Browse Articles by Mark London Williams

Men Who Stare At Monitors

December 2009
Men Who Stare At Monitors

Visual FX supervisor Thomas J. Smith has overseen digital effects on pictures where you know you’ll be watching a lot of digital sleight-of-hand, like The League of Extraordinary Gentleman and The Chronicles of Riddick, and also films you wouldn’t immediately expect to be FX heavy, like all three Ocean’s films with George Clooney. He... »

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Posted in Post Supervisor Series, Postproduction, Visual FX |

TV Everywhere—Unions, Not so much

December 2009

Long time readers of this column (and hey, if that’s you—thanks!), will recall I have written occasionally, (well, at least once), of my annual treks out to Austin where I wear my “book author” hat and pal around with other storytellers of genre fiction. I have a good friend there who, with his wife,... »

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Posted in Featured, Union Roundup |

Contender – Production Designer, Jess Gonchor, A Serious Man

December 2009
Contender – Production Designer, Jess Gonchor, <em>A Serious Man</em>

“It always starts with the script,” maintains production designer Jess Gonchor, and he’s had some good ones to start with, including the one for No Country For Old Men, which netted him an Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design. Its follow up, Burn After Reading, gained him a nomination in the... »

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Posted in Contender Portfolios, Featured, Production Design |

The Long, Slow Process of Bringing Coraline to the Screen

November 2009
The Long, Slow Process of Bringing <em>Coraline</em> to the Screen

“It’s difficult to get funding for stop motion,” says director Henry Selick, of trying to finance his projects. That he was previously the director of modern holiday staple The Nightmare Before Christmas tells just how over-cautious—or non-available—production capital must really be. Selick was talking about raising money for Coraline, his adaptation of the Neil Gaiman... »

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Posted in Animation, Crafts, Director Series, Featured |

Union Roundup – November 2009

November 2009

“The Writers Guilds of America, West and East mark the passing of Nick Counter, longtime president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and convey their deepest sympathy to his family,” came the mid-November statement. That was it, pretty much in its entirety, from the WGA. Brevity can be its own statement,... »

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Posted in Featured, Union Roundup |

Apocalypse-Almost-Now: Volker Engel and Marc Weigert on World’s End FX in 2012

November 2009
Apocalypse-Almost-Now: Volker Engel and Marc Weigert on World’s End FX in <em>2012</em>

At the recent Production Summit thrown by the Visual Effects Society in Marina del Rey, collectively attempting to suss out the future of Hollywood filmmaking in a world both all-digital, and all-outsourced, director Roland Emmerich’s visual effects cohorts, Volker Engel and Marc Weigert—the former supervising VFX on most of his pictures, the latter in... »

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Posted in Awards, Featured, For Your Consideration, Post Supervisor Series |

Gorillas or Guerrillas? The Year in FX

November 2009
Gorillas or Guerrillas? The Year in FX

Because of our own release schedule for this annual fall “voters’ guide” to the upcoming awards—just call us “Secretaries of the State of the Crew!”—we go to press just as this year’s two 800-pound gorillas of visual effects are hitting screens. The symbolically simian pair is succinctly referred to by VFX supervisor Wojciech Zielinski,... »

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Posted in Awards, Featured, For Your Consideration, Visual FX |

Assessing the Year in Shape Language

November 2009

It’s a good year for production designer Mark Ricker to suss out award finalists in that category (and it’s kissin’ cousin, art direction), since he may find himself in the thick of the awards hunt—on the Academy and guild sides—for his own work channeling both ’60’s-era Paris and the present-day US in Julie &... »

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Posted in Awards, Crafts, Featured, For Your Consideration, Production Design |

Paul Schraeder The Walker

November 2009
Paul Schraeder <em>The Walker</em>

The Walker is the most recent film from veteran director and screenwriter Paul Schrader — the third part of what’s referred to as his “lonely man” trilogy, which began with American Gigolo (1980) and continued with Light Sleeper (1992). The Walker is a dark satire about a man on the margins whose importance lies in... »

Posted in Director Series, Featured |

Cineped Makes Debut at Cinegear

June 2009

Grafting two pieces of venerable camera gear together with a surety that would make Dr. Moreau proud, the brand new Cineped made its recent debut at the Cine Gear Expo, just in time for a (hopefully) revived feature film shooting season. The 42-inch R2D2-sized piece of equipment combines the utility of both tripod and dolly;... »

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Posted in Gear, News |



Director Series

Joe Johnston Conjures The Wolfman

February 2010 | By Scott Essman

Joe Johnston Conjures <em>The Wolfman</em>

Former Industrial Light and Magic art director Joe Johnston became a feature film director over 20 years ago when he came aboard... »



Danish Director Blends Comedy and Tragedy in An Education

January 2010 | By Mary Ann Skweres

Danish Director Blends Comedy and Tragedy in <em>An Education</em>

The critically acclaimed film, An Education, which garnered the Audience Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, has quietly slipped into Oscar contention. From... »


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Exclusive Film Reviews

Up in the Air

December 2009 | By Len Klady

<em>Up in the Air</em>

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) has an amiable disposition that belies the fact that it’s best to stay out of his path. You see he’s... »



The Young Victoria

December 2009 | By Len Klady

<em>The Young Victoria</em>

The enduring image of Queen Victoria, whose reign dominated the bulk of the 19th century, is of a benevolent, elderly grandmother. Though she was... »


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