The Making of The Movies That Made Us

In the previous few years, for those who’ve discovered your self sitting round, not sure of what to look at, Brian Volk-Weiss normally has a solution. You could not know his identify however in case you have a preferred streaming service, you recognize his reveals. Down to Earth with Zac Efron on Netflix. Behind the Attraction on Disney+. A Toy Store Near You on Amazon. These, together with dozens upon dozens of comedy specials starring everybody from Kevin Hart to Ali Wong, are however a sampling of the entertaining, bingeable reveals Volk-Weiss and his firm, the Nacelle Company, have created.

Personally, I turned a fan in 2017 when he launched a present on Netflix referred to as The Toys That Made Us. The offbeat documentary collection targeted on the creation of a few of your favourite toys ever (Star Wars, Barbie, Transformers, and so on.) was such a success, Volk-Weiss and his group started to formulate one other present of an identical ilk. It was referred to as… The Games That Made Us. That present by no means got here to fruition however, in a bizarre manner, it gave beginning to The Movies That Made Us, which simply launched its third season final month.

Having spent many hours having fun with older episodes on motion pictures like Back to the Future, Home Alone, and Jurassic Park, I used to be excited to dive into the brand new season, which covers movies like John Carpenter’s Halloween, Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, James Cameron’s Aliens and Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop. As I used to be watching I assumed “These shows are about how these movies get made. I wonder how this show gets made?” A number of weeks later, I discovered myself on the cellphone with the producer studying all about The Movies That Made Us: the place it got here from, how they choose the movies, the method for getting friends, and the way that unmistakable adore it or hate it comedy tone was crafted. We additionally mentioned his newest popular culture creation, Center Seat, which is a 10-episode History Channel docuseries on Star Trek, and he informed us tales about talking with Aliens star Sigourney Weaver in addition to Die Hard director John McTiernan which might be merely glorious. Read our interview beneath, which has been edited for readability.

Germain Lussier, io9: What is the essential origin story for The Movies That Made Us?

Brian Volk-Weiss: So we did this present referred to as The Toys That Made Us, which is precisely what The Movies That Made Us is, besides about toys. After season one got here out, Netflix requested me to come back in and speak in regards to the future. It’s sort of humorous, we conservatively spent not less than 100, nevertheless it may have been 125 hours, making a gross sales tape and a deck, most likely an 80 or 90-page deck about The Games That Made Us. And we labored on it for about 5 – 6 weeks. All arms on deck. Then, I don’t even bear in mind what made me do that, however like actually the day earlier than the assembly, I requested our artwork division to photoshop Frank Sinatra’s head on the well-known image of Bruce Willis standing in entrance of the Nakatomi Plaza constructing from the Die Hard poster as a result of I knew that Die Hard was truly a sequel to a Frank Sinatra film. So I went to the Netflix assembly and 80% of the assembly was about The Games That Made Us after which the exec within the room was like, “Hey, what’s in the tube?” I took the poster out of the tube and, as at all times, proving that God has a humorousness, the factor we spend 100-plus hours on didn’t transfer ahead at the moment—The Movies That Made Us did.

io9: Both of these reveals have a really distinctive humor and tone that makes them stand out. They’re humorous, there’s repetition, callbacks, and so on. How did that model develop?

Volk-Weiss: My background is in comedy. So I used to be a supervisor, for over a decade, solely of comedians. When Toys That Made Us received greenlit, as a substitute of hiring the sort of editors and story producers that work on quote unquote documentaries—like massive fancy documentaries—I employed the editors I knew, and all of these editors had comedy backgrounds. So that was a part of it however the different a part of it was I made it very clear from the start, as a result of I’m an enormous documentary fan—like going again to Blockbuster Video when it was arduous to be a documentary fan— one in all my pet peeves with quite a lot of documentaries is you have got these documentaries a couple of enjoyable matter, like toys or one thing, and so they deal with it just like the rise and fall of the Third Reich.

You understand it took me seven years to promote Toys That Made Us. I used to at all times say to myself, “If I ever actually get the chance to do this, I want to do it fun.” So I simply made it very clear and the factor I simply stated to you about “The rise and fall of the Third Reich,” I stated that on day one to all people engaged on the present. It’s a present about toys. Let’s hold it about toys. But the factor that’s attention-grabbing is I simply did what I did. I simply did what I assumed was proper. I didn’t assume something about it. After the present got here out, I began listening to from tons and many locations. “Oh, the new style.” I’m like, “Oh, I guess that is kind of different.” But we didn’t set out to try this.

io9: So is that on the discretion of you, because the director, has it been the editors, how particularly does that humor get crafted?

Volk-Weiss: I’m going to present you a tacky, clichéd reply nevertheless it’s nonetheless going to be true after which I’ll offer you an instance of my reply. And the reply is that this, and I swear to you, that is the reality, despite the fact that it’s tacky. It’s a group effort. It’s actually a group effort. So then I’ll stroll you thru how the group effort works.

I’m extraordinarily concerned in selecting who we’re interviewing, and I’ve quite a lot of little methods that I exploit. Like I at all times attempt to discover the legal professionals, which is what made our Star Wars episode of Toys That Made Us work so effectively, I believe. I’ve all these little methods after which hopefully we get all of the individuals we would like and we do two rounds of interviews for 95% of our topics. So the story editors, and I’m [one] as effectively, learn the transcripts of the pre-interviews and we spotlight stuff that we expect is essential. Then after we do the precise interviews, the precise interviews are primarily based on these highlighted questions and solutions from the pre-interview. During the precise interview, I’m taking frantic notes the entire interview, after which at night time, once I get residence, I kind up my notes and I ship these to the story producers. The story producers then take my notes, their notes and in addition they watch the interviews as effectively and provide you with one other set of “Oh, this is cool.” Then all of that will get become a string out that, I imply, for an hour-long episode, the string out could possibly be 4 hours lengthy. That then goes to the editors after which the editors take the entire stuff we had all executed after which they add their genius. So like I stated, it truly is a group effort.

Like within the Lego episode we had this nice editor, Nick Ferrell. Nick was the one who observed “The System.” This Lego engineer stated “The System.” So Nick was the one who turned that right into a callback we stored utilizing the entire episode. I got here up with the tree system the place the Lego tree will get constructed and unbuilt relying on how the corporate was doing well being smart. Then our lead editor, Ben Frost—Ben supervises all of this, and Ben is among the funniest, most proficient editors I’ve ever met—places his genius into it as effectively. The very last thing is like, I’m additionally very massive on the pathos. So for anyone who says they cry when watching our stuff, that’s my fault normally. The manner I do it’s, it’s this factor I love to do, I name it “The RoboCop,” which is predicated on this scene from the unique RoboCop, the place RoboCop as RoboCop goes again to his outdated residence and it retains slicing backwards and forwards between the current and the previous. So for those who watch the whole lot we do even like Behind the Attraction on Disney+, a lot of what we do, quite a lot of the tear-jerking comes from utilizing that RoboCop system.

io9: I do know precisely what you’re speaking about (note: see above) and that’s an superior reply. The third season of The Movies That Made Us is considerably longer than the earlier seasons. How did that occur?

Volk-Weiss: The present did effectively, and Netflix believed in it and did a giant greenlight. I can inform you, it’s not my singing voice. It’s not my appeal. It is the efficiency of the present is all that issues.

io9: OK, so how did you decide on the flicks for this season, and really, all the flicks basically?

Volk-Weiss: So let’s say there’s 10 episodes. We’ll ship 100 motion pictures that we’re enthusiastic about to Netflix. Netflix will most likely whittle it right down to 30 motion pictures. We will then begin the analysis into these 30 motion pictures, and so they give us their opinion primarily based on the info they’ve, so I suppose it’s probably not an opinion. But we then look into all of these motion pictures and we choose the ten which have the very best story and we’re essentially the most enthusiastic about. Because, honestly, there’s quite a lot of profitable motion pictures that there’s nothing actually thrilling that occurred—they greenlit it, they made it, it got here out, it was a success—there was no actual drama. So we lose quite a lot of episodes as a result of there’s not quite a lot of story and it’s not price making the episodes as a result of it’s boring; it was good for the filmmakers as a result of they’d a simple shoot. But anyway, then we ship our last checklist to Netflix, Netflix approves it—they’ve at all times permitted our last checklist—after which we go make them. We begin the analysis part the identical day.

io9: Have you ever needed to cancel one as a result of possibly there wasn’t sufficient story otherwise you couldn’t get sufficient interviews?

Volk-Weiss: We did cancel one episode. I imply, we changed it with one other episode, however sure, we did. And it was It’s A Wonderful Life.

io9: Any cause?

Volk-Weiss: The cause was all people was useless.

io9: Makes sense.

Volk-Weiss: And we thought we may get round that for a very long time. But ultimately, it was like, “It’s not going to work.” We would have needed to compromise so many issues that it was similar to, it’s not price doing it.

io9: Is {that a} widespread hurdle that the individuals who had been a part of the movies simply aren’t round anymore?

Volk-Weiss: No. There’s no actual hurdles, for essentially the most half. I imply, clearly that one case, that’s a hurdle if there’s no person alive. But I imply, apart from that, no, as a result of there’s normally quite a lot of consultants. You can normally do it. I imply, they’re making documentaries in regards to the Civil War and there’s no person left from that both, so there’s a technique to do it. But no, that actually is the one hurdle we ever had.

io9: Are there any motion pictures you possibly can’t or received’t do for any cause?

Volk-Weiss: There’s motion pictures we received’t do this they’re, simply to be sincere with you, they’re simply not large enough. Like, we actually need 4 quadrant motion pictures or not less than a 3 quadrant film. I imagine the one exception to that’s RoboCop, which I needed to beg on my knees to get greenlit and I’m very grateful that they did. But that actually is the factor as a result of hear, I really like Tombstone. It’s one in all my favourite motion pictures of all time. The period of time, vitality, and cash it takes to make an episode like this, it’s simply not honest to Netflix with their sources to do it about Tombstone. Like, it actually needs to be one thing like Home Alone or Dirty Dancing to justify the hassle. 

io9: Tell me in regards to the visitor course of. You stated that you simply had been actually closely concerned in it. Do you simply exit to all people and see the way it seems? Or is there a particular technique?

Volk-Weiss: Well, I imply, it begins with the apparent; the actors, the director, and all that. But then throughout your analysis, you begin to discover all these tales and that’s the place you actually make the episode since you discover these those that had been witnesses to historical past. Those are the individuals that actually give the episodes life as a result of they inform you these things that doesn’t get talked about on the DVD extras and the YouTube no matter. To be sincere with you, that actually is the key to our complete present is that we do this. So like for the Die Hard episode, we had been killing ourselves to get the man who did all of the stunts. Jan De Bont, who did the cinematography. Don’t get me incorrect, we tried to get Bruce Willis. I’m not going to say we didn’t attempt, after all we tried. But I knew the episode could be high quality with out Bruce Willis as a result of he’s executed a billion DVD extras. But it was getting the precise craftspeople that make the flicks. That’s who we would have liked to really inform the story.

io9: What are your greatest sources on the subject of discovering these tales?

Volk-Weiss: Well, the individuals and the issues which might be simple to get, I imply, that’s all executed with Google and Lexis Nexis and all that different sort of stuff. But you get the simple stuff executed in two or three weeks. So it turns into the arduous half in a short time, which is discovering out who to get after which going to get them. To reply your query, what’s our greatest useful resource? Referrals. Can I can I inform you my favourite referral story?

io9: Please.

Volk-Weiss: It’s nuts. We had been attempting for our Aliens episode very arduous to get Sigourney Weaver. We had been going by way of brokers, legal professionals, no matter. Couldn’t get her, couldn’t get her. Then one in all my greatest good friend’s school roommates is extraordinarily tight together with her, and he requested her to do it and he or she stated, “Yes.” So I interviewed Sigourney. Great interview. We’re wrapping up and he or she says to me, she goes, “How was Gail?” And I stated “I got to be honest with you, Sigourney, Gail hasn’t said yes yet,” and he or she’s like, “What?” And actually in entrance of me she referred to as [producer] Gail Anne Hurd and stated, “I just did one of the best interviews of my entire life. Why aren’t you talking to this guy?” So that’s how we received Gail. Sigourney hangs up the cellphone and he or she goes, “Who else?” I’m like, “Well, we don’t have Carrie Henn,” who performed Newt. She actually referred to as Carrie Henn proper then and there and left her a voicemail and inside, I might say 5 days of Sigourney’s interview, we had interviewed Gail Anne Hurd and Carrie Henn.

And I simply need to say, for the document, I’m not complaining about anyone not desirous to do an interview. You know what I imply? I perceive why individuals won’t need to speak about the identical film for 40 years. I get it. Somebody like Sigourney Weaver, I assure you each single day her publicist will get 5 to 50 interview requests. So you simply need to hold digging and digging and digging till you discover a private connection. But additionally you’ve received to be respectful. If any person says “No” then you definitely depart them alone. You received to be respectful of that, too. First of all, you bought to be respectful simply as a human being but additionally you don’t need the fame of being pushy.

io9: Besides that incredible story, has there been anybody you didn’t count on to get that you simply did? Like, frankly, I used to be shocked to see director John Landis on the Coming to America episode. I’m like, “Wow, he talked to you guys.” [Note: The shock is as a result of Landis famously had feuds and even a combat with Coming to America star Eddie Murphy and years earlier had been charged with involuntary manslaughter as a result of deaths of three individuals on the set of The Twilight Zone film.]

Volk-Weiss: Yeah, that was a surprising interview. To put it mildly. Yeah. But I might say the interview that was the toughest to get, was essentially the most difficult and simply sort of wacky, and I assumed the percentages of us getting him had been level one p.c, could be John McTiernan for Die Hard. John was on the time, and I imagine this nonetheless to be true however I could possibly be incorrect about that, however McTiernan was, I imagine they name it, “evading the law” as a result of he had not paid any taxes. And apparently you’re supposed to try this. So I imply we had been digging and digging and digging and digging and digging for like virtually a 12 months. And then by some means we received his e mail handle. Then he by some means gave us his spouse’s e mail handle. Basically, the best way we labored it out was, we needed to go to LAX, inform him we had been at LAX, then he informed us what metropolis he was in. All we knew was it was inside two hours, flight time, of LAX. So he informed us the place he was. We booked the tickets. We flew to the town. His spouse informed us what resort he was in. We went to the resort. Luckily, their convention room was out there and we shot the interview within the convention room after which flew again to LA identical day.

io9: Wow. That’s loopy. So, by way of getting friends, has the recognition of the present helped in any respect? At this level, I’m attempting to marvel why anybody wouldn’t do the present.

Volk-Weiss: It’s completely helped. I imply, it’s night time and day from season one. Night and day.

io9: Would have you ever heard some other causes in addition to, “I don’t want to talk about Aliens for another 30 years” of why individuals wouldn’t do the present?

Volk-Weiss: Well, some individuals need to receives a commission, which I perceive. I believe that’s solely logical and honest. I imply, it’s a moneymaking endeavor, why wouldn’t they need to receives a commission? The drawback is we will’t pay anyone as a result of it’s the cliché, nevertheless it’s true. If we pay one particular person, we’d need to pay all people. And I imply, each episode we do 70 or 80 interviews so we simply can’t afford to. So I might say some of the widespread causes was cash, but additionally covid was a giant deal, too. Like we had booked Robert Zemeckis. He was booked. And then due to covid, he turned unbooked, which I additionally perceive and respect. So yeah, that’s normally why. Or they only don’t give a shit. There are just a few people who find themselves simply over it. Will Ferrell doesn’t. Want. To. Talk. About. Elf. You take care of that, too, which once more, I perceive. That was Gail Anne Hurd’s factor. She’s simply sick of speaking about [Aliens].

io9: What’s your favourite story that the present uncovered otherwise you had on set?

Volk-Weiss: [Long pause] You know, being within the faculty the place Home Alone was filmed. That’s a film I’ve conservatively seen 50 occasions. And I’ll always remember I used to be within the faculty the night time earlier than we had been capturing simply doing a location scout and I walked into the pool. All the basement scenes from Home Alone had been filmed in a highschool pool. And I’m standing on this gigantic room with a pool, it was 8 or 9 o’clock at night time. It was simply me, a few individuals from the crew and, any person from the college. There was no water within the pool so I simply walked into it and I used to be simply strolling across the empty pool being like, “This is where they stepped on the nail. This is where that crazy fire breathing furnace was.” It simply hit me like a ton of bricks: The magic of flicks. A scene that scared the shit out of me the primary time I noticed it executed in a dumb ass pool. So that was a really, very private second for me as a result of I actually grew up with that film.

io9: One of the explanations this present is a success, I really feel, is since you’ve themed episodes to holidays. Christmas final 12 months, Halloween this 12 months. Is {that a} Netflix factor?

Volk-Weiss: That was undoubtedly Netflix’s concept, which I really feel like an fool that it wasn’t my concept. So sure, thank god. Netflix recommended that.

io9: Next up you’ve received Center Seat on History Channel, which is about Star Trek. What are you able to inform me about that and the way is it comparable or dissimilar to The Movies That Made Us?

Volk-Weiss: So the inspiration for that was, initially, I’m an enormous Trekkie since I used to be 5 years outdated. You may be stunned to listen to. And I really like Ken Burns. Like Ken Burns might be my favourite documentarian of all-time. And I wished to present the Ken Burns remedy to Star Trek. Also I produced a fiftieth anniversary Star Trek present that I, to be utterly sincere with you, wasn’t actually pleased with the way it got here out. So I simply wished to attempt once more, however in a way more sturdy manner. Because I imply, 55 years, that’s quite a lot of time. So it’s actually arduous to try this in an hour and a half. So that was the inspiration.

And I imply, there’s a ton of variations from Movies That Made Us. I imply, for starters, your entire season is about one property. Two, it’s far more about an overarching story than it’s particular person tales. So each single episode is related to the opposite episodes. My unique imaginative and prescient was Lucille Ball and Gene Roddenberry turned the lights on, Rick Berman turned the lights off when Enterprise was canceled. And we actually present the overarching tales that we’re capable of do while you’re making 10 episodes simultaniously.

io9: That jogs my memory, for Movies That Made Us, do you do one by one or all concurrently?

Volk-Weiss: Simultaneous. My document is, and that is solely attainable as a consequence of covid and Zoom, my document is 5 interviews in someday for 5 completely different episodes.

io9: Last factor, in addition to speaking to John McTiernan in a bizarre resort room, what’s one thing that occurred round The Movies That Made Us, and actually all of your reveals, that you simply by no means anticipated to occur.

Volk-Weiss: I imply, to be utterly sincere with you—and once more, this may be a shitty reply, nevertheless it’s the reality. I can’t imagine any of this occurred. I imply, I actually can’t imagine it. Before Toys That Made Us, I used to be a journeyman producer director. I did market analysis, I came upon what the market wished, I might develop what they wished after which I might promote it to them and I might go make it. Toys That Made Us was the primary time I offered one thing I used to be insanely captivated with. And it’s additionally, I don’t assume coincidentally, it’s the primary present we ever made that received a second season. Let alone the third season. And virtually the whole lot we’ve executed since Toys That Made Us has had not less than a second season. A Toy Store Near You season 4 is popping out subsequent month. l actually can’t imagine any of it occurred. I really feel so fortunate. I’ve been saying this for over a 12 months or two, I want there was a phrase stronger than “surreal” as a result of that’s how this feels to me.

The Movies That Made Us and The Toys That Made Us are presently streaming on Netflix. Visit Volk-Weiss’ official site for information on all his different reveals.

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