The Make It Podcast

06/17/2026

New Reel Q&A is up — five rapid-fire questions for producer Chris Barkley. Three minutes, no filler.

We get into whether Marvel actually comes back with Brand New Day, Doomsday, and Secret Wars (and why a 20-year-old cinematic universe has to win a brand-new audience). Why Hollywood keeps making sequels — Chris calls them "interest tent poles," movies greenlit because they're already trending online. The real best live-action Spider-Man. The character actors who quietly stole the show — including Ted Welch, whose Adult Interference is finding a new audience on Tubi. And a hometown one to close: Opryland, the Nashville theme park that raised a generation.

🛟 If the show's earned a spot in your rotation, subscribe + support → themakeitpodcast.store/shop/support

06/15/2026

Why does a 14-year-old line up for Backrooms? Kevin Goetz says it's not a movie to them — it's "lore," an extension of the YouTube world they already live in. This week we get into how Gen Z actually decides what to watch, and what that means for everyone making movies right now. 🎬 Grab a Stay Inspired mug while you're at it: https://themakeitpodcast.com/products/make-it-premium-coffee-mug

06/13/2026

"Don't pretend it doesn't exist just because you have a singular vision." Kevin Goetz has run testing on 5,000+ titles, and his advice to filmmakers is simpler than you'd think: you don't have to take the note — but you do have to hear it. 🎬 Full conversation:
▶️ https://postly.click/q2-b

06/12/2026

06/12/2026

This week we got the truth-teller himself: Kevin Goetz, the man Hollywood calls when a movie needs to face its audience before it ever hits a screen. He's tested over 5,000 films and TV titles and does NOT believe you know what you want. 🎬 We get into audience testing as a mirror (not a rewrite), why a streaming movie has 10 minutes to grab you, and the line he leaves everyone with: every movie, made and marketed for the right price, should make money.
🎧 Listen 👉 https://postly.click/w3C

06/12/2026

In our lightning round, we made Stephen Marinaccio choose one film for the rest of his life: Citizen Kane or Cloud Atlas. The film artist in him said Kane — but his heart said Cloud Atlas. He saw it first at the DGA, sat through the Wachowskis' Q&A in a daze of "what did I just watch," and has rewatched it "an obnoxious number of times" since.
Watch → https://postly.click/56u or Listen → https://postly.click/YPD

06/12/2026

A genuinely useful warning from our latest episode: the problem with AI isn't only that it can be wrong — it's that it can be flattering and intelligent at the same time. As Nick puts it, it's "programmed to be sycophantic while also being intelligent," which makes it dangerously easy to believe every idea you have is brilliant. Use the tools — but keep a skeptic in the room.
Watch → https://postly.click/56u or Listen → https://postly.click/YPD

06/11/2026

Producer Papa Bear's trivia stumped the room: what film was shot in nearly 100 separate locations, across 25 countries and five continents? Chris works it out in real time — and the reasoning (why only one genre would ever attempt that) is the fun part. Watch → https://postly.click/56u or Listen → https://postly.click/YPD
P.S. - Answer is in the comments. :)

06/11/2026

The new Film Brief is up. Nick on Spider-Noir — the series that takes Spider-Man out of the skyline and drops him into an alternate, Depression-era 1930s New York.

Nicolas Cage stars as Ben Reilly, a private investigator and former masked vigilante known only as the Spider. Unlike most cinematic superheroes, Ben doesn't feel larger than life — he feels worn down by it. There was a time he believed in justice, in love, in evil actually losing. That time has passed. Episode one unfolds like smoke curling from a cigarette: slow, deliberate, hypnotic.
Director Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag, Enola Holmes) refuses to rush, letting characters unfold as shadows occupy space. Creator Oren Uziel filters the DNA of Marvel storytelling through classic detective cinema — closer to Raymond Chandler than a comic-book adaptation. Eight episodes, four directors, and a bold aesthetic gamble: you can watch the entire series in authentic black-and-white.
It doesn't begin like a superhero series. It begins like a confession.

Listen to the Film Brief (links in the comments) — and grab our ebook Mastering Film Marketing in the show notes.