Interview with:Brodie Woodward [brodiemann]
MOVIES-TV
 | What is your specialty? Production, direction, something else? I've always been a fan of films. My parents got me into it at a very early age. Since then I've been watching any film I could get my hands on. I was able to parlay that into being an amateur film critic on a blog and college newspaper. When career focus shifted to broadcasting, I carried that on to the radio shows that I was a part of. I now do it professionally for a radio show I host.
In addition to being a film critic, I'm also an (unproduced) scriptwriter. I'm mostly unproduced because I'm not done with anything. But right now I'm working on a pair of screenplays based on a series of short stories I wrote in college. I'm also collaborating with a friend on a television show.
Otherwise, in short, I'm a critic and writer. |
| Is there a link to a site where we can see references to your work? |
| How did you begin in this field? Who introduced you to it? Entertainment, or going into a creative field, I never knew as "not an option." I've pulled my influences over the years. But a good friend of mine got me started with podcasting, about 4 and a half years ago, and that's where I got into broadcasting itself, and it sort of snowballed from there to where I am now. |
| Which have been the most symbolic works of your career? Where I started, definitely, with the YWO Show podcast. The first episode of season 3 is the only one still available on iTunes. That is most symbolic of my broadcasting. I think anyway. Also up there, in the ranks of the show, are my on-air reviews. It's what I love to do. That is the pure exemplification of what I love to do.
Beyond that, as far as my writing, I think my screenplays, the ones based on those short stories, are symbolic of my writing, as they, to me, represent my growth as a writer. They're unlike anything I had ever written before, story/plot/genre wise. |
| Do you work for a client, for the audience, or for your own creative adventure? It's a combination of all three, really. I have two review segments, cinema releases and DVD releases, both sponsored, cinema reviews by the chain that owns the local theatres, and the DVD reviews by the chain that owns the local video store. I have to plug their stuff and keep them happy. But at the same time, I serve my own interests and those of my audience by giving honest reviews of the movies. If I don't like the movie, I'll say it. But I'll provide other options. Recently, for about 3 weeks in a row, I didn't rate a single movie over a star and a half on a 5 star scale (per the contract, I see 2 in theatres per week). But rather than say "Stay home, don't go to the theatres," I would offer up "If you haven't seen these other two films, which are really good, definitely go see them instead of these two new ones." Similar situation with the DVDs. I try to appease everyone, while sticking to some sort of integrity to myself. |
| What should a good script have in order to interest you? I'm drawn to interesting characters. |
| Name three contemporary directors or producers that you admire. It has to go back to the three directors that really got me into film making, and sort of showed me that film making was an option. Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith. I know it sounds cliche from my generation. But those three, in the early-mid 90's really showed that you can make the movie you want to make. Sort of going rogue from the system if you will, but I don't want to make it sound like they're rebels or the bad boys of cinema or anything. It's just, they always just made the movies they wanted to make, and never really had a second thought about the whole process. It adds a personal aspect to their films, which I really dig. |
| What movies or television shows inspired you to work in this field? I don't know if I could pin point a specific work that inspired me in the field. I draw inspiration from different people and different works for different reasons. But if I had to chose something, It would go back to those three directors, and those films I saw in a few year span that really hit me, back when I was 8-11 (my parents didn't pay much mind to what I watched), Clerks, Pulp Fiction and El Mariachi. Add in Rick Linklater's Dazed and Confused, and I was hooked for life. |
| What is the best movie than you have seen in the last year, and why did it seem especially good? District 9. Without a doubt. That movie was brilliant in its simplicity. And its originality. Neill Blomkamp concocted something that was deep, yet fun. It made you think, yet also entertained. And I think a lot of what's out there is too much of either/or. You get the popcorn summer film that allows you to turn your brain off and enjoy explosions for 2 hours, or you get the fall/winter "awards" movies, that you do really have to sit with and contemplate, but ultimately don't really entertain. There's not a high instance of re-watchability with those films. I get the message or the point of the film, and I do like it and view it as a great film, but I don't find myself wanting to watch it again and again. Blomkamp found that happy medium with District 9 |
| Do you eat popcorn at the movies? No. I just don't care for popcorn in general, but at theatres it's just distracting. |
| Which do you like more, large budget or small independent productions? There's something to be said for both. Big budget isn't inherently bad, and small independent isn't inherently good. Films are a culmination of their parts. If everything comes together to make a great $100 million film, then it's just as good as when everything comes together to make a great $500,000 film. In turn, small films can be terrible, just like big ones. It really depends on the talent of the actors, the writer(s), the director, the editor, the crew, et. al. |
| Is the future of cinema the Internet? Mobile phones? No. They've changed the game, definitely, but it's not the future. Cinemas will never go away. |
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526 visits Whohub
Brodie Woodward
Marquette, MI - United States
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95592 interviews created
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