TV & Movie Appreciation Tutorials

Unearthing Apollo 11 in Large Format: An Interview with Director Todd Douglas Miller

Director-Editor Todd Douglas Miller creates more than just another space documentary with his film Apollo 11. He has helped expand the horizons of what we thought we knew about one of humankind's signature achievements by unearthing nearly 300 reels of previously unseen large-format film, up to 65 and 70mm, digitized with a first-of-its-kind 8K scanner, along with 11,000 hours of previously unheard audio recordings to provide previously only-imagined perspectives on our first mission to the moon. Creative COW's Courtney Lewis reveals how he put it all together with NASA, the National Archives, post house Final Frame, and tools from Adobe.

Courtney Lewis

Designing Tarantino's Once Upon A Time in Hollywood

Barbara Ling, production designer for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, discusses how she was able to turn back time and recreate 1960’s Hollywood. Barbara and Go Creative Show host Ben Consoli discuss how Quentin Tarantino kept the film’s script a secret, how she restored Hollywood to the 1960’s, not using green screen, sourcing vintage props from eBay, filming the real Playboy Mansion, the challenges of filming on Hollywood Boulevard, and much more.

Ben Consoli

The Lion King's Virtual Cinematography: Caleb Deschanel, ASC

Caleb Deschanel, cinematographer for Disney’s live-action The Lion King, shares how they used traditional cinematography to create the life-like virtual film. Caleb and Go Creative Show host, Ben Consoli, discuss modeling cameras and lenses for virtual filmmaking, how Caleb was able to move the sun around in virtual space to get the perfect lighting, using a real drone for the Circle of Life sequence, and more!

Ben Consoli

Shooting RED 8K for Danny Boyle's Yesterday

The magical romantic comedy Yesterday reunites cinematographer Christopher Ross BSC with director Danny Boyle to tell the story of a singer-songwriter who wakes up to discover that he's the only one in the world who remembers The Beatles. Christopher selected the RED HELIUM S35 8K sensor (with as many as 17 cameras rolling simultaneously in a single scene!) to capture a variety of looks as the story takes viewers from East Anglia to Los Angeles. With 10-15TB of footage coming in every day, this is also a workflow story, featuring DIT Thomas Patrick and the team at Mission Digital for dailies, and Goldcrest Post for online, VFX, conform, and grade.

Adrian Pennington

Spider-Man Far From Home Cinematographer Matthew Lloyd

Matthew Lloyd, cinematographer for Spider-Man: Far From Home, takes us behind the scenes of the film and shares techniques for lighting and shooting massive visual effects scenes. Matthew and Go Creative Show host Ben Consoli, discuss working in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, using pre-vis to prep for shots with VFX, creating Spider-Man’s holographic world, plus Matt’s camera and lens choice, his experience with commercial and fashion filmmaking, audience questions and so much more!

Ben Consoli

Stuart Dryburgh: DP for Men In Black International

Stuart Dryburgh, cinematographer for Men In Black International, joins Go Creative Show host, Ben Consoli, to discuss creating the look for the film. Stuart talks about the challenges of working in an established franchise, filming in NYC in the snow, why Stuart prefers Arri Alexa cameras, his lighting and lens choices for the film, shooting action scenes, and more!

Ben Consoli

Great Effects for Good Omens: Collaboration with Milk VFX

Wouldn’t you know it? You’re a demon living on Earth for the past 6000 years, and you’ve finally persuaded your angelic counterpart to help you stop the end of the world, and now you can’t remember where you left the 11 year old Antichrist. Such are the tribulations of Good Omens, the newly posted Amazon Prime Video series based on the beloved 1990 classic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. We spoke with the Oscar, Emmy, and BAFTA-winning team at Milk VFX about how they brought this epic comic fantasy to life.

Feature
Tim Wilson

Making Of...

Go Creative: Designing Disney's Aladdin with Gemma Jackson

Gemma Jackson, production designer for Disney’s live action Aladdin, joins Go Creative Show host and commercial director Ben Consoli to discuss the film. As the award winning production designer of Game of Thrones, Finding Neverland, Bridget Jones Diary and more, Gemma shares her experience working with director Guy Ritchie to create Aladdin’s stunning look.

Ben Consoli

Making Of...

Innovative Production Techniques on Freeform's Good Trouble

Good Trouble, a Freeform series spun off the popular and highly regarded The Fosters, features production innovations including an LED videowall as a scenic backdrop. Panasonic Varicam LTs shooting in ProRES 4444 feed a dynamic post workflow at Keep Me Posted, a FotoKem company, featuring upwards of 1000 cuts per episode and extensive use of flashbacks.

Christine Bunish

Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe and That Cup on Game of Thrones

Many things were shocking about Season 8 Episode 4 of Game of Thrones (Don’t worry, no spoilers here!), but the one shock to rule them all was that quick cameo of a contemporary drink cup next to the dragon queen herself. A quick tweak with Adobe's new Content Aware Fill for Adobe After Effects, later, and well, we won't spoil the outcome for you!

Hillary Lewis

Film Festivals

Making the Documentary ‘Ernie & Joe’

Creative COW’s Hillary Lewis sits down with Jenifer McShane at SXSW to talk about her latest documentary feature following two unique police officers who approach the mental health crisis in San Antonio, TX in a new, inspiring way.

Feature, People / Interview
Hillary Lewis

Gods, Marvel, & Maui: Making VFX on a Pacific Island

It's safe to say that there's no other VFX vendor in the world quite like capital T, let alone one that is constantly contributing to films like Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther, as well as the critically acclaimed TV series, American Gods. What makes capital T unique is that they’re a two person, husband and wife team, who work from their home office ??" a beach house in Hawaii. You'll be inspired by what 2 people can do, if also a little envious of where they're doing it!

Feature, People / Interview
COW News

Editing The Emmy Award-Winning Phenomenon, Wild Wild Country

Wild Wild Country premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim, and when it hit Netflix a few months later, it quickly became a phenomenon, going on to win the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary of Nonfiction Series and netting editor Neil Meiklejohn an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming. Creative COW's Matt Latham spoke with Neil about managing a project of this scope, treating the eight parts as a single film rather than episodes, his use of Adobe Premiere Pro, workflows with visual effects and music, and much more, including career advice for aspiring editors.

Feature, People / Interview
Matt Latham

Editing Marvel's Black Panther: Debbie Berman ACE

This is an epic tale spanning two decades, three countries, 12,000 miles -- and that's just the story of Debbie Berman, ACE, starting in reality TV and indie film in South Africa, making her way to Canada and then the US to edit Marvel's Spider-man: Homecoming and, most recently, Black Panther, already one of the most popular films of all time. In this exclusive interview with Creative COW Managing Editor Kylee Peña, Debbie talks about struggling toward US citizenship, a serendipitous meeting with an ambitious young director, helping to bring representation to the big screen and pride to her home country.

People / Interview
Kylee Peña

Avengers: Infinity War - Thanos, Titan, and Weta Digital

At the center of one of the biggest films in history, Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War, stands Thanos, a CG character whose emotional range became a major contribution to the film's success. Creative COW Contributing Editor Hillary Lewis spoke with Weta Digital VFX Supervisor Matt Aitken about the challenges of their work on this remarkably compelling character and his world.

Feature, People / Interview
Hillary Lewis

VFX Legion Completes Effects for SUPERFLY Remake

Producer Joel Silver and Director X called on VFX Legion to tackle 100+ shots designed to amp up the impact of the raw violence in Sony’s reboot of the iconic ‘70’s film. The reboot of ‘Superfly’ puts a modern, stylish spin on the original 1972 film about a Harlem drug dealer trying to score one last deal before getting out of ‘the game.’ Set in present-day Atlanta, the Mecca of today’s popping music scene, the action is driven by a hip-hop soundtrack curated by Future. The city’s distinctive style is the backdrop for a new generation of affluent, extravagant drug kingpins that takes violence to the extreme.

Editorial, Feature, Project
VFX Legion

Star Wars: How Much Is Too Much?

When Disney announced that they would be making a new Star Wars movie every year for at least 10 years I was both excited and a bit skeptical. In 2012 when Lucas sold his company to Disney for $4billion, he included his outlines of Episodes VII, VIII and IX. But Disney and Co. decided to discard these stories and start over, also discarding the extended universe of comics and books that millions of SW fans had grown to love. Adding JJ Abrams to the mix was icing on the cake for SW fans who have become critical of SW. But Lawrence Kasdan was the saving grace, who wrote a script for VII that the original actors could get behind. So, how much Star Wars is too much?

Review, Editorial, Feature
Mike Cohen

Go Creative Show: The Cinematography of A Quiet Place

Charlotte Bruus Christensen is the Danish cinematographer behind the lens of the horrifying and beautifully shot film A Quiet Place. Charlotte joins commercial director and Go Creative Show host Ben Consoli to discuss the camera, lighting, and lensing choices for A Quiet Place, its unique sound design and how show created its horrifying yet warm look.

Ben Consoli

Cate Haight ACE on Editing The Sundance Hit Indie, Puzzle

Cate Haight, ACE, has edited some of the most memorable films and television shows in the last few years. Her latest indie feature Puzzle -- which tells the story of a suburban mom who discovers a passion for competitive jigsaw puzzling -- debuted at Sundance Film Festival this year. Creative COW Contributing Editor Alee Caldwell sat down with Cate to talk about going to the fest, advocating for change, and putting together the pieces of Puzzle.

People / Interview
Alee Caldwell

Adobe Creative Cloud

Creating Dunkirk VR: Ingenuity, Accessibility & Adobe Tools

Academy Award-nominated director Christopher Nolan has referred to his film Dunkirk in IMAX as “virtual reality without the goggles,” so when it came time to build Save Every Breath: The Dunkirk VR Experience, the team at Practical Magic knew that the stakes were higher than usual. Creative COW Associate Editor Kylee Peña speaks with Practical Magic's Matt Lewis and Adobe Director of Immersive Chris Bobotis about the challenge of creating a tie-in worthy of a supremely immersive Academy Award-nominated Best Picture, the future of user interfaces, the role of community in storytelling, and the new ways that young creators are driving technology.

Feature, People / Interview
Kylee Peña

The Long Road Home with Seth Reed

Seth Reed is the Emmy®-nominated production designer for the National Geographic miniseries The Long Road Home. Seth joins Go Creative Show host Ben Consoli to discuss the challenges and benefits of shooting at Fort Hood in Texas and how he created the biggest standing set in North America.

Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Ben Consoli

Robert McLachlan: Cinematographer for Game of Thrones

Robert McLachlan is the cinematographer of Game of Thrones, Westworld and Ray Donovan, and he joins commercial director and Go Creative Show host Ben Consoli to share behind the scenes stories from some of his most iconic scenes including The Red Wedding and The Loot Train Battle.

Feature, People / Interview
Ben Consoli

Audio Professionals

Hearing The Handmaid's Tale: Jane Tattersall's Sound Career

With Emmy, BAFTA, Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel, Canadian Screen, and Directors Guild of Canada Awards among many more, Jane Tattersall shares insights into a career in sound editing entering its fourth decade with two young women just beginning their own careers in the field. Their conversation begins with Jane's work on the Hulu hit series, The Handmaid's Tale.

Feature, People / Interview
Kylee Peña

Living The American Dream: Editing Sharknado 5

Ana Florit is your typical Los Angeles-based film editor: among other things, she grew up in the French Alps, moved to Paris, directed a one-hour movie, moved to Hollywood, and has served as the lead editor on the 2nd, 3rd, and now, the latest in the pop-culture phenomenon Sharknado franchise, Sharknado 5: Global Swarming. You know, your usual run-the-the-mill American Dream story. In Ana’s case, the journey also includes a stint at Video Symphony, a Saturn Award nomination, and playing a major role in moving independent production powerhouse The Asylum fully from FCP7 to Premiere Pro. Here, Ana talks with Creative COW Associate Editor Kylee Peña about workflow, VFX, and some of the secrets of Sharknado's success. (Spoiler alert: they're not comedies.)

Kylee Peña