The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast - S2 Bonus Episode: Killer Talent/Talented Killer

S2 Bonus Episode: Killer Talent/Talented Killer

07/16/23 • 33 min

We “met” Francisco Lacerda – a very, very talented Portuguese-American moviemaker – at this year’s Chattanooga Film Festival. That is, we met a short Francisco made called “They call it... Red Cemetery“. Red Cemetery is both an homage to Sergio Leone and his brand of exploitation moviemaking and a statement of moviemaking talent all by itself. We’d even call what Francisco’s got “killer talent”.

He’s got a very real talent for killing people. On film/video.

Like a lot of young film makers (from outside Hollywood), Francisco has had to find his own way (and find the money to make his movies). He’s struggled with crowd-sourcing (and he’ll talk about his troubles) and even with his own (Portuguese) government. The establishment film community in Portugal is pretty staid, reserved and unimaginative.

At least, they were. Francisco sees hopeful signs of change. Self-described horror movies are starting to find acceptance (and officially-sanctioned financing). Francisco has also found a home in the Troma-verse (some of his work can be found on Troma’s YouTube channel.

We’ll also pick at the early horror movie “wounds” – the ones that inspired Francisco’s own movie-making dreams and ambitions. Especially important to Francisco’s creative evolution: “Alien”. We will do a deep dive into how “Alien” helped shape Francisco’s vision and aspirations.

We compare Francisco to early Sam Raimi or early John Waters. Their early work pushed the envelope repeatedly but always with a big dose of irony. It’s what helped make them both the killer talents they became.

We really enjoyed meeting Francisco and we think you will, too. We’re dead certain that you’ll enjoy Francisco’s work, too.

You can find some at of Francisco’s work at the Troma YouTube Channel.

He’s got a very real talent for killing people. On film/video.

We really enjoyed meeting Francisco and we think you will, too. We’re dead certain that you’ll enjoy Francisco’s work, too.

You can find some at of Francisco’s work at the Troma YouTube Channel.

Previous Episode

S2E45 Make Em Laugh

Conventional wisdom says comedy is hard. It is for some people. Hell, for some people (the ones without a sense of humor – not everyone has one, ya know!), comedy is downright impossible. For the rest of us though, comedy isn’t all that hard. And it gets easier the more honest we are. Phyllis Katz (of the Chicago Katz’s) teaches people how to reach that inner-most place where comedy lives and breathes. How to “make em laugh” as it were. She was one of the founders of the Groundlings School. And The Groundlings is one of the preeminent training grounds for great comedic talent.

Gary Austin started The Groundlings in 1974 in Los Angeles. He’d been part of the improv group The Committee up in San Francisco. The Committee had been formed by alums of Chicago’s The Second City – truly the mother of all improv.

Meet Phyllis Katz

Actor, Author, Teacher Phyllis Katz

Phyllis compares improv to jazz. The creative process is similar. It requires a completely open mind, great hearing and the willingness to go anywhere the spirit takes you.

As creative outlets go, improv checks off a particular set of boxes. It’s not about joke-writing or even going for the joke. It’s about character – about quickly and deftly finding the physical attributes and personality quirks that define a character and the world they inhabit. Few things inspire the wild laughter that happens when an audience grasps the abstract ideas inside another person’s head. A completely imaginary world suddenly springs vividly to life – and a whole audience is delighted that they’re in on the joke!

Improv epitomizes the collaborative process. Everyone must be on the same page for the enterprise to work. “Yes, and...” is improv’s operating principle. It’s the operating principle of every creative endeavor.

In this episode, our guest Phyllis Katz will give us deep insight into how The Groundlings came to be – and how they’ve put their imprint on American comedy for a generation.

The Cavalcade

Want proof? Here are but a few of their graduates (and by “graduates”, we mean, the survivors of a rigorous, highly competitive, multi-year training and culling process) –

Will Forte

Heidi Gardner

Anna Gesteyer

Kathie Griffin

Phil Hartman

Cheryl Hines

Jan Hooks

Chris Kattan

Lisa Kudrow

Phil LaMar

John Lovitz

Melissa McCarthy

Edie McClurg

Pat Morita

Larraine Newman

Cheri Oteri

Cassandra Peterson

Paul Reubens

Maya Rudolph

Mindy Sterling

Julia Sweeney

Kristin Wiig

Is Comedy Hard? Depends...

Some incredibly talented people crashed out before making the main company. Alan is one of them! Those people could write volumes about how comedy is hard. Some have...

On the plus side? Listening or watching this episode isn’t hard at all! The best thing about comedy is that enjoying it isn’t nearly as challenging as creating it.

LINKS:

Hipwrecked – Phyllis’s book about her adventure in medical tourism – can be found HERE!

Ira Sullivan & Stu Katz Live At Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase – Get The Music!

Next Episode

S2E46: Crypt We Love/Crypt We Hate

Over the course of 5 seasons, Gil & Alan produced 69 episodes of “Tales From The Crypt”. That’s out of 93 episodes total over its full 7 year run. While we’ve said many times that doing Crypt was like catching lightning in a bottle, not every day was fun. And while we take pride in every episode we made, there are episodes we take greater pride in. And episodes where it’s more “pride by association”. Like any relationship, it’s love-hate.

Fortunately, doing Crypt, it was mostly love.

There are lots of episodes where we like the finished product but loved working with whoever made it with us. That really was a big part of the lightning – the actors and directors who dropped in for an episode. And always there were stories. We talk about working with TIM CURRY, KIRK DOUGLAS, CHRISTOPHER REEVE, WHOOPI GOLDBERG and TOBE HOOPER.

Clockwise from top left: Rita Wilson as a flesh-eating ghoul, Kirk Douglas in “Yellow”, Roger Daltrey, Whoopi Goldberg in “Dead Wait”, Buck Henry, Joe Pesci, Tobe Hooper, John Frankenheimer, Steven Weber.

And then we tell TOM HANKS stories and RITA WILSON stories, And some pretty good stories about WILLIAM FRIEDKIN, BUCK HENRY, JOE PESCI, JOEY PANTOLIANO. Joey once gave Alan a literal hair cut. We have Polaroid photos as proof!

Joey Pantoliano – actor and hair stylist – gives Alan a style on the set of “The Outer Limits”.

And we pay our respects to MANNY COTO. Manny was a super-talented writer-director-producer who wrote and directed the “MOURNIN’ MESS” episode – one of our best. Manny was huge in TV. Among his credits: he ran American Horror Story and 24. Manny just passed away; we send his family, friends and loved ones our deepest condolences.

We’ll also dig into why we feel less charitable toward certain episodes and directors. Gil tells a great (and revealing) story about legendary movie director JOHN FRANKENHEIMER and what happened when he directed an episode of Crypt.

We’ll also tell a few JOEL SILVER stories because – how can we not? Gil still carries around scars from the episode Joel “directed”.

What’s a Crypt-based episode without a Joel Silver story?