“Loki” Makeup Department Head Douglas Noe on Designing Misfits & Minutemen
In ancient Norse mythology, Loki was a shape-shifting trickster inviting difficulty upon his companions as well as himself. In director Kate Herron’s new Disney+ series, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is true to his Norse roots. His journey begins with an arrest, having crossed a power-sapping organization called the Time Variance Authority. Loki is accused of being a variant, an offense that causes time-branching events that, to put it briefly, messes up the general order of things.
Documentarian Morgan Neville on “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain”
Charismatic author, chef, and world traveler Anthony Bourdain went from relative obscurity working in a New York restaurant to international success at the age of 43 when his memoir Kitchen Confidential was released. It started a meteoric rise to fame and led to Anthony Bourdain becoming a household name. When he killed himself at 61, his suicide shocked fans all over the world. Now Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville has created a fascinating, poignant portrait of the complicated man in Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain.
Veteran Voice Actor Jeff Bergman on Voicing the Looney Tunes Gang in “Space Jam: A New Legacy”
In Space Jam’s contemporary follow-up, Space Jam: A New Legacy, from director Malcolm D. Lee, the movie’s apex basketball game comes about thanks to star LeBron James’s youngest son, Dom (Cedric Joe), who doesn’t want to play the sport at all. Dom would rather design and program his own video games, an interest which inadvertently leads him and his father into the bowels of the Warner 3000 ServerVerse,
“Black Widow” Stunt Coordinator Rob Inch on the Art of Adrenaline
In her swan song as Russian assassin-turned-Avenger Natasha Romanoff, Scarlett Johansson fights her way through Black Widow (opening Friday) on a mission to destroy evil mastermind Dreykov (Ray Winstone) and his network of brainwashed female killers. But first, Natasha has to confront her equally ferocious kid sister Yelena, portrayed by Florence Pugh. (Some light spoilers ahead). Abandoned as children by their spy parents (David Harbour and Rachel Weisz),
“Summer of Soul” Editor on Piecing Together the Nearly Forgotten Black Woodstock
For nearly half a century, videotapes documenting the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival gathered dust in the basement of a Bronxville home. Filmed by Hal Tuchin and his four-person camera crew, the trove included goosebump-inducing performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples, B.B. King, the 5th Dimension, jazz drummer Max Roach and other masters of American music. Tuchin tried to package his work as “The Black Woodstock”
“Werewolves Within” Director Josh Ruben on His Hilarious Creature Feature
Werewolves Within invites you to the cozy town of Beverfield, Vermont, where things that go bump in the night are manifold. They might be a creature out to get you, or, they might be your neighbor, out to bother the crap out of you. Director Josh Ruben has crafted a deliciously nimble murder mystery/monster story/comedy in the comfy (if cold and often creepy) confines of this wooded would-be paradise. Based on Mishna Wolff’s script,
Creating the Wonderful World of Disney+’s “The Mysterious Benedict Society”
They met in an improv group while students at Brown University, and joined forces as screenwriters after graduating. Some three decades later, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi have racked up a noteworthy roster of film credits that include Destroyer, The Invitation, Ride Along and Ride Along 2, and Clash of the Titans. Their finely-tuned creative process moves from talking deeply through plot points to outlining extensively to splitting up scenes to write individually before reconvening to edit and polish — almost always while sitting in the same room,
How the “Mare of Easttown” Editor Carefully Constructed HBO’s Brilliant Murder Mystery
Easttown is filled with secrets and lies as thick as the townsfolk’s accents. These deceptions cloud the journey to uncover the truth about a tragic and twisted mystery. It soon becomes clear that only detective Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet) has the connections and clever intuition to catch a killer. Thankfully we didn’t need our own detective notebook to track down the suspect. Mare of Easttown editor Amy Duddleston worked diligently to be sure viewers didn’t lose track of a single clue while layering the suspense.
Dressing Icons and Con Men With “Genius: Aretha” and “Better Call Saul” Costume Designer Jennifer Bryan
Costume designer Jennifer Bryan can pivot from glamour to gaudy, from an icon to a con artist, without missing a beat—or a thread. Bryan’s work can currently be seen on National Geographic’s third season of Genius, which focused on the monumental career and legacy of Aretha Franklin (Cynthia Erivo).
Bryan’s now hard at work on a very different kind of show, trading in Aretha Franklin’s shimmering dresses (and profound decency) for the gaudy,
“Doc McStuffins” Creator Chris Nee on The Future of Children’s Programming
There are few people on the planet who are in a better position to talk about what’s working, and what still needs work, in children’s programming than Doc McStuffins creator Chris Nee. Like so many great ideas, Nee came up with Doc McStuffins, a series about a six-year-old girl who is a doctor to her stuffed animals and toys, while in the shower. Yet the impetus for the beloved series was her own life and her son’s struggles with asthma.
“Lovecraft Country” Costume Designer Dayna Pink’s Many Worlds of Fashion
Creator Misha Green‘s Lovecraft Country was one of the most startling, sumptuous series of 2020, and one of the big reasons why it looked so good was the work of costume designer Dayna Pink. Designing looks for everything from shoppers on Greenwood Avenue in 1921 Tulsa to soldiers during the Korean War to the Afrofutrisim of a multidimensional world set in space, Pink’s designs were integral to the success of Lovecraft Country.
Going Pedal To The Metal With “F9” Stunt Coordinator Andy Gill
Any mention of the words “fast” and “furious” immediately brings to mind one of film’s most successful franchises. But for stunt coordinator Andy Gill, it’s another word beginning with “f” that makes these movies so special.
“Truthfully, it’s the family feeling,” says Gill during a recent Zoom interview. “Fast has become like a big family. I’ve been working with Spiro (Razatos), the second unit director, for 36 years. The people around us… probably 15 years.
Oscar-Nominated Producer Rachel Winter on Her Directorial Debut “The Space Between”
Oscar-nominated producer Rachel Winter worked for years to help get Dallas Buyers Club made, deploying a cheerful tenacity that she’s again and again in her career. The tireless Winter has made a career of finding and shepherding projects, sometimes for years, that she believes in. Or, it might be more accurate to say that Winter has gotten projects made that she herself can’t shake, that she thinks about over and over again.
“Halston” Costume Designer Jeriana San Juan on Channeling a Fashion Icon
Starring Ewan McGregor and produced by Ryan Murphy, the Netflix miniseries series Halston charts the rise and fall of the iconic American fashion designer, by way of the glitzy, glamorous, and cocaine-addled Studio 54-era New York. We talk to costume designer Jeriana San Juan about getting into Halston’s head to create the pivotal pieces and teaching Ewan McGregor the tricks of the trade.
Halston’s director Daniel Minahan said recently the show “lives and dies by the clothing and the costumes.” How did you go about meeting that challenge?
“Lovecraft Country” Production Designer Kalina Ivanov on Melding History & Fantasy
Production designer Kalina Ivanov‘s work on Misha Green‘s Lovecraft Country was one of world-building and resurrecting. The world-building—which included creating more than 162 sets, challenged Ivanov and her team to create haunted houses, a Korean hanok home to a mythical creature, and a pirate ship (to name a few). For the resurrection portion of her work, Ivanov recreated Tulsa’s Greenwood district, known as “Black Wall Street,” the site of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre,
“12 Mighty Orphans” Costume Designer Goes Deep on Football Helmets & Fedoras
As underdog sports dramas go, it’s hard to improve on the fact-based 12 Mighty Orphans, which tracks a team of scrawny teenagers living in a Fort Worth orphanage as they progress from dead-last in their league to the 1938 state finals under the leadership of Coach Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson). Football fans might marvel at the antique charm of the players’ homemade uniforms while vintage fashion buffs can savor a cavalcade of period-perfect hats worn by Wilson,
“In The Heights” Supervising Sound Editor On Capturing a Musical City’s Magic
In The Heights is, in all ways, an epic collaboration. Director Jon M. Chu‘s adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical, written by original playwright Quiara Alegria Hudes, summoned musicians, choreographers, and a vast team of filmmakers to pull off. It’s never easy to adapt something that was already massively successful in its original form, nor is it easy to make a compelling, modern musical. Throw a pandemic into the middle of it and you’ve cranked up your difficulty setting to eleven.
The Limitless World of Fashion Created by the “Bridgerton” Costume Designers
As we were all distancing ourselves from one another over the past year, Bridgerton burst into our homes with a voyeuristic view of steamy couples getting very, very close. The most indulgent fantasy of the series, however, was imagining the pleasure of putting on a magnificent Regency ensemble and actually having somewhere to go.
We have costume designers Ellen Mirojnick and John Glaser to thank for those scrumptious fashion treats.
“Star Trek: Discovery” Costume Designer Gersha Phillips on the Future of Fashion
Costume designer Gersha Phillips has been part of building the world of CBS Studios’ Star Trek: Discovery since the beginning, garnering acclaim for her futuristic and creative designs used on the show over its 3 seasons. The 3rd season in particular represented major costume challenges, as the Discovery crew gets propelled through time to almost a thousand years in the future. Phillips and her costume department were more than up to the task,
“Cruella” Sound Editor Mark Stoeckinger on Getting 1970s England Right
Whether it’s her bohemian attic lair, Liberty’s department store, or her job at an insufferable couture designer’s immaculate atelier, young Cruella, née Estella (Emma Stone) divides her time between very particular environments in 1970s England. She and her pals, Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser), are roommates, professional delinquents, and dog-lovers. A terrier and a chihuahua assist them in their lives of petty crime and everyone seems to get along in the free spirit of communal living funded by pickpocketing,
