Front windshield, over the shoulder, rearview mirror: in this video, DP Julia Swain breaks down the six basic shots used to film car scenes, complete with suggested aperture settings and the best lenses to use.
When movies go wordless, what are they trying to say? This video essay by Filmscalpel’s David Verdeure examines wordless scenes from 15 films, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and North by Northwest. For the full list and accompanying essay, click here.
David Lynch’s earliest short film is in fact a home movie, and he’d prefer it be labeled as such: a record of the artist Bushnell Keeler (an important figure for Lynch) sailing. The young director is briefly visible throughout.
Just out from A24 is this trailer for one of our most highly anticipated films of the fall, Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight. Long time Filmmaker readers will remember that it’s been a while since Jenkins, a 2008 25 New Face and the cover of our Winter, 2009 issue for his debut feature, Medicine for Melancholy, has made a movie. He’s been among the most talented American independents to have such a long break before teeing up for his sophomore film, but it’s certainly not for lack of trying, as Jenkins has developed several powerful projects over the years. (Read this short […]
Sareesh Sudhakaran inspects the cinematography of Bruno Delbonnel in a new wolfcrow video. The French DP has been nominated for four Academy Awards and is known for his color stylization.
Yi Yi, the first of Edward Yang’s films to receive distribution in the United States (in 2000), was also his last before the revered Taiwanese filmmaker died in 2007. Still, Yang’s 1991 epic A Brighter Summer Day, managed to find a fan base in the U.S. though it was available for decades only in abridged form on low-quality home video. In March, after an arduous restoration effort that spanned years, The Criterion Collection released A Brighter Summer Day on Blu-ray and DVD. Back in 2011, the restored work was screened at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and in other limited engagements, but it has otherwise been […]
Jacob T. Swinney recognizes 12 essential women cinematographers for their work in his latest video essay for Fandor Keyframe. In the accompanying essay he writes: “In the entire history of the Academy Awards, Best Cinematography remains the only category never to have had a female nominee.”
Director Michael Cimino passed away in July at the age of 77. In this video, Jorge Luengo Ruiz explores the way that Cimino used the widescreen in his work.
Kent Jones’ 2015 documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut airs tonight, August 8, on HBO at 9 p.m. EST. Inspired by François Truffaut’s book of the same title from 1966, the film delves into the work of Alfred Hitchcock. Here is a clip from the AFI Harold Lloyd Master Seminar where Truffaut discusses how Hitchcock and Roberto Rossellini influenced his own work.
“Loosely inspired by Ibsen’s A Doll’s House,” Frank Moseley’s ominous new short film, Spider Veins premieres this month at the Sidewalk Film Festival. Here’s the description: Two women reunite in a quiet neighborhood before a party begins. But by turns mysterious and shocking, the film’s narrative begins to unravel even as the women’s relationship teeters closer to the edge of truth. Loosely inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Spider Veins is a mercurial investigation into varying levels of everyday artifice. Starring Katey Parker, Danielle Pickard, and Jennifer Mazza-Nguyen, the film will have its world premiere this August 26-28th at […]