March 31, 2023
3D films have taken off and proven to be a real moneymaker for the film industry. In fact, they are generating as much as three times the in-theater attendance as 2D features. During the “golden era” of the early ’50s, projecting 3D involved running film simultaneously through two synchronized projectors. Because film passes through the gate slightly differently, the left eye image would not align properly with the right-eye image […]
Doing the costumes for The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus “was a challenge any costume designer would love to have,” says Monique Prudhomme. Working closely with director Terry Gilliam, whose credits include Brazil, Time Bandits and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, the Canadian designer was given free reign to design the outfits for the visually extravagant morality tale about an eccentric troupe of entertainers travelling through the streets of modern-day London […]
As a first-time film director, fashion designer Tom Ford makes an auspicious debut in A Single Man. Based on a Christopher Isherwood story of the same name, the movie, set in the early 1960s, is about a portentous day in the life of a gay man, George Falconer, who is coming to terms with the death of his long-time partner. […]
With his earlier films Juno and Thank You for Smoking, Oscar-nominated director Jason Reitman established himself as a smart, imaginative and wry storyteller with a penchant for provocative anti-heroes that defy conventional expectations. With his latest offering, Up in the Air, based on Walter Kirn’s 2001 novel of the same title, Reitman continues along the same lines with another off-beat protagonist, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a corporate downsizer who has remained happily airborne, coldly efficient and decidedly uncommitted for years. But just as Bingham is about to reach his coveted 10 million frequent flyer miles and finally make a connection with a passionate female business traveler, his prized life in the air is threatened. Aided by the creative talents of his regular below-the-line collaborators, Reitman has created a subtly humorous and deeply human story that is grounded in reality. […]
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 hurdle was creating the closeup. In the center of our world, we have CGI characters—and movies are all about the closeup.” […]
After a screening of The Cove, I was moved and impressed as well as depressed by the experience. […]
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 found himself in that role again with Clooney, with a film set in other deserts besides downtown Vegas, namely “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” […]
The look and emotional feel of a film, more than simply a series of unfolding images, is the responsibility of the director of photography. The cinematographer, from choice of camera and lenses, to the crucial task of lighting what’s being shot, is the director’s “right hand,” working to support the helmer’s vision of the story being told. But of all the crafts, cinematography is one of the tougher categories for […]
This year has seen a bumper crop of top-notch animated films, making the competition for the Best Animated Feature Oscar particularly interesting. The award, recognizing a genre that was long ignored by the Academy is a relative newcomer, having been instituted only in 2001. “It was certainly a pretty exceptional year for animation,” said Antran Manoogian, president of the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood. “Often, as you get closer to […]
The indie film business is a tumultuous, often unpredictable world, where survival is always a tenuous proposition. You can have a low-budget movie like Paranormal Experience that comes out of nowhere, (with almost no budget), and takes the world by storm, but more often than not, a single film can easily bankrupt an indie producer. […]