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Speaker 2: Hey, film Spotters, Josh and Adam Here. Wednesdays are when
Speaker 2: we usually drop something in the feed from the Film
Speaker 2: Spotting archive. You know, twenty years worth of shows we
Speaker 2: can dig into, so we do that from time to time.
Speaker 2: This week, however, we're going to share some of the
Speaker 2: bonus show that we shared with the members of the
Speaker 2: film Spotting family this month. Ask us anything we do
Speaker 2: this from time to time. Open it up the mail
Speaker 2: bag segment if you will, and yeah, touched on some
Speaker 2: fun stuff. I was asked about this master's I'm pursuing
Speaker 2: right now in Scotland. We learned a little bit more
Speaker 2: about how Adam ended up teaching in Iowa and the
Speaker 2: moment that you know, film Spotting became something more than
Speaker 2: Adam and producer Sam, who always joins us for these
Speaker 2: shows initially planned. So that's just some of the good
Speaker 2: stuff we dig into on this ask Us Anything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's several more questions that the entire Film Spotting
Speaker 3: Family gets to listen to. That's one of the benefits
Speaker 3: of being a Film Spotting Family member is getting those
Speaker 3: November bonus shows. I loved that question. I think that's
Speaker 3: the one we ended with because I had no idea
Speaker 3: what Sam was going to say, and we ended up
Speaker 3: having very different answers. So you can check that out.
Speaker 3: You're going to get a taste of it here. I
Speaker 3: believe it depends what producer Sam has decided to excerpt
Speaker 3: for you, and that's what you get to hear. Now, Hello,
Speaker 3: film Spotting Family, it is time for ask Us Anything,
Speaker 3: your November bonus content. And yes, you're probably hearing this
Speaker 3: after episode ten forty where we talked about the Running
Speaker 3: Man and Nouvelle Vague and I'm sure I said this,
Speaker 3: I sound a little froggy. We recorded this actually before
Speaker 3: that episode and it's head cold season at least for me.
Speaker 3: Sounding perfect as always are Josh Larsen and Sam van Halgren.
Speaker 3: Josh how are you doing?
Speaker 2: I am dodging all the coughing going around me on
Speaker 2: Is this how universities are? Adam, Like everyone seems to
Speaker 2: be sick. Like everyone in my cohort is coughing. No
Speaker 2: one wants to skip a seminar, you know, and look bad.
Speaker 2: So far I've managed to avoid it. But now I've
Speaker 2: probably just cursed myself.
Speaker 3: Okay, you're good right now, though, Sam, how are you doing? Yeah?
Speaker 4: I'm just saying just this, just this talk. I don't
Speaker 4: want to hear this. I just feel like we've cursed
Speaker 4: everyone that's listening right Just you've made me aware and
Speaker 4: grateful that I am feeling one hundred percent healthy this
Speaker 4: very moment.
Speaker 3: We put out the call to the film Spotting family
Speaker 3: about a week ago, maybe less, and said, hey, it's
Speaker 3: ask us anything time, send us in some questions. We
Speaker 3: need to replenish the mail bag, and wow, do they
Speaker 3: deliver it. I didn't even get a chance to transfer
Speaker 3: all of them. You haven't even seen the complete list.
Speaker 3: So many came in, so many we want to answer.
Speaker 3: We only have about forty minutes to get as many
Speaker 3: in as possible. And for us, the way we talk,
Speaker 3: and there's so many there are so many good questions.
Speaker 3: We might only get to like four of them because
Speaker 3: they're so good and we can't stop chattering. But well,
Speaker 3: we'll see what we can do. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 3: jump right in. We are going to start with this
Speaker 3: one from Zach Brooks, who wants to know as we
Speaker 3: get closer to twenty twenty six, do you have any
Speaker 3: film related New Year's resolutions? And as we close out
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five, are there any movie objectives you'd like
Speaker 3: to complete before the clock strikes midnight?
Speaker 5: Guys?
Speaker 3: Objectives? Resolutions? Are you movie resolutions?
Speaker 6: Guys?
Speaker 2: I am not a resolution guy of any kind, really
Speaker 2: not opposed to it. That just I have enough tasks
Speaker 2: in my life. I don't need to make them up.
Speaker 2: But you know, this question prompted me to think about it.
Speaker 2: And funnily enough, Zach, I was just in discussion with
Speaker 2: Michael Phillips because I'm hoping to finagle a way to
Speaker 2: get to the Venice Film Festival next fall, and he,
Speaker 2: of course, we just got a report from him this
Speaker 2: past fall from his time there. He's been going for
Speaker 2: a number of years and it will line up, I
Speaker 2: think when I am going to have to be closing
Speaker 2: out my master's program, so I'll have to be back
Speaker 2: here in Saint Andrew's, Scotland right around the time. And
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, why not try to, you know, put those
Speaker 2: two things together and actually attend the Venice Film Festival.
Speaker 2: So that's maybe more of a bucket list item for
Speaker 2: me next year, but I hope to make it happen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like I need to make the same
Speaker 4: resolution we made when we started film spotting at him just.
Speaker 6: A movie a week?
Speaker 4: Could I just get a movie a week in that
Speaker 4: isn't a movie that I'm just happened to be watching
Speaker 4: with my kids, which I love.
Speaker 6: I love to do that.
Speaker 4: My eleven year old is always wanting to watch something
Speaker 4: some kind of nonsense, but it's it's a joy, it's
Speaker 4: a pleasure to watch with her. But it's not necessarily
Speaker 4: the kind of movies I'm trying to check off my list.
Speaker 2: Are you in charge of programming in Spring Green? I mean,
Speaker 2: aren't you programming in two different venues at this point?
Speaker 2: I mean you would seem to have some controls three venues.
Speaker 6: Now. I just had a great meeting.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, we're doing because yeah, we was programming
Speaker 4: so tally Essen. Right, we had this series of tally Essen.
Speaker 4: Franklin writes tally Essen in their old playhouse. We screened
Speaker 4: three films this summer, a great Hitchcock series. Just had
Speaker 4: the meeting a couple days ago about next summer, it's
Speaker 4: going to be sick films. We're gonna do screwball comedy.
Speaker 4: We're gonna do classic movie homes, Citizen Kane, Sunset Boulevard.
Speaker 4: Rebecca manderlay, I'm so excited at Talis and you kidding me.
Speaker 4: I'm living the dream.
Speaker 2: Uh so you programmed, but you don't.
Speaker 6: I don't watch.
Speaker 4: I'm there for the intros usually, But I have certainly
Speaker 4: made to Zach's question, I have made resolutions in the past.
Speaker 4: I remember, I think it was about ten years ago,
Speaker 4: and this is how long it's been probably since I
Speaker 4: made my last resolution where I was like, you know,
Speaker 4: I was in that sweet spot where on Saturday mornings
Speaker 4: everyone was sleeping a little bit late, and I'm like,
Speaker 4: I have got to start seeing more movies that are
Speaker 4: like big, big movies that many of them on the
Speaker 4: Criterion Channel. I'm going to get up early and I'm
Speaker 4: going to watch I'm going to watch a movie by
Speaker 4: myself Criterion Channel. I remember like there were like three
Speaker 4: weekends I watched like Red Shoes, which I hadn't seen
Speaker 4: in a long time. I saw only angels have wings.
Speaker 4: I saw the young girls of Roche for. I remember
Speaker 4: distinctly these three beautiful Saturday mornings that I had these
Speaker 4: ecstatic experiences with.
Speaker 6: It never happened again, and I had a.
Speaker 4: Point now in my life where I'm just like, it
Speaker 4: seems even more impossible to imagine starting a resolution following
Speaker 4: through one one. So no, Zach, No, there are no resolutions,
Speaker 4: but here's porn one out for all failed resolutions in
Speaker 4: the past.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I have one similar to you, Josh,
Speaker 3: not a resolution. I'm not resolved to do this, but
Speaker 3: there have been some conversations about possibly fulfilling one of
Speaker 3: my longtime movie related dreams, which is going to the
Speaker 3: can Film Festival, and that happens in May, usually right
Speaker 3: after the spring semester ends. So if I can get
Speaker 3: my grades turned in, I could actually potentially be a
Speaker 3: free man and could go to the can Film Festival.
Speaker 3: So I'm hoping. I'm hoping that could happen. This might
Speaker 3: be the first year of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 6: I tell you how it's going to happen, Adam.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the way it's going to happen is I'm going
Speaker 4: to make a film that's going to screen at.
Speaker 6: The can Film Festival.
Speaker 4: Okay, and you're going to be sitting in the audience
Speaker 4: at the premiere shaking your head that this is the
Speaker 4: only way you made it.
Speaker 6: And when am I going to make my film? And
Speaker 6: this film is going.
Speaker 3: To yes, exactly, yes, See Josh doesn't know, Josh know
Speaker 3: what we're talking about.
Speaker 2: So still you still can't see it. I'm crueless, but
Speaker 2: you know, let me know how that goes, Adam. I'm
Speaker 2: halfway there already, so that's true. I'll be I'll be
Speaker 2: in the neighborhood. Uh next spring, Okay.
Speaker 3: Before we get to the next question, I promise I'm
Speaker 3: not going to take time with this, but I think
Speaker 3: listeners might appreciate this. So I'm going to throw it
Speaker 3: out there, and of course, if you, if you do
Speaker 3: have any Josh, Sam, go ahead and chime in. But
Speaker 3: just earlier today, about three hours ago, my daughter, my
Speaker 3: oldest daughter aka film spotting Pa, Sophi Kempanar, sent me
Speaker 3: a text out of the blue. She sent me a text,
Speaker 3: and it said, this film spotting things I say in
Speaker 3: my regular life as if they are widely understood, And
Speaker 3: I again, I think our family members could possibly relate.
Speaker 3: So if they have any like this, send them to
Speaker 3: us feedback a film spotting dot net, and maybe we
Speaker 3: can feature them on the show or at least in
Speaker 3: a future edition of Ask Us Anything. The three she
Speaker 3: sent me were blind Spotting, over Review, and on air
Speaker 3: production Meeting. Curiously, no one knows what she's talking about
Speaker 3: when she says those three things. So do you have
Speaker 3: any of those? I'm asking you, I suppose, but also
Speaker 3: I'm asking the listening public here, do you have any
Speaker 3: of those that you say? And you realize that the
Speaker 3: person you're talking to has no idea of which you speak.
Speaker 2: I'm glad to hear Overview has lodged itself that strong. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I feel like it had its moment and then it
Speaker 2: kind of faded away. And so yeah, for it to persist,
Speaker 2: for Sophie's encouraging absolutely blind spotting and frequently, I don't know,
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm at about a sixty percent rate
Speaker 2: of people. I think they can put it together. I
Speaker 2: think it's enough even without reference to the show, they
Speaker 2: understand what you're getting at. So, yeah, I use that
Speaker 2: one all the time, A blind spot, blind spot. I
Speaker 2: have to do some blind spot, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I get it. I think I say Sacred
Speaker 3: Cow a lot and then really have to explain what
Speaker 3: that is. So throwing that out there again. Feedback at
Speaker 3: filmspotting dot Net. Fern Joseph's wants to know for each
Speaker 3: of you, what's the best thing personally that's come out
Speaker 3: of doing the podcast? How hard is that? I'm not
Speaker 3: going first.
Speaker 2: I feel like, Sam, you need to take this one first.
Speaker 6: Okay.
Speaker 4: You know, it makes me think of a lot of
Speaker 4: ways to answer this question. You know, we often talk
Speaker 4: about how it's just one show after another. We rarely
Speaker 4: get to pick our heads up out of the sand
Speaker 4: and get any perspective like what Fern is getting at.
Speaker 4: So I start there with my head in the sand,
Speaker 4: and I just have to say, it really is the
Speaker 4: creative outlet. This is a creative endeavor, and I love it,
Speaker 4: you know, I really really enjoy it. And I have
Speaker 4: to say I've brought this up a couple of times
Speaker 4: when we have a chance to talk to listeners. I
Speaker 4: don't care how many people are watching the video version
Speaker 4: of the show. I love doing the video version of
Speaker 4: the show. I did not anticipate that at all. I
Speaker 4: really really enjoy it. I'm making my own movie every
Speaker 4: week a little bit, I know, just it feels like,
Speaker 4: you know, flexing that.
Speaker 6: Muscle a little bit. So it's super fun.
Speaker 4: But then occasionally, and it's something like film Spotting Fest,
Speaker 4: or it's an email we get out of the blue
Speaker 4: from a listener we've never heard from that has been
Speaker 4: listening for twenty years or whatever it is, and you're
Speaker 4: just like, what an honor it is to be a
Speaker 4: part of this, this community that has come out of
Speaker 4: this show. I mean, just a completely unintended, beautiful consequence
Speaker 4: of working on the show. It really is just like
Speaker 4: being on the discord and I don't feel like I'm
Speaker 4: interacting with listeners of film Spotting. These are like friends
Speaker 4: of mine or whatever, you know, and it's just like,
Speaker 4: I feel like these are people I know, and some
Speaker 4: every once in a while it kind of clicks that
Speaker 4: that's what's happening, that's what has happened.
Speaker 6: So a lot of pleasures associated with the show.
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, as you were talking about it being
Speaker 2: a creative endeavor sam my mind before even said it
Speaker 2: went to the video aspect, which I'm not all that
Speaker 2: involved in, but I know, just from talking about it
Speaker 2: with you, have seen how it's kind of not that
Speaker 2: you need to be rejuvenated but charged you in a
Speaker 2: way to get to explore that way of putting together
Speaker 2: a show like this, So that that's been exciting to see. Yeah,
Speaker 2: for me, it's absolutely related to what you were just
Speaker 2: talking about. It's the relationships because I don't know that
Speaker 2: I would consider myself naturally a people person. And what
Speaker 2: I mean by that is like I'd be perfectly happy
Speaker 2: just you know, watching movies, thinking about them, writing about them,
Speaker 2: and maybe even you know, talking about them without forming
Speaker 2: any you know, long lasting relationships beyond that. But I
Speaker 2: think about the circles of relationship that this show has
Speaker 2: afforded that you know, the one of us here that
Speaker 2: the people who work weekly on it, so us here
Speaker 2: Joe Toso, you know, and then and then others who
Speaker 2: are you know, more regularly involved, from our production assistants
Speaker 2: over the time to Michael Phillips. But you know, there
Speaker 2: are other film critics who I've been able to connect
Speaker 2: with on just a personal level because of the show
Speaker 2: and then what you said, Sam too, like the listeners,
Speaker 2: there has always been an avenue, whether it was when
Speaker 2: I first joined the message board, you know, I was,
Speaker 2: I was not on message boards at all, and then
Speaker 2: got thrown in and met so many people that way,
Speaker 2: some of whom are still now on Discord And yeah,
Speaker 2: so I think for me, it's definitely definitely about the relationships,
Speaker 2: because it's not something I would have sought or been
Speaker 2: able to have fostered myself to.
Speaker 3: Go to the superficial stuff just for a second. We
Speaker 3: never would have imagined. We never did imagine, of course
Speaker 3: when the show started that we would have opportunities to
Speaker 3: interview the filmmakers we've interviewed, to go to the festivals
Speaker 3: we've gone to, just to partake in some of these
Speaker 3: film critic opportunities quite frankly, to be considered film critics,
Speaker 3: to be listened to regularly, and to have people really
Speaker 3: trust and value not just our opinions, but really want
Speaker 3: want to just hear what we have to say, want
Speaker 3: to be part of the conversation with us. All of that.
Speaker 3: That's why it's so hard to pick an answer. And
Speaker 3: I wondered if if you would say what you said,
Speaker 3: And of course I was going there too, But I
Speaker 3: don't think it's just us saying the right answer. It
Speaker 3: is the right answer. The community part of it, the
Speaker 3: relationship part of it, and I was going to be
Speaker 3: even more specific with it. I think it's the larger community.
Speaker 3: But beyond that, you know, when I asked Josh if
Speaker 3: he wanted to appear as a guest on the show,
Speaker 3: and maybe I don't know if he had an inkling
Speaker 3: or not, but he may not have. He certainly didn't
Speaker 3: know all the details that he was actually auditioning for
Speaker 3: the show. I had never even spoken to him before.
Speaker 3: We had no interaction, It's true, like zero, I think
Speaker 3: maybe i'd seen him at a couple of screenings, but
Speaker 3: otherwise we Yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Think we'd chatted back and forth a little.
Speaker 3: On social problem, but otherwise it was we'd never met
Speaker 3: in person, like actually met. So now having this thirteen
Speaker 3: plus year relationship is pretty remarkable. And Sam, I was
Speaker 3: just thinking about this because of this question that we
Speaker 3: were in introduced because of Kevin. We obviously got to
Speaker 3: know each other very quickly and became friends very quickly,
Speaker 3: and because of email at the time, and because of
Speaker 3: the blog that I started way back in the early
Speaker 3: days of blogging, you and I were doing what we
Speaker 3: do right now. We were talking about movies. We were
Speaker 3: having a conversation about movies over a blog. But the
Speaker 3: whole reason we started film spotting, as you alluded to earlier,
Speaker 3: was to force us. We've always said it was to
Speaker 3: force ourselves to watch one movie a week, but it
Speaker 3: was more than that. It was it was actually it
Speaker 3: was to force us to have to watch one movie
Speaker 3: a week so we could get together, at least for me,
Speaker 3: so we could get together in the same room and
Speaker 3: have a conversation about it.
Speaker 4: Right and I would think separately be watching a different movie,
Speaker 4: it was watching the same movie.
Speaker 6: So we could do this.
Speaker 3: And so I think about it now, about twenty five
Speaker 3: years later from the time we met for the first time,
Speaker 3: and without film Spotting, I think we would we would
Speaker 3: still be friends with each other, but there's no way
Speaker 3: we would be in communication with each other as regularly
Speaker 3: as we are. We would not have hung out even
Speaker 3: remotely with each other as many times as we have
Speaker 3: over the years, like our friendship would not be remotely
Speaker 3: what it is without film Spotting. So that relationship life
Speaker 3: part of it too.
Speaker 6: It's half exactly, It's exactly half our life. Wow, we
Speaker 6: didn't have to talk quick math.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's it'll only become more a percentage of my
Speaker 4: life as we move forward from here.
Speaker 3: There you go to hear the rest of that. Ask
Speaker 3: us anything, bonus show. Become a member of the film
Speaker 3: Spotting Family. You can learn more at film spottingfamily dot com,
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Speaker 3: and more. Again film spotting Family dot com.
Speaker 5: This conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Go fine.
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