After last month’s discussion about antagonists vs. bad guys, we thought it was time to look into their polar opposite: the good guy and the protagonist, who are not always the same thing. The key phrase is not always. They...
Every movie has a bad guy of some sort, whether it’s a genuine baddie (a drug lord out to make his fortune while our hard-luck protagonist tries to evade his cartel) or a misunderstanding between friends (two guys fight over...
In light of The Artist’s big night at the Oscars, today seems as good as any to discuss the importance of silence in a film—particularly a scary film. As technology has improved and become more accessible, sound effects have swelled...
What makes you sit up in the middle of the night, eyes wildly scanning your bedroom? What keeps you awake, snuggled under the covers (they can’t get you under the covers…usually), nerves stretched taut? What makes the normal, once-reassuring sounds...
On our last visit, we talked about how dialogue can function as part of the setting. Characters talking is a major focal point of any movie, and it can tell us a lot about the people, the place they come...
On paper, dialogue is the most important part of the filmmaking. Listening to characters talking—to each other, to themselves, to their pet rooster—is the easiest way to convey information, plot development, and humor. You can pull off all of the...
In our last post, we discussed Sound as Setting, investigating some of the ways sound effects enhance a movie. This week, we investigate another important aspect of the aural experience: the soundtrack. Music has long been an important part of...
The average moviegoer might not immediately list “sound” as one of the most important aspects of a film. We absorb sound effects largely through the subconscious, accepting what the sounds “tell” them without needing to see the action onscreen. Raindrops...
The definition of a prop is anything that will be handled or used by an actor through the course of a film. Though the course of any film there could be one, a hundred or even thousands of props. Prop...
There are so many new photos up on the official “The Kult” website. We have hundreds of behind the scenes photos that we’ve been sorting through the past few days. We want to give you only the most tantalizing of...