In Contention

Tag: Best Cinematography

  • TECH SUPPORT: ‘Inception’ dominates below the line

    So, the morning after a terrible prediction record at this year’s Oscars, I’ll try to make some sense of what the Academy told us, and what it means for the crafts artists we got to know along the circuit this year.

    As the evening went on, many people began to wonder if “The Social Network” would triumph in Best Picture. While Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall managed to take Best Film Editing (on their second nomination), the very deserved win for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross in Best Original Score was somewhat surprising. The work trumped Alexandre Desplat for “The King’s Speech,” despite the latter film’s wins in the major categories. Desplat, with four nominations under his belt, could now be considered due, I think.  (Alas, Tom Hooper’s later win for Best Director removed doubts about the Best Picture winner.)

    The Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects categories unsurprisingly went to “Inception,” making Oscar winners of Nolan’s usual crew of Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick, Richard Kind, Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, and company. I congratulate them and wish them the best for “The Dark Knight Rises.”

    (more…)

  • TECH SUPPORT: Final analysis, part one

    So this is it. Over the last seven-plus months here at Tech Support, we have tried to illuminate and analyze the craft races as they unfolded. On Sunday, the winners will be revealed, ushering some new faces into Oscar’s club.  And indeed, I expect the vast majority of the winners to make their first trip to the podium.

    I’ll be breaking down each field in a two-parter.  Check back tomorrow for the final five categories, but for now…

    Best Art Direction

    As is the case in many categories, “The King’s Speech” is, to me, the safe bet for the win here. A royal period piece and likely Best Picture winner would be difficult to beat in any year. But in all fairness, this is in many ways not a typical “royal” winner in a category where style triumphs over substance.

    Production Designer Eve Stewart (11 years after her first nomination for “Topsy-Turvy”), along with set decorator Judy Farr, immaculately filled many of the film’s sets (despite late-breaking news of one location) with intimate details that feel very much in tune with the characters. A guild win also shows industry support.

    (more…)

  • OFF THE CARPET: Heading into the home stretch

    I’m watching CNN’s report of the on-going situation in Libya as I write these comparably pointless words. The “real world” seems so unique, so foreign after having our head in the awards season clouds since September. Now, six months in, victory lane is a mere six days away. And man, it’s been a marathon.

    So let’s dive in one more time.

    The journey for “The Social Network” has been a fascinating one. And now, with wins for Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay and, potentially, Best Director coming, some are arguing an upset by the film in the Best Picture race is still in the cards. It would be delightful, but it would be considerably more surprising than the moment a number of pundits point to as a bellwether shocker in the Academy’s recent history: “And the Oscar goes to…‘Crash.’ Whoa.”

    Most, however, seem to agree that “The King’s Speech” has it in the bag, and I think that’s sound. The only question is, to what extent has it won over the Academy? Anywhere from three to 11 wins makes perfect sense.

    (more…)

  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Cinematography

    The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) dished out its annual kudos this weekend, which makes for a nice segue into a discussion of the year’s nominees for Best Cinematography. But it’s important to keep a few things in mind when it comes to guessing what the Academy at large will spring for in this field.

    First and foremost, technical accomplishment doesn’t get you far with a number of people who don’t really understand what kind of a feat, say, “Children of Men” is. Or “Black Hawk Down,” for another example. It’s all about what looks like a post card, because “cinematography” so quickly translates to “prettiest movie” for a great many voters, unfortunately.

    The nominees are:

    “Black Swan” (Matthew Libatique)
    “Inception” (Wally Pfister)
    “The King’s Speech” (Danny Cohen)
    “The Social Network” (Jeff Cronenweth)
    “True Grit” (Roger Deakins)

    (more…)

  • The cinematography of ‘True Grit’

    There has been a lingering possibility, I think, of Danny Cohen riding the frontrunner wave to a win for his working shooting “The King’s Speech” lately.  It’s possible “Inception” is lurking as a spoiler, but I think the race will come down to those two films.  And as much as I find myself in the “pro” camp regarding his lensing of that film, I would be lying if I didn’t say I’m ready to see Roger Deakins holding an Oscar, by God.

    I spoke with the “True Grit” cinematographer last month about his approach to the Coen brothers’ western, which differs strikingly from the visual identity of their other collaborations but nevertheless has that Deakins flavor.  More on that in the upcoming Oscar Guide to the Best Cinematography category.

    Paramount has released another featurette on the film’s below-the-line work, this time focused on Deakins’s contribution. It’s a brief but rather enlightening look at his approach. Take a look after the jump.

    (more…)

  • TECH SUPPORT: Analyzing the nominees

    So the 83rd Annual Academy Award nominations were finally announced this week, and I did fairly well in handicapping the nominees. Outside of Best Sound Mixing, I never missed more than one nominee in a category. Unfortunately, there were no categories where I scored 100% (apart from Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay). Oh well.

    The massive overall tally for “The King’s Speech” resulted from a plethora of nominations in the crafts fields. “True Grit” and “Inception” got all but one plausible tech nomination (with one very notable exception for each, discussed below). “TRON Legacy”’s tally, on the other hand, has got to be considered a disappointment as must, to a lesser extent, those of “Black Swan” and “127 Hours.” The complete shut-out for “Shutter Island” was also somewhat of a surprise, but other branches saw fit to make Oscar nominees of some unlikely titles.

    Regardless, it was nice to see many deserving crafts artists get their due. With the throat-clearing out of the way, I’ll now give short reactions to – and previews of – each below-the-line field.

    (more…)

  • TECH SUPPORT: Final analysis, part two

    Yesterday I began a final look at the crafts categories. Today, a look at the four remaining fields: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Film Editing.

    BEST ART DIRECTION

    The precursors of the BFCA, BAFTA and Art Directors Guild have been fairly consistent in citing four titles in this category. Last year’s winner, Robert Stromberg, seems poised to dip again for creation of a 3D world on Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Eve Stewart, on the other hand, will likely be returning to the fold after an 11 year absence for “The King’s Speech.”

    Guy Hendrix Dyas and Jess Gonchor also have got all necessary precursors, and have fashioned surefire Best Picture nominees, in “Inception” and “True Grit” respectively. It is true that they have had difficulty being nominated in the past but Gonchor has also never had such an Oscar-friendly opportunity, whereas the impressive, integral-to-the-story nature of Dyas’s work has been especially embraced by the precursors.

    (more…)

  • FIRST-HALF FYC: Below-the-line standouts

    For the penultimate installment in our reflection on the most Oscar-worthy achievements from the largely forgotten first half of 2010’s release calendar, I’m backtracking away from the major categories to the place I should perhaps have started: the technical sphere.

    Had I thought to start this column 20-odd weeks in advance of nomination day, I could have given each craft category the attention it deserves — though if I’m being honest, picking five outstanding Best Sound Editing contenders from the year’s first six months wouldn’t be the easiest of tasks.

    As it stands, I’ve arrived at an admittedly drastic compromise: singling out five individual technical contributions, across the range of categories, that made a particularly strong impression. With such a doubly curtailed brief, the list of painfully excised honorable mentions inevitably runs very long indeed, so I’ll jump straight in with a few of them.

    As much as “Shutter Island” didn’t work for me as a whole, it delivered considerable rewards as a craft showcase: I was particularly tempted to include Dante Ferretti’s art direction, which will likely find its way to Oscar recognition without my help.

    (more…)

  • ‘King’s Speech,’ ‘Social Network’ among ASC nominees

    Well, I was expecting this to drop tomorrow, but the ASC nominees have been announced (catch them at The Circuit), and there are a couple of surprises.

    Okay, well, Jeff Cronenweth getting in for “The Social Network” isn’t a complete surprise, as I mentioned this morning we should watch out for him here.  But Danny Cohen making the cut for “The King’s Speech,” despite the fact that the film has an intriguing visual quality, is a bit unexpected.

    The rest is as we would have thought, though Robert Richardson missing is less of a shock than Enrique Chediak and Anthony Dod Mantle getting the shaft.  I think Cohen gets bumped in favor of something else, though.

    Though maybe Cronenweth is in a precarious position, seeing as the ASC is quicker to nominate digital work than the Academy.  The rest, I should think, are solid.

    (more…)

  • TECH SUPPORT INTERVIEW: ‘True Grit’ cinematographer Roger Deakins

    The Coen brothers’ “True Grit” opens nationwide today.  And we’re continuing right along with our daily look at the below-the-line talent of the film with director of photography Roger Deakins.

    Deakins has been with the Coens for nearly 20 years, going all the way back to “Barton Fink” in 1991.  It’s fair to say his style and tendencies as an artist have become married to the Coens’, forging an identifiable texture to their work together.

    But a lot of that general stylish flourish took a backseat on “True Grit,” allowing for a much more simplified rendering of the film’s imagery.  I’ve talked to Deakins a couple of times over the years and he’s rarely one to pour sound bytes onto an interview, but it’s always a great and enlightening discussion regardless.  I keep linking to last year’s interview with these guys regarding “A Serious Man” to hopefully shed more light on their process working with the Coens.

    (more…)

  • TECH SUPPORT INTERVIEW: The look of ‘Inception’

    Christopher Nolan has become known for making the Batman films look, and consequently feel, “real.”  His latest film, “Inception,” despite being a visual treat, also seemed a far cry from the CGI spectacles that normally dominate the blockbuster circuit.  It was very well-received by critics and certainly audiences alike and is currently enjoying a solid run on the awards circuit, having earned multiple nominations from both the BFCA and the HFPA.

    Speaking to cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas (who earned the LAFCA award) and special effects supervisor Chris Corbould, it becomes clear that Nolan’s style is as infectious on the crew as it is on the public.  They delight in revealing how they collaborated with Nolan – and each other – to make “Inception” look so real.  The short answer: “Because it is.”

    Corbould, having worked with Nolan on “The Dark Knight” and “Batman Begins,” was on the fast track when Nolan approached him in 2009 to talk about the new film  “I heard from him on a Wednesday,” he recalls, “and after reading the script and hearing the pitch, I had signed the contract on the Saturday or Sunday.”

    (more…)

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘127 Hours,’ 2 DPs (clip)

    One of the unique aspects of Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours” is it’s use of two cinematographers.  Longtime Boyle collaborator Anthony Dod Mantle (who won the Oscar for Best Cinematography in 2008 for “Slumdog Millionaire”) was joined by Enrique Chediak (who shot the Boyle-produced “28 Weeks Later”).

    Both units were given equal weight during production (going so far as to be dubbed “red” and “blue” rather than “one” and “two”).  As producer Christian Colson puts it, the decision served to keep the energy of the film constant and consistently bring in fresh ideas.

    Fox Searchlight has supplied us with an exclusive clip detailing the duel DP design (alliteration — nice).  In it you’ll hear from Boyle, star James Franco, Mantle, Chediak and Colson.  Have a look after the jump.  The film hits theaters in limited release this weekend.  (Also, check back tomorrow for an interview with director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy).

    (more…)

  • WEEKLY WRAP: Supporting ladies gather, London opens, Hardy goes to Gotham

    • Off the Carpet picked out the likeliest runners in a highly malleable Best Supporting Actress race.

    • We checked in on the Best Animated Feature race, where it seems we may be looking at a three-nominee field after all.

    • Away from the awards beat, the week’s big news was the casting of Tom Hardy in Christopher Nolan’s next Batman venture.

    • The Academy formally revealed the list of 65 contenders for Best Foreign Language Film.

    (more…)

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Cinematography — Volume II

    Today we take a look a second look at, well, certainly the most “cinematic” of categories: Best Cinematography. As I like to say, cinema is born out of the camera and those who wield these devices enrich our films more than a few words written here could possibly say. From capturing mood, lighting and atmosphere to telling the story visually and creatively, our cinematographers truly are artists in every sense of the word.

    Naturally, “pretty” films, war films and Best Picture nominees all have a knack for doing particularly well in this category.

    Now that the trailer for “True Grit” has reached the internet, I surely cannot be the only person asking…is this the film that will finally bring Roger Deakins his Oscar?  He has eight nominations (four for Coen brothers films), tragically winning zero times. The photography looks amazing, and the film is exactly the sort that would seem to excel in this category. That the film also looks like a bigger Oscar player across the board (more than I was originally expecting) is merely icing on the cake.

    (more…)

  • Picking the best new lensers

    As you know, we at InContention are dedicated to spotlighting below-the-line talent, so this excellent cinematography-themed piece at The Playlist caught my eye — in it, Oli Lyttelton singles out five individuals that he feels are spearheading an exciting new generation of DPs, breaking down their past achievements and future promise in some detail.

    The focus on newer names is both refreshing and necessary, given how awards voters can be resistant to outstanding work from comparatively untested talents. Of the five worthy names he puts forth, three — Greig Fraser (“Bright Star”), Eduard Grau (“A Single Man”) and Adriano Goldman (“Sin Nombre”) — arguably deserved awards traction in the 2009 season than they eventually got, while two — Robbie Ryan (“Fish Tank”) and Michael McDonough (“Winter’s Bone”) — seem destined to be similarly slighted this year, given their low profile and the gritty unprettiness of their projects.

    (more…)

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Cinematography — Volume I

    Of the so-called “tech” categories, Best Cinematography is one of the most popular, certainly for me. The invention of the camera took us beyond radio and literature and set modern art on a path aimed toward the moving picture, and this field recognizes those behind the lens.

    Cinematography obviously has a massive impact on a film, everything unfolding within a frame and any nuance specific to the tone, atmosphere and theme of the piece.  It is unimaginable to think of a good movie not having a good Director of Photography (DP).

    “Pretty” films with beautiful landscapes and memorable, postcard-like shots shots are a regularity (and tend to win).  But war films also show up regularly.  And being a Best Picture contender never hurts. Innovative lighting that creates unique mood is frequently rewarded, at least with nominations, as well.

    While this branch does at times play favorites (Robert Richardson and Roger Deakins being the most notable), it always tends to find room for one, two or three first-time nominees every year. From this vantage point, I’m curious who they will be because, the way I see it, most of the obvious contenders have been nominated before.

    (more…)

  • TECH SUPPORT: Diving right back in

    Here we go again.  We just said goodbye to the 2009 film awards season four months ago, yet here we are, halfway through 2010 and ready to kick the tires on Tech Support, a unique feature here at In Contention.

    Tech Support, for those unaware, seeks to highlight below-the-line talent on films.  We offer space to recognize the film music and sound design that help set atmospheres, the costume and production design that helps manifest a new world on screen, the film editing that makes the machinery flow, the makeup that can build a character from the surface out, the visual effects that continue to wow us and the cinematography that truly captures a “motion picture.”

    Films would be impoverished without the contributions of those tasked with the above duties, to say the least. While many of them like being out of the spotlight, it nevertheless seems tremendously important to acknowledge their work, and so we’re happy to gallop into our fifth year of Tech Support.

    Over the next seven months, we will be taking a look at all of these categories, which are often forgotten in the mainstream press. We will take two in-depth looks at nine fields: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup, Best Music (Original Score), Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects.  Best Original Song, largely due to difficulties in amassing a list of contenders early on, will only be reviewed once, later in the season. After this, we hope to again feature many of the contenders with interview pieces, allowing you to read about the personal stories involved in creating films from below the line.

    (more…)

  • ‘Amelie’ tops list of decade’s best cinematography

    The folks at Movieline got their hands on a list of the top 50 films of the decade, from a cinematography standpoint, as laid out by voters at American Cinematographer magazine. Topping the list: Bruno Delbonnel’s work on “Amelie.” Delbonnel is a favorite among DPs. After all, “A Very Long Engagement” won him the ASC honor in 2004 and he received his third Oscar nomination of the decade for last year’s “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” But it’s still a surprising call.

    Another delightfully unexpected pick is Jeff Cronenweth’s lensing of “Fight Club,” but I was personally irritated to find John Toll’s serene, thematically potent work on “The Thin Red Line” go completely unrecognized in the top 10 (he finally shows up at #17).  I’d also say Roger Deakins, though at his usual top notch on “No Country for Old Men,” probably should have seen top 10 representation for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” instead.  His work on the western just misses at #11.

    I’ve been asked many times to offer up a list of the top 10 shots of the decade as a bonus to my annual top 10 shots of the year columns, but I don’t think I can do it.  For one thing, it’s obviously a ton of work, but with so many shots in so many movies, I just think it would be tough to whittle it down.  Too tough.

    Check out the full list from American Cinematographer after the jump.  (Note they’re picking from 1998 to 2008).

    (more…)