Film Stuff podcast

We are fashionably late to the Black Panther party. In this episode of film stuff we dig deep into culture, starting with Afrofuturism: what it is, why it's awesome, and what it has to do with Los Angeles's Koreatown. Show notes: • At the top of the episode we talk about Janelle Monáe and her genius Afrofuturist operas. Some more details about her work here https://www.vox.com/2018/5/16/17318242/janelle-monae-science-fiction-influences-afrofuturism • Also we talk about Kilmonger and his displacement in America. There's an awesome episode of Song Exploder that goes into depth about how the Kilmonger theme relates to Prince T'Challa's. Check it out here http://songexploder.net/black-panther • Just how big of a box office success was Black Panther? Read more about it in this great article by The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/02/the-game-changing-success-of-black-panther/553763/ • Soo Zee mentions a Korean dish called army base stew. There's a lot more to say on the subject, but you can get started with this article from the Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/smart-mouth-the-korean-stew-that-mash-made/2013/01/31/5b484c52-6b0f-11e2-95b3-272d604a10a3_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9a4764d64359 Did you like this episode? Let us know! You can find us on twitter @soozee324 and @ltcooper, on Instagram @doevenmorestuff, or on iTunes. If you leave us a review it helps us a lot!

Today we deep dive into the relationship between art and commerce. We start with a discussion about why it looks like every YouTube video is the same. Next we talk about how it's not enough just to make art. You have to be a skilled promoter and business lady and community builder too. Lastly we talk about how hard it is to strike that balance between on one side, making art that's true to your vision and on the other, making concessions that make your art appealing to consumers, clients, and investors. Both of us agree you can't deny the commercial element of the art you make, but you also can't be enslaved by it. Before you get too down about the inevitability of compromising your vision and conforming to the almighty algorithm, we offer some words of hope. We went over a lot in this one. Here's some notes, thoughts, and further reading: • We mentioned that YouTube doesn't publish details about its algorithm. Most social networks don't. There's a few reasons why it can be problematic that companies are allowed to treat their algorithms as proprietary trade secrets. ProPublica roughly outlines a few of the big ones in their series "Breaking the Black Box." It focuses mostly on machine bias, but there's other reasons too related to privacy, censorship, anti-trust laws, and something called "the right to be forgotten." I'm sure we'll eventually do a whole episode all about algorithms. https://www.propublica.org/article/breaking-the-black-box-what-facebook-knows-about-you • Matt Gielen of Little Monster did a great in-depth analysis of the YouTube algorithm if you'd like to know more about how trends spread on the platform http://www.tubefilter.com/017/06/22/youtube-algorithm-research-cracking-the-code/ • That great article from The Atlantic that Leigh was talking about is called "The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur" and you can read it here https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/the-death-of-the-artist-and-the-birth-of-the-creative-entrepreneur/383497/ • Soo Zee brought up a great point about patronage that we weren't able to include: art has historically been a commercial venture. For centuries, artists only survived because wealthy nobility and clergymen commissioned their work. It's a romantic idea that an artist should focus on the art and leave the selling of their work to someone else, but in reality art has always been commercial. Patrons like Leo and Gertrude Stein who enabled the work of many modern day masters do exist, but it seems far more often benefactors were either wealthy institutions like the crown and the church, or generous (concerned?) family members like Vincent van Gogh's little brother Theo.

This part two of our two-part look at what it's actually like to be a video or film editor. Soo Zee makes up a fake short film and we talk you through the whole edit process. How long does transcoding take? How many cuts do you usually go through? What's all that exporting mumbo jumbo? All this and more in this episode! Show notes: • What is the RED Camera of which we speak? More here http://www.red.com • Soo Zee mentioned Scott Pilgrim vs. The World type graphics. Those are awesome! Nerdwriter talked about them in detail over here https://youtu.be/pij5lihbC6k • Why yes, I did compare directors to Winnie the Pooh. You can read all about him sitting down to a good think here http://lib.ru/MILN/pooh.txt_with-big-pictures.html#5 • If you haven't watched every single one of Tony Zhou's Every Frame a Painting film essay series, you should, starting with this one about how editors know when to make a cut, titled (aptly) "How Does an Editor Think and Feel?" https://youtu.be/3Q3eITC01Fg I'd love to do a much longer episode about that middle artistic process. If you're interested in more details about what I called the "kumbaya" part of editing, tell us. If the idea makes you break out in hives on the other hand, we want to know that too. Let us know in a review!

This part one of our two-part look at what it's actually like to be a video or film editor. We cover all the feels that go into the edit room: what it feels like to have the whole production look at you to put the film together, what you fight about with the film's director, and what elements of the film are beyond your control. Leigh also goes on a tirade about her filmmaking pet peeves so that you can avoid making the same mistakes. Look forward to part two! Show notes: • Here's a bit more about how a vector file is different than a jpeg file https://vectr.com/tutorials/what-are-vector-graphics/ • We ragged on guns in student films, but we didn't even begin to cover how complicated using a gun on set is logistically. You'll need to warn local law enforcement that you'll be using a prop gun, you'll likely need the services of a union-member armorer, and your actors will probably need some training in addition to their safety briefings. Film independent talks a little more about armorers in this article https://www.filmindependent.org/blog/want-weapons-in-your-film-ask-a-pro/ • Darious Britt brought up a bunch of other on-the-nose amateur film mistakes in his video rant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1myw_0W5E8 Music by http://www.purple-planet.com and Good Times by Nicolai Heidlas is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: https://soundcloud.com/nicolai-heidlas/happy-vintage-70s-background-music-good-times

How exactly do you get a job in the film industry? The same way you get any job: a good network and a good ask. In this one we talk all about the ask. It's our guide outlining how to successfully cold contact people - that includes people you know and people you'd like to know - without coming off like the world's biggest douchenozzle. We also tell you straight up how to work with us. Soo Zee even writes (a really good!) fictional email to Leigh. Hopefully this will help you adopt the right mindset and land a film job, wherever you happen to be living. Happy hunting! Show notes: • The "Directors Chair" lawn chair Soo Zee uses as furniture in her bedroom in action! https://twitter.com/ltcooper/status/937607138158952449 • Calvin Stowell's excellent Twitter thread (rant?) about writing resumes https://twitter.com/calvinstowell/status/900166100167651329 • We didn't actually get to the networking part (I smell a part 2 one day) but just for funsies, Mark Sister has two great articles on (1) how to do conferences right and (2) how to not be a conference ho. 1. https://bothsidesofthetable.com/this-post-has-nothing-to-do-with-sxsw-32f982be007c 2. https://bothsidesofthetable.com/be-careful-not-to-become-a-conference-ho-8add822b2c75

It's a hard question to answer, since where (or if) you go to university and what you major is a personal question. Soo Zee never went to film school. Leigh went to film school. Twice. There's some pros and some cons to going to film school and we go over them in detail in this episode. We also talk about why we hold the unpopular opinion that going to a prestigious film school is better than going to one no one has ever heard of. TLDR: if you aren't already making films, film school won't help you. Show notes: • The milk frother we're obsessed with https://www.nespresso.com/us/en/order/accessories/vertuo/milk-frother-aeroccino • My classmate Max's mini Guy Ritchie heist movie. It's called Getaway. Keep in mind this was made a decade ago. It was also probably the first film he ever made using filmstock (not digital video). I'd have to ask him, but I think he was barely out of his teens when he wrote and directed this? https://vimeo.com/13182883 • We mentioned George Lucas just donated a shedload of money to build an incredible production facility. It's called The Lucas building for short. Here's a video tour of the facilities (from the official USC School of Cinematic Arts YouTube channel) https://youtu.be/qxKqMJxw6vc

We tried flying a drone! Here are some of the things we learned, some things we didn't expect, and the details of what you need to know to fly a drone in Korea. Despite how much we rant about our drone stress, we actually love aerial photography. Helicams, quadcopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), oh my! Show notes: • We mentioned how some militaries are training eagles to take out drones. Here's more info about that (from the Washington post) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/21/terrorists-are-building-drones-france-is-destroying-them-with-eagles/?utm_term=.229d2180c179 • Here's our video from the Netherlands where we used those "static shots" from the drone (drone shots are at the end) http://bit.ly/2sbnqsW • A big thank you to our drone friend for letting us use his helicam! This is the exact model we used https://www.dji.com/phantom-3-pro • All the restrictions and safety concerns we mentioned led the Seoul Metropolitan Government to create an official space for people to fly model airplanes and drones. It's called the Drone Park, and here's more info about it (from Korea Times) http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/06/116_207875.html Music includes "Uluru" by Purple Planet http://www.purple-planet.com

More film stuff! In this one we embrace our rage and rant about Korean television, namely why 미생 was such a big deal, the difference between Korean and international K-Drama viewers, and why Korean TV shows don't have seasons?????? Also we call people in their 40s and 50s "old folk" even though we don't really believe that. As you listen, you'll also here us reference a few specific dramas. Here's the full list: • 꽃보다 남자 (Boys Before Flowers) • 드림하이 (Dream High) • 미생 (Incomplete Life) • 커피프린스1호점 (The Coffee Prince) • 아이리스 (Iris) • 굿닥터 (Good Doctor) • 굿 와이프 (Good Wife) • 도깨비 (Goblin) • Sherlock • Lost • Game of Thrones • Grey's Anatomy • Days of Our Lives • How I Met Your Mother • Friends • Big Bang Theory For more nerdy discussions about film sign up for the Film Stuff newsletter here http://bit.ly/2bVmOez You can also see the stuff we make over here http://youtube.com/c/DoStuff

Another film stuff is here! In this one we talk about what makes YouTube different from other genres of film, why Soo Zee and Leigh like it so much, and what in the moldy cheese is a genre anyway? As you listen, you'll also here us mention the following: • The "overture" also sometimes called the "dream ballet." Find more examples of that here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DreamBallet • We also talked about Casey Neistat's vlog style and we did a whole video about that. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/uVVMJdGXzEw • BookTube! We really like this genre, and here is a great BookTuber. Soo Zee calls this channel squirrels and things because she can't remember the actual name: booksandquills. https://www.youtube.com/c/booksandquills • We mentioned clickbaiting at the end, and how YouTubers might have to do certain things to gain more likes, but we sort of glossed over it. Ethan and Hila Klein from H3H3 did a pretty funny video explaining (and parodying) how to play the Youtube game. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/HkuZ_8KnCzg?t=1m1s Music: http://www.purple-planet.com Hep Cat Jive & The Chase

The first episode of Film Stuff is here! In it we talk about Stanley Kubrick: his elaborate sets, his special effects techniques, even his choice of music and framing. As you listen, you'll also hear us mention the following: • Our toast video, in which we parodied the opening sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey (https://youtu.be/uuBfDW-kGx4) • An awesome video essay about Kubrick's love of one point perspective (https://vimeo.com/48425421) • Slit scan technology (https://vimeo.com/41747091)