Films are full of scenes that seem unreal, with bright colors and visuals that transport the viewer to various places. An Art Director brings the vision of the script to life and executes the plans of the designer on set. They manage many people under their team and ensure that the set creation process runs as smooth as possible. We caught up with Art Director DW Martel to learn how he got his start in this fascinating career.
We know to make a film, we require funding and distribution among many other things. But who exactly takes care of this? We sat down with Peter Findlay, an award-winning producer, director and writer with over 30 years of experience under his belt, to speak about his experience producing.
Eva Thomas is a Canadian, writer, producer, director and story editor of Indigenous descent. She is a member of the Walpole Island First Nation and has dual citizenship in the US and Canada. Among her popular works are ‘Redlights’, ‘Night Raiders’, Aberdeen, and ‘Still Standing’. Her first short film ‘Redlights’ which she directed, produced, and wrote made its debut at TIFF ‘23 and was nominated for the IMDbPro Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Film in 2023. It was a winner of the Short Film Impact Award in 2024 at GEMFest.
Stacey Tenenbaum is a Montreal-based award-winning creative producer and director known for Scrap, Shiners, Mystery Hunters and The Beat. Shiners, which she produced, directed, and wrote, was presented in over 20 film festivals, and won several best documentary awards, including DRIFF 2018’s Best Documentary Feature Award. We caught up with Stacey to discuss film, Shiners, and what she's been up to since DRIFF.
This director from Scarborough is dedicated to celebrating the Black experience with a focus on beauty, spirituality, and vulnerability. We caught up with her recently to get a glimpse of her cinematic world and learn about how the success of her short film ‘Pick’ has influenced her filmmaking career.
The “Zolly” was created by combining two filmmaking techniques: a zoom lens and a dolly setup. A Zoom Lens is a telephoto lens used to catch images from afar, while a dolly setup consists of a track that runs along the set. On the set of Vertigo (1958), Hitchcock had the clever idea to combine these two techniques to create a completely new cinematic effect.
Connor Walsh demonstrates how the "Zolly" can be used to effectively reflect the fear of the protagonist in the latest episode of DIY Film School.
While a “single-take” film may be a regular occurrence today— it was once revolutionary. Connor Walsh walks us through the film Rope (1948) to help aspiring filmmakers see how Hitchcock got around the limitations of the time.
The term Dutch angle surprisingly does not originate from the Netherlands, as it was developed in Germany with the term coming from the German word Deutsch. Through use the term was abbreviated to Dutch. German films would draw their signature look from the fine arts seeking to mimic German expressionist artworks.
A Director of Photography, or what we commonly refer to as a Cinematographer, is the craftsman who translates a director’s vision onto our screens; through the art of lighting, composition and camera-work. We had the chance to speak to Lee Foster, an award-winning producer and cinematographer, about his experience as one.