Today on The Film Podcast, Matthew and Kierston skim the surface on one of the most popular, complex, and intense genres in media. What exactly is speculative fiction and science fiction? What purpose do these genres play in our society? Kierston and Matthew take on a huge topic and break down what it means in media. 

Show Notes

• DEFINITION 
  • Science fiction and Speculative fiction could each be their own podcast and one day they might be, but let’s just skim the surface for today with what they are and the differences. Science Fiction can be difficult to define and it is often considered a genre within speculative fiction, however Isaac Asimov was reported to have said “ Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature that deals with the reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology.” Key characteristics of science fiction often include a society which is utterly altered by changes in science, technology, and automatism. People or their society are now almost unrecognizable to today because of the changes technology has had on them. 
  • Spec-fi, however, is a wider umbrella genre that includes science fiction but taps into more possible sub genres not limited to science. Fantasy, supernatural, they call all fall under Spec-fi. But the idea behind spec-fi is to put our world as more or less the same as it is now- with one or two massive key differences. 
  • To distill it down and slightly oversimplify it: Spec-Fiction could happen today If…  and;  Science-Fiction might happen someday If…
  • GENERAL EXAMPLE: Science-Fiction: Metropolis (1927- Fritz Lang), The Jetsons, you can even make a case for Futurama. Spec-Fiction: George Orwell’s Classic 1984 or X-Men.
    
    Why it is used: the amazing thing about good spec and sci-fi, is that at their core, they are here to tell a story about our real world- through the lens of something fantastical- either scientifically possible, plausible or absurd.
    
    • If you want to make a commentary on violence in our society and how it affect us as a population- but don’t want to come under fire for criticizing the world you actively live within- set up your story is a world already overrun by violent technology that has caused the world to collapses. We haven’t collapsed as a society, so we are NOT them, we can watch there story, learn from it, and alter our own thoughts about our world by having it’s influence from a safe distance. 
    • If you want to talk about society’s dependancy on technology and how it relates to social status- but you don’t want to horrify them into throwing away their iphones- set the piece safely in another reality that is JUST different enough to be distant- but familiar. 

On this episode of The Film Podcast, Kierston and Matthew talk about an Experimental film. What is the experimental film? Why does it exist? What classifies Experimental Film and what cultural capital does it accumulate and create? Matthew and Kierston attempt to figure all this out on today's episode 

show notes

• DEFINITION 
  • Experimental film or sometimes called Avant-garde cinema (it can be debated) in a type of filmmaking that re-evaluates traditional filmmaking and narrative styles, structures, and techniques. It often employs unconventional narrative structures, and/or abstract techniques, such as asynchonristic (non-diegetic) sound, the absence of sound, stream of consciousness storytelling, heavy metaphorical overtones, and non-conventional story-lines, or non-linear plots. 
  • GENERAL EXAMPLE: We don’t often find true experimental films in mass media, but we do see experimental Elements in mass-consumed media. Think of an abstract dream sequence in a film or TV show, of the techniques used to show are a character on a drug trip. One popular way the experimental film is often mass consumed is through Music Videos. 
    
    Why it is used: 
    
    -Experimental cinema is just that- an Experiment. It is meant to play with film techniques and narrative structures. Simply put, it is the abstract art of the Cinematic word

Do you know what Film Noir is? Are you sure? Want to prove it? Take a listen to this episode, where Matthew and Kierston take a peek at the curious world of film and the birth of Film Noir, coming out of early(ish) American Cinema and ushering in a world of techniques and tropes that have carried through our media to this day.

show notes

• DEFINITION: Film Noir is a cinematic term used to describe the highly stylized crime dramas that arose in North American cinema in the 1940’s and 50’s. Linked to Hardboiled Detective/crime fiction and often heavy with melodramatic tones, Film Noir or “dark cinema” usually involves some classic markers like a mysterious amoral hero with a murky backstory, a femme fatale, low-key lighting with unbalanced compositions, and ‘modern’ gothic tones such as criminal mysteries or social scandal. 
  • GENERAL EXAMPLE:  Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep
    
     
  • • Why it is used:
    • This is sort of the counterpart of Screwball comedy. Where screwball is light and optimistic, Noir film is Dark and nailistic. It’s gritty, rough, edgy, scandalous and thrilling. It gets it’s emotional kicks and it’s social commentary, not from comedy, but from the twists and turns of plot-driven danger.

Today on The Film Podcast, Matthew and Kierston discuss a little known, but incredibly necessary position in the film industry- The Production Designer. What are they and what do they do? We find out today on The Film Podcast, as Matthew and Kierston break down this important and crucial industry job. 

show notes

DEFINITION: A production Designer is responsible for the visual look of the film. Not the Camera movements, not the acting, not the lighting- but the actual visuals in the work. The phrase was coined by William Cameron Mensies, while working on Gone With The Wind. It is also called the “art director” “scenic designer”. 

• • GENERAL EXAMPLE: Let’s take a classic fantastical film like Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. Those wonderful, colorful scenes with the kids in the Factory? The production designer is working in tandem with the director's vision, to create the “look” of those fantastical worlds. In the classic 1971 Willy Wonka film, starring Gene Wilder, that wonderful moment when the kids are in the candy garden, with the chocolate river? Every single piece of edible whimsy in this scene- from the gummy-bear trees to the toadstools, has passed through the mind, eyes, and hands of the Production designer (and in that specific case also the Special Effects team) to be built by the art department. It is the production designer than ensures the location is in order and the set is constructed safely and visually perfectly for the scene that will be acted out on it.
    
     
  • • Why it is used:
    • Production Designers may not be as well known as Producers, Directors or Cinematographers, but they are absolutely just as important. They are responsible for the “look” of the work. 

In Today's Episode, Kierston and Matthew break down some camera terms. What is Deep focus? If you work in film or have a background in photography, then you very well may already know. What does imploying deep focus do to your shot? What can this technique due to alter the way you feel and think about the cinematic moment you are experiencing? Join Matthew and Kierston as they break apart all things films! 

Show Notes

• DEFINITION: Deep-Focus is a camera and cinematographic technique that puts every plane of the scene in clarity. So if we are looking at a focal point- our hero stands in the foreground, around a forest of trees in the mid-ground with a mountain in the background and every section of the piece is totally clear and in focus- that director is employing deep focus.
  
  GENERAL EXAMPLE: Casablanca, Citizen Kane, 
  
  Why it is used: When we focus on one thing in the scene we are basically visually saying to the audience “ LOOK AT THIS- FOCUS ON THIS THING”, but when we employ deep focus we are saying “everything in this scene is worth looking at equally.” 
  
  • It can create a wider sense of spectrum of circumstance- our hero standing in the forest against the mountain, now looks very small, than if the background was out of focus but we saw him clearly. 
  • It creates a dramatic sense of space, physically and metaphorically

In today's episode, Matthew and Kierston talk about Mise En Scene. Arguably films' most vague term, breaking down what exactly Mise En Scene is, what it encompasses and where it came from is not as easy as it may appear at first glance. Join Matthew and Kierston as they dive, once again,  in the culture, the history and the wonderful world of film. 

Show Notes 

DEFINITION:Mise-en-Scene directly translates to “placed on stage” or “placed in scene”. Essentially, it describes everything placed within the frame of the camera, that creates “the world” of the scene the story is taking place in. Inside the frame, the story takes place, outside of the frame, the rest of the world exists. There is some controversy attached to the term, as it has been considered slightly unclear wether the term is directed at one singular scene, or the look the film as a whole. Some critics call it “films grand undefined term”. But we can break that down a little more

• GENERAL EXAMPLE: Mise-en-scene is, at its most basic, the props, sets, objects, and actors within the frame of the shot. It also encompasses set design, lighting, and to some degree, the sense of space. In the earliest films there were set “decorators” basically doing what “interior decorators” due for homes- but for scenes. 
  
  Why it is used:
  Some films can tell a whole story without using any scenes or set at all- but it is rare. When we tell stories they are usually set inside a world- and that world has to look and feel like rich, full world. What is in that world is Mise-en-scene. 

Welcome to The Film Podcast by WILDsound. WILDsound is a Film Festival, running Audience Feedback Filming sessions in Toronto, L.A, and Montreal, as well as running monthly writing competitions in Screenplays, Features, Spec Scrips, Novels, Poetry and many more. 

On today's Episode, we meet our hosts Matthew Toffolo and Kierston Drier as they break down what exactly a "walk and talk" shot is in film and television- as well as how and why they are used. 

 

SHOW NOTES 

DEFINITION: specifically in regards to film and television, a walk and talk shot is a story device, a narrative technique employed, often by the director to propel action and movement into a scene that would otherwise by dialogue heavy. 

• GENERAL EXAMPLE: You see this used a lot in Procedural shows like medical dramas, crime dramas, law drama, etc. The idea behind this is the actors are talking and sharing whatever information they have to in the scene, but the scene involves them walking through or to something. 
   
• • WHY IS IT USED
    Dialogue heavy scenes are often needed to establish a character backstory (Think that classic scene in a Rom-Com when the Characters have a hear to-to-heart while walking in the park), Explain a situation, or establish major conflict. We want to avoid exposition is most cases of writing, but when we MUST have a scene where exposition is happening, then that dialogue-heavy scene would get pretty boring if the characters were just standing there like talking heads. So a Walk-And-Talk shot does four things: 
    • It creates a sense of Urgency- those characters are getting somewhere!
    • It can link scenes together. Ex: The characters were in the boardroom and they shared important information that will affect them in the next scene when they enter the main office space. 
    • It establishes the lines as more casual (these details must be shared but they are not SO important that the characters have to STOP what they are doing to share it)
    • Psychologically, it establishes visual interest. As moving characters are more interesting to watch that non-moving one. 
      
       

Click the button below to go directly to Wildsound.com and read the full notes on State Of Emergency MotherFucker!