Farciot Edouart
Farciot Edouart ASC (born Alexander Edouart Farciot, November 5, 1894 - March 17, 1980) was an Academy Award winning motion picture special effects artist and innovator, a recognized specialist and innovator in the area of "process photography", also known as rear projection.
In a career beginning in the 1920s, Farciot won a total of ten Academy Awards: two competitive (1942 and 1943), seven technical and scientific awards (1938, 1940, 2 in 1944, 1948, and 2 in 1956), and an honorary award for special effects (1939).
He worked on approximately 350 films, the last one being Rosemary's Baby in 1968. Leonard Maltin wrote "The master of process-screen photography is Farciot Edouart."[1]
Edouart was born in Los Angeles, the son of a portrait photographer, and began working as a cameraman while still a teenager. [2] Fox Film Corporation was the first to use the rear projection technique, in 1930, with their films Liliom and Just Imagine, and were subsequently awarded a technical Oscar for their work the next year. Edouart, working at Paramount Pictures, refined the technique starting in 1933, and developed several new methods, such as syncing three projectors with the same background plate for more even and bright exposure. [3]
[edit] Academy Awards
- in 1939, Edouart shared a special Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, "For outstanding achievement in creating special photographic and sound effects," for the film Spawn of the North
- in 1940, nomination for Union Pacific
- in 1941, nominations for Dr. Cyclops and Typhoon (both with Gordon Jennings)
- in 1942, Edouart won for I Wanted Wings and was nominated for Aloma of the South Seas (both with Gordon Jennings)
- in 1943, Edouart won for Reap the Wild Wind (with Jennings and William Pereira)
- in 1944, nomination for So Proudly We Hail! (with Jennings)
- in 1945, nomination for The Story of Dr. Wassell (with Jennings)
- in 1948, nomination for Unconquered (with Devereux Jennings and Gordon Jennings)
[edit] References
- ^ Maltin, Leonard, The art of the cinematographer: a survey and interviews with five masters, Dover Publications, p. 14, ISBN 0486236862
- ^ Biography of Farciot Edouart from Yahoo Movies
- ^ http://theoscarsite.com/whoswho/edouart_f.htm
