It is no longer news that Mauro Fiore, ASC took home an Oscar for his artful rendering of live-action images in Avatar. But, the reality is that cinematography tends to fly under the radar at the Academy Awards. Maybe it’s because none of the nominees was wearing a posh evening gown adorned with the label of a celebrity designer.

It was one of the more interesting cinematography competitions in the 82 year history of the Oscars. The other nominees were Barry Ackroyd for “The Hurt Locker,” Christian Berger, AAC for The White Ribbon, Bruno Delbonnel, AFC for “Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince” and Robert Richardson, ASC for “Inglourious Basterds.”

It was the first time the five nominees were born and raised in different countries. Fiore was born in Marzi, Italy, a small town with a population of about 1,500. His family moved to Chicago when he was 11 years old. The ASC after his name indicates that he is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers. ASC is an honorary organization with some 300 members by invitation based on their bodies of work.

Ackroyd was born and raised in Mancester, England. He has occasionally worked on U.S. films, but his main body of work was earned in his native land. Delbonnel was was born in Nancy, France. His family moved to Paris when he was 20. His body of work is a blend of U.S. and French films. The AFC after his name indicates that he is a member of the Association of French cinematographers.

Berger was born and raised in Innsbruck, Austria. The ACS after his name indicates that he is a member of the Austrian Society of Cinematgraphers. The White Ribbon and most other films in his body of work were produced in his native land.

Richardson was born and raised in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where he spent his youth. He now lives in Los Angeles. This was his sixth Oscar nomination. Richardson took top honors in 1991 for JFK and in 2004 for The Aviator.

The morale is that cinematography is a global language. The genres of the five films nominated this year varied from pure fantasy to harsh reality. They ranged from independent features produced with very limited resources to a $300 million-plus budget blockbuster. Ackroyd shot “The Hurt Locker,” which won Oscars in the Best Picture and Best Director categories in Super 16 film format. Fiore had two digital cameras on a rack, while shooting in 3-D format on sound stages. Richardson, Berger and Delbonnel created their imagery in 35 mm film format, but with radically different visual grammars. The morale of this story is that without artful cinematographey movies would be radio.

Photos: Richard Harbaugh / ©A.M.P.A.S.

BY BOB FISHER
Morgan Freeman will be in the spotlight during the 24th Annual American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Awards celebration Saturday evening (February 27th) at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

The venerable actor will receive the ASC Board of Directors Award. The cinematographers reserve this recognition for colleagues in other sectors of the industry who have earned their admiration. Freeman is in good company. Former recipients include Gregory Peck, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Robert Wise, Francis Ford Coppola,Warren Beatty, Ron Howard, Sally Field, Sydney Pollack and Annette Benning.

Freeman has earned nearly 90 credits on the other side of the camera during the past 40 years. He won an Oscar for his compelling portrayal of Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris in Million Dollar Baby in 2005. There were other Academy Award nominations for Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus. That’s just the short list of his memorable performances in every genre from comedy to drama.

“Morgan is an enormously talented actor,” says Tom Stern, ASC, who was on the other side of the camera during the production of Million Dollar Baby and Invictus. They were both amazing experiences. He became “Scrap Iron” and Nelson Mandela before our eyes and inspired everyone in the cast and crew. I treasure those experiences.”

ASC will also be honoring three of their peers for career achievements. Caleb Deschanel, ASC will receive the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award. Chris Menges, ASC, BSC is the recipient of the 2007 International Achievement Award. John Flinn, ASC is on deck to receive the Career Achievement Award for Television.

I promised to report that while Caleb, Chris and John are receiving career achievement awards from their peers, they are active cinematographers at the peaks of their careers. Stay tuned. Chances are the best is yet to come. ASC will also present Outstanding Achievement awards in three competitive categories, feature films, television movies and episodic programs.

BY BOB FISHER
“No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo and Vilmos” has been chosen for the American Documentary Showcase. It will be screened at U.S. embassies and other overseas venues throughout 2010. The program is a cooperative venture by the U.S. Department of State and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The 86 minute documentary takes audiences on a 50 year journey with Laszlo Kovacs, ASC and Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC who arrived in the United States in 1957 as political refugees in search of an impossible dream of becoming Hollywood cinematographers.

The non-fiction film was conceived, produced and directed by James Chressanthis, ASC, whose narrative cinematography credits include the telefilms Living Proof, Four Minutes and 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story. Chressenthis produced the documentary over a two-year span while he was shooting the popular Ghost Whisperer TV series.

Kovacs and Zsigmond were students at the national film school in Budapest, Hungary in October, 1956 when a spontaneous revolt against the communist regime was brutally crushed by the Russian army. They documented history in the making and carried their film across the border into Austria so people around the world could see what happened.

Kovacs and Zsigmond arrived in the United States in February, 1957. They were initially rejected by the filmmaking establishment as foreigners who didn?t speak English. They overcame every obstacle, and became two of the most revered filmmakers in history.

?I interned with Vilmos while he was shooting The Witches of Eastwick (in 1987),? Chressanthis says. ?He and Laszlo hosted a luncheon for the cast and crew to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the uprising against the communist regime. They toasted the spirit of the revolution and those who gave their lives in a quest for freedom. I thought someone ought to produce a documentary about them.?

Twenty years later, Chressanthis decided he was that someone. He filmed more than 70 hours of interviews with Kovacs, Zsigmond and an all-star cast of more than 50 actors, directors, cinematographers, journalists and other people whose paths Kovacs and Zsigmond crossed. The interviews are artfully interwoven with memorable scenes from films lensed by Kovacs and Zsigmond and other footage documenting their lives.

“Laszlo was skeptical,” Chressanthis says. “Other people had told him they were going to produce a documentary about him and Vilmos. I am grateful we got his memories on film, and am so sorry that Laszlo didn’t get to see it before he died.”

The documentary has played at 26 festivals on four continents. It aired on PBS stations in 2009 as part of The Independent Lens series, and is currently being distributed in DVD format.

For more information visit http://www.laszloandvilmos.com.

BY BOB FISHER

An exhibition of still photography by Steven Poster, ASC is on display at Wisconsin Union Galleries at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, Wisconsin. The exhibition is a retrospective of 40 years of what Poster describes as “street photography.” The still photography exhibit has traveled from Los Angeles to New York, Oklahoma, Illinois and Georgia. It will be on display in Madison until March 9.

Poster was born and raised in Chicago. When he was 10 years old, the father of one of his friends had a dark room, including a home-made enlarger, in their home.

Poster was fascinated. Was it a happy accident or destiny calling? “I don’t know if that is what turned me into a photo enthusiast, but it made a deep impression,” he recalls. “My parents gave a little Brownie camera, and by the time I was 12, I decided that photography was going to be my life. I saved enough money to buy a Rolliflex. It was always with me, and I was always taking pictures. My high school principal called me Flash.”

When Poster was 14 years old, Morrie Bleckman, a CBS television news cameraman, became his next door neighbor. That sparked his interest in telling stories with moving images. Poster honed his talent while studying at Southern Illinois University, the Chicago Institute of Design and the Art Center of Design in Pasadena.

He has earned some 50 long form narrative credits, including such memorable films as The Boy Who Could Fly, Someone to Watch Over Me, Big Top Pee Wee, Rocky 5, Stuart Little 2, Donnie Darko, Southland Tales and The Box. Next on the agenda is the upcoming release of Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore in 3-D. Poster was president of the American Society of Cinematographers in 2003-04, and he currently serves as president of the International Guild of Cinematographers. Stay tuned for news about his future photography exhibits.

BY BOB FISHER
Get ready for a frightening journey 120 years back in time. The Wolfman is coming to a cinema screen in your neighborhood.

Shelly Johnson, ASC and director Joe Johnston arrived on the scene just three weeks before production was scheduled to begin at Pinewood Studios and practical locations in and around London.

They stepped into the breach after the original director left the scene.
Johnson read the script while flying from Los Angeles to London. He had vivid memories of seeing the 1941 black and white version of The Wolf Man at a revival theater.

The classic thriller takes place during the 1890s when nights were lit by candles, firelight and the moon. As soon as his airplane touched down, Johnson taxied to the studio, met with Johnston and began planning a visual grammar.

They had collaborated on Jurassic Park III in 2001 and Hidalgo in 2004, so Johnson and Johnston hit the ground running as they took the script apart scene by scene.

Benicio Del Toro plays an estranged son who returns home to the family estate to help search for his missing brother. Anthony Hopkins portrays, the father, Sir John Talbot. Emily Talbot is cast in the role of the missing brother’s fiancée.

“It’s a dark movie with many night scenes,” Johnson says. “Joe wants a heaviness in the atmosphere, which the audience feels on a subliminal level.”

When a full moon rises, a character has conflicted feelings as he transitions into a werewolf. Johnson added touches of warm and cool light while filming those scenes.

It’s like non-verbal dialogue which visually punctuates the man’s conflicting emotions.
Johnson added “a pearlescent tone” to the film in collaboration with Jill Bagdanovich, a digital intermediate colorist at Technicolor, in Los Angeles.

“It’s not something the audience notices on a conscious level,” he explains. “It’s a feeling which helps transport them to a time and place where there are werewolves.”