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The Short Film is Dead: Time for the Emerging Filmmaker to Get a New Calling...
This is a guest post by Mike Jones, Lecturer in Screen Studies at the Australian Film Television and Radio School. Filmmaking is full of traditions. These traditions are the "way things are done," they...
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Zombie Love: Why Are We So Obsessed with Things That Want to Eat Our Brains?
No, that photo above wasn't taken at the Mac Store. This is actually a still from the "Godfather of Zombiedom" George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, but it's no accident that it's reminiscent of those...
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'Bergman's Dreams': How Director Ingmar Bergman Visually Represented the...
We've talked a lot about influential filmmakers from the past and present, but haven't really talked much about one of this writer's favorite directors: Ingmar Bergman. Few filmmakers have been able to...
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Simplicity & Beauty: DP Sean Bobbitt Discusses the Stunning Cinematography of...
Of the many excellent films to hit theaters last year, few were as powerful (or as well shot) as the Best Picture Oscar winner, 12 Years A Slave. It's one of those rare films that transcends its...
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Alfred Hitchcock's Use of Eyes Becomes the Subject of This Excellent Video Essay
If eyes are the windows to the soul, then watching a Hitchcock film must be downright spiritual. Video essayist kogonada has culled a bunch of scenes from the work of Alfred Hitchcock to examine how...
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Why in the Hell Do We Love Horror Flicks? This Video Offers Up an Explanation
What happens when you watch a truly scary horror flick? Your palms get sweaty, knees get weak, arms get heavy -- perhaps you vomit on your sweater -- you're nervous. Terrible Eminem jokes aside, it's...
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A Lesson from Lecter: How to Establish Dominance by Using Eyelines & Framing
How do you portray the drama of a power struggle on-camera without making the scene clunky and expositional? Well, in the case of The Silence of the Lambs, they used eyelines and framing. This video...
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Want to Make a Film About Paranoia & Conspiracy? Watch This Mashup of 3...
Who doesn't love a good conspiracy theory? Three films, made around the time of the JFK assassination and the Watergate scandal, get put under the microscope so we can explore the connections between...
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Watch: Is Christopher Nolan's 'Inception' a Metaphor for Filmmaking?
Was it all a dream? Or was it actually a multi-layered, complicated love letter to surrealist film? Inception is just one of those movies that is fun to pick apart and analyze because it is so layered....
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Watch: Why Are Christmas Films So Sad?
Plus, other year-end existential thoughts on cinema. Whether you actively celebrate Christmas or are simply an innocent bystander to the sound of jingle bells and peppermint-flavored everything,...
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Hard-Boiled in Bong Water: Dude, What in the Name of Samuel Spade is Slacker...
What do films featuring hardboiled American crime, venetian blinds, bong water, and complete and utter ennui have in common? Surprisingly a lot, actually. Slate recently posted a video essay that...
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To Short or Not To Short: 3 Things to Think About Before You Make a Short Film
The first film I ever exposed was one roll of black and white Tri-X Kodak stock. I was 17, the film was about a dude who wakes up after a nightmare (or is he still in the nightmare?!) and gets chased...
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Was Pennywise the Real Villain in 'The Shining'?
Turns out that Kubrick using hidden imagery to hint at a fake moon landing isn't the craziest theory surrounding "The Shining." Let me preface this article with the following statement: I am obsessed...
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Is 'Fast & Furious' Better When It Is Fast, or Furious?
Sure, Fast & Furious has changed a lot over the years, but one thing that will never change is family. 2001 was a simpler time for Fast & Furious. A simple movie about a cop attempting to...
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Martin Scorsese, Objectivism, Relativism, and How We Read Cinema
Who gets to decide what everything means? Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. So it's only natural that when people analyze his work, they dig deep. Scorsese is known for...
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