Oscar 2013 - Film Editing

Besides sound and cinematography, the film editing is one of the categories where I actually like to make a prediction and talk extensively over it. I don't really have the necessary disposition this year and I've already rambled enough in my previous post, so we'll see what comes up. Besides that, the configuration for 2013 is not that complicated ...

"Argo" is the first nomination here. For me it's the best editing in the list. As main argument, as I was saying in a previous entry, the story is not extremely alert (except the ending) but this aspect is "hidden" behind the editing which doesn't let you feel any unnecessary length. On top of this I would also add the opening scene, very nicely done (we have a sequence of alternating drawn storyboards with real footage setting the start context). Although sufficiently short to pass maybe unnoticed and not more impressive probably than a documentary sequence, the effect of immersion in the movie atmosphere is excellent = if it didn't catch you already after this, I don't know what can get your attention besides the ending. Still, it seems that the awards favorite for this category is another movie, at the other end of the list. Which movie is not far at all from what we have here, but we'll talk later about it. I stay pro "Argo" anyway ...

"Life of Pi" sits well in any technical department, but the editing is sort of eclipsed by the cinematography and VFX. Ironically, this is favored by the editing :) But let me leave more experienced people to explain how stuff is done ...

"Lincoln" has the same editor as most of Spielberg's movies, namely Michael Kahn. And if we add a third name - Janusz Kaminski, for cinematography, it becomes obvious why pretty much every Spielberg movie have a quite similar "flow", especially on the visual side, that got better in time up to a level that doesn't ever get below good. From good to best there is still some space though :P ...

"Silver Linings Playbook" appears again on a category where I'm a bit surprised by the nomination (let me keep in mind though that we're talking about Oscar .. = the stuff here is decent, not necessarily the best). Well .. the movie "flows" ok. A few words from the editor are available in the clip below. Still, due to the nature of the genre, a comedy is clearly not favored here in front of dramas, or of movies with more action ...

"Zero Dark Thirty" is on the other side of the list, as I was saying in the beginning. With a subject that we can say it's in the same subgenre - dramatizing of a story based on a secret operation that went on in the Orient involving CIA. Well, compared to "Argo" the story of finding Bin Laden has something different that matters pretty much here - the lengths of several years in real time. But the movies do not differ that much considering the rhythm of the story flow. And guess what .. we have the same editor (William Goldenberg). Who like I said has big chances here. To be fair, I have to admit that the editing is quite as good as "Argo". But I can still stay objective - pro "Argo" - based on the fact that there the editing helps the script ( a main passage, quite long that must be cut properly to keep you focused ), here is somehow the opposite or at least not like that ( variation of several shorter phases from a several years long story ).

Oscar 2013 - Adapted Screenplay

I'm not in a very good mood. But I said that it might be productive to "release" some nerves in writing, so I've decided to risk an entry that I usually avoid. Reason 1: it's probably gonna be boring because for scripts I'm not in the mood and I don't have the patience anyway to search any exemplifying clip = what follows is just text. Reason 2: it's hard to evaluate a script when you don't have the script in front of you, and I don't have the patience to search online and look through them. So I'm going to resume to a general impression, a bit of intuition, and to the adapted category (because for the original I didn't have time to see all the nominations). So .. let's get to business ...

Jack O'Donnell: If we wanted applause, we would have joined the circus.

"Argo" is an adaptation based on an autobiographical book and on a magazine article having as subject a 1979 rescue operation of a group of employees from the U.S. embassy of Teheran. How did that end up as a movie subject .. well .. probably it candidates somewhere to a top 10 (if not even higher) as "eccentricity" of such an action. Sufficiently to look like a fiction movie, and not like a real case. If the subject is not known already, in brief the mentioned exfiltration (to use some "technical" terms) was done under the cover of a fake film production crew that was supposedly looking for a filming location in Orient. Crew that had a movie title, a Hollywood producer, press coverage, and even .. a script. At a first sight the story might look like a gift for a subject to adapt, but you realize that's not that simple when you compare the movie with the trailer that's much more alert. In the movie you don't have as much action as you may be tempted to believe, but the adaptation is done in such a way that it doesn't create unnecessary lengths. So I've been a bit surprised by the script's tempered tone, but it's fine, because it stays believable for most of its length - and that's the purpose after all. And to this you can add also that there isn't much cliche compared with what you might find in an U.S. production with an obvious patriotic feel (and an example for that is somewhere below). To conclude, for me it looks to be the script with the highest chances to get an Oscar here. Although, subjectively, I would also pay attention to another one ...

Hushpuppy: I see that I am a little piece of a big, big universe, and that makes it right.

"Beasts of the Southern Wild" would probably qualify as the most original script in the adaptations section, given that the adaptation is of a play written by one of the screenwriters. To summarize, what we have here is the story of a 7 years old girl from a poor community, living in an improvised shack somewhere in the Louisiana bayou swamps. Without giving much detail, the movie is a drama focused on a early coming of age, the script being mostly made of a monologue of the main character. A monologue that I assume that wants to sound like having a high degree of philosophical depth. Well, I guess it's really up to each viewer to appreciate that .. I, personally, am a bit hard to impress lately :) And for the rest of the script .. I doubt that it rises up to the level of others around here.

Pi Patel: So which story do you prefer?
Writer: The one with the tiger. That's the better story.

"Life of Pi" is a subject that I've discussed before. And talking about philosophical depth, although it might look slightly more superficial, the essence is much deep that the previous title - mostly because the movie has lots of parts that can be interpreted in various ways. I think it's pretty clear that I would like for this one to get an Oscar here. As a support for the claim, technically speaking a script's value doesn't come only from the character lines but also from the context and the situation description. However, for this particular case, I tend to believe that for the movie's central part which is heavily context-based = the tiger interaction, surviving in the boat, etc .. the merit for how these came out is mostly the director's and less of the script. And if we look at the script we probably have as much monologue as in the previous title, and that's a bit of a downside after all regarding the complexity, even if is more quantitatively speaking. Not to say that here we also have a success novel as a base (which actually has some inspiration in another novel). So, as much as I liked the movie, if I would be objective ...

Abraham Lincoln: I am the president of the United States of America, clothed in immense power! You will procure me those votes!

"Lincoln" is pretty self-explaining in order to jump quickly over the subject. It's based mostly on a book analyzing the political activity of the American president and is centered on the times close to the Civil War end. More exactly the central subject is the addition of the slavery abolition to the U.S. constitution. Very good as history lesson :) As script though, we have a typical Spielberg production = nice, for all the ages, with a ton of cliche in it .. So, really, "ending spoiler" - if the script would have stopped at the moment when Lincoln left for the theater where he was assassinated, scene shot and edited beautifully .. I would have been less acid. But it really needed another chunk of patriotic speech and cliche afterwards too. Well, I assume that a certain public likes this. I really prefer more discrete references even when dealing with major historical characters (did I say the scene was beautifully shot and edited ? ... that was enough). About the rest, I have to admit that a plus point of the script is the English used in the lines that's adapted to the period. But still .. the ton of cliche .. and for the Oscar I'm really worried about the quote in the beginning, in case the reference wasn't clear enough :)

Tiffany: You let me lie to you for a week?
Pat: I was trying to be romantic.


"Silver Linings Playbook" is closing the today's list. Since this entry is already too long (even I'm getting sleepy), let's be short: it's a romantic comedy (with some drama inside) - adaptation of a novel. Adaptation in which I really don't see anything to give something special to the script. The lines are ok, the movie rolls on pleasantly, but I don't know what would separate it from other genre production in terms of script, especially since it's not an original one. That's pretty much all about it; will discuss the subject some other time; it's late :)

Oscar 2013 - VFX

As in the other years I start with the VFX, not that I have any specific reason, but again it's the only category (up to the present moment) where I've seen all the nominations. Even that after all it doesn't really matter who wins (the Oscar season is just a reason to watch some decent movies), what we have here could be probably split in 1 favorite, 2 average chances nominations, and 2 outsiders. Let's see quickly who is who, until my current cold teleports me to bed (talking about effects ...)

"The Avengers" is as it's probably known a story with a bunch a super-heroes, one piece super-villain (a bit lame the balance of forces to be honest) and many many visual effects if we're at this part ... I repeat myself saying that I'm still not impressed by this genre, but we had a bit of variation though from the classic story (the one with "very bad mentally deranged evil guy"+"good guy with life issues.. & superpowers, that finally beats the issues.. & the bad guy"+"some damsel in more or less distress around"). A variation of something like 3 lines from a synopsis of 5 (to be critic all the way :P). What can I say, overall an entertaining action movie. And as effects is somewhere in the middle of the nominations.

About "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" I wrote already not very long ago, and I don't see any reason to repeat myself. Maybe just the part that we have a lot of the screen time taken by the battles vs. orcs and vs. goblins => a solid quantity of CGI => pretty equal chances with the above nomination here. And let's not forget about Gollum, even if his presence is relatively short. I don't know why, although some of the opinions have sense, the clip below left me a sort of bitter taste. And I'm thinking that it did it also to the make-up team (which by the way - has a nomination also, but about that maybe on another entry).

And we get to the potential expected winner here, namely "Life of Pi". Again, I've written about the movie not very long ago, so I'll summarize now what I don't remember to have said (unless my memory is not shorter than I think ..). More exactly, the tiger as many others from the boat and besides the boat are CGI. Yup, although maybe not very believable (considering how good is the result) the scenes are CGI .. well not 100%. As additional info to the clip below, what I've found out is that they used three tigers when filming, but not in the film context. Probably you wouldn't want to share a boat with a tiger, no matter if you're a young Indian actor wishing for an international breakthrough on the big screen :) ..

I also wrote about "Prometheus" sometime last summer, and not very nicely if I remember well, so I prefer not to remember much. The effects though I remember that were a good part of this movie. The chance makes that not long ago to be able to visit the H.R.Giger museum (the original "Alien" designer) and to realize how well resisted in time the concept art from the first movie, which is heavily used in the la production from last year. Unfortunately though, that's sort of a minus part for the innovative ( it already got an Oscar in '79 :) ) and I don't think that as general complexity the rest has any chance to compete with any of the titles above.

And like that we get to the last entry on the list, last alphabetically, last as effects, last generally speaking, the last: "Snow White and the Huntsman". What's to be said here ... it's probably one of the most boring movies that I've seen last year. I won't ever bother writing about unnecessary lengths, cliche lines, and a messy result for an idea that actually is relatively decent as a classic story adaptation. Not even the effects aren't enough the give some soul to this movie that looks like it bit the apple at the first frame, and the only thing that saved it from time to time, ironically, is the evil queen = the acting of Charlize Theron.

That's it for VFX. Next week, other category..

Oscar 2013 - Nominations

It looks like this year we have to start a bit early, so I'll probably have two whole months dedicated to the "Oscar" subject instead of one. Maybe for some it might be a bit boring :) but I have to "thank the academy" considering that I'll be able to take my time instead condensing two-three categories per week. Anyway, until then let's see what nominations we have:

BEST PICTURE

- “Amour”
- “Argo”
- “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
- “Django Unchained”
- “Les Misérables”
- “Life of Pi”
- “Lincoln”
- “Silver Linings Playbook”
- “Zero Dark Thirty”

LEADING ACTOR

- Bradley Cooper in “Silver Linings Playbook”
- Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln”
- Hugh Jackman in “Les Misérables”
- Joaquin Phoenix in “The Master”
- Denzel Washington in “Flight”

SUPPORTING ACTOR

- Alan Arkin in “Argo”
- Robert De Niro in “Silver Linings Playbook”
- Philip Seymour Hoffman in “The Master”
- Tommy Lee Jones in “Lincoln”
- Christoph Waltz in “Django Unchained”

LEADING ACTRESS

- Jessica Chastain in “Zero Dark Thirty”
- Jennifer Lawrence in “Silver Linings Playbook”
- Emmanuelle Riva in “Amour”
- Quvenzhané Wallis in “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
- Naomi Watts in “The Impossible”

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

- Amy Adams in “The Master”
- Sally Field in “Lincoln”
- Anne Hathaway in “Les Misérables”
- Helen Hunt in “The Sessions”
- Jacki Weaver in “Silver Linings Playbook”

ANIMATED FEATURE

- “Brave”
- “Frankenweenie”
- “ParaNorman”
- “The Pirates! Band of Misfits”
- “Wreck-It Ralph”

DIRECTING

- Michael Haneke for “Amour”
- Benh Zeitlin for “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
- Ang Lee for “Life of Pi”
- Steven Spielberg for “Lincoln”
- David O'Russell for “Silver Linings Playbook”

CINEMATOGRAPHY

- Seamus McGarvey for “Anna Karenina”
- Robert Richardson for “Django Unchained”
- Claudio Miranda for “Life of Pi”
- Janusz Kaminski for “Lincoln”
- Roger Deakins for “Skyfall”

ORIGINAL SCORE

- Dario Marianelli for “Anna Karenina”
- Alexandre Desplat for “Argo”
- Mychael Danna for “Life of Pi”
- John Williams for “Lincoln”
- Thomas Newman for “Skyfall”

FILM EDITING

- “Argo”, William Goldenberg
- “Life of Pi”, Tim Squires
- “Lincoln”, Michael Kahn
- “Silver Linings Playbook”, Jay Cassidy & Crispin Struthers
- “Zero Dark Thirty”, Dylan Tichenor & William Goldenberg

SOUND MIXING

- “Argo”
- “Les Misérables”
- “Life of Pi”
- “Lincoln”
- “Skyfall”

SOUND EDITING

- “Argo”
- “Django Unchained”
- “Life of Pi”
- “Skyfall”
- “Zero Dark Thirty”

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

- “Amour”
- “Django Unchained”
- “Flight”
- “Moonrise Kingdom”
- “Zero Dark Thirty”

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

- “Argo”
- “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
- “Life of Pi”
- “Lincoln”
- “Silver Linings Playbook”

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

- “Amour” - Austria
- “Kon-Tiki” - Norway
- “No” - Chile
- “A Royal Affair” - Denmark
- “War Witch” - Canada

PRODUCTION DESIGN & SET DECORATION

- “Anna Karenina”
- “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
- “Les Misérables”
- “Life of Pi”
- “Lincoln”

VISUAL EFFECTS

- “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
- “Life of Pi”
- “Marvel's The Avengers”
- “Prometheus”
- “Snow White and the Huntsman”

COSTUME DESIGN

- “Anna Karenina”
- “Les Misérables”
- “Lincoln”
- “Mirror Mirror”
- “Snow White and the Huntsman”

MAKEUP

- “Hitchcock”
- “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
- “Les Misérables”

ORIGINAL SONG

- “Before My Time” from “Chasing Ice”
- “Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from “Ted”
- “Pi's Lullaby” from “Life of Pi”
- “Skyfall” from “Skyfall”
- “Suddenly” from “Les Misérables”

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

- “Asad”
- “Buzkashi Boys”
- “Curfew”
- “Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)”
- “Henry”

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

- “Adam and Dog”
- “Fresh Guacamole”
- “Head over Heels”
- “Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare””
- “Paperman”

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

- “5 Broken Cameras”
- “The Gatekeepers”
- “How to Survive a Plague”
- “The Invisible War”
- “Searching for Sugar Man”

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

- “Inocente”
- “Kings Point”
- “Mondays at Racine”
- “Open Heart”
- “Redemption”

That's it for the moment. Next week we'll start dissecting the categories ...