Many films have ascended to legendary status for their troubled productions. Apocalypse Now, Heaven’s Gate, and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote all famously far exceeded their budget and production scope. Thanks to the sleuthing and restoration efforts of Alamo Drafthouse, we can add one more name to that pile of terrifying disasters: 1981 safari […]
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New supercut celebrates the symmetry of bookending shots
Over the course of two hours, most films show growth and change. It’s reasonable to suggest that the characters you meet at the start of the movie are not the same ones you see off at the end. Filmmakers understand that and frequently look for visual ways to tie their beginnings and endings together. Jacob […]
Continue readingDid you ever catch the Citizen Kane pterodactyls?
There are dinosaurs in Citizen Kane. No, seriously, hear us out on this. This is one of the greatest bits of film trivia we’ve heard in a while. Before the advent of greenscreen technology, many films in the 30s and 40s used “rear projection” for complicated scenery. Pre-recorded footage of a background was projected onto […]
Continue readingWhy are film production deaths on the rise?
Last year, the death of camera assistant Sarah Jones during the filming of Midnight Rider brought attention to issues of film and television production safety. Many people risk their lives while filming large productions; beyond pyrotechnics and stunt performers and so forth, production assistants and crew members find themselves in dangerous or risky situations where […]
Continue readingYour pre-March bracket: What’s the DCy-est film ever?
Many movies take place in DC to make use of its proximity to politics and major cultural institutions like the Smithsonian. Others just happen to take place in the city. It’s fun to see DC represented on the screen in a variety of ways, but the question remains: which is really the DC movie? It’s […]
Continue readingHappy Fair Use Week!
By the declaration of the Association of Research Libraries, this week is Fair Use Week! “Fair use” is one of the most important exemptions in copyright law that allows educators, artists, and journalists to create new works from copyrighted content. Fair use provisions have allowed everything from students editing films for academic assignments to supercuts […]
Continue readingCheck out the amazing art on Criterion’s Zatoichi box set
When we purchase new films for our collection, we always try to buy their definitive version. This means that the films we get often come in extravagant cases with all sorts of bonuses. We’ve basically seen at all at this point: Futurama in a giant life-sized Bender head, Six Feet Under in a block covered […]
Continue readingMaking sense of Birth of a Nation, 100 years later
Today is the 100th anniversary of D. W. Griffith’s Civil War epic Birth of a Nation, perhaps one of the most troubling films in the history of the medium. On the one hand, Birth of a Nation is one of the most significant visual works of all time; it was perhaps the first feature-length movie […]
Continue readingPixar offers a cautionary tale for filmmakers reluctant to back up their work
The good folks at mental_floss recently uncovered a particularly incredible story from film history that serves as a warning for filmmakers working in the digital age. Pixar was one of the first studios to work with fully digital animation, and as trailblazers in the industry, they learned hard lessons about the perils of that once-new […]
Continue readingSuper Bowl trailer offers a rare insight into the modern CGI process
You may have watched the Super Bowl yesterday and caught the new trailer for Jurassic World. Pretty cool, right? Dinosaurs! Panic! Familiar music! But between the screaming crowds and velociraptor herds, you might not have noticed the significant changes to the film’s general tone an appearance. As Slashfilm points out, the two trailers are a […]
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