Interview

Director, Editor

Native 3D: The Future of Spatial Movie Production

What do the 3D epics Guardians of the Galaxy, Godzilla, and Gravity have in common save for being huge hits and starting with the letter 'G'? None of them were shot in 3D.

If you’re going to make a 3D movie, you can either shoot it that way, sometimes referred to as native 3D and the preferred method for filmmakers like James Cameron,

By  |  September 9, 2014

Interview

Cinematographer, Costume Designer, Director, Editor, Production Designer, Screenwriter, Sound Designer, Special/Visual Effects

Star Wars: Episode VII’s Galaxy of Talent Behind J.J. Abrams

As useful as IMDBpro is, it’s recommendable to take the “projects in development” rubric with at least a grain or two of salt. Because really, how could one man have 28 projects in development, including the next Star Trek and Mission Impossible, while also working on a little film franchise called Star Wars?

If it were any one other than J.J. Abrams, you’d be right to assume that most of these would fall through,

By  |  November 4, 2013

Interview

Actor, Editor, Producer, Screenwriter

Writer/Director/Producer/Star Lake Bell on In a World

In the dramedy 'In a World…', out August 9, writer/director/producer/star Lake Bell visits the voiceover industry as a newbie competing for the same gig as her industry-veteran father. Here, Bell, who has delivered memorable acting turns in such movies as No Strings Attached and It’s Complicated, talks about writing the script for her feature-film directorial debut, why she loves trailers, and what “voice” annoys her most.

The Credits: What insight can you offer about voices and accents?

By  |  August 8, 2013

Interview

Editor

Editor Alisa Lepselter Talks Blue Jasmine, Her 15th Woody Allen Collab

After working as an Assistant Editor on movies for the likes of Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Nora Ephron, and getting her break cutting Nicole Holofcener's first feature Walking and Talking (1996), Editor Alisa Lepselter, A.C.E. got the job of a lifetime—she cut Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown (1999). Fifteen years later she is on her fifteenth collaboration with Allen for his newest movie, Blue Jasmine,

By  |  July 25, 2013

Interview

Animator, Editor, Special/Visual Effects

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,

By  |  December 3, 2012

Interview

Editor, Special/Visual Effects

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,

By  |  November 30, 2012

Interview

Editor, Special/Visual Effects

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,

By  |  November 28, 2012

Interview

Editor, Special/Visual Effects

Making Waves: Meet Scott Anderson, Visual Effects Supervisor and The Man Behind The Mavericks in Chasing Mavericks

Scott Anderson has provided expertise on films such as Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin, and through his company Digital Sandbox, a visual effects company, has worked on a bevy of films.  Anderson and his team were brought on board (pun intended) to help directors Curtis Hanson and Michael Apted make the surf scenes in Chasing Mavericks look so realistic that even the legendary surfers who were stunt doubles and stunt performers on the film would be pleased.

By  |  November 13, 2012

Interview

Editor, Sound Designer

Sound Supervisor Scott Gershin on His Job As An ‘Audio Photographer’


The Credits recently chatted with Sound Supervisor Scott Gershin at Soundelux Studios about his work on some of the most iconic movies in recent memory. Among his credits? The Doors, The Last of the MohicansGladiator, Kill Bill: Volume 1American Beauty, and Braveheart–and that hardly scratches the surface. Gershin has contributed to the scores of several award-winning movies and has worked on over 100 features.

By  |  November 7, 2012

Interview

Cinematographer, Director, Editor, Screenwriter

Fantastic Film Schools Infographic

Our latest infographic, inspired by Hollywood Reporter's 2nd Annual List of the Top 25 Film Schools, takes a look at some of the best film schools in the country.

By  |  October 10, 2012

Interview

Cinematographer, Director, Editor, Screenwriter

Where Hollywood Hones Its Craft: Getting Film Schooled At AFI

Tucked in the hills of Griffith Park, the American Film Institute is as much a Hollywood mainstay as its film lore surroundings. From campus, one can see the hillsides housing such celebrated fixtures as the Hollywood sign, the Observatory where James Dean got into a knife fight in Rebel Without a Cause, and hundreds of eclectic, multimillion-dollar homes—many of which house Hollywood’s biggest stars—stretching all the way to the Malibu coastline.

By  |  October 9, 2012

Interview

Cinematographer, Director, Editor, Screenwriter

Back To Film School: On Location At CalArts


Across the country, aspiring filmmakers are hard at work honing their craft at film schools. Whether it's learning about the cultural impact of cinema, getting a technical training education in directing or cinematography, or advancing a lifelong love of cinema, we're celebrating film schools everywhere with a week of film school-themed content.

The Credits recently traveled to the California Institute of the Arts–one of the country's premier arts schools located just outside of Los Angeles.

By  |  October 8, 2012

Interview

Actor, Composer, Editor, Location Scout, Props, Screenwriter, Stunt Coordinator/Stunt Person

50 Reasons to Love James Bond

Last week marked the highly anticipated arrival of BOND 50 – the complete James Bond film collection showcasing all 22 classic titles on Blu-ray together for the first time ever, in one sleek collectable box-set. This Limited Edition set marks the debut of nine James Bond films previously unavailable in high definition Blu-ray and comes with a dossier of more than 122 hours of bonus features

Bond’s impact on our culture is such that the Museum of Modern Art in New York City is saluting her majesty’s favorite spy (for the second time,

By  |  October 2, 2012

Interview

Editor, Special/Visual Effects

The Wired Theater: Audiences Get Social At The Cinema

There is a well-known myth of movie audiences in the late 19th century fleeing for the exits at the sight of a train that seemed to be barreling straight toward them. In reality, audiences’ early fascination with motion pictures quickly turned to admiration, a sacred respect for the movie going experience. Talking during movies became, almost instantaneously, strictly verboten. Decades later, other rules reared their heads to stomp out social distractions in the cinema. First it was,

By  |  September 4, 2012

Interview

Editor, Special/Visual Effects

The Return of Smell-O-Vision, the Advent of 4D Cinema, and the Brave New World of Sensory Film

TIME Magazine might have deemed it one of the worst 100 ideas in history, but it’s hard not to harbor a fond nostalgia for the wonderfully bizarre promise Smell-O-Vision once afforded moviegoers. Making movies that smelled was a bold and definitively quirky concept intended to persuade the television-hooked masses of 1950s Americana to migrate from their plastic-covered couches and microwaved TV dinners in order to experience movies in a ‘scent’sational new way. Of course,

By  |  August 28, 2012