Film Formally

Digital Colour w/ Dirk Meier, Colourist of 'Secret Agent' Jul 21, 2026 6469 If any modern colourist has seen it all, it’s Dirk Meier. From the long-take trenches of the early digital masterpiece Russian Ark and the boundary-pushing slow-motion of Antichrist, to emulating distinct formats in Happy as Lazzaro and Romeria, Meier has witnessed many of the key inflection points in digital cinema. Now, he joins Film Formally to share his war stories, the lessons he’s learned al

Il Cinema Ritrovato: A Festival Dispatch Jun 30, 2026 2663 In this extra-hot special emergency dispatch episode, Devan's in Bologna, Italy at Il Cinema Ritrovato, the world's premiere archival film festival! Every year, tens of thousands of cinephiles gather in Italy to watch old movies presented anew. He's joined by Tom Charity, VIFF Centre's year-round programmer, to discuss this remarkable festival, the films they saw, and all the questions raised by v

Large Format Myths (Film Formally is back!) Jun 9, 2026 3761 Film Formally returns! What's changed? 1. We're a video podcast now! 2. We're a monthly podcast now! Otherwise, you know the drill: Devan Scott and Willa Harlow Ross - and sometimes a guest - dive deep into the formal building blocks of cinema. Or sometimes preservation. Or sometimes even more niche academic topics! All the stars are here. This week: Devan went and made a video essay debunking m

Commentary 6 - STILL PROCESSING with Sophy Romvari Apr 19, 2022 1581 FILM FORMALLY is back! This month, friend of the podcast Sophy Romvari’s films are premiering on the CRITERION CHANNEL and to mark the occasion we’ve recorded a set of commentaries for six of these films - NINE BEHIND, IT’S HIM, PUMPKIN MOVIE, NORMAN NORMAN, IN DOG YEARS, and STILL PROCESSING. To listen along, have the film ready to go and hit “play” when prompted within the episode after the intr

Commentary 5 - IN DOG YEARS with Sophy Romvari Apr 12, 2022 908 FILM FORMALLY is back! This month, friend of the podcast Sophy Romvari’s films are premiering on the CRITERION CHANNEL and to mark the occasion we’ve recorded a set of commentaries for six of these films - NINE BEHIND, IT’S HIM, PUMPKIN MOVIE, NORMAN NORMAN, IN DOG YEARS, and STILL PROCESSING. We’ll be releasing one per week for the next six weeks. To listen along, have the film ready to go and h

Commentary 4 - NORMAN NORMAN with Sophy Romvari Apr 5, 2022 820 FILM FORMALLY is back! This month, friend of the podcast Sophy Romvari’s films are premiering on the CRITERION CHANNEL and to mark the occasion we’ve recorded a set of commentaries for six of these films - NINE BEHIND, IT’S HIM, PUMPKIN MOVIE, NORMAN NORMAN, IN DOG YEARS, and STILL PROCESSING. We’ll be releasing one per week for the next six weeks. To listen along, have the film ready to go and h

Commentary 3 - PUMPKIN MOVIE with Sophy Romvari Mar 29, 2022 959 FILM FORMALLY is back! This month, friend of the podcast Sophy Romvari’s films are premiering on the CRITERION CHANNEL and to mark the occasion we’ve recorded a set of commentaries for six of these films - NINE BEHIND, IT’S HIM, PUMPKIN MOVIE, NORMAN NORMAN, IN DOG YEARS, and STILL PROCESSING. We’ll be releasing one per week for the next six weeks. To listen along, have the film ready to go and h

Commentary 2 - IT’S HIM with Sophy Romvari Mar 22, 2022 989 FILM FORMALLY is back! This month, friend of the podcast Sophy Romvari’s films are premiering on the CRITERION CHANNEL and to mark the occasion we’ve recorded a set of commentaries for six of these films - NINE BEHIND, IT’S HIM, PUMPKIN MOVIE, NORMAN NORMAN, IN DOG YEARS, and STILL PROCESSING. We’ll be releasing one per week for the next six weeks. To listen along, have the film ready to go and h

Commentary 1 - NINE BEHIND with Sophy Romvari Mar 15, 2022 1706 FILM FORMALLY is back! This month, friend of the podcast Sophy Romvari’s films are premiering on the CRITERION CHANNEL and to mark the occasion we’ve recorded a set of commentaries for six of these films - NINE BEHIND, IT’S HIM, PUMPKIN MOVIE, NORMAN NORMAN, IN DOG YEARS, and STILL PROCESSING. We’ll be releasing one per week for the next six weeks. To listen along, have the film ready to go and h

1-Year Anniversary Q&A [Featuring Wong Kar-wai and Snyder Cut Hot Takes] Apr 29, 2021 3546 It’s our one-year, 43rd-episode spectacular, and we’re once again answering your questions! We go deep on the new WONG KAR-WAI restorations, our thoughts on Zach Snyder’s JUSTICE LEAGUE, the merits of handheld camera operation, film scores, not one but TWO aspect ratio rants from Devan, and more! But first, some NEWS. We’re going to be taking a bit of a hiatus, and we’re adjusting our Patreon to r

S3E10 - Rescuing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly with Benji Heran & Jordan Krug Mar 30, 2021 4101 How an acclaimed director’s versions of a famous film be unavailable for decades — when there’s nothing stopping their release? How can a small group of fans gather the evidence and means to reconstruct those versions? How can they finally have a hand in its official release? Endless passion — and a lot of luck. It’s a subject and film as near and dear to our hearts as any, and we’ve brought on su

S3E09 - Adapting Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Tim Brayton Mar 23, 2021 5061 Adapting literary works to the screen involves a certain amount of translation. There are certain things that are easily conveyed in writing that cannot be conveyed in a straightforward way onscreen; likewise, there are elements of cinematic language that open up new routes to expression. John Le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a useful case study in this regard: it has been the subject of tw

S3E08 - Colour Grading with Andrea Chlebak Mar 16, 2021 4549 Colour grading, the art of manipulating the colour of a film digitally in post-production, is as omnipresent as it is misunderstood. To help demystify the process, we’ve invited supervising colourist Andrea Chlebak (Mandy, An American Pickle, HBO’s The Watchmen) to discuss the art of colour grading with us. In this episode, we discuss: Where does the colour grading process begin? Pre-production?

S3E07 - The Bourne Series and Chaos Cinema Mar 10, 2021 5070 Extreme ways are back! In pog form! This week we’ve got a wonderful little discussion about the evolution of the Jason Bourne film series. In particular, we’re here to dissect how Paul Greengrass transformed it into the 21st century’s foremost example of Chaos Cinema. Handheld camerawork, fast editing, questionable focus? It’s all here, and we’re here to sift through the wreckage.

S3E06 - Wes Craven's Meta Horror with Mike Thorn Feb 23, 2021 5117 Geez, it’s been a while since we got spooky on the show, hasn’t it? High time we brought back Mike Thorn to talk about how Wes Craven fused meta storytelling and horror in two franchises: A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. We’ll permeate the membranes of reality, disassemble Craven’s views on horror’s social and political value, and laugh about how Matthew Lillard yells “BOO-GAH” when he imitat

S3E05 - After Last Season and Outsider Art with Bram Ruiter Feb 16, 2021 4305 An Anti-Masterpiece is, as defined by our own Will Ross, is “an astonishing, essential work of art in spite of a distinct lack of conventional competence on the part of its makers”. After Last Season by Mark Region is one such film, and we’ve invited filmmaker Bram Ruiter to discuss it with us. In what is very much not a “bad movie” episode, we attempt to grapple with the nature of outsider art. I

S3E04 - Eighth Grade and the Internet with Bronwyn Henderson and Brietta Stewart Feb 9, 2021 3006 For this episode our Associate Producer Paige Smith has relieved Devan and Will of hosting duties so that she can talk about Eighth Grade’s depiction and use of the Internet — and she’s brought on two friends who survived eighth grade with her, Bronwyn Henderson and Brietta Stewart. It's both a dive into how the film interweaves screens and scrolling with its characters and dramatic presentation,

S3e03 - Documentary Verite with Sophy Romvari Feb 2, 2021 4454 In part two of our Verite series we discuss truth in documentary filmmaking with returning guest Sophy Romvari. Sophy’s films have increasingly blurred the line between fact and fiction and are often classified as ‘hybrid’ documentaries. What can we learn from this type of fusion cinema? We go deep on the existential questions that inevitably ensue when one claims to be telling a ‘truth’ and explo

S3E02 - Narrative Verite with Whit Stillman Jan 25, 2021 3288 We're doing two episodes on truth in cinema, starting with one on standards of reality in narrative films. Whit Stillman (The Last Days of Disco, Love & Friendship) joined us, largely to register his animosity towards the idea of making stylistic decisions based on realism, and shared his thoughts on aesthetic decline, pretension, and the meowling cat sound in Damsels in Distress.

S3E01 - Film Preservation and Home Video with Blake Blasingame Jan 19, 2021 5312 Welcome to season 3! To kick things off, we’ve brought Duplitech Film Services Manager Blake Blasingame in to discuss film preservation and mastering for home video. Are you ready for 88 minutes of unadulterated shop talk about grain structure, bit depth, oversampling, color grading, and vinegar syndrome? Of course you are! This is Film Formally, after all. In this episode, we discuss: The proces

Inter-season Special 2 - Listener Q&A Dec 22, 2020 3797 It’s our second SEASON BREAK SPECTACULAR! You sent us some great questions, and we answered them. Per our answer early in the pod, you can check out https://native-land.ca/ to see which indigenous territory you might live on (bear in mind it’s not comprehensive or “official”). There’s a good explanation of land acknowledgments there, too. If you’d like to support the show, here’s a link to our Pat

AMA Announcement - Plus HOT TAKES with Devan Dec 13, 2020 136 Film Formally is on hiatus, but that won't stop us from taking your questions! Take our quick survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Y7HV6CM to submit questions that we'll answer on our podcast in an upcoming episode. Plus, Devan comes in with some HOT TAKES.

S2E10 - Colour in the Films of Wong Kar-Wai Dec 1, 2020 3093 For our season 2 finale, we keep it simple and discuss none other than the use of colour across the works of Wong Kar-Wai. In particular, we discuss the use of colour to evoke emotions, mood, and symbolism in his 21st century masterpieces In The Mood For Love and 2046. We’ll be taking a break for the holidays, but our regularly scheduled programming will continue in January 2021. And who knows, t

S2E09 - EMERGENCY PODCAST: Justice League & The Snyder Cut Nov 24, 2020 4157 It’s an emergency, time for a podcast! This week, we’re discussing the sordid tale of the DC comics behemoth blockbuster Justice League. Initially released in 2017 to much disappointment after extensive Joss Whedon-helmed reshoots, it’s taken on a new life after a movement around releasing original director Zack Snyder’s preferred cut formed. What has ensued is a confusing stream of contradictory

S2E08 - Lighting Motivation feat. Paige Smith Nov 17, 2020 3614 How do we light our movies? The answer for many starts with the idea of motivation. What, within the world of our film, justifies the light illuminating our stories? In this episode we once again sit down with Paige Smith to discuss the ins and outs of lighting ideology. Most films circa the 21st century are lit in a way that prizes ‘naturalism’; we delve into the reasoning behind this as well as

S2E07 - Blocking in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Nov 10, 2020 2479 Okay, folks, it's time for blocking! The pre-planned arrangement, movement, and posturing of characters in a frame is one of a director's most artistically demanding on-set tasks, and nobody blocked a scene better than Sidney Lumet (whom we've already talked about once this season). Screenwriter and Lumet mega-fan Cameron Carpenter joined us to talk about the blocking in Lumet's swan song, Before

S2E06 - Experimental Animation Nov 2, 2020 4352 Today we're taking a trip through a few of the wild worlds of experimental animation, to get a sense of what makes these proudly bizarre shorts — which take on or even invent processes unheard of in mainstream animated films — feel so persuasive and affecting. We're joined by animator Gil Goletski, who came with an excellent program of shorts to watch (all of which you can see for free online), an

S2E05 - American Utopia and Visual Structures in Concert Cinema Oct 20, 2020 5098 There’s a new concert film out! It’s called David Byrne’s American Utopia, directed by none other than Spike Lee and shot by none other than Ellen Kuras. It documents David Byrne’s most recent tour-turned Broadway show, and it’s drawn much discussion: in particular, to David Byrne’s previous high-profile concert film, Stop Making Sense. We took this release as an opportunity to delve into the enti

S2E04 - Sounds of an Inner Life Oct 13, 2020 2228 How do you establish a sense of space through sound, not just as a means of describing a physical space, but the inner state of a person? Filmmakers Nisha Platzer and Nayuribe Montero Jimenez join us to discuss how they pulled that off when they sculpted the sonic shape of both the Cuban landscape and a silent, train-fixated boy within it in their short film Vaivén.

S2E03 - Indie Post Production Oct 6, 2020 3024 This time around we’re using our personal experiences to shed light on one version of how post production on an independent film can play out, discussing how we helped Daniel Jeffery and Mackenzie Warner finish the short film they co-wrote, A New Leash on Life. The four of us discuss our respective roles of editor, composer, colourist, and sound designer, sharing anecdotes and our personal theorie

S2E02 - Varda by Agnès: What is Videography? Sep 29, 2020 2796 In which we discuss Agnes Varda’s final film, Varda by Agnes, and the questions it poses about the nature of cinema: is it simply a piece of lecture videography? The swan song from one of the greatest artists of our time? Both? The fundamentals of what constitute “Videography” and “Filmmaking” are put on trial as we interrogate Varda's late work.

S2E01 - Fail Safe and Contrast Sep 22, 2020 4284 We kick off our second season talking about one of our favourite films, Fail Safe, and its extraordinary use of contrast not just as an aesthetic, but as the guiding philosophy behind the whole film. Sidney Lumet’s nuclear thriller employs endless contrasts: between dark and light, fast and slow, loud and quiet, abstraction and realism, and the life and death contrasts of nuclear war and its ideol

Inter-season Special - State of the Podcast & Listener Q&A Sep 8, 2020 2175 As season 1 comes to a close, Devan and Will take stock, answer your questions, and look forward to the new season.

Ep 20 - "Cinematic" feat. Nathan Douglas, James Penco & Paige Smith Sep 1, 2020 3912 There seem to be as many meanings for the word “cinematic” as there are people who use it, so we enlisted the help of our listeners to provide their own definitions, all of which we read and respond to in this episode. With help from some of our oldest filmmaking friends, we worked to see where everyone was coming from with their takes — from camera bros to arthouse advocates to jaded skeptics — a

Ep 19 - Storyboarding with Studio Ghibli Aug 25, 2020 2349 Join us for a laid back discussion about internationally acclaimed animation director Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli and how he utilizes storyboards to plan and create his films. One of our regular hosts, Devan Scott, is away this week, so our associate producer and resident Ghibli enthusiast Paige Smith joins Will Ross to explore how Miyazaki works — and how that affects his films.

Ep 18 - Vancouver Cinema and Late Capitalism feat. Josh Cabrita Aug 18, 2020 4950 How do prolific local filmmaking communities come about… and how do they slip away? Curator and film critic Josh Cabrita joins us as we take our own home of Vancouver as a case study for how creative and institutional stagnation happens, and what we can do to counteract it.

Ep 17 - Finding Star Wars feat. Drew Stewart Aug 11, 2020 4268 Ever seen the original Star Wars trilogy? Which versions? Multiple new “official” editions of the films have emerged since 1997, with the original films as seen in the 70s and 80s left without any official release. The work of tracking all these changes and preserving the originals has largely fallen to fans, one of whom, Drew Stewart, runs Star Wars Visual Comparisons, a compendium of every visua

Ep 16 - Sounds of Commerce in Early Documentary feat. Tanya Goldman Aug 4, 2020 2627 Join us as we open our ears to the stylized sounds of a bustling commercial existence circa the 1930s — that is, the way they sound in some of the more daring documentaries of the time. Tanya Goldman, a Cinema Studies PHD candidate at NYU, walks us through these films, how their radical soundtracks express their politics, and how the soundscapes of documentaries have shifted in the decades since.

Ep 15 - Visual Textures with Christopher Blauvelt Jul 28, 2020 6187 What does an image feel like? Is it smooth? Coarse? Soft? Sharp? Distorted? These are decisions that cinematographers, directors, and anyone else involved in the creation of a visual language for a specific film must grapple with. Christopher Blauvelt, the acclaimed cinematographer of such films as First Cow, Emma, Meek’s Cutoff, Certain Women, The Bling Ring, and Mid90s joins us to discuss the te

Ep 14 - Revisionist Audio Jul 21, 2020 3368 It’s grievance time! Will and Devan take on the world of revisionist audio in film restoration. A niche subject? Probably. Something you should care about? Most definitely! When you pop in the latest lovingly-restored 4k Blu-Ray release by a boutique label, you might expect that the soundtrack would be given the same faithful treatment as the video. Think again! The world of film restoration is

Ep 13 - Documentary Writing and Mr. Jane and Finch feat. Alison Duke Jul 14, 2020 3728 What does it mean to write for documentaries? Alison Duke of Oya Media Group takes us through her experience co-writing the television documentary Mr. Jane and Finch — a process that netted her the Canadian Screen Award for Best Documentary Writing. We went in-depth into her commitment to honoring the truth of her subjects, the challenges of structuring a story as it unfolds in front of you, and

Ep 12 - Fourteen and discontinuous production feat. Dan Sallitt Jul 7, 2020 4314 There are a million ways to make an independent movie, and today Dan Sallitt came on the podcast to tell us about the one he chose to make Fourteen. The film's story spans many years, and was shot in several separate periods in 2018 and 2019 — yet it was precisely planned and plotted from the start. That topic winds up leading us to personal discussions about how our own personalities, anxieties,

Ep 11 - Prince of Darkness feat. Mike Thorn Jun 30, 2020 2875 Author and critic Mike Thorn swings by to talk about Prince of Darkness, John Carpenter's 1987 horror film, and how it both expresses and interrogates the subject of epistemophobia — the fear of knowledge. It’s a great movie to go into knowing little, so be aware that we spoil the entire plot in this episode. We get into how the film withholds or ambiguates information for the audience, the film's

Ep 10 - Pre-Code Montage feat. Peter Labuza Jun 23, 2020 4647 USC Postdoctoral Fellow and Cinephiliacs host Peter Labuza joins us to dissect the history of montage. Specifically, we discuss the use of montages in Pre-Code Hollywood cinema. In the brief period between the introduction of synchronized sound and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production [AKA Hays] Code, artists like Slavko Vorkapich pioneered the use of montages: sequences which condense

Ep 9 - Hallmark Movies feat. Gloria Mercer Jun 16, 2020 3525 Independent filmmaker Gloria Mercer joins us on this one to talk about movies made for the Hallmark and Lifetime TV channels. The focus is on their best-known output, their romantic comedies, and we had a lot of fun chatting about how and why they’re made, their style and structure, their politics, and what we can learn from them. If you're curious to check them out for yourself, the two movies w

Episode 8 - Long Takes feat. Kathleen Hepburn & Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers Jun 9, 2020 3343 We’re excited to host filmmakers Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers & Kathleen Hepburn, who join us for a discussion about long takes — shots that last for an extended period of time without cutting — and, in particular, their groundbreaking use of an 90-minute long take in their 2019 feature film The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open. Shot entirely on 16mm film, Hepburn and Tailfeathers collaborated

Episode 7 - The Hunger Games and Cinemascope May 26, 2020 2690 Today we jumped into one of our favourite topics — the overuse of super a super-wide frame, i.e. cinemascope, in contemporary movies. The Hunger Games is our unfortunate case study today, but the conversation touches on everything from the ratio’s rise to multiplex dominance to whatever the heck Michael Bay is doing with aspect ratios in his Transformers movies. Seriously, what is going on there.

Episode 6 - King Hu's Kinetic Editing in Dragon Inn and Legend of the Mountain feat. Ryan Swen May 12, 2020 4356 Today film critic Ryan Swen joins us for a double header discussion of King Hu's Dragon Inn and Legend of the Mountain and how they reflect the evolution of Hu's editing style, an aesthetic marked by an extraordinary evocation and emphasis of motion.

Episode 5: Robert Altman, Zooms, and the Camera's Point of View May 5, 2020 2644 This time around we tackle the way Altman's process and worldview effected his famous use of lengthy zoom-ins and zoom-outs. We touch on a glut of films and side-topics, (hopefully) befitting the master of meandering ensemble narratives.

Episode 4: Self-Reflexivity and Perfect Blue feat. Paige Smith Apr 28, 2020 2219 Filmmaker Paige Smith joins us to talk about the animated psychological horror film Perfect Blue and its copious use of self-reflexivity — when a work openly acknowledges itself, forcing the viewer to recognize the trappings and mechanics of the movie they’re watching.

Episode 3: Worldizing Sound and American Graffiti Apr 21, 2020 1607 Walter Murch’s sound technique worldizing defines George Lucas’s American Graffiti, emulating how a sound would be heard in the particular location of each scene. In this episode, Devan and Will discuss the technique and how Murch uses it to serve the narrative needs of American Graffiti.

Episode 2: Small Crews feat. Sophy Romvari Apr 21, 2020 2337 In this episode we chat with Toronto-based filmmaker (and one of our favourite collaborators) Sophy Romvari about why she scales down her films’ budgets, crew sizes, and production length.

Episode 1: Contagion and Steven Soderbergh's Digital Cinematography Apr 21, 2020 2247 In this episode, Devan and Will discuss Steven Soderbergh’s pioneering use of digital image capture in his remarkable run of films that followed his transition away from celluloid-based filmmaking starting with Che in 2008. Focusing on his 2011 epidemic thriller Contagion, we cover his usage of the medium’s perceived ‘drawbacks’ for artistic purposes as well as wider myths and trends in modern dig

Episode 0: Welcome to Film Formally Apr 16, 2020 179 In this intro episode we offer a taste of our podcast, with a quick rundown of our format and a few samples from upcoming episodes. If you're tired of movie podcasts that reach a mile wide and an inch deep, we've got just the thing for you, with focused and lively conversations that stick to specifics — one episode, one technique.

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