Best of 2019: Fleabag‘s Emmy-Nominated Cinematographer on Crafting a Nearly Flawless Second Season

*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019. Happy Holidays!

There’s no such thing as flawless art. Flaws are baked right into anything a human being creates, and often they are hard to disassociate from the strengths that make any art worthwhile. Yet I’ve heard several people call Fleabag‘s second season flawless, and I’ve been hard-pressed to argue the point. Few shows on television are as personal,

Best of 2019: How Us Cinematographer Michael Gioulakis Captured Doppelgangers in the Dark

*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019.

“I have an aversion to moonlight, at least in movies.” So says cinematographer Michael Gioulakis, who had ample opportunity to capture dark spaces in Jordan Peele‘s critically acclaimed horror film Us. Peele’s follow-up to Oscar-nominated thriller Get Out casts Lupita Nyog’o as a high-strung mother who’s being stalked, along with her husband (Winston Duke) and kids (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex),

Best of 2019: Spencer Averick on Finding Truth & Humanity in the Edit of When They See Us

*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019 from some of our favorite films and shows of the year.

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.

Best of 2019: The Irishman Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto on Crafting Scorsese’s Masterpiece

*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019 from some of our favorite films and shows of the year.

Beloved auteur Martin Scorsese’s new film The Irishman has brought Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci together onscreen for the first time in 24 years and added Al Pacino, whom he’d never worked with before, building a cast that sounds truly compelling to lovers of great acting and great film.

Screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns on Helping Sam Mendes Write his WWI Epic 1917

“The third time,” director Sam Mendes said to screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns when asking her to co-write 1917 with him, “is the charm.” And in a film that shows how random luck is as much a factor in surviving war as anything else, he was right.

Wilson-Cairns had originally come to his attention through a combination of a well-regarded script on “the Black List” — that rundown of the best crop of unproduced spec scripts — with a project called Aether.

How Cinematographer Roger Deakins & Team Pulled off the One-Shot Masterpiece 1917

For Sam Mendes, the multi-hyphenate who produced, directed and co-wrote the script with Krysty Wilson-Cairns, 1917 was a personal story. It follows two British soldiers – Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) – tasked with delivering a message across enemy lines in order to stop a battle that could save hundreds of soldiers’ lives. The idea came to Mendes after his grandfather shared with him World War I stories where he himself had been a runner.

How Watchmen Cinematographer Gregory Middleton Captured Hooded Justice’s Harrowing Origin

Vancouver-based DP Gregory Middleton has lensed his share of prestigious series before Watchmen, having scored Emmy and ASC nominations for his work on different Game of Thrones episodes, and finding himself behind the viewfinder for shows like The Killing, cult hit movies like James Gunn’s Slither and many more.

But it was working with director Nicole Kassell on episodes of The Killing—rather than his earlier toe-dip into the DC Universe,

Sandy Powell & Christopher Peterson on Dressing De Niro (and More) in The Irishman

In Martin Scorsese’s three and a half-hour Netflix gangster opus, The Irishman, Robert De Niro plays real-life Philadelphia mobster Frank Sheeran across five decades. The film’s VFX team had their work cut out for them during Frank’s early years, while hair and makeup were responsible for the much aged De Niro who directly addresses the camera from a nursing home at the beginning and close of the movie.

Actor, Writer, and Producer Reggie Lochard on his Passion Project

Actor, screenwriter, and producer Reggie Lochard has a lot going on. He’s currently filming his passion project, “A” for Alpha., which he wrote, produced, and stars in. Last week, Lochard sat down with the Motion Picture Association’s Vice President for Multicultural and External Affairs, John Gibson, at the third annual New York State Multicultural Creativity Summit. The Summit was co-hosted by the Empire State Development, Motion Picture Association, and Ghetto Film School,

How Robert De Niro’s Makeup Team Traversed 50-Years in The Irishman

In describing The Irishman, Martin Scorsese’s latest feature, one word that keeps popping up is “epic.” And deservedly so. A sweeping three-and-a-half-hour saga, The Irishman explores the true-life story of Frank Sheeran, an organized crime figure and close confidant of Jimmy Hoffa, who rose to the top of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Ultimately, he betrayed his boss, orchestrating Hoffa’s disappearance and demise. Robert De Niro plays Sheeran. Al Pacino costars as Hoffa.

How Jay-Z Connected the Oscar Hopefuls of Uncut Gems

The song “Marcy Me,” a poetically rhythmic Jay-Z track where the billionaire mogul reminisces about his time living in the Marcy Projects of Brooklyn raps, “Streets is my artery, the vein of my existence.” It’s an apt line to describe Howard Ranter (Adam Sandler), a fast-talking jewelry store owner in New York’s Diamond District who has to hustle the streets to crawl out of a life crashing around him.

But it’s more than lyrics that link Jay-Z to the movie Uncut Gems,

Editor Gordon Rempel on the Music of Editing

Gordon Rempel sees parallels between the approach he takes editing film and television and his love of making music. With more than two decades of experience in both fields, he would know.

“I actually have a musical background. I’ve been playing in bands continuously since I was a teenager. Music takes a lot of the same parts of your brain as editing does: it’s all rhythm, tempo, and pacing. And finding that accent point.

De-Aging the Iconic Actors of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman

In 2015, visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman was working with Martin Scorsese on Silence, a stirring film about the Christian faith during 17th century Japan. The two ended up having a conversation that ignited a technological advancement within the visual effects industry—one that will likely become a new standard in how images can be captured and processed during filmmaking.

“We were talking about a project and I mentioned making one of the characters younger.

Unraveling Marriage Story with Editor Jennifer Lame

It was well past 9 pm on a Sunday night when the word “hello” drifted through the speaker of my phone. On the line was editor Jennifer Lame who pulled herself away from Christopher Nolan’s action-thriller Tenet.

“It’s nice speaking with you again,” she said in an even-tempered tone. A tone very unlike the characters in Marriage Story from writer/director Noah Baumbach that dissects the inevitable split between spouses Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver).

Heading Abroad With Charlie’s Angels Location Manager

After a sixteen-year hiatus, the sorority, camaraderie, and crime-fighting of Charlie’s Angels is back, newly helmed by Elizabeth Banks, who also wrote the script and plays one of the movie’s chief supporting roles. No longer reporting to a Los Angeles-based Charlie, the Angels are taking on lawlessness around the globe for the Townsend Agency, supported by a gaggle of Bosleys (played by Patrick Stewart, Djimon Hounsou, and Banks). At the heart of the caper is Elena (Naomi Scott),

Composer Christophe Beck on Returning for a Second Round of Ice & Earworms in Frozen II

In Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck’s Frozen II, sisters Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell) are back, older and wiser and reunited for good. Unfortunately, Elsa, now Queen of Arendelle, is still having trouble with her ice-making powers, a disturbance that arrives this time around via a mysterious siren call she can’t make anything of without following it to the Enchanted Forest, where it turns out an indigenous people,

Watchmen’s Costume Designer Meghan Kasperlik on This Extraordinary Series

Now that Watchmen has made its glorious debut on HBO and confounded just about every expectation, we can say with confidence that Damon Lindelof’s adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons iconic graphic novel is a remarkable testament to the original and a bold, powerful piece of original storytelling itself. The reason is Lindelof and his incredible team of writers, directors, actors, and crew hasn’t adapted the graphic novel itself,

Writer/Director Noah Baumbach on his Devastating Marriage Story

Writer/director Noah Baumbach’s substantial body of work has often explored families in all their painful, darkly funny dysfunction, evolving from the perspective of an adolescent witness to the break-up of his parents in his 2005 second feature, the Oscar-nominated The Squid and the Whale, to the poignant, middle-aged observations of a son coming to terms with his estranged family and self-absorbed father in 2017’s The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected).

Frozen II Head of Special Effects Marlon West on the Sequel’s Epic Ambitions

Frozen II co-director and screenwriter Jennifer Lee says that if the Disney Oscar-winning blockbuster Frozen was about a happily ever after, then Frozen II is about the day after happily ever after. Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf are back, and fans get to see this found family take on new challenges and learn more about themselves and each other. As part of this chapter in their story,

Waves Writer/Director Trey Edward Shults & Stars Kelvin Harrison & Taylor Russell on Their Powerful Drama

From the moment the new film Waves had its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in August, it started getting awards mentions. Touted were the emotional intensity and authenticity of the script by writer/director Trey Edward Shults, and the powerhouse performances served up by an ensemble cast that included stars Kelvin Harrison, Taylor Russell, Lucas Hedges, and Sterling K. Brown. The story centers on the members of one South Floridian family, and how their personal challenges lead variously to trauma,