Winton Hoch
Encyclopedia
Winton C. Hoch, A.S.C. in Santa Monica
was originally a lab technician who contributed to the development of Technicolor
before becoming a cinematographer
in 1936. His understanding of the colour process quickly led to him being hailed as one of Hollywood's premier colour cinematographers. Hoch never made a film in black and white.
, Hoch was a research physicist who joined the Technicolor
company in 1934. His developing and familiarity with the three color Technicolor process led him to work as a cinematographer in the James A. Fitzpatrick
travelogue
s.
He won a Technical Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
in 1940 for his contributions to the development of new improved Process Projection Equipment.
Hoch's first feature film as an associate cinematographer/Technicolor consultant was Dr. Cyclops
followed by the live action portions of The Reluctant Dragon
and aviation films Dive Bomber
and Captains of the Clouds
. During World War II Hoch enlisted in the United States Navy
filming many top secret activities including work at the atomic testing factilities at Los Alamos
.
Following the war, Hoch returned to Hollywood features beginning with Tap Roots
. He made his first collaboration with John Ford
in 1948 with 3 Godfathers.
This was followed with back-to-back Academy Awards for the expensive religious epic Joan of Arc
in 1948, and then the elegiac John Ford
Western
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
in 1949 (an achievement that went unmatched until John Toll
picked up Oscars for Legends of the Fall
in 1994 and Braveheart
in 1995).
He received his third Oscar in 1952 for another collaboration
with John Ford, this time on the film, The Quiet Man
, which made him the only cinematographer to share an Oscar with a credited second unit cinematographer, Archie Stout
, A.S.C.. Filming of The Quiet Man was done during intensive cloudy weather. Ford said of Hoch's work and attention to detail "Never employ a cameraman to direct a film because he never sees what's going on" The two former Navy men also filmed Mister Roberts and The Searchers
, his final collaboration with Ford.
In 1959 Hoch began his collaboration with Irwin Allen
, photographing The Big Circus
, The Lost World
, Five Weeks in a Balloon
and both Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)
where Hoch was awarded an Emmy award
. He also photographed episodes of Lost in Space
and The Time Tunnel
.
Hoch's films included the war film
s Halls of Montezuma
and The Green Berets
, the Western
s The Redhead from Wyoming
, The Young Land
and Sergeants 3, a return to Ireland and Walt Disney
for Darby O'Gill and the Little People
and the science fiction
classic Robinson Crusoe on Mars
filmed in Death Valley
. However Hoch stated that cinematography didn't matter in a comedy because the subject matter didn't lend itself to dramatic lighting and overview.
Hoch finished his career on the American television series The Banana Splits and Nanny and the Professor
.
Prior to his death he was elected President of the American Society of Cinematographers
.
Santa Mônica
Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
was originally a lab technician who contributed to the development of Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
before becoming a cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
in 1936. His understanding of the colour process quickly led to him being hailed as one of Hollywood's premier colour cinematographers. Hoch never made a film in black and white.
Biography and filmography
Moving to California in 1924 and graduating in 1931 as a chemist from the California Institute of TechnologyCalifornia Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
, Hoch was a research physicist who joined the Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
company in 1934. His developing and familiarity with the three color Technicolor process led him to work as a cinematographer in the James A. Fitzpatrick
James A. Fitzpatrick
James A. Fitzpatrick was a movie producer, director, writer, and narrator, best remembered for making indian documentaries. After completing training in dramatic arts, he worked, for a while, as a journalist...
travelogue
Travelogue (films)
Travelogue films, a form of virtual tourism or travel documentary, have been providing information and entertainment about distant parts of the world since the late 19th century.-History:...
s.
He won a Technical Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
in 1940 for his contributions to the development of new improved Process Projection Equipment.
Hoch's first feature film as an associate cinematographer/Technicolor consultant was Dr. Cyclops
Dr. Cyclops
Dr. Cyclops is a science fiction horror film directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack, starring Thomas Coley, Victor Kilian, Janice Logan, Charles Halton, Frank Yaconelli, and Albert Dekker, and released by Paramount Pictures.- Plot summary :...
followed by the live action portions of The Reluctant Dragon
The Reluctant Dragon (film)
The Reluctant Dragon is a 1941 American combined live action and animated film produced by Walt Disney, directed by Alfred Werker, and released by RKO Radio Pictures on June 20, 1941...
and aviation films Dive Bomber
Dive Bomber (film)
Dive Bomber is a 1941 American propaganda film directed by Michael Curtiz. It is notable for both its Technicolor photography of pre-World War II United States Navy aircraft and as a historical document of the US in 1941, including the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, one of the best known World...
and Captains of the Clouds
Captains of the Clouds
Captains of the Clouds is a 1942 Warner Bros. war film in Technicolor, directed by Michael Curtiz and starring James Cagney. It was produced by William Cagney , with Hal B. Wallis as executive producer. The screenplay was written by Arthur T. Horman, Richard Macaulay and Norman Reilly Raine,...
. During World War II Hoch enlisted in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
filming many top secret activities including work at the atomic testing factilities at Los Alamos
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
.
Following the war, Hoch returned to Hollywood features beginning with Tap Roots
Tap Roots
Tap Roots is a 1948 period film set during the American Civil War. It is very loosely based on the true life story of Newton Knight, a farm owner who attempted to secede Jones County from Mississippi....
. He made his first collaboration with John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
in 1948 with 3 Godfathers.
This was followed with back-to-back Academy Awards for the expensive religious epic Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (1948 film)
Joan of Arc is a 1948 Technicolor film directed by Victor Fleming; starring Ingrid Bergman as the French religious icon and war heroine. It was produced by Walter Wanger. It is based on Maxwell Anderson's successful Broadway play Joan of Lorraine, which also starred Bergman, and was adapted for the...
in 1948, and then the elegiac John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a 1949 Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. The film was the second of Ford's trilogy of films focusing on the US Cavalry ; the other two films were Fort Apache and Rio Grande...
in 1949 (an achievement that went unmatched until John Toll
John Toll
John Toll A.S.C. is a Cleveland-born American cinematographer.In 1978 he worked on his first film, Norma Rae, as camera operator. He won back-to-back Academy Awards for Best Cinematography in 1994 and 1995, for the movies Legends of the Fall and Braveheart.He was also nominated for an Academy...
picked up Oscars for Legends of the Fall
Legends of the Fall
Legends of the Fall is a 1994 epic drama film based on the 1979 novella of the same title by Jim Harrison. It was directed by Edward Zwick and stars Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins and Aidan Quinn. The film was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction , and Best...
in 1994 and Braveheart
Braveheart
Braveheart is a 1995 epic historical drama war film directed by and starring Mel Gibson. The film was written for the screen and then novelized by Randall Wallace...
in 1995).
He received his third Oscar in 1952 for another collaboration
Collaboration
Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, — for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing...
with John Ford, this time on the film, The Quiet Man
The Quiet Man
The Quiet Man is a 1952 American Technicolor romantic comedy-drama film. It was directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Victor McLaglen and Barry Fitzgerald. It was based on a 1933 Saturday Evening Post short story by Maurice Walsh...
, which made him the only cinematographer to share an Oscar with a credited second unit cinematographer, Archie Stout
Archie Stout
Archie Stout, A.S.C. was a second unit photographer whose career spanned from 1921 to 1954. In a career largely confined to B movies, he provided cinematography assistance on such films as the original version of The Ten Commandments and several Hopalong Cassidy and Tarzan films...
, A.S.C.. Filming of The Quiet Man was done during intensive cloudy weather. Ford said of Hoch's work and attention to detail "Never employ a cameraman to direct a film because he never sees what's going on" The two former Navy men also filmed Mister Roberts and The Searchers
The Searchers (film)
The Searchers is a 1956 American Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, and set during the Texas–Indian Wars...
, his final collaboration with Ford.
In 1959 Hoch began his collaboration with Irwin Allen
Irwin Allen
Irwin Allen was a television and film director and producer nicknamed "The Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genre. He was also notable for creating a number of television series.- Biography :...
, photographing The Big Circus
The Big Circus
The Big Circus is a 1959 film starring Victor Mature as a circus owner struggling with financial trouble and a murderous unknown saboteur.-Cast:*Victor Mature as Henry Jasper 'Hank' Whirling*Red Buttons as Randy Sherman*Rhonda Fleming as Helen Harrison...
, The Lost World
The Lost World (1960 film)
The Lost World is a 1960 science fiction adventure film based on the novel of the same name by Arthur Conan Doyle and directed by Irwin Allen...
, Five Weeks in a Balloon
Five Weeks in a Balloon
Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen is an adventure novel by Jules Verne.It is the first Verne novel in which he perfected the "ingredients" of his later work, skillfully mixing a plot full of adventure and twists that hold the reader's interest with...
and both Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is an American science fiction film, produced and directed by Irwin Allen, released by 20th Century Fox in 1961. The story was written by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett. Walter Pidgeon starred as Admiral Harriman Nelson, with Robert Sterling as Captain Lee Crane...
and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a 1960s American science fiction television series based on the 1961 film of the same name. Both were created by Irwin Allen, which enabled the movie's sets, costumes, props, special effects models, and sometimes footage, to be used in the production of the...
where Hoch was awarded an Emmy award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
. He also photographed episodes of Lost in Space
Lost in Space
Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968...
and The Time Tunnel
The Time Tunnel
The Time Tunnel is a 1966–1967 U.S. color science fiction TV series. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen, his third science fiction television series. The show's main theme was Time Travel Adventure. The Time Tunnel was released by 20th Century Fox and broadcast on ABC. The show ran...
.
Hoch's films included the war film
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
s Halls of Montezuma
Halls of Montezuma (film)
Halls of Montezuma is a 1951 World War II war film starring Richard Widmark, Jack Palance and Karl Malden. The film, which is about U.S. marines fighting on a Japanese-held island, was directed by academy-award winner Lewis Milestone. It also starred Robert Wagner in his first credited screen role...
and The Green Berets
The Green Berets (film)
The Green Berets is a 1968 war film featuring John Wayne, George Takei, David Janssen, Jim Hutton and Aldo Ray, nominally based on the eponymous 1965 book by Robin Moore, though the screenplay has little relation to the book....
, the Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
s The Redhead from Wyoming
The Redhead from Wyoming
The Redhead from Wyoming is a 1953 American western drama film produced by Leonard Goldstein and directed by Lee Sholem. It stars Maureen O'Hara as a saloon proprietress who becomes embroiled in a cattle war and Alex Nicol as the sheriff who tries to prevent it...
, The Young Land
The Young Land
The Young Land is a 1959 American Western drama film directed by Ted Tetzlaff starring Patrick Wayne and Dennis Hopper. The cinematography was by Technicolor developer Winton C. Hoch and Henry Sharp. The film was distributed by Columbia Pictures Corporation.It is the third and final of only 3 films...
and Sergeants 3, a return to Ireland and Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
for Darby O'Gill and the Little People
Darby O'Gill and the Little People
Darby O'Gill and the Little People is a 1959 Walt Disney Productions feature film starring Albert Sharpe, Janet Munro, Sean Connery and Jimmy O'Dea, in a tale about a wily Irishman and his battle of wits with leprechauns. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson and its screenplay written by...
and the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
classic Robinson Crusoe on Mars
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a 1964 Techniscope science fiction film retelling of the classic novel by Daniel Defoe. It was directed by Byron Haskin, produced by Aubrey Schenck and starred Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin and Adam West...
filmed in Death Valley
Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below...
. However Hoch stated that cinematography didn't matter in a comedy because the subject matter didn't lend itself to dramatic lighting and overview.
Hoch finished his career on the American television series The Banana Splits and Nanny and the Professor
Nanny and the Professor
Nanny and the Professor is a U.S. fantasy situation comedy created by AJ Carothers and Thomas L. Miller for 20th Century Fox Television. During pre-production, the proposed title was Nanny Will Do. The series first aired as a mid-season replacement on January 21, 1970, on ABC and was last telecast...
.
Prior to his death he was elected President of the American Society of Cinematographers
American Society of Cinematographers
The American Society of Cinematographers is an educational, cultural, and professional organization. It is not a labor union, and it is not a guild. Membership is by invitation and is extended only to directors of photography and special effects experts with distinguished credits in the film...
.
External links
- Hoch biography http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Ha-Ja/Hoch-Winton-C.html
- Internet Enclylopedia of Cinematographers http://www.cinematographers.nl/GreatDoPh/hoch.htm