June 29, 2007

(Sound City Studios)

Green Screen

In the movies, computer-generated effects make impossible fantasies seem totally real -– but as Studio 360’s Eric Molinsky discovered, that means actors have to work harder than ever.

Werner Herzog

Click here to view a sideshowWerner Herzog is committed to authentic filmmaking. For his 1982 movie Fitzcarraldo, Herzog had his crew hoist a steamboat – a full-scale vessel weighing hundreds of tons – up and over a mountaintop. And for his latest movie, Rescue Dawn, he took his cast and crew deep into the jungles of Thailand. It’s the true story of an American pilot named Dieter Dengler who was shot down and taken prisoner in Laos in 1966. Christian Bale plays Dengler -- and as Herzog tells Kurt, the director did not go easy on Bale or any of his actors.

Mr. Optimus Prime

Aha Moment: Optimus Prime

If you were a kid in the 1980's, chances are you (or your little brother) played with Transformers. The mind-blowing thing about the action figures – if you were, say, nine – was that you could fold and twist them from a robot into an object, like a plane or a gun. This weekend, the new Transformers movie comes out, and no one is more excited than the man who owes his very name to one of the characters: Optimus Prime. Produced by Dan Kramer.

k. d. lang

k.d. lang

Singer k.d. lang has embraced a bewildering range of musical genres -- from cowgirl punk to Tony Bennett standards -- but her fans don't seem to mind. She joins Kurt to look back on her career and talk about her roots in rural Canada.

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