Columns
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“We Are Happy to Welcome Broken Things Into Our Film”: DP Christian Sprenger on Using the Alexa LF As a 16mm Doppelgänger for Guava Island
In Guava Island, a musician (Donald Glover) incurs the wrath of a tropical despot when his plans for a celebratory music festival threaten to shutter the fictional isle’s silk factory for a day. The film, which runs 55 minutes with musical interludes from Glover’s alter ego Childish Gambino, features many of the talents behind the FX show Atlanta. That includes Emmy winning cinematographer Christian Sprenger (The Last Man on Earth, GLOW), who spoke to Filmmaker about working on location in Cuba and his magic formula for making the Alexa LF look like 16mm film. Guava Island is currently streaming on […]
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Back to One, Episode 56: Dominic West
Dominic West is best known for playing Jimmy McNulty on The Wire, Noah Solloway on The Affair, and gay activist Jonathan Blake in the film Pride. Now he’s taken on the classic role of Jean Valjean in the new 6-episode BBC version of Les Misèrables, currently on PBS. He also happens to be British, which seems to continually surprise people, probably because he’s mastered his American accents. He talks about that and many other nuts and bolts in his impressive approach to the craft. Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including iTunes, Google Play, and […]
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Back to One, Episode 55: Lake Bell
She’s wonderful in comedies like Man Up and dramas like No Escape, but Lake Bell shines brightest in material she writes and directs herself, like her indie hit In A World. Now the mega-talented multi-hyphenate has joined forces with Liz Meriwether (New Girl) on the ABC sit-com Bless This Mess. We talk about the benefits and challenges of writing, directing and starring in a network show; knowing when to land the joke slightly off the landing pad; and doing it all as a mom. Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including iTunes, Google Play, and […]
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Back to One Special Episode: Mike Leigh
For one year now on this podcast, I have talked to dozens and dozens of actors about their approach to the craft of acting. There are few living non-actor directors whose thoughts on this subject I feel would be worthy for this archive. Mike Leigh is on the top of that list. Listening to actors talk about their working experiences has made me think of an analogy. They are like fish people, showing up on a set expecting some water to work in but mostly finding dry land everywhere, and, for the most part, having to supply the water themselves. […]
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“When They Think They’re Safe, That’s When You Get Them”: Pet Sematary Directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer on Revisiting Stephen King’s Most Unsettling Novel
I first watched Pet Sematary on a family vacation when I was 11 years old—well, watched may be a bit of an exaggeration. My older sister and I made it through the second appearance of Pascow’s rotting corpse before we retreated beneath the hotel bed’s comforter. I eventually braved the entirety on my 13thbirthday, a memorable sleepover double feature with The Fly II. No movie ever scared me more than Pet Sematary. But while other horror flicks that sent me scuttling under the blankets as a kid now seem almost comically unthreatening in adulthood—your Silver Bullets and My Bloody Valentines—the themes of […]
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Back to One, Episode 53: Michael K. Williams
The actor Michael K. Williams died yesterday at the age of 54. We are revisiting here his 2019 interview with Peter Rinaldi, in which he spoke about many things, including his first time auditioning for The Wire and the role of Omar. R.I.P. Michael K. Williams. — Editor He brought to life one of the most iconic TV characters this century, Omar Little on the acclaimed series The Wire. Then Michael K. Williams went on to work with some of the great directors of our day (Steve McQueen, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ava DuVernay, Todd Solondz) and turned in powerful work […]
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“The Weather Doesn’t Care What Your Budget Is”: Captain Marvel Colorist Doug Delaney on the Marvel Cinematic Universe
When Avengers: Endgame hits theaters in a few weeks, it will conclude a chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that encompasses 22 films over more than a decade. Considering the disparate tones, settings and filmmakers involved in the “Infinity Saga,” the fact that the movies fit so seamlessly together and have been so consistently entertaining is a remarkable achievement. Part of the magic trick of integrating the superhero adventures into a cohesive whole comes from the work of colorists, who have been entrusted with ensuring the Tesseract glows the same shade of blue whether it appears in Thor, Infinity War or the […]
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Back to One, Episode 52: Caitlin FitzGerald
I first took note of Caitlin FitzGerald in one of the great showcases of incredible acting in recent indie film — Sophia Takal’s Always Shine. You might know her from Masters of Sex where she played Libby Masters, or the third season of the cult hit series Unreal. Her latest film, just released on DVD and Blu Ray, is The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot. In this half hour she generously opens up about the epiphanies and frustrations she’s experienced as a working actor in this business, how good directors help her process, and how she deals […]
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Back To One, Episode 51: Lorraine Toussaint
She’s perhaps best known for playing one of modern television’s baddest villains, “Vee” on Orange Is The New Black. And now with NBC’s The Village premiering last week, both Fast Color and the new season of Into The Badlands premiering this week, plus Julie Taymor’s The Glorias wrapping this month, all featuring the incredible Lorraine Toussaint, we might as well call this period “The Lorrainaissance.” In this half hour she takes a break from the hubbub and takes us deep into her process, her “almost schizo” embodiment of characters, what she needs on set, and what it means to live […]
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“I’d Spend 24 Hours with My Family, Fly Back, Sleep for Five Hours and Shoot the Next Day”: Cinematographer Chris Teague on Russian Doll
On the night of her 36th birthday, New York video game developer Nadia (played by the show’s co-creator Natasha Lyonne) stumbles out of a party in her honor and is killed by an oncoming car. Thus begins a cycle of “resets” in the new Netflix series Russian Doll, with each demise bringing Nadia right back to the same birthday party bathroom mirror on the same night. The Groundhog Day comparisons are unavoidable, yet as Russian Doll unfolds across its eight episodes it reveals layers of emotional complexity and existential angst that extend beyond that Bill Murray classic and its Christmas Carol-esque […]
