film production

Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment Shortchanged MINARI
Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment Shortchanged MINARI

The underfunding of Minari is hardly a controversy, but outside of a few Twitter threads, nobody is discussing it.

SXSW Interview: The Lagralane Group
SXSW Interview: Executive Producers of Oscar-Winning Doc ICARUS – The Lagralane Group

We sat down with documentary producers Yvonne Huff Lee and Jason Delane Lee of the Lagralane Group and chatted about their journey into film finance, their favorite past productions, what they have coming up next.

Cimino's HEAVEN'S GATE: Epic Failure Or Flawed Masterpiece?
Cimino’s HEAVEN’S GATE: Epic Failure Or Flawed Masterpiece?

Editor’s note: Incidentally, we were working on this article a few weeks before Cimino’s death. Sadly, Michael Cimino passed away on July 2 2016, and with this article, we are paying homage to one of the director’s films that had such a significant impact on the entire Hollywood system.

Shawshank Redemption mise-en-scène
What Is Mise-en-Scène? Pt II: Cinematography & Editing

This is the second and last part of “What Is Mise-en-scène”. Find part one (dealing with mise-en-scène of setting, costume and objects) here! Cinematography If there is an important element in mise-en-scène then cinematography is it.

The Dressmaker Mise-en-scène
What Is Mise-en-Scène? Pt I: Setting & Costume

Mise-en-scène is one of the great terms used in film criticism. It is also the most basic and is usually the first thing you’ll learn on any film theory course. Unfortunately mise-en-scène is also, strangely, one of the hardest terms to understand.

motion capture smaug
An Overview Of The Rise Of Motion Capture Filmmaking

With technological developments taking hold in Hollywood, perhaps the most prominent has been the use of motion capture. Motion capture is a technology that syndicates computer-generated effects with human performance. The idea, particularly within the science fiction and fantasy genres, is to produce further realism on part of an actor’s approach to a role and how they portray it.

Music in Film

“Music and cinema fit together naturally. Because there’s a kind of intrinsic musicality to the way moving images work when they’re put together. It’s been said that cinema and music are very close as art forms, and I think that’s true.

Catch 22
MASH vs CATCH-22: 45 Years Later

With a Finger in Each Ear, We March Blindly On The Vietnam War, which had begun as a geopolitical chess match in the 1950’s, escalated into a full blown land war in 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson authorised the use of American ground troops to help South Vietnam defeat the Communist North. More than any conflict in the 20th Century, Vietnam segregated America into a civil war of ideals. The burgeoning counterculture rejected and rallied against it, even denouncing the troops themselves.

Stanley Kubrick movies
The 10 Greatest Movies Never Made

In the fast-paced world of show business, projects are announced before swiftly being cancelled every day. Yet there are some film projects that obsess their creators for years, always on the verge of getting made, before the cinematic powers that be decide otherwise. This article is a celebration of the best movies never made – films that would have been surefire masterpieces, that generations of film fans have had to resort to merely imagining existing.

Inception quality film
Wheat vs. Chaff: 10 Elements of Quality Film

From the tiniest blog to the inked pages of Empire magazine, society’s devotion to film coverage highlights just how deeply moving pictures resonate in modern culture. It’s why you’re here reading this very article right now. The finances back it up too.

Inception quality film
Does High Realism Equal Better Film?

There is a difference between stark realism and good storytelling. Cinema is open to different perceptions. We, as aware audiences, ought to give more importance to the integrity of presenting the story and not its factual correctness.

Staff Inquiry: What Are Your Film Pet Peeves?

Every month, the team of Film Inquiry is posed a film-related question. This month, we were wondering about film pet peeves. Do we have any?

Twin Films: Who Did It Best?

Have you ever noticed that many films are released to theaters around the same time as another with a very similar theme? They are called Twin Films, or “films with the same, or very similar, plot produced and/or released at the same time in two different studios.” I often thought it was lazy; that filmmakers are running out of ideas, so they’re all trying to out-do one another with the better story.

The 7 Most Disastrous Movie Gimmicks Of All Time

For as long as movies have existed, there have been a slew of gimmicks to lure audiences in. Audiences were drawn into 3D movies as early as the 1920s, and gimmick color effects existed even earlier. Some directors have even taken more clever approaches.

10 Most Visually Stunning Films

For me, the way a film looks is nearly as important as how good it is. I can remember leaving several theatres saying, “Wow, that movie was terrible, but it looked amazing!” Film is a visual media after all, and cinematographers work extrememly hard to present audiences with beautiful and stunning imagery even if the film doesn’t work as a whole – I’m looking at you, Prometheus.