The kids are back in school, Tenet premiered in the US, Mulan was released on Disney+ and filmmakers are starting to talk about Virtual Production in principal photography more than ever. Let's dig into details!
This Week's Curated Articles
Jiří Menzel, "Closely Watched Trains" Director, Died
As you might see today in every news outlet, Czech director, writer and actor, Jiří Menzel died yesterday. He admired Hrabal and he used his work as a great source of inspiration. Menzel won Academy Award for Best International Feature in 1968 for "Closely Watched Trains" and been nominated in 1987 for "My Sweet Little Village".
“Good comedy should be about serious things,” Menzel once said. “If you start to talk about serious things too seriously, you end up being ridiculous.”
Katie Kilkenny
The Making of Peter Jackson's First Film is a Roadmap for Beginners
I bet all of you who have ever participated on a student film know very well how everyone needs the best equipment ever, expensive locations and brand new grip. Peter Jackson proved, with his first movie, that you can work all around it with just some simple ideas which are brilliant in the end.
Jo Light
Mulan Release on Disney+ Marks the End of Business as Usual
Mulan was one of Donika's favourite Disney movies since she was little. Partly because it is not the typical story with a princess in danger and a prince saving the situation, but Mulan is the real independent heroine who has a brain and partly because Mulan is on its way to change the way cinemas work nowadays – proving the change is inevitable.
Karl Quinn
Pinewood Atlanta Studio Launches Innovative LED–Stage Virtual Production Service
Virtual Production is a term known for some time. Most of the time it's used in pre-vis for directors, as well as crew members, to help with previsualization of digital assets, but lately, we can see being used in real-time production settings – for example in The Lion King, Mandalorian, Game of Thrones, Westworld and more.
Now, in addition to Virtual Stages such as ILM's StageCraft or Weta's Digital LED-Stage in Wellington, New Zealand, Pinewood Atlanta Studios are opening up their own stage. Amidst the crisis, it seems like a sound investment to us.
PS: If you're interested in learning more about Virtual production, we definitely recommend VP website by Unreal Engine.
Bill Desowitz
From the Archives
What is a Showrunner? What it Means to Literally Run the Show
Now, as we'll continue on our journey together, you'll find out we're pretty big on TV Shows. That's why we chose this article today. So if you're interested in TV Shows, start reading.
If you're new to this, let us sum up who's Showrunner in two sentences: they are individuals who have creative control over the show, they run the writers room and they manage literally every aspect of the show. It's an extremely demanding job that mixes creative and managerial talents of such individual.
Examples of Showrunners: D & D, Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy
Max Weinstein
Festival Window
How Each Major Film Festival Is Responding to the Coronavirus
Film festivals are one of the biggest culture area, which suffers from this current covid situation - thousands of strangers concentrating and blending for a couple of days, that's exactly what the virus likes. So, do you want to know how, for example, Cannes or Venice are handling it?
Nate Jones
Behind the Scenes of the Week
Tenet – Behind the Scenes (Exclusive)
Just imagine shutting down 8 kilometers of a highway for 3 weeks straight. Who the hell does that? And you know what? Those reverse stunts and cool effects? They are real... like that 747 crushing into a building. Real. Fuck... Christopher Nolan 🤯
This Week's recommendation
Raised by Wolves (TV Show)
Look, we just saw the first three episodes that are available on HBO. We still can't wrap our heads around it. It's different. Strange. Bizarre. Terrifying sometimes. It's Ridley Scott and it's hard sci-fi, as well as hard-to-watch sci-fi.
Anyway, Jiří can't stop thinking about the show and that's why we decided to recommend it. You can expect a great performance from the show's main Androids, Travis Fimmel (Vikings) back in the game and some interesting art choices.
