Contra Zoom Pod

This is the second Oscar Primer podcast for Contra Zoom of the year, continuing the series of Oscar Primer’s Dakota does every year, normally just as written articles. He is flying solo this episode as he talks about A Star is Born, Black Panther and Bohemian Rhapsody.

I categorize all nominations as either Frontrunner’s (FR) meaning they most likely to be the winners, Dark Horse (DH) candidates could pull off an upset if momentum swings their way, and Just Happy (JH) to be nominated as they stand no real chance this year. There can be multiples front-runners to each category.

A Star is Born has 8 nominations:

A Star is Born will for sure win one award with 1-2 others potentially going its way.

What is the difference between Sound Mixing and Sound Editing?

Black Panther has 6 nominations:

Black Panther looks to pick up 3 technical with 2 more if they sweep the Sound categories.

Variety’s breakdown of Black Panther costumes featuring designer Ruth Carter.

Bohemian Rhapsody has 5 nominations:

Bohemian Rhapsody most likely will walk away empty handed, but there is a slim chance it could win 1-3 awards.

If you missed last week’s episode breaking down the odds for Vice, BlacKkKlansman and Green Book, listen to the show HERE.

Something new I’ll be asking people to do is to rate and review Contra Zoom on Podchaser, a site that aims to be the IMDb of podcasts. Please rate 5 stars and if possible leave a short review to help grow this show.

Also if you have never given the show a rating on iTunes, that also helps tremendously. Every bit of exposure helps grow the show.

Follow the show @ContraZoomPod and Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter.

This is the first Oscar Primer podcast for Contra Zoom of the year, continuing the series of Oscar Primer’s Dakota does every year, normally just as written articles. He is flying solo this episode as he talks about Vice, BlacKkKlansman and Green Book.

I categorize all nominations as either Frontrunner’s (FR) meaning they most likely to be the winners, Dark Horse (DH) candidates could pull off an upset if momentum swings their way, and Just Happy (JH) to be nominated as they stand no real chance this year. There can be multiples front-runners to each category. 

Vice has eight nominations:

Best Picture (JH)

Best Actor – Christian Bale (FR)

Best Supporting Actress – Amy Adams (FR)

Best Supporting Actor – Sam Rockwell (JH)

Best Director – Adam McKay (JH)

Best Original Screenplay (JH)

Best Film Editing (DH)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling (FR)

Vice looks to walk away with anywhere from 1 maybe 2 awards with a couple others being long shots.

BlacKkKlansman has six nominations:

Best Picture (DH)

Best Supporting Actor – Adam Driver (DH)

Best Director – Spike Lee (DH)

Best Adapted Screenplay (FR)

Best Film Editing (FR)

BlacKkKlansman looks to walk away with anywhere from 1-2 awards with the additional 3 being contenders if Roma doesn’t sweep.

Green Book has five nominations:

Best Picture (DH)

Best Actor – Viggo Mortensen (JH)

Best Supporting Actor – Mahershala Ali (FR)

Best Original Screenplay (DH)

Best Film Editing (JH)

Green Book looks to walk away with 1 award with a strong possibility of 1 or 2 others if the tide goes its way.

If you missed Contra Zoom’s Oscar reactions podcast, make sure you give it a listen to HERE. 

Something new I’ll be asking people to do is to rate and review Contra Zoom on Podchaser, a site that aims to be the IMDb of podcasts. Please rate 5 stars and if possible leave a short review to help grow this show.

Also if you have never given the show a rating on iTunes, that also helps tremendously. Every bit of exposure helps grow the show.

Follow the show @ContraZoomPod and Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter.

With the release of the Oscar nominations for the 91st Academy Awards Dakota Arsenault and Sammy Feilchenfeld discuss their first reactions to the crop of films. They also get into the debate about the merit of Black Panther being a Best Picture nominee along with surprise nominations and snubs. 

The Hollywood Reporter looks at the favourites of each category. 

Variety lists the biggest surprises and snubs. 

There will be more podcasts along the way covering the Best Picture contenders and they chances they have to win. 

Something new I’ll be asking people to do is to rate and review Contra Zoom on Podchaser, a site that aims to be the IMDb of podcasts. Please rate 5 stars and if possible leave a short review to help grow this show.

Also if you have never given the show a rating on iTunes, that also helps tremendously. Every bit of exposure helps grow the show.

Follow the show @ContraZoomPod and Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter.

Mehek Seyid joins us again to talk about the films she saw at TIFF 2018 and gave some great insight into what the landscape for the rest of this year will look like. A few weeks ago Mehek and I previewed the fest by talking about the big name films that were coming to Toronto. You can catch up on the episode HERE.

This is a list of what Mehek saw: Assassination Nation, Boy Erased, Can You Ever Forgive Me, Destroyer, Driven, Emu Runner, EXT. Night, Fig Tree, Gloria Bell, Green Book, Greta, Her Smell, Hotel Mumbai, If Beale Street Could Talk, Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy, Jessica Forever, Maya, Mid90s, Museo, Rafiki, Roma, Skin, Teen Spirit, The Wedding Guest, The Weekend, Viper Club and Widows.

The People’s Choice Award was given to Green Book and the runner-ups were If Beale Street Could Talk and Roma. 

Music from this week’s episode comes from Neon Beings and his EP Fudge You. Make sure you listen to his music and purchase it from whatever service you use. Spotify/Apple Music/Google Play/Bandcamp/Soundcloud/YouTube 

Follow the show @ContraZoomPod and Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter.

In this edition of Make/Remake Dakota and Stephanie look at a unique pair of films… the exact same film cut two ways. In 1953 Italian Neorealist director Vittorio de Dica paired with David O. Selznick to make an American film his way. He cast American actors Montgomery Clift and Jennifer Jones and plopped them in Rome to tell the story of an American wife having an affair while in Europe and deciding she wants to go back home to her family.

Despite wanting to produce a Neorealist film, Selznick eventually became bored with the concept and cut out all the moments that make a trademark de Sica film so memorable. The result was two different version of the same film. Terminal Station, the original cut is 90 minutes long and is more nuanced compared to Indiscretion of an American Wife, which clocks in at only 60 minutes.

The topic for this episode was inspired by filmmaker Kogonada’s video essay “What is Neorealism?”showing the major differences between the two films and a bit of history of the project.

You can watch both versions of the film in full on Youtube.

Terminal Station – the full ninety-minute version

Indiscretion of an American Wife – abridged sixty-minute version

Something new I’ll be asking people to do is to rate and review Contra Zoom on Podchaser, a site that aims to be the IMDb of podcasts. Please rate 5 stars and if possible leave a short review to help grow this show.

Follow the show @ContraZoomPod and Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter.

According to the Toronto Star’s preview this year’s Toronto International Film Festival features 21 world premieres, seven international premieres, eight North American premieres and 11 Canadian premieres, including 13 features directed by women. It all kicks off with Netflix’s own Outlaw King starring Chris Pine that is sure to make waves across the industry. Mehek Seyid joins us this week to go over the most anticipated TIFF films and what ones she plans on seeing in advance of this year’s awards season.

Here is a list of films discussed on this week’s episode were trailers can be found on their IMDb page.

Follow the show @ContraZoomPod, Mehek @whatthemehek and Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter.

The Academy Awards are changing the way their ceremony will be run in three drastic ways over the next two years. Dakota goes over the pros and cons for each of these changes.

First- The date of the ceremony will be changed from the end of February to the beginning of February starting in 2020. What this means for when nominations are announced to what other awards shows will do is still up in the air, but this impact will be felt across the industry.

Second- The show will be capped at a hard three hours, meaning that some things will need to be cut out with the Academy already announcing that some categories (at the moment unnamed) will be handed out during commercial breaks and will be shown in a montage at the end of ceremony. Other changes to ensure the time length have not been announced yet.

Third- There will a Best Popular Film award handed out next to the Best Picture award. As far as the rules surrounding what makes a film “popular” have not been announced but the fall out from this will be felt as it will change the landscape of what the award means, what types of films will be nominated and how it will affect smaller films.

For further reading check out Vulture “The Oscars Made Some Dumb Decisions Today” and Forbes “New Category For Popular Movies Will Help Disney Rule The Oscars”. You can also check out Box Office Mojo and their list of highest grossing films of the year so far to see some potential nominees.

Something new I’ll be asking people to do is to rate and review Contra Zoom on Podchaser, a site that aims to be the IMDb of podcasts. Please rate 5 stars and if possible leave a short review to help grow this show.

Also if you have never given the show a rating on iTunes, that also helps tremendously. Every bit of exposure helps grow the show.

Follow the show @ContraZoomPod and Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter.

On this week’s episode Dakota Arsenault is joined by Zach Sokol, host of Radio Camp Half Blood a Percy Jackson read-a long podcast. The two talk about director Alfred Hitchcock one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. They talk about his legacy on cinema history and their favourite works by him.

If you were to recommend a Hitchcock film to introduce someone to his work the guys have a few options. Zach rec’s The Birds or Psycho while Dakota suggests Rear Window. 

While breaking down Hitchcock’s films into tiers they try to make a Mount Rushmore of his work. They agree on Psycho and Vertigo while Dakota suggests Rebecca and Rear Window to round it out contrasting with Zach wants Strangers on a Train and The Lady Vanishes.

Zach informs Dakota that a sequel to The Birds exists called The Birds II: Land’s End (“directed” by Alan Smithee like Zach assumed it was). Surprisingly Tippi Hedren, also in this sequel but not as the same character. 

You can watch the original Psycho trailer where Hitchcock gives the audience a tour of the Bates Motel HERE.

In a fun game of over rated/under rated the named some other picks.

Dakota- Over rated: Notorious and The Birds

Under rated: The Wrong Man and I Confess! (honourable mention Rebecca)

Zach- Over rated: Rebecca

Under rated: Rope

Check out Zach’s podcast Radio Camp Half Blood: A Percy Jackson Read-A-Long Podcast. You can also follow Zach on Twitter @suda41. 

Something new I’ll be asking people to do is to rate and review Contra Zoom on Podchaser, a site that aims to be the IMDb of podcasts. Please rate 5 stars and if possible leave a short review to help grow this show.

Follow the show @ContraZoomPod and Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter.

I’m often asking for movie recommendations both from fellow movie buffs and from people who want to expand their knowledge about cinema. After having a friend ask for a list of important films to watch I decided to put together a curriculum of great films that every budding cinephile should watch. This list is a starting off point for people who want to have a base understanding of cinema’s greatest achievements. All the films follow linear story lines and have one or two specific components that highlight their greatness. I also picked all English language films, not because English films are better or anything but specifically because this guide is intended for native English speakers that might find subtitles daunting when they are getting into film.

The plan is to make this a progressively more intense curriculum, with Film History 102 delving more into complex films, thematically, language wise and what they might excel at.

This is part 2 of a 2 part series featuring 25 total films. The movies in this episode are from 1977-2016. If you missed part 1, listen HERE.

For a full slideshow of the films and what makes them important click HERE.

Music from this episode is from Callahan. We premiered his video for Milk and Honey recently on Live in Limbo. Be sure to check out and buy his music from Bandcamp.

Something new I’ll be asking people to do is to rate and review Contra Zoom on Podchaser, a site that aims to be the IMDb of podcasts. Please rate 5 stars and if possible leave a short review to help grow this show.

Follow the show @ContraZoomPod and Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter.

I’m often asking for movie recommendations both from fellow movie buffs and from people who want to expand their knowledge about cinema. After having a friend ask for a list of important films to watch I decided to put together a curriculum of great films that every budding cinephile should watch. This list is a starting off point for people who want to have a base understanding of cinema’s greatest achievements. All the films follow linear story lines and have one or two specific components that highlight their greatness. I also picked all English language films, not because English films are better or anything but specifically because this guide is intended for native English speakers that might find subtitles daunting when they are getting into film.

The plan is to make this a progressively more intense curriculum, with Film History 102 delving more into complex films, thematically, language wise and what they might excel at.

This is part 1 of a 2 part series featuring 25 total films. The movies in this episode are from 1934-1975.

For a full slideshow of the films and what makes them important click HERE.

Music from this episode is from Callahan. We premiered his video for Milk and Honey recently on Live in Limbo. Be sure to check out and buy his music from Bandcamp.

Something new I’ll be asking people to do is to rate and review Contra Zoom on Podchaser, a site that aims to be the IMDb of podcasts. Please rate 5 stars and if possible leave a short review to help grow this show.

Follow the show @ContraZoomPod and Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter.