NICKSAV Film & Music SHOW

Byron Reese is an acclaimed author, speaker, and entrepreneur. He's spoken at TEDx Austin and SXSW and has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, Wired, and The Washington Post. Byron is also the publisher of GigaOm and hosts the Voices in AI podcast.

Byron's latest book, The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity, is one of the most thought-provoking books I've read this year, so I brought him on the show to discuss it.

I think pessimism is the thing that will get us all killed." - Byron Reese

Some of the things we discuss include

• How artificial intelligence affects our lives
• The difference between narrow AI and general AI
• Whether being human is something more than a machine
• Challenges and philosophical questions raised by advancements in AI
• Why optimism matters and can make all the difference
• How AI might redefine creative work

I make friendly, engaging videos for earnest people. Some of my videos are here.

Say hello: [email protected]

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Online training from some of the world's best filmmakers, musicians, and creative leaders.

Get access to all of Masterclass's world-class instructors for one affordable price: MasterClass All-Access Pass

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Learn how to be a better writer and storyteller from Malcolm Gladwell.

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For more on how technology influences creativity, check out this interview with Brian Solis, who also spoke at SXSW.

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For more on the power of optimism, check out this interview with Golden Globe-winning producer Lindsay Doran.

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• The Fourth Age
• Byron Reese
  • Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
• Voice in AI podcast
• Shortcut for the podcast: nicksav.show

Additional music for the show provided by Rob Costlow.

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• The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity
• Harry Potter
• "I, Pencil" (essay)
• The Lord of the Rings

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• The Animatrix
• Game of Thrones
• The Jetsons
• Star Trek
• The Twilight Zone

• Donate $1 to help keep the show going.
• Sign up for The nsavides Newsletter.
• Subscribe or leave an honest review:

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• Say hello on Twitter: @nsavidesPRO

Thank you for visiting!

What's Eating Ralphie May won Best of the Fest at Nashville Film Festival and Documentary of the Year at Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival. The film was initially intended to be a weight-loss documentary that followed beloved comedian Ralphie May and his family, but it turned into a raw and intimate portrait of a family dealing with addiction during the last years of Ralphie’s troubled life.

At Nashville Film Festival I had the chance to interview comedian and wife of Ralphie, Lahna Turner, and director Cat Rhinehart.

Some of the things we discuss include

• What to do when shooting a documentary that takes an unexpected turn
• How to earn trust to explore the raw and intimate aspects of someone's story
• What to do when loved ones are wrestling with addiction
• If and when it is appropriate to stop filming
• How comedy can help get past anguish

I make friendly, engaging videos for earnest people. Some of my videos are here.

Say hello: [email protected]

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Online training from some of the world's best filmmakers, musicians, and creative leaders.

MasterClass All-Access Pass

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Learn how to improve your stand-up routine and be funnier from Steve Martin.

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For more on shooting documentaries, check out this episode with Peabody-winning documentary filmmaker Craig Renaud. He's done projects for likes of HBO, NBC, Discovery, PBS, The New York Times, and VICE News. On this episode he discusses how to survive dangerous conflict zones, ways to explore hot-button issues in an in-depth way, and more.

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Steve Kaplan has taught comedy workshops around the world and companies like Dreamworks, Disney, HBO, Paramount, and Touchstone hire him as a comedy consultant. He shares some of his comedy insights on this episode.

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• Nashville Film Festival
• What's Eating Ralphie May
  • Facebook, IMDb
• Lahna Turner
  • Twitter, YouTube
• Cat Rhinehart
  • Facebook, Instagram
• More of my podcast coverage of Nashville Film Festival
• Shortcut for the podcast: nicksav.show

Additional music for the show provided by Rob Costlow.

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• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• The First 48 Hours
• Marriage Story
• One Hour Photo
• What's Eating Ralphie May

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• Donate $1 to help keep the show going.
• Sign up for The nsavides Newsletter.
• Subscribe or leave an honest review:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

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• Say hello on Twitter: @nsavidesPRO

Thank you for visiting!

My podcast coverage of Nashville Film Festival continues in this short-films episode where I interview the directors for two different short films that got my attention at the festival. One has more of a documentary feel while the other one is a more stylized film with elaborate production design, so I paired the two interviews to explore how shorts can come together and the creative possibilities they can offer.

The first interview is with Amanda Young, one of the directors behind Every Two Minutes, a compilation of stories relating to human trafficking. The short was done through StoryGive, which partners filmmakers in Nashville with non-profits that tackle various social issues. For Every Two Minutes, StoryGive connected local filmmakers with End Slavery Tennessee, a non-profit dedicated to caring for survivors of human trafficking and tactically addressing the issue.

The second interview is with Chilean director Vicente Manzano. His experimental short Bubble uses bubble framing in a novel, story-driven way. Virtually everything in the film was custom-designed for the film, which involved careful planning to pull off.

Some of the things we discuss include

• Using film to address a social issue in an impactful way
• How to collaborate with accomplished filmmakers and crew members on limited budget
• How to make a short film that is driven by stylized production design

I make friendly, engaging videos for earnest people.

I shot this New Orleans wedding video for Cece & Andy last year. Even one year later, I'm still getting positive feedback about the video from the couple's friends and family.

More of my videos are here.

Say hello: [email protected]

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Online training from some of the world's best filmmakers, musicians, and creative leaders.

MasterClass All-Access Pass

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Emmy-winning filmmaker and co-founder of Stillmotion, Patrick Moreau, talks about the challenges of putting together a high-quality, issues-driven documentary in this episode.

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• Nashville Film Festival
• Amanda Young
  • Instagram
• StoryGive
• End Slavery Tennessee
• Vicente Manzano
  • Instagram
• More of my podcast coverage of Nashville Film Festival
• Shortcut for the podcast: nicksav.show

Additional music for the show provided by Rob Costlow.

• Donate $1 to help keep the show going.
• Sign up for The nsavides Newsletter.
• Subscribe or leave an honest review:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Overcast

• Say hello on Twitter: @nsavidesPRO

Thank you for visiting!

Hannah Leder has a variety of acting credits including Deep Impact, Pay it Forward, and Judd Apatow’s Love series. She also has a recurring role on Apple TV+'s The Morning Show.

On this podcast episode I interview Hannah about her work on The Planters, a quirky, character-driven comedy that won Best of the Fest, Best Cinematography, and Best Song at Nashville Film Festival. Along with Alexandra Kotcheff, Hannah co-wrote, co-directed, co-starred, and co-shot the film. The Planters ended up taking 127 days to shoot, and Hannah and Alexandra were the only crew members on set.

Some of the things we discuss include

• How to shoot a high-quality film with a two-person crew
• The camera and lighting setups they used for the film
• How the stop-motion sequences in the film came together

At the end of the episode you can hear a preview of “You and Me Together,” the film's award-winning song from Phil Danyew.

nsavides productions – I make friendly, engaging videos for earnest people.

Up to Date is a short comedy about a blind date gone wrong. It's the first live-action short I directed a few years ago, and it was written by Stephen Hoover. His script Damage Control was a finalist in the Nashville Film Festival's screenwriting competition, and he helped to make possible my festival podcast coverage.

More of my videos are here.

Say hello: [email protected]

If you'd like to learn more about how comedy works, then check out this interview I did with Steve Kaplan. He teaches comedy workshops around the world. Companies like Dreamworks, Disney, HBO, Paramount, and Touchstone regularly hire him as a consultant and script doctor.

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• Nashville Film Festival
• The Planters
  • Facebook, IMDb, Instagram
• More of my podcast coverage of Nashville Film Festival
• Shortcut for the podcast: nicksav.show

Additional music for the show provided by Rob Costlow.

• Donate $1 to help keep the show going.
• Sign up for The nsavides Newsletter.
• Subscribe or leave an honest review:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Overcast

• Say hello on Twitter: @nsavidesPRO

Thank you for visiting!

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse developed a new approach to computer animation so as to translate the comic-book experience for the big screen. Academy voters took notice and awarded the film an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. One of the last things that moviegoers see before leaving the film is the hyperkinetic title sequence animated by visual studio Alma Mater.

The sequence was featured at SXSW 2019 in a compilation of compelling title sequences, and it made enough of an impression that it won SXSW's jury-awarded Excellence in Title Design accolade. As part of my festival coverage of SXSW 2019, I sat down with title sequence co-director James Ramirez to learn more about what went into making the sequence.

Some of the things we discuss include

• The different styles of animation that went into the sequence and how they put it together in Cinema 4D
• How they worked with the filmmakers behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to supplement the ideas and characters of the film
• The way they implemented the half-tone look
• What filmmakers should keep in mind when planning for a title sequence

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To hear more about how vintage animation styles have influenced computer animation, check out this interview with Limbert Fabian and Brandon Oldenburg, Oscar-winning directors from Moonbot Studios, in Shreveport, Louisiana.

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• Alma Mater
• Jame's site, friedpixels.com
• James on
  • Instagram, Twitter
• This Art of the Title article provides an in-depth discussion with illustrations about how the title sequence came together.
• James gave a shout out to the Deadpool 2 title sequence.
• Imaginary Forces, one of the agencies whose work James admires, worked on titles for Stranger Things and Mad Men.
• Jack Kirby, an early Spider-Man artist, provided design inspiration for both the film and title sequence of Into the Spider-Verse.
• While we didn't get to discuss this in the interview, James also did some motion graphics work on Stranger Than Fiction, a film that has been a big inspiration for me. My interview with Stranger Than Fiction's producer Lindsay Doran is over here.
• Shortcut for the podcast: nicksav.show

Additional music for the show provided by Rob Costlow.

Ben Apley, producer for Alma Mater's Into the Spider-Verse title sequence, graciously shared some images to illustrate how the concept developed.

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• Sign up for The nsavides Newsletter.
• Subscribe or leave an honest review:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Overcast

• Say hello on Twitter: @nsavidesPRO

Thank you for visiting!