The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast

A L Katz

31 episodes listed below

Listen to the show on

PRESS PLAY

Find your next episode

All episodes

In their own words

Now in our FOURTH SEASON! Join us for a deep, inside baseball, nuts-n-bolts dive into the creative process. Guests include actors like MALCOLM MCDOWELL and BRANDON ROUTH, writers LARRY WILSON (BEETLEJUICE) and CY VORIS & ETHAN REIFF (DEMON KNIGHT) and everyone I know who's ever collaborated to create content. We talk a lot about TALES FROM THE CRYPT and why, in so many ways, that epitomized the creative process at its best... and why Bordello Of Blood was its antithesis. Talk about how NEVER to make a movie! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As heard by us

Based on 6 episodes we listened to · June 2026

Screen work becomes practical creative memory, especially for listeners interested in how productions, careers, and deals actually happen.

The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast fits Arts as film production oral history. Alan Katz steers long conversations with directors, managers, creative performers, and collaborators toward the choices that make screen work possible, expensive, awkward, or worth doing.

Read our full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want Hollywood war stories where Joel Silver keeps reappearing like a production curse.

Press play if you want

  • insiders explaining how a shoot can get tangled in taxes, locations, and brutal schedules
  • Tales from the Crypt memories with the production math still showing
Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Talks about

Best episodes of The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

S4E14: It Isn't GoodbyeApr 15, 2025

A reflective farewell that folds podcasting pride into a bruising Tales from the Crypt and Bordello of Blood reckoning.

The episode reads as a creator looking back after four years and 160-plus episodes, with a weekly rhythm that has clearly become part of life.

S4E12: Best v WorstApr 1, 2025

A clear look at the deals and habits that shape show business.

Alan Katz uses this visit with longtime friend and former agent Nick Mechanic to trace what show business tends to reward and what it tends to punish.

S4E11: It's Magic?Mar 25, 2025

A backstage magic story that cares as much about the grind as the trick.

The episode leans into backstage magic with a clear eye for the odd little machinery around the Penn and Teller Fool Us chance, the friend who sends the tip, and the awkward business of proving a trick without ruining it.

S4E10: A Voice In The DarkMar 18, 2025

A radio-life story about control, compromise, and community.

The episode centers on a memory of show-business bargaining: a hard refusal, a station that keeps coming back, and the moment a bluff turns into a job.

S4E6: It's The HACK-CADEMY A-WEIRDS!Feb 18, 2025

A birthday chat that turns unfinished movie business into an affectionate, rueful memory.

The episode starts with a birthday check-in and settles into an easy, wandering conversation about scripts that never got made, casting memories, and what it means to stay remembered by people who once worked together.

S4E8: Colman DeKay Knows EVERYBODY!Feb 13, 2025

A sharp, funny pass through industry memory that keeps its edge.

Alan Katz turns a loose conversation with Coleman Decay into something with a clear pulse, letting old encounters, working relationships, and show biz memory pile up without losing the thread.

S4E3: Location, Location, LOCATION!Jan 28, 2025

A candid look at casting, set dynamics, and horror-movie production.

It is strongest when it stays on the practical work of making a movie: casting, judgment calls, and the small breaks of luck that keep a production on track.

S4E2: How NOT To CAST A MovieJan 21, 2025

A casting-room autopsy that turns a deal point into the saga's original sin.

Casting sits at the center of this Bordello of Blood chapter, and Alan Katz makes a strong case for how the wrong people can bend a movie before anyone has a chance to correct course.

Podcasts like The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast

Episodes

  1. 1

    S4E13: Sailing To The Edge

    Hidden gem

    Alan Katz opens with a prism metaphor for creativity and introduces Paul Trammell as a nomadic author who lives on a sailboat and has written or co-written 12 books.

    ·1h 8m·4 clips
  2. 2

    S4E5: Endings Are NEVER Pretty

    Hidden gem

    Alan Katz frames S4E5, 'Endings Are NEVER Pretty,' around the unfinished Bordello of Blood shoot in Vancouver and the collapse of his long creative relationship with Gil Adler.

    ·1h 3m·4 clips
  3. 3

    S4E7: Field Of Dreams

    Hidden gem

    Jeff Field describes a Hollywood career that moved from the William Morris mailroom to agent, manager, and producer, with the host framing him as someone who has held all three jobs.

    ·1h 1m·3 clips
  4. 4

    S4E9: There's Something PARANORMAL Happening Here!

    Hidden gem

    Alan Katz sits down with paranormal investigator Kyle Yates and opens the conversation from a skeptic's angle.

    ·1h 6m·4 clips
  5. 5

    S4E4: NOT So Special Effects

    Hidden gem

    Alan Katz frames S4E4 of The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast as the “special effects” chapter of Bordello of Blood, where fake blood, a mechanical tongue gag, and a local Vancouver effects team all become production problems.

    ·36m·2 clips
  6. 6

    S4E14: It Isn't Goodbye

    Hidden gem

    The host opens by marking a milestone: four years, more than 160 episodes, and a podcasting life that has become a mission.

    Apr 15, 2025·39m·2 clips
  7. 7

    S4E12: Best v Worst

    Alan Katz opens with a monkey joke and a nudge to like and share the show.

    Apr 1, 2025·43m
  8. 8

    S4E11: It's Magic?

    Hidden gem

    In-depth conversation between How Not to Make a Movie podcast host Alan Katz and magician Wes Eisley about the craft of stage magic, not mysticism.

    Mar 25, 2025·57m·1 clip
  9. 9

    S4E10: A Voice In The Dark

    It starts with a sprawling promo stretch, then settles into a radio-memory story about control, negotiation, and the kind of stubbornness that can boomerang.

    Mar 18, 2025·1h 17m·5 clips
  10. 10

    S4E6: It's The HACK-CADEMY A-WEIRDS!

    Hidden gem

    The episode opens as a birthday hangout between Alan Katz and Gil Adler.

    Feb 18, 2025·50m·1 clip
  11. 11

    S4E8: Colman DeKay Knows EVERYBODY!

    Alan Katz opens by saying Coleman Decay knows everyone, and the episode spends its time making that feel completely true.

    Feb 13, 2025·1h 2m·5 clips
  12. 12

    S4E3: Location, Location, LOCATION!

    The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast explores location selection as a core filmmaking decision, discussing how setting functions as a character that shapes scene meaning and audience perception.

    Jan 28, 2025·52m·1 clip
  13. 13

    S4E2: How NOT To CAST A Movie

    Casting is the first fault line.

    Jan 21, 2025·31m·1 clip
  14. 14

    S4E1: How NOT To Make A Movie

    Alan Katz kicks off Season 4 by reflecting on the podcast's origins from a Tales from the Crypt fan group and delves into the making of Bordello of Blood as a case study in filmmaking failures.

    Jan 14, 2025·42m·3 clips
  15. 15

    S2E10 It's Forbidden

    Hidden gem

    Legendary makeup artist and director Bill Malone recounts his five-decade career in Hollywood, from creating the Michael Myers mask for Halloween (sourced from a William Shatner life cast) to his work on Tales from the Crypt.

    Jul 25, 2023·1h 26m·4 clips
  16. 16

    S2E9 A Crypt Tribute To Billy Friekin

    Jul 18, 2023·1h
  17. 17

    S2E8 Castle Of Horror

    Jul 11, 2023·55m
  18. 18

    S1E7 How NOT To Make A Porno

    Jul 4, 2023·30m
  19. 19

    S2E5 A Reluctant Vampire: Malcolm McDowell

    Jun 27, 2023·1h 26m
  20. 20

    S2E6 Tobe Or Not Tobe

    Jun 27, 2023·1h 1m
  21. 21

    S2E4 Steve DeSouza, Part 2

    Jun 13, 2023·1h 55m
  22. 22

    S2E3 Die Hard With A Vengance

    Jun 6, 2023·1h 8m
  23. 23

    S2E2 Casting About

    May 30, 2023·48m
  24. 24

    S2E1 How To Make A Crypt Keeper

    May 23, 2023·1h 16m
  25. 25

    The Cutting Room Floor

    Apr 28, 2022·59m
  26. 26

    Episode 5: "Endings Are Never Pretty"

    Apr 21, 2022·59m
  27. 27

    Episode 4: "Special Effects"

    Apr 13, 2022·33m
  28. 28

    Episode 3: "Welcome To Vancouver/Yankee Go Home!"

    Apr 6, 2022·48m
  29. 29

    Episode 2: "How Not To CAST A Movie"

    Mar 31, 2022·26m
  30. 30

    Episode 1: Fade In

    Mar 29, 2022·36m
  31. 31

    Preview: "When Coming Attractions 'Kill'!"

    Mar 23, 2022·2m