by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Ever since STAR WARS time immemorial, or 1977, depending on how tuned-in to George Lucas’ space saga you are, there’s been one constant: a massive fan base. In fact, stealing from the tech world, you could even say “all your fan base are belong to us.” Us being George's LucasFilm Ltd, Kathleen Kennedy his key producer, and every single actor who’s been on board, from Harrison Ford to Daisy Ridley...

Japanese SSF&A Festival Director SeigoTono on India tour Tuesday, the 28th 0f February, saw the screening of four Japanese shorts at the Rangswar mini-auditorium, located inside Chavan Centre in South Mumbai. Organised by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, courtesy Prabhat Film Society, which completed 50 years this year, it was presented by Seigo Tono, Director of Short Shorts Film Festival (SSFF) and Short Shorts Film Festival Asia (SSFFA), Japan. It will be held during June 1-12...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Lord of the Rings has it, Star Wars has it, Indiana Jones, Spider Man, Star Trek, even The Wild Bunch (1969) has it too. But you can find it in Disney movies, nearly from every studio, at least a few big projects. So what is it?  Known by insiders as “The Wilhelm Scream,” a term coined by George Lucas’ sound designer wizard Ben Burtt, this is that familiar toe-curling roar let out by dying Storm Troopers, bit players eate...

By Quendrith Johnson   Sometimes you forget how intricate filmmaking is based on how easy it all appears on screen. And along comes someone like Oscar winning editor/sound-pioneer Walter Murch who throws light on every aspect that makes cinema loved worldwide. On the nuances of sound design, Murch off-handedly lays down the fundamentals of an art he actually helped shape.  “My mantra is: ‘clarity and density.’ If something in a film is too dense (too rich or intr...

I recently read (again) the Steven Spielberg biography by Joseph McBride. There is a passage in the book that always gets my attention. “Early in 1977, when Close Encounters was still months away from completion, George Lucas showed a rough cut of Star Wars (without John Williams’s rousing musical score) at his San Anselmo home, in northern California. The audience included executives of Twentieth Century-Fox; Gloria Katz and William Huyck, who worked on the script; and several of Lucas...

by Marla Lewin Francis Ford Coppola at Torino Film Festival photo by Marc Halperin     Another in our series on the Future of Cinema.   We were attending the Torino Film Lab and I had the opportunity to interview Francis Ford Coppola. I mentioned we are working on a series about the Future of Cinema, and Francis said he has his own theory, but it would take some time to explain and would use up all of our time. He doesn’t think ...

On Saturday June 30, 2007 at the Italian Cultural Institute, I attended "Behind the Curtain With ILM, A Talk With Scott Farrar followed by a special screening of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) is an SFX company started by George Lucas, the director of Star Wars. Scott Farrar joined ILM in 1981 as a camera operator on Star Trek ll: The Wrath of Khan and was promoted to Visual Effects Supervisor on Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1987. Scott discussed the step by ...