Owen Roizman Named UCLA Cinematographer In Residence

Owen Roizman, ASC, has been named Kodak Cinematographer in Residence at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. The residency program, conceived by Production Vice Chair and Professor William McDonald, is sponsored by the Kodak Student Filmmaker Program. Roizman will teach a series of workshops for UCLA students focusing on the aesthetic role that the cinematographer plays in visual storytelling.

UCLA will also host a screening of True Confessions at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 28, at the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA Westwood campus. The story explores a complex relationship between brothers played by Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall, who have followed diametrically different paths in life. After the screening, Roizman will discuss his role in the making of this influential 1981 film. Admission is free and open to the public.

“We believe it is important for our students to have access to the filmmakers who have played defining roles in shaping the visual grammar of this art form,” says McDonald. “Owen Roizman is one of the giants. His influence is pervasive and incomparable.

Roizman has earned Oscar nominations for The French Connection, The Exorcist, Network, Tootsie and Wyatt Earp. His body of work also includes such memorable films as Three Days of the Condor; The Taking of Pelham, One, Two, Three; The Electric Horseman; Taps; The Heartbreak Kid; Play It Again Sam; The Stepford Wives; Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; Havana; Absence of Malice; Grand Canyon and The Addams Family.

He received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) in 1997 and the Camerimage International Festival of the Art of Cinematography in 2001. Roizman also served as president of ASC in 1997.

“Owen Roizman has created an extraordinary body of work that continues to influence young filmmakers in every part of the world,” says McDonald. “All of our students, including writers, directors and cinematographers, will benefit from his insights.”

Roizman was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised there and on Long Island. His father, Sol Roizman, was a newsreel cameraman for Fox Movietone News, who segued into documentary, television and TV commercial filmmaking later in his career.

Roizman followed an improbable career path. His dream of becoming a major league baseball player ended suddenly when he injured his arm while pitching his last game in high school. Roizman studied physics and math at Gettysburg College, in Pennsylvania. He planned a career in engineering, however after several job interviews after graduation, Roizman decided that filmmaking would be a more rewarding career.

He apprenticed with Akos Farkas, who specialized in shooting commercials and launched his career as an assistant cameraman and operator with Gerald Hirschfeld, ASC, who was shooting commercials. Within several years, he advanced to staff cinematographer at MPO, a leading-edge TV commercial production house. A writer/director named Bill Gunn asked him to shoot a feature film in 1970 called Stop. His second narrative project was The French Connection directed by Billy Friedkin. During the early 1980s, Roizman organized a TV commercial production company in Los Angeles. He directed and shot hundreds of commercials during the next six years. Lawrence Kasdan lured Roizman back to shooting features in 1988.

The Kodak Student Filmmaker Program provides a wide range of support for film schools, including scholarships, film grants and discounts, mentoring programs and educational materials. This is the fourth year that Kodak has sponsored the cinematographer in residence program at UCLA. The others were Allen Daviau, ASC, Dean Cundey, ASC and Conrad Hall, ASC.

“We are delighted that Owen Roizman has agreed to make time for this worthy endeavor,” says John Mason, director of Kodak’s Student Filmmaker Program. “He is a brilliant artist who will be a great mentor for these filmmakers who are still at a formative stage of their careers. There is so much false hype today about technology being a replacement for artful filmmaking that it is important for students to have access to people like Owen who will tell them the truth and also offer insights and answers to their questions.”

The James Bridges Theater is located on the northeast corner of UCLA’s campus (nearest cross streets are Sunset Boulevard and Hilgard Avenue in Westwood). Admission is free and open to the public. Parking is $6 per entry in structure 3. For further information, the general public can call the Bridges box office at (310) 206-8365.

For more information, visit the UCLA website at www.tft.ucla.edu or the Kodak website at www.kodak.com/go/motion.

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Keywords

"william mcdonald" "owen roizman, asc" 

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