Comments on: Christopher Doyle Calls ‘Life Of Pi’ A “Fucking Insult To Cinematography,” Hates On ‘Lincoln’ & More

By: Jackson

Jackson — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

Also, why the hell does he care if Miranda won the Oscar if he doesn't care about Oscars?

By: Glass

Glass — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

When people say Life of Pi is "90% CGI" or something, I'm convinced they never saw the movie and they're just thinking of the trailer shots with the whale and the glassy water at sunset. Claudio can take all the credit he gets, because he busted his ass and did incredible work that shows in the final film. I guess watch the making-of on the DVD to see what I mean (or just see the movie?).

By: Bob Roberts

Bob Roberts — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

He brings up an interesting point. Although, he's not able to articulate it clearly, he's saying that an old way of awarding/praising a film's look and quality is outdated with the emergence of digital technology. We have to rethink what it means to be a cinemtographer in this new age. He thinks that the look you get from the dailies on that day is the real craft of the cinematographer. If you can get over his rambling a bit, he's saying something important.

By: John

John — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

By his own reasoning, he is to the English language what the film's cinematographer is to "Life of Pi." That is, he is entirely undeserving of the accolades he's getting here.

By: anon

anon — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

"mini" vfx controversy…its not mini to those who hollywood relies on to make their billions and the audience who hope to escape from a scary reality just lost their jobs.

the industry imploded, its a fucked up system…you should be a bit more appreciative of those that are abused for your leisure

By: harry

harry — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

Agree with Doyle almost all the way through, except the part about learning from people online all the time. That's not living, that's dying.

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

The Masters cinematography should have won the Oscar, it was the best.

By: Ted

Ted — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

I agree with on about the "Life of Pi's" cinematography. It doesn't sound like he's criticizing Miranda really, but he should have made that more clear. He comes off like a dick.

I also 100% agree about Lincoln, though. Lincoln was the only film I've ever seen where I hated it in less than 5 minutes.

By: Stephanie Martin

Stephanie Martin — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

Doyle cares about his craft. There's a significant difference between that and not giving a shit about the Oscars. As for Hugo, do your research. Most of the work was done in camera and on real sets.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

For someone who doesn't give a shit about the Oscars or it's voters, he should does spend a lot of energy and anger on it.

By: Lucano

Lucano — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

Doyle can eat some Hollywood cock! It's about the final result, many old timers feel the sensation of menace when it comes to new technology. Theres more to cinematography than the technic that was applied (digital,analog,CGI,etc), for example, the composition, the use of light & colors, just to name a few.
#Doyle you lost my respect.

By: Jackson

Jackson — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

Yawn….another "Good-At-His-Job-but-Totally-Unlikeable" crew member who thinks he is above everyone else because they win awards. I don't care if he shot Hero, he is still a canker sore of a man and would probably insult Deakins if he had the chance.

By: Toliet Baby

Toliet Baby — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

I completely agree that it's ridiculous to give a movie that's 90% CGI the Oscar for cinematography. It's a travesty Roger Deakins didn't win this year.

By: sam

sam — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

and good call on the silly patriotism.

By: Pierre

Pierre — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

"Fuck off" "Sorry" "Fuck off" "Sorry"

haha. He's the best.

By: THOR

THOR — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

I don't get it. What movie does Ai Weiwei act in? No info on IMDb.

By: hatr

hatr — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

Ang Lee looks like Tiger Woods

By: COLE

COLE — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

Who is this cinematographer Christopher Doyle?? Does anyone know what movie he's in for??

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

Spoken like a true hater

By: Alan B

Alan B — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

I absolutely agree with Doyle's point about the Life of Pi win. I couldn't hack that nomination, let alone its win. It was just like in 2010, in which Bruno Delbonnel rocked Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Barry Ackroyd killed The Hurt Locker, Robert Richardson shot the hell out of Inglourious Basterds and Christian Berger delivered a very original and shocking look for The White Ribbon … and the guy who previously shot the Stallone remake of Get Carter won for a film that was predominantly CGI. For real? The other films had – arguably – some of the best cinematography of its decade, but Avatar wins, a film which has amazing visuals, but not-amazing cinematography in a CGI spectacle. It would be like a screenwriter winning for a script that was ultimately changed completely by the director. A bit of a fraud, really. It's disappointing, however, that Doyle completely lets down his argument with his 'Lincoln' rant. What a bunch of incoherent nonsense masquerading as a cogent thought: 'Oh my God, patriotism! Oh my God! Doesn't Spielberg know it's his job to tell us American sucks? What an asshole!'

By: gilbert

gilbert — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

If this is the trend, so that means we can nominate Gollum for Best Supporting Actor?

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

I'd like to remind people that "Life of Pi" was one of the 5 films nominated by the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) as one of the best-filmed movies of the year — and, as many keep pointing out, professional cinematographers (as opposed to actors, writers, and directors) should be the ones who know which work is most worthy of praise. It doesn't seem likely to me that they would be so stupid as to nominate a film that was actually a joke from a cinematographic perspective. At the least, it certainly undercuts his argument. I agree that it is interesting to compare the history of the ASC Award Winners with the Academy Award Winners. Although the list of nominees is often similar – since the nominees for both groups are chosen by the cinematographers – it would seem to indicate that the Academy does indeed tend to lean towards the over-all final "look" of the film, CGI and all included, as compared to the ASC. It seems true that "Pi", "Hugo", and "Avatar" relied more heavily on CGI than "Skyfall", "The Tree of Life", or "The White Ribbon". Though, did he complain when "Inception" won the ASC several years ago? or when "Hugo" or "Avatar" won the Oscar? I don't know. Times are changing, and perhaps so is what constitutes cinematography. One last comment, to those who still doubt the contribution of Claudio Miranda, and who feel he was essentially shooting a guy in a boat with a blue screen behind: I would suggest that you read some of the interviews of Miranda and Ang Lee, regarding how they shot the film. I found them really interesting. Lee mentioned that he specifically chose Miranda because of his past work with both 3-D and Digital, both special skill sets in-and-of themselves. I especially remember them talking about the "candle scene". A LOT of work (and thought) went into this movie, photographically — not the least of which was the very act of having to balance the old-fashioned cinematography with the immense computer-generated requirements.

By: Cole

Cole — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

For everyone (The Fanciful Norwegian, Ronnie D, Bob, Burgersam, Daniel, DJ) who answered my question down there, thank you very much. Sorry I don't know this guy, I don't exactly know many cinematographers…

By the way, I'm not a "he", I am a "she".

By: CHARLES FOSTER KANE

CHARLES FOSTER KANE — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

Looks like Mr. Doyle forgot to take his meds.

By: Gilles

Gilles — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:27:36 +0000

Nice and lively discussion here. 😀

I think there are a lot of assumptions here about Miranda's role in the whole process. I can remember from the wall-e commentary (right?) that they consulted with Roger Deakins about the cinematography and I feel his influence is really felt in the sense that this is the first animated pixar film where you have great use of the aesthetic of motion picture camera's and how these behave, including things like anamorphic-like bokeh's and the use of DOF.
The assumption that Miranda only shot a guy in front of a blue screen might be unfouded. Because he might have played a major part in all the 'lighting' of the cgi environments.

That being said. You could still (as Doyle does) interpret the award as insult to the craft because the creation of all these beautiful colours and whatnot (I haven't seen the film yet) had nothing to do with the craft of cinematography. The one where you work with your hands.