February 1, 2023
“This is the first big period thing I’ve really ever done,” said Jon Gary Steele, the production designer for Outlander. “It’s awesome and it’s fun.” And also quite a challenge. The visually impressive show, whose 16-episode first season aired last year on Starz, the premium cable network, is a sweeping romantic adventure with elements of science-fiction fantasy. […]
If you are looking for a challenge, look no further than the sound department’s job on the crew of Starz‘s Black Sails. Shot completely on land in South Africa, one of supervising sound editor, Benjamin Cook‘s biggest concerns is “convincing people they’re on the ocean.” Filmed on location at Cape Town Film Studios, the land-locked set fills in for the Bahamas in 1720. Add in the fact that the studio is a mere one hundred yards from a bustling freeway, and “traffic becomes the enemy” shared Cook. “A lot of wind helps mask the traffic issues. It’s a heavily backgrounded show.” You don’t want to hear a motorbike or birds when you’re supposed to be in a battle in the middle of the sea. […]
There have been numerous filmed versions of the Batman legend – eight features and a number of television series. But Gotham, a stylish, noir hit in its first season on the Fox network, manages to offer its own twist on the well-known tale of the comic book superhero. […]
“Everything we do in House of Cards is to serve the story. Every element, whether it is lighting, cinematography, sound, music or performance, is in service of that,” said Beau Willimon, showrunner of the hit Netflix series. […]
Being Mary Jane is a television series produced by BET that tells the story of an African American woman. Created by Mara Brock Akil, who also served as an executive producer and one of the writers, and directed by Salim Akil, Regina King and Rob Hardy, the series is an interesting glimpse into the work, social and family life of Mary Jane (Gabrielle Union). […]
All good things must come to an end, so they say, and that includes Downton Abbey. Production is indeed very close to wrapping up for the sixth and final season of the addictively popular PBS Masterpiece Theater smash hit about the trysts, travails and traumas of an aristocratic British family, the Crawleys, and their loyal cadre of servants, as they find their world and society changing in the period before, during and after World War I. […]
BET‘s The Book of Negroes tells the sweeping tale of Aminata Diallo (Aunjanue Ellis), who is kidnapped from her village in Africa and sold as a slave in South Carolina. The series is based on the award-winning novel Someone Knows My Name, by Lawrence Hill. Hill served as a writer, along with producer and director Clement Virgo. Virgo is a Canadian filmmaker who has directed multiple episodes of The Wire for HBO, as well as The L Word and Soul Food for Showtime. He is known for his film Lie With Me, which was featured at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and sold to Showtime in the U.S., and Poor Boy’s Game, which is a boxing drama that premiered at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. […]
“We are certainly plugging along. It’s always quite the adventure when you have a show up and running,” commented Michelle Ashford, showrunner for Masters of Sex, the Showtime series about William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the pioneering team whose research in human sexuality during the prudish 1950s led to the sexual revolution. […]
The pilot for American Crime was editor Luyen Vu’s first experience working with Oscar-winning writer and executive producer, John Ridley (12 Years a Slave), who also directed the opener. The pair met a couple of times to discuss the project and Vu was shown the feature that Ridley made right before taking on the pilot, which had an editorial style that Ridley liked. […]
In cutting comedy, Modern Family editor Tony Orcena noted, “You have to remember, it always plays best, simple. It’s about finding a way to tell the story in an interesting way, but remember that the joke is king. You have to make sure the joke plays.” In his approach, Orcena admits that he goes through the first cut and takes out half the edits to find the clearest way to present the joke. […]