I have the honor of sitting down today with Sean Baker, somebody I've admired
for quite some time, and I'm just stoked you could carve out a little
bit of time for me. Sean, How are we doing? Great?
Great? It's great to be on a show that I follow and listen to
regularly. And very nice to meet you, Ryan. That is my mind
boggling to hear. No, I really I look to your to your show
is my way of getting the newest news about releases and keeping me informed.
You know, I'm a big physical media guy, and you're keeping me abreast,
So thank you. That means the world. And I love that we're
doing this. And you're wearing a vinegar syndrome. Sure are they somebody that
you've been following for quite some time? I am. I like this one
the most out of all of them. I mean, you know, sometimes
I'm into their merch and sometimes i'm not. But this, this is a
great one. This blue the color choice on that, Yeah, it's perfect.
I love it. Vinegar Syndrome. What originally got you turned onto them?
Oh? It's interest. I've known about them from probably their first or
second year, and I connected with them I know Joe Rubin over there,
and they were nice enough to actually scan the negative of my first film,
Four Letter Words, that will be getting the release in twenty three. I
can't tell you exactly with whom yet nice, but it's going to be a
nice one. And it happened years ago. I mean, it's taken this
long with the rest of reperation, but Joe did the four K scan of
my thirty five millimeter negative and we just kept in touch and then and then
his company kept growing and growing, and I became a yearly subscriber and I
look forward to every month getting my huge box. It's both a wonderful moment
and also a very stressful moment because, as you know, it's like I
have more films now in my home than I will probably ever be able to
watch, and then I'm thinking about, like, how can I even watch
these in the next five years. I'm a stressful thing. But I also
love the fact, absolutely love the titles they're putting out there, the films
they're restoring and getting to preserve. So I think they're doing God's work.
I completely agree. And the biggest thing for me is again like contextual special
features. They are one of the best in the business, and it's something
that's gotten lost in this era of streaming. And I'm glad that we're still
getting not every title, but many of these mainstream titles will get stuff.
And actually this is perfect time to bring up Red Rocket. I was stoked,
first of all that it got a fiscal release at all. But Kat
Ellinger is on the commentary for that. Was that something that you looked into
or was that just happenstance or yeah, I'm proud to say I made that
happen. I love her commentaries. I love Kat, you know, I
think she's just so incredibly intelligent and that love. I just love hearing her
speak about films. And I knew because Red Rocket was so influenced by,
you know, Italian sex comedies, that she she knows a lot about you'd
be able to actually probably speak to the themes of the movie better than I
can. Usually sometimes filmmakers aren't very articulate about their own movies, and so
when I I told A twenty four, I'm like, I'm not sure.
I know she hasn't worked with you guys yet, but check her out.
She's great. And A twenty four was completely down with it, and Kat
gave this wonderful commentary. Yes, that would be incredible if they started making
some of these real boutique commentators something that was more of a regular and their
stable. I would love to see that. I agree. All right.
So the big thing this year, Takeout got this glorious blu ray release just
fairly recently from Criterion. My biggest thing just knowing how filmmakers are. Somebody
that's been in a Criterion closet video and now you have a Criterion release?
How that? How'd that feel? I mean, it's still unbelievable. It's
still mind blowing to me that this little film that she Ching and I made.
She chingsoh and I co directed this film. This is my Sophmore and
we made this back in two thousand and three. It hit slam Dance in
two thousand and four and did the circuit, then didn't get an actual theatrical
for three eight years. Happy later around oh wait, it finally got its
theatrical due to many reasons I won't go into now, but but you know,
this little movie that's just kept going and and we we never wanted to
just give up on it because we we we believed in it, and we
realized that other people were believing in it, and then, you know,
down the line, this was about four years ago now because COVID slowed everything
down your four years ago. Criterion reached out to me and they were interested
in some of my titles, and and take Out being the first one.
So we went through an extensive restoration process, and I'm talking like it really
one of the most intensive restorations that I know about, because we went back
to the original elements. Here's the disc by the way, Yeah, it's
still so feels so weird to have the great the collection. But this movie
was shot on mini DV tape, so that's standard definition many DV. That's
and it's US, so it's not PAL, it's it's you know, it's
NTSC. So that was twenty nine ninety seven frame rates, so it had
a very video look. We shot it for three thousand dollars. Shi Chin
and I were that basically the crew members were doing wearing every hat, with
our lead actor Charles Jang essentially being our third crew member sometimes the room when
he wasn't in a shop. And this, you know, this film you
know, was basically went to slam dance with me just like pressing export on
my final cut pro program, but knowing that it's that wasn't exactly what we
ever, how we wanted to present it to the world, but we had
no money, so you know, so we always said, if we ever
get the money, if we ever get the funds to do this right,
we're gonna do what we we want, how we want this film to look.
We want to make the film we wanted to look and be presented,
and that was more in long in lines with like the Dog, the ninety
five films that would shoot well, they shot pal twenty five frames a second,
most of them, so it was a much easier translation to twenty four
frames a second, and then they would go out to film, so when
we saw the celebration or the idiots in theaters, we'd be seeing, you
know, a film out, which would really elevate the look and transform it
into something that we always thought was more presentable and more cinematic. Of course,
oh all these years later, with Criterion coming on board and helping us
with the cost of the restoration, we were able to do that, and
we were able so we were able to basically change the frame rate from twenty
nine to nine to seven to twenty four. Then we were able to,
you know, do a new color grade on it. We went out to
film and then scan that negative back in and then we get a full new
mix. So this is like a really this is the first time that anybody
is seeing the film this way and the way that you and I always intended
it to look. So yeah, this is it's a new film essentially.
Essentially, we didn't change the content, so I wasn't important to Lucas on
it. I'm not recutting it, but it is it is being presented to
the world in a in just a way more polished way. Wow. That
I mean, to get a second life like that, first of all,
extremely rare, but beyond that, it is it's such a gift to somebody
like you that has had that vision for so long, and it's great to
see people willing to step in and make that move. I mean, it's
I don't know, you know, you brought up the celebration and for stuff
like that to be I mean, first of all, the Celebration came out
this year from Criterion as well. Wonderful Happenstance for you to get that second
chance, it's again just a beautiful thing. And companies like Vinegar Syndrome,
Criterion giving that gift to independent filmmakers from you know, sixty plus years ago
in some of these case is astonishing to see. Yeah, yeah, it's
a real it's an incredible honor. It's an incredible honor. And yeah,
I agree with you, Vinder Syndrome, Severn Arrow. I mean, like
so many of these incredible boutique labels out there, I'm cult epics, you
know, putting out cult what one used to call sexploitation films, but they're
actually really sophisticated, you know, mostly Dutch, you know, art house
movies with sex and them. Uh, you know, these are we're getting
We're we're living in a great time where we get to see uh, these
films the way they were originally intended to be seen and not like on crappy
vhs. Yeah, and in many cases, even better than they've ever been
you know, projected in most of these theaters. You know, it's funny
we watched you know, the three D three D archives. They've been putting
out films every Yeah. Oh, I don't know whether do you know what
or House of Wax? You know everything about the releases. It was House
of Wax, one of the three D archive films or was that just done?
Don't think so, right, that was like just ado, Yeah,
I think that was all internal the studio, right, Okay, But no
matter what, it had present day three D technology, you know, retrofitted
to the movie. We watched it the other night on my three D set.
It looked amazing. It looks gorgeous. I mean, the three D
technology is just as good as Avatar essentially. But what I was thinking the
entire time was, it's so it's wonderful yet tragic that you know, the
director of that film, en Vincent Price, and almost everybody attached that film
because most of them are past they never even got to see their own movie
in a way that we're able to now we're seeing in a much more presentable
way than even the filmmakers were able to see it. So yeah, it's
it's a very sad fat I mean a lot of these films, for I
mean, to get to the blunt sad point, we're getting to an age
where we're losing a lot of Hollywood greats. Uh. They all start coming
up around the sad time, and it's it's a more common occurrence where every
week we're hearing big names just suddenly pass away, and now a lot of
them are getting love posthumously and they're not gonna be able to see these beautiful
UHD you know, massive releases of some of their best cinematic works, and
it's just sad to think, but it's great for future generations too. I
agree, it is. It's always sad, like our heroes are dying day
and just one and after another. It's to the point where I've actually thought
about just stop doing the rest and peace thing on you know, on Instagram,
because it's every day. It's kind of it's depressing, but that's also
why it's so wonderful that like that company is like, you know, the
ones that you've mentioned are able to get interviews with them right now, and
you know the ones who are are still with us and really highlights the need
for archival purposes. So the special features, it's it's a plus when we
can get them. But in a lot of these cases, the studios just
aren't caring mostly about some of these low budget films, so they get kind
of swept under the rug and forgotten about. And unless these companies are stepping
up. Some of them are literally gonna be gone, so it's just nice
to see a second chance for something like Takeout. Yeah, I agree.
I'm also really excited about Kat Ellinger's new label Radius. I jumped right on
board and became like that full member. Nice, like, oh that's a
that's a hit to my bank account. But I'm looking really forward to like
there that already the titles they've announced and like, okay, we're they're going
to be introducing some wonderful re releases to the world, discoveries that films that
are right for rediscovery. Absolutely, and Fran the main guy that used to
be an Arrow that started Radiance, his personality is so perfect for just like
curating taste for the world at the moment, and it's nice to see some
of these will literally have never gotten attention anywhere else suddenly be in the hands
of thousands of collectors and film fans. Yeah, that's definitely, that's definitely.
Uh, Takeout. Lots of people have still not seen it. Can
you share a quick little elevator pitch what it's about? Sure, it's about
a day in the life of an undocumented immigrant Chinese undocumented immigrant living in Manhattan
and dealing with a smuggling debt in which he's fallen behind him. So he
wakes up in the morning to some debt collectors basically threatening him saying that he
has eight hundred He has till the end of the day to get him eight
hundred. Get them eight hundred dollars or his life is going to become very
uncomfortable, and it's already quite uncomfortable. And essentially he goes to the Chinese
takeout that he work daily and speaks to a coworker and it's like, I
have to figure out how to do this. He borrows a little bit of
money, but about half of it, but then has to find the other
four hundred dollars in tips, which is basically asking a lot because he only
only usually only pulls it around ninety dollars a day on tips. So you
know, he takes another person ship, he takes all the deliveries. He's
doing whatever he can to to meet that goal. And it's and so that's
the basic plot line, but it's a it's through his eyes that we get
to see Manhattan in a way because we follow him on his on his you
know, his deliveries, and we get to peer into different apartments, seeing
people's different different you know, their background, their their apartments, their lives
there, you know, people from different walks of life. Sorry, I
haven't done this elevator quite home had too. But so that's essentially it.
I mean, I'm not going to reveal everything, but it's it's a it's
it's shot in a docu style way. We shot in a real working takeout
on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. We shot this in UH three the
end of the summer of O three June of two thousand and three, and
we we really blended real life with our fiction and with the goal of that
line. Yeah. So and it really just you know it it covers it
is political yet not at the same time, because it's just a real objective
look at ming Ding's life, a day in the life of ming Ding and
uh without really applying over politics to it, so that hopefully it can speak
to both sides of the aisle, just to really talk about, you know,
the issues we have going on in this country. You know, it's
a tiny little film we shot for three thousand dollars never you know, just
very influenced by the Dogma ninety five movement. Yeah, cinema veritay in general,
the Dardan Brothers, and I think it's become even though I think it's
it's obviously covering issues that are very still extremely relevant, if not more relevant
today, It's still It also is a time capsule because you get to see
Manhattan in two thousand and three. Two thousand and three is a super interesting
time because of obviously coming so shoot so soon after nine to eleven, and
it seems like there's a little bit of a disconnect with these current generations,
not only of film fans, but obviously of people being raised because I mean,
we have full blown adults that weren't around for nine to eleven, which
is weird to imagine at this point. But is there anything from that that
you felt really affected the filmmaking at that time for you? Oh, definitely,
I mean it was it was I guess eyes were on immigration even more
after, not as esecially in New York City after nine to eleven. And
we work it into the script. We work there is a moment there's some
dialogue about how his voyage from China was affected by nine to eleven. It
was definitely, I don't know where you where were you living I was in
California, And what makes us a little more personal for me because take Out
I haven't really revealed this yet, and this was going to be the next
thing I brought up, So this is kind of perfect time to weave it
in. I work for immigration, I'm very high up in the government the
field of uscis actually, and I am such a unique grasp on a lot
of these films because it like I can already feel myself tearing up a little
bit right now, just the way that these people have to fight to come
in and try to get a better life for themselves. It is so difficult
to see how they are underrepresented treated in such a marginalized way, not only
in life, but then not even having their stories told in such an appropriate
manner. And Takeout is one of those weird ways where it's done beautifully.
It's done in a way that is treated with realism that we just don't get
from pretty much anyone else. Oh, thank you. That's that's incredible to
hear from, you know, from your perspective, Yeah, you know,
this is Uh, this is something that we noticed when we were doing our
research and talking. We were living above a Chinese restaurant, at the time,
not the one that we shot at, but another one, and we
got to speak with the gentlemen who were making the deliveries and realize that most
of them were undocumented. But they spoke about how they were doing this for
their family, how they were you know, chasing that American dream because ultimately
it would be a better place for them to be and there for their family
to be, even though in the moment, you know, uh, their
life was was quite uh you know, precarious. They had to essentially stay
invisible, you know, out of fear of deportation and prosecution. So it
so yeah, to hear that from you means a lot because I you know,
you never know how people within, who are actually working within, what
sort of empathy they have for these individuals well, and I mean you just
use the word that is somehow turning into like the theme for my channel lately
is your filmmaking for me, is this perfect grasp of empathy with every single
film because they're delivered in such a way that is just hear the characters and
their story, and it's all up to you to decide if you relate to
somebody. It's up to you to decide if they're good characters or bad characters,
or if we even need those adjectives. It's up to the viewer to
you know, come in and find something to grab onto and learn about humanity
because in so many of these other stories that there's villains and antagonists and you
know something even something like Red Rocket, there's no looking down on somebody for
being an adult film star. There's no need with uh, you know,
the Florida Project looking down on people for struggling to find a proper and steady
home. It's it's just a beautiful way to approach filmmaking. Well, thank
you. I actually just think that's strangely missing from today's you know, from
US film and TV. Absolutely I forgot. I don't know when we made
that that change from you know what you just described, more objective take on
things, completely throwing judgment out the window, to a place where we're right
now making these moral statements, you know, good and bad, and it's
very black and white and very puritanical. I I it's I guess this slowly
crept into our culture over the but I guess it really hit full about five
years ago when we were told basically, you have to be sensitive to everybody,
and and well, art is supposed to be a little bit insensitive times.
Art has to be honest and so and so, you know, anyway,
I agree with you. And that's the type of films that I'm trying
to make that I'm trying to continue to make. I have to be very
independent when I make them, because even even the mini studios are worried about
offending you know anybody now, so so yeah, but I'm going to continue
doing it. I'm going to continue doing it. And the next one is
the next film that we're actually prepping for right now. I think that you're
I'm pretty sure that your listeners, just judging our sensibility and what you talk
about, I'm sure we're on the same page. I think they're gonna dig
the next one. The next one leans a little into genre, the way
I've been slowly leading more and more into genre. But it's it's it's genre
that you know, you would see in the seventies, you know, cool
anti heroes again, like just uh, you know, I just wanted to
say I was in I was in Middleburg, Virginia at a film festival there
showing Red Rocket, and a woman came up to me afterwards, and she
goes, I like your film, I think, but what's the takeaway?
And I'm like, well, you tell me. I mean, like,
why am I supposed to tell you? Actually? Just be and then I
would just be preaching to you. You know, I put in there,
and I put enough in the film where I think we can discuss, you
can apply your own politics to it. Perhaps you know, we can debate,
but for me just to tell you exactly what you should be taking away
from my film with just it's it's it's it's meaning. That's meaningless to me.
That isn't art. I agree? Yeah, uh, that also brings
up, you know, modern modern cinema in general. I'm glad that you
are still able to pay attention to so much. It seems like you've been
joining the hell out of bey on fest recently. How's all that going for
you? On Fest? Is so wonderful. I'm so glad I live in
LA because of festivals like Beyond Fest. Yeah. I caught a lot.
Actually, I caught Joe Begos's Christmas Bloody Christmas the other day. That was
that was an amazing screening because it was at the American Legion Theater and it
was. It was packed and people were having a ball. I got to
see the decision to leave Park chen Wuk and that was just that was you
know. In line was amazing. He makes always amazing always, you know,
to the point where it's like, how did he do that? I
have no idea how he did that. But the big one for me,
you know, Ruben Auslin's Triangle of Sadness. That's what I call a throw
in the towel movie. It's a type of movie that makes me question why
I'm even trying in our form because the heights he reaches with this film.
And I know I'm I'm really hyping it up, but I honestly feel this
that is one of the best films I've seen in decades. And I love
Ruben. I love him. I've seen everything he's done. I have all
of his older films. I had to get all those import I don't know
if you have, if you've seen his older ones, yeah you can import
those. And he's the best. He's the best working right now. I
don't know if it's just me as an outsider, but looking in this year
beyond Fest seems to be a lot higher quality than the last handful of years.
Not that they've been bad necessarily, but it just seems like there's a
lot of hitting it out of the park this year. It's lovely to see
just a really solid year. Yeah, I agree. I wish I was
there right now. I had to come up to Canada, so I only
hit like the first four days. But great programming. All right. So
physical media. First of all, you've been into physical media. It seems
like for a long long time. What originally got you into physical media?
Well, it goes way back. I mean, like yeah, back to
like, if you really want to trace it all the way back. I
was getting like the Super eight reels from the library and sometimes purchasing them if
I if I could afford it, way back in the eighties, and then
you know, and then nineties. You know, there was the VHS collection
collecting. There was the laser discs that kicked in in the I guess I
would say late eighty early nineties. I guess early nineties. Yeah, yeah,
But I remember my roommates having at NYU. We became like our our
room, our dorm room became the screening room because I had the laser disc
player, so we had constant they were playing all like whatever would hit whatever
the studios put out, like I remember Last of the Mohicans, Oh my
god, the Crow, you know, anything, We're seeing this and then
think about it, like even back then, it was like it was SD,
it's SD. It looked much better than BHS, but it's still is
SD. And yet we were thinking, this just looks as good as thirty
five. But uh, you know, just you know, keeping in that,
and then and then DBD of course, and then Blu Ray, so
you know, and now we're at the four ks, Oh my god,
and hopefully we can just kind of keep it there. We don't really have
to. I mean, our our our human eyes are not going to really
be able to tell the difference between a four K and an eight K anyway,
so on the televisions that we're watching them on. So I think we're
okay, let's just slow down with any more releases, because for example,
I'm going to tell you one thing like this happens now a lot, but
I'm seeing announcements for four k's and I'm just like, but I still haven't
watched the Blu Ray that I purchased on that like the Blue Underground's Justine,
I'm like, okay, ah, damn it, what do I do now?
Uh. At the same time, it's like, wow, Kino is
putting out these four ks now and they have a day of taking a pellam
one two three. Oh. That is literally that's like enticing. Yeah,
and that will be And also I'm really lucky that I because I'm you know,
in the industry, and I've made a few known films. At this
point, I'm getting a lot gifted to me, which I you know,
with hopes that I'll promote it on social media, and I do, especially
when I believe in the films, and so that's adding to my never ending
election. Yeah, some of these labels diving in, you know, the
four K is surprising on some of these titles, But when you get something
like the taking a pelllem one two three, you just kind of go,
okay, yeah, it's worth it because the title like that coming on four
K, I'm all in, oh yeah, oh yeah. And it's nice
to see a filmmaker that is a modern filmmaker being able to promote and share
physical media releases for some of these that are you know, fifty plus years
old. On some of the titles. Over the last couple of years.
Are there any you know, just all around package of a really great presentation
on a disc and a nice physical media package that made you go, damn
it, I'm so glad I have physical media because this is amazing. Oh
well, the second site stuff has been amazing. Second thank you. I'm
dead. I mean, what else to drive set? I'm blanking on their
other biggie they did. The Guest was the big one. They did,
the Witch They've done, I mean they're doing the Hitcher. That's a big
one for a long and Martin coming up from Georgia Romero so oh yeah,
yeah, and and yeah, I don't I know there were legal issues with
the Hitcher forever, so that's wonderful that that's finally happening. I'm just scanning
in my head, like in my room. You know, there are a
few there. I love what Severn's doing with those box sets. My gob
like Andy Milligan one is just uh, they're They're incredible, you know,
they have literally yeah, there you go. And I know what's coming up,
and I don't think they've announced, so I should shut my mouth,
like yeah, but it's incredible stuff and I love this. I love David
and Carl and Andrew over there. They really put their heart into everything they
do. Yeah, no, you know what, I if I know that
you've had synaps on here right, not yet, they are a little distant.
Yeah, okay, Well, if they're listening, can you I would
really like them to put out the Schoolgirl school Girl Report films in HD.
I mean, like, I appreciate that they put them out on DVD,
but I started to get into them and realizing like, oh, these are
really like these again are time capsules. I want to see these in better
resolution. And I've been following that director Walter Booze Now and Try and so
anyway, if they're listening, please Schoolgirl Report and also Love and three D,
the other Walter Booze film I want to see on Blue Red Sineps does
really great work. In the heart part is they'll tease that they're working on
something, and then because they do such great work, it's another three and
a half years. So the whole time, I'm just like, come on,
I'm so excited, just give it to me. Yes, yes,
yes, okay, So back to filmmaking for a minute. I feel like,
and maybe this is just me, you can clarify. I feel like
we haven't had a giant leap in like game changing either methods of filmmaking or
ways of telling a story in a couple of decades. Is there something that
you feel like is possibly on the verge of hitting and changing things up for
people that's interesting, like background like the Matrix and American Beauty, Like nineteen
ninety nine, I feel like was the last big like oh my god,
Okay, movies are different now type of era. You know, I don't
know, I'm kind of worried that people aren't seeking out ease these sort of
like these these indie films that are made for adults anymore. These you know,
they're people are going to the theaters mostly for the ten pole Marvel stuff,
which is, hey, look, I'm glad they're keeping the theaters alive.
Okay, I'm glad the pop gun is keeping the theaters alive. That's
wonderful. But you know, while you're there, guys, why don't you
check out the uh, you know, the the film that is maybe your
medium budget type of movie you're you're because these are gonna I can't believe that
these are there are any twenty million dollar films made anymore, because they don't
seem to be making their money back unless they're horror. Now. Look,
it's wonderful what has happened with Smile, and I believe Barbarian made a lot
of money. But these are genre films, so you know, but I
would love to see, you know, us get back to the time where
we're watching you know, uh, dramedies, dramedis that are that are at
that budget level. It seems like all these like the these sort of person
at least personal films, these films about just you know, people, they
have to be made for next to nothing now or they have to be packed
with every star in Hollywood. And that doesn't really work for me because that's
just it's just the star vehicle. So yeah, that that's I'm sorry,
I wish I had an answer to your question. It's I mean, it's
a good point, and it leads to the actual analysis of where are we
at the moment because exactly what you're saying, pretty much everything. If you
look at what we have coming out that are making actual waves, it's either
made for one hundred thousand dollars or made for one hundred million dollars, and
there's a lot of ground in the middle. I mean we were missing things
like when Harry met Sally and with some of those big comedies where we're getting
good scripts and getting It's not like Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal were small names,
but they're not demanding, you know, twenty five million dollar salaries.
So you know, a fifteen million dollar film can go out there and make
sixty million for somebody and suddenly now they can afford to make three more films
that are personal for them exactly. Yeah. And I just the other thing
that I'm having issues with, and I'm not in any way. You know,
everybody has their every filmmaker has their own prerogative. But like I just
wish, you know, the streaming thing I feel is hurting films. I
really do. It's hurting the art form. And I'll tell you why.
It's not about the accessibility. Obviously, that's great. It's great that more
people get to see it. It's great that it reaches more people. But
that can still happen. It can still happen. But as it was in
the past, where it's home entertainment, it's afterthought, it's after it hits
theaters. I think the theater experience, the theater release is so important to
a film because it honestly helps elevate its importance. And I know that's a
weird thing because it'sn't the same as you know, right that the streaming film
is just as important as the theatrically true, But I'm talking about like the
pr side of things, promoting it, lifting it up in the eyes of
the public so that they get excited about it, so that they see it
as an event. They see it as actually like they anticipate it. And
therefore you can't make it to the theater. That's fine, they'll eventually get
it on home entertainment. But but it's just going directly to home entertainment.
It just becomes part of this just this big mess of content. Nobody knows
what to watch. It's not really being curated in any special way, and
it's taking the O tour theory and throwing it out the window. It's like,
I don't care what anybody says. The Irishman is not going to be
as well regarded in the Scorsese film, you know, canon filmography as his
other films that got theatrical releases. It's going to be seen as sort of
like, oh, that was that streaming movie. Or something you know,
and so and so that's really bothering me, And it's filmmakers have to do
this because that's where we're finding our budgets, that's where money is coming.
You know, you can make an eighty million dollar movie. You can be
like your second time out and get an eighty million hour movie with Netflix.
But again, and it's only going to live on Netflix for the rest of
its life. And it's always like it's never really the director isn't promoted anymore.
It's more about falling back into that like who produced it thing, And
that was the whole that was the whole reason for the DGA to really may
be like, wait a minute, the director. You know, this is
a director. This we're going to fight for this, but we're losing that
very quickly again. And like I'm just gonna I'm not dissing Blum. I
think he's great. I love the fact that he's putting out a lot of
films, But like the last Blumhouse film, you thought about, what do
you don't think about the director? You think about Jason Blum. It's a
Blumhouse movie. You don't know if you directed that film. So that's that's
getting that's that's troublesome to me. I just went on, no, no
it, and it brings up a whole lot of good points. One of
the biggest things that we've been talking about recently with some of these interviews is
the actual experience of a film living with you, and primarily that can be
because of a shared experience in something, whether it be a theater or you
know, back in the day like streaming films at the back of the library
or something like that where it's projected on the wall. Is there something in
your past that really goes man, That's one of my favorite memories because of
the experience I had while filming or while watching this film. Well, just
the other day when I saw Triangle of Sadness, it was a sold out
show at Beyond Fest and it was like one of the best experiences. I
mean, the the audience participation, Yeah, it was crazy. But over
the years, yeah, I mean everything, And it happens every once in
a while. Sometimes they are new films, sometimes they're you know, some
sort of retrospective or I remember just oh but yeah, okay, so just
recently and thank god it got a tiny theatrical even it was gas Barnoi's luxA
Turna. Yeah, now I love the fact. Oh and you're gonna have
to help me here. Who put it? What label put it out?
I believe it was Yellow Veil. That was Yellow Veil. Yes, yes,
So the box, you know, the release gorgeous. I mean,
like you know, the sleeve and the booklet. It's a wonderful package to
have. However, I'm really happy I saw it in the theater before I
got that, because that was quite an experience. It's it's like next to
Triangle Sadness. I think it's my favorite film of twenty two because it's it's
it's an onslaught. He is really abusing the audience, but like in a
way where like you king do this. If a filmmaker has this effect on
an audience, therefore you know the movie has an impact. You can't deny
it. And I love films that that hit, that touched you, that
that that affects you, that you're thinking about. I I don't know if
everybody knows about luxA Turna, but it's his. It's the film. He
made two films recently, Vortex and luxA Turna. Externa is on the short
side. I don't even know. I think it's just his feature length,
uh, feature film length. I think it's come. I don't even know
if it hits an hour. It's somewhere right around there. Yeah it but
but but anyway, we saw it at the Lumier Cinemas in Beverly Hills,
and he uses a lot of strobing. They even warn for they have warnings
in the beginning of the film or possible epileptic seizures. But I it's so
intense and it takes you. It just it's almost I was having a out
of body experience at some point because I was just like I looked to my
I looked to my wife Sam, and I was just like, I don't
know how much more I can take. I was like falling off of my
seat, and she was just like, I know, I know. And
then the people behind us where everyone was just like kind of laughing because they
didn't know how to handle it. And I'm just like, wow, this
is this is truly a this is an experience I will not forget anytime soon.
So and it was quite a fun film. It was really it's really
like an intense experiment in a way. So anyway, that was one a
few years back, I saw Lady Terminator Agva has that thirty five that goes
around the best experience ever because I had medicals in me and I was just
like, no, yeah, yeah, I mean, and then you know,
going way back, I mean I remember going way way back, like
the first time I was affected by seeing a film in the theater with Star
Wars, you know, I was, I was, I'm dating myself right
now, but I was six years old. My this is when parents could
literally drop six year olds off like Star Wars. Yeah. Yeah, But
I went with my older cousin he was ten, I was six. They
dropped us off at the somewhere in Morris County, New Jersey to see Star
Wars, and I just remember coming out going that's the best film ever made
and they will never make a better film than that. And then of course,
the next year Close Encounters came out and I'm like, that's better than
Star I mean, I've been had parties. I brought my birthday party to
one of my I forgot how old I was, but we went to an
incredible shrinking Woman And it was mostly because I loved that in the beginning of
the film, when the when the I don't know if you remember Incredible Shrinking
Woman, but there's that part with the cheese whiz on the crackers in front
of the supermarket and this one woman goes, now this tastes like shit.
Well I was like seven years old and going, oh my god, she
said shit, I got to ring my birthday party and see and I remember
that event was one that was like, you know, a theater full cheering
kid. So yeah, I mean like, look, this is my livelihood,
this is my life. So obviously I have a lot of experiences like
this. I was a projectionist, you know, when I was seventeen years
old in Manville, New Jersey. So I worked the whole thirty five millimeter
thing. I got to work behind the scenes there. So yeah, that's
awesome. I mean that's fantastic. And to see the journey somebody can take
for I mean, obviously it was something like being a projectionist, You're you're
handling the physical media and just doing that can literally bring a level of appreciation
that nowadays, I mean, streaming is never going to give anybody. It's
we're at the point too where it's, uh, there's a psychological phenomenon called
analysis paralysis. And when you see all of these options and you just like,
well, fine, like fuck, I'll choose this one just because it's
been staring at me. That's something the algorithm shows. But there's a gem
on the next page that if if you actually would have watched it, it
might have changed your life. Analysis paralysis. Yeah, is that what it's
called. Yeah, it's it's basically like like CouchSurfing. You're literally sitting here,
I don't know what to watch. I'm gonna go through all the channels
and you do that for three hours. You know, a lot of collectors
like us, maybe we'll do it. They're collection what do I watch tonight?
There's five thousand releases? Which one do I choose? So it gets
tough. And with streaming now there's nineteen different streaming services that people have,
and how do you pick which one to watch? Which title on there to
watch? It's just it's losing it to the point where there's no power behind
it. I completely agree. Sometimes the way we choose it is almost like
sort of like just a blind pointing. You know. I do appreciate movie
though, Movie does that nice curation where you just get one film day for
thirty days. I really like that, but no, I agree with you.
And also what really is like I know you can probably turn this off
figure a way around it, but I haven't, and most laymans don't.
It's really insulting from some of the big streamers where it cuts to the credits
in less than five seconds into the credits, the movie goes up to the
upper left corner and it says it shows you what's coming next with an AD
and you have to literally grab your remote in time and try to go up
to that box and highlight it so you can see the credits before you lose
that because you only have like ten seconds to do it. It's so insulting
to filmmakers. I can't even believe they're allowed to do that. Actually that
should be in the contract with like licensing your film to streamers. Are not
allowed to do that. But yeah, so and also I want more than
gripe with streaming. I paid a premium with Netflix, you know that,
like that four K over the thing that cost an additional whatever, I'm still
getting it. There's still buffering all the freaking time. And that slow mo
thing where you're like, is that the film slow mo post slow mo or
is that just catching up really annoying shit. I mean, there's a lot
that we could just gripe on all day. One of the biggest things they're
charging you a premium for four K, But if you pay attention to any
of these that are in four K on Netflix and you have the disc,
there's so much more compression on streaming, and people are just like, no,
this looks amazing because when they you know, zoom in on somebody's face,
you can see some pores. It's not the same thing you got banding
on all the dark colors in the corner. You've got so much that on
a disc. These people will literally never be able to see because they're not
willing to go into physical media. And it's it's tough. Yeah, yeah,
you got it. It's very true. And the credits thing, I
mean, that's that's insulting, not only for the filmmakers, which obviously it
is because a lot of those people gave up their life to do some of
these films. But imagine you're watching a movie and it's got a really poignant
ending, and the moment it ends just boom. Watch the you know,
the next piece of shit movie that's being advertised next. Why I'm sitting here
like on the verge of like, I'm depressed now because of this film,
but I'm being drawn into the next Marvel movie. Like I know, I
know. It's really sad. It's really sad. Yeah. Yeah, anyways,
I'm so glad that you're on our side. I'm so glad that you're
continuing to make films like this and to be as respectful with your time as
I can. I hope someday we can have you back again, because this
has been incredible. I love your work and I just appreciate you being a
part of the community. How about we do this when my next might Okay,
so I have Four Letter Words, which is my first film. Yeah,
not a great movie, by the way. It was a very I
was finding my way, but I'm really happy that it is actually getting out
there because it shows my roots and it isn't as bad as maybe I thought
it was. But so anyway, so that's my first film. That's coming
out sometime in twenty three. And then Prince Broadway, which was my follow
up to Takeout, that folds a luxe restoration as well, and so that
will be also hitting having a re release in twenty three, so when one
of them hits, I would love to be back on perfect. That would
be amazing. Sean, thank you be safe. Hopefully we'll talk in soon.
Thank you, oh man. Thank you. Keep fighting the fight every
single day. Tell me no