Mike Giuffrida

Some of the most iconic films in history centered around virtual reality (VR). Having another world opens up limitless possibilities in storytelling. Here are three films centered on VR that have made their mark on cinema history. Mike Giuffrida . Image source: alienationmentale.wordpress.com Tron : When “Tron” first came out, critics were divided, not knowing what to make of it. But as time passed, this visual spectacle became a cult classic and earned its place as one of the most recognizable films of all-time. Not only did “Tron” push the envelope of science fiction, but it also pioneered so many filmmaking techniques still studied and used today. Mike Giuffrida . The Lawnmower Man : While not as big a hit as the other two films on this list, “The Lawnmower Man” is still recognized as one of the pioneering VR films in the post-“Tron” era. Based on the book by Stephen King, this sci-fi suspense thriller portrayed VR as a power-giving entity that allowed the film’s antagonis...

I’m Mike Giuffrida, and I love everything about stage and film. I love talking to relatives, friends, or even strangers about them, and I love blogging about them. Image source: businessinsider.com For today, I’ll be discussing a previously (in my opinion) underappreciated part of filmmaking – set design. Yes, while there have been people who see just how great movie sets of epic classics were, casual audiences didn’t give set designers enough credit. In the past 30 years however, everything has changed. Set design has become a character of sorts in film. Take for example Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. In all three films, there were sets that simply blew everyone away. Without the sets, audiences would have had a hard time believing that the story was taking place in Middle Earth. But as it stands, everyone who saw had a hard time taking themselves out of Middle Earth. And that’s just one example. More recently, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” has featured m...

Hollywood had its roots as a thriving agricultural community, and when it was established in 1853, there was only a single adobe hut on land outside Los Angeles.   Today it’s the center of the movie industry in the United States, a part of LA in the western state of California. By the 1870s, an agricultural community was flourishing in the area, and crops ranged from grain to hay to subtropical bananas.   In 1887, a man named Harvey Wilcox decided to sell some farmland he owned, hoping builders would put up houses there.   His wife thought the name Hollywood would be great for the housing development, although it should be noted that no actual holly trees grew in the state and she merely liked the sound of the term. As there’s some disagreement around who first named the place Hollywood, another account states that the name was coined by H. J. Whitley, the Father of Hollywood, where he and his wife Gigi reportedly produced the name in 1886 while on their h...