The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast

"Bordello Of Blood" - even 30 years after it's tortured making - stands as an object lesson in what happens when you do things for all the wrong reasons. Spoiler Alert: Nothing Good!

THE BLURB: What happens when you make a movie that literally nobody making it wants to make? From the audience's POV, you get a mediocre horror movie from a world class horror franchise (Tales From The Crypt). From the creator's POV however you get complete and total catastrophe. How the creative team behind Crypt went from catering to their craft to surrendering to corporate cynicism. It's a deeply personal, intensely honest peek behind the scenes at Hollywood movie-making; in fact, that honesty caused Entertainment Weekly to call Season 1 of The How Not To Make A Movie Podcast "the best movie podcast of 2022". In episode one, you'll meet Alan Katz, Gil Adler and much of the creative team that made HBO's "Tales From The Crypt" iconic. You'll experience the incredible highs of Hollywood success, but also one of those moments where corporate cynicism overwhelms creative integrity. What do you do when a passion project becomes a sell out - and walking away would mean the end of the career you just started? SHOW NOTES:The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast started as a story podcast - about (as its season on subtitle said) "the making of Bordello Of Blood". I had no battle plan - or plan to do a podcast beyond telling the Bordello story.But, as most every podcaster will tell you, this medium is both addictive and deeply satisfying creatively. I didn't want to stop telling stories - and there were soooooo many show biz stories yet to tell that didn't make the cut into season one.So, throwing lots of guests into the mix - with lots of Gil into the mix as well - I made three additional seasons. Some of those episodes have been brought forward here. What started with this podcast - with this very episode, in fact - mushroom clouded into (now) ten different podcasts covering a host of topics. It all started here with the telling of this deeply personal story told with total honesty. How NOT to make a horror movie for sure. In fact, how NEVER to make a movie..If you enjoy this podcast, check out some of our others! You can find them (and link to or listen to them) at www.costardandtouchstone.com.

THE BLURB: Casting, it’s been said, is ninety percent of any director’s work. Get the casting right and life is easy. Get it wrong though and even “Citizen Kane” can turn into “Plan 9 From Outer Space”. In this episode, we experience both casting highs and casting.SHOW NOTES: 

THE BLURB: There's something inherently hopeful about starting a feature film or TV show. A team of strangers comes together to make something they all believe in. And then there's "Bordello Of Blood". Where a team of strangers got together - and simply got "strangeSHOW NOTES:

THE BLURB: Nothing is more important to a horror movie than its makeup special effects. Ironically, we live and die by the quality, the craftsmanship, the authenticity and the sheer OMG-ness of how well we re-create the illusion of gore. We should have been able to pull off Bordello's special effects in our sleep. Instead, we made more idiotic choices that challenged our inexperienced crew and guaranteed more chaos.SHOW NOTES:

How a movie starts is really important. How it ends though – how it sends its audience out into the night – is really, really important. It was pretty much a given that a production as tortured, challenged and just plain stupid as Bordello's would stumble to its conclusion (which is exactly what it did). We headed back to LA with an unfinished movie and a future that had gone from certain to fraught.

THE BLURB: You've heard the Frankenstein's monster story, now stick around for a look at all the spare body parts that didn't make the cut (as it were). There's even MORE to the Bordello Of Blood saga!SHOW NOTESThe Cutting Room Floor is legendary in Hollywood. Whole careers have happened there. In fact, there's a whole weird history in Hollywood of scenes and actors who famously never made "the cut". Kevin Costner, for instance, was entirely cut out of "The Big Chill". Video and DVD's changed everything. One could rent or buy the studio's cut or "The Director's Cut". Finally, the director could put out the extended movie they envisioned with all the scenes the studio cut out. Often that was great. Sometimes though you saw the studio's wisdom.Film v VideoBack then, we shot on film, cut on digital then transferred back to film for the release. Digital editing began in 1985 when Quantel produced its limited "Harry" compositor. Things got rolling two years later (1987) when Avid released its Avid/1 Media Composer. Cutting on video was revolutionary of course. You could see dissolves and freeze frames in real time. Before, you'd see dissolves laid out in yellow grease paint drawn across the literal film.Filming the movie gets all the attention. But, it won't be until we deliver all the filmed footage to the editing suite - and the editor performs their magic - that it will become "a movie". Or a TV show.And it can blow your mind what exactly can happen in an editing suite. There's a story in this episode about executive producer Bob Zemeckis cobbling together a scene we never shot. He took scraps from the cutting room floor to imply a lesbian sexual encounter between Angie's character and Erika's. One pickup shot was all it took to marry it all together in the audience's head.That simple cross (filmed using two extras instead of the actors) ties it together perfectly. It really is like seeing how magic tricks work. And at the hands of a magician - our boss Bob Zemeckis.In a sense, this episode really is a monster made up of spare parts - rescued from the cutting room floor But, don't be afraid! It won't hurt you. Much..

THE BLURB: World famous horror icons don't just fall from the sky fully formed. The Crypt Keeper epitomizes that. In this first ever conversation between the four co-creators (makeup special effects master KEVIN YAGHER, actor JOHN KASSIR, writer/producer A L KATZ and writer/producer/director GIL ADLER) of The Crypt Keeper, you'll hear how this iconic character evolved. SHOW NOTESIf you enjoy The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast, please check out all our other podcasts at costardandtouchstone.com!

THE BLURB: In our first season of "The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast" (which Entertainment Weekly called "the best film podcast of 2022), we told the story of how making the "Tales From The Crypt" branded horror movie "Bordello Of Blood" destroyed a career, a creative relationship and a friendship. In episode one - how I ended up running HBO's iconic "Crypt" and how that wonderful creative experience unexpectedly turned to crap when our studio - Universal Pictures - compelled us to make a movie none of us wanted to make.SHOW NOTESIf you enjoy The How Not To Make a Movie Podcast, please sample our other podcasts at costardandtouchstone.com!