Scrooged! Elf! A Christmas Carol! Bad Santa! Take Our Holiday Movie Trivia Timeline Tour
Have you ever wondered if it were possible to get your tongue stuck to a pole like little Ralphie does in A Christmas Story? Or where in the world the idea for Gremlins (yup, it's a Christmas movie) came from? Or where Linus came up with that moving notion on the true meaning of Christmas in A Charlie Brown Christmas? Well, with a little (okay, a lot) of help from IMDB.com,
I Love You, Mom: Dan Fogelman’s The Guilt Trip Is A Love Letter To His Late Mother
Screenwriter Dan Fogelman’s story is a true life Hollywood fairy tale: New Jersey native comes to Tinseltown looking for work in the entertainment industry, lands a gig writing for TV, then writes for a little animation company by the name of Pixar (Cars), while writing his own scripts on the side, one of which becomes the hit Crazy, Stupid, Love starring Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling.
The fairy tale continues today (fitting,
Talking Apocalypse Now, Philadelphia and More With Legendary Film Producer Mike Medavoy
Mike Medavoy's film credits read like an American Film Institute (AFI) 'Top 100' list; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rocky, Annie Hall, Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, Network, Coming Home, Platoon, The Terminator, Dances With Wolves, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Zodiac and Black Swan, to name a few.
Medavoy was a co-founder of Orion Pictures, a former chairman of TriStar Pictures, the former head of production of United Artists,
The Many Lives Of a Hollywood Stunt Performer: A Conversation With Oliver Keller
Oliver Keller grew up in a small town in Switzerland dreaming of becoming a stuntman in Hollywood. His appetite for excitement led him to Super G Downhill skiing and an eventual apprenticeship with a German stunt professional, but he had his sights set on bigger things.
Today, Oliver is a rising star in Hollywood’s stunt community, and has worked on mega-blockbusters from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl to Master &
Emmy Award-Winning Actor Tony Shalhoub On Craft
Tony Shalhoub is a prolific actor whose illustrious career has spanned television shows, theater productions, and major Hollywood films. His performances have earned him three Emmy awards and a Golden Globe for his work on the television show Monk, and a Tony nomination for his work on Broadway.
The characters he's portrayed have become cultural legends–from his award-winning performance of the endearing OCD-plagued criminal detective Adrian Monk of the hit television show Monk,
Cult, Camp, and Experimental: A Black Sheep Film Gift Guide
Moms and dads get them. Sporty brothers. Stylin’ sisters who like J. Crew gift cards in their stockings and unwrapping tins of makeup for Hannukah. Even hi-tech grandmas get them. But I ask you: where is the gift guide for the Black Sheep of the family? After all, how on earth are you supposed to shop for that family member who refuses to conform—like the cousin with the morbidly uncomfortable sense of humor, or the anti-capitalist aunt living off-the-grid in New Mexico?
Visionary Filmmaker & Inventor Douglas Trumbull Talks The Hobbit and his Latest Incredible Invention
The frame rate for a film refers to the frequency (or rate) at which a camera creates unique consecutive images (frames). Almost every film you have ever seen has been shot and projected at 24 frames-per-second (FPS). We have become so accustomed to seeing films this way that shooting at any other rate can be potentially jarring. Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit was shot in 3D at 48fps, twice the normal rate. It will be projected at 48fps on 400 of the 10,000 theaters when it opens on tomorrow,
Critics Hail Zero Dark Thirty Year’s Best Picture: A Closer Look At Film Critics’ Circles
Everyone's a critic, but can they predict the Oscars? Awards season is upon us, and with it comes the proliferation of ‘best’ lists from critics’ circles around the country. Esteemed groups like the New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the National Board of Review have been making headlines left and right with their picks for the best filmmaking of 2012. Awards ceremonies are a great way to celebrate the art of film criticism and fine movie making—they can also be a great forecast for what to expect at the biggest award event of the year,
The Criterion Collection Releases Christopher Nolan’s Following on Blu-Ray
While some directors begin with a bang—Godard’s Breathless (1960) comes to mind—others begin with a whisper, only to be heard later on as the greatest archivists in cinema amplify its nascence. Today, The Criterion Collection shines its light, for the first time, on Christopher Nolan with the Blu-Ray release of Following (1998). Now known for the latest Batman trilogy, originally recognized for the temporally rearranged suspense film Memento (2000),
Exec Producer and Writer Mark Goffman of White Collar Talks Aaron Sorkin, President Obama, and Patrick Swayze’s Final Show
Mark Goffman, a veteran TV writer and producer, has worked on a wide range of shows and films, including mega-hits like The West Wing and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He’s currently a writer and executive producer on USA Network’s White Collar (the new season starts on January 22 at 10/9 central), about a criminal who agrees to help the FBI catch his brothers-in-crime using his expertise as an art and securities thief.
A Holiday Gift Guide for the Budding Filmmaker in Your Life
Do you have someone in your life who dreams of making movies? Or perhaps someone who just loves knowing how they’re made? Well, we've got some book and film titles that will satiate the hopeful screenwriters, directors, and producers in your life. No list like this could ever be totally comprehensive, so tweet at us if you’ve got some recommendations to add to this list.
Books on Screenwriting
For screenwriters,
The Instructive Power of Cinema: Spotlight on Journeys In Film
Journeys in Film is an innovative new project that provides foreign films and accompanying curricula to middle-school classrooms. The result? Students gain a deeper understanding of cultures around the globe, while also honing in on necessary skills like empathy, comprehension, and a more dynamic understanding of schoolroom subjects like history, math, science, and more.
While textbooks have long been the educational medium of choice, founder Joanne Ashe firmly believes that film can help bolster students'
First Film School, Then The World: Three NYU Students On Movies, Ambitions, and The Future of Film
"I believe that while it may not be possible to train people to make films, it is possible to create a climate in which people can learn to make films, where aspiring artists can absorb, in a relatively short, intensive period, insight that others have wrested from the experience of an entire career."
– George Stevens, Jr., founding director of the American Film Institute
With innovation and technology forging ahead at unprecedented rates in the film and television industry,
“The Funniest People I Know Are Women”: Director Paul Feig on The Heat, Bridesmaids and Freaks and Geeks
As one of the most respected comedy writers in Hollywood, Paul Feig’s professional trajectory has become something of an industry legend. The comedian turned actor-writer-director-producer has been relentless in his quest to leave an indelible mark on the state of comedy television and cinema. And his ambitions are infectious. Along the way, Feig’s helped launch the careers of many talented actors; James Franco, Jason Segel, and Seth Rogen all became household names thanks to Feig's instant television classic,
Meet the Team That Gave Tim Burton’s Labor of Love, Frankenweenie, a Third Dimension
Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, a likely nominee for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, is a marvel of filmmaking. It finds Burton at the top of his game, helming a film that clearly was a labor of love. The question we were interested in was: how did Burton get his black-and-white, stop motion comedy horror from 2D to 3D?
So we inquired about the collaboration between Walt Disney Pictures,
Taming the Digital Tiger: An Interview with Oscar-Winning VFX Supervisor Bill Westenhofer About his Work on Life of Pi
The Credits spoke with to visual effects guru, Bill Westenhofer about his work on the acclaimed recent release, Life of Pi. Winner of the 2008 Academy Award for Achievement in Visual Effects for The Golden Compass (also nominated in 2006 for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), Westenhofer dished on what it was like working on Pi—from braving real storms at sea for reference points,
The Credits Presents: Up-and-Coming Filmmakers on the Festival Circuit
To the uninitiated, filmmaking resembles nothing short of magic. Actors transform into memorable characters, scripts morph into visceral stories, a movie screen becomes a window into another world. But for the men and women working just outside the cameraframe, the process of making movies is a bit more scientific. Details are essential, timing is integral, the perfect line of dialogue is well wrought–and, often, rewritten. Making your first film (or your second!) can be a truly rewarding experience–but not without its fair share of trials,
Film at the Vatican Without Leaving LA: How Stargate Studios’ Virtual Backlot Is Revolutionizing The Industry
On location shooting is a variable that can make or break a film or television project. It might be the difference between shooting a scene at Westminster Abbey, or at the neighborhood church. So when visual effects house Stargate Studios launched their Virtual Backlot nearly a decade ago, television shows everywhere could hardly wait to use their game-changing library of virtual backdrops. From Vegas casinos to idyllic beaches, producers could finally green-light exotically ambitious scripts,
Actor Scoot McNairy On Getting Into Character for Killing Them Softly, Argo, and Promised Land
Scoot McNairy has been hard at work on some of the most highly-anticipated film projects of the year. In the last 12 months, he’s worked on Ben Affleck’s Argo, starred alongside Brad Pitt in the upcoming release Killing Them Softly, he’s top-billed in Gus Van Sant’s Promised Land, and he’s starring in Steve McQueen’s 2013 picture, Twelve Years a Slave.
A Conversation with Price Check Director Michael Walker on Casting Parker Posey, Supermarket Secrets, and Film School
Writer-director Michael Walker made his feature filmmaking debut with the 2000 thriller Chasing Sleep, starring Jeff Daniels, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to win Best Film at the Festival of Fantastic Film in Sweden.
His latest film, Price Check, is a far cry from the thriller genre, but this comedy about a middle-class family and the eccentric boss who shakes up their world is just as titillating.
