Features Nominated for Best Picture and/or Outstanding Cinematography by the AMPAS and ASC along with the Directors, DPs, and formats they employed

- Amour, Director Michael Haneke, DP Darius Khondji Camera/Format: Arri Alexa, ARRIRAW, Cooke Spherical
- Argo, Director Ben Affleck, DP Rodrigo Prieto, Camera ARRI Alexa, ARRIRAW, with some 35mm, 16mm, and 8mm mixed in

- Beasts of the Southern Wild, Director Bhen Zeitlin, DP Ben Richardson
Camera: ARRI 16SR3, S16 Kodak Film, Zeiss Lenses, Spherical

- Django Unchained, Director Quentin Tarantino, DP Robert Richardson, ASC, Camera/Format Panavision on 35mm Kodak Film, Anamorphic

- Les Misérables, Director Tom Hooper, DP Danny Cohen Camera/Format, Arricam, S35mm Kodak Film, Spherical

- Life of Pi, Director Ang Lee, DP Claudio Miranda, ASC, Head of Stereography Graham D. Clark, (DCS Member), Stereographer, Brian Gardner, Camera/Format Arri Alexa, PACE Fusion 3-D

- Lincoln, Director Steven Spielberg., DP Janusz Kaminski, Camera/Format: Panavision on S35mm Kodak Film

- Silver Linings Playbook, Director David O. Russell, DP Masanobu Takayanagi, Camera/Format, Arricam, S35mm Kodak Film, Spherical

- Zero Dark Thirty, Director Kathryn Bigelow, DP Greig Fraser, Camera/Format: Arri Alexa, ARRIRAW, Cooke Spherical

- Anna Karenina, Director Joe Wright, DP Seamus McGarvey Camera/Format Panavision on 35mm Kodak Film, Anamorphic

- Skyfall, Director Sam Mendes, DP Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, Camer/Format: ARRI Alexa, ARRIRAW, with some RED Epic REDcode RAW mixed in for 2nd Unit Action Shots.

Compiled by James Mathers with data collected from IMDBpro

Marc Bernardin’s blog has photos of what appears to be Harrison Ford’s copy of the screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark, complete with his notes. Makes interesting reading and shows how actors respond to lines on the page. What works in the mouth and what works on the page are not necessarily the same!

Under this headline, Manohla Dargis in the NY Times praises Travis Mathews and James Franco’s film.

Independent Voices Drown Out the Buzz: Highlights of the Sundance Film Festival

“One of the sharpest, best surprises of the festival, which ends Sunday, “Interior. Leather Bar.” is a serious yet playful hourlong deconstruction of the representation of homosexuality as viewed through the prism of “Cruising,”William Friedkin’s 1980 film about an undercover cop, played by a supremely jittery Al Pacino, searching for a killer of gay men. “Interior,” directed by Mr. Franco and Travis Mathews, uses as its conceptual jumping-off point a lost 40-minute segment of “Cruising” set in a gay leather bar that Mr. Friedkin has said he had to cut to avoid an X rating. “Interior” primarily turns on the on-set experience of Val Lauren, an actor who appears as himself and as an idea of Mr. Pacino’s, while performing in a re-creation of the missing “Cruising” material.”

Congrats to them and all who worked on the movie.

Travis and James gave their film a very promising debut in Sundance last night. Interior. Leather Bar. is picking up a number of positive, thoughtful reviews.

Ioncinema

Film Threat

Hollywood Reporter

Indiewire

Here’s the opening:

“San Francisco-based gay filmmaker Travis Mathews built his reputation as one of the leading figures in the latest new wave of gay independent cinema on the back of a series of award-winning intimate, confessional documentary films about young homosexual men: In Their Room. His first narrative feature, I Want Your Love, explored gay friends negotiating their way towards and through sexual relationships and featured unsimulated sex. His new film, Interior. Leather Bar., co-directed with the actor James Franco, is just as honest in its depictions. This film within a film begins with a re-imagining of the lost forty minutes of William Friedkin’s controversial 1980 thriller Cruising and expands to engage with wider issues of creative freedom explored in frank “behind the scenes” sequences with cast and crew.

Filmmaker spoke to Travis while he was packing for an early morning trip to the Sundance Film Festival…”

Follow the link to Filmmaker for more:

Here’s an entertaining interview with Travis about his work and especially Interior. Leather Bar.

Here’s a link to an interview with James Franco who co-directed the feature ‘Interior. Leather Bar’  that will premier at Sundance in a few days. I was a story consultant, working with Travis Matthews, the writer and co-director. Fingers crossed it gets a good response!

This year, because it was the year of the curate’s egg, I’m making up my own rules. In that spirit I get to pick whole movies or just the parts that are worth the list. Also these are the films I liked and admired most, not necessarily ‘the best’.

Omissions:

I couldn’t face a Tarantino movie at Xmas so haven’t seen Django Unchained.

I couldn’t face two and a half hours of singing French drama peasants so I haven’t seen The Glums Movie.

I haven’t seen The Master because… sigh.

I haven’t seen Seven Psychopaths, despite being a fan of Martin McDonagh, and should be beaten with sticks and I meant to see it and I will and /whine.

So, onwards…

Favorites

Safety Not Guaranteed charmer of the year.

Beasts of the Southern Wild truly imaginative.

The Cabin in the Woods yes, yes, I know… but yes!

Moonrise Kingdom only the parts with no adults… apart from Bruce Willis, surprisingly.

Your Sister’s Sister just really solid indie writing, directing and acting.

Robot and Frank mawkish and contrived but it made me smile. And Frank Langella.

Lawless because sometimes implausible rednecks are necessary.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower all the bits I didn’t hate, not the bits I did.

Looper for JGL’s fake chin. And my hero Rian Johnson can do no wrong.

Argo old fashioned in the best way.

Lincoln apart from the opening mawkish nonsense with the soldiers, and I’m pretending it ended where the story should have, with Lincoln walking into the darkness before the assassination.

Hmm… where were all the foreign films I loved this year?

Bottom Ten Films

Prometheus… That about covers it.

And the 2012 ‘Julian’s childhood fantasy worlds revisited, without total ruination award’ goes to…

Dredd for keeping his helmet on.

“The writing is very good. This script is like an excellent sci fi novel.”

“The world the writer has created is unique and the language is amazing. The invented jargon is strange yet relatable, like Firefly or Clockwork Orange. The main character is very likable and sympathetic and the reader is emotionally invested by page 20.”

“This script is a hard science fiction novel come to life. The setting is unique and very visual.”

“The characters really pop in this script in large part thanks to the amazing dialogue. The world of the screenplay has its own invented jargon and slang. This is often a trap for other writers but this script gets it right. The slang is evocative, exotic, but understandable. It has a good rhythm to it. The dialogue flows instead of sounding forced or fake much like Clockwork Orange or Firefly.”

“As a piece of writing it’s extraordinary. It takes the reader on an incredible journey to an imaginary place that feels as real as next door. The characters are truly special and the dialogue is fantastic.”

In other news, I’ve submitted my big history chapter on Screenwriting in Another ‘New Hollywood’ 1980-1999. This is for a volume in the new Beyond the Silver Screen series from Rutgers UP. The series deals with film history through process more than product, writing the hidden histories of the crafts and departments that go into movie making. My chapter will be in the Screen Writing & Story Telling volume, edited by the wonderful Andy Horton, The Jeanne H. Smith Professor of Film Studies at The University of Oklahoma (Norman). 

As you will have seen, if you are an habitué de la blog, the first draft of Cutterjunk a spec screenplay I wrote as an experiment (my first attempt at science fiction) and a teaching tool, has been getting shortlisted in a number of screenwriting competitions. One of the next projects on my list is a comprehensive re-write. The new book, of which I already have a rough draft of 25,000 words or so, is after that!