Size Matters!

IMAX filmmakers take large screen format (and celluloid) to infinity and beyond. By Kevin H. Martin. Photos courtesy of IMAX & MacGillivray-Freeman Films.

If Aristotle was right that nature abhors a vacuum, then the debut of large-format venue IMAX in 1970 seems, in retrospect, inevitable. Three-panel Cinerama had gone the way of the dodo, and that same year, David Lean’s Ryan’s Daughter (Oscar-winning cinematography courtesy of Freddie Young, BSC) became the last major studio feature to shoot in Super Panavision 70 (save for Far and Away, shot by Mikael Salomon, ASC, 22 years later). The 1970s also saw the end of the “event” film released on a limited number of screens, and the beginning of the multiplex era, which further helped to “shrink” the cinematic experience. Read more

Climbing the Career Mountain

ECA winners mingle with new indie directors at Technicolor event

By Valentina I. Valentini

Building a career as a cinematographer is no easy task. Great visuals are often overlooked if the project is poorly reviewed or little seen. When a film falls flat with festival audiences, or a new TV show doesn’t make it past a few episodes, the DP may not be remembered, no matter how stunning or surprising the look. That leaves some very talented cameramen and women without the exposure to advance their careers. Read more

Colin Rich – NightFall

by Pauline Rogers

Newcomer Colin Rich has found an interesting niche in time-lapse cinematography. Everyone, from commercial to feature shooters, relies upon time-lapse at some point in their careers. But it’s still mostly unexplored terrain in many ways. Read more

A Walk in the Park

America’s “Best Idea” started in California, and a new PBS documentary wants to make sure it doesn’t end there

by David Geffner photos courtesy of Backcountry Pictures

Writer/director David Vassar has been a self-described “parkie” for most of his adult life, serving as a ranger in Yosemite National Park when he was 20, and working for the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. The evocative short film Spirit of Yosemite, made by Vassar in 2001, still plays today in that park’s Visitor Center, educating hundreds of thousands each year about the Golden State’s most prized natural treasure. Read more

Celluloid Dreams

A history of film emulsion. By Pauline Rogers.

Have you ever heard the story about the strip of plastic that changed the world? About the development (pun intended) of a physical and chemical process that brought people into theaters built only for live entertainment, and allowed them to experience worlds as far as their imaginations could take them? Read more

A Family Affair

Publicists honor their own at the 49^th annual awards event. By Pauline Rogers. All photos by Mathew Imaging.

Awards Season is traditionally a time when the entertainment industry loses itself in anticipatory buzz: who among its own – actors/directors/cinematographers/writers, etc. – will take home that career-changing hardware this year? But did you know the reason the entire world knows its “gaga time in Lotusland” (try tweeting that 10 times) is because of the intense marketing efforts of those behind-the-scenes folks known as publicists? These Guild members make Hollywood’s PR machine go, and once a year the spotlight is turned on them in their annual Publicists Guild Awards, presented by Local 600. Read more

Come Together

FIND/ECA networking event unites emerging filmmakers. By Pauline Rogers.

FIND (Film Independent), the non-profit arts organization producers of the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, also helms a Directing Lab dedicated to the development of independent talent, much the same as Local 600’s Emerging Cinematographers Awards. FIND Lab fellows workshop and shoot key scenes from their feature film projects. This year, thanks to the efforts of Local 600 President Steven Poster and ECA Chairman Jim Matlosz, a group of Lab directors in search of cinematographers came together to explore possible partnerships with ECA winners. Read more

Shooting Gallery 2011 – “Lost and Found”

This year’s Shooting Gallery spread is comprised of images we call “lost and found.” They are moments from real life, snatched by the watchful eyes of Local 600 Unit Stills members from film, television sets, and live events, after the cameras stopped turning. They are idiosyncratic, mysterious and poignant, revealing the strange magic of the entertainment industry better than any behind-the-scenes documentary. Some – like a pack of screaming fans at a concert – capture the innocence of a lost era. Others, like a crewmember in silhouette on a scaffold, or a little boy napping on an equipment cart, hint at something deeply human in a process often overshadowed by (and dependent on) technology. If the act of production is wholly artificial, often losing sight of the emotional goals that are sought, then this gallery of lovely, and often surprising, photographs is where those feelings are found. It just requires the right person with a camera. Read more

ECA 2011

Holy Light Meter, Robin! Hollywood’s premier event for new cinematographic talent turns 15 with its biggest celebration yet. By David Heuring.

The ICG Emerging Cinematographers Awards are celebrating their 15th year. Dreamt up by former Guild president George Spiro Dibie, ASC, as the ICG Showcase, and nurtured by the dedication of Rob Kositchek for 13 years, the event has become a milestone on the Guild calendar, a chance to see the true depth of the talent and skill throughout the ICG roster. Films made by members who are not classified as directors of photography are eligible for submission. Read more

Unity Series Part III: Editors

Putting All The Pieces Together. By Pauline Rogers.

It’s fitting that our third unity series installment hones in on IATSE editors, given that our April issue’s theme is new technology. Other than camera, few departments have undergone a more dramatic technological upheaval than postproduction. Or as L.A.-based Local 700 member Julie Rogers (Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Kit Kittredge) points out, “The splicer has gone the way of the buggy whip,” replaced by computers, monitors and sophisticated, albeit at times mysterious, software that has engulfed the editor’s room. New tech to be sure, but has the actual craft and role of editorial also changed? Read more

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