Episodes

The Cinematic Schematic returns after a short hiatus to wrangle the Shai-Hulud sandworms in our review of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part 1. The podcast can’t discuss the feud between rival houses Atrieus and Harkonnen without the proper guests. Joining the show today are No Film School‘s Jo Light, the GoodTrash Genrecast‘s Dalton Stuart and The Cinematropolis‘s own Daniel Bokemper. Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel has historically been tough to crack. Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky famously fail...

In this week’s episode of The Cinematic Schematic, we take another trip into the DC Extended Universe(DCEU) to provide our spoiler-free review of THE Suicide Squad before jumping into a spoiler-filled analysis discussion of the film. In August 2016 Suicide Squad became a massive box office success, grossing over $746 million worldwide. Despite being seen by so many people, the movie received hugely negative reviews (it’s currently sitting at 26% on Rotten Tomatoes) and has largely been remembere...

Rest your bones, listeners. Today, The Cinematic Schematic accepts a quest from a powerful and mysterious presence (also known as A24), to review and discuss David Lowery’s long-awaited film, The Green Knight. Without the proper company, the quest would be long, uncertain, and gloomy. Rejoining this episode are The Cinematropolis co-founders from Planet Thunder Productions, Jacob and Zachary Burns, alongside recurring guest co-host, Laron Chapman. The film adapts the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawa...

The Cinematic Schematic is back to our normally scheduled programming with a review of “the first film in the trilogy that will conclude the Fast and Furious Saga.” That’s right ladies and gentlemen, today we are taking on F9: The Fast Saga. Like all great heists, reviewing something of this scale requires a crew. After years of off-mic movie conversations, all roads have been leading to a review of a proper Fast and Furious movie with award-winning filmmaker, Laron Chapman, first time guest fro...

It’s the final day of deadCenter 2021 and we couldn’t close out the festival without a talk about a film in one of our favorite genres, sci-fi. Longtime listeners know that we are fans of larger-than-life ideas with a personal perspective, and few films playing at this year’s festival encompassed those words more than Between Waves, a sharp science fiction film with an emotional story at its core. The film touches on a number of topics including mental health, alternate dimensions, and grief. To...

As the deadCenter 2021 Film Festival begins to wind down, we’re highlighting some of our favorite gems from this year’s schedule. Among the huge array of short films playing is a documentary titled “Sardis,” a story preserving a forgotten piece of Oklahoma history. If you’re from Oklahoma and have never heard of the town of Sardis, you’re not alone. Similar to the Tulsa Race Massacre(until recently), the tragic story is rarely discussed in state history classes. To learn more about what inspired...

The deadCenter Film Festival is hosted here in the heart of Oklahoma, but thanks to last year’s virtual cinema that was launched as part of the festival’s COVID-19-minded approach, the scope of the audience expanded far beyond just the sooner state. Last year, more than 40,000 people attended deadCenter Film Festival virtually, with audiences watching from 42 states and 24 countries. One pair of attendees in 2020 were the hosts of The Furloughed Film Talks, a Dallas-based podcast dedicated to th...

Between out-of-state projects like the Killers of the Flower Moon, Minari, Reagan, Reservation Dogs, and Stillwater, and homegrown projects like Mickey Reece’s Agnes and Kyle Kauwika Harris’s Out of Exile, Oklahoma seems to be in the middle of a boom in film and TV productions. Thanks to increasing tax incentives, new talent development programs from the Oklahoma Film and TV Academy, larger sound stages from Green Pastures Studio and Prarie Surf Media, and top-notch emerging talent, both behind ...

The deadCenter 2021 film festival has always had a knack for finding the most memorable and emotionally satisfying documentaries of each year. In 2021, the festival played the heartwarming We Are Thousand, a story about amateur musicians gathering together in an Italian village to pay tribute to the Foo Fighters, and also Questlove’s upcoming documentary, Summer of Soul, which immortalizes 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival, among many others. Today’s featured documentary is no exception because, i...

The deadCenter Film Festival is a place for all types of stories including the short stories found in music videos. One of the festival’s most notable short films playing at this year’s festival in the SHORTS: OKIE 1 block is the music video, “Jabee: Hope.” Last year, Oklahoma City hip hop artist Jabee released his new album, “This World Is So Fragile And Cruel I’m Glad I Got You.” When considering how to best adapt the music for a video, he pitched the song “Hope” to his collaborator and award-...

Guests: Ben Tefera, writer/director of Feel So Good Slyrex, co-producer, co-editor, sound designer and composer of Feel So Good Ben Stillwell White, co-producer, cinematographer, and co-editor of Feel So Good Grayson Dunn, star of Feel So Good deadCenter has long been a platform for homegrown Oklahoma films from storytellers who are dedicated to a high concept with a compelling vision. In this year’s festival, few filmmakers carry this auteur’s spirit more than Bad Faith, the collective of artis...

Today kicks off the beginning of the 2021 deadCenter Film Festival week for filmgoers around the state of Oklahoma. To give listeners and pass holders a tease of what they can expect, The Cinematic Schematic is joined by the deadCenter film festival director of operations, Miranda Patton, and deadCenter features programmer, Kevin Ely, to help you make your plans ahead of the Thursday, June 10th opening night. How will the virtual festival work? What about the in-person events or special outdoor ...

Our exclusive coverage of the deadCenter 2021 film festival continues on The Cinematic Schematic with an interview featuring the president and CEO of the Inasmuch Foundation and producer of “A Long Road to Liberty,” Bob Ross, and the short film’s writer/director, Bryan Beasley. In this deadCenter 2021 Film Festival podcast conversation, Ross and Beasley join the show to discuss the story behind the making of “A Long Road to Liberty” and why this retrospective of Oklahoma’s African American histo...

Special Guest Jacob Leighton Burns Writer/Director/Producer of “Snow Day” Co-Founder of The Cinematropolis We’re kicking off our coverage of the deadCenter 2021 film festival with an interview featuring The Cinematropolis co-founder, Jacob Leighton Burns, to discuss his short film,”Snow Day.” In this exclusive deadCenter 2021 podcast conversation on The Cinematic Schematic, Burns joins the show to discuss what inspired him to document 2020’s major Oklahoma snowfall before adapting it for an Inst...

The Cinematic Schematic’s Three Films That Got You Through the 2020 Pandemic interview series concludes in its final entry with the Oklahoma City Museum of Art head of film programming and theatrical operations, Lisa Broad, PH.D. I talk with Broad about how the pandemic impacted the museum’s ability to play films before discussing how her team pivoted to the virtual cinema. We close out the conversation with a look at her selections. Broad joined the Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s Film Program in...

In today’s episode of The Cinematic Schematic, first-time special guests Brock Lay and Josh Reid are welcomed to the show to share their fond memories and experiences with the Mortal Kombat franchise before joining me to review the 2021 HBO Max/theatrically released Mortal Kombat from producer James Wan and first-time director Simon McQuaid. Video game big-screen adaptations have a pretty poor track record for box office and critical success with very few films justifying full-blown franchises a...

The Cinematic Schematic maintains our annual tradition of hosting an Oscar predictions episode with recurring guest host, Laron Chapman. It’s our aim to give listening cinephiles, award show junkies and casual watchers a slightly better idea of how to hedge their bets for Sunday’s 93rd Academy Awards. 2020 was full of unexpected twists. There were global pandemics, historic elections, and how can we forget it was just a year ago that Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite became the surprise Cinderella story t...

The Three Films That Got You Through the 2020 Pandemic interview series enters its final stretch on The Cinematic Schematic in part nine, our penultimate interview, with the Oklahoma Film+Music Office(OF+MO) outreach and production manager, Yousef Kazemi. I talk with Kazemi about how the pandemic impacted Oklahoma’s film industry before discussing how his team pivoted and turned last year’s unprecedented times into a period filled with silver linings. The conversation wraps up with a look at the...

The Three Films That Got You Through the 2020 Pandemic interview series continues on The Cinematic Schematic in part eight with the managing partner of Tower Theatre in OKC, founder of Mostly Harmless Media, and the director of technology of the deadCenter Film Festival, Stephen Tyler. I speak with Tyler about how the pandemic impacted the operations of Oklahoma’s historic theater before discussing how they pivoted in order to keep the film and concert venue afloat during the economic challenges...

Since 2014’s American Godzilla reboot, Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros and Toho have been slowly building up their combined “Monsterverse,” set to end in a climatic rematch between Godzilla and King Kong. It would be the rematch of the century, coming 59 years after they first crossed paths in 1962’s King Kong vs Godzilla. In a world where mega-franchises and CGI spectacle is king, how could a crossover this big fail? Despite the warm critical and box office reception of Godzilla and 2017’s Kong...

Tune in for a special announcement regarding an update to our April programming. The post April 2021 Programming Update appeared first on The Cinematropolis.

For years, fans called on DC and Warner Bros. to #ReleasetheSnyderCut after the poor reception of the original 2017 release that was completed by Joss Whedon, and on March 18, 2021, the studio answered the call with a $70 million dollar HBOMax release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. In this episode of The Cinematic Schematic, we assemble a group of panelists including Geek Girl Features’ Chelsea Ratterman, The Cinematropolis’s Daniel Bokemper, and DC aficionado, Bobby Griffith, to review the lo...

The Three Films That Got You Through the 2020 Pandemic interview series continues on The Cinematic Schematic in part seven featuring the host and producer of the Tunes/Toons podcast, Harold Storey. I speak with Storey about how the pandemic impacted his ability to produce his podcast and changed how he spoke with guests. As always, we shift the conversation to the three films that helped him get through it all to close the show! Special Guest Harold Storey, host of the Tunes/Toons podcast Listen...

The Cinematic Schematic returns for a review and spoiler-filled discussion of Walt Disney Animation’s latest film exploring a post-apocalyptic southeast Asian fantasy, Raya and the Last Dragon. Rejoining us for this conversation is our resident animated film fan, Lauren Weingart, founder of Video Peach Productions. After a full year away from a theater, the slow release of blockbuster-quality studio films had come to a crawl. That is with a handful of exceptions, including Disney’s latest $30 Pr...