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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Truth.
This is The Truth. I'm Jonathan Mitchell. And lately, we've been releasing conversations in between episodes, talking with the writers about where these stories come from and the ideas inside them. And today, I'm talking with writer David Bluffband, who wrote Midnight Screening. And this will be a spoiler-filled conversation.
Chapter 2: What is the premise of 'Midnight Screening'?
It's really meant to be listened to after you've heard the story. So if you haven't, you'll want to go listen to it first. And we'll talk with David after the break. This interview will be available on the main feed for four weeks. And after that, it'll be exclusively available on our premium feed, which is where we keep all of our interviews and bonus material.
And that's also where you can listen to the show ad-free. Go to thetruthpodcast.supportingcast.fm. There's a link in the show notes. I first met David Bluffband last summer when he played the lead role in our story Operation Skill Shot, which was written by Hunter Nelson.
And one day when we were recording a scene in my living room, David leans over to me and asks how he can write a story for the show. And that's how Midnight Screening was born. He decided to base the setting of the story on a real theater in Brooklyn that offers a weekly midnight screening.
And there's this theater in Brooklyn called Film Noir Cinema that has one of those types of screenings that is like you go in, you don't know what is going to be playing, and then the lights go down and you're like, oh, whoa, I guess I'm watching them. Or anything. Have you been to a lot of those screenings? I remember I discovered this place kind of before, like right before COVID.
So it wasn't open for a while. Then it came back and I've been back a few times since then. It's a nice theater, kind of uncomfortable, but it is also like... an experience in and of itself. And it's run by this old Polish man who is just obsessed with film.
Yeah. And you had a character like him in your very earliest drafts of the story. He later became the Lewis character, right?
Yeah. In the earlier draft of it, before it became the story, it was, he was more of the like, um, Stephen King's old man warning you not to go in the pet cemetery. He's kind of, it was like that type of a figure.
And we were all like, give me more of that.
Yeah. And I eventually like changed it. So I changed the story once like- once certain aspects of my life started like really dominating my thoughts and like occupied my time of like what I, like what I had to be thinking about when I wasn't like trying to be a creative of like my mom getting sick.
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Chapter 3: How did David Bluvband come up with the idea for 'Midnight Screening'?
They're just like so many, like just of, cause she wanted to watch to see how she was, you know, and, and then she became like a very, um, okay, which camera are we talking to now? Like now she was like a pro at like just studio presentation stuff. So it was just like, oh, she knows, she knows where the lighting is and she knows where the camera is.
And it was really impressive to watch her as a child, just like figure that out. Like she studied, she studied herself. She studied herself very diligently. And my mom is a big, I mean, she's still with us.
I don't mean to use the past tense, but she doesn't do this stuff as much as she used to, but she was big in division boards and she would like have lots of maps of like, this is what I'm doing. And this is like what I'm taking from experience. And she was a very like on camera person. So. There's also a lot of Lewis in that aspect of her. She's very on camera. She was a, she's a performer.
She was really like very, if there was a camera on, like my dad was into like, videotaping stuff when I was a kid. And if the camera was on her, she would like perform and she'd get me to perform.
Chapter 4: What real-life theater inspired the setting of 'Midnight Screening'?
And she would be like very, very, she was like, she was a, she's a big old ham.
Yeah.
Well, that's kind of like Lewis in the story. Lewis is a ham. A little bit. It's not, not that performative. She's like, uh, like I, I feel like I, I feel like I wrote Lewis with a little bit more of like, I don't know. I think my mom, my mom would just like being goofy.
Yeah, and so how did you get from her as an inspiration to the story that you ended up with?
This one I wanted to write from, like, I think something I really, like, honestly, is, like, a struggle as my thing as a writer is, like, I have... I kind of think of a setting first, and then I try to picture what goes into that. You remember Mighty Max? You remember those toys? No, I don't. From the 90s? This was after my time.
This was probably after your time, but when I was a kid, there was this British toy called Mighty Max, and it became like a cartoon show, and it was this like, sort of like is like Polly pocket for boys. It was like this, like, like you plastic little, um, uh, uh, like Frankenstein, Frankenstein's castle.
And you open it and there's like monsters and there's like all these trap doors and like little things. That's what I think of. Like when I think of a, when I think of a script is like, I think of like, what's the setting. And then I try to put like all these different pieces inside. And with this one, I wanted to like, I had the setting of this movie theater, like a dollhouse. Yeah.
It's like, it's essentially, it's a dollhouse. It's like, so I was like, I, how do I do this dollhouse? How do I do this? Like, or castle gray skull, like all these different things. Like, how do I, how do I fill this dollhouse in with all the things I want? And in this case, I wanted the motivation to be what I wanted to work through in terms of what I was doing.
dealing in life every day with my mom of just like watching the, my mom is still with us, but her, like, um, you know, she's getting sick all the time and getting like more and more progressively, like less of the person that I grew up with. the person that I attached a certain definition of love to.
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Chapter 5: How did personal experiences influence the writing of 'Midnight Screening'?
So that's like, okay, who's Orson Welles? And getting through that. And then seeing Citizen Kane, I remember watching that with my mom and being like completely blown away. All these influences that became important in my life were always through movies.
In a moment, David will tell us about a film he once used to test a woman he was dating.
and I show them this movie, I will gauge their reaction, and I'll be like, oh, this is a person I would like to spend time with if they understand this.
We'll learn what the movie was after the break. And if you'd like to support the work we do and hear every episode ad-free, you can join us at thetruthpodcast.supportingcast.fm. Your support directly helps us pay writers, actors, and production costs. Go to thetruthpodcast.supportingcast.fm.
I think there's something interesting about the character of Lewis in that he expresses his love through sharing films with other people. That's sort of what he seems to take pleasure in and what he sees as his purpose. is to kind of help other people maybe change the way another person sees themselves or the world through a film.
And I'm wondering, do you share that same impulse to share things? Are there films that you like to share with people?
I think it's the defining part of my personality is sharing films with other people. I think it's a thing that I am known... I make myself... known to do. Like I recommend movies to my friends all the time. Uh, I have like movies going to movies with like, it's, it's definitely a way I express myself.
And like, if I want, if somebody important is in my life, I've given them tests by showing the movies or I've at least like, what kind of test would it be? If I go on a date and I show them this movie, I will gauge their reaction and I'll be like, oh, this is a person I would like to spend time with if they understand this.
Well, what's an example of a time when you tested somebody with a movie and they either passed spectacularly or failed miserably?
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