Filmspotting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Filmspotting is a weekly film podcast and radio program from Chicago that is hosted by Adam Kempenaar and Sam Van Hallgren. Until May 2006, the show was called Cinecast but a conflict over the name forced the change. Shortly after the name change to Filmspotting, the show was picked up for a monthly broadcast on Chicago public radio station WBEZ.
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[edit] Hosts
- Adam Kempenaar graduated from Grinnell College with a bachelor of arts in English in 1997 and also has a B.A. in communication/film studies (1998) and a master's in journalism from the University of Iowa (2005). He was a film critic for The Daily Iowan for two years before moving to Chicago in the fall of 2002. He also hosted a weekly film talk show, "Burn Hollywood Burn," on 89.7 KRUI in Iowa City. He is married with two children, Holden and Sophie.
- Sam Van Hallgren resides in Milwaukee and previously worked on the public radio show This American Life. Van Hallgren is also in talks with the FX network about a made-for-television movie, to feature child stars John Norman and Kate Hash and to focus on Van Hallgren's coming of age in rural New Hampshire.
[edit] Show format
The show starts with a review of either a recently released film or a discussion of a "Marathon" film. It also includes listener feedback (either e-mails sent by listeners, or, increasingly, MP3 audio files or voice mails from listeners).
A regular feature is "Massacre Theater", in which Adam and Sam (poorly) perform dialogue from an undisclosed movie and invite readers to guess what it's from for a prize.
Then they have Top 5 lists. For their top 5 lists, Adam and Sam try not to pick iconic "pantheon" films that would be too obviously chosen, such as The Godfather or Citizen Kane. They also employ a penalty box system in which films they have placed on Top 5 lists too often must go and not be chosen for a Top 5 again for a year or more.
For the "Movie Marathons", the hosts review six to eight movies from a particular genre or director that they haven't already seen. Their first marathon was westerns. They have also covered Alfred Hitchcock films, musicals, horror, screwball comedy and Werner Herzog. At the end of their six- to eight-week marathon, they present awards for best film, best director, best actor, etc., for that marathon, naming the award after something related to the genre or director they've just covered. For example, for the western marathon, they gave away the Duke awards.
They used to offer overlooked DVD picks, then took that segment to a short-lived vodcast called Cinecast A/V. They now offer overlooked DVD picks via an e-mail subscription newsletter called "The Dope Sheet".
[edit] Music
During breaks in the show, "Filmspotting" features music from artists on the Chicago label Bloodshot Records, in addition to artists from Messenger Records and Reverbose Records. The guitar-driven theme song is "This Machine" by now defunct Chicago band Age of the Rifle.
[edit] Name change
The last Cinecast show was the two-part 100th podcast on May 12-13, 2006, after which the name changed to Filmspotting. The specific reason for the change was not discussed, but there is a company called CineCast [1] that produces pre-show advertisements in theatres. Adam and Sam originally said the show would be renamed The Cinema Show, but then solicited suggestions from listeners. Contenders included Cinecrack, Cinediction and Burn, Hollywood, Burn, but the hosts announced their final selection on the 8 May 2006 show (Cinecast #98): Filmspotting. Listener Nicholas Correnti from Florida State University Film School suggested the name Filmspotting and won $50 worth of DVDs for his part in re-naming Cinecast.
[edit] Fan Sites
The popular and successful podcast has even had fan sites made in its honour. The artist at Crackspotting[2] creates a new image for every episode incorporating Adam and Sam into a movie poster of the film that they reviewed on that episode. It's a "Weekly Graphic Jab at Filmspotting."
