“Of all the awards this time of year, to me the most amazing one to get nominated for is the ASC Awards,” related Danny Cohen, BSC. “You have cinematographers voting on the quality of other cinematographers’ work. Being judged by your peers who regard you to be a key contributor to one of those five films in the final group is phenomenal. I look at films done over the past 12 months and it’s mind blowing to think that you made the cut to the final five.”
This month, Cohen received his second career ASC Award nomination on the strength of Les Miserables directed by Tom Hooper. Cohen’s first nomination came two years ago for another Hooper feature, The King’s Speech. Earlier, Cohen shot Hooper’s acclaimed miniseries John Adams, and prior to that the telefilm Longford.
Cohen observed that John Adams, Longford, The King’s Speech and Les Miserables are distinctly different projects. “They’re so varied. Tom is not treading water. He’s definitely pushing the boat. And once he’s comfortable in a working relationship, he pushes to get the most from your imagination. He has a vision of how he wants to tell the story, how he wants the pictures to move the story forward. But he’s open to change. At heart, Tom is a bit of an anarchist. Dealing with something [Les Miserables] of this scale, managing a crew of such size can have you locked into a lot of choices. Still, you have to be open to what happens actually during the day-by-day shooting. And in that respect, Tom is pretty bold. He is open and has the ability to very quickly reconsider what he was going to do and change it to make the most of the moment we’re in. Jumping on a better idea is the only way to maximize what’s in front of the camera. That’s what Tom excels at; he isn’t handcuffed by preconceptions.”
As for the biggest challenge that Les Miserables posed to him as a cinematographer, Cohen cited “two extremes….You have to do justice to the huge epic-scale stuff, the sweeping scenes. At the same time, you have to handle the really intimate scenes of say Anne Hathaway singing ‘I Dreamed A Dream.’ Each extreme is as much a challenge as the other. You have the physical realities of big epic scenes. On the other hand, you have the challenge of handling something intimate and emotional that already has a resonance with millions of people who have seen the stage version. I feel like ‘gulp, what am I going to do with that?’ But ultimately that’s what is so exciting about the film for me as an artist–it’s a film of extremes with extreme challenges.”
Hooper and Cohen ultimately decided to shoot Les Miserables on 35mm film with ARRICAM LT and ST cameras. Extensive testing and comparisons were done in a wide range of formats including 65mm, 3D and HD. “We toyed with the idea of 3D,” said Cohen, “and shot a whole day of singers performing. One of the reasons we threw it [3D] in the bin was the nature of shooting a musical. The actors have their mouths open for a fair amount of each take. In 3D with the camera moving towards somebody’s face with their mouth open, the visual becomes quite medical.”
Cohen related that there’s an inviting simplicity to film. “Shooting film is still incredibly straight forward. Sure, the new formats all have things going for them. But the scale of Les Miserables was challenging enough. We didn’t want to get wrapped up in the minutia of technical deliverables, monitors and all the other areas that crop up with new formats. As technology gets more complicated, it can create more confusion and misunderstanding, which is a bit of a danger.”
Cohen added that in the side-by-side tests on the big screen, the 35mm film images were still “the most interesting and exciting–it’s hard to describe but it’s the feeling you have when you watch. It [35mm] was perfect for our film.”
Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC “When I first heard about the ASC nomination, I was proud,” recalled Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC. “It’s a big one because you’re nominated by your peers, the cinematographers whose work I love and respect. To get that kind of validation of your work from your fellow cinematographers means everything.”
McGarvey earned the nom for his efforts on Anna Karenina, directed by Joe Wright. This is McGarvey’s second career ASC Award nomination, the first coming in 2008 for Atonement, also directed by Wright.
Atonement and Anna Karenina also each earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Achievement in Cinematography. McGarvey said of his recent Oscar nomination, “As soon as it was announced, I received email messages and texts from friends all over the world. It just demonstrates how important the Academy Awards are internationally among the general public and film-going people. Getting an Oscar nomination for Anna Karenina took my breath away.”
McGarvey said he wasn’t anticipating the ASC or Oscar nominations. “This film had mixed reviews yet I think it’s the best looking film I’ve shot. I’m proud of the work we did as a team–Joe Wright, the design and costume departments, hair, makeup, music. There was great communication between all of us. Each of our contributions was made stronger because of that collaboration.”
McGarvey gave great credit to Wright for maximizing the film creatively despite, or perhaps because of, working within financial constraints. “Weeks before we went into production, our budget was slashed. Joe had to scramble to rescue the movie. He reimagined the film with production designer Sarah Greenwood [also Oscar nominated for Anna Karenina] at his side. In some ways, I’m glad the budget was cut. It required a reimagining, a streamlining of ideas and a change in approach. That allowed me to be much bolder with my lighting choices, more expressive with camera movements. It allowed the designer and I to be stronger with color, to pinpoint what we were going to depict. Joe and I storyboard every film we do but we had to be very specific with this one. The sets were leaner than we were used to. We previsualized the film very clearly–not just pictorially but rhythmically. The ASC and Academy Award nominations are a validation of Joe’s great work. I very much hope the Oscar recognition gets more people to see the film.”
As alluded to, McGarvey and Wright have worked together before–spanning features, shorts, music videos, and several Chanel commercials. “Joe has been a good friend of mine for over 20 years,” related McGarvey. “That helps us to share ideas with impunity.”
Anna Karenina was sandwiched in-between two blockbuster releases shot by McGarvey. The period piece was preceded by The Avengers, directed by Joss Wheden. Now the DP is in pre-pro on Godzilla, directed by Gareth Edwards. “I like the variety,” said McGarvey. “You exercise different muscles, kind of like photographic pilates.”
Godzilla will have McGarvey shooting both film and digitally, with the ARRI ALEXA deployed for the latter. McGarvey went with Panavision cameras and anamorphic lenses to shoot Anna Karenina on 35mm film. And The Avengers was lensed on the ALEXA. “Cinematographers today are in a lucky position, being able to shoot film and digital,” affirmed McGarvey. “I very much hope, though, that the film option will continue.”
Claudio Miranda, ASC Like McGarvey, this year Miranda earned both an ASC and Best Cinematography Oscar nomination. Director Ang Lee’s Life of Pi brought these two latest honors Miranda’s way. He is now a two-time ASC and Oscar nominee, the prior recognition coming for David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2009).
As for what the ASC nomination means, Miranda related, “I’m personally thrilled to have my work recognized by my esteemed colleagues. We worked hard on this film and we couldn’t have asked for a better response on all our efforts! I hope to keep developing the techniques we honed and working on amazing movies like this one.”
Regarding the biggest challenge Life of Pi posed to him as a cinematographer, Miranda observed, “In a word, water. A lot of our efforts were in aid of making the water look natural, capturing sunlight on the ripples without it appearing electronic, keeping spray off the lens, moving from above water to underwater, even dealing with the lack of marks on water! In the 120×40 meter structure we built around the wave tank in Taichung, we had massive doors we could open to let in the light, and silks and blacks so I could shape the way the light hit the water. But it paid off and a lot of the really beautiful scenes feature light on water, including the sleeping Vishnu on the pool with candles. Fortunately, the ARRI ALEXA had an amazing capacity to hold highlights and make it look real, and Pace Fusion built an amazing 3D housing to meet underwater challenges.”
Rounding out the field of this year’s ASC nominees in the Feature category are Janusz Kaminski for Lincoln; and Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, for Skyfall. All but Cohen were also nominated for the Cinematography Oscar. This year’s ASC nomination brings Deakins’ career total to 11. This is Kaminski’s fifth nomination.
