Editors' Picks
John Bailey, ASC to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award
By StudentFilmmakers.com
posted Sep 15, 2011, 16:38
The Big Bear Lake International Film Festival (BBLIFF) announces John Bailey, ASC as the recipient of their inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in Cinematography. Bailey will receive the award Friday, September 16 at the Big Bear Lake Performing Arts Center in Big Bear Lake, California.
The
Big Bear Lake International Film Festival (BBLIFF) announces John Bailey, ASC
as the recipient of their inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in Cinematography.
Bailey will receive the award Friday, September 16 at the Big Bear Lake Performing
Arts Center in Big Bear Lake, California.
In an eclectic career, John Bailey has photographed such mainstream Hollywood
films as “Ordinary People,” “Silverado,” "The Big
Chill," “The Accidental Tourist,” “Groundhog Day,”
“In the Line of Fire,” “As Good as It Gets,” “How
to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,”
“Must Love Dogs”; such offbeat films as Norman Mailer's “Tough
Guys Don’t Dance” and Jason Miller's “That Championship Season”;
and such genre-bending pictures as “Swimming to Cambodia,” “A
Brief History of Time” and “The Kid Stays in the Picture."
Bailey's interest in film while studying German language and culture in Innsbruck
and Vienna, where he became influenced by the Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) films
of the 60s. "What I sensed in the French New Wave was a sense of freedom
and spontaneity that caught me totally off-guard. I found a sort of crazed new
spirit happening - everywhere really, but especially in the French New Wave
- and somehow it just spoke to me in terms of its energy and its sense of breaking
loose. And yet the themes it was dealing with were the same themes most novelists
were trying to deal with. It was the beginning of a lot of experimentation in
the literary form. Given my bent toward literature, I just saw it as a new kind
of writing. When I entered film school at USC, I thought I would get into an
area of criticism or writing or film aesthetics and history. When I took a beginning
camera course, that changed my whole perspective: I really saw the camera primarily
as the writing instrument."
That didn't stop him from making literary contributions, however. He counts
among his writing credits essays and film articles for the New York Times, American
Cinematographer Magazine, ICG Magazine and the DGA Monthly, along with a weekly
blog on film and the arts, hosted by the American Society of Cinematographers
at www.theasc.com/blog.
Bailey’s other film credits include “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya
Sisterhood;” “The Anniversary Party;” “American Gigolo”
and “Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters,” for which he shares the
1985 Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Artistic Contribution with composer
Philip Glass and production and costume designer Eiko Ishioka; “Incident
at Loch Ness” for Werner Herzog and Zak Penn; and “The Architect,”
which debuted at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.
His recent projects include John Krasinski’s directorial debut film “Brief
Interviews with Hideous Men" and Shana Feste’s “The Greatest”
-- both selected for competition in the 2009 Sundance Festival. In 2010 Bailey's
projects “When in Rome,” “Ramona and Beezus” and “Country
Strong” were released. He recently completed “Everybody Loves Whales”
in Anchorage, Alaska, his fifth film with director Ken Kwapis.
Other leading directors Bailey has worked with include Robert Redford, Paul
Schrader, Lawrence Kasdan, Wolfgang Petersen, Jonathan Demme, Sam Raimi, Michael
Apted, John Schlesinger, Harold Ramis, Norman Mailer, Herbert Ross, Walter Hill,
Stuart Rosenberg, Robert Benton and James L. Brooks. He has also filmed for
Richard LaGravenese, Jennifer Jason Leigh & Alan Cumming, Shana Feste and
Callie Khouri, on their feature film debuts.
Beyond his work as a cinematographer, Bailey directed the 1994 film noir thriller
“China Moon,” starring Ed Harris, Benecio del Toro and Madeline
Stowe, “Mariette in Ecstasy” from Ron Hansen’s acclaimed novel,
as well as the one-person shows, David Hare’s “Via Dolorosa”
and Lily Tomlin’s “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the
Universe.” He also photographed and directed the Imax concert film “N’Sync:
Bigger Than Live.” Onscreen, he appears in the documentary "Visions
of Light: The Art of Cinematography" and the PBS series "American
Film."
He has served on the juries of the Venice Film Festival and CamerImage in Poland
and has conducted workshops and seminars internationally. He currently serves
on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,
the American Society of Cinematographers and on the National Film Preservation
Board.
He has been married to film editor Carol Littleton since 1972.
Other 2011 honorees at BBLIFF include Michael Giacchino (Film Music) and Stephen
Tobolowsky (Acting). For a list of past honorees visit the "Past Festivals"
link on our website.
Resources:
www.theasc.com
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