Rodrigo Prieto to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at GuadaLAjara Film Festival

Posted on September 26, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Rodrigo Prieto is earning a special award…

The 57-year-old Mexican Oscar-nominated cinematographer will be honored with the 2023 Árbol de la Vida, a lifetime achievement award, at the 13th edition of the GuadaLAjara Film Festival on November 1.

Taking place at the Theater at the Ace Hotel in Downtown L.A., Prieto will be honored at the opening night gala celebration. Past honorees have included Oscar-winner Patricia Arquette, in addition to stars such as Xolo Maridueña, Rosario Dawson and Danny Trejo.

Prieto has garnered worldwide acclaim for his work on various feature films, collaborating with some of cinema’s most vital masters. He has picked up his three Oscar nods for Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2005) and two with Martin Scorsese — Silence (2016) and The Irishman (2019).

He’s teamed up with the iconic filmmaker again for Killers of the Flower Moon, the story of a group of men that murdered Osage tribe members in the 1920s. The Apple Original Films and Paramount Pictures co-distributed feature stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone.

Prieto also lensed Greta Gerwig’s billion-dollar Mattel meta-comedy Barbie from Warner Bros — now the highest grossing release of 2023.

Curated with Latinx and BIPOC communities in mind, GLAFF’s programming is a mix of films that aim to attract cinephiles and art and culture enthusiasts. The 2023 program and official selection includes a special Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) centerpiece gala screening of the 1960s Mexican classic Macario from director Roberto Gavaldón. More films will be announced in the coming weeks.

“GLAFF continues its mission to be a bridge between Latin America and U.S.-based Latinx/BIPOC creators,” says Ximena Urrutia, festival director. “Being part of a festival run by Latina women, we strive to add to the efforts of ensuring domestically and internationally Latinx representation.”

The GuadaLAjara Film Festival is supported by the University of Guadalajara, Guadalajara, the University of Guadalajara Foundation USA, the Grodman Legacy Family Foundation and the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG).

J Balvin Earns 30th No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Airplay Chart with “Otra Noche Sin Ti”

Posted on July 9, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

J Balvin is back on top…

The 36-year-old Colombian singer’s latest single “Otra Noche Sin Ti,” featuring Khalid, has landed at No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart dated July 10.

“Otra Noche Sin Ti” rises 5-1 with 9.7 million in audience impressions, a 43% gain, earned in the week ending July 4, according to MRC Data. For Khalid, it’s his first chart appearance since 2018 when Marshmello’s “Silence,” on which he is featured, debuted and peaked at No. 50. J Balvin, meanwhile, picks up his 30th No. 1 dating back to his first, “6 AM,” featuring Farruko in 2014.

Khalid, meanwhile, earns his first No. 1 on any Latin chart.

With the song’s ascent, Balvin gets closer to beating Enrique Iglesias’ all-time record of 31 leaders since the chart’s inception in 1994.

Here are the Latin Airplay winners:

31, Enrique Iglesias
30, J Balvin
24, Daddy Yankee
24, Ozuna
20, Maluma
19, Wisin
19, Romeo Santos

Beyond its Latin Airplay coronation, “Otra Noche Sin Ti” pushes up Hot Latin Songs with a 20-17 jump and takes the Greatest Gainer/ Airplay honors. It concurrently grants Khalid his first Latin Rhythm Airplay No. 1 as the song lifts 4-1.

Rodrigo Prieto: The Cinematographer Behind the Lens of Taylor Swift’s “Cardigan” Video

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Everything’s o-Tay for Rodrigo Prieto…

The 54-year-old three-time Oscar-nominated Mexican cinematographer is earning rave reviews for his work on Taylor Swift’s music video for the pop star’s latest single “Cardigan.”

The top-secret music video, written, directed and styled by Swift, was filmed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The dreamy video, released on Friday, July 24 alongside Swift’s new album Folklore, presents a cottagecore aesthetic and features Swift in three different settings.

The “homespun” and “dreamlike” video starts out with Swift sitting in a candlelit cottage in the woods, wearing a nightgown and playing a vintage upright piano. When the soundboard starts glowing, she climbs into it and is magically transported to a moss-covered forest, where she plays the song on a grand piano producing a waterfall. The piano bench starts to glow and she climbs into it. She gets transported to a dark stormy sea, where she holds on to a floating piano. The piano soundboard glows and she climbs in, and she returns to the cottage, where she dons a cardigan.

“She had the whole storyline – the whole notion of going into the piano and coming out into the forest, the water, going back into the piano,” Prieto tells Rolling Stoneof hisfirst phone call with Swift.

Their last collaboration, on the music video for “The Man,” saw Swift adopting a male alter ego to satirize gender inequality.

From the beginning, though, Prieto says “Cardigan” was always going to be more ambiguous, and more personal: “When she called me and told me that this was more of a fantasy, I found that really appealing.”

This was in early July, when Prieto had simultaneously begun serving on a committee for the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) to conceive solutions for safely resuming film production during the ongoing pandemic.

Prieto had just finished filming a PSA for a healthcare company when Swift asked him to work on “Cardigan,” and he was well aware of the many, many layers of risks involved in the project.

“We needed to be safe, for her sake and for our sake as a crew during the shoot, but also for the future of filmmaking,” he says. “Because we want to keep working and doing what we do, and if, God forbid, someone got sick on one of the first jobs that was filmed, it would probably close down [the industry].”

The extensive safety protocols for the shoot ranged from standard – everybody had to get tested, and every member of the crew wore a mask – to outlandish: Because Swift would need to spend a large part of the shoot not wearing a face covering, the crew used a colored wristband system, determining which members of the team were permitted to stand closest to her. (Prieto, assistant director Joe Osborne, and set designer Ethan Tobman all wore one color, lighting designers and gaffers wore another, and so on.)

Prieto actually wore two face coverings – a mask and an acrylic shield – for most of the day-and-a-half-long shoot. And just to ensure that crew members crossed within a six-foot range of Swift as little as possible, the entire “Cardigan” video was shot by mounting the camera to a robotic arm, which was then controlled by a remote operator.

The “techno arm,” as Prieto calls it, is typically only used in the industry for crane shots and other establishing visuals.

“We were going to use the crane for the ocean scene,” Prieto explains, referencing the shot where the image zooms out on the wide expanse of the water before honing back in on Swift. “So then I said, let’s have it both days.”

Hooking the camera up to a giant robot was the safest way to get close-ups on Swift’s face, Prieto explains. And as unwieldy as that sounds, you’d never know from watching the video that a human being wasn’t behind the lens at all times.

There was, of course, the added tangle of secrecy – the filmmaking had to be done indoors to avoid crowds, and Swift wore an earpiece throughout the shoot to lip-sync to the song without any of the crew hearing it.

The crew built three sets on two stages across one large studio, and in order to create the illusion of natural light for the outdoor scenes, Prieto and his crew draped giant stretches of white bouncing fabric on the walls and ceiling. The process took longer than usual due to COVID, with the lighting crew working in small groups and frequently taking breaks so they could remove masks and catch their breath.

“Filmmaking is a gregarious endeavor by nature,” Prieto says. “People are close to each other, so it’s really hard to remember to keep to yourselves.” Given the distancing on set, it was sometimes tricky for crew members to communicate over reference points and documents – “we had to kind of point at each other” – but Prieto attributes Swift’s clear vision for the project as a guiding light.

Ahead of the shoot, she sent him and Tobman numerous visual references for each scene – a mix of photographs for the dark ocean water and drawings for the fantastical forest sequence. One illustration, of a sword lodged into a rock formation overlooking a creek, was particularly inspiring: “That became our focal interest – we didn’t imitate it, but the feeling of it was what we went with.”

On top of that, Swift came up with a detailed shot list for the video ahead of time, with each visual accompanied by a time sequence within the song.

“The ocean water, the fingers on the piano, whatever it may be, she knew what she wanted for each section,” Prieto says. Unlike with “The Man,” Swift couldn’t be as hands-on with her direction on set – she viewed each take through a video monitor after it was shot – but Prieto was impressed by her ability to “talk with the camera” and utilize cinematic language without formal training, like with the unorthodox, zoom-out-and-in shot over the ocean. “I was blown away, because it’s all metaphorical,” he says. “This video is not just pretty images of things; she’s telling a personal story through her lyrics, her music, and now through the video.”

The video has already been viewed more than 40 million times on YouTube since its release.

Prieto previously earned Academy Awards for his lensing work on Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2006), Martin Scorsese’s Silence (2017) and Scorsese’s The Irishman (2020).

His other film credits include Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel (2006) and Biutiful (2010), Francis Lawrence’s Water for Elephants and Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo.

Selena Gomez Notches 11th Top 20 Hit on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart with “Wolves”

Posted on November 28, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

It’s Lucky No. 11 for Selena Gomez…

The 25-year-old Mexican American singer/actress has notched her eleventh Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, as her collaboration with Marshmello, “Wolves,” soars 51-20 on the chart dated December 9.

Gomez’s notable surge on the chart was fueled by her performance of the song at the American Music Awards, as well as the November 18 debut of its official video.

The collaboration vaults 34-5 on the Digital Song Sales chart (35,000, up 194 percent, marking the Hot 100’s top sales gain) and 44-24 on Streaming Songs (16.5 million, up 46 percent) and enters Radio Songs at No. 47 (23 million, up 25 percent).

Marshmello makes his first trip to the Hot 100’s top 20, while Gomez earns her 11^th appearance, and first since “Bad Liar” reached No. 20 in July.

“Wolves” additionally tops Hot Dance/Electronic Songs for a second (nonconsecutive) week, dethroning Marshmello’s other current hit, “Silence,” featuring Khalid.

Selena Gomez & Marshmello’s Single “Wolves” Reaches No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Chart

Posted on November 9, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Selena Gomez is having a dancetastic week…

The 25-year-old Mexican American singer/actress’ collaboration with Marshmello, “Wolves,” rises 7-1 on Billboard‘s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart dated November 18, following its first full tracking week.

The song debuted a week ago with a day’s worth of streaming and sales data.

Gomez, Billboard‘s 2017 Woman of the Year honoree, earns her second No. 1 and first as a lead act, after “I Want You to Know” (by Zedd featuring Gomez), which spent six weeks at No. 1 in March and April 2015. “Wolves” is Marshmello’s first leader on the list.

“Wolves” reigns with 13 million U.S. streams, 8 million in all-format radio audience and 28,000 downloads sold, according to Nielsen Music.

It holds at No. 1 on the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart and soars 13-2 on the Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs chart, behind Marshmello’s “Silence” (featuring Khalid) in the latter’s 10th week at the top.

On the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, “Wolves” vaults 88-35. Gomez earns her 19th top 40 Hot 100 hit, and 14th in a row, dating to “Love You Like a Love Song” (by Gomez and The Scene), which hit No. 22 in March 2012. She’s notched four top 40 entries apiece in both 2016 and 2017.

Meanwhile, a toast to Marshmello, who celebrates his first top 40 Hot 100 hit. He previously hit a No. 42 high with “Silence,” which remains near its peak this week, at No. 50.

Camila Cabello Leads U.K. Midweek Sales Chart with “Havana”

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Camila Cabello is making waves across the pond…

After three weeks in the runner-up position, the 20-year-old Cuban singer has the U.K. chart crown in her sights.

Cabello’s hit “Havana” climbs 2-1 on the midweek chart, with a 3,500 combined sales lead over the second-placed “Rockstar” by Post Malone featuring 21 Savage, which is unseated from the chart throne after four weeks. It’s the first time that “Havana” has led the Official Chart Update.

Meanwhile, Marshmello and Khalid’s “Silence” is unchanged at No. 3, Avicii and Rita Ora’s collab “Lonely Together” is unmoved at No. 4 and Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” rises one place to No. 5.

Rita Ora could snaffle a second top 10 when the Official U.K. Singles Chart is published this Friday as “Anywhere” leaps 20-6, just up from Charlie Puth’s “How Long,” which follows a similar trajectory by soaring 18-7.

Marshmello, meanwhile, backs up his “Silence” hit with “Wolves,” a collaboration with Selena Gomez which bites into the chart at No. 14 for the highest debut on the current midweek survey.

Prieto to Make Feature Directorial Debut with the Revenge Thriller “Bastard”

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Rodrigo Prieto is stepping into the director’s chair…

The 51-year-old Mexican cinematographer, who has worked on films such as Martin Scorcese’s Silence and Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, will make his directorial debut with the revenge thriller Bastard.

Based on an original script penned by Bill Gullo, Bastard is a taut revenge thriller with a riveting antagonist at its core, set against a looming flood that will ravage the small town of Bird’s Point, Missouri.

A Mexico-City native, Prieto started his career shooting television commercials at the age of 22 before moving into features in 1992. He broke out into the film scene with his work on Amores Perros, which kicked off his collaboration with director Alejandro González Iñárritu. Prieto boasts a top-notch list of film credits including Julie Taymor’s Frida; Curtis Hanson’s 8 Mile; Spike Lee’s 25th Hour; Iñárritu’s 21 Grams and Babel; Oliver Stone’s Alexander; Kevin Macdonald’s State of Play; Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces; Francis Laurence’s Water for Elephants; Cameron Crowe’s We Bought A Zoo; Lee’s Brokeback Mountain; Ben Affleck’s Argo; and a clutch of Scorcese titles.

He’s most recently worked on HBO series Vinyl and Silence, the latter of which saw him earn an Oscar nomination.

Prieto directed his first short film Likeness, starring Elle Fanning, which premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

Production is slated to begin in the first quarter of 2018.

Miranda Receives First Oscar Nomination for His Work on Disney’s “Moana”

Posted on January 25, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Lin-Manuel Miranda is thisclose to making history…

The 37-year-old Puerto Rican actor, playwright, composer, rapper, and writer, best known for creating and starring in the Broadway musicals Hamilton and In the Heights, has picked up his first Oscar nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Miranda, the recipient of an Emmy, two Grammys and three Tony Awards, earned the recognition for his musical work on the Disney animated film Moana. He’s responsible for the music and lyrics for the track “How Far I’ll Go,” which is nominated in the Best Original Song category.

Should he win, Miranda will become the youngest member of the EGOT club (recipients of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony), replacing Robert Lopez, who completed his quartet in 2014 with a best original song win for Frozen’s “Let It Go.”

He’d be only the second Latino to join the club, following in the footsteps of fellow Puerto Rican multi-faceted artist Rita Moreno.

But Miranda faces stiff competition… “How Far I’ll Go” is up against two songs from Oscar frontrunner La La Land, “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” and Golden Globe-winner “City of Stars,” as well as Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” from Trolls and Sting’s “The Empty Chair” from Jim: The James Foley Story.

Miranda isn’t the only Latino nominee this year…

Like Miranda, Juanjo Gimenez has also picked up his first nomination. The 53-year-old Spanish filmmaker is nominated for Best Live Action Short Film for “Timecode.”

The short film picked up the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Rodrigo Prieto has picked up the second Oscar nod of his career… The 51-year-old Mexican cinematographer is nominated in the Best Cinematography category for his work on Martin Scorsese’s Silence.

Prieto was previously nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, losing the prize to Dion Beebe’s Memoirs of a Geisha.

Other Latino nominees include Richard Alonzo for Best Makeup and Hair for his work on Star Trek Beyond and Adam Valdez for Best Visual Effects for his work on The Jungle Book.

The 89th annual Academy Awards will take place on February 26 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Here’s the full list of nominees:

Best picture:
“Arrival”
“Fences”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“Hell or High Water”
“Hidden Figures”
“La La Land”
“Lion”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight”

Lead actor:
Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”
Andrew Garfield, “Hacksaw Ridge”
Ryan Gosling, “La La Land,”
Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic”
Denzel Washington, “Fences”

Lead actress:
Isabelle Huppert, “Elle”
Ruth Negga, “Loving”
Natalie Portman, “Jackie”
Emma Stone, “La La Land”
Meryl Streep, “Florence Foster Jenkins”

Supporting actor:
Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight”
Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water”
Lucas Hedges, “Manchester by the Sea”
Dev Patel, “Lion”
Michael Shannon, “Nocturnal Animals”

Supporting actress:
Viola Davis, “Fences”
Naomie Harris, “Moonlight”
Nicole Kidman, “Lion”
Octavia Spencer, “Hidden Figures”
Michelle Williams, “Manchester by the Sea”

Best director:
“La La Land,” Damien Chazelle
“Hacksaw Ridge,” Mel Gibson
“Moonlight,” Barry Jenkins
“Manchester by the Sea,” Kenneth Lonergan
“Arrival,” Denis Villeneuve

Animated feature:
“Kubo and the Two Strings,” Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner
“Moana,” John Musker, Ron Clements and Osnat Shurer
“My Life as a Zucchini,” Claude Barras and Max Karli
“The Red Turtle,” Michael Dudok de Wit and Toshio Suzuki
“Zootopia,” Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer

Animated short:
“Blind Vaysha,” Theodore Ushev
“Borrowed Time,” Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj
“Pear Cider and Cigarettes,” Robert Valley and Cara Speller
“Pearl,” Patrick Osborne
“Piper,” Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer

Adapted screenplay:
“Arrival,” Eric Heisserer
“Fences,” August Wilson
“Hidden Figures,” Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
“Lion,” Luke Davies
“Moonlight,” Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney

Original screenplay:
“20th Century Women,” Mike Mills
“Hell or High Water,” Taylor Sheridan
“La La Land,” Damien Chazelle
“The Lobster,” Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou
“Manchester by the Sea,” Kenneth Lonergan

Cinematography:
“Arrival,” Bradford Young
“La La Land,” Linus Sandgren
“Lion,” Greig Fraser
“Moonlight,” James Laxton
“Silence,” Rodrigo Prieto

Best documentary feature:
“13th,” Ava DuVernay, Spencer Averick and Howard Barish
“Fire at Sea,” Gianfranco Rosi and Donatella Palermo
“I Am Not Your Negro,” Raoul Peck, Remi Grellety and Hebert Peck
“Life, Animated,” Roger Ross Williams and Julie Goldman
“O.J.: Made in America,” Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow

Best documentary short subject:
“4.1 Miles,” Daphne Matziaraki
“Extremis,” Dan Krauss
“Joe’s Violin,” Kahane Cooperman and Raphaela Neihausen
“Watani: My Homeland,” Marcel Mettelsiefen and Stephen Ellis
“The White Helmets,” Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara

Best live action short film:
“Ennemis Interieurs,” Selim Azzazi
“La Femme et le TGV,” Timo von Gunten and Giacun Caduff
“Silent Nights,” Aske Bang and Kim Magnusson
“Sing,” Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy
“Timecode,” Juanjo Gimenez

Best foreign language film:
“A Man Called Ove,” Sweden
“Land of Mine,” Denmark
“Tanna,” Australia
“The Salesman,” Iran
“Toni Erdmann,” Germany

Film editing:
“Arrival,” Joe Walker
“Hacksaw Ridge,” John Gilbert
“Hell or High Water,” Jake Roberts
“La La Land,” Tom Cross
“Moonlight,” Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon

Sound editing:
“Arrival,” Sylvain Bellemare
“Deep Water Horizon,” Wylie Stateman and Renee Tondelli
“Hacksaw Ridge,” Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright
“La La Land,” Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan
“Sully,” Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman

Sound mixing:
“Arrival,” Bernard Gariepy Strobl and Claude La Haye
“Hacksaw Ridge,” Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace
“La La Land,” Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Morrow
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
“13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Mac Ruth

Production design:
“Arrival,” Patrice Vermette, Paul Hotte
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” Stuart Craig, Anna Pinnock
“Hail, Caesar!,” Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh
“La La Land,” David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
“Passengers,” Guy Hendrix Dyas, Gene Serdena

Original score:
“Jackie,” Mica Levi
“La La Land,” Justin Hurwitz
“Lion,” Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka
“Moonlight,” Nicholas Britell
“Passengers,” Thomas Newman

Original song:
“Audition (The Fools Who Dream),” “La La Land” — Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
“Can’t Stop the Feeling,” “Trolls” — Music and Lyric by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster
“City of Stars,” “La La Land” — Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
“The Empty Chair,” “Jim: The James Foley Story” — Music and Lyric by J. Ralph and Sting
“How Far I’ll Go,” “Moana” — Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda

Makeup and hair:
“A Man Called Ove,” Eva von Bahr and Love Larson
“Star Trek Beyond,” Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo
“Suicide Squad,” Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson

Costume design:
“Allied,” Joanna Johnston
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” Colleen Atwood
“Florence Foster Jenkins,” Consolata Boyle
“Jackie,” Madeline Fontaine
“La La Land,” Mary Zophres

Visual effects:
“Deepwater Horizon,” Craig Hammack, Jason Snell, Jason Billington and Burt Dalton
“Doctor Strange,” Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould
“The Jungle Book,” Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon
“Kubo and the Two Strings,” Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean and Brad Schiff
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould

Hispanically Yours

Celebrating the Latino Influence

Tag Archives: Silence