Director Marian De Pontes on her Horizon Award-Winning Film “Etana”

For director Marian De Pontes‘ Horizon Award-winning short film Etana, the South African native did not choose an easy subject. De Pontes, who earned her MFA in film production from Chapman University, and her BA with Honors in Film Production from the University of The Witwatersrand in South Africa, was inspired by a New York Times article on child soldiers in South Sudan. Etana is a potent epic-in-miniature, focusing on the title character (played by Vivian Nweze) and her attempt to flee her forced servitude in an army that deploys children soldiers.

Horizon Award Winner Shira Baron on The Importance of Listening

For a young filmmaker casting about for a story, sometimes the subject is standing right in front of you, even calling out to you. That was the case for Shira Baron, a recent recipient of the Horizon Award, whose short De Sol a Sol won for Best Documentary Short. Baron’s film follows entrepreneurs Ricardo and Abraham, ice cream cart peddlers who have been working on Chicago’s northern shore for 20 years. Baron, currently enrolled in the University of Michigan’s Film,

How “The Unholy” Visual Effects Team Created Biblical Scares During Scary Times

“In the early innings, as the pandemic was ramping up, it was like looking out at the ocean and you see a storm coming, and you’re not sure you can get to shore before the storm gets there.” That’s an observation that might describe most of the past year; certainly, it’s politics, work and school life, and of course healthcare delivery. In this case, it also applies to the almost all-virtual workaround to finish the recent Screen Gems horror release The Unholy,

Editor Gabriel Rhodes on Cutting the Oscar-Nominated Doc “Time”

“I never thought a film could be made with such a minimal amount of information,” says editor Gabriel Rhodes. But not only was it made; it currently has an Oscar nomination for best feature-length documentary.

The film in question is called, simply, Time. Coming from director/artist Garrett Bradley, it chronicles a long stretch of time, twenty years’ worth, in which Louisiana-based wife and mother, Fox Rich,

“Godzilla vs. Kong” VFX Supervisor on Creating Titan Title Match of the Ages

John ‘D.J’. Des Jardin has been a go-to visual effects supervisor in Hollywood for decades, and he’s widely known as one of the best and nicest guys in the business. You can see his inventive, creative touch in The Matrix, X-Men, and Mission Impossible franchises. His work can be seen on Ang Lee’s achingly beautiful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The man’s talents cross all genres—if you need something to exist on screen that doesn’t,

Oscar-Nominated Costume Designer Bina Daigeler on Mixing History & Myth in “Mulan”

When director Niki Caro took on Disney’s live-action reboot of Mulan, you knew the New Zealand-born filmmaker was going to deliver something transporting. The original “Ballad of Mulan” was first shared in China in the 6th century, and was then shared again as a Disney animated movie in 1998. In Caro’s hands, the mythology of Mulan becomes a lush live-action epic, buoyant and beautiful, as our titular heroine goes from a headstrong daughter into a fearless warrior fighting to defend China,

Scoring a Serial Killer’s Many Transformations in “The Serpent”

In the 1970s, young travelers flocked to Asia for exotic adventures and a liberating nomadic lifestyle, but an evil force slithered beneath the surface to prey on them. Netflix’s The Serpent dives into the underbelly world of real-life serial killer, Charles Sobhraj. Tahar Rahim stars as the convicted murderer who targeted westerners and hippies traveling through Bangkok to steal their identities and funds. Composer Dominik Scherrer scored the hypnotic soundtrack that draws from the era and geographic setting,

Director Chiaki Kon on Her Netflix Anime Feature “The Way Of The Househusband”

A new Japanese anime series The Way Of The Househusband will premiere on Netflix globally on April 8. The five-episode series follows Tatsu, once a legendary yakuza nicknamed The Immortal Dragon, who is determined to become a devoted stay-at-home husband, diligently handling all the daily chores for his wife Miku, a busy career woman. But his newfound domestic bliss is soon interrupted when friends and foes from the past come back into his lives.

“French Exit” Director Azazel Jacobs on Loving His Wicked, Witty Central Character

Director Azazel Jacobs‘ French Exit won’t, on first blush, seem like a feel-good movie. Its protagonist, Frances Price (Michelle Pfeiffer), is a ferociously acerbic fading socialite who more or less doesn’t want to live anymore. Based on Jacobs’ friend and collaborator Patrick DeWitt’s novel (and adapted by DeWitt himself), there seems no earthly reason why anyone, in the year 2021, would feel affectionate towards a privileged woman lamenting her third act turn towards insolvency by savaging everyone in her path.

Makeup Department Head Matiki Anoff on Capturing the 1920s Aesthetic in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”

Makeup department head Matiki Anoff had her work cut out for her with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Director George C. Wolfe’s adaptation of August Wilson’s play revolves around Viola Davis’s hard-charging blues singer Ma, and the tensions that boil over between her and her ambitious horn player Levee (the late Chadwick Boseman), as well as the white management running their recording session.

Like her colleagues, makeup artist Sergio Lopez-Rivera and hair department head Mia Neal,

“Concrete Cowboy” Director Ricky Staub Saddles Up in Feature Debut

Westerns have a long and prominent role in cinematic history. The genre tends to conjure images of white hat vigilantes wrangling wild stallions in wide-open plains, but Concrete Cowboy (premiering April 2 on Netflix) starring Idris Elba will challenge all of your preconceived notions. The real-life men who inspire the film ride horseback at the Fletcher Street Stables through the middle of inner-city Philadelphia.

Writer/director Ricky Staub took note of the unusual riders years ago.

Composer Keefus Ciancia Releases Two-Volume Soundtrack for HBO Max’s “Made For Love”

Composer Keefus Ciancia is no stranger to dark material. In 2019 Ciancia won a BAFTA for Best Television Soundtrack for his work on Phoebe Waller-Bridge‘s deliciously diabolical Killing Eve and was nominated for an Emmy for his work on season three of HBO’s True Detective. Now, Ciancia is the composer behind another twisty HBO Max series, Made For Love, based on Alissa Nutting’s novel (she executive produces and writes on the series). 

Oscar-Nominated Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt on “Mank” – Part II

As mentioned in part I of our interview, director David Fincher and cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt didn’t want to spend the entirety of Mank trying to make it appear as if Citizen Kane DP Gregg Toland had shot it, “But there were things that we wanted to embrace holistically – like deep focus – where it made sense to do so,” the Messerschmidt explains. “It was never an ‘Oh, great,

Oscar-Nominated Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt on “Mank” – Part I

Actors Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried go for their characters’ leisurely evening stroll outside San Marino’s Huntington Library, which is subbing in for William Randolph Hearst’s Hearst Castle at San Simeon.  The only thing is, it’s not night – and the actors are wearing custom-tinted contact lenses to help them avoid squinting, due to the additional bright lights director of photography Erik Messerschmidt has added to make his day-for-night photography appear correct in the final image.

Costume Designer Deborah Newhall on Dressing the Dastardly in “I Care A Lot”

Writer/director J. Blakeson’s I Care A Lot is a gleefully cynical uppercut against late-stage capitalism that is also, incredibly, a blast to watch. The con artist at its center, Rosamund Pike’s Marla Grayson, would be hard to root for if both her performance and the film itself weren’t so infectiously committed to its amorality. One of I Care A Lot‘s central themes is that the heart of capitalism isn’t healthy competition or ingenuity or hard work—it’s exploitation.

Cinematographer Fabian Wagner on “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”

A lot of people are professing surprise at the success of Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max, not only in terms of the critical praise it’s getting, being called “operatic” or as richly imagined as Lord of the Rings, but even in the calls to continue the film’s teased sequels, and pursue a #Snyderverse on HBO Max.

As this was being written, no less than the Washington Post’s opinion pages ran a column from its culture &

Director Shaka King Breaks Down the Magic Trick Behind “Judas and the Black Messiah”

Judas and the Black Messiah opened last month and quickly galvanized moviegoers with its fact-based story about Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, whose betrayal by an FBI informant led to his 1969 death by gunfire at age 21 while sleeping in his own Chicago apartment. The film racked up six Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Director Shaka King earned a nomination for co-writing the screenplay and steered co-stars Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield to their own Oscar nods in the Best Supporting Actor category.

Sound Designer Scott Hecker on Going Big in “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”

At four hours long, HBO Max’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a reworked version of the 2017 film started by director Snyder but finished by Joss Whedon, differs most obviously from its predecessor in length. Those two extra hours, however, do much more than simply pile up the story, even if the overall plot remains mostly the same. In revisiting what started as his film and now has definitively ended as such,

Oscar-Nominated Makeup Department Head Gigi Williams on “Mank”

David Fincher‘s Mank is the most Oscar-nominated film of the year, amassing ten, thanks to the beauty and brilliance of its black-and-white execution. One of those nominations belongs to makeup department head Gigi Williams, a veteran who picks her work based on her belief in the director. In Fincher, she was collaborating with one of the most precise filmmakers in the business, and in Mank, working off a script from his father Jack Fincher,

Oscar Nominees Mia Neal & Sergio Lopez-Rivera on the Hair & Makeup of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”

I got a chance to speak to hair department head Mia Neal and makeup artist Sergio Lopez-Rivera about their work in George C. Wolfe’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom before the Oscar nominations were announced. Tasked with, among other challenges, turning Oscar-nominee Viola Davis into the real-life Ma was no easy feat, least of all because there wasn’t a ton of photographic evidence to work with. Add to that scorching temperatures during much of the shoot (they filmed in Pittsburgh in the summer of 2019) and the heavy makeup,