“Scream VI” Costume Designer Avery Plewes Gives Ghostface & Co an NYC Style Upgrade
Scream VI costume designer Avery Plewes was a big part of successfully moving the franchise out of Woodsboro and into the stylistically and energetically amped up New York City. The sequel goes big in every possible regard.
For a terrifying sequence set on Halloween night aboard a subway train, Plewes made 200 costumes to create a claustrophobic environment. Plewes and her team even produced one costume as a loving nod to directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Ready or Not.
“John Wick: Chapter 4” Cinematographer Dan Laustsen on the Beautiful Brutality of Lensing Wick’s World
Editor’s Note: Leading up to the release of John Wick: Chapter 4 on March 24, 2023, The Credits is publishing a “Wick Week” of content, weaving stories about the film’s fighting style, stunts, along with an interview with director Chad Stahelski. Some mild spoilers follow.
Cinematographer Dan Laustsen has a way with color.
“Daisy Jones & the Six” Makeup Department Head Rebecca Wachtel Captures the Many Faces of Stardom
Daisy Jones and the Six makeup department head Rebecca Wachtel dedicated herself to the details in shaping the on-screen look of the music group. “It’s a fictional band, but it’s in factual times,” Wachtel said of her approach to the project. She spent two months researching and planning for the series that spans from the mid-1960s to the 90s.
The electric success of the band and acrimonious split, originally chronicled in the best-selling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid,
“Scream VI” Cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz on Framing Scenes So They Cut Deep
Brett Jutkiewicz wanted the images to cut a little deeper in Scream VI. Inspired by the franchise’s move to New York City, the cinematographer wanted a crueler and harsher mood. To achieve this effect, Jutkiewicz ditched anamorphic lenses and brought a new aesthetic to the long-running series.
Filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, known as Radio Silence, embraced Jutkiewicz’s idea for a new style. The trio collaborated on Ready or Not and the previous Scream film.
“John Wick: Chapter 4” Stunt Coordinators on How They Crafted the Craziest “Wick” Yet
Editor’s Note: Leading up to the release of John Wick: Chapter 4 on March 24, 2023, The Credits is publishing a “Wick Week” of content, weaving stories about the film’s fighting style, and cinematography, along with an interview with director Chad Stahelski. Some mild spoilers follow.
“No one department works by themselves,” says Scott Rogers,
“John Wick: Chapter 4” Fight Coordinator Jeremy Marinas on Building Balletic Mayhem With Keanu Reeves & Co.
Editor’s Note: Leading up to the release of John Wick: Chapter 4 on March 24, 2023, The Credits is publishing a “Wick Week” of content, weaving stories about the film’s stunts, and cinematography, along with an interview with director Chad Stahelski. Some mild spoilers follow.
Jeremy Marinas knows how to fight.
“Scream VI” Editor Jay Prychidny on Stitching Together an Epic Slasher
Scream VI is packed to the brim. It’s an ensemble horror movie with familiar and new characters, not to mention a new location and new rules to go along with the franchise’s history. There was no shortage of moving pieces for editor Jay Prychidny to help assemble.
Prychidny is a new addition to the Scream franchise. With directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, he took a more aggressive approach to the series.
“The Magician’s Elephant” Director Wendy Rogers on Her Charming Pixelated Pachyderm
Even in the time of Domee Shi, director of Pixar’s Oscar-nominated feature Turning Red, women as sole directors of animated features are a rare thing. This is partly what makes it so refreshing to see Netflix’s The Magician’s Elephant is helmed by veteran VFX supervisor Wendy Rogers in her feature directorial debut.
Adapted from Kate DiCamillo’s award-winning novel and animated by Animal Logic, the story follows Peter (Noah Jupe),
“Daisy Jones & the Six” Cinematographer Checco Varese on Evoking 70s Vibe Through a Contemporary Lens
Cinematographer Checco Varese won a 2022 Emmy for his gripping treatment of Appalachia’s opioid epidemic in Dopesick before taking on the relatively innocent place and time dramatized in Daisy Jones & the Six. The 10-episode series (adapted from Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel), now streaming on Amazon Prime, follows the rise and fall of a mid-seventies Fleetwood Mac-like L.A. band fueled by drugs, sex, and rock and roll.
Varese,
“Boston Strangler” Production Designer John Goldsmith Recreates a City’s Nightmare
There’s an entire film genre known as Boston movies, many of which are lampooned for their mangled accents. Good Will Hunting and The Town are two of the best, owing in large part to homegrown talents Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
Boston Strangler, which debuts March 17 on Hulu, can be added to the short list of movies that get many things about Boston right.
“Champions” Cinematographer C. Kim Miles Found Inspiration Everyday on Set
Cinematographer C. Kim Miles has shot everything from TV superhero The Flash and Robert Zemeckis’ miniaturized soldier epic Welcome to Marwen to teen cannibalism drama Yellowjackets and Michelle Yeoh‘s upcoming miniseries The Brothers Sun, which he describes as “Crazy Rich Asians meets John Wick.” But until director Bobby Farrelly’s Champions came along, Miles had never worked with a cast of developmentally challenged actors.
“Champions” Star Kaitlin Olson on Doing Improv With Woody, Her Bond With Her On-Screen Brother & More
Releasing in theaters March 10th, the heartwarming and acerbic dramedy Champions, directed by Bobby Farrelly, comes just in time to cheer those sick of winter and in the need for a little spring in their step. Based on the 2018 Spanish film Campeones, which won top awards and was the biggest hit of the year in that country, Champions stars Woody Harrelson and Kaitlin Olson and features an ensemble cast that includes ten performers with developmental disabilities.
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” Writer Jeff Loveness Spotlights Marvel’s Wackiest Characters
Honey, I Shrunk the Baddest Supervillain in the Multiverse might have been the alternate title for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Evil things come in little packages – but with big punchlines – in the pivotal first entry in Marvel’s Phase 5.
Screenwriter Jeff Loveness was tasked with introducing a new supervillain into the MCU that has to top Thanos, but don’t expect him to do it with a straight face.
“The Fabelmans” Oscar-Nominated Production Designer Rick Carter Gets Personal With Steven Spielberg
Veteran production designer Rick Carter art-directed the first Avatar, won an Oscar for his work on Forrest Gump, designed two Star Wars films, and collaborated with Steven Spielberg on ten movies ranging from Jurassic Park to Lincoln. Last month, Carter earned his fifth Oscar nomination for designing Spielberg’s autobiographically inspired The Fabelmans.
In contrast with much of his previous work,
Oscar-Nominated Makeup & Hair Designer Heike Merker Paints With Mud & Blood in “All Quiet on the Western Front”
Director Edward Berger’s adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front is a painfully absorbing epic. Berger’s take on Erich Maria Remarque’s iconic 1929 novel, captured with astonishing vividness by cinematographer James Friend, teases out the themes in the seminal work about the horrors of World War I with bloody precision. The film wastes no time in depicting the dehumanizing industry of the first mechanized war, in which a dead soldier is stripped of his uniform so that it can be stitched up,
Oscar-Nominated Sound Designer Frank Kruse Makes Some Noise on “All Quiet on the Western Front”
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel that lays bare the harsh brutality of war through the eyes of a naive youth fighting in the German trenches during WWI, is considered a literary classic. So Frank Kruse admits some hesitation when director Edward Berger told him he was doing a modern retelling. That disappeared after Kruse read the script. Though the challenge would be daunting, he wanted to be the film’s sound designer and supervising sound editor.
Filmmaker Sara Dosa Captures a Couple’s Burning Passion in Her Oscar-Nominated Doc “Fire of Love”
When Sara Dosa won Best Film Documentary Director from the Directors Guild on February 18 for Fire of Love, it was no doubt an acknowledgment of the daunting task Dosa faced in shaping nearly 200 hours of 16 mm archival footage shot by her subjects, without sound, into her mesmerizing film. Fire of Love is also nominated for this year’s Best Documentary Oscar.
Fire of Love, a National Geographic film on Disney+,
Oscar-Nominee Brendan Fraser on his Deep Dive into “The Whale”
Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky often pursues the road less taken in movies like The Wrestler, Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream. He’s done it again in The Whale, which stars Oscar-nominated Brendan Fraser as Charlie, a 600-pound English teacher who conducts classes over Zoom with his screen image hidden so students can’t see his true size. The entire film (now available on demand on Prime Video,
“The Whale” Oscar-Nominated Prosthetics Artist Adrien Morot Breaks the Mold
When it comes to makeup effects, Adrien Morot ranks among the very best. From fierce alligators (Crawl), to mutant superheroes (X Men films X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Dark Phoenix), to this year’s favorite film doll (M3GAN), Morot has proven time and again he’s a prosthetic wizard. But even he wondered if he had met his match when director Darren Aronofsky offered him The Whale.
“Cocaine Bear” VFX Supervisor Robin Hollander on Creating an Ursine Junkie
Cocaine Bear began snorting up viral eyeballs last fall, boosted by a madcap trailer that racked up 18 million views. Now boasting a $28 million opening weekend, second only to M3GAN as 2023’s biggest non-franchise hit, it’s based on the true story of a black bear who discovered a duffel bag of cocaine in the Georgia woods. Directed by Elizabeth Banks, Cocaine Bear features human stars Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich and Isiah Whitlock Jr.,
