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The last few years of cinema have welcomed the growing trend of movie studios re-releasing films for the pleasure of three-dimensional viewing. This trend has been met with both excitement and apprehension. While some viewers are not particularly attune to the thrills of 3-D imaging, the chance to see an all-time favorite on the big-screen again is an opportunity some find difficult to pass up. Why…
After the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, Twitter did not exist yet and there was no instant media coverage that people could directly access, which at the time was seen as disadvantageous. Seconds after the Boston marathon terrorist attack several social media websites were flooded with statements about the atrocity; some information true, some information false, some information fell somewhere…
At the 2012 Global Conference in LA, George Lucas discussed his recent film Red Tails, which illustrates the adversity African Americans faced during WWII. Red Tails is an inspirational tale that showcases how African Americans overcame incredulous obstacles and ended up becoming some of the most successful pilots during WWII. George Lucas had been persistently working on this project 23 years and…
While it may seem that contemporary icons float effortlessly to the apogee of their field, people rarely pay attention to their often banal backstories. Roger Ebert, the revered film critic who passed away on April 4, wasn’t born into greatness. He was a regular guy from the middle of Illinois whose greatest literary influence was Mad magazine. “Mad's parodies made me aware of the machine inside the…
When we think of the movies, one of the images we conjure up is that of the celluloid film strips that whir inside a projector and flash the moving pictures in front of us in a theater. But the way the film industry is moving towards an era of digitalization, the need for physical film is slowly running out of screen time. We can thank digital movie cameras like the Red camera for such a change.…
Director Stanley Kubrick is notoriously known for exhausting his actors to the point of insanity. Some of Kubrick’s great works consist of The Shining, Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, and Eyes Wide Shut. During pre-production for The Shining, Kubrick interviewed 5,000 boys over six months for the part of the small boy Danny Torrance, illustrating his extensive attention to detail. Kubrick never…
The elements that really make The Aviator fly high above those highly sought after puffy clouds include both the compelling screenwriting of this film and the performance of Leonardo DiCaprio who plays the passionate madman, Howard Hughes. The storyline covers about 20 years of the character’s life, with ostentatious and detailed scenery, this fast-paced film makes a wonderful attempt to capture both…
After a long and impatient wait, the year’s most anticipated seasonal metamorphosis has arrived: spring. As you begin to shake the pall of winter and gratefully usher in warmer weather, take some time to let these five films help refresh and rejuvenate your mind. With themes that focus on change, redemption and transformation, they will be an invigorating addition to your new spring wardrobe. Eternal…
Just as the first sentence of a novel, a movie’s opening credits can make or break a film. In a video short, “The Film Before the Film,” Berlin students Nora Thoes and Damian Pérez show us just exactly how film credits have developed and evolved from Thomas Edison’s first use up to movies as current as 2012’s The Avengers. It’s a fascinating look at how opening credits began humbly, grew complex with…
The first ‘moving image’ in the film industry was categorized by flipbooks (also known as ‘thumb cinema’) that were created at the end of the 19th century. A flipbook is a series of pictures that are intended to be flipped through with your thumb in order to produce the illusion of a moving image. Amit Man is circling back to the idea of thumb cinema and using mobile app technology to convert still…