So... why exactly has this won the Oscar for best cinematography?

So... why exactly has this won the Oscar for best cinematography?

What exactly has been done in this movie that hadn't been done 60+ years ago?
I don't even wanna blast the movie: It looked nice. But is "nice" really deserving of an Oscar?

Neatly choreographed tracking shots, alright – hey, friggin GONE WITH THE WIND had those almost 80 years ago!
Such vibrant colors! – Yeah, give the film stock manufacturer an Oscar already.
But the lighting! – What of it? Some brightly lit scenes shot in broad daylight and some artificicially lit and post-produced nighttime scenes.
But the camera was like... dancing! – A staple of 1950s/60s musical features with a bit of new Hollywood shoddiness added. Gimme a break!

Is every movie that doesn't go through a shitload of digital color grading in post worth an Oscar now? I'm gonna send them my VHS-C home movies that I made when I was a kid then...

>What exactly has been done in this movie that hadn't been done 60+ years ago?

What has any recent movie done that hasn't been done 60 years ago?

because every movie this ''industry'' shits out is garbage/pandering shit

predator you bitch

>some artificicially lit and post-produced nighttime scenes

Hey OP, you might want to know what you're talking about before you make a shitty post like yours.

Well... brought some innovation?
Innovative framing, innovative use of aspect ratios, innovative use of modern equipment.

why I do know. Run-of-the-mill stage lights, that's what I'm talking about. Retouched in post to make it look more shiny.

examples, please.

Which movie should've won instead? I agree it wasn't groundbreaking, but it seems like the DP made all the right choices for the subject matter. It looked great. It's all a knockoff of '50s/'60s musicals because that's the film Damien was directing everyone to make.

Again, there's nothing WRONG with that. But it's plain as it gets.

This is why the Oscars are shit. When you let actors and producers vote on the technical aspect of film, it will never go well. They happened to get it right the last three years with Cinematography tho.

Not OP, but the movie that would've been way more deserving of praise wasn't even nominated.
Three words: The Neon Demon.

Musical=Oscar

That's how simple it is

>how come there aren't any easy landscape shots I can make a memegrid out of! this sucks!!

I'm gonna spell it out for you.

THEY DIDN'T DO THE LIGHTING IN POST YOU COLOSSAL MORON.

How did they do the continuous shot in the first song? And how did they do the party scene with the pool and everything? Just editing cuts together or what?

Cinematographer here, objective ranking of the nominees:

Lion – Greig Fraser.
Silence – Rodrigo Prieto.
Arrival – Bradford Young.
Moonlight – James Laxton.
La La Land – Linus Sandgren.

Nobody "does the lighting" in post except fully animated films. You can't change the position/direction of the light, you can't really add lights that weren't there on set without it looking like total shit.

But every single movie you see now is retouched at least a little bit in post. It's not "cheating" or anything, it's just part of the process. There would be literally no reason NOT to take advantage of all the tools available to make your film look the way you want, just to impress some autists on Sup Forums who don't understand how this shit works anyway

Best cinematography isn't about most innovative visuals. It's about best usage of visuals in telling the film's story. Best cinematography could theoertically go to the most bland, flat visuals ever seen in a film, if it all worked holistically and served the greater purpose of the story.

People constantly conflate cinematography with "pretty visuals" or "unique visuals". They're wrong. It's simply visual storytelling.

The Love Witch should have won best Kinotography

Lion should've won but it stood no chance

I never said that they did the "lighting in post" that's absolute nonsene. You're the moron here for being unable to read. I said it was plain-jane lighting, nothing else. What was done in post was color correction so the skin tones would stick out nicely. Also run-of-the-mill stuff.

When have the Oscars ever given out gongs to the people who really deserved them?