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You can find more filmmaking deals here.

You want a reader to pick up your screenplay and lean into a world they feel is well-researched and one they want to live in.

The best way to do that is to have characters who speak in the dialect of their trade and their world.

That requires the writer to sit down and really look into these worlds or talk to people in them. I wanted to give you a leg up by creating a glossary of terms you can use, based on the words in your story, to sharpen your dialogue, deepen character backgrounds, and give your prose the texture of real-world expertise.

Let's dive in.

Nautical & Maritime

• Abaft: Toward the stern or behind the vessel (e.g., "abaft the beam").
• Bilge: The lowest inner part of a ship's hull where water naturally collects and settles.
• Bitts: Heavy wooden or metal posts on the deck used for securing mooring lines and cables.
• Bowsprit: A strong spar projecting forward from the stem of a ship, used to extend the sail area.
• Careen: To lay a ship over on its side on a beach for cleaning, scraping, or repairing the hull.
• Derrick: A specialized crane with a movable boom used aboard ships for hoisting heavy cargo.
• Dogwatch: Shortened two-hour shifts (usually 4–6 PM or 6–8 PM) are used to rotate shift schedules so sailors don't work the same hours every night.
• Futtock: A curved timber forming one of the intermediate, interlocking pieces of a ship's frame.
• Futtock Shrouds: Iron ropes or rods connecting the lower rigging to a platform higher up the mast.
• Garboard: The lowest plank on a ship’s hull, laid adjacent to the keel.
• Hawsehole: A hole in the bow of a ship through which an anchor cable or mooring line passes.
• Heave To: To bring a sailing vessel to a complete stop by adjusting the sails and rudder so they counteract one another.
• Jibe: To swing a fore-and-aft sail from one side of the vessel to the other while sailing away from the wind.
• Keelhaul: A harsh historic naval punishment in which a sailor was dragged through the water underneath the ship's hull from one side to the other.
• Lee Shore: A shore lying downwind of a ship; dangerously hazardous because the wind actively pushes the vessel toward land.
• Painter: A short length of rope secured to the bow of a small boat, used for tying it off to a dock or towing ship.
• Plimsol Line: A reference mark painted on a ship's hull indicating the maximum depth to which it may be legally loaded under different conditions.
• Sounding: Measuring the depth of water beneath a vessel using a weighted line or modern echo system.
• Starboard: The right-hand side of a vessel when facing forward toward the bow (opposite of port).
• Wayward: A vessel drifting out of control without motive power or active steering.
• Windward: The direction from which the wind is blowing; upwind (the opposite of leeward).

Legal & Jurisprudential

• Affidavit: A written statement confirmed by oath or affirmation for use as evidence in court proceedings.
• Amicus Curiae: "Friend of the court." A neutral third party permitted to submit a brief offering relevant information or expertise.
• Barratry: Fraudulent, illegal, or reckless misconduct by a ship’s master or crew that harms the owner or charterer; it also refers to repeatedly stirring up groundless lawsuits.
• Bona Fide: Made or carried out in good faith, without fraud or deceit.
• Certiorari: A higher court's order agreeing to review a lower court’s decision.
• Embezzlement: Fraudulent misappropriation of assets or funds entrusted to an individual's care.
• Estoppel: A legal bar that prevents someone from asserting a claim or right that contradicts their previous statements or actions.
• Exculpatory: Evidence that tends to clear a defendant of guilt or blame.
• Habeas Corpus: A legal order requiring a detained person to be brought before a judge to determine the legality of their imprisonment.
• Inchoate: A crime or act that has been initiated, attempted, or planned, but not fully completed (e.g., conspiracy or solicitation).
• Injunction: A judicial order restraining a party from taking or continuing a specific course of action.
• Laches: An unreasonable delay in bringing a legal claim that prejudices the opposing party, forfeiting the right to relief.
• Malfeasance: An intentional, illegal act performed by a public official or fiduciary.
• Perjury: The willful act of swearing a false oath or giving false testimony under oath.
• Prima Facie: Evidence that appears sufficient on its face to establish a fact unless rebutted by contrary proof.
• Replevin: A lawsuit brought to recover possession of unlawfully taken personal property rather than monetary damages.
• Subpoena: A formal writ ordering a person to attend court and offer testimony or produce documents.
• Tort: A civil wrong that unfairly causes someone else to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability.
• Tortfeasor: An individual or entity that commits a civil wrong (tort) causing injury or harm to another.
• Voir Dire: The preliminary examination of potential jurors or witnesses to determine their competence or suitability.

Medical & Anatomical

• Aneurysm: An abnormal, balloon-like bulge in the wall of an artery that risks rupturing.
• Avulsion: The violent tearing away or forcible separation of a body part or tissue structure.
• Bruit: An abnormal sound or murmur heard through a stethoscope, indicating turbulent blood flow through a narrowed vessel.
• Catheter: A thin, flexible tube inserted into a body cavity, duct, or vessel to drain or inject fluids.
• Crepitus: A grating, crackling, or popping sound/sensation produced by friction between bone fragments or air trapped under the skin.
• Debridement: The surgical removal of dead, damaged, or infected tissue to improve the healing potential of remaining healthy tissue.
• Dyspnea: Severe, labored, or painful breathing; shortness of breath.
• Edema: Swelling caused by excess fluid trapped in the body's tissues.
• Exsanguination: Death or extreme weakness resulting from severe, rapid loss of blood.
• Hematoma: A localized collection of blood outside the blood vessels, usually caused by trauma.
• Iatrogenic: An illness, injury, or adverse condition caused unintentionally by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures.
• Idiopathic: A disease or symptom arising spontaneously from an unknown or obscure cause.
• Ischemia: An inadequate blood supply to an organ or part of the body, causing tissue distress or damage.
• Necrosis: The premature death of cells or living tissue caused by disease, trauma, or lack of blood flow.
• Palpation: Examining the body using hands and fingers to feel organs, masses, or tender areas.
• Petechiae: Tiny, pinpoint red or purple spots on the skin caused by minor hemorrhaging from broken capillaries.
• Sepsis: A life-threatening systemic reaction to an infection that causes organ damage and failure.
• Stricture: An abnormal narrowing of a tubular body passage, such as an esophagus or blood vessel.
• Triage: The process of prioritizing patient treatment based on the severity of their condition.
• Vascular: Relating to, affecting, or consisting of vessels that conduct fluid like blood or lymph.

Tactical, Military & Firearm

• Berm: A raised earthen bank or barrier used to absorb gunfire or block line of sight.
• Bore: The interior diameter of a firearm barrel through which the projectile travels.
• Collateral Damage: Unintended civilian casualties or property destruction resulting from military operations.
• Cook-Off: The premature detonation of ammunition caused by heat buildup inside a hot gun chamber.
• Defilade: Utilizing natural terrain or artificial cover to protect troops and positions from enemy direct fire and observation.
• Enfilade: A tactical position allowing weapons fire to sweep down the entire length of an enemy’s formation or trench.
• Flank: The vulnerable far-left or far-right side of a military unit or battlefield formation.
• Gunsight Picture: The visual alignment of the shooter’s eye, front sight, rear sight, and target.
• Milling: Uncontrolled, chaotic movement of a panicked unit or crowd within a confined space.
• Muzzle Drift: The natural upward or sideways movement of a firearm's barrel caused by recoil during sustained firing.
• Muzzle Velocity: The speed at which a projectile exits the barrel of a weapon.
• Obstacle Belt: A designated, coordinated zone of terrain reinforced with wire, mines, or barriers to channel or block enemy movement.
• Overwatch: A supportive tactical element covering a moving friendly unit from a stationary, dominant vantage point.
• Pincer Movement: A double-envelopment tactic where friendly forces attack both flanks of an enemy force simultaneously.
• Retrograde: An organized, tactical retreat or movement away from the enemy.
• Rifling: Spiral grooves cut inside a barrel that impart spin to a bullet, enhancing flight stability and accuracy.
• Salient: A bulge or projection of a battle line that extends deep into enemy-held territory, leaving it vulnerable to being surrounded.
• Squeezebore: A barrel designed with a tapering bore diameter that accelerates custom-built projectiles to extremely high velocities.
• Suppressor: A device attached to the muzzle of a firearm to reduce visible flash and audible noise during firing.
• Zeroing: The process of aligning a weapon's sights so the bullet hits where the sight crosshairs aim at a specific distance.

Blacksmithing, Metallurgy & Weaponry

• Anneal: Heating metal to a specific temperature and allowing it to cool slowly to relieve internal stress and soften it for working.
• Anvil: A heavy iron block upon which hot metals are hammered and shaped.
• Blast Furnace: An industrial structure where iron ore is smelted using forced high-temperature air currents.
• Brazing: Joining two metal pieces together by melting a filler metal with a lower melting point into the joint.
• Crucible: A ceramic or metallic vessel used to melt substances at extremely high temperatures.
• Forge: A specialized hearth or furnace used by smiths to heat metals to workable temperatures.
• Fuller: A longitudinal groove forged into the flat side of a blade to lighten the weapon without sacrificing structural integrity.
• Pummel/Pommel: The weighted knob at the base of a sword hilt designed to balance the weight of the blade.
• Quenching: Rapidly cooling hot metal in water, oil, or air to harden the material.
• Quillon: The individual side arms forming the crossguard of a sword.
• Riveting: Securing metal plates or parts using a short metal pin passed through aligning holes and flattened at the ends.
• Slag: A stony, glass-like waste byproduct left behind after ore has been smelted and separated from metal.
• Smelting: Heating raw ore to extract a base metal from impurities.
• Swage: A shaped iron block or tool used by blacksmiths to mold hot metal into specific cross-sections or profiles.
• Temper: Reheating quenched, hardened steel to a specific lower temperature to reduce brittleness and increase toughness.
• Tuyere: A nozzle or pipe through which air is blown into a forge or furnace to increase heat.
• Wootz: A historic crucible steel characterized by high carbon content and distinctive wavy pattern lines.

Black Market, Criminal & Underworld

• Bagman: An agent who collects or distributes bribe money, extortion funds, or illegal profits for a syndicate.
• Cleaner: A specialist hired to scrub a crime scene of forensic evidence, blood, and physical traces.
• Drop: A secret predetermined location where illicit goods, cash, or messages are hidden for exchange.
• Fence: An intermediary who knowingly purchases stolen goods from thieves to resell them to unsuspecting buyers.
• Fixer: An influential operative skilled at solving complex problems, bribing officials, or covering up scandals.
• Kite: An unauthorized or illegal check written against insufficient funds to exploit bank clearing times; in prison jargon, a smuggled note.
• Launder: Process illicitly obtained money through legitimate businesses or complex transfers to disguise its criminal origin.
• Lookout: A crew member stationed outside a heist area to watch for law enforcement or rivals and signal danger.
• Mule: An individual paid to physically smuggle contraband across borders or security checkpoints.
• Pinch: A sudden police raid or arrest.
• Plant: A planted spy, or an item placed strategically at a crime scene to frame a third party or distract investigators.
• Racket: A fraudulent, illegal, or extortionate scheme operated for ongoing profit.
• Safehouse: A secret, secure residential location used for hiding individuals from law enforcement or rivals.
• Shill: An accomplice who poses as an enthusiastic, independent customer to lure unsuspecting targets into a scam or rigged game.
• Squeal: Act as an informant or confess secrets to authorities regarding criminal accomplices.
• Underwriter: In organized criminal networks, the financier who bankrolls illicit operations upfront in exchange for a large cut of the profits.

Aviation & Aerospace

• Altithrust: Pushing engine output past baseline limits to maintain elevation in thin, low-pressure air.
• Angle of Attack: The precise angle between an aircraft wing's chord line and the oncoming airflow.
• Avionics: The collective electronics, navigation, communication, and display systems onboard an aircraft.
• Dead Reckoning: Calculating current position using a previously known position, estimated speed, and heading.
• Flaperon: A control surface that functions simultaneously as an aileron for roll control and a flap for lift.
• Ground Effect: Increased lift and reduced drag are created when an aircraft flies very close to the ground.
• Mach Line: The boundary of a shock wave formed by an object traveling at supersonic speeds.
• Pitot Tube: A pressure-sensitive instrument used to measure an aircraft's airspeed.
• Squawk: Setting a specific four-digit transponder code to transmit aircraft identity and status to air traffic control.
• Stall: A sudden reduction in lift caused when the angle of attack becomes too steep for airflow to stay attached to the wing.

Cybersecurity, Hacking & Tech

• Air-Gap: Physically isolating a computer network from external networks or the internet to prevent intrusion.
• Botnet: A network of compromised computers controlled remotely to launch mass cyberattacks.
• Brute Force: A trial-and-error attack method used to decode passwords or encryption keys through systematic attempts.
• Buffer Overflow: An exploit where extra data is deliberately written into memory buffers to overwrite adjacent memory.
• Payload: The specific part of malware code designed to execute malicious actions on a target system.
• Phishing: Social engineering attacks designed to trick users into revealing sensitive credentials via deceptive emails or links.
• Rootkit: A collection of stealthy software tools designed to grant administrator-level access while hiding its presence.
• Salting: Adding random data to a password before hashing it to protect against precomputed lookup tables.
• Spoofing: Faking headers, IP addresses, or identities to trick a network or user into trusting an unverified source.
• Zero-Day: A software security vulnerability unknown to the software developer.

Fintech, Banking & Wall Street

• Arbitrage: Simultaneously buying and selling an asset in different markets to profit from small price discrepancies.
• Bear Hug: An unsolicited acquisition offer made at a price high enough to pressure a company's board into accepting.
• Dark Pool: A private financial exchange that lets institutional investors trade large-volume blocks without publishing prices to the public market.
• Haircut: The percentage reduction applied to the value of an asset when used as collateral for a loan.
• Illiquid: An asset or security that cannot be quickly converted into cash without a significant loss in value.
• Margin Call: A broker's demand for an investor to deposit additional cash or securities to cover potential trading losses.
• Poison Pill: A defensive tactic used by corporations to prevent hostile takeovers by diluting share values for the acquirer.
• Quantitative Easing: A monetary policy in which central banks purchase long-term securities to inject liquidity directly into the economy.
• Short Squeeze: A rapid price surge that forces short sellers to buy back stock to cover positions, driving prices higher.
• Yield Curve: A graph showing interest rates on bonds across different maturity dates, used to gauge economic outlooks.

Culinary & Fine Dining

• Bain-Marie: A heated water bath used to gently cook delicate foods or keep sauces warm without burning.
• Chiffonade: A knife technique used to cut leafy greens and herbs into long, thin ribbons.
• Deglaze: Adding liquid to a hot pan to dissolve browned food residue stuck to the bottom, forming a sauce base.
• Emulsify: Combining two immiscible liquids (like oil and water) into a smooth, stable mixture.
• Mise en Place: Organizing and prepping all ingredients and tools before cooking begins.
• Nappe: The ideal consistency of a sauce when it evenly coats the back of a spoon without running off instantly.
• Proofing: Allowing yeast dough to rest and rise before baking.
• Roux: A cooked mixture of equal parts flour and fat used as a thickening agent for gravies and sauces.
• Sous-Vide: Vacuum-sealing food in a bag and cooking it to precise temperatures in a regulated water bath.
• Truss: Tying poultry or meat tightly with string to maintain a uniform shape during cooking.

Journalism & Publishing

• Advance: Money paid to an author upfront before a book's publication, deducted from future earned royalties.
• Beat: A reporter's assigned topic, industry, or geographic territory.
• Byline: A line at the top of an article giving the writer's name.
• Copyediting: Reviewing text for grammar, punctuation, style, and consistency before printing.
• Embargo: A request or agreement not to publish news or information until a specified time or date.
• Graf: A casual newsroom abbreviation for a paragraph.
• Lead (Lede): The introductory sentence or opening paragraph of a news story designed to capture reader attention.
• Proof: A trial printed version of a manuscript or layout generated for final error checking.
• Slush Pile: The stack of unsolicited manuscripts sent to publishers or literary agencies by unrepresented authors.
• Stringer: A freelance journalist or photographer hired to cover stories on a temporary, piece-rate basis.

Summing It All Up

This is basically a document to help you worldbuild and provide characterization. Make this stuff pop so people are totally consumed by your story, and it maintains believability.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

If you’ve ever been in the situation where you’re just one USB-C port short, or perhaps even three USB-C ports short, then you might want to look into getting a USB4 hub, which can be an easy way to add more ports and options to your workflows.

However, these options usually slow things down quite a bit, so it’s nice to see new innovations that are speeding these hubs up, as we see in this latest offering from OWC with the USB4 Hub that uses just 40Gb/s of your total bandwidth to turn a single USB4 port into four, as well as add an HDMI 2.1 port.

Let’s check out what this USB4 Hub has to offer.

The New OWC USB4 Hub

Most USB-C hubs cap your laptop at 10Gb/s. However, most USB-C laptops are built for four times that. The new OWC USB4 Hub is one of the few options that truly lets you run at the full 40Gb/s your hardware supports—which should speed up workflows, even with these extra ports.

What’s unique about this solution is that it uses two fast drives running at once instead of waiting in line for an open port, an issue with other hubs in the past. If you’re using the ports for filmmaking or content workflows, this could mean your monitor lights up the second you plug it in, or your laptop stays charged without a second power brick cluttering your desk.

It’s not just for editors, either; this hub could be a great option for all types of creatives who want to quickly pull footage off a card while an SSD backs up your archive at the same time. The HDMI port is also a nice touch as well as it can support an 8K/60 Hz display, and the USB4 ports can support one 4K/240 Hz display, each of which may be used individually or together.

Price and Availability

The new USB4 Hub from OWC is available for preorder now, with units expected to start shipping at the end of October. Here are the full specs and purchase options.

• 1 x USB4 Host Port (81W)
• 2 x USB4 Ports with DP Alt Mode (15W)
• 2 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 Ports (15W)
• 1 x HDMI 2.1 Port
• Supports up to Two Displays
• Supports 8K/60 Hz and 4K/240 Hz
• Power and Activity LED
• Kensington Lock Slot
• iPadOS and Linux/Ubuntu Compatible
• Windows, Mac, and Chrome Compatible

OWC USB4 Hub

Expand the connectivity of your USB4 device using the USB4 Hub from OWC. Compatible with Windows, Mac, Chrome, iPadOS, and Ubuntu, this hub connects to your host system using a USB-C port that operates using the USB4 standard and provides up to 81W of charging power.

So, I'm a sucker for old action movies. And there's one kind I love in particular. It's an offshoot that follows just one person on their obsessive quest for justice.

We call it the "Lone Wolf" cop movie, and it usually follows someone with a badge, a gun, and a grudge against crime.

From the late 1960s through the mid-1990s, this was a box-office powerhouse. We got rogue heroes who got results because they were willing to break the rules and bend the laws they were meant to serve and protect.

But these characters fell out of favor as people became deeply skeptical of police authority altogether.

So, how did a genre that defined American cinema for three decades lose its badge and its gun for good?

Let's dive in.

The Clint Eastwood Classic That Became John Wayne's Biggest Career Regret Credit: Warner Bros.

The Birth of the Renegade (1960s–1970s)

Okay, we have had cop characters since the dawn of movies, but they usually work in a team to catch criminals and gangsters. These were clean-cut guys who upheld societal norms.

But what happens when you begin to lose belief in society in general?

The 1960s and 70s were a tumultuous time in American life. The Vietnam War, political assassinations, the fight for Civil Rights, and the March on Washington had a generation of people disillusioned with the way the world worked.

In Hollywood, the collapse of the Hays Code allowed movies to suddenly dig into these topics with graphic depictions and moral ambiguity.

This is what audiences wanted, and they needed heroes who wrestled a wild world back into reality.

Now, I think this is a good place to point out that most of these cops were white and civilizing society for white people, but there was a cop in the 70s who got justice for black people as well.

The movies that defined this era were...

• Bullitt (1968): Steve McQueen gave birth to the quiet, cool detective who operates on his own frequency, prioritizing justice over procedure.
• Dirty Harry (1971): Clint Eastwood’s Harry Callahan codified the blueprint. Facing a sadistic killer and a weak-kneed political apparatus, Callahan is the ultimate reactionary antihero: The system is broken, so I am the system.
• Shaft (1971): Directed by Gordon Parks and starring Richard Roundtree, Shaft expanded the lone-wolf archetype into private investigation. John Shaft was a Black street-smart hero operating outside traditional law enforcement—dealing with corrupt NYPD brass, Italian mobs, and Black nationalist groups on his own terms. He proved the lone-wolf hero didn't need a police shield to enforce justice; his autonomy was his power.

'Bullit' Criterion

The Golden Age: The 1980s Action Era

'80s action movies took the lone wolf to a new level. You went from cynicism to high-octane spectacle as we saw these guys take on much bigger threats.

Hollywood realized that a single guy against an entire criminal cartel was pure box-office gold, and they adjusted the character to fit the bill.

Some of the defining tropes of the genre were born overnight:

• The Chewed-Out Cop: The protagonist is getting yelled at by an angry Police Captain in a glass office for doing something bold and brave.
• The Hand-Over-The-Badge Moment: Getting suspended, only to go vigilante to finish the job.
• The Damaged Backstory: A dead spouse, an ex-wife, or a drinking problem to explain why he shuns partners.

We saw this in movies like Cobra (1986), Die Hard (1988), and Beverly Hills Cop (1984). We even saw it lampooned in The Last Action Hero and Naked Gun.

Audiences loved these movies, but they had grown wise to the repeated storytelling beats. Audiences craved the rogue individual, but the world was changing, and they were getting wise to the expectations.

nofilmschool.com

Why the Archetype Collapsed

The decline of the lone-wolf cop movie wasn't caused by a single factor, but rather by a perfect storm of audience fatigue, shifting social worldviews, and market mechanics.

You can pick out isolated exceptions to the world, but once we got into the 90s and saw Rodney King, the O.J. trial, and expanding perspectives on policing, people pulled back from cops.

We also liked seeing dynamic duos, so lone-wolf cops lost the fervor, and instead we liked these comedic pairings, like in Lethal Weapon and Rush Hour.

Let's dive into other mitigating factors.

1. Real-World Cultural Shifts

As I said up top, the lone wolf was built on the idea that the cop is always right, and civil liberties are just red tape getting in the way of real justice.

Well, as public awareness of police misconduct, corruption, and systemic accountability grew throughout the 1990s and 2010s, the idea of a cop going "rogue" and using unauthorized force transformed from heroic fantasy into a chilling reality.

People did not want rogue cops! They wanted order, procedure, and a world without what feltl ike an authoritarian presence.

2. Deconstruction and the Rise of the Anti-Antihero

Hollywood leans into tropes and makes movies around them, but it also deconstructs them to stand out. So we had filmmakers actively taking down the lone wolf cop while Hollywood was also mythologizing them.

Some examples of that:

• Heat (1995): Michael Mann showed that the obsessive lone wolf cop (Al Pacino) isn’t heroic; he's a tragic figure whose life is a burnt-out wasteland.
• Training Day (2001): Denzel Washington took the "rogue cop who gets results" idea to its terrifying logical conclusion of corruption and narcissism.
• The Wire (HBO, 2002–2008): This long study proved that real crime isn't solved by a lone cop with a gun, but by tedious institutional politics, wiretaps, and hard work that doesn't always get results.

3. The Blockbuster Shift: From Cops to Superheroes

What's funny is we kind of saw the shift from hero cops to superheroes. If an audience wanted a brooding figure taking down criminals outside the law, they had Batman.

And as soon as Marvel broke out, you saw a lot of guys in suits actually becoming lone wolf cops and then being forced to work together eventually.

4. The System Is Broken

We still have these characters today, but I feel like we largely see them as people rallying against institutions. Not beat cops or detectives with no friends, but people who exist in worlds.

What I mean by that is maybe someone like Mare in Mare of Easttown; she's a rogue cop, but not really. She has a boss, gets a partner, and while it's her own journey, she operates within the law.

The same goes for a movie like Sicario, where we see it's more a DEA agent trying to assimilate into CIA rules, which is a world where she realizes she can't fix anything.

'Sicario' Credit: Lionsgate

Summing It All Up

The classic lone-wolf cop movie isn't dead; it just evolved into something far more nuanced and has exposed us to worlds deeper than just "good" and "bad."

If you have a new way in, now is the time. Hollywood is always looking for its next hero or anti-hero.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Already a top option for many, the Atomos Shinobi line offers strong options for bright, high-resolution monitors for control, viewing, and working with cinema camera footage as part of film and video workflows.

However, the company is looking to kick things up a notch with this new Shinobi II 4K HDMI HDR Monitor and Camera Control version that should be even more uniquely tailored for the working video pro. Set to feature a 1920 x 1080 display with a high brightness of 2800 cd/m², plenty of on-device calibration features, and support for a wide range of uses, it looks quite promising.

Let’s explore.

The Atomos Shinobi 7 II is Here

As its name implies, this is a 7” on-camera touchscreen monitor that looks to be just as bright and capable as its predecessor, but with a few more bells and whistles.

Along with the 7" IPS LCD 1920 x 1080 HDR screen that is illuminated by a bright 2800 cd/m² edge-lit LED backlight (which should be easily viewable in daylight without a hood), the monitor will allow for viewing up to DCI or UHD 4K30 footage via HDMI 2.0 and output up to 4K30 via the HDMI 2.0 output.

It also features a USB-C control port that supports a variety of cameras from favorite brands like Canon, FUJIFILM, Nikon, Panasonic, and Sony. (You can check out a full list of options on the Atomos camera compatibility page.)

The Shinobi 7 II will allow users to monitor up to ten stops of dynamic range of their camera's Log image, which should help shooters accurately assess and capture scenes with a wider dynamic range than conventional monitors.

Price and Availability

There are also some other new and old features that have to do with audio monitoring, on-device calibration, 3D LUT management, and other perks that should make the Shinobi 7 II just as popular as its predecessor, and likely even more so with higher-end shooters and crews.

If you’d like to check it out and get the full rundown, here are the specs and purchase options.

• 7" 1920 x 1080 Touchscreen Display
• 4K30 HDMI 2.0 Input/Output
• 2800 cd/m² Brightness
• USB-C Camera Control, Touch to Focus
• 10 Stops of Dynamic Range
• Sony L-Series Battery Slot
• HDR & 3D LUT Support

Atomos Shinobi 7 II 4K HDMI HDR Monitor with Camera Control

Add a bright, high-resolution monitor to control and view your cinema camera footage with the Shinobi 7 II 4K HDMI HDR Monitor with Camera Control from Atomos. This 7" on-camera touchscreen monitor features a 1920 x 1080 display with a high brightness of 2800 cd/m², features on-device calibration, HDMI I/O, and supports USB-C camera control.

Robert De Niro is one of those actors that I just buy in any role. So when he played Satan in a 1987 film noir, I was all in. Angel Heart is a psychological thriller that I feel like barely gets talked about today.

It recently got a 4K restoration that's pristine, and I want to encourage everyone to actually go check it out. There's some epic Mickey Rourke moment in the movie, and seeing these guys play off one another is special.

There's one line De Niro has in the movie that is a big reveal and lines up the plot in perfect noir-speak.

Let's dive in.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The Scene in Question

Alan Parker’s Angel Heart is a wild hybrid of a 1940s detective mystery and supernatural horror, all rolled up into a kind of sexy mystery.

You get Mickey Rourke playing Harry Angel, a down-on-his-luck Brooklyn P.I. hired by a mysterious, impeccably dressed client with long fingernails and a well-groomed beard named Louis Cyphre (say that name out loud slowly if you haven't seen it).

It's at this moment I pause to say this whole idea rocks, and the movie knows it, leaning into the batshit moments and letting you have fun and get scared with them, too.

Cyphre wants Angel to track down a missing singer named Johnny Favorite, and he can pay well for the job. So it gets taken.

De Niro plays Satan with panache, blending into the background and hanging with everyday people so you see him pop up in a Harlem church, in a diner eating hard-boiled eggs, and all over the city.

During one of their meetings, as Harry gets closer to unraveling a truth he really shouldn't be digging into, Cyphre drops some evil wisdom on him.

"However cleverly you sneak up on a mirror, your reflection always looks you straight in the eye."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

What The Quote Means

On a purely cinematic level, it’s a brilliant piece of writing that was adapted from William Hjortsberg’s novel Falling Angel. But delivered by De Niro with that calm, sinister gravity, it operates on several layers.

On its face, it’s about the impossibility of self-deception. You can try to trick yourself, outrun your past, or build a totally new identity to hide from what you’ve done. You can rationalize bad decisions or bury your worst secrets so deep nobody else will ever find them. But you can't sneak past your own conscience.

The truth is always waiting for you.

On the other hand, this is a plant and payoff for the secret character in the movie... De Niro's identity.

Harry is running a case that constantly forces him to look into mirrors, both literally and metaphorically. He thinks he's investigating someone else's dark secrets, totally unaware that every clue he uncovers is just pulling back the curtain on his own soul and why he should be damned.

Yeah, Satan is scary, but is he scarier than the bad things we've done in our lives?

Summing It All Up

We tend to celebrate De Niro for his explosive moments, but Angel Heart shows off what makes him a master of restraint.

I mean, a few years later, we saw Pacino as the devil, and he went the opposite way. While they're both good, it's kind of funny to see De Niro play it so reserved and creepy.

So, go watch Angel Heart and see how the movie plays this line off.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Western movies have been embraced for almost a century because they take us back to a lawless time that I think carries a lot of aspirational qualities for many Americans.

But today, I want to nerd out on something Westerns do that I think makes filmmakers swoon. I find this genre to be the ultimate conduit for visual storytelling. Since the genre is so malleable, we not only get those epic shots but also the intimate ones and everything in between.

Here are 10 Westerns every filmmaker needs to study, along with some lessons you can take from each title.

Let's dive in.

1. The Searchers (1956)

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• Director: John Ford
• Writer: Frank S. Nugent (based on the novel by Alan Le May)
• Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood
• Cinematographer: Winton C. Hoch

Why Study This Movie?

No one shoots a movie like John Ford. Just ask a young Steven Spielberg, who met him and learned about horizon lines from him.

This is one of the greatest movies in history. There's this sulking beauty underneath it all. An anger from John Wayne that is palpable. Also, it's a masterclass in framing, depth of field, and character geography.

Study how Ford creates isolation through framing within framing. Those iconic shots of Wayne in the open and Wayne in the doorway bookended the story.

2. High Noon (1952)

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• Director: Fred Zinnemann
• Writer: Carl Foreman
• Cast: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado
• Cinematographer: Floyd Crosby

Why Study This Movie?

Have you ever heard of a time lock in screenwriting? This is a pressure cooker. And High Noon is the gold standard for real-time pacing.

The whole movie is 85 minutes, so from the opening shot to the closing, we get a natural unfolding of the tale. For a wrtierl ike me, this is catnip. And directors lean in, too. Because every shot and cut is meant to maintain the tension of the inevitable.

There are so many shots of clocks; we see those second hands tick away as noon soldiers onward. And we also see real shots of how they'd stand by Gary Cooper, leave him, too.

3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

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• Director: Sergio Leone
• Writer: Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone, Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli
• Cast: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef
• Cinematographer: Tonino Delli Colli

Why Study This Movie?

There are a lot of people who will debate that this is the greatest film of all time. I think it's in the conversation. Leone took an American product and made it worldly. The editing in this movie is gobsmacking.

We have this sumptuous juxtaposition of landscape shots with extreme close-ups (also called "The Italian Close-up") that fill the frame with intensity. The "Sad Hill Cemetery" Mexican standoff is all of film school in one scene.

4. The Wild Bunch (1969)

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• Director: Sam Peckinpah
• Writer: Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah
• Cast: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Ben Johnson, Warren Oates
• Cinematographer: Lucien Ballard

Why Study This Movie?

Peckinpah made movies for people who love antiheroes and sickos. The guy knew how to ruffle some feathers. This movie was rated X when it came out for violence.

The cool thing is, there's so much style here. We have these varying frame rates (combining 24fps with slow-motion 48fps and 72fps), inercutting, and lots of cool angles from roofs and rolling on horses.

5. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

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• Director: Sergio Leone
• Writer: Sergio Donati, Sergio Leone (Story by Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, Sergio Leone)
• Cast: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards
• Cinematographer: Tonino Delli Colli

Why Study This Movie?

This film is an essential study in sound design, patience, and deliberate camera movement. The opening 14-minute train station sequence—featuring almost zero dialogue and relying entirely on ambient diegetic sounds (a squeaking windmill, a buzzing fly, water dripping on a hat)—is a masterclass in establishing tension through audio worldbuilding. Additionally, study how Leone uses sweeping crane shots and slow zoom moves to alter scene scale from micro to macro.

6. Unforgiven (1992)

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• Director: Clint Eastwood
• Writer: David Webb Peoples
• Cast: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris
• Cinematographer: Jack N. Green

Why Study This Movie?

Unforgiven is a masterclass in pretty much every aspect of filmmaking. Maybe view it as Clint Eastwood's perfect movie. A response to his life in cinema and how he was viewed at the time.

David Webb Peoples' Oscar-winning screenplay strips away the myth of heroic gunfighters and gives us grounded violence that is viscerally upsetting.

7. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

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• Director: Robert Altman
• Writer: Robert Altman, Brian McKay (based on the novel by Edmund Naughton)
• Cast: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, René Auberjonois, Shelley Duvall
• Cinematographer: Vilmos Zsigmond

Why Study This Movie?

Robert Altman + a Western = heaven. Altman made what many consider to be an anti-Western masterpiece. It's this snow-covered study in sound and experience.

Cinematographer Filmos Zsigmond deliberately flashed the film stock (pre-exposing it) to have it be muted. The whole thing feelsl ike a weird dream inside a western movie.

Altman’s signature overlapping dialogue hits in the Old West, where it feels natural inside bars and brothels.

8. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

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• Director: George Roy Hill
• Writer: William Goldman
• Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross
• Cinematographer: Conrad L. Hall

Why Study This Movie?

George Roy Hill should be on your dance card if you're a director or an actor. He handled stories so well, and his filmography is really interesting.

This movie has him directing a brilliant William Goldman screenplay. And the whole picture feelsl ike a collaboration of giants. We also have cinematographer Conrad Hall, who uses overexposed sunlight and revolutionary lens flares to create a nostalgia for an era we see passing us by as the movie continues.

9. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

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• Director: Andrew Dominik
• Writer: Andrew Dominik (based on the novel by Ron Hansen)
• Cast: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Paul Schneider, Jeremy Renner
• Cinematographer: Roger Deakins

Why Study This Movie?

The cinematography in this movie is some of the greatest of all time. Roger Deakins custom-built lenses with old camera glass mounted on tilt-shift rings (dubbed "Deakinizers") to blur edges and create vignetted imagery that all felt like a memory.

The train robbery scene is a textbook in natural lighting. We have lanterns and the moon and the hum of a train. The secrets to all life's questions are in the silhouettes.

10. No Country for Old Men (2007)

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• Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
• Writer: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy)
• Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Kelly Macdonald, Woody Harrelson
• Cinematographer: Roger Deakins

Why Study This Movie?

I'll find a way to include the Coen brothers in any of my posts. They're my favorite filmmakers, and this revisionist western is so inspired. We have virtually no musical score, so all the tension relies on sound effects and camera angles.

They accomplished such a polished movie by storyboarding and building something precise.

Summing It All Up

These ten westerns are their own sort of film school. They can teach you about lighting, direction, screenwriting, and even get into nuanced things like character and epic establishing shots.

So stop reading and start watching!

Let me know what you think in the comments.

You shoot something on a modern camera, and it comes back flawless. The scene is sharp from corner to corner, clean in the shadows, with color that holds up under any light. Yet somehow, it feels flat, more like video than film.

The problem is that perfect has no character. For a century, the look of moving images was shaped by the limits of the gear that captured them. Think of the flare of light bouncing around inside a lens or the grain of film stock. Recall the soft halation that swells around a highlight and how magnetic tape signal erodes a pinch more with each pass. Modern sensors removed almost all of this and erased the character with the flaws.

Creating looks is about putting that character back, on purpose and with control.

There's a blunt name for this craft: making it look terrible. Laugh if you like, but most audiences agree about what looks terrible and almost never about what looks beautiful. Thus, terrible is the easier, freer place to start experimenting. You can do that experimenting in After Effects with the Red Giant toolset running as effects right on your layers.

Think in a Damage Chain

Before reaching for any single effect, it helps to know where imperfection comes from. Picture the path light travels to reach a viewer and ask what degrades it at each stop. In front of the lens, there’s atmosphere and flare. Inside the lens, chromatic fringing and distortion intrude. At the film stock or sensor, expect grain and noise. Storage adds tape wear and/or compression. Not least of all, transmission introduces signal break-up and glitch.

Each stage of that havoc maps to at least one Red Giant tool. Skill lies in picking the few that tell your story instead of stacking everything you own on a clip and hoping for the best. For example, a surveillance feed wants sensor noise and a scan line, right? A dream or memory might call for halation and a soft, slow flare. A hacked broadcast wants compression artifacts and a tear. Choosing how damage affects the image keeps a look coherent rather than merely busy, and it gives you a reason for every effect on the layer.

Lens Flaws That Tell the Truth

Start at the front of the chain, where light first begins to lose its purity. A lens flare is not decoration sprinkled on in post. In a real camera, flares are evidence of light misbehaving inside the lens, as when bouncing between glass elements, blooming across coatings, or reacting to a bright source just outside the shot.

Real Lens Flares brings that behavior into After Effects as an effect on your layer. You set the type, position, and intensity of a light, then the engine calculates what each successive glass element in a real lens would do with it. Presets capture that physics as repeatable math and deterministic output. Some presets are simulations of real lens prescriptions. Stylized presets with names like Dream State, Grunge, Horror, and Thriller map more to creative moods.

Because the flare's light source lives in your comp, it can animate like anything else in the comp to better echo real life. For example, imagine when an object passes between a light source and the camera, like a subject walking through a view of the Sun. As they block the light, the flare should collapse, then bloom back the moment they clear it. Real Lens Flares handles this with Obscuration, which uses luminance or alpha data in your shot to let image areas act like solid objects that block the flare's light. The flare now reacts to the shot instead of floating over it.

In a 3D-tracked scene, you can go even further. Set Locate Flare By to AE Light. This causes the flare to pin itself to an actual After Effects light in your scene, even respecting the direction of spot and parallel lights as the camera moves.

The goal is to make selected moments feel photographed instead of assembled. That’s the same job grain and glitch do later in the chain, but here it happens at the optical stage.

Expressions Bring Imperfection Alive

Keyframes and expressions are among the biggest reasons to build looks in After Effects, and they work on a wide range of tools and effects. Perhaps the handiest such trick is a one-line expression you probably already know: wiggle.

You can add a wiggle to a static lens flare and make it flicker a few times per second in the same way a real, struggling light source never quite holds steady. Add that same wiggle expression to the red, green, and blue channels of a chromatic aberration to create fringing pulses, so the image strains while something powerful happens on screen. When the moment passes, keyframe the aberration back to nothing to revert the scene to normal. This sort of flicker isn't a canned preset. You animate it and time it to the story.

Color, Degraded

Much of what reads as a "film look" is really the color limits of vintage film and video. Instinct says to make color prettier and more vibrant, but the savvy move here is to make color tell a story. You might tint the shadows a different hue than the highlights, push a scene toward the orange and teal that sit opposite each other on the color wheel, or commit to a single dominant color with a meaning, like the yellow and black your hindbrain reads as danger. You can even sharpen only the brightness of a shot and leave the color soft for that slightly cooked, over-processed vibe.

In After Effects, this is a two-step job. Start with Colorista, Red Giant's color correction toolset, to set the base color pass. If the technical details of shot balancing aren't in your comfort zone, Colorista's Guided Color Correction walks you through it in a few steps and leaves you with a neutral, balanced image. Set that base before you add any of the degrading effects in the next section, because grading on top of grain or a glitch just makes every color adjustment fight the texture beneath it instead of building on a clean foundation.

Next, create your stylized look with Magic Bullet Looks, Red Giant's grading environment that lives inside your comp. Start from its vast library of presets or build a custom look from scratch with bundled tools, stacking the tints, curves, and diffusion your story calls for.

Once a look works, you shouldn't have to rebuild it shot to shot. Looks can save the whole stack as a preset you apply to the next clip in a single click. Smarter still, apply Looks to an adjustment layer so one effect carries your treatment across every clip beneath it.

Grain, Glow, Glitch, and the Analog Past

The middle of the damage chain is where texture lives. Say the shot should read like an old-timey broadcast. The Analog effect will do most of the work by aging footage to appear like an old CRT television broadcast, scan lines and all. But you can't simply slap the effect on like a bandage. Instead, pick a preset that's closer to the vibe you're after, perhaps a preset in a tool like Analog, and then tweak the settings to make it fit your project. The adjustment layer then becomes a master mix knob for the whole look. Even better, because everything beneath the layer ages in tandem, a composited element that floated oddly on the image a moment ago now sits naturally inside the shot.

Order matters, too. Say our antiquated broadcast should also break up. Glitch, the Red Giant effect that tears a frame like a corrupted stream, covers the transmission end of our make-it-terrible chain. Apply Glitch on the footage before the Analog adjustment layer, so Analog ages the tear along with everything else. This way, the damage looks like it happened during the broadcast rather than being pasted on after. If you flip the order, the illusion breaks. And if the story calls for film rather than broadcast, swap Analog for Red Giant aging tools like Retrograde and Misfire on that same adjustment layer, or even Grain16 to see the shot age into real 16mm grain.

Chase the Happy Accidents

Sometimes, fun starts when you point the toolbox at the wrong target. For example, the Heat Wave tool was built to put rising heat ripples into footage. But if you "accidentally" apply Heat Wave to a block of text and pull the heat blur way down, your clean type will jump and scribble like nervous handwriting. It's like berries and balsamic vinegar. Sometimes, you put an effect on a subject where it has no business being, and incredible things just happen. Or it's a mess. There's only one way to find out which.

Part of the craft is recognizing and keeping those results when you find them. Array Gun, a Red Giant generator, was built to make grids and patterns, but some artists have stumbled into using it as a displacement map to scramble text artistically or lay it over a photo as a halftone texture. Nobody designed those uses. Somebody just found them, and the tool was flexible enough to merit keeping them.

CG director Shimon Tanaka designs the live visuals for the Japanese band BABYMETAL. "The tools in [Red Giant] Universe simplify effects that would normally require complex processes," he says, "often producing unexpected results that surpass my initial expectations, which is why I enjoy using them." He grades nearly every project with Magic Bullet Looks and calls the Red Giant tools essential for After Effects users. Read how he builds BABYMETAL's live visuals.

After Effects is the Canvas

Everything in this piece starts in After Effects. The comp is the foundation on which you audition ideas and experiment with emotion. Red Giant's tools run as standard effects on standard layers, so they join that process rather than replace it. You keep the workflow you already have, and the work comes back with character it didn't have before.

Just remember: Perfect is forgettable. Visual character, whether starkly sterile or deliciously dirty, is a choice and something you can build.

If you want to watch these treatments come together, Cineversity offers a wealth of short Red Giant walkthrough videos, including building cool abstract looks. And when you want to try it in your own comp, Red Giant offers a free trial, so you can start putting the grain, glow, and glitch back into your next shot and finally make your work look terrible with purpose.

It’s hard to imagine a performer having a film credit run that rivals the one that Harrison Ford had in the 1980s. He was the leading man of a major franchise, the co-leading man of another, and found some spare time to get an Oscar nomination amidst all of that as well.

Let’s take a look at the incredible '80s run that made Harrison Ford one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

The Empire Strikes Back

Starting the decade out with what many fans consider the crown jewel of the Star Wars franchise, The Empire Strikes Back puts Ford’s character of Han Solo more in the driver’s seat than at any other point in the franchise.

We get to see a far more introspective side to his character as his relationship deepens with Princess Leia, and his softer, more protective side rears its head more. Obviously, the ending to his character in the film isn’t exactly ideal, but he goes out in incredible, quotable, cryogenic glory. For the rest of the year 1980, that is. Audiences didn’t have to wait much longer at all to see Ford be an action hero again.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’Credit: Walt Disney Studios

The first installment of the legendary Indiana Jones franchise landed in theaters in 1981, and cemented Ford as perhaps the most dominant movie star of his entire era.

Cast in the role after seeing his performance as Han Solo in the original Star Wars film, it launched a collaboration between Ford and director Steven Spielberg that has sustained decades of cinematic history.

Known for its groundbreaking practical effects, wondrous scale, iconic score, beautiful locations and production design, and Hollywood magic to boot, the film is somehow still to this day debated amongst fans of the franchise about whether or not it’s the best. The third film, The Last Crusade, has its purists as well, but the magic of the original film cannot be denied.

Blade Runner

While this franchise has had certainly more of a cult following than something like Star Wars or Indiana Jones, the original Blade Runner features some of the most contemplative, intellectually stimulating science fiction storytelling of the modern era.

There still remains a constant debate to this day as to whether or not Ford’s character, Deckard, is in fact a replicant, and after so many years, the film would likely lose a lot of its mystique if we ever got a definitive answer. No matter which way you lean on that debate, there is compelling evidence for both cases.
Ford himself gives one of his greatest performances in the film alongside Rutger Hauer and Sean Young. It’s large, it’s loud, its action is sparse, yet intense, and Rutger Hauer’s tears-in-the-rain monologue never fails to bring a tear to my eye. It’s one of my personal favorites, and it’s only gotten better with time.

The Return of the Jedi

‘Return of the Jedi’Credit: Walt Disney Studios

The original epic trilogy conclusion, Return of the Jedi, may be widely accepted as the “weakest” of the original trilogy, with critics citing more commercial focus and derivative story beats, but in my eyes it’s a classic case of if it ain't broke, don’t fix it.

Han Solo does the unthinkable in Return of the Jedi. He lets someone else captain the Millennium Falcon during the Death Star trench run. It may seem like a casual, inconsequential beat to some, but we actually get to see a tremendous leap forward in his character through this decision. New Hope Han Solo would never even consider doing that.

His love for his friends and general sense of empathy has compounded immensely. He does so reluctantly, and laments to Lando that he better not see a scratch on it…but he still does it! Solo’s comeback of a character arc is the heart and soul of the film, and his eventual love for the Ewoks is enough to melt anyone’s heart.

Witness

Harrison Ford had another go as Indiana Jones in 1984; however, given the amount of Indiana Jones talk I’ve done recently, I want to make sure I give some attention to his Oscar-nominated performance in Witness in 1985.

The Peter Weir-directed romantic thriller follows Ford as a detective who, while protecting an Amish child who witnessed a murder, takes cover in the Amish community as his life comes under threat as well.

It’s kind of a random movie for Ford to have been nominated for because, while his performance in the film is spectacular and deserving of recognition, the film itself hasn’t had the strong legs of many of his other more iconic works. Whenever people talk about the film, it’s often referenced as “somehow the only movie that Harrison Ford got an Oscar nomination for.” But it’s a lot more than that.

The film boasts compelling direction from Peter Weir that elevates Ford’s performance to the highest level; the romantic elements of the film are as effective as the thrills, and the examination of Amish culture is endlessly fascinating. It may not have spawned a multi-decade, iconic film franchise, but substantively, it offers just as much as the other films we discussed today.

The Academy Awards will finally have a category for stunt design, but not until 2028, which means this list will be out much quicker in celebrating the people and movies that are dedicated to performing stunts that have wowed audiences.

Not every movie with the most insane practical stunts is found below, but these six entries are a stacked selection of movies from the 1920s to the early 2000s that have car chases, martial arts fights, and uncaged wild animals.

Every one of them had risks of seriously hurting the stunt people involved. Some did injure cast and crew members. A major stunt in a 1928 movie even led to rumors it was fatal to some extras.

Get ready to experience the following movies with high-octane, bone-crunching practical stunts that will leave you amazed.

Noah’s Ark (1929)

Michael Curtiz directed this part-silent, part-talkie epic disaster film with a dual narrative. A World War I melodrama draws parallels from a retelling of the Biblical story of Noah and the Great Flood, with the main cast appearing in both. The finale is where the massive water stunt happens, which has become a Hollywood legend.

‘Noah’s Ark’ (1928)Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

The sequence is remarkable for how well it holds up. The shots that bring you in closer to the catastrophe had very real people as extras who were drenched in rain when they weren’t sliding around the set from waves of water splashing onto them. It was all just too much water.

According to the book The Movie Directors by Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode, the production of Noah’s Ark used 600,000 gallons of water, and allegedly, three extras died by drowning, with another having their leg amputated due to an injury. There were other injuries caused by this flood sequence, which led to new stunt-safety regulations in Hollywood.

Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)

H. B. Halicki wrote, directed, and produced this cult classic that gave us the longest car chase in film history, which, according to the AFI Catalog, demolished 93 vehicles.

‘Gone in 60 Seconds’ (1974)Credit: H.B. Halicki International

Gone in 60 Seconds has Maindrian Pace (Halicki) living a double life as an insurance investigator and a professional car thief, who is tasked with stealing 48 cars in five days. The heist doesn’t go as planned, leading to Pace taking the police on the chase through five cities with his getaway vehicle, a yellow Ford Mustang named “Eleanor.”

The extensive chase, which lasts an astounding 40 minutes, is all the more impressively staged due to this being a low-budget independent film, self-financed by Halicki. The pacing knows when to get the reactions of the general public who witness the pursuit, and then slams on the gas pedal to cause vehicular wreckage. Halicki, who was not a professional stunt driver, did the driving himself, but his daredevil spirit led to a tragic stunt gone wrong that killed Halicki during the making of his sequel to Gone in 60 Seconds.

What he was able to create in this first movie remains one-of-a-kind.

Roar (1981)

‘Roar’ (1981)Credit: Filmways Australasian Distributors

Hank (Noel Marshall) lives on an African nature preserve with lions, tigers, cheetahs, and panthers. All of the big cats come and go as they please in Hank’s home. He prefers it that way. But then his family arrives while he is away, and they become trapped as the animals overrun the house.

Marshall directed and starred in Roar with his real-life family, including Tippi Hedren (yes, there is a joke about The Birds) and Melanie Griffith, and it would be infamously known as “the most dangerous movie ever made.” You can almost feel the air leaving Marshall’s body each time the lions pounce on him. None of the big cats were trained in Roar, which should already sound like a bad idea.

On the first day of filming, his character goes to break up a fight between two adult lions, and one bites him on the hand, with the wound seen on-screen. Griffith needed reconstructive surgery after taking a claw to her face. Cinematographer Jan de Bont, who would later direct ‘90s blockbusters, needed 200 stitches after a lion scalped him — he returned as the cinematographer after he recovered.

The production took five years to film, and while there were numerous injuries, there were shockingly no deaths.

Police Story (1985)

‘Police Story’ (1985)Credit: Golden Harvest

The chaotic opener in Police Story has cars speeding down a hillside through a squatter village. Jackie Chan plays a sergeant whose determination to catch the fleeing criminals has him go after the bus they hijack, with only an umbrella to cling onto one of its windows. The opener ends with Chan stopping the bus, which sends several of the criminals out of the windows and onto the road.

Chan directed, starred, and used his stunt team in Police Story, resulting in jaw-dropping martial arts action scenes. Take the final fight, where there is a bruising set piece in a mall. Chan’s character brawls with the henchmen of a drug lord, with an escalator and glass displays leaving everyone hurting. And then there is the electrifying finish.

The last, big stunt finds Chan sliding down a metal pole strung with live light bulbs. You see it three times from three different angles. His hands were injured, and he wouldn’t be the only one hurt. During the end credits, as a catchy song performed by Chan plays, there are bloopers to see how painful the other stunts were when the cast got hurt.

Yes, Madam (1985)

‘Yes, Madam’ (1985)Credit: Fortune Star Media

Released in the same year as Police Story, Yes, Madam stars Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock as police inspectors who are assigned as partners to find a stolen microfilm wanted by a triad boss. It’s a major film in the careers of Yeoh and Rothrock, who are formidable onscreen when they are partners and when they fight solo.

There is an incredible stunt early on where a cop saves himself from being hit by a car driven by a criminal by leaping through the broken windshield to end up inside the vehicle. But the exhilarating action gets fast and furious when Rothrock and Yeoh perform the martial arts choreography.

A fight scene in an airport is our introduction to Rothrock and her high-kick prowess. If you think by the time the movie reaches a climactic showdown that it can’t leave you in awe even more, think again. The leading women battle a horde of men. Yeoh swings herself through glass under a railing, grabs the legs of her opponents, and flips them over the balcony.

Rothrock recalled she got hurt twice during the finale, one being from an inner ear injury and the other when a weapon hit her in the nose, but the intensity from her and Yeoh makes them look unstoppable.

Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior (2003)

Elbows and knees are just as powerful as fists in Tony Jaa’s breakout role in Ong-Bak. He stars as Ting, a young man who goes after the thieves who have stolen the head of his village’s ancient Buddha statue, and his search for them pulls him into an underground fighting tournament where he becomes a winning contestant.

‘Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior’ (2003)Credit: Sahamongkol Film International

Directed by Prachya Pinkaew with fight choreography by Panna Rittikrai, this movie brought the Muay Thai martial arts form to an international audience with Jaa performing the stunts himself and without wires.

Although Ting doesn’t want to fight, he has the skills to defend himself, and in the role, Jaa’s agile movements make his high jumps and elbow/knee strikes look effortless. There is also a tuk-tuk chase and Jaa having his legs on fire during one fight, both of which are memorable action scenes that make Ong-Bak a must-watch.

Which of these movies left you the most shocked at the practical stunts they pulled off?

The 1990s were an exciting time for cinephiles, with rising filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, John Singleton, The Wachowskis, Sofia Coppola, Robert Rodriguez, and Kevin Smith churning out their first masterpieces, independent cinema stepping out into the spotlight in a major way, horror reinventing itself multiple times, and much more.

There was so much going on in the 1990s that it can be hard to keep track of what to watch, so let’s simplify things by drilling down on 10 essential titles from one single year out of that entire decade: 1995.

10. Se7en

Another legendary filmmaker who had their feature directorial debut in the 1990s was David Fincher. Long before Fight Club or The Social Network or Gone Girl came his sophomore feature, Se7en. Although his actual debut, 1992’s Alien 3, ended up being a compromised effort, the serial killer thriller Se7en perfectly captures the technically precise, but often edgy and squalid sensibility that he would bring to his future work.

9. Sense and Sensibility

The success of the Jane Austen adaptation Sense and Sensibility, which was a financial smash hit in addition to being nominated for seven Oscars (winning one) and six Golden Globes (winning two), has had a huge ripple effect. First of all, as Ang Lee’s first full English-language feature, it led the filmmaker to become a huge success in the United States, allowing him to keep working in the language, helming other huge titles like Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi.

However, as part of the Jane Austen Renaissance of 1995, which included the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice miniseries and the Emma adaptation Clueless (more on that later), it also led to a resurgence of interest in Jane Austen’s work that has resulted in a flood of major adaptations of the literary giant’s work (including everything from 2005’s Pride and Prejudice to Bridget Jones’s Diary to Becoming Jane to Fire Island).

8. Jumanji

Family blockbusters are just as essential as literary adaptations and gritty crime thrillers! Jumanji, which follows the chaos that ensues when the world of a safari-themed board game bleeds out into suburbia, is an enduring classic that has since spawned a hit franchise, and it’s part of an incredible run of notable Robin Williams movies from throughout the 1990s, which also includes The Fisher King, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Birdcage, Flubber, Good Will Hunting, What Dreams May Come, and many more.

7. To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

Even though the drag queen road trip comedy To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar is a bald-faced rip-off of the Australian 1994 movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; it is quite nearly just as much of a classic.

The three stars they cast to shed their macho movie personas (Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo) embrace their roles with aplomb and turn the movie into a sparkling romp that has aged shockingly well (though, naturally, it hasn’t aged perfectly). The movie is an excellent example of the fact that the New Queer Cinema movement wasn’t just an obscure indie scene in the 1990s. It was something that was bleeding into mainstream multiplexes in a way that changed the lives of many contemporary viewers.

6. Babe

Babe could very well be the most perfect family film ever made. Produced and co-written by Mad Max auteur George Miller, the movie about a charming talking pig who yearns to be taken seriously as a sheepdog nevertheless has an edge. It’s refreshingly frank about the death of barnyard animals, but treats grief and loss as part of the fabric of life in a way that tenderly teaches important lessons to kids and grown-ups alike. It also boasts incredible effects that still hold up marvelously, thanks in part to the work of Jim Henson's Creature Shop.

5. Showgirls

Showgirls (1995)Credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Showgirls has been appraised and reappraised back and forth for decades, alternately considered one of the worst movies ever made, a work of genius, and everything in between. Whatever it is, Paul Verhoeven’s glittering, gleefully over-the-top satire of American capitalism as seen through the journey of a young woman trying to make it as a dancer in Las Vegas is certainly worth watching.

4. Waiting to Exhale

This Forest Whitaker-directed romantic dramedy about four friends helping one another navigate life and love is both a pillar of Gen X entertainment and a showcase of some of the best performers of the 1990s, including Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett as Bernadine "Bernie" Harris, Loretta Devine, Lela Rochon, Mykelti Williamson, Wesley Snipes (now making his second appearance on this list), and Giancarlo Esposito.

3. Toy Story

It’s completely fair to call Toy Story the most influential animated film of the last 35 years. First of all, it proved that CG animation could be used to craft a major hit (even though it’s admittedly rudimentary by today’s standards), leading to a major sea change as studios across the world moved away from traditional two-dimensional animation.

It was also the debut feature from Pixar Animation Studios, a company that would become synonymous with quality family entertainment. And they earned the heck out of that reputation. In fact, in the decade after the release of Toy Story alone, they crafted classic after classic, including A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles.

2. Friday

This landmark stoner comedy stars Ice Cube and Chris Tucker as a pair of down-on-their-luck friends trying to solve an ever-increasing pile of problems on an eventful Friday. It’s a seminal example of the comedic branch of the string of Black American cinema classics that burst onto the scene throughout the 1990s, kicked off by titles like Do the Right Thing, Boyz n the Hood, Juice, and Menace II Society. It also kickstarted its own franchise, spawning two sequels in the early 2000s.

1. Clueless

There is essentially nothing from the 1990s that Clueless didn’t influence. As previously mentioned, this modernized retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma was one of the titles that led to the Austenaissance. However, it also had a massive impact on teen fashion and slang (if you’re reading this and saying “as if,” you have Clueless to thank for that expression) and led to an explosion of teen movies modernizing classic literature, including everything from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (10 Things I Hate About You) and Twelfth Night (She’s the Man) to George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (She’s All That) to the salacious French novel Dangerous Liaisons (Cruel Intentions).

So what are your essential movies of 1995, and did any of them make the list? Sound off in the comments below!

The highly anticipated sequel to Toho Studios’ Godzilla Minus One is hitting theaters this November, and it’s got me reflecting a lot on how special Godzilla Minus One really felt when it first released. Especially considering the vast differences between that film, and the American MonsterVerse.

Let’s talk about the creative differences between that film, and the American franchise counterpart.

Keeping the Story and Characters Contained

While plot details for the sequel, titled Godzilla Minus Zero, are being kept slightly under wraps at this stage still, it’s been confirmed that the film is going to continue to follow the journey of the Shikishima family from the first film, two years after the events of the first.

This is in pretty direct contrast to the MonsterVerse films that, especially in the early stages, jumped around from character groups to character groups a lot in between movies. The 2014 Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters all have almost entirely different casts despite taking place in the same extended universe. From King of the Monsters on, we finally started to get some consistency with our characters. However, the next announced instalment of the franchise, Godzilla vs. Kong: Supernova, also has an entirely new cast listed for the film, with Dan Stevens being the only apparently returning cast member at this time. Adam Wingard is returning to direct, but that’s about it.

Minus One and its sequel are bringing almost everybody back in their respective roles. Same cast, same writer, director, producers, VFX artists, everyone. There obviously isn’t a right or wrong way to do these things; it’s just interesting to see two different versions of the same kind of universe being made in such polar opposite environments.

No Other Monsters Have Been Announced Yet

‘Godzilla vs. Kong’Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

It’s a bit early to tell whether or not the new Toho series will eventually try to introduce other monsters in the canon; however, at this stage, it appears that Godzilla is once again going to be flying solo in Minus Zero.

The American MonsterVerse has, insofar, taken a Marvel-style approach in giving key players like Godzilla and King Kong more solo introductory movies before putting them together, as well as introducing other side players like Mothra or Giddora.

Obviously, it would be absolutely incredible to see those characters going head to head in the new Toho universe; however, the far more intimate and intentional pace of this franchise is a welcome one. Where so many monster films nowadays start to slip up is when they start to focus more on the spectacle than they do on the characters. Godzilla Minus One, for the most part, has the best of both worlds in that regard. It takes a long time for Godzilla to show up in that film, as we spend quite a bit of time with our human protagonists first.

Additionally, amidst all of Godzilla’s destruction and the cool action set pieces, many viewers have cited that the ending to that film made them cry. This is mostly thanks to the moving human drama at the center of the story. Maybe there are more monsters in store for Minus Zero or other future projects, but the clear priority on character drama over making things go boom seems to be suiting the filmmakers well.

Emphasis on Thematics

‘Godzilla Minus Zero’Caption: Toho Studios

The character of Godzilla was created specifically as a metaphor for the horrors of the atomic war age. The original 1954 film shows Godzilla being awakened and eventually mutated through atomic bomb testing. Much of this post-war sentiment and paranoia is also present in Minus One. The film takes place during that age; we see characters engaging in war conflicts, and Godzilla himself maintains a clear path of destruction that mimics the damage done by nuclear warfare.

It’s clear that they’re doubling down on this sentiment in Minus Zero, as the recently released teaser gives an even closer look at new man-made bombs, as well as taglines about our eventual, man-made, mutually assured destruction. This style of commentary isn’t exactly new, and goes back to the direct roots of the Godzilla character. With that said, it worked well in Minus One, so there’s no reason to suggest that it won’t work again in November. Plus, any thematics is often better than no thematics.

That’s where the American MonsterVerse comes in. The 2014 Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island aren’t entirely devoid of any sort of commentary, with the former tackling some things we’ve already discussed, and the latter being an Apocalypse Now-style war film. Even some of the newer films have some intriguing tidbits on environmental conservation and climate change. However, these things never really take center stage.

The priorities of the newer American films are very clearly making things get destroyed by Godzilla and the other monsters in increasingly elaborate ways. If some subtext work appears naturally through that progression, the films will most happily include it. But it is fascinating to see both franchises use the same type of characters and structures, but for nearly completely different goals.

People are always trying to crack the code of how to make it in the entertainment industry. And it's true, it's a world that does seem to operate under an invisible framework you only come to understand when you're in it, and you learn the hierarchies of managers and executives and assistants and mailrooms.

Every once in a while, someone tries to parse the industry's intricate ceremonies. Enter Peter M. Hoffman, a unique voice in indie film who recently spoke to Film Courage about his career and viewpoint.

Hoffman became President and CEO of Carolco Pictures (the independent studio founded by Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna that produced Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Basic Instinct, Total Recall, and Rambo III) during its late-'80s and early-'90s peak.

He founded Seven Arts Entertainment in 1992 and produced The Believer, Johnny Mnemonic, Stander, Asylum, and Rules of Engagement.

In 2015, Hoffman was convicted on federal wire fraud charges in a Louisiana film-tax-credit case, a conviction he continues to dispute. He wrote his memoir Karmic Winds during his prison sentence.

In this video, he names his three laws of Hollywood and how to work under them. Let's learn more together.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

The Three Laws of Hollywood

"The first law in Hollywood is that no good deed goes unpunished."

He doesn't elaborate. But does he need to? There are too many finicky personalities on a set for you to perform perfectly every single time. He's joking here, but there's a bittersweet truth to it too.

"And the second law in Hollywood that I like to say is that it's not enough that I succeed. My friends have to fail. There's a certain sanguine quality to the competitiveness in our business. Sometimes we don't give the recognition to our colleagues' success that perhaps we should, and therefore some of the cattiness that you see comes out of that."

You might feel like a bad person for thinking this. But it's natural to be jealous. It's cutthroat out there. If you've ever caught yourself feeling a small, ugly thing about a peer's Sundance premiere, you're not alone.

"I have a third law, which is that anything that isn't done when it should will get screwed up. You have a certain inertia with a film. Barb Schroeder used to say, you have the centrifugal forces, and then you have the inertia, and you want to keep the things that keep it together as opposed to all the things that can make it fly apart, and so dragging things out and not getting things done, to me, is one of the ways you get into trouble on films."

Barbet Schroeder is the director of Reversal of Fortune, Barfly, and Single White Female.

This one is the biggest thing to remember in your own work. Don't push a decision to next week, because then it'll probably get pushed again, the department that needed it will have moved on to something else, and the whole thing will start unraveling.

Hoffman's language for it (centrifugal forces versus inertia) is a good visual. There is stuff pulling your film apart at all times. Your job is to keep it together, and you do that by making small decisions on the day they're due.

What do you think about these laws? They're obviously not hard and fast, but it is true that Hollywood is tough, some people are in it for reasons other than art, and it can be demoralizing at times. Hoffman says the bigger goal is not to take these laws personally.

"I think you do have to accept them, but it doesn't mean that you don't try to manage them and keep them from happening. It's as much for your own ironic self-distance so that you don't get too engaged in some of the stuff that happens and you just deal with it as a problem."

If someone gets upset with you on a set, it usually has nothing to do with you personally. So at the very least, remember that. And learn how to communicate directly.

Know That Self-Confidence Isn't Ego

Film Courage asks how much ego you need to work in the industry. Hoffman says he doesn't like the word.

"I think you have to have a tremendous amount of self-confidence. You have to really believe in yourself because you have some very strong-willed people."

The people, he says, who get pushed around and become sycophants are "part of the problem" of Hollywood. Hoffman argues that agreeable but passive collaborators actively harm projects. He wants strong-willed people, even when they disagree.

You'll likely meet many of those strong-willed people, including in writer/producer/director relationships.

"My wife likes to say, you can never tell a good director, writer, actor what to do. If they are, then they're a hack. All you can do is worry them. All you can do is get them to think maybe it's not as good as it should be yet. And in order to do that, you have to have a certain confidence. You have to have the ability to express yourself. You have to believe in what you're doing. And you have the ability to step back and recognize somebody else's point of view."

What's he saying here? Essentially, producers who tell directors what to do produce hacks. Producers who worry their directors produce better films.

If you're a producer, executive, or department head giving notes, you're not there to hand a good director a solution. You're there to make them wonder whether their current version is really the best possible version, then let them go find the better one.

If you're a director, writer, or actor receiving notes, the same thought process helps. The best notes you get won't tell you what to do. They're going to worry you. If a note lands and you can't stop turning it over in your head three days later, that's usually the one that mattered.

And on the ego-versus-self-confidence point Hoffman keeps making, Scorsese recently made a similar point about how believing your own hype is the fastest way to kill your own work.

Teradek is upping the game in wireless video transmission with the latest version of its Bolt line: the Bolt 7, which represents a major step forward for the company. Already a top option, the Bolt 6 was quite capable, but the Bolt 7 adds a separate, dedicated data channel that should take the wireless video transmission system beyond its previous capabilities in several ways.

Here’s what you need to know about the new Teradek Bolt 7 wireless video transmission system, its new features, and its different versions.

The Teradek Bolt 7 is Here

Announced by the company and set to start shipping next month, the new Bolt 7 lineup from Teradek promises to be the next major step forward for 6Ghz, zero-delay wireless video transmission. Some of the biggest news is that the Bolt 7 will add a new 900MHz radio, opening the door to a dedicated wireless channel for data alongside video, which could be used for things like camera control, color management,, and more.

The Bolt 7 is also set to introduce a larger, full-color display that features real-time wireless information, diagnostic tools, and other features. Plus, it will also now be able to pair reliably over the new 900MHz radio, or skip wireless entirely with the new direct wired pairing mode.

The Bolt 7 TX model will be 20% smaller than the previous Bolt 6 TX version, and the Bolt 7 line overall will operate on the ultra-clear 6GHz band, with an optional license unlocking 5MHz channel tuning and more.

Price and Availability

The new Teradek Bolt 7 lineup is out and available for preorder on the company’s website. You can find more info on the different options below.

• Teradek Bolt 7 750: $5,990
• Teradek Bolt 7 1500: $8,990
• Teradek Bolt 7 MAX: $13,990

While it’s only been a few months since Insta360 shook the gimbal camera market up with the announcement of its Luna Ultra, the company is back with another new gimbal camera upgrade with the new Luna Pro.

If now is the time to strike while the iron is hot and DJI is on the sidelines in US markets, it makes sense to keep the pedal to the metal. And that’s certainly what the company is doing, as this new Luna Pro version looks even more impressive with its Leica Summicron lens and powerful 1-inch sensor.

Here’s what you need to know.

The Insta360 Luna Pro Announced

The big specs and features filmmakers—or, more likely, content creators—will focus on will mostly come down to the lens and the sensor. The Insta360 Luna Pro is set to feature a Leica Summicron lens with a 1-inch 8K sensor that will support 8K30 Dolby Vision video and 4K120fps slow-motion video.

The gimbal camera can also record in a 4K30fps vertical format for social content, and it features impressive microscopic macro capability with a 4× Macro mode to capture finer details.

This new model will also feature a detachable screen with a built-in mic and support HD image transmission up to 20m for remote control. It will also support 10-bit I-Log with 14-stop dynamic range, preserving rich light, shadow, and color detail for professional color grading.

Price and Availability

This looks like another solid gimbal camera upgrade and should be one of the top options in whatever markets it's available in, regardless of the competition. Still, it’s only a gimbal camera, so its appeal might be limited to a certain class of content creators, but with that target audience growing, it makes sense to keep pumping these out.

The Insta360 Luna Pro is set to retail for a starting price of $599 for a standard bundle, with units available on the company’s website here.

Set to be new two-in-one monitoring and control solutions for your favorite Sony cinema cameras, these new monitors, or remote control monitor units, are here for you to consider. Sony has unveiled not just one, but two new versions, both jam-packed with features and ideal for Sony cinema camera workflows.

The RM-DP5 is the more compact option, with a 5” 1920 x 1080 2000 cd/m² LCD touchscreen, while the RM-DP7 is the larger 7” model, also with a 1920 x 1080 2000 cd/m² LCD touchscreen and 12G-SDI connectivity.

Both are solid options to consider for your favorite Sony workflows, so let’s check them out.

Sony RM-DP5 Cinema Line Monitor Controller

As mentioned above, the Sony RM-DP5 Cinema Line Monitor Controller is the smaller of the two models of two-in-one monitoring and control solutions. The RM-DP5 will feature a 5" 1920 x 1080 2000 cd/m² LCD touchscreen and an included control knob.

It should be bright enough for daylight use, and the monitor’s intuitive control interface should enable accurate monitoring. Wireless operation is unlocked by integrating a third-party video transmitter via HDMI input.

Here are the full specs and purchase options.

• 5" 1920 x 1080 LCD Touchscreen
• Control and Monitor Your Footage
• Comprehensive Image Monitoring Tools
• Control Knob, Side Handgrip
• HDMI I/O, USB-C Connectivity
• LUT Support, Accurate Color Reproduction
• 1/4"-20 Threads, Strap Holes
• BP-U Battery Powered, Aluminum Body

Sony RM-DP5 Cinema Line Monitor Controller (5")

The Sony RM-DP5 Cinema Line Monitor Controller is a two-in-one monitoring and control solution for compatible Sony camera models. The compact monitor is ideal for on-camera operation thanks to its 5" 1920 x 1080 2000 cd/m² LCD touchscreen and included control knob.

Sony RM-DP7 Cinema Line Monitor Controller

The Sony RM-DP7 Cinema Line Monitor Controller is the larger, slightly more sophisticated option, offering the same two-in-one monitoring and control solutions and compatible with the same Sony camera models.

The RM-DP7 will feature a 7" 1920 x 1080 2000 cd/m² LCD touchscreen and 12G-SDI connectivity for professional workflows. It will be just as bright and intuitive for accurate monitoring, and it will also support wireless operation by integrating a third-party video transmitter via HDMI input.

Here are the full specs and purchase options.

• 7" 1920 x 1080 LCD Touchscreen
• Control and Monitor Your Footage
• Comprehensive Image Monitoring Tools
• SDI and HDMI I/O, USB-C Connectivity
• Control Knob, Side Handgrip
• LUT Support, Accurate Color Reproduction
• 1/4"-20 Threads, Strap Holes
• BP-U Battery Powered, Aluminum Body

Sony RM-DP7 Cinema Line Monitor Controller (7")

The Sony RM-DP7 Cinema Line Monitor Controller is a two-in-one monitoring and control solution for compatible Sony camera models. The large-screen monitor features a 7" 1920 x 1080 2000 cd/m² LCD touchscreen and 12G-SDI connectivity for professional workflows.

If you haven't seen For a Few Dollars More, it's one of Sergio Leone's classic Spaghetti Westerns. The story features two bounty hunters, both with their own codes, circling each other before the real trouble starts.

El Indio and his gang are making life miserable. There's a price on his head, so naturally, Monco (Clint Eastwood) and Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) show up, both looking to cash in on the bounty on Indio's head.

At first, they're sizing each other up. But soon, they realize teaming up is the only way they're getting anywhere near El Indio. It's a partnership born out of necessity, not trust, but eventually leads to an unlikely friendship. The film was a follow-up to A Fistful of Dollars, the middle of the Dollars Trilogy.

Partway through the film, Monco asks the older man a question that reveals almost nothing on the page but a ton on screen. It's one of the great examples of what a refusal to answer can do in a screenplay.

The Scene

Mortimer and Monco are in the middle of tracking Indio, bunking together. The tone before the quote is quiet. Just two men in a room sharing an evening. The conversation shifts.

Monco asks, "Tell me, Colonel... Were you ever young?"

Mortimer, prepping his pipe, says, "Yup. And just as reckless as you. Then one day, something happened. It made life very precious to me."

Monco notices the colonel holds something.

"What's that?"

Mortimer shoots a glance at him. Monco reads the hesitation.

"Or is the question indiscreet?" Monco says.

Mortimer pauses, then says, "No. No, the question isn't indiscreet. But the answer could be."

First-time viewers won't know that the object he holds is a Chekhov's watch that pays off at the film's climax.

'For a Few Dollars More' Credit: United Artists

What Mortimer Refuses to Say

"Tell me, Colonel... were you ever young?"

Mortimer's answer isn't an answer, not to what was asked, anyway. When he's asked about being young, it takes him back to a moment of trauma he's not prepared to discuss with another man.

So he evades. Yes, he was young. But something happened to him.

"It made life very precious to me."

That's the backstory we get. No name, no year, no place, no body. He was once reckless, but something ended that. Now he values life. The who and the why are locked in a place Mortimer will not open.

Then Monco pushes to know what he's holding. At the end of the film, we learn it's a musical pocket watch like the one his dead sister had, and Indio took.

Leone cuts to Van Cleef's face for the answer before the answer. The sharp glance.

Monco reads it instantly and gives him an out. "Or is the question indiscreet?"

And Mortimer takes the out. "No. No, the question isn't indiscreet. But the answer could be."

This tells Monco, and us, that this wound is loaded. Asking again will cost someone something.

The scene isn't about aging. It's about a specific grief this man refuses to voice. Leone trusts us to wait for it. As a writing device, this beat is the plant for the later payoff.

The physical elements do a lot here, too. The colonel is literally holding the answer while refusing to give it. It's exactly the kind of visual/verbal split that makes for great subtext in dialogue. What is said? What is shown? What's withheld?

If Mortimer had explained himself here, the movie wouldn't work, and we'd lose the impact of the ending. The climax of For a Few Dollars More depends on us not knowing what we've just been shown. The refusal in this moment feels earned. It comes from the character, not from a screenwriter protecting a twist.

'For a Few Dollars More' Credit: United Artists

What Monco Does Say

Don't forget that the scene develops Eastwood's character, too.

The line "Tell me, Colonel... were you ever young?" is a provocation. Monco is younger, cockier, testing whether this older gunfighter is a peer or a relic.

It's the kind of thing a younger man asks partly to hear an answer and partly to pester. He wants information but doesn't want to come off as truly interested.

Then, when Mortimer bristles, Monco walks it back, smart enough to read the room and soften. That's a character who knows when to press and when to back off. It's a lot of information in a very short exchange.

Every line here does the three jobs good dialogue is supposed to do. It propels the scene, it sounds like this specific person in this specific moment, and it's what these men would actually say.

What Screenwriters Should Learn from the Scene

This is a strong Western story, but the advice applies to any genre.

We love plant and payoff because it rewards the audience. Mortimer's backstory pays off later in the film. In this scene, Leone and his co-writers keep the door closed. Every instinct you have as a writer might tell you to overwrite the moment. Reveal the thing now. Earn the audience's sympathy by explaining this man. Resist that.

Even so, the watch is in the frame. The filmmakers don't hide that it's a watch, just its significance. You don't have to get cute with an object like this, although sometimes MacGuffins are never seen. This is meant to be a quiet character beat, so it's likely that obfuscating the watch would have only distracted the audience. The object is interesting, but we move on from it quickly. It doesn't get a hero shot, and it's not deliberately hidden. It's just there, which feels natural.

Let some of the story live in the performance. Van Cleef doesn't tell us anything with words that he doesn't already tell us with his eyes. He knows the backstory, so he plays it in this moment. The pause before he speaks. The sharp look when Monco presses. It's enough to tell us something is there and pique our curiosity.

Give your scene one job. It's not a long scene, but it's an important one. It doesn't move Mortimer and Monco geographically or get them closer to Indio, but it does plant a seed. Sometimes a scene's job is just to make you feel like there's something you don't know yet.

It’s that time of the year. Apple has unveiled its latest iPhone models, and the world grinds to a stop to watch the launch videos, check the specs, then look down at their dumb old iPhone (or Android) models in disgust.

All kidding aside, the new iPhones from Apple look quite appealing and promising as always, especially with the new Duo set to take all the headlines with its breakthrough foldable design. However, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models may appeal most to filmmakers and smartphone content creators.

Let’s check the vids and the specs for all of the above.

The New Apple iPhone Models are Here

So, the big news for most will be the announcement of the iPhone Duo, the company’s first foldable iPhone and also its thinnest one ever as well.

“iPhone Duo is the most transformational change to iPhone since the original. With an entirely new design and intuitive experiences, it shows what’s possible when hardware and software are engineered together and redefines what it means to use a foldable phone. With the largest display ever on iPhone that still fits easily in your pocket, combined with the power of A20 Pro, iPhone Duo helps you stay more immersed and productive wherever you go, whether you’re enjoying content, multitasking across apps, or gaming.” - John Ternus, Apple’s CEO.

The Duo will feature a 7.6-inch inner display that becomes a large canvas for watching videos, gaming, multitasking, or anything else you want to do. The Duo will also be powered by the new A20 Pro chip and will support 4K120 fps recording in Dolby Vision on the 48MP Fusion Main camera.

Pre-orders for the iPhone Duo will begin Friday, October 16th, starting at $1,999.

New iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max

The other big news is the announcement of the new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models, which follow the usual iPhone lineup. These new iPhone 18 Pro models will feature the same A20 Pro and a next-generation vapor chamber as well as the same 48MP Fusion main camera, which now comes with variable aperture and other creative controls.

“With iPhone 18 Pro, we’ve made advancements to the areas our users care about most: camera, performance, battery, and intelligence. And we didn’t just make incremental improvements in these areas — we took huge leaps forward to create the best Pro iPhone we’ve ever made. iPhone 18 Pro makes it easy for anyone to capture stunning photos and videos using variable aperture, while providing more versatility for creators and more control for pros. Paired with impactful upgrades to Photographic Styles and powerful video capabilities, iPhone 18 Pro unlocks entirely new ways for users to express themselves.” - Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

The new iPhone 18 Pro models will also feature the results of a new computational imaging pipeline that lets the main camera produce sharper, more detailed shots and unlock new Cinematic effects when recording videos at up to 60fps.

The new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models will be available for pre-order beginning September 12th, with options starting at $1,199 for the 18 Pro and $1,299 for the 18 Pro Max.

We’ll undoubtedly have much more to explore in the future, but for now, you can find more info on all new iPhones on the company’s website here.

Gavin Gaitan (who we've written about before) is a Los Angeles writer/producer/director with three self-financed features to his name. His most recent, Down Town, is a 24-hour absurdist crime comedy set in downtown Los Angeles. (It won Best in Fest at Sherman Oaks 2024 and is now streaming on Prime Video.)

To be honest, Gaitan talks like someone who just finished a feature and is still bruised from it, which makes sense because it's really hard. Before you get to set, the writing is hard, too, another thing he talks about here. There's getting over roadblocks and trying to craft the strongest draft you can, even when notes don't make sense. Also, learn why he needs four uninterrupted hours to write 21 minutes' worth of material.

His answers about feedback, writing routines, and the tangent-script that saved him from a stagnant week lead to advice more useful than the usual writing platitudes.

Check out the conversation below.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Follow the Tangent

There will probably be times when you're on assignment. You take a writing gig, and you're hopefully excited about it.

But in other cases, when an assignment is totally self-imposed, there's no reason to stick with something if it's not flowing. In Gaitan's case, he was trying to break a new comedy script, spent a week getting nowhere, and had a completely different idea nagging at him the whole time.

"I was trying to write a new action comedy, and I spent a week just biting my knuckle, thinking I just had nothing. I was coming up with a couple of scenes, an idea for a character. I was just spending hours just kind of trying to brainstorm this thing, but it wasn't clicking then. But the whole time I had this other idea for an erotic thriller, an entirely different film that kept popping up in my mind for some reason, and I kept being like, 'Go away, go away. I'm trying to write this action comedy right now. I don't have time for you.' And then, after a week, I barely had an outline, and I was like, 'Okay, let me start. Let me just get a couple of these other notes down from this erotic thriller that's like been bothering me.' And then, pen to paper, six weeks later, I have a full feature for that thing."

One thing writers often beat themselves up about is grinding on something that seemingly goes nowhere. But even if you write the first act of a script that you never finish, that's still a workout for your writing muscles. You wouldn't say, "Oh, I only walked one mile, not five, so I didn't exercise." Because you did.

For Gaitan, sitting at the desk was what made room for the other script to arrive.

This ties into the Zeigarnik effect, where your subconscious keeps grinding on unfinished business even after you've stepped away. The trick I covered before is that when you hit a wall, stop that scene and just keep moving.

Gaitan's version is bigger, obviously. The action comedy wasn't ready, and his subconscious was telling him so by handing him a completely different movie every time he tried to concentrate.

If you're stuck and feel like you don't have a nagging second idea, we've also put together 100 prompts and exercises designed to break a block.

Whose Feedback Matters?

I recently found myself in a notes session I didn't know was going to be a notes session. I was meeting actors who had a couple of questions, and it turned into something else. And that's totally fine. You take out your laptop, you take the notes. Then you filter what's useful later.

For Gaitan, taste matters when he's getting feedback.

"If I think you've got really extraordinary taste in music and you're really intelligent when it comes to perceiving art, and we align, then your feedback is going to be incredibly valuable to me. If you read it and you're just like, 'I just don't really like these kinds of movies.' Okay. Irrelevant. You know, I don't care really what you think. You're not really my audience."

You'll run into that plenty. Hopefully a reader can still be objective even if they don't operate in your genre. But if the notes don't vibe with your goals, it's okay to disregard. Either way, look for the note behind the note.

And even if you might not initially agree, try to see where a note might have value, and interpret it in your own way.

Gaitan tells a story about coming off a difficult drama, and how he wanted Down Town to be pure absurdist comedy, with no emotional throughline. His early readers didn't get it and pushed him.

"I don't want you to care about these characters," he said at first. "This thing's just funny. Just gags every 90 seconds. Just something absurd happens. I gave the script to people, and they were like, 'This is interesting. You've got to have some kind of story here to tell characters that I actually want to watch for 90 minutes.'"

Even though it wasn't what he set out to do at first, he added some drama, he said, "as an afterthought."

"But then when I finished the film, people were coming up to me, and they were like, 'Oh my god, that dramatic scene, it hit so hard. It was so powerful, so profound.' And I'm like, 'What? Really?'"

Your resistance to a note is not evidence the note is wrong. Sometimes you have to hear hard things about your work and figure out how to make it even just a little bit better.

Write for Four Hours

Writing is hard and takes enormous dedication.

Gaitan will set an arbitrary deadline… then find a reason to skip it. Monday becomes Tuesday because of an appointment. Tuesday becomes the weekend. The weekend becomes next Monday, and now a full week is gone. Every screenwriter knows the feeling.

He fixes the problem by blocking off time.

"I need, like, four hours. I need four hours straight. Sometimes I'll do an hour, and then maybe I'll like give up because I really am not getting anything. But I need a four-hour space where I sit at my desk, don't get up, don't do anything. Just like sit there, and that's four hours. That might be 21 minutes of writing, you know, over the course of four whole hours."

You don't win on output. Four hours and 21 productive minutes might mean one page or 10 pages. Showing up matters and builds the habit. Check out six more habits of successful writers.

The PEN is back, or—at least—a redesigned version of the classic film camera. OM SYSTEM has announced that a new digital PEN model is officially on the way.

Set to feature a compact body, yet packed with a capable high-res Micro Four Thirds sensor, this update to the PEN should offer quick, capable autofocus and expected photographic flair, with unique art filters and plenty of helpful features.

It will also shoot video, though perhaps not as its main function; still, its video specs aren’t bad, with 4K at 24fps, slow-mo at 120p, and in-camera 24-bit audio. Let’s check it out.

The OM SYSTEM PEN is Back

What’s unique about the PEN and its camera history is that after its original film run, the first digital PEN camera was released in 2009. This new MFT mirrorless option redesigns both versions and brings the legacy into the modern mirrorless workflow.

The goal of the camera appears to be as lightweight and easy as possible, as the camera is quite compact and looks to be targeted towards being a nice travel camera, ideally for pictures, but also for hybrid shooting needs.

The OM SYSTEM PEN will feature some decent specs for video too, with its face/eye detection autofocus with human and animal recognition looking solid and sharp, and the camera set to feature your usual mix of necessary video shooting features like focus peaking and magnification.

Price and Availability

Still, this isn’t meant to be a major challenger for higher-end video, and its focus is pretty much squarely on travel photography and casual content. Still, it’s a sleek, cool-looking retro camera from a solid brand that, if you like the style, could be worth investing in as a carry-around option.

Here are the full specs and purchase options.

• 20.4MP Micro Four Thirds Live MOS Sensor
• TruePic IX Image Processor
• 5-Axis In-Body Image Stabilization
• Up to 30 fps RAW & JPEG Burst Shooting
• 4K 24p Video & 1-120p in S&Q Modes
• 3" 1.04m-Dot Vari-Angle Touchscreen LCD
• 2.36m-Dot OLED Electronic Viewfinder
• 121-Point AF, AI-Based Subject Detection
• High-Res Shot, Live ND & Composite Modes
• IPX1 Weather-Sealed Design

OM SYSTEM PEN Mirrorless Camera

The OM SYSTEM PEN Mirrorless Camera packages the creative power of a full-featured mirrorless camera into a compact body with a high-res Micro Four Thirds sensor, quick autofocus, and a plethora of unique art filters, enabling you to capture personal moments with a creative twist.

It’s been a busy couple of days leading up to IBC 2026, where we’ve seen a flurry of new cameras, lenses, gear, and software announcements from a wide range of major brands. Sigma is doing its part with new lenses, including the Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary Lens, a wide-to-normal zoom with a dynamic field of view packed into a palm-sized design.

Weighing just 13.2 oz, this full-frame optic zoom brings a bright f/2.8 maximum aperture at the wide end with some nice macro capabilities. Let’s look at what this new Sigma Contemporary zoom can do for your projects.

Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary Lens

Designed for filmmakers, videographers, photographers, and other hybrid content creators, the Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary Lens offers versatile full-frame optics in a compact form factor, making it a strong option for capturing wide landscapes, low-light interiors, or rich close-ups.

The lens will feature a dynamic 20-60mm zoom range with a wide-to-normal field of view that will allow for 6.2” close focus at 28mm and a 1:2.3 reproduction ratio at 35mm. The lens will also feature an advanced 15-element, 13-group optical construction that should deliver solid high-resolution performance and consistent edge-to-edge sharpness throughout the zoom range.

The lens should handle rapid, smooth autofocus for photo and video alike with its HLA-driven focus motor, and its solid dust- and splash-resistant construction should also allow confident shooting in unpredictable weather or settings.

Price and Availability

Announced and ready for preorder, the new Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary Lens should start shipping in early October. If you’re interested in learning more, here are the full specs and purchase options.

• Full-Frame | f/2.8-4 to f/22-32 Aperture
• Versatile Wide-to-Normal Zoom
• HLA-Driven AF | 7.9-9.9" Close Focus
• Capture Rich Close-Ups & Vast Landscapes
• Dust- & Splash-Resistant Design
• 67mm Front Filter Thread

Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary Lens

Delivering versatile full-frame optics in a palm-sized design, the 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary Lens from Sigma is a wide-to-normal zoom that offers a dynamic field of view. Weighing just 13.2 oz, the 20-60mm pairs a bright f/2.8 maximum aperture at the wide end with impressive macro capabilities, rendering sweeping landscapes, low-light interiors, and rich close-ups with equal ease.

Well, this is news we always like reporting: Blackmagic Design has announced another set of price cuts, this time as a limited-time special on a range of Ultra HD switchers, cameras, recorders, and converters.

With these discounts, potential customers can save 20% off the regular price on 17 products, with savings of up to nearly $2,000 on some models. The big news is that it’s a wide range of products, and it will also include price discounts on some PYXIS cinema cameras.

Here’s what you need to know.

More Blackmagic Design Price Cuts

These new price drops follow the news that Blackmagic Design dropped prices on several cameras, including some PYXIS 6K cinema cameras, just last week. This new price drop is a limited-time special, so it won’t last forever.

But in today’s market, it’s hard to say what prices might go up or down at any moment, so if the deal is good, it’s never a bad idea to go for it. So, if you’re curious, here’s the full list of price drops:

• Blackmagic Streaming Encoder 4K was US$695 now $556, saving $139
• Blackmagic Streaming Decoder 4K was US$695 now $556, saving $139
• Blackmagic PYXIS 12K was US$5,180 now $4,144, saving $1,036
• Blackmagic PYXIS 12K EF was US$5,175 now $4,140, saving $1,035
• Blackmagic PYXIS 12K PL was US$5,175 now $4,140, saving $1,035
• Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 was US$1,895 now $1,516, saving $379
• Blackmagic 2110 IP Converter 4x12G PWR was US$2,075 now $1,660, saving $415
• HyperDeck Shuttle 4K Pro was US$1,505 now $1,204, saving $301
• HyperDeck Shuttle 4K Pro 2TB was US$2,995 now $2,396, saving $599
• HyperDeck Extreme 4K HDR was US$3,100 now $2,480, saving $620
• HyperDeck Studio 4K Pro was US$1,655 now $1,324, saving $331
• ATEM 1 M/E Constellation 4K was US$1,895 now $1,516, saving $379
• ATEM 2 M/E Constellation 4K was US$4,415 now $3,532, saving $883
• ATEM 4 M/E Constellation 4K was US$9,555 now $7,644, saving $1,911
• ATEM Television Studio 4K8 was US$4,995 now $3,996, saving $999
• ATEM Television Studio 4K8 2TB was US$6,995 now $5,596, saving $1,399
• Ultimatte 12 4K was US$2,705 now $2,164, saving $541

These price drops are focused on Blackmagic Design’s range of Ultra HD products, including switchers, cameras, recorders, and converters, with all the models set to also be able to work in HD as well, so customers could purchase at a lower price and switch to Ultra HD when they or their clients are ready.

Available Until the End of the Month

The biggest caveat is that if you want these deals, you’ll need to act fast, as the company reports these specials are only available until the end of September 2026 or while stocks last. They are also all reportedly live and available immediately online or via resellers worldwide.

You can find more info on the company’s website here.

Ever since the Fujifilm GFX ETERNA 55 was announced, much less released, it’s been an intriguing camera for many reasons. The first, obviously, is its large-format capabilities, but it’s also been interesting to watch how the film and video industry has been, perhaps slowly, moving toward this large-format shooting style.

Some of the reasons for this lag might just simply have to do with gear and workflows, and Fujifilm has taken a big step forward by finally releasing a bright, high-resolution EVF for the camera, which aims to promise new potential for filmmakers specifically.

Here’s what you need to know about this new Fujifilm VF-GFXC2 viewfinder.

FUJIFILM VF-GFXC2 Viewfinder

So, as mentioned above, the gear and perhaps the learning curve for jumping into large-format cinematography can be a bit steep, and while the Fujifilm GFX ETERNA 55 is a top option for many, not having a high-resolution, bright viewfinder option has been a notable omission.

Fujifilm has finally changed that, though, as the new VF-GFXC2 Viewfinder should fit the bill quite well, delivering a full-display view of GF 4K 4:3 Open Gate recordings on its 0.64-inch OLED panel.

The viewfinder attaches to the GFX ETERNA 55 via a dedicated ¼-20 mounting point and offers plenty of flexibility for a variety of shooting scenarios, including standard tripod setups and handheld run-and-gun work.

The viewfinder connects to the camera through its dedicated ETERNA multi-pin connector and should offer plenty of brightness, with peak levels at 1000 nits, and overall offer 2048x1536 high-resolution.

Price and Availability

Overall, this is an exciting addition to an intriguing camera system that could really use this add-on. The FUJIFILM VF-GFXC2 Viewfinder is set to retail for $1,649 and should be ready to start shipping by the end of the year.

For now, if you want to explore this viewfinder option, you can find more details and specs on the company’s website here.

Chances are, if you want to make stuff, you want to work with actors. And let's just say they can be an intense bunch.

Don't get me wrong, I love actors, and I get excited about playing pretend with actors. And they bring a perspective unlike any other to a project as they try to get under a character's skin. Sometimes the questions they ask help you find story issues you never even considered. Sometimes they can help with physical things too, like blocking. Sometimes they have a lot of ideas.

And a recent interview with Tim Robbins is a great reminder of why that advice can be so invaluable.

Robbins recently sat down with GQ to break down his most iconic roles in a GQ "Iconic Characters" video covering Bull Durham, Mystic River, The Player, Silo, and more. There is a ton here, but my favorite part is probably the discussion about one of the best films of all time, The Shawshank Redemption.

Robbins talks about the script that turned him into a bodyguard for the material, a rehearsal disagreement he quietly won, and the trick of playing two emotional truths in one scene.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

"Frank Darabont wrote the best script I've ever read"

It's the thing every writer wants to hear. The actor loved your script. In the case of Shawshank, Frank Darabont wrote something based on Stephen King's novel that immediately hooked Robbins and the rest of the cast.

"Frank Darabont wrote the best script I've ever read," Robbins said. "Shawshank Redemption from beginning to end was nearly perfect. When I read it, I was, 'I'm in.' So, this is a first-time director. 'Well, I'll tell you what, let's get cinematographer approval.' And I was working with [Roger] Deakins on Hudsucker at the time when I was reading Shawshank Redemption. I gave it to Roger. He loved it."

Robbins used the "cinematographer approval" ask as leverage to bring in Roger Deakins, whom he was already working with on The Hudsucker Proxy. A DP with that much experience, he reasoned, could help Darabont as director if he got stuck.

"Roger and I and Morgan [Freeman], when we met, we all talked about how much we loved this script that Frank had written. We decided that we were going to fight for that script. If it was the producers that were going to try to cut days or scenes, we were gonna fight. Even if it was the director that was gonna get in the way of his own work, we were gonna fight."

By 1994, Robbins had a solid decade of work behind him. He'd appeared on TV and co-founded the experimental theater company The Actors' Gang in 1981, which he still runs. Then came a run of prestige work including Jacob's Ladder, The Player as Griffin Mill for Robert Altman (his hero), and The Hudsucker Proxy for the Coen Brothers.

He had leverage to spend, and he spent it deliberately. He knew what he liked and wanted and had the experience to back up those choices.

If you're a writer/director who might bristle at an actor exerting this much control over a project, just know it's probably not diva behavior but someone with the best interests of the project in mind. Sure, it can lead to tension (and there were reported creative differences on set), but honestly it would be weird to agree on everything on a creative endeavor.

'The Shawshank Redemption' Credit: Columbia Pictures

How Actors Can Help with Blocking

In one pivotal scene in the movie, Andy tells Red he's planning something. It's the famous "get busy living or get busy dying" scene. First-time viewers fear Andy is about to commit suicide. Red, as a character, fears that too. But Andy is actually planning his escape.

Darabont blocked the actors wide and separate. Robbins felt the distance killed the intimacy.

"When we were in the first rehearsal for that, he had us about 10 feet apart. It's a small thing, but it's a big thing. And as an actor, you have to pursue the truth of what you believe is on the page. You have to trust that instinct sometimes. You look at a kind of way to get to that without the conflict. And there wasn't conflict."

The Darabont side of this exchange has been on the record for years. In a 25th-anniversary interview with Empire, Darabont said Robbins was "a very intellectual guy" who "needs conceptual conversation" before a scene, while Freeman was the opposite. Freeman told him, "I just need you to tell me when to stand, when to sit. And do I turn left, or do I turn right?"

Darabont called learning that difference midway through the shoot a "good lesson."

You can see the "10 feet apart" story from both directions. Darabont knew Robbins came in wanting to talk through a scene's intent, which is exactly what Robbins did when he pushed back on the blocking.

Robbins told GQ, "If I'm having a hard time as an actor getting to the truth 10 feet apart, it's kind of my responsibility to fight for what I believe the truth is. And the truth for me of that scene was very intimate, very quiet."

Sometimes a blocking choice or shot you love is a thing your actor can't perform.

Robbins frames it as advocacy through responsibility. He had to say something in service to the material. That's how directors and actors collaborate constructively.

Finding Emotional Truth

As mentioned, there's a ton of subtext in this scene. Andy knows something the audience (and Red) doesn't know. Robbins had to play both readings simultaneously.

"We kind of wanted the emotion that he was feeling at that time to work in the truth of, 'I love this man, and I'm not gonna see him again,' versus what the audience might think was, 'I love this man. I might not see him again because I'm going to kill myself.' Both those truths had to be told at the same time. And so now everyone's fearing that something bad might happen. Morgan's character feels something bad might happen. Nobody is suspecting that he's hiding a secret of a jailbreak."

That subtext lives in the writing but also has to come across visually and in performance. The character is holding one secret (escape), performing another emotion (goodbye), and the audience is reading a third (suicide risk).

All three land because Robbins picked the truest interior emotion, not the one closest to the plot mechanics. It requires a deep understanding of the material if you want to try to direct this in an actor. Try to find that emotional truth in every scene.

Learn more about Andy's character arc in Shawshank.

Star Trek is one of the most hopeful shows on Television. It has inspired generations (pun intended) by encouraging people to explore, be the best version of themselves, and take risks.

But underneath all the futuristic tech, aliens, and diplomatic missions, Star Trek is ultimately about the human spirit and what it takes to survive in this galaxy.

It can be hard to really put into words what makes the franchise tick. I mean, this thing has spawned movies, series, and has been around for sixty years.

But if you want a quote that gets Star Trek perfectly right, you have to go back to the original show, to a speech from William Shatner's Captain Kirk that lays out the entire ethos of Starfleet in a single speech.

Let's dive in.

The Scene in Question

Okay, you know the deal with Star Trek: it's about a spaceship flying around for Starfleet, righting wrongs and learning things in outer space.

Well, in Season 2, Episode 18, titled "Return to Tomorrow," the crew of the Enterprise encounters three disembodied, highly advanced alien minds housed in glowing spheres.

This is one of the most famous episodes of all time and was totally mind-blowing in the 60s when it aired, and even now.

These ancient sphere heads ask for permission to temporarily possess the bodies of Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Ann Mulhall so they can construct android bodies and regain physical life.

The crew is not totally on board with possession. I mean, the risks are insane...and that's what Kirk thinks is the point.

He reminds his bridge crew that every monumental leap in human history came with immense, terrifying risk.

And it puts the whole series into context.

"They used to say if man was meant to fly, he’d have wings. But he did fly. He discovered he had to. Do you wish to figure out the theory of the magnetic flow density: The space-time continuum? Metamorphosis? First, satisfy check-list items. Then, perform analysis. Then, synthesize... They're human beings. They're going to die! They're going to die unless we help them... They used to say if man was meant to fly, he'd have wings. But he did fly. He discovered he had to. Do you wish to figure out the theory of the magnetic flow density? The space-time continuum? Metamorphosis? First, satisfy check-list items. Then, perform analysis. Then, synthesize... Risk! Risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her."

What The Quote Means

I think the quote's meaning is pretty straightforward. We get the context inside the psidoes for sure, but the greater point is the idea of boldly going where no man has gone before, and the risks involved.

To be human is to take chances and to do things that challenge us.

Let me put all this into context: Science fiction of the 60s was atomic age stuff that capitalized on fear. A lot of it was great! But Star Trek was really hopecore.

It was a future we wanted to be a part of, one that united all people and showed us to be the best humans.

It argues that human progress is an active choice that requires a willingness to embrace danger.

Not in a reckless way, but in a way that gets you outside your comfort zone and risks something to advance what we know and what we can accomplish.

That's beautiful.

Summing It All Up

Star Trek is one of those shows that can suck you in and keep you for a while. Not just because they have so many episodes and series, but because it's nice to explore who we are and what we believe.

"Risk is our business" isn't just a great line of dialogue; it’s the founding mantra of the entire Star Trek universe.

It's the perfect drive for any creative to understand that we do what we do because there are risks involved, and that's what makes the pursuit of answers or art, or anything else that you care about, matter.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

For a company with a legacy as deep as Sony, getting a “first-ever” in pretty much any category is kind of a big deal. So it’s cool to see a new lens for Sony E-mount system shooters that has never existed before, as this new FE 8-14mm f/3.5 Fisheye G Lens is set to be the first-ever fisheye zoom option.

Set to feature a full 180-degree angle of view across its 8 to 14mm zoom range, and bringing a nice mix of optical quality and versatility with its constant f/3.5 maximum aperture and 5.9” minimum focus distance, this new fisheye zoom could be a nice option for a wide variety of photo, video, and hybrid shooters.

Let’s check it out.

Sony FE 8-14mm f/3.5 Fisheye G Lens

As mentioned above, it’s not too often a “first-ever” lens is added to a system as deep and robust as the Sony E-mount system. Still, a gap remained, and this new Sony FE 8-14mm f/3.5 Fisheye G Lens fills it with its full 180-degree angle of view across its zoom range.

This fisheye option aims to deliver its own unique perspective across whatever shots you may be looking to capture with stills, video, or even VR imaging. When used with a full-frame Sony E-mount camera, the lens can switch from a circular fisheye at 8mm to a diagonal fisheye at 14mm, which should help maintain ideal composition in each frame, whether for photography or videography.

The lens will feature two linear motors for fast, precise autofocus with minimal focus breathing, plus dedicated focus, zoom, and aperture rings to support control.

Price and Availability

Overall, the lens should be lightweight and easy to use, and include the full mix of standard features, including dedicated AF/MF/FH, zoom lock, and aperture click switches.

If you’re interested in the lens, whether that be for photo, video, or even 3D and VR uses, here are the full specs and purchase options.

• Full-Frame | f/3.5 to f/22 Aperture
• Circular-to-Diagonal Fisheye Zoom Range
• Autofocus Design | 5.9" Close Focus
• Ideal for Video, Photo & VR Imaging
• Independent Focus, Zoom & Aperture Rings
• AF/MF/FH & Zoom Lock Switches
• Dust- & Moisture-Resistant Design
• Rear Filter Holder & Cutting Template

Sony FE 8-14mm f/3.5 Fisheye G Lens (Sony E)

Boasting a full 180° angle of view across its 8 to 14mm zoom range, the FE 8-14mm f/3.5 Fisheye G Lens from Sony delivers an expressive fisheye perspective across stills, video, and VR imaging. When used with full-frame Sony E-mount cameras, this versatile zoom lens transitions from a circular fisheye at 8mm to a diagonal fisheye at 14mm, allowing photographers and filmmakers to select the ideal composition for each frame.

Believe it or not, more AI-powered tools and upgrades are coming to Premiere and After Effects. In fact, Adobe is also rolling out a new Generative Media Tool directly in Premiere that lets users generate video and sound effects in their timelines.

And while the direction of these new updates and features is not surprising, as Adobe has been developing AI tools and features for several years now, the addition of more of them directly in Premiere (and After Effects) is a bit new, as until now most of the major new AI innovations have been in the Firefly video editor.

Still, this is big news coming out of IBC 2026, where the company is showcasing these updates on the floor. Let’s take a look at everything new here in Premiere and After Effects and explore what might be the most useful for your workflows.

Adobe Premiere’s Generative Media Tool

As Adobe has shared before, the company’s latest Creators' Toolkit Report found that nearly 90% of its creators “accelerate the growth of their business or audience” when they use AI tools like the ones in Adobe’s suite.

And that continues to be the direction of the company, and most companies these days, as Adobe has unveiled Premiere’s new Generative Media tool, which will now allow editors to generate video and sound effects directly in their Premiere timelines.

The new tool promises to be quite intuitive and easy to use, as all you’ll need to do is simply select the tool and define what you want to appear. You just describe what you need, and Premiere will generate context-aware, fully editable video and audio clips that you can refine and iterate on without leaving the project.

At launch, users will be able to choose from different models, including Adobe Firefly and partner models like Google Veo, Kling, Runway, and Luma. Some of the other new tools in the taskbar will also include:

• Generate Video: Editors can generate video to fill gaps in their timeline, using reference frames sampled from their project to create footage that better matches the visual context of the surrounding edit.
• Generate Sound Effects: Powered by Adobe’s commercially safe audio model, editors can generate sound effects directly in the timeline and even use their voice to guide the rhythm, timing and intensity.
• Generate Soundscape (beta): Editors can analyze up to 15 seconds of video to automatically generate contextually informed audio with layers of ambience and sound effects customized and timed to their edit. Designed as a starting point, Generate Soundscape helps editors quickly sketch out audio they can build on and refine.
• Generate Music (beta): Editors can generate original music with multiple variations to choose from, with controls for tempo and looping. Generated music is commercially safe, with synchronization rights across any type of media.

More Premiere and After Effects Updates

The company has shared that there are also some new, smarter audio tools and workflows being added to Premiere too, with the following new additions:

• Enhance Audio builds on Enhance Speech with the next generation of noise reduction, giving you independent control over dialogue, music, ambience and sound effects within a single clip, so you can remove elements you don't need, adjust layers independently or mute dialogue entirely.
• Separate Crosstalk automatically splits two overlapping speakers into independent tracks for separate mixing and editing, without re-recording.
• Dynamic Auto Ducking automatically balances dialogue, music and other elements without manual keyframes.
• Additional sound upgrades speed up everyday workflows including a new speed algorithm delivering natural-sounding duration changes across a wider range while preserving the original pitch and timbre.

We also have updates coming to After Effects, as AI Assistants will now be available in public beta in AE, which should unlock more ways to speed up compositions and workflows.

And finally, Adobe is adding faster grades and deeper control in its new Color Mode, including new Style Modules like Vignette and Midtones to help develop cinematic looks.

All told, lots of new updates, lots of AI, some non-AI, and plenty to explore if you just want to open Premiere or AE and dive in. You can also find more info on the company’s website here.

IBC 2026 is already off to a hot start before the hall doors at the RAI Amsterdam open in the Netherlands later this week. We’ve gotten big announcements from a ton of major brands so far, and it looks like it will be a packed house with companies big and small, plus thousands of filmmakers and videographers, in attendance.

If you’re interested in video editing, and specifically AI-assisted video editing, it looks like we’ll be getting another major update from the team at Eddie AI, as the company has announced that its V4 version will be ready to check out for those there in person.

Here’s the latest.

Eddie AI V4 Update

Promising to be yet another update for the AI assistant editor that seems to get a boost every few months at this point, Eddie AI is getting some more new features and power-ups to make it more than just a single-use AI assistant.

And, in truth, this does appear to be the way of the future, as Blackmagic Design has just announced that DaVinci Resolve is getting new AI assistant integration, and Adobe has announced that its AI assistants are now set to be available in After Effects public beta.

The latest from Eddie AI follows suit as the company has announced that the tool is moving far beyond simply trimming a timeline; it’s now watching rushes, finding the story, syncing cameras, naming who is on which angle, writing the music, sourcing the b-roll, and handing the finished cut to Premiere, Resolve, Avid, or Final Cut as a real project file.

More Updates on the Way?

It’s hard to say if and when any of these players in this space, like Eddie AI, might slow down as the industry heats up and gains speed. If this is a space you’re at all interested in, it might be in your best interest to check it out sooner rather than later if you want to keep up.

At this point, Eddie AI offers integrations with ChatGPT and Claude, an iPhone app, web and desktop, a new no-subscription model, direct export to the top NLEs, IT department compliance, its own editing model, cloud-synced projects, multi-cam and podcasts, and new music, VO, titles, captions, and graphics, plus the new ability to train it to learn how you work.

It’s a lot, and it doesn’t look like anything in this industry is slowing down anytime soon.

If you’d like to learn more, you can check the company out at Booth 7.A38, Hall 7, or see the company’s CEO talk at the Future Tech Stage for a "This AI Editor Has Joined Your Team's Adobe / Blackmagic Cloud Edit" talk on Saturday 12 September at 14:15.

Are you ready for some great news out of Hollywood? We just witnessed an all-time record of $4.76 billion (unadjusted for inflation) at the summer box office.

This feels like the first great headline since before COVID, and I want to take a minute to celebrate everyone who released movies and wrote scripts, the crews, the execs, and anyone who struck out and chased their dreams.

This was the summer for you.

Back to the headline, the summer of 2026 beat the previous high watermark of $4.75 billion set in 2013, which stood for 13 years.

This new number shattered all predictions and showed that people want to go to the movies, as long as the movies are good.

One of the coolest things about this summer, aside from the A/C in the theaters, was that all four months (May through August) cleared $1 billion apiece. That has never ever happened before.

Want to learn how we got the biggest box office summer of all time?

Let's dive in.

Two Titans Carried the Weight

Much like the Barbenheimer Summer, we had two movies that bore most of the weight in making this the best ever.

First up, Spider-Man: Brand New Day redefined what we know as a Marvel blockbuster and raised the bar even higher. While it's still in theaters and its box office is rising, we can talk about the numbers as they stand now.

As of today, we're seeing it at $923 million domestic.

If it keeps earning, it has a real shot to beat the Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ all-time domestic record ($936.6M).

Then you have Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, which stands at $589 million and change domestic.

Together, these films dominated the cultural conversation and helped drive people to theaters en masse.

Universal and Sony Take the Crown

Studios were important to the success of the summer. They created big movies and saw audiences reward them. This was a massive shift compared to summer 2025, when it feltl ike things moved slowly.

Well, Universal and Sony, the studios behind the two biggest movies, were the two biggest winners. But as you can see, other places did well, too.

• Universal Pictures ($1.23B, +63%): Took top honors as the #1 studio of the summer.
• Disney ($1.03B, flat): Maintained a solid presence to cross the billion-dollar mark, even with a mixed slate.
• Sony Pictures ($1.00B, +459%): Powered almost single-handedly by Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which made up over 90% of the studio's summer revenue.
• Lionsgate ($270M, +296%): Enjoyed a massive rebound year.
• Warner Bros. ($239M, -76%): Experienced the sharpest drop, falling off significantly from last summer.

Established IP Wasn't a Guaranteed Free Pass

When you have a big IP, you assume it's going to work. But this summer sort of made the case that you have to make a good movie, and you can't just rely on properties people recognize.

For example...

• The Mandalorian & Grogu underperformed, becoming the lowest-grossing theatrical Star Wars release.
• Supergirl struggled to find traction, pulling in just $72 million against a $186 million production budget.
• Disney’s live-action Moana fizzled with $126 million on a $250 million budget.

We saw original concepts and non-traditional IP prove to be massive draws this year, with Obsession and A24’s Backrooms cleaned up with strong word-of-mouth runs.

They weren't summer movies, but they still packed lessons.

Real Attendance Is Back

Higher ticket prices have frequently inflated post-COVID revenue numbers, but this summer's performance was backed by a genuine surge in foot traffic.

We saw 322 million total admissions, up from 275 million last summer.

That means people were going to the movies.

We saw them flock to specialty theaters for 70MM, IMAX, and to see films around other fans, to have that shared experience.

That has to excite execs and creatives all over town.

Looking Ahead to Q4 and Beyond.

Are we on track for the biggest movie year ever? Well, that remains to be seen, but we could have a $10 billion domestic year, which is well within reach for the first time since 2019.

And that's kind of a sigh of relief for people. It means that making theatrical features is a viable business model.

We still have massive movies left this year, like Practical Magic 2, Digger, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, Avengers: Doomsday, and Dune: Part Three.

These are just a few titles, and you never know which other ones have massive breakouts.

The sky is the limit here.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

That shake of your home or apartment is not an earthquake; it's the coming of a monster with such scope and scale that it rattles the earth.

In the initial 30-second teaser for Godzilla Minus Zero, we got a brief taste of the post-war dread returning to Japan.

Now, with the full trailer, we can see what's in store for the IMAX experience.

Director Takashi Yamazaki isn't holding back, and neither are any of the incredible VFX artists who worked on the movie.

This new trailer gives us our clearest look yet at the stakes, the cast, and a twist that changes everything we thought we knew about the sequel.

Check out the full trailer below.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

"We Didn't Finish the Job"

The trailer opens with ominous dialogue confirming our fears from the first movie: the initial onslaught by Godzilla was not stopped; he survived and now wants revenge.

Human victory was temporary, and the battle will wage on.

Operation Narukami & Plan B

So, how do you take out a creature like Godzilla? Well, you need a plan.

In the trailer, we see a war room filled with military officials and scientists debating how to handle the creature's return. The consensus? "Fight fire with fire."

Sure, that seems like a good idea!

It's also the plant for what kind of fire they could possibly dig up that would match Godzilla...perhaps another creature?

Ms. Aoyama proposes "Plan B," which I think is tied to Operation Narukami. It has the blessing of the military, and we see people mobilizing to take it on.

The Twist

So, at the very end of the trailer, we see Godzilla's body fall from the sky and hear a distinct kind of pterodactyl cry.

A lot of theories think this is King Ghidorah, who maybe the officials released to fight Godzilla, or who maybe is already terrorizing the nation, recontextualizing everything you've seen so far.

The implications for the lore are massive. And we got nothing confirmed, aside from how cool of a movie this will be.

Built for IMAX

Perhaps my biggest takeaway from seeing this trailer was the words "Filmed for IMAX."

This is a massive deal, not just for scope and scale, but because Godzilla Minus Zero is the first Japanese production specifically filmed for IMAX in the 1.43:1 expanded aspect ratio.

That means IMAX is going beyond American productions and becoming a tool used by the world as well.

They announce this in an inventive fashion as the shot of the giant seaplane skimming the ocean water expands, so we get the breadth of what's to come.

Summing It All Up

Godzilla Minus Zero hits Japanese theaters on November 3, 2026, and arrives in U.S. theaters on November 6, 2026.

See it in IMAX and report back what you think!