Cinematographers

It's a tale of friendship and survival that has become legend in Hollywood. Two young Hungarians meet while studying cinema in Budapest and become swept up in the abortive Hungarian Revolution of 1956, risking their lives to film scenes of violent Soviet repression. After a harrowing journey secreting the footage out of the country so it can be seen by the rest of the world, they end up in Los Angeles, where they toil anonymously in B-level biker films, wandering into Roger Corman's orbit.

Build-a-Bear Workshop was introducing a line of stuffed animals called smallfrys and wanted to reach moms through Facebook. One video used in the online promotion showed a woman pulling up to a fast-food window. Her young daughter requests "a smallfry. " When her mom suggests a fruit cup or celery sticks, the daughter says, "Mom, order me a curly-haired bunny in a purple sequined bathing suit. " The 45-second smallfrys spot came not from a traditional advertising agency but from Poptent Inc., a "crowdsourced" video production studio that has built a global community of 50,000 writers, directors, cinematographers and animators to create commercials for Build-a-Bear, American Airlines, Dell, Intel, Jaguar, General Mills and others.

ASC taps five cameramen The American Society of Cinematographers' list of nominees for outstanding achievement in a feature film for 2009 has a distinctly international flavor. Only one American was among the five cinematographers named Monday: Robert Richardson, for "Inglourious Basterds." He was joined by Briton Barry Ackroyd, for "The Hurt Locker"; Aussie Dion Beebe, for "Nine"; Mauro Fiore, of Italy, for "Avatar"; and Austrian Christian Berger for "The White Ribbon," the only black-and-white film in the group.

Early in his career as one of Hollywood's top cinematographers, Bruce Surtees became known for his artful use of low-level, moody lighting in films such as Don Siegel's "The Beguiled" and "Dirty Harry" and Bob Fosse's "Lenny. " Surtees, 74, who received an Oscar nomination for his work on "Lenny" and was closely associated with Clint Eastwood on many of his films, died Feb. 23 in Carmel, Calif., of complications of diabetes, said his wife, Carol. FOR THE RECORD: Bruce Surtees: In the March 2 LATExtra section, a photo accompanying the obituary of cinematographer Bruce Surtees was described by the source, Getty Images, as showing him with Clint Eastwood during filming of "High Plains Drifter.

If movies are magic, then cinematographers are the resident wizards. Creators of images, manipulators of sun and shadow, they are drawn to light as well as its absence, and they use both to spin the visual webs that snare us all. At their best, says director of photography Allan Daviau, cinematographers "make the pauses speak as eloquently as the words."

When Roger Deakins applied to England's National Film and Television School for the first time, the man who has become one of the world's most respected cinematographers was informed that his stills weren't "filmic." Today, he sits in a sun-drenched beach cottage in Santa Monica and contemplates the concept. "I had this big discussion with [the head of the school] the second time I applied," says Deakins, now 58 years old. "I said, 'The first time you said it wasn't filmic.'

BRITISH cinematographer Freddie Francis, who died in March at 89, was an artist who used his camera as a paintbrush and celluloid as his canvas. An Oscar winner for 1960's "Sons and Lovers" and 1989's "Glory," Francis was a master of light and atmosphere. Creating memorable images "wasn't a complicated thing for Freddie," says his good friend and collaborator David Lynch, the iconoclastic director. "It was common sense. It was always beautiful and always technically right on the money."

When Rooster Cogburn, Jeff Bridges' gravel-voiced federal marshal in Joel and Ethan Coen's "True Grit," defends his tendency to shoot first and ask questions later in a courtroom scene, he is a figure engulfed in shadows. Slowly, a shaft of light streams through the courtroom's giant windows, revealing Cogburn's craggy, bearded face to the film's protagonist, 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), and the audience for the very first time. The dramatic effect, announcing the movie's larger-than-life antihero through light and darkness, is the work of Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins.

The American Society of Cinematographers and the NAACP Image Awards both announced their nominations Wednesday for the best of 2008. The ASC awards cover feature film, while the Image Awards nominations span movies, TV, music and literature. For the second consecutive year, Roger Deakins earned double nominations for the ASC's outstanding achievement award. Deakins received nominations for his work on two period films: "Revolutionary Road" and "The Reader."

A beautiful sunset is a beautiful sunset no matter who's filming it--and that's a thought that disturbs Roger Deakins, perhaps the most acclaimed and sought-after cinematographer currently working in Hollywood. "What I hate about modern cinematography is how simplistic it is," says the lanky, 52-year-old Deakins, sitting in the living room of his custom-built Santa Monica Craftsman-style home. "The picture is either pretty or sensationalistic.

Michael Davis Bassist for rock band MC5 Michael Davis, 68, the bassist of influential late 1960s rock band MC5, died Friday of liver failure at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, Calif., said his wife, Angela Davis. The Motor City Five, later known as MC5, rose to prominence in 1964, making waves with incendiary anti-establishment lyrics and a blistering early punk sound, starting with their first album "Kick Out the Jams," released in 1969. Known for its live performances, the band played outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago before rioting ended the concert.

Mike deGruy Award-winning nature cinematographer Mike deGruy, 60, an award-winning marine scientist and nature cinematographer best known for documentaries featuring underwater footage that brought viewers up close to sea creatures, plants and geographical features, died Saturday in a helicopter crash in eastern Australia, National Geographic said. Australian television writer-producer Andrew Wight, 52, also died when the helicopter he was piloting crashed soon after takeoff from an airstrip near Nowra, 97 miles north of Sydney.

We could go on for a thousand words about the following five pictures. But better to simply let the cinematographers who shot them explain the origins and execution of a few of our favorite film images from the year. "The Ides of March" The scene: Ryan Gosling's press secretary stands backstage, lost in thought following a confrontation with his boss. Cinematographer: Phedon Papamichael Birth of the shot: "The morning of rehearsal, George [Clooney]

The encampment around City Hall known as Occupy L.A. has drawn the interest of photographers and journalists from around the world, but few arrive with quite the same resume as that of Haskell Wexler. The two-time Oscar-winning cinematographer has made several visits to the protest site, using a small hand-held digital video camera to document what he finds there. Now 89, Wexler has begun posting short documentary vignettes online about the people camped out in downtown Los Angeles.

Gunnar Fischer, a cinematographer best known for films he made with Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman including 1957's "The Seventh Seal," has died. He was 100. Fischer died Saturday at a retirement home in Stockholm, said his son, Jens. No cause was given. Starting with "Port of Call" in 1948, Fischer also worked on such Bergman films as "Summer Interlude" in 1951, "Summer With Monika" in 1953, "Wild Strawberries" in 1957 and "The Magician" in 1958. "The Seventh Seal," in which Max von Sydow plays a knight returning from the Crusades who plays chess with Death, was a "spellbinding, one-of-a-kind masterpiece that helped gain Bergman international acclaim," film critic Leonard Maltin wrote in his "2011 Movie Guide.

Matthew Libatique, cinematographer on such movies as "Black Swan," "Iron Man" and "The Fountain," follows a certain routine before he starts a film. He studies paintings and photographs for inspiration and rewatches two British classics: 1947's "Black Narcissus" and 1948's "The Red Shoes. " Those two films, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, were visually arresting thanks to cinematographer Jack Cardiff, whose nine-decade career in movies began with silent films and lasted into the 21st century.

Usually, two names under a screen credit for cinematography means either the first person was fired or (gulp) died. But for "127 Hours," about real-life mountain climber Aron Ralston's grueling experience trapped in a Utah canyon, director Danny Boyle deliberately sought to use two cinematographers simultaneously: his Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire" cameraman Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak, who shot Boyle's "28 Weeks Later. " If one man was filming star James Franco, the other would be shooting a flashback scene or landscape shot, and vice versa.

If movies are magic, then cinematographers are the resident wizards. Creators of images, manipulators of sun and shadow, they are drawn to light as well as its absence. Because their work is technical, more dependent on complicated hardware and specific knowledge than that of either the writer or the director, cinematographers tend to be the forgotten folk of the movie process--which is why this 1993 documentary is both a treat and a revelation.

When cinematographer Giorgio Scali first saw the design that Victoria Casasco had developed for a friend's house, he was impressed by how the Santa Monica architect had referenced the Modernist work of the 20th century while still creating something that felt rooted in the 21st. The house wasn't so much a copy of Midcentury Modernism but an extension of it. His friend ultimately decided not to move ahead with Casasco's design, so Scali moved ahead with Casasco himself. He hired the architect to build on a narrow lot he purchased in Santa Monica, east of Lincoln Boulevard, and he requested a house that expressed the same spirit that he had seen in his friend's unbuilt plans.

Perry Moore Executive producer on 'Narnia' series Perry Moore, 39, an executive producer of "The Chronicles of Narnia" film series and the author of an award-winning novel about a gay teenager with superpowers, died Thursday at a New York hospital after being found unconscious in the bathroom of his home, police said. The cause of death will be determined by the city's medical examiner, but no foul play was suspected. His father, Bill Moore, told the New York Daily News that an initial autopsy was inconclusive.