Loosen those vocal chords and get your dancing shoes ready because we’re talking about Damien Chazelle’s LA LA LAND, starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. First-time guest Mike Nayyar joins us to go over what works, what doesn’t, and how the hype surrounding this movie got completely out of control. You won’t want to miss this week’s episode!
This week we’re joined by Thomas Ford to talk about the Tom Ford film NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, starring Amy Adams who at this point couldn’t give a bad performance if she wanted to. We gush over the impressive imagery and dive into what makes this film so special. There’s a lot to unpack here so don’t waste another minute and give the new episode a listen!
May the 4th be with you! We celebrate Star Wars Day by talking about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and how it gave us all the feels. Emily Blake from Chick’s Who Script joins us to talk about what worked and what didn’t, all the while drinking blue milk of our own creation. If we were concerned about the standalone films before, Rogue One put us at ease. It’s a big episode this week so don’t waste another minute!
Continue reading Episode #188 – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
First thing’s first: I don’t watch Star Wars trailers before I see the films. I will run out of a theater, stick my fingers in my ears and yell incoherently to stop any information from reaching my brain. As far as I’m concerned every image is a spoiler, a lead to an expectation which will influence my first viewing experience. Everything Rogue One related other than casting I avoided.
I did see the one shot with Jyn in Black Trooper armor, backlit on a ship with the narration “This is a rebellion isn’t it? I rebel.” It’s hard to avoid TV spots. The shot though, did give me a little tickle in my chest. I had not seen Felicity Jones in many movies but in that one sec I got excited to see her in a Star Wars film. The line was…kinda lame, like when Han said “Chewie, we’re home” in the teaser for The Force Awakens. Just lame and reeked of Wink Wink from the marketing dept. Boy was I happy that “I rebel” line wasn’t in the finished film.
Continue reading A Hype To Remember: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
I’m a Filmmaker, Set Decorator and Rat lover. So I like telling stories, making things pretty and small fuzzy animals. My life in a nutshell.
After living through the prequels as a huge fan, I kept my excitement in check as Disney bought Lucasfilm and announced a slew of new movies, including episodes 7-9. Of course, I assumed it would be a film about passing torches, and we’d get new versions of Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie, Artoo, and Threepio.
The first teaser for Force Awakens cemented this, and we got introductions to Finn, BB-8, Rey, and Poe. Everything looked and felt like Star Wars – rolling droids, X-Wing cockpits, and the Millennium Falcon!
Continue reading A Hype To Remember: Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)
Ryan is a sound engineer in Los Angeles, focusing on Production Sound for Film and TV. He’s an avid video game player, comic book reader, and all-around collector of nerd culture.
I’ll admit, episodes one and two were huge bummers for me. Something was missing from both of them and at the time I couldn’t really articulate what that “thing” was. To confuse things even more, there were things I really liked in these films. It was (and to some extent still is) hard to reconcile the little bit of good that I latched onto versus the myriad of bad. This trailer kind of touches on that.
Watching this thing now, I’m fascinated by the speed at which everything unravels for the Republic and goes to complete shit. In that regard, the film makes good on the promise in the trailer. You can also see where Lucas is trying to weave the prequels to the original trilogy, and even in the advertisements it feels messy. Still, within the mess I can see the really good version of this. I can see what Lucas was trying to do and I actually kind of dig it.
I just wish more of these story beats had been earned. Anyway, this is an interesting mess of a trailer and I’d like to share that mess with you all today!
Continue reading A Hype To Remember: Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Writer/Creator/Web Guy for After the Hype. Created an animated fantasy webseries called Flagon. GM for Demon Dayz: An Actual Play Podcast, which you can conveniently find here on athpod.com
I jumped on board the Star Wars train roughly around ’97 when they re-released the original trilogy back in theaters, so I had the benefit of knowing that this was part of a larger saga that would (hopefully) be ongoing. It’s weird to go back and watch the original marketing materials for these movies, especially after living through the updates, re-releases, and the marketing for the new movies still to come.
This trailer feels very much like a sales pitch, stating matter-of-fact what we’re getting in the movie, which is more of what made the first one so great, plus this new guy LANDO CALRISSIAN. It also spoils a lot of the movie (minus the big reveal), which I wasn’t really expecting.
And yet I don’t really mind all that much. There’s a rough-around-the-edges charm here that the franchise has lacked for a long-ass time, and I hope we can get back to that somehow.
Anyway! The trailer!
Continue reading A Hype To Remember: Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Writer/Creator/Web Guy for After the Hype. Created an animated fantasy webseries called Flagon. GM for Demon Dayz: An Actual Play Podcast, which you can conveniently find here on athpod.com
This week we’re going back to high school to talk about the 90s classic ROMY AND MICHELE’S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION. Get out on the dance floor and move like you invented post-its. We’ve got a great episode ahead! Special thanks to Michelle Dunn and Sean Buono for guesting on the show this week.
Continue reading Episode #187 – Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (20th Anniversary)
This week Mari Provencher joins us to hunt for magical beasts and talk about the newest franchise in the Harry Potter universe: FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM. Grab your TARDI-I mean suitcase and join us on this adventure through time and spa-I mean America in 1926.
Continue reading Episode #186 – Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them
The newest episode of After The Hype has ARRIVED! That’s right, we’re talking about Denis Villeneuve’s and Eric Heisserer’s stunning Sci-Fi film ARRIVAL. Special thanks to indie author A.R. Fagundes for joining us this week to bask in the glory that is Amy Adam’s performance. Seriously, we have to strain ourselves to come up with problems for this movie. ENJOY!
