The Oscars are pretty consistently my favorite night of the year for pop culture, but I have to admit that 2013 host Seth MacFarlane took the show, in predictable fashion, to a distasteful place last night. Gawker, New York Magazine, and various other publications took the time to outline and point out every single sexist, [...]

I was so nervous walking into the theater Wednesday night to see Joe Wright’s latest work, a “bold new adaptation” of Leo Tolstoy’s famous novel, Anna Karenina. Reviews at this point have been lukewarm at best– critics have called the film visually stunning but unfortunately stunted in almost all other aspects. Wright’s last film, Atonement, [...]

Maybe you can’t judge a book by its cover but you can usually do a pretty good job judging a movie by its trailer. When Magic Mike‘s trailer hit the blogosphere, most people I knew and I started rejoicing at the dishy dudes gratuitously pulling off their shirts. Mike, our protagonist (Channing Tatum who… can [...]

Yesterday, I took myself to go see Snow White and the Huntsman. It was a really gorgeous movie, with some moments that I’m sure were emotional and deep, and a nice pair of attractive sidekicks for Kristen Stewart’s eponymous protagonist, some lovely landscape helicopter shots, and the really shocking plot twist of not having a [...]

When I was about 10, my cousin Jenny Lamaj asked me to be in a short film she was making with her friends. I had so much fun finding out everything that happens behind the scenes and learning all about how movies are made. Anyway, I thought you all might get a kick out of [...]

I have the pleasure of spending this weekend working on BU MFA student Julie Reizes thesis film. For me, the most exciting part about this particular shoot is the location: Philadelphia. I’ve hardly left New England during my life, so its refreshing to get to spend some time elsewhere. I’ll be updating this post with [...]

Every scene heading in a screenplay begins with three letters – either INT. or EXT. – to indicate if the scene takes place inside or outside. These three letters greatly determine how the scene will ultimately be shot. Further, the scene heading ends with the time of day, another bit of information that is significant [...]

Although a great location can’t make a great movie on its own, it definitely helps. Locations are full of what BU film professor Mary Jane Doherty calls “compositional gifts” – the little nuances of a space that can be arranged in the frame in a pleasing, interesting, or dynamic way. Great shooting locations therefore lend [...]

Night shoots. They’re the most fun, often the most challenging, and always the most tiring of film shoots. Last Tuesday night, all three proved true. From 10pm to 6am, a truckload of BU filmmakers (myself included) headed out to the suburbs to shoot a car crash scene for COM Graduate student Padrick Ritch’s MFA thesis [...]

In my post on the difference between film and video, I discussed the differences between film, the tried and true medium of the past 100 years, and digital video, the squeaky-clean, super-cheap choice of the twenty-first century. There is something uncomfortable about being part of the generation of filmmakers that will undo the technological traditions [...]