Background For The Great Defender

Hello there

A little step back on here for me today to take you through the progress of my forthcoming The Great Defender podcast project.

It had sort of vaguely been my intention to try and get a first episode to you this week, but by Tuesday I had conceded that this would be a step too far, particularly in my reintroduction week on here. I suppose I was getting slightly caught up in wanting to hammer the shock and awe, and bombard you with a new regime, but that's just daft ego really.  Best to pace myself, and launching one brand new podcast (I know it was a pilot) with Reboot, as well as the written Castle Diablo project, is a perfectly sufficient starting point.

I can still tell you about The Great Defender though, and fill you in (not like that) on where it’s up to and my intentions.  That’s another reason I’m not rushing it through; I am endeavouring to do this properly.

I’ve had the urge for a while to properly produce a podcast again, like I used to in the olden days.  I tentatively proposed rejigging Cabin Fever that way, but the general consensus in reaction was that Cabin Fever is more a casual thing, and doesn’t need over-producing.  Which I kind of agree with, but I was looking for an excuse to flex my production muscles a bit.

Reboot and The Great Defender are affording me that opportunity, but with Reboot I am nicely at the mercy of the contributions of Rob and Jon.  It’s a very timely and welcome thing to be part of a truly collaborative project, rather than me being the driver of it.  Rob doing the music and Jon doing loads in the organisation of the recordings and content, with me on production/editing duties, is – in many ways – my dream scenario.  Takes a decent amount off my shoulders, is no fuss (except for Rob’s occasional habit of throwing his phone into a hedge), and the recordings themselves are a really lovely thing. It has equal reliance on all its component parts, and nobody is leaving it entirely to anybody else.

The Great Defender though, is something I am taking all responsibility for, from writing it, to recording it, to producing it, the lot.  Actually, I tell a lie, Rob is doing the music for me (it’s a cover version thing), but that’s a one-off task. Week to week it is just me, which is equally agreeable. There’s no reliance on anyone else for anything, and I can power through it on my own terms.  Which also means, as I’m not beholden to considering anyone but the listener and myself, I want it to be a reflection of my best efforts.  Which further means I am applying my best efforts to it.

I explain this in truncated form in the episodes themselves, but the general inspiration was two-fold:

Firstly, whilst I didn’t get (or maybe just didn’t see) a great deal of critical annihilation for the movie I made, I saw enough little bits of dismissal to know how much it wounds.  It appeared to be mostly positive review-wise, but one or two gave it a kicking, and it inspired an indignant reaction of feeling it was unfair.  Now, I do know that criticism is inevitable from some quarters, and I do have reasonably thick skin for the most part with stuff like that, particularly when it is framed within inaccurate parameters.  So, for example, if somebody stated that the movie was a mockumentary and then proceeded to unleash a critique of it not being a good mockumentary, then my reaction (private reaction) was always to be shaking my head that it was an unprofessional assessment as they were judging it based on what they had (wrongly) presumed it to be.  No matter how accustomed one becomes to deceitful narratives, it never gets palatable.

So that was one part of it; first-hand experience of having something you’d worked really hard on casually dismissed by the uninformed. Then, on the wider scale, seeing quite how ubiquitous a thing that was.  Particularly in film making.  The old adage that nobody sets out to make a bad film is absolutely true, and whilst critique is a necessary part of the creative world, there are an awful lot of people critiquing who aren’t in a position to.  We can argue that it is just opinion, but there is another unfortunate trait to this that they tend to speak in absolutes; “This film IS rubbish”. That kind of thing.

Also, the judgement of films that are patently aimed at other folk is something that makes me squirm.  I have personally never seen the Twilight films for example, but I know that it is used as a negative shorthand. I also know the primary target audience for those films would be young adults, with a leaning towards YA girls. So, “It’s still a better love story than Twilight…”, coming from – say – a middle-aged man, has rather sinister undertones for my money.  It’s dismissive of the taste and understanding of that audience, dismissive that something they would like is not worth a thing, and rather unpleasant in its superiority.  I can’t find the exact quote, but I do recall Ewen McGregor once reacting to folk saying that Oasis’ music was for teenagers, with a comment along the lines of “Since when did we start dismissing the taste of teenagers as unimportant”.

That actually had a semi-profound impact on me, and - over the years - I flatter myself to think that I have become far more measured about things that simply aren’t for me. With a further defiance when seeing things like that criticised by folk who they also aren’t for.

In a nutshell, that’s my ethos and intention for The Great Defender.  Anyone can dismiss movies with a snarl, but taking a position of looking for positives feels a more interesting project to me.  Especially if my starting point is films that have been utterly dismissed and seemingly universally derided.  For the record, no film is universally derided, there will always be folk who really like them, and I’d also claim that no film is completely without merit.  No movie had no thought or work put into them at all. There’s also a great deal of evidence that certain “universally” disliked films usually have an unpleasant caveat that informs this assessment.  Using the example already given, Twilight may be dismissed for the crime of being aimed at a younger demographic, by people who aren't part of that group, don’t have any passion for it, but still want the social capital of being able to hammer it. Again, I haven’t seen any of it, and it may well leave me cold if I did, but it would be pretty vile for me as a fort…twenty-three-year-old man to dismiss it as without merit when it was never for me in the first place.

That’s the back story, so let’s get on to how I am putting it together.  

As I already spoilered in my relaunch video, the first episode I am working on is Blues Brothers 2000.  I’ve obviously seen this film a handful of times before, and am now re-watching it with a kind of reverse-critical eye, which I can assure you is a rather joyous experience.  As in, from an attitude point of view.  It’s far more agreeable to be watching a movie with the desire to want to enjoy it, to look for the things that are impressive, and to look for reasons to dismiss the dismissals.

So, we have the prep of revisiting these films, coupled with the admin of putting together/writing my own assessment.  I’m also collating production history, negative critical reception, and arguing the credibility of malicious critique. This will obviously be followed by the actual recording, finding suitable soundbites, and editing it altogether. 

I currently have no proposal for a running time, but am considering how long-form they should be, or whether it's better to make it more compact.  I assume I’ll only get that once I know exactly what I’m putting together, the tone and pacing of it, and how much I have to work with.

The other idea I’ve had, which may work or not, is to offer a companion piece to each episode of a full movie commentary by me.  I suspect the actual podcast will be rather tightly structured, so an alternate, reactive/casual commentary might be a good complimentary addition. Again, could be that I try it and then think “nah, that’s not working”, but I will give it a go.

That’s pretty much where I am with it, it’s well on the way, and you might have sensed I’m enthused by it.  I’ve obviously plenty of other projects on the go over here, so don’t want it to end up being particularly dominant in my creative life, but for the moment I’m gonna give it a real good go. The aim is to get to the point where I can realistically allocate a full day of work to an episode and get it completed that way.

Oh and I toyed around with a logo for it today…

I’m on the right tracks there, but am gonna do an alternate with just the title big in the top left, rather than the cluttered clapperboard. I have no idea why I am topless in the image.

There we are.  I do have a list of films already (and I've found there are interesting commonalities in movies that get hidings), but if there’s something you’d like me to have a crack at then you are welcome to say.  I had a comment asking if I would be taking requests, so here's an open invite if you want to. No obligation for you to suggest, and likewise no obligation for me to definitely take you up on it, but you may just suggest something where I go “OF COURSE!”.

Hope all is well and happy for you and yours over there.

All the love your way

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