Photo courtesy of Johnnie BurnArts+CultureBest of 2014What did you learn from Dazed in 2014?We got busy with the How To guides this year, from creating alien soundscapes to turning out banging music videos – get up to speed hereShareLink copied ✔️December 31, 2014Arts+CultureBest of 2014TextAshleigh Kane HOW TO PUT THE GRAND IN THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Amongst the many Hollywood big shots Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Jude Law and Jeff Goldblum in Wes Anderson’s 2014 hit, we unearthed the actual star of the pleasingly colourful and satisfyingly symmetrical flick – the hotel itself. The Grand Budapest Hotel exterior film setCourtesy of www.alles-lausitz.de HOW TO CREATE AN ALIEN SOUNDSCAPE Jonathan Glazer's eerie alien flick starring Scarlett Johansson as a Glaswegian extraterrestrial who lures her victims in with a plot to harvest their organs sounds scary enough right? Add to that an eerie and unsettling score of alien soundscapes – courtesy of Mica Levi (aka Micachu), music producer Peter Raeburn and music supervisor Jay James – and you’ve got a genuine rival for Scar-Jo’s already high creep factor. The inside of the sound editing boothPhoto courtesy of Johnnie Burn HOW TO MAKE IT AS AN INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER IN AMERICA As part of our States of Independence project back in July, American director David Gordon Green, of All the Real Girls, George Washington and 2014 thriller Joe fame, imparted his words of wisdom on budding filmmakers wanting to make it as an independent figure in the cut-throat industry. Still from The Howling (1981) HOW TO CREATE A MOVING COLLAGE Scissor-happy collage fanatic, artist Nathaniel Whitcomb taught us how to cut and paste our way into the art world with his how-to guide for re-appropriating abandoned issues of National Geographic magazine into animated masterpieces. HOW TO SELL SHIT TO WOMEN We kicked off 2014 championing the voices of our favourite feminist writers, activists and artists with Girl Guides. For this piece in particular, we look at ‘woman’, the ultimate consumer, and unpick the neverending toxic cycle of advertising, body issues and inequality in the quest for ‘perfection’. HOW TO WRITE POETRY LIKE PATTI SMITH 70s provocateur, poet, musician and all-round ultimate icon Patti Smith gave us the low-down on how to pen the perfect prose. Her tips? Read, read, read, respect the written word and work hard. Well said, Patti. HOW TO MAKE AN ICONIC MUSIC VIDEO Director X has gone from Hype Williams's right-hand man to the Fancy-est music video director in the world. Bringing hi-concept specials back to a budget-strapped industry, we caught up with the man who can get you half a billion views quicker than you can say "Iggy Azaelia as Cher from Clueless". HOW TO CUT UP KENDALL JENNER Doug Bess's high-fashion data-moshes leapt off Instagram and into Dazed this year, and in this article, the master of copyand-paste told us how he did his thing to remix our Kendell Jenner cover. HOW TO BE QUICHE LIKE JA’MIE KING What exactly is quiche? That's fairly simple – it's Australian schoolgirl star Ja'mie King's word for extremely, extremely hot. How do you be quiche? That's more tricky. Ja'mie King looking quicheCourtesy of BBC/Princess Pictures HOW WONG KAR WAI BECAME THE GRANDMASTER OF CHINESE CINEMA Finally, for those who have mastered total hotness, poetry, hoteliering and musical composition, there's a slot as a maritial arts icon open. Click through to find out how Wong Kar Wai became the greatest director of his generation.