Oscar Watch: Lion DP Greig Fraser Captures Five-Year Old’s POV
He shot 2016’s biggest box office hit Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and last month picked up an Academy Award nomination for his work on Lion, so what’s cinematographer Greig Fraser doing in Mexico City filming a TV spot? "Commercials are an incredible technical proving ground," says the Australian-born director of photography. "I'm able to learn new camera systems all the time and that translates directly for features."
Know Your 2017 Oscar Nominees: Costume Designers
Yesterday we began our Oscars 2017 coverage, which we're bringing to you in two parts. One is our annual "Know Your Nominee" series, in which we've looked at the Lead Actor and Foreign Language Film nominees. In addition to the series, this year we've created a special look at the awards—The Road to the Oscars. Click on the image below to learn more about this year's crop of Oscar nominated films and filmmakers,
Know Your 2017 Oscar Nominees: Actor in a Leading Role
Today begins our Oscars 2017 coverage! We kick off our annual "Know Your Nominee" series by looking at actors in a leading role. In addition to the series, we've also created a special look at the awards—The Road to the Oscars. Click on the image below to learn more about this year's crop of Oscar nominated films and filmmakers, and the effect their contributions have had on the industry and the country at large.
How Lion Director Guided a Child to Inspire Two Oscar-Nominated Adults
For a man whose previous experience draws largely from award-winning TV commercials, Australian director Garth Davis demonstrates a remarkable touch with actors in his feature film debut Lion. For the Academy Award Best Picture nominee, Davis not only steered Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman to Oscar-nominated star turns; he also coaxed a deeply moving performance from a seven-year old boy with no previous acting experience.
In the fact-based movie,
Hear the Score From Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2
Director James Gunn has once again taken to Facebook to give us a fresh look at how Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is coming together in post production. His latest reveal focuses on the film's all important score; no Marvel film has better music than the Guardians franchise—even the title of the sequel is a nod to song.
The score for the film is being recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios,
Oscar Nominee Allison Schroeder on Adapting Hidden Figures
It’s an exciting and extraordinary time for screenwriter Allison Schroeder. The Hidden Figures scribe has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, is a finalist for a Humanitas Prize, and also received WGA, BAFTA and Critic’s Choice nods — all this after being named one of Variety’s “10 Screenwriters to Watch” this past November and giving birth to her first child.
“It’s incredibly surreal,
The Path Creator Jessica Goldberg on Finding Religion
If you haven't watched Hulu's The Path, now's your time to catch up before the second season begins tonight. The show, created by Jessica Goldberg, is a rarity for TV: a twisting, intriguing deep dive into the pitfalls of belief, the difficulties of marriage, and the risks of zealotry.
The story follows Eddie Lane (Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul), who lives in upstate New York with his wife Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) and their two children,
The Founder‘s Production Designer on Building McDonald’s & More
A semi-fictionalized account of the takeover of the original McDonald’s franchise by milkshake salesman and the man typically referred to as its “founder,” Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), John Lee Hancock’s The Founder opened this past weekend. It is notable for several things, of which some, like Michael Keaton’s performance as ambitiously malevolent Kroc, have been getting lots of press, while others, like its thoroughness in depicting an accurate slice of the 1950s,
Oscar Watch: Shortlisted Docs Stretch Non-Fiction Format
Gun violence. Poverty. Disease. Racism. As expected, documentary topics explored by this year's shortlist of Oscar contenders skew dark. The big surprise comes from the way some filmmakers have chosen to tell their stories. While movies like front runner 13th artfully blend talking head interviews and archival material in the grand PBS tradition, low-budget, high-concept documentaries Tower, Gleason and Cameraperson experiment with non-fiction formats in fresh ways.
This Video Shows the Easter Eggs That Link Every Pixar Movie
You've heard the theory. Everyone's heard the theory. It's a great theory. The one that states that every single Pixar film, from the original Toy Story through Ratatouille and Wall-E to Finding Dory (and all the films in between) exist in the same universe. Folks call it The Pixar Theory, built on a huge nest of Easter eggs and some very intriguing details that pop up in each film.
Sundance 2017: Line Producer Shea Kammer on Breaking Into the Industry
A line producer on a film is one of the most crucial jobs on the crew. Often the first person hired by the producer, a line producer's responsibilities are daunting, to say the least. We spoke to Shea Kammer, a line producer extraordinaire, about what the role requires. Kammer is heading to the Sundance Film Festival, where he has two films in competition; the Iraq war drama The Yellow Birds and the medical drama
Secret History of Rogue One‘s Aliens Revealed
One of the many delightful aspects of Rogue One was the films' treatment of the many aliens Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) comes into contact with. Some of the aliens are recognizable to any Star Wars fans—who among us didn’t delight in seeing Admiral Raddus, a member of the Mon Calamari race, supporting Jyn and the rebels' mission to the steal the Death Star plans? You may be forgiven for assuming on first blush that Admiral Raddus was,
Costume Designer Kim Tillman on xXx: Return on Xander Cage‘s Fierce Fashion
Costume designer Kim Tillman knows how to dress active characters. While she’s put her touch on plenty of films that involve attractive actors in pretty clothes (Fools Rush In, Wild Things, 10 Things I Hate About You), she’s also made her name outfitting roles that require a wardrobe befit for movement. From the epic seafaring adventure Battleship to the globe-trotting,
The Space Between Us DP on Capturing Earth’s Beauty in Sci-Fi Thriller
Cinematographer Barry Peterson has been behind the camera on hit comedies like Zoolander, 21 Jump Street, and Central Intelligence, but his latest film may be his most stunning work yet. Peterson was Director of Photography on the visually ambitious sci-fi romance The Space Between Us that boasts incredible imagery of our world. The story follows Gardner Elliot (Asa Butterfield),
Writer/Director Vincent Perez on his Timely, Devastating new Film Alone in Berlin
A somber, restrained World War II picture, Alone in Berlin, opens this week from director/actor Vincent Perez. Swiss by birth and of Spanish and German ancestry, Perez optioned the rights to Hans Fallada’s 1947 novel, Every Man Dies Alone, two years before an English translation in 2009 became a surprise bestseller in the UK and US. The story of Nazi resistance from a working class Berlin couple,
Oscar Watch: Writer Taylor Sheridan Gets Personal in Hell or High Water
Offering context for his stirring Hell or High Water screenplay, Taylor Sheridan expertly expounds on West Texas cattle farming, the 1930's dust bowl, predatory banking practices, boom or bust oil economy and the isolation engendered by wide open spaces. But Sheridan also invested plenty of his own experience into the story. Nominated for a Writers Guild Award and Golden Globe for best motion picture screenplay, Hell or High Water follows a broke,
Director Chris Wedge on the Joys of Making Monster Trucks
Unlike Scrat, the nutty cartoon rodent who has shared his voice for nearly 15 years, Chris Wedge, 59, has claimed more than a few choice acorns throughout his career. He is the Academy Award-winning director of Bunny, a ground-breaking computer-animated short from 1999. He co-founded Blue Sky Studios, whose movies are distributed by 20th Century Fox. He directed the company’s first feature, 2002’s Oscar-nominated Ice Age, as well as 2005’s Robots and 2013’s
Pixar’s Magic Touch Displayed in This Storyboard-to-Screen Video
There is no film, no final, fluid story, without concept art and storyboards. They are a film's first line of artistic offense, helping imagine the world the rest of the filmmaking team will create on the big screen. Whether it's illustrations that design work that went into imagining what the heptapods in Arrival would look like or the first brushstrokes that helped bring Moana to life,
The Music of A Monster Calls Captures the Hope of Humanity
A Monster Calls is a simultaneously explosive and fragile tale that finds some of its most powerful moments in the quietest scenes. Celebrated composer Fernando Velázquez carefully molded the score to cradle audiences as the tender story unfolds. The film illustrates the imagination of a young boy coping with his mother’s illness, but Velázquez reveals how the story transcends the fairytale. “It’s a movie about why we do movies,” he explains.
The Sci-Tech Awards Honor the Industry’s Wizards
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just announced the recipients of its 2017 Scientific and Technical Awards. Among the thirty-four individual winners and five organizations honored are some of the tech brains behind several of our favorite films of the prior year. Having pioneered the CGI Studio renderer at Blue Sky Studios, Carl Ludwig, Eugene Troubetzkoy, and Maurice van Swaaij are included in the Technical Achievement Award winners — Blue Sky, it should be noted,
