Year: 2025

Photo by Owen Roizman, ASC             Unless you’re a true insider at the ASC – and likely something of an old-timer – you probably don’t know about one of the most important people in the organization’s history.  Ben Toguchi – Benny – wasn’t just the Clubhouse caretaker and jack-of-all-trades for fifty years.  He was a … Continue reading “THE ASC’s BEST FRIEND”

            On February 23, the thirty-ninth annual ASC Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography will take place at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.  Categories include Music Video, Documentary, Spotlight, One-Hour Regular Series, Limited Anthology or Motion Picture Made for Television, Half-Hour Series and Theatrical Feature Film.             In addition, Honorary recognition will be bestowed … Continue reading “PARTY TIME”

            Director Robert Eggers’ 2024 Nosferatu (photographed by Jarin Blaschke, ASC) is making quite the splash this awards season.  But while we’re heaping well-deserved praise upon it, we should also toss a nod to F.W. Murnau, director of the original, 1922 version (shot by Fritz Arno Wagner and an uncredited Günther Krampf).             A German … Continue reading “HE WAS THERE FIRST”

            Imagine a time when there were only fifty cinematographer members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences…  Well, that was precisely the situation in December of 1957 when this column appeared in American Cinematographer.  Since its formation thirty years earlier, we had always been the smallest of the Academy’s nineteen branches, a … Continue reading “INSIDE BASEBALL…I MEAN, INSIDE CINEMATOGRAPHY”

Pre-disaster, obviously…

            Every year, the cinematography of certain features are anointed as awards-worthy from the moment they hit the screen.  In some cases, it’s warranted; in others, not so much.  And every year, a few examples of genuinely outstanding work never get their due and end up lost in the shuffle.             Probably because I’m partial … Continue reading “BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY…?”

            …to the assistant directors who greet your first step on set in the morning with a hearty, “We’re never gonna make this day!”             …to the fifth hammer, whose work ethic begins with “Where’s craft service?”  “What time is lunch?” and the ever-popular, “What time do you think we’ll wrap?”             …to every person … Continue reading “NEW DAY, NEW ATTITUDE”

            The laboratory business has always been a highly competitive one, with each franchise operating under the tightest of margins.  Just like today’s similarly-challenged post houses, they were constantly on the hunt for some proprietary ‘special sauce’ that would raise them above the herd and make them more attractive to their cinematographer customers.             I … Continue reading “HUCKSTERS…OR, THE GENUINE ITEM?”