A Very Brief History of Web Video
Adweek traces the brief window of existance of web video from lonelygirl15 to the modern billion hit bohemeths. December 1995-January 1999 After seeing Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s short Spirit of...
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How Michael Crichton’s “Westworld” Pioneered Modern Special Effects
David A Price chronicles how writer/director Michael Crichton’s 1973 Westworld pathed the way for modern special effects by using “Pixelation” and developed by none-other-than John Whitney Jr. the son...
View ArticleThe Full Oral History of the Making of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”
The Elstree Project started as an oral history project designed to record, preserve and share the memories of people who have worked at the studios of Elstree and Borehamwood. Here is the full story,...
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Anatomy of a Logo: Star Wars
Trace the history of the Star Wars logo from conception to it’s may variations through different mediums over the years. 1977 Comic Con with Early Logo During the film’s pre-production, a decal (below)...
View ArticleNew York, 1939 – In Color
Here’s a rarely seen recently surfaced amateur movie, filmed by a French tourist, Jean Vivier, in 16mm Kodachrome of New York City at the end of 1930s via PetaPixel
View ArticleCitizen Kane DP Gregg Toland Mini Documentary
Here’s a short featurette on Gregg Toland who worked with Orson Welles to push the language of cinema on “Citizen Kane” via Cinephelia & Beyond
View ArticleMartin Scorsese – A Personal Journey Through American Movies
Martin Scorsese reflected on the history of American film starting with the early pioneers and up to the point where he began making films himself. “Film is a disease, when it infects your blood stream...
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A Short History of Coming Attractions
Jason Kehe and Katie M. Palmer trace the history of movie trailers in this Art of Trailer for Wired Magazine. We’re obsessed with movie trailers. This year fans watched more than a billion on YouTube...
View ArticleThe Changing Shape of Cinema: A History of Aspect Ratio
John Hess traces the evolution of the screen shape from the silent film days through the widescreen explosion of the 50s, to the aspect ratio of modern digital cameras. This lesson is part of the...
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6 Insane True Stories Behind The Stage Names of Celebrities
Maxwell Yezpitelok examines the stories behind the stage names of 6 well known celebrities. As a teenager, Nicolas Coppola changed his name to stop other actors from teasing him. No, they didn’t tease...
View ArticleThe Camera That Changed The World
This is a documentary about the 1960s and the cameras developed at the time that allowed filmmaking to go mobile and sparked the beginnings of our first person media culture.
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A Guide to Every Aspect Ratio in History
Inspired by our lesson on the History of Aspect Ratio – Vashi Nedomansky created this awesome guide covering all the aspect ratios used through out history including landmark films in the film format....
View ArticleHollywood’s History of Faking It | The Evolution of Modern Greenscreen...
Go inside the history of the travelling mattes (now called chromakey) and learn the history of visual trickery used by filmmakers from the earliest filmmakers through to the modern day. This is part of...
View ArticleBruce Lee, Before and After the Dragon
In just a three year span, Bruce Lee starred in a handful of films that catapulted the martial arts genre into a global phenomenon. His sudden death, 40 years ago, left an enormous vacuum, with...
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Martin Scorsese on The Persisting Vision: Reading the Language of Cinema
Martin Scorsese writes this essay about his relationship to film for the New York Review of Books. In the film The Magic Box, which was made in England in 1950, the great English actor Robert Donat...
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Fred Pfost “First Public Video Tape Recorder Demonstrations”
Fred Pfost of Ampex tells the story of demonstrating the first professional video tape recorder at NAB convention in 1956. For a comprehensive history of Video Tape, check out our course on the History...
View ArticleVintage 1905 Film of the New York Subway From 14th to 42nd Street
Starting at Union Square, we are taken for an underground excursion, following the path of a subway train as it makes its way through New York City subway tunnels on its journey to the old Grand...
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The Harryhausen Chronicles
Leonard Nimoy narrates an hour long documentary on the life of Ray Harryhausen, one of the giants of stop motion animation. via Cinephelia and Beyond
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The History of CTRL + ALT + DELETE
Virginia Hughes uncovers the history of three fingered salute. In the spring of 1981, David Bradley was part of a select team working from a nondescript office building in Boca Raton, Fla. His task: to...
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James Cameron Hosts Orson Welles’“War of the Worlds”
From FlyingBearFilmSchool: Not only large scale sci-fiers (FALLING SKIES, V, INDPENDENCE DAY), but the small “lost footage” thriller like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and CHRONICLE all...
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