By Cynthia Wisehart

When I sit down with Adam Elliot and Melanie Coombs, director and producer of Sundance’s ingenious opening film Mary and Max, I want to talk about their cinematographer Gerald Thompson. Which is handy, because they do too.

Much has been deservedly made of the film’s detailed claymation animation and of its dark, taboo-pushing story of two unlikely and lonely pen pals. Elliot had previously won an Academy Award (Harvie Krumpet) and found acclaim as a storyteller and animator, but for him something was missing cinematically. That something arrived in the unlikely form of motion control expert Thompson. Like Prometheus brought fire, Thompson brought camera moves. more>>

By Cynthia Wisehart

DP Patrick Murguia is touristing around Main Street recovering from the long journey from Mexico City; he’s enroute to the Eccles to be very early for the premiere of the independent film he shot for Antoine Fuqua. We grab a corner of the cramped lobby at the Marriott Summit Watch and as he talks the many distractions fade away.

Murguia recalls standing in the streets of New York, while Fuqua laid out a shot plan. From his gestures I’m seeing a dynamic, nearly 360-degree lighting extravaganza, the kind of muscular, operatic command of space and action that Fuqua does so distinctively. “He actually wanted to make something very simple,” Murguia says of Brooklyn’s Finest, which stars Ethan Hawke, Richard Gere, and Don Cheadle. more>>

By Eric Melin

Acting for the Camera is a scary and funny indictment of a person that many theater students know too well—the overzealous acting teacher. Whether the instructor is trying to get personal frustrations out or is simply on a nonstop powertrip, most acting students will admit that the seemingly arbitrary rules set forth in a bad acting class would get most employees at any other job fired for emotional or sexual harassment.

That’s part of what makes director Justin Nowell’s 2009 Sundance short so frightening. One can assume that he and his brother, writer Thomas Nowell, have been through their fair share of these moments. The 14-minute short film, shot on HD Cam, takes place in one room in a beginner-level drama workshop and was shot in one single day. more>>

Peter and Vandy was adapted from a 2002 play written by and starring the film's director, Jay DiPietro. For the movie, DiPietro cast Jason Ritter and Jess Weixler as the title couple and had to expand way beyond the production limitations of a two-character play that took place in one living room.

Cinematograpger Frank DeMarco (Short Bus, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) shot the movie on Super16 film using 35mm lenses for a gritty feel. more>>