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Awards

Contender – Composer Carter Burwell, Carol

November 27, 2015 Mary Ann Skweres Comments Off on Contender – Composer Carter Burwell, Carol

“It’s true that everyone is different and indeed everyone hears music differently,” commented composer Carter Burwell in sharing how he communicates with directors. “A piece that one director will think is melancholy, another director may think is joyful. By its nature, music is abstract and subjective, but generally speaking, the best way I find to communicate with directors is the language of drama and cinema, nothing specifically about music.” […]

Awards

Contender – Cinematographer Mátyás Erdély, Son of Saul

November 25, 2015 Jack Egan Comments Off on Contender – Cinematographer Mátyás Erdély, Son of Saul

More than any film in memory, Son of Saul takes the audience into the heart of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the notorious death camp where the Nazis murdered millions of Jews during World War II. The story is seen almost entirely through the eyes of one individual, Saul Ausländer. He has been made one of the Sonderkommandos – Jewish prisoners forced by the SS to lead thousands of daily arrivals to the gas chambers and afterwards remove and burn the corpses. He tries to find moral solace from his unspeakable task by salvaging from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son, and attempts to have him buried with dignity. […]

Awards

DGA Will Award Lifetime Achievement Award To Joe Pytka

November 23, 2015 Staff Comments Off on DGA Will Award Lifetime Achievement Award To Joe Pytka

The Directors Guild of America president Paris Barclay announced that commercial director Joe Pytka will be the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for distinguished achievement in television direction at the 68th Annual DGA Awards on Feb. 6, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles. […]

Awards

Nicholas Hytner Directs Maggie Smith in The Lady in the Van

November 23, 2015 Jack Egan Comments Off on Nicholas Hytner Directs Maggie Smith in The Lady in the Van

The Lady in the Van features Maggie Smith in a virtuoso star turn that is generating buzz about a possible best actress Oscar nomination. In the film, directed by Nicholas Hytner, she plays Miss Shepherd, a curmudgeonly and bedraggled old woman of uncertain origins who lives in a beat up van. Searching for a place to stay, she lands the vehicle in a well-to-do London neighborhood and “temporarily” parks the van in the driveway of the house of famed contemporary English playwright Alan Bennett. She winds up staying for 15 years. […]

Awards

Contender – VFX Supervisor Tim Alexander, Jurassic World

November 17, 2015 Scott Essman Comments Off on Contender – VFX Supervisor Tim Alexander, Jurassic World

When visual effects supervisor Tim Alexander undertook the task of bringing dinosaurs to life for the third Jurassic Park sequel, his challenge was made somewhat less daunting due to the familiar territory of Industrial Light & Magic as the project’s effects base. “Being at ILM, we had a lot of history,” he said. “A lot of the people who worked on the original are still there – Denis Muren [visual effects supervisor] and Phil Tippett [dinosaur animation supervisor] consulted with them extensively on what they had done, and why they had done it.”
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Awards

Director John Crowley Recreates 1950s’ Ireland and New York in Brooklyn

November 10, 2015 Michelle Paradis Comments Off on Director John Crowley Recreates 1950s’ Ireland and New York in Brooklyn

Director John Crowley‘s Brooklyn explores the life of a young Irish woman, Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) in 1950s Ireland and New York. The film began as a novel by Colm Tóibín, which Crowley read before his involvement with the film project. Having been a fan of Tóibín’s other novels, he read the book purely from curiosity and not for professional reasons. […]

Animation

Video of the Day: He Named Me Malala Featurette: Animation

November 6, 2015 Staff Comments Off on Video of the Day: He Named Me Malala Featurette: Animation

Fox Searchlight released this behind-the-scenes video that explores the use of animation in Davis Guggenheim‘s feature documentary He Named Me Malala. The film is an intimate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The then 15-year-old was singled out, along with her father, for advocating for girls’ education on a BBC blog, and the attack on her sparked an outcry from supporters around the world. […]

Featured

The Sound of Tomorrowland

May 27, 2015 Michael Coleman Comments Off on The Sound of Tomorrowland

In this exclusive sound profile, SoundWorks Collection talks with sound designer Kyrsten Mate and re-recording mixer Gary Rydstrom from Skywalker Sound about their work on Tomorrowland directed by Brad Bird. […]