Latest / Indie Film Podcast / Freedom, Fireworks, and Filmmaker Fatigue (See You After the Break!)

Transcript

Freedom, Fireworks, and Filmmaker Fatigue (See You After the Break!) · Indie Film Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Indie Film Podcast. I'm Vic.
• 0:03
  And I am Chuck. This week we're recording a
• 0:05
  brief message to inform our listeners that for the month of
• 0:08
  July, we will be taking a brief summer break.
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  And by break, we mean every indie film project records in
• 0:15
  the summer. So we're going to be doing that.
• 0:18
  Yes, we'll be busy, but we will be returning on July 31st with a
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  series about how as micro budget film makers, we often wear too
• 0:25
  many hats. In the meantime, to celebrate
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  the upcoming holiday, America's Independence Day, also known as
• 0:33
  her birthday, we're going to share some fun facts about
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  patriotic films. I'm going to go first, so Will
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  Smith. He was the star of the 1996
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  blockbuster Independence Day. He was nominated for three Best
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  Acting Academy Awards and finally won an Oscar in the year
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  2022. During that same award ceremony,
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  host Chris Rock was assaulted by an audience member.
• 1:03
  You know, I actually watched that.
• 1:05
  That was the first and last time I ever watched the Oscars.
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  Oh, right on. I I did not see that one live.
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  And I don't usually watch the Oscars because I think they're
• 1:13
  kind of pretentious. Another thing I want to mention
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  to our listeners is there's construction going on outside my
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  house. So if you hear some weird
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  sounds, that's that's what that is.
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  It's summertime and yard work is happening.
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  We have no other answers for you.
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  We could have thrown in an establishing shot.
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  Yeah, that would have helped. To show you all the yard work
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  that's happening now. Yeah, trees getting chopped down
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  very nearby. So if you hear that, sorry about
• 1:35
  that, but I'll try to fix it in post because that's what we do
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  sometimes. Anyway, I think we were bashing
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  Will talking about Will Smith. Yes, continue along the Will
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  Smith. So subject before Will Smith
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  lost some of his 4th of July darling status, as some people
• 1:52
  would call it, that title actually went to Tom Cruise.
• 1:56
  Oh yeah, not just because of his role in Top Gun.
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  Yes, very, very patriotic film fair and a 4th of July staple at
• 2:04
  most people's houses. Yes, he was actually nominated
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  for an Oscar for the very first time for his role in Born on the
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  4th of July in 1989. Wow.
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  That was a while ago. Yeah, but that was his first
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  Oscar nomination, and he's never actually won an Oscar.
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  I think proves that a whole lot of money can buy you a lot in
• 2:25
  the Church of Scientology, but not so much for the Academy.
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  Oh. There, you can't pay them off, I
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  guess. So I bet you can, just maybe not
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  with money. Right on.
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  Well, let's talk about Marvel icon Captain America.
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  He has had four feature films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
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  also abbreviated MCU. Unfortunately, none of the four
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  Captain America films were abbreviated.
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  So mean, do you even know Steve Rogers birthday?
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  Is it July 4th? Yes, it is.
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  Oh, OK, that's kind of coincidental.
• 3:00
  Yeah, I'm sure the writers of the comic had no thoughts on
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  that when they gave it to him. Oh, I didn't know that that was
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  the name of Captain America's alter ego.
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  I thought that was the name of the actor that played Captain.
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  America. No, that would be Chris Evans.
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  I'm just not a fan of Captain America.
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  Love Captain America. Or Chris Evans, apparently.
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  I love Chris Evans too, I love him as the Human Torch even he
• 3:21
  was delightful. But I also enjoy when things
• 3:24
  explode. But that's for later this
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  episode when we get to pyrotechnics.
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  Nice. So I do think it's time that we
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  chat real numbers because everyone on the Internet loves
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  it when we give really specific numbers and I personally cannot
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  wait to be on record saying a specific fact and then
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  immediately have Internet trolls tell me how wrong I am.
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  I'm pretty I'm pretty stoked on it so I thought it would be
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  worth sharing. The highest grossing movie with
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  a 4th of July opening weekend goes to and this one I didn't
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  see coming. Minions.
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  The rise of Gru. Classic. 120 a $123 million in
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  2022. Nice.
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  Yeah, that was ridiculously impressive.
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  I do think it was kind of boosted by the fact that it was
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  July 1st, was Friday, was its technical opening day, but then
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  because Monday was July 4th and was the holiday, it technically
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  gave it a four day opening weekend.
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  So that kind of boosted the numbers. 4th of July is
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  apparently always a box office. Box office top five.
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  I didn't know that either, but I think that having those four
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  days kind of boosted it a little bit, maybe cheating the numbers
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  just slightly, but technically it has the record.
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  Other popular contenders War of the worlds, Transformers, Dark
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  side of the moon, Spider Man 2 shout out and love to Toby
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  forever and. Tobey Maguire.
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  I believe. Most famous bad actor in.
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  Hollywood so mean Tobey Maguire. Just saying.
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  So I think technically the highest grossing film ever on a
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  single 4th of July day unfortunately does go to
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  Transformers Dark of the Moon, but I refuse to give that film
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  credit for anything because it's terrible.
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  Right on. Let's talk about Michael Bay,
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  actually. So, 4th of July, I'm guessing.
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  You can correct me if I'm wrong on the Internet.
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  I'm guessing that 4th of July weekend is huge box office draw
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  historically because theaters were one of the few places to
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  have air conditioning when they were early adopters of the air
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  conditioning. So in the summertime, a lot of
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  people would go cool off in the movie theater, and I think that
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  just kind of started a trend. And I think it makes sense that
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  a kids movie or at least APG 13 rating on a movie would continue
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  to excel because it's summer break, the kids are going to
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  have it off so you can go do something as a family.
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  I haven't seen that Minions movie.
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  I think I watched the first one and I didn't care for it, but
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  nothing. Let's get back to Michael Bay.
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  Oh right, I want to get back to Michael Bay because Michael
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  Bay's 2001 film Pearl Harbor was riddled with historical
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  inaccuracies, such as using the incorrect planes for flashbacks
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  to the 1920s, actors smoking Marlboro Lights 3 decades prior
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  to their release, substituting Korean War vehicles for jeeps,
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  Inaccurate paint on warships, not war shits.
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  War ships. I mean both.
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  When the paint's that wrong, yeah.
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  Exactly. The list goes on and on, but in
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  spite of the liberties taken in this famous historical movie, it
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  was still too long and incredibly boring.
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  That's. The best insight for that movie?
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  Yeah, delightful. Just a little trivia fact for
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  you. But but Michael.
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  Bay's movies can be boring. On movies that were too long or
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  too boring. Back to Independence Day.
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  OK. Oh, kid, I actually liked
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  Independence Day. Yeah, it's just silly and fun.
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  But yeah, come on, those are the best part of summer.
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  Anyway, If it's not going to be a big exploding movie, I at
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  least need a Fast and Furious new release to come out.
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  But the movie Independence Day actually was almost called
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  Doomsday. I do remember this factoid.
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  I did not know this. Apparently the studio was really
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  excited about calling it doomsday, but the creative team
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  behind it really wanted it to be called Independence Day.
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  So they rushed the filming of the not the director, the
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  president, president director. They're about the same.
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  The president's speech of this is our Independence Day.
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  They rushed that and filmed it super early so that they could
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  basically force and strong arm the studio into saying Nope not
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  doomsday, it's Independence Day now, which I thought was kind of
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  cool. Nice, that was a good way to get
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  their name that they wanted. That's.
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  What they wanted. You had to get a titular line in
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  there. You got to shove it in quick.
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  I love it when they save the title in the movie.
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  Me too. Me too.
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  So let's talk about films that take place on 4th of July.
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  Yes, the 1975 Steven Spielberg thriller Jaws tells the tale of
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  a tourist beach town which continues their 4th of July
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  activities despite the danger of great white shark attacks.
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  Last year on July 4th, 2024, there were four shark attacks in
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  Texas and Florida. You can look it up online.
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  Check it out. Don't worry, they will.
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  However, authorities were unable to connect the four tasks, the
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  four attacks with the Oscar winning film, so there was no
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  connection between Jaws. I wonder if it's like shark
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  attacks. It's not a correlation or a
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  causation thing though, right? Like was it because it was the
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  4th of July and the sharks were angrier?
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  Or was it because it was the 4th of July so more people were
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  there so the odds of an attack went up?
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  They were all swimming around on the beach probably.
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  I don't know, I don't know. So there were there were four
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  attacks last year on 4th of July.
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  So be careful out there. If you're near large bodies of
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  water on 4th of July, just keep keep keep yourself safe.
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  Keep yourself safe, but also remember shark attacks are not
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  actually that common. More people die in selfie
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  related accidents than shark attacks every year.
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  How many people die in selfie related shark attacks?
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  I just when the shark is trying to take a selfie and you get in
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  its way because I assume their egos would not handle that well.
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  I don't know. I don't follow very many sharks
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  on social media so I don't know what the statistics are there.
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  We should start OK as promised, the pyrotechnic side of things
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  because my favorite part of Independence Day is getting to
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  blow things up. Of course it is.
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  So I think some mentions of fireworks and their appearances
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  in film is very important. So I'd like to cover 3 big items
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  first. The first appearance of
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  fireworks in film, which the Internet did not provide me
• 9:49
  detailed answers on, so I'm a little upset about it, but it's
• 9:52
  fine. The first, probably first one is
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  the fireworks display. It's an 1899 film from James
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  William James Williamson, so supposedly this exists.
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  It was an experimental short, and it was just him messing
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  around with ways to capture fireworks on film and then going
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  in, doing some hand painting on the film itself to actually get
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  some color in there and just him playing around and having fun
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  with it. And I think that's really cool.
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  I could only find one source that said this exists and it's
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  real. OK, so we don't know for sure.
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  1899, though, is probably the first time fireworks were
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  filmed. Probably, but if not, it would
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  be the 1905 French short by a director that I am not going to
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  butcher their name. I'm so sorry, I will not do
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  that. OK, it starts with an M.
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  Right on. That's enough.
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  Just like a French director. Malay.
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  Malay. You know I'm not.
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  No, I'm not gonna. What's the name of the film?
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  The film is called Unexpected Fireworks in English because
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  once again, I'm not going to embarrass myself by trying to
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  say that in French. OK.
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  Where's it streaming? I don't think it OK.
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  The whole plot of the film is just these two guys running
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  around lighting off unexpected fireworks near this sleeping
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  drunkard. Oh, nice.
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  Which is both Shakespearean and poetic and ridiculous and just
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  strikes me as amazing film. I yeah, it tells me that
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  humankind hasn't. That's nineteen O 5 versus when
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  was the last Jackass movie released?
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  Oh, just that was just a couple years.
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  Ago, yeah, Things haven't changed, no.
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  So this. Was the original Jackass.
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  Yeah, so that's the possibly the first appearance of fireworks in
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  film. I think that there are two other
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  important moments to mention. One Sandlot, 1993.
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  Classic movie. Very classic movie.
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  Everybody loves Sandlot but that fireworks overhead.
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  They're playing baseball on the 4th of July underneath.
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  Like, that is the most American iconic patriotic moment, I think
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  that exists in film. It was, I do remember watching
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  that as a kid and being like, oh, I could imagine myself in my
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  own baseball field behind my yard.
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  Exactly. Playing with the fireworks,
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  going off, imagining I was an MLB player.
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  Exactly. It's perfect.
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  It's beautiful. And then of course, the very
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  first time that fireworks were ever used to represent sexual
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  tension, which we still do in movies today, but the first time
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  that it happened was the 1955 I Don't Want to Be Wrong 19 55
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  Hitchcock film To Catch a Thief. OK between the kiss or during
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  the kiss between Cary Grant and Grace Kelly?
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  So they kissed, and then they literally played fireworks on
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  screen to show that they were experiencing the feeling of
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  seeing fireworks. Obviously, what would the there
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  was no double entendre. There was not.
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  So the. Explosive fireworks didn't have
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  any other meaning. I'm sure they didn't, and I'm
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  sure they don't in films now. Oh, good to know, good to know.
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  I'm sure there's nothing to read between the lines.
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  Take it. At face value, Yep.
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  All right, Well, shall we have a succinct farewell until we see
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  everybody at the end of the month again?
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  I think that sounds good. Excellent.
• 13:08
  Well, goodbye. Bye.