The Cinematic Schematic

The 2022 deadCenter Film Festival is the home to a wide variety of Okie Features from multitalented filmmakers like Cate Jones. In 2020, Jones made her directorial debut with the She’s the Eldest, a black and white dramedy with a real personal touch. She’s back this year with a similar style in her new experimental comedy inspired by actual events, Chicken House. The film is written, directed, and stars Jones who tells the story of three roommates forced to adjust to living with a new and mysterious roommate from LA. Jones continues her trend of casting friends like and other local actors to help build a tight-knit culture on set. In today’s episode of The Cinematic Schematic, Jones and Chicken House producer Kassie Gann join the show to tell us where Jones was inspired to make the film and how she fostered a trusting group to get the best performances from her cast. Gann will also talk about how she approached her first on-screen role and the minor impacts the pandemic had on the production. Chicken House is unlike any other film in this year’s line-up and one you won’t want to miss when it premieres on Saturday afternoon at […]

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Today marks the first day of the deadCenter 2022 Film Festival and a return to fully in-person festivities after two years of hybrid events. Not only is deadCenter bringing back several pieces of its staple programming such as the Okie Shorts Volume 1 and Volume 2, movie night in the Wheeler District, and Oklahoma Film and Music Office panels, but they’re also experimenting with some new ideas. Meet UndeadCenter, the festival’s latest track dedicated to the wild and weird “midnight” style genre movies. Though deadCenter has dabbled in the arena of “midnight” style genre films with the likes of Puppetmaster: The Littlest Reich(2018), it’s never had a lineup of movies dedicated to experimental genre films in the same way other well-known festivals like Fantastic Fest or SXSW have, until now. Presenting the inaugural undeadCenter slate is Oklahoma’s own award-winning filmmaker and festival alum, Mickey Reece. The plan is for the program to live on year after year, supplying the festival with more opportunities to further connect industry professionals with festival fanatics. In today’s episode of The Cinematic Schematic, Reece returns to the show to share his vision for the undeadCenter programming block before providing details about each film in the […]

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Today we continue our exclusive deadCenter 2022 coverage with a look at this year’s deadCenter opening night film from director Daresha Kyi, Mama Bears. Kyi sits down with us on The Cinematic Schematic to talk about how she first learned about the Mama Bears organization before making the documentary. Joining host Caleb Masters in this interview is a special guest co-host, this year’s deadCenter Pride Programmer, Laron Chapman. The film tells the moving story of the rise of the movement of evangelical mothers who decide to embrace and support the LGBTQ community through love, education, and emotional support at weddings. The film follows four different storylines including the rise of Oklahoma’s own Sara Cunningham of Free Mom Hugs, Kimberly Shappley, and Tammi Terrell Morris, a young African American lesbian. The empathetic and emotionally charged film touches on many very personal subjects such as the traditional Christian view on same-sex marriage, the negative impacts the politics have on LGBTQ homes, and the importance of love between mothers and their children. Kyi walks us through how she navigated these challenging topics with grace and a message of hope and love first. Check out the full conversation and see the movie by buying your […]

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How do you raise a new generation to overcome more than a hundred years of setbacks? The Cinematic Schematic continues our exclusive deadCenter 2022 coverage with a look at another tried and true festival tradition, a public OKC Thunder Films screening. This year’s film, The Seeds of Greenwood, highlights the newly formed Thunder Fellows program that launched in the historic Greenwood District a century after the Tulsa Race Massacre. The enrichment program gives Black high school students opportunities in sports, entertainment, and tech through a curriculum based on data and analytics. To learn more about the premise of the program and the making of the film, producer Nick Gallo and director Michael Zubach from the OKC Thunder Films team talk about how they worked with the students to elevate their stories. Dr. Dekoven Riggens from Notis Studios also joins to share how he collaborated with the team to produce several key pieces of music. The Seeds of Greenwood will screen to the public this Friday night in Scissortail Park at 7:30 PM CST. Grab a snack from the Night Market and don’t miss the opportunity to become inspired by the uplifting stories emerging from the Thunder Fellow program. Special Guests […]

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Bank heists. Family character drama. Twisted morality. If you like to see any of these elements at the movies, writer/director Kyle Kauwika Harris’s new film premiering at this year’s deadCenter Film Festival, Out of Exile, is a must-see. It’s a “one last job” crime thriller complete with impressively shot action setpieces grounded in family tragedy and a hope of redemption for the central character, Gabriel Russell (Adam Hampton), before FBI Agent Brett Solomon (Ryan Merriman) stops him in his tracks. On today’s episode of The Cinematic Schematic, we sit down with Harris and three cast members, Adam Hampton, Hayley McFarland, and Kyle Jacob Henry, to discuss their experience making the film, including how the team trained for the various robbery scenes and found ways to build chemistry and comradery on set despite the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Out of Exile continues the tradition of a strong Oklahoma Feature Film category at this year’s festival and is easily one to bookmark in your schedule if you’re looking for something on the grittier side. Listen to the full conversation to get a taste of what to expect from Out of Exile, and see the movie by buying your festival pass […]

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In this exclusive deadCenter 2022 interview, we sit down with writer/director Bryan Beasley to discuss his new film and the festival’s war movie this year, The Battle of Honey Springs. Beasley talks about how the battle had direct impacts on the US Civil War and helped shape Oklahoma history before sharing his experience bringing this epic skirmish to life at the location of the actual battle for the Honey Springs Battlefield Visitor Center. If you’re a fan of innovative documentary or historical reenactments, this reimagined recounting is one to add to your schedule for deadCenter 2022 on Saturday, June 11th at 11 AM CST. To ensure you get a seat, get your festival pass or individual ticket now! Special Guest Bryan Beasley Writer/director of The Battle for Honey Springs According to the deadCenter program, The Battle for Honey Springs can be described as: North or South, whichever side controlled Indian Territory, controlled the fate of slavery west of the Mississippi.  In the end, the battle at Honey Springs would be remembered as the climactic engagement within Indian Territory and the most diverse battle in American Civil War history. On July 17, 1863, Major General James G. Blunt marched 3000 Union […]

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Today kicks off our exclusive coverage of the 2022 deadCenter Film Festival! To help listeners prepare for what to expect, The Cinematic Schematic is joined by the deadCenter director of operations+festival, Miranda Patton, and the deadCenter director of programming, Sara Thompson, to discuss this year’s return to fully in-person activities before taking a look at all of the fantastic movies playing at this year’s festival. We also talk about all of the exciting parties and other festivities you won’t want to miss! What will the return to a fully in-person festival look like? What are the most essential short film blocks to check out? In today’s 2022 deadCenter sneak peek, you’ll get all of the tips and information you need to start building out your schedule ahead of the festival’s June 9th opening night film, Mama Bears, playing at Harkins Bricktown at 6 PM CST. Don’t miss a beat in all of this year’s deadCenter 2022 festivities by subscribing to The Cinematic Schematic via your preferred podcast app. Passes and individual tickets for the festival are on sale now! Special Guests Miranda Patton deadCenter director of operations+festival Sarah Thompson deadCenter director of programming Follow The Cinematic Schematic Podcast Hear all of this and […]

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Following his one-two punch in elevated psychological horror with The Witch(2016) and The Lighthouse(2019), up-and-coming indie auteur Robert Eggers is back with a new Norse epic unlike any we’ve seen on the big screen in recent years, The Northman. In the newest episode of The Cinematic Schematic, host Caleb Masters is joined by a roundtable including The Cinematropolis‘s own Daniel Bokemper, Geek Girl Features‘ Chelsea Ratterman, and first-time joiner, Craig Sanger, the critic-at-large for WWLS-FM, KYIS-FM, and KATT-FM, to pick up the sword and put on the sandals for an in-depth review of the film followed by a spoiler-filled discussion. Whether it’s the History Channel’s breakout hit Vikings starting in 2013, or the more recent exploration of Norse mythology in the video game Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Vikings have continued to be at the height of their popularity in pop culture, possibly second only to the era of Conan the Barbarian when it kickstarted a similar craze in 1982. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a wave of “historic” war epics with this sort of production budget on the big screen(The Northman is reportedly costing Focus Features somewhere between $70 and $90 million), and with mid-budget dramas like this becoming […]

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In today’s episode of The Cinematic Schematic, we dive deep into The Daniels (that’s Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) wildly ambitious multiverse(move over Dr. Strange) to explore themes of love, balance, regret, and so much more through some of the most bizarre filmmaking you’ve ever seen with Everything Everywhere All At Once. Drunken master fight scenes out of a Jackie Chan movie? Check. Shocking revelations around every corner? Check. A versatile and emotionally grounded Michelle Yeoh performance? Check. The film has all of this and so much more, but is it comprehensible? Joining us to answer that question in our review of Everything Everywhere All At Once are award-winning Oklahoma filmmaker, Laron Chapman, and Harold Storey, the host of the TunesToons podcast and A24 film fan. We break the ice with a discussion over films that are probably better in an alternative multiverse before diving into our spoiler-free review and alternate media recommendations and then wrapping up the conversation with a spoiler-filled breakdown of the movie. It’s hugely ambitious and throws a near-overwhelming amount of ideas at the wall, but do all of these seemingly unrelated elements come together meaningfully by the end? Tune into our full review to find […]

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In the newest episode of The Cinematic Schematic, hosts Caleb Masters and Laron Chapman return to continue the annual Oscar predictions episode for our fourth year. Let’s admit it. The Academy has struggled to stay relevant in the mainstream for at least the last decade which has led to frequent programming shakeups for better and (mostly) worse and the 94th Academy Awards is no exception. Firstly, the decision was made recently that not all categories would be airing live during the telecast ceremony for the 94th Academy Awards. Eight awards including Best Documentary (Short Subject), Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Short Film (Animated), Best Short Film (Live Action), and Best Sound, will instead be presented an hour before the telecast ceremony and then edited into the live broadcast. Secondly, a hotly discussed show item is always “will there be a host and if so, who should it be?” Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Regina Hall were announced to be the host, alongside many other celebrity presenters. Lastly, how could we forget what is perhaps the most blatant (desperate?) attempt to draw in mainstream audiences, the “Oscar Fan Favorite” category. Love it […]

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