Tag: Interviews

Doing More than Scratching Planet Wax in this Review

Planet Wax has made me think it’s time to put together a playlist based on the songs actually mentioned. It’s a terrific callback to all the tunes I enjoyed listening to, including a few that I haven’t considered.

Book Cover
Available to purchase on Amazon USAPlanet Wax

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Music editors Aaron Lupton and Jeff Szpirglas are back with Planet Wax, and they are blasting off again with a nostalgic look at more iconic movie scores from the past. This time, they are looking at the many soundtrack albums which defined last century’s best genre films, and there’s some obscure titles which I wasn’t aware of.

The focus on sci-fi and fantasy defines this release. Like this team’s prior work, Blood on Black Wax: Horror Soundtracks on Vinyl, and there’s no need to reprint entries. Overlap is inevitable, and it’s tough to find something new to say about specific albums. Phantom of the Paradise and Rocky Horror are analyzed to death, and I’m okay with them not being included here. They are considered more “horror” than “sci-fi” even though some people will argue over which genres the Picture Show fits under.

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It’s An Alien Addiction, not Abduction with Shae Sterling!

Rico himself is part Maori and these people are extremely welcoming people. When I designed the aliens, they were naturally inquisitive and not mean spirited at all–quite playful, really. So mixing those two elements together naturally made a unique and fun relationship, the heart of the film.

Planet Wax

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

On Demand, Blu-ray and DVD

Release Date:
September 29

Gravitas Ventures

Shae Sterling is a tremendous talent in New Zealand. He’s worked with international talents like Snoop Dogg and is better known for his music video work with local artists. He’s also collaborated with Stan Walker (The X Factor) and the list does not end there! Plus, he’s the director of the documentary sports racing series High Octane. To become a fully fledged filmmaker, however, means making a proper debut with the crazy stoner comedy, Alien Addiction!

Going into making genre films isn’t without its own unique set of challenges–especially concerning special effects–but I feel he’s done a remarkable job. 15 years is more than enough in one industry to develop one’s skills. A different question is whether this film would play with UFO lore from this region. This country is famous for one instance–The Kaikoura Lights–but as for whether this movie would explore this further or stand on its own is a decision this director no doubt had to figure out. His choice to do sit-com is much needed when the there’s been a lot of similar films released this year.

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In Conversation w/ Finn Wolfhard at Fantasia Fest’s Free YouTube Broadcast

In Conversation with Finn Wolfhard and Jay Baruchel as he discusses his debut short, Night Shifts in this free Fantasia 2020 YouTube event!

Planet WaxYouTube Link
Scheduled for 29 Aug 2020, 2pm EDT

Come join Fantasia Fest 2020 with a free to view YouTube broadcast with the talent of Finn Wolfhard at hand! He has a local connection as he’s from in British Columbia, and it’s super that he’s moving on to bigger and better things.

This actor and musician burst onto the world stage in the culture-shifting Netflix series Stranger Things. With subsequent performances in the IT films, The Goldfinch, The Turning and The Addams Family, among others, and forthcoming roles in Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Guillermo del Toro & Mark Gustafson’s recently announced Pinocchio, Wolfhard has solidified his standing as a major international talent.

Now, at the age of 17, he’s completed his debut as a writer/director, the clever character-driven comedy short Night Shifts, premiering in our lineup this year. To celebrate the launch of his move into storytelling, Fantasia will be presenting a live virtual artist talk with Finn Wolfhard, in conversation with none other than How to Train Your Dragon/Popular Science for Kid‘s Jay Baruchel!

Nicnevin and the Bloody Queen is Ready for the UK! An Interview with Helen Mullane

It’s these incredible old TV movies like Robin Red Breast from the era that plays with the pastoral idyll of the British countryside which make the world seem freaky and threatening in Nicnevin and the Bloody Queen.

Helen MullaneUK Release Date
August 20, 2020
Available to purchase on Amazon USAPlanet Wax

For our readers who are unfamiliar with your work, could you please introduce yourself?

Sure. Hello! I’m Helen, a comic writer and dog musher from London who now lives in Swedish Lapland. I wrote the folk horror graphic novel Nicnevin and the Bloody Queen. I used to work in the film industry in London and produced the documentary Futureshock! The Story of 2000AD, and worked on the release of a lot of great anime and genre cinema before that.

When handling the releases of many works from Studio Canal and eOne, does film distribution also involve you becoming intimately knowledgeable in the movies you’re helping to promote? What were some of your favourite movies?

You don’t necessarily need to love every film you work on (it helps!) but a good release strategy depends on an intimate understanding of what someone else might love about it. You need to get into the headspace of the film’s potential fans, to understand how and where to reach them.

I worked on so many amazing films at both StudioCanal and EOne. I managed the release of Ponyo and a lot of home entertainment Ghibli releases. But my favourite projects were often the older movies I got to sink my teeth into and make new extras for–I made a pop up box set of Guillermo Del Toro’s Spanish language films, a special edition of Quatermass and The Pit with a cover by Ollie Moss and a Hardware special edition with a Kevin O’Neill Futureshock in that I am particularly proud of.

My favourite ‘new release’ campaign was for The Losers because it was through that I got to know Jock and Andy Diggle. Quite apart from the fact that they’re both cool dudes and awesome creators, that relationship eventually led to the dream of The Bloody Queen eventually becoming a reality!

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Who Made Who? An Interview with Iiris Härmä on A.I.

Iiris Härmä’s latest work Who Made Who? examines where artificial intelligence technology is currently headed.

Planet WaxPlaying during Doxa Documentary Film Festival, from June 18 to 26. Tickets to an online screening can be purchased here. For information, please visit their faq.

Finnish filmmaker Iiris Härmä is perhaps best known for her documentaries exploring cultural identity. Her first work, End of the Line, is a sociological film about old men losing work at a bus factory and having nowhere else to go. She developed the film at a time when globalization was making waves. The ripple effect is disconcerting. Her degrees in Ethnology and Cultural Studies help pinpoint topics of humanitarian interest. When she graduated with a diploma on film studies from the New School University in NY, the sky’s the limit for what she liked to explore in the cinematic medium–or rather, on what we learn from her discourses.

Her latest work Who Made Who? examines where artificial intelligence technology is currently headed. After her own experiences with it, namely in dealing with automated bank services through the phone, it got her curiosity going. She said another encounter was at a seminar in 2015 at Helsinki, where Michael Laakasuoed talked about the moralities of AI; it was an eye-opening experience. She talked about her inspiration in an interview with the Finnish Institute, and I’m fairly sure she took a lot more out of making this documentary than we as viewers did, as newcomers to a future not everyone is prepared for.

Essentially, this documentary examines the relationship between humans and technology. It’s not too different from Hi. A.I., a film I looked at some months ago (review link here) which dealt with similar themes. I was reminded of how robots can help keep some seniors occupied than the other one concerning Charles attempting to have a meaningful conversation with Harmony; a couple they were not.

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On Why We Want to Believe with Jason Hewlett, JoBlo.com & Vancouver Paranormal

“I think when the first television shows came along, the people didn’t expect to become famous. At a certain point, especially if you’re on a network, you’re going to bow to that network’s demand. You can’t have a show where nothing happens. We hope we get a case where we find nothing. We want to be the first.

Planet WaxBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

To make a mark in the paranormal pop culture scene requires a schtick network television and mainstream movies rarely want to play up. We Want to Believe is not so much about exploring the wilds of Supernatural British Columbia than Super, natural as it’s actually marketed. Instead, it’s to reveal to enthusiasts of such occult-type television programming a web series can hold a viewer’s attention much better in a shorter, digestible format!

The show’s genesis came from Jason Hewlett, who originally thought of making an audio podcast after spending a few years with the Vancouver Paranormal Society (VPS). He has his own show, works for the Kamloops Daily News covering local crime and is a voice on Radio NL 610 AM before bringing his skills to the group. All it took was believing there was something under the bed as a child and finding something weird–perhaps druidic–on a hike once at Shuswap Lake later in his years.

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