Arrogant smarty-pants might guess that this first edition of the Plastic Podcast is no different from its predecessor, the Errata Movie Podcast. But if we've learned anything from the movies, it's that know-it-alls will always receive their comeuppance. If you think you're a know-it-all, please wait around the corner for what's coming to you.
The Duplass brothers, Mark and Jay, may feign ignorance at times, but their new movie Baghead is plenty smart. Mixing genres in clever ways, it even inspires chills through the hoariest of horror cliches, the cabin in the woods. We sat down with the brothers Duplass in an exceedingly warm Chicago conference room, and the conversation revolved around the process of writing and editing, why watching movies at night is a different experience, and the enduring classic that is Fletch.
One last note. We here at Daily Plastic were only slightly miffed that the man in the woods is wearing a paper bag on his head, but we've gotten over it.
0:00 Intro
2:51 Interview: Mark and Jay Duplass
6:54 - Planning for Improvisation
10:58 - Working with Professional Actors
12:28 - Whittling the Footage
14:05 - Staying Ahead of the Audience
17:05 - Audience Dynamic, Permission to Laugh
21:11 - Obsessed with Plot
22:45 - Division of Labor
23:56 - Influences and Future Directions
29:10 - What sort of movies does the world need now?
30:38 Outro
A few fun quotations from the interview:
Mark Duplass on their next film, Dodecapentathalon: "It's sort of our take on the sports movie genre, but of course in our style it's mostly close-ups and people getting their feelings hurt."
and
"[I]t would be really, really great if the world could have more movies like Once. I really like what Once did in that it was a low-budget movie that people could access, but it was bereft of any irony and bereft of any sarcasm. It was just pure love, you know, and the way people responded to that, and the way when you meet a stranger and you start talking about Once you're immediately connected in a way that is not based on making fun of something but a love of something. That's so pure. I love what that did."
Jay's answer to the same question is particularly intriguing.
...you know what they say about people living in plastic houses throwing paper spit wads?
I think they say something about rinsing your Tupperware before shoving it into the dish washer, right? Therefore, people in splattered plastic houses need to rinse their walls before they engage the house washing machine.
One warning, though: plastic off-gases like a mofo. Don't live in it.