An exciting episode of #BTLRadioShow this week thanks to writer/director/editor/composer MICHAEL CUENCA, who joins us live talking about his new I’LL BE AROUND, while director ROD LURIE talks about his latest (and greatest) film THE OUTPOST, in our exclusive prerecorded interview.
First up is our exclusive conversation with director ROD LURIE talking about his new film THE OUTPOST. In short, THE OUTPOST is the BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR! Based on Jake Tapper’s bestselling book “The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor”, Rod delivers a film that is visceral, intense, emotional, powerful, and technically superlative. This is a “war movie” in the truest sense of the word. This is not a glossy, fictionalized or romanticized Hollywood look at this true event. This is the story of the men of Combat Outpost Keating and the 10-3-2009 Battle of Kamdesh, the bloodiest American engagement of the Afghan War in 2009. These men of Bravo Troop 3-61 CAV became one of the most decorated units of the 19-year conflict. Listen as Rod and I talk about his approach to telling this story from a visual and emotional standpoint, lensing the battle and the relentless nature of the onslaught, the men of Keating, casting (Caleb Landry Jones is Oscar-bound) which includes some of the soldiers who were actually in the Battle of Kamdesh on October 3, 2009, Lorenzo Senatore’s cinematography and the reasons behind the decision to shoot oners or long takes, Michael Duthie’s editing, sound design and editing of Kris Casavant and Ryan Nowak and their teams, Larry Groupe’s score and Rod’s selective use of it throughout the film, location, and so much more. And as comes as no surprise, the interview is a bit condensed for broadcast purposes.
Then writer/director MICHAEL CUENCA joins us live talking about his latest film, I’LL BE AROUND. Designed for the thirty-somethings out there, I’LL BE AROUND is set over a 24 hour period during an alt-music festival where we meet a cast of characters trying to find their footing and purpose in today’s world as they tackle social and philosophical issues leading to more than a few laughs. We go in-depth talking about the density of the script and the dialogue-heavy and dialogue-driven design of the film while capturing the “vibe” of this 30-something world, creating over 50 featured speaking roles plus ” a cast of hundreds”, developing a visual tonal bandwidth with cinematographer Jessica Gallant and then composing lyric music and score that complements the flow of the visuals, editing a film this dense down to a viewable and distributable 2 hours, costuming, and something which indie filmmakers will value – insight into working with Seed & Spark on crowdfunding.
