Pizza Film School

> "Excited to be a part of #PizzaFilmSchool Season II. Teaser drops on Thursday!"
>
> Zack Snyder, VERO True Social

***Pizza Film School*** is a video podcast series hosted by the Russo brothers, Anthony and Joseph Russo. Each episode is about 30-60 minutes in length featuring the brothers eating pizza with a celebrity guest and talking about a preselected movie. Zack Snyder will be featured on two episodes of the second season in which they'll talk about *Zack Snyder's Justice League*. A trailer for the season was released on April 6, 2023.

## Snyopsis

> "In this episode of Pizza Film School, the Russo Brothers sit down with DC Extended Universe icon, Zack Snyder, to discuss the process of directing superhero films and Zack Snyder's Justice League. #PizzaFilmSchool"
>
> AGBO, Official YouTube synopsis

## Plot

### "ZACK SNYDER on Pizza Film School Season II PT. 1"

The Russos sat down with Zack Snyder to talk a little bit about Zack's life with a focus on the production of *Zack Snyder's Justice League*. Zack revealed that he'd been kicked out of boarding school over a film he'd made with a cursed principal. He finished up school at a public school, taking a history course (his last required credit) alongside P.E. and art just to fill the time. After high school, he attended The Heatherley School of Fine Art in London. His art advisor suggested working in film after noting the cinematic quality of his work and he sent for brochures from film schools, settling on the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena based largely on their brochure. There were four people in Snyder's graduating class, including Snyder, Larry Fong, and Clay Staub.

They talked about the process they all used to make sure all the teams working on the different parts weren't diverging from the unified vision and Snyder mentioned having Jared Purrington make big paintings everyone could look at as a reference for the final goal of a scene. They also talked about the importance of the relationship between director and camera operator and Snyder noted that John Clothier, who'd been working with Snyder since *Watchmen*, was really good at staying on point with the existing vision. They talked about outlining the grand structure of the Justice League arc during *Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice*, ensuring there's setup in place to continue moving forward and eventually bring the story to completion. While core elements remained, of course, the story did shift as it went. As an example, the ten-year Knightmare would remain, but the Bruce Wayne/Lois Lane romance would be dropped. Snyder also mentioned that he often does hand movements for closeup shots as it's often easier than forming an understanding between him and the actor for something of that nature.

### "ZACK SNYDER on Pizza Film School Season II PT. 2"

The second part started with a conversation about different filming processes and how different members of the cast and crew, as well as the unfolding of the story itelf, can change what the movie was planned to be toward becoming what it actually will be. They started talking about reshoots and Zack noted that, apart from *Justice League*, which had never been quite finished, he never did reshoots. They moved the conversation into greenscreens versus virtual production, going over the advantages of virtual production. Zack opted not to use virtual production on *Rebel Moon* due to the scale of a battle being too much for the capabilities of the system. He also briefly talked about how fast shooting *Army of the Dead* was, running the camera back and forth organically as opposed to the full resets that the cast were used to. *Watchmen* was the length that it was due to the technical limitations of IMAX reels. A minute longer and the reel would be too large to run. They wrapped it up with some quick questions and Zack said his favorite director is probably Martin Scorsese.

## Production

Zack Snyder initially revealed his upcoming appearance on social media on April 4, 2023, alongside a *Variety* article going into deeper detail. He also stated that a trailer would be released that coming Thursday. The Russo brothers revealed that Snyder's appearance would span two episodes starting on April 18th on their Instagram account a few days before the first episode's release. The episodes would focus on *Zack Snyder's Justice League*.

The first hour-long episode released on April 18, 2023, and became the most-viewed episode of *Pizza Film School*, passing "Part 1: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK feat. Mark Hamill, Markus and McFeely: Ep. 4" within 24 hours. The second episode released on April 20, 2023, and was about 45 minutes long.

## Watch

ZACK SNYDER on Pizza Film School Season II PT. 1ZACK SNYDER on Pizza Film School Season II PT. 2-2
## References

1. ↑ Todd Spangler. "Russo Brothers' 'Pizza Film School' Video Podcast Returns for Season 2 With Guests Including Zack Snyder, Nia DaCosta, Justin Lin, Emerald Fennell". Variety. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved on April 4, 2023. “Guests for the second season include Zack Snyder, Nia DaCosta, Justin Chon, R.J. Cutler, Justin Lin and Emerald Fennell.”
2. ↑ The Russo brothers/AGBO Films. "Movie of the Week: Zack Snyder's Justice League". Instagram. Archived from the original on April 18, 2023. Retrieved on April 14, 2023. “Part 1 of the two-part discussion drops Tuesday, April 18th at 12am PT.”