BONUS Episode: Director and cinematographer John Bailey, ASC on Groundhog Day, Ordinary People, and his past tenure as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

It's Groundhog Day! Director and cinematographer John Bailey, ASC
sat down with us before the pandemic to discuss his work on the
film, Groundhog Day, and briefly touched on his other work. John
Bailey feels that the screenplay is the most important part of a
film. It can be a leap of faith to work with a first time director,
when they don't have a body of work, so a good script is always a
solid starting point. As the DP of Ordinary People, John noticed
the craftsmanship of that particular screenplay, which was
carefully written and structured for several years by screenwriter
Alvin Sargent and first-time director Robert Redford. He knew right
away it would become a meaningful and important film. Both Sargent
and Redford won Academy Awards for their work as screenwriter and
director, respectively, and Ordinary People won the Best Picture
Oscar. Groundhog Day grabbed John immediately as an interesting and
offbeat idea for a film, but no one guessed that it would actually
become part of the film canon and popular culture. To this day,
John is surprised when people tell him how much they like that film
and how much it has touched people. The movie famously had its own
chaos, since star Bill Murray and director Harold Ramis had a very
combative relationship on set. John spent two years as the
president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His
passion was in furthering the Academy Film Archive, the Margaret
Herrick Library, and other AMPAS charitable projects. He became
frustrated with the industry's focus on the Academy's role in the
Oscars and how much punditry went into how to fix the awards
process. Currently, John continues to work as a cinematographer and
director. You can watch Groundhog Day all day long on Feb. 2 on
AMC, or stream it (for a fee) on Amazon, Sling TV, or YouTube. Find
out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and
links: http://camnoir.com/bonusjohnbailey/ Sponsored by Hot Rod
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