Films 1 min read
Top 5 Korean romantic films you must watch
Here are the Top 5 Korean romantic films curated with:
Read storyA journal of cinema & filmmaking
Cinmaa Cinema. Decoded. Stories. Reimagined.
Scene theory, cinematic craft and the world's great film cultures, explained with care. For people who want to know how cinema works, and why it moves us.
Start readingCinmaa Screen
The art of making cinema
Hand-picked lessons from cinematographers, editors and video essayists. Press play to watch here, from YouTube.
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Cinematography Latest
The Cinematography of Joker
Cinematographer Lawrence Sher on how he shot Joker (2019): a case study in light, lenses and a city closing in.
- Channel
- Cooke Optics
- Runtime
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Film Analysis Classics
Why Blade Runner Is a Cult Classic
1982's Blade Runner is a cornerstone of science fiction and has more than earned its cult classic status.
- Channel
- boonanaman
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The Cinematography of The Sopranos
In this episode Alik Sakharov, cinematographer on iconic HBO show, "The Sopranos" talks about his years working alongside writer/creator David Chase.
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- Cooke Optics
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Cinematography De Construct
The Shape of Water: Scene Deconstruction
In this weeks video Dan Laustsen talks to us about the Oscar winning film The Shape of Water. He tells us about how they achieved the water elements in the film and much more.
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- Cooke Optics
- Runtime
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Cinematography Master Class
Lighting Masterclass with Billy Williams
In this weeks episode we speak to Billy Williams about his lighting experience on films such as Gandhi. He talks about matching shots, how to use natural lighting and much more.
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- Cooke Optics
- Runtime
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Cinematography Spotlight
How and Why I Choose Lenses: Bradford Young
In this weeks episode we discuss with Bradford the steps he takes into choosing his lenses. Why is getting closer to the subject better? What effect does it create?
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- Cooke Optics
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Cinematography Film Theory
The Greatest Cinematographer Working Today
Emmanuel Lubezki Cinematography Breakdown — We look at the work of one of the most celebrated cinematographers ever.
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- StudioBinder
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Film Analysis Frames
In the Mood for Love: Frames Within Frames
Nerdwriter1 explores how Wong Kar-wai uses visual framing techniques and restricted perspectives in this romantic drama. The analysis delves into how these cinematic choices reflect the emotional confinement and longing experienced by the two main characters in 1960s Hong Kong.
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- Nerdwriter1
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Directing Video Essay
Akira Kurosawa: Composing Movement
How Kurosawa layers movement, from wind and weather to crowds, actors and camera, so that every frame feels alive.
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- Every Frame a Painting
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Editing Video Essay
Edgar Wright: How to Do Visual Comedy
Why Edgar Wright's jokes live in the frame and the cut: staging, transitions and sound doing the work that dialogue usually does.
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- Every Frame a Painting
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Screenwriting Screenplay
Parasite: The Power of Symbols
How Bong Joon-ho's script turns a scholar's stone and a smell into symbols that carry the whole story.
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- Lessons from the Screenplay
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Editing Masterclass
Walter Murch: On Editing
The editor of Apocalypse Now and The English Patient on storytelling, the assistant editor's role and how to keep learning the cut.
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- BAFTA Guru
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Latest stories
From the journal
Films 2 min read
Edgar Wright & Glen Powell Reimagine Stephen King’s “The Running Man”
Edgar Wright, acclaimed for genre-defining films like Shaun of the Dead and Baby Driver, is now…
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Films 4 min read
Hari Hara Veera Mallu: Pawan Kalyan’s Long-Awaited Epic Set to Redefine Historical Cinema in India
After years of anticipation and postponements, Hari Hara Veera Mallu, starring Pawan Kalyan, is finally set…
Read storyThe craft of filmmaking
How films are made
Nine disciplines, one frame. Each has its own library of stories, breakdowns and glossary terms.
- Directing Turning a script into performances, pictures and rhythm.
- Cinematography Light, lens and movement: how the image is made.
- Screenwriting Structure, character and the architecture of a scene.
- Editing Where the film is found: rhythm, continuity and meaning in the cut.
- Sound Dialogue, Foley, music and the uses of silence.
- Acting Performance, preparation and playing to the lens.
- Production Design Building the world: sets, props, palette and period.
- VFX Compositing, simulation and the invisible digital work.
- Color Grading The final look: contrast, palette and mood.
World cinema
Discover cinema around the world
Film history moves in waves. Pick a region to read the movement that put it on the world's screens.
Italy
Neorealism
1943 – 1952
Out of the rubble of the Second World War, Italian directors took their cameras into the streets. They cast non-professional actors, shot on location, and told stories about ordinary people and hard work.
The movement proved that a film could be made with almost nothing and still move the entire world.
- Key directors
- Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti
- Start with
- Rome, Open City (1945) · Bicycle Thieves (1948)
- Influenced
- The Indian parallel cinema of Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, and the Iranian New Wave.
France
French New Wave
1958 – 1968
A group of film critics picked up lightweight cameras and broke the rules they had written about. Jump cuts, handheld shots and characters who talk to the camera became a new grammar.
They championed the idea of the director as author, the auteur.
- Key directors
- Truffaut, Godard, Varda, Chabrol
- Start with
- The 400 Blows (1959) · Breathless (1960) · Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
- Influenced
- Independent cinema everywhere, from Scorsese to Wong Kar-wai.
Japan
Golden Age
1950s
Japanese studios produced a run of masterpieces that won the top prizes at Venice and Cannes. Rashomon's Golden Lion in 1951 opened the West's eyes.
The range was enormous: samurai epics, quiet family dramas, and ghost stories.
- Key directors
- Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi
- Start with
- Rashomon (1950) · Tokyo Story (1953) · Seven Samurai (1954)
- Influenced
- Westerns, Star Wars, and the modern action ensemble.
India
Parallel & epic cinema
1955 – today
India makes more films than any other country, in more than a dozen languages. Alongside the song-and-dance mainstream, Ray's Apu trilogy launched a realist parallel cinema.
In the Telugu industry, mythological spectacles like Mayabazar (1957) grew into the global epics of S. S. Rajamouli.
- Key directors
- Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, K. V. Reddy, S. S. Rajamouli
- Start with
- Pather Panchali (1955) · Mayabazar (1957) · Baahubali (2015) · RRR (2022)
- Influenced
- A pan-Indian film industry now watched on every continent.
Korea
Korean New Wave
Late 1990s – today
After censorship eased in the 1990s, a generation of Korean directors mixed genres with fearless energy: thrillers that turn into comedies, horror that becomes social critique.
The wave peaked when Parasite won both the Palme d'Or and the Oscar for Best Picture.
- Key directors
- Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook, Lee Chang-dong
- Start with
- Oldboy (2003) · Memories of Murder (2003) · Parasite (2019)
- Influenced
- Genre cinema worldwide, and the reach of Korean series today.
Iran
Iranian New Wave
1960s – today
Working under strict censorship, Iranian filmmakers turned limits into poetry. Children, long car journeys and blurred lines between fiction and documentary became signatures.
Their films show how much can be said with very little.
- Key directors
- Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Jafar Panahi, Asghar Farhadi
- Start with
- Where Is the Friend's House? (1987) · Taste of Cherry (1997) · A Separation (2011)
- Influenced
- Minimalist and docu-fiction filmmaking across the world.
Soviet Union
Soviet Montage
1924 – 1930
Soviet filmmakers argued that meaning comes from the collision of two shots. Editing, rather than the single image, became the heart of cinema.
The Odessa Steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin is still taught in every film school.
- Key directors
- Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Vsevolod Pudovkin
- Start with
- Battleship Potemkin (1925) · Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
- Influenced
- The action edit, the music video, and the modern trailer.
Cinema explained
The Glossary
42 terms from the language of filmmaking, explained in plain words with examples from world cinema.
Term of the day · Cinematography
Dutch angle
A shot with the camera tilted so the horizon runs at a slant.
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