Screen Extra

Films of Resistance: A Night of Shorts was held at the Genesis cinema in London. The programme of Palestinian shorts was put together by the newly created Films of Resistance initiative, backed by magazine Culturala. The films shown were: - An Orange from Jaffa (2023) by Mohammed Almughanni One Minute (2015) by Dina Naser The Silent Protest (2019) by Mahasen Nasser-Eldin Bethlehem 2001 (2020) by Ibrahim Handal 120 KM (2021) by Waseem Khair The normal reactions in An Orange (…)

In our final instalment for World VFX day we spoke to comedian and old school effects fan Chris Lumb about the library ghost from Ghostbusters and the face melting scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Ghostbusters - library ghost (Ivan Reitman, 1984) EEG When I about 7yrs old I saw Ghostbusters at the cinema with my brother and was totally blown away by this jump scare at the start, screaming at me. It’s terrifying! I love the way she shushes them first and then instantly changes, she bursts (…)

Happy World VFX Day! We spoke with Sam Hall, actor and Senior Research and Development Engineer at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) about the T-Rex scene in Jurassic Park, Pixar’s anthropomorphic Blue Umbrella and rendering black holes in Interstellar. Jurassic Park - T-Rex reveal (Dir. Steven Spielberg, 1993) ILM and Stan Winston Studios The cool thing about this scene is that less is more. The T-Rex has been teased throughout the film so they’ve built the tension leading up to the (…)

Happy World VFX Day! There’s nothing more special than special effects. Whether digital or practical, special effects are created by a highly skilled, specialised labour force and have created some of cinema’s most captivating images (that’s why we insist on calling them SPECIAL effects). In support of the effects industry and to celebrate the first World VFX day we spoke with a random collection of people who work in and/or love sfx and asked them to share some of their favourite (…)

In our third post in the run up to World VFX day tomorrow we’re talking about sfx legends Ray Harryhausen and Eugen Schüfftan, as well as the sparing use of CGI in Mad Max: Fury Road with non-binary comedian, film nerd and podcaster Eddie French! Jason and The Argonauts – Talos scene (Dir. Don Chaffey, 1963) Ray Harryhausen Of course I love all of Harryhausen’s stuff. I would’ve looked like the ultimate hipster if I’d chosen The Valley of Gwangi, though that is also excellent (I mean it’s (…)

In the second instalment of our VFX series we’re exploring the merging of CGI and stop motion in Robocop 2, Guillermo del Toro’s penchant for insectoids as evidenced in Pacific Rim and the mercurial appendages of Dr Octopus in Spiderman 2, all selected by sfx fan Abdel Belabbes. Robocop 2 (Dir. Ivin Kershner, 1990) Phil Tippett One of the coolest things in VFX is when different techniques are married together and this scene has a great transition from live action to stop motion which (…)

There’s nothing more special than special effects! Whether digital or practical, special effects are created by a highly skilled, specialised labour force and have created some of cinema’s most captivating images (that’s why we insist on calling them SPECIAL effects). In support of the effects industry and to celebrate World VFX Day on Dec 8th we spoke with a random collection of people who work in and/or love sfx and asked them to share some of their favourite sequences, starting with (…)

Reem spoke to Isra Al Kassi, Co-founder & Co-director of London-based outfit T A P E Collective. The Collective is mostly known for curating screenings and events with a particular focus on representation, identity and heritage. They have partnered up with a number of festivals, most recently the BFI London Film Festival. What was the instigating factor that led you to found T A P E Collective? Angela and I were part of the Young Barbican Programmers, which launched its first (…)

A group of people come together in the Welsh town of Machynlleth to produce [El Sueño Existe->https://elsuenoexiste.wordpress.com/about-us (The Dream Lives On), a festival of politics and culture. This is the subject of Pablo Navarrete and Teilo Vellacott’s short doc [Fragments Of A Dream->https://richmix.org.uk/events/fragments-of-a-dream, presented as part of a Latin American docs double-bill at London’s Rich Mix, one of a series of events that mark the 50th anniversary of the Chilean (…)

Nous avons eu le plaisir de discuter avec Anais Colpin, coordinatrice et chargée des ventes chez [Manifest Pictures->http://www.manifest.pictures de son parcours, de son rôle et des stratégies de distribution de courts métrages. Hello Anais. Peux-tu nous parler un peu plus de ton rôle en tant que distributrice ? A quoi ressemble une journée type ? La distribution de courts métrages arrive pour compléter le travail du réalisateur et du producteur. Chez Manifest, nous sommes 4 : 2 (…)