Timecode Cowboys

Timecode A.I. West

Cowboys | Ep. 10 | Ten Gallons Deep: California Gold, Twilight Zones & The Wild

Our 10th episode! Ten rides in the can, and we’re celebrating the only way we know how — by

going completely off script. No guests, no notes, just a father-son free-for-all through film history,

memory, and the strange present tense we’re all living in.

Here’s what we wrangle in this milestone episode:

Grand Prix (1966) — split screens, speed, and the ghost of live TVA road trip to the Kern River & the volunteer museum preserving Western film history

A love letter to Huell Howser and the lost art of public-access wonder

Revisiting The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling, and the haunted poetry of early television

A philosophical detour into A.I., art, and the uncanny future of filmmaking

Why A Christmas Carol is the original ghost story

The Luddite wars, ChatGPT’s “computational jellyfish,” and what’s next for the creative class

It’s part California postcard, part Twilight Zone rerun, part midnight symposium on where movies (and

maybe humanity) go from here.

Saddle up, pour a drink, and join us as we mark ten episodes of Timecode Cowboys — still out

here on the reel frontier.

Like, comment, and subscribe for the next ten rides.

Available wherever you pod!

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Timecode Cowboys | Ep. 9 | Renaissance Man Robert Young III

This week we’re catching up with one of Danny’s oldest friends and collaborators — filmmaker, actor,

musician, and bona fide creative polymath Rob Young III — for a conversation that spans decades,

mediums, and mindsets.

From their first short film together (a teenage neo-noir called Bulletproof) to Rob’s latest political rock

opera Nixon King, this episode is a trip through the wild roads of DIY filmmaking, Detroit artistry, and

the strange freedom that comes from doing it all yourself.

Here’s what we cover in this cinematic hangout:

From CalArts to Harvard — the winding path of a multi-hyphenate storyteller

Working at Detroit Public Television and learning the craft from the inside out

The genesis of Nixon King, a rock opera where MLK meets Nixon behind bars

Collaborating with (pre-fame) Damien Chazelle and the power of early creative circles

Reimagining Batman, JFK, and other icons on his long-running YouTube channel

The raw genius and controversy of Last Tango in Paris — and the cost of creative risk

Why filmmaking is still the most democratic art form… and the hardest to sustain

From Detroit diners to CalArts casting calls, Episode 9 is an ode to persistence, friendship, and the

lifelong pursuit of making something—anything—worth remembering.

Saddle up, hit play, and join us for a ride with the one-man studio himself, Rob Young III.

Like, comment, and subscribe for more stories from the reel frontier!

Available wherever you pod!

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Timecode⏱️🤠Cowboys | Ep. 8 | Pt. 2 | Salad Days & Starfields with Crescenzo 🌌🎬

Our ride with cinematographer extraordinaire Crescenzo Notarile continues — and this time we’re diving into his salad days working on ‘80s era music videos, his stint on Star Trek: Discovery, and the bigger questions about art, artists, and legacy - and of course, The Godfather.

Here’s what we cover in this jam-packed part two:

🎶 Shooting 850+ music videos — from Billy Idol to Tom Petty, U2, Pink Floyd & Michael Jackson

🔮 The tricks of the trade Crescenzo still carries with him from his MTV days

🚀 Lighting the impossible corridors of Star Trek: Discovery and Picard

👁️ The unforgettable sadness he saw in Michael Jackson’s eyes

⚖️ Can (or should) we separate the art from the artist?

🎨 Coppola’s Megalopolis and the beauty of taking big swings late in life

🍊 Oranges, tragedy, and the power of symbolism in The Godfather

From lasers at a Pink Floyd show to run and gun camerawork on the ledge of a liquor store, this conversation is a whole cinematic universe unto itself.

👉 Saddle up, hit play, and join us for Part 2 of our conversation with Crescenzo.
🤠 Like, comment, and subscribe for more stories from the reel frontier!
🎧 Available wherever you pod!

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Timecode⏱️🤠Cowboys | Ep. 8 | Pt. 1 | Lights, Camera… Crescenzo! 🎥✨

We finally wrangled our biggest guest yet — the one, the only, Crescenzo Notarile — Emmy-nominated cinematographer, lifelong student of light 🧠💡 and all-around Renaissance man 🏆📸. We had sooooo much fun with Crescenzo that we had to split this one into TWO PARTS !

Here’s what we cover in this rich and rollicking Pt. 1:

📺 The Twilight Zone episode that changed Crescenzo’s life forever

📸 Crescenzo’s love for photography — and private collection of Avedon prints!

🎞️ The Swedish Masters of Mood: Sven Nykvist & Ingmar Bergman

🔍 The difference between long lenses vs. wide lenses

🧪 The lab montages that made CSI famous

📚 The Kubrick quotes we take as gospel

♟️ And why every great filmmaker should master the game of chess

From high art to handheld chaos, this one’s got gravitas, grit, and a whole lot of heart. ❤️

👉 Like, comment, and subscribe for more cinematic campfire tales 🤠

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Timecode⏱️🤠Cowboys | Ep. 7 | Cannes You Believe It?! 🇫🇷🎞️

We’re back in the saddle after a wild ride to the Cannes Film Festival 🥂🎥 — where Danny’s work on Slauson Recwas a last-minute addition to the prestigious Cannes Classics lineup! 😱✨

In this very special episode:

🐎 Dan survives the red carpet and a brutal sinus infection

🧢 Buys waaaaay too many souvenir hats

🎟️ Breaks down the circus-like chaos of Cannes

📽️ Reflects on editing a vérité doc for 2 years straight

✍️ Retreats into the French countryside for a creative Eat Pray Love style journey

🍷 Visits Ridley Scott’s personal vineyard (and, yes, the Alien space suits are there)

From the Palais to the Provence, this one’s a jetlagged, wine-drenched, film-soaked recap of a life-changing creative high. ✈️💻📓

👉 Like, comment, and subscribe for more cowboy cinema ramblings 🤠

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Timecode⏱️🤠Cowboys | Ep. 6 | The Smight Stuff: Claire, Con Artists & Paper Moon

This week, the Smight family expands—and upgrades.
✨Claire Smight—art director, film connoisseur, and certified agent of cool—makes her long-awaited Timecode Cowboys debut 🎤🎉

With Peter Bogdanovich’s Paper Moon (1973) as our  compass, we hit the open road to explore a world of scams, grifts, and Americana. Along the way we discuss the following:

👧 Tatum O’Neal’s Oscar-winning chaos as Addie Loggins

📖 The fine art of a Bible hustle

🎥 Bogdanovich’s obsession with vintage style and modern sharpness

🍼 And the truth about growing up in a house full of filmmakers, jokers, and cinephiles

It’s part family roast, part roadside elegy, and all love.
The Smights get reflective, ridiculous—and maybe a little rowdy. And yes: Claire absolutely steals the show (just like Tatum).

#TimecodeCowboys #ClaireSmight #PaperMoon #TatumOneal #Bogdanovich #1970sCinema #FamilyPodcast #FilmHistory #HollywoodDynasties #ConArtistClassics

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Timecode⏱️🤠Cowboys | Ep. 5 | Doctor’s Orders: Learning to Love the Cut with Mark Baldwin (and Dr. Strangelove)

This week, we step into the war room and go full Kubrick. Editor, documentarian, and raconteur Mark Baldwin joins us for a deep dive into the genius of Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb — from its razor-sharp satire to the way its editing reshaped comedy.

As a longtime industry vet with credits across both docs and narrative fare, Mark also shares his own career journey:

🧠 How Strangelove rewired his brain as a young cinephile
🎬 What it takes to build a lasting editing career in Hollywood
📼 Why sometimes the best edits happen when you don’t follow the script

It’s part masterclass, part therapy session for film lovers. Slim Pickens rides the bomb, and we ride shotgun with Baldwin.

#TimecodeCowboys #DrStrangelove #Kubrick #StanleyKubrick #FilmEditing #PostProduction #HollywoodLife #ColdWarCinema #PodcastGuests

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Timecode⏱️🤠Cowboys | Ep. 4 | Edit Room Rodeo: John Heath on his Career in and Out of the Cutting Room

This week, The Cowboys welcome their very first guest to the corral: producer, editor, and director John Heath 🎥✂️. We saddle up for a ride through John's decades-spanning career — from the wild early days of non-linear editing 🖥️ to the modern media frontier — swapping tales from the trenches of Hollywood across genres and eras. Plus, John brings a personal favorite to the table: the Coen Brothers' underworld masterpiece, Miller’s Crossing 🎩🔫.

It's a story of cutting, crafting, and crossing paths — don't miss it!

#Podcast #FilmHistory #EditingLife #MillersCrossing #CoenBrothers #FilmEditing #HollywoodTales #TimecodeCowboys #PodcastGuest #MovieMagic

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Buckle up, movie lovers — it’s time to hit the gas!🔥

In Episode 3 of Timecode⏱️🤠Cowboys, we cruise the highway with Vanishing Point (1971), the cult classic that turned a white Dodge Challenger into an everlasting symbol of freedom, fatalism, and full-throttle filmmaking.

We talk the seeds of the screenplay written by a Cuban novelist (who might have also been a CIA agent) Barry Newman’s effortlessly stoic protagonist Kowalski, the mysterious DJ Super Soul, and that surreal mix of high-speed chases and ‘70s soul-searching that makes this film so indelibly iconic.

We also veer off-road into other iconic car chase flicks (The French Connection, Two-Lane Blacktop) and share how Vanishing Point floored us the first time we saw it.

This one’s got muscle cars, desert vibes, and a whole lot of cinematic myth-making. If you’ve ever dreamed of outrunning society with just a full tank and a fuzzed-out soundtrack, this episode’s for you.

Like, comment, and subscribe if you’re riding with us each week for film nostalgia, deep cuts, and father-son film talk!

#VanishingPoint #70sCinema #CultClassics #CarChaseMovies #MoviePodcast #TimecodeCowboys #BarryNewman #RoadMovies #FilmTalk #CinemaClub #FilmNerdsUnite #MovieBuffs #podcastlife

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Is Lonely are the Brave (1962) the real beginning of New Hollywood? In this episode of Timecode⏱️🤠Cowboys, we saddle up with one of the most underrated modern Westerns ever made — a film that saw Kirk Douglas swapping six-shooters for existentialism and horses for helicopters.

This isn’t your granddad’s cowboy movie. This is a boundary-breaking elegy for the American individualist, a spiritual bridge from the mythic West to the morally complex antiheroes of the 1970s. Before Easy Rider, before The Wild Bunch, before Taxi Driver or Five Easy Pieces, there was Jack Burns — a man out of time, trapped between the frontier and the freeway.

We dig deep into:
🎬 The subversive screenplay by Dalton Trumbo
🐎 Kirk Douglas' soulful performance and why he considered this his favorite film
🚓 The film’s subtle political undertones and countercultural spirit
🛣️ How this movie foreshadowed the themes, tone, and rebellion of New Hollywood cinema

If you love Westerns that break the rules — or want to trace the cinematic lineage from Shane to Scorsese — this is your stop.

Subscribe, like, and comment to let us know your favorite proto-New Hollywood films or Westerns with a twist!

#TimecodeCowboys #LonelyAreTheBrave #KirkDouglas #DaltonTrumbo #NewHollywood #WesternMovies #ClassicCinema #FilmHistory #ModernWestern #Antihero #HollywoodRebellion #1960sCinema #FilmAnalysis #MoviePodcast #FilmDiscussion #CowboyMovies #OutlawCinema #CinemaHistory #PodcastEpisode

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