Welcome to Criterion Close-Up with Aaron West and Mark Hurne.

It is hard to believe that the day has almost come, but we have decided to launch the podcast earlier than expected. We did a test run over the weekend on The Rose, which is actually going to be implemented into our second episode. Even though it was a rough run, we felt it was good enough to get started.

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes. You may remember from the prior post that we were undecided about the name. The majority voted for “Criterion Collective,” which we liked very much, but that was too close to Moisés Chiullan’s “Criterion Collected,” which was on hiatus, but I am told is coming back soon (and I am looking forward to it!).

We have an August schedule already posted over on the Podcast page. Keep an eye there as we’ll be posting archived episodes, upcoming episodes, and films that we plan on covering soon. This month we’ll have a “Criterion Close-Up” episode, which will be a regular monthly episode where we do not talk about a specific film. Instead we’ll talk about the recent releases, and usually some other related topics.

This coming episode is on Broadcast News, but it is on much more than that. We want to go beyond the film with our casts. We’re going to look at the film in-depth, plus we are also going to look into other films from the 70s up through today where the news media is portrayed, sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. Other films that we’ll be talking about will be Network, All the President’s Men, Good Night & Good Luck, Nightcrawler, and yes, even Anchorman, in addition to a few more. We think it is a ripe discussion topic and we expect a quality episode for our debut.

The episode should post early next week. We will be on iTunes, Stitcher, and probably other places, but that might not happen right away. Check under the Podcast section, or follow the Podcast category

While this first month will just be Mark and myself, we do have some fascinating special guests coming around the corner. We’ve already lined some up in September and October, and the list of people who want to be involved is long.

We hope you enjoy!