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Back in 2008, a music video landed on YouTube — then still largely in its infancy and mostly dominated by amateur video footage — and caused a bit of a stir, amassing a cult following and 1 million views. More than 15 years on, the video has morphed — extremely slowly — into a full-length feature film.

Chris Dane Owens’ upbeat love song “Shine on Me” was already a catchy slice of rock with some heavy ’80s inspirations. But it was the epic accompanying video — which he made for $70,000, no small sum in today’s music video world — that proved to be the real hit, largely for squeezing into its four minutes practically every clichéd trope and inspiration from popular swords-and-sorcery fantasy entertainment. “The Princess Bride” features prominently, but then there are elements of “Xena,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Dungeons and Dragons” and many, many more.

Among a...

This post is in partnership with Cadillac Cadillac and the Producers Guild of America recently launched Make Your Mark, a short film competition that challenges producers to create compelling content with limited resources. Contestants will make a short film over a single weekend in late June, and the 30-second Cadillac spot featuring the grand prize winner’s film will air during the 2015 Academy Awards. As such we’ll be speaking with last year’s winner Jason Shulz, who offers his experience and some helpful lessons for those filmmakers who want to hoist the trophy for themselves this year. Plus, in a segment that tears us apart, Geoff and I will chat about the pure, accidental brilliance of The Room and what it’s like to watch an unintentionally terrible movie while sitting next to its director. Last, but definitely not least, we’ll talk to Enlisted creator Kevin Biegel about why he’s fighting so hard to...