PODCAST · tv
Film Formally
by Will Ross & Devan Scott
Film Formally gets granular about how movies work by studying a technique or trait through its best examples. Independent filmmakers and friends Devan Scott and Will Ross leverage years of experience watching and making movies to bring you spirited and approachable conversations, offering brick-by-brick analysis and discussions about how films work.
Episodes
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Are Movies Getting Uglier?!
Movies these days are dim, flat, dull. You know it, we know it, everyone seems to know it. But is it true? If so, how did we get here? If not, is it mere nostalgia, or is something deeper amiss? To sort through the wreckage of this discourse, Film Formally gets back to basics with a...
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Restoring the Dollars Trilogy with James White & James Flower of Arrow Video
In today's episode, James Flower and James White from Arrow Video join us to discuss the world of film preservation and boutique home video labels, and in particular their recent release of Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy. The story of this restoration of Leone's opus is one of years of false...
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Digital Colour w/ Dirk Meier, Colourist of 'Secret Agent'
If any modern colourist has seen it all, it’s Dirk Meier. From the long-take trenches of the early digital masterpiece Russian Ark and the boundary-pushing slow-motion of Antichrist, to emulating distinct formats in Happy as Lazzaro and Romeria, Meier has witnessed many of the key inflection…
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Il Cinema Ritrovato: A Festival Dispatch
In this extra-hot special emergency dispatch episode, Devan's in Bologna, Italy at Il Cinema Ritrovato, the world's premiere archival film festival! Every year, tens of thousands of cinephiles gather in Italy to watch old movies presented anew. He's joined by Tom Charity, VIFF Centre's year-round...
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Large Format Myths (Film Formally is back!)
Film Formally returns! What's changed? 1. We're a video podcast now! 2. We're a monthly podcast now! Otherwise, you know the drill: Devan Scott and Willa Harlow Ross - and sometimes a guest - dive deep into the formal building blocks of cinema. Or sometimes preservation. Or sometimes even more...
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Commentary 6 - STILL PROCESSING with Sophy Romvari
FILM FORMALLY is back! This month, friend of the podcast Sophy Romvari’s films are premiering on the CRITERION CHANNEL and to mark the occasion we’ve recorded a set of commentaries for six of these films - NINE BEHIND, IT’S HIM, PUMPKIN MOVIE, NORMAN NORMAN, IN DOG YEARS, and STILL PROCESSING. To...
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Commentary 5 - IN DOG YEARS with Sophy Romvari
FILM FORMALLY is back! This month, friend of the podcast Sophy Romvari’s films are premiering on the CRITERION CHANNEL and to mark the occasion we’ve recorded a set of commentaries for six of these films - NINE BEHIND, IT’S HIM, PUMPKIN MOVIE, NORMAN NORMAN, IN DOG YEARS, and STILL PROCESSING....
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Commentary 4 - NORMAN NORMAN with Sophy Romvari
FILM FORMALLY is back! This month, friend of the podcast Sophy Romvari’s films are premiering on the CRITERION CHANNEL and to mark the occasion we’ve recorded a set of commentaries for six of these films - NINE BEHIND, IT’S HIM, PUMPKIN MOVIE, NORMAN NORMAN, IN DOG YEARS, and STILL PROCESSING....
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Commentary 3 - PUMPKIN MOVIE with Sophy Romvari
FILM FORMALLY is back! This month, friend of the podcast Sophy Romvari’s films are premiering on the CRITERION CHANNEL and to mark the occasion we’ve recorded a set of commentaries for six of these films - NINE BEHIND, IT’S HIM, PUMPKIN MOVIE, NORMAN NORMAN, IN DOG YEARS, and STILL PROCESSING....
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Commentary 2 - IT’S HIM with Sophy Romvari
FILM FORMALLY is back! This month, friend of the podcast Sophy Romvari’s films are premiering on the CRITERION CHANNEL and to mark the occasion we’ve recorded a set of commentaries for six of these films - NINE BEHIND, IT’S HIM, PUMPKIN MOVIE, NORMAN NORMAN, IN DOG YEARS, and STILL PROCESSING....
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Commentary 1 - NINE BEHIND with Sophy Romvari
FILM FORMALLY is back! This month, friend of the podcast Sophy Romvari’s films are premiering on the CRITERION CHANNEL and to mark the occasion we’ve recorded a set of commentaries for six of these films - NINE BEHIND, IT’S HIM, PUMPKIN MOVIE, NORMAN NORMAN, IN DOG YEARS, and STILL PROCESSING....
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1-Year Anniversary Q&A [Featuring Wong Kar-wai and Snyder Cut Hot Takes]
It’s our one-year, 43rd-episode spectacular, and we’re once again answering your questions! We go deep on the new WONG KAR-WAI restorations, our thoughts on Zach Snyder’s JUSTICE LEAGUE, the merits of handheld camera operation, film scores, not one but TWO aspect ratio rants from Devan, and more!...
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S3E10 - Rescuing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly with Benji Heran & Jordan Krug
How an acclaimed director’s versions of a famous film be unavailable for decades — when there’s nothing stopping their release? How can a small group of fans gather the evidence and means to reconstruct those versions? How can they finally have a hand in its official release? Endless passion —…
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S3E09 - Adapting Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Tim Brayton
Adapting literary works to the screen involves a certain amount of translation. There are certain things that are easily conveyed in writing that cannot be conveyed in a straightforward way onscreen; likewise, there are elements of cinematic language that open up new routes to expression. John Le...
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S3E08 - Colour Grading with Andrea Chlebak
Colour grading, the art of manipulating the colour of a film digitally in post-production, is as omnipresent as it is misunderstood. To help demystify the process, we’ve invited supervising colourist Andrea Chlebak (Mandy, An American Pickle, HBO’s The Watchmen) to discuss the art of colour…
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S3E07 - The Bourne Series and Chaos Cinema
Extreme ways are back! In pog form! This week we’ve got a wonderful little discussion about the evolution of the Jason Bourne film series. In particular, we’re here to dissect how Paul Greengrass transformed it into the 21st century’s foremost example of Chaos Cinema. Handheld camerawork, fast...
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S3E06 - Wes Craven's Meta Horror with Mike Thorn
Geez, it’s been a while since we got spooky on the show, hasn’t it? High time we brought back Mike Thorn to talk about how Wes Craven fused meta storytelling and horror in two franchises: A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. We’ll permeate the membranes of reality, disassemble Craven’s views on...
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S3E05 - After Last Season and Outsider Art with Bram Ruiter
An Anti-Masterpiece is, as defined by our own Will Ross, is “an astonishing, essential work of art in spite of a distinct lack of conventional competence on the part of its makers”. After Last Season by Mark Region is one such film, and we’ve invited filmmaker Bram Ruiter to discuss it with us.…
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S3E04 - Eighth Grade and the Internet with Bronwyn Henderson and Brietta Stewart
For this episode our Associate Producer Paige Smith has relieved Devan and Will of hosting duties so that she can talk about Eighth Grade’s depiction and use of the Internet — and she’s brought on two friends who survived eighth grade with her, Bronwyn Henderson and Brietta Stewart. It's both a...
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S3e03 - Documentary Verite with Sophy Romvari
In part two of our Verite series we discuss truth in documentary filmmaking with returning guest Sophy Romvari. Sophy’s films have increasingly blurred the line between fact and fiction and are often classified as ‘hybrid’ documentaries. What can we learn from this type of fusion cinema? We go…
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S3E02 - Narrative Verite with Whit Stillman
We're doing two episodes on truth in cinema, starting with one on standards of reality in narrative films. Whit Stillman (The Last Days of Disco, Love & Friendship) joined us, largely to register his animosity towards the idea of making stylistic decisions based on realism, and shared his…
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S3E01 - Film Preservation and Home Video with Blake Blasingame
Welcome to season 3! To kick things off, we’ve brought Duplitech Film Services Manager Blake Blasingame in to discuss film preservation and mastering for home video. Are you ready for 88 minutes of unadulterated shop talk about grain structure, bit depth, oversampling, color grading, and vinegar...
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Inter-season Special 2 - Listener Q&A
It’s our second SEASON BREAK SPECTACULAR! You sent us some great questions, and we answered them. Per our answer early in the pod, you can check out https://native-land.ca/ to see which indigenous territory you might live on (bear in mind it’s not comprehensive or “official”). There’s a good...
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AMA Announcement - Plus HOT TAKES with Devan
Film Formally is on hiatus, but that won't stop us from taking your questions! Take our quick survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Y7HV6CM to submit questions that we'll answer on our podcast in an upcoming episode. Plus, Devan comes in with some HOT TAKES.
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S2E10 - Colour in the Films of Wong Kar-Wai
For our season 2 finale, we keep it simple and discuss none other than the use of colour across the works of Wong Kar-Wai. In particular, we discuss the use of colour to evoke emotions, mood, and symbolism in his 21st century masterpieces In The Mood For Love and 2046. We’ll be taking a break for...
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S2E09 - EMERGENCY PODCAST: Justice League & The Snyder Cut
It’s an emergency, time for a podcast! This week, we’re discussing the sordid tale of the DC comics behemoth blockbuster Justice League. Initially released in 2017 to much disappointment after extensive Joss Whedon-helmed reshoots, it’s taken on a new life after a movement around releasing…
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S2E08 - Lighting Motivation feat. Paige Smith
How do we light our movies? The answer for many starts with the idea of motivation. What, within the world of our film, justifies the light illuminating our stories? In this episode we once again sit down with Paige Smith to discuss the ins and outs of lighting ideology. Most films circa the 21st...
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S2E07 - Blocking in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Okay, folks, it's time for blocking! The pre-planned arrangement, movement, and posturing of characters in a frame is one of a director's most artistically demanding on-set tasks, and nobody blocked a scene better than Sidney Lumet (whom we've already talked about once this season). Screenwriter...
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S2E06 - Experimental Animation
Today we're taking a trip through a few of the wild worlds of experimental animation, to get a sense of what makes these proudly bizarre shorts — which take on or even invent processes unheard of in mainstream animated films — feel so persuasive and affecting. We're joined by animator Gil…
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S2E05 - American Utopia and Visual Structures in Concert Cinema
There’s a new concert film out! It’s called David Byrne’s American Utopia, directed by none other than Spike Lee and shot by none other than Ellen Kuras. It documents David Byrne’s most recent tour-turned Broadway show, and it’s drawn much discussion: in particular, to David Byrne’s previous...
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S2E04 - Sounds of an Inner Life
How do you establish a sense of space through sound, not just as a means of describing a physical space, but the inner state of a person? Filmmakers Nisha Platzer and Nayuribe Montero Jimenez join us to discuss how they pulled that off when they sculpted the sonic shape of both the Cuban…
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S2E03 - Indie Post Production
This time around we’re using our personal experiences to shed light on one version of how post production on an independent film can play out, discussing how we helped Daniel Jeffery and Mackenzie Warner finish the short film they co-wrote, A New Leash on Life. The four of us discuss our…
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S2E02 - Varda by Agnès: What is Videography?
In which we discuss Agnes Varda’s final film, Varda by Agnes, and the questions it poses about the nature of cinema: is it simply a piece of lecture videography? The swan song from one of the greatest artists of our time? Both? The fundamentals of what constitute “Videography” and “Filmmaking”…
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S2E01 - Fail Safe and Contrast
We kick off our second season talking about one of our favourite films, Fail Safe, and its extraordinary use of contrast not just as an aesthetic, but as the guiding philosophy behind the whole film. Sidney Lumet’s nuclear thriller employs endless contrasts: between dark and light, fast and slow,...
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Inter-season Special - State of the Podcast & Listener Q&A
As season 1 comes to a close, Devan and Will take stock, answer your questions, and look forward to the new season.
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Ep 20 - "Cinematic" feat. Nathan Douglas, James Penco & Paige Smith
There seem to be as many meanings for the word “cinematic” as there are people who use it, so we enlisted the help of our listeners to provide their own definitions, all of which we read and respond to in this episode. With help from some of our oldest filmmaking friends, we worked to see where...
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Ep 19 - Storyboarding with Studio Ghibli
Join us for a laid back discussion about internationally acclaimed animation director Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli and how he utilizes storyboards to plan and create his films. One of our regular hosts, Devan Scott, is away this week, so our associate producer and resident Ghibli enthusiast...
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Ep 18 - Vancouver Cinema and Late Capitalism feat. Josh Cabrita
How do prolific local filmmaking communities come about… and how do they slip away? Curator and film critic Josh Cabrita joins us as we take our own home of Vancouver as a case study for how creative and institutional stagnation happens, and what we can do to counteract it.
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Ep 17 - Finding Star Wars feat. Drew Stewart
Ever seen the original Star Wars trilogy? Which versions? Multiple new “official” editions of the films have emerged since 1997, with the original films as seen in the 70s and 80s left without any official release. The work of tracking all these changes and preserving the originals has largely...
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Ep 16 - Sounds of Commerce in Early Documentary feat. Tanya Goldman
Join us as we open our ears to the stylized sounds of a bustling commercial existence circa the 1930s — that is, the way they sound in some of the more daring documentaries of the time. Tanya Goldman, a Cinema Studies PHD candidate at NYU, walks us through these films, how their radical…
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Ep 15 - Visual Textures with Christopher Blauvelt
What does an image feel like? Is it smooth? Coarse? Soft? Sharp? Distorted? These are decisions that cinematographers, directors, and anyone else involved in the creation of a visual language for a specific film must grapple with. Christopher Blauvelt, the acclaimed cinematographer of such films…
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Ep 14 - Revisionist Audio
It’s grievance time! Will and Devan take on the world of revisionist audio in film restoration. A niche subject? Probably. Something you should care about? Most definitely! When you pop in the latest lovingly-restored 4k Blu-Ray release by a boutique label, you might expect that the soundtrack...
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Ep 13 - Documentary Writing and Mr. Jane and Finch feat. Alison Duke
What does it mean to write for documentaries? Alison Duke of Oya Media Group takes us through her experience co-writing the television documentary Mr. Jane and Finch — a process that netted her the Canadian Screen Award for Best Documentary Writing. We went in-depth into her commitment to…
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Ep 12 - Fourteen and discontinuous production feat. Dan Sallitt
There are a million ways to make an independent movie, and today Dan Sallitt came on the podcast to tell us about the one he chose to make Fourteen. The film's story spans many years, and was shot in several separate periods in 2018 and 2019 — yet it was precisely planned and plotted from the...
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Ep 11 - Prince of Darkness feat. Mike Thorn
Author and critic Mike Thorn swings by to talk about Prince of Darkness, John Carpenter's 1987 horror film, and how it both expresses and interrogates the subject of epistemophobia — the fear of knowledge. It’s a great movie to go into knowing little, so be aware that we spoil the entire plot in...
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Ep 10 - Pre-Code Montage feat. Peter Labuza
USC Postdoctoral Fellow and Cinephiliacs host Peter Labuza joins us to dissect the history of montage. Specifically, we discuss the use of montages in Pre-Code Hollywood cinema. In the brief period between the introduction of synchronized sound and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production...
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Ep 9 - Hallmark Movies feat. Gloria Mercer
Independent filmmaker Gloria Mercer joins us on this one to talk about movies made for the Hallmark and Lifetime TV channels. The focus is on their best-known output, their romantic comedies, and we had a lot of fun chatting about how and why they’re made, their style and structure, their…
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Episode 8 - Long Takes feat. Kathleen Hepburn & Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers
We’re excited to host filmmakers Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers & Kathleen Hepburn, who join us for a discussion about long takes — shots that last for an extended period of time without cutting — and, in particular, their groundbreaking use of an 90-minute long take in their 2019 feature film The Body...
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Episode 7 - The Hunger Games and Cinemascope
Today we jumped into one of our favourite topics — the overuse of super a super-wide frame, i.e. cinemascope, in contemporary movies. The Hunger Games is our unfortunate case study today, but the conversation touches on everything from the ratio’s rise to multiplex dominance to whatever the heck...
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Episode 6 - King Hu's Kinetic Editing in Dragon Inn and Legend of the Mountain feat. Ryan Swen
Today film critic Ryan Swen joins us for a double header discussion of King Hu's Dragon Inn and Legend of the Mountain and how they reflect the evolution of Hu's editing style, an aesthetic marked by an extraordinary evocation and emphasis of motion.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Film Formally gets granular about how movies work by studying a technique or trait through its best examples. Independent filmmakers and friends Devan Scott and Will Ross leverage years of experience watching and making movies to bring you spirited and approachable conversations, offering brick-by-brick analysis and discussions about how films work.
HOSTED BY
Will Ross & Devan Scott
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Film Formally have?
Film Formally currently has 51 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Film Formally about?
Film Formally gets granular about how movies work by studying a technique or trait through its best examples. Independent filmmakers and friends Devan Scott and Will Ross leverage years of experience watching and making movies to bring you spirited and approachable conversations, offering...
How often does Film Formally release new episodes?
Film Formally has 51 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Film Formally?
You can listen to Film Formally on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Film Formally?
Film Formally is created and hosted by Will Ross & Devan Scott.
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