Film 📽
Reappraising Cruising: A Shockingly Misunderstood Cult Classic
Cruising, the 1980 psychological thriller directed by William Friedkin, is a captivating exploration of the dark corners of New York City's underground gay leather scene, a world rarely depicted in film at the time.
The real reason why men love Fight Club so much
FIGHT CLUB is a story of men rejecting the "normal life" no matter the loss of blood, reputation, and sanity. It shows how the grimy floor of a parking lot can be more satisfying and honest than an air conditioned cubicle. The arc of civilization bends towards men snapping
20 Film Terms You Need to Know to Survive On-Set
Being on a movie set is like stepping into another world. And just like stepping into another world it comes with a language and culture all its own. With that can come some regional terminology from different departments that have been developed over a century.
What Was The First Color Film?
It is widely accepted that the "Wizard of Oz" is the first color film in cinema history. This works perfectly into the lore because of the iconic scene where (B/W) Dorothy opens a door into the colorful Oz. While technically true, there's a common misconception that it was first.
What's a Look Book and Why Filmmakers Need One
It might seem like a pretty straightforward process to take an idea or script for a film (or television show) & bring it to any of the legacy movie studios (or streaming studios) & have them "greenlight" it because it's such an amazing idea that needs to be made.
6 Rules of Good Editing According to Oscar Winning Editor Walter Murch
The "Rule of Six", a concept from his book "In the Blink of An Eye", lays out the essential rules that are found in every well edited film and how they can inform the decisions of anyone learning how to edit a film.
A manifesto that shook the world of movies
Introduction. What is the purpose of a film? Do films benefit from new technologies like CGI - or are they corrupted by them? Should films create an illusion or reveal the truth? Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier takes on these questions in his 1995 manifesto Dogme 95 👇 @
Personal development through films: A Top Ten
We Need To Talk About KevinWhat would you do when your sociopathic child commits a horrific act? Was there something wrong with your parenting? As Kevin’s mother, Tilda Swinton puts to test the classic psychological debate of nature vs nurture.
What is Dogme 95?
In response to the film industry of the 1990's, Danish filmmakers Lars von Trier, Kristian Levring, Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, & Thomas Vinterberg created Dogme 95, a radical film movement that intended to strip cinema of the technical effects that it was becoming reliant on.
What is Mise-en-Scène?
One term that anyone pursuing film must know is “Mise-en-Scene”. It is a French term that simply translates to “placing on stage” & describes what we see within the frame of a film. It can also be described as "the look and feel" of a movie.
15 Best Screenwriting Books to Help You Break into Hollywood
When Hollywood first started there were no road maps on how to do a lot of things in the industry. Most of the time people learned through apprenticeships that threw them into the cogs of film production. These days there are so many resources at our finger tips.
Advice on Screenwriting? Better Call Vince!
Vince Gilligan is an American writer, director and producer best known for his work on hit TV show Breaking Bad and its formidable spin-off Better Call Saul. Previous to these works of art, he wrote and produced The X-Files and picked up awards including 4 Emmys and a BAFTA.
Why is Ray Harryhausen's Stop-Motion Still Impressive?
With all the advances in digital special effects in the film industry, there's still a magical charm that can be found in stop-motion animation. Most recently the film "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" made use of the technique pioneered by an animator known as Ray Harryhausen.
How a 1950's Movie Studio Invented Click Bait.
We would like to think that click bait is a phenomenon that can be associated with the internet age & salacious news headlines that are too tempting not to click on. But the concept of click bait has been around for nearly 100 years.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Why we love remakes
Doctor Who, Jurassic World, Top Gun: Maverick--people say that Hollywood has run out of ideas. All we see today are remakes of old movies and shows. But this isn't a new phenomenon, and it is rooted in deep psychological needs and economic principles.
How the Criterion Collection became a pantheon of cinema
The Criterion Collection is an outlier. At a time when physical media is dying, its line of DVDs and Blu-rays are more popular than ever. Somehow that catalog has formed a “Louvre of movies”, as director Wes Anderson put it, and a one-stop film school you
Top 10 Spy Movies of All Time
1. James Bond Franchise (1962 - present): The James Bond films have been a staple of the spy genre for over half a century, with 25 films and counting. The character is so beloved that there will always be a James Bond film in production.
The Hollywood Director Who Doesn't Exist
For over three decades a notoriously bad filmmaker was allowed to have a prolific career in Hollywood until he was eventually revealed to be a made up personality in 1997. You may have come across the name of Alan Smithee and he doesn't actually exist.
What is the Hays Code?
"G", "PG", "PG-13", & "R" has been the rating system that informs audiences of the content in film or television shows for decades. It wasn't always that way because back in 1927, very strict rules, known as the Hays Code, were put in place until its demise in the late 1960's.
10 Filmmaking Tips from Edgar Wright
The name Edgar Wright might ring a bell. He's best known for co-writing & directing the Cornetto Trilogy which consists of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), & The World's End (2013), as well as other films like Scott Pilgrim vs. the world (2010) & Baby Driver (2017)
What was the Paramount Decision?
When you go to see a movie at a movie theater it's pretty common to assume that the theater is owned by an independent company, but it wasn't always that way. Since the dawn of the studio system the business of making movies was completely controlled by a studio.
What is the Auteur Theory?
The definition for the term "Auteur" derives from the French word that means "author" & was birthed from the movement known as nouvelle vague, or New Wave. It has been associated with film directors like Stanley Kubrick, Christopher Nolan, or Alfred Hitchcock.
What's next for the world's greatest superhero?
Matt Reeves' The Batman is winning over critics and audiences alike. It's now the second highest grosser of 2022 and has an 85% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In this contrarian review, discover why the movie shows the mess DC Comics is in, it's thematic flaws, and more👇
Creative advice from a master of cinema: Akira Kurosawa on writing
When people asked Akira Kurosawa for creative advice – whether it was an aspiring filmmaker or one of the assistant directors he worked with – his answer was the same: learn to write.