When Tom Cruise who plays Ethan Hunt in the new movie Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, is seen hanging from the side of the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, he’s really doing his own stunts. The Burj Khalifa tower is the tallest building in the world and it took a production effort almost as big to orchestrate the signature stunt.

Tom Cruise and Director Brad Bird on the set of Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol.

In the movie, Ethan and crew must make their way to a higher floor – and do that from the outside of the building. To scale the glass building, Ethan is outfitted with electronic gloves but it’s all Tom Cruise doing the climbing. For the scene and film, which was shot in IMAX, the cast and crew planned for months:

“The Studio Will Never Allow That.”
Stunt coordinator Gregg Smrz was responsible for overseeing all of the stunts, “People are going to think it’s CG [computer-generated], but it’s not. You have to see it to believe it. When we were in meetings, they said, “Tom’s not going to climb that building. The studio will never allow that.” I said, “Tom’s going to climb the building, I guarantee it.”

For the shot, special mounts had to be made for the 65-millimeter Imax cameras and extreme safety precautions were put in place to ensure nothing fell from the building while shooting.

Even production personnel had to be harnessed to the building – since they had to work in open windows 2,723 feet above the ground. For the actors and crew they were so high above the ground, they felt like they were in an airplane.

“We spent hundreds of hours trying to figure out, how are we going to climb this glass and make it look real. In Prague, we had a [replica] section of the building brought over from Dubai and built it on stage. We knew the temperature of the glass and where the sun was going to be on the day of our filming, and we put 50-foot-tall lights on a rheostat so we could adjust them so it was like the sun.” said Smrz.

Even Tom Cruise, who refused to let stunt doubles take his place, had personal issues dealing with the extreme conditions, “It can get so hot up there that it could burn me, so we had to really play with different kinds of rubber, different kinds of materials with the wardrobe. A sequence like this — even for training as we’re trying to figure how we’re going to do it, it’s pretty intense.”

Rigging the Shot
Tom Peitzman is the co-producer and visual effects producer for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, explains the Hollywood visual effects work done on the stunt, “The visual effects work we had to do was painting out rigging because Tom was really climbing the building. But there were so many very large cables on Tom, we would actually be replacing the building pieces individually — instead of just painting out the cables.”

Peitzman also explained why the height of the building wasn’t the only problem: “With a mirrored-surface building, it created a reflections nightmare. We had helicopters in our shots, we had crew in our shots, we had all kinds of rigging. There were many times where we would see six reflections of Tom. So if he has four cables on him, we have 24 cables we have to remove.”

Tom Cruise in harness, a mile and a half above Dubai. 

Real Stunts, Real Bruises
In an age of digital filmmaking and visual effects dominating movies, it’s refreshing to see action on film done in-camera. The final shots are breathtaking, and not just for the actors, the onscreen action is amplified by IMAX. All the stunts including one sequence where the actor falls two stories, were all done by Tom. In a climbing harness for literally ten-plus hours a day, the actor never complained.

“I can send you out, but once you’re out, you’re coming back just as hard. [Tom] would impact the building pretty hard.” says Smrz, “I can only imagine how sore he was. But he never complained. He would hang up there for hours. He climbed, I want to say, five days in a row? As far as bruised ribs, there’s just no way around it.”

Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, opens Dec. 21.

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Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are the secret agents of M.I.B. who keep intergalactic scoundrels in check. And they’re back in black – thanks to Sony Studios who revealed the first trailer for M.I.B. 3.

Suited up ready for duty, Agent J and Agent K are back on the case in M.I.B. 3. 

Time Travel & Alien Encounters
The film had been tangled up in script development, but Sony pushed hard to get the film back on track and get the commitment of key stars – mainly Tommy Lee Jones.

In M.I.B. 3, Smith returns to the role of Agent J, J must go back in time to 1969 and save his partner Agent K – who J is told, died 40 years ago. Men in Black 3 marks Will Smith’s first appearance on the big screen since 2008, when he starred in Seven Pounds. The film also stars Josh Brolin as a young Agent K, and Saturday Night Live alumni Bill Hader as Andy Warhol.

It’s an interesting premise, as Tommy Lee Jones has previously commented that he felt too old to return to the role of Agent K. And while Tommy Lee Jones may be getting on in years, M.I.B. as a film franchise (which first hit the screen in 1997) isn’t showing it’s age too bad, just take a look at the trailer:

Will Smith goes back in time in the latest M.I.B. movie.

Men in Black is one of the most anticipated movies of 2012 and promises both eye-popping computer generated visual effects as well as traditional costume effects by makeup legend Rick Baker.

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The sixteenth president of the United States guided the country through one of the most difficult times in American history and now Steven Spielberg is recreating the historical icon in 2012′s Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln, who with the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves, prepares the Gettysburg address. 

Thanks to an insider, we’ve got a first look at the films star, Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln (see below). The cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Lincoln’s son Robert Todd Lincoln, Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, rumors have also swirled that Harrison Ford may make an uncredited cameo as Lincoln’s V.P., Andrew Johnson.

Team of Rivals
Based on the book Team of Rivals by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lincoln will focus on the one-term congressman and poor country lawyer’s rise as an unknown to the seat of the presidency.

The film is also expected to spend time with Lincoln as he struggles to bring the country together as the Civil War and the issue of slavery continue to tear it apart.

The book does an incredible job of providing insight into Lincoln as a person and how he was able to win the office of president even though his rivals were more experienced and better known. Team of Rivals continues to follow the man as he enters the office and must deal with hostile congressmen, incompetent generals and his difficult cabinet – men that he ran against in his bid for presidency.

Spielberg is expected to capture the very essence of the man on film, and if this photograph of Daniel Day-Lewis (who won a Best Actor Oscar for There Will Be Blood) is any indication, it looks like Spielberg is well on his way to making an authentic drama. Day-Lewis is the spitting image of Lincoln:

Character actor Daniel Day-Lewis enjoys lunch between takes on Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln.

Method Actor
As a filmmaker Steven Spielberg has featured Lincoln in previous films, Lincoln’s “Bixby Letter” was used an indirect plot device in Saving Private Ryan, and the Gettysburg Address is recited in the opening scene of Minority Report. Spielberg’s a Lincoln fan – and so is his star.

Daniel Day-Lewis is a serious actor, he prefers to stay in character while filming. In fact our Lincoln insider tells us Day-Lewis has been talking with Lincoln’s trademark mid-western accent since March of this year. On set, he’s called Mr. President or Mr. Lincoln depending on the scenes he’s shooting, and the actors name doesn’t even appear on a call sheet! Young actors can take a cue from Daniel Day-Lewis, if they want to be committed to the craft.

Spielberg definitely won’t have to go to film camp next summer, but you may if you want to be the next Daniel Day-Lewis or Steven Spielberg.

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Frank Darabont has an impressive resume: Not only did he develop the critically acclaimed Walking Dead TV show, he’s also a three-time Oscar nominee, having directed The Green Mile (1999) and The Shawshank Redemption (1994). Recently his script for the fourth Indiana Jones movie surfaced on the Internet.

Writer, producer and director Frank Darabont. 

Reinventing an Icon
Darabont, who previously worked with George Lucas as a script writer on the The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones television show, was hired to write a script in May 2002. The script, called Indiana Jones and the City of Gods, had Indy being pursued by ex-Nazis in the 1950s. For Darabont it would be no easy task to follow Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (a film that many felt effectively wrapped up the franchise) but his script did that, and then some.

Darabont finished his script toward the end of 2003 and presented it to Steven Spielberg. Spielberg, who thought up the story concept for the fourth film, loved the script. George Lucas, however, who created Indiana Jones, didn’t like it.

Spielberg and Lucas had long discussions about the story – both had issue with the 1950s setting, and that it ignored the Cold War. After some additional reflection, Spielberg (who had also received an Oscar for Schindler’s List) decided it would be inappropriate to satirize Nazis in the next Indiana Jones movie. Harrison Ford too, who played Indiana Jones, also felt the franchise had “wore the Nazis out.”

Grab a box of tissues and get ready to cry over what could have been…

Sadly, neither felt Darabont’s script was what they were looking for. Eventually, Lucas took over the script-writing duties and other screen writers came on too, with Russians becoming Indy’s main enemy, although one of Darabont’s story concepts remained: Marion Ravenwood as Indy’s love interest.

Script Writing 101
Fans have badmouthed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull since it was released, and story elements played a huge part in that – including the scene at the beginning of the movie where Indy saves himself from a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator. Writing for the screen is a craft that takes years to develop, but film camp can provide a great start and learning script writing can be a great asset for beginning filmmakers.

Check out Frank Darabont’s Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods script and see what goes into making the written word come to life on the big screen. It’s a craft that can pay off big; at last count, the Indiana Jones franchise has grossed over a billion dollars.

George Lucas, Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg on the set of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.

The Future of Indiana Jones
So what lies ahead for Indiana Jones? Is a fifth film in the works? Inside sources say yes, that Speilberg and Lucas “have a story that they like and they’re working on it.” As for rumors that Shia LaBeouf will take over the franchise, don’t hold your breath for that one to come true.

In a recent interview with Time magazine when he was asked about passing the proverbial torch (or in this case, hat) to LaBeouf in the next movie, Ford replied, “What are you talking about? It’s mine. I would love to do another Indiana Jones movie. George Lucas is working on an idea now. Shia can get his own hat. I earned that hat.”

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It’s that time again, when holiday movies and TV shows take over the airwaves. And why not gather round the television with the family and zone out on a holiday movie after a platter full of turkey or ham? But before you find yourself in the middle of a stocking-stinker, check out our list for the ten worst holiday/Christmas movies ever:

10. Christmas with the Kranks (2004)

Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd – Hollywood A-listers that flunk out in this holiday bomb.

When empty-nesters Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis decide to forego the usual Christmas festivities in favor for a luxury cruise, their uptight neighbors (led by Dan Aykroyd) go nuts: they picket the couple’s house, subject them to endless Christmas carols, and worse. At first, the movie seems to be on the Kranks’ side, but by the super-cheesy finale, the point seems to be that you should always conform to your neighbors’ Christmas wishes — regardless of how you may want to celebrate the holidays. What a confused and wrong-headed mess.

9. Reindeer Games (2000)

An actor for a knack for bad movies, Ben Affleck makes our Christmas movie list – twice. In this one, Affleck teams up with a embittered Gary Sinise to knock off an Indian Casino. But when Affleck gets double-crossed he learns…the true meaning of Christmas. At times, its bad in an enjoyable way, but most times its predictable and worn-out holiday fare (with character names like Nick and Rudy – you guessed it, as a nod to Santa and Rudolph). This is a holiday-themed action vehicle that crashes head-on into a brick wall.

8. Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights (2002)

An animated Adam Sandler plays himself, under the character name Davey Stone – a cocky trouble-maker with an attitude and drinking problem. 

Parents expecting to find a cozy holiday cartoon with a message were shocked by the no-holds-barred musical comedy – alongside the bathroom humor are an unbelievable number of product placements (with shouts-out to more than 25 different mall-based retailers) and for what? Because someone thought it might be a good idea to take Sandler’s infamous “Chanukah Song” (the eight days of Hanukkah) and turn it into a holiday movie.

7. Jack Frost (1996)

Visual effects are created in Hollywood – so is the rich tradition of attempting to make scary holiday films. Just check out Black Christmas (1974); Silent Night, Bloody Night (1974); Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984); Christmas Evil (1980); or Don’t Open Till Christmas (1984). But until they make Black Friday, Jack Frost has to take the Christmas cake, with the concept of a slasher…who’s actually a snowman. In this case, a serial killer named Jack Frost is being transported to his execution when a freak collision occurs, involving a truck carrying genetic material. Through his exposure to the body-altering chemicals, Jack Frost morphs into a killer snowman, intent on wreaking bloody revenge on the citizens of Snowmonton. Often described as a “comedy-horror film,” Jack Frost never recovers from its oh-so-stupid premise. Cheap-looking special effects and forgettable performances (including Shannon Elizabeth’s first acting role) helped solidify this movie’s reputation as a true monstrosity.

6. Surviving Christmas (2004)

The second Ben Affleck holiday flick on our list, this film stars Ben as a spoiled millionaire playboy who decides to head home for the holidays after he turns his friends against him. And his friends aren’t the only ones to turn their back on him; Jon Favreau (director of Iron Man & Cowboys & Aliens) was offered the chance to direct but turned it down to make Elf. The studio thought so much of Surviving Christmas as a holiday film they released it around Halloween instead of Christmas. You’d think opposite of James Gandolfini and Christina Applegate, Affleck might be able to find enough funny to bring the holiday hijinks home – but you’d be wrong.

5. Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

“Let’s show them how we wreck a beloved holiday classic!” 

In 1957, a great and gentle genius named Ted Geisler (aka Dr. Suess) sat down at his drawing table and created a simple masterpiece, a children’s story about a Scrooge-like creature. In 1966, Warner Brothers animator Chuck Jones turned the film into an animated classic. Nearly 50 years later, that classic cartoon still plays throughout the holiday season, inspiring whole new generations with each viewing. In 2000, director Ron Howard decided to turn it into a big-screen blockbuster, in hopes of squeezing more money out of the Grinch.

The problem though is while a lavish, live-action version of the story – starring Jim Carrey in furry green costume sounds like a no-brainer – the producers and director mess too much with the classic and need to go back to film camp. To fill the two hours, the filmmakers expand whole sections of the story, which don’t seem at all like anything Dr. Seuss would have written in 1957 or for that matter, in 2000. Instead Seuss’ heart-touching rhymes have been replaced with Carrey adlibs and references to pop culture (circa 2000). You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch!

4. Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)

Produced by the same team that brought you Superman, this holiday time-suck stars Dudley Moore as an elf named Patch who with John Lithgow aim to turn Christmas into a mass-produced holiday. The filmmakers worked for months to train real deer to pull a sleigh – if only the same effort went into the rest of the film. It was one of the biggest box-office disasters in the U.S., while it did eventually make back the budget worldwide.

3. Four Christmases (2008)

Will Hollywood ever learn? Another worn out “you must learn the meaning of Christmas” calamity centered around families that don’t want to spend the holidays together – starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon.

2. Jack Frost (1998) 

What was meant to be a kids movie turns into a perfect example of how NOT to make a Christmas movie. Michael Keaton stars as Jack Frost, the leader of the Jack Frost Band. They play, you guessed it, Christmas songs. But the film goes off the deep end when Keaton’s character dies in a car crash and is reincarnated as a snowman who must teach his son the true meaning of Christmas. So you can tolerate that? We should also mention that Keaton sings in the movie, and the soundtrack features Christmas songs by 90s pop icons Hanson and The Spice Girls.

1. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)

Even Martians can’t help getting that old Christmas spirit in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

Just take a moment and savor that title…Could there be a more colossally idiotic concept for a film? To its credit, the film explores the bizarre-o premise fully: the plot includes Martians actually kidnapping and trying to kill Santa, who is saved by a couple of resourceful Martian kids and some good-hearted, clanking robots. The film (and its no-name cast) is so awful that it routinely gets mentioned among the worst movies ever made of any kind. The film is so bad it even has its own cult of fans (it was featured on Mystery Science Theater) and has even spawned a novel and musical. At one point, Jim Carrey even rumored to be attached to a remake – thankfully, that never materialized.

Coming Attractions: The Best Holiday Movies Ever Made

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They are two of the greatest directors in film history, each the maker of acknowledged movie masterpieces. Both Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese came to prominence during the 1970s, one of cinema’s greatest and most productive decades.

Hugo is director Martin Scorsese’s first film to use 3D.

But both directors are closely identified with the films they made thirty to forty years ago and that presents a small problem. Now each director has to compete with his own legend, and each must prove that he can make new films that are accessible to younger audiences. To that end, each director has a new project that takes advantages of new techniques in digital filmmaking.

Coppola: The Godfather of Cinema                       
Before he was known as a master filmmaker, Francis Ford Coppola was a respected stage director and had directed a couple of films. But that was before 1972 and the release of the movie that would secure his reputation as a giant in cinema. The Godfather created a sensation and became one of the best-loved films of all time, and Coppola hasn’t been out of the public eye since. Along the way he’s made other masterpieces, including the Vietnam war drama,  Apocalypse Now.

From young lion to grand old man of the cinema: Francis Ford Coppola talks about his passion for film at the Toronto Film Festival.

For his latest project, Twixt, Coppola returned to one of his favorite film genres — horror. In the movie, a horror writer (played by Val Kilmer) visits a bizarre town which may or may not be inhabited by vampires. In one amazing scene, director Coppola has star Kilmer engage in a one-on-one conversation with the father of all modern horror, Edgar Allan Poe.

Coppola not only experimented with story elements but the director was also using an iPad for film editing. For example, when Coppola appeared at Comic-Con 2011 to showcase Twixt, he talked about his desire to take the film on the road and present it along with an orchestra — basically directing the film’s performance as a fresh audience experience each time out, even shuffling the order of shots as the mood of the performance struck him.

He told the Comic-Con faithful, “What I’d love to do is go on tour, like a month before the film opened…and go to all the cities myself, with my collaborators, with live music and actually perform the film for each audience uniquely for them — a different version for each audience.” The maestro also put his own unique stamp on using 3D. In Coppola’s case, that meant utilizing the effect selectively and only in certain scenes.

Coppola had seen a recent blockbuster and liked its use of 3D, but didn’t care for keeping on the special glasses throughout. “I enjoyed very much Avatar,” he said, “But I confess that I took the glasses off during much of the movie. And whenever I saw the images start to show that it was going to be 3D, I put them on and saw a wonderful sequence, and then I took them off again.”

Coppola not only paid tribute to early horror writer Edgar Allan Poe in Twixt; the 3D lenses Coppola handed out at Comic-Con 2011 were inset into Poe face masks. 

And although Coppola enjoys 3D, he doesn’t want to use it as a one-trick pony. “How dare anyone think that all movies have up their sleeve is more 3D. Cinema has many more surprises that you and your children will invent, because it’s at the beginning of this expression of image and sound.” While other art forms are thousands of years old, Coppola noted that film is still in its infancy as an art form. “Music and theater are thousands of years old. Cinema’s a baby.”

Scorsese: Genius Moves to the Third Dimension
Among major directors, few are as passionate about the craft of filmmaking as Martin Scorsese. Through landmark films like 1976’s Taxi Driver and 1980’s Raging Bull, Scorsese tackled tough subjects and did it all with a virtuoso’s artistry. His uncompromising vision has led him to a Best Director Oscar (for 2006’s The Departed), as well as other prestigious awards, such as the Cannes Film Festival’s highly prized Palme D’Or for Taxi Driver.

In 2006, Scorsese was presented the Oscar for Best Director for The Departed by Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola…the other major American directors who came to prominence during the 1970s. Scorsese’s natural sense of humor was on full display when he asked the presenters to “Check the envelope, please.” (Scorsese had been nominated five previous times before winning.)

Few directors have made more great films than Martin Scorsese, and even fewer have studied film in depth as Scorsese has done.

Now Scorsese is back and with a different type of movie than he’s ever made. Hugo (which opens November 23^rd) is an adventure/puzzle of a movie, and it follows the title character, a resourceful boy trying to unlock a secret left to him by his deceased father. A dazzling visual experience, Hugo is Scorsese’s first foray into making a 3D movie, and he recently talked about embracing the popular technology.

“Most people have stereoscopic vision so why belittle that element of our existence? Why not use it? We’re basically headed for holograms. You have to think that way.” He’s convinced of the screen power of 3D, although combining the technique with Scorsese’s patented perfectionism didn’t lead to quick results. “It really was an enjoyable headache,” the famous director said. “It demands respect. We just kept pushing it to see how far we could go. We would look at a shot and say, ‘What could we do to use the depth?’”

A Fresh Approach to Filmmaking
When Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese were learning film production, the only real source of training (besides on-the-job experience) was offered by film schools. Today, anyone interested in filmmaking can pull out their smartphone and post a video up to their YouTube channel. Still, the professional world of filmmaking demands that you master new technologies; after all, it’s a digital filmmaking world.

Aspiring filmmakers can now study film production and learn how to make a movie at film camp without waiting to be accepted to a full-time film school. Digital Media Academy is a state-of-the-art, critically acclaimed digital media education company that offers personalized instruction from seasoned industry professionals. You’ll also get exposure to the latest film-production techniques and hands-on training in film production and how to use editing software (like Final Cut Pro). Interested in becoming the next Coppola or Scorsese? Learn how from DMA.

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It’s official: Director David Yates will bring the BBC’s time-traveling Time Lord to the big screen. The announcement came today via the Hollywood industry trades. The Doctor Who film, which still has an undetermined release date, will be an entirely new take on the popular franchise.

Director David Yates calls the shots on the set of Harry Potter and the and the Order of the Phoenix, as actor Rupert Grint looks on. 

The Doctor is In
Yates is teaming up with Jane Tranter, head of L.A.-based BBC Worldwide Productions to develop Doctor Who into a feature film – with the same idea to make Doctor Who a multi-film blockbuster series – much like the Harry Potter films.  ”We’re looking at writers now. We’re going to spend two to three years to get it right,” Yates told Variety. “It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena.”

Doctor Who is the BBC’s most popular television series ever, with the original Dr. Who series running from 1963 to 1989. The latest version, which was rebooted in 2005, stars Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor Who. The show is the BBC’s most lucrative franchise and airs on BBC America.

What Came Before 
For the uninitiated, Doctor Who is a traveler, a super-intelligent alien who battles universal enemies across time and space. Yates is obviously intrigued by the character: “The notion of the time-traveling Time Lord is such a strong one, because you can express story and drama in any dimension or time,” but while the director appreciates what has come before, Yates acknowledged, ”Russell T. Davies and then Steven Moffat (the series re-booters and writers) have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch.”

The movie version would not follow the TV show and the film’s makers are looking for writers who will understand a fresh approach, while at the same time capturing the essence of the TV show. “We want a British sensibility, but having said that, Steve Kloves wrote the Potter films and captured that British sensibility perfectly, so we are looking at American writers too,” he explained.

Two previous films were based on the TV series: Doctor Who and the Daleks (1965) and Doctor Who: Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966), both of which starred Peter Cushing as the Doctor. And while BBC had attempted to remake the show into a film before, the clout that Yates and Tranter bring to the table promise the film should be fast-tracked.

Director David Yates gives direction to actors Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe on the set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.

The Digital Filmmaking Frontier
Director David Yates is no stranger to blockbuster franchises. In fact, Yates helmed the last four Harry Potter films: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Parts 1 & 2), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The director uses state-of-the-art cameras and special effects to make his blockbusters but he also understands story and character development. Learning special effects and high-end production are just a few of the requirements for movie-making. The movie-making craft can take a lifetime to master; looks like Mr. Yates certainly mastered it.

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This weekend, the 3D sword-and-sandal epic Immortals is set to make its bid as one of the year’s biggest blockbusters. In the film, Greek mythology receives the big-screen treatment with amazing special effects that help make the story larger than life.

Henry Cavill (who will star as Superman in the upcoming Man of Steel) plays Theseus in the sword-and-sandal epic, Immortals.

The Road to Immortality
Immortals was brought to the screen by the same production team that made 300, that movie earned $456 million internationally. For this blockbuster, no expense was spared to create the stunning visions necessary to tell the tale. The supervising producer of VFX estimated that more than 100 shots within Immortals required special effects. And because the producers did not want their movie to look as though it was composed solely through CGI effects, some twenty enormous and intricate sets were actually designed and built.

In addition to amazingly complex battle sequences, there are stupendous visions of mountains falling, tidal waves being created and more.

Immortals’ Cameron Connection
All of the massive production was housed under one roof at film studios in Montreal. And if Immortals looks like no other adventure flick ever filmed, there are several technical reasons why. For starters, during pre-production, the filmmakers relied upon a green screen method called InterSense, which James Cameron used when making Avatar.

The technical system called Moses was used during production for similar purposes. For example, when composing a shot set in a monastery, the director was able to use Moses to look down from that monastery onto an enemy encampment and see exactly where CGI creations would be placed within the actual shot.

Another unique technique used in Immortals involves action speed; the gods featured in the films will be able to move and fight at speeds considerably faster than mere mortals.

Immortals will showcase its amazing visuals in 3D. However, unlike many 3D movies, Immortals was built from the ground up to be a 3D film. Foregrounds and backgrounds were designed specifically so the 3D effects could be shown for maximum visual impact. The filmmakers sought help from Prime Focus, a 3D effects house that had worked magic on blockbusters like Star Wars: Episode One –The Phantom Menace and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2.

All in all, more than 4,000 artists and technicians helped to create the 3D world shown in Immortals. And this figure doesn’t count the number of visual artists who contributed to the making of the film through their mastery of Maya, the software program now driving how characters are generated for films of all types.

Take a look for yourself with the official trailer for Immortals:

Immortals in 3D opens 11/11/11.

The Next Great Action Star
There’s another special effect in the film, in the form of actor Henry Cavill, who will soon be appearing as another larger-than-life character: Superman.

In Immortals, Cavill portrays a fatherless child (Theseus) raised in shame and ridicule who eventually meets a wise old man who counsels Theseus and trains him in combat and philosophy (kind of like the training Bruce Wayne received in 2005’s Batman Begins). Theseus’ mother is murdered and he is put into chains by the evil King Hyperion (played by Mickey Rourke). This all leads to Hyperion facing off against rebel forces led by Theseus in an earth-shaking battle royal.

Cavill will next appear in the action blockbuster Superman: Man of Steel. Warner Brothers is hoping to use the film to rebrand the Superman film franchise and set it onto a fresh and new path, much in the same way that Christopher Nolan’s series of neo-Batman films has accomplished so successfully. There’s been a lot of excitement by fans who want a first look at Henry Cavill as the new Superman.

Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…Henry Cavill in 2013′s Superman: Man of Steel.

The Future of Special Effects
Today technology allows filmmakers to make films they couldn’t have even imagined twenty years ago. Tools like After Effects and Final Cut Pro make filmmaking accessible for everyone. Film production is an amazing process that requires the time and expertise of hundreds of creative professionals who pool their collective talents in the service of a major project, such as Immortals.

Becoming a part of the film industry has never been easier for driven and talented professionals who’ve received the right training with the latest tools. You can start a career in special effects by spending your summer at a film camp that teaches visual effects. Summer camps like Digital Media Academy use cutting-edge software like Autodesk Maya to teach character creation and Final Cut Pro to teach film editing. With hands-on training from DMA, creating the gods on Mount Olympus is just a few keystrokes away.

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Halloween is the prime time for terror, and few experiences are more visceral than being scared out of our wits by a great horror film. This Halloween, check out one of the following movies. You won’t be disappointed. Scared out of your wits, yes, but not disappointed.

Warning: Some of the movies are not recommended for younger viewers. 

“Did someone say, ‘Halloween’?” You know we couldn’t leave Michael Meyers out of our Halloween round-up.

Setting Up Your Theater
Granted, there’s no trick to loading up a DVD or streaming a movie, but your viewing conditions do matter. Aside from the popcorn, in order to get the most out of a horror movie, try the following tips:

1. Lights out! Getting the room completely dark helps you concentrate on the screen and sets the mood.
2. Silence those cellphones! just like a public movie theater, turn off all those electronic devices. Horror movies are all about sustaining a mood, which you just can’t do it if you’re busy Tweeting your friends.
3. Make sure everyone’s onboard. Make sure your pals actually want to watch the movie. Wisecracks and tweets don’t add to the movie experience.

And now, our feature presentations…

1.  Buried (2010)
(Stream Buried tonight.)

Ryan Reynolds faces one of man’s basic, primal nightmares — waking up in a coffin — in Buried.

Many of the best horror movies tap into our most basic fears, and one of the most frightening is being buried alive. That’s exactly the predicament that Ryan (The Green Lantern) Reynolds’ character faces in Buried, as an American contractor working in Iraq who is kidnapped and drugged. When he comes to, he’s underground, in the dark, in a big wooden box. All that’s keeping him from a slow and terrifying death by suffocation are a butane lighter and his cell phone. It’s an exercise in mounting tension, as Reynolds frantically tries to contact somebody who can scrape together the ransom money his kidnappers are demanding…before the lights go out for good. Buried is a thriller that excels because of its basic and horrible premise, proving that terror doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective. It only has to be terrifying.

2. The Body Snatcher (1945)
(Stream The Body Snatcher tonight.)

Bad Boris Karloff gets down to business in The Body Snatcher.

Proving that old horror movies really can be scary, The Body Snatcher boasts a chilling (and true) story by Robert Louis Stevenson about doctors who need cadavers (in order to further medical science) and the creepy criminals who supply them with dead bodies. But the real reason this film makes our list is the casting of Boris Karloff in the title role. Karloff may be best known now as the voice and narrator of the classic cartoon How the Grinch Stole Christmas, although he rocketed to international stardom decades earlier as the first actor to portray Frankenstein’s monster. (He also was the first actor to play the Mummy.) Karloff is horrific here: in his first scene, he’s all fake smiles and good cheer, helping a handicapped girl into a wheelchair. Scenes later, as he prepares to dig up a freshly buried corpse, the smiles are gone and he’s using a shovel to kill a dog standing watch over his dead master’s grave. Karloff’s sinister voice was an instrument of pure terror — maybe the most frightening in film history.

3. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1991)
(Stream Bram Stoker’s Dracula tonight.)

You’ve never seen a vampire (or vampire movie) that looks like this: Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

One longtime staple of the horror genre has been the vampire movie, which routinely gets updated for new generations of audiences. Recently, the Twilight series has leaned toward romantic themes, making for a kind of teenage, vampire soap opera. Meanwhile, the screen vampires of old (going back 80 years now) are usually not scary enough for modern audiences. So what’s a vampire fan to do? Try this curiosity from Francis Ford Coppola, which stars Gary (The Dark Knight Rises) Oldman in a more faithful retelling of the original vampire novel, which is why author Stoker is mentioned in the title. Rounding out the cast is Keanu Reeves, Anthony (Silence of the Lambs) Hopkins, Winona Ryder and others. The movie has great special effects and a rich, gorgeous look to it, thanks to Coppola, who uses some of his same Godfather tricks to make us root for a villain…whether we want to or not.

4. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
(Stream Night of the Living Dead tonight.)

Daylight provides no escape from the zombie onslaught in Night of the Living Dead.

Another mainstay of horror movies are zombies, and although the undead had been featured in horror films dating back to the 1920s, the category really began with a cheaply made “drive-in” movie that contained no stars and only crude special effects. Despite these weaknesses (which may actually be strengths, given the genre), George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead  is among the most influential of all horror movies; it’s spawned a flood of sequels and remakes. The plot is as simple as dirt: Zombie hordes have arisen from their graves and are slowly lumbering across the landscape, desperate to feed on human flesh, while a group of survivors holed up in a farmhouse tries to remain sane and off the zombie buffet. If you’ve only seen the later versions, do yourself a favor and tune in to TCM on Halloween night (9:30 pm, EST) and see where filmdom’s zombie fest began.

5. Halloween (1978)

Turn out the lights: The original Halloween makes more use of shadows than special effects.

This one’s really a no-brainer, given the movie’s title and setting. However, be warned: There’s a hefty difference in quality between John Carpenter’s 1978 film and the many inferior slasher movies that it’s spawned over the years — both within the Halloween series and all the other popular maniac-with-a-knife franchises (i.e., Friday the 13^th, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc.). And while villain Michael Meyers has legions of fans — in fact, it’s more appropriate to say that he’s the hero in the Halloween movies, considering that he’s the character that many (if not most) audience members are rooting for — the real star here is director Carpenter, who relies on traditional horror movie elements (such as expert use of spooky lighting and shadows) to get his point across. Does the original still deliver the goods? One viewing will give you the answer.

6. Below (2002)
(Stream Below tonight.)

What if you were trapped with ghosts? And what if you were six hundred feet underwater? Below takes you there.

Yeah, haunted houses are great for giving us shivers, but ghost stories can happen anywhere — such as onboard a claustrophobic U.S. Navy submarine during World War II. In Below, an American sub rescues some sailors from a sinking ship. The Americans quickly learn that no good deed goes unpunished as things start getting super-strange, with all kinds of paranormal activity taking place. Before long, the sub’s crew starts to crack up. The situation becomes so haunted and intense that in one amazing scene, one of the crewmen becomes completely unhinged and runs through and out the sub’s torpedo hatch while the vessel is still submerged. The sailor is so terrified by the ghostly visions he’s just seen that he doesn’t even pause to consider the watery fate waiting for him. Below is consistently tense and delivers a powerful underwater punch…maybe because it was written by Darren (Black Swan, The Wrestler) Aronovsky, who may just be the best American director currently working.

Gotta Have Horror
Horror movies start with an idea, but require the talents and skills of many creative professionals before they hit the big screen. For aspiring film directors and editors, it’s a thrilling time to prepare for a career in the digital arts. The key is receiving expert instruction from trained professionals, with the latest technological tools and cutting-edge software, such as Final Cut Pro. At Digital Media Academy’s summer computer camps, the emphasis is on hand-on training, delivered on some of America’s greatest college campuses. If you want to be there when the cameras start rolling, start learning the industry with DMA.

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The second season of AMC’s The Walking Dead has begun. And if the first couple of episodes of the new season are any indication, the show has lost none of the intense power (or popularity) it gathered last season. (No wonder the show has already been renewed for a third season.)

Happy Halloween! Looks like this trick-or-treater took a fall coming off the steps.

For a few years now, cable outlets such as AMC have been home to some of the most engaging shows on television. In its debut season, The Walking Dead quickly rose to the top of the cable ratings. The program is so popular that AMC now features a talk show immediately following Dead‘s Sunday night time slot, where panelist and fans discuss the latest Walking Dead episode and all things “zombie.”

Why has AMC’s The Walking Dead been such a huge hit with audiences and TV critics? Part of it is the show’s excellent production values – from the writing to the acting, it’s one of the best-made shows on TV right now. The other part? The “scare factor.” Combined, they make The Walking Dead possibly the best horror series to ever to appear on television.

High Production Values = High Ratings
The production values are extremely high for serial television – this is how digital filmmaking is done – and it pays off in the ratings. TV has waited a long time for a show this consistently scary; at times it’s even more frightening than many horror movies now playing in theaters.

While the zombie apocalypse is the underlying theme (and one key reason for the popularity) of The Walking Dead, it’s the relationships and journey the characters experience that are the heart of the show. You genuinely care about the cast and the predicaments they face.

The Walking Dead began life as a hugely popular graphic novel.

Making The Walking Dead
It all started with a comic book…er, graphic novel. Robert Kirkman, the creator behind the series, already had huge success with the graphic novel, which has seen a resurgence in popularity due to AMC’s series.

Three-time Oscar nominee Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption) developed and launched the series, but a good part of the show’s success has to go to the astounding special effects. The zombies in The Walking Dead will turn your stomach, and their impeccable timing will never bore you: They always show up at just the right moment to peak the suspense and terror.

Sure, zombies don’t always move lightning fast, but when hundreds show up at once (as often happens), it creates an overwhelming effect; everywhere you turn, there’s another dead guy (or gal) – and from every walk of life – with a decomposing face.

The survivors (led by sheriff Rick Grimes) have more than they can handle: a world of undead who are always on the move…and always hungry.

So what if you’re interested in the show but are getting to the party late? No problem; we’ll get you caught up:

The Story
American life as we know it has slipped off the rails. A tide of death—whether from disease or supernatural forces (nobody knows for sure, which makes the premise even that more frightening) has swept the land. Hordes of human undead are now roaming the land in search of flesh to satisfy their zombie hunger. There aren’t many survivors left, but one group in Atlanta has banded together to take on the zombie menace. The group’s priorities are simple: 1) keep themselves alive 2) find a safety zone where they can exist zombie-free; and 3) find the answer as to why all of this zombie madness is happening in the first place.

The Characters
The group changes (based on who lives through the episode) week after week, but here are the major characters you’ll get to know:

•  Rick: A deputy sheriff from a small Georgia town, Rick serves as the group’s unofficial leader.
•  Shane: Rick’s partner in law enforcement, and best friend since high school.
•  Lori: Rick’s wife.
•  Dale: A retiree, who owns and drives the RV that leads the group’s convoy.
•  Andrea: A former attorney, she watched as her sister Amy died from a zombie attack.
•  T-Dog: A former thug, who has become friends with Dale.
•  Daryl: A survivalist whose favorite zombie weapon is a crossbow.
•  Carol: A woman who has lost her husband to zombies; her daughter is her only known surviving relative.
•  Sophia: Carol’s young daughter.
•  Carl: Rick and Lori’s young son.
•  Glenn: A former Atlanta pizza-delivery guy, whose navigation skills come in handy.

The Walking Dead Episode Guide

Season 1

Episode 1: As the series begins, county sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes comes out of a lengthy coma to find himself alone in an empty hospital. He slowly realizes that he’s been reborn into a world where the dead—the walking dead—have taken over. He leaves the hospital and starts wandering. Along the way he meets other (live) people, all of whom are living under the threat of imminent zombie attack.

Episode 2: Surviving bands of hungry zombies isn’t easy, as Rick learns when he unknowingly enables a group of survivors to be trapped and savaged by “walkers.” Tensions and accusations follow with the small group of survivors that Rick now leads, and criminals within the group threaten to blow any chance of living through the zombie nightmare.

Glenn and Rick work their way through the undead heard by blending in with the zombies.

Episode 3: Rick doubles back to Atlanta to save a man’s life and get a bag of weapons. Along the way, he is reunited with his wife, Lori, who had assumed that Rick was dead. During that time, she became romantically involved with Shane, Rick’s friend. Now that Rick’s back in the picture, Lori and Shane vow to not tell Rick about their affair and pretend as if nothing had happened between them. (And Rick’s son, Carl, doesn’t know the extent of his mother’s involvement with Shane.)

Episode 4: More things go wrong on the path back to Atlanta, where the group is headed to find the headquarters of the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC), hoping to find scientists alive who can help them. Tensions are escalating, and people are starting to become unglued by all the stress of living in this horrifying new world.

Episode 5: After being attacked by walkers, Rick successfully leads the group to the CDC, but there’s no time to relax. And the group learns that getting to the CDC doesn’t really solve their mounting problems.

Episode 6: After the group makes its way inside the heavily fortified building to temporary safety, the members discover that there’s only one scientist there. What’s worse—he isn’t altogether sure what caused the zombie epidemic…or what to do about it.  

Rick takes a wrong turn on the streets of Atlanta and finds a group of undead in his path. 

Season 2

Episode 7: Season 2 begins in Atlanta at the CDC, with the group realizing that the lone CDC scientist (seeing no solution to the situation) has rigged the massive building with explosives and a timer and the whole thing is set to self-destruct. Making it out with seconds to spare, the group takes its convoy of vehicles out of Atlanta. They soon find the highway jammed to the hilt with abandoned vehicles. Then they are besieged by hundreds of walkers, with one of the survivors (Sophia) being chased by zombies through woods. At Carol’s urging, the group stays camped in the area while the members search for Sophia. As the episode ends, Carl is accidentally shot by a deer-hunting survivor of another group that lives nearby.

Episode 8: In order to save his life, Carl is taken to another group’s farmhouse, where (despite the lack of ample medical supplies) he’s treated. In order for him to be saved, however, they need more supplies and medical equipment- which can only be found at a medical facility in a zombie-infested part of town nearby. The man who accidentally shot Carl leads Shane head to the abandoned medical facility, where they retrieve the supplies. Now there’s just the matter of getting them and themselves back to safety…

Episode 9: The group desperately awaiting Shane’s return, but he can’t get out of a school he’s trapped in (and which is surrounded by the walking dead). Meanwhile, the search continues for Sophia…but the group knows it can’t remain in this area for much longer.

What’s going to happen next?  Tune in to AMC on Sunday nights to find out.

Zombie Comeback
Zombies are white hot right now, and The Walking Dead is one of the reasons why. But zombies have been making a comeback for a few years; videogames like Resident Evil, Dead Rising and the recent Dead Island have been stoking the fire, as well as movies like Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and 28 Days Later. Sure, the material isn’t for the faint of heart (or the younger set), still the subject matter makes for some great suspense.

You never know where the undead will turn up next – so you better be ready, especially this Halloween. Recently a lost 60 Minutes segment about zombies was found on YouTube and even the real CDC has a zombie preparedness plan.

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