Hollywood vs the Elements: Top 5 Challenges of Shooting Everest
In 1996 two expeditions set out in an attempt to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain, when they were hit with a deadly blizzard. Everest tells the story of their bid for survival in some of the harshest conditions nature has to offer. Here are some of the difficulties the cast and crew of Everest faced in an attempt to authentically recreate the ordeal:
- Lugging equipment up mountains
Boardwalk Empire’s Production Designer on Building Havana & Atlantic City
Bill Groom is a three-time Emmy winner as production designer on HBO’s series Boardwalk Empire. He’s now been nominated a fourth time for his work for the last season of one of the most ambitious mob-centric TV show in history. Centered on the rise of gangster and would-be credible businessman Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (Steve Buscemi) in prohibition-era Atlantic City, Boardwalk Empire offered a panoramic vision of the power players vying for control of the liquor trade and more, from Chicago's Al Capone to New York's Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky.
Mad Style: The Man From U.N.C.L.E’s Production Designer Oliver Scholl
Guy Ritchie’s latest film The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is a remake of the 1960s TV series, starring Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer and Alicia Vikander. The spy film, set at the height of the Cold War, is a stylish ride, shot through with humor. The Credits talks to production designer Oliver Scholl (Jumper, Edge of Tomorrow) about how to achieve a stylish, rather than stylized look,
Meet the Crew That Worked on Both Jurassic Park & Jurassic World
Universal's new Jurassic World is being heralded as a proper folllow-up to Steven Spielberg's 1993 classic Jurassic Park, the film that raised the bar for what CGI could accomplish and blew the minds of kids and adults alike. When director Colin Trevorrow took the helm of Jurassic World, the first film in the franchise in 14-years, both he and executive producer Steven Spielberg wanted to recapture the magic of that first film.
How’d They Film That? Avengers: Age of Ultron Production Designer Explains
You might imagine when you see Avengers: Age of Ultron that nearly everything is CGI. Yet Joss Whedon, when at all possible, wanted practical effects and real sets. Much like JJ Abrams has reportedly done on the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Whedon prefers to build as much of his world “in camera” as he can.
What does “in camera” mean? It’s the question we asked production designer Charles Wood (Thor: The Dark World,
Stormtroopers, Snoopy & a Virtual Reese Witherspoon: Highlights From the 2015 Creativity Conference
Stormtroopers, Snoopy and a one-on-one audience with Reese Witherspoon—the 2015 Creativity Conference was manna for film buffs, tech geeks and policy wonks alike. The stormtroopers, unusually accommodating, were on hand to help conference goers create the ultimate selfie (the James Bond gun barrel backdrop, where one could get their photo taken against the iconic opening montage in the opening credits to Bond films, was also pretty awesome), ditto Snoopy, who offered as many fist-bumps as he did hugs.
Go Back to the Future With the Live Stream of 3rd Annual Creativity Conference
In Back to the Future Part II, Marty McFly's trip in the DeLorean took him all the way to…October 21st, 2015. If that doesn't make you feel old, we envy you.
Today at the 3rd annual Creativity Conference, held at The Newseum in Washington. D.C., Microsoft researcher Sidhant Gupta and a former studio technology executive and indie filmmaker Howard Lukk will explore the zany, futuristic world of 2015 that Marty McFly encountered, one that revealed all sorts of surprising innovations —
Making It: Ruth De Jong’s Designs on Paul Thomas Anderson & Terrence Malick
Ruth De Jong never thought she would end up working on movies. She wanted to be a painter.
But now, a decade into her career as a production designer and art director, she’s tallied up credits on films like The Tree of Life, To the Wonder and Knight of Cups from director Terrence Malick, and There Will Be Blood, The Master and Inherent Vice with Paul Thomas Anderson.
2014 in Review: Lensers, Designers, Makeup Artists & More – PART II
The end of the year brings a few reliable reactions; promises to do x, y and z more consistently in the new year, reflection on all that you accomplished (and failed at, and regretted) this past year, and 'Year in Review' lists. Yesterday we published Part I of our look back at some of the filmmakers we interviewed in 2014. On Monday, we published an interview with cinematographer Robert Yeoman, looking back on his work in Wes Anderson's
Paul Thomas Anderson & his Team Tweak Los Angeles in Inherent Vice
There can be few novelists more daunting to adapt for the screen than Thomas Pynchon. The worlds he creates, with their sprawling casts and Ouroboros-like narratives, present major problems for any filmmaker looking to keep his or her film coherent and under nine hours. Paul Thomas Anderson, the man who riffed on Upton Sinclair's "Oil" and turned it into the mesmerizing There Will Be Blood, is as good a candidate as you'd likely find to handle such an assignment.
The Imitation Game’s Production Designer Maria Djurkovich – Part II
Yesterday we published Part I of our conversation with production designer Maria Djurkovich, whose work on The Imitation Game would have made its’ genius subject, Alan Turing, proud. Benedict Cumberbatch's phenomenal turn as Turing has understandably garnered much of the press, but if you were to look closely at every frame of the film (and, preferably, be able to pause it), you would begin to see how Djurkovich put in a superstar performance herself,
The Imitation Game‘s Production Designer Maria Djurkovic – Part I
All the buzz for The Imitation Game is surrounding the phenomenal performance of Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Alan Turing, the mathematician and logistician who, along with a team of linguists, chess players and logicians helped break Germany’s Enigma code during World War II. Turing was a genius, and a difficult, unusual man, and Cumberbatch’s performance is indeed a marvel, bringing this still relatively unknown enigma (to American audiences) to vivid life.
At Long Last Filmgoers Will Head Into the Woods
Into the Woods began its life as a musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, debuting on Broadway on November 5, 1987 at the Martin Beck Theater. Former New York Times' theater critic Frank Rich (later an Op-Ed writer, now an editor-at-large at New York Magazine) wrote in his review, "The characters of ''Into the Woods" may be figures from children's literature, but their journey is the same painful,
Harsh Conditions Bring out the Best in The Homesman‘s Crew
When we interviewed Marco Beltrami, he was particularly jazzed up about the work he did for Tommy Lee Jones’ upcoming film The Homesman. Beltrami is the type of composer who seeks out directors (as he did with Joon-ho Bong for Snowpiercer) and he was excited about Jones’ second directorial effort. The film’s set in the punishing Nebraska frontier in the middle of the 19th century. This inspired Beltrami to record a lot of his score outdoors,
Interstellar’s Out of This World Crew
In a little over two weeks, on November 7, Christopher Nolan’s long awaited Interstellar will finally hit screens across the country. Jeff Jensen’s cover story for Entertainment Weekly uncovered a lot of juicy details which add up to what sounds like the director's most personal, and possibly ambitious, film yet. When Jensen was on set in October of 2013, the film's code name was Flora's Letter. As Jessica Chastain told Jensen at the time,
Longtime Collaborators Helped David Fincher Find Gone Girl
The New York Film Festival kicked off with the world premiere of David Fincher’s Gone Girl last Friday, and boy, did it deliver. Fincher’s directing chops are never in question, and Gillian Flynn’s novel is perhaps perfectly suited for his particular skill set. Gone Girl combines his instinctual way around pitch-black thrillers (Se7en, Zodiac, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), and offbeat, grimy comedies (Fight Club) and delivers 148 compelling minutes without any evident lull.
Building the Sensational Sets of The Maze Runner
One way to jumpstart your film career is to create your own mini-masterpiece, have it blow up on YouTube, and force Hollywood to come knocking. This was the case for animator/director Wes Ball, whose 2012 short film Ruin grabbed the attention of 20th Century Fox. Ball was called to a meeting where the longtime animator was asked to take the reigns on an adaptation of a popular 2009 sci-fi YA novel. While there, he successfully pitched them to turn
Into the Storm Brews a Mighty Economic Wind in Michigan
The premise of Into the Storm is simple and terrifying; a series of tornados, each more violent than the next, lays waste to a small town. These freakish storm systems (achieving EF5 status—the highest metric on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with winds of more than 200 miles per hour) behave erratically and do things they haven’t done before, sending terrified residents under ground (if they’re lucky) and confuse and humble the storm chasers who follow and film them.
Space Creators: Building the Guardians of the Galaxy
James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy opens on Earth, where a young Peter Quill sits alone in a hospital corridor, listening to his walkman. Prop master Barry Gibbs lead the search for the perfect cassette player, which took four months of internet searching and yielded only 16 cassette players in various states of disrepair that would be suitable for the film. Every detail in the film was chosen on purpose, often at great effort. In our opening scene,
Comic-Con 2014: A Snapshot of Films, Panels & Events
Comic-Con and its overflowing abundance is upon us once again. We’ll help guide you through the costumed chaos with a selection of offerings from top movie studios, the “only at Comic-Con” events, and our own wish list of events.
Major Studio Showings:
Thursday, July 24
11:15am Toy Story That Time Forgot (Disney)
If the words “you’ve got a friend in me” set your heart aflutter,
