A podcast about the film industry: stories from the set, told by crew
My guests today -- Jen Bender (Executive) and Claire Benjamin (Casting Director) -- are from Central Casting, the largest employer of background actors in the Industry. We discuss how background casting worked before COVID-19 and how the process is changing in response to the pandemic.
This episode, we’re talking about Ozark, the Netflix streaming series starring Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, which recently released its third season. In a change of pace, I’m joined by two of the producers who have been with the show since the beginning: Patrick Markey (Executive Producer) and Matt Spiegel (Line Producer/Unit Production Manager). We look behind the scenes at the Atlanta-based show, and discuss the challenge of filming Season 4 in a COVID-19 world.
Today we're discussing the television drama Party of Five, which ran for six seasons on Fox (1994-2000). It was my first assignment as a DGA (Directors Guild of America) Trainee, and I'm joined by two of the assistant directors with whom I worked: Chris Della Penna (1st Assistant Director) and Vince Duque (2nd Assistant Director). It's a fun look back at the long-running series, and we have an interesting discussion about how film production has changed over the last 20 years.
My guests today -- Jason Melius (All Rise, 2nd Assistant Director), Mike Caron (Danger Force, Director) and Emily Hogan (Mythic Quest, 1st Assistant Director) -- all work on shows that produced new episodes under quarantine conditions. Each production took a different approach, and we compare notes on what it took to make these episodes happen.
This is the second of two episodes discussing John Carpenter's The Thing, and I'm once again joined by Dean Cundey (Director of Photography), Ken Diaz (Special Makeup Effects Coordinator), Dave Kelsey (Mechanical Animation Coordinator), and Bruce Humphrey (DGA Trainee).
Dean also shared a video demonstrating how closely the filming of the movie aligned with Mike Ploog’s original storyboards, which you can watch on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/Pve-hRIJGWc
This is the first of two episodes discussing John Carpenter's The Thing, the 1982 sci-fi/horror classic starring Kurt Russell. I'm joined by crew from the film: Dean Cundey (Director of Photography), Ken Diaz (Special Makeup Effects Coordinator), Dave Kelsey (Mechanical Animation Coordinator), and Bruce Humphrey (DGA Trainee). Welcome to Season 6 of Below the Line.
This is the final episode of Season 5, and we're checking in with crew members from the season's first episode for status updates. Join Katie Carroll (assistant director), Allison Choi Braun (costumer), Dan Fisher (property master), and Dave Tuttman (cinematographer) for a discussion about how film production in both NYC and LA is responding to the ongoing pandemic.
My guests today represent the motion picture craft locals of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters: Tommy O'Donnell (Local 817 - NYC), Steve Dayan (Local 399 - Hollywood) and Lorrie Ward (Local 155 - Vancouver). We discuss how the pandemic is impacting their members, resources for those in need, and the strategy for getting back to work.
Earlier this month, Danger Force (the superhero tv show in its first season on Nickelodeon), produced and aired a special quarantine episode, and my guests today explain how it came together: Jimmy Brooks (line producer), Mike Caron (director), and Robyn Willey-Pratt (first assistant director).
Our series focused on the property department concludes today with a pre-pandemic visit to Independent Studio Services (a prop house headquartered in Sunland, CA, with offices worldwide) for a conversation with Gregg Bilson, Jr. (CEO of ISS) and Scott Buckwald (property master, ISS customer, and longtime podcast contributor).
If you'd like to listen to this episode while looking at pictures from our tour, visit our YouTube channel for an edited slideshow = https://youtu.be/5v34PMDnHLI
