The Holdovers
-
Watch: Devan Scott’s “The Holdovers, the ‘Film Look’, and Why it Matters” — The Video
One of Filmmaker‘s most popular articles last month was Devan Scott’s “The ‘Film Look’ and How The Holdovers Achieved It.” Of course, any discussion of cinematography and color grading is immensely aided by the actual visuals, and now Scott has made an hour-long essay video based on that article. Check it out above.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 10, 2024 -
The “Film Look” and How The Holdovers Achieved It
A working digital colorist or cinematographer in 2024 is likely all too familiar with one particular question: “Can we get the ‘film look’?” A decade into the age of digital sensors as the increasingly dominant and default shooting format, filmmakers at all budget levels are increasingly looking back at celluloid for inspiration. Phenomena once seen as drawbacks to be minimized—grain, chromatic aberration, anamorphic distortion, lens flares, halation—have not only become desired, but, if hordes of YouTube camera gurus are to be believed, “cinematic.” That is, these elements associated with this particular image formation workflow are essential to what constitutes “cinema,” […]
by Devan Scott on Jan 31, 2024 -
“If I Had Been Working in the 1970s [But With Today’s Technology], I Would Have Used Digital, I Would Have Used LED Technology”: The Holdovers Cinematographer Eigil Bryld
In The Holdovers, a professor, a student and a grief-stricken cook are stranded together at a New England boarding school over the holidays. The story takes place in the early 1970s, an era whose films are beloved by both Holdovers director Alexander Payne and cinematographer Eigil Bryld. However, they took opposing philosophical perspectives in imbuing their movie with the spirit of that epoch. Though he looked at the work of Hal Ashby for inspiration – particularly The Landlord and The Last Detail – rather than attempt to replicate it, Payne’s approach found him imaging what kind of film he himself […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Dec 22, 2023 -
Holiday Misfits: Alexander Payne on The Holdovers
Before The Holdovers, director Alexander Payne and actor Paul Giamatti hadn’t worked together in nearly two decades. After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2004, their Oscar-winning comedy Sideways went on to garner countless awards and generate profitable spinoffs—a Japanese remake, musical theater adaptation, film-branded bottles of pinot noir. During the 19 years since the film’s release, Payne and Giamatti attempted to team up on new projects, but none came to fruition until a screenplay by David Hemingson arrived on Payne’s desk a few years ago. Envisioning the script as something that could be revised and expanded upon […]
by Erik Luers on Sep 20, 2023 -
TIFF 2023: The Holdovers, Hit Man
In terms of acquisitions, the most financially significant screening of last year’s TIFF was an industry-only one of The Holdovers, a Miramax-developed title whose worldwide rights promptly sold for $30 million to Focus Features; this year, it returned for press and public inspection following its Telluride premiere. It is, as previously announced, a crowdpleaser directed by Alexander Payne, designed for career rejuvenation after the ambitious, unwieldy and expensive commercial failure of 2017’s Downsizing, and effectively written under his instruction by sitcom writer-producer David Hemingson. He cannibalized what was initially written as a prep school-set pilot by, among other things, following Payne’s directive to […]
by Vadim Rizov on Sep 12, 2023 -
Trailer Watch: Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers
After collaborating on Sideways nearly 20 years ago, Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti reunite for The Holdovers, Payne’s latest directorial effort. Giamatti stars as a crotchety boarding school teacher who’s been tasked with looking after the students unable to leave campus for winter break in a period screenplay by David Hemingson An official synopsis reads: The Holdovers follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them—a damaged, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 17, 2023
