Bill Pope, ASC, has scored on the industry awards circuit for his theatrical feature endeavors, earning a BAFTA Film nomination in 2000 for Best Cinematography on the strength of The Matrix, and three years earlier an Independent Spirit Award nom for his lensing of Bound. Both Bound and The Matrix were directed by the Wachowski Brothers, for whom Pope also shot The Matrix Reloaded as well as the video game Enter the Matrix. The DP’s other feature credits include Spider-Man 3 and Darkman, both directed by Sam Raimi, Men in Black 3 helmed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and The World’s End, both directed by Edgar Wright.
While there have been some past forays into TV (including the series Maximum Bob and the pilot for Freaks and Geeks), Pope this past season made his biggest small screen splash to date with the ambitious, lauded Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (Fox, National Geographic) for which he shot all 13 episodes while directing eight of them (in collaboration with Brannon Braga and Ann Druyan, who was also a co-creator/writer on the original Cosmos series in 1980; she is the widow of that show’s driving force, astronomer and educator Carl Sagan).
The new Cosmos has now earned Pope his first Emmy nomination, in the Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming, on the basis of the “Standing Up in the Milky Way” episode. It’s one of a dozen Emmy nominations for Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, including for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series,
Pope said the opportunity to work on the new Cosmos series “meant a lot to me and my family. My son saw it when he was eight years old and it changed his life. He became interested in science and started thinking big ideas. His kids now go to science school and he to this day keeps memorabilia from the original Cosmos series. It put him on a path to thinking outside the box. For me, working on the new Cosmos series felt like payback–being able to pay it forward to another generation of kids, inviting them to think about larger ideas.”
“Standing Up in the Milky Way” was the first aired episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. In this installment of the documentary series, host and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson boards the “Ship of the Imagination” to take a tour of the Solar System and the Milky Way galaxy. The episode also explores the life of Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno, takes us through a Cosmic Calendar from the universe’s beginning to the present, and concludes with a tribute to Sagan.
“The visual challenge was in coordinating all the elements involved while introducing scale and grandeur,” related Pope. “When you’re on the Ship of the Imagination, you have to coordinate everything that you see outside the front window. There are pure visual effects shots, live action, the big grand vision, and the world as seen through a microscope. All these elements have to mesh together as one experience. Almost every location is a place you haven’t been too before. And you’re doing all this with a documentary approach where you are constantly in a time crunch.
As cinematographer, Pope said he was entrusted with much more than just lensing Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. He explained that writer/executive producer/director Druyan “wanted someone to oversee visuals on everything–to make sure the live action, animation and visual effects came together to tell the story. I was a visual consultant on all aspects. My credits, dealing with live action and visual effects [such as on The Matrix films], drew them to me.”
Pope said that Druyan was “the touchstone” for everyone working on Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, helping them stay true to the spirit of the original series. “She’s a great writer and kept us all on point.”
Fargo
Two of the six nominees in the Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie category come from the FX series Fargo: Dana Gonzales for the “Buridan’s Ass” episode, and Matthew J. Lloyd, CSC, for “The Crocodile’s Dilemma.”
The latter DP has had an eventful awards season. In addition to garnering his first Emmy nomination, earlier this year Lloyd saw his work on the pilot episode for the Amazon series Alpha House earn him his first ASC Award nomination; it came in the Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Half-Hour Episodic TV Series category. Both the Alpha House pilot and “The Crocodile’s Dilemma” episode were directed by Adam Bernstein.
Antoine Douaihy, a producer on Alpha House (a series written and created by Gary Trudeau), introduced Lloyd to Bernstein. Douaihy had previously collaborated with Lloyd on a feature, The Better Angel. Bernstein and Lloyd developed a rapport on Alpha House so the director turned to the DP again for Fargo.
For Lloyd, the biggest challenge of Fargo was “taking ownership of a property or film that is hugely celebrated and very precise in its aesthetic and visual language.” His reference is to the original feature film, Fargo, directed by the Coen brothers, on which the FX TV series is based. Lloyd related, “Where do you start? How much of the movie is still relevant to what you’re trying to do with the TV show? How much do you want to pay homage to the feature film. How much are you entitled to update the look and feel since the original movie has this cult following.
“Adam [Bernstein] felt things needed to be updated,” continued Lloyd. “We didn’t want it to become a parody of itself. We wanted the TV show to be a little darker, a little bit edgier than the film. On some level, we wanted it to be a little more graphic while still paying homage to the original movie. We also were influenced by the Coen brothers’ later work. We began thinking of the series as ‘No Country for Old Fargo,’” said Lloyd, alluding to the Coens’ No Country For Old Men.”
Bernstein shot Fargo on the ARRI Alexa, characterizing it as “the most film-based camera they’ve made in the digital age.” He found it to be the ideal choice for the “straight-ahead drama” of Fargo and “the cinematically rich storytelling going on in television today.”
Lloyd has also branched out more into feature filmmaking. For example, he served as second unit DP on the Oliver Stone-directed Savages. Lloyd was also cinematographer on American Almanac, a Paramount sci-fi film directed by Dean Israelite and slated for release in 2015. Lloyd made his feature lensing debut with Robot & Frank directed by Jake Schreier, the first theatrical movie from Park Pictures Features, the narrative feature company formed in summer of 2011 by longstanding commercial production house Park Pictures. Robot & Frank made its world premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival where it secured its first distribution deal—with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and Samuel Goldwyn Films partnering on the U.S. theatrical release in addition to jointly acquiring North American rights. Additionally Sony acquired all media rights for Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Robot & Frank marked the theatrical feature directorial debut of Jake Schreier who’s on Park Pictures’ spotmaking roster. Lloyd shot commercials over the years for Schreier, leading to the DP getting the chance to lens Robot & Frank.
Like Lloyd, cinematographer Gonzales has seen Fargo earn him his first primetime Emmy nomination. For the “Buridan’s Ass” episode of Fargo, Gonzales said the biggest creative challenge was “depicting a blizzard on television. This particular blizzard reached whiteout proportions during its climax. We went into full blizzard mode for 12 minutes of the episode. Designing and committing to the sequence while dealing with falling snow was tough. We went from minus-10 degrees to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit. This particular episode had the most visual effects of all the Fargo episodes. We had to visually depict the progression of the storm to blizzard whiteout so that it would look believable. The weather is definitely a character in the show and we had to do justice to that character.”
Gonzales’ body of TV series work includes the modern day western series Longmire (A&E), the edgy, at times gritty Southland (TNT), and Pretty Little Liars (ABC Family). Lloyd was told that Warren Littlefield, one of the exec producers on Fargo, was drawn to him in part for his work on Southland. “A combination of that and the work of my agents at WPA helped me get the opportunity to shoot Fargo,” said Gonzales, adding that Lloyd is also on the WPA roster. While Lloyd lensed two episodes of Fargo, Gonzales shot the other eight.
“It’s been a great experience,” said Gonzales. “When shooting it, we knew this was a special show. Audiences have reacted favorably. To see, for example, someone like Allison Tolman, a new talent, get nominated, means a lot.” (Tolman is nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie based on her portrayal of Molly Solverson.)
Fargo garnered a total of 18 Emmy nominations this year, exceeded only by Game of Thrones (HBO) with 19.
Gonzales has also been active on the feature front. Prior to Fargo, he shot director Brad Peyton’s Incarnate starring Aaron Eckhart, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Carice van Houten. Earlier Gonzales lensed the Dwayne Johnson-starring action vehicles Snitch and Empire State. Gonzales’ second unit DP endeavors included such notable films as director/writer Paul Haggis’ Best Picture Oscar winner Crash.
Killing Kennedy
Also nominated in the Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie category was Stephen St. John for National Geographic Channel’s Killing Kennedy. This marks St. John’s first turn as an Emmy nominee. His credits as a TV DP also span such series as Lost and True Blood. He also shot the feature films The Guardian and Holes, both directed by Andrew Davis. (Earlier, St. John served as Steadicam operator and “B” camera operator on Davis’ The Fugitive, which earned Michael Chapman a Best Cinematography Oscar nomination.)
Based on Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard’s best seller, Killing Kennedy delves into the assassination of JFK. Produced by Scott Free Productions, Killing Kennedy was directed by Nelson McCormick. “Nelson was so organized. I’ve been around many prepared directors but he took it to a new level,” related St. John. “As we were scouting locations, he was laying out shots. He was very specific in the scout. Nelson put a lot of information and direction in our back pocket that we could spread out to the rest of the crew, making it possible to prepare more efficiently and to ultimately make a tight 18-day shooting schedule. We had a warehouse location in downtown Richmond [VA] which served not only as the six-floor book depository in Dallas but also a factory in Minsk where Lee Harvey Oswald labored with Russian co-workers. There was a great precision in locations for multiple uses. ”
The Scott Free connection–particularly that with Scott family directors ranging from Tony to Jake and Jordan Scott–played a major role in St. John getting the Killing Kennedy gig to begin with. “I did my post-graduate work at RSA,” quipped St. John, alluding to his extensive work with the Scotts, particularly the late Tony Scott on commercials and features. For example, St. John served as second unit DP on Domino and as Steadicam operator on Man On Fire, both Tony Scott-directed movies. He worked with the Scott directors as a DP on assorted commercials.
Tom Moran, who was Tony Scott’s assistant and worked with St. John, served as an associate producer on Killing Kennedy. Moran connected St. John with director McCormick which ultimately led to the DP getting the opportunity to lens Killing Kennedy.
St. John credited his core crew of gaffer Jim Grce and camera operator Chris Haarhoff for their contributions to Killing Kennedy, as well as Richmond producer Larry Rapaport with assembling a high-caliber ensemble of local artisans, including production designer Richard Blankenship and costume designer Amy Andrews. “What Richard and Amy did in Richmond to re-create the Dallas setting and feel was remarkable,” assessed St. John, who deployed ARRI’s Alexa on Killing Kennedy, which collected a total of three Emmy nominations this year, including for Outstanding TV Movie.
The Emmy nomination for Outstanding Cinematography in a sense marks a new career chapter for St. John, who picks up momentum in the TV arena. His experience as an industry vet also spans features, shorts and commercials. St. John’s feature filmography includes turns as second unit camera operator on, among other notable movies, Never Cry Wolf (directed by Carroll Ballard and shot by Hiro Narita), as Steadicam operator on the Oscar-winning Out of Africa (directed by Sydney Pollack and shot by David Watkin), and as action unit cinematographer on Mission: Impossible 3 (directed by J.J. Abrams and shot by Dan Mindel).
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This is the eighth installment in a 12-part series that explores the field of Emmy nominees and winners spanning such disciplines as directing, cinematography, editing, animation and visual effects. The series will run right through the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony and the following week’s primetime Emmy Awards live telecast on Aug. 25.
To read The Road To Emmy, Part 12, click here.
To read The Road To Emmy, Part 11, click here.
To read The Road To Emmy, Part 10, click here.
To read The Road To Emmy, Part 9, click here.
To read The Road To Emmy, Part 7, click here.
To read The Road To Emmy, Part 6, click here.
To read The Road To Emmy, Part 5, click here.
To read The Road To Emmy, Part 4, click here.
To read The Road To Emmy, Part 3, click here.
To read The Road To Emmy, Part 2, click here.
To read The Road To Emmy, Part 1, click here.
To read Primetime Talent, Pre-Road To Emmy feature 2, click here.
To read Primetime Talent, Pre-Road To Emmy feature 1, click here.
