Framing the story: Prediction for best cinematography at Oscars 2015

Award season for Hollywood will peak with the Oscars when the Academy bestows awards upon the worthy. We are here to talk about the nominations for Best Cinematography. Contenders this year share some connection. For example, Emmanuel Lubezki of Birdman, Roger Deakins of Unbroken and Robert Yeoman of The Grand Budapest Hotel have all previously collaborated with Coen brothers. Another black and white movie gets the nomination with Polish film Ida succeeding Nebraska from 2014.

Films are a visual medium and cinematography is the art of making every frame come together to tell the story on screen. Done perfectly, all those still frames can come together to create an epic. So let's have a look at who the nominees are—

Emmanuel Lubezki— Birdman

Dick Pope— Mr Turner

Roger Deakins— Unbroken

Robert Yeoman— The Grand Budapest Hotel

Lukas Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski— Ida

Winner in 2014: Emmanuel Lubezki— Gravity

 

Birdman 

Winner in 2014 for Gravity, Emmanuel Lubezki is back with his creative eye. Also known as 'Chivo' which means 'kid' in Spanish, Lubezki comes from Mexico and has been nominated for the seventh time this year. He is known as Gravity director Alfonso Cuaron's man. Cuaron and Chivo went to same film school in Mexico and have been friends since.

Emmanuel Lubezki is known for his mastery in seamless shots. Cinematography in Birdman has been creating waves for the same reason. Viewers and critics alike have been amazed at how the movie looks like it is one single shot. And that is what is so magical about Lubezki's cinematography. The Mexican duo, director Inarritu and Lubezki, used pan shots to stitch two rather long shots to achieve the effect of one single shot throughout the film. Each shot in the film is an average of 10 minutes long, the longest shot being 15 minutes long.

Lubezki used steadicams and handheld cameras, with the special rigs made to easily manoeuvre the handheld cameras. In the video below, you can see the ballet performance Emmanuel had to attempt with at least 8 people moving with him as a scene is being filmed!

 

Mr Turner

Dick Pope had clear instructions to use natural lights and minimum CGI as is always the case with director Mike Leigh. Pope and Leigh have been collaborating for 24 years now. This looks to be another common thing in this years nominees. Leigh wanted to tell Turner's story for years and wanted world to see how Turner saw the world.

They decided to work with natural lighting which gave the movie softer look. Pope used Arri Alexa camera and retro lenses by Cooke Speed Panchro series to help the viewer see how Turner was looking at the landscape. 

(This is what Turner's painting looks like and in the inset we see how the scene is portrayed in the film. Image Courtesy - indiewire.com)

The cinematographer decided to borrow heavily from JMW Turner's palette. They worked with natural light in Margate and relied very little on mild external sources. Result? Vintage masterpiece.

This is Dick Pope's second nomination for Oscar. He was last nominated for The Illusionist which starred Edward Norton and Jessica Biel.

Unbroken 

Roger Deakins is a veteran director of photography (DoP) in Hollywood. He has worked on films like The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, No Country For Old Men and Skyfall. He has also worked as visual consultant for another Oscar nominated movie this year, How To Train your Dragon 2. Working with Angelina Jolie on the story of Louis Zamperini, Deakins decided to keep the look of movie minimal. With bare bones lighting they still managed to play with dark of the day and light of the night.

In the picture above, you can see that in the pitch-dark of pain and no future, only light is Zamperini's undying spirit. Highlighting the silhouette, Deakins makes you see what determination can achieve. The decision to keep the look minimalist was made because it is a personal story of a survivor.

Australia had to stand in for a lot of different locations including the US base camp, the ocean Zamperini gets stranded in, and Japan in winter. Deakins is known for sprawling landscapes. That is why the scenes where the adrift crew had to jump out of raft to save themselves from the enemy fighter planes and then jump back in to save themselves from sharks in the water brings you to the edge of your seat.

The Englishman never deviated from the narrative. Here, Deakins rigged up the camera so that Louis' expression can be captured to highlight his undying spirit. 

This is Deakins' twelfth nomination with zero wins so far.

The Grand Budapest Hotel 

Robert Yeoman is known as Wes Anderson's guy. See what I mean by long years of collaboration being a common ground with this years nominees? They have worked closely together for The Darjeeling Limited, Moonrise Kingdom. Yeoman also worked on the all-girls-smash-hit Bridesmaids. This is Yeoman's first academy nomination. Yeoman's palette refers to the old Eastern European structure. Lighting and colours used are heavily borrowed from the bygone era of Prague.

Also, we can see how the change in era is captured in the way how the scenes are framed. For the 80s Yeoman uses wide framing and as we go back to 60s and then to 30s, the frames shrink and go back to square.

Yeoman shot during the day for night scenes and in the night for day scenes. For example, like in the picture below, he worked with lights during the night to shoot the day scenes. For the night scenes, he gave grey effects to the scene eventhough they were shooting in the day.

The famous 'Cross Keys' scene is just one desk in a square frame with people and props changing. The live action effect is fantastic.

Ida 

After Nebraska last year, another black and white film has been nominated for cinematography category. The film is the story of a novitiate nun who finds out about her Jewish roots before taking her vows and her journey after the revelation.

Cinematographer Ryszard Lenczewski has worked on all the films of director Paweł Pawlikowski​. Initially ​Lenczewski started to work on the movie but had to back out because of health reasons. The reins were passed on to first time cinematographer Lukasz Zal. Ida is a beautiful compilation of about 3000 still frames telling you a story of self realisation in the gray Poland of the 60s.

Structure and composition are two most highlighted parts of the duos work. In every single frame, bodies do not dominate the shot. Surroundings speak for the characters in the frame. They fill in the silence between dialogues.

This is the Lenczewski and Zal's first Oscar nomination.

Our Prediction - I love Dick Pope's use of Turner's palette. However, for his unusual use of cameras and shots to create a seamless and immersive viewing experience with Birdman, Emmanuel Lubezki will take his second trophy home.

Bringing director's vision to life is what a cinematographer does. Sets are there, dialogues are there, actors are there, but how they all are perceived by the viewer depends on how a cinematographer chooses to frame the story. The academy thinks these are the best cinematographers for the year. May the best of the best win!