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ASC nominations 2005


Richard Vialet

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The ASC just announced their nominations for the best feature work for 2005! :

 

BATMAN BEGINS (Wally Pfister; 35mm anamorphic)

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (Rodrigo Prieto; 35mm)

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK (Robert Elswit; Super-35mm)

KING KONG (Andrew Lesnie; Super-35mm)

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA (Dion Beebe; 35mm anamorphic)

 

 

I'm curious to know what everyone thinks about the nominees!

 

*Personally I find Batman Begins a pleasant surprise, but King Kong...cool work but i didn't see it cracking the top 5

Where's 2046, The New World, Jarhead, The Constant Gardener, March of teh Penguins and/or Capote?:(

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I was a little startled by the out-of-focus shots that made it into the final cut of "Good Night, and Good Luck."

Obviously the movie was shot in a photo-journalistic type of style, where they had a couple of cameras running in a free form way, kind of flying by the seat of their pants. Still, things are either in-focus or they're not. Maybe out-of-focus scenes within a film is a style I haven't yet come to appreciate. It doesn't really work for me. And there were quite a few of these - like a dozen or so.

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I just watched Batman Begins again a couple days ago on mute. I like to do this so that I can watch the cinematography a little closer. This film was my favorite of the year in terms of cinematography. I also think that Pride and Prejudice could be a close runner up to these films because of its long thought out shots going from room to room (it was a very grainy film though).

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I'll catch 'Geisha' this weekend, and from pics I've seen on asc.com it looks like a beautiful movie (and great story if it's anything like the book), but 'Batman Begins', especially the scenes shot in Iceland, is breathtaking. Being the Burton fan that I am, I prefered his version of Gotham City to the one in this film.

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It's interesting that relatively recent ASC inductees Elswit, Prieto, and Pfister are all nominated, while people like Roger Deakins, John Toll, and Janusz Kaminski who also had movies come out this year were not. I like the fact that the ASC continues to nominate not just the same old people every year and gives opportunities to slightly younger DPs to get some attention (like Pawel Edelman and Bruno Delbonnel in recent years).

 

That being said, however, I really felt that Kaminski's work in Munich deserved a nomination, but I'm not sure who I would replace on the nominees list as is. Maybe 5 nominees just isn't enough.

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First, congrats to all the nominees.

 

Second, I'm just a peasant, but I believe the ASC should expand the nominations from one general category for features to include cinematography nominees for drama, comedy/musical and sci-fi. I also wish they would present awards for excellence in cinematography for music videos and commercials.

 

The Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC) has been recognizing the work of cinematographers in those fields for years.

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Yes! Very good observation Wendell! I also think that the ASC should split the nominations that way and also nominate videos and commercials along with their TV nominees.

 

And yes, I forgot to congratulate all the nominees in my original post!

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Guest lostvikings

Truly a wonderful idea Wendell.....

As for the nominations are concerned i think "GEISHA" is fantastic and so is "BATMAN...."

Lets see who walks away as the winner...

 

Santosh

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The ASC just announced their nominations for the best feature work for 2005! :

 

BATMAN BEGINS (Wally Pfister; 35mm anamorphic)

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (Rodrigo Prieto; 35mm)

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK (Robert Elswit; Super-35mm)

KING KONG (Andrew Lesnie; Super-35mm)

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA (Dion Beebe; 35mm anamorphic)

I'm curious to know what everyone thinks about the nominees!

 

It makes me wonder, at what point in time will the ASC have to make two separate awards - one for predominately CG films and one for not.

 

It is still fair to compare something like King Kong to Brokeback Mountain?

 

Is the difference not unlike comparing photography to painting? Discuss.

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There has been some talk of creating a separate "indie cinematography" category but it's a somewhat charged issue for some reason. In theory, if it really is the "best" of the year, then budget shouldn't matter, but the truth is that the best cinematography nominees tend to be bigger studio films.

 

Plus the judging is done by the members, who have to volunteer their time, so it gets difficult to keep adding categories like commercials. I get requests to come in for judging TV shows and student films already, which is a commitment of time.

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Agree Wendell!

 

My one complaint about American Cinematographer magazine is that it rarely covers music videos, commercials or shorts. After the new graphic revamp a couple of years ago there was more articles, but now it's back to the same old stuff again.

 

The sad thing is that there is no publication that covers this properly. There's the odd article in Kodak's In Camera magazine and Fuji's Exposure (both quite good) at times, but not much else.

 

There's a wealth of info to be shared from that world. Hell, todays DI films wouldn't have been possible had it not been for DP's and technicians honing their skills over years in telecine and post. Sure, it's easier to "cheat" there, but you need to know WHAT you can cheat - and that's a skill unto itself.

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Those nominations seem decent, but I would definately put The Constant Gardner or Jarhead (and probably The New World though I have not seen it) on there before Kong.

 

I am really glad to see Elswit get a nomination since between Syriana and Goodnight and Good Luck he is my cinematographer of the year.

Edited by Matt Frank
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I am split on my opinion on whether or not the ASC should make more categories for awards. On the one hand I feel like so many awards are given out by so many groups, that who needs more awards? It like the extreme pretige that comes with winning just "Best Cinematography" you know? At the same time, it is hard to judge something like Batman or Geisha against something like Kong, where one is entierly (or almost completely at least) live action, with no DI, while Kong has seems to have been shot almost entirely against blue screen and went through a DI. Apples and oranges. A tough debate, and I guess in the end I'd rather the ASC just keep one award for feature films, not split into genres or technologies. In the end, if you do a nearly all CG film, shouldn't you be trying to make it look as good and real as possible? I do think that it would be nice to give an award for very short form work, IE music videos and TV commericals. A field that seems to be ignored completely as far as cinematography goes.

As for the nominations themselves, i haven't seen Geisha yet (though i will tonight) nor have i seen brokeback. However, i am surprised at Kong, i did really enjoy the show, and thought that most of it looked great. But there were scenes were the live action and the CG did not composite well and looked corny as hell. I have nothing against CG and indeed, and teaching myself how to do it and composite it. But i feel like the DP's job should to oversee the FINAL image of the film. Not just the capturing of the initial image. Granted, the DP is not going to sit there and do/oversee all of the compositing. A sticky little connundrum. Anyways, I think there may be other films slightly more deserving of the award. Just my 2 cents.

Steve

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Guest filmmakermilan

Memoirs of a Geisha was a beautiful film - surely worth a nomination for Beebe. Batman Begins was also shot very nicely. The rest of the films I have not seen so it's not fair for me to judge. Someone made a comment about Pride and Predjudice, and I agree that should probably have earned a nomination. I felt that Jarhead was another film that was beautifully shot.

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