FILM & TELEVISION · STORIES, IDEAS & CRAFT
Stories from cinema history and behind the scenes, with close readings of direction, images, storytelling, and sound. A place to explore how films and series are made, and why their scenes stay with us.
Learning Film Direction · Part six
From observation and personal experience to “what if?”, contradiction, research and constraints: how do we find idea seeds and test which deserve development before building the story?
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The Language of the Cinematic Image · Part six
The sixth and final part: how does the cinematographer turn the director’s vision into practical decisions, from preparation and camera and actor movement to collaboration, continuity and grading?
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The Language of the Cinematic Image · Part five
Light, shadow, colour palette, lens and depth of field: how do visual choices reshape our experience of a scene without becoming rigid rules?
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The Language of the Cinematic Image · Part four
Distance, sitting, standing and body orientation: how do actors’ positions, movement and stillness become a visual way of writing relationships within a scene?
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Charlie Chaplin — Cinema Journal Special · Part five
The conclusion of the Charlie Chaplin special: the man behind the Tramp, life with Oona in Switzerland, work and music, the Oscar return and a legacy still moving on screen.
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Charlie Chaplin — Cinema Journal Special · Part four
From The Great Dictator and Monsieur Verdoux to the return crisis of 1952 and A King in New York: how did Chaplin’s relationship with his voice and public image change?
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Learning Film Direction · Part five
From a question that concerns you to the choices within a scene: explore vision, style and an artistic voice that develops through practice and collaboration, with a one page exercise.
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Learning Film Direction · Part four
From an impression to a directorial choice: observe information, attention, time, sound and performance through Rear Window’s opening and a practical exercise.
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Learning Film Direction · Part three
Film school or independent learning? Choose a learning environment, connect knowledge with practice and feedback, and try a practical four week programme.
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Learning Film Direction · Part two
From reading the screenplay and preparing the film to directing performances and editing: how does a director bring the crew’s work into one dramatic vision?
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Learning Film Direction · Part one
From loving films to making your first scene: a practical introduction to directing choices, crew collaboration and learning with simple tools.
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The Language of the Cinematic Image · Part three
Setting, objects, clothes, light and performance: how does the world before the camera begin telling a story before dialogue?
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Charlie Chaplin — Cinema Journal Special · Part three
From City Lights to Modern Times: body, music, effects and a song in an imaginary language. How did Chaplin negotiate the sound revolution without losing the Tramp’s language?
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The Language of the Cinematic Image · Part two
From framing and the rule of thirds to symmetry, leading lines and depth: how does the arrangement within an image make meaning?
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Charlie Chaplin — Cinema Journal Special · Part two
From the Tramp in front of the camera to the artist shaping filming, production and distribution: the time that made Chaplin’s rhythm possible.
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The Language of the Cinematic Image · Part one
How did sequences of still photographs become cinema? From Muybridge, Le Prince, and Lumière to colour, depth, and digital images, we explore how new tools expanded filmmakers’ choices.
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Charlie Chaplin — Cinema Journal Special · Part one
Before the hat, cane, and moustache came a childhood of uncertainty and years on stage. We return to Chaplin’s beginnings to explore how observation, training, and physical timing gave the Tramp a language of his own.
Read the articleDifferent ways into a story, and the choices that give it shape on screen.
Behind the scenes, films that almost never happened, and the decisions that shaped them.
Eras, movements, and the evolution of cinema and television, from silent images to digital filmmaking.
The Man Behind the Tramp: Chaplin Between Legend and LegacyWhen Chaplin Spoke and Clashed with PoliticsWhy Did Chaplin Refuse to Let Cinema Speak?Charlie Chaplin: How He Became Master of His FilmsCharlie Chaplin: From Poverty to the Birth of the TrampIdeas that help us read films and understand their effect, explored through clear examples on screen.
Blocking, performance, shot choices, rhythm, and the point of view that holds a scene together.
Where Do Good Film Ideas Come From?How Do You Discover Your Artistic Vision and Develop Your Voice as a Director?How Do You Watch Films Through a Director’s Eyes, Rather Than a Spectator’s?Film School or Independent Learning? How Do You Learn to Direct?What Does a Director Actually Do? What Sets Them Apart from Other Filmmakers?How Do You Become a Film Director? Where Does the Journey Begin?How balance, depth, negative space, and lines within the frame create meaning and emotion.
From the Director’s Vision to the Final Image: What Does a Cinematographer Actually Do?Light, Colour and the Lens: How Does an Image Create a Feeling?Blocking: When Relationships Become Geometry Within the FrameMise en scène: What Does It Mean to Place the World Before the Camera?How Is a Cinematic Frame Built?How Was the Cinematic Image Born?Lenses, shot sizes, camera movement, lighting, and colour in the service of a story.
Scenes, characters, conflict, dialogue, subtext, and the choices that give a plot its shape.
The timing of a cut, rhythm, transitions, sound design, music, and the contribution of silence.
Seasons, episodes, writers’ rooms, showrunners, and the craft of sustaining a story over time.
A close reading of a scene: why is the camera here, how does the character move, and why cut at this moment?