IHPA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Cyril Drabinsky (left) celebrates withHPA President Leon Silverman.HPA Celebrates Post Industry,IndividualsBy Jon D. WitmerThe stars of Hollywood’s postcommunity gathered Nov. 10 at the SkirballCultural Center for the sixth annual HollywoodPost Alliance Awards, which celebrateoutstanding talent and achievement acrossa number of post disciplines. The judgesincluded ASC President Michael Goi; Societymembers Frederic Goodich, Daryn Okadaand Robert Primes; and associate membersLou Levinson, Leon Silverman (president ofthe HPA) and Garrett Smith.One of the evening’s themes was theever-changing post landscape. “You couldsay there have been some pretty turbulentand challenging times in postproductionthese days, and there’s no doubt that thereare changes and challenges ahead,” musedSilverman, the general manager of digitalstudio for Walt Disney Studios, who servedas host of the ceremony. “But it is thiscommunity that has always led throughchange.“Our industry demands a fleetness ofmind and spirit that allows us to survive andsometimes even thrive in times of radicalchange,” Silverman continued. “We havetruly gone from the cutting block to theclouds, and I’m looking forward to wherewe go next together.”Journalist and HPA Awards CommitteeChair Carolyn Giardina joined Okadaonstage to present the HPA Judges Awards,which recognize creativity and innovation inpost. One award was presented to TestronicLaboratories for the File-Based QC Lab, andthe other was presented to ASC associateSteven J. Scott of EFilm for the digital-intermediateenvironment employed on TerrenceMalick’s The Tree of Life (AC Aug. ’11).Accepting the award, Scott noted, “Iremember the first time I sat in a theater andwas even aware of cinematography. It wasat the Fox Village in Westwood, and themovie was Days of Heaven. I was dazzled.To think that someday I would have a part inhelping that director realize his artistic visiononscreen is still hard for me to grasp, but I’mvery, very grateful.“Most of all, thanks to the cinematographer,[Emmanuel] ‘Chivo’ Lubezki[ASC, AMC], for caring so much about hiswork and the work of everyone aroundhim,” Scott continued. “He lifts us all withhis unyielding quest for beauty, authenticityand truth in the images he [shoots].”The NAB Show sponsored the EngineeringExcellence Award, which, Silvermanexplained, “is a celebration of the increasingrole of technology and its impact on thecreative process.” Awards in this categorywere presented to four companies: DolbyLaboratories won one for the Dolby PRM-4200 Professional Reference Monitor,which is capable of displaying the fulldynamic range, contrast ratio and colorgamut of film stocks and professional digitalcameras; Sony Professional Solutions ofAmerica won for its Organic Light-EmittingDiode technology for reference monitors;IBM won for the Linear Tape File System,which provides a simple and cost-efficientmethod for managing large-scale dataarchives; and Lightcraft Technology earnedan award for Previzion, the company’s realtimeon-set compositing system.Goi presented the awards forOutstanding Color Grading with producerTodd London. “Today more than ever,” saidGoi, “the collaboration and cooperationbetween preproduction, production andpostproduction is vital in our industry. Infact, cinematographers are spending somuch time in postproduction you wouldalmost think we were getting paid for thattime.”The awards for color grading werepresented to Steven J. Scott of EFilm, forThe Help; Tim Vincent of LaserPacific, forMad Men, “Blowing Smoke”; and SiggyFerstl of Company 3, for Nissan, “Zero.”Ferstl was also nominated for ESPN, “ArthurAshe Award for Courage.”“My biggest thanks … must go toStephen Goldblatt [ASC, BSC],” said Scott.“His raw footage was my greatest inspiration.His cinematic accomplishments areobvious enough on the screen, but I’mparticularly grateful for the man behind thecamera.”Also nominated for OutstandingColor Grading were ASC associate StefanSonnenfeld of Company 3, for Transformers:Dark of the Moon , Sucker Punch andJameson, “Fire”; ASC associate Dave Coleof LaserPacific, for Tron: Legacy; NatashaLeonnet 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”; AidanFarrell of The Farm Group for Carnival Film& Television, for Downton Abbey, “Series 1Episode 1”; Sean Coleman of Company 3,for Nike, “Chosen”; Tom Poole ofCompany 3 NY, for Jack Daniels, “As AmericanAs”; Chris Ryan of Nice Shoes, forHPA Awards photos by Ryan Miller, courtesy of Capture Imaging.28 January 2012 American Cinematographer
“‘MONEYBALL’ RENEWS YOUR BELIEF INTHE POWER OF MOVIES. ”THE WALL STREET JOURNAL JOE MORGENSTERN“IMBUED WITH EVOCATIVE PHOTOGRAPHYBY CINEMATOGRAPHER WALLY PFISTER.”SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS RANDY MYERSBEST PICTUREBEST CINEMATOGRAPHY WALLY PFISTER, ASCF O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O NCHANGE YOUR GAME
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