The Point Radio: Troma Studios And The Trials Of Being Indy

After nearly forty years of reel independence, Troma Video’s Lloyd Kaufman is still going strong, back on the big screen with RETURN TO NUKE ’EM HIGH Volume 1 (set to be released in NY and LA on January 10th) and a tribute at New York’s Museum Of Modern Art on the 9th. Lloyd takes us back to how Troma began. the hassles of being and independent studio and how he has embraced the new forms of video in a big way. Plus Zack Snyder finds his WONDER WOMAN, and The X-Men plan an APOCALYPSE. THE POINT covers it 24/7! Take us ANYWHERE! The Point Radio App is now in the iTunes App store – and it’s FREE! Just search under “pop culture The Point”. The Point Radio – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or on any other mobile device with the Tune In Radio app – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

Transcript

The Point Radio It's Mike Raub, Lloyd Kaufman and Droma Videos have been off the grid for a few years. But Lloyd's back and boy is he excited to tell you where he's been and where he's going. Plus the movies get exciting with a new Wonder Woman and here comes X-Men Apocalypse. Let's get to the point.

This is The Point, The Point Radio, get The Point Radio In the early 1980s entertainment was a little bit different place. We had a little beta, a lot of VHS and we were introduced to Droma Videos. The guy who started it then is still doing it now, Lloyd Kaufman. And I asked Lloyd how it all began.

I made the mistake of going to Yale University where I was roomed with a movie nut. It was the 60s. I was going to be a teacher or a social worker and make the world a better place. I told people with hooks for hands how to finger paint. But unfortunately God put me in my room with a roommate who ran the Yale Film Society

and I started drifting in and kept getting my mind blown by John Ford, Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Stan Brackett, Andy Warhol and blah blah blah blah. And I just couldn't stop watching movies and I caught the movie out of the virus and I kept making movies. So from there…

Bought a bollax. A bollax is not a social disease. It's a Swiss camera that you wind up and you can't shoot sync sound. But I started making feature length movies, Immediate Montt at Yale. And oddly enough Oliver Stone, I grew up with him and he was at Yale and he started hanging

out. He was writing a crappy novel and he started hanging around with us making a movie called The Girl Who Returned and then he caught the bug and it turned out he had a pantload of talent and has become one of America's treasures. So why did he choose to stay independent?

I speak fluent French and I started to read by chance the Cailliers de Cinéma, which is the magazine of the French Cinematheque, the Cinematheque Francaise, and they propound the auteur theory. These are people like Chabro and Melvile and Godal and they were film critics before they were movie makers and they suggested that the director of the cinema of the film

should be the dictator of the film. The film should reflect the heart and soul of the director. That it isn't about the stars, it's about the director. And I bought into that and stupidly stayed in New York and in the underground and make low budget movies so I can have total control and be kind of an auteur on an underground

basis and hence you have movies like The Toxic Avenger and Return to Newcomb High, Volumes One and Volumes Two, which are movies of the future. Was it difficult to keep the company out on its own? It's always been difficult to be an independent studio and the lifespan of independent studios, at least in the United States, are not very long.

Trauma Entertainment is going into its 40th year which is a miracle and it is only because of our fans who support us. I think we're kind of a cult, a traditional classic cult movie studio and the wonderful young people who we discover. One of those future stars includes actress Astra Parritti who joins a list that includes

Billy Bob Thornton, Marisa Tomei and Kevin Costner, all who got their start in trauma videos. Astra is the star of Return to Newcomb High, Volumes One and Two, who told me a little bit about the new film. I play Chrissy.

I am one of the two leads with Catherine Corcoran. She plays Lauren. My character is an investigative blogger. She's obsessed, like most people I guess, on the interwebs with discovering something going on, a conspiracy as you will.

And in this case it directly has to do with the Charmorganic Soot inks which is built right over the original class of Newcomb High's nuclear power plant that was destroyed in the first one. So she believes there's something going wrong. Meanwhile her suspicions are being proven correct as school of the school bullies are

cretins and everyone's turning into these mutants. And she, in the middle of all of that, discovers love for the first true time. That happens to be different than the sexuality she's been taught to be. So she is unsure whether or not she will accept it, but she loves Lauren so much that she doesn't care.

So why did she decide to get involved with trauma? Well that's an easy answer because it's a lot of fun. You have a lot of creative input and it's like summer camp and it reminds you why you want to be in the film industry. And it's a community of people, of artists getting to work together.

Oh, I mean South Park started there, the South Park creators started there. A lot of great actors got their start here and it's because it's a place that is filled with a young energy of people who are idealistic and coming together. And I think in the film in particular, you know, Lloyd Kaufman was just wonderfully allowing people to be creative and he let us be free like birds.

In the past nine years or so, Lloyd's been a little quiet and I ask him, well, where he's been? Well, it takes me a long time to get a script that I truly believe in. I've been writing The Toxic Avenger Part 5, The Toxic Twins now for four years. It took at least five years to write Romeo and Juliet.

And I went through a number of writers until we found James Gunn who solved the case and came through with a wonderful improvement. He's now directing Guardians of the Galaxy. I think it costs about $200 million for Disney and Marvel. So it takes me a long time to get to a script that I can really believe in my heart and

soul will be something significant, that it will be some real art. And that our fans will enjoy and especially our fans. And The Return to Newcom High is made for the movie theaters like all the movies I've directed and it just took a long time to write script. So now wait a minute, should trauma films only be seen on the big screen?

We have fans who enjoy the communal experience of seeing our movies on a big screen and we have lots of details in our movies. If you've seen Terror Affirma or Romeo and Juliet or Trauma's War or any of The Toxic Avenger movies, you will note that aside from stars of tomorrow, we've got lots of detail, lots of background information and humor and little teeny weeny things that you

don't notice on the smaller screen. And our fans love to get together and see a movie from Trauma on the big screen. All right, all that being said, Trauma is also pretty heavily involved on the web. We do have a lot of short material that we shoot constantly in Traumaville here that's on the internet and it's on YouTube.

We have three YouTube channels, one for our short pieces, which very much include editorials and statements on things like bootlagging and the BP oil spill and net neutrality and independent art. And then we have a second channel that's called the Make Your Own Damn Movie channel on which I put out the short pieces, lectures, short lessons on how to make your own damn movie

that are based on my books. I filmed fundraising scenes, how we raise our money, how we squash a head, how we can remove somebody's arm from his body, how we make The Toxic Avenger special effects makeup. I've been able to shoot very interesting short pieces on how we do good sound on a low budget, how we do the graphic effects, the CGI, computally graphically done effects, all this stuff I've

got in short form on video and it's very entertaining and amusing and we put up those. It's all free and we've got about 250 movies on the Trauma movie channel on YouTube and they're all free. Check out Lloyd's YouTube channels and keep in mind that they returned to Newcomb High Volume 1.

It's theaters in New York and LA on January 9th. Do I need to say it? Here comes the very latest in pop culture. A feed of everybody buzzing about X-Men Days of Future Past, the studio has now released information on the next X-Men film which will be X-Men Apocalypse.

Director Bryan Singer will be involved, no word yet on exactly which of the talent will come along for the next film as well, but it's officially set to be in theaters in May of 2016. Chances are at least one or maybe more of your friends have stopped you to see that new Amazing Spider-Man trailer or maybe you're showing it to them.

But did you know there's also a version out that has commentary with Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and director Mark Webb. It's done by the guys at Total Films. Pretty interesting if you've got the time to spend. It'll take up about 10 minutes out of your life and you can check it out right now at

our website which is GetThePointRadio.com. Superman and Batman now have their Wonder Woman at least on film. She's Gal Gadot who you know from the Fast and Furious movies and she'll be Wonder Woman in the Batman vs Superman film. And goodbye Zack Snyder starring Ben Affleck as Batman of course and Henry Cavill reprising

his role as Superman. The film is set to get before the cameras early in the new year and will be in theaters in July of 2015. House of Cards is returning to Netflix for a second season and it looks like February 14th will be the debut date of that.

There's also some sneak peeks available online. Check those out as well. First season is also still available in its entirety on Netflix. The confusing legalities of Stan Lee Media are returning to the courtroom. The company which you know has absolutely nothing to do with Stan Lee himself is now

before a judge in Pennsylvania asking for the rights to Spider-Man. The logic here involves a Disney infringement suit against the American Music Theater which was using Spider-Man in the Broadway Now and Forever show. SLM's attorneys feel this gives them a wedge to ask for the rights to the character. Racking up the honor of being NBC's most watched new drama in 19 years has given the

blacklist a full season order for next year. Season 2 in its entirety, 22 or so episodes will begin in the fall on NBC. The show is on hiatus now but will return to the network right around the 13th of January. That's it for right now. We're back in a few days but when we are we tackle that big elephant in the room, Marvel's

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.E. Up and down in the ratings and is it exactly what you expected? And is it true there's a new direction coming right after the new year? Meanwhile plenty of pop culture for you to catch up on and you can do that of course at GetThePointRadio.com.

Listen on your desktop or your laptop at that website or take us on any mobile device, Android or Apple with a free app called iNet Radio. And get details on that at iNetRadio.com. The podcast is produced twice every week for websites like ComicMix.com and Michael DavisWorld.com. And it's in the iTunes podcast directory too and keep up with us on social media, Facebook

and Twitter under The Point Radio. See you in a few days.