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.,
Dunkirk’s IMAX Release Magnifies Power of one of History’s Most Miraculous Escapes
History has decided its name: The Miracle of Dunkirk. In May 1940, Germany launched its war against Western Europe with a lightning invasion that saw Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands fall in quick succession. With the Low Countries devoured and a still ravenous appetite, the Nazis turned their gaze to France and continued their advance.
They moved rapidly westward across France toward the sea, eventually cutting off and encircling British Expeditionary and Allied forces in the small northern city of Dunkirk.
Tech Transformations: The Planet of the Apes Then and Now
In 1968, 20th Century Fox’s The Planet of the Apes opened to critical acclaim. At a time when science fiction stories were not taken seriously, the story of an astronaut crew crash-landing on a future planet where apes are the dominant species, captured the imaginations of audiences around the world.
Today, War for the Planet of the Apes – the third installment of the 2011 reboot, which began with Rupert Wyatt's
Quentin Tarantino Prepping new Film About the Manson Murders
We mean this in a good way; we can’t think of a better director to tackle a film about the Charles Manson murders than Quentin Tarantino. The scoop comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which has it that Tarantino is already in talks with actors, and one can only imagine the mayhem of a movie about the most infamous murders in American history through Tarantino’s lens.
THR reports that Tarantino has already written the script (naturally he’d direct),
How the Genius Cinematographer Brought Einstein to a Modern Audience
Casual historians often sum the life of Albert Einstein in a single equation: E=mc^2, but National Geographic’s series Genius reveals that there is so much more to the story. Cinematographer Mathias Herndl’s work on Genius sheds a new light on Einstein’s life. The famous physicist’s reckless youth and pacifist objections that give way to his invention of the atomic bomb in wartime inspired Herndl’s dynamic filmmaking. Ahead of the season finale,
Extreme Contrast: DP Shoots FX’s Fargo and Legion
Calgary-based cinematographer Craig Wrobleski happened to be in the right place at the right time four years ago when the makers of FX series Fargo came calling with an urgent request. "At the end of their first season, it was an intense schedule and they needed someone to help shoot some second unit stuff in Alberta," he says. "I live south of Calgary and had just finished another show, so they asked me to do some establishing shots."
Dressing the The Handmaid’s Tale From Covered Head to Booted Toe
Costume designer Ane Crabtree exerted plenty of impact on pop couture through her mob suits featured in The Sopranos and the robot cowboy outfits she made for Westworld. But nothing prepared the cheerful 52-year old wardrobe auteur for The Handmaid’s Tale. In the Hulu series based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, she dressed Elizabeth Moss' slave woman Offred and other female characters forced to bear children in the near-future fascist state of "Elysium."
Talking to The Journey’s Director Nick Hamm on Facing Ireland’s History Head-on
Belfast-born producer-director Nick Hamm has worked mostly in British television, although he's also directed theater and movies. As a filmmaker, he's drawn to stories that are contemporary, set close to home and involve real-life characters. 2011's Killing Bono was a comedy about teenage rockers upstaged by the Dublin schoolmates who founded U2. Hamm's new movie, The Journey, is a sometimes comic drama that fictionalizes a pivotal 2006 van ride shared by two confirmed enemies: Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness (Colm Meaney) and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) founder Ian Paisley (Timothy Spall).
