Don't Encourage Us

By Don't Encourage Us

Most people watch a movie. Some people can't stop reverse-engineering the decisions inside it. Don't Encourage Us is for the second group.

Each episode takes a film, series, or creative property and e... more

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FAQs about Don't Encourage Us:

How many episodes does Don't Encourage Us have?

The podcast currently has 55 episodes available.

Don't Encourage Us episodes:

December 25, 2023 Why Are Orcas Sinking Boats? And Other Headlines to Inspire Your Next Script
Killer whales are sinking boats off the coast of Spain and the scientific theory behind it raises real questions about animal intelligence, trauma, and socially transmitted behavior. We break down the research, then turn to the MCU box office data that reveals why sequencing matters more than individual film quality. Also in this episode: Pablo Escobar's hippos are now an invasive population of 200+ in Colombia. CRISPR gene editing heads to FDA review for sickle cell treatment. Modified mosquitoes dropped dengue by 97% in three Colombian cities. And a FedEx truck piracy trend becomes a real-time screenplay pitch.
Orcas are attacking boats, but why?
Genetically modified mosquitos attack...Dengue
Humans begin re-writing billions of years of evolution
Hungry, Hungry Hippos invade Colombia
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Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
1h
December 18, 2023Paradise (2023): Zero Science, and Everyone Wins Except the Innocent
Topics discussed:
Paradise (2023): the case that this is fantasy, not science fiction and why that matters so much

The missing villain backstory: what one or two scenes could have fixed

Why the ending is actually a win for everyone except the one innocent character

The underdeveloped rebel group problem (again — see also: The Last of Us)

Science fiction vs. fantasy: where's the line and does Paradise cross it?

What we'd do with the IP: sequel series, age-swapping identity twists, and why this works better as a short film

The technology question: could any real science ground this premise?

Ballerina (2023): Korean revenge thriller recommendation

The Call (2020): another strong film from the same director
Working with Jigsaw
Ballerina (2023)
The Call (2020)
Paradise (2023)
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
47min
December 11, 2023130 Years of Film Technology: What Filmmakers Get Wrong About Their Audience
Topics discussed:
How each major film technology changed audience psychology, not just production quality

Why drone shots consistently break immersion — and what alternatives do better

The 30-year cycle of 3D: why it keeps dying and returning (1920s, 1950s, 1980s, 2010s)

Steadicam vs. shaky cam: flying vs. running and what each does to the viewer's brain

TikTok editing and how short-form platforms are retraining how audiences process narrative gaps

Letting a scene breathe: why 1970s pacing worked differently than modern cutting

The Mona Lisa question: should old art be restored to its original state?

Why Smell-O-Vision failed and 4DX is worse

Technicolor, synchronized sound, widescreen, CGI, motion capture — what each actually changed

Hitchcock's storyboarding vs. Robert Rodriguez's one-man production model

The Covenant (2023) review: atmosphere, cinematography, and restraint in war films
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
1h 25min
December 04, 2023Story Break: Ruff Love or Part-time Dog Stalker - Strategic Format Selection
A romantic comedy about a woman who's more in love with her ex-boyfriend's dog than the guy himself. Stalking ensues. Then somehow, things get deeper — and darker — when the whole concept pivots into a Pixar-style animated film about a dog navigating its owners' divorce.
Actor Matt Baughman is back, and he's responsible for blowing up the original pitch and rebuilding it into something better. The guys work through both versions in real time: fleshing out characters, debating endings, pitching casting (including where Pete Davidson does and does not belong), and figuring out how to make a kids' movie about divorce that doesn't destroy everyone emotionally.
This episode covers:
A tribute to Matthew Perry and his influence on comedic timing

The original rom-com pitch: Ruff Love — a dog-stalking story with a lot of heart

Why the Pixar version might be the better movie (sorry)

Casting both films, ft. Sam Rockwell, Timothée Chalamet, and a very contentious Pete Davidson debate

How to show a dog's POV without making the audience sit through an hour of "woof"

Listener questions: Which version do you prefer? Who would you cast?
Connect with Matt Baughman: Instagram: @MattyBaughs
Matt Baughman
Landless Theater
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
1h 12min
November 27, 2023Pontypool (2008): What Happens When Language Becomes a Virus?
Topics:
Pontypool (2008): the Canadian horror film where understanding English words activates a virus

The host split: surreal art film about the fragility of sanity vs. a thriller that breaks its own spell

Not a zombie film: the virus attacks comprehension itself — perception is the vulnerability

The cure scene: forcing someone to challenge their understanding of a word resets the virus in the film — but not in the audio drama

10 Cloverfield Lane comparison: confinement + unreliable information as the real engine, external threat secondary

Would this work better as audio? The entire film takes place in one room — everything important is spoken or heard

The reveal problem: grounded War of the Worlds setup followed by a fantasy explanation — does that shift work?

The Sunshine Chopper: fake helicopter sound effects as a metaphor for the film's relationship with reality

Grant Mazzy as protagonist: disillusioned, alcoholic, depressed — the perfect character to lose his grip on language

The BBC interview scene: misinformation as theme, not plot device

The post-credit scene: Sin City aesthetic, completely disconnected from the film, later spun into a separate movie

Film vs. audio drama vs. novel: three versions of the same concept with different endings

Color grading and lighting: how a sub-$1M film creates atmosphere through visual tone

The doctor as weak link: a difficult character that the actor and direction didn't land

Bodies (Netflix): time travel show that abandons its own causality rules

Jack Reacher novel #1: first-person tactical mind as narrative hook

Expeditionary Force Book 10: RC Bray performance and series culmination
Links:
Watch Pontypool free here

Listen to the official Pontypool audio drama here

And then read the Tony Burgess novel: Pontypool Changes Everything

Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
50min
November 20, 2023Threshold (2005): 'Transitional Fossil' Between Episodic and Serialized Sci-Fi
Topics discussed:
Threshold (2005): CBS sci-fi series, 13 episodes, canceled mid-run — autopsy of what went wrong

The transitional fossil problem: episodic format vs. serialized storytelling fighting in every episode

Why the first few episodes' race-against-time momentum dies when CBS's episodic instincts take over

The bioforming concept: aliens that don't invade but transform Earth's life into their own via signal

Signal vectors: sound, video, biological substrates — nearly impossible to contain

The planned arc: Threshold → Foothold → Stranglehold (first contact → occupation → resistance)

Post-9/11 vulnerability: the show systematically hits every American fear (GMOs, power grid, pandemics, water supply)

The Peter Dinklage controlled experiment: same archetype in Threshold vs. Game of Thrones, wildly different results

Writing as the variable: alluding to vices vs. showing them is the difference between flat and legendary

The infected investigators: why the government wouldn't replace compromised team members (and should have)

Carla Gugino as Molly: contingency analyst as protagonist — an underused character type

Why Netflix has no network-defining show: algorithmic personalization kills shared cultural experience

NBC Thursdays vs. Netflix homepage: the death of "water cooler TV"

Mindhunter's cancellation as a case study in data-driven decisions missing long-term brand value

Chase the fun vs. behavioral psychology: when engagement metrics don't measure actual enjoyment

Wheel of Time Season 2: too many books crammed into too few episodes

What a modern reboot would need: update the vulnerabilities, keep the bioforming, serialize fully
Watch all 13 episodes of Threshold free on YouTube.

Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
1h 6min
November 13, 2023The Billions Sitting in Abandoned IP: Devil's Advocate & Conspiracy Theory
Topics discussed:
Conspiracy Theory (1997): developing it as a romance-conspiracy streaming series

The Gibson/Roberts dynamic: why their complementary strengths made the romance work

Season structure: each season wraps 2-3 real conspiracies into one narrative arc

Jerry Fletcher's memory reconstruction: Memento-style discovery of his own erased past

Devil's Advocate (1997): the double-game series concept

Kevin Lomax remembers the reset and plays against the devil — or does the devil know?

Corrupted characters as double agents: who serves the devil, who's undermining him, who's just a bad person?

The wife character: why she needs more development for a series than the film gave her

Paradise Lost and literary references as mythology backbone

Casting challenge: both properties require exceptional lead actors to work

The tone question: Devil's Advocate needs to stay adult, dirty, HBO/Showtime register

The Museum of Failure: Monoski, Arch Deluxe, Crystal Pepsi, and what they teach about IP

Quick IP evaluations: Alf, Thundarr the Barbarian, Greatest American Hero, Xanth, V, Pitch Black

What makes a dormant IP worth reviving: universal core concept + modern relevance
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
51min
November 06, 2023Rocket League: What "Chase the Fun" Teaches About Building Products That Last
Topics discussed:
"Chase the fun" as a development philosophy: how following what felt good to play shaped every major design decision

The failed first attempt: Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars and what Psyonix learned from it

From Unreal Tournament 2004 to Rocket League: the vehicle coding lineage

Why accessible entry plus deep skill ceiling creates lasting games

Cross-platform play: why only Rocket League and Fortnite pulled it off and what they have in common

The free release strategy on PS Plus and how it built critical mass

Blizzard, Valve, and the creative decay of major game studios

What a Rocket League 2 could look like — and whether "chase the fun" can work twice
Guest: Mark Murray
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
39min
October 30, 2023Occult (2009): How a J-Horror Film Uses Genre Confusion as a Weapon
Topics discussed:
Genre ambiguity as narrative design: the film holds alien, psychic, mystical, and mythological explanations open simultaneously for an hour

The Eno performance: oscillating between pity and menace without resolution until the final act

Found footage as resource management: how micro-budget constraints become creative advantages

Kiyoshi Kurosawa cameo: the Pulse director plays himself as a symbologist — J-horror community connections

The director casting himself: adding realism by making the documentary crew real filmmakers

Automatic writing / psychography: the concept and its use in Project Stargate

The leech god mythology: Hiruko, the limbless offspring of two gods in Japanese mythology

The ending: definitive resolution vs. ambiguity — why showing everything (badly) was the wrong call

The sound design problem: off-key violin that destroys tension instead of building it

The Indiana Jones detour: why Eno sees Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as confirmation of his mission

Net cafe refugees: Japan's cyber homeless who live in 24-hour manga cafes

COVID's impact on the cyber homeless: pushed from cafes into relief lines

Micro-budget filmmaking inspiration: why this film makes you think you could make a movie

Wheel of Time Season 2: too much exposition, not enough momentum

The Terminal List: Chris Pratt's slow-build thriller that keeps escalating

Stephen Merchant's Outlaws: the best show nobody's heard of

Scott Bakula's post-Quantum Leap career that nobody noticed
Watch Occult (2009) here
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
1h 7min
October 16, 2023Doctor Sleep: How Do You Write A Sequel To Incompatible Versions of The Shining?
Three versions of The Shining compared: Kubrick's 1980 film, King's novel, and the 1997 ABC miniseries — plus Doctor Sleep (2019) as a sequel to all of them.
Topics discussed:
The sequel architecture problem: how Doctor Sleep reconciles two incompatible source versions

Dan gets Jack's novel ending: self-sacrifice by destroying the hotel, transferred across generations

Steam vs. Shine vs. Soul: working through the taxonomy of Doctor Sleep's mythology

"The hotel shines too" — the miniseries line that reframes everything about the Overlook

Why the True Knot is starving: modern technology dulling humanity's collective spirit

Pain purifies steam because it's the opposite of passive consumption

The True Knot's arrogance: millennia of preying on children, never encountering a developed adult

Abra's tactical brilliance: the double ability scene (possession + telekinesis simultaneously)

Rebecca De Mornay in the 1997 miniseries: why her version of Wendy is the hero, not the victim

Kubrick's disproportionate hotel sets and atmospheric horror vs. the miniseries' normal hotel

The topiary hedge animals: works in your imagination, fails on screen

The missing years: Danny from traumatized child to alcoholic adult — what's in that gap

Mike Flanagan as director: Oculus, Gerald's Game, and interpreting "unfilmable" King material

Billy as the moral center: why a character would drive to another state to dig up bodies and shoot people

The fan service debate: does returning to the Overlook interrupt the film's flow?

What to do with this IP next: the spirit ecosystem concept
Links:
Check out trailers for The Shining (1980), The Shining TV mini-series (1997), and Doctor Sleep (2019)

You can watch The Shining mini-series on the Internet Archive now.

Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
1h 26min

FAQs about Don't Encourage Us:

How many episodes does Don't Encourage Us have?

The podcast currently has 55 episodes available.