Movies & TV Facts for Kids
Behind-the-scenes facts from film and TV
George Lucas was heavily influenced by the films of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. The story structure of Star Wars borrows from Kurosawa's 1958 film The Hidden Fortress.
Before CGI, filmmakers built incredibly detailed miniature models of buildings, spaceships, and landscapes, then filmed them up close to make them look full-sized on screen.
Dolby surround sound systems place speakers all around the cinema so that sounds can move through the space, making audiences feel as if they are right inside the scene.
A major animated film typically takes four to seven years to produce, from the first story ideas to the final finished product.
Rotoscoping is a technique where animators trace over live-action footage frame by frame to create realistic animated movements. It was invented by Max Fleischer in 1915.
Stunt doubles are brave performers who do dangerous scenes in place of the main actors, such as jumping off buildings or crashing cars.
An IMAX film frame is about ten times larger than a standard 35mm film frame, which is why IMAX images look so sharp and immersive on the giant screen.
Subtitles allow people around the world to enjoy films in any language. Translating subtitles is tricky because jokes and wordplay often don't translate directly.
In stop-motion animation, an object is moved a tiny amount between each photograph. When the photos are played back quickly, the object appears to move on its own — like magic!
Alfred Hitchcock, known as the 'Master of Suspense', pioneered many filmmaking techniques still used today, including the 'dolly zoom' effect that creates a dizzying sense of vertigo.