Cinematographer's Guild

[CMJ]

Literally I could post about a dozen guild results, but I've chosen the biggie's mostly. Cinematography may not be one of the BIG ones, but since it's dear to my heart I'm posting the nominee's for the ASC.

:SIDE NOTE: They usually match up pretty favorably with the Academy's list

Michael Ballhaus, ASC ("Gangs of New York")
Pawel Edelman ("The Pianist"),
Conrad Hall, ASC ("Road to Perdition"),
Ed Lachman, ASC ("Far From Heaven") and
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC ("Frida")

As you can see...some BIG names left off. This was kind of a shocker.

[JonathanLB]

I am sorry but that is just stupid. The best cinematography of the year was BY FAR Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Did these people actually see it? Apparently not.

I'm an adamant Star Wars supporter, but jesus, LOTR is getting ripped off on that one. I hope the Oscars have a little more common sense.

Anyone who knows anything about cinematography knows that it's not just what is in front of the camera (weird elves and drawfs and fantastic imagery) but the scope of the cinematography, the views it shows, the landscapes portrayed, that is cinematography!

Road to Perdition deserves its nomination, but TTT was by far the best filmed movie of the year.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Maybe it's because FOTR took out Cimematogarpy last year?

[ReaperFett]

In a sentence, explain EXACTLY what Cinematography means please. I think what I thought it meant is wrong.

[CMJ]

No doubt TTT had great cinematography but RTP had THE best camera work as far as I was concerned.

Reaper, cinematography basically amounts to how the frame is photographed. Films with natural vistas like TTT or the way other films use light changes to create their depth.

I was also surprised to see "The Hours" AND "Chicago" left off.

Marcus is wrong in one respect though. The ASC, did NOT award FOTR last year(Lesnie was nominated but did not win), though he did win the Oscar. Roger Deakins won the award last year for "The Man Who Wasn't There".

[ReaperFett]

Id have said Chicago would be there then. Musicals do make it normally.

[Mu Satach]

The hours was good, but not exceptional so I'm not surprized it's not there.

Hmm... I'd have to think about Chicago... a lot of nice shots mimicing the stage lighting and the feel of the 20's... but as I haven't seen Frida, Gangs of New York or the Far Side of Heaven yet can't really make an informed comment.

but... I will anyway. ;)

Personally, I'd vote for RTP just because it looked like you could take any frame of the film and hang it in a gallery and I don't think they did a lot of post production fiddling with it.

[CMJ]

Defintely Mu...practically every frame of RTP is goood enough to frame and hang on my wall. I think I said something similar to that back in July when I saw the film for the first time.

I'll miss Conrad Hall. :(

Interesting note - Since 1995, all but one of the Best Picture winners received a nomination from the ASC. The notable exception was "A Beautiful Mind", BUT then again its DP(Deakins) was instead nominated for "The Man Who Wasn't There" which IMHO was his more memorable work from 2001(the shots in that film were plain awesome).

Don't read TOO much into this, but it's still a rather ominous sign for the likes of "Chicago" and "The Hours", supposedly the two most likely Best Picture candidates at the moment.

[Mu Satach]

God I love the Man who wasn't there... I'm a sucker for black & white. I love the way it picks up the texture of skin. Especially people with really craggy, weathered, lined, lived in faces.

[CMJ]

Shadows are so awesome in B&W...along with smoke. :D

[Mu Satach]

One of my projects I'm working on has cigarette smoke. Well, it does in my head... >=)

whether or not I ever get it to do what I want it to do will be something that will have to wait for quite a while. There are other things that are demanding my attention.

[CMJ]

Glad to see ya back around Mu Satach. I hadn't seen you in awhile, and you're one of my favorite posters.

You always have some great insights, plus we both dabble in writing. ;)

[Mu Satach]

:)

Been swamped at work with an online scheduling calendar project, and extra contract work to earn a bit more cash in hand. Plus I'm fighting with my Univ. about what I owe them. I have to dig through 4 big piles of loose papers I've stacked up for about 3 years and find all my receipts to them. Teach me to be sloppy with my finances. :mneh

The upshot is while organizing the crap in my livingroom, I found those little things I was going to let you read.

What have you been up to lately? Besides stalking the Great Spielbergian.

[CMJ]

The normal..seeing flicks, getting the odd set job. I'm trying to get a really cool internship right now. *fingers crossed*

Speaking of the great man...I saw him get his Star on the Walk of Fame about 2 weeks ago. I was 30 feet away from the master...and John Williams was there too in his group. :)

[Mu Satach]

OOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo.... "How Spielbergian.... "

Internship... mmmmm.... hope you get it. >=)

Ooo... ok, if I say it in public chances of it happening increase by a factor of about 1.58965486556... not a lot... but some...

I have a goal to have the 1st phase of my 1st solo project, code name "Fluffy" done by April 1st... if I accomplish everything I want I should have an online version available for critiques. =)

[CMJ]

And the winner was....

CONRAD HALL!! A well deserved honor, I hope he wins the Academy Award as well. His was the best work of the year IMHO.

If you have to go, go out on top. RIP Mr. Hall.

[JonathanLB]

Conrad Hall is awesome.

Well I thought The Man Who Wasn't There is absolutely the worst film noir I've ever seen. In fact, given that I don't really think I've seen more than the best film noirs (besides that), it is the only one I've not given a full four stars. Others include: The Maltese Falcon, Out of the Past, Touch of Evil, Sunset Boulevard, A Place in the Sun, Double Indemnity, and Chinatown.

It had potential, but the movie was too boring and just blah in general. Too bad because I love a good film noir.

[CMJ]

Eh, to each his own. :)

Personally I found "Maltese Falcon" to be incredibly overrated. It's one of the few *classics* that I just didn't care for. Oh well, you can't agree with the consensus all the time I guess. ;)

[JonathanLB]

True, but of all the films, haha, Maltese Falcon overrated?! Blasphemy! That's a great film. Bogart is absolutely terrific, the plot is great, heck it's the first American film noir. So many good lines, then the shot you think is overrated too, the 7-minute-uninterupted cut, haha. I love that. Talk about anti-formalist. ;)

[CMJ]

The 7 minute take is cool, but I just couldn't get into the film. I felt it pretty contrived. I *know* it's loved by most everyone, and it's a classic, but I just didn't think it was a very compelling film.

So sue me. :p

[JonathanLB]

Eh, that's ok, but then I'm allowed to think that both The Rules of the Game and A Streetcar Named Desire are the worst classics ever made, lol.

Actually I really, really hate putting The Rules of the Game into that pairing because it is an historically significant film with an obvious message that actually, in the 1940's, was really relevant and worth examining. Renoir was realy gutsy and courageous to make such a film, but it has not aged well and the themes do not hold up now. I found it laughable in parts, and not in a good way. On the other hand, A Streetcar Named Desire never was good, isn't good, and never will be good. It's filmmaking at its most boring and inane. It boasts only one notable element and that is a great performance by Marlon Brando, who is much better, though, in On the Waterfront anyway. Vivian who? She sucked in that movie! I have hardly ever seen a more obnoxious, whinny, grating performance in my entire life. I wanted to shoot someone every time she spoke.

I am way too nice for awarding that pile of dung two stars. I wonder so much if it had been a contemporary film instead of a classic if I would have trashed it. I think I gave it an extra 1/2 star at least for its "influence on acting" in general, through method acting, but jesus it wasn't the first or the last film like that. It's impact is overrated. Rebel Without A Cause, now there's a much better movie well worth watching.

[CMJ]

I've never even seen 'Rules of the Game'. I liked Streetcar mostly because of the perfomances. But it's not one of the best either. :)

[JonathanLB]

CMJ! I'm disappointed, haha. The Rules of the Game is one of those film class movies that everyone sees, #2 "greatest film of all time" according to the Sight & Sound Poll for like 3 different decades. It has been on the top 10 for every decade, usually near the top behind Citizen Kane.

Anyway it is overrated, I think, but as I studied it more I began to like it more. In 3 years, I'll give it another chance and see what I think after seeing the rest of Renoir's work (like the Grand Illusion or whatever). Maybe I'll bump it up to 3 stars from 2, who knows, but at least I felt that STUDYING it was much more interesting than watching it, thus my 5 page review of the film. :)

There are kind of a lot of interesting elements of The Rules of the Game, made just a year before the Germans invaded France. Basically Renoir is saying in no uncertain terms that the French are not acting courageous, are not prepared to fight back, and are going to be slaughtered. It was not a message the French wanted to hear; critics and audiences hated it. It gained esteem later, though. The problem is, the only now relevant message (given that we are waaay past WWII) is the whole social classes struggle, the idea that "truly, the wealthy class is not any 'better' than the lower class," and that's a stupid argument in my mind because that's obvious. When it comes down to it, people are people, rich people aren't better than poor people or less petty or anything like that. So the message, to me, has no real importance and I don't think it is philosophical or important.

Now the struggle of ideologies in Minority Report, however, will ALWAYS be compelling (compatibilism vs. determinism).

[CMJ]

I thought about starting a new thead for some of the other Guild winners, but what the heck. I'll just post them here.

The Make-up Guild gave 7 of it's 8 awards(if I remember right) to TTT. Not sure what this means since it wasn't nominated by the Academy. Of course last year FOTR wasn't nominated because the artists were not guild members...so this might be a past due type of thing.

The Visial Effects Guild awarded TTT all of their awards. A win on Oscar night seems a certainty now.

The Art Director Guilds awarded CMIYC and TTT. I'm guessing this puts TTT into the frontrunner status for the Academy Award, but I still think GONY has a real shot.