A filmmaker is a visual artist. To be a great visual artist you need mastery of the color palette. Many of the greatest Directors, Cinematographers, and Production Designers have extensive backgrounds as visual artists themselves. There are many ways to use color in film. We’re going to break down the key approaches as well as… Continue reading How to Use Color in Film: 50+ Examples of Movie Color Palettes
Amazon Prime Video is chock-full of great movies but it’s a nightmare trying to find them. Unlike Netflix which offers strong curated playlists, Prime Video does a poor job of highlighting all the amazing movies on its service. Don’t fret though, we’ve scoured the depths of Prime’s film catalogue to deliver our list of the… Continue reading The Best Movies on Amazon Prime Right Now (October 2020)
Amazon Prime Video is chock-full of great movies but it’s a nightmare trying to find them. Unlike Netflix which offers strong curated playlists, Prime Video does a poor job of highlighting all the amazing movies on its service. Don’t fret though, we’ve scoured the depths of Prime’s film catalogue to deliver our list of the… Continue reading The Best Movies on Amazon Prime Right Now (December 2020)
Amazon Prime Video is chock-full of great movies but it’s a nightmare trying to find them. Unlike Netflix which offers strong curated playlists, Prime Video does a poor job of highlighting all the amazing movies on its service. Don’t fret though, we’ve scoured the depths of Prime’s film catalogue to deliver our list of the… Continue reading The Best Movies on Amazon Prime Right Now (November 2020)
Stages of Film ProductionOpen menu Film Financing Film Production Pre-Production Post-Production Film Distribution Film Marketing Free Production Calendar Software → There’s no one way to make a movie. In fact, there’s an infinite number of ways to make one. But in Hollywood, the general contours of a film’s creation hit similar story beats (to borrow… Continue reading Stages of Film Production — Overview of the Entire Process
Best Shyamalan MoviesShyamalan’s Style ExplainedThe Return of M. Night Shyamalan Love him or hate him, the M. Night Shyamalan directing style is worth studying. He’s made every kind of movie: universally loved, universally loathed, and a few that will endlessly divide audiences. But before he became a punching bag on the internet, Shyamalan was making… Continue reading M. Night Shyamalan Directing Style — Why He’s Underrated
BasicsOpen menu Basics of Film Lighting What Does a Cinematographer Do What is Cinematography What is Digital Cinematography Cinematography Terms What is Motion Blur Lighting EssentialsOpen menu 3-Point Lighting What is Key Light What is Fill Light What is Backlight What is Practical Lighting When is Golden Hour E-BooksOpen menu FREE Ebook: Camera Lenses Explained… Continue reading Low Light Photography & Cinematography — Examples & Tips
A shocking twist ending is a great way to end a film with a bang but great twists aren’t confined to just the ends of films. The best plot twists catch us off guard, recontextualizing everything we just watched and rewarding subsequent rewatches. There will, of course, be major spoilers to follow, this is your SPOILER… Continue reading Best Plot Twist Movies & Biggest Plot Twists in Movie History
Narrative ElementsOpen menu Antagonist Catharsis Motif Plot Protagonist Theme Narrative DevicesOpen menu Deus ex Machina Foreshadowing Irony Personification Plot Twist Red Herring Write Your Script For Free → Peripeteia. Is it a synonym for ‘onomatopoeia’? A fancy potato? A lyric from Mary Poppin’s “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Excellent guesses, but no. Peripeteia isn’t written sound effects, a special… Continue reading What is Peripeteia? A Deep Dive Into a Surprising Plot Device
You’re looking for a movie genre list, maybe for inspiration, but every list you find has too broad or hyper-specific categories that it becomes overwhelming. We’ve created the perfect movie and TV genre list that will explain the various categories of film and television with their specific subgenres, and we’ll also include helpful examples for… Continue reading Ultimate Guide to Movie Genres — 90+ Genre Examples for Film & TV
Best Shyamalan MoviesShyamalan’s Style ExplainedThe Return of M. Night Shyamalan When you think of the most iconic film directors, you can often discount their first couple of films — few filmmakers are geniuses out of the gate. Other directors start strong but end their careers with a painful series of flops. But almost no other… Continue reading Best M. Night Shyamalan Movies, Ranked for Filmmakers
Best Shyamalan MoviesShyamalan’s Style ExplainedThe Return of M. Night Shyamalan I’ve been a fan of M. Night Shyamalan for years, and that includes the 9-year gap between Lady in the Water and The Visit when it was challenging for everyone involved. I don’t love every Shyamalan movie, but I don’t despise his misfires either —… Continue reading Welcome to the Shyamalan-aissance — What a Twist!