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Phone Number 555

555 – Everybody’s Favorite Telephone Exchange

Our story begins with the Telephone Exchange: a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network. In order to connect two telephones, you have to have an uninterrupted wired connection between two telephone sets. But you couldn’t exactly connect every phone with every other phone. So telephone subscribers would call a central office. The […]
John P. Hess
George-Clooney-director_Clooney-behind-camera

Crafting a Director’s Visual Reference

This article was originally posted by Nick LaRovere on his blog, Storyteller. Do you want to be an effective director? Creating a visual reference for your film is a vital step for effective teamwork and good storytelling. As the decision-maker of the film, you must take the time to know what you want. By being ready […]
John P. Hess

Filmmaker Quotes: Morgan Freeman, Anna Kendrick, Quentin Tarantino, Audrey Hepburn, David Cronenberg & Lauren Bacall

Some inspiring and thought provoking quotes from Morgan Freeman, Anna Kendrick, Quentin Tarantino, Audrey Hepburn, David Cronenberg and Lauren Bacall. You measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you. Morgan Freeman Being well adjusted is probably fucking overrated. Anna Kendrick When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, […]
John P. Hess
The Black Dahlia

How a Movie Can Go Wrong (Even When It Had Everything Right)

James Ellroy’s novel “The Black Dahlia” is a fictionalized crime noir that launches from one of the most gruesome unsolved murders of old Los Angeles. Ellroy’s book is quintessential noir layered in a dark world of criminals, muscled confessions and crooked cops. No one is innocent in the pursuit of justice for the murder of […]
John P. Hess
Hollywood Land

How Social Pressures Can Shape A Movie Opinion

In our last course, The History of the Hollywood Musical, I professed as to not have been a big fan of the latest Musical Oscar contender La La Land. I knew my opinion was contentious especially up against such overwhelming high regard for the film. But the point of this post isn’t to explain my […]
John P. Hess
psycho_primary

Never Ask for Artistic Permission

Nothing makes me cringe more when I see a question on a forum asking permission. “Is it okay to push the greens in my color grade?” “Is it okay to shoot shutter speed other than the 180?” Imagine if Alfred Hitchcock asked, “Is it okay to kill off my lead actress in the first act?” […]
John P. Hess
the-many-stages-of-making-a-film-3

The Many Stages of Making a Film

It was summer 2017, things seemed simpler, the weather was hot and season five of Orphan Black was airing on Netflix. Lexy Anderson and I (Harvey Puttock) were discussing the lead actor, Tatiana Maslany and whether there was anything she couldn’t do. In Orphan Black she played several women, a trans man and different nationalities […]
John P. Hess
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