Episode 54 features Nathan Withrow a.k.a. Bubbawheat the creator of the blog Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights as well as, podcasts such as Filmwhys and It’s Time to Rewind.
We discuss being creators, writing, branding, editing, movies, superheroes of course, and so much more.
Throughout the conversation, we discuss:
- 10 Year Old Blogs
- Superhero films
- Knockoff superheroes
- A love of movies
- Good bad movies and bad bad movies
- Why haven’t you seen?
- Editing being fun
- What’s in a name?
- Is writing better than talking?
- From blog to podcast
- Movie syndication
- And much more
Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode
Flights, Tights, & Movie Nights
Music created and provided by Henno Heitur of Monkey Tongue Productions.
–End Show Notes Transmission–
–Begin Transcription–
00:00:00:01 – 00:00:23:13
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent Palmer dot com. The space race chronicled in moonshot is nothing short of an ambitious tale. This podcast turned two years old, and now that how all of this came to be has come to be, who knows what will happen next. This is The Palmer Files episode 54 featuring Nathan Withrow, aka Bubba White, the creator behind the blog flights, Titan Movie Nights and podcast.
00:00:23:13 – 00:01:09:18
Agent Palmer
Film wise, it’s time to rewind and many other projects you’ve either heard of or are about to hear about. We discuss writing, branding, editing, movies, superheroes, and so much more. Are you ready? Let’s do the show!
00:01:09:22 – 00:01:33:38
Agent Palmer
Hello, and welcome to the Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic, also known as Agent Palmer. And on this 54th episode is Nathan Withrow. Also known as Bubba Wheat, the force behind the blog, flights, tights and movie nights and podcasts such as Film Wise and It’s Time to Rewind. Nathan, like Me, is a content creator in that we both write for our blogs on a regular basis, and we both produce our own podcasts.
00:01:33:42 – 00:02:00:16
Agent Palmer
We also have as many projects you’ve never heard of as the ones we do that you have, and many, many more that have never seen the light of day. We talk about his blogging origins and what he’s learned watching every superhero movie you’ve heard of, and dozens that you haven’t. Plus discuss podcast and blogging, personal branding, how superhero movies have evolved and are trailers good or bad, and our favorite creations.
00:02:00:16 – 00:02:27:29
Agent Palmer
And you know, you know much, much more. Now, before we get going, remember that if you want to discuss this episode as you listen or afterwards, you can tweet me at Agent Palmer, my guest Nathan at Bubba Wheat. That’s Bubba h e a t, and this show at the Palmer Files for all things Nathan. You can visit flights, tights and movie nights.com and you can find links to his podcast there as well, or search for them on your podcast app of choice.
00:02:27:34 – 00:02:49:00
Agent Palmer
Email can be sent to this show at the Palmer Files at gmail.com. And remember, you’re home for all things. Agent Palmer is Agent Palmer. Dot com. So without further ado, it’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it it’s a pod.
00:02:49:05 – 00:02:57:38
Agent Palmer
Nathan, you and I both have blogs that turned ten this year, so I want to just start out with this. Why did you start?
00:02:57:43 – 00:03:21:13
Nathan Withrow
You know, it’s it’s been so long that I don’t really remember. I know, like, at the time, I. I was big into the mo City of Heroes, which is basically, you know, for those who haven’t heard of it because it has gone away along for quite a while now. But I was basically World of Warcraft with the superhero setting.
00:03:21:25 – 00:03:58:34
Nathan Withrow
Okay. And you can make your own superhero. And then after that, it was basically World of Warcraft. But, you know, superheroes before DC and Marvel got their MMOs, in which I think at least one of them has already came and went as well. And so I decided that I wanted to do some sort of blogging. I had a LiveJournal there for a while, but I wanted to do something different, like, years before I actually ran a fanfiction site based on Japanese RPGs.
00:03:58:39 – 00:03:59:35
Nathan Withrow
Okay, yeah.
00:03:59:40 – 00:04:14:59
Agent Palmer
I mean, look, I’m familiar. I mean, up to maybe about 15, 20 years ago, like, I loved the tales series, of games and, stuff like that. The original Dragon Quest,
00:04:15:04 – 00:04:17:26
Nathan Withrow
Oh, yeah. And I’m a huge Dragon Quest fan.
00:04:17:26 – 00:04:44:23
Agent Palmer
And then you get a job and the amount of time that you had to play 40 hours a week while going to school with, like a part time job, like, you don’t have that kind of time. And I, I’ve since tried to replace some of those games. And it’s it’s just so hard when you’re like, like when you’re playing an hour or 2 or 3 every day and you find the time, that’s cool.
00:04:44:37 – 00:04:57:02
Agent Palmer
But when you play 1 or 2 hours a week, it’s like really hard to get into it. So yeah, I’m there. I’m with you. I think Dragon Quest gets underappreciated all the time.
00:04:57:07 – 00:05:18:22
Nathan Withrow
Yeah, just a few years ago, I had like an nearly an hour train commute to work every day. And so I picked up a DS and I bought the rereleases of Dragon Quest five and six were, which were the two that for like the Super Nintendo era that didn’t make it to the US when they were originally released.
00:05:18:27 – 00:05:25:06
Nathan Withrow
And, that was fun to revisit. Well, not revisit them, but to kind of revisit them for the first time.
00:05:25:07 – 00:05:35:24
Agent Palmer
Yeah, no, I can I can imagine that that would make your commute, you know, enjoyable. Like I said, that makes, you know, I’m looking forward to this one hour.
00:05:35:29 – 00:06:00:50
Nathan Withrow
Yeah. But, you know, for the for the blog. Yeah. I started playing city here, so I wanted to do something superhero related. And somehow I came across the idea, well, I will start this blog where I review superhero movies, and in the first year I had it planned out, I looked at like a list of 100 superhero movies.
00:06:00:55 – 00:06:31:56
Nathan Withrow
And so. And the first year I had planned to review those hundred superhero movies, and then with the idea that I would just it would grow from there. And now ten years. And I did actually, you know, accomplish that goal of reviewing 100 100 movies in the first year. But of course, it slowed down quite a bit. And, you know, I’ve taken a few extended hiatuses here and there through life stuff, but I keep coming back to it.
00:06:31:56 – 00:06:39:44
Nathan Withrow
And at this point, ten years later, I’m at about 550. Superhero and comic book movies that I’ve reviewed.
00:06:39:53 – 00:07:07:28
Agent Palmer
And look, I know, because I think, I think for some reason I don’t know how. Right. Like, it’s the it’s the weird, like hivemind of the internet. I’ve been following you for a while, and I don’t know why, but I do know that like, you cover like the big blockbusters, of course, but then some not so blockbuster things.
00:07:07:33 – 00:07:28:22
Agent Palmer
Of the I mean, obviously there’s new superhero movies coming out all the time, but are there more, I don’t know, deep in the archives from like the 80s and 70s, like in like dark corners of the world where, like, there’s still more old superhero movies for you to watch.
00:07:28:22 – 00:08:05:24
Nathan Withrow
Yeah, there there’s still quite a few older obscure ones that I haven’t gotten around to because there was a big like in the, I think, late 60s, early 70s, with the popularity of the Adam West Batman series. That’s when there was this big boom with these knockoff superheroes, especially in Italy. There was a lot of Italian based superhero movies, and I’ve only seen like 2 or 3 of those, and there’s still a lot of those that I haven’t gotten around to because they’re I mean, for one thing, they’re harder to find.
00:08:05:29 – 00:08:31:55
Nathan Withrow
And also just that, you know, fewer people have heard of them. So I, I am I am kind of happy. Like at this point, I have covered, I think in like my tagline has switched up. I my, the tagline that I like to use if whenever somebody asks me about my side is I’ve reviewed every superhero movie that you’ve ever heard of and dozens that you haven’t.
00:08:32:00 – 00:09:01:11
Agent Palmer
Do you enjoy finding those off the beaten path ones? I mean, you know, everybody can get in the argument. Like one of my best friends hates Iron Man three, and I don’t think it’s a horrible film. I understand why people don’t like it, but but but, you know, that’s that’s, you know, a modern flick and you can take it or leave it, but do you enjoy going back and seeing, like, an Italian superhero movie from the 70s?
00:09:01:11 – 00:09:25:05
Agent Palmer
Like, because it’s a different, you know, I, I make it a point to like go back and rewatch classics, quote unquote, because when you watch a film like The Man Who Would Be King as an example, which is two hours and 15, it’s over two hours. But the pacing is not like a marvel movie. That’s over two hours, and I feel like you need to be in a different mindset to watch some of those older movies.
00:09:25:05 – 00:09:30:29
Agent Palmer
The the pacing is different. The story’s different. Like all of it’s different. Do you enjoy going back there?
00:09:30:34 – 00:09:58:30
Nathan Withrow
Oh, absolutely. Like I, I’m somebody that I love movies. I love the experience of watching movies. And I like to watch the movie that I watch in the head space that I need to be in, like, I there’s some there’s once in a while where I don’t really do any, prep beforehand, but I usually go in having a rough idea of the type of movie, the me that I’m going into.
00:09:58:35 – 00:10:43:49
Nathan Withrow
Like I would say, I think just of the a couple months ago I watched, a 1980 Indian like Bollywood Superman movie knockoff, and it was hilariously bad, and I knew I was going in like I knew it wasn’t going to be a good movie coming and going into it, but I had so much fun just watching this incredibly bad movie with these Indian, with these Bollywood songs just sprinkled throughout that just made no, no sense whatsoever in this, these bad special effects.
00:10:43:54 – 00:11:00:16
Agent Palmer
So I know on your site you have a top 100 superhero movies, but do you have, is there a list somewhere else where it’s like the top 25 bad, enjoyable, like bad movies you’ll really like like is is that list exists somewhere.
00:11:00:19 – 00:11:33:28
Nathan Withrow
So I it’s entirely possible. I do lists like that every once in a while. There’s it’s entirely possible that I have and I’ve forgotten about it because there are there are the good bad movies. And then there’s the bad, bad movies. Yes. Yeah. No. Because yeah, the the one that I always like to, to call out is I think it was like a, it’s not even asylum films because a lot of people know the asylum name.
00:11:33:28 – 00:12:02:43
Nathan Withrow
They’re big for the the Mark Busters. They did like the Trans Morpher movies. Okay. Yeah. And this is like the next step below. Asylum film. I think it’s Tomcat films. And one of the ones that they released was called Captain Battle Legacy War, and it came out around the time as, the first Captain America movie, and it was based on a, like, Golden or Silver Age comic book that was actually called Captain Battle.
00:12:02:43 – 00:12:31:26
Nathan Withrow
And it’d fallen like nobody own the rights. So they were actually able to use this, but it was like the it’s, it’s my go to if somebody ask, what’s the worst movie that you’ve ever seen? And that is the worst movie that I have ever seen. Like they used, they had transitions that were like page wipes that the way to get and you know that like Windows Movie Maker.
00:12:31:31 – 00:12:45:40
Agent Palmer
Now of of I don’t I don’t want anyone listening to I think that you’re pigeonholed like you do other movies. Like you like you’re not just a superhero movie buff like you enjoy movies, too.
00:12:45:49 – 00:13:19:07
Nathan Withrow
Yeah. I in fact, like, yeah, I started the movie blog in 2012, and then in like mid 2013, I started my podcast and I called it film wise. And, you know, it’s that the wise at the end stands for why haven’t you seen this film? And so that was my excuse to branch out and cover more classic movies that weren’t just superheroes and comic book movies.
00:13:19:12 – 00:13:47:30
Nathan Withrow
And each episode I have a guest, have, well had fun and have because I’m it had like a hey, very extended hiatus. But I’m in the process of coming back to it and starting to record new episodes. But each episode I would have a guest on and they would introduce me to a classic movie or like a cult classic, like one of their favorite movies that I’ve never seen.
00:13:47:35 – 00:14:07:20
Nathan Withrow
And then I would turn it around and I would introduce them to a comic book or superhero movie that they haven’t seen. So I’d still be tied in, but I would also give me a chance to to branch out like the first. The first episode was jaws, where I hadn’t seen jaws, and then my guest hadn’t seen Superman two The Donner Cat.
00:14:07:25 – 00:14:08:11
Nathan Withrow
Okay.
00:14:08:16 – 00:14:35:54
Agent Palmer
I know that film wise and the blog are just two of like a kind of like it. You’re like a serial content creator because, like, those are just two of the many things, not to, like, completely jump to another topic, but like, do you enjoy creating the content, like the writing, the recording, like the editing? All of these things go into all of the things you do.
00:14:35:54 – 00:14:46:45
Agent Palmer
And obviously, you know, it’s kind of surrounded by media as like the, the, the, the, the thing that ties it all together. But you’re always creating something.
00:14:46:50 – 00:15:30:45
Nathan Withrow
Yeah, I love having a creative outlet, whatever that is. Like, I like I mentioned, I started with fanfiction where I wrote fanfiction and then and moved to movie criticism and now it’s a combination of the movie criticism, and I do occasional blogging and then the podcasts with the movies, and then I also get have an outlet for visual creativity, because for each film wise episode, I mash up the two posters for the episode artwork for each episode.
00:15:30:50 – 00:15:50:09
Nathan Withrow
So and that’s, that’s like, you know, this visual creative outlet that I get to do, which I love doing that. And then I also mash up the trailer because I like, I like the the editing, like I wore my I’m one of the few podcasters who enjoys editing.
00:15:50:14 – 00:15:57:54
Agent Palmer
I enjoy the editing process. I I’ll admit that I, I’m with you. I there’s.
00:15:57:59 – 00:15:59:08
Nathan Withrow
If.
00:15:59:13 – 00:16:19:39
Agent Palmer
One of the reason people hate editing is because they don’t like listening to their own voice, but I feel like the other part is I, look, I. Hi, I’m Jason, I’m a podcaster, and I enjoy Monday Morning Quarterback, which is exactly what editing is to me. Like, I get to tell the story, but I also get to be like, why?
00:16:19:51 – 00:16:42:25
Agent Palmer
Why’d you ask that question? Or like, oh, you forgot to ask that follow up? Or like, you know, you you have an anecdote. Why did you stay silent? Like, I enjoy that part of it. And I feel like it’s how you get better. Like, if I outsource the editing, I wouldn’t know. I missed that question. I wouldn’t know that.
00:16:42:29 – 00:16:50:44
Agent Palmer
Not that I stuttered there, but, like, you tripped over your words right there. Like, you just the. That part of it really intrigues me.
00:16:50:44 – 00:16:55:56
Nathan Withrow
I do, I really say, you know that many times. Yeah.
00:16:56:00 – 00:17:24:12
Agent Palmer
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I have started editing for other people and, you, I feel like it’s easier to pick up on other people’s crutches before I pick up on mine. Now, it could be that I’ve heard it, and I’m trying to actively go at it, but like, there’s a guy whose thing I’m working on and it’s, you know, they go in and out of clips and it’s always okay.
00:17:24:12 – 00:17:50:35
Agent Palmer
So that’s it. There’s no other verbal transition. It’s okay. So or wow, those are the two. Wow. Great great. Wow. Great. All right. Yeah. There are other exclamations. You know, so before the fanfic on and that was part of the live journal is my assumption.
00:17:50:40 – 00:17:56:19
Nathan Withrow
Died it it was part of an AOL site.
00:17:56:24 – 00:18:07:43
Agent Palmer
I mean, were you all right? I guess what I’m getting at is, were you always a creator? Were you all. I mean, obviously the blog comes along and you had the live journal before that, but, like, were you always doing stuff?
00:18:07:58 – 00:18:36:38
Nathan Withrow
Yeah. I mean, the initial like the fanfic website, that would be like not too long after we got internet back, whenever I was in like high school, okay. Like my last few years at high school. And that was kind of the it was a little bit of creating, but it was also curating because I would collect other people’s fanfics and collect them and post them on my site.
00:18:36:42 – 00:18:43:11
Nathan Withrow
It was called The Hole in the universe, although it was only because that’s clever.
00:18:43:11 – 00:19:06:12
Agent Palmer
I like it, I still I it’s one of the reasons I like film wise. I just feel like it works like I’m a I’m a sucker for alliteration and rhyme. So, you know, fights, tights and movie nights like you’re just the branding on your blog alone speaks to me, right? Like I can’t, I can’t deny that attraction.
00:19:06:17 – 00:19:25:48
Nathan Withrow
Yeah, that’s that’s something that I always love. And it does tend to take me a long time to figure out. Like film wise, took me forever or. And I’m also the type of person where it’s like whenever I think of a name, I immediately Google. Okay, has anybody else thought of this yet?
00:19:25:53 – 00:19:40:06
Agent Palmer
That I mean, look at especially now, like is the Twitter available? You know, look at it. Does somebody have a podcast called that already? There are so many things to check now for a name.
00:19:40:11 – 00:20:12:02
Nathan Withrow
I mean, that’s even even going with my name, you know, I my name’s Nathan Withrow, and there aren’t a whole lot of famous Nathan’s. There’s like, Nathan Fillion, and that’s about it. But in terms of my online name, which is Bubba Wheat, I also had created that whenever I was in high school, and there’s still pretty much not any other Bubba Wheat out there that it still has original now has.
00:20:12:02 – 00:20:45:10
Nathan Withrow
It was whenever I first created that. And that kind of blows my mind that like the only, the only time I’ve ever not gotten Bubba Wheat is there is this there’s one guy and his I think it’s his nickname, but his nickname is Bubba. And his last name is actually wheat. And there’s been a couple times where I’m pretty sure it’s this guy, like on Facebook, you know, he’s under Bubba Wheat, and I think that he got the Gmail.
00:20:45:15 – 00:21:00:05
Nathan Withrow
And then there’s just been a couple other places where I couldn’t get Bubba way, but like 99 times out of 100 and a new social network and a new thing, you know, I username Bubba Wheat, it’s available. Yeah.
00:21:00:05 – 00:21:12:32
Agent Palmer
I, I think if I had actually done more research on Agent Palmer, I might have reconsidered because there’s an NCIS character that I battle with for the top Google spot.
00:21:12:37 – 00:21:13:47
Nathan Withrow
00:21:13:52 – 00:21:23:33
Agent Palmer
And I feel like when that show finally goes off the air, I might actually regain my thing. There’s like a wiki. So as long as that character is around in that show.
00:21:23:38 – 00:21:24:36
Nathan Withrow
00:21:25:01 – 00:22:01:16
Agent Palmer
Or, you know, in syndication, I, I sometimes lose my top spot, but otherwise I’m doing okay. Except for the poor, poor realtor who’s got Agent Palmer at gmail, because I have the Agent Palmer at gmail. And, I sent an email once to them, and I was like, I’m sorry. If you get anything from the people that hear me talk on the internet because they forgot the article and I never heard anything, and I was being sincere, like I wasn’t trying to troll or anything, so.
00:22:01:20 – 00:22:27:15
Agent Palmer
But I never heard back. So. And I’ve already, you know, yeah, I, I’m used to my like you. Now, if you took away the article, I’d be like, I don’t remember what, but, no, leave the article alone, man. So let me ask. Writing the blog versus creating the podcast in all of its various forms, do you have a preferred format?
00:22:27:19 – 00:23:05:43
Nathan Withrow
No, I don’t really have a preferred format because I think that they both have their pros and cons. I’m somebody that I, I’m kind of like with, with a lot of people that don’t like listening to their own voice because, and I don’t I think, I think maybe I do actually prefer writing because a lot of times I feel like the idea is in my head in getting those ideas to words and having them come out of my mouth takes longer than it does for other people.
00:23:05:54 – 00:23:34:19
Nathan Withrow
But whenever I’m writing, it’s it seems to come out faster or it comes out in spurts and sometimes. And for some people listening to that and me listening to myself, a lot of times I hear that and I can hear my ideas coming out in spurts, and I hear that in my voice and how I speak. And occasionally that annoys me a bit, especially whenever I’m editing.
00:23:34:24 – 00:23:40:59
Nathan Withrow
But whenever it’s in writing, you don’t see that because it’s it’s all just there.
00:23:41:14 – 00:24:02:04
Agent Palmer
Yeah. The the polished product of a blog post is so much more. I don’t want to use the word perfect, because I feel like we all still have our things that, you know, our arguments that we’re like, perfect to us. But then you read it like a week later and you’re like, how would I hit publish on this?
00:24:02:16 – 00:24:19:25
Agent Palmer
But, but but I, I agree with you. I feel like there’s a I think maybe it’s a, there’s a little bit more control over the written word, versus the here and now. Like, whatever I’m saying to you right now is what I’m saying to you. And I can either edit, cut it out and the edit or leave it in.
00:24:19:25 – 00:24:44:59
Agent Palmer
And I don’t really have much choice. I can’t make myself sound more eloquent or like, go after the alliteration for something. Whereas if I’m writing it like I have a first draft and then I have a second draft where I can change words around and I have a third draft if I wanted to. Yeah. And then I can send it to somebody else and they’d like, like there’s so much more control over the written word.
00:24:45:04 – 00:25:02:42
Agent Palmer
But I feel like we’re dinosaurs. And I don’t say that, like, in a bad way. Just everybody I talk to who wants to know about podcasting and, and and I always tell them, well, you know, a blog might be more doable for you.
00:25:02:47 – 00:25:24:53
Agent Palmer
It’s it’s a balance. I feel like, you you have jumped around. I know some of your shows are on hiatus. They’re not, like, all running concurrently, but like you do keep creating them. It feels like. Do you have a list somewhere of more that have yet to be created?
00:25:24:57 – 00:25:56:17
Nathan Withrow
No. Right now it’s I’m pretty much just focused on, three things. I’ve got the the written blog where I’m reviewing superhero movies. Mostly I’m catching up on the ones from just the past year or so, which I think I’ve covered all the major ones. And like now that at the time that we’re recording, I’m going back and catching up on like, the DC animated features because they’re they kept coming out with those and I fell behind.
00:25:56:17 – 00:26:22:31
Nathan Withrow
I’m like six behind on that. And that’s only after like I feel like just six months. But I think it’s been longer than that. And then I have the film wise, which has been on an extended hiatus, and then I switched hosting services because the one that I was in before, you know, the the free version was extremely limited.
00:26:22:35 – 00:26:57:04
Nathan Withrow
And I’m now I’m still in a position where this, this is a hobby and I make, you know, maybe $100 a year in ads, if I’m lucky. It’s in that comes out in one big chunk. Yeah. And I’m trying to build a Patreon, but that’s that’s still like extremely minimal. And then I just use that. I would use that to, you know, rent and, rent the movies and go to the theaters.
00:26:57:09 – 00:27:35:33
Nathan Withrow
But the free hosting that I was using was extremely limited. I could only host like eight episodes at a time. And then I found out about anchors form, and this seems like it’s really the first totally free podcasting sort of podcast hosting service, which had for a long time I. It blew my mind that nobody could figure out how to have a free host free audio hosting service, because YouTube exists and video takes up so much more storage and bandwidth than audio.
00:27:35:38 – 00:27:43:22
Nathan Withrow
And yet YouTube is free. But all the podcasts cost money. Yeah, no, I.
00:27:43:27 – 00:28:02:04
Agent Palmer
You say that now and it’s like, yeah, we did skip a step. It’s kind of weird. I, I want to get back to your third one, but it is kind of weird that like audio is having this resurgence when we did kind of go from the written word to video on the, you know, as far as the internet’s concerned.
00:28:02:09 – 00:28:12:32
Agent Palmer
And now we’re going back to audio, which feels so let’s be honest, 18th century. Right. Like this is radio. This is radio on demand. Like.
00:28:12:37 – 00:28:13:40
Nathan Withrow
Yeah.
00:28:13:45 – 00:28:16:08
Agent Palmer
All right. So the third one back to.
00:28:16:12 – 00:28:42:42
Nathan Withrow
Yeah. So I am rereleasing I’ve got, you know, 86, 85 episodes of film wise, but I’ve been releasing it on a daily basis, and I’m recording number 86 this weekend. And so whenever I get finished the the old episodes, I’ll have a new one to come out the very next day.
00:28:42:42 – 00:28:48:01
Agent Palmer
And is that going to be, is that going to be like a monthly or.
00:28:48:06 – 00:29:22:14
Nathan Withrow
I haven’t decided at this point because the, the third one that I’ve, that I’m doing, which I just started a couple months ago, it’s called it’s Time to rewind and it’s based on time loop movies and TV shows and I, I got inspired by the Movies by minutes format, which is kind of a growing, movie podcast format that takes a movie, and each episode they cover a single minutes of a movie, or sometimes they’ll do five minutes and mine.
00:29:22:19 – 00:29:33:59
Nathan Withrow
I do that too, with a time loop story, and each episode is one loop of the story. And I started out with Groundhog Day because, of course, of course I yeah.
00:29:34:04 – 00:29:38:45
Agent Palmer
I mean, look, it’s funny too, because I was it 2019, 2020.
00:29:38:50 – 00:29:39:41
Nathan Withrow
00:29:39:46 – 00:29:53:32
Agent Palmer
Hulu and Amazon within like two weeks of each other. Had those two, time loop romances. One was Palm Springs and the other was the map of tiny things, or tiny.
00:29:53:36 – 00:29:55:24
Nathan Withrow
The map of tiny perfect things.
00:29:55:24 – 00:30:09:33
Agent Palmer
And I, I did eventually watch them, like, not when they first came out, but I did eventually watch them. I went like, these are both really good. They’re both very different. Still similar, very different. But why did.
00:30:09:35 – 00:30:12:38
Nathan Withrow
And also Russian Doll was not that long ago either. Oh that’s.
00:30:12:38 – 00:30:37:33
Agent Palmer
True. Yeah. I, I just kept thinking like is is this a, were these close enough to be sisters like, like Armageddon and Deep Impact. Right. Like, was there something in the water that people like? You know what we need a time loop with romance again. Yeah. I it it’s back. Who knows, but I have. How have you enjoyed.
00:30:37:42 – 00:30:59:17
Agent Palmer
Because obviously it’s an it’s an adaption of the, you know, taking a minute of film and podcasting about it. How have you enjoyed the loops? In depth because obviously I think everybody’s watched Groundhog Day for the, for the most part, probably a few times, because it feels like one of those quote unquote syndicated movies.
00:30:59:22 – 00:30:59:57
Nathan Withrow
Yeah.
00:31:00:01 – 00:31:19:24
Agent Palmer
But, this you’ve probably watched more of it in detail where you are in the show so far, the the podcast so far. Do you have a are you sick of it yet? Are like, is there an appreciation like, I mean, I know you’re only doing chunks, but still, like you’re living with that movie.
00:31:19:28 – 00:32:14:50
Nathan Withrow
Yeah. It’s been really fascinating to dissect a movie this way. And I am, you know, this is just the first movie I’ve done, and, you know, there’s a chance I might get tired of it, especially if I. You cover, you know, the the less movies that are much less than Groundhog Day. But with this one, it it’s really been fascinating and just the, the way that I’ve been able to do it and, and each and especially starting with Groundhog Day because there is so much detail packed into each scene in that movie, like, and whenever they’re at the Tip Top Diner, the Tip Top Cafe, just in, practically everybody in the background is somebody
00:32:14:50 – 00:32:43:45
Nathan Withrow
that comes back in the movie later and but they’ve always been in the background. And just to watch, you know, two minute a like a four minute scene in the diner early in the movie over and over and over again. And the catch these little details that most people wouldn’t notice if they’re just watching the movie start to finish because they’re focusing on what the filmmaker wants you to focus on.
00:32:43:50 – 00:32:51:53
Agent Palmer
Has it changed the way you’ve watched? Like, I mean, obviously, since you’ve undertaken this, has it changed the way you’ve watched just other films?
00:32:51:58 – 00:33:18:09
Nathan Withrow
A little bit, at least I think so. I think it has made me look for details a little bit more, like just just a couple days ago, I watched spawn, because that’s, that’s going to be the, the episode that’s new to my guest and the film that I’m recording this weekend. And, you know, it’s it’s an okay movie.
00:33:18:09 – 00:33:41:22
Nathan Withrow
I, I have fun with it. But there was definitely a lot of details that I noticed that I hadn’t noticed before. Like early in the more and early in the movie, you see Wanda, which has spawned wife at the beginning, and she’s pulling out in her car and she has like an air freshener, and it’s the evil clown.
00:33:41:26 – 00:34:06:26
Nathan Withrow
And like, this is before the evil clown has been introduced in the movie yet. Okay, but but they have that detail, and there were, like, a couple other details, like there’s a motorcycle chase. And I noticed that the stuntman looked like he got hit with a chunk of fence. That’s the the truck, you know, hit a fence and then knocked it into the stunt guy driving the the motorcycle.
00:34:06:37 – 00:34:16:06
Nathan Withrow
And then I looked into the IMDb trivia afterwards and that was like, you know, I, I noticed three things and they were all there in the IMDb trivia.
00:34:16:11 – 00:34:24:38
Agent Palmer
I mean, you feel like you win right there like that for sure. Lately. Yeah, it’s not a game, but you feel like you get some extra points for that because like, you noticed it without looking it up.
00:34:24:43 – 00:34:25:45
Nathan Withrow
Yeah.
00:34:25:50 – 00:34:46:59
Agent Palmer
Have you like, are there movies that you’ve heard of in the cultural whatever that you’re like? Well, I hope somebody brings us to film lives. Like, do you have a list somewhere of like, movies you haven’t seen, but you don’t want to watch it because because, like, look, as a content creator, right? Like we always have those things that we’re like, well, that could be a thing.
00:34:46:59 – 00:35:12:53
Agent Palmer
Like I remember, probably three, two years at three years and it’s been a while. It’s been over a couple of years, I think, but I had never seen The Matrix start to finish. And Bill Sweeney needed an episode for something, and that’s what we did. It was my first watch all the way through of The Matrix. And he, you know, we we went through it and, you know, at a certain point you go, I can watch that.
00:35:12:53 – 00:35:18:53
Agent Palmer
And then you’re like, how? Save it. I’ll just I’ll just save it. Like, do you have a list?
00:35:18:58 – 00:35:42:03
Nathan Withrow
Yeah, I have a list. It’s about 100 movies long, a little over 100 movies long. And that’s actually did come up just just fairly recently, within the past couple of weeks. You know, my wife got the role because, you know, the new space Jam movie came out recently and she was like, you know, I haven’t seen Space Jam since I was a kid.
00:35:42:08 – 00:36:04:36
Nathan Withrow
And I was like, yeah, I’ve got Space Jam on my film wise list because I’d never seen it before. And I think that would be a fun, film wise episode to discuss it. And she’s like, well, I rented it. I got it from the library, you know, let’s watch it. And so, like, part of me was like, I don’t know, do I want to watch it just to watch it?
00:36:04:36 – 00:36:23:22
Nathan Withrow
Or do I want to watch it for a podcast episode? Yeah. No, I but we did end up watching it. And, you know, it was exactly what I thought it was going to be, which was mostly bad with a few fun bits, but it was it was interesting and entertaining to watch.
00:36:23:29 – 00:36:32:19
Agent Palmer
Did. Okay. So I know as a follower of yours on Twitter, you, you live tweet a lot of the movies you watch.
00:36:32:23 – 00:36:53:19
Nathan Withrow
Yeah it varies. I tend to live tweet more for the better of, well, one thing for the bad movies and also movies that I’ve seen or that I’ve seen before, like spawn, like, whenever I watch spawn, I live tweeted the hell out of that because, you know, it’s it’s not the best movie and there’s a lot to talk about.
00:36:53:19 – 00:36:56:33
Nathan Withrow
And I had seen it. I’ve seen it a couple times before.
00:36:56:38 – 00:37:06:11
Agent Palmer
Does it help you with note like when you’re watching it like, is that is that your form of note taking? Like, I’ll just go back and check the Twitter feed later because it’s all there.
00:37:06:15 – 00:37:31:07
Nathan Withrow
Yeah, I’ve definitely use my live tweets as, as my notes because I don’t at least for the for film wise, I never took notes for it’s Time to rewind. I had a lot more detailed notes because it it was a different style of podcasting because film wise, it’s all about first impressions and like gut reactions. You know, this is how I felt about the movie.
00:37:31:11 – 00:38:09:14
Nathan Withrow
Seeing it for the first time. And this is just, you know, fresh. This is just, you know, like 20 minutes for an entire movie, typically 20 to 25 minutes. And then for it’s time to rewind, you know, we could talk, like I have. I stretched a one second clip from a slap montage into, like a 15 minute episode and like the a m I think the the most, another one like him getting hit by a truck was like a 30 minute episode.
00:38:09:19 – 00:38:20:33
Agent Palmer
Okay. Like so I guess for context, then if you’re going to write about something for the blog, you watch it once, you watch it twice. Like, what’s the for the blog?
00:38:20:33 – 00:39:08:00
Nathan Withrow
I typically just, I watch it once. It’s also had my blog reviews do tend to be a bit more stream of consciousness gut reaction reviews. Sometimes I will do a little research for fact checking and things like that. You know, make sure that I spell somebodys name right. Occasionally I’ll do like a deep dive, I would say. And and once in a while I’ll do like an in-depth article, like my favorite article that I have ever done, which was, you know, many years ago now, but it was about fan films getting struck by copyright infringement and taken down.
00:39:08:05 – 00:39:20:34
Nathan Withrow
And it was, you know, basically a deep dive into the history of fan films and ones that have gotten taken down for copyright infringement. And this was.
00:39:20:34 – 00:39:39:28
Agent Palmer
Like when the, the Star Trek ones kept getting, because I remember a few years ago, I don’t know what it was, but a few years ago, like, there were like probably 2 or 3, like Star Trek fan films that just kept getting, like, whacked by CBS.
00:39:39:33 – 00:40:18:40
Nathan Withrow
I’m not sure if this was around that time. I want to say it was like maybe 2014, 2015. And I know that there was a, I think it was a Punisher fan film that actually, like, got shut down before they even officially released it. And there was also like a, like a Dark Knight inspired fan film that was on Kickstarter, like they did a short film and they did a Kickstarter to turn it into a series, and that got shut down.
00:40:18:45 – 00:40:30:56
Nathan Withrow
But they didn’t like they didn’t tell them to take down the short film, but they told them to stop the Kickstarter and they couldn’t do the series. Yeah. So there’s a lot of like, weird lines.
00:40:31:01 – 00:40:53:10
Agent Palmer
See, you mentioned that. And now I’m trying to think of like, do I have a favorite post? Like, I, I don’t there are definitely posts I’ve done. Like, I think I’m with you in that whatever my favorite post would potentially be, it’s one of the deep dives I’ve done. I did a deep dive in the history of coffee, and that was pretty like.
00:40:53:10 – 00:41:13:21
Agent Palmer
That was just fun to get lost in. I’ll be honest. Then there was the deep dive I did on Deek, which I don’t remember what it stands for anymore, but his dick, it was the children’s network that did, like, Inspector Gadget and stuff, and it really that one just came to me as like, well, they they did so many cartoons I used to watch as a kid.
00:41:13:21 – 00:41:35:27
Agent Palmer
Like, what ever happened to them? And like, it’s just this fun, weird, like rabbit hole of going down things. So I don’t know if I have favorites so much as it’s just like the ones that take the most time and that you spend that much time in researching are the ones that I feel like I look back fondly as like, well, that was like an Everest.
00:41:35:27 – 00:41:57:22
Agent Palmer
I climbed right there like I did. You know, I it’s not like watching a movie once, maybe twice and writing about it in my case, like it’s more than that. But what about what about podcasts? Like, do you have some favorite of those that it’s like, well, it was the discussion that I got. I didn’t expect that discussion from that particular movie.
00:41:57:27 – 00:42:22:20
Nathan Withrow
Yeah. And I think that like my favorite podcast follows with my favorite blog post. It was one that I did a lot of put a lot of time into. Like, I probably spent, you know, ten hours crafting a 30 minute episode because it was something that I started doing. I only did three episodes. It was a spinoff of film wise.
00:42:22:25 – 00:43:05:20
Nathan Withrow
I call that film y spotlight. What I did was I, got people who were fans of lesser known and typically lesser enjoyed superhero and comic book films, and I had them talk about what they loved about it. And then I cut that up like I, I think I talked to about three different people for each movie. I did one on Supergirl, one on Ang Lee’s Hulk, and then I did one on Scott Pilgrim Versus the World, which, you know, that one’s probably the the film that people who have seen it generally love it, but it’s still kind of underseen.
00:43:05:25 – 00:43:06:06
Nathan Withrow
Yeah. There’s art.
00:43:06:15 – 00:43:18:36
Agent Palmer
Yeah, there’s a lot of people who have just never I, I wonder what was happening in the world like because I saw it. But like, I know plenty of people that you’re like, they’re like, nah, I never saw it.
00:43:18:42 – 00:43:45:03
Nathan Withrow
And and also on the ang Lee an episode, I actually was able to talk to one of the writers of the early drafts of that film, and he was like an incredibly candid and open about everything. And then it was it was kind of funny. I mean, maybe fun is the wrong word, but at the end of it I was like, okay, I can.
00:43:45:08 – 00:44:03:51
Nathan Withrow
So like I told him what I was doing with it and he didn’t realize that I was recording the whole thing. He thought that I was like, I don’t know, transcribing it, or I was going to use it for like a written interview or something like that. And like, I like I assured him, no, don’t worry. And because he he named names.
00:44:03:56 – 00:44:28:03
Nathan Withrow
Okay. Yeah. And he was like. And I was like, no, don’t worry. I’m not like any time that you name names, I’m not going to put that in there. So but that was that specific one was it was interesting. And then, you know, I chopped up the three separate interviews. So they all flowed together and I included brief clips from the movies.
00:44:28:08 – 00:44:42:01
Nathan Withrow
And like it was it was a process. And like, you know, I took probably, you know, 45 minutes to an hour with each person and I cut it down to like a 30 minute, 30 to 40 minute episode.
00:44:42:11 – 00:44:54:04
Agent Palmer
So the before before all of this, do you have any audio editing experience or any audio experience on Mike at all?
00:44:54:09 – 00:45:32:58
Nathan Withrow
No. Like me starting out with the blog, I, you know, like most people who who have a blog, they search out ways to increase their traffic. And so I found a site called The Lamb. Large Association of Movie Blogs. And that kind of brought me into a film blogging community. And they also have a podcast called The Lamb Cast, where they open it up to members of the lamb, which it’s, you know, any movie, blog or movie podcast can join the lamb and it and it’s still running.
00:45:32:58 – 00:46:00:40
Nathan Withrow
It’s at this point, I think they have over 2000 members. And of course, a lot of those are our members who have since gone dark and, you know, quit blogging and podcasting. But there’s still a lot of people that are active and I started just by, you know, joining that community. And then the host at the time asked me, like, I joined their forum.
00:46:00:44 – 00:46:21:23
Nathan Withrow
And then, you know, I gave the podcast a shot and I joined on a guest. I think it was for the dark Night, whenever that or The Dark Knight Rises, whenever that movie first came out, which was in 2012. So that was like in the first year of my blog. Yeah, I.
00:46:21:28 – 00:46:58:41
Agent Palmer
I ask because. I did have a small background in radio before this. Not not necessarily editing. I mean, I feel like unless you’re good in audio production, you’re never going to have that experience. Like that’s something you just pick up. And when it comes to writing, I mean, everybody’s had to write book reports and stuff like, it’s not like, and I don’t I don’t want to belittle what we do, but like, if you’ve ever written a book report, you can write a movie review, like, we’re not we’re not writing the great American novel.
00:46:58:46 – 00:47:24:53
Agent Palmer
And so there’s a, there’s a commonality that everybody has. It’s just we still enjoy writing. But I feel like I got on a kick. It just so happened that, like, talking about, like, how people need to get out and do stuff, like, everybody needs to go out and do their thing. And I feel like I never say, you don’t need to know what the hell you’re doing.
00:47:24:57 – 00:47:47:31
Agent Palmer
Like, if you want to do it, just do it. Like you’ll fall into it. It’ll just happen. Because if you don’t like it, you’ll change it. Like you wouldn’t still be reviewing superhero movies if you didn’t like it. Like, at a certain point, like, it’s ten years now. Like you’re not doing this begrudgingly, like, oh crap, another movie.
00:47:47:44 – 00:47:51:14
Agent Palmer
Like, that’s not a thing that you’re going to go, oh.
00:47:51:14 – 00:47:54:40
Nathan Withrow
Darn, I gotta go see Suicide Squad.
00:47:54:45 – 00:48:23:05
Agent Palmer
Again. Did I just do this a few years ago? Look, I, I did want to ask. I mean, obviously, you, you know, you started the blog a decade ago, which is a few years after Iron Man kicks off a brand new era in superhero films. Basically. How has the genre changed? Like, I feel like I can ask you because you’ve been paying a little bit closer attention.
00:48:23:10 – 00:48:36:25
Agent Palmer
Because I have watched all of them, but I haven’t written about all of them. Some of them I’ve only watched once, or maybe I’ve missed. But like, clearly we have turned a corner where the genre movie is not a bad word anymore.
00:48:36:30 – 00:49:18:39
Nathan Withrow
Yeah, and I’m actually, you know, I, I’m curious because I have early and and the and the first few years of doing this, I, I was clearly able to basically divide the history of superhero cinema into basically four different eras. And I think that there has been a shift in the ten years, but I don’t have I haven’t figured out like where that dividing line is because it’s basically there were at the time, I like to say there were four movies that changed the way that superhero movies were made.
00:49:18:43 – 00:50:04:51
Nathan Withrow
The first one was Christopher Reeve Superman The Movie. Okay, the next one would be Tim Burton’s Batman. All right. Because that that started shifting it to, you know, that made superhero movies a bit more viable, and it started making them darker at the time. Yep. And the next one would be, X-Men and the 2000 and that that shift made superheroes more tied to the real world, to where the the superheroes were actual human characters.
00:50:04:56 – 00:50:14:46
Nathan Withrow
Yeah, that had personalities. And they weren’t just these fantastic comic book characters that they weren’t fully caricatures.
00:50:14:46 – 00:50:27:31
Agent Palmer
Yeah, okay. And then the dividing line becomes a little blurry because you either you you’re either a DC fan and you say the Dark Knight or you’re a marvel fan and you say Iron Man is like that.
00:50:27:36 – 00:50:55:43
Nathan Withrow
Well, I would say The Avengers. Okay, that’s because the Avengers, I think at the time was really the movie that that changed the way that movies were made, because it showed that you could make superheroes into a franchise, you could make them connected, build upon each other, and then come out with the Avengers, which is bigger than the sum of its parts.
00:50:55:48 – 00:51:13:45
Agent Palmer
Okay. Yeah, I could see that. I could see that because, it’s if you use Avengers as that film DC still looking for there’s like and I don’t I’m not picking on them. I, I feel like it’s not any fault of any creative piece.
00:51:13:50 – 00:51:14:57
Nathan Withrow
00:51:15:02 – 00:51:33:41
Agent Palmer
But Marvel set out to create The Avengers. And DC did not. And they kind of went to retroactively do it, which has been, to their folly. I feel like all the movies would have been better had they just gone on and not tried to connect at all.
00:51:33:55 – 00:52:03:20
Nathan Withrow
You know, and actually just kind of think about it as you said it, I think the next one would actually probably be Deadpool, because Deadpool was a success and it because X-Men was starting the shift. You know, it doesn’t have to be 100% comic book accurate. We we’re going to put these in leather because that’s instead of the flashy comic book outfits.
00:52:03:24 – 00:52:07:44
Nathan Withrow
And then Deadpool was like, no, let’s make it exactly like the comic book.
00:52:07:49 – 00:52:14:36
Agent Palmer
Yeah okay. Yeah. Because because Wolverine, up to that point, Wolverine’s not wearing blue and yellow, right?
00:52:14:41 – 00:52:24:16
Nathan Withrow
We’ve never seen Wolverine in a comics accurate costume. Yeah, we’ve only seen the hint of one and a deleted scene.
00:52:24:18 – 00:52:34:27
Agent Palmer
Yeah, okay. And, yeah, I mean, and Deadpool’s got a few other things going for it too, like, it’s the it’s the rated R that was supposed to be harder to.
00:52:34:27 – 00:52:34:40
Nathan Withrow
Yeah.
00:52:34:40 – 00:52:44:38
Agent Palmer
The harder. And it was never supposed to work. Right. Like it was just this is going to work for what? You know, you’re cutting your audience in half. You can’t have all those kids watching it. And it’s like.
00:52:44:42 – 00:52:57:40
Nathan Withrow
And then it became the biggest R-rated movie ever. Yeah, yeah. And if if Deadpool was an excess, we wouldn’t have gotten James again. Suicide squad. Okay. Yeah.
00:52:57:45 – 00:53:13:53
Agent Palmer
We will. Yeah, I, I wonder, because we, you know, do you follow all of the insider trading, like, the industry news or do you try and stay with the here and now, I guess.
00:53:13:57 – 00:53:47:42
Nathan Withrow
Yeah, that’s something that I’ve never enjoyed. A lot of times I felt like I would be able to increase my readership tenfold if I added, like, a news element to my blog, but that’s that’s something that I’ve always railed against. Just because I wouldn’t enjoy it, because I don’t like all the speculative sites that, you know, the, as we’re recording this, you know that the Spider-Man No Way Home trailer just dropped.
00:53:47:53 – 00:54:16:25
Nathan Withrow
Yeah. And there’s already dozens of sites reporting on it and, like, breaking it down into my new detail, and it’s like they figure it out already that they’re pretty sure that the lizard is in it, but it’s voiced by the guy who played, the lizard. Well, who played Doctor Connors and Spider-Man two and three and Raimi’s Spider-Man two and three.
00:54:16:39 – 00:54:50:38
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I, I watched the trailer today, actually, begrudgingly. Right. I, I for movies, I know I’m going to watch. I very much try to go in as unknown as dumb as possible. Right. Because because I, I, I’ve treated books the same way. And then I finish a book and I go look at the back cover because I want to write a spoiler free review, and I go that is on the that’s on the back cover.
00:54:50:38 – 00:55:13:38
Agent Palmer
Like, that’s that was a great turn for somebody who had no idea it was coming. Like, I understand that it sells the book, right? Because like who? But guess what happens. But if you don’t have any idea what’s going on, like, it’s such a turn and I just feel like you can’t, you can’t go back and re-experience something for the first time.
00:55:13:38 – 00:55:33:50
Agent Palmer
So, like, if I tell you, you know, if the secret is that Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, but you don’t know that going in, that’s something that you get to experience and enjoy the first time you figure it out. Watching right, versus knowing you’re going in and you’re like, oh, well, okay.
00:55:33:55 – 00:56:06:03
Nathan Withrow
But I, I’ve, I’ve been someone that, that I have never really cared about. I don’t say never because I was annoyed at the time that I wasn’t the I had the sixth Sense spoiled for me before seeing it for the first time. But nowadays I don’t really care about spoilers at all. Like I don’t seek. Like I’m not a spoiler hunter wanting to know everything about the movie before I go into it.
00:56:06:08 – 00:56:39:48
Nathan Withrow
But if a if a movie or show gets spoiled for me, then it’s like, oh, that’s interesting. And then I move on with my life. Because if you think about it and I think James Gunn mentioned this with The Suicide Squad and like in a slightly related way, is that you only see a movie or experience a story for the first time once, but you enjoy the movie more whenever you’re familiar with it.
00:56:39:53 – 00:57:10:24
Nathan Withrow
Like there’s reasons that we keep coming back to movies and TV shows over and over again that we’re familiar with, because that familiarity breeds enjoyment. And they have actually done studies where they did like EKGs, and they basically we’re measuring a person’s enjoyment. So either it was either through EKGs or it might have just been through, like scoring rating.
00:57:10:29 – 00:57:33:18
Nathan Withrow
And they rated they had people rate their enjoyment of something going into it for the first time. And other people who had been spoiled by that, by a big twist, and the people who had been spoiled ahead of time actually enjoyed the story more than those who hadn’t and were experiencing it for the first time.
00:57:33:23 – 00:57:57:22
Agent Palmer
Well, I’m going to have to rethink how I feel about trailers. Yeah. All right, all right. Well, that’s I’m going to have to figure out where that puts me now, because now I’m going to have to think about it. I’m not going to be so anti trailer anymore then because you’re, you do only experience whether, you know the experience isn’t just the plot.
00:57:57:27 – 00:58:19:22
Agent Palmer
Right. And I feel like that’s something that you know the turn, the twist the the end. That’s not all of it. You know especially as movies get longer, you know, that that twist and that end might only be 18 minutes. The other two hours, you’re I really hope you’re enjoying that part of the film too.
00:58:19:27 – 00:58:47:37
Nathan Withrow
Yeah. And also like, if you know the big twist ahead of time, like you’re watching a movie for the second, third or 25th time, you you do enjoy the setup like there’s like with comedies that I’ve seen a dozen times, but I still love. I will start watching and I will start laughing at a joke with the setup.
00:58:47:49 – 00:58:51:56
Nathan Withrow
I. Yeah, because I know that, you know, it’s punchline already. Okay.
00:58:52:01 – 00:59:09:25
Agent Palmer
What? All right. So so I’m going to put I am going to put you on the spot with this question, like what is one or 2 or 3 movies that are not exact, but like what are the movies you’ve seen like the most? Like what are your most rewatchable, like comfort films?
00:59:09:30 – 00:59:47:04
Nathan Withrow
But my number one is definitely The Princess Bride. Okay, I’ve seen that many times, and I just recently rewatched It’s Not That long ago. After that, it it becomes a little bit harder just because I’m, I’m not a huge rewatch or that like, there are a few movies, you know, I want to go back to and maybe the two movies that I would like watch every year for a while, and that would be like The Crow, which I, I have for a while.
00:59:47:04 – 01:00:03:26
Nathan Withrow
I was watching that every Devil’s night the night before Halloween. Yep. And the other one, which is right around the same time of year, is the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Yeah. Okay. All right. I, I.
01:00:03:31 – 01:00:26:06
Agent Palmer
I think television has tweaked my answer like, I, my number one is still and probably will be for a very long time, real genius like that. And that’s very rarely on television, but that’s near the top of my list. But then after that, it gets to be like the syndication ones, where it’s like, I twister. Like, if twisters on, I’ll watch it.
01:00:26:06 – 01:00:48:34
Agent Palmer
I can’t not, Fifth Element. Same way if Fifth Element is on, I can’t not. And those two are always on, especially in the summer twisters on every channel. Twister is on every channel. It’s on. If you have cable, you can find twister during the summer period. The end. And then there’s like other films that I just.
01:00:48:34 – 01:00:51:58
Agent Palmer
But but those are the ones for me. I just.
01:00:52:03 – 01:01:01:33
Nathan Withrow
Yeah, it’s tougher for me because I’ve, you know, I cut the cable cord a long time ago, so I’m 100% on demand. So, you know, I have a collection of.
01:01:01:35 – 01:01:20:08
Agent Palmer
Do you enjoy them? I mean, do you enjoy the fact that every everything, everything you watch is on demand, like so? You have to make the conscious effort, like, I’m going to hit play on this. Like, do you enjoy that or is there a part of you that misses the like? Man. Well, it’s 30 minutes into twister here.
01:01:20:08 – 01:01:24:44
Agent Palmer
Yes, I watch this now. You know, like it. Do you do you miss that part at all?
01:01:24:48 – 01:01:50:08
Nathan Withrow
A little bit, but I, I think that streaming does make up for it to a certain extent with their, with their algorithms and their suggested content. So it’s like the suggested content is like what’s on next, what would be on cable. But you can start it immediately. Like you don’t have to wait for it. You never miss the first half hour.
01:01:50:13 – 01:01:56:18
Nathan Withrow
You always start from the beginning.
01:01:56:23 – 01:02:00:40
Agent Palmer
You.
01:02:00:44 – 01:02:33:50
Agent Palmer
I think that it’s important to reiterate what the purpose of editing is, since you’ve just heard two people who both enjoy editing talk about it. Edit is, according to Merriam-Webster, a verb that means to prepare something for publication or public presentation, or to assemble by cutting and rearranging or to alter, adapt, or refine, especially to bring about conformity to a standard or to suit a particular purpose.
01:02:33:55 – 01:03:02:26
Agent Palmer
With all that official stuff out of the way. For me, editing is two things correction and simplified caption. For the blog, that means checking, spelling, grammar, and communicating my thoughts clearly. For the podcast, it’s trimming the fat while keeping the conversation natural. That’s what it means to me, but it could mean other things to other people, yet it still remains similar.
01:03:02:31 – 01:03:25:57
Agent Palmer
However, the process of editing has gotten a bad rap by some people. Some creators out there hate editing, and they’re going at it all wrong and need to come over from the dark side. To those of us who embrace editing, why don’t you like editing? I don’t know, but I can tell you why you’ll like it. You’ll like editing because it makes your thing better.
01:03:26:02 – 01:03:55:14
Agent Palmer
Editing leads to revision, and revision leads to improvement, and more importantly, learning. Learning can lead to a better first draft, which leads to a better finished product, even though there’s still editing that happens after that. Editing is not censorship, but it’s an important part of being better understood by and respecting your audience. You shouldn’t have to untangle three run on sentences because they fell out of my head.
01:03:55:19 – 01:04:21:28
Agent Palmer
It could happen. But optimally, I have an editor who will untangle them so you don’t have to. Sometimes that editor is me, and other times it’s someone pushing me to be better. Either way, I understand it is such an important part of the creation process and you should too. So do you like editing and if not, how can I help you see the light?
01:04:21:32 – 01:04:40:23
Agent Palmer
Thanks for listening to The Palmer Files episode 54. As a reminder, all links are available in the show notes. And now for the official business. The Palmer Files releases every two weeks on Tuesdays. If you’re still listening, I encourage you to join the discussion. You can tweet me at Agent Palmer, my guest Nathan at Bubba Wheat. That’s Bubba H.
01:04:40:23 – 01:04:58:35
Agent Palmer
Feherty and this show at the Palmer Files for all things Nathan. You can visit flights, Titan Movie nights.com, and you can find links to his podcast there, as well as search for them on the podcast app of your choice. Email can be sent to this show at The Palmer Files at gmail.com. And remember, you’re home for all things.
01:04:58:35 – 01:05:05:38
Agent Palmer
Agent Palmer is Agent palmer.com.
01:05:05:42 – 01:05:13:10
Unknown
You.
01:05:13:14 – 01:05:37:31
Unknown
Need.
01:05:37:36 – 01:05:42:55
Unknown
Me.
01:05:43:00 – 01:05:45:46
Unknown
Even.
01:05:45:51 – 01:05:48:37
Agent Palmer
All right. Nathan, do you have one final question for me?
01:05:48:42 – 01:06:16:58
Nathan Withrow
Yeah. This. This is something that I ask everybody that, that I interview. Whether it’s for my blog or my film wise podcast, and it it shouldn’t be a huge surprise for you knowing where I come from, but I always like to ask, what’s your favorite superhero movie like? Superhero. Or you can go comic book movie.
01:06:17:03 – 01:06:53:26
Agent Palmer
So, my gut reaction is Iron Man. Because it I, I think it hit me at the right time like I was, I was having my quarter life crisis when that movie came out. And, it was just like, I think it just hit the writing of it hit me at the right time, wanting to do something bigger, wanting to do something better at.
01:06:53:31 – 01:07:20:05
Agent Palmer
I mean, at the time, I was a, a college graduate, work in retail, and it was just like, I don’t want to be doing retail for the rest of my life. Like nothing against people who work in retail. But it’s just I didn’t go to school for this. I want to do something more, and I wasn’t. And 2008 also happens to coincide with that’s when I started my own business.
01:07:20:10 – 01:07:21:31
Nathan Withrow
Which was.
01:07:21:36 – 01:07:45:31
Agent Palmer
Kind of in motion before Iron Man comes out that summer. But I don’t launch the business until the fall. So maybe there’s a little, like, get off your ass, dude. But I don’t know. Hit me at the right place at the right time. I mean, I was a fan of Burton’s Batman, and I was a fan of the X-Men and and the spider man stuff, like, it’s not like it was the only one.
01:07:45:31 – 01:08:06:20
Agent Palmer
Right? But when it came out, it hit me at such the right place. It was the right character for me personally. Right? It was the right character was the right kind of movie. It was the right tone, that balance of like, serious and still throw in the proper amount of laughter but not make it a comedy.
01:08:06:24 – 01:08:30:31
Nathan Withrow
Which is kind of that like the the Marvel way. Yeah. Nowadays. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s something that’s, you know, a lot of, a lot of times I will rail against the fact that I don’t like the term superhero genre. It’s like, you know, animation isn’t a genre. You can have.
01:08:30:35 – 01:08:35:40
Agent Palmer
Adult animation and. Yeah. No, I, I hear that, yeah.
01:08:35:45 – 01:09:03:05
Nathan Withrow
And I kind of feel the same way with superheroes that it’s. But in a lot of ways, Marvel has kind of made its own genre. I like it. Marvel is a genre. Yeah. Because all they’re all they’re all they’re ones shows and movies more or less follow a similar format with some variations.
01:09:03:19 – 01:09:37:17
Agent Palmer
So I would love to tell you like, there’s because if we think about the tonnage, the sheer amount of superhero movies that have happened after Iron Man, like, it’s kind of weird for me to be because because I will be the first to admit it’s not even like the best Marvel movie. I don’t even know what I would say that is, but I, I know Iron Man’s great, but it’s not a perfect film, but to me, like, it still hits me in all the right places.
01:09:37:22 – 01:09:55:27
Agent Palmer
And so that’s, that’s got to be my answer. Like, I want to say others like I want to I because there are other films I may like better, but like that one, that one just hit me at the right time and it still does. It still hits me in the right places every time.
01:09:55:32 – 01:10:19:40
Nathan Withrow
Yeah, I would, I would still have it. And that one like in my top ten, like I haven’t done a top ten in a few years. And so that’s probably will have changed because there’s been a lot of good movies in the past 2 or 3 years. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Iron Man was still in my top ten superhero movies.
01:10:19:45 – 01:10:27:43
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I, I think in 15, 20, 30 years, when we look back like people.
01:10:27:43 – 01:10:29:06
Nathan Withrow
Will.
01:10:29:11 – 01:10:57:03
Agent Palmer
Genuinely ask how how did they how did they get so lucky to to do it that because here’s the thing, we talk about Marvel as a genre and it starts there and there’s not much difference. Like the writings change, the characters have changed, but the amount of like, plot and story with a sprinkle of drama and comedy, it’s all there.
01:10:57:03 – 01:11:21:34
Agent Palmer
Like the recipe exists in 2008 for Iron Man that they have seen through that. When you watch the next film, when we watch Spider man, when it comes out like that formula is still exists, like they got so clearly they got lucky because you don’t know that that’s going to be the format. Like you, you just don’t know.
01:11:21:34 – 01:11:30:45
Agent Palmer
Like this is the movie we’re making today in 2008. Like, holy crap, it’s still a viable thing. I.
01:11:30:48 – 01:11:40:53
Nathan Withrow
And on top of that, I or at the time, you know, people forget Iron Man was like a C-list superhero. Yeah, yeah, he’s.
01:11:40:58 – 01:11:48:21
Agent Palmer
He’s, Robert Downey Jr has 100% transformed that character into an A-lister.
01:11:48:25 – 01:11:49:50
Nathan Withrow
Yeah, yeah.
–End Transcription–
This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).