Half the Picture's guests this episode are Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks, pop stars extraordinaire and writers/composers of the award-winning musical 'Annette' directed by Leos Carax and starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard!

Ron and Russell joined us to break down the making of 'Annette' and their close working relationship with Leos Carax as well as their most recent world tour for their latest album 'The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte' which saw them play the biggest venues of their career. They also talked telling stories through music, shared advice for young artists looking to break into film/music and even touched a little on 'X-Crucior', their upcoming movie musical collab' with John Woo!

For all this and more, listen on! #Sparks #Annette #HalfThePicture

This October also saw Ron and Russell release the original 2013 recording of the 'Annette' soundtrack, as a limited edition 3LP boxset on the band’s own label Lil’ Beethoven Records.

Writing in the sleevenotes of this boxset release Ron and Russell said “Annette was a divisive film, but we feel a great film, and directed with enormous artistic skill by Leos, with a magnificent cast. Still, we feel that this earlier version of Annette should be listened to not as the preparatory or demo step toward a filmed version, but rather as a complete and alternative version in itself. We are very proud of it.”

Annette - An Opera By Sparks (The Original 2013 Recordings) is available exclusively through Sparks’ store at www.store.allsparks.com, limited to 1,000 copies.

Make sure you SUBSCRIBE to the channel so as not to miss any of Billy & Ahmed's interviews!

*Note: This interview was recorded on March 22nd 2024.

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Sparks on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sparks_official?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Timecodes

0:00 - Intro

00:14 - Passion for Cinema

02:00 - Working with Leos Carax

07:27 - The Cast of 'Annette'

13:26 - Storytelling through Music

16:55 - Reactions to 'Annette'

22:56 - The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte Tour

26:00 - Advice for Young Artists

29:12 - 'X-Crucior'

30:38 - The lights cut out!

31:07 - Lyrically Speaking with Ron Mael return?

33:16 - Outro

Half the Picture's third guest is Jason Reitman, director of such modern classics as Juno, Up in the Air and his latest, Saturday Night: a visceral portrait of the 90 minutes leading up to the birth of the classic late-night comedy show!

Jason joined us to chat the length and breadth of his career, ranging from his exuberant debut ‘Thank You for Smoking’, to the life-changing impact of making ‘Juno’, up through the deeply personal journey he undertook making ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ with his father Ivan to working with the iconic J.K. Simmons and exec-producing Damien Chazelle's ‘Whiplash!'

For all this and more, listen on! #jasonreitman #saturdaynightmovie #ghostbusters

Make sure you SUBSCRIBE to the podcast so as not to miss any of Billy & Ahmed's interviews! *Note: This interview was recorded on July 27th 2024.

Full Episodes: / @halfthepicturepodcast

Listen to the podcast online...

APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/7btEvvp...

Follow us online!

Half the Picture Instagram: / halfthepicpod

Billy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/billybarnel...

Billy on Twitter: https://x.com/billybarnell?s=21&t=3QY...

Ahmed on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrahmedoali?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Jason on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonreitman?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Timecodes:

0:00 - Intro

00:44 - Thank You for Smoking

04:57 - Directing is reacting

06:07 - Improvisation on set

10:30 - Young Adult

12:31 - Diablo Cody

13:37 - Up in the Air

16:08 - Flawed Protagonists

17:24 - Juno

25:01 - Tully

27:05 - Favourite Scenes

29:44 - Adapating novels to screen

31:53 - Discovering young stars

34:52 - Adam Sandler

38:45 - Maker's Mark in Diablo Cody scripts

40:09 - Eric Steelberg D.O.P.

43:59 - The Front Runner & confident directing

46:36 - Ghostbusters: Afterlife

48:51 - Growing as a filmmaker

51:32 - Jason's favourite directors

55:18 - Exciting upcoming movies

57:10 - Invisible directing

01:00:31 - Letterboxd

01:02:20 - Saturday Night

01:05:08 - J.K. Simmons & producing Whiplash

01:06:56 - Outro

Half the Picture's second guest is Tristan Oliver BSC, cinematographer extraordinaire! Tristan joined us to chat about his experiences as a stop-motion animation DOP working with Wes Anderson on Fantastic Mr Fox and Isle of Dogs, making his start as an actor before switching to cinematography, shooting the iconic train chase in The Wrong Trousers and having lunch with the legendary Jack Cardiff, as well as to share advice for aspiring animator/cinematographers!