Filmnut - Season 5 (2011)

Tim Schlattmann, Co-executive Producer/ Writer for Dexter was the guest tonight. Tim talked about the creative process and how he works with all of the writers on the show. He loves the openness of "the room" (writers room)and how egos are left at the door and it is all about what ideas best serve the show. We talked about the psychology of everyone's favorite sociopath Dexter Morgan. What is the driving force behind each season of the show. his favorite line that he has written and a lot more.

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Steven Wolfe, Producer & CEO of Sneak Preview Entertainment. His credits include: (500) Days of Summer,(starring Joseph Gordan Levitt & Zoey Deschanel) Our Family Wedding, (starring Forrest Whitaker, Carlos Mencia and America Ferrera) Miss March, (starring Zach Gregger, Trevor Moore and Craig Robinson) and currently in production on The Secret Lives of Dorks (James Belushi, Jennifer Tilly) talked about what it takes to produce a comedy and the importance of character work in film. We showed a clip and talked about one of the more challenging logistical scenes in (500)...

Ken Davitian (Borat, Get Smart, & Meet The Spartans) came on and talked about his new projects including: The Artist, The Prankster and You May Not Kiss The Bride. Of course there was still time to talk about Borat and how almost getting a role on Seinfeld would have prevented him from being in Borat.

Rise Of The Planet of The Apes Writers/Producers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver came on and talked about the critical and box office success of their latest film. We got into how the project came together, the CGI and visual effects, including what WETA did for Apes that went beyond Avatar.

Legendary casting director Marci Liroff whose credits include: Mr. Popper's Penguins, Ghost of Girlfriends Past, Insomnia, Mean Girls, Freaky Friday, Footloose, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, E.T, and Poltergeist, speaks about the casting process, auditioning, what it means to book the room and not the part. Marci speaks passionately about her feelings about pay to play workshops for actors, the things actors can do to advance their careers, as well as how a good casting director will help them succeed.

Known as a great character actor for his work in such shows as In Plain Sight, Entourage, The Wire, & Everybody Hates Chris, Paul Ben-Victor breaks out in the indie film Should've Been Romeo in which he stars and produces. Ben-Victor talked about Romeo and his other work.

Author, Entertainment Attorney and Producer's Representative Mark Litwak offers advice to indie filmmakers about distribution, story and marketing. AFTRA/SAG merger talks and Net Neutrality are also discussed.

Technical adviser for the new Steven Soderbergh film, Haywire, Aaron Cohen was the guest tonight. Cohen is a former counter terrorism special ops officer in the Israeli army. He also authored the book, The Brotherhood of Warriors, and is the owner of IMS Security. Sounds qualified to me! Soderbergh relied on Aaron to block scenes and included him on script development. He talked about what actors he worked with, and his relationship with MMA star Gina Carano on and off camera. He brought in some guns for a little show and tell and talked about the importance of making...

Sam Witwer of the Syfy show "Being Human" was the guest tonight. Witwer talked about the chemistry he has on and off camera with his fellow actors, the similarities and differences between the U.S.A. and the British version, the show's plot and acting choices. We also got into the speed with which they shoot, and his perspective on playing a villain and directing. Of course we geeked out a little on Star Wars. Being a major fan of Star Wars and voicing characters for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and The Clone Wars Witwer talked about the process of how that is shot ...

Actor Efren Ramirez is reprising his role as Pedro from the break away hit independent film, Napoleon Dynamite, on the new FOX animated show Napoleon Dynamite. Efren was a great guest sharing his views on the craft of acting, working with other actors, his relationship with Jon Heder and the Napoleon crew. Of course among other topics, he mentioned a couple of other little films he was in such as Crank and Crank: High Voltage. Ramirez also has a film coming out with Will Ferrell called Casa de mi Padre.

Visual effects are constantly evolving. Tonight we got to hear from Stephan Szpak-Fleet, VFX Supervisor for the new ABC show, The River, on some of the creative and business realities of VFX. The River is executive produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Paranormal Activity writer/Director Oren Peli. Fleet brought his VFX knapsack with him and talked about the tools of the trade. Also how he uses and doesn't green screen. He made recommendations for aspiring VFX folks and answered viewer questions on how he does what he does.

Tonight on Filmnut Costume designer Luke Reichle of the ABC show Castle talked about how he works, differences between film and TV and more... We got to look at some of his sketches and talk about specific episodes of Castle and other projects he has worked on. I asked Luke his opinion on the the costume designers awards shows like the Oscars choose to acknowledge versus those they do not.

Preeminent acting coach Howard Fine breaks down some of the elements of his teaching style. Some of the concepts covered include: the difference between actors who use "How" to play a scene versus "Why" (hint, why is better)... How an actor can meet the needs of the director and still stay true to an organic process. Consistency versus spontaneity, the importance of homework and rehearsal and a good talk about what actors can learn from athletes. Howard becomes quite impassioned when talking about rehearsal, how to keep to it fresh and when done right you don't have ...

McKenzie Westmore, host of the Syfy reality show Face off, talks about the makings of the show, the contestants, the judges and who she was sorry to see lose and more.

Daryl Sabara plays Edgar Rice Burroughs in the just released Disney Film John Carter. He was very excited to talking about working on the film, and the real Edgar Rice Burroughs (author of the John Carter books). Among other topics, we talked about being a child actor, his work in the Spy Kids movies, what crew position he would like to be if not acting and working multiple times with director Robert Rodriguez.

Mark Pellegrino is anything but Lost! Tonight he talked about some of his most notable roles including: Lost, Supernatural, Being Human and Dexter. What is his favorite role that he has played? We find out in this interview. In addition, Mark teaches acting at the famous Playhouse West so in addition to his work in front of the camera we also hear some of his perspectives on teaching the craft.

Trans-Media artist Keith Arem (Call of Duty, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Iron Man, WWE SmackDown vs Raw) came on Filmnut to talk gaming, film, and graphic novels. Arem has his own studio where he utilizes voice capture and advanced technology that streamlines the creative process making it more efficient, better quality, and is Eco friendly! His creative and technical approach is designed to help the on-camera and voice actor be in the best position to succeed.

Tonight on Filmnut Ned Vaughn, the Executive Vice President of the newly merged SAG-AFTRA union, came on and talked about what the merger means for members of both unions and for those who hope to join in the future. The recent vote to merge, that was announced on March 30th, was an overwhelming majority and we talked about why that might have been. Vaughn touched on how SAG-AFTRA will be able to work together rather than compete against each other. Actors, who previously worked via both unions but couldn't earn enough in either to qualify for for health insurance ...

Tonight on Filmnut we talked about American Reunion both in front of the camera and as "real people" as the gang got back together. Nicholas got into the mechanics of how he breaks down and gets into character using his American Pie role as well as the character he is playing (Abbie Hoffman) in an upcoming film, The Chicago Eight. Why does Thomas want to act in an action movie and what is his favorite? What was it like working with different directors in each of the four American movies he appeared in? Thoughts on a sequel to Rookie of the year? And we also talked ...

The National Director of the Producers Guild of America, Vance Van Petten, came on and talked about the guild, how it is different from a union, the different categories of producers in film, TV and new media and how they can benefit by the PGA. We also discussed the upcoming Produced By Conference (June 8th to 10). Past and present speakers include, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Morgan Freeman and many more. The Conference has great seminars, mentoring roundtables and a lot of networking and educational opportunities for experienced and new producers.

Actor Jon Huertas, Javier Esposito on ABC's Castle was the guest tonight. He has a really good sense of humor and reveled in talking about a great practical joke he played on on Castle co-star Seamus Dever. There was quite a bit of talk about acting on Castle, and indie films. The viewers were asking great questions tonight including one about Huertas' take on Esposito's relationship with Lanie. Jon does some great charity work with the organization puppies behind bars and he was able to touch on that as well.

Bite Me director and co-producer Jarrett Lee Conaway made a return visit to Filmnut tonight. This comedy / Zombie series that is produced by Machinima, and Lionsgate and airs on youtube and Fearnet, is a breakout hit where it is up to three Zombie gamer nerds to save the world from, you guessed it, Zombies. In the interview Conaway talked about the creative process, working with the writers, Andy Shapiro and Bob Quinn, his shooting style and working with the actors. We also talked about the editing, budget, shooting style, equipment and the future of new media.

Jeff Pierce is the CEO and founder of Stereoscope, a 3D production facility specializing in 2D to 3D conversion, 3D production and post production services.

Lakeshore Entertainment President and Producer talked about producing in today's economic environment and the upcoming Produced By Conference. His credits include, The Underworld series, Crank, The Lincoln Lawyer and Million Dollar Baby.

Jerrol Lebaron is a concerned citizen fed up with all of the pork barrel spending and politicians signing bills that they do not read. So he made a documentary about his efforts to get a proposition put on a North Dakota ballet to change that. Lebaron is also the found of inktip.com, a website where writers can post their loglines and screenplays in hopes of making a deal. We covered both topics tonight.