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Industry: Email Alert RSS FeedAnd the winners are … Sci-Tech, ACE, ASC and VES hand out awards
Post, March, 2005 by Daniel Restuccio
HOLLYWOOD -- The industry dusted off its tuxes and gowns last month to honor the creative crafts at several major awards ceremonies.
The mainstays of this banquet circuit include the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Scientific and Technical Achievement Committee, the American Society of Cinematographers, the Visual Effects Society, and the American Cinema Editors.
SCI-TECH
The Scientific and Technical Academy Awards were presented at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena. Academy Awards of Merit (Oscar statuettes) were given to Horst Burbulla for the invention and continuing development of the Technocrane telescoping camera crane, and to Jean-Marie Lavalou, Alain Masseron and David Samuelson for the engineering and development of the Louma Camera Crane and remote system.
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Tak Miyagishima received the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for his lifetime of technological contributions to the industry. Having worked at Panavision for nearly 50 years, Miyagishima has been influential in developing and designing new technologies that are unique and innovative advancements in the field of cinematography.
"Tak has been and continues to be a leading design engineer," said Richard Edlund, chair of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee. "His work with Panavision, in particular the technologies he has created, revolutionized the industry."
Edlund said in a later interview. "We are at a great sea change in technology. Film will not be with us much longer. Digital is so much more facile." He noted with the consumer film business giving way to digital photography, soon it will not be economically feasible to manufacture film.
Scientific and Engineering Awards (Academy Plaques) were given to Gyula Mester (electronic systems design) and Keith Edwards (mechanical engineering) for their contributions to and the continuing development of the Technocrane telescoping camera crane, and to Lindsay Arnold, Guy Griffiths, David Hodson, Charlie Lawrence and David Mann for their development of the Cineon digital film workstation.
Technical Achievement Awards (Academy Certificates) were presented to Greg Cannom and Wesley Wofford for the development of their modified silicone material for makeup applications; Jerry Cotts for the original concept and design and Anthony Seaman for the engineering of the Satellight-X HMI Softlight; Steven E. Boze for the design and implementation of the DNF 001 multi-band digital audio noise suppressor; Dr. Christopher Hicks and Dave Betts for the design and implementation of the Cedar DNS 1000 multi-band digital noise suppressor; Nelson Tyler for the development of the Tyler Gyroplatform boat-mount stabilizing device for motion picture photography; Dr. Julian Morris, Michael Birch, Dr. Paul Smyth and Paul Tate for the development of Vicon motion capture technology; Dr. John O. B. Greaves, Ned Phipps, Antonie J. van den Bogert and William Hayes for the development of the Motion Analysis motion capture technology; Dr. Nels Madsen, Vaughn Cato. Matthew Madden and Bill Lorton for the development of Giant Studios' motion capture technology; and Alan Kapler for the design and development of Storm, a software toolkit for control of volumetric effects.
Arthur Widmer received a special Award of Commendation for his lifelong achievements in the science and technology of motion pictures, in particular contributions to the development of the Ultra Violet and bluescreen compositing processes.
ASC
The 19th ASC Awards, held at the Grand Ballroom, featured the surprising win by Bruno Delbonnel, AFC, who took the top feature honor for A Very Long Engagement, his second collaboration with director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Delbonnel was not at the event, but through his agent thanked colorist Yvan Lucas, who Delbonnel felt played an important part in achieving the film's final look.
Other nominees in the feature category were Dion Beebe, ASC/ACS, and Paul Cameron for Collateral; Caleb Deschanel, ASC, for The Passion of the Christ; Pawel Edelman, PSC, for Ray; and Robert Richardson, ASC, for The Aviator, Collateral was the first cinematography nomination for a feature shot on both digital and film cameras.
In the television categories, the winners were Robbie Greenberg for Iron Jawed Angels (HBO), cable movie; Jonathan Freeman, Homeland Security (NBC), original movie for broadcast television; and Nathan Hope for the CSI (CBS) episode "Down The Drain," episodic series.
Fred Koenekamp, ASC, received the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award. The cinematographer compiled nearly 90 film credits during his 40-year career. The cinematographers also feted Gilbert Cates, maestro of the Academy Awards, who received the organization's Board of Governors Award, which is presented annually to an individual who has made extraordinary and enduring contributions to advancing the art of filmmaking.
Alan Alda presented the ASC International Achievement Award to Tonino Delli Colli, AIC. The legendary Italian cinematographer began his career at Cinecitta Studios in Rome in 1938 when he was 16 years old. He was a driving force in the birth and evolution of neorealist cinema in Italy during the mid-1940s and 1950s.
