GARRET DILLAHUNT - Actor
Team Deakins
SEASON 2 - EPISODE 157 - Garret Dillahunt - Actor In this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we speak with actor Garret Dillahunt (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES, DEADWOOD). We worked with Garret on NO COUNTRY and JESSE JAMES, and we had a wonderful time catching up with him. Garret shares how he made his way from rural Washington to the graduate program for acting at NYU, and we learn why he made the leap from theatre to film and television. While trading stories from NO COUNTRY, Garret shares a humorous episode involving himself, actor Tommy Lee Jones, the Coen...
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BARRY JENKINS - Director
Team Deakins
SEASON 2 - EPISODE 156 - Barry Jenkins - Director In this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we speak with director Barry Jenkins (MUFASA: THE LION KING, THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, MOONLIGHT). How did Barry get from South Florida to Hollywood? What did he learn about himself on his walkabout around the country after leaving the industry? What did Barry struggle with in the gap between the release of his debut feature and MOONLIGHT? How did he survive the gonzo shooting schedule of THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD? Why MUFASA? Barry answers all these questions and speaks on craft, process, and so much...
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FRED SPECKTOR - Agent
Team Deakins
SEASON 2 - EPISODE 155 - Fred Specktor - Agent In this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we speak with agent Fred Specktor (CAA). Fred has actually seen it all—now in his 90s, he joined the mailroom at MCA (before its dissolution) after graduating college, and he’s been in the business ever since. After a stint as movie mogul Lew Wasserman’s assistant at MCA, Fred was fired, and he recounts his journey bouncing between outfits until landing at CAA where he has represented top Hollywood talent for the past four decades. Fred’s long career as an agent is populated with moments such as...
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TRACY LETTS - Actor / Writer
Team Deakins
SEASON 2 - EPISODE 154 - Tracy Letts - Actor / Writer In this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we speak with actor and writer Tracy Letts (AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, BUG, HOMELAND). Born and raised in Oklahoma, Tracy struck out for Chicago after high school to find work as an actor in the city’s active theatre scene, and we learn why Tracy began writing plays himself. We also discuss cinema’s role as a messenger for exposing the stories of the stage to rural American communities without access to the theatre, and he shares his mixed experiences adapting his plays into films, from director...
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STEVEN SODERBERGH - Director
Team Deakins
SEASON 2 - EPISODE 153 - Steven Soderbergh - Director In this extended episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we speak with director Steven Soderbergh (BLACK BAG, TRAFFIC, OUT OF SIGHT). Steven credits his father for giving him the movie bug, and he shares how a young adulthood shooting short films and writing spec scripts in Louisiana led to the 8-years-in-the-making overnight success of his debut feature: SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE. We spend much of the episode discussing Steven’s insights into directing and filmmaking, and he opens up about his transition into shooting his own films under the...
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LUCY PREBBLE - Playwright / Writer
Team Deakins
SEASON 2 - EPISODE 152 - Lucy Prebble - Playwright / Writer Playwright and writer Lucy Prebble (SUCCESSION, I HATE SUZIE, ENRON) joins us in this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast. Lucy’s plays frequently incorporate the physical space of the stage in the telling of the story and involve the audience in engaging and creative ways, and we were excited to talk to her about storytelling both on stage and on screen. We learn how, after a bookish childhood, she eventually found the courage to have her own plays put on, and she reflects on her experiences running her own television show and...
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DAVE FREETH - Inventor of the Stabileye
Team Deakins
SEASON 2 - EPISODE 151 - Dave Freeth - Inventor of the Stabileye In this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we speak with Dave Freeth, a recipient of a Scientific and Engineering Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the invention of the Stabileye. The Stabileye is a remotely-operated, motorized camera stabilization system, and we used the equipment extensively on 1917 to pull the film off. Dave originally started out in an apprenticeship for watchmaking but soon found himself working for the Ministry of Defence until making the transition into the film industry. We...
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A LOOK AT TWO INSPIRATIONAL FILMS - with Joe Walker - Part 2
Team Deakins
SEASON 2 - EPISODE 150 - A LOOK AT TWO INSPIRATIONAL FILMS - with Joe Walker - Part 2 In this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we finish our two-part conversation with editor Joe Walker (Season 1, Episode 35) about two of our favourite films: Richard Brooks’ IN COLD BLOOD and Jean-Pierre Melville’s ARMY OF SHADOWS. Following the previous episode, we shift our focus towards ARMY OF SHADOWS, contrasting the film’s measured pacing with the rapidity of its violence that punctuates several points in the story. We reflect on the emotional effect of the movie’s unique sense of rhythm and...
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A LOOK AT TWO INSPIRATIONAL FILMS - with Joe Walker - Part 1
Team Deakins
SEASON 2 - EPISODE 149 - A LOOK AT TWO INSPIRATIONAL FILMS - with Joe Walker - Part 1 In this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, editor Joe Walker (Season 1, Episode 35) returns for the first half of a two-part discussion about the filmmaking behind two of our favourite films: Richard Brooks’ IN COLD BLOOD and Jean-Pierre Melville’s ARMY OF SHADOWS. The films may contrast in their expression of cinematic storytelling with each other and with films made today, but we find, over the course of these two episodes, that both films share and build on the fundamental elements of what makes a...
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PULLING A FILM TOGETHER - with Paula McGann
Team Deakins
SEASON 2 - EPISODE 148 - Pulling a Film Together - with Paula McGann In this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we speak with Paula McGann (1917, DARKEST HOUR, MIDNIGHT SKY). We had the pleasure of working with Paula on 1917, and we asked her to come on the podcast to discuss the work that goes into pulling a film together nowadays. Paula—after years of working for directors, producers, and in several departments on numerous films—has recently begun producing herself, and with several projects in various stages of development, we thought her perspective would be valuable to hear and...
info_outlineSEASON 2 - EPISODE 146 - Matthew Specktor - Author
Author Matthew Specktor joins us in this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast. In his recently released memoir, THE GOLDEN HOUR, Matthew, the son of legendary talent agent Fred Specktor, uses his parents’ divergent professional and personal lives to reflect on the film industry as it was, and he writes about his own life and career in and around the movies to reflect on what it has become. After reading it (and Matthew’s other novels), we felt we had to speak with him. What follows in this episode is a wide-ranging and lively conversation about Matthew’s life, his and our views on the changes in the film business and in the films themselves, cinema’s place in society, and the genuine love for Hollywood that comes out in his writing. We also discuss the changing economics of funding films, the shifts in who wields power in Hollywood, and Matthew details the brief window in the 1960s and 1970s in which filmmakers were afforded a relative freedom not seen since. In THE GOLDEN HOUR, Matthew at times places us inside the minds of industry figureheads such as Lew Wasserman and Michael Ovitz, and Matthew shares how understanding the men who changed the film industry can help us better understand where we are today. We also reflect on the all-consuming lifestyle of working in Hollywood, and Matthew likens it to being trapped in a casino at two in the morning—forever. Plus, Matthew shares what it was like learning how to write from a uniquely qualified professor: James Baldwin.
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Recommended Reading: THE GOLDEN HOUR
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This episode is sponsored by Profoto & Aputure