How They Did It

  • How They Did It

Heavy Heart, Heavy Art: To Make a Genre Film With Feeling, Embrace Imperfection and Personal Pain and Work With People You Love, Says Mandy Writer-Director Panos Cosmatos

Mandy wouldn't exist without the influence of my parents. My dad, writer-director George P. Cosmatos (Massacre in Rome, Rambo: First Blood Part…

6 years ago
  • How They Did It

Casting Unknowns Was Key to Finding the Laughs and Lived-In Feel of Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade

Before I directed my first film, Eighth Grade, I had heard that 90 percent of directing is casting. I’m sure…

6 years ago
  • Directing

How They Did It: The Director of Naples ’44 on Blending Adaptation, Documentary, and Fiction

Working on Naples ’44 was definitely one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in my brief moviemaking career. When you…

6 years ago
  • How They Did It

How They Did It: Tips on Recreating Period, VFX, and Big Action on a Low Budget From the Director of Gangster Land

“A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movie that you didn’t intend to be there.” This…

6 years ago
  • How They Did It

How They Did It: Maddman: The Steve Madden Story Substituted Stale Archival Footage With Dream-Like Animation

eMy ambition was to tell the story of Steve Madden beyond the facts, and get into his psyche to experience…

6 years ago
  • How They Did It

How They Did It: Planning a Car Crash Scene? Match Multiple Locations Into One, Says 24 Hours to Live Director

Some of the bigger challenges we had to overcome while filming 24 Hours to Live had to do with finding…

6 years ago
  • How They Did It

How They Did It: Lucia, Before and After‘s Director Stresses the Importance of Loving Your Set

Catherine Breillat speaks fervently about color and setting in her films, and how they dictate emotion. I fully believe this.…

6 years ago
  • How They Did It

How They Did It: Making a Film With a Recluse as Your Subject? Forget Plans, Says the Director of Shadowman

In 2009 I met street art pioneer Richard Hambleton and started shooting a film that would become the documentary, Shadowman.…

6 years ago
  • Directing

How They Did It: Bombshell Director on Uncovering Hedy Lamarr’s Beautiful, Brilliant Mind

The hardest part of making Bombshell was finding the truth about Hedy Lamarr. Did this gorgeous movie star really invent…

6 years ago
  • How They Did It

How They Did It: Erik Nelson’s Doc A Gray State Required a Descent into the Mind of Madness

David Crowley was a 25-year-old filmmaker in Apple Valley, Minnesota, when he began filming a project he called Gray State—creating…

6 years ago