Michael Tucker of Lessons From the Screenplay takes a deeper look into the 2009 stop-motion animated film Coraline. Tucker explains how the narrative of the plot borrows from classic fairy tales, grotesques, and ghost stories, each of which has a specific storytelling structure that begins with envy, involves a struggle,…
Edward Gorey Talks About When He Designed Sets and Costumes for ‘Dracula’ in a Brilliantly Animated Short
In the fourth episode of the brilliantly animated series Goreytelling, by photographer and filmmaker Christopher Seufert (previously), famed artist Edward Gorey talks about his experience designing a set and costumes for a summer theater production of Dracula. The artist explains that he didn’t consider it to be his best work…
How the 1980s Were Recreated In the 2017 Film ‘It’
In the spirit of Halloween, filmmaker David Friedman of AARP had the opportunity to speak with legendary production designer Claude Paré about how the decade of the 1980s was so believably recreated for modern audiences in the 2017 reboot of the Stephen King film It. It is challenging to make…
The Disembodied Digital Head of Danny Elfman Sings About Being ‘Happy’ in a Really Spooky Music Video
In the music video for his song “Happy”, a disembodied digital head of the great Danny Elfman appeared against a black background with a sinister look. As he sang about the joys in life, his face (and subsequent body) underwent a series of creepy changes that became even darker with…
A Humorously Spooky Tutorial Showing How to Carve a Simple But Super Scary Face Into a Pumpkin
In honor of Halloween, talented woodcarver and artist Bobby Duke (previously) created a humorous tutorial in which a spooky voice explains how to carve a simple but really scary face into a pumpkin. In this video I show you how to make a really simple but super scary pumpkin for…
Architect and Son Design Height Adjustable Segway Style ‘Walking Wheelchair’ For Eye Level Conversation
British architect Suzanne Brewer and her son Jarvis have designed a truly inspired height-adjustable “Walking Wheelchair” that allows users to come up to eye level height without compromising their balance. The wheelbase design is based upon a Segway mover and the design for the body is on an original idea…
Disney Uses an Animatronic Bust With Cameras In Its Eyes to Create Realistic Interactive Humanlike Gazes
A team at DisneyResearch in Los Angeles used a proprietary Audio-Animatronics humanoid bust that had responsive cameras in its eyes and subjected it to interactive situations. The goal of this experiment was to learn how to create highly realistic gaze engagement for true character believability in films. The categories of…
How Candy Corn Became Associated With Halloween
In a toothsome episode of the Mental Floss series Food History (previously), host Justin Dodd shares the history of candy corn, the origins of corn syrup, and how its inventor George Renninger tested out how realistic his candy was by feeding it to his chickens. During his initial tinkering, Renninger…