Creating the sound design for horrors is an art that all home cinema fans will appreciate, and few audio engineers are as good at it as Trevor Gates. We chat to him about his work on Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House, plus smash hit film Get Out and more...
The aim of the 3D Film Archive is to ensure that the format's rich history isn't forgotten. We caught up with its Technical Director Greg Kintz for a discussion of stereoscopic cinema's past, present and future...
Having spread its wings into home cinema and VR, and astonished moviegoers with last Summer's Dunkirk, IMAX is on a roll. We quiz IMAX CTO Brian Bonnick about the development of its laser projection system, 12-channel audio and the IMAX 'DNA'...
Producer M.J. McMahon reveals the design decisions behind the BFI's eye-catching new three-disc, limited edition Blu-ray/DVD boxset of the acclaimed music documentary The Man from Mo'Wax
Oscar-nominated music scoring mixer Dennis Sands, whose most recent films include Ready Player One and Avengers: Infinity War, talks to Martin Dew about bringing music to movies, the benefits of object-based audio, Marvel's security precautions and his love of PMC loudspeakers...
This Summer the British Film Institute is celebrating the 60th anniversary of groundbreaking British film studio Woodfall Films. Arriving on June 11 the nine-disc Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema Blu-ray and DVD boxsets boast eight of the studio’s most revered films – Look Back in Anger, The Entertainer, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, A Taste of Honey, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Tom Jones, Girl with Green Eyes and The Knack… and How to Get It – plus a huge array of special features and an exclusive 80-page book.
As Arrow Films celebrates 25 years of cult success, HCC's Anton van Beek sits down with James White – Head of Technical and Restoration Services – to talk 4K, film vs digital and the hunt for the original 35mm elements of Donnie Darko...
While major studios prove adept at handling home media releases for their modern blockbuster titles, there's a growing stable of independent labels bringing much-loved catalogue titles and cult classics to Blu-ray in the UK.
It's an interesting time for cinema companies. While there's a perception that streaming platforms, home media and online piracy have dealt the commercial theatre market near-fatal blows, box office records seem to be repeatedly smashed, most recently by Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Meanwhile, attendance at UK cinemas was up 17 per cent in 2015, and new technologies (Dolby Atmos, IMAX Laser) and old (70mm) are working hard to lure punters.
Even during the early days of Laserdisc, UK film fans looked with envy across the Atlantic thanks to the effort US distributor Criterion put into its releases. Not only were titles presented in the most complete version possible and at the correct aspect ratio, they were bundled with newly-produced bonus material designed to act as a sort of 'film school in a box'.
Fans of horror, or genre movies in general, will have heard of FrightFest, the international film festival which plants its flag in Leicester Square each August, runs a two-day terrorthon at the Glasgow Film Festival in February, and organises one-off screenings, panel discussions and more throughout the calendar. Since its debut in 2000, it's hosted premieres from directors including George A. Romero and Neil Marshall, and been described by Guillermo del Toro as 'the Woodstock of Gore'.
Ridley Scott's latest sci-fi smash The Martian finds Matt Damon playing NASA astronaut Mark Watney, who is mistakenly presumed dead and left stranded alone on Mars by the rest of his crew during a dust storm. Marooned millions of miles from home and facing at least a four year wait for a rescue mission, Watney must learn to adapt to life on the inhospitable planet. With The Martian about to make it's bow on Blu-ray and DVD, leading man Matt Damon opens up about making the film and why he particularly enjoys watching films on Blu-ray...
First through DVD and now via Blu-ray, Eureka's Masters of Cinema label has aimed to furnish film fans with high-quality releases of classic titles. We spoke to Director of Production Craig Keller about the company's plans for 2015, sourcing new releases and its #100 Masters of Cinema Blu-ray, legendary Holocaust documentary Shoah...
Hammer Films is a studio reborn. The British film icon, which enjoyed worldwide success in the 1950s, '60s and '70s with a swathe of fright flicks and launched the careers of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing among others, had seemed to be dead and buried by the mid-80s, with production ceasing completely. Yet since 2007, under the guidance of CEO Simon Oakes, Hammer is back in the limelight, chilling new audiences first with an innovative web-based horror series and then a blockbusting – and controversial – adaptation of Susan Hill's The Woman in Black. Its latest movie, The Quiet Ones, is out now on Blu-ray/DVD.
To celebrate the DVD release of his new documentary, Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide Part Two - Draconian Days, we caught up with filmmaker Jake West to chat about film censorship and moral panic in the UK during the James Ferman era of the British Board of Film Classification...