| | | |
Film History & Appreciation
The Art of Foley: John Roesch Honored by MPSE
John Roesch is one of the most accomplished Foley artists in the motion picture industry, with contributions to more than 400 films in a three decade-spanning career. He is the recipient of two MPSE Golden Reel Awards (The Dark Knight, The Matrix) alongside more than a dozen nominations. He has worked on 16 films that have won Academy Awards for Best Sound or Best Sound Editing. John Roesch spoke to Creative COW about the art of Foley and his extensive experience in creating sound effects.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
John Roesch |
| | | | |
| | | |
Art of the Edit
Zombies Brought to Life For Warm Bodies
VFX company LOOK Effects ramped up a studio in Vancouver and created a new pipeline for character animation, to produce 85 shots of the Boneys - the most decayed, menacing zombies - in Warm Bodies, the new zom-rom-com based on the book of the same name. In addition to character animation, the company created a CG fly-through of a wasted city, blending with live action plates at each end of the sequence.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
| | | | |
| | | |
Cinematography
KICKSTART THEFT: Filmed on Sony F65
Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC and director Frederic Goodich, ASC got together to push the new Sony F65 to its limits. The result is Kickstart Theft, a short film based on De Sica's classic The Bicycle Thieves, which was shot in downtown Los Angeles in a range of challenging lighting and shooting conditions.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
| | | | |
| | | |
Adobe After Effects
Prisoner To My Passion
"I don't know if it's addiction or adoration, but one way or the other, I'm hooked on her," says Creative COW's Rob Mize. "The signs are all there: the obsession with After Effects, the inability to function without After Effects there next to me on my laptop, waiting to be clicked. And the torment of each moment spent suffering any separation from my cherished compositor. Is it any wonder that I, a once innocent naïf in an analog world, now find myself enraptured by this non-linear, digital Delilah?"
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Rob Mize |
| | | | |
| | | |
Film History & Appreciation
Bill Taylor, ASC Commended with the John A. Bonner Medal
VFX pioneer Bill Taylor, ASC has been voted to receive the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which was presented at the 2013 Scientific and Technical Awards. Inspired by Ray Harryhausen and some of the greatest icons of effects history, Bill has achieved feats of his own. We had the opportunity to speak with him about his luminary career.
Feature, People / Interview
Bill Taylor, ASC |
| | | | |
| | | |
Cinematography
Behind the Lens: Michael Slovis, ASC & Breaking Bad
Michael Slovis, ASC is behind the lens at the enormously popular and critically acclaimed AMC show Breaking Bad where he's shot four seasons and earned three Emmy nominations. Although his early work was in independent film in New York, Slovis has had a long, successful run in episodic TV including work on Fringe, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, 30 Rock and many others. In one of the most compelling entries yet in our Behind The Lens series, edited by Debra Kaufman, Michael talks about the pleasures of shooting film, his stock choices (which he feels have never been better), why he sticks with prime lenses, and some of the dramatic approaches to visual storytelling that Breaking Bad creator and Executive Director Vince Gilligan has developed for the show.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Michael Slovis, ASC |
| | | | |
| | | |
Stereoscopic 3D
Tim Squyres Edits Life of Pi
Tim Squyres, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Life of Pi, got hooked on film when he took an introductory film course at Cornell University in upstate New York. Squyres talks to Creative COW about the challenges of editing Ang Lee's first digitally shot feature film, which was also a stereoscopic 3D release.
Feature, People / Interview
Tim Squyres |
| | | | |
| | | |
RED Camera
House of Cards
Netflix is distributing all 13 episodes of its first season House of Cards at once, on streaming platforms. That's not all that makes this new political drama series unique. With David Fincher as an executive producer and director of the first two episodes, you'd expect a digitally-savvy pipeline and you'd be correct. In this story, Fincher's post production supervisor Peter Mavromates and assistant editor Tyler Nelson talk about how FotoKem's newly evolved nextLAB system played a role in streamlining the post pipeline.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
| | | | |
| | | |
Adobe After Effects
Expressions, Scripting, Automation -- and Fun
"I first encountered After Effects in a somewhat roundabout way. I have (as many people do apparently) an aversion to public speaking, so I came up with the bright idea of creating a video to do the talking for me." So begins the journey of longtime Creative COW leader Dan Ebberts, which takes a dramatic -- and fun -- turn with the introduction of Expressions in AE 5.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Dan Ebberts |
| | | | |
| | | |
Adobe After Effects
An Old Dog, Learning New Tricks
You'll be surprised at how late Andrew Devis started with After Effects, but he's thrilled to be constantly learning new tricks. The excitement he finds in turning that knowledge into tutorials has clearly been reciprocated, as he has become one of the web's most popular trainers.
Feature, People / Interview
Andrew Devis |
| | | | |
| | | |
Adobe After Effects
Keeping Them Guessing
For 22 years, Dave LaRonde created on-air promotion for KCRG-TV, the ABC affiliate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Through the years, one thing has remained constant: Adobe After Effects has been in his video toolbox. Dave describes his introduction to After Effects and how it helped him turn an also-ran into the leader of the pack.
Feature, People / Interview
Dave LaRonde |
| | | | |
| | | |
Adobe After Effects
Inspiring Me to Enable Myself
"My journey with After Effects is a reflection of my journey as a creative. Fear, skepticism, blood, tears, mocking, understanding, confidence. The cycle repeats sometimes, but it expands and contracts too. Some days it's a thing of wonder and beauty, other days it's collapsing in on itself like a dying star. When you start to have more days like the former than the latter, nice things start to happen both on your screen and in your mind. For all the rest, there's coffee," says Creative COW Contributing Editor Kylee Wall.
Feature, People / Interview
Kylee Wall |
| | | | |
| | | |
Adobe After Effects
Creating Our Own Destiny
"I was learning that After Effects was unlike any other piece of software I’d ever used. I dove in thinking it was a pool, but found it just went deeper and deeper - the Marianas Trench of programs," says Psychic Bunny's Rick Castañeda. The endless grind of one frame at a time roto blossomed into, well, everything.
Feature, People / Interview
Rick Castañeda |
| | | | |
| | | |
What Computer Should I Buy?
Jump!
NitroCircus: The Movie's stylistic leap in 3D production used RED EPICs shooting 96 fps, for up to 4TB of files a day. They relied on HP workstations to deliver the film on time and on budget.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Russell Lasson |
| | | | |
| | | |
Cinematography
Line of Sight: John Bramblitt's Story
Personal despair is turned into an inspiring vision of beauty and life as John Bramblitt learns to express his talent for painting - without sight. Join Stephen Menick as he relates meeting this remarkable young man and the tools Stephen used to tell John's story.
Feature, People / Interview
Stephen Menick |
| | | | |
| | | |
Cinematography
The Hobbit & The Dawn of High Frame Rate Cinema
The technology wizards of the film/TV industry have been talking about High Frame Rate cinema for a long time; indeed, Douglas Trumbull's Showscan at 60 fps presaged the current interest over 30 years ago. But it took director Peter Jackson to take the plunge for mainstream cinema, declaring he would shoot The Hobbit in 48 fps to get momentum going. In about a year's time, manufacturers made the gear, theater exhibitors updated their movie theaters, and the studios prepared for one of the most audacious technology debuts that cinema has seen. Creative COW goes behind the scenes to see what it took for you to see The Hobbit in 48 fps.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
| | | | |
| | | |
Cinematography
Jacob Rosenberg Directs Waiting for Lightning
Waiting for Lightning is the tragic and triumphant story of legendary skateboarder Danny Way, following him from his chaotic childhood to his early talent with a skateboard through to his many professional successes. With a combination of archival footage, interviews and skateboard action, Waiting for Lightning also takes us on Danny's journey to China to jump the Great Wall on a skateboard.
Feature, People / Interview
Jacob Rosenberg |
| | | | |
| | | |
Broadcasting
Ryan Salazar & Pixar Discuss Render Farms
Teaming clusters of systems together to generate frames of videos is an amazing time-saver, especially when there are heavy scenes that need lots of processing power. Imagine now an animation that could take millions of hours to render, and one computer is no longer an option. With an in-house system, or a render farm using the latest Cloud Technology, speed and optimum results are what it's all about.
Feature, People / Interview
Ryan Salazar |
| | | | |
| | | |
Cinematography
Hitchcock: Behind the Lens with Jeff Cronenweth, ASC
Psycho still retains its shock value, and the new movie Hitchcock, directed by Sacha Gervasi (Anvil!) and starring Anthony Hopkins as the iconic filmmaker and Helen Mirren as his wife Alma Reville, makes it quite plain how this horror-suspense film became an icon. Set during the filming of Psycho, Hitchcock features the artistry of cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, ASC, who references the mid-century era with a Technicolor-inflected look and captures an intimate view of Hitchcock’s personal life.
Feature, People / Interview
Jeff Cronenweth, ASC |
| | | | |
|
|
