Every few years, a film is praised for using “real” effects and another is criticized for “too much CGI”. In reality, most modern films combine practical and digital techniques, and the question is less which is better than how well they are used. Practical effects Practical effects are created physically on set: models and miniatures, … Read more
Watch a tense scene with the sound off and it often loses much of its power. Music tells the audience how to feel, links scenes together and gives characters an emotional identity. It is one of the most powerful tools a filmmaker has. Score and source music Some of the most memorable moments blur the … Read more
A film is made by hundreds of people, yet critics and audiences often talk about it as “a Hitchcock film” or “a Spielberg film”. That is because the director is the person who turns a script into a unified vision and makes the creative decisions that hold it together. Before shooting The director’s work starts … Read more
For most of the 20th century, seeing a new film meant going to a theater. Today, many films premiere on streaming platforms, and theaters compete with home screens. The change raises big questions about how films are made, released and experienced. From DVDs to streaming Netflix began as a DVD-by-mail service and launched streaming in … Read more
Films are made by people living in a particular time and place, so they inevitably reflect its values, fears and hopes. Sometimes they also change those values. Looking at cinema this way turns any film into a window on the society that produced it. A mirror of its time What could not be shown From … Read more
