The Queen of Casting: Meet Emmy Award Winning Casting Director & Baltimore Legend Pat Moran
The plight of the casting director is well known to people who follow the industry—they are crucial, they are highly skilled, and they are almost comically overlooked when it comes to having their contributions to filmmaking recognized (the TV world is, however, more egalitarian—they are honored at the Emmys). The gap between their worth to the films they work on and the respect they receive has generated pieces from the likes of Deadline.com and The Wrap, who wonder why the work of such critical collaborators,...
A Q&A With one of Iceland’s Premiere Filmmakers, Baltasar Kormákur, Director of The Deep
For anyone living in Iceland in the early 1980s, the 1984 shipwreck of the fishing boat Breki that claimed the lives of five men is the stuff of legend—thanks mostly to it’s lone survivor, a man named Gulli, who spent four hours in forty-degree water until he washed ashore near a jagged cliff of volcanic rock, which he proceeded to scale, and then he hiked for two more hours in 27-degree weather until he found safety.
He went onto become a reluctant national hero and scientific curiosity called “Seal Man”...
In Honor of Obama’s Inauguration, A Look At U.S. Presidents’ Favorite Films
This year, the presidential inauguration will fall on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day for the second time in history. The first time was former President Bill Clinton’s second inauguration on January 20th, 1997, and this time it is President Barack Obama’s second inauguration on January 21st, 2013.
The symbolism is both significant and apparent. In 2007, then-Senator Obama quoted a line from King’s 1967 sermon, stating: “I’m running because of what Dr. King called the fierce urgency of now.”...
A Q&A With Girl Rising Director Richard E. Robbins About the Nine Incredible Young Women in his Groundbreaking Documentary
Academy Award nominated director Richard E. Robbins will be screening a portion of his latest project, the crucial documentary Girl Rising, at the Sundance Film Festival on Monday, January 21st. The film focuses on the story of nine girls from nine different countries born into unforgiving circumstances, with each girl’s story framed and written by a renowned author from her native country.
The film includes the story of Ruksana, who lives on the streets of Kolkata,...
A Conversation With Broken City Director Allen Hughes
Allen Hughes has been making films with his twin brother, Albert, since they were 12-year- olds running around their house in Pomona, east of Los Angeles, with a video camera their mom had given them. The Hughes Brothers (as they are often credited) co-wrote and co-directed their first major feature, Menace II Society, when they were 20 years old.
Since then, the twins have made a number of gritty, wholly original films—many of them period pieces...
Second Screens, Morgan Spurlock, and the Future of Film and TV: Variety’s Entertainment Summit At CES
The Credits recently journeyed to the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show, where we caught Variety’s Entertainment Summit amid the bustling Las Vegas Convention Center. Sponsored by one of the industry’s most venerable publications, the two-day summit celebrates innovation in the content industries.
Tucked away from the effervescent, gadget-adorned exhibition halls, we watched dynamic panels and discussions on the future of film, television, and technology.
The program included a roundtable with top studio executives,...
Vision-Controlled TV, 110-Inch 4K Screens, and Danny DeVito: The Credits Journeys to 2013 CES
Last week, The Credits attended the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show to check out the newest, cutting-edge technology and innovation happening in the world of film and television. Voyaging to the Las Vegas Convention Center for CES is a bit of a spiritual pilgrimage for tech fans and gadget devotees, so expectations were reasonably high that we'd see futuristic high-tech finds. Well, 2013 CES certainly delivered–surpassing our paltry little hopes.
We saw things that could have been plucked straight from George Lucas's wildest dreams: A 'smart'...
Amour’s Michael Haneke and International Directors Spotlighted at 10th Annual Golden Globes Foreign Film Symposium
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The much-anticipated 2013 awards season has finally arrived. As the world celebrates one of the most exciting years for film in recent memory, it’s clear 2012 gifted us some truly wondrous works of cinema. Among the standouts: Ben Affleck’s heralded Argo, the dreamy indie smash hit Beasts of the Southern Wild, the heart-warming Silver Linings Playbook, Spielberg’s historical biopic Lincoln with a predictably astounding performance by Daniel Day-Lewis,...
Golden Globes Co-Hosts Tina Fey & Amy Poehler’s Best Live TV Moments
Even though the show hasn’t happened yet (and all due respect to the "most feared man in Hollywood," Ricky Gervais), we’re gonna go out on a limb and say that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were the best Golden Globes hosts in the show’s 70-year history (airing Sunday, 8ET/5PT on NBC). Not only did the dynamic duo display the hilarity, inventiveness, and chemistry of longtime friends who also happen to be comedic geniuses, they also created a drinking game in anticipation of the big show...
A Q&A With Greig Fraser, Cinematographer on Zero Dark Thirty
With Kathryn Bigelow’s extraordinary action thriller Zero Dark Thirty opening wide tomorrow across the country, viewers will have a chance to see this picture’s tale of the CIA’s decade long hunt for Osama Bin Laden. One of the most talked about scenes of the year (arguably, of the new decade) is the spectacular, harrowing final raid on Bin Laden’s compound, all shot using night vision technology. Bigelow spoke about her “tremendous” cinematographer’s handling of that crucial set piece in a recent New York Times interview...
Sony’s Movie Touch iPad App Revolutionizes the Viewing Experience With Integrated Trivia and Digital Extras
In November, two of Sony Pictures' tent-pole home video releases were Men In Black III (2012) and Total Recall (2012). For tablet users, the home release of these blockbusters were enhanced with an innovative new iPad app called Movie Touch. It’s available as a free download from The App Store and once installed, iPad owners get a score of options to optimize their personal viewing experience. The app offers a free 10 minute preview of MIB III or Total Recall;...
The Human Insurance Policies: Sit in for a Master Class With Veteran Stunt Professional Hugh O’Brien
Imagine getting punched, stabbed, crushed, drowned, set on fire, thrown out of buildings, run over, blown up, and electrocuted—and imagine getting paid for it. Meet Hugh O’Brien, a man who makes his living dying (while making sure no one on set actually does). “We’re human insurance policies,” O'Brien says. O'Brien is our second professional stuntman in our two-part series on the subject of men and women who make their living putting their bodies on the line for the films we love...
Greening Up The Film Industry: Dutch Filmmakers Clean Up On Set
Environmentally, the Netherlands has a lot going for it. The country excels at climate change mitigation and an extensive recycling system keeps all but 10 percent of Holland’s waste out of landfills. Yet until recently, the Dutch movie industry seemed oblivious to the green movement. Now, a group of innovative Dutch filmmakers have set out to shift their country’s productions to a deeper shade of green.
“There’s been a whole wave of environmental entrepreneurs in Holland over the last four or five years who really developed their business model by thinking in sustainable,...
Nine Films, Two Documentaries and Two Websites to Enliven Your Weekend
The first weekend in January is often a good time to recuperate after the Thanksgiving-to-New Year's Eve carnival of consumption. So, while you’re starting your new workout regimen (yup, pushups and sit-ups are still as agonizing as last January), finally cracking open Moby Dick (Call you Ishmael? Call me intimidated), and deciding if you can really eat a heaping helping of quinoa every day (you probably can’t), we’ve got you covered for when you want a break from your resolutions...
This Is Your Brain On Movies: Neuroscientists Weigh In On The Brain Science of Cinema
In movies, we explore landscapes far removed from our day-to-day lives. Whether experiencing the fantastical adventures of Star Wars or the dramatic throes of The English Patient, movies demand that our brains engage in a complex firing of neurons and cognitive processes. We enter into manipulated worlds where musical scores enhance feeling; where cinematography clues us into details we’d normally gloss over; where, like omniscient beings, we voyeuristically peek into others’ lives and minds; and where we can travel from Marrakech to Mars without ever having left our seat...
A New Year’s Movie Resolution From The Credits: 50 Films to Watch in 2013
New Year's resolutions, we all make them only to find—come next December—we haven’t followed through on a single one of them. We here at The Credits propose you make 2013 the year you finally get around to watching all those movies you’ve been passing up at the rental store, and now online for decades. With thousands of titles (both classics and current critical darlings) available on Netflix and OnDemand, this is one personal goal you can accomplish much easier and cheaper than,...
A Hyperlink Tribute to Great Drinking and Hangover Scenes in Cinema
Welcome to The Credits hyperlinked tribute to some of the great scenes in cinema that have captured the joy of a good drink, the embarrassment of one too many, and the hell to pay the morning after. What better day to celebrate film’s relationship to alcohol than on January 1st, the unofficial national holiday for the hangover.
And here we offer a little challenge—see if you can guess the film we’re referring to before you click on the link...
Happy New Year’s Eve! From The Apartment to When Harry Met Sally – 7 Clips to Ring in the New Year
One of the most famous scenes in film history happens to occur during New Year’s Eve, and it also happens to include arguably the most famous kiss in film history, too. See if you can figure it out from these clues—the scene is set in Cuba during a raucous New Year's Eve party in which a troubled man by the name of Michael stomps out onto the dance floor, grabs his brother, and gives him a kiss on the lips...
Top Blu-Rays and DVDs of 2012, From Bond 50 to Vertigo
Hollywood’s always looking over the horizon towards the next big technological innovation, expanding as fast (if not faster) than any industry when it comes to making the most of cutting edge technology. Take this season’s blockbuster The Hobbit, which was digitally shot and is being projected in select theaters at 48 frames per second, twice the normal rate. As Douglas Trumbull told us in a recent interview, the resulting movie “…can become like a window onto reality. ...
LMU Spreads Holiday Cheer With Inspiring Student Filmmaking Program
By now, you’re likely settling into the familiar post-holiday stretch. Gifts are being un-boxed and well-worn, wrapping paper has been sent in trash bags to the curb, and New Years’ Eve plans have been meticulously hashed-out. But before we start making resolutions and returning unwanted gifts, here at The Credits, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate the holiday cheer permeating the final weeks of 2012. A truly heart-warming program brought to us by the folks at ...
