In this episode, Sam discusses movies with Norm Wilner and Jason Leaver. The discussion is wide-ranging. It includes thoughts on what makes a movie good vs important, films and franchise, the phenomenon of lists, and what they mean for discussion, Star Trek, and many other things.
Program Notes:
When this episode was recorded (early April), I had only seen the trailer for Star Trek Beyond. The movie has since come out, and it is clear that my evaluation (that Star Trek Beyond is not an ‘authentic’ Star Trek movie) is wrong. Star Trek Beyond is clearly consistent with other Star Trek movies, and indeed with the original series. Norm’s review can be found here. For further discussion of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, check out The Endless Knot podcast by Mark Sundaram and Aven McMaster. Their discussion talks about myth and epic, and compares the relationship between the Star Wars films to the relationship between Homer and Virgil. It puts the Star Wars movies into an entirely different perspective. The two Matts that Norm refers to at the end of the podcast are Matt Brown and Matthew Price. Their podcast is MAMO! Caution: There is some mild swearing in this podcast. Also, apologies for the uneven audio quality, as this was recorded in 4-channel surround sound rather than 2-channel (as is normal).
Jason Leaver is the creator of the internationally acclaimed web series Out With Dad; twice nominated for the Canadian Screen Awards, 2015 recipient of the WGC Screenwriting Award for Best Shorts & Webseries and one of the most viewed narrative series ever produced in Canada. This heart-warming series has changed lives of countless youth and their family & friends around the globe. The CBC calls Jason, “a poster boy for web series creators everywhere”. His varied projects have been recognized for writing, direction, acting and technical merits including music, by the Independent Soap Awards, Marseille Web Fest, Toronto’s One Minute Film Festival, Webby Awards and more.
His passion for community building, sharing knowledge and encouraging new storytellers lead him to be one of the founding members of the Independent Web Creators of Canada. He is currently in development on several projects in television, the web and VR.
Norman Wilner is the senior film writer for NOW Magazine, and hosts the Someone Else’s Movie podcast. He lives in Toronto with his wife and their terrible dog. He can be found on Twitter.
Duration: 1 hour, 18 minutes & 25 seconds.
