Dig A Hole: William A. Fraker
June 6th, 2010 by Scott Marks
Wanna’ know how much I revere this man? On account of the work of this brilliant cinematographer my video shelves house one (and only one) spielberg ‘directed’ film (”1941″). If that doesn’t speak volumes to both my deep and abiding passion for and fervent loyalty to William A. Fraker nothing will.
William A. Fraker, his generation’s Prince of the Darkness and one of the finest night cinematographers this side of John Alton, died last Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a battle with cancer. He was 86.
Fraker was one of Hollywood’s native sons born in Los Angeles on September 29, 1923. (For the life of me I can’t find what the A.” stands for.) His father William A. Fraker, Sr. died of pneumonia in 1934, his mother died shortly thereafter, leaving the young Fraker to live with his grandmother and aunt. He came from a long line of still photographers who worked within the studio system. William A. Fraker, Sr. started out at Universal, Pathe and First National where he photographed movie stars like Anna May Wong, Barbara Stanwyck and John Wayne before moving to Columbia to head up their photo gallery. His uncle Charles wound up running the photo gallery at Paramount Pictures. It was clear to Fraker from the age of 14 that a great portion of his life was going to be spent looking through a lens.
He returned home in 1946 after serving a stint in the Coast Guard. Aided by the G.I. Bill of Rights, he enrolled in film school at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television. It was a good year for DPs for among his classmates was Conrad Hall. Fraker soon worked as Hall’s loader and the two became lifelong friends. Fraker graduated from USC in 1950, but according to TCM, “found himself shut out of The Camera Guild; worked as an editor at various television production companies; mustered non-union camera jobs by shooting inserts and stock footage on the fly.” Fraker remained true to his Alma Mater; He later taught and mentored numerous USC film students.
He began his career in motion pictures in 1954 as a loader on the Clayton Moore / Jay Silverheels “Lone Ranger” television series. (Twenty-seven years later found Fraker directing a feature length update that would turn out to be his “Heaven’s Gate.”)
Continue reading Dig A Hole: William A. Fraker
Tags: bullitt, bullitt car chase, cinematographer, conrad hall, heaven can wait, Paramount Pictures, peter yates, rosemary's baby, Steven Spielberg, the legend of the lone ranger, Video, visions of light, Warren Beatty, william a. frakerFiled Under Obituaries
Paramount Pictures and Tina Sinatra gang up on Martin Scorsese
August 24th, 2009 by Scott Marks
It was a tough week for Martin Scorsese.
For months the opening date for “Shutter Island” had been set for October 2, the day after my birthday. There will be no gift from Marty this year. According to Nikki Finke, the release date has now been pushed back to February 19, 2010.
It seems that Paramount is crying poor by claiming they can’t afford the $50 to $60 million it would cost to promote the movie. Ms. Finke writes, “a studio source insists to me it’s got the cash, just not the home video sales: ‘Given where the DVD business is in 2009, our only hope is the economy and the retail business rebounds in 2010 because the hardest hit segment has been movies that play to an older adult audience,’ a studio source tells me.”
Excuse me. What happened to all the “Transformers” dough Paramount raked in earlier this year? The studio has enough ready cash to support new films by Peter Jackson and Jason Reitman but not Martin Scorsese?!?! Ooooooh!
Ms. Finke also says that Leonardo DiCaprio will not be able to do any international press junkets and that the reason they settled on a February 19 release is because that’s the same date Best Picture winner “Silence of the Lambs” opened.
Something’s not right. If the studio felt that the film was an Oscar contender surely they’d want to rush it into theatres in time for the upcoming awards season. Something tells me that Marty could close out the decade with a great movie. (Given His recent output it wouldn’t be hard.) I’m hoping that the film, set in a Boston insane asylum, is so scabrous, so venal that they want to bury it in one of the worst months for moviegoing.
Paramount execs aren’t the only ones giving Scorsese heat. That strega Tina Sinatra is reportedly upset with the way Marty intends to portray her father in His upcoming biopic.
A source tells WENN, “Marty wants it to be hard-hitting and showcase the violent, sexually charged, hard-drinking Frank, but Tina wants to show the softer side of her dad and let the focus be on the music.
“The Sixties were a very swinging time for Frank - he was having sex with a variety of bimbos and cementing his Rat Pack status. It’s a really key time to his mythology. Tina really wants to make sure that a sanitized Frank comes through, and that it’s not overly negative.”
Frank never drank, caroused with mobsters or smacked broads around. And Marty never threw a telephone or called Gregory Peck a “theorem.”
You don’t need these headaches, Marty. Make the Gershwin biopic and let Arthur Hiller “direct” the Sinatra saga. Tell Tina to go home and get her effing shinebox.
Tags: Frank Sinatra, Martin Scorcese, Martin Scorsese, Nikki Finke, Paramount Pictures, SHELTER ISLAND, sinatra biopic, Tina SinatraFiled Under Rants
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