Tema: Fotografía Cinematográfica

En el caso de "United 93" las posibilidades son nulas, por que al pasarla por televisión perdieron la posibilidad de entrar en los Oscar.

En cuanto a "Ask the dust", como ya he comentado en otro post una de las incomprendidas del año, habría que mirar la fecha de estreno, por que a lo mejor allí se estreno el año pasado y eso ya hace que sea imposible participar este año.

De las que apuntas con posibilidad, ojalá se lo lleve Lubezki.

¿Estás seguro en lo referente a United 93? No sé si la han pasado por TV o no, pero lo que es seguro es que el requisito es estar en cartel una semana en Los Ángeles, no importa si como estreno o incluso reposición (Candilejas, del año 52, le valió el Oscar a la mejor BSO a Chaplin en el 72, cuando se estrenó en California). Los sitios web de predicciones no hacen mención alguna a este dato.

Ask the Dust sí que es de este año -se estrenó en febrero en USA- y sí que debería de entrar con casi total seguridad (Deschanel está inmenso), pero al haberla visto cuatro gatos mal contados pierde casi todas sus posibilidades. Ni siquiera se ha escrito sobre ella en las publicaciones especializadas. Deschanel también estrena Killshot (dir: John Madden) a lo largo de este mes, pero ni el tráiler parece gran cosa ni creo que sea algo más allá que un trabajo alimenticio (como La Búsqueda, que es lo peor que he visto de él).

Saludos.

) the film may not be exhibited publicly in any other medium for a three-month period following the commencement of its initial theatrical engagement, and

Esta es la regla que te digo, pero lo he mirado y la estrenada en televisión es "Fligth 93" y no "United 93", así que si entra en la carrera a los Oscar.

Que sepan los fans de Tim Burton (si es que hay alguno) que Philippe Rousselot ha desaparecido por fin del rodaje de su próximo film, el musical Sweeney Todd. Pero que nadie lance las campanas al vuelo, porque ha sido sustituido por Dante Spinotti, que precisamente tampoco tiene un estilo que vaya como anillo al dedo con respecto al de Burton. Curiosamente, Spinotti también sustituyó a Rousselot en X-MEN 3 una vez comenzado el rodaje y por lo que se comentó (no he visto el film), el resultado global distó mucho de ser satisfactorio.

Por otra parte, John Toll estrena el Western Seraphim Falls del hasta ahora televisivo David Von Ancken y si la película tiene suerte crítica y en taquilla, conociendo al doble ganador del Oscar, cualquier cosa (positiva) puede suceder.

Saludos.

La revista de la International Cinematographers Guild (ICG, www.cameraguild.com) ha publicado online el artículo relativo a Flags of Our Fathers y Letters From Iwo Jima. En parte me resulta tranquilizador que Stern mantenga el formato anamórfico de sus tres películas con Clint, pero me preocupa -como comenté más atrás- la masiva presencia de efectos digitales y el acabado mediante un Digital Intermediate para rebajar el color y la saturación.

Las raíces:

As a cinematographer Tom Stern had previously worked with the director on Blood Work, Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby. But he had worked as a gaffer on Eastwood films going back to Honkeytonk Man in 1982 and in so doing gained valuable understanding of Eastwood’s work methods with cinematographers such as Jack Green, ASC, Bruce Surtees, ASC, and Nick McLean. Stern has also gaffed for a whole host of other top cinematographers, including Conrad L. Hall, ASC and Owen Roizman, ASC, in-between.

La inspiración:

Stern and Eastwood found inspiration for the battle scenes in some of the photo annuals published in the war years. “I was surprised to find out all these iconic still photographers were in the service,” he says. “Edward Steichen was the editor for several years. So these compilations of incredible photographs captured the moments of the day and period. They covered the battles and there was such honesty to the photographs. The war was blazing and they were there snapping pictures.”

La visualización:

We wanted the viewer to have almost an adrenal rise and get pulled up into these kinds of shots that could almost be newsreels and then sometimes go out into these wider, epic shots with maybe 2000 extras and 30 water craft. Sometimes we’d have eight cameras, one up in a helicopter, some on the ground, some disguised. We had the whole gamut. Digital Domain did a lot of CGI. Some shots would have hundreds of battle ships. And then we descend back into the battle in an almost flawed way where the framing might not be perfect.

La verosimilitud:

Digital Domain was also responsible for the massive amounts of CGI that went into creating ships and troops and generally expanding the scale of what could be filmed. Stern explains that Michael Owens had his work cut out for him. “He did Space Cowboys and we’re good friends,” says Stern of Owens. “He’s very good at his job but Clint is not CGI friendly. Clint loves the verisimilitude and the sense of life that comes with keeping a constant forward motion and we were never going to do big greenscreen shots where you get two or three shots done a day. Mike told me that he thinks this film was probably the biggest rotoscope job anybody’s ever done in the world.”

La desaturación:

Eastwood and Stern wanted to give the film a visual scheme that involved a partially desaturated look—not monochrome, but also minus a lot of color. The look would also help to quickly delineate particular time periods as the more recent scenes have the most color in them, the older ones the least. “You have the pre invasion, the invasion, the period after the war and the bond tour,” he explains, “and then we show things form the 1950s and 1960s up to the present day and we use color to help delineate that.”

He describes the look of the older period as being somewhat like the photochemical ENR process from Technicolor that he and Eastwood have used on other films but in this case he went to Technicolor’s Digital Intermediate division to have more control over the look. “We wanted to vary the intensity of the effect through movie, which you couldn’t do with ENR except reel by reel, which is a complete mind twister,” says Stern. “With the DI, we can go back and forth. So there’s a dry dirt farm in Lubbock, Texas we see from the earliest period in the film and I sort of do a [depression era black-and-white photographer] Walker Evans with that. And in the present day there’s almost none of the effect at all and with the DI, we could control all that shot by shot.”

Henry Bumstead:

Stern hastens to add that the DI was a process of fine-tuning and that much of the color scheme was built into his negative based on the production design by the late Henry Bumstead, production designer on films for Eastwood and many others for decades, who died at the age of 91, shortly after wrapping Red Sun, Black Sand. “He really wanted to keep working,” says Stern. “It was his love and he was a genius at it. We talked a lot about paint and the look of everything so that a lot of things were constructed so we could just photograph what he did and most of the design was already on the film.”

La pregunta es ¿competirán Eastwood y Stern contra sí mismos en los Oscar?

Saludos.

Iniciado por Nacho Aguilar

Que sepan los fans de Tim Burton (si es que hay alguno) que Philippe Rousselot ha desaparecido por fin del rodaje de su próximo film, el musical Sweeney Todd. Pero que nadie lance las campanas al vuelo, porque ha sido sustituido por Dante Spinotti

Como gran fan del director de BATMAN me sabe muy mal la noticia. Pero seguro q es musical? Pq no se donde lei q igual adaptaban solo la trama, sin canciones (noooo!!). Espero q Spinotti le haga mejor la peli.

Sobre John Toll, el otro dia veia ELIZABETHTOWN (si, tuve el valor!) y le debe hacer las pelis a Crowe, pq debe ser lo minimo salvable de sus ultimas pelis.

Lo que he leído de esa peli (desde que iba a hacerla Sam Mendes) es que era un musical. Si la han cambiado después ya me pillas.

Yo no me atreví con Elizabethtown porque por mucho Toll que tenga pensé que no iba a compensarme (tampoco es el tipo de cine en el que luce con más brillo). Por lo que dices parece que hice bien

Después de ver el tráiler HD de Blood Diamond -que por cierto es PANAVISION-, me reafirmo en lo que dije: Eduardo Serra es un claro contendiente al Oscar este año.

Saludos.

Iniciado por Nacho Aguilar

-The Blood Diamond, de Edward Zwick. Fot: Eduardo Serra. Zwick es uno de esos directores impersonales que pueblan Hollywood pero que tienen la virtud de rodearse de los mejores operadores de la industria, como Freddie Francis o John Toll, que lograron la estatuilla dorada por films como "Tiempos de Gloria" y "Leyendas de Pasión". El talento de Serra para la luz natural y las exóticas localizaciones hacen que apostar por este film sea muy fiable.

Perdone usted, amigo nacho, pero a mi no me parece que Zwick sea "uno de esos directores impersonales". Es más, es unos de los directores "epicos" que más me gustan y con los que más he disfrutado. Precisamente las dos peliculas que nombras, más la del ultimo samurai me parecen excelentes. Sobre todo Leyendas de Pasión, que hace que me estremezca en algunos momentos...
Yo no diria que este es un director impersonal, ahora bien, por supuesto no estoy a tu altura en cuanto a conocimientos técnicos, sólo me dejo llevar por mi entusiasmo y por las sensaciones que las peliculas (depués de haber visto muchas) me producen.

Un saludo

A mi LEYENDAS DE PASION tb me hace "estremecer" en varios momentos...

De todas formas, no creo q "impersonal" quiera decir q haga pelis malas. O buenas.

Iniciado por F_Elliott

De todas formas, no creo q "impersonal" quiera decir q haga pelis malas. O buenas.

Exacto. Quiero decir que no tiene una temática consistente de film a film ni un estilo propio e identificable, sino que es más bien anónimo e intercambiable con el de otros muchos directores que pululan por ahí.

El ejemplo perfecto sería el de la serie Bond. Al final lo de menos era que dirigiera John Glen, Terence Young, Lewis Gilbert o Guy Hamilton, sino que lo que importaba era que detrás de la cámara estuviera Freddie Young en lugar de Ted Moore, John Barry en la música o Sean Connery y no George Lazenby, etc.

Saludos.

Hablando de Toll.... algun dia (entre copas) os cuento la razon de porque rodó "vanilla sky" y su opinion sobre la version española xD

Cuenta , cuenta que somos un poco cotillos...

Por cierto Zwick si tiene personalidad... e inteligencia para elegir a grandes profesionales de la fotografia, por lo menos concedamosle ese honor sobre un Brett Ranner o un Mg por ejemplo.

Saludos.

Alan Daviau to be honored by Cinematographer's Guild

He was the director of photography that worked with Steven Spielberg on the film that acted as a calling card to a studio career. He went on to shoot three of Spielberg's most visually wondrous works, and was honored with three Oscar nominations for his efforts. He is Alan Daviau, cinematographer on such Spielberg classics as "Amblin'," "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," "The Color Purple" and "Empire of the Sun."

Daviau first began collaborating with Spielberg in the late 1960s, when the two young men worked on an aborted independent feature about speed cyclists entitled "Slipstream." Following "Slipstream," Spielberg and Daviau shot "Amblin'," which of course famously earned Spielberg his entrance into the industry with a seven-year contract for Universal's television division.

It would be nearly a decade before Spielberg and Daviau worked together again on the Cotapoxi sequence for the Special Edition of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Following this in 1982, Spielberg and Daviau famously brought the visually lyrical "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" to the screen.

Now, after decades of professional work and over thirty short films, television films and theatrical features, Alan Daviau will be honored by his peers with a Lifetime Achievement award from the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC).

Daviau will receive the honor at the 21st Annual ASC Awards on February 18, 2007. The ceremony will take place at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

Besides the aforementioned work, Daviau is an Oscar nominee for films that include Barry Levinson's "Avalon," and "Bugsy." Apart from his three features with Spielberg, Daviau also lensed two segments in the 1983 "Twilight Zone The Movie" (Spielberg's "Kick the Can" and George Miller's "Terror at 20,000 Feet"), Spielberg's "Ghost Train" for "Amazing Stories," and the Amblin production of "Harry and the Hendersons."

Alan Daviau will be joining a who's who roster of fellow Spielberg collaborators in ASC's Lifetime Achievement Award winners include Vilmos Zsigmond ("The Sugarland Express," "Close Encounters"), Bill Butler ("Something Evil," "Jaws"), and William Fraker ("1941").

(sacado de spielbergilms.com)

Estos de Spielbergfilm no se han enterado de que se llama Allen :]

Alan Daviau will be joining a who's who roster of fellow Spielberg collaborators in ASC's Lifetime Achievement Award winners include Vilmos Zsigmond ("The Sugarland Express," "Close Encounters"), Bill Butler ("Something Evil," "Jaws"), and William Fraker ("1941").

Lo raro es que a Daviau se lo han dado a los 64 años y a todos los demás receptores de este premio se lo dieron ya retirados o pasados los 70 años de edad. A este paso cualquier día se lo dan a Caleb Deschanel.

La carrera de Daviau es fruto de un golpe de fortuna: Vittorio Storaro y William Fraker rechazaron E.T. por diversos motivos y dado que era una película de presupuesto mediano (y en cierto modo, menor), Spielberg terminó ofreciéndosela a Daviau y el resto es historia.

La nota de prensa completa:

LOS ANGELES, October 16, 2006—Allen Daviau, ASC will receive the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is presented annually to an individual who has made extraordinary and enduring contributions to the art of filmmaking. Daviau will be feted at the 21st Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards on February 18, 2007, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel.

“Allen Daviau is still in the prime of his career, but he has already created an innovative body of work that will stand the test of time,” says Russ Alsobrook, ASC, who chairs the organization’s Awards Committee. “He is an awe-inspiring cinematographer who has earned the admiration of filmmakers around the world.”

Daviau claimed the first of his five Oscar® nominations in 1983 for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. His other nominations were for The Color Purple (1986), Avalon (1991), Empire of the Sun (1988) and Bugsy (1992). The latter two films also took top honors at the ASC Awards, and Empire of the Sun won the BAFTA cinematography award, the British equivalent of an Oscar.

Daviau joins a formidable group of previous recipients, including George Folsey, ASC; Joe Biroc, ASC; Charles Lang Jr., ASC; Phil Lathrop, ASC; Haskell Wexler, ASC; Conrad L. Hall, ASC; Gordon Willis, ASC; Sven Nykvist, ASC; Owen Roizman, ASC; Victor J. Kemper, ASC; Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC; William A. Fraker, ASC, BSC; Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC; Laszlo Kovacs, ASC; Bill Butler, ASC; Michael Chapman, ASC; Fred Koenekamp, ASC; and Richard Kline, ASC.

“When I was a teenager, I perfected the art of talking my way past studio gate guards, so I could watch movies being made as well as the last years of live television drama,” Daviau recalls. “I have many wonderful memories. I watched Charles Lang Jr. (ASC) light a close-up of Shirley Booth for a picture called The Matchmaker. Another time, I saw him light an immense hacienda scene for One-Eyed Jacks. Afterwards, he walked across the set to talk with Marlon Brando who was the director. I thought he must have the best job in the world.”

Daviau was born in New Orleans and raised in Los Angeles. He was a movie fan, avid still photographer, and the kid who lit stage plays in high school. After graduation, he worked in camera stores and still film labs. He saved enough money to buy a 16 mm camera and began shooting short films, including some for students at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). One of those films caught the eye of the producer of a new music program on KHJ-TV, who offered Daviau a job.

“I was making $150 a week at the camera store and this job only paid $100,” Daviau recalls, “but I grabbed the opportunity to shoot and edit film sequences every week. Some of them used the same visual language as the music videos that came along years later.”

The program was cancelled after 13 weeks, but the producer organized a company that created pre-MTV music videos for record companies that distributed them to local TV stations. Daviau shot films with The Animals, Jimi Hendrix and other popular performers. In 1967, a couple of aspiring filmmakers named Ralph Burris and Steven Spielberg saw his work and asked for his help on a 35 mm short film.

Daviau was the B camera operator. That project was never completed, but it led to an opportunity for him to shoot Amblin for Spielberg in 1968. That short film was a visual story with no dialogue. It caught the attention of top management at Universal Studios, who brought Spielberg onboard initially directing television films.

Daviau spent the next 10 years persistently pursuing his dream. He was a lighting effects technician designer on a Roger Corman film, shot 16 mm industrial and educational films, and 35 mm commercials. He also lensed several David Wolper documentaries, including Say Goodbye, which was nominated for an Oscar in 1971. During the mid-1970s, Daviau shot a couple of ultra low-budget, independent features that played in theaters in the South and Midwest.

He joined the camera guild when it opened its ranks to a new generation of cinematographers in 1978. That gave him an opportunity to work on mainstream films with larger budgets, beginning with a television movie called The Boy Who Drank Too Much, directed by his old friend Jerry (Jerrold) Freedman. When Freedman told Spielberg that Daviau was in the union, Spielberg had him shoot a two-day sequence in the desert for the new edition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Spielberg's next project was Raiders of the Lost Ark, where he met Melissa Mathison. He told her of a long-term, science-fiction film titled Night Skies. Together they transformed that work into E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, which became Daviau's first full-length feature. Principal cinematography was completed in 61 days. They explored a world where fantasy merges with reality. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial earned four Oscars and five additional nominations, including Best Picture. It ranks near the top of the list of all-time hits at the boxoffice.

Daviau has subsequently compiled some 25 additional narrative credits, including such memorable films as two segments of Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Falcon and the Snowman, Fearless and Van Helsing. He says that his television commercial work has given him the freedom to be patient and discerning about choosing narrative projects.

“You better believe in a film and the director if you commit to it, otherwise the passion isn’t going to be there,” he says. “I’ve spent a lot of time waiting for films that never happened. There have been some disappointments, but I consider myself lucky to have had opportunities to work on so many successful projects with wonderful people.”

ASC President Daryn Okada says, “I am certain that some of Allen’s most important work is still ahead of him, but he has already made an indelible impression on the art of filmmaking. His determination to pursue a seemingly impossible dream is a source of inspiration for filmmakers everywhere in the world.”

The ASC traces its roots to the dawn of the motion picture industry in 1913, when the Cinema Club in New York and the Static Club in Los Angeles were organized by the first generation of cinematographers, who were literally inventing a new visual language. Fifteen members of those two clubs organized the ASC in January 1919. They wrote a charter that dedicated the organization to advancing the evolving art and craft of telling stories with moving images. There are some 280 ASC members from many nations today, and 170 associate members from allied sectors of the industry. For information about the 21st Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards call 323-969-4333.

Atencion a la decepcion del duo De Palma-Zsigmond....

Y tanto, pero al menos no es lo peor de la pélicula.

Sin embargo, Lubezki en "Children of men" esta genial.

A mí ni De Palma ni Zsigmond me han decepcionado en lo referente a lo visual. Está claro que el guión, los personajes y los conflictos que narra le importan un carajo al viejo Brian, que a mí me parece que se dedica a lo suyo habitual, que no es otra cosa que divertirse y pasar tanto del público como de los estudios (hasta lo reconoce en entrevistas).

Aquí está la reseña.

La de Cuarón/Lubezki a ver si puedo ir a verla esta semana o si la tengo que dejar para la que viene, pero no me la perderé.

Saludos.

Pues sí, Lubezki está de Oscar en Children of Men y demuestra ser el operador más en forma de la actualidad además de un auténtico número uno sólo con 42 años.

Saludos.

Iniciado por Nacho Aguilar

Pues sí, Lubezki está de Oscar en Children of Men y demuestra ser el operador más en forma de la actualidad además de un auténtico número uno sólo con 42 años.

Saludos.

Vaya, se nota que te ha encandilado la película de Cuarón y Lubezki, a ver si saco tiempo y voy al cine porque con tu reseña se han multiplicado por 2 las ganas que tengo de verla.
Esta debe ser una de las películas del año, tan sólo leo referencias favorables y halagos.

Saludos.

Sí, la película está realmente bien, pero es que donde realmente es excelsa es en este sentido. A priori su aspecto frío, desangelado y realista no es el típico en el que destaca el trabajo de un operador porque no hay puestas de sol, ni escenarios espectaculares, postalitas en definitiva, pero lo que aquí hace Lubezki es tan brutal que a cualquiera le entra por los ojos.

Por eso el mexicano posiblemente sea el director de fotografía más importante del momento, ya que a su tradicional pericia rodando películas de estudio con mucha luz artificial y complicados decorados (Sleepy Hollow, Lemony Snickett, etc) - un estilo en el que ya era el mejor como demuestra la comparación de Sleepy Hollow con los siguientes trabajos de Tim Burton- ahora va el tío y le suma dos o tres obras seguidas (Y Tu Mamá También, El Nuevo Mundo, Hijos de los Hombres) de un aspecto radicalmente opuesto, rodadas en exteriores naturales, sin apenas iluminación adicional y de un realismo extremo y además lo hace sin perder un ápice de calidad mostrando una clase y un talento a la altura de muy pocos directores de fotografía, no ya de la actualidad (NINGUNO) sino de toda la historia del cine.

Saludos.

Iniciado por Nacho Aguilar

. A priori su aspecto frío, desangelado y realista no es el típico en el que destaca el trabajo de un operador porque no hay puestas de sol, ni escenarios espectaculares, postalitas en definitiva, pero lo que aquí hace Lubezki es tan brutal que a cualquier le entra por los ojos.

Como las escenas en el bosque, alrededor de la casa de Michael Cane, a mi me flipaban.

O esos momentos en q pone a los personajes contra el Sol y se van moviendo, con lo q te deslumbras a ratos. Me encanto.

Elliott, ¡qué bien le hubiese venido Lubezki al Spielberg de La Guerra de Los Mundos!

Saludos.

El ejemplo perfecto sería el de la serie Bond. Al final lo de menos era que dirigiera John Glen, Terence Young, Lewis Gilbert o Guy Hamilton, sino que lo que importaba era que detrás de la cámara estuviera Freddie Young en lugar de Ted Moore, John Barry en la música o Sean Connery y no George Lazenby, etc.

No estoy en absoluto de acuerdo. El estilo de cada director Bond es claro e inconfundible (dentro de la fórmula) independientemente del director de fotografía, el compositor o el protagonista.

Saludos