Hope you're ready for the return of a series we haven't done in a while; you may recall Wages of Cinema has in the past reached out to local (to the NYC area) filmmakers, actors, artists, playwrights, etc, and had conversations with them on mic about their lives, careers, the projects they're working on and have worked on and the process as they see it. We now return to this for a conversation that Jack has been wanting to have for a while: filmmaker-photographer-actor-producer-Doctor-Who-Godzilla man, Alex Valderana.
To explain in brief: Valderana is the main mind and creative force behind the non-profit/fan-made web-series NIGHTWING: ESCALATION, whose 3rd season has been going on the past few months on YouTube (some clips are featured, details below, also SPOILERS), and he is a photographer in the growing industry (yes, industry) of professional Cosplayers. Alex talks becoming a 'Kaiiju' fan at an early age, going to Hofstra university for film, the ups and downs of making a Batman *feature* right out of that school, and what's gone into the long journey to bring this down-and-dirty independently made web-series to production. Among other topics: Dark Knight Rises and Batman & Robin; the making of Jaws; the perils of college filmmaking; what goes into collaboration.
Also, make sure to check out Alex and the Nightwing team the weekend of December 1st-3rd at NY Winter Con (website at http://nywintercon.com/); Nightwing Escalation is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxvWTFAHBeD6WNNy-HzXplg on YouTube; his website is http://www.valderana.com/; and December 8th is the premier of a Catwoman fan-series (details in the podcast).
(Clips include from NIGHTWING: ESCALATION actors Katerina Mermelstein, Leer Leary, Alex Valderana, Dina Cataldi, David Howard Thornton and the trailer from BATMAN: HOTHOUSE)
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