There have never been so many good options for non-linear editing (NLE) software. Over the years, one-time industry standard Avid […]

What makes a great song choice in a film? The best ones aren’t just cool tracks that “sound good” with […]

Each year, L.A.-based organization Film Independent hosts the Film Independent Forum, a three-day conference for independent moviemakers. This year’s line-up included a Nightcrawler screening and discussion with director Dan Gilroy, panels on financing and navigating California’s new tax credits, and in-depth case studies on the year’s most successful independent projects. The highlight, though, was the Sunday morning keynote address by Tim League, founder and CEO of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Drafthouse Films, and Fantastic Fest.

The “single shot” that underpins Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new movie, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), is an immersive, visceral experience, form at its most vital and emotional. A cinematic conceit famously conducted by Hitchcock with Rope back in 1948, and then flirted with, patchily, in decades, Iñárritu and his collaborators’ accomplishment is realized with more fullness and audacity than any of its precedents. It’s what we talk about when we talk about movie magic.

In 1979, Werner Herzog made Nosferatu the Vampyre. Today it stands as one of the strongest among over 200 film adaptations of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Dracula.