The technology of cinematography has come a long way since 1927, the inaugural Oscars ceremony, which awarded Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. F.W. Murnau's German Expressionist film is notable for its distorted art direction and groundbreaking cinematography by Charles Rosher and Karl Struss, featuring visually-striking tracking shots and forced perspective. Last year's Best Cinematography winner, The Revenant, was the first film shot on the ALEXA 65; the camera's 65mm digital sensor lent the footage a filmic look and enabled cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki to shoot using mostly natural light.
But while technology can certainly bolster a film's aesthetic, cameras are ultimately tools—they are only as strong as the humans behind them. This fact has never been more clear than in an exquisite new video by Burger Fiction that showcases the Best Cinematography winners throughout Oscar history. Though the movies featured in the supercut traverse nearly the entire history of cinema camera innovation, artistry remains impervious to time; some of the greatest aesthetic achievements in cinematography belong to films of another era.
Here's the complete list of Best Cinematography Oscar winners from 1927 to 2016:
While the big news from NAB 2024 this year might have been the major camera announcements from Blackmagic Design and the insane generative AI video tools from Adobe, it’s also always nice to get a chance to check out some more production-minded tools and workflows from the rest of the conference floor.
At our stop at the SmallHD booth, we were excited to check out their Ultra 7 touchscreen on-camera monitor, as well as chat about their recommendations for your remote monitoring workflows with the zero-delay Bolt 6 series from Teradek.
Check out our full convo with SmallHD below.
SmallHD at NAB 2024
Joined by our co-hosts from Cinematography for Actors for our video coverage this year, it’s always nice to catch up with the folks at SmallHD, who were sharing their booth with the Teradek team to showcase the latest and greatest in remote monitoring workflow technologies.
Take a look at the SmallHD ULTRA 7 UHD 4K On-Camera Touchscreen Monitor in action below.