Behind The Lens Radio Show – 10/26/2020 with special guests CHARLEY & VLAS PARLAPANIDES and exclusive interview with LYDIA DEAN PILCHER and GINNY MOHLER

A show so chock full of fun thanks to our special guests that we expanded this week’s episode of #BTLRadioShow to 90 minutes!!

Just who are these incredible special guests? Filmmakers and brothers, CHARLEY and VLAS PARLAPANIDES, who join us talking about their new anime series on Netflix, BLOOD OF ZEUS. Be you a filmmaker, a film fan, a fan of anime or Greek mythology, this is one conversation you don’t want to miss! But in addition to Charley and Vlas, we’ve also got our pre-recorded exclusive interview with director LYDIA DEAN PILCHER and co-director/writer GINNY MOHLER talking about their new film, RADIUM GIRLS.

I first Charley and Vlas nine years ago for the blockbuster film Immortals which they co-wrote. (Needless to say, when you mix folks from the Jersey shore and Philly with film, you have an instant connection.) Their love of mythology, which gave rise to some of the most ancient oral forms of storytelling, was at the heart of that film. And while they have had other projects since Immortals, nothing compares to what they now bring us as the Executive Producers, creators, and writers of BLOOD OF ZEUS.

If you love Greek mythology, you’ll love the series. If you love anime, you’ll love this series. If you love mythology and anime together, you will go crazy for this series. Action, adventure, glorious visuals, characters that are larger than life (as all gods should be), yet a series with heart thanks to a hero.

Involved in every level of the series development and production, listen as Charley and Vlas talk in-depth about anime vs cartoons, the genesis of the series, their love of mythology, developing storylines, picking the Olympian gods of which to include, writing for a defined episodic series vs a feature film, their writing process as co-writers and brothers, creating episodic arcs within the overall 8-episode series arc while tieing it all together with color, character, and visual composition, the animation itself, storyboarding, score, the importance of collaboration and the mantra of “no idea is a bad idea”, their own filmmaking lessons learned through this process, the importance of a good director (in this case, Shaunt Nigoghossian), title details, very fun and interesting end credits (aka “watch through the credits), and so much more. And we manage to talk about it all SPOILER FREE!

But, before we get to Charley and Vlas, we kick off the show with our pre-recorded exclusive interview with LYDIA DEAN PILCHER and GINNY MOHLER talking about their new film, RADIUM GIRLS.  Many of you may know of Lydia’s work as a producer of films like Cutie & the Boxer, The Queen of Katwe, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, or her latest directorial A Call to Spy starring Stana Katic which she actually filmed after RADIUM GIRLS, but now she joins forces with Ginny and co-writer Brittany Shaw to bring the true story of the “Radium Girls” to the silver screen.  RADIUM GIRLS is the story of the lawsuit brought by five very brave girls against the US Radium Corporation in 1927 related to unsafe work conditions surrounding the use of radium to handpaint the dials of “glow in the dark” watches.  Despite illnesses and death of numerous employees, US Radium maintained there was nothing wrong at the factory nor with the radium.  As would be discovered, that was anything but the truth.  They knew about the dangers of radium and the radiation poisoning of its employees, yet covered it up.  Pilcher and Mohler now bring the story of the Radium Girls to life while interweaving the essence and feel of the “jazz baby” era into the legal battle.  Captivating with the energy and effervescence of the 1920’s thanks to archival footage, beautiful cinematography, exquisite score, the twinkling magic of radium itself, and diving in through the eyes of the victims, most notably the character of Bessie and her sister Jo played by Joey King and Abby Quinn, respectively, makes RADIUM GIRLS a “must see” film.  Take a listen as Lydia and Ginny talk about their processes in the making of RADIUM GIRLS, from Ginny’s extensive archival research and developing the script and characters, to Lydia’s meticulous visual design and storytelling that gives the film life, to Mathieu Plainfosse’s cinematography, to Lillie Rebecca McDonough’s magical score, and so much more.  Candid and collaborative, just listening to them in conversation we are able to understand and appreciate even deeper their shared passion for telling this story.