Special Topics in Media
Special Topics in Media Studies is a lecture-based podcast that tackles media history one artifact at a time. Each season of the series we will investigate a different mass media theme, medium, or programming genre. While our focus is educational (it is an academic podcast after all), we tailor our conversations toward a broad audience of media enthusiasts.
S11 E1 · Tue, April 01, 2025
Vinylthon Month is Here! What is Vinylthon? (Interview: Tim Craig)
Vinylthon month is here! Which raises an important question... What IS Vinylthon? Joining us to discuss "Vinylthon" and more, Dr. Tim Craig (Warner University) joins Special Topics in Media for a discussion about the origins of Vinylthon, grassroots growth of this musical movement, and the ways in which it continues to diversify its programming strategies. Host: Garret Castleberry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Vinylthon: The event when radio goes all vinyl, all weekend . Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E41 · Tue, March 25, 2025
Film Listology: The Recalibration Countdown (#107-76)
The time has come. In this "Recalibration Preview", Special Topics in Media examines the data sets that feed into the tabulation process defining the "Film Listology" methodology. Cohost Scott McMurry provides listeners with the clearest explanation yet for how the math works to determine placement in the Super Index ranking for culturally significant films. The "Recalibration Preview" sets the stage for our Recalibration Special, where films ranging from #107 to #76 receive updated alignment. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E40 · Mon, March 10, 2025
Film Listology: Recalibration Preview!
The time has come. In this "Recalibration Preview", Special Topics in Media examines the data sets that feed into the tabulation process defining the "Film Listology" methodology. Cohost Scott McMurry provides listeners with the clearest explanation yet for how the math works to determine placement in the Super Index ranking for culturally significant films. The "Recalibration Preview" sets the stage for our Recalibration Special, where films ranging from #107 to #76 receive updated alignment. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E39 · Thu, March 06, 2025
Film Listology: #76 - A Streetcar Named Desire
In the "Film Listology" entry to Special Topics in Media , hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry evaluate the legacy of Elia Kazan's adaptation of the Tennessee Williams literary stageplay of the same name, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Boasting a pair of explosive performances by Vivian Leigh ( Gone With the Wind ) and Marlon Brando ( The Godfather , On the Waterfront ), Kazan infuses this Southern Gothic character study with masterful computation of shadow and light. With an award-winning supporting cast to boot, does Streetcar live up to its quotable history, or has its cultural significance expired? Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E38 · Tue, February 25, 2025
Film Listology: #77 - Metropolis
This week in our "Film Listology" season of Special Topics in Media , Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry explore the innovation and influence of Fritz Lang's 1927 science fiction silent film Metropolis . Can silent cinema maintain high cultural significance in an age of immersive media and high definition spectacle? The dialogic duo wrestle with the film to determine its value in the pantheon of film history. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E37 · Tue, February 18, 2025
Film Listology: #78 - The Dark Knight
Continuing the "Film Listology" seasons of Special Topics, the dialogic duo strategize the placement of the #78 film on the Super Index(TM), Christopher Nolan's 4-quadrant blockbuster released by Warner Bros. in 2008, The Dark Knight . The middle act to Nolan's Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight won praise among audiences and critics, and became a zeitgeist touchstone in intellectual circles for years, a chameleon cypher in the film's appeasement of interpretations among liberal and conservative viewers. Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry sit down to examine the cultural significance of The Dark Knight and make a case for its ranking on the list. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E36 · Tue, February 11, 2025
Film Listology: #79 - Amadeus
In this "Film Listology" episode, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry compose an argument both for and against reading the 1985 Academy Award winner for Best Picture as culturally significant to the history of film. Directed by Milos Forman and released in 1984, Amadeus posits a lavish period biopic about the famed composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the tensions experienced through a contemporary collaborator-rival, Antonio Salieri. Played with Machiavellian charm by Best Actor Academy Award Winner F. Murray Abraham, Salieri enjoys a privileged life of relative wealth and close proximity to royal prosperity, but that which elides him--true creative genius--sets him onto a path ripe with envy, bitterness, and possibly insanity. Our resident film geniuses (like Salieri, in their own minds) explore the film's beautiful elegance while mourning the loss of classical art in cinema. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E35 · Tue, February 04, 2025
Film Listology: #80 - WALL*E
In this episode, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry assess the cultural significance of the 2008 Pixar Animated feature film WALL*E . Directed by Andrew Stanton and released to wide critical acclaim, WALL*E centers on a labor robot fascinated by the haunting reveries of the now-vanished human civilization. WALL*E imaginatively embodies qualities of the silent film in its vaunted first half, and then shifts gears toward a more conventional animated adventure in its second half. Do these two parts combine to enhance or diminish the film's cultural significance factor in our Film Listology super index? Garret and Scott weigh in. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E34 · Tue, January 21, 2025
Film Listology, Reveal Episode! #80-76
In our January RETURN to the Film Listology experiment, Scott McMurry reveals the next five films currently ranked by the analytics super index. What movies emerge as the Dialogic Duo debut the #80-76 entries? Should each of these be canonized in the Top 100, or is the data scheme exhibiting flaws in its matrix? Screen these film classic all month long and connect with the show online to share thoughts and insights into why each does or does not belong in our intermittent "Film Listology" long-form season of Special Topics in Media Studies . Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S3 E20 · Tue, January 14, 2025
Future Shock Voices: Michael Harris (Author, Come With Me If You Want to Live)
In a world where science fiction breeds serious introspection... In this episode, host Garret Castleberry connects with science fiction film and media scholar Michael Harris to discuss his book Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films (Roman & Littlefield). Commemorating the book's one-year anniversary release, the author discusses how fictional artifacts relate to real-world challenges, which science fiction texts fuel his critical writing, and how the genre provides tremendous insights into how people express the reality we experience. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into expanded discussions centering on future shock science fiction. Host: Garret Castleberry, Michael Harris (Guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S3 E19 · Wed, January 08, 2025
Future Shock Voices: Keith M. Johnston (Author, Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction)
In a world where science fiction breeds serious discussion... In this episode, host Garret Castleberry connects with science fiction film and media scholar Keith M. Johnston to discuss his book Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction (Bloomsbury Press). Commemorating the book's ten-...to fifteen-year anniversary, the author discusses his research process, why science fiction warrants serious discussion among readers and audiences, and how the genre both predicts and anticipates (and possibly inoculates) twenty-first century innovations in technological history. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into expanded discussions centering on future shock science fiction. Host: Garret Castleberry, Keith M. Johnston (Guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S3 E18 · Wed, January 01, 2025
Future Shock Film: Student Roundtable, Part 2
In a world where free speech converges with film studies, one group of students fight the pandemic and enter the "forbidden zone" whereby their thoughts on Future Shock Cinema enter the public sphere. In "Part 2" of our student roundtable, we sit down with the second group of classmates to discuss their reaction to the future shock course, our film selections, and how classes like this challenge us to view media differently. Following the accelerated film class Special Topics in Media Studies , course designer and primary instructor Garret Castleberry is joined by a handful of students who successfully completed the "Future Shock Film" course. To recap, the accelerated film and genre course examined Greenland (2020), I Am Legend (2007), Oblivion (2013), Tenet (2020), and Arrival (2016). Student reflect on course themes and relate the films in conversation with the course readings, comparative screenings, and the overall emphasis on future shock science fiction film. Host: Garret Castleberry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray (Eds.). Keywords for Media Studies . NYU Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S3 E17 · Tue, December 17, 2024
Future Shock Film: Student Roundtable
In a world where free speech converges with film studies, one group of students fight the pandemic and enter the "forbidden zone" whereby their thoughts on Future Shock Cinema enter the public sphere. We sit down with students from the class immediately following our final course screening to discuss their reaction to the future shock course, our film selections, and how classes like this challenge us to view media differently. Following the accelerated film class Special Topics in Media Studies , course designer and primary instructor Garret Castleberry is joined by a handful of students who successfully completed the "Future Shock Film" course. To recap, the accelerated film and genre course examined Greenland (2020), I Am Legend (2007), Oblivion (2013), Tenet (2020), and Arrival (2016). Student reflect on course themes and relate the films in conversation with the course readings, comparative screenings, and the overall emphasis on future shock science fiction film. Host: Garret Castleberry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray (Eds.). Keywords for Media Studies . NYU Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S3 E16 · Wed, December 11, 2024
Future Shock Film: Arrival (2016)
In a world where language gains new meaning, Special Topics looks back at a film that imagines forward to a point in which "first contact" with extraterrestrial life posits the unexpected arrival of the future. In this entrant to our "Future Shock" season, we examine 2016's Arrival . Twenty-first century sci-fi auteur Denis Villeneuve directs this adaptation of writer Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life". Amy Adams stars as Louise Banks, an academic linguist recruited by the U.S. Government to decode text transmitted by an unidentified flying object. With a specialized skillset disrupted by traumatic visions of a life lost, Louise stands between governmental preemptive strikes and World War III. Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this " Future Shock Film " season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt sci-fi film and the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate Arrival as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. Host: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our <a href='ht
S3 E15 · Tue, December 03, 2024
Future Shock Film: Tenet (2020)
In a world where time marches forward...and backward, one protagonist stands between an open future and an open war on the past. John David Washington stars in the mind-bending blockbuster that never was, Tenet (2020). Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Tenet posits a world where the laws of physics both conceal and reveal ways in which the universe might finally unravel as a result of experimentation by humankind. In a race against (but also for) time, can this protagonist come to terms with the new rules at play, or will clandestine forces succeed at sabotaging the status quo? Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this " Future Shock Film " season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt sci-fi film and the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate Tenet as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. Host: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Spe
S3 E14 · Wed, November 27, 2024
Future Shock Film: Oblivion (2013)
In a world where science fiction spectacle overwhelms science fiction narrative, one team emerges from deep space to confront the uncanny moviegoing valley. Amidst a career pivot from grounded dramas and espionage action films, global superstar Tom Cruise reinvented his career with a series of strategic choices increasingly oriented around the science fiction film genre. Following a pair of Spielbergian collaborations in Minority Report (2002) and a 21st Century remake of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds (2005), Cruise gained somewhat mixed results from a pair of films released less than a year apart: Joseph Kosinski's Oblivion (2013) and Doug Liman's Edge of Tomorrow (2014). The former represents the least successful of this sci-fi run but is perhaps the most visually inventive. While Oblivion meets several criteria under the future shock banner, certain structural flaws weigh heavily on the film's overall impact. Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this " Future Shock Film " season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt sci-fi film and the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate Oblivion as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. Host: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. <a href='https://www.amazon.com/Future-Shock-Alvin
S3 E13 · Tue, November 19, 2024
Future Shock Film: I Am Legend (2007)
In a world where society suffers the consequences of global biological contamination, one individual survives as the bridge between our recognizable past and an undetermined future. Box office superstar Will Smith stretches his action-comedy comfort zone to anchor I Am Legend , which was released in 2007 and directed by Francis Lawrence. Smith stars as Robert Neville, a U.S. veteran and military scientist struggling to maintain sanity and normalcy in a near-future NYC ravaged by a mysterious biological plague. I Am Legend updates the Richard Matheson novel of the same name, itself an adaptation of Mary Shelley's lesser read 1826 follow-up to Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus , aptly titled The Last Man . In film history, I Am Legend represents the third effort to adapt these source materials, following The Last Man on Earth in 1964, and the Chuck Heston vehicle The Omega Man in 1971. Whereas the former features draw upon mythos linked to American Cold War concerns, Legend clearly rests within the shadow of 9/11 and serves as a meditation on unexpected consequences in medical and technological innovation. Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this " Future Shock Film " season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt sci-fi film and the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate I Am Legend as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. Host: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fictio
S3 E12 · Tue, November 12, 2024
Future Shock Film: Greenland (2020)
In a world where extinction events pose an imminent threat, one family enacts their survivalist instincts in a desperate ploy to stay alive. From director Ric Roman Waugh and starring his frequent leading man counterpart Gerard Butler, Greenland fell out of theatrical wide-release in 2020 when it ran up against the real-world threat in the COVID-19 global pandemic. Finding a second life on streaming services, Greenland now functions as an underground B-movie that purports the dramatic circumstance of the widespread panic that ensues when a comet unexpectedly realigns toward earth. By leaning on pre-apocalyptic scenarios, the creative team effectively taps into the widespread paranoia that currently grips the underbelly of many First-World nations. Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this " Future Shock Film " season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt sci-fi film and the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate Greenland as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. Host: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at <a href='https://twitter.
S3 E11 · Fri, November 08, 2024
Future Shock Sound Bite: Literature Review
In this interlude "Future Shock Sound Bite", host Garret Castleberry briefly overviews key academic scholarship selected to accompany the educational approach to studying future shock science fiction film. Future Shock sound bites will function as complementary additions to the episodic Special Topics film analysis episodes. These supplemental minisodes provide "bite"-sized auditory morsels for audiences interested in expanded commentary and connections to genre theory, media studies, and communication. Host: Garret Castleberry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S3 E10 · Wed, November 06, 2024
Future Shock Film, Interlude
In a world where future shock seemed certain to wind down, one professor will rise from the ashes to teach it again. And bring pizza! In this "Interlude" to the Special Topics in Media season three focus on "Future Shock Film", host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry to unveil the films selected for the latest iteration of the Future Shock Science Fiction Film class. Not limited to the classroom or enrollment obligations, this season offers all listeners insight into the unfolding theorization of Alvin Toffler's Future Shock concepts as they transfer over to film language, cementing a new linguistics for mass media in the twenty-first century. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Garret Castleberry. "Future Shock Folk Horror in Terry Gilliam's "The Zero Theorem"." In Future Folk Horror: Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures . Simon Bacon (Ed.). Lexington Books, 2023. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/
S7 E27 · Thu, October 31, 2024
Communicating Fears in Film: "Beetlejuice"..."Beetlejuice Beetlejuice"!
October is upon us! With scary movie season under way we continue our " Communicating Fears in Film " spotlight theme. Host Garret Castleberry is joined by Kyle Hammonds to analyze the spooky movie hall-of-fame fan-favorite, 1988's Beetlejuice , and its juggernaut legacy sequel in 2024's Beetlejuice Beetlejuice . Each movie is directed by Tim Burton and features standout comedic performances by Michael Keaton. The hosts further the relatively new "Filmic Echoes" methodology, and make the case for why the director's return to original content retrieves an authenticity to Burton's craftsmanship that may have disappeared in recent years. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds (Guest Host) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Fears in Filmography: Tim Burton. (Director). Beetlejuice Beetlejuice . Vermont, USA: Warner Bros./French Film Company/Plan B Entertainment, 2024. Tim Burton. (Director). Beetlejuice . Vermont, USA: The Geffen Company/Warner Bros., 1988. Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film . Southern Illinois University Press, 2012. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S7 E26 · Tue, October 29, 2024
Simon Bacon - Horror Scholar, Part 2 (Future Folk Horror/Communicating Fears Crossover)
In this crossover episode, the Special Topics October spotlight series on "Communicating Fears in Film" continues with Part 2 of our conversation with horror scholar Simon Bacon, editor and contributor of the anthology Future Folk Horror: Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures (Lexington Books, 2023). Host Garret Castleberry explores movements within the horror genre as Bacon comments on innovations to vampiric storytelling. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Simon Bacon (Guest Interviewee) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings: Simon Bacon (editor). Future Folk Horror: Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures . Simon BaconLexington Books, 2023. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Tue, October 22, 2024
Simon Bacon - Horror Scholar (Future Folk Horror/Communicating Fears Crossover)
The Special Topics " Communicating Fears in Film " theme RETURNS with a 2-week limited engagement this October! First up, we transition from our Future Shock Film focus on Terry Gilliam's The Zero Theorem to an interview with the editor of the horror criticism anthology Future Folk Horror: Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures , horror scholar Simon Bacon . In Part 1, host Garret Castleberry interviews Bacon about his approach to popular culture scholarship, methods in academic publishing, and the role that personal preferences play in the pursuit of work/life balance. In Part 2, Garret investigates Simon's horror influences and the two unpack ways in which horror themes continue to haunt audiences' anxieties about real-world concerns. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Simon Bacon (Guest Interviewee) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings: Simon Bacon (editor). Future Folk Horror: Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures . Simon BaconLexington Books, 2023. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Fri, October 18, 2024
Future Shock Film: The Zero Theorem (2013)
In a world where the search for cataclysmic equations unlock universal truths, one dystopian data analyst faces apocalyptic existential crisis. Completing his unofficial dystopian tryptic, famed director Terry Gilliam ( Brazil , 12 Monkeys , Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ) posits a dystopian digital future in which corporate monoculture accelerates its convergence with societal digital singularity. The result is 2013's The Zero Theorem , an avante-garde sci-fi that builds upon the controversial director's emphasis on blurring distinctions between reality and fantasy, or in this case hyperreality and existentialist nightmare. Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this " Future Shock Film " season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt sci-fi film and the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate The Zero Theorem as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Garret Castleberry. "Future Shock Folk Horror in Terry Gilliam's "The Zero Theorem"." In Future Folk Horror: Contemporary Anxieties and Possible Futures . Simon Bacon (Ed.). Lexington Books, 2023. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. Ways to C
S3 E8 · Tue, October 15, 2024
Future Shock Film: Roundtable Reflection
In a world where free speech converges with film studies, one group of students fight the pandemic and enter the "forbidden zone" whereby their thoughts on Future Shock Cinema enter the public sphere. Following the accelerated film class Special Topics in Media Studies , course designer and primary instructor Garret Castleberry is joined by a handful of students who successfully completed the "Future Shock Film" course. To recap, the accelerated film and genre course examined Soylent Green (1973), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Minority Report (2002), and The Hunger Games (2012). Student reflect on course themes and relate the films in conversation with the course readings, comparative screenings, and the overall emphasis on future shock science fiction film. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media , and the first batch of film conversations comprise a RETRO REWIND mini-series. Following these Retro Rewind film talks, Season 3 will collide with its altered future as we converge with a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. Host: Garret Castleberry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray (Eds.). Keywords for Media Studies . NYU Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S3 E7 · Tue, October 08, 2024
Future Shock Film: The Hunger Games (2012)
In a world where civil war long ago reshaped the Americas as we know them, the "Districts" of Panem grow restless in a fixed resource economy. Their only raison d'tre to be satiated by the annual games in which they embrace a lottery system that places their youth in mortal combat. Directed by Gary Ross and released in 2012, with a superstar performance by Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games brought to cinematic life the bestselling novels by Suzanne Collins and helped kick off a short-lived YA Dystopia boom that continues to impact the entertainment industry. Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this " Future Shock Film " season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt not only sci-fi film but also the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate The Hunger Games as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media , and the first batch of film conversations comprise a RETRO REWIND mini-series. Following these Retro Rewind film talks, Season 3 will collide with its altered future as we converge with a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray (Eds.). Keywords for Media Studies . NYU Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special
S3 E6 · Tue, October 01, 2024
Future Shock Film: Minority Report (2002)
In a world where free will routinely faces interruption from government intervention, one agent faces the crossroads between duty to the status quo and revelatory transformation. Directed by Steven Spielberg, released in 2002, and starring global superstar Tom Cruise, Minority Report provided excitement for audiences while still adhering to the sci-fi skepticism presented by this film adaptation's literary originator, Philip K. Dick . Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this " Future Shock Film " season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt not only sci-fi film but also the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate Minority Report as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media , and the first batch of film conversations comprise a RETRO REWIND mini-series. Following these Retro Rewind film talks, Season 3 will collide with its altered future as we converge with a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray (Eds.). Keywords for Media Studies . NYU Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic <a href='https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiwBM1_UlP-HHWsW5Il
S3 E5 · Tue, September 24, 2024
Future Shock Film: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
In a world where ecological effects from advanced climate change force key shifts in social conditions, humankind enters a new age forged by the advent of AI companionship. In this episode, our Future Shock season burrows deeper into the frail space between humanity and technology. Hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry examine director Steven Spielberg's 2001 science fiction fable, A.I. Artificial Intelligence . The film tells the story of David (Haley Joel Osment), a mechanized child companion programmed to hold the capacity for human love. What programmed love looks like and how David enacts his love for humans ignites a journey that transcends human constraints while extending the parameter for how cinematic science fiction and fantasy stories get told over time. Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds the "Future Shock Film" season of Special Topic in Media. he dystopian spaces that haunt not only sci-fi film but also the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate A.I. Artificial Intelligence as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media , and the first batch of film conversations comprise a RETRO REWIND mini-series. Following these Retro Rewind film talks, Season 3 will collide with its altered future as we converge with a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray (Eds.). Keywords for Media Studies . NYU Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Spec
S3 E4 · Tue, September 17, 2024
Future Shock Film: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
In a world where resource scarcity leads to ravaging globals wars, societal remnants scavenge post-apocalyptic wastelands in search of fuels to sustain what little remains of civilization. Somewhere between projected future failures and unreliable mythic narrators emerges the chainmetal capper to Mel Gipson's star-making role of "Mad" Max Rockatansky in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome . Released in 1985 and co-directed by series creator George Miller and his confidante George Ogilvie, this tamer sequel to the anarchistic original Mad Max (1979), as well as its gearhead follow up Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981), repositions the previously young hero as an aged-up wanderer amidst the increasing calamity of the post-apocalyptic outback. Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds the "Future Shock Film" season of Special Topic in Media. he dystopian spaces that haunt not only sci-fi film but also the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media , and the first batch of film conversations comprise a RETRO REWIND mini-series. Following these Retro Rewind film talks, Season 3 will collide with its altered future as we converge with a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray (Eds.). Keywords for Media Studies . NYU Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in
Bonus · Thu, September 12, 2024
Future Shock Sound Bite: Literature Overview
In this inaugural "Future Shock Sound Bite", host Garret Castleberry briefly overviews key academic scholarship selected to accompany the educational approach to studying future shock science fiction film. Future Shock sound bites will function as complementary additions to the episodic Special Topics film analysis episodes. These supplemental minisodes provide "bite"-sized auditory morsels for audiences interested in expanded commentary and connections to genre theory, media studies, and communication. Host: Garret Castleberry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray (Eds.). Keywords for Media Studies . NYU Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S3 E2 · Tue, September 10, 2024
Future Shock Film: Soylent Green (1973)
In a world where rapid overpopulation leads to accelerated resource scarcity, near-future police detective Thorn (an icy Charlton Heston) investigates a murder that involves an upper-class power player, an escort with limited social mobility, and an increasing sense of sociopolitical conspiracy. Featuring an unnerving supporting role (and final screen performance) by Edward G. Robinson, director Richard Fleischer's 1973 ecological thriller Soylent Green serves as the launch point discussion for Season 3's emphasis on "Future Shock" science fiction film. Orienting this discourse into future shock, host Garret Castleberry is joined by sci-fi aficionado Scott McMurry on a voyage of dark discovery into the dystopian spaces that haunt not only sci-fi film but also the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. What is Soylent Green, and does it offer salvation to the resource-poor near-future? SPOILER WARNING for listeners unfamiliar with the source material. The film will be discussed in full, so consider re/visiting this cult classic before listening to this week's discussion. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media , and the first batch of film conversations comprise a RETRO REWIND mini-series. Following these Retro Rewind film talks, Season 3 will collide with its altered future as we converge with a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray (Eds.). Keywords for Media Studies . NYU Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic <a href='https://www.youtube.com/channel/U
S3 E1 · Tue, September 03, 2024
Future Shock Film, Prologue
In a world where film podcasts stagnate along the information super highway, two hosts stand between humankind's filmic past and the futurist projections anticipated by the fading star of a dying mass medium. Special Topics in Media presents "Future Shock Science Fiction", a time loop season set in the past, produced in the present, projecting toward the not-too-distant future. Host Garret Castleberry is joined by Scott McMurry on a dark voyage into the dystopian spaces that haunt not only sci-fi film but also the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. Our "Prologue" will lay the ground work to establish a cultural context for the intent of this season and how it fits into the scope of this program. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media , and the first batch of film conversations comprise a RETRO REWIND mini-series. Following these Retro Rewind film talks, Season 3 will collide with its altered future as we converge with a new season (and NEW university fill course!) of future shock analyses. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray (Eds.). Keywords for Media Studies . NYU Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S10 E10 · Sat, August 31, 2024
2024 Summer Movie Season Super-Pod, Part 2!
Labor Day Weekend marks to social and cultural end point to summertime for many people in the U.S. With this season of change upon us, the voices at Special Topics in Media bid a fond farewell in the most cinematic way we can--talking about this year's Summer Movie Season ! Kyle Hammonds joins host Garret Castleberry for an in media res discussion about the hits and misses to grace the silver screen in summer 2024. Part 2 concludes our abridged summer movie discussion with a look into the June, July, and August releases, including flashpoint feedback and pointers toward what to see versus skip as these screen gems enter twilight and head to Video OnDemand. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended Screenings (Garret) : Jeff Nichols. (Director). The Bikeriders . [Film] Cincinnati, OH, USA: Focus Features/Regency Enterprises/New Regency Productions, 2024. Lee Isaac Chung. (Director). Twisters . [Film]. Oklahoma City, OK, USA: Universal Pictures/Warner Bros./Amblin Entertainmen, 2024. Osgood Perkins. (Director). Longlegs . [Film]. Vancouver, British Columbia, CA: C2 Motion Picture Group/Cweature Features/Oddfellows Entertainment, 2024. Shawn Levy. (Director). Deadpool & Wolverine . [Film]. Vancouver, British Columbia, CA: Marvel Studios/Maximum Effort/21 Laps Entertainment, 2024. Fede Alvarez. (Director). Alien: Romulus . [Film]. Origo Studios, Budapest, Hungary: 20th Century Studios, Scott Free Productions, Brandywine Productions, 2024. Ontological Obstacles (Garret): Will Smith Sequels. Bad Movie Titles. Animation in General (but everyone else seems to be having a blast) Space Rom-Coms (mostly because Rom-Coms aren't appealing as solo outings) IP Roping. Fan Service. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group
S10 E9 · Tue, August 27, 2024
2024 Summer Movie Season Super-Pod, Part 1!
As the Summer Season winds down, and people everywhere return from vacation to head back to work, school, and everywhere in-between, Special Topics winds back this year's clock to revisit the best (and worst?) of the 2024 Summer Movie Season . Host Garret Castleberry is joined by Kyle Hammonds for an abbreviated retrospect of the summer that was (and wasn't?) in Cinemas. In Part 1, Garret and Kyle narrativize their travelogues to the movies while speculating what cultural factors may have kept audiences at home in April and May. What April and May features did audiences see in theaters? Check us out the Special Topics in Media Facebook group and let us know! Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended Screenings (Garret) : Alex Garland. (Director). Civil War . [Film]. Atlanta, GA: A24/DNA Films/IPR.VC, 2024. David Leitch. (Director). The Fall Guy . [Film]. Sydney, New South Wales, AU: 87 North/Australian Government/Entertainment 360, 2024. George Miller. (Director). Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga . [Film]. Broken Hill, New South Wales, AU: Warner Bros./Domain Entertainment/Kennedy Miller Mitchell, 2024. Guy Ritchie. (Director). The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare . [Film]. Antalya, Turkey; Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London, UK: Black Bear/Jerry Bruckheimer Films/Lionsgate Films, 2024. Luca Guadagnino. (Director). Challengers . [Film]. Boston, MA: Frenesy Film Company/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)/Pascal Pictures, 2024. Wes Ball. (Director). Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes . [Film]. Helensburgh, New South Wales, AU: 20th Century Studios/Oddball Entertainment/Jason T. Reed Productions, 2024. Ontological Obstacles (Garret): Bad Movie Titles. IP Roping. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the <a href='https
S8 E33 · Tue, August 20, 2024
Film Listology: #81 - 8 1/2
Winding down the categorical "80s" in our "Film Listology" season of Special Topics in Media , hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry demonstrate intellectual strengths but maybe also foreign film limitations in their evaluation of the Federico Fellini mid-life masterpiece, 8 1/2 (1963). A bold expression of cinematic self-reflection situated alongside running commentary concerning artistic process amidst Catholic guilt, Fellini fictionalizes his own artistic plight in ways that--while surrealist in certain fantasy sequences--portend distinct real-world fantasies that occupy mental real estate within the heralded director's mind. The dialogic duo consider the film's themes and place them in conversation with whether Fellini's unique storytelling approach translates to a sustained cultural significance factor . Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E32 · Wed, August 14, 2024
Film Listology: #82 - Laura
In this episode, we resume our "Film Listology" countdown with #82 on the Listology Super Index, a second film to emerge on the list from director Otto Preminger, 1944's Laura . A fulfilling cross between film noir and melodrama , Laura features Gene Tierney in a role that combines presence versus absence to suggest a liminal pot-boiling who dunnit? that also benefits from screen performances by Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, and a youthful Vincent Price. The dialogic duo assess how the film functions as a sum total of its parts while considering how Laura holds up in its overall cultural significance. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Thu, August 08, 2024
100th Episode Monologue!
This month Special Topics in Media celebrates its 100th episode with a monologue progress report that details the successful vision of the program, reviewing its epistemological tenets, while peaking ahead as the show begins continues its edutainment mission. Hosts: Garret Castleberry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E31 · Tue, July 30, 2024
Film Listology: #83 - Back to the Future
In this episode, our Special Topics " Film Listology " focus captures the spirit of summer movie popcorn fun with the 1985 time-travel comedy classic from director Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future . Released from Universal Pictures and co-produced by Amblin Entertainment, Back to the Future situates a cultural moment in time torn between the "me-generation" vibe of 1980s America and its nostalgic reverence for 1950s America. With no shortage of quotable lines, memorable scenes, spirited film score, and throwback comedic timing, hosts Garret and Scott make a clear case for why the film earns its cultural significance factor on the film listology super index. Suit up, strap in, and don't forget the spare plutonium, lest you need "1.21 gigawatts!" of power to listen to this episode of Special Topics in Media . Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E30 · Wed, July 24, 2024
Film Listology: #84 - The General
In this episode, the Special Topics focus on Film Listology chugs forward with an examination of Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman's Civil War-set action-adventure-comedy, The General (1926). Considered by Keaton among his favorite features, The General hybridizes genres in a time before many film genres had yet to emerge as distinctive storytelling forms. Hosts Garret and Scott assess the film for its cultural significance factor in an effort to distinction how the film does or does not appreciate over time. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E29 · Wed, July 17, 2024
Film Listology: #85 - Once Upon a Time in the West
In this episode, hosts Garret and Scott weigh the artistic beauty of Sergio Leone's 1968 masterpiece Once Upon a Time in the West , and compare it against the film's lower profile as a pop culture artifact. Do fewer distribution opportunities help protect the film as a critical darling, or is relegating it to cult status a precursor to a short lifespan in the popular imaginary? Ranking #85 on the analytical super index, the dialogic duo assess the film's cultural significance factor as part of our "Film Listology" season of Special Topics in Media . Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E28 · Tue, July 09, 2024
Film Listology, Reveal Episode! #85-81
In our July RETURN to the Film Listology experiment, Scott McMurry reveals the next five films currently ranked by the analytics super index. What movies emerge as the Dialogic Duo debate the #85-81? Should each of these be canonized in the Top 100, or is the data scheme exhibiting flaws in its matrix? Screen these film classic all month long and connect with the show online to share thoughts and insights into why each does or does not belong in our "Film Listology" long-form season of Special Topics in Media Studies . Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Tue, June 25, 2024
Joker: Top 5 Clown Princes of Crime
In this BONUS episode epilogue to our Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Season 2 focus, we are thrilled to be rejoined with Batman (and now Joker!) scholar Kyle Hammonds. In this continuation of our conversation concerning Batman's arch nemesis, we count down our Top 5 incarnations of the "Clowned Prince of Crime". Spanning comics, cartoons, literary, television, and now cinematic adaptation, we examine key points in cultural history in which where the Joker captured our attention and sparked curiosities of fear and wonder alike. Hosts: Garret Castleberry Guest: Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns": Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . DC Comics, 1986. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero . Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Tue, June 18, 2024
Joker: The Dark Side of Film Fandom (Author Interview)
Following the success of our Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Season 2 Retro Rewind season, this week we sit down with academic scholar and author of the newly released book, Interpreting and Transmitting Kynicism in Joker: The Dark Side of Film Fandom (Lexington Books, 2024). In a twist of fate, Joker 's author is none other than guest host and friend-of-the-pod, Dr. Kyle Hammonds. In this interview, we provide an objective platform to discuss Kyle's book and the origins of his ideas and its focus. The conversation helps advance our season-long focus on recognizing deeper values embedded within popular artifacts like superhero comic books, films, and other kinds of transmedia experiences. Stay tuned til the end for information on how to obtain a discounted copy of this philosophical examination of the popularity tethered to Batman's most iconic arch nemesis. Hosts: Garret Castleberry Guest: Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns": Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . DC Comics, 1986. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero . Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Tue, June 04, 2024
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns TIME JUMP SPECIAL, "The Batman" (2022)
In this RETRO REWIND episode, host Garret Castleberry sits down with communication and comics scholar Kyle Hammonds to unmask their Bat-fandom and review Kyle's favorite Caped Crusader moments. Spinning out of the Special Topics in Media Season 2 focus on " Batman: The Dark Knight Returns ", Garret and Kyle pick the conversation back up with a 2022 recorded review of Matt Reeves's COVID-delayed Dark Knight film franchise reboot, The Batman (2022). Does Reeves Bat-film succeed in paving new ground while paying homage to its film, TV, animation, and comics lore? These super-scholars digest the material and discuss its placement in the shifting cinema landscape. Hosts: Garret Castleberry Guest: Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns": Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . DC Comics, 1986. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero . Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S2 E7 · Tue, May 28, 2024
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Bat-Mania Roundtable
This week Special Topics in Media hosts a "Bat-Mania Roundtable" as part of our Season 2 RETRO REWIND focus on Frank Miller's Batman:The Dark Knight Returns (1986). In this episode, the dialogic duo is joined by another pair of super scholars Karen Anderson-Lain and Kyle Hammonds, as well as comic shop proprietor Brian "Buck" Berlin. The panel discuss personal encounters with Batman literature and expand our understanding of its varied commercial and educational utilities. Finally, the group considers the eerie parallels that may speak to why this fictional character remains an American mainstay in the public consciousness. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Panelists: Karen Anderson-Lain, Kyle Hammonds, Brian Berlin Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns": Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . DC Comics, 1986. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero . Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S2 E6 · Tue, May 21, 2024
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Narrative Adaptations
Special Topics in Media continues its RETRO REWIND Season 2 focus on writer/artist Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . In this episode, Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry analyze the various mass media adaptions and textual legacy of Miller's DKR . While some may contend Miller's muddied pages belong to a bygone era, it's continuous impact on the caped crusader show no signs of slowing down in the forty years after its release. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns": Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . DC Comics, 1986. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero . Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S2 E5 · Tue, May 14, 2024
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Book 4
In this episode, the Special Topics in Media RETRO REWIND Season 2 focus on Batman: The Dark Knight Returns winds down. We close our our literary focus and cultural analysis of Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns with careful consideration of its text, context, author, and audience. Specifically, the dialogic duo explore facets of Miller's narrative form and how these literary decisions speak to fictional themes and real-world critiques. Is DKR capable of delivering a satisfying conclusion, or like so many popular fantasies, does this cultural artifact fail to "stick the landing"? Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns": Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . DC Comics, 1986. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero . Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S2 E4 · Tue, May 07, 2024
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Book 3
In this RETRO look back at Season 2 of Special Topics in Media , hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry explore the narrative discourse emanating out of the pages of Frank Miller's seminal superhero spectacle, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . The dialogic duo discuss "Book 3" in which an aged Bruce Wayne comes to terms with the limits of his mythic presence across the dystopian Gotham City landscape. With its stylistic prose and uber-punk aesthetics, Dark Knight Returns, Book 3 will pay off certain readerly anticipations while also usurping traditional expectations within the traditional genre of superhero comics. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns": Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . DC Comics, 1986. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero . Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S2 E3 · Tue, April 30, 2024
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Book 2
In this continuation of our Season 2 RETRO REWIND, Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry deepen their analytic criticism of Frank Miller's iconoclast graphic novel released as a comic book mini-series, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . In this episode, the dialogic duo further denote the cultural context in which Miller's Batman tale draws upon certain social anxieties of the time while also reinterpreting the psychological complexities that motivate Bruce Wayne and his rogues gallery. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns": Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . DC Comics, 1986. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero . Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S2 E2 · Tue, April 23, 2024
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Book 1
In this RETRO SEASON of Special Topics in Media , host Garret Castleberry winds back the podcasting clock to the quarantine months of the 2020 global pandemic. The Comics Studies mini-series focuses on what many consider the great stand-alone superhero story ever told, Frank Miller's future shock crime thriller, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . Released in four parts near the end of the real-world Cold War in 1986, Miller posits an iconoclast depiction of a city in turmoil, a country at the crossroads, and an isolationist antihero in retirement. Miller's punk rock penciling ignites the interior panels like a flame lit buzzsaw. The artist-author's boxy illustrations are further upstaged by Miller's sharper than glass Neo-noir internal monologues and terse scripted prose. Equal parts revenge fantasy, superhero love letter, mythic deconstruction, and political satire, Miller's work remains a crowning achievement ahead of its time and serving as a paradigm shift to the way superhero comics are perceived and received by critics and audiences. Each episode will focus on a single entry in the four-part series, followed by a discussion on the topic of adaptation as well as a scholarly roundtable that examines the media artifact's continuing impact on American popular culture. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns": Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . DC Comics, 1986. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero . Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's
S2 E1 · Mon, April 22, 2024
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Prologue
In this "Prologue" preview to our RETRO SEASON of Special Topics in Media , host Garret Castleberry sits down with Scott McMurry to discuss one of our earliest seasons for Special Topics in Media . The dialogic duo offer a brief framework for the next mini-season on deck, a conversation series covering one of the most influential comic books in history, Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986). Each episode will focus on a single entry in the four-part series, followed by a discussion on the topic of adaptation as well as a scholarly roundtable that examines the media artifact's continuing impact on American popular culture. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns": Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns . DC Comics, 1986. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero . Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E27 · Tue, April 16, 2024
Film Listology: #86 - The Sting
Our Film Listology exploration of variability in the cultural significance of film history continues with consideration of director George Roy Hill's ragtime-sounding, depression era "big con" feature The Sting (1973). A winner of seven Academy Awards and a top commercial earner in the year of its release, The Sting provided audiences of 70s cinema a populist escapism that feels like an echo of Hollywood's Studio System heyday. Hill re-teams with his Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid compadres Robert Redford and Paul Newman in a feature more pressed to entertain outright rather than craft a social commentary. The result was a generational commercial hit, but has this movie lost its charm over time? The dialogic duo Scott McMurry and Garret Castleberry take the opportunity to get one over on this once beloved artifact of twentieth century film lore. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E26 · Tue, April 09, 2024
Film Listology: #87 - The Lion King
On this episode, the Film Listology voyage sails onward with the commercial zenith of Disney's 2D Animation Studios era, The Lion King . Released in 1994, The Lion King handed the Mouse House one of its biggest hits of the decade, and more importantly, provided the kind of four quadrant entertainment capable of sustaining an intellectual property engine that continues to influence audiences thirty years after its release. The dialogic duo reminisce on their memories of The Lion King and assign its cultural significance. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E25 · Tue, April 02, 2024
Film Listology: #88 - Anatomy of a Murder
This week Special Topics continues its Film Listology focus on the '80s. No, not that '80s but 'an' '80s nonetheless. Hosts Garret and Scott discuss Otto Preminger's 1959 courtroom crime drama Anatomy of a Murder . In some ways, the film functions as a precursor to the #TrueCrime movement that will dominate popular interest in the late twentieth and twenty-first century. Does Anatomy lay the groundwork for the crime courtroom yarns to come, or has this artifact's time run out due to the dated conditions in which is was made? The dialogic duo weigh in on Preminger's critically acclaimed artifact in an effort to discern whether or not the tonally uneven feature maintains steady cultural significance. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E24 · Tue, March 26, 2024
Film Listology: #89 - The Kid
This week the Special Topics in Media Film Listology season returns to a silent era heavyweight in Hollywood history, Charlie Chaplin. Cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry examine 1921's The Kid , a film written, produced, and directed by Chapline, who also wrote and conducted the film's score. The Kid ebbs and flows through film history, which resulted in numerous versions of the movie circulating in private release and public domain. Indeed, access and quality may impede a cultural artifact that already struggles in its cultural significance as a black-and-white film produced in the silent age. The dialogic duo wrestle with the five-reel film's cultural significance in an effort to discern its position in the pantheon of great cinema. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E23 · Tue, March 19, 2024
Film Listology: #90 - Inception
This year marks the critical peak in Christopher Nolan's quarter century of commercial filmmaking. In this episode, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry wind up the countdown clock to consider the wide-reaching cultural significance of Nolan's 2010 blockbuster Inception . Written and directed by Nolan, co-produced by Nolan and career-life partner Emma Thomas, and distributed by Warner Bros., Inception "wowed" audiences as a syncretic late-summer smash at the box office. It's labyrinthine structure draws from Greek myth, surrealism, and art history, while transplanting those ideas alongside Nolan's inner imagination into an action thriller that echoes film history while forging an original film experience. Does Inception stand the test of time, or is it quickly fading into the recesses of audiences' minds? Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E22 · Thu, March 14, 2024
Film Listology, Reveal Episode! #90-86
In this Special Topics in Media Film Listology reveal episode, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry unveil the films results quantified by the McMurry SuperIndex (MSI) at ranking #90-86. Accompanying each entry, Scott provides data points for contextualizing each film's placement in the running, just as Garret reacts to the film's poll position as a cultural artifacts worthy of topical assessment. Which films land in the MSI rankings? Screen the films and let us know what you consider the cultural significant factor for each (0-4). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S9 E8 · Tue, March 05, 2024
Caleb Cole, Graphic Designer (Graphic Design Interview Series)
Continuing our Graphic Design and Portfolio Management mini-series, host Garret Castleberry introduces listeners to graphic designer Caleb Cole . An alumni of Oklahoma Baptist University, Caleb unpacks his formal educational journey and professional training in visual design, and thoughtfully individualizes his experience in ways that will allow listeners to learn about the interests and motivations that drive his early career success. Recommended readings : Lidwell, W., Holden, K., & Butler, J. (2010). Universal principles of design, revised and updated: 125 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions, and teach through design (2nd ed.). Beverly, MA: Rockport. ISBN: 978-1-59253-587-3 . Roam, D. (2013). The back of the napkin: Solving problems and selling ideas with pictures (Extended ed.). New York: Portfolio/Penguin. ISBN: 978-1-59184-269-9. Sibbet, D. (2010). Visual Meetings: How graphics, sticky notes & idea mapping can transform group productivity . New York: Wiley. ISBN: 978-0-470-60178-5. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S9 E7 · Tue, February 27, 2024
Corey Fuller, Professor of Art & Design (Graphic Design Interview Series)
In this extension to our Graphic Design and Portfolio Management mini-series, host Garret Castleberry connects with fellow academic and chair for the division of art and design at Oklahoma Baptist University, Corey Lee Fuller . Corey discusses the intricacies of a life (and lifestyle) devoted to art and graphic design. He helps unpack the evolution of art into contemporary professions like painting, illustrating, and integrated design. Garret presses Corey to describe the professional values of working in and parallel to graphic design, and they explore how professional opportunities coordinate with additional fields and professions ranging from math and architecture to website design and data analytics. Recommended readings : Lidwell, W., Holden, K., & Butler, J. (2010). Universal principles of design, revised and updated: 125 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions, and teach through design (2nd ed.). Beverly, MA: Rockport. ISBN: 978-1-59253-587-3 . Roam, D. (2013). The back of the napkin: Solving problems and selling ideas with pictures (Extended ed.). New York: Portfolio/Penguin. ISBN: 978-1-59184-269-9. Sibbet, D. (2010). Visual Meetings: How graphics, sticky notes & idea mapping can transform group productivity . New York: Wiley. ISBN: 978-0-470-60178-5. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S9 E6 · Tue, February 20, 2024
Allison Garner, Podcast Cover Artist & Graphic Designer (Media Methods/Graphic Design Interview Series)
In this episode, Special Topics in Media bridges two themes tied to our Season 9 emphasis. Seasons 9 emphasizes two distinct professional arenas of digital communication, podcasting and graphic design. This week we blend and blur those words. We sit down with emerging graphic design artist Allison Garner. Alli shares parts of her creative journey, a somewhat untraditional path of artistic discovery that continues to gain momentum. Pieces of her personal (and professional) voyage also intersect with the world of podcasting, including previous collaborations to help construct the visual identity of Special Topics in Media . Special Topics is excited to spotlight this emerging artist and allow her story to resonate with listeners considering careers in either podcasting or graphic design. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Allison Garner (guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings : Ian Corbett. Mic It!: Microphones, Microphone Techniques, and their Impact on the Final Mix, 2nd edition . New York: Routledge, 2020. David Miles Huber & Runstein, Robert. Modern Recording Techniques , 9th edition . New York: Routledge, 2017. Guest media: Christine Becker (co-host/co-producer). Aca-Media Podcast . 2013-present. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter/X at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S9 E5 · Thu, February 15, 2024
Christine Becker, Aca-Media Podcast (Media Methods & Content Creation Interviewing Series)
In this episode, the Media Methods and Content Creation mini-series welcomes Dr. Christine Becker, co-host and co-producer of the Aca-Media Podcast . As she explains, Aca-Media provides a cross-disciplinary series that serves as an mediated brand extension for the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). Dr. Becker then walks us through Aca-Media 's collaborative production process, providing key insights into the attentive details that help promote the podcast's longevity as a publicly distributed academic and intellectual media project. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Christine Becker (guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings : Ian Corbett. Mic It!: Microphones, Microphone Techniques, and their Impact on the Final Mix, 2nd edition . New York: Routledge, 2020. David Miles Huber & Runstein, Robert. Modern Recording Techniques , 9th edition . New York: Routledge, 2017. Guest media: Christine Becker (co-host/co-producer). Aca-Media Podcast . 2013-present. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter/X at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S9 E4 · Tue, February 13, 2024
Scott Hardy and Cam Smith - SpyHards: A Spy Movie Podcast (Media Methods & Content Creation Interview Series)
This week we return to our Media Methods and Content Creation mini-series. Host Garret Castleberry interviews Scott Hardy and Cam Smith, cohosts of SpyHards -- A Spy Movie Podcast . Scott and Cam reveal the origins of their multimedia partnership and explain how their participatory roles within fan culture helped birth their current mission to engage audiences with the history of spy cinema. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott Hardy (guest) and Cam Smith (guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings : Ian Corbett. Mic It!: Microphones, Microphone Techniques, and their Impact on the Final Mix, 2nd edition . New York: Routledge, 2020. David Miles Huber & Runstein, Robert. Modern Recording Techniques , 9th edition . New York: Routledge, 2017. Guest media: Scott Hardy & Cam Smith (hosts). SpyHards -- A Spy Movie Podcast . 2020-present. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E21 · Tue, February 06, 2024
Film Listology: #91 - The Matrix
"What is real? How do you define, real ?" In this episode, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry unpack the wide-reaching cultural significance of 1999's The Matrix . Written and directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, produced and distributed by Warner Bros., The Matrix redirected popular cinema for the 21st Century through its ingenious remixing of philosophy, theology, and mythology baked into a dystopian action film that also functions as a techno-remix of classical tales like Alice in the Looking Glass and The Wizard of Oz . Has The Matrix faded from the popular imaginary, or does its brief legacy suggest a temporally resonant cultural artifact that continues to inspire new audiences? Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E20 · Tue, January 30, 2024
Film Listology: #92 - Alien
This week the Film Listology season of Special Topics in Media continues with an all-timer that has evolved from lowbrow crowd-pleasing mainstream B-movie from 20th Century Fox and relatively unknown director upon release, Sir Ridley Scott, to a "Top-Shelf Classic" that finds increasing cultural cache for its simplicity, elegance, ingenious conception, and nightmarish aesthetics. A.....L......I......E.....N..... Host Garret Castleberry is joined by Scott McMurry to rank Alien 's cultural significance, and, perhaps more importantly, to widen the origin of creative credit that goes into this iconoclast space/horror genre mashup. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E19 · Tue, January 23, 2024
Film Listology: #93 - Annie Hall
The Film Listology season continues with a welcome break from recent genre form. Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry revisit Woody Allen's Academy Award Winner for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay from 1977, Annie Hall . The film captured the hearts of film critics and belongs in the pantheon of great "New York movies". Indeed, much of writer-directer Allen's oeuvre became synonymous with a handful of directors forever linked to New York City and their filmic relationship to this vibrant city of tomorrow. Ironically, some of the offscreen choices made by Allen over time have altered the relationship between his expressed ideas, his films as art, film audiences, and their reception versus rejection of his work. Do external factors impact the film's cultural significance, or can the film's haughty whimsy elude critique? The dialogic duo debates to arrive at a contemporary interpretation of Annie Hall and its film legacy. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E18 · Tue, January 16, 2024
Film Listology: #94 - Mulholland Drive
In this episode, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry introduce uninitiated listeners to the unique career highlights of artist-director David Lynch. For the uninitiated, the dialogic duo walk through a chronological explanation of the director's nontraditional route to fame, contextualizing his journey as a lead-in to this week's feature film focus, Mulholland Drive . Released in 2001 but primarily produced in the late 1990s, Mulholland Drive experienced transformative change from illicit cult thriller to bonafide international critical praise. Listed at #8 in the 2022 Sight and Sound cinema poll, our hosts consider the extent to which the film ascends outwardly in its slow-burn accumulation of cultural significance. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E17 · Tue, January 09, 2024
Film Listology: #95 - All Quiet on the Western Front
This week Special Topics in Media resumes its focus on "Film Listology" with a discussion of director Lewis Milestone's 1930 war film All Quiet on the Western Front . Winning the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director, All Quiet might better be understood as an anti-war film for its grueling depictions of the human cost of war. Based on the novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque, the source material was revisited as a TV movie in 1979 and again as a critically acclaimed streaming film distributed by Netflix in 2022. Do remakes and reinterpretations help or hinder a film's cultural significance? Hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry place these texts in conversation with one another as a means of discerning the context of the earliest film and its place in the pantheon of World War I literature. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E16 · Tue, December 19, 2023
Film Listology, Reveal Episode! #95-91
The Special Topics in Media Film Listology season reveals a number of contemporary classics just in time for the holiday season. No, these films don't necessarily rock around the Christmas tree. But they do rock, and in some cases, heads will roll. Hosts Garret and Scott announce and respond to the latest output from the McMurry SuperIndex, the #95-91 entrants to the amalgamated film ranking system. This batch once again provides genre diversification in need of culturally significant rating. What films emerged In the MSI #95-91 poll position? Have a listen and let our hosts know what cultural significance factor you would apply to each of these film features. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E15 · Tue, December 12, 2023
Film Listology: #96 - The Rules of the Game
The Film Listology season of SpecialTopics in Media continues with an abbreviated assessment of the critically adorned foreign langugage film from renown French director Jean Renoir, 1939's The Rules of the Game . Highly valued for its groundbreaking use of deep focus and dolly camera movement, Renoir's coveted love lorn prewar social satire employs artistic expression as a means to encode class criticism. Garret and Scott debate whether the film maintains topical functionality while also asking if the film now feels more like "homework" than required viewing. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E14 · Thu, December 07, 2023
Film Listology: #97 - L.A. Confidential
This week Special Topics in Media resumes production on our Film Listology journey with the bad boy grandchild born out of wedlock between Film Noir and Golden Age Hollywood, writer/director Curtis Hanson and co-screenwriter Brian Helgeland's detective potboiler L.A. Confidential . Adapted from the same name novel by James Ellroy, L.A. Confidential reaped considerable word-of-mouth praise from critics and audiences upon release in 1997 but has since fallen under the social radar among contemporary audiences. In a film that introduced American audiences to not one but two rough and tumble Australian imports in Russell Crowe and Guy Pierce, hosts Garret and Scott debate whether this instant classic remains a top shelf rental in the streaming age. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E13 · Wed, November 29, 2023
Film Listology: #98 - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
With the holiday season in full swing, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry step away from the dinner table long enough to partake in an alternative pastime, cultivating our Film Listology season on Special Topics in Media . In this episode, the dialogic duo revisit the recently invoked "Dad Movie Hall of Fame" to inaugurate what many consider the apex entrant to the spaghetti western subgenre, director Sergio Leone's 1966 Spanish production The Good, the Bad and the Ugly . While universally associated with its rising star Clint Eastwood--once again portraying "the man with no name" (aka "Blondie")--Leone's epic picture splits time between three characters, with special emphasis placed on character actor Eli Wallach's performance as "Tuco". The film functions as a capper to Leone's "Dollars trilogy", a deconstructive approach to antihero revisionist storytelling. Of note, the cultural placement primarily takes place south of the border , which joins a host of late westerns that shifted lenses to consider the intercultural tensions between Eastern American migrants, post-Civil War ex-militants, soldiers of fortune, and a confluence of Mexican and Mexican American LatinX players (often portrayed by Spaniard locals hired by the film's Italian director). The result is a bit of film magic and a time capsule into an explosive age of masterful cult filmmaking. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E12 · Tue, November 14, 2023
Film Listology: #99 - The Great Dictator
As our Film Listology season drops into the nineties, Scott and Garret examine The Great Dictator from 1940. Falling in familiarity to many, The Great Dictator wisely uses comedy (and tragedy) to spotlight and critique rising fascism in early twentieth century Europe. Charlie Chaplin writes, produces, and directs this satirical story of mistaken identity, brandishing his patented broom mustache and embodying a parodic variation of Adolph Hitler. The film exhibits iconoclast status in film history, but does it maintain its cultural significance in the age of instant gratification? Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E11 · Mon, November 06, 2023
Film Listology: #100 - Cool Hand Luke
... Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E10 · Thu, November 02, 2023
Film Listology, Reveal Episode! #100-96
The Special Topics in Media Film Listology season is BACK! After our Communicating Fears in Film Octoberfest, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry return to the realm of classic cinema to count down the algorithmic rankings computated by the "McMurry Super Index" (MSI) to determine an alpha populous movie rating system to end all movie rating systems. Having previously completed the "Honorable Mentions" films in contention for elite status, the dialogic duo present the first of many "reveal episodes" to set the table for the next series of filmic conversations. What films come in at #100-96 on the SMI? You are only one click away from finding out! Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Fri, October 27, 2023
Killers of the Flower Moon - Film Screening First Impressions
This week Special Topics in Media teams up with the Okie Bookcast for a podcasting event! We're crafting a two-part discussion surrounding the adaptation of author David Grann's 2017 New York Times bestseller Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI into a major motion picture now in theaters from director Martin Scorsese. Produced by Apple Studios for over $200 million and with a runtime of 3 hours and 26 minutes, Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon represents a monumental achievement in the effort to bring light to the "Reign of Terror" that wreaked havoc upon the Osage people of northeastern Oklahoma in the early 1900s. Part 1 of our crossover conversation begins with the literary source material and tackles the formal process of adapting nonfiction source material. Part 1 is available NOW for free on the Okie Bookcast feed. In Part 2 , Special Topics hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry convene with Okie host J Hall to discuss the stunning achievements brought to life through Scorsese's film.* Finally, it is important to note that these conversations work as independent threads, so listeners can appreciate one or both in any order. * Production Note : This conversation was recorded prior to the surge of dialectical public discourse surrounding the Killers film. We're intrigued by these sentiments and continue to monitor the valuable dialogues in response to the film. We hope to return to the subject in appreciation for the wide range of reactions and responses to the film, its director, and the production team's authorial choices. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry, J Hall (guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended media : J Hall. (Host). " Killers of the Flower Moon - Adapting Book to Film ." In Okie Bookcast . [Podcast]. Oklahoma City, OK, USA: 2023. Scorsese, Martin (Director). Killers of the Flower Moon . Oklahoma, USA: Appian Way/Apple Studios/Paramount Pictures, 2023. J Hall. God Help Me, I'm a Dad: 10 Essentials for Becoming the Dad Your Kids Need . Independent, 2023. Ways to Con
S7 E24 · Thu, October 19, 2023
Kendall Phillips - Horror Rhetorician, Part 2 (Communicating Fears in Film Interview Series)
Part 2 of our interview with Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Dr. Kendall Phillips. In conversation with our Communicating Fears in Film topic theme, Kendall discusses his own "origins" and how his path first intersected with horror cinema at the crucial threshold of childhood adolescence. Garret and Kendall discuss several horror texts that marked rhetorical influences in their lives. Stick around to the end for Dr. Phillips' horror readings and screening recommendations this October. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kendall Phillips (Guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film . Southern Illinois University Press, 2012. Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Popular Culture . New York: Polity, 2005. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S7 E23 · Tue, October 17, 2023
Kendall Phillips - Horror Rhetorician, Part 1 (Communicating Fears in Film Interview Series)
As the Communicating Fears in Film, The Return! season continues, host Garret Castleberry sits down with Professor of Rhetoric and Communication Dr. Kendall Phillips to discuss the fantasy of horror entertainments and their relationship to the reality of American anxieties. In part 1 of their conversation, Kendall helps paint a picture for "Why Rhetoric Matters" as a way to understand mass media and human communication. He also gives insights into various "academic processes", including the value of writing, sharing research, and trusting the process of peer feedback. Later this week, part 2 of their discussion will examine Kendall's relationship to horror as a popular narrative genre. He will also provides a bounty of spectral reads and recommendations this that horror fans can feast their eyes on this October. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kendall Phillips (Guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film . Southern Illinois University Press, 2012. Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Popular Culture . New York: Polity, 2005. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S7 E22 · Tue, October 03, 2023
Communicating Fears in Film, The Return!: "They Live" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"
October is upon us! With scary movie season under way we're returning to our " Communicating Fears in Film " theme all month long. To kick off our specialty programming this spooky season, host Garret Castleberry is joined by Scott McMurry to dissect a pair of science fiction horror films that strike at fears relating to identity and duplicity. In the spirit of last year's " The Thing from Another World/The Thing " double-feature, Special Topics revels in dualisms featuring the work of director John Carpenter. Garret and Scott first introduce Carpenter's cult film They Live (1988) before winding back the "Invasion movie" clock to assess the film's relationship to Don Siegel's 1956 classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers . The dialogic duo resurrect their "Communicating Fears in Film" methodology, including presence versus absence , imitation versus innovation , and the centrality of understanding cultural context , before introducing their newest layer of analytic discourse, filmic echoes . Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Fears in Filmography: Don Siegel. (Director). Invasion of the Body Snatchers . California, USA: Allied Artists Pictures/Walter Wanger Productions, 1956. John Carpenter. (Director). They Live . Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA: Alive Films/Larry Franco Productions, 1988. Phillip Kaufman. (Director). Invasion of the Body Snatchers . San Francisco, California, USA: SoloFilm/United Artists, 1978. Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film . Southern Illinois University Press, 2012. Ray Nelson. "Eight O'Clock in the Morning". 1963. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Speci
S10 E8 · Fri, September 29, 2023
Summer Movie Season Epilogue: August 2023
In this "Epilogue" to the 2023 Summer Movie Season , host Garret Castleberry recaps the roadmap for this mini-series and its analytic structure. After providing a context for the summer movie season analytic structure, Garret then posits five criteria for "Why Summer Movie Season Works" as the perfect antidote to late summer podcasting malaise (13:35). Then, Garret teases a special programming shift for October (19:40), before returning to map out the hits and misses that fell within the month of August (20:15). Finally, the Critical Captain reviews his top recommendation from each month of the 2023 summer movie calendar (33:40). Hosts: Garret Castleberry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended Screenings (Garret) : Jeff Rowe & Kyle Spears. (Directors). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem . [Film]. New York: Nickelodeon Animation Studios/Point Grey Pictures/Image Comics/Nikros Animation/Nickelodeon Movies/Paramount Pictures, 2023. Christopher Nolan. (Director). Oppenheimer . [Film]. Los Alamos, New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Zurich, Switzerland: Universal Pictures/Atlas Entertainment/Gadget Films. Ontological Obstacles (Garret): August in General (let alone August movies). Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S10 E7 · Wed, September 27, 2023
Summer Movie Season: July 2023
Our Special Topics in Media Pod-a-Thon! reaches its summer 2023 conclusion with an examination of the twinning effect that impacted the month of July. Garret Castleberry is joined by Kyle Hammonds in a conversation that highlights the cultural peaks and valleys encountered through July's movie releases. Among the films released, a clear trend of oppositional twinning emerges. The first half of July pitted an unexpected showdown between heroes portrayed by Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible, Dead Reckoning, Part 1 and Jim Caviezel in Sound of Freedom . The unexpected fallout between these film releases was then compounded by the unique phenomenon colloquially branded "Barbenheimer". Barbenheimer could have spelled doom for one or both of the releases from Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures. Instead, Greta Gerwig's pop icon imagining and Christopher Nolan singular approach to directing a biopic collectively produced over $2 billion in box office revenue. The conversation "teases" these unexpected trends while saving room for future long-form analysis. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended Screenings (Garret/Kyle) : Christopher Nolan. (Director). Oppenheimer . [Film].Los Alamos, New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Zurich, Switzerland: Universal Pictures/Atlas Entertainment/Gadget Films. Chrisopher McQuarrie. (Director). Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One [Film]. Norway, Italy, England, United Arab Emerits: Focus Paramount Pictures/Skydance Media/TC Productions, 2023. Greta Gerwig. (Director). Barbie . California, USA, England, UK: Warner Bros./Heyday Films/LuckyChap Entertainment, 2023. James Mangold. (Director). Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny [Film]. Yorkshire, England; Glascow, Scottland, UK: Walt Disney Pictures/Lucasfilm/Paramount Pictures. Ontological Obstacles (Garret/Kyle): Alejandro Monteverde. (Director). Sound of Freedom . [Film]. Columbia, California, USA: Metanoia/Santa Fe Films, 2023. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our <a href='https://www.facebook.com/profile.ph
S8 E9 · Fri, September 22, 2023
Film Listology: #101 - Mad Max: Fury Road
Rounding out the "Honorable Mentions" list of acclaimed films, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry examine the most current film to rank on the McMurry Super Index, 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road . Directed by Australian auteur George Miller, Fury Road expands the post-apocalyptic mythology established by Miller nearly forty years prior with 1979's gear head future shock thriller, Mad Max . The film required nearly twenty-years of pre-production and principle photography before making its debut on the big screen. The tumultuous production stalled numerous times, and the behind-the-scenes stories comprising the film's history are nearly as shocking as Fury Road 's aggressive performances and bombastic stunt work. Much of Fury Road 's magic lies in its transcendent reception among broad audiences and film critics who rank it among the best films of the twenty-first century . The dialogic duo jostle between the film's narrative and meta-narrative qualities in an anthropological effort to exhume a quantifiable appraisal for Mad Max: Fury Road 's cultural significance factor . Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Kyle Buchanan. Blood, Sweat, & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road . New York: William Morrow, 2022. Abbie Bernstein. The Art of Mad Max: Fury Road . Minneapolis, MN: Titan Books, Illustrated Edition, 2015. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics
S10 E6 · Tue, September 19, 2023
Summer Movie Season: June 2023 - Part 4
Previously on the Special Topics in Media Pod-a-Thon! : franchise fatigue, IP gone awry, brand dominance in colossal collapse. Garret Castleberry cracks the rhetorical whip with Summer Movie scholar Kyle Hammonds as they tackle the close-out films that helped make June 2023 one of the most commercially promising, yet financially flailing months in recent history. The dark room duo initiate discourse with a split appreciation for Wes Anderson's promising Americana revery, Asteroid City . Then, Garret and Kyle tackle one of summer's most expensive movies and bankable characters in film history, Harrison Ford's final portray of Henry Jones Jr. in Disney's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny . Our film scholars back both features but seemingly vary from popular consensus. What gives in this mismatched equation? Perhaps the July slate will hold resolutions to the burning questions posed in this month of June capper to the 2023 Summer Movie Season . Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended Screenings (Garret/Kyle) : Wes Anderson. (Director). Asteroid City [Film]. Chinchon, Madrid, Spain: Focus Features/Indian Paintbrush/American Empirical Pictures, 2023. James Mangold. (Director). Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny [Film]. Yorkshire, England; Glascow, Scottland, UK: Walt Disney Pictures/Lucasfilm/Paramount Pictures. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E8 · Fri, September 15, 2023
Film Listology: #102 - Cabaret
As the Film Listology season closes in on #100, Garret and Scott complete their "transgressive trilogy" of vintage New Hollywood films with Cabaret from 1972. Directed by Bob Fosse and starring Liza Minelli and Michael York, Cabaret snuck in a win with the Academy Award for Best Director (among others) in the same year as Francis Ford Coppola's original The Godfather . The film situates its narrative at pre-wartime Germany. A love triangle evolves to capture the attention of a part-time singer-performer (Minelli) at a dingy burlesque nightclub, thrusting these uneasy relationships into chaos just as their world seemingly unravels as fascism comes into prominence in Nazi Germany. Recognizing the film's larger legacy as a Broadway musical of the same name, Garret wrestles with the cultural significance factor of Fosse's film despite its storied popularity and passionate defenders. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Thomas Elsaesser, Alexander Horwath, & Noel King (Eds.). The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s . Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2004. Geoff King. New Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction . New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic <a href='https://www.youtube.
S10 E5 · Mon, September 11, 2023
Summer Movie Season: June 2023 - Part 3
The summer heat reaches its epoch, and so does the 2023 Summer Movie Season with this Special Topics first, a " Lightning Review " of the Warner Bros./DC Entertainment franchise killer, The Flash (2023). Culminating the volatile and polarizing "Zack Snyder Universe" in the DC Extended Universe, The Flash was strategically delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only to receive advanced buzz as possibly "the greatest superhero movie ever made". The hype turned out to be mostly window dressing for yet another baffling movie experience that truly falls apart at the seams, visual and narratively. Cohosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds bring the pain as they reign down scholarly arguments that establish the merits of The Flash 's ambitions before questioning the many factors that led to its monumental disappointment as a movie, a franchise, and a cultural opportunity that grinds to a halt at the mid-point of the 2023 summer movie season. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Repressed Screening Split Decision (Garret/Kyle) : Andy Muschietti. (Director). The Flash [Film]. USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand: Warner Bros./DC Comics/DC Entertainment/New Zealand Entertainment, 2023. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E7 · Thu, September 07, 2023
Film Listology: #103 - Midnight Cowboy
After a brief pause to commemorate Special Topics 50th episode , Garret and Scott resume their Film Listology countdown with the second in their "transgressive trilogy" of New Hollywood films, Midnight Cowboy (1969). Directed by John Schlesinger and starring John Voight and Dustin Hoffman, Midnight Cowboy is the first and only film to receive an initial "X" rating and win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Such a nonconformist combination begs the question, "How does a film like Midnight Cowboy straddle the cultural line between sacred and profane artistic expression?" The dialogic duo sit assess the cultural significance factor of Schlesinger's film and consider the qualities that situate it of its time while also relevant today. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Thomas Elsaesser, Alexander Horwath, & Noel King (Eds.). The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s . Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2004. Geoff King. New Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction . New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel .
S10 E4 · Tue, September 05, 2023
Summer Movie Season: June 2023 - Part 2
The month of August has ended, but the heat index continues to soar. Fortunately, Special Topics in Media continues to capitalize on recent nostalgia with the 2023 Summer Movie Season mini-series. Host Garret Castleberry reconnects with Kyle Hammonds in their curated tour of popcorn commercial cinema. The shadow-and-light rhetors drift further into their POD-A-THON! emphasis on the June 2023 IP Franchise Wars . Having previously assessed the cultural relativity of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse , Garret transforms topics to consider his SURPRISE guilty pleasure of the summer and the sneaking synergy encoded within Paramount's Transformers: Rise of the Beasts . Then, the rambling rhetors weigh the cultural politics casting a current shadow on Disney's franchise output, including the latest Pixar release Elemental . Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended screenings (Garret)/Ontological Obstacle (Kyle) : Steve Caple Jr. (Director). Transformers: Rise of the Beasts [Film]. Montreal, Quebec; Cuzco, Peru; USA: Paramount Pictures/Skydance Media/New Republic Pictures, 2023. Ontological Obstacles (skipped): Peter Sohn (Director). Elemental . [Film]. USA: Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios, 2023. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Mon, August 28, 2023
50th Episode Retrospect!
In this episode, Special Topics in Media celebrates its 50th Episode! To highlight the show's progress, the Dialogic Duo take a break from their Film Listology and 2023 Summer Movie Season pod threads to reflect on the show's wider progress thus far. The Dialogic Duo share their Top 3 moments in the show (17:45) first fifty, the time management allocated to develop programming (31:05), and a countdown list of preferred (and maybe deferred) episodes (33:30). The hosts then consider their lists of "Worsts" and "Bests" (43:00), where Garret spotlight his Top 3 contributors that allow the program to launch and thrive (50:00). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S10 E3 · Thu, August 24, 2023
Summer Movie Season: June 2023
The August heat has not let up. Fortunately, neither has Special Topics in Media with its icebreaker mini-series, the 2023 Summer Movie Season . Host Garret Castleberry mics up with Kyle Hammonds to examine the cultural landscape of moviegoing. The shadow-and-light rhetors rev up a POD-A-THON! emphasis on big releases in June 2023. With so many features releasing from major studios, the hosts reveal which films were seen versus skipped, whether they recommend versus repress certain features, and ultimately defend against the dark(ened room) arts of summertime moviegoing. Among those on deck this week: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Kyle's delayed screening of Avatar:The Way of Water . Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended screenings : Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, & Justin K. Thompson (Directors). Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse [Film]. USA: Sony Pictures Animation/Marvel Studios/Arad Productions, 2023. Recommended/Repressed screenings (split): James Cameron (Director). Avatar: The Way of Water [Film]. Stone Street Studios, Wellington, New Zealand: 20th Century Studios/TSG Entertainment/Lightstorm Entertainment, 2022. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S10 E2 · Thu, August 17, 2023
Summer Movie Season: May 2023
With another heatwave heading in this August, Special Topics attempts to stay cool with our 2023 Summer Movie Season mini-series. Host Garret Castleberry sits down with Kyle Hammonds to review major motion picture released in May. Our resident screening room critics weigh the value of May's releases, with emphasis on a pair of Disney productions that emphasize intellectual property franchising efforts. The host gravitate on split decisions for both Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 3 and The Little Mermaid , reinforcing larger social rumblings of proverbial cracks in Disney's monocultural influence. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended screenings : James Gunn (Director). Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 3 . [Film]. London, UK: Marvel Studios/Film New Zealand/Entertainment/Troll Court Entertainment, 2023. Recommended/Repressed screenings (split): Rob Marshall (Director). The Little Mermaid . [Film]. Sardinia, Italy/Pinewood Studios/London, UK: Walt Disney Pictures/Lucamar Productions/Marc Platt Productions, 2023. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E6 · Tue, August 15, 2023
Film Listology: #104 - A Clockwork Orange
The Film Listology season resumes this week with a foray into a trio of New Hollywood films. Host Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry dub this phenomenon a transgressive trilogy in how each captured critical and commercial attention by embracing cultural taboos and moving them from the margins to the center. The films definitely rode a counterculture wave that impacted not only mainstream moviemaking but American youth culture at large. These three films each released within a four-year period, and the first one discussed ranks #104 on the McMurry Super Index, from Warner Brothers in 1971, Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange . The film functions as an outright social satire but its themes are dark and despairing. Projecting a dystopian near-future, A Clockwork Orange in no way presents a wholesome society, and registers immediate cult status for its "ultraviolent" depictions of criminality and juvenile delinquency. While the hosts posit and objective evaluation of the film's broader themes, the subject matter nonetheless warrants VIEWER DISCRETION, particularly for listeners unfamiliar with the film, its narrative subject matter, and Kubrick's directorial choices. Will these details help or hinder Clockwork 's Cultural Significance Factor? Our hosts debate the film and weigh its controversial legacy. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Anthony Burgess. A Clockwork Orange . New York: Penguin books, 1962. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at <a href='https://garretcastleberry.academia.e
Bonus · Fri, August 11, 2023
Seasons within Seasons, A Programming Primer
In this episode, host Garret Castleberry offers insight into the organic growth of Special Topics in Media . He outlines how summer 2023 presented a space to diversify lecturecast programming from a single topic to an overlapping trio of distinguishable threads. This includes a quick contextualization for how these topics resonate in distinct ways. Garret then lays out a five-point argument for how this multithreading strategy supports media convergence and academic spreadability. The episode closes with a demonstration of how this approach supports a broader programming and teaching strategies. Garret then concludes with a preview of potential themes on deck for future discussion. Hosts: Garret Castleberry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S10 E1 · Tue, August 08, 2023
Summer Movie Season: April 2023
As the 2023 summer movie season winds down, regional climates continue to rise. In an attempt to mitigate the heat and make sense of the cultural temperature, host Garret Castleberry sits down with Kyle Hammonds to examine the recent film economics rollercoaster with a mini-series focus, the 2023 Summer Movie Season . Each week, Garret and Kyle will examine one month of the summer film schedule, starting with the "prequel" month to summer moviegoing, April (6:21). Movies released in April include Amazon Studios's adult biopic Air and video game adaptation The Super Mario Bros. Movie . After a gauntlet of oppositional analysis techniques, our hosts seek to interpret whether moviegoing represents a seminal pastime or a dying practice now past its time. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended screenings : Ben Affleck (Director). Air . Los Angeles, USA: Amazon Studios/Artists Equity/Mandalay Pictures. 2023. Repressed screenings: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, & Pierre Leduc. (Directors). The Super Mario Bros. Movie . Paris, France: Universal Pictures/Nintendo/Illumination Entertainment. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S9 E3 · Wed, August 02, 2023
William McMurry - Audio Engineer (Media Methods & Content Creation Interview Series)
In this extension to our Media Methods and Content Creation mini-series, host Garret Castleberry interviews audio engineer, voice actor, and ambient specter of Special Topics , William McMurry. Will discusses his growing portfolio in audio production, ranging from audio book performance to video game background vocalist. Will also extends his range of specialty practice into podcasting, lending his vocal talents and audio production experience to the lecture podcast. Garret and Will discuss work-life balance, leisurely interests, and themes that draw Will toward digital media content creation hobbyest, consultant, and expanding practitioner. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, William "Will" McMurry (guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings : Ian Corbett. Mic It!: Microphones, Microphone Techniques, and their Impact on the Final Mix, 2nd edition . New York: Routledge, 2020. David Miles Huber & Runstein, Robert. Modern Recording Techniques , 9th edition . New York: Routledge, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E5 · Fri, July 28, 2023
Film Listology: #105 - Gladiator
As the Film Listology season of Special Topics continues, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry evaluate their first entry from the twenty-first century, Ridley Scott's sword-and-sandal tentpole epic, Gladiator . Ranking #105 on the McMurry Super Index (MSI) , Gladiator signposts Hollywood's affection for nostalgia as a cyclical storytelling engine. The dialogic duo unpack key elements of Scott's peak commercial film, while noting its representation as apologia for the previously unrewarded works of Scott and his leading actor Russell Crowe. Debating how the film may or may not retain initial values assigned at its time of release, Garret assigns a Cultural Significance Factor (CSF) over two decades past I Gladiator 's Best Picture win. Does Scott's period blockbuster earn high marks for continued excellence, or has this once vaulted treatise on Imperial Twilight signpost artistic decline? Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Adam Barkman, Ashley Barkman, & Nancy Kang (Eds.). The Culture and Philosophy of Ridley Scott . New York: Lexington Books, 2013. Richard A. Schwartz. The Films of Ridley Scott . Goletta, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001. Vincent LoBrutto. Ridley Scott: A biography . Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 2019. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's aca
S8 E4 · Tue, July 25, 2023
Film Listology: #106 - His Girl Friday
In this episode, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry wrestle with the first in the line of ranked "honorable mentions" in the countdown to #100. Coming in at #106, from famed Hollywood Golden Age director Howard Hawks in 1940, His Girl Friday . The dialogic duo reveal key ways in which this adaptation departs from playwright Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's male ensemble stage play, The Front Page . The hosts weigh popular tropes that influence storytelling today while evaluating the film against the McMurry Super Index (MSI) . Finally, Garret assigns a Cultural Significance Factor (CSF) in light of the film's sustainability as a madcap talkie. Does the movie's bravado female protagonist Rosalind Russell elevate Charles Lederer's beefy screenplay, or has this production lost momentum to the sands of time? Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Tue, July 18, 2023
Kyle Hammonds - Pop Pod Pedagogue (Media Methods & Content Creation Interview Series)
In this continuation of our Media Methods and Content Creation mini-series, host Garret Castleberry interviews academician, Batman scholar, and occasional cohost of Special Topics , Kyle Hammonds. Kyle discusses his love of popular culture, how he roots it in teaching practices, and explains how technologies like podcasting enable learning opportunities both inside of and external to traditional educational settings. Ultimately, newly minted Dr. Hammonds reveals three theoretical takeaways that podcast provides listens and users of the burgeoning mass medium. This interview coincides with the MACU graduate course Media Methods and Content Creation but will provide an informative conversation for that welcomes all creatives and podcast listeners. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds (guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings : Kyle Hammonds. " The Globalization of Superheroes: Diffusion, Genre, and Cultural Adaptations ," In Oxford Research Encyclopedia [Online Publication]. 31 August, 2021. Hammonds, K. A., & Anderson-Lain, K. The batman comes to class: Popular culture as a tool for addressing reflexive pain . Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, 7 (1), 2020. Kyle Hammonds & Karen Anderson-Lain. " A Pedagogy of Communion: Theorizing Pop Culture Pedagogy ," The Popular Culture Studies Journal, 4(1&2) , pp. 106-132, 2016. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic <a href='https
S8 E3 · Thu, July 13, 2023
Film Listology: Honorable Mentions
In this episode, hosts Garret and Scott humbly walk back their previous pronouncement of #100, James Cameron's sci-fi blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgment Day , in light of final modifications to the experimental McMurry Super Index data analysis formula. Scott "assures" Garret there are no further numerical tweaks, but as a result of the newly aligned "1s and 0s", Terminator 2 now posits the #107 overall film ranking. Out of fairness to (and in defense of) T2 's value in the history of cinema, the dialogic duo offer an "expansion pack" comparable to a grading curve whereby they include and reveal a list of "Honorable Mentions," or, the films between 107 and 100. What range of films shows up? How much cultural value did they offer? Should these entries be considered for Top 100 consideration? The hosts will sort this out and reassess the reliability and validity of the MSI and CCSF rating system in this expanded edition to the Film Listology season of Special Topics in Media . Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E2 · Tue, July 11, 2023
Film Listology: #107 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day
In this episode, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry continue their theorization of the art of cultural lists and the commercial practice of listing with an abridged explanation of the McMurry Super Index (MSI) formula as a mechanism for cataloging how culture creates value (1:00). Their assessment includes contextualizing domestic declines in film attendance (4:55), before returning to the inaugural film that initially landed at position #100, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (18:49). Directed by James Cameron and released in 1991, T2 broke new ground as a benchmark sequel, surpassing expectations while possibly redirecting the future of film franchising and how Hollywood viewed franchise filmmaking and the summer blockbuster in particular. After a bit of convoluted math (listeners, "just go with it," or better yet, SKIP AHEAD!), the dialogic duo deepen their discussion of T2 and provide a Cultural Significance Factor (CSF) rating to the film's status as the process of this season's Film Listology commences (21:45). ...And then things take a turn (1:04:44). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Janice Hocker Rushing & Thomas S. Frentz. Projecting the Shadow: The Cyborg Hero in American Film . Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1995. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic <a href='https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiwBM1_UlP-HHWsW5IlO
Bonus · Fri, July 07, 2023
J Hall - The Okie Bookcast (Media Methods & Content Creation Interview Series)
In this mini-series, host Garret Castleberry interviews academic dean, author, and Okie Bookcast creator-host, J Hall. J shares his experiences working in higher education while balancing family and leisure. He then shares how his passion for reading developed into the communication network that grows out of his book-centric podcast, the Okie Bookcast . The interview coincides with the MACU graduate course Media Methods and Content Creation but will provide an informative conversation for that welcomes all creatives and podcast listeners. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, J Hall (guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings : J Hall. God Help Me, I'm a Dad: 10 Essentials for Becoming the Dad Your Kids Need . Independent, 2023. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S8 E1 · Thu, June 15, 2023
Film Listology: Season Preview
It's summertime, and with the seasonal changes comes adventurous shifts in programming. This week host Garret Castleberry is rejoined by his partner in filmic crime, Scott McMurry, for a preview of themes to come on Special Topics in Media . The dialogic duo introduce the show's first meta-season, focusing on an examination of "movie listing" as a codexing schema employed by the entertainment industry throughout its modern mass mediated history. Of particular interest, the hosts narrow their preferential focus to film, enlisting the use of advanced data analytics to curate (but also critique) the construct the cultural classicism of American movies in a framework we are titling Film Listology . Their discussion invites yet another origin story in addition to a preview of the methodology developed by McMurry to curate an organically shifting Top 100 cinema codex. Finally, the duo conclude with the official reveal of film #100. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season: Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition . New York: Routledge, 1992. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Thu, June 08, 2023
Lecturecast Progress Report
This week host Garret Castleberry provides a Special Topics in Media progress report, including developments on campus that continue to aid and improve the program's ability to spread in new directions and connect with new audiences. Garret uses this the transitional space to contextualize how even the "complicated" seasons in Higher Ed can produce fruitful outcomes. This includes an account of how Special Topics not only functions as an internal classroom tool but also a way to generate scholarship, forge cross-disciplinary relationships, and expand university and program boundaries.
Bonus · Fri, May 19, 2023
Marvel Civil War Dossier Special: Thunderbolts
In this Special Topics in Media Dossier Special , comics correspondent Allison Bratcher joins host Garret Castleberry to visit the Fabian Nicieza Thunderbolts tie-in issues spinning out of Marvel Comics's Civil War (2006-07). Who are the Thunderbolts? Where do they come from? Why should readers care about these characters versus celebrate their narrative role within the Marvel event series? Our hosts get at the heart of this topic, including inquiring whether tertiary characters like the Thunderbolts warrant the time, labor, and hard-earned retail investment that readers and collectors take to heart. Finally, Garret quizzes Allison over Marvel Civil War: Thunderbolts in an effort to determine if these tie-in can be considered "essential versus expendable". Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Allison Bratcher Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War": Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War . Marvel Comics, 2006. Fabian Nicieza (with Tom Grummett and Dave Ross). Marvel Civil War: Thunderbolts (Softcover). Marvel Enterprises, 2007. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's hot-topic media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S6 E11 · Thu, May 11, 2023
Marvel Civil War: GIANT-SIZED Issue #7
THIS IS IT. The culminating final issue to writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's landmark 7-part superhero event series, Marvel Comics' Civil War Issue #7 . Host Garret Castleberry sits down with burgeoning comics pedagog Kyle Hammonds in a GIANT-SIZED entry to Special Topics in Media. The pair formulate a dialogic analysis of the Civil War comic finale, joisting over the narrative outcomes depicted in Marvel's best-selling series. Garret and Kyle weigh Civil War 's short-term versus longterm impacts, the shadow this mini-series casts over superhero storytelling, and it's loose connections to several key theories, theorists, and concepts relevant to academic studies of popular culture. Conversation culminates in a broader consideration of sides taken and what such fantasy decisions have to say about real-world beliefs and belief systems. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War": Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War . Marvel Comics, 2006. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's hot-topic media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Tue, May 09, 2023
Marvel Civil War Dossier Special: Fantastic Four
In this spinoff to our Marvel: Civil War season of Special Topics in Media , host Garret Castleberry is joined again by comics correspondent Allison Bratcher to discuss the tie-in graphic novel to the event series from Marvel Comics, Civil War (Millar & McNiven, 2006-07). This week Garret leads an abbreviated investigation into Marvel's "First Family", as featured in the graphic novel Civil War: Fantastic Four . Significant to the consumer discussion, writer J. Michael Stracynski's tie-in issues from the main FF series are first featured in the Civil War: Prologue hardcover, before continuing in the self-titled FF book. Our special agents cross-examine this superteam's creator origins before transitioning into a discussion about the narrative links (or points of disconnection) between these character-driven chapters versus if-and-how they benefit the narrative momentum at the center of Marvel's Civil War. Ultimately, two key questions drive these dossier specials. First, we aim to consider what values (if any) that tie-in comics produce toward the main story. This aim secondarily correlates with consumer time, labor, and economic constraints involved in maintaining vast comic book subscriptions. Second, our hosts conclude each special with an evaluation of whether Marvel Civil War: Fantastic Four is "Essential or Expendable". Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Allison Bratcher Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War": Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War . Marvel Comics, 2006. Marvel Civil War: Fantastic Four (Hardcover). J. Michael Stracynski (& Dwayne McDuffie). Fantastic Four: Marvel Comics, 2016. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's hot-topic media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTal
S6 E9 · Thu, May 04, 2023
Marvel Civil War: Issue #6
In this penultimate analysis of Marvel Comics Civil War: Issue #6 , hosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds unpack the messy entanglements between superhero faction in this best-selling event series from writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven. The Marvel Universe heroes reach an impasse as Captain America and his Secret Avengers seek to liberate the heroes held prisoner in Reed Richards/Tony Stark's N-Zone detainment center. The action in Issue #6 is interesting in how it pits iconic characters against one another, typified by Steve Rodgers (Cap) physically pummeling Frank Castle (aka, Punisher) for his fatalistic approaches to resisting the new status quo. The action in Millar writing and McNiven's pencil work reaches a fever pitch, setting up the final conflict and abbreviated denouement to come in Issue #7 . The super scholars then debate the closing question that Marvel asks of its readers, "Whose side are you on?" Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War": Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War . Marvel Comics, 2006. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's hot-topic media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Tue, May 02, 2023
Marvel Civil War: Dossier Special - Spider-Man
In this continuation of our Marvel Civil War: Dossier Specials , Nerd Alert co-founder Allison Bratcher joins host Garret Castleberry to discuss the Spider-Man graphic novel that corresponds with Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's best-selling event comic series. The graphic novel comprises issues of The Amazing Spider-Man (primarily #532-538) written by J. Michael Straczenski. The team use their Spider-Man familiarities to continue a conversation about superhero elasticity (7:30). Then, Allison formalizes an assessment of whether Civil War: Spider-Man necessitates "required reading" status for interested readers, or if it merely functions as an article of convenience for the book's publisher. Once again, two key questions drive these dossier specials. First, it is important to consider the value(s) that a tie-in book supplies to the main story when compared to consumer time, labor, and economic constraints (books cost money!). Second, our hosts conclude the special by evaluating whether the Marvel Civil War: Spider-Man can be considered "Essential or Expendable" (26:53). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Allison Bratcher Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War": Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War . Marvel Comics, 2006. Marvel Civil War: Amazing Spider-Man (Hardcover). J. Michael Stracynski & Ron Garney. Marvel Comics, 2016. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's hot-topic media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic <a href='https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiwBM1_UlP-HHWsW5
Bonus · Wed, April 26, 2023
Marvel Civil War: Dossier Special - New Warriors
In this first follow-up to the Season 6 " Marvel Civil War Dossier Special ," host Garret Castleberry is once again joined by Allison Bratcher to discuss the tie-ins released continuity alongside Civil War . The goal with this discussion series is not to confuse the continuity of the Special Topics dialogic lecture series between Garret and Kyle Hammonds. Rather, their focus is to evaluate and assess the merits of key comics that lead up to, parallel with, or spin out of writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's groundbreaking event series. After a brief orientation, Garret establishes the context for these dossier specials before introducing the lead-off collected in the Marvel Civil War: Prologue hardcover edition, writer Zeb Wells and artist Scottie Young's New Warriors (8:51). Conceived by Tom DeFalco and reinvented in various cycles, the latest incarnation of this C-level superteam cleverly carves a cultural commentary on the intersection of twenty-first century economics in ways mimic the reality TV boom while prophetically anticipating the rise of mass mediated influencers monetizing largely staged public adventures. Two key questions will drive these dossier specials. First, it is important to consider the value any given tie-in book provides to the main story when weighed against time, labor, and economic constraints (books cost money!). Second, our hosts conclude the special by evaluating whether the Marvel Civil War: Prologue can be considered "Essential or Expendable". Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Allison Bratcher Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War": Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War . Marvel Comics, 2006. Marvel Civil War: Prologue (Hardcover). Zeb Wells & Scottie Young. New Warriors #1-6 . Marvel Comics, 2016. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our <a href='https:/
S6 E6 · Thu, April 20, 2023
Marvel Civil War: Issue #5
In in episode, hosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds further this season's mission to examine and assess writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's crossover comic book event series, Marvel: Civil War . Conversation begins with a discussion about "crossover events" and the value they provide as a storytelling device in the superhero genre. Garret then considers the mass media modalities by which readers and super fans access and process information about their favorite texts, just as Kyle intimately dissects the narrative properties that belie social and political tensions debated within the fictional context of the Marvel 616 Universe but clearly signpost cultural critiques and real-world anxieties unfolding in a post-9/11 world. Ultimately, the hosts wind down this chapter of discourse by considering a key rhetorical question coinciding with the conclusion of Civil War: Issue #5 , "Whose side are you on?" Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War": Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War . Marvel Comics, 2006. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's hot-topic media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S6 E5 · Thu, April 13, 2023
Marvel Civil War: Issue #4
The plot thickens! Host Garret is joined by season regular Kyle Hammonds for a dialogic close reading of the explosive events culminating in the comic book event series from writer Mark Millar and artist Steven McNiven, Civil War . Marvel's Civil War provides the season 6 focus for Special Topics in Media Studies , and this season's hosts aim to not only explicate narrative meaning from this superhero text but rhetorically examine the story's subtext. Analysis includes reflecting on the cultural context in which the book originated but also how and why it remains a prescient work worthy of adaptation and continued circulation. Body counts will rise and superheroes will fall. Who are the "Secret Avengers"? Tune in to find out! Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War": Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War . Marvel Comics, 2006. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's hot-topic media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Fri, April 07, 2023
Marvel Civil War: Dossier Special
In this ONE-OFF Dossier Special, host Garret Castleberry introduces listeners to local leader and connector on MACU's campus, Allison Bratcher. One of the early incubators of ESPORTS at MACU, Allison serves as I.T. Specialist and the Executive Assistant to the Chief Information Officer. As a legacy contributor to the "Nerd Alert" student organization, Allison also spearheaded cultivated the "Coffee and Comics" communal experience for students interested in alternative reading, gaming, and communal experiences. Allison shares her story with Garret as these discussants unveil how and where her experiences with comics intersect with Special Topics in Media and its educational mission. Stay tuned til the end for a surprising sneak peak at how Allison's knowledge and familiarity may aid this season's focus on Marvel: Civil War . Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Allison Bratcher Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War": Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War . Marvel Comics, 2006. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's hot-topic media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S6 E3 · Tue, April 04, 2023
Marvel Civil War: Issue #3
In the third installation to our Marvel: Civil War season, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds assess the superhero culture clash under way in writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's event mini-series. Following polarized debate concerning the "Superhero Registration Act" legislation in Issue #2, part 3 focuses on the growing division within the superhero community as factions face unprecedented socio-political opposition. In addition to the main narrative, Garret and Kyle explicate the comic book convention of "crossover events" (6:36), rhetorically recap the allegorical tensions that situate between the graphic page and real-world resonance (11:30), the skewed potency of Marvel's secret society "the Illuminati" (18:13), the hubristic blindspots that elude Reed Richards (30:03), and Captain America's "chili pepper rating" with his incognito mustache (43:35) among other prescient details. Finally, Garret interrogates Kyle's ultimate allegiance to mark Issue #3's conclusion, resurfacing the Season 6 question, "Whose side are you on?" Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War": Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War . Marvel Comics, 2006. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's hot-topic media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S6 E2 · Fri, March 31, 2023
Marvel Civil War: Issue #2
In the second installation to our Marvel: Civil War season, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds dive deeper into the unfolding cultural clash at the heart of writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's event mini-series. Issue #2 focuses on the political fallout that results from the explosive encounter facing the superhero community amidst the terroristic tragedy that unfolds in Issue #1. This second chapter merges allegorical allusions between Marvel's fictional contemporary setting and the real-world ramifications of the events of September 11, 2001 and the socio-political reactions that resulted in the U.S.'s declaration of a "War on Terror". One key point of fascination with Millar's controversial characterizations to serve the story's narrative structure in Civil War. This includes the pointedly oppositional perspectives that leaders like Steve Rogers (Captain America), Tony Stark (Iron Man), or Reed and Sue Richards (Mr. and Mrs. Fantastic) assume as the collateral toll of superhero violence destructively impacts the nation. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War": Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War . Marvel Comics, 2006. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's hot-topic media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S6 E1 · Tue, March 28, 2023
Marvel Civil War: Issue #1
In the season six premiere, Special Topics in Media host Garret Castleberry is joined by Kyle Hammonds in an effort to introduce readers to the best-selling comic book event series from Marvel Entertainment, Civil War (2006-2007). This seven-issue mini-series provided a competitive economic property in a decade where comic-publishing titans Marvel and DC Comics dueled for commercial supremacy. Marvel typically dominated monthly sales among the top 10 and top 25 single-issue releases, while DC held steady in the quickly growing graphic novel reprint market. Marvel's Civil War thus provides a meta-narrative that in some ways commemorates the industry-old sales tactics used to attract reader-consumers. Ultimately, Marvel succeeded at generating mainstream publicity for Civil War , primarily because the storyline suggested audacious key character shifts that allegorically reflected real-world anxieties in the post-9/11 cultural zeitgeist. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War": Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War . Marvel Comics, 2006. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Trailer · Thu, March 23, 2023
Marvel Civil War: Season 6 Preview
In this teaser episode, Special Topics in Media host Garret Castleberry introduces listeners to the new topic and recurring cohost joining the lecturecast for season six. In season six, two key shifts provide an opportunity to examine media from alternate angles. First, Special Topics season six shifts mass mediums away from film to focus on the literary medium of comic books. Specifically, season six focuses exclusively on the best-selling (yet also polarizing) superhero "event" storyline from Marvel Comics released from 2006 to 2007, writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's Civil War . Comics scholar Kyle Hammonds joins Garret in this episodic-yet-analytically serialized season. A credentialed academic in communication studies with emphases in qualitative methods and critical media studies, as well as an all-around comic book aficionado and fan culture researcher, Kyle returns to the mic to provide his unique philosophical and rhetorical observations. Together, they will swap close readings as they seek to untangle the politically charged superhero-on-superhero graphic novel, Marvel's Civil War . Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War": Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War . Marvel Comics, 2006. Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S7 E21 · Thu, March 16, 2023
Communicating Fears in Film: Roundtable Finale
In this Season Seven Finale, Garret Castleberry hosts a leadership quorum comprised of students completing the Special Topics in Media Studies course emphasizing "Communicating Fears in Film". To facilitate a roundtable discussion on season seven, contributors were provided a set of course-related prompts to prepare for a hybridized media production/oral final. While every response or answer holds value, our LIVE roundtable special does represent an abridged attempt to spotlight high points closely linked to their course experiences. Ultimately, we consider the episode a "director's cut" finale that provides formal closure--while also leaving the door open to future opportunities--to this horror (and horror-adjacent) season of Special Topics in Media . Hosts: Garret Castleberry Guest Critics: Reese Cusiter, Beau Johnson, Cloie Mitchell, Jeremi Abonnel, DaRaun Clarke Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Thu, March 09, 2023
Communicating Fears in Film: Post-Season Reflexive Special
Following this Season Seven focus on Communicating Fears in Film, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry pause to reflect on the season, examine course themes, and assess past and future potentialities for Special Topics in Media . In an homage to academic form, the dialogic duo engage in a bit of scholarly form that includes reviewing season seven's themes (00:54), the methods used to engage media analytically (7:42), a classical practice of peer review (23:21), an examination of formal arrangements aptly titled revise and resubmit (29:50), and finally Garret and Scott consider scholarly gaps (36:38) that recalls content left on the curriculum design cutting room floor. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S7 E19 · Thu, March 02, 2023
Communicating Fears in Film: Eastern Othering, Part 3 - Gremlins (1984)
It is the end of the road for the Eastern Othering focus, as well as the course-centered discussion series in this Communicating Fears in Film season of Special Topics in Media . Coinciding with the cult cinema 80s emphasis on Eastern Othering, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry investigate the ways in which director Joe Dante's 1984 feature film Gremlins mixes and mingles between comedy and horror, benefits from the Spielbergian rub, and anticipates future anti-Christmas movies while unmistakably celebrating the season just as it critiques the monstrous side of consumer capitalism. As with their Red Dawn coverage, the dialogic duo remain split in their appreciation for Gremlins , demonstrating how too much tonal experimentation can alienate audience expectations--just as this popular genre movie stirred up initial controversy with its thematically dark material despite earning a "PG" rating from the MPAA. Ultimately, understanding the social reaction to and cultural impact of Gremlins is paramount to recognizing the ways in which Dante collaboratively communicates fear through the medium of film. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Joe Dante (Director). Christopher Columbus (Writer). Gremlins . Universal City, California, USA: Warner Brothers/Amblin Entertainment, 1984. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel</b
S7 E18 · Thu, February 23, 2023
Communicating Fears in Film: Eastern Othering, Part 2 - Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Continuing the Eastern Othering unit for this Communicating Fears in Film season of Special Topics in Media (5:18), cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry examine a second consecutive cult film from the 1980s, John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China . While Carpenter's feature was distributed by 20th Century Fox in 1986, the project lingered in development for years. These tales of storytelling influence provide a rich preproduction backstory (11:16), while also setting up a second conversation this season concerning Carpenter's horror oeuvre (see S7, E10 focus on astrophobia and adaptation in The Thing ). The dialogic duo express favor for Big Trouble while also recognizing its conventional admixture of pre-existing low-budget film sub-genres like the Kung Fu action movie, the antihero Spaghetti Western, and the motif of San Francisco as a "movie city" often depicted as mysterious (31:20). To wrap up their close reading, Garret prompts Scott to consider the ways in which this movie does (or does not) communicate fear through the powerful medium of film (1:06:35). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendal Phillips. Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film . Southern Illinois University Press, 2012. Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. John Carpenter (Director). Big Trouble in Little China . San Francisco, California, USA: Twentieth Century Fox/TAFT Entertainment Pictures/SLM Production Group, 1986. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic <a hr
S7 E17 · Thu, February 16, 2023
Communicating Fears in Film: Eastern Othering, Part 1 - Red Dawn (1984)
In this episode, Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry initiate what could be considered the least identifiable "horror" entry to date in this "Communicating Fears in Film seventh season of Special Topics in Media . The dialogic duo venture into a fifth theme, "Eastern Othering", and inaugurate this topic with an unconventional selection, director John Milius's alternate history domestic war feature, Red Dawn (1984). In a fun twist, the cohosts diverge in their preference for the feature (11:02), with Garret defending the film's allegorical potency and relatable small-town Rocky Mountain setting just as Scott takes umbrage with Red Dawn 's incoherence narrative trajectory and unrealistic (and thus de-escalated) plot. In what could be described as a Rhetorical Cold War of interpretive persuasions, listeners will be left to decide for themselves which side of this fractured film border they support. Throughout their war of words, the dialogic duo do engage with season seven's standard points of analysis, culminating with a response to the question, "In what ways does Red Dawn communicate fear through [the medium of] film?" (1:56:45). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. John Milius (Director). Red Dawn . New Mexico, USA: United Artists/Valkyrie Films, 1984. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Bonus · Tue, February 07, 2023
Communicating Fears in Film: Nightmarish Nature Special - The Mist (2007)
This week Special Topics in Media expands discussion of Nightmarish Nature by welcoming special guest new voice to the program, Hannah Herron. An author and and avid reader of horror, thrillers, and sci-fi, Hannah joins Garret to discuss director three-time Academy Award nominee Frank Darabont's 2007 adaptation of the Stephen King novella, "The Mist". Garret and Hannah discuss Darabont's screenwriting career behind numerous horror projects, including sequels ( A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 , 1987; The Fly II , 2989), remakes ( The Blob , 1988), adaptation ( Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , 1994), as well as his elevation to auteur director helming a trio of Stephen King projects. Hannah stresses Darabont's ability to build suspense (17:31), the cohosts expound upon the film's tension between present versus absent forces (19:35), in addition to other core themes resonant with The Mist 's allegorical structure within a "Nature's Revenge" narrative framework (22:11). Ultimately, Garret challenges Hannah to engage our seasonal quest to understand the ways in which movies like The Mist communicate fears through film (44:09). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Hannah Herron Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Hannah Joy Hall. Awake , Digital Edition. Independent Press/Amazon Publishing, 2020. Frank Darabont (Director). The Mist . Vivian, Louisiana, USA: Dimension Films/Darkwoods Productions/The Weinstein Company, 2007. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic <a href='https://www.youtube.
S7 E15 · Thu, January 26, 2023
Communicating Fears in Film: Nightmarish Nature, Part 3 - Contagion (2011)
Rounding out our formal trilogy of "Nightmarish Nature" films in this Communicating Fears in Film season of Special Topics in Media , cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry collaborate on on a unique outlier to the (mostly) horror focus with a biological thriller from director Steven Soderbergh in 2011, Contagion . Shot in Soderbergh's frequent handheld, close up-heavy fashion, Contagion anticipates with deadly realism the effects of a deadly global pandemic that functions as an eerily prescient harbinger to the real-world novel coronavirus that laid siege to much of the developed world in 2020. The dialogic duo initiate investigation recognizing alternative bio-terror films in movie history (3:25) before transitioning to an oral autopsy of Soderbergh's starkly straightforward drama. Scott examines the director's painstaking detail as an imitation of not simply genre form but medical form as well (19:20). Garret then shifts gears to lead a conversational court martial to ascertain the role that presence versus absence plays in director's film choices, including editing, film score, shot selection, and overall visual storytelling (29:50). The cohosts pay particular attention to Soderbergh's exquisite employment of montage (34:10) in addition to comparison and contrast of the cultural context that situates Contagion in 2011 versus the now-lived experiences relating to COVID-19 (57:17). Concluding their tout dialogical analysis, Garret prompts Scott to weigh gently the ways in which Soderbergh's Contagion communicates fear (1:49:16). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Steven Soderbergh (Director). Contagion . California, USA: Warner Bros./Participant/Imagination Abu Dhabi FZ/Double Feature Films, 2011. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). <b
S7 E14 · Thu, January 19, 2023
Communicating Fears in Film: Nightmarish Nature, Part 2 - Tremors (1990)
Special Topics in Media continues its trek into "Nightmarish Nature" in our Communicating Fears in Film season with a exploration of director Ron Underwood's cult classic Tremors (1990). Cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry unpack origins both filmic and ephemeral as this southwestern creature feature horror-comedy from Universal Studios occupies a unique space in cinema history. The dialogic duo delve deep into the collaborative industry practices that help make Tremors a film that is on one hand disposable while on the other hand unforgettable. From the script's construction (21:53) to its lineage in the buddy-action era (25:25), the hosts situate a cultural context that positions Tremors among the eerie anxieties associated with unpredictable earthquakes along Death Valley in the latter years of the twentieth century (36:25). Amidst their winding journey, Garret and Scott link Tremors to the American Western film genre (42:04) Of note, the hosts highlight several of the film's numerous tipped-hats to one of Hollywood's earliest and most successful genres that received considerable revisionist treatment from filmmakers in the 1990s (notably Clint Eastwood's bleak Unforgiven and George P. Cosmatos action ensemble Tombstone ) and outright deconstruction of its romantic mythology in film and television of the twenty-first century (including David Milch's Deadwood , P. T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood , and Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained among others). Ultimately, the duo remain split on ways in which Tremors communicates fear in film but agree on its gleeful romp through B-movie tropes (1:07:33). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Ron Underwood (Director). Tremors . California, USA: Universal Pictures, 1990. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Speci
S7 E13 · Wed, January 11, 2023
Communicating Fears in Film: Nightmarish Nature, Part 1 - The Birds (1963)
Special Topics in Media is back! After an unscheduled hiatus in programming to usher in the New Year (while preparing for the new spring semester!), cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry RETURN with a transitional film conversation that bridges our previous focus on "Astrophobia" with a new emphasis this month, "Nightmarish Nature". Continuing season seven's sprawling topic "Communicating Fears in Film", the dialogic duo take aim with an eerily troubling thriller from "the master of suspense" Alfred Hitchcock, 1963's The Birds . The team comes firing out of the gates with an examination of Hitchcock's brazen shifts between filmmaking and experimentation with television (9:45), before peering into the studio system and gender politics that mark and possibly mar some of the director's most celebrated works (12:36). Coining the term "Heinous Amos" to describe Hitch's Freudian foibles, Garret challenges the aggregated cultural value of Hitchcock's oeuvre while simultaneously appraising the artistic audacity on display through the director's resonant themes that frequently center on troubled women, obsessive manipulation of primary colors, and fateful violence that may belie deeper disturbances regarding this auteur's worldview (27:00). As a customary sign-off, Scott must answer the call to pinpoint the ways in which Hitchcock's The Birds communicates fear. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Alfred Hitchcock (Director). The Birds . California, USA: Universal Pictures, 1963. Alexandre O. Philippe. (Director). 78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene . [Documentary]. Exhibit A Pictures/ARTE/Milkhaus/Screen Division/Sensorshot Productions. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Top
S7 E12 · Thu, December 29, 2022
Communicating Fears in Film: Astrophobia, Part 3 - Signs (2002)
In part 3 of the "Astrophobia" discussion series to the Communicating Fears in Film season of Special Topics, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry jump ahead fifty years from recent coverage of 50s sci-fi chillers to discuss and dissect M. Night Shyamalan's blockbuster homage to Hitchcock, Signs (2002). The dialogic duo struggle with words (more Garret than Scott), either by intention or by design, while putting together a respectful defense of Shyamalan's auteur contributions to film history (7:20). With a cultural contextualization of for the director and film in place, the hosts place this film within an astrophobia narrative framework (23:49). Scott shifts from literary influences to the film's focus on crop circles as a unique phenomenon in mass mediated and folk history (28:07), the ocular affect of clear versus cloudy night skies (31:37), and their relationship to fears concerning alien surveillance and threats concerning borders and invasion (34:10). Tentacled analysis also examines the history of alien invasion movies, the narrative machinations that both imitate and innovate genre form, the presence versus absence of immediate extraterrestrial depictions onscreen, ultimately concluding with dueling interpretations of the ways in which Signs communicates fear in film. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. M. Night Shayamalan. (Director). Signs . Pennsylvania, USA: Touchstone Pictures/Buena Vista Pictures, 2002. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garr
S7 E11 · Thu, December 22, 2022
Communicating Fears in Film: Astrophobia, Part 2 - It Came from Outer Space (1953)
Still reeling from last week's calamitous "Thing-off!" double-feature, the dialogic duo dare to stare into the abyss once more in their continuation of the "Astrophobia" unit for this "Communicating Fears in Film" season of Special Topics . Crossing the mid-point of season 7, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry examine another key fixture of 1950s science fiction cinema, director Jack Arnold's It Came from Outer Space (1953). Their examination includes a close reading of the text (12:18) mixed with a sprinkling of this season's analytic focal points, including Hollywood's experimental 3D phase (19:43), the return of the theramin (20:21), and a conversation about dualistic tensions on display within the film's narrative (22:20) as well as presence versus absence in conversation with the film's subject matter (43:14). Ultimately, the hosts consider the ways in which It Came from Outer Space communicates fear (46:00). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Jack Arnold. (Director). It Came from Outer Space . California, USA: Universal International Pictures, 1953. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S7 E10 · Tue, December 13, 2022
Communicating Fears in Film: Astrophobia, Part 1 - The Thing from Another World (1951)
Blasting off into the upper atmosphere of film discussion, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry ignite their third unit focus for season seven of Special Topics in Media . This new unit carries over some trends from the previous unit, Cold War Creatures, but settles in on a focused fear of things from above, or as Stephen Prince calls it, "Astrophobia". The dialogic duo tackle concurrent themes relating to Astrophobia first with a primary focus on director Christian Nyby's (but also Howard Hawks') science fiction classic The Thing from Another World (1951), while also putting this film in conversation its remake, John Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece The Thing (16:38). Given how the two films essentially bookend time periods relating to the inaugural and twilight years of the U.S. Cold War, the cohosts work to put them in conversation culturally and rhetorically (20:16). Examining the latter film also places discussion and analysis within the cultural orbit of The Thing 's 40th anniversary in 2022 (24:20). Key analysis examines not only the significance of Cold War patriotism in Nyby's original but the duo seek to explain the initial critical and commercial failure of the remake amidst a resurgent optimism in U.S. cultural history (41:53). In addition to special appearances by popular segments imitation versus innovation and presence versus absence (54:44), Garret and Scott ultimately attempt to create identification for the flying objects otherwise known as the ways in which The Thing from Another World ( and The Thing) communicate fear (1:37:00). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Christian Nyby. (Director). The Thing from Another World . California, USA: RKO Radio Pictures, Inc./Winchester Pictures Incorporated, 1951. John Carpenter. (Director). The Thing . California, USA: Universal Pictures/Turman-Foster Company, 1982. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter
Bonus · Thu, December 08, 2022
Communicating Fears in Film: Holiday Special - Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
In this episode, host Garret Castleberry is joined by special guest Dr. Tim Craig, Chair of the Communication Arts Department at Warner University. Tim's educational background in journalism and professional experience in radio and audio production includes serving as academic advisor to Warner's digital radio station. Dr. Craig's research familiarity with cult film history presents a unique opportunity to bridge our Season 7 shift from the Unit 2 focus on " Cold War Creatures " to the Unit 3 emphasis on " Astrophobia ". With this interest in mind, Garret and Tim embark on an intellectual odyssey to unearth hidden meanings behind director Nicholas Webster's low-budget 1964 cult film, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians . The hosts' calamitous close reading first examines the movie's imitation versus innovation of film form as an admixture of science fiction, children's comedy, but also the genre DNA of the holiday movie and the Christmas TV special (15:00). The pair then consider cultural themes embedded within SCCTM and how the filmmakers use presence versus absence to make these meanings overt in key instances while covert in other places (26:30). Winding down conversation, Garret speculates how a science fiction camp comedy like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians *might* communicate fears through its film form (50:47). In closing, Tim discusses his current Call for Submissions for an upcoming issue of the music media publication Vinylthon: The Zine, Issue 5 . Interested parties are invited to contact Tim via email for more information. Host: Garret Castleberry Guest: Tim Craig Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Nicholas Webster. (Director). Santa Claus Conquers the Martians . New York, USA: Embassy Pictures, 1964. Allan Havis. Cult Films: Taboo and Transgression . Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2008. Ernest Mathijs and Jamie Sexton. Cult Cinema: An Introduction . Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. J. P. Telotte. (Editor). <a href='https://www.barne
S7 E8 · Tue, November 29, 2022
Communicating Fears in Film: Cold War Creatures, Part 3 - Them! (1954)
Rounding out the third part of our unit emphasis on "Cold War Creatures", cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry rev up their affection for Atomic Age allegories with director Gordon Douglas's 1954 classic, Them! The film experienced waves of praise among critics and moviegoers, followed by decades of broad audience obscurity, and then resurgent cult reverence over time. The dialogic duo explore Them! 's use of distinct desert mise en scene and how it functions in opposition to seafaring creature features ranging from Ray Harryhausen's The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (Eurgene Lourie, 1953) to previous discussion of Ishiro Honda's Godzilla (1954) (5:25). The pair poke fun at some of the character beats and diegetic moments in addition to the film logic driving the narrative action. Unlike critical satirists, these commentaries derive from an appreciation of what these cinema artifacts express about the social culture in which these films were produced and the Hollywood production methods and creative choices that make 50s science fiction a seminal period in film history. Finally, the hosts return to emphasize the ways in which Douglas's Them! communicates fear in film. (1:09:00). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Gordon Douglas. (Director). Them! California, USA: Warner Bros., 1954. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcast
S7 E7 · Tue, November 22, 2022
Communicating Fears in Film: Cold War Creatures, Part 2 - Godzilla (1954)
Traveling deeper into the second unit emphasis on "Cold War Creatures", cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry pivot away from Universal movie monsters to examine the alpha creature feature Asian import, Gojira! Setting a cinema standard for what would become the Kaiju sub-genre, Ishiro Honda's Godzilla (1954) functions as an allegorical post-war pandora's box in relation to its focus on nuclear testing in the Atomic Age. The dialogic duo tackle the allegorical and mythological functions of the original Japanese edit of the film (5:40) while exploring the depths of its ensemble performances. The hosts also examine how the film visualizes a fictionalized national trauma in Japan that runs parallel to real-world adjustments to postwar Japan (18:18). Garret and Scott then compare and contrast how Godzilla plays within science fiction and also inspires conventions relating to the role of scientists as both saviors and foils within narrative constructions (34:00). Finally, the hosts look at the role mass media plays as a tool within the story (1:10:30) before returning to an emphasis on the ways in which Honda's original Godzilla communicates fear in film. (1:19:20). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Additional Research available via the Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954-1975 , the Criterion Collection home video. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at <a href='https://garretc
S7 E6 · Mon, November 14, 2022
Communicating Fears in Film: Cold War Creatures, Part 1 - Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Continuing the season seven theme Communicating Fears in Film, this episode marks the first "transitional film" slated to move conversation from the first unit focus on "Monstrous Metaphors" to the second unit emphasis on "Cold War Creatures". Cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry close out their focus on the era of Universal's classic movie monsters with a leap forward into 1950s science fiction-horror. Kicking off their month-long examination of sci-fi/horror, the dialogic duo blend classical conventions with primal monster inventions in a close reading of director Jack Arnold's Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). First, they examine the cultural climate of horror as the postwar decade entered the Nuclear Age (2:53). This filmmaking era catapulted Jack Arnold into a cycle of amazing fantasy stories (9:00), which leads into a conversation concerning imitation versus innovation (20:20), the film's use of presence versus absence in how the Creature is both concealed and revealed (41:00), and ultimately a close examination of the ways in which Black Lagoon communicates fear (1:27:10). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Additional Research available via the Creature from the Black Lagoon: Complete Legacy Collection from Universal home video. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . "Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media). Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretca
Bonus · Fri, November 11, 2022
Communicating Fears in Film: 4 Decades of Fears Election Day Special!
In this nontraditional min-episode, Garret organizes a storytelling monologue coinciding with the occasion twin holiday of his birthday and election day in the U.S.A. Garret recounts his own election day adventures before celebrating the BIG 4-0 with an overview of key films and horror texts that communicated fear to and through each of his first four decades alive. References: Cunningham, Sean (Producer). Friday the 13th . [Film series]. Paramount Pictures, 1980-2009. Darabont, Frank. (Co-creator/Director). The Walking Dead . [Television series]. 177 episodes. 2010-2022. Heyward, Andy (Producer). The Real Ghostbusters . [Television series]. 140 episodes. 1986-1991. Nakata, Hideo. (Director). Ringu . [Film]. Basara Pictures/Toho/Imagica/AsmicAce, 1998. National Communication Association (Organization). 1914-present. Shimizu, Takashi. (Director). The Grudge . [Film]. Paramount, 2004. Verbinski, Gore. (Director). The Ring . [Film]. DreamWorks, 2002. Wan, James. (Director). The Conjuring . [Film]. Warner Bros., 2013.
Bonus · Mon, October 31, 2022
Communicating Fears in Film: Monstrous Metaphors Halloween Special, Marvel's Werewolf by Night (2022)
In our first "Halloween Special" a seasonal spinoff with Unit I implications, host Garret Castleberry is joined by Communication and Rhetorical teacher-scholar Kyle Hammonds for a close examination of the Disney+ Marvel Entertainment special "Werewolf by Night" (2022). Garret and Kyle confess limited familiarity with Marvel's Werewolf by Night comic book that spun out of Marvel Spotlight in the early 1970s (8:00), instead focusing on the (for now) standalone TV special and its overt narrative and aesthetic echoing of Universal's Classic Monster movies. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) References and Resources: Balcom, Jacob & Matt Howell. [Cohosts]. Werewolf by Night Podcast . 2020-present. Giiachino, Michael. (Director). Werewolf by Night . Walt Disney Productions, 2022. Hajdu, David. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America . Picador, 2008. Husband, Tony. (Editor). Cartoons of World War II . Arcturus, 2013. Trombetta, Jim. The Horror! The Horror!: Comics the Government Didn't Want You to Read! Harry N. Abrams, 2010. Additional Research available via the Universal Classic Monsters: Icons of Horror Collection [UHD] . Ways to Connect with us online: Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S7 E3 · Thu, October 27, 2022
Communicating Fears in Film: Monstrous Metaphors, Part 3 - The Invisible Man (1933)
In the third entry in our Communicating Fears in Film focus on "Monstrous Metaphors", cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry unveil the hidden mysteries detailed within director James Whale's horror film adaptation The Invisible Man (1933). The hosts peek into H. G. Wells' source material novel as well as subtle influences connected to Universal's growing catalog of suspense-thriller and classic monster movies (3:58). This leads to a conversation about cultural context that elevates The Invisible Man as a commentary on class difference in the early twentieth century, and the relationship between class and power in the literary tradition (17:00). Whale's feature sparks discussion concerning the movie's innovative practical effects and production techniques (25:00). Scott and Garret then entertain the machinations of the film's narrative structure (29:27), including a debate concerning the effectiveness of The Invisible Man 's sense of humor (41:55). Finally, Scott answer's the weekly question concerning ways in which Whale's InvisibleMan communicates fear in film (1:20:00). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Additional Research available via the Universal Classic Monsters: Icons of Horror Collection [UHD] . Ways to Connect with us online: Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S7 E2 · Thu, October 20, 2022
Communicating Fears in Film: Monstrous Metaphors, Part 2 - Frankenstein (1931)
In this second entry in the Communicating Fears in Film focus on "Monstrous Metaphors", cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry reanimate the hidden horror history of director James Whale's horror film Frankenstein (1931). Adapted from Mary Shelly's 1818 novel Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus, Universal Studios solidified their "Classic Monster Movie" formula (2:10) with this second feature that released later in the same year audiences came out to screen Bela Lugosi portray Dracula . Along the way, Scott and Garret assess the ebb and flow of horror's cultural popularity in the early twentieth century (3:00), the role(s) involved in Frankenstein 's adaptation (6:27), Universal's recurring theatrical troupe, the film's classical film form (17:45), and Frankenstein 's points of imitation and innovation (27:27). The dialogic duo wrestle with Frankenstein 's flaws that director Whale would iron out in later efforts like The Invisible Man (1933) and The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). The hosts conclude with an examination of the ways in which Frankenstein communicates fear in film (1:13:00). Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Murray Leeder. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018. Additional Research available via the Universal Classic Monsters: Icons of Horror Collection [UHD] . Ways to Connect with us online: Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
S7 E1 · Thu, October 13, 2022
Communicating Fears in Film: Monstrous Metaphors, Part 1 - Dracula (1931)
In the Season 7 premiere, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry wade into the entertainment genre of the American Horror Film. Their dialogue begins with an "origin story" segment in which they share personal introductions to the genre (2:18) before setting the stage for a focused discussion of Universal's first Classic Movie Monster released in 1931, Dracula (7:10). Conversation includes examination of the cultural context in which the feature was produced and distributed, literary and stage play influences, and the genre conventions that Dracula helps establish (13:57). Along the way, Scott and Garret employ segments demonstrating how this cultural artifact both imitates and innovates the horror genre film, what role(s) presence versus absence play in the visualization of this adapted narrative, before then considering the ways in which Dracula communicates fear in film. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Additional Research available via the Universal Classic Monsters: Icons of Horror Collection [UHD] . Ways to Connect with us online: Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode. Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics . Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel . Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ .
Trailer · Tue, October 11, 2022
Welcome to Special Topics in Media - Season 7, Episode 0, "Teaser"
In this "teaser" episode to Special Topics in Media , communication and media studies professor and host Garret Castleberry provides an overview of this series (0:28) and its educational focus. His introduction conveys this season's master theme " Communicating Fears in Film " (1:30) before unpacking each of the five units under investigation in season seven (1:50). Season seven focuses on the mass medium of film, and unit themes include: Unit 1 - Monstrous Metaphors Unit 2- Cold War Creatures Unit 3 - Astrophobia Unit 4 - Nightmarish Nature Unit 5 - Eastern Othering Garret then reveals this season's primary cohost (4:11) while putting listeners at ease that this program is dialogue-driven (aka discussion-focused) and not a monologue-style series. Finally, he provides an educational context that informs listeners about the focus of the series (5:30). Host: Garret Castleberry Producers: Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film": Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture . Praeger, 2006. Stephen Prince. Apocalypse Cinema . Rutgers University Press, 2021. Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's official academic YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiwBM1_UlP-HHWsW5IlOQ5Q . Garret's academic website is located here: https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/ . Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/418934097068422 . Follow Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics .
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