Did You Hear That? Nightmare on Elm Street Foley Artist Gary Hecker Reveals How Horror Movies’ Scariest Sound Effects Are Made
Ear-splitting screams. Ominous silence. The howling wind. The telltale creak of the stairs. It’s hard to imagine horror films without these heart-pounding audio elements, but they wouldn’t exist without the talented foley artists who use everything from celery stalks to leather belts to create aural terror.
As Halloween approaches, we thought we’d check in with industry vet Gary Hecker, who’s been honing his craft for 30 years and now works as the supervising foley artist at Todd-AO.
A Video Q&A With Documentary Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki About His Crucial New Film The House I Live In
Documentarian Eugene Jarecki has made a career of taking hugely complex, sprawling issues and creating passionate films about them that are at once accessible, informative and deeply moving. Jarecki’s films include Why We Fight, a dissection of America’s military industrial complex, in essence the ‘business’ of making war, and The Trial of Henry Kissinger, examining the alleged war crimes of the former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State.
The Surfer King: A Conversation With Chasing Mavericks Surf Coordinator and Big Wave Expert Grant Washburn
Making a great biopic can be a high stakes game: How do you do tell an enthralling story about a real person, while keeping the audience entertained and also maintaining authenticity when it comes to the subject in question? For Grant Washburn, the Surf Coordinator on Chasing Mavericks, the story of iconic big wave surfer Jay Moriarty, the stakes were even higher because there was another determining factor —
Nosferatu, Night Monster, Hocus Pocus: An Ode to Halloween, the Movie-Lover’s Holiday
It’s that time of year when things that go bump in the night are on our minds and our movie screens. Halloween, perhaps even more so than Christmas, is a movie holiday; what else are you supposed to do to celebrate, once society deems you too old to knock on doors and demand candy?
Boutique theaters across the country understand this grown-up Halloween need, and answer enthusiastically with holiday-specific programming that runs the gamut—from camp to horror,
In Honor of HBO’s New Film The Girl: Ten Great Movies About Making Movies
Movie lovers, and Hitchcock fans in particular, are about to get a fascinating double dose of behind-the-scenes dramatization. First up is The Girl, which premiered on HBO on October 20, tells the story of the relationship between Hitchcock (Toby Jones) and Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller), the model selected to star in The Birds despite having no acting experience. Then, on November 1, Hitchcock will premiere at the AFI Film Festival –
Putting the Walk in The Walking Dead: An Interview With Stargate Studios CEO and VFX Guru Sam Nicholson
Stargate Studios CEO Sam Nicholson is a visual effects legend (VFX). A cinematographer by trade, Nicholson hails from the mother ship of visual effects gigs, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. His work on The Enterprise shot Nicholson’s career to stratospheric heights and spans some of the greatest television shows in recent memory—and we’re not being hyperbolic. Nicholson founded the incredibly busy visual effects house Stargate Studios, which has performed post-production visual effects for TV shows including CSI,
Book Shelf: Gifted Actor Stanley Tucci’s Italian Cookbook
Why, you might ask, another cookbook? Actor Stanley Tucci has a simple and elegant answer to that question, which he lets the New York Times in on in the companion video to their profile of him, found here.
Since there are only so many recipes, he says, just like there are only so many plots, it’s about how you tell the story, as opposed to the way the other guy tells the story.
Two Alfred Hitchcock Masterpieces get the Blu-Ray Treatment
Released on Oct 9, Warner Bros’ Blu-Ray of Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train (1951) showcases the Master of Suspense returning to top form after several years of critical and commercial disappointments. At the beginning of the 50’s, a decade in which he would produce some of his greatest movies, Hitchcock was hungry for material that would bring out the best in his work. He found it in the eponymous debut novel of a 29-year old Patricia Highsmith,
Film School 101
Cinema verite, mise-en-scene, establishing shot–think you have the chops to make it in film school? Take our film school-inspired quiz to find out.
[wpsqt name="Film School 101" type="quiz"]
*Feature image courtesy of California Institute of the ArtsInterview With Marty Kaplan, Founding Director of The Norman Lear Center at USC
The Norman Lear Center, founded and directed by professor Marty Kaplan, is based out of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. The Center is named after benefactor Norman Lear, who has been an iconic social activist and television producer in the entertainment industry for years.
Launched in January of 2000, the Center’s mission has been to champion research, public policy, and educational programs that examine the entertainment landscape. The Lear Center's Entertainment Goes Global project looks at the implications of entertainment on society,
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.
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.
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.
50 Years of Bond, James Bond
James Bond week continues with our latest infographic, which takes a look at some of the 65 women that have made Bond's life both heaven and hell.
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,
Before There Was Apple, There Was Bond (And Q): 50 Years of Impeccably Cool Gadgets
The James Bond movie franchise celebrates its 50th birthday this year, and the world’s favorite secret agent will blow out the candles with the Nov. 9 release of Skyfall, the 23rd Bond film. The old saying goes that behind every great man is a woman, but there’s one enduring character who is arguably more helpful than Bond’s scantily clad femme fatales: Q. One trailer for Skyfall shows Bond (Daniel Craig, in this incarnation) being presented with a gun featuring a palm-print identity checker so that it can only be fired by the man with a license to kill.
The Film Industry Heads For The Bayou: Introducing Hollywood South
In recent years, Louisiana has become one of the fastest growing film production states in the country. Playing host to projects like True Blood, The Host, and Ender’s Game, many of Hollywood’s biggest productions are opting for a change of scenery; from LA’s traffic-addled freeways, to the South’s bountiful bayou. Thanks to generous film tax incentives, “Hollywood South,” as Louisiana’s been dubbed, is now in the leagues of film state heavyweights like California and New York.
On Location: Western Costume
Founded in the movie biz’s earliest days, Western Costume is a one-stop shop for film, TV, commercial, digital media and theatre costumes. The 100-year old company got its start in downtown Los Angeles providing authentic cowboy and Indian wear for silent one-reel films (hence, the Western Costume name). Today, Western Costume’s 100,000-square-foot North Hollywood warehouse holds between three to five million pieces of clothing, accessories, and footwear. Topping it all off is an extensive research library–an invaluable resource for show designers and costumers.
A Q&A With Chicken With Plums Directors Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
In this intimate post-screening interview, directors Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud discuss their latest film, Chicken With Plums. Magical realism, animation, and innovative storytelling are trademarks of the filmmaking pair, who won an Oscar for the animated movie Persepolis. Here, Satrapi and Paronnaud discuss inspirations for the film, directing, collaborative storytelling, and the international fabric of Chicken With Plums.
Music and Movies: An Interview with Music Supervisor Randall Poster
Randall Poster from The Credits on Vimeo.
In this exclusive interview, The Credits chats with legendary music supervisor Randall Poster about Moonrise Kingdom, working with director Wes Anderson, and the importance of protecting creativity at all costs. And for more insight into where Randall Poster draws inspiration from, check out this iTunes playlist of his favorite tracks from movie scores:
