Wild’s Cinematographer Yves Bélanger on Framing Face of America

Director Jean-Marc Vallée gathered a lot of his favorite collaborators for the upcoming Wild, which comes out this Friday, Dec 5. This includes his fantastic makeup department head, Robin Mathews, as well as his cinematographer Yves Bélanger. “I’ve known him twenty years,” Belanger says, “but there was always some reason we couldn’t work together.” Bélanger was wrapping up Laurence Anyway in 2012 when Vallée phoned him. “He said he had this great film,

Oscar-Winning Makeup Artist Robin Mathews on Wild

Robin Mathews is on a bit of a roll, having won her first Academy Award last year for Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling for her work on Dallas Buyers Club, where she helped Matthew McConaughey complete his physical metamorphosis into Ron Woodroof, the Texas electrician who was told he had 30 days to live when he diagnosed with AIDS in the mid-1980s. Mathews has a way with helping stars morph right in front of our eyes;

The Imitation Game’s Production Designer Maria Djurkovich – Part II

Yesterday we published Part I of our conversation with production designer Maria Djurkovich, whose work on The Imitation Game would have made its’ genius subject, Alan Turing, proud. Benedict Cumberbatch's phenomenal turn as Turing has understandably garnered much of the press, but if you were to look closely at every frame of the film (and, preferably, be able to pause it), you would begin to see how Djurkovich put in a superstar performance herself,

The Imitation Game‘s Production Designer Maria Djurkovic – Part I

All the buzz for The Imitation Game is surrounding the phenomenal performance of Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Alan Turing, the mathematician and logistician who, along with a team of linguists, chess players and logicians helped break Germany’s Enigma code during World War II. Turing was a genius, and a difficult, unusual man, and Cumberbatch’s performance is indeed a marvel, bringing this still relatively unknown enigma (to American audiences) to vivid life.

Music for the Mind: Composer Alexandre Desplat on The Imitation Game

Composer Alexandre Desplat has been nominated for six Academy Awards, starting with his work on The Queen in 2006. He bookended his take on the music beneath royal narratives with his nomination for The King’s Speech in 2010. He’s also the man behind the score for franchise blockbusters (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, The Twilight Saga: New Moon), international sagas (Zero Dark Thirty,

Disney Animation Pushes the Boundaries of Technology With Big Hero 6

Fighting an evil villain and saving the day are probably not very high on an average teenager’s daily to-do list. But for robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada, star of Walt Disney Animation Studios’  animated feature Big Hero 6, those tasks just happen to pop up on a typical weekday. With the film opening in domestic theaters this past Friday, audiences are now joining the mini mastermind and his inflatable robot sidekick, Baymax, on an action-packed adventure as they get entangled in a dangerous plot unfolding in the bustling,

From Scream to Snowpiercer: Composer Marco Beltrami

At the age of 30, composer Marco Beltrami was the composer on a little film by horror master Wes Craven called Scream. It was 1996, and it was the first horror film he had ever worked on. It was also the first horror film he had ever seen. 

This might explain why his approach to the score didn't follow the typical conventions of horror, and might go some way to explaining how he's built his impressive career on his thoughtful, searching approach to a film without worrying about its'

Three-time Academy Award Winning Costume Designer Colleen Atwood Talks Shop

Colleen Atwood is one of the most prolific costume designers of her generation. She has never gone more than four years without a Oscar nomination, beginning with her work on Little Women in 1994 and leading up to her nomination for Snow White and the Huntsman in 2012. Atwood is responsible for one of the most iconic pieces of a costume in film history (more on this later), and has had her hand in some of Tim Burton’s greatest creations.

Win Your Halloween Costume Contest With Duds From Actual Films

Not only can you do as the title suggests, you can also help save the planet. All you have to do is live in New York. Here's how.

Head to an 11,000 foot warehouse in Gowanus, Brooklyn, on 540 President Street, and sample from a gargantuan collection of costumes, props, and more. The bonus? All of these articles come from film and television productions, commercials and theatrical plays.

The Timely Kill the Messenger Looks at the Price of Truth

On August 18, 1996 Gary Webb, then a San Jose Mercury News Staff Writer, reported that, “For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.” That line opened Webb’s three-part series “Dark Alliance,” a report that would ultimately define the rest of his life and spark years of debate.

Composer Steven Price on Scoring Sacrifice in Fury

It’s a rare thing for a composer to begin work on a film before the film has wrapped. Rarer still for that composer to find himself on set, watching the action he will underlay with music unfold before his eyes. Yet very little about the making of David Ayer’s World War II film Fury was typical, and for Oscar-winning composer Steven Price (Gravity), this meant getting a chance to be a part of the filmmaking process as it was happening.

Drummer Antonio Sanchez Gives Birdman it’s Essential Beat

Comedy relies on timing, as everyone knows. For a comedy film (especially one as soulful as Birdman), the timing comes not just from the actors abilities to land a joke but from the way the film is edited. Skilled editors help create juxtapositions, perfectly timed cuts and unexpected shots that give a particular scene a lot of its comedic punch.

By now you likely know at least a bit about what 

Erik Parker & One9 Discuss Nas: Time Is Illmatic – Part II

Click here for Part I of our conversation with music journalist/producer Erik Parker and multimedia artist/director One9.

Erik Parker and One9’s Nas: Time is Illmatic clocks in at a brisk 75-minutes, as compact and filled with detail as a Nas song. The documentary manages to examine nearly every credible element in the making of Nas's groundbreaking album, and really, the making of an artist and a man in a little over an hour.

Erik Parker & One9 on Their Doc Nas: Time is Illmatic – Part I

“I’m an eighth grade dropout…I didn’t know what the future was going to hold,” says Nasir Jones at the outset of journalist Erik Parker and multimedia artist One9’s documentary, Nas: Time is Illmatic. For the uninitiated, the future held one of the most groundbreaking hip hop albums of all time (the titular “Illmatic”), a legendary career, and its creator becoming the namesake of a fellowship at Harvard University’s Hip Hop Archive.

Veteran Location Manager S. Todd Christensen

Like so many location managers before him, S. Todd Christensen’s journey began in the fine art world. He was showing his work at his studio when a guy he was acquainted with came in to poke around among his paintings. “He was driving a nice car,” Christensen remembers. He also watched Christensen interact with people at the studio. “He said, ‘You’re good with people and you’re creative, you might like this job I’ve got open.’” This is the highly unusual start to what has become a highly successful career.

Whiplash Composer Justin Hurwitz Settles the Score

Director Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz met at Harvard playing in the same band. By sophomore year they were roommates, and soon enough the two were taking time off from school to create what they thought was just a student film, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. “The idea for the film was to do a sixteen millimeter black and white vérité style movie, but juxtaposed with this big,

Jonathan Tropper on Adapting his Novel This Is Where I Leave You

Novelist, screenwriter and television show creator Jonathan Tropper had the odd experience adapting his novel “This is Where I Leave You” for the screen before it was even published. “By the time I was on book tour, I was already writing the screenplay, and I got confused with what parts were only in the book and what were in the script,” he says. Tropper’s writing began attracting film producers since his debut novel "Plan B" was published in 2000.”

Celebrating Independent Film Week

The Independent Film Project (IFP) is an organization that connects filmmakers with the resources they need to complete their projects. Founded in 1979, it’s the oldest and largest not-for-profit dedicated to independent film. This week, IFP is celebrating Independent Film Week. IFP represents a network of some 10,000 storytellers around the world, and helps them develop 350 new feature and documentaries each year, supporting projects from lesser known filmmakers to the likes of Michael Moore (Roger &

The Drop Director Michaël R. Roskam on Filming the Brooklyn Way

How did a Belgian director, most well known for his fantastic, Oscar-nominated foreign language film Bullhead, about a young cattle farmer’s deal with a notorious beef trader, end up filming one of the best New York crime thrillers in recent years with a predominately international cast and crew? Michaël R. Roskam's The Drop is based on crime novelist Dennis Lehane's short story "Animal Rescue," adapted by Lehane himself for his first feature film script. 

Drawing Katniss, Magneto & More: Costume Illustrator Phillip Boutte Jr.

Phillip Boutte Jr. has been involved in film since he was three years old, when he began acting. He acted until he was around 16-years old, when he was growing tired of the roles he was being offered. “I didn’t like the way they were portraying young black men on TV,” he said, “every audition I was going on was for ‘Wiseass Kid number five,’ so I had an identity crisis about what I wanted to do,