Vito: Calling Out Hollywood's Portrayals of Gays and Lesbians

This week I watched HBO's documentary film "Vito", which tells the story of Vito Russo, a gay man from NYC who found his voices as an gay advocate in the aftermath of Stonewall. He was an active critic of LGBT portrayals in the media. In the 80s he published his book called "The Celluloid Closet", the first major book to critique these portrayals in Hollywood. When the AIDS epidemic shook the gay community, Vito formed ACT UP, an advocacy group for justice, before his death from the disease in the 90s.

The film is a classic-style documentary: a blend of historical images, clips, and interviews by those who new the subject best, but what makes it so captivating is it's relevance almost 50 years later. I was left wondering at the end of the film what Vito would think of the amount of progress we have made for LGBT individuals since, but also the amount of work we still have left to do--particularly when it comes to visibility and representation in the media.

We're All Animals

     Animals is a new HBO animated comedy executed produced by Mark and Jay Duplass. The mumblecore duo promotes the work of Phil Matarese and Mike Luciano, two unknown comedy writers who submitted Animals as a short film to Sundance in 2015. HBO picked up Animals at the festival and streams it exclusively on HBOGo, their mobile streaming platform. 
     

     Animals is a really good idea on paper. Human problems and stories as explained by animals who act human. Plus the animated element means that really anything can happen. If you look at the cast it's a list of alternative comedies biggest names such as: Eric Andre, Aziz Ansari, Jason Mantzoukas, Nick Kroll, and Scott Aukerman. Mark and Jay Duplass are indie stars and them promoting a young comedians work it must be good for them and the comedians.

However Animals has gotten mixed reviews at best. Maureen Ryan at Variety said, "It is unfunny, its animation is unexceptional and the studied banality of its dialogue is excruciating." It has a 60% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.8 on Imdb. 

But why the intense hate. Even Mark Duplass is a little confused, "Animals is the first time in history that people have gotten angry with us about something we’ve made." To be fair the show is weird. Very weird for HBO. Structurally the show follows one main plot but has several vignettes. 

     These vignettes aren't even necessarily non sequiturs, often these smaller sketches are tangentially related to something that happened earlier in the episode. For example in the first episode the main characters, a pair of rats that are obsessed with making babies, watch a couple have sex. Later in the episode the woman having sex is taken out in a stretcher which starts a sketch between two police horses which cuts back to the mice. 

Duplass says it's because the show was created separate from HBO. That they did it their own way and that might be why people are not responding to this like they would a traditional HBO comedy. 


     As a comedian who hates restrictions I have to side with Duplass. While Ryan is right at points the show becomes tedious and drags, often Animals shows a unique and funny perspective on mundane things in life. I'm excited that the show is weird and with this show being streaming only it is a good example of the future of tv. Shows made by unique people for a niche audience. While Animals might not be for everyone, I enjoy Animals and hope to watch the second season HBO ordered at Sundance. 

Use film commisioners

Something often overlooked for student filmmakers. Use film commissioners - especially if you are not in the middle of New York City or LA. Each country has their own commissioner who often will not get many phone calls or requests. If you present yourself professionally they will be more than willing to spend their time working for you. I mean it, they will literally help you with preproduction and they have connections. They can get you locations, sets, crews, equipment, etc. Usually for no to little cost.

I should have used this resource earlier. It has helped me immensely for preparing to shoot my thesis. I got location I thought were impossible for little cost.

Civil War

If you've been online in the past twenty four hours, then you've probably already seen the new trailer for the next Marvel movie installment - Captain America: Civil War.

If not, here it is. Enjoy.

If you're a Marvel nerd like me, then you're probably shitting your pants. 

All your favorite characters, plus some new ones, fighting each other in a battle for righteousness. 

We got the Captain himself, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Bucky Barnes, and Hawkeye versus Iron Man, Black Widow, War Machine, The Vision and (introducing) Black Panther. And then there will be cameos from other characters like Ant Man, Baron Zemo, Crossbones, and the new Spider-man played by Tom Holland (who I hope will redeem the catastrophe that cry-baby Andrew Garfield gave us). 

Anyways, a lot of people have been asking - why are these heroes, who are supposed to be on the same side, fighting each other?

The same applies to Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Why are these heroes fighting?

Well, if you haven't read the comic book, Civil War, (which I highly recommend before seeing the movie), the government has issued a Superhuman Registration Act, a legislative bill which requires the mandatory registration of any person based in the United States with super powers. The act arose due to public pressure for accountability following a series of superhuman-related events causing significant damage and death within the Marvel universe. Iron man thinks this is a great idea. Captain America does not. This then escalades into a great battle between those in favor and those opposed.

The comic books features a lot of characters that probably won’t make the movie – including the Fantastic Four, Punisher, Tigra, a lot of the X-Men (who are owned by Fox) and many, many more.

But the thing I’m most concerned about is if Marvel will have the balls to really make this a good and gritty story. (Hopefully, they’ll learn from the success of Deadpool) But I don’t mean that there needs to be dick jokes every thirty seconds or Tony Stark has to say fuck a lot. What I mean is that you have two of the mightiest heroes in the Marvel Universe going at it in a war. And, in war, there is always a loser, and there are always casualties.

From the looks of the trailer, it looks like War Machine will definitely be one of these casualties thus making matters more personal for Iron Man.

I personally can’t wait for the movie.  And I can’t wait to see how they’ll end it. Because, we have two of the most beloved Marvel characters fighting, but one of them has to lose.

WHO WILL IT BE?!

I guess we'll just have to wait until May 6th...

Game of Thrones Art

Some people truly have a knack for seeing a bigger picture. According to the video below, snow art is a thing. Snow art is mapping out a drawing and steps you need to take in order to make it with the actual snow. Because Game of Thrones season 6 is coming up, I thought it would be super appropriate to post this video! ENJOY

http://devour.com/video/game-of-thrones-snow-art/

Flip The Script: My Experience in Front of The Camera

Two weeks ago, I sat down and filmed myself as part of a job application. It took me a million tries, and I even ended up explaining that I am a lot better behind the camera than I am in front of it. I feel safe behind the camera, I feel way more in control. Being in front of it, however, is a whole different situation. When I finished filming that application (and editing it to make my thoughts sound 10 times more coherent), I vowed to stay away from the front of the camera in the future.

Flash forward two weeks, and somehow I ended up in front of the camera again. Yesterday, someone from ICTV emailed me asking me to do an interview for their women in media episode on News Watch. I know how stressful it can be finding interview subjects, so, despite my two-week-old vow, I happily obliged.

This was unlike anything I had ever experienced before: the script was completely switched. Instead of conducting an interview, I was the interviewee. It was like my mind went blank as soon as the camera started rolling, yet at the same time thousands of thoughts were running around like crazy. How should I answer this question? What answer is he looking for? Am I talking in circles? How is he going to edit this together? What is the final product going to look like? Am I even answering a question right now?

Maybe other people don't think that much about an interview while they're participating in one. Maybe I was just hyper-aware because I'm so used to being on the other side of the camera. Regardless, I think it was helpful being in the hot seat for once. Now that I've been in front of the camera, I have a better understanding toward how my subjects may feel. It's easy to have expectations as an interviewer, but I think that understanding what it is like being an interviewee is important in order to make those expectations a reality.

Maybe, in order to be even better behind the camera, we should spend more time in front of it as well.

Refugees in Buffalo by the numbers

I've been trying to find specific numbers on the amount of refugees currently in Buffalo and how that number compares to the United States and New York as a whole. Here's a breakdown of the statistics I found.

• Since 2006, the number of foreign-born residents of Buffalo has increased 95%. 
• In 2012, 2,985 people in Buffalo-Niagara obtained legal residence, and 62% of those were refugees or asylum-seekers. This compares to 150,000 people in New York State obtaining legal residence, with only 14% registering as refugees or asylum seekers. In the United States in general, more than 1 million people obtained legal permanent residence, with 15% registering as refugees or asylum seekers.
• Between 2003 and 2014, 9,723 refugees were resettled in Erie County.
• 6.1% of people in Buffalo speak English "less than very well."
  
  
  

Top Countries of Origin in Buffalo 2007-2012

1. Burma

2. India

3. China

4. Thailand

5. Canada

Top 10 Languages Spoken in Buffalo Public Schools 2013-2014

1. Spanish

2. Karen

3. Arabic

4. Somali

5. Nepali

6. Burmese

7. Bengali

8. Swahili

9. French

10. Vietnamese

First Language of Refugees Resettled by Journey's End in 2012-2013

1. Arabic —62 refugees

2. Nepali — 52 refugees

3. Swahili — 37 refugees

4. Karen — 19 refugees

5. Burmese —18 refugees

6. Spanish — 11 refugees

First Language of Refugees Resettled by International Institute of Buffalo 2012-2013

1. Burmese — 50 refugees

2. Arabic — 48 refugees

3. Nepali — 43 refugees

4. Chin — 25 refugees

5. Spanish — 4 refugees

6. Somali — 2 refugees

7. Tigrinya — 2 refugees

Here's a graphic from an NPR article about the refugee population in Buffalo.

Source: http://www.ppgbuffalo.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Language-2014.pdf

Tim Hetherington death of an incomparable photojournalist

Tim Hetherington was killed on April 20 while covering the conflict in Libya. You all might remember him for his amazing documentary Restrepo. Where he dodged death and got to show such an interesting and dangerous war. The Film Tim was working on when he was killed starts off with Tim Hetherington trying to describe why he risks his life to tell stories from some of the world’s most dangerous regions. Eventually, he finds the right words: “I want to connect with real people, to document them in real circumstances, where there aren’t any neat solutions.” This man had so much passion for his work that he put his own life in danger every day just to try to get the world to notice the conflicts happening today.

“My great concern is that Tim died thinking he had done something stupid,” Junger says. “If I could say something to him now, I would tell him his life wasn’t worth the photos he was taking at that moment. But all of us who do this job understand that losing your life is worth all the photos we take and all the stories we write. He didn’t do anything stupid, he was doing something important. He lived his life very bravely and very honestly, and by doing so he helped a lot of people.”

“Tim’s work is an unfinished project,” Brabazon says. “There was an important period after his death when we remembered his work; now we need to interpret his work. We need to engage with it, discuss it, and then we need to turn it towards the future. If we can do that, we will be able to build on the conversation Tim started.”

Evoking Warm Weather With Color

Animal Collective's music video for "FloriDada" is a technicolor ode to the Sunshine State. It mixes the palette of resort wear with the nonsensical nature of Dadaism for a really bizarre, uncomfortable, but compelling four minutes. I actually didn't like this song until watching its music video, which is a testament to the influence of visuals--specifically, in this case, color--on a project's reception.

From what I have seen of Saint Lucia, it is colorful in the same beachy way as Florida: hillsides of pastel-painted shacks, blue waters, light sand. Just as they do above for "FloriDada," these colors convey the mood of the place; they communicate its warmth, its vegetation, its landscape. I think it is not only appropriate but imperative, in order to establish and characterize the setting, to douse the frame with the colors of the land.

boats docked in Saint Lucia

houses in Saint Lucia

We are going to scout out colorful locations for wide shots once we arrive. I have also contacted an illustrator already with the hopes she can create whimsical, animated designs for our marketing materials and/or title card(s). I think the use of color and of graphic design will help even out the darker heaviness that our subject matter is bound to carry into this film.

the opening shot of "FloriDada"-- especially colorful!

My Life: The Tragedy

So, I've been thinking a lot about the main character of my film, Flex the Clown. He's a walking tragedy. He tries and tries and tries but rarely succeeds. In a real life setting, this is quite depressing. But when an audience watches on screen, it's quite comical.

Tragedy is a type of comedy. And it's my favorite type of comedy. 

But if you want inspiration for tragedy, you have to dig up those memories you've tried so hard to forget. 

So let's get personal. (Everything about to be disclosed is 100% true)

In fourth grade, when I was taking the state board exams, in a silent classroom, I farted so loud that it literally scared everybody that was present, including the teacher. It was a loud fucking fart. And I wasn't even that humiliated. I thought it was funny. But what was so horrible was that after the test, Emily Kasta, my "girlfriend" at the time, dumped me because of the fart. I even remember asking her, "was it because of the fart?" And she said, "no," but I knew that was a lie. If I never farted, I probably would have married Emily. I cried like a little bitch on the bus all the way home.

Growing up, I always resented my younger brother because he was always better at sports, school and being a decent human being. But one time, in fifth grade, during summer camp, my brother was getting bullied by Tony Cullen. So I pushed Tony and told him to "fuck off." Tony then told the counselors that I pushed him and that I said the f-word. I really hated that guy Tony. So, after that, the counselors made me do 100 pushups (for the pushing and the cursing) in front of the entire camp. Everybody was laughing at me, calling me names and making me feel worthless, including my younger brother that I was originally trying to help out. Last time I help that little shit. 

So, in high school, we used to play this game in the basement where one person would jump off the wall and try to see how far out into the room that person could land. So, one time, when I attempted to jump off the wall, my foot went right through the wall. I made a big fucking hole in the wall. I immediately knew that I would have to pay for it and I would probably get in a lot of trouble. So, I pretended that my foot was broken. I played it so well, too. I yelled, and cried in pain, but I didn't over-do it so it seemed unbelievable. Until, my mother (who is a doctor) took me to get x-rays. After the x-rays, my mother told me that I never broke my foot and it was okay. I tried telling her that my foot probably just healed. She didn't believe my bullshit and made me pay the four hundred dollar fee to  fix the wall. 

The first time I went down on a girl, she literally stopped me, told me it was the worst thing she had ever experienced, and walk out. That was fun. 

And there's many more where that came from...

So why am I sharing these stories with you?

Because  (I believe) in order to make something funny, and I mean actually funny, there needs to be some truth behind it. Larry David, writer of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, takes ideas from his every-day experiences. And he creates such honest, real, and funny television. I feel, in any kind of comedy, there needs to be some sort of truth behind it. And that's why I decided to share these personal, and humiliating stories. Because, now that I look back at them, they're hilarious. They're tragically hilarious. And that's what I want my film to be like.

Angry Birds

Angry birds was one of the most popular apps of all time. In fact, Wikipedia lists it as the most downloaded free android app with less than 1 billion votes of all time. After success like this, it might be easy to predict that a movie would be short to follow.

The movie is coming out in May of 2016 and the cast is:

STAR-STUDDED

The movie stars Kate McKinnon, Peter Dinklage, Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Keegan-Michael Kay, Danny McBride, and Hannibal Buress. Even if the cast weren't stacked with all of these hilarious and famous people, it also has the advantage of being about birds, which if you have read my blog posts, you would know works.

Naturally, I'm excited to see this movie because it is about birds but I wish it was coming out before the end of this semester so I could make sure I don't copy anything from it.

LAST WEEK OF SHOOTING

I didn't watch anything this week because I have had no time to myself and that is because the last weekend of shooting is this weekend. Saturday we have ten shots to do before lunch and crew schedules and actor shcedules are all over the place. We are losing all but one Grip form G&E. So tonight I had some stand ins come to the studio and we did camera set ups to set frames for all the shots in our complicated blocking scenes. 
Friday is the nightmare, saturday is going ot be hellish schedule wise, and sunday will be the easiest but still long.
I'm writing this the only remaining time I have on Thursday. Goodnight.

What Makes a Good Trailer?

Recently I was watching the trailer for the new J.J. Abrams produced film 10 Cloverfield Lane. If you haven't seen it, here it is.

 While some may disagree, I think this is a really fantastic trailer. It sets up the film's tone and gives you a glimpse of what it's about without giving too much away. This got me thinking about what makes a really good movie trailer. It's important to know that a good trailer doesn't always mean a good film and a good film doesn't always have a good trailer.

I think the biggest thing those editing trailers do is focus too much on plot. You'll finish the trailer and feel like you've watched the entire movie. The editors seem to think that if you don't know the entire movie, you won't want to see it. That however, is completely the opposite of how it should be. Let's go back to the 10 Cloverfield Lane trailer.

Bad Robot loves greenish cloudy skies and a silhouette 

We open on a trio of people doing various activities to an upbeat score. However, the music starts to slow as we are shown images that this situation is less than ideal. The trailer ends with the female seeing something horrible but we of course do not know what she sees. All we are able to gather from this trailer is she is in the bunker and it's less than ideal. Everything surrounding it is left as a mystery. However, later trailers ended up showing far too much and revealing most of the mystery around the film, this one however does a great job. Bad Robot is well known for having well done trailer built around lots of mystery. Look at their trailers for Cloverfield and Super 8. However the latter did suffer from being marketed wrong. What we assumed would be another Cloverfield-esque horror film ended up being a coming up age film with a very Spielbergian feel.

Bad Robot REALLY loves greenish cloudy skies and a silhouette

Another recent film that suffered from being marketed wrong was Guillermo Del Toro's Crimson Peak. See the trailer here

The trailer makes the film look like a straight out horror film. However Del Toro was explicit in pointing out that movie was more of a "Gothic Romance". However, the trailers didn't reflect that and many people went into it expecting much more of a scare and were treated something that was absolutely beautiful, but not up to their par in the scare department.

I'll end by talking about what I think is a near perfect trailer. Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
While nearly every trailer for this film was fantastic I think this one stands out among the rest. With only eight short clips and a minor bit dialogue, the trailer perfectly captured the spirit of the film without giving any story away. Never before has a trailer satisfied me over a year before the film.

Be sure to also check out this list of trailers for great movies that are pretty awful.

Music Videos Lack Soul

One aspect of music videos that I would sincerely love to change is the lack of artistry and meaning. Because the music our general population listens to is trash, the videos we create from the music no longer are sincere. We are teaching the newer generation that you can get rich and famous by simply wearing nice clothes, driving a nice car, or waiving dollar bills in your hand.

It amazes me that we have so many quick and easy tools to create art, but we still dont make content that is harmonious to great music. Maybe its music no longer tells a story like it used to, or maybe its because the stories we tell to music dont make sense. Either way the music video industry is dying and somebody needs to do something about it 

Dual Granular Synthesizer... CRAZY sound

As I'm sure you all know by this point, I am a sound guy. Designing sounds, arranging them, making an instrument with them, all of it. Sound is, to me, a technically limitless medium; if you can capture it you can play with it. Thats where the Collidoscope comes in. This machine is easily one of the coolest tools for manipulating audio that I have ever laid eyes on.

The Collidoscope is a prototype synthesiser designed by researchers Ben Bengler & Fiore Martin.
Based on a granular synthesiszer engine the instrument can be played by two performers at the same time (as they stand opposite one another on the sides of the unit) using the 2 built-in sets of keyboard, gooseneck microphone, color display and controllers.

The Collidoscope samples from the microphones (or line inputs) and displays in real time a waveform of the sample and allows it to be played back instantly. The main sliding knob positioned below the waveform allows for the visual selection of a portion of the sample to be played by moving it horizontally, and for the modification of the size of the portion being looped by rotating the knob. There are also two backlit octave selection buttons and a sturdy metal button next to the microphone base to start sampling.

This is easily one of the largest steps toward closing the gap between the performer and the sampling process, something almost every audio engineer encounters.

Amy: An Uneasy Review

Since "Amy" won best documentary feature this past weekend, I decided it was time to watch it. As I sat and watched the film, I couldn't help but viscerally react to what I was seeing. At the time, I figured that was the point: we were supposed to be uncomfortable. As Manohla Dargis put it in a New York Times review of the film, "This discomfort is crucial to the movie’s complexity and is why it works as somewhat of an ethical and intellectual provocation. With “Amy,” Mr. Kapadia isn’t simply revisiting Ms. Winehouse’s life and death, but also — by pulling you in close to her, first pleasantly and then unpleasantly — telling the story of contemporary celebrity and, crucially, fandom’s cost." So I finished the doc and went to sleep, still feeling a bit unsettled, but figuring it would pass in the morning. 

But then I woke up this morning and I suddenly realized why I felt so uncomfortable. In a way, the film is everything it is criticizing. The film claims to present the Amy that the public did not get to see, but they can only achieve this through archival footage and by having the people close to her describe her. We don't actually get to see the real Amy Winehouse, the person she was when no one was around, we only really get to see the person she was when she was around other people and in front of cameras. Sure, it's a more intimate look at her life than we had previously seen because it is told by a more private sphere than the media, but I can't help but feel like it's still not authentically her. It can't be. 

Furthermore, as Dargis points out, the film tells the story of contemporary celebrity and its cost. The film does not hesitate to show their distaste for the paparazzi, yet a solid chunk of their footage is taken by paparazzi. How can you criticize and utilize something at the same time? Let's face it, the latter half of the documentary would not have been as powerful if the paparazzi footage wasn't present, so Kapadia is benefiting from the same thing he is criticizing. 

"Amy" did really well in the Box Office as far a documentaries are concerned, which makes me feel even more uncomfortable. The documentary can be seen as a scathing view of how we treat celebrities, but it's been capitalizing off of the life and terrible death of Amy. Is the documentary really much better than the people and industry that it is critiquing? While it may be a critique, it still turns her into a spectacle. After watching the film I can't help but think that Amy would be disgusted if she knew it existed. 

Considering the film won an Oscar, I'm sure I am one of the only people who feel this way, but I had to get it off my chest. 

Apples To Oranges: Tangerine's Interesting Use of Camera Equipment and Transgender Inclusiveness

As per recommendation by Walker, I watched the film 'Tangerine' to see a fresh narrative with transgender characters. From a plot line standpoint alone, I was amazed at seeing the film not only having central, rich transgender characters, but also seeing these characters played by transgender actors. We are quickly seeing more and more trans characters displayed on film (Transparent's Maura played by Jeffrey Tambor; The Danish Girl's Einar played by Eddie Redmayne) but the bigger question is: why aren't many of these productions employing transgender talent? Yes, there is Laverne Cox, who is currently at the forefront of popular culture, but as 'Tangerine' actress Mya Taylor said in her Spirit Awards acceptance speech (for which she was the first transgender actor to win a major film award) “There is transgender talent. There’s very beautiful transgender talent,” the 24-year-old actress said. “So you better get out there and put it in your next movie.".

So that leads me to one of the bigger questions I aim to answer in my documentary: what problems arise when cisgender actors are hired over transgender ones? If there is so much talent out there, why is Hollywood not employing them? On a further note: what are the benefits to being more inclusive in media? I'm not saying that Eddie Redmayne and Jeffrey Tambor aren't talented actors who have put their all into depicting their characters, but I do think that the lack of representation in film, tv, media, etc does have a negative impact on both social perceptions of transgender people and impacts on individuals who are trans or gender questioning viewing this media.

On an interesting production note, not only did Tangerine have talent that both worked in front of the camera and behind the scenes, but it was also completely shot on an iPhone. It just goes to show that you do not necessarily need fancy equipment to make a meaningful, amazing, and visually appealing production. The filmmakers go into greater depth at how they achieved a visually interesting film in the video below:

Oscar Predictions:

This Sunday marks the 88th Academy Awards. It's the time of year when everyone argues what film was the best of the previous year and why is should win/have been nominated. For this week's blog post I thought I would give my predictions for what should and what probably will win in a few categories at the Oscars this Sunday.

No they won't all be Mad Max, a lot will, but not all of them,

BEST PICTURE

NOMINEES

-Bridge of Spies

-Mad Max: Fury Road

-The Big Short

-The Revenant

-The Martian

-Spotlight

-Room

-Brooklyn

WILL WIN: The Revenant.  While for a while it looked like Spotlight has this one in the bag, it seems that Inarritu's film about Hugh Glass will triumph, making him the second person to win consecutive best picture trophies. 

SHOULD WIN: Mad Max: Fury Road. As the subject of an earlier blog post, Fury Road was a near perfect film in every aspect. It's high octane action, beautiful cinematography, and feminist message, Fury Road excels in every aspect of the craft of filmmaking. One may sight the hardships of the lead actor and the crew as reason to sight the film's deserving to win the award but it's important to not confuse good filmmaking with a good film. 

BEST LEAD ACTOR/ACTRESS 

Leo and Brie Larson will take home the trophies for their respective categories.

BEST DIRECTOR

NOMINEES

-Mad Max: Fury Road

-Room

-The Revenant

-Big Short

-Spotlight

Will Win: In all likelihood this one will go to Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for The Revenant. Shooting chronologically using almost entirely natural lighting is certainly deserving of recognition. However there is a chance that George Miller will win this one for Fury Road. To make a two hour chaotic car chase work and be comprehensible makes Miller more than deserving to win this award. 

Should Win: Fury Road. See Above.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

NOMINEES

-Big Short

-Steve Jobs

-Carol

-The Martian

-Trumbo

Will Win/Should Win. 

It looks like this is Adam McKay's award to lose. Based off the novel of the same name surrounding the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Any film that makes a confusing event and makes everything that happened clear deserves the win.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

NOMINEES

-Carol

-Hateful Eight

-Mad Max

-The Revenant

-Sicario

Will Win. It strongly looks like Lubezki will win for the third year in the row for The Revenant. Chock full of his signature tracking shots and shot using natural lighting, The Revenant is a gorgeous movie that will give Lubezki his well deserved third award.

Should Win: Fury Road. John Seale went against the typical ways of shooting a post apocalyptic and made his film explosively colorful instead of the usual grays that plague the genre. This causes the film to pop off the screen and make an already explosive film that much more impressive.