"Shot | Reverse Shot"

Check out "Joel & Ethan Coen - Shot | Reverse Shot", part of the Every Frame A Painting channel on Youtube.

Filmmaker Tony Zhou unpacks the Coen's lens selection, camera placement, and editing rhythm to build emotion and humor in their films. 

Masterclass With Werner Herzog

via the IndyWire Playlist: Watch 90-Minute Masterclass With Legendary Director Werner Herzog

Herzog on Cinema Verite:
"Facts do not constitute truth per se."

45 Minutes With David Lynch

This video comes by way of the Indiewire Blog.

Hitchcock/Truffaut

If you haven't yet had the pleasure, check out Hitchcock/Truffaut. Joseph McBride calls it: "the single best book on the technique of filmmaking."

Some of the recorded interviews used for the book are available online here.

The Average Shot Length of Famous European Filmmakers

Not sure what to make of this exactly.  These kind of "Inside Baseball" stats ignore so much more about how films are constructed or how stories are told, yet it's still fun to think about.

Full article here at VashiVisuals. 

Making "The Shining"

If you read this blog it's no secret that I appreciate Stanley Kubrick's oeuvre.  Here's a new film, "Staircases to Nowhere: Making Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'" from the Elstree Project. Full description included below:


(Extended) Staircases to Nowhere: Making Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" from Howard Berry on Vimeo.
The full oral history story of the making of Stanley Kubrick's horror masterpiece "The Shining".

In October we made a 17-minute oral history using our content from The Elstree Project, an oral history project designed to record, preserve and share the memories of people who have worked at the studios of Elstree and Borehamwood. Since then it has received over 100,000 hits and has been shared on numerous blogs and websites.

Now we present the full story, at 55-minutes in length, and with contributions from nine crew members who worked on the film and Stanley Kubrick's widow, Christiane. We believe this is the most in-depth exploration into the making of "The Shining" on film, from the perspective of those who actually worked on the production. Additional content includes memories of the fire at Elstree, a more in-depth look at the Stages at Elstree and the Steadicam, the work of the Second Unit on the film and what it was like to work with Kubrick.

Interviewed are:
Brian Cook - 1st AD
Jan Harlan - Producer
Christiane Kubrick - Wife of Stanley Kubrick
Mick Mason - Camera Technician
Ray Merrin - Post-Production Sound
Doug Milsome - 1st AC and Second Unit Camera
Kelvin Pike - Camera Operator
Ron Punter - Scenic Artist
June Randall - Continuity
Julian Senior - Warner Bros. Publicity

The interviews in this film were recorded over a period of three years, and with eight students getting the chance to gain live work experience as part of their undergraduate degree course in Film and Television in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire. The film has been made as part of The Elstree Project which is a partnership between Howard Berry of the University and Bob Redman and Paul Welsh MBE who run the volunteer group Elstree Screen Heritage. Please consider contributing to the project, by using the "tip jar" feature on this video, and help us make more videos like this.

We would like to thank all of our interviewees, and an extra thanks to Jan Harlan for his help and assistance, as well as Lee Unkrich for his encouragement and assistance with research. We would also like to thank Steven Adams, Associate Dean (Research) and Judy Glasman, Dean, in the School of Creative Arts.

Please share and comment! We would love to hear your thoughts.
And please do visit our website, http://theelstreeproject.org

Vimeo Film School: Swipe Cut

Here's a fun short piece that demonstrates the uses of a swipe cut by small film crews.

 
3 Tricks For Your Impossibly Small Film Crew from Vimeo Video School on Vimeo.

Musuem of the Moving Image

The Museum of the Moving Image is a great site to learn about the history of cinema.


The website also features the Pinewood Dialogs, "discussions with creative figures in film, television, and digital media." Interviews include Francis Ford Coppola, Thelma Schoonmaker, Terry Gilliam and Jerry Lewis to name a few. You can listen on the site or subscribe to these interviews as a podcast.

Really great stuff - check it out.