Pitchin’ Movies With The Sound Off

Supporting Character — a romance about choosing the harder part.

Marcus and Tra$h Dog build a relationship drama where the “movie inside the movie” collides with real life. Sergio Cruz (David Castañeda) is a rising director mounting his third feature. He casts his wife, Annabel Strickland Cruz (Erin Moriarty), as the lead… until she asks to play a different woman in the story — a supporting role that actually challenges her. That choice cracks open their marriage, Sergio’s ego, and a legacy shaped by Sergio Cruz Sr. (John Leguizamo).

Meanwhile, Annabel’s family in Lawrence, Kansas—Greg (Tommy Lee Jones) and Carol (Susan Sarandon)—pulls her home, while Sergio’s co-writer Marco Dawson (Bill Hader) tries to keep the film (and the couple) intact. Serious romance, a little comic relief, and the truth that the role that matters isn’t always the lead.

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00:00 – Ghost of Stanley Kubrick (Cold Open)
00:18 – Theme Song & setup
00:46 – Plan: Romance pitch (plus a thriller tease)
01:16 – Actress + Director, married and making a film
02:20 – Casting the director (David Castañeda energy)
05:45 – Casting the actress (Erin Moriarty energy)
06:57 – The twist: she wants the supporting role
07:39 – How the role complicates the marriage
08:44 – Serious romance, with comic relief
12:18 – TotallyRealBands.com merch ad break
15:16 – Names locked: Sergio Cruz & Annabel (Strickland) Cruz
18:50 – Annabel’s Kansas roots (Lawrence) & family
21:18 – Parents: Greg (Tommy Lee Jones) & Carol (Susan Sarandon)
30:12 – Sergio’s legacy & father: Sergio Cruz Sr. (John Leguizamo)
33:00 – He’s not a villain, he’s not listening
43:26 – Enter Marco Dawson (Bill Hader), co-writer/friend
45:56 – The film-within-film: famous artist; Annabel takes support
46:27 – Personal vs. professional; what “supporting” really means
48:44 – Title unlocked: “Supporting Character”
49:16 – Final cast recap & outro

Best friends and lifelong recording junkies Michael Carnegie (Timothée Chalamet) and Noah Apollo (Lakeith Stanfield) have spent their lives chasing “authentic sound.” As kids, they recorded everything — parents fighting, trains screeching, strangers yelling — anything that felt real. But one day, they miss the sound of someone dying on the tracks, and it changes them forever.

Years later, as professional engineers, they’re hired to produce a record for the indie band Pineapple Mouse. What starts as a normal session becomes an unholy pursuit — the search to capture something real, raw, and horrifying.

Front of House is Sound of Metal meets The Vanishing, wrapped in the lo-fi dread of a studio haunted by its own recordings.

🎧 New episodes every week — where Marcus and Tra$h Dog pitch the movies Hollywood should be making.
👕 Pineapple Mouse & PMWTSO merch: https://totallyrealbands.com
📱 All links: https://linktr.ee/pmwtso

 

00:00 Cold Open  
00:10 Welcome Back to Pitchin’ Movies With The Sound Off  
00:35 Guess the Episode Number  
01:15 The Glasses Fund & Donation Plug  
02:18 The Warmup Pitch: “The Guy Who Needs Glasses”  
02:34 Transition to Horror: Today’s Genre  
03:15 Building a Horror Formula  
03:40 The Sound Obsession Begins  
04:33 Brothers of Noise  
05:20 Recording the Perfect Car Crash  
06:05 Marcus’s Vampire on Trial Pitch  
07:26 Vampire Politics & Jail Forever  
08:07 Scorsese Writes Himself Into the Episode  
09:30 Vampire Law & Order  
10:37 True Blood Memories  
11:20 Eternal Jail for a Vampire  
12:07 Living Forever in a Cell  
13:00 Nightcrawler Vibes  
14:06 Building “Front of House” Characters  
15:37 The Foggy Childhood Setup  
16:27 Childhood Friendship & Sound Bond  
17:22 Subway Upbringing  
18:08 Fear of Balloons & Trauma  
19:09 “Boys Being Dudes Pretending to Be Men”  
20:22 Parents Arguing: The Noise Origin  
21:04 Subway Inspiration  
22:14 Haunting vs. Lurking Debate  
23:08 Political Tangent (Ranked Choice Voting!)  
23:56 Early Sound Experiments  
25:05 The Band “Pineapple Mouse” Is Born  
26:00 “Totally Real Bands” Ad Break  
27:11 Pineapple Mouse Merch Tutorial (TotallyRealBands.com)  
28:11 Back to the Pitch – Band World-Building  
30:00 The Horror Sound Escalates  
31:21 Introducing Michael Carnegie & Noah Apollo  
32:47 Casting the Leads  
34:11 Timothy Chalamet as Michael / Lakeith Stanfield as Noah  
36:07 Pete Davidson Enters the Picture  
37:04 Pineapple Mouse Recording Begins  
38:07 The Band Becomes Central  
40:22 Casting the Band Members  
41:22 Liam, Julie, Brady & the Crew  
42:46 Building the Story Timeline  
44:07 The Obsession With Authentic Sound  
48:15 Childhood to Career Montage  
50:12 Meeting Pineapple Mouse  
51:35 Recording the Album  
52:14 Crossing the Line – Secret Recordings  
53:20 The Fatal Car Crash Recording  
54:07 “Hollywood Recordings” Gone Wrong  
55:18 The Fallout & Album Success  
56:04 Obsession Grows  
57:06 The Second Album  
58:03 Inviting Liam to the Studio  
59:10 The Murder Recording Scene  
01:00:20 The Final Album  
01:01:19 Subway Jump Finale  
01:02:00 Title Reveal: “Front of House”  
01:03:13 Wrap-Up & Pineapple Mouse Merch Plug  
01:03:42 Outro: “Pitchin’ Movies With The Sound Off”  

This week on Pitchin’ Movies With The Sound Off, Marcus and Tra$h Dog pitch a movie about ego, karaoke, and midlife meltdown — Professor Beyoncé.

Nathan Fielder stars (in our universe) as Professor Martin Yonce, a tenured computer science professor who’s been overlooked his entire career. After a campus karaoke night and one surprisingly flawless Beyoncé cover, he becomes a viral legend — but fame and obsession hit harder than a final exam.

It’s a dark comedy about fame, failure, and the dangers of trying to be “cool.”

Cast (in our version):
🎓 Nathan Fielder — Professor Martin “Beyoncé” Yonce
🎤 Matthew McConaughey — Professor David Watterson
💼 Tina Fey — Professor Margaret Laskin
🏈 Jacob Elordi — Zane Maxwell
🎧 Barbie Ferreira — Deb Majors
🏛️ Janine Garofalo — Gem Yonce
📋 Michael Ian Black — Dean Mark Finch

🎧 New episode every other week.
👕 Merch & Totally Real Bands: https://www.totallyrealbands.com
📱 All links: https://linktr.ee/PMWTSO

 

00:00 – Cold Open  
Marcus and Tra$h Dog lock in the title *Professor Beyoncé* — and immediately start laughing at how bad an idea it is.

00:35 – Welcome to the Episode  
The hosts introduce *Pitchin’ Movies With The Sound Off* and joke about missing their horror-movie homework from last week.

02:25 – A Professor with Tenure (and Regret)  
The concept forms: a mid-career college professor decides this is the year he’s finally going to be “cool.”

03:40 – Casting Begins: Nathan Fielder as Martin Yonce  
They land on Nathan Fielder as the perfect awkward lead, a computer science professor whose attempt at reinvention goes horribly right.

06:15 – Finding the Name  
Martin Yonce is born — complete with a tilde debate and the discovery that “Professor Beyoncé” just *works.*

09:50 – Building the World  
The campus comes to life: Columbia-adjacent, bougie New Jersey vibes, filled with smug professors and cooler students.

11:20 – Enter Zane Maxwell  
Jacob Elordi plays Zane, the effortlessly cool student who triggers Martin’s midlife identity crisis.

14:00 – The Cool Professor Montage  
Martin tries to become “that guy” — new clothes, new gym membership, new insecurities.

17:15 – Meet the Faculty  
Matthew McConaughey becomes Professor David Watterson, the effortlessly cool colleague; Tina Fey joins as his partner, Margaret Laskin.

20:25 – The Wife on the Building  
Martin’s wife, Gem Yonce (Janine Garofalo), is revealed to be part of an old-money family whose name is literally on the college.

23:10 – Faculty Envy and Awkward Marriage  
Martin’s professional jealousy and dead marriage boil over — and we get a painfully awkward dinner scene.

30:30 – Totally Real Bands Ad Break  
Tra$h Dog gives a chaotic live read for **TotallyRealBands.com**, featuring Pineapple Mouse, Favorite Goose, and Priest King.

33:30 – The Makeover & the Meltdown  
Martin updates his wardrobe, gets ignored by his wife, and starts spiraling toward “cool guy” delusion.

36:00 – The New Semester  
A new school year begins — and Zane ends up in Martin’s class, sparking an unlikely (and uncomfortable) friendship.

39:10 – Invited to the Scene  
Martin hears about Zane’s band hangout and decides to show up, uninvited, to a Priest King basement show.

41:10 – Priest King Live  
Martin’s first taste of “the scene” — chaotic punk, trash cans flying, and total sensory overload.

44:00 – New Friends, Old Pain  
Martin tries to join in, buys everyone drinks, and embarrasses himself into becoming part of the group anyway.

49:00 – Karaoke Night  
The fateful scene: Martin’s surprisingly incredible Beyoncé performance earns him a new title — *Professor Beyoncé.*

51:20 – Campus Fame  
He wakes up hungover to cheering students. He’s gone viral. He’s finally “cool.”

52:45 – Deb Majors, the Student  
Barbie Ferreira’s Deb enters the story — a student whose brief hookup with Martin sends everything downhill.

53:40 – The Downfall  
Martin brags about the relationship, rewrites his coursework around Beyoncé, and loses his grip on reality.

54:10 – Dean Finch’s Office  
Michael Ian Black’s Dean Finch delivers the ultimate meltdown monologue — Martin is suspended, but only because his wife’s name is on the building.

55:40 – The Spiral  
Martin stalks Deb, hacks her phone, and deludes himself into believing it’s love.

58:00 – The Vent Scene  
Martin plans a grand romantic gesture: sneaking through the locker room vents. It does *not* go as planned.

59:10 – The Locker Room Finale  
He crashes through the ceiling, naked, mid-meltdown — the legend of Professor Beyoncé is sealed forever.

01:00:20 – The Arrest  
Police lead Martin out, pantsless, as students chant “Professor Beyoncé!” One of the most chaotic endings yet.

01:00:45 – Wrap-Up  
Marcus and Tra$h Dog thank listeners, plug the merch, and tease the next episode of *Pitchin’ Movies With The Sound Off.*

 

Pitchin’ Movies With The Sound Off

Welcome to the premiere episode of Pitchin’ Movies With The Sound Off, where hosts Marcus and Tra$h Dog do what Hollywood would never dare — pitch a movie about someone they barely know, based entirely on a YouTube video filmed in a basement.

This week’s cinematic masterpiece: How Gerald Died, the totally real and completely unnecessary biopic of Leo Sayer, the blue-eyed king of soul you might only know from An Extremely Goofy Movie.

Expect chaotic “research,” questionable casting, and a full-blown cinematic universe that starts (and probably ends) right here.

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🎬 In This Episode

• The heroic fire rescue that starts it all

• Casting Hugh Grant, Jesse Eisenberg, and Joe Keery in roles they didn’t ask for

• The “Beatles Scene” that could get us sued

• Clown symbolism, character deaths, and unearned emotional payoffs

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👉 https://totallyrealbands.com

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💰 Support the Show on Patreon

👉 https://www.patreon.com/cw/PitchinMoviesWithTheSoundOff

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🎧 Follow for New Episodes Every Week

Early access, shoutouts, and behind-the-scenes chaos await our patrons.

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🔖 Episode Chapters

00:00:00 Intro: “We did ourselves dirty”
00:00:18 The “elevator pitch” (and why it won’t be short)
00:00:36 Theme sting: “Mr. Boom, sound off”
00:00:48 “We’re rolling… but not really”
00:01:04 How the show will actually start
00:01:19 Welcome to Pitchin’ Movies With The Sound Off
00:02:01 Accountability, three cameras, and backyard chaos
00:02:16 The handshake: holding each other to the project
00:02:39 Why Episode 1 is hard (live research)
00:03:15 What this show does (and maybe with guests)
00:03:57 Hotline joke and bit
00:04:07 The movie: a Leo Sayer biopic
00:04:35 Songs we know (“You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,” “I Can Dance”)
00:05:12 Stop addressing camera → into story mode
00:06:59 Discovery by David Courtney & Adam Faith
00:08:12 Wikipedia and donations riff
00:10:01 Cameos & a music-universe idea (Beatles?)
00:12:17 Opening image of the film: the fire
00:13:03 Budget note for the explosion
00:14:01 Period piece vibes (1968)
00:15:10 Tone: thriller/dramedy structure
00:15:25 Favorite Goose (band) tangent
00:17:28 Where “Leo” comes from (name bit)
00:18:10 First flash-forward: studio with Daltrey
00:19:11 Metaphor: “Gerald” dies in the blast
00:20:07 “Sleazy” Courtney bit + disclaimer rule
00:22:02 Title locked: How Gerald Died
00:22:36 AD BREAK — TotallyRealBands.com (merch walkthrough)
00:24:58 Back to show; restating title & tone
00:26:11 Opening credits plan + “Give It All Away”
00:27:25 Roger walks in; accent soup
00:28:05 Casting Roger Daltrey → Hugh Grant
00:29:12 Clarifying: Leo Sayer is the subject
00:32:17 Casting Leo Sayer → Jesse Eisenberg
00:33:23 Setting the studio scene (three guys)
00:36:25 “Gerald doesn’t sell”—the name change
00:37:03 Internal monologue/narration idea
00:37:25 Back to the blaze; media montage concept
00:38:46 Rise montage → hits & stubble era
00:40:09 Beatles gag (all in unison)
00:41:41 Into the flames: saving residents
00:42:14 Pivot to the most important reveal
00:43:19 Adam Faith twist (supportive → smarmy)
00:44:32 The clown performance seed
00:45:18 Where the ending image comes from
00:46:08 Theme: once a hero, forever chasing it
00:47:06 Goofy Movie, finances, and managers
00:48:15 Casting Adam Faith → Joe Keery
00:50:07 Love interests: Janice & Donatella
00:52:02 Mistress casting vibe (Donna Pinciotti type)
00:52:36 Muppets beat → embracing the bit
00:53:10 Resolution shape
00:54:17 Budget/FX for the opener
00:55:14 Outro sting