When Canadian filmmaker and musician Schnudlbug was making his short film Roach, part of the end goal was to produce a 3D film with very specific visual and sonic palettes, and a limited edition VHS release. In our lengthy conversation we touh upon the making of his film, which draws upon both cinematic influences and a background rich in practical…

Announcing the soft launch of BHA+ - my Patreon-sponsored media channel where I review vintage consumer, prosumer, and broadcast video gear; offer practical user info for filmmakers; feature test footage featurettes; publish podcast interviews in blog, audio-only, and visual versions; and feature serialized, historical examinations of unique gear. …

The first podcast from BHA+ - Big Head Amusement's new media channel - is a lengthy conversation with Canadian-born composer, musician, and filmmaker Spookey Ruben, who celebrates his lengthy career with a tour that takes him to the U.S., Europe, and eastern Canada, including a one-day stop in Toronto on Firday September 13th at BSMT 234. Perhaps b…

For ArtScopeTO, I interviewed Toronto-based abstract painter Donna Wise on her unique techniques, and working during the 2020-2021 pandemic. Further info and stills are available via the Editor's Blog at KQEK.com. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Visit artbydonnawise.com and donnawisefine art on Ins…

Film historian, home video producer, and restorationist Jason Pichonsky discusses the premiere Blu-ray and DVD release of Julian Roffman's restored suspense-drama THE BLOODY BROOD (1959), from KINO Lorber. This podcast follows in the footsteps of my prior Q&A with Peter Roffman and his book DEAR GUELDA: THE DEATH AND LIFE OF PIONEERING CANADIAN FIL…

Composer Austin Wintory discusses scoring the new interactive full motion video game ERICA from Flavourworks, and published by Sony, and his compilation album REMNANTS. Music from both albums are available via Bandcamp. A prior interview from 2010 regarding Paul Solet's psychological shocker GRACE (2009) is also available. Visit KQEK.com for additi…

For the latest edition of ArtScopeTO, I interview photographer Pengkuei (Ben) Huang, whose current eco-series SOLEMN PINES FADING THINGS is exhibited at Toronto's Urban Gallery (400 Queen Street East) from May 2-31st, as part of the 2019 Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival. Huang discusses the genesis of his series, which examines the location …

Composer John Murphy (28 DAYS LATER, MIAMI VICE) discusses scoring the BBC's lavish new 6-part mini-series LES MISERABLES (2018), based on Victor Hugo's epic novel; his main themes & use of the viola; and taking a break from scoring in 2015 after the album ANONYMOUS. Prior interviews with the composer from 2010 (regarding ARMORED) and 2015 (regardi…

In the latest ArtScopeTO podcast, I interview photographer Lori Ryerson, whose current series OFF THE BEATEN PATH is showcased from April 6-27, 2018, at Toronto's Urban Gallery, 400 Queen Street East. Topics include abandoned landscapes, vintage cars, capturing small details in unlikely places, and transitioning from a corporate career to working a…

Composer-Arranger-Orchestrator James T. Sale discusses his score for SAINT JUDY (2018), the bio-drama on attorney Judy Wood and her successful efforts to improve the laws for immigrants seeking asylum. Also touched upon are temp tracks, Jerry Goldsmith, and Mark Mothersbaugh, with whom Sale worked for several years as an orchestrator and composer. …

Filmmaker Zach Weddington discusses the making of Viva Amiga (2017), his affectionate chronicle of the beloved home computer that evolved from a game machine to a pioneering multimedia system for musicians, filmmakers, gamers, and artists. Available digitally from Vimeo, we also discuss the extensive bonus interviews (many free) and the Amiga's imp…

Following the April 18, 2018, screening of I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987) at Toronto's Revue Cinema for National Canadian Film Day, writer-director Patricia Rozema discussed her feature film debut with cléo journal’s Kiva Reardon. Topics include the casting of Sheila McCarthy, developing the story, filming in Toronto, a short bit on Harvey …

In this month's ArtScopeTO podcast, I interview photographer Andre Vittorio, whose current series Abstractions on Metal is showcased from April 5-28, 2018, at Toronto's Urban Gallery. Topics include the aesthetics of shooting architectural subjects, especially Brutalist forms in Toronto. Further info and stills from the exhibition are available via…

Jazz composer & improviser Marilyn Lerner discusses performing her score live for Frank Borzage's silent classic Street Angel (1928) at Toronto's Revue Cinema in November of 2017. Also discussed are Lerner's prior scores, including Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), and the nuances of improvising music live for cinema audience…

2018's first podcast features a conversation with Peter Roffman, who edited and authored Dear Guelda: The Death and Life of Pioneering Canadian Filmmaker Julian Roffman, newly published as an ebook and available from Amazon. The nearly hour-long program has son Peter reflecting on the incredible career of Julian Roffman, best known for producing & …

In this month's ArtScopeTO podcast, I interview Toronto-based abstract painter Donna Wise, whose current series Flights of Fancy is showcased from December 2-30, 2017, at Toronto's Urban Gallery. Further info and stills from the exhibition are available via the Editor's Blog at KQEK.com. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and …

In this month's ArtScopeTO podcast, I interview renowned painter Mary Lynne Atkinson, whose current series Land on Fire is showcased from November 2-25, 2017, at Toronto's Urban Gallery. Further info and stills from the exhibition are available via the Editor's Blog at KQEK.com. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us…

Recorded live at Toronto's Royal Cinema, this week's podcast features an edited version of the Q&A with Italian prog-rock and horror masters Goblin, including Maurizio Guarini, Fabio Pignatelli,Massimo Morante, Agostino Marangolo, and Aiden Zammit, and Rue Morgue Magazine's Aaron von Lupton as moderator. The Q&A was conducted after the Toronto Prem…

In the latest ArtScopeTO podcast, I interview abstract painter Chris Marin, whose current series Passages is showcased from October 5-28, 2017, at Toronto's Urban Gallery. Further info and stills from the exhibition are available via the Editor's Blog at KQEK.com. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Sp…

In this week's composer interview, Joe Kraemer discusses his latest work, the Amazon production Comrade Detective, a satire of a fake Soviet era detective series; and King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen. Also discussed are DVD audio commentaries and vinyl, and a lengthy editorial on classic Canadian detective shows set in Any City, …

In my occasional non-film podcast, ArtScopeTO, I chat with Hamilton-Toronto painter & photographer Hanna Kostanski, whose paintings of urban Toronto locations spanning the 1910s through the 1970s are showcased until August 26, 2017 in the exhibit 20th Century Toronto: Intersections & Interactions at The Urban Gallery. Further info and stills from t…

This week’s podcast features a compact Q&A with legendary Goblin member Maurizio Guarini, who joined the iconic Italian prog-rock band and film composing group in 1975, and co-composed & performed on many of Goblin’s greatest albums, including Roller, Suspiria, and Patrick. Guarini, now based in Richmond Hill outside of Toronto, was recently commis…

Julia Marchese discusses directing Out of Print (2014), a passionate documentary on the New Beverly Cinema, the feisty, independent rep cinema renowned for programming rare slices of film history; and the increasing difficulty for programmers to access and screen 35mm film prints in an age of digital projections and DCPs. Visit KQEK.com for a film …

Craig Atkinson discusses his directorial debut, Do Not Resist (2016), an unsettling documentary on the militarization of local police departments. Filmed just as the violence in Ferguson began to erupt, Atkinson details the overuse of S.W.A.T. for mundane search warrants, and the current government grants that enable departments to buy army surplus…

Jared Scott discusses his latest film, The Age of Consequences (2016), a provocative documentary on climate change, featuring many former military officials who add deeper credence to the correlation between extreme shifts in climate, mass population migration, and war. Scott also touches upon the film's themes, and his storytelling technique which…

Begun in 2012 and completed in the spring of 2016, my experimental documentary BSV 1172: Your Friendly Neighbourhood Video Store premiered November 13th, 2016, at the San Diego Underground Film Festival, and in this two-part blog I offer thoughts on its genesis (filming the environs of a so-called obsolete form of home entertainment with dead tech)…

Victor Kanefsky discusses the art of editing, structure, balance, and pacing in a conversation that spans both his latest directorial work, Art Bastard (2016), a lively documentary on painter Robert Cenedella, and his lengthy career as an editor in many genres, including horror (Ganja & Hess) and documentary (Style Wars). Visit KQEK.com for a film …

In what’s hopefully the first in a series of vinyl related podcasts, I speak with Cary Mansfield, Varese Sarabande’s Vice President of A&R, about the label's recent trio of limited LP editions of catalogue titles – John Powell’s The Bourne Identity (2002), Don Davis’ The Matrix (1999), and Marco Beltrami’s Scream (1996) and Scream 2 (1997) – and th…

In a radical move for director Tim Burton, the score for his latest film was written by the collaborative team of Mike Higham and Matthew Margeson, both skilled in composing, orchestrating, and arranging for a diversity of projects (including several Hans Zimmer productions). I’ve divided the podcast on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children i…

In a radical move for director Tim Burton, the score for his latest film was written by the collaborative team of Mike Higham and Matthew Margeson, both skilled in composing, orchestrating, and arranging for a diversity of projects (including several Hans Zimmer productions). I’ve divided the podcast on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children i…

In my latest conversation with Iranian-American composer Nima Fakhrara, we touch upon some of the organic experimentation that gives his recent horror score The Girl in the Photographs its eerie tenor, and the fusion of Persian and vintage electronic sounds for 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (of which both soundtrack albums are available digitally a…

This partial Editor's Blog features edited excerpts from the pre-screening intros of Julian Roffman's The Mask (1961), Canada's first feature-length 3D and horror film, screened in 2012 and 2015 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The 2012 extract focuses on the fragile state of a rare 35mm print and the 3D process, while the 2015 extract covers both the bo…

Author & journalist Tom Roston (PBS's POV) discusses I Lost It at the Video Store: A Filmmaker’s Oral History of a Vanished Era (The Critical Press), his brisk and engaging chronicle of the disappearing bricks & mortar video rental shop that used to be the main home movie resource for film fans and emerging filmmakers. A review of Tom Roston's I Lo…

As part of Reel Canada's National CanadianFilm Day celebrations, actor and artist Stephen Lackparticipated in a lengthy Q&A with NOW Magazine's senior filmwriter Norman Wilner after a free screening of DavidCronenberg's cranium-cracking classique Scanners(1981) at Toronto's Royal Cinema. Topics include Scanners’ 35 years of cultfame, blowing up Lou…

I'm back with the first of several podcasts, after taking an extended break to finish up a new experimental doc, BSV 1172. 2016 starts with an interview with the esteemed Brian Reitzell on scoring NBC’s Hannibal, of which music from Season 3 was recently released digitally and on CD from Lakeshore Records and on LP via Invada Records. Reitzell also…

Back in 1973, veteran TV and feature film director Ted Post helmed The Baby, a film written by playwright and occasional film & TV writer Abe Polsky. The Baby tells the story of a social worker assigned to check in on a most unusual case: a grown man living in a crib with the emotional and intellectual capacity of an infant. The eccentric plot, biz…

Interview with Italian film composer Fabio Frizzi, conducted prior to his follow-up concert Frizzi 2 Fulci at London’s famous Barbican in the fall of 2014. In addition to discussing the thrill of performing his music live in London, Frizzi discusses his early film work – Oscar Brazzi’s “sexy” film Giro girotondo... con il sesso è bello il mondo (19…

Interview with film composer Claudio Simonetti regarding the expanded, remastered release of Demons (1985) on LP and CD from Rustblade Records. Topics include crafting the score, the remixes, the great sound engineering typical of Italian soundtracks of the 70s and 80s, vinyl releases, an upcoming recording of Goblin's Profondo Rosso / Deep Red sco…

Interview with film composer Craig Safan regarding the expanded, remastered releases of The Last Starfighter (1984) on CD from Intrada Records, and Warning Sign (1985) on CD and LP from Invada Records. Topics include electronic / orchestral scoring, 'baking' master tapes, and discussing Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985), Son of the Morning…

Interview with film composer John Murphy (28 Days Later, Sunshine, Miami Vice, Armored ) regarding his latest album, Anonymous Rejected Filmscore. Topics include being part of the elite 'rejected film score composers club,' crafting themes and variations, using vintage analogue audio gear to create layered distortion, and the album's vinyl / LP rel…

One of Hollywood's best-kept secrets, film composer Elia Cmiral has built a career scoring diverse movies with traditional orchestral and hybrid electronic scores, and in this latest interview with the composer, Cmiral talks about the classical orchestral sounds of Atlas Shrugged Part 3: Who is John Galt? from Atlas Productions, and being the subje…

Iranian-born composer Nima Fakhrara discusses his breakthrough electronic score for The Signal (2014), released digitally and on CD by Varese Sarabande, and featuring an incredible blend of hand-crafted sounds for William Eubank's visually striking sci-fi thriller. Fakhrara also talks about classical Persian music, minimalism, and his love for the …

Film composer / orchestrator Ceiri Torjussen talks about orchestrating for composer Marco Beltrami (Snowpiercer), and his latest soundtrack release from MovieScore Media, Test (2014), which captures the electronic soundscapes of eighties Brit pop in this unique AIDS drama. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Tw…

Film composer / orchestrator Timothy Williams discusses his entry into film scoring, his early years at the BBC, and studying in Ontario, Canada, before moving to Los Angeles and becoming an in-demand orchestrator. Also discussed: his latest release, Red Sky, available from Lakeshore Records. If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook…

Film composer Michael Penn talks about crafting the music for TV's Masters of Sex and using the sounds of the Mellotron, a fantastic organ-like instrument which allowed musicians to access looped sound samples through a keyboard. Also available: review of Dianna Dilworth's excellent 2008 documentary Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie (released by Bazi…

Renowned Cinerama Restoration Director David Strohmaier discusses his work restoring forgotten films shot and exhibited in Cinerama - the three-panel, wide film process which debuted in 1952 and launched the widescreen wars of the 1950s. Moving from classic Cinerama films released by Flicker Alley to his latest project, Holiday in Spain (aka the Sm…

Composer Darius Holbert discusses his entry into film scoring, composing the music for Jason Eisener's grisly and fun Hobo with a Shotgun (2011), the sounds of vintage synths, scoring the series Quick Draw (2013) in the domain of original programming by online film / TV providers, and the music of Oh, the Places You'll Go! (2012), Teddy Saunders' c…

Busy composing music for TV series such as DirectTV’s Rogue, Jeff Toyne’s latest project is the suspense film The Privileged, his third score for writer / director Leah Walker. The film score also offered Canadian composer Toyne a plum opportunity to score a film set in his home province of Ontario, and use its premiere at the Canadian Film Fest in…

In early February, composer & musician Ronen Landa spoke to KQEK.com about his latest scores: the comedy Cavemen(2013), and Home (2014), his second feature film score (after The Pact) for horror director Nicholas McCarthy. Landa’s skills extend to scoring comedies, dramas, documentaries, and horror, but one of his major influences remains Ennio Mor…