Photographer Howard Schatz had an idea: place actors in a series of roles and dramatic situations to reveal the essence of their characters. Such was the premise behind his book, In Character: Actors Acting, which captures some of Hollywood’s most emotive stars in the act of, well, making faces. Luckily for us, he continued the tradition for Vanity Fair. Here are some of the best.

The Zelda Project is a Los Angeles, CA based group of friends who seek to bring to life the characters, settings, and overall feel of Ocarina of Time through photography and film. Our ultimate goal is to create the characters as they would appear in reality to the best of our abilities, placing them in beautiful sceneries true to their Hyrulean counterparts, and creating elaborate photosets utilizing art ranging from costuming to 3D CGI.

A participant sets off on a penny-farthing bicycle at the start of the The Tweed Run in central London, Britain, May 14, 2016. The Tweed Run, a very British public bicycle ride through London's streets, with a prerequisite that participants are dressed in their best tweed cycling attire. (Photo by Hannah McKay/Reuters)

International photographic competition, which runs in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, awards special prize for the best close-up images. Here: Winner – Mayflies by Petar Sabol, Goričan, Croatia. (Photo by Sabol Petar/International Garden Photographer of the Year)

Run by the Society of German Nature Photographers (Gesellschaft Deutscher Tierfotografen), the prestigious annual contest celebrates the best wildlife photography from members in Germany. Here: Landscapes, second place: Florian Smit, “Rainforest” (Danum valley, Borneo). (Photo by Florian Smit/2019 GDT Nature Photographer of the Year)

The characters fighting for Westeros in Game of Thrones are fighting mostly for CGI backdrops. Like many others TV series and movies, visual effects is a huge part of the production process as it handles details both great and small. A great credit to Game of Thrones is that the story is so good that we forget about the effects, and another great credit goes to the VFX team because their work is seamless. If you want to see the seams, you have to get a visual breakdown of how the shots are put together.

Mirko Hanák was born in 1921 in Prague, Czech Republic and worked as a painter, graphic designer and illustrator. His specialties were animals and human figures that were full of life and fun. He also had a firm grasp on composition as his paintings were so well balanced despite his casual fluid line. He was working on “Charlotte's Web” the movie when he tragically died at the height of his career from leukemia in 1971.

Performers participate in the Day of the Dead parade on Mexico City's main Reforma Avenue, Saturday, October 28, 2017. Mexico's capital is holding its Day of the Dead parade, an idea actually born out of the imagination of a scriptwriter for the James Bond movie “Spectre”. (Photo by Eduardo Verdugo/AP Photo)