Approaches to Film Viewing (w/ Sam Camp)

Eli Price (00:02.258)
Hello and welcome to the establishing shot a podcast where we do deep dives and two directors and their filmographies we are in one of our off weeks of our early Spielberg series and We're gonna be talking about Kind of our approaches to filmmaking today. I am back here again with Sam Camp who joined us for the

Close encounters episode last week. Uh, it's, it's good to have you back again on the podcast, Sam. Uh, it's, uh, good to be back even though we just literally finished recording the last one and, uh, jumping into this one. Yeah. Yeah. That would have been, yeah, that would have been, that's a good idea. I'm going to start keeping a wardrobe, um, in, in my office that I can change in between.

Sam (00:33.342)
Yeah, thanks, Eli. It's good to be back.

Sam (00:45.558)
Yeah, I should have changed my shirt.

Sam (00:55.18)
Yeah.

Eli Price (00:59.326)
Uh, these shoots, uh, but I thought it'd be fun to kind of just, um, you know, me and Sam have done a couple of drafts before. Um, so I thought it might be fun to kind of have a change of pace and just, uh, talk about, um, just how we approach watching movies. Um, I think a lot of times people don't maybe necessarily think about that. They just kind of watch movies. Um,

Sam (01:00.558)
Yeah.

Sam (01:27.638)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:29.022)
But I think I personally have kind of, I guess, some general just ways that I watch movies and things that I do. And I know I've talked to you in the past of like, you know, you kind of like looking at certain genres of film or certain eras and trying to like catch up on on like this era of filmmaking and stuff. So so I thought.

Sam (01:55.95)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:58.654)
You know, it'd be fun to talk that with you. But yeah, do you, when you are sitting down to like watch a movie, what is like your main motivation? Do you think about that or do you just like, I feel like watching a movie? What's kind of going through your head?

Sam (02:06.414)
Thank you.

Sam (02:16.718)
Yeah, I mean, I think it also it.

like it just kind of depends. I guess it's the most unsatisfying answer I could give. But yeah, I think it really just it comes down to sort of what I'm interested in at the time. Am I wanting to read subtitles? You know, do I want to be challenged? Or do I just want to be entertained?

Eli Price (02:22.194)
Sure.

Eli Price (02:35.422)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:41.66)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:47.422)
Yeah.

Sam (02:50.958)
most of my viewing these days is like in the evening. And so I'm usually pretty much toast. And so it's not often that I'm just like, I really wanna watch a really hard movie that's gonna be like deep and just challenging and thought provoking. But yeah, I mean, I think it really just depends on what I'm...

Eli Price (03:06.694)
Mm -hmm.

Sam (03:20.174)
what I'm feeling at the time. Yeah, it definitely changes. And if you're viewing alone versus with people and you know, I think those play a role as well.

Eli Price (03:23.006)
Yeah, it changes. I think it changes for me too.

Eli Price (03:30.302)
right.

Eli Price (03:34.398)
Yeah. Yeah. I think too, um, you know, I think reiterating what you were saying about like, what kind of mood you're in too, is I find myself like sitting down and I'm like, I have some time. I'm going to watch something. Um, and, and just kind of like thinking about, man, I'm in a really reflective mood. Maybe, you know, a movie that's more reflective will be good or.

Sam (03:56.404)
Thank you.

Eli Price (04:03.582)
Like you're saying like, man, I'm like dog tired. I just need something kind of like entertaining and wild to watch to just kind of, I don't know, lift my spirits or give somewhere to escape to, you know, or something familiar too. Sometimes it's like, I want to watch something familiar, something I've seen before that I know I love.

Sam (04:06.318)
Yeah.

Sam (04:12.118)
Yeah, or to unwind. Yeah. Well, I think the great thing about cinema is it can be so many different things. Like it can be comforting, it can be challenging, it can be...

Eli Price (04:32.412)
Right.

Sam (04:37.614)
the whole gamut of emotions and it can sort of serve all of those needs just depending on what, depending on what you watch.

Eli Price (04:48.514)
Yeah.

Sam (04:53.934)
which I think is what's so cool about movies and TV as well, that it can do that.

Eli Price (05:05.278)
Yeah. Yeah. Along those same lines, do you do you have like, um,

I'm trying to think of the best way to phrase this to not make it the same question because it what I have in mind is a little it's kind of like a side question of what we were just talking about but like how do you The way I want to say it is how do you decide what to watch which sounds like the same question but I mean more like do you have like a list that you go back to or do you have like a process of like

Sam (05:31.948)
Mm -hmm.

Sam (05:39.214)
you

Eli Price (05:43.07)
Oh, I want to knock out this area of film history. Do you have like a process or anything like that? Maybe like a recommendations list that you'll like go back to. Yeah.

Sam (05:43.182)
you

Sam (05:52.046)
Um...

Sam (05:56.174)
No, you know, I really should. But a lot of times it'll just be based on like, if I've seen someone talking about a particular, a lot of times it's like a particular director get mentioned. And so I'll be like, oh, okay. Or if like, if someone I admire is talking about a film, like I recently watched an interview with a Bernard Herzog.

Eli Price (06:11.166)
Sure. Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (06:25.982)
Mmm, yeah.

Sam (06:26.318)
Um, and I really, I really respect him and I like a lot of his films and like, he's just sort of like, he's such a purist and, and just a awesome guy. Um, and he had, he had mentioned somebody that, cause he had kind of got that question, like who inspires you? And so he had mentioned a director and I thought, okay, well, maybe I should check out, you know, that person's film.

Eli Price (06:35.358)
Yeah.

Eli Price (06:40.944)
you

Eli Price (06:55.196)
Mm -hmm.

Sam (06:55.534)
And so a lot of times it sort of comes via like other people, either friends of mine that will mention things, but a lot of times it's like other people in the movie industry really giving props to a certain director or films and it's like, okay, I'll go see what that's about. And...

because I think there's a lot of movies like in pop culture today, but I think it's interesting to see like what's informing like the movies that are being made today, like the contemporary directors, what are informing their choices and what's inspiring them and go see that if I can.

Eli Price (07:36.508)
Yeah.

Eli Price (07:52.958)
Yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, uh, before I answer, I was going to say the, what you made me think of is recently Greta Gerwig, when Barbie came out, she did this interview where she like named all these like inspirations for her when she was thinking about making this movie. Um, and it's not, none of them are like, um, Oh, it's like, Oh, much through this or Oh, it's like, um, you know, make.

Sam (07:53.038)
Yeah.

Sam (07:58.35)
you

Eli Price (08:21.502)
making my version of this. It's more just like inspirations list that she was like giving in the interview. And it's a bunch of like really, really great, like well renowned films. And I was just like thinking, man, I hope like people that have like jumped all in on the Barbie craze, like hear this and like start checking out some of these other movies because Greta mentioned it in an interview that.

Sam (08:25.742)
Yeah.

Eli Price (08:50.43)
you know, is all over the Internet. And so like, I think people do. Kind of watch movies in that way, and I do, too. I think for me, one thing I do that helps because I can have like, I forget the term for it. I saw a term for this.

Sam (08:52.206)
Yeah.

Eli Price (09:17.022)
recently that I was like, Oh, I definitely have that. But it's just when you have so many things to choose from, um, you, you get, you end up doing like so much research that you, um, you kind of get frozen and can't make a decision. Like, yeah, I have that bad. And, um, and so yes. Yeah.

Sam (09:27.03)
Like diss it.

Sam (09:34.254)
Yeah, it's like paralysis by analysis. Yeah. Or decision fatigue is another.

Eli Price (09:46.398)
Um, yeah, mine is definitely more paralysis by analysis, but, um, it, yes. And that, that's what, that's what helps me. So like, um, I listened to other film podcasts, like, um, my one, one of the main ones I listened to every week is, um, film spotting and they do, they'll do these like marathons. Um,

Sam (09:53.006)
Well, that's why I said I need to have like a list. It's like, okay.

Eli Price (10:10.318)
And they do they'll do these like marathons. Where like right now they're doing like a William Wyler marathon. Well, I had never seen a William Wyler movie and he's like one of the most like well decorated, well respected directors in film history. I had just never gotten around to seeing him. And so listening along with this podcast and trying to like participate in the movies they're watching for their podcast.

Sam (10:24.32)
you

Sam (10:36.558)
. . .

Eli Price (10:40.174)
It kind of gives like some structure of like, Oh, I'm listening to this podcast every week. Oh, I've got to listen, watch the next William Wyler movie, you know, this week, sometime before the podcast comes out. So it kind of like gives some structure and it's like, I have movies that I, that I'm going to watch kind of. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the decision is made for me, um, by the podcast. So that takes away that.

Sam (10:55.542)
Yeah.

Sam (10:59.288)
It's like a book club for movies. Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli Price (11:08.878)
anxiety of having to make a decision and also like helps me feel in like blind spots and and what I've seen in that way so that's that's one thing that helps but other than that like it's really just a lot of like well before I say that I was gonna say hopefully this podcast will help do that for people.

Sam (11:10.826)
Yeah.

Eli Price (11:38.702)
Like watching through, like if you listen to this podcast and you, um, kind of watch through a director's filmography with me, um, that's, I guess that's like kind of one motivation I have for making this podcast is to give some structure to people's like film viewing, um, routine. And so.

Sam (11:45.766)
Yeah.

Sam (11:58.86)
It's definitely, I would say, it's definitely helped me as well, because I've certainly taken away a lot of great recommendations and seen some great movies as a result.

Eli Price (12:02.294)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I appreciate that because that's that's kind of how I end up seeing a lot of movies from other people doing that. So, um, but yeah, it is a lot of like a lot of times I'll end up being like excited about, oh, this director is releasing a movie.

Sam (12:18.794)
Yeah, yeah.

Sam (12:25.936)
Thank you.

Eli Price (12:30.962)
Let me pop in a few of theirs that I haven't seen sort of thing like last year David Fincher released the killer on Netflix and There I was like, oh, let me watch a couple of David Fincher movies I haven't seen and I ended up just like on a whim like turning on the curious case of Benjamin Button and Like absolutely loved it. It's like a very very extremely strange movie

Sam (12:35.244)
Yeah.

Sam (12:45.002)
Thank you.

Sam (12:53.004)
Mmm.

Sam (12:59.054)
as is, I think, his entire filmography. Have you seen Eraserhead?

Eli Price (13:01.614)
Yeah. Eraserhead, that's David. Did I say David Lynch? David Fincher is who I said. Yeah, David. David Lynch is is Eraserhead is one of the most bizarre movies I've ever seen for sure. Yeah, it's it's a strange movie.

Sam (13:09.022)
Oh, David. Okay. Yeah, I'm sorry. I was thinking of David Lynch.

Sam (13:18.574)
I couldn't finish it. I was like, I'm just not going to waste my time.

Eli Price (13:29.358)
Curious Cage of Benjamin Button is a strange movie in a different way. It's one of those that I watch and I'm like, this is incredible for me, but I know a lot of other people would hate this. But yeah, it's just one of those things where I kind of let... There's some structure.

Sam (13:32.98)
Yeah, I never saw it, but I know that at least the premise is odd.

Sam (13:46.298)
Yeah.

Eli Price (13:57.742)
to the way I watch movies, but then there's also like, um, Oh, this, this person's coming out with the movie. Let me catch up on some lines spots or, Oh, you know, what, you know, Oh, this movie's coming out and it, you know, there's it's based on, you know, this story. And let me maybe watch a related movie or something like that. Um, a lot of it is sort of that thing.

Sam (14:07.278)
Yeah.

Sam (14:19.63)
Yeah, or watch the original or something. Yeah. Because so many movies are remakes. They don't even realize they're remakes, which is interesting.

Eli Price (14:24.302)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or, you know, instead of watching, um, whatever new Ghostbusters movie is coming out that they shouldn't be making, you can just go watch the original. Um, um,

Sam (14:42.478)
Yeah, there you go. But how do you really feel about it?

Eli Price (14:50.35)
Yeah, I feel the same way about the live action Disney movies. Let me maybe just go watch the original instead. Yeah, moving on, are there things you do like while watching a film or maybe even like after watching a film to like kind of process what you've watched? Obviously, like if you're turning on just like an action movie, there's maybe not a lot of

Sam (14:53.806)
Yeah.

Sam (15:18.726)
Yeah.

Eli Price (15:19.342)
Do you, is there anything that you find yourself doing to try to process those movies?

Sam (15:26.19)
Thank you.

Sam (15:36.046)
Yeah.

Sam (15:45.472)
You know.

Eli Price (15:47.978)
whether it's just sitting and reflecting or maybe talking with other people or yeah.

Sam (15:54.222)
Yeah, I mean, I think probably talking with other people about it would be one way. It probably could. And I don't do this, but I should start is just write down some thoughts afterwards. Even if it's just, you know, what did I like or dislike? What did I appreciate about it or what are some takeaways? But yeah, if it's.

Eli Price (16:05.634)
Hmm.

Eli Price (16:16.942)
Yeah.

Sam (16:22.478)
If it's like a Tarkovsky or something, it's a bit more sort of like thought that many more thoughts that have to be thought afterwards. But yeah, there's like, I don't like I don't watch with like a notebook or anything in hand, which I don't know, maybe that's a good practice. But I kind of like to just take it in as much as I can and then.

Eli Price (16:24.206)
Yeah. Right.

Eli Price (16:46.768)
Yeah.

Sam (16:52.27)
And then I'll usually end up talking to a friend about it or just kind of sitting and contemplating what it was that I just saw. Yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (17:02.226)
Yeah, for sure Yeah, I I only ever have a notebook in hand for a movie like if it's for the podcast I don't really I don't like to have to like take notes and I find myself to like pausing a lot when I'm watching for the podcast cuz like there's something I really want to get down but the movies like still It's it's still moving at a pace. That's too much for me to like finish my thought

Sam (17:25.07)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I try not to.

Eli Price (17:31.982)
And so, um, uh, I don't like watching that way. It's, it's kind of necessary for me to be able to do what I do for the podcast. Um, but most movies that I watch, you know, I'm, if I'm writing something down, it's, it's typically like afterwards, like reflecting. Um, and, and I do try to write something on every, I use, usually just utilize letter boxed. Um,

Sam (17:40.766)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (18:01.806)
has like your, you know, your movie diary that you can log movies on. Um, and so I, I usually write something about, which I'm behind on logging. I have like a long list of movies that I haven't logged on my note. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, but if you don't like, if you're not a app person, then you know, like my wife does.

Sam (18:06.582)
Oh cool.

Sam (18:15.918)
I have a long list of books that I've read that I haven't updated my book log on as well. So I understand.

Eli Price (18:30.67)
She has like a little journal for books where like she'll finish a book. She'll just kind of like write a few thoughts, like write the date she finished reading it and write a few thoughts. Um, she's, she's not an app person. She likes notebooks and stuff.

Sam (18:36.026)
Yeah. Yeah, I'm, I too am a pen and paper.

Sam (18:57.73)
Yeah.

Eli Price (19:03.47)
is really good for that or you know just a journal like a dedicated like little notebook maybe for writing down movie thoughts. I think that's great. One of the things I always ask my wife is like but what do you do like if you can't remember when you read that book how do you find you know what your thoughts were on it and that's like my that's my argument against the the physical one.

Sam (19:07.802)
Yeah.

Sam (19:31.886)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (19:32.142)
Cause in letterbox, I can just go to the movie and then like immediately like go find my review, you know, that I logged and see what I had thought about it back then. Um, yeah, she would probably never do that though. Um, but yeah, I think that's, um, I think the writing is a really good process. It's a habit that I started. Um,

Sam (19:44.142)
Or she can just transcribe them onto a Word document. And that way it's searchable.

Eli Price (20:01.646)
I've probably been doing that for, I think I started doing that in 2019. So around five years I've been doing that and it's been helpful because for one, like when you're writing something down, putting it to paper or putting it to your screen, like it's...

It helps you process sometimes. Sometimes like starting to write helps me process my thoughts on it for one and two, like you're, um, you're just like kind of building your aptitude, I guess, of understanding film by, by writing and reflecting on it. Um, that's one thing that's helped me a ton is like having to think about how do I put,

Sam (20:37.582)
Yeah.

Sam (20:48.566)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (21:01.881)
what I saw and kind of like these ambiguous kind of thoughts about the movie in my head on to like into a Senate structure that makes sense Can help it helps you like process. Okay What am I seeing on screen and how do I talk about it in a productive way And so that's that's one thing that I do

Sam (21:23.498)
Yeah.

Sam (21:31.008)
you

Eli Price (21:31.027)
myself that I recommend. Um, but also I just, I have like some go -to critics that I, um, that I like, you know, I usually like their thoughts, even if I disagree, um, they're well thought out and you know, um, so I'll, I usually, if it's a movie worth like reflecting on, I'll go like to several critics. Um, Roger Ebert.

Sam (21:34.094)
you

Sam (21:43.95)
you

Eli Price (22:01.459)
Um, is a big one that I really just think he's, he writes so well about, um, movies. Um, and he, he passed away. I can't remember what year. Um, I want to say it was like maybe the 20 teens sometime he, he passed. Um, but like almost any movie you watch that came out before that, like Roger Ebert has a review that you can just Google and, um,

Sam (22:03.886)
you

Sam (22:14.51)
you

Sam (22:25.826)
Yeah.

Eli Price (22:31.123)
So I just, I love to see what he has said about a movie. But yeah, so that's another thing that helps me process is sometimes someone else will say something that I was thinking, but didn't know how to put it. And so you'll read it and you'll be like, yes, that's, that's what I was trying to say in my head, but didn't have words for it.

Sam (22:44.026)
Yeah.

Sam (22:57.986)
Yeah, or they'll have just observations that Yeah, which I think it's helpful as well But yeah having giving like even if it's just like reviews on YouTube or something I think be Just seeing what what people have said about it

Eli Price (23:01.683)
that you didn't have yet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If that's your thing. Yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah. Yeah. Video essays can be helpful too. Cause a lot of times those guys, when they're made well, we'll, um, we'll kind of like, you know, put the images they're talking about.

Sam (23:23.062)
Yeah.

Sam (23:28.634)
Yeah. Yeah, those video essays are really good. A lot of those.

Eli Price (23:30.227)
on screen for you to see while they're talking about it, which can be pretty helpful too. Yeah. I don't have time to make video essays to that scale. Um, yeah. Um, uh, uh, last couple of questions. Um, what, um, this is, uh, you know, we don't have to spend a whole lot of time here, but what.

Sam (23:40.328)
Yeah, it's pretty intense, some of them, yeah.

Eli Price (24:00.627)
How do you determine if a film is good or not? What are things that you look for? Or is it just kind of like when you finish a movie, are you satisfied or not? What do you kind of think about when you're like, this is a good movie, I wanna recommend it, or that was a bad movie, I wouldn't recommend it?

Sam (24:23.086)
I feel like maybe the only thing that makes a movie bad is if it is like poorly done, either like just, just poorly executed, whether that's in the edit or the directing or the acting. Typically, I think it's the probably that comes down to the acting. If it's like, I just can't, you know, I'm not believing.

Eli Price (24:30.747)
Hmm.

Eli Price (24:49.455)
Sure.

Sam (24:52.622)
these characters and so I feel like that makes a movie bad. What makes a movie good is subjective. But.

Eli Price (24:56.723)
you

Eli Price (25:05.683)
It's a loaded question. Right.

Sam (25:15.35)
Yeah, it's hard to... It's easier to say what makes a movie bad, I think, which is why I said that first, but I think a movie can be good, but disagreeable and unsatisfying, but it could still be a good movie. Or it could be satisfying. It could be...

Eli Price (25:21.235)
Yeah.

Eli Price (25:31.091)
Yeah.

Eli Price (25:36.243)
Right. Yeah.

Sam (25:43.966)
entertaining and interesting and beautiful. So it can be, there's just way more ways for it to be good. That aren't just like, I don't know, some objective thing. I think there's fewer ways. I mean, I guess a movie can be bad in a lot of different ways as well, but I feel like a lot of times what we mean.

Eli Price (25:48.839)
Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (26:01.939)
Right.

Sam (26:15.246)
wasn't your cup of tea. But it was like, I don't know if it wasn't necessarily a bad movie, but it's just not something that you connected with in a meaningful way. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like it's a really unsatisfying way to talk about.

Eli Price (26:17.203)
Right. Yeah.

Eli Price (26:29.733)
Right.

Eli Price (26:35.419)
Yeah.

Well, you know, I wrote this, yeah, I wrote this question down knowing there, there wouldn't be a satisfying answer to it. So that's okay. Um, uh, yeah, I think you have like a few good points there. Um, uh, like a bad movie usually is something to do with like a technical aspect that is just like really done horribly or.

Sam (26:44.362)
Yeah.

Eli Price (27:08.019)
You know, a performance performances that are just like totally, you know, just some people can act and some people can act. It's nothing against the people that can act, but maybe someone should tell them they can act. Um, um, you gotta have people that can tell you when you bad at something in your life. Um, so it's a healthy thing to have, but, uh, yeah, you know, I can off the top of my head, I think of like,

Sam (27:09.838)
Yeah.

Sam (27:13.646)
Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (27:37.907)
a movie that I saw that like, I want to name the movie, but the sound was just like so terribly mixed that like it kind of took me out of the movie. It's a small, you know, scale movie, like with a, you know, minuscule budget. But I'm like, at the same time, I'm like, I've seen plenty of movies with no budget. How

Sam (27:52.374)
Yeah.

Eli Price (28:07.667)
good sound. So, you know, the hard work can be done to make the sound not like not make me like jump and cringe when someone like throws their keys on the table because it's mixed so terribly that it like hurts my ears, you know.

Sam (28:09.07)
Yeah, well and.

Sam (28:23.274)
Well, and I, one sort of rule of like video production or filmmaking is like, people will forgive bad visuals quicker than they will bad audio. So like, even if you're like doing an interview with somebody and.

As long as you have good audio, you can kind of muddle through, but if you have bad audio...

Eli Price (28:57.523)
Yeah. No, that's a good point. Yeah. And that, that's probably like a big reason that I, it was hard for me to even like judge if the performances were good, just cause this sound was so bad in the movie. Um, but yeah, anyways, uh, you know, the, yeah, the, the bad movie thing is, is, is good. I, I think.

Sam (28:58.094)
Yeah. Yeah.

Sam (29:09.614)
Yeah.

Eli Price (29:24.627)
I don't, I want to say like, I don't think there's maybe anything that you could say objective either way. Um, just because.

It's kind of like anti objectivity in a sense. Like even that movie that like I thought was like terrible and I would say is objectively wasn't good. You know, there I'm sure there are people that like were like, Oh, I loved this thing or Oh, this part made me cry. And it's like, well, I guess like something I thought is objective.

I think it's just like...

Sam (30:09.882)
Yeah, that's the trouble with sentimentality, I guess. Because people will be sentimental. Yeah.

Eli Price (30:38.643)
I've found that, um, a lot of it depends for you. You kind of have to talk about it personally instead of objectively. Um, I find that sometimes it depends on like what state I'm in. Um, like, because I've, I've rewatched movies that I, that I was more negative on and was like, man, what was, why did I not go for this the first time?

Sam (30:52.634)
Yeah.

Eli Price (31:09.075)
And usually it comes down to like, I was tired or, um, or even like, I wasn't ready to watch that movie. Um, because it's doing things like filmmaking wise that I wasn't, um, I didn't have the ability to notice.

film watching, I don't know what word to use. I want to say career, but it's not a career. Like I don't get paid to watch movies. But yeah, some, some of it's that like, was I ready to watch that or what mood was I in? Was I too tired? You know, sometimes that can make a great movie.

Sam (31:37.122)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (32:01.267)
be something that's like not satisfying to watch. Um, but I also really thought that you made a great point about like, is a movie satisfying isn't a good gauge of if it's good or not. Cause I do know people that.

You know.

Some people, I guess it goes back to like, what are you looking for in a movie? Cause some people, they want to be satisfied with an ending or with, you know, the content of a movie. And if they're not, to them, it's a bad movie. But I'm the kind of person that believes like movies and art should stress.

Sam (32:29.422)
Yeah.

Sam (32:43.32)
Yeah.

Eli Price (32:52.883)
you and kind of push you beyond limits. So if a movie is unsatisfying, or like turned you off in some way to like something I believe in is, okay, let's examine why that is. Was there, was there purpose behind it or not? Sometimes, sometimes you come down and you're like, no, I don't think there was purpose behind it. I think this director just thought it was fun to like kill people in fun ways.

Sam (33:10.69)
Yeah.

Eli Price (33:21.523)
And I don't think that's cool. Or, oh no, like maybe this was a gory movie, but they were like saying, there was a purpose behind it, they were saying something. And so, yeah, I wasn't really satisfied with how it made me feel, but I think the director wanted to leave me feeling that way. Right. And so I think that's a really good point.

Sam (33:22.398)
Yeah.

Sam (33:33.032)
Yeah.

Sam (33:42.51)
Yeah, that was the point. Yeah.

Eli Price (33:49.907)
But even that is, like I said, kind of a subjective way to like gauge, like, cause some people are just like, if I feel gross at the end of the movie, then I hate it. Like, you know, it was a bad movie.

Sam (33:54.22)
Yeah.

Sam (34:04.174)
Yeah, yeah, and I just think, I just think people can be more open to like what a movie is trying to do.

Eli Price (34:16.583)
Yeah.

Sam (34:19.982)
rather than like, what do I want to get out of this movie? Like I want to be entertained and I don't want to be challenged. And that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that. But that's a pretty narrow scope of what a movie can do or what a movie is. And so I think it would be good to sort of break free of some of that if you can.

Eli Price (34:23.711)
Yeah.

Eli Price (34:31.411)
Right.

Sam (34:50.382)
But it's, you know, like you say, sometimes you need to prepare yourself to see a movie because it just takes more work, you know, than other movies. And that's okay too. But you don't necessarily want to do that all the time either.

Eli Price (34:57.451)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah. Right. Yeah, sometimes I just want to watch, you know, King Kong and Godzilla fight, you

Sam (35:17.806)
Yeah. Well, and I think that's what's so great about like Spielberg films is I feel like he is sort of the archetypal, like broadly appealing movie maker.

Eli Price (35:23.763)
Mm -hmm. He kind of toes the line of those two things.

Sam (35:33.966)
Yeah, like you know it's going to be entertaining, it's going to be interesting, it'll most definitely be satisfying to some degree, but it'll also be executed well, and I think that's a big part of it is it's...

Eli Price (35:45.745)
Mm -hmm. Right. With like meaning and purpose. Yeah.

Sam (35:56.11)
Yeah, yeah. And so I think he like ticks all a lot of those boxes in a lot of his films, which is why he's like so commercially successful. I mean, like you can't argue with with that. But it's but I do think and I think that's why he gets criticized a lot, too, is because, you know, he's not trying to do some sort of edgy whatever turning cinema on its head or.

Eli Price (36:07.697)
Yeah.

Eli Price (36:17.061)
Yeah. Yeah.

Sam (36:25.998)
some which that's fine people can do that too but that's not what he's doing and I think that's just also why he gets criticized sometimes for just maybe being too like down the middle I don't know.

Eli Price (36:41.939)
Yeah. Yeah. He's, he just make, he's wanting to make entertaining movies that people can connect with is just like when it comes down to it, that's what he, that's what he wants to do. And he does it really well. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, it's been a really good discussion. Uh,

Sam (36:51.168)
Yeah, well.

Well, and he's a storyteller, you know, like, and he just, he does that just really, really well. So, yeah.

Eli Price (37:11.699)
before we head out, do you have any like movie related film watching resources that you would like to recommend, whether it's a book or podcast or any other sort of resource? You know, I always recommend Letterboxd. It's not a book or a podcast, but it is a good resource to utilize for like, you know, a film diary.

Sam (37:16.72)
Okay, yeah, I'll have to check that one out.

Sam (37:44.846)
Yeah, I'm kind of drawing a blank as far as a movie going resource.

Sam (37:53.262)
I don't think I've actually read too many books about movies. Yeah, I would say, I mean, that's kind of been my kick lately, but the other team Deakins podcast, if you're interested in sort of seeing behind the curtain of kind of how movies get made, it's a really good, a really good podcast.

Eli Price (37:57.553)
Yeah.

Oh, you mentioned the podcast, the Deakins podcast. Yeah.

Eli Price (38:15.519)
Yeah.

Eli Price (38:21.907)
Yeah. Yeah, I, um, I want to re start reading more books, like more film related books. Um, I haven't read a ton myself. Uh, for the Christopher Nolan series, I read a book called the Nolan variations, um, which was like this really good mix of going like film by film.

Sam (38:29.55)
you

Sam (38:41.504)
you

Eli Price (38:49.235)
uh, through his movies and like discussing sort of like the making of and, um, but also like where he was in his life at that point. Um, and also like kind of pulling a Christopher Nolan and kind of like exploring the philosophical things behind the movies. Um, uh, you know, that Nolan kind of obsesses over, um,

Sam (38:56.89)
Mm.

Sam (39:08.482)
Yeah.

Eli Price (39:17.075)
And he wrote, he wrote this book. Uh, I think the, the author's name is Tom shown or he's British, so they might pronounce it weird, but it's spelled S H O N E. Um, and, um, it's just, it's a really, really good, well -written book. Like it's for a book that's like a biography that walks through, uh, a director's films. Um, it's like half like film.

making a book, half biography. It's like really engaging. Um, and like, it made, like, it made me think, um, about. Exist, existential things. So, um, I want to find more books like that, that, um, that are well written like that, that kind of dive into movies, but also like have some extra like, that aren't just like information dumps, but are like well written and engaging.

Sam (39:49.534)
Mm.

Sam (40:00.416)
That's good.

Sam (40:16.014)
Yeah, well Tarkovsky wrote a book, I think something about time, I forget the title, but that would probably have some existential angst in it, I would imagine.

Eli Price (40:24.049)
Hmm.

Eli Price (40:28.915)
I would imagine so. I still have some Tarkovsky blind spots I need to fix. But yeah, I do. In fact, I think I've only seen three of his films, which he doesn't have very many. So that might be a good next endeavor for me personally, not for the podcast necessarily yet.

Sam (40:45.036)
Mm -mm.

Eli Price (40:58.675)
I think I should hold off on the Tarkovsky series. Yeah.

Sam (40:58.958)
Yeah.

Sam (41:02.382)
Yeah, they're intense and confusing.

Eli Price (41:07.635)
Um, but yeah, no, that, that maybe that's a resource that we can recommend for ourselves. Let's maybe plan on reading the Tarkovsky book. Um, at some point.

Sam (41:17.326)
Yeah, he may have had more than one, but there's one on time, I think. I'll have to find the title of. Yeah, that's true.

Eli Price (41:22.327)
Yeah, he does like time

Eli Price (41:29.683)
Yeah, I guess I would recommend that if you're interested in Christopher Nolan. When I did that series, I mentioned the book a lot. But yeah, that's a good book. I always, like I said, recommend Letterboxd. I kind of talked about if Film Spotting Podcast is really good.

Sam (41:31.2)
you

Eli Price (41:55.855)
There's a lot of great film podcasts out there though and if you're like me Then you you'll listen to several just because you're watching and think about movies all the time But yeah, I don't think I have any other recommendations off the top I was kind of winging it to my recommend

Sam (42:18.254)
Yeah, Sculpting in Time is the name of that book. Yeah.

Eli Price (42:23.795)
sculpting. I have heard of that. Yeah. Um, I guess like the other recommendation I have is I always, I've, I've talked about these before on the podcast too, but these little film studies notebooks, um, are helpful. They're, they're based around like directors filmographies, which is perfect for, um, this podcast. But, um, but yeah, it's, I think it's just this guy that like has a template that he like loads.

Sam (42:36.878)
Yeah.

Eli Price (42:53.971)
directors, like filmographies into, and then sells them on Amazon, which is like a really brilliant, like, I wish I would have come up with that because I'm sure he makes a lot of money just passively. Um, but, uh, but yeah, they're there. It's helpful to have something like that. Um, if you're more of like a physical journaling, um, person, but, but yeah, I think that's, that's all. Any, um, any other thoughts?

Sam (42:59.278)
That's brilliant.

Sam (43:04.59)
Yeah. Yeah.

Sam (43:15.63)
Yeah. Cool. I'm all thought out, I think.

Eli Price (43:25.651)
Me too. Yeah. Go watch the movies. Think about them. Talk about them with friends and, uh, and yeah, go, um, co the, the, the collision .org, I believe. Is that right, Sam? Uh, yeah, go to collision .org. You can find all the stuff they're doing over there. Um, Sam and Daniel, who was on for, for jaws and, um,

Sam (43:32.044)
Yeah.

Sam (43:40.962)
Yeah, that's right.

Eli Price (43:54.995)
And y 'all have other people write, um, right reviews and stuff on there too. I'm, I'm pretty sure. Um, yeah. And go follow, um, it's just called faith and pop culture, right? The new podcast. Yep. Faith and pop culture. Um, you can find it wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube. Um, so yeah, go check that out and, uh,

Sam (43:59.662)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A few other contributors.

Sam (44:09.134)
Yeah, I guess faith in pop culture.

Sam (44:16.894)
Yep.

Eli Price (44:23.891)
That's all we have for this week. So I'll see you all again next week to talk about Spielberg's movie 1941. But until then, you've been listening to The Establishing Shot. We will see you next.

Sam (44:41.23)
Bye bye.