Essays from the corpus.

Field note

The First Day Is a Diagnostic

Day one should expose the production's most expensive unanswered question, not merely produce the safest pages.

first-day · directing-actors · rehearsal · budget · studio-notes

Anthology

Sound Does the Seeing

The audience does not need to see an event if sound has already made it physical, spatial, and emotionally complete.

sound-design · editing · visual-effects · creature-effects

Long read

The Movie Found in the Cut

Editing is not where the plan is assembled. It is where the material declares what the film can become.

the-editor · pacing · structure · coverage

Long read

The Note Behind the Note

What filmmakers hear when the audience tells them something is wrong

studio-notes · test-screening · structure · pacing

Conversation

A Roundtable on Stan Winston

James Cameron and John McTiernan never sat down together. They were working in adjacent jungles, in adjacent years, on the same Burbank creature shop. Below is the conversation they almost had.

creature-effects · practical-effects · makeup-prosthetics

Anthology

Casting

Three filmmakers, unprompted, on the casting director as second author

casting · casting-director · directing-actors