Midnight Video Interview

• 7th Sep 2011

At this year’s FrightFest we got to meet a myriad of happy filmgoers. We were also lucky enough to run into a few UK Podcasters and we thought we’d have a word with a few of them post-festival so that they could let us know what they get up to in the name of all things film.

Quite by accident I was looking for a duo that specifically run one podcast (hello Mondo Movie!), and ended up being introduced to another while I was on a break at The Imperial pub. I was chatting to one of the punters at the bar and he directed me to where I needed to go but mentioned he had a couple of other mates who run a podcast called Midnight Video.

Happy to meet the guys behind the show and sure enough, moments later, I was introduced to the hosts Jim and Phil. One of them was brandishing one of their limited edition t-shirts (see main image) and I would spot these around the festival throughout the weekend on other people too.

So we got to chatting and I suggested sending them a few questions after checking out the show. And here we are. 20 shows in – let’s find out what Phil and Jim are all about!

So, an obvious place to start. Tell us what your intentions are with Midnight Video?

JIM:  We’re poking about at the back of the fridge to see what’s there, so highlighting films we feel aren’t getting love anywhere else and hopefully making people curious to check ‘em out themselves. Highbrow or lowbrow, polished or incompetent, we’re thrilled to cover anything that at least sounds interesting.  It does seem criminal how many films, going back to the earliest days of cinema and from all over the world, are just gathering dust now. Amazon, Love Film, etc. mean it’s easier than ever to see anything you fancy, but knowing this stuff exists in the first place is a problem of a different kidney entirely. We aim to sort out that troublesome kidney.

PHIL: I also see Midnight Video as an alternative to the many podcasts that focus on new releases. Undoubtedly, there’s a huge market for this, but speaking personally nothing excites or intrigues me more than the discovery of a film that has existed for decades, which has in it’s own small (or large) way influenced what is seen on the big screen nowadays. Our cinemas are clogged with remakes and sequels (which have always been a part of Hollywood’s raison d’etre) but as opposed to lamenting the sanctity of the originals why not swim deeper into the ocean of cinema and seek out some long lost movie treasures: this is where we step in.

What made you want to run your own podcast and was it hard to set up?

JIM: We’re both huge fans of the sadly dormant Mondo Movie podcast, which again had a very eclectic approach, though with a heavy slant towards horror. It was the first place I’d go to for movie recommends; far more so than any film magazines I can think off. When at the beginning of 2011, the Mondo guys announced they were punching air-holes in a very large cardboard box and going into hibernation, Phil and I grumbled about this great loss, got drunk and rashly decided to fill the gap ourselves, in the hope of providing the same service to like-minded film fans hungry for obscure gems… Or at least enthusiastic advice on avoiding the true clunkers.

I was amazed how easy it was to set the show up, but then I did absolutely none of the work beyond repeatedly failing to find names for the podcast that hadn’t already been used elsewhere.

PHIL: Yep, too many beers and a pining for Mondo Movie were undoubtedly the main catalysts for getting Midnight Video running.

As for setting it up… well I’d consider myself somewhat of a luddite when it comes to matters IT, but after a few Google searches and minor tantrums things began to come together. We use Libsyn as a host for the shows and have had no problems with them as their site and dashboard are very intuitive. We set up www.midnight-video.com through Blogger which we use as a base for supplemental material for each episode and in addition to this we have our Facebook page and Twitter account.

Recording of the shows is undertaken with a USB microphone, my creaky Dell laptop and Audacity (free) recording/editing software, which again is extremely intuitive. A healthy dose of fermented yeast and hops help free our tongues and lubricate the vocal chords too.

How do you set about picking the flicks/subjects you talk about?

JIM: The initial plan was to always cover three films in each hour-long show, deliberately building a sandwich from one slice of horror (since horror seems to have a dedicated crowd and we’re both fans) a second slice of enjoyable junk, mostly action, and something more substantial as the filling. On our fourth show, where we covered a straight-to-DVD Hellraiser sequel, a three-hour fake documentary by Peter Greenaway where birds bring about a genteel sort of apocalypse, and The Bee Gees in their lurid 1978 musical, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, I think we both really enjoyed just how odd a mix of films we’d sat through that week, so our selections now probably aim to be as diverse a mix as possible, with each show a triple-bill of movies from different genres, countries and decades.  We’ve covered some great stuff as a result of suggestions from our wonderful listeners and, in some cases, they’ve even been good enough to provide us with copies of really hard-to-find stuff from ancient TV screenings, which is genuinely touching and, in an odd way, might be seen as some sort of vote of confidence I suppose.

PHIL: There’s no denying that there’s an element of contrariness to our film choices. I suppose this can be a double-edged sword in that each subsequent show could be seen as a sort of one-upmanship in terms of obscure filmic oddities, but it certainly means that we have to really make the effort to trawl the relatively unexplored and little seen territories of the cinematic ocean. It’s not simply a case of watching celluloid esoteric offerings for the sake of saying ‘Hey look what we found!’ We genuinely want to cover films that are interesting and capture our imaginations because at the end of the day we’d like to think our listeners are going to watch them too and we don’t want to be blamed for introducing them to 2 ½ hour long black and white Eastern European metaphysical meanderings do we?

Do you intend to follow the format you have as time goes by, or do you have ideas on where you’d like to take show (in terms of format, length, content)?

JIM: We recently did a 2-part soundtrack special (Side A and Side B) which was hugely enjoyable, exhausting and lasted three times longer than we were expecting. We’ve also posted up our own commentary for David Lynch’s Wild At Heart and we certainly have plans for occasional Midnight Video Head Cleaners; odds and sods where we’ll do something different for that particular week. Long-term, I’m very happy to adapt the regular format if it’ll make for a better show, though we’ve both discussed show length and the ‘three films in one hour’ thing is something we’re both very comfortable with. Phil will be upping-stumps and moving to France in 2012 which may necessitate some changes as we adjust to Skype and the trauma of not actually sitting on a carpet together, sharing our trusty hookah of exotic tobaccos, but we’ll sort all that out another day.

PHIL: Three films, one hour has served us well thus far and I don’t think this needs to be changed unless either one of us has a road to Damascus-like podcasting epiphany. The soundtrack special was great fun to do and appears to have been well received by the listeners, but technically it was a quite a challenge and in between work and family commitments (and life in general) I think a regular longer format will be unlikely.

So you guys were at FrightFest this year? Can we expect a FrightFest show?

JIM: It’s in the can and I’d imagine will be online by the time this interview appears. Not a typical show for us as we covered the thick end of twenty movies in around two hours, and just two days after the long weekend itself, while the full horror remained fresh in our sleep-deprived minds. This did of course mean that on the train home from the recording I suddenly remembered loads of stuff I should have mentioned but forgot all about, in particular a close encounter with a conga line of highly energised Hare Krishnas on the Saturday night, and a fellow attendee I spotted who had a Transformers tattoo on the calf on of one leg and the Birmingham City FC logo on the other.

PHIL: I’m literally typing this before I crack on with the editing of our FrightFest special. It was recorded just two days after FrightFest had finished and I was nursing what turned in to close to a 48 hour hangover, so yeah, I think this episode may be a little different. We could probably turn in another episode just about the stuff we forgot to mention on the current recording (a diet of McDonalds and Guinness for 5 days would not be recommended by your doctor).

What did you make of the weekend?

JIM: The weekend’s screenings kicked-off with a spoof of Escape From New York where London’s West End was sealed-off to contain FrightFest fans. Looking back this was pretty much bang on the money for me; the whole thing was like being locked into an enjoyably nightmarish John Carpenter action movie over five days, complete with some extremely colourful characters, a real sense of camaraderie in the face of adversity, and definitely some gruelling challenges. All it lacked was the infectious, repetitive synth soundtrack. Or to put it another way, while the crowds and the relentless screenings took their toll on me, there was definitely a perverse pleasure in them taking their toll on me.

PHIL: This was my second FrightFest after my debut in 2010. The previous year saw me devouring as many films as possible and largely avoiding the pub. This year saw me do the exact opposite, but it was always my intention to meet up with people who I’d met through things like Twitter, Mondo Movie forum and via Midnight Video and I’m glad to say I did this with great success. In keeping with Jim’s film analogy I’d say it was a Dazed & Confused weekend for me, both literally and figuratively; last year I was the paddled freshman, but this year I was the sophomore, kickin’ back and taking it in my stride.

What were the highlights for you?

JIM: Getting to finally meet some of the listeners was definitely my highlight – a smashing bunch. Also spending considerable time with Dan and Ben of the Mondo Movie podcast and finding that the fellas who inspired us to do the show in the first place were thankfully really nice guys in the flesh. None of this is to say that the films at FrightFest weren’t good, but then we do go on about them at some length on our FF special…

PHIL: The dude in the cowboy hat and his never ending supply of cigarettes (cheers Steven)! As Jim said meeting with listeners was brilliant. It’s rewarding to equate these slightly abstract emails/tweets/Facebook messages and whatnot into a corporeal context at last. Again it was great to catch up with the Dan and Ben from Mondo Movie who I met the previous year as well as the Eat Sleep Live Film boys and our good friend Lee Howard from the Movie Matters podcast. Like Jim says our FrightFest special will reveal our highlights from a varied weekend of films.

I noticed quite a few Midnight Video t-shirts on site too? Do you still have these available?

JIM: Ah, the bountiful Rich Wells, whose design does a far better of job of making our show seem professional than we do.

PHIL: I loved it when we spotted people wearing the shirts as it made it a whole lot easier for us to decide if we really wanted to talk to them. I jest though obviously. To echo Jim, Rich (http://www.richardwells.webs.com/) has done a superb job with the shirt and they are indeed still available via our website, although numbers are dwindling and once they’re gone, they’re gone.

Aside from the podcast do you guys produce anything else on or off the site you’d like to tell us about?

JIM: Not just yet. I’m very keen to get an on-line, 2000 AD-ish comics anthology going very soon with two artist chums who are probably just about ready to give up on me ever producing scripts for the stories I enthusiastically described to them down the pub nearly a year ago.

PHIL: I have my own blog (www.christkidyoureaweirdo.com), which has become neglected since we started Midnight Video, but I intend to kick start things again ASAP. It’s mainly my subjective ramblings about film, music and books although I tend to err on the side of cinema and music.

Well you heard them folks, go check out www.midnight-video.com (you can also find all the episodes on iTunes under midnight-video). Phil, you are welcome for the cigarettes and as I always say to those I hand my well earned smokes to, “Get your own fuckin’ light.”

Steven Hurst