Let's celebrate last year's best cinematic achievement in technical categories, including six subjects: editing, visual effects, cinematography, art direction, score, and songs. I'm picking five films which I consider as the best for each subject. Here we go.
|BEST EDITING|
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| Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill |
Rush is powerful and dynamic, but
at the same time never tried to be too much an adrenaline pumper—thanks to solid
editing team behind it. That is the reason why I choose it over Captain
Phillips or 12 Years A Slave which, although from the editing itself look quite
similar, had a lot more tension. Meanwhile, flashbacks in Saving Mr. Banks was
effective and less distracting than what many people described about, and interchanging
scenes of dream and conscious state in Trance is smooth and straight.
runners-up:
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| Christopher Rouse | Joe Walker | |
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| Mark Livolsi | Jon Harris | |
***
|BEST VISUAL EFFECTS|
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| Richard McBride, Tim Webber, et al. |
No one has ever imagined seeing
both sunrise and aurora in one big frame captured from outer space, before they
saw Gravity. It’s a wonderful, wonderful piece of art meets technology. Meanwhile,
it’s easy to be impressed by Smaug’s flawless 3D CGI modelling in The
Desolation of Smaug, the beautiful space station in Oblivion, or Jaeger/Kaiju visualization
in Pacific Rim. I also give Walter Mitty a recognition for its effort in
blending the beautiful scenery of Iceland and Mitty’s vast imagination.
runners-up:
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| Jeff Capogreco, Joe Letteri, et al. | Eric Barba, Björn Mayer, et al. | |
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| John Knoll, James E. Price, et al. | Guillaume Rocheron, Mark Casey, et al. | |
***
|BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY|
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| Emmanuel Lubezki |
How chic cinematography meets
advanced visual technology in Gravity reminds me of how it occurs back when I
watched Life of Pi. Would you rather be told about the story of a film and be
transferred with its emotions from visual images or from dialogues? I prefer
visual languages to textual ones. That’s the power of cinematography. Blooming
white and strong bleakness in Inside Llewyn Davis, and the image composition,
color setting, and focus play in Stoker, Her, and Prisoners are achievements
that made me believe people would appreciate the art side of a film better in
the future.
runners-up:
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| Bruno Delbonnel | Chung-hoon Chung | |
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| Hoyte van Hoytemma | Roger Deakins | |
***
|BEST ART DIRECTION|
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| Austin Gorg |
This is a last-minute decision; I
wasn’t really prepared for Best Art Direction category. But suddenly when I was
listing my choices for Best Cinematography, I couldn’t help wondering how art
direction has become an important key for cinematography. So, here it is. Palette
coloring increased the sweetness and warmth of Her, while Gatsby’s bayside
castle party is glamorous with lots of fireworks and stuffs. Beside Iceland,
Walter Mitty’s setting in LIFE magazine office is also interesting. Les
Miserables and The Wolf of Wall Street came up next after it.
runners-up:
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| Damien Drew, Ian Gracie, Michael Turner | David Swayze | |
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| Grant Armstrong, Gary Jopling, Hannah Moseley, Su Whitaker |
Chris Shriver | |
***
|BEST SCORE|
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| HER Will Butler, Owen Pallett (a.k.a Arcade Fire) |
You might agree that Hans
Zimmer’s chant for Man of Steel is a memorable one, but you should see how he
made a more traditional, simpler arrangement for every continuous despair in 12
Years A Slave. And I’m not sure if I really prefer simple music for films until
finally I listened to those Thai songs in Only God Forgives, and fell for them.
However, I wouldn’t easily forget the impassioned score by Explosions In The
Sky in Prince Avalanche and all the melancholy composition Arcade Fire produced
for Her. Love them all.
runners-up:
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| PRINCE AVALANCHE Explosions in the Sky, David Wingo |
ONLY GOD FORGIVES Cliff Martinez | |
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| 12 YEARS A SLAVE Hans Zimmer |
MAN OF STEEL Hans Zimmer | |
***
|BEST SONG USED IN A FILM|
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| FIVE HUNDRED MILES from INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (music by Hedy West; performed by Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, Stark Sands) |
This is the most exciting category. I love this year’s songs in films. I just love them. But finally my choices were split into songs from only three films. To be honest I prefer Her’s score than songs, but the Oscar-nominated The Moon Song and Breeder’s Off You are the two I can’t skip away from my playlist. Ed Sheeran’s I See Fire is too. But, you know, all songs in Inside Llewyn Davis are undeniably unforgettable—especially the comedic Please Mr. Kennedy and the mildly traditional rhythm of Five Hundred Miles.
runners-up:
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| PLEASE MR. KENNEDY from INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (music by Ed Rush, George Cromarty, T-Bone Burnett, Justin Timberlake, Joel Coen, & Ethan Coen; performed by Justin Timberlake, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver |
I SEE FIRE from THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (music by Ed Sheeran; performed by Ed Sheeran) | |
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| OFF YOU from HER (music by Kim Deal; performed by The Breeders) |
THE MOON SONG from HER (music by Karen O & Spike Jonze; performed by Karen O) | |
***
RECAP
Best Editing:
1. Rush
2. Captain Phillips
3. 12 Years A Slave
4. Saving Mr. Banks
5. Trance
Best Visual Effects:
1. Gravity
2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
3. Oblivion
4. Pacific Rim
5. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Best Cinematography:
1. Gravity
2. Inside Llewyn Davis
3. Stoker
4. Her
5. Prisoners
Best Art Direction:
1. Her
2. The Great Gatsby
3. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
4. Les Miserables
5. The Wolf of Wall Street
Best Score:
1. Her
2. Prince Avalanche
3. Only God Forgives
4. 12 Years A Slave
5. Man of Steel
Best Song Used in A Film:
1. Five Hundred Miles (from Inside Llewyn Davis)
2. Please Mr. Kennedy (from Inside Llewyn Davis)
3. I See Fire (from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug)
4. Off You (from Her)
5. The Moon Song (from Her)
***
So far Her is leading with 2 wins and 3 runner-ups. Coming up next, Writing & Directing categories.
Really great picks here, Bar! Rasanya pilihan2 kita nanti ada yg bakal sama :) Can't wait for the rest of your recap!
ReplyDeleteHaha ternyata selera kita sama riz :)
DeleteJustice for Rush! xD I totally didn't notice before that I See Fire was played in the film. Imo, the best song used in a film is definitely Young & Beautiful. Not only does the song appear in the film, but it's also used as the film score. Great list btw! Can't wait to see the acting categories and, of course, best films! :)
ReplyDeleteYeah it's been a really tight category, but finally Young & Beautiful didn't make to my final list.
DeleteFabntastic post! The one addition I would love to make is Nebraska to the cinematography category. The gorgeous black and white visuals are somber yet poetic. It really blew me away.
ReplyDeleteToo bad I haven't seen Nebraska. Hopefully it will be on my list next year. Thank you!
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