Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
to
to
Exclude
Only includes titles with the selected topics
to
In minutes
to
1-50 of 274
- For the genuinely romantic depictions of sex on screen, actors and directors can face a myriad of challenges. Film sets are often packed, demanding, and tiring. It's only in the last few years that a specified role to guide and coach actors for love scenes has become mainstream. Intimacy coordinator Ita O'Brien shows how she coaches actors and uses props to make them feel comfortable performing sex scenes in films.
- Bringing characters like Spider-Man and Captain Marvel to life on screen requires some real-life superheroes off-screen. Specialized teams and experts carefully plan and carry out the stunts, costumes, and special effects that make iconic films like the Avengers the impressive spectacle audiences love. From actual bus crashes in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (2021) to detailed makeup and training in "Black Panther" (2018), here's what Marvel movies look like behind the scenes.
- The fight scenes in "Everything Everywhere All at Once" put a fresh spin on classic kung fu movies. Insider spoke with stunt coordinator Timothy Eulich and fight choreographers Andy and Brian Le about how the movie's most impressive action sequences came together.
- Diandra Leslie-Pelecky takes a closer look at the physics of the "Fast and Furious" franchise. Here she reacts to 11 memorable scenes from the popular movie series and rates them based on their accuracy.
- Garry Adelman, chief historian of the American Battlefield Trust, rates nine American Civil War battles in movies, commenting on Civil War-era artillery and rifles, explaining the use of dynamite and other explosives, breaks down the military strategy seen in the battle scenes and finally, he separates fact from fiction regarding Civil War-era surgeries.
- Veteran private investigator Andy Kay rates 10 private detective scenes in movies and television shows for realism. Kay has been working as a private investigator for over 25 years. He investigates infidelity, cybercrime, missing pets, and everything in between. Kay discusses the accuracy of detective scenes in films such as "Knives Out" (2019) with Daniel Craig, "Chinatown" (1974), and "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" (1994). He comments on the prowess of the iconic detectives in "Sherlock Holmes" (2009) featuring Robert Downey Jr., "Searching" (2018), "Vertigo" (1958), and "Veronica Mars" (2014) featuring Kristin Bell. He also discusses television show detectives, such as Benedict Cumberbatch in "Sherlock" (2010), Tom Selleck in "Magnum, P.I." (1980) and Matthew McConaughey in "True Detective" (2014).
- Insider traces the evolution of dinosaur effects in the "Jurassic" movies, from the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the paddock scene from "Jurassic Park" to the feathered dinosaurs and Giganotosaurus introduced in "Jurassic World: Dominion."
- Retired ATF agent Jay Dobyns discusses the years he worked as an undercover investigator who infiltrated the Hells Angels, an outlaw motorcycle gang, from 2001 to 2003 as part of Operation Black Biscuit. He speaks with Insider about his experience with gang and its inner workings.
- To celebrate the release of "Avengers: Endgame," Insider had physicist Jim Kakalios take a closer look at the physics of the Marvel universe. Here he reacts to 10 memorable scenes from Marvel movies and rates them based on their accuracy. Find out what exactly quantum mechanics, time dilation, Einstein's theory of special relativity, and spider silk tell us about the superheroes of the Marvel franchise. Which weapon would you rather have in a fight: Thor's Mjolnir hammer or Captain America's shield? Hint: The answer has to do with the conservation of energy - and the sonoluminescence of vibranium. Dr. Kakalios breaks down the physics behind this and many other Marvel phenomena, including Shuri's holographic car in "Black Panther;" Peter Parker's spider-webbing train save in "Spider-Man 2;" the multiverse theory of "Doctor Strange;" the role of Pym particles and the Higgs boson in "Ant-Man;" artificial gravity in "Guardians of the Galaxy;" and Tony Stark's cybernetic helmet and gold-titanium exoskeleton in "Iron Man." He sheds light on why Carol Danvers doesn't age from "Captain Marvel" to "Avengers: Endgame;" why the Space Stone is so powerful when yielded by Thanos in "Avengers: Infinity War;" and what's with all the talk of quantum entanglement, quantum tunneling, and "quantum mumbo-jumbo" in "Ant-Man and the Wasp."
- Professional dominatrix and certified sexologist Damiana Chi rates nine dominatrix scenes in movies and TV, such as "Euphoria," for realism. Chi breaks down the accuracy of ethics and safety procedures of BDSM scenes in "Euphoria" (2019), "Transparent" (2016), and "The Wolf of Wall Street" (2013). She looks at the plausibility of BDSM sessions in "Bonding" (2019), "Pose" (2018), and "Billions" (2018). She also breaks down the realism of protocols that happen outside of BDSM sessions in "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" (2007), "Love and Leashes" (2022), and "Fifty Shades of Grey" (2015).
- Marine biologist and doctoral student Amani Webber-Schultz rates 10 shark attacks in movies and TV shows, such as "Jaws," for realism.
- Foley artists use objects to create sounds based on a character's movements and interactions in movies and TV shows. Sometimes, they will find themselves making sounds for animals. Marko Costanzo is a veteran foley artist for c5 Sound, Inc. He has worked on movies like "Ice Age," "Life of Pi," and "True Grit." Costanzo explained how complicated it was to make the sounds of a dragonfly flapping its wings in "Men in Black," and how he captured the footsteps of a dog at different ages in "Marley and Me." Then, Insider showed him an animal clip he has never seen before and had him come up with the proper sounds on the spot.
- Former criminal gang members, undercover police detectives and innocent victims describe to Insider how various organized crime activities work in real life.
- The Director of Photography of Amazon's hit comedy "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" breaks down the innovative opening shot from the show's second season. We watch Midge as she answers phones and swivels around the basement of the fictional, yet swanky department store, B. Altman.
- Bomb disposal expert Lloyd Davies rates the realism of bomb-disposal scenes in popular movies and TV shows. Davies addresses land mines in the TV show "SEAL Team" (2018) and other improvised explosive devices in "The Hurt Locker" (2008), "Die Hard with a Vengeance" (1995), and "Bodyguard" (2018). He breaks down the "red wire, blue wire" movie device from "Juggernaut" (1974) and "Blown Away" (1994). Would nuclear devices have countdown timers as seen in "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" (2018)? Does sarin gas release the way it's shown in "The Rock" (1996)? And would a bathtub protect you from an explosion such as in "Lethal Weapon 2" (1989)?
- Billie Eilish is the youngest artist to record a James Bond theme song. It's an epic task, and plenty of artists, from Madonna to Sheena Easton, have fallen short, producing themes that are ruthlessly criticized or just forgettable. Others, like Shirley Bassey and Adele, have contributed classic songs that left their musical stamps on the franchise. Here, we decipher the musical code of the 007 themes to find out what makes a song sound like quintessential Bond - and see whether Eilish's entry fits the bill.
- Pilot in command Zoya Agarwal rates eight pilot emergencies in movies and TV for realism. Agarwal breaks down the accuracy of dealing with aircraft emergencies due to technical malfunctions, dealing with the threats on board the airplanes and breaks down weather-related air emergencies and airline emergency landings and crashes.
- Adi Jaffe was a crystal meth dealer in Los Angeles, purchasing his supply from local meth labs and making his way up to dealing with Mexican cartels. Jaffe was arrested five times, with the final arrest resulting in his incarceration. Jaffe speaks with Insider about the practicalities of running crystal meth labs. He discusses the methods behind different methamphetamine recipes, the effects of anti-drug policies on the supply, how the cartels managed to take over the trade with super labs, and P2P meth precursor chemicals supplied from China.
- Nicholas Irving, author, and former soldier, rates 11 sniper scenes for realism in movies. Irving rates the realism of classic war movies such as "Clear and Present Danger" (1994), "Enemy at the Gates" (2001) and "Saving Private Ryan" (1998). He breaks down long-range-sniping scenes featuring Will Smith in "Gemini Man" (2019) and Mark Wahlberg in "Shooter" (2007). He also looks at modern-day war movies set in Iraq and Afghanistan, such as "American Sniper" (2014), "Jarhead" (2005), "Lone Survivor" (2013), and "The Hurt Locker" (2009). Irving rates the realism of the weapons used, along with body position, stealth, and environment.
- Former burglar Octave "Oky" Durham and art detective Arthur Brand look at nine art-theft scenes from popular TV shows and movies and rate them based on realism. They now work together to solve international art and jewelry heists. The pair examines scenes from "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1999), "The Monuments Men" (2014), "The Art of the Steal" (2013), "Topkapi" (1964), "Ocean's Twelve" (2004), "Dr. No" (1962), "Black Panther" (2018), "Hudson Hawk" (1991), and "The Blacklist" S2E14 (2015) for realism.
- Former Boston mobster Mark Silverman rates seven Irish mob scenes in movies and television for realism, such as "The Departed" and "The Town." Silverman discusses the accuracy of Irish mob stereotypes in "The Departed" (2006), "The Town" (2010) and "Black Mass" (2015). He also comments on the portrayal of Irish gang activities in "The Boondock Saints" (1999) and "The Kitchen" (2019). He analyzes the depiction of violence in the Irish mob in "Death to Smoochy" (2002) and "What Doesn't Kill You" (2008).
- Medieval-fortification expert Michael Fulton looks at nine fortress defense scenes from popular TV shows and movies and rates them based on realism. He looks at "Outlaw King" (2018), "Vikings" S3E8 (2015), "The Great Battle" (2018), "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003), "Ironclad" (2011), "Robin Hood" (2010), "Game of Thrones" S2E9 (2012), and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975).
- An internationally recognized security analyst, researcher, author, and speaker who works with leading security firms, government organizations, and Fortune 500 companies looks at 12 hacking scenes from popular TV shows and movies and rates them based on realism.
- Five New York City location scouts tell us about the spots in the city that appear the most in TV shows and movies, from "Spider-Man" to "Succession." Find out where filmmakers go to shoot scenes involving business or government meetings, why the Brooklyn Navy Yard is a popular spot for filming stunt sequences and crime scenes, why movies and shows all end up at the same place to film prison scenes, and how "Joker" director Todd Phillips chose the right Bronx street for Joaquin Phoenix's iconic staircase dance.
- Maria Sivakova has been a foot model for eight years. Her feet and legs have been featured in ads for Calvin Klein, Coach, Prada, and Bliss. Her feet have earned her as much as $8,000 for a single job, which means foot care is vital to stay employed. She gets a pedicure every two weeks and avoids uncomfortable shoes like heels. Insider talked to Sivakova about what it's like to be hired as a foot model.
- Evy Poumpouras, a former special agent with the US Secret Service, breaks down 10 presidential-protection scenes in movies, including "White House Down" (2013), "The Sentinel"(2006), "In the Line of Fire" (1993) and "London Has Fallen" (2016). She also rates inauguration and assassination-attempt scenes in "Designated Survivor" (2016) and "The West Wing" (1999).
- As tensions with China build and the US military sends more troops to the Asia-Pacific region, soldiers with the skills to fight and survive in the jungle are increasingly vital. The US Army trains soldiers for jungle warfare at the 25th Infantry Division's Lightning Academy on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. Insider's chief video correspondent Graham Flanagan spent 12 days inside the Army's Jungle Operations Training Course, where a cross section of soldiers of various ranks and experience levels learn to fight, move, and survive in the jungle. Eighty students begin the course on day one, but only 51 will make it to graduation. The rest are dropped from the course by failing one of five critical tests. On day nine, students begin a three-day culminating exercise that incorporates the skills and lessons taught in the course, such as rope systems, rappelling, survival skills, small-unit tactics, and land navigation. Students who graduate from the course receive the Army's coveted jungle tab.
- Former CIA intelligence officer Andrew Bustamante rates all the "Mission: Impossible" movies, starring Tom Cruise, for realism. Bustamante looks at field-operation scenes in "Mission: Impossible" (1996), and "Mission: Impossible 2" (2000). He breaks down spy gadgets and disguises in "Mission: Impossible III" (2006), and "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" (2011). He compares Cruise's physical skills to real-life CIA training in "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" (2015), "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" (2018), and "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023).
- The second episode of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" centers on an epic storm in the Sundering Seas. Pulling it off involved a method that has become Hollywood's go-to approach for creating storms at sea: filming the sequence in a giant water tank.
- Insider takes a look behind the scenes of eight recent Hollywood horror movies to see the ingenious methods filmmakers use to scare audiences, including using oversized furniture, fake rock walls, aging prosthetics, and robotic cameras, as well as more conventional movie magic tricks such as stunt work and hidden wires.
- World War I historian Alexander Watson rates six First World War battle scenes from movies and TV shows for realism. He discusses the accuracy of trench warfare in "All Quiet on the Western Front" (2022), featuring Daniel Brühl, and "Wonder Woman" (2017), starring Gal Gadot. He also comments on aerial combat and gas masks in "The Red Baron" (2008) and "The Lost City of Z" (2016), starring Charlie Hunnam. Watson analyzes the guns, artillery, tanks, grenades, and other weapons used in "Sajjan Singh Rangroot" (2018) and "Gallipoli: End of the Road" (2013).
- When the creators of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" decided that they wanted to have accurate martial arts in their show, they needed to find a martial arts choreographer and stunt performer. They would film the stunt actor performing martial arts movements, which the animators could then use as reference footage. The person that they ended up picking was Sifu Kisu, an all-in-one master martial artist and fight choreographer. Kisu worked alongside the directors to create the intricate martial arts movements for each character. Director Giancarlo Volpe said that having a stunt performer working on the show ended up saving time overall because it reduced the time spent drawing character movements.
- Pixar gets its characters to move and emote by building them rigs and filling them with controls that allow animators to give them unique expressions and movements. "Toy Story 2" gave them the ability to adapt and reuse rigs for multiple characters, allowing a wide array of characters of all shapes and sizes. In "Finding Nemo," animators learned how to make fish show emotions despite their lack of eyebrows. Major breakthroughs occurred during "The Incredibles," in which animators now had the capability to give humans muscles and skin that moved like the real thing, eventually allowing "Ratatouille" to stretch the human mouth far and control a character's loose movements. Meanwhile in "Cars," a new technology called ground locking let cars drive on a straight path, while new stretchy rigs were created for realistic octopus tentacles in "Finding Dory" and an especially dynamic dog tongue in "Coco." Thanks to new features, like the ability to add tendons onto hands and a digital piano that played by itself, Pixar was able to show complex piano playing. None of it would have been possible without the animation and rigging breakthroughs that came before it.
- Former Navy SEAL Andy Stumpf rates nine underwater missions in movies and television for realism and accuracy, discussing underwater scuba-diving scenes in "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" (2015), "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) and "National Treasure" (2004). He also discusses discharging guns and other weapons underwater in "Thunderball" (1965), "Alien: Resurrection" (1997) and "Act of Valor" (2012). Stumpf also analyzes proper diving technique in "Archer" (2009), "Sanctum" (2011), and "For Your Eyes Only" (1981).
- WWI historian Alexander Watson rates five more First World War battle scenes from movies for realism. He discusses the accuracy of the trench warfare and military strategy portrayed in "1917" (2019) and "Paths of Glory" (1957). He also comments on surprise attacks, cavalry, and helmets in "War Horse" (2011) and "Blizzard of Souls" (2019). Watson analyzes the guns, artillery, ships, destroyers, cannons, and other weapons used in "Admiral" (2008).
- Some of the top experts across the Army, Navy, and Marines rate military battle scenes in movies and television for realism.
- 2021 began with a lot of uncertainty about delayed releases and how we would be able to consume blockbuster movies. Regardless of whether you watched at the theaters or from the comfort of your home, there were many captivating movies that took filmmaking to another level. High-adrenaline flicks like "Shangi-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," "F9" and "No Time to Die" created in-camera stunts that you may have thought were CG. Young audiences got to see 2-D characters come to life like never before in "Clifford the Big Red Dog," and "Space Jam: A New Legacy." And real-life landscapes were constructed in both "Old" and "The French Dispatch" to transport viewers to another world. Here's what 16 movies of 2021 looked like behind the scenes.
- Every Pixar movie has introduced its own technical problems, from creating the first fully computer-animated feature film with "Toy Story" to developing a stronger virtual camera for "WALL-E." Insider takes a look at how the unique worlds, characters, and practical challenges brought up by each Pixar movie pushed the studio to expand animation technology and breaks down the progress the studio has made over the years in different areas of computer technology, including shading, ray tracing, subdivision surfaces, subsurface scattering, translucency effects, cloth and fur simulation, and muscle movement on human characters. Here's how Pixar improved CG animation with every one of its films from 1995's "Toy Story" to 2011's "Cars 2."
- The bus fight from "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" has been praised as Marvel's best fight sequence ever. The action scene, which is set on a moving bus, took over a year to bring to life. This included reconstructing two real buses to fit cameras inside while making room for actors Simu Liu and Florian Munteanu to fight. Fight coordinator Andy Cheng, famous for his stunt work on Jackie Chan's films, explains the steps needed to stage the fight from the previsualized CGI and rehearsals used to create the action to how to fake a bus's movements.
- Omar Sharif was involved in gang activity in London. He says his involvement began at 13 years old when he was approach by a gang member. He speaks to Insider about London gangs and how they operate.
- Mirror shots in movies are especially challenging, as it's hard to shoot a character's reflection without accidentally revealing the camera, so Hollywood has many visual tricks to avoid this. Movies like "The Lady from Shanghai" and "It Chapter Two" used two-way mirrors. "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" didn't use a mirror at all and instead had Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton standing on one side of an open frame looking into a double set with body doubles mimicking their every move. Better visual effects meant movies like "Birdman" could shoot a real mirror and easily erase the camera later. For "Last Night in Soho," Edgar Wright used a combination of these techniques, and many more, so Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy could mirror each other's movements.
- Camera pilot and aerial coordinator Fred North doesn't just use his helicopter to get from point A to point B. His chopper has a camera attached to it, operated by a camera operator, and the ways in which North flies his ship determines the angle of the shots. Camera pilots help add speed and energy to action sequences in movies. Because cars aren't always going as fast as they seem on set for safety reasons, North was crucial for the epic car chases in many of the "Fast and Furious" movies. He can also safely film explosions from the air and could keep up with Tom Cruise and his motorcycle in "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation." In Michael Bay's "Ambulance," North worked alongside camera drones to plot out some of the film's most exciting chases.
- Recent horror films have gone great lengths to scare viewers. "The Invisible Man" employed a performer in a green suit to throw Elisabeth Moss' character across a table. Jordan Peele's "Us" used facial replacement CGI to allow characters to act alongside their doppelgängers. While movies like "Crawl" needed CGI to make its alligators as terrifying as possible, many horror movies still rely on practical effects to scare audiences. The 2019 "Child's Play" reboot built an animatronic Chucky controlled by puppeteers, while "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" went all out creating makeup effects and costumes to turn its cast members into monsters.
- In 2022, Marvel Studios stretched technology to achieve the desired effects for a number of their films. For "Top Gun: Maverick", Tom Cruise taught to fly, act and fix their makeup. For "The Batman", frequently rode in camera cars driven by stunt drivers. For "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" (2022) and "Thor: Love and Thunder" (2022), stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chris Hemsworth, and Christian Bale were hoisted into the air thanks to wires and tuning forks. For "Bullet Train" (2022), Brad Pitt was placed into a CG-built exploding train, while "Everything Everywhere All at Once" (2022) featured specially created props like Ke Huy Quan's killer fanny pack.
- Can anyone survive in the center of a tornado? Should you take shelter in a basement when a storm hits? Are fire tornadoes a thing? Could "Sharknado" actually happen? Meteorologist Cyrena Arnold looks at seven hurricane and tornado scenes from popular TV shows and movies and rates them based on realism. She looks at storm scenes in "Geostorm" (2017), "Twister" (1996), "Into the Storm" (2014), "The Day After Tomorrow" (2004), "Sharknado" (2013), "Night of the Twisters" (1996), and "X-Men" (2000).
- This animated account of Zumrat Duwat's shocking 11-month imprisonment intimately details her merciless interrogation and torture while revealing a hidden state-led campaign against China's Uyghur people.
- John Pennisi, a former made member of the Lucchese crime family, explains how the mob actually operates.
- Explorer Dwayne Fields looks at nine polar-exploration scenes from popular TV shows and movies and rates them based on realism. He looks at "The Day After Tomorrow" (2004), "Eight Below" (2006), "The Midnight Sky" (2020), "Arctic" (2018), "The Terror" (2018), "The Thing" (1982), "Whiteout" (2009), "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back" (1980), and "Shackleton" (2002).