G33k Out With Angie Fiedler Sutton

 Back in late April, I attended the 2017 LA Times Festival of Books. The largest book festival in the US, this free annual event celebrates the written word. With panels on a variety of topics, readings and interviews with authors, and even music performances, there’s always something for everyone. This was my third year attending. While I was there, I interviewed many of the people in the various vendor booths throughout the festival. For complete show notes, go to my website.

 "Hey: it's that one guy!" It's the cry of many a character actor (so much so that it's got its own page on TV Tropes, and for actor Stephen Tobolowsky, that's fine with him. Appearing in over 200 films and/or television episodes, you may know him as the insurance salesman in Groundhog Day, the substitute teacher Sandy Ryerson in Glee, or from any number of various roles.  In 2014, I had the chance to interview him. He was going to be at that year's LA Festival of Books. He's coming back to this year's LA Festival of Books, promoting his newest book, My Adventures with God, and so I thought it was a great chance to bring this interview out from storage.  For complete show notes, go to my website.

 On April 2, I attended the 33rd annual Writers of the Future Award ceremony. With a dragon gracing the red carpet and the stage. the ceremony had a keynote from the co-founder and president of Dragon*Con Pat Henry, and presented this year's Lifetime Achievement Award to Mike Resnick. The 12 writers and illustrators received this year's awards, with Jake Marley winning the Golden Pen Award for his submission "Acquisition", and Michael Michera winning the Golden Brush Award for his illustration that went with C.L. Kagmi's story, "The Drake Equation". The podcast combines some of the interviews I managed to get while attending and excerpts from the award ceremony.  For complete show notes, go to my website.

 Marco Beltrami is no stranger to composing movies in the sci fi and superhero world. His first major breakthrough was doing the score for Wes Craven’s Scream, and you may recognize his music from such genre favorites as Hellboy, Mimic, The Faculty, and even worked with Philip Glass for the 2015 version of Fantastic Four. He's been nominated for an Oscar for his scores for both 3:10 to Yuma and The Hurt Locker. In early March, I had the opportunity to interview him over the phone about his latest project Logan, the latest — and possibly last — Wolverine movie starring Hugh Jackman.  For complete show notes, go to my website.

 While at the 2016 Wondercon, I also had the chance to talk with some of the people at another panel, "Streaming Success: Behind-the-Scenes of Your Favorite Binge Worthy Shows". The panel discussed the original content of Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, and some of the people that work on the various shows produced by them. My associate Hope Donoghue and I first talked to James ("Jimmy") Levine and Sean Callery. We then talked to David Van Dyke, VFX producer and (at the time) vice president of Shade VFX (he's now president).  For complete show notes, go to my website.

 Last March, I attended WonderCon here in Los Angeles. I (and a few others) covered it for SciFi4Me.com, and I had a lot more content that I never had time to do anything with. One such item was a chance to meet up with some of the guys that were on the "High Scorers Panel: Star Composers of the Video Game World". The panel was, obviously, music composers for video games talking about their work. I managed to get a chance to interview some of them before the panel. I first talked to Gordy Haab and Niels Bye Nielsen, and then I talked to Bill Brown and John Kaefer. For complete show notes, go to my website.

 Last September, I covered an agent’s roundtable event for Camera Angles. The event was part of the Emerging Cinematographer Awards, a way to bring advice for how to make it in the film industry to the award winners. The chair of the awards is cinematographer Jimmy Matlosz, and he gave the up and coming honorees some great advice during the event. I sat down with Jimmy at his home to discuss what exactly a cinematographer does, his work process, and his latest project.   See the accompanying article here.

 On September 7, I had the opportunity to attend the red carpet for the world premiere of the parody science fiction film Unbelievable!!!!! Written and directed by Steven L. Fawcette, the movie stars or has cameos from 40 Star Trek actors, and follows the adventures of four astronauts, one of which is a marionette. I had the opportunity to interview several of the cast and crew of both the movie, as well as the Star Trek universe.   See the accompanying article (with photos) here.

 Ash Vs. Evil Dead is getting ready for it’s second season, and was one of the many panels at the 2016 PaleyFest Fall TV Previews event. I had the chance to attend the red carpet for the screening of the first episode of season two. I interviewed guest stars Lee Majors, Ted Raimi, and Michelle Hurd, and then series regulars Dana DeLorenzo, Ray Santiago, and Bruce Campbell. See the accompanying article (with photos and video) here.

 From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series is entering it’s third season on Netflix and on the El Rey Network. The series is based off the movie of the same name, and follows the adventures of the Gecko Brothers as they take on vampires and other forces of hell. I had the chance to attend the red carpet for the screening of the first episode of season 3. I interviewed Diego Gutierrez (executive producer), Sarah Minnich (Florinda), Marko Zaror (Zolo), Danny Trejo (The Regulator), and Maurice Compte (Brasa) about the show.   See the accompanying article (with photos and video) here.

This year, I was able to attend the genre panels and screenings of PaleyFest Fall TV Previews. For my first event, I got to attend screenings of Son of Zorn and The Exorcist, both on Fox this fall. I decided to do something different this time around, and try a video version of G33K Out, and do a mini review of the shows. The sound's a little loud in this trial, so apologies. See the accompanying article (with video version) here.

In late February, I had the chance to attend the red carpet premiere of LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League Cosmic Clash. The fifth LEGO DC Comics film, the movie is about the villain Brainiac’s attempt to 'collect' Earth.  I interviewed several of the voice cast as well as the producer, screenwriter, and director. We covered everything to what it was like to be a voice actor to what makes the LEGO movies different.  See the accompanying article, including photos, here.

Back in December, I attended the Share the Force event at LA Live, sponsored by Target. Part of the marketing juggernaut for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the two-day event had themed origami projects, a 'see the galaxy' show, Legos galore, the ability to use the force through Emotiv headsets, and merchandise and fan memorabilia from Rancho Obi-Wan. See the accompanying article (with photos and video) here.

Narcopolis is new film in the time travel genre, involving a dystopian world where drugs are legal and there's a conspiracy involving a new super-drug and the mega-corp that makes it. I had a Skype conversation with the producer, writer, and director Justin Trefgarne, where we talked about his background (including what draws him to science fiction), his process for both writing and directing (and whether he can separate the two roles), doing a science fiction movie on a strict budget, and where he got the idea behind the movie. It all started with a storage locker. See the accompanying article here.

On Saturday, August 1, I had the privilege of attending the red carpet premiere of Star Trek: Renegades. I managed to catch Adrienne Wilkinson, Robert Picardo, Vic Mignogna, Kevin Fry, Larissa Gomes, Tim Russ, Eugene Byrd, Cela Scott, Jason Matthew Smith, and Rico Anderson. See the accompanying article (with photos) here.

The movie Self/Less, set to be released July 10, 2015, is about the ultimate method of immortality: Damian (Ben Kinglsey) is a wealthy man who, when told he is dying, decides to transfer his consciousness into a younger body (Ryan Reynolds). But as with all such deals, there is more at the heart of the project than is realized. I did a phone interview with neuroscientist Charles Higgins to talk about some of the science that the movie is based on, as well as what makes us individuals, what differs us from machines, and how close the science gets in the movie. See the accompanying article here.

Cosplay is a large part of conventions nowadays, with even its own celebrities such as Yaya Han. I talked with Christine Kasal Parascandolo (executive producer) and Gulliver Parascandolo (director), with the new documentary Cosplay Dreams 3D. The movie will be premiering at the Los Angeles 3D Film Festival on December 6, 2014. See the accompanying article here.

While I had Miracle Laurie on hand for an interview for her work in the new web series Nobility, we talked a bit further about her process as an actress and about female representation in science fiction, which naturally led to her work on Dollhouse. See the accompanying article here.

Comedy science fiction is a rare beast. Nobility is a new science fiction comedy web series currently in production. Set 700 years in the future, it's a mockumentary-style show about the crew of the C.A.S. Nobility.While at Comikaze, I got to speak to two of the stars, Torri Higginson and Miracle Laurie, and director Neil Johnson about this project. See the accompanying article here.

Being a fan can take on many different facets: from fan fiction to cosplay to artwork, fans express their passion in many different forms. But there's one aspect that gets a certain type of charge.I got the chance to talk briefly with Russell with the R2 Builders Club about why he does it, and how.  See the accompanying article here.