Columns – Page 2 – Below the Line

The Godfather at 50: Inside the Academy’s New Exhibit — and Don Corleone’s Office

November 11, 2022 Eric Green Comments Off

The Academy Museum recently debuted a fantastic new exhibit that celebrates The Godfather just in time for its 50th anniversary. The exhibit was lovingly curated by the Museum’s Assistant Curator, Sophia Serrano, with support from Curatorial Assistant Esme Douglas and in collaboration with both Paramount Pictures and American Zoetrope. Released in 1972, The Godfather broke box office records en route to becoming the highest-grossing film ever, at the time, and […]

Union Roundup: Viewing the Election Results Through the Lens of Wakanda Forever‘s Georgia Peach Logo

November 10, 2022 Mark London Williams Comments Off

While the role of this column isn’t to give you the big-picture political analysis you’ve either been mainlining or avoiding all week (especially given how wrong most of the mainstream pundits were with their false tsunami warnings), you already know the GOP underperformed in this election and there was, essentially, a kind of massive national “draw” between the parties, as opposed to a singular wave. As of this writing, on […]

Union Roundup: A Dispatch From the Austin Film Festival and Writers Conference, Where James Gray Deemed Cinema to Be “In a Strange Place” Now

November 4, 2022 Mark London Williams Comments Off

Filing into the awards show luncheon, I immediately took an available seat facing the stage, as I usually do at, say, the VES or ASC awards, to better watch the speeches, awardees, and film clips. Only the twist here is that I was doing the journalist equivalent of breaking the fourth wall, or making like She-Hulk busting through the on-screen Disney+ menu — I was, in this instance, one of […]

Emmy-Winning Set Decorator John Sparano on How “We Used to Talk” on Set — Before the Dreaded Cellphone Came Along

November 2, 2022 John Sparano Comments Off

Anyone who has ever weathered bleeding fingers deciphering the threading diagram of a Moviola can tell you the day they saw their first video playback system on set. Along with anamorphic lenses, the Steadicam, computer-generated Imagery, camera drones, and wireless LED lighting, innovations such as that one have been game-changers in the process of making television programs and motion pictures. Their impact, along with a slew of other technological breakthroughs, […]

Union Roundup: Two Frames, One Afternoon — Editors and “Prime/Cuts” at the TV Academy

October 21, 2022 Mark London Williams Comments Off

Seemingly energized after two consecutive weekends comprising three nights of Emmy Awards, the Television Academy, rather than rest, proceeded to launch into a series of “Prime/Cuts” events featuring past award winners and nominees in various disciplines talking about their work, and in many cases, how they wound up going from new-to-L.A. hopefuls to masters of their crafts. On one recent fall afternoon — we’d love to add “crisp,”, but it […]

IATSE, AICP Reach New Three-Year TV Commercial Production Agreement

October 20, 2022 Staff Comments Off

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) concluded negotiations last week on a new three-year contract covering TV commercial production across the US. The new agreement became effective October 1, 2022 and expires September 30, 2025, with terms going into effect on October 30, 2022. Additionally, the two parties reached a Neutrality Agreement and Procedures which could lead to Voluntary Recognition […]

Union Roundup: Is Amsterdam Hollywood’s First Response to January 6? Plus, the Rust Settlement and Hollywood’s Mask Mandates

October 12, 2022 Mark London Williams Comments Off

In the column business, one sometimes hopes for a quiet stretch of time to perhaps ruminate on things in print. Perhaps not everything will be collapsing this week, or caught up in a frenzy, one thinks. One would usually be wrong, for there is always news. On the rumination side, it was hoped there might be a moment for some briefly sensational news from some 70-ish years back, that flickered […]

Union Roundup: On Masks, Mandates, Oscars, and Orbs

October 3, 2022 Mark London Williams Comments Off

Do you remember, before the hurricanes, the war in Europe, the repeal of women’s basic health rights in America, and everything else happening, that there was a pandemic? Hollywood still does. Indeed, they may be one of the last repositories of such institutional memory. As you read here, and other places over the weekend, Hollywood guilds and producers have agreed to extend the current Covid protocols. “The current Agreement, which […]

Bros Director Nicholas Stoller on Bringing Billy Eichner’s Gay Rom-Com to Movie Theaters

September 29, 2022 Edward Douglas Comments Off

Universal Studios’ new comedy Bros is going to be an interesting movie to follow as it’s released in theaters this Friday, being that it’s the first major studio rom-com written by and starring an openly gay leading man. That man is Billy Eichner, who roughly 11 years ago was running around the streets of New York City putting a new spin on the classic man-on-the-street interview format with Billy on […]

The Accidental Turitz: A Tale of Two Box Offices, and Two Directors — James Cameron and Olivia Wilde

September 28, 2022 Neil Turitz Comments Off

A couple of months ago, I wrote a column about James Cameron and his obsession with the Avatar universe he created. In it, I said I was sure that the upcoming sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, would be a big hit — almost certain to surpass a billion dollars overseas and maybe even a half-billion domestically — but that I think the world has moved on from Pandora over […]