1928 - BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
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- Cinematographer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
One of the most respected cinematographers in the industry, Polish-born Rudolph Mate entered the film business after his graduation from the University of Budapest. He worked in Hungary as an assistant cameraman for Alexander Korda and later worked throughout Europe with noted cameraman Karl Freund. Mate was hired to shoot some second-unit footage for Carl Theodor Dreyer and Erich Pommer, and they were so impressed with his work that they hired him as cinematographer on Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) (US title: "The Passion of Joan of Arc"). Mate was soon working on some of Europe's most prestigious films, cementing his reputation as one of the continent's premier cinematographers. Hollywood came calling in 1935, and Mate shot films there for the next 12 years before turning to directing in 1947. Unfortunately, while many of his directorial efforts were visually impressive (especially his sci-fi epic When Worlds Collide (1951)), the films themselves were for the most part undistinguished, with his best work probably being the film-noir classic D.O.A. (1949).- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Harold G. "Hal" Rosson, a cinematographer known for his subtle and imaginative lighting, was born in Genaseo, New York, on August 24, 1895, although some sources cite his birthday as April 6, 1895, or in 1889.
Rosson entered the movie industry in 1908 as an actor at the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, New York. Eventually, he quit acting to become an assistant to director of photography Irvin Willat at the Mark Dintenfass Studios. Moving on to the Famous Players Studio in 1912, he served as a "film johnny," or jack-of-all-trades, working as an assistant, extra and handyman, while simultaneously holding down a job as an office boy in a stock brokerage. By 1914, he was employed by a small theater in Brooklyn, where his duties included being the projectionist and manning the ticket booth.
Rosson finally abandoned New York for California in December 1914 and secured employment at Metro Pictures as assistant to both property man Danny Hogan and director of photography Arthur A. Cadwell. He moved back to New York when Metro relocated there, eventually becoming a director of photography in 1915. His first film has been cited as David Harum (1915) for director Allan Dwan (film credits for cinematographers were not inaugurated until 1919, under the influence of the American Society of Cinematographers, which Rosson joined in 1927). As a cinematographer, he also worked for the Kalem Company, Famous Players and Essanay before his career was interrupted by WWI, during which he served in the army.
After being demobilized, he got a job as assistant to cinematographer H. Lyman Broening on The Dark Star (1919), which starred Marion Davies and was shot in Fort Lee, NJ. He became an employee of Davies' production company, Cosmopolitan Productions, which had been set up for her in 1918 by her lover, William Randolph Hearst. In 1920, Rosson was signed by Mary Pickford to shoot movies starring her brother, Jack Pickford.
He eventually rejoined Metro (which in 1924, merged with Goldwyn Studios and then with Louis B. Mayer Productions to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), where he made his reputation. At MGM he was the lighting cameraman on Red Dust (1932), Red-Headed Woman (1932) and Bombshell (1933), on which his camera work showed off star Jean Harlow's platinum blonde look to maximum advantage. Rosson was married to Harlow for two years, from 1933 to 1935, which was indicative of his high status in the film community. In 1935 he moved to England to work for Alexander Korda's London Film Productions, but eventually he returned to MGM.
Rosson became a noted cinematographer in color, using the skills he had developed shooting in black & white to soften the palette created by the Technicolor process. Due to its need for high light levels, Technicolor often created gaudy images that resembled a child's coloring book. Rosson was able to make the colors more subtle, and was the recipient along with W. Howard Greene of an honorary Academy Award plaque for his color photography on The Garden of Allah (1936) in 1937 (the cinematography category was not split into color and B&W categories until the awards for 1939. The awards for color cinematography made for the 1936, '37, and '38 production years were awarded on the basis of a recommendation of a committee of leading cinematographers that viewed all the color pictures made during the year. For the 1967 awards, the B&W category was eliminated).
Rosson also was hailed for his photography on The Wizard of Oz (1939), for which he received the first of his five Academy Award nominations. When Rosson shot "Oz," he had the aid of two cameramen lent to MGM by Technicolor, and enjoyed the advice of Technicolor consultant Henri Jaffa, whose title was Technicolor Color Director (all early Technicolor films were overseen by a consultant from the company, to ensure that cinematographers and directors didn't use the process in ways Technicolor deemed improper and that violated its aesthetic criteria).
Ironically, four of Rosson's five Oscar nominations for best cinematography were for his B&W work. His B&W cinematography for The Asphalt Jungle (1950), for which he received his fourth Oscar nomination, is noted for creating the stark atmosphere that was central to the story and the overall success of the John Huston picture.
He retired in 1958 after shooting Onionhead (1958) for director Norman Taurog, though he returned to shoot El Dorado (1966) for Howard Hawks. In addition to shooting eight films for Allan Dwan between 1915 and 1929 and The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and The Red Badge of Courage (1951) for John Huston, Rosson also worked many times with directors Josef von Sternberg, Sam Wood, Cecil B. DeMille, W.S. Van Dyke, Howard Hawks, Mervyn LeRoy, Norman Taurog, Fred Zinnemann, and Vincente Minnelli. He shot the "The Trolley Song" number in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) for Minnelli and On the Town (1949) and Singin' in the Rain (1952) for Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. His most famous collaboration was with director Victor Fleming, starting in 1923 with Dark Secrets (1923) and culminating in 1939 with his work on The Wizard of Oz (1939) (in December 1938, under the direction of producer David O. Selznick, Rosson shot the burning of Atlanta sequence for Gone with the Wind (1939), for which Fleming was credited as the director).
Rosson died on September 6, 1988, in Palm Beach, Florida, well into his 90s. His long life was a fitting cap to a long and productive career.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Ernest Palmer was born on 6 December 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He was a cinematographer, known for Blood and Sand (1941), Broken Arrow (1950) and Street Angel (1928). He died on 22 February 1978 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Paul Ivano was born on 13 May 1900 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France. He was a cinematographer, known for Red Snow (1952), The Girl from Rio (1939) and Fury Below (1936). He was married to Greta. He died on 9 April 1984 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Gilbert Warrenton was born on 7 March 1894 in Paterson, New Jersey, USA. He was a cinematographer, known for The Man Who Laughs (1928), Panic in Year Zero! (1962) and Telephone Operator (1937). He died on 21 August 1980 in Riverside County, California, USA.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Director
Born in Illinois in 1904, the only child of Jennie and Frank Toland, Gregg and his mother moved to California several years after his parents divorced in 1910. Through Jennie's work as a housekeeper for several people in the movie business, Gregg may had gotten a $12-a-week job at age 15 as an office boy at William Fox Studios. Soon he was making $18 a week as an assistant cameraman. When sound came to movies in 1927, the audible whir of movie cameras became a problem, requiring the cumbersome use of soundproof booths. Toland helped devise a tool which silenced the camera's noise and which allowed the camera to move about more freely. In 1931, Toland received his first solo credit for the Eddie Cantor comedy, "Palmy Days." In 1939 he earned his first Oscar for his work on William Wyler's "Wuthering Heights." In the following year he sought out Orson Welles who then hired him to photograph "Citizen Kane." (Toland was said to have protected the inexperienced Welles from potential embarrassment by conferring with him in private about technical matters rather than bringing these up in front of the assembled cast and crew.) For "Kane" Toland used a method which became known as "deep focus" because it showed background objects as clearly as foreground objects. (Film theorist Andre Bazin said that Toland brought democracy to film-making by allowing viewers to discover what was interesting to them in a scene rather than having this choice dictated by the director.) Toland quickly became the highest paid cinematographer in the business, earning as much as $200,000 over a three year period. He also became perhaps the first cinematographer to receive prominent billing in the opening credits, rather than being relegated to a card containing seven or more other names. Tragically, Toland's career was cut short in 1948 by his untimely death at age 44. Toland had a daughter, Lothian, by his second wife and two sons, Gregg jr. and Timothy, by his third. Lothian became the wife of comic Red Skelton.