Samson & DelilahJoe Letteri on the Visual Effects of Avatar
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... »
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... »
Apocalypse-Almost-Now: Volker Engel and Marc Weigert on World’s End FX in 2012
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... »
Charles Gibson, VFX Supervisor, Terminator Salvation
Charles Gibson, the VFX Supervisor for Terminator Salvation, recently talked to Below the Line about the state-of- the-art CG animation and effects work that it took to create the army of Terminator killer robots featured in the post-Apocalyptic world of T4. Gibson—winner of two Oscars for best special effects-for Babe in 1995 and for... »
A Sense of Travel: Alex Wuttke and Victor Wade on Quantum of Solace
James Bond’s problems tend to work themselves out a little differently than yours or mine. In the current outing of the franchise Quantum of Solace, which transports an obscure Ian Fleming short story title to a film that is now a sequel to the previous Daniel Craig installment Casino Royale, Bond finds that he... »
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Director Series
Joe Johnston Conjures The WolfmanFebruary 2010 | By Scott Essman
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
The critically acclaimed film, An Education, which garnered the Audience Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, has quietly slipped into Oscar contention. From... »
Exclusive Film Reviews
Up in the AirDecember 2009 | By Len Klady
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
The enduring image of Queen Victoria, whose reign dominated the bulk of the 19th century, is of a benevolent, elderly grandmother. Though she was... »