Best of Summer 2023: “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” Look of Picture Supervisor Bret St. Clair on Spider-Punk, Mumbattan & More

*It’s our annual “Best of Summer” look back at some (not all) of our favorite interviews from the past few months. This non-comprehensive look back includes the Barbenheimer phenomenon and the wonderful interviews that followed those two history-making films, chats with the talented folks behind Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, our profile of MPA Creator Award Recipient and filmmaker extraordinaire Gina Prince-Bythewood and more.

Not bad for a sequel. Following on its 2018 Oscar-winning predecessor,

Emmy-Nominated “House of the Dragon” Cinematographer Catherine Goldschmidt on Lensing a Bloody Family Affair

House of the Dragon cinematographer Catherine Goldschmidt stepped back into Westerosi history in the Game of Thrones prequel and into Emmys history when she was nominated for an Emmy for her work in the 8th episode of season one, “The Lord of the Tides.” In that episode, Goldschmidt was tasked with subtly taking viewers six years into the future as two bloody succession battles are taking place. The immediate quarrel is over who will succeed Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) on the Driftwood Throne,

Best of Summer 2023: How “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” DP Fraser Taggart Pulled Off That Insane Train Sequence

*It’s our annual “Best of Summer” look back at some (not all) of our favorite interviews from the past few months. This non-comprehensive look back includes the Barbenheimer phenomenon and the wonderful interviews that followed those two history-making films, chats with the talented folks behind Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, our profile of MPA Creator Award Recipient and filmmaker extraordinaire Gina Prince-Bythewood and more.

Editors’ Note: This story contains mild spoilers.

Emmy-Nominated “The Last of Us” Hairstylist Chris Harrison-Glimsdale on Shaping the Locks of the Living and The Dead

Calgary-based hairstylist Chris Harrison-Glimsdale happily pursued the apocalypse and lived to tell the tale. In fact, she’s got an Emmy nomination for her efforts, alongside her colleagues Penny Thompson and Courtney Ullrich, for shaping the locks of the survivors and their undead pursuers who populated HBO’s critically acclaimed series The Last Of Us.

Co-created by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann (creator of the critical and commercial smash hit video game that the series is based on),

Emmy-Nominated “Barry” Cinematographer Carl Herse Steps into the Darkness for the Final Season

The life of a hired hitman may seem mysterious and exotic, but Barry has a blunt message for us all. No one is immune to insecurities, mundane moments, or our own very bad ideas. The series’ final season freed the characters to face their fates, be they heroic, humble, or humorous. Barry ended with tight and tense action where no one was able to outrun their past and step out into the light.

“Barbie” Editor Nick Houy on Leaving Only the A-Plus Jokes

Barbie is currently dominating the cineplex. Co-writer/director Greta Gerwig‘s film, based on the iconic Mattel doll, has become a runaway success, earning over a billion dollars at the box office and garnering an outpouring of love and passion from audiences across the globe. It’s a story of self-discovery that strikes some serious chords with viewers, and it’s also often very funny, relentlessly inventive, and so clearly a work of passion from the folks on the screen and behind the camera that you leave the theater a little lighter than you went in.

“Oppenheimer” Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema on Making History With Christopher Nolan

Oppenheimer marks the fourth collaboration between director Christopher Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema. And like their past efforts, the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the theoretical physicist who spearheaded the effort to create the atomic bomb and then came under attack when he warned the world of its dangers, is anything but routine. It’s a three-hour epic that has mesmerized audiences around the globe,

“Barbie” Casting Directors Allison Jones And Lucy Bevan on Populating Barbie Land

Since its release last month, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie has been hailed as a marvel of a balancing act between sincerity and hilarity. On top of the nuanced script, Barbieland is populated by a Barbie and Ken of every stripe, for every type, despite dozens of characters who share a mere two first names (plus the singular Allan). Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) and her dependent Ken (Ryan Gosling) were early commitments to the Warner Bros.

How “Sanctuary” Cinematographer Ludovica Isidori Turned a Single Room Into a Dynamic Psycho-Emotional Arena

How do you make a single location subliminally consume an entire story? That was the question Italian cinematographer Ludovica Isidori had to answer in director Zachary Wigon’s sophomore film Sanctuary.

Starring Christopher Abbott (Girls) as Hal, an heir to a luxury hotel empire, and Margaret Qualley (Maid), a dominatrix named Rebecca who is equal parts seductive, smart, and clever, Sanctuary is a slow-burn psychological thriller that reveals the intimacy of their unorthodox relationship with delicious restraint.

Emmy-Nominated Casting Director Theo Park on Fielding the Perfect Squad for “Ted Lasso”

There isn’t an Oscars category for casting directors (yet), but the Emmys have recognized the foundational importance of the people who find actors with the talent and the chemistry to create magic on screen. Without casting directors, a lot of your favorite moments onscreen would likely never have happened. 

In an interview with The Credits, two-time Emmy winner and current nominee Theo Park, nominated for her stellar work on Ted Lasso,

“Oppenheimer” Production Designer Ruth De Jong on Helping Christopher Nolan Build the Bomb

Oppenheimer is a colossal achievement. Christopher Nolan’s film is an exquisitely calibrated epic, brimming with ambition and ingenuity, appropriate for its titular protagonist, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the brilliant physicist who led America’s Manhattan Project during World War II. Nolan and his crew, including production designer Ruth De Jong (Nope), reached for the stars and succeeded in their quest for a pure, tangible vision in presenting one of the most important and dangerous minds of the 20th century – the father of the atomic bomb.

“Heart of Stone” Stunt Coordinator Jo McLaren on Taking Gal Gadot to New Heights

Jo McLaren is a longtime stunt professional who has worked on a slew of hit films and TV series, lending her talents to hits as disparate as Titanic, Dr. Who, and the Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter, and Avengers franchises. As an in-demand stunt coordinator, she has kept productions safe while creating some of the most inimitable action sequences in the business.

“Red, White, & Royal Blue” Co-Writer/Director Matthew Lopez on Crafting a Modern Love Story

First-time feature director Matthew López also co-wrote the script of Red, White, & Royal Blue, based on the popular novel by Casey McQuiston, which arrives just in time to add a dash of romance to the end of your summer. It’s a love story about Alex (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of the President of the United States Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman), and Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), the grandson of the British King (Stephen Fry),

“Heart of Stone” Director Tom Harper on Accepting an Impossible Mission With Gal Gadot

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has had success both with critics and audiences and Barbie is breaking box office records. It makes good sense, then, that Skydance, the production company behind the M:I franchise, would want to partner with global superstar Gal Gadot to create a female-fronted action film. Enter Heart of Stone, the new Netflix release that puts Gadot front and center as intelligence operative Rachel Stone,

“Talk To Me” Directors Danny & Michael Philippou on Crafting the Year’s Most Unsettling Horror Film

Danny and Michael Philippou do not pull their punches in their chilling feature film directorial debut Talk to Me. Having honed their craft over years making short films, the twins crafted a horror movie that screams with confidence and passion, where not a single scare seems to miss the mark. There’s a reason the powerhouse mini-major studio A24, behind some of the best horror films of the last decade, got behind these two.

“Haunted Mansion” Cinematographer Jeffrey Waldron Gathers Ghostly Delights in Frame

Directed by Justin Simien, Disney’s Haunted Mansion has an all-star cast, a funny, touching script, killer New Orleans scenery, and for a wellspring of inspiration, the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland, which holds particular sway over the movie’s aesthetic. The original ride veers from comedic to creepy, which for cinematographer Jeffrey Waldron (Little Fires Everywhere, The Morning Show), worked well as a starting point for designing different aesthetics for Haunted Mansion’s various astral planes. 

“Haunted Mansion” VFX Supervisor Edwin Rivera Gives These New Ghosts a Spectral Charge

The spirits have materialized for Disney’s latest comedy adventure Haunted Mansion. Everyone’s favorite spectral residents, from the hatchet-wielding Bride to the Hatbox Ghost, are coming out of their coffins for a swinging good time. The film fleshes out the skeletal stories of the spooky spirits who haunt Disney theme parks around the world. VFX Supervisor Edwin Rivera, who hails from visual effects studio DNEG, cast the classic characters in a new light.

“Brother” Writer/Director Clement Virgo on Returning to Filmmaking With His Quietly Devastating Adaptation

Writer/director Clement Virgo followed his instincts when he returned to feature filmmaking. Since his last feature, Poor Boy’s Game (2007), Virgo has been directing TV, working more or less nonstop. He’s directed episodes of Empire, Netflix’s Dahmer- Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and OWN’s megachurch drama Greenleaf. He was thinking about getting back into features when a friend handed him a copy of David Chariandy’s novel “Brother,”

Paramount Pictures’ Archive Team Andrea Kalas & Randall Thropp on a Few of Their Favorite Things

There is an argument to be made that there could be an investigative series starring Paramount’s senior vice president of archives Andrea Kalas and costume and prop archivist Randall Thropp. Among their myriad of responsibilities for the vast archives of one of Hollywood’s most legendary studios, Kalas and Thropp are often called upon to act as asset sleuths, uncovering iconic (and lesser known) props, costumes, and more from Paramount’s 111 history that were scattered across the globe before the archives department was created.

How Editor Eddie Hamilton Cut “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” to the Quick

As it is, Tom Cruise’s new Mission: Impossible movie (now playing) runs a hefty two hours and forty-three minutes, but what people see in theaters actually represents a very slimmed-down version of the original cut that director Christopher McQuarrie screened for his friends. “It ran four hours,” says Cruise’s go-to editor Eddie Hamilton. “We watched it in a screening room with 40 people, and it was two and a half hours to Venice.