AmericanCinematographer201201

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HPA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Cyril Drabinsky (left) celebrates with
HPA President Leon Silverman.
HPA Celebrates Post Industry,
Individuals
By Jon D. Witmer
The stars of Hollywood’s post
community gathered Nov. 10 at the Skirball
Cultural Center for the sixth annual Hollywood
Post Alliance Awards, which celebrate
outstanding talent and achievement across
a number of post disciplines. The judges
included ASC President Michael Goi; Society
members Frederic Goodich, Daryn Okada
and Robert Primes; and associate members
Lou Levinson, Leon Silverman (president of
the HPA) and Garrett Smith.
One of the evening’s themes was the
ever-changing post landscape. “You could
say there have been some pretty turbulent
and challenging times in postproduction
these days, and there’s no doubt that there
are changes and challenges ahead,” mused
Silverman, the general manager of digital
studio for Walt Disney Studios, who served
as host of the ceremony. “But it is this
community that has always led through
change.
“Our industry demands a fleetness of
mind and spirit that allows us to survive and
sometimes even thrive in times of radical
change,” Silverman continued. “We have
truly gone from the cutting block to the
clouds, and I’m looking forward to where
we go next together.”
Journalist and HPA Awards Committee
Chair Carolyn Giardina joined Okada
onstage to present the HPA Judges Awards,
which recognize creativity and innovation in
post. One award was presented to Testronic
Laboratories for the File-Based QC Lab, and
the other was presented to ASC associate
Steven J. Scott of EFilm for the digital-intermediate
environment employed on Terrence
Malick’s The Tree of Life (AC Aug. ’11).
Accepting the award, Scott noted, “I
remember the first time I sat in a theater and
was even aware of cinematography. It was
at the Fox Village in Westwood, and the
movie was Days of Heaven. I was dazzled.
To think that someday I would have a part in
helping that director realize his artistic vision
onscreen is still hard for me to grasp, but I’m
very, very grateful.
“Most of all, thanks to the cinematographer,
[Emmanuel] ‘Chivo’ Lubezki
[ASC, AMC], for caring so much about his
work and the work of everyone around
him,” Scott continued. “He lifts us all with
his unyielding quest for beauty, authenticity
and truth in the images he [shoots].”
The NAB Show sponsored the Engineering
Excellence Award, which, Silverman
explained, “is a celebration of the increasing
role of technology and its impact on the
creative process.” Awards in this category
were presented to four companies: Dolby
Laboratories won one for the Dolby PRM-
4200 Professional Reference Monitor,
which is capable of displaying the full
dynamic range, contrast ratio and color
gamut of film stocks and professional digital
cameras; Sony Professional Solutions of
America won for its Organic Light-Emitting
Diode technology for reference monitors;
IBM won for the Linear Tape File System,
which provides a simple and cost-efficient
method for managing large-scale data
archives; and Lightcraft Technology earned
an award for Previzion, the company’s realtime
on-set compositing system.
Goi presented the awards for
Outstanding Color Grading with producer
Todd London. “Today more than ever,” said
Goi, “the collaboration and cooperation
between preproduction, production and
postproduction is vital in our industry. In
fact, cinematographers are spending so
much time in postproduction you would
almost think we were getting paid for that
time.”
The awards for color grading were
presented to Steven J. Scott of EFilm, for
The Help; Tim Vincent of LaserPacific, for
Mad Men, “Blowing Smoke”; and Siggy
Ferstl of Company 3, for Nissan, “Zero.”
Ferstl was also nominated for ESPN, “Arthur
Ashe Award for Courage.”
“My biggest thanks … must go to
Stephen Goldblatt [ASC, BSC],” said Scott.
“His raw footage was my greatest inspiration.
His cinematic accomplishments are
obvious enough on the screen, but I’m
particularly grateful for the man behind the
camera.”
Also nominated for Outstanding
Color Grading were ASC associate Stefan
Sonnenfeld of Company 3, for Transformers:
Dark of the Moon , Sucker Punch and
Jameson, “Fire”; ASC associate Dave Cole
of LaserPacific, for Tron: Legacy; Natasha
Leonnet of EFilm, for Love and Other Drugs;
Kevin O’Connor of Deluxe Media Services,
for Too Big to Fail; Tom Sartori of FotoKem,
for Breaking Bad, “Box Cutter”; Aidan
Farrell of The Farm Group for Carnival Film
& Television, for Downton Abbey, “Series 1
Episode 1”; Sean Coleman of Company 3,
for Nike, “Chosen”; Tom Poole of
Company 3 NY, for Jack Daniels, “As American
As”; Chris Ryan of Nice Shoes, for
HPA Awards photos by Ryan Miller, courtesy of Capture Imaging.
28 January 2012 American Cinematographer