might represent the studio.
They might keep watch over it, or maybe it's just
symbolic to give the movie visibility. UM. For instance, George
(05:49):
Clooney was an executive producer of the great great movie
Far from Heaven. UM, but he didn't he wasn't really
on the set um making decisions, but he did has
something to do with it early on. So sometimes I
will just give a little cash at associate producer, Like
I said, well, let's go just with the regular producer title.
(06:09):
This can be a lot of things because you can
see a lot of producers listed on a movie. But
when I think of producer with just that title, I
think of the main person who was working on this
movie from beginning to end, hand in hand with the director,
(06:29):
um packaging the movie, working with the crew, were casting,
helping with casting, really just sort of the partner of
the director going into battle together to get this movie made. UM.
Since we're on Far from Heaven. The great Christine Vashon
was a producer of that, and she's one of the
all time great producers. Has a stellar sellar list of
(06:51):
credits to her name. And Christine Vashon is of feet
to the ground, get down to it, nitty gritty producer
involved in reaspect of the making of the movie from
the very beginning to the very end UM. But producer
can also mean you're just you know, sort of involved
or maybe one of the actors assistant producer. They basically
(07:12):
work on things that the producers tell you to do.
So it's just sort of a h almost like a
co producer. But then there's also a credit of co
producer and they share responsibilities responsibilities generally as a group
and as a team of producers. UM. Maybe take on
some creative responsibilities. Another co producer might handle more of
(07:34):
the business um. But then you also have the line producer,
and the line producer generally is handling the budgetary things, uh,
the physical aspects of the movie production. UM, not as
involved creatively, but they're really their day to day UM,
making sure that everything is all departments have what they
(07:57):
need uh and and have the money they need or
in some cases they don't have the money and they
have to figure out how to do it anyway. So
that's the line producer. UM. The associate producer, like I said,
can be they can be involved UM or it can
be like I said, like a title that you just
throw out to someone who did you a little favor. Uh,
(08:19):
it's like a courtesy title. Sometimes as a backer of
the film. Uh. They may not play a major role
at all, but sometimes they have worked on the movie.
It's a very um nebulous sort of gray area for
a lot of these titles. I think you're starting to
get that picture. Um. Supervising producer. They can oversee some
(08:40):
of the other producers as they perform some of their duties. Uh.
Sometimes they may take the place of an executive producer
or work for the executive producer. Uh. And then you
have finally the coordinating producer, and they coordinate the work
of several producers. Is it's starting to get that thing
where you say the producer where so many times starts
to sound funny. Producer overload, recording producers are They're very
(09:06):
valuable if a studio is producing related films. And the
example here on how stuff works is the movie Spider Man.
When you have um two related films being produced at
the same time, um, like the Pirates of the Caribbean
or the Spider Man movies, or like when they did
Lord of the Rings altogether. Sometimes a coordinating producer might
make sure all the various heads are talking to one
(09:28):
another well, especially if there's like Marvel Cinematic Universe types
where there has to be continuity from one movie to
the next, and they have to know what the other
crew is doing in order for the one crew to
do it right. You know, absolutely, So that is grip
this for this week and what's the best boy, Chuck? Oh, well,
we'll get to that. So hopefully that cleared things up,
but I have a feeling I've just really confused everyone
(09:50):
further on what a producer is. I once met this guy,
Dean Zanek, who is the son of famed producer Richard Zanek,
who also related to Darryl Zannek. Yeah, and Dean was
producing this movie Get Low With that had Bill Murray
and it Yeah, I remember that movie. It was good.
But they shot it near my hometown of Adusta, Georgia,
and I did a piece on it for a public
radio and I got to go to the set. They
(10:10):
shot it in a town called Crawfordville, and I kind
of asked Dean what a producer was or how do
you become a producer And there was no real clear answer.
That's an adorable question from you at that age two, Yeah,
exactly what he was sort of like, you know, the
ultimate answer was you you're the son of Richard's you know, yeah,
it is a getting into the job of producer is
(10:32):
kind of weird. And like Emily, my wife was a producer,
she'd produced music videos. And in that case, the path
to producer is you usually start work as a p
A and then you move up to maybe production coordinator,
and then you move up to production manager or maybe
u PM unit production manager, and eventually you can get
(10:54):
work as a producer, and then the line producer is
sort of attainable too. Isn't that a little bit more
functional job that aolutely That's like you're you're handling the
money in the budget and uh uh. And those you know,
like Emily as a producer unfortunately wasn't super involved creatively.
They are the people responsible for pulling off that job.
And then the case of music videos, that is a tough,
(11:15):
tough job, or at least was back then. I don't
even know if they still make music videos. They just
all make them with their phones. Now, okay, good, all right,
Segment two, we're gonna move on to another edition of
the Highlight Reel. This week, I'm going to highlight the wonderful,
(11:40):
the amazing, the lovely, and amazing hint hint, Nicole Holofsiner
in her first three films. Specifically, Nicole Holofsener is one
of my filmmaking heroes. She as from New York City
and began her career as a writer and director in
with the independent film Walking and Talking with a very
(12:01):
young Katherine Keener and Leev Schreiber and Hesh todd Field
and Kevin Corrigan. And it was in that I know,
I talked about it all the time, but that wonderful
mid nineties period where independent film um was burgeoning and
really kind of put itself on the map. And there
were so many great, great movies made then, and Walking
(12:21):
and Talking is certainly one of them. The story of
these two best friends, Katherine Keener and Hesh or Hess.
I think it's I haven't seen her in a while.
She's good or she can be, Yeah, it does. It
seems like she kind of disappeared. Yeah, let's let's go
find a Haitian put her on the show. I'm sure
that I'll do it. That'll put her right back on
the star map. Wasn't she married to Ellen for a
(12:43):
while or weren't they like an item? Yeah? Absolute? Um,
So they played good friends and Liev Schreiber is the
is the friend of Katherine Keener and just sort of
their life in New York as twenty somethings and uh,
failed love affairs and romances. It's just a really really
great movie. Uh five years later. It took five years,
I imagine because Nicole Holofstener is a woman in Hollywood
(13:06):
in the mid nineties and there just was not and
still is not enough opportunity for female writers and directors.
So it took her five years after The Great Walking
and Talking to make Lovely and Amazing, which is a
wonderful film with again Katherine Keener. As you will see,
she has become a staple in her movies, the Great
Brenda Blevin, uh, Emily Mortimer and uh the first movie
(13:29):
from a young woman or a young girl at the time,
I guess, Raven Goodwin. And it's the story of a
mom and two daughters and a granddaughter and their life
together and it's just again so sweet and so real,
and which is sort of a pattern you will see
in Nicole Holofsener's work. She just is able to tap
into these real human emotions and get these great performances
(13:51):
out of all her actors, and then finally movie number three,
Friends with Money, Jennifer Anniston, And it's when Jennifer Aniston
left Friends and took the or when Friends ended, and
she took that turn in her career where she wanted
to do some um, smaller movies, some more independent films
and did really good, some really good quality movies during
(14:13):
that period, and Friends with Money was certainly one of them.
And it is the story of four sisters, Jennifer Andison,
Joan Kuzack, uh the wonderfully amazing, Frances McDormand, and again
Katherine Keener, one of my favorite actors. And there are
four sisters and it's about again just their interpersonal relationships
(14:33):
and um, some are married, some are not, some are
um looking for love like Jennifer Anderson's character and uh money.
It's called Friends with Money because that is a theme
of the movie. They're sort of an undercurrent of of
and you don't see this in movies, which is what
made this surreal is and it's a real thing. It's like,
if some people have more money than others in a
(14:57):
friend group, it can get weird and and that's the
case here. And it's just sort of a real life
thing that you never see in movies. And in this case,
Frances McDorman is has made a lot of money as
a as a fashion designer, um, whereas Jennifer Anniston is
and I think Katherine Keyner's character and her husband are
also very well off in Los Angeles, and Jennifer Aniston
(15:18):
is has not much money and she's cleaning houses to
get by, and as the sister, you know, they try
to do everything they can to help her out. But
it's just a really interesting look at what money means
when it comes to relationships with one another. But it's
done in a very real way. It's not like they
don't you know, she doesn't beat you over the head
(15:39):
with with finance. That makes sense. I thought Bride'smaids did
an interesting job of that as well. And their friends, yeah,
because that's the deal, you know. That's the thing like
if if a group of friends, if someone breaks out
and has a lot of dough all of a sudden,
it can make things really weird and uncomfortable. There can
be jealousies involved for sure, And in this movie, uh,
(16:00):
the ones with the money are very generous, but then
Jennifer Ranson also doesn't want to take them up on
that generosity, whereas the people with the dough or you're
kind of like, hey, it doesn't matter to me. But
to be in that position where money doesn't matter is
very unique and uncomfortable when your sister or brother or
friend does not have the money. So it's really interesting.
(16:20):
Uh it's called friends with Money. And also just a
quick shout out to the movies that followed are also great.
One called Please Give Again with Katherine Keener and the
great great Oliver Platt and Amanda Pete. And then she
did the last movie with James Gandolfini before he passed away,
called Enough Said with Julia Louis Dreyfuss. She has some
(16:41):
great TV credits to like six ft Under few episodes,
and I want to say she did some parks in
Wreck and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Enlightened, which I think
is a little bit of an underappreciated show with um
oh dude, Laura Dern that was one of my favorite
favorite shows. In fact, you know I'm gonna save that
(17:02):
one for the highlight reel. The Lightened was so great
a uh and also um, she directed nicolehol Offsener directed
the pilot for one Mississippi, the great, great show that
I'm about to talk about right now on stream this
all right, as we finish up with stream this and
comment card UH as I mentioned one Mississippi season two
(17:23):
is what I'm gonna highlight this week. The wonderful Tignataro,
who was UH an episode two of Movie Crush, And
if you haven't listened to that one, the numbers are
a little lower for that one because it was very
early on UM. But if you haven't, go back and
listen to the Tignataro episode, because the setup for that
very quickly is. She came in here and right before
(17:44):
we recorded UH and hit record, she got the call
that she was cancer free, the call that she had
been waiting on from her doctor. And as any fan
of tig Nos, she's um been through the ringer with
her health and her life and she has a bear
all up on stage quite literally actually, and UM it's
(18:04):
been very up front about her battle with cancer and
her struggle. So I come into record, she's literally crying
in the studio and no one knows what's going on.
And as it turns out, that was the there were
tears of joy because she had gotten the cancer free
call and we launched right into recording about the movie Mask.
So it's a show I'm super proud of. So if
(18:26):
you haven't listened to that, go back. But a tig show.
One Mississippi is just great. Um. It's a story of
her going back to her hometown in Mississippi after her
mother has passed again. Autobiographical and um. Season two really
makes great strides with her relationship with a local woman
there working at the radio station who is her real
(18:46):
life wife, Stephanie, And they are just obviously chemistry um
off screen, so they have it on screen as well.
And Stephanie's just adorably wonderful on that show. And I
just saw her in a super Bowl commercial too, which
is kind of funny. I was like, wait, there's Stephanie.
Good for her making some big dough uh. And she
you know, continues to von with her brother character on
(19:08):
the show and come to terms with her mother's widowed husband,
which is a problematic and strange relationship. So One Mississippi
Season two just continued to build on the great foundation
they late in season one. And if you haven't seen
it on Amazon, you can stream it now. And very sadly,
I just found out that it was not renewed. So
(19:28):
that's all we're gonna get of one Mississippi man, which
really bumps me out. I think it's the Louis backlash. No,
I don't think so. I think, um, you know, I
think it just didn't get renewed. Smallish audience from what
Tig said, very loyal audience, though she has very loyal fans,
myself included. And here's kind of a cool thing, dude,
I was. I saw her post on Facebook that she
(19:52):
there's a club in l A called Largo. Do you
know Largo? Of course, and Josh and I performed at Largo.
It's right there in Hollywood and it's known for just
some of the best comedy shows and they curate just
some of the best shows in town and Largo. She
had a picture of her sitting on the couch there backstage,
and she said, when my mother passed away, I had
(20:14):
all of her furniture and stuff, and I didn't know
what to do with this couch. I had no room
for it. So I called I can't remember the owner
and proprietor of Largo, but she said I called him
up and he said, hey, you can keep it here.
So she had her picture taken on that couch, which
was her dearly departed mother's couch, and I saw that
and I was like, man, I have sat on that
(20:34):
couch and had no idea that it was tiggs mom's couch.
So it was just very cool. Uh. If you love
tig and you you then you definitely love her story
of her and her mother's relationship. So it was just
kind of kind of neat for me to be like,
wait a minute, you've been on tiggs mom's couch. Largo
was the spot where she recorded all those specials. I
think early on that became the big the stuff that
(20:56):
she was known for on This American Life and all
that story. Yeah, Largo, I've never been. I really like to.
It's cool. Well you got a l a lot now,
so yeah, John Bryan, you know John Bryan, the film composer.
He does like a monthly gime there. I've always heard that.
It's amazing. I'd really like to go see him do that. Yeah.
He um did a lot of Pete Anderson music and
produced the Good Fion Apple Records, and he's in that crowd.
(21:19):
The Largo crowd is what I call it. And this
is the the well, it's not new now, but this
is the second location for Largo. When I lived in
l A. It was a even smaller venue in Hollywood,
uh where I saw Rufus Waynewright play very early on.
It was almost like a piano bar. It was very cool.
It was one of the first dates I went on
with Emily. They call it Largo at the Coronet Now,
(21:39):
I think is that the differentiation there? Yeah, because it's
the old Cornet Theater, one of the old great Hollywood theaters.
So uh yeah. One Mississippi season two streaming on Amazon.
Support tig Nataro and all her efforts because she is
the best. And finally we'll finish up with comic card
(22:02):
who got a couple of emails here and I call
from Facebook is from Vanessa Lopez. Hi, Chuckers and Nol Nol.
You're officially a cast member, so cool man, Isn't that great?
I've listened to stuff you should know for years and
I'm loving movie Crush. It's fun hearing the conversations about
how much these movies mean to each of your guests.
People always say the book is better than the movie.
Is there a movie that comes to mind that you
(22:23):
think was actually better than the book. For me, it's misery.
Not even Stephen King could write a character creepier than
Kathy Bates played good one. What is a good one?
So this one was hard for me because I haven't
read a ton of books that later became adapted into films. Uh.
(22:44):
But of the ones I have read, I can't say
that they were better, but I will say they were
as good as I could have hoped. Uh, mainly because
I read good books. Um, I went to look out
online just to see get some inspiration, and typically, like
the list is like The Godfather and Jaws and these
things that were kind of popcorn summer books that were
(23:05):
made into really great movies. But I read really good
books to begin with. So it's kind of hard to say, well,
No Country for Old Men, because that was a great,
great book and a great, great movie. Yeah. I think
it's all about the way it handles the source material.
And sometimes if it like can paint this picture visually
that is so arresting, then it's almost like you can
(23:26):
say this medium told the story better. And yeah, well,
I mean if they if they managed to bring it
to life in a way and cast it. Casting is
so important because when you read a book, or at
least I do, I almost always cast it in my
brain from like Hollywood, you know actors. I usually don't
read a book and just think of just some random,
(23:46):
you know face. I think in some ways the Game
of Thrones TV show is better than the books because
the books get mired down and a lot of these
real flowery, overly long descriptions of the tables of food
and stuff, where in the book it's like you can
describe a banquet table in five pages. In the movie
or in the TV show, you you just see the
camera pans over it and you're done with the food.
You know. Yeah, that's always really interesting for me to
(24:08):
see that happen, like the thing in the book that
is so uh well described that could just be a
shot or not even in the movie at all. Uh
So for me as a tie, I'm gonna go with
No Country for Old Men. I'm gonna go with The
Virgin Suicides, the great book and movie, the book from
Jeffrey U genitys in the movie from Sofia Coppola. Um great,
(24:29):
great adaptation. Uh there's a book in a movie called
Jesus Son with Billy Crude up a little independent film.
Um really really great book of almost a little independent
short stories, and the director Alison McClean managed to um
tie and weave these stories together in a in a
great way in the movie that it was one of
those when you read the book, I thought it would
(24:50):
be pretty challenging. Uh. In Jesus Son from really really
good movie. And also, I mean, one of the great casts.
I don't know how, oh she got such a cast
for an independent movie, but it has not only Billy
Crude up, Samantha Morton, Holly Hunter, Dennis Hopper, Dennis Leary, Um,
Michael Shannon, a young Michael Shannon before anyone knew him.
(25:12):
Jack Black is in the movie. It's just got the
orderly Yeah, well I want to ruin that. No, no, no no,
that's a movie that's like everybody like it's like equal
parts heartbreaking and hilarious and like full of joy, and
it just kind of runs the gamut, but not in
like a way that's like overly kind of overwrought, you know.
It's really really good, agreed, wonderful movie. Uh. And then
(25:34):
To Kill a Mockingbird to Go Back in Time a bit,
great book, great movie. And then finally American Psycho. Um.
I read American Psycho in college when it came out,
and this is a weird one and that I was
terrified reading this book. And then when the movie came
out as a dark comedy, I had to completely rethink
(25:57):
the eyes through which I had read it. Did you
see your read? I didn't finish that book because it
was just it was like so horrific and misogynistic, and
it was just I almost was like, what if someone
reads this over my shoulder that I'm reading right now,
They're gonna think I'm like the sickest human being a lot.
And the movie doesn't have like in the book. It's
(26:19):
just so graphic that it's just like you can't even imagine.
And the movie really pairs it down and plays up
the dark comedy aspect and I love I like that
movie a lot. I haven't seen it in years. I
wonder if it holds up. Uh yeah, it's good. I
mean again, I never thought of it as a dark
comedy at all, and it's one one that really made
me go back and rethink everything. Um, but I guess
(26:41):
it is a dark comedy female director as well. Yes, yeah,
I think that's about the only way you can make
that movie, you know, because it is brutally misogynistic and
awful about a serial killer who praise on when while
you praise on ment too. But yeah, pretty pretty bad
stuff and somehow managed to to reak some comedy out
(27:01):
of it. And that's Mary Heron. Ah, that's Mary Heron,
who yeah, off off Mike. I thought Mary Heron had
directed Jesus Son getting all the Ducks in a row. Everyone.
Uh So that is it for this week. Thanks for
tuning in. Thanks to Noel as always for the insight.
This week we have Oh boy, everybody, hold onto your hats.
(27:21):
I went to New York City and I got into
a studio with the great Tony Shalub. The Tony Shalub, Well,
he certainly looked like him. That's exciting. Check. I can't
wait to hear that one. Yeah, it was Tony Shalub.
And we talked about the sting. So I know Tony
through a friend from high school and he hooked this up.
And Tony was awesome and a big thrill Like he's
(27:44):
a legit, like I almost want to say legend of
TV and film. Guy's been around forever and been in
a million things. I think legend is utterly a fair characterization,
all right. Uh So, Tony and talked about The Sting,
which is a great movie, and this is now marks
the second Newman and Redford directed by George roy Hill
pick after Butch Casson and The Sundance Kid and Tony
(28:08):
Club This Sting, and so did I and it was
a really great interview. So brush up the crush out
this week, and thanks for joining us right now. Yeah,
it's always a pleasure. All right, We'll see you guys
next week.
Movie Crush News
Host
Chuck Bryant
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.