One of the great pleasures of the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer is seeing a new director inject his own flourishes into an already visually distinctive series. The Star Wars visual catalog has a few staples that have stayed consistent throughout the series: think transitional wipes and pilot POV shots. Unfortunately, the prequels saw George Lucas expand the toolset with a lot of uninspired tricks: slow zooms on wide shots, Barbara Walters glow, and a stubborn use of a locked-down...

“Do what makes you happy.” — My Grandma

by John Lasseter

Two top independent film distribution executives share the most important issues that factor into their decision as to whether or not they pick up a film.

You've probably heard of Blender, but do you know about Natron? Our how-to will help you get started using this open source compositing tool.

The long read: Skip Lievsay is one of the most talented men in Hollywood. He has created audioscapes for Martin Scorsese and is the only sound man the Coen brothers go to. But the key to this work is more than clever effects, it is understanding the human mind

Skip Lievsay, an unassuming-looking guy in his mid-60s with highly trained ears, stood before the stacks of speakers and giant movie screen in his office, fussing quietly. Lievsay is one of the preeminent sound designers working in film today, and whatever he does – whether it’s fussing or making jokes or padding down the hall of his New York offices to murmur instructions to employees – he does it quietly, as if his personal volume dial operates...

Viewing 3D content without glasses or goggles has proved to be one of the toughest things for interface designers to achieve — it never really looks right -until this.....

Ethics, Aesthetics, and the Future in Alfonso Cuarón's "Children of Men"

In his 1919 manual for screenwriters, Ten Million Photoplay Plots, Wycliff Aber Hill provided this taxonomy of possible types of dramatic "situations," first running them down in outline form, then describing each more completely and offering possible variations. Hill, who published more than one aid to struggling "scenarists," positioned himself as an authority on the types of stories that would work well on screen.

The 2001 gothic horror film was set in Spain, in 1939, and the picture, which del Toro allegedly considers his most personal film ever, is an exceptionally crafty and compelling portrayal of that specific dark period of European and world history.

It was no easy task to bring the surface of Mars to Earth for Ridley Scott's popular film. Here's how the VFX team accomplished that feat.

Cautionary Tales Have Rarely Taken Such an Amazing Artistic Form

Trip to New York filmed with Xiaomi Yi!

How do you film a conversation? Most likely, you’re going to block the actors, set up the camera, and do shot/reverse shot. But where do you put the camera? What lens do you use? And how do you cut back and forth? Today, I consider the Coen brothers — Joel & Ethan — and see how these choices lend a particular feel to their version of shot/reverse shot.

Documentary explores the uncertain fate of migratory songbirds in the face of development and climate change