John Seale, ASC, ACS, Michael D. O’Shea, ASC, and Douglas Kirkland will be honored by their peers during the 25th American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Outstanding Achievement Awards celebration at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on February 13, 2011.
“John Seale, Michael O’Shea and Douglas Kirkland have earned the admiration of our members for their significant contributions to the artistry of image making, be it motion pictures or still photography,” said Michael Goi, ASC president.
Seale will receive the ASC International Award, which is presented annually to a foreign cinematographer in recognition of extraordinary achievements in films produced for the global cinema.
O’Shea will receive the ASC Career Achievement in Television Award.
And Kirkland will receive the ASC Presidents Award, which is presented to individuals who have made significant contributions to the art form.
“John, Michael, and Douglas still have their best years ahead of them,” said ASC Awards Committee chairman Richard Crudo, “but they have earned and deserve this recognition. They are role models for the next generation.”
Seale was born and raised in Australia, where he was a cowboy in the Outback before launching his career as a news film and documentary cameraman. Seale has earned more than 40 feature film cinematography credits since 1976. He won an Oscar® for The English Patient (1996) and received additional nominations for Witness (1985), Rain Man (1988) and Cold Mountain (2003). His other memorable films include Children of a Lesser God, The Mosquito Coast, Dead Poets Society, Gorilla’s in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Poseidon and the upcoming movie The Tourist. Seale was inducted into the Australian Cinematographers Society Hall of Fame in 1997.
O’Shea was born and raised in Los Angeles, where he began his career working on the Warner Bros. lot while he was a college student. O’Shea has compiled an impressive array of cinematography credits for episodic series, television movies and miniseries. He won an Emmy® for CSI: Miami in 2003 and other nominations for the episodic series Doogie Howser, M.D. in 1992 and Relativity in 1997, and for the television movies To Love, Honor and Deceive in 1997 and The ’60s in 1999.
Kirkland was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. During the 1960s and ’70s, he was a staff photographer for Look and Life magazines which featured his portraits of Jack Nicholson, Marilyn Monroe, Morgan Freeman, Marlene Dietrich, Brigitte Bardot, Judy Garland, Sophia Loren, Charlie Chaplin and many other iconic movie stars. Kirkland was also a still photographer during the production of more than 100 motion pictures, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Out of Africa, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Moulin Rouge. His pictures have been featured in newspapers, magazines and books around the world. Portraits that Kirkland has taken of more than 200 cinematographers have also been featured in industry publications.
The ASC is a non-profit association dedicated to advancing the art of filmmaking. Since its charter in 1919, the ASC has been committed to educating aspiring filmmakers and others about the art and craft of cinematography.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More