Cinematographer Mandy Walker, ASC, ACS (the upcoming Jane Got a Gun; Red Riding Hood, Australia, Shattered Glass), has been named the 2014 Kodak Cinematographer-in-Residence at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT).
This is the 15th year of the residency program, which is sponsored by the Eastman Kodak Company. Walker joins a distinguished group of cinematographers who have received this honor in the past including Guillermo Navarro ASC, AMC (From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids, Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2, Pacific Rim); Roger Deakins, BSC, ASC (No Country For Old Men, True Grit, Skyfall); Dante Spinotti, ASC (Hercules, Tower Heist, Public Enemies); Richard Crudo, ASC (American Pie); John Bailey, ASC (American Gigolo, He’s Just Not That Into You, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, In the Line of Fire, As Good As It Gets); Stephen H. Burum, ASC (The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible); Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Deer Hunter, The River); Victor J. Kemper, ASC (American Pie Presents Band Camp, Dog Day Afternoon); Joan Churchill, ASC (Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer); Laszlo Kovacs, ASC (Ghostbusters, Radio Flyer, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Miss Congeniality); Owen Roizman, ASC (The Exorcist, Tootsie, Wyatt Earp); Conrad L. Hall, ASC (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, American Beauty, Road to Perdition); Dean Cundey, ASC (The Holiday, Jack and Jill, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Jurassic Park, Apollo 13); and Allen Daviau, ASC (Van Helsing, Congo, E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial, The Color Purple, Avalon, Bugsy).
The Kodak Cinematographer-in-Residence program began in 2000 to enhance the learning experience of students with insight from renowned cinematographers. UCLA TFT is the only film school that offers a cinematography residency program such as this, where students can receive direct guidance from cinematographers through screenings, workshops and one-on-one sessions over the course of 10 weeks.
The residency begins in December with small hands-on student workshops and continues for the remainder of the 2014-2015 academic year.
“We are honored to work with the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television on this very successful program,” said Kodak’s Bruce Berke. “Mandy Walker is an accomplished filmmaker. The students are guaranteed to learn much about the art and craft of filmmaking from her experiences.”
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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