In the recent round of talk show appearances by actors from the new version of Alice in Wonderland, many of the performers discussed their lengthy stints “getting into costume.” This is both a travesty and at the same time not surprising. While costumes have been heralded by cinema onlookers for decades, makeup... »

Throughout his nearly 40-year career, Rick Baker has created some of cinema’s most memorable monsters. The six-time Oscar winner for Best Makeup notably realized one of the greatest horror monsters in movie history with An American Werewolf in London. Now, thirty years later, he is bringing another lycanthropic creature to the screen... »

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

The 37th annual Annies, the awards given to excellence in animation by the International Animated Film Society/ASIFA, provided a celebratory if somewhat insular presentation at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Feb. 6. 23 achievement awards from 2009 projects were dispensed for categories including Best Animated Feature Film, for Pixar’s Up, Best Animated Television Production, for Walt... »

After supervising visual effects on massive projects such as Peter Jackson’s final two films in his Lord of the Rings trilogy, Stephen Sommers’ Van Helsing, and Jackson’s King Kong, Joe Letteri might have faced an even greater challenge with James Cameron’s Avatar. For this newest project, which is winning troves of awards and breaking... »

When one has a view of a culture that comes from within, the common belief is that such a personal view will make for a more authentic cinematic experience. Such is the situation with Warwick Thornton’s new film, Samson and Delilah, set in Australia’s outback among its indigenous people. Surely, there have been other... »

James Cameron’s long-awaited epic fantasy Avatar is definitely “titanic” in size and scope. “It’s got a big story—that’s where it starts,” said producer Jon Landau, who also produced Cameron’s last film, Titanic. “Jim created a story that called for a world that did not exist. The technology did not exist before Titanic. The technical... »

Some movies provoke the mind and intellect and leave audiences thinking long after they have left the theater. Add The Road to that list. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Cormac McCarthy, who also wrote the book on which the Coen Brothers film No Country For Old Men was based, Australian director John... »

Benjamin Button tells the unusual tale of a its titular character (played by Brad Pitt), who ages in reverse. With a character who gets younger as he gets older and a multitude of visual effects shots, Benjamin Button was no simple chronological edit. Such was the challenge presented to the film’s two editors, Angus... »

It was his work on Hellboy in 2004 that really put Mexico-born makeup artist Mike Elizalde and his company, Spectral Motion, on the map. The film required myriad creatures and action props, and for last year’s sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army, a whole range of new designs were called for. “We found the old... »