The Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) announced the winners of the 10th Annual HPA Awards this evening (11/12) at a gala celebration held at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The HPA Awards recognize individuals and companies for outstanding contributions made in the creation of feature films, television, commercials, and entertainment content.
Honors were bestowed in craft categories honoring behind the scenes artistry, Engineering Excellence, and Creativity and Innovation. Leon D. Silverman, a founder and current president of the HPA, was the recipient of the prestigious HPA Lifetime Achievement Award.
The winners of the 2015 HPA Awards are:
OUTSTANDING COLOR GRADING – Sponsored by Dolby
Outstanding Color Grading – Feature Film
“Birdman”
Steven J. Scott // Technicolor
Outstanding Color Grading – Television
“Boardwalk Empire – Golden Days for Boys and Girls”
John Crowley // Technicolor PostWorks NY
Outstanding Color Grading – Commercial
Lincoln – “Intro”
Tom Poole // Company 3
OUTSTANDING EDITING – Sponsored by Blackmagic Design
Outstanding Editing – Feature Film
“Whiplash”
Tom Cross, ACE
Outstanding Editing – Television
“Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways – Nashville”
Kristin McCasey // Therapy Studios
Outstanding Editing – Commercial
GNP Seguros – “World Cup”
Doobie White // Therapy Studios
OUTSTANDING SOUND
Outstanding Sound – Feature Film
“American Sniper”
Alan Murray, Tom Ozanich, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff // Warner Bros. Post Production Services
Outstanding Sound – Television
“Homeland – Redux”
Nello Torri, Alan Decker // NBCUniversal StudioPost
Craig Dellinger // Sony Sound Services
Outstanding Sound – Commercial
The Syria Campaign – “In Reverse”
Jon Clarke // Factory
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS – Sponsored by Canon
Outstanding Visual Effects – Feature Film
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, R. Christopher White, Matt Aitken // Weta Digital
Outstanding Visual Effects – Television
“Game of Thrones – The Dance of Dragons”
Joe Bauer, Steve Kullback, Derek Spears, Eric Carney, Jabbar Raisani // Fire and Blood Productions
Outstanding Visual Effects – Commercial
“Game Of War – Decisions”
Benjamin Walsh, Brian Burke, Ian Holland, Brandon Nelson // Method Studios
The following special awards, which were previously announced, were also presented this evening:
HPA Engineering Excellence Awards – Sponsored by NAB Show
Canon, 4K Cine Zoom Lens
The Canon Super 35mm 4K cinema zoom lens offers a 20:1 zoom range with a 1000mm telephoto capability. Its compact body is less than 16 inches long and weighs less than 15 pounds.
Dolby Laboratories, Dolby Vision Projector
The Dolby Vision projector displays high dynamic range HDR images with a contrast ratio greater than 100,000:1 and projects a color gamut of Rec2020.
Panasonic, 4K Camera Imagers
Panasonic’s Super 35mm 4K DCI imager, used in the Panasonic VariCam35 4K, features high dynamic range, high speed 4K 120fps, low noise and dual native ASA technology, resulting in switchable 800/5000 ISO.
Quantel, Pablo Rio 8K
Quantel’s Pablo Rio performs real-time 8K 60p editing, color correction and finishing. Its benchmark is set to work with uncompressed, full size 8k graphic files.
Sony Electronics, BVMX300 Monitor
Sony’s BVMX300 30 inch 4K OLED monitor displays full 4K (4096×2160) images as normal range or as high dynamic range at color gamuts exceeding DCI P3.
In addition, Colorfront received an Honorable Mention citation for its Interactive HFR Frame-Blending, which features real-time, interactive HFR frame-blending with a simple slider interface to control the amount of motion blur of a moving object.
HPA Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation
ESPN – ESPN Digital Center 2
HPA Lifetime Achievement Award
Leon D. Silverman received the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award. Silverman, general manager, Digital Studio for the Walt Disney Studios, co-founded HPA in 2002. He currently serves as the organization’s president, and represents HPA on the SMPTE Board. Silverman has been a strong presence in Hollywood’s postproduction community for over 30 years.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More