The American Society of Cinematographers may not get quite as much press as some of the other end-of-year awards-presenting guilds, but they deserve credit for nominating an eclectic assortment of small screen favorites.
Nobody other than the ASC is likely to nominate “Alcatraz” for anything, while it’s good to know that one group is comfortable honoring “Fringe.” Plus, nobody loves Cinemax dramas like the cinematographers, apparently.
The American Society of Cinematographers announced nominees for their 27th Awards on Wednesday (December 19).
Balazs Bolygo, who shot the “Mort” episode of “Hunted” and Mike Spragg who lensed Episode 11 of “Strike Back” are nominated in the one-hour Episode Television Drama category against Dave Stockton for the “Alcatraz” pilot and David Moxness for the “Letters of Transit” episode of “Fringe.” They’ll face off against Chris Manley for “The Phantom” episode of “Mad Men” and Kramer Morgenthau for “The North Remembers” from “Game of Thrones.”
From that group, only Manley was Emmy nominated for his cinematography, while the ASC shut out regular technical awards favorites like “Boardwalk Empire,” “Homeland” and “Breaking Bad.”
In the Television Movies/Miniseries category, the ASC only found four worthy nominees. It will be Michael Gol for “American Horror Story: Asylum” against Florian Hoffmeister of “Great Expectations,” Rogier Stoffers of “Hemingway & Gellhorn” and Arthur Reinhart for “Hatfields & McCoys.”
On the half-hour Episodic Series front, it will be Ken Glassing for “Ben and Kate” (the “Guitar Face” episode), Michael Goi for “The New Normal” (“Pilot”), Peter Levy for “House of Lies” (“Gods of Dangerous Financial Instruments”), Bradford Lipson for “Wilfred” (“Truth”) and Michael Price for “Happy Endings” (“Four Weddings and a Funeral (Minus Three Weddings and One Funeral)”).
“Creating the mood, composing the lighting, and constructing camera angles on a television production schedule to elicit just the right emotions for a scene presents many challenges,” blurbs ASC President Stephen Lighthill. “These artists have shown imaginative creativity in crafting the appropriate visuals on a broadcast timeline.”
It should be noted that the Emmy categories breakdown along single-cam/multi-cam lines, while the ASC categories are broken down by length. That allows the ASC to ignore anybody working in the multi-cam format.
Moxness and Stockton are the only former winners in the ASC fields. Manley, Morgenthau and Goi now have four career ASC nominations.