Filmmakers have always been on the front lines of change, and this cultural moment is no different. As the world reconsiders its perspectives on race, we can play a huge part in furthering that conversation through our own craft. We have the tools, so we may as well put them to good use.
Amid the hustle and bustle of getting things done, it’s easy to lose sight of who we are and what we’re about—it’s easy to neglect our brand. We can get so caught up creating that we forget the “why” behind our work, and everything we do starts to feel fluid and ungrounded.
When thinking about the Star Wars universe, “small” is probably not a word that comes to mind. But for Dave Asling, Owner/Creative director of Creation Consultants, Inc., miniatures and models are perfect for creating larger-than-life visual effects. His company’s work on films such as I, Robot, X-Men: The Last Stand, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Elysium and Welcome to Marwen, led Disney+ to tap them for work on Star Wars: The Mandalorian.
Take Stink Studio’s Executive Producer Omid Fatemi, for example. He’s behind the TUMI x Chris Pratt spot, which is simple on the surface, yet infinitely effective—a funny film about a man packing for his first trip to Hong Kong. Of course, it helps to have Chris Pratt as your talent—but, there’s so much more to this project than that. And that’s where Omid’s magic tricks come in.
Reading is one of the simplest ways to immediately improve your life in every regard, even your filmmaking. A while back we reached out to some of our friends in filmmaking to see what they would recommend for some summer reading and they had some incredibly thoughtful responses. So, we thought we’d go for round two because we’re sure as hell not running out of books to read.
The value of music in a film isn’t always talked about, or expressed explicitly, so why would they pay for better music if to them it just serves as a filler or background to the imagery? We know it’s so much more than that, so we thought we’d take a shot at explaining why quality music matters for your films.
There’s a moment in Free Solo during Alex Honnold’s historic, rope-less ascent of El Capitan when the audience sees cinematographer Mikey Schaefer doubled over, so sick with anxiety that he’s unable to watch what’s happening. It’s a powerful moment. And, after speaking with Co-Directors Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi, it seems to accurately sum up what sounds like the most stressful production we’ve ever heard of — a production they weren’t even sure they wanted to take on:
