Episode 85 - With host Craig Norris
First Broadcast on Edge Radio, 23rd August 2024.
In today's episode, Dr Craig discusses some unusual, quirky media culture stories, including Guillermo del Toro’s live-tweeted adventure with a ghost in a haunted Scottish hotel, the reaction to Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis trailer, the story behind a German warship cruising down the Thames while blasting Darth Vader’s iconic Imperial March theme, and some awkward meltdowns in DVD commentaries.
Listen here:
Links:
Guillermo del Toro Is Live-Tweeting His Beef With a Ghost in a Haunted Hotel in Scotland - IGN
Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis trailer goes after the haters | Polygon
German warship floats down Thames while playing Darth Vader’s theme | Ars Technica
5 Hilariously Awkward Meltdowns In DVD Commentaries (youtube.com)
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TRANSCRIPT
This is an AI-generated transcript of the audio and it may contain errors. We may update or correct this transcript in the future. Please contact us if you have any questions about the information in this transcript. The audio is the official record of this episode.
All right. Well, we kind of got there in the end. Media mothership here on Edge Radio, 99.3 FM. As always, we're broadcasting out of. As radio studios here in Nipuna Hobart TAS and exploring everything in and around the world of media and pop culture, we are highly experimental programme in a fantastically diverse station. So if you're looking to gets trained up to do radio shows, do go on to the edge. Radio.com.aunoedgeradio.org dot AU website and check out details there if you want to get some training. Full disclosure, I'm also the training coordinator, so that's a bonus if you think this is great. What else the show is being streamed on Edge radio as well as on Twitch and YouTube. You can find us by just searching. Medium mothership. This one is on the DAB and you can message us directly on 0488811707 here in the studio or send us a chat on the. YouTube or Twitch chat sites. We had some crazy music, most notoriously was give me pizza a a, a notorious kind of mash up slowed down. Remix of an Olsen's twins pizza song originally shown on some horror Disney programme, gained neutral variety back in 2010. 2010 so, you know, still 21st century. Then we had the. Kero Kero Bonito song by Flamingo and after that was seagulls. Stop it now by bad lip reading, so on today's show we're going to explore and dive into some fascinating areas of media and popular culture and hopefully some of it you'll find. Intriguing and unusual and entertaining. All right, we're back here on Edge radio. Media mothership first fun little article. They only came across this morning reports from AGN that Guacamole del Toro is live tweeting his beef. With a ghost in a haunted hotel in Scotland. This seems to have captured the interests of many Twitter followers. As the Oscar winning filmmaker has been live tweeting from his experience in what's allegedly one of the most haunted rooms in the old hotel in Aberdeen, Scotland, where he's currently filming his new movie based on Mary Shelley's. Frankenstein. So del Toro here is, you know, filming on sets, doing his work. And one of the locations, I guess some of the production team are staying at is this. Hotel and it's notorious for having this haunted room in particular. And from Tuesday this week, he tweeted that one of his producers had vacated the room. That she'd been billeted to stay in over fear of an odd electrical physical occurrence. So then del Toro. Decided he'd switch rooms stay in, or at least I don't know. Switch. But but go stay in her room or ex room. And he tweets that, you know, he was having high hopes that he'd have some sort of supernatural experience, that he was posting in his twitters. So it's it's fascinating reading his tweets that's compiled in this article. So his first tweet is whilst in Aberdeen I am staying in an old 1800s hotel. I am in the most haunted room of it which was vacated this morning by one of our producers. Odd electrical and physical currents has scared her into leaving ASAP. Stay tuned if anything happens, I will. Report so that got. Picked up by his followers, started becoming a really interesting thing to watch. IO. He then followed up by saying I always stay in the most haunted rooms, but only once did I experience anything supernatural. The rest of the time, nothing I have high hopes. And that was on August 21st that he posted. Then the next day he posted an update saying I can only say nothing has happened yet, but the atmosphere in the room is oppressive and I'm not going to spend much more time there. It may be suggestion, but at this point I kept it. But at this point I kept it, but am sleeping in another room. I need six hours of sleep to. Have a good shooting. Day I mean, so obviously he's trying to to still do his film. Roots as well as this interest of experiencing. The the thing and what's interesting is, of course, fans of Del Toro started to pick this up. Some of them are playing to his original tweet saying please get out of there. I'm scared for you. And I don't even know you. Guillermo. Was one tweet, another one was saying this is stressing me out. One fan simply asked. Are you being haunted, bro? So again, you know, a bit of banter. Then uh. You know it's. Been. Wonderful people that have picked us up, some people retweeting it with comments like honey, wake up. Well, my del Toro's beefing with a ghost, others retweeting. We're all yammering away about whatever we are, and all the while, we're almost. Del Toro is trapped in a haunted hotel. People posting up the famous OPS room from the assassination of bin Laden, with the comment keeping tabs on the Guillermo del Toro Hotel boost situation, so it's definitely created a amusing interest as a director famous for. Doing Gothic and horror films is tweeting his experience staying in a room which is meant to be haunted, and which one of the producers involved in the project also refused to stay in any longer. So quite, quite intriguing. All right, the Aqua Polygon talking about how this headline might be, this might be the most defensive movie trailer of all time. This is Francis Ford Coppola's latest film, Megalopolis. And if you'd like to check it out, it's interesting because it basically. Sets up a, you know, a typical kind of start, but then it goes into a list of, well, it starts with, I guess Laurence Fishburne saying true. Genius is often misunderstood. And then there's montage of. Critical reactions to his previous films like The Godfather, Apocalypse now, Brown Sugars, Dracula and so on, where critics have panned them, such as saying, you know. Hollow at the core and so forth. So again, a whole series of of comments critiquing it's and Fishman saying, you know, one filmmaker has always been ahead of his time. So certainly building up that idea that, you know this film, while it might be Luke, warm in its reactions nevertheless, you know. He's he's a misunderstood genius and we'll go on to great. It's fascinating though, that that's the approach they've taken. In the trailer, where they've posted bad reviews of Coppola's previous films, which are considered to be absolute. High watermarks cinema. Setting up this idea that that this is the next film which will again. UM. Be successful. What, however, has caused controversy is that this trailer, it turns out, has featured quotes of reviews which are either fabricated or misattributed. So all of these claimed. Movie critic comments with sources are wrong are just made up or misattributed, and since then Lionsgate had pulled the trailer from release. So there's been quite a bit of backlash from that interesting approach where they. Used fake or misattributed critical panning of his previous films. To hype up the film. Because the negative reviews were in. Fact fake. Maybe that's what I should do. For. Media manager in my next social promotion of it. Interesting. This is a a funny piece. I'll need to quickly. Play a short. Short example to set you in the mood for what this is, I'll just play a first few notes. Yeah. OK. Right. I don't want to get the YouTube blocked. And of course, is John Williams, famous Star Wars Imperial, March theme. Ars Technica here was reporting recently that the German warship floated down Thames River in London, England while playing. Darth Vader's theme, that is the Imperial March. So this this very large German naval Corvette. And there's a wonderful YouTube of it, is there sailing down and the. You know the crew. They're on attention and they're they're playing through. I assume the speaker system of the boat. The Imperial March from Star Wars and of course you know, the Imperial March is used there as this is the music for the bad guys. This is the music for the bad guys, which are also a kind of metaphor, a a motif of Nazism, right? This fascist imperial force. With Darth Vader and there's the Germans kind of owning it. The article is interesting because it goes on to. Talk about how of course, you know, Germany suffered under German and attempted invasion. Right, with the Battle of Britain, the blitz during. World War 2. As were as well as various conflicts. So yeah, I mean, UK and Germany were were well in the past. So it is spectacular, German naval spokesman assured the BBC the article. Was on to say that the music had no deeper message. And that it was not some sort of commentary from the German naval staff. Rather, the boat's commander can choose the music freelancer. For whatever reason, the naval commander of this German naval Corvette sailing down the Thames River in London, England, decided. He'd play this Imperial March music from Star Wars that's associated with the bad guys that are kind of based on the Nazis. It is interesting because of course, for two reasons. The article points out. One is that, you know, Germans are stereotyped for not having any humour this just otherwise. It it's just. Quite funny. Maybe trolling off British. Secondly, you know the article points out that it's interesting to see. This generation, who grew up watching. The original stylish trilogy. Now the article says running the world and its weapon systems, so they're bringing their musical tastes with them, even if they come from Galaxy far, far away. So yeah, yeah, this this might just be the fact that the. The captain of this bird is a huge. Star Wars geek. Yeah. Hilarious though. Right. Yeah, so. We might. Shift gears briefly. I want to dip back into an idea from last week's show that we never got around to doing, which were DVD commentary tracks. One of the appeals is still owning physical media, even though there's so much streaming that is dominant today. Is that your physical media? It can still be useful because it contains commentary tracks, special features, and various other things which often you won't be able to access in the streamed version of them as well as the fact of course, that the streaming in network, your Netflix or whatever. Won't have those titles. Probably forever, so they can disappear. So in this case, we're going to look at some DVD commentaries, which are notorious for involving the meltdown. Of the person that was given the commentary for those people that never listened to a commentary track often involves the director or a cast member or someone involved in the production, or if it's not very old film, it involve film. Critic or some huge fan providing discussions and unpacking the significance of various scenes. So we'll play a. Couple of them. This is from an article that cracked.com put together while back where they compiled what they felt were the five most hilariously awkward moments. Of the person doing the commentary melting down during it. So we'll listen to them. We might break it down a bit and and consider how how bad the meltdown was.
Tracks. Ever. Leanne. You know. Yes, I know her well.
Don't worry, Mr Packer. There's plenty of horses in the world. You'll find another.
I kept thinking about Leanne with that dirty trapper.
I didn't actually know they're rolling when we're doing this scene.
Someone talking about garden burgers the other day, but Haley from Paramore?
What did she have to say about garden burgers?
I fluttered my eyes, had an overwhelming flashback.
What do we eat? Cheeseburgers.
Do you remember much about this? We're watching it together for the first time. Anything.
No, I don't remember anything, but I don't.
What was going on with you while? You're making this at that time.
I don't remember. It's too long ago.
Jokes. Well, I I I'm tired of that. Ohh.
Do you remember much about this? Ohh, we're watching it together for the.
No, I don't remember. I don't care.
Shadow and substance of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the twilight zone.
What was going on with you while you're? Making this is definitely.
I don't remember. It's too long ago.
The younger audience cause they don't.
The younger audience doesn't want to see this.
Well, that's his wife. That's who's watching this. What is? Yes.
No, it isn't. They're they're watching sexy things.
This team will not win the award for under acting, but hey, it's a comic book.
I hate when people talk during the movie.
I take full responsibility. I mean, Akiva did write the script, but I shot it.
And he is looking at sensing, is this me the?
Tells me when I was. Young yeah. There's a kid wear lipstick or what is that?
No, that's just that's just a kid. That's funny.
Welcome to our DVD of Terminator three, rise of the machines. This scene with the.
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