Podcast appearances and mentions of Alan Smithee

Christian College Sex Comedy: Part 24 Eve of the New Order In 30 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the podcast at Explicit Novels.             Earned leadership is a blessing; assigned leadership is a burden   "Am I going to have to spank this little kitty to teach you a lesson?" Rio asked sweetly. Mercy vigorously shook her head in denial. "So you don't want me to do this?" Rio began energetically rubbing her fingers over the moist cunt. I was distracted from the rest of that exchange by Barbie Lynn's recovery. She climbed up my body, cheeks still full of my cum and staring at me with a mischievous hunger. At the moment I thought we were going to mimic the cum-swapping trick Ms. Lane and I had done, she went in another direction. Barbie Lynn leaned forward within inches of Vivian's face. Vivian reacted by pulling away, knocking the back of her skull against the headboard of the bed. "Barbie Lynn, I am not kissing you, and I am certainly not kissing you with Zane's, seed/semen in your mouth," Vivian insisted. Barbie Lynn mumbled something that sounded somewhat like 'but you'll like it' and did her best to look sexy, innocent, and inviting all at once. She would have had me convinced that brushing my teeth with uranium hexafluoride was the best thing for long term dental health too. Barbie Lynn pressed forward, Vivian held her back by putting a hand on each shoulder, and then Barbie Lynn transferred one of Vivian's hands so that it now supported one of Barbie Lynn's dangling tits. Realistically, Vivian was better at Karate than Barbie Lynn and could have blocked/resisted the blow, but Vivian had the ability to be remarkably compliant at the weirdest of times, like right now. Barbie Lynn was really close to doing as promised. "Please don't," Vivian asked softly. Barbie Lynn went one step further; she tapped her forehead to Vivian's forehead, smiled at her, and sat up, ready to swallow at last. "Wait, don't!" Rio cried out. She switched direction so that she was beside Barbie Lynn and they were the ones now actually kissing and letting my semen travel from tongue to tongue. When Rio got her share and then some, she spun rapidly back to Mercy and slapped that girl's thigh, motioning her up on her knees facing Rio. As Mercy reached the appointed position, Rio took her head in both hands and bore into a powerful oral exchange. One blowjob with three recipients, not my normal wake-up routine. That aforementioned bunch of guys is going to crucify me, upside down. Mercy went from slightly hesitant to rather animated in seconds, keeping tight to Rio as Rio tried to withdraw. Mercy's tongue lashed Rio's mouth a few more times before Rio pushed her back. "You like that, my Bang-bunny?" Rio taunted Mercy. "Do you like Zane's cream on your tongue and going down your throat?" "Yes," Mercy responded shyly, "yes, I like it very much." I waited for 'can I have another' and an inappropriate chorus from 'Oliver'. Rio didn't see things that way. She wrapped Mercy up by the waist and kissed her once more. "Okay, but since you are such a lousy cocksucker I am going to make you practice on Zane every night at eleven until you get it right, at least until the end of the semester," Rio scolded Mercy. "If that is what you want!" Mercy beamed. "Lord Jesus, save me," Vivian prayed for sanity to return to the room. "Oh, no, you are not," Barbie Lynn challenged Mercy and Rio's little scheme as she rushed to my rescue. "Not every night, anyway," she added. Maybe not rushing to my rescue after all. "The next lady to lay claim to my sexual favors, I'm going to make French kiss Ms. Marlowe during breakfast at the Dining Hall," I threatened. "Spread the word." "How is that going to work?" Rio snickered. "I don't know, but I've done every other inconceivable thing I've set out to do so why should this be any different?" I gave her a lopsided grin. "Yes, all of this is very nice," Vivian lectured, "but Zane only has seven minutes left to take a shower downstairs." We started to stampede for the exit. "Robes, towels," Vivian reminded us. She was rapidly learning many of the important skills one needs to become a mother to teenagers, a cat wrangler, or a prison guard. The Dawn of the New Order, like it or not.   It started at 6:45 as we began filing out of the dorm toward the dining hall and breakfast. We received texts, or our dorm mothers received them if we didn't have that function, assigning us a tribe we belonged to. What was a tribe? No one seemed to have a clue what this entailed for us.   "So," Iona was the first to ask me, "What tribe are you part of?"   "My tribe's called the Mediator tribe," I responded. "What lame-ass name does your tribe have?" Iona blinked at me, took my phone from my hands, and looked at it while we walked.   "Mercy and I are in 17," Rio sneered. "Why did your group merit a name and ours didn't?"   "Because Zane doesn't have a tribe," Iona figured. "He is not of the mediator tribe; he's a mediator. The real question is, how many mediators are there and what is their responsibility?"   "I'm in tribe three," Vivian volunteered. "I do have a notation but no indication who to see about it." The conversations around us were going in the same general direction, the girls trying to figure what sort of disruptions this would cause. The teachers put a kibosh on students walking around and finding out where their friends were placed so the text and phone messages being tossed around were obscene.   The surprise going to breakfast had saved virtually all of the freshmen from Handmaiden's Duty but they snapped us up heading for Assembly. I had Frederica Nicholas who decided to make a game of her giving me a word and me having to create a poetic verse. I rapidly learned the more risqu my verse, the more touchy-feely she became. (And she is a Rhaine supporter, huh?) I am a glutton for sexual foreplay no matter where it comes from.   Entry into the Assembly Hall brought its own special form of confusion. All the seats had numbers for the tribes that could sit there. I didn't find my group anywhere but I did catch the fact that Christina's group had been broken up. I stopped by Heaven to put a comforting hand on her shoulder because she looked terribly unsettled before I approached Ms. Goodswell on the stage.   My spiritual advisor stood up, walked to the edge of the stage, and knelt down so we could talk privately.   "Hi, Teach. I can't seem to find my groups/tribe's area," I said pleasantly. "Can you help me out? Hell, can you tell me what's going on?"   "Zane, your seat is right over there," she said, pointing to a chair on the front row, aisle seat. She smiled sadly. "All I can tell you about this program right now is that I trust you." Oh crap, that didn't sound good. Sitting on the front row, the region normally reserved for seniors, was just as disturbing. I sensed an epic boning in my future and I was sure I knew who the chick with the strap-on was.   Chancellor Bazz came to the podium and led us through the first ten minutes of the session. I could tell she was simmering with anger and resentment over whatever the upcoming fiasco was, and she showed it. She introduced Vice Chancellor Scarlett, then sat down abruptly. Her enthusiasm wasn't muted; it was buried in the core of the earth.   "Greetings, students of Freedom Fellowship University; I believe we stand at the first step to a great, glorious, and blessed experiment," Vice Chancellor Doctor Victoria Scarlett began. Her plan did sound grandiose, was certainly going to be famous (or infamous), and whichever supernatural powers put their mark on this train wreck, I was sure we'd discover the Arch-angel Morningstar also had his sulfuric fingerprints on it when the CSI's were finally brought in.   The basics of the scheme: There would be eighteen tribes of fifty or more members. Each tribe had all four grades in it but was focused on declared majors so that the girls could support one another. Each tribe would internally determine how they would regulate themselves as well. Externally, relations would be overseen by the Mediator, yes, that was in the singular, as in one: me.   At this point, I was wondering if jumping up, shooting Scarlett in the heart, and crying 'Sic semper tyrannis' was appropriate. I didn't have a gun and realistically, Victoria didn't deserve death for what she was putting all of us through. A few days in a pillory would suffice. No, she was making me be the 'Man' of our academic community, our judge and arbitrator.   As for my job qualifications, or lack thereof; I am considered morally loose, if not downright deviant. I'm an eighteen-year-old boy telling twenty-one-year-old women what to do, I have no legal experience, oh, yes, and half the campus hates my guts. I almost missed it when Doctor Scarlett added that Vivian would remain my guardian.   Maybe Vivian would throw herself in the path of a sharpened pencil, pen, or stylus aimed at my heart by any number of the young ladies that wanted me dead, just like a Secret Service Agent.   "You will be informed of the location of your first meetings. Each tribe will meet at eight o'clock tonight and tomorrow night to create the foundations of your group," Doctor Scarlett informed us.   "Tribes five and seventeen will be meeting in the Solarium of Alan Smithee dorm, if that is okay with Mr. Braxton." Victoria looked my way. I stood up in case anyone missed my discomfort for being called out and actually asked by a lead educator for anything resembling permission on this campus.   "Eight o'clock tonight?" I questioned. "I don't know if that works for me. I have a Brazilian body wax at eight and have scheduled my eyebrows to be plucked at 8:45, plus there is a new episode of NCIs: Los Angeles at nine."   "How about they promise to keep the noise level down?" Victoria volleyed right back at me without missing a beat.   "Very well, Doctor Scarlett, if you personally guarantee their behavior, I'm okay with them using my room," I allowed. I couldn't provoke Scarlett and I couldn't embarrass her, so I was back to facing her rear-bound artificial cock catching up with my behind. I sat back down. Victoria quickly exited center stage and a bitter Chancellor ushered us through the last of the service.   I waited outside the Assembly Hall for my friends and my Handmaiden for the moment, Theresa Yates. Christina and Chastity caught up with me first, both giving me a curious look.   "Bro," Rio sneered as she and Mercy joined us, "we need to discuss your future abuse of power, bribes and kick-backs you are going to get. Nice banter with ol' Scarlett too."   "Yes," Christina said sarcastically, "being flippant with the Vice Chancellor backfired so spectacularly the first time, it definitely needed repeating." Her criticism really sucked because I always secretly wanted her to think well of me.   "What's your plan?" Chastity prodded me. She was always helping me out when she got the chance. As she finished, Iona, Hope, Faith, and Heaven showed up.   "They split us up," growled Heaven. "Do something, Zane."   "He just found out about this," Iona responded before I could. "Give it time and combined, we will come up with a solution together." I sighed with some relief at her assistance and then I blinked. The powerful kiss I planted on Iona's lips caught everyone off-guard.   "Freaking brilliant!" I complimented her gaily, giddy with glee. I didn't have an actual plan yet but I had a direction to propel my thought toward. With my mind awhirl, I caught sight of Theresa moving past me on her way to class.   "Hey, Theresa," I called out. "What are you having me do today?" She looked a bit shocked.   "Zane, we are no longer allowed to call on you for Handmaiden's Duty," she informed me.   "Oh, He, ck no," I choked out. "Who says?"   "The Vice-Chancellor declared you to be outside the tradition," she stated sadly. I wasn't going to stand for this. Victoria was building a wedge between me and the rest of the student body.   "Iona, do that tech-thing that you do and inform the ladies that by the authority vested in me as mediator, I am reinstating myself as part of the Handmaiden's duty until, over half of the tribal leaders petition that I do otherwise," I announced.   "By tech-thing, do you mean send a text message with an accompanying e-mail to all the students on the school registry?" Iona regarded me quizzically.   "Zane," Chastity worried, "are you sure you have the authority?"   "Of course he has the authority," Rio declared. "He's the freaking mediator." Sometimes I would really like to get a word in before the conversation runs away from me.   I swatted Iona on the ass, she squawked.   "Chastity, this is clearly a game of chicken, so why not see how far Scarlett is willing to go," I replied. The look Christina gave me restored my faith in me; her eyes beamed at me, alight with an intellectual fire. I had one last thing to do while the chaos boiled one last time before the ebb: I hugged Rio.   "I want you to break into Gabrielle's place," I whispered in her ear, "wait for her to come get you, and tell her this: There is no Cordelia Dresden."   "Back off, Joker," Rio punched me. Rio trusted me not to put her in harm's way if I had another choice and Gabrielle knew that Rio would be the last person any sane individual would trust to do this.   She gave no hint of a reply to my request. The assumption was, if Cordelia didn't know what we were up to, she couldn't figure out a way to stop us, and right now I wanted a way for us out of her little game here at FFU. My current theory was that the girl I knew as Cordelia didn't exist before she came here, she was an invented personality, and I wanted to know who the inventor was.   Oh yeah, back to my actual life where my academic and social lives were in upheaval because my current nemesis (or one of them anyway) was a crusading idealist. I swear to God, if I survive this place, I will never forgive Aunt Jill for not sending me to the University of Hawaii, which was my first choice for college. All I had to worry about there was hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and the wrath of the island spirits for despoiling virgins, simple shit.   "Zane, you will discuss the merits and sins of the concubines of King Solomon with me," Theresa said, as she passed me her backpack to carry. Life rolled back to semi-normal and we separated to make our way to our first classes of the day. That illusion took another ill turn when I entered English class with Ms. Goodswell. She gestured for me to come to her desk before the lesson began.   "Zane," she informed me softly, "none of the female teachers or administrators at this school can give you orders, only suggestions. Only Doctor Jennings may truly compel you to do anything."   This bombshell was the reason she said she trusted me back in Assembly. The only one making me do the right thing was me. I had never considered me Mr. Responsibility before so I was in for a crash course in having authority over 900 students and 100 teachers. I told Virginia Goodswell about my decision concerning my Handmaiden's Duty to get her input, then compelled her to treat me as any other student, because apparently, I'm in charge of students now.   "There are old soldiers and there are bold soldiers, but there are very few old, bold soldiers," she reminded me. "Never forget, no matter how dark it may seem, Zane, you are never alone."   "I could always use a picture of you in a white, low-cut bikini to inspire me," I hinted.   "Mr. Braxton, by the authority vested in me by the mediator, I order you to take your seat so we can begin classes," she smirked. Oh, the irony: stymied by my own hubris.   Celia Wanamaker snapped me up coming out of English class. Vivian was waiting for me and Raven was in tow, right up until Paige snapped her up. Celia had me name a biblical character for each letter of the alphabet. Paige had Raven quote bible verses, backwards. As if there was any doubt my day could get worse, it did so immediately.   "Oh, the great Priest-King approaches!" screeched Rio on seeing me. "We all must genuflect, that's kneel down until your head touches the ground for you stupid bitches, until the Mediator passes." The horrible, horrible thing was that dozens of confused girls started doing just that.   "Hold on," I held up my hands for attention, "Hold on. Rio is mistaken. Genuflecting is only done during the Holy Days of Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter."   Okay, I made that up off the fly and I figured that I wouldn't be at school for Christmas, and Good Friday and Easter were next year and I'd worry about that then. For now:   "Emily, Rebecca, Henrietta, and Magdalena, please carry Rio to her next class, by the legs and arms," I instructed some of the closest students. "If a door or other object gets in the way, don't hesitate to use her head as a battering ram."   "Damn, Bro, that's harsh," Rio giggled from the floor. I knelt beside her.   "Yeah," I whispered, "like being man-handled by four girls isn't going to turn you on."   "Don't tell them that," she whispered back. I rose and continued on to class. A wiggling, squirming, cursing, and fighting Rio followed us.   I went through the same rigmarole in Biblical Archeology. I told the teacher that using my authority over students, I was instructing her to instruct me as if I was any other student, because I was a student and this was the area of my authority; right? She bought into my reasoning with some relief.   "How was it?" I mouthed to Rio once class was well on the way.   "Two hands all the way up the thigh, one knows I forgot my undies and was thoroughly soaked, two titties grabbed," Rio described what she'd been subjected to, "and I got to bite Magdalena's ass. I love those soccer player asses. You are most likely the best friend I will ever know; thank you."   "Always willing to help a fellow pervert out," I grinned back. Rio winked, then returned to work. I needed all the humor I could get because it was going to be a long damn day. By the time I made Marksmanship at three o'clock, I was damn happy to shoot something. I got some relief by having my best day ever, scoring a 53 (out of a possible 100) at the range. When I finished, I noticed a large number of my club mates standing close by.   WOMEN and the WORLD at LARGE   "Yes?" I questioned the ladies clustered behind me at the firing line.   "Oh, we are huddling behind your manliness," Daphne, one of the better shooters, joked.   "Manliness? Daphne, you just shot an 87. Hell, if you ladies want to be safe, stand in front of me, because apparently that's the one place my bullets don't go," I chided her.   That was a slight exaggeration. I was a pretty good shot out to 50 meters, but when I have to use binoculars to even see the target some of these girls are nailing, I know I have a long way to go.   "Zane, police your station," Hope instructed me. "Everyone, it is time for field training." This was the other part of marksmanship, sneaking around and spotting targets in the woods. We didn't use live rounds but it was still fun stuff.   "Gung-ho!" I responded to Hope. I'd heard that this was the battle cry of an Asian-American unit in World War II; Japanese I think.   "I'm Korean, Zane," Hope tried not to chuckle. "We are not exactly friends with the Japanese."   "If I stop saying it will you ask your Daddy not to come?" I inquired hopefully.   "If you keep saying it, I'll stop telling my Father I can't live without you," she countered.   "You can't live without me?" I questioned.   "Of course I can live without you, but I had to think of something to stop him from parachuting here in the dead of night and slitting your throat," she confided.   "You are joking; right?" I worried. Hope was nonresponsive as we got our gear together for the hike. "Hope, tell me that was a joke." Once we passed into the forest, Hope was quiet, business-like and nothing but. We were a mile into our trek when Hope settled down to study the environs. Per procedure, Hope watched to her front and left; I crouched at her back, facing away, and watched to our rear and Hope's right.   We would stay this way until Hope set up on the target, which was when I became her spotter. Since we weren't there yet, I scanned my area one more time, then cupped my right hand and reached behind me until I touched Hope's ass. I waited for a reaction of any kind but none came. Three seconds later I began to gently coast along her posterior, lightly squeezing her buttocks and rubbing along her cleft.   With a careful ear, I caught Hope's breath gaining in intensity. A few seconds later, she reached back and tapped my arm lightly so I stopped. Hope then rose carefully and we continued on our way. During the entire encounter, neither one of us had deviated from our watchfulness, which gave the whole situation a greater erotic appeal for me.   "Zane," Hope caught my attention as the last rifle and bullet was secured away, "I really wasn't sure how you would deal with me, being better than you. How do you do it?"   "All the training and skill in the world isn't worth a damn if you won't fight," I tried to explain. "A willingness to fight without talent is a waste. Hope, you didn't defeat me; you beat me."   She seemed to be searching for my definition of those two terms.   "Let's walk over to Orienteering before Heaven pops," I suggested. "We can both pin Heaven down but short of killing her, I'm not sure how to stop her." Hope chuckled at that assessment and nodded. "Hope, you put me on the mat and made me tap out, you beat me. You haven't discouraged me from coming at you when I feel I'm more capable, you haven't defeated me."   "Beating implies physical dominance but defeat is a state of mind," Hope replied as she stripped my definitions bare. I swung back my hand to spank her ass. Hope flinched slightly as instinct recognized the incoming blow and dictated a menu of responses, most of which involved causing me pain. I spanked her left ass cheek; Hope yelped and glared over her shoulder at me in feigned annoyance.   "You are a very verbose wench," I shook my finger at her.   "Do you want them to perform an extensive autopsy to figure out where I stuck that finger or are you going to remove it from my face right now?" she challenged me mirthfully. I stepped to her side, draped an arm around her waist; a second later she hesitantly echoed the gesture.   When we got to Orienteering, Hope and I parted company and I joined my fellow students as Heaven stood before us. The silence dragged on, and on until I finally felt compelled to raise my hand.   "Yes, Zane?" Heaven asked sweetly. You know; that 'sweetly' that says, I have an iron skillet to the head in my immediate future.   "Class? Are we going to have class today? Please?" I mumbled.   "I don't know, Zane," Heaven glared at me with a vicious smile stitched to her face. "Do we have your permission to have class today? Apparently we need to." Oh, fuck-buckets; Hope had probably had the same instructions and blown them off; Heaven was going a different way.   "I understand," I announced with dignity as I stood and walked up beside Heaven before facing the rest of the class. "As your appointed mediator, I think we should come forth and pray on the matter. All of you come to the front and kneel in a semi-circle; you too Heaven." I put a hand on her shoulder and put pressure on her to kneel beside me, right beside me.   The girls gathered around, Heaven was on her knees only inches from my crotch with her eyes flickering from my hard cock (I'm giving strong consideration to slamming that bastard in the middle of the US Tax Code to make it calm down) to my eyes. Soon I was in the center of a waist-level sea of slightly swaying female heads.   "Let us pray," I intoned. "Lord, guide us and give us strength to be true to ourselves, have faith in the gifts of insight, determination, and self-worth you have given us. Also, give us the vision to see what is wrong, the knowledge to understand when we hear things that are nonsense, and the will to forge past those words so that we find our own voice. In Jesus Christ's name we pray; Amen." "Amen," the girls said, at varying volumes and with varying conviction. They were all there, on their knees, staring at me. I swear to God, if one of them had 'Bahhed, I'd have died on the spot. "Okay, who believes I'm more qualified to teach this class than Heaven?" I began. Two girls started to raise their hands then self-consciously reversed direction. "You are all correct; I am totally unqualified to teach this class. I am totally unqualified to tell any of you to do virtually anything. I don't know more about life than any of the rest of you do. At eighteen, I'm younger than most of you. I'm a guy, nothing more. You ladies don't need me. Really, do any of you have any need of me whatsoever?" "Sex," blurted out of the mouth of Ruth, one of the senior club members. No one said anything for a few seconds. Okay, I could deal with this. "Fine, sex. With the Purity Pledge here, do any of you think you would need me for sex?" Twelve of the fourteen girls raised their hands; counting Heaven made it thirteen. I wanted to be anywhere else but in the deathtrap of my own creation. Screw that; I wanted to crawl into a deep, dark hole and pull the dirt in behind me. "We hear you are really good at it," Benios tried to explain things to me. "Brandi told us all about blowjobs. Those seem safe enough with the Pledge," Michelle added. Heaven started snickering at my expense. "All right, everyone," Heaven raised her voice as she stood up, accidentally squeezing my cock through my pants as she did so, "let's get started, and if no one screws up today, we can have Thursday's class in Zane's bedroom." We finished the last class for the day and started leaving our outdoor classroom when Ruth put her hand on my lower arm. "Zane, does a blowjob violate the Purity Pledge?" she asked. That wasn't really what she was asking. Why would I know the specifics of a pledge that everyone knew I hadn't taken? No, what she was asking was if she could experiment with oral sex with me. The other girls were not so surreptitiously hanging around for the answer. "Honestly, I don't believe that fellatio is an acceptable alternative to vaginal sex unless it includes cunnilingus," I bullshitted. I believed that, but I was hoping the lingo would buy me an exit. "What?" Ruth stammered. "Oh, I know that," Michelle giggled. "Fellatio is when you take a man's phallus and put it in your mouth, and cunnilingus is when a man puts his mouth, down there," she pointed at her crotch. "Zane, do you do that too? Put your mouth, Ruth hounded me. "Sure," I confessed. "Every man should, but in reality, it is more than tongue work", I wiggled my tongue, "but finger work too. All you have to do is think how your fingers feel down there, except this time they are under someone else's control and you have a strong, flexible muscle added to the mix." I instantly knew I was missing something with this audience. "You touch yourself; right?" I questioned. By many of the guilty looks, I could tell that most of the class had, but a surprising number hadn't, Ruth included. "I never have," Ruth replied. "I was afraid I'd stop being a virgin." I nodded, walked over to the closest tree, and banged my head against it. "That's enough for today," Heaven intervened. "We can pick up this wonderful, non-orienteering discussion next time." She ushered me away. I was rather thankful to get away and into the company of someone I trusted. "Are you ready for tonight?" "You mean am I waiting to pack your tight ass and drag my fingernails over your back until I draw blood? Yes," I grinned down at her. "Evil!" she giggled. "You are sinister, vile, and an aberration to all that is pure in the world." "Well, you are purely wonderful," I countered. "So is this a case of opposites attract?" "Do you like to see me that way?" my transvestite lover teased. "Your legs on my shoulders as I drive into you; on your hands and knees; you looking down at me as you slide down that first time, your ass cheeks bouncing, with my hands kneading them as you face away, but most of all, with your head on my chest, asleep, your hair spilling over your eyes as you lay there, that's the best," I related. "How can you be lusty and sweet at the same time?" she murmured. "It's how you make me feel, Heaven," I explained. "It is no mystery, you are that good to me." "Best boyfriend ever," she whispered, as she hugged my arm tight. On the final approach to Heaven's dorm, she gave me a nudge. "So, how did you beat the ten-second rule?" Heaven prodded me. "We have a ten-second rule?" I questioned. "We don't, silly; it's Hope's rule," Heaven grinned. "No one holds her for more than ten seconds. She has, had proximity issues." "We were intimate," I pointed out. "That probably helps." "I hope so," Heaven laughed. "The first time Christina and I barged into her room, we found ourselves staring down the barrel of a gun. Chastity was her roommate and she nearly freaked because she didn't know Hope had an automatic, much less slept with one under her pillow." "Note to self: never climb in Hope's window looking for a midnight hook-up," I sighed. "Hey," Heaven playfully grumbled, "if you are crawling in anyone's window for some late-night booty, it had better be my window and my booty you are after, Mister." "Or what?" I teased. "Are we back to me being in a deep, dark hole, you with the only key, dressed up for me in black strips of leather?" That description dated back to our first day on campus together when she hated my very existence. "Bitch," Heaven growled with frustrated desire. "I'll see you at the car in ten minutes, then." I gave a double pump of the eyebrows and left. We had been invited by Officer Danica Campbell of the Lancaster PD for a barbeque so we could get reacquainted. It was something Heaven was really looking forward to (not that I minded). Danica's house needed a little yard work but was otherwise an unremarkable ranch style house with an attached carport. Heaven's hands kept fluttering at her sides and straightening out her skirt. Me; I was in a long-sleeved pull-over and jeans and was having a much easier time of it emotionally. My only problem was our timetable; I had to be back before nine. We could smell the burning charcoal from the front yard but I indicated to Heaven that we weren't friends enough to simply walk around back unannounced. We rang the doorbell, then rang it again. Heaven was going for a third, nervous try when Danica opened the door. "Hey, you two, come on in," she greeted us, and stepped aside so we could enter. The first aura I detected in Danica's home was of benign neglect; the house was inhabited but no one actually lived here. Everything looked old but not worn, except for one chair and the cabinet around the TV which had VHS tapes (?) and scores of DVDs from the past ten years. Danica was in a lumberjack shirt, jeans, and deck shoes with a noticeable lack of bra, panties, and socks. "I'm glad you two showed up," Danica said, talking to us as we followed her through the living room to the kitchen. We could see the grill cooking away on a concrete patio through a sliding glass door. "I almost showed up last night," Heaven blurted out, then looked mortified. "You would have had to wait a while," Danica joked. "I worked last night." "I would have put her to sleep on the doorstep, covered her in a blanket, and given her a garden gnome to use as a pillow," I joked. Heaven blushed furiously and punched me in the arm. "Be careful, Mister Braxton," Danica threatened me with a wink, "I have handcuffs, pepper spray, and a taser, behave." I was hoping that comical exchange would have reduced the tension. It almost worked. As Danica opened the sliding glass door, she turned to say something. I have no idea what it was that got into her but at that point, Heaven threw herself at our hostess, wrapped her arms around Danica's neck, and kissed the lady cop. Danica staggered out the door onto the patio, grabbed the doorsill before they toppled over, and after her obvious moment of panic, put her other arm around Heaven's waist. Third Wheel Syndrome was kicking in for a while as the two kept tickling each other's tonsils and rubbing their bodies together. "I, ah, wanted to kiss you since I talked to you on the phone," Heaven finally said. Danica stroked a finger along Heaven's left earlobe, wiggling it back and forth. "Mission accomplished," Danica smiled. "You don't date much, do you? That's not a condemnation; it's just, you have a raw intensity I haven't seen in a while. I like it." Heaven looked ready to dive into another lip frenzy when our hostess held her up. "Let's check on the grill, unless you like your pork chops and chicken burnt as hard as the coals that made 'em." Heaven gave Danica enough lead to make it to the grill and open it up. My friend coughed and choked as the smoke billowed out; it was Heaven's first outdoor barbeque, or at least the first that didn't involve a professional pit master and a whole steer. "Give her some room," I cautioned Heaven. "I hear those things are hot." It was my first time too, but they had similar things in Thailand so I wasn't totally lost. Eventually, I was forced to wrap my arms around Heaven from behind to keep her from bouncing all over the place. Her enthusiasm didn't bother me; she was fun and felt she had a lot of catching up to do. We chatted about her work and our school machinations. Danica made a crack about me and women putting me on my back, funny like a crutch. We gathered in her living room; it was the only room that had the seats to meet our needs with the meat, coleslaw, hush puppies, and lima beans to eat. There was the promise of sherbet if dinner didn't fill us up. Things were going so smoothly that I almost missed Danica's little ploy. "Heaven, since you are getting a beer, would you get me one too," Danica off-handedly mentioned. We were finishing up the meal and washing it down with the appropriate beverage, lemonade in my case and beer in theirs. "Sure," Heaven smiled warmly, and off she went. She didn't hear Danica get up and follow her into the kitchen, though Danica did give me a wink. The moment Heaven pulled the two lagers out of the refrigerator, Danica slipped up behind her and pressed her body into Heaven's. For a second, Heaven thought it was me and was looking over her shoulder to chastise me. I was following but was hanging back. "Zane, then she noticed it was Danica, "Huh?" "Hey, Precious," Danica purred to her, "it seems your hands are occupied;" gesturing to the beer in each. Danica stretched her arms around and cupped Heaven's breasts and began massaging them. Heaven tried to twist around but Danica didn't let her. She bit into Heaven's neck instead, sucking up and down from ear to shoulder. "The last time you snuck up on me; now it is my turn. How does it feel?" Danica continued. She pressed Heaven up against the refrigerator door, grinding her there for a while before letting Heaven turn and faced her. "It feels good," Heaven gulped, "but I know some other things I want to do to you that are better." Danica answered that by sensually sliding down Heaven's body until she was kneeling. From there she lifted Heaven's skirt, pulled down her double panties and started making kissing/slurping noises that made Heaven shudder in anticipation. Danica was bobbing in a slow, languid style that was pushing the tranny toward her own internal blaze. I saw the opportunity to come up and relieve Heaven of her beers before she dropped them. Heaven's hands dropped immediately to Danica's head and trembled with the desire to push Danica farther and farther down her cock. Danica held her off, having more blowjob experience than Heaven and I combined. I took the time offered to remove all our shirts and Heaven's bra before alternating kissing Danica's neck and back while playing with her tits, and going to Heaven and kissing her and teasing her nipples with my teeth. She was over-eager and was tapping Danica's crown inside a minute, indicating the shortness of her fuse. Heaven gave a muted squeak followed by, "Oh, God, that's so fucking good, take it, oh, God, take it!" Danica did a masterful job of soaking up everything Heaven had to give and draining her dry afterwards. Danica had to hold Heaven's hips to stop my lover from sliding to the ground on her ass. "I think we will all be passing on the sherbet," Danica grinned while licking her lips. Heaven nodded, first shakily but soon with much more assurance. I kicked off my shoes in my own endorsement of this plan and we were soon all migrating to Danica's bedroom. Heaven, new to the romantic aspects of sexuality, dove straight onto the bed and shimmied out of her skirt. Danica and I stopped at the foot of said bed and shed our pants (and underwear for me). As Heaven looked at us, I pulled Danica's hair aside and began kissing her from right beneath her ear down to the nape of her neck. Danica responded by pressing her backside into me and gyrating her ass on my crotch. Danica ran her left hand behind her back and began moving it sensually along my stomach to the base of my cock and up again. Her right hand stroked my thigh and hip on the other side. I countered by moving my left to her left breast, mauling it but leaving the nipple unmolested for now. My right hand went in a serpentine fashion to her crotch and hovered right above her clitoris. We played tag with our intimate parts long enough for Danica to start sweating and moaning against me. "Why aren't you married, again?" she snickered. "Oh, yeah, you being eighteen and all." "Are you too much woman for one man?" I countered. "Actually, I've been looking for someone special," she confessed, but she wasn't looking at me when she said it. That wasn't lost on Heaven either; her jaw dropped. "Don't freak," Danica reassured her. "I know we don't have much in common, I'm a townie and you're a rich girl from somewhere else, but we have until spring if you want to hang out." It took Heaven a few moments to digest that. "I'd like that, Danica; I'd like that a lot," she smiled. "Well, I'd like it if you came over here and kissed me before your boyfriend drives me totally nuts," Danica teased her. Heaven got on her knees and waddled to the end of the bed to join us. "Wait," Heaven said at the last second, eyes wide with surprise. "I have a boyfriend and a girlfriend, I rock!" and then she dove into Danica's lips. Danica was propelled into me by Heaven's passionate embrace. She reciprocated by moving her hand off my hip and onto Heaven's semi-rigid cock. Heaven's phallus hardened quickly enough and she upped the tempo by buoying up her breasts and initiating a nipple fight between her tits and Danica's, wow, a freaking advantage I hadn't thought of. "Let s, Danica gulped for air " get on, the bed. I want some, of this, in me," she pulled on Heaven's cock. Oh, yeah, this was the Heaven-Danica show and I was second fiddle, and I felt it was glorious. 'You are known not by what you do but by what you leave behind,' or so yet another saying goes. Danica and Heaven were happy with one another, even if only for a little while. That 'while' included Heaven retreating up the bed as Danica followed and I pursued her. "Have you been a good girl?" Danica quizzed Heaven. "Do we need a condom?" clarified the issue. "No, no, I've only been with Zane," Heaven answered. "That's hardly a ringing endorsement for safe sex," Danica chuckled. "Damn, that's just cold," I groaned. "For your information, if my partner wasn't a virgin, she was someone I know intimately." "So you are not doing it with that Warlord chick living in your house now?" Danica persisted. "How do you even know about that? It happened Sunday," I wondered. "Zane," Danica sighed patiently, "I'm a cop and your house is like two miles away." "Can we get back to concentrating on the sex?" Heaven grumbled. "I'll wear a condom if you want. I'll wear a harem girl outfit if you want, as long as it leads to sex with you." "That won't be, necessary," Danica murmured as she positioned Heaven's cock between her labia then began to push down. I was working out what my place in this could be when I spotted the bottle of lubricant (generic) boldly sitting on Danica's nightstand, not very subtle at all. I shifted over, got the bottle, then got around behind them once more. "Can I join in?" I asked. "I trust you," Danica purred. Silly her; I'm behind her with a source of lube and a passion to use it. I poured some out on Danica's cleft and let it ooze down toward her cunt. I let it cascade over three fingers before sealing it up again. With my left hand, I began working a finger into Danica's anus, and with my right, I worked another into Heaven's. "Oh," Danica grunted, as I slipped past her sphincter. Heaven's response was to moan sensually. It took me a little while to not only work a finger in but a second one in as well; then the fun began. With Heaven, I began both pumping and making a series of circular motions; with Danica, though, I pressed down until I was counter-massaging Heaven's cock through the walls of her rectum and cunt. "Oh, my fucking God!" shouted Danica. "That feels great; she's really grinding against me." "Keep that up," gasped Heaven. "I, I can feel your fingers." Okay, I got this one right. I could also feel the sympathetic impulses growing between Danica's vaginal walls and Heaven's cock; they weren't going to last long. Drilling Heaven's butthole in rapid-fire fashion sent her crashing ahead of the wave. "Dan, Dan, Danica, Hell, yeah!" Heaven screamed as she slammed upward into the lady cop. Danica's back bowed and a low growling noise reverberated through her body. Both tried to use their anal muscles to grind my finger bones together; for the orgasms they were riding through, it was worth it. Danica shivered through one last orgasmic burst then settled gently down on Heaven. Heaven reached around with her arms and ran them up and down Danica's back. Our hostess pushed off her lover's body with her elbows on the mattress and kissed her nose. "That felt wonderful," she smiled down at Heaven. Heaven didn't immediately respond. "Is something wrong?" Danica worried. "I, um, it was really nice, Danica, but, Heaven worked through the words. "But?" Danica asked. "But I think I'm into guys," Heaven gave her worried confession. "I'm sorry; what we did felt good but what sent me over the top was, " "Oh," Danica seemed to deflate. "Hold on," I intervened, even as my fingers were still slowly working them both. "Heaven, you liked Danica's blowjob; right?" "Yes. It was wonderful," Heaven brightened up. "She's, you are, she looked into Danica's eyes " the best I've ever had." "Still, you like it up your ass, don't you?" I prodded. Heaven bit her lip and rolled her head to the side. Danica pushed herself onto all fours and sighed. "Well, damn," she sighed, "I was sort of hoping, " "Danica, would you consider screwing Heaven's ass? Giving it a chance?" I hazarded. "I'd give it a shot," Danica replied after a moment's hesitation. Being with a girl was new; being with a transgender was new; and now being the driving force in anal sex was going to be new too. "I'll get dressed and go out to the car," I winked. "Surprise, surprise; I worried something like this would happen so I brought a few things along." I was afraid that when I got back from the car with my backpack holding the strap-on, that a chill would have set in. I shouldn't have worried; Danica was surprisingly passionate and Heaven was sheer surprise itself. They were cuddled face to face exchanging small kisses and stroking each other's hair. "I just want you both to know," Danica held up a warding hand, "if that thing is longer than my arm, I'm calling this off." I presented the device for her approval and while it could be intimidating, it wasn't scarier than Heaven's normal equipment. "I'm glad that's going into you and not me," Danica ended up teasing Heaven. Not to be outdone, Heaven rolled onto her stomach and wiggled her upraised ass in the air. "Oh, she's begging for it," Danica laughed. "Yes, she does, and if you think that's sweet, imagine how nice it is to wake up with her ramming that pole in while riding you," I painted the picture. "Is there any position she doesn't like?" Danica inquired. "I'm right here, my ass up in the air. Please, somebody do something," Heaven whined. "Not that I know of," I ignored Heaven's plea. "You could try it in the shower, bent over the sofa, heels up in the La-Z-Boy, or hanging from the pull-up bar, she's quite strong." "Oh, hmm, thanks, Zane; I'll explore those opportunities," Danica grinned. "Hello, ass here, needs stuffing," Heaven became more insistent. "She's shameless," Danica teased happily. "Absolutely," I laughed, "but if one of us doesn't fulfill her needs real soon, violence will ensue." "Zane, you warm her up and I'll figure out how to put this thing on," Danica instructed me as she took hold of her sexual toy. "About damn time," Heaven panted as I worked my first finger in again. I'd oiled up several fingers before handing the lube to Danica to prepare her artificial cock with. Heaven's anus was already pliable from our activity so it took only two minutes to work the second and third finger in. By that time, both Danica and Heaven were ready. "This is weird," Danica mumbled, as she placed her phallic head against Heaven's sphincter. "Let me know if this, she got out before Heaven pushed back and gasped. "Doesn't that hurt?" "Makes me feel full," Heaven gasped. "Push." Danica did indeed push, and spanked Heaven for good measure. Now that I was freed up again, I elected to recline beside Heaven and watch her get fucked by Danica. Heaven and I made eye contact; that totally free, blissful look was exceptionally special for me. I'd seen Heaven afraid far too often. I'd seen her furious far too often as well. "Zane," Heaven perked up, "get over here. I want your cock. I want it coming and going." "Revenge," taunted Danica. Heaven and I had given Officer Campbell simultaneous oral and anal sex, and now Heaven was getting the same treatment. I sat my ass on the pillow in front of Heaven's face, legs spread wide. She grabbed my cock in both hands (my cock is so massive, its ability to block out the Sun often cows primitive tribes, or maybe Heaven has small hands) and yanked it forward somewhat painfully until she could lick the tip. "Come on, Zane," Danica egged me on, "take hold of her head and fuck her like a cheap slut." A shudder passed head to foot through Heaven's body and she gave out a small sob. "Heaven," I asked cautiously, "do you want to stop?" "I'm being fucked like a slut, Zane," she replied tearfully. "I'm being fucked like a slut." You never know with some people. Danica gave me a worried look so I gave her a quick smile and a nod. Heaven wanted to be a woman, but almost as important was that she wanted to be seen and treated like a woman. It may have played out in Heaven's imagination that she had gone to some seedy bar looking all hot and sexy, then a couple had picked her up so they could treat her like a bad little girl. I raised my hips, feeding more of my cock into Heaven's mouth. "Spank your bitch's ass," I teased Danica. She responded by alternating noisy but not very painful slaps to our tranny's buttocks. Heaven wanted the tease, not the real pain, and Danica was right there for her. Once we had a good rhythm going, I could feel Danica's cock slamming at its deepest impact, Heaven squirming and squealing with the pleasure and her tongue and throat swirling around my oral intrusion. She slurped and sucked desperately while a small amount of drool marked her cheek and jaw. Heaven began making whimpering noises along with the grunts when Danica drove in deeper. All the sizzling sex I'd been forced (yeah, right) to watch sent me over the edge first. "Heaven, babe, here it comes," I chanted several times before I finally did shoot gobs and gobs, so much it shot out her nose and mouth. Okay, not really that much, but I certainly felt some relief. &l

Welcome to the Alan Smithee Podcast in which hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment, tech and beyond. In this episode the gang discuss  NAB New York, how using AI in production is helping some companies create jobs, the pending sale of Warner Bros and, the ramifications of user generated content.  And of course, there's a bunch of really cool things to get excited about. Show Notes:One Cool Thing:Katie: Halloween in your neighborhood!Michael: Boris FX Crumple Pop Voice Enhance: https://borisfx.com/products/voice-enhance/Scott: https://bloomapp.club/ and https://cocoatech.io/Sora: https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/03/openais-sora-soars-to-no-1-on-the-u-s-app-store/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkjgrvg6z4oKeycode Media chat:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTTCtHlSo4whttps://www.provideocoalition.com/new-m5-chip-in-updated-vision-pro-macbook-pro-and-ipad-pro/corto.aihttps://www.reddit.com/r/AgentsOfAI/comments/1msk1ac/pepsi_turned_57m_ads_campaigns_into_9_with/https://www.showrunner.xyz/Exit Valley show: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQZcGjQ-SvyJQDvDWguxHs47_ZKt8edj0

Comedians Kd Hinken and Nathan Parish are back to chat silly poop about everything and anything they want to, including (but not limited to):00:00:00 Intro00:06:00 Another Trump Speech Gaff 00:24:35 Open AI whistle-blower killed? (including strange interview clip with Open AI boss Sam Altman acting sus when asked about it00:48:25 Every popular AI has now killed someone to survive00:58:40 Alan Smithee: the prolific director no ones ever met in person1:08:30 Israel's insane new plan to make the world forgive them01:19:00 Exceptionally strange animal stories including a pr*ck of a Swan01:34:05 More crazy Charlie Kirk assassination updates01:48:00 Big Brother is back and more woke than ever**Plus many more conversations in between and after, but i forget to write them all down, i get distracted when i talk :) - KD

Welcome to the Alan Smithee Podcast in which hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment, tech and beyond. In this episode the gang's conversation centers around the annual Science and Technical (Sci-Tech) Emmys, significant innovations presented at the IBC trade show, and emerging guidelines around AI use in media production. The discussion also examines the Television Academy's AI task force, which has introduced broad ethical guidelines for AI use in production. And of course, there's a bunch of really cool things to get excited about. Show Notes:Sci Tech emmys: https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/awards-news/2025-engineering-250902TV Academy AI Guidelines: https://deadline.com/2025/09/tv-academy-ai-guidelines-members-1236528315/IBC 2025https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/tv-tech-unveils-best-of-show-winners-at-ibc-2025Blackmagic Resolve 20.2Blackmagic ProDock for iPhone 17 AnnouncedBlackmagic Design Brings ProRes RAW to DaVinci Resolve and Pocket 4KASUS ProArt Display OLED PA27USD Monitor Introduced - A Dedicated Filmmaking Monitor90 new, modern effects, transitions and animations, all included in your plan. These tools are powered by Adobe's recent acquisition of Film Impact, whose high-value library is now seamlessly built into Premiere Pro.Avid Content Core and more: https://www.avid.com/press-room/2025/09/avid-unveils-new-ai-and-automation-breakthroughs-to-accelerate-storytelling-ibc2025Nikon ZR (R3d) https://www.provideocoalition.com/introducing-the-nikon-zr-cinema-camera/Kyno update!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! iPhone 17Blackmagic Camera ProDock: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/release/20250910-01Review 17 Pro: https://www.provideocoalition.com/review-iphone-17-pro-max/Photographers review: https://youtu.be/KIwKEIMjBLM?si=awqppgG-sW_kR9YxOne Cool ThingKatie: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-beat-impostor-syndrome/id1677016372?i=1000726844767Michael: Personal setup upgrade: https://prompterpeople.com/flex-plus-16-9-15-rgb-ips-3g-sdi-hdmi-teleprompter/Scott: CineMath for iOS   https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cinemath/id6742495949?uo=2

Welcome to the Alan Smithee Podcast in which hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment, tech and beyond. In this episode, the gang kicked off its fourth season with a rich discussion centered on the transformative trends shaping the entertainment industry, the contentious price hikes from Adobe and, the nascent venture capital fund founded by industry veterans Seth Hallan and Leon Silverman, aiming to seed-fund early-stage tech-production startups. Subsequently, Scott, Michael and Katie each share their dream new product or service (if only they had a million dollars to invest) that would solve their post production woes. And of course, there's a bunch of really cool things to get excited about. 

You heard that right. Strap in for an amusing yet to-the-point tribute to the ultimate name you don't want your film to be credited with: Alan Smithee.    What are some good movies that just so happen to share this "stage name"?   Where does the line begin to blur between simply disagreeing with the studio and totally disowning one's own work?   All that and the amusing way in which this practice was ultimately discontinued by the Director's Guild!     Special Thanks to Not a Bomb Podcast for sharing some of this key trivia.       SONGS USED:  "Shiny Tech" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/   "Summon the Rawk" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/     "The Whip Theme (Extended)" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/     "Urban Gauntlet (High Quality Version)" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/          

Alan Smithee, pseudónimo que utilizan directores que no quieren ser reconocidos en películas, pero ¿sabes por qué?; miedos de las personas adultas: fracaso, cambio, pérdida y cómo lidiar con ellos; ¿Entras a una estancia y de pronto olvidas a que ibas? Dooway Effect, ¿Qué lo provoca?; Educación financiera, “smishing” evita fraudes por mensajes de texto; Tiburón: La película que redefinió el cine de Hollywood; en el día del medio ambiente conoce a Wolfpack, su historia y trabajo de reforestación.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the Alan Smithee Podcast in which hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment, tech and beyond. In this episode, the gang are joined by Beryl Shereshewsky, a successful YouTuber and former CNN producer, to explore the intricacies of content versus traditional media. There's a lively discussion centered around content creation, underscoring the evolving media landscape where traditional filmmaking intersects with modern digital content. And of course, there's a bunch of really cool things to get excited about. Special guest: Beryl Shereshewsky: https://www.beryl.nyc/Veo 3: https://gemini.google/overview/video-generation/Adobe price changes. It goes up if you want AI, goes down if you don't: https://www.provideocoalition.com/please-read-adobes-official-article-on-the-pricing-changes-coming-to-the-creative-cloud-plans/DaVinci Resolve 20 leaves beta, way before IBC: https://www.provideocoalition.com/davinci-resolve-20-released/American Society of Cinematographers Elects Mandy Walker, first woman, as President: https://theasc.com/news/american-society-of-cinematographers-elects-mandy-walker-as-presidentOne Cool Thing:Kaite: https://www.youtube.com/@OneSongPodcastMichael: Amaran t2c + 3" Baby Nail-On PlateScott:  https://wisprflow.ai/Beryl: Fluffy Cows - https://www.iowafarmbureau.com/Article/Iowas-fluffy-cows-go-viral-on-social-media

If the labor laws loosened, those McDoubles would be coming out mighty fast, is all I'm sayin',This week we have some sick little internet reviews for an allegedly special ice maker, seeing Batman Villains in reality TV's "Beyond Scared Straight", those fancy electric water guns, going on a thirst-quenching warpath with Liquid Death tea flavors, and a bubble "bazooka". For the segment, we take a (Upon) Further Review of the fine works of infamous director Alan Smithee. Back to the mines when this ones over, boys!Want more party? Check it out at https://www.reviewpartydotcom.com/ !

Welcome to the Alan Smithee Podcast in which hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment, tech and beyond. In this episode the gang reflect on their experiences at NAB. Key observations revolve around the show's evolving landscape, attendance figures and the technological advancements showcased, notably in AI integrated cloud services and, the noticeable shift from mere promises of innovation to tangible, usable technology.  And of course, there's a bunch of really cool things to get excited about. One Cool Thing:Kaite: The Horror Section (crowdfunding a movie studio) https://republic.com/horrorsectionMichael: Chat with your past meetings locally -  https://fathom.video + Transcript + GPT4 All with cloud or local models.Scott:  U2:UV https://thesphere.com/shows/v-u2-immersive-concert-filmNAB discussion links:https://www.instagram.com/provideocoalition/https://rbr.com/nab-show-reveals-2025-attendance-schedules-2026-affair/https://www.provideocoalition.com/nab-2025-wrap-up-ai-the-cloud-monitors-drives-and-kyno/https://www.shootonline.com/shoot_column/nab-show-unveils-2025-product-of-the-year-and-project-of-the-year-awards-winners/https://www.quickture.comhttps://caraoneai.ushttps://amove.iohttps://cree8.iohttps://pro.sony/en_LV/products/ptz-auto-framing-camera/brc-am7https://colorfront.comhttps://ventanadesign.com/producthttps://flandersscientific.com/XMP550/ and https://flandersscientific.com/XMP650/https://cyme.io/products/peaktohttps://www.lucidlink.comhttps://www.suitestudios.iohttps://iodyne.com/promini/

Kicking off "Forever Midnight Goes To Space" month, The FM3 are starting with 1996's Hellraiser: Bloodline. Jef, Josh and Brian were told that this is the episode in the franchise that they get to see Pinhead in outer space! How could they not start with this obvious masterpiece, afterall Alan Smithee directed it, what could go wrong?! So please secure the airlock and fasten your seatbelt because this episode is gonna have some space turbulence and probably some space flatulence, so make sure that you have enough oxygen to make it through the whole episode. We have such shites to show you! Enjoy earthings!

Welcome to the Alan Smithee Podcast in which hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment, tech and beyond. In this episode the gang chat about the upcoming NAB convention, industry trends, including the ongoing integration of AI into production workflows, a few big news items and, a fun discussion about the many myths that plague post production chat rooms. And of course, there's a bunch of really cool things to get excited about. Show notes:Show Notes:NAB related links:https://www.nabshow.com/https://nab25.mapyourshow.com/8_0/sessions/#/searchtype/sessiontrack/search/SMPTE%20Future%20of%20Cinema/show/allhttps://www.nabshow.com/las-vegas/conferences-and-workshops/postproduction-world/Village Roadshowhttps://deadline.com/2025/03/village-roadshown-chapter-11-bankruptcy-warner-bros-arbitration-1236328231/Apple TV + losing a billionhttps://www.theverge.com/news/633591/apple-tv-plus-losing-1-billionApple TV+ Studios Are Finally Coming To Life In Culver City — Here's What To Expecthttps://secretlosangeles.com/apple-tv-studios-culver-city/OpenAI and Google ask the government to let them train AI on copyrighted content   https://www.theverge.com/news/630079/openai-google-copyright-fair-use-exceptionhttps://www.npr.org/2025/03/20/nx-s1-5334497/carl-erik-rinsch-netflix-fraud-fbihttps://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7308126987758313474/https://www.provideocoalition.com/the-angry-editor-template-search-is-the-new-music-search-time-suck/https://www.engadget.com/ai/amc-theatres-will-screen-a-swedish-movie-visually-dubbed-with-the-help-of-ai-130022232.htmlhttps://blog.frame.io/2018/09/04/creating-video-for-blind-and-deaf/One Cool Thing:Katie: Hot air ballooningMichael: Adobe Translate and Lip Synchttps://news.adobe.com/news/2025/03/adobe-summit-2025-adobe-ai-platform-unites-creativity-marketingScott: https://putonthebrakes.org/

Niklas hat die seltsamsten Trivia Geschichten aus der Filmwelt zusammengetragen und lässt Toben und Marcel rumrätseln was in den einzelnen Geschichten passiert ist. Viel Spaß beim Reinschauen :)

There can only be FUN because this week we're discussing 1991's FUNTASTIC film "Highlander 2: The Quickening", specifically the Rebuild v1.1 fan edit! Come along as we chat about the movie, plus co-host confusion, the cuts, Alan Smithee, middle finger dads, poop trees, apple cider, opera, "Hacking into the Mainframe", EDITOR'S NOTE: Jose was right because the "Bob Wehadababyitsaboy" commercial WAS for GEICO, gooning, campy instructional videos, Doll Man comics, glow stick blood, "The Substance", 3 Ninjas movies, Joe's guesting spots, & more!Want to hear more from your favorite Marsh Land Media hosts? Hear exclusive shows, podcasts, and content by heading toPatreon.com/MLMpod!Buy some Shuffling the Deck / MLMpod MERCH, including our "Natty With Otters" shirt, over atredbubble.com/shop/msspod!Follow James @MarshLandMedia on Twitter, @MLMpod on Instagram, and listen to his music under "Marsh Land Monster" wherever music is found!Havefan mail, fan art, projects you want us to review, or whatever you want to send us? You canshipdirectly to us using "James McCollum, PO Box 180036, 2011 W Montrose Ave, Chicago, IL 60618"! Send us avoice mail to be played on the show at(224) 900-7644!Find out more about James' other podcasts "Mostly Speakin' Sentai", "Hit It & Crit It", "Formulaic: A Podcast In Script Writing", "The Height of Horror", "Sweet Child of Time", & more on our website,www.MLMPod.com!!! Plus, download all Marsh Land Monster albums there, too!

Welcome to the Alan Smithee Podcast in which hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment, tech and beyond. In this episode, the gang chat about the challenges facing the Visual Effects industry, the power of the Youtube streaming platform, how it helps a new generation of content creators and, how AI might help or hinder us production folk in the years to come. And of course, there's a bunch of really cool things to get excited about. Show notes:Adobe Introduces AI-Powered Features in Premiere ProThe VergeBrief Summary: Adobe launched new AI-driven functionalities in Premiere Pro, including a visual recognition search that allows users to find video clips by describing their content, enhancing editing efficiency.The VergeDirect Link (Article): https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/22/24349299/adobe-premiere-pro-after-effects-mediaintelligence-search (validated within date range)Publication Date: January 22, 2025Adobe Launches AI Video Tool to Compete with OpenAIBrief Summary: Adobe released Firefly Video Model, an AI video generation tool integrated with Premiere Pro, offering 1080p clips and aiming to enhance film and TV production workflows.ReutersDirect Link (Article): https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/adobe-launches-ai-video-tool-compete-with-openai-2025-02-12/Publication Date: February 12, 2025https://www.provideocoalition.com/adobes-new-firefly-generative-ai-video-model-is-live/Media Composer 12.2024 finally works natively on Apple silicon…but the Nexis client does not, and running 12.2024 means you have to run a newer OS that the black trash cans can't run.https://www.provideocoalition.com/avid-media-composer-is-now-apple-silicon-native/No more MiniDVs (and recordable blurays):https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/sony-is-halting-production-of-recordable-blu-ray-minidiscs-and-minidv-cassettes-140030225.htmlMore people are watching YouTube on connected TVs than mobile devices:https://www.newscaststudio.com/2025/02/11/youtube-connected-tv/HPAhttps://variety.com/2025/artisans/news/michael-cioni-hollywood-hpa-1236321816/Technicolor Closinghttps://variety.com/2025/film/news/technicolor-begins-to-shut-down-1236319436/Mill employees offered new jobs:https://deadline.com/2025/02/technicolor-the-mill-dream-machine-fx-1236300387/Life After Pi:https://youtu.be/9lcB9u-9mVE?si=isWCTyX_B3XJLyO8One Cool Thing: KH Igor Ridanovic used notebookLM to take the raw dataset from the 2024 rates survey and make a podcast (YouTube link):2024 U.S. Post Production Salary Survey Report (Unofficial)MK: Quickture shows assembly/radio edits inside Premiere Pro and Media Composer. Analytical AI vs GenAI. Audio only, computer vision coming soon.https://www.quickture.com/SS: The mock trailer that helped sell Cobra Kai (Twitter/X link):https://x.com/jonhurwitz/status/1895163930118393978

Welcome to the Alan Smithee Podcast in which hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment, tech and beyond. In this, the first episode of the year the gang tackle a few salient subjects like, the increasing technical demands in post-production roles, the intersection of technology and creativity, generational shifts in career aspirations and, how AI might just fuel our creativity in the future. And of course, there's a bunch of really cool things for us post production people to get excited about. Show notes:One Cool ThingKatie:https://notebooklm.google.com/ turns information into a podcast (deep-dive conversation), which I can listen to to get a quick deep-dive into a topic. Scott:Challenger - A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space By Adam HigginbothamMichael:Cursor -https://www.cursor.com/https://apnews.com/article/nvidia-ces-2025-jensen-huang-keynote-ecd262c4c55d575e41d51441f6c4ac1dhttps://www.wired.com/story/nvidia-personal-supercomputer-ces/https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/the-brutalists-ai-controversy-explainedhttps://variety.com/2025/artisans/news/oscars-consider-requiring-films-disclose-ai-use-brutalist-1236299063/https://news.delta.com/delta-host-first-its-kind-ces-keynote-experience-sphere-las-vegashttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeepSeekhttps://www.respeecher.comhttps://elevenlabs.io

another foray into the obscure realm of weird film score, jazz, ambient, funk and more... the seventh sequence. johann johannsson and yair elazar glotman - epilogue tetsu inoue - polychrome chant pete namlook and tetsu inoue - tokai jefre cantu-ledesma - untitled jonny nash - language collapsed tetsu inoue - man made heaven seti - aerino alpha flight - the space between worlds the super secret symphony - symphony number two midori takada and masahiko satoh - chang-dra midori takada - mr. henri rousseau's dream yma sumac - chuncho julianna barwick - envelop michael nyman - the morrow michael nyman - second morrow michael nyman - the departure john roberts - scene no. 6 jasper van't hof and markus stockhausen - silent bell jasper van't hof and markus stockhausen - daybreak gene ammons - hittin' the jug duke ellington - sunset and the mockingbird enrico pieranunzi and rosario giuliani - duke's dream roy hargrove and mulgrew miller - never let me go enrico pieranunzi, marc johnson and joey baron - sundays charles mingus - duke ellington's sound of love franz waxman - a place in the sun bernard hermann - taxi driver main title bernard hermann - phone call / i realize how much she is like the others / a strange customer / watching bernard hermann - a reluctant hero / betsy / end credits the dead mauriacs - résidence aztèque à colonnades (avec vue sur l'océan) benjamin lew and steven brown - les enormes et pourtant invisibles the dead mauriacs - orchestre me ́ canique avec escalier roulant / brussels - japon / danses de salon, divers vertiges / seconde ambassade / lounge, lounge, lounge, une e ́ le ́ gie distante peacepipe - sea of nightmares missing link - spoiled love 101 strings - flameout mike quattro jam band - the court of the crimson king brainticket - places of light itsuroh shimoda - everybody anyone love - alone again or traffic - phycheground ant trip ceremony - four in the morning out of focus - fly bird fly doors - indian summer brainticket - radagacuca anna själv tredje - mossen gandalf - nature boy ruth white - wheel of fortune манана тодадзе and борис шхиани - о стресс! zodiaks - vējš поп-комбинат - телефонный робот алла пугачёва - птица певчая tableau noir - le voyage gregor cürten and anselm rogmans - planes 1 caterina barbieri - this causes consciousness to fracture sturm - untitled drunjus - on the heels of sleipnir 1 rainbow serpent - futuregate 1 alpha flight - start to the worlds alpha flight - world of crystals maju - pale blood, coloured recollections the dead mauriacs - orchestre me ́ canique avec escalier roulant / brussels - japon / danses de salon, divers vertiges / seconde ambassade / lounge, lounge, lounge, une e ́ le ́ gie distante i:cube - adore blixa bargeld - somewhere over the rainbow johann johannsson and yair elazar glotman - epilogue

Welcome to the Alan Smithee Podcast in which hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment, tech and beyond. In this end of year episode, the gang take it in turns to give an update on the year past and, what we might expect in 2025. The discussion covers trends in software and hardware solutions, the economic challenges of the post-production industry and the shift in the types of career opportunities. And of course, there's a bunch of really cool things for us post production people to get excited about.  Scott:   https://www.youtube.com/@keystoneproductionnetwork8729 https://support.apple.com/en-mo/guide/iphone/iph4e76f5667/iosMichael 14'' 4K UHD IPS 3840x1100 Stretched Bar Touch Screen https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXL1NXVS?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title Katie  https://youtu.be/Ggg45-e4oj0?si=ndqhisqo2nlYLzkk --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

Episode 41 - Murdock and Marvel: 1995 Part 2 It was a tough year in comics, especially for the big two.  Comic shops were having trouble, readers seemed to be moving on to other things, and corporate overlords continued to demand ever higher profits.  1995 was a bit of an…apocalypse.  This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 1995.   The Year in Daredevil  Appearances: Daredevil #336-347, Elekrta: Root of Evil #1, Marvel Super-Heroes Megazine #4 and 6, Spider-Man: Power of Terror #2 - #4, Sabertooth Classic #11, Marvel: Portraits #2 - #4, What if…? #73, Ghost Rider #61, X-Universe #1 – #2, Ruins #1, Incredible Hulk #434, Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe #1, Over the Edge #1, and Double Edge: Omega graphic novel    Writing: Gregory Wright (336-337), Alan Smithee [actually Dan G Chichester] (338-342), Warren Ellis (343), J.M. DeMatteis (344-347)  Pencils: Tom Grindberg (336-337), Alexander Jubran (339-340), Keith Pollard (341-342), Pollard and Arvell Malcolm Jones (343), Ron Wagner (344-347)  Inks: Don Hudson (336-337), Andre Parks and Hudson (338), Parks, Hudson Bud LaRosa and Rodney Ramos (339), Parks, Hudson and Marie Severin (340), Art Nichols (341), Tom Palmer (342-343), Bill Reinhold (344-347)  The year begins with the final 2 chapters of the Fathoms of Humanity story arc that started last year. You'll recall that story stared with Daredevil following a homeless man into the sewers and coming befriending him and a whole group of people who live there. He battled the King of the Sewers and defeated him again. And we also saw the kingpin attempting to slowly grow his power back. In these final two chapters we learn the homeless man Daredevil followed was once a superhero himself – peacekeeper – in order to help Daredevil and his community against the Sewer King's attempts to take back control of the community and defeat Daredevil. From there, we get the story of Victor “Kruel” Krueller and the Ghost of a Chance diner in flashbacks to explain why Kruel is going after those near and dear to Daredevil/Matt Murdock (Foogy, Glorianna, DA Malpher, Ben Urich). Seems he double crossed Wilson Fisk and at the diner, Fisk caught him and nearly killed him – then covered it up by drugging those same people to wipe their memory. Now Kruel is bent on revenge and is seeking out the witnesses to help him remember what happened. During the quest for information, Kruel kills Glorianna which causes Fisk and Daredevil to team up to locate and confront Kruel. When they do, Fisk ends up killing Kruel.   There's a side story going on in this story as we see Karen Page trying to get information about some troubling images, she saw on a CD given to her by her former adult movie producers.   After a stand-alone book that was part of the Over the Edge event that didn't really make a lot of sense involving the Punisher. We get the start of the Inferno story arc. In it, we see a second Daredevil in the original red and yellow costume and a bonding around the city and talking with Foggy and Karen (as well as leaving taunting messages with Matt). We also see a villain names Sir who's attacking and killing women.   At one point, the two meet and Sir beats up Daredevil so badly, Sir is able to take his costume.  This leads to a very confusing confrontation in which Sir as Daredevil fights the red and yellow daredevil – who happens to be Murdock as an alternate personality. In the end, Batlin as Daredevil defeats Sir as Daredevil and Karen and Foggy come to realize that Batlin is actually Matt Murdock!  Elektra: Root of Evil  Daito of the Snakeroot kills himself with the Sakki sword and makes it impure. So the rest of the snakeroot need to kill three specific people to purify the blade again. (not sure how they know who). There's a brief cameo by Daredevil is issue 1 where he stops Elektra from killing some random mercenaries who are after her.  Elektra wants to form her own Ryu (ninja group like the Chaste) and works with Nick Fury to get recruits.  We briefly meet Target, Lynch, Impact, Masquerade, Niko and Salvo before most are killed in their very first battle against the snakeroot (like the X-force in Deadpool 2).   Via flashbacks, we learn Elektra has an older brother, Orestez who saved Elektra when she was a child and whom killed their mother for seemly cheating on their father. Though Elektra did turn out to be their father's daughter  Other flashbacks show Elektra was a member of the Snakeroot and fell in love with Tekagi – whom she ends up killing at the end of this series with new sais covered in poison before they could kill all 3 purity people.  This Week's Spotlight: Daredevil #347 December 1995 “Inferno Part 3”  Recap Why We Picked This Story Daredevil Rapid Fire Questions The Takeaway Sometimes the crossover is actually cool. Questions or comments We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime. ------------------ THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES  Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/.  The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts.  Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data.  The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time. 

Welcome to the Alan Smithee Podcast in which hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment, tech and beyond. In this, our Thanksgiving episode, the gang each share the top 3 tech things that helped their careers and or, continue to shape our industry today. Discussions include: innovation in production tools, the evolution of workflows due to the rise of digital media and, the transformative influence of social platforms on the industry. There's another update on the 2024 Rates Survey, a discussion on the new Mac's and of course, there's a bunch of really cool things for us post production people to get excited about.  Show Notes: NEW MACS M4 Mac mini - https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/ Review: https://www.provideocoalition.com/review-m4-mac-mini-for-video-editors/ M4 MacBook Pro https://arstechnica.com/apple/2024/11/review-the-fastest-of-the-m4-macbook-pros-might-be-the-least-interesting-one/ NLE UPDATES! AVID MEDIA COMPOSER 2024 LAUNCHES NEW FEATURES https://www.avid.com/resource-center/avid-media-composer-launches-new-features-202410 Final Cut Pro 11 https://www.provideocoalition.com/fcp-11-released-at-the-fcp-creative-summit/ Resolve 19.1 https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=211521 LucidLink 3.0 - Big Updates (AWS as a new backend + no egress is huge) https://www.lucidlink.com/new-era New X terms of service in effect November 15  https://mashable.com/article/twitter-x-terms-service @michaelkammes.bsky.social @editblog.bsky.social https://web.archive.org/web/20090418030734/http://www.scottsimmons.tv/blog/2008/03/22/twitter-about-editing/ One cool thing: Katie: Halloween workflow Michael: AltTab https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/ Scott:  Jumper https://getjumper.io/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

On this week's episode, we welcome back comedian and writer Eliza Skinner to chat about the joy of ceramics, craft root beer, the color wheel, and so much more!Eliza's Etsy shop!This week's sponsor is  Stitchfix:That's Wildgrain.com/JJGO, or you can use promo code JJGO at checkoutMake style easy—get started today at Stitch Fix dot com slash JJGO.That's Stitch Fix dot com slash JJGO.Stichfix.com/JJGOBe sure to get our new 'Ack Tuah' shirt in the Max Fun store.Or, grab an 'Ack Tuah' mug!Follow the podcast on Instagram and send us your dank memes!Check out Jesse's thrifted clothing store, Put This On.Come see Judge John Hodgman: Road Court  live in a town near you! Jesse and John will be all over the country so don't miss your change to see them. Check the events page to find out where! Follow brand new producer, Steven Ray Morris, on Instagram.

Welcome back to purgatory and a happy Halloween!!!    The boys wrap up the spooky season with the fourth entry in the Hellraiser series with Hellraiser IV: Bloodline from 1996 directed by Kevin Yagher & Joe Chappel but they both walked off the film due to difficulty with the studio so the film has an Alan Smithee directors credit.   The film stars Bruce Ramsay, Valentina Vargas, Mickey Cottrell, Adam Scott, Kim Meyers, Charlotte Chatton, Courtland Mead, Christine Harnos, Michael Polish and Mark Polish!!!   Thanks for checkin us out and if you'd like to find our back catalog go to podbean.com and you can find us on where all other podcasts are found. Intro track & Outro track by Daniel Licht 1.Main Titles  https://youtu.be/ARCM6HxoK5o?si=c8ds3wOhg7Bjf4mN 2. Chaz Le Reve https://youtu.be/czmVJYjoa5g?si=BM34E6IV3Ry-xN2u      

Welcome to the Alan Smithee Podcast in which hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment tech and beyond. In this episode, the gang have a special guest, Kylee Peña from Adobe. There's an update on the 2024 Rates Survey, a discussion on how the different NAB shows cater for different audiences, the ethical implications of generative AI, the evolving landscape of media and post-production and, the latest AI advancements from Adobe Max. As always, there's a bunch of really cool things for us post production people to get excited about.  Show notes: Rate survey reminder closes November 1: https://www.postproductiondata.com/ FCP Creative Summit is happening again. Nov 13 - 15 https://fcpcreativesummits.com/ https://www.cinegearexpo.com/atl-expo/ https://www.provideocoalition.com/?s=Cinegear+atlanta&submit=Search https://nabshow.com/newyork2024/ https://www.provideocoalition.com/head-in-the-clouds-feet-on-the-ground-at-nab-show-new-york/ Generative Extend in Adobe Premiere Pro: https://main--blog--adobecom.hlx.page/en/drafts/julia/generative-extend-in-premiere-pro https://www.provideocoalition.com/burning-questions-about-generative-extend-in-premiere-pro-beta/ https://contentauthenticity.org/ https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/content-credentials.html Katie: Lillian Schwartz passed away https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/lillian-schwartz-computer-art-dead-1234721078/ Digging into her work https://www.artforum.com/features/painting-by-numbers-the-art-of-lillian-schwartz-230796/ www.lillian.com/films Michael: Wasabi AiR-  https://wasabi.com/cloud-object-storage/wasabi-air Scott: https://knightsoftheeditingtable.com/excalibur Kylee: https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2024/10/16/new-adobe-max-sneaks-transform-photo-video-audio-3d-creation --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

Welcome to the Alan Smithee Podcast in which hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment tech and beyond. In this episode, the team discuss the 2024 Rates Survey, the various partnerships pushing AI development and, the kinds of jobs AI might help or hinder. And as always, there's a bunch of really cool things for us post production people to get excited about.  Show notes Rates survey 2024! www.postproductiondata.com  Lionsgate RunwayML partnership https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/lionsgate-deal-ai-firm-runway-1236005554/ James Cameron joined Stability AI board https://stability.ai/news/james-cameron-joins-stability-ai-board-of-directors An interesting lawsuit: a “professional troll” suing to claim that political deepfakes are free speechhttps://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/california-anti-deepfake-laws-target-of-free-speech-lawsuit   California - 3 measures signed by Gov Newsom https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/09/17/governor-newsom-signs-bills-to-combat-deepfake-election-content/ More layoffs at Paramount and Disney this month, affecting folks in corporate and streaming. https://deadline.com/2024/09/disney-layoffs-corporate-1236099769/https://deadline.com/2024/09/paramount-global-layoffs-2-1236097329/ Michael news: https://postperspective.com/michael-kammes-rejoins-key-code-media-as-sr-director-of-innovation/ New 5 THINGS https://5thingsseries.com/episode/the-truth-about-video-editing-software-in-hollywood-7-year-update/ Review: iPhone 16 Pro Max https://www.provideocoalition.com/review-iphone-16-pro-max/ 28 Years Later: Danny Boyle's New Zombie Flick Was Shot on an iPhone 15 https://www.wired.com/story/28-years-later-danny-boyles-new-zombie-flick-was-shot-on-an-iphone-15/ https://www.productionhub.com/video/90836/avid-showcases-innovations-at-ibc-2024-to-drive-efficient-collaborative-and-open-media-production-workflows https://www.provideocoalition.com/adobe-premiere-pro-is-getting-a-big-color-managment-update-among-other-features/ Katie:  https://editingtools.io/ also, the poster: https://5253154.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/5253154/poster-PRINT-SMALL.png?__hstc=52635383.e9b7ffd8d415ec13e807c232757a7ebd.1726520620995.1726520620995.1726520620995.1&__hssc=52635383.1.1726520620995&__hsfp=3801953514&hsCtaTracking=b2f70a6a-4c74-4f5e-983a-3bd04d8b9585%7C27966497-0655-499f-a831-965c89c157f3 Michael:  Background Remover (FX Factory)  https://fxfactory.com/info/backgroundremover/ Autoscript Voice - AI controlled teleprompter https://autoscript.tv/voice/ Scott: https://www.flowvoice.ai/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

In space no one can smell rotten eggs! One small step for man. One giant leap of terror! This year, the past, the present and the future will all meet at the crossroads of hell! Are the Pillow Fright Girls off their rockers, or is this a special bonus on sequels in space? If you guessed the latter, you are correct! But not just any sequels - Elissa is joined by writer, podcast host, and fellow horror trivia team member Patrick Hamilton to help her discuss a trifecta of franchise sequels she's been long prepared to discuss since the beginning of time* (*the start of the podcast) - Critters 4, Leprechaun in Space, and Hellraiser: Bloodline. Are you ready to go off the rails on a crazy train (spaceship)? Grab your Krites, gold, and Lament Configuration and let's get to it! Check out Patrick and the Kill by Kill podcast on Instagram!Support the showSubscribe to our YouTube channel for visual podcast episodes and more! If you enjoy our content and would like to support us, join our Patreon where you will find uncut episodes, bonus content and more!Follow us on socials:InstagramTikTokLetterboxd Pillow Fright theme by Brandon Scullion

Welcome to the next episode of our monthly round table podcast in which hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment tech and beyond. In this episode, the team discuss the various challenges facing the industry, the upcoming strikes, recent acquisitions and, the latest updates in production software. And as always, there's a bunch of really cool things for us post production people to get excited about.  Show Notes US Film and TV Production Down 40% From Pre-Strike Level, Report Says: https://www.thewrap.com/film-tv-production-2024-levels/ HPA award recipients! https://hpaonline.com/hpa-announces-2024-engineering-excellence-award-recipients/ FotoKem will receive HPA's prized Charles S. Swartz Award https://hpaonline.com/hpa-awards-committee-honors-fotokem-with-the-charles-s-swartz-award/#:~:text=It%20is%20with%20great%20pride,of%20the%20late%20Charles%20S. Paramount closed TV production studios and started major layoffshttps://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-08-13/paramounts-huge-layoffs-begin-nearly-2-000-employees-targeted-in-cuts Paramount/SkyDance https://variety.com/2024/biz/news/skydance-paramount-board-violating-deal-agreement-edgar-bronfman-jr-1236115717/ Disney Layoffs - On July 31, 2024, Disney Entertainment Television laid off 140 employees, which is about 2% of its workforce in the television division. https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/disney-layoffs-television-1236091773/ Teamsters, video game actors, Animation guild, IATSEhttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-animation-guild-contract-expires-soon-will-ai-fears-lead-to-a-strike/ar-AA1oQJqI Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes delivers first-ever side-by-side cut of raw footage with final film  https://ew.com/kingdom-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-side-by-side-raw-cut-with-unfinished-vfx-clip-exclusive-8697941 Cree8 acquired BeBop https://postperspective.com/cree8-and-bebop-technology-merge/ Autodesk acquired Wonder Dynamics  https://investors.autodesk.com/news-releases/news-release-details/autodesk-acquires-wonder-dynamics-offering-cloud-based-ai Premiere 24.4: https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/whats-new/2024-4.html Avid Media Composer 2024.6: https://www.avid.com/media-composer Resolve 19: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve Final Cut Pro 10.8.0 and 10.18.1 https://support.apple.com/en-us/102825 One Cool Thing Katie: B's gmail shortcuts! https://www.themightyshortcutsc.com/ Michael: https://chathub.gg Scott:   https://chrisroyfilms.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

Does the name Alan Smithee mean anything to you? Who is that and what does have to do with bad movies? Tune in to find out and enjoy the fun with David and Douglas. EverythingOldIsNewAgain.biz

Welcome to the next episode of our monthly round table podcast where hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment tech and beyond. In this episode they give a brief NAB Review with a deeper dive into the state of the industry for new grads, what tech changes today mean for jobs in the future, how kids can prepare for the new normal and, how we can support that. And as always, there's a bunch of really cool things for us post production people to get excited about.  Show Notes https://www.provideocoalition.com/review-m4-ipad-pro-in-the-edit-suite-part-1/ https://reel360.com/article/art-directors-guild-suspends-training-program-blaming-75-unemployment/ Reddit comments, if interested: https://old.reddit.com/r/FilmIndustryLA/comments/1cnms1x/art_directors_guild_suspends_training_program_we/ https://www.argestsoftware.com/argest-retirement/ https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24153113/apple-ipad-ad-crushing-apology One Cool Thing: Kaite: https://pluralistic.net/ from Cory Doctorow, who coined the term “enshittification”  Michael:  https://umbrel.com/ Simplified Home Network stuff Scott: Judah and the Lion The Process https://www.judahandthelion.com/ (Beautiful Anyway - Scott recommended!) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

This week on The Tinsel Factory, a look into the TV edits of Alan Smithee, the film that exposed him, and the Smithee's of the next generation. Movie Reviews: The First Omen Support This Podcast: https://anchor.fm/tinselfactorypod  Merch: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/the-tinsel-factory/all Venmo: @tinselfactorypod Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/tinselpod Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/tinselfactory/ Sources: Directed by Allen Smithee edited by Jeremy Braddock & Stephen Hock https://www.avclub.com/my-year-of-flops-inside-hollywood-edition-case-file-1-1798214128 https://www.nathanrabin.com/happy-place/2022/6/28/an-alan-smithee-film-burn-hollywood-burn-ended-bad-boy-screenwriter-joe-eszterhas-career-a-true-mercy-killing https://www.dga.org/-/media/Files/Contracts/DGACreativeRightsHandbook2023-26.ashx?la=en&hash=718CBDF9C7E2215E1E77C9FFC6C225B0FB3478A4 https://ew.com/article/2015/02/06/david-o-russell-film-you-were-never-supposed-see/ https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/49912/8-pseudonyms-famous-writers-and-directors-used-movie-credits --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tinselfactorypod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tinselfactorypod/support

This week on The Tinsel Factory, a look at two Alan Smithee classics: The Birds II and Hellraiser: Bloodline. Movie Reviews:Abigail Support This Podcast: https://anchor.fm/tinselfactorypod  Merch: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/the-tinsel-factory/all Venmo: @tinselfactorypod Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/tinselpod Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/tinselfactory/ Sources: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/feb/11/2 https://screenrant.com/hellraiser-4-kevin-yagher-director-removed-name-reason/ “Don't Remake Hitchcock Movies”, 2022 Directed by Allen Smithee edited by Jeremy Braddock & Stephen Hock --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tinselfactorypod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tinselfactorypod/support

This week on The Tinsel Factory, the disastrous production of The Twilight Zone film. Movie Reviews:Monkey Man Support This Podcast: https://anchor.fm/tinselfactorypod  Merch: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/the-tinsel-factory/all Venmo: @tinselfactorypod Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/tinselpod Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/tinselfactory/ Sources: youtube.com/watch?v=xZHjTqJSSak  youtube.com/watch?v=IQVOV4eudZw  https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-08-28-tm-1446-story.html  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tinselfactorypod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tinselfactorypod/support

This week on The Tinsel Factory, the birth of Alan Smithee and the production of Death of a Gunfighter. Movie Reviews:Late Night with the Devil and Immaculate Support This Podcast: https://anchor.fm/tinselfactorypod  Merch: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/the-tinsel-factory/all Venmo: @tinselfactorypod Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/tinselpod Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/tinselfactory/ Sources: https://variety.com/1995/scene/people-news/robert-totten-99124835/ https://trailersfromhell.com/death-of-a-gunfighter/ youtube.com/watch?v=xX2bmwyB_zw --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tinselfactorypod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tinselfactorypod/support

Welcome to the next episode of our monthly round table podcast where hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment tech and beyond. In this episode they discuss the upcoming NAB 2024, the changing landscape of the film industry, disruptive technologies, and, the impact of AI and machine learning. And as always, there's a bunch of really cool things for us post production people to get excited about.  Show Notes https://nabshow.com/2024/ https://nabshow.com/2024/learn/conferences/post-production/ https://www.zri-online.de/aktuell/zukunftsorientierte-restrukturierung-der-magix-software-gmbh-77646/ https://www.nikon.com/company/news/2024/0307_01.html https://claytonchristensen.com/books/the-innovators-dilemma/ https://movielabs.com/production-technology/the-2030-vision/ Top 50+ AWS Services Explained in 10 Minutes https://youtu.be/JIbIYCM48to?si=khOPBO3ZX5emMoqZ One Cool Thing: Katie: https://theresanaiforthat.com/ GDC go watch Jensen Huang's keynote https://www.nvidia.com/gtc/keynote/ Scott:  https://editingprep.com/ixmlrenamer/ Michael: https://www.sievedata.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

Welcome to the next episode of our monthly round table podcast where hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment tech and beyond. In this episode the team chat about the HPA Retreat, the evolving landscape of media production, the role of generative AI in the creative process and in particular Sora, the latest AI text to video solution. And as always, there's a bunch of really cool things for us post production people to get excited about. HPA link that Katie mentioned: https://x.com/katiehinsen/status/1760796354903986431?s=20 https://openai.com/sora https://claytonchristensen.com/books/the-innovators-dilemma/ One Cool Thing: Katie: Framed - The daily movie guessing game.  There's also https://episode.wtf/ Scott: Loupedeck CT and Loupedeck Live https://loupedeck.com/ Michael: https://www.concordaerospace.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

Story: Alan Smithee Was Here (AKA Cab Ride Kiss) Author: SlippinMickeys Rating: Mature Site link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39451419 Read by: Kristin Summary: For Cathy, who suddenly felt the need to read about Mulder and Scully making out in the back seat of a taxi. Who added: “How about just before their first time, both knowing it will happen sooner rather than later. Maybe a little tipsy, but not so much that they can blame it on the booze.” Used by the author's permission. The characters in these works are not the property of the Audio Fanfic Podcast or the author and are not being posted for profit.

This week we are honoring the birthdays of Grandma Thor and Ivy's Mom with The Adventures of the Wilderness Family. Next week we resume our month of Val Kilmer coverage with Top Gun (1986). In the meantime you can check out Alan Smithee's review of Willow.

Welcome to the next episode of our monthly round table podcast where hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment tech and beyond. In this first episode of the year, the team discusses the latest release of Vision Pro and the impact it might have on both the ‘fans' and people working in post. They also consider how AI and AR technologies might help or hinder our workflow and, there's an update on the AVID acquisition. And as always, there's a bunch of really cool things for us post production people to get excited about.  Enjoy the episode and don't forget to subscribe. Show notes: https://www.theverge.com/24054862/apple-vision-pro-review-vr-ar-headset-features-price https://youtu.be/dtp6b76pMak?si=PLppoUgDtRNsxrPQ  https://youtu.be/v-m8xaf4jL4?si=VE6Y-VdEkmzZlQwm  https://puck.news/apples-quest-to-revolutionize-the-home-theater/  https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/smart-glasses/apple-vision-pro-review https://supersphere.io/ https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mediavalet-announces-definitive-agreement-acquired-120000742.html https://5thingsseries.com/ One Cool Thing: Katie: the Arc browser    https://arc.net/ Michael: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-01-03/faux-library-studio-props-closed-closure Scott: https://www.filmpinsociety.com/ (ha, I have a bunch of those) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

It's a Christmas miracle because THE BOYS ARE BACK! Ben and Damien travel to Japan in the F-150 Studios to review the latest installment of TOHO Pictures' OG Godzilla franchise. Could this be the best one so far? Strap on your big red suits and jump down the chimney, it's time for the ALAN SMITHEE […]

Welcome to the next episode of our monthly round table podcast where hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment tech and beyond. In this final episode of the year, the team compare notes on their various work experiences in 2023, the effects of industry mergers, the pay scale variances in post production and, their anticipation of AI developments in 2024. And, there's a special ‘cool things' segment, showcasing the very coolest of things 2023. Enjoy the episode and don't forget to subscribe. Here are the show notes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fei-Fei_Li https://www.deeplearning.ai/ https://www.futuretools.io/ https://runwayml.com/blog/ https://cloud.google.com/learn/training/machinelearning-ai https://www.gamesindustry.biz/sony-removing-purchased-discovery-tv-shows-from-playstation-store https://www.reuters.com/technology/adobe-figma-terminate-20-bln-deal-2023-12-18/  One Coolest Thing: Katie: coolest of the year, the Japanese paper films and NHK's automatic sign language translation https://kamifirumu.scholar.bucknell.edu/ https://www.nhk-ep.co.jp/signlanguage/en/ Scott: Transcriptions and text-based editing built into the NLE Michael:  Louper.io for 2023 https://www.louper.io/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

Welcome to the next episode of our monthly round table podcast where hosts Scott Simmons & Michael Kammes are joined by guess host Stacy Chaet to talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment tech and beyond. Among the conversations this week the gang discuss Avid's acquisition, the new MacBook Pro M3, the effects of the recent strikes and the many different roles of a Production Technologist. And of course there's a bunch of really cool things for us post production people to get excited about.  Enjoy the episode and don't forget to subscribe. Show notes: Writer's strike: https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/sag-aftra-tentative-deal-historic-strike-1235771894/ Avid's acquisition: https://www.avid.com/press-center/stg-completes-acquisition-of-avid-technology https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/avid-ceo-retire-during-first-142111188.html MacBook Pro M3: https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/ https://www.provideocoalition.com/a-sort-of-review-of-the-m3-max-apple-macbook-pro/ One cool thing: Michael:  https://pinokio.computer/ Scott: https://knightsoftheeditingtable.com/chronicler Stacy: https://tryshift.com/ And also from Stacy:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/camerakit-cameras-formats/id890528993 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

This week “Castle Rock A.M.” continues their Patreon Selection Series with Anthony Natarelli's pick, “The Regulators”. For this episode we're reading through Chapter 8. Join in as we discuss the aftermath of the first assault on Poplar Street, the contrast between Johnny from each novel, Tom's strange collection, Alan Smithee, and Audrey's journals reveal the horrors of the Wyler household. We just got home from work so this can't be happening, it can't be Episode 148, “Speaking of Tips”. Join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/ZNJvTgShkk For more Derry Public Radio, head over to www.patreon.com/derrypublicradio for exclusive episodes, early releases, and more bonus content! For everything else: https://linktr.ee/derrypublicradio

Welcome to the next episode of our monthly round table podcast where hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment tech and beyond. Among the conversations this week, Michael and Katie get to share some of their experiences at IBC and so of course there's even more really cool things for us post production people to get excited about.  Enjoy the episode and don't forget to subscribe. Show Notes https://www.withollywood.org/2023-award-nominees/ https://editshare.com/editshare-to-merge-with-shift-media/ Stuff from Kaite and Michael at IBC: Blackmagic Camera app https://apps.apple.com/us/app/blackmagic-camera/id6449580241 https://twelvelabs.io https://www.infuse.video Avid and Avid AI: https://www.avid.com/press-center/avid-showcases-the-power-of-ai-driven-capabilities-in-media-composer-to-enhance-creative-intelligence/ https://youtu.be/h-VYajOnqrI?si=d9Fr8aWxBn1A27u- https://www.nhk-ep.co.jp/signlanguage/en/ https://flandersscientific.com/XMP550/ https://www.neutralwireless.com https://www.hhi.fraunhofer.de/en/virtual-reality-experience-eva-umlauf-her-testimony.html https://editshare.com/editshare-to-merge-with-shift-media/ One Cool Thing:  Scott - Runtime iOS app.   http://runtimeapp.tv   $4.99 Michael -  https://ffmpeg.lav.io/ Katie - Anything World https://anything.world/ AI-enabled rigging and animation for game / VFX assets. It goes beyond humanoids to allow for pretty much anything --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

The panel is subjected to the truly terrible film Ghost Fever, an effort fittingly directed by Alan Smithee. We marvel at the plotting, attempts at humor, and, of course, the break-dancing mummy. Panelists: Nate, Dusty, Ryan

The episode where we briefly discuss Alan Smithee and David Agnew without being able to remember the names Alan Smithee or David Agnew. How far does the urchin network go? On this podcast, we skipped the tutorial and now we're questioning our choices! This episode was recorded on 9 September 2023. Email us at thedoctorswatcher@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter or whatever at @DoctorWatcher. I guess we also have a Tumblr. Check out Circuit 23's music at http://soundcloud.com/circuit23 and email him at circuit.23@gmail.com. Listen to his album “Mens Vermis” at https://circuit23.bandcamp.com/album/mens-vermis.

We finally complete our mini-series on the 1980s movies released by Miramax Films in 1989, a year that included sex, lies, and videotape, and My Left Foot. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   On this episode, we complete our look back at the 1980s theatrical releases for Miramax Films. And, for the final time, a reminder that we are not celebrating Bob and Harvey Weinstein, but reminiscing about the movies they had no involvement in making. We cannot talk about cinema in the 1980s without talking about Miramax, and I really wanted to get it out of the way, once and for all.   As we left Part 4, Miramax was on its way to winning its first Academy Award, Billie August's Pelle the Conquerer, the Scandinavian film that would be second film in a row from Denmark that would win for Best Foreign Language Film.   In fact, the first two films Miramax would release in 1989, the Australian film Warm Night on a Slow Moving Train and the Anthony Perkins slasher film Edge of Sanity, would not arrive in theatres until the Friday after the Academy Awards ceremony that year, which was being held on the last Wednesday in March.   Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train stars Wendy Hughes, the talented Australian actress who, sadly, is best remembered today as Lt. Commander Nella Daren, one of Captain Jean-Luc Picard's few love interests, on a 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as Jenny, a prostitute working a weekend train to Sydney, who is seduced by a man on the train, unaware that he plans on tricking her to kill someone for him. Colin Friels, another great Aussie actor who unfortunately is best known for playing the corrupt head of Strack Industries in Sam Raimi's Darkman, plays the unnamed man who will do anything to get what he wants.   Director Bob Ellis and his co-screenwriter Denny Lawrence came up with the idea for the film while they themselves were traveling on a weekend train to Sydney, with the idea that each client the call girl met on the train would represent some part of the Australian male.   Funding the $2.5m film was really simple… provided they cast Hughes in the lead role. Ellis and Lawrence weren't against Hughes as an actress. Any film would be lucky to have her in the lead. They just felt she she didn't have the right kind of sex appeal for this specific character.   Miramax would open the film in six theatres, including the Cineplex Beverly Center in Los Angeles and the Fashion Village 8 in Orlando, on March 31st. There were two versions of the movie prepared, one that ran 130 minutes and the other just 91. Miramax would go with the 91 minute version of the film for the American release, and most of the critics would note how clunky and confusing the film felt, although one critic for the Village Voice would have some kind words for Ms. Hughes' performance.   Whether it was because moviegoers were too busy seeing the winners of the just announced Academy Awards, including Best Picture winner Rain Man, or because this weekend was also the opening weekend of the new Major League Baseball season, or just turned off by the reviews, attendance at the theatres playing Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train was as empty as a train dining car at three in the morning. The Beverly Center alone would account for a third of the movie's opening weekend gross of $19,268. After a second weekend at the same six theatres pocketing just $14,382, this train stalled out, never to arrive at another station.   Their other March 31st release, Edge of Sanity, is notable for two things and only two things: it would be the first film Miramax would release under their genre specialty label, Millimeter Films, which would eventually evolve into Dimension Films in the next decade, and it would be the final feature film to star Anthony Perkins before his passing in 1992.   The film is yet another retelling of the classic 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson story The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, with the bonus story twist that Hyde was actually Jack the Ripper. As Jekyll, Perkins looks exactly as you'd expect a mid-fifties Norman Bates to look. As Hyde, Perkins is made to look like he's a backup keyboardist for the first Nine Inch Nails tour. Head Like a Hole would have been an appropriate song for the end credits, had the song or Pretty Hate Machine been released by that time, with its lyrics about bowing down before the one you serve and getting what you deserve.   Edge of Sanity would open in Atlanta and Indianapolis on March 31st. And like so many other Miramax releases in the 1980s, they did not initially announce any grosses for the film. That is, until its fourth weekend of release, when the film's theatre count had fallen to just six, down from the previous week's previously unannounced 35, grossing just $9,832. Miramax would not release grosses for the film again, with a final total of just $102,219.   Now when I started this series, I said that none of the films Miramax released in the 1980s were made by Miramax, but this next film would become the closest they would get during the decade.   In July 1961, John Profumo was the Secretary of State for War in the conservative government of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, when the married Profumo began a sexual relationship with a nineteen-year-old model named Christine Keeler. The affair was very short-lived, either ending, depending on the source, in August 1961 or December 1961. Unbeknownst to Profumo, Keeler was also having an affair with Yevgeny Ivanov, a senior naval attache at the Soviet Embassy at the same time.   No one was the wiser on any of this until December 1962, when a shooting incident involving two other men Keeler had been involved with led the press to start looking into Keeler's life. While it was never proven that his affair with Keeler was responsible for any breaches of national security, John Profumo was forced to resign from his position in June 1963, and the scandal would take down most of the Torie government with him. Prime Minister Macmillan would resign due to “health reasons” in October 1963, and the Labour Party would take control of the British government when the next elections were held in October 1964.   Scandal was originally planned in the mid-1980s as a three-part, five-hour miniseries by Australian screenwriter Michael Thomas and American music producer turned movie producer Joe Boyd. The BBC would commit to finance a two-part, three-hour miniseries,  until someone at the network found an old memo from the time of the Profumo scandal that forbade them from making any productions about it. Channel 4, which had been producing quality shows and movies for several years since their start in 1982, was approached, but rejected the series on the grounds of taste.   Palace Pictures, a British production company who had already produced three films for Neil Jordan including Mona Lisa, was willing to finance the script, provided it could be whittled down to a two hour movie. Originally budgeted at 3.2m British pounds, the costs would rise as they started the casting process.  John Hurt, twice Oscar-nominated for his roles in Midnight Express and The Elephant Man, would sign on to play Stephen Ward, a British osteopath who acted as Christine Keeler's… well… pimp, for lack of a better word. Ian McKellen, a respected actor on British stages and screens but still years away from finding mainstream global success in the X-Men movies, would sign on to play John Profumo. Joanne Whaley, who had filmed the yet to be released at that time Willow with her soon to be husband Val Kilmer, would get her first starring role as Keeler, and Bridget Fonda, who was quickly making a name for herself in the film world after being featured in Aria, would play Mandy Rice-Davies, the best friend and co-worker of Keeler's.   To save money, Palace Pictures would sign thirty-year-old Scottish filmmaker Michael Caton-Jones to direct, after seeing a short film he had made called The Riveter. But even with the neophyte feature filmmaker, Palace still needed about $2.35m to be able to fully finance the film. And they knew exactly who to go to.   Stephen Woolley, the co-founder of Palace Pictures and the main producer on the film, would fly from London to New York City to personally pitch Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Woolley felt that of all the independent distributors in America, they would be the ones most attracted to the sexual and controversial nature of the story. A day later, Woolley was back on a plane to London. The Weinsteins had agreed to purchase the American distribution rights to Scandal for $2.35m.   The film would spend two months shooting in the London area through the summer of 1988. Christine Keeler had no interest in the film, and refused to meet the now Joanne Whaley-Kilmer to talk about the affair, but Mandy Rice-Davies was more than happy to Bridget Fonda about her life, although the meetings between the two women were so secret, they would not come out until Woolley eulogized Rice-Davies after her 2014 death.   Although Harvey and Bob would be given co-executive producers on the film, Miramax was not a production company on the film. This, however, did not stop Harvey from flying to London multiple times, usually when he was made aware of some sexy scene that was going to shoot the following day, and try to insinuate himself into the film's making. At one point, Woolley decided to take a weekend off from the production, and actually did put Harvey in charge. That weekend's shoot would include a skinny-dipping scene featuring the Christine Keeler character, but when Whaley-Kilmer learned Harvey was going to be there, she told the director that she could not do the nudity in the scene. Her new husband was objecting to it, she told them. Harvey, not skipping a beat, found a lookalike for the actress who would be willing to bare all as a body double, and the scene would begin shooting a few hours later. Whaley-Kilmer watched the shoot from just behind the camera, and stopped the shoot a few minutes later. She was not happy that the body double's posterior was notably larger than her own, and didn't want audiences to think she had that much junk in her trunk. The body double was paid for her day, and Whaley-Kilmer finished the rest of the scene herself.   Caton-Jones and his editing team worked on shaping the film through the fall, and would screen his first edit of the film for Palace Pictures and the Weinsteins in November 1988. And while Harvey was very happy with the cut, he still asked the production team for a different edit for American audiences, noting that most Americans had no idea who Profumo or Keeler or Rice-Davies were, and that Americans would need to understand the story more right out of the first frame. Caton-Jones didn't want to cut a single frame, but he would work with Harvey to build an American-friendly cut.   While he was in London in November 1988, he would meet with the producers of another British film that was in pre-production at the time that would become another important film to the growth of the company, but we're not quite at that part of the story yet. We'll circle around to that film soon.   One of the things Harvey was most looking forward to going in to 1989 was the expected battle with the MPAA ratings board over Scandal. Ever since he had seen the brouhaha over Angel Heart's X rating two years earlier, he had been looking for a similar battle. He thought he had it with Aria in 1988, but he knew he definitely had it now.   And he'd be right.   In early March, just a few weeks before the film's planned April 21st opening day, the MPAA slapped an X rating on Scandal. The MPAA usually does not tell filmmakers or distributors what needs to be cut, in order to avoid accusations of actual censorship, but according to Harvey, they told him exactly what needed to be cut to get an R: a two second shot during an orgy scene, where it appears two background characters are having unsimulated sex.   So what did Harvey do?   He spent weeks complaining to the press about MPAA censorship, generating millions in free publicity for the film, all the while already having a close-up shot of Joanne Whaley-Kilmer's Christine Keeler watching the orgy but not participating in it, ready to replace the objectionable shot.   A few weeks later, Miramax screened the “edited” film to the MPAA and secured the R rating, and the film would open on 94 screens, including 28 each in the New York City and Los Angeles metro regions, on April 28th.   And while the reviews for the film were mostly great, audiences were drawn to the film for the Miramax-manufactured controversy as well as the key art for the film, a picture of a potentially naked Joanne Whaley-Kilmer sitting backwards in a chair, a mimic of a very famous photo Christine Keeler herself took to promote a movie about the Profumo affair she appeared in a few years after the events. I'll have a picture of both the Scandal poster and the Christine Keeler photo on this episode's page at The80sMoviePodcast.com   Five other movies would open that weekend, including the James Belushi comedy K-9 and the Kevin Bacon drama Criminal Law, and Scandal, with $658k worth of ticket sales, would have the second best per screen average of the five new openers, just a few hundred dollars below the new Holly Hunter movie Miss Firecracker, which only opened on six screens.   In its second weekend, Scandal would expand its run to 214 playdates, and make its debut in the national top ten, coming in tenth place with $981k. That would be more than the second week of the Patrick Dempsey rom-com Loverboy, even though Loverboy was playing on 5x as many screens.   In weekend number three, Scandal would have its best overall gross and top ten placement, coming in seventh with $1.22m from 346 screens. Scandal would start to slowly fade after that, falling back out of the top ten in its sixth week, but Miramax would wisely keep the screen count under 375, because Scandal wasn't going to play well in all areas of the country. After nearly five months in theatres, Miramax would have its biggest film to date. Scandal would gross $8.8m.   The second release from Millimeter Films was The Return of the Swamp Thing. And if you needed a reason why the 1980s was not a good time for comic book movies, here you are. The Return of the Swamp Thing took most of what made the character interesting in his comic series, and most of what was good from the 1982 Wes Craven adaptation, and decided “Hey, you know what would bring the kids in? Camp! Camp unseen in a comic book adaptation since the 1960s Batman series. They loved it then, they'll love it now!”   They did not love it now.   Heather Locklear, between her stints on T.J. Hooker and Melrose Place, plays the step-daughter of Louis Jourdan's evil Dr. Arcane from the first film, who heads down to the Florida swaps to confront dear old once presumed dead stepdad. He in turns kidnaps his stepdaughter and decides to do some of his genetic experiments on her, until she is rescued by Swamp Thing, one of Dr. Arcane's former co-workers who got turned into the gooey anti-hero in the first movie.   The film co-stars Sarah Douglas from Superman 1 and 2 as Dr. Arcane's assistant, Dick Durock reprising his role as Swamp Thing from the first film, and 1980s B-movie goddess Monique Gabrielle as Miss Poinsettia.   For director Jim Wynorski, this was his sixth movie as a director, and at $3m, one of the highest budgeted movies he would ever make. He's directed 107 movies since 1984, most of them low budget direct to video movies with titles like The Bare Wench Project and Alabama Jones and the Busty Crusade, although he does have one genuine horror classic under his belt, the 1986 sci-fi tinged Chopping Maul with Kelli Maroney and Barbara Crampton.   Wynorski suggested in a late 1990s DVD commentary for the film that he didn't particularly enjoy making the film, and had a difficult time directing Louis Jourdan, to the point that outside of calling “action” and “cut,” the two didn't speak to each other by the end of the shoot.   The Return of Swamp Thing would open in 123 theatres in the United States on May 12th, including 28 in the New York City metro region, 26 in the Los Angeles area, 15 in Detroit, and a handful of theatres in Phoenix, San Francisco. And, strangely, the newspaper ads would include an actual positive quote from none other than Roger Ebert, who said on Siskel & Ebert that he enjoyed himself, and that it was good to have Swamp Thing back. Siskel would not reciprocate his balcony partner's thumb up. But Siskel was about the only person who was positive on the return of Swamp Thing, and that box office would suffer. In its first three days, the film would gross just $119,200. After a couple more dismal weeks in theatres, The Return of Swamp Thing would be pulled from distribution, with a final gross of just $275k.   Fun fact: The Return of Swamp Thing was produced by Michael E. Uslan, whose next production, another adaptation of a DC Comics character, would arrive in theatres not six weeks later and become the biggest film of the summer. In fact, Uslan has been a producer or executive producer on every Batman-related movie and television show since 1989, from Tim Burton to Christopher Nolan to Zack Snyder to Matt Reeves, and from LEGO movies to Joker. He also, because of his ownership of the movie rights to Swamp Thing, got the movie screen rights, but not the television screen rights, to John Constantine.   Miramax didn't have too much time to worry about The Return of Swamp Thing's release, as it was happening while the Brothers Weinstein were at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. They had two primary goals at Cannes that year:   To buy American distribution rights to any movie that would increase their standing in the cinematic worldview, which they would achieve by picking up an Italian dramedy called, at the time, New Paradise Cinema, which was competing for the Palme D'Or with a Miramax pickup from Sundance back in January. Promote that very film, which did end up winning the Palme D'Or.   Ever since he was a kid, Steven Soderbergh wanted to be a filmmaker. Growing up in Baton Rouge, LA in the late 1970s, he would enroll in the LSU film animation class, even though he was only 15 and not yet a high school graduate. After graduating high school, he decided to move to Hollywood to break into the film industry, renting an above-garage room from Stephen Gyllenhaal, the filmmaker best known as the father of Jake and Maggie, but after a few freelance editing jobs, Soderbergh packed up his things and headed home to Baton Rouge.   Someone at Atco Records saw one of Soderbergh's short films, and hired him to direct a concert movie for one of their biggest bands at the time, Yes, who was enjoying a major comeback thanks to their 1983 triple platinum selling album, 90125. The concert film, called 9012Live, would premiere on MTV in late 1985, and it would be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video.   Soderbergh would use the money he earned from that project, $7,500, to make Winston, a 12 minute black and white short about sexual deception that he would, over the course of an eight day driving trip from Baton Rouge to Los Angeles, expand to a full length screen that he would call sex, lies and videotape. In later years, Soderbergh would admit that part of the story is autobiographical, but not the part you might think. Instead of the lead, Graham, an impotent but still sexually perverse late twentysomething who likes to tape women talking about their sexual fantasies for his own pleasure later, Soderbergh based the husband John, the unsophisticated lawyer who cheats on his wife with her sister, on himself, although there would be a bit of Graham that borrows from the filmmaker. Like his lead character, Soderbergh did sell off most of his possessions and hit the road to live a different life.   When he finished the script, he sent it out into the wilds of Hollywood. Morgan Mason, the son of actor James Mason and husband of Go-Go's lead singer Belinda Carlisle, would read it and sign on as an executive producer. Soderbergh had wanted to shoot the film in black and white, like he had with the Winston short that lead to the creation of this screenplay, but he and Mason had trouble getting anyone to commit to the project, even with only a projected budget of $200,000. For a hot moment, it looked like Universal might sign on to make the film, but they would eventually pass.   Robert Newmyer, who had left his job as a vice president of production and acquisitions at Columbia Pictures to start his own production company, signed on as a producer, and helped to convince Soderbergh to shoot the film in color, and cast some name actors in the leading roles. Once he acquiesced, Richard Branson's Virgin Vision agreed to put up $540k of the newly budgeted $1.2m film, while RCA/Columbia Home Video would put up the remaining $660k.   Soderbergh and his casting director, Deborah Aquila, would begin their casting search in New York, where they would meet with, amongst others, Andie MacDowell, who had already starred in two major Hollywood pictures, 1984's Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, and 1985's St. Elmo's Fire, but was still considered more of a top model than an actress, and Laura San Giacomo, who had recently graduated from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh and would be making her feature debut. Moving on to Los Angeles, Soderbergh and Aquila would cast James Spader, who had made a name for himself as a mostly bad guy in 80s teen movies like Pretty in Pink and Less Than Zero, but had never been the lead in a drama like this. At Spader's suggestion, the pair met with Peter Gallagher, who was supposed to become a star nearly a decade earlier from his starring role in Taylor Hackford's The Idolmaker, but had mostly been playing supporting roles in television shows and movies for most of the decade.   In order to keep the budget down, Soderbergh, the producers, cinematographer Walt Lloyd and the four main cast members agreed to get paid their guild minimums in exchange for a 50/50 profit participation split with RCA/Columbia once the film recouped its costs.   The production would spend a week in rehearsals in Baton Rouge, before the thirty day shoot began on August 1st, 1988. On most days, the shoot was unbearable for many, as temperatures would reach as high as 110 degrees outside, but there were a couple days lost to what cinematographer Lloyd said was “biblical rains.” But the shoot completed as scheduled, and Soderbergh got to the task of editing right away. He knew he only had about eight weeks to get a cut ready if the film was going to be submitted to the 1989 U.S. Film Festival, now better known as Sundance. He did get a temporary cut of the film ready for submission, with a not quite final sound mix, and the film was accepted to the festival. It would make its world premiere on January 25th, 1989, in Park City UT, and as soon as the first screening was completed, the bids from distributors came rolling in. Larry Estes, the head of RCA/Columbia Home Video, would field more than a dozen submissions before the end of the night, but only one distributor was ready to make a deal right then and there.   Bob Weinstein wasn't totally sold on the film, but he loved the ending, and he loved that the word “sex” not only was in the title but lead the title. He knew that title alone would sell the movie. Harvey, who was still in New York the next morning, called Estes to make an appointment to meet in 24 hours. When he and Estes met, he brought with him three poster mockups the marketing department had prepared, and told Estes he wasn't going to go back to New York until he had a contract signed, and vowed to beat any other deal offered by $100,000. Island Pictures, who had made their name releasing movies like Stop Making Sense, Kiss of the Spider-Woman, The Trip to Bountiful and She's Gotta Have It, offered $1m for the distribution rights, plus a 30% distribution fee and a guaranteed $1m prints and advertising budget. Estes called Harvey up and told him what it would take to make the deal. $1.1m for the distribution rights, which needed to paid up front, a $1m P&A budget, to be put in escrow upon the signing of the contract until the film was released, a 30% distribution fee, no cutting of the film whatsoever once Soderbergh turns in his final cut, they would need to provide financial information for the films costs and returns once a month because of the profit participation contracts, and the Weinsteins would have to hire Ira Deutchman, who had spent nearly 15 years in the independent film world, doing marketing for Cinema 5, co-founding United Artists Classics, and co-founding Cinecom Pictures before opening his own company to act as a producers rep and marketer. And the Weinsteins would not only have to do exactly what Deutchman wanted, they'd have to pay for his services too.   The contract was signed a few weeks later.   The first move Miramax would make was to get Soderbergh's final cut of the film entered into the Cannes Film Festival, where it would be accepted to compete in the main competition. Which you kind of already know what happened, because that's what I lead with. The film would win the Palme D'Or, and Spader would be awarded the festival's award for Best Actor. It was very rare at the time, and really still is, for any film to be awarded more than one prize, so winning two was really a coup for the film and for Miramax, especially when many critics attending the festival felt Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing was the better film.   In March, Miramax expected the film to make around $5-10m, which would net the company a small profit on the film. After Cannes, they were hopeful for a $15m gross.   They never expected what would happen next.   On August 4th, sex, lies, and videotape would open on four screens, at the Cinema Studio in New York City, and at the AMC Century 14, the Cineplex Beverly Center 13 and the Mann Westwood 4 in Los Angeles. Three prime theatres and the best they could do in one of the then most competitive zones in all America. Remember, it's still the Summer 1989 movie season, filled with hits like Batman, Dead Poets Society, Ghostbusters 2, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Lethal Weapon 2, Parenthood, Turner & Hooch, and When Harry Met Sally. An independent distributor even getting one screen at the least attractive theatre in Westwood was a major get. And despite the fact that this movie wasn't really a summertime movie per se, the film would gross an incredible $156k in its first weekend from just these four theatres. Its nearly $40k per screen average would be 5x higher than the next closest film, Parenthood.   In its second weekend, the film would expand to 28 theatres, and would bring in over $600k in ticket sales, its per screen average of $21,527 nearly triple its closest competitor, Parenthood again. The company would keep spending small, as it slowly expanded the film each successive week. Forty theatres in its third week, and 101 in its fourth. The numbers held strong, and in its fifth week, Labor Day weekend, the film would have its first big expansion, playing in 347 theatres. The film would enter the top ten for the first time, despite playing in 500 to 1500 fewer theatres than the other films in the top ten. In its ninth weekend, the film would expand to its biggest screen count, 534, before slowly drawing down as the other major Oscar contenders started their theatrical runs. The film would continue to play through the Oscar season of 1989, and when it finally left theatres in May 1989, its final gross would be an astounding $24.7m.   Now, remember a few moments ago when I said that Miramax needed to provide financial statements every month for the profit participation contracts of Soderbergh, the producers, the cinematographer and the four lead actors? The film was so profitable for everyone so quickly that RCA/Columbia made its first profit participation payouts on October 17th, barely ten weeks after the film's opening.   That same week, Soderbergh also made what was at the time the largest deal with a book publisher for the writer/director's annotated version of the screenplay, which would also include his notes created during the creation of the film. That $75,000 deal would be more than he got paid to make the movie as the writer and the director and the editor, not counting the profit participation checks.   During the awards season, sex, lies, and videotape was considered to be one of the Oscars front runners for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and at least two acting nominations. The film would be nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress by the Golden Globes, and it would win the Spirit Awards for Best Picture, Soderbergh for Best Director, McDowell for Best Actress, and San Giacomo for Best Supporting Actress. But when the Academy Award nominations were announced, the film would only receive one nomination, for Best Original Screenplay. The same total and category as Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, which many people also felt had a chance for a Best Picture and Best Director nomination. Both films would lose out to Tom Shulman's screenplay for Dead Poet's Society.   The success of sex, lies, and videotape would launch Steven Soderbergh into one of the quirkiest Hollywood careers ever seen, including becoming the first and only director ever to be nominated twice for Best Director in the same year by the Motion Picture Academy, the Golden Globes and the Directors Guild of America, in 2001 for directing Erin Brockovich and Traffic. He would win the Oscar for directing Traffic.   Lost in the excitement of sex, lies, and videotape was The Little Thief, a French movie that had an unfortunate start as the screenplay François Truffaut was working on when he passed away in 1984 at the age of just 52.   Directed by Claude Miller, whose principal mentor was Truffaut, The Little Thief starred seventeen year old Charlotte Gainsbourg as Janine, a young woman in post-World War II France who commits a series of larcenies to support her dreams of becoming wealthy.   The film was a modest success in France when it opened in December 1988, but its American release date of August 25th, 1989, was set months in advance. So when it was obvious sex, lies, and videotape was going to be a bigger hit than they originally anticipated, it was too late for Miramax to pause the release of The Little Thief.   Opening at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in New York City, and buoyed by favorable reviews from every major critic in town, The Little Thief would see $39,931 worth of ticket sales in its first seven days, setting a new house record at the theatre for the year. In its second week, the gross would only drop $47. For the entire week. And when it opened at the Royal Theatre in West Los Angeles, its opening week gross of $30,654 would also set a new house record for the year.   The film would expand slowly but surely over the next several weeks, often in single screen playdates in major markets, but it would never play on more than twenty-four screens in any given week. And after four months in theatres, The Little Thief, the last movie created one of the greatest film writers the world had ever seen, would only gross $1.056m in the United States.   The next three releases from Miramax were all sent out under the Millimeter Films banner.   The first, a supernatural erotic drama called The Girl in a Swing, was about an English antiques dealer who travels to Copenhagen where he meets and falls in love with a mysterious German-born secretary, whom he marries, only to discover a darker side to his new bride. Rupert Frazer, who played Christian Bale's dad in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, plays the antique dealer, while Meg Tilly the mysterious new bride.   Filmed over a five week schedule in London and Copenhagen during May and June 1988, some online sources say the film first opened somewhere in California in December 1988, but I cannot find a single theatre not only in California but anywhere in the United States that played the film before its September 29th, 1989 opening date.   Roger Ebert didn't like the film, and wished Meg Tilly's “genuinely original performance” was in a better movie. Opening in 26 theatres, including six theatres each in New York City and Los Angeles, and spurred on by an intriguing key art for the film that featured a presumed naked Tilly on a swing looking seductively at the camera while a notice underneath her warns that No One Under 18 Will Be Admitted To The Theatre, The Girl in a Swing would gross $102k, good enough for 35th place nationally that week. And that's about the best it would do. The film would limp along, moving from market to market over the course of the next three months, and when its theatrical run was complete, it could only manage about $747k in ticket sales.   We'll quickly burn through the next two Millimeter Films releases, which came out a week apart from each other and didn't amount to much.   Animal Behavior was a rather unfunny comedy featuring some very good actors who probably signed on for a very different movie than the one that came to be. Karen Allen, Miss Marion Ravenwood herself, stars as Alex, a biologist who, like Dr. Jane Goodall, develops a “new” way to communicate with chimpanzees via sign language. Armand Assante plays a cellist who pursues the good doctor, and Holly Hunter plays the cellist's neighbor, who Alex mistakes for his wife.   Animal Behavior was filmed in 1984, and 1985, and 1987, and 1988. The initial production was directed by Jenny Bowen with the assistance of Robert Redford and The Sundance Institute, thanks to her debut film, 1981's Street Music featuring Elizabeth Daily. It's unknown why Bowen and her cinematographer husband Richard Bowen left the project, but when filming resumed again and again and again, those scenes were directed by the film's producer, Kjehl Rasmussen.   Because Bowen was not a member of the DGA at the time, she was not able to petition the guild for the use of the Alan Smithee pseudonym, a process that is automatically triggered whenever a director is let go of a project and filming continues with its producer taking the reigns as director. But she was able to get the production to use a pseudonym anyway for the director's credit, H. Anne Riley, while also giving Richard Bowen a pseudonym of his own for his work on the film, David Spellvin.   Opening on 24 screens on October 27th, Animal Behavior would come in 50th place in its opening weekend, grossing just $20,361. The New York film critics ripped the film apart, and there wouldn't be a second weekend for the film.   The following Friday, November 3rd, saw the release of The Stepfather II, a rushed together sequel to 1987's The Stepfather, which itself wasn't a big hit in theatres but found a very quick and receptive audience on cable.   Despite dying at the end of the first film, Terry O'Quinn's Jerry is somehow still alive, and institutionalized in Northern Washington state. He escapes and heads down to Los Angeles, where he assumes the identity of a recently deceased publisher, Gene Clifford, but instead passes himself off as a psychiatrist. Jerry, now Gene, begins to court his neighbor Carol, and the whole crazy story plays out again. Meg Foster plays the neighbor Carol, and Jonathan Brandis is her son.    Director Jeff Burr had made a name for himself with his 1987 horror anthology film From a Whisper to a Scream, featuring Vincent Price, Clu Gulager and Terry Kiser, and from all accounts, had a very smooth shooting process with this film. The trouble began when he turned in his cut to the producers. The producers were happy with the film, but when they sent it to Miramax, the American distributors, they were rather unhappy with the almost bloodless slasher film. They demanded reshoots, which Burr and O'Quinn refused to participate in. They brought in a new director, Doug Campbell, to handle the reshoots, which are easy to spot in the final film because they look and feel completely different from the scenes they're spliced into.   When it opened, The Stepfather II actually grossed slightly more than the first film did, earning $279k from 100 screens, compared to $260k for The Stepfather from 105 screens. But unlike the first film, which had some decent reviews when it opened, the sequel was a complete mess. To this day, it's still one of the few films to have a 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and The Stepfather II would limp its way through theatres during the Christmas holiday season, ending its run with a $1.5m gross.   But it would be their final film of the decade that would dictate their course for at least the first part of the 1990s.   Remember when I said earlier in the episode that Harvey Weinstein meant with the producers of another British film while in London for Scandal? We're at that film now, a film you probably know.   My Left Foot.   By November 1988, actor Daniel Day-Lewis had starred in several movies including James Ivory's A Room With a View and Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. He had even been the lead in a major Hollywood studio film, Pat O'Connor's Stars and Bars, a very good film that unfortunately got caught up in the brouhaha over the exit of the studio head who greenlit the film, David Puttnam.   The film's director, Jim Sheridan, had never directed a movie before. He had become involved in stage production during his time at the University College in Dublin in the late 1960s, where he worked with future filmmaker Neil Jordan, and had spent nearly a decade after graduation doing stage work in Ireland and Canada, before settling in New York City in the early 1980s. Sheridan would go to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where one of his classmates was Spike Lee, and return to Ireland after graduating. He was nearly forty, married with two pre-teen daughters, and he needed to make a statement with his first film.   He would find that story in the autobiography of Irish writer and painter Christy Brown, whose spirit and creativity could not be contained by his severe cerebral palsy. Along with Irish actor and writer Shane Connaughton, Sheridan wrote a screenplay that could be a powerhouse film made on a very tight budget of less than a million dollars.   Daniel Day-Lewis was sent a copy of the script, in the hopes he would be intrigued enough to take almost no money to play a physically demanding role. He read the opening pages, which had the adult Christy Brown putting a record on a record player and dropping the needle on to the record with his left foot, and thought to himself it would be impossible to film. That intrigued him, and he signed on. But during filming in January and February of 1989, most of the scenes were shot using mirrors, as Day-Lewis couldn't do the scenes with his left foot. He could do them with his right foot, hence the mirrors.   As a method actor, Day-Lewis remained in character as Christy Brown for the entire two month shoot. From costume fittings and makeup in the morning, to getting the actor on set, to moving him around between shots, there were crew members assigned to assist the actor as if they were Christy Brown's caretakers themselves, including feeding him during breaks in shooting. A rumor debunked by the actor years later said Day-Lewis had broken two ribs during production because of how hunched down he needed to be in his crude prop wheelchair to properly play the character.   The actor had done a lot of prep work to play the role, including spending time at the Sandymount School Clinic where the young Christy Brown got his education, and much of his performance was molded on those young people.   While Miramax had acquired the American distribution rights to the film before it went into production, and those funds went into the production of the film, the film was not produced by Miramax, nor were the Weinsteins given any kind of executive producer credit, as they were able to get themselves on Scandal.   My Left Foot would make its world premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival on September 4th, 1989, followed soon thereafter by screening at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13th and the New York Film Festival on September 23rd. Across the board, critics and audiences were in love with the movie, and with Daniel Day-Lewis's performance. Jim Sheridan would receive a special prize at the Montreal World Film Festival for his direction, and Day-Lewis would win the festival's award for Best Actor. However, as the film played the festival circuit, another name would start to pop up. Brenda Fricker, a little known Irish actress who played Christy Brown's supportive but long-suffering mother Bridget, would pile up as many positive notices and awards as Day-Lewis. Although there was no Best Supporting Actress Award at the Montreal Film Festival, the judges felt her performance was deserving of some kind of attention, so they would create a Special Mention of the Jury Award to honor her.   Now, some sources online will tell you the film made its world premiere in Dublin on February 24th, 1989, based on a passage in a biography about Daniel Day-Lewis, but that would be impossible as the film would still be in production for two more days, and wasn't fully edited or scored by then.   I'm not sure when it first opened in the United Kingdom other than sometime in early 1990, but My Left Foot would have its commercial theatre debut in America on November 10th, when opened at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in New York City and the Century City 14 in Los Angeles. Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times would, in the very opening paragraph of her review, note that one shouldn't see My Left Foot for some kind of moral uplift or spiritual merit badge, but because of your pure love of great moviemaking. Vincent Canby's review in the New York Times spends most of his words praising Day-Lewis and Sheridan for making a film that is polite and non-judgmental.    Interestingly, Miramax went with an ad campaign that completely excluded any explanation of who Christy Brown was or why the film is titled the way it is. 70% of the ad space is taken from pull quotes from many of the top critics of the day, 20% with the title of the film, and 10% with a picture of Daniel Day-Lewis, clean shaven and full tooth smile, which I don't recall happening once in the movie, next to an obviously added-in picture of one of his co-stars that is more camera-friendly than Brenda Fricker or Fiona Shaw.   Whatever reasons people went to see the film, they flocked to the two theatres playing the film that weekend. It's $20,582 per screen average would be second only to Kenneth Branagh's Henry V, which had opened two days earlier, earning slightly more than $1,000 per screen than My Left Foot.   In week two, My Left Foot would gross another $35,133 from those two theatres, and it would overtake Henry V for the highest per screen average. In week three, Thanksgiving weekend, both Henry V and My Left Foot saw a a double digit increase in grosses despite not adding any theatres, and the latter film would hold on to the highest per screen average again, although the difference would only be $302. And this would continue for weeks. In the film's sixth week of release, it would get a boost in attention by being awarded Best Film of the Year by the New York Film Critics Circle. Daniel Day-Lewis would be named Best Actor that week by both the New York critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, while Fricker would win the Best Supporting Actress award from the latter group.   But even then, Miramax refused to budge on expanding the film until its seventh week of release, Christmas weekend, when My Left Foot finally moved into cities like Chicago and San Francisco. Its $135k gross that weekend was good, but it was starting to lose ground to other Oscar hopefuls like Born on the Fourth of July, Driving Miss Daisy, Enemies: A Love Story, and Glory.   And even though the film continued to rack up award win after award win, nomination after nomination, from the Golden Globes and the Writers Guild and the National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review, Miramax still held firm on not expanding the film into more than 100 theatres nationwide until its 16th week in theatres, February 16th, 1990, two days after the announcement of the nominees for the 62nd Annual Academy Awards. While Daniel Day-Lewis's nomination for Best Actor was virtually assured and Brenda Fricker was practically a given, the film would pick up three other nominations, including surprise nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. Jim Sheridan and co-writer Shane Connaughton would also get picked for Best Adapted Screenplay.   Miramax also picked up a nomination for Best Original Screenplay for sex, lies, and videotape, and a Best Foreign Language Film nod for the Italian movie Cinema Paradiso, which, thanks to the specific rules for that category, a film could get a nomination before actually opening in theatres in America, which Miramax would rush to do with Paradiso the week after its nomination was announced.   The 62nd Academy Awards ceremony would be best remembered today as being the first Oscar show to be hosted by Billy Crystal, and for being considerably better than the previous year's ceremony, a mess of a show best remembered as being the one with a 12 minute opening musical segment that included Rob Lowe singing Proud Mary to an actress playing Snow White and another nine minute musical segment featuring a slew of expected future Oscar winners that, to date, feature exact zero Oscar nominees, both which rank as amongst the worst things to ever happen to the Oscars awards show.   The ceremony, held on March 26th, would see My Left Foot win two awards, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, as well as Cinema Paradiso for Best Foreign Film. The following weekend, March 30th, would see Miramax expand My Left Foot to 510 theatres, its widest point of release, and see the film made the national top ten and earn more than a million dollars for its one and only time during its eight month run.   The film would lose steam pretty quickly after its post-win bump, but it would eek out a modest run that ended with $14.75m in ticket sales just in the United States. Not bad for a little Irish movie with no major stars that cost less than a million dollars to make.   Of course, the early 90s would see Miramax fly to unimagined heights. In all of the 80s, Miramax would release 39 movies. They would release 30 films alone in 1991. They would release the first movies from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith. They'd release some of the best films from some of the best filmmakers in the world, including Woody Allen, Pedro Almadovar, Robert Altman, Bernardo Bertolucci, Atom Egoyan, Steven Frears, Peter Greenaway, Peter Jackson, Neil Jordan, Chen Kaige, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Lars von Trier, and Zhang Yimou. In 1993, the Mexican dramedy Like Water for Chocolate would become the highest grossing foreign language film ever released in America, and it would play in some theatres, including my theatre, the NuWilshire in Santa Monica, continuously for more than a year.   If you've listened to the whole series on the 1980s movies of Miramax Films, there are two things I hope you take away. First, I hope you discovered at least one film you hadn't heard of before and you might be interested in searching out. The second is the reminder that neither Bob nor Harvey Weinstein will profit in any way if you give any of the movies talked about in this series a chance. They sold Miramax to Disney in June 1993. They left Miramax in September 2005. Many of the contracts for the movies the company released in the 80s and 90s expired decades ago, with the rights reverting back to their original producers, none of whom made any deals with the Weinsteins once they got their rights back.   Harvey Weinstein is currently serving a 23 year prison sentence in upstate New York after being found guilty in 2020 of two sexual assaults. Once he completes that sentence, he'll be spending another 16 years in prison in California, after he was convicted of three sexual assaults that happened in Los Angeles between 2004 and 2013. And if the 71 year old makes it to 107 years old, he may have to serve time in England for two sexual assaults that happened in August 1996. That case is still working its way through the British legal system.   Bob Weinstein has kept a low profile since his brother's proclivities first became public knowledge in October 2017, although he would also be accused of sexual harassment by a show runner for the brothers' Spike TV-aired adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Mist, several days after the bombshell articles came out about his brother. However, Bob's lawyer, the powerful attorney to the stars Bert Fields, deny the allegations, and it appears nothing has occurred legally since the accusations were made.   A few weeks after the start of the MeToo movement that sparked up in the aftermath of the accusations of his brother's actions, Bob Weinstein denied having any knowledge of the nearly thirty years of documented sexual abuse at the hands of his brother, but did allow to an interviewer for The Hollywood Reporter that he had barely spoken to Harvey over the previous five years, saying he could no longer take Harvey's cheating, lying and general attitude towards everyone.   And with that, we conclude our journey with Miramax Films. While I am sure Bob and Harvey will likely pop up again in future episodes, they'll be minor characters at best, and we'll never have to focus on anything they did ever again.   Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again soon, when Episode 119 is released.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

Welcome to the next episode of our monthly round table podcast where hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment tech and beyond. Among the conversations this week the gang meet up with Michael Cioni to hear how Strada, a new AI-Cloud marketplace could democratize the post-production software industry. And of course there's the latest news and, a bunch of really cool things for us post production people to get excited about.  Enjoy the episode and don't forget to subscribe. Strada: https://strada.tech Starting a Startup video series Strada is doing: https://www.youtube.com/@Strada-Tech Movie Labs Vision Paper - https://movielabs.com/production-specs/2030-vision-papers/ Hugging face - https://huggingface.co GoPro HERO 12: https://gopro.com/en/us/shop/cameras https://www.provideocoalition.com/gopro-launches-hero12-black-with-5-3k-and-4k-hdr-video-longer-run-time-wireless-audio-support-gp-log-and-more/ Avid update https://www.provideocoalition.com/avid-releases-media-composer-2023-8-with-ai-enhanced-features/ https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/lucasfilm-shut-operations-singapore-studio-animation-visual-effects-disney-3700061 One Cool Thing:  Scott  Game Changer for Adobe Premiere Pro - https://exchange.adobe.com/apps/cc/107805/game-changer https://www.provideocoalition.com/game-changer-for-adobe-premiere-pro-may-or-may-not-be-a-game-changer-for-your-workflow/ Michael https://github.com/octimot/StoryToolkitAI Katie  Japanese “paper films” are being digitized  Follow our Twitter account (@kamifirumu) to see highlights of preserved films as we process them. https://kamifirumu.scholar.bucknell.edu/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

Welcome to the next episode of our monthly round table podcast where hosts Scott Simmons, Katie Hinsen & Michael Kammes talk about the latest news in production, post production, entertainment tech and beyond. Among the conversations this week the gang discuss the current state of the strike and, the wider effects it is having on the industry, the future of Avid, the release of Pro Vision Headset and, a whole bunch of really cool things that will get all us post production people excited.  Enjoy the episode and don't forget to subscribe. HPA - An Open Letter of Concern For the Survival of the Media Creation Supply Chain https://hpaonline.com Marvel VFX Artists Vote to Unionize  https://variety.com/2023/artisans/news/marvel-vfx-artists-unionize-1235690272/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lcB9u-9mVE Avid Technology to Be Acquired by an Affiliate of STG for $1.4 Billion https://www.provideocoalition.com/avid-technology-to-be-acquired-by-an-affiliate-of-stg-for-1-4-billion/  https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/stg-francisco-partners-vie-avid-technology-sources-2023-08-03/ https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/ One Cool Thing: Katie: Mocopi  https://electronics.sony.com/more/mocopi/all-mocopi/p/qmss1-uscx Michael: Revisiting an awesome book, with roots in M&E: “The innovator's dilemma”Book by Clayton Christensen https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/2615 Scott: Michael's latest 5 Things! A.I. In Post Production - Your Questions Answered! Tools, Adapting, Ethics, Evolution, and Impact https://5thingsseries.com/episode/ai-in-post-production-your-questions-answered/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artofthecut/support

Alan Smithee's Letterboxd reviews can be found here. Our ridiculous attempt of Face/Off and many more radio plays can be found here.

Smithee est le pire réalisateur de l'histoire du cinéma. Pourtant, il a réalisé plus d'une centaine de films et certains avec des stars comme Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins ou Sylvester Stallone. Comment a-t-il pu en tourner autant s'il est si mauvais ? Découvrez la page Facebook Officielle des "Grosses Têtes" : https://www.facebook.com/lesgrossestetesrtl/ Retrouvez vos "Grosses Têtes" sur Instagram : https://bit.ly/2hSBiAo Découvrez le compte Twitter Officiel des "Grosses Têtes" : https://bit.ly/2PXSkkz Toutes les vidéos des "Grosses Têtes" sont sur YouTube : https://bit.ly/2DdUyGg

On this episode, the 2022 Halloween Spooktacular kicks into high gear as the gang chats about the ridiculous sequel, Hellraiser: Bloodline! Why bother with this terrible future-set framing device? Couldn't we get a little more Adam Scott for our buck? And where in the HELL is Butterball!?! PLUS: Be sure you select the Demon-o's Delivery Insurance when ordering all your demons and souls online! Hellraiser: Bloodline stars Bruce Ramsay, Valentina Vargas, Charlotte Chatton, Adam Scott, Kim Myers, Mickey Cottrell, Courtland Mead, Louis Mustillo, and Doug Bradley as Pinhead; directed by Kevin Yagher (as Alan Smithee). Catch the guys on the road this fall in the U.S.A. AND their Canadian debut in Toronto! Tickets on sale now! Check out the WHM Merch Store -- featuring new MINGO!, WHAT IF Donna?, Mortal Kombat & Bean Dinner designs! Advertise on We Hate Movies via Gumball.fmUnlock Exclusive Content!: http://www.patreon.com/wehatemoviesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.