Writer/Director David Cronenberg on Technology, Transformation & Money

David Cronenberg has a new short film , The Nest, that was recently commissioned by the International Film Festival in Rotterdam. The film is a single shot, 9-minute take in which a woman (Evelyne Brochu) is undergoing a surgery consultation with an unseen doctor (voiced by Cronenberg). The short doesn’t have any of Cronenberg’s trademark visual potency—nothing molts, explodes, or mutates—but what it does deliver, in spades, is his fascination with technology,

On Set: The Crucial Role of the Production Assistant

When I was in film school all of my classmates had dreams of graduating and going on to edit a major action movie or write and direct the next AMC series. While those are great goals to work towards, the harsh reality is that production companies don't hire novices to fill major roles. You have to work your way up, and that usually means starting as a production assistant. And what you'll learn is the PA is both an absolutely crucial player behind the scenes of a film shoot and one of the hardest working members of the crew.

Comedy Power Couple: Ben Falcone & Melissa McCarthy Make Tammy

The Groundlings, the legendary improv group based in Los Angeles, recently celebrated their fortieth anniversary. This milestone coincides nicely with today's release of Tammy, a film created by two of their alums, Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone. The two met in the group (subsequently married), and are now poised to become the new power couple of comedy, joining Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann in the funny and married pantheon.

McCarthy and Falcone’s history of hysterical chemistry that began in the Groundlings and has carried on through the years in smaller projects,

How Transformers Construction Coordinator Jonas Kirk Managed a Crew of 200

The role of the construction coordinator is a massive one. For Transformers 4: Age of Extinction, Jonas Kirk was the man responsible for the building and manufacturing of the massive sets the film required, which meant bringing in all the equipment, building and moving massive structures, managing the production budget and keeping his 200-man crew on schedule and on budget.

This was a tall order considering the production took place in Texas,

Super Computing: Inside Industrial Light & Magic’s Wonder Emporium

We interviewed three different Industrial Light & Magic employees last week to find out how they helped create the visual splendor that is Transformers 4: Age of Extinction. We got so much out of the interviews we couldn’t fit it all in to last week's interviews, so we've compiled a lot of the hard facts on the magnitude of their computing powers for today's story, which have grown each year to keep up with the increasingly sophisticated computer-generated demands of directors like Michael Bay.

Barney Frank on Doc Compared to What, Hollywood, Politics, & More

By the time Barney Frank retired, he was one of the most beloved figures in Congress, and also one of the most vilified from a certain segment of the population. On the local level, especially in his Fourth District in southern Massachusetts, which includes the liberal Boston suburbs of Newton and Brookline, Frank was admired for his candor and respected for his commitment to his constituents. You don't get re-elected sixteen straight times without having earned the trust and respect of your district.

Two Industrial Light & Magic Wizards on Creating Destruction for Transformers

When your film centers around alien robot colossi laying waste to each other and their surroundings, it's pretty crucial that the wreckage look real. Two of the job titles responsible for making Michael Bay's latest carnival of destruction, Transformers 4: Age of Extinction, look realistic (and, in its way, beautiful) are the creature supervisor and the FX technical director, so we spoke to both, Michael Balog and Sheldon Serrao.

“My group deals with anything geometry based,”

How Industrial Light & Magic Makes Transformers 4: Age of Extinction Shine

Michael Bay’s Transformers 4: Age of Extinction is the most technologically ambitious film in the franchise. Working again with Industrial Light and Magic, Age of Extinction showcases astonishingly fluid, realistic robotic shape-shifting—somehow they’ve managed to make robots transforming into vehicles and back again into a kind of visual poetry. Age of Extinction, which will be released in 2D, 3D, and Imax 3D, is the work of hundreds of people,

More Winger, Please: Talking With Icon Debra Winger at Provincetown Film Festival

Debra Winger was recently the recipient of a lifetime achievement award at the 13th annual Transylvania International Film Festival. This was a mistake on the festival’s part. Of course Winger is worthy of an award, there’s just no need to give her one with the word “lifetime” attached to it. Winger reportedly told Michael Kutza, the founder of the Chicago International Film Festival and feature film jury president in Transylvania this year, that the festival would be wise to change the award’s name to “career”

Debra Winger & David Cronenberg Delight at Provincetown Film Festival

The 16th Annual Provincetown Film Festival (PFS) brought together iconic filmmakers, a beloved champion of LGBT rights (and much more), journalists and film lovers for another stretch of perfect weather and great cinema. Award winners David Cronenberg (Filmmaker on the Edge), Patricia Clarkson (Excellence in Acting), and Debra Winger (Faith Hubley Career Achievement) joined former congressman Barney Frank as some of the marquee names at the festival, along with, of course, John Waters, the festival’s guiding spirit.

Filmmaking on the Edge at the 2014 Provincetown Film Festival

The Credits is back at the Provincetown Film Festival, and we'd be lying if we said we weren't just a little bit thrilled. Last year, our first in Provincetown, was the type of introduction that will marry you to a place, and a festival, for life. We had the great fortune to spend some time with legendary filmmaker, writer, visual artist, wit and unofficial (but sort of official) Provincetown mayor John Waters.

Dawn of the Planets of the Apes Location Manager on Filming in Rainforests

It has been ten years since the last human and ape contact. That last contact was combat, and it took place on the Golden Gate Bridge in a frenzied battle between a recently intellectually enhanced ape faction, led by the chimpanzee Caesar, and the bewildered humans who were not prepared for the coordinated assault of their suddenly intelligent, formerly captive simian subjects. The film ends with Caesar and his primate army heading into Muir Woods,

From Stage to Screen: Adapting Jersey Boys

Jersey Boys is the story of the rise and fall of The Four Seasons, the “clean-cut,” all-American rock band that actually had two ex-cons and enough mob connections to satisfy a Scorsese film. Yet in the early 1960s the band sold themselves as the (Jersey) boys next door, and created some deathless tunes in the process.

Jersey Boys began it’s life, of course, as the Tony Award-winning juggernaut that became the 13th longest-running show in Broadway history when it played its 3,487th performance this past April 9th.

Think Like A Man Too & the Greening of Hollywood Films

From a distance, the film industry appears be a well-oiled machine, operating seamlessly and churning out interest pieces for every type of audience. But rarely do we look closer at the process of creating and sharing the films we love. The film industry is modernizing in front of our faces, progressing without audiences noticing.

Behind the scenes, actors, directors, producers, and studios have begun to take note of excesses within the industry and have been on a campaign of self-reform.

Father’s Day With the Lannisters: Game of Thrones Thrilling Finale

An absolute ton of spoilers below. Just a ton. Don't read if you're not caught up.

The end of the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones, “The Watchers on the Wall,” saw Jon Snow leaving Castle Black after surviving the first onslaught of Mance Rayder’s Wildling army. Giants, mammoths, Wildlings and Crows were strewn inside and outside the wall, dead and soon to be burned. Jon was leaving, alone, without his sword and,

So You Graduated Film School, Now What? A Recent Film Grad Explains

I remember spending most of the time leading up to graduation feeling like my education had been worthless. I went to a liberal arts college, majoring in film in a program that emphasized that only half of my education would come from a classroom. The rest would come from working on student films, shot exclusively on weekends. Admittedly, giving up all of those weekends contributed largely to my sense of semi-entitlement when I graduated, and I spent a lot of time in those first months wondering when (if ever) I’d have the chance to be on a set again.

Watch How to Train Your Dragon 2‘s Dean DeBlois Take Kids’ Questions

We learned a lot from talking to writer/director Dean DeBlois. One is, he must be one of the most calm, even tempered and laid back individuals helming a major film franchise in the business. Two, a lot of work, and risk, went into making How to Train Your Dragon 2, a sequel that is being heralded as one of the best in animated history. And three, the man is committed to creating an animated trilogy that’ll live on and inspire kids and adults alike for years to come.

Chatting With Greer Grammer of MTV’s hit Series Awkward

Greer Grammer knows a thing or two about multitasking. The young actress, currently shooting the fourth season of MTV’s breakout scripted drama Awkward, is also making her way through her junior year at the University of Southern California. This sometimes means being on set until 5 a.m., returning to her apartment for two hours of sleep and then heading off to class. The theater major’s not complaining, however. Having nabbed a regular role on the critically acclaimed Awkward, 

Sticking the Landing: 22 Jump Street‘s a Sequel Worth Seeing

21 Jump Street, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (the duo behind this year’s The LEGO Movie), came out in 2012 and was something of an unlikely smash hit. Unlikely in its odd couple lead pairing (comedy vet Jonah Hill and action-Adonis Channing Tatum), and unlikely in that there seemed to be little reason to reprise Stephen J. Cannell’s television series from the late 80s, remembered mostly as an early vehicle for Johnny Depp.

How to Train Your Dragon 2‘s Writer/Director Dean DeBlois

When Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders film How to Train Your Dragon was released in 2010, it was a critical darling but had something of a sleepy opening. Adapted from Cressida Cowell’s book, How to Train Your Dragon contained everything that you expect from a stellar animated film—a great script, no small amount of wit, dramatic depth and fantastic effects. At its core it had a relationship that was hard to beat,