Game of Thrones Explainer: Bringing Dragons To Life Demands Animators Follow The Sun

First a skeleton, then the meat. Next some scales, then some fire. A layer of color. A layer of shading. Then some motion. Frame by frame.

It might not be as grueling as battling a dragon, or defending all of Westeros from hordes of White Walkers, but making the dragons of Game of Thrones come to is a Herculean feat all its own. It’s one that up to 30 animators do daily at visual effects company Pixomondo.

Taylor Sheridan Talks his Chilling Directorial Debut Wind River

From actor (lawman David Hale on FX’s Sons of Anarchy) to acclaimed screenwriter (2015’s Mexican drug-war thriller Sicario, 2016’s Texas-set neo-Western Hell or High Water) to writer-director (Wind River, opening today), Taylor Sheridan has had quite a career trajectory since he first popped up on the Hollywood scene in the mid-90s as a TV acting staple. The 47-year-old Lone Star native considers his three feature films so far to be part of a trilogy that examines the state of the American frontier,

The Handmaid’s Tale DP on Using Old Lenses, Vermeer and Drones to Conjure Dystopia

Liverpool-born cinematographer Colin Watkinson quit his job as a surveyor to work as an entry-level “runner” on a British soundstage, rose through the ranks to shoot Tarsem Singh’s The Fall in 2006, and on the strength of that film’s universally hailed visuals, became one of Los Angeles’ most prolific television commercial DPs. By the time cinematographer-turned director Reed Moreno invited him to shoot The Handmaid’s Tale in Toronto,

Landline‘s Costume Designer on Bringing Back ’90’s New York Fashion

Most of us would like to think that the 1990s weren’t that long ago, but the age of dial up Internet, CDs and home phones has already been made into period piece Landline. Love or loath what you wore at the end of the millenium, you’ll definitely recognize some of these looks. Costume designer Elisabeth Vastola combed through consignment racks to revive the era in a recognizable and authentic way. Set in New York,

Legendary Playwright, Author, Actor & All Around Icon Sam Shepard Passes Away

Sam Shepard, age 73, has died from complications due to Lou Gehrig’s disease at his home in Kentucky. It is hard to measure Sam Shepard’s impact on contemporary art, performing and otherwise, for several reasons. He was a prolific worker, yielding a vast array of award winning plays, short stories, film scripts, and memorable performances over his lifetime.

One cannot precisely say what Shepard is best known for. He co-wrote for Bob Dylan’s film Renaldo and Clara,

Talking to Emmy-Nominated Ewan McGregor About Splitting Himself for his Fargo Dual Roles

For years, Ewan McGregor yearned to play a role that required complete physical transformation, but the timing couldn’t have been worse when Fargo creator Noah Hawley asked the svelte actor to grow a beer belly. “I had a jawline that you could cut paper on and I’d never been so fit in my life,” laughs McGregor, who remembers returning to Los Angeles in top physical condition after shooting “Trainspotting 2” in his native Scotland.

Emmy Nominated Planet Earth II Composers on Scoring the Most Interesting Animals in the World

Ten years after the original series aired, BBC returns to explore our natural world in Planet Earth II. The stunning exploration of the green planet’s jungles, grasslands, deserts and more spawned a viral video of a daring iguana escaping certain death that couldn’t be more hair-raising if it had been scripted. The show’s dynamic score earned composers Jasha Klebe and Jacob Shea of Bleeding Fingers Music an Emmy nomination. The duo had worked separately on major blockbusters including 

Talking to the Director and the Star of the Sensational Documentary Step

Ever since Step wowed them at Sundance, the documentary that follows an all-girls step-dance team at an inner-city charter school dedicated to helping female African-American students pursue a college degree has been winning fans at festivals. Even Michelle Obama gave her seal of approval to “Step” in May, when the Lethal Ladies squad from the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (BLSYW) performed at a National College Signing Day event in New York City.

Head of The Defenders Makeup Department on Juggling Four Marvel Superheroes

The Netflix residents of the Marvel Universe are all coming together for the first time on screen to team up as The Defenders. Makeup department head Sarit Klein had an intimate knowledge of the show’s characters going into production. She also worked as makeup head of previous installments Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist.

See how this Insane Stunt in Atomic Blonde Was Pulled Off

Director David Leitch is one of the film world’s premiere stunt choreographers. The former stunt coordinator made his name helming the first John Wick, and he brought his talents for creating mesmerizing, death-defying stunts to his next film, Atomic Blonde. Starring Charlize Theron as an MI6 agent who is sent alone into Berlin to retrieve a priceless dossier, while the city is becoming completely destabilized (the wall is about to come down) and just about everyone she comes into contact with wants to kill her.

Lisanne Skyler on her Warhol HBO Doc Brillo Box (3¢ OFF)

Most people are familiar with the groundbreaking artistry of the late Andy Warhol, known for replicating the packaging of popular consumer products. For filmmaker and documentarian Lisanne Skyler, Warhol’s take on pop culture hit close to home, even in it. Skyler’s parents bought a Warhol “Brillo Box (3¢ off)” for $1,000 in 1969 — managing to get him to sign it — and displayed it in their house for two years before trading it for another artwork.

Key and Peele Production Designer Reflects on a Career of Comedy

Production designer Gary Kordan is setting the scene for some of the funniest shows on television. From instantly iconic sketch comedy to powerhouse sitcoms, Kordan has built backdrops for some of the top comedians in Hollywood. His work adds realism and exceptional detail to outrageous scripts by heavyweights like Melissa McCarthy, Ben Falcone, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele.

“Key and Peele is the gold coin in my pocket as a job in the television industry for a production designer,” Kordan said of the Peabody award winning sketch comedy show.

How Emmy Nominated Queen Sugar and 13th DP Kira Kelly is Breaking the Mold

It was a no brainer for cinematographer Kira Kelly to take the call when director Ava DuVernay sought her out. The project they initially discussed didn’t pan out, but Kelly was soon tapped for DuVernay’s stirring documentary 13th. Kelly’s mesmerizing work was the perfect fit for the high pressure interviewees she filmed and earned her an Emmy nomination alongside her co-DP Hans Charles. Following the success of 13th, DuVernay brought Kelly on to season two of her hit show Queen Sugar.

Comic-Con 2017: Composers Talk Music to Fight Super-Villains By

Comic-Con’s fifth annual “Musical Anatomy of a Superhero” featured composers from comic book movies and television shows. Brian Tyler showed us the funeral scene from Thor: the Dark World that had special meaning to him because it was a “pivotal moment” with no dialogue or sound effects, just the music to create the mood and tell the story. David E. Russo explained the challenges and opportunities of Gotham, a series that, in its third year,

Comic-Con 2017: Production Designers From Black Panther, Spider-Man: Homecoming & More

“How many of you love the movies because they look so goddamn cool?”  Production designer John Muto (Home Alone, River’s Edge) already knew the answer. “The audience doesn’t pay money to sit in the dark and look at drab images.”

Everyone loves movies because they look cool, and that was especially true of the people who came to Muto’s panel on production design.  “You know those images that get buried in your lizard brain,” he asked.

The Beguiled Art Director Sets the Scene for Beauty and Terror

The dilapidated Civil War era girls’ school you see in the intriguing Sofia Coppola remake of The Beguiled is actually a pristinely manicured historic plantation in New Orleans. On seeing the film, you won’t even recognize that the house was also used in Beyonce’s Lemonade. Art Director Jennifer Dehghan and her team are responsible for the transformation that included reverse landscaping to create an overgrown look,

How VFX Supervisor Conjured Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

The first time Scott Stokdyk worked for Luc Besson back in 1995, the French auteur hired him to work on his then-groundbreaking sci-fi flick The Fifth Element. “At that time I was just this computer artist sitting at a work station for fourteen hours a day in a little dark cubicle excited to be working in the world of film,” says Scott. Since then, visual effects have made gargantuan advances, and so has Scott.

Watch How Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Utilized Practical Effects to Nearly Kill Rocket

When two of your main characters are a walking and talking (sort of) tree and a talking raccoon, you know that CGI has played a huge part. Yet, you might be surprised to find out that a good portion of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was made with practical effects. In a new behind-the-scenes look at the film, James Gunn and his team explain how one scene, involving Rocket jumping from tree to tree while he’s being shot at from baddies on the ground,

Talking to Landline Writer/Director Gillian Robespierre & Producer Elisabeth Holm

The year is 1995. Bill Clinton is president, Natalie Merchant sings about the weather, Mad About You is must-see TV, Lorena Bobbitt jokes are all the rage, floppy discs are a clunky necessity – and cellphones are nowhere to be seen.

Director-writer Gillian Robespierre and producer Elisabeth Holm’s first film together, the 2014 art-house circuit darling Obvious Child, was a moving contemporary comedy that focused on a stand-up comic (Jenny Slate) who deals with an unexpected pregnancy after a one-night stand.

Explainer: IMAX Vs. Standard—Here’s Why it Matters That Dunkirk was Shot on 70-mm

The big screen will feel even bigger for some moviegoers watching Dunkirk starting July 21. Director Christopher Nolan shot the World War II drama using 70-millimeter IMAX and 65-mm large-format cameras. And audiences in 125 theaters across the U.S. and Canada will get to see the fruits of those labors in their entirety through large-format 70-millimeter projectors installed at those locations. Warner Bros.,