Spider-Man: Far From Home—A Tale Told on Three Bridges
Peter Parker’s summertime journey through Europe in Spider-Man: Far From Home is an American teenager’s dream. His science class trip hits Venice, Prague, Austria, and London, with Peter (Tom Holland) making Spider-Man work detours to Berlin and the Netherlands. In reality, the majority of the production relied on locations in Italy and the Czech Republic, with sets built on a backlot in the UK’s Leavesden Studios providing a backdrop for the film’s stunts and visual effects.
Greg Kinnear on his Directorial Debut Phil
For his first time helming a feature film, actor Greg Kinnear picked a dark comedy centered on a depressed dentist experiencing a mid-life crisis. Phil is also struggling to understand why one of his patients, seemingly with everything to live for, takes his own life.
It was an especially demanding undertaking, given that Kinnear also played the lead role. But armed with his vast experience on screen, lessons learned watching the many renowned directors he’s worked with,
Meet the Managing Director of the Walt Disney Animation Research Library
Mary Walsh says she has the best job in the Walt Disney Company, but she might just have the best job in the world – she is the managing director of the Walt Disney Animation Research Library and she oversees the Walt Disney Studios Ink & Paint Department, which was instrumental in the early days of animation. Those are the artists who actually translate the animated drawings to create and the images that as a moviegoer you would see on the screen.
Toy Story 4‘s Story Supervisor Valerie LaPointe on Bo Peep, Gabby Gabby & More
The trilogy of the first three Toy Story installments may have seemed complete, but Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang are back for another round in director Josh Cooley’s addition to the franchise, and they’ve got a new set of responsibilities to the child in their life, Bonnie. The story gets going with the tyke’s reluctant entry to pre-school, a topic of much debate among her playthings. Woody (Tom Hanks) is no longer top toy,
Director Alex Holmes & Subject Tracy Edwards on Their Thrilling Sailing Doc Maiden
The thrilling documentary Maiden, the story of 24-year-old Tracy Edwards skippering the first ever all-female crew in the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989, is coming to theaters. The film chronicles the challenges, victories, and overt sexism Tracy and her crew faced in sailing in the famed race around the world. Though it’s filled with messages of female empowerment, it is a film everyone will find inspiring and compelling. The Credits spoke to director Alex Holmes and subject Tracy Edwards about her achievements in the historic race,
How a Global VFX Effort Animated the Lovable, Lunatic Aliens in Men in Black: International
From Sony Pictures Imageworks headquarters in Culver City, California, visual effects supervisor Dan Kramer helped coordinate a worldwide array of CGI artists to produce some 2000 VFX shots for the aptly named Men In Black: International. Kramer, who previously animated Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Hotel Transylvania before switching to live action on Tom Cruise thriller Edge of Tomorrow, joined forces with visual effects supervisor Jerome Chen to manage the massive CGI pipeline feeding MIB: International.
How Yesterday’s Producer Made the Beatles-Themed Film Come Together
The nobody-knows-who-the-Beatles-are high concept driving Yesterday (opening Friday) may not have originated with producer Tim Bevan, but the Working Title co-chairman responsible for five Oscar-nominated movies knew exactly how to take the idea and run with it. American humorist Jack Barth created the fantastical scenario about a busker who wakes up from a bike crash and discovers that he’s the only one in the world who remembers the music created by John,
Marwan Kenzari on Becoming Jafar in Aladdin
There’s a lot more to Dutch actor Marwan Kenzari’s than even his highest profile role to date, the villain Jafar in Disney’s live-action musical Aladdin, might indicate.
A classically trained stage actor in his native the Netherlands, Kenzari auditioned for the role of sinister Jafar by singing; the character’s song never made it into the movie.
“I was talking to Alan Menken, the amazing writer of [the film’s] songs,
Los Espookys Co-Creator & Breakout Star Ana Fabrega on her new HBO Series
On June 30, New York City will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which catalyzed the contemporary gay rights movement as we know it. As a gay filmmaker and comedic performer who was born the year Stonewall took place, I’m thrilled that, especially in the last few years, mainstream entertainment has embraced a new unashamed and unfiltered breed of LGBTQ comedian. Case in point: The superb new HBO comedy Los Espookys.
How Mood & Lighting Established Tone in The Last Black Man in San Francisco
The Last Black Man in San Francisco marks the feature debut for director Joe Talbot, an allegory that puts a spotlight on the childhood dream and the effects of gentrification.
Inspired by the real-life story of Jimmie Fails, who plays a fictionalized version of himself, Fails, with the help of his best friend Mont (Jonathan Majors), go on a journey to take back the family home his grandfather built but lost ownership of when he was a young child.
Laura Dern on Finding Renata in Big Little Lies
When Laura Dern took on the character of Renata Klein for HBO’s mammoth hit Big Little Lies three years ago, she knew exploring the emotional life of this alpha female wasn’t going to be her focal point. The character is tough, all business, and doesn’t have a lot of friends – not the least of which her co-stars’ characters, played by Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley and Zoe Kravitz (and,
Spencer Averick on Finding Truth & Humanity in the Edit of When They See Us
Netflix rarely releases viewer numbers, but on June 12th, the streaming service tweeted that Ava DuVernay’s miniseries When They See Us has been its most-watched content in the US since the show’s premiere on May 31st. In the UK, When They See Us has been running second only to Black Mirror. But audiences hardly need to turn to Black Mirror’s fictional,
How Russian Doll’s Cinematographer Owned the Night in Netflix’s hit Series
“Joel was amazing for coming up with solutions for turning New York into a Russian Doll city.” The Big Apple already boasts its share of Russian dolls, mobsters, peroshkis, and more, of course, but cinematographer Chris Teague is instead referring his gaffer, Joel Minnich, and the recent hit Netflix series of the same title, which he shot.
Starring co-creator, co-producer (and for one episode, director) Natasha Lyonne, Russian Doll follows the various embedded and unraveling realities of Nadia,
Carmen Ejogo on her Pivotal Role in True Detective’s Season Three
In season three of True Detective, creator and writer Nic Pizzolatto returns to the series’ Southern Gothic roots, with two detectives, Vietnam vet Wayne “Purple” Hays (Mahershala Ali) and Roland West (Stephen Dorff) trying to solve the murder of one child and the disappearance of another in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Hays takes the lead on the case in 1980 and is doing desk work and starting to lose his memory by the time we reach 1990 (West,
Jared Harris on Creating Valery Legasov, Chernobyl’s Reluctant Hero
It’s the lies told throughout Craig Mazin’s five-episode series Chernobyl that get you. After all, most anybody watching the HBO program set in today’s northern Ukraine will already know that the Soviet nuclear plant exploded in 1986, the area was eventually evacuated, and the adjacent newly-built town of Pripyat transformed into a ghost city, as did 1,000 square miles of other towns and villages in what’s now known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ VFX Supervisor on Giving Mythic Dimension to the Titans
Godzilla first came to life in 1954 when actor Haruo Nakajima put on a sweltering 220-pound suit and tromped around a Tokyo soundstage smashing miniature buildings. Orchestrated by special effects genius Eiji Tsuburaya, the black and white Godzilla, King of the Monsters terrified movie audiences and effectively birthed the Kaiju cinematic universe of radiation-mutated ogres. This summer, Godzilla: King of the Monsters version 2 relied on five visual effects shops to digitally resuscitate the gargantuan title reptile and fellow titans Rodan,
How Rent: Live‘s Production Designer Created a 360-Degree World on Live TV
One of the most ambitious TV projects of this year that didn’t include CGI dragons and battles with ice zombies happened on Sunday night, January 27. This was the moment when Fox aired a live version of the iconic musical Rent. To call staging a live version of Rent on TV ambitious is probably underselling it. The musical, which focuses on seven artists living in New York City’s East Village in 1996,
Leaving Neverland‘s Composer on Scoring a Legacy Shattered
It’s sometimes hard to fathom the kind of pinnacle Michael Jackson reached. The King of Pop was a singular phenomenon without equal. His dominion was the entire planet. His star power was so colossal, his status as the greatest living entertainer so secure, it is not unreasonable to say no one will ever enjoy (if you can call it enjoyment) that level of fame again. His influence on artists far and wide is still being felt today.
Meet The Other Two‘s Secret Weapon—Songwriter Brett McLaughlin
If you haven’t watched Comedy Central’s The Other Two, I’m jealous of you. It is one of this year’s most consistently funny shows, with a joke-per-minute ratio that rivals some of our recent standard bearers, like HBO’s Veep. Go watch it and see for yourself. Created by SNL alums Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, The Other Two centers on a young musician named Chase Dreams (Case Walker),
Sharp Objects & Big Little Lies Production Designer on Creating Signature Worlds
If you had not one but two critically acclaimed HBO series under your belt, you’d be permitted to gloat. If those series were wildly different yet deliciously unforgettable, you might even be expected to brag a little. But that’s not production designer John Paino‘s way. The laidback pro was happy to discuss his work on Sharp Objects and Big Little Lies without any unnecessary braggadocio. With Big Little Lies back for season two,
