Latest Afitop100 Podcast Episodes
Commanding Intelligence (Cutting Room Floor #203)
Film School - April 25, 2024 10:00 - 51 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsCan you fall in love, deeply in love love, with somebody you know isn't as smart as you are? We're not talking about pets, or kids, inanimate objects, or even sexual attraction. We're talking about grown-up, head over heels, enduring, inspiring LOVE. Can you? Interesting, huh? You can't, can you...
Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #26)
Film School - April 22, 2024 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsIf you had it all to do over again, would you have married me? Hitch takes on married life in its screwball form! These comedies were very popular at the time (see: Grant and Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby), so it's not surprising that our British Director, fresh in Hollywood, would take on such ...
The Wrong Direction (Cutting Room Floor #202)
Film School - April 18, 2024 10:00 - 40 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsHow do you know when you've gone in the wrong direction? What are the signs? And when you realize that you have, what do you do? Josh and Ira share their own personal insights on this question, covering the spectrum of a chronic over-planner to leaping-before-looking impulsiveness. Also, Josh ...
Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #25)
Film School - April 15, 2024 10:00 - 58 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsThere's a crime hatching on that bedeviled continent... World War II is in full swing when this movie releases. Or, at least it is in Europe. London is being bombed, and Hitchcock can't help but feel, well, helpless. And guilty for not being there. This film, more than any he's made to this po...
The Elements of a Great Film (Cutting Room Floor #201)
Film School - April 11, 2024 10:00 - 35 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsWhat makes a good movie? What are the things that stand out? We all have our own personal versions of the answer to this question. Josh and Ira each answer for themselves without getting into the weeds as much as possible. Also, Josh recommends Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix, and Ira recommends...
Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #24)
Film School - April 08, 2024 10:00 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsDo you think the dead come back and watch the living? Mr. Hitchcock is in Hollywood! Alfred makes his first film in the States, and holy crap does he have some fun with his budget. Everything tinsel town had to offer in 1940 is on display: star power, massive sets, camera tricks, sweeping scor...
Hitchcock's British Period Takeaways (Cutting Room Floor #200)
Film School - April 04, 2024 10:00 - 57 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsHitchcock is moving to Hollywood! As the master of suspense makes his way west, we're taking a pause here to look back on his period in Britain. 13 years. 24 films (one of which has been lost since). An era that saw him struggle to fit in, thrive as technology developed and ambition increased, a...
Jamaica Inn (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #23)
Film School - April 01, 2024 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsCHAAADWIIIICK??!! Hitch teams up with dynamo actor Charles Laughton for a tale of piracy, lies, and corruption. The stage actor is riveting, even if the film has its flaws, and apparently he and Alfred had a hard time working together. There's a lot to like with Jamaica Inn! More than we expec...
White Lies (Cutting Room Floor #199)
Film School - March 28, 2024 10:00 - 58 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsA small lie. A sentence I didn't actually write, or a shot I didn't really shoot that I pass off as my own. Or I didn't actually do something the way I said I did. How big of a deal are these kinds of lies or omissions? Do they really matter? How truthful do we need to be with those who consume ...
The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #22)
Film School - March 25, 2024 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsNuns don't wear high heels... A woman has disappeared into thin air, on a train no less. But when Iris Henderson reports it, nobody believes her. In fact, nobody on the train even knows who she's talking about. So, what gives? Is Iris crazy? Or is everyone else? This dilemma caps off a pretty ...
Good vs. Great (Cutting Room Floor #198)
Film School - March 21, 2024 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsWhat's the difference between good...and great? Think about how each of those words makes you feel. The contrast is pretty dramatic, isn't it? Like, MILES different, not inches. So, if the difference between good and great is massive, how do we make the leap between the two? Is it possible? We d...
Young and Innocent (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #21)
Film School - March 18, 2024 10:00 - 56 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsOh Robert, if only things would turn out all right... A woman's body washes ashore. A young man is seen fleeing from the sight of it. But...did he do it? That's the question the local constable's daughter must answer, even as she finds herself falling for him. Sounds like vintage, bang-on Hitc...
You Need A Shock-Proof Sh*t Detector (Cutting Room Floor #197)
Film School - March 14, 2024 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsErnest Hemingway famously once said: "The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector." We all must be able to distinguish between good storytelling and bad storytelling. So...how strong is yours? (hint: it's probably super strong) And once you've got one that'...
Sabotage (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #20)
Film School - March 11, 2024 10:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsWhat goes on after hours in that cinema of yours...? Alfred takes on Joseph Conrad's popular novel The Secret Agent, about a man who's tasked with planting a bomb in London to create fear and terror. In this adaptation, he owns a movie theater, a detective from Scotland Yard is onto him and fa...
How To Create Great Side Characters (Cutting Room Floor #196)
Film School - March 07, 2024 11:00 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsFrodo had Sam. Luke had Artoo. Harry had Ron and Hermione. Side characters are just as important to a well-told story as the main characters are. So, how do you make a great one? And what's the trap, sometimes, of a side character who's more interesting, more active than even your hero? We discu...
Secret Agent (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #19)
Film School - March 04, 2024 11:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsGeneral Pompellio Montezuma De La Vilia De Conde De La Rue! Peter Lorre is back, this time as a sidekick assassin who goes by the name "The Hairless Mexican," and "The General," of which he is neither. Hitch has been on a roll with his newfound focus on suspenseful fare. How does this one stac...
If You Could Travel Anywhere (Cutting Room Floor #195)
Film School - February 29, 2024 11:00 - 39 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsIf you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? What would top your list? Money is no object, neither is time. Dream as big as you want. Also, Josh recommends Deep Space Nine on Pluto TV and Paramount+, and Ira recommends both versions of Suspiria; the new film is on Prime, and ...
The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #18)
Film School - February 26, 2024 11:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsBeautiful, mysterious woman pursued by gunmen. Sounds like a spy story... Widely considered to be the first modern spy movie ever made, Hitchcock is leaning into his strengths yet again (huzzah!): murder, conspiracy, and a man on the run. This time, its Robert Donat who's world is turned upsid...
What is a Framing Device? (Cutting Room Floor #194)
Film School - February 22, 2024 20:00 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsFraming devices can be a powerful storytelling tool...but what ARE they? What is an "epistolary," or a "flashback" or an "unreliable narrator"? And whyyyy would we use them? What effect can they have on a story? We talk about it! Also, Josh recommends the animated series Justice League which i...
The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #17)
Film School - February 19, 2024 11:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsGoodbye for the last time. What could be more touching than that? Peter Lorre. That's the first thing to know about this movie: Peter. Lorre. Hitch teams up with his first truly enduring star, someone we still know to this day, and they're off on an adventure of spies, murders, conspiracies, a...
How Personal Should Your Story Be? (Cutting Room Floor #193)
Film School - February 15, 2024 11:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsWe all know the power of a personal story when we encounter one. Nothing cuts like the truth. But, turning that lens to our own work...just how personal should our own work be? Is it possible to be too personal? Sure seems like it is. By the same token, it seems even easier to not be nearly pers...
Waltzes From Vienna (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #16)
Film School - February 12, 2024 11:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsAnd now the polka, you worms. Hitchcock makes a musical! ...kinda. It's an operetta, which were very much in fashion at the time; a little music, a little dancing, and a love story at the center. This one centers around a highly-fictionalized version of how "The Blue Danube" was written in 19t...
What Makes A Great Hero? (Cutting Room Floor #192)
Film School - February 08, 2024 11:00 - 50 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsWho are the heroes that got under your skin, that live with you well past watching or reading the story, the heroes that changed you? Why? Why did they stick with you? And in thinking about/asking those questions, how can we apply the answers to our own storytelling? This week, we dive in on how...
Number Seventeen (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #15)
Film School - February 05, 2024 11:00 - 58 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsYa don't have to do nothin' in this 'ere house - ya stand still and things happen! Cutting to the chase here: this miiight be Hitchcock's first truly terrible film. It's a bit baffling how clumsy it is given how many films he's made before this, several of them decent, and perhaps one or two o...
What is the Best Time to Create? (Cutting Room Floor #191)
Film School - February 01, 2024 11:00 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsDo you have a time of day (or night) where you find that you're the most creative? What about times that are consistently free? Or have the least number of distractions? Finding a reliable pocket of your day in which you can do your creative work can be a superpower. On this episode, Josh and Ir...
Rich and Strange (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #14)
Film School - January 29, 2024 11:00 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsI want some of the good things of life... Hitch definitely tries something a little different with this one: it's a comedy drama this time--not nearly the silly farces he's tried to this point on the comedy side, and certainly nothing as dark as murder on the drama side. It's a rags to riches ...
Sympathetic or Unsympathetic Villains? (Cutting Room Floor #190)
Film School - January 25, 2024 11:00 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsThere's much ado these days about making your villain's point of view a sympathetic one. After all, everyone is the hero of their own narrative. But...what about all those villains who are just, you know, assh*les? DO you have to make your villain sympathetic??? We discuss! Also, Josh recommen...
The Skin Game (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #13)
Film School - January 22, 2024 11:00 - 48 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsWhat's gentility worth if it can't stand fire? This film is about the revolution in "Industrial Revolution." An old school landowning family finds their idyllic country world being invaded by a young-money industrialist. A feud develops. And grows. And grows until it sucks everyone down into t...
Hitchcock's Silent Era Takeaways (Cutting Room Floor #189)
Film School - January 18, 2024 11:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsNot everyone is aware that Hitchcock actually started making movies all the way back in Britain’s 1920s silent era. Now that we’ve watched all of those films (that are available, anyway), we take a look back and think about what we’ve learned. What takeaways can we glean, not just about Hitchcoc...
Mary (Alfred Hitchcock Deep Dive #12)
Film School - January 15, 2024 11:00 - 41 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsDas ist kein Theaterstück, das ist das Leben. The 1930s were a wild era in film. The industry was exploding; there was a ton of money to be made, especially in foreign markets...if you could figure out a way to get your movie into the local language...like German! Because sound couldn't be add...
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